Know Your Enemy: The Body of Sin and Death Is Dead | Romans 6:1-7

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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And so, as you can see from the sermon title, it's actually a gospel promise.

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The sermon title is a gospel promise. It's know your enemy. The body of sin and death is dead.

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That is a promise from God. It is a guarantee from God's grace.

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Because this mortal body of sin and death is the flesh, and it is dead because of Him, because of our all -powerful

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Savior, Christ Jesus. The flesh no longer has dominion power over us.

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And like the folks used to say, we shall overcome through God's means.

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We shall overcome. This sermon is actually,

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I have a new label for this sermon. It's a sermon of recantations, you might call it.

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Not a while back, I preached a reactionary sermon, which is similar to what you find in a lot of the books of the

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Bible, reacting to certain issues and responding to them. But this, I do have a few clarifications and corrections to make.

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So I want to first start out by saying, correcting in my last sermon, when

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I mentioned that the Plymouth Brethren, which is a false, they have a lot of false teachings, originated in London.

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And I meant England, but it didn't actually originate in England. It came from Dublin, Ireland, and then spread to England in the port city of Plymouth shortly thereafter.

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So that's why they're called the Plymouth Brethren. So I wanted to clear that up.

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And then I also previously said that we need balance when we are systematizing these book and doctrines that I've been preaching about, such as the flesh and regeneration and all those doctrines that we have to hold in proper balance and properly relating to each other.

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But the truth is that we actually acquire balance.

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We gain balance, we achieve balance and spiritual maturity by systematizing the book and doctrines of Scripture consistently.

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That is how we obtain balance and maturity. So I want to make sure that's very clear.

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How do we mature in the faith? How do we grow in the faith? We systematize our understanding of the

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Word of God. We understand what the Bible says and what it teaches. And we have a sound system of doctrine that doesn't have imbalances or superficial imbalances in these important matters, these doctrines that we are discussing today, that I'm preaching about today.

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And this is because the infallible rule, the infallible rule of interpreting

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Scripture is the Scripture itself. That's otherwise known as the analogy of Scripture.

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And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any

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Scripture, which is not and cannot be contradictory, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly and harmonized logically, contextually, and intertextually into a system of doctrine, into that standard of sound words, like 1

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Timothy says, which is otherwise known as the analogy of faith. That's the analogy of faith.

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These hermeneutical principles are very important, and I'm going to be using them quite a bit today, as I normally do.

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But, so we must continue to test all things with the whole counsel of God, the whole systematized counsel of God, even when they come from those who claim to be

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Reformed, those who claim to be in our camp, in order to prevent us from becoming imbalanced, from showing partiality, from boasting in the flesh and in mere men, from following cults of personality or cults of a leader, and adopting their unbiblical biases.

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That's based on what 1 Corinthians also says, chapter 1 and 3. This problem that the carnal and fleshly

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Corinthians had is guaranteed. It is guaranteed to reoccur in immature believers and churches where historic, okay, that's a key word, historic sound doctrine is not prioritized.

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It needs to be the priority in a church and in our own lives to have sound doctrine.

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That's the foundation for everything else. That grounds all other things, because everything that we do, think, say, is based on what we understand to be true, what we believe to be true.

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Historic, and I said historic because it has been handed down to us by faithful men of old that God has ordained and called to the work of the ministry, pastors and teachers and evangelists and so on.

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It is the historic teaching of the church that is why the word of God says that the church is the pillar.

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It is the pillar and buttress of the truth of God's word. It preserves

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God's word in society unto the next generation and our current generation.

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So we are supposed to diligently participate in all the means of God's grace and be edified by the whole body of Christ, by the whole body, not just by one or two, not just by your favorite preacher or teacher.

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That's not how it's supposed to work. But by the faithful testimony of all the wise, mature believers, especially, especially the pastors and teachers that God has blessed his church with and the soundest and most consistent of which stem from the

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Reformed faith. That is why I'm always trying to bring up and quote these men to share with you all good resources and good sound doctrine and teaching from men of old, because they are worth gleaning from and learning from and growing from.

