The Unconverted “Believer” (21): The Christian’s Struggle with Sin. 07/18/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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And this morning's New Testament reading is Acts 25 and Dave error will come and read for us and then pray

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Acts 25 The Apostle Paul is on his way to Rome being escorted

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Of course by the Roman government all according to God's providence for he would bear witness to the gospel there in Caesar's Palace Please turn with me to Acts 25

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Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province He went up to Jerusalem for us from Caesarea and the chief priests and the principal men of the

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Jews Laid out their case against Paul and they urged him asking as a favor against Paul that he summoned him to Jerusalem because they were planning to Planning an ambush to kill him on the way

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Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea that he himself intended to go there shortly

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So said he let the men of authority among you go down with me

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And if there be anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him

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After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days He went down to Caesarea and The next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered

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Paul to be brought And when he arrived the Jews who had calmed down from Jerusalem stood around him bringing many and serious charges against them

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That they could not prove Paul argued in his defense

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Neither against the law of the Jews nor against the temple nor against Caesar have

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I committed any offense but Festus Wishing to do the

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Jews a favor said to Paul Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?

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But Paul said I'm standing before Caesar's tribunal where I ought to be tried

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To the Jews I have done. No wrong as you yourselves know very well

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If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die.

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I Do not seek to escape death But if there is nothing in their charges against me

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No one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar Then Festus when he had conferred with his counsel answered to Caesar To Caesar you have appealed to Caesar you shall go

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Now when some days had passed a group of the king and Bernis arrived at Caesarea and greeted

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Festus And as they stayed there many days Festus laid

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Paul's case before the king saying There is a man left prisoner by Felix and when

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I was at Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews Laid out their case against him asking for a sentence of condemnation against him

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I Answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accuser face to face and Had opportunities to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him

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So when they had come together Here, I made no delay But on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered a man to be brought

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And when the accusers stood up they brought no charges in his case of evils as I supposed

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Rather they had certain points of dispute with him About their own religion and about a certain

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Jesus Who was dead? But whom Paul asserted to be alive

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Being at a loss how to investigate these questions I Asked whether he wanted to go

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Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them But when

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Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for decision of the Emperor I ordered him to be to Be held until I could send him to Caesar Then Agrippa said to Festus I would like to hear the man myself

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Tomorrow said he you will hear him So on the next day Agrippa and Bernas came and with great pomp and they entered the hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city then at the command of Festus Paul was brought in and Festus said to King Agrippa and all who are present with us

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You see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me both in Jerusalem and here

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Shouting that he ought not to live any longer But I found that he had not done that he had done nothing deserving death that he and that as he himself appealed to the

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Emperor and as and or I decided to go ahead and send him but I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him

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Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you

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King Agrippa so that after we have examined him I may

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Have something to write For it seems to me unreasonable in Sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him.

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Let's pray Thank you. Our Heavenly Father for Your word your faithful word we think about some of the

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Difficulties these men who wrote these books before us the difficulties they had

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And we're thankful Lord that they in many ways paved a way for us didn't they

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So Lord we're thankful for the Sabbath day the day that you set aside for rest

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And it's our day Lord to gather before you and to thank you Lord for being our great

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God For the wonderful creation, which you have given us But more than that Lord for the sending of your dear son the

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Lord Jesus Christ He's such a wonderful and has been a wonderful example for us

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And it's our desire Lord to be more and more like him So we're thankful Lord for the for the church that we have for the dear people that make up this congregation and For our pastor and we pray now

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Lord that you would bless him and may your Holy Spirit fill him

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May he speak clearly to the hearts and minds of each one of us

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All praise to you our Lord for Christ's sake. Amen. You know, there's different Forms in which sermons are fashioned and Most common, of course is when a pastor will take a verse of Scripture Or a person portion of a verse

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Charles Spurgeon. That's how he preached his entire ministry Obviously blessed. I tend to take a passage an attempt to set forth the teaching of a passage

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Within context I tend to gravitate toward that and I And that's what we're doing today with regard to the message of Romans 6.

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It's very foundational to the Christian faith and how we're to understand ourselves and how to live before the

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Lord and I was encouraged a couple of weeks ago to see a a Video by Stuart Aliot and he actually was talking to preachers and he was advocating that That this is what he did and he would he would advise it that frequently

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The people of God need to hear an extended passage in the and the overall message

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It's being conveyed in that passage not just in a in a word or a few phrases or a verse here there

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And so we want to be able to set forth before us today the message of the

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Apostle in Romans 6 Now throughout this series that we've entitled the unconverted believer we've shown the ease in which people can wrongly think that they are true

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Christians when in Reality, they're still under God's condemnation of their sin They are yet unconverted, but they think that they are saved

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We've also asserted that the number of those who are Christian in name only may be quite large and There may be many nominal

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Christians who are regular attendees even members of local churches I read an article this week by Pastor Jeffries first Baptist Church of Dallas Who thought that the future state of evangelicals was good was quite rosy quite promising because he said

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That there were twenty four point three percent Evangelicals in the United States in other words eighty four million evangelicals currently in America.

