Sunday sermon: "The War Within"

 Why do Christians struggle with sin? If, as we see in the beginning of Romans 7, we are freed from the control of sin, why do we still do it? This question has perplexed Christians since the very beginning, and we see here at the end of Romans 7 that even the apostle Paul saw this as a struggle.

One easy way to deal with this passage is to say it only applies to those who have not come to Christ. They may want to do the right thing, but can't. This avoids the issue of saying that Christians still sin, but it fails on two fronts. First, all of Romans to this point teaches that without Christ we are dead in sin, helpless, and seek only to fulfill our own desires. Without the saving power of Jesus, we don't want to do good, so we don't have this struggle. The second problem is that it doesn't have an answer to the question raised in this passage, which is why Christians still struggle with sin. If we aren't supposed to struggle with sin, we come to a point of despair as the reality of sin intrudes on our life.

The struggle ensues because there are two principles at war within us. As those who are new creatures in Christ, we have a desire to do what pleases God, and we begin to align ourselves with His will. Still, our old self wants to follow its own desires. We have self-centered habits to break, and the more we mature in our Christian life the more we see in ourselves that needs to be cleansed.

Ironically, it is those who we often extol as the greatest of saints who are most aware of their sin. I would be thrilled to be as mature as the apostle Paul, yet he considered himself to be a "wretched man" when he thought of his sin. Paul understood how serious sin is in God's eyes, and how any sin violates our relationship with God. I believe, contrary to some teachers, that as we grow in our understanding of God's will and in our Christian walk, we will become more conscious of sin, rather than reaching a point where we believe we are sinlessly perfect.

The conclusion of chapter 7 gives us hope: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" While we may struggle, we do not need to rely on our own strength to overcome the power of sin. It is through Jesus that we conquer sin. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to resist temptation and to do what we know is right. Part of growing in Christ is learning to become dependent on the Spirit rather than self. As we do that, we gradually find sin's power waning, the desire of our self to seek its own way weakening, and our ability to serve the Lord strengthening. We may still have that struggle within, but through Christ we can find victory more and more.

Loving the Cross

Here is a well-known quote from "The Imitation of Christ" (Bk. 2, Ch.11) to meditate on as we approach Passion Week:

"JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love! Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands. If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘we are unprofitable servants.’” Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: “I am alone and poor.” No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all."

Sunday sermon: "You Know Better"

As a child, when we did something wrong occasionally our parents would admonish us with the line, "You should know better!" Other kids may have gotten away with the same thing we did, but what mom or dad was saying was that we were raised to follow a higher standard. Truth be told, we probably did know better, but we let our own desires and our own will have control instead of doing what was right.

Paul reminds us in Romans 7:7-14 that this is exactly what the Law of God does for us. It reminds us of the higher standard that God holds for His people. If we did not have this standard revealed to us, we might be able to convince ourselves that we aren't so bad after all. Paul says he was "alive" before he knew the Law. We know from his previous discussion that objectively he was still dead in his sins, as we all are, but here I think he is trying to say that he felt alive. It was the Law that revealed what sin was.

Not only does the Law show us what sin is, it shows us what the consequences of sin are. Sin breaks our relationship with God fatally. When we breach the Law, we are separated from God, eternally condemned to death. If we didn't see God's standard, we wouldn't realize just how impossible keeping the Law is.

Yet this revelation of our condition before God is the beginning of the good news. Before we can understand our need for the saving work of Jesus Christ, we need to know that we have that need. As long as we think we can take care of ourselves, we won't look for an answer from Him. Once we know we are dead, and unable to help ourselves, we start to look for the way out. That's when we are open to hearing the good news that our sin was paid for by Jesus on the cross.

Sometimes Christians disparage the Law. "We aren't under Law, but under grace!" we cry. That's certainly true, but we need to have the attitude toward God's Law that Paul had. Without it, we wouldn't know the high holiness of God, the absoluteness of His standard, and the ways we fall far short of it. Without the Law, we wouldn't realize we need Jesus. The Law has a purpose, even for us today. 

Sunday sermon: "You Belong to Me"

If you are doing an annual "Read Through the Bible" program, you have probably been reading through the books of the Pentateuch. As we read through all the laws that God gave to Israel, we are overwhelmed with all the details that had to be followed in order to keep the Law. I recently had someone ask me the reason for all the sacrifices and offerings in Leviticus. There were many aspects to keeping the Law, and the various sacrifices each filled a different niche in maintaining a person's relationship with God.

