Obedience
Holiness • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction:
I am so glad that God has made provisions for our holiness. Once again He has made a way for us to be with Him. His plan is perfect. Not only has God made provision for our holiness He has also given us responsibility for it.
God’s provision for us consists in delivering us from the reign of sin, uniting us with Christ and giving us the indwelling Holy Spirit to reveal sin, to create a desire for holiness, to create a desire for holiness.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit and according to the New nature that He gives, we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body.
For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
Though it is the Spirit who allows us to put to death our corruptions, Paul reminds us that this is our action as well.
Last Sunday we emphasized the “by the spirit part of Rom. 8:13 and today we are going to look at another part of this verse “you put to death the misdeeds of the body”.
In this passage it is clear that God puts the responsibility for living a holy life squarely on us. We have to do something, it is not a magic poof and we are holy.
We are not to “stop trying and start trusting”, we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body. This is something that comes up in the epistles, we are commanded to assume our responsibility for a holy walk.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
The writer of the Hebrews said:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
He says let us throw off the sin and let us run with perseverence. It is clear that he expects us to assume responsibility for running the Christian race.
James said this:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
It is we who submit to God and resist the devil. This is our responsibility.
Peter said:
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
The clause “make every effort” addresses itself to our wills. It is something we must decide to do.
It makes me think about a couple of instances in our walk with God.
When we come to the decision of Salvation we have to speak the words and ask God for forgiveness. It is our responsibility to surrender to His will and submit to him. Asking Him to forgive us and cleanse us.
Also, when we get baptized in water this is another instance where we are stating loud and clear that we are a follower of Christ. It is something we decided to do.
Once again obedience towards holiness is something we decide to do, the responsibility is on us.
There have been times in my life where I thought that any effort to live holy was me trying to put myself in God’s place or it was to glorify myself. I thought that God would not bless any effort on my part to live the Chrisian life, just like He would not bless any effort on my part to become a Christian through good wors.
Just as I received Christ Jesus by faith I was to seek a holy life by faith. Any effort on my part was just getting in God’s way. I was mistaken and did not apply the statement correctly.
The statement:
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ ”
I foolishly mistook my dependence on the Holy Spirit to mean that I was to make no effort, that I had no responsibility. I mistakenly thought that if I turned it over to the Lord, He would make my choices for me and would choose obedience over disobediece. All I had to do was to look to Him for obedience. But that is not how it is.
God makes provision for our holiness, but He gives us the responsibility of using those provisions.
It is like the saying you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
I believe this helps us realize that God has given us what we need but it is still our responsibility to use it.
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones said this:
“The Holy Spirit is in us. He is working in us, and empowering us, giving us the ability… This is the NT teaching - Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We have to do so but note the next part - Because it is God that works in your both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit is working in us “both to will and to do”. It is because I am not left to myself, it is because I am not “absolutely hopeless” since the spirit is in me, that I am exhorted to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling”. (Page 80 Pursuit of Holiness).
We must rely on the Holy Spirit in our putting to death the deeds of the body.
Our reliance on the spirit is not intended to foster an attitude of “I can’t do it” but one of I can do it through Christ who strengthens me. As Christians, we should never complain of want of ability and power.
If we sin it is because who choose to sin, not because we lack the ability to say no to temptation.
Conclusion:
We have a part to play in this. It is time for us as Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. We are not defeated we are simply being disobedient.
I think we should stop using the terms “victory” and “defeat” to describe our progress in holiness. We should use the terms “obedience” and “disobedience”. When I say I am defeated by some sin I am unconsciously slipping our from under my responsibility.
We are saying something outside of me has defeated me. That is just not how it is. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me.
We may, in fact, be defeated but the reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey. We have chosen to entertain lustful thoughts, or to harbour resentment or to shade the truth a little.
We need to brace ourselves and realize that we are responsible for our thoughts and actions. We need to reckon or count on the fact that we died to sin’s reign, that it no longer has any dominion over us, that God has united us with the risen Christ in all of His power. God has given us the Holy Spirit to work in us.
Only as we accept our responsibility and appropriate God’s provisions will we make any progress in our pursuit of holiness.