Invited to Life- Romans 6:1-11

Happy Easter. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. All right.

Thanks. It's good to see everybody here this

morning, and it's exciting to have visitors with

us this morning. If you're new here, if you've

never visited with us before, if you have been

here before, something that you should know about

everyone here is that we are all just a bunch

of sinners who have been redeemed by the mercy

and grace of God. Amen. So I know that it may

look like we all have it together and we're all

wearing our Sunday best, our Easter finest. I

was going to wear short sleeves today, but Anna

told me no. So I'm in a suit because it is hot.

But that's our story. We are not perfect. There

are no perfect people here, even though we are

in church. We are just stories of God's grace.

And that's a common story that we all have. And

the thing that I've learned from being a Christian,

is that it's always great when people know the

new you in Christ. But the hard part about being

a Christian in the town you grew up in is that

even if people don't necessarily know the new

you, they certainly have not forgotten the old

you. And they will always think about you in

that way. And so I wanted to share a story that

happened years ago. Actually, I thought it was

a few years ago, but then I looked and turns

out it was over 10 years ago. There's a guy that

Anna and I went to high school with and for whatever

reason, he thought it would be a fun idea to

get on Facebook and post about every single person.

He took our yearbook and went person by person

in alphabetical order and said exactly what he

thought of that person that he went to high school

with. Oh yeah, just wait till you see. So I decided

I would share with you. what he had to say about

me. You'll see it on the screen. A lot of it's

redacted for obvious reasons. This is what he

said about me. What an idiot this guy was. There's

a list people can make of the stupid redacted

stuff he did. Just immature and never grew out

of the ninth -grader mentality of being a redacted,

unlikable person because we all are redacted.

Horrible. at that age. So that's what he thought

about me. And I tell people all the time that

God has an amazing sense of humor. So do you

want to know what God did in this situation?

I read this post, a few days later I go to CVS,

pick up some prescriptions because I was sick.

Guess who was working at CVS? Did you guess the

guy who wrote the post? Because you'd be right.

So I see this guy working at CVS and I'm not

the type of person who avoids hard, awkward conversations.

So I just went right up to him and I was like,

hey man, what's going on? How are you doing?

And he was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, good to

see you, good to see you. And he asked me, you

know, he's like, what have you been up to since

high school? And I was like, I'm glad you asked.

Let me tell you what God has done in my life.

And I was studying Christian studies at North

Greenville at the time, so I got to tell him

my entire testimony and share my testimony of

what God had done in my life since high school.

And I ended that conversation by telling him,

man, I was like, hey, I saw your post on Facebook.

And everything you said was actually exactly

right. That is exactly who I was, but that's

not who I am, thanks to what Jesus has done in

my life. That Alex is dead. a new one has been

born in his place. And the great thing is that

story is not unique to me. I mean, maybe the

bit about the Facebook and the yearbook thing,

that's unique to me, okay? You might not have

had a high school friend do that. He wasn't a

friend, but a guy you went to high school with.

But the story that you share in common is that

the person you were has died, and you are a new

person thanks to Jesus, and that is only possible

because of his resurrection. If Jesus never came

out of that tomb, if He never rose from the dead,

we would still be dead in our sins. We would

still be enslaved to the flesh. But because He

is alive, we have new life in Him. And that's

why the great thing about Easter is it's not

just a celebration, it's an invitation. The point

I want you to understand this morning is because

Jesus has been raised, we are invited to live

in the fullness of the resurrection life. Because

Jesus has been raised, we are invited to live

in the fullness of the resurrection life. The

resurrection of Jesus literally changes everything

for us. Because when we look at the resurrection

of Jesus, we are seeing God write an entirely

new story. A story unlike all of the ones that

came before it. I don't know if you've ever thought

about this before, but if you look in the Bible

and you see the story of Joseph, Joseph is presented

as a foreshadow of Jesus the Provider. And you

read about his story in Genesis. How does the

book of Genesis end? It ends with the death of

Joseph. And then you have the story of Moses.

