Alright, turn to Romans 6, 6.
Romans 6, 6 is our text this morning. Now last week, the focus
was centered mainly upon what Christ's death accomplished and
accomplished for us. So let's just do a little review
of that before we finish the end of verse 6. Now, the beginning
there, Romans 6, 6, says, knowing this, right, this is our experience,
what the Spirit of God dwelling in us teaches us, that our old
man is crucified with Christ, so that when Christ died, we
died with him, and his death has justified us, freed us of
sin and sin's condemnation, and that means all wrath and judgment
was poured out upon him. He died in the place of his people
and when he died he put away our sin. He justified us, freed
us of sin and sin's condemnation. And so the justice of God is
now satisfied. Satisfied. God is pleased with
us. He's not angry with us. He's
not upset. He's pleased with us. He's at
peace with you brethren who believe. And so the debt of righteousness
that we owe to God has been fully satisfied. God is satisfied and
we have paid all the debt in full through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then we see in Romans 6 6 that
he did this that the body of sin might be destroyed. meaning the reign and the rule
of sin in us, over us. We come forth naturally in Adam. That reigning and ruling of sin
has been destroyed. It ruled over the old man. Well,
the old man is crucified. And so that reigning and that
rule, that headship is severed. It's cut off. We're delivered
now from the reign and the rule of sin. and all its works, everything
that, in that body of sin, all its members, all that it means
there, consisting of the body of sin, is destroyed. All right? It's destroyed in
the believer so that now we are in Christ. We, for whom Christ
shed his blood and has brought this gospel to and that we've
heard, we've been delivered out of that body of sin translated
into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We're out of the kingdom of darkness,
in the kingdom of light, under his rule and authority. Christ
is our head, Christ is our husband, and we're told in 2 Corinthians
5 17 that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. old things
have passed away behold all things are become new we're a new creation
in the Lord Jesus Christ for Ephesians 5 30 we are members
of his body of his flesh and of his bones so that now being
delivered from the body of sin its rule and power we have no
part now in Adam we're not represented in Adam We don't stand before
God in Adam, but all who do stand before God in Adam will receive
everything that Adam obtained and earned for them, his inheritance,
which is death and condemnation and hell separated from God.
But we who stand in Christ are seen in Christ, and God deals
with us as he deals with his Son. And all that he has blessed
Christ with is our inheritance, through Christ our head. and
our Savior. So the old man who was crucified,
that's all dead and put away, we don't stand in Adam anymore.
We stand in the blood of Christ, in His righteousness. So we're
alive in Christ our Savior now, born of His spiritual seed. We
were first born initially of Adam's seed, his corrupt seed,
but now we are born of Christ's spiritual, incorruptible seed. and we have the Spirit of Christ
in us even now and our inheritance is fixed in Christ so that we
shall be accepted and received of God because even now we are
received and accepted by God. That's not going to change. Our
title this morning now is, Delivered from the Power of Sin Through
Faith. Delivered from the Power of Sin
Through Faith. And we really will just have
one division. Now, like last week, I spent
a lot of time on this message, but I broke it down. I am not trying to tackle as
much as I was tackling last week, because I want you to hear it.
I want you to be able to hear it and be blessed and fed well
in this morning's message because we'll be able to pick up some
of these other things that I can't cover as we go through the rest
of chapter six because he brings up other points about it. All
right, so we don't serve sin now. That's what Paul is getting
to in this last portion. We don't serve sin. We're not
the servants of sin anymore in Christ. Now our life, our walk
in Christ is a walk of faith. It's a walk of faith, and you
that have the Spirit of Christ, you know why it's a walk of faith,
because it's not always a walk of sight. We don't see what we
are in Christ a lot of times. We see things that terrify us
and disappoint us and frustrate us and confuse us. It's a walk
of faith, knowing what Christ has done for us. We believe Him.
That's what faith is. We believe, Lord, You said it.
We trust you. We believe that we are now perfect
in you, in Christ, standing before God and are accepted and received
of Him. We know this by faith. And we know in Christ we are
justified from our sin. And so now we walk in faith,
not in fear, not worried under the threat of punishment anymore
because we believe Christ has paid for our sins. He's put them
away by his shed blood, and so there's no risk of condemnation
or judgment if we truly be in Christ, if we are his people.
There's no fear. Paul tells us in Colossians 3,
3, 4, ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. All that's hidden. All that Christ
has covered in grace by his blood so that God doesn't see the sin.
