ROMANS 6:1-14 JUSTIFIED LIFE2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 6:1-14 Justified Life

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Alright, Romans chapter 6, starting in verse 1 says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Verse 5.

Verse 8, Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.

Verse 11, Verse 12,

that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

We continue in this awesome book, this letter by the Apostle Paul to the Romans, and he continues to explain the gospel message here in Romans chapter 6. Now for the past few weeks, we've been really looking at the subject of justification, where Paul has been teaching about the gospel, about salvation, that we are justified, that

And the idea of being justified, it means to be declared not guilty. That even though you and I are sinful by believing in Jesus, by being born again, we are declared not guilty. Even though we're guilty, we're declared not guilty. Richard had a funny smile. It makes me laugh. Okay. So we're declared not guilty, but then we're also declared righteous. That God declares us to be as righteous as Christ, as believers in Jesus Christ.

And so being justified means that we have right standing with God. And Paul went to great detail to make sure we understood that this happens by faith, not by works, not by us, you know, being religious or performing rituals. But he gave the example of Abraham. He gave the example of David to make sure that we understood that faith

And so it's according to grace.

It's not earned. It's not deserved. We can't work for it. We can't, you know, get it as something that God owes to us. But it's something that God does for us out of his own free will, out of his own goodness to us. He declares us not guilty and righteous. And so we've been talking about that for the past few weeks as we've been looking at Romans chapters 3, 4, and 5. Now,

Now as we go forward in Romans 6, 7, and 8, we're going to be talking about not justification, but sanctification. Now sanctification is a little bit different than justification.

justification results in sanctification. And so being sanctified is the result of being justified. Now the word sanctified, it means to be set apart. And the idea here of being set apart is being set apart from sin. So being removed from sin, but then also being set apart unto God. That is the idea of being dedicated to God and the things of God.

Now, being sanctified is not an instant thing, but it's a process. It's something that God develops in us over time. Justified is not a process. When you believe in Jesus, you are justified. It's done. You are declared not guilty. You are declared righteous. But being sanctified is different in that it's something that is developed.

And so as you understand being justified, as you understand justification, then you understand what we have in the gospel and what salvation is about. But then that produces in you

the cleaning up process. You've often heard it said, I'm sure, it's not that you clean up your life and then come to God, but that you come to God as you are and then He cleans up your life. That's the idea of sanctification, that God is cleaning up your life. He's removing you from sin and He's devoting you or setting you aside for the things of righteousness.

There will still be a struggle with sin. There will still be sin in our lives. But there's going to be a cleansing that's happening through the process of time as we walk with God. And so as we look at the first part of this subject of justification, here in Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 14, I've titled the message, Justified Life. Because this is Paul beginning to describe the life that results from

from being justified. What's the result? What does it impact us? How does it impact us being justified, being set apart, being delivered from sin? And so there's three steps that I'll highlight here to have a justified life, to live life in response to what Christ has done for us. And the first step is found in verses one through seven, and that is know that you were freed from sin.

To live the justified life, the life that you are given by Christ, by what he accomplished for you, the first step, the first thing to do is to know that you were freed from sin. Let's look again at verse 1. It says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

So Paul is continuing on the thoughts he was discussing back in Romans chapter 5. And in Romans chapter 5 verse 20, if you want to just look back a couple verses...

Paul was explaining that the law entered, that offense might abound, but that sin, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. And so we spent some time looking at that last week. There is more grace than there is offenses. There's more grace than there is sin. So we never have to worry about running out of God's grace or sinning so much that there's not enough grace. There's always more grace than there is sin.

I like the way that John Corson described it. He said, worrying that you've run out of grace is like worrying that a little guppy can swallow the ocean. You know, it's just not going to happen. There's way more grace than there is sin. So no matter how much we have ever sinned, grace abounds much more. So that was the point that Paul made in chapter 5. But then he goes on to ask the question, so what shall we say?

Should we continue in sin that grace would then abound? Now this word, to continue in sin, it's speaking of a lifestyle. It's a continuing habitual sin. So it's not a continuing in the sense of you might sin, you know, occasionally or here and there, but it's a deliberate willful choice to live in a state of sin or live in a sinful lifestyle.

And so should we just live a sinful lifestyle because where sin abounds, grace abounds much more? And so, hey, if you want more grace in your life, then just live a sinful life and you'll get more grace. That's the question that Paul is asking. Should we do that? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now, some people do say that.

