June 14, 2009
Morning Worship
Text: Romans 8:1-17
Subject: Seven Steps to Receiving God’s Promises
Title: Step #1 - Consecrate Yourself
Last week I began the first message in the series Seven Steps to Receiving God’s Promises. All the steps come from the book of Joshua when Israel was preparing to cross the Jordan River and occupy the Promised Land. I want to share with you today the first step in more detail. The very first step in receiving God’s promise is that you must “Consecrate Yourself.” When a person or thing was consecrated in the OT it was set apart for God’s purpose. Priests were consecrated for work in the temple. Vessels were consecrated for use in temple worship.
As they prepared to go into the Promised Land Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” We understand this consecration to be an act that the people would willingly perform in order to be in right standing with God before they crossed the river. Consecration, however, is more than mere adherence to the Law of God. Consecration takes place in the heart and it makes one ready for whatever God wants to do in your life. The Hebrew word means “to make holy” or “to prepare oneself”. The implication is that you make yourself available to what God wants for your life and not what you want. Can you think of any other explanation of why we ended up in Palmyra, MO? It also means a willingness to do what God specifically has for you and you alone.
I heard earlier in the week about a baseball game that went 18 innings I think. The winning team won on a home run off a relief pitcher. Not unusual right? Except in this case the losing manager had used all his pitchers and had to resort to using his shortstop as a relief pitcher. Shortstops are not set apart on a baseball team for pitching. They are for fielding and hitting. Pitchers are for pitching. In the same way God has set each of you apart for a specific purpose.
Now, in the church God has ordained His people to be the recipients of miracles, signs, and wonders – God’s promises. But in order for us to receive the promises we must first begin by consecrating ourselves and according to Romans 8:1-17 that takes place four ways.
1. Consecrated thorough your relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. Consecrated by living in the Spirit.
3. Consecrated by crucifying the flesh.
4. Consecrated by knowing who you are in Christ.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
I. Consecrated thorough your relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul begins this section of his letter to the church in Rome by saying, 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… I will be using the words “consecrated” and “sanctified” interchangeably as I speak today so keep that in mind. I believe that there are millions of well - intentioned church people who think they are sanctified because of the things they do. They go to church, they teach Sunday School. They put money in the offering. They sing in the choir. They have made a conscious choice to do all these things. But Paul tells us something quite different. Our sanctification does not come by our works. Sanctification comes from being in Christ. 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. In other words, what has been done in the spirit man, by the Spirit of Christ, has now taken precedence over what you have been trying to do by being good enough to please a holy God. When you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior you are now set apart or consecrated to God by the Holy Spirit and not some false sense of security you get by being satisfied with yourself because of your good deeds. That is why Paul makes a distinction between the law of the Spirit of life, which is grace and takes place in the spirit man, and the law of sin and death, which is good works that originate in the soul of a man. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. In Leviticus 20:7-8 the Lord told Moses to tell the Israelites, 7“‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. 8Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy. This is a key point in sanctification. Ephesians 2:8-9, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast. It is the Lord who makes you holy. It is the Lord who sets you apart. It is the Lord who sanctifies you. Sanctification through salvation, then, is an eternal work. It is for eternity, but it is reflected in the present. Ephesians 2:10, For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. What part do we play in our sanctification? We are willing participants who desire to please God and carry out the work of the church that He has set before us. Back to Romans 8:4, And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
II. Consecrated by Living According to the Spirit. Now, with eternity in mind let’s consider how being set apart for the Lord affects us in this life. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. There are three parts to a man – body, soul and spirit. Two of those parts are non-physical – the soul and the spirit. It is out of one of those two areas of your being that moves your physical body to do what it does. If you are operating out of the sinful nature or the “soul man” (remember that the soul is the mind, emotions, and personality – the non-physical area of natural man) then the acts of that sin nature will manifest itself in the body. The acts of the sinful nature are not always reflected as blatant sin in our lives, but they are sin nonetheless, because those acts stem from what we deem as right without consideration for what God deems as right. That is where the Law of Moses failed. It satisfied the natural man, but it never satisfied the righteous requirements of the Law which is perfect adherence. However, if you are living according to the Spirit, your physical body may be doing the same things, but now you are doing them because the Spirit of God is leading you to do them. You aren’t doing them to obtain righteousness, but because you have been made righteous. 2 Peter 1:3-4, 3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. That is one of the aspects of my personal testimony that I like to share. Before I came to Christ I went to church and tried to be good in hope that I could somehow earn my way to heaven, but I never had that assurance. But after I trusted Jesus all doubt about my eternal destiny left me because I had received eternal life through my faith in Jesus. Before it was works oriented. Since then it is grace oriented. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; So consecration involves committing yourself to Christ and then living according to the Spirit. Those who belong to Christ have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them – not because of some ritual that was performed but because of an act of grace you have received. Verse 7, the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that the man without the spirit cannot understand spiritual things because they are spiritually discerned. Likewise, 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
