back to index2016-07-31 Death before Life
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We're going to be looking at verses 5 through 7, but we'll be reading from 5 through 11 00:00:07.640 |
Sorry, we'll be reading from verse 1 all the way through verse 11. 00:00:12.600 |
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:00:19.040 |
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into 00:00:23.920 |
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was 00:00:27.820 |
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in a newness of life. 00:00:32.400 |
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with 00:00:39.660 |
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be 00:00:43.240 |
brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 00:00:47.680 |
For one who has died has been set free from sin. 00:00:50.920 |
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 00:00:55.140 |
We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. 00:01:00.720 |
For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. 00:01:05.360 |
So you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 00:01:14.920 |
Heavenly Father, we entrust this time to you, asking Lord God that we would be able to redeem 00:01:22.080 |
this time for our sanctification, for the glorification of your name, for praise and 00:01:38.640 |
We pray Father God that your word would convict, renew, strengthen, and encourage, that you 00:01:45.680 |
would ordain this time for the sake of the growth of your church. 00:01:50.520 |
We ask Lord the Holy Spirit would give us eager ears, soft hearts, and a willingness 00:01:57.480 |
Lord God to not only to hear but to apply all that you have. 00:02:04.600 |
You know one of the most sobering passages in the New Testament, I think it's found in 00:02:09.780 |
Matthew 7, 21 and on, where it says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will 00:02:18.560 |
Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:02:22.720 |
Now that is stated in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, talking about what the kingdom of heaven 00:02:28.960 |
He's describing to a group of people who are actively participating in the synagogue, in 00:02:35.160 |
So the people that he is addressing would be equivalent to people who are raised in 00:02:45.960 |
It would be equivalent to people, some of them, very active and even proselytizing. 00:03:03.560 |
They weren't idolaters, at least the way that we would consider idolaters. 00:03:08.520 |
He goes on even further and he says, verse 23, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never 00:03:12.560 |
knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" 00:03:17.040 |
I remember the first time as a young Christian reading this passage and it really shook me 00:03:27.160 |
How can I just automatically read this passage and say, "Well, I feel bad for those people." 00:03:35.040 |
Again, church the way we know it has not established at that point, but those are his people. 00:03:40.640 |
These are people who are active in synagogue. 00:03:42.400 |
These are people who have been circumcised, who have been raided, maybe even memorized 00:03:53.520 |
So as I was reading this, how do I know that this isn't talking about me? 00:04:01.040 |
As a pastor's kid, I know some of you guys are also PKs, I was raised in a pastor's family 00:04:11.040 |
I can't remember a single Sunday that our family did not attend church. 00:04:15.840 |
I have very fond memories of church when I was very young. 00:04:19.080 |
It wasn't until I was maybe in the fifth or sixth grade, I began to notice some of the 00:04:27.320 |
Many times, sitting in the back of the car while my parents are coming back from church 00:04:31.520 |
and they would talk about all the things that they're frustrated in. 00:04:33.640 |
So I was able to hear and see all that was going on behind the curtains. 00:04:39.600 |
You can see like at the church, everybody puts on a good face, but then all the things 00:04:43.640 |
that people are frustrated with and all the complaints that they have and the human relational 00:04:48.960 |
And I would hear all of that from behind the scene. 00:04:52.040 |
And before I became a Christian, I always wondered why these people come to church if 00:04:57.120 |
they hate each other that much, because that's what it seems like. 00:05:01.300 |
They just can't come to agreement and they don't like each other, but then they come 00:05:04.640 |
and they worship and then they come and they... 00:05:06.640 |
I mean, to me, it looks so fake, even as a kid. 00:05:14.280 |
And I remember, even from a young age, thinking to myself that once I turn 18 and I'm independent, 00:05:22.560 |
I couldn't do it before then because my dad was a pastor and it would be very shameful 00:05:28.080 |
for the pastor's kid to decide not to come to church. 00:05:30.240 |
So I thought maybe when I'm old enough and I'm no longer under his roof and I could just 00:05:36.880 |
