and 6:1-4 Being Saved From the Power of Sin
Romans 5:20-21 · Unknown · Aug 27, 2023
Romans (2022-25), No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261932285718

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, good morning. I'm not as tall as last week, right? Miles is a tall guy. I mean, you know, he came to our house and we had them sit around the table. His son is about almost not quite as tall, but he's getting there. So we had a hard time placing them at the right spot on the table to find room. It was challenging.

So you got a short guy today. Hopefully you got the same message, same Lord. and got an incredible message just incredible so actually Mike and I for the next many many weeks get to talk about them just some incredible verses you know incredible passages so let's so I titled this being saved from the power of sin and you'll see why I did that in a second here but and this is you know this section in Romans 6 is just not not understood well, it seems like. And it's a shame. It's a shame. So hopefully we can rectify that.

You guys already know this probably by heart, which is great. It's great. Okay, so let's get into it here. So I thought I'd start with looking at the big picture, if you will. You know, if you look at Scripture, you'll see that God's salvation plan comes in three parts. And maybe you hadn't ever thought of this. Maybe this is new to you. Maybe it's old to you. But it comes in three parts.

So the first part is, it's a past tense as far as a believer in Christ at the moment. Some might call it stage one or phase one. We're saved from the penalty of sin. And you'll see the word justification used. We've been reading about that actually most of the early parts of Romans talked about being justified by faith or justified by faith. And the Lord Jesus Christ, so that's we're saved from the penalty of sin, so that's where every believer starts He starts at that place in his his walk with the Lord and that verse that I quoted it talks about It's not by works But we're justified he justifies ungodly by faith, and that's credited him as righteousness So that's phase one or salvation from the penalty of sin so phase two is the present tense that's where that's where a believer spends 99% of his time between you know salvation occurs instantaneously when you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ you're saved instantaneously and you're giving all these spiritual blessings but you spend the rest of your life being saved and that's why I label this section being saved you're being saved and what do you save from you're saved from the power of sin And they use this 25 cent word, sanctification, and I actually almost wish they hadn't used that because it sounds kind of airy and flowing around, I'm sanctified, I float around.

And actually, being saved from the power of sin is talked about as a battle in a sense. It's the flesh versus the spirit. And so it doesn't sound very floaty. It sounds like down in the trenches, if you will.

So that's the Christian life, being saved from the power of sin. And then when the Lord comes, we'll be saved from the presence of sin. And that passage in 1 John is about when we see Him, we'll be like Him, because we'll see Him as He is. So there are three phases, saved from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, from the presence of sin.

The big 25 cent words, justification, sanctification, glorification. And you hear people say, I'm saved and sanctified. Some churches, that's a big deal. They say, well, I'm not only saved, but I'm sanctified. So they make it kind of like another check mark in your Christian life, but it's so much more. And Romans is going to tell us about that. What does it mean to be sanctified? What does it mean to have being saved from the power of sin? And we start that in Romans 6.

But before we start that, I want to go back and look at the first couple of verses, I mean the last two verses in chapter 5. And that kind of sets the stage because Paul's going to answer a question in telling us how to be saved from the power of sin. He's going to answer a question that Jim kind of alluded to because in the last part of verse 20 it says, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So it seemed like that kind of set off Something in in people's minds in Paul's time like well, well grace is gonna Abound more if I sin grace is gonna abound. Well, hey, that's a sweet deal I just sin and God covers it. I got this made this is hey, what a life, you know I said the more I sin the more more grace I get so Paul wants to rectify that that issue and then he also wants to talk about in verse 21 about the idea of the sin and He starts I actually started back in 12 verse 12 in chapter 5 He's going to talk about this thing called the sin or the sin nature And he talks about how it rains as unbeliever rains in death your sin nature your Adamic nature that you got from Adam at no cost you got it free Everyone got it.

