business at his business in order to Ensure that his life when he retired would be comfortable. He was not looking to be rich he concerned himself with many details of his business and really to the point where He was really driving his workers crazy He was you know very concerned about every penny that would spent and how he could best use every penny just concerned about every detail and accounting for everything and His outlook was really narrow concerning that because he only had one thing in mind, and that was to retire and to be comfortable in his retirement. And in doing so, he was alerted to the fact that he had been willed a significant estate. So much so that he did not have to, again, worry about his retirement and about his comfortableness. He would just be as comfortable as can be. As a matter of fact, he moved to this place, this house that had been willed to him, and all of the money that came with it, it really changed his life. Really a kind of a modern day, you know, Cinderella story, or whatever it might be. And when this happened, his whole outlook changed. He went from being concerned about the little tiny things and every detail of life to now being comfortable and being able to kind of change his gaze to that which was more, maybe we could say extraneous or whatever it might be. And his whole perspective in life changed. But what I'm speaking of this morning in this man's life that had happened is what happens to a person when they understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is. You see, this is not just an event that I mentioned before. It's not just a series of beliefs. But what we understand from the resurrection this morning is that this is about a person. And knowing that person changes our lives. And doesn't just make us a different person. Today, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't make me a better person, it makes me a changed, completely different person. The word that's used in the scripture is the word that we use when we look at a little caterpillar that's getting ready to change from that ugly caterpillar that just crawls around and eats a bunch of green leaves and is ugly, unless you like that kind of thing, and he just kind of is ugly and has no purpose other than just to gorge himself on all the food he can, and then to change from what he was into something that is absolutely beautiful. Now, no one would deny that that's the exact same animal, but everyone would agree that that animal is a completely different being in nature and in purpose. And that word, metamorphosis, that word to completely transform and to change is what the Lord Jesus Christ does to us. And I'm so thankful today that I have understood that when I was a young boy. And I wasn't a particularly bright young boy, but I did understand this, that I was a sinner before an almighty God. I hadn't done anything wicked or terrible other than, you know, tell some lies and other things that are wicked and terrible enough in themselves. But any one of those things would have been enough to condemn me to a place called hell. And I'm thankful today that I know and I understood the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today I want to just give you, if I can, a little bit of background concerning this. In John chapter 11, where I read, Jesus said unto them, I am the resurrection and the life. This last statement of our Lord was in context to his last and really his greatest miracle that we will find recorded in the scriptures before his death. And that was the raising of Lazarus from the grave. Now, Lazarus and Mary and Martha were a family of brothers and sisters who were very much a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ. They lived in Bethany, which was about two miles down from Jerusalem. And it was very frequent that Jesus would come down and visit in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And He became very close to them. They ministered to Him in His physical needs. One day, Jesus was in Jerusalem, and He understood from a messenger that had been brought up from Bethany that Lazarus was very sick, and yes, even at the point of death. And Jesus, instead of getting His clothes on and getting ready to go down immediately, as we would a good friend of ours that was close to death, Jesus waited, and He decided not to go. And it was very, very concerning to His disciples. Why don't we go? But yet Jesus had a purpose in all of this, and Jesus indeed waited until that time came when Lazarus died and was in the grave. You say, wow, that's pretty hopeless. Listen, I agree as a human being. Death looks pretty hopeless, doesn't it? I mean, you know what? As long as I have breath in my lungs, and I'm able to take nourishment, There's pretty much, we could probably find some help for me if I was sick, right? We've got some pretty good medical facilities here in Cleveland and boy, I would be in pretty good hands if I was sick and I had some ailment and I could probably go and get some treatment for and feel pretty confident that I'd get what I needed. But when it comes to death, there's a finality about that, humanly speaking, isn't there? There's no hope for that. I don't know any clinics in the world that can bring somebody back to life. Boy, they'd be a popular clinic if they could, wouldn't they? But today we understand that that finality of death is something that can only be broached and can only be corrected by someone who has power of life and death. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it was because of His willingness to glorify His Father and to show people who He was that He waited until Lazarus was dead in the grave. And he came to them. You can imagine Mary Martha's response to them as Jesus was walking down the path. As a matter of fact, the Bible says Martha went out to meet him. She had a word or two for Jesus, didn't she? If you would have come and just been here, you could have healed him like you did all those other people and he could have been well and here with us today. And then he talked to Martha a little bit and said, Martha, your brother Lazarus, he will rise again. And she said to Jesus, Jesus, I know in the resurrection day and that final resurrection, he'll rise again. But I'm talking about right now. Jesus says, Martha, you have some things to understand. And that's when he said, I am the resurrection and the life. And the Bible says, if any man be, even though he is dead, yet shall he live. And if any man be in Christ and believeth in him, though he were alive, he will never die. Who can make statements like that but the Lord Jesus Christ? Who can give power over life and death but the Lord Jesus Christ today? And he made that very clear to Martha as he met with them. And so today I just want to propose to you