April 24 Sermon Outline & Quotes

“My heart is like a country but half subdued. Mutinies and insurrections are daily happening.”
—Dane Ortlund

I. An identity we need to embrace | v. 11

“It is important we understand what Paul is saying here because he is not telling us to do something but to believe something. We are to believe that we are dead through Christ to both sin’s penalty and its dominion. But it is not something we make come true by believing it. We simply are dead to sin, whether we believe it or not.”
—Jerry Bridges

“There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin, the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent with sin. It is one thing for sin to live in us; it is another for us to live in sin.”
—John Murray

"‘I AM WITH YOU’ means you're always out in public... Sin can't stand to be out in public where everyone knows and everybody's watching. ‘I am with you’ means that the person who can help you right now knows and is watching. In fact, he is watching over you to protect you. He will help you escape darkness, because he has transferred you into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves."
–David Powlison

II. A tyranny we need to resist | v. 12-13a

“We cannot say, ‘I will never sin again.’
But we can say, ‘I need not sin now. At this moment, I am free not to sin.’”
—Christopher Ash

III. An army in which we need to enlist | v. 13b

Think of a way you are wrestling against sin. What would it look like to offer that part of your body/character to God as an instrument of righteousness?
—Tim Keller

IV. A victory we need to anticipate | v. 14

Run, John, run! the law commands—
But gives us neither feet nor hands.
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings!
-John Bunyan