“Sin and the Christian” Part One

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 900 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Well, thank the Lord. As always I would be glad if somebody else had something. But I do have some thoughts on my heart. You know when I stood up last week, I said that I had a whole range of thoughts about some things and I was asking the Lord to help order them, and I believe, in some measure, He did and He focused on a part of a truth and I would say, in a sense, this morning is carrying some of that on.

Some of the rest of the thoughts that were on my heart last week have come back to me and particularly because of an e-mail that I received. You know, it’s interesting how many times I’ve had somebody ask a question or raise an issue in an e-mail and it’s just wound up sparking something in my mind dealing with a question and answering it, and it actually fell right into the area of truth I was specially interested in today.

And the issue that was raised with me is simply this one--it boils down to this--he brought in a whole lot of things. You know a Christian could read a scripture like “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (KJV). And so they read that and the carnal mind kicks in. And they say, what happens if I commit a sin and then an accident happens and I die before I have a chance to confess it, what happens then?

Well, that was the question. Now I’m not gonna embarrass anybody by asking whether anybody here has ever had a thought along that line or something related to where you feel like if you fail, everything hangs in the balance. But that’s really what it boils down to and my answer began with a very simple thing.

A question like this would never come up if you understood the Gospel. Because what you’ve done is taken what we do and somehow built it into the foundation as though it all depends on that. If I could be lost or there could be some consequence beyond this life of any sort based upon my own failure in a particular instance, then everything would depend upon me. And I believe that’s--there’s a number of tricks that the Devil plays to confuse issues in people’s minds.

And I would say this kind of a question falls into the category of when somebody comes to the Lord and they have a very tender conscience and they want to please the Lord. And so they’ll read their Bible and they say--and the Scripture will say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (NIV). You know, on and on and on, they’ll be--nothing else particular comes to mind.

But there are so many scriptures that if you just read them and kind of isolate them from the body of Truth and take them to an extreme, the Devil can put all kinds of bondage upon people, and all of a sudden their religion becomes one of rules and all kinds of impossible demands being placed upon them as though, oh my God, I’ve got to do this and here’s another verse. What about this one? And oh there it says in black and white--or red and white in this case--but there it is right there in the scriptures. What are you gonna do with that?

And the Devil just hammers that like it’s a law and like a demand placed upon our natural ability and all of a sudden he causes people to feel like, oh my God, if I fail, I’m going to Hell. And you know, we’ve got to go back to this simple truth about the foundation that we have when we answer a question like that.

I’d like to look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3. I think that’s as good a place as any to start. And what I have in mind is just looking at a number of scriptures that deal with the Christian life and sin. Now that’s a big subject and there’s no way to cover it, but I believe it’s important. I believe Christians need to understand this question of “what do I do about sin?” How does sin affect me? And what’s really at stake in some of these issues, because that’s what the question this guy was wondering. You know, is my soul at stake if I die and I haven’t had a chance to say, Lord, I’m sorry and He’s cleansed me?

You know that’s--if you really stop and stand back and think of the whole body of Truth, a question like that is ridiculous, but it’s not ridiculous if you’re the one in the middle, under the firing gun of Satan, and you’re feeling the guilt of something you’ve done and you’re worried about it and the Devil can just hammer any kind of scripture along that line and turn it into a club to just beat you with. And we need to understand all of these scriptures in balance and understand where we stand, and then we’re on solid ground.

You know, I was thinking about spiritual warfare. I’ll just bring this into play where it talks about your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now, to me, that speaks of something that’s on my feet that helps me to stand in a secure way when I’m facing the Devil. And if I don’t have a sense that I have peace with God based on something apart from my ability, then I don’t have a place to stand.

If there is any part of my salvation, my right to go to heaven one day that depends upon me and my efforts, folks, we might as well quit. We have nothing to preach. You can preach law all you want; nobody can live up to it anyway, we might as well go home, save the electricity. But I’ll tell you, that’s not the way it is and that’s not the Gospel God has given us to preach.

And so, Paul here is talking about a particular issue in chapter 3 that had to do with the believers kind of gravitating to one ministry or another--preferring one over another in thinking that there was some difference. And so he’s trying to dissuade them from that idea and understanding that all of various ministries are simply instruments of God. One does one thing, another does another. The real thing we need to understand is it’s Christ behind it all. And so that’s the real issue.

