INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• We have fought wars as a nation and helped fight wars in order to help people to be able to experience the freedoms we enjoy.
• Freedom is a good thing and it can be a dangerous thing depending on what you do with it.
• In Iraq we have helped that nation have the opportunity to experience freedom. But ultimately the Iraqi people will have to make a choice, freedom, or tyranny.
• Wouldn’t it be sad to see them go back to a brutal dictatorship after all the blood and money we shed over there to help them? How would you feel if another Saddam Hussein rose to power there or if the people ushered the Muslim Brotherhood into power.
• What a disappointing waste of freedom.
• Well, we are not here today to talk about Iraq. We need to understand that there was a war fought for your spiritual freedom, a war in which God’s Son Jesus shed His blood on the cross so we could be free from the bondage of sin.
• SLIDE #2
• Romans 6:6(ESV) 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
• When we are baptized into Christ, we are a new creation in Christ with our sins forgiven, BUT we still will need to decide who we are going to serve.
• We need to decide how we are going to exercise our newfound freedom from sin.
• Today we are going to examine Romans 6:12-23 in order to help us to make the decision on who we are going to serve! How will you use the freedom you have in Christ, the freedom that Jesus shed His blood for!
• SLIDE #3
• Romans 6:12-14(ESV) 12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
• SLIDE 4
• First let us examine the choices.
SERMON
I. The choices. (12-14)
• We need to remember that Romans was written to Christians. Now WHY is Paul telling Christians about making a choice concerning who they are going to serve?
• After we are freed from the bondage of sin in our lives, we then must make a conscious decision as to what we will do with our life?
• The first choice we can make is to allow sin to reign again in our bodies.
• WE know this is a choice WE have to make because in verse 12 Paul says LET NOT, and in verse 13 he says NO NOT PRESENT your members to sin then later in the verse he says to PRESENT YOURSELVES TO GOD.
• This tells us that once the slavery to sin has been broken that we STILL have a decision to make!
• In verse 13 we are reminded that before we were freed from sin we regularly presented the members of our bodies to sin.
• We used our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness (or everything that contradicts God’s standard of right, especially in our relationships with others.)
• The word “reign” is a word used of a king who has total dominion over its subjects.
• Once we let sin have dominion over us verse 12 explains that we will then let sin make you obey its passions.
• When we let sin creep into our lives, it only looks for an opportunity to present itself.
• In the story of Cain and Abel God warns Cain…
• SLIDE #5
• Genesis 4:7(ESV) 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
• We have to decide if we are going to go right back to the way things were.
• There is a better choice that we find in the same verses, the decision to present ourselves to God!
• In verse 13 we are encouraged to “present” our bodies to God. The word “present” implies a definite once and for all commitment. The inner man that died and rose with Jesus is responsible for controlling the whole person’s behavior and for putting oneself at the disposal of God.
• Verse 14 says that sin shall not master over you. There is a subtle change in language in the original text. We shift from “THE SIN” or “KING SIN” that has dominion over us to verse 14 that says “sin” or “lord sin”.
• Follow me here. In the ancient world, you would have a King who ran the kingdom. He had absolute rule or dominion over his kingdom.
• Under the king you had lords who controlled little bits and pieces of the kingdom. They did not run the show, but they had control over parts of it, but they still were under the king.
• When we are saved, we are freed from KING SIN. It no longer has dominion over us. What happens to us is that the little sin lords (individual sins) try to lord it over us, thus drawing us into various vices.
• Verse 14 is not dealing with KING SIN which HAD dominion, but with the individual sins that harass us, tempts us and ensnares us.
• We will look at the implications of choosing to let this little lord sins trap us in a minute.
• I want you to hear me on this point.
• Sin would have ZERO authority over us if we would make it our purpose to NOT use our bodily members as instruments of unrighteousness, but use them as instruments of righteousness.
• The only power sin has over the one who is dead to sin is the power we give it.
• The MORE we are committed to Jesus; the less sin draws us in. Until we understand that, we will ALWAYS struggle. The further from God we are the more we struggle. I would venture to say that if your life is just one big fight with temptation, if you are honest with yourself, you would have to admit you are not putting a lot into your relationship with Jesus.
• We will ALWAYS have struggles with sin, but as you grow closer to Jesus, that struggles become more manageable.
