[SPEAKER_00]: Good to be together on this very special Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, in a very real sense every Sunday is a Resurrection Sunday, but I'm thankful that we do have this time of the
[SPEAKER_00]: the resurrection of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're glad that we can do that together and just rejoice in Him and who He is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the message just morning is about the resurrection of Christ and how it impacts us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to look at two passages in particular, we're gonna be in,
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter 6, towards the end of the message, and then also in 1 Corinthians 15 we'll look first at Romans 1 Corinthians 15 and then we'll we'll get to Romans 6 as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in this other verses in between, so keep your bowels, keep your bowels open and we'll look at some of the passages that speak to the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to put before you a question, can a person reject the bodily resurrection of Christ and be a genuine Christian?
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we realize that there are many people that claim to be Christians, that name the name
[SPEAKER_00]: who named the name of Christ, and yet they would deny the bodily resurrection of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And oftentimes, they will reduce the resurrection to an idea or a notion.
[SPEAKER_00]: They might say it is just a metaphor that's meant to teach us a moral lesson.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they would say it's not really intended to be taken literally.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the biblical answer is no, no, you cannot reject the literal resurrection of Christ and be a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Scripture is very clear on this truth that without the resurrection of Christ, there's no gospel of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And without the gospel of Christ, there can be no relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There can be no hope that we can be reconciled into God and have a future with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for us who know the Lord, we rejoice in the truth of the resurrection of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this resurrection of Christ is directly linked to our salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: is our being identified with Christ in his death borne resurrection, and how that the resurrection in particular is linked to our salvation past, present, and future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we don't think about our salvation in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when you think about salvation, we think of only the past event.
[SPEAKER_00]: We put our faith and trust in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a future aspect of our salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's also a present aspect of our salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I want to deal with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so first of all, I want to look at the past aspect of our salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we'll look at the future, and then at the present.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think about our salvation past.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about justification.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a theological word.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a very important word because it is justification is the act of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're by He declares
[SPEAKER_00]: the person who turns to faith and tries to faith as righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: He declares us righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Based upon the finished work of Christ in his death, upon the cross, and our sins are forgiven and we are declared right or righteous with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: our unrighteousness, our sins are put upon Christ, and He died in our place, and His righteousness is put to our account so that we can be declared righteous before God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is our standing, that's who we are in Christ, and that is justification.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a past salvation, it's when you
[SPEAKER_00]: When you turn to Christ in faith, when you repented of your sins and turned to Him, in faith believing you were saved, that's a past event, past salvation, and Paul is going to talk about the resurrection in one Corinthians 15, and he's going to start by reminding us what the gospel of Christ is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice the beginning and verse 1,
[SPEAKER_00]: And one Corinthians chapter 15, he says, now I make known to you brothers the gospel, which I proclaim as good news to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is the gospel, the good news, the good tidings are the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's reminding them of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: they would have known this, they've been taught this, and he says that he has proclaimed it the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says which also you received and in which you stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they are believing the gospel, they have received the gospel, and they stand as believers in Christ in this good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: and he says in verse 2, by which also you are saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you hold fast, the word which I proclaim to you as good news, unless you believe for nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, verse 2, he's acknowledging that not everyone who claims to be a believer is a genuine believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's acknowledging that there's the possibility that some
[SPEAKER_00]: had believed or had this outward profession of faith that was not genuine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, unless he says, by which you're saved, if you hold fast the words which I proclaim to you as good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, genuine saving faith is a steadfast faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a faith that continues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, certainly believers can't have their ups and downs.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can have times of doubt and discouragement and all kinds of problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the genuine believer is one that does not turn away from the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not someone who comes along at some point and says, well, I'd really don't believe in the resurrection anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a genuine believer continues in faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of the grace of God and the power of God, which is within us, he keeps us in where it managed to keep ourselves in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know how to say continues in verse 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to make it very clear what he's talking about and he's reminding them of the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, for I delivered to you as a first importance
[SPEAKER_00]: which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: He repeats that twice there, according to the Scriptures, is the Word of God, the Scriptures, the infallible Word of God that has declared
[SPEAKER_00]: the truth of the gospel to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Paul, as he continues, is going to say, and there's also eyewitnesses of the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he names individuals in as many as 500 at one time that sold the risen Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, and some of them are still alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, this was a
[SPEAKER_00]: of the resurrection of Christ and there were even witnesses that were still alive at the time that Paul is writing to this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the resurrection was not a metaphor, but the literal resurrected Christ just as the scripture had proclaimed
[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul is reminding them of that truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, he comes on down in the verse 17 and 18, and he says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are still in your sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then those also who have fallen asleep, in other words, they've died in Christ, have perished.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no hope, there is no gospel, there is no salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice he says without the resurrection, your faith is worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before, in verse 2, he said, if the faith must be genuine, there was genuine faith, persevere's in faith, persevere's in believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's worthless, you believe for nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now he says, the object of faith must be genuine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not enough just to believe anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we must believe the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he's not true, if the gospel's not true, then it's all for nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our faith is worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: the preaching is worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole enterprise of Christianity is worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's making the point that you can't claim to be a Christian and deny the very central truth of Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where many are at today, and especially in the liberal universities,
[SPEAKER_00]: that told on to the tapestry of Christianity and deny the truth of Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are not of such that we'll question God and think that we're smarter than God and that we can create our own faith and say that we're followers of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we rejoice in this truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: we understand and it is right to associate the death of Christ with justification, that the death of Christ is the basis of our justification.
