15. Romans 8:3a What has God done?

Romans 8:3a (ESV) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

I. What has God done?

Basically, this is the gospel or the good news of God.  This is such good news because God has done everything and you don’t have to do anything in order to save yourself.  All you have to do is believe.

Don’t believe me?  Watch this.

a. In the overabundance of God’s love (word search: womb, mercy, compassion, bowels in the KJV)

Exodus 13:2 (ESV) “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

Numbers 3:12 (ESV) “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine,

Deuteronomy 7:13 (ESV) He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.

It is the Hebrew word racham meaning tender love, mercy and compassion but it is the same word that means womb of a mother. Check how it is used here:

1 Kings 3:26 (KJV) Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

Put that all together and you get the single most powerful verse that truly speaks of God’s tender mercy, I will contend even more so than John 3:16:

Genesis 1:1a (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

… or to put it another way:

Out of God’s love, God gave firstfruits and created the heavens and the earth, the stars, sun, moon, sea and land, animals and plants and you and me.

b. He creates the world including us, male and female, in His likeness.
Genesis 1:27 (ESV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

c. We sinned against Him by not accepting His perfect plan for shalom and order but rather doing it ourselves (Genesis 3)

d. Despite our ignorance in unbelief (1 Timothy 1:13), God would fix everything Himself (Genesis 3:15)

e. Christ came down to earth from heaven as a missionary and despite facing all of the temptations we face, He lived the perfect life that we should have lived and did not:
Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

f. Christ face the wrath of God and died in place of all the sins for all those who would believe upon His name:
1 John 4:9-10 (ESV) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

g. Christ did this out of the love he had for us so that we might be with God forever:
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

II. If the law was not weakened by flesh and sin, could the law do what God end up doing?
Hebrews 7:18-19 (ESV) For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

cf. Matthew 5:17 (ESV) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Hebrews 7:28 (ESV) For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
III. How did we weaken the law?
a. law is the perfect standard of God
Romans 7:12 (ESV) So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

b. We kept adding rules and by-laws on top of what is already good:

It is the human nature to take something we don’t like and make it into a sin. In the 50s and 60s, rock and roll comes into popularity and all the parents and grandparents declare “I hate that noise therefore it must be a sin to listen to it.” 80s gives us Hip-Hop and the same kids who love Rock grew up to be parents and declares “I hate that noise therefore it must be a sin to listen to it.” It is in our very nature to take something we are really good at not doing and turn around and make it impossible for our brother and sister to abide by it. “Oh I can’t believe you can’t uphold that law. I can do it so easily. Let me look down upon you, you scum of the earth.”

Genesis 3:2-3 (ESV) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Adam was given the law (as we are keepers of His law) but added a by-law by the time he gave that law to Eve.

If you don’t think we don’t do that now, just think of all the times you have heard the term “unpardonable sin” whereas Jesus Christ himself declares there is only one unpardonable sin. (Matthew 12:31)

We are declaring what is sin based on nothing biblical but our likes and dislikes. That my friend is the definition of religion. How funny is it that God sent His Son not to condemn it with even more laws and bylaws and sub-committees you have to abide by in order to be saved but through Jesus Christ we might be saved. (John 3:17)

c. It is God that makes us holy, not the law
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. God, be our teacher. Help us. Clear all confusion. Reveal your Word to us. More importantly, give us You. In your Son’s good and holy name, I ask. Amen.

Romans 8:2 (ESV) For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

In Robert’s sermon from last weekend [link], he spoke of the three “omni” incommunicable attributes of God. Omni meaning “all” and we will touch on what is He is “all” about. Incommunicable meaning that these are attributes that we, as His creation, do not share Him being the Creator. (Communicable attributes of God and man are we can be merciful, loving, gracious, kind and joyful because God is merciful, loving, gracious, kind and joyful.)

Robert pointed at these three all encompassing attributes of God:
- God is omniscient, that is “all knowing” (Job 38:1-5, Job 38:12, Job 38:16-24, Job 38:34-35)
- God is omnipresent, that is “fully present in all places (Psalm 139:7-8)
- God is omnipotent, that is “all powerful”

It was in God’s omnipotence, that is God has all power and all ability to carry out all of His decrees.

One of His decrees is clearly stated in Romans 8:2, namely “Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

So how does God “set you free… from sin and death”?

I. God is all powerful.

Let us look at Psalm 139. What is very interesting about this chapter that the verses are laid out exactly every 6 verses talks about His omniscient (Psalm 139:1-6), His omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12) and His omnipotence (Psalm 139:13-18). It is verses 13 through 18 that we want to expound upon and get a grasp of His power and might:

Psalms 139:13 (ESV) For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

This eludes back to God as Creator of the heavens, earth and everything in-between including you and me. God created man and wife, Adam and Eve, from dust in the ground and breathed life into this dirt mold. Know that this point on, life is not man and woman coming together as husband and wife, knowing each other and loving each other. Life begins with and ends with God alone, despite what the wisdom of the world might teach. Remember in the Book of Ruth. Boaz, an older man and Ruth, who was married for ten years and never conceived. Yet…

Ruth 4:13 (ESV) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.

Life, both mortal and eternal life, begins with God.

