1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,760 The opportunity to be away and to be preached at for a few days was refreshing for me. 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:13,160 Being the one who does the preaching most of the time here, it's good for me to be preached 3 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:15,260 at occasionally. 4 00:00:15,260 --> 00:00:23,820 And I feasted in the messages that God enabled us to hear at the Bible conference in Chicago 5 00:00:23,820 --> 00:00:26,000 this last week. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:33,200 I would encourage you, if you have a few days on vacation sometime, to invest a period 7 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,800 of your vacation in a Bible conference. 8 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,000 You can do that without leaving home, actually, because there are some here in the cities 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000 occasionally. 10 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,120 And you can also go to places where you can have your meals catered to you and sleep in 11 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,760 lovely facilities and attend a Bible conference that way. 12 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:56,960 And concentrated time studying the Word of God is a wonderful way to be refreshed on 13 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:58,960 vacation. 14 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:04,680 Tonight, we continue our look in the book of Romans as we seek to understand how this 15 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:07,320 book unfolds. 16 00:01:07,320 --> 00:01:11,040 I'm not pretending that we're going to cover everything that might be said about the book 17 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:12,040 of Romans. 18 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:16,860 I spent over a year in it about ten years ago. 19 00:01:16,860 --> 00:01:23,000 More recently than that, we took chapters 6, 7, and 8 and spent probably 12 weeks studying 20 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,280 them. 21 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,200 And tonight we're going to do all of that in just one service. 22 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,120 So obviously we're not going to say everything that one might say. 23 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:35,840 But I hope that we're able to unfold it in such a way that you might be able to grasp 24 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,160 how it's put together. 25 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:43,000 Then the Spirit of God perhaps can use that to take you deeper into it in your own study 26 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,000 of the Word of God. 27 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000 Did you get an outline when you came in? 28 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,840 If you don't have one, you might lift your hand and perhaps an usher can bring one up 29 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:51,840 to you. 30 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:54,560 We do need some here toward the front. 31 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:55,560 Thanks for doing that. 32 00:01:55,560 --> 00:02:00,760 Just keep your hand up and they'll see you when they get the outlines in hand and make 33 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,600 sure that you get a copy of an outline. 34 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:10,840 Tonight we're talking about the relationship of God to the believer in a part 2 message 35 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:16,560 because actually chapter 3 verse 21 begins this part of the book. 36 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,320 It concludes with the last verse of chapter 8. 37 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,120 We've looked at approximately half of that. 38 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:28,160 Tonight we look at the second half as we begin in chapter 6 and verse 1. 39 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:32,700 There's only one word really that can fully describe the summation of the relationship 40 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:38,380 between God and the believer and that is the word salvation. 41 00:02:38,380 --> 00:02:45,920 Salvation is a broad and expansive doctrine that stretches from eternity to eternity. 42 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:50,600 It embraces so very much. 43 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:58,640 Here in the book of Romans the two key thoughts that fall under salvation are justification, 44 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:04,360 which we've defined as God declaring the believing sinner to be righteous in his eyes. 45 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:09,560 It's a legal declaration on the part of God. 46 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:19,240 And the word sanctification, justification and sanctification are included in salvation. 47 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:27,400 Whereas justification is God's legal declaration on behalf of the sinner trusting in Christ, 48 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:35,800 sanctification refers to the work of God whereby he makes the believer righteous in Christ. 49 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:42,200 It has to do with God's righteousness in the believer's experience. 50 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:49,960 Justification is the righteousness of God declared on behalf of the believing sinner. 51 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:59,120 Sanctification is the righteousness of God experienced in the life of the believing sinner. 52 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:04,880 Now while we do distinguish these two in definition it's important to know that they are not separated 53 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,780 in the mind of God. 54 00:04:07,780 --> 00:04:12,360 What God begins he will complete. 55 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:18,680 There are some who seem to have the idea that one can be saved, can be justified, and yet 56 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:20,600 never experience sanctification. 57 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:25,560 There's never a change or transformation in the life. 58 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:32,200 I find that strange to the word of God, which describes salvation as beginning with a legal 59 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:38,720 declaration on God's part and consummating one day when the believer will be fully changed 60 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:43,880 to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. 61 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:49,400 Chapter 6, where we begin this evening, does not so much begin a new section of the book 62 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:57,760 as it continues this flow of truth about salvation that was begun in chapter 3 and verse 21. 63 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,880 So even though there is a chapter division here it would be helpful if in your mind you 64 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:07,320 could block that out and just read from chapter 5 into chapter 6. 