if you're visiting tonight we're working through the book of Romans at night and tonight we come to the section in Romans 6 that speaks of the resurrection and I'm not wise enough or smart enough to have put that together so it just happened that way in God's providence but this is where we land tonight and we are looking at verses 5 through 10 5 through 10 actually 5 through 11. We'll read the first 14 verses together, but the text will be verses 5 through 11. Let's give our attention tonight to the reading of God's Word. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of his word. Today has been wonderful to gather around the throne of grace and to hear about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious day this has been to consider that. The doctrine really is everything for the Christian. Such an important doctrine for the Christian faith. I've told you before, but one of my dear friends, Dr. John Rainbow, died a few years ago of brain cancer. And after he died, I remember that his wife had come up to me and said something that I'll never forget. She said, Chris, you know what dominated his preaching at the end of his life? John was an ardent defender of the doctrine of election, and we had many discussions about election, but that wasn't it at the end of his life. She said, I listen over and over to his sermons at the end of his life, and what comes out over and over, she said, is a longing for the resurrection. The resurrection of the body. In fact, he put out a book on the Christian view of the body, which is just immensely helpful. As I've reflected on that as a pastor, and I've seen so many suffer in the body, this has been a very big focus of, I've noticed even in my short time in the ministry, to help people and encourage and comfort Christians in light of the very serious and great afflictions they have to face in the body. And the way to do that is to look to the future resurrection of the body, which we don't do well today as Christians enough. It's a wonderful, encouraging doctrine that these very bodies are going to rise new. But one of the things, as I look back already, that I don't believe that I've emphasized enough is what the doctrine of Christ's resurrection, what the teaching of the resurrection, how that benefits the Christian in the present. It's not just a future thing. What does it mean for us in the present? it's amazing that the apostles would raise this issue of the resurrection as the answer to the new life. It's beautiful. And tonight I want to consider with you how the resurrection of Christ has everything to do with this new life that we receive and how we are to look at everything we have been celebrating this weekend in the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior as God's answer to us. And that you would walk again tonight realizing you lack absolutely nothing. What an encouragement this is, especially as we begin to deal with the problem of ongoing sin. That's the issue tonight. It's really important to understand the context that is before us. Paul has been, for the last chapters you know, and we've taken our time to go through this, he has been laboring to explain the doctrine of justification by faith alone. and this has also been just glorious that God justifies the wicked sharp statement and he was he was making statements along the way things that to those who don't work but believe upon him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted to him for righteousness no working and we said sharp statements in light of that working is an abomination to God stop it And that hits us a little bit. It makes us nervous saying something like that. And we have been really looking through all of these things, statements made in chapter 5 where he says, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. And you stand back and say, wow, look at the greatness of God's grace to the Christian. Christ fulfilling all righteousness, accomplishing it all, telling us over and over you have everything that you need you can live in peace with god knowing this peace living in the hope of glory absolute assurance of where you're going to be when you die future wrath completely removed it's not going to happen all because while we were completely helpless Christ died for us no other religion has said such things no no no other religion has said anything close to this all of them telling us what we have to do to climb up the ladder to God all of us what we have to do to merit favor and this is everything that Paul has been going after. After all of this mining in Romans 3, 4, and 5 of grace, Paul knows that there's going to be a big objection to this. Paul knew that people were going to have a big problem with this. And in fact, we said last time, you know that the gospel is being preached correctly when this is the first issue that's raised after it's presented because what paul dealt with in romans chapter six beginning the chapter is the single great objection to the gospel message of free grace the great problem of what has been leveled and called antinomianism anti-law and he knew that somebody was going to come along he knew that people were going to come along and he knew exactly what they were going to say in fact he was facing this attack all the time paul if you preach that you will promote reckless living if you run around saying where sin abounds grace abounds all the more you know what people are going to do right they're going to say well then let's just sin because that just shows the magnitude of grace let's do it you're going to throw out the law because he had said in chapter 5 that the law increases the trespass the law when it's given he's going to say in romans 7 what does it do it inflames sin in us it's why we said last time when you put the cookie in front of the kid and say don't eat it he wants to eat it all the more and so here here it is this is what we've been looking at how did paul deal with this this great objection to the christian gospel this great objection and one of you came up to me last week and said you know i never realized that roman 6 when it dealt with that objection the answer that he was giving was basically saying what you've proposed is an absolute impossibility that's exactly right that's how paul's dealing with this and remember what he said he said we can't go on sinning that grace may abound and he said in verse two a very important verse for the christian life something that he states up front and then he he labors now to explain he says how shall we continue in sin how can we go on doing