Do You Really Want What You Deserve in Life? based on Romans 6:12-23

I. Freedom and getting what is deserved in America.

II. Frustrations with unfair treatment.

III. Sin not much of a big deal today.

IV. Seminary days and Australian friends and “Sin boldly” quote. I remember in my Seminary days at Ft. Wayne, IN, a common saying of a couple of friends I made who were from Australia who were visiting students for a year. They liked to quote a saying by Martin Luther, the sixteenth century German reformer, “Sin boldly.” They seemed to have the false idea that since we are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for all our sins that we can sin and do wrong as much as we want. Looking more closely at that quote of Martin Luther gives the proper context for Luther’s words. Luther wrote to his good friend and fellow reformer, Philip Melancthon, in 1521, the following words: “God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world] we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness, but, as Peter says, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God’s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 48, page 282)

V. Taking words out of context is not a good way to prove a point.

VI. Good words to hear in Romans 6:12-14 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

VII. Excuses for sins and Romans 6:15 “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

VIII. Romans 6:16-18 and getting trapped in sins. Romans 6:16-18 “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? 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, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

IX. The sub with 5 people viewing the Titanic wreckage and rescue efforts.

X. We do not know how long our life on this earth will be.

XI. Romans 6:19-23 and eternal suffering or eternal joy. Romans 6:19-23 “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. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 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. 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”