So I determined, even from a young age, I think as early as fifth grade, I told myself 00:05:44.360 |
I've seen behind the scene, because my dad was a pastor of a large church out in Korea. 00:05:50.120 |
He was also a pastor of a very small church here, many times. 00:05:54.360 |
He was also a seminary professor, so he had a lot of connections. 00:06:02.120 |
I think many of you who grew up in the church, if I was to ask you some of your experiences, 00:06:07.680 |
But again, being a pastor's kid, I was privileged to be able to see a lot of things. 00:06:12.760 |
Of course, there's a lot of non-Christians in the church, and I've seen that. 00:06:18.040 |
But that's not where the real things that disturbed me, and maybe it disturbed you. 00:06:23.640 |
I've seen deacons get into fistfights in the church, and I know I'm giving very extreme 00:06:27.480 |
cases, and I always wondered to myself why they were in the church. 00:06:34.800 |
I've seen elders who are ordained in the church, and then I would go, because that particular 00:06:40.520 |
elder who got ordained, his child was a good friend of mine, so I would always hang out 00:06:44.680 |
at their church, at their house after the church. 00:06:47.560 |
And I remember attending the ordination meeting, and then afterwards, he would invite all of 00:06:51.800 |
his friends, and they had a big drinking party at the house. 00:06:54.160 |
And I remember just watching that, just sitting and watching that, thinking, "What is going 00:07:03.360 |
I remember even after I became a pastor, as a young pastor at a church and watching an 00:07:10.520 |
older pastor constantly angry that he wasn't respected in the church, and I remember him 00:07:17.800 |
getting into a fight with somebody because he said that he was the number two at church. 00:07:22.360 |
There was about six or seven pastors, and we had the head pastor, and then he was the 00:07:26.200 |
number two at the church, and so that number two parking space was his. 00:07:31.400 |
First one was the senior pastor, and he can't challenge that, but the second one was his, 00:07:34.600 |
so anybody that parked there, he would come in huffing and puffing, "Who parked there?" 00:07:39.840 |
And he would demand, and I remember watching, it wasn't just that incident, I was just watching, 00:07:47.120 |
One of the things that disturbed me the most was when I had an opportunity to chauffeur 00:07:50.920 |
around a nationally known speaker, and again, he's in a Korean church, and so he was invited 00:07:57.480 |
to speak at my father's church, and I was assigned the job to pick him up and take him 00:08:04.280 |
to church, and whatever he needed, I became the chauffeur. 00:08:07.480 |
By that time, I was already a young pastor, and so I volunteered to do it, and I thought 00:08:11.200 |
it'd be great to spend some time with a nationally known speaker, and so the whole time that 00:08:17.040 |
I was with him, I heard, again, behind the scene with him, arguing with the elders of 00:08:21.440 |
the church about how he was so disappointed that they didn't give him the best room, that 00:08:26.600 |
they gave him a cheaper room, because again, the church at that time was a very small church, 00:08:31.440 |
and that he deserved to be in the embassy suite, and he talked about how demanded that 00:08:36.120 |
the offering that was collected during the revival was his, because he's the reason why 00:08:42.400 |
people came, so whatever the offering that they gave, it belonged to him, so I'm driving 00:08:46.400 |
him around, I'm hearing this all the time, you know, in the background, I'm thinking, 00:08:50.280 |
wow, this is a man that's going around speaking all over the country, and all over these churches, 00:08:56.240 |
and I sat through all of his preaching, he's a great preacher, great preacher, after he 00:09:02.720 |
would speak, he would invite people to come, he would lay hands on them, people would be 00:09:05.960 |
in tears, people would be in tears thanking him for his sermons, and me the whole time 00:09:13.720 |
thinking like, wow, that's the guy, nobody knows what's going on behind the scene, and 00:09:20.200 |
I began to think to myself, I wonder how much of Christianity is that, you know, we've created 00:09:26.680 |
this facade, we've created this religious institution, where if we play the part and 00:09:31.920 |
do the right things, and yet behind the curtain, behind the curtain, we're no more transformed 00:09:38.360 |
than the world, in fact, it's probably even worse, because we're faking it, we're pretending 00:09:45.640 |
to be righteous, and yet behind the curtains, we're no different, now why am I sharing all 00:09:51.400 |
of this, because the concern that the readers of Paul's letter had with Paul, saying, salvation 00:09:59.200 |
is by justification, by faith, by grace alone, so some of them were thinking, if that's what 00:10:05.560 |
salvation is, don't you think that's going to lead to lawlessness, if you're saying that 00:10:11.200 |
