Some Thoughts to think When Tempted to Sin

And hope you had a blast, thanksgiving in the Lord and had much to, well, we do have much to be thankful for, but, That you were freshly mindful of, of those things over, over this past week. I do want to draw your attention to an insert that's in your bulletin. It's the gray, insert. That says house to house, starting next Sunday, normally what we do during the month of December with the exception of our Christmas, service, which will be December 19th, is we, we try to just get focus during the month of December to a particular topic, that is a timely one for us as a church, and this is the topic that we'll be focusing on starting, next Sunday, and it's called House to House, God's Vision.

for your household. we learned a lot when we were studying through the Book of First Timothy, especially in chapter 5, regarding the relationship between the local church and the household. And we drew some conclusions back in chapter 5 that for the local church to soar and to be everything that God wants it to be, then it must be composed of strong and biblically vibrant households, individual earthly households, which are places of worship, ministry, and instruction. And outreach and literally in 1 Timothy 5 there's delegation that goes on where the church is delegating certain duties to the household members and what we learn from that is that if the church is to be what God wants it to be, then there needs to be an understanding of this is what the church does, this is what should be.

Taking place in the household and not only does that delegation and instruction take place, but then the church pulls behind the household and supplies the members of a household with whatever equipping and training that they need to receive in order to do what God has called them to do in the context of their household. And so we're going to be focusing on that. We're just seeing that for Cornerstone to be what God wants it to be, then, then we really need to put some focus, some energy, and resources into, the earthly households that compose.

This particular local church.

And as you see on the handout, there's a variety of topics, all of them are connected by this theme of just understanding that a significant amount of the body life of the local church happens inside the walls of one's home. And we want to address that topic and essentially just think out loud in front of you through the month of December and to make what we hope will be a contribution to an ongoing community dialogue as we as a church try to go further in experiencing God's vision for for Cornerstone.

So that starts next Sunday. in our morning service and also during the Sunday school hour, and you can see here the sermon schedule as well as the Sunday, school, schedule, as well.

So, that's starting next Sunday, and we would encourage you to come back and be prepared to take, this journey, with us. Well, having said that, let me, invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We're going to spend more, one more week in Romans 6 and then, what it looks like is we'll be taking a break from Romans 6, during the month of December and then we'll be coming back, to this chapter in, January as we continue to, go deeper into this section of Romans chapters 5 through 8.

This is a journey into the very heart of the gospel, and if we want to be, living, breathing, functioning. just believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, then, then we want to understand what Paul is saying in Romans 567, and 8. So much here is so crucial, and I especially feel this to be so as we come into Romans chapter 6, verse 2, and following. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be some thoughts.

To think when tempted to sin. Some thoughts to think when tempted. to sin. How many of you experienced temptation to sin over this past week?

Just raise your hand. OK. How many of you think it's likely that you will experience temptation to sin in the coming week? Raise your hand.

OK. So what's what we're going to learn from these verses in Romans 6, I think will be a very practical help to us as Paul actually comes alongside of us and teaches us exactly what to think in our moments where we're contemplating the prospect of actually engaging in sin. And we'll be learning about the freedom that God has given to us from sin. Let me start in an unusual place for a sermon, and that is with Charlie Chaplin, the great theologian of the last century.

and one of his silent movies, it's a, it's a brief silent movie. the basic plot of the movie is that he was a prisoner on board a ship bound to, a ball and a chain. And the ship experiences a a storm and then a wreck at sea and everyone on board the ship dies. but Charlie Chaplin, this character is the only character in the movie that survives, and he finds himself marooned on a deserted island.

And the movie essentially begins with him on the shore. Of this deserted island all by himself and he's free. However, there is a ball and a chain, that is attached to a fetter that is bound around his leg. And so he's happy to be free from his captors, but the whole plot of this silent movie is what he tries to do in order to be free of this ball and chain.

And so he sits there staring at it and he's thinking deeply, and he thinks several thoughts by way of what he might be able to do to be free of the ball and chain. And here's some of the thoughts that he thinks. His first thought is, I know what I'll do. I'll humor it.

