Romans 6:22-23 - Grace & Freedom From Sin (01/27/2019)

Grace as the Basis for Right Living in Romans 6

Good morning. This is a family crowd today. I kind of like that. Hope you're all doing well. We are the survivors here today. Everyone else is getting the flu, aren't they? I think we need to import from Japan some of those things they wear, the Japanese wear all the time.

We can just start wearing those. Can you imagine if people, visitors came and we all had one of those on? That'd come across really well. I don't know. Sometimes I think they're smarter than we are, though.

They wear them everywhere. But probably that little flu virus would go right through that thing, would it, Brother Bill? It's pretty small. Well, we pray for those who are under the weather and for those of us here who haven't caught it, that we won't.

And glad that you're able to be back here with us this quickly, Sharon. She had a surgical procedure Friday and already back. She's a trooper. And pray for her, though, because she has some problems with one of her legs and the doctors are having difficulty figuring out what it is.

But we're going to check it out with another doctor that I think is going to be really good. Pray that he will be able to determine that. So let's see. Our president opened the government again, so we need to pray for all of us because the government's operating.

That's not good news. I can pass laws now. We're in trouble. All right, so thank you for taking care of everything this morning, Brother Paul. And if you would turn to the end of Romans chapter 6 this morning, we will talk about the conclusion of this great chapter.

I will say this. The Lord lays on anyone's heart to add a little extra beyond the normal offerings today. We'd appreciate it. We've got to make a came up a little short on the budget this month, so we got to make a payment tomorrow or Tuesday.

Be helpful if anyone felt like to give a little extra. Just let Brother Paul know about that, and we would appreciate that. All right, let's pray and we get started here. Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this day that we can come together, be with you. We thank you for each other. We pray for our brothers and sisters and the children also among our church family. They're ill today. We ask you to bless them, strengthen their bodies, and bring them back to us soon.

And Lord, we don't take anything for granted with these things. The flu can be very serious, so we just pray for people across town, across the state, across the country that are battling this today. And Lord, we just ask you to bless the preaching of your word.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, with regard to Romans chapter 6, we have discussed that much of this chapter is about how to live right. Our responsibility to live for and unto the Lord, our responsibility.

Now even there, when we talk about responsibility, we have to always recognize that the Lord never expects us to rely upon our flesh to accomplish anything, because anything we do in the flesh is not considered good by the Lord anyway.

So it's always something we do together with Christ, right? Something we do with him and that he does in us and through us and with us. And it's like one big happy family business. It's all God's business, everything we're doing.

And so we have traversed the Bible also, finding various lists of practical methods that God himself teaches us to help us be better at living a good life. And we're not talking about our eternal salvation, we're talking about the effects of it, how we live while we're still on this earth.

And there are many great places where the scripture just seems to give a list of several points on if you do this, you can live a better life. So we've talked about many of those. We've discussed many times that we can never walk a good walk in our own flesh, but only together with Christ, reaching up, taking his hand and walking with him throughout the day is how this works.

And so now, as we conclude this great chapter, let's remind ourselves how the chapter began. It started with a question, do you remember that? All the way back at verse one, Romans chapter six, verse one, look at the question.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Why does he start that? Well, you know, much of what Paul's already written up to this point in the book of Romans is about it's grace oriented.

It has to do with the finished work of Jesus Christ, what he did for us on our behalf and how he saved us and we can't save ourselves. It's by grace, it's a free gift and so forth. And the natural question that the world will always ask and even tares in the church who act like they're Christians but they're not really saved, they'll always ask the question, well, if that's true, if it's by grace, then I'm just gonna live however I want to because I'll be saved anyway.

They'll always ask it that way. And they did, they asked 2000 years ago, they asked the Paul the same question. And so he starts the chapter with that question. It's interesting that the rest of the chapter is gonna deal much of it with living right.

How do we live right? Because the question they're asking is why should we live right? If we're living under grace, why do we need to worry about anything? How we live? He just saves us, that's their question.

