You are Not Helpless

Romans chapter 8 is where we are this morning as we continue our series that I began last week It's an Easter series called finding Easter in your basket of disappointment If you weren't here last week, the reason that I chose that name for our series is that it's a time for many people of Disappointment and yet we also know that it's a time of resurrection We're getting ready for the resurrection of Christ and we think of the themes of hope and joy But you might be thinking man, it's going to be a hard Easter for me I don't know that I can find a lot of joy in Easter Well, I think I'm going to help you and we're going to take a look at Romans 8 for the next now It's five weeks and find various things every Sunday that you can find joy in this Easter season Last week we saw that we can find our joy in our justification and today I'm going to lead you in one step further and talk about joy in your sanctification the subject today sanctification Romans 8 it's found on page 1118 1118 of the Bible that you could find under the chair if you don't have a Bible of your own 1118 Romans 8 beginning in verse 5 listen this is God's holy word Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires The mind of sinful man is death But the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace the sinful mind is hostile to God It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God You however are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the spirit if the spirit of God lives in you and If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ But if Christ is in you your body is dead because of sin yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you Therefore brothers we have an obligation But it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it for if you live according to the sinful nature You will die But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live May God open his word to our hearts and our hearts to his word I Told you before about my granddaughter Tyler She's quite a girl and This is a picture of Tyler at Christmas. My wife and I gave our granddaughter a new bike for Christmas And so this is a picture of our home there and this is Tyler on the bike and she's looking right there at her mom Rebecca our daughter and so we gave her that bike and we helped her we took her outside as soon as we could and We really really wanted to see her learn to ride that bike for the first time and her daddy helped her get on it and Took off down the street and all of that and as I was watching Tyler Learning how to ride her bike. I had two different feelings in my heart two totally different feelings two totally different thoughts as I looked at her One thought that I had as I looked at Tyler riding that bike is that girl can do no wrong You know what that's like right grandparents that girl can do no wrong that was one thought On the other hand as I looked at her riding that bike. I thought this But I want her to master that bike You may think well those are two very contradictory things, but they're not they are really very harmonious See I love Tyler so much That it doesn't really matter to me whether she can ride a bike or not. I'm gonna love her whether she does or not But I love Tyler so much That I want her to experience the joy and the freedom and the exhilaration of learning how to ride a bike see I'm as interested in who Tyler can become as I am in who Tyler already is In just that same way when God looks down at you and you are God's child God thinks two things First of all he looks at you and he says child of God you can do no wrong. I Love you. I am so utterly delighted in you. I am so proud of you. No condemnation like we saw last week I love you just the way you are he says to you But God also looks at you and he says But I don't want you to stay the way you are I Want you to get better? I want you to become more holy. I want you to experience the joy and the freedom and the exhilaration of your new redeemed nature See God is as interested in who you can become As he is in who you already are Another way to put that is to say that God is as interested in your sanctification as he is in your sanctification The passage I read this morning is about sanctification. You may be thinking while that's a fancy long word. What's it mean? Well, what it means is you know the word sanctify. It means to set apart or to make holy You can hear the Latin word sanctuce Embedded in that word. It's the word from which we get the word sanctuary right a holy place So sanctification is God's work of making us holy I Love the way the Westminster shorter catechism puts the definition some of you know and love that like I do It says sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed and the whole man after the image of God And are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness Now Justification and sanctification are different animals. Let me show you this chart and walk through this with you in Justification God declares you holy But in sanctification God makes you holy see the difference in Justification God forgives your sins, but in sanctification he subdues your sins Justification is a work. He does through the sun sanctification is what he does through the spirit in your life Justification is instantaneous There's no way that you're more justified one moment than you were the other It's complete and happens the moment you receive Christ in your life Whereas sanctification is progressive and it's incomplete in this life It'll never be complete as long as you're on earth. It will only be complete in glory Justification is equal among all of us. We're all equally justified But sanctification differs from believer to believer based on where we are in our maturity process Justification you are passive you have nothing to contribute to your justification It's entirely a gift like it says at the bottom whereas in sanctification you are active You participate in your sanctification as we will see later. It is both a gift and a calling to obey Or you might say that it's both a gift and a task sanctification is So justification says to you Believer you are forgiven you are free you are faultless That's what we learned last Sunday on the cross Jesus Christ took away your sin and guilt and gave you his righteousness Nothing you do right can make God love you more or make you more beautiful to God than you already are and Nothing you do wrong can reduce one Iota his love for you. God is satisfied with you just the way you are That's justification sanctification says you are called to be holy God wants you to grow more