FROM A PROPRIETORSHIP TO A PARTNERSHIP

I heard about the little boy who came running into the living room carrying a dead mouse by the tail. His mother was sitting, talking to her pastor, when the boy ran in. The little boy said, "Mama, look at this dead mouse. I beat him in the head with a hammer, then I ran over him with my tricycle, then I stomped on him with both feet; then, I picked him up and threw him against the wall." About that time, the little boy looked up and saw the pastor, then he said, "Then, the good Lord called him home!"

We are saved forever! We are POSITIONALLY saved. We are being PROGRESSIVELY saved. One day, we will be PERFECTLY saved. But, salvation does not negate sin. It is still a present force, because God saves our soul, not our flesh. Adrian Rogers, “If the devil doesn’t bother you, it’s because you’re both going in the same direction.”

Thus, knowing that we are saved forever, and our sins (past, present and future) have been atoned for once and for all, does that give us a license to sin, or does it give us the power not to have to? We must first remember, The REALITY of the BLIGHT of Sin!

Gratefully, we are not alone in our battle with sin, because the apostle Paul fought the same battle. He describes it in Romans 7: 15-17, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. [16] If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. [17] Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”

Then, in sheer agony he decries in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul's words remind us of an infallible truth, we are not SINNERS BECAUSE WE SIN; we SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS! We are not first sinners by choice, but sinners by character. We are not just sinners by name, but by nature. Our sin is not just reflected by our behavior, it is revealed in our birth. We are BORN SINNERS!

Sin takes us back to the beginning, and we learn from Adam's sin that the result was Death of the SPIRIT IMMEDIATELY. When Adam sinned, immediately his spirit lost fellowship with God. God and Adam had walked together; but, once sin entered the picture, God had to come looking for Adam. “Adam, where art thou?”

It wasn’t that God did not know where Adam was, but Adam did not know where Adam was. When he realized what had happened, he immediately took cover. And, may I say that man has been covering up ever since. David describes the effects of sin's cover-up in Psalm 32: 3, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. " In other words,

Sin DIRTIES the soul
Sin DOMINATES the mind
Sin DEPRESSES the heart
Sin DISEASES the body
Sin DEFILES the spirit
Sin DESTROYS the testimony
Sin DISGRACES the Lord

When we sin, immediately fellowship with God is broken. When we sin we can’t:
PRAY RIGHT
READ RIGHT
WITNESS RIGHT
GIVE RIGHT
WORSHIP RIGHT

We can’t be RIGHT, when we are WRONG! Not only was there the death of the spirit immediately, but the Death of the SOUL PROGRESSIVELY. God has had 4 houses in Bible history. Adam: God’s PRIMARY House; Tabernacle: God’s PATTERN House; Jesus: God’s PERFECT House; and NT believer's are God’s PERMANENT House.

God cannot live in a dirty house, so when sin came in, God moved out. When sin entered the garden, the Lord moved out, the light went out, and the life slipped out. When the Lord moved out, there was depravity. When the light went out, there was darkness. When the life slipped out, there was deadness. As a result, we are “dead in trespasses and sin.” We are born sick—SIN SICK! Our soul is dead, defiled, dark, and depraved.

Because of the death of the spirit immediately, and the death of the soul progressively, there was the Death of the BODY ULTIMATELY. Adam did not physically die immediately after his sin. In fact, Adam lived to be 930 years old. However, the moment he sinned, the countdown on the clock of life began. Why?

Ezekiel 18:4 declares, "The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Romans 6:23 states that, “The wages of sin is death.” This body will be sown back to the ground from whence it came because of sin.

But, thanks be to God we need not stop at the reality of the blight of sin, because we also find the AUTHORITY with the BURDEN of Sin! This authority was LEGALLY LOST. The 1st act of God, after creation, was issued in Genesis 1:28. God gave Adam a direct order to "be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and have dominion" over it.

You could say that Adam possessed the 1st American Express card. He was given permission to be “fruitful, multiply, replenish.” He was COMMANDED to have “dominion,” or to rule. However, b/c of sin, Adam forfeited his God-given authority.

Adam could have kicked the serpent out of the garden. He could have cut off the head of the snake. Satan DID NOT steal the throne from Adam, Adam opened the door and invited Satan in. Ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot of people today who say, "We need to take back what the devil stole from us." What a foolish statement!

The devil has not, will not, because he CANNOT steal anything from us. If he could, he would prove more powerful than the One who indwells us. No, he cannot steal it, but we can give it to him. That is exactly what Adam did, and that is exactly what many Christians do; they open the door of their heart and invite the devil to come in and set up camp. As R. G. Lee said , “You can eat the devil’s corn, but you will choke on the cob.”

However, this authority that was legally lost was RIGHTEOUSLY REGAINED. What the 1st Adam threw away, the 2nd Adam took back. We read in Romans 5:19, “For as by one man's (1st Adam) disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (2nd Adam) shall many be made righteous.”

Hallelujah to God, the 2nd Adam CLEANED UP what the 1st Adam MESSED UP. Jesus regained authority over the world, the flesh, the devil, death, hell and sin. When He arrived in Heaven, he showed up with the “keys of hell and death;” then, he handed those keys to the church.

