The Law of Sin and Death

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley.

Do you wonder what's happening when people seem to get away with doing wrong? Let's continue the series on the life that wins to hear an explanation of the law of sin and death. Charles Stanley has been talking about in this chapter how defeated he's been in his life and why. And so he finally says in verse 23, Chapter 8, verse 1, So there is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Then there's the law of sin and death. What does he mean when he talks about the law of sin and death? Most Christians, if they're really honest, will have to admit that their life is like a seesaw or like a roller coaster, up today and down tomorrow. And there are many people who have to admit that there are times in your life when you really rationalize sin by saying, well, after all, I can't be perfect and I know I can't.

Secondly, there's no such thing as sinless perfection, and that's true. And so what we do is we very carefully rationalize our disobedience. And we say, well, after all, the Bible teaches once saved, always saved. That is a very poor expression of God's divine plan for eternal security. What we're really saying is because of our position in Christ Jesus, we have been made eternally secure, not giving me a license to disobey God, but equipping me to obey him. Not the freedom to disobey, but the power to obey him. And so oftentimes our life is sort of rationalized and we explain our sin away.

And on a daily basis, we can rationalize and camouflage all kinds of disobedience. All right, here is the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death says, now get this down. The law of sin and death says that when I choose to disobey God, when I choose to disobey God, the principle of death begins in my life.

Now, let me show you two or three things here. Let's look at some scriptures. Let me show you how many times the Lord warns us of this and somehow we forget it. In the sixth chapter of Romans, turn back to the sixth chapter, if you will, and notice what he says. He says, Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto what? Of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

Look, if you will, in verse 21, the same chapter. What fruit had you then in those things where of you are now ashamed for the end of those things is what? Death.

Now, here's the problem we have. We look at somebody else's life. We say, well, you know, I can see sin in their life and they surely aren't dying. And what we have to ask is, first of all, what is it that dies? A man dies in his mind.

A man dies in emotions and a man dies. And oftentimes he's dying and does not even realize that he is. There are certain sins a person can commit and immediately, physically something happens. But most of the time it begins in the mind, a lack of sensitivity and many of God's people who cannot figure out why the Lord doesn't bless them, why he doesn't answer their prayers and why things aren't the way they ought to be is simply because, my friend, you continually seek to destroy yourself by disobeying God.

So that many people are dying where it hurts the most in their emotions and in their mind. So when he says the law of sin and death, that's what he's talking about. A law that is in process, not just in the life of the lost man, but likewise in the life of the Christian. Now, let's discuss for a moment how this law of sin and death expresses itself. And what I want to do for just a moment is to clarify some terms that you read in the Bible many, many times and probably have sort of read over some of them and not quite understood.

But it's very important we understand what these terms mean. So if you'll turn to Romans chapter six, and let's begin in verse six. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was for many, many years the pastor of the Westminster Church in London, followed G. Campbell Morgan, who was considered the greatest exposter of his day. And after he'd been there many, many years, people asked him, they said, Dr. Jones, why don't you preach through the book of Romans? He said, well, when I understand the meaning of Romans 6-6, I will preach through the book of Romans.

And until I do, I will not. And it was very, very late in his ministry before he ever preached through the book of Romans. When he got to Romans 6, he preached a whole series, a big thick book of sermons just on this chapter.

Romans 6 verse 6 is the key to the life that wins. But listen, I want you to notice two phrases in this particular passage. He says in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now, when he says, knowing this, that our old man, what is he talking about?

Mark this down. Our old man is your old, unredeemed self before you were saved by the grace of God. If you are unsaved at this very hour, then your old self is your old Adamic nature. That is, he said, before we were in Christ, we were in whom?

In Adam. All right, we came into this world with a bent toward sin, a sin principle at work in our lives, seeking to destroy us, which is always what sin wants to do. When he says, knowing this, that our old man is once and for all, Aristotle has been in the past, crucified, crucified with him. What does he mean? He means that when you and I received the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior, our old self, the old BC before Christ self was crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross in the eyes of God.

Something happened to the old you. He says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? A new creature. So we're not talking about being an old creature and a new creature. He says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's become a new creature. He's not an old creature, a new creature at the same time. He's become a new creature.

He says the old BC before Christ self has been nailed to the tree with Jesus Christ. He took care of that. It's gone. It's crucified. You say, well, now, wait a minute. I still have a problem.

