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[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6. We are just making our way through this great book of Romans.

[0:11] We stepped out of it last week as we looked at the Christmas season. We looked at this Christmas story as found in the book of Luke chapter 2. But this morning I want us to get right back into the book of Romans.

[0:24] If you have not been here with us from the beginning, we have just been making our way from Romans 1.1. And we've got to this place now, we're in Romans 6.

[0:34] We're going to be in chapter 6 verses 1 through 11 this morning. Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 11. If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God found in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 6, starting in verse 1, reading down to the 11th verse.

[0:53] Paul writes to the church at Rome and he says this, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be.

[1:04] How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

[1:25] For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

[1:44] For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him.

[1:58] For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life that He lives, He lives to God. Verse 11, Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[2:12] Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank You so much for this day. God, we are so thankful for every opportunity we have. Lord, we rejoice in the chance we have to come and to worship.

[2:24] We rejoice in the chance we have to come to read Your Word. And we pray, O Lord, that Your Word would penetrate our hearts and minds. We pray that it would draw us closer to You, that the truth of it, Lord, would grip us.

[2:36] Lord, that it would transform us. And it would move us to a Christ-like character and a Christ-like life. And we ask it all in Jesus' holy name. Amen. You may be seated. We have been going through the book of Romans.

[2:48] And if you remember, when we introduced the sermon series, going through this book, we have stated that Romans is really the chief work of Paul.

[2:58] It is Paul writing to the church at Rome, a church which had never seen him personally, a church which he did not start. As a matter of fact, the church at Rome, we have no idea who founded the church at Rome.

[3:09] We don't know who the founding members were. We don't know who started it. We do know that it was neither Peter, James, John, Paul, or any of the other apostles. We do know that it was none of the significant men that we find in the book of Acts.

[3:22] It was probably a lay leader or an individual who had traveled from Rome to Jerusalem during the days of Pentecost, heard Peter preach his message on that Pentecost day, had believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, went back to Rome and took with him the gospel of Jesus Christ as he knew it.

[3:42] Understanding that at this time, the Bible was not yet in its formation, so the word of God was literally being transferred by word of mouth. And people were so excited about this truth which had gripped them and which they had come to understand that they could not help but tell other people about it.

[3:59] And from that, like-minded individuals would gather together and form what we would call a church. But Paul, being the apostle to the Gentiles as God had called him, bore a personal concern for every church.

[4:12] We read in his letters of the churches which he helped establish and his concern for those churches as he would write letters back to them correcting problems or encouraging them. Most of the letters we have of Paul are that very thing.

[4:26] 1 and 2 Corinthians correcting any number of problems that, well, if we were to be honest, if any of us seen the problems in the church in which we exist now that existed in the church at Corinth, we would leave.

[4:39] If we saw going on today the things that were going on when Paul wrote, we wouldn't want anything to do with that church. Only difference is, in Paul's day or in that church's day, it wasn't that you could go down the street and find another church.

[4:52] That was the church. And Paul understood that, so he would write and he would correct. We see this in the church at Ephesus in the book of Ephesians. We see it all over. Even when he wrote the letter to Philemon, it was addressing a church that met in his house.

[5:06] Romans is totally different. Romans is written to a church that did not know Paul, and Paul did not know them. Though they had heard of him and he had heard of them, he is writing to a church to kind of lay the foundation that if you are going to worship and if you are going to exist and if you are going to claim the name of Jesus Christ, these are the things you need to know.

[5:29] It is from reading the book of Romans that my life was radically changed. I personally came to faith in Jesus Christ through a personal study of reading the book of Romans. I was challenged by a pastor.

[5:40] I thought I knew that I was saved. I thought I was okay. I thought since I had done a number of deeds and a number of acts that I was okay. And at the age of 20, a pastor challenged me, he said, I just want you to read the word of God.

[5:52] I want you to go to the book of Romans and tell me what Romans says about salvation. And it was during those days that God began to work on my heart. Not only me, but there are a number of people throughout history that came to Christ in direct connection to the book of Romans.

[6:09] Martin Luther being one of the great ones. The Wesley brothers being others that would come to Christ through the book of Romans. What Paul does in the book of Romans is very unique to any other book.

