Living Free From Sin Romans 6:1-14 Assoc. Pastor Sam Holm 10/12/2014

Living Free From Sin Romans 6:1-14 Assoc. Pastor Sam Holm 10/12/2014 [Guest Speaker, from Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas] Good morning, church. Actually, I grew up in a Bible church so I have a lot of Bible in me. I didn t know that could go both ways. Your church has actually impacted my life. I grew up going to Pine Cove and that is how I got to know Matt and I have watched him open the Word of God and let God speak through the Word in his mouth to me. God has impacted me that way. I also was mentored for two years by one of your former pastors, Jim Rose. Were any of you here when Jim Rose was here? He is one of the major reasons that I am now in the church ministry and not in the camping ministry. He pushed my wife and I out of camp and into church. He has impacted my life. But I have also know many in your congregation who have been part of camp, watching the love of God in and through their lives which has encouraged my walk with Christ. Dayna, now married to Jeremiah, your youth pastor, we went to college together and we watched as God has used the Ebelings lives here. You have also impacted my life. Last week, and this is why I was prompted to start my time with this, we had an event at our church where we were hosting a large ministry for a fund raising event. The keynote speaker was Carlos Sepulveda, the president and CEO of Interstate Batteries for about 15 years, until a few years ago. If you know anything about what Interstate has done, standing up for their faith in the business community, it has really impacted our culture in a lot of ways. He talked about going to college at the University of Texas in Austin and being part of this church, which changed his life. Here is what I want you to hear, just as a guy who gets to go stick his head in another church, you have impacted my life and I have never lived in Austin. I am a hick from the Piney Woods of East Texas. But God has chosen to work in and through your lives this is what the body of Christ gets to do to change the world. If you have invested here with your time, your talents, and with your resources, you are investing in what God is doing around the world through this church. It is crazy to me to think about. It is a joy and I am humbled and honored to be here. If you have a Bible with you, turn with us to Romans 6. I am going to give you an illustration to lead us into that time. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 1 of 10

Wedding Illustration I stood up in front of a church eight years ago and got married. If you have had that day, you know it is a big day. If you have not had that day, you have probably thought about that day and looked forward to that day. Why? Because entering that relationship with that person, you think is probably going to change your life, maybe more than any other relationship with a person, if you are a Christian other than Christ, obviously. You have anticipated that day. This is what happened on that big day for me. I got with my friends in the back right before the service and we started to pray. All of a sudden, I started getting emotional, thinking about this time. This is not good; I am the man. I need to get out there and stand firm and have her come forward and I say; Yes, I love you I will I do. And we can get married. That is what I am thinking but I am starting to get emotional, like this is not good. More pictures were probably taken of me that day than any other day of my life. These are going to hang on my wall and so I need to keep it together. I got up front and I was looking at people and I felt like I was holding it together and smiling at all the people who love me. The doors open and, boom, there is my bride. She starts walking; she is cute and I love her very much. The anticipation of our getting to be together in a relationship for the rest of our lives is overwhelming. She is walking down the aisle and I start feeling the tears come. Like, I am emotional. She walks up front and we turn to face the pastor, which is a good thing because I think I can get it together again. I thought I had somewhat gotten it together again until we turned to face each other. The pastor says: Okay, Sam, repeat after me. He said, I Sam take you Rebecca and this is what happens. [His voice goes up in octaves and slurred speech as he cries.] There was nothing audible. This is bad. Not only am I losing it here but these words are really important to come out right. I am losing it. Through the whole vows until the pastor got to the part where he says: With this ring I thee wed. I said: (crying) With this wing, ring, I thee wed. Everybody heard wing including my wife. So, when Rebecca said her vows, she actually said wing also so this is my wedding wing. God, in His sense of humor, as I was entering into this relationship did not just allow tears to come from my eyes but also from my nose. I don t know another time I was this emotional, even though I was in a happy state. But the viscosity of these tears (from his eyes) are different from the viscosity of these tears (from his nose). I don t know if you have noticed that. These tears (from his eyes) would go down to the chin and just drip off. This tear (from his nose) did not. It was four o clock in the afternoon. We had a stained glass window behind us that was lighting up her veil, making her look even more like an angel, not helping my emotions. But little did I know, [I didn t know this thing (nose running) existed] the light behind us was also lighting up this radioactive string which was hanging below my arms. It is in the video. So it goes Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 2 of 10

