SPEAKER_00: Well, if you are familiar with North Korea, you probably are familiar with the reality that over decades, North Korean citizens have fled the country, crossed the border to seek freedom in places like South Korea.
SPEAKER_00: And when this happens, that North Korean citizen finds refuge in South Korea.
SPEAKER_00: They become citizens of South Korea.
SPEAKER_00: They become new creations, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: They have a new identity, a new leader over them, and a new government that they are a part of.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine if the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, came to the border of South Korea and demanded that one of those defectors, as they would call it, return back and put back on the North Korean military uniform and grab a weapon and wage war against South Korea.
SPEAKER_00: You would look at that and say, that makes zero sense.
SPEAKER_00: Because you now belong to a new kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You've been set free.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer serving that master.
SPEAKER_00: You now have a new master.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, that is Romans 6 in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00: That is a doctrine of union with Christ in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to do this morning is you're probably wondering, wait a minute, I thought we were in Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: We are.
SPEAKER_00: But in Colossians 3 last week, we saw a little bit of Paul unpacking this doctrine of union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to just kind of pause and just do a refresher on what I believe is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful doctrine in all the New Testament, because every spiritual blessing you receive in your salvation comes by way of your union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're just going to take a quick pause and just do a refresher as a church family on union with Christ and its implications for our Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: But let's start with what is union with Christ?
SPEAKER_00: If we could nail down a definition, I would say this.
SPEAKER_00: For example, over 200 times in Paul's letters alone, he uses the phrase in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And over two dozen times in John's writings, we see expressions like in Christ, in the Lord, in him.
SPEAKER_00: Every aspect of our salvation, friends, is united, is found in our unitedness with Jesus, union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I want us to look at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, you, if you're a Christian who's in Christ, you have a new master, a new position, and a new power to say no to sin.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ, you have a new master, a new position, and a new power to say no to sin.
SPEAKER_00: So we're just going to walk through verses one through 14.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to unpack everything here.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably one of the most significant chapters in all the Bible, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: You could do a sermon series on just this chapter alone.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to do more of a focus on just this doctrine of union with Christ as we find it in Romans 6 to encourage us as we continue through the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: But starting out, let's look down at verses one through seven and focus on the reality that if you are in Christ, then that means you died with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning in verse one of Romans 6.
SPEAKER_00: What should we say then?
SPEAKER_00: Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: How can we who died to sin still live in it?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: For if we have been raised, I'm sorry, for if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop there.
SPEAKER_00: So contextually, Paul has just been unpacking in the first couple of chapters of Romans a doctrine of sin, how all humanity is born in Adam and sh has a sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gets into the doctrine of justification and God's grace in chapter four and five.
SPEAKER_00: And essentially, Paul is responding to what he believes people might be thinking after hearing God's extravagant grace of wow, so God gets glory for showing mercy and forgiving sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul knows that God's grace and salvation is so scandalous, so contrary to our human nature of wanting to earn God's love through our deeds, that he knows that someone might hear this and think, so are you saying that we should just continue on sinning because the more sin we commit, the more glory God gets for forgiving that sin?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says in verse 2, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: How can we who notice the language die to sin still live in it?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying if we're saved by grace alone, or those who would argue this against Paul are saying, well, Paul, if we're saved by grace alone, why not just keep sinning?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, well, because logically that would make zero sense.
SPEAKER_00: You died when you were united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So how can you habitually live in a pattern of sin still after receiving such extravagant grace?
SPEAKER_00: In Paul's theology, when you came to Christ, friends, you weren't just forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: You were baptized, notice the language, into Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your life was plunged into his life, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is now immersed in Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: His story becomes your story.
SPEAKER_00: His life, death, and resurrection become yours.
SPEAKER_00: You became so identified with Jesus that his death became your death, his burial, your burial, his baptism, your baptism, his resurrection, your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul can say things like Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_00: So when Paul in verses 5 through 7 is referring to this old self, if you look down in verse 5, this old self, for if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's some confusion over what does Paul mean when he says old self.
