Romans 185: Romans 6 - Are You Guilty?

Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.

 

Mark, Chapter 4, beginning at Verse 2…

 

MAR 4:2

And the Lord, Jesus Christ was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching…

 

MAR 4:3

“Listen to this! Behold, the sower (a farmer) went out to sow (his unplowed field)…”

 

MAR 4:4

“…as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road (on the path where people walk), and the birds came and ate it up.”

 

MAR 4:5

“Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil (a little dirt and a lot of limestone under it); and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil (it was like a petri dish).”

 

MAR 4:6

“And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, and it withered away.”

 

MAR 4:7

“Other seed fell among the thorns (like weeds), and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.”

 

MAR 4:8

“Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

 

MAR 4:9

And Jesus was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

Then Jesus explains the parable…Mark, Chapter 4, beginning at Verse 13…

 

MAR 4:14

“The sower (like a Pastor) sows the word.”

 

MAR 4:15

“These are the ones (hearers of the Word) who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.”

 

These are unbelievers who are negative to the Word.

 

MAR 4:16

“In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy…”

 

MAR 4:17

“…and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

 

These are unbelievers who are shallow in the Word.

 

MAR 4:18

“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word…”

 

MAR 4:19

“…but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

 

These are unbelievers who are easily distracted by the enticements of the world.

 

MAR 4:20

“And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

 

These are the believers in Christ, to whom the wealth of the Kingdom is revealed.  Mark, Chapter 4, Verse 9…

 

MAR 4:9

And Jesus was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

He who wants to hear will hear, and it is he who will produce a crop.  God gives us parables so we can draw the truth from the story and apply it to ourselves.  Welcome to a place where you can hear the Word of God, apply it to yourselves, and let the Spirit produce His fruit in your lives.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

Friend of a Wounded Heart

 

Let’s listen to June Murphy sing the opening song…FRIEND OF A WOUNDED HEART.

 

OPENING PRAYER

 

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful to you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Thanks you for the doubt…and thank you for the doubters…those who discourage us and who lie to us about You…thank you for letting us see through their deception and thank you for putting it in our souls to despise it…

 

Feed us with Your Word, and plant us in it, so that we may resist in the evil day…and have the vision in our souls of the day where there is no more sorrow and no more tears…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S STUDY

Are You Guilty?

 

“I feel so guilty.”

 

It’s something you have heard people say in your lifetime.  It’s something you have probably said yourself, or felt yourself, or been encouraged to feel by others.

 

“I feel so guilty.”

 

But if you’re a Christian, ARE you guilty?  What is guilt?

 

GUILT
The description of a state resulting from the actual commission of an offense, a crime, a violation, or a wrong against moral or penal law.

 

You are actually guilty when you are “caught red handed” … you’ve heard

that term…the expression “caught red handed” has its origins in Scotland around the 15th century…the phrase probably referred to people caught with blood on their hands from murder or from poaching…simply stated it is a reference to actual guilt when there is enough incriminating evidence to make the definiteness of your guilt an established and irrevocable fact.

 

My question for Christians is this …“Are you guilty?”  Because it seems to me that guilt connects to the law…James, Chapter 2, Verse 10 says…

 

JAM 2:10

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of (a violation of) all (the law).

 

The law demands perfect adherence…and we know already that no human being has ever kept the whole law…only the true humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect.  As to the law, are Christians guilty?  Of course!  We are studying the second passage in Romans, Chapter 6…Verses 12 to 14…and here’s what the passage has to say…

 

ROM 6:12

Therefore do not keep on letting sin reign as if it were king in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts…

 

ROM 6:13

…and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as

instruments of unrighteousness; but keep on presenting yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead would present themselves, and keep on presenting your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14

For sin shall not be master (a lord) over you, for you are not under law but you are under grace.

 

If you are no longer under the principle of law…the principle that made your guilt clear…but you are now under the sphere of grace, the law of liberty, why would you, as a Christian, ever feel guilty?  What guilt am I talking about?

 

THE GUILT OF CHRISTIANS

A pointless ritual by which Christians force themselves into a feeling of remorse or responsibility for some offense or crime, whether the offense or the crime is real or imagined, when the offense or crime has already been paid for by God and where the Christian has been exonerated for the offense by God Himself.

 

Isn’t that what we love doing as Christians?  Don’t we love feeling guilty about things as if somehow our feelings of guilt are going to be impressive to God?  Don’t we love excusing our obsession with guilt, making it perfectly okay, even as a lifestyle?  “Yeah I know the Lord Jesus Christ paid for my sins, but I just feel real bad.”  If your sins are paid for, what payoff is there when you revisit them?

 

In the first set of commands in the book of Romans, beginning at Chapter 6, Verses 12 to 14, God makes requests to your free will…

 

THE “DO NOT’s”

 

Do not…

 

…keep on letting sin be the king in your mortal body

 

…keep on presenting the members of your body to sin

as instruments of unrighteousness

 

Then the “do” commands…

 

THE “DO’s”

 

Do…

 

…keep on presenting yourself to God

 

…act as if you are alive from the dead

(because you are)

 

…keep on presenting the members of your body

as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

As Christians, we are not to go on presenting the members of our body, specifically in this case, our minds, to the sin of guilt. 

