That sounded like two of you playing that. Nicely
done. Would you stand please? Let's make sure
everyone senses a warm welcome this morning.
Would you reach around? Some of you will remember
that a few weeks ago I went to my high school
class reunion. Longer ago than I like to think
about, I graduated from high school. And part
of our reunion involved going through the old
high school. We could still make it up the stairs
and into the building. They're doing a lot of
remodeling there. One of the places that's changing
is the gymnasium. In those days, I had the opportunity
to play basketball on that team. So we went into
that gym that is no longer a gym, which is having
a floor being put into the middle of it so that
it will not even be recognized any longer as
a one -time gym. It was almost as though I could
hear the old resounding war cries as we came
down the court. We could hear the crowd singing
the song that cheered us on to sometimes victory.
We are the dragons, the mighty, mighty dragons.
You see, we were the dragons. Now, sometimes
we didn't act much like dragons. On those occasions,
the coach would get us into the locker room and
we'd have a little talk. And among the other
things that he would say, some of which wouldn't
be repeatable in your presence this morning,
I'm sure, he would remind us that we were the
Dragons. We were the basketball team of that
high school in Kansas. And that when we got out
there in the second half, we'd better remember
who we were and begin to play like it. And you
know, that did something to us. Because when
we realized who we were, it made a difference.
It always does. Who are you this morning? You
might answer that by saying, well, I'm a teacher.
I'm a homemaker. I'm an accountant. I'm a farmer.
I'm a student. And on one level that does describe
who we are. It tells at least about what we do
and how we're plugged into society. But I wonder
on a deeper level, who are you? Well, if you're
a child of God, because you have placed your
faith in Jesus Christ, there is a special word
of the New Testament that tells us who we are.
And I invite you to open your Bible to Romans
chapter 1, where the Apostle Paul introduces
himself to these people he had never yet met
face to face. As he writes the letter to them,
he says, Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus,
called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel
of God, which he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the holy scriptures. He goes
on to say this gospel is concerning his son,
who was born of a descendant of David, according
to the flesh. That says something about him,
doesn't it? Jesus Christ was born of the seed
of David, who was declared the Son of God with
power by the resurrection from the dead according
to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,
through whom we have received grace and apostleship
to bring about the obedience of faith among all
the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom
you also are the called of Jesus Christ to all
who are beloved of God in Rome called saints.
There's the word I want you to latch onto today.
We are called saints by God. In answer to that
question, who are you? I would hope that as a
Christian you might eventually be able to say,
I'm a saint. Now it's important to understand
what a saint is. Because there are some today
who believe that saints are a special class of
people who've lived before on the earth and who
through their good lives and their meritorious
acts even after they are dead and supernatural
intervention in the lives of men still living,
they have now been declared to be saints. But
I want you to know the Word of God says that
we are not canonized as saints. We are called
saints. Furthermore, He is talking not about
people who are already in heaven. He's talking
about people who were alive that day in Rome.
He says that they are those who belong to Jesus
Christ. They are those who have come out from
among the Gentiles, that is, the pagans, to belong
in a special sense to Christ. And because of
that, he says, you are saints. You see, a saint
is not someone who has arrived at some heavenly
position. A saint is not someone who lives perfectly
in this world. A saint is very simply someone
who has been set apart for God. That's all. So
we need to get the bad definitions of saint out
of our minds and understand that the New Testament
says that all of us who have trusted Jesus Christ
as Savior and Lord have been set apart by God
from the rest of the world to be His. and therefore
we are called saints. When we understand who
we are, it makes a difference how we live. Dr.
Neil Anderson says, no person can consistently
behave in a way that's inconsistent with the
way he perceives himself. You see, that's why
the coach back in the locker room got on our
case when we had played a bad first half. because
we were perceiving ourselves at that point as
losers. And he knew that we could not play as
winners until we perceived ourselves as winners.
No one can consistently behave in a fashion that
is inconsistent with the way that he perceives
himself. How do you perceive yourself today?