SPEAKER_00: So some take the approach of, well, what he means is the old sinful nature within you has died at your conversion and union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And others would say, no, he's referring to your positional standing as someone who was in Adam before your conversion.
SPEAKER_00: I would suggest it's a bit of a both and with a stronger leaning towards Adam as our head.
SPEAKER_00: The old picture it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Picture, uh, I take this from Martin Louis Jones, if you're familiar with him.
SPEAKER_00: I love how he pictures this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, picture two fields separated by a high stone wall.
SPEAKER_00: Every person born starts life in the first field, which is ruled by sin and Satan, dominated by sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's no escape.
SPEAKER_00: But when God saved you, he reached down, lifted you out of that field over the wall, and set you in a new field, which is ruled by Christ and governed by his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's what your old self is.
SPEAKER_00: It's your old location positionally.
SPEAKER_00: Your tie to Adam has been severed.
SPEAKER_00: Before your conversion, every last one of us belonged to Adam in the sense of we were born in Adam.
SPEAKER_00: We were born in sin.
SPEAKER_00: Adam was our covenantal head.
SPEAKER_00: Don't argue with God as to why is that fair?
SPEAKER_00: Why did Adam and Eve represent all of us in the garden?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that's just how the program goes.
SPEAKER_00: And trust me, if you had the job, you would screw it up too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm positive.
SPEAKER_00: I know many of you are very godly, but none of us would likely succeed where Adam failed.
SPEAKER_00: But Adam was our representative or our representative head.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul means by your old self, your old position, not some sin nature inside of you that you're now trying to manage.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, in our conversion, uh the power and the penalty and the guilt of sin is done away with on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But that remaining corruption is still there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You still wrestle with temptation and sin.
SPEAKER_00: But your old self is who you were when you belonged to Adam's family in that first field, as Martin Lloyd Jones would put it.
SPEAKER_00: And verse six said that the old self, that old person who was united in Adam, has been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your tie to Adam has been severed.
SPEAKER_00: Your relationship to sin has fundamentally changed.
SPEAKER_00: The field you used to live in is not there anymore because Jesus has graciously placed you in a new field.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you're in that new field, you can still hear Satan calling, can't you?
SPEAKER_00: You can hear Satan calling over the wall of that old field, saying, Hey, you're a creature of habit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to come back over here?
SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: You might sometimes hear that voice, but here's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're in the new field of righteousness that belongs to Jesus, you can hear the voice, you can hear the temptations, but you don't have to answer the call because he is no longer your master.
SPEAKER_00: You are no longer in Adam, you are no longer under the domain of sin and Satan.
SPEAKER_00: You now have a new master in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: We are in a new position, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: So though we had no choice of our spiritual birth, we were all born in sin.
SPEAKER_00: No one in this room was ever born neutral and then chose to rebel against God.
SPEAKER_00: We were born in Adam.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus even uses this language of He's the new Adam, right?
SPEAKER_00: The new and better Adam who stood in obedience where Adam failed.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 7, Paul says, For one who has died has been set free from sin.
SPEAKER_00: Simple logic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: If you have died spiritually in Christ, then you have died to the old way of life.
SPEAKER_00: You are no longer in Adam, that relationship has been severed.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, one chapter back, if you look at Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 12, let's just do some theology together.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, so let's stop, let's stop picking on Eve, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Eve was deceived and she's responsible, but I mean the Lord through inspired scriptures calling out the man, right?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, in this way, death spread to all people because all sinned.
SPEAKER_00: No one is neutral.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person's account where there is no law.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression, he is a type of the coming one.
SPEAKER_00: So Adam was our representative head, he fell into sin, and when he did, we fell with him.
SPEAKER_00: We are all born in Adamslash sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing we can do about that other than to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: So when we were in Adam, we were condemned, we were ruled by sin, we were destined for death, but now when we are united to Christ, we are justified, we are ruled by grace, not by law, and we are destined for life.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to ask ourselves a question here, in light of what Paul is saying: do you still live as though sin owns you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you, as a professing Christian, find yourself living as if you still are mastered by sin and Satan?