They have the attitude. They might even say openly, you know, hey, I sin, but who cares because there's grace. And so there's this deliberate choice to sin, but it's under this umbrella of, well, hey, there's grace. So it doesn't matter if I sin or not. And so Paul is asking this question to clarify that that is not what he is saying. Back a few chapters in Romans chapter 3,

Paul was, you know, beginning the arguments and talking about justification. And he said, why not say, let us do evil that good may come. And then he says, as we are slanderously reported and some affirm that we say. So Paul was being accused of saying, hey, just live a sinful life because there's more than enough grace to cover your sin.

But Paul is making sure that's clear. That's slander. That's not what Paul is teaching. But that's what some people say Paul taught. And that is the attitude that some people have. Who cares about sin? Who cares? Why try to stay away from sin? Because there is grace. Now Paul is going to explain why we should care and why we shouldn't have that attitude. Starting in verse 2. He says, Certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Certainly not, he says. So should we just continue living a sinful life because there's abundance of grace? He says, no way. God forbid, certainly not. Paul is saying, if that is our heart, if that is our mentality, if that's our attitude, we have a total misunderstanding of grace and the gospel.

that that is a total misunderstanding of what the work of salvation is all about. And he goes on to explain, he says, how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? So we can't have this attitude or this idea that, hey, well, let's just live in sin because he says we died to sin. And so if we died to sin, well, how can we live in sin? When you are born again,

You believe in Jesus Christ. You receive him as your Savior and Lord. You're born again and you're given new life in Christ. And it also means that you died to sin. Last week we looked at Adam's family versus the family of Christ. Now when you transitioned from the family of Adam, you are a descendant of Adam. You inherited his sinful nature. Therefore you inherited death from

but when you believed in Jesus Christ and are born again, and you are then transferred into the family of God, the family of Christ, then there's a change that happens. And not only do you have this life, but you have this death to sin. So if you live in sin, or how shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? He's saying, you died to sin. How can you live in sin? Now,

It doesn't make sense when you understand that you died to sin when you became a believer in Jesus Christ. That would be you and me saying, I died to sin, but I live in sin. Paul's saying that doesn't work. If you died to sin, you died to sin. If you died to sin, you don't live in sin.

Now, some take it even further and say, I died to sin, so I live in sin. That is, I'm just going to continue sinning that grace may abound. And Paul is saying, no, absolutely not. God forbid. No way. That's a total misunderstanding of grace and of the gospel. Now, why would you have this misunderstanding? Well, it could be that you haven't died to sin yet.

But it also could be that you do not know that you have been freed from sin. That's what Paul begins to look at in verse 3. He says, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? And so he says, you have this idea, you have this mentality. Let's just live in sin that grace may abound. How can you, you died to sin. How can you live in sin?

And so then he goes on to say, well, maybe you don't know. There's something you need to know that you don't know. And so he's going to explain to us. Maybe you think it's okay to live in sin because you don't know what the gospel really is all about. You don't really understand salvation. And so he'll explain that to us again to help us understand what we need to know. He says, as many of us, as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, we

were baptized into his death. Now, first things first, as we talk about this verse, you need to understand when he talks about baptism here, he's not talking about water baptism. So this isn't only, you know, applied to people who have actually been baptized in the water. This verse is true of every believer in Jesus Christ, whether or not you've been baptized. The word baptized just means to be immersed.

And it's used in a variety of ways throughout the scriptures. So there is the baptism of water, which describes a person being immersed in water. There is a baptism of the Holy Spirit, which describes a person being immersed in the Holy Spirit. There is a baptism of suffering, which describes a person being immersed, completely covered in suffering. But then there's also this baptism into Christ Jesus, right?

Now this baptism into Christ Jesus is another way to describe what takes place at conversion. It's another way to describe being born again, that you are immersed into Christ Jesus. Remember back in chapter five last week, we talked about two representatives. You have one or the other, Adam or Jesus, right?

Adam represented you. He represented me in the garden. And when he sinned, we all sinned. That's what Paul explained in Romans chapter five. So we sinned in Adam because he is our representative and we're part of Adam's family.

But when you are born again, Christ becomes your representative. And so you're part of his family. It's a new representative that you have. And so you then died in Christ. You died with Christ. He represented you on the cross.

