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[0:00] Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast. I will walk by faith and not by sight.

[0:48] Hey guys, how are you this evening? I'm good. All right. Hey, we're doing a one-off tonight. So actually open up to Romans chapter 6, if you don't mind. I'll stall a little minute to let you find your spot there.

[1:04] So Pastor Jared, he's taking this evening off so that he can be ready because we're going to be starting a Holy Spirit in the following Wednesdays, or a Bible study on the Holy Spirit here.

[1:16] So excited for that one. Asked me to kind of step in in the meantime so that he could have the time to put in the work and get ready for that series. So when he asked, honestly, y'all are just picking up with me kind of where I've been in my own studies.

[1:30] I'm not going to lie. So if you end up, if what we talk about tonight just really like strikes a chord, I've been reading a book by a fellow named Watchman Nee. And it was, that's right, Eddie, you had something about this too the other day, didn't you?

[1:44] But I've been reading through a book called The Normal Christian Life. And I love it because he's not talking about what you perceive around you as the normal Christian life, but what the normal Christian life would be as described in the Word of God.

[2:01] So I love it. And a lot of it is just his commentary on Romans anyway. But we, man, I've been chewing on the portion that kind of pertains to chapter six here for the last handful of weeks.

[2:15] So man, y'all are just jumping in with me then. All right. So let me, let me pray for us as we, as we dive in here and Lord will settle me and all the rest of y'all too then.

[2:30] So, all right, Father, we love you, Dad. Thank you so much for your goodness. Lord, thank you that you are the one in control. You are the one who, well, this is your Word.

[2:41] And so, Lord, we know you, you honor your Word above just about everything else, even above your name, Lord, your Word says. And so, Father, I do pray that you would just bless this time as we get to dive into your Word, to study, to look.

[2:53] Lord, I pray that it would, I pray that we would each come away with new revelation, but Lord, I pray that there would be just deep down change, Father. So, thank you that you are in the business of that.

[3:04] And so, Father, we thank you. We love you. And we praise your name. It's in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So, guys, kind of the opening thought that I have as we start walking into this really has to do with, you know, okay, yeah, I look around the room and I know the most of y'all, most of y'all in here already walk with the Lord.

[3:27] He's your Savior, right? Right? But how many of you still struggle with sin? You know, can I see a shame? I'm just kidding. Don't actually raise your hand. But, you know, like, okay, we're saved.

[3:40] The Lord has done a work in us. What about this whole sin thing? What do we do with that? What is His plan for that? Wasn't His plan just to go ahead and like, once you get saved and accept Him, then okay, you knock off all the ridiculous behavior and everybody can go along fine?

[3:57] No, that's not quite the way that it actually plays out, right? So, what does the Lord think of? What does the Word say about sin for us as the believer then? And what does the Lord think about it?

[4:08] You know, what does He say? What's His thought on you and me? Is He just mad at you and condemning you through the whole thing? You know, of course not. We know the answer to that. But, okay, what does it actually say?

[4:18] How does this work? How does this go? And that's kind of what we're going to dive into tonight as we start walking through Romans 6 here. So now, as you pick up into Romans 6, you know, obviously you're six chapters in then.

[4:30] He's been working his way through a pretty good, you know, argument here over how stuff works. But you're coming just on the backside. Romans 5, he is saying a couple of different ways.

[4:43] He's, hey, you got from Adam, our dad, you know, wait, wait, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. We got sin.

[4:55] He blew it. Sin nature now became a part of us. And so, moving forward then, all the rest of the race was just kind of condemned to that. And in chapter 5, he's going, okay, verse 18 is probably one of the better ones here.

[5:08] I'll just grab that because you're like three verses back. So, he says, therefore, as the offense of one judgment came upon all men, that's Adam then, to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, this would be in contrast to Jesus Christ now, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

[5:34] For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And so, he ends up, we're jumping into this where there's this contrast and going, okay, you have the first man, Adam, and then the second man now, Jesus Christ, the last man.

[5:55] I'm so sorry. And now, because of that, we've been made righteous. And then as he finishes out that end of the chapter there, he says, moreover, the law entered that offenses might abound.

[6:08] But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It's super abundance, super abounded, right? That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ.

[6:24] And then as we step into chapter six, he says, okay, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Going back two verses where he's going, okay, well, if God's in the business of forgiving sin and showing grace to sinners, then is it really a big deal then if I just continue on in sin?

[6:46] He's great at forgiving. I'm good at sinning. That's my job. This is his job. We just kind of keep this thing going, right? Paul would say, verse two, okay, God forbid, heaven's sake, no.

[7:02] You know, I don't know how else you want to say that one, but no, that's not the way this is going to go. And then he says to it, okay, verse two, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

[7:14] And many of us would go at that point, what? Dead to sin? What do you mean, Paul? Well, great. I'm glad that you asked that same question. Good. We're just going to keep moving. All right. So he says, verse three, know ye not.