Do you perceive yourself? As a sinner? Even as
a sinner saved by grace? Well, let me tell you
that the best way to perceive yourself as a child
of God is not as a sinner, but what you are in
truth, a saint. One who has been set apart by
God's special action. One who belongs to Jesus
Christ in a wonderful and personal relationship
with Him. We learn about saints in the book of
Romans that saints have a new nature. We're not
the same people we used to be. Over in chapter
6 and verse 6, He says, knowing this, that our
old self was crucified with Christ. What is He
saying there? He is saying that that person that
we used to be, that sinner that we used to be,
was put to death with Jesus Christ in the mind
of God. We were crucified with Christ and executed,
as it were, on the cross of Calvary with Jesus
Christ so that we are no longer who we used to
be. We're new people. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.
All things have become new, says the Apostle.
Saints are those who have a new nature. Dr. Anthony
Hokema says, you are new creatures now. Not totally
new, to be sure, but genuinely new. And we who
are believers see ourselves in this way, no longer
as depraved and helpless slaves of sin, but as
those who have been created anew in Christ Jesus.
Paul says that before our salvation we were by
nature the children of wrath. That is, because
we were sinners, we lived like sinners, and we
were under the judgment of God. But when we trust
Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord, something
happens to us. We are dramatically changed. We
are no longer seen as sinners in the eyes of
God. He sees us now as His saints, those who
belong to Him, no longer cut off and alienated
from the life of God. We now share the very nature
of God. Not that we are deity. Not that we're
eternal like God is. But in 2 Peter chapter 1
it says, we have been made sharers of the divine
nature. God plants within us His very life when
we are born again. How do you see yourself today?
If you're a child of God, if you've trusted Christ
as your Savior, please don't say that you see
yourself as a sinner. even as a sinner saved
by grace. Use the New Testament language which
says that you're a saint in the eyes of God.
You have a new nature. You're a new person. You're
not who you used to be. You have been crucified
with Christ. And yet you live. And yet it's not
the same you. It's a new you. It's Christ living
in you. Saints have a new nature. Saints have
a new choice. In Romans 6 and verse 12 he says,
because these things are true, therefore do not
let sin reign in your mortal body that you should
obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the
members of your body to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness. but present yourselves to God
as those alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness to God. Saints
have a new nature. Saints have a new choice.
Before we trusted Jesus Christ, sin was expected
in our lives. We were sinners by nature. That's
who we were. That was our identity. Sin was inevitable
because we live out who we are on the inside.
When we trust the Lord Jesus Christ, we get a
new nature, a new heart. We're new people. We're
new in our identity before God. We're saints.
And now we have a new choice. Now we can choose
to present ourselves to God. to obey Him, to
live righteously. We can choose to do that. Before
we had no choice. We were sinners. Now we're
saints. God gives us the freedom to choose. He
says, don't go on yielding yourselves to sin.
A saint can choose to do that. A saint can sin.
We still have the capacity to sin because sin
still dwells in our mortal bodies, but we don't
have to listen to it anymore. We don't belong
to sin. We're saints. We belong to God. And now
we can choose to live in obedience to God. That
was not a choice before. Now it's a choice. We
have a new choice. We have a new identity because
we have a new nature. And that new nature allows
us to make a new choice, to give ourselves an
obedience to God. Saints have a new power to
do that. Look over in chapter 8, verse 1. He
says, There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's good
news, folks. Are you a saint who sins? Well,
all of us on earth do. because sin still dwells
in us. Nonetheless, there is no condemnation
to those who are in Christ. No condemnation.
He says, the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and
death. You see, we have a new law that's operating
inside of us. We have a new power. I've used
this illustration before, but I think it gets
to the point so well I want to use it again.
We live in a world that is controlled in part
by the law of gravity. And we depend upon that
law for living. As you run down the soccer field,
you depend upon gravity to keep your feet firmly
planted on the earth. As you sit in that chair,
you expect to stay seated. You don't expect to
float up. As you drink water, you expect to be
able to drink the water and have it go down your
throat. We live according to the law of gravity.
