DEAD, BURIED, AND FREE
Romans 5:20-6:14
INTRODUCTION:
Mother and baby skunk walking close to paper mill.
Baby asks, “Mom, what it that smell?”
Mother takes deep smell and says, “I don’t know but we’ve got to get some of that.”
That could be an example of STINKIN’ thinkin’
Our scripture today is definitely an example of stinkin’ thinkin’.
Paul was working with a group of people who said about the stupidest thing Paul had ever heard.
Have you ever heard something really stupid come out of someone’s mouth.
It was so stupid all you could do was stand there with your mouth open and shake your head????
Like the woman on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
I know a girl who was helping carry firewood from the woods to the truck and said, “Wouldn’t it be easier to cut the tree down and let it fall in the truck?”
That is how Paul felt when he heard the stupid thing they were saying in Rome…
Whenever we sin God gives us grace… the more we sin the more grace God gives… therefore… it is a good thing for us to sin so God can be more gracious.
We can continue to sin and still be OK
READ SCRIPTURE
As we celebrate Independence Day.... or Declaration Day... tomorrow, I want us to really celebrate our TRUE INDEPENDENCE.
To do that we have to get some clear thinking… ABOUT SIN
Paul uses three words that teach us about sin...
DEAD BURIED FREE
Paul says Christians should be DEAD
“I thought you were getting up a bus load to go right now.”
Paul confronts the ones who feel it is OK to keep on sinning by asking, “Should we go on sinning in order to show God’s love? NO... NO... a million times NO!!
INFACT>>>>WE CAN’T … WE DIED TO SIN!!!!!!!!!. HOW CAN WE CONTINUE TO LIVE IN IT?
DIED = SHOULD HAVE DIED... to sin.
So, why should Christians NOT continue in sins?
WE ARE DEAD TO SIN
Not dead like the people who are in the cemetery... not our body has ceased to function.
No, instead we are to be dead to sin like the man who goes to the dentist and gets his jaw numbed… it is dead.
You can stick it with pins, burn it with fire.., it is dead to the world.
To be DEAD TO SIN = to be unresponsive to sin, to be insensitive to sins allure.
Paul says WE SHOULD BE DEAD TO SIN.
He puts it this way in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE, OLD THINGS HAVE DIED AND ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW.”
Luke says, in 9:23, “And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
The day when you prayed the sinner’s prayer and invited Christ into your life as Savior…
YOU PROMISED TO DIE!!!!
You promised that you would begin the process of killing off the old creature and will begin to nurture the new creation in you.
Now some of you have promised to kill the old creature but you obviously plan to kill it by over-indulgence, foundering, or by letting it die of old age.
God expects you to KILL IT!!
How?
STARVE IT TO DEATH!!!!!
Refuse to go there any more, think it any more, do it any more, see it any more, touch it any more.
We have to kill the old nature the same way the mountain gorilla, the elephant and the Cheetah are becoming extinct… loss of habitat.
Deforestation… urban sprawl… poaching
We need to kill off the old nature by reducing its habitat
Take away it’s territory… it’s control
On Monday you are watching TV, evil nature has the remote. HS comes in and says “I want to change the channel to something better for you.” E.N. says, “No way, I have the remote.”
You take the remote away from E.N. and give it to H.S.
E.N. stomps out of the room fussing.
On Tuesday, you are in the kitchen with the HS warming up a dish of nutritious food and in comes EN and takes HS’s meal out of the microwave and puts in some leeks and onions. HS complains and E.N. sticks out his tongue.
You tell EN that HS has control of the menu and he has to take his leeks and onions out of the house
EN gets upset and screams…”You always take his side. It is not fair.”
The next day EN is on his way to the bathroom with his red towel and his little devil slippers with the light up eyes. At the same time HS comes with his pure white towel and his angel shoes with the cute little wings and light up halo.
They begin to fight over who has control of the shower.
You come along and say, “ES, get out of the way and let HS shower.”
Do you get the picture?
Every day the old, evil nature and the new Christ-like nature are in conflict.
Each time… you have to make the call… who is in control?
As you over and over give control of different parts of your life to the HS… the old evil spirit will lose more and more control over your life.
THAT IS HOW YOU KILL THE OLD NATURE
It will cry out, it will make every effort to be fed..., you have to STARVE IT.
Slowly very slowly sometimes.... BUT SURELY it will DIE
I wish I could express my heart-break when I watch you, members of my flock, FEEDING THE OLD NATURE, nurturing it
And at the same time..., starving your new nature... starving your spiritual nature.
What is it in your life that needs to be killed?
Are you willing to kill it, to starve it, to let it die?
BURIED
(((Joke about “Where do you bury the survivors?”)))
Why do we bury dead people?
Out of respect religious reasons people uncomfortable
Same reason we wear hard hats…goggles… gloves… boots
PROTECTION
That it why government requires burial or cremation
Why does the scripture say that we are to be buried?????
verse 6, “so that the body of sin might be done away with.”
PROTECTION from disease.
As Christians we must BURY the old nature for our own protection.
The old nature… old ways, old thoughts, old relationships, old habits, HAVE TO BE BURIED PUT AWAY.... IN THE PAST NO MORE
The old nature is like the slasher/killer in one of those “Halloween” type movies, where you think you have killed him only to have him come back to life over and over and continue to kill more people. You can’t be free, totally free until you have cut off its head, placed it in a locking coffin, sealed it shut, put it in a sealed vault, and put four feet of packed dirt on the top.
As a Christian you can not just let the old nature live and think it won’t hurt you.
THEY WILL COME BACK AND BITE YOU
Many people don’t understand why, in the Old Testament, God would have Israel kill all the people when they would defeat a nation. Why kill babies and kids and old people???
Because God knew they posed a danger of idolatry… the old nature had to be killed and buried… completely destroyed and gone.
You can’t stop until you have killed it and buried it FAR AWAY!!!
How do we bury the old evil nature?
Under layers and layers of righteousness and holiness
Not only do you NOT DO the evil thing to old nature wants you to do…
You replace it with actions and thoughts and relationships that are wholesome and helpful to your new nature
ONLY THEN
When it is dead... you have died to its call
and buried... far away from you
ARE YOU FREE!!!!!!
Then, as verse 14 says, THEN.... “Sin shall no longer be your master.”
Today we celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY...
Today we celebrate when our founding Fathers declared that they would no longer submit to the tyranny of old masters.., they were now FREE MEN... and they were ready to fight to gain and maintain that freedom.
Today can be your independence day.... today you can declare that you will no longer live under the tyrannical rule of sin, or your secret sin, of that sin which has held you down for so long.
Declare that you are ready to fight to gain and maintain that freedom.
And, IF YOU MEAN IT AND YOU ARE WILLING TO FIGHT
YOU CAN BE FREE from the allure of sin
from the power of sin
from the consequences of sin
YOU WILL BE FREE
Do you want to be free??????
Come and declare your freedom.... your independence.