[7:28] Don't you know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

[7:46] So there's this idea now. He says, okay, don't you know that as many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ, you were baptized into his death. Y'all know that when you were saved, when you said, you said that sinner's prayer, Jared gave an amazing altar call here.

[8:03] And every, you know, you came up and you just fell to your knees. Oh, Lord, I repent. I'm a sinner. Right. And in that moment, in that time, in that exchange, when you got to say, Lord, I am a mess, like, forgive me.

[8:17] Come into my heart. Be my Lord. Be my savior. Right. There's an exchange that happens. He comes into your heart. Right. He comes and he takes up residence on the rightful throne of your heart.

[8:30] Right. Well, at the same time, he didn't just come into you, but you got placed into him. You are now in Christ. And those words in Christ get found throughout the New Testament.

[8:44] Right. And it's this mystery, but it's, it's a beautiful thing. As you sit there and you go through and you take into the fact that, okay, I've now been placed in Christ. Jesus even talked about it in John 14.

[8:57] We'll get there on Sunday mornings here in a little bit. But he says, Hey, as the, as the, as the vine is in the branch.

[9:07] Oh, I'm messing this one up bad. I'm so sorry. I'm better off to stop and just find it. But you get placed in, he says, abide in me is what he would say.

[9:19] For, you know, oh, it's not 14. It's 15. That would help if I'm in the right chapter to abide in me. And me and I, and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can you except that you abide in me.

[9:32] I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same shall bring forth much fruit for without me, you can do nothing. There's this, there's this, there's that side of abide in.

[9:46] That means stay, tarry to, to wait. Right. He says, and he says, abide. He doesn't say get in. He's saying you're already in now. Right. Abide in me.

[9:56] Stay there. Be there. Right. And so here back into Romans again, um, you are in Christ. And he says, okay, if you were in Christ, you were baptized into Jesus Christ.

[10:08] You were baptized into his death. And so Jesus died. Right. And he died on the cross. Right. We all know this. We're, if you're sitting here tonight, you believe in Jesus.

[10:23] The idea that he died is not really something that any of us are going to dispute or argue. Right. That one's pretty well historically attended to. There's a lot of witnesses, but even more than that, the Bible says that he was there and he died on a cross.

[10:39] That's pretty, that's good enough for me. Right. I assume that's probably good enough for most of you. Did you know that you were in Christ when he was crucified?

[10:54] That's what this is starting to allude to here. And it says you were baptized into his, into his death. And this is part of the reason that you baptize too. Baptism doesn't save you.

[11:06] That's not you going down and you dying when you go under the water. I mean, we could hold you down a little extra if you needed to, but we're kind. We'll bring it back up. Um, but the whole idea of baptism is just, it's a demonstration.

[11:19] It's a showing. It's an outward sign of the inward reality. Right. You were, you died in Christ. You were on that cross as well. You died when he died and then we're raised back to life.

[11:32] That's why we go down into the watery grave back up again. This is one of the ones that, uh, I know pastor Jared loves to quote when he does do the baptisms is to be raised and walk in newness of life.

[11:43] It says there in verse four. And, and so this is, that's our identification with it. But there's this reality to it that I don't think I had always really paid all that much attention to.

[11:54] Right. I died with Christ. Right. Just the same way that I believe Christ died there on the cross. Well, it's saying here, no, Aaron, you died too.

[12:05] That old man, you, right. Just as well. It's the same way in the word it said. So it's there. You're there too. And he goes on to say, all right. Therefore, verse four, we're buried with him by baptism into death.

[12:19] That like, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we should not, we should walk in newness of life. You don't just die to stay dead.

[12:30] And there's death so that then there can be life. Right. And now there's this newness of life, as it says. And the newness of life is not just new because it's, it's something, you know, okay, you got it.

[12:43] You hit the reset button and now it's a fresh turn. You know, it's not like Nintendo. You died and then, okay, you just go back and you get another life again. That's the exact same. No, this is a newness in, in quality.

[12:55] It's entirely different. And y'all know this. Jesus Christ in him is everlasting life. Life itself emanates from God, the father, from Jesus.

[13:06] And so now that we are in him, we have now been placed in Christ. Now you've been placed into this eternal life, right? Eternal. It doesn't have an end. It doesn't have a beginning. It's just going.

[13:17] You're getting placed right into this unending. Just life. I mean, you think, think about all the green and just the newness of life. We're here in spring now where everything's popping back up.

[13:28] Well, now that we're finally going to get some rain, where you'll see it, but you know, everything pops back to life. That's what is unendingly flowing from the father. It is eternal life.

