 So we see here in Romans chapter 6 in verses number 3, 4, 5, and 6, we're going to see a wonderful picture of what baptism is and what baptism is supposed to be, okay? It's almost confusing with all the different things that you may have heard about baptism through all these different religions and Christian denominations, but if you were to just read the Bible as a saved person and read Romans 3 through 6, you would actually see what baptism was meant to be. And continuing in verse number 5 we see, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we should be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now first of all I want you to look at verse number 4 and verse number 6 where it says, should walk and should not. Okay, that's something that you should do. It's not saying that you for sure will, that it's automatic, that something will take over your body and you will no longer sin. It's saying that after, you know, the picture of you being baptized is you being buried with Christ and you dying to sin. Because as you saw in the first five chapters of Romans, sin when you're unsaved, you are a servant, you are a slave to sin. And sin really puts you underneath this servitude of this thing called death. Okay, because when you're unsaved, your sin causes you to be condemned, to be, you know, death has power over you. And what you're seeing here in verse number 4 it says, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. So baptism pictures you dying with Christ, dying to sin. And then when you come out of the water, it pictures you walking in newness of life. Okay, this is where the words that you were baptized with, if you were baptized at Verity Baptist Church, this is where those words came from. Rise to walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that's the flesh, the old man of the flesh, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. So this picture of us dying to sin and being raised to walk in newness of life, turn to Acts chapter 8. So we see this picture of what baptism is supposed to be and what baptism symbolizes. It pictures us, you know, dying and rising again with Christ. So who should be baptized? Is the next question I would ask if I was reading the Bible for the first time. In Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8, let me go ahead and turn there. In Acts chapter 8 we hear a story of Philip, and if you look at verse number 35, there's a eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch, and Philip was called to go to this man. And this eunuch was reading the Bible, he was reading the Scriptures and he couldn't understand it. And the eunuch answered him in verse 34 when Philip runs up to him. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet of this, is it of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus. So Philip preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this eunuch who is reading the Old Testament prophets. And in verse 36 the Bible says, And as they went on their way they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? What's stopping me from being baptized? Why don't I just get baptized right now? And then Philip said in verse number 37, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Now notice how he said, if you believest with all thine heart, that's the equivalent of believing on. You know, when we go out soul-winning we explain to people, you can't, you know, it's not 90% Jesus and 10% you. He said, if you believest with all thine heart, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. So they went down into the water, and he baptized him, okay? So we see that he first said, if thou believest with all thine heart, so this eunuch, salvation came first. So the bottom line is, we see an example in Acts 8 of you have to be saved first, and then you get baptized, which identifies you with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay? Now look at verse number 7. Romans chapter 6 and verse number 7 continuing on. The Bible reads, for he that is dead is freed from sin. And you say we're dead, but we be dead with Christ. See, keep reading. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Because Jesus didn't only just die. This is the importance of the resurrection. Jesus rose again. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So we died to sin, which means it no longer has power over us. Okay? Any power that sin has over you today, if you're saved, it's because you are letting sin have power over you. Sin has no power unto death over you. It only has power if you give it power. And we'll see that when we move on. In verse number 9, we get into kind of a different, another deep doctrinal truth that Paul is going to show us here. In verse number 9, Paul says, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieeth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. So when Jesus rose again from the dead, he will never die again. Okay, he rose one time. Because it says he died no more. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. For in that he died, he died, and then he says it again. Whenever the Bible repeats something, it's important. In verse number 10, for in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. So Jesus doesn't have to die again, and again, and again. This is a proof of eternal security right here. Okay? Paul is picturing and equating the death of Christ as death no longer having power over us. Okay? Now we could lose our salvation. If I could lose my salvation by sinning, or doing certain sins, and not coming to church, or doing whatever, committing suicide, anything, that would mean that death once again has power over me. And did you turn to Hebrews chapter 10? And what that would mean, according to what Paul is saying, is that Christ would have to die again. Okay? Look at Hebrews chapter 10 in verse number 10. Now in Hebrews chapter 10, let me read a few verses before that. In Hebrews chapter 10 in verse number 10, look at verse number 4, first of all. Verse number 3, he's talking about the sacrifices of the day of atonement, but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. We already talked about this. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Those sacrifices in the Old Testament were just to be a remembrance of their sins. They were picturing the coming Christ. And if you look at verse number 10 of Hebrews 10, by the which we are all sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So the part I want to focus on here is that those that believe you can lose your salvation, they're really double heretics. There's really two heresies there. Because the Bible is so clear that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have this promise of everlasting life. That's the first thing. The Bible talks about it twice. He talks about you have the promise of everlasting life dozens and dozens of times. And then Jesus said many times, you will never perish. He says, not only will you have everlasting life forever, I promise you will never go to hell. So he's getting you on both sides. But you're really a double heretic if you believe you can lose your salvation and here's why. Because you would have to believe if I was honest with myself and I really thought I believed the Bible but I only misunderstood this one thing which is a big thing, you would then have to believe that you could never get resaved. So you would have to believe that if you ever lose your salvation, that's it. But that's not what the Catholic Church teaches. That's not what the Protestants teach. That's not what they teach. They teach that you can fall from your salvation and then you can come back to us and you can get it back. And then it's funny because that's actually the last conversation after I got saved. The last conversation I had with my Lutheran pastor was about this very thing. And I said to him, I was reading the Bible and I was asking him all these questions but really eternal security was my thing. That was my hang up. And I finally, he would just give me books on doctrine and book and I'd read it and they were like, that doesn't match the Bible, that doesn't match the Bible. And finally I just asked him straight to his face, I said, where in the Bible do you see someone or even hear about the fact of someone getting born again and again and again? Because don't you think if you could lose your salvation that there would be some example of it in the Bible? Even just one? But you don't see it and plus we have all these clear scriptures that Christ died once for all. It's the model and that's why it's a perfect model of us being baptized, showing that picture of us. So he starts out Romans chapter 6 saying, should we just go sin then? No, because in your baptism you are identifying yourself with Christ that you were buried and you died to sin. Why would you go and just sin then? You're dead to sin, you're no longer a slave to sin. You were a slave to sin. Sin had total power over you even to put you into hell. That's the kind of power that that sin had over you. Now sin has no power over you. Why would you give it any power at all? Now look, eternal security, I'm going to stick on this for another few minutes. Eternal security is one of the clearest doctrines in the Bible. How do we know this? So what I'm going to do is I put a little proof together here. I want to give you a two-part proof and I want to prove eternal security to you, not using any but saved by grace versus. Okay, this is how clear it is. First of all, it's very hard to find verses in the Bible that have grace in it, that don't talk about being saved through grace. So this was difficult. But the first thing I want to point out here is, the first point I want to make is that it's either grace or works. We know that from the Bible. Okay, look at Romans 11 and verse number six. We know that it's either all grace or it's all works. We know that. The Bible is very clear about that. Look at Romans chapter 11 and verse six. And the Bible says this, And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more works. Turn to Romans chapter four, verse 14. He's saying if it's works, there's no more grace. And if it's grace, there's no more works. It's all one or it's all the other. Okay? Look at Romans four and verse 14. Excuse me. Romans four and verse 14, the Bible reads for they which, if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect. So if they be of the law are the heirs, then faith is nothing. It doesn't matter. Faith and the promise is made of none effect. Don't look at the promise is made of none effect because that kind of gives you the answer. But basically what he's saying is if they of the law are heirs, if it's by the law, then it's not a faith. Faith is nothing. It's either faith or the law. All right? I'm still a little froggy here. Sorry. So we know that it's either one or the other. Okay? That's the first thing. And the second thing I want to show you that there is a guarantee or a promise. So it's either faith or it's works. And there's a promise on whichever one it is. Okay? And so that's, there's an eternal promise attached. Titus 1, 2. You ever been out soul winning? You use this all the time. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. God promises us eternal life. Now in 1 John 5, 13, go ahead and go there. I'm only going to use a part of this because I don't want to, the other parts give away the answer. But we're looking for the promise. We're looking for an eternal promise, whether it's grace or works. In 1 John 5, 13, is everyone there? I'll give you a minute. I'll take a drink here. Okay, 1 John 5, 13. I want you to just look at the center section of the verse that says this. That ye may know that ye have eternal life. The Bible clearly says here, don't look at the other parts of the verse. The Bible clearly says here that you can know. Okay, so you can know. So number one, it's either grace or it's works. And this is for people who would watch on YouTube folks because I know you guys know this. But it's either, this is how simple it is. It's either all grace or it's all works and there's a promise of eternal life and you can know it. You can trust the promise. Okay now, if the promise was on the works side, if the promise was on the works side, we need more information than this book offers. Because if the promise is on the works side, if it's either grace or works and I pick works, I'm like, okay, it's works. First of all, Catholic or Luther or whatever, it can't be part one and part the other. It's clearly all grace or all works. So which works do I need to do? How often do I need to do them? How many do I need to do? If I sin, if I sin, you know, where's the ranking of sins versus the ranking of works? The time frames, I mean, I need some serious information. This by the way is why all these false religions have made up their own books. Because you need more information and you're going to teach works than this will offer you. Because you can't get works out of here. There's not enough information. If salvation is by works and I can know it, it's impossible for me to know using the King James Bible. If salvation is by works because it's not in here. It's not these charts and graphs and huge complicated things. So I mean, it can't be by works. There's your proof right there. Now, where is the promise? I'll just read some verses for you. Turn to 2nd Peter 3.9. John 3.16, for God's the love of the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's an everlasting promise on both sides. Not only will you never go to hell, he didn't even have to say that part. Because if you have everlasting life, you will obviously not perish. He just wants to make it super clear for you. John 3.36 is my favorite. I use this all the time, soul-winning. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. You have it now. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 5.24, verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. You have it now, and shall not come into condemnation, but his past from death unto life. John 6.29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him that he hath sent. Look, it's either grace or work, it's not both. And there is a promise, and it can't be works, because with the Bible we don't have enough information. That's why, you know, I looked up, Catholics have mortal sins. I didn't even know this, but I looked, I kind of got sick to my stomach looking at this Catholic website. But the Catholic mortal sins are the sins that will make you, like, not go to heaven. They don't even say save. But, you know, voluntary murder is one of them. The sin of impurity against nature, sodomy and homosexual relations, which is ironic because many of their clergy are sodomites, taking advantage of the poor. Which, you know, so they basically equate sodomy with stealing from somebody. There's a prediction, in 10 years, the Catholic Church will accept homosexuality. They will accept sodomites in their church. It's coming. Clear as day. And then defrauding the workmen of his wages. So they've got a little communist twist in there, I like that one, but that was a Catholic website. I met a lady at the door a couple months ago, and she said, this is one of the beauties of soul winning because, you know, the Bible says there's nothing new under the sun. Unless you go soul winning, you will find new stuff all the time. But I met this lady at the door, and I think she was some Pentecostal thing, but she basically said, you know, she believed in works like everybody else, but we're like, hey, do you know if you're going to heaven? She's like, yeah, I know, as long as I don't sin 12 times a day. And I'm like, what in the world? 12 times a day. I'm just like, I couldn't even, I almost busted out laughing right there. You know, she didn't get saved, but I was just, man, I was cutting it up down the driveway. I'm like, man, if you're going to make up stupid garbage, it's not in the Bible, at least make it 100. Make it, give yourself a chance of getting to heaven. You know what I mean? She's like, as long as I don't sin, she was sure about it. As long as I don't sin 12 times a day, I'm good. It's crazy. That's why you got to make up all this stuff to get to work salvation, folks. You know, and even if it was partly works, you still don't have enough information in the Bible. So, you can prove eternal security and grace through faith and just belief only salvation a hundred different ways in the Bible. You have to be blind not to see it. All right, let's continue in Romans chapter 6. And he continues with this idea that we're dead to sin. Okay, we're dead to sin. In Romans chapter 6 and verse number 11, the Bible reads, Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So, you're dead to sin, it has no power over you anymore. But not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. You didn't say you're never going to have lusts anymore. You still have this mortal body. As long as I'm on this earth, I'm going to have this flesh that I'm going to be contending with. But he says, you know, you should not obey it. It didn't say, we see the word should again there. It didn't say you will not obey it. You know, here goes your Lordship salvation out the window right here. You should not. You should come to a Bible preaching church. You should hear the preaching of the word of God. You should get yelled at