THY WORD IS TRUTH
John 17:17
“Do We Practice Self Denial?”
And lent is the season of reflection and repentance where we reflect on what Christ has done for us on the cross.
We are all redeemed sinners and we have a natural rebellious nature that at times we can’t suppress the desires of the flesh.
And we are not alone for many of the bibles great heroes were men of God and fell into sins and some were save and some were not.
We only have to look at Samson who did not repent and pulled the temple down upon himself and was lost.
We open last weeks worship with David’s repentant prayer after he sent Bathseeba’s husband into battles and ordered his men to withdraw from him when the enemy attacked and Uriah was killed.
But David repented and he was forgiven.
And we have the example of the Apostle Paul who confessed that even with the resurrected Christ speaking to him and the Holy Spirit guiding him all over the Roman Empire enabling him to plant churches but Paul confessed that he could not control himself.
That sin was in his flesh and although his mind had been changed, he could not do what his mind wanted him to do.
And perhaps we could visit that passage and he Paul lamented about his behavior and his struggle with sin.
But before we go an hear Pauls words lets remember where Paul has come from.
When he was Saul of Tarsus he held the coats of those in the church who stoned Steven to death.
Paul also called himself "the chief of sinners" since he persecuted the church and when the resurrected Christ spoke to Paul while he was one his horse of the road to Damascus saying to hin “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me. Why are you kicking against the goads?
And Saul of Tarsus was blinded by the glory of Christ and knocked off his horse and was forever a changed man.
And Saul of Tarsus was named Paul for he was a new person in Christ.
Paul was born again.
So now Paul knows that the law was good and his mind want to obey it but Paul his still struggling.
Let go to those words of Paul from Romans chapter 7 starting at verse 14 which is the record into Paul confession.
Paul says, “14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Here we have the Apostle to the gentles and to the church teaching that even after being saved and his mind transformed, there is still powers working in his flesh that oppose what his mind wants to do.
So I ask you. Is salvation enough?
Clearly it is not by the words of Paul!
By the words of the author of grace! Paul us the author of grace. We only know whar God's grace is by the teaching of the Apostle Paul.
The word "grace" appears in the Gospels on 4 times and each time the word grace applies to Jesus and no one else.
Ironically, since the gospel is the gospel of grace.
The gospel is not contained in the 4 gospels.
The gospel is contained exclusively in the epistles of Paul! For only there do we learn what garce is and how it applies to the believers in Jesus Christ!
So what does that tell us a bout those preachers that preach exclusively from the 4 gospels!
Yes, we know of grace as the gift of God and that gift saves us from the book of Romans and the letter to the Ephesians.
And since Paul’s teaching on grace was first written about first to the church at Ephesus and years later to the church at Rome let go and see what Paul says about grace first from the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 is the most central and important scripture of the whole New Testament for it defines the gospel of grace and the New Covenant.
Here are the words:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Is grace important? It most certainly is because we are saved by it.
But is salvation enough?
And years later Paul defines the difference between the law and grace in chapter 5 of the Book of Romans.
And in his contrast he compares the original sin of Adam and the act of righteousness of Jesus Christ (who is the second Adam).
With these words, Romans 5 verse, “ 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So why is Paul upset that he continues to struggle with sin?
Because he fails to walk in the Spirit and his mind cannot control his body.
So until his words echo in his mind, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
And his answer was.
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ.
Only Christ can deliver us from sin and that is what the season of lent is for.
It is to remind us that Christ has delivered us but we will still struggle with sin all the days of our lives until we are given an incorruptible spiritual body at the resurrection of the dead.
As long as we remain in this corruptible flesh we will struggle with the desire to sin!
So what should we be doing until them?
Should be denying ourselves!
Does Christ command us to do this?
We heard this command this morning in the New Testament reading to day and for me it has been Christ hardest commandment to follow.
For much of my young life and even to this very day denying myself is a struggle and I lose the battle again and again.
But lets hear Christ’s hardest command one more time before we go on.
What does Christ say?
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
This command of Christ was recorded by Matthew in chapter 16 and by Mark in chapter 8 with exactly the same words but Luke adds just on word in hos gospel chapter 9.
Luke remembers Christ as saying "we must deny ourselves DAILY".
Out struggle with sin in a daily struggle!
To become a disciple of Jesus we must deny ourselves and it is a daily process because of the sinful nature that is in our flesh.
Paul showed us that we all struggle with getting ourselves to do what we ought to do and to stop doing what we ought not to do.
And Luke says that it is a daily process.
But Paul also says that if we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the deeds of the flesh.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
What does this scripture say to the modern church that cannot have a chruch function without including a meal or a dessert?
Do they practice self denial?
May I Close In Prayer:
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