 All right So we've started recording. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the class today on the book of Romans. We have Been progressing through the book of Romans today. We're going to pick up jump couldn't pick up in chapter 6 Maybe maybe pause this week So welcome everyone. Let's just pray and And We'll get started Okay, can we Can somebody lead us in prayer, please? We'll get started. Okay. I'll pray. All right. Thank you How many father we thank you for this wonderful morning and for this wonderful time Lord Jesus We thank you that you've given us this opportunity to come to that and learn From the word Jesus. Thank you for this day As you learn Lord God, I pray that your spirit may walk in it. It's one of us Lord Jesus Help us to understand help us to regret and I have to Come pray and everything that our pastor is going to teach for this act rate of the spirit to Anoint our pastor And as we learn that each of those words be alive in our in our heart and in our in our life In our soul We thank you for this opportunity once again and we submit and we know each one of us Thank you father for in the name of Jesus I pray Amen Thank you. Thank you. It's fun. Thank you. All right. So let's go to Romans chapter 6 I have uploaded the pdf for chapter seven and eight I just in case so Hopefully we will be able to start off at least chapter seven today And you may be able to get into chapter eight, but I just put it out there so Just a quickly review where we Some of the things key things we saw in Romans chapter five The apostle paul has introduced us To this amazing truth about identification And just to you know put it in a very concise way He's contrasting The first man and the second man the first adam and the last adam so a parallel reference or a cross reference we said was also from our first Corinthians 15 45 to 49 so we use that as a cross reference but Essentially what paul is telling us is Is The entire human race is identified in the first man Adam This first man adam was disobedient And because of which sin came in this world condemnation All of that resulting in death So everything between from sin to death everything in between came because Of the first man adam one man sin But the entire human race is identified in that One man and therefore we're all sinned and all are under death But he tells us that this first man is only a type Of the one who is to come which is the second man The second man the first man was a was a prototype the first man was a prototype of I'll let me say the first man adam was just a sample The real man is jesus the second man But he's also called the last adam meaning in jesus everything about the adam adam's race comes to an end last adam and And paul teaches us in romans 5 that Where all of us who believe Are now identified in this second man or the last adam Or in first acquaintance 15 he refers to him as the man from heaven the spiritual man or the heavenly man So we are all identified in him. He says in adam we die, but in christ We are all made alive And so in back in romans 5 he says in the first man actually in the second man or the last adam in in christ we Have received the free gift Which is abundance of grace the gift of righteousness eternal life and the authority and dominion to reign and life all this comes to us through The second man or the last adam which is jesus christ So then as we move on to chapter 6 he says oh So we have abundance of grace So should we just continue sinning because grace can abound And then we saw he says no that's not The point that is not what god is getting to us And then he says you know i'm just paraphrasing of course He says okay, let me tell you something more about being identified in this Second man or the last adam and he says don't you know that We are dead with him. We have we've aburred with him We were resurrected with him We ascended with him and seated with him So the ascending and seating is in other episodes he mentions When roman 6 he makes it very clear we are Crucified with him. We are buried with him irresurrected with him. So says look our identification with him Goes a little deeper And each aspect of this process or these steps in this identification has meaning It has spiritual truth Which then plays out in our everyday life as believers So we saw that In roman 6 that we were crucified with christ This was roman 6 and verse 6 We are crucified with him. That means when christ died we died And uh in verse 6 roman 6 verse 6 paul explains. He says your old man Was crucified with him. So the old man is The referring to adam the adamic nature The sinful nature that comes through adam So it christ is the last adam What happened in christ The old man was put to death. He was brought to an end and so The sinful nature Was crucified So you and i don't have an old man. We have a new man. What is the new man? It's the life and the nature of god So he says Your old man was crucified with him And what is the result the result is the body of sin has been removed the body of sin meaning The totality of sin. So the word body in the new testament is used in different ways And depending