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Psalm 147
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Let's turn to Romans chapter number six, Romans chapter number six.
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Romans chapter six, the Bible reads, What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like us, Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we are dead,
Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more,
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?
God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh,
for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness unto iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then, and those things were of ye are now ashamed,
for the end of those things is death.
But now being made free from sin and become servants to God,
ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for Romans chapter 6, Lord,
and for the chance to hear this chapter be expounded by the man of God this evening.
I pray that you fill him with your spirit and enable him to explain the chapter to us.
Help us to pay attention, draw connections, Lord, and learn something new out of your word tonight.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. So we're continuing our Bible study in Romans chapter number 6.
And what's really interesting about the book of Romans is just how it kind of has a stair-step pattern so far
where we're kind of continuing to build upon some of the foundations which we've already laid.
Chapter 1, as a quick recap, talked about how faith had been revealed,
that the gospel has been revealed, made obvious, very clear,
and that was evident through Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection,
something that was prophesied and foreshadowed and certainly taught in the Old Testament
but even made more manifest and revealed in the New Testament through the fact that it actually happened.
We have the gospel going forth and people preaching the gospel.
And in chapter 2, it talks about how every single person will be judged
no matter how good of a person they are or how bad they are.
We're all still sinners and going to be judged.
And, of course, chapter 3 elaborates even further on how we're all sinners.
Chapter 4 talks about how the only salvation is by faith of Jesus Christ,
that the gospel has been revealed, that we're going to be judged, that we're all sinners,
and salvation is only by faith. It's not of works whatsoever. It's not of circumcision.
And then in chapter 5, we really emphasize the fact that once you're saved, you're always saved.
So, essentially, after understanding all of that doctrine,
we kind of lend ourselves to this opening question of chapter 6 where it says,
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
That's the next obvious question.
Okay, so if salvation was a free gift, if salvation was by faith only,
I could never lose it for any reason. God will never forsake me nor leave thee.
I can never lose the love of God.
Well, then can I just continue just living in sin and living however I want?
Since grace is always going to cover my sin, which was brought to us in chapter number 5,
let's do that, right? Let's just live as much sinful life as we can.
That's the question in verse 2, God forbid.
So, notice the questions being asked.
If I can technically sin as much as I humanly want and still go to heaven by God's grace,
then should I just do that?
And the obvious answer is no. The clear answer is no.
Obviously, our church teaches once saved, always saved, teaches salvation as a free gift,
and sometimes we'll even take it to such an extreme to say,
Look, even if you have no works or even if you committed a really big sin,
you're not going to lose your salvation.
Salvation is a one-time free gift.
But, of course, we're not saying this is a good idea.
No one in our church is saying, You know what the best plan of your life is?
Sin a lot or let's go on sinning.
Doesn't our church seem to be a pretty clear message of preaching against sin?
Doesn't it seem like we kind of are labeled as hard preaching and preaching against a lot of sin?
Yeah, of course, because that's what God wants for us is to preach against sin
and still to live a life that's holy and pleasing unto Him.
Will God's grace cover any sin we commit after being saved?
Yes, it will. Yeah, we will go to heaven.
But you know what? There's still a consequence to that sin.
Some people teach you're giving people a license to sin.
No, because frankly, they didn't need a license, number one.
Just like I'm not a registered hate group. I never registered, okay?
And I never gave anybody any licenses to sin.
And the thing is, though, they would say, Well, there's no consequence.
The consequence is just no longer going to hell.
It's only a consequence of temporary punishment here on earth.
But that temporary punishment can be very severe.
You could lose your life. You could lose your money.
You could lose your health. You could lose what's dear and precious unto you in this life.
You could go through a lot of evil.
God could cause you to be very sick for a very long time.
He could cause you to go to prison. He could cause you to get beat up.
There's a lot of horrible things that can happen still in this life.
And so I don't want those consequences.
You know, obviously, hell is a big deterrent.
And that's why I believe in Jesus Christ.
You know, getting beat up or losing all my money or my family hating me
also is a deterrent for me to not sin.
And I should realize that it's important to no longer continue in sin
just hoping that God will be merciful to me in this life,
but rather trying my best to live a pleasing life unto Him.
Now, he goes on to further elaborate on this point in verse 2.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Saying, look, you've become dead to sin.
So why would you continue living that way or continue living this old lifestyle?
