-
Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 2.
-
I would like to have us read together
-
the first seven verses once again.
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Remembering the context.
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Paul says that he remembers the Ephesians
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in his prayers,
-
and he asks that God would give them
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the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation
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in the knowledge of Him.
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He wanted their eyes,
-
their hearts enlightened.
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The hope of our calling.
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That we would know what is
-
the immeasurable greatness of His power
-
toward us who believe
-
according to the working
of His great might.
-
That is the issue on the table.
-
That we would have revelation of God,
-
and that we would come
to know this power of God
-
that is being demonstrated on behalf of
-
those who believe.
-
That's what verse 19 says.
-
An immeasurable, or an
exceeding greatness,
-
of God's power toward us who believe,
-
according to the
working of God's great might
-
that He worked in
Christ when He raised Him
-
from the dead.
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That's the issue.
-
The first three verses of chapter 2
-
show us the wretchedness
-
that the power rescued us from.
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Let's read those three verses.
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"You were dead in the trespasses and sins
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in which you once walked,
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following the course of this world,
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following the prince
of the power of the air,
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the spirit that is now at work
-
in the sons of disobedience,
-
among whom we all..."
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All of us.
-
These first three verses
-
used to contain all of us.
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"We all once lived in the
passions of our flesh
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carrying out the desires
-
of the body and the mind,
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and were by nature children of wrath."
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By nature hell-bound.
-
By nature under the
hatred and anger of God.
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Just like all the rest of mankind.
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Here is the power that Paul wants us
-
to be able to perceive.
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That our eyes might be enlightened,
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the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
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that we may know what this is,
-
what this power is.
-
Here comes God breaking
in to this wretchedness
-
and this darkness.
-
This is the demonstration of His power.
-
God being rich in mercy,
-
because of the great love with
which He loved us,
-
even when we were dead in our trespasses.
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Nothing good in us.
-
It wasn't because of any beauty,
-
anything attractive,
-
anything desirable;
-
it was even when we were
-
dead in our trespasses.
-
God made us alive together with Christ.
-
And we looked at this last time.
-
By grace you have been saved.
-
This is salvation.
-
It is to be made alive
together with Christ.
-
Today, I want us to focus our attention
-
in on verse 6.
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"And raised us up with Him."
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That's what I want to look at.
-
Next week, Lord willing,
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"and seated us with Him (with Christ)
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together with Christ
in the heavenly places
-
in Christ Jesus."
-
Lord willing, two weeks,
-
"so that in the coming ages,
-
He might show the
immeasurable riches
-
of His grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus."
-
What we need to feel here
-
is the extremity of this.
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The extremes here.
-
In the first three verses,
-
man is at the absolute lowest point
-
of wretchedness, despair,
and hopelessness.
-
They are in the very
condition of fallen Adam.
-
And we need to recognize
Adam's fall for what it is.
-
We need to recognize that Adam
-
took the human race as far down
-
as can be imagined.
-
That doesn't mean that
every single person
-
does all the wickedness
that is out there potentially,
-
but what we're saying is,
-
that his condition at every point -
-
his condition when it
comes to alive or deadness,
-
his condition when it
comes to the world,
-
his condition when it comes to Satan,
-
his condition when it
comes to disobedience,
-
his condition when it
comes to the wrath of God,
-
and when it comes to lust...
-
he's at the bottom of the barrel.
-
And God flexes His almighty power.
-
And here's the thing
that you have to recognize,
-
when God saves a man,
-
He exalts man as high as
the man Jesus Christ Himself.
-
Do you recognize that?
-
Do you recognize that
when God saves a person,
-
He doesn't take us any place lower
-
than where Christ is Himself.
-
That's how high He takes us.
-
That's the extremity here.
-
These verses are extreme.
-
They describe the utter extremities.
-
And you know what?
-
Man never dwells in the middle.
-
And this is a big problem.
-
This is where we go wrong so often.
-
When we look at lost men,
-
we don't think they're
as lost as they are.
-
And when we look at Christians,
-
we don't recognize that
they are as high as they are.
-
We tend to take the edge off on both ends.
-
Scripture doesn't do it.
-
Scripture says if you're lost,
-
it's extreme!
-
If you're saved,
-
it's the other extreme!
-
Man only lives at the poles.
-
The farthest reaches of the North Pole
-
or the farthest reaches of the South Pole
-
and no one lives in between.
-
And we go wrong there all the time.
-
We imagine people living
in between all the time.
-
We imagine Christians being
much lower than they are.
-
And we imagine lost man not nearly
-
being as bad as he is.
-
But you see it right here.
-
Listen, this is the way things really are.
-
This is the Apostle Paul under
the inspiration of God.
-
The Holy Spirit is leading
this apostle along
-
to rightly evaluate the state of mankind.
-
That's what we have.
-
There's no middle ground.
-
None.
-
Every man is either way down
in the depths of wretchedness,
-
or he is far up
-
on the great majestic
mountaintops of Christianity,
-
in all the glory.
-
The problem is it doesn't
feel that way often to us.
-
But, Christian, the real issue here is,
-
is Paul wants us to
know what's true of us,
-
if we're Christians.