But I believe there’s an application of this that has to do with us and our lives. It says, verse 10, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” So you see that’s the basis of everything.

Now Paul says, I laid it, but in the real sense, who did the laying of this foundation? God did! He said in the Old Testament, I lay in Zion a foundation, a sure foundation. Those who put their trust will never be put to shame. So the whole point of the Gospel is that we have no way to construct for ourselves a foundation upon which we can stand, as we said last week, but God has done for us what we could not do.

So the question comes down to one thing. What are we standing on? And it’s on that and that alone that hangs the question of heaven and hell. If you’re not standing on Christ, you’re headed for hell, I can tell you. If you’re standing on Christ and you have committed yourself to Him, He has come into your life and you’re His, He’s sealed you by His Spirit, that settles the question of heaven and hell forever.

( congregational amens ).

All these other issues have their place, and they’re important, but they do not impinge upon what the foundation and the foundation alone has taken care of.

( congregational amens ).

That’s the whole basis of the Christian life. If we do not stand upon Christ, we do not stand. And you have a lot of people who are trying to use the Bible as a rule book to get to heaven and it’ll never work.

( congregational amens ).

It’ll never work! But now here’s what Paul goes on to say. “If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire....” See, God’s gonna put our lives to the test in one way or another. “...And the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

“If it is burned up, he will suffer loss....” Now what’s the consequence here? “...He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” So you see, the question is not--all these other issues that have to do with sin in the Christian life do not have to do with questions of heaven and hell, but there are other consequences.

And you’ve got, like I said, you’ve got the Devil who will take people to way over into one extreme where they’re just living as though God is constantly dangling hell over them if they fail.

But, you know, there’s another extreme. You’ve got people who will over-emphasize or emphasize a truth like Jesus paid it all. He’s taken care of the sin question forever and then you couple that with the question that, well there’s no way we can live a perfect life. We do the best we can and we’re always gonna come short.

And so you combine that, and then you kick your natural reasonings into gear and what you come out with is, well, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot. You know, I can’t succeed anyway and Christ has taken care of it, what’s the point of really trying too hard? Yes, I ought to avoid some really gross form of sin and all of that, but other than that, it’s all taken care of. I can just live my life. And so what happens, you’ve got people who privately indulge in all kinds of things and think that’s just okay.

Now you see the two extremes. In both cases you’ve got people who will exalt one aspect of truth in such a way that it just does away with everything else, because the New Testament is full of exhortations to Christians to live for God and to overcome sin. And we’re told plainly that God has given us everything we need to live godly lives in this world and exhorted us to do it.

So, the question is, with respect to sin and the Christian life, what is it that is at stake? If questions of heaven and hell are not at issue, and it does matter, what is it that matters? What is the consequence of sin? You know, I preached a message several years ago on the consequences of sin and I’m not gonna just regurgitate that. But I believe that there are several things where we can understand that sin matter to a Christian. It matters to God how we live!

You know, the first place--if a real Christian--somebody who is a real Christian and they’ve got Christ on the inside and they have a conscience, and they desire to do right, but through weakness, they find that they have done something wrong, how does that make you feel? It makes you feel grieved on the inside.

The perfect illustration of that is Peter. You know, Jesus warned Peter. Peter, you better pray. Satan’s got his guns--Satan’s got a plan that he is getting ready to work out in your life. He’s ready to attack you. You need to pray, because tonight before the cock crows, you’re gonna deny three times that you even know me. Well, presumptuous Peter, who is a lot like us--I heard some amens and I see some nodding heads.

( laughter ).

That’s good. I appreciate an honest crowd.

( laughing ).

We’re like that. We have an unfounded confidence in our own ability. I believe many times, God deliberately allows us to fall in the mud, not because He wants us to fall in the mud, but because it’s necessary so that we learn not to trust in ourselves. But is the consequence of falling in the mud going to hell? No! The consequence is that He wants us to learn. He’s made provision to cleanse us from that, but He wants us to learn and to grow and to realize that we need to apprehend what He’s given to us. We need to take advantage of all the opportunities.