And what does this mean that you're dead to sin?
Well, the way that it's dead is when something's dead, it doesn't have any effect.
Like if someone said this is a dead law, what does it mean if it's a dead law?
It means it's not having any effect on anyone.
Unfortunately, in the Texas Penal Code 21.06, we have a dead law, okay?
The dead law in Texas Penal Code 21.06 is that homosexuality is a crime.
But it's right now a dead law because a Supreme Court ruling has
Lawrence v. Texas was the case that basically superseded that ruling
and claimed that this is somehow a civil right and due to due process
that that was an unconstitutional statute that Texas had.
So it's deemed dead in the sense that it has no effect on anybody in Texas right now.
So if we said that we're dead to the law, what does that mean?
That means that every single law in the Old Testament, if I broke it,
I will be sentenced with hell.
But guess what?
I'm saved, so I'm now dead to that law in the sense that no matter what I do,
I could never go to hell.
Also further illustrating the fact that you could never lose your salvation
because I'm already dead to the law.
The law's already dead to me in the sense that I could never go to hell.
Now, does that mean that it's still a good idea to break that law?
Let's go back to my first analogy, Texas Penal Code 21.06.
Just because the Supreme Court overruled that,
does that mean that now homosexuality is not a sin anymore or a cool thing to do?
No, it's still an abomination, according to the Bible,
regardless of the fact that it's dead.
And here's the thing, just because the Bible has things in the Old Testament
that will never send me to hell for even a second, here's the question.
Should I still do those things?
No, because they're a sin.
And I don't want to sin and be displeasing to God.
The Bible already said, should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
You know, I don't want to do such a thing.
Verse number three, know you not that so many of us
as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death?
So according to the Bible, we were baptized into Jesus Christ
and we were baptized into his death.
Verse four, therefore we are buried with them by baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Now, what's interesting about these verses
is the fact that we kind of have it alluding to baptism
and water baptism specifically,
but I believe what it's trying to articulate
is the meaning of baptism more than the baptism itself.
So according to the Bible, there is more than one baptism, okay?
And I want to prove this to you.
Keep your finger here and go to Hebrews chapter six for a moment.
Go to Hebrews chapter number six.
Now, of course, there's verses in the Bible that say there's one baptism.
And, you know, what are we talking about?
That's talking about something very specific
and now there's only one version of baptism in that context.
But according to the Bible, there's multiple baptisms, okay?
And I want to just prove this for a second of what we're talking about.
Hebrews chapter number six is explaining that there's foundational doctrines
that we should all learn and move on from and go on to perfection.
But look at one of these.
It says in verse two of the doctrine of baptisms.
Notice how there's an S at the end of that because there's multiple baptisms.
Now, go if you would to Acts chapter 19.
Go to Acts chapter number 19.
I'll just submit to you what I believe are these baptisms and then we can...
There could be potentially maybe other articulations.
But essentially, from a physical perspective,
you kind of have two that are mentioned in the New Testament.
You have water baptism, which we're pretty familiar with,
where you get baptized physically in water, fully submersed,
after getting saved, and it's a spiritual picture.
The second baptism that's mentioned in the Bible is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now, the word baptism simply means to be immersed or to be fully encompassed.
And the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned in the Book of Acts,
is alluding to when the Day of Pentecost comes,
the early disciples and apostles are there, and the Holy Ghost comes upon them,
and they are able to do special miracles.
They were able to preach the gospel in a foreign language that they've never studied in their life.
And anybody that's tried to learn a foreign language realizes how big a miracle that is.
Also, they were able to do other incredible things like perform miracles of healing.
They were able to have special knowledge that they didn't necessarily have to study for.
And so they just kind of had this fullness of the Holy Spirit
where they're fully baptized into the Holy Spirit,
and it's kind of a separate event beyond water baptism.
It's a separate thing that's talked about.
Now, of course, if you go to a Pentecostal church,
they will try to get you baptized in the Holy Spirit, all right?
And if you've ever been to one, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
And they think to be baptized in the Holy Spirit means to speak in other tongues.
Well, we're really what they call speaking in tongues, okay?
Which the Bible never used that phrase directly.
It really says speaking with other tongues
because the word tongues in the Bible just means languages.
So it's speaking in other languages.
What they interpret this as is speaking some what's called glassalalia is the fancy term.
