Romans 6

… Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. But the life of the God and the authorizes through which I find you. This is the first time I really decurs the thought of name Christ. You have a choice in this chapter. Once at the end, your margin of life will give you in Christ. But find at the end of the chapter that the gift of life is in Christ Jesus, not through. However, this year, live unto God in or through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then verse 23, the ways of sin is death. But forgive the God who turned the life in Christ Jesus. I'm going to attend Brethren. And I'm perfectly sure of the lack of it and the need of it. The truth that in the mercy of God I enjoyed as a young man. And brought me to the blessed reality. And it's been a source of comfort and happiness to my soul. What I mean is, the truth of being in Christ. I can't remember since I last heard an address on it. I don't suppose I was a fellowship when we were young men. When it wasn't spoken of, the reality of being in Christ. What's led me to those remarks and suggestions are further delayed. But in Christ is a sort of a future thing. Brethren, it's no substance. If in Christ does not realize today. The only other thing is condemnation outside of Christ. The only place where there's no condemnation, and that goes for the whole universe, is in Christ. There's no condemnation in Christ. But now we're in the age of the 7th verse 4. Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ. That we should be married to another. It doesn't say that we are married to another. We've got to be very careful of what scripture says and how we read it. I make another remark, too. At the introduction of this chapter, I didn't speak to those under the law. I speak to those again that knew the law. These are all important factors, brethren. That makes all the difference of how we treat the word of God. And so now we're in this verse 4. My brethren, you also become dead to the law, by the body of Christ. That we should be married to another. Into him who is raised from the dead. That we should bring forth fruits unto God. And now we're in chapter 8. The importance of being with Christ. Verse 9. But you're not in the flesh. When, brethren? When are we not in the flesh? Have we solved this message? He says here, and he must speak to his brethren after the flesh. I make another remark in regards to this epistle. He does speak to the Jews after the flesh. But when he does speak to the Jews and about the Jews, he puts the qualification, my brethren, after the flesh. And every other time in the Roman epistle, when he declares, my brethren, in chapter 12. It's always the brethren, the Roman believers. Brethren in Christ. And so in chapter 7. He introduces brethren there. Now we're in this verse 9. Verse 8, of course, would really make a man terrified, to suggest he was in the flesh. He's verse 8. So then they're not in the flesh. Can it please God? Are you going to say you're in the flesh? I say you cannot please God. The word of God says so. Are you in the flesh? You're not in Christ. Verse 9 is quite clear, beloved brethren. You are not in the flesh. But in the spirit. It should be that the spirit of God dwells in you. Does he dwell in you? Does he dwell in me? Does he dwell in you? Are there effects that gives the confirmation? I have them. I know them. I've known them for 40 years. I've enjoyed them. I know the value of the blessed spirit of God. What is the result? He makes Christ be among us. Reads to me lightly. Desirable to me very moments when I have spirit. Or when I want to serve. It's all Christ. So this beautiful verse 9. You're not in the flesh. But in the spirit. It should be that the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man hath not the spirit of piety, he is none of haste. Now one or two verses in Corinthians. Chapter 6, the first of the scriptures. In verse 16. What? Will he not that he which is joined to them is to a hallowed? To one body. For two set each shall be one flesh. And remember the marriage in chapter 7. The Roman. But he that is joined is one spirit in the Lord. This is the consequence of marriage. Are you married to the Lord? Well then this verse 7 is quite clear and precise. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Now then the consequence of the high life of the life of being one spirit. Follows in verse 18. Pre-fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body. But he that committed fornication. Sins against his own body. The same with the body. And he is joined to the hallowed. But now then. Verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Which is in you? Which ye have had of God? And ye are not ye alone. We are not our own brethren. We belong to another person. We are not our own brethren. We belong to another person. We are not our own brethren. We belong to another person. For ye are both of Christ. Therefore. Glorify God in your body. He says it's a duty. I say it's an honor. I say it's a glorious privilege. This is what Christ became a man for. This is why he became a servant. To glorify his Father. You will now let it be honored, beloved brethren. Glorify God. Where? In your body. And in your spirit. But why? Because we are brothers. We belong to God. Now just a few moments, beloved brethren. Hold this in Christ. I am applauded by this. It's been the secret of my happiness ever since I got to realize it. And I didn't realize for a long time about forgiveness. But I know when I did realize it. And people who told me they hadn't realized it, I say they haven't realized it. You can't. You might know forgiveness and not know when you forgive. But you cannot know the reality of Christ and not know the moment. It's exceedingly great. And it's a marvelous moment in the soul. What does it entail? It entails the best realization of life. Not the obtaining of it, marvelous. But the realization of divine life. For this life is in Christ Jesus. You might say, but how do I get there? The first verse I read was a realization of what it takes to reach Christ. Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed on the sin. Not the sins, for sin. That body, which was the attraction of your eyes, which was the delight of your ears to listen to, and the hand. All the members were interested and attached to the same beloved one, you and I. The death of Christ has made all the difference. This wonderful death. The death of the Son of God. Is brought into existence. That which God hath really wrought since the beginning of the fall of Eve and Adam. That is, to bring the people to himself in intimacy. And happy enjoyment with his love and his goodness. The enjoyment of his blessed fields. We have all that, beloved brethren, in the first five chapters of Romans. The first five chapters of Romans gives an attitude we all should know this without any difficulty. For without the knowledge of this, I don't demand to be a Christian. The first five chapters of Romans. Now in the first five chapters of Romans, I find that God is following. The God whom I have sinned against. He's taken up every question in his blessed love. And in the taking up of those questions, answered every one himself. I've been unable to answer the questions. But not only has he answered the questions, he's placed them in a place where those questions couldn't be solved by me. He's placed his love. A love, beloved brethren, which has shown itself in a remarkable way. The provision of the blessed sacrifice was the first instance. But that blessed sacrifice was the one we sang about in the summer prayer in the shepherd. He died for the sake of the flock. And that death of death, beloved brethren, in the first part of Romans. It is presented outside and we shall go together for the eye of God. A true appreciation. And it is just as God demands respect in my guilt. And in the loving kindness of your heart, blessed be his name. The cross shall not lay there upon me. My guilt is gone. Your guilt is gone. Gone in his blessed death. But now then, what do I find as a consequence of that? I have peace with God. I no longer wonder, will he accept me? I might not like the probability. Looking for some excuse would bring me into the favor of my father. I see that it's all been settled by his blessed son. And so not only have I peace with God, I rest in all the favor that his love has provided. I stand in that grace. And in that grace and the consciousness of what God has been to me, beloved brethren, I look forward with deep interest. I'm using the purse now, but I'm placing it in the place of your heart and my heart. I look forward now with happy interest, what to? To all his blessed resources, I gather that would bring the glory of God. And rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. But no brethren, in Christ hasn't been touched yet, nor never been mentioned. That's all forgiveness of sins. And the soul hasn't realized, it hasn't touched. The most vital factor that really governs a creature down here, a priest, a Christian, in a moment of his exaltation, he's lost the realization, we might say, the flow, the energy of his enthusiasm, the happiness of forgiveness. As he comes to earth, as we all do, he finds that there's something within. There is a condition of things working within which he hadn't taken account of. He didn't realize he was there. But then he finds it out, it's there. And it's not dead. But he also finds something else out. He finds that sin is not dead, not only without, but within. And he's got to learn too that the Lord is not dead. And this is beloved brethren, the flesh is not dead. Now all these things that exist for me, and how can I meet them in the energy of life? I cannot. The word of God shows me quite clearly, I cannot. Then it also shows me the importance of how I can escape it. From escaping from sin is a blessed reality. From the escaping from law is a blessed reality. The escaping from this flesh is a blessed reality. Now John touches in Christ, though he doesn't use the phrase, I'll give you where John touches in Christ. He touches upon it in John 14, 15, and 16, where he speaks about Christ being in, when the Lord says, I in you, and ye in me, that's the reality of being in Christ. You have it in this chapter, chapter 8. Now then, Reckoning myself to be dead, indeed I'm the same. Have you touched a bit of the brethren on the reality of deliverance? For the first step is death. That's the first step. The first separation of the Israelites from Pharaoh was the Red Sea. There must go between me and sin. And the only power that can rest upon my soul is the blessed death of the Son of God. He died to it. I say in that breath of death, my death. I say, it's