SPEAKER_00: As if you still belong to Adam.
SPEAKER_00: One way you can identify this is do you say things like, Well, when I sin, that's just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: This is just me.
SPEAKER_00: This is my struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Or I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: Or this sin has too much power over me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to be unkind.
SPEAKER_00: I recognize many of us do struggle with patterns of sin that are more powerful than other temptations and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about faithfulness in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about progressive sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about those who maybe don't put forth that spiritual grit, so to speak, to truly pursue sanctification, to pursue godliness and to grow in grace, and instead just resign themselves to, well, I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: This is just who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then that sounds like you're still submitting to your old master.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you submit to an old master when Jesus has gone to great lengths to set you free by the shedding of his own blood?
SPEAKER_00: Now, this union with Christ language that Paul is using is really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have enough time to get into this this morning, but if you look at verse three, Paul says, or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: Passages like this in Paul's theology is what convinces me that the mode of baptism does have significance.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we are committed to believers' baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We believe the scriptures seem to clearly teach that through immersion in water and coming out of that water is representative of our union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You have been baptized into Christ, though there certainly is a spiritual element there.
SPEAKER_00: You're baptized into Christ, you know, spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe Paul is also referring to these Christians actually aft of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling them back to when you went under the water and came up, that united you to your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You were baptized with Christ and into Christ and baptized into his death.
SPEAKER_00: That is the beauty of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love the sacraments that Jesus has given the church, because they are symbols that point to spiritual realities to stir our hearts and remind us of the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to pick on any camp, but I'm just confused how can sprinkling reflect the spiritual symbolism of being buried with Christ and raised with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But that's a sermon for another day.
SPEAKER_00: But death is not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is starting with, you have Christian, you have died to the old man.
SPEAKER_00: So receive that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're struggling your sanctification, if you feel like, God, I'm I am not as mature as I think I should be, you know what we can always rejoice in?
SPEAKER_00: The old man has been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, we're not who we once were.
SPEAKER_00: We're probably not where we think we should be, but praise be to Jesus Christ, we're not where we once were.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But death isn't the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're united with Christ, then that means you rose with Christ, verses 8 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes on in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again.
SPEAKER_00: Death no longer rules over him.
SPEAKER_00: For the deaf he died, he died to sin once for all time.
SPEAKER_00: But the life he lives, he lives to God.
SPEAKER_00: So you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I believe maybe the reason Paul is one of my favorite biblical writers is because of how much logic he likes to use in his writings.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like he's challenging Christians to appeal to their minds and to take God's truth, sound doctrine, and ask the question: so, in light of this objective truth, how then am I to live?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul likes to help Christians connect those dots.
SPEAKER_00: He says, we will be raised bodily when Christ returns.
SPEAKER_00: But we have already been raised to newness of life now.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, our glorification is coming.
SPEAKER_00: I long for that day.
SPEAKER_00: I have so many questions for the new heaven and the new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Will we speak some new language everybody knows?
SPEAKER_00: Will we all be the same height?
SPEAKER_00: Well, like, what is this gonna look like?
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: But all I know is my sin nature will be gone, and that is gonna be beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: However, yes, let's long for the future.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, we've been resurrected to new life right now.
SPEAKER_00: We have new life because Jesus not just crucified the old man, but he said, and I'm gonna raise you to new life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not save someone and says, Well, I'm gonna do a revision of you.
SPEAKER_00: Or he doesn't say, you know, I'm just gonna work on you a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, No, we gotta, we gotta tear down the whole thing and resurrect you to new life.
SPEAKER_00: So praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Glorification is coming, but don't minimize the wondrous redemptive work Christ has already done in you right now.
SPEAKER_00: You have been resurrected to new spiritual life as you sit in those pews.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus rose from the dead, he made it evident that death could not hold him.
SPEAKER_00: He conquered sin in death, he burst out of the tomb, and death can't hold you either.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus walked out of that tomb.
SPEAKER_00: This is why union with Christ is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Your story becomes his story.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus rose from the dead, you rose spiritually in him.