It rains it rains when you're unbeliever it rains you it rains in death but the contrast of that in 21 even so grace would rain and through eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. So he's going to talk, he's going to reference those verses as we get into 6. And then I kind of highlighted, when you go through chapter 6, whenever you see sin, singular, not plural, in fact it's always sin singular in chapter 6, there's always what's called a definite article, it's always the sin, referred to the sin nature, So that's important to see.

In fact, actually, one of my journeys in my life as a believer, when that was first pointed out to me, and actually our brother Hal was the one that did it back in the 90s, I said, I don't see a Bible. I can't find a Bible that has the sin. Where's the Bible? And he says, well, Roger, if you look in the Weiss translation of the New Testament, you'll see he'll use that word, he'll translate it, the sin nature.

Boy, so I got to find one of those. So I got one of those. Wow, it says, the sin nature. Boy, that's important. And it is important. So we're going to see about that here today, too. Okay, so let's get into it here. So he starts off with a question. Actually, he starts off with two questions.

In verse one, what shall we say then? And then are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? So the first question is, what shall we say then? And actually, you know, it seems like approach he's going to say what am I going to say about that you know you know grace is about it what am I to say about that and he's apparently trying to answer questions about God's grace the abundance of God's grace that's where he's kind of starting off and you'll see if you look through that phrase what shall we say then it occurs in Romans chapter 3 5 and 7 7 9 14 and 9 30 and actually it addresses different different issues in each case in Romans 3 5 I think it talks about the righteousness of God and then later in 7 7 it talks about his the law and then other other issues later on so he's addressing so you can say what shall we say about say then about God's grace this might be one way to think about it so so refers back as I mentioned refers back to 520 And he's focused on the last part of 520, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, and actually the word in the original language is not only super abounding, but it's super abounding with something added on top of that. It's super abounding plus, or super abounding with stuff tacked on top of it.

And that's the Wiest rendering there. And then Wiest has a comment here. So there's kind of a thought here that Paul is answering objectors to what he's saying. So the objector's thought, as expressed by many, is as follows. Paul, you mean that God is willing to forgive a person's sins as often as he commits them? So it doesn't matter how many times I commit, he'll forgive them? And that's true. It's absolutely true.

But what does that mean in terms of my walk with Christ, is the question. Okay, so that's the first question. Second question, so now he's going to address that question about the abundance of God's grace, that superabundance of God's grace. So the second question, are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? So the logical answer is, well, okay.

I will cover all my sins and continue to do that, so I'll just sin all the more." And he's going to show how that's illogical, that doesn't make any sense. And he actually kind of gives a gut reaction, God forbid. I mean, I kind of almost can see Paul just saying, God forbid. I mean, that's what the next verse will say. But he reacts so strongly to that concept.

So first of all, let's look at this phrase here. Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? We as a believer here, continue is an important word here, because we're going to find out kind of a principle here. Continue is this word in the Greek called meno. It's to remain, to abide. It's present tense, which means continuous action. So this is saying that what Paul is proposing here in his hypothetical rhetorical question, so we're to just continually hang out with sin, hang out with our sin nature. Is that what you're telling me? You're talking about, I'm going to do that. That's illogical. It doesn't make any sense, he's going to say. So Weiss points out here about this word meno.

It's used in the New Testament of a person abiding in someone's home as a guest or a person abiding at home. And it's literally to be at home. So it's and our brother how it expresses so beautifully in his years of teaching here at Holly Hills He would he would say hanging out or be at home.

Well, this is a negative case Paul saying you really say you want to be at home hang out with your sin nature that or the source of your sin Is that what you're really saying? He says got to think about that brother and sister. I But on the positive side, the flip side, the good side of that, Manoah is used in a very good sense. In John 15, the first part of the verse, 15-5, a very familiar verse, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. So abide here is to hang out, be at home with the Lord. I can just hear Hal saying that.