and more holy he wants you to become more and more Christ-like as time goes by His desire and his plan for you is that you and I pursue holiness with every fiber of our being Did you notice that in verse 12? Look at verse 12 with me where Paul says therefore brothers therefore sisters We have an obligation See that word we have an obligation in other words we are debtors We owe ourselves something and what we owe ourselves according to verse 13 is to put to death the misdeeds of the body In other words, we who have been redeemed and justified by the grace of God are under obligation To kill our old sinful habits we have a duty to obey God's law to say no to ungodliness and selfishness and to say yes to God's will Go back to the chart in your mind. We have a part to play in our sanctification. We have a calling to obey We have an obligation in other words to get up on the bicycle and to push ourselves forward in the Christian life Instead of being lazy and standing still Okay, think about that bike think of that as a calling to get on the bike and push ourselves in sanctification But how does it feel to learn a bike learn how to ride a bike? It's scary, isn't it? It's scary to learn to ride a bike for the first time. It's risky You might fall and break something You might fail you might make a fool out of yourself. That's all involved in learning how to ride a bike And it's all involved in your sanctification too sanctification is risky Stepping out an obeying God's law is is kind of risky. You might fail. You might blow it You might make a fool of yourself. So my question to you this morning is why should you do it? Why should you pursue holiness and sanctification? Are there any Encouragements in this passage of scripture today that will tell you that it's good to pursue holiness? That it's a good thing to get up on that bike and push yourself forward in the Christian life It's good to try and it's good to do it even if you fail and the answer is yes indeed There are in this passage today some great Encouragements to pursue sanctification Paul the Apostle gives you two reasons why it's a good thing to pursue and we're gonna look at both of them first You should pursue your sanctification because you have a new identity and secondly because you have the Holy Spirit So let's look first at the first reason why you and I should pursue sanctification It's because we have a new identity look at verse five with me Verse five says that those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires Now I'm gonna have to take you on a little rabbit trail here because it's gonna take a while to explain Where I'm going, but you'll get it and I hope that it will really really help you So follow me the best you can for the next few minutes You know when I read this passage years ago I completely misunderstood it I Used to read this and completely missed the point I Used to think that Paul was teaching here that there are three groups of people in the world and here they are There's for example the unspiritual non-Christian people out there who live according to the flesh They live according to the sinful nature. That's one group and then way up at the top There's this super spiritual group of really special Christians out there who live according to the Holy Spirit These are those Christians who are really committed really spiritual believers who know how to control their sinful impulses and Obey God's law and always seem to know the right thing to say and do and then there's this third group in the middle the So-so group the rest of us rotten Christians who live somewhere in the middle between those two extremes This is what I used to think. Okay. This is not true We're not as bad as the Non-Christian folk, but we're also not as good as those super spiritual Christians who live in accordance with the Holy Spirit I used to think that Paul was sort of setting up these three different groups and I always saw this passage as an Exertation to be in that top group You know to work really hard and try to make myself more holy to work harder to control my thoughts and my words and my attitudes and Bring my mind under the control of the Holy Spirit and then maybe just maybe if I try hard enough See this graph if I work over time and put enough effort into it I'll work my way up into this top super spiritual group, but along the way There's all these peaks and valleys and failures and I get discouraged and it likes I get knocked down to the bottom wrong And I have to work my way back up to the top again. That's the way I used to view sanctification But I discovered that that's not at all what Paul is teaching in this passage. In fact It's important not to interpret Romans 8 that way or else you're going to short circuit the entire growth process So let me try to help us see it correctly part of the problem that we're having is the way verse five is Translated in most of our versions I'm using the new international version, but I looked at the new American standard Bible Some of you might have that one with you today new American standard Bible is a little bit more literal and Here's the way verse five really ought to read. It's up on the screen Verse five really says for those who are according to the flesh Set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit Set their minds on things of the Spirit. Notice that a more literal translation of this Doesn't even have the active verb that our version has inserted the word live Because when we see the word for those who live according to the flesh suddenly we start thinking of actions and behavior and We look at ourselves and we think well I don't know that I really live according to the Spirit and that's not at all what Paul is saying He's saying that there are certain people who are according to the Spirit They belong to the category of the Spirit and there are people who belong to the category of the flesh and That is the way this passage actually reads and I want you to notice the order of The truths that Paul is planting in here the order is that identity determines behavior We want to turn it around, don't we? We want to have behavior Determine our identity. We want to say that if you live according to the Spirit then you are spiritual and if you live according to the flesh then you are fleshy And while that may be true in a way that's not what this verse says this verse says you already are something and that's why you behave a certain way You are either according to the flesh and you behave as a fleshy person would behave or you are According to the Spirit and you behave and think and do things according to the way