Navigating the Complexities of Sin and Grace

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to go to the book of Romans.

Romans, chapter six.

Romans, chapter six.

We're going to continue on in our sermon series looking at why theology matters.

Why does it matter what we believe?

Because what we believe affects where we're going one day for eternity.

What we believe matters today and how we live for our Savior.

In Romans chapter 6, Paul started out the whole chapter with a question.

The question was this.

If God is completely gracious, if God has forgiven me from my sin, should I just continue to live in sin so that God just keeps forgiving me?

And then obviously, the answer to that question, Paul says, God forbid in verse 2.

God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Meaning if you have been saved from this sin and you recognize what you have been saved from, why would you want to go back to the bondage of that sin that held you for all of those years?

And so he answers that question, and he explains that answer throughout that whole chapter in Romans chapter six.

Today we're going to pick up in verse number 19.

But last week we looked at the understanding that even though sometimes people in their minds believe a certain thing, they don't allow what they believe in their mind to affect the way that they live when it comes to their flesh.

Meaning this.

The Bible says that our body, our members, are like instruments.

And those instruments can be used for bad, into sin and into punishment, and into death, or our instruments can be used for good and righteousness and faith and ultimately glorifying God in every way.

And so we had the analogy of the hammer, right?

The hammer I could use for something good.

I could build a house.

I could help somebody.

But that hammer also could be used for pain and suffering and hurting somebody.

And so the idea is that Paul says, you.

You believe in God, you.

You trust in God.

And that transformation that happens in salvation should change not only what we think about and.

And what we spend our time in, but also what our body does.

In.

In the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12, it says that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

So the way that we can summarize it is this.

God has given us the greatest sacrifice the least that we can do is sacrifice ourselves to him, give ourselves over to Him.

And, and he doesn't ask us to give our lives when it comes to being sacrificed.

We.

We.

We don't have to die for Him.

He died for us.

All he does is he calls us to live for him, to.

To serve him, to call Him Master, not just by what we say, but also by what we do.

Another passage of Scripture that I thought would be appropriate to stick on that topic is First Corinthians, chapter six.

First Corinthians, chapter six.

If you're in Romans chapter six, you can turn over to First Corinthians chapter six with me.

And this is the classic passage of scripture that speaks of our bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost.

So there.

There's a lot of teaching in the world today that teaches this.

As long as you theoretically believe the right thing and you're a religious person, you can just do whatever you want to do, and God will just keep perpetually forgiving you.

But the Bible says, no, that's not the way that we should live our lives.

We should be cognizant of.

Of the fact that our bodies matter.

What we do with our bodies matters because God cares not only just for our soul, but for our everything.

Because one day, it's not just our soul that is redeemed.

The Bible says that we will be glorified.

We will have glorified bodies.

And so ultimately, God is concerned with every element of our life.

But in First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19, in the context of First Corinthians, chapter 6, this is talking about sexual sin, fornication, which was prevailing in the church there at Corinth.

But he says here in verse 19, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?

So there's a lot that we could dig into there.

But essentially what he's saying is, is if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you.

He's not just around you.

He's not just inspiring you.

It.

It's the simple fact that the Holy Spirit lives within us.

And so he says here, the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, meaning this only comes through a relationship with God, and ye are not your own.

You said what?

What did he just say there?

He said, Paul said this.

When you are a believer in Jesus Christ, when the Holy Spirit indwells you, you are not your own anymore.

The decisions that we make in our body are not for my Agenda.

They're not for my ways, my will, my.

The Bible says that now that I am in Christ, my decisions are to honor and glorify him.

I am not my own anymore.

And you say, well, how could God ask us to give everything to him?

It says in verse 20, for ye are bought with a price.

You'll hear this.

Well, my salvation is free.

And we're going to talk about that free gift of grace here in a few moments in Romans chapter six.

And for us, it is free.

The gift of grace, the gift of salvation is given to us in a way that we did not earn.

We did not pay for it.

We could not pay for it.

But the Bible says that someone did pay the price.

That's Jesus Christ, our Savior says we are bought with a price.

The Bible says in other places that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that's on our account.

It was bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

And so for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

The.

The Bible speaks of a wholesale sanctification, meaning this.

The.

The spiritual growth in my life is not just a theoretical thing on paper.

The spiritual growth in my life is what I believe, what I think, what I do, how I respond.

He says this, this is.

You are not your own.

You are a bought with a price.

And so many times we cheapen the grace of God by saying, yes, he's given me salvation, now I can just do what I want.

No, the Bible says that we are, we are saved.

We are changed because of the payment that was given for us.

And so we all know that there is a problem in this world.

And some of you say it's not just one problem.

There's a lot of problems in this world, and I can identify with that.

But the biggest problem, the, the overarching problem that has caused all the other problems in the world is sin.

The Bible says that there is a problem, and that is sin.

