Embedded Files
All Creatures of Our God and King
Verse 1
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise Him alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
Verse 2
Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in Heav'n along
O praise Him alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
Verse 3
Let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
O praise Him alleluia
Praise praise the Father praise the Son
And praise the Spirit three in One
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
Build My Life
Verse 1
Worthy of ev'ry song we could ever sing
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of ev'ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Verse 2
Jesus the name above ev'ry other name
Jesus the only one who could ever save
Worthy of ev'ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
We live for You
Chorus
Holy there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me
Verse 2
Jesus the name above ev'ry other name
Jesus the only one who could ever save
Worthy of ev'ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
We live for You
Chorus
Holy there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me
Bridge
I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken
Bridge
I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken
Chorus
Holy there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me
Amazing Grace
Verse 1
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see
Verse 2
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Verse 3
Through many dangers toils and snares
I have already come
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
Verse 4
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun
My Jesus I Love Thee
Verse 1
My Jesus I love Thee I know Thou art mine
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign
My gracious Redeemer my Savior art Thou
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now
Verse 2
I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now
Verse 3
I'll love Thee in life I will love Thee in death
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now
Verse 4
In mansions of glory and endless delight
I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now
Dead and Alive
Romans 6:1-14
Introduction
· Does the gospel message lead you to change the sinful patterns in your life? And if it does, then how does it do that?
o In the first 5 chapters of Romans, Paul has told us what God has done for us in the gospel. Now, from chapters 6-8, Paul is telling us how to experience the freedom and life that the gospel brings.
§ He’s showing us how to apply it to our lives.
· à The gospel, when rightly understood and applied to our lives, produces real and significant changes in our character and behavior.
[Read Romans 6:1-14]
1. 6:1-2 We Died to Sin
· Paul has just said, in 5:20, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”
o In other words, where there is a lot of sin, there is even more grace.
o This is the gospel of grace, that God has saved us by grace alone, apart from our works. Our works do not contribute to our salvation, because God did it all through Jesus at the cross.
§ And when people hear this gospel of grace, this next question inevitably comes up:
· 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
o In other words,
§ “If we are saved by grace, then won’t that leave the door open to immoral living?”
§ “If we are saved by grace, then why should we bother with the hard work of repentance and obedience?”
§ “If our good deeds are worthless for earning our salvation, then why try to be good at all?”
o And Paul’s answer essentially comes down to this: “If you’re asking that question, then you don’t actually understand the gospel yet.”
· 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
o For the rest of chapter 6 Paul re-explains and re-applies the doctrine of justification and of our union with Christ.
· Here is my main point for this whole sermon. I’ll give it to you here, and then explain it as we go along:
o à Because we are united to Christ, we have died to sin and are therefore no longer under its power. As a result, we can live a new life, serving the Living God rather than serving sin.
· The first thing Paul says in that regard is this: “We died to sin.”
o Getting right to the point, it simply means this: The moment you become a Christian, you are no longer under the “reign”—or the ruling power—of sin.
§ Sin used to have power over you. It ruled you, dominated you, bullied you, controlled you.
§ But something changed the moment you became a Christian:
through the cross, Jesus has broken sin’s power over you.
· Before Christ and without Christ, you were under the power of Satan. Here’s an analogy that might help to explain it:
o You were trapped in Satan’s castle, in a prison cell deep within his dungeon. But Jesus fights his way in, crushing all the opposition along the way, and breaks into your cell, where Satan has been mistreating you. Jesus commands, “Let my people go!” He then proceeds to crush Satan and shatter your chains.
§ You were under the power of Satan and sin. But now you’re not.
· As Paul says, “We died to sin.”
o Then Jesus leads us out of the dungeon, out of Satan’s castle, and brings us into his own Kingdom. He washes away all the filth and grime of our sin. He gives us a room in his castle, adopts us into his family, gives us royal clothes, and we now eat with him at his table.
§ We are no longer captives to sin!
§ However, it takes time to unlearn what we have learned. Listen to the stories of people who have been freed from captivity and mistreatment. They are grateful for their newfound freedom…but it often takes a while for them to “live into” that freedom.
· They need to keep reminding themselves, “I am no longer a captive. Why would I continue to live as if I still was?”
o And that’s precisely what Paul is saying: “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” We just got out of the dungeon. Why would we ever want to go back to it?
· However, just because we have died to sin does not mean that sin is no longer within us—it clearly is—nor does it mean that sin no longer has an influence within us—it clearly does. **But the difference is that sin can no longer control us.**
o Though we may—and often still do—obey the commands of sin, the fact remains that we no longer have to.
o We now have the ability to resist sin and fight back against it. We died to sin.
