I am. We're turning to Romans chapter six this evening. The book of Romans, the chapter number six. We're going to read a number of verses at the beginning of the chapter. We welcome one and all in the Savior's name. Thank you for joining with us and those who are watching in online, we welcome you in our Savior's precious name. Romans chapter six, and we'll begin at the opening verse, the verse number one. What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound god forbid how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein 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 by baptism unto 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 have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, The body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, or since 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace. We'll conclude at the end of the verse number 14 and this our scripture reading for this evening. Identity is one of those buzzwords that you hear employed frequently today on the news, in radio programs and during political debates. Our identity as Christians is a matter that we began thinking a few weeks ago about. Who am I as a Christian is one of those profound spiritual questions that demands an answer now admittedly we haven't got very far in our studies thus far because we've only come to consider that we are those who are united to christ we thought firstly about the reality of this union and how it is spoken of in scripture we thought about that statement that paul and also john uses frequently with regard to this union that we have with Christ that we are in Christ or we are in Christ Jesus or we are in the Lord and we also see this union with Christ pictured for us pictorially through various imagery we think of the vine and the branches and how we abide in Christ we are grafted into Christ we think about the foundation and the superstructure that which is above the foundation and how we are joined to christ we think about how christ is a cornerstone and we as lively stones are united to christ who is the cornerstone we thought about also the head and the body another image of this union this joining together of us and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then last time we thought about the nature or the very essence of this union. We thought about how this union is a spiritual union, it's a mystical union, it's a personal union, it's a present union, it's a transforming union, and it's a permanent or it's an indissoluble union. Well tonight we want to think, as I mentioned on the Lord's Day, about the blessings and the benefits. flow to the child of God from their union with Jesus Christ. Now our shorter catechism is a good place to begin because our shorter catechism gives to us a number of the benefits or all of the benefits that flow to us because of our effectual calling. Effectual calling is that calling by the Spirit of God in the Gospel that convinces us, first of all, of our sin and our misery and enlightens our minds to the knowledge of Christ. It renews our wills and convinces us and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the Gospel. And it is through this effectual call of the Spirit of God That we are united to Jesus Christ God called us in the gospel He made us willing on that day the day of his power and by faith we came and we trusted in Christ and in that in that experimentally and our experimental Experience with God we were united to Jesus Christ in our effectual calling but the shorter catechism has asked the question what benefits do they that are effectually called partake off in this life Those who are effectually called, we could say those who are saved, we could use that word. Those who are redeemed, we could use that word. Or we could use the phrase, those who are united to Christ. Because really it's speaking of pretty much the same experience. Well, this is the answer that is given. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them." And so then the question is asked, well what are the benefits which in this life accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? The reply is given, the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of faith, and perseverance therein unto the end. But brethren and sisters, we must not think that the benefits of our union with Jesus Christ end in this life. but rather the benefits that flow from our union with Jesus Christ, they go beyond this life. Because the catechism goes on then to ask the question, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? And the answer is given, the souls of believers which are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory and their bodies, now listen to this statement, and their bodies being still united to Christ. do rest in their graves till the resurrection. But our benefits or the benefits that come from our union with Christ does not end at death because it goes right to our resurrection. Because the catechism goes on to say, at the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed. in the full enjoying of God to all eternity. All of these benefits from the moment of conversion to the moment of our ultimate and ending glorification All of these benefits flow to us because of our union with Jesus Christ. And it is only because of our union with Jesus Christ that these benefits are ours, because we do not merit any of them. We do not attain to any of them, but rather they come to us through the reality, through the fact that I am united to Jesus Christ. I want to set before you this evening a number of blessings and benefits that flow to us due to our union with Jesus Christ after conversion. The first blessing that we want to think about tonight is the blessing of victory over sin. Victory over sin. Whenever we come to consider our union with Christ, it really is the very foundation of our Christian lives. We must always think of our Christian living as having that inseparable connection with the work that Christ did for us at the cross of Calvary. What Christ did for you and I on the cross, what he did on our behalf, brethren and sisters, is what he has accomplished, or what he has accomplished for us is ours by faith. Now if we were honest and frank with one another tonight, we would all have to confess that the Christian at times struggles with sin. If that wasn't the case, the Holy Spirit would not have inspired men to write words like the ones that we find in 1 John 2 verse 1. My little children, these things I write on to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so we all have our struggles with besetting sin, sin in our lives as believers. What is the Christian to do? when they come to this struggle with sin? Can the believer know victory over sin? And if they can, how does that come about? Well, Romans chapter 6 deals with our freedom from sin's power and sin's dominion. Now, we'll never be free in this life with regard to sin's presence. And this battle with our sin will always be ongoing. We read of that in Romans chapter 7. Paul struggles with this sin in his own personal experience. But it deals here with our victory, or our liberty, our freedom from sin's dominion. Notice the verses 6 and 7. Knowing this of Romans chapter 6. Knowing this that our old man is, or it's better phrased, was crucified with him. that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. In verse 14, we read, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace. Verse number 18, it tells us there, Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. It must be noted regarding Paul's teaching on freedom of sin, it's not a teaching that we become sinless in this life, but rather a teaching that speaks of our freedom from sin's dominion. And that teaching is closely connected with our union with Jesus Christ. By virtue of our union with Jesus Christ, can we know victory over our sin. When we come to find that victory over Sorry, we come to find that victory over sin was procured by Christ in His death. When we are brought into union with Christ in His death, then we are brought into union with the victory of Christ over sin. Romans 6 verse 6, knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin. The old man, the old nature was crucified with Christ and we must appropriate that by faith. We must appropriate by faith what has already been done for us by Jesus Christ who is our representative man. For we are either in Adam or we are in Christ. And so what Jesus Christ did on the cross, he did for me and he did for you. And what did he do? He died for sin. Through faith we are to reckon ourselves, that's what Paul says. Verse 11, likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. By faith, I'll repeat it again, by faith we are to appropriate Christ's victory over sin. How do we deal with the temptation to sin? Well, let me quote a gentleman who's just retired recently from the free church, the Reverend Greer. I was listening to him with regard to this matter and this is what he said. If temptation comes down the road, what do you do? I'm sure you met it today. What did you do with sin's temptation? If it meets you down the road, well this is what he says. He says, get down on your knees and thank God that you were in union with Christ at the cross. that the old nature is crucified, and you thank God that there is power in the death of Christ to deal with that sin that is thrusting itself into your face, and by faith, you appropriate the power of the cross for that moment. You say, Lord, I died unto sin with Christ. I don't want to do this. Deliver me from it. By faith. You and I can stand into the victory of the cross, brethren and sisters. We don't deal with sin ourselves. We deal with sin through the victory of Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross, He accomplished for all that are united to Him. And it is for us to appropriate that by faith, what the Son of God secured for us. The battle with sin, brethren and sisters, undoubtedly, is a daily battle that we're going to face but it is one in which we do not need to be overcome by but we can be over comers and we are over comers so we are because of this vital living real present union that i have with jesus christ is a little bit like the little illustration i'm sure you've heard it before the little girl behind the door and the devil comes knocking and it's as if it's sin and she instead of opening the door she asked jesus christ to open the door on her behalf and christ repels the attack of sin and satan in that little girl's life and that's what we do we call in As it were, the Lord, we stand into His victory. He died for sin. He died to deliver us from sin. He shall save His people from their sin. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, in the verse 14. Let me give you this verse. It's speaking here about 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph. Now notice the words, in Christ, in Christ, and maketh manifest the Savior of this knowledge by us in every place. He causes us to triumph, not in ourselves, but in Christ, in Christ. I would encourage you after this meeting is finished, for your own private edification and study, you take that little phrase in Christ and see all of the blessings that are yours in Christ, in Christ. I said, remember what Paul, Paul's struggle in Romans chapter six, and so Paul, he deals with, as it were, the theology in chapter six of Romans, the epistle to the Romans. He says that we died in Christ, Christ died for us at the cross and we died in him. We sing about it. I have died in thee. We sing about it in our hymns. And so we died in Christ. And then Paul, he comes to speak about his experience in this world. And what was Paul's experience? Paul's experience was one of a struggle between a law that was working in his members, a law that was compelling him to do that which God forbid him to do. And yet that old law, that law and his members let me read it for you verse 23 of Romans chapter 7 but I see another law my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then notice how he cries out. Think of him, the lament. He looks at his life. He looks at his present experience. Yes, I died in Christ, but this is now my present experience in life. And he says, O wretched man that I am! Who, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But he doesn't end there. Look what he says, child of God. I thank God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Here's the victory. My victory's in Christ. He'll deliver me, as it were, from this. And thank God for that. Christ gives the victory through Christ. Paul was assured that he would know victory over his sin. Having trusted, brethren and sisters, in Jesus Christ, we are no longer under the dominion of sin. We're no longer under sin's dominion. Oh yes, sin's presence is there, but the power of sin has been broken. No longer under sin's dominion. Let me maybe give an illustration. Maybe this will help, maybe it will not. Just imagine I leave the shores of Northern Ireland and I take up residency in Australia and then I decide to, because I like the weather, and I like the culture and I like the food that I want to become a citizen of that particular nation. All my loyalty and all my responsibility to the British state would no longer be on me if I became a citizen of another nation. But imagine war broke out and Charles III decided to write me a letter and say in that letter that he would have me as king as keen to serve him on some battlefield? Well, I would have the right to reply in the following way. Dear Charles, I was once under your reign, but now no longer. I am now an Australian citizen. All my loyalty is now to a different nation. You have no longer authority over me. Well, such is our approach when tempted to sin, You know, we're able to say to sin's temptation, dear sin, I was once under your reign when I was an Adam. Now, as one who is in Christ, I am no longer under the reign of sin, but I'm under the reign of grace, and therefore, sin, you shall not have dominion over you. I'm no longer your servant, but I am now a servant unto righteousness. I have yielded my members. My loyalty is now to a better master, a greater master. We could never know victory ourselves, but we can know victory from sin by faith in Jesus Christ. But let me add this cautionary note, lest you think that, well, because I'm in Christ, well, then I can just live as I please. Well, that's simply not the case. As those who are in Christ, it compels us, brethren and sisters, to live as those who are united to the most holy being that exists. You are united to the most holy being that exists. You are united to God. And thus it is for you to live righteously. Shall you live any longer in sin? No. You're to live on to God and on to righteousness. And so thank God there is victory over sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. Another benefit that comes to us through our union with Christ is acceptance with God. It's amazing how people go at such great lengths now to be accepted by their peers and by their family and by their friends, by society at large, and yet they give little thought as with regard to whether or not they're accepted by God. In Ephesians chapter one, Paul begins to write in verse three, blessed be the God and Father for Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In Christ. There's the statement again. And then he begins to list all of the benefits and the blessings. And I don't have time to read them. We read about election, we read about predestination, we read about adoption, we read about redemption but notice there the words in the verse number six to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in ourselves it doesn't say that it says that we are accepted he hath made us accepted in the beloved the beloved son the lord jesus christ Whenever we were in Adam, we were rejected, but now in Christ we are accepted. How is it that I can approach holy God? How is it that I will stand in His presence someday? How is it that I will know that God will hear my prayers? Well, the sixth verse of Ephesians chapter one gives us the answer. We can approach God confidently. We can come to stand in God's presence. We can be assured that God will hear our prayers because we are accepted not in ourselves or because of anything that we have done, but because we are accepted in the beloved. Mr. Spurgeon said, when a person is accepted with God, he may come to God when he chooses. He is one of these courtiers who may come even to the royal throne and meet with no rebuff. No chamber, he said, of our great father's house is closed against us. No blessing of the covenant is withheld from us. No sweet smile of the father's face is refused us. God the Son is accepted by God the Father. And since the Son is accepted by the Father and we are in the Son, then we are accepted by the Father through the Son, through the Son, and only through the Son. How does a man or woman get to heaven? It is through their union with Jesus Christ. he brings us home he makes us as those who are accepted in the beloved one person wrote the words near so very near to god near i could not be for in the person of his son i am just as near as here he dear so very dear to god dear i could not be for in the person of his son i am as dear as he it's a marvelous thing The story is told of a Christian who presented the gospel to a lady one day. That lady responded by saying that she tried hard to please God, but then she added these words, I'm afraid that God will never accept me. The faithful witness replied, I agree, and he never will. which prompted a look of astonishment in the woman's face at his seemingly harsh pronouncement. But the Christian went on to explain, no, he never will, but God has accepted his son. And if you have accepted him by faith, you will find acceptance, the acceptance with God that you desire. Octavius Winslow, he said, Behold your present standing believer in Christ. Turn your eye away from all your failures, your disobedience, the flaws and imperfections that mark your sincere endeavors to serve Christ and to glorify God and see where your true acceptance is found, even in the beloved of the Father. Accepted in the beloved is the record that will raise you above all the fears and despondency arising from your shortcomings and failures and fill you with peace and joy and assurance. I couldn't come to God to pray tonight after my sin and my failures today. That's what you may be thinking. And those failures and those sins, they must be confessed and they must be repented of. But brother, sister, you can come before the Lord tonight because you are accepted in Christ. You're accepted in Him. He is our plea. All His merit has been made over to us. His righteousness is our righteousness. And therefore, beloved, we are to know our standing with God. We are to know what that standing is and what is our standing tonight. We are accepted in the beloved. That's what we are. That's our standing tonight. Again, I say our position within Christ does not mean that we live as we like, but it is because of that position that we live godly and holy and righteous lives. Another benefit that comes to us, brethren and sisters, through our union with Christ is assurance. Assurance. Lack of assurance is a matter that many Christians struggle with in their Christian lives, so don't you think that you're the only one? And yet an understanding of our union with Jesus Christ can bring a person to the full assurance of salvation and of faith. Oh, we must always remember that it's not the degree or the quality or the abundance of our faith that saves us, but rather it is the object of our faith that saves us, Jesus Christ in Christ. The object of our faith, our salvation lies and therefore also in Christ our assurance lies. Listen to these words in Romans chapter 8 and the verse number 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation to those who are in. Christ Jesus, no condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in him is found, alive in him, my living head, and robed in righteousness divine. And thus bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the prize and the crown through Christ my own. The word condemnation in that verse means there's now no judgment. No judgment falling down. It's kata, the preposition kata is placed before the main part of this word condemnation. There is no judgment falling down upon those who are in Christ Jesus. Why, brethren and sisters? Because judgment has already been passed on him. When he died on the tree, judgment was exhausted in Christ. And he's satisfied. divine justice on our behalf. And what he did is mine. Through this union, through faith in him, it's all mine. And thus I can be assured, I can be assured that my sins have already been judged in the person of God's dear son. Harry Ironside remarked, what unspeakable relief. It is to the bewildered, troubled soul, oppressed with a sense of his own unworthiness and distress because of frequent failures, to learn that God sees him in Christ. And as thus seen, he is free from all condemnation. He may exclaim, but I feel so condemned. This, however, is not the question. It is not how I feel, but it is what God has said. He sees me in Christ, risen forever beyond the reach of condemnation. Oh, dear struggling, doubting Christian, if you're always looking within, you're never going to come to the assurance of faith. Now, no doubt we need to examine our lives, and we need to do it frequently. We need to test the fruit. But true assurance, lasting assurance, comes not from looking to ourselves, but rather it comes to looking to Christ and our union with Him. Every blessing, including the blessing of assurance, is mediated through Christ. It is a union which began before the creation of the world when God in love, predestinated His people to the adoption of sons. It is a union which allows the believer to know that they are forgiven and redeemed and justified and reconciled. It is a union with Christ that looks to our future with confidence because we have believed the gospel and the Spirit has sealed the believer and He has guaranteed their future inheritance. Listen, assurance does not come from what we do. assurance comes from who we are, who we are, and who are we? We are those who are in Christ, in Christ. Let me give you one final benefit that comes from our