Pastor: Paul D. Nolting

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Hymns: 41; 298:1-4,6; 751; 47

WELCOME in the name of Jesus whose life, death, and resurrection free us from sin and deliver us from death!

Pre-Service meditation: Psalm 27

Pre-Service prayer:

Lord God, our blessed heavenly Father, we come before You this day to praise Your holy name and to receive instruction from you inspired Word. Prepare our hearts by sending Your Spirit to lead us to a sincere repentance of our sins and to instill within us a firm faith in Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior. May we never treat sin lightly, but rather recognize that our sins cost Jesus His life, as He secured the redemption of our souls. Help us ever to remain Your faithful children. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Responsive Psalm Reading: Psalm 130

Pastor: Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;

Cong: Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.

P: If You, Lord, should mark inquities,

C: O Lord, who could stand?

P: But there is forgiveness with You,

C: That You may be feared.

P: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

C: And in His Word I do hope.

P: My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning—

C: I say, more than those who watch for the morning.

P: O Israel, hope in the Lord;

C: For with the Lord there is mercy.

P: With Him is abundant redemption,

C: And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9

SERMON:

In Christ Jesus, whose love for us is to define our attitude towards sin, dear fellow redeemed:

The spiritual struggle and resulting confusion has been going on for two thousand years. If the Christian gospel is true, and it is, that we cannot save ourselves, but are completely dependent upon the grace of God. If that gospel is true, and it is, that our works do not save us, but that we are saved alone by faith in Jesus Christ. If it is true, and it is, that God’s grace is always greater than sin, and that all sins have been paid for by the redemptive work of Jesus. Why not then take a casual attitude towards sin? Why not continue in sin and simply assume that, "I can keep on sinning against God, because I can always repent later, be forgiven, and then be saved?"

While most of us have probably never sat down to analyze our attitude towards sin, I would imagine that the majority of us have flirted with a casual attitude towards sin. Perhaps it took the form of describing a falsehood as merely a "white" lie. Perhaps it involved stealing something from work and thinking the company will never miss it. Perhaps we justified our sinful actions by saying, "Well, everyone else is doing it!" Perhaps we have excused sinful outbursts by saying, "That is just the way I am," or "I just could not help myself!" In these and many other ways, we display upon occasion casual attitudes towards sin.

OUGHT CHRISTIANS TREAT SIN LIGHTLY? People in St. Paul’s day suggested such a thing, when they asked, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" St. Paul’s response was, "CERTAINLY NOT! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" In our text, St. Paul offers three reasons why we ought not treat sin in a casual manner—reasons, all of which, tie us directly to Jesus Christ.

St. Paul points out, first of all, that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus and are now to walk in newness of life! He writes, "Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

St. Paul’s first reason why Christians ought not treat sin lightly is tied to the relationship we have with Jesus through our baptisms. His argument may seem strange to many people today, even to many Christians, and perhaps even to some Lutherans. The reason is because many people today fail to see the true purpose and significance of baptism. They view it merely as an external act of man, by which man testifies to his faith, or as an act performed in the distant past, which has no relevance to daily life. Baptism, however, in reality is a blessed means of grace by which God actively blesses us through Jesus Christ. God, not man, is the primary actor in baptism, and the fruits of baptism continue throughout our lives! Through baptism God creates and strengthens faith, bestowing upon us His blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Ananias told the blinded Saul, soon to become the apostle Paul, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins" (Acts 22:16). St. Paul later encouraged Titus, "He (God) saved us, through the washing of regeneration (baptism) and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (3:5).

Baptism brings us into a faith-based relationship with Jesus Christ. Through baptism God, as it were, ties us to Christ Jesus’ death—placing us side by side with Him in the grave. He links us to Jesus’ resurrection—causing us by faith to rise with Him each day. The benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection are ours by faith, and our baptisms are to be a daily reminder of that fact. We have been forgiven. We are God’s "own special people" (1 Peter 2:9). We are destined by grace to walk with God throughout eternity, for "he who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:15). Consequently, every day we are with Jesus "to walk in newness of life!"

What does that mean? It means that day by day our thoughts, words, and actions are to be undertaken with the full knowledge of what our Savior has done for us, as well as the fact that He walks by our side—forgiving, upholding, and strengthening us. Under such circumstances can we possibly think lightly of sin—that which placed Jesus on the cross and in the grave? Certainly not! Rather our desire will be that of the Psalmist, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). We will ask ourselves, "Would our Savior think such thoughts?" If not, neither should we. Would our Savior approve of such words or such actions? If not, we should not undertake them. Imagine how our lives and relationships would be transformed in many cases overnight, if we only remember that we are to walk with Jesus each day "in newness of life!" We are to greet each day with Jesus as a fresh opportunity granted to us by God. We are to take advantage of the opportunities our relationships offer us to build others up—to encourage them in the Lord, to let our lights shine (cf. Matthew 5:16), rather than to vent our anger and tear others down with unkind words or actions. My dear friends, we have been baptized into Christ Jesus and are now to walk in newness of life!