Brothers and sisters hang out be at home and that's what we're that's what the Christian life is about right being at home with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be at home be comfortable with him to walk with him so you see it sets up attention here if you see Paul saying are you going to hang out and be at home with your sin nature is that going to be your home or is your home going to be with the Savior hanging out with him so he sets up attention here or a conflict if you will So let's see more details about this. So the sin, again, is the sin nature. And the sin nature, we saw back in 21, it was reigning as king in the unbeliever's life. And he says, shall we be at home with that nature? And these are some comments from Brother Hal. So we see we can abide in the sin nature.

In a positive sense in Roman a negative sense in Romans 6 1 or we can abide in Christ in John 15 5 so there's a There's a choice to be made right will we hang out with our sin nature? We'll hang out with the Lord and you know that that's been a question that's been around in Holly Hills for as long as I've been here people say Choices decide mmm. I know I don't like that and I don't like it either Because it think about if that's your whole Imagine that's your Christian life.

So you walk out the door and you say well get my car Am I gonna abide in my sin nature or my new nature? Well, I'm gonna go real fast in the road. So I'm gonna abide my sin nature. First of all, I'm gonna beat those other guys No, you don't operate that way, right?

What you want to do and a brother how expressed it beautifully isn't our focus to be isn't our focus to be on Christ and And if we do sin, right isn't the processes we're convicted of that sin, right? I And it says, as we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. So our focus in a Christian life is on our Savior, is walking with Him, abiding with Him, who He is. That's what our focus is, not on the choice, even though we have a choice.

And we're going to see that's a wonderful declaration of the upcoming verses here. So the purpose of that, and let's finish off the rest of this verse, the purpose was that grace might increase. Hypothetical question that you send more and grace will increase. So now Paul's gonna He's gonna answer it emphatically with an emphatic answer Right from his gut I'd say He's gonna answer it.

May it never be and it's in this mood in the Greek. There's several moods It's a mood of reality and this is a mood of improbability I'm not sure. I really understand what that all means, but it's improbable. This is what I take away from it It could be God forbid in the King James literally and I think Jim had an alternate translation to that to this God forbid may such a thing never occur or away with the thought it actually is so contrary to what God is about even though his grace does abound that's not where his children should be that idea of that sin should abound may it never be So now he's going to tell us why. Why is that the case? Why is it illogical? In the last part of this verse, he's going to tell us why that's an illogical thought that I'm going to sin more so grace will abound. He's going to show us that's illogical. And here's his statement.

How shall we who died, and here we have our definite article, the sin, the sin nature still live in it. So he's going to say, he's going to explain Some of the mechanics of what happened when Christ died on the cross and how we died with him and that whole operation He's going to say something happened here So it's how so how is it possible given the following? And this is we died is in this thing called the heiress ten. So it's a fact and it's a fact and it's an event This is an event that happened to every single believer.

We died and you don't think about this, you know, you you don't think about lot. Hopefully you do more as you understand it. You think about what you know when Christ went to the cross, I went to the cross with him. When he died, I died. When he rose, I rose.

All those co-ideas, co-resurrection, co-burial, they're all about this idea of being saved. That all is significant in terms of the Christian life. And since death means separation, We've been separated from this sin nature, from this Adamic nature. That's a wonderful message of this part of this verse. We've died or been separated from our sin nature.

But the other side of the coin is, it's still there. It didn't die. We're going to address that in a second. But it's still there. And you still can interact with it. But you've been broken loose. You've been unplugged. There's various ways. Let's try to illustrate. You've ripped the cord out. Anyway, you're separated from your sin nature, but it's still there.

So let's talk more about we died. So here's some statements about that from, I think this is from Hal. Still living in our sin nature is inconsistent with who we are in Christ. The way in which we were cut loose or disengaged from our sin nature will be described And actually in verse 3 he's going to talk about that in more depth. When we trusted Christ, the separation occurred. We received a new nature, which is going to be talked about later on too. As an unbeliever we had no choice but to follow the desires of the sin nature.

