If we will, please turn to Romans
chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We'll be looking
at verses 1-5 today. Here in this county, on the hillsides,
here and there, I see a cross. One up by my house and a real
big one up on Mount Helix. There are several throughout
here. I see a cross. And I see so many people wearing
a cross around their neck. I see crosses on bumper stickers.
All those things. And that's odd to me. Now in one sense, Not just from
the point of view that it's idolatry, it's a graven image. A lot of
people think it's something, a tangible sacrament. Like, oh,
if I rub this thing on my neck, I'm gonna make it all the way
to the gas station without running out of gas. Any favor they can
get. That's one way of looking at
it. But as far as the flesh is concerned, it's not healthy. But for me, where I'm from, there's
always three crosses. Three crosses put up everywhere.
And from the flesh's point of view, that's three times idolatry,
really. More wood ain't going to help
you know more than a little piece of wood. But one of the meanings
of the three crosses was that that middle one hung the one
that died for his people's sin. On another side of him, There
was one that was dead to sin. There was one that died for sin,
one that was dead to sin, and on the other side was one that
died in his sins. When we leave this earth and
come to that throne of judgment, we'll either be found in our
sins, dead in our sins or will be found dead to our sins through
that one that died for sin. That may be a play on words,
but I hope we can understand that. There's a lot of truth
in that. There's salvation and hope in
that. But that's the title of my message tonight. Dead in sin
or dead to sin. We'll begin there in Romans 6
and verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 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 also
should 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." Now we just finished chapter 5 in Romans,
and in that chapter Paul shows us clearly that the sinner that
is saved He is saved by the faith of Christ. He shows us plainly
that the child of God is completely justified by the grace of God
through that blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how we're saved. Remember Romans 3 verse 24 says,
"...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
satisfaction through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins. Now we are justified by grace
alone through faith alone. And we have no part in it. It's
completely and totally a work of God in us and for us. by Him alone. Paul wrote to the
Philippians. Philippians 1.6 said, being confident
of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Everything that
has to do with our spiritual life begins with the Lord. Its
continuance is kept by Him and its culmination is in His hand
and His tongue from start to finish. In the justification
of our souls, God does all the work. He came to us while we
were in our sin, while we were dead in them. We didn't love
Him. We didn't care for Him. We didn't
want to serve Him. And what does Paul tell us there
in verse 20 of chapter 5? For sin abounded. That's me. Grace did much more abound. In chapter 6 and 7, Paul shows
us that the foundation of a believer's sanctification is the exact same
foundation as his justification. Nothing's different. Christ alone
is our righteousness before God. Christ alone is our sanctification
before God. And Christ alone is our justification
before God. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, "...but
of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption." Christ does
all those things to us. In regeneration, when the Lord
raises that new man in our hearts and gives us life, we're born
again. We have a new creature in us. A new man in us. However,
that flesh It's still flesh. I'm still stuck in it. This flesh
that we are in is not sanctified. This flesh stays what it is.
Now, a spirit in us, a new spirit in us, it's the one that's separated.
That's the one that's made holy. Our Master told them in John
3, Christ spoke and said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water, It's holiness, perfection. Be born
of water and of the Spirit. Holiness and in Spirit. He cannot
enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. We are
made a new creature inside of this old, earthy body. The Lord
bought this ground, He plowed it, and He planted a seed in
it. A simple way I can think of it. But when God the Holy
Spirit does a work in a person and gives them eternal life in
Christ, that new heart that's in them has nothing corrupt in
it. That new nature is holy, perfect,
and just the same. We're born again. We have that
new nature in us. That old heart we're born with, this old flesh
that we're stuck in for now, it's not given any holiness.
It's still as vile as it ever was. We can't change it. The new man is alive and holy.
The old man is dead in sin and wicked. Now one of the old writers
put it this way. He said, we're not justified
at the top of Mount Calvary only to be sanctified at the bottom
of Mount Sinai. There's consistency with our
Lord. The old man in us can't make himself holy. It ain't possible. Now the same way we're justified
in Christ is the same way we're sanctified in Christ. It's by
His grace alone. To say that we must do something
to earn merit or favor, it defies His saving grace. It defies His
grace in redemption. It defies the Lord's grace in
sanctification and justification. It defies all of it. Say if we
have to do something. If we say there's something we
have to do in addition to the Lord's grace, it frustrates His
grace. But Paul told a certain Galatians
we saw several months ago, he said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead and vain. The holiness of God's elect sheep
is Christ. Aren't you thankful for that?
I could be holy to enter into His presence. I don't have to
do nothing. Christ is my holiness. We are never told anywhere that
we are redeemed by what we do. We're never told in the scriptures
that we're made just by what we do. And we're never told anywhere
that we're made holy and pure by what we do. 10. And the only way that that
sin is killed and put away in us is in the power of Christ's
blood that put away our sin. It's the only hope we have. And
that great power of His ever-living throne makes us willing bondservants
to His Kingdom. Serving Him alone, not ourselves.