It's all put away. It's paid for. It's gone. It's
carried away by Christ, the Lamb of God, who died for his people. So the Apostle in our text is
very clear. In Romans 6.6, he showed us that
we are crucified in Christ, he showed us that the body of sin
has been destroyed, and we know from what Paul said previously,
we're raised in Christ. We've been raised as he was raised,
so we are raised in Christ, that, and here's our text, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. We should not serve sin. Now
that may come as a shock to many, due to the immense confusion
that's out there. You that are in Christ and know
the truth and believe Christ, you know the cloud of confusion
there is about sin and what we are in Christ. There's all kinds
of teachings and religion built around what we are supposedly
now in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what Paul is saying is that,
brethren, we're no longer in bondage to it. We're not in bondage
to sin, kept down just to do what sin requires of us and what
we would do in the flesh. And certainly, though we be weak
in the flesh, the Spirit in us is by no means in bondage to
sin. The Spirit of Christ in you is
not in bondage to sin because the Spirit of Christ, His seed
is incorruptible. It can't be corrupted with sin.
It has no power and authority over it. Christ's seed is not
bound by sin, it's not under the authority of the body of
sin, and we're not either, and so in our bodies, we're not to
be in bondage to sin anymore. Paul said over in Galatians 5,
16, if you wanna turn there, just put a marker, because we'll
look at a couple verses there, but in Galatians 5, 16, he said, this I say then, walk
in the Spirit, right, you have the Spirit of Christ, now walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And we'll look at that more as
we go through Romans 6, this lust of the flesh, and what the
Apostles, when you read these epistles, you're seeing that
this body, this flesh, still feels, it's still infirmed, it's
still weak. We feel The lusts, the things
that we once did, we still feel those things, the lusts of the
flesh. And they tell us, though you feel them, don't do them. Don't serve those lusts and passions
that are yet in your flesh. So you that know the lusts in
your flesh, yeah, the apostles knew the lusts in the flesh too,
but they said don't serve it. Don't go to those things and
do those things. those things. For, verse 17,
for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that
ye cannot do the things that ye would. Alright, so he's showing
us that there is in the believer those two natures. We still see
the old nature, though it's been crucified, and we shall not pay
for the sins of the old nature. Christ paid. His blood covered
those sins and put them away. But that nature is still there. There's still those passions
and that war. That's there, but Christ now,
you that believe Him, Christ is our head, He's our rule, and
the one who reigns over us, and we're to obey Him, and to hear
His voice, and walk, and follow, and obey Christ. And so, that's
why it's a walk of faith. It's a walk of faith, because
we're trusting Him and believing what He has said that He has
done, is done away. And that now, believe Him and
walk believing Him, in the spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the
flesh. So people, when they hear this,
that we should not continue in sin anymore, they come and they
start listening and they come to church services and they hear
the messages and sing the hymns, but in a lot of so-called churches,
in a lot of places where they say that they are Christian,
because we're not to serve sin anymore, what they do to help
that, or to try and effect that in us, is they point you back
to the Law of Moses, right? And they tell you, well, the
only way you're gonna keep that sin and that lust at bay and
not do those things is if you go to the Law of Moses. And that's
not the Gospel. That's not what Paul teaches
us at all. He never tells us to go back
to the Law. In fact, in Galatians 5.18, 518, he says, but if ye be led by
the spear, led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. He tells us that plainly. Ye
are not under the law. So that's not at all what we're
to do to try and keep this flesh at bay. Believers are ever to
look to and ever trust the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not looking
to the law of Moses. We're not in the body of Moses.
We're in the body of Christ, and we're to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. For the just shall live by his
faith, we are told. All right? Now, with that understanding
that we saw from last week, I want to go to Ephesians 5 with you. Alright, with the understanding
that we received last week, I'll read that verse, I'll read Romans
6 while you're turning to Ephesians 5, verse 3. But Paul had said,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that
the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. Alright, so let's look at this
passage here, for an example, in the light of the gospel. Alright,
so Ephesians 5, 3 and we'll be going down to verse 7. This is
one of those places where Paul lists out for us a number of
sins. Some wicked sins that we are
not to be practicing. Alright, and he's showing us
so that we understand that the body of sin is destroyed in us
by Christ. All right, now knowing the gospel,
what Christ has done, that he's destroyed that body, let's look
at this in the light of the gospel, all right? Verse three, but fornication
and all uncleanness, now uncleanness seems to be related to fornication.
like the unclean sexual sins because it always follows fornication
right there. So, fornication and uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh
saints. Now Paul is very clear here.