And we're going to look in Romans chapter six.

If you go back to Romans chapter six, there is a.

There is a penalty to sin.

Bible's going to say here at the end of chapter six, for the wages or the payment of sin is death.

We're talking more than just physical death.

We're talking about spiritual death, spiritual separation, spiritual punishment that falls upon us if we are living and dying in our sin.

For the wages of sin is death.

But going to see here today that there is also a payment that was given for us and that's what we're going to talk about here.

Romans, chapter six.

Look at verse number 19 with me.

Paul addresses the people that he's talking to when it comes to this idea of living in righteousness, living in obedience, living in accordance to being a servant of God and not servant to sin.

And he says, I speak after the manner of men.

He says, what is he saying here?

He says, I'm going to speak to you as a man.

I'm going to speak to you in man's ways because of the infirmity of your flesh.

The idea here would be this.

He's going to speak to them in a way that they can understand in human terms.

Why?

Because of our human limitations.

Ultimately we can't explain or understand completely the grandeur of God, the power of God, the grace of God.

But Paul says, I'm going to speak to you in human terms so that you can understand in your limitations.

And then he goes further here.

He says, for as ye have yielded your members, remember what the Bible says is members.

The members is our body, our parts of our body says, as you have yielded your members, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity.

Unto iniquity, meaning this is how you were before we yielded or gave over our bodies to see sin uncleanness.

That idea of iniquity would be the.

The understanding of lawlessness.

And so what he's basically saying is this.

When you lived in lawlessness, all it brought was lawlessness.

Evil just always is going to bring evil.

It's the classic idea of what we sow is what we're going to reap.

And he says, before, when you lived in iniquity, all you got was iniquity.

When you lived in that emptiness, all you got was emptiness.

And so it's that idea of lawlessness will always bring lawlessness.

But then he goes on further.

He says, even so now, now that you are saved, now that you are changed, even so now yield.

Now remember that word yield means.

Yield means to submit, to give over, to.

To allow someone else to guide us.

He says, now so yield your members, servants to righteousness, unto holiness.

So before we're saved, all.

All we can do is go to sin lawlessness.

And what does that bring?

It brings forth death, it brings forth punishment, it brings forth emptiness, it brings forth more sin, more lawlessness.

But he says, now what do you yield to?

You yield your members as servants to righteousness, God's righteousness, and therefore God's righteousness is important to us.

And what does that bring that brings holiness?

That Brings sanctification, that brings spiritual growth, brings the opposite of what sin brought us.

And so here in our Christian life, I want you to understand that as we trust in God, positionally we are saved.

And that word sanctified means to be set apart, to be set apart for a specific use.

And so at the moment of our salvation, we are positionally changed.

But that doesn't mean that our spiritual life is over.

That's actually when it first begins.

And so now we are on a process of becoming more and more like Christ in the more that we submit to Him.

And so if we were to pull every single person here today, most likely all of us are at a different point in our spiritual growth process.

If you're a believer today, you are on that spiritual growth process.

Some of you might have just gotten on that process, right on that.

You just jumped on the bus, right?

You're on for maybe a few days, a few years.

Some of you, you've been on that train for a long time in that spiritual growth process.

But the idea would be this.

When we submit ourselves over to be used by God in his righteousness, that brings us to a place of spiritual growth.

We are dying to those old ways.

We are, we are presenting our bodies, our lives, a living sacrifice unto God.

And that's where we see spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth doesn't just come from reading our Bibles.

Even though we should read our Bibles, we should study the Word of God, we should meditate upon the Word of God.

But I think we all can understand that people can read the Bible, and that does not change them.

That doesn't make them grow.

And so it's having that heart of submission that I'm reading the Word of God.

This is God speaking to me.

And therefore I'm going to apply this, believe this, and then set aside what God has called me to do as my priority.

His priority has become my priority.

And therefore I'm going to die to my flesh, and I'm going to yield to the Spirit.

Ephesians, chapter four tells us all about this.

And I want you to go there with me here this morning.

Ephesians, chapter four speaks of this process.

And I think that we have to all understand this as believers, because I don't know about you, but in my life I thought that once I was saved, once I had given my life over to God, then at that point everything was going to run smoothly, that I wouldn't have any more temptation, that I wouldn't have any more inclination to go in the path of sin.

But the Bible says that even though we are changed and our identity is new, we are still wrestling with that flesh.

We are still wrestling with, as the Bible calls it, the old man.

And so though we have a new identity, there is that struggle.

So how do we spiritually grow?

Well, where I was growing up, there was a standard answer for this.

Read your Bible, pray, go to church, and if you do those three things, you'll just grow.

There's actually a song about that.

But.

But the idea would be this.

You could read your Bible, you can pray and you can go to church, but at the same time, leave unchanged.

Why?

