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We are in Romans 6 but put your finger in MATTHEW CHAPTER 5 if you want to follow along
Romans 6.12-13
The Fourth Dimension Christian
May 2nd 2021
We are going to take a bit of a different approach to our verse by verse today for a number of disparate reasons.
The primary reason is that Paul has presented us with similar concepts as a means to make his point and they are in many ways repetitive.
For instance, in the previous chapters we have learned about the application of the Gospel to our lives as believers.
Remember that the Gospel is defined in 1st Corinthians 15 as
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
that he was buried, and
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
We have learned that the application of the Gospel (as it is defined) to our lives is “the power of God to salvation,” which is why Paul says in the 1st Chapter of Romans:
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
From these principles we have learned that Jesus very death, burial and resurrection has direct application to the life God desires of His Christian chidren! That we are not called to walk in his death but to walk in the power of His resurrection.
This is what caused Paul to write in 1st Thessalonian 1:5
“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance”
From this principle, we learned about the Christian identity – or who we are in Him.
Then last week Paul took another approach and taught the principle of putting OFF the old man (and woman) and to put ON the new – which is another way to reiterate the same principle – that we leave the former fleshly person in the grave and rise up to new life and operate in the power of the Spirit.
We emphasized the importance of faith, talked about the enemies of faith, and used the scripture to describe to us how the death of faith in a believer, which comes by and through “an evil heart of unbelief” can causes some to depart from the living God if it serves to sear them with a hot iron.
Today, our verses provide yet another approach from Paul to teach us the same inter-related principle – but this time through the notion of “yielding and not yielding.”
All of these approaches from Paul hearken back to the very first verses that he provided us when we started this chapter when he wrote:
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
So, let’s read verse 11 (which we ended with last week) where Paul appeals to the imagery, model or notion of Christians operating by the Gospel – meaning, by and through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, when he wrote:
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Now let’s read through our text for today where Paul adds:
Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore (referring back to the message of verse 11) reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
So, at this point Paul presents us with yet another example – and it is one of yielding or not yielding our bodies to sin.
On the one hand, he says “we are dead.”
And that we are “new creations living in the resurrected Christ.”
And then he tells us to “put on the new man and put off the old.”
And now he tells us “to not yield to the former Old woman but the New.”
This is a lot of emphasis on how to walk in the power of the Gospel.
And we have to sort of ask ourselves “why all of these appeals?”
To be dead to the former man, identified with the risen Lord, putting off the former and putting on the new, and yielding our bodies to God and not the flesh – I think that Paul is providing us with an abundance of examples as a means to emphasize the end-goal of Christianity in the lives of believers – fruit bearing maturity in the faith.
Because the Spirit speaks to each of us and we respond accordingly, for some there is a need to be reminded to “die daily,” for others there the reminder “to stay buried” and to be “identified only with the living Christ,” for others there is the image of putting off all we once were, for others, not yielding” all as a means to let Christ bear His fruit to the world to the glory of the Father.
So, the mixture of messages must be predicated on the needs of the hearer.
The ultimate question becomes, for each of us as people who receive the Gospel by faith, what does it look like to fulfill the mandate of verse 13 where Paul says
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Here is where we are going to take a different approach this morning.
Years ago, in 2005, I was learning the Bible in the Calvary chapel school of ministry. Along with the other classwork I had listened and taken notes through the entire Bible TWICE.
I was trying to get my head around some things. So I doing what I call “churning,” trying to formulating what I was learning into understandable chunks as a means to explain them to others.
It was New Years Eve and I was invited to do our own show the following March and I sat alone in a local Mexican Restaurant while all around me people were getting an earl start on celebrating the coming New Year.
Mary knew where I was and I promised to be home for the girls before midnight. I had a Bible with me, a Greek lexicon and a pen.
And I sat there. Drinking diet coke, eating chips and churning on the many concepts relative to the faith. I cannot tell you exactly what led me to do this at that time but it was not unusual behavior.
One of the things I was trying to understand was how to explain the difference of life as an unbeliever verses life as a Christian, how to articulate why so many people who accept Christ are broken with few being successful, what it looks like to grow in the faith, and the difference between receiving Christ by faith as the one who paid for my sin and walking with Christ as a result.
Looking around and as you can see from my tattoos, I am very fond of symbols because (for me) they serve as “valuable heuristics” or teaching tools and in them a whole bunch of data can be represented by a single icon.
And then it hit – about 9PM all of the churning culminated in my head, like the flux capacitor in Back to the future, and I grabbed my pen and a stack of soft white napkins to the side of me and drew what we are going to cover on the board.
In my life it was a gift from God, and has served me on several occasions to teach people the basics of what the Gospel looks like in the lives of others.
