back to index2016-07-24 Dead to sin, Alive in Christ
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If you could turn your Bibles now to Romans chapter 6. 00:00:07.000 |
We're going to be reading verses 1 through 4. 00:00:11.960 |
It's really connected to the rest of the chapter, but we're going to just begin with 1 through 00:00:23.580 |
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:00:26.800 |
By no means, how can we who die to sin still live in it? 00:00:30.900 |
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into 00:00:36.140 |
We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was 00:00:40.160 |
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in a newness of life. 00:00:52.240 |
We thank you for our church, our brothers and sisters that you've placed us in this 00:00:57.120 |
family, this community, Lord God, where we can pursue and honor you with all our heart. 00:01:06.000 |
We pray for the Holy Spirit, Lord God, to continue to intercede and groan on our behalf 00:01:12.460 |
We want to hear from you and you alone that we may hear your Son's voice and follow Him. 00:01:23.920 |
You know, when I think about my childhood, one of the things that I remember the most 00:01:30.360 |
vividly was the first time my parents came to the United States in 19... 00:01:37.560 |
So you can imagine, you know, Korea at that time being such a poor country and then coming 00:01:43.360 |
to the United States, it was well-developed and, you know, the streets are large. 00:01:47.400 |
It was exactly as I pictured it in my head or at least heard about and how everybody 00:01:52.700 |
was filthy rich, you know, and you can have all the food you want and all the bananas 00:01:59.340 |
I remember the very first memory of my childhood when I came was, it was the first Halloween. 00:02:06.760 |
You know, the first Halloween in Korea, you know, it was, again, it was a very poor country 00:02:11.560 |
And, you know, I remember very rarely having candy. 00:02:15.800 |
And every once in a while if my mom wanted us to do something, my mom would tease us 00:02:20.600 |
with, you know, that she would give us sugar water, basically put some sugar into the water 00:02:32.920 |
And then coming to the United States and saying, "Oh, there's Halloween." 00:02:35.760 |
And then we had a cousin who was here in Philadelphia and told us that if you wear some sort of 00:02:40.280 |
a mask and you go door to door and knock, they give you free candy. 00:02:55.600 |
And my older brother was too embarrassed so he wouldn't come. 00:03:03.920 |
And then so I would first wear it and go knock on the door and then get some candy. 00:03:09.160 |
And then he would go and knock and then come back and we'd get some candy. 00:03:12.320 |
I remember coming back, we had about a half a bag full of candy. 00:03:17.560 |
Looking back at it now, it wasn't a lot of candy compared to what the kids get today. 00:03:22.600 |
You know, it's like, "Wow, this is an awesome country. 00:03:24.920 |
They just give you free candy for wearing a paper bag." 00:03:29.400 |
And I just remember that's one of the most vivid memories that I have of our childhood, 00:03:34.440 |
And then that happiness lasted for a long time because that candy was in the kitchen 00:03:40.280 |
But the other memory that I have is much later on in high school when I became a Christian. 00:03:46.560 |
In 1983 when I met the Lord, everything that I knew before I went up to the retreat was 00:03:55.560 |
You know, my love for baseball at that time, you know, I was like obsessed with baseball 00:04:01.840 |
I was outside playing baseball, practicing, trying to make it to the baseball team. 00:04:09.680 |
And then all the anger, the bitterness that I had from moving around so much, and especially 00:04:16.880 |
I remember when I met the Lord, it just completely changed overnight. 00:04:19.680 |
And I know a lot of people go through counseling and all this stuff, but for me, it was instantaneous. 00:04:23.720 |
As soon as I met the Lord, I knew knowing that God had a purpose for all of that, it 00:04:29.840 |
But I also remember during that period, I had quite a few friends who became Christians 00:04:34.000 |
at the same time, who are no longer walking with the Lord. 00:04:37.680 |
You know, and it didn't take long for them to fall away. 00:04:40.320 |
Some of them fell away a year after, some of them fell away several years after. 00:04:44.380 |
Every once in a while, I'll run into them, and I would ask them how they're doing. 00:04:49.880 |
Some of them never graduated high school, some of them never graduated college. 00:04:53.600 |
