In this sermon, the preacher begins by reminding the audience of their standing in Jesus Christ, emphasizing that they are brought in and introduced as royalty to God through Jesus. Moving into Romans chapter 6, the preacher highlights the importance of knowing certain truths in order to be free from sin. These truths include understanding one's baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, and obligation. The preacher emphasizes that sin is the greatest problem in the world and in our own lives, and provides guidance on how to deal with it based on the teachings of Paul in Romans 6.

Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism unto 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. For if we have been planted together in his likeness, the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 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. For he that is dead, pardon me, for he that is dead is freed from sin. 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, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's pray together. Dear Father, as we come before you this evening, and Lord as we open your word, we ask Lord that you would take it and that you would speak to us. Lord, I pray that you would touch me, that you would strengthen me. Lord, you know my weakness, you know my inabilities, but Lord I pray that in this precious piece of scripture, that your Holy Spirit, the powerful truths that are in it, that your Holy Spirit would take it and break it to our hearts. And Lord, set us free from the power of sin. Lord, this tremendous truth. Lord, we pray that you would open it up to us, make it simple, make it clear, do a work. We ask that your Holy Spirit would touch us, would fill us. By your grace, Lord, the joy that you have of dying for us, forgiving us, cleansing us, adopting us, the joy that you'd have and the desire you have that we would reign with you and we would live in victory. Lord, may we know that victory, may we know that fullness in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, tonight I want to try to, after a few weeks break, you probably need to remember we were in the book of Romans last year when we were in it. It seems like a long time, it was actually last year, but after a few weeks off for Christmas and New Year's activities, we're back here to the book of Romans. Now, if you'll recall back in Romans chapter 5, just to give you a very brief memory of it, is that you'll recall is that there Paul explained to us on how that we have this wonderful standing in Jesus Christ, that when God looks at us, we are literally brought in, we are introduced, we are ushered in and introduced as royalty to God by Jesus Christ. To stop and think that our Lord and Savior, who we love and adore, who died for us on the cross, to remember that he not only died for us to take our sins, but then he rose from the dead, he ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high. In there, this very moment, he ever liveth, the Bible says, to make intercession for us and he presents us faultless before God. In there, as we are presented faultless, God sees us through that wonderful intercessory love and prayer and presentation of Christ that he presents us as royalty, every one of us, while all of us far from that, not a one of us near unto what we will be like, that when, as David said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. That's the one day that what we have always been presented to be before God, we'll actually be it, not before heaven though, not before then. But here we're introduced as that. He then goes on and he tells us in chapter 5, if you recall, that very simply there's two identities, there's two natures in all of history, just two. There's Jesus and there's Adam. We were all born in Adam and we were all in fallen man, fallen nature. All of us had that Adamic, self-willed, egotistical, I will, I want, I think, I'll have nature. And that's a fallen nature, we were born with it. But by God's grace, we are offered another nature. You'll recall that we looked at that back in chapter 5 last time. And that here Jesus Christ, he's offered to us and now God simply says here, you have either one. You can have the nature you were born with or you can be born again into another nature. And you can grow in that nature. You can desire that nature. You can seek that nature. You can long for that nature. Now as we get here into chapter 6, Paul goes on to want to tell us our position in Christ. What again, a little bit more from another perspective, on what God sees and what God wants us, I believe, to know. A Roman 6, Paul says, what know ye not? And usually when Paul says to somebody, didn't you know? It's because Paul realized we didn't know. And so it's, and when he says, didn't you know? He says, I, there are some things you've got to know. And I wanted to tell you about them. You see, an awfully lot of the growth in the Christian life is based upon knowledge. And, and that's how it all starts essentially. You became a Christian based upon knowledge. You were saved, the Bible says, as Paul even says, by that form of doctrine that was delivered unto you. When you were told about Jesus Christ and he died for you, that knowledge became a saving knowledge. You turned to him and