Romans chapter six, and I'm going
to read from verse one. 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 baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised 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, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, deatheth no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
as Paul has shown here in these early chapters of the book of
Romans, and as I trust we have seen as we've been going through
with him and thinking about the message that he has given us,
That death, that single act of obedience, that central accomplishment
of our Saviour's life is the sole cause of our justification
and our atonement. In the eternal covenant of peace
that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit entered into, our
acceptance with God is due entirely to that one act of sacrificial
obedience by one man, the God-man, Jesus Christ. And while it is true that love,
the love of God for his people, was the foundation of our election,
nevertheless that election is not in itself our salvation. And while it is true that God
planned to save from eternity, all of those plans hinged upon
that one act of Christ on the cross. where he bled and where
he died for our liberty, for our peace, for our forgiveness,
where he took our sins upon himself and carried them away completely. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
cause of our reconciliation and peace with God. And in these
opening chapters, okay, so we've come to chapter six now, we've
been through the first five chapters, we've looked at them together.
And in these first few chapters, we have learned that all men
and women are guilty before God in our Adam nature and in our
actions. both in our nature, in our bias,
in our desires, and in our works. The outworking of those desires
is rebellion against God. And indeed, we have seen that
the death that comes by sin comes upon all people. Therefore, that
shows that sin is in the life of everyone. But we've also seen
that God, for his own good pleasure, has graciously, sovereignly chosen
and justified certain individuals in the Lord Jesus Christ. that
that is his plan and purpose because it is good for him to
do so and that that great work of the Lord Jesus Christ's death
completely and absolutely covers and cleanses from all sin. This is Paul's message. He was
endeavouring to show that both Jew and Gentile, whether you
had a legal framework in which to exercise your religion, or
whether you were totally bereft of all knowledge at all of the
religion of God, all were rendered guilty before a holy God. And yet, in Jesus Christ, there
are those whose sins are completely covered and cleansed by the blood
of the Saviour. No matter, says Paul, how bad
your sin is, grace trumps sin. And that's the last thing that
he said as we left chapter five. Grace trumps sin. He said it a little bit more
prosaically. Moreover, he said, the law entered
that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Wherever there was sin, no matter
to what lengths that sin went, no matter what height it attained,
no matter what depths it plummeted to, wherever it abounded, wherever
it expanded, wherever it went, Grace was able to trumpet. Grace
was able to overtake it and reach to its fullest extent and bring
peace with God. Such is the efficacy, such is
the sufficiency of the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ
to cleanse and to cover sin. That as sin has reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign. through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigned unto death. Everybody
died. Everybody dies. This body, this
fleshy body, it is the product. Death is its product. Death is
the product of sin in our flesh. So sin reigned. but the grace
of God gives life. And these are the framework,
this is the base, if you like, the foundation upon which we
are entering into chapter six. But just before we think about
the verses that are before us this evening, let me say this,
that that message that Paul preached, that message that he wrote to
the Romans and entered into in this letter, That's a great message. It's a wonderful message for
a sinner. If you are a sinner, that message
that I've just summarised, probably poorly, nevertheless is a message
which is good for you to hear, that there is cleansing in Jesus
Christ. which goes beyond, which goes
further than the depths of your sin, the height of your impudence,
the extent of your rebellion. Grace covers every sin. Do you think you're too bad?
