The Three R's Of Victory

Well, back when I was in school, one day someone snapped this picture. I was there, you can see me on the stool there, but that funny looking hat on my head. I don't remember wearing it at school that day, but somehow I got placed there. When I was in school, the emphasis of education was on the three hours, reading, writing, arithmetic. I didn't learn a whole lot of those things, but that's what the emphasis was. And today, I want us to emphasize the three hours of victory. The three hours of victory, Romans chapter 6, please, in your Bible, Romans chapter 6. Now, before we jump into the three hours of victory, what it means to have victory over sin, we need to pause, step back for a moment, and get the setting of this passage. Because today, we begin the third major section of this great book of Romans. So let's back up for a moment and make sure we understand where we're headed with this section of the book. First section of the book, up through chapter 3 and verse 20, we're talking about, Paul's talking about the gospel, the righteousness of God, but he describes in that first section, the righteousness of God needed. And God's righteousness is needed because we are all sinners. So he talks about our condemnation in sin. We're all sinners, so we need God's righteousness. Chapter 3, verse 21. Through the end of chapter 5, second major section of the book, God's righteousness is given. God looks at us condemned in Adam's sinners, and he's willing to give us the gift of his righteousness. Because ours is not good enough to get us to heaven. And so he gives us that righteousness through the death of his son, and when you place faith in Jesus Christ, you are declared righteous. Something happens in the courtroom of heaven, a judicial decision is made, you are declared righteous, and Paul calls that justification. Now we come to chapter 6, and we find that Paul moves to a new topic, a new stage of this outworking of the righteousness of God, and this is God's righteousness growing. It's needed because we're sinners and condemned, it's given because God offers it to us in justification. But now that we're justified, now that we're saved, God's righteousness begins to grow in us. And that's a process called sanctification. Now both justification and sanctification are good Bible words, so let's take a moment to make sure we understand what they mean and the difference between the two. Justification means that because we are sinners, we must be declared righteous. And that's what God does in justification. He places the righteousness of Christ on our account in heaven, and takes our sin off of that account. It's a judicial sentence that is passed. It is a judicial act of God, and we are declared righteous. It doesn't mean we're made righteous in our character, it means we're declared righteous. Our standing before God is changed. But then God takes that justified sinner, one who has been declared righteous, and begins a growth process. From the moment you trust Christ, he begins growing his righteousness in you, and growing you to be more Christ-like, that's the process of sanctification. That's making us more righteous. We're declared righteous judicially before God in justification. We are made righteous. We grow in Christ's likeness and more righteousness in sanctification. Paul discusses that sanctification, that growing in righteousness in chapters 6 through 8 of this book. This is the third major section of the book. Let me break down the section kind of a bird's eye overall view this way. Chapter 6, the word sin is found 14 times. So the emphasis of chapter 14 is how to deal with sin. If you're going to grow in righteousness, we have to understand how to deal with sin. That's the theme of chapter 6. In chapter 7, the word eye or my appears 30 times. So evidently, the thrust in chapter 7 is how to deal with self. If you're going to grow in righteousness, you've got to understand how to deal not only with sin, but with self. And then in chapter 8, the term spirit referring to the Holy Spirit occurs 19 times. Heavy emphasis on the Holy Spirit in chapter 8 so that the obvious emphasis there is how to live in the spirit, how to walk in the spirit. If you're going to grow in righteousness, if I'm going to grow in righteousness, we have to understand how to walk in the spirit. So we must understand, Paul says, how to deal with sin, how to deal with self, how to walk in the spirit. If we're going to grow in righteousness. Now that's an overall perspective of this section of the book. Now let's zoom in, Google Earth in to our location right here in chapter 6, verse 1, and let's focus in on how Paul starts this discussion of sanctification growing in righteousness. He begins with a question in verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? And that question has come about because of something he ended chapter 5 with. Chapter 5 in verse 20, he has made the point very strongly that where sin increased, grace increased all the more. And we saw that that means that no matter how great our sin is, God's grace is bigger, greater, super abounds over even the multitude of our sin. Paul knew that the twisted logic of some people would take that in a direction that he never intended it to go. Paul knew that some people in their sinful thinking would begin to think this way. Well, if God's