Grace Abounds: The Transformative Power of Faith

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me to Romans chapter six.

We have gone now through five chapters in the book of Romans, and

if you're just joining us or you missed a little bit of time,

that's okay.

We're gonna have a little bit of a recap here this morning before

we jump right into our thoughts here in Romans chapter six.

You ever watch a TV show and they said, last time on whatever

show, okay, they do a recap.

Well, last time when we were here in the book of Romans, Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5, we ended in verse 20 and 21 with the thought of grace.

What is grace?

What type of grace does God extend to us?

And what does that mean for us as believers?

So verse number 20 says this in chapter five.

So if you're in chapter six, just go back a couple verses.

It says, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound,

Meaning this God gave a law to teach us that we are all going to

be sinners.

All of us fall short of the glory of God.

None of us can be perfect.

But then he says this, which is so interesting.

He says, but where sin abounded, meaning this, that word

abounded means just overwhelmingly comes into our life,

pervades our life, gets in every aspect of our life, sin abounds

in our life.

But then it goes on to say this, which is the amazing truth

about this.

Grace did much more abound.

Meaning, though our lives could be characterized by sin before

we came to Christ, when we come to Christ, our lives are not

characterized by the sin that we committed before or even the sins

that we commit now.

But our life is now covered in grace, abounding in grace.

So you could say, you know what, Pastor, you might not know

me.

You don't know my past.

You don't know the sins that I committed.

You still don't maybe even know the things that I'm dealing

with right now.

And that might be true, but the Bible says that God knows and

still extends that grace because of his love.

And so the sins of our past don't define us.

If we are believers in Jesus Christ here this morning, the sins

of our past do not define us, which is an amazing truth because

none of us want to be defined by our past in, in the.

In the failures that we've had.

But also the beauty is, is that if you are a believer here this

morning, the sins that you commit today aren't what define you.

The sins that you commit tomorrow don't define you.

What you are defined by as a child of God is the action of God's

gift of grace upon our lives.

And so it says in verse 21 that as sin hath reign unto death,

meaning if our lives are characterized by sin and sin is our

identity.

This morning, if I asked you what's your identity, some of you

might say, well, it's my job, whatever I do.

Or maybe for some people, they might identify themselves as their

family.

You know, I'm the father or the mother of these children.

But specifically speaking in the context of the Bible of spirituality,

we.

We are either in our identity in sin or our identity is in Christ.

And so the Bible says, before our identity was in Christ, sin reigned

in our life.

And what does sin, sin bring?

It says there in verse 21, sin brings death.

But then it goes a little bit further and says, even so might grace.

If we are believers in our identities in Christ, even so might

grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by

Jesus Christ our Lord.

So essentially what Paul was saying is this.

If we are living outside of faith in Jesus Christ, our life is

characterized by sin.

Sin brings brokenness, sin brings separation.

Ultimately, sin brings forth death.

But then he goes on to say that if your life is in Christ, you

are a recipient of God's grace.

And again, what are we talking about with grace?

Grace is a gift that's given that is not earned.

And in the context of salvation, it's this grace extended

to us means that God paid the price for our sins.

The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death.

We're going to see that later on in Romans, chapter six.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So there was.

There was a punishment for sins.

The punishment for sin is this death.

But Jesus came, as we know, in the Gospel.

He came and gave his life for us so that we might have life.

He paid the price for our sin.

And so it says that when we are his child, when we are a child,

when we're a child of the King, even so my grace reign through

righteousness.

And so grace brings righteousness, it brings salvation,

it brings eternal life through Jesus Christ.

And so if you understand those last two verses, it essentially says

this.

If you are a believer, In Jesus Christ, your sin does not define

you anymore.

You are defined by the grace of God.

If you sin, it is forgiven.

And so we're going to transition to Romans chapter 6, because

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Paul understands the way the human mind thinks.

He understands our flesh.

And I think maybe some of us might even be getting ahead of ourselves

to know where he's going to go with this.

Basically, some people might say, well, if God forgives me of

my sin, and the more that I sin, the more I experience his forgiveness,

the more more I experience his grace, well, why don't I just keep

sinning so that God's grace just keeps coming?

There actually was a, a what, what he called himself as a theologian

many, many centuries ago that actually taught, hey, as believers,

we should just sin more, sin as much as we can so that we can

experience God's forgiveness, so that we can understand him more

and rest in his love more.

But that's what Paul is actually going to talk about right

now.

So let's look at verse number one, because he's going to address

this issue of abusing the grace of God.

Abusing the grace of God.

So it says in verse one, what shall we say then?

So he says, okay, so are we going to have this question now?

Let's address this question.

Shall we continue in sin?

Now, this does not mean, by the way, this does not mean that,

hey, I commit a sin, I'm repentant, I'm getting right with

God.

First John, chapter one, verse nine, says, if we confess our sins,

he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

Paul's not about to teach that you're perfect after salvation.

