WWUTT 142 Free From Sin (Romans 6:1-14)

Romans 6 -7 says one who has died has been set free from sin. Well that's true, when we die we'll go to be with God in heaven and we will no longer sin.

But this verse is talking about dying to the sins of the flesh and being set free in Christ when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. Back to Romans chapter 6 again today. Verses 1 -14 and then we'll go back and summarize a few of the things we talked about yesterday and move on from there.

What shall we say then, Paul asks at the start of this chapter. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How could we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.

Back at the start of the chapter, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

So the more that I sin, the more God shows his grace upon me? Is that the argument that Paul has made?

No, no, no, no, no. How can we who died to sin still live in it? So there's the statement, and then he is going to expound upon that argument in the verses that follow.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This is what baptism is supposed to symbolize.

When we're dunked underwater, it symbolizes being buried with him in our transgressions, and when we come back up again, it symbolizes being raised with him to new life and being washed of our sins.

Baptism is a physical representation of something that has happened that is deeply spiritual.

And we have shared this death, and so therefore we will walk in his life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Not only that our spirit has been brought from death to life, but that we ourselves will be raised again from the grave and have eternal life.

Even our bodies, though they perish in the ground for a time and decay like everything else in this physical world, our bodies will eventually be restored to be like his glorious body.

And then our lowly bodies will be made to be like his body, and we will see him as he is because we will be just like him.

As it says in 1 John 3. So we know that our old self, in the state of this, in the spiritual sense now, coming back into the spiritual sense in verse 6, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

And we see this same concept come back up again in a couple of other places. I'm thinking of Ephesians and also in Colossians.

Let me go to Ephesians first. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

That's the Ephesians reference. Now, here's the one in Colossians chapter 3. Put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

That's Colossians chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. So we're no longer walking in this old way, but we have put on the new self.

The old self has been put to death, buried with Christ, and the new self has been raised to life.

And we walk in newness of life with him. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Verse 7, for one who has died has been set free from sin. And now here's Romans 6, 8.

Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him. He conquered the grave. He is not going to do that again.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once, one death for all, all sin.

But the life that he lives, he lives to God. So likewise, verse 11, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now, we still inhabit these fleshly bodies. We have sinned in these bodies, and so they will die.

But our spirit, which has been brought to life in Christ Jesus, will live forever with him. Since we're still in these bodies, we will be tempted in the flesh.

There will be occasions when the devil, according to his schemes, will try to tempt us away from walking in the righteousness of Christ, and we will stumble.

But there is a difference between stumbling in the flesh and being enslaved to certain sins.

A person who is an alcoholic, who then finds Christ and repents of his sin and walks in Christ, must no longer live in the way that he did before as an alcoholic.

He must try to do everything that he possibly can to stay away from that temptation of the flesh.

I'll give you an example of this, since alcoholism is the sin in particular that I pulled out.

I had a friend who was an alcoholic, and he was trying desperately to get away from that.

He had a wife and kids, and so he knew that in Christ he had to repent of that sin and no longer be enslaved to the flesh.

He was doing very well, and there was an occasion one night where he was driving down a certain street here in Junction City where there's a lot of bars and liquor stores and pawn shops.

He was not paying attention to how much gas he had, and he ran out of gas. He actually had a 2 or 3 gallon tank in his trunk that he could have taken down to one of the gas stations, filled it up, come back, poured it in his car, and be able to make it home.

But he would have been walking by bars and liquor stores to get over to that gas station, not to mention the nearest gas station was itself a liquor store.

And he did not trust himself enough to believe that he wouldn't give in to temptation walking into one of those bars and having a drink.

So he called up another buddy and explained to him the situation and told him where he was at and asked his buddy to come and pick him up.

Well, he sat down next to a wall with that pad, and he was writing over and over again, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I will not go down here to the bar and get a drink. And he was writing something like that over and over and over in his notepad when his buddy found him, that's what he was doing, trying to fixate his mind on the things of Christ so that he would not dwell on the temptation of the flesh.

What are you willing to do to get over these temptations of the flesh?

You must no longer submit yourself as a slave to sin, but instead submit yourself to the righteousness of Christ.

We read this in Galatians 5, verse 16, I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Do you understand how serious it is to be enslaved to the flesh?

That you're continuing to obey the passions of the flesh instead of walking in the righteousness of Christ.

Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't shrug these things off and think that they're no big deal and say,

Oh yeah, well, God's going to show grace on me. I'll just ask forgiveness and he'll pour out grace on me. If you are continuing to be enslaved to these passions and these desires, you are not part of God's kingdom.

You are still part of this fallen world. Like the situation with a friend of mine that would not even walk toward a bar because he didn't want to be tempted to walk in and take a drink.

He instead sat next to a wall with a notepad and wrote over and over and over again to try to meditate on the things of Christ instead of his flesh.

What are you willing to do to get away from the desires of the flesh and instead pursue the righteousness of Christ?

To what lengths would you go so that by any means necessary, you would be in Christ's righteousness and doing those things that are pleasing to God, no longer gratifying the desires of the flesh.

I would be amiss if I did not finish what Paul was still saying here in Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit.

We've got the works of the flesh. By contrast, here is the fruit of the spirit. Remember, the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

If you desire the spirit, you will display this fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

You know, here in our world, there is a continuing debate about whether or not a person who is a homosexual will go to heaven.

Well, the Bible tells us that they won't. A person who continues to identify as a homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And we see this in 1 Corinthians 6, starting in verse 9.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Same thing

Paul said in Galatians 5. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral.

And here, once again, we have sexual immorality listed first. Oftentimes, when Paul lists a set of sins, sexual immorality is listed first in that list of sins.

We see it in Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, Galatians 5, and we see it here in 1

Corinthians 6. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, people who are enslaved to the things of this world, who do not think that the things of God are enough for them, so they need to have the stuff of this world to find satisfaction.

These people will not inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.

So we've gone from the bad news, the list of sins, and then in verse 11 we get the good news. Such were some of you, but you were washed.

You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Let us no longer identify ourselves with our former ways, with those sins.

Don't identify yourself with sins. Well, I am a homosexual, a person who would say that, would be identifying themselves according to their sin instead of the newness and righteousness that they have in Christ.

In AA, when you go to an AA meeting, a person stands up and says, I am so -and -so and I am an alcoholic.

No, that's not the way you do that. You were an alcoholic. In Christ, you have been set free and you are in His righteousness.

You have been washed. No longer identify with the sins and the passions of the flesh. But folks, once again, what are you willing to do to keep yourselves from those sins that so easily entangle and entice?

We are to be dead to those sins. We no longer are enslaved to the passions of the flesh.

We instead have the fruit of the Spirit which displays self -control. We also, as Christ, must consider ourselves dead to sin, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

By whatever means necessary, pursue the righteousness of Christ.

God, we know that it is only by your strength do we have the ability to renounce all sin and ungodliness and desire to live godly lives in this present age.

According to the power of Christ that is within us. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life. So God, give us your strength to be able to resist our sins and the temptations of the flesh so that we might be holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the

Lord. This is our spiritual act of worship as it says in Romans 12, 1.

Lead us and teach us in these things and let these words fill our minds and our hearts so that we continue to be taught as we go.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.