Welcome to our program. Now the
title of the message today is Dying and Living in Christ. Dying and Living in Christ. I'll take that title from the
book of 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in verse 10 where the Apostle
Paul wrote that he's always bearing about in his body or in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. So, dying and living in Christ. Now, Paul had been talking about
the glory of the gospel ministry, the gospel of the good news of
salvation and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the
grace of God, based upon the finished work of Christ, who
is none other than God in human flesh, who went to the cross
to pay for the sins of his people, his sheep, his church, which
he bought with the price of his precious blood unto death, and
established righteousness that demands life. You know, the principles
in Scripture are very clear, very simple, and very true. One
of those principles is this, sin demands death. Sin demands
death and deserves death. The wages of sin is death. But
righteousness demands life. And we don't have any righteousness
in and of ourselves. The scripture says there's none
righteous, no not one. There's none good, or doeth good,
no not one. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And that's what we deserve, death,
under the sentence of death and condemnation. Therefore, if we're
going to be saved, there must be righteousness, and we don't
have it. Well, how do we get righteousness? Well, God provided
and gave righteousness by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through
His obedience unto death, so that we're saved and have life,
eternal life, through the righteousness of our God and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul in Romans chapter 8, he
said the body is dead, that is, this physical human body is dead
because of sin. The aging process, sickness,
disease, and physical death are the product and consequence of
sin. But he said the Spirit is life because of righteousness. That is, the Holy Spirit gives
life to sinners because of the righteousness of Christ. Now
there's another principle that's laid down. The work of Christ
for us is the ground and cause of life. The Spirit's work in
the new birth to give life is the fruit and effect, or the
result, of what Christ accomplished. Now, when the Scripture speaks
of the believers dying in Christ and living in Christ, we can
look at that in several ways. First of all, here the Apostle
Paul is talking about the Christian life here on earth. as we persevere
in the faith through the grace of God, as we go through the
suffering that identifies believers with Christ who suffered for
us. He's not talking about all suffering
of all men here. You know, suffering is common
to everybody here on this earth. And all Christians will suffer
in common ways. For example, just because you're
a Christian doesn't mean that you're immune from death and
disease, like some preachers say. But that's not so. But there
is a specific suffering that only Christians go through. And
that's what Paul's talking about here in 2 Corinthians 4. It's
the suffering that comes over our identification with and testimony
of Christ and His gospel, His truth. It's when the world stands
in opposition to the church over the truth that they hate. The
Bible says the natural man will not receive the things of the
Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're spiritually
discerned. Christ said this is the condemnation that light has
come into the world and men love darkness and hate the light. He told his disciples in John
chapter 15 He said marvel not if the world
hates you. It hated me before it hated you.
He said in John 16, he said they'll throw you out of their churches
and they'll kill you thinking they're doing God's service.
Why? Because they hate the gospel. Christ said in the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, he said blessed are you when
men persecute you and revile you for Christ's sake, for the
gospel. Remember, that's what they did
to the prophets, he said. And he said, you're identified
with him and his people. And that's the suffering Paul's
talking about. But before I get to that, I want to just go back
to Romans chapter 6. And I want to show you something.
There's basically three ways that believers identify with
Christ in his dying and his living. The first way is the way of substitution. It's the way of representation.
And it refers to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ himself
as the cause and the ground of our whole salvation. That's what
Paul's talking about in Romans chapter 6 in verse 3. He says,
No you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death. Now, baptized there doesn't refer
to water baptism, the ordinance of baptism. Baptized, the word
literally means placed into. And so you can read it this way
in verse 3. Know you not that so many of
us as were placed into Christ or united to Christ. Now, when
did that happen? Well, that happened before the
foundation of the world when God chose his people in Christ. God chose a people. and placed
them into Christ. He put all the responsibility
of our salvation upon the person of His Son. Paul spoke of that
in 2 Timothy chapter 1 when he was writing to Timothy of the
salvation which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Paul said in Ephesians 1.3, he
said we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Christ is known as the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. So we who are saved, we who know
Christ, we who come to faith in Him, we were placed into Him
before the foundation of the world, but we were also placed
into Him in His death, baptized into His death. Now how? We'll
look at verse 4 of Romans 6. It says, therefore, we are buried
with him by baptism into his death, that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life, for if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection. So what he's talking about is
Christ's substitutionary death. He was the Redeemer. He's the
sin-bearer. He was made sin, the Scripture
says. That means God charged him with the sins of his people. Christ, who knew no sin, it was
done for us that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. He died for us that we might have life. And when he
died, I died. Now, I wasn't there personally,
but I was there in Christ. And that's the only way I can
explain that to you. He was my substitute. He died for my sins,
not his own. My sins were put away at the
cross when Christ died. The blood was shed for me. And
when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. And when he arose again the third
day, I arose again the third day in him, you see. Now that's what it means to live
and to die and live in Christ. That's the ground of salvation.
That's the good news of the gospel. That's why we preach Christ and
Him crucified. That's why we glory in nothing
but the cross of Christ. He is my salvation. Now, as a
result of Christ, the one sacrifice for all my sins, the one substitute,
the one mediator, the one surety, the one sin-bearer, as a result
of his finished work on Calvary, then there comes another dying
and living in Christ. And that's this, that's what
Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 4. That's when a sinner is brought
into the new birth, when he's born again by the Spirit and
brought into union with Christ, placed into Christ by faith,
he then identifies with Christ and His truth and His people
and the whole world stands against him. Paul said it like this,
he said in Galatians 6.14, he said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Now what he's
saying there is this, the fact that I glory in nothing but the
cross of Christ, in other words, the fact that I say that my salvation
is totally finished and accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross, the fact that my testimony is the way of salvation, the
one way of Christ and Him crucified, the world therefore looks upon
me as being cursed, but I look upon the world as being cursed.
In other words, there's an opposition. Now, look at how Paul describes
this here in 2 Corinthians 4. In verse 7, he says, But we have
this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Now, we have a treasure. What
is that treasure? Well, he talked about the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God has been glorified in our
hearts. We have the gospel. We have the
empowering and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit because
of what Christ did. People speak of Christ in us.
That is Christ in us by His Spirit and by His Word. We're the people
of God. We have the good news. But we
have this treasure in an earthen vessel. What is that? That's
a clay pot. I stand before you each Sunday morning here on this
television program. And as years go by, you're not
going to see me getting any younger or getting better. You're going
to see me getting older if the Lord doesn't take me home to
be with him or if he doesn't come back to get his people.
And you're going to see the effects of aging. You're going to see
weakness. Sometimes my voice will crack.
Sometimes I'll have sinus conditions. You know, all those things that
you have to put up with, I have to put up with them while I'm
preaching to you this message. I have people say, well, why
don't you do this? One lady said, why don't I color
my hair? You know, don't want the gray
hair. Well, we have this treasure in weak clay pots. I preach as
a dying man to dying men. I hurt, I have pains, I have
sickness, I have sorrows, just like you. And that's what Paul's
saying here. Now, what is the purpose of that? Well, there's several things,
but he sums it up right here, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. The power in preaching is not
in me. It's in God. Paul said, who is
sufficient for these things? Not us. Our sufficiency is of
God. I hope and pray that you can
get past me and see the glory of Christ that I'm preaching
to you. That's my prayer. I don't want you to just look
at me and determine the value of the message upon me, but upon
how it fits with the Word of God. And so Paul goes on, listen,
he says in verse 8, we're troubled on every side, but we're not
distressed. We have trouble, But he says
we're not distressed. In other words, we're not anxiously
worrying to the point of unbelief. We still look to Christ. He says
we're perplexed, but not in despair. There are a lot of things that
go on in my life that I do not understand. And I don't understand
why God does what he does sometimes in Providence. I understand a
lot of what God has shown me in his Word. But sometimes I
do things, and I think, why did I do that? I see other people
do things, and I say, why are they doing it? And I'm perplexed,
you see. But not in despair. Not to despair,
because I know this. You know why? Because all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them that are
the called according to His purpose. God's in control. If I didn't
believe that, I'd go crazy, I believe. You see, God is a sovereign God
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
I know, I may not understand what I do and what other people
do and what's going on in it, but I know God has a purpose
for it. It's for his glory and the good
of his people. So we're not perplexed. Verse
9, he says, we're persecuted, but not forsaken. Men persecute
us. The world comes against the church,
but that doesn't mean that God has forsaken us. That's well
within God's plan. Peter said we should expect it
and thank God for it. It's a trial of our faith. It
doesn't cause faith or create faith, but it sure reveals it
and strengthens it. He says we're cast down but not
destroyed. We may come to the bottom, but
we're not going to be destroyed. He said in Romans chapter 8,
he said, who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ?
And he lists all those things that are bad from our viewpoint,
but they can't destroy us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can condemn us? The sufferings
of this present world are not even to be compared with the
glory that's to come. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. He says in verse 10, we're always
bearing about in the body, that is in this physical body, the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. We're always suffering because
of the gospel. He said in Romans chapter 8,
we're led as sheep to the slaughter all day long, you see. We stand
with Christ and our brethren against the world. We're like
Abel against Cain, and Cain murdered Abel. And in doing that, we identify
with the dying of Christ. Why did the wicked human race,
including us, as it was represented there, come against the Lord
of Glory? It's because of our wickedness
and evil. God meant it for good. We meant it for evil. Now, when
God saves us, we identify with Him and we stand with Him in
that suffering. The Bible says that we're children
of God. If so be we suffer with Him in this manner. Hebrews chapter
12 speaks of these sufferings as the chastisements of a loving
father, which all believers suffer in some degree or another. And
if you don't suffer them, you're illegitimate children and not
true believers. He says, but this suffering,
this dying, Paul many times had the sentence of death upon him
from men. There was one time when several
of his former Jewish brethren vowed that they would not eat
or sleep until Paul was dead. They put a contract out on his
life. We see many of the martyrs in the past who suffered for
the gospel and died for the gospel. But we as the body of Christ
and as witnesses for Christ in this God-hating world, Christ-hating
world, we identify with Christ in His dying when we suffer with
Him. But it doesn't stop there. He
says that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
body. that we might persevere unto faith. Why? Because we're
so powerful? No. We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Why? Because we're so good? No. We're still sinners saved by
the grace of God. Why? Because of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. The life that He has given us
by His Spirit will never die. You know that? It's manifest
in our body when we continually look to Christ, when we continue
to witness for Christ. And look at what he says in verse
11. He says, For we which live are always delivered unto death
for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest
in our mortal flesh. Now the world will stand against
us. And in times, in certain times, they may deliver a son
to death. You know, we live in a country today where we have
given ultimately by God spiritual freedom, religious freedom, freedom
to worship God as we see fit, as we feel that He guides us.
Now, don't mistake religious freedom for religious truth. I mean, you're free to believe
a lie if you want to believe a lie. You're free in this country
to worship an idol if you want to worship an idol. I hope and
pray that you'll seek the true and living God through Christ
and worship the true and living God. But if you don't, you're
free to do that. The Constitution allows you that
right. The Constitution gives me freedom to worship God. So
we're blessed to live in a day of religious freedom and liberty.
But it wasn't always so. In the days of the apostles,
they had the Jews and the Gentiles, the Roman government, standing
against them. And many times Paul was delivered up unto death
to be killed. But why was it so? Now, one day
they did kill him. He was delivered many times,
but one day they did. But what happened? That the life
also of Christ might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
In all of that, he continued to preach the gospel. In all
of that, he continued to look to Christ. So he says in verse
12, so death worketh in us, but life in you. Many times Paul
would go into a place and his life was threatened if he preached
the gospel. But he went ahead by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit, and he preached the gospel, and you
know what happened? God saved his people out of that
land. He raised up churches in the
cities. You know, 50 years after the death of Christ, there was
a true gospel church in every major city of the Roman Empire.
That's an amazing thing when you see how much opposition came
against Paul and the other apostles and evangelists. He says, death
worketh in us. We may be under the sentence
of death, we may be suffering, they may put us in jail, but
life in you. God, out of all that turmoil,
in His power has saved His people from their sins and brought them
to saving knowledge of Christ. He says in verse 13, we having
the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe and
therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore we speak. In other words, if we believe
it, we're going to preach it. You know, I hear people all the
time talking about, say, well, you know, he believes grace,
but he won't preach it. My friend, he doesn't believe
it. Don't fool yourself by stuff like that. That's just human
psychology. That's not the Word of God. Paul
said, we have having the same spirit of faith according as
it is written. What does God's Word say about
a person who claims to believe in Christ but will not preach
Him? The Bible says plainly that person
does not truly believe. He doesn't know Christ. Now let's
not try to reason it out and figure it out for ourselves.
Let's just read the Word of God. And he says, I believe, therefore
I've spoken. Paul's saying, it doesn't matter
what man does to me, whether they arrest me, beat me. Paul
was beaten several times, put in jail. He said, I believe this
message. This is life and death to me.
He said, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. He said, I believe
it, therefore I speak. And he says, we also believe,
all the other apostles and evangelists in the churches, and therefore
we speak. So he says in verse 14, knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also
by Jesus and shall present us with you. Now think about this. What if
Paul does die physically? Well he did. They cut his head
off. Every one of the apostles were
martyred brutally, except John who was exiled on the isle of
Patmos and died of old age. Many, many true believers down
through the ages have suffered unto death. Well, what does that
mean? Does that mean their message
was no good? Does that mean that they didn't
really have the power of God, the glory of God behind them?
Does that mean they were failures? He says, no. He says, I know
this. that he which raised up the Lord
Jesus out of that grave. Christ's death was not a defeat,
it was a victory. He did die for the sins of his
sheep. He put them away. But in doing
so, he established righteousness, and so he died and was buried
and rose again the third day. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father. He's coming again to take control of this world,
gather his people, and judge the world. That's against him. His death was not, he arose again.
Well, the death of Paul, the death of the martyrs, for the
faith now. That's not a defeat either. We're going to be raised
up with Him. We're going to die. Now some
of us may die a martyr for the cause of Christ. Some of us may
die of old age. Some of us may die the death
of disease. If we die in Christ, now that's
the third way we die and live in Christ. Remember I said there
were three? His death on the cross, substitution,
and representation. And then our living the life
of faith as we identify with Him in our testimony to the world,
dying daily, but living in Him, being preserved by Him. But the
third one is this, all who die in the faith, die this physical
death, shall be raised unto glory. We die in Christ, we'll live
forever in Christ. He was raised from the dead,
we shall be raised with Him. And so he says in verse 15, for
all things are for your sake. When Christ did what he did,
he didn't do it for his own sake. He did it for his people and
his ministers. That's the way we should feel
too. We're not doing it for our own sake. We're doing it for
the, we're servants of the people. And he says that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God. Now here's what it's all about.
It's all about the glory of God in Christ. It's not about my
reputation. It's not about my name. It's
not about my glory. It's not about yours. It's not
about a denomination. It's not about a particular circle
of friends. It's not about any... It's about
the glory of God. The glory of God is on the line
in all of this. Well, let me tell you something.
God will be glorified. He was glorified in the death
of his son on Calvary. He's glorified in the lives of
his people as they go through this world. and he'll be glorified
in our death and our resurrection in the end. All things for the
glory of God. In verse 16 he says, for which
cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
this physical body, yet the inward is renewed day by day. That's
our spirit. That's everything that we are,
living forever for Christ. And he says, for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory." What we go through here on this earth
is life compared to the glory that's to come. And so verse
18, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The glory to come which we don't see now, we see through a glass
darkly, Paul said. We don't gauge things by what
we see in this world and our circumstances physically. We
believe the Word of God. Those things which we don't see
fully yet, they're eternal. They're going to last forever.
This suffering is just for a little while, but that glory is forever
in Christ. I hope this has helped you to
understand the Word of God, the Gospel of Grace in Christ. If
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announcer and he'll give you the details. The title of this
message is, Dying and Living in Christ. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word.