What to Do Now That You Are Dead to Sin

But let me invite you to turn in your Bibles, this morning to Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 for our time of study in, in God's word, this morning. We're doing a, a series through Romans 5. 67, and 8, and I'm calling this a journey to the heart of the gospel. The essence of the historical gospel is Christ died, he was buried, he was raised.

But in Romans 5 through 8, Paul just sits there in front of these realities and goes really deep and starts pulling out all the things that that means for us. And as we continue in that journey with Paul just leading us through these things as our gospel tour guide. we come this morning to Romans chapter 6, verse 8. My goal this morning would be to try to cover verses 8, through 13.

And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be, what to do now that you are dead to sin. What to do now that you are dead, to sin. If you look at verse 8, he starts by saying, now, if we have died with Christ, So he's established the fact that we have died to sin in Christ. And now he turns a corner in verse 8, and following to tell us what we need to do, given that fact.

Let me read verses 1 through 7 to you just to review what we have learned. 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. 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 or rendered powerless, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed or is justified from, sin. In verses 1 through 6, Paul's overarching point is that we are dead to sin. And so this is a standing fact that is true of all believers.

If you're a born again child of God in this room, and you have come to a point in your life where you've seen your bankruptcy, and you've, put your trust in Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior, and you've received forgiveness and righteousness and relationship, and redemption from Him, then you are dead to sin.

Maybe you didn't even know that until today, but the standing fact of all believers, young and old, men and women, mature in their faith and immature in their faith is that all believers are in fact dead to. sin. If you've known the Lord for 40, 45 years, you're dead to sin. If you came to know the Lord and became a Christian 35 minutes ago, you are as dead to sin as that person who has been a Christian for 45 years.

Paul in verses 1 through 7 lays out for us what it actually means to be dead to sin. And just by way of review, it means that we're justified. It's another way of saying that we're justified, because in verse 7, he says, literally in the Greek text, he who has died is justified from sin. So it means that we've been declared forgiven by God and righteous before God.

It means that we have been baptized into Christ's death and into his burial. sin was able to lay claim upon us because we were under its jurisdiction, under its authority. But in Christ, God basically put us in Christ, when Christ died and was buried, and that removes us beyond the jurisdiction and the claim of sin. And so we were baptized into Christ's death and burial.

We've been raised to walk in newness of life. We learn in verse 6 that our old sinful identity was crucified with Christ. So go to the foot of the cross and observe all of your sin stuff being put on Jesus and every sinful thought, deed, attitude, and what have you. All of that that represented your old life was put on Jesus.

Your name tag was taken off of you and put on Him, and He died as your representative. And as you observe that happening, you begin to notice that Jesus is not the only one dying here. My old identity is getting crucified also. And that's part of what it means to be dead to sin, that our old sinful identity was crucified.

And the result is in verse 6 that sin in our bodies that may still exist, the risings of sin, sin may still show up, but it's been rendered powerless. Its power has been broken, and we have been freed from slavery to any and all sin. That's what it means to be dead, to sin, and we've spent weeks looking at this. So this is true of every believer, but that being the case raises an interesting question, or should I say an interesting dilemma.

imagine somebody who's never met a Christian before. They've never heard of Christianity, never met a true Christian. And they're studying Romans 6:1 through 7 and looking at this description of believers. And after combing through all these descriptions that you see on the screen behind me, that person would probably be thinking, I have got to meet someone like this, right?

I got to meet someone who's dead to sin and free from slavery to any and all sin and righteous before God. I got to meet these people. And then imagine that person comes to Cornerstone. And says, Hey, can I, can I hang out with you guys for a little while and just watch?

Your life. I got to see how people of whom these things are true actually live. And then maybe he says, Can I, can I come home with you? I'd like to watch how you do family life given these realities.

I want to know how people do family and live in their homes, of whom these things are true. I think all of us would probably feel a little bit of awkwardness and we would probably want to warn the person, right? Say, well, yeah, these things are true, but what, don't get your hopes up because we're, we're not all that in terms of our experience. And that raises The question that I want to answer today, and that is that what do we do in order to see the full benefits of these facts fleshed out in our life.

There are some believers who seem like they're walking in victory and in triumph and in holiness and in freedom. And then there are other believers who, the same facts are true of them, but they're walking in discouragement, condemnation. Guilt and defeat. What is the difference between the two?

