[0:00] Well, good morning. It is my great privilege this morning to open God's holy word with you and be able to preach this morning.
[0:12] You know, we're in a transition week for the last six weeks we've been in Daniel. We're at a good point in Daniel to put a pause on it. We're heading into the Psalms. We will preach out of the book of Psalms during the summer.
[0:25] But this transition week allows me the opportunity to preach from whatever passage I want to preach from. You know how it is. You tend to go where your passions are.
[0:38] And that's exactly what I looked at this week. And I would say this. My passion is this. Is that I deeply desire to live for Christ.
[0:49] I deeply desire to be committed to him, to be surrendered to him, to know him more, to be more intimate in my relationship with him. That is very real for me. And so I look at the scripture.
[1:00] You know, there's a bunch of passages that say that. And so it was a little bit hard to land on a passage. But this morning we will look at Romans 6, the whole chapter of Romans 6.
[1:13] And we'll look at it as an overview of what's said in chapter 6 of Romans. Romans 6. And I just acknowledge before you that God's powerful word is my prayer that it speaks to our hearts this morning.
[1:32] And that it spurs us to live for him. So if you would, if you're able, I would ask that you would stand with me this morning as we read from the book of Romans chapter 6.
[1:48] And we will read again the whole chapter. So read with me. Hopefully you've got the Bible in hand in some form so that you can read along with us. And as we look at it this morning, I will ask you to turn back many times and look at certain verses.
[2:02] So I encourage you to keep it open this morning. Chapter 6, verse 1. And what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.
[2:14] How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
[2:26] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[2:38] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We 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.
[3:00] For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.
[3:14] Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[3:31] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of 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.
[3:53] For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
[4:03] It's by no means. Do 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.
[4:21] But thanks be to God that you were once slaves to sin. I'll say that again. I missed a word.
[4:31] But 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.
[4:44] And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I'm 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.
[5:11] For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
[5:24] For the end of those things is death. But 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.
[5:37] For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray.
[5:50] Father, how powerful your word is. The truths here are amazing to me, Father, that you've done an amazing work in each of our lives, those of us who are born again who know you as Lord and Savior.
[6:05] God, I pray that whatever words would come from me this morning, Father, they would just fly away and not land anywhere. But Father, I pray that your word would cement itself deep in our hearts this morning.
[6:17] And I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. As Paul speaks to the Roman church, I just want to remind us he's speaking to Christians.
[6:35] And Paul has spent five chapters talking about this thing, this topic, justification by faith alone. And now as we step into chapter 6, it transitions.
[6:48] And he asks a question that I think is needful for us to ask as well. And here's the question that Paul would ask and ask of them.
[6:59] Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Christian, Roman Christian, are we to continue in sin in order that we would cause the grace to rise?
[7:13] How would you answer that? It doesn't seem right that we would even consider walking in sin, does it? Yes, Christians, as those who have been made aware of our sin, you know, as part of the process of coming to Christ, we became aware of the sinfulness in our life and the need for reconciliation, the need for redemption, the need for forgiveness.
[7:41] How is it that when God showed us how ugly our sin was and how our sin separates us from a holy God, why is it that we would continue in it? Why would we continue to live in sinful ways?
[7:53] Why would we allow it a place in our life? And so Paul here addresses this question. Should we sin more in order that the grace of God would be elevated, his forgiveness would be elevated?
[8:09] And Paul says this, by no means. By no means. You know, I would ask this question of us, do we struggle at times with sin?
[8:25] Are we even drawn to it? Are we even drawn by our culture or by our flesh? Are we drawn to walk in sin? Do we know sins that are in our life that are habitual?
[8:38] Are there things that we've allowed to reside in our lives that we know should not be there as Christians? And Paul shares these truths with him.
[8:51] This morning, I want us to focus on three words out of this text. Here are the three words. Know, consider, and present.
[9:02] These three words. To know, consider, and present. And we see those words here in the text. In this first word, to know, it's interesting how Paul makes his case in answering this question about sin.
