Today, Easter Sunday, I want to look a little bit at both the death of the Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And specifically, I want to speak of the practical applications for the believer that flow out of Jesus' death and resurrection. You know, what makes Christianity Christianity are the facts of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4 tell us that the facts of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection are of first importance. These facts are the gospel message, the good news about how a holy God is able to save sinners on a righteous basis. Just by way of introduction, I want to read two scriptures. 1 Peter 3, verse 18 says, Christ died for sins once for all, just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And also Titus 2, verse 11 says, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. So these two scriptures give us the purpose of the gospel. Jesus Christ, died for sins to bring sinners to God, to reconcile sinners to God, to make it possible for rebellious sinners to receive a righteous status before a holy God, and then God's purpose For those who by faith have trusted Jesus as Savior, God's purpose is that in their lives in this world, they might deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live soberly, righteously, and godly. God's purpose for the believer in Jesus Christ is that he or she would live a godly life, a life of obedience to God and to the word of God. And God has given the believer and empowered the believer through the Holy Spirit and through the application of the death, the burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So this is what we're going to examine today. I've got three headings. First, what the gospel has accomplished for God. Secondly, the facts, the facts of the believer's union with Jesus's death and resurrection. And then third, how to practically apply Jesus's death and resurrection to your life. So we've got first, what the gospel accomplishes for God. Secondly, the facts of the believer's union with Jesus' death and resurrection, and then third, practically applying Jesus' death and resurrection to our life. So first, what has the gospel accomplished for God? I'm going to use Romans 3 21-26 as my text for this heading, Romans 3 21-26, so let's just read that, Romans 3, Verse 21 says, but now, apart from law, righteousness of God has been manifested or made known, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. And this was to demonstrate God's righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time so that God would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. I want to spend these first few minutes looking at what the death and resurrection of Jesus has accomplished for God. What it has accomplished for God. I think sometimes I can focus only on what the gospel does for me, how it can bless me, and I can overlook what the gospel has accomplished for God. You know, when I understand what the gospel has accomplished for God, I will more clearly see, first of all, what my great need for the gospel is, I will also be more thankful to God for giving me the gospel to deal with the desperate problem of my sin. So here in verses 21 and 22, we see that the gospel makes known God's righteousness. The gospel makes known God's righteousness. We read there in verse 21 that a part from law, righteousness of God has been made known. God's righteousness has been made known apart from the law. What does that mean? On one hand, God's law, Romans 7, verse 12 says, God's law is holy, it's righteous, and it is good. God's law fully declares what God's standard of righteousness is. But there's a problem, not with God's law. The problem is not with God's law. God's law is holy and righteous and good. The problem is with me and with you. We are sinners. We are incapable of fully obeying God's law. Romans 3 10 says, there is no one who is righteous, not even one. Romans 3 20 says, by works of law, no man will be justified before God. Rather, through the law, through the Bible, through the Ten Commandments, comes the knowledge that we are sinners. So the weakness, you could say, the weakness of God's law is not in the law itself or the standard that it proclaims, The weakness of God's law is that it can only show me that I am incapable of keeping it. It cannot make me a righteous person because I have failed to keep it. But praise God, verse 21 says, but now, but now righteousness of God has been made known apart from the law of God. A way that both a sinful man can be declared legally righteous before a holy God and a way where a holy God is able to maintain his holy integrity and not compromise his holy standards of judging sin fully. Verse 22 says, this way of righteousness comes about through faith in Jesus Christ. So first of all, the gospel message of Jesus's death and resurrection makes known God's righteousness. Man's sin can be fully forgiven by a holy God on a righteous basis. My sins are not swept under the rug in the gospel of God. They have been fully paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross. Verses 23 to 26 step us through the details of this righteousness. Verse 23 tells us that all of us are sinners, and we all fall short of the perfect standard that a holy God demands of us. Verse 24 says that because I am a sinner, I do not deserve and I cannot earn a righteous standing before God. This righteous standing only can come about as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You know, the word redemption involves the payment of a price. Redemption involves the payment of a price. Hebrews 9 15 says, a death has taken place for the payment of my transgressions that I have committed so that I can be justified and forgiven of my sins through the redemption provided by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Verse 25 says, God displayed Jesus publicly. God displayed Jesus publicly as a propitiation. The word propitiation can also be said as an atoning sacrifice for man's sin. God is saying here that this public display of Jesus shedding his blood and dying on the cross was done to display or to demonstrate God's righteousness. In the Old Testament, God had his people, Israel, offer up animal sacrifices, not to actually take away their sins, but to temporarily