[13:39] It springs forth. And so now you are raised to walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together, sorry, now I'm jumping back in. So verse five, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

[13:56] Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. So I know we're just talking about the being crucified and being crucified on the cross.

[14:10] What exactly was crucified on the cross? Well, it was the old me. It was the old man that it's talking about here in verse six. Know this, that our old man is crucified with him.

[14:24] That old man, that one that we received from Adam, the one that is sin filled, that is utterly sinful. You know that you're not a sinner just because you sinned, right?

[14:37] You sinned because inherently you are a sinner. That nature, just the normal, what you do, even as a baby, you sin.

[14:47] I want that toy that my brother has more than what I care about how he feels, right? I don't know, did y'all ever hear those stories? I remember somebody quoting before and talking a story.

[15:00] They were like, if a baby had the strength of a grown man, he would snatch your arm right off your body to get that wristwatch that is on there, right? Y'all seen this, y'all know this, y'all know that it's true, right?

[15:14] You don't have to teach kids to lie, to steal, any of that. You have to constantly teach them not to do those things. It's just inerrant within us, right? That's that sinful nature.

[15:25] That's that old man that was crucified now. And so now what we say to this, and I don't know if you've realized, I haven't been pointing it out as we went here, but all of this is in the past tense.

[15:39] All of this part that we've been reading, and we're going to be reading up through probably about 14, 15, somewhere in there, is basically just, he's stating facts. He's saying all of this, that stuff that happened in the past, these are things that are done.

[15:53] But the old man is dead. The old Aaron, the old Aaron, I'm talking a lot with my hands tonight. You better watch out, man. All right, let me step back too. Okay. The old Aaron was in Christ on that cross on Calvary.

[16:12] I don't know what I said, but I'm pretty sure I meant to say in Christ on the cross back at Calvary, right? That Aaron, that old man, the one that just always followed after whatever sinful lust came into mind, that's the one that followed.

[16:28] That man died. That's not me anymore. That's not you anymore. If you are in Christ, the old you was dead.

[16:40] The word said it is. So you got to believe it. You got to take it to heart. This is one of those two that as I was reading and I was going through this, right? I think what happened as in me in the last little bit is I've known a lot of these truths.

[16:54] I've, I've, I've heard a lot of this stuff. I've thought through a lot of this stuff at different times, but I think the Lord just went ahead and there was a reality to it in my life here. I don't know what it was about reading it over this time and going through, but that's honestly my prayer for you as well.

[17:08] Cause I'm talking to you and there's a lot of this stuff. Y'all can shake your head and go, yeah, I've heard most of this. I've heard these things before, but there has to be a reality within you as we're going through this for it to really, for the Lord to be able to use it, for the Lord to be able to go ahead and reveal who he is and what he's done.

[17:28] Right. And so, okay. As we kind of keep moving here and thinking through this, all right, he's saying verse six, know this, that our old man is crucified with him. That body of sin would be destroyed.

[17:41] It says destroyed here in the King James and the old King. I'm sorry. This is the old King in the new King. It says done away with it basically. It, it, it basically has the meaning of like being inoperable.

[17:56] Um, I haven't been using my notes. I'm probably good to like catch up here. Hold on. Yeah.

[18:09] Nope. This is why I don't use notes that well. I do good to just write it out and get my thoughts in place. But anyway, the, yeah.

[18:22] Oh, there it is. Yes. To render inoperative. There we are. I knew I did have it somewhere in here. Um, y'all wouldn't believe the week. It's okay. So we'll keep, uh, we'll keep it moving.

[18:34] Um, but it says, okay, that, that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin. Verse seven, for he that is dead is freed from sin.

[18:47] Now, if, now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more and death hath no more dominion over him.

[19:00] For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. All right. Let me back back up here. Verse seven, it says, for he that is dead is now freed from sin.

[19:14] That sin nature, that one that we were talking about, right? It's dead. Yeah. That was the old me. That was the old nature. That one's dead. I don't have to.

[19:25] Back then when I was a sinner, that was what I did. I sinned, right? It's like a fish. A fish is a swimmer. So he swims. That's what, that's, that's how he's built. That's what he does, right?

[19:36] A caterpillar crawls. Like that's just, that's what they got to do. They do the inchworm thing, right? And they move. But if you're dead, you're dead to it.

[19:48] That one is dead now. I don't have to. That sin nature now is gone. Now we have the new man that was birthed, right? That's why Jesus would said back then, hey, you must be born again, right?

[20:03] There's a new birth and a new man. And where is it? It's in Colossians is one of the ones. There's several places where Paul will talk about the new man and the characteristics of the new man.

[20:16] But then in Colossians, I believe it's chapter three. 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.

[20:51] You are created. This new man is created in his image. Ah, that's the one I was really looking for. Ephesians 4.24 is another spot where he talks about this new man.