a spiritual person Does and thinks things that is who you are determines how you live What Paul is doing in these verses verses five through nine is describing two different categories of human beings Back in verse one if you were here last week Do you remember we read the verse that says there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? All right, so in verses five through thirteen Paul is going to contrast those who are in Christ Jesus With those who are not in Christ Jesus and you're either one or the other in other words There are not three categories of people. There are two groups of people in the world There are non-Christians and there are Christians there are those who are According to the sinful nature or the flesh and there are those who are according to the Holy Spirit. There is no middle ground Do you see it? There's no middle ground. There's no third group You're either this or you're that. It's black and white. It's not black white and a shade of gray Look at this table. I went crazy with charge this time and I'm not going to read this but just scan down the list of characteristics that Paul says in this passage are True of those on the left who are according to the flesh and those on the right who are according to the Spirit Just read down through there and you'll see the words that I've drawn out of the passage that are read So the question that we're left with after looking at this passage is in Which column are you? In which column are you? You're either somebody who has come to Christ as a sinner and said Lord, I'm a sinner and I need to be forgiven Which automatically puts you in the right hand column? Or you're someone who has never yet really gone to God and said God, I need to be forgiven I'm in trouble with you and I'm not at peace with you and I'm not ready to die and I need you to make me your child If you've never done that you're over in the left You are according to the sinful nature And if you've repented of sin and trusted Christ you are according to the Spirit Now I'm talking this morning mostly. I'm sure to people who are Christians, you're Christian people. That's why you're here at church and If with all your heart you confessed and admitted your sins and asked Jesus to make you his own and be your Lord and leader in life Then I'm telling you you're in the right hand column Because there is no third part. There's no third group Now I know you're what you're thinking you're out there thinking to yourself. Well, I don't know There are lots of times when when I don't feel anything toward God like I should I Sin and I mess up a lot Surely Mike that must put me over there in the left column and I want to say to you hold on a minute Hold on there because if you're trusting in Christ alone Then the things in the right column are automatically true of you You're either one or the other according to the flesh or according to your spirit to the spirit What I want to tell you is that these things in the right is your identity They are your true identity your mind is set on what the spirit desires That is to say that the absorbing object of your life is to know God and follow after him. Wouldn't you say that? Your perspective on life is that Jesus is Lord You basically love God and want to glorify him in contrast to those on the left who are hostile to God Your heart is alive and warm toward God instead of being hard and stubborn toward him Your desire is to please God Now let's be honest Do we often Miss the mark of the right hand calling? Absolutely we do we often mess up and screw up and make mistakes and sin and we fail to live up to what our true identity Really is but what happens when you fail is that your identity stays the same You haven't suddenly Forfeited your place as one under the spirit You are still there God still looks at you and sees you as his child One who is according to the spirit I was talking a couple of weeks ago to somebody who was really struggling with his doubts about his salvation And he said to me Mike, do you think I'm even a Christian? I feel like such a sinner this person told me And I asked him a question. I said does it grieve you? Does it grieve you when you sin? Do you desire with all your heart to obey God and to please him and follow after him and you know what his answer was? With all my heart With all my heart I do And so I looked at my friend and I said the fact that you even care about displeasing God Is a sign that you do belong to him? And I told him doubt no more Doubt no more because you wouldn't even care if you weren't in that right hand column See here's the secret sanctification or part of it anyway We're going to look at another part in a moment If you want to live a holy life read Romans 8 and believe what it says about you The better you know who you are in Christ the more you're going to want to be who you are Go back again to my granddaughter Tyler She was about ready to get up on her bike, but she was scared she was timid about it She wasn't sure she wanted to try it and so you know what we did We told her Tyler you're such a big girl Your legs are so strong You are so talented Tyler you can knock this out you can do it Tyler And the more we reminded Tyler of her identity the more courageous she became until at last She got her leg over the bar and started learning to ride the bike Why should you pursue holiness why should you get on the bike of sanctification and go forward because you have a new identity That's reason one Second reason why should you pursue sanctification with joy with courage It's because you have the Holy Spirit You have the Holy Spirit You know this chapter of the Bible might as well be called the Holy Spirit chapter Because the Holy Spirit has mentioned here 20 times or so 20 times in one chapter Unfortunately in many churches the Holy Spirit seems to be the forgotten member of the Trinity May that never be true of us at UPC Look at verse 9 we're talking about the Holy Spirit in verse 9 Paul says you speaking again to those who are In the right hand column Who are according to the Spirit he says you are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you Look at that little word if a better translation of that word would be since Or since indeed Or if as is certainly true and so let me reread verse 9 this way Since indeed the Spirit of God lives in you you are controlled by the Spirit. He is at work in you He is subduing those old habits He is molding you just like the play dough into the image of Christ He is carrying forward what God has begun in your life That's what the the Holy Spirit does when he comes in Now let's go through