I'm going to get to the problem. But the Bible says your old man was crucified. It's dead. You say, I'm still alive.

But wait a minute. The Bible says that your old man died was crucified. So what I want you to see here is that the old man is the self that you were, your own sinful, wicked, vile, unregenerate self before you were saved. Second term, he says that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. What does he mean by the body of sin? He means this.

Listen, now watch this. There is nothing wrong with the physical body. There's nothing evil about the body.

But when he says this body of sin, who shall deliver me from this body of death, what he's referring to is the physical body when it is dominated by sin. And that's the whole thrust of the world today. What does the world say to us?

Man, if it tastes right, if it feels right, do it. The whole concept of the world system is it is a world based on the senses. And that's what Satan does. He uses our five senses to get to us. When it comes into our mind the battleground of Satan, we choose obedience or disobedience, the power of sin broken, the Holy Spirit living within us. We are equipped and able to say no, no, no, no, no. You say, man, I've wanted to say no, but I couldn't say no. I've tried to say no, but I couldn't say no.

And I want to say to you, it is not in our strength that we're able to say no. It is in the strength of the one who enables us. So you see, when you say, man, all you've got to do is get saved, get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. One of these days you're going to heaven.

That's only the first step. We want the life that wins, the life of victory, the life of peace, the life of contentment, the life of absolute confidence and assurance in him is a life provided by God the Father, through Jesus at the cross, by the indwelling Spirit of God who is there to combat and to give us victory over the sin principle which will always be there. So the sin principle is operative in our life. But let's go back to what we said about the body, soul, and spirit. We have a will. Each time you and I are tempted, we choose to obey or disobey. You say, but now wait a minute. Suppose, for example, that what about those times when I just, before I even think, I responded.

Well, do you know how you got that way? Let's think for just a moment how this sin expresses itself. The sin principle expresses itself, for example, by tempting you and you disobey God. All right, the second time, and you may be greatly convicted, deep conviction over sin. The second time, deeply convicted. The third time, deeply convicted. The fourth time, deeply convicted. The five time, deeply convicted. The sixth time, deeply convicted. The seventh time, deeply.

The eighth time, the ninth time. You know what's happened? Your sensitivity to the things of God have become so deadened as a result of violating the same law and the same principle over and over again. Is it not true there may have been times in your life when you said, that used to bother me, but somehow it doesn't bother me anymore? That can be one of the most dangerous signs in your life that you can keep on disobeying God in a given area, and it doesn't make you feel as guilty as it used to, though you're doing the same thing and you know that it's wrong. What you've done is you have killed by an act of continuous violation of a principle. You have seared your conscience till you no longer feel that striking blow of conviction over sin.

Now, let me give an example just to show you. The prodigal son went away from home, plenty of money, plenty of popularity, everything. But what did he do? Little by little, he destroyed himself, his own sense of self-esteem, his own self-image, his own mind, his own physical body.

Here he was, slapping hogs in the pen and saying, but my father has servants who are much better off than myself. You see, we destroy ourselves willingly and knowingly, and we camouflage it, we cover it up and say, it's not going to hurt me. And here's what happens. We keep looking over our shoulder to see if we see any evidence that God's on our track going to catch up with us. So in the life that wins, we have to deal with the problem here of sin. And the sin principle within us has one thing in mind, destruction and death, destruction and death, destruction and death. What you and I have to ask is this, how can I have victory in my life on an ongoing day-to-day basis that I don't have to yield to things in my life or habits in my life or attitudes in my life?

How can I have victory day by day? He said in Romans chapter 6, verse 6, he says, knowing this that our old man, that is your old self, was crucified when Jesus was crucified. And he says that the body of sin might be destroyed, rendered inoperative, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now, in several passages here, for example, look, if you will, in chapter 6 and look in verse 13, verse 11. He says, likewise reckon ye yourselves indeed to be dead to sin, that is dead to the sin principle, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So however we're able to have victory has something to do with our relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 12 says, stop letting sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, in your senses, that you should have been the lust of the devil.

You don't have to stop doing it. Neither yield you your members, your physical members, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, which ye have the capacity to do, as those that lie from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you.

He says that we who are believers don't have to yield to sin. So the question is, how do we receive that victory? And let me simply say this, that victory in the Christian life is always, listen, it is always, not sometime, not most of the time, not 99% of the time, it is not human effort, it is always 1,000% of the time, pure, pure, pure faith.