all law does is reveal sin, but it has no way of saving you, wouldn't that cause a bunch 00:10:16.760 |
of people to just say, one saved always saved, it doesn't matter what you do, because it's 00:10:22.520 |
not what I did, but what he did, I mean, people are just using these cliches to cover over 00:10:26.560 |
their sin, and to be honest, let's be honest, it does superficially, if you tell a group 00:10:34.120 |
of people, what you do doesn't matter, wouldn't that create some of this stuff, the honest 00:10:42.280 |
answer, we have to be honest with ourselves, if we're not careful, it does, when you're 00:10:47.720 |
not preaching the full gospel, and you're only preaching superficially, that if you 00:10:53.480 |
wave your hands, and if you feel something inside, that you've been saved for eternity, 00:10:58.680 |
so from that moment on, whatever sin that you are allowed to continue to harbor in your 00:11:03.000 |
life, it doesn't matter, because you're saved, because we're saved by grace, and grace alone, 00:11:07.640 |
Paul is saying, by no means, by no means, absolutely not, not only does it not lead 00:11:16.040 |
to licentiousness, not only does it not lead to lawlessness, it actually leads to a transformed 00:11:21.080 |
life, that looks nothing like this world, so the question is, how come that's not what 00:11:28.280 |
we see, what is actually happening, is Paul just laying out a bunch of theories, that 00:11:34.600 |
doesn't actually work, or is he actually telling us, that this is what true life looks like, 00:11:42.040 |
and obviously, that's where Paul's case that he's making, he's talking about the latter, 00:11:47.320 |
see, what Paul says here is, an individual who has genuinely repented, genuinely repented, 00:11:55.240 |
genuinely been justified by faith, and by grace alone, the very first thing that happens 00:12:00.120 |
is he is united with Christ, remember we talked about that, he uses the term baptism, you 00:12:04.680 |
know, last week we talked about that, baptism in our mind is talking about this religious 00:12:08.360 |
ceremony, but the word itself means to be immersed, that our salvation is described 00:12:16.080 |
as an intimate union with Christ, and that's why the Bible describes our relationship with 00:12:22.320 |
him as a bride, we are the bride, and he is the groom, so any of you who've been married, 00:12:28.200 |
or been to a wedding ceremony, you know, one of the traditions that they have, is you have 00:12:31.520 |
two lights that are flickering, until they're ready, and after they make the vow, they come, 00:12:36.920 |
what do they do, they turn off those lights, and then they turn one on, meaning, it is 00:12:41.560 |
no longer two people, but they become one, so from that moment on, you have to think 00:12:47.600 |
like one person, you're going to share the same money, you're going to share the same 00:12:52.400 |
time, you're going to share the same space, imagine if you came in, they never turned 00:12:58.760 |
off that light, and said we're going to stay individual, we're going to be in the house, 00:13:05.320 |
but we're not really going to be united on paper for tax purposes, but they're not truly 00:13:09.960 |
united, the Bible says an individual who has repented of his sins, and was forgiven, was 00:13:15.760 |
justified by faith and grace alone, we have become the bride of Christ, in fact, the illustration 00:13:21.440 |
goes even further, we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit, this is where he dwells, 00:13:27.520 |
he goes even further than that, and he calls us the body of Christ, that he is the head, 00:13:33.100 |
and just like I can never say, you know, that's my hand, that has nothing to do with me, the 00:13:36.320 |
hand, my feet, every part of my body parts, are also mine, so when the Bible describes 00:13:44.700 |
all of us, members of the body of Christ, it's talking about this intimate union with 00:13:49.280 |
Christ, not just a momentary union, not just a holding of hands, we have been immersed 00:13:57.100 |
with Christ, in fact, the Bible describes our immersion as so intimate, that we are 00:14:03.080 |
to smell like Christ, you're probably thinking in your head, what does it say, you're supposed 00:14:08.760 |
to smell like Christ, you ever see a couple who's been married for a long time, they actually 00:14:14.080 |
begin to smell alike, because they eat the same food, you know, they sleep on the same 00:14:19.760 |
bed, your clothes are washed by the same soap, and so if you've been married for a long time, 00:14:27.920 |
you start to actually smell alike, right, good and bad, right, depending, well the Bible 00:14:35.120 |
says that we have been united with Christ in such a way, in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 15, 00:14:38.280 |
it says, we are the aroma of Christ, we are the smell of Christ among those who are being 00:14:46.080 |