Because ultimately the Bible speaks of this change, this growth being something that's supernatural, something coming from more than just us taking us a checklist and going through those steps.

It's a heart change.

It's a new desire.

It's a.

It's a transition from the old way to the new way.

And so in Ephesians, chapter four, we could go to a lot of places, but we could go to verse 17.

And he says this.

I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.

Meaning this.

Don't walk the way that you used to walk.

Don't walk like the unsaved.

That phrase, their vanity of their mind, means this.

The emptiness of a worldly way of thinking, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.

He says this.

The unsaved person is living in blindness because they cannot see the truth.

They cannot see the light.

And he says, if you are a believer, don't go back to that old way.

Don't live like you're blind.

You have new sight, you have new eyes, you have a new hope, new light.

And so he says, verse 19, who being past feeling.

And he's talking about people that are unsaved, giving themselves over to lasciviousness or lewdness or sensuality, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

He's describing somebody who is not in Christ.

And he says, why should we live that way?

He says, Verse 20, but ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

So he says, if you have trusted in him, if you have heard from him, if he has taught you verse 22, that you put off concerning the former conversation or the former lifestyle of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, meaning this is the way that we think.

This is what we believe.

This is.

This is ultimately what we are, trusting it to be renewed in righteousness, to be renewed in our spirits.

Verse 24.

That ye put on the new man which is after God and created, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

So he says, put on God which the fruit of that would be righteousness and true holiness.

Then he says, wherefore Putting away lying.

Speak every man truth with his neighbor.

The idea here would be this.

We need to stop doing the bad, but we need to insert the power of God in our life so that we can do the good.

So we don't just stop lying, even though we should stop lying.

What does he say there?

Speak every man truth with his neighbor.

So don't just stop lying, but speak truth, for we are members one of another.

Be angry and sin not.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

That's a whole sermon in of itself that we shouldn't be living in in selfish, egotistical pride and anger.

But then he goes on to say more.

Verse 27.

Neither give place to the devil.

Why?

Because when we do these things, we give place to the devil to attack us.

And we don't grow.

We are stunted in our growth.

Verse 28.

Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands.

The thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth meaning this don't just stop sealing, but now work hard and get those things and give back to those that are in need.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And so verse 29 tells us here that what we say matters.

We talked about this last week, right?

One of the members that we sometimes cannot tame in our own strength is our tongue.

And we can say things that hurt people.

We can say things that tear other people down.

And the Bible says here the mark of a person walking in the new man, in the.

In the new way and in the spirit is that nothing corrupt comes out of our mouth.

That word corrupt has this idea of decaying flesh nastiness, okay?

And it's this idea that what comes out of our mouth tears other people down, destroys says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And so what do we do?

We speak things to people and about people that lift them up and extend grace.

The new life is not just about, well, I'm going to shut my mouth.

I'm not going to say what I feel about that person.

But the new life is having a changed heart to speak grace and build other people up in the truth of God.

And so it's not just stopping.

Because a lot of times what happens is a church, even fundamental Bible believing churches will be known for what they are against, and we should be known for what we are against.

But at the same time, I think biblically speaking, we should also know what we are for when it comes to the gospel, when it comes to reaching people for the cause of grace and for the cause of forgiveness and for the cause of salvation.

So he says here, don't let that type of commun.

Communication come out of your mouth, but for that, that is good and that is edifying and that is ministering grace.

Then he speaks of this in verse 30.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Again, man, there's so much here.

But what we could say is this.

When we give into the flesh, when we yield to the flesh, we are grieving the Holy Spirit, right?

We're grieving the Holy Spirit.

And what does it say here?

Why, why is that such a contradiction?

Because it is the Holy Spirit he is holding on to us as it says we are sealed until the day of redemption.

That idea of being sealed is being promised, being held together.

And so the.

The Holy Spirit is the one who is sealing us.

And so therefore what we must do is yield to him, not grieve him.

We grieve him by disobedience, by.

By yielding to the flesh.

Verse 31.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, meaning all those things that are negative when it comes to bitterness and, and anger and fighting and cursing and malice, that's.

That's hatred towards someone wishing them evil.

He says all that should be gone.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

Why, why should we live this way, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you?

We treat others as we have been treated when it comes to the idea of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

We treat people with grace because God has extended grace.

We treat people with forgiveness because God has extended forgiveness.

And so what we can see in this passage is this, this new way of walking, this new way of thinking is dying to that old way and allowing God to lead our life.

So going back, how do we spiritually grow?

Well, read your Bible, pray and go to church.

Well, those are great things.

But in the process of reading our Bibles and praying and going to church, we must allow for as Ephesians chapter 4 says, we must allow for the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us while we are reading the Word of God.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.

The Holy Spirit will convict, the Holy Spirit will comfort.

We must allow the Holy Spirit to do his work.

When the preaching of the word of God is here this morning, folks, the.