I will amuse it, and when its guard is down, I'll dash away. And so he begins to entertain the ball and the chain and to tell the ball and chain jokes and just trying to amuse it and humor it and when he feels like he has sufficiently humored the ball and chain, he gets up and begins to dash away, but then bam, he falls to the ground. He's yanked to the ground by the chain when it reaches its full length. So as he's sitting there, he's thinking again about what he can do to be delivered from this ball and chain, and he gets another thought, and that is this.

He says, I know, I will trick it. I will outsmart it. And so he begins to try to trick the the ball and chain and outsmart it, and he tries various things and when he feels like he had sufficiently. Outsmarted the ball and chain, he begins to run away, but once again he is yanked to the ground by the chain as it reaches its full length.

And so he's getting a little frustrated by now, and, but he's not giving up hope. And so he begins to think again, and as he's thinking, another thought occurs to him, and he says, I know, I will talk to it. I will reason with it. And so he begins to talk to the ball and the chain and to Reason with it, and he's very sincere.

He's very earnest in his pleadings to the ball and the chain, and he's he's giving the ball and chain reasons as to why it ought to let him go. And after he had sincerely and earnestly pleaded and reasoned with the ball and chain long enough, he gets up and begins to walk away, and he's yanked to the ground again as soon as the chain reaches its full length. Well, he's frustrated totally by now, but he has one more thought that occurs to him, and that is this. He says, I know, I will ignore it.

So he begins to ignore the ball and chain, and he refuses to even look at it or acknowledge its existence. And at one point he begins to kick sand over the ball and chain to where by the time he's done doing that, he looks at himself and there's no evidence of the ball and the chain anywhere. He looks like a normal human being who has no bondage issues and as someone is watching this particular movie and sees that scene, he looks like a totally normal person, doesn't look like he's bound to anything.

And after he felt that he had sufficiently ignored the ball and chain, he begins to walk away.

And one final time, bam, he's yanked to the ground by the ball and chain as soon as the chain reaches its full length. It's at that point of the movie that the Charlie Chaplin character sits down in exasperation and in frustration at the end of his resources, and he looks up into the sky looking for a plane or someone from somewhere to come. And deliver him. At that point in the movie, he's realizing if I'm going to be free of this ball and chain, I need help from outside of myself.

I don't know. I don't have a clue what Charlie Chaplin was thinking and putting that little vignette together, but it's a powerful picture. Of mankind's dealing with his sin problem. People outside of Christ will try many different strategies to be free of sin.

They will try to ignore it and they will try to amuse and entertain their sin problem. They will even try to relabel it. Some people will take that ball and chain and call it freedom. Or an alternative lifestyle or any number of things, but at the end of the day, it's always a ball and chain that is holding them captive.

And what we need to do in our lives with regard to our sin problem is to call it what it is, to see it for what it is, and to understand that there's absolutely nothing we can do. To deliver ourselves from this sin problem and to look up into heaven and to realize that our only hope can come from God. Amen. From God through Christ.

And Paul has been teaching us in Romans 5 about how God through Christ, through the cross has caused His Son to shed his blood so that we can be delivered from the guilt of our sin and from the condemnation. And the eternal damnation that we deserve for our sins, and that's all very beautiful and to be celebrated, but as we come into Romans chapter 6, Paul wants to take us deeper in understanding that not only are we delivered from the guilt of sin and A condemnation of sin, but we are delivered also from the power of sin, from enslavement to sin in our lives.

The truth is that many times we are exactly like that Charlie Chaplin character, even as believers. We have been delivered.

We rejoice in that, but it feels many times like there is still a ball and a chain. And we wonder about our relationship with this ball and chain and how it is now being freed and delivered from our captor that we can walk in freedom from sin. That is the burden of Paul in Romans chapter 6 and basically the paradigm that we're going to look at verses 2 through 7. With is this we're going to look at 6 thoughts that Paul gives to us, and he's essentially saying these are thoughts that you need to think when you consider the prospect of continuing in sin.

Or another way of saying it is, here's 6 thoughts that you should think when sin tries to assert its mastery over you. sin is still a reality from day to day in the lives of believers in, in Jesus Christ, and it will often try to exert its force and its power in our lives. And when that happens, Paul says, here's what I want you to think. Look how he begins in verse one.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Now, Paul is asking a logical question that's logically asked after the content of what he's taught in Romans chapter 5. And we've already addressed that flow of thought.