[SPEAKER_00]: He died for us to kiss our sins upon himself and died in our place.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to also see that the resurrection is also linked
[SPEAKER_00]: It is critical to the plan of God, because if Christ did not raise from the dead, then the eternal plan of God for our salvation has failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Son of God died, paid the price for our sins and remained in the grave.
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of, what kind of Savior is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of God is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That He would die and not raise from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we are told, He did raise from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: We serve a living Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because we serve a living Savior, we have hope for our future salvation, for our resurrection, and that our sins are indeed our forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to notice how Romans 4 and verse 25 links these truths together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 425 says, He who was delivered over on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 25 says, He who was delivered over.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a reference to the crucifixion.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was delivered over to be crucified on account of our transgressions, our sins, and he says He was also raised on account of our justification so you can see that those two cannot be separated.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can talk about the death of Christ and you can talk about the resurrection of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in God's plan, you can't have one without the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the resurrection is just as critical as the death of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, the resurrection was a validation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say it was a proof positive that God was satisfied with the offering of Christ for our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was this holy and righteous God.
[SPEAKER_00]: was satisfied.
[SPEAKER_00]: His righteous demands was satisfied in the person of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he died on the cross, he was satisfied so that our sins could be forgiven, those who turned to him in faith believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the resurrection is a testimony to that price paid satisfied.
[SPEAKER_00]: in Christ, and so that God would turn away from His wrath towards us because of Christ, and that He would turn to us in favor, in forgiveness, because of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so our past salvation rest fully upon the death, in the resurrection of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also think now towards this future, the future salvation, the plan of God for our resurrection and our glorification, and that arrest fully upon the Lord Jesus Christ as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that Christ has risen gives us this sure and steadfast hope of our own resurrection
[SPEAKER_00]: to be with the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we mustn't just think of the resurrection of Christ in our identification with Him as something that is past, but something that is future.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has the impact upon our future as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for all of us who have repented of our sins and turns of the Lord Jesus Christ and faith, we are identified.