• Verse 14 reminds us that once immersed into Christ we are no longer under law but under grace.
• The law will show us what acts and desires are wrong, but it provides no help in dealing with them. The speed limit only tells us the limit; it does not help us obey it.
• When we are under the grace of God we receive help dealing with temptations. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
• You have a choice to make, the sin master or Jesus.
• Let’s look at verses 15-19
• SLIDE #6
• Romans 6:15-19(ESV) 15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
• SLIDE #7
II. The ramifications. (15-19)
• Our decision as to who to serve has some ramifications.
• In verse 15 we have the same question as in verse 1. The question is since sin is no longer lord over us, then can the Christian sin and never pay a penalty? The answer of course is a resounding NO!
• It would be a misuse of freedom in Christ to suppose we can submit now and then to LORD SIN while at the same time being in no danger of coming again under the bondage of slavery to KING SIN.
• In verse 16 we learn that when we present (the same word as in verse 13- voluntary presentation) ourselves to someone as slaves for obedience we are slaves of the one we obey.
• Since we changed masters, the former master (sin) has no authority over you. We are called to give our all to our new master Jesus!
• When we belong to Jesus, we are free to decide whom we are going to serve, but there are implications that come with our choice.
• SLIDE #8
• Matthew 6:24(ESV) 24“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
• There is no middle ground. If you serve one, you will not get the benefits of the other.
• The sin in verse 16 refers to all the individual acts of sin done in obedience to the Devil.
• If a person continues to commit certain acts of sin, while making no effort to stop letting that sin reign in his life, the result will be that eventually we will sink back into the very slavery from which we were freed from at baptism.
• The final outcome of serving each master is called either “death” or “righteousness.”
• If you follow sin, death comes, spiritual death and eternal death. If you present your body to God, then righteousness.
• In other words, we are pardoned and viewed as pure by God through Jesus.
• In verse 19 Paul tells us not to push the details of slavery too far, he says he is using an illustration so we can understand the concept being taught. We are not slaves to God in the sense we have no freedom or choice. If we choose to serve Him we will receive many great benefits. All the promises of God’s word belong to us when we serve Him in love and obedience.
• When we presented ourselves to sin, more sin resulted. One small sin, then the next one bigger and the next one bigger, then we become what we were doing.
• When you present yourself to Christ, you will become more Christ-like.
• A life of service to God ends in sanctification. When we are immersed into Christ, we are sanctified, or made holy, set aside for special service. God see us as sinless. Our life in Christ is about reaching the point that God already sees us as.
• We do this not to earn salvation, but because it pleases God and we want to become more like the one we serve.
• SLIDE #9
• Romans 6:20-23(ESV) 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• SLIDE #10
III. The rewards. (20-23)
• In your life before Christ, what benefit did you receive? As for me, I can relate to what Paul says in verse 21 about being ashamed.
• My life meant nothing before Jesus, no purpose, no direction, and no focus. My life path was leading me to eternal death, and I was already spiritually dead.
• Several years ago the Associated Press reported that a man had robbed a convenience store. He gave the clerk a $10.00 bill to get her to open the cash register. It worked. She opened it and he forced her to give him the contents of the drawer. He got everything--a grand total of $4.34--and left the $10.00! He Lost $5.66 on the deal. (Roddy Chestnut- www.Sermoncentral.com)
• Now in Christ according to verse 22 we receive the sanctification we spoke of and the benefit is eternal life both now and later. We cannot go to heaven or receive God’s blessings unless we are sanctified (or made holy by God).
CONCLUSION
• Verse 23 concludes, the wages of sin is death but the free gift from God is eternal life.
• What will your choice be? Life or death? Saved or lost? Holy or unholy?
• The beauty of life is that you get to make the choice and once you make the choice, you must keep making that choice.
• God’s way of saving man results in blessings for those who will take it.
• If you are struggling, remember, you can win with God. Truly present yourself to Him and see what happens.
• God knows we will struggle. In the midst of the struggle, God hurts with you. Purpose today to fully present your life to God as a living and holy sacrifice!
• What a shame it would be to waste the blood Jesus shed for you on the cross by choosing not to fully give your life to Him.
• Do not waste the gift you have given or offered!