SPEAKER_00: When he burst out of that tomb, you received new life.
SPEAKER_00: Because he conquered the grave, so do you.
SPEAKER_00: This is why, as Christians, I like I get it, like death is not something fun to think about, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like who wants to ponder their own death?
SPEAKER_00: But if you truly understand the doctrine of union with Christ, death becomes an usher who simply takes you into the presence of the one you've been united with at your conversion.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because death could not hold Jesus, and if you're united to him, then that's true of you too.
SPEAKER_00: Death had no power over Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love about the resurrection is Jesus is the one person because there's there's there's cases in scripture of people who have died and then supernaturally were resurrected, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only human who died and got himself up, showing that he has power over death.
SPEAKER_00: He voluntarily gave his life and then rose on the third day to make clear to the spiritual realm, I am who I said I am.
SPEAKER_00: You have no power and authority over me.
SPEAKER_00: And we are united to that guy.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about bragging rights.
SPEAKER_00: Death could not hold him.
SPEAKER_00: We saw in Colossians 3, verse 1, Paul said, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Essentially, stop living as if you're still a part of the old man and live like your new self, who is united to the guy who ascended to the right hand of the Father and is reigning in glory.
SPEAKER_00: Set your mind there because that's where it should belong.
SPEAKER_00: But notice in verse 11, we have the first command in Romans.
SPEAKER_00: He says, So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So after five chapters of just giving theology and gospel, this is the first imperative we see.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, hey man, it would be a really good idea.
SPEAKER_00: A really helpful suggestion I would give you is consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, it is a command.
SPEAKER_00: In light of all that I have said, essentially, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you observant readers might be thinking, wait a minute, is Paul saying that Christians should be sinless?
SPEAKER_00: That at some point we just conquer sin and we don't struggle anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I need to convince anyone in this room that that's not what he's teaching, because that's none of y'all's lived experience.
SPEAKER_00: But again, he's referring back to positional.
SPEAKER_00: You are no longer sin slave if you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if that is true, if you have a new position where you now belong to Jesus, who's your master, then logically you must consider yourself in your minds and in your hearts dead to sin, but don't just stop there, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, which is why he can give this as a command.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, in Paul's entire letter to the Romans, it's almost like this pattern of consider, reckon, count it as true, think about it, live it out.
SPEAKER_00: Consider God's truth, count it as true for yourself, marinate on it, meditate on it, and then live in light of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like what Paul is doing all throughout the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: This is not Paul saying, make yourself dead to sin through mental effort.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, just write some positive affirmations on your bathroom window and make yourself dead to sin by rehearsing these truths.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is saying you are dead to sin.
SPEAKER_00: That is an objective reality.
SPEAKER_00: You have died to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now think in accordance with that reality.
SPEAKER_00: If you are dead to sin, move forward in your life as if that is a reality for you.
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, consider yourself dead to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Your old life under sin's dominion is over.
SPEAKER_00: Preach that to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Sin's mastery is broken.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you'll still sin, but you won't live in sin.
SPEAKER_00: Those are two very different things, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We all will sin because we're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have a confession every Sunday in our pastoral prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a difference between someone struggling with sin and someone setting up camp in the world of sin, right?
SPEAKER_00: So consider yourself dead to sin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: But also, on the other hand, consider yourself alive to God through Christ Jesus, which means you're not just dead to something, you're alive to someone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lives for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: So you do that too.
SPEAKER_00: That's essentially what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: You're a saint now, that is your identity.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the most common uh phrases used to describe Christians in the New Testament are those who are in Christ or those who are saints.
SPEAKER_00: You are now set apart, and your fundamental identity is not wrapped up in yourself and your career and your education, it's wrapped up in the name of Jesus Christ, who you're united to.
SPEAKER_00: That is where you find your identity.
SPEAKER_00: We're familiar with 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anyone is, here's that phrase, in Christ, he or she is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: The old has passed away, the behol and behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: You see that new language, new creation, the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about like the next model of a car.
SPEAKER_00: No, you are a fundamentally new thing.
