him To know the power of his
life his resurrected life The fellowship of his sufferings
to be included in what he accomplished and to be made conformable Unto
his death now conformable is the key word Here as far as teaching
concerning his death and how I Affects us what our interest
in that when conformable is defined here as receiving the same form
as So it's maybe not exactly the way we would Think of the
word conformable. It's actually to receive the
same form as his death And this is what we see in Romans 6, 1
through 11, where we read we're buried with him in baptism and
raised again to newness of life. And baptism is the form of this.
It's the symbolism of it. But look at that Romans 6 with
me again. That passage there in Romans
6, we'll just look at part of it. Verse 8, now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. The spiritual
language, the spiritual language. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. The wages of sin is death and
he put away. Seeing by the sacrifice of himself
For in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth
he liveth unto God likewise that's Us getting in on it. That's that's
our involvement in it. That's our Conformity to it in
the sense of our text Blackwise reckon you also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin But alive unto God through Jesus
Christ Our Lord let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body That
you should obey it in the lusts thereof. So Notice there that
there's a new relationship to sin Because of not the symbol
Not just getting wet and getting out but because of the reality
of that, to be dead with Christ and alive with him in a spiritual
sense. The fellowship of his sufferings,
which we talked about last time, is that we get in on what he
accomplished at Calvary, spiritually. But being in the same form of
his death is a spiritual reality that results in a transformation
of life. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. Nothing is the same as it
was before, once the Lord saves the sinner. But the reality of
our confirmation to his death, our receiving the same form of
it, is all of the experience of salvation. and our interest
in it, our partaking in it, us being made conformable under
his death, our experience of it. And it's everything that we preach,
it's everything that we live, it's everything that we believe.
Christ crucified, he's dead. We're brought into the same Form
is that When the Lord saves us and this
is what what we mean we're going to think about this for a while
When the Lord saves us the first thing perhaps and we don't we
can't chronologically Map out what you know the Lord's saving
of a sinner is But the first thing maybe we
should consider about it is that he causes us to own our sin It's a revelation of himself
that causes that we can't see sin by looking at ourselves we
see sin by looking at him I've seen thee when I see if thee
and I pour myself jump set and But this salvation sort of begins
there. And I say sort of because again,
it's not a chronological thing. The Lord saves you and all of
it happens, I guess it was. But perhaps the first consideration
is that to own our sin. No sinner will ever come to Christ
until he sees his need of Christ. You're gonna have to know the
problem before you're gonna look for the solution. And this is
pictured in all of the miracles. Naaman the leper, he didn't have
any interest or even awareness of God or his prophet until he
was struck with leprosy. Now God has to strike us with
leprosy spiritually, the leprosy of sin. That which poisons our
blood by nature has to come to the surface, so to speak. And
we see ourselves abhorrent and incurable. And then we cry for
mercy. So you see why we kind of start
with this, to own our sin before God. Now, how is that in the
same form as Calvary? When we experience that salvation,
it says we're being made, we're receiving the form of Christ
crucified. And how is that true in owning
our sin? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ owned our sin when he
offered himself as the sacrifice for it. We know from scripture
also that he was God's spotless lamb and that he could not redeem
us unless he was sinless, spotless, but he took our sin and our iniquities
were laid on him. And he owned that before God. Here's us owning our sins before
God. Romans 3.19, now we know that
what's thing soever the law saith, to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Guilty before God. So the Lord
owned our sin, and we're made conformable to that. We own our
sin before God. We stand guilty before God, counted
guilty, because of our sin and our Lord Jesus Christ was counted
guilty because of our sin. And what comes next? If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So
we confess before God told Moses how the Israelites would be saved
from the poison of the fiery serpents Fiery serpents had entered
the camp of Israel and many were bitten and they began to die
people were dying But before the Lord gave Moses the remedy
to that and told him before the the brazen serpent was ever raised
before anyone ever Ever looked and lived the people were brought
to the place where they cried. We have sinned And that's in salvation where
the Lord brings us And that's to be brought to the same image
of the death of Christ for when he owned our sins on Calvary
He confessed them before God Turn with me to Psalm 22 We're always careful to say that
it was our sins that he bore it was our sins that he owned
and confessed as his On the cross psalm 22 one my god my god Why
has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? I? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and
am not silent, but thou art holy. He answers his own question,
doesn't he? Why have you forsaken me? Because you're holy. That's why God forsook his son
on Calvary, because God's holy. He must and shall punish sin.
