OPEN: With Jan. 1st just around the corner, many people are thinking aboutNew Year’s resolutions.
An article a couple of years ago listed the top 5 New Year’s Resolutions:
#5: stop smoking
#4: make more money,
#3: improve relationships
#2: exercise more
#1 most popular New Years resolution… losing weight.
All these resolutions are saying one thing: I want to be different than I am. I want to gain control of an area of my life. And, if I could just get control of this one part of my life… I could be truly happy. I could be a new person.
The problem, of course with New Year’s resolutions… they are rarely effective. Somewhere along the line, our resolve to keep those resolutions gets buried under the press of time and our own lack of will power.
APPLY: Now Jesus has something to say about change - about becoming new inside.
Jesus said: “Behold, I make all things new….” Revelation 21:5
And Paul agreed with that “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
I. What the Bible teaches us is: Jesus gives us the power to change.
The power to become a new creation. AND that power of change begins when we first become Christians.
Look again with me at Romans 5:6 –
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still POWERLESS, Christ died for the ungodly.”
What does Paul mean – we were powerless?
Before we became Christians, didn’t we have the power and the inner strength to change and improve our lives???
Well… yeah!
The problem was… all of the improvements we made to our lives were like putting new windows and doors on a derelict house. The improvements were great ideas… but they didn’t increase the value of who we were.
When Jesus saved us… He didn’t want to rearrange the furniture of our lives and repaint the walls… No! When Jesus saved us, He wanted to start from scratch.
ILLUS: A read about a man who was selling an old warehouse. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Gangs had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and thrown trash everywhere.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
The buyer smiled and said “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.
II. That’s what Jesus is telling us here in Romans 5 & 6
He DOESN’T want the building we’ve made of our lives… He wants the site
He doesn’t want our cleverly constructed plans for our lives… He wants our heart
When we became Christians, Jesus started from scratch… from the ground up
Look again at Romans 6:3-4 “… all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
In order to be a Christian you have to die…
- you have to die to your past
- you have to die to the way you used to live
- you have to die to the way you used to think
And when you die to your past… then Jesus can raise you up and give you a new heart and a new mind. And He can give a new way of living and thinking
III. Part of the reason Jesus has to start from scratch is that…in our OLD way of living, we had a warped way of thinking.
Paul points that out when he asks the question:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Romans 6:1
Why would Paul ask that question?
Because he’d just got done explaining that because of His grace, God has forgiven all of our sins.
In other words, God loves us so much that He loves to forgive us.
And so – here in Romans 6 – he asks the question (my paraphrase thereof)
“If God loves to forgive us our sins… why don’t we sin a lot and make God really happy?”
That’s the way we would have thought in our old way of life.
For many of us, the object of life (back then) was to find out how close to the edge we could live w/o getting caught.
AND SO (we would reason) if I’m now free from the past… and God loves forgiving me… whyyyy I’ll can just go out live like I used to and whenever the guilt of life gets to far out of hand, I can just come back to God and get some of that forgiveness He likes to hand out.
Now, you might say: nobody thinks like that!!!
Yeah… they do
ILLUS: One dying heretic was quoted as saying: "God will forgive me... it’s his profession."
The heretic had no intention of repenting of his past, he was just flippantly declaring that God would have to forgive him, because that was what God was known for.
A lot of people aren’t so brazen in what they say… but their actions betray that this is exactly what they believe:
They’ll go to church on Sunday
… but on Monday they gather with the guys down at the water cooler and tell dirty jokes
They’ll go to church on Sunday
… but on Monday they’re sitting at the computer looking at things they ought not to be looking at.
They’ll go to church on Sunday
… but on Monday they’ll speak badly of the woman down the street they don’t like
They’ll go to church on Sunday
… but on Monday they’ll lose their temper and curse a blue streak.
They’ll go to church on Sunday
… but on Monday… well, you fill in the blank
That’s not to say that God doesn’t forgive us when we stumble in our faith. He loves us so much that He DOES desire to forgive us whenever we repent.
It’s just that – we shouldn’t become cavalier in our attitude towards God’s forgiveness. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to abuse God’s kindness to us.
IV. But Paul knew that’s how some of us might think… and so he said:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Romans 6:1
Hey! If God loves to forgive us… let’s sin a lot so that God can really be happy!
Then Paul writes:
“By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:2-4
In other words, Paul is saying “Think boy!… think! When you became a Christian did you die to your past??? (yeah you did) Well, what do you do with dead things? You bury them!
Soooo… when you died to sin, you were buried in the waters of Christian baptism.
But you didn’t stay buried. Because, then you were lifted out of the water as if you were rising from the dead. AND when you rose up from that grave of water – you became a new creature.
Jesus had given you new life.
Now, why would God use such a simplistic tool like baptism to teach us this?
Because God knows we are a very visual people. And it helps to have something visual like this when we’re struggling in our faith.