SPEAKER_00: You weren't approved upon, improved upon.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't grab you and say, I'm just gonna rework a few things.
SPEAKER_00: No, you are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's where theology meets life.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can ascend to all these things academically in our heads, but we have to ask the question so how does this play out in my life Monday through Friday?
SPEAKER_00: And Saturday and Sunday, too.
SPEAKER_00: But what does this mean for our daily lives when our flesh entices us, when sin comes knocking on the door?
SPEAKER_00: How does this reality that Paul is highlighting shape how we live?
SPEAKER_00: Look down at verses 12 through 14, and we'll see how we, if we're united to Christ, we fight from that position.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 6, picking up at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
SPEAKER_00: And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness, but as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness, for sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law, but under grace.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the word therefore.
SPEAKER_00: Because sin is not your master anymore, do not let sin reign.
SPEAKER_00: That is a command.
SPEAKER_00: That is a logical deduction Paul is making.
SPEAKER_00: If all these things I have been saying about your union with Christ is true, then brothers and sisters, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
SPEAKER_00: The command flows from the theology.
SPEAKER_00: The imperative, which is a command, rests on the indicative, which is a reality.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before, right?
SPEAKER_00: Imperatives and indicatives.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and the other writers of scriptures tend to use this pattern of before I tell you what God wants you to do, commands, imperatives, let me remind you the indicatives who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of just saying, hey, don't commit sexual immorality, don't do this, don't lie, don't do all that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible typically doesn't just give us a bunch of lists of things to do, because that's just morality, right?
SPEAKER_00: It starts out by saying, Hey, the old man is dead.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a slave to sin anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You've been purchased by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You've been transferred into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: His death, burial, and resurrection is now yours.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you by name.
SPEAKER_00: You will be risen on high with him one day.
SPEAKER_00: So don't lie to each other.
SPEAKER_00: So forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't harbor anger in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't just give us lists and commands.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't present to us legalism.
SPEAKER_00: It presents joyful obedience motivated by grace and gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: Where we say things like, Yeah, how could I do these things and sin against the Savior who united me to himself?
SPEAKER_00: That is why we obey.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul uses strong language, do not let sin reign.
SPEAKER_00: That's kingdom language, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That would make no sense.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is speaking to a church.
SPEAKER_00: These are born-again spirit-indwelt believers, and he's saying, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because sin does not give up just because we've become Christians, does it?
SPEAKER_00: Sin wants to set up its throne in your heart, your body, and issue its commands.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to be king again over your life.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to keep reminding ourselves, no, I've been set free.
SPEAKER_00: I have a new king now, and I can't give the old tyrant back its throne.
SPEAKER_00: When sin makes its demands, like do this, think this, say this, you have the power now, because of your union with Christ, to do something you couldn't do before your conversion, and that is say no.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Before you were a Christian, you were a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you acknowledge that or not, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Theologically, that was true.
SPEAKER_00: You sinned because you were choosing to do what was natural to your nature, which is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sinners do what sinners do.
SPEAKER_00: They sinned.
SPEAKER_00: You had no choice.
SPEAKER_00: You were a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: But when you were bought by Christ, you were made a new creation, and he severed that enslavement and gave you his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So then you now see Jesus as your treasure.
SPEAKER_00: You read his word and you agree with it, which you didn't before, and you desire to obey it, and he gives you the power to do so.
SPEAKER_00: So though we are born again, sin and temptation is still there, trying to entice us to come back to say, kind of like the Israelites in the wilderness, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, can you imagine being your people being enslaved for over 400 years, calling out to God for deliverance?
SPEAKER_00: He answers your prayer, he sends you a prophet, he delivers you by a mighty hand, and then very quickly you're like, man, we had it so much better when we were slaves back in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We do the same thing as disciples of God.
SPEAKER_00: When we give in to sin and temptation, we're saying, life was better when I was still in Adam.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a slave to sin on my way to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I had it better then.
SPEAKER_00: But no, we have to name these things.
SPEAKER_00: What specific sin is trying to entice you to return back to your old kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Is it lust?
SPEAKER_00: Is it anger?