And given all these facts that are true of all of us, We, we know that we don't just wake up automatically and experience all of this in our day to day life. So what do we do? Paul, you've told us all this, this is great, but get practical with us and tell us what we need to do so that these realities can actually be fleshed out in our life. Paul says, I'll do that.

And basically, the way we're going to frame things this morning is we're going to look at Paul giving us 6 things that we need to do. In order to see the full benefits and the full glories of these facts about our death to sin and freedom from sin being fleshed out in our, our lives. The first of these 6 things that we must do is we must believe that we've actually died with Christ to sin. That's a logical place to start, right?

it's like in Hebrews 4:2, the writer of Hebrews talks about the children of Israel who heard the gospel, in the form in which it came. He says, but it didn't profit them because it was not united in faith in the hearts of those who heard. in order for explosions of transformation to take place, the gospel, gospel truth needs to meet with faith in our hearts. And so we need to ask God to give us a faith that just latches on to this, and that's daring enough to believe this.

But if you want your life to reflect the fact that you are actually dead to sin and free from sin, you got to start with this. And that is you must believe that you actually have died with Christ to sin. Look what he says in verse 8. He says, now if we have died with Christ, we believe, and then he goes on to say something else that we'll look at in a minute.

But everything he says in verse 8 through 13 or 14 is built upon this premise. Since we have died with Christ, we believe these other things are true. So everything Paul's about to say is based upon this belief. That we have died with Christ to, to sin.

And so guys, this morning, I want to dare you. I just, I want to dare you to actually believe that you are dead to sin by virtue of what God has done for you and to you in the person of, of Jesus Christ. in fact, listen to what William Newell says in his commentary on Romans. This is a quote from some of his comments on Romans chapter 5, but I, but I like what he says and it actually fits largely with what we're talking about here.

He says, Alas, how few believers have the courage of faith. We have looked so long at our unworthiness that the very thought of pushing away from the shorelines and launching out on the limitless, fathomless ocean of divine grace makes us shrink. And waiver. When some saint here or there does begin to believe the facts and walk in shouting liberty, we say, perhaps secretly, he must be an especially holy consecrated man.

No, he's just a poor sinner like you who is believing in the abundance of grace. And if we hear someone praising God for the gift of righteousness because he is now righteous in Christ before God, we are ready to accuse him of thinking too highly of himself. But no, he's just a poor sinner like you and me, but one who has dared to believe that he has received an outright gift of righteousness and is rejoicing in it. The difference between someone like that, and many of us is not that the facts are different, but simply that that person is daring enough to believe God when God says, because of what I've done for you in Christ, you're dead to sin.

Guys, we need to, we need to just believe this. And when we don't believe this, we're actually dishonoring God and we're stealing glory. From the cross and what he did for us through Christ. God's not asking us to play a mind game here.

He's like, you are dead to sin. This is what I've achieved, and I'm, I'm telling you this in, in my words so that you would know this, and I'm now calling upon you to believe this. I wouldn't tell you this if it wasn't true. I'm not just playing games with you.

I'm not trying to trick you and get you to think this, and then you're going to get the rug pulled out from under. Underneath you, know, I accomplished this through my power and through my glory. And I'm now telling you that you're dead to sin. And I'm just calling upon you to actually believe that what I'm saying to you about you is true.

God is saying, this is how I view you. This is how I look at you. When I look at you, I see you, I think of you as dead to sin. I want you to think of yourself the same way that I think of you.

And embrace what I've accomplished for you in Christ, you're dead to sin, which means sin has no claim upon you anymore. And you're free from slavery to any and all sin. If we're going to go anywhere as believers, we have to believe that. And I dare you, I dare you to believe this.

There's a second thing we need to do, and that is that we must believe that we can now, having died to sin, we must believe that we can now live together with the resurrected Christ. We must believe that we can now, having died to sin, live together with the resurrected Christ. Look what he says in verse 8, and I put here on the screen a literal translation just to bring out a particular flavor. Paul says, now if we have died together with Christ, so we didn't just die, we died in Christ, we died in relationship with Christ, and his death was reckoned to us.

if we have died together with Christ, we believe that we shall also together live with Him, together live with Him. That expression together live is one word in the Greek, it's the word live with the prefix meaning together attached to the beginning. of it, which by the way, is where you find most prefixes. so, but together live, what he's saying is that, that you need to believe based on the fact that you've died with Christ, that you, you're not only now able to live, but you're able to together live with Jesus.