So we'll be made willing in the day of His power. And then, once
He's made us willing, He's put a new spirit in us, then we're
freed from sin. We're dead to sin. Through the
grace of God, He frees us from that. Now, Romans 6, look in
verse 14. Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. It's not going to reign over
us. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. Being under
that saving, justifying, sanctifying grace, then our new heart's freed
from sin. That's the only way. That's the
only hope men or women have of meeting the Lord in glory and
being found perfect and holy is in Him. Be recipients of God's
mercy. We have to be recipients of His
grace and be found in His Son. That's our only hope. And we're
made free and we become servants. Look in verse 18, Romans 6, 18.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. There's a response, isn't there?
We're made free from sin, we become servants, and we're fruitful
in the Spirit. We have the fruits of the Spirit.
There's evidence. The Lord does a work in someone,
it's going to produce some things. If He plants a garden, something's
going to grow. We have everlasting life. Look in verse 22. But now
being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have
your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. How do we become freed from sin?
We have to die. You have to be dead to be freed
from sin, don't you? I'm still living here. How is
that possible? Look up in verse 7. Romans 6, 7. For he that is
dead is freed from sin. I hope we can see how this happens
tonight. Look back in our text, Romans
6, verse 1. Paul answers a question here
before anyone asks it. We think we have new problems
in our day and ain't nothing new on the face of the earth.
Romans 6-1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Many will say, well
if grace abounds a cause of sin, why don't you just sin more?
And then there will be more grace and then Christ will get more
glory. That's what most legalists accuse us of. They say that the
children of God wants to sin more so that there will be more
grace and more glory. How foolish. That's just silly,
isn't it? Jaylee, do you think making mommy
madder will make her happier? No. A person that's depending
on their own righteousness, they cling to it. They hold on to
it with every fiber in them because that's all they have. They defend
their actions. They defend their thoughts. and
they defend their experiences and they charge God with folly.
They charge Him with foolishness, not themselves. They don't say
they're a fool, they say He's a fool. A faithful preacher from
many years ago said sin is not the cause of glorifying God's
grace. Sin is the cause of wrath, it's
the cause of death, and sin is the cause of judgment. That's
the result of sin, not grace. God has been pleased to magnify
His grace through the pardon of sin. It's not by the commission
of sin that grace is glorified, but
the forgiveness of sin that grace is glorified. We rejoice in that. No, we don't rejoice in the sin
that we are allowed to commit. No, I'm freed from sin. It's
been pardoned. It's cast away from me. That's
something to rejoice in, to glory in. Grace causes men and women
to hate sin, not to love it. Grace causes men and women to
not live for themselves anymore, but live to the Lord. Live to
honor Him, to serve Him, glorify Him. So in Romans 6, what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. Paul uses this condemning
phrase several times over the next chapter or two. Look here
in Romans 6.15. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? That law has no
hold on us, so live it up. I've heard people say that before. We can live any way we want to
now. I'd be careful. What does he say there? God forbid.
Turn over to chapter 7, verse 7. Romans 7.7. The apostle writes, what shall
we say then? Is the law sin? I'm free from
the law because the law is evil. Is that the reason we're freed
from it? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but
by the law. For I had not known lust except
the law said thou shalt not covet. I'm thankful for the Lord's law
because it showed me what I truly am. That's the proof of what I am,
the way I was born, what's in my heart. Not what I thought
I was. The way God sees me. The way
He looks at me. But I don't glory in that law. I honor that law. I respect that
law. But my glory is not in the law.
It's in the one that fulfilled it. It's the one that completed
that law for me. Just like the man that the Lord
used to teach me the gospel. He sent a preacher into my life,
and that man faithfully told me the work that Christ did. He faithfully told me who man
was. We were ruined in the fall, redeemed
by the blood and regenerated by the Spirit. Didn't fail. He
was consistent. The Lord kept him faithful. Now,
I honor that man. I love him. I respect him. But
I don't glory in that man that told me that. I glory in the
one that he preached. The one that sent Him to preach
to me. That's who I glory in. So Paul says here in the text,
chapter 6 verse 1, What shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that
are dead to sin, live any longer therein? The child of God is
not going to purposefully continue in sin because we're under grace. And then Paul asks us, how can
we live in sin if we're dead to it? I'm dead to that. It has no hold on me. I have
no interest in it. So what is it to be dead from
sin? First thing we look at is what it's not to be dead from
sin. We are not dead from the presence
of sin. Sin is still all around us. It's
in everything we do and we see, in part, we see a sliver. I'm
thankful the Lord doesn't show me how wicked I truly am. I'd
probably explode. I couldn't take it. But we're
in the presence of sin. And we're not dead from the influence
of sin. Those temptations are still all
around us. And so quickly, they'll grab
a hold of us. Henry always said, man has free
will until a fly enters the room. And I always thought that was
funny. And then Sunday morning, I got up to preach, and there's
a little tiny spider hanging from this microphone. And I was
ready to start, and my whole world stopped because there's
a spider in front of me. So much for my will. But those influences
are strong. And many times, and this goes
with the presence, we don't know what we do. We don't know how
wicked we are. Whenever this nation was founded,
We came from England. The Puritans were so strict and
uptight, the British kicked them out. That's saying something.
