How Do I Fight Temptation And Sin? (2)

How The Gospel Actually Helps us Fight Sin

Main Text: Titus 2:11-14, Romans 8:1-13

9:30 Icebreaker: You can teleport anywhere but only once a year. Where would you go this year? If your personality was a forecast, what would it be today?

9:40 Grace trains us Titus 2:11-14

Introduction

So last week I started off the first week of my two week series on the question that we all have of “How do I fight temptation and sin?” We touched on two passages. Those passages were Romans 7:15-25 and Galatians 5:16-18. Romans 7 showed us the reality of the battle that we face with sin and the reality is that sin will be there every single day and even will make us do what we don’t want to do.

The reality is that nothing good dwells in us. But also, the reality is that Jesus delivered us from the sin that corrupted our lives and washed that sin away. Romans 7 shows us that nothing good dwells in us and we fight sin every day and 9/10 times we lose. But 10/10 times God rescues us. After Romans shows us the reality of the battle, we saw how Galatians 5:16-18 gave us the source that we should be getting our power from. That source that Galatians gave us is the spirit. Walking in the ways of the lord, showing fruits of the spirit, interacting with the word every day.

That brings us today where we start the second part of the series. Like last week, I have two different passages that we will be looking at that will help us on our journey in fighting temptation and sin. The first passage that we will be looking at today is Titus 2:11-14. This is a passage that Pastor Jeremy actually preached on two weeks ago so that is cool that it is also fitting into this. In this passage Paul is talking about how grace trains us.

The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness. Verse 12 literally tells us this. ungodliness is sin and the things of the flesh. God’s amazing grace trains us to renounce that. All worldly passions that we do even though we don’t want to. Grace trains us every day against that. Patience is hard. Who in here is an impatient person? I get like that some times. When I get impatient, I have to be reminded of God’s grace for me and give grace to the thing that is making me impatient.

What does it mean that God’s grace trains us? How is that different from grace forgiving us?

Verse 12 tells us that being trained by God’s grace is about living self-controlled, upright, and living Godly lives in the present. When you think about getting impatient with something or someone or maybe after, come back to this passage and see if you are any of those. If you are not, ungodliness is winning. If that is happening often, I think we need to get some training wheels on your bike. Training you be self-controlled, upright, and Godly.

Why do we need to be training in these things? Well verse 13 tells us because we are waiting for the appearance, the return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We are awaiting a glorious day when Jesus will return and save our wretched souls. In all honesty, we are in training day right now. Training to live Godly lives so that we can avoid the ungodly. Training to use the sword of the spirit to fight off the principalities and darkness.

Let’s not forget why we are training. We are training because of the grace of God. The text doesn’t say that Grace appeared and we are immediately better human beings. Grace isn’t a free pass. Grace is a personal trainer that shapes us towards holiness. Without grace, we would still be living in our sin, hopeless. But God, being rich in mercy. We don’t deserve the grace yet we have received it and it is never ending. How amazing is that?

Now it is our job to use that grace to train against the ungodliness in our lives. Grace like I said it is our personal trainer and it is training our muscles that are self-control, uprightness, and godly living so that they don’t become weak. When those muscles become weak, ungodliness takes over and wins. When ungodliness wins, sin wins. The whole reason why I am going over this is so that sin doesn’t win! Train those muscles every day while we wait for Jesus Christ, our saviors return so that when He does return, you are ready.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that no one knows the day nor the hour when he returns so if you are not training in these ways, you will be caught off guard. Paul continually warns us against this in his letters. Constantly reminding us to not get caught off guard and to live in godly, upright ways so that when Christ does return, we are ready. This passage in Titus reminds us of the grace that we have from the father and how we use that to train in ways that we can use to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions while we await for Jesus’ return.

9:50?: Can you think of a time when understanding God’s grace has actually helped you resist temptation rather than actually give in?

10:00: Life in The Spirit (Romans 8:1-13)

So the last passage that we will be looking at is in Romans. Back in romans in chapter 8. We know the reality of the battle, what the source is to fight it, and how to train our lives with grace against ungodliness and worldly passions. Now we see how our life is in the spirit. Romans 8 lays that out for us and shows us what life is in the source that we get our power from.

The first verse alone should tell you all you need to know about life in the spirit but Paul gives us 12 others to dwell on. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. none. Why? Because the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. We are free from the law of sin. It no longer has a hold on us anymore. Those chains that once held us down are now gone. They are no more.

We may be plagued with sin and beaten down by it but always remember. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Sinning and realizing what you’ve done afterwards is so hard to come to terms with. That can be one of the hardest feelings to wrestle with. But one of the best feelings to feel is knowing that you are forgiven by God. Forgiven and made new. We need to be constantly reminded that we are sinners in need of a savior.

