Futile Sin Management Without the Cross

December 29, 2013 · Acts

Series · Acts · Week 18 of 120

Scripture referenced 14 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Acts 18:1-6 Paul leaving Athens, meeting Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth, working as tentmakers, preaching in the synagogue, shaking dust from his clothes

1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”

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Acts 18:7-11

Paul going to the home of Titius Justus, Crispus the synagogue leader believing, the Lord speaking to Paul in a vision telling him not to be afraid

7 He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

9 The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;

10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

11 He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

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Acts 18:12-17

Gallio refusing to judge the case against Paul, the crowd beating Sosthenes in the courtroom

12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

13 saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;

15 but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”

16 So he drove them from the judgment seat.

17 Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.

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Acts 18:18-23

Paul sailing from Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, stopping at Ephesus, returning to Antioch and then revisiting Galatia and Phrygia

18 Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.

19 He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

20 When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;

21 but taking his leave of them, he said, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.

23 Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

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Acts 18:24-28

Apollos arriving in Ephesus, knowing only John's baptism, Priscilla and Aquila explaining the way of God more accurately, Apollos going to Achaia and debating that Jesus was the Messiah

24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

27 When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;

28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

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1 Corinthians 1:1

Paul identifying Sosthenes as a brother in his letter to the Corinthians, connecting him to the man beaten in the courtroom at Corinth

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

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Luke 3:1-18

John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance, calling the crowd a brood of vipers, declaring one mightier was coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire

1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

2 in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

3 He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

5 Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth.

6 All flesh will see God’s salvation.’”

7 He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8 Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones!

9 Even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.”

10 The multitudes asked him, “What then must we do?”

11 He answered them, “He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.”

12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what must we do?”

13 He said to them, “Collect no more than that which is appointed to you.”

14 Soldiers also asked him, saying, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages.”

15 As the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ,

16 John answered them all, “I indeed baptize you with water, but he comes who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire,

17 whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

18 Then with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people,

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Luke 11

Jesus describing the evil spirit that leaves a person, finds none rest, returns with seven worse spirits, leaving the person worse off than before

1 When he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

2 He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

5 He said to them, “Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’

7 and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’?

8 I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

9 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he?

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

14 He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

16 Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.

20 But if I by God’s finger cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come to you.

21 “When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

22 But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder.

23 “He that is not with me is against me. He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.

24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’

25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”

28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

29 When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.

31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.

32 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.

33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.

34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.

35 Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.

36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.”

37 Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table.

38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

39 The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

40 You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?

41 But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.

44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”

46 He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build…

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Matthew 12

Parallel account of the evil spirit leaving and returning with seven others, cited alongside the Luke 11 passage

1 At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;

4 how he entered into God’s house, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

5 Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?

6 But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

9 He departed there, and went into their synagogue.

10 And behold there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” that they might accuse him.

11 He said to them, “What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won’t he grab on to it, and lift it out?

12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.”

13 Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.

14 But the Pharisees went out, and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.

15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

16 and commanded them that they should not make him known:

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations.

19 He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

20 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.

21 In his name, the nations will hope.”

22 Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.

23 All the multitudes were amazed, and said, “Can this be the son of David?”

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

27 If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you.

29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.

30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters.

31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.

33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.

34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.

36 I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

42 The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.

43 When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn’t find it.

44 Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

45 Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”

46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.

47 One said to him, “Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you.”

48 But he answered him who spoke to him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

49 He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers!

50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

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Jude

referenced briefly regarding snatching people from the fire by our good works

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Romans 6

the heresy of sinning so grace may abound more, answered by Paul with Megan Noito, may it never be

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.

18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

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

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Romans 12:1

Paul saying to present your bodies as a living sacrifice

1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

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Luke 11:27-28

woman blessing Jesus' mother from the crowd, Jesus replying that blessed are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice

27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”

28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

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1 Corinthians 10:13

God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, distinguished from the misquoted version

13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

This message from Acts 18 used the story of Apollos, a gifted and accurate preacher who nonetheless knew only John's baptism, to ask a pointed question: what is repentance without the cross of Christ? Pastor Ray worked through the full chapter before landing on that question, and the answer shaped everything that followed. The sermon was, in his own words, a message about sin, and why human effort at managing it always falls short.

What was said

Pastor Ray moved through the first twenty-three verses of Acts 18 at a deliberate pace, treating them as a long introduction to the four verses he actually came to preach. He traced Paul's second missionary journey from Corinth through Ephesus and back to Antioch, noting along the way the things that confirmed Luke's careful historicity: the expulsion of Jews under Claudius, the Roman official Gallio refusing to adjudicate a religious dispute, and the conversion of Sosthenes, who shows up by name in Paul's later letter to the Corinthians.

When Paul finally sails on from Ephesus, Luke shifts the camera to Apollos. He is described as eloquent, scripturally grounded, enthusiastic, and accurate in what he taught about Jesus. The one problem is tucked into a single clause: he knew only John's baptism. Pastor Ray paused on that and let it sit.

