The Power of Grace for the Sin-Weary Saint
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
One of the greatest weapons that nations have during wartime is the weapon of propaganda. Propaganda can take many forms. But the idea behind propaganda is to propagate an idea. It is to spread an idea throughout a people. If it is national propaganda it may be news releases, stories, or pamphlets, speeches, etc. that tell the people of the nation that they are winning the war even though troops have been losing ground. It could also be a call upon the people to fight as the enemy has done some horrid act against one’s nation or troops. Movies could be produced to show the justness of the war. Probably the most well known uses of propaganda is Germany’s blame of the Jews for their reasons for losing the first World War leading to the holocaust and Iran’s propaganda that continuously has depicted Israel as the Little Satan and the U. S. as the Great Satan, and so bringing more and more Iranians on the side of extremism against these nations.
But some propaganda is infiltrating propaganda. This could be done by dropping leaflets over foreign territory informing the citizens that their nations is all but lost. False media reports could be circulated. Even deepfake videos can be used for propaganda in which an image of one person is replaced by another to make the viewers believe that the original person did or said something they did not do or say. The idea of infiltrating propaganda is to make someone believe that which is not true. Joseph Goebbels is credited with saying:
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
This morning, I am going to seek to dispel sin’s propaganda. It is a big lie that is continuously repeated and believed. But there are consequences to this lie that we will soon see. To combat it, we must not only see the truth, but be willing to accept it as the truth.
You see, there is the truth, but the truth just seems too good to be true. But Paul was not afraid to proclaim the truth no matter how unbelievable it may seem. When Jesus was talking to the Jewish leaders he told them,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Freedom! There is freedom in the truth! That’s what Paul wanted his readers to experience and what I want each of us to experience as well. So Paul exposes sin’s propaganda with the light of truth. The truth is that bodily urges are heightened when sin and law join together and the only way to strike a defeating blow to sin is to bow the knee to grace. But to get to that understanding we must first understand three other realities. The first reality that I pray opens our eyes to our need to bow the knee to grace is the propaganda of sin. The second reality that I pray opens our eyes to our need to bow the knee to grace is the presentation of self. The third reality that I pray opens our eyes to our need to bow the knee to grace is the position of salvation.
Propaganda of Sin
Presentation of Self
Position of Salvation
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.
Propaganda of Sin
Propaganda of Sin
The first reality that points to our need to bow the knee to grace in order to defeat sin is to understand the propaganda of sin. It’s subtle, but it’s there in
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
I want us to notice four words of this verse. The first is the word “reign.” The second is the word “mortal.” Thirdly, the antecedent to “its.” And lastly, the word, “therefore.”
The first word is the the word “reign.” This is the same word that Paul used in
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A few weeks ago, I talked of sin and death as if it were a kingdom. The only way out of sin’s kingdom was to die. And so we died in Christ. We were baptized, immersed into his death and so died to sin’s kingdom. And so we escaped the reign of sin because we died in Christ. Paul told the Colossians something similar:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
So we have been delivered from the domain of darkness, the kingdom of sin; in essence, we are no longer subjects of King Sin.
The second word is the word, “mortal.” In the Greek, this word is the emphatic word. Word order in Greek doesn’t matter too much when it comes to translation. You can put all the words in various orders and it will pretty much be translated the same way. But word order is important when it comes to emphasizing a word. To emphasize a word, it is placed first. And in this case, the word “mortal” is placed first. In fact, it is nearly impossible to miss the emphasis because the sentence structure looks so weird. When we read the word “mortal” we ought to think of mortality. In other words, death. That’s what mortal means: subject to death. So when Paul wrote in Romans 5:21 that sin reigned in death and now is saying, “Let not sin therefore reign in your body which is subject to death” our antennae ought to go up.
The third word is the antecedent to the word “its.” Every time I’ve read this passage, I have always thought that the antecedent to “its” was “sin.”
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
But when I looked at the original language, lo and behold, “sin” is not the antecedent to “its”; “body” is!