And when I asked them about where they stand with God, they'll tell me confidently that 00:05:01.520 |
And so I asked them, like, what is that confidence based on? 00:05:09.640 |
At that time, the way the gospel was being taught, it was almost kind of like Halloween. 00:05:13.400 |
I mean, I'm not saying that where I got saved, it was like that. 00:05:16.760 |
But a lot of people understood the gospel message as just free salvation. 00:05:20.880 |
You just go and raise your hand, come down the aisle, and you're done because it's by 00:05:28.200 |
Didn't Paul himself say that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more? 00:05:34.320 |
So when Paul began to give this message, some of the people were saying that he's actually 00:05:41.560 |
Why not do evil that good may come as some people slanderously charge us with sin? 00:05:47.920 |
So some of them were hearing this and wait a second, we've been living all our lives 00:05:53.720 |
And Paul is saying that that not only does that not give you righteousness, it only brings 00:05:59.180 |
That the law, all it did was reveal a greater part of sin. 00:06:04.440 |
And even the passage that we just looked at before in Romans 5, 20, now the law came to 00:06:08.920 |
increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. 00:06:15.000 |
Now if Paul's gospel, if the gospel of Jesus Christ ended there, yeah, it would make sense. 00:06:20.960 |
A lot of people would just kind of go off and say, yeah, I mean, of course we should 00:06:24.440 |
live righteously, but living righteously is not required. 00:06:29.280 |
I mean, we can almost say that wouldn't that lead to that then? 00:06:34.280 |
Aren't we afraid when we're raising our kids that if we like to spoil them, they're going 00:06:38.680 |
to grow up and thinking like, well, you know, I could do whatever I want. 00:06:44.040 |
Whether I go to school or don't go to school, get good grades, don't go get good grades. 00:06:48.400 |
I mean, imagine raising your kids, telling them constantly that no matter what you do, 00:06:56.640 |
Not to say that's not true, but imagine if that's the only message that you give them, 00:07:03.640 |
Imagine what that child is going to grow up to be. 00:07:06.760 |
So if we're not careful, that same kind of thinking, that's where the Jews were afraid 00:07:15.040 |
Paul, if you are saying that salvation is by grace and by grace alone and not the law, 00:07:21.040 |
the righteousness doesn't add to your salvation, isn't that going to get a bunch of people 00:07:24.880 |
who are just committed to licentiousness and they're going to do whatever they want? 00:07:29.220 |
And so some people were actually saying that's the gospel that Paul was preaching. 00:07:34.000 |
Sad to say, some people today actually believe that that's what the gospel is. 00:07:39.560 |
The gospel basically frees you from any obligation for righteousness. 00:07:43.840 |
That no matter what you do in life, it just doesn't matter. 00:07:47.800 |
Paul says in verse one, in fact, the whole chapter six and chapter seven is to answer 00:07:54.880 |
Some people were saying that that's what the gospel is. 00:08:00.220 |
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:08:06.560 |
In English, you can't use two negatives, right? 00:08:09.760 |
At least that's the grammar that we learn in English class. 00:08:12.560 |
But in the Greek, oftentimes there's two negatives that are used for the purpose of emphasis. 00:08:20.240 |
The word by no means in Greek has two negatives, basically no, no, no, basically. 00:08:29.880 |
If the whole point of the gospel is to deliver us from our own sins, how can somebody continue 00:08:38.880 |
That is a misunderstanding of what the gospel is. 00:08:42.320 |
So for the next two chapters, chapter six and chapter seven, Paul's going to be expounding 00:08:47.560 |
and trying to qualify, yes, salvation is by grace alone. 00:08:53.960 |
It is not by your works, by grace and grace alone. 00:08:57.440 |
But when you are genuinely saved by grace alone, when your sins are justified by the 00:09:03.880 |
blood of Christ alone, it does not lead to licentiousness. 00:09:08.780 |
It actually leads to greater righteousness, even in practice. 00:09:13.460 |
And that's basically the premise that when we look at chapter six and seven, that's the 00:09:20.240 |
But today I want to look at the first four verses where he talks about how can we continue 00:09:31.180 |
First and foremost, the question that he's trying to answer here, is it a practical question 00:09:39.820 |
I don't know if you understand what I mean by that. 00:09:43.220 |
The question that he's posing, the answer that he's giving, is he basically challenging 00:09:47.460 |