Psalms 139:14 (ESV) I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My soul knows and yearns for God despite our depraved selves. God declares in…

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV) He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

… in that we are built to worship. Whom we worship is dependent on God revealing Himself to us and granting us the wisdom to know of His salvation (1 Corinthians 2:12). Furthermore…

Romans 2:15 (ESV) They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

Even without the knowledge of the Scriptures, every human being is guided by their conscience, given by God, in order to know what is morally right and morally wrong. Just the fact we have our conscience bears witness to God. Even further still:

Romans 1:19-20 (ESV) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Psalms 139:15 (ESV) My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Everybody knows the saying, “the devil is in the details”. Clearly, it is God who is in the details. He is the master of the details, down to the last particle. God states this about His own Son, Jesus Christ in…

Colossians 1:15-17 (ESV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

While God the Father is invisible, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. That is why so many people would state when God was visible in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:8, Genesis 18:1, Genesis 32:22-32, Exodus 3:1-6, Joshua 5:13-15, Isaiah 6:1-7 cf. John 12:41), that it was in fact Jesus Christ. This passage clearly states that all things were created by him, through him and for him. Furthermore, Jesus Christ existed before all things and in Jesus Christ, all things, the wood in the trees, the mountains, the sky and especially our mortal bodies, are held together. He is the only One who is keeping this universe together.

Psalms 139:16 (ESV) Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

This explains the power of God’s love. Before you were even a twinkle your dad’s eye and before your mom was even pregnant with you in her womb, God knew you, God loved you and knew your life before creation took place.

Psalms 139:17 (ESV) How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

It is God’s omniscient that reveals some of His omnipotence. God states in…

Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out.

… that in His all-knowing and all-wisdom and understand, it is in His goodness and mercy that we are to know the things that we know, either of the spiritual realm or of the earthly realm. Spiritual realm revealed to us by the Word of God. Earthly matters like science revealed to us by the wisdom of God given to us by God alone.

Psalms 139:18 (ESV) If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

The psalmist here declares, “You are still majestic and wonderful and my mind cannot begin to comprehend you. Yet, I am fully alive and I am with You and You keep me close.” God is all powerful but He is all personal as well.

Now we have a tiny, little glimpse of that power, let us see what He does with it in Psalm 139:19-24

II. God uses that power and might to free you from sin and death

Psalms 139:19 (ESV) Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!

Jesus gives us a revelation of this in his Revelation 19:11-21. But remember what Paul said about what happened to the power of sin and death when Jesus Christ was put to death:

Romans 6:6-10 (ESV) We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Psalms 139:20 (ESV) They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain!

God ultimately declares in His commandment:
Exodus 20:7 (ESV) “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Psalms 139:21-22 (ESV) Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Our enemies are not flesh and blood but the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12), this much is true. But sin is an enemy that we fight against. Paul openly and sincerely expresses this in Romans 7:7-25, more specifically in…

Romans 7:15 (ESV) I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now that God is in your heart, and from that love comes a delight in His Word, you wage war against sin (Romans 7:22-23).

Psalms 139:23 (ESV) Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

The psalmist can declare this openly, boldly and audaciously because it is not that anything we can do to be declare righteous before God but it is the power and might of God Himself and all the work He has done Himself to be fully merciful and just in order to declare you righteous before Himself.

Psalms 139:24 (ESV) And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

It is the same power and might of God that not only declares you to be right standing before Him, but it is that same power that would remove any grievous way in me (sanctification) that would also lead you in the way everlasting (glorication).

God did it all by sending His Son to this earth. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we did not live, took upon all of our sins and took on the full force of God’s wrath in order to die the death we should have died. In his death and burial, went the power of sin and death into the ground. But because Jesus Christ is perfect and righteous before God the Father, the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, raised Jesus Christ out of the ground 3 days later. It is the same power that will raise you from death into eternal life if you believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

I have noticed that going through multiple verses especially whole chapters is a bit too much information to take in and process. One of the main reasons I have started this Bible Study is to see disciples of Christ raised up. Part of doing so is hopefully having the inerrant, all sufficient Word of God sink and nestle within your heart so that we would experience Psalm 119:11 (ESV) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. In doing so, you can boldly speak about not just the generic contents of each of the books of the Bible but know how each of the chapters and verses are structured in the Bible.

For example. We talk about sin in Romans 1 to 3, salvation in Romans 4 to 5, sanctification in Romans 6 to 7 and now finally in Romans 8, we are going to speak of completion in the end, future glory in Christ Jesus and what does this all mean.

Being mindful of trying to know God’s Word, we are going to go a bit slower and a bit faster. Slower as in taking in smaller chunks like Chicken McNuggets but in my opinion, a million times more tasty as in again in Psalm 119:103 (ESV) How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (My son would call that a push.) Faster as in we will spend less time as far as quantity but my hope and prayer would be we will take more quality time just to chew on it.

Pray to Father for His sovereign grace, to Christ for His teaching of His Word and to the Spirit for His wisdom and understanding.

Romans 8:1-4 (ESV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I. Romans 8:1 (ESV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Look at the definition for the word ‘condemn’:
1. to express an unfavorable or adverse judgment on
2. to pronounce to be guilty; sentence to punishment
3. to give grounds or reason for convicting or censuring
4. to judge or pronounce to be unfit for use or service
6. to force into a specific state or activity
7. to declare incurable.

Drive this point home, lets play “What if…”

1. What if Charles Mason repented of his sins and believed upon Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior, then there is no condemnation for his sins.

2. What if Adolf Hitler repented of his sins and believed upon Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior, then there is no condemnation for his sins.

3. What if Mother Teresa repented of her sins and believed upon Christ Jesus as her Lord and Savior, then there is no condemnation for her sins.