In other words, live in relationship with Him, live in day by day companionship and togetherness with Him. Christ. was crucified. You were crucified in Him.

He was buried, you were buried in Him. And now he's raised, and you have been raised in Him. And now you can walk in newness of life, and you're not alone when you walk that life. But there's someone right by your side, and you can live together with Jesus.

Even now, day by day, he's your ultimate companion. And he is your best friend, and he wants you. He has set this whole thing up, not to where you're out there now, go try to be holy, and I'll see you later. No, I'm going with you.

I want us to together live. Part of why I was raised is so I could live to the forever to save you to the uttermost and be your eternal companion. And so as you live your life, reckoning yourself dead to sin, reckon that you're also together in resurrection life with Christ. And wherever you go, you go together with Him.

Jesus is the apple of the Father's eye. He gets whatever he pleases. The Father's eyes are on his Son, and in Ephesians 1, Paul says, we've been accepted in the beloved one. And just think about it.

if, if you're living together with Jesus, who is the apple of the Father's eye, what would the Father not do for you? As you walk arm in arm with Jesus, wherever you go, with Jesus as your most intimate companion. What would the Father not do for you as you're living together with the apple of his eye for whom he would do anything. And that's why Paul says in Ephesians 1, we've been accepted in the beloved, like all of the Father's love that he has for his son, we, we get in on that love because we're in the beloved and in companionship with Him.

So there's a lot of legal stuff in Romans 5 and even Romans 6 that God has to take care of inside the gospel, but the reason the legal stuff is taken care of is to get that out of the way, to get those hindrances out of the way so that we can now walk in freedom, walk in holiness, and live in togetherness with Jesus in relationship with him. We need to believe this. Take this to the bank, and believe it to be true. There's a 3rd thing that we must do if we want the reality of our death to sin and our freedom from sin.

to be fleshed out in our lives, and that is that we must know the victory that Christ accomplished on the cross. We must know the victory that Christ has accomplished on the cross. Paul does something very interesting in verses 9 and 10. up to this point of Romans 6, everything Paul has said virtually in every verse has everything to do with us, and he's talking about Christ, but how that affects us and intersects with our lives and impacts us.

And then in verse 11 through the end of the chapter, again, it's all about us and the impact of Christ and what he's done. What the Father has done for us through Christ and how that impacts and shapes our lives. But in the middle of all of that in Romans 6, there are two verses, verses 9 and 10, where nothing is said about us. And one writer I was reading said it's almost like in 9 and 10 Paul says to all of us, forget about yourself for a couple of verses.

and Paul's like, I'm going to back up a little bit and I'm, I'm going to help you out. I'm going to do something that's greatly beneficial for you. And here's essentially what Paul is doing. Paul is saying some really radical things to us that, that are profound and difficult to believe, right?

and it's actually easy for us to believe all of these amazing things are true of Jesus, by virtue of his death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension. We have no trouble believing that. But these things being true of us, we struggle with that. So Paul says, I'm telling you this is true of you, but let me help you out.

Let's forget about you. Let's forget about me for a moment and let's just gather around the cross, and, and we're just going to stare and we're going to observe what happened to Christ, and he's going to lay that out for us. And then in verse 11, he will bring this back to us and help us to actually believe that this is true of us. Look what he says in verse 9 and 10.

He says, Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. I was like, I just want you to contemplate this for a few moments.

There's a number of affirmations that we find in these two verses. You see it on the screen. Behind me, he's telling us that Christ obviously was crucified, but he has been raised from out of the dead. So his crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead is being affirmed here.

But not only has he been raised, but Paul wants to make a distinction. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus died at a later point. but Christ was not just lifted out from the dead and resuscitated, no, he was resurrected from the dead so as to enter into a completely brand new and different state of existence to where Paul says not only was he raised, but he will never die again, ever. Christ feels no desire to ever die again.

Get this straight, guys. there's no point where Jesus is in heaven and he, and he sees you commit a sin, and he's like, Whoa, I wasn't thinking of that when I got crucified 2000 years ago. I wonder if I ought to go back and die. I wonder if I ought to do that again.