us that because of salvation, you should live righteous lives? 00:09:53.780 |
Or is he saying that you've been delivered from sin? 00:10:03.600 |
But the first thing that he deals with is where we stand before God. 00:10:07.700 |
Before he gets into, therefore, since this is what happened to you, this is how you ought 00:10:12.540 |
But first and foremost, we need to understand what salvation is in the first place. 00:10:20.260 |
And until we understand where we stand before God and what actually happened in salvation, 00:10:25.620 |
how do you live up to the calling of your salvation if you don't understand exactly 00:10:31.220 |
Some people think that salvation basically means that your penalty of sin has been paid 00:10:35.340 |
for so you no longer go to hell, but that now you're just going to go to heaven. 00:10:43.240 |
The only thing that changed is where you stand before God positionally. 00:10:49.920 |
The first and foremost, Paul takes the first part of this passage to expose it to us. 00:10:57.800 |
Again, so if we don't understand that, you won't understand what he means by live up 00:11:02.200 |
to the calling when we get to Ephesians chapter 4 later on. 00:11:10.120 |
If some people are saying this, that our righteous life doesn't matter, that we can live in sin 00:11:16.880 |
Are we to continue on sin that grace may abound? 00:11:27.180 |
John makes it very clear in 1 John 3, 4 to 6, everyone who makes a practice of sinning 00:11:36.720 |
You know that he appeared to take away sins and in him there is no sin. 00:11:43.520 |
No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 00:11:48.360 |
So first thing that we need to distinguish what Paul is distinguishing here is somebody 00:11:52.560 |
who is living in sin versus somebody who is wrestling in sin. 00:11:58.920 |
Someone who is living in sin versus someone who is wrestling in sin. 00:12:02.580 |
So if you notice here he says, how can somebody continue to sin that grace may abound? 00:12:15.520 |
So he's describing an individual where there was no change in life. 00:12:20.440 |
But after you met Christ, the life you lived prior to meeting Christ and the life you lived 00:12:25.320 |
after you met Christ, there is no distinction. 00:12:30.920 |
That your life, your language, your thoughts, your hopes, your values, nothing has really 00:12:36.200 |
changed other than the fact that you go to church on Sunday. 00:12:46.320 |
How can somebody who declares to have been delivered from sin continue to sin? 00:12:58.600 |
In Romans 6, 12-14 it says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies." 00:13:03.560 |
In other words, Paul is not simply telling us that if you've been Christian that you're 00:13:11.680 |
Just automatically that those desires disappear. 00:13:15.480 |
When you became a Christian, did your pride just die? 00:13:34.800 |
There's a reason why the Bible has imperatives. 00:13:38.600 |
There's a reason why there's commands in the scripture. 00:13:41.140 |
Like even Paul in the very next section, he says, "Do not present your members to sin 00:13:49.600 |
Paul is not saying that you've been delivered from sin. 00:13:54.400 |
You've died to sin, so therefore you don't have any desire for sin. 00:14:00.560 |
Because if that's the case, he wouldn't be making the command to not to present your 00:14:07.000 |
In fact, in Philippians 2.12, it says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." 00:14:15.260 |
You need to identify what the sins are and you need to avoid it. 00:14:19.220 |
1 Corinthians 9.27, "But I discipline my body and keep it under control, as after preaching 00:14:26.260 |
So Paul describes even his own spiritual life as wrestling with his own flesh to conquer 00:14:34.280 |
So Paul is not saying that we've been delivered from sin, that we died to sin. 00:14:38.600 |
He's not saying that you're not going to be struggling with sin anymore. 00:14:42.080 |
But there is a difference between struggling with sin and living in sin. 00:14:49.240 |
Douglas Moo, who is the leading scholar of the book of Romans, and he says this about 00:14:55.280 |
He says, "The imperative thou shalt would be futile and frustrating demand without the 00:15:03.400 |
Let me say that so that it's easier to understand. 00:15:07.320 |
The command to do something would be absolutely frustrating without the revelation of what 00:15:19.120 |
In fact, if you read the scriptures, you'll find that the Bible always lays out first 00:15:28.960 |
Romans chapter 1 through 11 is about what happened to you. 00:15:33.640 |
When you met Christ, when you confessed your sins to Christ and your sins were justified, 00:15:40.520 |
