Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
Guest Speaker: Pastor Joe Sugrue
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
ROM 6:1 “Therefore what are we to conclude? Are we to continue in the sovereignty of the sin nature in order that the grace of God might increase?”
This refutes the notion that increased sin increases grace. Grace always depends on the work of God and not on anything man does. God’s integrity does not depend on man.
Grace has destroyed the reign of Satan. Therefore it makes sense that he would seek to destroy anyone’s cognizance of it.
Our personal sins, which did increase under the Law because the Law revealed the existence of the OSN, were never imputed to us. They were reserved for imputation to Christ on the Cross.
The point here is that grace is greater than Adam’s original sin and all personal sin combined.
The sovereignty of the OSN has been broken. When we live in it we again put ourselves under its rule of sin, evil, and human good.
This rhetorical question introduces the point of doctrine that there is a new life for the believer on earth, a modus vivendi which is free from the sovereignty and the power of the old sin nature.
The Spirit’s ministries are internal ministries. They were never designed to whitewash the devil’s world. The battlefield is no longer on the earth; rather it is in your soul.
the old sin nature dwells in the human body genetically and influences the human soul toward sin, human good, and evil.
These five ministries of the Holy Spirit are designed to provide an encapsulated environment in the devil’s world, an environment which is actually better than what Adam had in the garden.
1. Regeneration: to be born again through faith in Christ where the HS provides a completely spiritual birth to supplant the physical birth that brought condemnation.
2. The baptism of the HS: The HS takes each one of us who have received the +R of Christ and eternal life and enters us into union with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of God.
3. Indwelling of the HS: The HS indwells the body to counteract the power of the OSN that resides in the cell structure of the body. The believer can never lose the indwelling of the Spirit.
4. The sealing of the HS: The HS guarantees that we are saved forever and that we possess a shield emblazoned with the coat of arms of the RFOG. This is a guarantee that God has a plan for our lives, that He will provide logistical grace blessing to fulfill that plan, that we are in the divine decrees, and we have a guarantee of escrow blessings for time and eternity.
5. The distribution of spiritual gifts: All spiritual gifts are sovereignly bestowed at the moment of salvation by God the HS.
Same gospel, same doctrine, but one mixed it with faith and one did not – and where is the work being done for fruit – the word of God performs its work in us who believe it.