saved and among those who are perishing, that our union with Christ is so intense, so complete, 00:14:54.160 |
that we actually become the smell of Christ wherever we go, so in this union, Paul says, 00:15:01.520 |
the first thing that happens in this union is we die, we are baptized into his death, 00:15:10.720 |
you know what's interesting in verse 4, that Paul, to make sure that you understand this 00:15:14.840 |
illustration of death, he goes even further, he doesn't just say you died with Christ, 00:15:20.000 |
he says we were buried therefore with him in baptism, we were buried with him, just 00:15:25.440 |
in case that you thought that the death was just kind of a side thing that just happened, 00:15:30.120 |
he said he wants to make sure that no, you didn't just die, you were buried, if any of 00:15:34.880 |
you have ever participated, and I'm not talking about just going to a funeral, but you have 00:15:38.600 |
to prepare the funeral, you have to get the casket, you have to make sure that the cemetery, 00:15:43.920 |
the burial site was ready, and you have to pay for all of that, if any of you had to 00:15:50.040 |
participate in all of that, I think some of you guys may know what I'm talking about, 00:15:55.560 |
when my father passed away, me and my brothers obviously had to prepare all of that, and 00:15:59.880 |
it definitely is a business, you know, they're trying to comfort you, and the people who 00:16:04.120 |
are in this business, the mortuary, the cemeteries, and all of this, but they want to, you know, 00:16:08.520 |
say hey, this is the last thing you want to do for your father, you want to make sure 00:16:11.200 |
you want to spend $300 on a piece of trash, versus this $7000, you know what I mean, and 00:16:18.480 |
you feel guilty, like this is the last thing I'm doing for my father, you know, but one 00:16:23.240 |
thing that really disturbed me was that when we were getting all this ready, and they had 00:16:29.160 |
this extra charge, and it's at the burial site, and they say, if you don't pay extra 00:16:36.280 |
$700, you have to leave your father's casket on top of that stand, and go home. 00:16:43.560 |
And I said, if you want them to come and actually lower that into the grave, and then have the 00:16:50.240 |
dirt pouring ceremony, that will cost you extra $700. 00:17:01.360 |
Now obviously, you know, your logic is going to tell you, of course they're going to bury 00:17:08.200 |
Emotionally, it's not complete until he's actually in the ground, and we have to pour 00:17:13.000 |
And they say, well, it's just their policy, it's $700 extra. 00:17:16.240 |
Well, they're going to do it, but if they do it when you're there, it's $700. 00:17:20.640 |
If they do it after you leave, you don't have to pay the $700. 00:17:31.120 |
And then, we were kind of going back and forth, and then one of the guys who was working at 00:17:38.480 |
Mortuary, he does this for a living, and he said, hey, hey, pull this aside. 00:17:43.040 |
And he pulled this aside and says, just get a bunch of $20 bills, maybe about five of 00:17:47.040 |
them, and see the workers, those guys who are just standing around, and they're waiting 00:17:54.000 |
Just slip them $20 each before it starts, and say, hey, do you mind when we're done, 00:17:59.320 |
can you just kind of come and just lower it for us? 00:18:01.320 |
And they said, instead of doing it at $700, you give them $100 and you do it. 00:18:08.600 |
So I went around and slipped all the money, and then so they came and did it. 00:18:20.760 |
But any of you who participated in that whole process, it's kind of like, yeah, you don't 00:18:26.200 |
feel, even though his life is no longer in that body, it's in the casket, but you don't 00:18:29.960 |
feel like it's absolutely complete until it is buried. 00:18:32.920 |
And that's the imagery that is used by Paul, and he said, not only have we been crucified, 00:18:42.840 |
The death was absolutely final, and that's the description that he uses. 00:18:46.640 |
When we were united with Christ, we were complete. 00:18:56.080 |
See, that discussion that we have constantly, what should I do with my life, is a very unfruitful 00:19:05.720 |
In fact, we would go even further and say it is an unbiblical discussion. 00:19:10.200 |
Because the Bible says we have been crucified with Christ, and yet we're constantly concerned 00:19:18.960 |
That's just like saying, you know what, the Bible says I'm crucified, but I'm going to 00:19:27.400 |
See, what Paul is describing is what happened. 00:19:31.440 |
See, when somebody repents, he didn't just repent and say, you know what, I repent of 00:19:35.760 |
certain events, certain things that I did in my life. 00:19:38.320 |
The repentance is that I was wrong about all of this. 00:19:43.200 |
I repented of my life, what I thought was good, what I thought was rest, what I thought 00:19:49.600 |
was hope, what I thought was insurance, all of that was wrong. 00:20:03.920 |