He read from Luke 3 to show what John's baptism actually was. It was a baptism of repentance, calling people to acknowledge their sin, turn toward God, and bear visible fruit in how they treated others. John's message was harsh enough that he called the crowds coming to him a brood of vipers. None of that content was wrong. All of it pointed toward the Messiah. But it stopped short of the cross.

That gap is the center of the sermon. Repentance without the cross, Pastor Ray argued, is just sin management, human effort trying to clean up the house. He used Jesus' own words about the unclean spirit that leaves a person, finds the house swept and tidy, and then returns with seven worse spirits. The Schofield heading over that passage, which he read aloud, calls it "the worthlessness of self reformation." Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps may produce a cleaner-looking life for a time, but it has no power to hold.

Priscilla and Aquila, who had been shaped by Paul's ministry, heard Apollos preaching boldly in the synagogue and invited him to dinner. They explained the way of God more accurately, filling in what he was missing: the redemptive price Jesus paid and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that John had pointed toward but could not himself give. Apollos received it, sailed to Achaia, and immediately began refuting opponents in public debate, demonstrating from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. The correction made him more effective, not less.

Pastor Ray was candid that this message woke him up in the middle of the week and would not let him go. He does not believe in sinless perfectionism and said so plainly, calling it heresy. What he does believe is that Christians are progressively sanctified as they bend their will to God's. The heart, he said, will always offer reasons to stay in sin a little longer, but God's grace is not a cover for continued indulgence. He quoted Paul's emphatic "God forbid" in response to the idea that sinning more would only magnify grace.

He closed by reading a prayer by the French writer Michel Quoist, written in the voice of someone who has fallen again and is lying face down in shame before God. The father's response in the prayer is gentle and direct: stop relying on yourself, ask pardon, and get up. Staying on the ground is the worst of it, not the falling.

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Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

Pastor John described Apollos as someone who preached about Jesus with accuracy and enthusiasm, yet his understanding was incomplete because he knew only John's baptism. Have you ever been in a place where you were sincere and even biblically grounded, but later realized something essential was missing from your understanding of the faith?
Pastor John drew a distinction between John's baptism, which called people to repentance and right living, and the cross of Christ, which provides the power to actually walk that out. In your own experience, where have you seen the difference between trying to manage sin on your own and leaning on what Christ has actually done?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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0:00 Speaker 1Hi. Watching. I have had a great Christmas and I'm glad to kinda dip have a diversion, a little slight detour off of acts for a while, but we did come back to it. I was trying to decide this week. Should we go back?

0:14 Should we not? And I think that we're plotting a course and I'm excited about what we've been studying and so we're going back to it and as I was considering Acts 18, how far to go? You know, we're doing this in order. I promised I would skip anything. Well, the first part of Acts 18, if you just look at it upon first reading especially, you see geography.

0:35 You just see, okay, then Paul went here and he did this and then so and so went there and he did and he just who he met up with and what but it doesn't have a whole lot of, I don't know, teachable moments exactly but the end of it really stood out to me and so that's what I had planned on preaching on. The 24 through 28 in particular where we're going but I do feel like we're going to go through it. So, Acts 18, we'll start in the first verse and we're going to go through it at a rather good clip. I'm not going to go back and repeat anything that I say for the first portion. So, take this as introduction.

1:12 Prolagon, the first 23 verses are all introduction to the four verses that I'm going to preach on. But Acts 18, that's a lot of work. One through six says, then Paul left Athens. If you think about it a few weeks ago when we were in chapter 17, I was talking about Paul speaking before the Epicureans and the stoics and he was presenting a message and he used pagan prophets and he used other things. It was a secret friendly message but it was centered on Christ.

1:40 So, that was in Athens. So, eighteen picks up telling us just where he was and where he's going. Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There, he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, that's a man, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived in Italy from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. By the way, Doctor Larkin's book, the one I've told y'all I'm using his book is kind of an outline for this.

2:03 He did, he named his daughter Priscilla after this like and I think that's great. There are also some people that think Priscilla might have written the book of Hebrews, but that's just a little extra for you there. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome. That is verifiable fact. No doubt about it.

2:26 Suetonius outside of biblical sources, Suetonius mentions that the Jews were expelled by this Claudius Caesar and especially the Jews who had been incited by Crespass that spelled Christ wrong but they said, so it was Christians basically that had been expelled from Rome during this persecution by Claudius Caesar. All Jews left from Rome. Another way of verifying Luke's historicity. Paul lived and worked with them for they were tent makers. Actually, the word is leather workers just as he was.

3:00 Now, Paul was a Pharisee, right? Hanging around the temple before way back when he was hanging around the temple and he was a leather worker. That's a pretty good gig. If you're telling people, you gotta slaughter these animals and bring em in. Oh and by the way, I'll give you a price on that temple.

3:16 He's a leather worker, tent maker. And he hit it off with Aquila and Priscilla because they were Christians and other workers. Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike. And after Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, remember Paul had left ahead of them. After Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul spent all of his time preaching the word.