Hebrews chapter 1 through 11, when you met Jesus Christ and He became your High Priest, 00:15:48.480 |
Ephesians chapter 1 through 3, first 3 chapters, is what happened to you. 00:15:54.840 |
And that Paul is praying as he's expositing how he pursued you and loved you and he adopted 00:16:00.320 |
And then he'll jump into Romans chapter 12, "Therefore, in view of this mercy of God, 00:16:06.720 |
Ephesians chapter 4, "In conclusion of knowing three chapters of revelations of what happened 00:16:11.920 |
to you, therefore live up to the calling that you have received." 00:16:17.160 |
And we get to Hebrews chapter 12, after 11 chapters of exposition of what happened to 00:16:21.000 |
you, chapter 12 continues on and says that we ought to continue to live, to fix our eyes 00:16:27.640 |
upon Jesus, author and perfecter of our faith. 00:16:31.280 |
So in every instance, before we get to the imperatives of this is what you ought to do, 00:16:36.400 |
it tells us first and foremost who we are, what has happened. 00:16:40.760 |
So the first thing that he points out, if you think that just by preaching salvation 00:16:46.560 |
by grace is going to automatically lead to the sentience, do you not know that first 00:16:51.520 |
and foremost that you died to sin, died to sin. 00:16:57.080 |
Not only did you die to sin, he says you have been baptized into his death. 00:17:01.540 |
We have been united with Christ and baptized into his death. 00:17:04.320 |
So this morning I'm going to look at those two phrases and what that means. 00:17:08.640 |
So the first phrase when he says, do you not know that you are dead to sin? 00:17:14.220 |
The very first thing that happens to a Christian when he meets Christ is that he dies. 00:17:20.240 |
I know that everything that we talk about is about receiving eternal life, that Christ 00:17:26.680 |
God so loved the world, gave his only begotten son, whoever believes in him shall not perish, 00:17:32.000 |
So all about Christianity, all about our hope is about life. 00:17:42.000 |
And that's why Jesus Christ says, if you want to live, if you want to follow after me, pick 00:17:50.000 |
Because the path to life was through the cross. 00:17:57.660 |
When we confess our sins before God for justification, we're not just confessing that we feel sorry 00:18:06.120 |
There's a lot of things that we do we feel sorry for. 00:18:07.960 |
There's a difference between feeling sorry and repentance. 00:18:15.440 |
Christians and non-Christians feel sorry for what they do. 00:18:19.240 |
Non-Christians commit crime and they stand before the judge and they say, I'm sorry, 00:18:27.720 |
Repentance is not feeling bad for something that you did. 00:18:31.920 |
Repentance literally means to change your mind. 00:18:35.920 |
There has been a change, a radical paradigm shift that whatever it is that you were doing, 00:18:41.600 |
whatever life that you were living was wrong. 00:18:45.560 |
That you were pursuing the wrong thing, that you were worshiping the wrong God, that you 00:18:49.960 |
were living the wrong way, that you were acknowledging that you were an idolater. 00:18:56.160 |
So repentance isn't simply feeling sorry that I did that. 00:19:00.680 |
Repentance basically is to take my life that you were living and to crucify with Christ 00:19:10.800 |
So what Paul is saying, how can somebody who has genuinely been justified and says, and 00:19:17.640 |
genuinely repented and said, you know I've been crucified with Christ, how can he continue 00:19:24.680 |
That's why Paul himself says in Galatians 6.14, "But far be it from me to boast, except 00:19:29.480 |
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, 00:19:40.760 |
Beginning of salvation is when we are crucified to the things of the world. 00:19:46.520 |
Paul says that before we were justified in our sins, that we were under the reign of 00:19:54.720 |
That everything that we had, every inclination, every thought, every desire was tainted by 00:20:02.420 |
But when we met Christ and we confessed our sins to Jesus Christ, the world and all that 00:20:09.080 |
we were pursuing, all that we valued, had been crucified, was put to death along with 00:20:20.920 |
One of the books that made the biggest impact that I enjoyed reading more than anything 00:20:25.000 |
else, probably in the last 30 years, was a book from Jonathan Edwards called Religious 00:20:30.400 |
In that book, he's trying to describe a revival that was taking place during his time period. 00:20:36.680 |
A lot of people were saying, "Oh, that's not real. 00:20:41.160 |
He writes an article, at that time an article basically was a book, and he writes this article 00:20:46.440 |