[6:20] He lays out for us the foundational doctrines of our faith. What it is we believe and why we believe it. And if there is one thing that I think that is so important for believers in Jesus Christ today, and one thing that I encourage people to do, and one reason why I encourage you to get in the Bible, is know what you believe and believe what you know.

[6:44] We don't know how to defend our faith. We don't know how to proclaim our faith. And because of that, we are ashamed of our faith. We think, as so many others, that it is our personal faith and it is something that we will hold on to.

[6:58] Now, I'm not just categorizing us. I'm saying that as a whole, in American Christianity, illiteracy of the Scripture is probably at its all-time low, even in our churches. And it is not taught the way it used to be taught.

[7:10] And it is not preached the way it used to be preached. And I'll be the first to admit it, that the fault and the blame rests in the pulpit, not in the pew. Okay? I know where it stems from, and I know where it goes.

[7:21] So it is my responsibility, Ephesians 4, is to prepare you to do the work of the ministry. It is my responsibility to feed you. It is my responsibility to equip you to do those things. And then it is your responsibility to take that.

[7:33] And that's exactly what Paul is doing. He is equipping this church with the things they need. And the first thing he told them, this is the first thing that we all need to hear, and I'm kind of giving you a nutshell to bring us back to here, because we have to know where we've been before we can know where we're going, right?

[7:48] The first thing he told them, he took three chapters telling them how bad they were. He took three chapters saying that we all have problems. We're all messed up. We've all fallen short. There is none who does right. No, not one.

[7:59] Every heart is desperately wicked. The first three chapters in the book of Romans tell us that all men have fallen short of the glory of God. That the heart of man is just wicked, beyond all wicked.

[8:11] That though God has put himself on display, we push that aside and we seek after our own good. And because we are desperately wicked, not just pretty bad, but because we are desperately wicked, there's nothing that we can do which will ever earn for us heaven.

[8:26] And we have to go, amen, amen. That there's no good that we can do. There's no work that we can do. There's no effort that we can put into it that would ever get us there. And then in chapter four, he begins to make that transition and saying, but here's the good news.

[8:40] You're desperately wicked, but God is magnificently awesome. I don't even know if that's good English, but that's the way I like to put it. That he is so much better than our wickedness.

[8:52] And there is righteousness that can be imputed or given to us. We can be counted righteous even if we can't earn righteousness. And he begins to give the picture of Abraham in the Old Testament that before Abraham did anything, all Abraham did is look at God and say amen.

[9:12] God gave Abraham a promise. God said, Abraham, I'm going to multiply your seed. I'm going to make you. I know you're old. I know you have problems. I know you have this line issue. I know all these things.

[9:22] I know you come from the very heart of paganism and idolatry. And I know there's nothing in you really, Abraham, that's good. But I'm going to do a mighty work in you. And I'm going to make you a great nation.

[9:35] And Abraham looked at him and said amen. And it says in the Old Testament that God counted him righteous. That he imputed righteousness to him. We saw that in Romans 4 that though he wasn't righteous, that is right, God looked at him as if he was right.

[9:53] God didn't make him right. If you think that God made Abraham right when it says he counted him as righteous, you will be disappointed when you read the accounts of that after that. Because after that comes a lady by the name of Hagar.

[10:04] After that comes some more lying. After that comes all these messed up problems he has. God knew all those. But he didn't look at him in his wickedness. He looked at him in God's righteousness.

[10:16] And then we come into, we carry that thought into Romans 5. And we saw last time we were together looking at the book of Romans that man has to choose their representation before a holy God.

[10:30] The Bible is very clear. It says it's appointed unto man once to die. And after this comes a judgment that we will all be judged someday. And we will have to stand before a holy God, a holy judge.

[10:40] And we will have to give an account for our lives. But the problem is, is we can't look at God and argue our own case. Only our representation will be that which argues our case.

[10:51] We saw this in Romans 5.12 and following. You are naturally represented by Adam. By nature. When you were born, you have Adam as your representative.