But they came from England, and they came here, and in 1776,
we established a new nation. And there was a separation of
church and state. Now those states, because of
what happened in England, all the churches were state-funded.
They took up a church tax, paid for the churches. Now we came
here, we're independent, so each state paid for their church. It was a state right. And in
1833 Massachusetts was the last state. They stopped taking the
church tax and all the churches didn't know what to do. How are
they going to keep the doors open? Talk about some temptation.
And I bet there's some faithful pulpits in this nation that had
some temptation. There's all kinds of stories come out of
that. They'd sell pews. And that was your place to sit.
You could pay for it up front. And if they didn't get enough
in the plate, they'd lock the doors. Nobody's allowed to leave
until they got enough money. That's crazy. But how fast, how
fast would I fall into the temptations that surround me that I'm not
even aware of? The Lord sustains us, don't He? He suspends us,
keeps us. If it's up to me, I'm in trouble.
I ain't got a hope. What are we dead to? We see that
we're not dead from the presence of sin and influence of sin,
but we're dead to the guilt of sin. And we're not dead to feeling
guilty about our sin. It's ever before us. It's on
our heart and our mind, isn't it? But we're freed from the
actual guilt of sin. We're dead to that guilt. We're
dead to the power of sin to condemn us. We're dead to condemnation. There's no guilt there now, so
there's no punishment for it. There's no condemnation. Our
warfare is over. We're dead to the reign of sin. It doesn't rule us and control
us and turn us the way it did. Why? That I've made good decisions
and I've got a systematic process of making decisions. No, Christ
reigns and rules in our hearts. And that new man, doesn't he? Speaking of being dead to
a sentence, y'all remember Jeffrey Dahmer, that serial killer? He got life plus 70 years. And I've always found a sentence
in addition to a life sentence laughable. Are they going to
dig him up and make him serve another 70? He's dead to it. Now that we can understand. We're
dead to sin because Christ died for our sins. I don't know why
it's so easy for me to grasp something that happened in recent
history and I can't grasp that. I'll pray the Lord to teach me
that. But let's turn over to Romans 7 verse 21. And when we
get to Romans 7, we're going to see this warfare that's in
all believers. Those that do not have a new heart put in them,
those that do not have two natures, they do not have this battle
raging in their members. It's impossible. Romans 7 verse
21, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present
with me. You find that to be a law? It says the plowing of the wicked
is sinful. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, the mind
in the New Testament is a whole of me, all of me. So then with
the mind, I myself serve the law of God. But with the flesh,
the law of sin. That old man and that new man
are at war with each other. Now, the old man doesn't reign
anymore, but that fight is still real. In Galatians 5.17, Paul
wrote, "...for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to another,
so that you cannot do the things that you would." What's your
desire? You that have been bought of
Christ. What desire do you have? What
desire do I have? I don't want to sin against my God anymore. I want to honor Him. I want to
believe Him. I want to love Him. I want to
love my brethren. And I want to live like somebody
that believes Him and loves her brethren and loves Him. I want
to walk through this world that way and my sins ever before me. The free children of the King
want to honor their Father. We don't want to be an offense
to Him. We don't want to be an offense to others for His name's
sake, for His honor, but also for our conscience's sake. And
why would my conscience matter? I'm His namesake. He's given
me His name. And with that, I have to respect
that. Through honoring Him, I'll honor others, won't I? If we're
dead to sin, how do we get that way? Before we were dead in our
sins, but now we're made dead to sin. What happened? How does
that new life come? Being made one with Christ through
the will of the Father, through His choosing, His will, and the
works of the Holy Spirit, we're made one with our Savior. Made one with Him. We died in
Christ, we live through Christ, and we're resurrected to Christ
in His likeness. One with Him. Let's look back
in our text here in Romans 6, verse 3. For this point in my notes, we
died in Christ, and then I had He died for us. I couldn't think
of which one to go with. Yes. We died in Him, He died
for us. We're one with Him. Right? Romans
6, verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We were immersed in Christ. That word, baptismo, is transliteration,
not a translation. They just took the letters and
went. We were immersed. We were born of the Spirit as
He was born of the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb. Same way I was
born. I have a Heavenly Father. He
lived perfect to God and to men. Therefore, His sheep lived perfectly.
