Good morning, church. Am I on? Yes, I am. We are continuing in our study through the book of Romans. This morning, we're in the sixth chapter. I want to highly encourage you to turn there with me if you would. Romans chapter six, we'll be looking at the first 14 verses. Romans 6, verses 1-14, and if you have found your way there, would you join me as we stand together for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and infallible Word. Paul writes, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. In order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death is no longer master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. Are you ready for this one? Let's pray first. Our God and our Father, we are grateful for the opportunity to look into this important Amazing text, your word, delivered thousands of years ago, sustained in utter, reliable, undeniable, unassailable truth. Father, we cry out to you this morning that you would teach us from this text. We need the truth in this passage more than any of us can even possibly comprehend. We pray, Father, for the one who preaches, his sins are many, Father, hide him in the shadow of Christ that we might see Jesus. We pray for eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts to believe what this text declares. And we pray, Father, as often that we would not just be challenged this morning, but way, way more importantly changed, not just confronted, but conformed to Jesus Christ himself. And we ask these things in his name, amen. Please be seated. Again, as Paul writes to the church in Rome, he writes addressing a serious situation in the Roman church, a situation that he has become aware of. And that situation is, of course, a division that has arose between the Jewish and Gentile believers in that Roman church. And Paul addresses this issue by defining throughout the book of Romans the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, he does so in a way that he intends will unite both Jewish and Gentile believers. As such, he methodically addresses the universal truths that are contained in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is to say, truths that are true for the Gentiles, truths that are true for the Jews, truths for all people in the gospel that are intended to unite. So far in our study of Romans, we have seen Two of these truths, or completed two of these truths, and we've begun the third one. The first one being, you'll remember, the universal reign of sin beginning in Romans 1 18 through chapter 3 verse 20, where Paul declares that all people are born into this world, separated from God, prone to sin, depraved, separated from God, under God's wrath, subject to death, and so forth. True for the Jews and true for the Gentiles. The second major section is on justification by faith alone, that God has only and always saved sinners by faith alone. Paul refers to Abraham, Paul refers to David, Paul refers to himself, and that apart from work, self-righteousness, charity, religiosity, good deeds, self-sacrifice, whatever. All our works are as filthy rags before God, and because of the universal reign of sin in us, man has nothing offered God in his faith in Christ alone that justifies a sinner before God. Thirdly, this next section, several weeks ago, we began it and I titled it, The Assurance of God's Glory. And the idea is that nothing in this universe, whether seen or unseen, We'll thwart, we'll stop, we'll prevent God from bringing the fullness of our salvation to fruition. We might say it this way. Number one, the universal reign of sin, our need for salvation. Two, justification by faith alone, the means of our salvation. And three, the assurance of glory, the certainty of our salvation. And when I introduce this third point, the assurance of glory, the certainty of our salvation, I suggest to you that we're not just saved, not just forgiven, but when we think about salvation, it is so, so, so much more. In beginning and through this passage this morning, Paul is explaining one of the great truths of the gospel. And allow me to say that Paul is explaining a truth that is unfortunately foreign to many professing Christians. Paul is explaining an amazing transformative truth that most Christians rarely hear explained, rarely hear taught on, preached on. This is an enormous gospel truth that unfortunately is foreign to many. And frankly, it is the absence of this formidable theological truth that keeps many Christians from the victorious Christian life. Is your mind wandering? Before we deal with this great gospel truth, allow me to make two statements. One, this truth is, for lack of a better word, mind-blowing. Number two, this truth will take a serious commitment to understand, to comprehend, much less to believe, and even more so, much less to apply, to live in light of this great truth. And I think it is those reasons that undoubtedly lend itself to the fact that you seldom hear this. And that's why many people don't experience it. You see, much of the modern Western Christian world is all about the experience, experientialism. All about the emotional. The truth that Paul is talking about is neither. The truth that Paul is talking about involves concepts, truths, realities, and then faith. It's about knowing. and believing. Draw your attention to the first few words of verse three, look at it, Romans chapter six. Or do you not, here's the word, know. Know. Nothing to do with experientialism, nothing to do with emotionalism. Do you not know? This is cognitive truth. It's about knowing and learning, understanding, and