And that's what's so beautiful about this understanding being saved. This is part of being saved, that you realize that you've been disconnected or freed from your sin nature. Well, first of all, it's good to remember that you have a sin nature. And there are some folks, unfortunately, that claim they have no sin. I'm saved and sanctified, and that's it. My sin nature is a thing of the past.

I don't know. Anyway, that's another discussion, another day. But anyway, realize that you have a sin nature, and the good news is you've been separated from it. And how did this happen? So that's coming next. But I think I have, let's see what I have next here. Okay. But I decided to have a picture. Two pictures, two globs. Okay, first one is, this is where you were.

As an unbeliever, things are pretty dark for an unbeliever, and Ephesians talks about that. As an unbeliever, you can only follow the desire of the sin nature, and it says there in Ephesians 2.3, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, Indulging desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath. So that's where we were and Then here when we trusted Christ We became a believer now by God's grace We've been cut loose or unplugged Disconnected from our sin nature and now we're going to study this down the road here in a couple days a couple of weeks Romans 6 7 for he speaking of the believer who has died is freed from From the sin again, the sin nature. And now we're going to find out how God did it. How did God do that?

You know, and actually, he's going to use a term that actually, it adds a little confusion to the whole thing, because he's going to use the term baptism. And the problem with that is, when you think of baptism, what do you think when you think of baptism?

What's one word you think of? You can speak it out. One word, exactly. But in this context, it's not going to be water. And not everybody agrees with that, but I think you should agree with that. It's not water. Anyway, okay, so now into verse 3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? So now let's talk about this verse here.

So he's basically saying, are you ignorant? Paul uses, I know, it's neat how he uses these words. Are you ignorant? You don't know this? It's like, Remember when this wasn't Paul the Lord Jesus uses to he asked the Nicodemus You don't know that you're a teacher of Israel, and you don't know these things. He's like telling us you don't know this Are you ignorant of this?

Get with the program Okay, so Paul uses uses often That all of us, so it's not just not just the super super saints all believers all of us is a subject of the statement and who have been baptized. And again, it's this fact tense. This is a fact. It happened to us. And God did it. He did it on our behalf. We didn't ask Him. We didn't say, Oh Lord, please baptize me. Nope. He did it. Whether you knew it or not, you had no clue about this, He did it. Based upon your faith in Christ. He did it when you trusted Him. And this is kind of...

The origin of the word bapto will help us here a bit, I think. So it's derived from this word bapto. Okay, BAPTO is the idea. It's the idea, and I wish I, if I asked Bonnie about doing this, I always thought about, you guys are, you're looking at me like, you know what I'm going to talk about here, and it's like, I've done this, and our brother Hal did it too. Anyway, the word BAPTO is the idea to dip, you dip in, and you take out. And here's a verse that kind of speaks to that.

In Leviticus, this is, this is a ceremony for purification. Sins and Leviticus and it says a priest shall dip Babto his fingers Kind of grew into in blood seven times kind of a gruesome thing and sprinkle the blood Seven times before the Lord and there's more to this But the idea is he puts his fingers in and he sprinkles the blood before the Lord on the sacrifices or whatever Okay, so is that the word we're talking about here is Is that the word? No, it's not that word. That's the core word. But our word is baptizo. And baptizo, with that verb tense, aorist indicative passive is the idea.

It describes an event that happened to every believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're talking about a word that is different. It's different. It has a picture that's somewhat the same, but it's different. So let's look at that. We have been baptized into Christ and this is a cool part in the picture of the Bapto it was in and out but in our word it's baptized into and never removed and our brother Hal did that and he had a jug of water and he had with head blue dye in it and he had a white handkerchief and he took the white handkerchief and he up baptized and he immersed it into the And it came out, it was now, the white handkerchief was now blue. So it's been baptized. But the part about this is, which is cool, I've used this sometimes in baptismal ceremonies, is that we're never taken out of Christ. So if you make this water baptism, you're going to lose a lot of parishioners. A lot of believers are not coming back because they're going to go in. You can't come out, brother or sister.

