Which Side of the Cross - Lesson 8
Courtney Hemenway · Apr 30, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49265550770

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

Alright, we are on lesson 8 of the Identification, well, of the Which Side of the Cross Do You Live On class. We're in the last, I believe, lesson for Identification. And then we're going to be moving into grace, topics that I think are fantastic, as we've taught them before. Every time we study grace, it's like opening a window just a little bit more and you realize there's so much on the other side of what grace is. And then the final part being in faith, which I'm finding more and more is the bedrock of our Christian life, is our faith and believing in what God has told us. So, with that, we're going to start in this final one, and it's on Reckoning.

It's read Romans chapter 6, 11-14. I thought, because sometimes we get lost in the weeds a little bit, and we focus so intently on one verse or two, I just want to set the stage again for all of what we've been talking about in identification. Identification really is centered in Romans 6, so I'm going to read 6, 1-14, just straight through. I think it's good just to read it through sometimes rather than just scalpeling out one little part of the word so you get the whole understanding of the passage. I'll read it through 6.1-14. The verses we're going to focus on today are 11-14.

Beginning at Romans 6.1. What should we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How should we who died to sin still live in it?

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, But the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Even so, consider yourself to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

So, it gives a perspective of what we've been through. Again, 6.6 is one of the key ones in the identification of our co-crucifixion. But now we're moving into, I guess, the Christ life and the manifestation of that and the pathway or how we manifest that life. So, first question. We now arrive at a part in God's plan for freedom from the power of the sin nature.

What does the word reckon in verse 11 mean? What does reckon mean? We've gone over it a few times. I'm just a big sigh. Yes, Reckon? Count on the facts being true. Count on the facts being true. Anybody else? Just consider it to be true. Consider it to be true. Any other definitions, thoughts? I have a note here. I don't know where it came from. Bob was writing in your Bible. Put it down as true.

Now I am separated from the old sin nature in terms of it ever contributing anything to the new man that is the new creation in Christ Jesus. I think the first part of that is the reckoning part. The first part of that is the definition. Put it down as truth is the definition for reckoning. That's an amazing sentence. That was good. I like that. And you don't know where it came from.

Yeah, my usual one is I start out and I go to the dictionary to see what the Webster's Dictionary description of what Reckon is. The first one is to count, calculate, compute. The second definition is consider or regard. The third one is think, suppose, or guess.

Out of those, which would you choose for Roman 6.11 as the best definition from the English? Regard. Okay. Guess? What would you think? So, count, calculate, compute, consider, regard, think, suppose, guess. What would you think? Beth describes a biblical use of it in Romans 6 alone.

Count and compute. That wasn't one of them. Let's go over them again. The three that the dictionary had were count, calculate, compute. Second was consider, regard. Third was think, suppose, guess. Isn't this a counting term? We'll get more into that accounting term and what that means. We'll get a little bit further into one of the next questions. Anybody want to go with a think, suppose, guess? No. Count, calculate, compute? Consider or regard? Believe the facts. What? No, you've got to stick with the program here. The New American Standard actually uses consider, so I went with the consider regard if you're using the English one.

Then moving on from the English to the Greek and what the Greek word is, logizimae. And it's from Zodiatis, the definition means to put together with one's mind, to count, to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations. Getting closer? I like to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations. It's not only the accounting term, and that's why it's a little bit more than that. I think Mike had some of this. Paul uses the word logizimae. There's two different words, a court word and an accounting word. Paul uses it as a court-ordest to God's action and counting to believers' righteousness. In this sense, it's used 11 times in Romans 4 alone.

And that's in verses 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 22, 23, and 24. But here it's an expression of an attitude and view that belief is included in the Word. you reckon yourselves or consider yourselves, the belief of the fact and the attitude in the view of the believer are both involved here in the word reckon or consider.

So when you say an accounting term, it's not just, I think we've said that, just a count, like I'm going to count it up. There's also a portion of it that is to believe or to believe in those facts. So it's kind of a two-part. It's not only the reckoning like an accounting or accounting of something like, I think you've used before, like a ship guy and he's doing the accounting on what came on the ship and what left the ship. There's an accounting. But this adds a little bit more to it.