And when the Savior bore my sins on the cross, when He took our
sins in His own body on the tree, the Father forsook it, the Father
poured out His wrath upon Him and forsook Him as we should
have been forsaken, we ought to be forsaken of God. We ought
to experience the hell that Christ took for us on Calvary. Thou
art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers
trusted in thee, they trusted in thou didst deliver them. They
cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But I am a worm." That's why
we can trust. He said, they trusted in you
and you saved them. And the way that that was possible,
the reason that happened, the reason they were able to trust,
and find mercy with God is because Christ did not. On Calvary there
was no mercy. God's wrath was mercilessly poured
out upon him. He says, but I am a worm and
no man. That's us by nature now, but
he's confessing that because He bore our sins, a reproach
of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying
he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver
him, seeing he delighted in him. Now the Lord, in a sense, did
deliver him. He raised him from the dead,
but that was because his sacrifice was successful. In the bearing
of our sins, In the in the in the experience of the wrath of
God for our sins. He did not deliver him. He did
not spare him that There was no sparing of the Savior on the
cross And that's because He took our sin. He took the consequences
of our sin. He took God's wrath in our place
for our sin and So we're conformable unto his
death in that way. We receive the image of him because
we must confess our sins before God. But we don't confess them
that we might be punished for them. We confess them knowing
that he was punished for them. We confess them by faith in him
who bore them, who put them away, who saved us from them. who washed
us from them in his own blood. And while we're in that Psalm,
stay there at Psalm 22 for a second. While we're in that Psalm, when
God saved us, what else happened? And what other way did we receive
the form of Christ? Salvation on the cross was Christ
in what he did. He owned my sin as his own. He confessed my sin as his own. And in what other way are we
made conformable unto his death? When God saved us, what did he
cause us to do? We cried. We cried for salvation. Did our Savior do that? Look
at verse 14 in Psalm 22. I'm poured out like water and
all my bones or out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and
my feet. I may tell all my bones, they
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not far, be not thou far
from me, O Lord, my strength. Haste thee to help me." That
word help is save. Hurry up and save me. He cried,
and we're made conformable. We receive that same image. Salvation
on Calvary and salvation of my soul and my experience of it
are the same. Because I cry out to God for
mercy in Christ. How is the Savior gonna ultimately
be delivered from the sin that he bore? Because of his efficacy,
because of the precious nature of his blood, because he is worth
his blood. is Priceless to redeem all of
my sin. That's how I'm saved too That's
that's me That's my experience I've got to experience that I've
got to look to him in that character, and I've got to cry to God Like
he did Save save May the result of what Christ did on Calvary
be salvation for me. When he bore my sins on the cross
and paid my sin debt with his own blood, the wrath of God was
poured out on him. He paid for my sins. And we do that too. when we experience
salvation and receive the same form as our Savior. Our sins are paid for. And listen
to the way it's worded in the scripture, Isaiah 40, verse one,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity is pardoned.
How? For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Israel, the saved ones,
they got what they deserved. It was Christ that took them.
It was Christ that bore them. It was Christ that suffered,
but he did it for us. You see that? We have received
of the Lord's hand double for all of our sins. How? In our
Savior. We're in the same form as Him
in that. We're conformable to Him in the
payment of our sin, in the ransom of our soul. When He put paid
to the ransom of our eternal souls, we satisfied our debt
to God. That's the only way a sinner
can. It has to apply to me. I've got to be in the same image
of that, that word conformable. My sins are required of me. My
sins find me out. But my only hope of making satisfaction
for those sins is my Savior. You see why it has to be His
death. We have to receive the image
of His death. And that's our actual experience
now. This is not something that we do. We experience that in
our soul. We own our sin before God in
our soul. We cry out to God for mercy in
our soul. We offer an offering to God in
our soul. But Christ is that offering.