This phrase here, continue in sin, means to live a life of habitual,

unrepentant sin.

To continue on in something that God has said is wrong.

He says, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue in a life of sin?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Remember he just said, grace abounds.

Where sin is, grace abounds much more.

So what does that mean?

Do I just keep doing what I want to do in my life so that God

just keeps forgiving me?

So that grace just keeps abounding?

He's going to have some strong words.

He says in verse number two, God forbid, or how could this be?

Basically, no way.

You're missing the point.

You're missing the point of what God's grace is all about.

God's grace is not about just continuing on in sin and living our

life in an unrepentant fashion, just saying, lord, I don't

care what you say.

I just want to do what I want to do.

No, he says, no, God forbid.

And then he asks another question, which this question make

us think this morning.

He says, how shall we, talking about believers, talking about those

who have trusted in Jesus Christ and experienced his forgiveness,

experienced his grace, have a life of transformation as the Bible

says in Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, that we are new creations

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

in Christ, new creatures, old things are passed away.

Behold, all things become new.

There's a transition in salvation.

And so what does he say?

He says, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Meaning this.

How can we that have been saved from the bondage of sin go

back to that same bondage?

He says, why would we do that?

How could we do that?

If we understand what God has saved us from, why would we go back

to the thing that he saved us from?

The idea would be this.

Before you come to Christ in faith, you are dead in sin.

The Bible says that In Ephesians, chapter 2, Dead in Sin,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

meaning I have a sentence on my life, and that is a death sentence.

Say, whoa, I wasn't coming to church this morning to hear about

a death sentence.

Well, now you did.

Okay, so you're responsible now.

But then the Bible says that when we recognize that we have a

death sentence in our sin, we come to Christ and say, I. I can't

pay this.

I. I can't serve enough time.

I can't do enough good.

Because by the way, our world system is this.

Just do good and you'll be okay.

Just have your good outweigh your bad.

But the truth of that would be, how do we know we've done enough?

How could I know that my scale is higher or lower in each side?

We don't know for sure.

The Bible says that, that we can never do enough.

And so the.

The person comes to Christ and says, lord, I can't do it myself.

I need you.

And Jesus says, I've got the payment.

I've done the work.

Here's the gift.

So before we were saved, before we came to Christ, we were

dead in sin.

But then the Bible says there's something that happens after

salvation.

Now we are what's called dead to sin, meaning we don't have to

go back to that, because that's not our identity anymore.

It doesn't mean that we'll be sinless, because he's going to talk

here in a moment about that wrestling between the Flesh and the

spirit.

But it says here that you don't have to go back.

It's no longer your identity.

It should not be your hunger.

It should not be your thirst.

It should not be something that you're longing for in your life.

I think about it this way.

Yesterday, some of you know that there's a peach festival in

Middletown.

And by the way, thank you for coming on out for that.

A lot of you came out and supported that.

But prior to the peach festival itself, there's a.

There's a race, okay, a 5k race.

And we had a really good representation of Middletown Baptist

folks there running in the race yesterday.

I won't call everybody out because I don't want to embarrass

anybody, but one.

One person in this church, not me, but one person in the church

got third overall in all of Middletown Peach Festival.

There's like 300 people there running.

So.

Victor, you did a good job.

Good job, Victor.

Victor Lagunas was there.

He was running.

Some of us are running, too.

But the point I'm trying to make is yesterday when I was running,

I saw these people running.

They looked like they weren't having any problems.

I was out there running the race myself.

About mile two, I was thirsty.

I was tired.

All I wanted was some water.

And the truth is, is that if.

And when I got around, there was this one turn that I came around

and there was this, like, teenager and.

And she held the water out, and I was like.

As fast as I could get to her.

I wanted that water because I was thirsty.

I took that water.

That.

That's what it's talking about here.

When it comes to hungering after something, okay, hungering

and thirsting.

We all understand what it means to desire something that we

need.

And.

And so when we come to Christ, the hunger and the thirst should

be after the things of him.

The righteousness, his grace, His.

His truth, that that's what we should long for.

But the Bible says before we come to Christ, we long for sin.

We long for the flesh to be satisfied.

But the problem that Paul is talking about here is that those

that are saved to a life of righteousness should no longer want

to hunger and thirst after those things.

If we're hungering and thirsting after those things and

wanting to dwell in those, there's a real issue in our understanding

of grace.

Because all human beings must come into reconciliation with the

grace of God.

If there's an unsaved person, someone who is not trusted in God

alone, for salvation through Jesus Christ, he or she must come

to the grace of God and realize that that's a gift for salvation

to everlasting life.

But those that have trusted in that gift of grace which many of

us in this room have, the Bible says that there's a moment

in time where we have to be reminded about what we've been saved

from so that we no longer hunger after the things that dictated

or our truths before we came to Christ.

And so what does he say here in verse two, God forbid, reject

that the, the.

The principle of going back to that emptiness, going back to that

brokenness.