 

This week, I was thinking that when there is no relationship there is law.  For those of us who have spent our time in guilt-riddled systems of religion and legalism, there is absolutely no emphasis in them on the relationship we have with God.  The first thing these systems teach is the rules…the law.  If all of our thoughts about God are governed by rules, then there is no thought of relationship.  Christianity is a relationship with Christ.  It is not a relationship with rules.  It’s funny how well religion and legalism cause us to drift away from getting to know who God really is as a Person.  The rules give us a distorted picture of God, and paint Him as a tyrant, obsessed with compliance to a set of things he knows we cannot do.  This question to the Galatians is right on point… Galatians, Chapter 3, Verse 3…

 

GAL 3:3

Are you believers in the Galatian region so foolish? Having begun your relationship with God by means of God the Holy Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

 

We begin our relationship with God by the trust of faith in a Person.  All great relationships with others are built on trust.  Soon afterward, Satan comes in and starts shoving the rules down our throats.  When we realize that we aren’t following the rules, we begin our journey down “guilt lane.”  And many of us never break the pattern, no matter how much we learn in the Word of God that dissuades us from this activity.  Many of us actually enjoy the guilt.  Guilt is unnecessary, and it is not conduct befitting the child of a King.  So I was thinking that because we learned the rules long before we learned about who God is, we followed a path that took us away from a relationship with God and toward an obsession with compliance to the rules of law.  That path was a gigantic impediment to getting to know God.

 

These are the concluding thoughts I wanted to share with you as we move on to the third passage of Romans, Chapter 6.  Turn to Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 15…take a five-minute break and we’ll see what there is to learn in the final passage of the chapter…

 

BREAK

The Voice of Truth

 

TODAY’S STUDY

Are You Guilty?

 

Welcome back…let’s read the final passage of Romans, Chapter 6 together, beginning at Verse 15…

 

ROM 6:15

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

 

ROM 6:16

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either a slave of sin resulting in death, or a slave of obedience resulting in righteousness?

 

ROM 6:17

But thanks be to God the Father that though you WERE slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed (the gospel message…salvation by faith alone in Christ alone)…

 

ROM 6:18

…and having been freed from sin (we died to sin), you became slaves of righteousness.

 

ROM 6:19

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

 

ROM 6:20

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

 

ROM 6:21

Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

 

ROM 6:22

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

 

ROM 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God the Father is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Now the details of the passage…romans, Chapter 6, Verse 15…

 

ROM 6:15

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

When we abuse liberty, we return to the wrong kind of slavery…John, Chapter 8, Verses 31 to 34…we become slaves again to sin…

 

JOH 8:31

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If (3) you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine…”

 

JOH 8:32

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

 

JOH 8:33

They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”

 

JOH 8:34

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

 

Evidently these Jews had forgotten their four hundred years of slavery in Egypt.  Nonetheless…creatures are slaves…they are slaves to sin…or they are slaves to righteousness.  The key concerning whom you are the slave of is obedience…you are the salve of the one you obey…Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 16…

 

ROM 6:16

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either a slave of sin resulting in (the second) death (unbelievers), or a slave of obedience resulting in righteousness (believers)?

 

ROM 6:17

But thanks be to God the Father that though you believers in Christ WERE slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were handed over by God (the gospel message…salvation by faith alone in Christ alone)…

 

We are delivered over to salvation by God.  So here’s the question… “to whom are you obedient?”

 

WHOM DO YOU OBEY?

 

 

ARE YOU A SLAVE…

 

…of sin                                                   …of the Lord

 

…of abused liberty                    …proper use of liberty

 

…of sin as master                      …of sin as distraction

 

 

WHOM DO YOU OBEY?

 

 

ARE YOU A SLAVE…

 

…under law                                                             …under grace

 

…with guilt as penance              …with shed blood removing guilt

 

What is penance?

 

PENANCE

Confession of sins made with genuine sorrow or pseudo sorrow, and with an expressed intention of amendment of conduct, done in human power, allegedly followed by the forgiveness of the sins by God.

 

In other words, according to the kingdom of death, once you show genuine remorse for your sins, and express an intention to change, then and only then will God forgive you.  Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 32 says that’s a lie…

 

EPH 4:32

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God the Father in union with Christ also has forgiven you.

 

You are forgiven at the Cross, in the past, as an established and irrevocable fact.  In your own power, all you can do is sin, even when impending ruin is the likely outcome of your sin (alcohol, drugs, unprotected sex).

In this life, creatures move from being instruments that are dependent on God for salvation to instruments that are dependent on God for righteousness.  Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 10…

 

EPH 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in union with Christ Jesus for good works, which God the Father prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 

So we believers in Christ have peace with God through the blood of His Cross.  As believers in Christ we…

 

BELIEVERS IN CHRIST <reveals>

 

          …are in union with Christ

 

          …are sharers in His death

 

          …our relationship with sin is broken

 

          …we are living a new life (the ZOE Life)

 

 

Let us keep on learning to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.  In other words, let’s realize that we are NOT guilty, and start acting like it.

 

The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ

are Guarantees!

 

1PE 5:8-9

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren (other believers) who are in the world.

 

1PE 5:10

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

 

1PE 5:6-7

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

 

CLOSING SONG

You Own Me

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION

 

And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

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