I like to pick on dead people… obviously

4. Ted Bundy. Killed and raped 22 women and girls. Believe it or not, Ted Bundy grew up in a nice Christian family home. Family life was great. It was an introduction to softcore pornography while him and his friends dug through discarded magazines from behind a convenient store that turned his life for the worst. Being that he grew up a Christian, maybe he went to church once and maybe he went to Sunday School a couple of times. Can we say that there is a really, really good chance that he knows the gospel? Is there a chance that Ted Bundy confessed of his sins and believed upon Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior?

What if he did? Would he be with Lord Jesus forever and ever in heaven?

Turn this around. What if Mother Theresa never repented of her sins and never believe Jesus Christ as Her God, Her Lord and Her Savior. Despite all the good works she has done, there will be condemnation for her sins and she will be judged according to her sins.

No matter how bad you think you are and no matter how good you think you have done, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

Likewise, no matter how bad you think you are and no matter how much religion you have done in your life, there is hope for all of us. Believe in Jesus Christ as King of kings, Lord of lords and God of every square inch of creation and that means all of your body, mind and soul, and there is no condemnation for any of your sins in the past and even better news, any sins that you will do in the future.

II. Not condemning the whole world and especially the guiltless
Matthew 12:7 (ESV) And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Hosea 6:6 (ESV) For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

John 3:17-18 (ESV) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

III. Justification equals no condemnation

Matthew 12:33-37 (ESV) “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

V. Jesus Christ was already condemned for you and me and all of those who believed

Matthew 20:17-19 (ESV) And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

2 Corinithians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Hebrews 9:28 (ESV) so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:10 (ESV) And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Counter-argument:

Perseverance of the Saints:
Psalm 37:28 (ESV)
For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Hebrews 6:4-6 (ESV) For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Led to the Slaughter by Red Letter

Verse 1
Expose our prideful motives, throw them away
And clothe us with humility as You displayed

We all have sought a savior in garbage heaps
Lift us out from the wreckage, become our King

Chorus
Born into this world like us
A humble human form
Pouring Himself out as an offering
God became just like a lamb led to the slaughter

Expose our prideful motives, throw them away
Present us in Your purity in these twisted days

May we not seek false saviors in worthless things
Collapse our knees beneath us, You are our King

Bridge
Every knee will bow, every tongue confess
Every knee will bow, every tongue confess
Every knee will bow, every tongue confess
Youʼre the King and source of true righteousness

Words and Music by Joel Brown
Arrangement by Red Letter

Romans 7:7-25: I Will Wrestle

We are in the home stretch of wrapping up the six arguments that Paul lays out in defense of a changed heart and mind and life after accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. (I will do a quick review before heading into Romans 8 next time.) It is here that Paul makes one more (again, not so perfect) analogy to the defeat of sin in your life. Out of these arguments, Paul opens his heart up to the reader and exposes himself that even this great Apostle who probably walked in more power of God than any other human in history (other than Christ himself) struggles with sin. In Paul’s honesty, gives us hope and encouragement that we, too, are not failures just because we are not super-duper Christians on this earth.

I. Law Produces More Sin Doesn’t Make Law Sinful

A. Scriptures exposes your sin
Romans 7:7-8a (ESV) What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
1. God says don’t covet your neighbor’s wife but you try to argue “He isn’t really my neighbor… he lives in a whole other zip code”
2. Yea, it is okay to sleep with this person I am not married to because in God’s eyes, we are married.
3. That is how God’s Word exposes your sin and you can respond two ways: let it change your heart or try to harden your heart

B. Satan seizing the moment
Romans 7:8b-12 (ESV) For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Read back over Genesis 2:16-17 and then Genesis 3:1-7.

1. God lays down one commandment to mankind (keepers of the law): don’t eat of this one tree in the middle of the garden Genesis 2:16-17
2. Mankind, in his nature to do everything of his own power like keep the laws, adds by-laws and subcommittees to God’s one commandment Genesis 3:2-3
3. Satan overhears this and because our religion was successfully able to tempt us Genesis 3:4-7
4. Is religion a sin?

Question: How many of you in reading your Bible came into a revelation that some of the things you did were a sin? Not even the obvious ones like murder, lying, stealing but to even look lustfully upon a woman, woman nagging their husbands or gossipping or busybodies or idlehands or etc., etc.?

C. God’s law is not what seperates us from God
Romans 7:12-14 (ESV) So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

1. God is holy (set apart), righteous and alone is good.
2. It’s not the law but what sin (going against the will of God) seperates us from God
3. The Scriptures (the Law) tell us just how exactly God is holy, righteous and good.
4. If God allows one of his commandments to be broken and allowing that sinner to enter into a relationship with Him, then God ceases to be true, just, righteous, holy and good.
5. By His standards, we have broken at least one of the laws, therefore we have broken them all
James 2:10 (ESV) For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
6. Sanctification is never: “I am doing better than the week before” or “I am doing better than that guy”
7. Sanctification is: “how is my mind and heart like Christ” “am I closer to Christ” “am I praying and reading the bible so that my heart is like His”

II. I Am Just Like You, No Better

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

A. I am still a human
Romans 7:14 (ESV) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
1. Not a super-Christian
2. So long as I am on this broken earth in this broken world, I am still going to mess up
3. Complete salvation (glorification) is never here but there when we are face to face with Christ Jesus
Psalm 17:15 (ESV) As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

B. Now that you are of Christ
Romans 7:15-16 (ESV) For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
1. “I” is not only Paul (obviously) but Paul is speaking from his broken, sinful flesh
2. I want is I want to sin as I want to have sex, I want to be judgmental, I want to do this on my own without God so I can give myself all the credit and the glory and the praise
3. When I don’t do those sinful things, I start agreeing with law.
4. With Christ, more and more, you find yourself (with all the resources of the kingdom of God i.e. Holy Spirit, reading the word, praying, fellowship, etc.) still wanting to do those old things but that urge is has been pressed down and beaten down by the power of Holy Spirit and your faith and obedience in God
5. Every day, His mercies renew, His faithfulness is great, His strength is given to you and you and God walk this path out in righteousness and holiness because the sacrifice and bloodshed of Jesus Christ made you righteous and holy.

