Identification Truths
Mike Doyle · Jan 15, 2006
Identification (2005-06), No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262341461842

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, the name of this class is Identification. If that isn't where you're supposed to be, it's too late. We started out the beginning, the first two months or so, demonstrating our identity, man's identity with Adam. We talked a lot about Adam and his position and who he is and what he brings to the table, which is nothing but sin and death. And then we have been studying the last four or five weeks that God has not just forgiven the sinner.

What he did was he has changed the identity of the person who believes in Christ from that of Adam to that of his son. And so now, everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, his history is now the Lord Jesus Christ. It's no longer Adam. And Romans 6, which we've been concentrating on lately, really is the chapter that clearly sets forth how God did it.

It's the mechanics. If God was going to unidentify you with Adam the first, and re-identify you with the last Adam, how would he do it? Would he just say, abracadabra? No, there has to be a death. You have to die out of the old, leave the old, buried and then resurrected, and our resurrection is into newness of life and newness of identity.

We don't see it as clearly as God sees it, but God sees you in Christ only. Only. Is God finished with your sin nature? Yeah. finished as he dealt with your sins? Absolutely. So what is he trying to do? He's trying to convince you he is. It's the old saying, God is done with your sin, how come you're not?

So that's what Romans 6 is about, and what we're finding, and what we will find, and you hopefully will find from now on as you study the Word of God to the right of Romans, is that everything that Paul talks about, even John, and Hebrews is based on this truth. This is the foundation of all Christian understanding, that you have been crucified with Christ, your old man was crucified, you were buried, resurrected to newness of life. And everything from now on is based on that doctrine or that truth. We had worked our way down through kind of the basic facts, and we did question three last week, right?

What is your relationship to sin? Why is your relationship to sin exactly the same now as Christ's relationship to sin? Because you're in Christ. Whatever is true of Christ is now true of you, positionally. You understand that? That's tough to hold on to because of our experiences and the things that go on in our life.

But from a biblical standpoint and from a positional standpoint, in his death, all that were connected to Christ died to sin. Sin power over you was broken forever. Not only does he no longer bear sin, but neither do you. How many times did he die to sin? Once. He died unto sin. He was raised. It was as one who lived unto God in an endless life with which sin had nothing to do. Resurrection life, newness of life.

That's who we are. That's who He is. And because we're united to Him, like I've said, whatever is true of Him is now true of you positionally. The problem we have, if you think about it and you get really honest, And you know, I'm guilty of this. When I first learned these truths, when I would sin, I would look to God and say, well, you know, how come I'm doing this? I should be. If I'm dead to sin, how come when the music starts, my feet are moving? You know? How come when temptation's there, I'm eager to respond if I'm dead to sin? And the answer was simple. You don't believe me. You know? And so I said, OK, I believe you.

And then, typical of the way God works, His Spirit begins to work that truth into the life so that it becomes a reckoning experience. Do you understand what I mean by that? We'll talk more about reckoning today. So, when you get to 6.11 now, up to 6.10, everything is doctrine. Everything is position. There's nothing for you to do but to absorb the information. When you get to 6.11 now, it's your turn. Now you get to do something.

And 6.11 says, Reckon yourself, indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God. And we talked about what the word reckon means.

So, question four says, Is Romans 6.11 a matter of feeling or fact, or facts? Is it a matter of experience, or is it a matter of objective fact?

It's fact. And you know what? Don't be offended, but it doesn't matter how you feel about it. It doesn't matter, because it's a fact. You see that? It is a fact, and it's a fact that's true of you, because why? Because you're in Christ. You see that? Your whole identity is Christ. So, because the fact is true, what does he ask you to do about it? Reckon it to be so.

God never asks you to reckon on something or to believe something that isn't already true. That's one of the huge differences between us and the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was always believing promises, right? God says, I'm going to do this, and they were to exercise faith in what he promised. We don't have any of that. He asks us to believe what's already true. Right? Did you already die with Christ? Absolutely. Were you buried with him? Yep. Were you resurrected with him? Yeah.