and you should change your life. But if you don't, you're not going to hell. You should not obey it. Neither yield ye in your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God. Because if you give yourself to sin and you continue sinning, you're giving up to sin. It has no power over you. It's like somebody who just has, it's like some bum on the street has no power over me as I walk by him. It's like if I just like, just let him just, here, just take all my money. He has no power over me. But if I just give people power and give sin power, then I can be enslaved by it in that sense. But it can never cause me to die. It can never cause me to die. Neither yield ye in your members as instruments of righteousness, unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Your members, your body, your eyes, your arms, your legs, you know, we should serve God with our fleshly body, not sin. Addiction is yielding your members to sin. If you go out and do a bunch of drugs, your body's going to crave it and you just got to stop doing it and you're just yielding yourself to sin. If you give in, you're yielding yourself. Turn to Galatians 3.26. Verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. What then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace God forbid? Just again and again he just tells us, you're under grace. Out to the person who believes and works salvation who you run into and they say, you know, you can't tell people that. You can't tell people that they can just go do whatever they want. You know, they need to understand this idea that when we get saved, we become children of God. We become adopted into God's family. In Galatians 3.26, are you there? The Bible says for you, you're all the children of God by what? By faith in Christ Jesus. Is everybody a child of God? Is that what it says? How many times have you heard liberal Christians or liberal, lovey-dovey, everybody this and whatever? Look, God wants every, it's God's will we have learned that all men be saved. But is everyone a child of God? No. The Bible says you are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. You become a child of God when you get saved. John 1.12 says this, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the son's lowercase s of God. And then he says it again, just to make sure as many as received him, okay, that could be confusing to them that believe on his name. That is who is a son of God, a child of God. Turn to Hebrews 12. So you see when everyone's like, oh, we're all God's children. You know, that's a pretty big wrong statement actually because it directly attacks salvation. Look at Hebrews 12 in chapter 7, I'm sorry, in verse number 7. And we see how God will deal with you as a child of God. The Bible says if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastened if not? But if he be without chastisement wherefore we are all our partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh with corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? He's saying if you endure, first of all, if you become a son of God and you continue in sin, God will chastise you. There's men in the Bible who destroyed their lives that were saved. But he's saying if you're just living in sin and you're doing all this sin and you're not receiving any chastisement, uh-oh. You know, maybe you're a bastard and not a son and that's why. Because God does not chastise the unsaved. You know, they're gonna pay in hell and that's also a good way to explain, you know, to people why bad people seem to get away with so many different things in this world. Because, you know, God is ultimately going to take vengeance on them by burning them in hell. So it's a good proof of, you know, why God allows bad people to be on this earth. He will have the last say. So not everyone is a child of God. Look at Romans, look at Romans 6, 16. Continuing on. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. Whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. So he's saying that if you're yielding yourself, you notice how he said that? If you give in to sin you are yielding yourself to bondage. And we've talked about this before. But the more now that you're saved sin has no power unto death over you. You can never go to hell. But you can re-enslave yourself on this earth to sin. I've met drug addicts who are saved. We have met people who have destroyed or who can't remember your name five minutes after they met you who are saved. But they have yielded their body themselves to sin and they have destroyed their life on this earth. It doesn't mean that they're not saved but they've ruined this one life that they have. Verse 17. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. I love that phrase obeyed from the heart. You know what that means? You know what it means to obey from the heart? You know what that means? If I obey from the heart you know what it means? It means to believe. That's what it means. Paul is such a great... I could see why God used him to write his word. He just had such a great way of putting things. So they believed that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Verse 18. Being then made free from sin. Are we seeing a pattern here? Ye became the servants of righteousness. So now serve righteousness. You know that's what righteousness has power over you. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members to servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness. There was no righteousness there. So what fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death? Verse 21 is a great verse especially if you got saved later in life. What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death? You know what good can ye see in the things that ye look back at when ye were unsaved? What good do ye see there? You know there's no good there. At the very best ye see just wasted time. Just wasted time. I look at unsaved people today and I just I think about them in that context. I think about these people like if they would get saved I mean obviously most of them probably won't but I look at them you know unfortunately I look at them and I just think what a waste of time with all the things that you are doing. You know the fantasy football I mean the things that people spend their time doing you know the next movie to come out I mean I mean politics I mean politics I mean you know I mean politics I used to be really wrapped up in politics. You know a bunch of wicked criminals trying to prosecute another group of wicked criminals I mean how stupid can the whole thing get? You know I mean but people just they spend their whole lives and it's just it's there's no fruit it's just it's a huge waste of time. Roman 622 continuing on but now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness now we've got some fruit right? Now we've got some fruit and the end so we get to have all this fruit in this life and at the end we get what? Everlasting life I mean does it get any better than that? If you're having a bad day just read Roman 622 because we get to have everybody else is blind 99% of the people in this world are wasting their life on stupid stuff that has no fruit is just going to end in death they're going to end up in hell and we get to have fruit unto holiness we're doing what we're supposed to do with our lives and at the end just to when we die physically we get everlasting life but we have everlasting life but that it never ends for us it's a beautiful thing you should never be in a bad mood when you read stuff like that and then of course he kind of repeats the same concept again he says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that's a great verse that we use all the time soul winning to show us that you know we deserve death but God gave us this gift so we get to have eternal life so you know just some application tonight you know what what is the main concept here the main concept here is that we as saved believers are free from sin we have total freedom you know reminds me of these these bump you know it and it was free it was a gift it reminds me of these bumper stickers that you see all the time like after 9-11 and all that you know freedom isn't free you know America you know but here's the funny thing here's the irony it actually is freedom actually is free the irony of that those bumper stickers and I don't want to get into politics but here's the irony of those bumper stickers if freedom isn't free so you got these guys are just like freedom America while you know they convince people that they need to go destroy a country you know on the other side of the world that has nothing to do with their freedom as if destroying Iraq and Syria in all these different countries makes you any more free I mean you have to be some kind of idiot to actually believe that statement they convince them that that makes them more free all the while they're passing like hundreds of laws every single year to make them less free I mean it define irony I mean it's crazy I heard a I read a libertarian author he wrote a book once and he said something along the lines that there's so many laws in the United States now if you give me 48 hours I can find two felonies on anybody he was like this this constitutional lawyer he's like there's so many laws that I can just pick a random person and I can find two felonies you just give me 48 hours to look into their life and you know things like that that's how free you are in America you say what's your point I'm not really sure what my point was there but look true freedom is in Christ that's the whole idea when you got saved that was your independence day when you got saved okay and you know what it's free to you but it was not free to God he paid a heavy price for it I told you about the guy drinking a beer in the lawn chair couple weeks ago what has God ever done for me well you know what he paid everything for you you know he paid for your freedom imagine if we would take this like imagine all these people that are going to be at the great white throne judgment and they're going to realize what was sitting right in front of them that they just didn't take imagine if we would take a diamond like this big we would put it just like in the middle of the street I mean how long do you think it would be sitting out in the street I mean everybody would grab it right but that's that that's even you know that's not even a close analogy of what's going on there's this total freedom a free ticket out of hell that anybody can have and it's free God offers it to you for free that's it but nobody wants it so Roman 6 teaches that you know once you get saved you're free from sin you shouldn't continue in sin if you do continue in sin you're just you're choosing to enslave yourself in the flesh we should we should remember our baptism that we died with Christ that we died to sin at your baptism and did you stay under the water no you came out of the water you rose out of the water and the Bible says that you should then walk we should then walk in newness of life let's power heads and have a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for Romans chapter 6 we thank you for your word Lord we thank you for the free gift of salvation and we thank you for just the wonderful way that you teach the Bible to us in in these these chapters in Romans Lord please bless the rest of our week Lord bless this church bless everyone in it be with the families Lord in this church and bless the soul winning on Saturday and bring us all safely back to church on Sunday in the precious name of Christ we pray Amen