[11:02] The problem is, Adam fell. And he sinned. And he didn't do right. And he messed up. The good news is that God has appointed another representative, which we must choose, which is Jesus Christ.

[11:17] And Romans 5 ends with this. Where sin increase, grace abounded. That ever since Adam, there has been greater sin, and greater sin, and greater sin, and greater sin.

[11:33] And where sin increased, the grace of God grew even more. Now friend, I know in my own lifetime, and I'm sure some of you in your lifetime, has seen the increase of sin just put across this thing we call the television.

[11:49] Things that would have never been heard of, even on Late Night, now we put on Disney Channel. Things that would have never been even thought about in those after dark shows we put in front of our children.

[12:01] And man, they wouldn't show Elvis from his waist down because he wiggled his legs. Let's not talk about what they show today to our smallest of kids. And I'm not being judgmental here. I'm just saying that if we tell ourselves that mankind is getting better, we are fooling ourselves.

[12:15] Because if we think they were bad in the Old Testament, we need to open our eyes and see what we're doing today. And that's not being legalistic. That's not being judgmental. That's just being accurate. Because the beauty of that is, sin always increases where man multiplies.

[12:32] But the wonderful news is, that though sin increases, God's will of grace has never dried up. As a matter of fact, it just keeps bubbling forth. There is more grace today than there has ever been.

[12:43] There is grace for every sin of man. There is forgiveness for every failure of man. There is redemption for every sinful man. There is this grace. So now, we make that transition into Romans 6.

[12:55] Because Paul is writing here, and he's writing to believers who are going to be overwhelmed, much like us, that for every mess up I made, God's grace covers it. For every fault I have, God's grace is greater.

[13:07] So the argument would be, and if you go out, and I've had this encounter, I've told people about the love of God, that God loves you enough that if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, He'll forgive you of your sins. There's nothing you need to do.

[13:18] There's no work you must accomplish. All you have to do is accept that forgiveness, and He'll forgive you. And here's the argument. Well, if that is the case, if my sin shows God's goodness, I'm just going to keep sinning.

[13:31] Because it's just going to continue to show how good God is. What shall we say then? He introduces Romans 6 with, Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? If the increase of sin brought an abundance of grace, then doesn't it stand to reason that, well, the more we sin, the greater grace there is.

[13:49] So let's just keep sinning so we can show how graceful God is. And Paul here argues that point, and I want you to see this morning, and I'm going to make my way through it just as quickly as I can, be a respecter of your time because I'm so thankful for it.

[14:04] I want you to see our freedom from sin. How we literally can live free from sin. The only hope that fallen man, that is us, can have of freedom from sin rest in these three things that Paul lays out for us in Romans 6 verses 1 through 11.

[14:23] Number one, we must trust in our identification with Christ. We must trust, first of all, in our identification with Christ. The question comes to Paul, well, then if my sin makes God's grace great, then shouldn't I sin?

[14:39] Because, by the way, if we're going to hear personal testimonies, and I thank Brother Jerry for sharing his testimony this morning, and I love hearing testimonies of the saints, and I loved when the redeemed say so, and they begin to tell their story.

[14:51] Isn't it natural for us? We love to hear the testimonies of the individuals who had the most messed up life, and all of a sudden, God radically intervened. Because sometimes that testimony of, well, I was just a pretty good person, I didn't do anything pretty bad, and one day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and from then on, we're like, well, that was a boring testimony.

[15:10] Wait a minute, listen. Being a pretty good person, and God sparing us the heartache of the weight of our sin, to me, doesn't seem boring. That seems magnificent, right? When God saves the best of men, it's just as great as when He saves the worst of men.

[15:23] That's the good news of the gospel, is that all of us are equally wicked. But our nature is that we want to hear how bad your sins were, so you can tell us about how good your God is. And that argument is, well, then I'm going to live like the devil, so that I can show the greatness of God, and let the sin be the thing that magnifies God's grace.

[15:43] And Paul says, stop right there. You have totally misunderstood this whole thing called salvation. Because our freedom from that sin nature, and really the root of our salvation, rests in our identification with Christ.