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That is what God uses. He uses means to instruct us. He doesn't just reveal things to us by osmosis or by visions.

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That's not ordinarily how God works. Ordinarily, God works through means and he works through teachers and pastors that are not necessarily alive today.

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Very important. And in fact, if if a pastor today is not showing his connection, his ties to the historic church, that's a dangerous sign because there needs to be shown the

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Christian church is supposed to be able to demonstrate a continuation of the church that Christ started, that officially that he officially established in the book of Acts.

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There needs to be a demonstration of that church, not the way the Church of Rome teaches that, oh, well, it's through the pope.

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It's through the magisterium. That's false. There is no papacy in the

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New Testament unless you consider Diotrephes, who, again, was a very bad guy.

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If anybody, he was the proto pope. So we demonstrate our continuation with the historic church through the sound pattern of words, the standard of sound words that have been passed down, the faithful body of teaching and instruction and doctrine.

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That is how we know a true church from a false church that preaches the word faithfully and teaches it faithfully, administers the sacraments faithfully of the

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Lord's Supper and baptism and administers church discipline as well.

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Very important to have all of these things in mind. So now,

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OK, so all of that being said, recall now that the beginning of Romans 6, our text for today, it can be a challenge to determine when

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Paul is speaking physically or literally or spiritually and figuratively.

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And R .C. Sproul, himself a reformed theologian, has even admitted to sometimes changing views in the middle of his studies when he's when he's dealing with this passage.

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So, you know, what's the big deal here? Well, we're going to we're going to see what the big deal is. But I do think that some commentators have a tendency to over -spiritualize sometimes and over -complicate what

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Paul means by the terms that he uses and which relate to the flesh, like the mortal body, the members of the body, the body of sin and death, etc.

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And take careful note of this dynamic, OK, as we seek to juggle that balance.

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OK, what is he is he speaking literally physical body or is he speaking in a more generic, broader sense, figuratively?

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Very important to keep that in mind. And it will be relevant throughout the entire sermon today.

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Because so whenever we deal with any text, no matter how simple or how difficult it may be, we need to exercise the fundamental analogies of scripture and of faith, the ones

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I just mentioned and defined earlier and the law gospel distinction as well.

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Those are fundamental keys to rightly interpreting the Bible. When you read scripture to have these principles in mind, knowing when a passage is a law, a command, an imperative, do and live or gospel, it is done, it is finished.

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Christ has promised to us all things in him and through him and to him because all things are in and through and to him and for him.

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So indicatives versus imperatives, very important to understand those principles that I preached on in the past before as well.

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Now, I want to back up to Romans chapter five again, verse 20, so we can get the background and then lead into the passage for today again.

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Romans chapter five, verse 20. If you turn with me there, Romans chapter five and verse 20.

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Now, the law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

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May it never be. How shall we who die to sin?

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Note that past tense still live in it. How do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. Mark those words so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we, too, might walk in newness of life.

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For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

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So this is an amazing passage that is so full of so much incredible truth and powerful doctrine here that I really want to unpack carefully.

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I'm really excited to dig into this today. And if so, if Paul wasn't clear enough here about the reality that we are not to continue in sin,

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John Calvin, the great reformer of Geneva, packs a powerful punch for us in his commentary when he refers to the apostle

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Paul's indignant negative. That's the may it never be, not ever be

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God forbid, which was meant to impress on the minds of Paul's readers that nothing can be more inconsistent than that the grace of Christ, the repairer of our righteousness, should nourish our vices, our sins.

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That that it would feed our sins, it would be a most strange inversion of the work of God and of the truth were sin to gather strength on account of the grace which is offered to us in Christ.

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Why? For medicine is not a feeder of the disease. Which it is supposed to destroy.

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Amen. And so grace is the medicine to sin.