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
If you’re familiar with gender languages, you know that there are nouns that have masculine, feminine, and in some cases neuter cases. And the rule of language is that pronouns and adjectives, etc. must follow the case of the noun it’s modifying. A feminine noun must be modified by a feminine adjective or a feminine pronoun. A neuter must be modified by a neuter. A masculine must be modified by a masculine. Sin is a feminine noun. However, the “its” is neuter. The only other neuter word in the sentence is “body.”
Why is this important? Because sin has a way of using bodily passions, bodily desires to get what sin wants. This is the great propaganda! God created the human body with passions, desires, and needs. Sin exploits those desires for its own gain. God created the body so that it needs and thus desires sleep. But sin can use that desire to tempt a person into sloth so that the person won’t get out of bed but would rather sleep the day away. God created the body so that it needs and thus desires food. But sin will tempt the person into gluttony and so eating too much. God created the body so that it desires sexual union. But sin will tempt the person into promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, or a number of other sins. The list could go on.
This has been Satan’s tool from the beginning. When we see Satan and Eve’s conversation, we see how Eve finally succumbed.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Now here’s the thing about sin. The fact that Paul commands that we not let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey the body’s passions, means that it is a natural occurence for it to reign. We don’t need to do anything for sin to reign in our mortal bodies. We must do something to stop it. Which also means that to stop it, is going to feel unnatural. Sin’s propaganda tells us that denying the bodily desires is not good. Or it tells us that giving into these desires is inevitable. Why? Because the desires are natural and sin has reigned in them for so long that doing as sin desires feels natural. So it’s dropping leaflets all over our brains telling us that we will lose this war. We might as well give up now and make it easier on ourselves.
And it’s not just internal propaganda. This is the spirit of the age. What is identity politics but sin’s propaganda to be and do what is most desirable for you. To tell our children to be and do whatever their hearts or minds desire is anti-biblical; that’s the world’s philosophy. Give into your desires. Do what makes you happy. Don’t deny, reject, or suppress your desires.
We even allow this into our churches. We have allowed ourselves to believe sin’s propaganda that no one wants to hear about Jesus. Evangelism is uncomfortable. It’s weird. Be comfy. Be cool. No one wants to hear all that Jesus stuff and yet thousands of people everyday are coming to a saving knowledge of Christ. Sin is their king; they need to be transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. And its our job, as uncomfortable as it is, to tell them.
If you do not love Jesus; if Jesus isn’t your king, then sin is. You may think you’re your own master, but the reality is that sin reigns in your mortal body and the only way to be out from under its rule is to die in Christ.
Which leads us to the fourth word, “therefore.” Therefore implies a result. In the verses leading up to verse 12, we see the argument that we died to sin in Christ. That we were buried with Christ in baptism and raised to new life in Christ. Christ is our new federal head and we live in Christ. He is our new identity and we have escaped from sin’s kingdom. Grace killed us and grace has resurrected us so that we are new creations in Christ. Therefore, since all of that is true, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey the body’s passions.
We can and should tell the body no. But how?
Presentation of Self
Presentation of Self
That takes us to the second reality. The first is the propaganda of sin. It uses the body’s own desires to make us think we cannot deny its passions and so must obey it; give up now and save ourselves the agony. The second reality that points to our need to bow the knee to grace in order to defeat sin is to understand the presentation of self.
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.
Second command or prohibition here. The first, “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies.” The second “Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” Since Paul is using kingdom language, then the idea is a king being presented with a gift. In this case, the king (false king) is sin. Paul says, don’t present King Sin with a gift of your member. That member could be anything. Don’t present your lungs as a gift to sin inhaling that which is going to put you in an altered state. Don’t present your stomachs as a gift to sin so that you are gluttonous. Do not present your fingers to sin as a gift so that you take what does not belong to you. Do not present your mind as a gift to sin so that it can use it to imagine or dwell on whatever is false, whatever is dishonorable, whatever is unjust, whatever is impure, whatever is ugly, whatever is abhorrent, if there is any dishonor, if there is anything worthy of criticism and concentrate on those things. Of course, it could also be your other organs.