believing, do you not know? This truth that I've been referring to in theology is referred to as union with Christ. And you'll notice verse five carefully, Romans 6 verse five, for if we have become, here it is, united with him, in the likeness of his death. Certainly we shall also be, again, united in the likeness of his resurrection. Union with Christ. Now to understand this great truth, union with Christ, we need to grasp several key biblical or theological concepts. That is to say, the idea or theology or truth of our union with Christ presupposes a biblical understanding of several key biblical theological concepts. The first is what we call federal headship. Federal headship. The word federal refers to representative. We live in a federal government that is supposed to represent the people. That's what federal means. Whether you are aware of it or not, the entire Bible is the story of federal headship. the entire Bible is a story, a federal representation. That is to say that the entire history of humanity is represented either by Adam or by Jesus Christ. Not only is the entire Bible the story of federal headship, but the application of that is in fact the entire history of our world, is a demonstration of those who are represented by Adam as opposed to those who are represented by Christ. You see, the Bible begins at the very beginning with a story of one man, Adam. And the Bible ends at the very end, the New Testament, with a story of another man, Jesus. This is to say that every human being, even here today, every person in this room, is that sound of my voice and the internet and so forth. Across the world, all of us, every single human being who has ever lived or is alive now is represented by one of these two men. Say it another way, in the entire history of the world, only two people have ever existed who represent all mankind, all of us before God. They are Adam and Jesus. Every single human being is either in Adam or in Jesus. That's the first concept. The second concept is what we call the covenant of works. Federal headship, two representatives, first concept. Second concept, the covenant of works. Again, A concept that you seldom hear taught on, preached on, yet it is foundational to the word of God. To simply state it, God is a God of covenant. God is a God of covenant. God has always been, God will always be a God of covenant. Throughout the scriptures, God operates solely and according to covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties. Even our Bible that you hold in your hand is divided in two parts. The Old Testament, the New Testament. The word testament is Latin, testamente, for the word covenant. Your Bible that you hold in your hand contains two sections, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. That is the way God has always worked, continues to work. That is, He is the God of covenant. In the Old Testament, the word covenant, bereath, appears 284 times in the Old Testament. We repeatedly hear verses that say things like God saying, I will establish my covenant with you. Or on the day that the Lord made a covenant. Or phrases like the everlasting covenant. The sign of the covenant. God's command, you shall keep my covenant. or I have remembered my covenant. It goes on and on and on. God is a God of covenant. And in the New Testament, the word covenant is just as readily foundational in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament. Even Zacharias explaining the coming of John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus, all the way in the first chapter of the book of Luke, verse 72 says the coming of Jesus has to do something with like this, that God will show mercy to our fathers and will remember his holy covenant. That's the framework of the New Testament, God remembering his covenant. Even as we celebrate the Lord's table, what does Jesus say? This is the blood of the what? The new covenant. In theology, we make distinctions between two kinds of covenants. What we call biblical covenants as opposed to theological covenants. The most familiar are the biblical covenants. Covenants between God and people. We're familiar with the noadic covenant, the covenant God made with Noah. No longer would he drown the world. In the sign of that covenant, I'll put a rainbow in the sky. Or the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham, or the Mosaic covenant, or the Davidic covenant, biblical covenants God made between himself and people. But the less well-known, familiar, or what we call theological covenants, covenants that God made between himself and himself. Within the triune God, these theological covenants consist of the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. And they span Throughout all of time, even before the time began, before the beginning began, God entered into covenants with himself. The covenant of redemption within the triune Godhead, before there was a star in the sky or a sky for a star to hang in, God made covenant within himself. You see, God entered into a certain kind of covenant with only two people, Adam and Jesus. Why just two? Because this certain kind of covenant demanded something that has only existed in Adam and Jesus. And that is sinlessness and innocence. Only two people in the history of the world have existed in sinlessness. The innocent Adam, that is before his fall, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that also means that only the innocent Adam that is before his fall and Jesus Christ, only two people in the history of the world have borne the unmarred