So we turn now in our Bibles to
the fifth chapter of Romans.
Since chapter three, Paul has been talking about
justification by faith.
How that God has declared me innocent because
of my faith in Jesus Christ.
Believing that He took my sin and died
in my place.
He became my substitute.
He took God's judgment for my sin.
He bore it for me.
And by my believing in Him, God declares
me innocent of all charges.
Justified by faith.
In chapter four, he illustrates from the Old
Testament, from Abraham, the truth of justification by
faith.
And then gave to us the keys to
Abraham's faith.
So having set forth the treatise on justification
by faith, in chapter five he begins, therefore,
being justified by faith.
Having been justified by faith, he begins to
speak of the results in our own personal
life and experience.
That which I have experienced because of justification
by faith.
And the first benefit or blessing of justification
by faith is that we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Something that would not be possible if I
were justified by works.
That is possible for any length of period.
As Christians, there is, it seems, an
inconsistency at times between my profession and my
walk.
I do not always those things that are
pleasing unto the Father.
I cannot with Jesus say, I do always
those things that please the Father.
I wish I could.
I can't.
Sometimes my works are outstanding.
Sometimes I do extremely well.
Other times I fail.
Now, if I were justified by works, then
I would have peace with God as long
as I was doing good.
But when I failed, that peace would again
be broken.
But because I am justified by faith, I
do believe in Jesus Christ.
That doesn't change.
I believe that He is the Son of
God, that He came to redeem the world,
that He died for my sins, that He
rose again the third day, that He's at
the right hand of the Father, making intercession
for me, and I believe that He's coming
again to establish God's kingdom.
I believe that He's coming again to establish
God's kingdom upon the earth.
Sometimes I don't do what is right, but
my belief never changes.
Even when I am doing something wrong, I
still have a solid faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, because my peace with God is predicated
upon justification by faith, I have always peace
with God.
As we studied last week, Paul's quotation of
Psalm 32, Oh, how happy is the man
to whom God does not impute iniquity.
And because I am justified by faith and
my faith in Jesus Christ is unswerving, God
does not impute or account iniquity to me.
So, I have peace with God through our
Lord, Jesus Christ.
Secondly, I have access by faith into this
grace, this glorious grace that God has manifested
unto me.
I have access into that grace through faith.
And then I rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God.
How wonderful it is that God has given
to us this living hope through Jesus Christ.
That is something that today the world's philosophy
cannot offer to man.
The existential philosophy has concluded that there is
no universal good.
There is no universal truth.
That truth must be experienced individually.
And it is how you see a thing
and how you feel about a thing that
constitutes truth to you.
But it is a personal, individual matter.
We can see examples of existentialism in art,
the modern art.
As you look at these paintings, where it
looks like some fellow has stood across the
room and taken little plastic bags full of
paint and thrown them against the canvas.
And they exploded when they hit the canvas
and just popped out in all directions.
And then they give some kind of a
title to the thing.
Sunset at Maui.
And I have looked at some of these
modern art paintings and for the life of
me, I can't see anything in them.
And someone stands there and says, Oh, isn't
that beautiful?
Isn't that lovely?
And it's one of those things that, you
know, you've got to see it yourself and
you interpret it yourself.
Now, when I was a kid, we used
to have Spanish stucco on the ceiling and
we used to see horses and things in
the stucco on the ceiling, you know.
But it takes a bit of imagination.
But you see, the effect of it is
that you have to experience it.
You interpret it for yourself.
That's the whole idea.
And the purpose of the art is to
express the philosophy.
Coming home from Hawaii, my wife and I
watched some dumb movie and it was one
of those movies that they didn't put the
end on it.
You know, the guy just goes walking off.
Now, I don't know if he committed suicide
or if he sobered up and got right.
Don't know what happened.
They didn't finish the story.
Suddenly you see the end.
I said, man, that's not the end.
They didn't finish it.
And I was so mad that I wasted
the time watching the unfinished story.
But that again is a classic example of
existential philosophy and its purpose is to let
you experience it and you put the end
on the story.
So the story has a thousand different ends
because each of us see in it what
we want to see.
We each of it interpret it for ourselves.
Some of the modern music today is existential.
I for the life of me can't find
the melody.
All I get is the beat and you've
got to put in whatever you want.
You know, they provide the beat.
You put in the melody.
These are all examples of existential philosophy.
Now, the result then of existential philosophy is
a separation of people.