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It heals sin. It destroys sin. Why would why would grace encourage sin when it's the healing bomb that destroys the power of sin and heals us from it and breaks us from sin?

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It makes no sense. Now, of course, if in this fallen world, there is such a thing as bad medicine, right?

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There's even a song about it. Right. I think I had some bad medicine and you want to and the world has been abused with bad medicine and bad vaccines like this

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COVID, this wicked COVID vaccine that had nothing but a vile agenda behind it to try to control and scare and fear monger and hurt and kill people.

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We need to be discerning. But Paul here or Calvin here is illustrating a very simple reality that God's grace is the only medicine that can heal us from our problem of condemnation of sin and of guilt, condemnation of the law, which we will dig into a little bit further.

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We are indeed dead to sin, brothers and sisters. Know that, know that and embrace that and know what it means.

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Romans six. If we continue on reading in Romans six, verse six, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, past tense, in order that our body of sin might be done away with.

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It's done with it's dead so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

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OK, there is your answer. There is your definition. That is what it means to be dead to sin.

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And it means that we are no longer in bondage to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin.

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For he who has died has been justified, has been set free from the power or bondage of sin.

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Therein is our answer. Therein lies our hope.

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Therein lies the greatest answer from the great physician is that Christ has killed sin in the body of sin, nailing our sins to the cross so that we could die to sin, be buried with him in baptism and be brought back to life in regeneration through the spirit of God.

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So notice how many doctrines we have to balance and we have to keep interlocked and connect.

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This is the system of doctrine that the Bible teaches that we need to understand properly, that we need to have a mature, a full understanding of.

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And I really appreciate, consequently, Louis Burkhoff's insightful definition of the old man from his most excellent systematic theology.

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Again, I bring him up because I highly encourage you all to read him.

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As you can find his works online for free. Highly recommend that you read Burkhoff's systematic theology.

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Excellent, excellent theologian. And his definition complements what we have learned thus far, including what we've learned from other theologians like the great

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John Owen, the eminent John Owen. And we will examine this shortly a little bit more later.

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I'm going to. This is what Burkhoff says. The mortification of the old man, the body of sin, this scriptural term denotes that act of God, whereby the pollution and corruption of human nature that results from sin is gradually removed.

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It is gradually removed. That's what was happening in sanctification. We gradually die more and more to the old man and we to sin and live more and more unto righteousness.

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It is often represented in the Bible as crucifying as the crucifying of the old man and is thus connected with the death of Christ on the cross.

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The listen to this, the old man, the old man is human nature insofar as it is controlled by sin.

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The old man is human nature insofar as it is controlled by sin.

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OK, very important definition. Excellent definition in the content.

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And Burkhoff continues in the context of the passage of Galatians, Paul contrast the works of the flesh and the works of the spirit and then says, and they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh past tense, just like we saw in Romans with the passions and the lusts thereof.

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This means that in their case, in the case of believers, the spirit of God has now gained predominance, mastery.

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We have a new master and it is the spirit of God. Hardy, amen to that.

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This is a very concise yet powerful definition. OK, note that well in your mind, in your spirit, the old man is human nature insofar as it is controlled by sin.

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OK, very important. Remember also to meditate on these important questions that we've been seeking to answer throughout the series on the flesh.

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What is the source and seed of corruption in man? And the extent, the influence, the dominion and the power of the flesh, especially in regenerated born again believers, the flesh.

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Note again, the flesh is no longer our master because it is dead to us as believers.

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The old man was crucified. This body of sin and death is done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

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Of course, this does not mean that we are physically dead, OK? It doesn't mean that we're physically dead. Obviously, we're not physically dead.

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It means that our flesh, which includes the whole man, but especially our physical bodies and sense bodies and senses, it primarily means our body and senses, though it's still that still affects our mind, our spirit.

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So the fleshing, in a sense, still touches everything, every part of us. But nevertheless, it is no longer our master, because when

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God regenerates us, when he makes us new creations, like 2nd

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Corinthians says, he spiritually buries us in the spirit with Christ.