said, really, my sins can be forgiven? Christ died for me. He'll come for me. I want him. And based upon knowledge was offered and you responded to it. Well, growth in the Christian life is the same way all the way through. There's knowledge. It's laid out. And now God says, now what are you going to do with it? Do you want to appropriate it? Do you want to enter into it? Do you want to trust in it and believe in it? And here there's some things that Paul wants to lay out. You've got to know them. If you are going to be free from sin, this is what he's going to be talking to us about in this chapter specifically. How do you get free from sin? And, and how do you deal with it? Now, obviously sin is the basic and greatest problem in all the world, isn't it? And it's the greatest problem in our own world and our own life. We may think it's our health or it's our job or it's our, you know, husband or wife or our kids, but that is the greatest problem in all of life is our own sin nature and our own struggles, our own human weaknesses, our own problems with sin and dealing with it. And here Paul, in Romans chapter 6, as we're going to get into it, we're going to see that earlier Paul had told us you are dead in sin. And now he makes a very shocking statement when he's going to tell us, and then he's going to spend a chapter explaining it, you are now dead from sin. Amazingly. And you're free from sin. And yeah, and no, pardon me, you are dead to sin. Did you know that tonight? From God's perspective, you are dead to sin. Now you may look over at your husband, look over here and say, I don't think so. And I can, my wife's got the proof, you know, or whatever, that we are not dead to sin. But here Paul, he wants to tell us you've got to know that as God looks at us, from God's eternal perspective, the work he has done, he says you are dead to sin. We're going to be looking at that more in a few moments. But it's how do I deal with sin? You see, if I don't realize I am dead to sin, now I've got all these ways to try to deal with it. In fact, that's what all the world is trying constantly to deal with. Any religious world, all the religious world, but in even the various levels of Christians are constantly, how do you deal with sin? And within the ways that it is kind of dealt with, and now when most people deal with sin, I suppose, is there's, I suppose, three basic ways. There's moralism, there's legalism, and there's cheap grace that a lot of people deal with sin. And just to give you a little explanation of some of those things, they're just simple terms, but the way a lot of people, we all know we're sinners, now what do I do with my sin? A lot of people in the world, they deal with sin with moralism. That is simply that they merely come along and they realize, well, what I'm going to do about my own sin, I recognize I do sin and people do sin, but you see, I have dealt with that with a moral code. I have a standard that I've set for most people, many people. I imagine the vast number of Christians, it's kind of the golden rule. I do unto others that I would have them doing to me. And sometimes that's it. That's their whole way of dealing with sin. And nothing more, nothing less. I think many, many Christians, many, many denominations in our world today, they just simply tell the people a moral code. Just do good, try hard, and be good to other people, do unto others, and you would have them do unto you, follow the general teachings of Jesus, though they never study them, obviously, but in order to come up with anything like that. But that'll never solve the problem of sin. In fact, it doesn't even address it, really. But a lot of people do it with just some moralism. A lot of people also try to deal with sin. They realize, I'm a sinner, yes. But they try to overcome it with legalism. That is essentially there, that they confront salvation. It's by faith. I need Christ. He died in the cross, but now my daily sin, my own nature and process of sinning, I realize now the need to seriously, dead seriously, attempt at a good life, a strong life, a right life, and to avoid all manner of sin. I'm just going to do, I'm going to deal with my sin by stopping it. That's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to stop sinning, you know. And usually, many, many groups and churches and all over the world, their legalism takes on different forms, but there's a whole bunch of thou shalt's and thou shalt not's. Do's and don'ts, and they're all little kind of regulations in different parts and different places of the world that people have so often of things that they do, that they have standards of good, clean living, you know. And, you know, thou shalt not smoke, thou shalt not drink, thou shalt not go to parties, thou shalt not dance, thou shalt not chew, and thou shalt not go with girls who chew, or whatever. They'll have all these different sorts of standards, you know, or something that they'll say, and you don't do this. And maybe another group will have one that says, now, now, here's how you behave on the Sabbath. Here's what you can do and you can't do, and here's the keeping of these laws and dietary laws. Here's things that you can eat and you can't eat. And if you eat these things that you can eat and you don't eat the things you shouldn't