I wonder if there was something left unfinished or unaccomplished by my death 2000 years ago. No, Christ died. And received the full penalty of sin upon himself. He was buried.

He was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death and Jesus Christ will never collide again in the way that they did at the cross. And then he goes on to say this, that death no longer has any mastery over Christ. Implied in this is that when Jesus was on the cross, And he allowed our sin to be placed upon him.

He placed himself under the jurisdiction of sin in that moment, and he allowed death to do its worst. He allowed himself to be placed under the mastery of sin while he was on the cross and allowed death essentially to kill him. But Paul says he's been raised from the dead. He will never die again, and death no longer has any mastery over Christ.

He has so moved on. He has so moved on. Death has no mastery over him. He then says, in dying, Christ died to sin once and for all.

Christ, there's no desire in the heart of Christ to ever go through that again, or maybe something was left unfinished. He died not only for sin once and for all, but he died to sin. When he was on the cross, there was a sense in which he allowed himself to become alive to sin and the sense that he allowed sin to lay claim upon Him, demanding his death. But having died and then been resurrected, Christ says, I died once and for all, and I'm never going to die again.

This battle that I fought and that I won at the cross will never be fought again. There's no need for it to be fought. I will never go back there. Christ is moving on in resurrection life in relationship with the Father.

I love what one writer said. He said that this battle that Christ had with sin and death at the cross, there will never be a second round to that conflict. There will never be a rematch. No rematch.

When I was a kid, I remember some, boxing matches, heavyweight boxing matches where, everyone would be watching them and, and, And maybe the heavyweight champion would go down and be defeated, but then there'd be a rematch. There were a lot of rematches that took place when I was, younger, and the outcome of those rematches, might be different than the one before. The person who was defeated basically lived to say, I want a rematch, let's go at it again. And the other person would say, all right, let's, let's do that.

But when it comes to Christ and his battle, with death and sin, there will never be a rematch. There will never be a second round. later today there's going to be a game that's, that's played. I'm not sure if you're aware of that.

And And it will involve 2 teams, and one of the two teams is going to win this afternoon. And I'm not going to say I have a favorite that I would like to win, but I'm not going to, not going to go there. I don't know if this would be the appropriate setting to bring that up. But But what, at the end of the game today, at the end of the game today, Some reporter is going to ask someone on the winning team, so what about next year?

What about a repeat? And anyone that wins the Super Bowl knows that when the game is over in a few months, there will be a new season, and they will be 0 and 0 with every other team, and they're going to slug it out for 16 games of the regular season and postseason and be very fortunate to even get back to the Super Bowl, much less be victorious again. Any victory really is only temporary. But imagine just by way of illustration that there is a football season where there's one team that so dominates that they like overwhelmingly just defeat every team that they play in the regular season and the postseason, and then they come to the Super Bowl and they so dominate their win is so convincing, they perform with such flawless precision.

That everyone knows this can never be repeated. It need never be repeated, but imagine that such a victory is won in the Super Bowl that the commissioner of the NFL at the end of the game says, we're shutting down the league. There will never be another football game. This is it.

This team, this victory that they have won, this victory will survive for as long as there is time, and there's no need for another season, no need for any rematch. That's what Christ has done when it has come to defeating sin and defeating death. He has died. He's been raised from the dead.

He will never die again. Death will never again, even for a moment, have mastery over him. In dying, Christ died for sin once and for all, and he died to sin once and for all. No sin.

Either in whole or part, will ever be able to lay claim to him ever again. And in the life that he lives, look what, look at how he's living now, and the life he lives now, he lives to God, he's facing the Father, the Father's facing him. In John 1:18, we learned that Christ is in the bosom of the Father and a close embrace, close relationship, and intimacy, and delight with his Heavenly Father. This is, this is how Christ lives.

And, and we all have no trouble believing that, right? And we all, we all look at that and go, man, Jesus is amazing. Look what he accomplished. And yep, I believe that, yep, I believe that.

No problem there, Pastor Milton. Paul says, now, having looked at that, come with me. And let's look in the mirror and let me give you some counsel. Here's the 4th thing that we need to do if we want the reality of just the fullness of our death to sin and freedom from sin to become fleshed out in our day to day life.

