Commands for Living the New Life

Transcript

GR 2224
11/17/2019
Commands for Living the New Life
Romans 6:8-23
Gil Rugh

We are going to Romans, chapter 6 in your bibles. Romans and the sixth chapter. As I’ve mentioned this would be the focal chapter on living the Christian life, the foundational instructions and information for how we live now that we have been redeemed, cleansed, and made new in Christ.

A very key chapter. A failure to understand and appreciate, really what’s said in Romans chapter 6 has opened the door to all kinds of programs, projects, ideas. The world calls it addiction. Sin is addictive. In fact, Romans 6 says it is slavery and the only freedom from slavery to sin is being set free in Christ.

I had an article in my file that goes back 30 years. It was a news magazine, US News and World Report, but “America’s Addiction to Addiction.” People are seeking help from everything from promiscuity to excessive shopping. It does note in the article, “It was not that long ago that even these excesses were seen as evidence of moral turpitude rather than medical conditions.” And we have slid into the idea that sinful practices are diseases like cancer or diabetes or any other physical thing. Well improper behavior is also an addiction and you know it also becomes a mark of success, and something you ought to be honored for that you are seeking counseling for this problem or that. It’s a way of shifting responsibility. I’m not responsible. It’s a disease I have. It’s also a way to make money. It did note here, this is 30 years ago, a clinic in Minnesota, a health center, and they’ve offered in-patient and out-patient treatment for people who are sexually addicted, and you can do it in a four-week program for only $16,000. I’ll do it for $2,000. This is what happens then it becomes a business. And, somehow, we have these medical problems, so to speak, but they’re hard to identify. In fact, 30 years ago, this article noted that with all the things going on, there’s no evidence they really can correct or fix the problem. The one who writes on this refers these modern approaches as, you know, “the village witch-doctors.” They know because they’re the witch doctor. Well witch doctors know. And how do they know? Because they’re witch doctors. And we’re just in this cycle. And someone sits down and has a degree in psychology, psychiatry. They know, they talked about it.

Romans 6 is the answer for believers. Now the sad thing is, believers in ignorance of Romans 6 have reached out to the world to solve the problems. So, what Romans 6 is doing is moving from sin and justification by faith in Christ to now, how are we going to conduct our lives. What about going on from our faith in Christ? And the first ten to eleven verses have talked about the way this happens. We are freed from slavery to sin, because remember Jesus said during His earthly ministry that he that sins is a slave to sin. We’ve seen in our study of Ecclesiastes, “every thought of the imagination of their heart is only evil continually.” David said, “in sin did my mother conceive me.” Sin has a hold on us, really, from birth and it manifests itself more fully, more clearly, more evidently as we move along. And we see evidences in our own country and society in abundant ways. Things that were viewed as sin not very long ago now are acceptable conduct and should be encouraged and if you oppose it, you are an unloving, unkind, narrow, bigoted person. And soon there won’t be any room for you in this society because it’s only a society for open unbigoted persons and that excludes people like you. So, it’s not really open and unbigoted but you have to fit that mold.

What happens when you place your faith in Christ? You are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Now you note that it is a package. No one every places their faith in Christ and is identified with Him in His death and so declared righteous by God and now can go on to live the way he used to live, because he died. And that was the issue in verse 2, “how shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We have died to sin now we need a new life to live and we’re resurrected with Christ, made new in Him. That’s a transaction that takes place on the inside, in the heart, the mind, in that inner person. Jesus said, like in Mark 7, “out of the heart proceed all kinds of evil conduct.” And it’s the heart that is “deceitful and desperately wicked above all things,” as Jeremiah 17 says.

So down through the first ten verses in particular we’re told we died, we are buried, we were raised with Christ to newness of life. Verse six, “knowing this, our old man was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin,” our body controlled and enslaved to sin might be “done away with.” And that word “done away with,” its power is broken. The dominant control and power of sin to enslave a person, that has been broken. And now we are no longer to live as slaves to sin. We’ve been set free. We’ll have a new master as we move down through the chapter.

“He who has died is freed from sin.” Now the church has to be careful. Any other solution that is offered is a denial of the gospel because when you deny a part of the gospel you have undermined the gospel. It’s like the Law. When you broke the Law, you broke the whole Law. When you deny one part of the gospel you’ve denied the gospel. We can’t decide what part. Well I want to be justified in Christ, but I think the doctrine of sanctification, that’s something you work out on your own. Or it’s not provided in its completeness, so we need solutions from the world. Just like the Bible doesn’t address medical solutions. I get glasses so I can see more clearly. The Bible doesn’t address fixing your eyesight, your physical eyesight. So, people make the transition and say, well sin is psychological that the world has to provide an answer for. Only God has an answer. The only way to get free from sin is to die. And that spiritual death is what is foundational. And “if we died with Christ,” verse 8, “we believe we will also live with Him knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead never to die again. Death is no longer a master over Him.”