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And therefore breaks us free from the bondage of sin and death, making us spiritually dead to sin.

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OK, in this case, Paul is addressing Paul is addressing our former slavery to our former master sin.

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That was our former master, the world, the flesh, the devil sin, which which is broken by God's regenerating baptism of death to sin with Christ.

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Baptism is extremely powerful. Now, the work or the act of baptism itself does not save it, does not do anything magical, but baptism is a powerful symbol of what

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God does spiritually in us, which results in physical, real change, real spiritual and physical change because it breaks us free.

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It's a regenerating baptism of death in order to be alive in Christ. We must first die so that we may be freed from the bondage of our old master.

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That is why we were buried with Christ in baptism to death.

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Paul then explains later on in Romans seven, the same this same exact principle of slavery and death with respect to the law of God and the covenant of marriage.

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OK, very important. Turn with me there now to Romans seven, Romans seven, verse one,

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Romans seven, verse one, God's word says, or do you not know, brothers, for I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is master, the law.

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Note that the law is master over a person as long as he lives, as long as he lives.

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There is the principle for the married woman has been bound by law under the law, bound by it, obligated to it, to her husband while the husband is living.

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But if her husband dies, OK, there you go again. There we see again principle of life and the principle of death.

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There's a there's a transaction there. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law, she is justified from the obligation of the law concerning the husband.

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So then if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.

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Because she is still under the obligation of the law of marriage to her current husband.

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That is adultery. She is still bound and still accountable to the law in that regard.

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But if her husband dies, she is free from the obligation of the law because of her husband's death.

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It breaks that obligation, that covenant. It fulfills it in a way, in a sense, so that she is not an adulteress, though she be joined to another man in marriage so she can remarry if the previous husband dies.

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So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the law, how?

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Through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another.

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We were previously joined to the law and the obligation of the law, which we could not fulfill.

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But now, because Christ, through his body of death, through his the death of his body, of this person, we can now be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead and paid that penalty of sin.

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What are the wages of sin? They are death. The wages of sin is death in order that we might live in righteousness, die to sin, but live in righteousness and bear fruit to God.

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For while we were, past tense, in the flesh, under the dominion and power of the flesh, under the enslavement and bondage of the flesh, the sinful passions of the flesh, which were aroused by the law, they were provoked by the law, having died to that by which we were constrained or obligated so that we serve.

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Well, I'm sorry, I think I missed I skipped a verse there. Having died to that by which we were constrained so that we.

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Yes, now we have been released from the law, but now we have been released from the law having died to that by which we were constrained.

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We were bound so that we serve. Notice the language we serve.

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We serve. We are slaves. We remain slaves, but now we serve in the newness of the spirit of life and not in the oldness of the condemnation of the guilt of the letter of the law.

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In the newness of the spirit of life and of righteousness, of truth.

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As opposed to the guilt and the condemnation of the law that brought that it brought upon us because we are guilty sinners, born sinners in Adam and by virtue of our own sins as well, personal sin.

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Notice how Paul here, OK, pay very close attention. How Paul here is tying together several threads, weaving several layers, several threads into a system of doctrine that we need to understand and know the law of God.

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The principle of slavery. And of having only one master.

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Just like remember what Christ said, no one can serve two masters for either he will love the one and hate the other or he will despise the one and be cling to the other.

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This same principle is being illustrated here with what Romans is saying.

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Same exact principle. You are slave to either sin and death, the world, the flesh and the devil, or to Christ.

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Righteousness, life and truth. And once you are alive in Christ, you must first die to your old master because you cannot have two masters.

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That is what the spirit, the regenerating power of that spiritual baptism that God gives us, the baptism of spirit.

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A fire now. The law of God, the principle of slavery and of having only one master, the death notice the death, the principle of death, which releases us.

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It frees us from the obligation, from the condemnation of the law and from the bondage of our sinful passions, of the flesh, of sin and death.

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That is how sin operates in us through the flesh, which were at odds with the law, which were against the law.

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They are diametrically opposed to each other. They war against each other. Because no slave, like Christ said, can serve two masters.

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And thereby we become united in a new union, in a new marriage.

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And new slavery, we die to our old marriage to sin. And death, we were married to it, we were in bondage to it, enslaved to it, but now we are dead to that.

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Christ has killed us by killing our sin and nailing it to the tree, to the cross.

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And spiritually put us to death and rebirthed us through the spirit and his son, through faith alone.

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So this is really important to have a good grasp of.

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And this is an incredibly powerful, incredibly powerful principles that the

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Bible here is instructing us with. It's so important that because those two are clearly contrasted with each other and we are now in, we are now serving

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God, right? We now have received new life because we previously died to our old master, sin.

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And now we have received new life, regeneration, that is new life, a renewed nature, renewed desires, a renewed peripateo, a renewed lifestyle, a renewed walk, renewed desires, thoughts, words, actions, all now seek to conform to the will of God, to his word, because we are now married to Christ.

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We are now the body of Christ. And we serve Christ, we serve God, our new master in the newness of the spirit, as opposed to the previous masters of sin and death and the condemnation of the law, the bondage of the law.

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Now, that's not to say that the law is evil because Paul addresses that later on as well.

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The law is good. The law simply provoked what was already evil in us because we are not good.

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Unbelieving sinners are not good. Therefore, when the law comes, it exposes their evil.

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It uncovers their sin. It exposes it. And so that's why Paul says, when sin, when

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I understood the law, sin became alive in me and I died. I died to righteousness because I cannot serve

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God while I'm still alive to sin. So they're very important.

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Remember also the question that I posed before you in the previous weeks went up after a believer dies.

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Does he or she continue to sin? Remember, that's very important. This is where a lot of people will get confused and they overcomplicate things in the

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Bible and in the flesh. What does the flesh mean and the inner man and all this stuff? This is very simple to understand.

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Once we die, once our body is dead, physically dead, our spirit will no longer sin because we are freed from the body of sin and death.

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That is what still holds us or connects us to the law of sin.

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Very simple. This is a very simple thing. Just ask yourself that question.

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We will no longer sin after we die. If we are believers, that is. If you're an unbeliever, you're going to hell and you're staying there because you can't do anything but sin.

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Right, so we that's the only through Christ, the only way you can be delivered from that bondage, from that mastery of sin and death, hell and the condemnation of the law of God's wrath because of the law has been the violation.

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The law has been violated and you have broken the covenant. Of works that Adam also broke is by Christ alone.

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All of this comes together. It is all by, through, in and for Christ and through and for us as well.

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We as the beneficiaries, all of it is a picture of the glory and power of Christ's perfect life and death.

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All of it, his active and passive obedience, it is an amazing picture of what God has done for us.

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Just amazing. So. Now, when remember again, when

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God regenerates us, he implants in us a new disposition.

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All of these new thoughts, new desires, habits, words, behaviors, he causes us to obey increasingly more and more.

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More and more, it is all encompassing. That is why Paul says, remember.

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Because if anyone, if anyone, any that means everybody without exception, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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Behold, there is a visible change. You will be visibly in interior, in the interior and in the exterior, conformed increasingly to the image of his awesome son, our new

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Lord, our savior and our new Lord and master, Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Amen. We are therefore no longer slaves to sin.

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We are no longer under the bondage of sin since we are saved and forgiven by God's grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone, understanding and agreeing with this gospel, what

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Christ has done for us in his life and in his death. And the resurrection, which has is the proof of everything he said is true, is guaranteed by his word.

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Through faith alone, we have received the whole Christ, the whole

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Christ, not a partial Christ in which we are saved, but oh, we're still slaves to sin.

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No, that that that makes that that is such a false, distorted picture of the reality that Paul here is explaining in Romans.