He.

He says that how can we that are dead to sin?

We're not.

We're not dead in sin anymore, but dead to sin, live any longer

therein, meaning feeling comfortable with that way.

Now again, I know that the Christian life is a spiritual growth

process.

We talk about the word sanctification.

Sanctification is just a fancy way to say that we are becoming more

and more like him.

If we are walking in him.

And many people are in that process in this world today, and

nobody's at that same exact point.

There might be someone that just is starting that journey.

There might be people that have been on that journey for many,

many years.

And so I understand the principle of knowing things and maturing

in areas, but.

And so he's not saying here that everyone should be a perfect

Christian right off the bat.

He's not saying that everyone can be sinless.

He's saying that no one can be sinless.

But there is a point in our life where we need to realize what

that sin is all about and how that sin is seen by the one who died

on the cross for our sins.

We just looked in Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

But God commendeth or demonstrated his love toward us in

that while we were yet sinners, as God saw us as sinners,

he died for us, which means this.

It's our sin that nailed him to the cross, but he did it anyway

because of his love.

And then in Romans, chapter six, we need to see that that sin

that we are desiring is what exactly what Jesus died for in our

life.

How can we live any longer therein?

And then he's going to give us a picture in verse number three,

he's actually going to describe to us the picture of baptism.

Now we are in a Baptist church, but there are a lot of different

people in this world that have views of baptism, a lot of different

views of baptism.

We believe that baptism does not save you.

At least the baptism of the water does not save You.

We believe it's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that's described

right here.

What we do in the water back here is a picture of what already

happens in the life of the individual who is a believer.

So.

So we believe that the moment of salvation, the moment of faith,

we are baptized.

As it's going to describe here, we.

What we're doing in the water back here is just saying, hey, this

is a public profession of what has already happened in my life.

So.

So what we're seeing here is him describing what is happening

on the spiritual side of things.

And when we show this up here in the baptismal, when people join

the church or when people get saved, it's not saying, hey, we got

to keep doing something new or something different.

It's just describing what he's describing right here.

So verse three says, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized

into Jesus Christ.

Now let's stop right there.

What is he talking about, baptized?

The word baptize itself is actually a word that we just take

a Greek word called baptizo.

And they didn't have a word for in English, so they just took

the word baptizo and made it baptized.

Okay, what does that word mean?

It literally means to immerse, to cover, to put over someone, like

to totally engulf.

So what is he saying here?

He says this.

Know ye not.

He's like, don't you know that all of us that are saved are baptized,

engulfed into Jesus Christ, Meaning we're lumped in to his family.

We are covered by Jesus.

We were baptized in Jesus is what he's saying when we're saved.

But then he says something interesting because as we identify

with Christ in salvation, we are identified into.

What does it say here in verse 3?

Into his death.

Death.

Now some of us are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought we were saved

from death.

He's not talking about spiritual death.

He's talking about identifying that we're dying to something.

Jesus died on the cross, but we as Christians are dying to sin.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, but we know that he

didn't stay dead.

We know that he conquered death through the resurrection, which

we're going to talk about here.

So what does the Christian, when we identify in Christ, when

we are engulfed in Christ, when we are lumped in together with

Christ, what does it mean for us to die?

It means that we are dead to the old ways.

We are dead to our sin.

We.

We.

We are dead to our past.

Verse 4.

Therefore, we are Buried with him by baptism into death.

Meaning we are lumped together with him just as he was, just as

he died on the cross.

So we are dead to him.

And it says that, like as Christ also was raised up from the

dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk

in newness of life.

Meaning this.

Yes, we are dead to our old ways, but we don't just stay in the

grave.

We.

We are risen to walk in a new life.

So, so just as Jesus died on the cross, he.

You know, some of you know the story, some of you might not know

the story.

Jesus Christ dies on the cross.

He's taken down from the cross.

Some of his followers take him and put him in a tomb, the tomb of

Joseph.

Okay?

Jesus stays there Sunday morning, though, he doesn't stay

in the tomb.

He resurrects from the dead.

He conquers death through the power of God.

So we know that Jesus didn't stay dead.

So we as Christians, when we die to something in our life, specifically

in this case, we're dying to our old ways, we're dying to our

sin.

We don't just stay there immobile and just lay in the tomb.

The Bible says that God replaces that old life with a new

life.

That's what it says there in verse number four.

Even so, we also should walk in newness of life.

We're raised up by the power of God.

If we had more time, I would take you to Ephesians 4.

If you like to write down references and, and refer back to

something later, go to Ephesians chapter four.

Because Ephesians, chapter four talks about the idea of not

just putting off the old man.

Because yes, there should be a principle in our life that we are

dead to the old ways.

We, we stop doing those things.

We don't want to become the people that we used to be or stay

the person that we are in our sin.

But it does say in Ephesians chapter four that it's not just putting

off.

So, so, you know, I could take the jacket off and it's off, right?