And so, in the analogy we die with Christ. We are raised with Christ to new life. That’s a once for all process and when it happens, it will bring about the change. Now you are free. It’s amazing! You can get up one day enslaved to sin. Go out, someone shares the gospel with you, you respond and place your faith in Christ, you are set free. You are cleansed. You are made new. The next day you get up, the world is totally different. You have a freedom you did not have before. You no longer have to sin. You’re no longer the slave of sin. That’s the point. “The death He died,” verse 10, “He died to sin, once for all.” So, when we are identified with Him in His death as he has walked us through, we have died to sin, once for all. It’s a settled action. So, as we noted, there is no justification without sanctification. They are not the same thing, but they are part of the same package. Everyone who gets justified by faith in Christ is also now sanctified. Now that is a process to be worked out but the power of sin over us has been effectively broken.

Down through verse 10 he has been talking about statements of fact. They’re not given as commands. They’re just given as information. We talk about speaking in the indicative. Here’s what has taken place, what has happened to us. Beginning with verse 11, we’re going to have a series of commands. You may have them marked from times we’ve previously worked through this. It will pick up in verse 11 with that word “consider.”

“Even so consider.” That’s a command. So now our thinking is to be in line with the spiritual reality. The next command will be in verse 12, “do not let sin reign.” The next command in verse 13, “do not go on presenting” but rather further down in that verse, “present yourselves.” That word “present.

So, these series of commands note a responsibility placed upon us. Salvation is completely the work of God. But we have a responsibility to act now on the basis of what God has done. We are not just passive in this. What God has done, we had to place our faith in what He did to experience the salvation. That salvation provided freedom from the slavery and domination of sin. Now we have the responsibility to live in light of that, decisions to make, decisions to act upon.

So, we’ll walk through these verses and we’ll see these four commands. Verse 11, “Even so” connecting it to what he has said, so foundational truth. You see, if people just have a general knowledge of scripture, even of salvation, they can be susceptible to error that corrupts them. These calls to action are based on a spiritual truth, theological foundation, the details are important. This tells me everything. Being identified with Christ provides for me to be justified, to be declared righteous, because the penalty for sin is death. And God views me as having died with Christ when He died on the cross. A spiritual identification is made. I’m buried and now I’m raised with a new life. Now I’m going to live differently.

The doctrine of sanctification. So “even so.” What does this mean? “Consider,” reckon, count yourself dead to sin. That’s a present imperative. The present tense indicates this to be the ongoing evaluation of our life now because remember, He died to sin, once for all. When we’re identified with Him, we have that once, for all, death with Him as well. So now this is to be the consistent way we look at our lives and deal with sin. Be considering yourself, if I can move that to a present kind of tense. I might say keep on considering yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The transformation that takes place is I’m a new person. I just don’t live like the old person. Dead to sin. That means I’m never going to operate in that realm again.

But I am now alive. I’m not dead. I’m dead to what I was but I’m alive to what I have been made. “If any man be in Christ, he is a creature,” a new creation. What does that mean? “Old things passed away.” “New things have come,” as Paul wrote to the in 2 Corinthians, chapter five. That’s the same point. If you’re “in Christ” you’re new. New things come. Life changes immediately. That doesn’t mean everything. And we’re not going…we have positional’s we often say, perfection.

But we don’t have the practical side. Life is totally different from that point on. A new birth has occurred. We have a new person. A new man in Christ. Consider yourself, reckon yourself. This becomes part of the problem. This is not how Christians see themselves. Over the many years in the pastorate, how many times have I sat with people, and we come to Romans 6. Well I have this sin, I just can’t be free. Well wait a minute. Let’s back up. Be careful. We don’t want to assume something that may not be so. If sin has a hold of you and you are sin’s slave, that is a real possibility. I agree with you. You may not be able to live a different life as you presently are.

Let’s start at the beginning. The only way to be free from the slavery of sin, if you blow by that, and just assume they’re a Christian, pretty soon you’re thinking, now we have a problem. Because here’s a Christian but he’s enslaved to sin so he can’t live a new life. Then you have to go read all kinds of outside information to try to get input and they’ll give you all these programs you go through. And like for that one you can pay $16,000 for four weeks and if you’re paying that much money, you must get help. But even the evaluation is, there’s no evidence it really helped.

