Liberated Living | Part 1

Have you been crucified with Christ?

Listen closely to Adrian Rogers. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the dynamic as we've just heard from Pastor Rogers. The cross of Calvary not only deals with sin, it also deals with the sinner. The grace of God enables us to live godly lives in Christ Jesus and empowers us to live in liberation. Romans 6 gives three basic principles for living the life of freedom in Christ. And if you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers explains more about liberated living. Are you ready for some liberated living? That's the title of our message tonight, Liberated Living. Are you tired of being a slave to the world, the flesh and the devil? Good news, you can be emancipated.

You can be set free. Now, before you say, I've heard that before, I want you to open the Bible and I want you to learn some of the greatest basic truths of the Christian life that are in the Word of God. We talked about the passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And in that passion, we talked about his substitutionary death that he gave himself for us. That is redemption. We're going to learn our purpose as related to his passion and how the one who gave himself for us gave himself also to us.

Now, if you don't understand that, you don't understand the full meaning of the passion. Now look, if you will, here in Romans chapter 6 and look, if you will, in verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He's been talking about God's amazing, wonderful grace. And grace that is greater than all of our sin. And friend, if you live the Christian life, it will be because you have received the grace of God, God's riches at Christ's expense. If you come to God, swaggering to God, if you come as a prince, you'll go away as a beggar. But if you come as a beggar, in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

If you come as a beggar, you will go away as a prince. Now, the billogram of his day was a man named Dwight L. Moody. And if you have been to seminary, studied the Bible at all, or studied the history of evangelism, you'll know that Dwight L. Moody was one of the greatest Christians and greatest preachers who ever lived.

The Moody Bible Institute is named after Dwight L. Moody. But Dwight L. Moody said on one occasion, I heard a man say, I have been 42 years learning three things. Moody said to himself, well, if it took that man 42 years to learn three things, I'd better listen and hear what they are. And here were those three things that that man said that it took him 42 years to learn. Number one, I learned that I could do nothing to earn salvation. Number two, I learned that God does not require me to do anything. Number three, I learned that Jesus Christ did it all. Moody said, well, it took that man 42 years to learn that.

Well, friend, you don't have to take 42 years to learn those three things. If you're going to be saved, and if you are saved, you are going to be or you are saved by grace. But now what is Paul saying here in Romans chapter 6 and verse 1? The fact that we're saved by grace, that we can do nothing to save ourselves, God doesn't expect us to do anything, and Christ has done it all, is not, is not, is not an excuse for sin or for living in defeat. As a matter of fact, grace is an inducement to live a righteous and a holy life.

Would you agree with that? Oh, to grace how great a debtor, daily I am constrained to be. But not only is grace an inducement, listen, to live a holy life, grace also supplies the power to live a holy life. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid. God's plan for you is victory, constant victory, conscious victory, conspicuous victory. Now don't answer out loud, but may I ask you this question? Are you living day by day in constant victory? Is it conspicuous victory?

Can others see it? Is it conscious victory? Do you know that you're living that way? Now in the sixth chapter of Romans, there are three key words. I want to rivet them into your heart. I want to indelibly, by the grace of God, stamp them upon your consciousness that you will never, ever again look at Romans chapter 6 and not have these three words to come to your mind. If you know these three words, if you understand the import of these three words, if you can let these three words come into your heart and mind and understand all that is involved in them, I guarantee you, you'll live in victory.

No ifs, ands, and buts, no stutter, no stammer, no equivocation, no fine print. You will live in victory. The first word is the word no, K-N-O-W. Look, if you will, in verse 6. Knowing this, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth we should not serve sin. That is, we should not be slaves of sin.

That's wonderful. All right, there's something to know. The second word is reckon, R-E-C-K-O-N, reckon. Look in verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now never mind the rest of that verse.

We'll get to it in a moment. All I'm doing right now is pointing out the words. The first word, no. Second word, reckon. Third word is yield, yield, Y-I-E-L-D. Look now in verse 13.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members, talking about the members of your body, your eyes, your ears, your feet, your hands, as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now these three things, these three words, know, reckon, and yield, deal with fact, faith, and function. There's a fact to know. There's a reckoning to put your faith in.