65 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:12,440 Some people in studying the book do see a parenthesis here. 66 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:17,280 They understand chapter 6 and 7 to be parenthetical. 67 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:23,640 Paul digressing for the moment regarding some questions that come to his mind about what 68 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:30,320 he's just said concerning the relationship between grace and sin. 69 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,100 Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. 70 00:05:34,100 --> 00:05:35,840 Some questions arise out of that. 71 00:05:35,840 --> 00:05:44,800 Paul deals with them and then he resumes in chapter 8, the victory of grace over sin. 72 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:53,880 There are two questions that come to the mind of particularly the Jew who listens to Paul 73 00:05:53,880 --> 00:06:00,480 say that grace super abounds over sin. 74 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:08,840 One question is, will not that notion, that idea that where our sin abounds, grace supersedes, 75 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:15,040 will not that notion lead to more sin? 76 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:20,480 If a little sin causes God's grace to be glorified, if I sin more, won't God's grace even be more 77 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:22,880 glorified? 78 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:27,040 Well Paul spends chapter 6 dealing with that. 79 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:32,840 Then a second question that a Jewish listener might have after listening to Paul at the 80 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:37,640 end of chapter 5 is, well why was the law given in the first place? 81 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:43,560 Paul says the law came in that transgression might increase. 82 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,320 We talked about the meaning of that briefly last time. 83 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:56,500 The thinking Jew hearing that would say, well if the law causes sin to increase, then that 84 00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:58,120 perverts the law, doesn't it? 85 00:06:58,120 --> 00:06:59,700 The law must be evil. 86 00:06:59,700 --> 00:07:04,000 Why did God give the law if it simply causes sin to increase? 87 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:11,500 So in chapter 7, at least in part, Paul speaks about the purpose of the law, the Old Testament 88 00:07:11,500 --> 00:07:18,520 law with its regulations and its requirements. 89 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:24,680 The theme then of chapters 6, 7, and 8 is the theme of sanctification. 90 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:30,200 We want tonight to talk about the basis for this doctrine in the Bible. 91 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:33,200 Sanctification, what is its basis? 92 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:38,960 The answer to it is that it's the same as for justification. 93 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,920 That is, Christ's death and resurrection. 94 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:50,900 Just as Christ's death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead provide the basis 95 00:07:50,900 --> 00:07:58,160 for God legally declaring us to be righteous in his eyes, so his death and resurrection 96 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:06,520 provide the basis whereby we can be made righteous in our lives, in the way that we live. 97 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:14,600 Our lifestyles can be transformed to be like Christ because of his death and resurrection, 98 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:20,160 and our union with him in death and resurrection. 99 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:25,280 When we understand that, we'll see that there are two significant truths that apply to our 100 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,480 lives because we are joined with Christ. 101 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:30,920 These are found in chapter 6 and in chapter 7. 102 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:38,400 The first significant truth is this, that we are now free from sin's domination. 103 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:40,040 Why? 104 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:44,620 Because we've died with Christ, we've been raised with him. 105 00:08:44,620 --> 00:08:49,720 The first significant truth that falls out of that is that we are therefore free from 106 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:55,800 sin's mastery, its domination, chapter 6. 107 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:59,880 The second significant truth that falls out of this truth of our union with Christ and 108 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:06,600 his death and resurrection is that we are free from the law's dominion. 109 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:12,880 No longer is it over us. 110 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:15,240 We are free from the law's dominion. 111 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:19,280 We'll understand something about that as we look at chapter 7. 112 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:21,120 Let's think about this first significant truth. 113 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:25,880 We are free from sin's domination. 114 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:32,800 When I say this, I want you to understand that I'm not saying that we can't sin now. 115 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:35,520 But what I'm saying is that we don't have to sin now. 116 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,940 There's a difference. 117 00:09:38,940 --> 00:09:44,600 When I say that we are free from sin's domination, I'm not saying that now we can't sin because 118 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:45,600 we can. 119 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:49,440 We all experience it, sadly but truly. 120 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:54,160 What I am saying is that we don't have to sin now. 121 00:09:54,160 --> 00:10:01,200 We don't have to obey sin because we are free from its mastery. 122 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:07,920 In verses 1 through 11 of chapter 6, he talks about what happened to us. 123 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:12,040 As you look through these verses, you find that the basic theme is that we have been 124 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:20,800 united with Jesus Christ in his death and in his resurrection. 