He goes on in verse 6, and he says, "We know that our old self was crucified," number one, 00:20:10.080 |
"with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing," number two, "so that 00:20:15.360 |
we should no longer be enslaved to sin," number three. 00:20:20.000 |
He said three specific things happened when we were buried with him in baptism. 00:20:25.920 |
One is that our old self was crucified with him. 00:20:30.800 |
He's not just talking about a certain aspect of your life. 00:20:36.820 |
He said our old self, everything that I was before I met Christ was also crucified and 00:20:46.440 |
Again, Ephesians 4, 20, it says, "But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming 00:20:50.680 |
that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off 00:20:55.420 |
your old self, which belongs to your old former manner of life." 00:21:02.240 |
Whatever it was that we held onto before we met Christ was no longer relevant. 00:21:08.360 |
In fact, some of the things that we held onto, we're thinking that somehow we can use that 00:21:11.720 |
for the glory of God, sometimes become the greatest hindrance. 00:21:17.720 |
Sometimes those of you who are smart with position, with honor and money, and we think 00:21:22.400 |
that we know that can naturally translate into greater work for the kingdom of God, 00:21:26.520 |
but those are the things sometimes that causes the greatest stumbling in your life, because 00:21:30.960 |
it's your source of pride, thinking that somehow you're going to add. 00:21:35.640 |
So the very first thing that happens when we meet Christ and when we're genuinely justified 00:21:40.600 |
by faith and by grace is all that I was prior to meeting Christ dies and is buried with 00:21:57.600 |
As Christ is resurrected in his new life, we are resurrected along with him in a new 00:22:02.640 |
It is being in between, holding onto the past and wanting the future that is causing the 00:22:08.400 |
Again, in Colossians 3, 9-10, he said, "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have 00:22:13.880 |
put off the old self with its practices, and you have put on the new self." 00:22:19.520 |
You notice here that Paul is not telling them that this is what you do? 00:22:23.120 |
He said, "Do not realize that this is what happened." 00:22:35.240 |
When two people get married, during the pronouncement, we always read a passage in Mark 10, 7 and 00:22:41.080 |
We said, "For this reason, man will leave his father and mother and be united to his 00:22:44.000 |
wife, and the two will become one flesh so that they are no longer two, but one." 00:22:57.200 |
The representative of the two families come, and they will light the candle, and they will 00:23:00.720 |
sit down, and then after the vows, they will go and blow off the candles, and they will 00:23:06.520 |
So in order for the one candle to be lit, the other two had to be turned off. 00:23:15.000 |
So when we are united with Christ, the Bible says what happened is you left your old life. 00:23:21.000 |
Whatever it is that you were united to before you met Christ is no longer relevant, nothing 00:23:24.600 |
to salvage, and you have now brought into this situation a newness. 00:23:30.280 |
You know, some of you guys who are cat lovers, before you met Christ, cat was your love. 00:23:42.680 |
Or before you met your husband or wife or whoever, right? 00:23:45.620 |
But if your husband or wife is allergic to a cat, you have a decision to make. 00:24:02.080 |
Because your husband can't be in the same room as that cat. 00:24:05.560 |
As long as that cat is in the house, the husband is going to be miserable, and not just momentarily, 00:24:16.240 |
You choose between the cat or your husband, or future husband. 00:24:32.760 |
See, what Jesus is describing is when the gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, and 00:24:40.800 |
your eyes became open, the reason why you confessed and was forgiven is because you 00:24:45.920 |
saw that and said, "I want that more than the cat." 00:24:52.160 |
I don't know why I loved the cat in the first place. 00:24:56.360 |
All that cat does is take my money, poops on the floor. 00:25:02.560 |
I don't know why I was so hooked on that cat in the first place. 00:25:12.200 |
That's why we turned away from sin, and we embraced Christ. 00:25:15.920 |
So what Paul is saying, he's going to get to the imperative. 00:25:19.600 |
He's going to say, "Therefore, this is what you ought to do." 00:25:22.640 |
But before he gets to the "therefore," he's trying to explain why true salvation does 00:25:30.320 |
True repentance does not lead to licentiousness. 00:25:41.600 |
When the two people became married, all of the Old Testament is to teach that God cannot 00:25:53.320 |
That was the whole teaching in the Old Testament, the whole point of the tabernacle, even with 00:25:59.320 |
He said, "If I go with these stiff-necked people, I may become angry and destroy all 00:26:05.160 |
And any of them, even the high priest that approaches God, had to make these elaborate 00:26:09.800 |
sacrifices to cover him temporarily so that he would not be destroyed by the holiness 00:26:17.040 |
We come to the New Testament, and he says, "No, that holiness now makes His dwelling 00:26:22.520 |
And so an individual who repents of his sin and is united with Christ can no longer allow 00:26:31.440 |
Does a cat every once in a while jump into the room? 00:26:36.120 |
Does somebody else who loves cats and have a cat with them all the time happen to come 00:26:51.920 |
That's what he's describing when he says when somebody has genuinely repented, they have 00:26:57.280 |
The old self has been put off, and they put on the new self. 00:27:03.000 |
The body of sin, he says, secondly, that it may be brought to nothing. 00:27:07.800 |
NASB says the body of sin might be done away with completely. 00:27:12.120 |
King James says that the body of sin may be destroyed, but the literal translation, literal 00:27:16.720 |
understanding of this in the Greek dictionary says this. 00:27:21.480 |
It means to render inactive, idle, useless, and ineffective. 00:27:27.840 |
I know some of you guys may be sitting here thinking like, "Hmm, that's not how it feels." 00:27:32.120 |
When we read Romans chapter 7, it says, "What I want to do, I don't do. 00:27:36.480 |
Oh, what a wretched man I am, and I feel like that's me." 00:27:39.840 |
But here it says it's rendered useless, ineffective. 00:27:46.880 |
Let me give you an example of what Paul means here as an indicative, as what happened to 00:27:54.240 |
I had a friend who came to the United States in his mid to late junior high school from 00:27:58.680 |
Korea, and he lived in K-town, so you don't have to speak English in K-town. 00:28:03.280 |
So for 10 years, he's going to Korean Bible studies, singing Korean songs, and doing everything 00:28:08.360 |
Korean, and even after 10 years, we would go to a restaurant, and he just would not 00:28:14.920 |
I mean, his English, in my opinion, was good, but he just refused to speak. 00:28:19.160 |
And he never let go of his Korean citizenship. 00:28:21.080 |
He had every intent, all of his family, friends, everybody he knew was in the United States, 00:28:25.600 |
but he never forfeited his citizenship, because U.S. allows dual citizenship. 00:28:30.440 |
So he always allowed it, and then in his late 20s, he happened to revisit Korea, and then 00:28:35.000 |
when he got there, he got caught on the way out, because Korea has mandatory military 00:28:42.040 |
And usually between the age of 18 and mid-20s, they get drafted, they're in there for two 00:28:49.480 |
And so on the way out, he got caught, and he was forced into the military, Korean military. 00:28:54.200 |
And so in his late 20s, he became a private, and he had a hard time, because he had 18, 00:29:03.500 |
And that's hard for any culture, but in Korean culture, it's impossible, you know what I 00:29:08.840 |
That's the hierarchy that Korean culture has, and he was miserable, because these guys were 00:29:13.440 |
seven, eight years younger than him, ordering him to get out of bed, doing this. 00:29:17.440 |
And even after he came out of the military, he just was so difficult, he just couldn't 00:29:23.160 |
adjust to America, and then he ended up just settling down, and had kids there, and he 00:29:27.680 |
just ended up going back, because it was easier for him to stay over there. 00:29:34.320 |
And the Bible describes our position before God. 00:29:40.200 |
And he says that sin no longer has any dominion over us. 00:29:42.640 |
He says that our citizenship in the old life has been canceled. 00:29:47.000 |
And in Colossians 1, 13-14, it says, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and 00:29:51.800 |
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness 00:29:59.060 |
We're trying so hard to have dual citizenship, and we want to hold on to our old form of 00:30:04.260 |
life and have Christ too, and then that's causing all kinds of frustrations in your 00:30:09.340 |
Thinking that if you can somehow tweak this and tweak that, and if we do this, and not 00:30:14.500 |
recognizing, the core of the problem is you can't have dual citizenship in the kingdom. 00:30:21.460 |
And again, Paul's not talking about imperatives here, he's going to challenge them, "Therefore 00:30:27.140 |
But right now, he's just describing, "This is what happened." 00:30:32.420 |
If you are a genuine believer, if you genuinely repented and have been renewed, you are a 00:30:40.540 |
Not just theoretically, not just theologically, but this happened. 00:30:48.380 |
The longer you look back and hold on to that, the more frustrated your life will be. 00:30:56.020 |
He says ultimately, the final reason why he says what happened in our union with Christ 00:31:00.700 |
and his death is to our old self to be crucified, the body of sin to be brought to nothing, 00:31:07.460 |
ineffective in our lives, and its ultimate accomplishment is to set us free. 00:31:13.140 |