The verb tenses have nothing to do with future. They're all either perfect or aorist tense, meaning they're done. So is that a grace principle? Totally a grace principle. God sheds his grace on us and he wants us in the loop, so to speak. He's done everything. and he, through his word, explains to us what he's done, and all he wants us to do is believe him. It's tough because, especially we Americans, we're always wanting to work a deal, we want to be involved, we want to be in a partnership with God, and God says, wait a minute, I'm doing it all, you just believe me. Question five is a long question, but I think it's significant.

There are two words signifying death in this passage. The word for dead, nekros, here in verse 11, and maybe make it clear by doing that. Bear with me a second. 611 says, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So that word in 11 is necros, and it does not refer to the act or process of dying, but to the state or effect produced by death.

Understand that? The other word, thensko, signifies the act and occurs in verse 3, 4, 5, seven, eight, nine, and ten, and is used when Christ dying, or our dying with or in Him, is set forth. Which word best describes your relationship to sin? Which one? Necros. Necros. That's exactly right. It describes, it does not describe the process of dying.

Now the reason I brought this up is because, have you ever heard a believer say, how are you doing? And they say, oh, I'm dying to self. Ever heard that saying before? The problem is they don't know the Greek words. How can you die to self? That's like self dying to self. It can't happen. The point is this, that you already are dead. Do you see that? And you're working on the death process, what God would have you do. He would have you, by faith, believe that you already died. You see the difference?

It's the subtlety of the self in terms of wanting to be involved in the action. The person learns about his co-crucifixion with Christ from a positional standpoint and recognizes that spiritual growth is working into your condition, what's already true of you positionally. So what does he think? God wants me to help him implement this in my life.

So I'm going to die to self. No. By faith you believe the facts that are already true. You are dead to self. You see that? So Nekros best describes the word. You're no longer connected with the old sin nature because you're in Christ and he died to it. It'd be like this going over to Yeda's funeral and have Yeda say, I'm really trying to die here. Really working on it as hard as I can.

Wait a minute. Yeda, you're already dead. You're not here anymore. Do you see that point? Well, believers need to see it from God's perspective. You died already. Do you think There is any other way to establish your soul in rest than this declaration from God. Here's the command from God. Reckon yourself, indeed, dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Is there any other pathway to rest than this way? You sure? No spiritual push-ups? Can't go to seminary? You can strive. Well, I'll tell you what, there's no shortcuts.

How are you able to really believe that Christ bore the guilt for your sins and you won't meet them on Judgment Day? How are you able to believe that? because He said so, right? So, it's only God's Word that tells you that, right? Isn't that the only way you know it? You didn't see it on the 11 o'clock news, trust me. So, when God says to us, look, I bore your sins on the cross, I paid the penalty for you, you believed it and you became a Christian, and the only facts you had were the Word, right?

Now He says, that same Word says, Oh, by the way, you used to be connected with Adam, and you died with Christ, and your old man was crucified, and that since you are in Christ, you shared his death unto sin. Do you believe that?" You say, oh, I'll have to think that one over, you know. So that's why reckoning is such an important part.

The man that we're praying for, Bob Strong, bless his heart. He and another guy led me to Christ six weeks after I was saved. I'm over at his office one day and he says, you want to study the Bible? I said, sure. He opens up to Romans 6. He reads down the first five verses. He said, what does that say? I said, looks like I died. He said, think you did? I said, I don't know. Did I? He said, yeah, you did.

Wow, that's pretty cool. High truth. This is not PhD information. This is basic, Christian, fundamental, on-the-ground doctrine. Every believer is to walk this way based on their faith in the fact that they died with Christ. Do you see that? So, in order to establish your soul in rest, this is the avenue. This is the only way. What gives you unrest? That's right. That's exactly right.

Have you ever met a non-believer who had rest? Ever met one? I never have. I know a couple of people that can fake it. There's a certain rest in a believer that the world can't give. The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me all ye who labor. and are heavy laden. And I'll give you the one thing you can't buy, you can't accomplish, you can't do. I will give you rest for your souls." How does he give it? Right here. Right here.