125 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,400 God has done that. 126 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:31,600 He has united us to Christ so that when Christ died, I died and you died. 127 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:39,360 When Christ was raised from the dead, we also were raised from the dead. 128 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:44,160 That's not merely a theory or an idea. 129 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,360 That is a fact. 130 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:49,760 It is a fact. 131 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:55,920 Just as we were identified as we saw last week with Adam in sin, and when Adam sinned 132 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:00,120 in the garden, we sinned in Adam. 133 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:05,660 So now we are identified with Christ and when he died on the cross, we died in him and with 134 00:11:05,660 --> 00:11:07,320 him. 135 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:14,040 And when he was raised from the dead, we also, in him and with him, were raised from the 136 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,760 dead. 137 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:21,400 He says that the old man died. 138 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:30,440 Verse 6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. 139 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:41,600 That old self is the old person, the old identity, the old man that we were in Adam. 140 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:47,600 He says that old person that we were was crucified. 141 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:52,080 Not in theory, in fact. 142 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:57,880 And that old man, that old self that we were, died and is no more. 143 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,080 It's gone. 144 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:05,120 You and I do not have the old man in us today. 145 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:10,480 That is contrary to some Bible notes, including the Schofield Bible, in which I was weaned 146 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,680 as a young Christian. 147 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:20,640 But I do not believe that the old man, what we were in Adam, is still present in us. 148 00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:23,520 He says it was crucified. 149 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:29,640 And he says in verse 7, he who has died is freed from sin. 150 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:31,880 Christ died to sin on the cross. 151 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,960 We died with him to sin. 152 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:39,040 That is the we that we were in Adam. 153 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:43,400 And we were also raised with him. 154 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:48,920 He says in verse 5, or verse 4 rather, we have been buried with him through baptism 155 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:54,240 into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, 156 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:58,880 so we too might walk in newness of life. 157 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:03,160 If we become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in 158 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:08,040 the likeness of his resurrection. 159 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:12,440 Verse 10, the death that he, Christ died, he died to sin once for all. 160 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:14,540 The life that he lives, he lives to God. 161 00:13:14,540 --> 00:13:22,440 And so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 162 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:31,460 So what I was in Adam, that old self, was crucified with him on the cross. 163 00:13:31,460 --> 00:13:35,760 And it died when he breathed his last. 164 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,080 It died with him. 165 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:44,520 And when Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised with him as new people, new person. 166 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:49,080 New selves, new selves if you please. 167 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:54,320 We have a new identity, a new nature. 168 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,880 We are not what we were before. 169 00:13:57,880 --> 00:13:59,080 We are brand new people. 170 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:02,200 If any man be in Christ, he's a what? 171 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,080 A new creation. 172 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:09,600 Not old and new, mingled and mixed somehow, as though the old man and the new man dwelt 173 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:10,600 within us. 174 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,400 But the new man is here. 175 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:15,680 And you say, well what about sin? 176 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:17,640 We're going to get to that problem. 177 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:22,200 He said, there's still something inside of me that wants to do bad. 178 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:24,040 He talks about that in chapter 7. 179 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:29,560 But it's important to begin here to understand, to know in your mind and to reckon it true 180 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:36,880 in your heart that what you were in Adam is no longer. 181 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:41,680 It was put to death and executed with Christ. 182 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:49,880 And now in Jesus Christ you are a new person with a new nature, a new nature. 183 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:51,480 So what are we to do in light of this? 184 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:56,560 Well he spends the rest of the chapter talking about that, verses 12 through 23. 185 00:14:56,560 --> 00:15:01,480 And basically he says, now because of what's happened to you, because of the radical change 186 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:07,720 that has taken place, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should 187 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:11,440 obey its lusts. 188 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,040 He says, that's over. 189 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:19,360 Sin will still seek to try to dominate you if you let it. 190 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:23,360 So he says, don't let it do that anymore. 191 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:27,040 Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin. 192 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:28,760 You see, we can do that. 193 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:29,760 That's the implication. 194 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,600 But he says, don't do it. 195 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:39,960 But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as his instruments. 196 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,360 So that's what we're to do in light of what's happened to us. 197 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:49,960 We're to submit to our new master, our new king, who has freed us from the old master 198 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:50,960 sin. 199 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:59,920 And I repeat, it's not that we cannot sin, but it is that we don't have to sin. 200 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:07,880 We can choose to sin, but we are not any longer slaves to sin. 201 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,080 We are free from sin's dominion. 