Revering the Word
Romans 6 How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Good morning everyone this morning. We are in Romans chapter 6 We ended chapter 5 with really the good news of the gospel and it says in verse 20 of chapter 5 that the law came in So that the transgression would increase Essentially, we got the Old Testament law to realize how sinful we were But where sin increased grace abounded all the more So that as sin rained in death our sin would separate us from God and even Put us under the wrath of God even so grace would rain would rule through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and It's God's grace God's favor God's kindness to us God's blessing to us because while we were still sinners and before we were arrogant born now in this era Jesus Christ came to die and because God gave that to us as a gift We now through faith can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life and we are Blessed to have the grace of God, you know, you can know that like let's say today you you make a mistake let's say today you um you get angry and you you swear or you even you were to steal something today or you were to Be unkind or you know, you could go to God and be like God I'm sorry. I I didn't want to do that and I did and Lord help me I just I want to do better God. Thank you that your Holy Spirit lives inside of me Thank you for the forgiveness forgiveness the sins for the cross of Jesus I too believe in you and I believe you died in rose and he can not only give you strength to overcome but he gives you grace to forgive you of your sin and Praise God that we live in a day and age where we have the grace of God now I've already kind of indicated a little bit about what our proper response is even in just this little Two-minute preview to chapter six But because the grace of God is so good and because we can be forgiven of any and all and no matter what we've done God is reconciling you and redeeming you and placing you back in a relationship and giving you peace with God Because this grace is so good It anticipates the question. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase and Some live that way today, you know, like I'm forgiven by Jesus. So really it doesn't matter what I do how I live I can live any other way I want I have and this is an incorrect view of freedom I have freedom in and people view that as almost like a license to live In sin and really the freedom that God has given us is We were in bondage to sin. We just couldn't really stop. It was like we we had this lustful heart and flesh That's always in us and we just couldn't get ourselves to stop sinning and it was a bondage We were in prison to it and the penalty of it But Jesus Christ came and he gave us freedom meaning we're not in bondage to that sin anymore The chains that were holding us in sin have been cut and we've been given the grace of God and the spirit of God So that now we can live for him And and this is what Paul's beginning to say is are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase Because we have so much grace. Can we just live in sin and he say may it never be? How shall we who died to sin see really we're supposed to die to our old ways died? Or our old man dying of living to that sinful nature of the past How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the glory Raised from the dead through the glory of the Father So we too might walk in newness of life For if we've become united with him in the likeness of his death Certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection Knowing this that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with So that we would no longer be slaves or in bondage to sin For he who has died is freed from sin see there's our freedom. We're freed from sin and This is a significant Aspect to both Christian living and also baptism You know Jesus Christ died and then he rose from the dead and he died to take our sin and when we get baptized It's a symbol of acknowledging that Jesus Christ has died for us And you know if we were to put someone under water and hold someone under water They would die and in a sense baptism is a symbol of dying. It's saying, you know what? I'm gonna die down my old way. I'm gonna die to trying to get to heaven on my own I'm gonna die to sin and I'm gonna also acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for me And then when I come up out of that water I'm gonna be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and I'm gonna rise to new life I'm gonna rise to living a new life now and I'm also in Faith now because of believing in him and following through in baptism one day when my time is done I'm gonna rise just like Jesus did from the dead hallelujah, and that's what baptism is It's a commitment and a pledge to say I want to live for Jesus now. I'm done with my old way I want to live the new way and hallelujah, and you know Very briefly I want to give you a historical understanding is that the very first command given to mankind was I've created you in my image and likeness and I want you to be fruitful and multiply and God in Chapter one of Genesis repeats that several times and throughout the Bible about us being fruitful and multiply But he also repeats the fact that he's created us in his image and likeness God wants his goodness and his character His being to be reflected in us. He wants us to live Like him not that we're gonna be God But that we are gonna be more Christ-like that we're gonna try to live a godly life They're gonna try to live a life that that honors him And that's always been the goal and then that through our faith in him and our living to reflect who he is that we would seek to multiply that in people in our children and our neighbors and our churches and People we come into contact with we want them to know of Jesus embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior And we want them to begin to bear the image of God be image bears try to reflect more of who God is to this world