Well, if you would, open your
Bibles back to Romans chapter 6, a passage that Brother Wayne
read for us. Now, we've been going through
this study in Romans. You remember that Paul, in these
last chapters, has been talking about justification. How is it
that the believer is justified? Well, through the blood of Christ,
freely, without our works involved at all, through faith in Him.
were justified by grace. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. Now in chapter 6, Paul is going
to start talking about sanctification. Well, how is it that the believers
are sanctified? The exact same way they are justified. Exactly
the same. Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Freely. Without our works. Through faith. Through grace. Over in Hebrews
chapter 10, let me read it to you. Hebrews 10 verse 10. By
the witch will we are sanctified, how? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And what we're going
to see here, the Lord willing, is that the believer is freed
from sin. The believer is dead to sin, because Christ our substitute
died for sin. That's why we're free from sin,
because Christ our substitute died for sin. Now, verse 1, chapter
6 in Romans. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now here Paul was
talking in chapter 5, we ended there in chapter 5, talking about
Pharaoh headship, the two Adams. We saw how you cannot compare
the blessings that we receive in Christ, the second Adam, can't
compare that to what we lost in Adam, the first Adam. Where
sin abounded and when Adam fell, sin abounded. Sin abounds in
us through Him, through that nature that we receive from our
Father Adam. Sin abounded. But where sin abounded,
grace in Christ did much more abound. You can't compare what
we receive in Christ to what we lost in Adam. Now that being
true, Paul knew how the religious mind works. People that would
read this and they were steeped in the religion that he grew
up in, he knew how the religious mind works as he used to be one
of them. And he knew what their objection would be. They'd say,
now wait a minute. If you're saying our works don't
matter, then why shouldn't we just sin all the more so God's
grace could be glorified all the more because we can just
sin all we want to. Well, that would be the objection of the
religious man. That would be their objection
because the religious man is looking for an excuse to sin.
Now, I'm not talking about the believer. I'm talking about a
religious man. That's the thought of an unregenerate mind. Well,
let's just sin all the more so God's grace can be glorified.
That would never be the thought of a regenerate person, a child
of God. Why? Because the regenerate person
hates sin and loves righteousness. Sinning cannot make the believer
happier. Can't do it. We want to sin less,
not find an excuse to sin more. Our sin cannot glorify God. Sin is opposed to God. It's opposed to everything that
He is. Sin brings God's wrath and judgment. Sin doesn't bring
God's grace. It's the character of God that
brings grace. It's God's love, unmerited, undeserved
love that brings grace. Not our sin. Now the commission
of sin, when we commit sin, that's not what glorifies God's grace.
The forgiveness of sin is what glorifies God's grace. And grace
is glorified by putting an end to the reign of sin. Not by increasing
the power of sin. Not by giving us an excuse to
go out and sin more. God's grace is glorified by taking
a sinner and making that sinner hate sin and love righteousness.
That's how God's grace is glorified, but the religious may not come
up with this objection. Well, let's just sin that grace
may abound. Well, what's our response to that? Verse 2, God
forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? God forbid. That's one of Paul's
favorite sayings, when something is so detestable to him, when
something is so contrary to Christ, when something is so contrary
to the gospel, Paul says, God forbid that we think like that. Because we would think like that
unless God forbid, unless God stop us, unless the Lord just
leave us alone, that's why we would think. God forbid that
we think that way. How is it possible, Paul says,
that we who are dead to sin should live any longer therein? Now
how can he say that we're dead to sin? Even believers, how can
you say the believer is dead to sin? We still sin. We went through this day sinning. I mean every second. We still
sin. The best a human being can be
on this earth is a sinner saved by grace. That's the highest
status we can rise to. You're saved by God's grace,
but you're still a sinner. That's what we are. It's in this
flesh, and we'll never get rid of that man. The old man is a
sinner. And there's a lot of sin left
in me. I want to tell you that. There's a lot of sin left in
me. And if you're honest with yourself, there's a lot of sin
left in you, too. Well, we're not dead to sin and
that we quit sinning, are we? We're not dead to the influence
of sin in our life. Look over in chapter 7 of Romans,
verse 19. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. We're not dead
to the influence of sin. We're not dead to the presence
of sin. Look at verse 21 here in chapter 7 of Romans. I find
in the law that when I would do good, Evil is present with
me. We're not dead to the presence
of sin. We're not dead to the effects of sin. Sin is what will
eventually kill this body. It's what's breaking this body
down, what gives us the effect of age, is sin. This body's dying
because we're not free. We're not dead to the effects
of sin. We still commit sins every day. That's why the Lord
taught us to pray, forgive us our sins, because we still sin.