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I think that's quite an optimistic Assessment, I don't know

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We don't have that here in New England, of course, but in other places it's a cultural thing to be in a

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Bible believing church so -called and our concern is for nominal

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Christians Well in our efforts to distinguish these false Christians from true

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Christians, we've set forth the significant and remarkable Characteristics that are only present in the hearts and lives of those who have been truly born again or regenerated by the

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Holy Spirit It's a true Christian, of course is a transformed person having passed from spiritual death and a spiritual life and the

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Holy Scripture set forth the life of a The Christian to be a supernatural endeavor

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That only those who are truly in Christ can attain and maintain It's impossible to live the

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Christian life if you're not a Christian But in our efforts in making this known it's an easy matter for a true

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Christian to doubt his salvation when he does not feel that his heart and actions have achieved the standard of new life that He thinks characterizes true

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Christians And this is particularly the case with those Christians who may be struggling with sin may be an egregious a sin of an egregious nature or perhaps a persistent nature and so perhaps their sin has persisted in spite of all their desires and efforts to repent of their sin and live righteously and So the result is that these

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Christians are plagued with doubts regarding their standing before the Lord. They lack assurance and And although it may be true that many nominal

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Christians struggle in this way because they've not experienced new birth by the Holy Spirit There are true

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Christians who doubt themselves because of their struggle with sin has only resulted in continual defeat and failure in their lives and then when you consider the action the work of the deceiver and The accuser of the brethren as well as errant thinking that characterizes many true

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Christians the problem of doubting their salvation is understandable nevertheless, we would argue that it's very unfortunate and Needless And so I hope that we can remove some of these unnecessary and ungrounded fears through a better understanding of what the

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Word of God teaches Us about the spiritual identity of Christians spiritual identity of Christians extremely important in our attitude and understanding of our struggle with sin and the way forward in which the

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Word of God directs us and That is set forth for us here in Romans chapter 6

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And so in order to address these matters, let's consider this message And so we'll need to read it and it's entirely to attempt to get the context

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And this is from the New King James Version Romans chapter 6

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Hopefully the wording is familiar to us Most of us. I hope the message will be understood by all of us and Embraced Paul wrote what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

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certainly not How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

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Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death

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Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death

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Certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection Knowing this there that our old man was crucified with him

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That the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin

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For he who has died has been freed from sin Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more

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Death no longer has dominion over him For the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life that he lives he lives to God Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our

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Lord Circle that verse very important As we'll point out that's the first command we have in the epistle to the

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Romans Everything before from Romans 1 1 through chapter 6 verse 10 is setting forth teaching and here is the first command

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That is given in the light of everything that he's taught Verse 12 therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness of sin

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But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness of God For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law, but under grace

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What then Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace certainly not

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Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey you are that one slaves whom you obey?

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Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience Leading to righteousness that God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin

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Yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered and having been set free from sin

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You became slaves of righteousness. I Speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh

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For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness

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Leading to more lawlessness. So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness

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For when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness What fruit did you have then and the things of which you are now ashamed?

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For the end of those things is death But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life

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For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

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Lord now earlier in his epistle The Apostle set forth the blessed doctrine of God justifying sinners through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone

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He of course first set forth the universal guiltiness and helplessness of all mankind

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To save themselves from sin and to prepare themselves for the future judgment of the world

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That's what we have in the first three chapters of Romans God did this convince the world of sin through having given his law

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Through his holy law, which is of course God's Standard or rule which he imposes and demands of all

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His creatures all human beings by that law He made people say that they were sinners and that there were serious consequences for their sin

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It also revealed to them their utter helplessness to remedy their sinful condition Paul declared that it was impossible for anyone to achieve and acquire the righteousness that God's law required of all mankind in order to escape condemnation on the day of judgment

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But thankfully God Had provided a righteousness for sinners apart from law -keeping

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He would grant the free and full forgiveness of sins and the gift of righteousness forgiveness and Righteousness itself the righteousness of Jesus Christ to any and all who embraced