eat, you're, you're, it's legalism. And if you, you know, or other places, here's how much skin, you know, a woman can reveal, you know, or something, or makeup, or jewelry. And here are the standards on, on things that people set for these, you know, types of things. And essentially, though, they're all just rules and they're all regulations, and they oftentimes come down to virtually everything. You know, what you do, what you think, where you go, when you go there, why you go there, who you can go there with, or whatever. And the list can be endless of, that encompasses legalism. But it's simply a standard that somebody sets, a structure that says, I am going to overcome sin by rules, and by behavior, and by effort, and by a genuine desire, or whatever they may have for it, to say, I am going to do good. And then a third way that people deal with sin is essentially Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some years ago, a German theologian, he came up with the phrase, but cheap grace is just a phrase that it simply says there, it's, it's a third thing, and it actually came up, was started by a fellow named Rasputin, who was a theologian for the Empress Alexandria of Russia. And Rasputin essentially had a theology that was, that says, when, when sin abounds, grace hyper-abounds, as the Bible teaches. Therefore, my sin brings glory to God's grace. So therefore, the more that I sin, the more glory God gets for his grace for forgiving me. That's how I deal with my sin. That's what Rasputin, who lived a very immoral and corrupt life, though a theologian, but he simply said, hey, Jesus Christ died for me, took all my sin, and so I get to do all of this stuff, because it glorifies how much he must love me, and how great his forgiveness is. Well, that's called cheap grace. And, but essentially, that's the way many people are. Or, yeah, I suppose sometimes a lot of us kind of mix them. A lot of Christians, they just kind of mix them. We're, on some areas of our life, we just kind of got that do unto others sort of a thing. And then maybe in other areas of our life, we got real strict rules and regulations. This is what I do, what I don't do. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't dance, I don't, you know, and all this structure and things. And I'm not saying you should or shouldn't do that. I can't dance, so, you know, it's a public service not to. But anyway, but at any rate, the thing is, is that you can, some people have these things, and then, so we kind of have a little moralism, we kind of have a little legalism, and then there's other areas of our life where, you know, that's always been out of control. That's where the grace of God is really wonderful. So we mix them, you know, sort of thing sometimes. But none of those deal with sin. All they really do is confess it, really, and reveal it. But they don't solve the sin problem. Here Paul, he looks at this, as he says, so we continue in sin, chapter 6, verse 1, that grace may abound. He said, God forbid, God forbid that we, you know, that we should just go on sinning. And the way you fight it, and the way you deal with sin, Paul's gonna go on and tell us, it's not by moralism, and it's not gonna be by legalism, and it's not by chief grace. Here he tells us, though, he says, God forbid that we should ever go on. And now he goes on, and I suppose he drops almost a huge spiritual bombshell here. It almost explodes, and you really stop to think of it, in a sense, in verse 2, when he then goes on, and he says, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And at that point, I mean, this is the apology, and he's including the body of Christ. If you're here tonight, and you're a child of God, and you're forgiven, you're included in this verse. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Here Paul is gonna tell us how to deal with sin. But one of the very first things, even before dealing with it, he says, I want to tell you, it's already been dealt with. And we're gonna go on to that. But here he says, when you're dealing with it, you've got to realize it's been dealt with, and the fact is that it has happened, is that you are dead to sin. And here Paul says a Christian doesn't deal with sin by moralism, or legalism, or chief grace, but he makes one of the most awesome statements in the world here, when he says that a Christian deals with sin because he's dead to it. He has died to sin. And then he spends the rest of the chapter explaining so much of what that is. He goes on in verse 3, as he starts to elaborate on it, and he says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death? Now, I usually don't do this, but show of hands, how many of you have been baptized? That's wonderful. It seemed like most every hand went up. A few didn't. Anyway, but the legalism says you better get baptized. Grace says you ought to. But anyway, I hope you understand a little more of why it's so important here, as we look at it here, because here Paul, he's going to tell us some things that you've got to know. I mean, he's given to you briefly, and then we're going to go back and look at it. But here in verse 3, he says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death? And he tells us, first of all, I want you to know your baptism. In verse 6, he says, Knowing. Now, he says there's something else I want you to know. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth you should not serve sin. And then on into verse 9, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And then go down to 16, we won't get there, but he says, Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey. And here essentially, Paul is going to say, here's how you deal with sin. Number one, you got to know your baptism. Secondly, you got to know your crucifixion. Third, you got to know your resurrection. Know you not that we've risen with him. And then fourth, he says, Know your obligation. For he says, Don't you know that whoever you yield your instruments to obey his servant you are. But here, Paul says, you want to deal with sin. And he says, first of all, know your baptism. You know, the Jews knew what this meant very well. Judaism, the whole history of Judaism, had an awfully lot to do with baptism. When somebody would come into the Jewish faith in the Old Testament, when a proselyte came in and wanted to be a part of them, they came in essentially through baptism. Literally, what they actually did back in the Old Testament in baptism is that they literally stripped down naked. And then they went in and they were fully immersed. And in that, the Jewish proselyte, he rejected all of his past, his identity, his heritage, all of his human experiences, all through baptism. And he became a Jew. If you and I did this, you know, you may come in here tonight and you may be, you know, Asian or European descent or African or South American or whatever else. But in baptism, even back in the Old Testament, you became a Jew. You became, you know, everything down even to your race essentially was being dealt with. Your entire past, what you believed, where you came from, how you lived, what's your standards, you know, everything about your life, it was all gone. Your identity, your heritage, your human experiences, everything, and you became a Jew. And here was something that then as they came up out of the water, they gave them entirely new clothing and a new identity. They're essentially as a Jew. Ceremonial, essentially, you know, baptism for a Christian, I'd about say, I think it's again a public service that we keep our clothes on when we do it. But at the same time, what is happening in baptism is essentially this is the same thing. When baptism happens, as far as Bible is concerned, there's an entire transformation of everything that is former. Everything that is regarded is now absolutely irrelevant. When a person is baptized into Christ, who you were, where you came from, what you did, how terribly you did it, how many know you did it, how terrible it was, whatever it is that you did is now irrelevant. You have a brand new start. The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away and behold, all things have become new. From God's perspective at that point, you're neither Greek nor Jew, bond or Scythian or free or male or female, but you're one in Christ. God at that point, He like He picks you up wherever you've been else on the globe, wherever your heritage, wherever your ethnic issues, whatever past religious, whatever behavior, whatever everything, it's all gone, blotted out, ceased to exist. And now you become His. You're a brand new person, is what it's simply all about. The picture here, when Paul says, didn't you know when you were baptized, you were baptized unto His death. What actually happens there at that point? You're catapulted into an entirely new realm. Everything is changed. The language is changed. The currency, the past, everything is absolutely gone essentially. If you could imagine a person maybe that, suppose you were in trouble with the government, and you're behind in your mortgage, in trouble with the IRS, you didn't pay your taxes, you had an affair with your neighbor, you didn't pay your bookie, and you sold some big crime boss a bunch of bad drugs, and he's got a contract out on you, and just fill in the blanks, anything else you want to put in. But you've got this terrible life everywhere you go. You've ruined yourself with anybody, everybody. Your wife doesn't want you home, your bookie doesn't want you back, you know, the drug dealers are looking for you, there's a price on your head, the government wants you, every place you've messed up, every relationship. And then all of a sudden though, because, you know, some comes along where you are literally picked up by the government with all of this crooked stuff you've been involved in, terrible wicked things you've been doing your whole life, but the drug, the government looks at you and knows that you're just a pawn for this whole drug world, the mob that you've been all a part of, and now they're out after you, and they've got you, and they offer you a deal. They say, listen, if you'll turn state's evidence, we will put you in a witness protection program. If you, we really, you know, we know all you are, you're just a, you're just a pawn, you're just a sucker in this whole system, you just got pulled into it, but a little rat on it. If you'll turn state's evidence, if you'll confess what everything you did, we don't care whether you just confess it all, but, and then who made you do it, and how you got pulled into this, and point