C. Sin is still powerful
Romans 7:17 (ESV) So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
1. Sin might no longer reign in your life but we can all agree with the Apostle Paul that it is still quite powerful
2. So long as we are on this earth…

D. Flesh has no good
Romans 7:18 (ESV) For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

1. Wants to sin
2. Desires to do good
3. With your own power, you will not have the ability to carry out what is good
4. You might be able to do things that seem good under your own power but that leads to pride
5. For the rest of us who will fail under our own power, that leads to despair

Question: How many of us have experienced the desire to do good but want to keep on sinning and it the power of your own flesh that seems to scream just a little bit louder than the Spirit?

E. Paul hits the point once more
Romans 7:19-20 (ESV) For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
1. I still struggle with not doing the things I should be doing (sins of omission)
2. I still struggle with doing the things I should not be doing (sins of comission)

F. Even if I find something I’m good at
Romans 7:21 (ESV) So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
1. If I am really good at proclaiming the gospel or not cheating on my wife or being a good parent or tithing and giving generously
2. Spiritual forces of evil are going to try to trip me up all the more
3. This is why we don’t do this alone.
4. Sure we do it with God but God meant to do this in fellowship and with godly accountability
5. People who you honestly and sincerely love you so much that they will speak up when they see you drowning and you don’t have the sense to ask for help

Question: Who do you say keeps you accountable in your life? Men, do you have a godly man in your life that can call out your junk? Women, do you have godly women in your life that can counsel you?

G. Still at war
Romans 7:22-23 (ESV) For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
1. Paul is unpacking his own walk with Christ
2. Now he is at a point where he delights in the law of God
3. Yet the battle wages on
4. Yet the sins that you thought you had no issues with, Christ walks with you, reveals it and works to get it off of your heart

H. Chief of Sinners
Romans 7:24-25a (ESV) Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

cf. Ephesians 2:4-9 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 7:25b (ESV) So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

III. Q&A
Is there still sin in your life? Do you struggle with not doing the things that you should do and doing the things you should not do? What is the answer?

1. Our hope, faith and utter dependence lies upon Christ Jesus alone.
2. It is why, every single day, we worship Him in our prayers, reading the Bible, kicking it with one another and getting together in “gathered” worship to sing songs and praises to Him, hear the Word of the Lord spoken and taught and give and pray to one other.
3. We worship on a continuous basis so that we will always depend and lean on Him and not ourselves

Subscribe in iTunes [rss link]

Let this be the only love song I write
May You be the only Love in my life
I asked You to draw me, I said I would run
So though I walk through the valley, yet will I trust
I asked You to call me, I said I would come
So though I go up the mountain, yet will I run

Chorus:

Though my song be taken from me
Yet will I sing; yet will I praise You
Though the joy be taken from me
Yet will I laugh; yet will I shout unto You
Though the light be hidden from me
Yet will I walk; yet will I run after You
Though my heart be slain within me
Yet will I trust; yet will I follow You

Bridge:

‘Cause I know whatever You do, You do through the eyes of mercy
And nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken away
There is a time for every purpose under the heavens
So though my weeping may last for the night
Oh how Your joy, it comes with the light

Note: I have a hard time finding these lyrics so I am reposting on my blog so that I will have them for a long long time. -Ed.

Romans 6:15-7:6 Your Old Master Has Been Sorely Defeated

Romans 6:15-23, 7:1-6; Daniel 7:9-14

0. Prelude - Who Is Your Master?

A. Paul argues (in Romans 6:1-14)
1. Can’t keep sinning because Jesus keeps forgiving
2. Can’t keep sinning because Jesus died for your future sins
3. Can’t consider yourself a Christian if you are doing so
4. … if you considered the Scriptures God inspired or God breathed
5. Focal: Romans 6:2 …. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

B. Paul wins the argument
1.. Through faith, we are with Him
Romans 3:26 (ESV) It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the one who justifies the individual who has faith in Jesus.

2. Our sin is with Him
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

3. We die with him
Romans 6:8 (ESV) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

4. Our sin dies with Him.
Romans 6:10 (ESV) For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

5. We rise from death with Him
Romans 6:5 (ESV) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6. Only if we repent of our sins and believe upon His name
Acts 2:38 (ESV) And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
C. Jesus was… (Robert’s Easter Weekend service (He Is The Lamb))
1. Provided
Genesis 22:8 (ESV) Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

2. Pure (without blemish, without faults, spotless)
1 John 1:3 (ESV) And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

3. Perfect (guilty of no sin either by omission or comission)
Ephesians 5:27 (ESV) so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

4. Jesus died on Good Friday when He became our sin 2 Corinthians 5:21

5. Jesus raised from the dead because He Himself was without sin, holy and righteous

The entire point of Romans 6 is twofold. One, stop doing the things you were doing if those things did not point you towards God. Two, keep your mind, heart, thoughts upon God at all times.

