Alright, we'll be in Romans 6. Romans 6 is where we find our
text this morning. And we'll be looking just at
verses 5 and 6. Romans 6, verses 5 and 6. Now Paul here is declaring that
we are raised in Christ unto newness of life. And newness
of life by Christ. And so Paul is dealing with the
absurdity that anyone who would suggest that grace, the gospel
of God's grace, will lead to men and women feeling at liberty
to just live in any sin that they want to, he says it's absurd. It's absurd because one, it denies
the power and the efficacy shed blood and what he's accomplished
for his people. This salvation isn't of our flesh,
right? If it was just a choice of our
mind, then yeah, you could say, well those that believe grace
because it's of their flesh anyway, well then surely they could fall
into any kind of sin and practice sin like that, but since it's
of then it's the Lord who keeps
us. It's the Lord who will give us newness of life. Alright,
so Paul tells us, just in brief, in verse 6, Romans 6, 6, 1, that
our old man is crucified with Christ and that the body of sin
was destroyed by Christ. That, for the purpose that henceforth
we should not serve sin. That's it. It's done. Christ
took care of that aspect. Our title is The Body of Sin
Destroyed. The Body of Sin Destroyed. And as I mentioned to you, there's
not a lot on this. There's not a lot of clarity
on what Paul meant here. And so we're going to begin first
with two points that will be very brief. I'm just going to
go through them, march through them fairly quickly because then
the third point is the one where we'll spend the bulk of our time
this morning. The first one is for us to understand
that the body is united to the head. The body is united to the
head. So, while Paul was addressing
the objection of man raised against grace, he takes up baptism. In verses 3 and 4, Paul speaks
of our baptism in Christ, and he uses water baptism, showing
that it symbolizes what we are in Christ, what has already been
done by the Lord Jesus Christ through his death and his resurrection. Let's read those two verses.
No ye not, Romans 6, 3 and 4. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him, pictured by water baptism
into death, That, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so, when we come up out of that
water, is picturing the very fact that we also now walk in
newness of life. The water baptism doesn't save,
it's just a picture of what we know by faith, what has occurred
by Christ, in Christ, what he has done for us. One of the things that we see
is that water baptism is obeyed by believers. When we hear the
voice of Christ, Christ says be baptized. Be baptized believing
me. And so believers obey the voice
of Christ because we believe that we were crucified with Christ. We died when he died and that
as he rose again, so we have been raised again unto newness
of life by the power and glory that's in Jesus Christ. And what
a baptism hear him and that we obey him.
It's an evidence that we've heard the voice of the Son of God who
said be baptized and so we go and we're baptized. Why? Because Christ is our head and
we are his body and what the head wills to do is the body
does, right? Where the head goes, so goes
the body. Christ is our husband and the
church is his wife, and so we are obedient to Christ our head,
who says, be baptized. That is that we're not following
and obeying the reigning power of sin anymore, but the reigning
power of Christ. You see the picture there? It
shows the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ over his people
so that we hear him and are baptized as he said. No longer under the
authority and the reigning power of the seat of sin anymore, but
now under the reigning power and the authority of Jesus Christ. Why? Because we are members of
his body and of his bones. And I emphasize members of his
body because like Beethoven was a master of repetition. These
are important cues and these are notes that you'll hear as
we go through this message and you'll take note and it'll be
more, more You'll remember it more easily and you'll say, that's
familiar. Yes, I understand that. I see,
Lord, what you're saying there in regards to your truth. All
right, now our second one looks at our planting in Christ's death. Look at verse five, Romans 6-5. Paul here makes a proposition.
He's setting forth doctrine. He's setting forth the truth,
the doctrinal truth for us concerning our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ, our reunion with the head who is now Christ. Four,
he says, if we have been planted together, united with Christ,
grown together, put together, brought together by the power
of God, if we've been planted together in the likeness of his
death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Alright, now there's two important
truths there that are set forth for us to understand. First is
what Christ accomplished in his death, and the second thing is
what is worked in his people as a result of what he accomplished
in his death. Alright, what he accomplished
in his death and what now is worked in his people. So that
in short, Christ's death salvation in his people. He saves
his people unto the uttermost. He's accomplished salvation.
He did not fail. He accomplished salvation. So
that we understand by the scriptures, Christ's death justified us of
our sin. We are justified of our sin.