out each and every, all the ones involved. If you'll turn them over to us, then we will give you a whole new identity. We'll move you from one end of the country to the other, and in one process, when one thing occurs in this witness, you know, program, protection program, you'll wake up at the other end of the country, 3,000 miles away, you'll have a new name, a new address, a new phone number, a new home, you'll have a job, you'll have a new social security number, you'll have a closet full of clothes, you'll have a whole new world, and you'll have a new identity entirely, and the person that you were will cease to exist. The driver's license is no good, the social security number is no good, any record will cease and will be recorded as dead. You won't even be able to do business under that name. You won't be able to do anything under it. The social security number will go nowhere, but this one, a whole new identity, and essentially that, you might say, is what Christianity fundamentally is, and what baptism is, in a sense, that when somebody comes and identifies with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we realize it's like God looks at us, I know you were just a sucker, I know you just got pulled into a whole world of immorality, and corruption, and lying, and cheating, deceiving, and you did what you did, but I want the big guy, who I'm eventually gonna get, but if you'll rat on him, if you'll deny him, if you'll confess, this is what he'd made me do, and I'm sick of it, and I'm tired of it, I want out of it, I want a new name, I want a new identity, I want to start fresh. If you'll do that, if you'll confess that, we will put you into this Jesus Witness Protection Program, and give you a whole new identity. And here, essentially, this is what Paul is saying here, that God has done, that literally now, the next day, if the government went back to your old social security number, and so the IRS agent is gonna, he's, boy, he's got all these back taxes, and he goes look at it, and all of a sudden, he opens up the file, dead. Oh, bummer, you know, or something, or everybody else starts to look, you didn't look for you, and they go look up your, you know, the police, who've got all these outstanding tickets on you, or whatever, you know, or so, they go look it for you, dead. Everywhere you go, dead. Every record, every place you work, they just, guy's dead. It's just like he vanished off the planet. But yet, he reappears, a whole new person, somewhere else. This is what Paul says has happened. And from God's perspective, anything that is done under that old car license, anything that's done under that old social security number, anything that's done under those old credit cards, they're not acknowledged in heaven. They, they, there's no account, it's dead, boxed, goes nowhere. And Paul says, this is a Christian, from God's perspective, he sees these things, and that they, that person, has died. They do not exist. Now, one of the great tragedies that happen, I suppose, and even in all witness programs, is the witness looks around, and he feels uncomfortable, and, you know, gee, I don't know these people, and I, and they're, and, and, and, and I kind of miss my old drug-dealing friend, Benny, in New York, you know, or something, and we call up Benny. Hey, Benny, how are you? Who's this? Well, you know me, Joe the Idiot. Oh, yeah, where are you? I'm calling you back. I missed you. I missed you, too. I thought you were dead. No, I'm not dead. And the next thing you know, we can go back at any point. We can fraternize. We can pick up old relationships, or other people can come to us, you know, and, and, but, but we, the first thing is, we've got to know our baptism. We've got to, do you know that when you're baptized, from God's perspective, He looks at you. When you became a Christian, you ratted on the old world. You looked there at the enemy, and you said, Satan deceived me. He pulled me in like a pawn. He took over my life. He took over my character, my morals, my values, my ethics. He corrupted me. All these relationships that I was involved in, they're a mess. And I'm a sinner, and I've blown it. I've taken this nature, and I've just been living in it. And I'm tired of it. And I'll be glad to turn state seven. I'll be glad to confess it. I'm a sinner, and I'm terrible. I'm wrong, and I'm tired of it. At that point, you know, God's protection thing, He says, it's fine. That's exactly what we're in the business of doing, is giving you a whole new world as a Christian. And here, Paul says, if you're baptized, this is what happened. Now, Paul, maybe just like a lot of us, you thought when you got baptized, you just got wet, you know, or something. Or you just, or you, you, you became part of the fraternity called church. You know, and you're one of the in crowd now that, you know, I'm baptized. Now I'm, I'm one of us, right? And that's right. But it's far more than that. It's far more. From God's perspective, He looks at you. Maybe you don't know it. That doesn't change Him. He knows. You're dead. That old life, that old nature, it's dead. It's gone. It's buried. He then goes on and he says, not only to know your baptism, know your crucifixion, as he says there in verse six. He says, knowing