-
He wants us to know
what God has done
-
to us and for us.
-
He is still interested that we get
-
this revelation of a knowledge of God
-
and what God has done for us.
-
That's the issue here.
-
Remember, God is the subject matter here.
-
We are not.
-
This is not mainly about what you are
-
as much as what God has done
-
to make you what you are.
-
That's the emphasis in these verses.
-
But undoubtedly we end up with who we are.
-
What we are.
-
Where we are.
-
And that's a reality.
-
God's immeasurable greatness of His power.
-
What has it done for us?
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So, let's turn our attention to verse 6.
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Look at it.
-
Further seek to behold this power of God.
-
What has the power of God done?
-
You see, we don't see it
flash out like lightning.
-
We don't see it come down as a thunderbolt
-
and consume Nadab and Abihu.
-
It's not like that.
-
We get saved,
-
and sometimes to the visual eye,
-
people watching us,
-
there's changes in the life,
-
but it's not like all of a sudden
-
we're branded on the forehead.
-
It's not all of a sudden like we glow.
-
And nevertheless, there is a reality here.
-
Look at this. Verse 6.
-
"And God..."
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I'm pulling "God," - that God is the subject
-
from verse 4.
-
"God raised us up with Him."
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Or together. God raised us up together.
-
The "with Christ" is implied
from the verse before.
-
The verb carries the meaning:
-
to cause to rise together.
-
It's the idea of a whole
room full of people
-
rising together.
-
Listen to this.
-
In Isaiah 14:9, when you go back
-
and you look at the Septuagint,
-
the Old Testament Greek translation.
-
We find this exact verb.
-
And you know what it's used to describe
-
there in Isaiah 14?
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It's used to describe the destruction
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of the king of Babylon.
-
And do you know what God says?
-
God says when you, king of Babylon,
-
are destroyed, the
kings of all the nations
-
are going to stand together
from off their throne.
-
I know a lot of you
have things in your lap.
-
Maybe it's not convenient.
-
But you know what,
-
I'm going to ask you all to stand.
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When I count to three.
-
Not yet.
-
So if you've got
something in your lap
-
that's prohibiting it,
set it aside for a second.
-
I'm going to ask
you all to stand.
-
And what I want you to do
-
is listen to the sound.
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One, two, three.
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Ok, sit.
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You all stood together.
-
You all did the action
that this verb carries.
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The thing is, you all
did it in your strength.
-
The reality that we have here
-
is that when Christ rose,
it was by the power of God
-
and by that power, we all rose with Him.
-
That's the reality.
-
This greatness of the power of God
-
pulled us all up.
-
All Christians pulled up with Him.
-
What Paul is saying,
-
is that when Christ rose from the dead
-
and stood and threw
off those grave clothes,
-
there was a sound.
-
Not literally.
-
But there was a sound of a multitude
-
from every tribe and tongue,
-
from every people, from every nation,
-
that came up with Him.
-
That's the reality.
-
And then, what happens is
-
Christ went even higher.
-
We saw it.
-
He soars through the skies.
-
Through the heavens
-
as a great high priest,
-
He soared through the heavens,
-
and He's taken up to the right hand.
-
And you see from the portion of this verse
-
that we're going to deal with next time,
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we went with Him.
-
There is a sound of a multitude
-
being taken up altogether with Him.
-
That's what the power of God has done.
-
God binds the Christian to Christ.
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One with Him.
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So that what happened to
Jesus Christ in the physical realm,
-
it happens to us in the spiritual.
-
Here's the thing.
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You have to get this.
-
The verb itself carries the idea
-
of raised together.
-
The context doesn't mean
just all of us together.
-
The context dictates
it's together with Christ.
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Now think with me.
-
Do you know what the apostle is doing?
-
He's got in mind a historical reality.
-
He's got in mind facts.
-
Something that actually happened
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in the course of time.
-
He is looking back to an event
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that took place,
-
and he's tying that together
-
with the reality of
the spiritual condition
-
of every Christian.
-
The Roman governor Pilate.
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He had the scourge laid to His back.
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Think with me.
-
Go back here.
-
The Roman soldiers...
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they twisted together thorns.
-
You think they were kind in the way
-
they placed that on His head?
-
About as kind as the way they placed
-
the reed in His right hand,
-
and took it out and began to
whack Him in the head with it.
-
It says that they smote
Him with their hands.
-
It says that they spit on Him.
-
The Jews had already done that,
-
there with the high priest,
-
they'd already spit on Him.
-
Now the Romans are spitting on Him.
-
Luke's account says they beat Him.
-
They robed Him with purple.
-
They fell down before Him.
-
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
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And you know what they did?
-
They nailed Him to a tree.
-
They hung Him on that tree by nails.
-
He bore our sins in
His own body on that tree.
-
And He hung there and He suffered.
-
And He came to the place where
-
He bowed His head
-
and He gave up His spirit.
-
He gave up His spirit.
-
His spirit left His body.
-
He was dead.
-
He was actually physically dead.
-
And they made certain He was dead.
-
And they rammed a
spear up through His side
-
and blood and water came out.