So how can Paul say we're dead to sin? Because the believer
is dead to sin. But we're dead to the guilt of
sin. Why? Because Christ, our substitute,
took our guilt in His body on the tree and put it away. So
the believer is dead to the guilt of sin. Look over in Romans 8,
verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's It's God that justifieth. If God says you're
justified, you're innocent. You're not guilty. You're free. You're dead to the guilt of sin
because Christ bore your guilt for you. We're dead to the penalty
of sin because Christ bore that penalty for us. We're dead to
the penalty of sin because He died under God's justice and
wrath for our sins. If you're still there in Romans
8, look at verse 34. Who is He that condemned us? It's Christ
that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who's
he that condemneth? You can't condemn an innocent
man because Christ our substitute was condemned for us. We're dead
to the penalty of sin. The believer's dead to sin because
sin's not imputed to our account. It's imputed to our substitute's
account. We're dead to sin because Christ our substitute, our master,
made an end of sin. So we're dead to sin. We're dead
to the ruling power of sin. Now sin, we're not dead to the
influence of it, we're not dead to the presence of sin, but we're
dead to the ruling power. It's still present, but it doesn't
rule you like it used to. There's a new master. There's
a new sheriff in town. And sin is put off the throne.
We're dead to the ruling power of sin because we have a new
master. So we're not going to live in sin. Now, Paul says,
live in sin. That phrase means to give yourself
over to sin. We still sin, but we don't live
in it. People who live in sin find their
pleasure in sin. They don't resist it. They find
their pleasure in it. They look for opportunities to
enjoy it. They live in sin. How can a child of God, and this
is the thought of the regenerate mind, how can a child of God
take pleasure in what cost my Lord His life? How can I take
pleasure in what caused my Lord to suffer? Just the thought of
bearing my sin made blood come out of His pores. How can I take
pleasure in that? We're not going to live in sin.
We detest sin. Well, read on, verse 3. Know
ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ,
we're baptized into His death? Now, Paul talks about this baptism
here in verse 3. He's not talking about believer's
baptism, where we're baptized in water. He's talking about
being baptized, being immersed, being put into the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's talking about being put
into Christ so that we are in union with Him. And this is not
figurative speech. This is literal. The believer
is literally made one with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're put
into Him. You're immersed into Him. You
have become part of the body of Christ. And every part of
the body, every member is joined in a vital union to the head.
My hand is one with my head. Just one. It's all one. And the
believer has been put into Christ. So that we're one with Him. We've
been put into His righteousness. We're put into His holiness.
In Him is no sin. Well, if we're in Him, we must
be dead to sin. Because in Him is no sin. You
cannot be in Christ and live in sin. Because those are two
polar opposites. can't be done. And since I am
one with Christ, baptized into Christ, I'm one with Him. What He did, I did. What He is,
I am. And I can't live in sin anymore
than Christ can live in sin because I'm one with Him. And if we live,
look over in Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 verse
20. What He is, I am. Galatians 2,
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. Now, if I live by the faith of
the Son of God, I cannot live in sin. I'm in Him, and He's
in me. baptized into him. Now, back
in our text in Romans 6, verse 4. 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, Paul is talking about believer's
baptism. And believer's baptism is a picture
of us being baptized into Christ, being put into Christ. Believer's
baptism is simply a confession of what's already happened. When
he was obedient, I was obedient. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. Because I'm in him and I've been
baptized into him. And when he arose, I arose in
him. Now, a believer is not baptized
into church membership. That's not how you get membership
onto the church rolls. We're baptized in water because
we already have been baptized into Christ. This is a confession
of what the Lord has done for me. He suffered and died for
me. He was buried because He put
away my sin and He rose again for me as my representative.