But in modern words, it's just, or in layman's terms, it's just gargly goop, okay?
Or toddler talk.
It's just like, you know.
And it looks like they're having a seizure sometimes
depending on how extreme the Pentecostalism is.
They have a light version.
They kind of have like an extreme version.
Extreme, you're barking like a dog and doing fire tunnels.
And then the light version, you're just kind of like, you know.
And look, this is not what the Bible is talking about, okay?
I do believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was kind of to the apostles era.
It was kind of that generation.
And it was a special thing that happened to them.
But that's another physical baptism.
There's a third baptism that I want to talk about.
And it's not necessarily in the context of something physical.
It's more of a spiritual baptism, okay?
And again, anything could be baptized.
You could be, if you are buried in the ground, you're baptized of earth, okay?
So baptism just simply being surrounded or encompassed.
And the Bible tells us in Acts chapter number 19,
it talks about a particular baptism from John the Baptist.
Look, make no mistake, John the Baptist baptized people in water.
And he fully submersed them.
But what was he preaching? Look at verse 4.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
So notice we talked about water baptism.
We've talked about a baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There's also a baptism of repentance.
Now what is this baptism of repentance defined as?
It says here, saying unto the people that they should believe on him,
whom shall come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
So notice this baptism is one in which the person fully changes their belief,
fully changes their mind, and puts all of their faith in Jesus Christ.
So we get this kind of the same picture of this full immersion or full submersion,
this covering, where it's kind of this full turning from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ.
Or believing in their works to believing in Jesus Christ.
Or even just maybe Christ plus.
But just anything that's not 100% Jesus,
they went from a full baptism where they're fully immersed in changing their mind.
They weren't like 50-50.
They weren't like 75-25.
No, 100% change of mind fully immersed in that spiritual decision
to believe on Jesus Christ and they were saved.
So when you got saved, you had 100% baptism of repentance.
Or you didn't get saved.
That's why it's important when I go out sowing or preaching the gospel
to identify clear statements from the person that they can repent of.
So then afterwards we can say, hey look, see this is what you were saying and believing.
We want to have 100% baptism of repentance here and believe on Jesus Christ only.
So that's another baptism that we're talking about.
Go back if you would to Romans chapter 6.
Now I think it's important to kind of understand that
because when we're looking at Romans chapter 6,
I believe it's talking about the baptism of repentance.
However, it's also alluding to water baptism
because water baptism represents that baptism of repentance.
It pictures and is a spiritual, you know, profession, public profession
of what you spiritually did.
Because what did you do when you believed in Jesus Christ?
Well, you no longer trusted in yourself.
You trusted in Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection.
You're choosing to die to yourself and also to walk in newness of life.
So there's several pictures of baptism
but one of them is that you trusted in his death, his burial
and his resurrection for your salvation.
And it's talking about here in Romans chapter number 6
that we're buried with him by baptism.
So when Christ went down and as we go down in like manner,
it's illustrating how we're now dead to the law.
We died to the law.
Now here's the thing.
It's not the moment you got water baptized,
the moment you believed this happened.
Your water baptism is picturing what happened.
So we're understanding that element, that example,
but it's not the actual physical act that saves you.
And it says that we were buried in his death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Now this is important to think about the whole context of where we're at.
Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
We that are dead to the law.
So when we believed we were dead to the law,
but then why did we come out of the water?
First of all, so you didn't die drowning, okay?
But what would it picture if you just stayed in the water?
It would picture James chapter 2, faith that works is dead, right?
But did you want to just, hey, I got into heaven with no works.
That's like someone that never came out of the water of baptism.
The whole point of coming up out of the water
is just like Christ rose from the dead
that we want to now decide to still serve God with the rest of the life that we have.
And not just stay dead.
And not just do no works,
but rather have a newness of life and to serve God in obedience.
And what's the first step in obedience?
Baptism.
That's why it's so important.
That's why we're Baptist.
And that's why the picture is so important.
How do you get this from sprinkling?
You know, it's so incredible how many churches out there
and how many Christians so-called sprinkle people today as their form of baptism.
It destroys all the pictures of what we're talking about.
You know, I wasn't sprinkled with the law.
I'm dead to the law.
Go to Matthew chapter 3, Matthew chapter 3.
The Bible could not be clearer that baptism must be a submersion.