and that they would get on the same mission then that helping others to Know Jesus and bear his image and to take the mission to be fruitful and multiply So, you know after mankind really struggled to do that you might recall God flooded the earth because After they got kicked out of the garden. They multiplied they did that part, but they were multiplying a sinful version of mankind and After it was just filled with corrupt and wickedness God flooded the earth He started over then he started over with Abraham and then we got to Israelites Abraham Isaac Jacob then through Moses We got the law so that this the law was God's guidance God's instruction to help man to live to reflect him and when they didn't then they would offer a sacrifice and They had the sacrificial system, but now today God saying you know what I wanted you to be obedient to that law and live for me and You could have but you didn't and what it did is it showed you how sinful you were But now God is doing it in a new covenant in a new way, but he's after the same mission. Do you see? He now Had Jesus Christ come to die to give us the grace of God the forgiveness because we never could live to the standard And now he's empowered us through the power of his Holy Spirit to live for him So although now we've been made right by God through faith in him Now he wants us to live rightly in honor of him And he's still after us being image bearers of God who would be fruitful and multiply So it only makes sense that once we've received this grace and this forgiveness That we would accept that torch that responsibility of saying you know what I want to try to be and live to be a man of God And God's gonna help me and his spirit's gonna empower me to do it And I want to put away the old self and and live the new way for Jesus Christ And when I fail when I sin I thank God for his grace that I have his forgiveness But it's not a permit to just keep living Apart from God or in sin it it it's a power God's grace is also a power to overcome and to live for the Lord hallelujah because we are not under the bondage of our sin We're not chained to that anymore. We've been set free and and been given power to live a new life now if we have died with Christ We believe verse 8 we shall also live with him knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead is Never to die again death no longer is master over him for the death that he died He died to sin once and for all but the life he lives he lives to God even so consider yourselves To be dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ and hallelujah, you know embrace The embrace living for God embrace Turning away from sin and if there's a sin that you are Permitting in your life right now You're just letting go ongoing in your life get rid of it in the name of Jesus put it to death Put that old man to death and live the new way in Jesus Christ. God's strengthened you. He's given you his grace He's given you his spirit go go burn it go Throw it out go get rid of it get rid of whatever it is that is Entangling you in sin because God's freed you from its power and you can overcome excuse me in Jesus therefore do not let sin reign don't let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and any man any woman out there Getting involved in pornography any kind of thing like that get rid of it die to that 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 Hallelujah and your members as instruments of righteousness to God See now we've been made right through faith But now we want to present our bodies as instruments of righteousness We want to live rightly because we're on God's mission to reflect who he is to be image-bearers and to be fruitful and multiply For sin shall not be master over you Hallelujah Sin has no master over us anymore. God's reign in us. God's ruling in us. His holy spirit is in us His tabernacle is in us. He's with us all the time and therefore he can help us rule Over sin instead of sin ruling over us for you are not under law, but under grace We've received great now the problem the problem with grace. It's not a problem with grace It's a problem of a lack of understanding of grace. I'll tell you what if you look that word up uh Cheris that might not be the correct pronunciation, but it's C H A R I S in Greek if you were to look that word up You will see that it also includes power It's God's power his gifts his favor his kindness and Sometimes we look at grace is just his forgiveness meaning I can just keep on and live in the way I'm living and God just keeps on forgiving and there's some truth to his forgiveness Which is so amazing, but yet if we don't know what grace means and we don't know that God has given us favor and power to overcome We might not be living the way we should because we don't realize we've been empowered on high and we've died to our old way And now we're living the new way what then shall we sin because we are not under law But under grace see grace is not a permit to sin may it never be Paul says again Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience your slays of the one whom you obey and If you are living in sin you're being a slave to sin either of sin resulting in death or of obedience Resulting in righteousness remember what the purpose of this book was that we'd have faith leading to obedience That that our faith would result in obedience and here we see it again in chapter six When we present ourselves to God it should be for obedience resulting in righteousness Even though we've been given right standing through faith now we seek to live rightly But thanks be to God that though you are slaves of sin so you used to be in bondage to sin You became obedient from the heart. There's the obedience again. You became obedient from the heart to that Form of teaching to which you are committed now. That's important To that form of teaching to which you are committed You know what teaching are you under listen? I'm I'm a human. I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to