I just want to look at this question from the standpoint of the practical question that we're all faced with every day. Essentially, when Paul says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? That question, shall we continue in sin is a question every one of us ask ourselves in one form or another every single day.

Every day, on multiple occasions, multiple levels, we are confronted with this question, and we're asking, shall I continue in sin? Shall I commit this sin? That's what we're asking in every temptation that confronts us. Shall I continue in anger?

Shall I continue in bitterness? I've been bitter over what this person has done or failed to do against me. Shall I be bitter? I've been bitter for the last 5 weeks now, or even for the last year.

Shall I continue in bitterness in order that God's grace may increase? Towards me shall I continue in envy? Shall I continue in discontentedness? Shall I continue in lust and in sensuality?

Shall I continue in adulterous thoughts? Shall I continue in drunkenness? The list can go on and on. All of us multiple times a day are asking the question, shall I continue in sin?

And in those moments of temptation, Where sin is exerting itself in our lives and we're pondering this issue. Paul basically says, here's how I want you to think, and he comes alongside of us and says, now, what I want you to do is think exactly these thoughts in the sequence that I am giving them to you. I will go ahead and think out loud. So that you can learn what my train of thought is in moments of temptation so that you too can learn to think these thoughts in your moments in which you are considering the prospect of committing sin.

I love the fact that God in His word doesn't just say don't sin, and then he leaves us to ourselves to figure out what to think in the midst of temptation. No, God sends Paul to come alongside of us and to think out loud. So that we can see a train of thought that we can think to experience freedom from sin. Paul would essentially say in Romans 6, If you can think this train of thought that I lay out for you, going from one thought to the next, it will take you well on the road to experientially walking in the freedom that God has given to you.

In Jesus Christ. Not only will you walk in freedom, but by the time you're done with this sequence of thoughts, you actually won't want to sin, you will turn away from sin and say no to it with laughter, and with joy. In your heart. Let me begin reading again in verse 1.

I'll read through verse 7, and then we'll begin to break this down and see how far we get this morning. Paul says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be?

How shall we who died to sin, still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. By the way, guys, this is a thinking person's chapter. Paul is thinking here. He wants us to think.

Look at this verse 3, do you not know? Verse 6, knowing this, verse 8 in the middle of the verse, we believe, verse 9, knowing that, verse 11, even so, consider yourselves. In other words, think this to be true. Verse 16, do you not know that Paul in these verses is not so much asking us to do anything.

He's asking us to know some things and to think certain things when we're faced with sin exerting, trying to exert any mastery over us. And here's some thoughts that we need to think. Thought number one, let's word it this way. The first thought that Paul suggests that you can think in a moment where you're considering the prospect of sinning is this, that God has legally rendered me dead to sin and its claims upon my life.

God has legally rendered me dead to sin and to sin's claims. Upon my life. Look what he says in verse 2. Shall I continue in sin that grace may increase?

Verse 2 may it never be. This is a shocking thought. This is an unthinkable proposition. Why?

How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Paul says, here's what I want you to think. If sin is presenting itself to you and you're considering committing sin, Look at yourself in the mirror and say, I have died, and in dying, I have died to sin and having died to sin, how could I possibly continue engaging in the sin that I have died too? He says we died to sin.

And you say, what does he mean when he says that we've died to sin? Probably in January. I'll give you guys a list of what Paul does not mean when he says here that we have died to sin. There's a lot of wrongheaded notions about, What Paul is saying here, at the very least, what I want us to look at this morning is that when Paul says that we have died to sin, at the very least at this point of chapter 6, Paul, I believe, is referring to an aspect of our justification.

I don't believe at this point of verse 2 that Paul thinks he's saying anything radically new compared to what he's already been saying. In Romans 5, I think a part of what he's saying by his question is, if you really were listening to what I've been saying in Romans 5, you would know that you are dead to sin and that you therefore should not be living in it. Paul is equating death to sin to our justification. You say, well, how do this?

Well, look at verse 7 of Romans 6, and I have on the screen a literal translation. Of what Paul says in verse 7. And most of your English translations do not translate it this way. so, look at the literal translation here on the screen.