And so as you are immersed into Jesus Christ, he is your representative. He is the one who, you know, took your place there upon the cross. He took my place on the cross. And so we are immersed into Christ. We become part of Christ. And like we were part of Adam when he sinned and direct recipients of the effects of that, we are part of Christ when he died.

was crucified and resurrected, and we become direct recipients of that and the work that that accomplished. And so we died in Christ. He says, as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, if you're born again, you're baptized into Christ Jesus. And so as many of you as are born again, as many as believe in Jesus Christ, he says, you have been baptized into his death.

you were included with him when he died upon the cross. And so we died in Christ. And that also means because he represents us that we resurrected in Christ. Look at verse four. He says, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death and

that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. So Paul is explaining here the practice of baptism is,

Like what we do, right? When a person is baptized, we dip them into the water. We immerse them into the water. They go down, they get fully covered, and then they get brought back up. That's what we do as we practice baptism. And he's saying, look, this baptism represents what actually happens when you are born again. He says, therefore, we were buried with him through baptism. So as you are going down into the water,

It's a representation of your death along with Christ there on the cross. As you are under the water, it's a representation of you being buried with Christ. And then as you're brought back up out of the water, it's a representation of you resurrecting along with Jesus as he resurrected. Now that's a spiritual reality. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you are baptized into Christ.

He becomes your representative so that you died with him, you were buried with him, and you were resurrected with him. So that Jesus received the death that I deserve. He's my representative. I died with him. But that also means that I was resurrected with him and that I have new life because he resurrected. Verse 5 says,

He says, for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. So if we were united with him in his death, which we were, then we will be united with him in his resurrection. And that's why at the end of verse four, he says that we also should walk in newness of life. There was a spiritual birth that took place when you believed in Jesus Christ.

And so you are to walk in this new life that is given to you as a believer in Jesus Christ. So you died to sin and you have new life in Christ. Without Christ, you and I are dead spiritually. We have no spiritual life at all. And in that condition, our sinful nature, we often refer to that as our flesh. Our flesh, our sinful nature, also known as the old man,

That rules our life. We are ruled by, dominated by our sinful nature. But when we are born again, we have this new life.

The spiritual life begins. And where spiritually we were dead before, now we have spiritual life. And that also means that there is a death that occurs to our old nature, our sinful nature. Check out verse 6. He says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

So as we believe in Jesus and have this new life, it also means a death takes place. A death to our old nature, our sinful nature. And so Paul says, our old man was crucified with him. Our old man was crucified with Jesus Christ.

As Jesus received the death that I deserve, he's crucified on the cross. My sinful nature was there crucified with him because he is my representative. And so what happened to him happens to me as I believe in Jesus. And so I died with him. My sinful nature was put to death on the cross. So our old man was crucified with him.

For what purpose? He goes on to say here in verse 6, that the body of sin might be done away with. So I'm included with Christ in his crucifixion so that the body of sin, that's my body, my sinful nature might be done away with. Now, the final deliverance from sin will be in eternity. Until eternity, we will still deal with sin in our lives.

There's still going to be struggles with sin. There's still going to be temptation. We're still going to fall. There's still going to be those types of things. But what Paul is explaining here is that right now there is a deliverance from the power of sin. So even though the presence of sin hasn't been completely eliminated, sin has been given a death blow. It hasn't experienced the full death yet. My sinful nature, it's still there.

but the power has been taken away. He says that the body of sin might be done away with. The word translated done away with, it means to be rendered idle, to be unemployed, to be inactive. Jesus died upon the cross, and as I believe in him, he's my representative, my sinful nature also was crucified with him. So that my sinful nature is,

has been, well, it's been made unemployed. It's been rendered inactive. It's been paralyzed is another way to look at it. Paralyzed. So it's still around, that sinful nature, but it doesn't have the power that it used to have. And this is what you need to know. That's

The power of sin, the power of your sinful nature has been broken. It's been paralyzed. It's been unemployed or rendered inactive. So that, the end of verse 6 he says, we should no longer be slaves of sin. Without Christ, I'm a slave of sin. I don't have a choice in the matter. I am ruled by my sinful nature. But in Christ...

As a believer in Jesus Christ, my old man, my old and sinful nature is crucified with Christ so that that body of sin is rendered inactive and I'm no longer a slave of sin. Now, some people don't know this. And that's what Paul is saying here. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He says, no way, God forbid.