202 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:16,600 Now we have to move ahead to chapter 7 where we learn a second truth that's not unrelated 203 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:17,800 to what we just looked at. 204 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,880 He says, we are free from the law's dominion. 205 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:23,460 The law's dominion. 206 00:16:23,460 --> 00:16:29,240 That's the theme in chapter 7, the law, the mosaic law. 207 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:33,960 He describes again what happened to us, just like he did in chapter 6, verses 1 through 208 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:34,960 12. 209 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:35,960 What happened to us? 210 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:41,160 Well, we died with Christ to the law. 211 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:48,060 That law of God, which he says here was God's instrument, it was good and holy and righteous 212 00:16:48,060 --> 00:16:55,920 and so on, but which only because we were sinners stimulated our sin. 213 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,440 He says we've died to that law. 214 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,520 We're no longer under the law. 215 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:02,520 We've died to it. 216 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:03,680 We've been raised with Christ. 217 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:07,920 He compares it to a marriage union. 218 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:12,880 I would say that in verses 3 and 4 as he draws the analogy upon marriage, there are some 219 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:22,040 people who have taken what Paul says here and have made this seem as though it's the 220 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:28,360 only thing he's ever said about marriage and divorce and remarriage and so on. 221 00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:31,440 That's not even his theme here. 222 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:36,080 What he says here is true, but he's not really talking about divorce and remarriage. 223 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:37,080 Keep that in mind. 224 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:38,240 What's he talking about? 225 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:41,520 The death of a spouse. 226 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:43,560 He says your death to the law is like this. 227 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:49,680 Before you were a believer, you were married to the law. 228 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,080 It wasn't a very happy union. 229 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:58,720 In fact, it was a miserable union, not because the law was bad, but because you were bad. 230 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,360 The law is holy, but you were a sinner. 231 00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:06,800 The law did not have the capacity to make you righteous. 232 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:10,080 It could only aggravate and stimulate the sin that was in you. 233 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,120 It was a miserable union. 234 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:18,240 That law, which God counted as holy and righteous and good, brought you to death. 235 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:23,040 It could only condemn you because you were a sinner. 236 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:27,000 He says you died to that union. 237 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:35,760 He says when one dies in a marriage union, that union's over. 238 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,520 It's true, isn't it? 239 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:44,760 I know we like to think of marriage as being something that we'll enjoy forever, and I 240 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:50,800 think that we will know forever that we were united to the ones that we were in case of 241 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,600 multiple marriages where spouses die and a person is remarried. 242 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,560 I think that we'll have knowledge of that in heaven. 243 00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:03,400 There'll be something special there, but death ends marriage. 244 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,560 Death ends marriage. 245 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:09,240 We died in that old union. 246 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:10,240 We died with Christ. 247 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:11,460 It's over. 248 00:19:11,460 --> 00:19:14,800 We died to the law. 249 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:16,840 We were raised from the dead. 250 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,960 We were raised from the dead, and we married again. 251 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:29,560 This time we were united, as it were, in marriage to Christ, to Christ, and his spirit lives 252 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:30,560 within us. 253 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:32,020 That's what happened to us. 254 00:19:32,020 --> 00:19:38,200 We died to the law, and we rose to a new marriage, a new union, this time with Jesus Christ, 255 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:47,120 a happy marriage, a happy marriage, because we now in him are righteous as he is righteous, 256 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:53,200 and his spirit lives within us so that our lives are being transformed, sanctified. 257 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:59,600 God is doing his work in us so that we are progressively being made righteous in the 258 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:01,700 way that we live. 259 00:20:01,700 --> 00:20:06,000 It's a happy marriage, this one with Christ. 260 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,660 Now because of what happened to us, what are we to do? 261 00:20:09,660 --> 00:20:11,680 You may recognize the outline in chapter 7. 262 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,560 It's the same as chapter 6. 263 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:14,560 What happened to us? 264 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,640 Now what were to do? 265 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:17,640 What happened to us? 266 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:18,680 Now what were to do? 267 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:24,360 He talks about this in verses 13 through 25. 268 00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:26,120 He says, this has happened to you. 269 00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:33,800 You need to recognize, though, he says, that there is still a struggle with sin which persists 270 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:36,760 in your earthly bodies. 