Those who Live with Christ (Rom. 6:1-14)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The title of today’s message is, “Those who Live with Christ.” How should Christians live? Sometimes we suffer in life, we face failures, and sometimes we have mental problems in life as well. We have physical diseases, we have financial difficulties, we have suffering between our relationships, we call all of these things our “daily life.” Believing in Jesus Christ is connected with how we live our moment-by-moment daily life, and the reason is because God is alive right now and working in our lives.
However, many people believe God is alive, but they have no way of knowing what God is doing right now. They don’t even want to know. They only want to be focused on their own interests. Then, they cannot escape from the suffering of life. Even if I live my life for a long time, I cannot escape my life of suffering, then, and that is what Romans 6 is telling us today. What can we do in our lives to live, following the words of Truth and the Covenant? If we’re not able to understand how to follow the Word of Truth and the Covenant, we might think, “Even if I believe in Jesus, I still get diseases, I still have problems in my family life, and it’s kind of so-so,” but that is wrong. Today, you must know the Truth about our walk of faith. If you’ve received salvation, it means that salvation is already confirmed for your past life, your present life, and your future life after you die, then, how must I live today, right now? I am relentlessly weak and I suffer internally, and I can’t tell anyone else, but I have so many worries. How can I live? There are many philosophers who worry about that. Or, there are people who practice transcendental meditation to try to break through that, but there will never be an answer. With the methods of humans, one can never find the answer.
1. Me
1) Died to sin (Rom. 6:2)
(1) Cannot live in sin (Rom. 6:1)
In Rom. 6, there is a question, “If I sin, then I receive God’s grace, so should I sin and keep going back-and-forth to get more grace?” The answer is “no,” if you’ve received salvation, then now, what we’re talking about today, is how to live with the Lord. But instead of moving forward, living with the Lord, people keep going back-and-forth, “I sinned, I get grace; I sinned, I get grace,” that’s not faith. There are too many Christians living that walk of faith, so what Paul is saying today is, “You have to die to sin.” So, that is the content of today’s message, what must die and what must remain alive. I can never change, no matter what kind of education or mind control tactics I use. I have to die in order for me to change. “I’m so weak”? You will always be weak. “I have this deep powerlessness,” you will always have this powerlessness. Or, “I can’t solve this problem,” it will stay like that, but what is the Bible telling us? You need to die on the cross with Christ, you cannot change if you do not die. There is no religious strategy you can use to change. Do you know why?
Because human beings are made up of a spirit, a soul, and a body. In order to know yourself, you need to know what comprises you. Humans are spiritual beings, we are spiritual beings so that the spirit inside of us needs to have communication and fellowship with the God Who created us. We were created so that the Spirit of God controls and moves through our spirit. So, my thoughts, my heart, my spirit, it’s all going to make the physical decisions later. However, because of sin, the spiritual connection with God died, and now, the spirit of God is no longer in my spirit. In that void, the spirit of Satan has entered, that’s what it means that now, death is our king. What does it mean that death reigns over us? It means that I live my life based on the standards of my thoughts, my emotions, and my heart, and that is what makes me decide my physical actions. Then, in that state, your life can never change. If you’ve received salvation, it means that salvation is already confirmed for your past life, your present life, and your future life after you die, then, how must I live today, right now?
If you’ve received the gospel, it means that the Spirit of God has come into your spirit, and now, the Holy Spirit of God will control our heart, our thoughts, and our emotions with the Word of Truth, and being controlled by the Holy Spirit is what it means that, “I have died,” but when we say, “Oh, we came back to life,” it means, “I don’t want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit anymore,” and if you live your walk of faith with the Holy Spirit, you will get more evidence. But most people live their walk of faith but have no evidence to show for it. Why is that? They have salvation, and the Holy Spirit is inside of us, and they know that, however, what I want to do is I want to follow my thoughts, heart, and desire. I know that God is alive, I know that He is even moving right now, but in my heart, I don’t want to follow that. Do you know what the evidence of that is? When you get stressed, what do you want to do? When you get stressed out, you don’t look to receive the guidance of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit; you try to relieve your stress.
