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SIN / SELF

An Instrument of Righteousness

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 6 July 2025 · Romans 6:1-11 · 48:42 · 7,317 words

Romans S11 · 6:1-11 Holly

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The sermon studies Romans 6:1‑14, where Paul insists that God’s grace does not give a license to keep sinning. Because believers have died with Christ and risen to new life, they must no longer let sin reign in their bodies. The pastor calls them to present themselves as instruments of righteousness, letting God use every part of their lives for his purposes. He warns against treating grace as a “get out of jail free” card and encourages prayer that God will shape each person into a tool for his glory.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

grace 55 instrument 18 use 26 grade 8 sin 69 consider 17 missionary 8 describe 18 immersed 4 present 14 jail 7 freedom 12

Topics

Sin 19 Grace 16 Freedom 7 Righteousness 5 Baptism 5 Prayer 5 Death & Resurrection 4 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 The Holy Spirit 2 Mission & Evangelism 2 Obedience 1 The Gospel 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 30

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 1 1:07 Romans 1 3:21 Romans 6 6:29 Romans 6 6:36 Romans 6:1 6:59 Romans 6 7:32 Romans 6:10 8:51 Romans 6:1 10:23 Romans 5 12:42 Romans 5 12:47 Romans 5:20 12:47 Romans 6 13:07 Romans 6:1-2 14:14 Romans 6:3 18:40 Romans 6:3 20:14 Romans 6:3-10 22:54 Galatians 3 23:11 Galatians 3:20 23:11 2 Corinthians 12 25:15 Romans 12 25:29 Romans 12:6 25:49 Romans 12:11 26:04 Romans 12:11 26:12 John 10 31:07 Romans 12 34:33 Romans 12:12-14 34:42 Romans 12:13 36:27 Romans 6 36:52 Romans 6:14 38:23 Romans 6:14 40:12

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:40. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name's Keaton, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us. We hope you're blessed by today's message.

Good to be with you. Good to gather with you. Thank you for—it's good to be back.

If you didn't know, I spent the last couple weeks in the Philippines, and so it was great to visit.

I was with you in a video last week, and so it was a great time to be there.

And really, for me, it was a lifelong longing. I preached on that a few weeks ago.

As Romans 1, Paul longs to be with the believers in Rome.

I felt like I longed to be with these Christians, these churches that I have known since I was a little kid.

When I was nine years old, a couple Filipino missionaries came to our church

and just was able to have a relationship with them.

And so it was a great couple weeks. There was a group of four of us, my 16-year-old son.

If you're a parent and you have this teenager, I'd always encourage you to take them.

I'm on a mission trip. It's great perspective.

Even if it's a local mission trip, show them priorities in life and go,

look at all the blessings that you have and you've received and what God has done

and just a little perspective change.

And so my 16-year-old, as well as another group, our grant, our missions director,

as well as Brett Eberle, who attends here in Holly, he was our driver.

And so every missionary—

Introduced him as our driver.

It was really a lot of fun because they were astonished that any of us American would drive there in the Philippines.

The best I can describe it is it's a mix of Mario Kart and a high school parking lot.

That's what I—so that was just take it and go.

And so I was able to drive a little bit, and I only gave the missionary one heart attack.

And so it was pouring down rain, and I'm passing people.

I thought that's what you were supposed to do.

And so—

But it was great.

We visited 12 different churches throughout the province we were at, and so it was great.

And so just visiting these churches, seeing all that God is doing.

I said in the video last week that there's been 50, I think 56 churches, but I was actually incorrect.

This was 56 churches in this province that we've been a part of being a part of planting.

That doesn't include the 65 in the northern province.

So over 100 churches.

So over 100 churches since the mid-'90s that we've been a part of supporting.

You've been a part of supporting it through giving, praying, supporting the work that God is doing.

And so they say thank you.

I'll say this.

Romans 1 describes an encouragement that Paul hopes to give them and receive from them.

And they wanted me to tell you this.

They're encouraged by you.