[15:57] Look at what it says. He says, may it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Paul says, you can't do that because you died to sin. Now, we're going to get the answer in Romans 7, but maybe we don't need to go to Romans 7.

[16:12] Maybe we just need to go to the person sitting in the pew with you. And I don't mean the person beside you. I mean yourself. How many of you that once you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and I'll be the first to raise my hand, found out that you could still sin after you accepted the Savior?

[16:27] That, you know what? I'm saved. I am redeemed. I am forgiven. And I thought that when I opened my eyes from praying my prayer of surrender, that I would be able to walk away and live a brand new life.

[16:38] The problem is, is as soon as I walked away from that, I ran into a temptation and I fell. And we have found that even though we have a Savior, we still have within us the ability to sin.

[16:50] But Paul says, you can't continue to sin because you died to sin. And I don't know about you, but I'm like, I wish I would have died to sin. I wish I would have died to those temptations.

[17:01] And we'll get to all that later on. But I want you to see here, how then have we died to sin? Because look at what it says. Or do you not know that all of us...

[17:12] Now, I need to caution you because when I read these verses, we have this tendency to put it together with this thing called baptismal regeneration, that baptism is the main thing. Well, no, baptism is not the main thing.

[17:24] We need to understand what baptism was in Jewish context. I don't really have time to take you there. Let me just say that baptism in a Jewish context in which Paul was writing, and even in the Greek context, because he's writing to a church full of Jews and Greeks, all meant the same thing, that when you did something, you always did something on the outside to show something that had already happened on the inside.

[17:45] Okay? So, when you converted to Judaism, you made a mental decision, I'm going to behave and act like a Jew. If you were a non-Jewish, I'm going to behave and act like a Jew from this day forward.

[17:56] Well, you made that decision. To show the world you made that decision, you would be baptized. It wasn't like baptism is something new to Christianity, okay? In the Greek culture, if you decided that you wanted to be identified with one of the Greek gods, you would make that decision and live out that decision, but then you would go through a baptism to show the world you had already made that decision.

[18:18] Now you begin to understand. What is baptism in Christianity? Christianity, you decide to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you live as if he is your Lord and Savior, and then you follow in baptism to show everybody else you made the decision to accept him as your Lord and Savior.

[18:33] It's called getting your baptism on the right side of your salvation, and that's important because when I was 15, I went to a pool of water waist deep, got my head ducked under it, and came up thinking I was okay. The problem is, is when I went into the water, I didn't decide anything for Jesus Christ.

[18:45] When I came out of the water, I hadn't made a decision for Jesus Christ. I got nothing but wet, and I could have done that in a swimming pool, which would have felt a whole lot better and been a lot less awkward with a man pushing me under. I'm just being honest with you.

[18:56] But I thought that water was a fire insurance, and then I found out that that water just comes from the tap just like everybody else. That water up there is the same water you can go back there in the kitchen and turn the faucet on again. I'm not trying to bust anybody's bubble here, but there's nothing holy about that water.

[19:12] What's holy is the Savior you've accepted, and the water signifies to everybody else that you've already accepted that Savior. So, we wanted to make sure to clarify that, but look at this. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, it is a command, it is something you are to do, because you're making a public display.

[19:30] He says, all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. I say the same thing every baptism I do. As a matter of fact, it's on the shirts that we give those who are being baptized.

[19:40] Some of you have them. Our candidates for baptism, and I wear one, and on the front it says, we are buried with Christ, right? On the back it says, and raised to walk in the newness of life.

[19:51] This is where this comes from. That if we have been baptized into Christ, we have been baptized into His death. That's why I believe in full submersion or immersion. We go all the way under, like in the grave.

[20:02] Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.

[20:14] Here it is. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

[20:24] Just stop right here. We can be free from sin because, first of all, our identification with Jesus Christ. We are identified with Christ just like we used to be identified with Adam.

[20:37] At your first birth, you took on what is called the Adamic nature. You took on the nature of Adam. You don't have to teach a child to sin. You don't have to teach anyone to rebel.

[20:48] You don't have to teach a child to lie. All those things are just naturally within them. Some kids are a little bit better at it than other kids. I understand that. Some kids can spin a story a mile long and keep you believing it.

