Be Sanctified and Empowered to Conquer Sin in Your Life.

Thank you for joining today as we seek God’s wisdom together. Let us begin with prayer.

“Lord Jesus, I ask that you search our hearts and see if there be anything wicked in them. We ask that your Holy Spirit show us what you are saying to us today. I ask that the words on this page would jump out to us as you speak to our hearts and minds truth and life. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Romans 6: 15-23

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! 16Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. 21Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What the Word is Saying

The Apostle Paul is continuing his argument from the first 14 verse of the chapter. The point he is making is that it does no good to simply be set free by the grace of God if you do not take action with that freedom. When you were in bondage to sin, you had no other master you could serve. You were free from righteousness because sin had its grip on you. However, since you are no free from the bondage of sin you are now under a new Lord, the Lord Jesus and you therefore must begin the process of sanctification.

Sanctification is a difficult road. I think what makes it difficult is that we love to sin. Look at any toddler they could have the toy that is there’s or take the toy that belongs to someone else. Invariably they will take the toy that does not belong to them. Is there any difference between the two? Even if they are not exactly the same toy, do they really illicit more or less enjoyment. It is the bent of man to delight in doing wrong. It is a trait we inherited from Adam and Eve. So, part of the process of sanctification is confronting the enjoyment we get out of sinning. The second part is to see what our sin does to others and to God.

Returning to the toddler the one whose toy has been taken by another is invariably upset and crying over the injustice of the occurrence. So, it is the same when we sin. There is always a consequence of our sin. Whether immediate or in the future the choices we make have an effect. IF the rich man takes advantage of the poor and compensates him unjustly the result is the person and those who depend on him do without what they need or have earned. In the same way there is another that is harmed in our decision to engage in sin and that is God.

God’s presence in us is a blessing and the sins we commit in the past, present, and future are covered by the work Jesus did at the cross. However, this does not mean the action does not have consequence. Usually, the first consequence is the loss of contact with the Holy Spirit. I am a former construction worker and due to not wearing ear plugs when I should have, I have hearing loss. A consequence no doubt but I bring it up to give you an idea what happens when we sin in relation to the Holy Spirit. If my fan is turned off, I can hear most things that occur in my house. However, the minute a fan is turned on it drowns out the noise in the background. It makes it hard to hear and understand what is being said. Frankly, I usually don’t know anything had been said. But if I do hear; I am constantly having them repeat it so I can understand what is being said. It is the same with our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The sin in our lives drowns out the voice of the Holy Spirit. It puts Him in the periphery so that the sin is all we hear. It is not that the Holy Spirit has stopped talking, rather it is we are hearing and obeying the voice of sin in us. Thanks be to God the process of sanctification and repentance in us we can once again drown out the call to sin and once again listen to our Lord and do what He commands.

Maybe you do not yet have a relationship with Jesus and therefore are still chained and in bondage to sin. Perhaps you have given ground to the sin in you and have drowned out the voice of the Holy Spirit in you. Thanks be to God there is a way to change that. Pray this prayer with me now. Right where you are; say these words out loud: “Jesus, I confess that you are Lord of all, I believe that you came to earth and lived a sinless life, I believe that you suffered and died on a cross for my sins, I believe that they placed your lifeless body in a tomb, and three days later you rose from the dead. I confess to you that I am a sinner and I ask you to forgive me. I ask that you send me your Holy Spirit to fill me with power to overcome sin and to lead me into all truth in Jesus Name, Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, I urge you to contact us here so that we might come beside you and hold you up in prayer as you begin your journey with Jesus. I assure you that we have all been where you are. We may have committed different sins, but we are just as guilty, nonetheless. We all needed forgiveness and someone else supported us as we began our Journey with Him.

Thank you for joining me today as we searched the scriptures for What the Word is Saying. I pray that God will send His Holy Spirit into our lives anew and fill us again with His love and His purpose for us. So that we can fulfill the mission He left us in bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible) Copyright 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” lockman.org