It's the belief in that or the trust to occupy oneself. And I think it's more than just a mechanical counting. Like we're just, account. Yeah, okay, I'm going to move on to this. It's the belief in what that fact is. So it's a little bit more than just kind of we put it in the sterile form of accounting. It's belief of that. So it's more than just I'm going to account for this, I'm dead to sin.

It's believing in that. So understand kind of the two-part nature of that? I think we have moved, I think we have moved Well, it's a present imperative that we should definitely and constantly see ourselves in this way that we're told in verse 11. You're jumping ahead, yes. You're getting ahead of one of the questions, but yes, that is true.

Which is number two. No, no, no, no. Finishing up one. Finishing up Reckoning. Moving right along. Moving right along. I guess we're moving on to two. Anybody want to move to three now? Okay. Reckon it's so. Yeah, right? Class is officially out of hand now. Okay. Okay. Number two is Reckon a Command. Can we have that answer again now? Well, I should ask it. Is it a command? Yes. So, yes, no? Yes. Yes, it is. So, a little bit more on that.

The verb tense is present, middle voice, and imperative. So, I kind of went on besides just the imperative part, because that's what she was reading, the imperative part. Do you understand in the Greek what imperative means? It's a command? Yes. Yeah, it's a command. And the Greek, was that the tense or whatever, is imperative means it's a command. But I thought it was important to look at the other ones. What does present mean? Is that present tense? Present tense, middle voice, and mood, I think is the third one. So what does present tense mean? Come on. Continuous. Ongoing. Continuous incomplete action. So, are we supposed to do it once and forget about it? Or are we wrecking ourselves dead and move on? Is that what it means? By present?

That's what Joanne said. I mean, this is an important, I think, important thing. Sometimes, you know, you realize a fact and then you move on. Is that what it's saying here? You keep doing it. Keep reckoning yourself. I think that's critical to this. It's a command, but I think the critical part is it's continuous. It's not, I reckon myself dead and I'm going to move on. It's continually reminding yourself you're dead to sin. Reckoning that fact.

Okay? The other one is the important part. This is expressed in the Greek middle voice. What does that mean? What does the middle voice mean? We participate in it. So as opposed to the active, which you're actively doing something, something you are actively doing, or the passive, which means something is being done to you. This is the middle voice. So how does that factor in? I have the cheat sheet if you want. Winnie's cheat sheet.

Middle voice means you participate in the activity. You're not the cause of it. You participate in it. So if I'm to continually remind myself that means I'm the cause? No, you're to participate in it. Think about it. You just said that I'm to remind myself that I'm to reckon in the present tense. You're continually to reckon. And am I the cause of that? No, you are participating by reckoning these true. And who's the cause? He's the cause of the fact. He's the one who... You're reckoning on what's true about you.

It again comes down to the bedrock thing of faith. That's what it still comes down to. Do you believe this? Do you believe what's true? The bedrock under the reckoning is faith. Do you believe what he said is true? And that's our unmerited part of this, is that we are to reckon or to believe what is true. And what does he say is true about us? What does he say in verse 11? What's true of us? Dead unto sin. So, the reckoning is to believe in that fact.

But I guess the thing is, it's not just one and done. And it's more than belief. It's more than just believing, I think. Because I can look at Romans 6-6 and I can know that those facts are true and I believe those facts. But I haven't accrued those facts to my own experience.

But reckoning does that. Reckoning says you know the facts, you believe the facts, now count them to be true for you. Right, right. But I guess the point being, it's a continual thing now. Whereas verse 6 is a known fact. That happened. It is Aorist tense, I believe, which is just, it's a fact that's done. The point being here is this is a continual thing.

Now I have a question about reminding myself. So I'm living my life and I sin. And can I pick myself up because I wasn't paying close enough attention to reckoning? No. With the sin, again, God is done with that. You should be done with that. What you're understanding now, you're reckoning, is you're not acting as who you are in Christ. You're not reckoning this to be true.

The point that I'm trying to make is that I think we can trust the indwelling Holy Spirit to keep us on track. and to make us aware in any given set of circumstances how we should be reacting to it and the reckoning as a result of his work. Yeah, but how do you reconcile the middle voice?