honor the Lord and give you a true whole council biblical Form of teaching and and unfortunately there's a lot of people in our world that are under incorrect forms of teaching They're under watered down forms of teaching and if you are if you are not receiving Good teaching about the standard of God and what he's trying to Accomplish in us to be image bearers and to be fruit from multiplying that we're dead to sin and alive to him If you're not hearing that it's a person's not hearing in that world They won't have the right form of teaching and they many times won't rise to the level that God is hoping to raise Us up to because they're not being taught it and so it's really important that You become a student of the word and not a compromise word. There's so much of that out there there's so much false teaching out there today and You know the true word of God will challenge you. It'll convict you. It'll it'll call you to live a holy life hallelujah and Having been verse 18 and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness See really we're we're slaves, you know what and I don't mind being a slave of righteousness or a slave to God God wants it to go well with us and there is blessing in living for God and You know to to serve the king of kings and the Lord of lords and know that his ways are best And they lead to blessing not only in this life, but in the life to come It it makes me desire to be a slave of right living to be a slave to try to to seek to honor our Lord Then he says in verse 19 I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity into lawlessness And that's the way we were apart from Christ. We just were surrendered to our sinful living in our flesh resulting in further lawlessness so now present your members present your bodies as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification and sanctification is Being set apart being made holy and there's an aspect of that that when we come to faith in Jesus because he took our sin We've been made right. We've been made holy We in a sense are in a condition where because Jesus took our sin were in right standing with God But then there's also the process of sanctification where in our lives because we're partnering with God And now we have the power of his grace and his Holy Spirit living in us and we to seek to live honorably and rightly before God We are in a process of becoming more holy We you know Lord willing you can look at your life before and now in Lord willing five years ten years and as you begin to head home to our Lord and that you begin to look more like him remember that was What God was calling us to to be image-bearers to reflect his image and likeness and be fruitful and multiply and Sanctification is that process of becoming more holy for God as we grow in him For when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed and You know what there when you look at and I look at my life prior to Christ living in sin You know that there's consequences to sin it'll mess up your life sin will mess up your life And what what did we derive from those things? Well, it may have been fun in the moment, but the consequences surely aren't fun And you know what I find now. I find now not living in sin and living for the Lord There's blessing. He wants it to go well with us and it does go well with us and I think life is so much better Living for Jesus and not having the consequences of our sin But yet rather the blessings of God and we should be ashamed of sinful living We should be ashamed of the things we had done in the past, but Praise God now he has forgiven us of those things for the outcomes of those things is death And you know what living apart from God and living in sin it That consequence is ultimately death and separation from God now and forever But now having been freed from sin and there we have it again the correct understanding of freedom in Christ It's being free from the bondage of sin and free from the law But now having been freed from sin and slave to God you derive your benefit and there is a benefit Resulting in sanctification greater holiness in the outcome eternal life And you know, I hope that eternal life is something that you ponder daily that you think you know what one day when this life is done I'm gonna be with the Lord forever and there's the reward of heaven hallelujah, and there's also rewards in heaven There's rewards in heaven for how you live your life for the Lord here, and it's good to meditate and reflect upon that And have that motivate us and you know Even when things are really challenging in this life, too When there's real struggles and dark days in this life knowing it's gonna come to an end our body's gonna be restored in heaven And that we're gonna be with the Lord forever That's encouraging and it gives us the strength and hope to make it through the difficult days of this life And then finally a really terrific first to close this Chapter six for the wages of sin is death, you know when you work you get a wage, right? I'm talking about a job and What it's saying here is that if you work in sin if you live in sin the thing you receive Because of that is death you receive death and separation from God But hallelujah the free gift God gave it to us before we ever born is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord What an amazing gift that is you know more Christians I'll tell you what we need to live in the constant reality that we've been promised the gift of eternal life That will turn our frown around that will allow us to have joy in this life We should be confident and in the fact that we're gonna live forever with the Lord because of what Jesus Christ did In our faith in him hallelujah, and you know what that gift is a it's an amazing gift Is there any other is there a better gift in the world than that one? Well with that gift, you know what? I want to honor the one who gave it to me and may we live to honor the one who's given us the gift of eternal life God bless you all