Do you think your sin is too deep? Do you think that you've
been pursuing that life for too long? Truly, sin ruled unto death. Sin ruled to hopelessness. Sin ruled to where there's nothing
left in this life but to live out the last few years wherever
they might hope and go to the grave. And then grace comes. And then grace enters in. And we realise that the power
of sin and the power of death has been subsumed in the grace
of God and in the love of God and covered and cleansed by the
blood of Jesus Christ. That's a great truth. That's
a wonderful, that's why they call it the gospel. That's what
it is. You are never beyond the reach
of grace. And I want us all to remember
that because we don't know what a day will bring, what a year
will bring. We're never beyond the reach
of grace. Grace has more righteousness
than I've got sin. Now that message is designed
to comfort the weary. It's designed to bless the heavy
laden. But it's ironical that it sparks
another thought in the mind of the natural man. And he says,
just a moment, Paul, are you saying that it doesn't matter
what I do, grace is sufficient to cleanse everything? Then it
doesn't matter what I do. I can do anything if this grace
is sufficient to blot it all out. And that's what Paul is addressing
in the opening part of this chapter. What a wonderful truth, what
a wonderful message. Shame on any man that takes that
beautiful message and prostitutes it by saying that it is an entitlement
to licentiousness. that it opens the door to promiscuity,
that it allows people to sin wantonly and not have any concern
about it. What? Could you really bring
forward such an argument? What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now I don't want
to spend too much time on this point this evening because I
think Paul's answer is pretty clear and pretty strong. And
rather what we're going to do this evening in the time that
I've got available is follow Paul's logic as he leads into
a beautiful picture of the conversion and transformation of the believer,
from that sinner, from that rebel, into a trophy of grace. As he makes that picture of the
old man that is crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ, that old
man of flesh and sin, and the new life which is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that's where we're going to spend our time
for a little while this evening. But just on this first point,
I want to draw your attention to something that is interesting. The reaction which we often get
when we preach the gospel is that message is going to encourage
sin. If we tell people that the Lord
Jesus Christ has paid for every sin, of his people, since past,
since present, since future. You're saying that the Lord Jesus
Christ's death has already paid for every future sin that I'll
commit. Yes, that's exactly what the
gospel teaches. That's exactly what the power
of the blood of Jesus Christ does. Well, that would mean that
I could do anything that I wanted to. and the blood of Christ would
be able to cleanse it. That would give me a license
to sin. Have you ever heard that accusation
made against your preaching of the gospel? I have. And they say, well, that's antinomianism. Well, I say, If anyone comes
against us with that accusation, we should cheer, and we should
say hurrah, and we should say yippee, because that means we
are preaching the same gospel that Paul preached. Because that's
exactly the argument that he anticipated when he preached
the gospel of sovereign grace. What? That'll allow people to
go ahead and sin to their heart's content. But when we preach sovereign
grace and the world comes out and accuses us of failing to
hold men to a code of conduct, or failing to say to men that
they will be judged for their sin, or failing to condemn wickedness
in people's lives, we will say, that's the gospel. that's the
gospel that Paul preached and that's the gospel that we are
honoured to preach as well. Your message is the same as Paul's
if it elicits the same response as his did, if it generates the
same opposition as he felt to his message and if it exhibits
that same legalistic, works-righteousness attitude in those that come against
us to criticise and to gainsay our message. but I want to move
on and I want to hear what Paul says about being dead to sin
because I think that's a really amazing phrase that he uses here
in this opening couple of verses. He said, how shall we live that
are dead to sin. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? As I was reflecting upon that
little phrase, I was thinking to myself, I doubt that an honest
man could employ this phrase except it were Holy Spirit taught
to him. Dead to sin. How could anybody
come up with a theology, a doctrine, which says that people are dead
to sin? I mean, that is just so contrary
to our experience, so contrary to our nature, so contrary to
what we encounter in this life. And I'm sure that there are people
who say, oh yeah, I don't sin as bad as someone else, but are
there really people out there who think that they're perfect? We know, we know in our hearts
that we are sinners. We know that we die and we have
a fear of death. It's a dread which besets us
all our lives. And here the Apostle Paul is
saying that we are dead to sin. What does that mean? What can
that possibly mean? He goes on to emphasise, he says
that we are freed from sin. We're dead to sin and we're freed
from sin. Now, there is no one who does
not sin. If you say you do not sin, you're
a liar. And the word of God tells you
that you're a liar. So let me see the man that says
he doesn't sin and I will tell him to his face on the basis
of the word of God that he's a liar. So was Paul mistaken? Was he getting carried away with
his doctrine here? Was he overstating his position? Well, I say no. And twice, no, because the apostle
Paul shows us two principal reasons why we are dead to sin. We are dead to sin as far as
our justification is concerned, and that is the whole meaning
of justification. Look back with me to chapter
