 Today we're in Romans chapter 6. We're going to look at verses 5 through 14 as we continue our verse by verse Study through the book of Romans. And so what we'll do is we'll begin reading here in Romans chapter 6 at verse 5 and I'll read verses 5 through 8 introduce our Our chapter and get into our study beginning at Romans chapter 6 verse 5 reading to verse 8 And the Apostle Paul writes for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death certainly We also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this That our old man was crucified with him That the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin For he who has died has been freed from sin now if we died with Christ We believe that we shall also Live with him Now Paul has just made it clear that God's grace has not been given to us that we might continue in sin He makes it clear that grace has been abundantly poured out to enable us to live lives that are free from the bondage that comes with sin Now there were those who believed that Paul was teaching that grace was actually an excuse or even permission to continue in sin Now we need to remember that the majority of His day were raised in a religious system that was motivated by obedience to religious rules and for many salvation through grace seemed to be too simplistic Salvation through grace was much too easy Now that was the common way of thinking during the time of the Lord Jesus Christ On one occasion the Lord Jesus had performed an incredible miracle He had been ministering to a large multitude. He had been teaching them the Bible says and he'd been healing them throughout the day It had finally gotten very late and the Apostles wanted to send the multitude away And they began to speak to Jesus and they said to him the hour is late The people need to find lodging and they need to find food But instead of sending them away we read the scripture as it speaks concerning Jesus taking five lobes and two fish and With five lobes and two fish the Bible tells us he fed over five thousand Now the response of that crowd that multitude was that they wanted to make him king by force Jesus departed from them and he went to another city a city of Capernaum But the people came looking for him and they finally found him and in John chapter 6 Verses 25 through 27 it says when they found him on the other side of the sea they said to him Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them and said most assuredly I say to you you seek me not because you saw the signs But because you ate the lobes and were filled do not labor for the food which perishes But for the food which endures everlasting life Which the Son of man will give you because God the Father has set his seal on him Now the response to what Jesus said was very interesting if Jesus said they were to labor for eternal life Then just what does that mean? What do you mean labor for eternal life? Well, Jesus responded it says it in John 6 28 and 29 they said to him What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent They're from a system of works where you do something to get something in return Jesus said if you want to do the works of God it begins with believing it Begins with believing in Jesus Christ. What is it that you should do his answer? Believe in Jesus now Paul had been saying something here in Romans 5 That is similar in verses 1 and 2 he had said we are justified by faith and he said We have access by faith into God's grace So grace and faith are the agents whereby we live new lives by being born again Now this means that we no longer live to gratify any sinful desires. We now live by faith in Jesus Christ To illustrate that as we've been looking at this chapter verses 1 through 4 Paul used the right of Christian baptism He said when we were baptized we were identified with his death and his resurrection So our baptism demonstrates that we are buried with Jesus When he says in verse 5 for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death Certainly, we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection in being united in his death. We are united in his resurrection So Jesus's resurrection guarantees our own resurrection and as I was mentioning to you out of Romans Chapter 8 verse 11 it says if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you Will give life to you all of us have gone to funerals Can you imagine what it would be like to be in a funeral and To see the body of that individual that you're mourning in terms of their loss to you It is just so unbelievable that even as an illustration it Probably won't settle well Not deeply because it is so unbelievable. But what if that body? Sat up What if that dead person whom you knew was dead sat up? my grandmother when she was a little girl went to a funeral and it was Before they were embalming as a habit and it was in Mexico and My mom told me the story of how my grandma went to this funeral and You know how in funeral sometimes people get very emotional and they begin to cry things out like I wish they weren't dead Oh, I wish you were back with us. You know, why did you take her this and that? Well, they were doing that at the funeral crying how they wished that this dead person had not died and rigor mortis Set in and this person in the casket actually sat up Could you imagine what that would be like? The chapel was empty in about five seconds. I Mean everybody was gone Now a moment before you're saying oh, please come back and then they did. Mmm. I was just you know