[21:00] And I get that. But you don't have to teach them that. That is just what they are by nature. You don't have to teach a child to be jealous. You don't have to teach a child to be envious. You don't have to teach a child to do any of these things which we count as sin because that is their nature.

[21:15] And the reason that is their nature is they are identified. We, all of us, are identified with Adam. We are born into sin. Singular. We have a sin nature.

[21:27] When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, now follow me. Friend, listen to me. You are doing so much more than believing in Him. The Bible tells us that the demons believe and tremble, but they are not identified with Him.

[21:43] They know that there is going to come a day where they will be judged by Him and they know that on that day He will cast them into the lake of fire eternally. And they know it so much that when He met a demoniac, the demoniac spoke to Him.

[21:54] The legion of demons from in the demoniac begged Him, Do not cast us into the abyss. And Jesus gave them permission, remember the story, to go into the swine. Right? They tremble because they know that all Jesus has to say is go there and they are going to go there.

[22:09] So they believe. They fully believe and are convinced. But salvation is so much more than going, Yeah, Jesus is who He says He is. Yes, Jesus is the Savior. Yes, Jesus is the King.

[22:20] Salvation is accepting Jesus and being identified with Him. We are free from sin because Jesus is sin free.

[22:31] And we are free from sin. Now you just want to follow me in this, okay? Because we are no longer identified with Adam. We are identified with Jesus. And salvation should lead us to such an identification with Jesus Christ.

[22:44] This is what Paul is saying. You cannot keep sinning because you are no longer identified with the father of sin. That is Adam, mankind. Adam literally means man. You are now identified with Jesus.

[22:57] And identification means you are going to represent Him in your speech. Hold on. In your conduct. And in your actions. Around our house.

[23:08] If you bear the name Calvert. You live in our house. We expect you to identify in public what Calvert stands for in private.

[23:21] You represent our family. Now does that mean it always happens? No. Because sometimes I even fail to identify properly as I should. We all fail. Over the years we have had a number of people live in our house.

[23:32] And I remember many of them being teenage boys. And I remember I looked at one of the teenage boys. And I wasn't trying to be rude. I wasn't trying to be impolite. I was just trying to be truthful and to be honest.

[23:44] And we had extended grace. And we had extended grace. And he wouldn't tell us when he was coming home. I would think he was coming home. And he wouldn't be home. And I finally sat him down one line. I said listen. My wife doesn't run a bed and breakfast.

[23:55] If you're looking for a bed and breakfast. We'd love to have you. It's $300 a night. We're not providing three hot meals and a bed and a place for you to sleep in. What we are giving you an opportunity to be a part of is a family. Something you've never had.

[24:07] And in our family. There are certain things that are important to us. One. We're here when it's supper time. We're going to eat together. Two. You're going to tell us where you're at. And three. We're going to be accountable. One. You're going to identify with the family.

[24:18] He didn't want to identify with the family. So he left. Did I stop him? No. Is he where I think he should be today? No. But that was a choice he made. When Jesus comes to you and he wants to save you and set you free.

[24:31] He doesn't just say hey listen I'm going to forgive you. And you keep doing what you want to do. He comes to you and he says if you'll be identified with me. If you'll allow me to be your savior and your king. Your lord. And be identified with me.

[24:42] You'll be radically forgiven. We are free from sin because of our identification with the savior. Number two. We have to move on. And I could stay all day there. But number two. We have to move on.

[24:53] We are free from sin because of our separation from sin's nature. We are free from sin because of our separation. Look at what it says in verse six. Knowing this. That our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with.

[25:08] So that we would no longer be slaves of sin. Now this is what is so amazing about the crucifixion. The burial and the resurrection of Christ. Because he is our representative. Remember we didn't all sin the same way Adam sinned.

[25:21] Remember that okay. How many of you this morning woke up and God whispered in your ear and said you can eat from every tree of the garden that you want to. But from the tree of knowledge of good and evil don't eat from that one. And how many of you walked outside and found a snake talking to men.