Keeping the Law became quite a monumental task for the observant Jew. I'm sure even the most devout found themselves wishing for a way to be free from the bondage of the Law. Surely God could come up with a better way to enable us to be right with Him!

Paul picks up that idea in Romans 7, and equates the rule of the Law over humanity to the law of marriage. As long as I am bound to my wife, I am not free to go bind myself to someone else. In order to be free from the marriage vow, one of the spouses has to die. (My wife informed me that if I tried to get "bound" to someone else while she was alive, the death of one spouse could easily be arranged!) Once one of the parties is dead, the law no longer binds the other.

In order for us to be free from bondage to the requirements of the Law, we have to die to it. In Jesus Christ, we have indeed been put to death in relation to the Law, and now we are bound to Him. Our old relationship is gone, and we have a new life in Christ.

What difference does this make in our life? It changes the effect the Law has on us. Where once we were condemned under the Law, and bound to keep every little part of it, now the Law simply shows us what God expects of us. We aren't left on our own trying to obey God, as we were when we were "under Law," but are now empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

Paul stresses this in verse 6, where he tells us that now "we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old letter of the law." (HCSB) The paragons of Jewish piety in Paul's time were the Pharisees (Paul, of course, having been one himself). They kept the Law, the interpretations of the Law, and the side details of the interpretations of the Law. They were "letter" people, who saw righteousness as an external reality, based on how well you could follow the rules. They looked good, but they had not had a change in their heart or in their relationship to God.

In Christ, we are set free from that kind of observance. The Holy Spirit enables us to obey God not to make ourselves righteous, but as a result of being made righteous in Christ. Our relationship to God is not based on what we do, but on what Jesus did for us. We are released from the power of sin through the cross of Jesus, and now given the power of the Spirit as children of God. 

As those set free from the tyranny of the Law, now belonging to Jesus Christ, we have the ability in the Spirit to bear fruit for God. We no longer serve ourselves, but Him. Our lives now show the reality of Jesus as we live to honor Him. This change not only impacts us, but those we meet every day. As we live out our new life, our new relationship, and our new power, we will show the way Christ can change lives, and be a witness to a world that needs to hear that such a change is possible.

The Depth of Sin

In preparing for this Sunday's sermon, I came across this quote from Spurgeon about the true meaning and depth of sin. May this motivate us all to seek to honor our Lord by resisting temptation today.

"After all his tenderness, in which he has acted towards us as a father to his child, we have turned against him and harboured his enemy; we have found our pleasure in grieving him, and have called his commands burdens, and his service a weariness. Shall we not repent of this? Can we continue to act thus basely? This day, my God, I hate sin not because it damns me, but because it has done thee wrong. To have grieved my God is the worst of grief to me. The heart renewed by grace feels a deep sympathy with God in the ungrateful treatment which he has received from us. It cries out, “How could I have offended him? Why did I treat so gracious a God in so disgraceful a manner? He has done me good and no evil, wherefore have I slighted him? “Had the Eternal been a tyrant and had his laws been despotic, I could imagine some dignity in a revolt against him; but seeing he is a Father full of gentleness and tenderness, whose loving kindnesses are beyond all count, sin against him is exceeding sinful. Sin is worse than bestial, for the beasts only return evil for evil; it is devilish-for it returns evil for good. Sin is lifting our heel against our benefactor-it is base ingratitude, treason, causeless hate, spite against holiness, and a preference for that which is low and grovelling-but whither am I going? Sin is sin, and in that word we have said all."

(From "The Monster Dragged to Light," Sermon 1095, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 19)

Sunday sermon: "Whose Slave Are You?"

Many Christians will tell you that they love to read the epistle to the Romans. That is understandable, given the sheer depth and beauty of Paul;s teaching in this epistle. However, Romans asks a lot of hard questions, questions that aren't popular in our culture today. In Romans 6:12-23 we find one of these: whose slave are you? Americans pride themselves on their independence, and bristle at the thought of being anyone's slaves. Our own national history involves a great deal of argument, and ultimately a war, to free slaves. So why would we want to be anyone's slave?