He was baptized. We were baptized. I got to thinking
about that. The Redeemer who is our death,
our burial, and our resurrection came to this earth and He was
baptized. He was baptized for that thief
on the cross. He was baptized for all His saints
because we're supposed to be. He walked this earth perfectly.
In our public confession of baptism, we only confess that Christ is
our all-in-all in everything. If we publicly confess Him in
believers' baptism, we're saying, I was baptized when He was baptized. We're made one with Him. We're
made that one with Him. He paid the penalty for sin,
bearing that wrath and justice that God's holy high command
requires. Why? Because His people had a
sin debt. That's what I was, and He had to come and pay for
it. We're bought with a price. We're bought with the blood of
Jesus Christ. And after satisfying that holy
justice, that justice that will know why I was clearly guilty,
He rose from the grave victorious to eternal life. I'm made alive by His life. He's living, that's what gives
me life. And now we can confidently say with those saints of old,
I know my Redeemer lives. And I'll be made like Him, and
I'll get to see Him face to face. We have that confidence, we know.
We're made one with Christ, we lived perfect as He lived perfectly. We died His death, and we're
made holy by His holiness. It's all of Him now. We live
through Christ. After He's completed that work,
we live through Him. Look at Romans 6, verse 4. Therefore, we are buried with
Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead, what raised Him? By the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. The perfect and holy
nature born into the heart of a child of God wants to walk
in the life that the Lord gives them. That new nature put in
us wants to serve Him alone. We want Christ to be lifted up
and receive all the glory and praise. We want to magnify His
name for His name's sake. Why? It was His glory that raised
us. Turn over Galatians 2.19 Galatians 2.19 For I through
the law am dead to the law. Christ fulfilled the law and
now I'm dead to it. That I might live unto God. Our Master satisfied
that law to get it out of the way. That way we can live for
Him and nothing else and no one else, including ourselves. We
don't live for ourselves anymore, we live for Him. Verse 20 I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me." What's the only reason I'm physically alive? Christ. He separated me from my mother's
womb. What's the only reason I'm spiritually alive? Christ. He quickened me. Made me alive
spiritually. The only reason I'm dead to sin
and not dead in my sins, Christ, because He died for my sins.
The only reason I now live to God in this life and not to myself,
Christ, He is my life. And the only reason I have hope
to die and be made conformed to His image is Christ, because
He is our hope. And He's at the right hand of
the Lord. He was raised, so I'm raised. The Father raised Him,
and that proved that the satisfaction of that law was completed. That
covenant was completed. That was our proof. We have an
empty tomb. Alright, back to our text. I'll wrap this up.
We'll read you Philippians 1, 21 when we turn back to our text.
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I always read
that as a child and was confused. But for me to serve Him here,
if I truly serve the Lord on this earth, it's because Christ
is in me. It's Him in me doing it. But for me to shed this body
of death, that's a game. That's a game. I'll be with Him
and I'll be without sin for eternity. That's a game. Alright, lastly,
we'll be resurrected to Christ who is our resurrection. Romans
6, 5. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. What does it mean to be planted
together? David wrote, those that be planted in the house
of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. Those that
are planted, just like a seed is planted in the garden. If
the Lord planted a spirit in our hearts, He's going to make
it flourish in His courts forever. Philippians 3 says that I may
know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. I want to know about that resurrection.
I want my hope to be there. How can we have hope and confidence
that we'll be raised to glory at the end of this life and not
be cast into eternal damnation? We're made to know Him. We're
made to know Christ. That's our hope and our confidence.
If we believe Him and love our brethren, that's the proof He's
given us, the commandments He's given us, and you can't choose
what you believe, and you can't choose to believe something you
don't believe in, and you can't choose to love somebody you don't
love, and you can't choose to stop loving somebody that you
do love. It's things we don't control
either, do we? Turn over to Ephesians 2 and we'll close. Ephesians chapter 2. We'll begin
in verse 1, Ephesians 2. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath He quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. And hath
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ." Look down at Ephesians 2.10, workmanship, created in Christ
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them." That's our hope, to be dead from
sin, dead to sin. Sinner that hasn't yet believed
on Christ, don't be found dead in your sins. Look to the one
that died for sins. Come to Christ. Beg for mercy
and you won't come up shorthanded. You won't be disappointed. You
won't be ashamed. And believer, you who are dead
to sin, I pray we're given the grace to live under God and not
serve this flesh any longer. That's my desire. I pray that
desire to be made like Him and want to be with Him has grown.
And we honor the word in our lives. I pray that's put on our
heart. Let's pray together.