that when we've died to it we've died to sin and he goes on to explain now the radical implications of that for the christian life and he basically surveyed for us we looked at last time the life of christ this is where he began and he applied everything that happened to him and he took his eyes and he looked over the life and the death and the resurrection of christ and he says i want you to look right there for a minute and then he took it and he applied it right to us so in the first four verses we came across statements like you died you were buried you were baptized into his death and we ended last time with an amazing statement because he is raised you're brand new now what made those first verses so remarkable is that in none of those things that he described nothing that he said there dying being buried baptized he wasn't speaking in any way shape or form of anything that we do and remember we looked at the tenses there which is really important these being aorist tenses which means they are completed actions of the past this was done in the past that has a wonderful blessing for you which means a wonderful blessing is secured for you in the present and so we looked off left off last time looking at this this wonderful truth that what the apostle was doing was looking at the life of jesus and saying look over back at 80 30 in the month of nisan at about the sixth hour of the day when he cried out it is finished and then he went on into the grave and then he rose again the third day i want you to think about that for a moment i want you to look there when he died guess what you died when he was buried you were buried you were baptized into his death you were completely identified with him look at his life being joined to him by faith this is what i want you to see tonight this is what the apostles say this this is what the christian life this is where we begin to deal with that issue of whether we can go on sending the grace may abound now i don't know how much of that set in but you you really do begin to see how overwhelming a truth that is for the christian isn't it the hard part of it and the thing that we struggle with is that it doesn't seem to connect with our experience that's what we struggle with we're looking back at 80 30 we're looking at the life paul saying see when that happened to him it happened to you and you say that's wonderful but i don't seem to experience that at all and he knew the apostle that this would be difficult for us to wrap our minds around that's why in the history of interpretation romans 6 finds all sorts of different ideas from people but the basic thing that he was saying was i'm joined to him by faith and we can't get over this this basic question what does it mean that i'm dead to sin maybe this is the better question how does all that work you've been unpacking for us paul that i died with christ that i was buried with christ and i don't see at all how this still ties together to this awful struggle of sin that i'm going with going on with especially because i sound like a broken record constantly coming before the throne of grace constantly saying lord i'm tired of this deliver me progress is so slow i mean we say this in our heidelberg that even the holiest in this life make this really small step in sanctification how does that comport how does that connect with all this glorious victory that you seem to be describing here this sounds overly triumphant in romans 6 especially when i look at my experience when i'm in the trenches i don't feel like that and maybe that's why feeling shouldn't dictate truth right i said last time in romans 6 that If this is not preached carefully, you could have a lot of people walk away and say, you know, I don't even think I'm a Christian. I give up because I don't feel like I've died to much of anything. Sick of the fight. Tired of it. I believe Paul knew that everyone would experience that. And you're going to get a whole chapter coming up to deal with that. you're going to have a whole chapter coming up in chapter 7 that's going to be immensely helpful for exactly what you're feeling. But in verses 5 through 10 of Romans 6, he is unpacking and he is explaining this dilemma in a different kind of way and how we are to think through this dilemma and first things first, if you will. And what the apostle is explaining is the fundamental difference in verses 5 through 10, We could say it this way. Between the believer and the unbeliever, there is a difference. There's a big difference. And so now he begins to unpack what it means that we died to sin. Verse 5 of Romans 6 sums up here everything that we have been considering and he has been saying in this first section. And notice what he says in verse 5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And now notice what he goes on to say in verse 6. We'll get back to that. Notice here he began by saying that we have been united. We have become one with. We have grown together with. We have become one with him. That's union with Christ. And notice the first part of that. We have been united in the likeness of his death. Paul looked at Christ. He said, just what we celebrated on Good Friday. He died, you died. That's what he's saying. What does that mean? That's what he impacts now. This is verse 6. Notice verse 6. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Crucified. In verse 6 again, notice these tenses and notice how it's being presented to you. When he died, notice what he says, the old man was crucified with him. ESV uses the language of the old self. I wish I could translate it the old Adam. i think that would really be clear tonight for you because in chapter five that's exactly what he's been saying he presented this in already the the great chapter five where he made the comparison between adam and christ and remember what he said in the old adam in the first adam we what what had happened to us we were united with adam in sin that sin was imputed to us when he took of the fruit and ate we are sinners original sin this is what this is what um what he he unpacked in chapter five and and since now paul explained it further since you have come to christ by faith do you know what the death of christ means for you God did this. God did this. God took you out of the old Adam, crucified him, the old Adam, in you, and he put you into Christ to make you a new creature, a new man. And so he's been telling us this in this kind of language. I've done it for you. Killed the old Adam. And you have language all over the Scripture that speaks of this so definitively