Okay, that point might be way oversimplified.
I. Slaves
Romans 6:15-18 (ESV) What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

A. Death or Life
Romans 6:15-16 (ESV) What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

1. Were mastered by sin, you kept on sinning
2. Didn’t know any better
3. Now that you do, then things to start to become sin/holy (black/white)
a. broken world: full of grey areas in order to allow flexibility between doing good and looking after me
b. eternity realm: things are either/or, holy/unholy, righteous/unrighteous, just/unjust, truth/untruth, life/death. there are no exceptions.

B. Young woman started an children’s charity…
1. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

2. … fulfills the law in Exodus 20:7 (ESV) “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

3. Easy for God because
Luke 16:15 (ESV) And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Acts 15:8 (ESV) And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

1 John 3:20 (ESV) for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Psalm 44:21-22 (ESV) If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
C. Give thanks to God
Romans 6:17-18 (ESV) But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
1. Christians have this tendency to forget about their salvation, about what Christ did on the cross for their sins.
2. It might be because they are so ashamed of their past sins and don’t want to even think about it.
3. “That is all in the past, I can look to the future.”
4. If we don’t remember what Christ did for us and give thanks to Him, we tend to forget the gospel
5. What I am saying is don’t focus on your past as in your sins and sinful nature
6. Any thought that breaks your heart and humbles you before God is always a good thing

There are many times when I sit and think on the standalone fact that Christ came into this world just to save sinners just like me. This is in despite of all of my sins and in despite of all the things I thought I could do to please God and earn favor with Him. I sit and think, “OH MAN, Christ saved me from death and despair? Why? Why did He choose me?” And then on top of that, he has called me to serve Him and His Bride? “Why? Why me? Why did You, O Lord, choose me for this?”

I can sit and come up with a bunch of theological jargon and overthink the answers to questions of Why? I have been divorced, not a godly husband like the way Christ is to His Bride and not a godly father like God the Father in heaven. I was addicted to pornography, worked in pornography and spent my life trying to figure out how to do nothing. I thought I was saved. I thought I was a Christian. I wasn’t looking out for Him. I wasn’t going after Him. Despite all of that, God the Father in his holiness and majesty, loving goodness and mercy by the life, bloodshed, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, came down and rescued me. That is all I got to know. For that, I cannot thank God enough.

Question: What did God save you from? How did God save you?

Romans 6:19 ESV I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.
D. Paul is not saying, ‘You guys are dumb, there is no way you could REALLY understand it.’ What he is saying here is that him even using the analogy of slavery (in the context of Israel under Roman occupation) is not exactly perfect. Let me explain with the rest of verse 19…

(cont.) Romans 6:19 (ESV) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
E. Slavery in Roman times
1. Human trafficking is a sin (1 Timothy 1:10, Revelation 18:11-13)
2. Slaves were able to earn a wage and save for their freedoms
3. Slaves were given an immense amount of responsibility including finances (see The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30)
4. Paul urges in 1 Corinthians 7:21 if you can gain your freedom, do so!
5. Upon gain freedom, many continue to work for their former masters
6. Some would take the family name of their master and continue to honor them

F. Slaves to Righteousness
1. God is not a cruel taskmaster
2. Matthew 11:30 (ESV) My yoke is easy, my burden is light”
3. Your master is not a master (Hosea 2:16) but the King, the Lord, the God of all creation
4. He has not handed you a list for your to check off, do this
5. He is telling you to come to Him, let Him change your heart so that your happiness, joy, peace and love are all satisfied in Him

II. Fruit
Romans 6:20-23 (ESV) For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

A. What people should see of you when God gets a hold of your heart
1. What Christ said of good tree, good fruits; Bad tree, bad fruit in
Matthew 7:16-20 (ESV) You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

B. What is more importantly, what you should except to see within yourself
1. Iniquities still might be there but with the strength of God, those iniquities are bending away from anger, bitterness, jealousy, lust
2. You might fall, but God is always there to pick you back up, set your feet pointing in the right direction
3. You and God will keep working with you.
4. He is your Teacher and you will be smarter and wiser because your mind is being molded after God’s mind
Matthew 19:16 (ESV) And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

5. He is your Trainer and you will be stronger because your strength is of God
1 Corinthian 9:24-27 (ESV) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Psalm 73:26 (NKJV) My heart and flesh fail, but You are the strength of my heart and my portion. Forevermore.

6. He is your Father and your heart will look more like His…
1 Thessalonians 3:13 (ESV) so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

7. … if you give yourselves up to His will and let him do His work in you which He promises to finish up
Philippians 1:6 (ESV) And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:2 (ESV) looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Romans 6:23 ESV For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A. Your old master versus Jesus Christ

Daniel 7:9-14 (ESV)

“As I looked,

thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.

“I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

“I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.

B. The fix is in
1. God does according to His will and His good pleasure
Philippians 2:13 (ESV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

2. God calls the shots.
3. God sets up the game and He wins the game
4. God setup the world and because of His Son’s work on the cross, gives dominion to Him
5. You have no shot on your own to justify yourself before God.
6. Believe on Him, and He becomes your King, your Judge, your Prosecuting Attorney, your Defense Attorney
7. Don’t believe on Him and He becomes all of that plus your Executioner.

Previously, Paul tries to explain our former life which is death as to our lives now which is true eternal life with Jesus Christ and using the context of slavery (not the immoral, wicked human trafficking that our country is so familiar with) do so. Even Paul admits that wasn’t the most perfect analogy and he is going to give another angle that is not perfect either but put them together and see if you get a revelation out of them.

Let’s go.