[SPEAKER_00]: in his death, his burial, in his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we rejoice in that truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We serve a risen Savior, and because he is risen, we can expect that we, too, will be risen because we are in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that one day, when we are risen,
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a body that will be similar to our old body, but glorified, glorified, like the risen body of the Lord Jesus Christ, but one that is able to be in the presence of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever thought about that, if we were exposed to the glory of God and the full revelation of His glory, we would be consumed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God told Moses, you know, Moses said, I want to see you face to face and God let's know you can't do that and live.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God does veil his glory so that Moses is able to see the parting glory of God is
[SPEAKER_00]: And afterwards, when comes down off the mountain, his face is still glowing from that limited revelation of God's glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, when Christ came, remember John, chapter one, he says, we beheld his glory, the glory, the only begotten of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that was only a glimpse of his glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a limited revelation of the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would have all perished that looked upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one day we will have bodies that are glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we will no longer have the presence of sin within us, or the desire of sin within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll no longer be the limitations of our physical bodies and the propensity to sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the limitations of our weakness, both physically and spiritually, but we will have glorified bodies and be with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what a wonderful truth that is, and in Romans,
[SPEAKER_00]: He deals quite a bit with his truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 8, verse 11, says, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, we're talking about the Holy Spirit of God, who buys power, race, Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if He dwells in you, in other words, if you are a believer,
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a genuine believer, the Spirit of God dwells in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through your spirit who dwells in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this living God within us is going to one day empower our old bodies that may already be in the ground or Christ might come back when we're still alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we will be transformed by the power of God into a glorified body and being that will be with the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God's plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: His eternal plan for us as believers in Christ, from the beginning to end, His purpose is that we who belong to Him will be with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we might be glorified and conformed unto the image of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in Romans go to chapter 8, verse 28 to 30, he speaks to this plan of God and verses 28 to 30 gives us this image from God's perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's many passages that look at our salvation and what God
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he looks at God's plan from our perspective, there's this, his adminsions of what we must do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must turn from our sin to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must trust him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must obey him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here we're given God's plan from God's perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this purpose of God, and he says in verse 28, and we know that for those who love God,
[SPEAKER_00]: for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He's going to describe this purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says because those whom He for new, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's His purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: His in-gold for us is that we would be like Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to be perfectly like Christ, in the sense we're not going to be God as Christ is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to have a glorified body that will allow us to be in His presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as he says, so that He would be the first born among many brothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God is doing this work in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day we will be with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he continues, and he shows us where God's plan is taking us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says in those whom he predestined, he also called.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those whom he called, he also justified.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll notice that the tense there is all past tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the point is, from God's perspective, it's already done in real time, it's not all done yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're still as the people who are that we're saving this letter, we're still in the old body, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't yet been glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been saved, we've been called and justified, but
[SPEAKER_00]: glorification is still future but from God's perspective it's as good as done because it rest upon God in His power to accomplish His purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can rejoice in this truth that God is moving us to a place where that we will be with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the hope that we have, the sure and steadfast hope of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be with Him in glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one John chapter three, he says it this way, verse two and three, one John chapter three, verse two, beloved, now we are children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it has not been manifested as yet,
[SPEAKER_00]: What we will be, we don't use that word manifested very often like that, it's talking about what's revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to become evident, it's going to be revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not yet fully revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't yet realized it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he says, we know that when he is manifested,
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be like him because we will see him just as he is, or is in his glory and we're going to be like him and he says, everyone who has this hope fixed on him, nor is this hope is not fixed on us, it's fixed on him and everyone that has this hope fixed on
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this truth of what God is doing and has planned for us does not lead us to laziness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does not lead us to complacency.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does not lead us to set back and say, well, God has a plan for me, so I don't need to be engaged, I don't need to be involved.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, just the opposite is true for the genuine believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having realized God's purpose and plan for us and how that we will be with the Lord, John writes that a person who has this hope, this hope that is fixed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctifies himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He purifies himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: just as he is pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, we are not waiting until the Lord comes back to be set apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are already in the process of being set apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the last point that I want to think about is this present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get there, I want to speak just a couple of
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is coming back and we're going to be taken to be with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have confidence in that as one John 2 says, there is an expectation, there's a confidence, there's an eagerness or eagerly waiting for the return of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 3 and verse 20 and 21 speaks about this, this future expectation of glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in Philippians 320, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which, also, we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about this transformation that's going to take place.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is going to change
[SPEAKER_00]: What he describes here is the body of our humble state, and in the words, our humble condition, the body of weakness, the body of frailty, the troubles that we have in our body, both physically and spiritually and emotionally, all of that humble condition is gonna be changed to be in conformity,
[SPEAKER_00]: with the body of His glory, and He continues the verse 21 by His working through which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you see the focus up on this is the work of God, what He is going to accomplish and bring about in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the resurrection of Christ then is linked not only to our past salvation, our justification.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's linked to our future salvation, our glorification.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's also linked to our present salvation in sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: sanctification is the ongoing work of being changed, being conformed to the image of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: One day it's going to be complete, that's the future, the glorification will be perfectly transformed, glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we live on this earth until we die and go to be with the Lord, we are in this process of sanctification, being set apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an ongoing work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are to cooperate with God in this work.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are changed and we grow by His power.
[SPEAKER_00]: But He has commanded that we put ourselves into a place where He can change us.
[SPEAKER_00]: if that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, by you being here this morning is in obedience to God's plan and purpose for your being sanctified.