And so he starts it out with that question. And it's kind of interesting that he gives a very quick answer and it's twofold. He says right there at the beginning that it is a positional truth that the answer is first based on.

So when he starts to answer the question, why should we live right? He says, well, with regard to how to live right, we do have to fall back on the positional truth because we can't do it on our own. We have to realize what God has done for us already, that he saved us and how he did it or else we'll never even get a start on that.

So positional truth is the foundation for all righteous living. You have to start there. Verse two said, God forbid, how shall we live in sin when we're dead to it? Know ye not that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

So now he looks at these positional things and why do I call them positional? One thing is because Christ did the work to make it happen. But secondly, this happened 2 ,000 years ago in our timeline. 2 ,000 years ago, the Father not being bound by time had already placed you and me into Christ and connected us with him spiritually so that when he died, our old man died.

When he was buried, our old man was buried. But when he came out of that grave, we were a new man. We were risen just as he is risen. All of that is positional truth and it's the very first thing we have to understand before we can live right.

Because if we think living right is based on what we do in the flesh, we'll fail. But if we think it's based on what he did for us 2 ,000 years ago, which will never change, whether we wake up tomorrow morning feeling good or feeling bad, you don't change what he's already done for us.

If you can understand that, that's where we start. It's interesting that the start of this positional truth uses the word we're being baptized into Christ, baptizo. The sad thing is there's no English translation for that.

It doesn't mean, that word is not an English word. And yet they put the word baptized in the Bible as if it's an English word, it's not. And so it throws us off. It makes us think it's talking about water baptism, which it is not.

It is talking about spirit baptism. So let me give you the actual definition of that word, baptizo, in Greek. Nearly every Greek definition that I looked up says the best English word is kind of an old word that we, it doesn't seem like we use it as much, but we use one that's kin to it.

And the best word would be to be whelmed, W-H-E-L-M, whelmed. Now we use overwhelmed a lot, don't we? We don't use whelmed a lot. But in the older English, it was used a lot. And it normally had to do with a ship being whelmed by an unusually large wave that overswept the ship and literally turned it over and sunk the ship.

That's the early use of the word whelm. And I don't know if you've ever seen it, but you can go on the internet and you can see on YouTube in different places, several videos of different ships, usually in the Northern Sea is where this happens.

And there'll be 150 foot waves. And these modern ocean liners have trouble with those. In fact, they can be whelmed by those. And if you can kind of picture this huge ship hitting 150 foot waves and eventually just washes over the thing and just turns over and sinks, that is what whelmed means.

So think about it. It means to be turned upside down and to be totally covered by the water. Although the water is just a picture of what the word means. It just means to be turned upside down and totally immersed into something.

So in this case, what the Bible is teaching us is that when the Holy Spirit came to us and called us and regenerated us, he did many things to us. But one of the things that he did was he whelmed us with the Holy Spirit.

In other words, he placed the Holy Spirit within us. He placed the Holy Spirit around us so that he turned our lives upside down. We were headed in the wrong direction. So he turned us upside down. So now we're actually right side up.

And he totally covered us with Christ. And that's what the word means. So it has nothing to do with water baptism. It is a spiritual event that takes place at the moment of your regeneration where you're connected to Jesus.

You're connected to the Father. You're connected to each other. And you're whelmed with Christ. You're surrounded with him. You're engulfed with him. You're totally covered with him. He's on the inside.

He's on the outside. You're totally different than you were. Do you see how great a word this is? So whelm has been with us since the Middle English, Old English. And the old original word was whelming.

I like that. I like that. I think I'd like to use that word. I like it better. Whelming. You've been whelmed. But throughout the years, the meaning has meant to overturn, for example, and also whelm has come to mean to overpower in thought or feeling.

Now think about that. To kind of overturn you, change you totally, and to overpower you with regard to your thought, life, and your feelings. And that's exactly what happens when we get saved. It is overwhelming is the more modern word.