And I don't care if people are comfortable when that happens.
You know, in fact, usually people are kind of fighting me on a little bit,
but I get them down there.
And you know what?
Death's a little intimidating, but I'll get you down there.
I'll pull you back up, okay?
I've never left someone in the water, all right?
I've always pulled them back out.
And they might be, you know, might be a little nervous.
You know, I'm not going to sprinkle anybody.
And look what the Bible says in Matthew 3, chapter 6, I'm sorry, chapter 3, verse 16.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
Explain to me how you come out of a water that was sprinkled.
I mean, they're sprinkling like, oh, I came out of it.
You know, it's like, no, obviously to come out of water, you had to be in water.
Okay?
I think there was a movie, and someone else maybe can tell me after the service.
There's a movie, I think, with Jesus.
He goes into the water to get sprinkled.
And it's like, they just don't want to offend anybody or something like that.
And it's just like, that's silly too, okay?
Obviously, the picture was being buried, wasn't it?
And the point is that you have to have a lot of water in order to do that.
You can't sprinkle or you can't be fully immersed with just a little bit.
Now, of course, you could sprinkle with almost nothing, with a canteen, couldn't you?
Go if you would to Acts chapter 7.
Go to Acts chapter 7.
That's why this one question is actually loaded with a lot of doctrine.
I'm sorry, Acts chapter 8 is what I'm thinking of.
Acts chapter 8 is the portion of scripture that I wanted to look at.
But look what it says in verse 36.
And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said,
see, here is water.
What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Notice, they're looking for a lot of water.
If they just needed a little bit of canteen water to be sprinkled,
they wouldn't have to find any water.
You think this guy's traveling to the desert with no canteen of water?
He would die.
Obviously, they're trying to find a pool of water.
In the Bible, in John chapter 3, it talks about how there's much water where they're baptizing.
Why? Because he needed a lot of water to do the baptisms and to fully immerse grown men.
And, of course, what hindered him, verse 37, and Philip said,
If thou believeest thou thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So, in order to get baptized, you have to believe.
This is also why we don't baptize babies.
Now, some people will immerse babies.
And I don't know that they do it 100% immersion,
but I've seen a lot of Catholics, or maybe Orthodox style,
where they take a little infant, and they're just dunking it like three times,
you know, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the...
And the baby's just screaming, bloody murderer, the whole time.
It's not saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Now, if there was a little baby, and it said that, then I might let it slide.
But that's not what's happening, okay?
I'd be just impressed. I'd be like, whoa, that was crazy.
But, you know, the baby's just like...
As it's just being, like, tortured a little bit.
And it's just super creepy and weird, and it makes no sense.
And, of course, I can see why unbelievers mock and ridicule such a belief,
because it has no basis in reality.
Even an unbeliever could read the Bible and realize it's a full immersion.
The word baptism means immersion, okay?
So it's just silly to not believe in a burial.
Of course, God bless it that we come out of it, all right?
That it's not just, hey, ready to go to heaven?
No, we're ready to walk in newness of life, okay?
Go back and go to Romans chapter number 6, go to Romans chapter number 6.
And I use this passage almost always if I'm ever explaining to someone about baptism.
So, you know, whether I'm out soul winning or even someone that wants to be baptized,
I kind of use this because it illustrates to me two of the most important elements of baptism.
Number one, that you trusted Christ's death, birth, and resurrection for your salvation.
You're only trusting in Him.
And number two, that you are deciding you want to actually serve God with your life.
And people who actually do serve God with their life are baptized.
You know, I never meet that person that's just like, man, I'm on fire for God,
and winning people is just trice, and I've been serving God my whole life.
But I don't want to get baptized.
It just doesn't really exist.
Obviously, anybody can serve God for a short period of time,
but the lifelong committed Christians that are really doing big works for God,
they're always baptized, and they're always baptized correctly.
In some cases, they've been baptized multiple times, okay?
Just because the first few times were weird or they weren't saved or whatever, okay?
But I'd rather you be baptized more than once and be baptized than never at all.
Of course, you only need to get baptized one time. Don't hear me wrong.
Some people even asked me specifically.
And again, this is just my personal opinion,
but as long as you've been scripturally baptized,
meaning you were fully immersed and came out of the water,
and it was after you were saved, then I believe you're scripturally baptized, okay?