image and likeness of God. What do we know about the unique covenant, the covenant of works that God entered only into with Adam and Jesus? One, we know that the covenant works was a covenant that God initiated for his own divine purpose. that the covenant of works was in such a way that God gave each of these two federal heads, Adam and Jesus, a specific work to perform. In the covenant of works, there is the promise of reward for obedience that is stated or implied, and also the penalty for disobedience also stated or implied. But fifthly, in the covenant of works, both obedience and disobedience would carry massive federal implications on those to whom each head represents. So for Adam, the covenant of works is described in the first chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2. Adam's work is to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill, to subdue the earth, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And if Adam had completed, fulfilled, obeyed this covenant of work, if Adam's obedience had been realized, guess what? There would be no sin. There would be no death. The world would be filled with people who bear the image and likeness of God. And the Garden of Eden would have been extended to the entire world with God's presence in the midst of it. And listen, in all humanity, would have joined, that is, been united in the benefits of Adam's obedience. But however, Adam didn't obey, didn't complete the covenant of work, and as a result, Adam's disobedience. In the day that you eat, you shall surely die. Death was both physical and spiritual. Man, Adam, us, all of us will return to the dust as well as the loss of innocence the gaining of a depraved, sinful nature. All of us, Adam and on you, me, extricated from the immediate presence of God, sentenced to a short life in this world that Paul calls a vapor. A short life in this world, a vapor of a life, spent, what, toiling for subsistence. Women, pain and childbirth, parents, the pain of child rearing. It's real. And listen again, all of humanity was in fact united to both the penalty and the reality of Adam's disobedience. That's Adam, what about Jesus in the covenant works? Allow Jesus to speak for himself, John 17, four, I have glorified you, Jesus says to the Father on earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Matthew 20, 28, just as the Son of Man did not come to serve but to serve and to give his life a ransom for men. Or John 6, 37 through 39, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me that of all those whom he has given me I will lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. Jesus and the covenant of works and concerning His obedience and completion to the covenant of works on the cross, Jesus screamed out what? It is what? Finished. And again, all who by faith in Christ would come to be represented by Jesus are united in the reality and the benefit of Christ's obedience. Christ's completion of the covenant of works. Through Adam came ruin upon the entire human race, but through Christ came redemption for those who believe. And we are all born into this world united with Adam, Adamic, under his headship, United to his disobedience, united to his sin, united to the consequences of his sin. That's how we're born. But by faith, we are united with Christ. United to his obedience, united to his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, united to all the benefits that are afforded us because of his obedience. So, federal headship, everybody got the idea? Covenant works. Everybody got the idea? What about union with Christ? Here's the deal. When a sinner, you and me, comes to Christ in saving faith, we are immediately united with Christ. Immediately united with Christ. No longer united with Adam, but immediately, upon faith in Christ, we are united with Christ. And here's the key. It is our union with Christ that gives us a new, here it is, identity. We have a new identity because we have been, by faith, united with Christ. Separated from union with Adam, now united with Christ. When I or you placed your faith in Christ, no longer were I or yourself united with Adam, we became united with Christ and therefore given a new identity. Dr. Michael Horton, who's a professor of theology at Westminster West, Westminster Seminary out in California, tells a story of the rise of Del Castro's communist Cuba. And I actually, as a child, lived through this reality. But as Castro came to rise in power in Cuba and brought in communism, many Cubans fled from Castro and Cuba. In the early 60s, many fled to Miami, where I was living at that very time. Some of those who fled to Miami joined together to plan how to end Castro's regime. In fact, a dear friend of our family worked for the FBI and lived for a long period of time undercover as a Cuban trying to infiltrate these plots. As a result of all that, Castro sent spies to Miami. One such spy was a man by the name of Salvador. Salvador was sent to spy on the anti-Castro groups that were working together in Miami. However, during his interaction with these groups, Salvador came to denounce his allegiance to Castro and communism. Salvador eventually turned himself into the U.S. government. And the U.S. government offered Salvador asylum. Our government masterminded a fictitious account of the murder of Salvador. We gave him a new identity. We issued him new papers, gave him a new name, a new life, a new identity. And what Paul is saying in this passage is not only that you have a new identity by union with Christ, but also, and this is the important