3:44 So he had been a tent maker at the beginning there. He had been applying his trade and making money that way but after Silas and Timothy came, apparently, they brought a love gift with them and when they came down and Paul spent his time preaching the word. All of his time it says. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. That was his message everywhere that he went.

4:07 He started in the synagogues. Jesus is the Messiah and he would go about trying to prove that from the Old Testament. But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, your blood is upon your own heads. I am innocent from now on. I will go preach to the Gentiles.

4:24 Have you all noticed that Paul's a fiery guy? Occasionally, he'll just have some rash movement and just say something but he's quoting from Ezekiel there that once you have been exposed to the truth, God's word. Once you've been exposed to his Messiah, once you've been exposed to it, your blood is on your own heads. I'm innocent from now on. I'll go preach to the Gentiles and then he left and he went to the home of Titius Justice, a Gentile.

4:53 You can tell that from his name if they hadn't told us. He's a Gentile who worshiped God and lived next door to the synagogue. That's pretty strategic for Paul. Christmas, the leader of the synagogue, and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. Amen.

5:11 That's fantastic. So, the head guy at the synagogue, Christmas, becomes a believer with through Paul's ministry. Many others in part also heard Paul became believers and were baptized. One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, don't be afraid, speak out, don't be silent, for I am with you and no one will attack and harm you for many people in this city belong to me. So, Paul stayed there for the next year and a half.

5:39 Now, he had been stoned. He had beaten. He had had all these things in his first missionary journey. He had struggles and had to leave town already a couple places from his second missionary journey. Christ's words in red here are, don't be afraid, speak out, don't be silent, for I'm with you and no one will attack and harm you.

5:57 For many people in this city. So, he's telling, in this city, you're protected right here. Don't have to worry about that. So, he stayed there for a year and a half teaching the word of God. But when Galileo became governor of Achaia, some Jews rose up there.

6:12 Now Achaia is kind of a territory of prominent state, whatever the current is. He is in current at the time. Galileo became governor of Achaia, some Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the governor for judgment. They accused Paul of persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to our law. Our law.

6:36 But justice Paul started to make his defense. Galileo turned to Paul's accusers and said, listen, you Jews. If this were a case involving some wrongdoing, misdemeanor, or a serious crime of felony, I would have a reason to accept your case. But since it's merely a question of words and names and your Jewish law, take care of it yourself. I refuse to judge such matters.

7:01 Now, I've told you before that Luke's purpose for the book of Luke and Luke's purpose for the book of Acts. He's writing Theophilus and he's telling him the way. Jesus is the way. He's telling him that Christ lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, was raised, and that is the good news for all who we believe in. That's the gospel.

7:25 That's the good news and that's what it's about. He also had another motive. He's writing to Theophilus, a Roman guy and he was showing him during a time of governmental persecution that Christianity is innocent before the state. Actually, this really promotes the idea of a separation of church and state. The the state has no business in the affairs of the church.

7:51 So and that actually that's one of one of the ways that the pop trauma, the Roman peace came about is because they did that. They did not interfere in religious affairs. If it had been a misdemeanor or a felony, I would accept the case. But since it's merely a question of words and names, who might be the Messiah? Who cares?

8:12 It's what's he's saying. For Galileo, it didn't matter. And he threw them out of the courtroom. Verse 17, the crowd, literally everyone, then grabs Sostanes, the leader of the synagogue. So Christmas is no longer the leader of the synagogue because he's a Christian.

8:27 So Sostanes, they grab him and they beat him right there in the courtroom. And we're not told exactly why they beat Sostanes because Gallio released the case. But I'll tell you what they did. Gallio paid no attention. He was saying separation, church, stay.

8:45 This is why they beat him. First Corinthians one one says, this letter is from Paul. Now, this is to the Corinthians. This happened in Corinth. Right?

8:54 The the section that I read just previously. Now, this is Paul's letter later back to the Corinthians. This letter is from Paul. Chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and for our brother, Sosthenes. So now, Crispus and his whole household are Christians and believers and Sosthenes is beaten up because right there in the courtroom, he becomes convinced or at some point, he did but he is now a believer.

9:21 So Acts eighteen eighteen eighteen says, Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that. Then said goodbye to the brothers and went to nearby Centria. There, he shaved his head according to the Jewish custom marking the end of a vow. I bet several people mentioned that I shaved my face this morning. Did it mark the end of a vow?

9:41 No. Then he set sail for Siri, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. He hit it off with them and he had the same trade with them and he saw it as being advantageous and they didn't have their home that they had had in Rome. So he invited them to come along. He sets up for Syria, taken for solemn and quill the litter.

10:01 They stopped first at the Port Of Ephesus where Paul left the others behind. While he was there, he went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews. That's his normal matter, of course. Right? The first thing that he does when he comes into a new town is he goes to the Jews.

10:16 If you might argue from a few things before when he dusted off his clothes and he said, now, from now on, I'm going to the Gentiles. He said that in Corinth and he did that in Corinth but when he went to the new place, the place where a rabbi has start, good old Pharisee Paul converted Paul, not Saul. He starts with the place he knows the best and he knows the people. He knows their way the best. So while he was there, he went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews.