Or the fact that I'm involved in his work. And that's my point. That's why I don't understand your... My point is that we participate in that. Right. So that's... I don't understand what your point is about how we don't or we... What I was concerned about is that am I to have a mindset that I have to keep reminding myself about this? to be the one who's initiating the information.

So is that the little voice? The Holy Spirit working on you and you believing? Yeah, that's the other partner in this, the one actively doing it. We participate by believing. Yeah, reckoning. The reckoning is the believing in the fact. So yeah, I mean, that's our part, is to believe on what He's convincing us of. You're dead to sin. And we'll get to that. We actually had kind of an interesting conversation at lunch about reckoning and what this means. We'll get down, if we get down that far enough in the questions, kind of how that in shoe leather is.

So again, hopefully, the middle voice, I think, is just different than, or almost the difference between Romans 6.6 and 6.11. 6.6 is a fact.

Done. You have been crucified. As opposed to this one, which is, you're participating in this. The Holy Spirit is convicting and convincing you of the fact that you are dead on the sin. So, I just thought it was an interesting distinction between, you know, not only the imperative, which the question was, it's a fact, but also it's continual and it's the middle voice. The Holy Spirit working on us and we're to believe. Believe in this fact.

Okay? Alright. Oh. You know, the other one I thought was, are we now, since it's imperative, are we back under a law system? Since it's a command? Is it law? No. Why not? You don't have to ask that. Because verse 14 basically just says you're not under law. Since you're not under law. But he's saying reckon that it's an imperative. So is that a law system? Are we back under law? It's a fact. It's a fact. Imperative is command, thou shalt.

I think we are under a grace system where God is the initiator, activator of the grace of the unmerited, unlimited blessings. Our participation in that is direct. That means that The middle voice fits into that perfectly and keeps it in the grace realm. Otherwise, if the reckoning was there, let's say reckoning was an active voice, it would make it legal. Right, legal. Because I would have to be the cause. That's why getting into the middle voice and some of those things is that it is not, and also it's a logical imperative.

Remember all the stuff he's already said. What about Romans 6, verse 6? Now reckon, consider, therefore, because of all this is true, reckon yourself dead. It's a response to all the truth that he's already said, told us about. So it is not a command, thou shalt, and there's if then, if you do this, then that. It's not under the law system. It's logical. Because this is true of you, you're dead unto sin. You don't need to be a slave unto sin. So it's a logical imperative, a logical command. It's not under a law system. And that's where, when we talk about it, it's an imperative or a command. Just make sure, when we understand that, it's a result of everything he said before this. Everything is true about these facts, therefore, consider yourself. Okay? So we're not...

So then could you say that there's a reality that he's presenting here, that reckoning allows you entrance into enjoying that reality? Say that again? I'm trying to... the entrance into... I guess he's basically telling you you're dead, you've been crucified.

That's a reality. Yeah, that's a reality. Yeah, I guess so, entering into that reality. Yeah, and if you reckon that because it is true, then your focus is the same as his. Right. No, I think that's right. Entering into the reality of the truth or believing in that truth. It's true about you. Now believe it. Yeah. Realize it. Recognize it. Enjoy it. All those things.

So, you know, like I said, we'll get to one of the questions about what that means when sin comes a-knockin'. It was interesting, our conversation, but hopefully we'll get to that. Okay, so question three. Why is your relationship to sin exactly the same now as Christ? Should be an easy one.

We have both died by sin. Our old man has been crucified, so we're in sin. Okay, why is it exactly the same as Christ's? Because we're in him. We're in him. All the identification is we have been placed into him. So, what is Christ's position to sin? Is he struggling with it today? Because we've been placed in Him, we've been identified with Him.

I went through some of the ones that just came to my head when I was going through this one. Colossians 3, 3, 3, and 3, 4. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We've died and we've been placed in... I love this. I love that verse. It's become one of my favorites. I've been placed into Christ, into God. Is there a better place in life, in any realm, to be than in Christ, in God? incredible when you think about it. When Christ who was our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Again, so we've been placed into Him.

Galatians 2.20, an obvious one, I've been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. So, Christ lives in me. We've been crucified.

Same as what we talked about in Romans 6 here. So again, just going over our relationship, we have been placed into Christ. Christ is our life. So what's our relationship to sin? Same as Christ. What's his relationship? He doesn't have one. All the sins replaced, unpaid, done, gone. Newness of life.