How do you relieve your stress? Is it music, movies, alcohol? You’re making it so that your emotional state controls you. Because you listen to certain music, your emotion changes. You were stressed, you listened to music so now your stress has gone away, but now you’re letting your emotions control you. Or, “Because I’m so stressed out, I have to take alcohol or some substance to elevate my mood,” or, “I want to change my emotional state by watching a movie.” If you live your walk of faith like this, you are continuously living as a physical person, then what happens? You will not be able to live in society. What does it mean, “You cannot”? It means you will be influenced by other people’s words. We are living together with the most powerful people in society, and if that person is offended, then my life is affected by their emotions. Then what is our walk of faith? Instead of being controlled by those things, I’ve died to those things, and if you have no more reaction to that, it means you’re dead to them. Then, what should you be alive to? You should react to the Word and the Holy Spirit inside of you. In other words, do not try to control your emotional state, but instead, give yourself to the control of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, that’s the life that Rom. 6, 7, 8 is talking about.
(2) Baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3)
Why is it there are many people who live their walk of faith or study theology, but it doesn’t work? Why is it that I’ve believed for multiple generations but it doesn’t work for me? It’s because you’re in a condition that leaves no choice but for it to not work. In other words, “I don’t want to die,” then you’re going to keep living how you are. What does the Bible say? It’s saying that you have died with Christ; the baptism means that you died underwater, and when you’re brought back up, it means you’ve been brought back to life with Christ. In other words, your old self has died with Christ on the cross.
(3) Baptized into his death (Rom. 6:3)
What is my old “self”? The “me” where I was the master of my own life, the “me” who lived based on my emotions, my desires, and my thoughts, the “me” that was controlled by death. That “me” has died on the cross with Christ, then what next? Now, Christ lives in me. no matter how much you change yourself, you cannot. So, no matter how much you live a religious life, you cannot change yourself. You must be changed into a new creation. It doesn’t matter what you do to make the car look nice, you have to change the engine anew. If you don’t change the engine inside, but you only make it look good on the outside, it doesn’t matter at all. You have to change what’s on the inside, you have to change yourself completely. If you don’t change that state of yours, it will be difficult. That’s today’s content, we have died with Christ.
2) Baptism
(1) Buried with Jesus Christ into death (Rom. 6:4)
The example of this is during the Exodus, when the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea, 1 Corinthians says that represents baptism. In the Red Sea, the Egyptian army drowned and the Israelites lived. In other words, the old “self,” the “me” that was enslaved in Egypt, has died, and now the new “me” is emerging. In other words, that means, “United with Christ.” For people who only want to enjoy themselves, they can never have this faith. We have been created in the Image of God, which means we were created to live united with God. The Holy Spirit of God controls our thoughts, emotions, and heart with the Word of Truth, that’s how we were made; we were not created to live, following our emotions. Instead, we were created so that the Word of Truth would influence our emotions. We were not created to live, following our thoughts and desires; instead, we were created so that our thoughts and desires would be influenced by the Word of Truth. If that happens, our physical life is bound to change, but what is the will of those who belong to the flesh? They are seized by their emotions and what they feel, their sensations like what they eat and taste, so they’re always thinking, ”What do I want to eat?” They make it so that their taste buds completely seize them. “Where am I going to go to have fun today”? They always have to search around, looking to fill that emotional need.
That is a person of the flesh. They might have received salvation but there is no change in their life, so they always look for those immediate, tangible things. Because they want something that will really touch their emotions or make them feel something, or there are some people who always seek after intellect. So, there’s some kind of brand new knowledge that will seize their mind. Or there are people who look for things that are very inspirational or moving, so that their heart is inspired or moved. You will never be changed by that. How can you do this? We need to make it so that the Holy Spirit of God lives within us and controls our thoughts, spirit, and heart with the Word of Truth. That’s in Heb. 4:12, that this Word of God penetrates, dividing joints and marrow, soul and spirit, and judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It heals us so that we cannot move, following our ego or pride, that, if you have a reaction of pride, you’ve died to that, and now we come to life in our reaction to God’s Word, that’s our walk of faith. As soon as worship ends, you’re immediately going to go back to following your thoughts, whatever hits your heart, and even though God is with you, you will never see works taking place.
You need to experience what it feels like to have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit control your life. If your walk of faith works well, then your human relationships will work well, too, because if your relationship with Christ is restored, you will also restore your relationship with other people. If you’re able to submit to Jesus Christ, regardless of your thoughts and emotions, because of your faith, then you’ll also be able to submit to others for the sake of Christ. What does it mean to submit? It means you’re not exalting your own pride. It’s talking about a heart that is able to understand and help the other person instead. That is how you make good human relationships. Same thing with marriages. If you’re not able to have this heart, your marriage is like hell. “Hell” might be extreme, but it’ll be suffering. Do you know where the suffering comes from? The suffering comes because “I am alive.”