this, our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. This is how you deal with it. And Paul now, essentially what he's doing here with these other, with these next three things is he's elaborating on baptism. Because essentially in baptism, there's three things that happen. There's knowing you're to know your crucifixion, know your resurrection, know your obligation. Then when a person is truly baptized, number one, they willfully walk right into their own personal crucifixion with Christ. Then essentially they're going to walk out in newness of life and power. And as they come out to present their body as members of Christ, as members of his body to be used for his glory. And here, Paul, he looks at us and now he breaks down baptism. He says, number one, if you're, but what is it be happening in baptism? As you were crucified with Christ, essentially knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. And essentially there, what is to happen is that now I'm just to agree. That God came to me when he brought me to himself, made me his own. I went into the witness program is that he came and he burned up and destroyed all those records. He gathered together all the history, you might say, of the life and times of Don McClure, or put your name in there. And he gathered them out of every government, out of every resource, out of every place, and he destroyed them. And he's done with them. And he buries them. And he says he doesn't exist any longer. He's over in what God wants for you. And for me is that I would do the same thing. That I would look at my old life, my old nature and say, God, I want to be done with it. I want it dead. I want it crucified. I want to be dead to the old life, dead to the old behavior, dead to the old things. Because even though we can be moved and we can start a new life, the old life has this amazing way of finding us. This old life has this amazing way, you know, you can come and have a wonderful relationship with Christ, but you go to work tomorrow and there's a lot of people that know the old you. They know you real well. And then you want to look at them and say, guess what? I'm a Christian. No, you're not. No, no, no. I know you. And then they get you to respond in that old nature rather than say no. It's dead. It's gone. It's buried. The old man has been crucified with Jesus Christ. That's what God wants, is that I would simply agree with it. That I just simply realize this is what Jesus Christ did. And here it's the most powerful, the one of the most wonderful things to me in all the world to realize God not only says you're forgiven, but now he looks at me and he says, now I want you to bury it. After I became a Christian, I went back and forth like maybe others of us, but I just didn't understand. I tried to be a Christian. I tried to do better. I knew I loved the Lord, but here I am in college and I basically just had one set of friends all the way from grammar school to high school, college, and all of us just very worldly people all the way through our parties and fraternity life and all this sort of thing. And so now I become a Christian and now as I'm trying to become a Christian, but I'm still back in school and working around all these guys and in the fraternity next year and I got to back out of this, I'm going to quit. And so I decided I'm going to quit the fraternity. And I can remember being called in and said, nobody ever quits SA. You're a fraternity. You're part of us. Now you can't quit. I do. You can't. I did. And you know that I did. I'm gone and I just didn't come back. That was it. But, but yet at the same time, it still found me. And then I maybe see some guys, Hey, let's go hang out or do this or do that. But the next thing you know, I'm back hanging around with them and they'd look at me. Hey, how about having a drink? No, I, no, no thanks. Why? Well, I'm not thirsty, you know, or whatever else. Well, why aren't you thirsty? All right. I quit drinking. Well, what'd you quit drinking for? Well, I'm a Christian. You mean a Christian can't drink? Where does it say a Christian can't have a drink? Well, I didn't, I don't know. Well, it doesn't. I have one. Okay. And then, you know, and the next thing you know, they're driving me home in another protection program, you know, or something, the wrong one. But you're back and you're wondering what's going on here. And you find yourself that the real problem is, is that I, though Jesus had died for me and my sins were forgiven and they were gone and I, and the old life was buried and I was dead to sin. And at the same time, I had not personally by faith, desired that faith, that, that death. I hadn't come and said, Lord, I died to these things. I died to these relationships. I died to the past, whatever, whoever, however, whatever has got to be severed. I'm dead to it. Move me into your world. And that's a great problem. A lot of people come to Christ, but they, they, they, they don't know what it is to actually die to the old life. They go back and let it be revived again and again and again. We ought to be like St. Augustine. Maybe you heard his story and his confessions is a wonderful little, you know, testimony gives, but on how that his mother was raising him, evidently he's a very intelligent, outgoing, handsome, you know, young man. And always they lived