four. This is the point that the apostle
has made. Chapter four, verse seven. Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. And if that's not enough, look,
verse eight. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Those that are in Christ are
justified. And as such, sin, though it is
committed by them, is not imputed to them. When God looks at them, he sees
no sin in them. When God looks at them, He sees
that sin has been committed, but that sin is not imputed to
their account. It has already been imputed to
Christ. It's already been laid upon Him. And therefore it passes right
over. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
causes that sin to be deflected and the responsibility for that
sin and the accountability for that sin to be deflected and
laid upon Christ so that the picture of the Old Testament
sacrificial lamb whose blood was shed and painted on the doorposts
and the lintels so that when the death angel passed over all
that were under the blood lived is exactly the same situation
for us who are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. There
is no sin seen in us. We are dead to sin, and that's
how God regards us. Those that are in Christ are
justified. And when they sin, that sin is
not charged against them, because the Lord Jesus Christ has already
carried it for them. Furthermore, not only is our
justification, but our sanctification bespeaks the fact that we are
dead to sin. Being in the Lord Jesus Christ,
being indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, being quickened by that
spirit. Our spirit now wars against sin. It rejects the rule of sin. Where sin once ruled in our life,
it does so no longer because the Holy Spirit has made a change. The Holy Spirit has turned us
around. That's why we use the word conversion. A conversion has been made. We
reject the rule of sin. We regret the stirrings of sin. We regret the way that sin endeavours
to come into our lives. We regret the way that temptation
still finds a hold in our life. And where we once loved, pursuing
our passions of nature, now we hate its presence. Well, we don't
deny its presence, but we hate its presence. We don't deny that
it exists in us because we see its effects in our flesh, and
we know that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing. But we war against
this very flesh of our bodies. And believers discover an internal
conflict between the flesh and the spirit. the old man and the
new man, the old nature and the new nature that is placed there
by Christ. In this regard, therefore, we
are dead to sin. And the Apostle Paul, in the
verses following, begins to speak about baptism. And he shows us
that baptism describes the believer's state. And that's why this chapter is
so important in a proper understanding of baptism. This is the go-to
chapter for baptism. We claim to be Baptists. This is the go-to chapter if
ever we're speaking about baptism and what it means. But it's interesting
to see what Paul says it means. It's important to know what baptism
means. It's not a simple right of membership,
that it's something that you do if you want to become a member
of a particular church. It's much more important than
that. And if we are to properly understand
the ordinance, we need to understand what Paul is referring to in
this chapter. Let me say this. Baptism is a fruit of understanding. All right? It's a consequence that is followed,
that is pursued as a result of spiritual wisdom. You do it because you know what
it means. The apostles were given a commission
when the Lord Jesus Christ went to heaven. They were told to
teach and baptise. Teach and baptise. Now that is
why we deny what's called paedobaptism or infant baptism. The infant
cannot make a decision, cannot pursue baptism knowledgeably,
with a spiritual wisdom, with an understanding. They cannot
be taught the significance of this baptism. It is being done
for them by someone else. The other ordinance that we celebrate
in church is the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And baptism
declares the gospel in symbol, just as surely as does the Lord's
Supper. They both together speak the
same message that preaching the gospel declares and speaks. And what the gospel preached
declares in words, the Lord's Supper and baptism declares symbolically
and pictorially. It reveals baptism, reveals our
union with Christ in his sufferings. It speaks of Christ's breaking
sin's power on the cross, of laying low the old man that the
body of sin might be destroyed and the resurrection of the new
man to walk in newness of life. That's what happened on the cross. And therefore, when we are baptised,
we are showing that that old man is in the grave and that
the new man has risen to newness of life. And only those that
see and understand this union that we have with the Lord Jesus
Christ in his death and resurrection, in his sufferings, can meaningfully
remember the Lord's death in communion, or testify to their
faith being founded upon the Lord's death in baptism. And that's why we always make
that disclaimer when we are preparing for the Lord's Supper. This is
a family meal. This is a communion service to
be engaged upon by those who know they are joined together
with Christ. They are united with Christ in
his death. The symbolism of the bread and
the wine entering into our bodies, becoming part of us, speaks of
that union that we have with Him. We are joined together with
His body in His death, in His broken body, and in His shed
blood. So in baptism, we have that same
picture of being buried together with the Lord Jesus Christ and
raised together with Him. Both of the ordinances speak
of understanding, understanding what we have experienced. And
the two stand or fall together. Communion and baptism upon profession
of faith is the biblical pattern that we endeavour to uphold. And I think it's interesting
that as you go down through these verses and where the Apostle
speaks of baptism, he repeatedly, look at verse three, he says,
Know ye not. This is talking about experience.