And Moses is presented as a foreshadow of Jesus

the Deliverer. But you read the book of Deuteronomy,

and how does it end? It ends with the death of

Moses. Then you get to Joshua and Joshua is presented

as a foreshadow of Jesus the conqueror and then

you read the book of Joshua How does it end with

the death of Joshua? But then you get to the

Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and they do

not end with death do they church they end with

resurrection and that changes everything and

So the question I want us to consider this morning

is how do we live in the fullness of the resurrection

life? How do we live in the fullness of the resurrection

life? And to start, I think it means understanding

the nature of God's grace. I want you to, if

you have your Bibles, look again at verse 1.

Paul asked the question, what shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How can we who died to sin still

live in it? All right, so we need to get our

bearings. Because we're just jumping right into

the book of Romans and if you've missed the whole

first part You kind of have some catching up

to do so for the first five chapters of Romans

Paul spent the majority of those chapters telling

people The horrible news that everyone is dead

in their sin He said of mankind that all people

have sinned and fallen short of the glory of

God He has said that no one is good, no one does

good, no one seeks after God. You might say,

well, Pastor, that's not fair. I feel like I'm

a pretty good person. I try to do good things.

I'm nice to other people. How can you say I'm

not a good person? I didn't say that. The Bible

did. So you'll have to take it up with the Bible.

But this is God's assessment of humanity. He

says all people have sinned, all people are dead

in their sin, and there's not a thing they can

do about it. No one seeks after God. No one is

good. No one does good. It's all pretty bleak

news. And it only gets worse because Paul goes

on to say that when Adam and Eve sinned against

God, they became corrupted by sin. And they were

corrupted in such a way that this corruption,

they passed it down to all people because all

people come from Adam and Eve. And what they

passed down, this corruption, is something we

refer to as a sin nature. You might say, well

pastor, what's a sin nature? A sin nature basically

means that all people are born with a bent towards

sin. Like the natural default of all humans is

going to be sin. And you know, even if you didn't

grow up in church, even if you're not here every

week, and you're unaccustomed to all this theological

language, you know this is true just by experience.

Because as parents, you're going to have to teach

your children a lot of stuff. The one thing you

will never have to teach your children how to

do is sin. Those little boogers come out of the

womb knowing how to sin, okay? That is just thanks

to Adam and Eve. That's the sin nature that we've

inherited. We have this bent towards sin. And

so since all people have a sin nature, guess

what they kept doing? Sinning. And the Bible

says that sin brought death into the world. And

so Paul says this whole world became a place

where sin and death ruled and reigned. And that's

the bad news. But then as Paul starts Romans

6, he gets to the good news and he says, where

sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Now

that sounds great, does it not? Hey, this bad

news, it's really bad. And this is a lot of sin.

And Paul is saying, there's a lot of sin here,

but God's grace is greater. Sin abounded, grace

abounded all the more. This sounds great, does

it not? Here's the problem. People heard Paul

say this, and they no doubt heard Paul teach

this, and they started thinking to themselves,

hey Paul, if you're saying where we sin, God's

grace is going to abound, shouldn't we just keep

on sinning so that grace will keep on abounding?

That's exactly the question that's raised here

shall we continue in sin that grace may abound

and notice how Paul answers He says by no means

and in Greek is even stronger. It's a phrase

that means it's unthinkable It means such a thing

should never even be Suggested and yet there

are those who suggest it I've told you many times

now of a growing movement. That's very concerning

to me as a pastor It's called the hyper grace

movement. And it's basically a movement that

teaches people that you don't need to repent

of your sins. You don't need to ask for God's

forgiveness. You don't need to trust in Christ

and have this repentant heart and follow Him.

They even teach that you don't even need to be

obedient to the commands of God. All you have

to do is just live your life however you want

because they say God's grace is just going to

cover everything anyways. And God's just going

to forgive everything anyways. And so they say

it doesn't matter what you do or how you live

because of God's grace. And the problem is, if

you have this mentality, it actually demonstrates

that you've never actually experienced the grace

of God in Christ in the first place. Because

if you had truly experienced God's grace, you

would never want to abuse God's grace. You would

never want to continue doing something that God

hates and is displeasing to him just because

you think that his grace is going to cover it.

I mean, a good way to think about this is my

wife Anna and I, we have our marriage vows printed

and framed and hanging above our bedside tables

in our room. And they serve as a reminder of

our commitment to each other and our covenant

before the Lord. And in our marriage vows, both

of us say the phrase, I will never divorce you.

Now, let me ask you a question. What would it

say about me if I said, well, look what she said.

I will never divorce you. Not only did I hear

her say it, it's printed and it's framed and

it's hanging in our room. She said she'll never

divorce me. So that means I can just do whatever

I want. I can treat her like dirt. I can be domineering.

I can be unfaithful. I don't need to pursue her.

I don't need to love her. I don't need to lead

her. I can do whatever I want because she said

she's not gonna divorce me. Would anyone in here

this morning say that I actually love my wife

and was committed to her if I thought like that?

No, right? Or as Paul says, by no means. Absolutely

not. So how on earth does it make any sense?

For someone to claim to be a Christian who lives

in sin and continues in sin just because they

say God's grace is going to cover it anyways

God's just going to forgive everything anyways

It doesn't make sense that the Christian is one

who having received the grace of God has died

to sin It would never even cross his mind to

abuse God's sin or God's grace and continue Abusing

God's grace by continuing in sin. It does not

cross his mind You see, the point Paul is making

here is that grace is not freedom to sin. Grace

is freedom from sin. Grace is not freedom to

sin. Grace is freedom from sin. In other words,

God's grace does not give us permission to sin.

It gives us the power to stop sinning. The Bible

says before we became Christians, we were enslaved

to sin. That we had this sin nature, and we had

this bent towards sin, and there was nothing

we could do to get ourselves out of the power

of sin. We were in bondage to it. And the Bible

says here, we've now received God's grace. And

His grace has broken the bonds that sin held

over us, and now we have the power to stop sinning.

You see, this is where so many people get the

faith wrong. So many people that I've talked

to. They think becoming a Christian means I've

got to stop doing all the things I really like

doing and I've got to start doing things that

I really have no interest in doing and That's

not what it means to be a Christian at all But

to become a Christian it means that God gives

you a new heart So that you hate the things you

used to love and you love the things you used

to hate That's why the Bible says in first John

5 3 for this is the love of God. In other words,

this is how you can see the love of God in your

life, that we keep His commandments, and His

commandments are not what, church? Burdensome.

Of course the commandments of God are burdensome

to those who are dead in their sins. The Bible

says the natural man does not accept the things

of God. The Bible says the natural man does not

submit to the things of God. He does not obey

the law of God. In fact, the Bible says in 1

Corinthians 2, 14, that they are folly to Him,

meaning stupid. They think it's ridiculous. And

so naturally, humanity does not love God. They

do not obey God, and they don't want to. But

then the Bible says once you become a Christian,

and you repent of your sins and you trust in

Christ, God gives you a new heart where you actually

delight in obeying God. You actually long to

do the things that are pleasing to God. You love

what God loves and you hate what God hates. And

when you receive this new heart from God, it

means that you no longer desire to keep on living

in sin. It means that you no longer desire to

abuse God's grace, because if that's your mentality,

folks, I hate to be the one to tell you this,

but it means that you're not actually a Christian.

It means that you've never actually experienced

God's grace in Christ. It means you are still

identifying with Adam and the reign of sin and

death. But Christians are identified by our union

with Jesus. Notice what the Bible says here in

verse 3. It says, Do you not know that all of

us who had been baptized into Christ Jesus were

baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore,

with him by baptism into his death, in order

that just as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father, we too might walk

in newness of life. For if we have been united

with him in a death like his, we shall certainly

be united with him in a resurrection like his.