[25:34] How many of you found a snake talking to your wife. And your wife had ate this tree from the knowledge of good and evil because the snake said it was good. And then your wife offered it to you and you ate it too. We say well that's absurd.

[25:45] None of us have done that. I haven't known anybody that's done that besides Adam. So we have not all sinned in the same way as Adam. Right. We've not. None of us have done the same sin Adam did.

[25:56] But Adam is our representative. That's who we are identified with. And when Adam sinned the Bible says we sinned. All man sinned.

[26:06] But here's the good news. Our new identification that is Christ. When Christ died we all died. And when Christ was buried we were all buried. And when Christ was raised we are all raised.

[26:19] And that death burial and resurrection of Jesus is our representation. He is the first fruits. First always meaning there will be more. You don't get a first of something unless there's more.

[26:30] I used to laugh. I pastored prior to this First Baptist Church of Normandy. Now I don't know how many of you are familiar with Normandy. I love Normandy. I pastored down there. I came to Christ down there.

[26:41] I was a deacon down there. Man God taught me in the school of the pastor's office at First Baptist Church of Normandy. But the residents of Normandy number about 190 something last time that I was there.

[26:53] And I always wondered why they named the church First Baptist Church as if there was going to be a second Baptist Church and a third Baptist Church in such a small town. Have you ever thought about that?

[27:04] First always insinuates there's going to be a second and a third. Now they had reasons for doing it. They just did it. It was the first Baptist Church that's ever been down there. But if you can go to Murphsboro you can find a first Baptist Church. There's a second Baptist Church there.

[27:15] There's a third Baptist Church there. First always means there's more coming. And when Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection it means there's more coming. Right? There's more of us that are going to be following Him.

[27:27] Why? Because He is our identification. And that death of Christ, verse 6 says, Knowing this, that our old self, what is that old self? Your old, adamic nature. Who you are at your birth.

[27:38] What you naturally are. That sin nature. This is important. Stay with me. Was crucified with Him. If He is our identification, He is our representation. Then our old man died.

[27:50] In order that the body of sin might be done away with. So that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Here you go. Let me tell it to you. When you were born, you could not help but sin.

[28:02] In the flesh. You cannot help but sin because sin is your nature. We just went through. You don't have to teach a child to do all those things. As you grew older, your sins became more complex.

[28:13] And you cannot help it. Don't be surprised when sinners act like sinners. Man will fall. And man cannot help but fall because he is identified with Adam.

[28:24] And when Adam sinned, all men sinned. But here's the good news, my friend. You cannot separate yourself from that sin nature. I don't care. No matter how hard you try.

[28:36] No matter how much you want to. I tried to do it. Maybe you're better. Maybe you can go longer. But you are naturally a sinner. And you can try the best you can.

[28:46] Apart from Jesus Christ. I'm just talking about in the flesh here. You can say, well, I'm going to be good. I'm going to do this. I'm not going to do that. Well, you're going to fall sometime. Because that's your nature.

[28:58] You're going to get mad. You're going to get upset. You're going to covet. I mean, the Bible, the standard of holiness is so hard. And by nature, there's nothing we can do about it.

[29:10] But the good news is, is we are identified with Christ. That nature. Here it is. Listen to me. Died. It is dead. Apart from Jesus Christ, you are a slave to sin.

[29:22] You can't do anything about it. But when you identify with Jesus Christ, this is something you need to grab a hold of this. This is good stuff. You don't have to sin anymore.

[29:34] Because that person died. You know, a dead man has no sin. A dead man has no temptation. You can't tempt a dead man. You can't persuade a dead man.

[29:47] You can't convince a dead man to do anything. Because a dead man has no sin. He's no longer tempted. He's no longer persuaded. He's no longer motivated.

[29:58] He has nothing. It is separated. Death in the Bible, by the way, is always separation. It is never cessation. That's important. When someone dies, and I know we talk about this, it is not that they cease to be.

[30:13] It is that the spirit and the body are now separated. That is what death is. Death is never cessation. We would always like to think that everything just stops the moment we die. That's not it at all.

[30:24] We know that we are created eternal beings. That the moment we die, there is a separation. That is death. The soul separates from the body. 1 Corinthians 15, someday there will be a reunification.