That last question misses the point. The contrast Paul gives us here is not between being slaves or free. We can't be free, if by free you mean under obligation to no one. Our choice is between two masters: sin and righteousness, which is really a choice between self and God. Almost paradoxically, the desire to be in control of our own life makes us a slave to sin. As we have seen before in Romans, by nature humans are sinful, able only to seek our own good at the expense of God, others, and even of ourselves. The end result is death, not only an impending physical death but an eternal separation from God. By serving self, we are never able to be what we were created by God to be.

When we come to Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we change masters. Our new master has our own best interests at heart, unlike our old one. (Yes, I mean that we don;t even know what's best for ourselves!) Now we have the ability to focus not on our own selfish desires, but on what God desires. Our goal is to glorify God, not us. This leads us not to death, but to eternal life. Sin's control over us is broken through Jesus. We may still sin occasionally, but it is not longer the master of our life. (We'll talk about the struggle with sin in the next chapter of Romans.)

Paul draws one final contrast in verse 23. This is one of the best-known verses in Romans, if not in the whole Bible. It makes clear the difference between living under the control of sin and under the Lordship of Christ. Here we see that death is the "wages" of sin. In other words, we get what we have earned. Wages are an obligation, a "paycheck" for what we have done. We've earned our judgment. But through Jesus Christ, we receive not "wages of righteousness," but the "gift of God." Eternal life and salvation are given freely by God. We don't earn them or deserve them. They are given to us by grace through the cross of Jesus.

So whose slave are you? Do you live for yourself and your own desires, or to honor and glorify Jesus Christ? The way to be all you were meant to be is not in following the path of sin and self, but by accepting the gift of God and living for His glory.

"The Jewel of Christian Contentment"

Another book I have encountered in my 2012 reading project is Jeremiah Burroughs' The Jewel of Christian Contentment. Burroughs was an English Congregationalist minister, and a non-Presbyterian member of the Westminster Assembly. He was a respected Independent voice in the Puritan movement.

This book really speaks to some of the issues we have in the Western church today. Reading a Puritan writer can sometimes be a bit of a chore, as the style isn't what we're used to reading these days. I think that your effort will be well-rewarded by working through this volume, however. Burroughs addresses many of the blessings of contentment, the way to contentment, and the dangers of a murmuring spirit. While you may not agree with every point he makes, I think every reader can come away with much insight into how to learn to be content as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Sunday sermon: "Are You Dead Yet?'

It almost seems paradoxical that as Christians, we are brought from death to life, yet we are still to consider ourselves dead. In Romans 6:5-11, Paul deals with this idea. We are indeed brought to new life in Christ as we share in His resurrection, but that life involves dying. Many Christians accept that before we came to Christ we were dead in our sins, but are less comfortable with the idea that we still have to die.

This is a different death, however. We are to die to sin, so that sin no longer controls us. In verse 11 Paul tells us to "consider" ourselves dead to sin. This requires an active attitude on our part. Though our sin was put to death with Jesus, we must constantly remember that we are indeed dead. Sin does not rule over us, since we are dead to its power, but too often we want to go back to our deadness. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we would rather be dead and enslaved "back in Egypt" than alive and waiting for what the Lord is going to do. When we die to sin, we are able to put aside our natural desire to live for ourselves.

There is a flip side to this. While we are dead to sin, we are alive to God. In His death, Jesus broke the power of sin. In His resurrection, Jesus broke the power of death. This enable us to have a new life, an eternal life, which is like Christ's own resurrected life. While the full experience of this life is yet to come, we have already received it, and have begun to live it out in this present world.

This new life has a new focus. When we were under the power of sin, we lived for self. Everything we did was done for the benefit it brought us. Our chief end was to glorify and satisfy our own desires. Our new life is a life to God instead. Now we live for Him, to glorify God and our Lord Jesus. The focus shifts from self to God, and we are now free to live for Him. Just as we are to consider ourselves dead to sin, we are also to consider ourselves actively alive in the service of God.

So are you dead yet? Has sin lost its controlling grip on your life, and do you now seek to live for God's glory? When that happens, we will begin to see the ways God will work in us to bring about His glory in our world.

"In a Fog"

As part of my reading project, I read a wonderful devotional article from Spurgeon's magazine The Sword and the Trowel, entitled "In a Fog." This article appeared in the March 1865 edition of that publication. I managed to track down an online version, and I would recommend it to you. It can be found here.

Incidentally, the second article in that issue, also on this page, shows that Spurgeon wasn't afraid to engage with those with whom he disagreed when necessary!

