Good morning. This Lord's Day, we're going to be looking at the sixth chapter of the book of Romans. And we're going to try to glean some truths from this chapter, which certainly shouldn't be difficult. Romans 6 is the heart of the Gospel. As a matter of fact, so much so, that it was utilized by George Whitefield when he would be preaching to his throngs of thousands. And people would come up to him and say, Pastor Whitefield, what must I do? What must I do? Because, of course, he preached the law. And he preached the law very hard in preparation for the receipt of grace. Grace always follows law. And as people would come up to him and ask what he should do, he would give them a tract with Romans chapter 6 printed on it. And he'd tell them, go home and read it. And pray over it. And meditate on it. And come back and talk to me. That's how powerful he felt. Number one, the efficacy of the Word of God was, and particularly Romans chapter 6. The title of this message is, The Practical Implications of Our Union with Christ in His Death and Resurrection as it is symbolized in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Or for short, baptism and death, the Lord's Supper and life. I hope that we will be encouraged to pursue a practical holiness after this message based on the fact that our positional holiness is already secured in Christ. We want to pursue a practical holiness based on our positional holiness in Christ. You've heard me say this before. We have a certain condition that we exist in, and it is far and away different from our position. Our condition is down here on earth, in the muck and mire, struggling against sin, fighting against sin, hopefully progressing in our sanctification. Our position is up here, seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Our condition down here. Our position up here. And our sanctification and growth in holiness is a matter of having our position, our condition, match our position. Romans 6, verses 1-11, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might 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 in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through 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 be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should 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 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." Father, we're thankful for this Word. My prayer is that You prepare our hearts and give us truth that can transform from this message in Jesus' name, Amen. As I said, the goal this morning is to briefly clarify and perhaps reiterate the basic tenet of our Christian faith and practice utilizing this passage in the book of Romans. That single tenet is obvious to anyone who even most casually looks into Scripture and is concerned about their personal sanctification. Simply put, that tenet is that to live, one must die. Death and life. The death of Christ and our judicial, forensic death with Him, on the one hand, and His resurrection, the source of our life, power, deliverance, Freedom from the slavery of sin enabled by this resurrection power today. Two concepts paradoxically juxtaposed throughout Scripture in metaphor, narrative, allegory, outright declaration. Dying to live is the one principle we have to absolutely understand to have any success at all as measured by conscience, communion, and union with God. This passage speaks of both of these concepts clearer than anywhere else in Scripture. And additionally, there are two aspects of this life, this resurrection life, this newness of life. That is to say, there's an aspect of it that we appropriate today. And there's the newness of life when for each of us this mortal body shall put on immortality or when we get our resurrection body on that last day. I will deal first with the newness of life guaranteed to us today from this passage. Now, today, this minute, this hour, this day, this week, this month, this year, for the time that God has given me, I can and should be growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as Peter tells us in his second book. Growing in grace is growing in strength. We often say, God gave me grace to endure. Or with God's grace, I can do this or that. or by God's grace I was able to do or endure or withstand or be victorious in temptation. So we often speak in terms of grace as a fortifier of my spiritual constitution because grace is about strength and courage and endurance. And an ever-increasing amount of all of those things or whatever the need of the hour is, being guaranteed to us by virtue of the resurrection power of Christ. That resurrection power of Christ is supplied to us by the administrative work of the Spirit of God, and it's apprehended by us as we choose to obey, regardless of the cost and pain, ostracism, uncomfortableness, or emotional or physical anxiety that it may create in us. Let's be honest. Saying no to a sinful habit is painful. Emotionally distressing and extremely difficult to do because we simply do not want to deny ourself. That is the essence of the battle between the flesh and the spirit, isn't it? Denying self. Mortifying the flesh. Crucifying oneself. After all, it is what saying no means in biblical terms. It's brutal. More so when we consider all this pain as self-inflicted, because it is our choice. if we're concerned about our sanctification and growth in grace. To sit in the pain of the moment because we know it is the only way to come alive to God experientially. To come alive to God experientially. As Presbyterians, we cut ourselves short and allow ourselves to be misunderstood. And as a matter of fact, we let others define our theology and characterize us