When we're baptized, we're claiming Christ to be my Savior. I'm identifying
with Him. That's what makes baptism such
a joyous occasion. Everybody's heart is so thrilled. What an opportunity to be able
to identify with Christ. And we've died in Him. So the
pastor buries us under the water. Out of sight. Completely dunked
under the surface of the water. Buried out of sight. Because
Christ our Lord died and he was buried for our sins. And when
Christ our representative, our federal head, when he rose from
the dead, we arose in him. The pastor doesn't leave you
under the water. You're raised up out of it. When he was raised,
I was raised. When he was raised for our justification,
we were raised in him. Now a child of God is baptized
in obedience to the Lord's command to believe and be baptized in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And you
know there's only one qualification for baptism. Just one. Faith. Look over in Acts chapter 8. I was reading this last night
and came up and found Janet in the bedroom and was telling her
about this and she preached this whole point for him. I said,
there's just one qualification of baptism. She said, faith.
Well, here it is. Acts 8, verse 35. And Philip
opened his mouth. He found that eunuch reading
the scripture. And Philip opened his mouth and began at that same
scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their
way, they came to a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said,
If you believe with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
Philip commanded that chariot to stand still, and they went
down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he
baptized him. The only qualification for baptism
is faith. Do you believe with all thine
heart? that Christ is enough. He's all
you want. He's all you need. Do you believe
that with all of your heart? That when He suffered, He died,
He was buried, and He's resurrected, He accomplished all your salvation.
Do you believe that with all your heart? That baptism's for
you. That's what baptism is picturing. And baptism is by mercy. Immersed under the water. Buried
just like Christ was buried under the ground. Raised up out of
the water, just like Christ arose from the grave, walked out of
that tomb. Now since we're raised in Christ, we walk in newness
of life. It's not perfect, it's not a
life of perfection, but you walk in newness of life. Because there's
a new nature, there's a new will that's been given in the new
birth. And Paul calls it newness of life. It's new life because
it's brand new life given from above. It's new life, it's spiritual
life, as opposed to the life of dead flesh. This flesh, what
we call life in these bodies, is just a long, slow death. It's
not life, it's death. This is a different kind of life.
It's spiritual life. It's the life of Christ. It's
new life. It's life in Christ. It's not
life in the deadness of the law. It's life in Him. And if we're
crucified with Christ, we're buried with Christ, we have to
rise and walk in newness of life. He didn't stay dead. And none
of His people stayed dead either. He gives them life. And when
you have this new life, there's a new Master. You have new motives. You have new love. And all that
new, that new life, the opposite of that old life in Adam. It's
new life in Christ. It's everything opposite of what
we received in Adam. That old man. See, there's new
life and the old man. Look at verse 6 here. Paul starts
talking about that old man. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
and henceforth we should not serve sin. Now, the old man. That's the nature that we're
born with. It's the old nature that we receive
that goes back through Adam. It's old nature. And it's an
old man. It's a man that's got parts.
He's got a will. He's got affections. He's got
actions. And every bit of it is sinful.
It's an old man. It's sinful, totally depraved. And that old man can never be
improved. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It will never be anything but
flesh. It's an old man. And salvation,
when God's grace abounds, salvation does not change that old man.
He's completely unchanged. Salvation is a new man, a new
nature that God gives. But what do we do with that old
man? Paul says he's crucified with Christ. And that's a very
good description of that old man. He's crucified with Christ. Crucifixion was a slow, painful
death. It took a long time. And that's
what the old man is. He's crucified. He's not dead
yet. He's crucified. But he's not
giving up without a fight. It takes a long time for him
to die. He don't go easy. See, crucified
doesn't mean dead. Crucified means nailed to the
cross. And somebody can live a long
time after they're crucified. That crucifixion was a slow death. But I'll tell you what, it's
a certain death. That old man will die. He will
die. And in that day, we will be just
like Christ in nature and body. But right now, that old man's
not dead. He's crucified. His power to
rule is destroyed. His power is gone. He still tries
to affect everything we do. As a matter of fact, he does
affect everything we do. He's crucified. His mouth's not shut.