[C. p. Matthew 16:19]
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

It’s time we stop being on the defensive, and start being on the OFFENSIVE! We have been made “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” We have God-given, Jesus-gained, Spirit-governed authority with the burden of sin. Because of that, we have the VICTORY over the BONDAGE of Sin!

During a conference with his demons, Satan was holding a strategy session on how he could impede the progress of the church. The options included convincing the church the Bible wasn’t true, Jesus wasn’t alive, and the end had not been settled. One demon spoke up and said, “None of these will work if Christians ever get a hold of the fact that we have already been defeated. If they ever realize it, exercise it, and utilize it, HELL HELP US, ALL OF HEAVEN WILL BREAK LOOSE!

The victory has already been won. Sadly enough, many Christians are not fighting a losing battle, but a WINNING battle. They are showing up at the wrong fight, because they have failed to utilize victory over the bondage of sin. How do we appropriate this victory over the bondage of sin?

First, we must CONFRONT It. We must understand who we are in Christ. WE DIED WITH JESUS ON THE CROSS. We died to our in sin/old man. Paul wonderfully describes it in Romans 6-11-12, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

We often use Corrective theology, but we should use PREVENTIVE THEOLOGY! By that I mean, WE DON’T HAVE TO SIN! We don’t have to be BOUND to sin. We don’t have to be BURDENED with sin. We don’t have to be BLINDED by sin.

Martin Luther tells how he overcame sin/devil. He said, “When the devil comes knocking on the door and asks, “Who lives here?” I get up to answer it, but Jesus goes to the door instead and says, “Martin Luther used to live here, but he has moved out. I live here now!” Then, the devil sees the nail prints in his hands and takes flight.

We must not only confront it, but we must CONFESS It. We are to take measures against sin, but there are many times when we give up, give out, and give in. We try to confront it, but it overtakes, overwhelms and overpowers us. We feel dirty. We feel despicable. We feel defeated. What do we do? We MUST confess it.

I love 1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Before the work of Christ, whenever sin entered one of God’s houses, God moved out. However, now, when sin enters God’s permanent house of the believer, He doesn’t move out; HE JUST CLEANS HOUSE! Adrian Rogers was right, “You can’t confess to God why you won’t admit to yourself.”

Confession means agreement. We admit it to God, we agree with God, and we affirm to God our guilt and shame. Finally, once we confront it and confess it, we can CONQUER It. I know that may sound like 'heresy' in our fundamental churches today, but sin can be conquered because it HAS ALREADY BEEN conquered! The finished work of Christ conquered death, hell, the grave and sin once and for all.

We must simply learn to appropriate it in our daily lives. A good place to start conquering sin is to SEPARATE Ourselves from the WORLD. Too many Christian try to use fight, when every Christian ought to use FLIGHT!

We are to “come out from among” the world and “be separate.” We are in this world, but we are not OF this world. If there is something that poses a threat of temptation, you MUST GET AWAY FROM IT!

Once we separate ourselves from the world, we must SATURATE Ourselves with the WORD. The Psalmist gives prudent advice in Psalm 119, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word… Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee...Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (119:9, 11, 133)

Christians don’t need Will-power, because we’ve got WORD-Power. We must separate ourselves from the world, saturate ourselves with the Word and then SITUATE Ourselves by the WATER.

Water is a type/picture of the Holy Spirit. We know this because Jesus defined it in John 7: 38-39, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [39] (But this spake he of the Spirit…”

In order to fully identify the picture, we must go back to the temple in Jesus' day at the time of holiday named 'Sukkot,' or the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast took place at the end of the dry season. Israel had 2 seasons, wet and dry. If they didn't get rain in the spring and fall, they didn't eat the next year. So a big part of the Sukkot was asking God for rain the next year. At the climax of the week, the last day of the feast, the crowds thronged the Temple in Jerusalem for the water ceremony. They would chant prayers for God to bring rain for the next year. When it came, a celebration took place.

In the same way, as Christians, we can experience 2 seasons: wet and dry. The dry season is when we attempt to live in our flesh. The wet season is when we are consistently, continuously, constantly and completely filled with the Holy Spirit.

Major Ian Thomas, "Through the Holy Spirit, man can make himself available to God, and God is prepared to make Himself available to man. The Spirit becomes the Agent of a mutual inter-availability. All there is of God is available to every human being who is available to all there is of God."

A tiger met a lion as they sat beside a pool.
Said the tiger to the lion, “Why are you roaring like a fool?”
That’s not foolish,” said the lion, with a twinkle in his eyes.
They call me the King of all beasts because I advertise.

A rabbit heard them talking, ran on like a streak.
He thought he would try the lion’s plan, but his roar was just a squeak.

A fox came to investigate and had his lunch there in the woods.
And, so my friend, when you advertise,
BE SURE YOU’VE GOT THE GOODS!

As believers, WE’VE GOT THE GOODS! We have:

The Word of God
The Truth of God
The Son of God
The Spirit of God
The Promises of God
The Presence of God
The Power of God

The Authority of Christ
The Blood of Christ
The Cross of Christ
The Name of Christ
The Provision of Christ
The Work of Christ

The Availability of the Spirit
The Born Witness of the Spirit
The Control of the Spirit
The Filling of the Spirit
The Fruit of the Spirit
The Indwelling of the Spirit
The Joy of the Spirit

My life once used to a sole proprietorship, but now it is a sweet partnership with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost! Blessed be His name!