You see. And it might go without saying,
but we will say it anyway, because the payment that we offer, just
as in the Old Testament, the lamb was offered by faith. By faith, Abel offered the more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, when he offered the blood of
that lamb without blemish and without spot. Just as in the
Old Testament, the lamb was offered by faith. We, by faith, trust
our soul's liberation. We trust the redemption of our
souls to that offering that is acceptable unto God, that one
offering for sin, whereby we're sanctified forever and are redeemed. Listen to Psalm 130 in verse
seven. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord, there's mercy. And with him, there's plenteous
redemption. We read that while ago, we've
received of the Lord's hand double for all of our sins. That's not
a quantifying statement. That just means he is plenteous
in redemption. Double, plenty, over and above. We're more than conquerors through
him. that loved us. Because of Christ crucified,
God is well pleased with us. That's what salvation is. And
Paul says in our text, I want to know more about that. I want
to experience that more and more. I want to see myself as I am. That I might more and more with
all my heart and with increased faith flee to Christ. That I
might own my sin before him constantly. Confession for our sin is perpetual
in this life. Before the Lord. I want to cry
to him more. I don't want to imagine myself
for a moment to be self-sufficient. I don't want to lean on the arm
of the flesh. I want to cry to him. I want to experience, I
want to be more and more made and receive the image of his
death. That's fulfilled in me. My pastor in Texas said one time,
very profoundly, I thought, but the Lord gave him The Lord gave
him something to say. He said, look to the cross until
all that is on the cross is in your heart. That's what our text
is talking about. Everything that Christ accomplished
on Calvary, we experience it in here. We own our sin as he did. He owned my sin. We cry unto
God as he did. Hurry up and save me. Make haste
and save me We know we trust him And that trust Of him in that To know who he is and what he
did and what it means to me The woman with the issue of blood
she Before she ever touched the Savior, she said, if I can just
touch the hem of His garment, I'll be healed. I'll be healed. That's faith. Because of who
He is, I'm gonna be saved. He's gonna save me. And just as we are made to trust
the Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith, that also is a conformance
to Christ in His character, Our great Redeemer you look with
me at Psalm 16 5 That's what Christ accomplished
on Calvary taking place in my heart That's what we mean by
being receiving the image of what he did who he is and what
he did look at Psalm 16 5 in our trust in our faith in our
trusting of the Lord and We're receiving the image of the Lord
Jesus crucified. Look at Psalm 16, five. The Lord
is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest
my lot. The lions are fallen unto me
in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also
instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and
my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope. Is that not the confession of
the believer? He's all my hope, I'm gonna rest because he's able. For thou will not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. You know, you remember when,
Simon he said that's not that David. That's not David saying
that that's the Lord Jesus in the book of Acts He used that
very verse And attributed those words to
the Son of God that will not leave my soul in hell I will
not suffer thy holy one to see Corruption and that's the Lord's
trust in That's his faith of his father. As a man, he trusted
God. He said, I know, I know you won't
leave me. It's not gonna happen. Because you're at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. Thou will show me the path of
life, verse 11, in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy
right hand there are pleasures. forevermore. Do you think your
faith is really worth anything before God? It's the means he
uses to save you. But even my faith in Christ is
so weak and full of sin, if it's all
I had, I'd have to go to hell. But my sure and certain hope
is that Christ trusted God as my substitute. And we experience that trust
in our hearts now. We receive the image of that. Because he cried that, that cry
is in our heart. We receive the form in the new
man, believing with all the heart. We receive the benefit of Christ's
fulfillment of all righteousness. All of my, as far as just works
of the flesh are concerned, my faith, my obedience, my knowledge
of what I am, none of that's meritorious. But it is a receiving of the
image of the, Is being made conformable unto his death and his death
is salvation His death for me Once the Lord Jesus Christ had
offered his perfect sacrifice That was accepted of the father
in that he raised him from the dead He ascended unto the right hand
of the throne of the majesty on high And so have we. We receive the same form as him
in that too. Ephesians 2.4, but God who is
rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace,
are you saved? And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. And in the ages to come, he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. We understand a little something
about the grace of God and how glorious it is that God Almighty,
holy, uncompromising, Yet yet his throne is the throne of grace.
He's the God of all grace But the very riches of his grace What a revelation in God's Word The very riches of his grace,
I don't know how to define that I don't know how to describe
that But maybe that which is most precious riches are precious
priceless valuable and The pricelessness of his grace is his kindness
toward you. Toward sinners. Through his son
and what he did for us on Calvary. It's worth thinking about. May
he give us grace to rejoice in that grace and see the richness
of it in our Savior.