That's just something you say. I mean I'm just I don't really mean that I Mean it's so unbelievable And yeah, that's what we Christians believe That Jesus Christ died right we believe that that you don't believe that you're not a Christian That he was buried That he was raised from the dead the third day Easter celebrates that core belief When you read the book of Acts and you study through all the original Messages that you see the first time they preach the gospel it is all centered on Jesus being dead being buried but raised to life That is the heart of the gospel a resurrection of Jesus Christ If Jesus remained dead and buried in that grave then we have all people are to be pitied the most Because we are preaching one who is dead is alive when in reality Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15. He's still dead But if Jesus Christ is really alive then our entire life is to be built on the resurrection now If God raised Jesus how many here believe that God raised Jesus from the dead by the way Do you know that his spirit rests in you? Do you realize that? The spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead abides in you So how can I continue in sin? How can I continue letting sin dominate my life? If the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead is now residing in me and Paul says that's what happens when you're born again We are temples of the spirit of God and the spirit of God now dwells in us According to 1st Corinthians 3 16 if that's true and deed it is that's what we believe Well, that's Paul's argument You were dead you were buried, but you're alive in Jesus Christ That spirit who raised Christ from the dead Dwells in you and as he dwells in you That power of resurrection residing in you gives you a new life That's why he said Don't you understand and this is really what he's saying when he uses the illustration of their baptism Don't you understand when you were baptized what that meant? dead buried but alive and therefore Let the life of Christ rule in your body live a life that demonstrates that you've been freed from sin Why because you're dead to sin, but alive in Jesus Christ That is such a basic thing and yet the church has either not grasped it forgotten it Or is ignoring it Because we have a tendency of giving more credit to our flesh and saying oh well, you know, I can't help it It's just the way I am We're not even understanding what Paul is saying if we even think that way because Paul is saying that's no way that that's That's true. There's no way You are united in his death, but you are united in his resurrection Again Romans 8 11 if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you And so he's making it very clear that we walk Because we're alive in Christ we walk in newness of life and This newness of life that that we find in scripture is an entirely different kind of life This is a result of grace. It's an entirely new manner of living. I was Sharing with the first service today. I kind of got in a preaching role and here we go again I was sharing this morning That this is one of the things that the church has not grabbed hold of yet I've been in the ministry now for a long time 39 years. I've been a Christian for 42 years Now it's 20 years old when I got saved within three years. I was learning and teaching the Bible to other people I've been doing that now for 39 solid years 32 years in this church pastoring this church in in July and So I have experienced a lot of things and I don't speak in a way to try and pop myself up I'm just simply trying to say I have some credentials perhaps some credibility when I say this and I can say that I encounter a lot of people and I have done so for many years But I'm doing so more now than ever before who don't grab hold of what grace really is and what newness of life is They just haven't there. They're not aware what Paul is saying They're not aware that That that old man has been crucified with Christ and is dead and buried Has no more power and domination over their life And many are actually using God's grace even to this day as an excuse to continue in sin Now this will To a young person this could very well seem like oh here comes some old man kind of just talking about the good old days No, the good old days were never there were never such a thing as the good old days. They've always been in need of Jesus every day every age So no, there was no such thing as the good old days, but they were different days And some of you in this room might remember some of you have studied through ancient history. You've discovered this to be true It's called the 50s I'm eight years old My dad gives me a quarter Son go to the store and buy the Sunday newspaper. There's a quarter at that time. I Walked to the corner store at the corner store. It's only about Two three hundred yards from my house. I walk up to this the newspaper the store itself is an open It doesn't open until ten or whatever. I Lift up the first newspaper. There's a stack of newspapers outside There's no arm guard there with there's a stack of newspaper there. I Lift up the top newspaper. I take the quarter. I drop it into a pile of quarters and then I take a bottom Newspaper from the stack and I leave all those quarters there And you have to understand back in 1958 two or three dollars and quarters that wasn't bad That wasn't bad money at all. My dad was making in 1958 as a weekly wage about sixty dollars a week So you get two or three dollars worth of quarters You've