The nothing that we do in our lives matters outside of what God has called us to do.

And so what I would say is this.

I could get up here and preach in my flesh and it would mean nothing.

I could read the Bible in my flesh and it would need me.

Nothing.

I can pray in my flesh and it would mean nothing.

I could.

I can go to church in the flesh and it would mean nothing.

I would serve in the ministry, but it would mean nothing if I'm doing it in my flesh.

And so what I'm getting to here this morning is the Bible says it's a.

It's a process of allowing the Spirit to guide us in these things.

I'm going to read the Bible and ask the Lord to reveal to me the truth that he would have in my life that I should apply and that I should change and that I should be convicted in and that I should repent and actually turn around and have revival and renewed in my heart.

And so, yes, I pray, but I pray as the Bible says.

I pray to the Father in the name of Jesus and the power of the Spirit.

When I go to church, I'm not just coming to church to look around to see what other people are doing.

Who's here, who's not here.

Did I approve of that music today?

Did I like what the pastor said?

Did he tell good stories?

No.

I'm coming to church with the understanding of the Holy Spirit's leading me here to be taught to if, maybe even if the Holy Spirit's challenging me to come alongside of someone else and encourage them and exhort them and edify them.

And so what I'm getting to here this morning is this, as the book of Romans 6 says, is that we are guided in the Spirit, we yield to the Spirit.

I could get up here and say, all of you that are not living A good godly life need to come down right here this morning.

And I'm going to discipline every single one of you and I'm going to give you the list of what you need to do to get your life right.

And I'm going to be checking you on this.

The reality is, is that some people might in some degree be able to say, okay, well that's a list I need to follow.

And I'm going to try to do that.

But at the end of the day, that's not Holy Spirit change.

That's not spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth is not following a list of rules.

Spiritual growth is saying, God, I want to be more like you.

I want to die to those things in my life that I used to love.

I want to be different.

I want to be strange to the world.

And so it's a heart issue.

It's not about following a list of rules.

Now would somebody say, hey, you know what?

I'm growing in the Lord, but I'm not reading my Bible, I'm not praying, I'm not going to church.

The reality is, with that is, if you are growing in the Lord and you're yielding the spirit, those are all things that should be happening.

But at the same time, we must know that it's the relationship with God that's the most important thing.

And so go back to Romans chapter six with me.

He's speaking to this idea of who is our master.

He's really speaking to this idea of the servant master relationship.

And he says basically this verse number 20, for when ye were the servants of sin, says, remember.

He says, what did that.

That sin bring you?

Well, iniquity to iniquity, Lawlessness.

To lawlessness.

He says, remember when you were servants to sin, when you were.

It's almost like, almost like in, in a, in a joking way, sarcastic way, he says, when you were a servant of sin, you were free from righteousness, you were bound by righteousness, you were free to do whatever you wanted to do.

You were not bound by being a godly person.

You could just freely choose whatever you wanted to do.

You were free from righteousness.

You, you were away from that verse 21.

Then he comes back and he says, okay, what type of fruit did that bring you?

How did that lifestyle work out for you?

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?

He says, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning and God has changed you, you should be ashamed of what happened in your past.

No, he's not saying live in that shame and live in that condemnation.

But what is he saying?

He says when you were living in that sin, the only fruit that you had was things that you should be ashamed of as a believer, for the end of those things is death.

He says our desire should be different.

He says, oh, you thought you had freedom when you were unsaved.

You thought you had freedom when you were living in rebellion.

Well, you did have freedom.

You had freedom to not sin and go back to sin, or, excuse me, freedom to not go to righteousness and go to sin.

He said all you had was you were going back to sin, you were free from righteousness, and the only fruit that you had from that, as it says there, brings forth death.

But now, he says the change is now.

But now being made free from sin.

So before you were free from righteousness, you were free.

Say it this way, you were free of righteousness in your life.

There was no righteousness in our life before we came to Christ.

Then he says more here.

He says, but now that you are in God's righteousness, you are made free from sin.

So he's contrasting these two things, these two situations.

In our life before we came to Christ, we were free of righteousness and only in sin.

Now he says you should be free from sin and living in righteousness, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God.

Before he says you were servants of sin, now you are servants to God.

What type of fruit does that bring?

Well, he says in verse 22, Ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

He says this, you know what the fruit is now of living in Christ.

You get to live a life of sanctification.

You get to live a life of spiritual growth.

You get to live a life now where you can serve the one true creator.

And ultimately that's culminated in everlasting life, eternal life with him in his presence, forever and ever and ever.

He says, before all the fruit you had was sin, brokenness and death coming to Christ.

The fruit is now life of blessing.

You get to live a life of fulfillment.

You get to live a life of satisfaction and sustenance in the Lord.

And ultimately it's culminated with an everlasting life with him.