“I don’t want to break down my thoughts,” that means that even though Christ is with me, “I don’t want to submit my thoughts to Christ, I want to live with my own thoughts, I have no desire to submit my emotions to Christ; I’m going to live with these emotions,” so then, to control your emotions, you go during the week, or your emotions control you so much that you have to do drugs to feel ecstasy. That is a life that is irrelevant to your walk of faith, that is a person of flesh, not of the spirit. Then, what happens? Then, they will always fall into their limitations and suffering. I didn’t explain verse by verse what we read, but the main core.
So, then, what does it mean to live with Christ? My old self where my ego was my master has died with him. Now, I will no longer be a slave to that. The fact that it is dead means that I no longer react to it. Let’s say for example, somebody says something to me that strikes an emotion. It hurts my pride a lot, and I’m used to being a slave to that, because instead of God being my master, I’m my own master, my ego is my own master. What is our walk of faith? It means I’ve died to that reaction, I no longer react to that, then where do i react to instead? I will only now react to the words of life of Jesus Christ. That’s what this is saying. You must be able to do this in your everyday life. If you’re not able to live your walk of faith in your everyday life, then you will be dragged by the environment, because your thoughts and emotions are your master, you will be influenced by your environment and surroundings. But there are people around you who will actually attack your pride, and we’ve died to that. Then, where must we live to? We are living to Christ, now, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ gives me His Word, and that is what I submit to, my emotions can no longer control me. Instead, Life becomes my king. Then, we overcome and we win. That is the way to overcome your environment. It’s possible to face various financial difficulties, what is your first thought then? “Oh, it’s a big problem. Oh no, how are we going to live and eat?” Then you get so worried, you get anxious even though you believe in Jesus. Then what does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means you don’t react to that anymore, because my old self that reacted to my thoughts and my emotions, that’s dead, now I only react to Jesus Christ Who is inside of me. I entrust this to Jesus and I have Jesus’ words control me. As you keep experiencing this, you receive answers, because the Lord is your Lord, of course He keeps giving you answers. That is what we’re saying today. If you’re not able to restore this walk of faith today, then it doesn’t matter how long you’ve gone to church because we will all be influenced by our environments.
So, what is the one fight? You need to die well. You have to keep practicing how to die to your heart, thoughts, emotions, so it’s not your lord, and you need to live for Christ, live for God, well. When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, immediately, your heart, emotions, and thoughts are bound to shake. Immediately, your emotions are thinking, “I’m dead.” Your thoughts, your heart are bound to shake. What does the world say? “You need to strengthen your mind and you need to break through, so control your mind and break through.” Or they say, “You have to receive extreme training in the world so you can really strengthen your heart.” Or for Buddhists, they say to throw away your heart all together, because if you throw away your heart or desire, then that suffering will not come to you. So, how do you throw that away? That’s what they’re talking about with the state of enlightenment or nirvana. That’s actually the way to become the Buddha for them. What happens after that? The Bible says, seven more evil spirits enter, so humans cannot solve this problem by emptying themselves.
Humans cannot change themselves by finding their hope in other things. We cannot change ourselves by trying to have positive thinking, that’s what the world tells me. What is God telling you? “You need to entrust your thoughts and heart and emotions to Me, so I can rule over it.” You need to do that in faith, then God’s power will rule over your thoughts, heart, and emotions, then the spiritual state of our lives is bound to change, too. That is God’s image being restored. We are not God, but we are in God’s image, meaning He reveals Himself through us. We live with that faith, then every week you receive evidence, then your family life is no longer hellish; it is heaven. Then, your job will no longer be suffering; it will be joy. Why? Because the Lord reigns over me, and I died to my emotions, I only live to Christ. You might say, “I’m so weak, I can’t do this,” but you’re already dead. It doesn’t work with you. The Lord must work upon us and reign over us.
Then, what happens? Now, we give ourselves to God. In the past, I lived for myself and my physical desires. Now, instead of my physical body being used to just make my thoughts and emotions feel better, even my body is used as an instrument for God.