on the context You know, we interpret it. So the body could be physical body Or it could say the body of christ, which is again, which is talking about a collective That's a group of believers all the believers body of christ And it also is used in the sense of a some totality of something So the body of sin meaning all of sin put together the power of sin the strength of sin So in roman 6 6 he says the body of sin was removed or done away with So that we no longer should serve sin And so we said, you know as believers we are crucified with christ The old man is gone We are free from sin and then he says in verse 7 He who has died has been freed from sin. So you are not basically saying you and I are dead people We are dead the old man is dead and As far as sin is concerned, we are dead and we put up this simple picture of you know an alcoholic You think of an alcoholic All his life, you know Or for the better part of his life. He is just drunk But if this alcoholic dies If he's and he's dead they can place, you know, the his most favorite liquor alcohol bottles around him He's not going to twitch a single muscle He's not going to respond to it. Why he's dead and paul says that's You and me as far as sin is concerned verse 7 He who has died has been freed from sin He died with christ. We are free from sin Okay, that's the first truth. He brings out then So so here We We are identified with christ or we are united with him Also in his burial. So verse 4 roman 6 verse 4. I'm just reviewing some of these things from last week Roman 6 was for we were buried with him. So we said when a man is buried The earth life has no more claim on him. He's gone. He's He's passed So even on the in his earth life if he had a lot of death If he had court cases against him, whatever Then he's buried. He's dead and buried It's all gone Those claims Cannot affect him anymore. So basically what we're saying is when the bible says we were buried with him That means the old life the past life before christ Is gone has no more claim on you and me Cannot attach itself to you and me though life Now the devil will want to make us think that We're still subject to these things. See the devil doesn't want us to know the truth And these these things that we are seeing here are very powerful truths He doesn't want us to know it because If they know the truth We can resist the devil tries to put out put off on the believer Right. So the devil would you know one of the tactics for the believers The devil's against the believers. Oh, you have to live like this in sin Now, you know, you got to be in bondage to sin. It's okay. No, it's not. Okay When christ is when when when the old man is crucified Paul is saying why should we live under sin? similarly Then we have been buried with him. Why should the old life have any more claim on us? Why should it even trouble us in any manner? And the third thing is he says in verse four and five We Are raised from the dead with him Sorry To walk in newness of life That's verse four end of verse four. So our resurrection Is telling us we are walking in Newness of life a new life and interestingly he uses the word for zoe for life zoe means we are walking in the newness of the god kind of life so resurrected means We are now living In the zoe life of god the abundant life of god That's the life we are walking in god's life god's nature so we've been Crucified we've been parted and we've been resurrected right now in roman 6 he does not address the Ascending part and being seated with christ right that is addressed in Other episodes, but you know for the sake of completion we will we'll just spend a few moments on it so When christ ascended you and i ascended So Ephesians 2 and verse 6 says that we were raised together with him You know, we were raised together with him Or even same thing in collosians chapter 3 and verse 1 it says You know if you then were raised together with christ, right? So what does it mean to be raised together with jesus when he ascended we ascended? spiritually that means the system of this world Has no more control on the believer Why the believer has been taken out? spiritually the system of evil and rebellion So those who are living in the world The bible tells us in Ephesians 2 verse 1 there's a spirit of disobedience that is at work They're under the control of the prince of the power of the air So we refer to that as a system of evil and rebellion that we say under that influence But you and I are not under that influence because we've been raised with jesus So the darkness that envelops the earth cannot Dominate cannot influence us as believers. Why we were raised with jesus. It's been taken out of that spiritually so Of course in the natural we are here in this earth And there is darkness all around us Just you know spiritual darkness There is corruption. There is moral decay. There is degradation But that cannot and should not dominate the believer Why because spiritually we've been raised together with them. We've been taken out of this And so we can dominate that and not let the darkness dominate us We are light. We are more powerful than darkness But most