Set Apart for God- Romans 6
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I started something last week and I hope to continue this pattern as we move forward. The passage mentioned that we stand for the Word of God, so I ask you once again as we read God’s Word.
Please stand
I am reading Romans 6
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 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.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 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.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You may be seated.
Let’s Pray
Last Sunday as we looked through the fifth chapter of Romans we discovered that Paul had described a peace with God is when we accept His saving work on the cross for us.
With that knowledge in our hands and our hearts, Paul then begins this new dialogue with a question.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Think of it this way, has God given us grace so that we are free to keep on sinning,
knowing that the loving God who has promised forgiveness will continue to forgive us.
Is it a licence to continue in our old sin habits?
Do you have someone in your life that you can say, Oh well, that’s just, Frank, that is the way he is, we have just learned to live with him and that sinful behaviour.
Maybe you are the Frank that people say that about you......
You have a pattern that God has repeatedly asked you to change, but you haven’t.
Here are some
Maybe you are a gossip. You love to spread news, find out news.
In another ministry, I had a good friend who was a master of gathering information. He was able to ask questions of people that would lead to information about others. The problem came when he used that information to spread “Facts” about people. Gossip.
Maybe it is not gossip in your life that you battle with, but anger.
An anger that seems to arise in the most awkward moments and you lash out on people.
I could keep going on, and most of the examples come from my own life things that I have to deal with, or God has dealt with me.
Paul asks the readers, What shall we say?
I’ve titled this message, Set Apart for God.
To answer Paul’s question, we must come to the understanding that God has set us apart.
He has removed us from a lost life to a life that is full of Grace.
Have you ever rented a car? You are on holidays or a business trip and you arrive at an airport and you need to rent a car? How has your experience been?
During the pandemic, car rentals decreased, so Car rental agencies began to sell off their fleet only to discover a year later, new cars were harder to find. This trickled down to a reduced availability in rental. At one time, in Calgary, some rental agencies were charging $1000.00 a day to rent a car. t that point a cab would be cheaper.
What about the rental car insurance? Do you buy it? Does your ICBC cover it and if so how much.
When we lived in Alberta, we made a trip to Abbotsford and booked a car. When we went to pick up the vehicle we were offered a free upgrade to a new Mustang convertible. We thought about it for a moment, then declined as my insurance only covered the value of my basic car and not that of a new flashy convertible.
I was tempted, but didn’t risk it.
Let me ask you this?
Let’s say its the last car on the lot and you have no other choice but to drive that car.
You don’t have the money to buy the extra insurance, how would you drive the car.
For me, very carefully....watching for all the others on the road so that it would stay in pristine condition.
But what if you decided to spend the money on their insurance.
The insurance that covers everything. From a scratch to a full blown crash and total write off of the car,
Would you drive the car differently?
Would you intentionally park near a wall in an underground parking lot and swing open the door to damage the door on the wall without a care in the world?
Would you drive behind the sanding truck knowing that those rocks smashing into the windshield are no longer your problem?
How would you drive that rented car knowing that you have full coverage.
Would you screech out the tires at stoplights racing ever other sports car because, well. You have insurance.
Would you treat that car differently knowing that it is fully covered no matter what happens.
Would your driving pattern’s change knowing that no matter how you drive and its impact on the car you would not be held responsible.
I would hope it wouldn’t change your striving to treat that car the same way with or without insurance.
The insurance is there in case something happens, not so that you can damage the car.
Paul asks us the same questions about the Grace in our lives.
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
When we have given our lives to God, when we have become redeemed by His Blood, there is a part where we have been restored.
Speaking of restoring,
A few years ago when my oldest son was in kindergarten, I was teaching at the school he also attended, and in the morning Heather was bringing him to school.
As she drove into the the school parking lot on a ice covered lot, she went to park beside my car with hers only to find out that I parked on a complete patch of ice,
As many of you would expect, our two cars now have evidence of damage. As Heather was reflecting on how she could explain this to me, our son jumped out of the car and came running to me and said, “Dad your car is broken!”