me. I've gone. I've gone in the death of Jesus. I haven't gone. I know I haven't gone. For if I had, I wouldn't have had to reckon myself dead. But I reckon myself dead because I have life. I have the life in Christ Jesus, without which I couldn't have reckoned myself dead. But having that life in Christ Jesus, I may have reckoned myself dead unto sin. But then that brings up another point. And a far more greater fact. That which had really magnified sin, the law, it had made it hideous to its most hideous condition. And now, what presumably am I going to do? Because I repeat, that in Romans 7 he speaks to them that know the law, not under the law. I'm suggesting they may not be under the law. But you as a child, and I as a child, we went to Christian schools. And I, in my own mind, I was taught the Ten Commandments. And being taught the Ten Commandments, I knew the demands of the law of God. And knowing the demands of the law of God, it matters not whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, it has no respect to persons. It demands the full weight of what you've got the knowledge of. And that's the value of the Romans 7. And in Romans 7, you find yourself that the law is demanding from you, now I'm speaking about a spiritual man. For Romans 7, the man in Romans 7, if he hasn't got the Holy Ghost, which I doubt about, he certainly has no life, he has no birth, he has a new nature, and he has a spiritual being, a constitution which is able to root with the law in its spiritual aspect. Now then, in that Romans 7, that man realizes that the law, it was holy and it was just and it was good. But he's not that. No, I am not that. We are neither holy nor just nor good. So then, I'm with the law. What can I do? I can only seek within the sight of the Father to fulfill his demands. But I realize and I've got to learn. I've got to learn now that there is within me all beloved brethren. I see brethren in a conversation after 50 years prove to me that don't know realization have been dead to say the least. I can tell you about that conversation. Now then, in this man in the 7th in Romans, he said, O wretched man, who shall deliver me? Is he saying it in the 8th chapter of Romans? Is he saying it in 9, 10, 11 and 12? He says it has. He hasn't really given it a name if he's delivered. How are you delivering? You want to be married to Christ. You want to be married to Christ and that's what the chapter starts with. But being married to Christ supposes, beloved brethren, the consciousness of the Holy Ghost and his power and his blessing. Can you see, beloved brother and beloved sister this afternoon that you know the importance of the blessed reality of being married to Christ? And brother, through his grace I know some of you are. Brother, blessed reality it gives you a different taste in life. It gives you different desires. It gives you different thoughts. And then it gives you another object. You cease to be in conflict with yourself. For as long as you're in the 7th in Romans, you're always fighting. You never stop fighting. But not the Lord's vows. You're fighting with yourself. But not the Lord's vows. You're fighting none of the Lord's vows. You're fighting your own vows. And I'll tell you something else you've got to learn. There's not one of them you ever win. Not one of them. Or you wouldn't have to repeat them. But you repeat them over and over again and you never win them. What am I to do, you say? You've got to reckon yourself dead to the Lord now. As you had in chapter 6, reckon yourself dead to sin. For he that is dead to the Lord is free from it. It has no respect for the child of God or the sinner. It demands for God and it's a holy law. But now then, in the end of chapter 7, he says, I thank Ishmael, didn't I? None of us gets the blessing of God whatever blessing it is. I must first say it. It must penetrate the channels which leaped in my heart. And the channels that leaped in my heart are my eyes and my ears. And those are the two important points in Romans. The eyes and the ears. And so in Romans, at the end of Romans, he says where deliverance lies. He says that it's not in Adam. And it's not in the flesh. He says it's in Christ. But that's where the grace of God has placed him. This is where he finds himself. He's in Christ. So he has no other blessing reality that he's within a condition of things now not just simple forgiveness but he's in a condition of things where really everything's of God. Everything's of God. The Holy Ghost and the Christ because you have the two in Romans 8 Christ dwelling in you and the Holy Ghost dwelling in you. Now then, what is the importance? What is the main factor of being in Christ? It's justification. And the main point in justification, beloved brethren, is peace with God and enjoying his blessed favour and moving on to the glory. Now then, what is the main point in being delivered? There are two main points. And one of them is not touched in this chapter, Romans. But one is. The first one is liberty. Liberty. And the second one is acceptance. But you don't touch it when you come to the realisation of resurrection in Christ in Ephesians. But nevertheless, it's true. It's known really in a certain sense even in Romans that I'm accepted in the beloved though it's not taught. But if I haven't realised my new position, my new place outside of Adam in