Broken Chains Series

INTRODUCTION

• Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the life-changing book of Romans. Throughout the book thus far we have seen the connection of faith to salvation. In order for us to be justified (or declared innocent) before God, we must have faith in Jesus. We also have seen that salvation and redemption come only through Jesus.

• Today we are going to look at a great benefit of belonging to Jesus.

• The title of today’s message is “Broken Chains.” It tells a story of a people who were once enslaved who are now free!

• This message goes right to the heart of true freedom that is offered through Jesus verse the “so-called” freedom we have outside of Christ.

• One of the saddest things I see happen to some Christian’s is the way many of them never seem to get on their feet. They have been given a wonderful gift, yet they never seem to quite understand just what they have.

• In the message today we will see that in Jesus we have a new life, a new master, and a new purpose. Many people struggle because they have been their state of being so long they really do not think things can change.

• In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed in America. The word spread from Capitol Hill down into the valleys of Virginia, and the Carolinas, and evens into the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The headlines read, ’Slavery Legally Abolished!’ However, the greater majority of slaves, in the South, went right on living as though there had been no emancipation. They went on living like they had never been set free. In fact, when one Alabama slave was asked what he thought of the Great Emancipator, whose proclamation had gone into effect, he replied "I don’t know nothing about Abraham Lincoln except they say he set us free. And, I don’t know nothing about that neither." How tragic. A war was being fought. A document had been signed. Slaves were legally set free.

Yet most continued to live out their years without knowing anything about it. They had chosen to remain slaves, though they were legally free. Even though emancipated, they kept serving the same master throughout their lives. Yet, so it is with many believers today. They have been set free, yet they have chosen to remain slaves to the same strongholds that have gripped them all of their life. Contributed by: Paul Berkley

• In our message today we will also see when our slavery to sin is broken when we are baptized into Christ. This is one of the reasons we teach that baptism is part of the salvation process.

SERMON

I. IN CHRIST WE HAVE A NEW LIFE (1-4)

• In verse one, we are asked the question of whether or not we should continue to sin so that we could receive more grace from God in our lives. If sin allows God’s grace to shine through, then why not?

• The answer comes to us on verse two. MAY IT NEVER BE! This is the wrong way to look at our life in Christ. Do we still sin when we are saved? Yes we do. Why? Are we in a position where we have to do it?

• Verse two explains why when we become Christians our focus needs to change. We asked how one who has died to sin still live in it?

• Before we are saved we are under the dominion or control or power) of sin. Before salvation we are slaves to sin. When we commit our first sin we die spiritually. Our spirit is no longer able to consistently control the desires of the flesh. When we are spiritually dead, we respond to the desires of the flesh that Satan puts before us. Then sin comes in and has a stranglehold over us.

• I have used the example of the drug addict. Are they free to do drugs or are they enslaved to doing them? This is what sin does to us. We are not free to sin, we are enslaved by sin, it is our master.

• Romans 6:16 tells us, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

• Now Paul says the Christian has died to sin. When and where did this happen and what does it mean?

• Verses three and four explain what was said in verse two.

• One of the reasons we are not to sin is that since we are baptized into Jesus, we were baptized into His death.

• At baptism God imputes (or adds to our account) righteousness. When we repent and become immersed we can then enjoy the benefits of Jesus death. We are justified (or declared not guilty) at baptism.