The book of Romans, chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 today, if you would turn there please. While you're turning there, I think it would be responsible for me to address the church this morning concerning some of the things happening in our nation at this hour. There's been a lot of confusion a lot of heartache, a lot of division taking place in our country racially because of various shootings that have happened with the police, police being shot also. And I think as your pastor, I want to address this issue very briefly and just tell you my vision for this country. I believe that in our country, black or white, yellow or brown, whatever, that all the people of this nation need to live under the law of God. I believe that we should be a people that obey, know, and follow the Ten Commandments. I believe that we should be a people that obey the law of God and that all people in this country, white or black, brown or yellow, should be treated with biblical justice. A justice that is colorblind. I want justice, biblical justice and biblical law to reign in our country. And that's all I need to say. Black or white, whatever race we are, may we obey the laws of God and may we pray for biblical justice in every situation. If people would walk with God and obey his laws, all of us, it would bring unity to this great land of ours. We need to pray for our country that we'd be a united country under the law of God and that biblical justice for all, a colorblind justice, a biblical justice would reign in our land. I pray for America. I pray for all the people of this great land. The text before us this morning is a relevant text in Romans chapter 6. It deals with the problem of sin in the believer's life. If your Bible is open, you follow as I read the first 14 verses. Paul writes in this epistle to the people at Rome, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, For you are not under law, but under grace. May the Lord add the blessing of his word to our hearts today. Let's bow in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to us from his scripture today. Father in heaven, we come before you as a people and as a nation that has many, many needs. The reason, Father, we are a needy people is because we are a fallen people. We have hearts that have been touched by sin. and that this fall of Adam has touched the entire human race. That all men, in all places, in all nations and races, are sinners that need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we individually know what it is, even those of us who have been redeemed and born again, we know the battle that we have with indwelling sin. You've told us in the Scripture, Father, by your Apostle, that sin should not have dominion over us. We've been raised with Christ, united with Him, joined to Him, and there ought to be a glorious freedom as we present ourselves to Him. Our great and mighty God, would you speak to those of us today as we learn more about this great battle over our flesh, that we learn to understand our position in Christ, to know the victory that we should have and indeed need to have in Him. I pray, Lord, whatever you're pleased to do, we'll give you the praise and the glory. And Father, should there be somebody here today who has made some form of profession of faith, but if they're living in sin, I pray, Lord, you'd speak to them and show them that this is not pleasing to Thee and that this is not an indication of the new birth. We ask, Lord, that You would now bless and lead us and guide us in our thoughts. We pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen. The Book of Romans is a great book. It's a very profound book. I want to give you just a few basic facts about this particular book. This is perhaps the most profound book in the New Testament, if not in the entire Bible. Someone has said the Book of Romans has been called the cathedral of Christian faith. It's the Christian manifesto. Perhaps the most important book in the entire Bible, and its doctrines are profound and sublime. When Paul wrote this epistle to the people at Rome, The church at Rome had been established for a number of years. And when the Neronian persecution broke forth Thucydides, the Roman governor, he made the comment that there was an immense following of Christ in Rome. There were literally thousands of Christians in Rome when Paul wrote this. And at the end of the book of Romans we realize that there wasn't just one assembly, there were multiple assemblies that made up the church of Rome. Written around 60 A.D., this book was written to a people in the city of Rome, and amongst these people there were a large number of Jews, there were a large number of Gentiles that had been converts out of paganism, out of the false gods of Rome. There were slaves and freemen, a mixture of Romans and people from all over the world in the various assemblies at Rome. This profound book, with its great doctrines, was written by the Apostle Paul to many people who were very humble and unlearned. And it should encourage us that no matter what station we have in life, no matter who we are, that we should be able to open the book of Romans and understand its rich treasures. No one should say, this is such a profound theological book, it's beyond me. If the early people at Rome could understand what Paul was writing and derive great blessings and were able to unlock its riches and treasures, we also should be able to understand the blessings of this great book. Let me give you a brief overview of the book of Romans. The theme of the book goes back to chapter 1. If you have your Bibles there, turn to chapter 1, verse 16, where Paul says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. That verse gives us, in a nutshell, the very theme of this great book, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. In other words, he's saying, he's using a negative to make an affirmation statement. He's saying, I glory, I thrill, I'm stirred, I'm amazed, I wonder, I look at this great gospel and it overwhelms me. That's what he's saying. I'm not ashamed of this gospel of Christ. It's the power of God to salvation. What is the problem in the world today? It's sin. What's the problem in the world today? It's the fact that men are fallen. What's the problem with all the struggles between religions and races and all the things going on? It's sin and the human heart. It's people not living according to the Word of God, not following the Law of God. When people are touched by grace and brought to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord, when the law of God is written on their hearts and they learn to live by law, they are going to be a godly people. And what's happened in our nation today, white and black and brown and yellow, is that we have a nation of people that are lawless. And it's not just white people or black people or yellow people. It's all people that are living lawlessly and they need the gospel. The word gospel means good news. And as Paul opens this epistle in the first couple of chapters, he goes to great lengths to prove the depravity and the sinfulness of all mankind. He doesn't play any favorites. That's why justice must be colorblind. All men have sinned in Adam. All men are fallen and all men are following any number of false gods and deities in their own hearts. You say false gods and deities? The lusts of our flesh, the pleasures of our old life can be an idol and a god that men follow. And Paul has gone to great lengths to show the depravity of the human race. Jew and Gentile alike are fallen. They're under the judgment of God. They're under the wrath of God. And the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all those men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. He goes on through the book of Romans in the first few chapters through chapter 4 and unlocks the mystery of justification by faith. This great doctrine where God declares the repenting, believing sinner not guilty in the courtroom of heaven. Last week we talked about justification by faith and how blessed it is to be declared not guilty in God's courtroom. Paul is dealing with a profound issue. When we come to chapter 5, turn over there if you would, he deals with the subject of justification by faith which is tied to our union with Christ He says in verse 1 of chapter 5, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. As he's built up his case about the fallenness of man, the depravity of man, the sinfulness of man, the need of the gospel, the need of justification, as he's built these great doctrines, he comes to chapter 5 verse 1, he says, but we have now, we've been justified, declared not guilty, by faith, and because of that, we have peace with God. In the midst of the chaos of our nation, in the midst of the spiritual darkness, in the midst of all the confusion, there are people scattered all over this land, all over this country. There are people, white and black, yellow and brown, who have peace with God through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are people who have been born again. These are people who are lovers and worshippers of Christ. These are people who have bowed their knee to His Lordship. These are people who follow the laws of Almighty God. Laws written on their heart and laws found in the Scripture itself. They've known what it is to be touched by grace. And as Paul goes through chapter 5 describing the results of justification, explaining the assurance of our salvation, he comes to a great climax, to a great pitch, a high peak where he bursts forth in the praise in verse 20. Look at verse 20 and 21 of chapter 5. You've got to keep those two verses in the context of all that he's been saying. He's building up, precept upon precept, line upon line until he comes to verse 20. Moreover, he says, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. The law, when preached, makes men guilty. It's like a mirror that shows us our filth, shows us our guilt, shows us our crimes and our offenses before a holy God. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, where sin was proliferating, where sin was exploding, grace abounded much more. This is an amazing statement. to these believers at Rome. Paul's already made it clear that they're fallen. They're under the depravity of man. They're under the bondage of sin. They're lawbreakers. They're lawless. They're godless. They've done all these horrible things, but grace has touched them. Grace has conquered them, he says. And where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You might be here struggling with your sins. struggling with your failures and you're doing battle to mortify the flesh in the walk with God and sometimes you grow weary. You say, Lord I want to be a holy man, I want to be a holy woman and I'm striving and I'm working and I'm putting to death these things but my sins seem to be so many and you may be tempted to ask, God could you ever forgive me? My sins are so numerous, they're legion. Could you forgive me? And the devil the accuser of the brethren, he's pointing his finger at you saying, how can you be a Christian? Look at your thoughts, look at your life, how can you be a Christian? But then you need to go back to the Word of God and hear what Paul says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Your sins may be like mountains before God, but the grace of God is sufficient to cover all, to cover all of your sin. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And then he says in verse 21, so that as sin reigned in death, the word reigned there, not reigned like coming down like the rain out of the sky. Reign means to rule, like something that's a governor or a king, an authority. So that as sin ruled in death, reigned over us, had authority over us, even so grace God's grace in Christ might reign, rule, have authority through the righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, I tell you, for the believer who's been justified, grace has abounded. And we're astonished at that. And grace is ruling and reigning in our life. And we glory in that. But in spite of all that Paul has said in these deep, deep treasures that we have through these first five chapters, we still keenly are aware that we battle with sin in our daily life. We still struggle, every one of us, to make our motives and our thoughts and our actions pure and honorable and righteous. to treat people with respect and kindness, to battle against the prejudices and the things that rule our fallen nature, to be patient, to be forbearing with one another, to be forgiving, to be without bitterness, to be kind and loving, to be like Christ to the people around us in our families and in our relationships as husbands and wives with our parents and our children. We struggle to be like Jesus. Even those of us who've been touched by grace. Sin and the battle of sin and the battle to put it to death is a struggle, an ongoing struggle in the believer's life. What is sin? We're talking about sin being a problem and Paul's dealing with all this in these first five chapters. Sin is anything that's contrary to the will and law of God. Moms and dads, do you know by heart the Ten Commandments? Have you taught your children the Ten Commandments? It's a concise summary of the law of God. There are many laws in the Old Testament and many laws in the New Testament as well. The Bible is a book of law. It's a book of rules and commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Anyone or anything that you love more than God Almighty, more than you love Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus, anything that you love more has become an idol, a God in your life. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, using the name of God or the name of Jesus in a curse word. God will not hold him guiltless who takes the name of the Lord in vain. We sometimes fail to realize how serious it is to take the name of God in profanity. It's an indication of a wicked, fallen art. Do you swear? Do you use the name of God in vain? My dear friend, you need to pray for God's grace and forgiveness. You must not profane the holy name of God. It will bring damnation to your soul. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Are you a worshiper of God? Worship is every day of our life. We find time to worship and to give glory to God. But there's a day in the Lord's economy when we come to the Lord's house. We come with one's whole purpose, not to be entertained and not to have our ears tickled and our backs scratched, we come primarily into the presence of God for one purpose. That's to worship, to give Him glory, to worship, to bow down before the Creator. And if we're not worshiping Him, do you think that you're going to spend eternity in heaven with a God that you do not worship? Honor your father and your mother. Young people, when you disobey your parents, If you sass them, disrespect them, or even say unkind things about them to their face or behind their back, do you know that that's a sin before the Lord? You say, but my father or my mother, they're not godly. They're not even saved. They may be wicked people as we all are fallen. But you respect them. You honor them. Thou shalt not kill. Someone says, well, I'm not guilty of that one. I've not murdered anybody. But Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, if you hate somebody because of their skin color or because of their religion or anything else, if you hate and despise somebody, you've committed murder in the heart. God sees the attitude of the heart as much as He sees the action of your outward life. Thou shalt not commit adultery. But to lust upon a woman is to have adultery in the heart. Thou shalt not steal, or lie, or covet. These are the laws of God. And sin is when we break these great laws. And the problem in the Christian life is that even those who've been born again, even those who've been touched by grace, we battle the flesh. We struggle in our walk with God to be decent, righteous, faithful, people of integrity and character. We struggle to be what God wants us to be. There's not anyone who does not have to battle against sin. Paul has come to this great climax. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And we praise the Lord for that. And as sin reigned in death, even so grace is reigning. It's ruling grace. Oh, we praise God for grace. For this abounding, reigning, ruling, amazing grace of God. But Paul anticipated, as he comes to chapter 6, our text, that there would be some people who might take his teaching on the forgiveness of sin, on justification by faith, They might conclude that it doesn't really matter how we live. If grace is ruling and reigning, if grace is triumphant and superabounding over all my sin, maybe it's not that important how I live. Maybe I can do these little white sins, these little things that aren't that significant. Maybe it's not too bad if I lie or gossip or steal. Maybe these little things, you know, Maybe I can tolerate secret sins in my life. After all, I'm forgiven. I'm going to heaven. And I'm trying to do my best. And if I fail, the Bible says I'm forgiven. And so you can't make excuses. And you can't draw conclusions that somehow that you can compromise with sin and think it's okay with God. Paul says in the book of Romans chapter 8, if you live in the flesh, you are going to perish. you are going to die and face the wrath of God. So anticipating this problem of sin in the believer's life, that they might conclude incorrectly from his teaching on grace that it doesn't matter how we live. Some people refer to it as being an antinomian. The two words anti meaning against. Nomian comes from the Greek word for law, nomos, against the law. There are some people who think because I'm under grace, it doesn't matter how I live. The law is not that important. I can live any way I want. And Paul anticipated that. And so in verse 1 of chapter 6, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue? That is, shall we live in sin that grace might abound? He asked the question. This is the problem we're facing. This is the question for today. This is where I'm asking each of you. Should you, should I, should any of us, should we continue in sin so grace can abound? Paul answers his question with a question. He says, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? I'm taking my theme today, the problem of sin in the believer's life. There are just two points that we have in chapter 6 of these first 14 verses. And by the way, you could do a month of sermons or more on this great text that we have before us. And in a broad sweeping stroke, I want to talk about the problem of sin in our lives. We have in verse 1, our first point, the problem stated. And then in verses 2-14, we have the problem solved. Well, let's look at the problem that's stated. He says in verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He raises this question, shall we live any way we want? Because it doesn't matter, because grace is superabounding, and no matter how bad our sins are, grace, Paul says, is superabounding, it's overflowing, it's ruling, it's reigning, it buries our sin, so it doesn't matter how we live. Notice the intensity of what his response is. Certainly not. In the Greek New Testament, it's with great emphasis. Certainly not. How can we continue in this? Paul is saying you must not, you must not draw that conclusion. You must not make that mistake that you think you can live any way you want. I want to say this, I want to warn you today, if you have concluded that way, if you think because you've been justified, because you've been forgiven or born again, if you think that you can live any way you want, not only are you thinking incorrectly, it's an indication your heart is still wicked and evil and fallen and unregenerate. A true believer does not think that way. A believer who's been saved by grace knows that sin is sin. And it must be forsaken and crucified and dealt with. So we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions. What does it mean when he says we've died to sin? He says in verse 2, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Here's two questions on this point. What does it mean that we've died to sin? And what does he mean that we can't go living any longer in it? Let's try to answer these two brief questions under our first point. What does it mean we've died to sin? Paul is talking in this sixth chapter about our gracious union with Christ. When the Lord regenerated us and gave us the gift of the new birth and gave us repentance and faith and we were born again, we've been joined spiritually. Spiritually we've been joined to Christ. So what is now true of Jesus is now true of us. When Jesus died because we're joined to Him, we died with Him. On Friday night at the Men's Fellowship, we came over here to play some table tennis and have a good time together and pizza and fellowship and I had a meeting with the gentleman and I talked about Ephesians chapter 1 and I said, in these opening verses of Ephesians, Paul talks about election and predestination, but as he deals with these great, great themes of the sovereignty of God, he talks about us being joined to Christ and seated with Him That is, positionally with Him in the heavenlies and heavenly places. Oh, that we might know the glorious position we have in Christ. Because of our union to Jesus, when He died, we died with Him. When He was raised, we were raised with Him. That's what He means when He said, we have died to sin. But what does He mean? He said, we can't go any further. We can't continue to live in sin. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Paul's not saying that we can't sin. He's not saying that we can somehow reach a state of sinless perfection. Nobody on this side of glory is going to reach sinless perfection. He doesn't say that we can't sin. We're going to sin. You're going to sin. What he's saying is, if you're a true believer, you cannot live continually in sin. There's a difference between sinning and living in sin. That's what he's getting at here. In verse 6, Paul says, we're no longer slaves to sin. If you live continually in sin, you're a slave to sin and you've not been redeemed. So our first point here is this great sin problem that he's dealing with, the great problem of sin. He states, and what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How can you be so foolish to think that, he says. We died in Christ, and because of that we're raised in Christ. Sin should no longer have dominion over us, therefore we don't live in sin. I want to just stop here for a minute, because we're dealing with the problem of sin in our life. I want to share with you a few reasons why we all of us should take sin seriously in our walk with God and realize that we need to put it to an end. Why should you not sin? It should be obvious. It should be obvious. Let me just give you a few reasons. Are there any little sins in your life? Any little secret sins or hidden sins? Even a little sin will lead to more sin. A little spark can lead to a fire. Your sin will lead to the discipline of a holy God over your life. You want God to come down on you and discipline you? He will discipline His children. You should not sin because time spent in sin is time forever wasted. You should not sin because your sin never pleases a holy God. It grieves the Holy Spirit. You shouldn't sin in your life, particularly if it's open and known and scandalous. It puts great burdens on your spiritual leaders and those that love you. Sin will make you less than what you could be for Christ. If you sin, your family, others may suffer the consequences due to your sins. Sin will bring sadness to those who love you. Sin makes the enemies of God rejoice when they see Christians fall. Sin will keep you from being qualified for spiritual leadership. Sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss. Your sin may influence other people around you to sin. Your sin may keep others from knowing Christ. Your sin makes light of the cross upon which Christ died and the very purpose for taking away your sin. God won't answer the prayers of those who live in sin. Sins steal your reputation and rob you of your testimony. Sin and guilt can harm your body, your mind, your emotions. Sin, mixed with service, makes the things of God tasteless. Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both. Sin is adultery with the world. To sin is not to love Christ. To sin is to be disobedient. To sin is to grieve God and it doesn't glorify God. And the list could go on and on and on. Sin is a very real problem in all of our lives. Our first point here in our text is the problem stated. Here's the problem. Paul's been dealing with grace and forgiveness and justification, but he wants to make sure that these people at Rome don't draw a conclusion that somehow you can live any way you want, and it's no big deal. You know, there are people all over our land, there are millions of people in America that go to churches, maybe they don't go to churches, but there are many people, they think they're going to go to heaven. When it comes to the end, they think they're going to go to heaven, but if they're living in sin, they are going to have a surprise the day of judgment. If we confess our sins, John tells us in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The problem state. Now we come to the problem solved. How does God deal with sin? What is Paul going to tell us how to deal with sin? Now this is very profound and in one message I can't cover this all. I would say this, if you have the privilege, the opportunity to get out Romans chapter 6 by the great doctor Martin Lloyd-Jones, you will be greatly blessed by his sermons on this. The problem of sin is solved by our union with Christ, by seeing ourselves joined to Him. What does it mean that we are joined to Christ? Look at verse 5, he says, for if we have been united, or the word could be planted, if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Paul is going to say in the sixth chapter, he's going to use a number of analogies to describe our union with Christ. The way to deal with sin is to realize that you are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that union, whatever is true of Christ is now true of you. His life, His death, is your life, your death. Because you're joined to Him, all the rich blessings that come through Christ come to you because of being joined to Him. Let me say this. Condemnation and death came because of our union to Adam. But our union to Christ brings justification and life. This union that we have with Christ has two blessings. First of all, because you're joined to Christ and redeemed and born again, you're declared not guilty in the courtroom of heaven. Let me summarize it briefly. You're standing before a holy God. The enemy is Satan, prosecutor. He brings his charges against you. He says to the judge, Almighty God, he says, Your Honor, look at this man. Look at this person. They have sinned against you. Your law says the soul that sins, it shall die. And he brings out all these witnesses to marshal their arguments and their testimonies against you, and you're condemned. But then your defense attorney comes out, the Lord Jesus. He has on his hands, his side, his feet, his back, his brow, the wounds of Calvary. He says, Father, our covenant, our agreement was that I would bear their guilt and their shame and their sin, and I lived a life of holiness to give this man. And I died in his place to bear his crime and shame. Here's the evidence, Father, of what I've done. Look at my side. Look at my