Christ, I've come to truly see an enjoyment of soul that I know the value of acceptance. Now then, springing from acceptance, beloved brethren, and liberty, there comes two things. And I'll tell you what they are. When a person enters into the blessed reality of acceptance, he's not afraid to speak to his father any more. I say pray meetings. I thank people who can't get up a seat. If you don't realise the blessed reality of acceptance, you're not accepted in the beloved. You don't have to look. There's no chalice, no distance there. I say this. If you find your position in Christ, beloved brethren, you'll realise the blessedness of communion. That's what acceptance brings. There's never a shadow between the father and the son when he was down here. Do you think he wants to between my heart again? Do you think the God who's given his son for me wants to have a shadow between me any time, any moment? Not at all. I may make one. I may cause one. But it's not my father's mind that I should have this distance of thought and none of the other thoughts. Liberty. Liberty, beloved. I've come to liberty. I've come to liberty. I believe holiness of life. Holiness of life. Character down here in conduct. And this is the importance, really, of the beginning of the Roman Epistle, chapter 8. He says, now we see the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That the blessed man, the principle of his life down here, how it acted, and how it lived, how it glorified God, how it met every occasion that he chose a living God. It is that spirit of life, the power, the energy of the life of Christ Jesus. It's wrought in me, it is a deliverance. We're no longer, no, I'm crying, I'm a wretched man. Now, the man who had given height to himself in chapter 7, what did they all know? He's standing up for the Lord's battles. Who shall lay any charge? Well, he's not speaking up for nothing. He's not speaking up for a man, just a man that's walking down here and he's not speaking for a place, a new place in the heights of God's thoughts, in the thoughts of God's purposes. He's brought to know. You didn't expect, beloved brethren, God never expected it. When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, no more liberal Egyptians came in. And you think if God brought you in Christ, he expects to live like a man in the world? I know John doesn't speak about the law and sin and the flesh, but he does speak about the law. There are two important factors, and that's the devil in the world. And the two things that John's concerned with, the devil in the world, because he knew it was an important factor in the conflict of the Christian warfare when he wrote his last messages. It was the world which had gone to the church, the world which had brought these Christian companies that came in with the blessed Saviour. John knew it's not the world here, it's the lust, the flesh, it's sin, and it's the law. Now then, just for a few seconds, I'm sorry, brethren, but just for a few seconds, this important factor, beloved brethren, for this is the consequence in Revelation 1, chapter 6. It is the consequence. It made me realize my blessed position in being married to Christ. If I had known my position in being married to Christ, and all beloved, young brethren especially, this was a boon to my soul, beloved brethren, and I bless it. It is a signet of true joy. It's a signet of true bliss. When a man realizes his blessed place in Christ, I'm not talking about preaching about it. I'm talking about realizing it in the soul, and reaching it there by the way of death. That's what I'm speaking about. Preaching is one thing, but to preach about it is another. As men preach the gospel in the heavens, it's the first verse of it, yet. Now then, in the sixth of Corinthians, chapter 6, you'll notice in verse 13, it begins, but I don't touch those things. I leave them, I didn't, because it's all one subject from verse 13, but I'll read from verse 17. But he that is judged with the Lord is one spirit. One head, one will, one spirit with the Lord. It's individual here. When we sing it, we're singing blessed, which is blessed. But here it's individual. It's the individual exhortation to the children of God who had realized that they were new men, that the old man had to be done with. And they thought, having accepted Christ at Corinth, they could carry on with their own ways. And so they did. They glorified the glory in the things which had left them as men in the world before they were converted. And hence this remarkable part of this epistle of the brethren comes in to press the importance of union with Christ. Of union with Christ. And here it is, verse 17, but he that is judged with the Lord is one spirit. Now then, the consequence. This is the consequence in that night of the old man. He was in Corinth, the Colossians. And he spoke about his tremendous fornication and so on. But here we have, he's not put in the same way. Pre-fornication. Every sin that the man does is without the body. But he that committed fornication sinned against his own body. There is something below that. Doesn't this not imply in your life? Doesn't this imply a complete change? Look at Bartimaeus. No longer a beggar. No longer a man sitting by the roadside. No longer a man at the beck and call of other creatures. He's independent of the creatures. What does he do? He's got an