Whelmed is the actual word. Or whelming. I like that even better. So the truth that a Christian is whelmed by the death, burial, and resurrection and the life of Jesus Christ, just as a ship overturned by a rogue wave, it totally changes everything.

The old life, you picture that ship sinking. That's your old man is dead now. The old way of life, the old thought life, the old you. The thought life is a bit of a problem, but the old you, the old man has died.

You've been overwhelmed with Christ. And now the resurrection takes place and you're in Christ when he comes. And now you're a new ship, far more seaworthy than that old one that was sunk. And that is sort of the picture that takes place here with this word baptizo in the Greek.

When the Holy Spirit calls us effectually and regenerates us, he baptizes us into Christ. He completely overturns our lives and overwhelms us with his love, with his presence, and with his life. Galatians 3 .26 says, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Now listen to this, for as many of you as have been baptized, whelmed, engulfed into Christ have put on Christ. So when we are saved by faith, at that moment, the Holy Spirit overwhelms us and places us into Jesus Christ, connects us with him, connects us with the Father, connects us with each other.

Now, as you go into chapter six, so that positional concept that you were baptized into Christ and become one with him in his death and bear on resurrection is the basis for any kind of good living. If we don't understand that, we don't have a chance.

But there's a second aspect throughout the, especially chapter six in Paul's writings here. And that second step that's listed in this chapter is not positional, but it's experiential. It is actually a responsibility, something we are supposed to take effort to do, and that is to live right.

The best way that we can do it, and the best way to do that is found down in verse 11 there, chapter six, look at that. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. So just like Jesus did die, reckon you yourself as if you died with him the day he died.

What does reckon mean? It means to count it to be so. In your mind, count it to be a truth that your old man is crucified. He is flat dead. How can you tempt a dead man? You can't. So if you reckon your old man to be dead, it is a great trick in living right and avoiding temptation.

When the temptation comes, you just say, look, you're dead, don't listen to this. It has no effect on you. You're dead to this. Jesus has saved you from this. We've been set free from this. He died to help us avoid these things.

Reckon it to be true. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So it takes it back to the death, burial, and resurrection, all that positional stuff, but now we're in time living our life.

It says you gotta reckon it to be true. You have to think on purpose that it's true is a great help to living a good life. Remember that this word reckon, we've talked about it a couple of times in Greek.

It literally means to take inventory of something. Now what does that mean? It means you should be always thinking about what God has done for us. What has he actually done for me that would help me live a better life?

And when we think about that he gave his only son to die in our place so we could be saved in the first place so we'd even have a chance to live a good life, just thinking about the reality of that is a great thing in helping us to live better, don't you think?

So when you take inventory of what God has done for us and what he has done for us, what is the best one word we could put it in? I think it's grace. Grace is what he's done for us. So think about that, what does grace mean?

An unmerited, undeserved gift or favor that he has upon us even when we don't deserve it. That's the greatest thing that he's done for us. What is grace exactly? Grace, I'm gonna tell you a couple of things that the scripture tells us about it.

It is the mode through which we are brought into the Abrahamic covenant is the first thing and you find that in Romans chapter four, verse 13. The great unconditional promise whereby we are actually justified, made to be right with God.

It's an unconditional promise God made with Abraham and Christ was there on our behalf and since we're in Christ, then the Abrahamic covenant is for us as well because we were in Christ when the covenant was made.

And so Christ did all the work on our behalf that day when this covenant was made in the scripture in the Old Testament and Christ did all the work on our behalf to save us and the father was completely and forever satisfied with the work that he did to save us.

There's nothing you can add to it. God was propitiated which means he was totally satisfied. You see that here in Romans chapter four, verse 13. It says for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not just to Abraham or to his seed through the law but rather that promise was made through the righteousness of faith.

It was a faith-based promise, not works. It had nothing to do with you doing something for God. It had everything to do with God doing something for us and that's the whole basis of our salvation. Verse 14 says for if they which are of the law are heirs of this promise, then faith is made void.