-
And His lifeless body was taken down.
-
And they brought myrrh
and they brought aloes,
-
and there was a nearby tomb,
-
and they put His body in there,
-
and they took a great big stone
-
and they sealed the tomb.
-
And that's historical fact.
-
And they sealed it.
-
And He was dead.
-
And He was in there and He was dead.
-
For three days.
-
That is the reality.
-
Jesus Christ laid down
His life for His sheep.
-
He was dead.
-
He was physically, actually,
-
historically, literally dead.
-
He was dead for three days.
-
It's historical fact.
-
And Paul's looking at that.
-
And he says Christian,
-
you are not separated from that.
-
You are integral with it.
-
You are one with what happened there.
-
That is not something separate.
-
What was happening there,
-
you're tied to it.
-
You're united to it.
-
You're one with it.
-
And glory to God that it be so,
-
because there is such spiritual realities
-
that Paul means to communicate to us
-
about our connection to that.
-
Here's the thing.
-
He didn't stay dead.
-
On the first day of the week,
-
at the early dawn,
-
some of His disciples went to the tomb.
-
And what did they find?
-
I'll tell you what they found.
-
They found an earthquake.
-
They found that the angel
of the Lord had descended.
-
They found the stone,
but it had been rolled away.
-
They found the guards,
but they were unconscious from fear.
-
They found the grave clothes.
-
They found the linen
that had covered His face.
-
But they didn't find any body.
-
You go to Mohammad's grave,
there's a body there.
-
You go to all the pope's graves,
there are bodies there.
-
This one was empty.
-
The body of Christ was gone.
-
Do you remember the account?
-
Two angels in dazzling apparel -
-
says to these ladies,
-
why are you seeking the
living among the dead?
-
It's not appropriate for
them to be here anymore.
-
Don't you remember what He said to you?
-
He said He would be taken by the hands
-
of sinful men,
-
and they would crucify Him,
-
and on the third day,
He was going to rise.
-
And that's exactly what happened.
-
That morning of the third day,
-
the grave of the Savior
of the world was empty.
-
And Christian, it's got
everything to do with you.
-
That's what Paul is saying here.
-
He had been dead.
-
That was very much real.
-
The truth is there had been a dead body
-
in that tomb.
-
Sin and death had done their uttermost
-
to keep Him there.
-
All seemed lost, did it not?
-
The two on the road to Emmaus,
-
they're saying we thought it had been Him,
-
but all is lost.
-
I mean, they killed Him.
-
What now?
-
Our hope is dashed.
-
And the reality is,
-
as a man, Christ was dead
-
just as any man dies.
-
He was in the realm of the dead.
-
It appeared to be the end.
-
But, it was not so.
-
And this is where the
raw power of God comes in.
-
God raised Him up
loosing the pangs of death.
-
For it was not possible
for death to hold Him.
-
Why?
-
The wages of sin is death.
-
But if sin is paid, death has no hold.
-
It couldn't hold Him.
-
There was no legal
right for it to hold Him.
-
God loosed the pangs of death.
-
Don't you love that?
-
It was not possible for death to hold Him.
-
And when Jesus came to life,
-
here's the thing,
-
we looked at last week -
-
life! life!
-
But you know what?
-
When Christ came alive,
-
can you imagine if
He would come alive
-
and then just stayed there.
-
Well, this is a comfortable place.
-
I think I'll just relax
here and sleep awhile.
-
I think I'll just hang out
here in the tomb.
-
That's not what happened.
-
Living people don't stay
under the death clothes.
-
They come out!
-
Our Christ is the living Christ.
-
That's the reality.
-
He no longer stays there
wrapped in the death clothes.
-
He's alive.
-
He's arisen.
-
He's come forth.
-
We say to Catholicism,
-
we abominate your dead
Christ on that crucifix!
-
Our Christ isn't there any longer.
-
He came out!
-
He's alive!
-
He's really alive!
-
And forevermore.
-
He's not going back there.
-
Be gone with that.
-
Forty days later,
-
He rose even higher.
-
He soared through the heavens.
-
And He came down on that throne
-
at the very right hand of God.
-
And the reality is, brethren,
-
this is history.
-
This is not fiction.
-
This is a historical fact.
-
And what Paul is doing
-
is he says that historical fact
-
and you, Christian, where you are today,
-
there is a vital connection.
-
That's the teaching at the
beginning of verse 6 here.
-
You have been raised
together with Christ.
-
That's the reality.
-
That's the historical reality.
-
What the Apostle Paul is
saying to these Ephesians
-
is that your salvation is tied to that,
-
and your salvation is comparable to that.
-
In other words, what happened there
-
is true, just as actual,
just as historical
-
a fact it is that He rose,
-
so there are actual and historical facts
-
that are true about your life.
-
Oh yes, what happened
to Him was physical.
-
What happens to you is spiritual.
-
But just as real, just as historical.
-
Just as true, just as living and actual.
-
You think of Christ.
-
There He was.
-
He was in a state of corruption.
-
Now, I know, the psalm
says that He wasn't left
-
in the state of corruption,
-
but He was dead.