We have to come to the Scriptures. So, first I say, well let’s settle the first issue. And secondly, then if they’re sure they’ve trusted Christ and there’s evidence in other areas of their life, I say, well then we can pick up from here. Then we go through Romans 6. So how do you consider yourself? Dead to sin or alive to sin? Ok, that’s the first area that he talks about. We are not what we used to be.

Verse 12, “Therefore,” and you see we’re building. “Even so consider yourselves” this way. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body,” this physical body, “so that you obey its lusts.” Again a present imperative. Do not be letting sin reign. You might say, “that’s easier said than done.” Well it needs to be done. And now that we belong to God and are His children and we can understand and obey His word, He tells us “do not be letting sin reign.”

Now sin did reign. He talked about this back in chapter 5, verse 14, when he said, “death reigned from Adam to Moses” which is an indication that sin was dominate because, and we worked through that. Because it was through sin that death entered the world. So, when we talk about death reigning, you’re talking about sin reigning. That’s the evidence of it. Sin reigned. Down in verse 17 of chapter 5, “the gift of righteousness,” the end of the verse, “will reign.” Sin reigned in death. First part of the verse said death reigned through one. But then righteousness will reign. So, we have this contrast that will be worked out now in chapter 6 where death reigned now righteousness will reign. And you come down to verse 21, so that as “death reigned” or “sin reigned in death.” You know, when you talk about death you’re talking about sin because death is the result of sin. So “sin reigned in death,” so “grace would reign through righteousness.”

That’s the contrast he’s developing now as we come through the rest of chapter 6. Where sin and death reigned righteousness and life now reign. It is a black and white world in scripture. And we can be thankful it’s not so complicated. It’s clear. This is how it works. So, there’s not this gray area where, well…and they try to do that. People will sometimes joke about my counseling but just to go on and think I’m showing empathy. Yeah, I understand, in one sense. But I don’t want to play around. You know I go to a medical doctor. He said here’s your situation. Here’s the solution. Well, let’s talk about it. Maybe that’s not my situation. Maybe that’s not the solution.

How many times do I want to go to him and just get that kind of input? But yet Christians get here and think well, that’s harsh. That’s not kind. What does he say? Stop it! Consider yourself dead to sin, verse 12, “do not let it reign.” We’d say, easier said than done. In one sense that’s true because only God can make it possible and He did if you place your faith in Christ. So, stop it. And it comes down to, do I want to? That’s why the commands are given here. “Don’t go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” That’s why he talked about, in verse 6, “our body of sin being done away with.” Our body controlled and dominated by sin. That power has been broken, done away with, “katargeo.” Its power is broken.

Down now here in verse 13. We “don’t go on presenting the members,” the parts of our body, our eyes, ears, all our parts to sin “as instruments” or weapons as you have in the margin of your bible¸ “of unrighteousness.” I’m no longer going to use this body for sinful purposes, to do sinful things. That’s the old me. I no longer am to live in that realm, controlled and dominated by sin. But, the contrast in the positive, “present yourself.” This is an aorist imperative. It is a statement of fact that we do. And that takes care of it. You know, I realize this is no longer mine. I present it to God. What a privilege.

That’s what Paul wrote the Corinthians. Again, “you are not your own, you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body,” he wrote to the Corinthians. You are not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. You see what’s happening here. It will become clear as we move further along. Nobody is free in the sense that we often use the term. I am my own person. I do my own thing. That person is under the control and domination of sin. Now when you are set free in Christ it’s not that you’re set free to do what you want and live the life that you want. Because now you been enslaved to God. Now you belong to Him. Before you belonged to the devil and to sin. Now you belong to God and righteousness. How exciting is that? But there’s no middle ground there. You either belong to the devil and sin and you are enslaved to him, like Jesus told in John 8, “he that sins is a slave of sin” and He told the religious leaders, “you’re of your father the devil so you do his will” and you manifest his character. He’s a liar and a murderer and so are you. But when you are made new in Christ, now you belong to God. You manifest His character and you produce righteousness.

So “present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.” And what does he follow through? “And your members,” the parts of your body, “as instruments of righteousness to God.” So, you see it’s just the opposite. Before I lived for sin, what I did with this body was to pursue sin and sinful practices and quicker than overnight I’ve been totally transformed and made new. Here now! Lord this is Your body. I’m Your slave. It’s to be used for Your purposes to honor You, to do what is consistent with Your character. That’s the transformation that goes on. These are commands given to us. These are not options. The provision has been made by God. Now there is responsibility on our part. Well I don’t know if it’s possible. Well then it would take a failure on God’s part. He didn’t really get me dead. He didn’t really raise me up. Well, yeah, He did that. Then what’s the problem?