He's telling us do not walk in sin. And he's telling us these
sins not to walk in. He's telling us these are sinful
things. Don't walk in them. Don't do
them. And I would tell you, and as
I tell myself, don't look for justifications to do sin. Don't
look for a way out to indulge in sin or to justify when you
sin. Don't do it. He's telling you
these are sinful. Don't do them. Just accept it. These are sinful. Do not do these
things because they're not becoming of saints. Don't even let them
be named among you. Alright, so the Lord reveals
here with Paul, through Paul, that these are sins and not to
do them. And if you want to see other
sins that he's listed, you could look in Galatians 5. Alright,
I'll give you the verses if you want to write them down for later,
19 through 21. And in other places in 1 Corinthians
6, verses 9 and 10. He uses very similar language
to what we have here, but we're just looking at Ephesians it's impossible for you to do
these things. We're still in the flesh. We
still have the lusts and the passions of the flesh. So he's
not saying you can't do these things, like it's impossible
for you to do these things. Let me be careful how I word that.
That's not impossible for us to do these things. He's telling
us don't do them. Don't do these things. Don't
practice fornication and uncleanness and covetousness. It's sin. Don't
let it be named among you. Now, People, especially in religion,
love to make up lists and build on lists and have all these things
that they say are sinful and wicked and things that we shouldn't
do. We meet people all the time that have certain convictions.
Some people I know would say, I can't imagine a Christian sending
their child to public school. They get upset. How could you
send your kid to public school? Well, where is that written?
in the scriptures. I mean, I know that they could take some scriptures
and twist it, right? And say, do it. And others would
say, well, I wouldn't even send them to private school. I would
homeschool my kids. You know, and they come up with
this thing and they get all upset and try to bind you with certain
things. There's people that say, I can't
imagine a Christian ever voting Democrat. Right? Well, really? You think that the Republicans
are any cleaner in what they do? You don't think that there's
corruption and filth there too? There's corruption in every political
system. There's not going to be a political
system, you know, that saves. And so why are we trying to create
all these things to bind one another? I remember working with
a guy and he said, I could never be a mailman. Really? I would
think that would be a pretty good respectable job. I could
never be a mailman. Why is that? Well, because sometimes
you have to deliver filthy magazines to their house, you know, things
that they shouldn't have. And so he was convicted, he can't
ever be a metal man. But even if you're in business
for yourself, don't you at some point have to buy merchandise
from somebody that's probably a corrupt, wicked man, right?
You've got to get parts to do the work that you're doing, whether
it's lumber or grass seed or something. You've got to purchase
it and do business with somebody at some point. Buy beans from,
coffee beans from around the world. You don't know who these
people are. you're gonna be, if that's your conviction, you're
stuck because you better be a hermit, because there's nothing you can
do that isn't interacting with sinners in this world. All right,
so don't make up lists. don't try to find more things
to hold and bind one another and hold them accountable. Because
usually it's the sins that, or the things that we think are
sinful, because we don't struggle with them. That's why it's so
easy to get upset with other people who do it. You can't imagine,
how could anybody do that? But then there's things that
we do that somebody else could say, I can't imagine anybody
would ever do that. And here we are doing it too.
So we could never Don't get into finding and inventing things
that you think are sinful. Just stop. Just stop. Paul gives us enough right here
to deal with here and these things. And the apostles, even in Galatians,
I'm sorry, Acts 15, gave a few things. eat things sacrificed
to idols, or pollute yourself with idols, or don't fornicate
and don't eat things strangled or blood. So that you don't offend
your brethren, the Jews. Don't purposely try to do things
that offend people. and avoid those things. So it's
very, there's only a few things that they list. And like I said,
you can look in Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 6 if you really
want to see more, and you should because we don't want to do those
things that shouldn't be named among the saints. But in Ephesians
5 verse 4, he adds this, neither filthiness, now this is good
for us to hear, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting.
Why? Because they're not convenient,
right? But rather of giving, of thanks, and that's because
when we start joking around, it is easy. You don't know what
someone's day has been, and they might get offended and be upset
and then not hear you, and you don't realize that you've just
offended them. And he's saying, let your mouth
be used for edification, to encourage one another and use it for giving
of thanks, because rather than using it for things that can
hurt people and tear them down and not edify, all right? Now
Paul is going to remind the brethren, this is important right here
at this verse five, he's gonna remind the brethren that he's
speaking to, he's gonna show them that those that practice
those things are yet in the body of sin. That's what I want you
to see here. And he's saying, that's what
those yet under the rule and the reign of sin are practicing,
which Christ has delivered you out of. All right, look at verse
five. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person,
nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God. And what he's saying is, look
at the body of sin. Look at all those yet operating
in and working in the body of sin. They have no inheritance
in Christ. They don't have any part in Christ.