I won’t tell you what happened next, because this story is about the car not the situation
The cars needed to be fixed.
So let me ask you a question.
If your car was in a wreck, and the reason for the wreck is your fault, but, someone comes along and says that they will pay so that you can be driving a car again, but you have a choice.
First, they will pay for you to have your current car restored, a full body work repair, frame realigned, maybe even fix the tear in the seat while they are at it.
or,
Secondly, they will buy you a brand new car, that is twice the price of your current car. I mean it has all the bells and whistles that can be put on a luxury car. And to make the deal sweeter, they are willing to pay the insurance to own that luxury car for the rest of the time you own that car.
This option truly beats the “role up the rim” prize.
What would you choose.
If I were presented with these options, my choice would be clear.
By the way, this is not what happened, I’m just setting the scene for you to ponder
What would you do?
I would take the luxury car. A new car
Paul states that our faith and walk with God is like the new car, it has been restored, made new,
But to be honest some of us are taking to going back and driving the old car.
That new car is there for us, but we continue to want to drive around in the old broken down car.
But Paul states that we are set apart
We have been made new. We are a luxury, a child of God.
How.
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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.
Today, if you have given your life over to Christ. You have come to him knowing that there is nothing you can do to enter into His Grace than to receive it, and you have identified to be a follower of Him.
You have been transformed.
You walk in the newness of life.
The old wreck car or life that you once lived, in God’s eyes are a luxury model a new creation.
A transformed life.
Baptism is a public display of the faith that you have accepted. It’s a public declaration of what you have inwardly accepted.
It’s not a ritual, a right of passage, a sign to join the club, or a part of salvation,
It’s a public declaration of our faith.
If you have accepted Christ as your saviour, He has made you a new creation, and yet you have never walked through the water of Baptism, a public display of the faith, why not consider it soon.
Easter morning is a great day to not only celebrate the risen Lord, but a great day to see followers of Christ in obedience be baptised. Talk with me after if you are felling Called by God to publicly declare your faith in this way.
Paul reminds us, that If you are a follower of Christ, he asks if you walking in the newness of life on a daily basis?
Are you living a transformational life?
Or are your desires to jump back into the wreck of a car when the luxury car is parked right beside it and the saviour has handed you the keys.
How do we stop jumping back into the old car,
Let’s read on
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Christ went to the cross for us, Died for us, was resurrected for us, so that we can have new life.
We identify with his death we also identify with His new life.
We are no longer enslaved to sin.
It no longer has a hold on us, but sometimes we grab for it.
What about you?
Which car keys are you grabbing for when you get up in the morning.
The old car or the new?
In fact, if I can stick with the car analogy and faith comparison.
Why is the old car still in your driveway?
Why haven’t you allowed the car wrecker to come and do what they do best with cars that no longer serve their purpose.
Crush it, remove it. In fact, God has already done that in your life.
When you accept Christ to come in, and the Holy Spirit indwells your life, the Bible states that you are a new creation.
The old has gone the new has come.
Why do we always go back to the old crushed car?
Look at Paul’s words.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 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.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We have been set free from sin.
Look at verse 11
Must consider
The greek word is logizomai (Low-ezz-i me) it is a word that can be used in a court. It takes into account. a mental record or a charge to an account.
You must consider that Christ’s work on the cross has paid the cost for your very lost soul. It was and has been paid.
You who were once lost in your sin have now, like Christ, been made alive in the Eyes of God.
and yet, Paul continues,
These next verses are for us who have taken the steps to be followers of Christ
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 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.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Our relationship to the old self
Our relationship to the old self
Paul then begins in this section of his chapter to outline what should be our relationship with our old self.
It’s a realization that the old self is still there. We have accepted the new life and there is coming a day that we will be fully restored, fully transformed, but the old self is still there.
