So my preaching on sin is not an
exercise in scaring people. It is not designed to beat people down but to
prevent them from being beaten down. The enemy does not take a second off and
neither should we. Does this mean that we can control our sinful nature? No,
but we can be aware of it. We can be aware of it and reflect to the Holy Spirit
within us. We can walk in the Spirit:
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your
lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature
wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the
Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.
These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to
carry out your good intentions. -- Galatians 5: 16-17 (NLT)
Paul consistently recognizes the
struggle we all face inside of ourselves. We have the Spirit of God inside the
flesh which desires sin. Look at the key verses and embrace the struggle Paul
is detailing. He does what he hates! We can all relate I am sure because the
Spirit of God bristles at the sin we fall into. Thank God for the conviction of
the Holy Spirit to lead us away from what we know is wrong and into what we
know is right. As the key verses state, the problem is not with the law.
Sometimes grace-preaching seems to make the law out to be the bad guy, so to
speak. But Paul clearly states here that the law is spiritual and good. The
problem beloved is not with the law but with the sin nature within us that is
always in rebellion to the law. Eternally, the grace of Almighty God has saved
us and assured us that our sins are forgiven but temporally we still have a walk
we are in the middle of. We still need to be prepared:
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy,
the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
-- 1Peter 5: 8 (NLT)
I thank God for His grace but I need to stay alert! Our great enemy the devil has already lost the eternal battle for our soul if we are saved. But that does not stop his attacks. It does not halt his schemes. He still seeks temporal victories in our lives because the more we have to deal with our own sin issues and the consequences of what we sow the less effective we are for the kingdom of God and the works God has set aside for us. The less effective we are -- the less people come to the foot of the cross for the eternal victory in Christ.
Sometimes the modern church just fails to see the damage it
does. We have become very adept at helping people resolve the eternal issues
and don't get me wrong -- they are the most crucial. Salvation is always the
first goal. Yet after salvation we sometimes are not so good at making
disciples -- which is what Jesus instructed us to do. The result is a lot of
baby Christians who never get off the spiritual milk. They walk without the
power Christ appropriated for them on
Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 15, 2012