And that is, we must mentally reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Look what he says in verse 11. He says, even so, I've been telling you about Jesus. And what he's done, and what he's doing now and the way he lives his whole orientation at this point in his relationship to the Father.

Even so, as I'm talking to you, he's saying you consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Paul is saying, what's true of Jesus is also true of you. You are dead to sin, and you are alive to God in Christ Jesus. And Paul is saying, think this.

I want you to think this way. Some of the translations say reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. So this is something that happens in the mind. And by the way, we're on item number 4 here of things we need to do.

And none of these are active yet. It's just believe, believe, know, and reckon. It's a battle for the mind. In Romans 12:2.

As we looked at last week, Paul tells us to be continuously transformed by the renewing of our mind. It happens here. If our mind can be renewed. we can bring in new furniture into our minds and throw out the old furniture.

We will catch ourselves undergoing a metamorphosis, and Paul is basically in, in, in chapter 6, Romans 5 and 6, and following, saying, Here's the new furniture to bring in. Here's, here's the new thoughts you need to think. You need to think this way and reckon this to be true of you. And if you don't do this, it's never going to make a difference in your life.

Facts are facts and facts are great. But if you don't know something is true, and you're not reckoning it to be true, then those facts will do you very little good. I think the Lord helped me to see this this week, a A silly incident, but true. I was down in Temecula with my son Benjamin.

He was taking some classes down there and I had to attend the classes with him, but on the lunch break, we were going to eat lunch and we were going to, eat out in my truck. I call it my rig, but we were going to go eat out in my truck, and so he asked for the keys and he took the keys and disappeared. He went out to the truck and he was eating lunch when I went out there a few minutes later. So we sat there, we had lunch together and talked for a while, and then it was time to go back in.

He got out of the the truck and I locked both doors and closed the driver's side door and began walking away from the truck and then it hit me, the keys. So I said to him, I said, you have the keys, right? And because I'd given them to him to go unlock the truck and he said, no, I don't, I don't have them, and he felt around in his pockets and he said, I don't, I don't have them. And so now I realize my keys are in my rig and And so, I had him check his book bag and everything and he couldn't find the keys anywhere, so we realized the keys have to be in the truck.

And, I then went, I looked inside the truck. I couldn't see the keys anywhere, but there were books in different places, and I thought, well, maybe the keys are under one of the books. So I call AAA and I stand next to the truck for about half an hour waiting for the truck to arrive, and I'm standing there reading a commentary on Romans 6, this very passage I'm trying to understand it. And anyway, the guy shows up about half an hour later and I'm always amazed how quick they do this.

He very quickly got in the truck, opened the door, and then he got in his truck and, and drove away, and I then started looking for the keys and I looked everywhere and I couldn't find the keys in the truck. And I didn't realize I got to go back to Benjamin and tell him to check again in his pockets and everything because he's got the keys somewhere. and so as I'm walking away from the truck to go to where my son was, I put my hands in my pockets. And the keys were in my pocket.

And I felt, I felt really, really stupid, but, But let me use that to make a point. Here, here's the facts of the situation. I had keys in my pocket. I fully had the means available to me to get in my truck and to fire it up and to go wherever I wanted to go.

Those are the facts. But the problem was I didn't know. That that was true. I didn't know that the keys were in my pocket, so I'm standing by my truck for half an hour waiting for someone to come help me to get inside my truck.

While I'm standing there, there was a guy parked in the parking stall right next to me, and he comes out. He had keys in his pocket. And he got to his vehicle and pulled the keys out of his pocket because he knew they were there and he got into his vehicle and fired it up and he drove away. So the facts about him and the facts about me were identical, but I'm the one standing by my truck for half an hour waiting for someone to come and help me.

To get into my vehicle. And it's, it's the same way, guys, in the Christian life that The facts about all of us are the same. We all have the keys in our pocket. But some of us know that, and some of us don't.

And that's the difference. Paul's saying that's the difference. You all have the keys in your pocket, but you have to know this. You have to believe this.

You have to think this way. And if you think this way and know it to be true, then you will begin. You'll be well on your way to seeing these realities being fleshed out in your life. Consider yourself to be dead to sin.

In other words, sin no longer has any claim upon me. It cannot make me do whatever it wants me to do. Sin that comes from without, sin that arises from within is not my master. I am dead to that sin.