believers don't know that and so most believers are living, you know under the influence of darkness Darkness seems to torment them The pull of this world seems to be so big and so strong And the attractions of the world seem to be Effective that I'm not denying that it's there because we are on the earth but The spiritual truth is We were raised together with him So our affections Are fixed on things above not on things on the earth Okay And then we were seated together with him. What does that mean? It means we've been put in the place of highest authority God could not place you and me In any high other higher place You know, it's like god saying hey come sit next to me. We are seated together with christ We are crucified together with christ. We are buried together with christ We are resurrected together with christ We were raised up together with christ and we were made to sit together with christ So spiritually as believers we are seated together with christ in Heavenly places so in the heavenly realms you and I are seated on the highest Positable throne that's with christ we seated with him So that's our place Of authority and dominion in the spiritual realm And this is truth So now in this earth We operate from that place of authority So when we confront demonic powers when we can face with life situations, what do we do? We operate from that place of dominion and authority So I am seated with christ in heavenly places And I'm going to exert my authority Now remember one thing We are not striving for authority. We are exerting our authority So many believers are under the impression that we have to strive for authority, right? So you have to fast and pray and you have to do this you have to do that It is trying for a time. No, no, no You cannot strive for authority You have to exert authority. You are in a place of authority Now you exert that authority by faith in god by using the word of god by using The power that's there in the name of jesus That by using what god has given to us We exert the authority that we are that we already have Because we are seated with christ in heavenly places We are not striving for authority. You know, if I if I you know fast for so many days or if I Pray for so many hours Now I believe in all the spiritual disciplines And we're not against spiritual disciplines But what we are saying is the reason we do that spiritual disciplines is to keep ourselves in good spiritual condition So that we can exert the authority that we could make use of the things god has given to us We are we so that you know, we are fit to use what god has given to us. That's why so Understand that you are seated with christ part of our identification is We are seated with him. You are in that place of authority Okay, so coming back to roman 6 after paul has Helped us understand this truth of identification now In roman 5 in roman 6 He then says, okay, what do you do with it? How do you live it out? And his primary interest Yes In dealing with sin How do we live out of this truth? With respect to overcoming sin. That's the primary focus now that does not mean It doesn't have other implications that this truth of identification does not have other implications and other epistles We see paul telling the believer, you know, for example, we mentioned collusion 3 1 He said if you then be risen with christ set your affection on things above not on things on the For you are dead and your life is hit with christ in god so That's the you know Another way of applying the truth of identification but in roman 6 the focus of his interest is We are identified with christ So how can we live in holiness because of that? So really roman 6 7 and 8 The most part of roman's 8 Is answering that question You're in christ you've been identified. How can you live holy? How can you live overcome sin? right, so um Let's pick up now from verse 10, okay roman 6 verse 10 and just kind of build out here now on how he tells us to live out Of this truth, okay, so could somebody read for us roman's chapter 6 verse 10 To 14 roman 6 10 to 14, please Sure The death he died He died to sin once for all But the life he lives he lives to god In the same way count yourselves 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 evil desires Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness But rather offer yourselves to god as those who have been brought from death to life And offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but under grace Thank you so he says So verse 10 he's pointing to jesus. So look at jesus, okay He died And he died just once He died to sin once for all And he lives He's alive. He lives to god So saying, you know, this is reality christ died once for all And he's alive unto god He's alive And then he begins verse 11 says likewise That means there's a connection between 10 verse 10 what he said in verse 10 And what he's going to tell us now likewise means in the same manner Just as jesus died once and he's alive to god in the same way We have to live he died for sin once He's alive to god fully consecrated dedicated to the father In the same manner just likewise reckon yourselves