Thus, in his death, all Christ's connection with sin was broken, ended forever. Not only did he no longer bear sin, but he died unto sin. When 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. And because we are believers united with him in his death, they too died to sin in and with him. So that's our identification with him. And their relationship to sin is now exactly his relationship. They're dead to it.

They are also alive unto God in Christ Jesus. I also brought some verses. Romans 6. two and three, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, what does that mean? Placed into Christ, have been baptized into his death.

Okay? Then knowing this that our old, in verse six, knowing this that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Is that our position? Freed from sin? Died to sin?

Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe in verse 8. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all.

So, if we're identified with him, do we have that same claim? Yeah, so our relationship to sin is exactly the same as Christ's, which is, there is no relationship to it. So, again, coming back to the importance of the word reckoning, what does that mean?

So, question four, is Romans 6.11 a matter of feelings or facts? Verse 11, even so, consider yourself to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.

This is probably the easiest question to answer, because when have you ever answered a question at Holly Hills that feelings is the answer? As I read this, I thought this is the most obvious answer. It is not feelings, obviously. I just want to know, has anybody answered one that said feelings is the answer? If they did, they wouldn't admit it. So, assuming it's not based on feelings, what are the facts? What are the facts of 611?

We're dead to sin and alive to God. Those are the facts. The facts. This is not a matter of experience, but a fact. The truth of believers is they are dead to sin and alive to God, being in Christ. And they hear it said by God and are asked to reckon upon it. The path of faith is plain. Grace motivates one to respond in faith. So again, this is a fact. It's not feelings, it's a fact. And it's ours to reckon upon that fact, true. And it's the Holy Spirit working, convincing us of that fact, continually, that we're dead unto sin.

I just had a weird thought today, sir, when I sin... That's not a, that's for a second, go ahead. I just, I'm sinning because I don't believe God. That's why I'm dying to get to the faith part. You don't believe what's true. Ultimately that's what it is.

And I think that's why it has to be present tense because I can be present tensing at the long and then something else, a temptation comes in and I go for the sin. I stop at that point believing God or reckoning my death to sin. And I think if it was like a done fact, eros tense, done. We'd never have to worry about it again.

So, in the present, we are continually to consider that fact, because, you know, the little bird comes over here, I'm following it, squirrel, whatever, you know, whatever the thing that tempts you, and that's why I think, but it still, to me, always comes down to faith. And the more I read and the more I look at, faith is the bedrock. And as you look through all the epistles and all that, I'm amazed at how many times it comes back to faith.

Do you believe it? When you sin, and we'll get into this, we talked about this, when you sin, are you believing what's true about you? Are you? No. You willingly deny what's true about you and act. And that's the amazing part is that it still comes down to faith. You don't believe what God says about you. You're dead to it. You do not need to respond. And we'll get to it. I respond all the time. Dumb. But in essence, I'm saying, God, I don't believe you. That's exactly what he did. And Adam sinned so severe that they stopped believing God and believed something else.

Something else. Like I said, everything comes down to faith, which is trusting God and what He says. So in all of our struggle with sin, The victory over sin is right here. It's not in fighting, and it's not in anything other than just trusting what God has told us. Yeah. It always comes to that. Miles, whatever, it's come to this, we have to... It's come to that. It's come to that. That's always what it comes to.

I've just been thinking about this, why is this an imperative? Why are there imperatives in the grace-based system? But this is a component of belief. And that is the only command that we believe. So it falls in line that this is imperative. It's one and the same as believing something to be true. It's not a meritorious act, but it is an act to be considered as imperative. Or is imperative, rather.

Imperative, rather. saying that we don't see in the grace-based system lots of different types of imperatives. They all have to do with a mental attitude towards a fact. And that's the one thing that is commanded consistently in the New Testament, but not considered meritorious on your behalf.

The only question left in this whole world is, do you believe what God said about Christ? It's the only question. that's left in this world that means anything. And that's the foundation, is faith. It comes down to do you believe this? And we use our will to believe or not believe. And ultimately it comes down to that decision, who is Christ? then, if you believe, then all these logical imperatives, it's not a burdensome command, it's a logical response to what's true about us, what he's told us. And there are just so many things, I'm going through all these truths that he says about us, and why don't we believe them? Why don't we? believing?