But some people continue in sin. They live in sin because they don't know that the power of sin has been broken. They don't know that they've been freed from slavery to sin. And so they continue to sin thinking, I'm still a slave to sin. I have to do what my sinful desires, you know, demand. I have to do what my sinful nature craves. And Paul is saying, here's what you need to know. You have been freed from sin.

You're not a slave to sin any longer. Not like you used to be. Before you had no choice, but now you have a choice. Again, verse seven, he says, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Have you died? But you might say, well, no, I'm here this evening because I'm alive. I have breath. But Paul is not talking about your physical death. He's talking about a death to your sinful nature that is accomplished for every believer in

When you are born again, when you believe in Jesus Christ, and as you are born again, as you have this conversion, you're given spiritual life and there's this death blow to your sinful nature. Now, the old man doesn't have the power that he used to have. The sinful nature doesn't have the power. You're no longer a slave, but you know that old master still gives you commands and

That old master still speaks to you as if you were a slave. And the old master says, you must give in to sin. You must engage in this activity. You must do these things. You have to. And so there's these demands that your body makes.

There's these demands that your sinful nature gives as if it was still in command, as if it was still the master. But you need to know you are not a slave any longer.

Those desires might still be there. Those cravings might be there. Those demands of your body might still be there. But you need to know as a believer in Jesus Christ, you are not a slave any longer. Know that you were freed from sin. This is the first step to living the justified life. That the gospel would manifest itself in the way that you live. You need to know that you've been set free.

As you understand the doctrine that Paul's been talking about, the doctrine of justification, the representation of Adam representing you in the garden, Jesus representing you on the cross, as you understand what it means to be justified, that it's received by faith, not by works, not by earning it, not by deserving it, as you understand these things, also learn, also understand that it means then,

that you've been set free from sin. Paul says, not everybody knows this. And so they continue to live in sin. But you don't have to live in sin. Again, in verse three, he says, or do you not know? Maybe you don't know. And if you don't know, then, well, you need to understand. You need to learn. You need to know that you have been set free. And then in verse six, he says, knowing this, old man was crucified with him.

So step one to living the justified life is to know you are freed from sin. You are not a slave any longer. You were at one time and the body, the sinful nature gave demands, gave commands, and you had no option but to give in, but to obey those desires and cravings. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, you are not a slave any longer.

Well, step two now, as we continue on in verses eight through 11, step two to the justified life, to living out the gospel message is to believe that you are dead to sin. It's one thing to know that you are freed from sin, but you got to take it the next step and now believe that you are dead to sin. Now, what's the difference between knowing and believing?

Well, knowing is intellectual. It's understanding concepts. So you can read the doctrine of justification in Romans 3, 4, and 5, and you can understand those concepts, but then think, you know, that really doesn't apply to me. I understand what Paul's saying, but, you know, my case is different. My situation is different. I understand the concepts, but maybe that's not true for me. That's...

possible with just knowing these things. But to believe that you are dead to sin, it means to be convinced that it's the truth. Be convinced. Be fully persuaded. Now, if I were to blindfold you and then give you directions and say, okay, take two steps to your right. Take three steps forward. You could understand the instructions that I'm giving.

And you could say, well, I can't take three steps forward because I know that there's going to be a post in my way. And I can tell you there's no post in your way. You can take three steps forward. Now you can understand that. You can understand what I'm saying. But it's a whole other matter whether or not you believe that I'm telling you the truth. And so you could choose to act or not to act.

based on what you know and based on what you believe. So there's this difference. You can understand the concept. You understand the words. I'm not speaking an altogether different language to you. You understand it. But do you believe that I'm telling you the truth? We like to tease Adam a little bit as we're working around the church because he doesn't like ladders too much. Now, I know Adam well enough to know that he understands the concepts. It's safe. It's sturdy. He knows that.

But believing that he's going to be okay on the ladder is a whole different matter. He knows it. The concepts are there. That's solid. But knowing it and believing it is two different things. And so you might be able to look at the doctrine of justification and say, Paul, I understand what you are saying, but I'm just not certain that it's true. I don't know if I believe what you're saying. It's not that I don't get the concepts.

but I don't know if I believe it. And so that's why Paul continues on here to take it this next step. Not only do we need to know these things, but we need to believe these things. Check out verse eight. He says, now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

So if we died with Christ, that's the concept. That's what we've been talking about. Being born again, giving spiritual life, but also death to our sinful nature. Then he says, well, then we also believe that we will live with him. And so we know what has taken place. We know the concepts. We know what justification means and teaches us.