Now, some people would say you also have to have the person that baptizes you
as like a saved person or a great person or a Baptist.
They'll put all kinds of requirements on the person baptizing you.
And I don't have a problem with someone teaching that or believing that.
I'm just saying that's not necessarily my personal standard.
Like if someone came to our church and they've been scripturally baptized
as far as what they did and after they were saved,
I'm not going to require them to get rebaptized.
Some churches will.
You know, I went to a church where I believe, you know, I fit this requirement.
I was saved, got baptized afterwards, albeit I don't know about the person that baptized me.
I don't even know his name. I can't remember.
But the church I was going to didn't accept it because it wasn't a Baptist church.
So they required me to get rebaptized. And I did.
But, you know, I did it because my pastor's asking me to do it.
I wanted to join the church. The church was a blessing to me.
And I ended up getting rebaptized.
And I don't have a problem with that.
But, again, that's just not necessarily my personal conviction
on what I would force other people to do.
If someone wants me to rebaptize them because they say,
you know what, Judas baptized me.
And I'm just thinking like, okay.
And they just feel bad about it.
Then I have no problem rebaptizing them.
Okay. So I will accommodate that if someone feels that way.
But I'm not going to put that kind of a pressure or a requirement on other individuals.
I know some people and people I really respect that do have that kind of requirement.
And I have no problem. I think that's great.
Okay. It's just I don't really see that as absolutely necessary.
Because, frankly speaking, you know, how do you know the guy that baptized you for sure saved.
And think about it this way. What if the guy baptized you,
it doesn't come out that he's bad for like ten years later.
Does that mean that ten years God was mad at you because you weren't rightfully baptized
and you didn't know any better or something?
I just think it starts getting into kind of like weird territory that's out of your control
and you can't necessarily know.
Now, of course, I'm not going to just ask my neighbor across the street to baptize me.
But at the same time, as long as you were scripturally baptized,
I usually accept that.
Again, I also, though, will not authorize endorsed baptism from someone that's not ordained.
I do believe that baptisms should be done by an ordained individual.
And so our church is not going to have, you know, just every random yahoo baptize each other.
Joseph Smith's not going to baptize himself and he's not going to baptize his friend.
And, you know, we're not the duggers here.
Jim Bob's not going to come and baptize you either, okay?
And so, you know, my children baptize each other in the bath, you know, almost every week.
But that didn't count, okay?
They think it's fun, but, you know, that's just not how it is.
And even if they're saved, it doesn't change it for me, okay?
And I know some churches, they do that.
I just personally don't agree and I could show you a lot of reasons for that.
Let's continue.
The Bible says in verse number 7,
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him.
Notice that in order for this statement to make sense,
that Christ is going to die no more.
He dieth no more.
He had to dieth at some point.
And that's the essence of the gospel, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And we need all three elements to be fulfilled in order to have our salvation.
Now I hear some people say, well, when Jesus Christ was on the cross and he said,
it is finished, that means everything necessary for our salvation was finished.
Well, let me remind you, number one, he wasn't even dead yet.
He hadn't even died.
He certainly hadn't been buried.
And he definitely hadn't been risen again from the dead.
So, of course, when Christ said it is finished, it's not like that was meaningless.
What was clear and evident from that is he was saying that his earthly ministry was finished.
And doesn't that kind of make sense?
Like right before you die, you say it is finished,
and that was the end of the work that you had to do.
And it makes sense that he's like remembering the last verse that had to be fulfilled before he dies.
So it's like he's just hanging on to the ghost up there on the cross until he's like,
someone offer me the vinegar already.
You know, like, let's get this show on the road, right?
And then when it's finally there, he's just like, it is finished.
You know, the relief of the fact that he can finally die.
Now, of course, that relief is met with hell, and we get that.
But at the end of the day, the work that he had to do was accomplished up to that point.
But we have to realize that Jesus Christ did truly die.
Not only did he die, this phrase says that death hath no more dominion over him.
For that sentence or that phrase to make sense, that means that death had dominion over him at some point.
And, of course, we understand the connection between death and hell.
Death, as I say, is a state of being.
Hell is its location.
The second death is a state of being.
The lake of fire is its location.
Okay?
And, of course, being alive is a state of being.
That means you're on earth.
Okay?
Having eternal life, you know, is going to be where you're in heaven.
All right?
