man's disobedience. Many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. One man, the God-man mediator,
died for sin. We're all born in it. One died
for it. The Lord's speaking or the Spirit
of God speaking of the Lord, Isaiah 63, I have trodden the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. So we're
all born in it, one died for it. But then there's a death
spoken of that a believer enters into in this life. He enters
into this, and that is a death Unto sin a death unto sin now
hold your place in first Corinthians turn to Romans 6 Romans chapter
6 Romans chapter 6 I'd like to read verses 8 to 11 Romans chapter 6 verse 8 The
Apostle Paul says now if we be dead with Christ We believe that
we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, he died bearing the guilt of his people in his own body. He died as a representative of
all of his elect. And the scripture says he died
unto sin. What does that mean? He died
for a specific purpose. Here's what he did. He died unto
sin and that dying unto sin means he died to put away the guilt
of his people's sin. He had no sin. He was without
sin. But He died being made sin and
died unto sin, meaning He died for a purpose. He didn't die
for no purpose. I grew up hearing that the Lord
Jesus Christ died and just kind of made a blanket, just a blanket
death. He just kind of died, you know.
And He died to make the payment for sin. And all you have to
do to make it effectual is you have to just accept it. Well, you know, that works. That works. You mean it's not
effectual unless you do something to make it effectual? No. No,
no, no, no. He died unto sin. He put away
the guilt. He died with a purpose. And then
the Apostle Paul says back in Romans chapter 6, he says in
verse 11, likewise, Likewise, just as He died to
put away the guilt of His sin, likewise, the Apostle Paul says,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now here's what
he's saying. He died to put it away. He died unto sin to put it away.
Reckon yourselves likewise, having died in Him, that it was done
for you. And therefore, you yourselves
have now died unto sin totally by the virtue of our union with
Him. When He died, the covenant head of His people, He died for
our sin at Calvary and all of His people found in Him. When
He died, we died. You put away the guilt of it.
What's the wages? What's the penalty for sin? The wages of sin is death. He died unto sin. He died not for his. He didn't
have any for his peoples. And when he died, we died. And the guilt of sin was put
away for us. So there's no guilt. There's no condemnation. Now,
I do understand that sin is ever present with us. The guilt of
sin and the justice of the law to condemn us now, though, is
gone. And we feel the motions of sin
within us, stirring within, raging within our old man desiring to
reign. But the Scripture says forth
that we're dead unto sin. It has no dominion over it. We're
dead to it. You can't hurt a dead man. You can't hurt him. He's not there. There's nothing
that you can do to him more than what... He's dead. Where are
you going to go from here? We're dead unto sin. So we're
all born in it. The Lord died for it. And then
the scripture says that a believer dies unto sin daily. We do that. There's a daily remembrance
that we're dying. The sin of God's people had been
pardoned, paid for, put away. And we have no reason to fear
condemnation or eternal death. We don't love sin anymore. We used to. We loved it. But because the Lord has removed
the dominion of it, a believer is one now said to be dying daily
unto sin. Daily remembering that the guilt
and the debt of his sin has been put away by the blood of Christ. Now, secondly, a believer is
one that is said daily to die unto sin. Paul said, I die daily. I remember, I remember, I remember
that the Lord's put away my guilt. I died in Him. There's no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus. Secondly, when he said I die
daily, a believer is one that lives daily with the realization
that he will die physically. Now, when Paul said I die daily,
he was admitting something. He was admitting his awareness
of being daily in danger of being martyred for the sake of Christ. Actually dying because of his
stand and faithfulness toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you
know, all men, if you ask me, do you believe we're going to
die? Oh yes, yes, yes, I believe we're
going to die. Yeah, everybody dies, you know. But that's not what Paul was
saying. Everybody knows that they're going to die. When Paul
said, I die daily, he was saying more than it just being an accident
or some disease. His admittance was he died daily
with the realization and the awareness of this world's hatred. of the gospel that he preached
and the God that he loved. That's what he's talking about.