That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be struggles. That’s why the commands are given. Here’s how you think of yourself from this point on, in verse 11. Here’s what you do in verse 12. You stop sinning. It’s not, oh you should be more patient. I’ve had people who will say are we going to meet together again. I try to be honest. For what? Is it not clear what the scripture says? Are you going to do it or not? If you’re unwilling to do what the scripture says how can I help you? If you’re going to do what the scripture says, then move on. Now there you can meet again. Let’s be sure you understand. But if a person’s not at that point, I can’t help them. It’s a decision they make. I can’t make their decisions. You can’t make someone else.

It’s like sharing the gospel with someone. You know sometimes, particularly you know, if it’s one of your family or something, you’d just like to grab on to them and shake them. But you can’t make them believe it. You know, you have opportunity to talk to them again and again, you say, “Lord how can I get this through?” They have to make the decision. And so, it is here. Stop sinning! There are things you can do to help that. I’m going to avoid the circumstances that I know before drew me into sin. I’m going to make some changes in my life. I don’t continue to put myself in the context where I know sin will draw me in. That’s making provisions for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

This doesn’t mean now I am superman, spiritually, so those things won’t appeal to me anymore. Well if it was automatic it wouldn’t have to command me to do something. Don’t let sin reign and don’t put yourself in a situation where you will do it. I may have to break off some friendships, not go some places I went because I’m not going to provide an opportunity for that to happen. Just like you tell your kids, right? Don’t hang around with the kind of friends that are going to get you into trouble. Don’t go to places where you’ll get in trouble. And then we come to the spiritual thing and we say, “I didn’t think of that.” If our kids only knew they had dumb parents. They learn that later over time.

“Don’t go on presenting but present,” you turn them over to God. The parts of my body now are to be used for Him. And what does He say in verse 14? “For sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace.” That’s it. You know the Law could command what to do but it couldn’t enable. This is the trap that many are in, in reformed theology. They’ll say well we’re saved by grace, but now we are sanctified by keeping the Law. What kind of idea is that? He says that sin is not master over you because you are not under law but under grace. You see, I’ve been transferred into a whole new realm. The Jews were transferred. Paul was a Jew, but he wasn’t under obligation to the Mosaic Law. And he’ll go on to develop that aspect of it, so we won’t go into it.

That’s what chapter 7 is about, freedom from the Law. We find out we died to the Law. The Jews did. The Gentiles were never officially under the Law. But that point, we’re not going back under the Law and because you’re not under the Mosaic Law doesn’t mean you are antinomian, you’re anti-Law. There are commands. We have the law of Christ but that’s not the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law served its purpose. It was completed, finished, as we have seen in Galatians with the coming of Christ. We’ll talk more about that in chapter 7.
But grace makes provision for me.

One of the things that has happened to anyone who has become a believer is the Holy Spirit has come and taken up residence in your life. I have the indwelling presence of God within me at all times. That in and of itself should make me careful about sin. That I not grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in me. He’s there when I say things I shouldn’t say or do things I shouldn’t do. And we have the potential for that, but we never have to. That’s the thing. You never have to sin as a believer. I’m not saying you never sin. I know you all well enough. We don’t have anybody like that in our church. And you don’t have anybody in the pastorate like that either, but we never have to. So that’s the freedom.

Now he goes on with verse 15, “what then,” since he said in verse 14, “sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace,” does that mean? And this is the second question, “what then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” First question, chapter 6, verse 1, “What shall we say then?” In light of what he had said up to that point. “Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?” Because God’s grace abounds covering all our sin. Well may it never be. That’s inconceivable.

Now the second question in this chapter, verse 15, “what then?” Next question, I’ve answered the first and why we couldn’t continue in sin. A believer can’t live there. I’m not saying a believer can never sin. A believer can’t live there. That’s why 1 John says, “by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.” Those who practice sin belong to the devil. Those who practice righteousness belong to God. That’s the characteristic of their life. It doesn’t say a believer never sins. But an unbeliever never does anything pleasing to God and we’ll get to that when we get to chapter 8. In fact, it’s impossible for the unbeliever to please God he’ll go on to say.

So, we have these two fixed realms. Two fixed lives if you will. I’ve lived two totally different lives. Before salvation and after salvation, and they are totally different worlds. And the older you were when you were saved, when you trusted Christ, probably the more evident that transformation is. When you’ve trusted Christ at a younger age you haven’t had the chance to indulge the body in as many fleshly things. but you were lost and sinful. But they are two different lives.