now I know, you know, some of the modern translations would use the word consider yourselves But that word reckon is or the word consider if you look at it in the greek is is an accounting word and you know the the The idea is the idea is accounting is The you know if Example this is example If a person is counting doing counting is accounting He counts it, you know 10 he has 10 10 notes each is valued 10. So he counts 10 10 notes Each value 10 total is 100 Now you can count it from top to bottom you can count it from bottom to top How you count it? It's 10 times 10 100 meaning it's a done thing No questions on this So that's reckoning that means it's final i've Checked it it's done No more arguments it cannot be disputed it cannot be In any way questioned So he says in the same way You reckon yourself You count yourself or you consider yourself As what he says to dead to sin alive to god Likewise like christ Christ died once for all to sin he's alive to god in the same manner the believer Says i'm dead to sin I'm alive to god meaning it's I Once and for all Embrace this Accept it I'd reckon it I consider it I Take it as a fact I am dead to sin. I'm alive to god That means I have nothing to do with sin I have everything to do with god So how do I live this out first thing? I can myself To be dead to sin Not In a casual sense meaning. Okay. Yeah sin, you know It's nice, but because I'll just say no because sunday is coming. I'll stay away from sin for two days Monday onwards. I'll sin a little bit. It's not like that, right? He's saying once for all Count yourself to be dead to sin alive to god So the believer comes to this place having understood What god has done in identification for us They come to this place. We're saying i'm done with sin I've reckoned myself to be dead to sin. I don't want anything to do with it I'm not playing with it dead But that's the problem with many believers They haven't done verse 11 meetings to consider yourself as someone who's dead to sin So, okay, you know play a little bit with sin. All right, you know slowly. I'll come out of it See, these are the different things we we tend to Take slowly I'll come out of sin, you know Yeah, but paul is not saying, you know slowly come out of sin. He says Hey consider yourself to be dead to sin And alive to god Step one if you know if you want to break it down into steps, you can say that's the first thing I believe you need to come to that place and say hey, I'm done with sin Because I'm dead to sin. I'm alive to god just like christ Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead to sin Now having accepted that truth next verse he says Therefore now because you have Really Accepted this and said look, I'm done with sin Therefore said word therefore is a connecting word therefore Consequently or because of What happens therefore? Don't let sin rain in your body Let me just say I Refuse to give sin any place in my body I refuse to give sin any place in me Why because verse 11? I have Reckoned that I am dead to sin I'm alive to god So sin has no place In me No place So the believer becomes next step The believer verse verse 12 the believer becomes intolerant towards sin. It's like There's no thing of tolerating it Gives in no place In your body And then Verse 13 Don't yield Your body to sin Your members As instruments of unrighteousness But Present yourselves to god As instruments of righteousness So now By an act of my will so now I'm making a choice here Verse 13 God Sorry Verse 13 My body Is not going to be a weapon of sin The word instrument there simply means weapon and it's a very strong word Your body is not going to be a weapon of sin But you're saying God I'm a hundred percent yours present yourself to god God I'm a hundred percent yours And my body is your weapon for righteousness My body is going to advance righteousness So How do we live out of this truth With respect to sin He says First of all Embrace this truth Reckon yourself To be dead to sin and alive to god I have nothing to do with sin Second Verse 12 Give no place to sin in your being Do not let sin reign in your body And third Don't yield yourself to sin But instead present yourself to god So that you become a weapon of righteousness Means I'm yielding myself completely god I'm a weapon of righteousness That's what he says And the reason Paul says we can do this Verse 14 Because sin will not have dominion over you Why? Because its power was broken In verse 6 he says So sin will not have dominion over you Sin has no right to have any dominion Any control over the believer That's why we can do what he's telling us And then he says Because you're not under law but under grace In other words He has another important distinction He's drawing He says You're not under law, you're under grace He's going to expand this in Romans 7 So keep this in mind He's drawing a contrast Under law under grace Romans 7 he'll expand it Under law The law told us what is the right thing to do But it never gave us the power to do the right thing Under grace Grace tells us what is the right thing to do And also empowers us to do the right thing The standards under grace