Now Peter had the opportunity to avoid doing what he did, didn’t he? But he didn’t pray. He didn’t believe what Jesus said. He felt like, well, I can handle this. I would never do such a thing and of course, he did. And what happened as soon as he’d done it the third time? Two things: the rooster crowed. Has the rooster crowed for you lately?

( laughter ).

Well, the rooster crowed and Jesus turned and looked. Now I want you to think about how Jesus looked at him. Do you think Jesus was...? ( making sounds of anger ).

You know.

( laughter ).

Was that the kind of gesture and the attitude that Jesus had toward Peter? No. And it’s not the attitude He has toward us either. Paul spoke about the seal of the Spirit in chapter 1 of Ephesians. In chapter 4 of Ephesians, he says this, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (KJV).

Now do you see? Do you see the picture there? You see the balance? How God reacts when we mess up: there’s a grief. I’ll tell you, if you’ve got any heart at all towards God, that will break your heart if you realize you’ve gone right against what He told you. You’ve messed up. And what did Peter do? Did he say, I’m justified. He shouldn’t have put me in that situation. ( making sounds of frustration/disgust ). No! He went out and he wept bitterly.

Any of you’ve ever wept bitterly over your own failures? Did Jesus throw you out? No. You know, we sometimes accuse God of being a far worse parent than we ourselves would be. If you love your child and you want ‘em to grow up to be right and they mess up, they do exactly what you tell ‘em not to do, do you love ‘em?

-- Congregation: Yes.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Are they still your child?

-- Congregation: Yes.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Does it make you happy? No. And I’ll tell you, if you’re a good parent, you’re gonna stand there and you’re gonna do what’s right in a loving controlled way, and just make an absolute stand in your spirit, but let them know that they are loved.

And I’ll tell you, God can use our failures to do more for us sometimes than our successes, if we understand. But what is at stake is our growing up and our pleasing Him and our walking in fellowship. There is a breach of fellowship that happens when we go against what we know to do, and we violate our conscience and by weakness we give in to the wrong things. It brings a breach of fellowship between us and the Lord. We can’t enjoy what He’s given us anymore until we get rid of that thing.

It’s the same way with our relationships one with another. If you’ve gotten out with somebody, and as long as that’s there, as long as that barrier’s there, oh, there’s always a little bit of something’s not quite right when you meet that person and there’s just these feelings that come up, and you’re just--something’s wrong. But what happens? You go to ‘em and you make it right and you do whatever is needed on your part to make peace, what happens? Feel pretty good?

( congregational amens ).

You feel good. Yes. There’s a release in your spirit. God wants us to learn to walk in a spirit of freedom and victory and when we do anything that’s wrong, that’s what’s at stake--that’s one of the things that’s at stake--is our fellowship with God and our fellowship one with another. There is a dirtiness, that’s why He speaks of cleansing.

You know when Jesus was speaking to the disciples on the occasion in which He engaged in foot washing, He taught them that truth. He said, he that is clean doesn’t need anything except to wash his feet. Now you are clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you.

Now what He was basically saying is, I’ve taken care of the big picture. You’re clean because you have believed My promise. That’s the ground upon which I have cleansed you with respect to all the big question of heaven and hell. But in your walk in this world, you’re in contact with a lot of things. You’re still living with a body of sin and death that you’re gonna have to learn how to manage, how to serve me anyway. But under the best of circumstances, they’re gonna be times and you’re gonna get dirty.

That’s where the need is, to get that cleansing, that daily cleansing and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses those kinds of things.

( congregational amens ).

We have a place we can go. If you sin against God in your conscience and you know it, what happens if you just stand back and you hold back and you just nurture that guilt and that sense of how rotten and how bad you are? Does that help you any?

-- Congregation: No.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: No! But do we have to do that? No! We can go immediately to Him. God wants us to so walk with Him with a daily sense of trust. But if the Devil succeeds in painting Him as a severe monarch who’s just ready to cut you off when you mess up or hurl thunderbolts at you, expect something of you that you can’t do, he just paints some picture of a hard God to be held back from in terror.

Oh how easy it is for him to keep Christians in bondage, when they should be coming to Him, Jesus, a faithful High Priest, One who was tempted in every way like we are, understands exactly what it feels like to be a human being, full of our weaknesses. He sits there.

You know I think of a scripture in 1st John chapter 2, I believe it is. Actually this is right after that scripture that started all this, where John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”(NIV).