So, verse 15, “if you say that you’re not under the Law, what then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace?” Does grace mean you’re free to sin? I had some dear people who were influential in our lives, the lives of our family, my physical family when I was young. They believed you could lose your salvation. And when we started attending a bible believing church that taught that as believers, we were secure in Christ, they cut off all fellowship with us. Because you believe in a sinning religion. We used to have an Arminian man who was a student. He had a great voice. His name was Keith, and he would walk down the halls of the seminary. And he’d pass us guys, “you can sin all you want for there is remission” and he’d bellow that out. He was a big fellow with a powerful voice, “for there is remission.” And he was just sort of sticking it to us. But that’s not what we really believed. And he was doing with a humorous intent and we appreciated it. Shall we sin because we’re not under the Law? We’re under grace. Does grace mean now you’re free? We’ve had people say, “you can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my judge.” And there’s an element of truth to that but we all have to do if we are children of God what God says we have to do.

Now there are areas of liberty. We have to be careful and it’s easy to slide off of that. We’re not under the Mosaic Law. But that doesn’t mean we are free to do what we want, because what happens? “May it never be!” That’s a strong negative. Such a thought is inconceivable. “Do you not know?” There’s that expression. We saw it up in verse 3. “Do you not know?” Ignorance is not acceptable on the part of a believer. Young believers have to grow in the Word, but this is not an option. Paul could express himself with limited patience. What’s the problem here? Don’t you know any better? It’s like we do with our children when they do something, and they should know better. Don’t you know? You know better to put it the other way. So that’s where he is down here. How could you ask such a question? How could this be an issue? “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one who you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

We’re back to these two realms. Now for a person to say I died with Christ, I was buried with Christ, I was raised to new life, now I’m free to sin cause I’m not under the Law. Would you believe there was a time early in my days here when we put parking lot signs up because we had a rock parking lot. And we had some dear young adults at that time that said the church is becoming legalistic. Now they’re telling us where to park. That has nothing to do with what Paul’s talking about. One reason you can tell is there is no instructions on where to park your car in the Mosaic Law. So, the fact we’re not under the Mosaic Law doesn’t mean you can park your car where you want.

You know when I got, I was put out of the bible college I was attending. I had to drop out because you couldn’t get married until you were a senior. And some of my friends said, “oh they’re legalistic.” But I said, “no they’re not legalistic. They didn’t tell me that I couldn’t get married and please God. They just said you can’t get married before you are a senior and attend this school.” That’s their right. It’s their school. They can make rules. Now if they say that’s required for you to be acceptable to God or to gain God’s approval then that becomes a legalistic issue. So, every time somebody makes a rule there are laws. There are things. We just read commands. Verse 11, “consider yourselves dead to sin.” That’s a command from God. It’s not an option to do it. It’s not a command from the Mosaic Law but it’s a command from the living God. When God gives you a command, the option to obey is not yours. If you disobey, you’ve sinned and so on with the commands.

So, we don’t want to get confused with the Mosaic Law. I used reformed just to cover that area. They accuse dispensationalist of antinomianism. They believe you can do whatever you want because you’re not under the Mosaic Law. That doesn’t mean you can do anything you want. You’re under grace which means what? You have to understand, when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you’re slaves of the one you obey.

Verse 17, “thanks be to God though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching which you were committed.” The gospel that was presented to you, you committed yourself to that in faith. That’s what happened. And as a result, having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And I have underlined in my bible, perhaps you do, “you were slaves of sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Those are the only two realms. Every person alive on the face of the earth lives in one of those two realms. As a slave of sin or as a slave of righteousness. There is no middle ground. It’s like Jesus said, “if you’re not with Me you’re against Me.” All these grey areas of theology can be confusing. I love how simple it is. This is what you were. This is what you are. So, you can’t go back and submit yourselves to the former slave master, sin, because now your slave master is righteousness.

So, it’s not an option. You’re not free to do your own thing. Before you did what sin required, now you do what righteousness requires. What don’t you understand about slavery? In those days, slavery was a common practice in a large portion of the Roman empire and the world at that time. They understood, you serve your master. We don’t even talk about going back and serving sin. That’s why it starts out, verse 16, “Don’t you know?” I mean these are basic foundational truths.

Sometimes the way we talk about that, it’s theology 101. This is where you begin. But how many Christians in churches, are confused about this? They think when they hear, well, you know, I don’t know. Well, you should know. Did you ever read the book of Romans? I don’t want to be unkind, but this is God speaking! Don’t you know? Then what’s the problem? Why would you talk about, is it possible to present my body to sin, just because I’m not under the Mosaic Law? That body is mine. That’s God saying, that’s where we’re going. To be a slave of righteousness, is to be a slave of God. That’s why I referred to the Corinthians passage before. You’re not your own, you were bought with a price. So, you’re bought out of the slave market of sin and now, purchased for God. He owns me, He owns you. This is not my body to do with it as I want, it’s now His, to be lived in obedience to Him.