They're still practicing those things which you and I were all
once a part of. We were all part of that body
of sin, and we walked according to the course of this world,
and we were under the power of the Prince of the air when the
lusts of our flesh and were in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others." Right? And so he's showing
that when we were children of disobedience and children of
wrath, that was our part in the body of sin. When we were all
doing those things under that power, that rule, and that authority. Now, that was from Ephesians
2, but you notice he doesn't threaten them with hell. He's
not saying to them, you're going to hell if you do, if and when
you do these things. And he doesn't turn them back
to the law. He doesn't tell them, now you need to get back to the
law to know not to do these things and to keep yourselves from doing
these things. What he does say, what he is doing there in pointing
that body of sin, he's reminding them, that's what Christ delivered
you out of. Those are their practices and
they have no part in Christ. So why would you, who now have
your part in Christ, go back and do those things with them
that are in the body of sin. He saved you from that. Why are
you going back and doing those things? They don't have any inheritance
in Christ. You do. So why are you taking
part in what they're doing? And that's why he says in verse
7, Be not ye therefore partakers with them. So don't partake with
them because they have no part in you and you have no part in
them. Don't be part of it. Don't do those works which are
yet done by those in the body of sin. And that's how the Apostle
Paul handles it. He didn't threaten them. He didn't
say, you're out of Christ. I mean, if you walk, if that's
your walk, and that's your practice, and you don't hear what Christ
is saying, then you show that you never had a part in Christ.
But those that are in Christ, that's how he handles it. Because
if you look at Corinthians, it looks like there were some still
doing those things. And he's making you known to
them, don't do those things, you don't have a part. That's
their part. They're in the body of sin, and their inheritance
is death and destruction. You have no part in that. Come
out of those things, all right? So that's what he's saying there. Don't be partakers with them.
And so Paul, who was given tremendous revelation by the Lord, he was
given tremendous revelation by him to know what Christ had accomplished
for his people, he himself, as an apostle, was determined not
to yield his members to sin. He was determined that he would
not yield his members to sin and be a servant to it. Over
in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12, you can see that. He tells us
what I'm saying to you. He says in 6.12, I'll let you
get there, because it is good to see, It's 1 Corinthians 6.12. He says,
all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under
the power of any. And that's what he says. I'm
not going to use my members in the body of Christ to serve sin. I'm not surrendering the power
of Christ in me to that. I'm not going to serve sin. That's
what he's saying to you, and that's how he's handling it with
us. He's not threatening you. He's
not condemning you. He's not turning you back to
the law. He's saying, I have the spirit of Christ in me, and
I'm serving him. I'm not going to serve sin. That's
how he's handling it, and that's why we have to hear it by faith.
by faith in the Spirit of Christ. All right, so he says back in
our text a little later in Romans 6, 14, we're not gonna cover
it today, but he says, for sin shall not have dominion over
you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. You have
no other constraint. You don't have the law constraining
you. The law isn't the one telling you not to do it, but you're
in Christ, and you have his Spirit in you, and his power. Now take
your members, which are Christ's, and yield them back in sin. And
that's how he's dealing with sin. And so don't be confused
by the cloud of confusion that threatens you from these things. It's not under threat. It's not
under fear. It's by love that constrains
us, the love of Christ that constrains us. And don't let that confusion
turn you back to the law and thinking that the law is the
only way to keep ourselves from doing these things. No, we've
got plenty right here, that's pretty clear what's sinful, and
he just says don't do it. Don't do those things, don't
yield your members to those things. And, you know, as you're grown
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, as he
grows you in this, he matures you in this, and he teaches you
so that as you grow, there are things that maybe aren't here,
but that you know lead you either further down, or just provoke
the lust in your own flesh, or that your concern may cause another
to stumble, and I don't want to do that, because he's grown
you, he's maturing you, and then there may be other things that
you put off in the flesh. They're not a law for somebody
else, there's no law in it that says don't do this, but you are
brought by the Spirit of Christ not to do certain things, because
he's grown you, and he's constraining you by his love, and his power,
so it's Christ, look to Christ, He settles us. He settles us,
He sets us in Him and He grows us in Christ so that we begin
to walk in the truth and in the light that He's given us concerning
these things and concerning the Gospel, so that we hear the Gospel,
so that we don't, now, you know, we see sin and we're not laboring
in fear under the threat of punishment, and we're not turned from Christ
to the law of Moses, alright? And so it's the Lord who has
to teach us this, right? It's the Lord. We know it's the
Lord that teaches us because it ain't gonna be the flesh that
teaches us and the flesh isn't gonna be constrained by the law. The flesh is gonna still be a
servant of sin if we do that. And so, you know, there's all
that confusion about the believer's rule of life. The believer's
rule of life is Christ. He's our head. We're under his
rule and authority now. We're in his body, you that believe. He's our head now, and that's
how sin is subdued in us, by Christ. In faith, looking to
Christ, trust him, believe him. We're so confident in Christ
that we preach Christ because we know that's how he's going
to subdue your hearts. That's how he's going to subdue
this flesh and make me willing to serve him and use my members
to serve him rather than my members serving the lusts of the flesh
and what I did in that old body there. So then, when you understand
that, then you can hear and read the admonitions without saying,
Oh, is he saying it's the law that is our role? No, he's not
saying it's the role. He's just admonishing us unto
serving Christ and looking to him and rejoicing in him, in
Christ, in love, all right? Now, one more example I'll give
you. Go to 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1. And we've seen this before, but
again, I just want us to look at it in the light of our growth
in the gospel and growing in grace. It makes it a lot easier
because Peter's not laying down the law for us. He's not laying
down the 12 steps of getting better. He's showing us that
progression of us in Christ, hearing the gospel, being settled
in him, and how the Lord grows us. That's what we see here.