this, that being in the Lord Jesus Christ and understanding his forgiveness for our sins and his payment that he made for us makes all the difference for us humans. Can I say today that we as human beings, we are a hopeless and sad people. I told you we go about all of our devices to try to make our lives easy and better and try to salve our consciences and we try to hide the fact that we're miserable by entertaining ourselves or addicting ourselves to certain things. And what I'm saying today is we are hopeless in all of these things. Why? Because there's no hope in any of those things apart from the Lord Jesus Christ today. I'm just as much human as anybody else. And I understand all of the temptations and all of the struggles that we go through, but I'm testifying today, publicly, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He enters into a person's heart, makes them a new person. And life in the Lord Jesus Christ, we possess everything. It is a paradise in the Lord Jesus Christ. That means that we have joy that's flowing like a river, and peace that is springing up like a well inside of us. And I'm so thankful for what the Lord has for His children. But I say today that if we are not in the Lord Jesus and we have not accepted that eternal forgiveness by His death on the cross, then I find that our life is without possession. There is nothing in it. It's a wilderness. We wander around. It is something that we can despair in. It becomes very easy because we are not intended as a human being to be separated from God by our sin. But yet we find ourselves in that position. Today, I want to just reiterate to us that there is glory and power in the resurrection. And let me just bring to bear in our lives what that means to you and I today, sitting in Broadview Heights Baptist Church on April the 20th, 2014, because it means something to you and I today. Can I just give you these three thoughts before we're finished this morning? And I want to help us to understand from Romans chapter 6 and verse 4, that verse that we read today, where the Bible says, we are buried with him by baptism into death. that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Notice if you would, first of all, as we look into the word of God this morning, in verse number six of chapter six, verse number four of chapter six, I want you to notice that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was a glorious event. The word glory there was given to us by the glory of the Father. And in contrast to his humiliation, let me just take you back through the last week of the Lord Jesus Christ's life. He had entered triumphantly into Jerusalem on that day when he came in and they were shouting, Hosanna to the Lord, and laying down their palm branches and taking off their coats and laying them down before his donkey as he rode in to Jerusalem. And they were proclaiming him as king. And it wasn't very long before the Lord Jesus Christ began to experience the disdain and the dislike of those in that city. And it led up to that final day when the Lord Jesus Christ was taken before Pilate. And as he was taken in before Pilate and accused of the Jews of being something he was not and causing division and trouble. And he was taken and he was scourged just to satisfy the demands of all of those high priests and the Jews. And when he was scourged with the cat of nine tails, the Bible says he was torn apart. That cat of nine tails was a horrendous thing. I don't need to go into detail this morning. After that, he was plated a crown of thorns on his head. Then they used a reed to hit him over the head as he was blindfolded. Then he was mocked, saying, you say you're the king of the Jews. Hey, come and call your subjects to come and rescue you away. If you're really Jesus, prophesy who hit you in your blindness. And mocking and cruelly treating the Lord Jesus to the point where they spat upon him and plucked his beard out, the Bible says. Horrendous. Even for a person who is guilty of something, it's horrendous treatment. But here is the innocent Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. taken and set apart for judgment and brought before the people again, and the high priest said, crucify him, crucify him, and Pilate and all of the leaders of Rome saying, I don't have any reason to crucify him. They insisted that they crucify him, even to the point where they released a murderer, a known murderer, Barabbas, in place of Jesus. Well, all this week, we know that this is coming, the Lord Jesus Christ The night before all of this was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done. And praying that the Lord God would glorify Himself. Finding His disciples sleeping beside Him. Finding that Judas would betray Him. All of these things in the week coming up to the grave. We find in that crucifixion day, the Lord Jesus hanging on that tree. And crying out, Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And into my hands I commend my spirit, and giving up the ghost. And then as they were coming around, it was drawing toward the end of the day when they needed to get the men down off the crosses. And they found that the other two men had not yet died. But Jesus had already died. And just to make sure, they drove that spear up into his side, and out came blood and water, the Bible says. I'm not trying to be gruesome, I'm just trying to show you that there was great humiliation in the week that preceded the death, or preceded the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that humiliation came about with mankind disdaining and scorning Him, and rejecting Him, and even His own turning their back on them. The Bible says all of His disciples forsook Him and fled. Oh, what a sad, hopeless day, and humiliating day for the Lord Jesus. So, we find that as he went into the grave, I can imagine that all of the world at that time and all of his disciples probably put a stamp of closure on all that. That phase of our life is over. No more Jesus. All that he taught us, oh, it was good and it was helpful, and boy, we enjoyed it. But he's no more. Even though he had prophesied to them that he was going to raise again the third day. Well, there was much humiliation in that week preceding the resurrection And Matthew, if we were to go back and read some more of that, we would understand the gloom and the tragedy of those days was great. But I'm telling you this morning that it was nothing in comparison and in contrast to the glory that came about because of his resurrection. You know, I don't have any problem saying I'm thankful for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ today because, you know, I know that he is not on that cross and he's not in that grave, but he rose again. And so I can glory in the cross, not because I glory in