It's talking about what we have learned, what we understand.
Then again in verse six, knowing this, knowing this, that our
old man is crucified with him. Then again in verse nine, knowing
that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, deatheth
no more dominion over him. These are things that we know.
These are things that we have learned. These are things that
we understand. And there are glorious pictures
revealed in this baptism. Lovely scenes are set before
us. Our election in the great covenant
of grace and our predestination by God. That is something that
God did. We were elected in God's purpose. We were hidden in Christ in the
eternal purpose. And then the Holy Spirit called
us forth from that hidden place. That's a lovely picture of baptism.
That calling forth of conversion. That, as it were, drawing up
out of the water. When the body goes down under
the water it is out of sight. and we could live all our lives
not knowing, as we never can if we're one of the elect of
God, until the Holy Spirit calls us out and makes it evident that
we are of the elect of God. Remember how Lazarus was called
forth out of that place of death? How the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the door of the tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth. And he came. and he walked in newness of life
from the dead. And our glorification will also
be a picture of that, when we will be translated from this
world into the eternal realm, and we will live together there
with the Lord Jesus Christ, moving, as it were, from one medium into
another, from the world into the glory that Christ has prepared
for us. The elect were hidden in him
in the eternal covenant, but they are revealed by the gospel
when it is preached. We were lost, we were dead, we
were buried in sin, but we are raised together in newness of
life. Our bodies were buried in this
earth at death, but they will be raised again on resurrection
day. And baptism speaks about all
of these things, the change, the alteration, that which was
hidden and that which is revealed and that which will be glorified.
And you understand, you know these things are gleaned by the
preaching of the gospel. Therefore, we don't put little
drops of water in children's heads as some mark of them becoming
a member of a church, but we see this as a testimony. that
is borne to by those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and the work that he has accomplished. All this Paul brings forward
to reveal how believers are called to godly living. This is the
change, this is the conversion that has taken place and we are
freed from the reign and the dominion of sin. The bars, as
it were, of our prison cell have been burst open as we have been
raised together with the Lord Jesus Christ to a newness of
life and we no more continue in sin as a ruling passion in
our lives. We can't do it. We can't live
like that anymore. A change has been effected. We
can't live like any more, any more than the new man can live
peaceably with the old man. But mutual enemies they are,
even until this body is laid down in death. Look at verse
11. So the apostle has spoken about
how we have been joined together with Christ. Verse six said,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. So he has built this argument
up. And then he says in verse 11,
likewise, so using this, this that Christ has done, this that
Christ has accomplished and achieved in his death, in his atoning
work. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. As Christ died unto sin once,
so reckon you yourselves to be dead to sin in him. The Apostle Paul is saying here
to those to whom he is writing and to us, live, live man, live
woman, you're dead to sin. Reckon it to be so because it
is the way it is. See in this victory, see in this
power, Don't sort of fall back and languish in your sinfulness
and your weakness and your past condition because you have been
called to life in Jesus Christ. You have the victory. As Christ lives unto God, as
Christ lives to God's glory, as Christ lives to honour his
Father, so reckon you likewise to live to God, to live to his
honour, to live to his glory. Live, you are alive to God. Reckon it to be so because it
is the way it is. You are alive to God. I tried to think about a way
that I could explain this. And I did. Turn with me to Ezekiel 37. I want to read a few verses here.
