Romans 6:19 – How to Get to Victory – Bible study

Romans 6:19 How Do I Get to Victory from Here? Romans is a powerful book with glorious truths. It is a deep book, a book that many do not like to study through but the rewards are well worth the labor you invest into it. The theme of the entire is "Saved by Grace." It is this book that we gain much of our understanding of salvation by grace. In Romans 6, Paul was speaking to the Christian about the things that are now His in Christ by Gods grace. But not only was Paul teaching doctrinal truth, he was also giving practical help. Tonight, let me lay the ground work for us to have victory in our lives from sin. The Bible make it clear that doctrinally we are free from sin, but being doctrinally free from sin and practically free from sin are not always the same thing. Let me share some thoughts: I. The first step to deliverance is DESIRE. A. You cant be free from sin if you dont want to be free from sin. 1. This is not a Bible truth as much as a lesson I have learned. 2. Ive seen the old adage proven many times, "You cant help a person that doesnt want to be helped." B. This is the reason Jesus always invited the lost to come to Him for salvation and the saved to come to Him for help. Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. C. There are two wells in this world. 1. The well of life and the well of this world. 2. The well of life gives life enteral and the power of deliverance. 3. The water of this world is a trained, polluted water. 4. Yet, if you would rather drink dirty watersaved or lost- God will not drag you from it or it from you. D. So the first question is to you want to be free from sin? II. The second step to deliverance is ACCOUNTABILITY. A. You cannot overcome something for which you are not accepting responsibility. B. As I said this morning, the Bible deals with every issue we face. 1. The problem is that we do not read the Bible and put it Into practice. 2. The Bible teaches us that we are accountable for every action we do and every word we speak. Romans 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Mt 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. C. Let me direct some words to parents and grandparents that are having to raise their children in todays drug crazy world. 1. Any doctor that is prescribing medication for behavior problems without a clear regiment to teach the individual how to control his behavior, is not a doctor. He is a quack. a. Someone says, The doctor doesnt have the time and expertise to teach parents how to train children. b. Then he doesnt have the expertise to put your child on a behavior-altering drug. 2. We have exchanged medication for discipline, entertainment for parenting, junk food for nutrition, peers for parents, schools and daycares for the home, social media for family conversation, violent and explicit movies, games, and music for quality imagination time, and we wonder why our children are hyper, stressed, and uncontrollable. 3. It is time for peopleespecially Christiansto understand that just because someone has a degree or education in a field, it does not make them an expert. 4. All a doctrinal degree means is that people have studied a lot in a particular field. a. It does not mean that the field they have studied had any truth or value to it to begin with. (1) You can spend 10 years becoming a doctorate in the field of evolution, but all you did was spend 10 years studying in a made-up field. (2) There is NO EVOLUTION. (3) We are Bible believers. (4) Its all made up! b. So is this branch of medicine that says we must sedate and medicate our kids. e. I know some children are a handful, but the human race existed for thousands of years without medicating our children for misbehavior. I think we can survive a while longer. 5. All of that might sound like I am saying never give your children medication for behavior problems. a. I am not. b. I am saying that mediation alone is not the answer. (1) There must also be accountability. (a) It is not the drugs problem when you child misbehave. It is not their teachers fault. It is not your fault. It is your childs fault. He or she is making a decision and must be held accountable for it. (b) I fear that the opportunity to teach a child accountability has an expiration date. That some are losing the opportunity to help their children by solely relying on medication and instead of working to help their child. (2) There must be communication. (a) Children have to be taught right and wrong and if they have a harder time comprehending it, they must be taught all the more. (b) It may be tiresome to have to explain over and over to the child what they are doing that is wrong and why it is wrong but it must be done. (3) There must also be discipline. In most cases, our children are not sick. They are just misbehaving. (4) There must be a plan to remove the medication. Behavior medication is not a cure. It is a tool to help produce the cure. Accountability, communication, and discipline are the cure. Here is where the medical world fails and fails miserably. You have not cured a child when you have made him or her an addict. III. The third step to deliverance is knowledge. A. We must know how to receive the deliverance we need. B. There are three enemies we fight and we must know what enemy we are fighting and how to win. 1. One enemy is the devil. To win against the devil, we must resist him. James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 2. Another enemy is the world. To win against the world, we must separate from it. Romans 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Psalm 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: 1Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 3. The third enemy is the flesh. To win against the flesh we must be transformed. Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: C. Tonight, lets look at one of our enemies and how we are to defeat it, the flesh. 1. You can separate yourself from your own flesh. 2. Neither can you resist it. You will lose. 3. You must transform it. That leads to our fourth step to victory. IV. The fourth step to victory (over the flesh) is battle. A. There is no magical cure for conquering sinful habits. 1. God can and sometimes does give a miracle, but that is not the plan. 2. There are no magical Bible verses, prayers, thoughts, or act of faith that will break sins bondage. 3. If you are going to overcome sin, you will have to go through the process of transformation. 4. That is usually a long, slow, painful process, but it can be done if you have Christ in you. B. The key is found in Romans 6:19. Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 1. You break sinful habits the same way you created sinful habits. 2. How did you get into sin? a. There was lust \#James 1:13-15\ (1) That is desire (2) Thinking about a sin is always the first step to craving it. (3) Craving the sin is the first step to committing it. b. There was an exchange. (1) You exchanged a right for a wrong, a freedom for a pleasure. (2) Most of the time it was a right or freedom that you took for granted. (3) You did not even miss it until you were bound by the wrong. (a) You did not have to smoke but you traded it for a craving to smoke. (b) You did not have to lust but you traded it for a pleasurable lust. (c) You did not have to be profane but you traded it for the power profanity gave to you. c. There was a gradual, step-by-step, downward path. (1) If you knew it was wrong, you probably started small – maybe just a test to see if you like it. (2) If there were no great repercussions, you went further. (3) At this point, you are committing the sin. 1. You considered the sin each time. 2. You decided to do it each time. d. It became a habit – You woke up one morning and instead of you doing the sin, the sin did you. (1) You didnt think about it. (2) You didnt make the choice to do it. (3) You just did it. 3. How do I overcome it? a. Lust after the victory. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (1) You must start craving, wanting, thinking not about being without your sin for then your mind is still on your sin. (2) You must crave more of Jesus! More of His presence, more of His mind, more of His abilities. (3) You must crave doing for Jesus. b. Exchange your wrong for a greater right. (1) Every time you are tempted to do wrong, start praying for others and while you pray, go tell someone about Jesus, or bake a cake to give to a neighbor in Jesus name, or pass out a tract. (2) You are not giving yourself the opportunity to do wrong because you are exchanging your wrong behaviors for right ones. c. Gradually, step-by-step, climb upward. (1) Pray more, witness more, do more. (2) There are too many good things that can be done for you to let boredom and idleness cause you to continue in sin. d. The day will come when right will do you! You will not have to think about it or decide make a decision to do it. You just will.