It creates loneliness and isolation.
It puts me in my own little island
and you in your own little island.
And I don't know if I'm thinking as
you're thinking.
You don't know if you're thinking as I'm
thinking because we are alienated by the philosophy.
I don't know if you're seeing in that
picture, but I'm saying now, you know, there
are forms of art when you see the
barn and the fence and the cow in
the field.
And I have no problem with that.
I can say that's a barn and that's
a fence and that's a cow.
And I have no problem with that.
And I know that when you look at
it, you can see a barn and a
fence and a cow because they're obvious.
And so I'm unified with you.
As we stand there and look at it,
I feel unified with you because I know
you're seeing the same thing I'm seeing.
And so the effect of existentialism is that
of the separation of man and making man
isolated in an island as each of us
interpret life and truth as we experience it
ourselves.
But declaring that there is no universal truth
or there is no universal good, that it
is a matter of a person's individual experience,
they have despaired of ever discovering truth or
good.
And existential philosophy has concluded that reality can
only bring despair and a person cannot live
in despair.
Thus, you must escape reality.
And we see a world full of people
trying to escape reality.
And they're trying to escape in so many
different things, into nomadism, into drugs and alcoholism,
into compulsive eating, compulsive gambling, or so many
ways by which a person is seeking to
escape the world in which he lives.
Existential philosophy suggests that a person take a
leap of faith into a non-reason religious
experience.
And so because you cannot live in reality
because that is hopeless, you either escape reality
or you have some kind of a religious
experience that again is very unique and isolated.
You can't explain it, but there is a
sense, a consciousness of well-being.
And they talk about the ultimate experience.
Now, we do have a hope.
We can be real people.
We can live in reality.
As a Christian, I can live in reality.
And I realize that the world is corrupt.
I realize that government has failed.
I realize that we have not and will
not discover the solutions for world peace.
And I agree with the existential philosophers that
if you think we're going to discover world
peace, you're not a realist.
You're not living in reality.
You're living in a fool's paradise.
Reality would bring me to despair if I
didn't have the hope in Jesus Christ.
But because I have a hope in Jesus
Christ, I can face the reality of life,
but still rejoice in the hope.
Because I know that when He comes, we
are going to live in a world of
peace.
We're going to live in a world where
we don't have to worry about our grandchildren
going to the market to buy a loaf
of bread, being exposed to pornography or being
exposed to the possibility of being accosted by
some pervert.
That world is coming.
It isn't now.
And as long as Satan reigns, it never
will be.
But Satan isn't going to reign forever.
Thank God Jesus is coming and is going
to establish God's kingdom.
And we shall sing, the kingdoms of this
world have become the kingdom of our Lord
and of His Christ.
And He shall reign forever and ever.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
And it will be cause for great praise.
I rejoice in the hope of the glory
of God.
And I have tonight a living hope for
the future, not in man, but in Jesus
Christ and God's kingdom.
Not only so, this isn't all.
He says, now, hold on.
You haven't made it all yet.
We also glory in tribulations.
What kind of a nut are you, Paul?
To glory in tribulations.
Jesus in the sermon on the mount said,
rejoice when men speak evil of you for
my name's sake, when men persecute you for
righteousness sake.
Blessed are you when men shall persecute you
for righteousness sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is
your reward in heaven.
The Bible tells us, count it all joy
when you fall into diverse problems.
I haven't achieved that yet, but I'm working
on it.
We glory in tribulations.
How is it that I can glory in
tribulation?
I glory in tribulation because I have learned
that in every trial, there is an opportunity
for God to manifest himself in my life
and to work in my life.
I have learned when there is pressure, when
there are problems, to just wait on the
Lord.
It took me a long time to learn
that.
Right now, we are waiting upon the Lord
in regards to the bid that we made
upon the site in Newport Beach.
The school board tells us in two weeks
they will make their decision.
I can honestly say that I'm not tense.
I'm not nervous.
I'm not really concerned.
If we get it, we get it.
If we don't, we don't.
When we bought the Greenville school from the
Santa Ana school district, we put in a
bid and we didn't even go to the
board meeting where they were going to have
the oral bids once they'd opened the sealed
bids that had come in.
We just submitted a bid on the school
and let it go at that.
And one morning, the secretary of the school
board called me up and said, you just
bought a school.
I said, well, praise the Lord.
In these times, we have an opportunity to
wait upon God to see him work.