10:42 They asked him to stay longer but he declined. I love how Luke puts that in because he will go back later. As he left, however, he said, I will come back later. MacArthur, kind of quote, I shall return. I will come back later, God willing.

10:57 Then he set sail from Ephesus. The next stop was at the Port Of Caesarea. From there, he went up and visited the church presumably for a feast of some one of the seven Jewish feasts at Jerusalem and then went back to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul went back to Galatia and Phreesia visiting and strengthening all the believers. If you look at Paul's missionary journeys, now we've covered the whole first one.

11:22 We showed map after map after map about the first journey. And then the second one, we started it off and there's a real good easy place to say the second missionary journey started. That's where Paul and Barnabas split. Y'all know that. It's real easy to say where the third one ended.

11:38 That's obvious from the text. There's no doubt about it. It's easy to say. But we some people argue over whether two or three or whatever. The second, third, the end of the second, beginning of the third is right there.

11:48 Now Luke is gonna go from here into a parenthesis. It has nothing to do with Paul, but this is Paul's going. He went back to Antioch. That's where he had started his first trip and that's where he got back to and then after spending some time there, he went to Galatians three again. That's his third one.

12:07 So, this is what it looked like. This is the map. So starting in Antioch, he went the overland route while Mark and Barnabas sailed to Cyprus. Then he went from around Tarsus, Derby, Lystra, Iconium visiting all those churches in Antioch where Pisidian Antioch and he went and remember he tried to go to Ephesus to Asia. He was seeking to go to Asia but he was prohibited by the Holy Spirit.

12:32 Blocked on my other map. I put a blockade right there. God's spirit stopped him from going into Asia. And then it said, he would have gone up into Bethenia and Pontus but God put another blockade right there and he funneled the shoes for y'all cowboys. They funneled the shoe down to where he had one choice and he found himself at Trois right there on the the seashore.

12:56 And from there, he had the Macedonian call, and he went across past San Andres to Minneapolis, Philippi, and we see the first three believers in Philippi, Lydia, the seller of purple. We see the demon possessed slave girl and the Philippian jailer. On down to Thessalonica, Berea, and then sailed on to Athens. And then today, we started at Corinth, Centra, and then over to Ephesus, and then sailed all the way back to Caesarea, up to Jerusalem, and back to Antioch. That's Paul's second missionary journey.

13:32 I know that's fast. I said, I wouldn't repeat anything. 1,500 miles. On foot or in a boat. He's driven by God's gospel.

13:43 He's driven by it. It's it's taken him over and he's he's done this 1,500 mile. Now, it took him a couple of years. Maybe maybe three years to do this whole route. This is a complete change of channel.

13:56 Calvin Coolidge. Calvin Coolidge of Vermonter. I I was reminded this morning by somebody as they're leaving. Calvin Coolidge was known as a man of few words as president of The United States, and he did not say much. He didn't have a whole lot of press conferences.

14:14 He just didn't say much. And he said the reason why he didn't say much is this, I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm. And asked again, he said basically the same thing. I have never been hurt by what I have not said. So he just didn't say much.

14:33 In fact, he spoke in a little pithy sayings and would not explain them. Wouldn't go any further than that. He just said little quotes and they're great by the way. If you have brand quote or wiki quote or whatever, you can look up lots of Calvin Coolidge's quotes. There's one where his wife had tweaked her back in some way, was not able to go to church on one Sunday morning, but he went.

14:56 And when he went, he got home and she said, well, Calvin, what was the message about? And I don't know if the guy was a, I don't know what kind of preacher he was. It was in the roaring twenties. So, he may well have been an evangelistic Southern Baptist preacher for all I know. He's a Vermonter.

15:12 He was in Washington at the time and said, he said, what was the message about Calvin? And he said, That's what the message was about. I said Southern Baptist because I grew up Southern Baptist and that's what almost all the messages were about when I was little. And I've heard this quote there. This is where I heard the quote multiple times.

15:35 And she said, well, Calvin, you know, confounded Calvin.

15:39 Speaker 2Tell me more. What did the what

15:40 Speaker 1was the message about about sin? And he said, he's again. Apparently, the pastor was against him. The Vermonter said he would never get set again. I think he's making fun of the Southern Baptist minister because this is the this is the way that it's quoted everywhere that it's quoted.

15:58 So, the message today, I generally, almost always, my message because of where we've been coming from is a message of grace and this one is too. It depends on how you look at it. Love and grace, forgiveness, full and free but today, I want to talk about sin. I'm against it. Don't ever want be accused of being soft on it or not following through, not not seeing people in error and and not trying to correct them.

16:31 Just say, no, go and be well. Grace, God's grace can cover that and and not ever say anything more about it. Not ever point out what sin is. Sin is missing the mark. I think we all know that.

