Thank you, Dick and Zoma, for reminding us of the truth that we find in the last part of chapter five in Romans. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. It's good to look out and see you here today, and I'm excited about that because of the passage of scripture that we are going to begin examining today. We today come to Romans chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 1 through 3. You'll notice an outline in your worship file
folder. But I want to warn you in advance that we're not going to get through the whole thing. As I began to ponder the truth that is before us here, it just seemed to swell up after the outline was printed. And so rather than rushing through, we're going to take our time and you can hang on to your outline for a couple of weeks. We're going to talk about the key to victory in the Christian life. Did you know there was
victory? I bet I'm talking today to some people who've almost given up that there is victory. Ready to throw in the towel. That we have good news for you. There's hope. There's freedom. Look with me at verses 1, 2, and 3 of Romans 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into his death. Heavenly Father, we approach this scripture today with eager hearts, desiring to be taught of the Spirit. And I know that if there's any part of Romans that the devil does not want us to comprehend, it's what we're about to study. And so I pray that you would remove any distraction. I pray that you will enable us to stay alert, to have keen spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit would say. In Jesus'
name, amen. One of the reasons that I have never before preached through the book of Romans, quite frankly, is that I have never been satisfied as to how to handle Romans chapters 6 and 7. I've never been able to quite get a handle on these two chapters in between. Well, not that I haven't studied them, I have. I've read the comments of other men on them. But frankly, I've never been satisfied that what I read and what I understood was enough to present to other people.
And frankly, as I come to Romans chapter 6 today, I do not stand here as a person who has all the answers to every question that might be asked about these chapters. But I do stand here before you, having studied and having a heart that is filled with some fresh insights that have meant a great deal to me in my own life. Today we're just going to get started in it. If you go away today and never come back, you're going to have an unbalanced picture of what we're going to
say about this part of Romans. If you go away today and say, well, this is what Pastor Call believes, and don't come back to hear the rest of what we're going to say about these two chapters, well, I guess I just hope that a herd of yaks camps on your front lawn or something. Some terrible thing. because you deserve it. You see, what I'm trying to say is that today we're just going to get started in a subject that is so important that I hope you won't miss the weeks that we
will be in, this part of Romans. They are critical to the Christian life. How critical? Today, as I talk to you, there are some of us who are believers in Jesus Christ and yet who appear to be enslaved to sin. That's right. Because there are some of us here today who have been overcome time and time again with lust, for example. We begin to toy with fantasies, and certain periodicals and activities, hating it and yet finding something within us that responded to that enticement.
And therefore I'm talking to some people today who are so discouraged with a battle for lust that you have decided that you must spend the rest of your life battling it and never yet knowing victory over it. And you may even rationalize it to the point of saying that is normal for
the Christian life. I'm talking to some others who perhaps have fallen to the temptation of bitterness, not just once or twice, but something has happened in your life and you find yourself so bitter inside that that is now rooted and it is producing all kinds of fruit that you hate and yet that bitterness is there and you can't seem to be free of it. The others would have to say the same thing about anger. Most of the time you're able to contain it. You have a plug
on it so it can't escape. But every now and then there is something that happens to you. And it's almost as though something else took control. And you do things and you say things that you don't mean because there is inside of you a raging anger that you cannot always contain. And you may not even know what you're angry at. Maybe it's God, maybe it's circumstances or other people
or yourself. You're enslaved by anger. And though most people in church don't know it, because you come to church very pious and calm and cool, boy, if people only knew what happened in the car on the way to church, or as you were getting dressed for church this morning in the family, your kids could testify about it, your wife or your husband. There may be somebody here today
who's enslaved by gossip. A thousand times you have promised God that that's the last time that you're going to get involved in a gossip session. You have solemnly declared to God and yourself, you have made a vow that you're not going to tear down people anymore. And yet when you get into a certain crowd or situation, you find yourself
drawn to that. And though you don't want to do it, you do it, there's something that responds to it, and you go away later and you weep and you hate yourself because of what you've said. I don't know if I've hit home or anywhere near your home territory, but I bet I have. That's why what we're going to talk about is so key. Because you see, it is not the will of God that we go through life defeated by sin or enslaved
to sin. Some of the things that we're going to see in Romans chapters 6 and 7 will be new to some of you, may be a refresher to others of you. We're going to see that victory in the Christian life is possible. Indeed, it is the norm that God wants us to experience. Not that we ever become sinless, but bless God it is possible for us to sin less and less, and to know victory over the temptations that have bound us and beset us for years. Today we're just going to begin.
I hope that what I've said will whet your appetite for what's coming. As we come to chapter six, it would be good for us to look at the whole before we look at particulars. I remind you of the amazing statement the apostle made as we closed chapter five last week when he said, where sin increased, grace super abounded. He gave us the ratio of grace to sin. He says, if there's sin this high, then there's grace this high. If there's sin this high, there's grace this
high. In other words, where sin may abound, God's grace super abounds and is able to cover it and care for it. The apostle was aware that there would be those who would object to that kind of teaching. They would object to the kind of teaching that so clearly separates grace from works as his does. In fact, I wonder if we've really taught grace. to people as we ought to, until we would be open to some of the objections
that could have been raised against Paul. He gives us a clue to the objections that he anticipates by a little phrase that we find in verse 1 when he says, what shall we say then? And he asks this question, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, if my sinning, Paul, makes God's grace abound all the more and be magnified, then why shouldn't I sin more so God's grace can be even more seen and more magnified? Logical? Twisted but logical? And so he answers
that question. Then in verse 15 we find the phrase again. He says, what then? Shall we sing because we are not under the law but under grace? In other words, Paul, if I'm no longer under law, as you have stated, then that means I am free to live like I want to. I have no restraints upon me. So Paul answers that objection. He says, may it never be. And you'll see that phrase several times in these chapters in the King James. put God forbid, the word God really is not in the
Greek. But it was the way the translators brought it into English to emphasize how strongly Paul meant, may it never be so, brothers. It's impossible. And then again, chapter seven, verse seven, he says, what shall we say then? Is there no sin? May it never be, he says. In other words, the
third objection was with Paul. If the law causes my sin to increase and to be stimulated, and that's what he said in chapter 5, we saw it last week, if the Ten Commandments only cause me to be agitated so that I sin more, then doesn't that make the law sinful? And so in chapter 7 he answers that objection. When people have objections like this, it reveals that they have not yet arrived at a balance between law and grace. There are some people who go to the extreme on law.
We call them legalists. They're all involved in rule keeping. And if it's not about salvation, then it's about how to be a better Christian. You do it by keeping these rules, these laws. The Bible calls that legalism. It doesn't produce Christians, nor does it produce better Christians. The other extreme is called license. I don't have to worry about anything anymore. I can just go out and sin and live the way I want to and God's grace is going to take care of it all.
No restraints on me. And you see that's an extreme also that is not biblical. And so the apostle is bringing us here, I think, to a biblical balance between law and grace. Teaching us how we relate to both of them and how we can experience victory. and freedom given to us by Jesus Christ. Now before we go any further, maybe it would be wise for us to set these chapters in the context of our outline of Romans we began with, way back yonder, whenever. The first three chapters are
essentially of Romans. God's righteousness needed. Man's sin. All have sinned. All are enslaved to sin. I read the righteousness of God in order to get to heaven. That's about God's righteousness provided, man's salvation. God provides righteousness for us so that we can be saved. He provides perfect righteousness and we get it because Jesus took
all of our sin upon Him at the cross. And because He died in our place and bore our sin, which was imputed or reckoned to Him, and because we believe that truth and have trusted the Savior, then all of His righteousness is given to us. God's righteousness provided. We say that it is a legal declaration on God's part that we are righteous in His eyes. That's the definition of what key word. That's right. I hear somebody whispering it. justification. That's the key
theme in those chapters. Now as we come to chapter 6, and then through chapter 8, we're talking about God's righteousness experienced. Man's sanctification. That is right down where I live. How can I experience the righteousness of God? Because I seem to be so dominated by sin. How can I know right living and not yield to temptation that seems to overpower and overwhelm me so much? That's what these chapters are all about. How
can I experience God's righteousness? Well, first, I can experience it because of my union with Jesus Christ. That's what chapters 6 and 7 are all about. We'll talk about that again later. Secondly, I can experience the righteousness of God in my daily life because of my being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's chapter 8. So why can I experience the righteousness of God? Two reasons. Because I am in Jesus Christ and because
Jesus Christ by his Spirit is in me. That's Romans 6, 7, and 8. look at a book, we chop it up into chapters. It's almost like a piece of meat the butcher takes a hold of and he slices off a slice and lays it aside and he's done with that and then comes to another slice. And we make a mistake if we look at the Bible that way. As you know, Paul didn't finish chapter five and stretch his finger and take a break and come back and say