Thus, tribulation work of patience as I learned
to wait upon God and patience brings experience
because as I wait upon God, I experience
the work of God.
I see God work and I learn by
experience that God does work in every situation
where we just wait on him.
And I experienced that work of God.
And as I experienced God's faithfulness in working
out my problems, it only then enhances that
hope.
And so I glory in tribulation because I
know that here is another opportunity for God
to work in my life, for me to
experience a fresh God's love and God's grace
as he works in my situation.
And as I see the work of God
completed, my hope just gets stronger.
Yes, God is faithful.
Yes, God will keep his word.
Yes, the Lord will establish his kingdom that
he promised.
And so the experience hope and the hope
makes not ashamed because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.
And so I have this glorious hope as
God just pours out his love over my
life through the Holy Spirit.
For when we were yet without strength in
due time, Christ died for the good, sweet,
wonderful, generous, kind people.
No, fortunately, he died for the ungodly.
Oh, may the Holy Spirit take and stamp
this truth deep in our hearts tonight.
Christ died for the ungodly.
I qualify for scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die.
But God commended his love toward us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.
When did God start loving you when you
surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, when you
raised your hand and you went forward and
you said the sinner's prayer?
Did God say, oh, isn't that sweet?
I am going to love them now.
No, God commended or displayed his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly.
And because he died for us in that
ungodly state, I have no place in myself
where of to boast.
Well, the Lord died for me because he
saw that I was doing my best.
He knew I was trying hard.
He knew I had potential.
No, the grace of God is complete.
Christ died for me when I was still
a sinner.
When I was in an ungodly state, God
loved me then.
Now, does God love you any less now
that you are his child?
Isn't it interesting how so often we in
our minds imagine God as being disgusted with
us or disappointed with us or discouraged with
us or through with us.
We can just imagine God having negative attitudes
towards us.
I've shared before how when Jam was just
a little girl and she was going through
that nobody loves me routine after she had
been reprimanded for something.
And at that point, none of her friends
loved her and her mom and daddy didn't
love her and nobody loved her.
We said, oh, yes, we do love you.
No, you don't love me.
She wouldn't give an inch.
So I finally said, well, Jesus loves you.
Oh, no, he doesn't.
I said, what?
I said, yeah, he just stuck his head
out behind one of the clouds and stuck
his tongue out at me.
And, you know, sometimes we imagine Jesus doing
that to us, you know, like he's had
it with us and I can understand him
doing it.
But he doesn't.
If while I was yet a sinner, he
died for me.
God demonstrated, commended, displayed his love towards me
in that while I was still a sinner,
Christ died for me.
Now that I'm a child of God.
Now that I am trying to live a
life that is pleasing to him.
Now that I seek to walk in fellowship
and in that love.
Surely he doesn't love me any less.
So God commended his love towards us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us much more than being now justified
by his blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through him.
That is that wrath of God that shall
be revealed against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men that Paul spoke about in chapter one.
We shall be saved from wrath.
It is interesting that the great tribulation is
called the day of God's wrath in the
opening of the sixth seal.
As the people on earth cry for the
rocks in the mountains to fall on them,
they pray hide us from the face of
the lamb for the day of his wrath
has come.
But thank God if Jesus loved me when
I was a sinner and died for me,
how much more being justified now by his
blood will I be saved from the wrath
through him.
For if when we were enemies, an enemy
to God, if in that state we were
reconciled to God by the death of his
son, much more being reconciled we'll be saved
by his life.
Now if his death could reconcile me to
God, how much more his life as he
lives to make intercession for me.
Notice there are several much mores in this
chapter and I love the much more.
It's a argument from the lesser to the
greater.
It's a typical philosophical type of argument.
Paul uses it often in his writings.
And here if through the death of Jesus
I was reconciled to God, how much more
shall I be saved by his life.
And not only so, now this comes back
to verse one, therefore being justified by faith.
And this is the final experience that Paul
illustrates or gives to us the final result.
Not only so, but we also joy in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement.
So these are the right results of being
justified.
I have peace with God.
I have access to the grace.
I rejoice in hope and I joy in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This word atonement in the Greek is a
different word from the Hebrew word translated atonement
in the Old Testament.
The word atonement in the Old Testament you
find used quite a bit in Leviticus as
you deal with the various sacrificial offerings and
thus shall they make an atonement for the
sins.
That Hebrew word is kofar and if you
will think of it as covering, kofar, a
covering.