III. Once Bonded, Once Married, Death Takes Care of That
Romans 7:1-3 (ESV) Or do you not know, brothers-for I am speaking to those who know the law-that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

A.
Romans 7:1 (ESV) Or do you not know, brothers–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
1. Speaking to all those who knew the Mosaic Law (mostly Jews)

B. Divorce
Romans 7:2-3 (ESV) For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

1. God equats divorce to violence and in some translations, God proclaims His hatred of divorce
Malachi 2:16a (NKJV) “For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,”

2. Rightfully so, since Jesus takes origin of marriage in Genesis 2 and says this:
Mark 10:6-10 (ESV) But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

3. God is not oppose to violence. Because God is holy, just, righteous, loving, in the end, He used violence as God the Father poured His wrath that was meant for us sinners upon His Son, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin but became sin so that we might be made right standing with God forever.

4. But something like marriage that was deemed good and holy by God, for us to undo marriage is taking one person’s body and ripping it two. That is why many who go through divorce explain that they are just a walking corpse.

C. When you were married, in bondage to sin, you chased after this spouse who treated you like a whore.
1. Women, you go after the guy who gives you no respect and uses your body for his pleasure and joy and will use you up until you die
2. Men, you go after the really hot girl who would do nothing but cut you down, emasculate you (Judges 15) and nag you until you died (Job 2:9)
3. Running aftger that friend, boyfriend, girlfriend that are no good for you
4. Keep getting back into those bad habits or habitual sins that you just can’t seem to shake

D. When you are alive in Christ, that john, that whore are dead.
Romans 7:4 (ESV) Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Because of the life, death, burial of Christ, your sins stay buried. Because of His resurrection, Christ completely champions and conquers Satan, sin, demons, hell and death.

E. Working more godlier, not harder
Romans 7:5 (ESV) For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

cf. Romans 5:20a (ESV) Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased…

Romans 7:6 (ESV) But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

cf. Romans 5:20-21 (ESV) … grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It wasn’t purpose and design of the law (we will get in just one moment), i.e. the standard of God which is perfection, but because of our nature, it produced two things

1. For those of us who were able to follow the law of the letter and was able to beat our own sins, pride and arrogance increased that made you feel like not only you didn’t need God but if others were struggling with what you have “beaten”, you had no heart or compassion for them “why can’t they just do what I have done”
a. Right there, you have just broken the first two commandments “Love God” & “Love your neighbors”

2. For the rest of us who couldn’t beat sin on our own, we just gave up believing lies like “this is just the way I am” “I’m lustful because I burn with passion” etc., etc.. and we just sin all the more hardcore thus breaking any of the other commandments.

3. That is the thing, this was a good word for Christians of the OT and NT.
a. Salvation through faith
b. Believed in the coming Messiah
c. Even through the OT saints had to go through the ceremonal laws
d. They did this with joy and gladness because the law was written upon their hearts and transformed their minds
e. They waited upon the Messiah that rescued them from death to release them from the bondage of the law
f. Just as we wait upon the Messiah to completely fix us all and to release us from the bondage that is the brokenness of this world
IV. Q&A

1. Can you remember the time before you were saved and you felt imprisoned and bonded to sin? How does that compared to free in Christ?

2. 1 John 1:8 (ESV) says, ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ Based on that, what we have studied in Romans 6:12-13 and what we know of ourselves, do we still have sin in us when we follow Christ?

3. What if everything wasn’t handled by God but was in some some way dependent on you or l in order to be saved? Is there hope for our salvation?

Subscribe in iTunes [rss link]

Romans 6:11-14 Who Is The Master?

Titus 3:4-7; Romans 6:12-14; Ephesians 6:10-19

0. Prelude - Let us review Justification

A. Elements of Initial Salvation or Justification:

1. Legal standing made right standing by the blood of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Peter 1:2; Romans 8:29

2. One hitter quitter - Nothing more to be done to save you.
Hebrews 9:28 (ESV) so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:10 (ESV) And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV) For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

3. All by God:
Titus 3:4-7 (ESV) But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

4. Same for all of those who repent of their sins and believe on His name:
Acts 2:38 (ESV) And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

B. Elements of Ongoing Salvation or Sanctification (Growing in Likeness of Christ)

1. Legal standing versus Internal Change
2. One hitter quitter versus Ongoing Work
3. All by God versus All by You and God
4. Same for all versus Different Levels of Growth within Believers

I. Trust me, you’re still dead

A. You called yourself saved. You believed you are saved. You know Christ lives in your heart. Uh what now?

B. Fact/Promise #1: Sin has no power and reign over you.
that is what we will be talking about today

C. Paul states what your mindset should be previously:
Romans 6:11 (ESV) So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

D. Sets up…
Romans 6:12-14 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

II. (1) You don’t wrestle with sin
Romans 6:12 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

A. It is not just you and your sin and you get to wrestle it one-on-one
B. That alone will cause you to fail.
C. Just removing temptation is not enough
D. Habitual Sin of Choice:
1. Alcoholic dumps every single bottle of spirits, beer and wine down the toilet yet he sits alone and all he can think about is that next drink
2. You have one dude in the slammer, picked up because he was kicking the crap out of someone. Yet, all he can think about is finishing the beatdown as soon as he gets out of jail.
3. Porn addict tosses his computer into an incinerator. Yet, he has millions upon millions of women in the harem of his mind.
4. The girl in a relationship, having sex with her boyfriend. Because the boyfriend doesn’t respect her at all, she continues in this relationship and thinks that her boyfriend will change on his own.

Question: What sins you are you wrestling with in hopes that you will overcome and you will win at this?