But then I could.

I need to put something on.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter four to put on something

that is the new man, that is the new way, that is the Spirit of

God.

And so the Bible says here in Romans chapter six, we don't just

stop doing bad things.

We, we.

We don't just avoid all the people in our life that caused us

problems before.

No, it's a complete transformation that starts on the

inside.

And, and that's manifested on the outside.

It's new life, my new identity.

I don't want the things that I wanted before.

I don't hunger after the things that I hungered before.

So, so essentially what Paul is saying through the inspiration

of the Spirit is this.

If there is a person who claims to be a Christian but says,

you know what?

I hunger after those things that I used to have completely, it's

my life, it's what I need.

It's what I, what I, what I long for.

He says, there's a problem with understanding what God has done

for you.

There's a problem with understanding who you are now in

Christ.

Not saying that that person isn't a Christian.

What I am saying is that here, in this case, the Bible says that

a Christian is called to walk in newness of life.

That's why when many of you have witnessed the baptism here at

the church, many of you have been baptized either here at this

church or other churches.

When I baptize someone, that's why I say bury in the likeness of

his death, raised to walk in newness of life, because it's a picture

of that new life that we are now to.

To walk in Christ.

So it's not just putting off bad things, but as the Bible says

in Ephesians 4, it's putting on the new replacing.

It's a principle of putting off and putting on replacing in our

life those bad things with the things of God.

So what does it say?

It doesn't just say to stop lying, stop lying and now begin to

tell the truth.

It doesn't say, just stop stealing.

In Ephesians 4, it says this, stop stealing, then go get a job

and make money and give money to people that need the money.

So it's, it's inserting into our life the things of God proactively

doing those things that God has called us to do.

The Christian life is not a life of being passive and sitting

back and just letting evil attack us.

The Bible actually says that we are to go out on the offensive

and that we are to be proactively serving God and loving

him and following him in righteousness.

The Bible puts it this way.

Later on in the New Testament, the apostle Peter says to grow in

grace.

Growing in grace.

Now, sometimes people think of growing in grace like this.

Well, the more I serve God, the more I go to church, the more

I read my Bible.

God just has like this big bucket of grace up there in heaven.

And he's like, okay, here's a little bit more grace for you.

Because you're a good guy.

Okay?

No, that's.

I, I don't believe principles in Scripture teach that God has a,

has this grace up there that he's doling out like that.

No, I believe the Bible says at the moment of salvation, all of

us are abundantly gifted with infinite grace.

It's a matter of understanding that grace and tapping into that

grace and accessing it in the understanding of experience and saying,

no, I know that God is going to be there with me through it.

So growing in God doesn't mean I just become a good, better person.

I'm a good person now, I'm a better person.

No, it's just experiencing what God has done for us and experiencing

who he is and knowing him and resting in him and walking with Him.

And so he says, walk in newness of life, folks.

If people see us today, they should see a marked difference in

my life.

If I'm a believer and they should see a difference tomorrow,

they should see a difference in 20 years if God allows.

And so the Bible says that Christians should be walking and

moving forward in newness of life.

It doesn't mean perfection, but it does mean this idea that we

are to walk in him in a different path.

Verse 5.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,

meaning if you're identified in his death, we shall also in the

likeness of his resurrection, meaning if you're identified with

his death, you're identified in his resurrection.

And we have a new life in Christ.

Now there's more implication to this because just as we have a

new life in Christ, the Bible says that this is not the end.

This hundred to 120 years.

Some of you might be the oldest person in the world and live

to be 120 something years old.

But this period of time that we have on this earth is not the

end for a believer.

Now we get the taste of the grace of God, we get to understand

what it means to walk in newness of life.

But the Bible says that though we're identifying Christ in His death,

we're also identified in his resurrection.

And we know that we will have everlasting life.

And so we live for the eternal.

We live for the understanding that just as God re raised up Jesus

from the dead and put him in a glorified body, so also we understand

that we will be that way as well.

And so knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, our

old path, that's gone now, do we still struggle with the old ways?

Of course that's our flesh.

But he says it no longer has to be the struggle anymore.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body,

the body of sin.

He's trying to paint a word picture here, that this sacrifice

of sin, the body of sin, our life of sin, might be destroyed,

that henceforth we should not serve sin.

So he's really talking about this idea of who is our master?

Who is our master?

The Bible says that God is Lord.

Now, a lot of times we don't know what that word Lord means.

That word Lord literally just means master.

And the question that I would have for all of us here this morning

is, who is our master?

Who is our Lord?

Well, for some people, they, they.

They would say, well, it's God.

Other people, your master might be your.

Your job.

It dictates everything in your life.

May, maybe your master is yourself.

Maybe you are your own Lord.

Whatever you want, you do.

The Bible says here that ultimately we can only serve one

master.

The Bible says you can only serve one master, because if you

serve more than one master, you're gonna either love one and

hate the other.