part, just as Salvador could never return to his old identity, as Christians, we can never return to our old identity either. Listen, if you're a Christian, You have been united with Christ. It's not a process. It's instantaneous. It comes with faith. It's part of the assurance of glory. It's part of that oh so much more. You have and I have a new identity, a new enabling, new loyalties, new affections, new abilities, new obligations, a new reality. And the bottom line in this text is this. If you as a Christian have been united with Christ, then for God's sake, stop living like you're still united to Adam. Question to all of us. Are you a new creature in Christ? Are you a different person, as Paul says, risen in newness of life? Do you have a new identity? Or are you the same person that you were before, only claiming to be a Christian? These are critical questions. These are the questions that every Christian must wrestle with. As I preach this, I have this verse in the back of my mind. It's 2 Corinthians 15, five, where the apostle Paul says this, listen very carefully. Test yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Christ Jesus is in you unless, indeed, you fail the test? Are you united with Christ? Or are you still united with Adam, just professing to be a Christian? In fact, in a moment, in minutes, Christian will lead us in the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, 28 says this, but a person must first examine himself. Are you in Christ? This is a powerful truth, so let's dig in. What is Paul saying in this text? Number one, Paul is saying that habitual sin, habitual sin is absolutely incompatible with being united with Christ. Notice verse one through four, look at it. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Again, are you continuing in sin? Or are you walking, living in newness of life? Again, in this text, verse three and four, Paul introduces the idea of baptism. Verse three, he talks about baptized into Christ. Verse four, baptized into Christ's death. And the word baptized, baptizo, means to be immersed, submerged, plunged. And in these verses, Paul is not primarily talking about water. He's not talking about water baptism. What Paul is primarily talking about is union with Christ, being immersed in Christ, submerged in Christ, plunged into Jesus. Again, the key is not the waters of baptism, the key is into Christ. And that key into Christ is always the key. Romans 3.24 talks about redemption, which is in Christ. Romans 8.1, no condemnation for those who are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15.22, in Christ all will be made alive. 2 Corinthians 5.15, anyone in Christ is a new creation. Ephesians 2.20, we are his, God's workmanship created in Christ. Ephesians 4.32, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Colossians 1.28, so that we may present every man complete in Christ and I could go on and on and on. This is not about water. It's about being submerged in Christ. And by the way, after chapters of Paul's discussion, defense, and articulation of justification by faith alone in the Book of Romans, by no means is Paul suggesting that water baptism is that which places us with union with Christ. It is faith in Christ, in the gospel that places us in union with Christ, and water baptism is a sign and seal of that faith and union with Christ, period. But don't miss Paul's point, because it's true for every one of us. By faith we have been united with Christ, and as a result of being united with Christ, we have been co-crucified with Christ, and co-resurrected with Christ. We have, listen to this, died to sin, and we have been raised to new life in Christ. That is to say, union with Christ means a new life that is no longer characterized by habitual sin. Questions. Can I, as a Christian, continue living in union with Adam? Can I, as a Christian, continue living the same old sinful way? Can someone united with Christ continue living the exact opposite of Christ himself if in fact we're united with him? What's the answer? Notice verse one and two, Paul answers it. What shall we say then? Are we continuing sin so grace may increase? Notice verse two, may it never, what, be. May it never be. The Greek is meginomai. It is, by the way, the strongest negative in the entire Greek language. Paul couldn't muster a more definitive negative. May it never be. Meginomai. By the way, me, the prefix, is the negative participle. Ginomai is the verb to come to be. Literally, meginomai means may it never come into existence. May it never begin. May it never become. Or as the King James says simply, God forbid. Can we who have come to Christ and by faith been united with his death, burial, and resurrection, can we just continue in sin? God forbid. May it never be. May it never become. May it never come into existence. And yet, dangerously, Many professing Christians actually live this way. They live with this idea that God has forgiven me of sin, God will forgive this sin, and God will forgive the next sin. In fact, God will keep on forgiving sins until I'm done sinning. May it never be, may it never become, may it never begin, God forbid. I think of the words of Voltaire who said this, God will forgive, it's his business. To which Paul would say, me gine mi, God forbid. Or W.H. Aud and the Pulitzer Prize winning poet who said this, quote, I like committing crimes, God likes forgiving them, really the world is an admirably arranged place, may it never be. I'm in the middle of a 650-page book right now, written by a man named George Marsden. It's titled