cover over their sins and to remind them that they were sinners and that their sins needed to be atoned for. So those animals that were sacrificed in the Old Testament could only point forward to the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ that actually could pay for their sin. So Jesus' dying on the cross was a public display showing that God was a God who had fully judged and righteously dealt with man's sin once and for all. Verse 26 says, the result of this public demonstration of God's righteousness shows God to be both a just God and also a God who justifies the sinner who has faith in Jesus Christ. So this is what the death of Christ has accomplished for God. It has shown forth that God is a God of integrity. It has also shown God's love and grace and mercy because it allows God to forgive and justify sinners who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. So let's go to our second heading, the facts of the believer's union with Jesus' death and resurrection. The facts of the believer's union with Jesus death, and resurrection. And what we're going to cover under this heading is crucial for every believer both to understand and to apply. We're going to see that both Jesus's death and Jesus's resurrection are not just events that have happened in the past. They are truths that a believer's life must be governed by each and every day. because it's only through my union with the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus that I, as a believer, can have real, consistent victory over the power of sin in my daily life. You know, one error that many believers fall into is this, they believe rightfully that God has given very specific instructions about how a person becomes a believer through faith alone in Jesus Christ and his cross work and redemption. But then after they are saved, unfortunately, many believers think that they're basically left to fend for themselves in their daily Christian walk, to do the best that they can, to try their hardest to be obedient to God and so on. And this is not the case. Just as a person is unable to save himself and earn a righteous standing before God, a person is also unable to overcome sin's power in his daily life through his own efforts or through his own willpower. God has given man the doctrine as to how a person is saved and justified and forgiven. God has also given doctrine as to how a believer is to overcome the power of sin in his daily walk. I think for many, if not all of us, we have one or two sins in particular that we struggle with. And when we're tempted by that one particular sin, we consistently find ourselves failing and failing and failing. And eventually, after I've failed for a long time, I realized that I don't have the power within myself to consistently have victory over that sin in my life. If we read Philippians chapter three, verses nine and 10, Paul writes there that salvation is so that he might gain Christ, that he might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of his own derived from the law, but a righteousness that is through faith in Jesus Christ. In order that I may know him, that I may know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. So verse nine of Philippians three tells us that a person is saved, he is declared righteous through faith in Jesus Christ for the purpose of that he might know the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That's the purpose Paul is speaking of here, that every believer might know the power of the resurrection of Jesus in his daily life and walk. That's a mouthful. But here we see that the power of Jesus's resurrection is a power that is available to every believer. to every believer. And it's a power that God intends for every believer both to know and to apply to his life every day. So what I want to accomplish in this heading is to go through some scriptures that teach me that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I am united, I am united to the death and to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and that when I submit myself to this truth of union with Christ and allow it to govern my daily life and my daily decisions, then I can know the power of Jesus's resurrection, and then I can experience victory over sin's power. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, Paul writes there, the Lord said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect through weakness or in weakness. The power of Jesus's resurrection is sufficient to overcome the power of sin. The reason why a believer can so consistently fail and so consistently or continually give himself over to sin is not because Jesus's resurrection power is insufficient. The believer fails because he is disobedient. the believer fails because he is disobedient. He doesn't let the truth of his union with Christ's death and resurrection govern his responses to Satan's temptations. So for the rest of this second heading here, we'll go through some scriptures that will give us the facts about our union with the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And then in our third heading, we will look at how we are to apply those facts to the daily temptations and the responses that we make to those temptations. I'd encourage you, write down these scripture references we cover, or I've got them written down here, I can give you a copy of them later. These first two verses I'm gonna read, bring before us the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Romans 14 9 says, for to this end, for to this end, Jesus died and rose again so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. And Colossians 1 18 says, Jesus is head of the body of the church. He's the beginning. the firstborn from the dead in order that he himself might have first place in everything. So Jesus died and rose again so that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead, that he might have first place in everything. Jesus is Lord, period. And Jesus has the right to have first place in every aspect of my life because I belong to Jesus. He has purchased me with his blood. My body and the members of my body belong to the Lord Jesus. They don't belong to me. Whether it's my money, my time, my work life, my love life, All of these things are to be put under the lordship of the