And we know that our old self was crucified with

him in order that the body of sin might be brought

to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved

to sin. Now, Paul's got a long explanation here.

Let me break this down for you. To start off,

it's important to understand that Paul is not

talking about water baptism here. When he's mentioning

baptism, I know he says baptism a couple times,

he's not mentioning water baptism, okay? That's

not what he's referring to. He's not saying,

hey, this is how you know that you're really

a Christian. This is how you know that you've

truly been united with Christ. You've been baptized.

That's not what he's saying here. All right.

Plenty of people have gotten wet who have never

gotten saved. OK, so baptism cannot save you.

He's talking about the baptism of the spirit.

It's the same thing he mentions in First Corinthians

12 13. He says, for in one spirit we were all

baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves

or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

He's saying that when the Holy Spirit convicted

us of our sins, and He caused us to be born again,

He put our old selves to death with Christ. We

died with Christ we died to our sins and then

we are made alive with Jesus Just as Jesus has

been raised the Bible says we are raised with

him through faith in Christ and When we are raised

with Jesus, we're no longer affiliated with the

kingdom of darkness or with the reign of sin

and death But we're now affiliated with Jesus

in his kingdom It's a new identity that we receive

I was listening to the testimony recently of

a man named Coco. And Coco used to be a high

ranking member of the gang M18. It's a Mexican

street gang and he was covered in M18 tattoos

and it's really important in that culture because

your tattoos are seen as a public declaration

of your loyalty to the gang and they identify

you with the gang. And Coco ended up getting

arrested, going to prison. And while he was in

prison, He went to a couple chapel services,

and he began to hear the gospel preach for the

very first time. And after a few times of going

to these chapel services, the Holy Spirit convicted

Coco of his sins, showed him the grace of Jesus

Christ, and Coco repented of his sins, and gave

his life to Jesus. He became a Christian behind

bars, and has this wonderful testimony. But as

he was talking, He was saying that he made the

very difficult decision to leave the game right

after becoming a Christian. And it was dangerous

because one of the main slogans of M18 is the

only way out is in a box. And so he knew by leaving

the game he could be put to death. But he trusted

that this is what Jesus was calling him to and

that it was worth it. And he said that after

he became a Christian, he also made the very

difficult decision to cover up all of his gang

tattoos with Christian tattoos. And I love what

he said, this is what he said, he said, my old

tattoos affiliated me with the gang and they

identified me as belonging to the gang. My new

ones affiliate me with Jesus and tell the world

that I belong to him. Now, the reason I tell

you that story, is to say that you need to go

get some Christian tattoos sometimes this week.

Right? No, obviously that's not the point, okay?

The point is not you need to go get Christian

tattoos. The point is there's a clean break,

right? You see that. Coco said, I was identified

with this old world and this old kingdom and

this reign of sin and death and when I came to

faith there was a clean break with that world

and in embracing this new world. I was accepting

a new identity. I was accepting new affiliations.

The world was no longer going to say, I belong

to the gang. They're going to say, I belong to

Jesus. You see, that's the same point that Paul

is making here. He's saying that none of our

past affiliations have any bearing on our new

identities. None of our past affiliations have

any bearing on our new identities. And this is

really important for everyone to hear and understand

this morning. If there's one thing you hear me

say this morning, I want you to understand and

hear me say this. You have not sinned too much

for God to love you and forgive you. That's something

that so many people struggle with because they

look at their lives and they say, I haven't been

in church since last Easter, Pastor. And if you

look at what I've done since then, my life is

filled with sin. I'm not living in obedience

to Jesus. I'm not pursuing Jesus. I've got a

past that is so messed up. I shouldn't even be

here this morning. And they become convinced

that they are too far gone for God. And I want

you to know this morning, there is no such thing.

