GYC SE 2015: Gripped

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GYC Southeast

Steve Bauer

Gripped by Sin

I was told that our theme is gripped based on Philippians, and as I bandied about, I said, this gives me a chance to talk about my favorite topic, righteousness by faith.

Now, if you want, I spin this a bunch of different ways to the situation.

So if you want an alternate version, I preached about a 4 or 5 sermon rendering on this at the Advent Hope Sabbath School in Loma Linda, and that's on audio verse.

So if you want more punishment, you can go to audio verse and get some more.

But gripped, I looked up the word grip in my trusty online dictionary to grab or hold something tightly, to seize or hold firmly, to hold the interest strongly.

And we have colloquial expressions, right?

When somebody seems to be losing control, we tell them, get a – Get a hold of it.

On the other hand, being gripped may not always be positive.

The arrested criminal is gripped by the police.

Perhaps a bit more positively, the trapeze artist is gripped by the 1 hanging on to the swing.

And if he or she loses the grip, down you go, right?

The quarterback gets gripped by the defensive lineman in the sack, and so it goes.

So gripped in the passive may not be quite so positive.

Now let me give a quick outline of our 3 meetings.

We are going to talk about being gripped by sin.

Tomorrow night we start the good news gripped by grace and Sabbath gripped by Christ.

And we're going to get very, very practical on Sabbath.

Not that it won't be practical now, but Sabbath is the nuts and bolts day that way.

Now, to illustrate 1 perspective of what it's like to be gripped.

When you don't want to be gripped, we have about a 55, 60 second video, if they could play it at this time, please.

Let's think about that, Ram's situation, for a moment.

No, you look at the ground under his feet.

He's been trying for a long time, hasn't he?

He's trying to go, but he's in the grip of a tree and he just goes in circles.

You ever feel like your spiritual life is going in circles?

I try, try, try, try and I'm not getting anywhere.

So he's making choices and he's making efforts but it's not working.

He's in the grip of something that he can't figure out, that he can't manage, and this something neutralizes his efforts and makes his will and choices ineffectual.

He's in the grip of a force too big for him to manage, beyond his skill set, beyond his power.

And in Paul's theology, particularly in Romans, Paul informs us that sin is a power that grips us and like the ram we can choose, choose, choose and try, try, try but it's not going to go anywhere but in circles.

Let's review Paul's theology here by turning to the book of Romans.

Paul is writing this book to the Roman church to introduce himself.

He's writing to people that he generally does not know.

This is a church that he has not planted.

And so unlike the Galatians church where he just comes in and goes, pow, because he knows them, we get the professional Paul here, the polished Paul, the crafted Paul.

And Paul is writing to present the gospel because we have a controversy in the church, the Judaizer controversy, right?

And the Judaizer controversy was saying that Gentiles had to first convert to Judaism before they could receive Christ.

So if the Gentile is circumcised, He's converting to Judaism and he's taking on the whole caboodle, not just a surgery.

Because their premise appears to have been that Jesus Christ was a Savior for the Jews.

So if you Gentiles want to have a Messiah, what do you have to do?

He's fighting it in Galatia, in Romans, etc.

You don't have to become Jewish to have a Savior.

And so after introducing himself to the Romans and a few comments, he hits the word gospel and it sends him off on his journey.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.

This is the thesis sentence of the whole book.

Everything else after this is explaining this verse.

But we're going to come back here tomorrow night.

But starting in verse 18, Paul starts to define the problem.

And in verse 18 to the end of the chapter, Paul establishes why the Gentiles need a Savior.

Or to put it in more legal terms, He establishes the guilt of the Gentiles.

And I don't want to linger long here tonight, but what is the guilt of the Gentiles?

We can pick it up here in the first few verses of this section.

God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godliness and the wickedness of men who by their wickedness do what to the truth?

Verse 19, for what can be known about God?

So who do you think this truth is going to be about?

There's some kind of act of revelation of God that shows Himself to the Gentiles and they're suppressing it.

Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible nature, trait 1, invisibility, And 2, his eternal power and deity have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

But they became futile in their thinking, and senseless minds were darkened.

The glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, and reptiles.

So God gave them over to the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves Because, here we go again, they exchanged the truth about God for the lie.

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Gripped by Sin

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