(2) Christ was raised from the dead (Rom. 6:4)
(3) We too may live a new life (Rom. 6:4)
3) United
(1) In a death like Christ’s (Rom. 6:5)
(2) Be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom. 6:5)
(3) Christ – Groom, Church – Bride (Eph. 5:22-33)
(4) Husband and wife (Eph. 5:22-33)
As I’ve been married, even though I’m a pastor, we still fight. I thought once I become a pastor, I’ll be changed to be so holy, because I’m a pastor. And I thought, “If I know a lot of God’s Word, then my marriage will turn into heaven,” but the more time passed, the more it became like hell, but one day, God gave me grace. “Why did you get married? What is the marriage you’re thinking about?” I had no desire to break down my ego, I was raising up my ego and I was asking my partner to bow down to my ego, and I thought she would because she was a woman. I thought she would so I got married. That’s not the only thing. There was God’s mission of course, but there was this part too, and there was a part where I submitted myself as well, but in our everyday life, I realized that I wanted my partner to submit to my ego. But it turned out later on that she herself wanted me to submit to her ego. Without a doubt, Jesus Christ is both of our Lords but because both of us were trying to elevate our own ego, it was hell. One day, God gave grace, when it comes to the spiritual world, the Holy Spirit has to enlighten it for us to see things that were once dark. I thought one day, “I should stop asserting myself, but instead, I should support my partner,” then because of that, all my assertions and demands went away. Before, I used to try to fix my wife, I used to try to discipline or educate my wife so she wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She will never change.
2. One who lives with Christ
1) Old self – One who dies
(1 Crucified with Christ on the cross (Rom. 6:6)
(2) Body ruled by sin dies (Rom. 6:6)
(3) No longer slaves to sin (Rom. 6:6)
2) One who lives with Jesus
(1) Death no longer has mastery over him (Rom. 6:9)
(2) Dead to sin (Rom. 6:11)
(3) One who has been brought to life to God (Rom. 6:3)
Until our ego dies, we will never change. Until that ego is killed by the grace of God, the only thing we can do is wait, forgive them, and pray for them, then there’s no reason to fight because you understand the other person and you can wait for them. In the past, I used to fix them and correct them, because you do have to correct them, but they didn’t get corrected. I can’t even correct myself. One day, I realized, “I too must die before the Lord.” Then, I actually came to life. I’m dying to my partner, meaning I no longer react to my ego, then what happens? We begin to change into heaven. It’s the same thing in society. If I have people reporting to me, how shall I treat them? You have to love them relentlessly, and if they make a mistake, forgive them and help them be restored. What about for the people above them? You need to teach them, “Always respect your authority.” I was not very good at that in social life; if I saw something that I thought was wrong, I couldn’t keep quiet. So, that is a life where I was my master. But God tells you about authority. “Children, honor your father and mother, and parents, love your children.” That’s the core of your professional life. For children, it doesn’t matter whether your parents are right or wrong; it’s talking about the respect of authority. But why is authority broken down? Because children say, “My parents are wrong,” and because they point out flaws, the authority is broken down, but what God’s Word says is to respect authority. Following God’s Word, the blessings will follow.
3) One who is under grace
(1) Offer yourselves to God (Rom. 6:13)
(2) Offering every part of yourselves to him as an instrument of righteousness (Rom. 6:13)
(3) Not under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14)
Blessings do not come based on your thoughts of what’s right and what’s wrong. God gives blessings following the principle of His Word. So, if someone has experience with breaking down authority figures above them, the more they grow up, the more they’re going to do that. The people who are not able to do that try to oppress the people below them, then they’re kicking away all their blessings. You must relentlessly love those below you. Parents must relentlessly love their children, that is where blessings follow. Then, what about your friends, your peers? You must go together with them. Do you know what it means to go together? You must go together well in order for God’s blessings to follow you. In order to do that, you need to practice dying in front of the cross and Christ living in you. Yesterday, I was talking to my daughter, and I could see the spiritual problem of our family line was going into her, so I told her what’s going to happen in her future because I lived that life, so I can see it in my eyes immediately, so I told her, “The family is so important, and a parent is so important.” But if I didn’t know this and I didn’t know Christ, my daughter would be doomed to live the same life that I did. I told her this very sincerely, and she listened, this is very important. The beginning of all of that is whether internally, you are submitting to Christ and His Word or not. Money follows after that stream. Of course, you have to build up your specialization, but the blessings follow His Word. The blessings follow the restoration of God’s Word. That’s why we must have God’s Word reign over us, so I follow after His Word.