explaining what is genuine affection and what is false affection. 00:20:51.680 |
What is genuine worship and what is false affection. 00:20:55.080 |
So he takes half of the book describing like what, like all this emotions and religious 00:21:02.440 |
You can do all of that and not be genuinely saved. 00:21:06.040 |
And then he, second part of the book, he describes what genuine affection looks like. 00:21:10.240 |
And at the top of the description, at the top of the test of whether someone was genuinely 00:21:16.720 |
saved or genuine revival was taking place, he said first and foremost is a change of 00:21:28.100 |
That you no longer long for the things of the world, but that your longing has changed. 00:21:33.480 |
If non-Christians are described as people who are blinded so that they do not see the 00:21:42.480 |
A description of a Christian is a person whose the blinds have been taken away and now they 00:21:47.680 |
see this glory that we've been separated from for all of human history. 00:21:55.520 |
Just like it says in Romans 3, 23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory." 00:22:02.600 |
We don't know what this glory is and it's the most glorious thing that you and I could 00:22:18.240 |
So we didn't see that and all of a sudden our blinders get taken away and we see that 00:22:23.320 |
and once we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world is no longer the same. 00:22:32.040 |
So in other words, what Paul is saying is, if you have truly been justified, the world 00:22:45.300 |
You can't go back and enjoy the world like you used to if your eyes truly were opened. 00:22:51.920 |
If you've truly tasted the goodness of God, you can't simply turn that off and say, "You 00:23:01.440 |
Isn't that where your frustration comes from? 00:23:04.880 |
Isn't that what you and I struggle with as a Christian? 00:23:08.920 |
Is that we want Jesus and we want the world too. 00:23:12.720 |
We want Jesus and we want all that the world has to offer without trying to walk that fine 00:23:20.720 |
You can have as much as you can without having to sin. 00:23:25.000 |
Isn't that where the frustration comes when Jesus says that you cannot have two masters? 00:23:29.400 |
Maybe you serve mammon or you serve God and somehow we're thinking that somehow we're 00:23:33.720 |
going to find a trick that we can do both when Jesus clearly says that that cannot happen 00:23:40.520 |
He says, "But an individual who has truly been justified, his eyes have been opened 00:23:50.960 |
As Jonathan Edwards says, "Your affection has changed. 00:23:54.600 |
What you knew before has been crucified along with Christ." 00:23:59.840 |
The things of sin, the reign of sin has been crucified along with Christ. 00:24:08.580 |
He didn't just take somebody who was headed to hell and say, "You know what? 00:24:11.760 |
We're going to pay the penalty and now you can go to heaven." 00:24:15.800 |
That's why the Bible describes as whoever is in Christ, he is a what? 00:24:23.700 |
When Jesus says that you cannot put old wine into new wine or old wine sin because old 00:24:35.440 |
In order for the Holy Spirit to come and make an indwelling in us, we have to become new 00:24:41.160 |
So when Jesus died for us on the cross, he made us new creation so the Holy Spirit can 00:24:49.320 |
So when we become Christians, our affection changes. 00:24:54.140 |
And that's what Paul means first and foremost when he says that you have died to sin. 00:25:01.500 |
How can someone who continue to live in the pattern of this world, if your sins have been 00:25:09.380 |
crucified with Christ, if you've been delivered not only from the penalty of sin, but also 00:25:22.360 |
And I think every Christian in this room, every true Christian in this room will know 00:25:30.460 |
Whether you are living in obedience or not, whether you feel like you're in the center 00:25:36.240 |
of the will of God or not, whether you feel intimately close to God or not, you know exactly 00:25:42.480 |
That life is found at the center of His will. 00:25:45.800 |
And you know that if you're not living at the center of His will, something's out of 00:25:52.640 |
You're trying to fix it in every other way other than to come to God. 00:26:04.560 |
But if you are a genuine believer in Christ, you already know that your nature has changed. 00:26:10.760 |
That the only place where you feel alive is when you're at the center of the will of God. 00:26:17.120 |
So an individual who confesses to be justified in faith and then continue to live in sin 00:26:24.000 |
You're trying to do two things at the same time when Jesus said it is impossible. 00:26:29.240 |