So you have to understand that salvation by works and salvation by grace are mutually exclusive. You can't have it both ways. It's one or the other. It's not both. You can't be saved by grace plus works.

The scripture forbids it both from the point of view of grammar and the word meanings and definitions but also the scripture just forbids it. For if they which were of the law, those trying to keep the law to be saved, if those are heirs of the promise, then faith is made void.

Then salvation is not by faith, the scripture says. And the promise is made of no effect. This is what worries me about my friends who try to add something to Jesus. They add, yeah, I believe in Jesus but you gotta.

And when they say that, but you gotta, it really worries me about their salvation because right here the scripture says that the faith becomes of none effect to them. That's frightening to me. Therefore it is by faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure.

The only way that the promise of heaven is certain to anyone is if it's only by faith in what he did for us. It's the only way it's certain. So you got friends that talk about, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but you are not certain that they're saved.

Let me just put it that way. I'm not wanting them to not be saved. I want them to be saved. I hope all of them are saved, but you're not certain that they're saved. That means they're not certain. And usually if you'll ask them, they'll tell you, I don't know, I hope, I hope I'm going to heaven.

That's what they'll tell you. You don't talk like that, do you? You don't say, well, I hope I'm going to heaven because his spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. We know we're going to heaven.

In fact, I'm going to end the sermon with that verse this morning, but they don't have that one. And it's sad, but it says right here, why? Because when you add works to it, where you try to make it not just be by faith, then there is no certainty at all that the promise is effective to that person.

So that's the first thing about grace. Grace is unmerited. It is a promise based on an unconditional promise where man had nothing to do, God did all of it. Second thing I see about grace is found in Romans chapter five.

Look at this, 515, Romans 515. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. You see, free gift is a perfect definition of grace, isn't it? Free gift, isn't it funny? It's redundant because by nature, a gift is what?

It's kind of free. So it's like saying a free, free gift. You know, it's like, it's redundant. It's like in Sunday school, it adds emphasis. God is emphasizing, it's not only a free gift, it's a free, free gift, you see?

So not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one, that would be Adam, the first Adam. If through the offense of one, many are dead, much more through the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, that has abounded unto many.

Notice it doesn't say to all. It's abounded to many. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. So the second thing I see about grace here in scripture is that grace, by definition, is a free gift given to us by the Father through the death of his son on our behalf.

And by this, we are justified. What does that mean? We're made right in front of God. The third thing I see about grace is grace is totally separate from and distinct from works as it operates toward our regeneration, with regard to regeneration.

Now, I don't mean to say that if we're saved by faith that there won't be work connected to it like the book of James teaches. The very salvation has many effects. It changes how we live. And that's what most of Romans 6 is about, that change in how you live right.

So I'm not saying they're not connected in that sense. But they're totally separate in the sense of how we get saved, how we are justified. They're not connected at all. In fact, in the Greek language it says there's a great gulf between faith and works.

Like here's a mountaintop that's works, salvation. Here's a mountaintop that's salvation by faith alone. And there's a great valley in between. They are not connected in any manner. And so I see that they're totally separate and that is the definition of grace.

And I find that Romans chapter 11, verse five. It says, even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There is a small group of the human race elected or chosen to be saved.

And verse six says, and if it's by grace then it is no more works. Otherwise grace is not grace. But if it's works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise work is not works. So the very Bible definition is it can't be both.

It's one or the other. And it teaches us, it concludes very clearly that it's by grace, it's the free gift that we're saved. And that very passage there ends with this. Some of the most beautiful language ever written in all of the word of God.

It says, after it talks about that grace can't be mixed with works and works can't be mixed with grace, it's just grace, you're saved as a free gift. Listen to how it ends right after that. All the way down to verse 33.

It says, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. See, this is not a human concept. That's why humans don't like it.

It doesn't feel fair to a human that your works don't play any role in whether you go to heaven or not. It doesn't seem fair. But the human doesn't understand that he's so totally lost that he can't be saved by works.