He severs you from your relationship with Adam. Adam, because of his sin, is constantly at unrest. There is no rest if you're facing your sins. I don't care if you claim to be an atheist. You don't have any rest. No matter what you do. You can't drink enough bourbon. You can't smoke enough dope. You can't take enough vacations. You can't do it. You can't jump off enough, out of enough airplanes. You just can't do it. There's no rest.

You see that? Rest comes from the fact that God, in His grace, identified us with the death of Christ and positionally separated us from the man who has no rest. and recreated us in Christ, who is nothing but rest. See that? How come there's so much time involved in it?

I think it's because you don't buy it. Because you go to God with your experience and say, well, I know what you're saying, but my experience is... Or I'm faced with this really stressful situation, how come there's no rest? The issue is, I don't believe Him. I think. With me, I think it's understanding what the soul life is. With me, you know, what is that?

The self will and just the deception that Adam is. 20 years later as a believer and studying these truths that have dawned on me that psychology is a study of the sin nature. And the whole focus is to figure it out so that if you got it figured out, you'd know what to do with it. There's no reason for the believer to study self or soul. What are we to study?

The Lord Jesus Christ. He's our life now. He's the one that we focus on. Him alone. Anything other than Him is self. Do you see that? You can walk away. You can walk away from your old man, but you won't do it until you're convinced you can. Do you see that? So the Spirit of God works in your life in implementing these facts into your heart so that you will walk away. Wait a minute, I don't have to go there. That isn't who I am. I don't have to deal with my reaction to whatever that stimulus is. I don't have to do that. I can focus on the Lord Jesus and stay right there. That's exactly right.

Do you hear what Norm said? That's the problem with the Ten Commandments, meaning law. Well, you're a stimulating guy. What the thing that law does is cause you to focus on yourself, doesn't it? Because it says, you do, you don't do. That's why law is such a devastating thing, because it goes against the principle of grace, which is the freedom to focus on Christ.

If I know that Christ is approachable, and that I don't have to do anything about myself to approach him, I'll go. See that? But if I'm under some sort of a law system which says, well, you've got to do these nine things before you can approach Him, then where's my focus? It's on me, cleaning up my act so that I can go. But the Word of God says, forget all that. God's side says, I took care of it, come here. That's what He says. Steve?

So what he was just asking, though, is important, process sometimes takes a long time, or you feel like, well, you made a stride, and then bang, you blow it. So does understanding that kind of stem back to the first half of what we've gone through in this class, understanding what the atom nature is and still at work in us, right alongside the Spirit of Christ in us? Let's talk about that for a minute. The question is, It takes a long time for the Spirit to implement these identification truths into our life, and so what do you do? How do you deal with the circumstance? My answer is going to be this.

When a believer sins, commits a sin, he's exhorted in 1 John 1.9 to confess his sins, and God is faithful and just to forgive him his sins and cleanse him from all unrighteousness, right? What's confession mean? Anybody? Agreeing with God, saying the same thing.

What does he say? You're a dirty dog, you've been sinning, you should stop. No. But who does he say you are? He says you're in Christ, right? And so you say, wait a minute, I'm supposed to say the same thing. I am positionally, the truth is that I'm in Christ. The truth is also I've been functioning as though I weren't in Christ. Right? What's the truth? I'm in Christ. I've said the same thing God has said. I've confessed my sin. Father, I have been living as though you weren't telling me the truth. Or that I didn't believe the truth. You know? And what does God say? I've forgiven you and I've cleansed you from all unrighteousness. What has He done? He's restored you back to Christ. Functioning out of Him.

So what is confession? a series of, oh, I'm really bad and I confess and God has forgiven me and I'm going to try harder. No, no. Confession is identification. I am who I am. I may be acting as though I'm not who God says I am, which is sinful, but the truth is, if I'm going to go to God and say, I'm going to say the same thing you say about me, what does He say about me? You find for me in Paul's epistles, that he says we're a sinner. Find it. You'll never see it. Because you're not positionally in Christ, you can't be a sinner. Even John says, look, those that are in Christ can't sin. Right?