are much higher than the standards under the law If you think of it The law says do not kill Grace says do not hate Because if you hate You're a murderer So the standards under grace Are higher than under the law But grace empowers us To live by those standards Under the law The law said Don't commit adultery Under grace The standard is higher Don't even look lustfully At a woman Because if you do that's adultery But grace says I'll give you the power to live like this So he says Verse 14 Sin will not have any dominion over you Because you're not under law, you're under grace You're not under a system that tells you what is good But gives not give you the power to do good You're in a system where It tells you what is good But also gives you the power to do the good So you're under grace So this is how the believer Should live Right So now let's pick up here from verse We'll read verses 15 to 18 Another short section and you'll look at it Somebody can read please verses 15 to 18 But they shall be seen Because we are not under the law But under grace Certainly not You not know That to whom you present yourself slave to obey You are that one slave whom you obey Whether or seen leading to that Or of obedience leading to righteousness But God be thank that though You were slave of seen Yet you obeyed from the heart that from of Doctrine of which you were delivered And having been set free from sin You become slave of righteousness So verse 15 to 18 verses 15 to 18 He begins with this again His style in Romans is to ask a rhetorical question Meaning he asks a question that he's going to answer And the answer is implicit it's right there So he asks this rhetorical question You know oh so should we just keep sending Because we're not under law but under grace He says no Because why? Because he said look I've already told you to present He's referencing back to verse 13 I've already told you to present yourself to God And when you present yourself You're submitting yourself You're becoming a slave And he says you were slaves of sin So under law you were a slave of sin But under grace you're a slave of righteousness So under grace we are slaves Now people think you know under grace we are free But actually under grace you're a slave Under grace we are slaves of righteousness Under law we were slaves of sin Because the law made it very evident That we couldn't keep the law And we had no power to overcome sin So you ended up with slaves of sin Under grace we are slaves of God We are slaves of righteousness So why? Why are we slaves? Because we have presented Billingly presented ourselves to God So he says in verse 16 Don't you know that whom you present yourselves to obey You're a slave So when we present He's told us in verse 13 Present yourself to God So we've now become slaves of God To obey God And therefore we are now slaves of righteousness That means we are born servants of righteousness We have no option but to do righteousness Because we have presented ourselves to God And while he is saying that He gives thanks to God Verse 17 and 18 It's very interesting when you look at it Because he's contrasting two things He says in verse 17 You were slaves of sin In verse 18 You became slaves of righteousness You were set free from sin Verse 17 You were slaves of sin Verse 18 You were set free from sin And became slaves of righteousness What was the difference? What made the difference? Paul is saying You obeyed from the heart That form of teaching To which you were delivered Which was delivered to you So interesting There were slaves of sin They became free from sin And slaves of righteousness What made the difference? What caused them to go from being slaves of sin To becoming free from sin? They obeyed from the heart That form of doctrine, the teaching That was given to them Think about it They were given a teaching And it's right here What we are going through And this teaching of that truth Took them from being slaves of sin To being set free from sin And becoming slaves of righteousness I was really interesting when you look at verse 17 Where he says you obeyed from the heart That means they wholeheartedly obeyed They wholeheartedly received And gave themselves to this teaching The other thing we see Very interesting in verse 17 is That form of doctrine That word form in the Greek is interesting It talks, it means The word form simply means mold That mold of doctrine So mold as in, you know In the industry I mean they want to make either plastic Or metal or things in certain shapes They have a mold So they pour the liquid plastic Or they put the plastic in And you know it melted And then it takes the shape of the mold Into which it is poured Or into which it is melted So you're talking about that mold Or the other words you can use Is a cast or a dye So you pour the liquid in And when it solidifies It takes the shape of the mold So that's the word he used So he says look This teaching that was brought to you This doctrine that was brought to you Was like a mold When people are obedient from the heart When they are receiving it wholeheartedly They are like this liquid That's being poured into