We don't even realize it because it's such a
natural part of the world. But a few decades
ago, there were a couple of fellas down in North
Carolina that invented an airplane that took
advantage of a new set of laws, the laws of aerodynamics
and those laws have now been understood better
and put into better use so that today we have
airplanes. My wife laughs at me but sometimes
sitting out on our deck in the evening I see
jet planes going over and I say there goes a
747 and it's bound for London. Boy I'd like to
be on that plane. I think those planes are beautiful
to behold. And I know about when that flight
goes over. So I just imagine myself flying off
to Europe on that plane. Then it comes along
a DC -10. I don't like them as well. They've
only got three engines. I like four. Another
spare, as far as I'm concerned. But I watch that
plane take off. Maybe it's to Finland, to Helsinki,
to Oslo. I think, boy, wouldn't it be nice to
be on that plane. Now, what keeps those planes
up there? It's the law of aerodynamics. But what
about gravity? Well, you see, there's a new law
that has superseded the law of gravity. And it
allows those planes to take off and to fly to
a destination on the other side of the world
and then land. You and I have operating within
us still the law of sin. It's operating in the
members of our body. We face temptation. We have
lust. Lust that comes from within us. Temptation
that comes from outside of us. That law is operating
there seeking to bring us into obedience to sin.
To perform what it wants us to do. Now before
we were Christians, that was the only law operating
in us. That was it. But now we have a new power,
a new law. He calls it the law of the Spirit
of Life. Notice the capital S on Spirit because
it's talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit now is also operating within us. And the
Holy Spirit enables us to live above the law
of sin and death. We don't have to be held down
by that law anymore. We can overcome the law
of sin and death because the Holy Spirit enables
us to say no to temptation. Christians have temptations
just like everybody else in the world. But Christians
have the capacity To say no. And that no can
be enforced by the power of the Holy Spirit who
lives inside of us. The law of the spirit of
life supersedes the law of sin. And you and I
can take advantage of that power and choose to
say no to sin. Saints have a new nature. Saints
have a new choice. Saints have a new power that's
operating within their lives. I hope that describes
you today. That when you think about who you
are in your deepest identity, that you can honestly
say, I am a saint. I'm not perfect. I haven't
been canonized by the church. People don't pray
to me. But I'm a saint. because I've been called
by God to belong to Jesus Christ. And God has
set me apart when I trusted the Lord Jesus. And
I'm a saint now. And because that's who I am,
that's how I want to live. I don't want to sin
anymore. I still do. I still choose sometimes
to obey temptation when it comes my way. But
in my deepest heart, I don't want to. I want
to choose to obey God. I want to use the power
of the Holy Spirit to live the kind of a life
that's pleasing to Him. If you're not a saint,
you can become a saint today, right now. You
don't have to wait until after you die and some
people vote on you and then you get voted into
that celestial category. That's not the way it
works, folks. We become saints right now in this
world. When we hear the call of God in our hearts
and we sense that conviction of sin, and we feel
guilty about our lives and we're ashamed, and
we know that we're under God's judgment, but
we also know that God loves us and provided His
Son Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for our sins.
And when we trust in that Savior, and believe
that He died in our place and took our punishment,
then we can be transferred from being sinners
to saints. Let's pray together. Father, this
morning all of us gathered in this room are one
or the other. We're either sinners or saints.
My prayer would be that There are those today
who hear the call of the Lord and who are under
the conviction of their own personal sin before
you that they would understand the gospel and
would trust the Lord Jesus today and be saved
from being a sinner and be given this new identity
as one of your chosen ones, a saint. And Father,
I pray that all of us Who call ourselves saints
may live that way and May make the new choice
to obey Christ using the new power of the Holy
Spirit that is in us because we have a new destiny
the glory of heaven Father fill us with the anticipation
of that glory that is to come when your work
will be complete and Give us patience with ourselves
now when we fail and teach us to get up and to
walk on as saints. Father, there are some who
are gathered here this morning who are really
in the midst of battle and struggle in their
lives. Reassure them today that if they've trusted
Christ, they're yours and that you're looking
after their best interests. And may they sense
today the wonder and the hope and the joy of
being a saint of God. As I pray in Jesus' name,
Amen. Would you stand together with me please?
If you today are struggling in your spiritual
life and you'd like to have someone pray with
you, even for a few seconds, I want to invite
you to slip out and just come here to the front.
We'll have some staff and elders who will be
here, and they'll be glad just to spend a moment
and pray with you regarding your concern and
need today. And if there are others who are in
line in front of you, just be patient and wait
a moment. They'll be able to get to you and spend
a moment in prayer, asking God to minister in
your life. Thanks for being here and God bless
you. Greet one another as you go and go in the
joy that belongs to God's saints. We're dismissed.