A funeral service is being held for a woman who just passed away. At the end of the service, the pallbearers are carrying the casket out when they accidentally bump into a wall, jarring the casket.
They hear a faint moan! They open the casket and find that the woman is actually alive! She lives for ten more years, and then dies. Once again, a ceremony is held, and at the end of it, the pallbearers are again carrying out the casket. As they carry the casket towards the door, the husband cries out: “Hey! Watch out for that wall!”
Some of you will get that on the way home today. Anyway…last week I taught most of you at least one new big word. We talked about how to be sanctified we have to be mortified and vivified. Does anybody remember what “mortified” or “vivified” means? It means we are to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. Well, I stumbled onto another word this week obviously related to “vivified” and that word is “vivisepulture”. Anybody smart enough to figure out what that word means?
“Vivisepulture” means to be buried alive! That has to be one of the absolute worst ways to die, right? I researched it (googled it) and quickly read more than I wanted to know about such a thing but the Bible talks a lot about being dead to sin. Again, we talked about that last week as being “mortification” and it just makes sense that you can’t be dead to sin and alive to Christ at the same time, right? But that’s a problem for us because we all like to say that we are dead to sin but evidently we were buried alive because that sin keeps coming back and haunting us.
You know what I mean. We all have our pet sins – those problem areas of our lives that we all struggle with. We don’t want to do them and so we die to those sins by asking God for forgiveness and then repenting or turning away from those sins. We have a big, dramatic funeral for ourselves to those sins but before the hearse leaves the parking lot we all too often go running right back after those old sins. We have been buried alive to those sins and it keeps happening over and over again.
If you have ever felt like that, you are not alone. We talked last week about this same problem and we found through Romans chapter 6, verses 15-23 that we are to be slaves to God and not slaves to sin. That was how Paul describes it in those verses. But he evidently knew this was a big problem and so he talks about it several times. Let’s go back in Romans chapter 6 just a little bit and look at just the first 4 verses. They look and sound similar but give us some different insight into how we can keep from living that same old life we used to live and start living…a new life!
Romans 6:1-4 says, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.”
We talked last week about how to be sanctified or holy and that it involved being mortified or dead to sin. We should have a hostility toward sin because we no longer have anything to do with it. The very temptation to sin ought to make hostile toward it and that thought really helped me because like all true believers in Jesus, I don’t want to sin. That is actually a mark of a believer. But I struggle with it and I know I’m not the only one. I have a quote for you. See if you can guess who said these words.
“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” Any guesses who said that? Paul said that. The author of this book said it. In fact, he wrote it in the VERY NEXT CHAPTER! Yes, the guy who just wrote that we are dead to sin said practically in the next breath, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”
Paul understands your struggle with sin but I found the secret right here in this little passage written by him. In verse 1 he sarcastically asks if we should sin more because of grace and of course no true believer can really think that. Then he goes on in verse 2 to say that because we are dead to sin; because we are mortified; then we can no longer live in sin.
Being dead to sin doesn’t mean we never sin but it means we can’t live in it. We can’t camp out there and have a lovely day just living in sin because that is what unbelievers do. Sometimes Christians can’t believe that non-Christians would sin like they do. “Gasp! Did you hear about what so and so did? Terrible!” Of course they did. Sinners are gonna do what sinners do. I’m surprised they don’t do worse or do it more often. Unless they are going to get arrested for it, then what is stopping them?
What surprises me is when we as Christians can just live in sin and go about our day and nothing changes day in and day out. Paul said we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Now, some are going to hear this and think how glad they are that Paul is being realistic. He’s not saying we will never sin because we all know that we all sin every day, right?
I hear people say that pretty often and it’s just not true. We don’t all sin every day, nor should we. Sin should be an exception to the rule but too many people think that’s just how people – even Christians – live. Gary Richmond, a former zoo keeper, had this to say: Raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30-pound raccoon can be equal to a 100-pound dog in a scrap, I felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young friend of mine, Julie. She listened politely as I explained the coming danger. I'll never forget her answer. "It will be different for me. . ." And she smiled as she added, "Bandit wouldn't hurt me. He just wouldn't." Three months later Julie underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason. Bandit was released into the wild. Sin, too, often comes dressed in an adorable guise, and as we play with it, how easy it is to say, "It will be different for me." The results are predictable. Gary Richmond, View From The Zoo.
So, how do we keep this wild, rabid raccoon of sin from ripping our faces off? How do we keep from sinning and how do we, as Paul said here, live a new life? Well, Paul also tells us that right here as well. Look closely at the last half of verse 4. “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Do you want to live a new life? Do you want to live dead to sin and alive to Christ? We can and Paul says here that we live a new life the same way that Jesus did - through the glory of the Father. Now, I first that that surely Paul meant “to” the glory of the Father. I thought surely Paul had made a mistake, you know, since I’m so much smarter than he was. J
But when I looked up the word “glory” as it is used here, it is the word “doxa” (not Dachshund) which means God’s honor and praise and worship like we know it to mean but it specifically includes His power and grace. God’s power and grace are His glory. Jesus was raised from the dead by God’s power and His grace.