Jonathan Edwards, A Life. New York Times called it magisterial, and it is. In case you don't know, Jonathan Edwards is a key figure in the Great Awakening. I'm 300-something pages into this. I am so moved by Edwards' complete commitment in his ministry and his preaching, to call Christians not to just believe, but to holiness and righteousness. Throughout the book, when Edwards in his letters recalls the conversion of a person, he always recalls the conversion of a person in reference to how they turned from sin and began pursuing righteousness. account after account after account. Edwards wasn't after the numbers. He was after holiness in his people. And he preached hard, preaching so hard that you and I would be cringing if Edwards was up here now. I think of the correspondence between Edwards and Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, joy to the world when I surveyed the wondrous cross, God our help in ages past. When Isaac Watts read of what was taking place in North Hampshire, Massachusetts during this first great awakening, he was brought to tears, brought to tears because he understood this is true Christian awakening. In my mind's eye, when I think of the 15th century Reformation, the primary key wasn't that, it was the doctrine of justification. How was a sinner made right with God? Faith alone. When I think of the great awakening in the New England states during the 1700s, God moved on men to move on from the great doctrine of justification to the great doctrine of sanctification. And the emphasis was Christians turning from their sin and pursuing righteousness in their life. A second point, and there's only two. Number one, habitual sin is incompatible with being united with Christ. Number two, newness of life, newness of life is the outcome of our union with Christ. Notice verse five and following. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once and for all. but the life he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. What is Paul saying? Sort of the umbrella over what he's saying is this, for Jesus Christ himself, it was his death that led to his resurrection. It was his death that led to his ascension. and it was his death that led to his glorification. That is to say, the outcome of death is life and glory. And Paul's point is this, that this is also true for you and me as believers. That the death we experience by our union with Christ, the death to the old Adamic man, the death to our slavery to sin, leads to an outcome which is life and glory. Look at Romans 6 again. Knowing this, knowing this, our old self was crucified with him. By faith in Christ and therefore union with Christ, our old Adamic self died. We are crucified with Christ. And as Christians, we are not who we used to be. The old man has died. We are not the person we were before salvation because that person is dead. And again, I need to state this, that the death of the old man and the birth of the new man is not a process. It occurs at salvation. And at the moment of salvation, The old man who sinned incessantly, enslaved by sin, died. And here's the point, don't miss it. Know this. Know this, brothers and sisters, every one of you, beginning with myself, know this with every ounce of certainty that you can. Believe this from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Verse six, knowing this. that our old self was crucified with him in order, listen, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Verse 6 is the high point in this text. Why do I say that? Because of the phrase, done away with. Done away with. Done away with. Done away with. It is an extraordinarily strong word. It means, qatargail, means to destroy. to eradicate, to exterminate, to be gone as gone can be. The old man has been eradicated, exterminated, destroyed. And Paul says to us, to the Romans, know this. Know this. You must know this. Don't ever forget this. The old man, the body of sin has been eradicated. Gone. So question, show and tell. Christian, do you know this? Seriously, do you know this? Do you believe this? And in context, do you believe this? That the body of sin has been eradicated? Do you believe this in context? Like you believe that Christ was crucified? Do you believe this in context like you believe Jesus was raised? Do you believe that the old man, the old Adamic you, the sinful man, has been absolutely eradicated, destroyed, exterminated, Do you believe this? In fact, that is stated in verse six, and from verse seven through 14, the rest of the text does nothing more than profoundly reinforce this point, that through our union with Christ, our body of sin might be done away with. You'll notice verse seven, he was died, is free from sin. Verse 11, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Verse 12 through 13, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Do not go on presenting your members of your body to sin, but rather present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. Verse 14, for sin shall not, shall not be master over you. Literally, if you look at verse 14, the word master there is a form of the word kurios, Lord. Literally, sin is no longer your Lord. Christ is now your Lord. By the way, you know that sin is killing us. Sin kills us. Sin kills everything about us. Sin kills everything about us. Satan packages sin in such a way that it appeals, it entices, it lures, it tempts. But it's a killer. Sin will kill your body. Sin will kill your emotions, your joy, your love. Sin will kill relationships. Sin will kill a church. You name it, sin will kill it. And