We'll start at verse one. We'll just take a few moments
to do it. Ezekiel 37, verse one. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me
down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones and caused
me to pass by them round about. And behold, they were very many
in the open valley and low They were very dry. And he said unto
me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord
God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you and ye shall live. and I will lay sinews upon you
and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I
am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded
and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and
the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy
unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied. As he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and they
stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Now that's a little passage that
I'm sure you're familiar with. We don't have to speculate as
to what this means. because the Lord tells the prophet
Ezekiel in the next couple of verses exactly what this means. Verse 12 he says this, Thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause
you to come up out of your graves. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and
ye shall live. A little bit later it says, then
shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed
it, saith the Lord. It was the Lord who spoke this
and it was the Lord who performed it. Dead to sin and alive to God,
serving our master and serving his cause. This is what God has
done in Christ for us. This is what God has done in
opening our graves, in defeating our enemy. This is God that has
caused us to come up out of our graves. This is what is pictured
in baptism. And you will know, O my people,
says the Lord, that it is me who brought you up out of your
graves. Now look at verse 12 through 14 of our chapter here
in Romans 6. The apostle says, in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Now I fear that too many of us
interpret these two verses wrongly. I could say to you this evening,
hands up all those people who can stop temptation and live
holy lives in the flesh. You can't do it. You can't do
it. Rather than thinking of these
verses as being advice from Paul as to how we are to live, a request
or an instruction from him, or a suggestion. Rather, let us
think of these verses as being precepts, commands, orders that
God has given, that the Lord Jesus Christ has given. Let us
see these verses as a gospel precept, a gospel command, from
Christ against sin. Christ is King. What do I mean? Do you remember when the Lord
Jesus Christ said on the day of creation, let there be light? What happened? There was light. Why? Because the word of power spoke. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal bodies. That's Christ that's speaking.
That's not Paul. That's Christ that's speaking.
And he says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. And lo, sin did not reign in
their mortal bodies. That's the power, that's a gospel
command, that's the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us and he's
saying, let not sin reign. Is it going to reign? How can
it? The same one who said, let there be light and there was
light says, let not sin reign. It doesn't reign, it won't reign,
it can't reign. Not in the lives of his people
because Christ commanded against it. When we read these verses, look
at verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin. We can say, if that's a precept,
if that's the Lord Jesus Christ's command, then neither shall our
members be yielded as instruments of sin. sin shall not have dominion over
you. Rather, our bodies, our lives
will be dedicated to God as those that are alive from the dead. Our members will be members to
honour the Lord God as instruments of righteousness unto God. Sin
shall not have dominion over you. It shall not. It shall not. You are not the children of flesh
any longer. That was crucified at the cross. That has been raised together
in the resurrection to newness of life. You're not under the
law. You are a spiritual people. You
have been changed. You live by grace. You are the
children of the King, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. You are the army in the Valley
of Dead Bones. You have been raised and you're
standing upon your feet. The breath came into them and
they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great
army. This is who we are. Now you may
not feel it to be so. You may not think that that's
your portion in life, but this is the testimony of the gospel,
and this is the message of Paul to the Roman believers. This
is who you are. You are alive in Christ. You
are dead to sin. You are not under the law. You
are under grace. Your sins are forgiven. They've
been blotted out. God sees them no more. and you
live in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. That's it. That's what God has done for
us. That's his purpose for you and for me. We are his workmanship. He raised us from the dead. He
has brought us forth from the grave. And he causes us to live
in newness of life. Breath came into them, they lived,
they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. May the Lord bless and apply
these thoughts to our hearts and give us a confidence to know
that this is the very truth of the gospel and it is a statement
of who we are in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.