So, we ought to thank God every day. We talk about, in our study of Psalm 34 in the morning, things we bless God for. One of the things, everyday thank you Lord for setting me free in Christ, the power of Your salvation. This is why we started out in Romans 1, the gospel is the power of God for salvation. And all these other things that the church absorbs in, as though the power of God’s salvation is limited. That power of salvation is a power to live a new life. A life of righteousness, a life controlled by God and honoring to God. That’s what he is saying. You were slaves of sin, having been freed from sin, you were on your own. No! You became slaves of righteousness.

Then I have people come and say, I just can’t stop, you know? I just can’t treat my wife right; I just can’t submit to my husband. Well, let’s go back to the beginning again. Have you ever been set free in Christ? Because I don’t want to tell them, yes you can, because maybe they can’t. If they are a slave of sin, they can’t! But if you have been set free in Christ and are a slave of righteousness, don’t sit here and lie and tell me you can’t do it. You can love your wife as Christ loved the church. You can submit to your husband as the church submits to Christ. You can control your tongue. You can.

You know we create this situation. It ruins the health of the church and of believers because the wonderful truths that we should be thanking God for. Verse 17, “thanks be to God.” It’s like David. I want to bless Him. I want to magnify Him, make Him great. “Thanks be to God…you were slaves of sin” but “you became obedient to God to that form of teaching to which you were committed.” That was the gospel he talked about earlier that we know because that’s what freed us from sin. And so “you became slaves of righteousness.”

Now all this talk and using the picture of slavery. “I’m speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.” So just like he uses the analogy of the physical body to picture our spiritual body, the church in Christ. So, he says, I’m talking about human slavery because you can grasp that. “For just as you presented your members a slaves to impurity and lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness,” because that’s the point, remember, we even saw that in Ecclesiastes, “every thought of their heart is only evil continually” and it just goes on to insanity. The madness grows. And we see that all around us. And it results “in further lawlessness” that was the course you were on, from sin to sin. And the passing of time and aging didn’t lessen the hold of sin. “So now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification.” More and more conformity to Christ. That’s what you see, he applies it. Now what wouldn’t you understand about the illustration?

So now here’s the spiritual reality of it and how we live it out in our life. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, and this will come out. Those who are in the flesh can never please God, we get into Romans 8. That’s what we saw in Romans 3, “there’s none that does good, there’s none righteous. Everyone has turned aside, they’ve gone their own way.” There’s not a middle ground here. You were slaves of sin. You were free in regard to righteousness because you never did anything to please God. Now that you’ve been freed from sin and made a slave to righteousness why would you want to go on and serve sin?

“Therefore what benefit,” that word “benefit” is the word fruit. What benefit, what fruit were you then deriving from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. Don’t take pride in the old ugly life that we had and lived. Oh, how I miss the old sins, the drunkenness, the carousing, the immorality, the lying, the cheating. They’re not things we are proud of. You didn’t get any benefit from those, no fruit that was produced in your life. Nothing of that character was pleasing to God may only end in death. “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God,” note that always goes together. Nobody is ever freed from sin who is not enslaved to God. You derive your benefit resulting in sanctification, the outcome eternal life. That’s the process going on now that I am progressively becoming more and more like Christ. Just like the child, born and you know you see the process as they develop, as they mature. Certain characteristics become more evident in their practice. That’s what he’s talking about now.

The fruit now we have is the fruit of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh that didn’t benefit me anything. You derive your benefit, your fruit, resulting in sanctification. That word sanctification as we talk about it. It’s the same basic word as holy, saint, those who are set apart from sin to God. And now we live lives that manifest more and more clearly and fully. The outcome of that is eternal life. So, you know, we are to the two gates, the two roads, the two outcomes as Jesus talked about the broad gate, the narrow gate, the broad road, the narrow road. At the end, here we are. Two lives, two lifestyles, culmination, death and life. Choose life so you might live! This is where we are. This is one of the most exciting chapters in the bible. You have to build to this because you want to understand sin and you want to understand justification, but for us as believers, you want to have Romans 6 fixed in your mind. No matter how sin comes to allure you, and we’ll talk about this in our future studies as we move along here. But it has no power to control me. In this we looked, the old man died.