They say thank you for your prayers and support.

It was a great time.

And so we were able to—

We were able to preach 14 times.

And so I spoke nine throughout the week.

And then Grant spoke five.

Spoke in a jail.

And so a jail was a little different.

Still smelled the same, in case you're wondering.

But preached through the bars as just two men just in jail.

We weren't sure why.

And so was able to preach to two police forces, which was really cool.

The SWAT team of the province we were at, Grant was able to speak to—

To some indigenous people, which is an interesting dynamic.

It was the first time he ever preached through an interpreter.

I'm not allowed to preach through an interpreter because I talk way too fast.

But you already know this, all right?

My brain does not slow down enough to do that.

One blessing I was able to do, I preached at a public school.

And so a middle and high school, a secondary school there, 250-ish students, middle and high school,

and could clearly share the gospel, which was—

So exciting to be able to do and proclaim.

But they were not so focused on the gospel.

They loved my 16-year-old son.

He was like Justin Bieber there.

If you follow my wife on social, it was really, really awkward.

And I had a lot of fun videoing it.

And so it was like he was some celebrity.

Instead of tall, dark, and handsome in the United States, it was—

tall, white, and handsome there, okay? Their words, not mine, all right? And so it was great. And then

Sunday, last Sunday night, so I preached in a church. Actually, we, some of the men in this

location, as well as our Waterford location, built this building in the mid-90s. And so I was able to

preach in there last Sunday morning. And then Sunday afternoon, I spoke to 464 students that

all the churches in the region came together for a youth conference, and it was incredible. And I

want you to know this, our men's group here in Holly paid for that event. It was really, really

cool. And so, yes, it was great to celebrate and honor that. They reached out two weeks prior and

said, hey, we're having this youth event. We don't know how we're going to pay for it. And so I'm

like, well, let's see what we can do. So I literally sent a text out to the men that we meet together

Wednesday, and they came huge and did some incredible support and paid for it. It was just

awesome. So to the guys that are sitting here, thank you. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you

for supporting the mission work there. I'll show you some pictures and videos later. It's just

incredible. But we just wanted to give you a quick highlight on that. And so I don't want to

necessarily preach about that trip because we are in the book of Romans as a church. And so if you

have a Bible, a divine Bible, you can go to the book of Romans as a church. And so if you have a

Bible, a divine Bible, you can go to the book of Romans as a church. And so if you have a Bible, a divine

something to follow along with. We are in Romans chapter 6. We're going to look at the first 14

verses of Romans chapter 6 this morning. Pastor Noble always teases me and says, well, when you

miss, you preach longer. And so I'm going to try to be succinct and clear this morning, but excited

to preach this passage, a passage that I've always maybe tussled with, struggled with, tried to

understand, and I hope to be able to help you.

You understand that this morning. Romans chapter 6, verse 1 says, what shall we say then? This is

again, the apostle Paul writing to the Christians in Rome, and he's speaking directly towards a

conflict that is happening where some had come and said that Paul had given liberty or permission

or even encouraged believers to sin. And Paul is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not what

I'm saying. And so give some clarity here in Romans chapter 6. He says, what shall we say

then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin

still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were

baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into the Son of God. And so

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk

in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly

be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be in

slave to sin. For no one has died, has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ,

we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will

never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. Verse 10 continues, for the death he died,

he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you must also consider

dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body

to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,

but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members

to God as instruments for righteousness. Last verse, for sin will have no dominion over you.

Since you are not under law, but under grace. Let's pray this morning. We'll jump into that

passage. God, we love you. We praise you. We honor you. We glorify you. It is great to be

together, gathered in your name. God, we praise you and we adore you and we lift you up.

God, we open your word, may it speak, may it guide, may it correct.

God, thank you for your many blessings.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for being at work.

God, we praise you and we honor you.

Speak this morning, help me to get out of the way.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' wonderful name.

As I gave a little precursor prior, kind of in the middle of verse one,

Paul is speaking towards this idea of grace or this word of grace.