And then he capstones all of this with this amazing verse.

I believe there's many verses that we can summarize the gospel in, but I. I don't know very many that are better than Romans 6, 23.

I think you can lead someone to Christ through this verse.

Some of you have maybe heard of the Romans Road.

This is the, this is the place.

This is where we need to take people.

It says here, for the wages of sin is death.

Every person must come to the understanding that sin will bring death.

The payment of sin is death.

All of us know what it means to, to earn a wage.

Some of us have worked for a long time and you go into your job, you do what you do, and what happens is that you come and then at the end of a week or two weeks or a month, however you're paid, you get a, hopefully a fair wage, what you have earned.

And the Bible says that all we can ever earn in our own strength, all we can ever earn in our own righteousness, in our good works, in our love, as it says here, is death.

We know that the book of Isaiah teaches that even our good works, our best works, are like filthy rags before God's perfection.

And so the biggest thing that we have to take away with this verse at the beginning is this.

All of us are sinners.

All of us are sinners.

You go back a little bit, you say, well, I don't know about that.

I'm a pretty good person.

Romans, chapter 3, verse 23.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We all have to come to a place of realization, humility, recognition that we have fallen short of the glory of God.

If you feel like you can reach the glory of God, you're never going, going to come to a place of faith and humility.

Why?

Because why would I need God if I can reach it myself?

Why do I need God?

The world's teaching today is a very humanistic viewpoint of that you are your own God.

Worship yourself.

Have pride in what you are about.

Have pride in your identity.

Folks, I.

So I don't want my identity because my identity outside of Christ is a failure.

My identity outside of Christ falls so short.

And so the world's teaching is worship yourself.

You can earn it.

You can be glorified.

You can lift yourself up on an idol and expect everyone else to do the same.

The Bible says the complete opposite.

You, you cannot reach that peak.

You cannot be good, you cannot be holy.

You cannot save yourself.

And therefore we must agree that that sin has brought me to a place of humility and desperate need of a Savior.

Sometimes we forget about that desperate need that we had.

We think that maybe you know what, God loved me and maybe I deserved his love.

The Bible says no, we are bought with a price.

Jesus came and gave his life up for those who were broken.

Jesus came and gave his life for those who would sin against him.

We know that through Romans 5e.

But God commended or demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

All of us, male or female, young or old, must come to an understanding that I did not deserve the grace of God.

I do not deserve his love.

I do not deserve his salvation.

I deserve pain, suffering, death.

That's.

That's hard for us to say, but that's in that brokenness, in that humility, and in that submission is where we can come to God and say, I need you.

I'm in desperate need of your grace.

And if I just read the first passage there, the first part of verse 23, to people in the world, I say, guys, for the wages of sin is death.

See you guys later.

It's over.

Have a great day.

That's a message of hopelessness, really.

All of us are sinners.

All of us deserve death.

But there's more.

And anytime we see this idea of transition, we see that, hey, yes, from this perspective, I am a sinner.

From this perspective, I do deserve punishment.

I do deserve death.

I do deserve hell.

But the gift of God.

But the grace of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Meaning faith in Jesus.

A belief that only Jesus in his perfect work can save us is the path, is the direction that we can find eternal life.

John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

Romans 5:8.

God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That's the gift.

The gift of grace.

Ephesians chapter two.

Most of you, probably at some point in your life, have heard Ephesians 2, 8, 9 quoted.

Maybe you've even memorized it.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works.

Lest any man should boast, the Bible says that salvation is nothing that you do.

Salvation is only trusting and receiving the gift of grace that is extended to us in love.

Used this analogy before.

I think it was like three or four weeks ago.

I said, if we.

If we.

If we did this.

This is hypothetical, by the way.

If we had gift cards all out in the lobby as you guys headed out.

We had $100 Visa gift cards just as you went out.

That gift is extended to everybody here today.

But if someone is walking out the door and they go, you know what?

I don't need that $100.

You know, who are you to tell me?

I need your $100.

I'm good.

I've got enough money in my life.

They could walk out and reject that gift of grace that Middletown Baptist Church is extending.

That's the idea of God's gift of grace.

He's extending that gift of grace to all.

The Bible says that as that gift of grace is extended, there are those that can believe.

And as John chapter 1, verse 12 says, Believe and receive as many as has received him.

Right?

But then at the same time, there are those who can stiff arm the gospel, those that can reject the gospel, that can say, I don't need that in my life.

Now, I'm not downplaying the power and the role of the Holy Spirit's work in salvation, but what I am saying is the Bible says over and over again that the gift of God, the gift of grace, the gift of salvation.

So here this morning, it's not a matter of you being a good person.

It's not a matter of you coming to church.

It's not a matter of you doing all the right things.

It's a matter of receiving the gift of grace of God and saying, that is what's going to save me.