I mean, why would God even include reckoning? Because, remember, all he requires of me is to believe. Reckoning is... faith in the facts is like train on the tracks. The reckoning is the two-part. It's a fact and believing in that fact. So, faith is the undergirding of the reckoning, which is believing what's true of me. So, I mean, reckoning and faith are intertwined in that reckoning is believing in a fact and accounting. I can believe a biblical fact. The reckoning accrues it to me.

What do you think about that? Well, I mean, I can believe that I was crucified with Christ and I could say to myself, so what? But when God says, I want you to reckon yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God, I've approved that to be personal. But that goes to salvation, to everything. I mean, you know, it's the personal.

That's why I bring it up because when I was presented with the gospel, you know, being raised a Catholic, I always knew Jesus. And that meant that I had to believe also, or reckon also, that that also meant that if I believed it, He would save me for all eternity. That was the hard part. Because I already knew the facts. The deal was, is that how do those facts accrue to me personally? Is that what you said, J.D.? Yeah, I think so.

I'm seeing this as being not synonymous with belief, but continuing to build on our mental attitude towards the facts of who we are in Christ and this is a component of the mental attitude that we have and that's why it's imperative and it's consistent with all those other synonyms of believing and faith and while not rooted the same in the Greek by definition and the context of what it includes here in Romans 11 and surrounding is a mental belief thing, which is the same as what we see elsewhere in Scripture when we present it with other truths about ourselves.

I think that's also kind of why I brought up the middle voice, too. That's what struck me. Yeah, with middle voice, the word that keeps coming to mind is the word, you are experiencing this. So you're experiencing what is being considered here. It's an experience that you have, and it's a Holy Spirit experience. He's the one that's doing it, but I was looking at that voice there as well, and that's personal. It's a personal experience.

Now, we can get off the reservation with that term, but middle voice does include an experience, and you are involved in that. See, that's the part that I, you know, as opposed to the fact of Romans 6-6, this is now, you're actively, continually, that's why I brought out the other two besides the imperative part of it. I think the other two parts are just as important. The middle voice, it's the Holy Spirit working on us, and us responding to that. But it's the presence, continually.

I was just thinking about even the feelings, like where do feelings fall into this? Yeah, that is not what's based on... I mean, that's not where it starts, but the feelings do follow. And what's really cool about that is that when we consider something to be true, we experience that truth, and we experience the freedom of that truth, and there are feelings that come from that. I know that when I reckon on what is true of God's Word, and I know when I don't, I get the other kind of feeling, too. I mean, the feelings follow, and there is a feeling of freedom in Christ that comes from trusting Him, even in that potentially shackled environment of a sin temptation, there is that freedom. And there can be really great feelings that come from that.

And that's biblical. And it goes back to, it's the Holy Spirit, okay? What does Galatians 5.23 tell us? The fruit of the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience.

That's what you get when you follow, when you respond to this. It is! You get joy, peace, love, all the things that the fruit of the Spirit is. So it's intertwined with that. The result of it is not just a sterile existence. You get the joy that the Spirit is. When you participate and you reckon, you count this as true, you do get joy, peace, rest, all the fruit, singular, you get that. And there is that. feelings or experience. As a result, facts lead and feelings follow.

John Wesley, I just found in Newell's commentary, he has a little saying on this, it says, frames and feelings fluctuate, these can ne'er thy Savior be, learn thyself in Christ to see, then be feelings what they will, Jesus is thy Savior still. Let the feelings be what they will, but Christ is still the Savior. Yeah. And this is still the truth about me and who I am, that I'm dead to sin, regardless of how I feel.

But, at times, the feelings will follow in such a way that you do have those fruit. Well, it is. It's the fruit. It's the joy. You know, that you're believing in what's true about you. And the Holy Spirit is the one who manifests or does that. And on the flip side, when you don't believe, Feelings follow them too. You're in front of the train at that point, and it's not a good thing. Not a good thing. You get smushed. Possibly get to question five, which is a very long question.

