Restraining Sin (Part B)

Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression, is the cry of the heart of the believer. After David wrote that 19th Psalm, did he sin again?

Of course he did, very badly. And yet, David has a throne waiting for him in Jerusalem. He's still a child of God. He's not cast out of the kingdom.

He continued to be used by God to write Psalms that are now Scripture. To hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of Romans Chapter 6 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. It's not supposed to be a casual thing, a typical thing. It's supposed to be a glorious thing. It's supposed to be divine power involved. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit is to be involved in this.

He doesn't have to. There are many places that call themselves churches, have no interest in Jesus Christ or His Word, but they assemble, and they have their little closing songs. It's all meaningless. It's like without the Holy Spirit, they're arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it's going down.

It's a meaningless exercise. And humanity is filled with such behavior. Even so, he says here at the bottom of verse 4, we also should walk in newness of life. Now those who preach greed and lawlessness, you know, God wants you rich, and it doesn't matter that you sin, He's died, antinomianism. They have to reject these verses, these type of verses to carry on that way. And if you want to reject the Scripture, you will find that the Lord of the Scripture will reject you.

It ain't worth it. It's better to get in the fight, to deal with guilt when you're guilty and shame when you've done something shameful than to ignore it and let that fire burn beneath the surface to your destruction. Well, I'd rather be immersed in Christ than myself, and of course my flesh protests that and the fight is on. Verse 6, for if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Well, it is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me as I sign up. And this begins with the resurrection of Christ, and it is finalized with our resurrected bodies. So Wednesday we covered from Isaiah, you know, parts of the Millennial Kingdom and how it's going to be, that there will be survivors to the Great Tribulation period that will enter into this thousand-year period of Christ reigning on earth from Jerusalem. Well, what about us?

What's going to happen? Well, we're glorified in our glorified bodies. We're not susceptible to death or physical pain or any other kind. No more sorrow. All that stuff's gone. In fact, in the New Jerusalem, the one that comes down from heaven, there are no bathrooms. I believe that if we choose to eat, the food will be so perfectly digested, there will be no waste. Now, that's just, I wanted to share that with you because I like doing that kind of stuff.

But I have other questions I haven't settled yet, and I'm not bringing those out to you yet. Who crucifies my old nature? My new one. My new one votes for its death. And it will die when I die, again, this body that I'm in. But sin is committed by the sinful nature of the natural man again. The side that sides with Christ never condones sin.

Hates it all the time. This phrase, the old man, he says here in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man was crucified, that he repeats this in Ephesians and Colossians. It always means the believer's corrupt nature, incidentally, that inherited, inborn, guaranteed to sin, the old man, the old nature, the one outside of Christ versus the new man, the one in Christ, who we were before our salvation, that the body of sin might be done away with. Of course, my old nature cannot be saved, just like Satan can't be saved.

It's a done deal. My physical body signals this and starts to break down. It ages, it gets sick, and eventually dies and that's to dust it returns, or ashes, whatever the case may be. But the old nature cannot be made better. Now, this is important because it's not by itself. We're going to have to compare this with the new. The old nature cannot be made better. It is an enemy to God. And if it could be made better, then who needs God? But it cannot be. And it cannot be made less sinful. It's what Paul was saying in chapter 7 in the 18th verse, where he says, For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells. I read that at the beginning and there is the reason. It's theological.

It's right. It's biblical. The new nature, on the other hand, as I pointed out, it cannot sin. It hates sin. You cannot make it less holy.

It's given to us by God. And so when I read from 1 John chapter 3, whoever has been born of God does not sin. John had already said earlier, But if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. He's making that clear distinction, this dichotomy. These two natures at work are under two different judgments. One is condemned and the other is grace. The one with the grace is me, the new man, who I am now in Christ. And Satan can't get his grubby little talons on that. And so it's contact with sin for the believer to have contact with sin.

It is me. It is misery. It is painful.

It is undesirable. And I know that if you are a believer, you have hated your sin. You have had your moments.

I hate this about me. Not because, oh, I'm, you know, I'm better than this. Not because I've done that which is dishonorable, though it is. But because I have offended the one who loves me. And yet he gets it.

And he's made provision for these things. We're never friends with that nature. Never can be. Galatians 5, For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary to one another. Yeah, because one is perfect, the other is imperfect, so that you do not do the things that you wish. I like that Paul is very sober about sin. Again, because he had read about it in Scripture and he experienced it in life. And he knew to tell somebody, go and sin no more, and think that they wouldn't ever sin again, was not what Jesus was teaching when he told the woman caught in adultery, go and sin no more. Well, what is Jesus supposed to say to her? Go and sin again.

I'll be here, just come back. Sin's no trivial thing. And of course, that particular sin, because there are sins unto death. You can commit certain sins and then pay with your life and still go to heaven, but pay with your life, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Well, sin does not own us, it violates us. So if you say, I'm not a slave of sin, then you go sin, you're going to feel like, I am a slave of sin, the Bible's wrong. The Bible's not wrong. Sin does not own you. It violates you.