His works are filthy in front of a holy God. He doesn't understand that. So he thinks it's not fair. And yet the scripture says, this is the very depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God that created this concept of salvation by grace.

How unsearchable are God's judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of God or who hath been his counselor? You're gonna tell him how to save people. You don't like the idea of predestination, election, all these things God did.

So you're gonna tell him a better way to save people. You know, I know moms don't like it. Predestination is a very difficult concept for women at first, when they first hear it. And they'll come to me and say, well, I don't, you know, I've got five kids and you're telling me I can't know if they're all gonna be saved.

Think about that, gentlemen. Don't you think that would be harder on a mom? It should be hard on the dad too, but it's harder on the mom. And what I try to explain to moms is very simply, I say, okay, think with me here.

Just think. Use this right here, not your heart. Use your head. Think about this. So what are you telling me that you wish God had made it so that you have to live such a perfect, marvelous life in front of your kids?

They'll get saved because of your perfect, marvelous life. And if you screw up, they're going to hell. You'd rather it be that way. Or would you rather it depend on a loving, all-knowing God? And they'll always look and say, okay, I see your point.

It's not my point. That's the next thing I'll say. It's not my point. It's how the Bible teaches it, but now you see the wisdom of it, right? So look at this. So his mind, the mind of God, who can be his counselor and tell him how to do things?

You can't find out the wisdom of God. I'm not saying humans will like it, especially if they don't know anything about the Bible. They're not gonna like it. And verse 35 says, oh, or who has first given to God, and then it's gonna be repensed again back to him.

In other words, who among you thinks you can actually give God something? He gives us everything. We can't have anything to give him because he owns everything. Who thinks you're gonna help him by being, say, giving a consecrated life to him so that he'll save you?

That doesn't help God. God doesn't need your consecrated life. He wants you to sit on his lap because you love him. That's what he wants. He knows you're not perfect. Listen, he made you that way on purpose.

He said it was no accident that he put this great, beautiful creation, this new man, new woman that you are, in an earthen vessel. It means an imperfect body that we live in, and he did it so that he would be glorified, the Bible says.

So it doesn't surprise God. It's God's plan. And the wisdom of it, man cannot see the depth of it. Man cannot understand the wisdom of God nor the knowledge of God, nor why his judgments are like they are because the Bible says they are unsearchable, and his way is beyond finding out.

So don't expect your friends to just accept what you tell them the Bible says at first glance. They've got many years of study to do from where they are to get where you are sometimes. You're not gonna do it in five minutes.

I usually tell them that. Well, I can't explain that to you in three minutes, sorry. You know, come to my house, spend the next week with me, and we'll talk about this issue if you want to. And I'll smile at them when I say it, but it's absolutely the truth.

And he goes on and says, or who is first given to God? Verse 36 says, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Kind of puts it where it has to be, doesn't it?

God is the sovereign. The fourth thing I see about grace is found in 1 Corinthians 10 .30. And that is that grace means freedom from a list of man's rules. And that's a big one. Grace means freedom from a list of man's rules.

1 Corinthians 10 .30, for if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? So Paul's saying, look, if I'm saved by faith, why are you speaking evil of what I'm eating at my table?

Like you want me to eat only certain meats and not eat other meat, and you're speaking evil of me? And why do you do that if we all now know that we're saved by grace, not by the law? Great question. So grace means freedom from a list that man makes.

We know Paul's talking about that because the next verse says, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all of the glory of God. Don't tell me what I can eat and can't eat or drink.

Whatever you eat or drink, do it to God's glory. And if you can't do it to his glory, then don't eat or drink it. That's what he's saying. That's how grace works. It's not a list of rules. And then the fifth thing I see about grace is that it is by grace that we are saved.

There's no other mixture of works and grace. There's no other method. It's purely free grace by which we are saved by the promise of God, by the free gift of God, by the fact that it is not by our incomplete, ineffectual works of righteousness, but by his blood plus nothing that we are saved.