outside of Rome. And she, he always, as a young man wanted to go to Rome with his mother, a wonderful Christian was praying for him, witnessing, testifying all the time to him. He didn't care about it. Didn't listen. And she used to pray, God, don't let Augustine go to Rome. Don't let him go to Rome. Don't let him go to Rome. Well, sure enough, he grew up and went to Rome. And then the next thing you know, he's living in Rome and partying in Rome and he's living with a woman in Rome. Augustine was. And then thereafter he'd experienced Roman life, all this thing that he thought growing up would be so high and mighty and wonderful as he really realized how empty and vain it was. Remembering his mother's witnesses, mother's testimony to him, he comes to Christ. And there, as he receives Christ, he then goes home and gets a couple things and leaves. Never to come back again. And here, you know, months later, one day he's walking down the street and he sees the gal that he's living with coming the other direction. Seeing her, he goes over to the other side of the street and goes walking down. And all of a sudden she recognizes him. And she starts yelling, go Augustine, Augustine. And he just keeps on walking. She comes over, grabs Augustine. And he said, what's wrong with you? She said, Augustine, it's me. Mildred or whatever name was, I don't remember. She's Augustine. It's me, Mildred. Don't you remember? And he looked at her and he said, Madam, you may be Mildred, but I'm not Augustine. Good day. And he turned and walked away. There's a man that is dead. There is somebody that honestly realized I'm crucified with Christ. The old man is dead. He is gone. He is buried. I am done with him. You don't entertain it. You don't discuss it. You don't negotiate it. You bury it. And that's the, and here Paul says, you want to know how to deal with sin. You're baptized. Know your baptism. And he says, then know your crucifixion. And then third, he says, know your resurrection. He says, knowing this, verse nine, that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And here the wonderful thing, Paul says, you, you know your baptism, know your crucifixion, know what it is to come. Maybe some of us tonight, we've, you've, you forgot that God looks and he says, you're crucified. You're died. The records are gone. You keep going back there, trying to raise you the old life from the dead, trying to live it again. And isn't it miserable? Because people look at you and you are dead. You ever notice that? After you become a Christian, you're, you're, you're ruined. God, he puts this stamp on you or he does this, he messes you up really weird in a sense where you, I remember literally, I, I, I enjoyed the life, you know, in the world, fine as a Christian a lot of times. And then I became, I mean, not as a Christian. Then I come to Christ and I'm going back doing the same things. I literally remember times when I, I remember one specific one. I'm at a party and I'm talking to somebody and I'm telling this joke, an off-color bad joke. And, uh, uh, and I'm telling this joke, funny joke, every, you know, hilarious, great worldly joke. And I'm telling this joke. And as I tell the joke, the people are kind of laughing. They thought it was really funny, but there's a voice inside of me just louder than their voices. That isn't funny. It is too. It is not. It is too. That's a funny, listen to it. Do you want to hear it again? I'm going literally in my mind, it's, you're ruined in my whole world. I had, and this is a fun world. And now you, people are looking at you. What are you doing inside there? You having a problem? No, I'm fine. I'm just having a personal discussion, you know, or whatever on how though you find, I don't fit here. There's a conviction. This person that used to be so much alive, he did die. He doesn't fit. Why am I still trying to make him fit? God just simply says, crucify him, bury him, be done with it. And if we won't do that, we can't deal with sin. Moralism won't do it. You know, the, uh, legalism won't do it. You know, cheap grace won't do it. God says, you want to deal with sin, you bury it and you go out there and you be done with it. And then he says, now know your resurrection. Realize there that every single day of your life, there is a risen Lord who wants to clothe you with his identity, who wants you to be his, his life, the one that by his spirit, he would fill and take and bless and use you, use you for a whole new life, far more exciting than you ever knew before. More wonderful, more, more glorious, more peaceful, more joyful than you ever experienced in all the world before. The world hasn't, has nothing to compare with it. With somebody there that says, Lord, take my life and fill me with you. I am risen with Christ. Now live in me. Take over my life. Fill me with your love. Fill me with your spirit. If, you know, if, if the old guy that used to live here is now reckoned to be dead, and we're going to look at this next week, how to reckon yourself dead. But if it's to be reckoned dead, well, I still got a heart that beats. I still got blood that flows. I still got muscles and nervous system in the body. And Lord, if you like this body, it's yours. And if you want to take it and fill it with your love and with your spirit, it's