Come over to Galatians, then we’re done. I want to open it up for some questions and other comments I want to make. Come over to Galatians 5:24. If you don’t I’ll get it for you and read it. Galatians 5:24 says “now to those who belong to Christ Jesus, they have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” So, it not only says in Romans 6, the old man was crucified, the flesh with its passions and desires was crucified. Down the end of verse 14, in verse 14, “may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world was crucified to me and I to the world.” The world, the flesh, the old man, all its power is broken. It has no hold over me, no authority over me. And anytime I sin, it’s because I chose, inconsistent and irrational it is, to go back because I thought there might be some enjoyment there. But as a believer you can’t live there. I’ve shared with you, a person who was disciplined many years ago came back. They said, “you know, I noticed the difference between me and someone else who was disciplined with me. They enjoyed living out there, but I never could. Every day I was miserable. Until I came back and got right. I can’t be the old me. I not only don’t want to be, I can’t be. I’ve been made new in Christ.”

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for the provision You made for our lives as Your children. You didn’t set us free from sin and turn us loose on our own but in loving grace You brought us into relationship with Yourself. That You could be our Master and we could be enslaved to You and to righteousness, enabled and empowered by new life to live lives pleasing to You. That’s our desire, in Christ’s name. Amen.


One thing I want to say further on this and then I’ll open it up if I don’t talk too long, not that that could happen. You want to be careful. You know we talk about the “inner man.” We’ve talked about this, try to make a difference between soul and spirit. It’s the same with the old man, the flesh, sin. It’s hard to single that out. That’s why Scripture says, whatever you’re talking about was taken care of in the death of Christ on the cross. Now note, the world was crucified to me and I to the world, but the world didn’t go away. And that’s true of the old man. I don’t think that, that means it’s non-existent. I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. This is a book I got as a gift from the publisher. Let’s be careful. It says, “Paul is not describing a dualistic schizophrenic Christian, the old man, the unregenerate person that was in Adam.” He makes the point, “it is true, that in every genuine believer, the old man is dead.” I want to be careful. That doesn’t mean it is non-existent because then you have to find a new place for sin. His view is, we should note what he’s going to say in chapter 8 of his book, “Christians sin because of the vestiges of sinful flesh, not because the same old active sin nature. Certainly, we sin but when we sin, it’s contrary to our nature, not because we have two dispositions, one sinful and one not.” And you can see the struggle. He’s trying to sort out where does sin come from but ends up almost saying it’s in your physical body. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, some of you read his work, on Romans 6 he tends there as well. But the physical body in and of itself is not sin. Remember, now we can present our physical bodies to the Lord as righteousness. So, it’s not like in this physical body there’s some kind of vestige of sin. The flesh as a source of sin was broken but remember what that does. And he mentions the word katargeo, this does not mean our sinful tendencies are annihilated. The Greek word translated “away with” literally means to render inoperative, invalidate. Sin has lost its dominating control over us. Death to the sinful self, which was the “man”, the sinful man, used the word man in Romans 6 does not mean death to the flesh in corrupted inclinations. And quite frankly as I worked through this, I can’t understand what he is saying is the source of sin. All I’m saying there is, the power has been broken but it hasn’t been removed. However, you want to identify that source of sin, the old man, the flesh. Just call it sin. It comes from within. The heart which is deceitful and sinful. Jesus said all sin comes out of the heart. So, it’s the inner person. Sometimes there’s confusion. Some of you read, this is from John MacArthur. I appreciate a lot of what he does but I think there it’s confusion and I think the idea we’re not totally under the control of two different powers because the power of the one has been broken. The power of the other is what dominates there. But the source of sin is the same whether you call it the flesh, the old man, sin, sin nature, it’s all there. But they are not two equal powers because the power of the one has been broken. We’ve been put under the power and authority of the other. Over years off and on I’m asked about that. I think it is confusing. I’ve never talked to John MacArthur about that. I don’t have enough contact with him. But I think it’s confusing. I just thought of it before I came in and pulled that book off because I remembered it being there.

Ok, I’ll open it up, first for you. I have a couple of questions but if anybody has any question, I’ll give you a chance.

Question, I was just curious, you mentioned in your opening about David and being born in sin. Well, I mean God forbid, but what happens to a baby that dies in the womb? Is he or she redeemed? Is there, what’s with the sin nature and things like that in that situation?