I die daily with this awareness. The world hates the God that
I serve. He was saying that he knew that
there were many haters of the gospel that would gladly take
his life, thinking that they were great defenders of the faith. John 16 to the Lord said this,
They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh
that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. That's what they did to Stephen.
That's the way Paul was. Paul the Apostle, that's what
he was, the Saul of Tarsus. He was going after those of the
way. And when the Lord stopped Saul of Tarsus on the road to
Damascus, he promised Ananias, after he had stopped Saul and
converted him, sent him into Damascus, they let him in, and
the Lord told his servant, Ananias, concerning Ananias' apprehension
of approaching Saul of Tarsus, go and see him, he's over here
at this tanner's house, go see him. Lord, Lord, we've heard,
here's what the Lord said concerning his promise About Saul of Tarsus,
Paul the Apostle's suffering, Acts 9, 15, 16. Go thy way, Ananias,
for he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the
Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And I will show him
how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Immediately. That was in Acts
9, that the Lord converted him. Listen to this in Acts 9.22,
right after his conversion. The amazing thing, the thing
that amazes me about this, the Lord taught Paul the apostle
the gospel. The Lord taught him. The Lord
taught him. And I'll tell you how well he
taught him. You know, we're admonished, don't lay hands on a novice quickly. Somebody, you know, they want
to preach, you give them some time, you wait, you wait. He
converted him in the first part of chapter 9, Acts. Acts 9.23. Scripture says, after Paul the
apostle began to preach Christ in the synagogue, and after that
many days were filled, the Jews took counsel to kill him, he
began preaching immediately. The Lord taught him, qualified
him, gifted him to preach and they wanted to kill him because
of what he was preaching. Why? Because man by nature hates
the God that we serve. He hates God's people. Romans 8, 7. The carnal mind
is enmity against God For it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. I'm telling you, when a believer
crosses paths with a religionist, and you tell them what you believe,
the God you serve, I'm going to tell you something. They're
not going along with you. They will not. They despise the
God that you love now. They despise the gospel that
you love. Now believers know this, and
they believe it by faith. But still, it's hard for us to
perceive the wickedness of our old man. That old heart that
is evil, spiritually dead, and has no possibility of change.
I told you that a few weeks ago. I heard this real highfalutin
religious guy says, God, only the Lord Jesus Christ can change
your heart. As I said here a few weeks ago,
that sounds great. That sounds so spiritual or something,
you know. Amen, brother. Only God can change
your heart. Scripture never says the heart's
changed. He removes it and gives you a new one. What is flesh
is flesh. Spirit is spirit. God must remove
and give a new heart for us to love Him. So Paul the Apostle,
when he was talking about I die daily, he knew that he died daily
unto sin with the realization that the Lord had put away his
guilt, that there was no condemnation. And he realized, secondly, that
there was a good possibility. What the Lord had taught him,
shown him what he had seen. Look, he was in the deep. He'd
been beaten. He was stoned. He realized that there's a day
coming. I realize this daily, that my
death may be as a martyr because of what I I believe in the Lord
I love. But lastly, there's another sense
in which Paul and every believer dies daily, and it's this way,
as though today would be the day. Every believer knows that the
time of our death is ordered by the Lord. We all know that. We're not gonna die until the
Lord He calls us home. We're not going to die. Brother
Henry, Mayhan, Sister Doris, we prayed for years. May God
take them. Lord, take us tonight. Take us
today. Lord, if it be your will, take
us home to you. We prayed for years. And here
recently, the Lord is pleased to take Brother Henry. I wrote
Sister Doris and told her, I said, Doris, I rejoice with you." I
said, I know you're saddened. She wrote me back and told me,
she said, I had 72 years with Henry. You know, what a blessing. You know, that was his wife.