[21:02] And but in that one, he says, OK, Ephesians 4.24, he says, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

[21:17] The new man, the new Aaron now is made in the likeness of God is how it said it there in Colossians. And it's made in Ephesians. It was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

[21:30] Right. So now all of a sudden. The old me has died with all the nature. Right. All that was that sin filled nature that always needed to follow and do the sinful things.

[21:44] Well, now all of a sudden the new man is here and the new man is created in true righteousness and holiness. Now, all of a sudden there is an inclination. I do have that. I want to follow God.

[21:54] I want to do the things of his that he has said. That's why once you've been saved, when you do do the old things, those old things didn't bother you back then. That was just kind of the only stuff that really bothered you was like, OK, am I going to get caught by my mom, the police, my boss?

[22:11] You know, that kind of thing. Right. Now, when you do them now, all of a sudden there's this whole conscience thing that starts happening now that you've been saved and you try to do the same stuff that you used to do.

[22:22] It's not the same. It is not the same at all. And you get done. And that's the whole thing. Right. Because now you've been created in righteousness and true or true righteousness and holiness.

[22:32] Now, all of a sudden you're going against your nature. Like the old sin that you used to do. That's not even what you do anymore. That that's completely against your nature. Now, one of the one of the examples, it was a terrible example, but I see where he was going.

[22:46] He's going wood. Wood doesn't wood floats. That's its nature. Now you throw it in water, it floats. Right. You can hold it down, of course. And in history, there are times when it's been held down.

[22:58] And yes, it looks like it's sinking. But otherwise, what does it naturally do? It naturally floats. Right. You now are made. You are a new creation in Christ. Your new your new nature now is one that wants to do right things.

[23:15] Righteousness, holiness, being set apart from the rest of this world and not going along with it. And so this is now who you are. And guys, this changes how.

[23:30] This was one of the parts that that has happened in the last week or two. It changes how I pray now. Because before. There's oftentimes you think about sin and we talk in those terms like, man, I'm just still struggling with this sin.

[23:45] I'm still wrestling with this sin. Right. There's things. Or you've even heard that before. Like, you know, man, I just I need to crucify the flesh more.

[23:57] And we almost talk in that terms of like more. And from the natural the natural standpoint, that's how it always was. Right. Sin had dominion over you. And so there was a power thing.

[24:08] It had power over you. So if I was just stronger, then I wouldn't get tripped up. I wouldn't fall. I wouldn't do X, Y and Z. But that's not God's way.

[24:20] Y'all realize what he's saying here. He's not here to strengthen the old man. He's not here to rehab him and make him better. No, he says, I'm going to we're going to sidestep the whole issue. That man is dead.

[24:31] Dead, you're not even under the power of that anymore. Now you are a new man. You're a completely new creation. You don't just need to wrestle against now because I was this sinful one who always followed after sinful behavior because, well, I was a sinner.

[24:46] No, I'm going to go ahead and just remake you. That one's dead. You are now holy and righteous and you follow after right things and holy things. And so now you just get to walk in it.

[24:59] It changes how you pray. It changes in this like, well, Lord, I don't need to struggle and fight with it. I just need to thank you. You've already. Well, that's not even me anymore. Thank you, Lord, for all that you've done.

[25:10] Thank you that I don't have to walk in that sinful craziness that I used to. And so he as he goes on, he says, well, verse seven, for he that is dead is freed from sin.

[25:24] You're freed from it now. It had all the power over you. Right. There's a there's a in in Christendom, you will hear about being saved.

[25:34] I. Oh, well, yeah, I got saved at the crusade. Right. There's actually three tenses that kind of happen. And this is kind of what we're starting to talk about here.

[25:45] I was saved. I was saved from the penalty of sin. That's what you would call salvation. Right. There's now I am being saved in the current time.

[25:57] Well, now I'm being saved from the power of sin, from the power of sin in my life. We would call that in in Christian world sanctification. So if you're in Christ, you're in that process of sanctification where you're being set apart.

[26:10] You don't look the way that you used to. And you didn't look the way that you did yesterday or a year ago. Right. And Lord willing, next year, if we're still here, I won't look the same way that I do today either then.

[26:24] And so. That's kind of the middle one. And then there's going to be a time where and we would say, you know, there's going to be a day where I will be saved. You know, yeah, maybe by maybe before next year, we'll all be saved and raptured out of here.

[26:38] Right. There's that one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin. That would be the time that you're in glory with him. That's what we call glorification. Right.

[26:48] This section here is kind of assuming that, OK, salvation has already happened and we're walking through what a sanctification look like in your life and being delivered from the very power of sin.

[27:02] How does that actually work? Well, it's not that you need to wrestle harder, be better, fight more. No, he did it. You died in Christ on the cross.