It is the same use of the word in Romans 3:23 that says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When we sin, we fall short of God’s power and grace that keeps us from sinning. Paul says here that we are baptized into Christ and into His death so that we may live a new life. Do you want to live a new life? If you could go back to when you were young and never take that first drink or smoke that first cigarette or do for the first time that thing that has become such a habit that you don’t want to do, wouldn’t you want to never do that for the first time?
I see people all the time who are addicted to one thing or another – alcohol, drugs, food, lying, sex; whatever it is and they very often have sought treatment for that problem…but they can’t shake it. They go to rehab or something anonymous and sometimes that works. I’m not knocking that at all. But lots of times it doesn’t work. They relapse. They don’t want to but it feels like they just can’t help it.
I talked with a lady just this week who has been a meth addict for 35 years. She started when she was 10 and has been doing it ever since. She can’t quit. She has tried. She has been to rehab over and over but it doesn’t work for her and now she has nothing and is nothing and wants nothing except meth…and something to eat. I told her I could help with one of those and so I came up here to the church and got her some food from our food pantry and was driving back to where she was and I was praying that God would show me how to help her.
We know as a church that we have been called to help the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated and this woman was affected by all three and we have been praying for a long while now that God would show us how to deal with these kinds of people without sending them away to somewhere else for help. So, as I drove I asked God again for wisdom. Am I supposed to go to school to be some kind of counselor? That would be a whuppin for all involved but I’ll do it if that’s what I am supposed to do. Are we to have a half-way house here at the church? What, God? What are we supposed to do?
Well, it’s no coincidence that I was working on this message for today and I was reminded of this verse that talks about the glory of God giving us a new life. It doesn’t say counseling brings a new life or that therapy or medicine or anything else although sometimes those help. But God said introduce her to me through my Son Jesus because that is the only thing that brings new life. My job is just to introduce these dear people to the One who doesn’t just clean up a life and make a little better.
As my friend Scott says, Jesus didn’t die to make bad people good. He died to make dead people alive and He does that through His power and His grace; through His glory! When a caterpillar goes into his cocoon he doesn’t come as a really pretty caterpillar. He comes out completely different. He comes out as a beautiful butterfly. Think about God’s glory involving His power and His grace. If it was just His power without His grace then we would only get what we deserve. Or if it was only His grace without His power then we don’t have the power to overcome sin. But by God’s power and His grace we are able to live a completely new and beautiful life.
In John chapter 11 Jesus is told that His friend Lazarus was sick. In Verse 4 it says, “When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." You know what happened. Jesus spoke and Lazarus came walking out of the grave after being dead as a post for 4 days. In that story, in verse 40, Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"
It was the glory of God – His power and His grace – that raised Lazarus. It was the glory of God – His power and His grace – that raised Jesus and it was the glory of God – His power and His grace – that allows us to live a new life free from the bondage of sin; free from having to live in that sin and be controlled by that sin and living with the consequences and the guilt and shame.
In Exodus 33, Moses has been commanded by God to lead the Israelites but Moses says this in verse 15: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.”
Moses asked to see God’s glory and I have always thought what a daring and gutsy – maybe even dumb - thing that was to ask of God but he is asking to see God’s glory by His grace and power and God wanted to show Moses and He wants to show us. We should ask to see God’s glory revealed in His power and grace so that we and others may live a new life.
Did you see that in verse 16 where Moses said, “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” Moses knew that the very best a man could do would not be enough without God’s power and grace behind him and that the only thing that sets a believer apart from an unbeliever is God’s power and grace. The only thing that keeps any of us from living in and dying in our sin is God’s power and grace.
God, we need your glory! Not the kind of glory that makes us look good or that even points toward us but your glory that makes you look good; the kind of glory that has made you look good since the beginning of time and the kind of glory that helps us live a new life today and the kind of glory that will always make you look good and will make your name famous. God, show us that glory of your power and grace.
If you are tired of living in that same old sin that, of course, comes with all that baggage of guilt, shame and consequences; if you are tired of living that old life that never lets you break free from that addiction or that bad habit then you need to see God’s glory for yourself.
You need to ask Jesus into your life to be Lord and Savior then ask Him for forgiveness of your sins. The Bible says He is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins – even the worst of them. Then repent of those sins and turn away from them knowing that God will give you a new life through the power and grace of His glory. Don’t wait. Do it today.
Invitation - 3 guys are talking. "When you are in your casket, and friends and family are mourning over you, what would you like them to say about you?" The first guy said, "I would like to hear them say, 'I was a great family man.'" The second guy said, "I would have liked to hear them say, 'I was a wonderful husband and school teacher who made a huge difference in many children's lives.'" The last guy said, "I would like to hear them say, ‘Look, he's moving!’”
We are not buried alive to sin. We are dead to sin and it no longer has power over us. Live like it today!
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