3. One who lives with Christ
1) Christ is Lord
(1) One who follows Christ’s word
(2) One who seeks the Lord’s will and not your will
What does it mean that Christ is my Lord? That the Word reigns over me, not my will but for God’s will to be done. Whatever you and I are praying for that’s from our will, that will not be fulfilled. In Matthew, it says God’s will is already determined, because Jesus says, “Pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
(3) One who follows Christ and denies yourself
So, at any given point, pray for God to be brought down to you, so that God’s spiritual Word of Truth will completely take over my thoughts, emotions, and heart. In other words, “if you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross.” What does it mean to deny ourselves? The thoughts that come into my head, my heart, my emotions, I will not follow those; I will deny those.
2) One who is in Christ
(1) Vine and the branch (Jn. 15:5)
Then, what will I follow instead? I will follow the words of Christ so that the words of Jesus Christ take over my Spirit. Then what happens? Then you will bear fruit just like the vine. Then, every single week, you will have evidence. Why do you not have evidence? It’s because we were living in this state of our thoughts and emotions. Moment by moment, if you submit your thoughts and emotions to be obedient to the words of Jesus Christ, then you will receive answers. Simply put, the thoughts that enter into your head are not from God’s Word. The depression that’s in your heart, the shaking in your heart, that’s not from God’s Word. If you’re just sitting by yourself but one day, you get so depressed? That’s not from God’s Word.
(2) One who bears fruit (Jn. 15:5)
Make it so that God’s Word seizes you. So, I have died to my thoughts, emotions, and heart, and now, I am alive only to Christ. Then, you will continue to receive the restoration of the healing and fruit of God’s Kingdom. Let’s say for example, let’s say your body is hurting. Then, what happens? You’re going to be seized by the symptoms of your pain. That’s not being seized by Christ. If I faced the fear of death, then, I’ll be seized by that fear of death. What is our walk of faith? We need to make it so that the Holy Spirit of Christ’s Word takes over us, then we overcome death. Even if we have financial difficulty, we overcome that, but when we look back later, we realize we were following God’s path of answers. It felt like we were going to die, but we weren’t going to die. My emotions might actually feel depressed, but when the Word of God enters into my spirit, it passes by.
(3) You remain in me and my words remain in you – Prayer answers (Jn. 15:7)
So, when we’re told to worship in spirit and in truth, it means you worship so that the Holy Spirit teaches us the words of truth. So that the Holy Spirit completely seizes us, our spirit and soul, then our life will be seized by God. If we’re seized by God, then we will receive continuous work of truth, restoration, and power. Then, what happens? Then, God will raise you as a witness to save all nations. “I want to be a witness but I have no evidence”? That’s why in your everyday life, you must live your walk of faith; in your day-to-day life, instead of letting your thoughts and emotions control you, let the Word of God and the Holy Spirit control you. Then, without a doubt, you will have evidence. When you have evidence, you will become a witness. Is God alive or not? That’s not the level we’re talking about. How you live your walk of faith? What do you mean? You just believe in Jesus. In conclusion, may the Holy Spirit seize us every day, may the Word of Truth seize us everyday. Then, God will hold onto me and move, that is how you will be changed, that is a life in Christ. Romans 6-8 is telling us that, now that you’ve received salvation, now you live a life with Christ.
May you have victory throughout the week. Let us pray holding onto the Word we’ve received. God, work upon us so we can die to sin and live for Christ.
3) Witness of Christ
(1) All nations – Disciples (Mt. 28:18-20)
(2) Testify the Gospel and heal all people (Lk 16:15-20)
(3) Future generation (Jn. 21: 15-18)
Conclusion
1. Filling of the Holy Spirit
2. Guidance, working of the Holy Spirit
3. Fruits of the Holy Spirit
Message Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We give thanks to the Lord Who has called us righteous by Jesus Christ. Thank You for guiding us as those who live with Jesus Christ. Allow us no longer to live, following our own personal thoughts or emotions, but instead, allow us to live, following the Word and the Holy Spirit. We believe You will give us the evidence that allows us to change our thoughts, our heart, and our emotions. We believe You will bless us to be a witness to the world.
We have returned our materials as offering. Everywhere it is used, may the dead come to life, and may the Kingdom of Christ be established until the ends of the earth. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. God, we pray You will fulfill Your Word upon our visitor, Bob Kim, exactly, and work upon him so he may stand as a witness to God in the world. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Bible reading, writing
2. Teacher’s meeting at 2:30PM.
3. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, guidance, filling, and working of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the future generations who desire to walk with and live with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen.