We come now to the reading of God's Word, and I'd ask that you please stand with me and turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 11. Leviticus chapter 11. We'll be reading verses 44 to 47. Leviticus chapter 11, verses 44 to 47. beginning in verse 44. For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. And now would you turn with me to Colossians chapter 3, as we read verses 1 through 11. Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. Beginning in verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedient, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's children said, Amen. Please be seated. Join me in a word of prayer once more. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask very simply that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear the word of the Lord and what you are calling us to be and to do. We pray, Heavenly Father, that this would be for your glory. We pray, Heavenly Father, that You would fill me with Your Spirit as I proclaim Your Word, that You would help me, that You would help us. We ask these things in Your precious Son, Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. I'd like to invite you, if you have not turned there already, to turn with me to Romans chapter 6, verses 11 to 14. Romans chapter 6, verses 11 to 14. I'd like to begin this morning by reading from God's Word, from our passage. Again, Romans 6, verses 11 to 14, beginning in verse 11. Paul writes, 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 the law, but under grace. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. In John chapter 11, verses 38 to 44, a passage that we're all quite familiar with, Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus, who has by then been dead for four days. We're told that as Jesus comes, verse 38, to the tomb and where Lazarus' family is there mourning his death, that Jesus approaches the tomb, it says, groaning. We know why, because Mary and Martha simply did not believe what Jesus told them back in verse 4. He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Jesus asks these men who are gathered there to remove the stone that covers Lazarus's tomb's entrance. Verse 40, Martha responds by saying, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead for four days. By saying this, as we know, She's indicating that she is absolutely convinced that her brother Lazarus is dead. That Jesus Christ is essentially too late to do what he promised these sisters what he would do. Jesus does something rather interestingly. He begins to pray as she says this to him. Again, he asks the stone to be removed, and they do so. But Jesus thanks the Father that he has heard Jesus' prayer for this family. And that his arrival, although four days late, according to Mary and Martha, Jesus knows that in his coming four days late, that he comes according to God's providential plan. Jesus stands in the entrance of Lazarus' tomb, and he cries out, he calls out rather to Lazarus, and he says, Lazarus, come forth. Verse 44, Lazarus then, still dressed in his grave clothes, his face covered and wrapped with cloth, Jesus tells the onlookers to take Lazarus' wrappings off of him. We know that this story is very much a testimony of the power of Christ as incarnate deity. The story is also about the providence and sovereignty of God, because Lazarus being dead for four days did not, as we know, hinder Jesus Christ's ability to stand before him and to call Lazarus out from his tomb, his death, to raise Lazarus. We know that. But what you may not know is that this story is also a very vivid picture of what believers look like, what their condition is, as we convert to Christ. That is, to be regenerated by the Spirit of God, to be alive spiritually, to trust in Christ, to acknowledge his lordship over all, but to still be bound in some of the grave clothes of your old sinful nature. The difference between what we experience and what Lazarus experiences there in John 11 is that Lazarus's grave clothes, the cloth that covered his face, were all taken off of him. Whereas believers are continuously tempted to put the old clothes back on, and that battle with sin and Satan is what Paul recognizes and discusses here in Romans chapter 6 verses 11 to 14. We go back to Romans chapter 3 verse 20 all the way to chapter 5 verse 21. Paul is arguing justification through faith in Jesus Christ alone. In fact, a part of his argument is to anticipate that some will say, if we are justified from our sins through Christ, doesn't that somehow give us permission to continue on with sin? So as he approaches chapter 6 verse 1, he says, Do you know that this phrase, certainly not, is one Greek word? And it's the strongest outright rejection of an idea that Paul in the Greek had the ability to utilize outside of cussing. The word reflects outrage at even the possibility that God, through Christ, would justify his people and then allow them to keep sinning in spite of his grace. The argument that Paul is essentially making is that although we are justified by grace, that the continued work of God the Holy Spirit in our life is to bring us into conformity with Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul argues here that God sanctifies his people, he transforms them. In other words, there will be a noticeable difference from the first day we began this journey of faith to the day the Lord our God calls us home because we go through the process of sanctification. Paul in this text answers three questions. Three questions. If we have really been freed from sin by Christ, why does it, that is sin, give us so much trouble? If we are now holy before God, why are our lives so often unholy? If we are righteous, how can our lives better manifest that righteousness? In our text this morning, Paul answers those three questions. First of all, the beginning of 11, 11a, like verses 1-10 tell us, faith in Christ alone means that we are forgiven of our sin and justified and set free from our bondage to sin. The second