That's it. That's what it means. And that's what's so beautiful about this. You've been baptized into Christ. And this chart, if you don't come away with assurance of your salvation, I don't know where else you're going to find it. Okay, every single believer was immersed into Christ Jesus and never taken out.

This is a permanent relationship that God has established. Like I said, we didn't ask for it. It's not water baptism, because water baptism by its nature has to be in and out, right? It's not that. We are immersed into Christ and this is where we use to identify, when we are identified with Him, we in Him and He in us. So it just so and I thought man, this is just such encouraging news.

I don't have to worry Well, is the Lord going to take less of me? No, he did this. He did this when you trusted him on your behalf He didn't ask you about it. He didn't say you might change your mind. No, he did it and you're there and You can never be separated from him.

Just incredible. Just incredible. So we have more to say about baptism. We haven't finished. I Okay, and the word into here is ace or ice and actually a Complimentary verse here comes out of Galatians Galatians 3 27 for all of you very similar so all of you were baptized into Christ Jesus have clothed yourself with with Christ a very very picturesque verse, so You'd be immersed. It talks about being clothed with him. Just a wonderful wonderful picture here. I We're now in a living union with Christ. And I hadn't picked... Zodiotes pointed this out. This is great. Ace or ice is a state or condition which comes after a verb of motion, which is baptizo. Pretty cool stuff.

And then additionally it says you've been baptized into his death. So you're baptized into Christ Jesus. Then you're also baptized into his death. And we're going to see this show up again in the next verse. We're told we have been immersed into his death So we're co-buried and we're gonna see it all talks about this one a relationship with Christ never Never separates once we once you've trusted him You're immersed into him and you're with him in his death burial resurrection ascension and seeding just incredible so when Christ died we died and we're going to amplify that in the next verse and Okay, so the last part of this, more thoughts, lots of thoughts, a couple more thoughts.

Oh, I know, this is a cool thing. So I like Weist, I mentioned that before. Actually, just kind of an aside, as Mike and I have been studying, we talk about what we're going to teach and what we're going to study. So this guy Kenneth Weist has a commentary on Romans.

He also has a translation which I use a lot. This is his translation. But anyway, it's been super helpful and we actually learned that our brother Hal used it a fair amount too and so it's encouraging too. So anyway, here's a translation of this verse. Verse 3.

Do you not know that all of us who were placed into Christ Jesus in his death were placed? So what he's done here, he's taken that word baptizo and he's translated it placed, placed in. were placed in. So I think it helps. Hopefully it doesn't confuse you, but he's going to use the word kind of as an alternate way of thinking. You are placed into Christ Jesus. You are baptized into Christ Jesus or you could say I was placed into Christ Jesus.

What I like about this is it separates it even farther from water. It takes another step away from water, which is good. I was placed into Christ Jesus. You come away with saying, okay, this is something that's nothing to do with water. It's only about what God has done on my behalf. And this picture, we were placed into Christ.

And then I have a couple of comments, uh, from Weis via how baptism can be thought of as a placing of a person into a new union with someone else in this case, Christ Jesus. So as to alter the believer's relationship to his previous union. So what was our previous union, right? We were slaves to sin, right? We were King Adam. We were enslaved to sin. So when we were placed into Christ Jesus, we came into a new relationship, a new union that altered our previous union.

A couple of comments. This new union At the moment of belief in Jesus Christ, the saved person is placed into a vital living union with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. So that's a key thing to keep in your mind. I'm placed into, you can use the word baptized, that's fine. But just remember, you're in this wonderful union that God has desired that you be in with His Son. And then the previous union, The believer is now dead, so this kind of sets the picture. We're in Christ now, in this new living union. We're now dead or separated from our sin nature. We no longer have to be slaves to the sin nature.