SPEAKER_00: Greed, bitterness?
SPEAKER_00: That is sin barking orders at you like your old master.
SPEAKER_00: But what are you going to say?
SPEAKER_00: Because in verse 13, Paul makes it very clear: do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses this language of weapons twice, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, that is vivid language.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is not neutral.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is not neutral.
SPEAKER_00: He has an agenda.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just trying to get you to trip up in sin to embarrass you.
SPEAKER_00: He has an entire agenda, and he's asking you to essentially voluntarily help him with that agenda through your sin.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says your members, this isn't this isn't confusing, he means your body parts, your eyes, your mind, your heart, your feet, your mouth, your all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Sin wants to use your members as think of this language, as weapons of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: How sad would that be for a bloodbought Christian to make themselves weapons of unrighteousness?
SPEAKER_00: That is countercultural to fundamentally who you are.
SPEAKER_00: He says, don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is begging, don't voluntarily re-enlist in the enemy's army.
SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, we have a word for that, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: It's called treason.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to a new kingdom, so why on earth would you cross the borderline, so to speak, to go back to what you were rescued from and work for the enemy again?
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul uses language like us returning to our sins like a dog returning to its vomit.
SPEAKER_00: It's vile.
SPEAKER_00: The thought of it is disgusting.
SPEAKER_00: We're spurning the blood of Jesus when we do that.
SPEAKER_00: So when you click on that link, you're presenting your eyes as weapons of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: When you rehearse that bitter thought, you're presenting your mind to sin.
SPEAKER_00: When you speak that cutting word and tearing someone down, you're presenting your tongue as a weapon of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, here's the sad, the saddest reality of this we as Christians are giving a false witness to the world of what Jesus is like.
SPEAKER_00: And we're supposed to be his ambassadors.
SPEAKER_00: We're saying, yes, I'm a child of God, but I love this sin and it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We are presenting our members as weapons of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And every time we give in to sin, you're handing over your weapons to the wrong side.
SPEAKER_00: But praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: There's always forgiveness on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is always one step away from us repenting and him embracing us.
SPEAKER_00: But we got to keep this in mind.
SPEAKER_00: This temptation is always in our heart to function elogically, to know in our heads, yeah, I'm united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm raised with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The old man has been crucified, but functionally I look like an atheist because I'm doing things that are contrary to my faith.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul doesn't just give the negative.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just say, don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness, as weapons of unrighteousness, but he gives the positive in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, present yourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: So do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness, but as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, here we go again, as weapons for righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking.
SPEAKER_00: Some of my favorite movie categories is a good war film.
SPEAKER_00: So this is right up my alley.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: We have a positive command.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just say no to sin, but also say yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not all about rule keeping and saying no to sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's also how do I say, not just say yes to God, but how do I take the initiative to voluntarily live a life in which I make myself a weapon of righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about your Christianity like that lately?
SPEAKER_00: Like, have you ever just gone in your prayer closet and said, Jesus, make me a lethal weapon of righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: God will answer that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Like, Lord, I want to put hands on the devil and sin as a weapon of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, present yourself, offer yourself, make yourself available.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the motivation as those who have been brought from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: So if we were all spiritual refugees in the country of sin, Satan, and death, and we were on our way to eternal torment, and Jesus, on his own initiative, we had no desire to be rescued by him.
SPEAKER_00: On his own initiative, he rescues us from that kingdom and brings us into his own.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'm gonna be all the mo, I'm gonna have all the motivation in the world to say, how can I fight for you?
SPEAKER_00: How can I be a part of your kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: How can I be this weapon of righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: And let me be very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not saying you're presenting yourself to God as a way to earn his favor and love, but rather you want to be a weapon of righteousness out of the love you have already received from the Father in saving you.
SPEAKER_00: You're presenting yourself because you've already received his favor.
SPEAKER_00: You were dead and he made you alive.
SPEAKER_00: And you're saying, all I want to do is serve you because I love you and thank you for redeeming me from what I once was.
SPEAKER_00: So now you say, I want to use my eyes to see what God wants me to see.