And the idea for, for what Paul is trying to get across here

is, are we gonna serve the Lord?

Are we gonna serve him in his new path that he has given us?

Are we gonna go back and serve sin?

Is the, the.

The picture that I, I have in my mind is this.

I'm never served time in jail or prison, but.

But I watched it on tv, okay?

So there, There, there.

There would be someone that, let's say they're in.

In a jail cell, prison cell, that the old times, they would be

in, you know, chains, and maybe even today they would be that

way.

And let's say whatever happens, maybe someone comes in and

buys you out or whatever, they, they take you out, you're gone,

the doors open, the chains are broken.

But what he's explaining is this.

For a Christian to go back to that life of sin, for a Christian

to go back and love those things that before they were defined

by, is like a Christian leaving that's free and coming back

into the jail cell, closing the door and saying, you know what?

I like that life better.

And that's ultimately what he's explaining here is like, why

would you want to go back and be a servant to sin?

You were freed from that bondage.

You are freed from the inevitability that you will choose

sin.

And now why would we want to go back and have that chaining us

down again?

For he that is Dead is freed from sin.

You're freed from the action of sin, you're freed from the power

of sin, and you're freed from the bondage of sin and you're freed

from the effects of sin.

Folks, the Bible says that sin has an ultimate penalty for the wages

of sin is death.

Now, again, I mentioned this last weekend and there was a little

bit of confusion.

What I am saying as a believer is that if we sin, either our past

or present or our future or there are going to be in some cases

earthly consequences to decisions that we make.

I'm not saying that, hey, you can just keep sinning as a Christian

and there's not going to be any problems.

No, the Bible actually says that if I'm a Christian, I'm living

in sin.

There will be hardships, there will be problems because they're

bad decisions.

Now, the grace of God is abundant and he can forgive us of

that.

He can even overcome the penalty of sin in some ways here

on this side of heaven.

But what we're talking about is a bigger thing.

The idea would be is this, no matter what I do, past, present or

future, the grace of God is upon me and I am no longer bound

by the punishment in the future of sin, the death sentence

of sin.

For if verse 8.

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we also shall live

with him, meaning we understand the principle of dying

to our old ways.

Living in Christ, we are, we are alive in him.

Verse 9.

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more

death, hath no more dominion over him.

Jesus doesn't have to keep going back to the cross.

When he was on the cross, he said a statement which is a powerful

statement, had a lot of meaning to it.

He says, it is finished.

It doesn't have to keep going back.

God doesn't have to keep dying for us.

And really, essentially what we're seeing here is that we don't

have to keep going back and getting saved over and over and over

again.

Just as God's payment for our sin was finally, so is his salvation

for us final.

We are sealed with him until the day of redemption.

He says now if we be dead in Christ, we believe that we should

also live with him.

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth, no more

death, hath no more dominion over him.

There's no more power of death over the Lord, and there's no more

power of death over us that are in him, in Christ.

So verse 10.

For in that he died, he died unto sin.

Once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God, meaning the death

is over, but life is continuing on forever and ever and

ever.

And so what we can see here this morning is the challenge for

the believer to understand what he or she has in Christ in that

grace.

And then the challenge on the other side is that if I am somebody

who has not trusted in Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I'm still

here today, it's not too late to trust in the gift of grace so

that I can understand what it means to have this type of freedom.

A lot of times, what people will teach is this, that God wants

to control you so that you don't have freedom.

There's a lot of people that will say, you know what?

I don't want to come to Christ to give my life to him because I'm

afraid that I'm going to miss out on something in my life.

I want to be free.

I want to be, I want to be me.

I want to make my own decisions.

I'm going to tell you folks that's the strongest bondage that

you could ever face, the bondage of sin.

I'm free to choose what I want, but I'm going to tell you that

if you choose what your flesh wants, that brings you to bondage.

That brings you to the least amount of freedom that you can ever

find.

When I was a young person, I would hear a preacher preach about

the freedom of God.

I, I, I heard a preacher one time preaching at our school, and

he was like, you can find freedom in Christ, you can find liberty

in Christ.

And I'm going like, well, no, I find freedom in going out on the

weekends and doing what I want to do.

I feel like when I come to Christ, it's all about limiting me

from having fun, limiting me from experiencing this world.

But as I grew and matured and understand what he was saying, he

wasn't saying, hey, you know what?

When you come to Christ, you can do whatever you want.

What he was saying is, hey, now that you come to Christ, there's

a freedom to serve Him.

Before that, we're, we're, we're chained.

We are in bondage so that we can't serve Christ before we come

to Him.

There's no possible way that we can have freedom because sin grips

us so much.

But when we are saved, we are relinquished of that bondage and

we are free to serve Him.

We are free to minister for Him.

We are free to live a life that is beyond description.

I'm going to tell you when the Bible says that there is a peace

that passeth all understanding in Philippians, chapter four, I'm

going to tell you that it is a peace that passes all understanding.