That's true. It's put away. He's justified
us of that. And that means that he's obtained
righteousness for his people. We are righteous in him through
faith. We are righteous by the Lord
Jesus Christ and he's purged us of our sins so that there's
no more that worry of the sins and what sin has wrought and
what it means for us in the end when we stand before God. And
Christ's resurrection assures us, it declares new birth, with
all the spiritual blessings which Christ has secured for us in
his death, burial, and resurrection, shall indeed be poured out upon
us, according as it pleases him our head, who distributes, or
according as God hath dealt, to every man the measure of faith,
so that some have much faith and many gifts, and some have
little faith and not many gifts, but all are one body. All are
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ because it's his work. It's done
as it pleases him. He's the head and determines
what the body shall have and what the body shall do. All right. Now we come to our third and
main point here, and this is called That's what we're going to be
looking at here. The old man crucified in the body of sin,
destroyed. Let's read verse 6. Romans 6,
verse 6. Knowing this. Knowing this. And whenever you see Paul say,
knowing this, he's saying, this is our experience. We've experienced
the power and the truth of God in this. We know this. We know
this, brethren. He's revealed this to us. that
our old man is crucified with him. All right, and we've experienced
that, whether you think you've experienced it or not, you that
are his. you've experienced that the old man is crucified with
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin or be in bondage to it any longer while
we finish out our days." I forget, the last line there in that first
hymn you sung is that we should live in this light while we continue
on in our travels to the end end of days, right? This is what
the Lord has done for us so that we now know Him and walk in Him
and the truth of Him. Okay now, so let's begin to break
this down. Our old man Adam. Our old man
Adam is born of Adam's seed. It's generated from Adam's seed. And so that means that, for example,
our heart. Our heart, we know in the scriptures,
is a heart of stone, naturally. It's hard. It doesn't hear the
Lord. It isn't moved by the Lord. It
doesn't obey or seek the Lord in any way. It's a hard rock
stone. So the Lord takes out the heart
of stone and gives a heart of flesh to his children, a heart
that is soft, that hears him and is moved by him as he pleases
and wills. Our mind, we're told, is carnal. It's corrupt. It's corrupt. And the carnal mind we know from
the scriptures is enmity against God. It hates God. The natural
mind, born of Adam, hates the true and living God. And then
we know our bodies, they're weak, they're sick, they're infirmed,
they don't do what we would do. You that believe, the body doesn't
do what you would do, it does what it would do, so long as
it can, as it wants to. It's trying to do what it wants
to do, and doesn't believe the Lord. When our Lord said to the
disciples, pray, pray with me one hour, one hour, and they
slept, right? Because the spirit's willing,
but the body is weak. The body's weak. Then our thoughts,
we're told, they're also, they're corrupt. They're corrupt, so
that naturally, we're skeptical of God. We don't believe God.
We're mistrustful of Him. We doubt Him. We think, what
does He mean by that? What is He after here in this
thing? Why is He trying to rob me of my joy and my possessions
and what I want to do? We're mistrustful of God. We don't believe him. It's like
we grew up in Russia or something like that. Have you ever met
somebody from Russia or worked with them? I did a lot and they
were always mistrustful of authority. They always said, I know what
they're up to. They're up to something and it
was always bad. It was always bad. And then our deeds, our
deeds are evil. All right, what we do, even when
it looks like it's for good, it's self-serve. It's to please
us, it's to make ourselves look better, or to make us feel happy
or something along that line, or to soothe our guilty conscience. All right, so that which is born
of the flesh is not spiritual. It's not spiritual. It's of the
flesh. It's of the earth. It's corrupt,
just like Adam is of the earth. and corrupt, especially after
his fall, he became corrupt, that's when he became corrupt.