It's just such a wonderful picture of what, and a truthful picture of what's happened to every believer. But not many, few realize it and few understand it. and are able to see scripture in light of that. Once you understand this concept and you see it, when you read passages, you'll begin to see, well, this is talking about what's happened to me in Christ.

This is a whole new ballgame. I never saw this before. And we've had people say that. Well, I never saw this. Wow, look at that. I'm in Christ. It's not going to change. It can't be changed. Praise the Lord. Okay. Alright. So let's see here. Is that right? Okay. All right.

Well, this is kind of the wrap-up verse. Therefore, therefore, therefore kind of wraps stuff up, right, in Scripture. What's a therefore, therefore, right? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

We're going to ask about the newness here. We're going to get out of newness. Okay, to do this, I went back to my bubbles. Okay, first bubble. So what I want to show here, there are three statements that are important in this passage. Three verbs, and, okay, three verbs.

The first subject verb, we have been buried with him. And you say, well that's kind of a repeat, right? We just saw that, we've been buried with him, and it says, through baptism, placed into his death. So first verb, subject verb, we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So we're placed into his death.

So that's the first one. Then the second one, which modifies the first one, so that, or with a purpose that, as Christ was raised from the dead, in this case it adds, through the glory of the Father, so we see that it says, we've been buried with Christ, we've been buried with him, So that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, something's going to happen as a result of that.

That's where we're headed. Here's what happens as a result of that. So we might walk in newness of life. So there's a pattern here. We have been buried with Him. So that Christ so that as Christ was raised from the dead that's going to have some effect on us That's going to have effect on our Christian walk. It's going to allow us to walk in this newness of life Just an incredible thing. So by what God is by our being buried in him Christ rising and we rising with him. We now have the ability to walk in this new life just so just wonderful news just wonderful wonderful news for the believer and So let's look at the details of that.

Just FYI, the first two verses are just statements, right? They're eras. God did something. We've been buried. That's a statement. Christ was raised. That's a statement. I had nothing to do with that, right? God did that. But the third statement is, it's what we call a subjunctive or it's a probability.

You know, you might not walk in newness of life. You might not do that. But God died You died with him to give you the ability to do that. That's why the mites there that it's a probability you might walk and you might not But he hasn't actually told you yet. He's gonna tell us in a bit what to do But right now he's just saying the Lord did this and look how marvelous it is. You can walk in newness of life Okay So there Okay, therefore we've been buried with him So this is kind of a little more detail here. The idea is to co-bury. We've been co-buried with Christ, together with. We've been identified with Christ in His burial. It declares our co-burial. And it was through baptism, again, being placed into Christ Jesus' death.

Then we get down to the middle part. With a purpose set, I'm going kind of quicker here because we had the chart, hopefully you kind of had that in your mind, the three parts. Here's the middle part. with a purpose that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father.

So this statement, as I mentioned, modifies being buried with Him. It tells us, since Christ was raised, that it applies to us, since we are now in union with Him. And then here's a kind of a corollary verse, or a parallel verse. It talks about our being raised with Him. Having been raised, I'm sorry, having been buried with Him in baptism, Which you were also so you're buried with him in baptism. You were also raised up with him through faith in The working of God who raises him raised him from the dead. So we were we were buried with him. We've been raised with him So now we're going to see the results about this wonderful being able to walk So we too might walk in newness of life. So we have several statements about this and The same that modifies Christ was raised.

That's how that's the power that allowed us to do that we believers our walk is founded in Christ's resurrection and It's just the newness is this word its origin is this word Kainos, which means new and quality So this newness is new and quality. It's a it's a different quality. So what that what's that about? It's our new quality nature You begin to see where we're headed here real quickly. It's our divine nature. Of life identifies the source of that as being a divine nature. The source of this new life is Christ's resurrection. And then I kind of try to put together a definition, if you will, or what does it mean?