And all our good works, if we have any, all of them are an effect of the salvation, never the cause of it. That's the fifth thing that I see that grace teaches us. We see that so clearly in Ephesians chapter two, verse one.

Look at that with me. I'll slow down and give you time to turn to it because you'll go to sleep if you don't do a little work. When you think about grace, there's not much better place to look than Ephesians chapter two, verse one.

And following it says, and he has quickened, and sorry, and you hath he quickened. Now that means you has he brought to life. This is actually a one verse synopsis of the calling of the Holy Spirit, the effectual calling, when he comes to save you on that day when you were saved.

It says, and you has he brought to life who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, according to the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

So did you have free will or did you work according to what they moved you to do? So that's not free. You see, you're making choices, but they're all influenced. There is so much bad language in the church today.

And I'm not talking about cursing. There's that too, probably nowadays. I'm talking about just saying things that are absolutely not true. When we say we have free will, well, we need to be more precise than that because free means sovereign.

That means you have thoughts that are not influenced. You just think right things by yourself. That is not true. Look what it says in verse two. Before you got saved, it says you walked according to the course of the world and according to the prince of the power of the air.

That means the very things you thought and the things you did were according to Satan. And you thought it was free will because you thought those were your thoughts and you didn't realize there are demons and demonic spirits that put thoughts in your mind and you act according to them.

That's before you were saved. So even lost people don't have free will. And then after we get saved, we walk according to the Holy Spirit. That's not free will. We are a bond slave to God. We're a willing servant to the Lord.

Even Jesus said, look, I don't say anything that I haven't heard the Father say. Is that free will? No, it is not. I don't say anything I haven't heard the Father say. I don't do anything I haven't seen him do.

Is that free will? No, it's not. He acts according to a loving free will desire to be a servant to one who is called the Father. And that's exactly how he walked once he gave up heaven and came here. And that's how we walk.

So that's a misnomer. It doesn't mean though that we don't believe choices are important and that we're responsible for things because we are held responsible for everything we do. It's just that we have influences.

Among whom also, we all had our lifestyle and time passed. So all of us who are saved now, before we got saved, we lived like them. We walked according to the world system and Satan. Those two things influenced what we would do, and it mentions our flesh later.

The world, the flesh, and the devil influenced everything we did before we were saved. Among whom, you're just like these people were when they're lost, you were like that before you were saved, so was I.

And among whom also, we had our lifestyle and time passed according to the lust of the flesh, now it brings in the flesh, there's the third enemy. Fulfilling the desire of the flesh and of the mind, the fleshly mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as they are still today.

It's just that God saved us. So we're only saved by grace. It's not because we're better than they are. It's just merely because Jesus died in our place and God accepted that and so God sees us as if we're better than they are.

Isn't that great? He sees us as if we're as perfect as Jesus Christ. Because when he looks at us, he sees the perfection of Christ because we're in Christ and he is in us. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, now there's election, because he doesn't love the non-elect.

He loves those who he knew before the foundation of the world is who he loves. So God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherefore he loved us. Now if you look and see who the book of Ephesians is written to, you'll know who us is there.

It's not written to the world. It's written to the elect, to God's people. And it goes on and it says even when we were dead in our sins, he has quickened us together with Christ because by grace you're saved by the finished work of Christ.

So when Jesus came out of the grave, you were in him and you came out of the grave. That's called grace because it happened 2 ,000 years before you did a good work. You see that? It's so clear when you put the whole Bible together.

It's very, very clear what grace really means. He has raised us up together with Christ and made us to sit together in heavenly places. So not only when he came out of the grave 2 ,000 years ago were we in him and with him so that we now have a risen life, a resurrected life, but Jesus is seated in the right hand of heavenlies right now at the right hand of God and spiritually we're there too.

We're there too spiritually. And I mean you look at your position, tell me that won't help you live a better life. That's what all of Romans chapter six is. Look at your position, look at who you are, look what you own, look what God's given to you and what you now possess and think about it.