grace is bigger than my sin, then that kind of sounds like the more I sinned, the more grace I get, right? That sounded pretty good. I could sin more, get more grace. So why don't I just sin all I want to, all I can, so that I can experience the real riches of God's grace, and get more grace? Paul knew that's where some people would take that. And so it's a beautiful segue into his next section anyway. So he says, let's just start with that question and deal with that right up front. How are we going to deal with sin? Shall we continue to sin? Do more sin so that we can experience more grace? And Paul's answer is in verse 2, by no means. Now the expression Paul uses here is hard to translate into English words. Paul uses two simple words, make a noitai. And basically it is, as the NLE translates, by no means, but that really doesn't capture the thrust of it. It is a very strong expression. The King James renders it this way. God forbid the New American standard renders it this way. May it never be. That's probably the most literal translation of those two words. May it never be. The New English translation says, absolutely not. And I love the Phillips paraphrase of these words. What a ghastly thought. And that really does capture the idea. Paul, you can put all of those expressions together and I think get close to the importance of what Paul's saying, the vehement of his denial of this thought that we sinned more to get more grace. Absolutely not. What a ghastly thought that is. That you would even think that may it never be. God forbid that you would even think that way. So Paul answers the question, shall we continue to sin as believers by saying, no, no, no. By all means, no. Why? Notice what he says in verse 2, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Paul introduces a radical new concept here. We died to sin. Now, please don't misunderstand that. That does not mean that you cannot respond to sin. Here's a mistake a lot of people make with this whole concept of the way Paul uses the word death. I had someone after the first service come up to me and say, well, I've seen dead people and none of them sin. A lot of mistake a lot of people make is they transfer our concept of physical death into Paul's statement of death in the scriptures. When he says we died to sin, he's not talking about the fact that you can't respond to sin, that you're like a corpse, that can't respond to sin, what he's saying, and Paul always uses the word death this way. Death is separation. Death is a break from the old. And that's the way he's going to use it in this passage. It'll be very clear in the context. That what he's saying is there is a break with sin. There's a cut off point with sin in your life that happened when you got saved. There is a radical difference in your life now as regards sin. Now, what that means and how it affects us growing in righteousness is the theme of chapter 6. So we're going to look at the first 13 verses this morning and find out what Paul means when he says you got to deal with sin, you have got to understand that your relationship to sin is now different that you're a believer. What does that mean? How does it affect us that we've died to sin? How does that relate to victory? Well, let me summarize what Paul says in these next few verses with three simple words that describe for us how to have victory over sin. Three simple words, the three are of victory. Simple words, but they do summarize, I believe, how to have victory over sin. That's what Paul's teaching us. Word number one, recognize, recognize. You won't see that word used by Paul, but I had to get an R out of it. And it really is what Paul means by this word. Notice in verse three, he says, don't you know, look at verse six, four we know. Now verse nine, four we know. Paul's talking about our knowledge, our understanding of something. He is literally saying there are some things in order to get victory over sin in our lives and not live in sinning longer. There are some things we must know, understand, grasp, we've got to recognize these truths. I cannot stress too much the importance of our understanding, of our recognition of these truths. What we understand is critically important to the way we live. In the Bible, all of life transformation, all of life change begins with, is built on the foundation of what we know. That's why Paul's epistles continually start with doctrine and he teaches us, our position in Christ and our riches in Christ and what Christ has done for us. He wants us to understand, no, grasp, recognize the doctrine and then in the latter half of the epistles, it's shipped over to duty. And in some of the epistles, it's so clear, he says, based on what we just said, if you understand that, if you know it, if you recognize it, now live different. See there are some people who say we know too much, we ought to just get out and start living it. Well, there's a danger in letting our knowledge just sit there and not using it. But I would say, if that's what you're doing, you don't know enough. You don't really recognize the truth of Scripture because if you really did understand, if you really did recognize, if you really did grasp your position in Christ, it would radically change your life. You couldn't be the same. If you really understood, if you really recognized what we're going to talk about today. So