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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.
Baptism and Death, Lord's Supper and Life, Pt 1
| Sermon ID | 9919171447470 |
| Duration | 53:13 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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