In Romans 6, verse 14, "For sin will have no dominion over you." 00:31:20.780 |
John 8, verse 34, "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits 00:31:25.020 |
sin, everyone who continues sin, everyone who allows this cat to be their pet in their 00:31:34.300 |
The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever.'" 00:31:43.160 |
If you're still enslaved to sin, you won't remain forever. 00:31:50.780 |
They left because they were never really of us. 00:31:55.140 |
Slaves who are pretending will come and live in the house for a period to benefit. 00:32:05.840 |
So therefore they will remain for a period, but eventually they will get out of the house. 00:32:15.260 |
And then he says, "So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed." 00:32:21.100 |
So our first act of union with Christ is being united with Him in death and burial. 00:32:41.780 |
Imagine if somebody committed a horrendous crime and he comes to the judge and he says, 00:32:51.820 |
Instead of him being beaten, I will be beaten." 00:32:53.740 |
And then the judge gets beaten and then the guy just walks out. 00:32:58.140 |
Now how many times do we hear that illustration and we say, "Wow, Jesus did that for us." 00:33:06.520 |
This guy perpetrated, came into your house, beat your kids and beat your wife. 00:33:11.080 |
He went to the court and then the judge says, "I will take the beating." 00:33:39.000 |
We often celebrate the judge being beaten and this sinner, exactly the way he is, now 00:33:51.520 |
The gospel of Jesus Christ says that man, the judge gets the beating, that man dies. 00:34:05.160 |
So the person who walks out is not the same person. 00:34:12.200 |
It's not the same guy who's going to go out and perpetrate the same sins. 00:34:16.040 |
And that's why Paul says, "When there is genuine justification by faith and by grace alone, 00:34:27.320 |
That's why it doesn't lead to licentiousness. 00:34:32.160 |
See, a man who has opened his eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ has 00:34:42.960 |
Not just theoretically, not just theologically, not just positionally, but in reality has 00:34:54.980 |
And we use that to describe a theological position. 00:35:02.120 |
That the law came to make sin hideous, grotesque, ugly, horrendous. 00:35:09.920 |
The law came to show you that the sin that separated you from God, how ugly and hideous 00:35:17.960 |
And that's why when the Bible describes a man who claims to have opened his eyes and 00:35:22.720 |
returned back to his old way of life, what does that describe? 00:35:31.120 |
Second Peter 2.19, 2.20, "For if after they have escaped the defilement of the world through 00:35:35.560 |
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and 00:35:39.360 |
overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 00:35:44.520 |
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, than 00:35:48.040 |
after knowing it, turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." 00:35:52.360 |
What the true proverb says has happened to them, "The dog returns to its vomit, and the 00:35:58.040 |
soul, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." 00:36:03.360 |
That's a pretty vivid picture of somebody who's backslidden. 00:36:07.520 |
He says a man who returns to his vomit, like a dog. 00:36:12.600 |
See, a dog returns to his vomit because the dog doesn't see the vomit as vomit. 00:36:20.680 |
As grotesque as it is, we can't blame the dog because the dog doesn't know any difference. 00:36:25.840 |
See, but when the law came and revealed that the very things that we considered food, the 00:36:32.880 |
very things that we looked at and said, "Wow, I wish I had some of that," and we envied 00:36:36.360 |
and coveted and slandered, cut corners and sent to get. 00:36:45.480 |
So an individual who has seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then now looks 00:36:49.200 |
at the world and sees the grotesqueness of the sin that it's under the dominion of, can 00:36:58.440 |
Isaiah, my youngest, when he was a little baby, he was a very good sleeper. 00:37:07.480 |
So after about a year, year and a half, once he went to sleep, I mean he rarely woke up 00:37:13.640 |
Our other kids had issues, but Isaiah, once he went to sleep, and sometimes we were worried 00:37:18.160 |
because he would never wake up, even when he was really sick. 00:37:22.120 |
I remember one time I went into his room and he vomited. 00:37:26.120 |
And I don't know when it happened, but he vomited all over his bed. 00:37:31.280 |
He had stale vomit on his hair, his face, neck, I mean everywhere. 00:37:37.480 |
I wish I took a picture of it so I can show you, because words cannot do us justice. 00:37:46.040 |
I walked in, and wow, he's sleeping late today, so we were really happy. 00:37:50.480 |
We walked in and he was just lying comfortably in his vomit. 00:37:55.440 |
Obviously he walked in and immediately, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, you know, as 00:37:59.480 |