Alright, in Romans 3, 6, our Lord said, that which is born
of the flesh, his flesh, that which is born of the spirit,
his spirit. That's why the new birth is a
spiritual birth. It's not of this flesh, it's
of the spirit. So, our old man that he's talking
about, which was crucified with Christ, our old man is that product
of Adam. It's what we are in Adam, that
old nature, that nature that hates God, that nature that can't
do anything that is good or righteous in the sight of God. It cannot
work a spiritual work. It can't do that which is righteous
and honorable and spiritual in the Lord, like even faith. Our
faith is not of the flesh. Our faith is of God. It's of
the Spirit. It's a spiritual fruit which
He bears in His people. It's not of the flesh. The flesh
doesn't bear fruit. The flesh is dead in trespasses
and sins, and so anything we do in the flesh, it cannot affect
life, it can't affect righteousness, it can't do anything that is
good or pleasing to the Father. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. It's really as simple as that. So that means in our works or
our will, it will not please God. It's of the flesh. And so
our old man being what it is, was subjected to sin. It was under the rule and the
reign and the power of sin. And all that body of sin, it
wants nothing to do with God and won't hear the truth of God,
it's dead. And so Christ had to put that
old man down, slay that old man. because that old man won't hear,
he won't believe. It's under that rule and authority
of sin. So that old man had to be put
down, crucified, that we might be born again. All right, Romans
6-6 tells us, our old man is crucified with him, rendering
the body of sin powerless over his new creation. It severed
that. Now sin has no power over the
new creation of Jesus Christ. Can't touch it. Can't touch it.
Has no authority, no rule there. It's like a police officer going
to another country and trying to execute the law there. No
authority. Got nothing to say to our citizens
here. So, regarding our sin, Christ satisfied holy justice. The debt of righteousness that
we owe, fully paid. He paid the whole debt of righteousness. Everything that was necessary,
Christ has done so that we are now righteous in Jesus Christ. If we were to summarize Romans
5 verses 9 and 10, we're told that we were justified by his
blood. We were saved from wrath through
him. We are now reconciled to God
by the death of his son and we shall be saved by his life. That's what's shown to us in
Romans 5, 9, and 10. So all this was accomplished
when our old man was crucified. He did it. He did. He did that
for his people. Now I want to give you a little
tidbit of what's coming next week. Lord willing. What I pray
the Lord will help me with for next week. Some of you hear this,
what Christ has done, and you say, I get what you're saying.
I get what you're saying, brother, about doctrine and what it means. I hear it, and I understand the
truth of it, but when I look at this flesh, it's still weak,
and it ain't cooperating. This flesh is still weak, and
I do things that I don't wanna do. I still feel the corruption
in my heart. and the weight and the burden
of sin, I still feel that. Is that normal? Is that normal? And yeah, it is. We all feel
it. Some more than others and some
at certain times than at other times. We do feel it and it is
normal because our salvation, what Christ accomplished for
us, is understood and received by faith. By faith, that's important. So even though we look at this
body and say, well, why is it still the way that it is? Well,
because we understand these things by faith. We believe God. We trust him. We say, yes, Lord,
I hear what you're saying, and I believe you. You are trustworthy. You have accomplished what you
said you accomplished. And I'll show you this. Look
over at 1 John 3.2. 1st John 3.2, again, I'm not
gonna go into this heavily today, I just wanna give you a little
bit so that you're not troubled and afraid in hearing this message,
because we've got to hear this, because this is true, but I want
us to understand what it means. So in 1st John 3.2, the Apostle
John says here, beloved, now, now are we, and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
So he's saying, yeah, there appears to be a gap. We know what he's
done, but I don't see the fullness of it here. and what the apostles
are telling us. Yeah, what we shall be, it doesn't
fully appear yet what we shall be. And Paul affirms the same
thing of our understanding of faith when he said in Colossians
3, 4, just stay there on first John, when he said, when Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall he also appear with
him in glory. then you're gonna appear as one. You're gonna be just like him
in glory. All this will be done away, because
right now, that which we understand by faith shall all become reality. Our faith shall become sight. And so this is why, and this
is what we'll see more next week, 1 John 3.3, he says, and, Every man that hath this hope,
again, we're waiting for this, we're trusting, we're believing
God concerning what Christ has done for us. Every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. And what he's saying is, as the
Lord reveals to us what Christ has done for us, there is a greater
and more growing eagerness and desire to be what he is and to
be with Him, to know Him as He is, because now we know and understand
it's not like, oops, you stepped here, go down the slide, you're
out of here now. No, the judgment is passed. It's all put away. It doesn't
matter what we do, that's done, it's settled in Christ. It's
not by our works, Christ did it. We are righteous. And so
now enjoy and in peace, not fearful, right? We're not afraid that
I'm gonna get bombed down the head by Christ or by God, that
he's gonna destroy me now if I do this or do that. No, we're
not, it's not that, it's done. We are righteous. And so now,
having this hope, we want to know him. We want to see him.