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Jesus as Lord and Savior and we read of this in Romans 3 21 and following but now see in contrast to the

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Righteousness set forth or revealed in the law of God, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed

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Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It's taught everywhere throughout the Old Testament Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there's no difference

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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified Freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom

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God set forth as a propitiation In other words Christ death upon the cross appease

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God's wrath with regard to his people Set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness

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Because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed Paul's referring to all the believers of the

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Old Testament time God passed over their sins as He anticipated the death of Christ But with the death of Christ he demonstrates at the present time his righteousness

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So that God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus But after the

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Apostle set forth the foundational doctrine of the sinner's justification by God through faith alone

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He began to set forth the grace of God in the believers Sanctification through life with viewed a fully inheriting eternal life in in his the believers future glorification and So as we've stressed very strongly and frequently in This series the salvation that God has promised in Jesus Christ.

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It's much more than our just our initial Justification as critical and foundational as that is the forgiveness of sins the imputed gift of righteousness

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But God has purpose to sanctify all those whom he justifies

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Our sanctification is essential to salvation as justification What is sanctification?

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Well, it's defined again as we've cited already In the

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Westminster Shorter Catechism question 35. What is sanctification answer? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace.

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God does it Whereby we Christians are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more

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It's gradual more and more to die on the sin and live on to righteousness And so every justified person is in the process of being sanctified by the work of God's grace through Jesus Christ So toward the end of Romans 5

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The Apostle declared it was God's purpose to sanctify his people In fact, he proposed that his grace would reign in their lives on to their full inheritance of eternal life

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Paul wrote moreover the law entered that the offense might abound so that people would see that they're sinners and That they're helpless and hopeless to deal with it

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But where sin abounded grace abounded much more for what purpose so that here's a purpose clause

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So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness.

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See that's talking about it living a holy life to or on to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

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Lord and so God Salvation involves. Yes, thankfully the free forgiveness of our sins, but it also involves

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Living holy lives becoming more like Christ. It's a work of the Holy Spirit.

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It's a work of the grace of God and So really beginning with Romans 6

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Paul is beginning to introduce this matter of the believer Sanctification and how it takes place

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The fact is God has purposed that his people would live righteously And so he set forth in Romans 6 as the way that a

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Christian is to understand his identity of Having new life in Christ and the reason is so that he might purpose to order his

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Christian life Defeating sin and living in righteousness. You've got to have this foundation If you don't have your identity in Christ Thoroughly grounded in your soul in your heart your mind

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You're not going to be able to be sanctified to the degree or measure that you could be

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Matthew Henry set forth Paul's message in the opening verses of Romans 6 the Apostle having at large

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Asserted open and proved the great doctrine of justification by faith for fear lest any should suck poison out of that sweet flower

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In other words, I'm forgiven It doesn't matter how I live and turn that grace of God into wantonness and licentiousness he with a like zeal copiousness of expression and Incogency of argument presses the absolute necessity of sanctification and a holy life as the inseparable fruit and companion of justification

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For wherever Jesus Christ is made of God unto any soul righteousness that is justification

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He's made of God unto that soul sanctification the water and the blood came streaming together out of the pure side of the dying

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Jesus and what God has joined together Let not us dare to put asunder he's referring to the blood of Jesus to forgive us the water being poured out to cleanse us of Sin not just to forgive us but cleanse us of our sin that we might become more holy and So in short the message of Romans 6 may be described as the triumph of grace over the power of sin

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Now Addressing the delivering power of God's grace and a Christian Paul first declared the believers freedom from sins tyranny

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Romans 6 1 through 14 and Paul argued in this Section of his epistle that the

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Lord Jesus set the Christian free from his former life of bondage to sin

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Through the believers union with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection the Christian experienced a transfer of ownership and domination

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Whereas before his conversion sin had been his master while he was under the unmediated law of God We're under the law to Christ.

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Of course, it's mediated to us by Christ now, but before it wasn't mediated by Christ So it condemned us

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But now grace is the Christians master in that he was now a slave under righteousness in Verses 1 through 4.