There are two words signifying the death in this passage. The word for dead, necros, here in verse 11, does not refer to the act of processing of dying, but to the state or effect produced by death. The other word, thenesko, signifies the act and occurs in verses 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10. It is used when Christ is dying or dying with or in him is set forth. Which word best describes your relationship to sin? World's longest question. Necros. Necros? Okay? Anybody else? Is it dead or process, basically? Dead or dying, kind of, are the two kind of options. In the process or dead? Are you dying or dead? Dead. Yeah, you're dead. This is dead. Done. Not a process. You're dead to it. Okay?

I've asked that question because I've had a lot of people come up to me and I say, how are you doing? They say, well, I'm trying to die to sin. I'm dying to sin. And my answer is, no, you already are. You know, trying doesn't get it. You're dead. But that's a, I mean, and I think that's a good point. A lot of people think that. And that again is coming back to reckon or consider yourself dead.

Not that you're dying in process, you know, we're kind of working on this thing, you know, it's realizing the fact you're dead to it. Now, as we were talking about the two sides, when you don't respond to that, and you don't reckon yourself dead, you know, the joy, peace, love evaporates. You know, your fellowship with him is stilted because you're not responding to the fact that you are dead to sin. So again, I think that's a good point that a lot of people think they're dying or trying and we're trying to get over this and we're trying to improve, we're trying to get work on that sin. But believe in the fact that you are dead to it. You're dead to sin.

It's not to say that we don't have a sin nature, that's the other conflicting thing. The sin nature is not dead. Yeah, the sin nature is not dead, it's alive and living well inside of me. So yeah, that's a common misconception too is the single nature people which we talked about last week I think. is that, you know, dead means, oh, no sin nature. You know, I'm singularly one nature. No. You still have a sin nature. Well, and if you're dying to sin, that would be a function of the old man. Right. Right. And see, and that's why I think they combine the two. Yeah.

You have, you're dying to it, and this is going away, and it's like you ultimately maybe get there, but you're working on it, and you're, you know, and it is, it's not, what it says here is you're dead to it. You're dead unto it. Which means it's still alive, you're just separated from it.

Donna's favorite saying is, in being sort of facetious about people, she said, well they are getting better. I think that's a function of this in nature, is that we're all working at getting better. Look, go to the Christian bookstores, and how many things are there to make you better? We're not getting better.

How many books are there that can tell you you're dead? We're dead. It's kind of like whatever the book Nick had, I won't mention the title. You can basically put in about that. Not a big book. You're dead. Okay. It's a one page book. Not a lot to it. So, you know, there's not this process, you're dead to it. You're dead unto it. It's still alive in you, but you don't have to respond. That's the key.

So, would you say this is the answer to anxiety and depression? That's a pretty broad question. We'll get to that. We'll get to that actually. I can tie that in. I've got a funny experience here real quick. I was just in the country, music for fun. Do you want to come and confess some things to us? According to this immigrant, you are way off. Way off. So he says you have no angel.

I still got a few more dances with the devil. I'm cleaning up my act little by little. I'm getting there. I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see. I ain't as good as I want, I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be. Couldn't preach the word any better than that. The cowboy gospel. Okay.

So, number six, if we can get to it. Did he ring the bell? We already got one? He rang it first. Okay, yikes. Question six. Do you think there is any other way to establish your soul in... Oh, this is very enticing, this one. Do you think there's any other way to establish your soul in rest than this declaration from God? And it kind of goes through the depression and all that. I basically rephrase, can you receive rest from anything the world offers? Well, I'm glad we have the second bell. We'll have a week to consider that answer right there. We'll have a week on that one. Okay. I'll get a lot of verses to try and counter that one. Okay, well we will start with this question next week. Question 6. Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again. We just thank you for all the truths you have in your Word. And we do thank you, the indwelling Holy Spirit, that convinces us of these truths. And there are so many truths about us that are true about us in Christ. And it's our position in Christ that is just an amazing position that gives us the peace, joy, rest, all those things that you have promised to us in Christ. and through the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We thank you for this time where we can open up your word and just see these truths. As we come upon these things about reckoning ourselves dead unto sin and what that means, we just thank you for what you're doing in our lives with respect to that. And again, we just thank you for this time and we just pray for Vern as he gives the message just to present the word clearly and to prepare our hearts to receive it. And again, that all that we say and do will honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.