And so there, there is this analogy that I, if I, I'm not a, a good artist, so I didn't draw it up and put it up on the screen today.

But if you can picture with your mind's eye two cliffs, let's say the gr.

How many of you have been to the Grand Canyon?

You've been to the Grand Canyon.

There's two different sites.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but I've seen pictures.

And there's two different sides of the Grand Canyon.

You have this side that drops off.

You have this side that drops off.

On this side is all of humanity.

And, and basically this side of, of, of the cliff here, we're trying to earn our own way.

And, and, and I run and I try to jump off that cliff and I go 20ft.

This guy runs and jumps 30ft.

This one runs and jumps two feet, right?

All of us are going to fall to our demise because none of us can reach across that divide in our good works.

And then on the other side is perfection.

The other side is holiness.

The other side is heaven.

The other side is eternal life.

And everybody in this world is trying to get there and trying to get there and trying to build their own bridge and trying to find a way to fly across, but none of it's working.

And the Bible says that ultimately, and it's pictured in this verse, the gift of the cross, the gift of Jesus Christ is placed right there in the middle and we can walk right across in faith in him and belief in Him.

To know that I did not earn this, but it's because of Jesus Christ.

And when we have that understanding, when we know that it's not something that we have earned, we live our lives differently.

We live our lives in many ways less entitled than we think we should be.

Because the idea would be this.

I can do what I want to do if I'm focused on myself, but if I'm focused on what Jesus Christ has done for me, and, and I realize that I'm bought with a price, that I'm.

That I'm purchased by him, that he is the One who offered me something that I didn't deserve.

Hey, I'm not going to live for myself anymore.

I'm going to be a lot more inclined to die to my flesh and yield to the Spirit because I realize that the Spirit is what saved me.

This is the, the dwelling indwelling of the Spirit.

Romans 8 talks about this.

We can't be saved without the indwelling of the Spirit.

Therefore, the indwelling of the Spirit is what marks me and seals me to the day of redemption.

And so therefore, when I have the Holy Spirit living in my life, I must yield to the Spirit.

I. I must die to my flesh.

And the Bible says over and over again that this, this, this path, this process is called sanctification, spiritual growth.

And there are a lot of Christians who are living lives that are focused on what feels good.

Focus on the flesh, focus on culture, focus on the Almighty dollar, focused on whatever, anything outside of the Lord.

And what happens is that Christians that live, submitted to another Master will live, as Romans chapter 6 said, as instruments of unrighteousness.

And that's why he reminds us at the end of Romans 6.

Go back to the idea of your salvation.

Go back to the understanding of who you were before you came to Christ is the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So this isn't just a passage of scripture that we point people to to get saved.

It's also a passage of scripture that we point Christians back to, to understand how we can live lives as Christians who are yielding to the Spirit and being used by God.

We're going to get to Romans chapter 8 where it talks about no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

But ultimately, what we have to understand, that as believers we can live A.

A way of the flesh, we can live a way of waste, we can live a way of our selfishness, or we can live the way of the truth, the way of the spirit, the way of righteousness.

Folks, I'm not saying here this morning that you can be perfect, at least in your own works, but you could be seen as one who is no longer a servant of unrighteousness, but a servant of righteousness because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This is something called imputed righteousness.

A lot of people reject the concept of imputed righteousness.

They basically teach this, that God has just changed us and we become good people on our own.

Folks, you cannot be good on your own even after you're saved.

It's not part of our flesh.

And if we're living in our flesh, if we're living in our desires, ultimately, hopefully our desire should change to be more like Christ.

But that's when we yield to the Spirit.

And so if you can take anything with you here today, it's not about being a list follower in the Christian faith.

Even though lists are fine, lists are good.

But if I just think like, okay, if I do this, this, and this, why, why am I not growing?

Because it might be a thing that you are doing in the flesh.

Well, I'm serving in the church, but I don't find any fulfillment in that.

Well, why are you not finding fulfillment?

Well, because no one ever notices what I'm doing or people speak against me.

Now, this is not.

Let me clarify.

This is not an excuse for us to not honor people that are serving the Lord.

This is not an excuse for us to speak evil against people.

But what I'm saying is that if my worth and my substance is found in how other people praise me, maybe I'm not serving in the spirit, but I'm serving in the flesh.

Well, I read my Bible every day.

But you know what?

I got so much other things I could do, and I just read the Bible and I get nothing out of it.

There's a possibility that we could be reading the Bible in the flesh, trying to find man's wisdom, trying to find our plan here.

Like we've got our own device plan and we say, God, fit this Bible into my plan.

It's the other way around.

My plan dies.

Lord, this is the new plan.

How does your, your word dictate to my life what my new plan is?

Some people say, you know, I just pray and I just feel like it hits the ceiling and comes back down.

I'm just the Bible says that there's a right way to pray and there's a wrong way to pray.