Many of us have heard this through the series, the unmerited favor of God,

the unearned favor of God, God-given favor that you and I cannot qualify for.

Our works cannot get us towards that grace.

God freely offers this gift as the Bible preaches or teaches.

And so grace is given.

I have a friend that says this to me all the time.

Grace is God doing something for us that we cannot do for ourselves.

God stepping in.

That's where we see the very grace of God.

But Paul doesn't just stop at grace.

He continues with this idea of liberty and freedom.

Over the last couple of days, many of you celebrated liberty and freedom here as citizens

or being a part of the United States, whether you're here.

In person, online, maybe at a campsite, wherever you find yourself.

We pray for those that are at campsite, by the way, crazies.

But we celebrate freedom.

God-given freedom here in this land where we can preach and proclaim the good news of Jesus,

where I'm not afraid someone's going to come in and kick the doors down and arrest us for

assembling to worship a name above all names, the name of Jesus.

We're thankful for a land that we can celebrate this freedom.

Many of you celebrate freedom with.

I've been banned this year.

My wife banned me last year.

We had an incident, all right?

I may or may not have shot fireworks accidentally at my family, all right?

Forgive me, all right?

I'll show you the videos later.

So it was a hairy incident.

It fell off the stand, but I've been suspended.

I'm waiting for that suspension to last maybe next year, okay?

But Paul is not talking towards freedom in our land.

He's not talking about liberty.

In the United States, he's talking about a freedom and a liberty that we have

as followers of Jesus, as Christians.

Paul talks in Romans 5 and 6 of this freedom.

In Romans 5, Romans chapter 5, verse 20, Paul talks about sin increasing,

where grace meets that, where grace covers it.

But the critics had come to Paul and said, wow, people are going to continue to sin.

They've almost given them a license to sin.

And Paul begins chapter 6 with saying, do I continue to sin that grace may abound?

King James says, God forbid.

I love that clarity.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

That's not the clarity.

One translation said, what a ghastly thought.

Of course not, one translation say, by no means, may it never be.

These are the translations.

Paul's like, no, no, no, no, no.

You're missing the point.

Of what the true grace and the freedom of God is.

We use grace or what Paul is, is using grace as a get out of jail free card.

I almost printed or ordered them for everyone in this room this morning.

A get out of, a monopoly get out of jail free card.

We're almost like, okay, I sinned.

Boom, there's my grace.

That's not what Paul is describing the grace of God.

And we'll really look and see, he makes us,

bold statement in verse one and two,

and then backs it up with clarity of what he's actually describing.

What that grace looks like and how it should translate

or transform our lives.

Where experiencing the grace of God should do something to you.

It will change what you desire.

It will change how you act.

It will change how you talk.

It will change how you live.

Live as a husband or a wife.

It will change how you interact as a neighbor.

It will change how you sing.

It will change how you preach.

It'll change everything.

Cause that's what experiencing the very grace of God does to us.

I remember sitting as a freshman in college

and one of the Oprah classmen came up

and began to ask some of us questions

and that's what happens at a Bible college.

People think they're smarter than they actually are.

And so he begins to make these statements of,

well, you know what?

I can do whatever I want as a Christian.

I can act and do whatever I,

there's no sin I can't get forgiven for.

And I remember thinking to myself,

and I remember this conversation is clear.

So I'm like, why would you want to?

I don't understand.

You're misinterpreting,

misunderstanding what the grace of God is.

But not only this young man in a Bible college,

Paul is speaking towards the critics

as well as the believers in Rome.

Don't misunderstand or abuse the grace of God.

The grace of God is incredible.

You need to know that.

And I could preach simply just on the very grace of God.

I love the grace of God.

I said this a few weeks ago.

As Christians, we should be the biggest grace givers

of anyone else in the world.

Why?

Because we've experienced the full grace of God.

We've received it and then now give it.

I was able to experience grace from a missionary

in the Philippines.

We are visiting these churches

and on the way headed about a two hour drive,

we stopped and saw a missionary that I met in 1999.

