The sin struggle

I heard the pages of the hymn books rattling and I was waiting for a hymn to be given out, but the time is going here. Let's look at Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin or have died to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by 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. For if or since we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead or has died 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 dies no more, death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, which ye have obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. In verse 1 we read these words, the question, shall we continue in sin? Have you ever come to a point in your life where your answer to this question would have been yes. There seems to be no other way.

Habits so ingrained, sin so powerful, willpower, there's just not enough will, there's not enough power. Trying to do the best you can just won't cut it, the power of sin. Shall we continue in sin? We get some tremendous principles in this chapter that I'll tell you when I was a young Christian.

And there were times when I thought, you know, I just can't get over this. Habits in my life, sin that I wanted to change but couldn't. I'll tell you Romans 6 was a tremendous help and I hope it'll be a help to someone today.

And I'll tell you this, as I've been looking over this, thinking about the meeting, the conference, I can see that there's principles in chapter 6 I need to apply in my own life even though I've been saved so many years now. What's the answer to this? This problem of sin that every one of us who is saved today we struggle with. Don't you struggle with sin? Every day.

Is there an answer? So beginning chapter 6 here, we're dealing with the power of sin. Interesting the chapters leading up to this deal with the problem, the penalty of sin. Well what's the answer to the penalty of sin? We'll likely hear this in the gospel night.

It's that Christ died for us. Chapter 5, right? Christ died. What's the answer to the problem of the power of sin? We died with Christ.

We died with Christ. It isn't willpower. Now some people do amazingly well and I marvel that they can live lives they do and there are others that try self-help programs and other kinds of programs but I know for me what was the greatest help of all was what we get in chapter 6 when I realized I don't have to keep yielding and being a slave of sin because as far as God is concerned and the real reality is I died the day I put my trust in the Lord Jesus knew so little about the gospel but yet God in his mercy reached down and saved me lost and helpless that day Larry Perkins died verse 2 says you know the answer to the question shall we continue in sin God forbid no way how shall we we who have died to sin live any longer therein now verses 3 4 5 give the picture of what I've been talking about the picture of baptism and baptism is a picture of our identification with the Lord Jesus in his death burial and resurrection and what I'm saying what happened to him on the cross the moment a person puts their trust in him they come into the good of that when I trusted Christ God says saw me as having died just as Christ was buried and rose again we come into the good of that too let me just ask this um maybe there's somebody here and you've been saved but have you been baptized you say well not yet you know the Lord Jesus wasn't ashamed to be identified with you and me and our sin was he when he was on the cross is it possible that we're ashamed to be identified with him here in this world where he's still rejected tremendous thing to be able to acknowledge that we belong to the Lord Jesus through baptism but now down in verse 6 beginning in verse 6 I want to look at three principles that show how this all works and God wants us to lay hold of these things and brother sister maybe especially the young if sin is a problem to you and I don't know how it can't be a problem to anybody but I hope this will be a help notice verse 6 knowing this here's the first we're going to look at three verbs the first one is knowing God wants us to know something what is it that our old man literally was crucified with him our old man what's that all that we were as a sinner in Adam before we are saved came to an end the moment we trusted Christ our old man was crucified with him why so that the body of sin that these bodies under the control of sin might be destroyed now that word destroyed doesn't mean what we usually think of the word destroyed it has the this is a tremendous help to me it means to be reduced to inactivity to be deprived of power to be put out of business you hear what God's saying here that because of our link with the Lord Jesus this body under the control of sin hasn't put out of business we have new ownership now we don't have to be pushed around by sin it's not our master anymore our master is the Lord Jesus Christ but notice in verse 6 knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth from now on we should not serve sin God doesn't want us to be slaves of sin any longer so this is what he wants us to know in verse 6 and then verse 7 says for he that is dead he that has died is freed from sin you know there's tremendous power in the word of God tremendous power isn't that how we were saved being born again by the word of God but we need the word of God as believers to live in the good of it verse 7 for he that has died is free from sin you know the analogy is often given about an alcoholic and just suppose there's an alcoholic now and he gets involved in a very serious car accident and he's charged with driving under the influence and maybe he's even in jail there's some serious damage injury but the next day the alcoholic dies has heart attack because he died he's free from the penalty the DUI and everything that's facing him but he's also free from the power of alcohol God wants us to realize that positionally this is how he looks at it we've died to the penalty of sin we've died to the power of it in a verse 8 it says if we've died with Christ we've lived we we shall also live with him it's not only that we died with him but we share in his resurrection as well we'll get into that in just a minute we'll look down at verse 11 this is the second verb i want to look at and probably it's this verse that has been more of a help to me or was many years ago at least when i was struggling so much verse 11 well back to verse 10 speaking about the Lord Jesus for in that he died he died unto sin once Christ dealt with sin in his death now he's done with it verse 11 likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord now that word reckon doesn't mean to suppose it means to consider to rely and to count on and somebody has said the word deals with reality not fantasy and somebody said that if you reckon that you have a hundred dollars in the bank you really do it's not just wishful thinking so what God is saying here he wants us to reckon to count on the fact what does it say likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin what's what's this all mean you know a person can hear the facts of the gospel how we're sinners Christ died for our sins but they they know it but they've never really appropriated taking it for themselves and they've never really rested in that truth to me i see somewhat the same principle here verse 6 God wants us to know we've been crucified with Christ verse 11 he says now count on it reckon when sin comes knocking at the door count on yourselves to be dead indeed to sin just like that alcoholic once he died whiskey has no power over by faith we need to live in the good of what God has said is true dead to sin alive unto God that is respond to God do what he wants how in our own power again by willpower no because we're linked with the Lord Jesus not only in his death but also in his resurrection the apostle Paul lived in the good of this Galatians 2 20 says I've been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and this life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me what a Savior I'm glad he died for me I'm glad he lives for me it's all about him Paul said and yet not I but Christ so verse 12 says let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof see we have a choice we have a choice here really who we're going to serve and that brings us to verse 13 and here's the third verb the first principle verse 6 knowing this that a Roman was crucified with him verse 11 the second reckon you yourselves to be dead to sin and so on now verse 13 involves the word yield neither yield ye your members that is the parts of our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God you same word that we read about in chapter 12 here verse one present your bodies a living sacrifice and that doesn't have to be some big scary thing like some religions teeth that you have to you know torment yourself torture yourself it's just giving yourself to God isn't that the only reasonable thing to do we are no match for Satan's power no match but to yield ourselves to God and let him do what we can't do and if you're saved today don't you have a little desire to want to please the Lord to whom we owe everything we can't do it ourselves we heal ourselves to God he can do what we can never do the members neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness hurts everybody what we see what we hear what we say what we do where we go am I willing to yield that to him serve him let him have his way in my life or am I going to do my own thing and really even though I belong to him I'm serving sin more than I am the Lord in chapter 13 Paul writes make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof one translation puts it like this don't let yourself think about ways to indulge yours evil desires I'm going to say that again don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires we don't have to do that anymore when sin comes knocking at the door we need to shut the door yielding to God not by any strength in us but because of our link with the Lord Jesus now the last section here with this I'm going to close the question is who are we serving sinner God verse 16 it says no you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants here to whom you obey we are slaves servants slaves that's the word here we are slaves to what we yield to Lord brings that out in John chapter 80 said he that commits sin is that servant of the slave of sin what's the result of being a slave to sin well in verse 21 it says what fruit had you then in those things wherever you're now ashamed the end of those things is death I'll tell you what the fruit is there's shame there's regret there's emptiness and if a person isn't saved it's ultimately death and isn't it interesting in our society so many seem to have an obsession with death music movies the way some people dress death oriented now once we were the servants of sin verse 17 the verse 22 says but now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness in the end everlasting life what's the result of being a servant to God holiness a separated life a life that's pleasing to the Lord now again this isn't some high bar that you and I can never jump over the Lord's told us in the beginning of the chapter how it's possible it's because there are identification with Christ and his death and his resurrection we've died but he lives in us now and it's yielding to him and it's laying hold of the Word of God you know I remember times in my life especially I was first saved it's like sin was screaming in my mind and my being and Satan there too you know to succumb to sin because that's the way I've lived for so long and it seemed there's no way to stop that cycle except the power of the Word of God says I've died I've got a new master now count on the fact you've died to sin alive to God you say well I've tried it and you know I'm still going down the tube Satan might get the better of you today but don't give up don't give up because my friend sin leads to sin more and more depravity sooner or later if you mean business if you love the Lord and you don't want to be a servant to sin practically he'll deliver you the Lord didn't just die on the cross to save us from going to hell he's the living Christ and he wants to deliver us to preserve us and what he did on the cross has eternal value it has eternal vent it has value in your life in my life today so what's the fruit of the result of being a servant to God says you have you fruit unto holiness living a life that's pleasing to him but also in the end everlasting life their satisfaction now and forever but not only that but in a coming day the one who died to deliver us from the penalty of sin the power of sin is going to deliver us from its very presence I can hardly wait I'm looking forward to seeing the Lord Jesus but I'll tell you I'm looking forward to being free from the struggle against sin so in conclusion shall we continue in sin shall you continue in sin what's he say how shall we we who have died to sin in Christ three things again just to wrap up God wants us to lay hold of first of all verse knowing this that our old man was crucified with Christ secondly verse 11 reckon count on the fact that we died to sin but that we're alive to God in Christ Jesus in Jesus Christ our Lord but then thirdly verse 13 yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead you know brother sister the Lord has made it possible for you and me to serve him no matter who we are no matter what our past is he's made it possible because there are of our identification with Christ his identification with us and his death burial and resurrection you know Joshua put it this way at the end of his life choose you this day who you will serve