There is a function as you yield. Now, I want to say this. Confession is good. A man said it took me 42 years to learn about salvation by grace. I was pastoring a church before I learned what I'm going to teach you tonight.

Now, I love God, but I did not know how to live in victory. So lend me your ears, and let's break it down into three major categories under the heading of know, reckon, and yield. First of all, there is something to know, and what is it you are to know? You are to know your identification with Jesus, who gave himself for you. Your identification, the key word, identification. Now look, if you will, now, beginning in verse 6, knowing this. This is what you're to know. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.

Did you hear that? Crucified with him, that when Jesus died, I died with him. Your old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, no longer slaves of sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies 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.

Now, what is the doctrine of identification? Know your identification with Jesus, who gave himself for you. That means that when Jesus was crucified, when Jesus had that agony, that passion upon the cross, not only was Christ on that cross, but since he was your substitute, you were on that cross. Since he died for you, the old person you used to be died with him, and now you have become one with him in his death.

You are no longer in Adam. Now you are in Christ. You are now identified with Christ.

Everybody in the world is either in Adam or in Christ. Because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and your faith in that, when Jesus died, the old man that you used to be died. Now, think of the significance of it, first of all. First of all, that we have died with him. Look again in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. He died for me. Therefore, his death had my name on it.

His death had your name on it. The old person that you were was nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ. You see, Calvary not only deals with the sin, it also deals with the sinner. You see, if all he did was to forgive my sin and doesn't deal with me, he has not delivered me from my worst enemy. Calvary not only deals with the sin, Calvary deals with the sinner. We were crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. An ancillary verse that makes this clear is Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yeah, not I, but Christ liveth in me.

You see, Adrian was nailed to that cross when Jesus was nailed there. Why? Because he was taking my place. Again, his death was for me.

It had my name on it. I love to tell the story of one of the former pastors of our church, a great man I loved and admired so very much, Dr. Robert G. Lee. Dr. Lee visited Israel. He was so in anticipation of going there. And the place that Dr. Lee wanted to see was Calvary.

He had never been to the Holy Land before. And he stood there with a little group at Calvary and the guide was talking. And then the guide asked a question, have any of you ever been here before?

Dr. Lee lifted his hand. He said, when were you here, sir? He said 2,000 years ago.

You ever hear him talk? That's the way he talked, 2,000 years ago. What did he mean? He meant that when Jesus died upon that cross, he was there and so were you. He was nailed up to that cross for you. And the old man that you used to be was crucified with him. Now, what does that mean? He that is dead is freed from sin. Sin has no more dominion over him. Now, if a criminal is guilty, I mean guilty, adjudicated guilty, proven to be guilty, prima facie evidence, he is guilty and he's in jail waiting for the crime to be sentenced and the man dies in jail.

What happens? We get it. Case closed. It's over. You can't prosecute a dead man, can you? Friend, I don't know what charges the devil has against you, but I can tell you one thing. When you died upon Calvary, the case is closed.

Case is closed. Death has no more dominion over a dead man. Suppose a man is a slave.

He's owned by someone. Slavery, as it was practiced in the United States, was unspeakably immoral. But suppose a man had a slave. The master tells him when to go to bed, when to get up, what to eat, how to dress, what to do, where to go, where to come, and then the slave dies. What then can his master do?

Nothing. He is dead. You're no longer Satan's slave because of Calvary. Now you have to understand that. You see, the death of Jesus Christ changed that. We have been crucified with Christ. Now, not only did we die with him, but now listen, we were also buried with him.

Look now in verses three and four. Know ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore, we are buried with him.

Undescore that. We are buried with him by baptism into 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 be in the likeness of his resurrection, buried with him. Not only have you died with Jesus, but you were buried with Jesus. Did you know there is an emphasis in the Bible upon the burial of Jesus Christ? Did you know that it's part of the Bible?