got a good bundle of change and you could have taken all of that. How come there was a pile of quarters there? Because nobody stole it You can leave your bike in the front yard your bicycle in the front yard and Somebody would take it and put it into the backyard for you So you wouldn't get in trouble with your dad when he came home They didn't ride off down the street saying praise God. He gave me a new bike You can sleep with your windows open Because it's hot and we didn't have air conditioning air conditioning meant standing in front of the refrigerator with a fan And that's as you got cooled you could actually leave your front door unlocked People left their car keys inside of the car in the driveway That's how it was. That's how I grew up. That's what I grew up with But it's been said that a pagan in the 50s Lived a better quality of life than a Christian in the 21st century And you know what sad to say that's true Because what was acceptable to somebody in the 50s and What is acceptable to somebody in? 2013 to entirely different worlds In my lifetime I have seen an entirely different world cultural shift So that the church is accepting things that pagans rejected just 50 years ago and not only Accepting it but living it and defending it excusing it and preaching it And that's what we're seeing today and The morals of the 50s were morals of the 50s because they were based on biblical mores Because a word of God was still regarded in such a case as being the word of God. I had teachers I remember one in particular who used as an example in her enters in her teachings to me the book of Job You mentioned the book of Job today in a classroom and there are some who will offend they'll get offended and say how dare you? Throw your religion down our throat if the days are entirely different. We understand that but guess what? We're supposed to be impacting the culture, but the culture is impacting us and Paula's saying we need to understand who we are in Jesus Christ We don't need to go out and do the things to satisfy the lust of the flesh like we used to because the flesh is dead The old man is dead. He was crucified with Christ. We need to live new lives Ephesians 5 3 through 5 Paul said it like this let there be no sexual immorality Impurity or greed among you such sins have no place among God's people obscene stories foolish talk and coarse jokes These are not for you and instead let there be thankfulness to God You can be sure that no immoral impure or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God For a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world Paul made it clear the Bible is very clear But today when you preach what the Bible actually teaches there are those who would want to argue with God himself That God is wrong Now we need to understand who we are in Jesus Christ Listen if this world's ever going to change it's going to change because God has changed you God has changed me and That's how worlds are changed one person at a time. That's how it works. You see So he says in verse 6 knowing this that our old man was crucified With him that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin knowing this Now what he's about to say should be something they already knew he's making it very clear. This should be common knowledge In essence he's saying this is so basic That there should be no mistake made whatsoever. It is obvious. He is saying that a person who's been born again It's obvious that they would live an entirely different kind of life white. Well, we have a completely new heart Ezekiel 3626 says I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh So with a new heart we have a new manner of life Ephesians 5a you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light So he's making it very clear. This is so very basic that he says the body of sin might be done away with That we should no longer be slaves of sin Speaks of our old man. That's our old life that was put to death on the cross with Jesus Christ This body of sin. He said might be done away with Sin, this is where it gets revolutionary does not have the power to control us any longer Our flesh continues to desire being satisfied, but in Christ we can resist our fleshly desires Those who say I can't help myself Are right But God can help you And Christ within can help you The power of the Holy Spirit who right who the one who raised Jesus from the dead and has given life to you can help you and That's what Christianity really is guys God's help to man. We need his grace To try and do it in my own strength and try and do it on my own Well, I'm always going to be doomed to failure. I cannot satisfy the requirements of my God, but he gives me grace And he gives me a new life And the body of sin is done away with What should I do? Well Romans 12 1 and 2 says it like this. I beseech you there for brethren By the mercies of God that you present your bodies the living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God Which is your reasonable service do not be conformed to this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God He says in verse 6 we are no longer slaves of sin This body of sin has been rendered in operative before salvation the Bible is very clear about this We were held captive by sin. We were enslaved to it Proverbs 5 22 says his own iniquities and trapped the wicked man. He's caught in the cords of his sin But in Jesus we're now free from its unlimited power over us And because of Jesus we're free from the domination