by allowing labels and monikers like the frozen chosen, for example. When in fact, the reality is that we recognize the only biblical way, the only formula for a pathway to experience God in the fullest sense is to commune with God Censorally, it's to commune with the God of all power by exercising that divine enablement in the dreary, mundane, protracted, and difficult everyday battle against our personal sin. We must die to self in order to live to God. The issue is sin. The issue is always sin. and the lack of desire to pursue holiness. I counsel about 15 men on average every single week. And I can say unequivocally, most if not all depression, if it's not clinical, is a result of a spiritual dissatisfaction inevitably being a consequence of allowing sin to fester in one's life by excuse, rationalization, and self-deception. They choose to believe the lie. One of those seeming paradoxes in the Christian life is that we must die to live and they simply refuse to do so. Now, even if we understand that struggle to some extent, most often we're engaged, if we are engaged at all, we pray for the strength to win the battle or avoid the battle altogether, even before we know what the battle is. I want the way out made clear. I want the road straightened before I have to negotiate it. I want to feel the surge of power and strength ahead of time. I want the confidence that I can do it before I need it, so when I do need it, I know it's available. Typically, we pray for avoidance of situations. We create more of a problem in gender disappointment and plan for failure when we don't understand God's way. Trial and temptation and spiritual conflict is inevitable. And it is the primary means God uses to show us the measure of our growth. You don't want to experience trial and temptation and spiritual conflict You have no measure of your personal spiritual growth. No, on the contrary, as we glean Holy Scripture, we see God's pattern is to deliver in God's time. And inevitably, it is at the last minute. We sing a chorus at prison that we have. We serve an on-time God. Few of us actually exercise the patience gracefully to wait for God's deliverance. God's pattern is to deliver in God's time. And most of the time, it's at the last minute. It's when obedience is straining our commitment. It's at precisely that time when our desire to please God is about to be choked by the stranglehold of our self-indulgence. Deliverance comes in the night when our trust And hope in God is expressed through our tears. The psalmist says in Psalm 6, I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears. Have you ever been there? Not if you're not engaged in your own personal holiness. Not if you're not engaged in your battle against your sin. The greatest deliverance of all history, the greatest miracle of all time by the Bible's own admission, the greatest display of God's power effecting a rescue, a deliverance, and securing a victory for God's people was the redemption, the deliverance of the nation of Israel from Egypt. This is the miracle that's talked most often cited when the Bible itself is speaking of God's power. The freeing of Israel from Egypt was at the last minute. Through Israel's confusion, their fears and tears, interestingly enough, this last minute deliverance was actually in the making at least 400 years. 400 years plus two generations. Genesis 15-13, God told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved for at least 400 years and it was Jacob who went down into Egypt, the second generation from Abraham. Let's look for a minute at Exodus chapter 14 just to get a better idea. Exodus chapter 14, which is the deliverance. of Israel from Egypt. We'll just walk through some of this. Exodus 14, now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Piharoth, between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal Ziphon, opposite it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, They're wandering aimlessly in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. They're wandering aimlessly in the land. They're doing what God told them to do. Pharaoh, however, as Pharaoh perceives this, they're wandering aimlessly in the land. Sometimes when we obey God, we are perceived by those who don't know God to be wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. We are to obey God regardless of the way it looks to the world. Thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will chase after them and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart towards the people and they said, what is this we've done? We've let Israel go from serving us. So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him, and he took 600 select chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly." Note that. In verse 8, they're going out boldly. Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them, camping by the sea. besides Pi-ha-heroth in front of Baal-ziphon. And as Pharaoh drew nearer, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord." In verse 8, they're going out boldly. In verse 10, they're frightened. Why? Because now they see the enemy advancing. Then they said to Moses, is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, leave us alone, we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." Moses said to the people, do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you. while you keep silent. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea and dry land. And as for me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so they will go in after them. I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen. And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of a cloud moved from before them, and they stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into the dry land. So the waters were divided, and the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left." And of course, we know the rest of the story. The Egyptians followed, and then Moses stretched out his staff and his hand again, and the waters came back and swallowed the Egyptian army and Pharaoh. And this miracle, the greatest display of God's power in the Bible, we have recorded for us. And it's worth reading over and over and over again, because we have the principles of how God delivers. Understand, the nation of Israel had nowhere to go. Of course, they became frightened. leaving Egypt boldly. They were leaving with all kinds of gold and silver and all kinds of goods that were, for all practical purposes, confiscated from the Egyptians. Now they look around and they see the Egyptian army coming up behind them. What they wanted was for the Red Sea, which was ahead of them, to part ahead of time. But it didn't. As a matter of fact, they came right up to the Red Sea, and they had mountains on the left, mountains on the right. The Egyptian army was coming up there behind, and they had the Red Sea in front of them and nowhere to go. And of course they cried out. Moses says, do not fear. Stand by, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Now look at what the Lord said to Moses. Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. This is going forward in faith. Where are we going to go? We've got water ahead of us, mountains on either side of us. We have an army pursuing us from behind. There is nowhere to go and God says, go forward. Don't see any deliverance in sight there. Not until. Moses did what he was told to do, which was stretch out his hand and his staff. And then God did what God said he would do, and part the water. Sanctification and or deliverance from trial or temptation is always synergistic. We talk about salvation being monergistic. It is all of God. The doctors of grace are all of God. But our sanctification is synergistic. That is to say, I work with God. There are some things that I have to do. And what I have to do is clearly spelled out in at least ten commandments, if not 619 depending on your point of view of theonomy. It's clear there are some things that I am supposed to do. And whether God blesses that obedience or not is up to Him. That is really none of my business. But sanctification and or deliverance when facing a conflict, when facing trial, when facing temptation has to do with sitting still, keeping silent, keeping silent and being obedient. Isn't it interesting? Moses did what he was supposed to do. The sea swept back. God did what He was going to do, and Israel was delivered. What is it? We don't want to spend a lot of time here, but what is it with you? What is it that you are facing at this moment? Where it doesn't appear there's any way out. You've got mountains on either side. You've got water in the front. You've got an enemy that's on your heels. And there's nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Be still and know that I am God and be obedient regardless of what it looks like the cost is going to be to you. Move forward, God told Israel. Well, as far as they were concerned, they were going to drown. But as soon as their foot went into that water, it parted. Moses was there stretching out his hand and his staff in obedience. Regardless of the cost, regardless of the pain, regardless of our circumstances, which we believe that God has engineered in His sovereignty from before the foundation of the world, so explain to me what I am supposed to be complaining about. When I am faced with trial and temptation and spiritual conflict and difficulty, my job is to, in quiet confidence, trust in the promises of God and His deliverance, or not, for His glory and my good." His deliverance or not. Read Fox's book of Martyrs. None of those folks were delivered from their immediate pain or price they had to pay for their faith. Whether they deliver or not, whether God delivers or not is His business. But it is the same with us. Moses held out his staff and God swept the sea back. What is it that you have to do when facing the enemy that will display your trust in the promises of God that will in turn reveal His deliverance? It's the same with us as it was required of Moses in Israel. Isaiah 30, verse 15 says, For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said, and repentance and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. You see, we simply don't believe God will deliver us or we would choose to be silent and sit in our fear and pain and confusion as Israel had and be still. Bow our head to our Creator and obey. And obeying is simply denying self until we see His redemption in the moment. Romans 8, verse 13 says, "...but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." If by the Spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And just in case we've forgotten what some of those things are that we are to be mortifying, that we are to be putting to death, that we are to be saying no to, Paul gives us a list. We read a list in Ephesians in the reading this morning. Colossians chapter 3, "...mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." These are the things we're supposed to be saying no to. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, which is uncontrolled passion, evil concupiscence, which is desire, covetousness or greed, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, in which you also walked and lived in them. But now..." But now reminds me of the passage in Ephesians. We were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We were dead in our sins. But God. Don't you just love that? But God. But now, because God intervened. We are to put off all these things. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, saying that you have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man which is renewed in the knowledge of him that created him." Put off some things and put on what? The characteristics? of Jesus Christ. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man has a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you." So you see, this now and today aspect of Christ's resurrection This resurrection power, this likeness of His resurrection that we can tap into, that I participate in, is His enablement to obey. It is His power offered to me for purposes of making me ever more holy as I grow. God has not supplied His power to us to amuse our friends or to entertain throngs of people on some revival platform. God has given us this resurrection power and an ability to tap into it by virtue of my reckoning myself dead and identifying with Christ and His death, which we're going to get to in a minute. He's given me this ability to make me more holy. and to become more sanctified. And said another way, to become more Christ-like. That's the point of resurrection power. That's the point of divine enablement. That's what enables me divinely to get through my day, avoid temptation, not fall to temptation, love you when I don't want to love you, be kind and forgiving. I am enabled to do all of these things because of the resurrection power that I am promised in this passage in Romans chapter 6. Colossians 128, whom we preach. warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man complete or perfect in Christ Jesus. In another place, Paul says, I am in agony until Christ be formed in you. That's what resurrection power is all about. Victory in Jesus. You've heard me say this before. We sing it all the time. Victory in Jesus. But there are very few experiencing victory in Jesus today. because we're not reckoning ourselves dead. We're not identifying with the death of Christ as we read earlier and we're going to read again in Romans chapter 6. Becoming more Christlike is becoming more obedient. To what? Obedient to what? Obedient to the law of God. The Ten Commandments? That's a novel idea. Martin Luther examined his conscience every night by the light of the Ten Commandments. Read the larger catechism. This is easy. Questions 100 to 150. Difficult to forget that. The Ten Commandments are between questions 100 and 150. 50 questions. One question every night. You will have read all 50 questions that cover all the obligations and all the prohibitions of all the Ten Commandments seven times in a year. And I suggest you get started before this month slips away. And for those of you that are reading through your Bible in a year, this is the 8th of January. If you haven't started yet, you're eight days behind. You're about 17 chapters behind. So get going. The practical appropriation of this resurrection power is actually achieved as we are engaged in the battle. Oh, how I love thy law, the psalmist says. The psalmist loves God's law. Do we? This appropriation of resurrection power is actually experienced as we choose our own death to self. As we choose our self-crucifixion. When we say to ourselves, I would rather die than commit this sin. when we choose to wait on God and trust in His strength, when we patiently endure the drama of watching the spectacle of our own will die. Do that. And sooner or later, by God's own promise, you will mount up as on wings of eagles At that last minute, you will be made to run and not grow weary. At that last minute, you will walk and not faint, Isaiah 40 tells us. I love that verse, especially in reference to what we just read, because that description of mounting up as on angel's wings is exactly how God describes Israel's deliverance from the Egyptians out of His own mouth. Exodus 19, verse 4, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Sit in the pain and say no. God will, by His own promise, bear you up, mount you up as on eagles' wings and bring you to Himself. If you do mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall become alive to God." That is exactly what God is saying here. And Paul reiterated in Romans 8, I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. They sat in their fear. They sat in their confusion. But you want to know what? They obeyed. Wait and sit in quiet trust of God, and in that same power, that same resurrection power, that dunamis, that dynamite of God, He will deliver you. And in the words of Romans 8.13, you will come alive to God. You want an experience with God? Is there any more profound experience? Yeah, I'm using the term experience. We don't use that much in Reformed circles. Is there any more profound experience? Is there anything more exciting, more vivifying, more spine-tingling, more bone-rattling, or spiritually satisfying when all of a sudden you realize as you sat still facing death in the face of this sin or temptation that God delivered you? That God delivered you to know that to experience God's deliverance. There's nothing more exciting. Die to self. Come alive to God. See, this business of fighting sin is a zero-sum game. There's always a winner and there's always a loser. Every single transaction. Having traded commodities, I can tell you, zero-sum game is no fun. You face death just like Cain did in Genesis 4, verse 7. We're told sin was crouching at the door, and its desire was for you, but you must master it. Zero sum. You must choose to die to sin whereby you live to God, or you choose to die of sin by default. and experience the death spiral of gradual alienation from God because of the anesthetizing effects of sin on our soul. That's what happens. You will die of sin unless you die to sin. It hardens our hearts. Sin sears our consciences. It desensitizes us. Living in sin for the believer is like self-administering Novocain to a decaying tooth. You don't feel the pain of it, but the tooth is rotting nonetheless. We mustn't forget Paul's heart desire after 25 years as a Christian in his letter to the Philippians. His prayer was that he experience this power of Christ's resurrection. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. Now listen, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Death is always associated with this newness of life. Now, here and today, practically tapping into that power, or the final resurrection for those believers to honor, to the reprobate, to dishonor. Philippians 3.10.11 We covered this verse on several occasions in the past, particularly when we went through that series. Suffice it now just to observe that Paul ties this power we're talking about to the participation in the sufferings of Christ. Why? Because as we have stated, dying to self, mortifying our flesh, driving a stake through our self-indulgent wills is carrying our cross to our Calvary in sympathetic union with our Savior. As He died, We died with him forensically and judicially as I was in Christ by election. And Paul further draws the comparison by saying this union with his sufferings in our battle against sin is being conformed to his death. There you have, in this one verse, the same truth taught in Romans 6. His death, my death. His being raised by the power of God and my appropriating that same power that I am I die to self and attained at the end the resurrection of the living. I want to comment briefly on verses 3-5 of this 6th chapter and just note some observations. Romans 6 3 to 5, 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, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through 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 be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Said another way, simply put, we have died and have been buried with Him through baptism. And being united to His death and burial, we are raised with Him into newness of life. That's the fact. That's the fact. The question is, does our life in any way, shape or form indicate that judicial and forensic death and burial? We need to understand something about this term baptism in this verse. Our own Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 28, says, "...Baptism is the sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto Him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace of His ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of His giving up unto God through Jesus Christ." Here's a familiar phrase, to walk in the newness of life. Water baptism is the outward symbol of the reality of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. That's the baptism Romans 6 is talking about. being baptized into Christ's death is the Spirit baptism. The one that John the Baptist talks about. John 1.33, I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, unto whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1.8, I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3, 11 and 12. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. I'm not quite sure why this causes so many people problems. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The fire is always a sign of judgment, and it says right there, He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Baptism is a symbol of our union with Christ in His death. Death is a result of judgment. He suffered God's judgment. Of course, fire speaks of judgment. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, "...for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." Spirit baptism. Done by Jesus Christ Himself. Baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, we're all made to drink of one Spirit. And 1 Corinthians 12, 27, now you are Christ's body. And individually members of it. Because we are Christ's body by virtue of Spirit baptism. When He died, we died. And let's not confuse Spirit baptism with the filling of the Spirit or any of these other things. I'd refer you to the series of Philippians where we covered that at length. When you were baptized by Christ Himself with the Holy Spirit, we just read, that's what happens, you are baptized into His body. When that happens, that's all the Holy Spirit you're going to get. You got it all. That's all there is. You got everything there is. The problem is we don't let God get all of us. We got all the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is giving ourselves more and more and more to God. Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. There it is again. Because we were put in His body when He died, we died. I have been crucified with Christ. Spirit baptism is an operation conducted by Christ Himself whereby we are engrafted into His body, thereby applying His death and burial to us, as the verse says, and His resurrection to us by logical extension. Baptism is about death and our union with it. Resurrection is about life and its newness. Quickly, verse 5, "...if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." We don't want to get in the weeds here grammatically, but we need to look at these verbs in this first clause. We have become united with Him. The specific grammatical construction here indicates that it was a past action completed with present continuing results. We have become united with Him. Whenever that took place, we were united with Him. And in the past, and it has present continuing results. I