Paul's going to say, we know some things, we recognize there are some things we grasp and if we grasp them, that's the key, that's the first step to having victory over sin. And here it is in a nutshell, here's what he wants us to recognize. It's our union in Christ. We'll break this down in a moment, but this is it. Our union in Christ is what he's going to talk about through verse 10. The fact that God sees us as directly united with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection. Paul says, if you're ever going to have victory over sin, you've got to start with a recognition grasping that, understanding that truth of your union with Christ. Now, what all of that entail, there are three keys to understanding our union with Christ that Paul develops in these verses. And the first one is, that union with Christ is accomplished by spirit baptism. It's accomplished by spirit baptism. Look at verse 3. Or don't you know, don't you recognize that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death or verse 4, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Now, I believe that the baptism which is spoken of here is spirit baptism, not water baptism. I am fully aware of the controversy over that issue in these verses. I've gone back and re-study the whole thing from the bottom up again this week and I've come to the same conclusion that I believe this is speaking of spirit baptism, not water baptism. There are those who believe this is speaking of water baptism and thus they believe that it is water baptism that actually unites us with Christ and saves us. That's called baptismal regeneration. There are others who say, well no, we know the Bible doesn't teach that. So this is speaking about water baptism but it's just talking about it as a symbol or as a picture. But you cannot escape the direct and clear expression here. Whatever baptism this is, it clearly brings us into a vital living union with Christ. He says it three ways. In verse 3, he says, don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus? It's not like, okay, this is kind of a picture of what happened. No, no. Whatever he's talking about here, we were baptized into Christ Jesus and he says we were baptized into his death. Then verse 4, we were buried with him through baptism into death. Whatever baptism this is actually accomplishes our union with Christ. It places us into Christ. It unifies us with his death and his resurrection. And since there is no act in the Bible that you can do or I can do that brings us into that vital living union with Christ. There's nothing you can do to put yourself in Christ. I am shut up to this option only that the baptism that Paul is speaking of here must be the only baptism that can do that. The only baptism that can literally bring you into a vital living union with Christ and that is spirit baptism. It's the baptism that he talks about in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13. Look at this verse on the screen. It's clear here. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body. In the context of 1 Corinthians 12, it's clear that's the body of Christ. Replace into the body of Christ where the Jews are Greek, slavery and we're all given the one spirit to drink. So this happens at the same time we're given the spirit that the spirit comes to and dwell us. He's talking about at the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit places you into the body of Christ and places you in Christ and forms a union with Christ. That's the only baptism that does that. Now water baptism is a beautiful picture of that. Yes. But in Romans 6, he's talking about something that actually accomplishes that union with Christ. Bring you into his death and resurrection. Put you in Christ. That's got to be spirit baptism as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12. So this union with Christ is affected accomplished by the baptism of the spirit. At the moment you get saved the Holy Spirit places you into Christ. And Paul sees us as so clearly identified with Christ's death and resurrection that he can say we've died with Christ and we've been risen with Christ. He uses that terminology throughout his epistles. For instance, Galatians 2.20. This verse on the screen I've been crucified with Christ. See the terminology there? I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me gave himself for me. That's the death side being crucified with Christ dying with him. He also speaks of the resurrection side in Colossians 3.1 where he says since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And he talks about how being raised with Christ leads us to a new life. That's exactly what he's talking about in Romans 6. He's been raised with Christ. God sees us as united with Christ in his death and his resurrection so that he can say I'm crucified with Christ. I'm raised with Christ. There's a vital living union with Christ in his death and resurrection. And that happens at the moment of salvation when the Holy Spirit places you into the body of Christ into Christ. So this union with Christ is accomplished by Spirit baptism. And then if you're looking for a spive he changes the figure a little bit, changes his wording just a little bit about this union. He says in verse 5 if we have been united with him like this in his death we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Whereas the figure of baptism spirit baptism is used in 3 and 4 is a different figure here. This union the word union is a word which was used of grafting in New Testament times of grafting a branch into a vine or into a tree. And that also beautifully signifies our new union with Christ where we are united with him so that his life now flows through us. So union with Christ we must recognize this is accomplished at the moment of our salvation by Spirit baptism. Second thing we need to understand recognize about our union with Christ is that it includes our death with Christ. Okay, I've already hinted at that but Paul explains this further in verses 6 and 7. It includes our death with Christ. Look at verse 6. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now again this verse has been the subject of much controversy and misunderstanding. There are those who believe this verse teaches that you can reach a place a point in your Christian experience of sinless perfection where you no longer sin because you have finally put to death the sin nature. That's what many believe this verse teaches. So in order to avoid that confusion and understand clearly what Paul means I want to unpack this item by item. Some of you are unpacking from motion trip from yesterday. Some of you are packing to leave this week. This is a suitcase. Okay Roman 6.6 is a suitcase. Item by item we're going to unpack it see what it means. Okay, let's look at it. Verse 6. What does you mean about this death with Christ? He says for we know that our old self stop right there. What does you mean by old self? A lot of people think that's talking about the sinful nature. It's not. That's not what Paul's talking about. The old self or as some translations translate the old man in Paul's writings refers to everything you were in atom everything you are as an unsaved person. Everything you were before you got saved you were condemned by God you were under God's wrath you were seen in atom you were a sinner in God's sight deserving of his wrath and punishment. That's the old man that's the old self. It's not the sin nature you know what Paul says about the old man it's gone. It's gone. You've still got your sin nature just ask your husband ask your wife ask your parents you still got that okay. But you are not what you once were as an unbeliever that's gone. And Paul says that old self was crucified with him with Christ it was put to death in the death of Christ. You are no longer what you were in atom you are no longer seen by God if you've trusted Christ as your savior you're no longer seen by God as a sinner under his wrath condemned on your way to hell. That's forever gone forever gone it's been crucified with Christ that old self what you were at one time is gone. But notice the effect of that it was crucified with him so that here's the effect of it here's a result of it so that the body of sin might be done away with. What does he mean by body of sin he's referring to us now as people referring to us as bodies that's a way of referring to our human experience the body of sins particular construction in the original language which indicates the body characterized by sin or dominated by sin he's talking about you now as a believer being dominated by sin like you were. Like you were before you were saved that has been done away with and and done away with does not mean that the sin nature has been eradicated that it's been taken out of you done away with probably it may be a little too strong in the NIV the phrase literally means it's been rendered ineffective or rendered powerless. It's like unplugging a lamp in your living room lamp is still there the electrical current coming to it is still there you just disrupted the power source. And so you can plug it back in and that lamp will still operate you can also choose to leave it unplugged. Here's what Paul saying when you got saved the person you were in Adam is forever gone that's dead it was crucified with Christ you're no longer a sin condemned under the wrath of God you still have a sin nature and your body as dominated by sin under the slavery of sin that's been unplugged. It's been rendered powerless rendered ineffective so that you no longer have to live under the domination of sin anymore and that's how Paul summarizes at the end of verse 6 that we should no longer be slaves to sin. In other words now as a believer you no longer have to live under the domination of sin this body of yours this life of yours no longer has to be controlled by dominated by powered by sin you're not a slave to that anymore something has changed. And that's all involved in your death with Christ because you died with Christ you're no longer a sinner condemned under the wrath of God but the power of sin over use also been broken it's been rendered powerless so that you no longer have to live under sin dominated by sin something's changed in you. And so he summarizes it in verse 7 by saying anyone who's died has been freed from sin. In other words there's a difference now you no longer under the slave or domination of sin now that you've died with Christ there's been a separation from that power. And then that leads me to Paul's third point that we have to recognize the third key element that we have to recognize about our union with Christ is this also includes our life in Christ. It's not only does it happen at the time of salvation by spirit baptism not only does it include our death with Christ but it also includes our life in Christ and he picks that up in verse 8. Now if we died with Christ he's just been talking about that if we died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him. Okay we've also got new life not only is the old self dead and gone forever not only is the power of sin broken so that we no longer have to live as a slave to it but we have a new life in Christ. And that new life gives us the desire and the ability to overcome sin we're new people we're new creatures in Christ. And so he goes on to say it's exactly what's Christ as an example of this is exactly what's happened him verse 9. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead he cannot die again death no longer has mastery over him once Christ died death's not going to affect him anymore. Verse 10 the death he died he died to sin once for all the life he lives he lives to God Christ died death has no more mastery over him he has life now resurrection life. In the same way you as a believer you have died with Christ the old person is gone forever the old person is sin and under condemnation and the wrath of God is gone forever the power of sin is broken you have a new life to live and the power to live it you can do that that's Paul's point here. And those truths are what we need to recognize we need to grasp that understand that you will never make progress in your battle against sin unless you realize you have the ability to live a new life and that ability is not in you that ability is because your old person that you were in Adam before you were saved is gone forever by virtue of that the power that sin had over you it's domination over your body is broken and you have a new life that gives you the ability to live differently. On July 15th 1986 Roger Clemens was pitching in his first All Star game fireball picture then with the Boston Red Sox and he's probably going to go down as one of the greatest pictures in all of baseball history depending on the steroid thing yeah but but he's still a great picture and he was pitching his first first All Star game on that day and he was starting to get a new life. He was the starting picture for the American League now in the American League the pictures don't bat they have a designated hitter for you ladies the picture doesn't bat during the game he just pitches and somebody else bats for him so here he is in the All Star game and they were using the pictures to bat during that game the pictures had the bat so he gets up to bat in the second inning he's rarely ever done that since he's been in a major league so he's a little bit out of place you know he gets up takes a few nervous practice swings and it stands in the batter's box and he looks out of the picture. Dwight Gooden New York Mets had just won the Sia Young Award the year before probably the best pitcher in the national league starting for the national league All Star team and Dwight Gooden fires a fastball right by Roger Clemens Clemens backed out of the batter's box and looked at the catcher Gary Carter and said is that what my fastballs look like and Gary Carter said you bet they do. Clemens stepped back in the batter's box took three weeks swing struck out but he went on to pitch three perfect innings and one most valuable player in the game and he says from that day forward with a knowledge of how a blazing fastball looks to a hitter he was more confident in his pitching. He always felt like he could strike out the batter now that's what Paul sang in Roman six. He's not to recognize what Christ has done for you. When you trusted him a savior he put to death your old self he broke the power of sin and gave you a new life that enables you to live in victory over sin. You've got to recognize that and if you recognize that that will give you better confidence and boldness to resist sin to resist temptation because Paul has said the Bible teaches you no longer have to live like that. Since domination over you it's been broken it's been rendered powerless and you can live a new life you no longer have to live under the control of sin but there's more to it than that. There are a couple of other keys and we'll cover them quickly or you'll be here till tonight's service. Not only do we need to recognize the truth of what our union with Christ is we also need to reckon that's the second r of victory to reckon. Now that word needs some explanation it's actually again not used in the NIV here it is used in the King James verse 11 in the same way count yourselves. That's the word King James has reckoned yourselves and I'm using that word because again I needed another r to make this message work. Same way count yourselves or reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let me talk a moment about the meaning of reckoning. Some people think that this shows that Paul was a southerner. You think it's going to be nice today? Well, I reckon so. That's not the way Paul is using the word. This is a word that we've seen before in the book of Romans. It's translated several different ways but we've seen it before. We saw it back in chapter 4 where Abraham's faith was credited to him for righteousness and the faith of a person who doesn't work but trust God is credited to him for righteousness. It literally means place it