this mold Which is the teaching And then when they solidify They come out different So they were slaves of sin They became set free from sin Why? Because the wholeheartedly Received the teaching The teaching was the mold That cast them into this new state Of being set free from sin And becoming slaves of righteousness This truth So that's why this truth needs to be communicated To the church Because if the church receives this truth wholeheartedly What will happen? Same result The word of God will produce the same result today As it did for these people Back then It will take people who are slaves of sin And make them set free from sin And slaves of righteousness Same word of God Will do the same thing today Right? So that's verses 15 to 18 Right? And then verses 19 to 23 Let's just finish this At Romans 6 He then sums up What he is saying But then he also recognizes a problem That believers still have So there is this truth Of identification We have been taught here How to live out of that truth And what this truth can do for us But there is one problem That has to be dealt with And he brings it out here Let's please read verses 19 to 23 Somebody can read it please Romans 6 19 to 23 Maybe Thomas can read I'll read it first 19 to 23 Because of the weakness of your human nature I'm using this illustration of slavery to help you Understand all this Previously you let yourselves be slaves to impurity And lawlessness Which let ever deeper into sin Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous Living so that you will become holy When you are slaves to sin You are free from the obligation to do right And what was the result You are now ashamed of the things You used to do the things That end in eternal doom But now you are free from the power of sin And have become the slaves of God How you do these things How you do those things That lead to holiness And result in eternal life For the wages of sinners did But the free gift of God Is eternal life Through Christ Jesus our Lord So few things Paula I just want to point out what Paula is saying So Paula is saying look I'm using this example of being a slave And so he says The ultimate goal here Is for us to walk In holiness He uses the word holiness Twice verse 19 Says so that you would be slaves Of righteousness for holiness And again he talks about it In verse 22 You'll have your fruit to holiness So the goal here is holiness As we apply this truth We're going to overcome sin And we're going to Walk in holiness That's the ultimate Is what Paula is getting to But he says There's one problem That's in verse 19 It's the weakness Of a Flesh The word flesh Again The word flesh Can be used in the New Testament Can be used in so many different ways Flesh could be The physical Body Flesh could be Anything that's the physical body The outer man But it also Deals refers to The sinful, evil desires Of the outer man The body So that's the way it's used here Flesh It's talking about the Evil desires Of the body Again in Galatians 5 He talks about the works of the flesh Are these The evil desires of the body So he says there's a weakness in your flesh And he's going to elaborate This problem in the next chapter In Romans 7 The weakness of the flesh So there is the truth of identification This is how we Can walk in it There is no power against us And as we walk in it We will be slaves of righteousness And we will have the fruit Of the result of holiness in our lives But There is a problem The weakness Of our flesh So But there is a warning He says if you continue in sin The result of sin is only death So if we go back In sin it will only result in death But God has given us this free gift Which will lead us to eternal life Through Jesus Christ So we don't have to Live in sin ending up in death We can walk in eternal life We can walk in this free gift Which is eternal life Verse 23 So chapter 7 Is this whole discussion Or this whole Yeah This whole discussion About the weakness of the flesh And it is very interesting We will look at it where He talks about The struggle Of a man Who has the law of God He wants to obey God But he doesn't have the power To do it Because of the weakness of the Flesh And explains why the flesh has been weakened And then when we get into Chapter 8 He says for a born again believer This is the answer Which is the work of the Holy Spirit So This truth In Romans 6 The truth of identification Is lived out like this We Recognize ourselves Verse 11 We refuse to sin Verse 12 We refuse to let sin rain in our bodies Verse 13 We are completely presented to God As slaves So that we can become We can be weapons of righteousness And walk in holiness We know there is a weakness of the flesh But Chapter 8 There is the law of the spirit of life The spirit of life The Holy Spirit Enables us To conquer our flesh So it's all connected And we see In Romans, we will see In Romans 8 How the believer can live That victorious life So we're going to take a little break now Sorry, I didn't give you any time for questions We'll take a little break When we come back from the break We'll take questions Romans chapter 7 Thank you We'll be back in 10 minutes