-
He was dead for real.
-
For three days.
-
God didn't leave Him
in a state of corruption.
-
But death is a state of corruption.
-
And He was in that state.
-
He was in that realm of death.
-
That's where He was.
-
The tomb was closed.
-
It was dark in there.
-
But then He's alive.
-
And once alive, He doesn't
keep company with the dead.
-
What does He do?
-
Paul over in 1 Corinthians 15 says
-
He went and He showed
Himself to 500 people,
-
most of whom were still alive
-
when Paul penned that
letter to the Corinthians.
-
See, brethren, this is real.
-
Real brethren, upwards of 500
-
actually saw Him risen.
-
They were actually able to
see what Thomas saw.
-
Nail prints in His hands.
-
He bore the wounds.
-
This is real.
-
He really appeared.
-
Paul really wrote a
letter to the Corinthians,
-
and at the time when He wrote it,
-
there really were the vast majority
-
of these 500 brethren still alive.
-
Can you imagine that?
-
Can you imagine...
-
you come in from somewhere,
-
and it's like yeah, 500 of us saw Him!
-
Tell me!
-
What was it like?
-
Man, 500 of you got to see Him?
-
Lord, why couldn't I have
been one of them?
-
That was real.
-
But here's the thing,
-
when you rise from the dead,
-
you don't go on living in the tomb.
-
That's the reality.
-
He doesn't keep the grave clothes on.
-
Why?
-
He's alive.
-
Paul is drawing a direct
correlation between
-
that which was true of Him
-
and what is true of you,
if you are a Christian.
-
So what does that tell
us about a Christian?
-
Brethren, I'll tell you what it
tells us about the Christian.
-
Do you remember those women?
-
What were they going
there to the tomb to find?
-
What were they going looking for?
-
What were they talking about
when they were going there?
-
Anybody remember?
-
The stone.
-
What was their concern?
-
How are we going to roll it away?
-
We're just a group of women.
-
That thing is big.
That thing is heavy.
-
It probably took a whole
bunch of strong men
-
to roll that thing there.
-
They sealed it.
-
See, they were bringing more spices.
-
They wanted to anoint
His body even furthermore
-
than the 75 pounds that Nicodemus brought.
-
But what was the reality?
-
I'll tell you what the reality is.
-
The reality is that
when they got to the tomb,
-
they found a bunch
of things there.
-
They found a bunch
of things to be true,
-
but they didn't find a body.
-
Christ wasn't in there.
-
Let me tell you this.
-
You can send a group of women
-
to go look in the first
three verses for you,
-
if you're a true Christian,
-
they're not going to find you there.
-
Same reality.
-
You're not there anymore.
-
That's the tomb.
-
Don't you get it?
-
The first three verses
are the spiritual tomb.
-
That is death.
-
Dead in trespasses and sins.
-
There it is.
-
That's the grave.
-
That's the place of death.
-
Send somebody there to find you now,
-
you're not there.
-
Why?
-
Because you're not going to
find the living among the dead.
-
Same truth.
-
You see, there's a correlation.
-
That's the reality.
-
And the question is,
-
the question that I have
-
and the question that I
brought up last week is
-
how do we know this?
-
I mean, experientially?
-
That's what I'm interested in.
-
How do I know this reality?
-
I don't have it tattooed on my head.
-
What does this feel like?
-
What does being raised
with Christ look like
-
in actual experience and practice?
-
I want to know this.
-
I think you should
want to know this.
-
Why?
-
Because one thing I know about this book,
-
is that this book never assumes that
-
everybody that's in the church is genuine.
-
I want the real deal.
-
I want to see in my life
-
what this being raised
together with Christ looks like.
-
I want to know that that's real.
-
What is this?
-
What does this mean?
-
We've got wheat and tares.
-
What's the distinction?
-
We've got some that Jesus described
-
as not having root in themselves.
-
I want the real deal.
-
I want to know this.
-
What does it look like in real life
-
to genuinely be raised
together with Jesus Christ?
-
What is the experience that a
person has when this happens?
-
Because Paul is not saying this
happens to some people.
-
This is Christianity.
-
Remember, by grace you have been saved.
-
Those are the words right before this.
-
This has to do with salvation.
-
Not just the elite.
-
Not just apostles.
-
Not just certain privileged
early first century Christians.
-
This is saved.
-
Well, brethren, the Apostle Paul
-
gives us the most detailed commentary
-
on this in Romans 6.
-
So let's go to Romans 6.
-
We're going to spend the
rest of our time there.
-
Because there really is no place...
-
for one, this is great, because it's Paul.
-
Because it's the same author of Ephesians.
-
His terminology, his thought process,
-
the way he communicates is going to tend
-
to be the same.
-
It's the same person.
-
This is where the apostle gives us
-
the greatest commentary
on this whole idea.
-
Just to let a little light through
-
let's read the first 14 verses.
-
I know we simply cannot attempt to fathom
-
and explore the depths of this right now.
-
And I don't even want to try to do that.
-
But I want to pull
several things out of here
-
that I think are extremely helpful.
-
So, Romans 6:1,
-
"What shall we say then?"