16:42 There have been a lot of fiery preachers in the past that have gone to great lengths to do a hellfire and brimstone sermon and I tried this week. I tried. I promise I did. I actually read sinners in the hands of an angry God and if you haven't read it lately, you owe it to yourself. Be it.

16:58 It's on the internet about 1,500 times. Sinners in the hands of an angry God by Jonathan Edwards is a fantastic display. Your foot shall slip in time. The wages of sin is death. There is no one that is without sin.

17:12 If we say that we're without sin, we are liars. He said, flat out. That's what the Bible said. The message today might not even look like to you that it's about sin. But this week, the things that coincided in life after Christmas this week, just everything was pointing towards this.

17:33 Meanwhile, so this is eighteen twenty four twenty six. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria. Alexandria was the third it it was in the top three. Depends on who you ask as to whether it was the second or third largest city. And the empire in the known world at the time from Alexandria.

17:59 It was known for its university status. It was a very elevated Athens, Greece, and Alexandria were the two learning centers of the day. And Alexandria was known particularly for its expounding of the Old Testament and the Torah. And a Jew named Apollos tells us that he's a Jew flat out. An eloquent speaker, there was no doubt Luke mentions it right off the front and you'll see later on that it's confirmed multiple times.

18:25 Who knew the scriptures well at the time that would have been the Old Testament, primarily Torah but also the books of the prophets too. He had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria and Egypt. Now, he was not there at the same time as Paul or if he was, it does not mention that. Paul had already sailed on. This doesn't have anything to do with Paul at this point.

18:46 He had been taught the way of the Lord. The word there is for Jehovah, Yahweh and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. He talked about. Jesus. That's very important.

19:00 He talked about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only John's baptism and this might be subtle and you might just read past this and and not come up with a message about sin and how horrible it is out of this But if we pay attention of that sentence, you have to. He knew only about John's baptism. So only the baptism of John, where does that leave you? If you only know about the baptism of John, where does it leave you?

19:36 Luke three and I'll read that. I'm reading from the New King James although New Living is what's on the screen up there. New King James is what I have. In the first couple verses of chapter three, Luke goes into the history, you know, historical accuracy that Luke is famous for. Now, the fifteenth year, the reign of Tiberius Caesar, blah blah blah.

19:55 He goes on. While Anas and Caiaphas were high priest, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, and the wilderness. This is John the Baptist and he went into all the region around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the mission of sin. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, now this is Luke quoting John quoting Isaiah. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

20:26 Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him. Now, he's got a message that's pretty harsh. It's about repentance.

20:43 He's preaching sin. You are sinful. You're sinful in your ways. You're sinful in the things you do. You're sinful in things you don't do.

20:51 He's preaching about sin. There's no doubt about it but people were coming to be baptized by him. The baptism of John and he says,

20:58 Speaker 2to the ones who are coming,

21:00 Speaker 1he says, brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to yourself,

21:09 Speaker 2we have Abraham as our father.

21:10 Speaker 1For I say to you that God's able to raise up from these stones, children for Abraham and even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So, the people asked him saying, what shall we do then? And he answered them and said, let him who has two tunics, let him give to one who has none. Who has food?

21:33 Let him do likewise. Then, tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said, collect no more than what's appointed to you. There's a great Calvin Phillips quote in there too but I'll let it pass. He said to tax more than is necessary.

21:48 I won't let it pass.

21:50 Speaker 2To tax more

21:50 Speaker 1than is necessary is is legalized law. Didn't say much, but what he did was reported. So the tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what should we do? Collect no more than is what is appointed to you. Likewise, the soldiers asked him saying, and what shall we do?

22:08 Do not intimidate anyone to accuse falsely and be content with your wages. Now, as the people were in expect in expectation and all reason in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier than I is coming whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff, he will burn with unquenchable fire.

22:41 There's a reason why hellfire and brimstone preachers preach hellfire and brimstone. There is such a thing as hell. It is hard, but it is true. It should not be ignored. I love to speak about the grace of God.

22:55 I love it. I love to speak about the love of God. I love to speak about his truth. There are four standing stone or five standing stones at the seminary where I went. One of them is prayer and faith.

23:05 Amen. That's great. I love to speak on prayer and faith. The next one is evangelical unity. You heard me talk about evangelical unity?

23:11 Denominations kind of blur when you're centered on the cross? Yeah. Absolutely. Evangelical unity. Love it.

23:18 Authority of scripture. Oh my goodness. I can hardly wait to talk about the Bible. Absolutely. Great.

23:23 And I always forget one. It'll come to me. World evangelization. Oh, like that one's not obvious. Every single week, you hear about world evangelization.

23:33 Those are four of em. There's one of em you don't hear me mention very much. This is what this is about today. Victorious Christian living. It's the positive spin on eschewing sin and getting away from a sinful lifestyle and adopting a god centered Christian lifestyle.

23:50 Victorious Christian living is some of the professors at the seminary love that part of it so much that they won't sing the third verse of come thou found of every blessing. I have a professor who will his way through prone to wander. Lord, I feel it because he trust in God that he is not prone to wander anymore. He wants to just stick with it but in my experience, we are prone to wonder. This is a message not only for non Christians, not only non Christians but for Christians too.