He loved her. She loved him. And she misses
him. But the thing is, she rejoices. The Lord was pleased to take
him home. He didn't know when. Paul didn't know when. But he
lived daily with this realization. It could be today. Today could
be the day. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 and 2, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time
to die. A time to plant, a time to pluck
up that which is planted. The Lord has ordained the time
of our departure. Paul said, I die daily. I die
unto sin. I die with a realization daily
that I'm going to die. Then he died, I mean he lived
daily with this realization. I could be today. Today could
be the day. I and you, many of you, have
watched believers die. Some lingering, some today. You never expected it. You just
never would have thought that when you got up today that today
would be the day. You thought, oh what a day holds. And living with the realization,
now listen to what I'm saying. Living with the realization to
a believer that today could be the day of our departure That
is truly living. That's truly living for the object
of God's mercy. To think that today could be
the day, by faith, watching, realizing that right now we're
on the verge of eternity. And today could experience that
which is precious in the sight of the Lord. The death of His
saints. And today could be the day that
we actually see the Lord Jesus Christ. That Job said, in my
flesh, I'm going to see God. I'm going to see Him. And not
another. Not going to be a representative,
it's going to be Him. I'm going to see Him. God's people
know that there's coming a day. It's going to be their last day.
Why not today? One day it's going to be. Paul
was a man just like we are, had the same doubts, had the same
fears. One that admitted that in him, that in his flesh, he
knew that there was no good thing, but he confessed. Philippians
1.21, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He knew that the Lord was the
giver of life. He knew that He was the sum and
substance of life. He knew that He's the hope of
eternal life and to be with Him is to be like Him. Oh, but He said to die is gain. Immediately. Now you just think.
These bodies are getting, running down. They just don't respond
like they used to. But to be loosed, from this body
of pain and suffering, loosed from seeing through a glass darkly.
Think how much we don't see right now. We just see through dimly,
you know. I can see pretty good right there,
but I'm missing a whole lot. I know you're out there. There
you are. But to be loosed from seeing
through that veil, loosed from sin and mortality, to receive
a changed body, a body like His, no more tears, no more pain,
no more sin. Why then should we not live with
the attitude that today could be the day? With anxious anticipation,
that's the most peaceful way to live. Today could be the day. Fred, this is it. It's the last
day. The last day I'm going to have
to put up with this. The last day I'm going to have
to suffer here. The last day. Everything that glitters in this
world certainly loses its luster when we die daily. Dying unto
sin. Knowing that we're going to die,
but oh, what if it's today? Getting up and thinking, what
if the Lord would call me home. That which we fear the most by
nature, death, is actually revealed to be the means by which the
God of all grace ushers His people into His glorious presence. He
has the keys to death and hell. And death to the child of God
is not His enemy. The Lord has destroyed all the
enemies of His people. Death is the vessel of crossing
over into glory. Death, oh death, says the believer,
the one who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, where is thy sting? Paul said, I die daily. I protest,
I solemnly attest to something that is sure. By your rejoicing,
I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus,
by the witness I'm gonna set a standard here. He said, how
much I'm telling you that what I'm saying is sure to me. He
said, I die daily. And we might be found to be also
by the grace of God. I pray God bless this to our
hearts for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, brother Gary. Let's stand if you would please.
Let's sing 357. 357. Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer
to Thee, Even though it be a cross that breaks of me. Still, O my song, shall be Mirror,
my God, to Thee. Mirror, my God, to Thee. Mirror to Thee. Though like the wanderer, the
sun gone down, darkness be over me, I rest astound. Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer,
my God, to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. There let thy way appear, sense
unto heaven. All that thou sendest me, in
mercy given. Angels to beckon thee, nearer,
my God, to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. Live with my waking thoughts,
Bright with my praise, Thou of my stony griefs, Bethel I raise. Sublime my woes to Thee, Mirror
my God to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. Or if, on joyful wing, leaving
the sky, sun, moon, and stars forget, upward I fly. Still, O my soul, shall be nearer,
my God, to Thee, nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. Father, we thank you. We thank
you. Not like you're deserving of
and not like we ought to. We thank you for another day. Thank you for your blessings.
Father, help us, if you would, to love you and to worship you
in a measure like you're so worthy of. Pray for the loss that our
families and our friends and relatives. We know that you can. We know that you have. May it
be your will. Keep us and guide us if you would.
These things we ask and pray and thank you. Amen.