That's all the difference. It's so simple, it's right there. Your pride will fuss against it, because that's your whole nature. But the spiritual man will rejoice.

Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Because I can't do it. Don't you ever forget that. But yet we do. This is no way an endorsement of sin.

We're coming to some of that. So Paul does not mean that the believer is no longer sin, because we wouldn't need an advocate with the Father, but that Christ's death and resurrection have freed us from the condemnation of sin. That's the point. That's what breaks the teeth of the devil. He does not get to take you to hell for your sin. It has no dominion over you. Christ has dominion over you. And there's no now condemnation for you, because you're in Christ. And where sin abounded, grace overcame that. Now you say, yeah, I agree with all that, but then when you sin, you act like it's not. The truth, it is the truth. It is not an endorsement of wrong behavior.

We have another approach for that. And in verse 7, for he who has died has been freed from sin. This is true literally and spiritually, because when you die as a Christian, you're done with this life. There's no more sin. But in this life, to spiritually die is to be free from it. Now, again, our hatred for sin attests to our being saved.

It is concrete, and the illustrations may be abstract, but the fact is concrete. To be dead is to be unresponsive, and the spiritual man does not want to respond to what is evil. Well, he says he has been freed from sin. Now, not sinful actions, but the original judgment of original sin. Free occurs, this word here, three times in this chapter. In the New King James, here in verse 7, the word freed is in the Greek, that identical word shows up 15 times in Romans. But only here is it translated freed. Elsewhere, it's translated justified, and we covered that. Justified means saved. Why did the translators opt only here to use the word free?

Well, because it's the context of a slave, and so they're being consistent with the metaphor, with the illustration. But the meaning doesn't go away. It is still, you have been saved from sin. You have been justified from sin. That is the Greek word, and you are not a slave under dominion of sin, even though with your hands and your mind, you still transgress from time to time. And Satan hates it, that when you sin, you see it as sin. You see it the same way Christ sees it. You despise it.

You are against it. You think there's a happy day in hell over that. Hell is looking for the person that is casual about sin, or that writes it off to just, you know, a flaw in their character. But what he does not want you to do is to link it to the cross of Christ, which is your cross and my cross. He does not want you to link it to the baptism of Christ, the act of faith, coming into the water, the death of the old nature, and the glorification, the resurrection of the new, the new man. And so we continue, verse 8 now, now if we died with sin, we believe that we shall also live with him. Yeah, that's what I believe, because that's what he's giving me.

That's what he's teaching me. If we died with Christ, when we come to him, that's what we do. The old man is dead. Again, we're dead to it. It's not dead to our flesh. And so, not only living with him, but living like him is the quest of the believer. So, again, so Genesis 1 26 restarted in us, let us make man in our own image according to our own likeness. Well, that was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned. But when we are born again, that begins the process of reconstructing that original image that we were born in. So, 1 John, chapter 3, verse 2. I feel like I'm racing somebody. I got it first!

Yes, because you're carnal. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Let us make man in our own image according to our own likeness, we shall be like him. These processes are taking place. The contract is already signed.

It just has to be carried out. The contract is the new covenant. Covenant means the agreement, the testament. Verse 9, 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. And so, he's applying this to Christ, but he's saying this is what's going to happen to us. This is what he gives to us.

This is what he shares. This is part of the Christ-likeness. This verse crushes Rome's perpetual sacrifice doctrine, Roman Catholicism, their doctrine of perpetual sacrifice, that he's still on the cross.

That's the crucifix. This, Hebrews 727, Hebrews 928, 1 Peter 3.18, crushed that nonsense, but they routinely ignore what the Bible says to their own guilt and shame. They routinely overrule what the scripture says.

And thus, I am not friends with them. No, I'm not talking about the people, the theology, and those who embrace that theology. The light and the darkness cannot dwell. 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. There it is again, that distinction between the flesh and the spirit, though literally applied to Christ, he's put to death in the flesh, and then glorified, of course, after the resurrection, or at the resurrection, and these things are for us too. We're talking about resisting sin. We resist sin because there's some, something has happened to us, and that is the rebirth in Christ. There is a spiritual man alive in us, and not in those who have rejected Christ. Death no longer has dominion over him, over Christ.

His earthly body was transformed into a glorified body, no longer susceptible to death or decay, immortality, as said in Acts chapter 31, where Peter quotes David says, you know, he's not going to put on corruption, instead of us. 1 Corinthians 15.53, this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. Verse 11, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We covered this word reckon before in the Greek.

It comes, well, we get our English word log, like a logbook, to log something. It comes from this Greek word to make an official entry, and as mentioned, God has no interest in modifying your old nature. That has to be crucified, and that sin is not dead to me is seen in this word. Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, not, it does not say reckon sin dead. I'm dead to sin, but sin is not dead.