We want to know him more and more and grow in this. And that's
where this willingness and desire to be like him, to know him.
I'll even say one thing, where Paul said that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection. We'll get to that next week,
but yeah, so that's where he creates that in us, that desire
and willingness to know him and to walk as he walks and not to
be an offense and do those things that are not convenient in the
flesh. So now this week, though, I wanna lay the foundation for
our hope in Christ, and that is how and How is it possible that I now
walk in newness of life if I'm still here in this body? Well,
it's because of Christ. We'll see that. Alright, so Romans
6, 6 again. Romans 6, 6. So knowing this,
knowing this, this truth here, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin or continue in darkness and continue in that
bondage because it's been taken off. We've been called out of
the prison and the light of Christ is revealed to us and he's drawing
us to himself. What he's saying there Well,
this part that I want to show you now is dealing with the body
of sin being destroyed. Being destroyed. Now, this is
not an exhaustive list. I'm not trying to say this is
exhaustive and the end all be all. But I want to show you the
scriptures, several scriptures that helped me. Because like
I said, when I was reading it and looking at it, It was, there
was, I think one guy listed like 12 different thoughts on what
it could be, what people think it is, like all these different
things. And I thought, this is like crazy, it's really that
hard? And it was, but I mean, but once
the Lord showed me some scriptures, it began to open up. And that's
what I want to show you this morning, so that it helps our
understanding of what our Lord accomplished in and for his people,
so that while we wait, or while we're waiting here, What's going
on here while we wait for the hope? Why are we waiting? How
do you even have a hope to wait for His appearing? That's of
God. That hope that we have, looking
for His appearing, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, that hope, that's
of the Lord, that's not of the flesh, that is of the Lord, that's
His power, His spirit. So, alright, the body of sin
can be understood as that mystical working of sin, that death, that
evil, sin. understand the depths of it and
the pollution and the corruption that is there. So that body of
sin is the mystical working of sin. That is the cause of sin,
the acts that are done in sin, it's reigning power over the
old man, right? It's why the law works enmity
and wrath in our members. The law isn't bad. but the law
works wrath and enmity in our members, in our flesh, because
of the body of sin. And that's why we cannot, even
now, why we cannot keep the righteousness of the by Christ, by faith in Christ. We keep the righteousness of
the law, but we can't produce righteousness through the works
of the law, because there's just wrath and enmity in this flesh. All right, now, hold your place
there in Romans, put a marker, and let's look at Colossians
2, verse 11. Colossians 2, verse 11. Now,
we read this at the beginning of service in Colossians 2 and
3, but again, notice the similarity in the language. If you weren't
here for that, I encourage you today and this week, read Colossians
2. Read Romans 6 and read Colossians
2 and 3, and you see Paul's dealing with the same subject here. And
he says, verse 11, in whom also or because of Christ's work,
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ." So God is the one, just like we saw in Romans 6, it's
God It puts off the body of the sins
of the flesh. The law, to help you understand
what he's saying there and talking about circumcision, what the
law required is that every Jewish male be circumcised. In the law, the law required
every Jewish male be circumcised. Why? What is circumcision? Why was
circumcision so important? Believe it or not, if you flip
back there, put a marker in Colossians, but flip back to Romans, but
look in Romans 5, verse 12 actually provides a help, because it's
shining a light back there on Genesis, what happened there
in Genesis when Adam fell. It says, Romans 5, 12, wherefore, as by one man sin, sin which
already existed, that body of sin already existed there, right? We know the evil one, the devil,
he was a sinner. And then he was there in the
garden. And so as by one man, sin entered into the world, through
Adam there, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. So the reason why I showed you
that verse is because we now know that Adam became corrupt
and died. And that means all Adam's seed
that was in his body, all the human race that was yet in his
loins was corrupted and sinned in Adam. So every time Adam gives
his seed and his wife gives birth, that child is corrupt and a sinner
just like Adam. He's just like Adam, and so what