That is a literal translation of the Hebrew
kofar and you shall make a covering for
the sins.
But the sacrifices of the animals in the
Old Testament could not make an atonement for
the sinner.
It could only make a covering for the
sin.
It could not put away the sin.
All it did was cover the sin.
For it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats could put away sin.
It took the blood of Jesus Christ to
put away the sins.
So the Old Testament sacrifices were only looking
forward to that sacrifice that God one day
would make in sending his only begotten son
who would die as a lamb without spot
or blemish.
So we are redeemed, Peter said, from our
vain empty living, not with the blood of
bulls or goats, but with the blood of
Jesus Christ who was slain as a lamb
without spot or blemish.
So the Greek word atonement is a different
word with a different idea entirely than the
Hebrew kofar or covering for sin.
The Greek word atonement can best be understood
if you break it up, at-one-ment,
in that I have been made one with
God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for
me.
So I join God because I've become one
with God through Jesus Christ who has made
this possible.
He's made it possible that as he said,
and in that day you shall know that
I am in the Father and ye are
in me and I am in you.
And this alienation that once existed between God
and man no longer exists.
Isaiah said, God's hand is not short that
he cannot save, neither is his ear heavy
that he cannot hear, but your sins have
separated you from God.
But now that the sins are put away,
Jesus has made this at-one-ment.
He's brought me into one with the Father.
This is the record.
God has given to us eternal life.
This life is in the Son and he
that has the Son has life.
That life of God, one with God.
And these things John said, rightly unto you,
that you might have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the Father and
his Son, Jesus Christ.
The word fellowship, koinonia, is the same idea.
Oneness, a communion, a joining together with.
And so I've been joined together with God
through Jesus Christ.
Now Paul teaches a very important doctrinal truth.
And unfortunately, there are those today who are
teaching something other than this basic doctrinal truth
that Paul is getting across here in the
latter portion of chapter five of Romans.
There is a teaching today that has been
called the moral government of God.
And this teaching, the moral government of God,
among other things, teaches that man is not
sinful by nature, but sinful by choice.
That when Adam sinned, he sinned for himself.
But Adam's sin was not passed on to
me.
That I was born as was Adam, totally
innocent and totally neutral.
And that I am a sinner because then
I chose to sin.
But Adam has no responsibility with my sinful
state.
I only am responsible for my own sinful
state.
This is a very dangerous doctrine because as
you read the whole treatise that Paul has
here, the whole idea is that if one
man could make us all sinners, then one
man could make us all righteous.
But if you deny that one man made
us all sinners, then you must also deny
that one man made us all righteous.
And thus, I am a sinner by choice
or I am righteous by my works.
And it leads to a works righteous position,
which is one that none of you can
maintain.
I can't I tried to maintain that position
for years.
I never could.
All that did was bring me into condemnation
and guilt and frustration.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men for that all have
sinned.
Now, let me point out that the word
have is not in the Greek text.
What the Greek text reads is, wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin, so death passed unto
all men for that all sin.
We all sin in Adam.
He acted as a federal head.
He acted for all of us.
And by his sin, death entered the world.
By his sin, we were all made sinners.
God said to Adam the day that thou
eatest, thou shalt surely die talking about spiritual
death, which Adam experienced when he ate of
the forbidden fruit.
His spirit died.
And Adam could not pass on through his
genes something that he did not possess, spiritual
life.
Through the genes, all he could pass on
was a physical body with the capacity of
a consciousness.
But being dead spiritually, he could not by
procreation pass on spiritual life.
So one man sin death entered the world
and death passed unto all men.
Paul, the apostle.
In the epistle to the Ephesians, chapter two.
In describing our past lives said, and you
have he made alive spiritually who were dead
because of your trespasses and sins who in
times past, you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of
the power of the air that even now
is working in the children of disobedience among
whom you all once had your manner of
living.
And you were by nature, the children of
wrath, even as others.
That's by nature, because by one man sin
death in the world and death passed into
all men for all sin.
Therefore, I sin because I'm a sinner.
Sinning does not make me a sinner.
It only proves that I'm a sinner.
You say, well, what about the little children
who died?
God takes care of them.
They're safe.
Oh, that precious, innocent little baby.
Are you sure?
Look at the way they're making their fleshly
demands.
Listen to them.
Whale.
Look at them kick and flail around.
If they were big enough and strong enough,
they'd rip that crib apart.
How many of you had to be taught
how to tell a lie?