-
Ok, that tells us something else has
-
already been said here.
-
Let me tell you what's been said
-
in very compact form.
-
Paul has just said that where sin abounds,
-
grace also doth much more abound.
-
In other words, nobody
is too bad to be saved.
-
You say, yeah, I see that
guy over there got saved,
-
but I've got ten times as much.
-
And Paul says, where sin abounds,
-
God's grace is sufficient to
go even higher than that.
-
There's no amount of
sin you can confess
-
that God's grace is not higher still.
-
That's the point.
-
But see, somebody comes along and says,
-
Whoa, whoa, whoa... you teach that,
-
and you are basically going to give people
-
a license to sin.
-
Because people will say,
well, if that's true
-
what prohibits me from being twice as bad
-
as the worst man who ever lived?
-
And still isn't grace sufficient?
-
And we would say, yes, it is.
-
What then?
-
Should we just continue in sin,
-
that grace may abound?
-
I'll tell you this.
-
Brethren, the Gospel is a dangerous truth.
-
But I'll tell you this,
-
you're not preaching it right if you don't
-
lead people to think
that it's so absolutely free
-
that it produces this
question in their minds.
-
You're not preaching
the Gospel free enough,
-
if it's not leading people to say,
-
wait a second!
-
Because that's what
happens in people's minds.
-
If you say that there's
nothing for me to do
-
and it's not my works
and it's not my morality
-
and it's not my goodness
and it's none of that?
-
You're saying the grace of God
-
just comes in and nothing on my part,
-
no merit on my part,
-
and it's just going to
wash away all my sins,
-
I'm going to be forgiven
and taken to heaven?
-
And we say, that's exactly right.
-
But if that's true,
-
what keeps me from just living on in sin?
-
Grace.
-
It should be sufficient even to cover
-
the sin I commit tomorrow, right?
-
And Paul confronts that.
-
And he says, what then?
-
Is that what we're saying?
-
Do we just continue in sin
now that we're Christians?
-
That grace might abound?
-
And he says,
-
how can you?
-
There's a reason why you can't.
-
Watch.
-
By no means.
-
How can we?
-
Why? Well, something has happened.
-
How can we who
died to sin still live in it?
-
"Do you not know that all of us
-
have been baptized into Christ Jesus?"
-
That we're baptized into His death.
-
So what you see here is...
-
with Christ; into Christ;
-
there's "into His death."
-
There's a oneness.
-
The union.
-
We were buried therefore, with Him,
-
by baptism into death.
-
Now, here it is.
-
Here's the resurrection.
-
Here's the being raised.
-
"Just as Christ was raised from the dead
-
by the glory of the Father..."
-
we too will be raised.
-
Now he doesn't use that language,
-
but that's clearly what he implies.
-
He describes it as we too... what?
-
"We too walk in life."
-
See, we've been
raised to life with Him.
-
It's a newness of life.
-
"For if we have been united with Him,"
-
see the union?
-
"in a death like His,
-
we shall certainly be united with Him
-
in a resurrection like His."
-
Now, brethren, he's not talking here
-
about resurrection when your
body comes out of the grave.
-
That's not what he's talking about.
-
He's talking about why Christians
-
don't continue in sin right now.
-
You say, but it's future tense.
-
We shall certainly be united with Him
-
in a resurrection.
-
Yeah, but see, the thing is
-
he's putting it in
relationship to the death.
-
There's a death
-
and the resurrection follows.
-
We have a resurrection like His.
-
You basically look at the vast majority
-
of commentators -
-
they're all on the same page here.
-
That the argument has to do,
-
notice verse five starts with a "for."
-
It means, he's going on to explain further
-
the idea, the concept of
Christ being raised from the dead,
-
and we too also being
raised to this newness of life.
-
We've been united with
Him in a death like His.
-
And then what follows is
-
we shall certainly be united with Him
-
in a resurrection like His.
-
And the argument is,
-
why doesn't the Christian continue in sin?
-
Newness of life.
-
Regeneration.
-
We have experienced
a resurrection like His.
-
He came forth from the grave.
-
We come forth from the grave.
-
We're no longer in those
first three verses of Ephesians 2.
-
We've come out.
-
Send the women
to look for you.
-
If you're a Christian,
you're not in there.
-
If you can look and
somebody can finds you
-
back in those first three verses,
-
it's because you have not been raised.
-
That's the reason.
-
Six.
-
"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."
-
This is why you cannot continue.
-
Regeneration.
-
You are a new person.
-
You're no longer enslaved to sin.
-
You can't.
-
The body of sin being brought to nothing.
-
"For the one who has died..."
-
The word here "set free,"
-
in the ESV is actually
the word "justified."
-
It seems like what he's saying here is
-
you who are dead to sin
-
are the ones who are truly justified.
-
In other words,
-
this free reality of grace abounding
-
to the chief of sinners.
-
That if you've actually experienced this,
-
you've died to sin.
-
The two go hand in hand.
-
That seems like the truth there.
-
But we don't have time to stay there.
-
"Now, if we have died with Christ,
-
we believe we will also live with Him."
-
There it is.