yours. Do you realize that's what the Lord right now with every one of us, what he's longing for. So often though, the, the tragic thing is, is if we don't know our baptism, we'll never know our resurrection. If we don't know our crucifixion, we won't know our resurrection, any of it. It's an interesting thing. Oftentimes we can pray, Lord, give me a, I want the power of the resurrection. I want the power of your Holy Spirit. I want the power that raised Jesus from the dead. I want the, I want the resurrection power in my life. We can pray that way. But you know, there's a very interesting thing. I don't know if you ever noticed this in the Bible. There's only one type of person Jesus ever raised from the dead. Only one. There was one qualification he had with every person he ever raised from the dead. Very simple one. They had to be dead. He didn't raise any living people. He only raised dead people from the dead. And one of the things we're oftentimes Lord, give me a resurrection. And I believe the Lord is looking to say, I'll tell you what, you give me a crucifixion. I'll give you a resurrection. You give me death. I'll give you life. You give me what you aren't. I'll give you what I am. What, how's that for a trade? That's a tough one to beat. But at the same time, as long as I'm still determined to live, if I want his power, and then I want to go back to the old life and I want to sneak out of the witness protection program and go meet with the old buddies and go do the thing and yet kind of slide back in and be guilty and try to put on all the garments and go out into this new program. But at the same time, have this secret life. The Lord says, no, don't deal with it with legalism. I'm not going to go out of that. I'm not going out anymore. I'm not sneaking out after midnight when, you know, I'm not going to do this. No. The thing is, instead of going out, you die. You die. You just come there and say, Jesus, I want to die. One time years ago, I don't recommend, I don't do this anymore, but I did do it this time for some reason. But I remember there was a gal that called on the phone and trying to talk to her and comfort her. And she's going through all sorts of stuff. And after a few minutes, I realized, no, remember what I said? It wasn't going to help her. And she's there. So I'm suicidal and I want to take my life. I just want to die. And I couldn't get her to off that. So finally, I said, well, let's try going with it. I said, you know something? Maybe that's a good idea. And she said, what? I said, yeah, I think that's a great idea. And you do? Yes. But let me ask you a question. Is your heart working okay? Yes. Blood flowing? Yes. You can stand up, walk, talk, function? Yes. So there's nothing wrong with the body. No, not particular. But you want to die? Yes. So but so it's not physical. There's just somebody living in your body that you'd like to kill. Well, the Bible has a wonderful way to do that. It's Christ. You can be crucified with Jesus Christ, that person that you hate, that person you wish would die, that person you wish you could commit suicide. Why don't you just turn to him and say, Lord, here is my body. If you want it, I'm through with it. I'm out of it. I want to die. And I want you to live. Well, I've gone way over time, so we'll have to pick up obligation next week. But let's pray. Dear Father, I thank you for your love and your mercy and your goodness. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to know tonight. Maybe some of us, we realize I'm a Christian, but we're trying by our own energy effort. We're legalizing ourselves. We're putting ourselves under loss. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going there. I'm not this and I'm not, not, not. And Lord, you'd mean time look at us as, say, well, it ain't going to do you any good whether you do or don't. The issue is, are you going to die? That's how you deal with sin. Not by effort. It's not by struggle. It's not by trying. It's not by crying. It's by dying. By putting your own head on the chopping block and letting yourself and your old life die and Jesus live. And Lord, I pray that we would long to know that crucified life that would bring us in to the power of the resurrection, that we could then serve you in newness of life. Lord, maybe some of us have made all sorts of efforts and promise, or maybe we just say, well, I'm so glad for the grace of God and how grateful we are for it. But Lord, may we realize your grace is the very mechanism through which all this is offered to us by grace. Jesus, you died on the cross for us. By your grace, we are crucified with you. By your grace, we are dead to sin. By your grace, we have a whole new identity. All by your grace. Lord, may we find ourself tonight just saying, take me. I want to enter into your witness protection program. I need a new identity. Jesus, help us to bury the old man, to be done with him. And now I'll be able to turn to you and say, Jesus, for what I've been offered to replace myself with, nothing other than you. The power of your spirit. Will you take me? Will you fill me? Will you live in me? Will you guide my life? Will you put your hand upon me? Will you take my members as instruments for your glory? My lips, my heart, my joy. I offer myself to you in Jesus' name. Amen.