[27:15] That man is dead and gone. You are now a new creation. You don't need to wrestle with the old man the same way. Let him die. Let him be dead. He is already dead. And so as he keeps talking, he says, now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

[27:32] That new life, that new, the newness of life. Verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. That's right.

[27:43] How many times did Christ have to die to sin or die for it to pay for sin? Well, just the once, right? You were in him on that time. So that whole prayer of like, oh, I just need to crucify the flesh more.

[27:59] It doesn't really work. He died once. That was a one pop shot. It's done. It happened. All right. Where were we? Verse 10. He died. He died unto sin once, but in that he lived, he lives unto God.

[28:12] Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Verse 12.

[28:23] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that we should obey it in the lust thereof. This is verse 11 there. He says, likewise, reckon, reckon. That's an accounting term.

[28:36] Right. And this one is one of those. He's saying to you, hey, I want you to mark it down, like reckon it. Right. So in accounting world.

[28:46] Right. If you got 100 bucks in your in your pocket, you go to your ledger. How much do you write down that you have on the ledger then? 100 bucks. Right. This is the truth of what's here in my wallet.

[28:57] 100 bucks. Great. I'm going to put it on the books. Does he tell you here? OK, if you've only got 85 in your wallet, you go ahead and put down the 100 and just believe by faith that you got the other 15.

[29:09] No, he's saying reckon. Like, go ahead. Do the accounting. Check it. See what you got. Put it down. Reckon yourself to be dead. You were in Christ.

[29:20] Write it down. Reckon it. Make this as a part of you here. Reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

[29:32] Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust. So he's saying here in verse 12, he says, don't let it reign in your mortal body.

[29:45] He wouldn't say don't let it reign if it was taken out of the way. Right. Y'all are with me on that. Right. Sin is still there. It's still in there. And then once you get into chapter seven, he gets into the really nitty gritty of like, how does it feel from like almost a human perspective?

[30:02] That wrestle. Right. But verse six, he's still talking about what has been accounted to you. How does this work? And so he's saying there verse verse 12. Okay. Sin is still in your body, but you are now.

[30:15] Well, let me get to verse 13 here. All right. All right. So let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust thereof.

[30:29] Verse 13, neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

[30:43] So verse 12, he says, hey, don't let it reign. It had power over you. Reign like like reigning in authority and power. Right. He says, don't let sin reign anymore in your body, but be alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

[31:02] As those who are alive from the dead and your members then as instruments of righteousness. So now you can yield your members. You've got a choice now. So here's what happened is when you died.

[31:14] Now, all of a sudden your members, your hands, your, your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your mouth, your feet. Well, they were slaved. They were already enslaved to sin because that was your nature.

[31:26] That was what you did. So like a fish that swims in the water, you swam right along with the current of sin. Right. But he says now, no, you've been freed from that. You've been freed from that.

[31:37] You now have a choice. And in fact, you've got a choice and you can either yield your members. You can either give it over as an instrument of unrighteousness or you can give it over as an instrument of right of righteousness.

[31:50] You now have the ability. You didn't really have the ability. You were held accountable for all your choices, but you didn't really have that much of a choice because, well, everything in you and that was about you was going to run to sin.

[32:00] Well, now you are a new you. You are one who was made in righteousness and holiness. And now you can. And so he says here, okay, don't yield your members. Right. The liar would always give his tongue to lie.

[32:13] The thief would always give his hands to steal. No longer do they have to. Your mouth can now be used to exhort, to, to, to be kind.

[32:25] You don't have to be angry. You can use it for right things. Your hands don't have to be for anger and pounding. It can be now for acts of righteousness. Right. You don't have to succumb the same way that you always did.

[32:38] That's not who you are anymore. And so he says here, hey, now yield your members. And verse 14, then, as he goes on, says, for sin shall have dominion.

[32:49] Oh, I'm sorry. Sin shall not have dominion. That's kind of an important little three letter word there. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace.

[33:02] And so he's saying, okay, sin now, it doesn't have dominion over you. It doesn't have the power that it used to. Sin, sin and the law completely dictated how you related to God.

[33:15] If you were under the law, then you were, you were good with God. As long as you were doing everything the law said. And then as soon as you messed up, all of a sudden you were out of good standing with the Lord.

[33:27] Until you got back over there to do whatever sacrifice was necessary. And then you were back okay until you did it again. You were always looking over your shoulder at sin and the law.

[33:37] And it dictated the terms of your relationship and right standing with the Lord. But then now grace has come. Now he just says, hey, I've paid for all of that.

[33:51] I took the cost. I took the penalty. And now you are right with me just because. You didn't do anything to earn it. It's not like you were great. And it's not like I am so wonderful that, oh, he really needed to have Aaron on his team.