OUGHT CHRISTIANS TO TREAT SIN LIGHTLY? CERTAINLY NOT! St. Paul provides a second reason, when he informs us that we have been freed from sin by Christ Jesus and are no longer to live under sin’s tyranny! St. Paul writes, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin."

Notice once again how St. Paul ties us to Jesus Christ. We are "united together" with Him in His death—both its purpose and its blessed results. Jesus died, because of our sins. He died as our substitute to bear the punishment our sins deserved. Bearing that thought in mind, we are to crucify our "old man"—our sinful flesh, just as Jesus was crucified, so that sin will no longer dominate our lives. Then, just as Jesus was raised from the dead and has gained our freedom from sin and its dreadful consequences, we are to live in the freedom we have in Christ by not allowing ourselves to become slaves to sin once again.

St. Paul’s comments are not a dramatic overstatement. Our adversary, the devil wants to enslave our souls to sin. That is man’s status, after all, by nature—enslaved to sin and doomed to eternal destruction. We Americans believe we live in "the land of the free, and the home of the brave!" That is what makes Satan’s deception so perfect, however, for many in America and around the world view sin’s slavery as a desired form of freedom. They believe themselves to be free to do what they want, without realizing that their sinful actions ultimately take their toll, their supposed pleasures are short-lived, and judgment ultimately will come, for all must one day stand before the judgment seat of God. Thirty years ago the popular cry was, "Do your own thing. Do what you want to do!" It always seemed so ironic to me, however, for what that really meant was do what everyone else was doing, which was rebelling against all authority—human or divine. In reality, those same people could have been chanting, "Do Satan’s thing. Do what he wants you to do."

Those who have been caught in sin’s web can both understand its depressing nature and the freedom of walking with the Lord. Think about the alcoholic who loses control and begins to binge drink, or the drug addict trembling as he prepares his next needle. Are such people free, or are they in reality slaves? Think about the individual whose private life has become dominated by an insatiable appetite for pornographic materials, or those whose lives are so complicated by lying, that they accurately cannot tell the difference between truth and falsehood. Are such people free, or are they in reality slaves? But slavery to sin goes beyond these easily understood examples. Is not the individual who straps explosives to his body and blows himself up in the midst of a marketplace with the hope of gaining entrance into heaven a slave to idolatry? Is not the individual, who thinks himself sufficiently moral, so that he really does not need a Savior, but rather will stand on his own merits before God some day, a slave to his own pride and spiritual ignorance? Such individuals sin against the very First Commandment and are slaves of sin without even realizing it!

My dear friends, if you are caught up in a life of ongoing sin against God, turn to your Savior with a repentant heart. The Psalmist cries out, "There is forgiveness with (God)" (Psalm 130:4). Jesus has paid the price on Calvary’s cross. He and He alone can give you the strength to overcome the stranglehold of sin and help you enjoy the freedom faith provides. We have been freed from sin by Christ Jesus and are no longer to live under sin’s tyranny!

OUGHT CHRISTIANS TREAT SIN LIGHTLY? CERTAINLY NOT! St. Paul provides a third and final reason, when he reminds us that we have died to sin with Christ Jesus and are now to be alive to God in our Lord! He writes, "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves, to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"We died with Christ…we shall also live with Him!" In what sense have we died with Christ? We were not on Calvary’s cross with Jesus Christ, were we? Jesus died almost two thousand years ago! Yet, in a very real sense we were there. "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 3:26) the Bible says. Jesus did not earn death, but He endured it for each and every one of us who did earn it in view of our sins. He was nailed to that cross in our place, and so we in a very real sense were nailed there with Him. Through Him we overcome death and now shall live with Him forever.

Unless the end of time comes first, death will be the inevitable end of each of our lives here on this earth. People try to hide from that fact, but they cannot escape it. People often live their lives in denial of that fact, but our denial of truth does not change truth. Just open the Free-Press any day of the week and the fact of death stares you in the face on the Obituary page.

How can we face this fact without becoming depressed by it? St. Paul explains. He assures us that while Jesus died, He also arose again and "death no longer has dominion over Him." Neither does it have dominion over us, Jesus’ faithful followers. Oh, yes, we will also die one day, but death’s sting has been removed through the redemptive work of Jesus. Death becomes simply a door to eternal life, and because of Jesus we will never see the "second death," that is, eternal damnation (Revelation 20:6). No, as God’s believing children—as brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus, we can live our lives with confidence here in this world, knowing that even as God has a plan for our earthly lives, He also has prepared a brilliant future for us in heaven. Consequently, let us never think lightly of sin. Rather, let us seek to live our lives and fulfill our individual callings to the glory of God with minds enlightened and guided by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear friends, may it ever be so among us all! Amen.