Paul says, for he who has died, literally is justified from sin. And the word that your translation translates with the word free, I believe that's what most translations do, is actually the Greek verb for justification that is used in Romans 5:1. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. When Paul uses that verb justify.

That's exactly the same verb that he's using here in verse 7, which means that when Paul speaks of us as having died or having died to sin, it's roughly equivalent in his mind. It's just another way of saying the fact that we have been justified. You say, well, how does us being dead to sin have anything to do with our justification? Justification, we've learned is where God decides that I will think of you as forgiven and as righteous with the righteousness of Jesus.

How does that have anything to do with our death? Well, Paul's going to unpack this, but let me at least say this much at this point. Imagine that I have committed some crimes and I am sentenced to serve a 50-year prison sentence, a 550 year prison sentence, and let's say that 2 years into that sentence, I die. If I die 2 years into that prison sentence, because I died, I don't have to serve the remaining 48 years of my prison sentence, right?

Are they going to take my dead body and keep it in the prison for another 48 years? No, there's an element in which we could say, and Paul even says this in Romans chapter 7, that we, as long as we're alive, we're under the jurisdiction. Of the law, death is actually a means of escaping that jurisdiction. People actually think this way today.

There's been a number of people throughout history and even in recent years who have faked their death. they have forged a death certificate as a vehicle through which they could get out of legal obligations that they were under. just a couple of years ago. You remember that man, somewhere in the Southeast that acted like he had gotten in a plane.

Crash and he probably jumped out, parachuted out at some point. They ended up finding the guy. He was faking his death because in faking his death, death was a means of escaping from legal accountability. I was reading just back in January on A news site.

They were talking about a guy who was a funeral home director in Colorado. He owed like over $40,000 in child support, $7000 in student loans that had yet to be paid, and he wanted to get out of those obligations. So being a funeral home director, he forged his own death certificate in an attempt to escape out from under that jurisdiction. Of those legal requirements.

That's at least a part of the idea of justification. So we can add to our definition of justification, this, that in addition to everything else we have learned about justification, we can say that justification is an act of God, in which he legally reckons me to have already died and thus to be beyond the reach of sin's claims upon me. When sin comes to lay claim upon me with its guilt and its condemnation, God opens the record books of heaven and he finds my name, and by my name, it says, Already dead.

All that sin can do is kill me, not only physically, but eternally, and God opens the record books and the record shows that I'm already dead.

So I am beyond the jurisdiction. Of sin. In order for me to be justified, in order for you to be justified, Christ had to die. But also you and I needed to die as well, so that the record would show that we have already died.

And that leads to a second thought to think that actually begins to unpack this first thought, and that is this, that when I was saved, I was baptized into the death and the burial of Christ. When you and I were saved, something happened mystically. Organically in ways we can't fully fathom, and that is in the moment of our conversion, we were baptized into the death and into the burial of Christ. Look what he says in verse 3.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized I into Christ Jesus. All of us who have believed in Jesus and have been baptized, and we talked two weeks ago about the close relationship of water baptism to the moment of conversion. It was often, almost simultaneous. In the first century or the day of and so Paul is blending the two together, but essentially what he's saying is that when you and I were saved, we were baptized into the death and into the burial of Jesus Christ and being baptized.

In Christ and thereby being located in His death and in His burial, we were placed beyond the jurisdiction and the power and the authority of sin to lay claim upon us. often we look at verse 3, and it's like, yeah, we were. baptized into Christ's death and also, into his burial, and that all sets us up for the resurrection. The resurrection is, is really the good thing and death and burial is just a means to that end.

But if we understand it the way we're talking about here, guys, death and burial is actually a pretty good place to be. being dead in Christ, and buried with Christ, even before we think about the resurrection, which is a great thing to be dead in Christ and buried with Christ is really a pretty good place to be because it's beyond the jurisdiction and the power of sin to get to us. And in Christ is obviously the awesome place to be. So we believe in Jesus, we come to the cross and believe in Him for the forgiveness of our sins.

And Paul is saying to the Roman Christians, I don't know if this or not. But on the moment that you were converted to faith in Jesus Christ, and God saved you, God baptized. You into Jesus. And now being in Jesus, what that means is that when he died, you were in him when he died.