Not works, but faith. Not if I do this, this, this, this, this, this, I'm going to have victory, but only if I'm willing to accept by faith a major premise of the Word of God, only then am I going to be able to have victory. He speaks, for example, about our being crucified with Christ. What in the world does He mean by our being crucified with Christ?

He talks about our being buried with Him and rising to walk in newness of life. Whatever the secret is, whatever the key is to a life of continuous victory has something to do with what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago and what happened to me potentially at the same time it happened to Him. But in essence, it all boils down to this, that victory in this life has to do with our faith in what Jesus Christ has provided, is providing, and is doing on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis in your life and my life. It is what we're going to do, what we're going to promise, how good we're going to be, has nothing to do with it. It is a relationship of faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

Now, here's the problem. The problem is that most of us see Christ's work on the cross as taking care of our salvation. Christ's work on the cross took care of my salvation, but it also took care of my present life, not just my sins to get me to heaven, my present life here and now. Now, I'll just close by saying this simple thing. One of the most difficult problems in my own life personally is being able to accept Romans 6, 6 as an actual fact. I read that and read it and I studied it and I read it in the Greek. I read it every way I possibly could. And I said, Lord, I know it's true, but I don't feel that.

I don't see that. And I'll tell you what God had to do to me. He had to bring me to the point of accepting it by pure naked faith without understanding it, and then when I did that, all of a sudden God began to free me and liberate me, and then I began to understand it.

And the more I read it, the more I do understand it. It is difficult because everything in us lashes out in opposition to the fact that when Christ died, we died, that we can have victory over sin. And the only thing I can do is say, here's what the word of God says, but you've got to have a hunger for God.

You've got to want the best in your life. You've got to have a hunger for righteousness. You've got to be willing to read the word of God, to listen to what is being taught in priests, and then to ask God, Lord, how do you want me to apply that to my life? But if you have no hunger for God, my first prayer for you is that God would make you absolutely miserably wretched and dissatisfied with yourself so that what you want above everything else in life is that you want the best that God's got. And I want to tell you, my friend, He will free you and liberate you to become something and the person that God wants you to be that you never dreamed that you could be. And more than that, He will give you a continuing victory in your life. I want to say again, that doesn't mean sin is perfection, but a continuing victory. And you see, what happens is when you and I learn the principle, the dips aren't so great, doesn't mean you'll never have any.

But it means that, you know, it won't be like this, a big plunge and a big high and a big plunge and a big high. Great witness up here, poor testimony down here. God's got something better in store for His believers. Now, I'm going to tell you what I believe this morning. I believe that when God's people begin to see their possessions in Christ Jesus, when they begin to see their position in Him, when they begin to exercise the power that He's able to release through them, I believe there will be a spiritual awakening in this country like most folks have never dreamed of. And every time there has ever been one, it has always centered on the work of the Holy Spirit in some form or fashion. And I believe this is the truth, that God wants to get into the hearts and minds, the spirit, the soul, the body, the whole being of His church. And once He begins to, a little bit here, a little bit there, and He's going to do it in a way that nobody gets credit, no preaching, no denomination, no anybody, He's going to resurrect it here and here and here and here.

Somebody's going to get it this Sunday, somebody's going to see it that Sunday, somebody's going to experience it this Sunday. And there's a relationship to Jesus Christ whereby we accept by pure naked faith what He provided 2,000 years ago, taking our position and our possessions and the power of God within our lives, and you will never be the same again. Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving us. There's so much you have for us that we have never even begun to possess for ourselves. I direct like paupers when I called on you, you said, we've already been seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Everything we'll ever need already deposited to our account, not just material things, but more important than all of that, the spiritual blessings that you have for us. And I pray today for somebody who's listening, who's lost. Sin is destroying their life. They're excusing it, rationalizing it, and admitting it, but not dealing with it, not confronting it, not repenting of it, not giving it up, not surrendering it, not yielding it, but covering it, making provision for it, hiding it.

All kinds of excuses, but not dealing with it. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray today, the Spirit of the living God would bring about such deep-seated conviction this very moment. Every single person out there would be smitten in their hearts of conviction over their sin and be willing to confess it to you, to repent of it, to deal with it, to surrender it. And Father, I pray that you give many people the courage to do that, and we pray that in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Thank you for listening to The Law of Sin and Death. We would like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by intouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.