you were delivered out of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of his son in love it's done it's beautiful language describing this he went to death to deal with what you were in the first Adam that you might receive what he accomplished as the second Adam the last Adam and the scripture speaks like this all over the place to us to to encourage us in think of galatians 5 and those who are christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires therefore if anyone is in christ he's a new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become new now this is the basis by which he was he can say in confidence that we can't go on sinning that grace may abound certainly not we died the old adam died we died to sin this is what he's he's saying to us it's impossible to go on living in a perpetual state of unconfessed unrepentant sin because that old man that life that characterizes that kind of man in Adam is dead it's beautiful now maybe you're almost there because the lingering question still is what does that mean still for me as the ongoing problem of sin remains that's what we all struggle with and you'll notice a great contrast was made in verse 6 didn't you Verse 6 is, knowing this, that our old man, the old self, was crucified with him. Notice what he says. That the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Interesting way of saying it. Paul says there's a body of sin that we're dealing with. Now, maybe it's helpful to notice what Paul didn't say. Paul didn't say this, you died to sin so that you won't have the problem of sin anymore. Didn't say that, did he? He said, I mean, that would be the idea of some kind of perfectionism. And Christians have landed there. That's not what he said. He said, when Christ died, you were taken out of the old Adam and put into him. And when he was crucified, you were crucified too, resulting in you becoming a new creature. and now that is going to affect how you face the ongoing struggle against sin. Notice the distinction. The old man and the ongoing problem, the body of sin, which we call what? The sinful nature. It's real. And the Lord is telling us tonight, here's what I've done for you. I have killed the old self. and now that's going to affect how you deal with the body of sin and this is really important there were a lot of very helpful writings on dealing with this we mentioned last week owen's mortification on the mortification of sin in the life of the believer where he makes that clear distinction and he goes on to speak about that though the presence of sin remains sin's dominion has been shattered in the christian and that's what paul is saying here you're no longer a slave to it it no longer can control you so as to destroy you because you're not in that old adam this is important i mean i used to go down in modesto years ago and i've told you in preaching that that rescue mission and you saw all kinds of things in the rescue mission um but it was always amazing to me when i would uh ask them you know do you want to be freed from this and every hand would go up of course i want to be freed from this but they couldn't they were enslaved to it maybe this will help i was watching that um program a while back lock up which is an interesting program it's kind of a documentary on all of the um the prison systems and some of the really wicked or the really high-level maximum security prison systems in our country. And it's interesting to watch that at times. And it's always interesting to hear the guards speak. And I'll never forget, they were interviewing a few guards, and over and over they would say, well, these guys get out. And they knew almost down to the percentage, they will be back. They will be back. I'll never forget, one of the guards spoke of somebody he really believed had been changed. whether that was true or not. The point that God was making is, I think there's been a genuine change. He won't be back. And I know all comparisons break down at some point, but that is essentially what the apostle wants us to think about of the Christian life. You can't go back. It's done. You're out of the old Adam. The old self is done. You're into the new. The dominion is shattered. And Paul speaks of this in the language that Christ spoke of it knowing the truth you're free and that has great implications now for the ongoing struggle in life number one there's power there is real power made available to us to put to death sin and number two sin should no longer reign in our mortal bodies he says because you're no longer a slave to it this is how he wants you to think but there's something else that really drives this tonight what happened to jesus the third day he rose he rose victorious from the dead the whole time we've been looking at this we've looked at the truth that he since he died we died since he was buried the old self was buried but there's another great blessing that paul now explains for us and what a day to consider it jesus rose and guess what that means look at verse eight if we have died with christ we believe that we also will live with him we know that christ being raised from the dead will never die again death no longer has dominion over him for the death he died he died to sin once for all but the life he lives he lives to god i think that is just a remarkable beautiful verse we think of the resurrection in terms of the last day don't we that's not what he's talking about i was always moved at the end of revelation that it would describe these things this way he's described the first resurrection and then he said blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they will be priests of god and of christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years so notice that language if there's a first resurrection there's a second resurrection talking about our bodies and he who takes part then in the first resurrection the second death eternal damnation judgment hell it can't touch him so the first death being the death in adam the second death being the final judgment the second resurrection being that of the body what's the first resurrection that's romans 6 here's the most beautiful truth tonight before us in romans 6 he is saying that you have already been raised to new spiritual life in him having been joined by faith you know jesus was teaching this what did he say to nicodemus nicodemus you must be born again i have to take that dead life in you that black heart and i got to bury that thing and i've got to raise you up brand new by implanting life in your heart so that you'll live