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It is a complete aberration of what he is laying out here.

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So many principles, one over the other death, the principles of death, of the law, of slavery, of bondage, of mastery.

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All of these things tied together. And you can't you can't compromise any one of them, it'll fall apart.

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They all are a cohesive, united system that is logically coherent because it is the truth of God's mind revealed to us in his word.

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So we have the whole

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Christ. This is something that I touched on in the Lordship Salvation classes as well, because you have very perverted doctrines of salvation, like like the free grace movement that says, oh, well, you can believe, but then you're not necessarily you don't have to necessarily make

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Christ your Lord and submit to him and obey him. It's like that that that doesn't even exist.

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You are denying the word of God when you say that you are a believer and yet you are still a slave to sin and you are not a slave to Christ.

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It makes no sense. The Bible is black and white here.

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You are a slave to one and free from the other or you are married to one and dead to the other.

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Black and white. We have to make sure that we have the right master.

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Amen. That is why we must examine ourselves, because our master will conform us.

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He will work in us. And yes, we must cooperate to receive God's means of grace, to be sanctified by his means of grace.

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But Christ's sheep hear his voice. We will hear the voice of our master.

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He will guide us into all truth through his means and through his word. Amen. So God breaks the power.

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He breaks the power and dominion of sin and of the flesh in our lives as believers, because he foreknew us.

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He predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son.

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And so if we are believers and we are enslaved to his son and we are conformed to the image of a son, it follows that we will be more like his son in every thought, in every word and every deed.

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We will be more and more increasingly like him, like his perfect son. Not perfectly, of course, but increasingly in conformity to his son.

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And because he called us, remember, many are called, like Jesus said, but few are chosen.

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God is the one that chooses us. God, why? Why does God have to choose us?

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We just read it. God chooses us. This verse makes so much more sense once we understand these foundational doctrines, because God has to call us, because when we are dead in sin, when we are alive in our sin and dead to righteousness, we cannot heed to the master,

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Christ Jesus, because our master is still sin. We can't submit to the

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Lordship and to faith in Christ. Unless and until the power and the bondage of sin is broken and the guilt of the law, the condemnation of the law, the mastery of the law that it has over us as a perfect standard, which we violate every day, unless that is broken through the healing gospel of Christ and what he did for us through for us.

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And trusting in that alone and in nothing else, only then, only then got excited that I lost my place for a bit.

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OK, only then does he also he justifies us.

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He justified us in Christ. Freely by his grace, through his son, he sanctified past tense and sanctifies us present tense.

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He glorified us past tense and will glorify us from the glorious chapter of Romans eight, verses twenty nine to 30.

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That is an awesome golden chain of redemption. That is what we must understand, beloved.

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We must understand like that that great hymn says. He speaks, he speaks.

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Yeah, especially through his gospel and listening to his voice, new life, the dead receive a dead man cannot do anything, a dead man cannot choose anything.

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He is already bound to sin. But new life, the dead received through the through the the the speaking of the gospel, through the voice of the master, the mournful broken hearts rejoice.

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The humble poor believe because God is the one who gives life.

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God is the one who gives us life, who chooses us and who regenerates us and justify all that glorious chain.

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That's another memory verse right there. Every one of us should be memorizing this verse, that passage in Romans chapter eight.

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Highly encourage that the memory to memorize memorize that passage and we will cover it later on.

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This is why knowing and understanding this better, I hope we cannot overemphasize the power and extent of the flesh in the life of believers, especially like what we saw in the reformed tradition of those men, even the men who are very sound, very well known men of renown like Spurgeon and and those other men like Rutherford.

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And even an Edward Edwards as well. We have to be careful not to say what's not real.

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The reality is, is that the power and the dominion of sin is permanently broken.

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It is permanently broken. And now, by God's spirit, we are enabled to live on to righteousness.

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Amen to that. Amen. So we cannot also, however, overcorrect our understanding of the flesh and of regeneration by thinking that we receive a new nature when we are saved and converted by God.