-
The life with Him.
-
Now notice,
-
he's not talking about the future.
-
He's not talking about when we die.
-
He's not talking about
when Christ returns.
-
Notice, "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."
-
How did He die to sin?
-
He died because He became sin for us
-
in our place,
-
that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.
-
That's how He died to it.
-
And He was done with it.
-
Look, the reality is,
the life He lives now,
-
He lives to God.
-
So, here's the conclusion of all of that.
-
Not something out there in the future
-
about your body being
raised from the dead.
-
The reality of this truth has to do
-
with how you live your life right now.
-
And why you cannot
continue in sin right now.
-
So, you must right now consider yourselves
-
dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus.
-
Now, brethren, here's the thing.
-
Death here is not the same as
-
death in Ephesians 2.
-
In Ephesians 2:1, it says you were dead
-
in trespasses and sins.
-
That's when you were lost.
-
The death here in Romans 6
-
is death to sin.
-
Not dead in sin.
-
It's dead to sin.
-
It's actually the death that
you experience as a Christian.
-
The death over in Ephesians 2 is a death
-
you experience as a non-Christian.
-
That is the importance.
-
The resurrection here is the
same as the resurrection over there.
-
But Paul is speaking
about two different deaths.
-
It's important that you see that.
-
But here's the thing,
-
brethren, are we supposed
to continue in sin?
-
That's the question that's on the table.
-
He takes us to resurrection.
-
He takes us to newness of life.
-
He takes us to being raised with Him.
-
He takes us to being alive to God.
-
But here's the reality of all of it.
-
Here's the flow of the argument.
-
He's not trying to convince us about
-
any realities concerning
our future resurrection.
-
Now all that's true.
-
As a Christian, your body's
coming out of the grave.
-
But if you want to know about that,
-
this isn't the text.
-
Some place like 1 Corinthians 15,
-
that's where you want to go to see
-
the beauties and the reality of that.
-
Here he's speaking about
the same spiritual reality
-
that takes place in
the life of the Christian
-
as he's talking about over in Ephesians 2.
-
Which is directly
connected with this reality
-
that we are raised together with Christ.
-
That's the thing.
-
And the whole thrust of the argument,
-
what shall we say then?
-
Are we to continue in sin?
-
Now, brethren, he's
not talking perfection.
-
Don't miss that.
-
You say how do you know that?
-
What makes you think that
this isn't perfection here?
-
Saying you're dead to
sin sounds pretty dogmatic.
-
Sounds pretty all-encompassing.
-
Well, we could go over some place
-
like 1 John and I could say,
-
little children, I write to
you that you sin not,
-
but if you sin, we have
an Advocate with the Father.
-
We could go somewhere else.
-
But just looking right in the context,
-
what might be some giveaways
-
that he's not actually speaking
about total perfection here?
-
Brethren, I think the reality of this
-
is that you see the battle.
-
For one, he uses the terminology dominion.
-
Notice it in verse 9.
-
"Death no longer has dominion over Him."
-
No longer dominates Christ.
-
But notice this word again,
-
at least in the ESV if you go down to 14,
-
"Sin will have no dominion over you."
-
That's the issue.
-
It's dominance.
-
It's dominion.
-
It's not total eradication.
-
In fact, you get a further idea of this
-
just in the nature of the battle
-
as it's portrayed by Paul here.
-
Do you all see it there?
-
Notice, verse 10,
-
"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."
-
This is a reality that he
wants flooding your minds.
-
But notice the battle here.
-
Let not sin, therefore,
reign in your mortal body
-
to make you obey its passions.
-
In other words, sin is
going to seek to reign
-
in your mortal bodies.
-
Fight it.
-
You go further in this
letter to Romans 8:13,
-
"by the Spirit, we put to death
the deeds of the body."
-
That's life.
-
This is life here.
-
Verse 13.
-
This is the battle.
-
"Do not present your members to sin
-
as instruments for unrighteousness,
-
but present yourselves to God as those
-
who have been brought..."
-
Here it is.
-
Live as one who's been
brought from death to life.
-
You have come out with Christ.
-
Here's the experiential reality
-
about being raised together with Christ.
-
It's got everything to do with sin.
-
Because listen,
-
the death of those first
three verses of Ephesians 2,
-
it's dead in sin.
-
Dead in sin.
-
The opposite: alive to God.
-
Because sin is everything
that's against Him.
-
Sin falls short of the glory.
-
It doesn't seek the glory.
-
It doesn't desire the glory of God.
-
It's beneath the glory.
-
It's constantly living for self.
-
God isn't in the focus.
-
It's not that.
-
And it's coming away
from that death of sin.
-
Being made alive to God.
-
That's the reality.
-
How can we who have
died to sin still live in it?
-
Why?
-
You can't.
-
Because you've been
raised together with Christ.
-
He came out of the grave.
-
You've come out of the grave
of those first three verses.
-
Listen.
-
Think about how ludicrous it would be
-
to imagine Him being made alive
-
and to stay there under the linen,
-
in the dark,
-
in the tomb,
-
behind the rock.
-
The women didn't find Him.
-
Why?