chapter six, verse one, and begin writing. The chapters and verses We'll put in hundreds of years later, simply for our convenience, to find locations in the Bible. I hope that doesn't shock some of you, but that's the way it is. And so when we see divisions like this, we ought to remember that actually the apostle is flowing on with his thought. In chapter 6, there's been a flow of chapter 5. It comes from one right
into the other. I think perhaps the best way to look at this part of Romans is to see chapters 6 and 7 as a parenthesis. Not that it's unimportant, not at all. But as Paul closes chapter 5, notice what he says. That a sin reigned in death even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now if you were to go to chapter 8, I think you would find the thought continues right on beautifully. Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. And he goes on to talk about the fact that sin's been dealt with. Why chapter 6 and 7 then? Well, because as he closes chapter 5, there are a couple of things that come up that he wants to talk about a little more before he goes on with his main theme. So I think if we were to read through the book and see the end of chapter 5 connecting with chapter 8 verse 1, we'd have a better flow of it. And
then we realize how chapter 6 and 7 fit in. Now in chapter 6 verse 1, He refers back to what he has just said at the end of chapter 5. Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones emphasizes this in his book on Romans 6. By the way, that's an excellent book if any of you want to have a commentary, a book of sermons, helpful comments about this chapter. That is probably one of the finest. He emphasizes this fact, and you notice that he talks about sin increasing and grace abounding
all the more. And then he asks the question, what shall we say then? Are we continuing sin that grace might increase? Do you see that? And how it flows and fits together there? This is Paul's concern. I think Paul had in mind, especially his Jewish readers, of course he would be sympathetic with them. He is talking about grace. He has separated it from the law. And these people were so bound up in their thinking by the law that they could stumble over what Paul is saying.
So I think in chapter six, he's answering the Jews who would say that, Paul, if you emphasize grace like this, it means that people are going to sin. And so he tells them, no, in fact, it means that we're free from sin. We're no longer under its domination. Then in chapter 7 he can hear them say, but Paul, what purpose does the law have then if we're not saved by it? What does it fit in? What does it function? Chapter
7, he answers that question. I'm now forced to focus on our text for today, which we're going to just get started in before we have to close. He says, are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? In verse 2, I think we have the key thought for this whole chapter. It's in those words that say, we died to sin. If you and I can get a hold of that one
truth. and get it down into reality in our lives, it will change the way most of us are living today. We died to sin. In that statement, I want to focus this morning on one word, and that is the word we, because I think it's the key to what Paul is saying here. Are we, considering who we are, to continue in sin? He says, How shall we, considering who we are, continue in sin? We died to sin. Don't you know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus
have been baptized into his death? What he's really talking about here is our identity. and who we are, and what's happened to us. And folks, if only we can get a hold of that, it will revolutionize us. Let's ask that question, who are we that he talks about? Well, we're the ones who've been justified by faith, back in chapter five, who have the seven blessings we talked about in verses one through 11. We are the ones who were in Adam, in sin and in death, but who now are in Christ,
and in grace, and in righteousness. That's who we are. Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones has this statement in his book. We are in Christ. And because we are in Christ, all that belongs to him will become ours, even as all that belonged to Adam has already become ours. This goes back to the basic concept of our union with Adam by our natural birth that we talked about last week. But that by supernatural birth, we have now been united to Jesus Christ so that we can say whatever has happened to Jesus
Christ. has happened to us. Another book that I would recommend to you, though it's not just on Romans, is one that has been published recently by Multnomah Bible College in Portland in their press. It's called Birthright. You may not agree with everything that you read in here, but I'll guarantee you a stimulating session every time you sit down to read a chapter in this book. It's written by David Needham. It is a book that gets a handle on some of the truths that we are
talking about today. I suppose the basic thesis of Needham's book is that you and I need to find out who we are and what our purpose is in this world. And if we will learn that, then we will live the kind of lives that we want to live down in our deepest selves. I believe that the basis for holy living is discovering who we are and our meaning for being here. Who are you? Well, someone says, I'm a sinner saved by grace. Well,
that's got a good sound to it. There's even a hymn written by a great theologian, man of God James Gray, with that statement in it. But did you know that statement, as it appears there, is not found in the Bible? God never identifies you as a sinner saved by grace. You are identified as a sinner and you have been saved by grace. That is true. But did you know that's not how God looks at you? Did you know that? God does not see you as a sinner. God sees you as a what?
A saint. Go back to Romans chapter 1 for a moment. Look at verse 7. What we're talking about here is our basic identity, who we really are in our deepest self. In Romans chapter 1 verse 7, he says, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints. What are saints? Saints are holy ones. It doesn't refer to a select group of people who have been appointed as saints by some religious body. The word saint in the New Testament refers to every child of God, every
one, and it simply means a holy one. Did you know that's how God sees you? Did you know that's who you are, a saint? Your real identity is not in your flesh. It is in your spirit as a child of God. You see, the new birth made you an entirely new person. Needham says, a Christian is a person who has become someone he was not before. When you have saved a radical change, took place in you. I think we can say that you are not what you were and you are what you were not. Does
that confuse you? I hope not. All I'm simply saying is that what you were before in Adam is not what you are now. Before you were a sinner in Adam. All you say, but Paul says, He talks about sinners and he says, of whom I am chief. Paul is not saying there that he's the chiefest of sinners at that point in his life. He is looking back at what God's grace has done in his life and in his past. He can't see anybody who was worse than he was. That's what he means. He's
not saying he's a sinner now. You see, a radical change took place on the road to Damascus when he was saved and born again to God's family. Paul became a new person, a new creation in Jesus Christ. So did you. Now sit up just a moment and pay attention, because I'm going to say something that will be different for some of you. Frankly, it's different for me. Because I was steeped in a theology that taught that as a person, I have two natures as a Christian, an old nature
and a new nature. Once one has learned a particular doctrine like that, it is very difficult to objectively examine it. I have tried to do that and to be honest with what the Word of God says, and I must confess to you today that I no longer can accept that position. as being consistent with
the Word of God. You see, when we were born into God's family, such a radical change took place in us that it means that a righteous nature was not added to our sinful nature, but rather a profound change took place and something happened to your old nature. We'll talk about that in the weeks to come. But it is no longer present in you. Now please, I am not saying that you can't sin. We all know better than that. And Paul clearly says that in the Word of God, as
do other writers. But what I am saying is that in the essence of who you are as a person, you are not some kind of a spiritual schizophrenic who is at one time the old man and the new man. Who is the old man anyway? That's what I was in Adam. That's the old me. It's the unregenerate me. Isn't that right? Who is the new man? That's the regenerate me. That's the me that I am now since I have become a Christian. How can I be unregenerate and regenerate at the same time?
I never wanted to ask that question before because I couldn't answer it, and there isn't an answer to that that's consistent. Again, I repeat, I am not saying that we cannot sin because we do sin, but I am saying that in the deepest, part of you. You are a completely righteous being. That is your identity, and that is why God calls
you a saint. I want to read just a paragraph from Needham's book in which he says, contrary to much popular teaching, regeneration, being born again, is more than having something taken away that is sins forgiven. or having something added to you, a new nature with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It is becoming someone you had never been before. This new identity is not on the flesh level, but on the spirit level, one's deepest self. This miracle is more than
a judicial act of God. It is an act so real. that it is right to say that a Christian's essential nature is righteous rather than sinful. All other lesser identities each of us have can only be understood and appreciated by our acceptance and response to this fact. This morning, that's the one thing I want you to get if you get nothing else out of this message, that if you are a Christian, You are a brand new person. You have a new identity
and your essential self. What you really are is different than what you were before you were saved. Now, does that have any effect on the way that we live? Sure ought to. For example, over in 1 Corinthians, the apostle addresses those believers. He calls them brethren. He reminds them of who they are, and then he rebukes them for the divisions in their church. He says, you fight over personalities. He says, you're acting
like mere men. What's he saying? He's saying, you have a new identity that you're not living up to. You're acting like mere men. I am fundamentally a spirit being, not a physical one. My meaning is found in that realm of reality. The last statement takes some thinking about. I want to make it again and I have to go on. Because I am fundamentally a spirit being, not a physical one, my being is found in that sphere of reality. What is my purpose in life? Why am I in this world anyway?