Sin will use these as instruments of unrighteousness. Instruments simply means any useful tool. Thus, it not only can use them for an immediate gratification of the body’s passions, but as weapons against holiness. Fiery darts aimed at our greatest vulnerabilities. Paul is telling us not to present sin with anymore tools than it already has at its disposal.
Every porn site visited gives sin another dart. Every theft is another arrow. Every slothful moment is another sword. And we’re just giving sin more ammo.
Paul then gives the opposite command. “But” and that’s an emphatic, “but rather.” Not this but that!
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.
Why God? Because God is on the throne! Sin is a false king who was dethroned, hiding out in the jungles with his minions. God is the true king and he is on the throne. Rather than pay tribute to the false king, we are to pay tribute to the true King. We come before God, bowing ourselves to the ground before him. And not our old selves, but our new selves. We are in Christ. Our old selves have died. Our new selves were raised just as surely as Christ himself raised from the dead.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Fact! So we come as those who have died and have resurrected. And we give him our hearts, our minds, our hands, our feet, our eyes, our loins, our tongues as instruments of righteousness. We are like Isaiah before the throne. Look quickly at
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Isaiah, his new self, the Isaiah that had been touched by the coal and received pardon and atonement, immediately presented those same lips (those members) to the Lord. “Here I am, Send me.”
Here’s the interesting thing. The prohibition is in the present tense. The command is in the aorist tense. Those may not mean a whole lot to you, but the present tense is the tense of continuous aspect. Don’t keep presenting your members to sin. But the aorist command is has this beginning aspect to it. But start presenting them to God. Or another way to put it
“Do not keep presenting your members to sin; instead enter into this state of being where you present yourselves and your members to God.” For what? To be used as instruments of righteousness. Give your mind to God to be used to think of
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Present your tongues to give words of life and not death (Proverbs), to put out fires rather than start them (James), to speak truth in love (Ephesians). Present your loins as signs of marital love and fidelity and union (1 Corinthians). It sounds weird. It sounds so unnatural. You’re right, it does and it is!
The natural person is a person who is still outside of Christ not in Christ. But the more that we do it, the more natural it will become. But it is a replacing the natural with the supernatural that we are now in and is now in us. This is what sanctification is all about. We are being conformed to Jesus! Jesus who lived and worked in the power of the Holy Spirit is the very one whom we are becoming more and more conformed. Quickly turn to
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Little by little, we all are becoming more and more like Jesus. Little by little, we follow after the Spirit rather than our passions of the body. We go from living naturally to supernaturally.
But how? How can we become more holy? How do we go from one degree of glory to another? How do we start living more supernaturally and less naturally? By presenting ourselves—and not just generically—but specifically by presenting our members as instruments, tools, weapons of righteousness. It is a state of being. Like praying without ceasing, we are to be in a constant state of prayer so that whenever we something comes to our minds, our hearts, our ears, we ought to think, “I must pray.” So it is that when half my dinner from La Carreta is still on my plate but I’m already full, I present your stomach to God. When your computer is calling to your loins, you immediately present them to God. When your mind begins to think lies and fantasizes about wicked acts, you immediately present it to God.
And typically one of the first thoughts is, “Shouldn’t I do more? Shouldn’t I try to be holy? Shouldn’t I try to be obedient to what God says I should do?”
Position of Salvation
Position of Salvation
That takes us to our last reality. The first was the propaganda of sin. Sin tells us lies that cause us to believe that giving into bodily passions is inevitable. The second is the presentation of self. We must stop presenting ourselves to sin as tools for unrighteousness and enter into a state of presenting ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. This last reality, is the position of salvation.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
“For!” Here’s that gift of “for.” It is giving us the cause! How is it that we can not let sin reign and not present ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness? Because sin will have no dominion over you. In case you’re thinking, “well, yes, in the end, sin will lose its dominion,” you’re misunderstanding. Though it looks future, it isn’t just pointing to the last day when Christ returns. This not only a future reality, but an ongoing truth. It’s like what we find in
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
That’s not a command, nor is it simply predicting the future. It is a statement of truth. From the time of Adam and Eve until Christ returns, men have, are, and will leave father and mother and hold fast to their wives. So when Paul says, “Sin will,” or “Sin shall” he isn’t simply predicting the future, but stating a fact.