E. Conquer/Defeat by self leads to:
1. Pride
a. Look at me, I did this on my own. I get all the credit.
b. But when somebody struggles with the same thing, you have no compassion

2. Worldly Sorrow
a. Ugh, I can’t beat this on my own
b. I suck
c. Let me dive headlong into this sin, full throttle

Question: can you think of sins past or present that you have either beaten on your own or fell into it full throttle?

III. (2) You don’t worship sin
Romans 6:13 (ESV) Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

A. Do not present not just your physical body to sin but everything that you have: computer, internet, car, money, words, relationships, food, drink, etc.
1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

B. Whatever we do is worship to God or at least it should be!
1. Worship doesn’t end when Matt puts down his guitar
2. Worship doesn’t end even when I stop proclaiming the gospel of Christ
3. Worship doesn’t end when we are no longer around “church people”

Question: Is what I do give glory to God? Is this moment giving glory to God?

D. Fine and well but how do I train myself up? Later…
IV. You don’t subject yourself to sin
Romans 6:14 (ESV) For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

A. Whether you believe it or not, sin has no dominion over you

B. Okay, you can believe it and therefore, it will have power over you

C. But that would be like bitterness:
1. I am furiously mad at your for the wrong you did to me
2. But that person it totally unaware that you are mad at them
3. In other words, I drink the poison but I expect you to die

D. The only thing giving sin power in your life is you.

E. How do I stop giving sin this much power in my life? Later… well, later is now.
V. You are with Christ Jesus

A. Wrestle Christ instead:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1. Paul compares to Christians to athletes
a. Runners run
b. Boxers box
c. Athletes trains and disciplines
d. We are training to a life of comfort and ease but training to do the job and finish the job well.
e. What does our training get?
Genesis 32:23-25 (ESV) He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

2. Jacob
a. Cheated, lied, straight up pulled a “fast one” over his dying, blind dad, Isaac, in order to straight jack Esau for birthright
b. Jacob gets his blessing after wrestling and training with Jesus Christ
c. But in doing so, Jesus Christ pulls a crippling touch attack (Shaolin Kung-Fu style) on Jacob, injuring him for life
d. Jesus had to take the pride out of Jacob in order for Jacob to glorify God

3. In our training, working out and wrestling with God, you need to be open to what God might have to do with you in order for you to do His will. Scary thought.
Ephesians 6:10-19
2.We know Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

a. What is the purpose of the armour of faith? Check out Ephesians 6:10
b. Lord’s strength and might gives you salvation, righteousness, faith, truth, peace and His Word
c. How? Ephesians 6:18-19
1. pray - praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
2. read the Word - To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints
3. evangelize - also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

B. Worship Christ instead:

1. Not saying:
a. all of the songs on your iPod with worship music
b. replace all of your clothing and accessories with WWJD
c. plaster the entire back of your car with Jesus fish and Scripture bumper stickers

2. What I am saying that:
a. get with other believers
b. stop doing this on your own

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
3. How did you think you were going to do this by yourself?
a. You are not going to do this without Christ, right?

b. If we are the body of Christ, then how are you going to do without His body?

Hebrews 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
c. Listen, if you don’t believe me, just go home get on esv.org or biblegateway.org or whatever Bible software you use and I dare you to do a word search on the word ‘together’
i. Woman with lost mite - Luke 15:9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
ii. Day of Pentecost - Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

d. This might be the hardest thing I ask of you: You might have to go and do church outside the weekend services
i. Get into small groups
ii. Check out Freedom Ministries with Gateway or Celebrate Recovery with a church that is closer to you
iii. Check out DivorceCare
iiii. Get some Biblical Counseling with godly men and women - what I mean by Bibical is that if they don’t take you back to the scriptures over and over again and thus letting the Scriptures ask you the tough questions, then it is not even worth your time

C. All of this training is to:
1. Renew your mind (Romans 12:2) so that you start to believe that sin no longer has dominion over you if you are believer in Christ
2. Most of all, it gets you and keeps you closer to Christ.

D. Endquote
“…. from him [Christ] as from a fountain, sanctification flows into the souls of the Saints: their sanctification comes not so much from their struggling, and endeavors, and vows, and resolutions, as it comes flowing to them from their union with Him.” - Jeremiah Bourroughs, seventeenth-century Puritan

“we saints must not close our mouths to this fountain of sanctification, but continue to drink from it.” - H. Thielicke

This is a process that is going to take a lot of work, might hurt and might sting and through it, it might not make senses. But in the end, it is all worth it to dance in the glory of God because you are now free from your former pimps, your former slavemaster, your former masters.

Last week we talked about how we were descendants of Adam and because of one man’s sin, we were born physically alive but spiritually dead. Essentially, at one point in every one’s lives, we were surely destined to hell. We are born sinners and sinned out of the things we did we were not suppose to do (commission) and things we didn’t do but should have done (omission). Nobody is born perfect. No one is righteous. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But because of our faith in Jesus Christ, the only who could substitute our place as the target of the wrath of God, wipe our sins away and make right what was once broken, we are made right standing before God. Paul will continue on this thought in this way in Romans 6 as a continuation from the end of Romans 5:20-21: Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

0. Prelude

A. Born like the descendents of Adam
1. Born sinners and were have died (perishable seed 1 Peter 1:23)
2. Sinners by commission and omission

B. Born by Holy Spirit because of our faith in Christ
1. Born again
2. Changed hearts Ezekiel 11:19 … I will remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh or remove a hard heart, replaced with soft heart
a. goes on to say in Ezekiel 11:20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
3. Renewed minds Romans 12:2 …be transformed by the renewal of your mind
4. Nicely wrapped in in Titus 3:4-6 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

C. Punch
1. You are dead, dead, dead, dead
2. Your dead self is really dead
3. Because you have accepted Jesus Christ to come into your heart, be your Lord and Saviour…
4. Guess what, you are dead.