The world cannot understand the freedom of a believer, the joy

of that a believer has.

In the midst of difficulty, I'm going to tell you, being a Christian

doesn't mean your life is easy.

Being a Christian doesn't mean that your life is going to have just

perfect circumstances.

But what the Bible does say is that even though you can have all

these things going on around you, even though there could be people

persecuting you as much as Paul was being persecuted, you can

have joy and freedom in knowing that you can live for him.

And that's the type of freedom that nothing in this world can bring.

The world's gonna say this, do this substance, enjoy this relationship,

do these types of things, and that will bring you amazing freedom.

But only that brings bondage, that only brings sin, that only brings

punishment and eventually destruction.

If sin wasn't attractive, no one would do it.

But the Bible says that sin is attractive and that many people believe

the lie of the enemy, saying that this is gonna bring me satisfaction.

I'm gonna tell you here this morning that no sin will.

Will ever bring lasting satisfaction in your life.

No, no evil, no, no, no, no emptiness will bring you that type

of satisfaction.

The only thing that the Bible says that will bring true satisfaction

is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

He is sufficient for everything that we need.

Now, why do we go down these paths of sin?

A lot of times it's maybe loneliness or maybe it's.

It's.

It's because of something that was done to us in the past.

Or maybe it's because we feel like that's going to bring me something

that I've never experienced before.

Or.

Or maybe we think that's going to bring me substance.

Maybe people will respect me.

Folks, these are all faulty reasons to go down the path of sin.

To go down the path of sin means to go down the path of bondage

and destruction, as the Bible says that.

That pride leads to destruction and pride leads to death.

And as we read this morning in James chapter four, which we're going

to turn to now, James chapter four says that what brings life,

what brings salvation, that's humility saying, I can't do this

on my own.

So we're in Romans chapter six.

Go with me to James chapter four.

We'll touch on what we read this morning in James chapter four.

Then we'll hit Romans chapter six and Then we'll be done.

Just in way of conclusion here, James, chapter four.

This should be our testimony of the Lord.

If you are a Christian this morning, if you are a believer in

Jesus Christ, if you've tasted in the grace of God, we don't say,

well, now I get to do whatever I want to do.

We say verse number six in James chapter four.

But he giveth more grace, man.

That should be our testimony, man.

He just keeps giving me grace, even though I don't deserve it.

He just keeps giving me grace.

Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace

to the humble.

What does God resist?

He resists pride and selfishness.

What does God embrace and extend in grace?

He extends that to those that are humble.

Folks, we have to come to a place of humility.

Knowing that I can't save myself, knowing that my decisions

are the wrong thing, knowing that ultimately in my flesh, in the

old man, that's only going to lead me back to the life of the cycle

of sin and bondage.

So what does he say to do?

He says, submit yourselves, therefore, to God.

Give your life up to God.

Say, God, you are in control.

I don't know how you're going to work this out.

I don't know how you're going to get me victory over this.

But the same God that parted the Red Sea, the same God that.

That protected and allowed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in

the fiery furnace to be unharmed, the same God that rose

Jesus from the dead, the same God that provided and did all these

miracles in Scripture, is the same God that can give you victory

over the issues that you are having in your life.

The Bible even says in Romans that the same power that rose Jesus

from the dead is the one that's living within you.

And so therefore, if you think, man, this sin that's gripping

me right now that maybe even nobody knows about, maybe it's a

sin of my mind.

I can never get victory over that.

The Bible says that God is still a miracle worker.

God can still transform your life.

You might say, well, you don't know the kind of relationships that

I have.

You don't know the kind of problems that I have in my work.

The Bible says that, no, he giveth more grace, but he gives those

grace, those people grace that are willing to come to him and submit

to him and say, lord, I don't know how you're going to do this,

but I believe that you will.

It takes faith.

It takes humility.

And so he says, There.

Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

He doesn't just say, resist the devil on your own strength, because

that's sometimes what we're taught.

Hey, just, just, you know, get strong.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

You can fight this temptation on your own.

No, he starts in verse seven with, submit yourselves therefore

to God.

Lord, I need you to get me through this.

I need you to help me resist the enemy.

So he says, submit to God.

Rely on God.

Be.

Be engulfed by the power of God.

Then resist the devil and his strength, and he will flee from you.

And then it says in verse eight, draw nigh or draw near to

God.

Get closer to him.

Draw nigh to God and what he will draw nigh to you.

You want a close relationship with God, Pursue him.

He's pursuing you.

Ultimately, this passage is not saying this.

Again, similar to God up there doling out grace.

It's not like God's up in heaven trying to hide from us, and

we got to chase him down and say, God, I want to be close to you.

And he's like, no, no, you got to really pursue me.

No, it's not saying that God will draw only close to us when we

find Him.

But what it's saying is that God is always there.

And when you draw close to him, you will experience his nearness

and his and his perfect nature and his personal love for you.

So.

So he's not running out there.

He's not hidden.