So that's why Paul says it's like, "That's not possible." 00:26:31.640 |
You're saying, "I'm not going around telling people that you can sin." 00:26:39.000 |
In fact, those who have been genuinely delivered will pursue more passionately the things of 00:26:48.200 |
See, the Pharisees pursued righteousness so that other people can see. 00:26:54.520 |
Pharisees prayed so that they can compete with each other to see who's going to be praying 00:27:00.800 |
Pharisees even evangelized because that's how they measured whether someone was holy 00:27:05.480 |
See, but in the new covenant, an individual whose affection has changed. 00:27:12.760 |
I do what I do because that's where I find life. 00:27:22.320 |
I don't do this because that's a standard or that's because of accountability alone. 00:27:27.320 |
I do this because that's the desires of my heart. 00:27:33.440 |
You know, people always say, "Pastor Peter doesn't like Chinese food." 00:27:48.400 |
I don't like food in China because all these years I've been going out to China, I don't 00:27:54.160 |
want to ruin it for all of you, but I've seen a lot of things. 00:28:04.680 |
We had a whole team one summer hospitalized and had to get IV for several days as a result 00:28:15.240 |
And so it's not Chinese food that I don't like. 00:28:19.520 |
It's when I'm in China, I'm a lot more cautious. 00:28:23.160 |
So when I go there, when I look at the Chinese food, it's like, "Oh, smells great." 00:28:30.000 |
You know, but it just doesn't incite in me, "Oh, I want some of that." 00:28:35.320 |
I lost the desire because I know what's in that thing. 00:28:42.920 |
And once my eyes have been opened, I can't shut it. 00:28:50.240 |
And in the same way, the Bible says that once your eyes have been opened and you really 00:28:55.880 |
understand what this world is about, that this world is under condemnation, under the 00:29:02.000 |
reign of the penalty of sin, and the wrath of God is being revealed in everything, in 00:29:10.520 |
everything that you pursue, everything that this world is thrown at you as temptation, 00:29:21.640 |
And so once our eyes have been opened, the reason why we come every Sunday to worship 00:29:25.320 |
God is because He is more worthy than anything else that we see. 00:29:30.280 |
So when He says, "An individual who has truly been justified, he has been crucified, even 00:29:41.800 |
An individual who feels comfortable in the world, an individual who feels right at home 00:29:46.200 |
in the world, and he feels uncomfortable at church, that may be evidence that his eyes 00:29:53.280 |
See, a believer, where his eyes have been opened, even in the struggle, no matter how 00:30:01.160 |
hard and difficult it becomes, we can never turn away, because there is no other way. 00:30:08.440 |
No matter how difficult, no matter how many relational problems you have, no matter how 00:30:12.560 |
frustrating it may get, and in the end, we persevere. 00:30:16.340 |
We have to persevere, because there is no other way. 00:30:21.480 |
But not only does He say we have died to sin, He says, "Do you not know that you have been 00:30:26.760 |
baptized into Christ Jesus, baptized into His death?" 00:30:31.260 |
We always talk about His new life, but before we talk about new life, we have to understand 00:30:37.480 |
Before Jesus was resurrected, He was first crucified. 00:30:40.080 |
So when He said, "Come, follow me, and pick up your cross," He was also telling us, "You 00:30:46.960 |
The word "baptism" literally means to be immersed. 00:30:50.160 |
So those of you from Presbyterian backgrounds, explain that. 00:31:04.560 |
I grew up as a Presbyterian, my dad was a Presbyterian, but he's not here. 00:31:12.600 |
The word, so when we think of baptism, we think of the ceremony, like going into the 00:31:21.560 |
And the reason why they use a baptism ceremony for conversion, and it wasn't unique just 00:31:26.080 |
to Christians, they use a baptism ceremony for any time somebody was basically abandoning 00:31:31.280 |
their old life, whatever it was, and they're becoming new, they're dedicating, they would 00:31:37.280 |
It's just that John the Baptist came in and he basically Christianized this institution 00:31:44.400 |
But it wasn't unique to Christians at that time. 00:31:47.720 |
It was basically kind of like, whenever you graduate, you have this ceremony, or you're 00:31:56.560 |
And then people would go into the water and come out, meaning that you're dying, your 00:31:59.320 |
old self is dying and your new self is coming. 00:32:02.660 |
So when Paul says, "Do you not know that you have been baptized with Christ?" 00:32:06.080 |