of sin and we live in that knowledge Jesus in Luke 4 18 said it like this the spirit of the Lord is upon me Because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives Recovery of sight to the blind to set it liberty those who are oppressed, you know The problem is is people don't realize that they are sin there are slaves to so they don't understand it That their slaves to sin This man had a rabbit Little rabbit cute little thing And he had a small cage But he didn't realize it was what you call a Goliath giant rabbits a rabbit that grew And so well it was small and cute. He took care of it as a pet But finally this Goliath rabbit outgrew the cage and now it was pretty much filling the cage He could hardly even move so the man took pity on this little rabbit his giant rabbit and He took it out to a forest and he opened up the cage and the rabbit nose Started sniffing the air and and began to slide its massive body out of the cage and As it began to slide out of the cage and finally stood there with an entire forest in front of it in the forest was actually It's natural habitat. It's really where it should have been in the first place when the rabbit Finally got out of the cage and began to sniff and began to look around this man was thinking finally he's in the right environment He's in the right place To the man's surprise even shock After a moment or two of being outside of the cage that huge rabbit turned around and Squeezed itself back into the cage and Just sat there all of this unlimited freedom, but it preferred cage God has given you freedom Please don't go back into the cage There are a lot of believers who live in the cage Saying this is all life really is and Paul is arguing and saying no God's grace is given to you freedom live in his freedom Enjoy his grace. Love Jesus Christ find out what life really is all about Because you have that freedom in Christ. You don't have to be in bondage John 8 36 said therefore if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed He says in verse 7 he who has died has been freed from sin See a dead person is no longer responsible for his debt Because we're in Jesus and because he paid our debts. We are not liable for them any longer Colossians 2 14 says that Jesus canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us and That stood opposed to us. He took it away Nailing it to the cross and he goes on in verse 8 and says if we died with Christ We believe that we shall also live with him So since we're alive in Jesus our present living will bring honor to him but our ultimate hope of life rests in his resurrection and So because our present living that is based on a future hope Is going to bring honor to him then we live in such a way as to bring glory to him He says in verse 9 knowing That Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more death no longer has dominion over him For the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life that he lives lives to God Jesus died one time for all time and never dies again. Jesus's death on the cross is a victory That need never be repeated in Hebrew 7 26 and 27. He is the kind of high priest We need because he's holy and blameless unstained by sin He's been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven And like those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as a sacrifice for the people's sin Christ raised from the dead death no longer has anything over him And so what do we do verse 11? We reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its last Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead your members as instruments of righteousness to God Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not under the law but under grace Well, if the church would only understand that today No, I don't want to live as a Christian because Christians are they live boring lives Christians are just even Christians, you know, you're young Going to school you've been raised in a Christian home And you see your friends your friends telling you things that they did on Friday night and Saturday night, right? What did you do? Oh, man, I had such a great time was out doing this. I was partying this I went there I did this I smoked this I drank this and And you're there going how I didn't do anything, you know, I didn't do anything. I was bored I had to sit there in the house and look at my mom all night When it take me to some Christian concert and this and that what a lousy life, you know what man? Let's just be honest for a moment here. I've been trying to be honest for the whole time But I'll be honest for this moment, too You watch the commercials and that's pretty much where you get your world you from isn't it? Whatever is on TVs got to be true, right? I mean it's on the internet. Nobody lies on the internet Bonjour Nobody lies. It's all true You see those commercials with Miller or whatever I don't want to Be advertising beer products and all but you see these and those people at those bars are so cool, aren't they? they really are I mean you look at them and they got the coolest hair and The women are beautiful and they're all They ought to get some pictures of the real winos we know You know the guts hanging out You know and their t-shirt about this high and you see their belly button and they're kind of laying there in the grass with stuff All over their face Why don't they show what really happens that guy is so cool. He's so happy He's so happy. I mean he looks so cool, you know, he's got that cigarette