Put in your margin an ancillary verse. First Corinthians chapter 15, verses three through four. Paul is talking about the gospel, and he says, For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. When he says first of all, it doesn't mean first in order. He means of first importance. This is number one.

This is priority. First of all, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. The burial of Jesus Christ is part of the gospel. Not only did his death have your name on it, his burial had your name on it.

You see, he died for you, and the old man that you used to be died when he died for you, and now you are buried with him. In Bible times, the Jews put the dead quickly out of sight. They buried the dead. They did not embalm them as we embalm today and keep them around.

They were quickly buried. Now that's what baptism symbolizes, that the old person you used to be is no longer. You have been buried in a liquid tomb, and your sins are in the grave of God's forgetfulness. Now listen, when you die with Christ, the devil would love to haunt you with the bones of your old life, but you need to understand that he can't do that. You not only have died with Christ, you've been buried with Christ, and when the devil comes looking for the old Adrian, I can say he's not here.

Well, where is he? He's buried. Weren't you there at his funeral? You see, my funeral was my baptism. I hope you've had a funeral. I hope you have been baptized by immersion, dead and buried. We are buried with him by baptism unto death. Now look again, not only did we die with Jesus, not only are we buried with Jesus and our sins and the old man in the grave of God's forgetfulness, but thirdly, listen, hallelujah, we were raised with him. Look again in verses four and five, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also, don't miss that, underscore it, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Now, when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried, but I'm not with him in the grave because he's no longer in the grave.

He came up out of the tomb. He has a life that the grave cannot keep, and he has given that life to me, and I am a new person. Now that's the significance of it. What is the symbolism of it? The symbolism of it is baptism.

Look again in verses three and four. 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 be also in the likeness of his resurrection. What is baptism? It is a picture of a death, a burial, and a resurrection.

That's the reason it's by immersion. That's the reason we put this baptistry up there. Now, some people call sprinkling baptism, but the very Greek word baptizo means to dip, to immerse. Friends, baptism pictures a burial. That's the reason why I believe in baptism by immersion.

And by the way, if you were the devil and wanted to remove any message from the church, what would it be? The gospel, the death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. Every time somebody goes into that watery grave, every time somebody's baptized, they picture the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the gospel that we preach unto you. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

He was buried, and he raised again the third day. That, my friend, is the gospel truth. That's the gospel. And that's the picture of the gospel. That's the symbolism of it. Now, that doesn't save you. You can be baptized so many times that tadpoles have your social security number and not be saved.

Water, whether it's spoonful or tankful, can't take the sin out of your heart, out of your life. But it is a symbol of it. I may have told you about a man who used to work for our denomination, took his family to Washington, to the Smithsonian. They went in that section of the Smithsonian Institute where the ladies there, the American history, where the first ladies of our country have wax figures there dressed in their beautiful gowns, a special gown, maybe worn at a state dinner or the inauguration or something like that. And this was back when Lyndon Johnson was the president of the United States. And Lady Bird Johnson was being featured. They just put the wax figure of Lady Bird Johnson there. And this man and his children were there in the Smithsonian looking at Lady Bird Johnson, at least the wax figure. And a lady came up alongside of them and began to talk and said, well, how do you like it?

What do you think? And so forth. And they turned to look. Would you believe it was Lady Bird? They said, wow, wait till we get home. And she was so nice to them. They talked in disgust and they had the pictures made. They said this is the greatest thing.

We never dreamed this would happen to us. But while they were talking, another photographer came up and he had all these things strapped around him. You know how these photographers are.

They've got all this stuff. And he came up and he said to them, people, would you mind standing aside? I want to get a picture of Lady Bird. And so the wife of the president stepped aside and he took a picture of that wax figurine.

There she was standing right there. You think about it. He missed the reality and just centered on the symbol. Don't do that with baptism. Now baptism is a wonderful symbol, but that's all it is. Jesus is the reality.

I hope you'll understand that. But you see, what is the significance of this? That I died with Jesus. I was buried with Jesus. I have been raised with Jesus.

The symbolism of it is baptism. Coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. But maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is, what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click find God's love at the top of the page.

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