all the gore and the difficulty, but knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ paid my punishment. And all of that, all of that hardship and violence, it was because of me. It was because of my sin. Now, you say, what did you do, Pastor, that made it so bad for Jesus to have to die on the cross and suffer like that? All I would have had to do is disobey one time. You see, with Christ and in God's economy, there's not great sins and little sins when it comes to punishment. A sin is a breaking of God's law. The Bible says that if we offend in one point, in the book of James, it says if we offend God's law in one point, we're guilty of the whole thing. If I was to string a string from end to end, and I would say on this end is the little tiny sins that no one even considers, and it's no big deal, and they're private, and nobody even considers those a sin. On this end we name the biggest sin that we could ever think of. And somewhere on that line, I were to take a scissors or pull my knife out of my pocket and cut that line somewhere, no one would disagree that that cord had been broken. It doesn't matter if I'm on that end or this end, the cord is broken. It needs to be paid. And that's the punishment that the Lord Jesus Christ took on the cross. You know what, if it was just one person's sin, my sin only, Jesus would have had to pay with all of the violence that he did because of that one sin. Then you multiply that times the billions and billions of people on the earth and the sin of that time, you can begin to understand the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus and the humiliation of that cross. But I say today that that is nothing because we know that Jesus Christ arose from the grave and we know that he's not dead anymore. Therefore, the humiliation of the cross is clearly outshined by the glory of the resurrection. And it was a glorious, glorious resurrection in contrast to the humiliation that he experienced. There's no dishonor in His death today because the resurrection has covered the shame of that death with the splendor of victory. That's why we can say, like in the New Testament, O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is over, it's defeated. No longer do I fear those things that once I feared so mortally because I'm a human being. But Jesus defeated that today, and I can glory in the cross of Calvary because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the cross, and I rejoice in Jesus in Gethsemane praying. Why? Because there's a glory in the resurrection of a risen Savior. And that bright glory of the resurrection and all the light that it sheds brings a wonderful light down the valley of that shadow of death that we all fear. Oh, the Bible speaks in Psalm 23 that there is a valley of the shadow of death. But I'm telling you today that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ shines a bright light down that shadow. I don't need to worry about that. I don't need to fear those things that are in the shadows. And yes, that even most offensive to me, the death of my own body, I don't need to fear because the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And so there's great glory in contrast to his humiliation, but there's great glory also in the effects that it has upon us. He was delivered, the Bible says, for our offenses. I already made that clear. Jesus Christ hung on the cross that day when He was crucified because of all the offenses that all of us have done. He was delivered for our offenses, the Bible says. But the Bible says also that He was raised again for our justification. That means that if He were to give payment for our offenses, that would be one thing, and He would take that surety upon Himself. That would be no better than if I were going to pay the punishment for someone here. Let's pretend, um, Cody, can you be a, uh, can you be a criminal today, Cody? Come here. All right. So Cody's a criminal. And, uh, probably I ought to turn this around and make me a criminal, but we'll make Cody the criminal today. And let's just pretend that Cody did something terrible. I'm not even going to name what it is. And, uh, it's terrible. Matter of fact, he got arrested and he stood before the judge and the judge is about ready to proclaim a judgment upon him and a sentence for his payment of his crime. And so, Cody, here comes the judge, and the judge is getting ready to pronounce judgment upon you, and just as he does, I stand in the way and I say, wait a minute, judge, I am volunteering, I'm volunteering myself to take the punishment for Cody here. I'm sure that would be highly irregular, right? In other words, I don't know of anybody that had done that recently. But let's say that I did, and I was going to pay the full punishment, whatever it is, life in prison, the death chair, whatever, I would go and take Cody's place in that punishment. You know, that would be one thing. And so Cody goes and sits down. He's a free man. Rejoice a little bit, Cody. All right. So he's free. So here comes me. They come and handcuff me and take me away. And here I go. And now I'm Cody Kojima. I'm serving his punishment and I'm taking his place. That would be very notable, wouldn't it? That would be something that would be admirable. I might even have books written about me, and I might have TV shows come and say, hey, we want to interview this guy who took the place. This is an island regular. Why don't you do this? How do you understand this? And I might have all kinds of notoriety, but I would still be under the condemnation of that sin, wouldn't I? And for the life until that punishment is paid, I would still have that on myself. Here's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He was delivered for our offenses. He paid the punishment. There's no doubt about that. But there wouldn't have been a whole lot of glory if he had just paid the punishment for our sins and stayed in the grave. No, the Bible says that it was because of that offense that I made that he had to pay, he was delivered for that. But then he did one better. Now he died and he rose again for our justification. Now no longer does he hold those offenses. He's no longer the requirement for that. He's paid that, and the justification that we have in its effect is glorious, because no longer do we have to face those things. Now it's not just me bearing the punishment of Cody, but both of us are free. Boy, that's a wonderful thing. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you and I. That's what the resurrection means to us. And if you're living today and you have not accepted the payment for your sin today, my friend, I'm a human being. It's like a beggar telling another beggar where they can go find some food. It's like somebody who's sick and telling somebody else where they can go find some medicine that'll make them better again. I am a beggar, I'm a sinner, but I'm just proclaiming to you today where I found hope, and where I found life, and where I found happiness and joy, and I'm proposing it to you today. Would you accept His gift of eternal life because He was delivered for our offenses and He was raised again for our justification? Oh, we serve a powerful Heavenly Father and His resurrection is glorious. He was the surety for our death and went down to the grave. But by the resurrection, He no longer was the surety for us. And then He was free. We both are free. The great Charles Spurgeon says it this way. He says, the breaker leads the way. And behind the mighty champion, the whole company of his redeemed or purchased passed through the portals of the tomb in the power of the resurrection. The stone is rolled away for them as well as for him. They cannot be holden of the bonds of death, for he could not be detained by a captive. What a glory there is in our Lord's resurrection when we further remember that we ever liveth or he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Therefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Oh, I'm telling you this morning that the glories of the resurrection are shown in its effect on our lives and the fact that we can have that same power through his death on the cross. What a blessing it is today. But that glory is also seen not only in its effect, and in contrast to his humiliation, but the glory is seen in its display of power by the Father." Notice, if you would, in verse number four again, "...therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father..." Okay, we find here then the prime mover in this was his Heavenly Father. Somebody asks me, what's the glory of God? Show me the glory of God. There's a lot of places that I could show you. Number one, we look outside. You know that burning sun out there? Let me just give you a little science fact today. Give or take a few thousand tons, that sun is burning off somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 tons of material every second that it's burning. Now, does that sound like a lot to you? Yeah. What does that mean? Well, it's getting smaller all the time. Now, it's so vast that in our lifetime, and I would propose that even in the existence of the world, at this present rate, it's something like another 3 billion years or something, and it's going to burn out. I think we'll be okay. But let me tell you something today. God, in His glory, made that sun, which is a star, by the way, right at the exact place that we need it to be for our existence on this earth. I know there's a lot of people, and maybe even people here today, and I'm not trying to pick a fight, would look at that and say, wow, boy, that's, we just happen to be the right circumstances for life, and that's why we're here. I'm telling you today, that shows to me the glory of the Father. We can bring it down a lot closer. We look at something as great as our cosmos and the order that's there, but let's bring it down as small as a molecule or a cell. And let's look at the order and the magnitude of design that's within just that very small cell. I don't care if you go grand or microscopic. I'm telling you today, the glory of the Father is shown all around us. I'm thankful for the variety of birds that we have. We love feeding birds in our backyard, and they sure make a mess with those seeds. Boy, there's so much fun to watch. We've got cardinals, and now just recently some chickadees, those yellow chickadees, goldfinches, and blue jays. They're pretty, but they're kind of nasty. And this morning we had kind of a redheaded, I don't know, I think it's a finch, a goldfinch or something. And it's really beautiful, beautiful things. And I'm just saying today, I look out at that and I don't think anything but what a marvelous creator we have. I'm just saying today that the glory of the Father is shown all around us. I could say, all right, let's not look at the creation, but let's just look at the testimony of people that have been touched by his life. Let's look at people who've been saved from despair and suicide. Let's look at people whose lives have been changed from hopelessness to having purpose. Let's look at people's lives who have gone from having no purpose at all to serving something greater than themselves. Let's look at someone who is on their way to a punishment of their own to now being able to experience the joys of heaven. Let's look at the testimonies of those people in the scripture. I'm just saying the glory of God is shown not only in creation, but in the testimonies of people all around. But yet in both of those, I don't think the glory of God is shown the most. Oh, I know there's a lot of people, there have been whole books written about the providence of God upon people's lives. Oh, that couldn't have been coincidence. That had to be God. I would agree. God is providential in our lives. But I think even in providence, There is not the greatest glory of God shown. Do you want to know where the greatest glory of God is shown? I'll tell you this. It's in the resurrection of his son, because that is something that no one can ever explain apart from him. There's lies about, you know, all kinds of things. And we talked about that in Sunday school. And there's reasons for all kinds of things. But no one can dismiss the reality and truth and power of the resurrection as it relates to the power of God. What I'm saying today, that makes it unique. That makes it glory-filled and full of glory in its display of power by the Father. There were no onlookers to this resurrection that day. It happened in the night. But their Bible says there are many infallible proofs. If it was on trial, the resurrection of Christ, there would be absolutely... We've got a lawyer here today. Brother Drew is with us, and I'm glad. I enjoy talking to him. But you know, I'm no lawyer, so if I make a mistake, you can correct me later. But I'm telling you this, if I were going to present the evidence that's given to us about the resurrection of our Savior, that trial would be dismissed even before it went further. There's overwhelming evidence. There's not even a case to be made. I'm saying today that it's glorious in its power by our Heavenly Father. And it's been a wonderful thing to see the testimony of millions of changed lives since that day that He arose. So we see then the glory of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. I want you to see number two, that glory can be ours as well. I told you I was going to make it practical today, so follow with me if you would. In chapter six and verse four, I want you to understand today that the Bible says that even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Can