Or on the new heaven and the new earth.
So we can understand a lot of these things are just talking about a state of being in essence.
And whenever we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we already have eternal life inside.
But it's not going to come to fruition until we, of course, get our new bodies and we're on the new heaven and the new earth.
Just like those who are dead are away from heaven.
Just like those who are dead are awaiting their second death, which will not come until they have one last resurrection and they stand at the great white throne judgment and then they die the second time by going into the lake of fire.
The only exception is the beast and the false prophet.
They get a one-way ticket to the second death.
All right?
So kind of like Korah got a one-way ticket to hell, they get a one-way ticket straight into the lake of fire.
But the rest of everybody, the devil and all the other people in hell, they have to wait.
A thousand years to then finally get thrown into the lake of fire.
But death at some point had dominion over Jesus Christ.
This is necessary for a lot of things.
But number one, if he wasn't dead, how has he risen from the dead?
You have to be dead in order to be risen from the dead.
Otherwise, it doesn't really make much of sense, does it?
Also, it illustrates he conquered death and hell.
That's why Revelation chapter 1 verse 18 tells us that he has the keys of hell and of death.
Why?
Because he truly conquered them.
He truly overcame them.
He has victory over the grave and victory over hell.
The Bible tells us that he was going to taste death for every man.
Well, what does taste mean?
A short duration.
And of course, Jesus had a short duration of three days and three nights.
And the heart of the earth, which is what he prophesied, which, what's the heart of the earth?
It's hell.
It's always down.
And it had dominion over him, meaning while he was dead, he wasn't the victor.
And I know there's this doctrine out there called the harrowing of hell doctrine, the harrowing of hell.
And it's basically where Jesus went.
And it's kind of like if you're playing Monopoly and you get to that square where there's jail and you land on it.
But you're not in jail.
You're just visiting.
You know, you're just kind of like on the outskirts.
If you've ever played Monopoly, you know what I'm talking about.
There's this jail space where like three quarters of it is jail.
But then there's this narrow hallway where you just kind of walk around the jail and you just kind of look, ooh, that looks terrible.
This is the harrowing of hell doctrine that some people teach where Jesus Christ, he didn't go to, he wasn't like in the cell.
He was in jail but just not in the cell.
He was just visiting.
You know, he was just kind of looking through the window like, ooh, there's Judas.
You know, like, you know, that must be terrible for him.
Okay.
Or, and some people spice it up in different ways.
He'll be kind of like, there's Judas.
You know, it's like, no, that's not really, you know, scriptural at all.
What the Bible says is that death had dominion over him.
So I believe, and of course, the picture is Jonah and the whale are suffering.
And the metaphors that are being alluded to and described is out of the belly of hell cried I.
So it sounds like he was suffering.
The Bible makes it clear that the pains of hell got hold upon him.
Acts chapter number two makes it even abundantly clear that he was not loose from the pains of death until he was resurrected.
Well, it sounds like there was some level of pain, some suffering, he's crying.
So it makes sense that he actually suffered in hell for us.
That's what the Bible clearly teaches.
And of course, it didn't last forever.
He could not be holding of it.
Death hath no more dominion over him.
Why?
Because he rose from the dead and conquered it forever.
Notice he can never die again.
It's impossible for him to ever die again.
It was a one-time event, a one-time humbling of himself, lowering of himself, and allowing himself to go through that experience so that he could, you know, on earth, so that he could be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and in hell so that he could take our place so we wouldn't have to go there, so we wouldn't have the taste of death, so we wouldn't have to burn and realize the full punishment of our sin and we could become dead to the law.
Now, it says in verse number 10, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
So he's going to live forever.
Verse 11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we are, like Christ, dead to sin, and we only have life because of the Lord Jesus Christ having life.
We have life because he had life.
If he has no life, we have no life.
We're still dead.
We're still yet in our sins, as 1 Corinthians 15 is articulated by the Apostle Paul.
Verse number 12, the Bible says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Now, this is an interesting verse to me because, you know what, it almost sounds like, think about this, let not sin therefore reign.
Now, when you talk about someone reigning or something reigning, what do you typically think of?
Maybe a king or a lord?
And so, you know what this verse is actually saying?
It's possible after you're saved to have sin lordship.
Okay?
You know, John MacArthur and all them out there want to talk about the lordship of Christ, right?