I guess what I was saying is that it takes a long time for us to learn how to behold the Lord. What's cool about it is that it's his job. I'm convinced that if we would just believe him and let him implement the truth that he tells us, it would go faster.

Having said that, I also think that in the process that God uses our sinfulness for our spiritual growth. and not necessarily for me but for you. In other words, Paul says, death works in me so there might be life in you. If I'm involved with you and you're coming to me or I'm going to you with my sinfulness, you're never shocked by what I say. And the reason you're not is because you've seen your own heart and you know the grace that rescued you. So you can always exhort me and comfort me and lead me back to restoration to fellowship with Christ, because you know.

The practical working out in a believer's life of the identification truths, where they learn to hate sin, sin, not sins, but sin, and love the Lord, is that process. But it's based on the truth. It's not based on how you feel about it. It's based on the truth. I identify that I stole a car, I confess that I stole a car, so please forgive me. Isn't the concept that you've already been forgiven of those things?

You notice in 1 John 1.9 that there's no discussion there about asking for forgiveness. If you confess, God is faithful and just to forgive. It doesn't say you have to ask or beg for forgiveness. Do you see the difference in the mindset? Here's the thing. That's already true.

So you're entering into it by faith. Should you not confess your sins? Absolutely you should. What I found, though, is that when the Holy Spirit convicts me, what dawns on me is that, oh wow, I've been going hours, days, walking in the flesh. So think about this. If you're walking in the flesh, Is there ever a minute when you're walking in the flesh that you're not sinning? Can you remember every second?

No. So what do you do? He convicts you of something, or two, or three, and so you go to him about those, but you realize in the process, wow, I have been functioning for a time period here in the flesh, out of Christ. He does not expect us to give him a litany of everything that's gone on. I find myself that once I go to him, I may have two or three things, but by the time I'm through the first one, I forgot, because I get restored. Do you see that? Once you're restored, God doesn't want you to spend any more time focusing on self than necessary. Do you see that?

He does not want us agonizing over what a bad dog we are, because we're separated from the bad dog. He wants us beholding the glory of His Son all the time. Steve? The other thing where it gets interesting too is we confess, but society, if there's other realms or status of sin, society determines whether you should be in jail or not for other things. That's right. As far as your relationship with Christ, it's all on the same level. That's right. You end up dealing with a different set or additional set of problems. Sure. Yeah. And you may steal a car. Steal a car, kill someone or whatever. Steal a car, get caught, you go to God and you get restored to fellowship, but you're going to maybe have to pay the consequences.

You know, you get in a verbal disagreement with somebody, there may be consequences from that. You might be forgiven, but there are consequences. You know, sin, it's interesting, the wages of sin is death, separation. You have to work really hard to earn those wages, but you earn them. You find that all of your sins have a wage. The biggest wage is unrest, loss of fellowship, stress, all of those things that worry. Abiding in Christ is peace and joy. Do you see that? Does that make sense?

So a believer who understands, and who sins, and the consequences. The great thing about sinning is that James, in the book of James, he makes it really clear by the use of two Greek words, that we're tempted to sin by our own lust, and by Satan or whoever, but our own lust, with the viewpoint for condemnation, right? All temptation to sin that comes from yourself or any other source is designed specifically to condemn you, right? But, what James makes really clear is that God uses that temptation and your sin to approve you. Isn't that interesting?

He will take those circumstances, even if you sin, and He will use them to approve you. Because you're a son. You know, you were talking about the condemnation and the consequences. Well, I think the consequences are abiding in the old man. I think so too. I think so too. So, we have this built-in psyche that if we do something wrong, we have to serve the punishment for it, right? But the issue before God is that there is no punishment left for sins. There isn't any. Why not? Somebody else paid it. And God, knowing the character of the old man, recognized that if he was going to call out a people for himself and a bride for his son, they couldn't be sinners.

