Sermon 124
Sermon by Jon Noble at Wonersh
on Sunday 2nd March 2008
Holiness- Struggling with Sin
Think of a time
when you have failed at something. Tell
your neighbour. Who would like to share
an example?
I wonder how many
of us thought of a time when we let down God or were involved in some kind of sin?
If you’re like me
you will probably tend to think more about yourself and the effect things have
had on your life rather than worrying more about how what we have done has
upset others, or more importantly God.
We all fail –
morally as well as in tasks and at activities.
So we turn to our
passage from the letter from Paul to the Roman Church. You might like to follow it in your Bibles as
it’s quite a complicated passage.
Before the passage
read out, in Romans 7:1-6 we learn that Paul is speaking to men who know the
law. He then teaches them how Christians
are to live in light of the old law and the new law. He explains that the Law has authority over a
man only as long as he lives – we have died to the Old Testament law through
our rebirth in Jesus and we now belong to Him
Before we came to
Christ we were controlled by the sinful nature, sinful passions were at work in
our bodies and we bore the fruit for death.
However, we have now died to that law and instead serve in the Spirit.
So, we come onto
our passage where Paul is explaining the relevance of the law.
7-10
The law shows us
what sin is. The law is like a spirit
level, plane a piece of wood or build a wall and it might look level until you
put a spirit level against it and it shows up how skewed the whole thing
is. At a youth club I help at, we have a
pool table. We put it up and it looks
perfectly fine. It looks ready to put
the balls on and start playing on. When
you put a spirit level on it, it shows a very different picture. The table is not at all ready and may need
some major adjusting. So it is with the law which is there to show us how 'out
of line' we are and how much we are in need of a saviour. The law shows that sin is sin.
11-13
The law is a
perfect yardstick of God’s holiness. Sin
however, sees the law and deceives us into rebelling against God and breaking
it. The just, right consequence of our
sin is death. We have to face the
punishment for breaking the holy law of God.
God is holy and cannot tolerate sin or turn a blind eye.
14-25
Back in the
beginning of the chapter we read (v4) that we died to the law and now live by
the spirit. So talk of sin is longer
relevant to us and holiness is nothing to be concerned about. Or is it… In verse 15 Paul gives us a good
tongue twister explaining that we do not do what we want to do and what we know
is right. We have the battle within us
between the sinful nature (us) and the Spirit of God which shows us
righteousness. We desire to do what is
good but fail.
We desire to love
the poor, but end up looking down on them
We desire to speak
words of encouragement, but end up gossiping and discouraging
We desire to be
generous, but end up being greedy
We desire to be
pure in heart, but end up lusting after and fantasising about another man or
woman
Left to our own
devises, we are selfish, wicked and wretched people. We desperately need someone else to come and
save us from ourselves and our sinful nature.
“Who will rescue us from this body of death?” cries Paul. It might help you to imagine the scene of an
ancient Roman punishment for a murderer.
The Romans would shackle them up to the dead body, while it rotted and
sweated in the heat. From this we get the
'body of death' reference, which Paul uses to describe the abominable sinful
nature that we carry around with us. Our
sinfulness leaves us unclean, bankrupt and unable to bail ourselves out.
Who will save us
from our body of death? Thanks be to God (v25), that Jesus Christ came to save us from
death and sin.
Chapter 8:1-4
There is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ because through Jesus the law of the
Spirit sets us free from the law of sin and death. We are justified by God and it is just as if
I’d never sinned. We are found innocent
and not guilty of the bad things we’ve done.
Jesus fulfilled the
law by coming in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. The sin in the sinful man was condemned and
the righteous requirements of the law were met in Jesus. Therefore if we have Jesus as our personal
saviour, the requirements of the law are fully met for us, who live according
to the Spirit, not the sinful nature.
It is vital that we
are living in the freedom of these verses and not the struggles of the
previous verses.
When we are walking
in step with the Spirit, we will have the strength to do what is right. Through God’s power at work in us we can say
no to temptation and yes to the things God is calling us to. It is no good trying to resist sin by our own
strength. Our nature is to be selfish
and to give in to sin. On our own we
will always fail.
It would be a
mistake to think that the sin doesn’t matter to God. Sin was so serious to God that he sent his
Son to come to Earth and die to deal with it.
It is only the power of God that will help us to be free from it. We need to make sure we have times of
intimacy with our Father to allow him to change us from within. We need to seek the will of God so that we
know what is on his heart and don’t get consumed by our own selfish desires.
Does living by the
Spirit mean that we don’t have to try to be holy? No, God has given us the strength and power
to be free from sin but we need to engage our will to do this.
We need to be
active in choosing not to sin, or to put ourselves in situations where we are
likely to sin. If we are passive and see
it as outside our control we will loose the battle. Perhaps we try and rationalise it and think
it’s not so bad or as bad as what other people do. This is clearly not how God views sin. Maybe some people here feel like they are
losing the battle against sin and are failing every time. If you feel like that’s you, I’d encourage
you to find a Christian to confess your struggles to and receive prayer to
break the habbits that have been caused by repetitive
sin. Repentance comes from the Greek
word metanoia – think again/change your mind/turn
around from the way you are thinking and living.
Let me emphasise
that can be thankful and joyful that Jesus has dealt with our sin. That we are no longer the wretched people we
once were, but are free people – choosing to be ‘slaves to the spirit’. So what will our response be to this amazing
news? To go out and sin as much as we like
because we know that we’ll be alright in the end? Or to live life in step with the Spirit, a
life of holiness that honours and pleases God?