Lord Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 15 says, Jesus died for all. Jesus died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Acts 5. Three, verse 26 says, God raised up his servant Jesus, God raised up his servant Jesus and sent him to bless you, how? By turning every one of you from your wicked ways. Jesus' death and resurrection changes who I am to live my life for. As a believer, I'm no longer to live for myself, but for Jesus's purpose and the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And God's raising up Jesus from the dead is not so that I continue on in my life of sin, rather it is to turn me away from my sin and my wicked ways. The last scriptures we're going to look at are in Romans 6, verses 5 to 11. I'm going to use that as a text here. So let's turn to Romans 6, and we'll start by reading verses 5 to 7. Romans 6, verse 5 says, for since we have become united with him, that's the Lord Jesus, in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. So here in these three verses, we have the truth that every believer, every believer is united to the death of the Lord Jesus. We have been united with Jesus in the likeness of his death. Verse five says, and why has the believer been united with Jesus in his death? Well, verse six gives us two reasons why. First, the believer has been united with Jesus in his death in order that his body of sin might be done away with, that his body of sin might be done away with. I like the New American Standard here. and how it words that, it says that his body of sin might be made powerless, or that his body of sin might be rendered inoperative. The second reason for the believer's union with Christ is so that he would no longer be a slave to sin. He who has died has is freed from sin. It's the believer's union with Christ that is the central privilege of the Christian faith. We are all born sinners. We all have a sin nature that desires to sin. And after we become a believer, we still retain our sin nature. We have our sin nature with us for the entirety of our life. But even though I have my sin nature with me, With its desire and with its attraction to sin, this fact of my union with Christ gives me the basis and it gives me the power to say no to the desires of my sin nature. As a believer, it says there, verse number six, as a believer, My old self, my old identity in Adam has been crucified with Christ. So when Jesus died there on the cross, when Jesus was crucified on the cross, my old self died there with him. That's an important thing to get a hold of. The Holy Spirit who lives within every believer will continually remind me that I am a child of God. Romans 8 tells us the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So the Holy Spirit is there to continually remind me that I am a child of God, I am in Christ, and therefore, therefore, how can I A believer in Jesus Christ who has died with Christ still live in sin. Romans chapter six, verse two says very plainly, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? Let's go on to verses eight to 11. They give us the truth that every believer is also united to the resurrection of Jesus, to the resurrection of Jesus. Verse eight says, since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will 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 Christ died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he now lives, he lives to God. So even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So since every believer is united to the death of the Lord Jesus, he certainly is also united to the resurrection of Jesus. And what is the purpose of that union with the resurrection of Jesus? Well, verse 10 says, when Jesus died, he died unto sin once for all. You know, Jesus was born into this world to die for the sins of man. And when Jesus died, sin's price was fully and forever paid for. Jesus never has to deal with the issue of man's sin again. He is once for all dealt with sin. And because God has been satisfied with Jesus' death for sin, Jesus was resurrected. and he never has to die again. And the life that Jesus lives now, it says in verse 10, the life that Jesus lives now, he lives unto God. And because Jesus's resurrection life is lived to God and the believer is in union with the death of Jesus, the believer as well is to live his life not for sin anymore, but for God. Verse 11 says, even so consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Since Jesus' resurrection life has nothing more ever to deal with sin, he now calls believers to be done with sin in their life as well. So these facts of the believer's death and resurrection with the Lord Jesus are the central privilege of being a believer. And they also bring to every believer a huge responsibility. I read there, verse 11, a believer is to consider himself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Because he's in Christ Jesus, he is to reckon himself dead to sin and alive to God. And then the practical application in verse 12, because of his union with Christ, the believer is not to let sin reign in his mortal body, so that he would obey its lusts, and he is not to go on presenting the members of his body over to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, rather he is to present himself to God as those who are alive from the dead and his members as instruments of righteousness to God. So these three verses, 11 to 13, tell me that I make the application of verses 12 and 13 based on the fact of God's word of verse 11. I act according to what the facts of God's word say is true about me. You know, at times our sin nature may be pressing us very hard to give ourselves over to sin. I may feel like my old self is still very much alive, but my responsibility as a believer is to believe what God's word says is true about me. And here's the ultimate security. My union with Christ depends not on me, but on Christ. It depends on the obedience of Christ, the character of Christ. The Lord Jesus has died to sin once for all. He has been raised from the dead, never to die again. And therefore, I, through my faith in Jesus Christ, am united to both his death and his resurrection. What is true of Jesus is also true of me because I am in him. So therefore, God can tell me to make the application of verses 12 and 13 