Sermon 21
Sermon
by Ken Hobbs, Vicar of Albury, on 18th Sept
2005
At
Series :-Growing as a Disciple of Christ in a Hostile World
The Flesh - The
Introduction
· Series on Character of Christ in a hostile world
· WW2 black out “Don’t you know there is a war on!”
· Phoney War of 1939 War had been declared but hostilities hadn’t started
· Easy for Christians to be engaged in a phoney war!
· Eph 6 is reminder that there is a war on- involving the world, the flesh and the devil
· Focus tonight on the middle of that trinity of adversaries-the hardest!- earth our NT thinking in the Letter to the Romans
· Romans- the story so far! Paul’s great treatise on the nature of the Gospel- “the most important theological book ever written” and “the book that changed the world”
· The book addresses- four questions
(a) What is wrong with the world?
(b) How is the world to be spiritually rescued from its situation of human helplessness and hopelessness- the problem of sin that separates us from God
(c) How do the Jewish nation fit in with God’s plan
(d) How should we live as Christian believers?
· Romans 7 is towards the end of a long section that has dealt with the effectiveness of the work of Christ on our behalf- that its effectiveness is based not on keeping the OT law but on God’s grace and our faith!
·
This is the
most difficult chapter in the
whole letter for two reasons
·
(a_ Where it appears in the book- sandwiched between a
discourse on the work of Christ in 5-6 and a discourse on the work of the
Spirit in chapter 8
·
(b) it describes the personal anguish and conflict of a person
(Paul?) who has been redeemed, forgiven and baptised in Rom 5-6 and yet who
still struggles with a battle- and it is a battle within!
·
One NT picture
(there are others) of Christian life and discipleship is that we are in a
spiritual battle- there is a war on (Ephesians 6- the Armour Of
God- our struggle is with principalities and powers etc)
·
There is a war on three fronts-
1. The World- a culture which is set against God and his ways- that has declared independence from God-UDI “Glory to man in the highest for man is the master of things”
2. The
Flesh-a word used nearly 300 times in the NT-
it means
(a) Our
physical bodies (eg
the word became flesh…” (no case for asceticism and
self mutilation in Scripture)-
(b) Our
sinful fallen nature - the bias on the bowl
(teaching our children to do right!)
3. The
Devil- the arch enemy of God
Message of Romans 7 is
that the hardest battles are not external but internal! The battle is on the HOME FRONT!
·
Romans is
consistent with the rest of Scripture in teaching us that we have a fallen
nature in need of redemption- That the death of Christ on our behalf puts us
right with God and restores a broken relationship with Him. Our enjoyment and
receipt of that privilege is dependent not on our works but on our faith.
·
We are declared
NOT GUILTY
·
All this is made abundantly clear in the first
six chapters of Romans yet our experience is so often far removed from that!
Romans 7 addresses the problem of living in the here and now and struggling to
live God’s way.
·
“St Paul’s problem is everyone’s problem” v 15
”For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do”-v18 “I have the
desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.
·
Highlight 5 features of this struggle!
1.
The
·
The word “I” is
repeated many times in the passage- Paul had a ministry to churches and
individuals across the Empire- they had their problems. This is his problem.
·
GK Chesterton
Letter on What is wrong with the world?
2. The battle is PRIVATE
· Very few would have been aware of his private struggles- even those closest to him. Christians fail! Sometimes that failure is a private one which is made public- Christian leaders are exceptionally vulnerable – story of the Lust article in Christianity Gordon McDonald.- “Re ordering your broken world”
3. The battle is PAINFUL
·
He is full of a
sense of guilt and grief
v24 “”What a wretched man I am Who will rescue me from this body
of death”
·
Hits deep at
his self esteem and his self worth
·
Huge proportion
of our counselling problems arise a low self image
·
The lack of
self acceptance in this painful struggle adds to the problem and leaves us with
feelings of defeat and despair
· Paul uses strong words He is quite realistic and honest about the fact that he does the things he doesn’t want to do and he doesn’t do the things he wants to do.
· “We have done those things which we ought not to have done and there is no health in us” (general confession)
· Not dealing with a “we’re only human. .we all make mistakes…boys will be boys” kind of theology. It is conflict between I WILL and I WILL NOT and I DO and I HATE
4. The battle is PRACTICAL
· It involves the real issues of every day
· The parts of my body- my mind, my attitudes
· My hands- the things I do with them
· The places I visit; the things I seek after
· Affect my thought life; my habits, my sexuality
· Every part of life can be affected by the battle within
5. The battle is PURPOSEFUL
· God uses this inner struggle to move us forward spiritually- the process of being made more like Jesus Christ
· Peter writes of having to suffer various trials which will purify and strengthen us in the same way that metal is refined and purified in a furnace-
· trials can come from the outside and from the inside
Conclusions
·
React(as the Romans were doing) in three ways
1. Licence- do as you like! The soul was pure and so what you did with
the body didn’t matter
2. Law- live in bondage to a legal code and hope that my
self discipline and asceticism will see me through- a way that brings no peace!
3.
Remember that 8.1 says “therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Jesus Christ the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of Sin and death”
Let us
·
recognise what Jesus has done;
·
Receive what
God makes available through the Holy Spirit
·
Resolve to set
our hearts and minds to follow Him what ever the cost and whatever the
conflict!
·
HC is a
reminder to our flagging and defeated Christian experience that the victory has
been won for us on the Cross.
·
We live in the
NOW and the NOT YET- the final redemption of our bodies will occur when Jesus
returns and for that Advent points us forward and for his coming we wait!
Finally- don’t attempt to cover it up!
Story the doctor and the clown!
“I am the clown!”
A quiet openness to God, perhaps with someone else.