D. We all have to answer this question:
1. What are the effects of this changed heart and renewed mind by Christ?
-or-
2. Can we keep on sinning and doing what we wanna do?
3. We know the Christianese answer. Let us make the answer bibically by beating it to submission

I. Dead to Sin

A. Can we keep on sinning since God is going to forgive us anyway?
1. Romans 5:20-21 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

2. Law does not and did not conquer sin.
a. clearly laid out in Romans 5:20
b. let scripture interpret scripture and say that verse 20 can be backed up by nearly all the scriptures from Exodus 20 to Malachi 4.
i. Exodus - Moses just get Laws including the Ten Commandments and plans for the Tabernacle straight from God Himself… only to find that the Israelites totally forgotten that they have been rescued and instead want to worship a gold cow
ii. Judges - People were wicked, God rises up a judge. People become wicked again, God rises up a judge. Despite the weight of leadership and headship upon the man, this vicious cycle continue so many times that God had to raise a woman by the name of Deborah in order to judge the God’s people (Not saying that women cannot lead but this was a bit out of the ordinary compared to the rest of the Bible. That is all I am saying.)
iii. We can go on and on throughout all the OT

Romans 6:1-4 (ESV) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

B. Unpack this passage:
1. Paul expounds this by taking it to the cross Romans 6:2 How can we who died to sin still live in it?

2. Romans 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
a. Is this talking about water baptism?
b. Who baptizes us into Christ Jesus?
c. This is clearly talking about baptism by blood or salvation

3. Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,…
a. Now we how water baptism (an outward, physical symbol) tells the world that we have died to sin along with the death of Christ
b. when we rise up out of the water, we rise up just as Christ had risen from the dead by the glory of the Father

4. Romans 6:4 … we too might walk in newness of life.
a. When I first read these four verses, I was like “how? how do you want in the newness of life?”
b. Paul doesn’t answer “how do you…” but he really answers “how is it… ?”
c. or “How is it that we are able to walk in the newness of life?”

II. BFFs with Jesus

Romans 6:5-11 (ESV) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

A. United and it feels so good:
Romans 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
1. Accepting Christ is essentially dying with Christ (who became all of our sin) and rising with Christ

B. You died with Christ:
Romans 6:6-7 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

1. This is why Jesus said in:
Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

2. Jesus is saying, “I need you to die. I need you to deny your flesh. I need you to die to the things of this world. I need you to die to things that argue against your conscience. I need you to die to your wicked heart. I need you to die to your sinful nature. I need you to die to your old self so I can give you new life. A life that does not die. A life that is truly fulfilled unlike in the past where the things of the world gave you a taste of fulfillment but did a really crappy job of doing it. You are trying to hold on to your life, your career, your spouse, your kids, your money, your world. You want life? Die to those things and come follow me.”

3. Jesus became all of our sin and therefore had to died.

4. Jesus was raised from the death in that we, too, would have life, all for the glory of God.

5. No longer are we in bondage to sin.

C. Dying once was good enough:
Romans 6:8-9 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

1. Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of God, was raised from death into life proving that death has no dominion over you. Just like Satan, demons, sin and death no longer have dominion on this earth. It was conquered once and for all by Jesus Christ. You die with Him, you will be given a new life by him and you are no longer under authority by Satan, demons, sin and death. Forever.

D. Coffee cup verse of the week:
Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

1. Jesus death took all of our sins with him to death. His resurrection crushes the head of Satan and fully conquers all of Satan, demons… all of sin and death.

E. Therefore…
Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

1. So you died with Christ, you rose with Christ, given a new life by Christ, Christ changes your heart and gives you a renewed mind
2. You are dead to sin.
3. You cannot be alive to sin and alive to Christ Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…

Subscribe in iTunes [rss link]

When you ordain ministers who are known, proud and unrepentant sinners, don’t be shocked when you see your church shrink in size.

When you don’t call out sinners to repent and break themselves before the Almighty God, don’t be shocked when people are not attracted to God.

When you ignore the Holy Spirit of the Bible who is God, don’t be shocked when you see your church lose power that only comes from God.

When you put too much emphasis on the Holy Spirit instead of the Triune God, don’t be shocked when you see your numbers dwindled year after year.

When you don’t preach the gospel and don’t center everything upon Christ and his precious work on the Cross, don’t be shocked when you have to close your church doors for good.

When you don’t pray, don’t be shocked that God seems not to answer your prayers.

When you don’t read your Bible, don’t be shocked that you feel like God is silent.

When you don’t make every effort to love one another, don’t be shocked that you sometimes question God’s love for you.

In other words…

When I don’t proclaim the gospel of God with my mouth and actions…

When I try to ignore and emphasize parts of the Bible when I want to because it makes me feel better…

When I don’t call sinners to repent…

When I don’t call the self-righteous to humble themselves…

When I don’t pray…

When I don’t read the Bible…

When I don’t love  others as God has loved me…

When I don’t place God a distant first in my life…

I cannot be shocked if it feels like God is nowhere near me.

But in the middle of my wilderness, when I think You are nowhere near me and that there is possibility that You have forsaken me…

I will call out Your Name.

God, despite the best that I can do, be near me.