You are not too far gone for God. You are not

beyond the reach of God's saving grace in Christ.

You might say, well, Pastor, you don't know what

I've done. How can you say that? I don't need

to know what you've done to know that it's true.

You cannot out sin the cross of Christ. You cannot

out sin God's grace. Your sins may be great,

but God's grace is greater. I mean, do I need

to go back and read you what my former classmates

said about me? And that's, listen, that's not

even the worst thing that anyone has said about

me, and it's certainly not the worst thing someone

could say about me, okay? But the point is that

that's not who I am anymore. I have a new identity.

And the reason I am here today as a Christian

is not because I earned my salvation. It is not

because I was a good person. It's not because

I've worked really, really hard to turn my life

around and get in God's good graces. It's not

because my rap sheet just wasn't too long for

God. I was the chief of sinners. And yet God

saved me and redeemed me to display His saving

power in Christ Jesus. That's why we are all

here today, is it not? It's not because we are

great, it's because Jesus is great and He is

making His power known by saving people like

us. Jesus did not rise from the grave so that

people who just aren't too bad might have the

opportunity to avoid hell. Jesus rose from the

grave to invite the worst people to join him

in newness of life and join his kingdom. And

I tell you this this morning because one of the

most common lies The enemy tries to get people

to believe is that you are unlovable and unusable

because of all the stuff that you've done. Because

of all the ways that you have fallen short. He

comes to you and he says, how could God ever

love you? What makes you think that God would

want someone like you? Why do you believe that

God would ever use someone like you? On and on

the enemy goes. But listen, God delights in saying,

you show me the most notorious sinner. You show

me the person with the most messed up past, and

I will show you how I can redeem them and use

them to accomplish great things for my kingdom's

sake. Listen to me church if God can raise Jesus

from the dead He can save you and he can use

you and he can redeem you and he can forgive

you You are not too far gone and when you accept

this invitation into life in Christ none of your

past sins None of your former affiliations have

any hold on you anymore How good is that to hear

this morning? I mean, if it's not good for you

to hear, maybe you've just grown up in church,

been in church too long, maybe your past isn't

as messed up as mine, but for someone like me,

the best news I can hear is that God no longer

looks at me as that messed up sinner anymore.

He doesn't look at you as that liar anymore,

that cheat, that gossip. God has given you a

new identity in Jesus. And he says that you are

a saint through faith in Jesus, that you are

a child of the living God, a son or a daughter

of the king. And so none of those old affiliations,

none of those old identities have any bearing

on you anymore. Thanks to Jesus. And if we really

are children of God, then we need to live as

children of God and as citizens of his kingdom.

Notice what he says in verse seven. He says,

for one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe

that we will also live with him. We know that

Christ, being raised from the dead, will never

die again. Death no longer has dominion over

him. For the death he died he died to sin once

for all but the life he lives he lives to God

So you also must consider yourselves dead to

sin and alive to God in Jesus Now what's the

Bible saying here? The Bible is saying that when

Jesus died he put sin to death for good Jesus

took the power of sin and death with him into

the grave and they stayed there But Jesus did

not. When He rose again, He proved that the reign

of sin and death was done, and it has no dominion

over Him anymore, and now the grace of Christ

reigns in its place. And you see, this is something

that sometimes people mess up about the Easter

story. If you pay attention to Christians, you'll

start to notice this. For whatever reason, Christians

sometimes act as though Friday, is a day of defeat.

It's called Good Friday, right? Not Black Friday,

it's Good Friday. But they look at Friday as

a day of defeat, and they say, well, that's the

day that the world killed Jesus. That's the day

that they nailed Him to a cross, and He was suffering

in agony, and He breathed His last, and He was

crying out to His Father. And they say, that

was a day of defeat. You're not going to find

that in the Bible. The Bible says Friday was

victory. That was the day that Jesus defeated

sin, death, and Satan and put them in the grave

for good. Friday was victory. Sunday is vindication.