Like I said, sinning and realizing what you have done can be one of the hardest feelings ever to wrestle with. Knowing that we are under the law of sin and death is hard. That whatever we do, we will always come back to our corrupted flesh. Verse 3 shows how much grace and power our almighty Father has. God did what the law, weakened by the flesh, the sin, could not do. How did He do that? Well He sent His own son in the likeness of the flesh, Jesus wasn’t actually in our flesh because He is perfect in every way but in the likeness of our sinful flesh, Jesus condemned sin in the flesh.

God did this in order that the righteous requirement of the law could be fulfilled in us. that was a lot but to recap really quick. God sent His only son from up above to come down with the lowliest of sinners (us) to condemn sin in the flesh. The law can not do that! In Genesis 22, God came to Abraham and told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Abraham listened to God and took Isaac to where God had told him and was about to sacrifice Isaac when an Angel stopped him and told Abraham not to sacrifice his son Isaac. Isaac was not the sacrificial lamb that could wash away all of or sins. The law could not do that. Abraham’s only son could not do that. But God’s only son could. And that is why we live free today. The law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death.

That is what the first few verses of Romans 8 tell us about how life is in the spirit. Life is free. No more condemnation. No more sacrifices because there was an ultimate sacrifice that paid for our debt and cleansed us. The next few verses also give us insight on how life is on the spirit. If you live in the spirit you set your mind on things of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit that I touched on last week when I talked about walking in the spirit. If you set your mind to Heaven, you will not care for the things of this world. If you put your mind to this world, you will lose sight of Heaven and all of its glory.

Paul says in verse 6 that to set your mind on the flesh is death. It is death because it is of this world. If you set your mind on the things of this world, you will surely die. The things of this world will never bring you what the spirit will. The spirit Paul says will bring you life and peace. Life and peace. That impatience that I talked about earlier, well if you choose to live in the spirit, you will have peace. Setting your mind on the spirit will give you life because beyond the grave is life eternal. A peace that never ends is where the spirit leads. Your source of power, if you use it well, will bring you eternal life and a peace that never ends. If you train with your sword of the Spirit, surely you will be able to renounce ungodliness and fight off all sin and fleshly desires.

A few verses down we see that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You can’t please God because you are doing the very things that He hates. It is hostile to God like verse 6 says because it does not submit to God’s law which will literally set you free. You cannot please God if you are in the flesh and you will quickly realize that. If you set your mind on the flesh you will act hostile to God your creator and will hurt Him because He cares for you very dearly.

That however, is not the case because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit. The spirit of God dwells in us. God forgives us when we act in the flesh because we belong to the spirit and that is not who we are. We are forgiven, redeemed because we belong to Christ Jesus, not to the flesh. That is who we once were but not anymore. Verse 10 tells us that if Christ is in us, although our body is dead because of sin, we still have life. We are dead to our trespasses and sins as Ephesians 2 says, we are alive in Christ. No more worrying on if we are good enough, no more beating ourselves up over what we have done. Jesus died for all of that and He gives us a reason to live. A way to live. To live in the spirit and walk in the ways of the Lord. To know and love Him. To give everything to Him.

Finally, verse 11 tells us one more thing about life in spirit. If the spirit of Christ dwells in us, (which we know, it does) the spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us. God will also give life to our mortal bodies through what? His spirit that dwells in us.

10:10: How do we remind ourselves of our identity in Christ when sin feels strong? How would your fight against sin change if you really believed there is no condemnation for you in Christ?

10:20 Conclusion

Now we have come to the end of this two week series and I have enjoyed getting to be up here and teach. Obviously this doesn’t answer all the questions you could have about sin. And if you do have any more questions about anything, you can talk to me or Austin or someone you know about any questions you may have. Even though this doesn’t answer all the questions you may have, I do hope that this helped you in some way. The reality of the battle that we face is that sin is prevalent in our lives every single day and it is a battle that is truly never ending.

You will have days where you do amazing and then days where you don’t even think that you are worthy to be called a Christian. Jesus died for those days. Jesus gave you life and a hope that you can look to when you have those days. The reality is that even when you have either of those days, the next day, you will have to face that battle the next day. We know that Satan works overtime to try and get to us in any way that he can.

But, as long as we remember who we are, and what our identity is, we will not let the devil win. As long as we walk in the spirit and train our muscles with the grace that God has given us, we will be ok. The spirit that indwells in us, as we have seen from these passages is stronger than anything that the devil could throw at us. This is the spirit that raises life from the dead, gives us life and peace, gives us righteousness, gives us fruits, helps us train, that is a sword that helps us fight against the very thing we hate.