III. Consecrated by Crucifying the Flesh. How do you crucify the flesh? It comes by changing the way you think. Instead of thinking from the natural man perspective, you begin to think from a spiritual mindset. What is God speaking to you? What is the Holy Spirit leading you to? You learn to submit to His will for your life in every circumstance. 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. I want you to understand clearly what Paul is warning against here. If the Spirit of God dwells in you through salvation then the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in your life. It is a conscious decision you make to allow the moving of the Spirit in your life. Charlotte and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago when she was preparing for her WM’s sermonette. You don’t look at the fruit of the Spirit and pick out which one you want or decide which one you need to work on. But if you belong to Christ then each of the fruit that is mentioned (and they are mentioned as one) will build upon the other so that your life will be a reflection of the Spirit inside of you. The fact is that the fruit of the Spirit are already planted in you when you are saved. It is up to you to allow them to be seen in your life. Again, the change is one that has taken place inwardly and is expected to be seen outwardly. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. Crucifying the flesh, then, is not just putting an end to bad things in your life, but it also means that you stop trying to do the things that God has already done. You can’t earn salvation – it is already done. You can’t be good enough to receive healing – By His stripes you are healed. You could never be perfect enough for God to supply all your needs. He has already done that. Crucifying the flesh means accepting by faith the things that God has already provided for you. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 1:4 says that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the same power that is at work in you to resurrect a dead spirit and to give life to an unwavering faith that can receive every promise that has been given you. Jeremiah 29:11-14, 11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the LORD,
IV. Consecrated as an Heir to God’s Promises. I want to quickly go through a few main points that Paul is trying to make. 1) If you are consecrated to God you have an obligation to God. Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The only thing that you can do in response to what God has done for you is to give your life back to Him. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live… 2) If you are consecrated to God you are God’s child. 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The importance of being God’s child is that you have now become heirs to all God’s promises. Healing, miracles, signs and wonders, blessing, financial security… they all belong to those who trust Him and are obedient to His word. 3) If you are consecrated to God you can have confidence instead of fear because God is your Father. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 4) If you are consecrated to God then you are co=-heirs with Christ. That means that everything that the Father has given Jesus is also yours. Ephesians 2:6, And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… So if we are seated with Jesus right now in the heavenlies we have eternal life, we have power, we have authority, and we have every promise that has been given to the church.
I want to close with this thought. We are talking about 7 steps to receiving all God’s promises according to Joshua 3.
1. Consecrate yourself
2. Stand in the river
3. Follow God’s presence
4. Trust God’s word
5. Step out in faith
6. Cross over into the promise
7. Stand firm.
The first step is that you must be saved. You need Jesus in your life. That is the first step of the first step. As I spoke to you today about being set apart for God some of what I spoke of was about salvation. Salvation is for your eternal life. But much of what I spoke of was about your life in Christ right here and right now. God desires that we live lives that are reflective of Hs nature and not our fallen nature. When we are born again we receive the Holy Spirit to bear witness that we are God’s children. But there is something else that God desires for your life. It is the power to live the life that we are called to. It is the mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit that Jesus said would come to those who ask. Acts 1:8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” If salvation is for eternity then the baptism in the Holy Spirit is for this life-right here and right now. It is the power you need to live your life for Jesus. It is the fire you need to burn for Jesus. It is the revelation you need to go deeper in the word of God. It is the illumination you need to understand the word.
Salvation sets you apart from the world. The baptism in the Holy Spirit sets you apart while you are in the world.
If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior – you don’t have the assurance of heaven you need to make that decision today. There may not be a tomorrow.
If you know Jesus and want to go deeper you need to ask Him to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. He will pour out the Spirit into your life today.
God wants to set you apart for eternity and for now by His Holy Spirit.
Will you allow Him to do that today?