But then we need to believe the results of that. We need to believe the truth of that and what that means. Because if you died with Christ, that also means that you live with him. If he's your representative and he died upon the cross and was buried and resurrected, then when you believe in Jesus, you died, you were buried, and you are resurrected. So you also shall live with him.

Now this belief is not based on feelings. It's not based on just, you know, random things or whatever you might make up. Verse 9, he says, And so this belief is based on what we know. We know that Christ is raised from the dead and he dies no more.

Now this is unique to the resurrection of Jesus. You might remember Lazarus. He was a friend of Jesus. And the sisters of Lazarus wrote to Jesus and said, Hey Jesus, can you come? Lazarus is sick. He's your friend. Jesus delays a couple days. He gets there. The sisters say, if you were here, he wouldn't have died. And Jesus goes to the tomb. He tells them to roll away the stone. And he says, Lazarus, come forth.

And so Lazarus comes forth back from the dead. We might refer to that as a resurrection. But it's more of a revival than a resurrection or a resuscitation than a resurrection. Because later on, Lazarus would die again. He was given life, but he would also have to die again. And Paul is saying here in verse 9, this wasn't the case with Jesus. He didn't die again.

and then resurrect, and then later he had to die again, and then he's going to be resurrected, and then die again, and be resurrected. No, he died once and for all. He dies no more. He resurrected to never die again in a new glorified body. He resurrected permanently. So death no longer has dominion. He's broken the power of death as well as the power of sin. And so we can believe that we have life in Christ forever.

Because he continues to live. Now, if we believed that we have life in Christ, but he still wasn't alive, it'd be a foolish belief. That doesn't make any sense. To believe you have life in someone who has already died, that doesn't make sense. But he rose again from the dead. He resurrected. We celebrated that at Easter just a couple of weeks ago. We understand what Christ has done. And that as he resurrected, he rose again to never die again.

He will live for eternity. And so we believe that if we died with him, then we also have the same life that he has. It's eternal life. It's not life for a season. It's not life for a short time. It's eternal life because death no longer has dominion over him. Verse 10, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

So he died to sin once for all. Jesus died once. He didn't die over and over and over again. It was one sacrifice for sin. There on the cross, he paid the price for all sin, for all humanity, for all history, past, present, and future. All sin is paid for once and for all on the cross. Jesus died once and he died for all.

There's no person that Jesus did not die for. There's no one that is not given this opportunity of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. He died to sin once for all, but then he also resurrected. And so the life that he lives, he lives to God. He's alive. And the life that he lives, he lives to God. What does that mean that he lives life to God?

Well, you could look at it in a couple ways. You could look at it, and I think all are true. Number one, you could think about that Jesus lives to fulfill the Father's will, just like he lived on earth to fulfill the Father's will. He told the disciples, my food is to do the will of the Father. Jesus lives to fulfill the Father's will. But I think also him living to God speaks of his perfect relationship with the Father.

Do you remember in John chapter 17 where Jesus prayed there in the garden? It was his kind of final check-in with the Father before he went to the cross. And he said to the Father to glorify him with the glory that he had before the foundation of the world. The idea being that Jesus, being with the Father in glory from eternity...

humbled himself, became a man, died upon the cross for us. He's about to go back to the Father. And so he says, glorify me with the glory I had with you from the very beginning. He's returning to glory. He lives in this perfect relationship with the Father. He returned to that place of being at the right hand of the Father. This perfect relationship, this restored glory. Now, Jesus is our representative here.

Having died on the cross for us, having been buried, having been resurrected, that means we died with him and were buried and are resurrected. Paul then goes on in verse 11 to say, So he says,

So as you think about what Christ has done, he died once and for all. He lives everlasting. He lives to God in perfect relationship with the Father. He lives to do the Father's will, to be pleasing to the Father. In the same way, likewise, he says, here's what you need to do. Reckon yourself to be dead to sin. This word reckon, it means to count, to compute, or to calculate things.