271 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:41,040 We come to a controversial text. 272 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:46,160 I don't know if there's any text in all of the Bible that's had more difference of opinion 273 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:52,600 than this paragraph that we're looking at right now, beginning with verse 13. 274 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:56,800 Is Paul talking here about himself or of someone else? 275 00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:01,000 Is he talking about a saved person, an unsaved person? 276 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,280 Is he talking about a spiritual Christian and a carnal Christian? 277 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,640 Who's he talking about in these verses? 278 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:20,760 Well, my understanding of the text, which is very close to right, I jest. 279 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:26,480 My understanding of the text, however, at this point is that the apostle Paul is talking 280 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:28,520 about his own experience. 281 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:31,440 He's not talking about somebody else. 282 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,760 This is autobiographical. 283 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:39,880 And I don't believe that Paul is contrasting here what he was before he was saved with 284 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:43,280 what he is now that he is saved. 285 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:49,960 I don't think he's talking to us about what happens when he's carnal and when he's spiritual. 286 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:56,520 I believe the apostle is describing to us what he experiences as a mature, spiritual 287 00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:00,480 man of God. 288 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:06,760 The kind of honest, transparent insight into what's happening inside of him that he describes 289 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:13,760 here, it seems to me, can only be the expression of a man who is walking with God and yet who 290 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:21,960 realizes though he is a new creature in Jesus Christ, he is a new man, he still has a struggle 291 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:23,960 with sin. 292 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:30,640 And he seeks to uncover the root of that and to explain it. 293 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:35,800 I wish I had time to really delve into these verses, but let me just point out to you what 294 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:37,400 he says in verse 15. 295 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:45,800 For that which I am doing, I do not understand. 296 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:53,820 For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 297 00:22:53,820 --> 00:22:56,400 Can you identify with that? 298 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:03,720 Does that seem like your life, at least on Monday mornings? 299 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,120 We can all identify with what Paul is saying here. 300 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:13,640 He says, but if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the law confessing 301 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:15,200 it's good. 302 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:21,880 So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. 303 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:27,280 Now basically Paul is going to repeat that series of thoughts two more times in the rest 304 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,360 of this chapter. 305 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:33,240 Let me just go to the conclusion that he draws here, which he draws three times. 306 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:41,480 Verse 17 says, no longer am I the one doing it, that is, the new I, who I am in Jesus 307 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:47,120 Christ, the new man, but he says it's sin which indwells me. 308 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:54,200 It's not that he's not taking responsibility for what happens, he is. 309 00:23:54,200 --> 00:24:01,740 But he's saying that it's not really the new I who does these things that displeases God. 310 00:24:01,740 --> 00:24:12,400 He says it really is sin that is still working in me, in that unredeemed part of me. 311 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:16,180 That's what he's talking about. 312 00:24:16,180 --> 00:24:23,960 He concludes by a cry that I think all of us have at least once or a thousand times 313 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:24,960 cried. 314 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:31,280 Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death, from this situation 315 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:32,740 that I'm in? 316 00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:40,680 He says thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, implication he's done it. 317 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,200 He has set me free. 318 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,360 Then he returns to the realistic situation he faces. 319 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:52,920 He says so then on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, desiring 320 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:59,800 to please God, on the other hand with my flesh the law of sin. 321 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,080 So he talks about some principles that are active in his life and that leads him into 322 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:10,440 chapter eight and it brings us to where we need to go here in a real hurry as we talk 323 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:17,920 about the blessings of sanctification in chapter eight. 324 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:24,920 He has just transparently related to us the struggle that as a redeemed person he has 325 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:31,880 with sin who still dwells in his body, which still dwells in his body. 326 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:42,520 And he says therefore now even in this present state that I'm in, therefore now even despite 327 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:49,040 the struggle that I have with sin, he says there is no condemnation for those who are 328 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:50,040 in Christ Jesus. 329 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,920 That's good news folks. 330 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,640 That's good news for us. 331 00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:02,640 The apostle says even now in the midst of the battle, though sin still dwells in my 332 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:09,480 flesh, that unredeemed part of me, though sin as a principle is still active in my life 333 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:17,580 and I choose from time to time to yield to it and to obey it rather than God. 334 00:26:17,580 --> 00:26:23,600 Even though all of that is true about me, he says, nonetheless now there is no condemnation 335 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,160 to those who are in Christ Jesus. 