It has no power over me. Look at this, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but not only that, he says, alive to God in Christ Jesus. Don't just walk around thinking you're dead to sin. But there's a relationship with God, you're alive to God.

Meaning God is your master. He can lay claim upon you, you seek to do as he pleases. And you're very responsive to him. I love what one writer says.

Listen to this, talking about this very verse. He says, the touch, solicitation, and command of sin leave us cold. In other words, we're just cold and unresponsive to sin. That's the way it should be.

But every touch of God meets with our instant living, joyous response, dead to sin. alive to God, our eyes brighten, our face lights up. There's just this responsiveness and relationship with God, and this living togetherness with Jesus and companionship with him. That's what it's all about.

Sin, dead to that, but alive to this over here, toward God and toward Jesus Christ. We must reckon it. To be true. Again, this is not a mind game.

It is true, just like I actually did have keys in my pocket. Now if I didn't have keys in my pocket, I could have stood there all day long and said, I have keys in my pocket. I reckon myself to have keys in my pocket, and I can get into my vehicle and I can go wherever I want. I could have thought that until I was blue in the face.

It wouldn't have done anything. It would have done me no good, but I actually did have the keys in my pocket, and if I would have thought that, it would have helped me. Paul is saying you do have the keys in your pocket. These things absolutely are true for you.

They have been accomplished by the power. God at the cross, at the tomb, and in raising Jesus from the dead. God is telling you that these things are true. Believe what God says, and think this to be true.

Download these thoughts into your brain and make them your thoughts. And you'll be well on your way. To seeing these realities being fleshed out in your life. There's a 5th thing that Paul calls upon us to do, that we must do if we want to see the reality of our debt to sin and freedom from sin being fleshed out in our lives, and that is that we must stop presenting the members of our body to sin.

We must stop presenting the members of our body to sin. Look what he says in verse 12. He says, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust, and that word lust is strong cravings, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Let me talk about a couple of things here.

In verse 12, He says, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Implied in that is that when he says mortal body, by the way, that word mortal is the Greek word that means death, dying, your dying body. So we have bodies that are not yet glorified. They're dying.

They're decomposing even while we live from day to day. It's this physical body that we have right now that we engaged in much sin before we came to Jesus. And so, There, there's a remnant of sin that is not our body, but it is profoundly affiliated with our physicality, as, as people, and there's remnants of sin and sin memory that's in the members of our body. And so sin is still in this body that is not yet redeemed.

All right? And so we groan and we long for that redemption of our bodies that is to come. Now, look what he's. Say, don't let sin reign.

Paul's not saying, I want you to know that as a believer, sin is completely removed from your life, and you will never feel the risings of sin from within in any way attached or affiliated with your physicality. No sin is there and implied in this is that sin is trying to assert itself. It's trying to lord it over you and to reign as King and to get you to do its bidding. And Paul says, don't let it do that.

He's not saying it's gone. It's there trying to be your king. Don't let it be your king. Look at this, so that or with the result being that you obey its lust.

He's alerting us to the fact that even as believers, there are strong cravings for sin that still exist in our members. Our body is not sinful. Don't get me wrong. But there is a flesh, there is a sin remnant that is profoundly affiliated with our physicality and with our bodies, and the result is that even as believers, we want to do what's right and please the Lord and do what's righteous, and yet there are strong cravings that Paul says you have to say no to, and don't allow those strong cravings to reign as king in your life.

And I make this point and I linger on this because, I, I want you to be encouraged. If as a believer, you find surprisingly sinful cravings rising up within you. And lust rising up within you. Don't beat yourself up about that.

If you're talking to Paul and you come to him and say, let me tell you what I feel rising in me in the way of sin and temptation and struggle, Paul, he wouldn't be freaked out by that. Paul would say, yeah, those things are there. And that's why we groan, but those things are not your master, and that's not who you are. Unfortunately, there are times where just taking the example of, of homosexuality, there have been born again.

Christians that, that I've met with and counseled from time to time that that's their sin struggle. They, they have cravings and desires that go that way. We all have cravings and desires that go in a sinful direction, right? And for them that happens to be an area of struggle and battle for them, and they want to do what's right, but this, these desires that are profoundly affiliated with their physicality rise from within them.