I say today that we still live in a body of pain and sickness and death? This year has been a hard year for our church, humanly speaking. We've said goodbye to some of our friends and relatives and people and so forth. And we understand that death is a part of life. Sometimes it comes sooner, sometimes it comes later, but it's a part of our life. And we've nursed people in our number back to health as we've cared for them. And we know that sickness comes. Even today we have some missing because of sickness. What I'm saying today is it's understood that we live in this body of death and pain. And it's going to continue that way. But I want you to understand today, as the apostle puts it in the New Testament, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. It's because of the sin that we have partaken in and been passed down through generations that has made us the way we are. The Bible says because of sin, we face sickness and death all the way back from the Garden of Eden. The Bible promised that would be the case. And because of our sin, all of us are facing the same end, and that is death. Something we must acknowledge. I'm a young man. At least I like to think of myself that way. Nobody thinks I'm a young man. All right. I don't anticipate death soon, but who am I to know? My life is so fragile. Before tonight comes, I could be dead in the grave. I'm not trying to be morbid. I'm just saying we don't have any guarantee, do we? We live in this life and we don't know when it's going to end. What I'm saying today is that I'm thankful that I don't have to make my happiness and my purpose all intent on this short time that I have in this life, because this is not what it's all about. All this life is only lived for a short time, but it's what's done in this life that makes eternity worthwhile. And so we find then that this glory that is given to us by the resurrection needs to be made true in our lives, because if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The spirit has its resurrection even now. And I'm living in this body that needs to be made whole again. And it will be on that final resurrection day. But right now, my spirit that is inside of me is enjoying eternal life. It will never die. And I'm thankful today for the promise of that resurrection and the glory and power that is ours because of it. We are waiting for the adoption, or as the Bible says, the redemption of our body. It's as if our soul and our spirit is already there, but our body is just waiting to be redeemed, been waiting to be made whole again. And that day will come. Today we enjoy that glory. And my friend, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ today as your Savior and you know Him as your forgiver today, then you are experiencing that eternal life and that resurrection power. And we're just waiting for our body to be redeemed. Praise the Lord for that today. That gives me great hope and peace. You say, Pastor, you're putting your faith in some fairytale or something else. You give me some better alternative. You tell me what's better. It gives me more peace and happiness and joy and purpose and a changed life. And I'll tell you today that I will show you in my life how the Lord has worked. I challenge any one of us. I'm not daring us. I'm saying I just want you to think critically about this and understand that faith in the Lord Jesus brings glory to ourselves that was shown at the resurrection and praise the Lord for that today. And I know there are many others who would testify the same. Christ brings us into sanctification, making us more like him. If we would see new life, the sanctification must take place. And I'm going to quickly go through to our last point in just a moment. But I want you to know sanctification being made more like Christ happens in three ways. Number one, number one, we have to be, first of all, dead to our sins. How do we do that? Well, through the Lord Jesus Christ, death on the cross. No longer do those sins have dominion over us. And if we trust in that death that the Lord Jesus Christ had, He strikes at the very heart of that evil. No longer does that addiction, no longer does that despair, and no longer does that sin have control over me today. And I'm telling you today, we're all humans and we experience those things, but we do not have power. The sin does not have power over us if we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. I can say no to those things. By the way, it's God that gives us power to do that. That's the power of the resurrection. I don't know what you're struggling with today, but I know this. Jesus is the answer. I don't know what you need strength to overcome, but I know this. He has the power to give you to overcome that. Why? Because of the glory of the resurrection. And it's because of that, that death to sin, that we no longer are servants or slaves to that sin, whereby I once was a slave to sin. No longer am I. But notice, number two, we're buried with Christ. And this is a beautiful picture of what Christ does with our sins. buried with him by baptism. The Bible speaks of being baptized in Christ. Baptism is not just a ritual that we do. I know some religions teach it is a means of grace and it's a way to be forgiven of your sins. We believe the Bible teaches that baptism is instead a picture. It is a ordinance that God has given to us to show what has happened inside. And so we be baptized like Christ was buried in the grave and then rose again the third day. And that baptism in essence pictures for us what's happened to our sin. Jesus says he takes our sin and drives it as far as the east is from the west. He buries it in the depths of the sea. Praise the Lord for that. What I'm saying this morning is because of that, we have this buried with Christ picture that we have. And as a dead person regards not sin. Listen, Cody, you were a criminal. Now you can be dead. Come on up here. All right. Lay down there, dead man. OK. Wait, before you die, what kind of ice cream do you like? Chocolate? Okay, so he likes chocolate ice cream. Now, he's dead. Ignore the breathing, all right? If you can't see him, he really is dead, all right? So, here he goes. I go down to Handles, right down the corner. Oh, don't open your eyes, you're dead. I said, Handles, and his eyes came open. So, we go down to Handles, and I get chocolate pecan. That's my favorite, by the way. Take notes. I come back with a big waffle cone, double scoop, chocolate pecan. I bring it back here. Cody's dead all this time. And I wave it in front of him like this so he smells it. And then I tell him, Cody, there's chocolate pecan ice cream right here. And then I take a little bit and dip it on his tongue a little bit. If Cody is really dead, is that going to do anything to