down and it drips off at one point. Then it goes down and just hangs there for a while. My wife reaches up and grabs it during this exchange and throws it and we still don t know where it went. Love. * * * Here is what I want you to see. Our relationship with God, number one parallel in Scripture, is God the Father. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is our Groom and we are His Bride. When we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we unite with Him in some kind of crazy, supernatural marriage. What you will see today is that marriage can and will, if you understand the power that your relationship with Jesus Christ has given you, change your life. It is not just: I believe and now, since penalty is done away with, and this is the Gospel, what Paul has said up to this point. In Romans 1 5, he said: I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of anyone who believes. He is very clear. Grace is said nine different times in Chapters 1 5; it is not what we do but what He has done that saves us. Jesus has saved us. Paul goes through Chapters 1 5 and says, because of what Jesus has done, what you have done can be taken care of. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Chapter 5, it starts with therefore, we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through whom we have gained access by faith unto this grace in which we now stand. So what Paul is going to do in Chapter 6 is talk to people who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus to forgive their sin and to justify them before God. I think for many of you in the room here, that is you. But maybe you have just placed your faith and trust in Jesus; you have fire insurance and you know I am supposed to come to church, then in your life, you are still struggling with the same sins that were there before. You are still in the flesh. You are falling and you are not living any different and you are thinking: Really, is this what this marriage with Christ is supposed to look like? At the end of Chapter 5, Paul says: It doesn t matter how much sin you have, we are just saying this. When sin increases, grace increases all the more to cover your sin. So some people think: Then, I guess I just keep living the way I was living. The more sin, the more glory to God. [Actually, Rasputin thought that.] Paul will attack that here and I want you to see watch the power in the words of Romans 6 for believers, for your freedom and your new life because of your relationship with Christ. Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? If more sin, more grace. Should we just keep sinning? 6:2 By no means! Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 3 of 10

In the original language, mee, mee it is two double negatives. Absolutely not! God forbid is the way the King James translates it. It is a very strong word. He is saying: Do not! Why? Watch. :2b How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you want to be transformed because of Jesus Christ? Pray with me. Father, I pray that the words today that are Your words, that You wrote through Paul, would impact our lives. In your own hearts pray right now and ask Him Maybe you don t even know Jesus potentially. I just want to invite you to open your hearts and your ears to what the Bible says about what Jesus offers to believers. If you do know Him, ask Him to help you understand what this relationship with Jesus does in and through you for His glory. I would also ask you to pray for me that my words would be accurate to the Bible and clear. We pray in Jesus name. Amen A. What we need to know So, what do we need to know in order to live free from sin as an authority? This is not a message that will say you can no longer sin period. You are never going to sin again. That is not what Paul is going to say. Actually, in Romans 7, he will say: I don t want to do what I do and I hate what I do. But Christ has set me free. I am not a perfect person. You are not a perfect person. But many of you here in this room are living under a sin issue, an addiction that is controlling you, a bitterness that you have not let go of, a habit that you can t get rid of. Paul is going to show you that through Jesus, that changes. Watch what he says. 1. The first thing you are going to need to know is that we are united with Jesus (vv. 3-5). Romans 6:3 Or do you not know He wants to make sure they know something. 6:6 we know that 6:9 we know that So, we will try to let Paul s outline be our outline. What is he telling us we need to know? We are united with Jesus. He is going to use baptism to illustrate this point. He is talking about sin as an authority being taken away. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 4 of 10

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? :4 Therefore we have been buried 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. :5 If we have become united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. This is the longest passage on baptism in the whole New Testament. I am not teaching about baptism. In fact, Paul is not. What he is doing is using baptism as an illustration so that you understand what happens when you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Baptism is an outward sign of what happened inwardly. This is what he reminds us of. You are united with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. You are with Him when He went to the cross. Jesus died to sin and He is risen again to live a new life and you are with Him. You are with Him. That is what baptism symbolizes. I have placed my faith and trust in Christ; I am now united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. Guess what? That means you get new life. How does that relate to sin? It relates to sin in a lot of ways but we read here on the screen out of Philippians 2. Philippians 2:10, 11 So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord It is saying that there is no power here that will not bow at the name of Jesus. Guess who you are with? When sin comes knocking at your door and says: Hey, let s go do this again you are with Jesus. John 4:4 Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. Growing up in high school, I was not a cool kid at all. If you are not a cool kid right now, hang in there; you will be a non-cool adult. It will be awesome. I was homeschooled up until junior high. In junior high and high school, I tried to play all the sports and that didn t work out but I don t know why. But there were a couple of guys in our school who were punks and they liked to pick on a few guys and I became one of the guys they wanted to pick on unless I had two guys who were big guys. I played first, second and left bench on the football team but I was on the team. When those two guys were with me, do you understand? When sin comes knocking at your door, you have to know that you are united to Jesus you are with Him. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 5 of 10