§ And that leads us to the next section, where Paul talks about our union with Christ.
2. 6:3-5 We Live a New Life Because We’re Now United to Christ
· Okay, so it’s utterly transformative that we have died to sin, with the result that sin no longer has power over us.
o How and when did that happen? When we were united to Christ. And therefore we can live a new life.
· 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
· 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
· 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
· The Gk word for baptism was often used to refer to being drowned or sunk, and therefore was connected with death.
o And yet water is not mentioned here. Paul is not speaking about the sacrament/act of being baptized with water. That’s because here Paul is speaking of the spiritual reality that our water baptism points to.
§ This spiritual reality of baptism really comes down to union with Christ: whatever has happened to him is legally true of us.
§ Since Christ died, we also died. Since Christ rose from the dead, we too will rise.
· So it’s not just that we are no longer slaves to sin. But also, verse 4 makes it clear that we can now “live a new life.”
o That just makes sense, doesn’t it?
§ Wouldn’t you say that life lived inside a tyrant’s prison cell is a very different experience than life lived in the King’s palace as a member of the royal family?
· Because we are united to Christ, we can now live a new life, which we could not do before.
3. 6:6-10 New Identity
· This is because we have a new identity: we are united with Christ.
· Our new life flows out of our new identity.
· 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
· 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
· 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
· 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
· 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
· Our old self was crucified with Christ—it was put to death and crushed.
o Our old way of living and being—which was the result of being under the power of sin—was characterized by hating God and others, and even (interestingly) hating ourselves.
o By contrast, our new way of living and being—which is the result of being united with Christ—is characterized by loving God and others and even loving ourselves properly.
§ As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! The old has gone; the new has come.”
· When a non-Christian sins, they are acting in accord with their identity.
o They are under the power of sin, so why would they not sin?
· But when someone is united with Christ, everything changes. When a Christian sins, they are acting against their identity.
o They are no longer under the power of sin, so why would they sin?
§ The reason they sin is because—in some way or another—they do not realize who they are. They’ve forgotten their identity, they’ve forgotten what Christ has done for them.
§ In some way or another, they still consider themselves to be in the tyrant’s prison cell, rather than in the King’s palace.
· As a Christian, I—in my truest self—now seek God and love holiness and want to be like Jesus. Yes!
o Sin is certainly still present in my life, and in some areas it is still pretty strong…but it doesn’t have to control me anymore.
· à Pay attention to this: If you feel “stuck” or powerless to break free of sin in some aspect of your life, that does not mean your faith is fake!
o No, it instead means that you need to remember who you are in Christ. You are no longer a slave to sin! So take heart, and fight!
· à If you are a Christian and keep returning to your “pet” sins, the enemy whispers in your ear that it’s because you are trapped in sin and helpless against that sin.
o But that is a lie. You are not trapped in sin!
· Rather, the reason you’re having a hard time is because you’re still thinking and behaving as though you are trapped in sin.
o But that’s the old you, the old self.
o The truth is that you have died with Christ at the cross, and have therefore been freed from the power of sin, so you can live a new life.
§ The first step is to renounce the lie and firmly, boldly, and then tenaciously cling to the truth. You are not trapped in sin!
· Jesus says in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus Christ has bought you with his own blood, to be his very own. You are free. Now. And forever.
o Then it’s just a matter of starting to shape your actions out of that truth, rather than out of a lie.
§ And that’s what verses 11-14 are about.
5. 6:11-13 Act On Your New Identity
· In verse 11, Paul uses a very helpful word: “count.” Reckon. Consider.
o It is the rational result of a careful, objective evaluation. (Romans 12:1-2!)
· 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
· Why is it important that we count, or reckon, or consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus?
o Because being free from sin is like a privilege or legal right…it has no benefit to us unless we exercise it.
· How do we exercise our new freedom?
o We build new patterns of thinking and acting. Listen to the
· 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
· 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
· Let’s return to our prison analogy once more, for a moment:
o Suppose you’re now living in the King’s palace, clean and well-fed and loved. Life is good! Your scars are beginning to heal, and strength is returning to your body as you spend time with the King.
o But then you receive a summons from your old tyrant—Satan—summoning you to return to your old prison cell…or else.
§ Immediately you break out in a cold sweat…a tremor goes down your spine, your knees feel weak.
§ Your old habits and patterns of thought start to kick in again, and so you hang your head and start to follow the messenger back to the tyrant’s castle, with all of the pain and degradation that it entails.