they're coming in here, pick them up, clean them up, change them up, you know, change 00:38:06.880 |
He vomited and then whatever was bothering in his stomach, just, okay, it's over, let's 00:38:20.220 |
He won't do that now because he knows the grotesqueness of vomit, so if he vomits, I'm 00:38:30.640 |
If you vomited, you're not going to lay there. 00:38:35.600 |
See, the law came to make sin utterly sinful. 00:38:38.140 |
So if your eyes have truly been opened and you repented of this vomit that we were chasing 00:38:43.880 |
after, what Paul is saying is a man or a woman who has genuinely repented of his sin does 00:38:55.760 |
In fact, it causes us to want more of Christ. 00:39:07.280 |
That's the evidence that you've actually really seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:39:13.080 |
And that's why when we are freed, he's not simply saying, "Hey, you're free. 00:39:24.760 |
You're free from the power of sin so that you can pursue Christ freely. 00:39:30.720 |
The very thing that's going to give you life, now you're free to pursue it. 00:39:41.080 |
As a reminder, we talk about the Ten Commandments. 00:39:49.520 |
We repented of worshiping God in our own image. 00:39:55.320 |
We've repented of using the Lord's God, God's name in vain, invoking our will for his will. 00:40:02.840 |
We've repented of breaking the Sabbath by seeking rest in anywhere else but God. 00:40:08.360 |
We repented of dishonoring parents that God has given us to teach us how to honor him. 00:40:15.360 |
We repented of murder that we harbored in our heart because we allowed and harbored 00:40:24.240 |
We repented of adultery, allowing the lust to take and nest in our minds and in our lives. 00:40:31.040 |
We repented of slandering our neighbors because we've been offended by them. 00:40:36.140 |
And we've repented of the coveting and envying that repeats this whole cycle. 00:40:42.360 |
See, if we've repented of these things, if that's what actually happened, if you've truly 00:40:50.960 |
been justified by faith, yes, that dirty cat may once in a while enter into your home. 00:40:59.840 |
But if you open that door and you allow it to live, it's either the cat or your husband. 00:41:08.720 |
Again, up to this point, Paul is not saying you ought to do this. 00:41:15.400 |
This is a description of what has happened to you, what has happened to me. 00:41:25.800 |
This is why we don't see possums during the day. 00:41:35.920 |
Possums don't walk around during the night because they don't function during the day. 00:41:40.480 |
I mean, at night, they don't function during the day. 00:41:42.200 |
So every once in a while, you may run into a possum. 00:41:45.800 |
But if you see a possum during the day, it is absolutely jacked and confused. 00:41:50.560 |
It will look at you kind of like, "What is going on?" 00:41:52.240 |
And it's going to look for some corner, some garage, somewhere where he can find darkness. 00:41:57.000 |
Usually during the day, they're hanging upside down on their tails. 00:42:00.320 |
If you see a possum during the day, something has horribly gone wrong with his life. 00:42:18.880 |
So in a possum, you see possum during the day, he is frantically looking for darkness. 00:42:29.160 |
So if you happen to wake up, if you happen to be on a camping trip and everything's dark 00:42:33.400 |
and you don't have your flashlight and you have to go to the bathroom at three in the 00:42:35.760 |
morning, you're probably sitting there thinking like, "Can I hold this till morning?" 00:42:43.200 |
Because you don't want to trick out in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom 00:42:47.960 |
where you can't see, you don't have a flashlight, "Am I going to make it back? 00:42:51.520 |
You got all these thoughts in your head and you're probably thinking, "Is it bad enough 00:42:58.120 |
Because you're not meant to function at night. 00:43:01.480 |
So you're going to wait until the light, the sun comes up so you can function. 00:43:06.680 |
So if you've been transformed and your old self is dead, see, a slave will see the light 00:43:16.600 |
That's why they don't like teaching of the gospel. 00:43:18.240 |
That's why when the Bible is taught and the light is turned on, they don't like it. 00:43:25.080 |
But if you're a creature of the day and your old self has been crucified and now God made 00:43:30.280 |
you a light, the darkness is very uncomfortable. 00:43:35.880 |
Yeah, sometimes you may sit and vomit, sometimes it may splash on you, but the reaction that 00:43:43.480 |
you have, this is so filthy dirty, you want to hurry up and get it off of you because 00:43:51.640 |
And that's what causes a Christian to run to God and ask for forgiveness because you 00:44:01.760 |
If anyone is in Christ, if anyone is genuinely in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:44:08.960 |
The old has gone, was crucified, was buried with Christ. 00:44:16.960 |
We're going to get to the imperatives next week.