three things that the Holy Spirit does for us first of all he lives in every single believer This passage of the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit lives in every single believer verse 9b Says this the second half of verse 9 says that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ He does not belong to Christ. Do you hear Paul saying? He's saying that if you are a Christian you have the Spirit Now I know that there's a very popular teaching out there in Christendom That says that you need a second experience to be really able to get the Holy Spirit But that is so obviously not true because verse 9 says that if you don't have the Spirit of Christ you're not even a Christian The two go together the moment you experience salvation the moment you say yes to Jesus Christ and trust in him You have the Holy Spirit he comes it to live in and dwell inside you There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn't have the Holy Spirit that cannot be Verse Corinthians chapter 6 says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit So he's living in you if you're a believer in Jesus today The second thing we learn about the Holy Spirit in this chapter is that he is your power The Holy Spirit is your power Verse 10 says that if Christ is in you And another way of saying that is if the Holy Spirit is in you If Christ is in you your body is dead Now what does that mean? It doesn't look like our bodies are dead. It looks like they're alive and kicking What Paul means is that your body is subject to death Your body is mortal So he says that your body is dead because of sin yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness Notice that that the moment the Holy Spirit in dwells you he begins to change you from the inside out your spirit comes alive He makes your spirit regenerated he gives you a new nature a new inclination and this new nature grows and grows stronger Inside you all the time So you everybody has the Holy Spirit who's a Christian second he is your power and thirdly he is your partner The Holy Spirit is your partner Look at verse 13 It says for if you live according to the sinful nature you will die but if And you might want to underline these next three words by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live Don't go out and try and to put to death the misdeeds of the body by yourself You can't do it. You must do it by the spirit. Do you notice that it's his partnership with you It's his help of you that enables you to put to death the misdeeds of the body. You do not sanctify yourself I love the way J.I. Packer put it. He said self-reliance is not the way of holiness. It's the negation of it Self-reliance is not the way of holiness. It's the negation of it. Yes, you have a part to play I've said that already you and I have a critical part a critical role to play in our sanctification But we can't do it alone we have to have the partnership with the spirit of God Paul put it this way in Philippians 2 work out your salvation with fear and trembling because It is God who is working in you to act into will according to his good pleasure My wife is a nurse on the labor and delivery for of Winnie Palmer hospital think of a labor delivery nurse The wife the mother is having the baby. She's doing a lot of work I guess I can't say that for sure, but I think it's true She's doing a lot of work. She's hurting. She's yelling at her husband and all the rest But the labor and delivery nurse is right there at her side coaching her Encouraging her comforting her giving her all kinds of advice and instruction That's a little bit like the partnership of the Holy Spirit So we've seen from Romans 8 that you and I have an obligation to get up on the bike of sanctification and to pursue holiness And I hope you've learned this morning the real secret to sanctification that sanctification is by faith If you want to grow more holy or more Christ-like you must believe two things one That you have a new identity You are no longer according to the sinful nature You are according to the spirit and two the Holy Spirit who indwells you is your power and your partner In other words My sermon title You are not helpless Some of you feel helpless when you think about your sin problems You are not You have a new identity to strengthen you in the battle and a spirit of God to help you accomplish the work You are not helpless So here's what I want you to do this week and the coming days three Little takeaways that I ask you to work on first When that old sinful nature comes knocking on your door Turn him away He is an unwelcome guest He left your house and he doesn't Deserve to be welcomed back in And so turn away that sinful nature when he comes knocking on your door to do his bidding Would be inconsistent with who you really are you've seen that movie Christmas vacation Chevy chase You remember when cousin Eddie comes knocking on the door They should have just said forget about it stay out Because when cousin Eddie came in all kind of chaos erupted When your old sinful nature wants to come back in you say cousin Eddie Stay out you don't belong here Second Ask the Holy Spirit Who is inside you to help you develop some new habits New habits that will help you grow more holy Daily Bible reading spontaneous prayer Involvement in a good Bible believing local church Those are some and there are other kinds of disciplines that will help you to grow more sanctified Ask the Holy Spirit to help you with that and third and finally when you do fail and you will when you fall off the bike When you make mistakes in your sanctification Go back to your justification Remind yourself that there is now what no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Not only are you not helpless But we learned last week that you're not guilty May we pursue sanctification with every fiber of our being Because we are new people and we've got a powerful spirit helping us along Let's pray Father I thank you so much for these promises that you've given us that we are new people We are according to the sin to the holy spirit no longer according to the sinful nature And so lord we also thank you that you've given us your spirit to help us and to partner with us Lord we pray that you will help us to live out of our new identity and trust and rely upon your spirit There are people out in East Orlando who don't know these things and don't have the freedom and The victory that we know and so we pray that you'll enable us to go out and love them And bring them into this wonderful family called the family of God. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen