Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

I know what I need to do I just don’t know why I can’t seem to do it!

This is the kind of thing that I hear all the time as I counsel or just hang around with Christian friends.

I wish that I only knew about this question because of others but truthfully this is something I deal with all the time as well.

We deal with sin on a daily basis in our lives.

The book of Romans teaches us to make a major shift in our view of sin.

that we will see today is a central piece in what our view of sin, salvation and sanctification should be.

In there is a very powerful statement that we saw last week.

Where sin did abound grace did MUCH MORE abound.

What an amazing statement.

What a powerful thought.

But think for a moment what could be the natural result of believing what Paul says!

No matter what I do, when sin abounds then grace abounds more.

So no matter what I do I will be forgiven and loved then why not just live it up and enjoy my life however I want to right now?

Why even worry about how I live my life?

Why should I care?

Paul knows that this isn’t just something that we might think but that the Roman church might deal with that as well.

Because of this possibility he begins the next part of his letter trying to explain to us our relationship with sin, the cross and the resurrection.

There is one thing to make sure we notice here.

In this passage Paul will talk about SIN not SINS.

He speaks in singular not plural.

He is focusing not on various sins that people commit.

Instead he is focusing on the underlying fact, or principle, or power of sin.

The truths that we find here are truths no matter what the sins are that we deal with daily.

I do not know of many passages of scriptures that have more potential to impact our lives and change our daily walk than the passage we are going to look at today!

Let’s open our Bibles to .

The first thing we will see in the first 5 verses is our relationship with Christ in death and resurrection.

I. Our Relationship to Christ -

As a result of and grace abounding more then because of that what shall we say?

Should we just continue in sin so that grace can abound?

You know, maybe we could even help God show how much grace he really has?

This question could be coming from those that are living as if the law doesn’t even exist.

Or it might be coming from the Jewish leaders that were concerned that the idea would lead people to think that their life and how they live it truly doesn’t matter either.

These seem like fairly reasonable questions.

Brace for impact as you hear Paul’s answer.

will answer that question.

His answer leaves no question about his thoughts!

GOD FORBID!!!!

If he sent this in 2017 it would be all caps and an angry emoji (if he would use emojis which I seriously doubt).

How dare we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?

Dietrick Bonhoeffer, refers to viewing grace this way as Cheap Grace.

Cheap Grace says: “I have been forgiven and I will go on being forgiven whatever I do, so I can do whatever I wish.”

God Forbid!

The question about whether we should stop sinning or not is a crazy question.

I think this slide shows and explains a lot about the truth we live in as Christians.

These verses say that we are dead to sin but this slide tells a lot about our reality.

Slide of Dead Man’s eviction.

Wait did he say we were dead to sin there?

I don’t feel like that is true at all.

Don’t we know that if we were baptized into him we were also baptized into his death?

In the same way that Jesus has been raised from death we are raised for a NEW WALK!

We were resurrected with him as well.

Martin Lloyd Jones spoke of an analogy that really explains the struggle that the Christian deals with.

He spoke of two British fields or gardens.

They would have looked kind of like this.

Slide of Garden Walls.

He says to consider two fields that are enclosed by high rock walls.

Every person begins life in one of those fields.

We start in a field that is ruled over by Satan and sin.

We have no chance of scaling the walls and escaping the field on our own.

But God, in his grace, reaches down and takes us out of that Satan dominated field and sets us down in the field right next to it.

This field is ruled by Christ and righteousness.

A decisive change in our position has taken place.

We are in a whole new relationship to sin.

The problem is that we can still hear the enemy calling across the wall from the old field where we used to live.

Many times out of habit we obey his voice even though we no longer have to.

Is this not what we deal with almost daily in our lives?

he shifts into how we are baptized into Christ.

Baptism is something that really matters and it has a reason and a purpose.

Baptism is an ordinance to the church and its purpose is to identify ourselves with Jesus.

Not being baptized or not getting baptized is like telling your wife that you married at the court house.

Hey I love you and all but please don’t put any reference to our marriage on Facebook.

I don’t plan on wearing a ring or anything on my finger.

But hey the positive thing is that I do love you.

:)

We identify with his death, burial and resurrection through baptism.

We are saying, Hey I have no shame in the fact that I am a follower of Christ.

II.

The Result of Death -

This is where it starts getting really good.

We tend to consider death as a completely negative concept, but what we find here is that death is the gateway to life.

Our old man (before Christ) is crucified and destroyed and because of that from here on out we shouldn’t serve sin.

We were crucified with him in order that our sinful nature might be stripped of its power.

In our day and age we like thinking and talking about our freedom.

We tend to think anything at all that we want to do is fine as long as it is something we enjoy.

They live as if said:

What shall we say?

Should we not be able to do what we desire?

After all Grace over abounds over all of my sin.

The sad thing is that many think that they find their justification for doing whatever they want in the scriptures, but here is the truth.

Any justification (salvation) that does not lead to sanctification (holiness or a change in our daily walk) is a sham and any sanctification (outward actions) that isn’t founded on our justification (salvation) is an exercise in legalism and doesn’t deserve the name of Christianity.

III.

The Result of Resurrection -

If this is true then we will live with him too.

You see death and burial is not the end of the story.

In God’s plan burial is followed by resurrection.

Just like Jesus where death has no control or dominion over him, the same way, sin has no dominion over us.

Do you understand how powerful of a statement that is?

Because of this, everything has changed.

As Jesus was raised from the dead showing God’s amazing power we also are raised to an entirely different way of living.

We used to serve sin but now we serve God.