He's got a lot to say about what we're doing, doesn't he? He'll
pitch his two cents worth in every second. But he can't rule. You can't rule when you're nailed
to a cross. He's crucified with Christ. That
old man's crucified. Why? So we should not serve sin
anymore. The believer doesn't serve sin.
We serve Christ. He's the Master. We serve Him.
And you know good and well now, this doesn't mean we don't sin.
But what it does mean is that we hate sin. We don't indulge
it. We don't give in to it. We don't
make provisions for it. We're in a warfare with sin.
The flesh and the Spirit are in a warfare in us. We're in
a warfare with sin. And we're not going to give aid
and comfort to the enemy. Sins are in a man. Look over
Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3 verse 8. But now ye also put off all these,
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth, Why not one to another, seeing you put off the old man
with his deeds? See, those are the things, those
are the deeds of the old man. That's the nature of the old
man. But, verse 10, you put on a new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him. That's
what I'm saying. We don't serve sin. In Christ, we're dead to sin.
And you don't want to go digging it up. Just leave it dead. Just
leave it crucified. You're dead to sin. Now verse
7 back in our text. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now he's not talking here about
physical death. Like I said a minute ago, in
that day that we do die physically, we'll finally be completely free
from sin. We'll be free from not just the
power of sin, but the presence of sin. And we'll be free from
all the effects of sin. I don't know a lot about glory,
but I know this. There, there'll be no more tears,
no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death. Because tears,
pain, sorrow, and death are the effect of sin. And there, the
presence of sin is completely removed. And then, we'll finally
be completely free from sin. But that's not what he's referring
to here. We have that to look forward to. Absolutely, we do.
I thank God for it. But what he's talking about here
in verse 7 is the life of the believer in this world. Right
now, you're free from sin. If you look in your center reference
of your Bibles like mine, that word free is justified. You're
justified before God. So it's that you are free from
sin. We're born under the curse of the law. That's how every
one of us is born. But we're free now. We're free
from the curse of the law because Christ was made a curse for us.
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We're free from the
curse of the law. We were born under the condemnation
of the law, but the believers free from condemnation because
Christ was condemned for us. In Romans 8, verse 1, there is
therefore now, not in the future, now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. We're free from condemnation. Now, we're not free yet from
the presence of sin. We're not free from the warfare
that we have with sin. But we're free from the guilt
of it. We're free from the condemnation of sin. We're set free from being
forced to serve sin. That old man, that's all he wanted
to do was serve sin. But you're dead to sin. When
Christ died, you died. You're dead to sin and you're
free from sin. You're free to serve the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll give you an example.
Not much different, not very imaginative, not much different
from what you've heard before. A murderer, caught, tried, convicted,
put in prison, on death row. When he dies, he's free from
the law. He's free from justice. But as
long as he lives, he's not free. Justice and the law demands he
be held in prison because justice is not satisfied. He's not free
to come and go as he wants. He's not free to go out of those
cell walls whenever he wants to. He's not free to go out in
the courtyard or much less go out of the prison walls whenever
he wants to. The law is not satisfied. But the moment he's put to death,
the law is satisfied and he's free to go out of that prison
any time he wants to. The only problem is he can't. He's dead. Somebody's got to carry him out.
Now they couldn't carry him out before he was dead. Now that
that body is dead, He's free. They can carry Him out of that
prison if they want to, or they can bury Him there if they want
to, whatever they do with Him, I don't know. But here's the difference
with the believer. We're guilty. Just like that
murderer, we're guilty. But the believer's free from
sin. Christ took our guilt and He put it away. He died. So we're free from sin. And the
difference between us and that murderer is we are alive in Christ
to enjoy the freedom He gave us. It's because He died. And I'll tell you this. I've
seen some on TV. You know, somebody will sometimes
get wrongly convicted. They'll sit on death row for
years and right before they get put to death, they do a DNA test
and find out he's innocent all along and they set him free.