on your account start drawing off that account. The word is used 19 times in Romans. Sometimes it's translated count or to credit or to reckon or to put to one's account. When you trusted Christ, Christ righteousness was credited to your account but here it's something we're supposed to credit. We're supposed to recognize and then reckon. When you recognize your union with Christ then what Paul's saying put that on your account start drawing off of it. Start living that way. Believe that that's true. Claim it by faith accepted and start living in the light of that. The importance of reckoning is this. If all you do is recognize your union with Christ that you were united with him and his death and resurrection. If all you do is recognize that you'll still struggle with sin but if you start drawing on that bank account. If you credit that to your account and say yes I believe that and I will live that way. I'm going to write a check on that. I'm going to live I reckon that to be so. I count that to be so. I believe that and I'm going to live differently because of you start doing that. You'll start making progress in victory over sin. It's just like if you if you win a million dollars at the casino I'm I mean at the jeopardy. If you if you win a million dollars you've still got to claim it right. They can tell you you want a million dollars but you've got to go claim it. Put it in your account start drawing on it. That's what reckoning is. So reckon yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God. That position is true regardless of whether or not you got to recognize that. Yes but you also need to reckon it you also need to count it to be true except it by faith and live in light of it. And then the third r of victory is resolve resolve. And I use that word to mean a holy resolve a holy commitment to live differently. It's exactly what Paul's talking about in verses 12 and 13 where he begins by reminding us that this is a needed resolve. Notice what he says in verse 12. Therefore because of what I've just said therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body. So that you obey it's evil desires. Oh wait a second Paul I thought you said that we were dead to sin. We are here's the beautiful balance. See in God's mind our position in Christ is that we're dead. The old person is dead thus the power of sin the domination of sin over us has been broken rendered powerless. We have a new life that we can live where to reckon that to be so and live it but you've still got the possibility of sinning. Verse 12 is why I know Paul's not talking about the eradication of the sin nature or doing away with the sin nature or the ability to live above sin because he says you've still got to make a decision. You've still got to have a holy resolve to dedicate yourself that sin will not reign in your body that you will not let it do that. So it's a needed resolve you need to make that commitment and that decision and it happens in two ways. Notice verse 13 first of all it's a negative resolve. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. Now there's the negative part of the resolve or the commitment. Don't offer the members of your body instruments as instruments to wickedness members of your body being your parts of your body as instruments or tools or weapons may be the best way to understand that word. Weapons of wickedness. You see we're involved in a spiritual battle every day we live and you can take your eyes and your ears and your tongue and your hands and your feet. Parts of your body and you can allow sin to reign in those parts of your body. You can allow them to be used as tools or weapons of sin. That's the negative side Paul says don't allow that to happen. Don't let that happen and you are the one that has to decide that that's not going to happen every day. And then there's a positive resolve. There's a positive side of this you can see it in the middle of verse 13. But rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life reminding us again of that position that we recognize. Now look at the last part of the verse and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. This is very practical. What Paul says is yes recognize your new union with Christ. You died with him you raised to live a new life that happened at salvation. Now reckon that to be so count on it and live it out. But every day you live you've got to have a holy resolve and commitment that you will not allow sin to take over the members of your body. But you will ask God by his grace and strength and the spirit's power in you to let your members of your body be used for righteousness. Weapons tools of righteousness not sin. So it's very practical. It's like every morning you get up and you say God I don't want my eyes to be involved in sin today. So don't let me gaze on anything that is sinful. Don't let my eyes feast on anything that would cause me to sin. Lord I don't want my ears to be instruments of hearing things that would displease you or that would cause to enter into my mind thoughts or philosophies of life or feelings about people that would not be right. So I want my ears to be in tune with you. Lord I don't want my tongue today to be used as an instrument of bitterness and vile condemnation of other people. I want my tongue to be used for kindness and helping other people and blessing other