And here's the disturbing thing that that breaks my heart. There are people in the lives of such individuals who say that's who you are. That's who you are. And don't, and they'll say, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

And what you need to do is give up all pretense and be authentic and just give in to those desires because that's who you really are. My heart just breaks sometimes talking to a, a believer struggling with this, going, is this who I am? And I just need to give into this, or what? And it's my pleasure in these moments to speak to the heart of such a brother or sister in the Lord and say, those desires do can rise from within, but they're not your master.

And that's not who you are in Jesus. And I'll say to them, Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. This is what God says. God sees the mess.

He sees the sin remnant. He sees those desires that flood up within you, maybe from your past and sin memory and what have you, just because of your experiences and the particular bents and propensities that you have. But God says, I'm going to take care of that, and I'm going to totally remove that one day to where you'll never. To ever even deal with a propensity towards sin or another sinful craving again.

But in the meantime, here's what I have done for you. Even though those desires may rise up within you, they're not your master. I have rendered them powerless. They are not your king anymore.

You do not have to give in to them, and those desires are not who you are in Christ. So, say no. It's amazing Paul can just say in verse 12, stop it. You say, well, that's, that's overly simplistic.

It would be if he started Romans 1:1 by saying, stop it. Stop letting sin reign in your mortal body. No, but he gives all this gospel throughout these chapters and lays it open and all this gospel of our justification in the second half of Romans 3 and all throughout Romans 4 and in Romans 5 and in Romans 6 and having laid this groundwork for who we are, Paul then says, don't let sin reign. And implied in a command like this is there's provision.

To not let sin ring. If sin rises up within you, don't say, Well, I guess I'm not really dead to sin. No, Paul's not saying sin is dead. But that we are dead to sin in the sense that sin no longer has a legitimate claim upon us and we don't have to do its bidding.

More of the positive side of the ledger, and this is the 6th and final point, is that we must present ourselves to God and yield our members as instruments of righteousness to Him. If you want to. To see the fullness of the reality of your death to sin, and your freedom in Christ being played out in your life from day to day as a believer. Then you must Not only say I'm not going to yield the members of my body to sin and unrighteousness, but I will present myself to God, who I am alive to, and I'm going to yield the members of my body as instruments of righteousness to Him.

By the way, when Paul says the members of our body, he's obviously talking about our eyes and our ears and our hands and our feet and Including the sexual organs of our body, the, the physical members of our body, but he's also talking about our minds, our brains, our faculties of thought and of, of reasoning, including our emotions, just the sum total of who, Who we are. Don't think, well, I can entertain something in my mind, but I won't yield the members of my body to actually acting upon it.

No, to give your mind and your faculties of thought and reasoning over to entertaining something, you are in that moment surrendering your mind to that sin. So don't even give your mind, your brain.

Your emotions over to these things. But he says, present yourselves. Look at verse 13, present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to, to God. So come to God every morning, God, I'm dead to sin because of what you have done.

I reckon this to be true. I have the keys in my pockets. And I am alive to you, Lord, and you can rightly lay claim upon my life. And Lord, I yield the members of my physical being as instruments of righteousness to you.

When Paul says instruments of righteousness, the normal way of understanding this is I'll take the members of my body as instruments of accomplishing righteousness. I think that's a legitimate understanding of this. But I think the meaning goes a little bit deeper. The word righteousness that we find in verse 13 is the same Greek word that we find throughout Romans 5 speaking of our justification.

OK? and it's the same word we find in verse 7. He who has died is justified from sin. So it's the same word for our justification, and I think we do well to not make a complete separation.

Of our justification from what Paul is talking about here. In other words, here's what I want to try to say that we yield the members of our body as instruments that are being governed by the righteousness. our justification. Think real quickly, guys, just track with me and we'll shut this down.

What is justification? It is the legal act of God in which God decides forever to think of our sins as forgiven, to think of Christ's righteousness as belonging to us, and to think of us as having already died to sin. Justification is a phenomenon that largely occurs in the mind of God. It goes to the issue of how God decides to forever think about us.

When we come to Him by faith, he says, from this day forward, here's how I will think of you. I will think of you always as having your sins forgiven, Christ's righteousness as belonging to you. I will forever think of you as having died and been buried and been raised in Christ, being dead to sin. And then God says, and I will never allow myself to think another thought regarding you, to feel another feeling towards you, or to do or allow anything in your life that is not fully governed by this decision.