God's not hiding somewhere.

My kids love to play hide and seek in the dark, and they love that

kind of stuff.

I don't like that as much because I trip on things and it's

not fun.

But the idea would be this.

God's not hiding in the dark somewhere.

God is evidently open and in the light, saying, come to me, draw

near to me, and you're going to experience what it means to have

a close relationship with God.

He goes on to talk more about how we should be broken over our

sins.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.

Purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Be afflicted and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

You say what?

I thought you said you can have joy as a Christian.

He says, here, in this case, these are people that are living

in sin.

Don't have joy in your sin.

Come to a place of brokenness.

Come to a place of saying, I can't do this anymore.

Come to a place where you have to be heavy Hearted, because that's

where God will meet you.

And it says in verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of

the Lord and He shall lift you up.

It's him who lifts us up, not ourselves.

And so we go to Romans, chapter six, and we're going to be

done.

He ends here with this principle that if you are in Christ,

if you have been baptized into Christ, meaning you're.

You're in.

You experience the grace of God, you've experienced the power

of God ultimately here, then you know what your life is all about.

Your life is about dying to the old ways, knowing what it means

to walk in the truth of Jesus Christ.

Not a life of perfection, though that's what we should strive

for, by the way.

We should always strive to be like him the best that we can.

But ultimately says that you are dead to that.

You.

You have been saved from that.

You have been pulled out of the fire.

You have been pulled out of darkness.

I don't know if anyone in your life has ever saved you from a situation.

I know there was a time, a few times in my life that I was.

It was out of my control and someone stepped in and helped me

and pulled me out.

And that's amazing to have in our life as a human experience.

But I'm gonna tell you, the most amazing gift is that God is

willing to save us from punishment.

God is willing to save us from a life of brokenness.

And it's not just, hey, you get a ticket to heaven and now you're

going to live your life struggling and not know that he's

there.

No, the Bible says, yes, he gives you eternal life, but also

he's there with you now through the ups and the downs.

He's supposed to be there with us.

He will be there with us.

He's promised that he'll be there with us.

It's just a matter of tapping in and understanding that he is there

and not rejecting his voice in our life.

Not rejecting the conviction of the Spirit.

Folks, the conviction of the Spirit sometimes is something that

we want to fight away.

And if we fight the conviction of the Spirit away long enough, it'll

eventually become the norm.

And we will not be sensitive to the call of the Spirit in our

life.

What I would say to you is be sensitive to the conviction of the

Holy Spirit.

I've had a lot of people come up to me and say, hey, Pastor, am

I supposed to do this or am I supposed to do that?

There's things in scripture that are very clearly, it says, hey,

this is a Sin, don't do it.

I can point you to that.

Okay?

Husbands, be faithful to your wives.

That's the will of God.

You don't have to pray about that.

Just, it is what it is.

Pray that it'll give you the strength to do it.

But you don't have to sit there and think like, well, should

I be faithful?

The Bible says be faithful.

Okay?

That's very, very clear.

But there's other aspects within our life that sometimes are

more difficult to understand.

Should I have this relationship with this person?

Should I respond this way?

Should I take this job?

Folks, the idea would be this.

What is the Spirit guiding you to do?

How?

How, if he's convinced, if you say, well, should I be going to this

place?

Well, if you're feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit, don't

go there.

The conviction of the Spirit is the most important thing because

it brings you discernment.

Okay?

So for me, I'm not going to sit here and tell you all the answers

that you can have in every step of your life.

I can't know that.

But all I can tell you is that the Spirit does know what you need.

The Spirit does know where the will of God is in your life, in every

aspect.

And so seek that.

Seek the Spirit's guidance in your life.

Say, well, what does that look like?

I'll give you just a brief example of what that looks like.

Let's say you.

You move into the Middletown area, go to Middletown Baptist Church.

You saw the sign or you looked it up on the website and you came

into the church.

I can't say that every single person in the world's will in their

life from God is to be a member of Middletown Baptist Church.

That would be ridiculous.

So if someone came in here and they walked through our doors and

they said, hey, is it God's will for me, for me to be at Middletown

Baptist Church?

We would ask some questions.

We would say, okay, what are you looking for?

Where's your walk with Christ?

What type of church are you looking for?

But then at the same time, I can't say that it's everyone's will

to be here at Middletown Baptist Church.

It doesn't mean that you go somewhere else and it's a sin.

But what it means is that if you do reject that God's calling

you to Middletown Baptist Church, then I would say, hey, here

it is.

You are in sin.

If the Holy Spirit's leading you somewhere and you reject that

will.

So.

So do you understand the point that I'm trying to Say, so if God

is firmly moving someone, if they're praying and they're saying,

okay, Lord, should I go to Middletown Baptist Church?

And God keeps making it evident for them, evident for them,

evident for them.

And then eventually they say, you know what?

I don't want to go there, actually.

I don't want to go to church in general.