336 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,160 Good news. 337 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:34,080 It begins to unfold now blessings that come to us in this work of sanctification in our 338 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:35,080 lives. 339 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:40,760 In verses one to four he says there is a new principle. 340 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,720 He talks about the law of sin and death, verse two. 341 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,560 He's just described that law active in our lives. 342 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:53,440 But he says that law of sin and death has been superseded and overridden by another 343 00:26:53,440 --> 00:27:00,280 law that is also active in our members which he calls the law or the principle of the spirit 344 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,760 of life in Christ Jesus. 345 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:10,560 The law of sin and death is a pull away from God within us. 346 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:20,280 It is temptation to disobey God, to use our energies, our drives, our opportunities to 347 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:24,560 disobey the Lord, the law of sin and death. 348 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:29,560 He says there is another law that is within us that causes us to rise or can cause us 349 00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:36,840 to rise above that other law, the law of life in Christ Jesus and the spirit of life who 350 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:38,080 makes it real to us. 351 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:44,280 He says there is a new principle inside of you that's not in the unsaved person. 352 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:49,160 This has been compared and I will use the same analogy tonight to the law of gravity 353 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,360 which pulls us down. 354 00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:56,120 And we cannot break the law of gravity in our own strength but we can override it by 355 00:27:56,120 --> 00:28:04,220 employing a higher law, the law of aerodynamics. 356 00:28:04,220 --> 00:28:10,640 We can rise above the law of gravity and fly even though gravity is pulling down because 357 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:17,160 the law of aerodynamics can override the law of gravity. 358 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:23,760 And so he says the law of the principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is within 359 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:33,060 us and that principle can enable us to live above the law of sin and death that drags 360 00:28:33,060 --> 00:28:34,320 us down. 361 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:38,920 One of the blessings of sanctification is that we have this new principle that is active 362 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:39,920 in our lives. 363 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,760 The second blessing is a new position. 364 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:50,200 Verses 5 through 9, the first part of it, he contrasts here those who are in the flesh 365 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:56,900 who cannot please God with those who are in the spirit who do please God. 366 00:28:56,900 --> 00:28:59,200 We have a new position. 367 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:07,280 We are now in the spirit, not in the flesh any longer. 368 00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:12,440 We must move ahead to the third blessing and that is a new person beginning in verse 9 369 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,320 through verse 17. 370 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,640 It's the Holy Spirit. 371 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:25,140 He says the spirit of Christ dwells in us and as such he indwells us, he promises things 372 00:29:25,140 --> 00:29:32,360 to us, he empowers us, he leads us, he encourages us, and he witnesses to us. 373 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:38,160 That sentence is a summation of all of this wonderful paragraph about the blessing of 374 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:42,560 the spirit, the person who lives in us. 375 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:48,060 A fourth blessing of sanctification is found in verses 18 through 25. 376 00:29:48,060 --> 00:29:52,680 We have a new prospect. 377 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:59,080 Before the only prospect we had was death and condemnation and hell and separation from 378 00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:00,080 God. 379 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:08,320 But now we have a new prospect and that prospect in one word is glory. 380 00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:15,720 Glory is the hope of the natural creation which shares the condemnation with us in sin. 381 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:21,360 He says the natural creation actually groans waiting for the revelation of the sons of 382 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:26,400 God so they can share in the release that we found in Christ. 383 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:34,240 A release by the way that it will know to measure in the millennium when Christ reigns. 384 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:41,920 And he says not only does the natural creation hope for glory, but he says the new creation, 385 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,480 you and me, we also hope for glory. 386 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:45,800 We're made for that hope. 387 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,300 We're saved for that hope of glory. 388 00:30:49,300 --> 00:30:50,300 What is glory? 389 00:30:50,300 --> 00:30:52,120 Well, it's being like Christ. 390 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,220 It's the end of sanctification. 391 00:30:55,220 --> 00:31:01,880 Right now sanctification is a process in our lives whereby God is changing us step by step, 392 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,040 little by little to be like him. 393 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:08,840 One day we will reach glory where we'll be perfect. 394 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:14,280 We'll be exactly like the Lord Jesus, the new prospect. 395 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:18,120 We have to move ahead to the fifth of the blessings of sanctification. 396 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:23,520 It is a new purpose, verses 26 through 30. 397 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:24,520 What is the new purpose? 398 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:33,840 It is this, that God is working in every situation we encounter in life for our good. 399 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:34,960 And what is that good? 400 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,400 That we be like Jesus. 