-
Because when you're made alive,
-
you don't stay in the tomb.
-
When you're made alive,
-
it's an obvious fact.
-
Didn't the angels think
it was very obvious?
-
Why are you seeking Him among the dead?
-
Don't you know that you don't find
-
the living among the dead?
-
This is the experiential reality.
-
Brethren, we came out from among the dead.
-
Among whom we all once lived
-
in the passions of our flesh.
-
Carrying out the desires,
-
the lusts of the flesh,
-
the lusts of the body,
-
the lusts of the mind.
-
This is what we came out of.
-
But you don't stay there.
-
That's the reality.
-
Brethren, that is the reality.
-
That's what we find to be.
-
Our relationship with sin
has entirely changed.
-
Jesus' relationship with sin, with death,
-
had entirely changed,
-
and He doesn't stay in the grave.
-
He was dead to sin forevermore.
-
Not that He ever committed any sin.
-
He was dead to it in another way.
-
He conquered it.
-
He became sin.
-
He paid it.
-
He was done with it, period.
-
Once and for all.
-
All over.
-
You have been brought out of the grave,
-
once and for all.
-
You are no longer a slave to sin.
-
You are no longer a servant to sin.
-
You're a slave to God.
-
Peter says it.
-
Paul says it.
-
A slave to God.
-
Yes, the translations
don't like to use it.
-
It's politcally an incorrect term.
-
You listen to some of the translators
-
as they talk about why they chose one word
-
over another in the English translations.
-
It's a hot topic.
-
It's a hot word.
-
People don't like to use it.
-
Because it just produces
too much negative imagery.
-
Especially with the history that we
have in the United States of America.
-
But I'll tell you this, brethren,
-
we are free.
-
We are free.
-
And the truest freedom is
to live unto the will of God.
-
That is true freedom.
-
True freedom is when we love God
-
and we're no longer in the bondage of sin.
-
To be a slave under that master,
-
is to be under the whip all the time.
-
Do this, do that, do this other thing!
-
Brethren, that's not how
we live any longer.
-
You get people that say,
-
"show me in the Bible where that's wrong!"
-
Brethren, that's to miss the whole spirit.
-
Of course, we go to our Bibles.
-
But it's like we found there in Peter.
-
It's the will of God.
-
It's what God loves.
-
We're not always asking,
-
what's the rules?
-
Show me the rules?
-
Show me all the lists.
-
That's not it.
-
That's what people do who are
-
under the slave master.
-
Who are under law.
-
We are free to live to the will of God.
-
Why?
-
We've been made alive,
-
alive to God.
-
Our heart jumps for the things of God.
-
Listen, Christ entered into
the realm of sin once.
-
And He came out.
-
So have we.
-
The realm of sin by becoming sin.
-
He finished with it.
-
So have we.
-
Brethren, sin has no claim on you.
-
You can look at every temptation,
-
you can look at the devil
himself straight in the face
-
and say I don't have to follow you.
-
I'm a free man.
-
Good day.
-
My Lord is alive and I'm one with Him.
-
And we haven't even got here yet.
-
But you can look at the devil and say
-
do you recognize I am seated
in the heavenly places
-
with Christ Jesus, by the way?
-
Brethren, the truth of all this is,
-
we need to recognize who we are.
-
Everything that Jesus Christ did,
-
it was designed to take
us out of the realm of sin
-
and death and to put us into this realm
-
of being alive to God.
-
That's it.
-
That's Paul's meaning.
-
Have you been raised up to this?
-
Being made alive to God.
-
Not where sin is just a bunch of rules
-
that you have to keep.
-
Not always asking,
-
well, what's wrong with that?
-
Do you ever hear people like that?
-
It's like that's how they live their life.
-
"What's wrong with that?"
-
Brethren, that's slave talk.
-
It's like what does God delight in?
-
Let me do that.
-
What's going to bring His smile upon me?
-
Oh, is there a possibility
He's going to frown on that?
-
Is there a possibility
that this is going
-
to cause a shadow
to pass between us?
-
Then I don't want to go there.
-
Versus: "Show me in the
Bible where it says that!"
-
Well, of course, we want
to be shown in the Bible.
-
But that's to totally miss it.
-
Brethren, we should be disgusted
with that kind of attitude
-
among those who profess to be Christians.
-
That is purely slave talk.
-
It's just basically what must
I do to avoid punishment?
-
Show me the list of rules.
-
Christians have been raised
way up above and beyond that.
-
Up into the heights and the majesty.
-
Up there on that mountain top.
-
The glory.
-
That's where we're seated.
-
Brethren, it's David coming
along and saying
-
I pant after God like a
deer pants after water.
-
You see, people like that
aren't constantly asking,
-
show me the rules!
-
Show me where it says that I can't
-
listen to music like that.
-
Show me where it says I
can't go to a move like that.
-
Show me where it says I can't wear that.
-
Yes, we want to search Scripture
-
to find out the will of God.
-
We want to be taught.
-
We're ignorant about so much.
-
I recognize that.
-
Scripture needs to be
our basis for sanctification,
-
our basis for truth.