That's a point where someone's rejected the Holy Spirit in their

life.

And they're not being.

Walking, they're not walking in the Spirit, they're not walking

in guidance.

And that could be for anything.

So.

So the point that I'm trying to make is this, this morning, there

are some things laid out in scripture that are very clearly sin.

Not sin.

There's other things in scripture that are very clearly not

laid out in scripture.

And that you have to just basically say, lord, where do you

want me to go?

Here.

But then he will speak.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, he will guide you through

various circumstances.

He'll guide you through comfort, he'll guide you through

discomfort.

He'll guide you through open doors.

He'll guide you through closed doors.

And folks, that's how we as Christians can make decisions that

are in the will of God for our lives.

Because there's going to be some things that are, that are in

and of themselves on the outside, aren't sin.

Like, should I take a job here or here?

Okay, well, this job over here could be a fine job.

This job over here could be a fine job.

Nothing is going to make me against the word of God on either

one of these jobs.

But God still might have a will for us to pick a place because

he might lead us to a place there.

But then if God clearly opens a door somewhere and I say, well,

know what?

Now I want to do my own thing, because this is more.

This is better over here.

This is more reasonable over here.

Then now I have broken his will.

Not listen to the conviction of the Spirit or the guidance of

the Spirit.

And now I'm in a place where I'm in open rebellion to him now.

Doesn't mean that I can't get that right.

What I'm saying is this.

Be sensitive to God's path for your life.

Walk in newness of life.

And as we see there at the very end In Romans, chapter 6, verse

Romans 6:10

10, we're going to pick it up next week.

It says, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that

he liveth, he liveth unto God.

So when we live in Christ, we're Living a life in obedience

to God.

We're living a life obedience to His Word.

We're living a life in obedience to his, to his plan for

our life.

Next, next week we'll look more at the practical application

of this principle because we have to put it to practice.

Because, because sometimes if we take things and we just make them

theoretical, we can, we can stay there in our minds, but eventually

what we believe in our minds and our heart have to be put to our

hands and our feet.

And next week we're going to look at more about how we can trust

in God and guidance and walk in that newness of life when it comes

to practical things of avoiding sin.

Because we've talked a lot about sin here today, but some, someone

in this room might say, well, you know what?

I recognize that the sin is not something that I want to do,

but I don't know how to have victory over it.

We'll come back next week, we'll talk more about how we can

apply these truths to our life so that we can walk a life of obedience

in Jesus Christ.

But here this morning, there is really just one thought that I'd

like to bring to you this morning is how do we.

It's the same thought we had last week.

How do I view grace?

What does grace mean for me?

I'm a Christian here this morning.

What does grace mean for me in my daily walk?

What does God's grace mean for me when I mess up?

What does God's grace mean for me when I'm making decisions in my

life?

That's the beauty of God's grace.

Let's say something that is amazing thing, folks.

There's nothing else in life that matters.

I don't care if we take hours to talk.

It's what it's about.

So if you need Jesus Christ as your Savior here today or you're

wrestling with that, don't hesitate.

It's not.

The invitation is not limited to a 10 minute time that we have

here in the service.

Worship doesn't stop on Sunday mornings.

The church doesn't stop on Sunday mornings.

Folks, this is our lives we're talking about.

Our eternal destination at stake here.

So if you want to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, follow

him today.

Find someone, find me, find Pastor John, find Pastor Carlos.

Find someone that you trust here in the church and go to them

and see what it means to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

I'm going to ask everyone to stand, every head bowed, every eye

closed.

I don't want anyone to look around because I don't want anyone

to be influenced by decisions that are being made by other people

here today.

But what I do want to challenge everybody with is just

really that question is how do I view God's grace?

How am I responding to God's grace?

Is God's grace something for me to use as a tool for just living

in sin and in rebellion?

I'm missing the point on God's grace.

God's grace should bring me to repentance.

God's grace should bring me to a place of realization that I, I,

I offend him daily and that I need his grace and I should not walk

in rebellion to him.

I should walk in newness of life.

Maybe for some of us as Christians here today, we need to

be renewed in our call and our challenge to walk in newness of life,

to walk distinctly different from the world.

Maybe there's someone here that needs Jesus Christ as Savior.

I can't emphasize it enough how much it matters to make decisions

that will impact eternity.

Folks, tomorrow's not guaranteed.

I wish it was, but it's not.

The only guarantee is that one day the Bible says it's appointed

unto man are humans once to die and after that the judgment.

The only guarantee is that we will be judged for what we do in

our life.

And I'm going to tell you here this morning, none of us want to

be judged by what we do.

The only thing that we want to be judged by is the perfection and

the grace and the extension of the gospel from Jesus Christ.

And so here this morning, trust in his grace and his grace

alone.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation working hearts

and lives in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays follows the Lord lead.

Some have already come here up front to respond to the grace of

God.

If you need to do that here this morning, come forth it thank

you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch

dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow

along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.