It means that you have been united with Christ, you have been immersed. 00:32:12.960 |
And that's why in Galatians it says, "I've been crucified with Christ, it is no longer 00:32:20.520 |
That's the first and foremost thing that every Christian needs to come to accept. 00:32:25.400 |
Until you and I have been crucified with Christ, even pursuit of righteousness can be a pursuit 00:32:37.120 |
Think about all the years of Christianity where corruption came into the church because 00:32:41.560 |
worldly ambition followed along with certain people. 00:32:46.360 |
So the first and foremost, what Christ calls us to do is to be crucified with Christ. 00:32:55.820 |
How much of our struggle, even today, is wrestling with, "What do I want to do with my life?" 00:33:04.320 |
That question in itself is what's getting you in trouble. 00:33:08.320 |
That question in and of itself is what's causing the frustration in your life. 00:33:15.740 |
So that's not a question we should be asking. 00:33:19.580 |
It doesn't matter what you want to do because it's no longer your life. 00:33:22.800 |
The question ought to be, what does God want to do with this life that he purchased? 00:33:32.080 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:33:40.720 |
So when he says, "Do you not know that you have been baptized?" 00:33:43.600 |
You have been immersed, united with Christ in such a way that everything that happened 00:33:52.440 |
So what he is reminding us of is the presence and the union of Christ. 00:33:56.880 |
So a lot of times people come to church, there are things that you won't do here that you 00:34:04.640 |
I know when I enter your car, everybody's radio station is 92.7. 00:34:13.160 |
The Christian radio, I know it wasn't there before. 00:34:16.600 |
I don't have anything against the other kind of music you listen to, but for whatever the 00:34:20.840 |
reason, everybody feels like they need to turn on a sermon because Pastor Peter is getting 00:34:38.440 |
But for whatever the reason, we think like, "Okay, this is a holy place because this is 00:34:45.200 |
where there's a greater presence of the Holy Spirit. 00:34:48.920 |
There's where Jesus is and where the leaders are, and so we're careful." 00:34:52.840 |
But as soon as we go home and we're outside, like we're gone. 00:34:57.880 |
See, Paul is reminding us that our union with Christ is in every way, not just, "Oh, we 00:35:03.720 |
got to say one day we're going to be with Jesus forever." 00:35:09.960 |
We're that intimately tied with, we're immersed with Christ. 00:35:15.600 |
That's what it literally means to be baptized in Christ, means that we've been immersed. 00:35:20.720 |
You know, you see two couples who've been together for so long and they had a good marriage, 00:35:31.960 |
I know some people that are like that, right? 00:35:35.360 |
The longer you are together, you start to talk alike. 00:35:37.840 |
You start to have the ... One thing I noticed with Esther, Esther was not sarcastic when 00:35:50.280 |
There are certain things that I hated noodles, and then I started liking noodles. 00:35:55.000 |
When two people are together and so united that closely for that long, it kind of rubs 00:36:03.040 |
She's saying, "Do you not know that somebody who's been justified has been united with 00:36:09.200 |
It's not just, "Oh, we come to church and we dabble in Jesus." 00:36:12.680 |
Every single Christian, the Holy Spirit makes an indwelling inside of you. 00:36:18.140 |
It's not like the old covenant where the Holy Spirit came and was upon people and then they 00:36:23.240 |
He said, "Now the Holy Spirit makes an indwelling on you, and there is no place where the Holy 00:36:29.200 |
As long as you are you, as long as you are alive, the Holy Spirit is in you, whether 00:36:33.440 |
you are at church, whether I'm in your car or out of your car. 00:36:38.560 |
That's how intimately that we've been united with Christ. 00:36:41.040 |
So he's saying, "How can somebody who's been united with Christ all of a sudden continue 00:36:51.680 |
And that's why John Stott says of this, he said, "It's not that it's an impossibility 00:37:07.880 |
for a Christian to wrestle with sin, but it's incongruous for a Christian to continue to 00:37:19.600 |
It's like somebody saying, "I dress like a duck, smell like a duck, eat like a duck, 00:37:29.520 |
He's saying, "To act like a duck, eat like a duck, swim like a duck, and then go around 00:37:33.640 |
telling people, 'I'm a cow, don't judge me.'" 00:37:45.480 |
And then you go around telling people that you're a cow, and then you get all offended 00:37:54.600 |
In essence, that's basically what Paul is saying. 00:37:57.320 |