But now listen to chapter 2 and the perfect balance that he begins this chapter with. He says, “...I write this to you so that you will not sin.” See always there’s an exhortation that Christians should be very scrupulous and desire to please God and not to sin.

( congregational amens ).

The provision has been made that we don’t have to, but at the same time we know that in the process of growing, we do. We come short, just like a child. You don’t expect a child to be able to go out and run around the field like an NFL player. You know--you understand--we understand that a child has to grow, it has to learn. They’re gonna fall down. They’re gonna scrape their knee. They’re gonna have episodes of self-will and all kinds of things you’re gonna have to deal with and bring into control over time.

Well, we’re growing up the same way. When we’re born into the kingdom of God, God has taken us from the slave market of sin. We have been slaves to sin!

( congregational amens ).

Now you may not have lived in the gutter, but I don’t care whether you have lived in the gutter as a sinner or you have lived in a church pew all your life and you’ve never gone out and done some of these gross things, the fact is, as we said last week, we are all the same before God and our need is exactly the same.

( congregational amens ).

So folks, we’re gonna have to come to the place where we understand that we’re gonna have to grow up in Him. But he says this, “I write this to you so that you will not sin.” I’m gonna reiterate something I’ve said in the past because there is some teaching that suggests almost that exhorting Christians not to sin is irrelevant.

And the reasoning is like this. If you’re not saved, there’s no point in my telling you not to sin, because it’s not in you to. That won’t mean anything to you. If you’re already a Christian, God’s changed you’re nature and you’re automatically gonna want to please God. That’s the reasoning behind some of that. But I’ll tell you what, this Book is full of exhortations to Christians!

( congregational amens ).

Now I’m gonna go back and just mention one little thought before I finish in 1st John here. When we talk about the foundation and the house, I want you to notice who does what. Who lays the foundation? God does! The foundation by which we stand before God is something God has done.

( congregational amens ).

We believe in it. We trust in it. That’s all it takes. God is looking for people who come to Him in simple child-like faith and say, I abandon my own efforts to build a foundation here. There’s nothing I can do. So all I can do is simply humble myself and stand upon what You have done for me.

But now who builds the house? We do. God builds the foundation, we build the house. And it’s not automatic that it gets built out of the good stuff. Sometimes we mess up and we build out some bad stuff and it doesn’t stand the test.

Now the thing is, when I say--I want to be careful how I say this. When I say, we build it, I don’t suggest we build it in our own strength. But nonetheless there is a personal responsibility that falls upon every one of us as to how we live for God. It just doesn’t automatically happen. God expects us to take hold of His Word, to believe it, to fight the good fight of faith, to exercise ourselves and to grow up in Him.

And some people do it more than others. You’ve got some people that come the hard way. You’ve got some that are very cooperative. But there is a responsibility upon us as to how we build the house. So what I’m dealing with today, though, is what are the consequences of how we build?

But listen to what he says here, this balance. “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

( congregational amens ).

You talk about having a good lawyer.

( laughter ).

That’s the best.

( congregational amens ).

That’s the only one we need.

( congregational amens ).

So there’s an exhortation, don’t sin, but if you do, there’s always that anchor of the soul, there’s that foundation underneath, underneath are the everlasting arms.

( congregational amens ).

God has said, I’m not gonna lose you. I’m gonna have to work with your heart and you may have to go around this mountain a few more times before I get through your thick head what I’m trying to teach you. At least that what He says to me.

( laughter ).

Now with you it’s a lot different, I know.

( laughter ).

It’s a lot easier, but with me it’s pretty tough sometimes. But you know, we’re all made of the same stuff. But the Lord is a faithful, loving parent and if we will see Him that way, it will make our lives a lot easier. We’ll go to Him a lot quicker when we need to. Praise God! And so Jesus Christ is the One who speaks in our defense. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

( congregational amens ).

So, praise God! That’s a perfect balance, isn’t it? Don’t sin, but if you do, I’ve got somebody there who can speak to God. So we can put forth the effort that we need to, by faith we can learn gradually as we grow up, we can learn God’s ways. But we know that never does God dangle hell over our heads and say, if you mess up, watch out! I’m gonna zap you. It’s just not that way. Praise God! I’m so glad the way He is.

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