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First of all, he reasons those who are justified through faith cannot continue in sin It possible had posited an objection this was his normal way of writing in order to advance an argument he would propose a a possible argument against what he's asserting

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Paul if you're saying this then this is the implication. He said no, I'm not implying that at all this is just a rhetorical way of setting forth his argument and So Paul here posited an objection that some of his detractors might falsely conclude from what he had previously written about Free justification if God is greatly glorified and showing forth his great grace in the presence of great sin why not sin more egregiously so that God can really receive great glory and Paul vehemently repudiated such an idea he reasoned

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What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound certainly not How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

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Here's a good description of Paul's argument in this chapter In every age there have been those who have denounced the doctrine of justification by faith on the ground that it logically leads to sin

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That's Roman Catholicism claim by the way, that's what taught in the Council of Trent The Protestant teaching which we believe the

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Bible teaches justification by grace through faith alone will lead people to sin And therefore it's heresy

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Rome says anybody who believes in justification by grace through faith alone is accursed of God You cannot be saved and believe that they they asserted at Trent and So again

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He he posits this this Argument that it leads to sin if all the believers sins have already been paid for if he's already been credited with perfect Righteousness if it's good works will not help save him if all this is true ask the opponents

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Why then why worry about sin? Why try to do good? Why strive to live a righteous life?

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Well Romans 6 answers all such objections showing that the truly justified sinner will take no such attitude

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He will not sin that grace may abound nor will he sin because he's under grace and not under law

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Which is later stated on the contrary the gospel method of salvation by grace leads to true obedience

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It inevitably results in good works But the justified sinner's obedience results from love not fear

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And I might say understanding your right identity will shift it from fear to love

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That's why this is so important His good works are performed out of gratitude for God's free gift of salvation not in the hope that these works will help save him as We shall see in this chapter

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Justification by faith leads the believer not to a life of sin, but to a life of grateful obedience

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That's what Paul argues this chapter So Paul made the declaration that through the believers union with Christ in his death that believer died with respect to his sin

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Now this is not a statement of how the believer feels or even thinks about himself

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Nor is it a command for the believer to cease from sin That comes later.

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That's not what he's stating here Paul was describing a historic event that occurred in the life of every

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Christian Paul declared that these Christians had died to sin through their union with Jesus Christ in his death on the cross

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They are viewed by God as if they themselves died in the death of Christ You were in union with Christ when he died if you're a

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Christian And when he suffered the full penalty of sin's guilt sin can no longer make any legal claim on them

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Thus they are dead to it free from its condemnation there as we've asserted last week

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I think recently there is no law in the Bible that can condemn you Because that law is no longer binding upon you as a killing letter

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It still is an instructive letter to you, but it's not a damning letter It can't the law of God cannot damn you because Jesus Christ was damned on the cross and you in him

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It said God is satisfied. His wrath on sin was propitiated God's wrath is not upon you

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Because you died in your union with Christ and That satisfied

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God's justice that wrath was removed God's wrath was propitiated and it wasn't again.

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I have to assert this I guess it wasn't somehow God the father was against us and Jesus Christ won him over God the father sent his son in order to satisfy his own justice

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It was God the father who gave his son to die but in giving his son to die he appeased his just wrath upon sinners those who believe on him and So this is not a command for the believer to cease from sin not yet Paul is describing a historic event that occurred in the life or really with respect to every

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Christian Every Christian died to sin through their union with Jesus Christ in his death on the cross.

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That's a reality You may not understand it. You may not believe it. You may not feel it doesn't matter.

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It's what happened that's what Paul declared and So they are viewed by God as if they themselves died in the death of Christ Now Paul tied this reality to the event of baptism to which they had submitted upon their conversion

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He wrote in verse 3 Do you not know that as many of us as they were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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Paul then reasoned with them that their baptism set before them their privilege and responsibility No longer to walk in sin, but to live in righteousness verse 4

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Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father Even so we also should walk in newness of life It's clear that God saves us not only from the penalty of sin

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But that in our conversion a purpose to deliver us from the power of sin to which we were formerly subject

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But from which we are now delivered. We are not to live in sin, but in righteousness

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Justification and sanctification are distinct But one cannot exist apart from the other all who are justified by God are being sanctified by God That's a given

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Paul writes a baptism as a very significant turning point for the one who came to Christ And of course baptism would have been understood as taking place upon Conversion you read in the

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New Testament when people were converted they were immediately baptized And so often in the

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New Testament It records baptism administered the same time or occasion when a person came to faith in Christ and exercised repentance from sin

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Thomas Schreiner professor of New Testament studies at Southern Seminary Wrote of this close association of baptism with conversion and you know in the mind of the

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New Testament Christian The reference of baptism is introduced as a designation for those who are believers in Christ since unbaptized

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Christians were virtually non -existent To refer to those who are baptized is another way of describing those who are

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Christians Those who have been put their faith in Christ thus Paul is saying here that all

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Christians have Participated in the death and burial of Christ for all Christians had received baptism.