circumcision pictured, what that was a picture of, that cutting
of the flesh, that cutting off of the flesh of a male child,
it meant one, that man that child, that boy was righteous and now
he was going to keep the law, work in the law and do the works
of the law for righteousness. He was committed, he was doing
the law and when he had children, sons and daughters, sons and
daughters now came law and worked and labored under
the law. That's what it was was showing
there. And so then that child would
also be circumcised. He would have that flesh cut
off and removed and thrown away so that now he could continue
this going so that not only he himself being righteous but that
his children, his generations, his seed would be able to keep
the works of the law. And that's what it was picturing,
that that generation was righteous, sons and daughters. That's why
only the males had to do it, because Adam's seed was corrupted. And so it was picturing that
cutting off that circumcision of the flesh, which we know only
God can work in the heart. It was just a picture, it didn't
really do anything because Adam, what is it, Adam is a living
soul who died and he cannot, though he cut his flesh, cannot
effect righteousness in himself by the works of the flesh or
in another by the works of the flesh. But Jesus Christ, Jesus
Christ who is a life-giving spirit, He has spiritual seed which cannot
be corrupted by the flesh and so by his seed he gives life
and thereby he circumcises the heart, he circumcises that flesh,
the body of the sins of the flesh, cut off and removed so that now
we're of his righteous seed, his spiritual righteous seed and we follow Him. We obey the
Lord. We're in His body now. We're
of His seed. That's the new birth. Born of
Him. Not by something we did, something
He did. And it can't be corrupted by
this flesh. It can't be touched by this flesh. It has no power, no authority
over it. Alright, so Christ's death and
resurrection accomplishes this circumcision for His children.
That body of sin being destroyed. He's the one that does it, and
so if you were to read, you know, reading Colossians 2, 12, we're
not going to read it now, just for time's sake, but when you
read it, you see, oh yeah, he's talking about our baptism into
Christ, and our union with Him, which is a picture of His death,
where we died in Him, and rose anew in Him, that we're born
of His seed, and that's why we're circumcised, and the body of
sin has been put off. It's been put off, the body of
the sins of the flesh been cut, All right, so it's Christ's circumcision,
not man's, but Christ that destroys or puts off the enmity of this
flesh. He's the one that circumcises
us, and for you that hear him and believe him, he's cut off. The reason why you hear and believe
is because he's cut off that enmity of the flesh. He's put
it away so that the hatred of our nature, the hatred of God
by our nature, which doesn't believe God and doesn't believe
his grace, right? The natural man says, Lord, I
knew thou wert a hard man and that thou reaped where thou sowed
not. I knew that you were hard. That's
how he'll be judged. You knew I was hard? Then why
didn't you labor harder under the law and try to bring forth
fruit if you knew I was so hard? But we that have been touched
by grace and had that circumcision by the flesh know, Lord, you're
gracious. You're gracious and you bring
forth fruit where I couldn't do nothing. And you did this,
Lord, it's all yours. It's all to your praise and your
glory. So that now, having that flesh
cut away, that deadness, that body of sin whereby was the enmity
and the hatred being removed, now we hear his voice. We hear
him and we hear what he's saying and we have life of God even
now. We've been given an ear ear of
God which is have faith revealed to it and believes hears says
yes Lord I see what you've done that I couldn't do this you've
done it all you've done everything perfectly Lord thank you remember
we've read actually in Isaiah 25 verse 7 where he said he will
destroy in this mountain the mountain of our salvation that
Christ accomplished, that he wrought and worked for us, I
will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast
over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations."
That's what he accomplished. That body of the sins of the
flesh, that veil over us that cannot see or believe or trust
the Lord has been removed, taken off. cut away by the death of
Christ. He did all that. He accomplished
that in his death. So it's not just our sins, but
the whole principle and the power of sin, all that it works and
does, has been destroyed in regards to his people. It has no power,
no authority, no ruling or reigning authority anymore so that by
His spirit, we know God and now know how to worship the Father
in spirit and truth. Again, living in faith, believing
Him, trusting Him that He has done this work of salvation.