· You are not required to remain in the prison either, but you know the routine, and so you end up staying there for a while.
· Paul cries out, “You died to sin! You’ve been freed from the prison of sin! Why would you return there?”
o The answer is that you’ve returned to the prison because you forgot who you now are, and you forgot the One to whom you now belong.
o Rather than counting yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus…you instead counted yourself as someone still under the power of sin…and you acted accordingly.
o In the past, you had no choice…you had to obey the summons.
o But now you can ignore that summons. The tyrant is no longer your master! You can ignore him! “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus!” You are free!
§ But that freedom only has an impact on you if you act on it. You must fight! If you rip up the summons, throw it back in the face of the messenger, and send him packing.
· à Brothers and sisters, this is why we sin: We receive the summons from the tyrant, and even though we don’t need to obey it, we still often do. We all do this.
o There is literally nothing that the enemy can do to us if we refuse him…and yet we often obey the summons anyway.
o Our freedom in Christ will only have an impact on our lives if we act on it…if we actively choose to live out of our new identity as free people, rather than helpless slaves.
· à Paul is saying this: No matter how many summons your old tyrant sends you, you can ignore and reject them all…each and every one of them. Your old tyrant is dead to you, and you are dead to him.
o Therefore, make some conscious and well-considered changes in your life, that reflect your new identity as someone who belongs to Christ and is united to Christ.
o You are now alive to God in Christ Jesus! Re-shape every aspect of your life according to his way of life.
§ This—and nothing less than this—is Christian discipleship!
o We are new in Christ! Let’s act on it.
· Are we going to get it perfect? Of course not.
o But as we live into our new identity there will be progress.
§ We will have less and less tolerance for sin in our lives.
§ We will make progress in holiness. More on this later.
6. 6:14 Not Under Law
· So no, we won’t get it perfect. But we don’t need to. Look at verse 14.
· 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
· This returns to what I’ve often said before: the gospel does not operate via pressure.
o If we are under the law, then our status and well-being depend upon our performance. Do we measure up, or not?
§ The answer is that we don’t measure up, and we never will.
o But if we are under grace, then our status and well-being depend upon the performance of Jesus.
§ He measures up perfectly, and so we are utterly secure.
Application
· I want to draw a couple of very specific applications for us this morning:
· 1. It is absolutely essential that we recognize sin for what it is.
o I think a good question for you to ask yourself here is simply this:
§ à “How much do I see sin as crushing and abusive captivity?”
· “Do I really see sin as an abusive person? Or do I kinda see sin as a neutral neighbor 3 doors down the street, who washes his car on Saturday mornings and really isn’t much of a threat?”
§ à For your most besetting or recurring sins, do you really understand how poisonous they are to you? And to those around you?
o I think the reason that we learn to tolerate sin is because we believe the lie that sin is inconsequential.
§ à Reject that lie. Sin will not make life happier or easier or more fulfilling. What sin will do is poison and destroy you, along with those around you.
· Listen to what Peter says: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11).
· Similarly, 1 Peter 5:8 “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to”—cuddle with? No—“looking for someone to devour.”
o I think it is absolutely essential that we recognize sin for what it is.
§ When you choose to sin, you are injecting poison into your own veins.
§ The good news is that you don’t have to do that anymore! You are not under its power.
· 2. It is absolutely essential that we get really clear on our new identity in Christ.
o All day, every day, we are bombarded with messages from the world, trying to tell us who we are and what life is all about.
§ Some of those messages are harmful, some of them are just neutral…but none of them are helping us to learn who we are in Christ.
§ We need to know who we are in Christ if we are going to live the new life he has given us.
o Most of us don’t know how good we have it, in Christ. No, let me correct that: NONE of us knows how good we have it in Christ.
o My suggestion: Read Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 every morning for the next month.
§ Listen carefully for all of the things it says about Jesus Christ…
· …and about you…
· …and about what God has done for you in Christ…
· …and about you being “in” him.
o Whether it’s Ephesians or the Psalms or any other biblically-grounded source, find a way to continually reinforce your identity as a beloved child of God, who is no longer a slave to sin.
· There are more applications to be drawn here, but we’ll get more into them next week.
Conclusion
· Brothers and sisters, when Jesus Christ died on the cross he changed the game.
o When we became his followers, something happened to us. We are now united to him…in his death and resurrection.
§ Because we are united to Christ, we have died to sin and are therefore no longer under its power. As a result, we can live a new life, serving the Living God rather than serving sin.
· Amen.
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