to my daily life. Let's go to our third heading, how we are to apply this truth of union with Christ into our daily life. I mentioned earlier that for most, if not all of us, there's a critical issue or situation in our life that God is using to really grab our attention and to bring us to the point where we trust him completely. An area of our life where we are really confronted with the choice of obeying God and his word or resorting to a sinful behavior to fill a vacuum that is in our life or our hearts. You know, I think sometimes we can feel that God has cheated me out of something that I deserve or something that I really need, something that I can't live my life without. But instead of accepting what God has brought into my life to draw me closer to himself, I choose to disobey God and fill that void in my life by yielding my members over to sin instead of trusting God and his word. Instead of trusting that God is working all things together for good in my life as a believer, including that he has chosen not to grant me the one thing that I think I cannot live without. In my case, I guess I would say there was one particular sin that I would resort to, and probably for 15 or 20 years, there was something in my life that I felt I couldn't live without. There was a hole there. And the sin that I committed never filled that void. That sin that I would commit never filled the void or the hole that was in my heart. And I would even go so far as to say that my whole life basically was hinging on that one issue. Maybe some of you have a similar struggle in your own heart, in your own life. And finally, you know, God wants to bring us to the point where we realize the problem Of the whole issue is my disobedience. The whole problem of the issue is my disobedience. I refuse to acknowledge the facts that as a believer, I am in union with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and therefore, I have no right to yield my body and its members over to sinful behavior. God may not grant you one or two things in your life that you want most, and he may not tell you why he's not going to grant you them. But you know, God will ask you the same question that he asked Peter in John chapter 21, verse 16, when Jesus said to Peter, Peter, Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? In Peter's case, it was fishing. In our case, it might be my career. It might be my desire for a family. Do I love Jesus more than those things? You know, God calls every believer, first of all, to love him. And how do I show God that I love him? Well, God says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We could cover this with much more detail, but I wanna close with one more scripture. 2 Corinthians 13, verse four. I just came across this scripture, I wanna say just a few months ago. I think it would have helped me many years ago if I would have seen it then. 2 Corinthians 13, verse four says, Indeed, Jesus was crucified because of weakness. Jesus was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God. And get this, and we also are weak in him. We also are weak in him, yet we will live with him because of the power of God directed towards you. When the believer prays and asks God for strength to overcome a particular sin in his life, it's very, very interesting how God provides the believer with the strength You know, earlier I mentioned 2 Corinthians 12, verses nine and 10, where God says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And then Paul says in verse 10, it's when I am weak, then I am strong. So I must remember and accept that God's way of giving me strength to overcome sin's power is through weakness. It's through weakness through me allowing the truth of my union with Christ's death and resurrection to govern my daily decisions. You know, there's no weaker place than a place of crucifixion. No weaker place than a place of crucifixion, because the place of crucifixion is a place of death, a death to self, a death to self-will. You know, giving our flesh the sin that it wants to fill a void in our hearts is not the correct biblical response. Jesus said in Mark 8, verse 34, if any one, any man, any woman would come after me, let him deny himself, let him take up his cross daily, and follow me. It says take up his cross daily, daily, and follow me. So the Christian is called first to die to self before he can live in Christ. We cannot have the victory over sin's power without first accepting that we are in union with Christ's death. Our main problem is that we want the victory over the power of sin, but we don't want to accept the fact that, as believers, we are united first to Christ's death, and there is pain associated with being united to the death of Christ. But remember the Lord Jesus Christ himself. How did his life end in this world? The strength of the Lord Jesus and the accomplishment of salvation by the Lord Jesus came through his place of weakness. It came through his hanging on a cross. The Lord Jesus committed himself. He committed himself to do God the Father's will. And Philippians 2 says, he was obedient unto death. He was obedient unto death. Isaiah says it was through the anguish of his soul that he was able to bear our iniquities and bring justification to many. So may you and I, who are believers, live according to these truths that we are in union with the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and then not yield our members to sin, but to God. Let us pray. Our God and Father, we just thank you so much for the truth of the gospel, for the facts of your son's death, burial, and resurrection. And we thank you too for these scriptures here in Romans that would teach us that every believer is in union with the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is something that our natural self would shrink back from. We don't want to be in a place of weakness. We would rather try to keep control. And yet your word tells us that strength comes, our strength comes from taking this place of weakness. Oh, Father, please help every believer in this room. to daily reckon himself as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us this great salvation. May we know it, may we understand it, and may we apply it into our daily life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.