[34:05] Now the church is going to take off, right? No, that's not it. He says, no, it's by grace. And so verse 15 then, as it rolls in, he says, well, what then?

[34:17] Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? So he's asking the question then. And I know this sounds very similar to the first one back in verse one. But verse one was about habitual sin.

[34:27] Coming out of coming, just being saved. Well, can I just continue all those old habits from the old man that I had back then? Well, no. God forbid. Right? Well, now here in verse 15, he says, well, what then?

[34:39] Shall we occasionally sin? What about the occasional sins? And, you know, even we see that here where he's saying, okay, well, the law used to keep everybody in line.

[34:51] At least you did the right thing because, well, you were just scared of going to hell. Right? It was fire insurance just to, you know, that's why I'm going to do the right thing then. And, but now you're saying that the law is not what we're under.

[35:04] Well, we're under grace. So now we don't have to watch over our back. Well, aren't we just going to kind of live however then? Because God's just being graceful. I'm always in right standing with him because he says, well, just because I chose you and I love you.

[35:21] So, okay. Right? And I think if any of us are honest with ourselves, we've probably asked the Lord the same kind of thing. Like, Lord, I know that I shouldn't, but it's really hard to change.

[35:41] Is it? And you're almost asking him permission, but you're not, you know, like, is it okay to just not have to fight so hard on this one? Like, isn't it easier? I don't know if any of y'all ever wrestled with the Lord like that.

[35:52] Like, I can't do it. I'm not going to. Is that okay? Right. But what does Paul say here? Once again, God forbid.

[36:03] Know ye not, verse 16, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

[36:22] You have the choice now. You've been freed from sin. That old sin nature is dead. You are now the new man. You have the objective ability to say in the moment, I'm going to follow righteousness or unrighteousness.

[36:38] And as those moments come, but Paul says here, you have the ability, you have that right, but whoever you give over to, you're signing up to be a slave of that one.

[36:54] You're signing up for whose master you're going to be. Right. The old sin, the old man, that was the old master. Jesus, now I'm a slave.

[37:05] I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ, as Paul would say. Right. Now, this is my new master. It's my new boss. Right. Serve the new boss is what he's saying here.

[37:15] Hey, serve that one. Verse 17, but God be thanked that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that very form of doctrine, which was delivered to you.

[37:30] Notice he's here. Even here, he's speaking to the Romans, to this church. I don't even think he's met the Romans at this point in time as he's writing this, but he's already saying, well, hey, but God be thanked.

[37:44] That's who you were. He says that to you and to me. God be thanked. That's who you were. Right. I love that. That's just how he goes ahead and speaks life. It's done.

[37:55] Just as we were saying, that's already done. That's who you were. And now, but you have obeyed from the heart. Now that form of doctrine that was delivered to you. 18 being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.

[38:10] Verse 19. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

[38:28] He's saying here, you used to yield your members over to the rotten stuff that you used to do.

[38:39] And as you did, it just begot more. There's that, it's almost momentum that gets built. Right. If you're doing, if you're doing something that you shouldn't, it's easier to just do it again the next time.

[38:52] And then the next time and the next time and the next time. Right. And so he's or here to turn it back the other way. Well, hey, now you have a choice. Your nurse, the mercies are new every day.

[39:04] Today's a new day. Hey, I know you've been going this way. You've been going in the wrong direction. Unrighteousness leading to more unrighteousness. Lawlessness to more lawlessness.

[39:14] He says, but no, turn the other direction now. Let's go righteousness unto more righteousness. And the more that you do it, the easier it gets. It becomes habit. Right. You, a thought becomes an action and action becomes a habit.

[39:28] A habit becomes a, becomes your character. And then the character then becomes your destiny. Right. This is the progression of it. And so where's the easiest to stop that thing, to stop that runaway train?

[39:41] Well, back at the thoughts if they're going in the wrong direction. But if they're going in the right direction, well, then you keep building it. One thought turns into another thought, turns into another habit, turns into a second habit. Those habits build.

[39:52] They become, those, those habits become now a part of your character and who you are. I used to always use my tongue to be so angry and so mean. And I was just vicious at people.

[40:02] But now, praise be unto God, I'm a new man. I don't have to yield my member, my tongue, my mouth for that. I can now be kind to others. I have the choice today.

[40:13] I have the choice tomorrow. I have the choice in the next moment. Even when that person bothers me, I can still choose right now. I can use it for right stuff. I used to be so angry with, gosh, you can go on with those, right?

[40:24] You don't have to yield anymore, but you can now yield. And I love how he says it. Even so now, yield your members, servants to righteousness and unto holiness.

[40:34] How do we read it back in Ephesians? That you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Righteousness and holiness.