And so him and another man stayed in our house.

And I remember it very clearly

because he snored like no other.

I'm telling you what.

I was 15 years old and this young man was,

he's about seven or eight years older than I am.

It was snoring so loud.

Josh and I still talk about it to this day.

I never experienced, it was a choo-choo train

outside our bedroom.

I'm telling you why.

But I actually told him this.

And man, I remember your visit.

You snored like no other.

He said, yes, it was all the bad American food.

I said, okay, sounds good.

It was verbatim is what he said.

But he said, Caleb, I remember you and Josh.

That's always scares me.

I want you to know that as a 15 year old.

He said, I remember an incident very clearly.

I'm thinking, oh my goodness.

And so I'm 15 in 1999 as a sophomore in high school.

So I would appreciate the grace here as well.

And so he said, I remember sitting in church.

And so me and Aries, who was the other missionary,

we're sitting in front of you and Joshua.

And I'm thinking, okay, sounds good.

What's happening?

And he said, a couple of girls walked right in front of us

and you guys whistled at them.

And they looked at the Filipino missionaries

and they thought they had whistled at these girls.

And I said, oh, that was Joshua, not me.

All right.

No.

And he said, I wanted to say something,

but I couldn't say something to the pastor's kids.

And I said, I am so sorry.

Josh was such an idiot.

No, no, I'm kidding.

And I told you, I said, he said, I don't remember.

It could have happened.

I said, don't worry.

He gave us grace.

I asked for forgiveness.

And so it's, he gave us grace.

It was, it was a lot of fun.

And I said, I'm glad you told that story,

but not with my 16 year old sitting here.

All right.

And so that's, that's grace.

John MacArthur gives this great description.

He says, grace does not mean we have permission to do as we please.

It means we have the power to do what pleases God.

And I love that description.

In this passage, early verses three,

three through 14,

there's three words that I want to unpack for the next little bit this morning.

They are no consider and present no consider and present and versus three through 10.

We see this word no three times,

but it stands out in bold statements that really back up what understanding grace looks like,

or is knowing what God has.

Done for us knowing and understanding the goodness of God in our lives,

knowing and understanding what his word teaches us and how it teaches us to live.

Paul saw it so important that we understand and know that Christian living depends on Christian learning.

I love that statement.

He was convinced Christian living depends on Christian learning,

building a doctrine or theology.

What is that?

Are a proper view study of God's word.

That's me as a pastor.

I want to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

but more importantly, I want to build and fuel the fire of hunger to study God's word as we

grow and understand and chew on it and grow in our sanctification process as a church to look

more like Christ. And so knowing what God has done, he says in verse three, do you not know

that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Paul in this

passage uses the illustration of baptism. We practice baptism as Pastor Noble described. We're

going to baptize at the fair next week. What is baptism? It's a picture. It's not the act. It's a

picture of the process of justification. We were buried going underwater and

risen again just as Christ did it. We were dead in our sin and we were put underwater just as

Christ did it. We were dead in our sin and we were put underwater just as Christ did it. We were

dead in our sin and we were put underwater just as Christ did it. We were dead in our sin and we

Christ was put to death, but risen again. And that, that picture or that being submerged or

immersed, Paul describes this baptism is we've been immersed in Christ. At the moment of salvation,

we were baptized, not the act of water baptism. We are immersed by the Holy Spirit into Christ's

death and subsequent three days later resurrection. And so in this passage, Paul uses this

illustration that they would understand of, of baptism as an identifier of their allegiance to

Christ, that they were baptized. They became Christ. They no longer became their own. They

became property. They became property of Christ. It's an identifier declaring our allegiance with

Christ. That's why it is so important as we baptize here as a church, we understand the baptism doesn't

save you. That's a work.

And then we would work our way towards righteousness, which we do not believe.