The Bible actually says that we can pray selfishly in the flesh, just wanting things and just wanting things.

The Bible says to pray properly.

Good example of that is read the book of Matthew and see Jesus is what we would call the model prayer.

The example prayer looking other passages of scripture to pray for the will of God in our lives.

That's praying in the power of the Spirit.

So what I'm saying here today is that we can do everything that seems to be church related, religion related, even we would call Christian related, but we could do things in the flesh.

And at the end of the day, that flesh brings back no benefit to us.

But when we die to the flesh and say, lord, you guide me.

It's your plan, it's your way.

Folks, I'm going to tell you, in my life I have exercised this.

And it is a scary thing when, when we are so used to guiding and directing our own life.

It's a scary thing to say, lord, you take control because he's going to lead you to places that you say, I don't think I could do that.

I, I can't go there.

I can't say that.

I can't stop that.

You know what people would say about me?

I could lose my job.

I, I, I could lose this.

I could have people that don't like me anymore.

Folks, I'm going to tell you that the scariness of yielding to the Spirit is, is a real thing.

But the blessing and the peace and the joy found in that through that process is even greater than anything that we can fear on this side or the other side of, of that decision that we make.

And so what I'm gonna tell you here this morning is this, think about this for, for just a few moments.

Where in my life have I yielded to the Spirit?

Said Lord, you take control.

And where am I harboring certain aspects of my life still on, on my will and my flesh and my desires.

For some of you, it might just be taking a step of, of, of faith.

For some of you, it might be taking a, a step of service.

For some of you, it might just be taking a step up saying, you know what?

I need to start getting into the spiritual disciplines, I. E. Reading my Bible, praying and going to church.

For some of you it might be I need to take a step in my marriage.

I need to lead my home properly.

For some of you it might be I need to get some things right with other people.

I don't know where the Spirit will lead you and guide you.

But what I will say is this.

If we fight against the Spirit, it's never going to be resolved.

It's never going to be given, as we would say in the.

In the power of God.

It's always going to be in the power of man.

And so here today, think about what aspect of your life that you are, what maybe some of us could say is hiding from God.

God, you can have this, this, and this, but you can't have this.

Can I just say by way of testimony.

So there's been times in my life where I've said, God, you can have all of this, but don't touch this.

I need to have control.

I need to feel like I have something in this.

But I'm going to tell you, even though it is a daunting process to just say, lord, you take everything.

My fan, my.

My family, my finances, my faith, my fears.

Well, you.

You take it.

I don't know how it's going to end.

I don't know how this is going to look.

I don't know if everything's going to align with what I think it should be.

But.

But at the end of the day, your way is the right way.

So I'm going to trust.

For some of you in this room, or maybe some that are watching by way of video, it's the first step of faith.

The Holy Spirit does something called conviction pricks your heart.

It's hard to explain, but ultimately it's pulling us to a place where we know something needs to change.

For some of us, the first step of understanding God is understanding that conviction and saying, I must come to a place in my life where I put my faith and trust in Him.

You can't do all this other stuff that we're talking about in yielding to the flesh or yielding to the spirit and understanding those two things.

Unless you come in the first step of faith and trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior.

I think we've made it very clear this morning, none of us can save ourselves.

You say, well, what does that mean?

Just means that you have to trust in God.

That's.

It's the word faith.

I can't sit out here and outline everything in your life that as a Christian, it will make sense.

Folks, sometimes the Christian life doesn't make sense.

Going to tell you when.

When God moved us here, it didn't make sense.

As a pastor, there's many things in my life that I can't make heads or tails of, but I know that God has me in it.

So I'm going to say here this morning, if there's someone that's fighting the conviction of the spirit, if there's someone saying, I know I cannot save myself, but I'm just so scared to trust in God, let me tell you here this morning, give it up to him.

Say, lord, I trust you.

That's, that's why we need faith.

The Bible says In Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, it's impossible, not just improbable, impossible to please God without faith.

Faith is relinquishing my control, my power, my agenda, saying, lord, it's yours.

Someone here might need that today.

Someone here might say, I need to give it over to God.

I need to trust in him for salvation.

I know how it is.

I was there one day.

I was at a Christian camp.

I was 15 years old and 364 days.

It was a day before my 16th birthday, and there was a guy up there preaching about the Gospel.

And you know what my thoughts were?

I knew I needed to get saved.

But my fear was, what are people going to say about it when I come forward?

People are going to say, I thought you were a Christian.

I thought you were a chaplain in the sophomore class.

I. I thought that you were a team captain on the sports team.

I thought you went to church.

I thought your parents are Christian.

You know, all those things ran through my mind.

I was so scared, I almost didn't move because I was like, you know what?

Maybe it's just not worth it.

Maybe I'll just keep it to myself.

But there was a point in my, my, my time that night that I said, you know what?

I'm just going to go for it.