You see that distinction that he's making here? Because if sin were dead, then I'd have no excuse if I sinned. Sin would be gone, but yet I'm still doing it. The sin is still here, but I'm dead to it. My spiritual man is not tempted. It is not, where do we see the spiritual man illustrated in the face of temptation? Well, Jesus in the wilderness. There's no temptation that, temptation was like a spark hitting the ocean.

It just died on contact. We're going to be that way. It's not today unless you go to heaven today, which we don't want you to yet. We're not done with you. We've got work to do. Anyway, therefore do not let, verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. And so there's the resistance.

But again, why resist if I'm stuck with it? Because without restraining sin, the consequences are catastrophic. Genesis chapter six, verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Well, who wants that in their neighborhood?

Some people have that in their neighborhoods. James chapter one, sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. We know these things, but we like to see it in print from the scripture. And so again, godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

Back to the deck chairs on the Titanic. Judas was, he had the sorrow of the world. He regretted that. Wrong call. I look like an idiot.

I can't live with myself. Peter went out and wept bitterly because he betrayed the love of Christ. And he was forgiven.

He was restored. And he was used as though it never happened, though the lesson from it stuck with him forever. And God used that. I believe strongly that the death of Stephen never left the mind of Paul. It acted as fuel for Paul to work as he worked against hell. And we're very happy about how the Lord turned that water into wine. Verse 13, 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. Knowing that sin burns in our veins, resist it. What was he supposed to say? Don't worry about it?

No, of course he's not going to say that. First Peter chapter 2. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Sojourners, you're just traveling through.

Pilgrims on their way to a place of worship. And that's us. We're traveling through this life on our way to the throne of God. Verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace. Sin cannot damn me.

That's what that means. It has no dominion over you. It will not send you to hell. The believer. Otherwise no one could be saved.

That's just a fact. David said this in Psalm 130. If you, Yahweh, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

It's rhetorical. If God did not provide some form of grace, then we're all just going to hell, the whole planet. But he did provide the grace. And there was even enough light given to the Old Testament saints to see that. For David to say, take not your Holy Spirit from me.

I don't deserve it, but I don't want to lose this relationship because of my sin. And he was restored. So it does not say do not let it rule you, but it says it does not rule you.

Big difference again. Subtle little things that we miss because Paul's just writing away, this is confusing to me. What's he talking about? You've got to really work in Romans to understand where he's going. That's where the benefit of chapters 7 and 8, sort of overlaid on chapter 6, make us say, okay, I get what he's saying now. Lost souls are under the dominion of sin.

They are doomed. The wrath of God abides on you, Jesus said, to those that are outside who have heard the gospel and rejected it. Life outside of Christ is enslavement. Hatred for all sin proves that dominion has ended. Hatred of sin as sin, not as, you know, again, the unbeliever can hate what we call sin, but he doesn't categorize it as a violation against the Christ. He categorizes it as some inferior behavior.

Well, that's not enough. We have the light now, and this is all directly linked to a pure and holy God whom we want to please, but it's on his terms because other religions talk about sin also, but it is outside the revelation of God, and that's where the test is going to come. Who do you say that I am? That's what it's all about. In the face of your sin, who do you say Jesus is?

Okay, then what are you going to do with that? For you are not under law but grace. Well, how can God bless us if we don't, if no resistance is offered to the things that caused the crucifixion?

Well, he does bless us because we do resist, and whatever violates my faith is considered a tyrant and must be dealt with in the spirit. Let's just move on to the closing part of this because, again, you can just attach verses from everywhere. I want to close with a couple of verses. First John 2, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Psalm 19 verse 13, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. It is the cry of the heart of the believer. After David wrote that 19th Psalm, did he sin again?

Of course he did, very badly. And yet, David has a throne waiting for him in Jerusalem. He's still a child of God. He's not cast out of the kingdom. He continued to be used by God to write Psalms that are now scripture, that are the word of God through him to us.

He's called in the New Testament a prophet, and that he is. Sin does not have dominion over me. It does not tell me where I'm going, where my soul is going. It harasses my flesh, that old nature, but it's got nothing on the new man. The new man is perfect in Christ. It cannot be made evil.

The old nature is evil and cannot be made good. If I understand the power of this salvation, I'll have a lot more authority dealing with sin than cowering under my failures. I'm not worthy. Imagine if a pastor said, you know, I'm only going to pastor if you make me worthy. Well, then you're not going to pastor. Imagine you sharing the gospel with someone and saying to them, Christ has made me worthy and doesn't, you know, I really don't need him. Now that would be heresy. Christ did not give you a salvation that Satan could get to. So live like that. Go out into strength of understanding that I will resist sin.

I hate it. And those times that it gets the upper hand on me, it will not knock me out of the box. I'll be right back in the fight. I will repent.

I would take steps to correct to make corrections. And if I fail again, I'll get up again. We have a single word for this perseverance. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reverence Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again, or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our websites you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans, here on Cross-Reference Radio.