Paul is saying that our very nature has changed, and our union with him has changed. 00:38:04.720 |
That's why all throughout the New Testament, he reminds us, "We have been crucified with 00:38:09.960 |
"We have died together with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world," Colossians 00:38:15.840 |
"We have been buried in baptism into the death together with Christ," Romans 6.4. 00:38:20.220 |
"We have been made alive together with Christ," Ephesians 2.5. 00:38:23.540 |
"We have been raised together with Christ," Colossians 3.1. 00:38:26.940 |
"We are fellow heirs with Christ," Romans 8.17. 00:38:34.740 |
Over and over again, he says, "All our spiritual life is described as with Christ." 00:38:48.700 |
Jesus doesn't say, "You rotten tax collector, give away all your money. 00:39:02.180 |
As soon as Jesus says, "Come to my house," remember what he says? 00:39:04.700 |
"I'm going to give away half of my possession, and I'm going to pay back all that I've done 00:39:11.340 |
Simply because Jesus says, "Come into his house." 00:39:20.060 |
How can I possibly invite him to my house and keep doing what I'm doing?" 00:39:33.060 |
If you have been justified by grace alone, this union with Christ isn't just on Sunday. 00:39:48.500 |
And if you can see God living in sin, obviously we cannot. 00:39:54.340 |
That's why in 1 John 1, it says, "If we say that we have fellowship with him while we 00:39:58.140 |
walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." 00:40:09.100 |
Until we accept the fact that we are crucified, that we are dead to this world, we cannot 00:40:26.300 |
The very things that causes the heartache in your life, isn't it the rat race? 00:40:31.620 |
Isn't it the competition with your neighbors and your friends and your family members? 00:40:35.340 |
The same thing that suffocated your life, the reign of death as Paul describes it. 00:40:41.980 |
Aren't those the things that have been suffocating you? 00:40:45.540 |
Isn't that why you hold on to bitterness and anger? 00:40:48.900 |
Isn't that why you have relational issues because yourself has been offended? 00:40:54.540 |
Because the same things that killed us before we met Christ, we're holding on to dear life. 00:41:00.340 |
And then we're trying to hold on to that and while holding on to the new life in Christ, 00:41:06.420 |
See, he's not simply saying if you want to follow Jesus, just suck it up and do hard 00:41:14.260 |
He said, "I want to give you this new life, but until you can unite with Christ in his 00:41:20.260 |
resurrection, you must first understand that you're united with Christ in his death." 00:41:28.540 |
This life that you and I are trying so hard to do well and live in, and the pattern that 00:41:34.380 |
this world has set, that's what's killing us. 00:41:39.740 |
True life is found in Christ when we see the filth in it, just like the food in China. 00:41:47.460 |
It was delicious the first year, and then every year after that, the food in China has 00:42:06.020 |
But all the things that I've seen all these years, it's just no longer the same. 00:42:14.700 |
At the end of the day, the things that are tempting us, when we take a step back and 00:42:19.340 |
look at it, do you not see the corruption in it? 00:42:25.540 |
Do you not see the emptiness at the end of whatever it is that we're pursuing? 00:42:32.060 |
Do you not see the futility of all the energy that the world is putting in to get to the 00:42:37.100 |
next stage, and then how miserable they are as a result? 00:42:41.700 |
And yet, when we're not fixated on Christ and how we're tempted by these very things 00:42:45.780 |
that Jesus saved us from, that's what Paul is saying. 00:42:54.580 |
It leads to a greater desire for holiness, greater desire for worship, greater desire 00:43:00.500 |
to magnify this Christ, to give life, give this life abundantly. 00:43:05.780 |
If you would take a few minutes to pray with me as we welcome the, pray seem to come up 00:43:11.460 |
If you guys can take a few minutes, again, to come before the Lord in genuine prayer, 00:43:23.900 |
Have I been frustrated because I've been trying to hold on to the world and God at the same 00:43:28.660 |
time, and I guarantee you haven't been successful? 00:43:35.060 |
I know you haven't been successful, because I know what God says is true. 00:43:42.100 |
So if you've truly been crucified with Christ and you're dead to sin, the more we embrace 00:43:48.780 |
the death of Christ, the more we can embrace the life that he promises. 00:43:53.540 |
Let's take a few minutes to come before the Lord in prayer, in meditation, and confession