Sermon Notes, October 15, 2017 AM
NEW
LIFE
Steve W. Reeves
INITRODUCTION:
A. The
1991 film, Regarding Henry, tells the story of a lawyer named Henry
Turner,
played by Harrison Ford. Turner is vulgar,
harsh, ruthless and selfish. One day he is
in a convenience store when there is a
robbery and he is shot in the head. He
survives the injury with significant brain
damage and must learn how to speak, walk,
and function normally. He also loses most
of his memory and must adjust to life with
the wife and daughter he does not remember.
In his new life Henry becomes a loving,
sensitive and affectionate man who
struggles with fitting in with the high pressured
world he left behind.
B. The
movie is a good analogy of the change in identity that occurs when a person
becomes a Christian. The old person is put
to death. The new person is raised up.
There is a change in our life, in our
purpose, in our behavior and our relationships.
C.
With regard to this new life there is no chapter in the Bible more significant
than
Romans 6. In fact, Romans 6 is one of the
most important chapters in all of the Bible.
1. Romans 6 depicts the human response to
God’s grace.
2. Romans 6 describes the beauty of
baptism.
3. Romans 6 demonstrates the transformation
that occurs in the life of a Christian.
4. Romans 6 delivers the promise of eternal
life through Jesus Christ.
D. Do
you like to have new things? A new house, new car, new clothes? Romans 6 tells
us how to have a new life!
I. A DRAMATIC CHANGE (vss. 1-7).
A. Who are you? There was a little boy who
grew up as an orphaned child. He went
from family to family with no sense of
permanence or identity. He had no
knowledge of his real parents and wasn’t
even sure of his last name. One day he
met a man and a woman who took him into
their home. They said, “we’d like to
make you our child and give you our
name.” At last he had a sense of identity and
meaning in life. No longer would he be
an outcast. No longer would other children
call him names. He had a new identity.
B. When a person becomes a Christian they
are given a new identity. In Romans
6:6-7, Paul writes, “knowing this, that
our old self was crucified with Him,
in order
that our body of sin might be done away
with, so that we would no longer be slaves
to sin; 7 for he who has
died is freed from sin.”
1. Why is this new identity so
important? Some were apparently thinking that God’s
grace gave them license to sin.
a. In 6:1 Paul asked, “What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in sin so that
grace may increase?” This
followed Paul’s statement in 5:20, “Where sin
increased, grace abounded all
the more.” A church bulletin announced
“Congregational singing tonight
at 5:00 and left the “g” out of the word
“singing.” That’s the reasoning
of some. “If sin increases grace let’s sin so
there is more grace.”
b. Paul answered in verse 2, “May it
never be! How shall we who died to sin still
live in it?”
c. The old, sinful self has been put
to death.
2. When did this occur?
a. First, it occurred when Jesus
died on the cross. He did not die for himself. He
did not die for his own sins for
He had none. He died for you and me. He
tasted death for all of us. His
death had our name on it. A preacher was
making his first trip to Israel
and came to the traditional site of Calvary. The
guide asked, “have any of you
ever been here before. The preacher raised his
hand and said, “yes, about 2000
years ago when I was crucified with Christ.”
b. Your identity changed when you
were united with Him in baptism. Consider
verses 3-5, “Or
do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized
into His death? 4 Therefore we have been
buried with Him through baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of
the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life. 5 For if
we have become united with Him
in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,”
C. Many years ago the King of England had
two sons who loved to go outside the
palace grounds to play with the commoner
boys. One day the boys were throwing
dirt clods at people passing by. The
police were called and began to gather up the
boys to take them to the police station.
The two princes protested, “We are the
king’s sons. You can’t arrest us.” The
police officer refused to believe them. “The
king’s sons would not act like you are
acting,” he said.
1. When you were baptized into Christ
you were crucified with Christ just as Paul
wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have
been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I
who live, but Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself up for me.”
2. When you were raised out of the water
you came forth as a new creation in the
sight of God. You are in Christ
where all spiritual blessings are found (Ephesians
1:3). You are a new creation, “Therefore
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come”
(2 Corinthians 5:17).
II. A DISTINCT COMMAND (vss. 12-14)
A. The word “imperative” means, “command.”
In this case Paul said that our new
identity in Christ requires a new
standard of living. “Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body so that you obey its
lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the
members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but
present
yourselves to God as those alive from
the dead, and your members as
instruments
of righteousness to God. 14 For
sin shall not be master over you, for you are not
under law but under grace (Romans
6:12-14).
B. When you become a Christian there is a
different ruler on the throne of your life.
1. It is no longer King Self. It is King
Jesus.
2. When you become a Christian you
abdicate the throne of your life and place
Christ on that throne. Notice vere
13 – “do not go on presenting the
members of your body to sin as
instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves to God as those alive
from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God
III. A DIFFERENT CHOICE (vss.
15-17).
A. An indenture is a contract or an
agreement by which a person becomes the
servant of another.
B. In verses 15-17 Paul wrote, “What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do
you not know that when you present
yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you
are slaves of the one whom
you obey, either of sin resulting in
death, or of obedience resulting in
righteousness? 17 But
thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you
became obedient from the heart to that
form of teaching to which you were
committed, 18 and having
been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
1. Paul said he was a “bond servant” of
Jesus (Romans1:1).
2. Being a bond servant of Jesus means
you let Jesus control your life. You do
what He wants you to do. You speak
as he wants you to speak. You act as He
wants you to act. You surrender
control to Him.
B. Suppose you were a slave in
the ancient world. Your master tells you what to do,
where to go, when to sleep, when to
eat. Where to work, when to work, When
you
die you are no longer under that master.
When you die to sin it is no longer your
master.
CONCLUSION:
A. What
is the result of our new identity, imperative and indenture? Paul sets it forth
in
verse 23, “For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
1. When I was a five year old boy the phone
rang in our house one day. A man said,
“May I speak to Mr. Steve Reeves?” The
only “Mr. Reeves” I knew was my father,
so I handed the phone to him. On the
line was a man from the Greyhound Bus
Station telling us that a box had
arrived at the bus station and we needed to come
get it. We got in the family “station
wagon” and drove to downtown Memphis. At the
bus station we found a large box on
which my name was written. Inside were
beautifully wrapped Christmas presents
from my relatives in Nashville. The gifts
were free but we had to receive them.
2. God offers you the gift of salvation. It
is free but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus His
life. It will cost you your life. Are
you willing to die with Christ so you may live with
Him? We invite you to come to Him today.