[9:21] Should we, Christian, continue in sin? No, no, no, he would say. By no means should we continue in sin. It's not compatible with who we now are.
[9:32] As Christians. It makes no sense that we would walk in sin and allow sin to reside in our lives. And so Paul makes this statement.
[9:44] He actually asks a question, then he makes a statement. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know, Christian? Do you not know?
[9:57] Know what, Paul? He's about to share with us these five things, these five items, these five truths that he is about to share in reference to this word know.
[10:14] Christian, do you not know that you were baptized into Christ? Do you see it? In verse three, do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?
[10:29] Christian, do you not know that you were baptized into the Christ? What does that mean to be baptized into Christ? Well, one thing it might mean is that when someone comes to faith in this body of believers, then we'll put a pool, we'll just call it a pool, outside, we'll fill it with water and we will baptize a new believer.
[10:54] And when we baptize them, what we're doing is, in a sense, we're symbolically saying that that person, as he goes under the water, dies. And he's buried under the water and then when we're bringing back out of the water, then he is raised in newness of life.
[11:11] Now, that phraseology would come from this very text. The concept of being baptized into Christ is this concept that we're baptized into communion with Jesus.
[11:24] We're baptized into fellowship with Jesus. We're baptized into relationship with Christ. And so Paul says, do you not realize that you're now in Christ?
[11:40] Do you not realize what has happened, what has transacted in your life? Do you not realize now that you're a part of Christ? That you're in communion with Christ?
[11:52] He goes on to say this, do you not know, and that's number one, do you not know you've been baptized? Number two, do you not know that you died? Now, we would understand that he's not saying, do you not realize that you died physically?
[12:09] That's not what Paul's saying. He's speaking to the church. But he's saying, do you not realize that you have died, past tense, done act? For those of y'all who understand the tenses of the verbs in the original language, the tense of the verb here is an aoris tense, meaning it's not something that continues on, it's something that was done, it's a one-time act that was accomplished and finalized.
[12:37] Do you not realize, Christian, that you died? What is he saying? What is Paul saying? Well, we get a glimpse of it if we look into verse 5. And he says this, we know that our old self was crucified.
[12:52] So in what way, Paul, did we die? Well, it's the guy we were before who has died. What guy? The guy who was enslaved to sin.
[13:03] The guy who couldn't do anything but sin. And we see that truth again at the end of verse 6. We 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.
[13:26] Do you catch that? We would no longer be. You know what it implies? That there was a time when we were enslaved to sin. You know what it means to be enslaved?
[13:38] That means you can't do anything else. If you're enslaved to something, that's what you do. If we glance ahead at verse 17, Paul makes this statement, you who were once slaves of sin.
[13:57] Verse 20, you were slaves of sin. Do we see ourselves like that? Christian? Christian? Do you understand that there was a time in your life before you came into the kingdom where you were absolutely enslaved to sin?
[14:14] every act, every thought was self-focused and not righteous. God says when he views sin, anything that's not righteous is sin.
[14:29] And as an unbeliever, we are not able to do one righteous act. Romans 3 declares there's none righteous, no, not one.
[14:39] And so Paul is declaring that that man, that old self, the guy we once were, died.
[14:54] Now it's a beautiful picture in the book of Ezekiel about the changed person that we are. In Ezekiel, and I won't read the whole context, I'm just going to read this verse.
[15:07] Y'all will recognize this verse. God's saying, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
[15:22] When, God, will you do that? Here's when. When we recognize our sin, our separation from a holy God, our need for salvation, our recognition that Jesus died in our place on the cross.
[15:38] When we accept that truth by faith, we embrace it with all of our being that we have no hope apart from the resurrection, the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
[15:55] Apart from what Jesus did on the cross, on our behalf, in our place, we would have no hope. And by faith, we embrace that truth. And when we do, the word of God says, you will be changed.
[16:09] That I will put my spirit within you and you will be a different person. The desires you used to have, you will no longer have. Those temptations, you will still be subjected to, but the heart is different.
[16:27] Christian, is that true for you? Do you recognize that there's different desires within your heart? You know, there's a time in my life that I walked in sin in such a way that it didn't bother me.
[16:44] Some of the things I did didn't bother me. You know those same things now bother me? There's conviction that happens. The Holy Spirit whispers in my heart, in my spirit, He says, no, no, no, no, no.
[16:56] Don't walk that way. That's not the way to honor God. That's not the way I want you to live. You'll never experience my joy and my peace and my contentment and my love.
[17:09] You'll never experience that if you walk in those sinful ways because those sinful ways separate you from the joy that I desire to fill you with. I don't want you walking like that anymore.
[17:23] And you know, our heart, our new heart desires different things. Is that true for y'all? Do you acknowledge that you're a different person? Do you see things happen in your life, Frank?
[17:36] I remember you saying in Sunday school how I'm not the same guy I was. There's something amazing that has changed in my life. God has given me a desire. He's changed the way I interact with people.
[17:48] You know why? It's because your old man died. Your old man was crucified. In a sense, your old man, the person you were, was crucified on the cross with Jesus.
[18:03] There's a link between our new life and Jesus that's inseparable. And Paul says here this second truth. We've been baptized into Christ. We have died.
[18:16] The old man has died. And we go on and we look. It says, Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with them by baptism into death in order that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[18:38] Do you hear the identification of the believer with Jesus? We know as we've studied scripture that Jesus lived a godly, holy, sinless life.
[18:56] And he willingly went to the cross as a criminal in the eyes of Herod in the Jewish nation. He was elevated on a cross. He was crucified, dead.
[19:06] He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. And on the third day what happened? The stone was rolled away. Jesus was resurrected no longer to fight the flesh.
[19:22] No longer to be tempted by the flesh into this newness of life. Died, he was buried, he was resurrected. Do you know that Paul is saying that we have been identified with Christ in this very way?
[19:37] He's saying that you have died, this old man has died, the old person you were has been buried and the new person you are has been raised to newness of life.
[19:48] Look at it. Verse 4, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[20:01] You know we're no longer slaves to sin? do you realize who you are? Do you realize who you were?
[20:15] Let me just flip over to Ephesians, Paul speaking to the church at Ephesus. I want you to hear who we were and I wonder if you embrace this truth.
[20:29] Do you know Christian who you were? Do you know Christian who you are? That's so important in order to live in a godly way.
[20:45] Listen to the words of chapter 2 in Ephesians that says this. He's speaking to Christians in Ephesus and he says you Christian were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
[21:00] following the course of this world. You hear what he's saying? Christian you used to walk just like the worldly ones. You used to walk or live in a worldly way.
[21:13] You used to live for worldly pleasures. That's who you were and he goes on to say this. Following the prince of the power of the air.
[21:23] Who is that? Satan. Christian you used to live like the world in a worldly way. You used to honor and follow Satan as your leader. As the one who moved you to chase after worldly things.
[21:41] Following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.
[21:52] Christian do you realize that's who you were? have you yet embraced the depth of our sinfulness? Have we recognized who we were that we were enemies of God?
[22:06] We were following the ways of Satan. We were walking in worldliness. That's who we were. That is the old man. For every single one of us.
[22:19] He goes on to say this. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath. What do you mean children of wrath?
[22:29] We were in rebellion against a holy God. In a sense we were saying I don't care what you think. I don't care who you are. I don't believe in you at all. I'm living how I want to live and I could care less who you are.
[22:44] Now some of us went to church and some of us had a religious bent but do you realize they're still in the heart of hearts the old man desires to satisfy and please and gratify self.
[23:00] We might put on this image that says yes I'm a religious person. I'll just share about me is that I grew up going to church and from the time I was born I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't regularly attending church.
[23:15] I go to college and I find a church. I regularly attend church but it wasn't until I finished college at 22 years old that I realized I was in trouble. That I realized I was separated from a holy God.
[23:28] That I realized that I still don't know the depth of my sin but I saw it in a way that I was shocked. I thought I was a moral good guy and God says your morality that you so trust in you look underneath it and what you'll find behind it is a motive that is pointed right back to you.
[23:48] You want people to clap for you. You want people to applaud. You want people to pat you on the back. You want to impress. Do you see Treg how sinful that is? Do you see how ugly that is in my eyes?
[23:59] Do you see that all your motives are underneath this umbrella of pride? You think you're good. You think that you honor me. You think that you're doing spiritual righteous things.
[24:10] You're not. Because everything you're doing is pride-filled self-filled and it doesn't do anything for my kingdom. You know in an interest in a moral person thinks that they're in right standing with God I'm good.
[24:26] Some would say I'm okay. God will surely let a good person into his kingdom. We don't have the eyes of God. He sees through what we think is goodness and he looks at the motive.
[24:36] He looks at the heart and he sees sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. You know what he sees? This person enslaved to sin. Like Paul is sharing with the Ephesians that we in truth were enemies of God.
[24:53] But now I ask you who are you now? Who are you now? Have you experienced the life change that God gives when we bow our knee, when we accept him by faith, when we say I see who I am.
[25:09] I see now my sinfulness away I never knew before. God thank you that you would open my eyes, but now I see I'm in trouble. I entrust myself to you.
[25:21] I entrust myself to the work of Jesus in my place, his substitutionary death for me. I see the gift that you offer, and I reach out to you and say, God, I'm not worthy, I don't deserve any of it, but by your grace would you love me, would you forgive me, would you change me, would you be my God, would you be my king?
[25:47] Who were we? Sinners separated from the holy God. Who are we? Those whose lives have been transformed. We actually have died, we've been buried, and we've been raised to walk in newness of life.
[26:03] What does that look like? we go back to Paul's question. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? What? What are you talking about?
[26:16] Who would even think that it would be okay to walk in a sinful way before a holy God who's forgiven us a debt that we couldn't repay? Who's given us life, who's made us a son, who's caused us to be an heir of his kingdom?
[26:33] Who's listen, church, do you understand, do we understand that we're children of light? We're children of the king. We've been adopted into the family of God.
[26:45] We've been forgiven completely. We've been given a hope of heaven. There's a place for us in heaven. Christ is going to prepare. He will return, and when he returns, he will take us to that place as the bride.
[27:00] he's purifying. We're now this person that's no longer enslaved.
[27:12] The old man was enslaved, but when the Holy Spirit came to live in our life, you know what happened is he transformed who we are. He put a new spirit within us.
[27:24] And that new spirit doesn't desire to pursue sin anymore. the new spirit desires to honor and worship God. We see him in a growing way, his holiness.
[27:37] I love what Moses said. Show me your glory. Show me your glory, God. You know what he said? He said, you can't see all my glory. I'm glad that you desire to see my glory, but you don't understand the greatness of my glory.
[27:54] But I will allow just a remnant of my glory to pass by and allow you to see it. And the effect on his life was dramatic. So we follow the train of thinking that Paul is sharing here.
[28:12] He says, don't you know, don't you recognize who you now are? And he says this, if we look down in verse 11, verse 10.
[28:25] You know, I can't do that. I'm going to have to go back to nine. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.
[28:35] Do you know that, Christian? It's done. He conquered the grave. He conquered the devil. He conquered sin. He conquered death. It's done. He is a conquering king. It says, for the death he died, he died to sin.
[28:50] He died, why? Because he took on our sin. And he carried it to the cross, and he died in our place. That that sin would not be counted on our account.
[29:02] And it goes on, the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider, Christian, you must consider yourselves dead to sin.
[29:21] and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So the first word we talked about is to know. Do you know who you were? Do you know who you are? The second word to consider this morning is this word consider.
[29:37] Consider. What does it mean to consider? Paul says, do you know who you are? And then he's saying, consider these things. Let me just share an illustration if I can.
[29:51] Some of y'all might know that I used to play golf. I don't know if he would call it golf anymore, but I'll try to still play. But in the earlier days when I was young and I was chasing that dream of playing golf professionally one day, that I would spend hours upon hours upon hours practicing chipping, practicing putting, getting on the range and just hitting ball after ball, playing as often as much as I could in order to get to the place where I'd be good enough.
[30:20] On occasion, I would often go to tournaments, but on occasion I would be in a tournament and I would play horribly. And I'm like, what is going on?
[30:31] That's something. I ought to be able to show up and just play consistently every time I'm out, but sometimes I would show up and I would play and the ball's just flying left and it's flying right.
[30:42] I'm hitting the ground when I'm trying to chip. I'm like, what in the world is going on? And I get home and you know if you're like me and you play tournament golf, these things just spin around in your head.
[30:53] And so I get home and I'm like, what in the world? Good grief. I'm going over my swing. I'm saying, how did it happen? And I'm thinking about, wait a minute, okay, my arm's got to be straight. I've got to go back.
[31:04] I've got to put my weight here. And I'm thinking about all these little factors in the golf game are important. I'm saying, okay, here, I've got to go. Oh, that's what I wasn't doing.
[31:17] I was letting that knee move. Well, of course I was going everywhere. I knew how to do it. I had trained my body how to play golf. I played at a high level of golf.
[31:29] But that day, I wasn't playing well. There was a reason. I had to bring all of that up to the forefront of my mind and say, oh, yeah, that's why I didn't play good.
[31:41] I had to consider what it might have been. I had to bring the truths. To me, they were so seeded in my life and my golf game that I didn't think about a lot of these basics anymore.
[31:54] I just went out and just played. But every now and I have to bring the basics back and remind myself what the basics are. Christian, you know that that's important as we live for Christ, that we have to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?
[32:12] Do you know that we have to remind ourselves who we are? When temptation flies at us and we are tempted to think, oh, man, that would be great.
[32:25] You know, if I go do that, oh, man, it's going to be so fun. I think if I could just do that, it's oh, we're enticed by sin.
[32:36] And sometimes we forget who we are. Why would we, who have died to sin, why would we go out and participate in it? It makes no sense.
[32:49] And in those moments when the temptation comes, or in those moments when our flesh is stirring and wanting to do something for self, we have to remind ourselves, no, no, that doesn't make any sense.
[33:01] the old man died. The guy who wanted to sin died. God, forgive me for even contemplating that. You've called me to live for your kingdom and to seek your righteousness.
[33:18] God, forgive me. Give me strength to say no. You know there's no sin such as common to man, according to Corinthians, where God has not given us a way of escape.
[33:31] Do you know that God always gives us a way of escape, even in the most difficult of temptations? Sometimes we just have to remember who we are. We have to consider the basics.
[33:45] No, that's not me. That's not who I am. I'm a son of God. I'm an ambassador of his kingdom. I'm a saint. Let me ask this, church.
[33:55] Do you see yourselves as saints or do you see yourselves as a sinner? You know, I ask that question to many people and they say, I'm a sinner.
[34:07] I've got sin that happens on a regular basis. I mean, I just find myself failing and failing and failing and failing again. They say, I know the Bible says I'm a saint, but I don't feel like a saint.
[34:19] Because I trip up all the time. These things that I do, let me just clarify for us, church. You're not a sinner. The essence of who you were was a sinner.
[34:33] The old man was a sinner. The old man was enslaved to sin. That guy died. You're not a sinner anymore. You know what? You're a saint.
[34:44] You're in Christ. You're born again. You bought with his blood. You're changed. Inside of you is a desire to honor and worship God. Do you know it?
[34:55] Do you experience it? Does it move you? Does God give you this desire to live for him? Christian, I sure hope that's true.