The answer to that is that we are here to reflect God's holiness and his glories to the world around us. Turn back to 1 Peter chapter 2. I want you to notice verse 9 of this chapter is very significant, no matter what we've said this morning. I want you to notice that in this verse, in 1 Peter 2 .9, the first thing Peter does is to tell us who we are, and then he gives us our meaning, our purpose in life. He says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
for God's own possession. That's who we are. Notice he doesn't anywhere say there that we're sinners, saved by grace. He uses exalted terms. That's who we are. Then he says that, you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Do you realize that is your single purpose in the world? That you may reflect the glory of God? And the reason you can do that is because
of who you are. You're a saint. Now that you always live saintly, all of us know better than that. I mean, this morning, if God somehow would pull back the curtains on the minds of some of us, it would be X -rated. If God would reveal some of the motives in the hearts We would all run out of here in shame and shock and embarrassment. We don't always live saintly. But what I am saying to you is that fundamentally you are a saint and that your purpose in the world is to live
saintly. So that you can reflect the glory of God. Have you ever seen a prism? I suppose that's part of basic elementary science. That's where I learned it. A prism is a piece of glass that has been especially designed to receive the light of the Sun and then to reflect the spectrum of the colors on a surface. Isn't that right? That's why it exists. That's why it is polished and pure. Because it must take in the light of the Sun and reflect it accurately in all the spectrum
of its colors. May I suggest to you today that that's what you are, your prism. God has made you something very, very special in this universe. As a saint, you are a prism, and your purpose is to receive his life, which you have done, and then to allow that life to be reflected in all the colors of God's character. And what's the surface that reflects on all the people around you? All those various relationships you have. The character of God is to be seen in all of
its beauty in your relationships to them. That's your purpose. Is that who you're living? I would dare say not many of us are. I think I would have to say, because I know me, and I think I know a lot of you, that most of us are living as clouded prisms that have yet to figure out how the life of God can really be manifested through us, and that we can know God's holiness, God's righteousness in our lifestyle. how we
can know victory over temptation and sin. Dear Christian friend, that's where God wants you to be. One fellow came up after the service the first hour and said, you know, Pastor, I'm going to get two prisms, one for my office and one for home, to remind me that that's what I am to be for God. Maybe something for all of us to do. Now please, we have only begun to understand Romans chapter 6. It begins with who we are.
If you go away today and you never come back, you're going to have such a distorted, unbalanced view of all that we're going to say that you're going to be mistaken if you try to quote me on anything. So may I encourage you to be back here regularly with us in our study in the book of Romans. I think I can promise you that if you will be here, you will open your heart to what God has to say. You're going to find your Christian life enriched beyond what you may now even believe
is possible. Because I know very well I'm talking to some people who are so bound by sinful habits that you think you can't possibly ever escape it. But bless God, I want you to know there is freedom in Jesus Christ, and that freedom can be yours if only you will learn how to reflect it as a good prison, a pure prison. Heavenly Father, we have so many needs today. There are some of us here who are on the verge of tears
and who are aching inside. Because in our deepest self we want to do what is right, we want to live holy, and yet we find temptation so quickly overcoming us. We find ourselves overpowered by the urge to sin. I pray that as we dig further into this truth that you will reveal it to us and open our hearts to understand it. so that we may begin to experience, maybe for the first time in our Christian walk, what it is to be
free from the dominion of sinful habits. With our heads still bowed and as the Spirit of God searches our hearts, I just believe that there are some of us today who though we may not understand what it's going to take with the truth that's coming, nonetheless feel the impulse of the Spirit of God to respond this morning. So that we should go forward and by faith we are saying, I'm staking my flag here. This is my claim. That's where I want to live by the grace of God and I want
to learn this truth. I want to be free. Dear Christian, will you today make that statement as we close this service? Maybe you're here without Jesus Christ as your Savior. You're still that old man, still in sin. Your need today is to trust the Savior so that you can have freedom. Maybe there's another spiritual need that God's been talking to you about or a commitment perhaps for membership that you want to make public as we have the invitation in a moment. It's an opportunity
for you to respond right then. Will you come? Father, have your way in this invitation now. and seal in our hearts those decisions that should be made this morning. Let's stand together and sing the second verse of number 284. Everyone standing please, I want you to notice the words. I've selected the verse carefully.