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God, remember, God does not give us a new nature. OK, that would mean we would no longer be human.

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We are still humans who have a human nature. He renews our nature.

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He restores our nature, our existing nature, according to his image, according to the image of his son that he is now conforming us to because he has now become our master.

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Amen. So now, with that said, I really hope that this makes more sense now, and I was so amazed and so excited to share this today because it is just such a powerful, it is a powerful foundational set of principles that we have to understand in order to understand the word of God.

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This requires these principles are so basic and so foundational, you see here the entire principles laid out of sin, of bondage, of mastery, of condemnation and of guilt.

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This is law and gospel right here. This is law and gospel. The law condemns, the law is death, sin is death, the gospel frees us, the voice of Christ, the gospel of Christ, the word of Christ frees us and gives us life because it is the power of God unto salvation that gives us the regenerating baptism of death so that we must die first to our old master and then be brought to life.

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That is why the law and gospel principle distinction is such an incredibly important dynamic.

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It is such an important principle because it likewise contrasts the law and the gospel and how they, yes, they complement each other, but they also show the stark consequences of one and the other.

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Whereas one condemns, the other saves, one condemns to death, the other brings righteousness to eternal life.

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This is what we have to understand. And I will, we will, we'll go ahead and close out here.

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I did want to cover some important things to clarify some important things regarding John Owen, but we'll go ahead and cover that for next week.

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I hope that we've really internalized, that we really learned to internalize these biblical principles.

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They are so important. And that's why I'm so excited to continue preaching through Romans 6 and 7 and 8.

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It is going to be an incredibly edifying, powerful process to really imbibe this truth and apply it to our lives and understand it and apply it to our lives, because this is how we will deal with our mortal enemy, our biggest enemy, the flesh.

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It all boils down to the flesh, that flesh of ours is what still entices us and enables us to be, to seek that, to seek to be under bondage, back into bondage to sin and to the world and to the devil.

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That is why we have to be careful to crucify the flesh and to mortify the flesh. So, yes, even though we've died to sin, we will later on next in the next

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Lord's Day, Lord willing, see how this is a principle that we still need to walk out in this new life, in this new abitus, this new peripateo.

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We still need to walk that out through the means of God's grace, through God's means of grace.

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Amen. And then with that in mind, let's go ahead and close out with a word of prayer. Our gracious, all powerful, almighty and unchanging

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God. You, Lord, are such an amazing God of promise that you have given us so many amazing blessings, every blessing, every single blessing that you have given us all in and through Christ, Lord.

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We are so grateful for your grace and your mercy and your glorious gospel, which has set us free,

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Lord, from the bondage of sin and death, from the bondage and condemnation of the law and your wrath.

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Lord, we ask that you help us to embrace this truth, to truly understand, know and accept this truth as true in our lives,

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Lord, to believe the gospel and to embrace the gospel and to walk out the results of that fruit of repentance in our lives, just like the apostle says in your word that how can we who have already died to sin and the power and bondage of sin continue in sin, living in sin when we now have been dead and risen to a newness of life in the newness of your spirit,

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Lord, help us to internalize these amazing, precious truths, Father God, and to continue to walk this out and to really have the conviction,

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Lord, to seek to continue to participate in your means of grace, which is so important for us to grow in our lives and to be edified and sanctified by your means of grace or by the preaching of your word, by faithful attendance in a sound church worship on the

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Lord's day and in the other means of grace that you've given us through prayer, through the word, through the sacrament and through other

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Bible studies and fellowship, Lord, that we can also take advantage of and should take advantage of, Lord, help us to take advantage of these things,

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Lord, help us to embrace these things and to be there for one another, to bear one another's burdens, Father, help us to walk out in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the condemnation of the letter of the law,

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Lord, thank you, Father, we ask these things in Jesus' precious name, amen.

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Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the Bible alone and the

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Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

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Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

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