When I was done it was nearly 11:30 and I left for home. In time, I shared it with Mary, drawing it out on another set of napkins in another Mexican restaurant.
I’ve since come to call it, “the Fourth Dimension Christian.” Forgive the redundancy if I have presented this to you before.
Before I explain it I want to read you a passage of scripture. It’s from Ephesians 3:16 and says, speaking to believers (you and I) and here Paul says:
That he (God) would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Created Man in God’s image (ON BOARD)
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Three expressions in one – body (sarx) soul (psuche) spirit (pneuma) (NO LINES)
Direct relationship with our Maker
Sin (BLACK LINE)
Separation (death – here and there) (ON BOARD)
Man becomes a “bi-partite being”
separated from God
Operates by Body and Soul
Unregenerated Life
Positive and Negative behaviors (+ / – based on results, not good or evil)
BODY – 1st Dimen
BODY +
SOUL – 2nd Dimen
SOUL +
Drugs
Smoking
Drinking
Whatever is abusive and damaging to the body
Nutrition
Exercise
Moderation
Whatever is conducive to health
Criminality
Rebellion
Violence
Despotism
Hate/Prejudice
Ignorance
Whatever is illegal, destructive
Education
Religion
Vocation
Community
Skills and Talents
Whatever is constructive
We call this the realm of happiness. ROH / Seek pleasure/escape from pain.
I suggest strongly that people in this real do what makes them happy and when the end-result of their actions fails to provide them the happiness they desire they will change.
No matter what is accomplished or done in this realm reunion with God and the restoration of the complete Human being remains aloof and unfulfilled.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Men lovie darkness more than the light. John 3:19
1st Corinthians 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Mark 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6
God could have left us in this state, but
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
What does this look like?
2nd Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Of course, we know that Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to “even see the Kingdom of God we have to be born from above.”
And then we know, according to 1st Timothy 2 that God desires all to be saved to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
THE CROSS
And so we have Christ, symbolized by the Cross, His death and resurrection, being offered to the world below, the Realm of Happiness. (ON BOARD CROSS)
Notice where the Light shines brightest (ON BOARD) and where it is most obscured.
“ . . . to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Luke 7
Once Born-From-Above . . . (ON BOARD)
Realm of JOY and compared to the ROH
I want to return to the idea of positive and negatives (+/-)
They play a part in the life of a Christian as well, as supported by the teaching of Jesus in the sermon of the Mount.
Eight items Jesus lists – three losses of former self and five gains of spiritual self
Lets list the losses first (or the (-) category
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Notice two things – to be poor in spirit is a negative, it invokes loss – to be poor ( – )
What makes a person who enters the Kingdom of heaven “poor?”
Loss of world
Friends, family, former life
Flesh
Also notice that Jesus introduces these things with an IS – theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven. Its present tense.
Next negative consequence ( – )
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
What do people mourn in receiving Jesus?
Wasted years
Losses perhaps
Notice “the shall”
Last negative consequence
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The consequence is going from being mighty to being meek, from flesh to spirit. Again, notice the shall and the loss.
At this point the rest of the beatitudes start to build the believer up or add rather than take from their character.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
LAST REALLY CHALLENGING ONE OF ALL OF THEM – cover three verses
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
EXPLAIN THE PROCESS of back and forth
Explain the “visits” to the flesh
EXPLAIN the goal or destination
Name it as the “Fourth Dimension”
Explain how and why
Fourth Dimension
Third Dimension Spirit Rebirth
Second Dimension Soul
First Dimension Body
Separate Illustration
Zero Dimension a point ( . )
Cannot build upon this at all.
First dimension is the point stretched out in a line call it length. (BODY)
Second dimension is another line call it breadth BODY/SOUL (forms a plane – utterly flat)
Third dimension is height. Correlates to breath inflation – spirit gives life
Fourth dimension is ??? Time. Growth! (Illustrate)
Now, let’s re-read those passages from Ephesians 3 that are on the board:
Ephesians 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
WRAP UP with story about a woman who coached our middle daughter, Cassidy in volleyball. Very accomplished woman – excellent volleyball player, attorney, and one of the nicest people you might ever meet. Truly. We knew nothing about her beliefs. Years got between us as our daughter graduated and moved on into life. One day out of the blue this coach called Mary in desperation. Mary drove to her home as she was married and with children. She found her crumpled up on the floor in a little ball completely distraught.
I was in Utah doing the show and Mary asked if I could stop by and see her. We sat on her couch and instead of a long conversation I said:
I am going to explain life to you through an illustration. She said okay.
“I want that.”
She still walks with the Lord.
Questions/Comments
Prayer
Michael cancer treatment surgery
Ross heart op
Niklas back
Mary knee replacement