Do you see that? that knowledge to identify us with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. So that resurrected, Christ intends to present us to Himself holy, blameless, perfect. Now, you're not doing a very good job of that, but trust me, He is. He's doing a great job. Because that's what's going to happen. It says when we see Him, we'll be just like Him. And I want you to give me a litany of your sins right after you see him. You won't be able to remember. You'll be too old then. You know, there's no rest until a guy gets older. Next question.

When God says to obey him, what does he mean? That's it. That's it. When God says obey me, he says live by faith. Believe me when I tell you something. Believe me. Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God. And let me give you maybe this. Let's say you don't know these Roman six truths. Let's say you never heard of them before. So you're cruising along one day and you're reading your Bible helping you with it, and you see them, and the Spirit shows them to you, and you, wow, these are really cool.

And you believe Him about the fact that you were crucified with Him, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated in the heavenlies, and I'm now free. He that is dead is free. And so you believe Him. That's a huge problem for you. You know why? because now you've done it. You've believed him, and so now the Holy Spirit is going to take your faith, and he's going to implement what you've believed into your life. He's going to prove to you that what you've believed is true, just like he did when you were saved. You believed him about the person and work of Christ, and he said, okay, thank you very much, and over time he persuaded you, beyond the shadow of a doubt, through the Word, that you are eternally secure.

Right? Well, how about these truths? You think he'd persuade you about this? Absolutely he will. You have one job, and that's to believe him. No matter how it filters into you, you just take him at his word. And you can't, no fair saying to him, well, I need to study more and learn. You believe what he's revealed to you. Steve? That word obey is a word that's getting pretty wrangled around in Christianity. Yes, it is. On television and everywhere else. Everybody has an insight into what you should do to actually obey God.

Let's talk about the word, hupotasso. Right? Isn't that what the word is, hupotasso? You know what it means? It means to listen under. It's a real simple word. It means to listen under. You put yourself under and you listen. You take heed. That's what it means. Under who? Mike Doyle? Vern Peterman? Forget that.

The Word of God. You listen to God. Obedience is one of those interesting things, especially people that are more law-based than grace-based, obedience is the big deal. But if you qualify it as to the obedience of faith, it means what? You're saved by Colossians 2, 6 and 7. As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, how did you start? By faith. So walk ye in Him. That's all He wants. Believe Him. No spiritual push-ups, nothing.

And if you look at the quality or the type of work in most Christian environments, in terms of what they would design as obedience, it would be works. Do you see that? Your works come from your being. Your being doesn't come from your works. Make sense? Put it another way. Your doing comes from your being. Your being doesn't come from your doing. As you're established in Christ, his life begins to manifest itself through you. Can you, as a young believer, not knowing much and not living much by faith and given a bunch of rules to live by, can you sort of imitate what a Christian ought to do?

Absolutely you can. But what's the problem with that? There isn't any rest there. No rest. Always having to try to do it. It's out of the wrong man. Keep thinking, keep going. The man who's doing it, what's God's viewpoint about that man who's doing it? What has he done with that man? He's crucified. It isn't who you are. So what are you trying to do? You're trying to live a false life and make it look like the new life. You're living out of a dead man. See that?

So your doing comes from your believing, and in backing up further, You're believing and you enter into what you are, your being. And from what you are comes the doing. But you have to be established and settle down in your being before the doing is the proper fruit. You understand? The Lord Jesus said, abide in me and I in you. Right?

That kind of thing. Beholding us in the mirror of the glory of the Lord, I'm transformed and what happens? It's the life of the Lord Jesus that's manifested and it's got a tag on it, it's called glory. You know, it's not good, it's glorious. Different.

Based upon the command of verse 11, what would you say is the very essence of a holy walk? What do you think? How about this? To receive God's testimony concerning the old man having been crucified. to reckon ourselves dead to sin while conscious of sin in our members is faith indeed and is walking according to God's word instead of according to our feelings.