yet we dabble in sin. Is sin your Lord, or is Jesus your Lord? And throughout this text, Paul refers to the idea of Slavery to sin, or sin being your master in verse six. What does that mean? Let me give you a simple way to explain slavery to sin. How about the word, here's the word, how about the word addiction? Addiction. Addiction to sin. That's how we're born into this world. Addicted to sin. Can't stop sinning, I'm addicted to it. Can't stop my lying. Can't stop my boasting. Can't stop my gossip. I'm addicted to it. Can't stop my lusting, my eyes, my hating, my greed, my vanity, my discontentment, my fear, my pride, my arrogance, sin of unbelief. I'm addicted to it. God says, you shall love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I'm addicted to just the opposite. God's word says you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I'm addicted to just the opposite. And what is Paul saying? By faith in Christ alone, we are united with Christ, and by union with Christ, we are set free from our addictions. So much more. So let's get to the nitty gritty. It's the question that's on everybody's mind. You wanna know what it is? Well, if the body of sin has been eradicated, destroyed, done away with, here's the question, what is it? Why do I still, what? I knew you were thinking it. Let's face it, every Lord's Day as we did today, our liturgy includes a confession of sin. We're all familiar with 1 John 1, 8 through 10. If we say we have no sin, we are what? Deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Or if we say that we have no sin, we make God a liar and his word is not in us. Yes, that's true. But that is not Paul's focus here. Again, Paul's focus is, by union with Christ, our body of sin has been done away with. Cartageo, destroyed, eradicated, exterminator, gone as gone can be, the old you has been destroyed. Yet, my, do I still sin? Problem is not the work of Christ. Everybody say amen. The problem is not the sufficiency of our union with Christ. Again, amen. The problem is here. It's us. It's us. And for the record, I want to remind you of something. Foreign theologians have always addressed and known, as a Christian, because of union with Christ, I want you to know something, that you and I are able not to sin. Did you get that? We are able not to sin. Some of us don't believe that because we've never experienced victory over sin. As Augustine said, we are passa bacari, able to sin, and passa non bacari, able not to sin. Before Christ, in Adam, we were, as Guston said, non-passi, non-vicari, we were not able not to sin. But now, as Christians, we are passi-vicari, able to sin, and at the same time, passi-non-vicari, able not to sin. And that's Paul's point. Don't minimize it, don't diminish it. We are able not to sin because of the great reality of our union with Christ. Because of his federal headship, he moved us by faith from union with Adam to union with Christ. Because of the covenant of works, Adam failed, his disobedience imputed to me. Christ succeeded, his righteousness imputed to me. And we were able not to sin, but we do. The problem's not Christ, the problem's not the sufficiency of our union with Christ, the problem is us. And I want you to notice something, what Paul goes on to say. And that is beginning in verse 11, what you find is Paul using a series of verbs. Verbs. In a very real sense, our sin is all in the verbs. Notice verse 11, two verbs. Even so, here's the verb, consider yourselves to be dead to sin. Verse 11b, and consider yourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. Or verse 12, two verbs again, therefore do not let sin reign in your moral bodies, so that, here it is again, you obey its lusts. Two verbs, verse 13, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteous, but rather present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Verse 16, two verbs. Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey? Either sin resulting in death or obedience resulting in righteousness. Verse 17, not a verb, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became, here's the verb, obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you are committed. Listen, here's the truth. Why do Christians sin? Because they fail to consider themselves dead to sin. Because they fail to consider themselves alive to God, verse 11. Why do Christians sin? Because they failed, refused not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies. They failed to forsake obeying its lusts. That's the truth. Man, is that the truth. Christians sin by not presenting or failing to present, not presenting their bodies to sin, presenting rather themselves to God Christians sin because they don't know, really know that sin results in death, and really know that obedience results in righteousness, life, and joy. Christians sin because they fail to be obedient. Verse 17, to the teaching which we profess to be committed to. In fact, Christians fail at righteousness and are succumbed by sin always because of a lack of knowing, a lack of presenting themselves, a lack of considering, a lack of obeying, a lack of not allowing, and a lack of commitment to live for God. You've been set free. And if you are free, you are free indeed. Do I believe that sinlessness in this lifetime is possible? Bible's clear, not. Do I believe that Christ has provided us victory over sin in our life? Absolutely. You know, when you became a Christian and at that moment were united with Christ, jettisoned from union with Adam, Do you remember as a new Christian, you might've been on fire for