24:19 We are prone to one. So, only the baptism of John. Luke three characterizes John's baptism as one of repentance from sin. That's what it's about. It's also about a turning toward God in agreement with him about your own sin which is a repentance and your selfishness and it also has to do with intentional good works towards others.

24:42 There is nothing in the baptism of John that is not in Torah in the Old Testament. John's baptism is calling people back to the word of God. He's calling back to a relationship with God where they know that they are sinful and they must look towards him for his mercy, for his guidance, for his Messiah. He's pointing people towards Messiah. Sin, Apollos is a gimmick.

25:09 He's against it. He must have been a heck of a preacher because people were coming and they were saying how eloquent he was. I'm gonna mention a guy here, Billy Sunday. Some of y'all remember Billy Sunday. Some of you don't.

25:23 Some of you heard of him. Some of you might not have. Billy Sunday was one of those fire and brimstone evangelical preachers that would often be very demonstrative and he would preach a very, very, very harsh sermon about hell where you could feel the flames licking your toes. He had anxious seats along the front row and would stare people down, would call them out and point to them. Spurgeon would point to him and name their sin.

25:51 Yeah, that's scary. I won't do that in specific this morning. I might do it generally but I'm not going to do it specifically. Billy Sunday was one of those guys who could do that. He could he could make you feel the urgency of the message that you need a savior because you are in peril of dying.

26:09 Jude says, that by our good works, we might snatch people from the fire. It's a real thing and it matters. People are in peril without the cross of Christ. Billy Sunday also said this, they had reporters and different people who are speaking to him, church growth people probably too and they said, Billy, you can't do that.

26:32 Speaker 2Yeah. John the Baptist message was, brood of vipers. These are the people who were coming to him.

26:37 Speaker 1Billy Sunday was telling him hell, hell, fire, brimstone, bad, this, all of this but he was doing it for a reason. He was leading them to the cross but he said when they said, you can't do that, Billy. You're stroking the cat's fur the wrong way. And he said, well, the cat is headed towards hell. And if that cat would turn around, I would be stroking this fur the right way.

26:59 And he would purr. Okay. Back to the text. Meanwhile, the junior apollos oh, we've already done that. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, now this is after the however, he only knew John's baptism, and he must have been an impressive preacher.

27:15 But when Priscilla and Aquila, Christians, who had been around Paul were expelled from their city but because of their faith, when they heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside. Actually, the the text actually Greek looks more like they invited him to dinner. They had him over to the house. They had him over and explained the way of God even more accurately. What's cool about this is he was speaking with great accuracy.

27:44 He was speaking with accuracy when he was preaching repentance. When he's preaching John's baptism to prepare the way of the Lord and he knew about Jesus but what he knew about Jesus was not what he needed to know about Jesus and so they brought him into their home and explained the way of God even more accurately. Can you imagine? Why would they need to take him aside? For one, his understanding was incomplete.

28:13 He preached powerfully about the need for repentance from Torah but it lacked the redemptive price that was paid by Jesus. That was the key thing. It's the only thing. It's the key thing that he was missing and it lacked the Holy Spirit's power. When John said, I baptize you with water but he will come and he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

28:32 That is the key element that he was missing. So, in short, John's baptism was about preparing the way for the Lord and Apollos knew that well and preached it well. But what is the baptism of Jonah without the cross of Christ? That's the question of the morning. I have I woke up this week on Thursday evening late.

29:01 I went to bed and I slept for about two hours and then I woke up and I could not stop thinking about this. Now, I have been reading the passage and I knew this. Actually, the first sermon I ever heard preached at this church is Scott Hickman preaching on this passage. Just these four few verses and he was preaching on it from the perspective of Priscilla and Aquila being so gracious to him that they call him out in public. They took him aside and they taught him more accurately and that he was willing to change and that's a beautiful thing.

29:28 When somebody comes to you and says, brother, I think you could get it better by doing this. That's a beautiful thing. That's not what this is about. What woke me up was about sin. Victorious Christian living is one way of looking at it.

29:46 But without the cross of Christ, the baptism of John is just a futile effort. It's human effort on sin management. That's all that it is. And as Bob has ponded, I was talking about our volition. We cannot make a righteous choice without the cross of Christ that has secured for us an imputed righteousness.

30:06 We cannot make a righteous choice without bending our will to the divine will. Jesus, while he was here, had the chance to walk a life and be tempted in all the ways that we're tempted. Yet, he was without sin. He did that perfectly. So, that thought for him or had for him the right to be able to give his life as a ransom for many.

30:31 Futile sin management is repentance without the cross. So, I'm going to read you what I was awakened by the other night. In the economy of God, there are no accidents. What God does, he does with and for a reason. We can act outside of his will for our lives and we do that when we reject him.

30:58 When we reject and do not listen to the Holy Spirit in our lives as Christians, when we deny the prompting and quench the spirit as he's active if we're not Christians. God sent his son to die. Christmas is great. Easter is the reason for Christmas. Would he have done that if there were any human way to conquer sin?

