.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

REIGNING GRACE

(Part 3)

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

       Why do you sin when you don’t want to?  You say you are born again, and the devil is NOT in you.  God forgave you of sins up to now, but you still have, as a Christian, capacity to sin.  Jesus said He had the power to lay His life down, which means He could live a sinless life.  He said He had power to take it up again, which means He had power to do what He wanted to do.  He chose God’s way, and lived a sinless life. 

God wants us to live a sinless life.  You may say, How can I not sin?  People have told me all of my life that I can sin, so therefore I don’t feel bad about it. 

Romans 5:21 tells us, “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. . . .” 

There is power in this grace.  Can you control your thoughts?  Can you control what you look at and listen to?  A Christian needs full control over the mind and body and soul, or he will have little to do for the kingdom.

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” 

Jesus said you have to bind the strong man (see Mark 3:27); you are at war with the devil.  You are a spiritual being in a body, and your DNA signature has nothing to do with your personality.  Your soul has to do with your personality, and devil powers can affect or afflict you through the body or directly at the soul through the mind.  Jesus came to set us at liberty, and that we might have power over all the power of the enemy.  It is not necessary or Biblical for the Christian to sin every day. 

I remember back seven years before I was born again.  I tried to stop cursing, and that is all I was trying to do.  I focused on stopping cursing to see if I could do it.  There was not any day that I did not say at least one or two curse words.  Then I would just say forget it.  I was not a big curser, but that was my language.  It was what was in my soul, in my spirit, and it was as normal to me as breathing.  I’d get angry and curse.  I needed to color things.  In Matthew 5:37 Jesus said, “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”  I had plenty of evil going.  I could not even stop ONE sin.  I tried.

When I got born again something on the inside LEFT.  You cannot go to heaven with the devil.   You cannot go to heaven living a life contrary to the Word of God.  When you got born again, the devil came out, the old nature was crucified, and Christ came in.  You are not what you used to be.  Then God says He wants to give you power to live this life, so He fills you with the Holy Ghost.  When God presents something to you, DO NOT quench the Spirit!  Do not stop God.  If you want more of God, then let God give you more of Himself. 

He gives us power over sin.  He said sin shall not have dominion over you.  If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed (and that is not much bigger than the head of a pin), Jesus said you can move mountains.  God can take away the desire for sin.  You have a certain tolerance for sin.  Get rid of it, and then pray for the righteousness of the church, and God will send revival! 

Don’t mistake God’s grace for his approval.  Overcome sin and glorify God in your life.