So it's not hard and fast rules. He's just tracing out the experience
of believers. And so, remember, we're gonna
pick up in verse four, but remember in verse three there, he was
saying that, by divine power, Christ hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness. Everything needed,
he's done it, who has called us to glory and virtue. All right,
virtue, good works. Whereby, he says, verse four,
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. In other
words, we are going to know what Christ has accomplished for us,
and we're going to experience his power, the power of his shed
blood, what he's accomplished there on the cross, we're going
to experience, and we're going to know what he's done and be
grown, all right, according to the measure of the gift of faith
that he gives to each one will experience this power of Christ
who accomplished our salvation on the cross and rose again.
That by these, ye might be partakers of the divine nature. Having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, right,
that body of sin, we've escaped that. And their inheritance of
destruction, we've been delivered by Christ out of that body into
the body of Christ. Yeah, so out of that body of
sin, and then Peter here begins to trace out our growth in Christ. And we know, where does that
growth begin? Well, for us, in time, it begins in faith, right? We didn't know what was ours. We didn't know we were Christ
and what he accomplished for us until he revealed faith in
us, and revealed to that faith what he's done, right? So it
begins in faith. In faith is where we begin, and
then he says, Verse five, and beside this, beside faith, giving
all diligence, being excited and eager to serve the Lord now,
being eager to know Him and what He's done, add to your faith
virtue, virtue. And what he's simply saying is
when the Lord gives you faith, there's some things that He shows
you are just good and right to do in the Lord. He shows you,
each of you, something that is good. Maybe you did this, and
now you don't. Now you do that instead. Just some simple things
that the Lord gives you and convinces you this is right to do in the
Lord. And you start doing those things
in faith, just believing Him. It's not a law, it's not a rule.
It doesn't matter if someone else is doing it or not. It's
just the Lord shows you in Him, and you have a heart now for
something that you didn't have before. And then to virtue, Knowledge,
knowledge, right? And let me just say back on that
virtue, those works that you do is just according to the understanding
of what you think is right in the Lord, what the Lord would
have you to do in certain situations. Maybe it's just biting your tongue
one time instead of saying, blurting out something to hurt someone.
It might just be a simple thing like that. And then to virtue,
knowledge, meaning the Lord's gonna grow us in knowledge, right? Since I've come here as your
pastor, I've certainly grown in knowledge, just being in the
Word all the time now, it's certainly taught me a lot of things, a
much deeper understanding, and I believe, according to what
many of you have said, that you see things more clearly, and
you're more settled in Christ, and you have a better understanding
of what Christ has accomplished, and a lot of the confusion starts
blowing away and the Lord settles you. You're growing in knowledge.
The Lord's doing that. You're not trying to do that.
The Lord's doing it for you. He's grown you in that knowledge. And then so to knowledge, he
says temperance. Temperance. There's that self-control
that comes in so that as you're growing, the Lord's showing you
certain things that, you know what, I don't want to do that
anymore. I'm done with that. And so there's
a certain self-control in those things as you see, like Paul,
you can then hear when Paul says, you know, don't, you know, let
foolish jesting and foolish talk come out of your mouth. Like,
there's a willingness and an ear to hear it, you know, and
there might be something that you do personally that you say,
you know what, I don't want to practice that anymore. And maybe
you still stumble in it from time to time, but then more and
more as the Lord matures you and grows you in it, it falls
away, right? Paul said, all things are lawful
for me, but not all things are expedient. I don't have to do
them just because I can.