How is it that you’re telling me to present myself and my members to God instead of telling me to be obedient to God’s law? And the answer is that sin uses the law.
Follow Paul’s logic here. Sin has no dominion over you since or for or because (the first “for” in the verse is the same word as “since” in Greek). Sin has no dominion over you because you are not under law. In Paul’s mind as he is revealing God’s Word to the Romans, sin and law are linked. Law gives sin power. It gives it dominion. Paul is just giving us a snippet of something he is going to flesh out in chapter 7. But I think it is imperative that we take a quick look now.
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
While we were living in the flesh, the natural self, those sinful passions (the bodily passions that outside of sin are God-given, but with sin reigning are insatiable, become aroused by the law. Those passions start to work in the our members as instruments of unrighteousness and bring death. Sin reigned through death as Paul wrote in Romans 5:21. But now, we are released from the law! In other words, we are under grace! We are dead to the law (both masculine nouns) that held us captive. To what end? For what purpose? So that we can now serve in the new way of the Spirit. In essence, so that we can present what used to be an instrument of unrighteousness as an instrument of righteousness.
This is the power of salvation. This is God’s radical gospel! It changes everything! I don’t want to over-simplify things; but Paul’s message is rather simple. If we are wanting to combat sin, we don’t do it by trying to uphold the law. We do it by living under grace. Those aren’t just words. We live under, we bow the knee to grace and live under its rule and reign.
Quickly, let me say, this is not permission to say, “If God wants me to stop, he’ll stop me.” No. As Pastor Matt pointed out last week; it is not simply that we have died to sin, but that we are alive to God.” It’s a both/and scenario. We have a part in that we do not present our members to sin. We don’t play with sin. This is not permission to flirt around with websites that may show something tantalizing. This isn’t permission to eavesdrop to see if you hear something good or not. This is a, “I will not go there; I will not put myself before that which I am susceptible to fall into” mentality. I will purposefully live in a state of presenting myself before God.”
At the same time, this isn’t a “pray more, read more, listen to Christian music more and everything will get better mentality.” At least, not in and of itself. That’s still acting as if one is under law. There is no power in law. There is only power in grace. If I were to ask everyone in here about their Bible reading and prayer life, everyone would say, “I’m not doing what I should in those areas.” We always feel that way. But what motivates us to read or pray more. Is it, “I should be doing this,” or is it “I long to know the God of my salvation more and love him more?” I’m not trying to put anyone on a guilt trip. “You’re right, I should want to read my Bible because I want to know God more.” No. Stop with the guilt. That’s the law bringing guilt. The position that salvation puts you and I in is one under grace. Yes, read your Bible and pray more, but not because you have to. Read and pray because it gives you life and reminds you of grace and puts a longing into your heart for God and holiness. Let grace have its affect in it.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude with Romans 6:12-14, I told you at the beginning, “The truth is that bodily urges are heightened when sin and law join together and the only way to strike a defeating blow to sin is to bow the knee to grace.” I hope by looking at the three realities in these three verses helped us see this to be true. The propaganda of sin can make us believe that we must succumb to bodily urges. And when we try to fight those urges with law, we are all the more apt to fall because the law strengthens sin. To whom we present the self to is extremely important. To whom/what are we giving more instruments? Who gets the ammunition? Do we give it to sin to use against us or to God to use against sin? The position of salvation is that we live under grace. Grace is our power. Sin has no power over it.
If you have never given your life to Jesus, understand who your true king is. It is not you. You are not your own master. Sin reigns in your life and sin will put you to death. Present your soul to God through Christ. His death will be your death. His resurrection will make you new and bring you in right standing with God so that you can live under grace and battle and win against sin. It’s simple, but it is not easy.
Beloved, you know that already. You are in a constant battle and you will want to use the law as a weapon in your favor. But that’s like using a malfunctioning gun that backfires in your face. The law only strengthens the enemy. Instead, you must use the power of grace. Grace will make weapons of your members and do it in ways you would never expect. May you and I enter into a state of grace as we present ourselves—our very members—to God as instruments of righteousness.