in his mouth And you know 30 years later their teeth are all yellow and they only have four of them You know what happened to their families? What happened to all of the things that really go along with the lifestyle that is being commercialized to us? I mean it's the truth. You know this. I know this Every weekend it starts and late on Friday goes on Saturday goes on Sunday and what are the commercials? I can tell you you know them if you watch sports, you know what they are There'll be food and then there's going to be you know alcohol That's the big commercials right and the nice cars, but it's food and alcohol So you get that on Friday night you get that really on Saturday and Sunday your weekend commercials are usually food and alcohol And then starting on Monday you have rehab centers Get you from your addictions and then they advertise once again. This is true. Is it I'm just thinking of people who watch TV I'm sure you know and that's just the truth and and they're always telling you it's just a great way to live I mean you got to do this The girls who are always out there sleeping around they've got four or five different guys that they're with don't even remember the names of them Anymore, but why should they after all I mean you're liberated, right? They don't show you later on with the STD They don't show you later on with the unwanted pregnancy They don't show you going to the abortion clinic and the grief and and all that you feel later on because you violated What you knew you shouldn't violate they never show that it's always harmless and entertaining isn't it and That's where we get our idea of life from That's where we get it. We see it on TV. We hear it in our music. We watch it in our movies. We read it in our books And we go to church once in a while And we hear somebody read the Bible to us because a lot of times Christians don't even pick up their own book and read it themselves So the world is telling you what life is I'm 16 years old It's Washington's birthday Still three bottles of wine with a friend of mine. He's still three. I still three we drink three bottles of wine get very drunk We end up getting arrested I'm in the sheriff substation in Norwalk And I'm so drunk I can't move and my friend is seated above me and my face is directly Looking into his as he's vomiting on me And I'm saying Billy stop and Billy says I can't Make a commercial out of that You can have this too Make a commercial that was my life That's what I did. I didn't even remember too much of it All I remember is cops saying you got to see this and three cops looking at me as I'm getting a wine bath They don't tell you the world never does It always says it's going to be great. It's going to be good the other people They get STD's they get AIDS They get unwanted pregnancy other people But if that's true, then why do we have all of these shows where they say who's my baby's daddy? I think you are is a contestant number one We're the six guys behind the other door. I mean they never know But isn't that fun ladies in that great raise a child by yourself in a good It's not is it isn't it painful? Absolutely Absolutely is a heartbreaking Yes Absolutely Do you have to do that? Paul says no Don't you know who you are in Jesus Christ yet? Don't you know Jesus died But was raised by the power of the father and that power resides in you Reckon yourself to be dead to sin but alive and do not yield yourself to under righteousness You've yourself to God See yourself for who you really are by faith We're new creations in Christ Jesus old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ according to Ephesians 1 3 Colossians 1 13 says we are delivered from the power of darkness and that he has conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love Revelation 12 11 says we are overcomers through the blood and the word of our testimony Romans 8 37 says we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us Romans 8 17 says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ So with this in mind we make up our mind to resist sin and to yield to obedience to God and God works in us. He supplies us with the power to resist first Corinthians 10 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as his common a man But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able But will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it You can you can overcome you are an overcomer in Jesus Christ You need to identify with the finished work of Christ and you need to realize that the enemy will lie to destroy you He wants to take you back and if he can't have you back He will break your life and destroy it until it's just in shambles if you yield to him Jesus Christ gives us the victory. He said in verse 14 sin shall not have dominion over you You are not under law, but under grace The law cannot break the power of sin or set us free from its penalty only grace can and by grace We live in God's redeeming love and his freedom So I'm 1913 keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me Then will I be blameless innocent of great transgression? Keep me from willful sins I've been set free Somebody says pastor, how have you remained faithful to God for these years? Same way you do. I know who I am in Jesus Christ. I've been set free not only that I Hate what I was I Hate what I did to other people. I hate it Causes me tears to this day when I think what I've been I Will never go back. I am set free in Jesus Christ. I have a new life in him now You