[30:35] The body and the soul will be joined together again. And so we shall ever be. When someone dies in the Bible, it is always a separation. Every time there is a death, there is always a separation.

[30:45] So when your old man died to sin, that literally means it was separated from sin. So that sin no longer has mastery over you.

[30:58] On Sunday nights, we have been going through the book of Exodus. And I have told you on Sunday nights over and over again that you cannot rightly understand your salvation until you rightly understand the Exodus event. And I give it to you in a nutshell because not all of you have been there.

[31:10] In the book of Exodus, we find a group of people. Somewhere around 2 million people. These 2 million people have never known anything but slavery. For over 400 years, the Jewish people have been enslaved to Egypt.

[31:21] They have been slaves their whole entire life. They were born into slavery. They were raised into slavery. And they are having children into slavery. They are by nature slaves. And they cannot help but be anything but slaves because that's just what they are.

[31:36] Sounds a whole lot like us and sin, right? And then God intervenes and sends a man, Moses, to be their representative. And their representative tells them they can be something other than slaves.

[31:47] And their representative stands between those who are naturally slaves by nature and a holy God desiring to free them. And the wonderful news of Exodus is that representative leads out those natural-born slaves to a newfound freedom on the other side of the Red Sea.

[32:05] Now here's the deal. They are no longer slaves because they are no longer enslaved to Pharaoh. That does not mean they have changed. That does not mean they're no longer dirty. That does not mean they're not talking the same way.

[32:16] That just means that slavery no longer is master over them because of the new representative of Pharaoh's, between Pharaoh and them, that is, Moses. Here's what happens with us. We are by nature sinners.

[32:28] And Christ came to be our new representative. And He led us out of that which enslaved us. We were born into sin. We grew up into sin. And we live in sin. And He has led us free from sin. But on the other side of the Red Sea, we're still messed up people.

[32:41] But we don't have to sin anymore. Because we've been separated from it. And our Red Sea is the cross. Now we sin because we choose to, not because we have to.

[32:54] That hits home with us. If we want to be honest, biblical, honest truth. The believer only sins because he chooses to, not because he has to.

[33:07] The non-believer sins because they can't help it. That's who they are by nature. We have been separated from that nature. It has died. Every sin I commit, I'm just going to be honest with you. The truth is, I chose to do that sin.

[33:24] I chose to listen to the flesh more than I chose to look to the Savior. I chose to go back and look towards Egypt more than I chose to dwell in the Promised Land. I choose every sin I fall into.

[33:38] It's not that I can't help it. It's not that I'm by nature that way anymore. That guy is dead. He's been separated. I can be free from sin because of our separation from it.

[33:49] Third and finally, and this one will be quick. Friend, listen to me. Here it is. You can be free from sin because of our identification with Christ, our separation from sin, and our application of biblical truth.

[34:02] This is why I introduced for you, and I want you to get into a Bible reading plan. This is why I so encourage you to get into the Word of God daily, and I encourage you to get into a balanced portion of the Word of God. Look at what it says in Romans 6, verse 11.

[34:15] It says, Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. I'm just going to stop right there. Listen. This is the first command in the book of Romans.

[34:27] The very first command Paul gives into the book of Romans. He has taught us how bad we were. He has taught us how helpless we are. He has taught us how we can be forgiven. He has taught us how we can freely receive the righteousness of Christ.

[34:39] He has taught us, though we are desperately wicked, we can be set free. All these things he's laid out. And then he gives us a command. And he waits for Romans 6, verse 11 to give us a command. And the command is, Therefore, therefore, knowing all these things, knowing what has been said, even so, here it is, consider.

[34:58] Now, when we say consider here, we say, I'll consider it. I'll think about it. I'll ponder on it. That doesn't mean that. In the King James, it says reckon. In the New King James, it says reckon.

[35:10] And that doesn't mean like we would, well, I reckon so. It doesn't mean that, okay? Now, we've got to take our southern dialect and our very different mindset out of it. To consider means to reckon to one's account, or to add to, or to deposit, or to put into one's accounts.