All right, so that's one of the things. Go over to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, I want us to continue
with our understanding of how the body of sin is destroyed
and what that means. Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15. Hebrews 2. All right, for as
much then, verse 14, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death, right, he had to take on a body of flesh
that he could die, that he could lay it down, that through death
his crucifixion where he also put to death our old man and
all our sins that through death he might destroy him, there's
that word again, destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And so many people,
many people who don't even know the truth of the gospel, they
labor in fear, they're fearful of death, they have some kind
of an understanding that when they die, Then comes the judgment,
and they're afraid, and so they're laboring under works of righteousness
to try and soothe their conscience or find some deliverance or some
freedom from this fear of guilt and condemnation that is now
in their heart. But for his people, Christ destroys
that. We know that that's been settled,
that's been taken away. Anything that the accuser throws
at us can't stick because Christ has put away Now before Christ's life was
born in us, we too were told, labored under sin, we too did
the works of the devil. Look at Ephesians 2. I'm not
making this up, but look at Ephesians 2, and we'll pick up in verse
1, and we'll read down through verse 3. Ephesians 2, 1 through
3. where we're told, where we started, we were dead also. We
were dead in trespasses and in sins. And it says, you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And look, verse two,
wherein in time past ye walked according to the course, the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as
others." What he's showing us there is that we were all in
that body. We were in that body under the
power and the control of the prince of the air. That dark
one, that evil one, just doing what he said. He was ruling and
reigning over us so that we were just subject to his power, doing
whatever we thought we wanted to do, but it was what he would
have us to do. We were all participating in
that body of sin and flesh, that dead body of sin and flesh, and
we were unable Being burdened, having that veil over us, we
were unable to break ourselves out and to deliver us from that
bondage. We were in that kingdom of darkness
and happy about it. Didn't even know, didn't even
understand that there was any deliverance from that body of
sin. But now we hear Christ and in
Colossians 1.13 it says, Christ who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, that body of sin that ruled over this old
man of flesh, from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. He's taken us out of that
body, and we're now in the body of Christ. We're not under the
rule and the authority of that body of sin anymore. So after Christ, Well, John tells
us that many false prophets are gone out into the world. They're
of the Antichrist. They're of his body. talking
what he says and talking about nonsense of religion and how
to save yourselves and do what you need to do and be moral and
good people that God will receive you, right? They're liars and
deceivers. They're not declaring the grace of God in Christ. But
after Christ comes and circumcises our heart, gives us, delivers
us from that veil and from the kingdom of darkness, John says
in 1 John 4, 6, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. He won't hear of grace. He won't
hear of Christ's satisfaction. He won't believe it. He's going
to keep on laboring and working for his righteousness to try
and free himself because he can't hear us. He's still got a veil
over his heart. He's dead in trespasses and sins. Hereby know
we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. We know whether
Christ has destroyed the body of sin in us or in another because
they hear us. And they that don't hear us,
we know that they're yet under the bondage of sin and darkness. They think it's still in their
works, something they've got to do to save themselves, because
Christ doesn't teach us that. Christ teaches us that we're
free and delivered from the bondage of sin. It's all been put away
in the death and resurrection of Christ. All right, this brings
me to our last item that I want to show you today, and that is
how that Christ has delivered us now. We that hear him, he's
delivered us and delivering us. You may still not understand
it fully, but he's teaching us and showing us so that we cease
seeking righteousness by the law. He delivers us so that we
stop trying to seek a righteousness through the works of the law.
And I mean that we hear, you know, them that hear us versus
them that don't hear us. All right, them that hear us
versus them that don't hear us. Now look back in Colossians 2. Colossians
2, verse 14. I'm gonna show you how that Christ
delivers us from seeking righteousness through the works of the law. Colossians 2, 14. One thing that the Lord teaches
us and reveals to us is that all the law was given, that law
of Moses, what Moses gave there on Mount Sinai, the law of Moses
was to picture Christ and to picture his work of salvation
in his saints, what he works in his saints. It was just a
picture, it was a shadow of what Christ himself does so that when
Christ, when that body, when the substance comes, We stop
looking to the shadow of the substance and look to the substance
itself. We start looking to Christ. We
stop looking at the law and look to Jesus Christ who is our salvation. Now, the reason why we don't
look back at the law in our members. It stirs up enmity,
it stirs up strife, it stirs up fear, and fighting and biting
one another, looking at the law and holding one another accountable
to that law. That's what that does, because
we can't even keep the spirit of the law, because back in the
flesh, we can't keep the spirit I should say, in the flesh, before
Christ, we can't keep the spirit of the law. Now, in Christ, it's
not the law that we keep, but the law of faith, believing God.
