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PAG PULPIT |
Water Baptismal Service (04-10-05) |
In his
first letter to the Corinthians, Paul declared that the Gospel or “the word of the cross is…to those who are being saved … the power of God”
(1:18).
Christianity
isn’t about bad people trying to do better.
Christianity
isn’t about sinners turning over a new leaf.
Christianity
is about God doing for sinners what they cannot do for themselves.
Christianity
is about faith in the grace provision of God.
Christianity
is about sinners who are grief-stricken about their sin and who admit that they
are powerless to change themselves. It
has its beginnings in the heart that acknowledges how miserably it has failed
to live up to God’s righteous standards.
It is about sinful men realizing and acknowledging that what they cannot
do for themselves, God can and has done for them. It’s about faithing God’s grace provision in
Christ. It’s open admission of our
weakness. It’s humility faithing God’s grace
provision in Christ.
Most of
you are familiar with the story of Lazarus.
While he was sick, but alive, his sisters sent for Jesus. They were convinced that Jesus could help
their brother. When Jesus arrived,
Lazarus had been dead for four days. He
had been entombed and was in a state of decomposition. The situation had deteriorated from one in
which poor health needed improvement to one in which a lifeless corpse needed
resurrection. The sister had faith to
believe for healing, but not the restoration of her brother’s life—“If you had
been here my brother would not have died.”
Lazarus is
dead.
·
He
could do nothing to help himself.
·
His
family and friends could not reverse the affects of death.
·
He
was four days in the grip of death and no one in his circle of friends could
reverse his condition.
Paul tells
the Ephesian believers, “…you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (2:1). You were conducting your earthly journey
apart from God’s influence and life.
Your sphere of existence was trespasses and sins. You lived as slaves to sin and your carnal
desires and you were powerless to affect any positive change. You were
constantly violating God’s holy standard and you had no power to live
otherwise.
The song
writer, understanding this dilemma declared, “What can wash away my sin…what
can make me whole again?”
Do we seek
to live a good life in hopes that somewhere in time we can reach nirvana?
Are we
consigned to live in hope of purgatory or soul annihilation?
Men
through the ages have asked, “What can give me the ability to break free from
this life of sin and death?” This is the
same question asked by the great apostle in his letter to the Romans--”Wretched man that I am!
Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Ro.
7:24). Like Papillion in his desire to
escape from
In Romans
One, we have what many call the three I
Am statements of Paul.
·
First,
in Romans 1:14, he declared, “I am under obligation both
to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”
·
Second,
in 1:15, he says, “I
am eager to preach the gospel
to you who are in
·
Third,
in 1:16, he declared, “I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
It is in
his third statement that we find the answer to man’s dilemma. In it Paul says that THE GOSPEL is the power
of God unto deliverance. The only thing
that stands between us and that deliverance we so need and long for is FAITH—it, the Gospel, is the power of
God unto deliverance to everyone who
believes.
Is it any
wonder that Paul, upon finding life in the Savior, made it his life long
occupation to declare the answer to man’s dilemma.
This
provision for deliverance from sin’s penalty is also God’s provision for deliverance
from sin’s power.
Is there
some sin that binds you; some behavioral habit that you cannot break free
from? Do you find yourself in agreement
with God about your sin but powerless to affect any change in your lifestyle?
The good
news is that you do not have to live
under the mastery or tyranny of sin! (See Ro. 6:14.) The good news is that what you cannot do for
yourself, God has done for you and will do in you.
The
exhortation to you is, “stop presenting the members of
your body that are dead to sin, to sin and start yielding control over those areas of your life to God” (Ro.
6:13).
·
First,
when you were baptized you declared Christ’s death to be your death to sin;
to its penalty and its power. How can
sin have control or power over something that is dead? You must reckon or realize as real that you
are dead to sin, but alive to God through Christ.
·
Second,
your must yield or give place to the indwelling life of Christ. Just as sure as you declared yourself to be
dead to sin, you also declared yourself to be a partaker of Christ’s resurrection
life. When He died you died, but when He arose you too arose. It is that life,
His resurrection life that when yielded to will give you
power over sin.
In
Galatians 2:20, Paul said it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it
is no longer I who life, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and
delivered Himself up for me.”
Crucifixion
is a past tense event--I was crucified
with Christ. When Christ died, I died.
The life
I now live (present tense), is the Christ
life and it is the result of my faith connection with God and my yieldedness
to His indwelling life.