What is it necessary to teach?
It's necessary to teach your children to be
honest.
They seem to learn to lie very naturally.
And so we have to teach the positive
values for a child left to himself will
bring a reproach to his parents, according to
the scriptures.
For we, by nature, were the children of
wrath.
Now, until the law was given, sin was
not in the world for until the law,
sin was bigger part for until the law,
this sin was in the world, but sin
is not imputed where there is no law.
Sin was there, but it wasn't imputed because
there was no law.
Now, Adam had one law.
He broke it.
Oh, he had a few more positive.
There was one negative and he broke it.
If there is no law that says that
the speed limit is 55 miles an hour,
then you can't be ticketed for going over
55.
But it's because there is a law that
says that that is the limit.
You can be ticketed for going over that
limit, but it used to be in some
areas that they did not have speed laws,
and thus you could not be ticketed for
speeding because there was no speed law.
Most generally, then they would ticket you for
reckless driving if you were driving beyond a
speed limit that was safe.
But where there is no law, you cannot
be arrested for violating the law because there
is no law that pertains to that.
So until the law was given, sin was
in the world, but it wasn't imputed or
accounted to man.
Nevertheless, even from Adam to Moses, death reigned.
The consequence of sin was still there and
men died, even over them that had not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who
was a figure of him who was to
come, even Jesus.
But not as the offense, so also is
the free gift.
For if through the offense of one, many
be dead, much more the grace of God
and the gift by grace, which is by
one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
And this is the important teaching of one
man's righteousness, making many righteous.
How is it that God can account me
righteous?
Because Jesus is righteous and his righteousness is
imputed to me by my faith in him.
And not as it was by one that
sin, so is the gift for the judgment
was by one unto condemnation, but the free
gift is of many offenses unto justification.
For if by one man's offense, death reigned
by one, much more they which receive abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one Jesus Christ.
And so by one man, sin entered the
world death by sin, death passed unto all
men for all sin.
Even so, by one man's righteousness are many
made righteous who believe in him and who
are justified by faith.
And many come into eternal life through the
one.
The one man brought death.
The first Adam brought death and Jesus Christ
brought life.
Adam brought sin.
Jesus brought righteousness.
And thus Jesus acts as a federal head
as Adam acted as the federal head for
humanity.
So now Jesus acts as the federal head
for all of those who believe in him
and you are made a new creation.
The old things are passed away and everything
becomes new.
You can't say, well, that's just my Irish
temper because I have a new nature, the
nature of Jesus Christ.
I've been born again by the spirit of
God, a new creature, a new nature.
And I relate now to Jesus Christ as
the origin of my life.
Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift
came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience, many were
made sinners.
So by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might
abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound.
So the law came along in order that
we might see how far we did miss
the mark.
And the word sin means missing the mark.
But if you don't see the mark, how
can you miss it?
You know, how can you know how far
you missed it?
You may be shooting wildly, but I can't
convince you of that until I put up
the mark.
Then as your arrows go flying all over
everywhere, I say, oh man, you've really missed
the mark.
And so the law came along that we
might see how far we missed the divine
ideal, how far we came from living a
life that was acceptable and pleasing to God.
The law once and forever put down the
thought of self-righteousness if properly understood.
So the law entered that the offense might
abound, but where sin abounded, grace did overflow.
That as sin has reigned unto death, even
so, grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
As you go back and meditate on chapter
five, underline the much mores and meditate upon
the contrast that he draws.
Another thing to mark in chapter five is
the many references to Jesus Christ our Lord,
or through Jesus Christ our Lord, or by
Jesus.
That which we have through him, that which
we have by him.
And these are things that you want to
note there in chapter five.
What shall we say then?
If where sin abounds, grace does much more
abound.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
You know, let's let God reveal how much
grace there is by continuing in sin.
And Paul's answer is his typical, God forbid.
And now he gives to you the new
principle of life.
How shall we that are dead to sin
live any longer therein?
I have received Jesus Christ as my Lord
and Savior.
In receiving Jesus Christ as my Lord and
Savior, I have done that.
And the result is that I am born
again.
I am now a child of God through
faith in Jesus Christ.
If I am born again, then where's the
old Chuck?
He's dead.
That old fellow who used to live after
his flesh, he's dead.
I now have a new life, a spiritual
life, that life from Christ.
Therefore, to say, well, let's go ahead and
just live in sin that grace may abound
is folly, because I am dead to sin.