[SPEAKER_00]: By hearing the Word of God, the singing the hymns, by hearing prayers, by joining together with the encouragement of fellow believers, you are cooperating with God in His plan to change you, to grow you, to be more like Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is our present ongoing work of sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Romans 6, we're in Romans, sort of there to chapter 6, the whole chapter deals with this truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's making the point that because believers are in Christ, we are united in Him through our turning to Him in faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: United us to him in his death, burial, and resurrection, and we are to live in that reality in this new life that we have in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the big point of
[SPEAKER_00]: of Romans chapter six, and so I want to just look at briefly, we won't go all the way through it, but we'll pick out some of the high points here, and so you can follow what Paul is arguing for as he writes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice the verse 3 and 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 6, verse 3, or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he's talking about the spiritual baptism here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can see that as you read in the context.
[SPEAKER_00]: Physical, literal, water baptism, pictures, the spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a image.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a reminder.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a message.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the literal is the spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: if I can put it that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, our being identified or our being immersed into Christ to place it in faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we turn to Christ in faith, that's when our sins were forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when we were buried with Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's when we were raised into this new life in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as he uses the word baptism here, I want you to realize he's talking about our being immersed, that's what baptism means, to be immersed or dumped.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you're a rust, that you put in your coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: You baptize it, that's what baptism means.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a transeloration of the Greek word that means to immerse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are,
[SPEAKER_00]: We are placed in Christ, and we turn to Him in faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He says, I want you to know this, that all of us who are baptised in the Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 4, therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if that's the first time you've read that passage or heard that read, that's a lot to take in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what he's talking about is our union, or our identification with Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you put your faith and trust in Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: in his death, so that although he died all those, you know, thousands of years before when you put your faith in what he did for you, you are identified with him in his death, in his burial, and in his resurrection, so that what he did has direct impact upon you as a believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this newness of life that he speaks of there at the end of verse 4, that we so to we might walk in newness of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about our present life right now, but we might walk in newness of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: From this resurrection life that we have in Christ, it's not just a future life, it's a present life right now that we have in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Scripture tells us that we are new, a new creation in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, certainly true that we still struggle, don't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: Although we have this new life, this resurrection life in Christ, we still have the struggles, we still have the sinful desires of the flesh and the unredeemed old self is still given us
[SPEAKER_00]: But that power, the controlling power of sin and the old self has died with Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, we are not longer under the bondage of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have been given new life and we have power in Christ, the Spirit of God, over the controlling power of sin and the old man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as some have written, we've died with Christ in our old life, and so we need to bury it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to recognize that that old self is died and buried with Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to consider it to be so, because we have victory and freedom in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, for we have been united with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that identification.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's speaking of the United.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are united with him in a death like he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see how important the resurrection is?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it doesn't do us any good to have died with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're not going to be resurrected with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says, without the resurrection, it's all vain, it's all worthless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the resurrection is critical for our faith, and he goes on to say, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the old man, or the old self, has been brought to nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was it no longer has this power that it had before.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the freedom that we have in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: The freedom not to do as we please, but to freedom to live for Him, the freedom to serve Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives, and the next part, starting in verse 11, he gives us a call to action.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, if you know these truths, basically, if this is true, if you know it to be true, if it's happened, then I want you to act like it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: verse 11 says, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's, I want to boil down the two actions, two applications you could say of this truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, consider this new reality to be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the believer in Christ is not enough just to know,
[SPEAKER_00]: the facts of the fact that we're identified with Christ and we have this new power, this new life in Christ, but we're to live in that victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are to consider it to be so in our life and act as if it is so.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, we're to live according to who we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: as a believer in Christ, that has life in Christ, as victory over the dominating power of sin, we're to live in that reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: So consider, think it, live in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then secondly, he says to yield, this is the second call to action, is to yield to our new master.