ILLUS: Bill Gothard told of a farmer who become a Christian after a long sinful life.
But after his salvation, this farmer would often be troubled with the memories of the things that he was now ashamed of.
He’d be out plowing the field and the guilt and shame of what he’d done in his past would just roll over him in waves till he could hardly stand it anymore.
He was a good church goer, and he knew that his feelings were wrong. He knew he’d been forgiven of all of that. And that the guilt was just Satan’s way of whispering in his ear. And Satan was trying to tear him down and get him to doubt his salvation.
He knew all that… but he couldn’t quite conquer the feelings that would come on him now and again.
(pause…) One day as he was out plowing in the field, the old doubts came back to haunt him.
He became angry and decided he was tired of Satan bringing up the past again and again
So he got down off the tractor, went out back of the barn and drove a stake into the ground. And there beside the stake he knelt down and confessed his sins all over again to God. Then he went back out to field and began to plow again.
From that day on, whenever his guilt came back to visit him he’d go out back of the barn and he’d point to that stake and he’d say:
“Satan, you get out of here, because there lie my sins. Don’t you be bringing them up again, because they’re forgiven.”
What that farmer learned was what God wanted us to learn from our baptism.
o Whenever we’re faced with the guilt and temptation of the past
o We need to mentally revisit our baptism and say to Satan
“Satan, you get out of here, because there lie my sins. Don’t you be bringing them up again, because they’re forgiven.”
V. I want to close with this thought…
Being reborn is something that God does in us. The power for new birth comes from the blood of Jesus. And because this new life comes from God - and not from ourselves - the changes in our lives will only be truly effective when we look to Jesus and not ourselves for the strength to overcome our failures.
CLOSE: A noted evangelist: Peter W. Philpott, of Hamilton, Ontario tells this story:
The toughest; roughest blacksmith in the shop was Tom - "Big Tom", everybody called him. He was not only the strongest man in the shop, he was also the most wicked. He was feared by every man and by his own family, and he in turn was afraid of no one or nothing.
His fellow blacksmiths learned to give him a wide berth on Monday morning when he came to work without having fully recovered from weekend of drunkenness, or on any morning, for that matter; because he light be in a bad humor.
One morning Tom came into the shop with a smile and a word of greeting for all. To his astonished fellows he made the announcement that he had gone to an evangelistic service the night before and had received the Savior as his own.
"Men, I am now a Christian," said Tom. "I intend to be different from that you have known me to be. I want be loyal and true to the Lord Jesus." No one dared dispute his statement, but the men looked at one another with knowing glances. "So Big Tom got religion! That won’t last long!"
Among themselves they began to lay wagers that Tom’s Christianity would not last until noon, but it did. He was diligent in his work, kind and gracious to all.
Then there were bets laid that he would not be able to go past the tavern on the way home, but he did. As the marvel of Tom’s new life continued to be shown to them, the other blacksmiths shook their heads in amazement but secretly they made further wagers that Saturday night would find Tom dead drunk in some saloon. They were wrong. The big blacksmith took his pay envelope and his dinner pail and walked past every den of iniquity straight to his home and his happy family.
On Monday morning he witnessed to all in the shop about what he had heard the preacher say during the Sunday services, morning and evening.
Every man and boy in the blacksmith shop began to believe that Big Tom had really become a Christian. Then one day it happened!
Tom was fashioning a piece of red-hot iron, and in striking a blow he hit his thumb as well as the iron. A tremendous oath such as only Tom could swear turned the air blue.
Said Peter Philpott, "Every one of us stood stark still in amazement, and also in sorrow, I am sure. Every eye was on Tom.
"He paid no attention whatever to any of us. He could have made light of the matter and laughed it off, and we might have joined timidly in that laughter. He might have glowered at us or shook his fist in warning at us, but he did nothing of the kind.
"He fell to his knees immediately and, bowing his massive head upon anvil, he buried his face in his hands. We heard the deep sobbing from the depths of his heart and saw the heaving of that great chest and the bitter tears that flowed between his grimy fingers.
"For several minutes he remained in prayer. Then he arose from knees and, wiping the tears from his cheeks, he smiled at us and said ’Fellows, I want you to forgive me. I didn’t mean to swear. The Savior has forgiven me, and please forgive me men, everyone.’
"In subdued silence we nodded… to Big Tom, and then solemnly we went each one to his task. It was the sight of Tom on his knees publicly asking the Lord Jesus for forgiveness that touched my heart so deeply that I could not rest until shortly afterward … I too accepted the Savior."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES: CELEBRATING GOD’S GIFTS
The Gift of Life = Psalms 139:1-139:24
Christmas Card From God = Psalms 104:1-104:35
What Did You Get For Christmas? = Isaiah 9:6-9:7
The Gift Of New Life = Romans 5:6-6:14