Take all of that and put it in a box and label that righteousness. That's justification. And Paul would say, this God who has decided to think this way about you, isn't that amazing? That the God of the universe against whom we have sinned and rebelled, we killed his son, that he's like, here's what I'm doing for you.

Here's how I'm forever going to think of you from now on. we, we, we're awakened to this God through the Holy Spirit, and we then yield up the members of our body, allowing them to be governed by the thoughts that this God has chosen to think about us, that we call justification. Surrendering the members of our body to being controlled and governed. By these thoughts of justification.

That God thinks about us and allowing that to reshape us. And John MacArthur's book on the 12. Disciples called 12 ordinary men and talking about how Christ reshaped each of those men and used them for His glory. Listen to what MacArthur says in this, book, and this, these will be the last, this is the last thing I'll share with you.

He says, Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tells the story of a young skinny pitcher who was new in the Dodgers' minor league system. The youngster was somewhat timid but had an extraordinarily powerful and accurate arm. Lasorda was convinced that the young pitcher had the potential to be one of the greatest ever, but Lasorda says the young man needed to be more fierce and competitive. He needed to lose his timidity, so Lasorda gave him a nickname that was exactly the opposite of his personality, Bulldog.

who we're talking about. He goes on to say this. Over the years, that is exactly what Orel Hershiser became one of the most tenacious competitors who ever took the mound in the major leagues. The nickname became a perpetual reminder of what he ought to be, and before long it shaped his whole attitude.

I remember watching Hershiser play and, and thinking, and I knew they called him Bulldog and it's like, well, that makes sense. That guy's a total bulldog on the mound, so I see why they gave him that nickname. I didn't realize until later that Tommy Lasorda gave him that nickname. in order to encourage him to be that way.

But what essentially happened is that Tommy Lasorda said, Hershiser, let me tell you how I see you. Let me tell you what I think of you. And then Orel Hershiser became what his coach thought. Of him, allowing himself to be shaped and influenced by the thoughts of his coach towards him.

And, and when Paul says that we need to surrender our members as instruments of righteousness, yeah, he's saying do righteousness with your bodily members. But I think the idea is more yield the members of your being and of your body as instruments that are now being governed by what your Heavenly Father has told you he thinks of you. Instruments of that righteousness, that justification that he has said, he has granted to you in terms of how he will forever think of you. If we want to see these things being played out and fleshed out in our lives, guys, I, I would love for us to be living in such a way as a church and as individuals that, that if someone didn't read Romans 6, they would be able to look at our lives and say, you're dead to sin, aren't you?

Wouldn't that be awesome? If our spouse is like, you're dead to sin, aren't you? You're free from sin. If our children are like you're.

You, you're, you're dead to sin. I, I get this about freedom in Christ because I see it in your life. Wouldn't that be great? For these realities are so fleshed out in our lives that they're observable in ever increasing proportions.

As we choose to believe and know and reckon and think, and then yield to the thoughts that our Heavenly Father has chosen to think of us. Let me ask you to bow your heads. Again, if you're here today and you have never just come to this God, what is not to love about a God like this? What is not to love about a message of good news like this?

This is phenomenal. No other religion can even come close to offering this. That God has actually done for you in Christ. Come to him by faith and just say, man, my, my own righteousness is so pathetic.

I don't want that. I want, I want this righteousness. And just where you're seated, just talk to the Lord and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save you and to give you. Forgiveness, to give you his righteousness.

And to give you relationship with God forever. If you want to talk about this, I'll be up here after the service. Please, I, I, it would be an honor to answer whatever questions you might have and be able to talk with you about your soul. And whatever decision you might need to make before God.

For those of us as believers, we know what we need to do and We read Romans 6 and God says, you're a billionaire, believe this. That's And just may we be daring enough to believe the glories of what is revealed here. And if we did, there's no telling what God can do in our midst. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you. Receive these funds, Lord, do much with them for the glory of Jesus.

I pray God, for all of us in this room that you would just take us deeper. The gospel is bigger. It is grander, it is broader, it is higher, deeper, wider than anything we could have imagined. Take us into the very depths of the glories of the gospel, Lord, and help us to be brazen enough, daring enough to actually believe what is revealed in these verses.

And that these realities would give shape to the way we live and think and relate to others day by day. We ask all of these things, Lord, in the name of Jesus and all God's people said.