Walk in newness of life. I think a good way to look at it is walking in newness of life is to abide in our new life in Christ which we could not do unless Christ was raised from the dead. I'll say it again. Walking in newness of life is to abide in our new life in Christ which we could not do unless Christ was raised and we were raised with him. You can add that too. Okay. Alright. Alright, so I've got three charts to go. Three charts to go. Okay. This is just a summary about six statements or seven statements about These are the ones you should carry away today.

Outside of, you should have a baptism and an equal with a cross in it, water. Spiritually, no. Not equal. Anyway, okay. So here's the important. And then when I have an ending thing, which would be a song. If I was Vern, I'd sing the song, but I'm not going to sing the song. Okay. Be thankful for that. Okay.

Every believer has died to his sin nature, is separated from it. This is just review. Every believer has died to his sin nature and is separated from it. But the sin nature has not died. And this is something Mike does all the time. Just our relationship to it. It's still there. It's still dancing. It's still doing the dance. But we've died in relationship to it. It's still hanging out there, unfortunately.

Every believer has been baptized or you could say immersed or placed into a living union With Christ and never taken out and never can be changed So so brothers don't worry, you know, some people agonize over their salvation. Am I really saved? Am I really saved?

God has done it and he's maintaining it and you and you can't be changed every believer has also been baptized into Christ's death and every believer was raised with him so he would be able to walk in his new life in Christ so Paul has given us these details and what he's done and it's not going to be not right away not next week several weeks down the road not until verse 11 does he really tell us to do something he gives us his information line after line after line after line these wonderful truths of security and what's happened and then eventually in verse 11 he finally tells us now based upon that I want you to do something I'll let you think about that okay I'm not going to sing but I'm going to talk about a song here okay so this is from from Kenneth Wiest again the death of our Lord has a twofold aspect does anybody know about okay I'll ask the question in a second here has a twofold aspect In the first part of Romans, we just talked about that in my little bubble chart, the three bubbles, past, present, future.

In the first part of Romans, Christ dies with reference to our acts of sin. He dies for the penalty of our sin. He is paid the penalty for our sins. Then in Romans 6, 1 through 11, we have reference that he has died in reference to our sin nature. So we have these two aspects. He's died. in terms of our penalty of sin and our presence of sin. Those two aspects are in view. His death brings about a separation of the believing sinner and the sinful nature or the evil nature.

And we have that thought expressed, and Courtney is smiling, in the words of Rock of Ages. Does anybody know what I'm talking about here? Does anybody know that there are some cool words in Rock of Ages? I'll just mention the words double cure. Does that ring a bell? Okay, well, I guess it does.

Anyway, we're going to look at the first one of Rock of Ages. And what's neat is that Rock of Ages was written by this guy named, you might as well have to help me here, Toplady. August Toplady in England in the 1700s. And he apparently knew about the two aspects of our salvation, being saved from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin. So here's Rock of Ages, verse 1.

Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. I'll read it again. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure save from wrath and make me pure save from wrath speaks of our justification save from the penalty of sin we've been saved from God's wrath and penalty of sin make me pure is sanctification the breaking of the power of the indwelling sin so what's cool is I think here we are 2023 And here's a gentleman back in England in 1750, I don't know, anyway.

He had some understanding, I don't know, but he understood enough to write a song that talked about this double cure. So every time, actually, every time I sing, I always think about that. I'm not sure exactly, Weiss mentioned it, but I had heard it from someone else over the years, and I just thought I'd point it out to you. So go home and, you know, open your hymnal and look at that, sing the song, you'll be talking about the double cure.

And we're talking about phase two, being saved from the power of sin. All right, so let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your marvelous word. We thank you. It's just incredible what you've accomplished on our behalf, that you've done it. You asked us to believe it, to trust you, to walk in light of what you've done. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.