That all life is dead.
So, know ye not that so many of
you as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death.
Don't you realize that that water represented the
grave?
Don't you realize that as you were put
in the water, it was the burial of
the old life.
You were buried with Christ in the water
of baptism.
Therefore, 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.
It's a whole new life.
That new life after the Spirit.
And of course, that's the whole thing.
The old life after Adam is a life
after the flesh.
It is a life where the body is
dominant and the consciousness is occupied by the
body needs.
It is life on the animal plane, body
and soul, the body supreme, the mind subjected
and filled with the consciousness of the body
needs.
Now, when you are born again, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh.
When you are born again by the Spirit
of God, the new life that you now
have is spirit, soul and body.
So now the spirit is the dominant feature
and the new life is a spiritual life.
The old life was a fleshly life.
The new life is a spiritual life, a
spirit in union with God's Spirit.
So a spirit in union with God's Spirit,
my thoughts, my consciousness now is upon God
and the things of God and how I
might please Him by walking in the Spirit.
And these are the things that dominate my
conscious state.
God's love for me, God's grace for me,
God's goodness to me.
These things dominate my conscious state, no longer
dominated by my fleshly desires or fleshly needs.
That's what baptism was all about, buried with
Christ, but yet raised in that newness of
life in Him.
For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of His death through baptism, we
shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection as I come up out of the
water.
It's like being resurrected, like Jesus resurrecting, coming
out of the grave, that new resurrected life
of Christ.
Knowing this, that our old man was, not
is, was, it's past tense in Greek, was
crucified with Him that the body of sin
might be destroyed or put out of business,
that henceforth we should not serve sin.
So this body of sin was put out
of business.
It can no longer dominate my life.
It can no longer rule over my consciousness
because that old man was crucified
with Christ.
As Christians, our biggest problem is with our
flesh.
For our flesh is still seeking to make
its demands upon us.
Our flesh would still bring us under its
control.
And power.
And as a Christian, there is a warfare
that is going on in me.
For the flesh is warring against my spirit
and my spirit is warring against my flesh.
And these two are contrary to each other.
And there is this battle going in for
the control of my mind, the control of
my life.
My flesh still wants to sit on the
throne of my life and the spirit wants
to sit on the throne of my life.
And there's a battle raging actually over the
control of my life itself, the flesh and
the spirit.
And I don't always do the things that
I would.
As we sang this morning, then I shall
be what I would be, then I shall
be what I should be.
Things that are not, now nor could be,
soon shall be our own.
The battle be over one of these days
when my spirit leaves this old body of
flesh.
I'm still living in the body.
That's my big problem.
If I weren't living in this body any
longer, then I'd have no problems, but I'm
still living in the body.
And as long as I'm living in this
body, it's going to struggle for supremacy.
And thus I must keep my body under.
You remember Paul the apostle said, I beat
myself to keep my body under.
It's a struggle.
It's a fight.
My body wants control again.
It wants to sit on the throne.
I have to keep my body under.
And the way to do that is to
reckon that old self to be dead.
It's a reckoning process.
Lord, that is a part of the old
life dominated by my flesh.
I reckon that to be dead.
That flare up, Lord, that belongs to the
old life.
That bitterness that belongs to the old life,
that anger that belongs to the old life,
that's dead.
Thank God that's dead.
I don't have to live under that domination
anymore.
That was crucified with Christ and I am
now living a new life in the resurrected
Lord.
So the old man was crucified with him
that the body of sin might be put
out of business, that I shouldn't serve sin
any longer 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 has no more dominion
over him.
For in that he died, he died unto
sin once, but in that he lives, he
lives unto God.
So I am now in the risen Christ.
I'm living in Christ.
I have that life in Christ and sin
no longer can reign as king in my
mortal body.
For Christ now reigns.
Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Account that to be.
How many times I must account that to
be in my own life when the old
flesh rears its ugly head and I do
that which is not pleasing and the Spirit
of God calls my attention to it and
I feel so shamed that I would have
said that, that I would have done that.
I cry out unto God and I say,
Lord, I reckon that to be dead, a
part of the old life.
Thank God I don't have to live under
its rule any longer.
Help me, Lord.
So reckon ye also yourselves to be dead.
Now, reckoning is a word of faith.
You see, if my old flesh were dead,
I wouldn't have to reckon it to be
dead.
If it were actually dead, one day it
will be.
I'm not going to have to reckon it
anymore after that.