[35:26] It means to add to. And here's the command. Here's what Paul is saying. You know how you can be free from sin? Apply the biblical truth.

[35:37] He says, consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know what he doesn't say? He says, when you feel like you're free from sin, live that way. He doesn't say, when you get to good goosebumps and you get all excited.

[35:50] He doesn't say, when it seems right, he says, you need to take the Bible at its literal truth. Listen, the Word of God tells us we have been crucified with Christ.

[36:00] It is no longer us who lives, but it is He who lives inside of us. The Bible tells us that the old man, the old sin nature, which could not help but sin, has died. And we now live the resurrected life of Jesus Christ.

[36:12] I can't begin to explain it to you. All I can do is tell it to you. And it tells us that who we naturally were is now a dead man. And who we should be is now the live man living inside of us.

[36:22] And the Bible says what you need to do is, I don't care if you feel like it. I don't care if you can even think that it is so. I don't care if it's beyond your wildest dreams. If the Bible says it, it is.

[36:33] Okay? When the Bible proclaims it, it is true. It doesn't matter to me if I can read it and go, well, I don't think that's true. If God said it, that settles it. I mean, that's just as literal as I read it. And when he tells me I don't have to sin anymore by nature, that I only sin because I choose to, then I have to believe the Bible even over my feelings because my feelings lie.

[36:56] My heart is desperately wicked. My heart tries to convince me that I'm going to sin because I'm just naturally a sinner. And am I naturally a sinner? Yes. But the natural man is a dead man. And a dead man doesn't sin anymore.

[37:07] So I am now free to choose what the Bible says about me more than what even my heart says about me. I am now free to choose what God proclaims over me, his righteousness and his acceptance, even more than what the flesh tries to convince me of.

[37:23] And I have to apply the biblical truth and forget about the fleshly desires. Friend, listen to me. You only sin in Christ Jesus when you choose to listen to the flesh more than you do the word of God.

[37:35] And when you get into the Bible and you see the Bible tells you you don't have to, and you see the Bible tells you by nature you are a dead man, and when you see the Bible tells you that the life of Christ is living in you, friend, listen to me.

[37:46] Next time Satan throws a fiery dart of temptation at you, next time he puts something in front of you that you won't sow so bad, next time you feel that urge to do the thing you know you shouldn't, then you look at him and you say, Satan, my heart tells me I can because that's naturally who I am.

[38:02] Satan, my flesh tells me I'm weak because it seems that I fall every time it comes. Satan, you know, everything about me tells me I should, but the Bible says that this man is dead.

[38:12] The Bible says that it is now Christ who lives in me. The Bible says that I don't have to act like this anymore. The Bible says, Satan, that I don't have to do what you're telling me I need to do because that's not who I am anymore.

[38:26] Friend, listen to me. The reason we fall is because we don't apply what the Bible says about us more than we apply what the flesh tries to convince itself. Friend, listen. If we would just apply the Bible, then the world would be shocked at the lives we live for his glory.

[38:44] We can be free from sin simply by believing what the Bible says about us more than what we say about ourselves. Are we sinners saved by grace? Grace, yes. Go back to that church at Corinth.

[38:56] What did Paul call them? Saints. To the saints that are at Corinth. God calls us saints. And as saints, we should live as such.

[39:08] Paul says, should you continue to sin? No. Because friend, listen to me. More grace abounds when we live for his glory than it ever does when we live to his contrary. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for this day.

[39:22] And Lord, I know in my own life and even in the lives of so many of us, if we were to be honest, it is a constant struggle to live as we should, to do what we could, and to live for your glory.

[39:34] Lord, I pray that even in this moment of complete honesty, that we would take the biblical truth, what you say about us, oh God, and we would begin to apply it to our lives. Lord, we thank you for all the encouragement to find in your word.

[39:49] We pray that it would grip our lives and shape us and transform us for your glory. In your sweet name we pray. Amen. Amen.

[40:24] Amen.

[40:54] Amen.

[41:24] Amen. Thank you.

[41:54] Thank you.

[42:24] Thank you.

[42:54] Thank you.

[43:24] Thank you.

[43:54] Thank you.

[44:24] Thank you.