It's a picture. That's why there's nothing special about the water. It's our coming to the very

understanding of repenting with our mouth and believing in our heart that Jesus Christ came,

died on a cross and rose again. And I repent of my sins. That's when salvation or righteousness

comes. And so when we're baptized, it's a public proclamation, a public proclamation of what Christ

has done in me. And so when we're baptized, it's a public proclamation of what Christ has done in me.

For my family, my friends. And that's what I love when a little kid up to someone that is older gets

up and says, no, my allegiance is with Christ. That public proclamation. That's what Paul is

describing here in verses three through 10. He says, do you not know? We know our old self was

crucified. We know that Christ being raised from the devil never die again. He's making these

known statements that are truths that you need to know these things.

To then experience and understand the very grace of God. Galatians chapter three, verse 20 says,

for many of you were as baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That's not the water baptism he's

describing there. It's being immersed with the Holy spirit, being covered with the entirety of

the Holy spirit. Warren Wiersbe just says this. I love this. I am in Christ and identified with

him. Therefore, whatever happened to Christ has happened to me. I am in Christ and identified with

him. When he died, I died. When he rose, I rose in him. I am now seated with him in the heavenlies

because of this living union with Christ. The believer has totally a totally new relationship

to sin. And so we're building an argument here that we're going to answer just in a few minutes.

But Paul is saying, no, no, no, you you've been made new. You're dead to sin. You're made alive

The reason we can walk in newness of life. That's why when we baptize someone to,

to leave or walk and to live in newness of life is described because our old self

was crucified with Christ. We didn't die on the cross. We didn't experience a very

pain that Jesus did. He died on his own. Okay. Don't say, Hey, you know what? I experienced that.

No, no, no. When he died, as Colossians says, he nailed our sins to the cross.

And so our death or death as a whole or sin,

was put to death on a cross, the sting of death. And so we can look to the cross and say

that death was put to death. My death, my sin was put to death with Christ.

My life was risen again three days later

when Jesus rose again.

That's the picture that Paul is describing here.

Even describes the old self.

The old self, all was old.

I was old, what's 2 Corinthians chapter 12 or five

or 17 said, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Romans 12, our minds have been renewed.

And so the old self has been put to death

and I've been made new by the blood of Jesus Christ.

It's important that you know that.

We know that our old self was crucified in him,

that the body, verse six says,

of sin might be brought to nothing.

The power of sin was put to death with Jesus.

That's an important truth that we understand and know.

And so we know, and then verse 11 uses the next phrase

or next word is to,

Verse 11 says, so you must also consider yourselves

dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

I've always struggled with this phrase to understand.

And you're saying, well, that's not that hard to understand.

I know, but for me, I've always like,

I've always tussled with this idea of,

okay, but I've thought I'm alive.

Like, how does this work?

And so being dead to sin is simply the idea

that it has no more power over you.

Prior to Christ,

sin controlled you.

When you became righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ,

you received Jesus Christ,

his blood washed away all of your sin

and the very power of sin was gone.

Paul uses this word consider 19 times

in the book of Romans.

The Greek word simply is means to credit

or impute to one's count.

That's where we get the idea of imputed righteousness,

where we are graded,

graded on the scale of Jesus,

not on our own abilities.

That's where the goodness of grace comes into play.

The grace of God,

he became sin so that I could become a righteousness.

The penalty, the weight,

the control of sin is no more.

So we are dead in our sin.

It is no more.

And I've made alive by the blood of Jesus.

I was thinking about what a simple illustration

we could to understand this.

And for some of us that were,

we're not very good in school.

We loved group projects saying,

what do you mean?

Yeah, we loved group projects

because you'd always tried to get in tight

with the smartest person in the classroom saying you did that.

I did it for sure.

Okay.

And so I would get graded on their abilities,

not my own abilities.

And so I would do whatever I could to get

with the smartest person in the room

because I would get their grades.

That's what the imputed righteousness means.

We're not graded on our own abilities

and we're not graded on what we accomplish.

We're not graded.

On all the things that we think we can do,

we're graded on what Jesus has done for us.

That's what the imputed righteousness of God looks like.