Do some calculations. Do the math. Jesus is your representative. What happened to him happened to you as a believer in Jesus Christ. Christ died to sin and he lives to God, which means you died with him and you live with him. And that means that you died to sin and that you live to God. So reckon this. Do the math. Do the calculations and believe this.

that you are dead to sin. It's not enough to just understand the concepts. It's not enough just to understand the doctrine. Do you believe that you are dead to sin? Do you believe that you are alive to God? Step one to living a justified life is to know that you are freed from sin. Understand the concepts. Understand the doctrine. Know what the Bible teaches about this. But now step two.

is to then take it yet further and believe that you are dead to sin. Be convinced. Fully trust. This is the truth that you can count on. You can rest assured. You can bank on it. You can stake your eternal life on this truth that you are dead to sin as a believer in Jesus Christ. And you are alive to God. That you are alive to please God.

to fulfill the Father's will, you are alive in perfect relationship with the Father because you are a believer in Jesus Christ. When the doctrine of justification impacts your life, this is what it looks like. You know that you're freed from sin and you believe that you are dead to sin, that you no longer have to obey the cravings and desires of your sinful nature.

Again, I'm not declaring and I'm not trying to say that we will live perfect lives, but that we will not continue in the lifestyle, in the habit, in the pattern of sin. That there's going to be a cleansing that's taking place. There's going to be a removing of sin in our lives. Now there's a lot of sin in our lives. And so this process is going to last for the rest of our lives. And sometimes sin that was removed...

Well, as God's working on other areas, we find that that sin comes back in. And so there's this ongoing process of cleansing. But it happens, number one, as we know that we're freed from sin. And then number two, that we believe that we're dead to sin. And as we take these two steps, God's doing this cleansing work in us. As we know the truth, as we believe the truth. But finally, step number three, found in verses 11 through 14 says,

Here's how to live the justified life. Present yourself alive to God. Present yourself alive to God. Verse 11 says, And you're like, wait a minute, we already read verse 11. Yeah, I'm reading it again. It's worth reading again.

Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. Believe that, but then also believe that you are alive to God in Christ Jesus. If Jesus is your Lord, you're alive to God. You have life in Christ and it's the same as the life that Christ has. So be convinced, fully trust. You are dead to sin and you are alive to God. Just as Jesus has perfect fellowship with God,

You have perfect fellowship with God. Believe that. That is the truth. Just as Jesus lives to fulfill the Father's will, you have life so that you can fulfill the Father's will. And then he builds on that in verse 12, saying, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts.

Therefore, since you died with Christ, since you have life with Christ, therefore, he says, do not let sin reign. Do not let sin reign. This command, it is a command. Do not let sin reign. It's a command. It can only be given to a believer. This command cannot be given to an unbeliever.

Because an unbeliever is still a slave of sin. An unbeliever has no choice. Without Christ, I have no choice. I am a slave of sin. I will live in sin. And my life will be full of sin because I'm a slave to it. But as a believer, my old man was crucified with Christ. And so my sinful nature has been paralyzed. It still can bark out commands.

But I get to choose whether or not I'm going to obey. And so Paul says, do not let sin reign. Or in other words, if sin reigns, it's because you let it. It's not because Christ isn't powerful enough. It's not because the cross wasn't effective enough. It's not because Christ isn't alive. It's not because of any deficiency in the gospel.

in the power of God, in the blood of Jesus Christ, if sin reigns in my life, it's because I allow it. And again, I'm talking about the lifestyle of sin. I'm not talking about individual sins. We will fall into sin. We will have areas of struggle with sin. That's always going to happen. But that willful, deliberate choice to live in sin, if that happens, it's because you made a willful, deliberate choice to live in sin if you've believed in Jesus Christ.

Do not let sin. You have a choice. You may not feel like you have a choice, but that's why we walk by faith and not by sight. You have a choice. Do not let sin reign. He says that you should obey it in its lusts. Yeah, you're going to have those lusts.

The word lust, we often associate it with just sexual temptation, but lust, it means a strong craving. You're going to have strong cravings. You're going to have strong, powerful urges, great desires. You're going to have these desires to sin because the old man is still giving the commands as if you were still a slave. But what you need to know and then what you need to believe is that you get to choose whether or not to obey.

You don't have to obey. You may feel like you have to obey, but you don't have to obey. You get to choose. So do not let sin reign. Make that choice. Present yourself alive to God. Verse 13, he says, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

So notice this choice that Paul is declaring here. You get to present yourself to one or the other. You can present yourself as instruments of unrighteousness. And so here are these hands and these hands are presented to do sinful activity. Here are these lips and these lips are presented. Go ahead, be free to do sinful things. Here are these eyes, here are these feet. You get the idea. Paul says, don't present your members unrighteously.