hands and feet. That's our agreement, Father." And the father, the judge, brings the gavel down and says, not guilty in the courtroom of heaven. The benefits of being joined to Christ by regeneration, the new birth, is that you're declared not guilty in the courtroom. of heaven. But the second blessing is that no longer does the apostle tell us, no longer does sin need to or must rule over you and make you a slave to it. We may struggle with the temptations, but we're no longer slaves to sin. What does he say in verse 14 of this chapter 6? For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. If you've been touched by the grace of God, sin no longer rules and reigns and has authority over you. You've been joined to Christ. You have glorious freedom in Him. This union with Jesus, it's gracious, it's spiritual, it's mystical, it's legal, and it's real. Do you understand who you are today, dear friend? You're a child of God. Do you understand the deep riches? You are in Christ. You're joined to Him. You're seated with Him in the heavenlies. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You in Him. And He in you. What riches are ours because of our union with Christ. Now the analogies Paul uses in chapter 6, these 14 verses, to describe this union, I'm going to just give it quickly here. He says we're baptized in Christ. We're raised to newness in life in Christ. We're buried in Him. We're planted in Him. We're crucified. We're dead. We live in Him. These are the analogies. These are the words Paul used to describe your relationship. If you ever are tempted to think that you're not something special to God, if you're ever tempted to think that your life isn't significant, If you love the Lord, remember this, you are chosen from the foundation of the world to be His special treasure. Not only did He select you and choose you, He followed you through life. He sent His Holy Spirit, the Hound of Heaven, to go down the highways and byways and follow your wretched, stinking life to a place where He found you, took a hold of you, and changed you, and gave you life. set you free, snap the chains of the shackles that bound you and set you free. And then he says, oh, you've been baptized in me. You're resurrected in me. You're seated in me. You're raised up in me. You live in me. Oh, these riches. Do you understand? Do you understand how precious it is to be a believer? What other religion has this? This Hinduism? You want to become a Hindu? and go through the endless cycle of death and reincarnations and hopefully, maybe someday, you reach karma? Is that what you want? And on what authority does anyone teach such nonsense? You want to become a Muslim? Do they have a savior? Do they have a redemption? Do they have forgiveness of sin or the precious blood of Christ to wash you from your sins? In that system, when you die, you stand before their alleged creator and it's like this. Some of their great traditions say it this way. It's like walking over the abyss. You're on a log and their deity says, at his whim, he can flip the log and flip you into hell or let you pass It's just His will. Allah wills it. Muhammad Ali, before he died, was interviewed and said, what is your hope of eternal life? And he said, when I die, Allah is going to weigh my good works and my bad works, and if my good works outweigh my bad works, I'll go to paradise. That's works of salvation. Do you understand the treasures I'm describing here by the Apostle Paul? chosen and choice and precious, joined to Christ, risen with Him, seated in Him. These are precious, precious truths. Now what are the responsibilities of this great union? Look at verse 4. Therefore we've been buried with Him through baptism unto death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, here's the result of our union with Christ, even so we should now walk We should walk in newness, in newness of life. The believer's life is not perfect. We still battle sin. But we walk in newness of life. We learn to treat one another the way Jesus has taught us to treat one another. To be forbearing. To be thoughtful. To be considerate. To be kind. What did Paul tell the church at Ephesus? Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. That's the Christian ethic, to be in our marriages, in our families, with our relationships, with our neighbors, with our friends, with people that annoy us, with people that irritate us, to learn to be patient and kind. forebearing, to be like the Lord Jesus. To practice the golden rule, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Take that simple golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus taught us that. If you would follow just that simple rule, what a difference, a profound difference it would make in your walk. To walk in newness of life means the life of God. The life of God is coursing through your soul. You now have new desires and new thoughts and new impulses that direct you in a certain way. You now have the law of God written in your heart and no one needs to teach you that certain things are evil or wrong or corrupt. You have the law of God in your soul and you begin to walk with Him. These are the joys of being joined to Christ. We also need to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. We must not allow sin to reign in our lives. We must present or yield ourselves to the Lord. Because we're joined to Christ, all these blessings are true of us. Let me come back, if I can, to my main theme here. It was simply this, the problem of sin in the believer's life. Paul states the problem that we have with sin in verse 1. That's the concern he has. If you're born again, if you're God's child, should you continue in sin that grace may abound? He answers his question with a question. How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer there in it? As a response to all that he's done, we have great responsibilities. We have great responsibilities. If you see yourself joined to Christ, you must never, ever conclude that you can go live any way you want, that that would not be pleasing to the Lord. You need to present yourself to the Lord. You need to give yourself to God Almighty. Turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 12, if you would, in verse 1. Here's what our response should be if we know the Lord. If we truly know Christ, if we understand this gracious and wonderful union, this is what our response should be. Verse 1 of chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. If you understand grace, if you understand God's love for you, then you ought to present yourself as a living sacrifice to God. It's an amazing thing to stop and realize what we should do. Look at chapter 12, verse 1. He says, you present yourself to God a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. The word reasonable comes from the Greek word logikos. Logikos. Does that word logikos sound like any word in our English? Logikos. Does it sound like maybe the word logic? That's what it means. Our word logic comes from this root word logikos. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's rational, logical, reasonable, in the light of all that God has done for you through these first 11 chapters as Paul has unfolded the riches of saving grace in the light of Calvary, in the light of the resurrection, in the light of his glorious ascension and his reign and glory, his session there before the... It's a logical thing. It's a reasonable thing that you go before God You go before Him and you present. You present yourself to God. You say, Lord, I'm going to yield my eyes and my ears, my hands and my feet, my tongue, my body to You. It's, Lord, in the light of all You've done, wash me in the blood of Your Son and dress me in His righteousness. I'm going to yield my entire body, mind, and soul and spirit to You. and yield myself and my members to you, to be a slave, a willing servant to you, that Christ would be Lord in my life. Go back to our text in chapter 6. In chapter 6, verse 13, it says, And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of the righteousness to God. In verse 13, the word present, I think in the authorized version it has the word yield. It means the same thing. This particular word here is paristomy. Paristomy. To yield, if you look up in a Greek lexicon, it means to yield or to present. This word in verse 13 is the same identical word translated present in chapter 12. And what Paul is saying in the light of this gracious and amazing union with Jesus, we are to present, to yield ourselves to God Almighty and say, Father, I am willing to become a bond servant, a willing slave to Jesus. Oh, His yoke is easy. and his burden is light. So what does God want you to do in the light of this great problem we have with sin? Should we glory in forgiveness and then live an antinomian kind of life, live any way we want, as if the law of God is not important, or holiness doesn't count? No. We have to mortify our sins. And we have to see ourselves joined to Christ, a real union, that all that's true of Him is now true of us. And we need to come before God and not yield ourselves to the sin and the pleasures of the world, but yield ourselves to God. And as Romans 12 says, go before the Lord and present your body a living sacrifice. I'm asking every true believer here, you may have done it Many times I'm asking you today, today get alone with God. Today in your worship, in your home, in your closet, wherever you pray, today get alone before Almighty God and again, again present yourself to God a living sacrifice. Today yield, yield to the Spirit, yield to the Word. Today take every part of your body, every part of your being and give it to the Lord and say, Lord may I be holy. May I be godly. If you're struggling in sin, crucify it and deal with it, or it will damn your soul. So Paul's dealing with sin in our lives. And his answer to dealing with sin is to understand who you are in Christ. His way of dealing with sin was for you to understand the riches of grace that come through our gracious, legal, mystical, and real union with the Lord Jesus. And we come to the table today to worship the Lord, to remember what he's done, and to be spiritually nourished on the elements today, to be strengthened and nourished by the blood and body of the Lord Jesus at our Holy Communion. I pray we come today with humble hearts, confessing hearts, and hearts that as we come to the table that we're bowing before God Almighty and that we're saying as we come, Lord, I present myself a living sacrifice to you. Our Father in heaven, I thank you for the word. I thank you for your scriptures. Thank you for those who are here and for those who may be listening by way of our broadcast. I pray, Lord, that you would speak to all those today who have a need to yield, to present themselves to you. May we see ourselves Join to Christ. May we glory in His grace. May we thrill in the great riches that we have through Him. We'll give you praise. We'll give you glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name and for His glory alone. Amen.