Sunday sermon: "A Symbol of Death...and Life"

[NOTE: For those of you who are not from a Baptist background, this sermon was preached as part of an ongoing study of Romans, but reflects my understanding of baptism from a Baptist perspective. It was designed to teach the congregation what we believe the Bible to teach about baptism. You may disagree, but I hope this post will help you understand our beliefs. It is not written from a polemical viewpoint, but a pastoral one.] 

Why are we called "Baptists"? Although Baptist theology and polity have several distinctive beliefs, the one element that stands out is our view of baptism. While this teaching and practice are not confined to Baptists alone, it was the Baptists who became particularly identified with it.

One of the reasons we hold to our beliefs and practices of baptism is the passage we are studying this week, Romans 6:1-4. Paul speaks of the imagery of baptism as a picture of the change that has occurred in our life. It is vital to recognize here that baptism itself does not effect a change in us; it serves as a symbol of a reality that has already taken place. Baptism does not save us, cleanse our sin, or regenerate us. If you enter the water still in sin and rebellion against God, you come out the same. Spurgeon puts it this way: "There have been instances of persons being buried alive, and I am afraid that the thing happens with sad frequency in baptism, but it is unnatural, and by no means the rule. I fear that many have been buried alive in baptism, and have therefore risen and walked out of the grave just as they were."* This is why we baptize those who profess faith in Jesus; only those who have already experienced a new birth are able to proclaim through the symbol of baptism the change that Christ has wrought in their life.

Paul states that baptism is a symbol of our dying with Christ. We die to sin through Jesus taking upon Himself the judgment due to us. The burial imagery speaks to the reality of that death. As Spurgeon said, we do not bury the living, but those truly dead. We have died to sin, and that should cause us to turn away from sin and toward obedience to Christ.

This is why Baptists immerse in baptism. It is the symbol of being buried, dead to sin. As we go under the water, we are proclaiming to the world that we have died with Christ, and our old person is now dead. We no longer place ourselves first, but accept Jesus as our Lord.

However, we do not leave the person being baptized under the water (at least, not for too long). We bring them back up to finish the symbolism Paul presents here. For baptism in not only a symbol of death, but of life as well. We die to our old sinful, self-centered self, but are raised to a new, eternal life through the power of Christ's resurrection. In the resurrection of Jesus we see the promise of life for those who believe in Him.

This is not just a different existence. Paul says we are risen to "walk in a new way of life" (v. 4, HCSB). Our new life is to be an active one, with a new purpose and a new sense of service to the One who gave us life. The person who thinks that being "born again" means you pray a set prayer but never see any change in your life has not yet experienced the transformation that faith in Jesus brings. The person who is baptized comes out of the water, and in so doing symbolizes that they are moving from a death to self into an active life of following Jesus.

Are you living out the reality of the new life in Christ that baptism represents? This is the time to walk away from sin and self and into eternal life through the grace of the Lord Jesus.

* Quote from "Baptism-a Burial," Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit vol. 27

I have a blog?!

Where does the time go? I can't recall why I stopped posting to this blog, but it has been dormant for about three months, and I completely forgot about it. I guess I really am not part of the "information overload" generation yet.

If it weren't for the fact that I am home sick today, and cleaning up my various computer menus and the like, I still wouldn't remember I had started this. It was much easier to post occasionally before I started working two jobs (which is truly a blessing, seeing I went for a year with just a very part-time job, so I'm not complaining).

What to do now? I though of deleting the whole thing and starting over, but I see that a (very small) number of people still visit and perhaps find something useful here. So I will keep the old posts up, but start again with new ones. I may only make a regular post once a week, perhaps reviving the "Sunday sermon" posts,  but I may add a "reading log" feature to go with my New Year's quasi-resolution to read substantial portions of three electronic libraries I have on my netbook. The materials are mostly public domain works, but most continue to have significant value. It's a varied lot, but so far it has been both informative and fun.

So today I am reading in William Brown's The Tabernacle, Its Priests and Services, from the AGES Master Christian Library Version 8. The author is quite informative as to the design and structure of the tabernacle, and he reminds us of just what a spectacular building it was. He adds a number of devotional thoughts, using the tabernacle and its elements as illustrations. I am finding quite a few items that will help me when we get to that section of Exodus in our Sunday school class.

I hope you continue to enjoy these posts. I also hope I remember to keep making them!