And when he was buried, you were in him when he was buried. And so the fact that he died is reckoned to you. The fact that he was buried is reckoned to you, you died, and you were buried with him. He goes on in verse 4, he says, therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death.

Even in verse 5, he says, we become united. We've been grown together and grafted together organically. We've been connected to Jesus in such a way that we actually died with Him and we were buried with Him. And in dying in Christ we were placed beyond the reach of sin's legal claims upon us.

Paul elaborates on this in chapter 7. Listen to what he says in verse 1. Do you not know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? And then he begins to tell us what actually happened to us in Christ.

Look at verse 4 of chapter 7. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law. Through the body of Christ. You see what he's saying there?

As long as you live, you're under the jurisdiction of the Old Testament law, and the law basically demands two things. Number 1, absolute total complete obedience for all of your life, and a second demand it makes is death. Absolute death if you fail to comply with that. Those are the two demands of the law.

We failed with that first demand, and now the law demands that we die. And for God to put us in Christ, when Christ died, and in Christ, when Christ was buried. Now the record shows that we have died. Listen to what Spurgeon says about this thought.

He says, we are dead with Christ to sin. By having borne the punishment in him. In Christ we have endured the death penalty and are regarded as dead by the law. another way of saying it is listen to John Stott and give him a fair hearing here.

He says, we have died to sin in the sense that through union with Christ, we may be said to have borne its penalty. The New Testament tells us not only that Christ died instead of us as our substitute, so that we will never need to die for our sins, but also that Christ died for us as our representatives so that we may be said to have died in and through Him. Let's say it this way. In justifying us, God reckoned us dead to the claims and the charges of sin.

When sin comes to lay claim upon us and demand our death, God opens the record books of heaven and finds our name, and by our name are written the words Already died. This is so because Christ died as our representative, and so when he died, his death was imputed to us. Does that make sense? We'll, we'll, we'll unpack this further as we go.

But let's, let's try to leave this thought right there, that Paul is clearly saying that in believing in Christ, on the moment of our conversion, we were baptized into him, which puts us in Christ. When he died and when he was buried, so we've been removed from that jurisdiction of the law, the jurisdiction of sin. Sin cannot lay claim upon us because the sentence has been served in Christ. Look at the 3rd thought that Paul wants us to think.

by the way, if this is giving you brain cramps, it's done that to me like the last several weeks as I've been studying this, and I'm still not totally sure I understand this. But a third thought to think in your moment of considering or contemplating engaging in sin is this, that in Christ, God raised me to walk in newness of life by means of the same power, which raised Christ from the dead. In Christ, God has raised me to walk in newness of life by means of the same power which raised Christ from the dead.

Look again at verse 4.

He says, therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. So here's why God did this. All right. God had us in Christ when Christ died.

So now his death is attributed to us, and the record shows that we already died. He buried with us with Christ again beyond the jurisdiction of sin. He had a reason for doing. This and his reason was not simply to pull us out from underneath the claims of sin upon us, but so that a real death could occur and then a real resurrection could occur, and we could be raised to a completely brand new life.

He says, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, in other words, the glory of God was the means by which Christ was raised, the glory of the Father, and some writers say it's the glorious power of the Father. It was the power of God the Father that raised Christ from the dead. His glorious power, which would blow. A way if we could actually get a visual of the immensity of this power that would raise Christ from the dead.

Now look at this. He says, now the reason we died with Christ and we're buried with Him is so that here's what God's agenda was in causing this to happen to us in Christ, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in a newness, a new life. You're thinking about engaging in sin, going back into sin. Paul says, you need to stop and think, no, the reason God saved me, the reason God put me in Christ, the reason I died in Christ and was buried in Christ was so that I could undergo a resurrection to a new life, not the old life, which sin is beckoning me back to.

Christ was raised by the glory of the Father. And just as he was raised by the glory of the Father, God wants us to walk by means of the glory of God the Father. looking at the Bible, if there were any event that I would love to have been there for, the resurrection of Christ from the dead is one of those events. I would love to have been there.