Jesus, touched by all that was, you know, included and imposed upon this reality. And do you remember as a brand new, fresh Christian, the first time you returned and committed the same old sin that you did as an old man? Do you remember what that was like? I'm gonna tell you how it was like. You felt a wave of guilt. You know what that guilt was? That guilt was the old man saying, or the new man saying, what in the world are you doing? I'm not that person anymore. Screams, conscience, guilt, the Holy Spirit. What are you doing? What are you saying? Why are you acting like that? Why are you thinking like that? And the new man screams, this is alien to Christ likeness. Union with Christ. What's the key? If I could sum up the two words, Christians sin because of the lack of one, faith in the truth, and dependence on Christ. We can't conquer sin by ourself. You can do nothing, Jesus said, apart from me. And number two, you need to know the truth. that union with Christ has set you free from the bondage, the mastery, slavery to sin. And I know, I've been doing this a long time, guys. I know the reality of slavery to sin in the lives of people. Mastery of sin. People living their entire life, even coming supposedly to Christ, living still subjugated to sin, and we need to be reminded that we don't have to sin. We are passe, non-vicari, able not to sin. Again, do I believe perfectly? No, not until glory. Not until glory. But we still have been given victory. Ephesians 4, 22 through 24, just listen to this. that in reference to your former manner of life, here it is, you lay aside the old self, which is corrupted in accordance with the lust, deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Take off this, Paul says, and put on the new self. which is in the likeness of God and has been created, listen to this, in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Five words have rung through. I don't know that I've worked as hard on a message as this one in a long time. That may not sound like it, might not come across like it, but I really struggle with this text. My wife will bear witness. We got home from Seattle, the archipelagos, the islands in North Washington, seeing my daughter up there. And I thought I had the message done. I came home all day Saturday, all day yesterday I was here. Because of five words that kept ringing through my head. You ready? God's words, be holy as I am, I guess it's six words, holy. Say that with me. Be holy as I am holy. God sent His Son into this world that you and I might be holy as He is holy. Jesus gave His life that we might be holy as He is holy. Jesus was raised, ascended, glorified, the Spirit came, the Word is given, all of it, the church, pastors, elders, missions, One great verb, be holy as I am holy. Will you fail? Have I failed? Oh yeah. But let's commit ourselves by the grace of God, dependence on Christ, and the truth to be more victorious than not. Let's pray together. Father, I think it's easy for us as Christians to become really sick and tired of our old Adamic self. Sick and tired of our sin. Sometimes our sin is more subtle than scandalous. Sometimes not. But God, help us to leave this place hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Help us to leave this place realizing that we have been equipped in Christ with every good thing. As Augustine said, require what you will, but give us the ability to do it. We have been equipped. We have been set free. And yet it is the bondage, the return to the old man and all that, our love of sin that takes us back like a dog to its vomit. Father, I pray for Grace Church, I pray for my time here, whatever time you have remaining for me to serve as pastor of this church. I pray for myself, I pray for the elders of our church, that you would give us a spirit much like in the days of Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening. That not only do we want people believing, but more importantly, people turning from their sin and pursuing righteousness. Father, somebody in this room today, many, many people have been in bondage to sin, professing to be a Christian, living secretly in their lives in the darkness, ashamed that they would ever get caught doing whatever, be exposed, whatever. I pray for that person this morning, Lord. You gave your life, your sin-conquering life, your sin-conquering resurrection, your sin-conquering ascension, to set your people free. We are like the Israelites of the Exodus. You've set us free. You've set us free. And yet, in a weird way, we desire to go back to Egypt and enslave ourselves again. Again, Father, I pray that your truth would set us free this morning. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be a people not only who name the name of Christ, but a people who exemplify the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness, his purity, his kindness, his love, commitment to truth, and his abject hatred of all that is evil. By your grace, by your word, Father, may the means of grace be sufficient for us as we battle through all of this during the course of a lifetime. And my prayer truly is that one day when we find ourselves gathered together, we will be able, as those who were united with Christ, to tell the war stories, and how Christ and union with Christ helped us to find victory. over the sin which so easily besets all of us. We commit ourselves to you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for blessed. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, all lowly and mellows. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.