SPEAKER_00: I want to use my mind to think what God wants me to think.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use my hands and feet to do what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use my mouth to say what God wants to say.
SPEAKER_00: I want my whole life to point to God.
SPEAKER_00: That is what it means to be a weapon of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And let me be clear, because I think some can take that and maybe go a little extreme, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where, okay, yeah, so a weapon of righteousness is like, I'm gonna, I wanna debate everyone who has bad theology.
SPEAKER_00: I want to call out this community and this group of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's just being a jerk.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, we should stand on truth and grace and love.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how Jesus interacted with the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, I think sometimes we think serving the Lord is always like like a sports highlight reel where you watch the top 10 and it's like the game-winning shot, the big dunk or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Or for the ladies, you know, the Olympics skaters, maybe if that's your thing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to balance it out here.
SPEAKER_00: Um but no, according to God's word, being a weapon of righteousness is just faithfully following Jesus in the quote unquote mundane, ordinary aspects of life.
SPEAKER_00: What you speak, what you watch, how you spend your time, how you steward what God has entrusted to you, make yourself a weapon of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to live as a saint.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a here's a charge to all of you.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow morning, when you wake up before you grab your phone, say this prayer Lord, I present myself to you today.
SPEAKER_00: My eyes, my mind, my hands, my words, they're all yours.
SPEAKER_00: And help me by your spirit to offer myself as a weapon of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Just start your day, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I offer myself to you.
SPEAKER_00: You've offered so much to me.
SPEAKER_00: I offer, I present myself to you today, my whole being, my eyes, my mind, my hands, my words, they're all yours, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify your name through me, your instrument.
SPEAKER_00: And notice in verse 14, here's the gratitude for why we do what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the promise.
SPEAKER_00: For sin will not rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: We can just amen and go home right there.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, that is a promise from God Himself and inspired Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how long you've been a Christian, I don't care how hard your Christian walk has been, I don't care what your wrestling with sin is, and you feeling defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I'm sympathetic to all of our struggles.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm getting at is according to God's word, it will have no reign over you.
SPEAKER_00: It does not have the same power over you.
SPEAKER_00: You may struggle, we all do, but praise be to God for promises like verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: For sin will not rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: It'll fight, it'll it'll tempt you, sin will discourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Embarrassment, shame, guilt, all these things will come.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be a part of our lives until we go home in glory.
SPEAKER_00: But sin will never enslave you again.
SPEAKER_00: It will never have dominion over you again.
SPEAKER_00: It will never rule over you again.
SPEAKER_00: So if we're honest, when we sin, Christians, it really is self-inflicted suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Because through the Spirit of God, we do have the power now to say no and to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So when we sin, it's not well, I stumbled into sin.
SPEAKER_00: It was an accident.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, it's just the remaining corruption within you.
SPEAKER_00: You we choose to sin, but it shall not rule over us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we are no longer under the law, we are under grace.
SPEAKER_00: The law's not bad, the law is good, the law is precious, but the law was meant to show us our need for Jesus when we recognize there's no way I could ever keep the law, then how can I be saved from this body of death, as Paul says in Romans 7?
SPEAKER_00: And in the very next vein, he points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 7.
SPEAKER_00: So praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: We've been delivered.
SPEAKER_00: Sin will not have dominion over you.
SPEAKER_00: Not, Paul does not say sin might not have dominion over you, or, you know, if you do a good job as a Christian, sin probably won't rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you try really hard, maybe sin won't rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, no, this is an objective reality from God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: It shall not rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's two reasons why.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he gives us, you are not under the law.
SPEAKER_00: The law could only condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: It could show you your sin, but it couldn't save you from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: The law made demands, but gave no power to meet those demands.
SPEAKER_00: Reason number two, you are now under grace.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is what rules you now.
SPEAKER_00: But grace doesn't pardon you, grace transforms you.
SPEAKER_00: Grace unites you to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Grace breaks sin's dominion and sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: That's why legalism fails.
