Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 39 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Rom 5:12- 6:13.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 39 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; ROM 5:12- 6:13.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

ROM 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin [this is the nature of us - separated from the sin nature] still live in it?

 

ROM 6:3 Or do you not know [are you ignorant of these truths] that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

ROM 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

In verses 5-10 Paul repeats these great truths.

 

ROM 6:5 For if we have become united with Him [literally - planted together with Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

It is misleading to think that the sinful nature has departed from us or that it remains with us but no longer affects us.

 

The sin nature will be overcome by faith in the reality of who we are in Him and the reality of the power of the Spirit and the Word.

 

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ROM 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

It will take time for the believer's faith to be firmly grounded in all these truths and when it does he will have victory over the sin nature. That's a promise from God and not from me or anyone else.

 

So, we would render the verb - ineffective or powerless.

 

ROM 6:6

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with [rendered ineffective or powerless], that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

Imagine an unarmed soldier before an armed enemy who has him completely cornered. All the soldier can do is raise his hands. That was us before salvation. Now imagine the reverse. The soldier has his rifle pointed at an unarmed enemy. The enemy can only put his hands up. That is us now that we're in union with Christ. But the enemy will tell you that the gun isn't loaded so you better just put it on the ground. He will tell you that your bayonet is only made of paper mache. He will appeal to your pride and say that a real man would fight him hand to hand. But the believer must say to himself in faith that the rifle was given to me by Christ, it is not unloaded but the Spirit empowers it, it is not of paper but divinely wrought, and I will not fight you because you are stronger than me alone, for the battle is the Lord's and I will not put the rifle down. You are my prisoner and not the other way around.

 

This is not psyching yourself out to believe something that is untrue, that's the propaganda of the enemy. This is the reality and it is all appropriated by faith.

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

ROM 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

God frees the believer from the reign of the sin nature and He commands us to walk in sanctification by means of knowing Him and faith in the HS to lead, teach, and empower.

 

1TH 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.

 

1TH 4:2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

 

1TH 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality [porneia = illicit sexual intercourse];

 

Porneia would refer to fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and voyeurism.

 

There are several modern Christian apologists and leaders who believe that pornography is the number one threat to Christians today. It's a silent addiction that slowly destroys relationships and self image. It feeds an entitlement attitude as well as loneliness and depression. It trains the brain to see people as objects to be used rather than creatures of God to be loved. There is help that can be sought out that will help such an addict or a person on their way to addiction to see its actual effects on the brain and the behavior.

 

PRO 5:11

And you [adulterer] groan at your latter end,

When your flesh and your body are consumed;

 

David instructed his son Solomon to avoid the adulteress and we can be sure that Solomon said to same to his sons before his headlong drop into reversionism. Yet this same warning would apply to all sexual sins.

 

GAL 5:24

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

1TH 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

 

1TH 4:5 not in lustful passion [all spiritual adultery], like the Gentiles who do not know God;

 

Herein lies the problem - ignorance of God and the things of God.

 

1TH 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

 

1TH 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity [uncleanness of thought and desire], but in sanctification.

 

1TH 4:8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

 

Rejecting sanctification is rejecting God. It follows that the giver of the Holy Spirit is giving Him to us for the purpose of sanctification. Knowing God and the things of God and faith in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is the key to sanctification.

 

ROM 6:5 For if we have become united with Him [literally - planted together with Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

ROM 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

ROM 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

Please notice that this life is ours by faith. We believe that we shall also live with Him, in time and eternity.

 

ROM 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

 

This is an exposition of the words our Lord said from the cross, "It is finished."

 

Christ is never to die again. This removes any idea of another rebellion in God's universe. We are in the only one. This also denies the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which is the belief that the literal body and blood of Christ are contained in the sacrament of the Eucharist, which by ceremony He dies again in the communion bread. This false doctrine was not taught until 800 years after Christ.

 

ROM 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

 

ROM 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

No matter what our past, when Christ died, our old Adamic nature died. No matter how dark the past of a believer may have been, he is dead to the sinful nature.