[40:45] Righteousness and holiness. I love it. The Bible just ties in so well. And then verse 20, he says, for when you were the servants of sin, you were freed from righteousness. Right back then, when you were a servant of sin, you didn't really think about doing the right thing.

[40:59] That wasn't really, it was just kind of like, we're going this way and your conscience didn't bother you a bit. It didn't bother me. I just kept running. Right? But then he says, verse 21, what fruit had ye in those things whereof you are now ashamed?

[41:16] Boy, what's the truth in that one? I think back to some of the old me and some of that stuff got brought up.

[41:28] Boy, it's just shameful. Right? Praise God now. The fruit is unto holiness. Right? I get to be up here and preach and teach and Lord willing, y'all get to carry on and do.

[41:41] And you get to yield your members now for true righteousness and holiness now. So, the end of verse 21, for the end of those things was death.

[41:53] It is death. In verse 22, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

[42:06] Again, it's that holiness and everlasting life. I do really appreciate the Lord uses pictures throughout. Light, life, darkness, sin, and death.

[42:19] Right? First John, he uses so many of those. And in the gospel of John, too. So many of those over and over again. And even here, you know, back to holiness and life.

[42:31] Those just go hand in hand. Right? The fruits of the spirit go right with those. The joy and the peace comes together with the holiness. And it's because now you're walking in not just everlasting life, but his life.

[42:44] Abiding in him and the richness of the life that he now gives. And it says there in verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[42:59] Y'all know this is one of the verses from the Roman road. Right? This is one of the better ones here out of it. Or one of the most notable and memorable, I suppose. And he says, you know, because the wages of sin.

[43:11] That's what sin earned. It earned death. Those were the wages that it incurred during that time. But thanks be to God for his gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ.

[43:25] And I know we just kind of ran through this pretty... I feel like I just kind of like plowed really hard right through this whole thing. Didn't come up for air very much. But I know...

[43:36] I know even in thinking about this, writing this, reading it, mulling it around before. You know, you have that time kind of like, well... I know that it says that I'm a new creation.

[43:52] That the old me is dead, is crucified. But I don't feel it. Y'all know your feelings lie to you, right?

[44:03] I'm not telling tales out of school, right? Your feelings lie to you. That's okay. That's part of the reason why he says reckon it. Right?

[44:13] Make an account of it. This is what faith looks like. I was talking to the youth last time. Like, what is... You know, what is faith? You know, faith...

[44:26] Y'all know what it says in Hebrews. Okay. Faith. What faith is. But it really doesn't give you like a working, like, definition of it.

[44:37] You know? So what I was telling them is like, well, it's trusting. And you can't just say like, oh, I believe... Oh, this is pretty close to the one, right?

[44:48] Okay. I can't say that I believe that this stool was made well. Right? I can say that all that I want. I can say, hey, yeah. I think this is a great stool. This is fantastic. Aaron, why don't you sit on it?

[45:00] Why not? Why not? You said it was a good stool, right? Don't you trust it? Do you trust that the old man is dead?

[45:19] Do you trust that you are now a new creation? Do you trust that those things that you've wrestled with for the last year, five years, 10 years, 20 years?

[45:35] Do you believe that it can change? Do you believe enough to sit on it and demonstrate that faith? Reckon it.

[45:48] Put it on your account. I am dead. I'm not that same man. I'm not... Praise God, I am not the same man that I was 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago even.

[46:02] You know? As the Bible describes this new man in Colossians chapter 3... If you want to turn there, you can turn there. I'll give you a minute as you get to that part.

[46:16] But in Romans chapter 3, he's talking about... Actually, I want to go over there. Colossians 3. I'd only put down part of it on my notes.

[46:26] So I'm going to get there too. Colossians chapter 3. The beginning of this is one of the... One of those ones...

[46:36] I think Keller told me it should have been on a coffee mug before, way back when we were in... Some of the young adult stuff. But verse 3... I mean, chapter 3, verse 1 there.

[46:47] It says, There it is again, right?

[47:00] There's the members part again.

[47:15] Reckon them dead. They're inoperable. No, no, no. The members aren't inoperable, but the old man is. So therefore, your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

[47:29] For those things' sake, the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience, in which you also walked sometime when you lived in them. But now, you've put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

[47:45] Lie not to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. In verse 10, this is where we're really aiming for.

[48:24] There was a lot of people who have a quarrel against any. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. There was so much of it that was tied up in that lesson that was just in the beginning of that chapter there.

[48:47] It's too good not to just read it. But the real point that I wanted to point out there is the characteristics of that new man, right? The bowels of mercy, kindness, in verse 12, I'm sorry.

[49:00] Kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. And above all things, putting on charity, right?

[49:13] Which is the bond of perfection. Living and letting the peace of God rule in your hearts. I want to be that man, right? But the beautiful part is that's what he's already made and created.