But my old flesh is still very much
alive, too much alive.
I'm painfully, keenly aware of that.
And so I have to take the position
of faith, a position of reckoning.
I reckon that to be dead.
Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Again, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Make note.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in the
lust or the desires thereof.
Don't let sin, don't let the flesh reign.
Neither yield ye your members, that is the
members of your body, as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin.
But yield yourselves unto God as those that
are alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God.
My hands can be tools for God or
they can be tools for my flesh.
I love that song, take my life and
let it be consecrated Lord to thee.
Take my hands and let them move at
the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift
and beautiful for thee.
My feet have carried me into a lot
of mischief and they've carried me away from
a lot of mischief faster than they carried
me into it.
But God, take my feet and let them
be swift and beautiful for thee.
You see, I can yield my body as
an instrument in God's hands for God to
use for His glory or I can yield
my body to fulfill the desires of my
own flesh and body and be ruled by
the desires of my body.
But I'm not to yield the instruments of
my body as instruments of unrighteousness, but I'm
to surrender them to God that He might
take and use my body for His glory.
Take my lips and let them sing always
only of my King, always only of my
King.
Your mouth, your words, they can speak the
power and the blessing of God to people.
Lives can be blessed and transformed by your
words and lives can be cut down and
destroyed by your words.
Satan can use my body as his instrument
of destruction or God can use my body
as his instrument of glory.
Satan can use my life and fill it
with hatred and cut people down or God
can use my life and fill it with
His love and build people up.
So we are exhorted here that we should
yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto
God.
For sin, and I love this, is one
of my favorite promises in the whole Bible.
For sin shall not have dominion over you
for you are not under law but under
grace.
God told me sin is not going to
have dominion over me.
Thank God for that.
Doesn't mean that I don't sin.
The word sin means to miss the mark
and it doesn't mean that I hit the
mark every time.
I'm not perfect.
Far from it.
Paul the apostle after walking with the Lord
for 30 years said, I have not yet
apprehended that for which I was apprehended by
Jesus Christ, neither do I count myself perfect.
Well, move over, Paul, I'll join you.
God has not yet fulfilled His complete purposes
in my life.
I have not yet apprehended that for which
I was apprehended.
God had a plan and a purpose for
my life when He apprehended me and called
me to serve Him.
I haven't yet completed that call of God
and neither do I count myself complete or
perfect.
I don't hit the mark every time, but
thank God sin doesn't have dominion over my
life anymore.
I'm not ruled by sin.
I don't have to be ruled by sin.
I have freedom, glorious freedom from the tyranny
of the flesh and the power of sin
and it shall not have dominion over me,
for I am a child of God, born
again by the Spirit, living that new life,
that resurrected life in Christ.
What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace?
God forbid.
They're willing to jump on anything, aren't they?
Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto
death or of obedience unto righteousness?
Every man is ruled.
No man is supreme.
No man is master of his fate or
captain of his soul.
We are all governed by an outside power.
We are governed either by the power of
God or by the power of Satan.
And it's your choice.
You can choose to be governed by God
or you can choose to live after Satan's
authority.
You can choose to live like the devil
or you can choose to live like God.
But whoever you yield yourself servants to obey,
His servants you become.
This is the tragedy of the Garden of
Eden.
God said thou shalt not eat of the
tree that is in the midst of the
garden, and in the day you do, you're
going to die.
Satan came along and said you ought to
try the tree in the midst of the
garden.
It's good.
It's delicious.
And you won't die.
God's just trying to protect Himself.
He knows that that tree holds the key
of the knowledge in good and evil.
And if you once knew knowledge of good
and evil, hey, you'd be just like God
and He's just trying to protect Himself.
You ought to really try it.
How can you put it down if you
haven't tried it?
You know, just one bite.
You don't like it.
You don't have to finish it.
Now, the action of Eve was a double
action.
It was, first of all, an action of
disobedience to God.
But in the same token, it was an
action of obedience to Satan.
And she yielded herself in obedience to Satan
and thus became a servant.
Know you not that whoever you yield yourself
servants to obey, His servants you become?
And so man, through the disobedience, became a
servant of Satan.
That was the tragic consequence of the disobedience
to God.
And the same is true in our lives.
If I choose to yield myself to God
and to His Word and to His will,
then I become a servant of God.
But if I choose to yield myself as
a servant of disobedience, then I become a
servant of the disobedient one.