[35:09] Doctrinally speaking, it's absolutely true because you've been raised in union with Christ. You've been united with Christ. You've been baptized.
[35:20] You've died. You've been buried. You've been resurrected in Christ. You've been given a new heart by God. And that new heart genuinely desires to honor him and serve him and worship him and enjoy him.
[35:35] You're not a sinner. You're a saint. Now let me just say this. Saints sometimes sin. Is that true for you?
[35:47] Yeah. Well how do we deal with this thing? How do we deal with this plague? This constant barrage from Satan and the dark kingdom, from the worldly ways, the ways of our world, from the fleshly cravings of our body.
[36:04] How do we deal with those things? Here's how you deal with it. Look with me in verse 12. Starting in verse 12. This is our third word. Present. Verse 12.
[36:16] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. I'll talk about that word reign in just a minute. Let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
[36:28] Do you hear that? There's an influence that's pressing itself in your life that wants you to obey that influence. let it not happen.
[36:43] Let not sin reign in your mortal body that you would obey its passion. Rather do this. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God.
[37:03] Present yourselves to God. Present your members to God. Christian. Know who you are. Know what has changed in your life. Know that you walk in newness of life.
[37:15] And consider it in the moment when these passions, these urges, these outward forces come at you to entice you into sin.
[37:26] To entice you to walk after the world and after the enemy. Consider in those moments who you are and resist it. Don't present yourselves to sin to live that way.
[37:38] The word of God says present yourselves to God. Present your members to God. What does that look like? Church? How do you present your members to God?
[37:50] Here's my hand, God. I don't want to do anything that's going to offend you or that's going to be self-motivated, that's going to be self-seeking. I don't want to do any of that.
[38:00] God, I don't want to look at anything that would bring dishonor to your kingdom. I don't want to look at anything that's going to cause me to lust. God, I don't want to walk in places I shouldn't walk.
[38:12] I don't want to say words I shouldn't say. I don't want to listen to things I shouldn't listen to. I want to present every bit of who I am to you for your kingdom. You know, he talks about that in the Sermon on the Mount.
[38:24] One of the verses that has meant much to me through the years is Matthew 6.33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
[38:36] Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness. You know that's where our heart should be. We should present our members as instruments for his kingdom, for his glory, for his honor.
[38:52] That's the call, the high call of God in Christ Jesus is to not live like the world. God is to live like Christ, empowered by Christ. You know, Paul says in Galatians, it's no longer I who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in me.
[39:09] And the life I live, I don't live by my own strength, but I live by his power. Do you know he's given us everything we need for life and godliness?
[39:21] Everything we need for life and godliness. He's already given it to us. There's no temptation that's going to overtake you. He's provided a way of escape. You know we need each other to be faithful?
[39:33] Have you ever been inspired by someone who's in the kingdom to walk more faithfully? Have you ever been blessed by somebody in times of pain that comes up and wraps their arm around, doesn't say a word, they just care for you.
[39:45] They just love you. You know, the accountability that comes would be in communion together, to be in fellowship together, to be in a church body together, to be involved in each other's lives.
[39:58] You know that's an accountability for us, it's a blessing for us, it's a benefit. We need the strength of this body to be faithful. Left on our own on an island, Satan's gate, it just takes one gun, doesn't it?
[40:11] Boom, I'll get him this time. You put us all together and we're doing life together, and somebody that knows me well knows that that's a weak area of my life, and Brother Bill says, hey man, don't do that.
[40:22] What do you mean? Dog, yeah, okay, thanks. Come on. And you help me in the blind spots and the weak spots in my life to be faithful in my walk to God. You know we need each other. That we might be faithful to do what?
[40:36] To do this, to present our members as instruments to God. Christian, know who you are.
[40:48] Consider it at the moment of temptation, the moment of struggle, and then make a choice to present your life to God as a living sacrifice.