We are given credit,

not credit for something you've done,

credit for something you've accomplished,

credit for what Christ has done on the cross and resurrected.

That's what the imputed,

the credited righteousness of God looks like.

There are two things credited to our account.

He says in verse 11, he says,

some must also consider two things.

You ready?

One is we said, we're dead to sin.

Those who have come to faith in Jesus

are no longer allow sin to control our lives.

Instead, we offer ourselves to God to serve his purposes.

Your sinful nature is put to death.

The control of the Holy Spirit in your life

is more powerful than that.

See, to be dead to sin comes,

not that we are no longer sinless, okay?

We're not sinless, doesn't mean we'll be,

perfect, I wish that was the case.

You come to Christ and you'll never struggle with sin.

That'd be a great message to preach, wouldn't it?

I'd be like, this is great.

But that's not what it describes.

Paul says later in Romans, I do that which I hate.

I don't know why I respond this way.

I don't know about you,

but I think about myself all the time this week,

like, why did I do that?

Paul said that I do that which I hate after I respond I go oh my goodness Caleb you're a moron

why did you act that way why did you say that why did you think that way why did you do that

we are in opposition to sin Paul even describes himself as the worst of sinners and so you find

yourself we go what does that mean then if we're dead to our sin like it we shouldn't deal with it

anymore no no don't get caught in that because the next section of the verse says we're dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ Jesus we are made alive in God some argue that this is eternity

but I don't believe that I don't believe it's simply eternity yes at one day we long for heaven

we long for heaven as a perfect place where we'll never deal with sin there'll be no tears no hurt

no pain yes heaven we long for it we sing about it my friend Wally and I talk about it all the time

looking longing for heaven but it's not simply just

you

heaven see I believe we're made alive in God to live as John 10 10 says live life abundantly

in this world see you're going man grace of God will cover my sins I was thinking about this as

I was preaching this and and growing up I thought a certain way and even even as an adult you almost

feel like as a Christian you're missing out on some of the things in life as Hebrews describes

the the fleeting pleasures of life

the sin is wow there's some there's some uh fun for a season the Bible describes am I missing out

by living for the Lord and so I'll just play my get out of jail free card to go do whatever I want

right that's not what grace is see what grace does that Paul is describing grace is understanding

that God has given you a life not of the things of this world but to live abundantly here on earth

and for eternity free from the the curse the pain the struggle of sin

that I can have life and be fulfilled in the words of Jesus Christ you can be fulfilled not by the

things of this world but by what Jesus has done in you and through you considered that I saw this

question this week I thought it was good had you considered your sin dead at the cross you considered

you are made alive at the resurrection see when you consider this truth every day it will change

you I'm going to say that again because it is it's a really really good power not of of mine

but a really of of the word of God have you considered your sin dead at the cross have you

considered that you are made alive at the resurrection when we consider this truth it

will change everything not maybe not possibly not I'm sure it will literally change everything in

our lives it'll change everything about this church it'll change everything about families

it'll change everything how you do your job it'll change everything everything you do in your life

it will change why because you'll very much understand the grace of God my sin has been put

to death I don't longer have to live with shame yes I still struggle yes I still battle but I'm

not enslaved by that sin anymore I've been set free by the blood of the lamb I've been set free

to worship and honor him and live my life and I won't be drugged down to the depths of shame I will

live freely and live life abundantly through the power of Jesus that's what the resurrection meant

to you and I and this is not an easter message but it feels like it right that's what the resurrection

does it gives us power not power to go ahead and do whatever I want not power to sin not power to

no no it gives me power to say hey you know what regardless of my struggle the race of God is good

you're like man you're ready to preach this this is a great passage not that all passages aren't

but this is really good because it's practical and so when we know and then consider we then present

our bodies we present our lives as Romans 12 says we are presented as a living sacrifice

holy acceptable and pleasing to God verses 12 through 14 let not sin therefore reign in your

mortal body that's why I don't believe it's just for eternity as some argue I think it's it's in

in this world as well

See, we have mortal bodies now.

Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body.

Let not it control you to make you obey its passions.

Now, I'll tell you what.

Sin is good at making us obey its passions.

Father of all lies, Satan will lie to you.

Wow, you know what?

Sin, there's some good stuff to it.

You're missing out.

Can I say to you this?

Paul's saying, don't let it reign.

Don't let it control you.

And he says, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.

This presentation is a use of giving a use to something.

He's saying, don't give your body to sin.

Don't give your mind.

Don't give your eyes.

Don't give your passions, your efforts, your time to sin as an instrument for unrighteousness.

So we always talk about, well, I want to be an instrument.

For righteousness, the works of God.

But we never talk about the inverse, where we use maybe the gifts God has given us for

unrighteousness, for sins.

But he says later on in that second half of verse 13, but present yourselves to God as

those who've been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for

That is my prayer for this message.

That's my prayer for this church.

That's my prayer for your families.

That's my prayer for every single person that can hear my voice right now.

That's what Romans 6 describes so perfectly.

Present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life and your members

to God as instruments for righteousness.

God, I've been brought from death to life.

Now use me for your glory.

That's my prayer.

That should be our prayer every single day.

That should be our actions.

That's not just for pastors to preach.

That's not just for pastors to say.

That's for every single believer sitting.

Joining us in the room, joining us online, hearing this message at another time.

God, I present myself dead, now made alive by Jesus Christ.

Use me for an instrument of righteousness.

Use me for your good.

Use me for your works.

Use me so that others may come from death to life.

Use me so that others may see my good works and glorify my father in heaven.

That's what the instrument I want to be.

The sad reaction.

The reality is, if we misunderstand grace, we'll abuse it and be used for an instrument

for unrighteousness.

But if we understand grace clearly, we understand God's grace, we'll say, God, I've been brought

from death to life.

Now use me for your glory.

I don't know how you're going to use me, but use me for good.

Verse 14, man, puts a, I would say a bow, but I'm going to say a haymaker on this passage.

Have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under what's that next

Come on.

What's the next word?

You're under grace.

There's what true grace looks like.

Sin has no control over me.

I've been set free by the blood of the lamb.

I've been set free.

What Jesus did.

He died and rose again.

I've experienced grace and sin has no control over me.

The Holy Spirit does.

God used me, guide me through my words.

Ultimately to get my words out of the way through your good.

That's what grace looks like.

You begin to be understood as an instrument for the grace of God.

Is there anything better as a believer?

Come on.

Is there?

No, God, I don't know how, but use me, use me at my workplace, use me in my family, use

me.

I want to glorify you.

I don't know how many of you sitting in this room go, man, Caleb, that sounds great, but

that's, that's, that's a lot to it.

Can I say to you?

It's not, it simply means God, I'm yielding myself to be an instrument for righteousness.

I'm not sure what it looks like, but you do something.

You equip me with the Holy Spirit.

You've sealed me with the Holy Spirit.

Give me wisdom, guidance, protection.

You use me.

See, this is what real freedom, this is what real victory, this is what real liberty looks like

as a believer in Jesus Christ. See, verse 14, sin has no dominion over you. I love that he says you,

he didn't say us. He makes it personal. Since you are not under the law, but under. See, the victory

freedom is not that sin, not to sin that grace may cover it, but to overcome sin by the power

of the Holy Spirit. I saw this quote, thought it was good. God, this is what presentation looks

like. Here I am alive from the dead. I've died with Christ. I've been resurrected with Christ.

Praise your name. Here is my body, my arms, my voice, my eyes. Take them all that they might be

instruments of righteousness and not of sin. Summarize that. God, take my entire life and use

me for your glory. That should be our prayer as a church. That should be prayer.

That should be us, right? God, your glory. We're not here to glorify a pastor. We're not here to

glorify the name of the river church. We're not here to glorify any of one sitting in this room

other than glorifying Jesus. Just a great time in the Philippines. Just life changing. Just really

great. Visited 12 different churches throughout this region. And we went to this church last

Friday. And it was not a big building. We had driven up to the front of it. I actually have a

picture of the front of the building.