31:20 No. Jesus' prayer in the garden said, lord, it it be possible. Father, take this cup from me. But it was not possible any other way. Your will be done, Jesus said, and it was on the cross of Calvary.

31:36 He walked in complete victory, was without sin. In one way that does prove that it can't be done because he emptied himself of his divine attributes by coming and being found in his name. It proves his complete reliance on God and his complete reliance on the Holy Spirit to walk in his daily life. He proved that it could be done but it goes deeper than that. He proved that it could be done and then he paid the debt for everyone else's sin that would accept it.

32:03 The strongest language that's used in the New Testament is by Paul at least is Megan Noito. Megan Noito is this emphatic statement about may it never be. God forbid, this way it's translated sometimes. That is his answer to a heresy that was getting started about sinning so that the grace of God may abound more. Since God's grace is shown in that we are sinners and he accepts us anyway, then why don't we just sin all the more so that he his grace will be amplified even more.

32:39 That's a convenient heresy. Mega Neutto. May it never be. God forbid. Sin management, victorious Christian living.

32:52 This is a gracious God saying I love you and these things will destroy you. His whole purpose for Torah is so that people could live a blessed life. It was to point them to the fact that they were not gonna do it perfectly and that they needed a savior. Sin will turn. God says to us, sin will turn you against me.

33:15 If you choose to sin, you are choosing to suffer, not my punishment, your own actions are causing your suffering. You'll become more and more enslaved to sin and less and less interested in me. Sin will come between you and me. I will not move. I am.

33:31 I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're you, child of God, deserve better than your earthly destruction. Surrender your will to God's will. If he has plans to prosper us and he does, why would we work against those plans by continuing to walk in sin? Paul says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

33:51 Bring it all to it. God takes everything that you bring, all the past sin, and he makes all those ingredients into the perfect way that your life can go forward from this. I realize myself, Ray. I realize that I have the capacity for failure at every turn. As a Christian, I don't believe in sinless perfectionism.

34:13 I don't think that that's I think that's heresy actually. I don't think that we'll get there. I think we are progressively sanctified on this side as we bend our will to his. I also realize not only do I have the the capacity for failure at every turn, I have the capacity for great victory at every turn too. The heart is deceitfully wicked in all of its ways.

34:38 It will tell you how you can justify your sin. It will tell you how you can stay in it longer. But you can't listen to that. You need to stay on the bedrock of God's truth which Apollos knew well. Jesus is real on sin management.

34:56 Nothing right. That's just what woke me up the other night. Jesus is real on sin management is even more apparent and it's scriptural. So, we can camp out on it for a minute. Jesus' rip on skin management isn't from Luke 11.

35:23 It's also in Matthew 12, but when an evil spirit leaves a person, that is acknowledging that we do have an enemy and he does have minions and there is a spiritual realm that we don't always understand but when an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert searching for rest but when it finds none, it says, I will return to the person I came from. Have you ever had that experience? Or you had something? You felt like it was under control? So it returns and it finds that its former home is all swept in an order.

35:53 Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all enter the person and live there and so that person is worse off than before. Actually, like the Matthew version too and this is from the old Schofield Bible that sits on my desk. It's a Schofield reference Bible, KJB, of Christ in Red, Old School Bible. And I love that the heading right there says it's the worthlessness of self reformation. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps only, that that doesn't work.

36:23 Over time, it doesn't work. It's good advice sometimes, but trusting in the savior works much better. The worthlessness of self reformation. When the unclean spirit is going out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he say it, I will return into my house from whence I came out.

36:42 And when he is coming, findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. You can put a lot of trappings on this. Mhmm. You can make it look good when you've gotten away from whatever your particular sin is, but then go with you and take it with himself, seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there in the last state of man is worse than the first. Even so, shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

37:09 It's immediately following that. I used this quote last week. This is that place where the woman yelled out of the crowd and

37:15 Speaker 2said, God bless your mother. The womb from which you came and the breast

37:18 Speaker 1that nursed you and Jesus replied, but even more blessed are all of those who hear the word of God and put it into practice and I said last week, partisan. All of those who are hearing the word of God in its entirety. Old Testament too, New Testament, John the Baptist, Apollos, all of who are hearing the word of God and they're putting it into practice. Keeping it. The keeping it is the very very important portion.

37:44 Jesus securing for us salvation and securing I mean, proving it can be done. There are lots of folks that are here it is. That was a closer. This is rough. Keeping it.

38:09 So keeping it is the hard part. Now, the fact that Christ has died and he has paid the price, he has broken the power of cancelled sin to him and says, it is constantly about our will being bowed to the divine will. Our will, our trusting and obeying, our yielding ourselves to what he wants from us. When I said that I have the capacity at every turn to failure, I also have the capacity towards victory. He will not leave me alone.