[41:01] You know what Romans 12, 1 and 2 says? Listen to it. And this is the same book. This is Paul, after he's talking about all these truths, he gets to chapter 12 and he says, therefore, in light of everything I've just shared with you, in light of this truth that you've been justified by faith, in light of this truth that you've been united with Jesus in a way that is amazing, to even consider that we're in Christ, united with him, in relationship with him, we've received everything that was accomplished by his death, we've received.
[41:40] We've been imputed as righteous. He said, in light of all this, church, listen to verse 12. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a what?
[41:53] As a living sacrifice. If you ever in your mind seen yourself climbing up on the altar that Isaac was placed on, you know, Abraham took Isaac and God said, you need to give away your son, you need to sacrifice him to me.
[42:10] So he goes way out in the wilderness and God says, I want you to sacrifice your son. Why? His son potentially was an idol in his life.
[42:23] And he said, I want you to sacrifice him. And Isaac did what? He willingly laid on a cross and said, if that's what it takes, I'm willing. Have you ever seen yourself as stepping up onto an altar and laying yourself on the altar and say, here I am, God.
[42:37] I'm all yours. I sacrifice myself to your kingdom. I present myself to you, God, in heart.
[42:47] I present myself to you as a living sacrifice. Today, I'm going to be lived for your kingdom. Tomorrow, I'm going to live for your kingdom. Next week, I'm going to live for your kingdom. God, by your strength and your grace and your power, I can't do it myself.
[43:02] But I know you've given me everything I need for life and guidance. And God, I cling to you to help me be faithful because I can't be faithful on my own. I see my weakness.
[43:13] And what did Paul say? He said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. Why? Because I recognize that in my own strength, I can't accomplish anything that honors God, anything that's faithful.
[43:24] When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Why? It's because then I turned to God and said, help. Help me, Lord. Help me to be faithful. Help me to say no to sin. Help me to present my life to you.
[43:35] Help me not to turn away. Help me not to walk after the ways of the world. God, I need your help. I'm weak. And it's not until we see ourselves as weak that we'll understand John 15 that says this.
[43:50] It's apart from me, Jesus speaking, apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can't add anything to my kingdom. You can't benefit my kingdom.
[44:01] You can't do anything that is righteous. Even as a Christian, I can't do anything apart from the indwelling power of God in my life.
[44:16] We need to quit living for self, and we need to present our lives as a living sacrifice, which is spiritual worship.
[44:27] worship. You know, we come on Sunday mornings to sing, and it's my hope that we're singing from the heart and just not from the mouth. When we sing these words, and we are very careful to pick out songs that are doctrinally sound, when we sing those, are we singing from the heart?
[44:46] Are we worshiping? Are we recognizing the truths of those songs? What is real worship? You know what worship is? Say, God, I so worship you that I desire to do your will and your will alone.
[44:59] Here I am. Use me in any way you choose. You empower me to be faithful to live for your kingdom. Church, that's what he's called us to. Is it a high call?
[45:10] Does that make you nervous? Do you feel like you're going to be successful tomorrow living for him in that way? Know, consider, and present.
[45:25] By his power, present yourself to him that he might be glorified, that he might be exalted, that he might be worshiped. Let's pray. Father, as I share these truths this morning, the thing that strikes me at this moment is my weakness, God.
[45:48] I just confess to you that I often run after, and I'm sure it's true for us this morning, many of us, is that we often run after selfish things.
[46:00] We often try to live this Christian life in our own strength, by our own ability. And God, I just confess to you that I recognize the weakness more now than ever before.
[46:13] And I hope that's true for all of us. God, I pray that you would show us our weakness. And God, we desire to cling to you. We desire to latch our hands on to you, knowing that, God, if you don't do it in and through us, we'll never honor you.
[46:31] We'll never live for you. So, God, do a work in our life that would be powerful. God, help us to live for you, to present our members as instruments of righteousness, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, that we might live fully for you.
[46:52] Do that work in our life, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.