And to have actually seen That miracle take place. Even the Roman soldiers didn't get to see that. Just the stone got knocked away and they saw the tomb was empty, but they didn't see the resurrection take place. But what would that have been like to actually sit in that tomb and to watch just whatever power descend and glory descend that, that not only raises Jesus from the dead, but glorifies Him.

in, in a, in a way that when the disciples saw him, they were, they were blown away by what they saw. He wasn't just barely alive. He was vibrantly alive with glory. And, and if we could watch that event, we'd be like, man, that's, that's awesome that that happened to Jesus, that all of this glory and power is operating in him in this way.

And God would say, you want a piece of that? That's the way I've designed the Christian life. The very glorious power by which I raised my son from the dead is the very power that I want you to live by and to walk by. You make decisions about how to walk and put 1 ft in front of the other and make decisions about what to think and, and how to speak and how to behave as a believer, the very power that I directed towards Christ and raising him from the dead, that power is constantly available to you.

In Ephesians 1, that's why Paul says to the Ephesians, I'm praying that you would know the exceeding greatness or the surpassing greatness of his power, literally, which is into you who believe. And then he says, it's the same power that God exercised and wrought about when he raised Jesus from the dead and ascended him to his own right hand. Often we can just Talk about our Christian life and our, our struggles, and there are indeed struggles. But, but when you look at all the power that God has made available to us, I think sometimes God is in the room hearing us talk about, woe is me and all our struggles, and he's like, oh, look what I've given you, look what I've done, and look at the power that I've made available to you.

I remember when I was in seminary, I was at a really low point spiritually and I was complaining to a classmate about just the defeat that I was experiencing and And he, he just looked at me in the face and he said, Milton, you talk about Jesus like he's your little sister. And Like he's just a little sister who's just cheering you on, but just has no power. And we have to be careful in the way that that we speak of our experience as believers and even in the choices that we make that when you're facing a decision about do I sin or not, don't simply consult your history.

Well, every time I've faced this before, I've always sinned, and before I was saved, I was bound and even since being saved, there's a whole history of me just stumbling right into this sin every time it confronted me.

And so based on that history, that's probably what's going to happen now. What do you think's going to happen if you think that way? Paul would say, no, listen, there's some other thoughts to think here. And one of those thoughts is to turn your thoughts to the resurrection of Christ and to see the power that was exercised and raising Him from the dead, and then look in the face of your Heavenly Father where he's telling you.

that the power you need right now to walk right and to walk in a newness of life, even in the midst of this temptation, the same power I exercise in raising my son from the dead is the same power that you have at your disposal right now. Think that. Think That that truth will do you no good if you don't think this truth and know it to be true. There's a 4th thought that Paul suggests that we think.

In our moment of contemplation of the prospect of sin, and that is that our old sinful identity was crucified with Christ on the cross. Our old sinful, or my old, this is a thought you should think my old sinful identity was crucified with Christ on the cross. By the way, I want you to notice the grammatical. connection between verse 5 and 6.

Look, look back at verse 5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this. In other words, you will practically enter into an experience in your day to day life, the resurrection power that God brought about in Christ to the degree that certain things to be true. And the reason so often we as believers are walking an anemic walk is because we don't know certain things to be true as we ought to know them.

And to know biblically means to be aware of and then to believe. It's a synonym for believing. And you need to be able in your moment of temptation to look at yourself in the mirror, and to be able to say, my old man, my old sinful identity was crucified with Christ on the cross. Knowing this, he says, that our old self was crucified with him.

Some translations say old self, some say old man. and I'll tell you there's a lot of Maybe debate that goes on about what this might be. referring to, here, I love what John Stott says. listen to what he says regarding this.

He says, what was crucified with Christ was not a part of us called our old nature. But the whole of us as we were in our pre-conversion state. So I want you to imagine yourself at the foot of the cross, and Christ is being taken to the cross, and, and all of your sin clothes are put on Him. Every evil deed that you have ever done, every sinful thought, every sinful word, every active wrong that you've ever done, the multiple wrongs that you are the multiple rights that you Never did.

All of your sin clothes, as it were, are put on Jesus. That's how much he identified Himself with you in your sin, going to the cross. And then almost as it were, imagine yourself wearing a name badge that represents who you are as a person in Adam outside of Christ. That name tag is taken off of you and it's put on Jesus.