SPEAKER_00: You can't defeat sin by trying harder under the law.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it never makes sense when you look at the Jews creating all these man-made rules of, you know, you can only walk a certain amount of distance on the Sabbath before you are now committing sin because you're technically working.
SPEAKER_00: Or what we do in modern day.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, Christians have to look like this and do this and check these boxes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, some of those things can be good, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You're doing the same thing they did.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to take the law and make it a little more measurable for us humans so that we feel confident to say, yeah, I'm good with God because look at all the boxes I'm checking.
SPEAKER_00: No, the law was meant to condemn.
SPEAKER_00: We are under grace.
SPEAKER_00: You can't defeat sin by trying harder.
SPEAKER_00: The law will only condemn you and leave you discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to how Paul says it in Romans 8, 12 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
SPEAKER_00: But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: The emphasis is if by the spirit you put the death, the deeds of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Not if you just white-knuckle yourself to obedience, you will put the deeds of the flesh to death.
SPEAKER_00: No, by the spirit you put your flesh to death.
SPEAKER_00: Behavior without right belief is just building a foundation on sand.
SPEAKER_00: You need the foundation first, a solid foundation of who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Plant that truth deep in your mind, and the life God calls you to live will grow out of that foundation.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul spent 11 verses on theology before he gave one single command in this letter.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, turn over to Philippians chapter 3, real quick, just to look at this element of the already and the not yet.
SPEAKER_00: I love this from Paul's own testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 14, is right after the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: There's all these beautiful truths of scripture, these prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: Promises that are true for us, but some of them are realities that are to come in a future date in our glorification.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's some aspects that benefit us today.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to how Paul touches on this dynamic in Philippians 3, 12 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.
SPEAKER_00: Stop there.
SPEAKER_00: So you hear that both and language where he's pointing to the future, but also the present.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Listen, I haven't arrived.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't figured this all out yet.
SPEAKER_00: I am not the person I know I should be in righteousness, but I make every effort to take hold of it because past tense, Christ has taken hold of me.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we strive to move forward in godliness because past tense, Christ has taken hold of us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we strive with the Spirit's help to take hold of all that comes with being united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close by giving you three points to meditate on.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, if you are in Christ, you have a new master.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just rescue you, he died for you, he rose for you, and united you to himself for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, if you are in Christ, you have a new position in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're in Christ, you're justified, you're ruled by grace, you're alive to God, therefore, you are never as a Christian fighting for victory, you are fighting from victory.
SPEAKER_00: You are a saint in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_00: And third, here's the one we probably neglect the most.
SPEAKER_00: If you are united to Christ, you have a new power residing in you.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is no longer your master, and when it makes his demands, you have the power to say no, not in your own strength, by the power of the Spirit who resides within you.
SPEAKER_00: So here's my question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you living from your union with Christ, or are you still trying to fight sin in your own power?
SPEAKER_00: You have a new power.
SPEAKER_00: And sit with this, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a reality that just melts my brain sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just any power.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the power that hovered over the watery deeps and created everything out of absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same power in which Jesus, who is divinity, somehow entered into human history, even though he existed outside of time, put on flesh, and allowed himself to walk the earth that rejected him and to die and brought himself back to life on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same Jesus who supernaturally makes you a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: All that power is in you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you're special.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you're special, but because he is.
SPEAKER_00: And you're united to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love the story of the thief on the cross, because I feel like he gets it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I've done nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not special.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't even followed this guy.
SPEAKER_00: I just met him when we hung up on this cross.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, because he was attached to Jesus, he gets everything.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, don't minimize the power that is indwelling you in this very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible tells us to, I mean, just just just do a survey right now as you sit there of like some of the greatest stories that you love in scripture, whether it's God delivering the Israelites out of Egypt with all the miraculous deeds he did there, uh, the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can go on and on, right?
SPEAKER_00: But when you read your Bible, Romans 1, 6, uh 16, as a matter of fact, says that the focal point of God's power is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in him hanging the universe in the sky, it's not him creating everything out of nothing, it's him solving the dilemma of how can God reconcile sinners to himself?
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul says, I am unashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.