Happy Independence Day, Nigeria!

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Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.” (NKJV)

This is undoubtedly the most famous prayer of all time with the possible exception of the so-called “Our Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-13. The first five words easily constitute four complete Sermons if each word was given its proper due.

Romans 6:15-23
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?  But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)

We have in the first fourteen verses been considering the fact that the believer is dead to the principle of sin. In principle we are dead and buried to sin but raised unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is one half of the story. We now turn our attention to the practice of sin. Paul in the next few verses wants to prove that the believer is also dead to the practice of sin.

An infographic Production from ChristianDegrees.net

This message is part of a sermon series. For the rest of the sermon series go to Dead to Sin

Image @CreationSwap/Jeff Miller

Romans 6:1-14
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (NKJV)

In our two previous posts we started to consider the question in verse 1 –”Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul in attempt to answer this question said “God forbid! Or certainly not! How can we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” So he began in verse 3 to give the Christian his reasons why the Christian cannot continue in sin. He said that the thorough understanding of these reasons is hidden in a thorough understanding of THREE Key WORDS – KNOW, RECKON and YIELD. In our last talk we considered KNOW – What are we to Know? – That we were baptized symbolizing death into Christ. We were buried with Him in baptism. Secondly we should know that we have died and that dead people do not sin. Thirdly, our old nature which is symbolic of the sin nature has been crucified, dead and buried and fourthly that we have been raised in a new nature. “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.” Just as the raised Christ cannot die again, so we that have been raised with Him can no longer live in sin which is death. What a great truth we are called upon to know.

Today, we look at the last two key words –RECKON and YIELD.