i've always been amazed by that dialogue with nicodemus because jesus was not telling nicodemus what to do he was not telling nicodemus how to go get born again nicodemus this is why i've come to give life i give life and i'm planted in dead hearts the spirit blows where it wishes and you you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going so is everyone who is born of the spirit and this is this is romans 6 what paul just said is since jesus died he dealt definitively with sin so that death no longer has dominion over him and since he rose victorious over the grave he lives to god and that is the life you get to now enjoy turn to the back of your psalter tonight because as we're going through the heidelberg it's important to see this. Page 24. This is exactly what our Heidelberg says. I want to ask the question and we'll respond with the answer. Page 24. It's in the back of those blue Psalter hymnals. Listen to the question. How does Christ's resurrection benefit us? First, by his resurrection he has overcome death so that he might make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death second by his power we too are already now resurrected to a new life third christ's resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection well that just sums it up that's wonderful the first notice what he says here he has overcome death and notice how the heidelberg this is exactly where they went to they looked at romans 6 they understood they rooted it in his life death and resurrection and that is where the benefit lies notice it he has overcome death and we get to share in the righteousness that he won for us by his death all of his benefits all of his blessings all of his gospel promises are yours and then he goes on and say well that's the heidelberg says that's not it guess what by that very power you're already resurrected to a new life now you're brand new and then third we get to look forward to the glorious resurrection of our bodies that's the heart of everything that we're celebrating today and this is the beauty of what's set before us and he wants us to know that there is power for us the scriptures talk about this power for the christian life and i believe maybe that's what we're we struggle with where's the power and in ephesians he would pray that we would be able to comprehend and that we would know the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe and then he goes right into the resurrection that very power raised him and that power is for you i've counted everything lost that i may know him paul said in the power philippians 3 of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means i may attain to the resurrection from the dead not that i've already attained or i'm already perfected notice he warns against that but i press on that i may lay hold of that for which christ jesus has also laid hold of me not going back power this is the key and i use that word because i know it's used goofy today this is the key to the sanctified life and i love what he does and we'll close the sermon with this in a verse 11 look what he does here's your first call to action in Romans here's the first thing he's telling you to do in Romans here it is notice verse 11 of Romans 6 so you also must consider reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus I just absolutely love that verse Did you hear what he said? Act upon what's already true. That would help us so much in the struggle against sin, wouldn't it? Believing that. God never comes to us and says, do this or else, to the Christian. God comes to the Christian, not violently angry, not flying off the handle, but he says, do this because I've already done it in my son for you. i have crucified the old self in him for you and now what guess what the challenge for you is for you yourselves to reckon that and believe that but that's what i'm calling you to do says the lord and that is the key to the christian life that so few seem to get the key to sanctification is first by faith believe that this is what the life death and resurrection has accomplished and now act upon it learn to reckon to yourselves and think of yourselves dead to sin because the lord's saying i've already done it now that's a major encouragement for you tonight that's the greatest freedom that's how wonderful his gospel freedom is paul didn't say go die to sin paul said you're already dead to sin now reckon that to yourselves believe in everything that the lord has done for you in sending his son to die and rise again the third day so that you might live in him that's a reason to live with joy isn't it that's a reason to go through this life with purpose and meaning that's a reason as we go through to praise god in everything that we go through even if we're being conformed to his death we are living in the power of that resurrection that makes life worth living i don't have to worry about falling in and out of acceptance with god having been justified by faith i have peace done he reconciled he freed me when i was an enemy and now my heavenly father calls me to believe that to trust him and to reckon myself dead to sin but alive to god in christ jesus my lord we'll go through in the coming weeks and we'll look at how to in that continued struggle with sin how to put to death sin that's what he's going to talk about but we start here tonight this is what god has done this is how good he's been to us you're a new creature in christ those who come by faith the old has passed away all things have become new let's us let us then live in the joy of that comfort amen oh lord our god we praise you for setting us free and we know that our our weakness of our faith causes us to doubt and we pray with that man who long ago asked you lord we believe but help our unbelief may we trust you that you have put to death the old Adam in us and that we are raised new and would this message so inspire us now to want to walk before you blameless that we would lean upon you and trust you and come to you and that we would live as those who indeed are free we praise you tonight for your wondrous grace and for your love as we've reflected this weekend on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, may we see that everything that was accomplished in those days, everything that was done for us, everything has been made available. And today we can be here standing before you in grace in full assurance that we have peace with God. Receive our thanksgiving for this marvelous word and your marvelous grace in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.