[49:28] And he just says, now walk in it. It's done. Thank you, Lord. That's who I am now. Thank you, Lord. I get to just walk in it. I don't need to fight so hard, wrestling against it.

[49:39] No, it's dead. Okay. Yield my members now to him, to righteousness. Walk in this newness of life, in this new man that he's created. And I don't know what you wrestle with and what you fight against, you know?

[49:55] There are awful demons that folks have to wrestle with. But I know that if Christ could be raised from the dead, boy, any of that stuff can get taken care of.

[50:10] That's a walk in the park compared to the rest of it then, right? And so, man, I do pray. I pray the truth of all this would sink in. I pray there would be a reckoning.

[50:21] I pray there would be a part of you that is, that tonight is just, well, I pray that you'd thank him for it. That it's done. That it's already happened.

[50:32] It's now just get to walk in it. Oh, man. Jared, I was talking to Pastor Jared earlier in the week and talking about kind of some of this and the idea of it.

[50:43] And he brought up in, not the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but the last book of that series, the last battle. There was, it's wild because all the creatures that are there and everything that are a part of that world at some point.

[50:59] Aslan just kind of remakes the world right over them. They're almost still standing in it. They're in heaven. Oh, did I mess that up? Are they in, did they walk through the door first? I'm completely forgetting now. Okay.

[51:10] It's been too long. Anyway, they are there. They're in the place of paradise. paradise. But these, these folks who were in there were just blinded to it.

[51:23] They were like, in their minds, they were still in the old place. They were still doing the same things. And they were saying, oh, look at these guys. They're all taken in. They're crazy. We won't get taken in. We won't be fooled by this stuff.

[51:35] When in reality, they were already there. They were already in, in the new and in the paradise. And they're just looking at everybody else like, oh no, I'd never be.

[51:45] You know? I think the other picture that I thought about, and I started to allude to it earlier, was a caterpillar. Right? What does he do? He walks. He inches. Right? But the goal for the, for the inchworm would be, you know, to get up to the top of the tree.

[51:59] Well, it's not just the top of the tree he needs to get to. He needs to get to the top of the tree that's on top of the mountain. It's just not going to happen. It's not feasible. It's not possible. Right? But as he has changed, he's no longer the old caterpillar.

[52:11] Now, what does he become? He becomes the butterfly. He can get there. No problem. But wouldn't it be silly to watch him still walking his way up the mountain and up the tree, you know, to trying to still get there with the old man, the old way.

[52:25] No, that's not how we do. You have been remade. You have been metamorphosized. Let the word do the renewing as we study. We come, we listen. We do all of that.

[52:38] I do pray that you would be, you would take it in. I pray the Lord would do a work in each and every one of you as well. Well, he's done plenty in me. And I pray by his grace, he would continue. And in the family too.

[52:50] But yeah, let me pray for us here. Oh, Father. Lord, just thank you. Thank you that we get to come. We get to look in. We get to study your word. We get to peer into the mystery of what you've done, who you are, what you've, what you had been up to previously.

[53:06] And we're just now trying to catch up to it. Father, I think of what, what Pastor Jared had said before about the, the man whose, whose son got healed. He had no visible signs, but he just had to turn and start walking back home.

[53:22] He just started to walk in faith. And Lord, we don't have any visible signs here that you, you did all that you said, except now we just get to turn and we get to walk in faith.

[53:33] And as we turn and we walk in faith, Lord, when I know that you will be, you will be faithful to show us and to show us the outcome later as we walk in obedience to you.

[53:44] Father, I pray that you would make that real. The old us, it died. We get to walk now in newness of life. We get to walk now with a, with a nature that's bent towards you, that wants to hear you, that wants to be close to you.

[54:02] And Lord, I do pray that as, as all of us here, as we draw close to you, Father, well, dad, I thank you that your word says you already draw close to us.

[54:13] And so father, just, we just say, thank you. Thank you for who you are, for what you have done, for how you love us, for the price that you paid. You would come, you would die on a cross and not just die on the cross, but then you would take our sin.

[54:28] You would take our old man, our old nature and nail that to the cross on, on and bear that weight as well while you're there. Lord, we just thank you.

[54:39] We don't deserve any of it. Your grace is almost overwhelming. It is overwhelming, dad. But we just thank you.

[54:51] You are so good. You are so kind. I pray that you would be with the, with the ones who are here, father. I pray that you would bless them, keep them, father. I pray that you would do a mighty work in each of their lives, Lord, for anything that they are carrying and, and the burdens that they are bearing.

[55:07] I do pray that they would be able to bring it to you, father, and that, well, thank you. Your burden is easy and your load is light, dad. And we just thank you, father. You are so good. It's in Jesus name that we do pray.

[55:19] Amen. Amen. Thank you.