-
But that is just a world away from saying
-
oh, my heart hungers, it longs after God.
-
Where can I find God?
-
The sighs and moans...
-
It's like, hey, brother, you
want to go do this?
-
And you're thinking man
my ache in my heart
-
is to find God.
-
If I do that, that may take me backwards.
-
That may take me in a direction
-
I don't want to go.
-
That may interrupt
the fellowship,
-
and I'm trying to
get more fellowship.
-
And you want to take me
over there to do that?
-
It'll be fun!
-
No, it's not fun if I lose
the sight of His smile.
-
That isn't fun.
-
That's exactly what you don't want.
-
Brethren, what we've been raised to,
-
is think about Christ raised up.
-
He's the delight of His Father.
-
Proverbs 8
-
The delight...
-
that's what happens with us.
-
It becomes a relationship of delight
-
and feeling the smile of God
-
and enjoying His joy.
-
Delighting in His salvation.
-
It's living this thankful life,
-
and living in holiness,
-
and wanting to be holy.
-
Christ said, "Blessed are those who
-
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
-
Blessed are the pure in heart."
-
There's a singleness.
-
We're evaluating things, not
on a list of rules all the time.
-
Show me where I can do this,
-
or show me where I can't do that.
-
We should abominate that as much as
-
we abominate Catholicism's dead Christ.
-
Brethren, there's a life that spills forth
-
from being raised up;
-
a life that is within us.
-
Because we're no longer in the grave.
-
We've come forth.
-
We've been raised up.
-
You think of Polycarp.
-
Some of us were talking about him.
-
His famous quote when they told him
-
they wanted him to offer
the incense to Caesar.
-
They wanted him to deny Christ.
-
And he said,
-
"80 and six years have I served Christ,
-
nor has He ever done me any harm.
-
How then could I blaspheme
my King who saved me."
-
You see, they wanted him to blaspheme.
-
He didn't turn to the
other Christians and say
-
show me a law in the Bible
-
that says that I can't do that.
-
Brethren, that's not being raised.
-
Being raised is... what kindness!
-
He has loved me even when I was dead
-
in my trespasses.
-
He loved me with a great love.
-
He showed me great mercy.
-
Riches of mercy.
-
He spilled the blood of His Son.
-
I just think of all the different times
-
that He was spit on.
-
They plucked out His beard.
-
You get that from the Psalms,
-
not so much from the Gospel accounts.
-
Smitten.
-
Think of God smiting His Son.
-
He's the Beloved.
-
He's hitting Him. He's hitting Him.
-
He didn't spare His own Son
-
for you.
-
And brethren, you've been raised.
-
You need to consider yourselves raised.
-
Dead to sin.
-
Alive to God.
-
That needs to be the mindset.
-
You can go out of here,
-
to be quite honest,
-
the computer does not own you.
-
You are raised.
-
Pornography does not own you.
-
You are raised.
-
Food doesn't own you.
-
Drink doesn't own you.
-
Entertainment doesn't own you.
-
The truth is, your family
does not own you.
-
You're a slave to God.
-
And as a slave to God,
-
free to do right.
-
Free to live holy.
-
Free, free, yearning, living like David.
-
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
-
so pants my soul for You, O God.
-
My soul thirsts for God,
-
for the living God,
-
when shall I come and appear before God.
-
My tears have been my food day and night.
-
Why?
-
Because they're saying
where is your God?
-
And he's saying, yeah, where is He?
-
He's weeping for Him.
-
He's longing. He's groaning.
-
He's crying.
-
That's what drives us.
-
This is the life.
-
Alive to God.
-
We've been raised.
-
You've been raised to this.
-
Consider this reality
-
as one being raised...
-
we find in Colossians,
-
set your minds on things above.
-
You're not in those
first three verses anymore.
-
Set your mind on things outside of there.
-
Don't send your mind back in there.
-
Colossians 3:1
-
As one who has been raised with Christ,
-
you are to set your
minds upon things above
-
where Christ is seated.
-
And what we're going
to find in Ephesians 2
-
is you're seated there too.
-
That's next week.
-
But alive to God.
-
That's what Paul says happens when
we're resurrected and raised up.
-
Brethren, do you know that?
-
Is that a reality?
-
Hunger pangs.
-
Tears, aching, groaning...
-
What a change this is!
-
Out of the realm of sin.
-
Brethren, Christ made an end to sin.
-
It's over.
-
That's an end to you living
beneath the glory of God.
-
All have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God.
-
You don't live there anymore.
-
Dive into the glory.
-
God is saying, Come up! Higher! Come up!
-
You're not living in
those first three verses
-
of Ephesians 2.
-
Don't even put your mind there.
-
Come up.
-
Set your mind on these things up here.
-
Come up.
-
Up, up, up.
-
Sensitive to God. Loving God.
-
Seeking God.
-
This is the test.
-
Do you sincerely desire
to draw near to God?
-
Have a revelation of this knowledge of Him
-
that we're talking about here?
-
So, Christian, you've been
raised together with Christ.
-
Consider yourselves dead to sin
-
and alive to God.
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Why?
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Because it's true.
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And may God help us to do just that.