people. Lord I want my hands, I want my feet. Get the picture out in my mind to be filled with thoughts of you and how I can live for you and not wicked thoughts. It's very practical. It's laying on the author of sacrifice with this holy resolve, the very instruments, the very weapons tools, parts of your body to be used for God, not for sin. But then notice it is also a continuing resolve. The tense of the verb indicates here in verse 13 that it is to be a very decisive action, but it is not once for all. It must happen over and over again. This decisive resolve and commitment that I am going to give my bodily members to God to be used for him. I want to yield those to him not to be used for sin. That's a continual resolve. You have to keep our guard up continually on that issue. And when you do that, you will begin seeing success in your battle against sin. So Paul says we have to recognize our union with Christ. It starts there. Then we have to reckon that to be so, to count it, to be so credit it to our count and draw from that every day. Believe that, live it out. And then the practical way you do that is with that holy resolve and commitment every day to very practically give the members of your body over to God to be used by him. And not to be allowed to be used for sin. I've mentioned Stuart Briscoe before. I'm enjoying his very practical commentary on the book of Romans as one of the tools I'm using for this series. Stuart Briscoe came from Great Britain and he pastored Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for many years. He's retired from there now doing conference speaking and so forth. But great Bible preacher. He tells the story. And by the way, I've heard our founding pastor, preacher Jimmy Jones, tell a very similar story. But Stuart Briscoe tells the story of being drafted into the Royal Marines when he was in his late teens during the Korean War. And he was immediately put under the domination of a staff sergeant that just left, you know, strong men quaking in their boots. I mean, he was just an overbearing, domineering in your face, kind of staff sergeant that just threw fear into your heart. And he said every time the men would see that staff sergeant, I mean, you just reflect this instinctively, reflexively, just your back was ramrod stiff straight and your arm quickly swung up into a salute. And you, whatever you were doing, you were at attention. You didn't do anything that would cause you to be disciplined or come under the anger of that staff sergeant. He said, I felt that way and acted that way until the day I was discharged. And he said, there I sat with my discharged papers in one hand sitting on a bench at the base before I was to be picked up to leave. And I was kind of slouching that bench, one hand into pocket, holding my discharge papers in Whistland with my newfound freedom. And I saw that staff sergeant coming toward me instinctively, he said, my back straightened up and my hand started to go up and then I remembered. He doesn't have any authority over me anymore. I'm not enlisted anymore. I'm not in his army anymore. And while I might instinctively choose to go that direction and still be under his domination, I don't have to anymore. That relationship is broken. I don't have to do that anymore. So he said, he dropped his hand, kept his hand in the other hand in the pocket and just smiled at the staff sergeant as he walked by. What Paul is telling us in Romans 6 is that when you are placed in Christ, when you trust Christ as your savior, you're not enlisted in sins army anymore. That authority over you, that domination over you, that's been broken. And everything about that relationship now that person you were back then, that's dead. And the power and authority that sin has over you is now broken. You don't have to salute sin. You don't have to stand at attention back, ramrod stiff when sin tempts you anymore. You don't have to do that because you're not in sins army anymore. You're enlisted in someone else's army. You're not a servant to sin anymore. You're a servant Christ. And you have the ability because of the new life in you to live a righteous lifestyle and not to give in to sin. That's what Paul is telling us. Will you recognize your union with Christ? Will you reckon that to be so? Will you? Will you because of that resolve every day to give yourself and yielded this to him? What Paul is teaching us is prevention theology. He's telling us how to keep from sinning. A lot of what we do is corrective theology. When we sin, confess your sin, the clench of moral and righteousness, that's good. But there's something that can be done before that. Prevention theology. This is how to keep from sinning. Recognize. Recon. Resolve. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the teaching of Paul that helps us to understand how to begin to have victory over sin in our lives. Help us to recognize, to understand what your word teaches about our union with Christ and how powerful that is. Help us Lord to reckon that to be so in our daily experience and count on it to be true. Now pray, Father, that you would help us to resolve every day that we live with a holy commitment to give ourselves as instruments of righteousness to you, not as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. Help us to live differently this week because of that. In Jesus' name, amen.