Did you ever see that movie Beautiful Mind? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I think that's kind of like it's there but you don't feed it. Oh, isn't that interesting. How he's seen his figures, you know, his imaginary figures, but he just don't feed them mental desires. Doesn't respond. What's interesting is, I think, because we're sentient beings, you know, we have mind, emotion, and will, and feelings, and we can act and react and that kind of thing. Until we become a believer, we're totally soulish.

Once you become a believer, you're now spiritual. And we think that the spirit has emotions and mind and volition. No, no. Your spirit is a totally different thing and it is the part of you through which God communicates his truth and in which the Holy Spirit lives. And what he's trying to do is to get your soul under control of your spirit rather than your soul trying to take over which is this self thing, sin nature thing. And so, feelings are really important through your life, but then you'll find that if you live by faith, you'll begin to trust the facts, and then the feelings will follow, rather than trusting the feelings, hoping the facts are true.

See the difference? Because that's what happens. Well, I feel it. Feel what? Well, I feel like I died. Well, it doesn't matter. if you feel it or not. It's true. You see that? It's the same concept as being or doing. It's kind of like the life. Is it coming from external things or from Christ? I want to add one more point about that. We are exhorted. in the Word of God to behold Christ. That beholding is not only a spiritual thing, but it's a soulish thing. Do you understand what I mean by that?

In beholding the glory of the Lord through the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. That means that I am enwrapped with the glory of God. as in a mirror. This is the mirror, right here. What does beholding mean?

Does it just mean I study hard? What does it mean? Malloy has described it best by saying that, let's say you went down to the Denver Center of Performing Arts and you saw The Phantom of the Opera, and it was a really good production, and you began to you noticed yourself in the middle of that, I've projected myself into that play. I'm in it.

Or I've projected myself, I'm beholding the main character and I'm identifying with him, I'm watching him, and I'm totally enwrapped with him. That's what beholding means. Beholding as in a mirror, what? The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you study your Bible tonight, forget the facts, Just behold Him. What happens? I'm transformed into the same image from glory to glory. And who does it?

Even by the Spirit of the Lord. The thing is that God recreated us in Christ for fellowship with Himself. Fellowship is an experience, is it not? But it's got to be based on the truth. Do you understand what I'm saying? So that if Gail calls me up on the phone and we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, We won't vary in terms of her perception of Christ and my perception of Christ, because he doesn't vary. Do you see that? And that's what believers do, they share Christ.

And they find that when Verne Peterman came here, he spent days with Hal Molloy. What did they discover about each other? Except for one small thing, they believed exactly the same thing, and they'd never met before. Never. Isn't that interesting? They both love the same Lord, and he's the same person. And they both knew about these facts.

That's what makes our Lord so real compared to the other false gods that are still permeating the world today, because the view that some have of their supreme being, whatever it might be, is entirely different than the person sitting next to you. Not only that, God is the only one who has devised this plan of salvation based on grace. Every other deity is based on law because it's man-created. Do you see that? It's all designed for man to re-establish himself in his old estate because he made God mad. Mike, do you think that the soul life from the spirit life is just your proper prayer can come from that, your proper way of life, actually knowing how to share with others. But see, Mike, that's kind of a dualistic approach.

In other words, John 17, that we spend a lot of time going through here, says that they may be one as we are one. That oneness does not mean that Jesus is sitting there and I'm sitting here and He's teaching me. That's not what that means. And He's going to teach me how to act. His life is in me and I'm in Him. And for me to be loving towards someone, He's doing it in me. I'm not imitating it. It's part of who I am. It's exactly what I am. And if the life and the love of the Lord Jesus comes out of me, He gets the credit because it's His life. And this isn't because he sent me to class and I learned how to do it. Do you see that? It's him. And what's cool about that is that you can function restfully in that environment. And out of that comes his life, his soul life. That's right. That's exactly right.

That's like Thomas Kempis' imitation of Christ. Yeah, 650 pages of nonsense. What an awful book that thing is. If you come out of Catholicism like I did, boy, that was required. You had to have one of those. When I read this first, I think there are two things that we reckon on. I'm not going to get to this, but I'm not normally in this class, so I want to make that clear.