We obey God and we believe the law written in our hearts, trusting
and believing Him, that we are righteous in Christ. And so,
the law, if you remember, the law gives no age. to you in keeping
it, right? The law doesn't say, here, let
me give you this little encouragement and a little grace to help you
keep this law perfectly. No, the law says, here's your
encouragement. Do this and live, or else you're
gonna die. That's it. And it doesn't give you any power
or any help to keep. It only declares us guilty or
righteous. And so Christ on the cross, what
we're told here in Colossians 2.14, that he was blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was
contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. He was destroying the body of
sin. He was destroying all that which
we couldn't do and which was hanging over us and preventing
us from knowing the true and living God. And having spoiled
principalities and powers He destroyed the principalities
and powers. That former head, which had the
rule over our bodies, which had the rule over the old man of
flesh, and was operating as part of the body of sin, He, we are
told, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. So that everything, the whole
body of sin, because there's many members, the whole body
of sin, which was preventing us from knowing the truth, Christ
put it all the way, the whole thing, left nothing undone. Everything
that stood in the way, Christ destroyed it. So that now we
have free access to the Father. We are, even now, in the body
of Christ. The whole thing, and that's why
it's so glorious. And when you see that, how glorious
it is, He circumcised my heart. He took me out of the kingdom
of the devil. He put away that law, satisfied
the whole law, and I'm dead now to the law so that it has nothing
more to say to me. There's no fear. There's no fear
of retribution, no fear of judgment, no fear of wrath. It's all put
away by Jesus Christ. Let no man, therefore, let no
man, therefore, judge you and meet or in drink, or in respective
and holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, right? Sabbath
days, as we saw, which which is, well, the word days isn't
there, but we do understand to mean all the Sabbath days, all
those that were practiced by the Jews, but it even means the
seventh day Sabbath, and it means the Sunday Sabbath that other
people have invented and brought in. All those Sabbaths are put
away. It's all fulfilled by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is our rest now. We cease
from our labors in Christ our Sabbath. He's put that away. Which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ. The body of the sins of the flesh,
destroyed. So now we are in the body of
Christ himself. So Christ has come to we don't
now turn back to those things that were a shadow, we look to
the substance, we look to Christ. So the law, as you read down
in Colossians 2.23, Paul tells us that the law will not help
you in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. It's not going
to help you in the satisfying of the flesh. So, righteousness
is even now already worked in us by Christ. And by His power
we are now in the body of Christ. We're in the body of Christ.
I'm going to close with Ephesians 1. This will be our last passage. Ephesians 1, go to verse 20. Ephesians 1.20, he says, we'll
read down through 23, which God wrought in Christ, Ephesians 1.20, which God wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at
His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above, notice this,
far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, right, whatever is of that body
of sin, Ephesians 1, 20, 21, all the way to the end, whatever
is of that body of sin, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet. and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all." Right? Sin used to fill us, but
now it's Christ. Sin no longer fills us. Sin no
longer rules us. It's no longer reigning and ruling
over us and determining where we're going to be. Christ rules
over us. We are His body. We're not of
that body of sin anymore. We're not of that body of Antichrist.
We're of the body of Christ Himself. And so He rules His body. He
reigns over His body. It's not the body of the Law
of Moses that rules over us. Not the body of Moses, but the
body of Christ. We are, alright? So, as I said,
next week I want us to look more at this power of Christ working
in the believer. And that's how we labor, not
in fear and threats and in doubts and worries, but in love and
peace. We do rejoice that we are in
His body, that He's accomplished everything. We're not working
for anything. We're laboring in joy and in
peace. We're resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ in love, in love to Him and love to our brethren. All
right, so I pray, I hope that you can say now, Man, it wasn't
hard to understand or to grasp there, that seemed pretty easy,
but if it was, then bless God and praise Him for that, so rejoice
in Him. Alright, let's pray. Our gracious,
merciful, holy, heavenly Father, Lord, You are so wise and wonderful,
Lord, knowing what we are in Adam, how we could not free ourselves
or deliver ourselves, Lord, that You sent Your Son, that You sacrificed
your son, that he sacrificed himself willingly to put away
the sins of the flesh, to crucify our old man, and that the body
of sin has no power, no authority over the work of Christ, no power
or authority over his seed. Lord, we thank you that you have
birthed us in Christ, that we are of your seed, in your people,
in the family of God, and having your spirit, we cry, Abba, Father.
Save us. Keep us. Keep us ever looking
to Christ. Help us not to turn back and
look at those things which we feared in the flesh. But Lord,
ever keep us looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in His
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Alright.