him? Is he going to have any desire for that at all? You know why? He's dead. Dead means nothing. There's nothing there. There's no desire. What drove me before, what interested me before, what controlled me before has no effect on me whatsoever if I'm dead. Cody's dead, so I guess I have to eat the ice cream, right? If only. Good job, Cody. You're a good dead man. Thank you. What I'm saying today is that because of the death to sin, because of Jesus on the cross, No longer does sin have dominion over me. Just like I'm dead to it. Just like before, I used to be controlled by, and you fill in the blank. I used to desire, and then you fill in the blank. I used to, this used to characterize my life, and you fill in the blank. If we're truly dead to sin through the Lord Jesus Christ, has no effect on us. You say, can I be a perfect person? I'll tell you this, that's coming. You know, too often this old flesh gets control again. And we let it have its way. And we yield ourselves back to that sin. And we put ourselves under the power of it. That's not what we ought to do. My brothers and sisters today, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, can I just encourage you, right now, your position is in a place of victory over sin. And that sin which had dominion over you and me, no longer has dominion over us. Why should we go back and serve that sin again? If I'm rescued from a mire pit, and I'm sinking in the mud, and I'm up to my nose, and somebody comes and pulls me out, why would I go back and get in there again? There's no sense in it. And in the same way, if I've been rescued by the Lord Jesus Christ and given new life to walk in Him by His resurrection, why would I go back to that old life of sin again? I don't want that. It didn't bring me happiness. Oh, for a short time. There's pleasures in sin for a season, the Bible says. Oh, but I don't want the end of that road, because the Bible says the end of that road is destruction and death. I want the road that leads to life eternal, and so that new life that we have being buried in Christ. But we're made, not only are we dead to sin and buried with Christ, but the third part of that sanctification comes being raised again in newness of life. Oh, praise the Lord for that. You know what? As a Christian, I'm not just dead with Christ on the cross and buried with Him in the grave. Oh, but I'm raised again, like He was, to walk in newness of life. You know what I mean by a new life again? This is not just some reform class. Jesus isn't in the business of reforming people's lives. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's going to take that old life that you are living, or are living right now, and He's going to shred it up and throw it away, and He's going to give you a brand new life. The Bible talks about the old robes that we have are all tattered and torn and dirty, and He's going to take off those robes and He's going to put on us a clean robe. All of those stories, all of those pictures give us a great illustration of what Christ does for us. And so sanctification begins at that moment when we say, as a little child, I'm a sinner, Lord, and I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and I accept your payment for my sins. Would you forgive me? I believe that you died for me and that you rose again the third day. It's as simple as that. The Bible says unless we become as a little child, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. And he doesn't mean by that in our maturity. He means that in our faith. You know, we as Christians, I'm sorry, we as humans, we make salvation so complicated. I've got to work, I've got to pay, I've got to live good, I've got to be perfect. No. I've got to outweigh my bad. Listen, none of those things are found in the Bible. You know what's found in the Bible? All of that debt that we owed, that we could not pay. If I was given an eternity to pay for it, I couldn't pay it. It was paid that day on the cross. And it was paid in full. We recently purchased a home and I praise the Lord for this God really provided and thanked the Lord for that, but you know home is a debt and In some small way I can understand that if someone walked up to me and said Pastor royalty we're gonna pay off your house. I Mean that would be huge unbelievable And I would just feel like, this is amazing, it's a weight lifted, it's something that was going to take me forever. And I mean, just in a small fraction of a way, we get this idea of how much the Lord Jesus has forgiven us. Oh, my friend, today it's not a series of laws and rules, and I have to, I cannot. No, no, no, it's about a Savior that loves me and paid the punishment for my sin, and now I can serve Him with my life. That's what this is all about. And I thank the Lord for the sanctification that God's given. But lastly, if I can, before I let you go, you've been a wonderful audience this morning. Number three, I said, first of all, that the glory of the resurrection of our Lord was glorious and that that glory can be ours. But let me just tell you also that this new life that we're talking about in chapter six and verse four, is something that we have in Christ. Can I describe for you this new life a little bit? I want to just brag on the Lord today. And this new life that we have in the Lord Jesus because of His resurrection is significant. And so we find in chapter 6 and verse 4, the Bible says, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, and then by logic, we would think it would say, even so, we will be raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Which, by the way, is going to happen. But that's not what he says. He says, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And so there becomes then this opportunity for me, as I receive the Lord Jesus Christ and accept His forgiveness and that payment that He's made for my debt. And I say by faith, Lord, I know that this is Yours, and I accept it, I'm thankful for it. Now, I can be a new person to walk in that way that pleases Him. And oh, what a blessing that it is. Oh, it's not a life of shackles and chains. That's the life of sin that I was saved from. Sin is a terrible master. And it shackled me and held me enslaved. And it caused me to have despair. And I never had happiness and joy. But the life that Christ gives me today is a life of freedom to live for Him. Oh yes, I'm a servant of the Lord. But it's not because He makes me. It's because His love constrains me to be that servant. How can I not but serve Him who has saved my life? How can I not give Him back what I have for what He's given to me? That's my spirit. There's nobody that's making me come to church today. There's nobody that twists my arm when I'm at home to live the right kind of life or to do what's right as unto the Lord. No