[SPEAKER_00]: and serve him, and in the much of the continuing passage has is dealing with this issue of our past slavery and bondage to sinned, and their old life, the old self, was under this master of sin and the dominating power because of our, the sinfulness of our flesh,
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the Spirit of God who dwells within us and this new life in Christ and we have this victory so that we now serve a new master.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a new Lord and verse 13, notice how He says, Romans 6, 13, do not present your
[SPEAKER_00]: 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 of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's contrasting the two, but whereas before we lived in the world, for the world serving
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, but now you have a new master, now you have a new life, and give yourself yield yourself over to this new master to serve him and live for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This imagery that he's giving is dealing with this imagery of bondage, you can think of someone who's been, you know, he's chained up and he's in a prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now that we're in Christ, we have a new master, and we're slaves to righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to emphasize that in these verses, and we won't take time to read all the verses, but the point that he's making is that we've been set free, not to live ourselves, but free to serve
[SPEAKER_00]: the New Lord and Master, as I said in verse 17, 18, he says, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart, the pattern of teaching to which you were given over, and have been freed from sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You became slaves of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now there's a lot in that verse that he's saying for us there, but he's rejoicing the fact that although we before we were saved were slaves to sin, we became obedient from the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were obedient and the obedience that he's talking about is the obedience to the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's command to believe, to turn
[SPEAKER_00]: to Christ and faith believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, we've become obedient from the heart, the pattern of teaching to which you were given over.
[SPEAKER_00]: The pattern of teaching is the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this teaching related to righteousness, the life of righteousness according to God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we obeyed from the heart, this new pattern of life, God has changed us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we have a desire to live for Him
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a new pattern of life, but don't you notice that little phrase to which you were given over?
[SPEAKER_00]: In chapter one of the same letter, or at the end of the chapter, Paul describes in that passage, those who reject the truth of God, those who suppress the truth in
[SPEAKER_00]: unrighteousness, and they reject the Creator, and they worship instead the creation, and the things that are in the world, instead of the one who created the world, and it goes on to describe the sinfulness and the giving themselves fully to sin in the world, and three different
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says, and God gave them over.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a gave them over to their own desires, their own unrighteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to notice here, he says that we were given over, and what he's describing is righteousness, a pattern of teaching to which you were given over.
[SPEAKER_00]: and He says, you become slaves of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what God has done in His doing in us, so that our lives would be given over to righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas before we were given over to our own passions, on sinful desires, to live in unrighteousness, and He says, but now you're given over to righteousness and to serve this new master.
[SPEAKER_00]: because we've been freed from this power, this dominating influence of sin in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was going to bring this chapter to a conclusion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in verse 21, he's going to say, therefore, and it's a clue for us that he's summing this up for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to talk about the result
[SPEAKER_00]: of our new life as compared to the result of the old life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he does that by using the word in our text, and the translation I have uses the word Benefit.
[SPEAKER_00]: This literally the word fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll read you for you verse 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, what benefit were you then having from the things
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something about the old life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The old life of sin, it had a fruit, a benefit, or a result you could say in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we look back on it, we are ashamed of that life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, for the end of those things is death.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the end is death, physically and spiritually.
[SPEAKER_00]: eternal death.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit and where does it lead?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, to sanctification in the end eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The old life that's enslaved and bondaged to sin, serving self doing exactly what we wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God has done a transformation in our lives and He's brought us to the truth and He's convicted of our true condition and He's brought light to us so that we can see the gospel,
[SPEAKER_00]: turn to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repentants at faith, believing what He has done for us and the Lord transforms us and makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That transforms us at that moment justifies
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's working in our lives now to day by day, progressively, to change us, to grow us, to be more like Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day that work is going to be finished.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord takes us home to be with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to give us a glorified body.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll no longer have this conflict with the sinful desires of the flesh, but we will be with him forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an old him that some of you would be familiar with.
[SPEAKER_00]: It asks the question, were you there when they crucified my Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's various verses in that, but I particularly like the three, and that, or the second one, says, were you there when they lay them in the tomb, and so you have the death in the burial, and then especially on the resurrection Sunday, you shouldn't leave out the last one, which says, were you there when he rose up from the grave?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the answer to that question for us who know the Lord is, yes, we were there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not in literally in time, not physically there, but as Paul describes in Romans 6, that we were so identified with Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection that we died with him, and that we were buried with him, and that we have been risen together with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day that will be fully realized when we were with him for eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can rejoice and praise the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that truth is and should be to his praise and to his glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is we think about the resurrection we rejoice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what God has done in his doing and will do in us, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Father, for this truth this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, as we thought about the resurrection, Lord may it stir our hearts as we are reminded of the truth that our hope is renewed and what you did, and what you are doing, and the what you will finish.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you have promised, what you began, you will complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we thank you for that work in us, a Lord it humbles us, and it makes us to realize that we are unworthy sinners saved by your grace, and that anything that we are able to do with this future hope that we have is all because of the Lord Jesus Christ and your eternal plan to save us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you and praise you, your honor and glory, Amen.