I don't care what anyone says.

I don't care.

Trust in Jesus Christ.

And you know what happened?

The very first person, the very first person that counseled me, you know what they said?

Don't say this, by the way, if someone comes forward, I thought you were saved.

I thought you were a Christian.

They said it.

They said, my worst fear, you know, I was like, oh, no.

They said it.

But you know what?

Nothing happened.

Because the ultimate thing was this.

I, I'm not, I'm not concerned about what that person's saying.

Concerned about where my eternal destination is.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

There are people that said things.

How could you grow up in a church and not be saved?

Don't say those things.

Celebrate.

Be excited.

When someone who seemingly was A Christian who seemingly was a church member is.

If they come forward, we celebrate that.

Don't.

Don't allow those fears of other people's opinions get in the way of your eternal destination.

And that could even go for someone who is saved, but yet at the same time dealing with a struggle in his or her life, that they need to get right with God and they need help for it.

There's some people here today that knows how you know how to put on a good face, but you need help.

I know that because I've been there.

I need help.

I'm scared.

I don't know what to do.

I'm confused.

I don't know who to go turn to.

And at the end of the day, you know what?

Sometimes we can bottle that all up.

And that can lead us to a place of dissatisfaction, discouragement, doubt.

But we need to be able to trust God enough to say, lord, I'm going to go to someone.

I'm going to ask someone for help.

I'm going to ultimately ask you for help.

And if a person is at the right place in their spiritual walk, it's an exciting moment to bring someone back into the fellowship with God.

And so here this morning, we're gonna.

We're gonna come to a time of invitation.

And what I would like you to do is I want you to pray specifically ask the Lord to reveal to you what areas of your life you have submitted to God.

If you've submitted God to God in everything, praise God.

Ask him to give you strength to commit.

Commit to that, to allow his faithfulness to supersede your faithfulness, because your faithfulness will fail.

But some of us today, there's no shame in recognizing that I have stumbled.

I'm not giving this over to God.

I'm not giving this doubt over to God.

I'm not giving this situation over to God.

I'm not giving my.

My fear and my concern over to God.

I'm just trusting in myself.

And that's a fleshly endeavor.

Hey, today, just.

Just admit to Him.

Don't admit to me.

Admit to him that, Lord, I need you.

I'm done fighting this battle on my own.

I'm going to fight this battle with you on my side.

And actually you carrying me, you lifting me up, that's.

That's when the Lord is able to do his work.

Now, he's able to do his work anytime.

But when we fight against Him a lot of times, what we see in the book of Romans is he says, okay, if you want your own path, you Take that path.

But in submission to him, he comes alongside and says, okay, let me take care of this for you.

Example of that would be sometimes with my kids, I bring home homework.

My son has a history project.

I taught history in high school for high school students and he was in like second or third grade.

He says, dad, there's some questions here about history.

And I'm like, oh yeah, that's a no, that's not what it says.

So.

Well, son, is that's the right answer?

No, no, dad, I know what I'm doing now.

And he's sitting over there, he's like str.

Struggling and stressing.

I was like, son, when are you going to let me come in and just let, let me help you with what I know, okay?

I don't want it, I don't want it.

I want your help.

I got it all figured out myself and I saw that as a picture of how we are.

Sometimes God's sitting there like, I've got all the answers right here and I know I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it.

And at the end of the day we have to say, okay, I trust, I believe, I have faith that you know better than me.

I'm going to give it over to you.

So here this morning there's an opportunity for you to respond, whether you're a believer this morning that just needs to be realigned with the power and the guidance of the Word and the power and the guidance of the spirit.

Or maybe there's people here today that have not believed in Jesus Christ, not in his existence, but in the belief that he alone can save and that he alone will change and that he alone will give victory.

We're going to have some folks up here this morning that can show you in the word of God, I can show you in the word of God what it means to come back to him, what it means to come to him, what it means to have a broken, contrite spirit.

Some of you already know what that means, but maybe there's a hesitancy to make that move of getting things right today.

Hey, you know, today's not the only day that you can get it right.

But let me tell you, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

This weekend I attended two funerals.

One of a 96 year old woman and one of a 5254 year old man.

One lived a long life of bountiful time with her family.

Other got cut short.

We would all say that's a young age.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Doesn't matter if you're in perfect health.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

So why not move today to get things right with God?

Your eternal destination.

My eternal destination is at stake here today.

Your.

Your joy.

Your.

Your eternal joy is at stake today.

So find that here this morning.

Find it in a relationship with the Lord.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.

I thank you the power of the Spirit.

Thank you for the move of the Spirit.

We love you.

Pray that you work in this time of invitation.

Jesus name Amen.

As as the music plays, you can stand every head bowed, every eye closed.

If you're able to in this time, you can just respond to the word of God here this morning.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at.

Josh Massaro, middletownbaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.