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That was just a given And In addition, he wrote for Paul baptism faith reception of the spirit repentance

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Confession of Christ or one complex of events that all occur at conversion Paul refers to believers as baptized because unbaptized

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Christians would be an anomaly It's just something that's not heard of in the New Testament Do not say that baptism in water saves anybody that scriptures say no, that's not the case

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But when people were converted they were baptized. That was the way they confessed Christ and Were brought into the church

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Well in verses 5 through 11 We read that our union with Christ was not only in his death there by breaking his people free from their bondage to sin but it was also a

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Union with him in his resurrection to enable us to live in righteousness And so in these verses verses 5 through 11

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Paul reasons why it's possible for Christians to live lives of righteousness

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For if we've been united in the likeness of his death, which we were certainly We also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man was crucified with him

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So that purpose clause so that the body of sin might be done away with that. We should no longer be slaves of sin

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For he who has died has been freed from sin Now if we died with Christ We believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies

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No more death no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died He died to sin once for all but the life that he lives he lives to God likewise verse 11

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Again important first command likewise You also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our

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Lord and So Paul is reasoning that the believers union with Christ and his death brought an end to his life characterized by sin

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He's talking about your position as a believer. That was a reality

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Before you were a slave to sin no longer in The believers union with Christ and his resurrection the believers assured that he will walk in newness of life

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That is he will live according to righteousness Romans 6 6 reads

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Knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with that We should no longer be slaves of sin

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Paul was telling his readers that Their life before conversion had come to an end

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I Gave you some extra notes at the end of the sermon We have 10 pages of sermon notes

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But you've got 17 pages there because I addressed a whole wrong teaching about this matter of the old man dying

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For a hundred years. It was said that this old man is your sinful nature and that it died

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Paul wasn't talking about he was talking about the way you live before you became Christian your old man

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That's that's another that was a that was another guy I'm a different guy a new guy

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Our old man is the old self or ego the unregenerate man in his entirety in contrast to the new man as the regenerate man in his entirety wrote one

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Because of the believers union with Christ in his death his former self as an unbelieving sinner had died.

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It's gone. It's over And The reason that God caused this union of the believers former life to have died with Christ was to make it possible

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For his body of sin to be delivered from the power of sin. So this he was setting the stage so that we can experience a transformed life

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The old man that person you were before you were converted had once controlled your body of sin

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But because your old man was crucified with Christ the new man that God made of you may then lead your body hereafter

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Not to be a slave of sin and here Paul personified sin. He set forth sin as a cruel slave master

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We may experience deliverance from the power of sin because of our union with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection

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And I'm gonna assert this a couple times Nowhere here in this passage is he's telling you how to you're able to live

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In other words what steps to take so you can live righteously. He doesn't get to that until Romans chapter 8

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Here he's just speaking about what God did to so that he can put us into this place where it can take place as it were

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Verse 7 is a summary statement which declares the truth of verse 6 For one who has died had been set free from sin a dead man is no longer subject to a former master a

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Dead man is no longer subject to law He had no power over him and the one who died with Christ his old man

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His former life has died with respect to sin and because of this truth we should have confidence that we will live in righteousness before Christ and This is the meaning of verse 8 now if we've died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him and Then verses 9 through 11 shows how our knowledge of our union with Christ should give us faith and confidence and should lead us to live for Christ Again, he's talking about our identity who we are

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It doesn't matter whether you feel it believe it or anything this it's a reality

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You're in union with Christ and So verses 9 through 11, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again death

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No longer has dominion over him obviously for the death. He died. He died to want he died to sin once for all

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But the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ That's that same, you know verse that command in a different translation

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You to reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin but alive unto Christ Jesus and So because of this historic truth and reality of Jesus death and resurrection and due to our union with him in his in this experience

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We are to identify ourselves with him and live accordingly

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Paul is not saying that we're now continually died and being raised He's saying that the one decisive Historic event of Jesus dying and rising and we with him shapes our present existence

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And our understanding of our identity as Christians If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a

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Christian in other words

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Please don't misunderstand this You're not you're no longer a sinner. You're a

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Christian. You're a Christian with a bad sin problem But your identity is no longer you're a sinner.

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You're a Christian The whole idea of the 12 -step program, you know 20 years after you've been sober.

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I am an alcoholic that is not biblical. I Was once a drunk no longer.

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That was my old life and that's gone. That's over Now maybe you know the new the

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Christian is still heck has a drinking problem, but he's no longer He's no longer that he's a

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Christian that's your identity and it's important that you understand this The difference is you'll know that God is for you and not against you.

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That's that's an important reality And so we're to identify ourselves with Christ and live accordingly

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Paul is not saying that we're now continually dying or being raised He's saying this is what took place and it became a reality in our conversion

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Now again, the first 10 verses of Romans 6 are instructional Paul was declaring the spiritual truth of the believers union with his

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Savior and his death upon the cross and his resurrection from the dead But then in Romans 6 11, we have the first command

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Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our

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Lord And so again, here's the first command of the epistle There It's worded a little differently in different translations

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I cited those for you But essentially they say the same thing just in a little different wording to help maybe clarify this in our thinking

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And so the first command of this epistle after following nearly six chapters of explanatory text

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Underscores the truth that Christian living is largely a function of the will

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Exercised in response to the understanding of our mind. This is who you are

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And it's on this foundation that you live out your life Throughout the scriptures the

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Lord first communicates his will instruction doctrine and then he gives application and Here we have begin the word of application with verse 11

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You are to recognize who you are and you are to continue to understand your identity who you are as in Christ If you turn from your sin, you believed on Christ as your

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Lord and Savior You're to regard yourself as such and that's your former identity your former way that you viewed yourself outside of Christ it'd come to an end when you believed upon the

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Lord Jesus and Basically your baptism declared that you're saying I'm dead to my former life.

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It's over as God enables me I purpose to live new life in Christ It it is a transformation that takes place in who we are and who we regard ourselves to be

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It's so critically important But when a

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Christian fails to understand this truth or fails to embrace it in faith He'll tend to default to a way of engaging sin as one under the law rather than under grace

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John Owen wrote about the futile efforts of an unconverted man to fight against sin now, he's describing a non -christian

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But I would argue it may also describe a true Christian who has failed to understand and Appropriate what is disclosed revealed to us in Romans 6.

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And so here's John Owens description of a miserable Unconverted man trying to fight against his sin and yet I imagine you know

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You might be a Christian you say hey, that sounds like me And if it does it's because you haven't properly understood and embraced the reality of who you are in Christ Look at these words and Indeed I might hear bewail the endless foolish labor poor souls who being convinced of sin and not able to stand against the power of Their convictions do set themselves my innumerable perplexing ways and duties to keep down sin

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But being strangers to the Spirit of God all in vain They combat without victory have war without peace and are in slavery all their days

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They spend their strength for which they is not bread and their labor for that which profits not

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This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in a soul under the power

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Conviction of the law is pressed to fight against sin, but have no strength for the combat

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They cannot but fight and they can never conquer They are like men thrust on the sword of their enemies on purpose to be slain

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The law drives them on and sin beats them back Sometimes they think indeed they have foiled sin when they've only raised a dust that they see not

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That is a distemper their natural affections of fear sorrow anguish Which makes them believe that sin is conquered when it's not touched and by that time

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They are cold and they must do battle again and the lust which they thought to be slayed appears to have had no wound

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And if the case be so sad with them who do labor and strive and yet enter not into the kingdom

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What is their sad condition to despise all this who are perpetually under the power dominion of sin and love to have it?

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So and are troubled at nothing but that they cannot make sufficient provision of the flesh to fulfill their lust thereof

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Now again, he's describing here a non -christian under the law of God who had no sense of the gospel

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But I would argue that this can be characteristic of a Christian who doesn't have a right understanding of his identity in Christ Its union with Christ and to substantiate what

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I'm saying, by the way, I Wanted I don't have didn't have time. I don't have time to say it now, but I'm going to anyway and That is in the story of Pilgrim's Progress remember in the house of the interpreter and he's escorted through those rooms and he comes into a room and Here's a damsel in there attempting to sweep up the floor and all she does is stir up the dust

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Everybody's choking on it or no No some servant was doing that and then a damsel came in with a little water and sprinkled on the floor and was able to sweep up the dust and this application this new lesson for a

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Christian by the interpreter was This is what happens when a person, you know tries to clean up his life by the law.

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All he does is stir it up He doesn't defeat it. But when when you properly administer the grace of the gospel

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Then sin can be rightly dealt with and so Bunyan was affirming what

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I'm affirming here that this can be the Wrong thinking errant thinking of the true

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Christian as well Well now let's look at verses 12 through 14 here.

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We have an exhortation not to live for sin, but to live righteously Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body

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Stop it You should obey it and its loss and do not present your members as instruments of righteous and unrighteousness of sin

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But rather present yourself to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of God For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law, but under grace

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Now we emphasize that in verse 11 we have the first imperative the first command Paul expressed in this epistle, but after giving that first command in verse 11, he gives three more immediately and so Actually, the first command was positive in nature

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What we're you know what we're to do reckon yourself indeed and did indeed unto sin and But alive to God in Christ.