And on the cross, he didn't just die as your substitute. He died as your representative. And at the foot of the cross, you observe not only Jesus being crucified, but you are witnessing the crucifixion of your old self, to where when Christ dies, watching that you're like, you cannot escape the feeling that not only has he died, But I died The sum total, the whole of who I am. In Adam, in my pre-conversion state.

has undergone a death. I'm no longer The same person. As a result of this. Saint Augustine was informed by this perspective.

He lived a very immoral life before he came to faith in Christ, had a mistresses, and would just go for weeks on immoral. escapades and, and he came to faith in Christ. God radically changed him and one day he was walking down the street and one of his old, former mistresses, saw him and came across the street and started talking to him and, and she was treating him like, things used to be and was definitely trying to put forth effort to woo him back, into immorality. She didn't know what had happened to him and And she was like saying, come on, let's go, let's go away for, a few weeks and do the things that, that we used to do.

And he just stared at her. And, To where she began to think, he doesn't even recognize me. He doesn't remember that it's, that it's me. And so Saint Augustine started walking away from her and she was like, Augustine, Augustine, and he turned around and, and she said, Don't you remember?

It is I. It is I. And he said, I, I remember. I remember.

But it is not I. He recognized her. She didn't recognize him. He was not the same man that he was before Christ.

And when the old familiar sins come to us that used to be our buddies, Before faith in Christ and perhaps unfortunately, as is the case with all of us, even since coming to know Christ, we, we just need to say, it is not I. It is not I. You're, you're coming to the wrong person. I am not who I was, because I've been to the foot of the cross and I saw what happened there.

I saw not only did Jesus die, But my old self, my old identity. Died there also and does not exist any, Longer There's a 5th thought to think. When we are in a moment of contemplation of the prospect of sinning. And that is that my crucifixion with Christ has even rendered powerless the remnants of sin in my body.

My crucifixion with Christ has even rendered powerless the remnants of sin in my body. He says in verse 6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with. Now let me explain something real quick. The, the verb that is translated in the New American Standard done away with literally just has the idea of rendered impotent, rendered powerless.

It doesn't mean necessarily removal to where it ceases to exist. But it means rendered powerless. We actually have the same verb used in Hebrews 2:14, where it speaks of Christ. Look at this on the screen.

Christ partook of flesh and blood, so that through death, he might render powerless, and that's the same Greek word, him who had the power of death, that is the devil. What has the devil ceased to exist? Has the devil been killed, and we never have to deal with him anymore? No, he's still around.

And he's still powerful. And he's still extremely active, but his power over us has been broken. And yes, there is sin, there are the remnants of sin that are in our members. However, That sin that is in our members, as it were, has been rendered powerless.

It's power over us has been broken. What I love about this thought is that, it's one thing for like Augustine to be tempted by a woman from without and say you're talking to the wrong man, it is not I. And he can say no to her, she's outside of himself. But oftentimes, is it not true that as believers, when we feel the risings of sin within, It's so much a part of just who we are and our identity, that we just think we treat those sins sometimes differently than we do sin coming from without.

It's like, It's like the lie is, well, this is who I am. If, if I'm wanting to do this. If I feel the risings of anger within me, this must be who I am. If I feel the risings of lust within me, and it, and it feels very strong and powerful, then that must be who I am and we go ahead and, and engage in that.

But what Paul is saying, by virtue of our old identity, being crucified, a part of what that means is that even when sin, and by the way, in this text, we're not told that sin got killed, right? We're not told that sin died to us. It's still active. We died to sin.

It has not been killed. That's why in Romans 8, Colossians 3, we're told to mortify sin. So sin is not dead. It's still active.

It's still kicking around and trying to bluff and bluff. and get us to be under its control. And sometimes that sin is even just attached to us bodily, just our bodies were dominated by sin before we came to faith in Christ. And just by virtue of habit and hormones, And habits of thinking and feeling and, and so forth, those sinful deposits are still in our bodies that are dying.

But Paul says, even those sins, listen, when the risings of sin within your bodily members occur, you don't have to do what they say. You don't have to give in to them. They're still there and still alive, and will be this site of glory. However, you could say no to them.

They don't have power over you anymore. They are not your master. And that leads to the 6th and the final thought, and that is, I am no longer a slave to any sin. You need to think this, no matter how powerful the sin comes at you, no matter what your history may be, no matter how loudly the sin may speak.