Friday showed the world that the Father demands

a sacrifice and a payment for sin. Sunday showed

the world that he had accepted Jesus' offering.

And the Bible is saying here, if you have been

buried with Christ, and you have been raised

with Christ, then you too have died to sin. Sin

has no power over you anymore. Sin has no dominion

over you anymore. You are now living the resurrection

life and you were under the reign of grace. And

so the point that he's making here is living

the resurrection life means leaving the grave

behind. Living the resurrection life means leaving

the grave behind. When you think about the story

of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, it's

an amazing story, is it not? It's a miracle.

Lazarus has been dead for four days. It means

he's super dead. No chance of coming back. That's

the technical term for it. I don't want to get

into it, but it means he's super dead. He's dead

dead, okay? No chance of coming back. Jesus goes

to the tomb and says, Lazarus, come out. People

think it's ridiculous. Everyone looking is like,

Jesus, you know the technical term. He's dead,

dead. He's not coming out of there. And yet Lazarus

starts to walk out of the tomb. The most ridiculous

thing Lazarus could have done in that moment

was step out of the tomb and immediately turn

around and go back into the tomb. The tomb is

for dead people. And He's been made alive. And

the same thing is true for you. If you are a

Christian, you've been made alive in Christ.

You are no longer part of the kingdom of darkness.

You are no longer part of the kingdom of Satan.

You have left that kingdom. You have left that

grave behind. So you need to live in the light

of Jesus' kingdom and not go back to that grave

again. I was trying to think of a way to explain

this to y 'all in a way that would be understandable.

So I was reading a bunch of theology books and

I was like, okay, I know what I gotta do. Have

you seen the movie The Jungle Book? Possibly

read the book The Jungle Book? The story of Mowgli.

He's a little boy, born in the jungle, raised

by wolves, spends his childhood acting like an

animal. Growling at people. climbing trees, swinging

around. And in that story eventually Mowgli has

to make the decision to leave the jungle behind

and actually go and join the man village. And

it's a crucial part of the story because he's

breaking from this former way of life and he's

embracing this new way of life. It would make

no sense for the story to continue. And then

Mowgli woke up the next day in the man village

and went back to the jungle and started crawling

around on all fours again. Started growling at

people again. He's left that kingdom behind.

He was never meant to live in that kingdom. He's

a man, not an animal. And so he has to leave

that behind and join this new kingdom. And that's

exactly what Paul is saying about us here. He's

saying if we've been raised with Christ, why

would we go back to that old kingdom? Why would

we go back to living like we're spiritually dead?

Why would we go back to a kingdom that Jesus

died to deliver us from? You see, resurrection

life means that something's been left behind

and it's our old self and that grave is empty

for a reason. Jesus did not come out of the tomb

so that we could stay in the tomb. And Jesus,

when he came out of that tomb, he was inviting

us to follow him out of it. He was inviting us

to leave death behind. And we have not been raised

from the dead so that we can run back to what

we've been saved from. If you've been raised

with Christ, then you have to leave the grave

behind. You have to stop clinging to the habits,

the desires, and the identities of the old you.

They were nailed to the cross, and so we don't

need to try to resurrect something that Jesus

buried. Leave it buried. Leave the grave behind.

This is why I say that Easter is not just a celebration.

It's an invitation. Yes, we're celebrating Jesus

rising from the grave, triumphing over sin, death,

and Satan, but it's also an invitation. We are

invited to join Jesus in His death, to put our

old selves and our old sins to death. We're invited

to join Him in the resurrection life, which is

a life where His grace gives us freedom from

sin. where we receive new identities, where we

leave the grave behind for good. Jesus did not

just rise from the dead to show you that He is

alive. Jesus rose from the dead to make you alive.

And so we need to accept His invitation this

morning and step into this newness of life. Start

living the resurrection life and leave the grave

behind for good. Amen? Let's pray.