Lighthouse Baptist Church. The man that I'm standing next to, his name is Tito. And so I did

not sing any Jackson 5 to him, in case you're wondering, okay? So his name is Tito. And so he's

the pastor here at another church. And so we had a time with him. The reason we're standing outside

is because it is about 95 degrees in the building. There's no AC, no comfortable seats. His family,

his wife is standing next to him. And three children, three teenage sons,

they live at the building. And I can't say in a house. I can't even really say in a room. I was

horrified when I went, that's the size of my closet. Seriously. And so we began to talk to

Tito's here about his ministry. He's actually been sent out from Pastor Ari's church, a pastor that

we have supported since 1999. So they sent him out as a missionary. And so he is pastoring two

different churches, driving on a Sunday and praying that God just...

Continues to do great work. And I began to ask him, what's the ministry like? What's some ups

and some downs? And he said, God is doing incredible work right now. I said, that's great.

He said, Caleb, we have a problem. And I said, okay, what's the problem? He said,

God is blessing our church so much. And he said, we're running out of chairs. People are coming

to sit on the floor. I'm thinking, sit on the cement floor in 95 degree heat.

Man, that's not the American way, is it? Right? He said, Caleb, we're really praying for

more chairs. I said, well, how many more chairs you want? He said, we're praying for 30 more

chairs. And so just so you know, as a church, we bought him 30 more chairs in that moment. Okay.

All right. I want you to know, I literally said, hey, how much did it cost? We're buying it right

now. And I tell you that one to celebrate that, but two to his response, this Filipino man began

to cry. And I'm like, he began to cry. And he said, man, I didn't imagine what God was going

to do today, but God showed up and answered that prayer. And so it was those sitting,

preparing this message this week. I began to think about that is what verse chapter verse

13 describes as we become instruments for righteousness, right? God, everything I own,

use it, use it.

so mixed up and things that really don't matter. We bought these 30 plastic chairs. He sent me a

picture of the stack of chairs. I said, Tito, I don't want to see the chairs. I want to see the

people in the chairs. He said, really? I said, yeah, send me a picture. So I'm expecting a picture

today sent of men and women sitting in these seats because that's what really matters. Who cares

about chairs? Who cares about buildings? Who cares about it? We want to care about the souls that

could be saved for the goodness of Jesus Christ, for his glory. That's what really matters.

Instruments for righteousness. I'll say this. That should be your prayer. So I titled this message.

I want to be an instrument for righteousness. Used. It's a New Testament. Clay in the potter's

hand. Mold me. Shape me. Place me where you want me to be. May stretch me. It stretches all of us,

right? But guess what? That's what grace looks like. Used for his glory. May that be our prayer.

Amen? Amen. Let me pray for you. God, we come to you. We give you glory and honor. God, thank you

for being good to us. You've been so good. We've blessed beyond anything we could imagine. How do

you even say spoiled, God? God, that doesn't even compare to how your grace. We didn't deserve it.

We're not even close. You offered it, God. May we not abuse it. May we not walk around playing our

monopoly, get out of jail, free card of grace. We understand it and watch it and know how good it is.

And then consider what you can do in us and through us and then present our bodies as a living

sacrifice. Present our everything that we have to you, God. Present it to you as instruments,

not for the things of this world that hay and stubble will destroy, but eternal things, God.

Eternal things that really, truly matter. Eternal things that can be transformed for your glory,

God. That's what I pray. God, I pray for every man and woman, child,

young adult, teenager in this room, God. God, that you do a mighty work through our church.

You do a mighty work through our church so we understand that we want to be instruments for

your righteousness. God, I pray that. I pray that transforming prayer today. We rely solely on you.

Thank you for your grace. May we understand it and watch what it does in us and through us in

a mighty way. Thank you. We love you. We praise you. We honor you. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.

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