38:41 There is a there is a rough rough translation. It's not even a good, it's not even, doesn't even bear being called a translation. There is an aphorism in Christian circles nowadays that goes around that says, God will not put anymore on me than I can bear and that is not true. At least in earthly circles, that's not true. God will not put anymore on me than I can bear.

39:07 What the verse says is that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond that which we are able to walk away from. Is that is that the same thing? No. Our circumstances in themselves sometimes might put us in a place where we don't get out of it. Martyrs are martyrs.

39:26 They died for their faith. They might get driven from their homes for their faith. Might have been tempted to say,

39:32 Speaker 2no, I'm not a Christian. Pass on by. No biggie. I'll just stay here because I'm comfortable.

39:37 Speaker 1They might be tempted when they're going to be burned at the stake to say, no, no, no, no, no. I don't believe that anymore. No. He wants for us to tell the truth. He wants for us to present him in a light that he is worth dying for.

39:51 So keeping it. The just will walk by faith that has not changed. Put your faith in Christ knowing that he has secured it and then walking in that. Prone to wander, lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

40:08 Here's my heart. Oh, take in. Seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. I'm bowing my will to yours constantly.

40:16 Let's go back to Apollo. So, Paul has been thinking about going to Ikea which is kind of cool. Ikea is where Corinth is. That's where Paul just came from, right? Paul had presented.

40:24 There were many believers but he shook the dust off for the Jews there and now Apollos who is doctor of Old Testament law and freshly converted Christian because he just had this pointed out that he needs to know the cross of Christ not just John repentance. Apostle had been thinking about going to Ichaea and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Ichaea asking him to welcome him and when he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who by God's grace had believed. He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments and public debate and apparently didn't get tired of doing it. He stepped around for a while and using the scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah.

41:04 Now, Akul and Priscilla had just explained that to him and he could see it because he knew the whole and everything pointed that direction. But that's the way God used him when he bowed his will to him. I'm gonna close with a prayer. And this this arrested me this week too. And I want for you, if you don't mind, if you'll just close your eyes and listen to it.

41:28 It is a prayer by a French cleric named Michael Koist, it is his prayer and it is about sin. It's also includes the father's response. Thank you very much. We're gonna sing only trust him after. This is the prayer.

41:49 I have fallen, Lord, once more, and I can't go on. I'll never succeed. I'm ashamed. I don't dare look at you. And yet, I struggle, Lord, for I knew you were right near me, bending over me, watching, but temptation blew like a hurricane.

42:10 And instead of looking at you, I turned my head away. I stepped aside while you stood, silent and sorrowful, like the spurned fiance who sees his loved one carried away by the enemy. When the wind died down and suddenly as it had arisen, when the lightning ceased after proudly streaking the darkness, all of a sudden, found myself alone, ashamed, disgusted with my sin in my hands. This sin that I selected, the way a customer makes his purchase, the sin that I've paid for and cannot return for the storekeeper is no longer there. This tasteless sin, this odorless sin, this sin that sickens me, that I have what wanted but want no more, that I have imagined, that I have sought, played with, fumbled for a long time, that I have finally embraced while turning coldly away from you.

43:05 My arms outstretched. My eyes and heart irresistibly drawn. The sin that I have grasped and consumed with gluttony. It's my own mouth, but it possesses me as the spider web holds captive the gnat. It is mine.

43:21 It sticks to me. It flows in my veins. It fills my heart. It has slipped in everywhere as darkness slips into the forest at dusk and fills all the patches of light. I can't get rid of it.

43:36 I run from it the way one tries to lose a stray dog, but it catches up with me and bounce joyfully against my leg. Everyone must notice it. I'm so ashamed that I feel like crawling to avoid being seen. I'm ashamed of being seen by my friends. I'm ashamed of being seen by you, lord.

43:54 For you love me and I forgot you. I forgot you because I was thinking of myself and one can't think of several persons at once. One must choose and I chose. And your voice and your look and your love hurt me. They weighed me down more than my sin.

44:11 Lord, don't look at me like that. I'm naked. I'm dirty. I'm down, shattered, and with no strength left. I dare make no more promises.

44:19 I can only lie about before you. And the father's response. Come child, look up. Isn't it mainly just your vanity that's been wounded? Do you think there's a limit to my love?

44:33 Do you think that for a moment I stopped loving you, but you still rely on yourself? You must rely only on me. Capital M. That's Jesus. Ask my pardon and get up quickly.

44:47 It isn't falling in the mud that is the worst. Amen. But staying on the ground. Amen. Would you stand with us as we sing?

44:57 Only trust him. It's him number four eighty and Scott, if you would come forward. If if you feel this this has been about standing to me, when you preach a message about sin, you need to give people a chance. So, I might just step down right here. I promise I'll turn the microphone off.

45:12 If you would like to come down and pray at the altar, that's fine too or if you'd like to just catch up at some point during the week, this week, I'd love for you to do that. We're going to sing Only Trust Him. Pay attention to the words as you sing them and just let God feel that in your life. Rising up.

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Incomplete Faith Overcoming Sin Repentance Sin Management Victorious Christian Living

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