John 4:4 Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. 2. Second thing he is going to tell us to know is that we are no longer slaves to sin (vv. 6-8). Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him, Did you hear that? Your body of sin, your old self, what came from Adam in Chapter 5, what you were born into, we know that our old self was crucified with Him. in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing Literally, the word there is rendered inactive. It is basically taking the engine out of the car that is what Jesus has done. so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin; :7 for one who has died is set free from sin. I love it when Paul gives us the illustrations. He gave us baptism and now he is going to give us another one slavery. The most tragic part of U.S. history was slavery being legal at one point. Can you imagine? After the Civil War, a tragic thing happened and in some of the rural areas slave owners did not tell their slaves that they had been set free. No one came to tell them that they were free. For some of them, they lived in slavery for months or years. Paul is telling you, God is telling you through Paul, you are free. You are no longer a slave to sin. Why? Because you are united with Jesus. 3. The third thing is our relationship to sin that we now have through Christ is permanent (vv. 8-10). :8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, :9 for we know that Christ, being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. :10 For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. I love as you look at this passage, every time it refers to death in this passage, it is past tense for the Christian. Every time it refers to life in this passage, it is present and future tense because of Jesus. The death He died, he died to sin once for all; this relationship to sin is permanent. Again, I want to cheat and use his illustration here. Have you ever watched someone die? You will not forget it if you have, especially if it is someone close to you. I was in the room the last day my grandfather was alive, dying of lung cancer. I remember he was in hospice and I was watching him breathe. Maybe you have been around this and seen it before. [deep inhale and deep exhale] Then there was this long pause and all of a sudden [deep inhale and then exhale]. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 6 of 10

Then this long pause again [deep inhale] and we kept hanging on every breath. Why? Because we knew at one point there would be a last breath and he would die. Apart from the miraculous work of God, physically, not glorified body which he was getting, death for Christians is a different experience. We get to rejoice in it. But physically, he was not going to breathe again. He was going to die and that death was going to be permanent. Now, again, apart from the glorified body on resurrection day, here is what I want you to see. When Jesus went to the cross and He had His arms spread out and He cried out Tetelestai It is finished the penalty for sin was done away with and the power that sin could have over you was removed. When He breathed His last, it died. Isn t that crazy? This Romans 6 do you know this? We are united with Jesus and we are no longer slaves to sin and our relationship to sin (and this is all through Jesus) is permanent. Do you know that? B. What we need to do If you do, what do we need to do about it? Romans 6:10 this verse has really transformed my life. I told you before that I am not perfect. Even last night proved this. For my wife s birthday, she wanted tickets to an Aggie game so we bought tickets a long time ago for the Old Miss game, not knowing that they would move the time to 8:00 p.m. So, the A & M game started at 8:00 last night. We went to the game and had fun although we got killed. We drove back to Austin and got to our hotel about 1:00 a.m. We called ahead, making sure they had the room and that we would be getting there late. When we showed up, they were like: We are so sorry. We gave your room away. There were sinful thoughts in my mind. So we started calling around and hotels were booked up in Austin last night. It was the last night of the ACL. It took about 20 minutes before we found a room. Then we go to this hotel and walk in the room and the smell of stench hit us. We got to the other side of the bed and the whole floor had water on it. So we called the front desk: Did you know your AC is leaking? They said: No, we didn t but that is our only available room. We said: Okay, we will sleep here. At 6:00 this morning, the fire alarm started going off. I had some sinful thoughts. This does not mean I am free from sin. But what this does mean is that sin has no authority in my life. If I choose to live in what I know to be true, then I don t have to live there; I can say no more to that and I can walk with Jesus. I wish I could tell you I do it all the time. But what do we need to do. The first imperative command in the whole book of Romans is given here. To this point, all Paul has done is tell you your identity in Jesus, to tell you about what He has done because of what you have done. Your sin is taken Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 7 of 10