401 00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:39,760 That's what we're called to. 402 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:47,400 And he says God has purposed, he's taken several actions described in verses 29 and 30, which 403 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:52,000 mean altogether that God's ultimate good for us will one day be realized. 404 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,240 We will be glorified. 405 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,160 We'll be like Christ. 406 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:01,920 All things even now though work together for this good to those who love God and who are 407 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,920 called according to that ultimate purpose. 408 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:08,080 We have this new purpose. 409 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:15,760 And finally he says our sixth blessing that we have from sanctification is a new protection. 410 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,240 A new protection. 411 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,240 He says that God is for us here. 412 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:24,080 God is for us, not against us. 413 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,360 God's on our side. 414 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,800 God's with us. 415 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,120 God's not our enemy anymore. 416 00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:33,080 There's no more hostility with God. 417 00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:34,080 That issue is settled. 418 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,680 We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 419 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,680 And so now we have a protection from him. 420 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,560 He delivered up his son for us, verse 32. 421 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,960 He declared us righteous, verse 33. 422 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:54,240 He received our advocate, Christ, into his presence, verse 34. 423 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:59,000 He assures us of victory, verses 35 through 37. 424 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:03,140 And he secures our position, verses 38 and 39. 425 00:33:03,140 --> 00:33:06,720 We have a new protection. 426 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:10,000 What a blessing God has given to us. 427 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:19,560 And so in the brief and acknowledged superficial overview of these chapters tonight, I hope 428 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:25,120 you can see the flow that the apostle is presenting to us. 429 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:30,140 Salvation includes justification and sanctification. 430 00:33:30,140 --> 00:33:37,200 He says the basis of our sanctification, that is God's work making us like Jesus, is that 431 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,960 we're united with Christ. 432 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,920 We're being one with him in his death and resurrection. 433 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:44,800 We are free from sin. 434 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:46,880 We're no longer slaves to it. 435 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:48,440 We don't have to obey it. 436 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:57,800 We may choose to do so, but rather we ought to present ourselves to God as his servants. 437 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,480 He says because of our union with Christ in death and resurrection, we're free from the 438 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:02,480 law. 439 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,240 We're in a new marriage now with Christ. 440 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,640 Right in the midst of that marriage, we still have a struggle with sin that dwells in our 441 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,560 flesh, in our mortal bodies. 442 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:15,080 It's active there as a principle. 443 00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:17,520 But he says God is working in you. 444 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:19,360 He's put a new principle inside of you. 445 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:21,840 He's given you a new person. 446 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,360 And you have a new prospect of glory. 447 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,600 And God is going to finish one day what he's begun. 448 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:33,620 And you're going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ in every respect, not just legally, 449 00:34:33,620 --> 00:34:35,360 but truly in every way. 450 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,760 You're going to be like God's Son. 451 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:45,280 And so we have the truth of sanctification. 452 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:51,680 The relationship between God and the believer can be summarized in the word salvation. 453 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:57,660 Salvation includes both justification and sanctification. 454 00:34:57,660 --> 00:35:02,500 Salvation is based upon a radical change that has taken place. 455 00:35:02,500 --> 00:35:13,780 We have a new union and a new identification with Christ that has given us a new destiny 456 00:35:13,780 --> 00:35:15,760 and a new relationship with God. 457 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,680 We are new creatures in Christ. 458 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:24,520 I'd like for us to sing about this. 459 00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,240 It's hard to find a hymn that encapsulates all that we've talked about tonight, so I've 460 00:35:28,240 --> 00:35:33,160 just selected one that takes one piece of it, one aspect of the truth. 461 00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,960 It's New Life in Christ, and it's hymn 537. 462 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:42,360 It talks about what wondrous blessings I see. 463 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:48,640 My past with its sin, the searching and strife forever gone. 464 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:53,160 There's a bright new dawn, for in Christ I have found new life. 465 00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:58,320 That's really what he's talking about in this wonderful section of Romans as he explains 466 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:00,560 the believer's relationship to God. 467 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:04,880 Let's sing about it in the first verse and chorus of 537. 468 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,880 Stand with me please. 469 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:17,000 Gone is the guilt of my sin. 470 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:24,860 For I have found new life. 471 00:36:24,860 --> 00:36:34,480 hide from it and I shall make rot.