one's back there with a gun or with a camera saying, I caught you doing something wrong. Oh, no, no, no. You know why? And as wicked and as sinful as I am today, and I'm not a perfect person, there are many others who are better examples of this, but it's the love of God that constrains me to love Him and to serve Him. Oh, I'm pleased to serve my Savior. I'm pleased to give Him my life and to dedicate myself to Him. Why? He saved mine. He's given me all that I need. And what a wonderful life that it is to serve Him. I want to just give you these five thoughts real quickly. I'm going to give them to you quickly. This new life is lived by a set of new principles. You know what the principle of my old life was? Old number one. I want to get ahead. I want to have a good retirement. I want to have a comfortable house. I want to have this. I want to be full. I want to be well. I want to be long, a long living. I want to be, you know, comfortable. So you know what? Everything we did before is all about me. Or maybe someone's not quite so proud and they say, well, I want to just please everybody. I'm going to help everybody else. So people dump themselves in other people and they're pleasing others and helping. All very notable, but not the kind of life that God's called us to. Oh, the principle of the old life was self. The principle of the new life is others and Christ. It's a whole new set of principles. A whole new set of understanding. A whole new set of guidelines that help us to understand what God wants us to have. It's all new. And these new principles that God gives us to live by are in some way a picture of what we will have in heaven before I would do right to win some favor or grace or proclaim my own self and to lift myself up. But now we're constrained by the love of God. We're moved by gratitude to Him instead of selfishness to ourselves. Oh, we're not a hired servant today. I'm a loving child who the Savior has saved and redeemed to himself. Oh, that's the new life that we have in the Lord Jesus. And it's marvelous. Not only is new life lived by new principles, but the new life moves by a new set of motives. The motive to please God has replaced the motive to please myself. Oh, I still have a flesh that likes to be pleased. We're going to go home today and as most of you probably enjoy a meal and the old flesh likes that meal, especially the stuff that comes after the meal. You know what? That's just a silly illustration, but the point is so much of our life is just about what's good for us. And our motives for doing everything from work to our relationships to everything we do is all about pleasing self. You know, the motive now is about how can I please my Savior? You know, when you get your eyes off yourself and God changes your life and you can serve something bigger than you, it gives you a whole new meaning of life that you never even imagined. Something eternal about it, something that will last beyond this very short four score and ten, the Bible calls it a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes away. That's our life. Why do you want to live for just what's here? We need to be investing in what's in the future. And the new life is motivated by that new. Motive for the Lord. Number three, this new life focuses on new objects. I've often said, you know, the object of my affection materially, you know, would be a 2014 F-350 quad cab, chrome wheels, you know. That would be the object of my affection if I was serving and pursuing after this life. But you know what? Since I'm serving the Lord and He saved me, all of a sudden, It's the big deal. I'll drive my van that has 300,000 miles on it. You know, it's okay. Why? Because we're focused on a new object. You say, well, I'm not like that. I have higher taste. You know, listen, I have high taste too. But when it comes to the objects of my affection and our affection is a new life in Christ, I'm focused on something different. I don't want to lay up treasures here on this earth. Moth is going to eat it and thieves are going to steal it. The stock market is going to crash and I'm going to lose it. I'm going to get in an accident and destroy it. Why would I save up to have all of those things that are just going to be destroyed? Why don't I lay up treasures in heaven where they'll be forever and no thieves are going to steal those. No moth is going to eat that. It's not going to get lost in the stock market. You know what? I'd rather lay things down. It's a new object. Our new life causes us to focus on a new object. And it's wonderful. Our new life is lifted by new hopes. I have a hope of immortality. You say, Pastor, that's a pipe dream. That's not reality. Oh, it is. It's as much a reality as I'm standing here today. That is that if we live in Christ and we accept his eternal forgiveness, we will live forever with him in heaven. That's the promise of the Bible. You say, well, I have other beliefs. I just challenge you to think, what's the foundation of those beliefs? Is it your own thought? Do you come up without yourself? That's shaky ground to go into eternity on. I'd rather stand on the tried and true principles of the word of God. At least the faith that I have in there has some evidence of reality. Boy, in my life, it's everything. And so I'm just saying today, the Word of God teaches that we will have immortality. We'll have a home in heaven, the Bible says. When we trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior and His promise of forgiveness, He gives us that home in heaven. John 14, verse 6, 1 and down through verse 6, the Bible says, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. That's the Word of God. That's truth. What I'm saying today is my life is buoyed, it's elevated to new hopes because of our new life in Christ. The Bible says we walk in newness of life. The newness of life gives me hope in all of these things. Then lastly, this new life possesses new things. Before I possessed old things, now I possess new things. Let me tell you a few of those things. You know, sometimes when we are walking in our own distractions. You know, life gets hard, and so we have a tendency to ignore things and drown things. And people have all kinds of ways of drowning their sorrows and sadness. Oh, they'll entertain themselves and distract themselves and make themselves drunk or addicted or whatever, so that they don't have to deal with the sadness of this life. But I'm telling you today, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have new things. And that new thing is the happiness that God gives to a person that's deep down inside that nothing can take away. It's the joy of living that God gives within a person that is only intended to be filled by His filling, by His Spirit. You can't find it anywhere else. I don't