care of because of Jesus Christ. So you can say now that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Joy does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. (Ch. 5). He told us about our identity. 1. First thing we need to do (v. 11) Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin imperative command and it is an interesting command. What we must do (NIV) count yourselves literally, it is a realizing, logically considering, thinking of oneself this way. It is believing that this is now your identity. You may have heard that, yes, you were converted by grace through faith in Christ. You are also sanctified by grace through faith in Jesus. How do those two things go together? We believe He saved us from sin s penalty but we also must believe He saved us from sin s power if we are going to be sanctified or any different. You also must consider yourselves dead to sin. What does that look like? I want to show you the parallel he draws. If you have the NIV, you are reading in the same way count yourselves dead to sin. You also what is he paralleling our relationship to sin to? Look at verse 4: 6:4 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. Paul wants you to see that because of your relationship with Jesus, what He has done, not because of who you are, if you try to conquer the battle of sin on your own, you are going to fall every time. If you try to conquer the battle of sin with Jesus, believing in who He has made you to be now, sin has no authority in your life. I want you to say this with me: Sin has no authority in my life. It is because of Jesus, sin has no authority in my life. Do you believe it? Paul says: 6:11 You also must consider yourselves dead to sin, My wife in her journal when she was studying this passage back in college, she wrote this out: No temptation is too strong, no sin is too large, no stronghold too ingrained. We have been set free from sin and it is no longer our master! Believe it and claim it! I love it. You are free. The sentence does not with consider yourselves dead to sin, 6:11 and alive to God. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 8 of 10

So many people try to fight sin this way. So many people think: I am not going to think about lusting. I am not going to do it. Whoops, I just thought about it. I am not going to do that any more. Oh, I just did it again. --- Or, I am not going to think about gluttony, or Blue Bell [which is one of my issues; I know it doesn t look like it but I love Blue Bell]. Do you realize that focusing on not sinning is not all that God calls you to do, is it? The goal in our life is not to not sin. The goal in our life is to become like Him and it only happens through Him because we are with Him. What does he say? 6:11 Consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You are not just dead; you are alive. Sin is dead but Jesus is alive in you. Your body is with Him alive to God. What does that look like? Keep going and he is going to tell us. 6:12, 13 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies 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. Men, accountability for me in my life changed when my group stopped talking about what we were not going to do and we started talking about what is God leading us to do, and believing that we were alive to God and started holding each other accountable to righteousness. Guys, it will get sin out! Have you ever heard Idle hands are the devil s workplace? I am going to talk about two words that he said twice. One was instruments. He talks about the members of your bodies as instruments. The word instrument there can also be interpreted as weapon. My body is a weapon. Paul just told me so. But even though I don t feel like a weapon all the time, I am doing one of two things. I am either offering my body as a believer as weapons, as instruments for evil, for unrighteousness. You can fight for the wrong team. Don t do that! Look at your hands: I want you to say with me: My body is a weapon. My body is a weapon. -- Husbands, you can now look at your wives and say: My body is a weapon. It is. What are you doing with it? I know that through this church, you can have many opportunities to serve in this church, to serve outside of the walls of this church in Austin and even farther than that. If you so choose, this church can help you connect to ministry opportunities, if you don t know what to do for God. But I want to invite you into a relationship with God that is not just saying: Oh, I am sorry I messed up. But saying: God, what do You want to do with me today? That is going to defeat sin in your life. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 9 of 10

2. The second thing I want you to see is something he said twice. Offer do not offer (NIV) the parts of your bodies, or do not present (ESV) your members to sin, (6:13) or offer them as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to Him. So, what does that word present/offer mean? How do we do that? That word can also be interpreted as surrender. In your life, you are choosing to do one of two things: surrender your body to sin (which has no power over you) or offer yourselves, surrender yourselves to God and saying: Use me. ISIS, have you been keeping up with the news? It is tragic what is going on in the world right now. We have got to be praying that God would save, would overcome this evil that is happening. But here and now, on this stage, I am not currently threatened by ISIS. But I looked on line and I could get a ticket for $918, fly over to Turkey tomorrow. I could find a cab and try to get them to drive out there to the border. The taxi driver would probably not get me close but he could point me in the right direction and maybe I could find some military area and get up close. I could go knock on some door and say: I surrender! That would make no sense for me to do that, for something that currently is evil but it is not threatening my life for me to surrender my life to it. That is what we do as Christians. We have a defeated foe. If you are with Jesus, don t offer your body to sin. The last verse why? 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace. Since you are not under the law but you are under grace undeserved favor. It frees us from sin s penalty and sin s power. Pray with me. In your own hearts, I don t know what this looks like. Maybe you need to confess to Him sin that has power right now that you feel. You don t know what to do with it but you want to claim your new identity. So, you can confess that sin to Him; be open about it with Him. Then I want you to just tell Him: I am going to as best as I know how, Father, I am going to believe. I am going to consider myself dead to this sin as a power and I am alive to You. So show me what that looks like for Your glory. For sin will not have dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace. Living Free from Sin.Sam Holm.docx Page 10 of 10