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I'm alive in Christ. My old self is dead and gone and Then the next two commands are expressed negatively that is in these commands of what we're not to do and so in verse 12 is the

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Second command therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its loss The third commandment is verse 13 a which also speaks negatively

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Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness sin And then the fourth command

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Paul gave is a positive command But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God and So just as verse 11 verse 12 contains a command

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Whereas in verse 11 it speaks to your identity yourself identity as a Christian reckon yourself to You're dead.

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Your old life is dead. Now. You're alive under Christ speaks about your identity Verse 12 has to do with your activity

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This is what you're to do Verse 11 is what you're to believe verse 12 is what you're to do

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Say it is set before us as a power that would control us if we don't actively resist it and refuse to allow it to Have control over us

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We've been delivered from the dominion of sin through the death of Christ and therefore don't let it reign over you as a

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Christian This is the way it is in reality sin has no longer dominion over you now live accordingly

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Don't let it have dominion over you is basically what Paul is saying Now again

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Here, he's not telling you the means or the manner of defeating sin. He'll do that later in Romans chapter 8

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Here he's simply pressing upon Christians to live according to who they are in Christ Verse 13 is more specific as to the arena in which you're not to allow us into control

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Do not present your members. That is your your physical body as instruments for unrighteousness

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But present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life your members to God as instruments of righteousness

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And so you were to become who you are you you're a new person in Christ you're to To become more like that person you are in reality

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And so Paul was commanding his readers to live so as to be consistent with who they are in Christ But again that I personal identity is so foundational.

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It's essential But then we read verse 14

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Which is an explanation of verse 13 for sin shall not it will have no dominion over you since you're not under law but under grace

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Now let's consider a few words of application thus far and I know we're running into into time constraints here first He's not saying that sin is dead in Christians and even in the most mature and pious

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Christians But rather sin is something that we always struggle with You never arrive.

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Oh Yeah, there's victory and you become more and more like Christ over time Thanks be to God.

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Sometimes those changes happen more rapidly and sometimes at a what seems a slower pace but the fact is every one of us has sin and dwelling within us and we have to engage it and resist it and Then you got the devil tempting you tripping you up secondly top of page 8 sins hold on us is in or through our bodies and It's not saying our bodies are evil

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It's just that our bodies, you know, our eyes our ears our hands these, you know Our bodies are the is the instrument that we use to carry out sin within the world

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Third as Christians we can now offer the parts of our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness

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This is what we are consciously to do. We're to do so in prayer and purpose as God helps us to do so But here is a very important point that I wish to stress before us

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And I have to hit this application. There may be the Christian who has serious doubts about his salvation

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For he doesn't see the measure level of victory over sin in his life that he thinks is enough to confirm his claim to be a true

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Christian He's fought long and hard against his sin maybe a particular sin but he is he's only met with defeat

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No deliverance no victory He concludes therefore and I would say wrongly that he could not be a true

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Christian He says basically perhaps in the light of verse 14 Here's Romans 6 14 the

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Word of God declares forthrightly sin shall not have dominion over the Christian But sin has dominion over me.

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Therefore. I must not be a recipient of God's saving grace. I Think that's the way of thinking sadly

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Numbers of people But I would say that that is a wrong conclusion to draw from verse 4 of verse 14

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Not verse 12. This verse is not a statement of the present reality He does not say sin does not have

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Power over you it says sin shall not have or will not have a power over you.

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It's a promise Sin will not have dominion over you. You're gonna win the battle if you're a

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Christian I guarantee you It might seem like right now. There's no escape. No ability to defeat it whatnot

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You can gently defeated. All right, but I guarantee you sin will not have dominion over you.

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The Lord's gonna sanctify you Now it's your responsibility to look for the means of grace that are set forth in Romans chapter 8 but it's wrong to Conclude I must not be a

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Christian because it seems like sin has dominion over me It's a promise of God for the

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Christian sin will not have dominion over you God's gonna win the victory Jesus Christ is gonna conquer that sin in your life

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You know, there are things and some of us who are older in the Lord now can can tell you that you know

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There are things that we're going on, you know in our younger year say say as men

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We're thinking man, there's no there's no way in the world. I'm never gonna defeat this

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Sure enough the Lord did you know in time? Oh, there's always another one that comes on, you know

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There's certain sins that are characteristic of older people too But they have to be on guard about but but but the

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Lord has purpose sin will not have dominion over you as a Christian Now you might you might resist you might you know, harden your heart

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You might continue it, but the Lord could chasten you if he has to he's gonna see to it that that sin

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Will not have dominion over you because he's purpose to deliver you to save you from your sin And so we can be thankful for that Paul goes on to talk about the consequences of your choice to sit or or To sit or to obey and that's what we have in verses 15 through 23

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We will not go through that at this time Other than saying once again that being sanctified is absolutely essential to be cut being a

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Christian If you claim to be a Christian yet you're going to continue to live in sin dominated by sin with sin as your slave master

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You're no true Christian The Lord will defeat it though.