No matter what the former bondage was. You need to be able to stand up straight and say, I am not a slave to any sin. Glory be To God and what He has done for me through Christ. He says, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

At the end of verse 6, you're not a slave to sin anymore. It's still around. It's still present, but it's not your master anymore. In verse 18, we learned that we're freed from sin, verse 22, freed from sin, and he's saying it here in verse 6 that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

We formerly were bound by that ball and chain. We formerly were bound by sin and its power. But since power has been broken, it has been rendered powerless in our lives, and it only from now on has the power we choose to give to it, but it's power, it's mastery has been broken, and we are no longer a slave to any sin. I want you this morning to think about the besetting sin in your life.

What is that sin or sins that you can easily believe you're free from these other sins, but man, my history doesn't really show that I'm free from these particular sins of thought. Maybe emotion or of deed. Think about those sins. And look at those sins and say, I am not a slave to you.

You cannot tell me what to do because of what God has done for me in Christ. I'm free. I am free from you. I do not have to be your slave any longer.

We've got a lot of Christians who walk around believing they are slaves to sin when in fact they are not. If Charlie Chaplin could make a movie today. I would suggest he make a movie where someone does descend from heaven and release the Charlie Chaplin character from the fetter, from the ball and chain to where he's now totally free, but then showing him throughout the movie just carrying that ball and chain around wherever he goes and frustrated and complaining and exasperated and exhausted by the whole ordeal when in fact he's actually free.

For us to walk around in sin.

Is exactly for us to do that, carrying a ball and chain that does not bind us anymore. Let me close with this. Booker T. Washington was 9 years old at the end of the Civil War.

And he tells about the moment that he and his family received word of their freedom. From the ravages of slavery, he wasn't sure what the document was that was being read. He thought it was the Emancipation Proclamation. It may have been something else, but listen to what he says.

He says some man who seemed to be a stranger, he was a United States officer, I presume, made a little speech and then read a rather long paper, the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading, we were told that we were all free and could go when. And where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children while tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

She explained to us what it all meant. In other words, she, she exegeted the document. Let, let me explain to you children what you just had read. Let, let me exposit what that actually means.

She explained to us what it all meant. That this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing she would never live to see. But she saw it. Those gathered with her saw that day, they heard it, they heard the announcement that they are free.

Romans 6 is that Emancipation Proclamation. Read it. Let it be explained to you, think it and live in the good of it each day. You are free.

Do not live. As a slave. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. OK.

Paul is going deeper here into the gospel. And We need to be, what's hit me going through these verses in chapter 6 is we just need to be deeper thinkers. You may be going, man, when I'm tempted, I don't think about all this stuff, and how could I even think all this stuff? This is complicated.

Well, we need to go deeper. We need to be deeper thinkers on gospel truth and to reason from one thought to another. Our lies are all connected, aren't they? We go from one lie to another and And we need to be able to string gospel thoughts together and counter deception and falsehood and bondage.

By thinking gospel truth. And it turns out gospel truth goes a little deeper than maybe we thought. But guys, we're free. We're, we're so free.

We're free. We're free by virtue of our death with Christ. We're free by virtue of our burial with Christ. We're free by virtue of our resurrection with Christ.

Now let us live in the good of this freedom. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, for those that are in this room that have never placed their faith in Christ, they've heard what I would love to have heard before I place my faith in you, Jesus. That not only is forgiveness offered to them, not only is deliverance from hell offered to them, but even deliverance from the power of the sins that enslaved them is offered to them, and it can happen in an instant.

And then the rest of the life is simply I will live my life believing this to be true. And walking and living in the good of it. Help us as a church to, to believe the good that is announced here. To be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and by your grace and grace alone, that we would be able to speak these truths about you and what you've done, and about ourselves and who we are and what we have in Christ.

But thank you for what you've shown us this morning, Lord. Thank you for the privilege of giving of our offerings to you. We ask, Lord, that you who have abounded to us would even take what we give today and cause what we give to abound in fruitfulness for your kingdom. Do much, Lord, with every penny that is given.

For the glory of, Jesus Christ and for the spread. Of this amazing gospel that we rejoice in today. And at the same time, we give ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,