Romans 6:11-14 – Death’s Not So Bad – Bible study

Rom 6:11-14 Deaths Not So Bad The greatest part of being a preacher is passing along truths that someone else passed to you. Everything I know was given to me by another. In some cases, it was another preacher or teacher. In others, it was the Holy Spirit, but regardless of where it came from, as the preacher for this church for this hour, I can pass it along to you. The truths of Romans 6 and 8 are some of the most important truths for a Christian to hear, remember, and to put into practice. How does a Christian overcome sin? Few questions need to be answered for a young Christian more so than this one. We all battle against sin, but how do we beat it? Today the average person is exposed less to God and His precepts than ever before: 1. We dont get it in school much anymore. (Prayer is gone. Bible reading is gone. The Ten Commandments are gone. I hard a message from Adrian Rogers this week and said when the courts removed the Bible and the Ten Commandments, they commented that, in their opinion, it was impossible for a child to be exposed to the Bible and the Ten Commandments and not be influenced by them. 2. Most arent learning about God in the home. Parents dont teach about God. Maybe they dont Him themselves. 3. Many dont go to church anymore and to be honest, many churches dont teach or preach truth anymore. 4. Our colleges and institutes of higher education mock God and His Word. 5. Church ministries struggle to get the unchurched to the house of God. 6. Stores, sports, and entertainment attract more than the preached Word. At the same time, sin is more available than ever before: 1. Movies, music and literature bombard individuals to greater levels of immorality than ever before. 2. If that was not bad enough, most of carry the internet with us where we go and for those that want it, that can be a direct line to every wicked thing imaginable. 3. Our senses, both spiritual and common, have become dulled. 4. For many, the line between right and wrong has been erased. The result is that more people are getting deeper into sin earlier in life than ever before. When one is saved, he/she may want to do right, but they have the sinful habits of a life time to fight. How do we overcome them? The battle is real but victory is attainable. Tonight, I would like for us to study a few verses that show us how. Introduction: Verses 1-2 set the context for the discussion. Paul had been talking about the wonderful power of grace. He made the statement in \#Rom 5:20\ that where more sin abides, God grace to conquer sin abounds much more. Knowing the how a carnal mind worked, in \#Romans 6:1\ he asked and answered the inevitable next question. Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? And in \#Romans 6:2\, Paul answered that question with a definite and loud NO! Paul then proceeded to explain truths to help young Christians overcome their sinful habits. I. \#3-5\ Paul describes two elements in Christ that work to help us overcome sin. A. \#3-4\ Death Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. 1. Some of what Paul will say is deep, but we do not have to understand it all. We just need to get the general idea. 2. The death he is speaking of here is not physical death but death to ourselves. Mark 8:34 Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Lu 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake. a. Death to self means that we do not do what we want to do. b. We count our desires, even our needs, as secondary to what Jesus Christ would have us to do. 3. Death is our means of attaining freedom. a. This is only true for the Christian not the lost person. b. There are only three sources of control in the human life: self, Satan, and the Savior. c. The lost person doesnt have the Savior. (1) He can only live for self and Satan. (2) As bad as his own desires are, if a lost person quits living for self, things will get even worse! d. However, the lost person can understand the physical sense in which death gives freedom. Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. e. When a person dies, he is free from (1) financial debt. (2) sickness. (3) work. (4) marriage. B. Resurrection 1. Dying to self is only part of the battle for freedom. a. As I mentioned, if a lost person quits living for self, things could get worse. Mt 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. b. We have to live for some One better and we have to have the power to live better. 2. \#5\ Resurrection is our means of attaining power. a. The resurrection assumes that you have Jesus as the One to live for. (1) You cannot experience the resurrection without having Jesus. (2) Now what you need to do is to live in the power of His resurrection. Romans 6:4 that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Romans 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. b. Resurrection power was given for new life. (1) Jesus life had been taken. He needed new life. (2) The POWER of God raised Jesus from the dead. (3) These verses are saying that the same POWER that saved you. (a) Gods power initiated your new birth. (b) That same resurrection power will give you the ability to say no to sin and to stay close to God. (c) It is not a magical power but it is a supernatural power. (d) You can do what you could not do before. 3. The New Testament has a word for this Resurrection power. a. The word is GRACE. \#Rom 6:1, 14, 15\ Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. b. In all these verses and in most verses where the word grace appears, you could substitute the phrase, "Gods power." c. The word GRACE can almost be considered a synonym for Gods power. d. Grace is God working in and through you to accomplish His will. e. Whatever it takes for God to work in you and through you, grace (Gods power) will provide. f. That is the reason Paul said in \#Rom 5:20\ that where sin abounds, grace (Gods power) much more abounds. g. That is a promise that we who have sin in our lives can claim! II. Some facts about grace. A. Something you need to know. 1. Grace only works fully when we are dead with Jesus. 2. God works in and through us with carrots (rewards) and sticks (problems). 3. The more we do our own things, the further from the carrot we are and more of stick we get. 4. I am sorry but life deals out more bad things the further into sin and selfishness we go. B. Something you need to refuse. 1. You need to refuse to sin. Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. "To reckon" means to consider or to count yourself as dead. 3. This means that even though we are dead, we have a choice in how we will live. a. We can live unto ourselves. b. We can live unto our Lord. c. God has given us the ability to overcome sin, but He will not take away our choice in the matter. 4. WARNING: The more you sin, the more you will want to sin. Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? a. The more you sin, the stronger sin becomes. b. The more you live righteously, the stronger your righteousness becomes. C. Something you need to do. 1. You need to choose grace, Gods power. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 2. Walk in the power that is available to you. III. How do I walk in grace? A. Believe the following. (By believe I mean exercise your faith, visualize the following as true already.) 1. God doesnt want you to sin. 2. God will help you not to sin. 3. You can be victorious. B. Confine yourself. Romans 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. 1. Put yourself in the box. Dead people belong in caskets, not out running with the wicked. 2. Until you get strong enough to resist temptation, get in your box and stay there! a. You cant smoke or drink or what you dont have. b. You cant do what is not available. 3. If that insults you, be insulted. a. You dont give a two year old a pistol, a beer, a cigarette, or the keys to the car. b. If the house is not childproof, you dont even let him roam the house. c. You put him in the play pen. C. Draw close to God. 1. God is the Source of your power. James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. a. Read your Bible. b. Pray. c. Go to church. d. Listen to sermons. e. Talk and hang out with Christians who are stronger and more mature than you. 2. We know and apply all of these techniques if we want to cook better, fish better, get slimmer, learn a trade, be a better athlete and everything else. 3. Why wouldnt we want to become a better Christian? At first, dying does not seem like a desirable thing to do, but in dying we can experience the power of the resurrection. As sin is addictive, so is Gods power. Try it and see.