That guy's going to do everything he can not to go back there.
He will not go back to that death row. And that's what it is for
a believer when you're dead to sin. You will not go back. You won't go back to serving
sin. I'm going to serve my Lord because He died for me. That's the whole difference.
Free from sin. Dead to sin. Now, verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dies no more. Death has no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. See, now Paul is talking about
the resurrection of these bodies. We've been raised in newness
of life in this life that the believer has. But we have a good
hope. We have an expectation that this
body, this body you see right here, is going to be raised from
the grave. I know it is because Christ, our federal head, was
raised from the grave. And He opened the way and we're
going to be raised just like He was. He rose, never to die
again. I expect you the exact same thing.
One day to rise and never die again. Christ rose and ascended
back to the Father. I expect one day to arise and
ascend to the Father. Because my head's there and where
the head is, the body's going to follow. See, this is all a
continuation of what we looked at in chapter 5. Federal headship.
What our federal head is, is what we are. And that life, when
we ascend to the Father, that life is going to be life. It's real life. Because it will
be with Him. We have life now, don't we? We
have life in Christ. We have life because of Christ. But one day, we're going to have
life with Him. That's going to be life for the
first time we're going to live. That's life. Now death, Paul
says, has no more dominion over Christ. Well, how could death
ever have dominion over the prince of life? Death did have dominion
over him once when he was made sin. When he was made sin, he
died. They buried a dead body in that
tomb. But he didn't stay dead. Death doesn't have dominion over
him anymore. He came out of there. And death
won't have dominion over us either. He came out of that tomb because
the sin that was laid on him, he was made sin. That sin is
gone. He put it away through the blood
of his cross. And death cannot have dominion
over him. Well, then death can't have dominion
over you either if you're a believer. Because that sin that was laid
on Him is your sin and my sin. He put it away. Death cannot
have dominion over you. Now, this body is going to die.
Don't be mistaken. This body will die. But you won't. You won't. This is just a shell. I mean a shell. It ain't much
of one either. It's a shell. I'm going to lay in a casket.
I'm not. I shouldn't have said that. Because I'm not going to
lay in a casket. This body is, and some of you
are going to go by and look, and maybe you'll be sad, maybe
you won't, but I don't know. But listen, when you look at
this shell and that casket, don't you cry, because I'm not there.
Don't cry for me. Now, if you miss me, you can
cry. Maybe you won't. But don't cry
for me, because I'm not there. That's just a shell. The believer
is going to be with Christ. You cry for yourself if you want
to, but you rejoice for me, because that's what I long for. As soon
as this body dies, you, the you, that new man, will be with the
Lord in paradise. And we'll do that because Christ,
our substitute, died under sin. John Gill says that that literally
translated is he died as an atonement for sin. He died to pay the sin
debt. for all of His people. And He
did it once. That's all it took was once.
You know, people in religion may rededicate, may walk the
aisle, may get baptized a hundred times, and they can switch belief
systems a hundred times, and it's never enough. Christ just
died once and put away the sin of His people eternally. His
one death satisfied the law, satisfied God's justice completely
for that innumerable host. And that one death was the death
of death forever. He put death away for his people
completely so that death has no more dominion over him or
anyone in him. And he lives now unto God. He lives with God. He lives at
the right hand of the Father, ever living, making intercession
for us as people. We live the exact same way. What
he is, we are in him. While we're on this earth, we
live under God, who chose us and loved us and gave His Son
for us. And one day, we're going to leave
this body behind, and we're going to go be with the Lord forever,
because Christ our Pharaoh is there. He lives under God, and
we will too. So until that time, I'm not going
to go on, but until that time, verse 11, Likewise, wrecking
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how we're dead to
sin.