But God be thanked that ye were the
servants of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered to you once you were a servant
of sin.
But now thank God, because we have chosen
to follow after God.
We've chosen to obey the voice of Jesus
Christ.
We who were once servants to sin are
now made servants of righteousness.
Being then made free from sin, you became
the servants of righteousness.
Now I speak after the manner of men
because of the weakness of your flesh.
For as you have yielded your members servants
to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now yield your members servants to righteousness
unto holiness.
Hey, if we just live as hard for
God as we live for the devil, we
could turn this world upside down, couldn't we?
If we served the Lord with the same
gusto and zest that we served our flesh,
think of what we could accomplish.
And this is what he's encouraging us to
do.
Even as we yielded our members once as
servants to uncleanness and iniquity, now let's just
yield ourselves to God.
Oh God, help us that we might start
living full on for Jesus Christ, just totally
gung ho for him.
I like that attitude.
Let's go for it.
And in talking about the things of the
Lord and serving the Lord, let's go for
it.
Let's go all out for it.
Let's give ourselves totally and completely to live
for Jesus Christ, yielding ourselves, our lives to
him just to see what God would do
and wants to do in this area through
a bunch of people that are just sold
out fools for Christ.
I think of how people make fools of
themselves over such silly things.
Get a few drinks and oh my, what
a fool they can make of themselves.
And yet we become so proper and reluctant
to step out for Jesus Christ, to be
considered a fool for him.
For when you were the servants of sin,
you were free from righteousness.
But what fruit did you have then in
those things were of your now ashamed when
you were living in sin and you did
those things for which we're now you're now
so ashamed.
What, what real fruit, what lasting fruit did
you have in your life?
Unfortunately, the fruit was miserable fruit and it
left misery in its wake for the end
of those things is death, the life after
the flesh.
But now being made free from sin and
having become the servants of God, you have
your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting
life.
Glorious fruit now coming forth from my life,
fruit of righteousness unto God, the love with
its joy and peace and long suffering and
gentleness and goodness and meekness and temperance and
eternal life, the glorious ultimate results for the
wages of sin is death.
Satan pays his servants, you get your wages,
serve him well, give him your best, you
will be rewarded.
The wages of sin is death.
You can't escape them if you continue in
sin.
But in contrast to the wages, the gift
of God, not the wages of God, because
we can't earn eternal life.
It's by grace.
The gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So we have the extreme contrast, the wages
of sin, the life after the flesh, it
ends in death.
The gift of God, the life after the
spirit ends in eternal life.
Every man is in one of two categories,
either a servant of sin or a servant
of God, yielding my body as an instrument
of sin or yielding my body as an
instrument for God to use for his glory.
I agree with that song.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
I want my life to count for God
and for eternity.
The glorious gift of God, eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord in him, through him,
by him.
Oh, the blessings that God has made available
to us.
Eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank you for thy word, a
lamp unto our feet, a light unto our
path and for the balanced life through the
word.
Thank you for your grace that abounds unto
us.
Thank you for this glorious position of justified
by faith and the resultant peace and joy
and rejoicing and access into this grace.
Lord, may we walk now after the spirit,
a life in fellowship with you, yielding Lord,
our bodies to you, that they might become
your instruments to do your work, to bring
your love and your peace and your beauty
to this poor sin fraught world.
In Jesus name, we ask it father.
Amen.
Praise God.
As we move next week into chapters seven
and eight, they are chapters of extreme contrast.
Chapter seven will take you into the depths
of despair.
As I see the ideal, as I approve
the ideal and as I try in my
own strength and energy to achieve it and
the struggle and the pain and the defeat,
as I, in my own strength, try to
live by the divine ideal that I accept
and approve as desirable.
But then chapter eight will take you out
of the despair as we see God's plan
for victory for his believer and the provisions
that God has made for me to achieve
and to attain the idea.
Just like us, try first yourself.
And if it doesn't work, look at the
instructions.
And so with the things of the spirit,
it seems we have to get our two
cents in.
We have to try it first, experience that
failure and that frustration and then finding God's
way, living that glorious life of victory that
he has provided for us through his Holy
Spirit.
May the Lord be with you and bless
and keep you in his love.
May you walk after the spirit and may
you indeed yield your body unto God this
week.
That God might use your life as his
instrument to do his work in this needy
world.
May others receive a word of encouragement, of
love, of hope from you as you become
God's instrument to tell them of his goodness
and of his love.
In Jesus name.