union with Christ, and it's this idea of perseverance. The right understanding of this doctrine of our union with Christ affects how we understand the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Listen folks, the very nature, now let's go back a couple of weeks ago. We thought about the nature of this union with Jesus Christ. The very nature of this union, this union that God forges with his people is one that is unbreakable. We use the word indissoluble. It is an indissoluble union. It is a union that is permanent in nature. John Calvin said the Christian will obtain an unwavering hope of final perseverance if he reckons himself a member of him who is beyond all hazard of falling away. The head will not fall. And thus those united to the head cannot fall. Oh, we may stumble, we may falter. There are times when we find ourselves in the dust because of our sin, but we will not fully fall away. We will not apostatize. Those who are genuinely united to Jesus Christ, all joined to Christ by faith, will be with Christ someday. Do you remember I don't know how many years it is ago, but it's still in the mind. The Reverend Greer and I preached about the anchor within the veil, the anchors in the veil, brethren and sisters, and we who are joined to the anchor by that chain of faith are being drawn day by day to the heaven that is heaven itself. The anchor is the one. He is the surety of his people. He is the down payment, as it were, for his people. Our perseverance as Christians is guaranteed through our union with Christ. The body of Christ, and I say this reverently, the body of Christ will not be an amputated body. when it comes to be shown in its fullness and its glory and its majesty and its perfection on that final day, do you think he's going to have a member lost? Member of his body? Oh, not so, not so, child of God. All its members, the greatest of members in that body, I and the least of the members will be present in heaven You know, this idea that a Christian can fall away from the state of grace is one that the Westminster divines obviously were dealing with in their day, and so they dealt with it in their catechism. Let me read the larger catechism, because they refer to this matter of this falling away from grace. and they present how such is impossible and they give a number of reasons why it's impossible. I'll read to you what it says. It's the answer to question number 79. True believers, by reason, now listen to it, by reason of the unchangeable love of God and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, His continual intercession for them and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And they use and they employ their inseparable union with Christ as a grounds upon which a man cannot And I use their words, totally or finally fall away from the state of grace. To believe that one will not continue in the faith is to say that the union that the Christian now enjoys with Christ can be severed and broken. But that can never be. Those joined to Christ by the Spirit of God, and having that happen, cannot be unjoined to Christ. when united to Christ you are eternally united to him and he will see to it that all who are members of his body will be brought safely home i read one final verse and with this i close two verses romans 8 for i am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing will separate you from Christ and from his love. Beloved, Christian identity must be shaped by the most fundamental truth about ourselves. And what is that truth? It's a very simple, yet a very profound, at times hard to understand, but yet a revealed truth in Scripture. And this is the truth. Our Christian identity is shaped by the fundamental truth that we are man and woman in Christ. in Christ. Let us live in the light and the enjoyment, yes, and also in the fear of it, that I am joined to Christ. Thus, I must live for him and I must be like him as he has come to live in me. and I live in and through and by him. And being joined to Christ, you are joined to your brethren and sisters, for they are joined to Christ too, and thus there is to be care and love within the body, as all who are joined and united to our Savior. May this little study on our union with Christ be a blessing and next week we're going to think about a new line of thinking with regard not to union, there we now end the subject matter. Study it for yourself but we'll think about another identity that we're giving with regard to those who are Christians. Who am I as a Christian? Well, we have thought about it. I am in Christ. God willing, next week we'll think about something else. I am, and then we'll think about it. May the Lord help us for Christ's sake. Let's bow our heads in prayer together. Thank you for listening. Our loving Father, our good and gracious God, we thank Thee that we come to Thee through Christ. We have access to God through Him. This is another blessing. Oh, that we would improve upon that blessing just now as we'll come to prayer. We can now approach a holy God because of Jesus Christ. Oh, hear our prayers for Christ's sake. Lord, come and move upon our hearts. So may we live in the light and the liberty and the freedom. Oh God, deliver us from our sin and do so. As we stand and procure and appropriate the victory that Christ secured for us at the cross. He did on our behalf. He lived and he died and he rose again for us. In order to know the fullness of this in our present experience. Answer prayer and help us Lord as we'll bring these matters now to the people and to the congregation as we think of prayer that must be offered.