care how good of a job you have and how comfortable your house is. I don't care what kind of a family you have and how great your relationship is, a husband and wife. I don't care what your circumstances are or what your bank account is. You cannot find happiness Like God wants to give it to you apart from him. There's a spot inside this soul that only he can fill. And we try to pour all kinds of things into it, plug all kinds of things into it to make it full. But it's only for him. And it's only when he's in that we will have that new object of admiration. Peace will run like a river. Hope springs up like a spring. We have bread to eat that the world knows not of. where we drink the water of life that makes us never thirst again. And in a spiritual sense, we are satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. The walk that comes from this life is a walk that is active, and today I want to just tell you that God's children are not lazy people. We don't have the Lord, we sit around and do nothing. This is active, and it propels us to do things for the Lord, and it motivates us. There's a progress in this new walk, and this new walk is to be in the newness of life. And let me just encourage you today, you know, when you were kids, maybe even now, there's different philosophies about how to get into a swimming hole. One philosophy is one little bit at a time, right? So you dip your toes in and some people are content to sit on the edge of that, sit on the edge of that pool and just dangle their toes in and get their toes wet, right? That's enough for me. Some people kind of go in a little slower and maybe they get up their knees. It's cold, you know? And then you got that guy or that girl, whatever, and they don't care. So they, they get back here about 10 feet and they take off running and they do a cannonball right in the middle. And now what's the difference? You know, you've been there probably pretty soon. That person's coming up saying this water is great. Oh, wow. This is great. And everybody on the outside is going, I don't know. It's still cold. What am I saying? There's a lot of people today, and I don't know where you are in that degree about diving in, but if we can just picture that lake as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done first on the cross. There's a lot of people saying, oh, I'm not going to jump in there. Oh, no way. I'm happy just where I am. A lot of people that are down there kind of dabbling their feet in. Oh, I don't know. It's kind of cold. I don't know. But then there's some people that just run and walk and take that leap of faith and say, this is where I need to be. You know, it's generally, it's always those people that have taken that leap of faith that turn out saying, this is great. Why did I have it any other way? Why did I choose to stay up there or out there? Why did I just jump in here earlier? And in some little sense, I hope you get the idea that when we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, I am the resurrection and the life. The Bible also says that if we are buried with him by baptism unto death, even so the Lord Jesus, as he was raised up by the glory of the Father, we should walk in newness of life. Can I just invite you, number one, if you have not experienced that newness of life, it's not about Broadview Heights Baptist Church. This is so much bigger than us. It's not about your religious background. It's not about what kind of a person you are, whether you're good or bad. It's not about whether you've had a good upbringing or not. This is about you. Right now, today, before the Lord. What are you going to do to have that new life? It's as simple as saying, Lord, in your heart, Lord, I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I'm a sinner. I've broken your law. I believe that you are the one that can save me. I put my faith in you today. That's as simple as it is. The Bible says, if any man call upon the Lord, he will be saved. Jesus came into this world because of the love of the Father, so that any person that believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Look at John 3.16. What I'm saying today is God has given us eternal life, and you can have it today. My invitation is to you today on this Easter Sunday morning. I don't care what your background is. I don't care what your... nothing about you. All I care is right now, do you acknowledge that Jesus is your Savior, and that you are a sinner before Him, and He can forgive you for your sin. That's all it takes. And if you truly believe that, He promises that He will wipe those sins clean. He'll forgive you. Give you that new life that only He can give. Number two, you're saying, Pastor, I have that new life. I've trusted the Lord. That's my testimony, by the way. When I was a young boy, I heard a lesson about the Lord Jesus dying for me. And I was born and raised in a pastor's home in Minnesota. I found another Minnesotan today. Amen. Hey, I was born and raised in a pastor's home. But you know what? I was a young boy of five years old. I went to a Bible club and I heard that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And I was a sinner because I was born a sinner. And I had lied and done some other things that were wrong. And I realized that if I hadn't trusted the Lord as my Savior, I'd have to pay for my own sins. It's a heavy thing for a five-year-old. But I remember it clear as day. I went into a room with one of the worker ladies and she bowed down with me and we prayed. And I said, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. And I know without me trusting in you that I don't have any hope of eternal life. I don't know if these are my exact words, but my understanding was that I needed to trust Jesus as my Savior. And I did. I remember getting up from there and realizing Jesus has forgiven me. I said, young boy, I realize that. I remember running to my dad's office. Dad, dad, guess what I did? I just asked Jesus to forgive me and to be my Savior. He was excited. You know, I look back on that day as the day my life changed. Five years old. How much could it have changed? Well, granted, it wasn't dramatic in my outward appearance. I wasn't in prison or, you know, whatever. Oh, but it changed. And since that day, I know that I have a home in heaven and I've been forgiven. I'm just saying today, won't you experience that same thing? Won't you put your trust in the Lord only? Aren't you tired of trusting in yourself and in your works and your religion? Trust the Lord today. And if you know Him, let's walk in newness of life. Walk in that power of the resurrection that only He can give. Bow your heads and close your eyes with me. Our service is done. We'll sing another song or two in just a little bit. But before we get moving around,