Answer, very good question. One that does concern us. My understanding is in light of what the scripture says and in light of what it doesn’t say, the scripture does say that God will not hold the child responsible for the sin of the father or the father responsible for the sin of the child as he gets older. Each is accountable for his own. All the judgments in scripture are based on works. Not that you’re saved by works but they are based on works. The great white throne, the book of the works is there. The book of life is there. So, my understanding would be, to be consistent with that. The death of Christ covers those who never come to a point. That would include then babies after they’re born and would include people perhaps who never developed the mental ability for one reason or another to be able to comprehend in a reasonable way. That seems consistent because if they were going to be judged and sentenced to hell it would be because of the sin of their father all the way back to Adam. But God says He will not hold the person. So, they will not be held accountable. That ends, the next comes, where do you think the age is? I don’t know. That’s why we started as early as possible building the word into the lives of the kids. When our kids were in the crib I used to go in and practice on them. Coo-coo-coo let me just explain to you, you are a little sinner. And you’re lost but, they didn’t understand but good practice for me as they got older. So, I think that’s where it comes. Somewhere, God knows the heart. It could be different for any age. You now the Old Testament, the age of twenty was an age of adulthood. I wouldn’t want to say that and be misunderstood. I think it’s in the hands of God. But for babies, unborn infants, all the abortions that take place, yeah, I think they’d be covered under the provision of Christ.

Question, would you consider a person who doesn’t physically attend this church but watches it every Sunday online, a member of this church?

Answer, sure, we love having you. We’ll send you an offering envelope. No. No. No. And there may be reasons why they don’t come. But we love having you tune in and listen and we hope the word works in your life. We’d love you to have a fellowship of believers. If you’re in the area, with physical problems, maybe you can’t come, contact us. We’ll have someone visit with you and at least you’ll have some fellowship with believers. That’s important. You might be in an area where there’s no solid bible teaching church. That’s difficult. But I wouldn’t want this to replace being part of a church that is bible based, believes the gospel. Our goal is not putting online to replace another bible believing church. They may hold some non-essential doctrines not related to the gospel. I think it’s important to be in the fellowship of believers, a local church. So, I’d encourage you do that and maybe supplement with being part here, but I wouldn’t consider this your church if you’re so far away that you can’t be part of it. But we have members who can’t come any longer, but they join us online. We do visit them and so on. Sometimes have communion with them on a personal basis because we want them to be part of the body. But I don’t want that to be taken that you shouldn’t be part of a local church but if you’re not getting nourishment there, go to that church where at least they believe the bible and you can encourage other believers and help them. Then join us at another time because we’re online.

Question, I can answer the first one. Since death hadn’t entered the world until Adam sinned, if a fatal accident had occurred would he have been able to die?

Answer. These kind of things, I don’t think it could have happened. Those things like fatal accidents or he couldn’t have cut off his finger but working in the garden or things like that. Sin brought all those things into the world so before sin there were no ways to die, so to speak. It took that act of sin. You know, hard for us to imagine living in the world we’re living in and in the bodies we’re living in that are subject to death, but there would have been no way for him to die. And you now we can’t build up, well what if he had fallen off a cliff? Well, in the provision of God, those kind of things were not there and could not have affected him. Now going back and imagining the garden, it will be like when we go forward into the eternal kingdom. There’ll be no possibility of dying. That will be something that doesn’t exist anymore and so on. But there would have been no way for him to die. He couldn’t have had an accident or anything. But you see what happens, as soon as sin came into the world, what happens? One of their kids kills the other. You think wow, it doesn’t take long for sin to manifest itself in the ugly way.

Question, concerning the last guy that called about viewing at home, you know my wife is handicapped. We have to do that sometimes. When we’re here we really appreciate the songs writings on the screens and your outlines but when you guys do online we don’t see any of that stuff. So we were wondering if there’s some way that, that could be added to the online video as we watch at home?

Answer. That’s good. That might reflect, like you say the songs, and I’ve had some of that when we’re away, usually watch it online. I sometimes will remark to Marilyn, I wish we could see the words, for example, of the songs. I appreciate the singers leading so I don’t know what it takes. So, I’ll just say, yeah, we’ll get that done. When you have no power or ability you can make all kinds of promises but some of you who are adept at that might look at that and see how we might do it. It might take some equipment that we don’t have to provide that kind of screen and so on, but it’s out there so those who could work on that have heard it so let’s maybe work on that. Good.

I have a question on celibacy but I’ll save that until the next time because that would probably carry me over.

Alright, thank you. Great to have you out on Sunday night. Enjoy it. Let me have a word of prayer and we’ll be on our way.

Thank You Lord for the riches of Your word. Thank You for the privilege of coming together at the end of the day and enjoying fellowship with one another around Your word. Having the Spirit instruct our hearts and minds with these great truths. Lord even though we’ve been through them, perhaps many times, I want them to be impressed again and again, as they are built into our lives. They shape our thinking, they direct our living. Lord how blessed we are and we give You thanks for the salvation You’ve brought to us. Lord a salvation that not only rescued us from a life destined for hell but made us new to live a life that is satisfying, fulfilling and honoring to You. We pray that our lives will indeed reflect that in the days of the week ahead of us. In Christ’s name, amen.