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The Lord will sanctify all whom he justifies Let's conclude page 9

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By asking a question Why would the Lord not bring immediate victory to every one of his people in defeating the sins with which they struggle?

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Lord, why don't you give me grace to defeat this thing? Why has he not answered your prayers to give you complete deliverance from that sin or sins that continually plagues your conscience and disheartens your soul

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It's clear. He's capable of doing so Well, we could look to the

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Old Testament for instruction illustration We commonly of course look to you know

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The New Testament tells us everything was written in the Old Testament for our benefit and for our instruction everything and of course many times it's common in our hymnology and whatnot to look to the

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Deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, you know with the Passover Christ our Passover Coming through the

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Red Sea under Moses is a picture of our baptism Going through the wilderness journey is a picture of our struggle in the

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Christian life And of course going through the Jordan River is meeting death and then going into our promised rest heaven but Shifting from that perspective.

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There is another perspective where really the Christian life is like us Israel going into the promised land and having to conquer the

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Canaanites Yes, it's our inheritance but you got to go in and take it you got to fight for it and And so we come into the land as it were we come into the

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Christian life and we've got all these foes all these sins That we've got to defeat and take him on and some of them are more difficult than others some seem to fall rather easily but some more difficult and When we fail to use the proper means we might get defeated

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Then we repent we come back and then the Lord helps us and we can continue on But you know the

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Lord didn't defeat all of Israel's enemies Immediately, he defeated most of them early on in the first seven years under the leadership of Joshua But God purposed that he was going to leave some of those enemy forces in the promised land

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That they would be struggling with for a long time. And I think the Lord allows sin in the hearts and minds of his people for Purposes that are beyond perhaps our capability of understanding.

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Obviously, it must be so or he would take them away Moses ahead of time told the people of Israel The Lord your

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God will drive out those nations before you little by little You will be unable to destroy them at once and so it is with the

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Christian there were there are sins little by little we seem to gain Victory Sometimes, you know more significantly than others, but it doesn't happen all at once and fully and the reason

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Moses said that God would not do this lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you and If the

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Lord all of a sudden delivered you and me from all over the sins that we struggle with as Christians. I Imagine we would become pretty self -righteous pretty quick and we become proud arrogant probably looking down on others who hadn't arrived like we have and So the

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Lord keeps us humble, doesn't he? He just turns us loose a little bit we quickly stumble and fall

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He keeps us looking to him and and in this way we learn what it is to live according to his grace and his power

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We learn increasingly what it is to learn to live in faith and to grow in faith as we feet meet foes

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It may be greater down the line than what we've encountered thus far. He equips us and prepares us

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He'll deliver us sin will not have dominion over you you can bank on that it's a certainty

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But it may be You know quite a quite a bit of struggle in the meantime Yes, you should still pray

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Yes You should still use the means to fight against sin and pray that the Lord will deliver you and thankfully he does and he will

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But sometimes he'll just sustain you And give you a thorn in the flesh it just plagues you for an extended period of time but his grace is sufficient for you and carry you through But one day will be completely delivered.

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Of course when the Lord returns and we are delivered from these bodies and We enter into our resurrection life with our

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Lord. Amen Let's pray Thank you father for your word Help us our

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God to understand and believe what you've declared us to be as new creatures in Christ Jesus Thank you our

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God for this and yet we acknowledge we confess our God that we've got some real sin problems

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That we struggle with continuously and sometimes we're overwhelmed by them. We pray for mercy our

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God We pray that you would help us give us great grace because we desire to live in righteousness and holiness before you

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Defeat those sins Lord, particularly those sins that so easily beset us as was written about in Hebrews chapter 12

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That we would be able to be a devout and holy Christians living in this fallen world

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That we could bring glory to you and not reproach to you our God And it would of course cause great bring great delight and comfort to us

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Also as we see you powerfully working in our lives Forgive us of our sins our

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God encourage those who struggle with sin to see victory Our Lord and that their lives would be characterized by righteousness

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And we'll thank you and praise you our God for this great work of grace in our souls