That's right. That's exactly right. I reckon on the fact that what God says that I am now alive to you. Right. That's exactly right. I don't know how you can say it other than alive. Yeah. That I used to be alive only to the world and myself and sin nature and all this. That's right. And now suddenly here I am. I'm alive in this other direction. Right. Unto God. So I'm not only reckoning on the fact that I'm dead. Right. Which is kind of a negative reckoning. Right.

But I'm also positively reckoning that I'm alive and I spend my time on that other That's exactly the point. And as you grow spiritually, the Holy Spirit implements both of those at the same time. You don't get the dead part, and then we work on the live part. Both happen at the same time. Well, I think over time, both of those become positive.

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's really good. And so you're free. You're free to behold the glory of the Lord, because you're alive under God. Now, I've said that, right? You believe it? You buy it? Is it really true? Or like my buddy Charm says, do you really, really, really believe it? I said, Charm, your spiritual growth is based on how many really's you get in before believe.

Okay, well that's good, because that finished verse 11. were commanded to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Why? Why not? Pretty simple. We died. See? It's very interesting as you start looking at the logic of Romans 6. Here comes all of these little logical commands based on what fact? My old man was crucified. and there's a lot of residual truths that come from that, and so he's listing them now. Don't let sin, therefore, reign in your... The therefore refers to what? My old man was crucified.

Don't let sin reign in your body. So, we reckon ourselves dead because we participated in Christ's death. Therefore, we dare to refuse sin's dominion. That's a pretty bold thing to do, isn't it? to refuse to let sin have dominion over you, based on fact. We're dead to it, we're justified from it, we're living in a totally new sphere now. If I'm dead to sin, how can it still reign? But how does it still reign in your life?

You let it. And how do you let it? It says here that you present your members to it. Doesn't it? Because it's always ready to reign over you. Just because you died to it doesn't mean it's dead. You're separated from it. And the big reason is because we don't yet have redeemed bodies. I mean, you think about it. If all of this is true about us, that we are positioned in Christ, we're new creatures, we've been crucified from self, that's all true. But we still live in an unredeemed body in a world that hates God, with all the temptations that are here, it seems like And then my buddy Strawn and I were talking about his maybe going home to be with the Lord. Why would you want to stay here? You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense. Why would you want to be here? I don't belong here. I'm from out of town.

Peter says we're sojourners and we're pilgrims in the land. What does he mean? A sojourner is a guy passing through? A pilgrim's a guy that passed through and bought a house and stayed a while, but he still isn't from here. That's the weird thing about us as believers. We're not from here. There isn't anything about us. I mean, we still have the old covering that makes us look like we belong, and we're physically still here, but we're not from here anymore.

So what does verse 12 tell us about our bodies? That our present body is mortal, that is, it's subject to physical death. We're waiting for the redemption, a redeemed body that's to come. The body has natural desires to yield to sin, self-will, self-indulgence.

Is he going out to ring the bell? I don't want to... We'll pick up question 12 and the word yield next time, because yield is a key word here. So, I guess to close the class I would say, trust God in whatever He tells you. Think about what, in the first ten verses of Romans chapter 6, The information is like, huh? What do you mean? I'm sitting here. I don't remember dying. God makes a statement. Your old man was crucified. You were baptized into Christ's death. You were buried with him in baptism. You've been raised to newness of life. Your old man was crucified. He that is dead is freed from sin.

And on and on and on. Stop dancing mentally with God and say, I believe you. That settles it for me. drive the stake. Well, this may not be the day to do it, but that element right there would be an interesting thing to discuss sometime, is weighing up what God tells you. Because on the other part of that, it's a matter of being able I have one simple answer to that. Is it in here? Show me. I want to see it. And I want to see it from the standpoint of being a believer in Christ, not being a Jew living in Palestine. Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? That's better than have a full-time job of being unrestful himself. That's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for your spirit who constantly is revealing the truths of your son and that we have the privilege to behold him in his glory. We thank you, Father. We pray in his precious name. Amen.