part of verse 11, then, because of Christ, we are alive to God. And thirdly, verses 12-14, we must then present ourselves to God. We have to understand, beloved, that the argument being made here is that what God's Word concerning you and I in Christ is true. Absolutely. Emphatically, it's true. It is true regardless of how you and I may feel or think about ourselves or our mistakes. that if you have trusted Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you believe in the pure doctrine of the Word, you allow the means of grace to instruct and encourage you. If you continue on in repenting of your sins, the point that Paul makes is that those things are indicators that God has, in fact, called you, that He is continuing to sanctify you. And therefore, we should be encouraged this morning that because of the work of God the Holy Spirit in us that we can and should continue our fight against sin and never live in it like we had prior to our being in Christ. We begin in verse 11a, faith in Christ alone means that we are truly and actually forgiven of our sins. 11a is three simple words. He writes, Likewise, you also. Likewise, you also. What is happening as he begins verse 11 in this very encouraging four verses of chapter 6, is a bringing down from what he wrote in verses 1-10 to simply prove to us what Christ has done for us on the cross. He uses this word likewise. The Greek word is houtos. In English it's h-o-u-t-o-s. Houtos. It is a word that means so or thus. But the word refers to what we know to be true. The point is that Paul writes to these Christians and to us that we must know by faith that Christ's redemptive work on the cross actually redeems us from our sins. He takes it from the philosophical idea and he applies it to our hearts. The question is, when in verses 1-10 does He tell us that we ought to know? Let me show you just a few of these. The first, verse 2, chapter 6. He says, "...certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Paul's point here in verse 2, very quickly, is that believers have been united with Christ in both His death and resurrection, and that has so altered our condition that we cannot continue on in sinning as we once did. To live, his point is, to live in that type of unrepented sin is to live in light of Christ in an incompatible way. In other words, we are not able because of the Spirit of God to continue on in sin as we once had. He continues that point on in verses three and four. 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. Paul continues to say that the reason we can't live as we once had is that baptism is the sign and seal of our initial union to Christ. It is the burial service of the old man and the inauguration of the new person who is now in Christ. In fact, other parts of Scripture say that we put on Christ. Literally, we are hidden in Him through faith in Jesus Christ. Thirdly, verse 7, it says, Here, Paul uses the language of being delivered from the reign of sin, and not simply its guilt. That is to say, that because we are new in Christ, the natural inclination of our sinful depravity no longer has the ability to dictate how we live. And finally, verse 8, Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. This not only means or refers to our being raised with Christ when He returns in the resurrection, but in the here and now it means that we are alive to God, meaning we are free to obey Him and not our sinful natures. So what about that, that He brings together here in verse 11, likewise you also is encouraging to us. How is that encouraging? It's interesting, when you read through verses 1-10, the verbs know or believe are used four times. Four times. Verse 3, Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Verse six, 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. Verse eight, now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. And again, verse nine, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. The issue that Paul is trying to iterate to them, to us, is not simply an intellectual understanding of what Christ has done, but believing that what he has done has actually done for you and has set you free from the bondage of sin. That does not mean that we are still not depraved. It doesn't mean that we're not going to continue on with our struggle with sin. It means that sin does not have its hold, its grip upon us as it once had. We are free. You don't always, therefore, have to let someone know how frustrated you are when they frustrate you. Amen? You can and should be kind to people. We should grow to be forgiving of people. You don't have to let anger and bitterness fester in your heart. You don't have to loathe yourself when you sin against the Lord. It needs to be said, however, that Paul is not giving us a pep rally here. Do you remember if you played high school sports that on the morning of the big game, everybody got together in the gymnasium and the cheerleaders and the student section got up and did a hurrah hurrah? That's not what Paul is doing here. He isn't trying to pump up us to action. What he is explaining to us is that the old man, the old way we used to respond in life has died with Christ and now we are new because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the question is, do we know that? Do we believe that? That the old man has died and that the new man in Christ has come? Isaiah chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, the prophet writes, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. In other words, there is a world of difference between knowing something in our minds and living that out in our lives. Hosea chapter 4 verse 6, the prophet says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge. I also reject you from being priests over me, because you have forgotten the law of your God. I will also forget your children. Isaiah Psalm chapter 119 verse 2, it says, So the first issue that Paul brings up, as we have already said, is, do you understand, at the core of your being, at the depths of your heart, that when the Word says that Christ has actually died for our sins, that when we have put our faith upon Him as the elect people of God, that your sins are in fact forgiven you? Do you believe that? Do you believe it? The second point that Paul makes here in 11b, because of Christ we are now alive to God. The second part of verse 11, he says, This word, reckon, Some versions may have the word or translated the word consider from the Greek word logizome to count or number something. The idea here is more metaphorical. It is the fully affirming of a truth. It is having an unreserved inner confidence in the reality of that truth. Later on in chapter 7, Paul illustrates from his own life how difficult it is for a Christian to realize experientially that he is free from the bondage of sin. If we were honest with ourselves and with each other, we would acknowledge how sin's contamination is still very much with us. The point here is no matter how radically our transformation at the time of our salvation was, because we will continue to struggle with sin, oftentimes it may very well be difficult to comprehend that we no longer are bound or slaves to our sin nature as we once were. It is the work of God the Holy Spirit, and God the Father now calls us to be His children and deems us fit to live eternally with Him in heaven. We've come up here with several reasons why it's a struggle for us to believe that in our core. Some may not realize this marvelous truth simply because we've never heard it before. We may not have this belief in this truth because we may not think we're actually free from sin. We may find it unbelievable that we're free from sin because our being set free didn't come with an overwhelming feeling of euphoria. But one of the reasons that we struggle with our being freed from the bondage of sin is because very few of us will actually fight our flesh to bring it into conformity with Jesus Christ. We have conditioned ourselves, sadly, I would say, to believe that This is just who we are. And maybe we can do better in some respects, but this is just who I am. Notice here at the end of verse 11, Paul writes, What is not happening here is some kind of a psychological game that Paul is saying to us where we're encouraged to say something that we want to be true about ourselves that you repeat over and over again until you believe that to be true. What Paul is actually getting us to see is that because of God's Word declares that we are by faith justified through Christ and forgiven of our sins, that we have been raised into the newness of life and are no longer bound in sin. The issue is not can you talk about that as reality, it's do you hold to it. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, the Apostle Paul writes, So at first we're to know what it is that, or how it is that we have been set free from sin through Jesus Christ. Paul's second point is that we are to hold fast to that. to reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The third point that he makes in verses 12 through 14, we must now present ourselves to God. You follow along with me as I read for us, beginning in verse 12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it and its lusts. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Paul's final point here is the need for you and I, as the redeemed of the Lord, to exercise what we know to be true. To put it another way, we are to live as if what God's Word calls us to be, what it is calling us to do, is something that because we've been transformed, that it's something we want to pursue. This word present. Present. It's used two times here in verse 13. He writes, "...and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but instead present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead." Some versions will use the word yield. referring to our minds, that we are to yield, conform ourselves to what we know God has called us to be. But the idea in our yielding, in our presenting, is a willingness, a desire to do so because of what he has done for us. Everything has to do with our relationship to God, and the believer knows what Christ has done. And the idea is that we look to live in the way that he has called us to. Verse 14, it says, For sin shall not have dominion over you. This word dominion, some versions will have the word reign, comes from the Greek word kyrieo, that literally means to exercise lordship over. What Paul is describing here is that sin is a monarch or a king that had, at one point, absolute authority over our lives. Because of Christ's work on the cross, that power was dethroned and has no right to control you or how you live. He tells us why, verse 14, 14 "...for you are not under law, but under grace." What does the law have to do with our fight against sin? I'm glad that you asked. The argument is that unlike grace, the law nor our attempt to obey the law on our own. The law does not have the power to break either sin's power or the penalty of sin over our life. The sin can only rebuke us or condemn us for breaking the law. But as a Christian, now through Jesus Christ, we are under the redeeming power of His grace. Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 to 13, Paul writes, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. You notice there that Paul writes, "...work out your own salvation." But he adds here, and this is the point, "...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." The reason that grace is so good up against the law is that when the law comes, it is a black and white issue. You either obey the law or you don't, and if you don't, you die. But grace comes into our heart. through the Spirit's regenerating work. And what does He do? He changes us from within our minds and within our hearts. He opens our eyes to our need to be saved through Jesus Christ. And He puts in us a willing, passionate desire to follow after Him. But what He does in that is give us the ability to follow after Him. The difference between law and grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God works in you to be able to follow after Him. He takes you from being dead in your sins and trespasses, makes you alive, and then gives you the persevering grace to follow after Him for His glory and our good. And I'll add, that when he transforms us, he makes us look good in the process, amen? Because we're not doing the same sinful, rebellious things that we used to. It is grace. It is mercy. It is what we're describing in the book of Genesis, the covenant of grace, that God, from before the world had been created, decided to settle His grace upon you, that you might be His, for His glory. Aside from this work, there is no pleasing God. There is no climbing the spiritual ladder into maturity and Christ-likeness, because apart from Him, we are dead, and there is no hope. But in Him, according to His mercy, He gives us all that we need to follow after Him. That's good news. Amen? That is what we are celebrating this morning in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It is the remembering that Christ works from eternity past, that we might be here on this day remembering what he has done regardless of what we deserve. Then that he continues to cause us to persevere that we might follow after him for his glory. There's a couple of things that I would like you to know that come from this work. First is that we know being in Christ that we cannot somehow lose our being in Christ. The gospel is very clear that once we are placed in the palm of his hand by the electing work of the Father that we cannot be taken from Christ's hands. Because of his work of grace, you and I can have confidence that even if something were to happen to us physically, we're going to be with our Lord and Savior for all of eternity. And thirdly, because of this work of grace, as we face temptation of various types, knowing that sin and temptation have lost their tyrannical hold over us, we can resist them by God's power. See, what Paul isn't arguing is that being in Christ will somehow cover you with the shield of glory that prevents you from facing various types of temptations. In fact, we know that they're going to come. And as we follow after him, we try to live a godly life for his glory, we know that the possibility of facing persecutions may come. and He's called us to endure them, but He will cause us to persevere because of that same grace. But the temptations that we have, we must know in our hearts, the depths of our hearts, our minds, that He's given you everything you need to resist them for His glory. Let me tell you a funny story the Lord brought to my memory yesterday afternoon. I'd forgotten about it. Yesterday afternoon by the Lord's providence, I remembered. Before Rachel and I were married and I was living in Kansas City by myself, across the street from the seminary that I was attending there, there was a Sam's Club. I had my job as a, what was I? I think I was a security guard. And I paid my rent, and I paid whatever else I needed to, and so I had a little bit extra, so I decided that I would begin to buy in bulk from Sam's Club. And since it was right across the street, it was the Lord speaking to me! Go to Sam's Club. I remember one shopping day, I was in there, class had finished, I worked in the evening, so I was there doing some shopping. And at the time, I was faster than I am now. So, like the flash, I went in and I was getting stuff that I needed and I was going from aisle to aisle and I was, what I thought, I thought I was moving quickly. But I get to this point and I forget what was around me, what was in the area, but I see this little girl and her mom. The little girl had pigtails, she was cute as a button, she was wearing a dress. She was walking around with her mom. Her mom was very pregnant. I was not making a mistake. She was very pregnant. She was petite and short, and she was very pregnant. And all of a sudden, this little girl and her mom are walking around. This little girl's cute. She's kind of skipping around, and she's enjoying being there at Sam's Club with her mom. And all of a sudden, this man comes walking around the corner. This guy was short, and he He had a full tummy. Bigger guy. And the little girl, without missing a beat, sees this man. She looks at her mom, looks at her mom's tummy, she looks at this man, and she says, look mommy, he's pregnant too! The red face that that mom got. I saw her. She looked around for a place to dive. to get out of the way, and the little girl was just happy as a clam. He's pregnant too! You know what I remember about that, as cute as that was? That man did not bat an eye. He smiled, he took it in good stride. I don't know if that man was a believer or not, but the point is that because we are in Christ Jesus, we don't respond like the world. We don't hold bitterness. We don't act like angry people walking around looking to constantly defend ourselves. We are forgiven. We freely forgive. And the beauty of this is that because we've been forgiven, we can freely forgive. The beauty of the gospel is that you will break the law of the Lord. You'll sin against God. It's a fact. We will. We're going to struggle as sinners on this side of eternity with sin. But when we repent, he is faithful and just and will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. But at what point Will we by faith at the same time decide that we will no longer live in ways that we used to and we will bring those struggles under conformity of Jesus Christ that we might live for his glory as his redeemed beloved? Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would be with us the rest of this week. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bring to our remembrance Romans 6, that when we have time that we would sit and read it, that we would learn from it, and we would look to apply it for your glory. Lord, help us to walk in the newness of life as we remember the sacraments of the Lord's Supper. For it is in your precious name we pray, Amen.