altar to Christ. He's following Christ. He's put the new man on. The old man's gone. And there he is. He's got Christ as his head. Christ as his leader. Christ as his advocate. Christ as his shepherd. Now, verse 19. What? Does he know that above him is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Well, do you use scriptures without a brand name? No. Tell the Lord. But don't you think without a brand name our practice sometimes denies its own existence? But we're not. There is one time when Peter teaches the full living Christ. The good conversation not in the world, in Christ. The good conversation in Christ. It's a new order of things all the time. Know ye not that we are the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? This is only confirming, beloved brethren, the importance of Romans 8. Now, in Romans 8, it is presented there, the Holy Ghost, as my enjoyment of life. The instinctive of being. What I mean by that, I'm led by his blessed word. I'm led by his blessed power. And he carries me into conditions and things where he's perfectly at home at. He's at, not where I'm perfectly at home at. I may not be at home with him at all. But the Holy Ghost won't take me to a place where he's not at home at. People are not concerned with the work of the day. I am very much concerned. And I will be. And I realize in this fact that when one learns really the mind of the Holy Ghost, he learns really what he likes and where he likes to be. And now then, the Holy Ghost respecting your body and my body, and respecting our spirit, my spirit, and your spirit. And he's lost over us. Which, oh God, and ye are not your own. Can I seek to emphasize a simple statement like this? If I was to borrow from my neighbor next door something to talk about, I wonder what you think about me if you saw a blind man in the garden. You say, he doesn't think he's blind either. I wonder what the Father thinks about Christians taking their bodies into this world and being influenced by the world, its conduct, its pleasure, its thoughts. Ye are not your own. You can't take your body where you want to take it. I can't take my body where I want to take it. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to God. Do we agree on this one, or do we disagree? Does my eye suggest they're not my eyes? Does my hand suggest they're not my hands? In many cases, we use our hands to express our will. But here he's taking your body and my body and we want to express his will. He wants his will to be done upon us. And if we don't do it, the world has no intention to listen to it, let alone know it. And the only way God's will to be done upon this earth is by men who are in Christ. What's the price? Is it worthy of any consideration? Supposing that I were to think, meditate, would it not serve as a motor, a garden, where my body went, what I do with it? What is the price? The death is so much. Ye are washed, he says in his chapter, ye are sanctified. Oh, do not remember what he said. We sang about that, bless us now. He gave his life. We sing of the shepherd that died. Bless his precious name. He's dear to all of us. But don't let him be dear. Beloved brethren, just simply in mind, just simply in thought. I have always impressed in my heart how dear he is in my thinking. He wants to be seen in me. He wants me to show him in how I live. And so this is the end of this beautiful chapter here and I bring it to a close. Therefore, glorify God in your heart. Oh, beloved brethren. You want a high standard? I ask you, beloved brethren, what was the greatest thing that Jesus has done? What was the greatest thing? The greatest thing that Jesus has done, beloved brethren, was when he died for his father. He says, now is God glorified. Am I prepared to die for God? Would I be happy to glorify God that way? He gives me the opportunity here, but only, oh, only, beloved brethren, if I live in the true married life of Jesus. It is realizing, beloved brethren, that you and I have been married to the head of the old man and put him on. He is my Savior now. He is my Lord. He is my Master. Now then he says, glorify God in your body. Your body. You're a preacher. People didn't call you a preacher. That's all you've done. It's your body. It's what you do with your hands. What you say with your mouth. What you think with your mind. Where you look with your eyes. What you listen to with your ears. They are all part of your body. And he doesn't want one member of your body. He wants all the body. He's got all the body. All you have grown in your body. But then, the next thing is the inward life. The body is the outward life. What you say in me, I've talked about millions of things. What is an inward life? How do I live inside of myself? What are my thoughts? What are my designs? What are my intentions? And in the spirit, oh Beloved Brethren, he wants everything on the altar. I saw it. And I know it's feeble. And probably I haven't impressed you. Won't you go like me? Because there's nothing like it. It's the next best thing, Beloved Brethren, to be in a tomb. To realize your place in Christ down here. Because God's given us nothing else. The only thing that God's given us down here is our welfare, our simple, our joy, is to realize and to live in the blessed reality of being in Christ, outside of the new world, not world, and man or the devil. May God bless you. …