In other words, don't volunteer for sin. Hey, there's sin going on over there. All right, sign me up. Don't do that, Paul says. Don't volunteer. Don't present yourself as if you are still unrighteous. Your members are not members of unrighteousness. So don't let sin dominate you and dictate what you do and when you do it. Instead, he says, volunteer to serve God.

don't volunteer to sin but he says present yourselves to god as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness and so you say okay these hands lord i'm giving them to you here they are lord i want to devote these hands to do the things of god and lord here's these lips i'm going to give them to you and i'm going to devote these lips to speak the things of god

And here's these eyes and here's these feet. And that's what Paul is saying. Make that choice. Present yourself alive to God. As you know that you are freed from sin, as you believe that you're dead to sin and alive to God, now live that out. Present yourself alive to God. Give yourself to God and give your members to the things of righteousness and to the things of God.

He says in verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Sin shall not have dominion over you. You don't have to be ruled by it. If you're ruled by sin, Paul is saying it's because you present yourself to sin. You give yourself to that, but you can give yourself instead to the things of God. And so give yourself to the things of God instead of the things of sin.

David Guzik puts it this way, the old man is dead and there is new life free from sin in Jesus. Yet many Christians never experience this freedom because of unbelief, self-reliance, or ignorance. He says many Christians never live in the freedom that Jesus paid for on the cross. You might not know, and so you might just continue in sin. But Paul says, know this, learn, understand what the gospel means.

and then make the choice. Believe the truth of it and then live it out. I haven't told this story for a while, so some of you probably have not heard it, and I'm sure some of you have heard it, but it's really appropriate to help us consider this idea. It was a long time ago. Pastor Tom was still the pastor here. I was a young teenager, and we went on this ride in Mexico, a 50-mile bike ride,

from Rosarita to Ensenada. And so it's an annual thing that happens. We don't go anymore. I got crazy and fleshy and all that kind of stuff. But a long time ago, it was just good clean fun. And so we would do this long bicycle ride. Now, it was a big thing. And so as we drove down to Mexico, we hit a lot of traffic at the border because everybody was coming down for this race. Thousands and thousands of people participated in this race.

And so it took several hours to cross the border. Now, normally that wouldn't be such a big deal, except for before we left, I packed up my gear, I left my house, and I went to Carl's Jr. And I sat down, I had some lunch or dinner there at Carl's Jr. I got a 32-ounce Dr. Pepper, and I drank it as I ate my meal. And then as I usually do,

I finished the drink before I finished my meal. And so I went and got a refill, finished my meal and finished my drink. And then I got another refill to just keep me company for the journey from Carl's Jr. to Pastor Tom's house. So at this point, I'm drinking 32 ounces, 32 ounces, 32 ounces. Then we go to Pastor Tom's house and we pack up all the vans. There's a couple of us going, so we're caravaning down. And before we head out, of course, we got to stop at A&P. Yeah.

And so we stop at AM/PM and I think, you know, I haven't had enough soda today. And so I go get a 44 ounce of Dr. Pepper there at AM/PM. So 32 ounces, 32 ounces, 32 ounces and 44 ounces. Doing some rough math in my head, I think that's like 140 ounces or so of Dr. Pepper that I've consumed just before and on this journey to Mexico. So as we're on the freeway, we're headed down the 15

I start to feel this feeling. There's a little bit of pressure building. And I realize, you know what? I'm going to need to use the restroom. And then we hit traffic because it's going to take several hours to cross the border. I wasn't expecting that. Never anticipated that. But here we are sitting in traffic. We've already been driving for a couple hours and I'm dying. I'm thinking, oh my goodness, we're barely moving. We haven't even passed the last exit yet.

We're still in traffic. We've got a long ways to go. This is going to be ours. I was really starting to hurt. But I'm doing my best because I don't really want to wet my pants in front of everybody, right? You understand that. There's nowhere to go. You're stuck on the freeway. And so I'm just like, I'm just dying. And I'm just, and then Tom Holman sitting next to me starts to notice, hey, something wrong. I'm like, I got to go to the bathroom so bad. He's like, yeah, you're turning white. And I'm like clenching my knuckles. And I'm like, just like,

doing everything I can because I don't want to do that right there in the van in front of everybody. I mean, how embarrassing, right? And so I'm trying my hardest. But then another hour passes. And I'm just, we're still in traffic. And I'm just dying. And I'm just thinking, there's just no way. And it's now really painful to hold that in. And I'm really struggling with this. And then another hour passes. And it takes us about three hours to cross the border. After the first hour, someone said, well...

you know that 44 ounce cup that you had, it's empty now. So maybe you could use that and that would maybe relieve some pressure. And I said, no way, no way am I going to do that. No way, uh-uh, no how. But then another hour passed and I was like, okay, well, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, maybe, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't, no, no, no, not going to happen, no. But then another hour passes, we're still in traffic. There's no end in sight.

