Okay, this morning then we're proceeding in our study through the book of Romans, chapter 6 we're looking at this morning. We finished up chapter 5 a few weeks back. where he said, moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, and that's what the law does, it exposes our sin. Where sin abounded, grace, grace, the God's grace, it does much more abound. Sovereign grace, saving grace. That, verse 21, as sin hath reigned unto death, Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I'm entitling the message from verse 11. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. So dead to sin, alive to God. That's grace, dead to sin, alive to God. Paul clearly has described that we are totally and completely justified by the grace of God alone, through the blood atonement of Christ, and that we have no part in our justification of our soul before God. It's all the work of grace. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of another shall many be made righteous. Now in chapter 6 and chapter 7, the Apostle Paul shows us that the ground of our sanctification is the same ground as our justification. Christ alone is our righteousness. Christ alone is our holiness. He is our righteousness alone. In Him dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. I quote this verse all the time, from 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, But of him are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and he is our redemption. Everything we need, everything that God requires of us, is all summed up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we are not justified at Mount Calvary by the blood of Christ and then sanctified. Let me put it this way, let me put it in the positive instead of the negative. We are justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ when He died at Mount Calvary. The same ground of our justification is the same ground of our sanctification. We don't go to Mount Calvary to be justified by the blood of Christ and then run to the law of Moses to be sanctified by the deeds of the flesh. The same ground of our holiness and righteousness is the same ground of our justification. It's Christ, Christ, Christ, and Him crucified. Christ is all and in all. To say that we are justified by the works of the law would be denying the grace of God. To say that we're sanctified by the doing of the law would also would be to deny the grace of God. The only way the power and dominion of sin is broken in us is by the reigning power of Christ to put away our sin and to make us willing servants in a day of his power. It's the only way. that the reigning power and dominion of sin is broken in us, is by the blood atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ putting away our sin. He's redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Now, let's take a look at verse 1. What shall we say then? where Paul is saying we're justified by grace, we have righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our sanctification, He is our righteousness, He's our everything, He's our all in all, what shall we say then? What shall the religious person say? You remember Paul was a Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, and here's the thinking of a natural fleshly religious man, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? If grace is magnified and grace is glorified by our sin, well, let's just sin all the more. That's the carnal thinking of a natural man. But he said, plainly, God forbid. God forbid. Paul anticipates the objection of the legalist, the Pharisee, the self-righteous, when the free and sovereign grace of God is openly declared, boldly declared, as everything in the center of salvation, then they would say, well, let's just continue in sin. Let's just continue in sin. If God is magnified by our sin, let's just continue in sin. If grace is magnified by our sin, let us run wild with sin, live in rebellion against God. Let the grace of God be honored and magnified. Now that's what a lost religious man thinks. And that's what the natural man thinks. One old wise preacher of the past said this, to begin with, Sin of itself is not the cause of the glorifying God's grace. Sin is the cause of wrath, death, judgment, not grace. God has been pleased to magnify his grace in the pardon of sin. It is not by the commission of sin that grace is glorified, but by the forgiveness of sin, God is glorified. Grace is glorified by putting I stop to the reigning power of sin, not by encouraging it. Grace enables sinners, when they're saved by the grace of God, to hate sin, not love it. To love Christ, to seek Christ, and to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And what's his answer? God forbid. God forbid. It's similar to what he says in verse 15. What then? He says in verse 14 of Romans 6, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? He says again, God forbid. God forbid that to be so. So this strong argument is here, God forbid we should. How is it then, God forbid, how shall we, now look at this carefully, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? How is it that a believer, and I'm talking about a believer, how is it that a believer is dead to sin? We're not dead to the presence of sin. We're not dead to the conflict of sin. Paul talks about that warfare between the flesh and the spirit. We're not dead to the influence of sin. Believers have that conflict, they have that warfare, they have that influence of sin within us. We still have that old Adam nature of sin in the flesh, and we have a constant warfare between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would. Paul talks about this conflict in Romans chapter 7. Turn just one page. Romans chapter 7. If we didn't have this conflict and battle with sin, he wouldn't write things like this. Romans 7 verse 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. The evil which I would not, that's what I do. Now you see that conflict. So when he says that how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein, how is it that we are dead to sin? We're not dead to the presence of it, or the influence of it, or the conflict of it. The only way that it can be said that believers are dead to sin, the believer as he is one with Christ, in union with Christ, and identified with Christ, is dead to the guilt of sin and the power of sin to condemn, being dead to the law. As he says there in verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you if you're not under the law but under grace. The believer as he's one with Christ and union with Christ, identified with Christ, is dead to the guilt and power of sin to condemn, being dead to the law, being crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, our union with Him, what He did, we did. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. By the obedience of another shall many be made righteous. Turn over here to Romans 8, verse 1. Romans 8, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free. free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do and is weak to the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. We're no longer seeking God's favor, or to remove his wrath by the deeds of the flesh, or looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all things. Paul says this several times in this chapter, being made free from sin. Look at verse 11, Romans 6 verse 11. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Again in verse 18 he says, being then made free from sin, he became the servant of Christ. In verse 7 he says it again, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Again he says this in verse 22. How is it we're dead to sin? In Christ. were crucified, the law of God exacted its full penalty on us in our substitute. Verse 22, but now being made free from sin, free from sin and become the servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness. And in the end, what? Salvation, everlasting life. being one with Christ. So, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So then, believers are no longer living under the constant state of condemnation. Remember, in Adam all died and Adam all sinned. But rather, we are dead to the law through the body of Christ, therefore dead to the power of sin to condemn us. You see what he's saying here? Turn to Romans chapter 8. Verse 31, Romans 8, 31. What shall we say then to these things if God before us, Romans 8, 31, if God before us. Who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who can lay anything to our charge? It's Christ who has already paid the full penalty for our sin. Dead to the law through the body of Christ, dead to the power of sin to condemn us. We're already condemned. We're already sentenced, condemned, and executed. In Christ, we're dead. In Christ, we're crucified. The law has no claim on us. The law of the state of Kentucky can only execute a murderer how many times? One time. When he's executed, what does the law say? Nothing against him. I'm satisfied. That's exactly what the gospel is all about. Christ died for our sin, therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in him. Now verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us So many of us, thank God it doesn't say any, any of us, many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Now this speaks of more of water baptism. It speaks more of that. By the one spirit are we all baptized into the one body. Know you not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Christ, we're baptized into his death. Baptism, believer's baptism, is a picture and a confession, an answer of a good conscience, a death, burial, and resurrection. Water baptism does not put away sin. It does not put us in Christ. It's an answer of a good conscience. It's us publicly confessing Christ as all of our salvation. So many of us, as we're baptized into Christ, we're baptized into His death. There's His death again. It's showing that when He lived, we lived. When He died, we died. When He arose from the dead, we arose in Him. Therefore, verse 4, we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in the newness of life. What is this walking in the, when it talks about walking in the spirit, It's not walking around with a halo over your head. It's not walking around with this attitude, I'm holier than thou. It's the walk of faith that just shall live by faith. We're no longer seeking salvation by the deeds of the flesh. We're walking by faith, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who justified us by His blood, justified us by His righteousness. Christ died for our sin according to the scripture, was raised again from the dead because he justified us. Let's go back one page. Romans 4, verse 25. Romans 4, 25. You remember this verse? Christ was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification, and therefore being justified. By faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in the hope, a good hope, good hope through grace, the glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we know that water baptism does not regenerate. Water baptism does not put us in Christ. It's a picture and type. Baptism is not salvation. Christ is the Savior. Christ alone is the Savior. Sin and death and the terrors and curse of the law have no more dominion over Christ, nor over those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power and glory of God. Likewise, believers have been raised up by the power of God to walk looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our salvation. dead to sin, alive to God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now verse 5, Romans 6 verse 5, For if we have been planted together, planted together, you can't get away from this fact of our union with Christ, our oneness with Christ, that covenant language. We've been planted together in the likeness of His death. We shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Believers have been planted together with Christ in his death. And again, we see that truth of representation. When he died, we died with him. When he was buried, we were buried with him. Crucified with Christ. Risen with Christ. When he was raised up, we were raised up together with him. You remember Ephesians chapter 4. Verse 4, chapter 2, verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ right now. Right now, in Him. Our spiritual resurrection in Christ has already taken place. You have to be quick until we're dead. And one day very soon, every believer shall experience our bodily resurrection as well unto eternal glory. If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Now look at verse six. Knowing this, So knowing this, dead to the law, dead to sin's condemning power, knowing this, because he taught us this, knowing that our old man, that old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. that we should not serve sin. Knowing this by the revelation of God, being crucified with Christ, the whole body of our sin has been destroyed and put away forever, never to be mentioned again. Turn back to Romans 4. Remember, Paul writes about this. He quotes David, Romans 4, verse 6. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man under whom God imputed righteousness without work, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven. Romans 4 verse 7, verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's the blessed man. The blessed man knowing this, being crucified with Christ, the whole body of our sin has been destroyed and put away. Christ did not die to try to put away our sin. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. By that one offering, He had perfected forever them that are sanctified. We studied this morning from 1 John chapter 4, verse 10, talks about here in His love, not that we love God, but He loved us, and He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sin. Knowing this, knowing this, that we're dead to sin, that the law has no claim on us, that we're made one with Christ, we're raised up together to sit together in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that the body of our sin, all of our sin has been destroyed, never to be brought up again, never to be served again, Look at verse 7 now. For he that is dead, he that is dead is justified from sin. That word freed there is justified from sin. He that is dead. Dead, what? Dead to the law. Dead to the power of the law to condemn. Dead to the guilt of sin. He that is dead is free or justified from all sin, which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. You remember we read that a moment ago. Let me read it again. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. None. He that is dead with Christ, justified from all sin, free from all guilt, liberated in Christ, set free, believers are no longer going about to establish a righteousness of their own, they're submitted unto the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Romans chapter 10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that, what? Believeth, believeth on him. We're told to stand fast in the liberty of what Christ has set us free. He that is dead, or those who have died with Christ, they're justified. They're justified. Dead to sin. Dead in Christ. Now, look at verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Him, we die with Christ. That's what the Gospel declares. Believers being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. What's true of the head, true of the body. If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, He dies no more. He ever lived to intercede for us. Death has no more dominion over him, and death has no more dominion over us. Every believer has this testimony. We're dead to sin, dead to the law, and alive with Christ. We are one with Christ. We have that vital spiritual union with Him eternally, never to be separated. Remember Romans 8 says, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this in John 10, no man can pluck them out of my hand. I, my Father, we are one. Knowing this, Verse 9, that Christ being raised from the dead, is He going to die again? Does Christ need to be crucified again? Knowing this, Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, because death has no more dominion over Him. The law has been satisfied. God is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. Verse 9, Upon the resurrection of Christ depends the whole of our salvation. If the Lord is not raised from the dead and enthroned in glory, we're in big trouble. We're in big trouble. He is too, because it shows himself to be an imposter. If he didn't come out of that grave on the third day, If Christ be not raised up, we're yet dead in our sin. And that man Jesus of Nazareth, let me put it that way, he's in big trouble because he said that he is God. But knowing this, that Christ being raised from the dead, knowing that he is raised from the dead, delivers our offenses, raised again for our justification from the dead, he dies no more. Remember our Lord said to that Martha, Mary, whose brother Lazarus had died. He that believeth in me shall never die. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Yes, I do. Knowing, and again, it gets back to that vital covenant union with the Lord Jesus Christ. What's true of him is true of us. I in them, thou in me, that we may be made perfect in one in Christ. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him or us. Verse 10, for in that he died, he died unto sin one time. by the one sacrifice. Never to be repeated again. Never to be repeated again because He got the job done. He obtained for us eternal redemption with His own blood. For in that He died, He died unto sin one time. One sacrifice for sin. It says that over and over in the book of Hebrews, doesn't it? chapter 10, chapter 9, but in that he liveth, he lives unto God. He lives unto God. Christ died according to the eternal purpose of God as a surety and sacrifice of the covenant of grace. The Lord ever lives to intercede for us He's able to save us to the uttermost that come to God by Him, saying that He does what He ever lives. He ever lived to intercede for us. Our Lord said that in John 14. He said, because I live, you shall live also. For in that He died, He died unto sin one time. In that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Now look at verse 11 carefully. I'll close with this. Likewise, get a hold of that word right there. Likewise, reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now he keeps repeating this and repeating this and repeating this. Now, you reckon it's so? Likewise reckon, reckon. You remember in chapter four that word reckon counted and imputed is used about 10 times. Likewise reckon this to be so for you. to be dead indeed unto sin. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ died as that covenant sacrifice for sin, He died, but He didn't stay dead. God raised Him from the dead because He put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Likewise, reckon yourselves also. Wrecking yourselves also, also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Now he's not saying, you know he's not saying that we're no longer sinners. Because you go on to read in chapter 7, he calls himself, O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Oh, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So, every believer can reckon this to be so. You reckon it's so? I reckon it's so. Reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Sin, power, and condemnation has no claim on the believer. There's no judgment, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So, dead indeed unto the condemning power and guilt of sin, we're no longer guilty. God presents us before His Father, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight, holy and without blame, faultless. Can you get a hold of that? Oh, in this flesh nothing but sin, but in Christ we're justified, perfectly, eternally. Reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Alive unto God through, not to the law, through the obedience, blood sacrifice, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way it works. That's the only way God intended to save sinners. He never intended to save one sinner by the deeds of the law. How many sinners have been justified by the deeds of the law? None that I read of. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is a knowledge of sin, not the removal of it. We're going to see that in chapter 7. So, we're gonna look at verse 12 down through verse 23 next week. For the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. That's what I've earned, that's what I deserve. Death, judgment, condemnation, but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Brother Henry, our dear pastor, He has a very good sermon on Romans 6.23, and the title of it is called Bad News and Good News. The bad news and the good news. Listen to it. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. The bad news, the wages of sin is death. Oh, but the good news, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.