Who is given control
Who is given control
Paul exhorts the listener to not let sin reign, to rule, to have control of your life.
Until Christ returns, or we are in His presence, those earthly, mortal, old self passions are still there sometimes calling us to be in control.
They sometimes come in a whisper, telling you that you are not good enough.
They shout to you that you can handle the situation on your own, after all, you are strong enough to do this on your own. You are a capable person to handle every situation that comes your way.
When you wake up in the morning, do you intentionally give your life that day to God.
To follow His leading, His guide, or do you start the day giving your life to your own self.
Who is in control of your life.
Paul states it this way,
who is reigning in your life. Who is the king. You or God.
If it is you. Why?
Our old self needs to be headed to the wrecker and we need to stop grabbing the keys to it. Giving our lives fully to Him.
The living God was now seeking to make his home in the hearts and lives, and particularly the communities, that had declared their loyalty to Jesus, and were determined to live by the gospel.
N. T. Wright
Who is presented
Who is presented
Who are you telling others about your life. Who are you presenting.
When an unbeliever sees the trials you are going through and asks, “I don’t know how you can do that” is your response to present Christ. He is the one the gives us the strength and we can’t do it on our own.
Also are you living a life full of Life,
or are you walking around like death has rolled over you.
You have been bought with price.
You have moved form death to life.
Are you presenting that life or not.
Can someone see a difference in the way you live.
The basic, overriding purpose of our lives now is to become in practice what we are in that new perfection and position. Now that we are Christ’s brothers, God’s children, we should live like it.
John F. MacArthur
Walking in Grace
Walking in Grace
The last point Paul makes is our understand of our walk.
Rom 6:14 “14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Here Paul tells us that sin has no place in our lives as we are under the Grace God has granted in our lives.
When you come to Christ accepting His work on the Cross, you stand before an Almighty God covered by Grace the Sin that once held you in bondage, is released and it doesn’t reign over your life, but God’s Grace does.
Like the speed limit sign shows you whether you are breaking the law, God’s grace tells you the proper speed that is needed.
Thomas brooks writes,
As heat is opposed to cold, and light to darkness, so grace is opposed to sin. Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel as grace and sin in the same heart.
Thomas Brooks
You alone choose to let sin reign and have dominion in your life,
You choose to walk in the grace not as a licence for sin, but a knowledge knowing that your sins are removed when you bring them to Him for forgiveness.
The Spirit, when given control of your life, will guide you away from sin and those temptations that are common to all of us become only that, temptations and not a falling for them.
Christ has broken us from the Bondage of sin.
The hold that it once held over us is now been removed and we need to walk in that Grace.
Cost of Sin
Cost of Sin
The last part of the chapter is a point for those among us today who have not given their lives over to Christ.
After Paul tells the readers that they have been bought with a price, the new owner is Christ and we are slaves to Him.
Our lives are fully His, To do with us as He chooses. We give our lives to him.
But Paul ends this chapter with a statement of the Cost of Sin.
If you are here this morning and you haven’t given your life over to God, there is a cost.
You can continue to live in your sin. You can continue to work out your life on your own. There is payment for that.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you continue to live your life for yourself. The wage is death. Eternal death.
But Praise be to God that there is a way out.
It’s a free gift, nothing you have earned or your own Merit, but it is free for the taking.
If this morning you haven’t given your life over to the one who is offering you freedom from the bondage of sin, why not. Do it today.
In Summary
In Summary
As the worship team comes forward to prepare us in a response to worship. I ask you, where are you at?
Have you been following your old ways, grabbing the keys to your old car, while the new car is there waiting to be used.
Come. If you need prayer come forward this morning either during this song or after for prayer.
If you are burdened with something this morning and you are seeking prayer, come, People will be here to pray with you.
If you want to discover this new life we are and have been talking about, come as well. Come to the alter of grace.
Let’s stand and sing as a song of response.
Response to Worship
Response to Worship
Benediction
Benediction
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.