Victory In Jesus - Part 1 [50:53m]:
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1 Corinthians 10:1-13 [+/-]1 Corinthians 10:1-13
[10:1]For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers
were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
[2]and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the
sea, [3]and all ate the same spiritual food, [4]and all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the
spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
[5]Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for
they were overthrown in the wilderness.
[6]Now these things took place as examples for us, that
we might not desire evil as they did. [7]Do not be
idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The
people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play."
[8]We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them
did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. [9]We
must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and
were destroyed by serpents, [10]nor grumble, as some of
them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. [11]Now these
things happened to them as an example, but they were
written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the
ages has come. [12]Therefore let anyone who thinks that he
stands take heed lest he fall. [13]No temptation has
overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful,
and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but
with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape,
that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)
Jesus says, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Jesus teaches us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. It is as if in the same breath we are taught to ask that God would not take us into temptation while at the same time acknowledging that it is going to come. Paul puts it this way, all of us who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus are going to be persecuted. And in more than one place this apostle who knew all about trials and tribulations, temptations and testing would speak of them as being used of God as a gift of grace to bring glory to His Name and to build into us the character of Christ. Jesus would experience the glorious presence of the Father in baptism and then immediately be driven by the Spirit of His Father into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Count on it. Mark it as one of the clear characteristics of every child of God: temptations are going to come and tribulations are a part of the course of our lives in this world as the children of God. But know this: the same God who is absolutely sovereign over every situation in your life and my life wants us to know right in the midst of tempting and testing that overwhelming victory that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. Too often you and I read of Paul’s struggles as he portrays them for us in Romans 7 [+/-]Romans 7
[7:1]Or do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to
those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person
only as long as he lives? [2]For a married woman is bound
by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband
dies she is released from the law of marriage.
[3]Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she
lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if
her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she
marries another man she is not an adulteress.
[4]Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law
through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to
another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order
that we may bear fruit for God. [5]For while we were living
in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were
at work in our members to bear fruit for death. [6]But now
we are released from the law, having died to that which
held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
[7]What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no
means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have
known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet
if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." [8]But sin,
seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in
me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin
lies dead. [9]I was once alive apart from the law, but when
the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10]The
very commandment that promised life proved to be death to
me. [11]For sin, seizing an opportunity through the
commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [12]So
the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous
and good.
[13]Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By
no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is
good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and
through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
[14]For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the
flesh, sold under sin. [15]For I do not understand my own
actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very
thing I hate. [16]Now if I do what I do not want, I agree
with the law, that it is good. [17]So now it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [18]For I know
that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I
have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to
carry it out. [19]For I do not do the good I want, but the
evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20]Now if I do
what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells within me.
[21]So I find it to be a law that when I want to do
right, evil lies close at hand. [22]For I delight in the
law of God, in my inner being, [23]but I see in my members
another law waging war against the law of my mind and
making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my
members. [24]Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me
from this body of death? [25]Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God
with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
(ESV)
: doing that which he does not want to do and not doing that which he so much desires to do and we simply don’t read far enough. Listen to the crescendo of his conclusion in this chapter, 7:21-25. So this morning we turn from how sin works and where it leads toward this wonderful and precious victory that is ours through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!