remain united to Him. You want an argument for eternal security? There it is. One verse. All you need to do is look at the verbal construction. And you see that it is a perfect tense. Past completed action, present continuing results. I was united with Him and I remain united with Him. It has present continuing results. The second clause, we shall be. Future tense. First clause, I was united with Him in the past. It has present continuing results. The second clause, we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Something yet to be accomplished. Now that we are baptized into his death, in principle having died with him, we shall be sharers in a resurrection like his as well." Stop and think. How is our resurrection going to be like his? In the likeness of his death, so too in the likeness of his resurrection. And let me give you Philippians 2.7, "...but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men." How was he made in the likeness of men? by taking on a human body. The same language, same exact word. We get the theological term homoousios meaning man's essence, man's being. He was made in the likeness of men by taking on a human body and we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection by taking on a resurrection body. Another argument for bodily resurrection. An aspect of this new life, this resurrection life that rarely gets any attention, is the fact that it flows directly from Christ Himself. Because it is His life. John 15. We're all familiar with this. I am the vine, you are the branches. Perfectly explains this. The sap of life flows from the vine into the branches without which the branches do not live and produce fruit. They exist, but they don't live. The Apostle Paul categorically tells us that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me in Philippians 4.13. Because it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. We just read that. Galatians 2.20. If we spend any time at all meditating on these facts, these incredible truths, it will soon become apparent that we are living well beneath our means. And it is to our shame. Resurrection power. as we have been discussing, is not had apart from being in Christ. A theological concept spoken about extensively in our Philippians series, but said positively, the life of Christ is obtained when we are put in Christ. I don't want to reiterate or revisit that except to clarify some under-preached points I'm closing in two minutes. I'll make it five minutes. Eternal life does not adequately convey this new power that we obtain when we are in fact baptized into Christ. Baptized into Christ and made one with Him. And the reason why eternal life doesn't convey this power is because all life is eternal. All life. That is to say, it is all everlasting for the reprobate as well as the saved. The unsaved will be eternally separated from God first in hell in their soul or spirit or immortal subsistence as the Westminster Confession of Faith says in chapter 32. Then in the lake of fire in their resurrection body. They're going to get a resurrection body too. But as we're told, it is a resurrection to dishonor. The saved will be eternally in communion with God. First, in their immortal subsistence, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Then, in their resurrection body, called the resurrection to honor. But the point is, both have eternal life. And we need to be clear about that when we're talking to our friends and family. Oftentimes, I hear, well, you know, Do you have eternal life? Yeah, the fact is everybody's got eternal life. It's not about whether everybody is going to live forever because everybody will live forever. The question is the quality of the life. Is it eternal life or is it eternal death? That's the issue. It's not about duration of life. It's about quality of life. This life, as does all life, needs to be nourished and to be sustained. This newness of life, this resurrection power, this resurrection life that we have needs to be sustained. You say, well, why does eternal life need to be sustained or nourished? Well, it's not the eternal aspect that we're nourishing. It's the quality of that life that needs to be sustained. Christ in you is the mystery of the ages, as Paul explains in Colossians 1. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect." This is one of those foundational truths of our faith that is inexplicable. To eyes that are unopened to the truth of Scripture, this sounds like a wildly imaginative idea. It's no less mysterious, however, than the Trinity. You can't explain that. The Incarnation. You can't explain that to anybody's satisfaction. The expiatory nature of the Atonement. Who came up with that wild idea? Many other doctrines. that we take for granted. You can't adequately explain any of these things to someone without the Spirit of God illuminating him and expect him to believe them. This Christ within must be spiritually nourished. Jesus Himself said in John 6, 53-58, I'm going to close with this. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me, and I in him. As the Living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which comes down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna. and are dead. He that eats of this bread shall live forever." We'll conclude here and pick up perhaps next week with this John 6 passage, which is otherwise known as the Bread of Life discourse. And we're going to explain it in light of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper given as a primary means of grace to grow us up. in Christ. Baptism means death. The Lord's Supper is about life, which is the reason why we celebrate the Lord's Supper as often as we do. Let's pray.