And so finally, I jumped into the back of the van of the people behind us because there was just two people in the front. There was nobody in the back and relieved some of the pressure. What's the point? Here's the point. I held on a whole lot longer than I would have ever thought was possible. My body was telling me, you have to give in. You have to just let it go right now. I mean, you can't hold on any moment longer. But then I held on for another hour. And my body screamed louder. And I had to hold on for another hour. Listen. Listen.

The old nature, the sinful nature will make those demands and it's going to scream and it's going to feel like you have to and you have to and you have to, but you can hold on a whole lot longer than you think. Sin does not have to have dominion over you. You do not have to give in. You can resist. You've been set free. Know that and believe that and then live it out. Present yourself alive to God.

As you feel that pressure, as you feel it build, and the more you resist, the more pressure it is. The more you resist, the louder the flesh yells. But you can resist. That power has been broken. And so present yourself alive to God, the justified life. You can experience what God intends by the gospel. You can experience it.

You're not the exception. Like, well, everybody else, you know, of course, Pastor Jerry could live that because, you know, he wasn't raised in the way that I was raised and he didn't experience what I experienced and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not saying I live this out perfectly either. Okay. But, but every believer can experience the justified life. You need to know it. You need to believe it. And then you need to do it. Know that you've been set free. Believe that you are dead to sin.

And then present yourself alive to God. Don't let sin reign. Don't just give in to the temptation. Don't just give in to the cravings. Don't just give in to the desires. Instead, turn that around. And it's a good idea to kind of replace. So whenever you have that sinful craving, then engage in things related to God. Present yourself alive to God.

And say, here I am, Lord. Take these hands. Take these feet. Take these eyes and ears and lips. And engage in the things of God. I'll finish with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. He says, God has so changed your nature by his grace that when you sin, you shall be like a fish on dry land. You shall be out of your element and long to get into a right state again. I know that feeling. I don't know if you know that feeling. I'm sure you do.

God's changed you. And so living in sin is like a fish out of water. He says, You might be foolish. You might try it, but it'll never satisfy you. You'll not get the pleasure from it. It might be fun for a season, but it will not satisfy. It's not going to work because you've been changed. Know it. Believe it.

and then live it out. Ronnie's going to close this in a couple of worship songs. And as he does, I would encourage you, do business with God. Whatever's happening in your heart, as he's speaking to you, respond to him. If he is speaking to you about knowing the truth, you need to understand these concepts better, then call out to him and ask for him to bring clarity to these things. If he's speaking to you about believing, then

Well, like Jake was teaching on Sunday morning, we can cry out like that man and say, I believe, but help my unbelief. And if you struggle with really believing that these things are true for you, then call out to God and say, help my unbelief. I know what you say. I understand the concepts, but it's so hard for me to believe that that's true for me, that you've done that for me. Call out to God. Ask him to help you to believe. And also during these songs, I would encourage you,

to look for God to give you direction on how to live these things out. How can you present yourself alive to God? How can you engage in the things of righteousness so that you don't continue to live in sin? As you're spending this time with the Lord, allow God to work in your heart. But also, I want to give you the freedom, if God puts it upon your heart to minister to someone around you, to pray for them,

to share a scripture, to encourage them in something, maybe to encourage them in these truths that we're talking about this evening, then feel free, go ahead. I know we are a little self-conscious because there's the rocks and moving around, but that's okay. Don't even worry about that. If God puts on your heart to minister to somebody, then do it. Pray for them, encourage them as God prompts your heart. And if you're wondering, I don't know, hey, present yourself alive to God and say, okay, Lord, I'm here. I'm alive to you to do your will,

So if you want to use me to minister to somebody else, take these hands, take these feet, take these lips, and use them for your glory. Let's worship the Lord and allow Him to continue to minister to us. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.