But, you know, there's another lord that's out there that's reigning in a lot of Christians, and his name is sin.
Sin lordship.
And notice that he's telling us in verse number 12, let it not happen.
Okay?
So, how is this possible?
If lordship salvation is the truth, it's not.
But that's because lordship salvation is a lie.
It's fake, okay?
Whenever you get saved and you believe on the lord Jesus Christ, you still have a free will.
You still have a decision who's going to be the lord of your life, quote, unquote.
Or who's going to be, who you're going to serve.
Are you going to serve sin or are you going to serve the lord Jesus Christ?
And he's telling us, don't let sin be the one that's reigning.
Don't let sin be the one that's in charge of you.
Don't let sin have this place in your mortal body.
Notice this.
Mortal body.
Are we talking about your soul?
No.
Your soul's already saved.
No, you have the new man.
But you know what?
Your mortal body, it's still up for grabs.
And you have that old man and the new man fighting for it.
And you know what?
You've got sin as a lord over here and you've got Jesus Christ as a lord over here.
Which one is your mortal body going to serve?
And of course, this is why it's so emphasized in the Bible to have the works and walk in the spirit
and to not necessarily just fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Because salvation is free.
Easy and you're automatically going to heaven.
But you know what's not automatic is following the commandments.
In fact, I would argue autopilot is usually just sin.
Like, if you don't try, you're probably just going to let sin reign in your mortal body.
It actually takes a lot of effort to not be that person.
The backslidden Christian, easy.
Really easy to be him.
It takes very little effort.
You don't really have to try too hard.
Why? Because the flesh is weak.
Hey, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
And he's telling him, he's telling the audience here,
don't let this reign in your mortal body that you should obey it and the lusts thereof.
Verse 13.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
So notice this.
Why is he telling you to yield yourself unto God?
Because you still have that choice.
You know, this lordship, automatic, serving God doctrine is false.
You have a choice.
And he's saying, don't yield yourselves unto sin.
Don't let your arms and your feet and your mouth and your eyes
just be instruments for the devil and instruments for sin
and just go out and just do whatever you want.
No, no, no.
Force yourself to serve God.
Control yourself.
Why is it important to have temperance?
Why is it important to keep under your body as the apostle Paul says?
He doesn't say beat your body as the modern versions corrupt.
He says to keep under your body.
Why?
We're talking about self-control.
We're talking about denying the flesh, crucifying the flesh,
not yielding yourselves.
And notice what you're described as, being alive from the dead.
So what would be someone who's saved,
but they're not yielding themselves unto God.
They're yielding themselves unto sin.
What does the Bible say you'd be?
Dead.
The person that's actually serving God
and not yielding their members unto unrighteousness,
they're yielding themselves unto God.
Who are they?
Alive.
So doesn't this give perfect explanation
and perfect understanding to James 2?
We talk about faith that works as dead.
That's that person that's not yielding themselves unto Christ.
They're yielding themselves into sin, aren't they?
And he wants them to stop being dead and become what?
Alive.
And the Bible illustrates this all over scripture.
You know, if you want to say faith that works as dead,
well, you know what Romans teaches that?
Everything teaches that.
I mean, go to 1 Timothy chapter number 5 for a moment.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 5,
and we'll see the same illustration taught here.
What does it mean to be alive?
It means to be doing the works of God.
You know, the Bible doesn't want us to be dead Christians.
He wants us to be alive Christians.
And it's very easy to be dead because it takes little effort.
1 Timothy chapter 5,
look what the Bible says in verse number 6.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
This is talking about a widow who decides not to serve God
but to just have as much pleasure as possible.
Just live in pleasure, live in sin, do whatever she wants.
And notice the Bible is saying that she's dead while she liveth.
Meaning what?
She's dead spiritually.
She's not doing any works for God.
She's yielding herself unto the flesh,
and she needs to come alive by denying self,
not just satisfying, gratifying the flesh,
but actually trying to serve God with her life.
Go back to Romans chapter number 6.
This could not be clearer.
And I think this is another great text to help you
further understand James 2.
Because a lot of people struggle with James chapter 2
or other passages like that.
But that concept is not a one-time concept.
There are some preachers that will get up there,
dispensationalists, and they'll say,
oh, yeah, you better understand James 2 is not written to you.
It's written to the Jews
because the Jews had to have works to get to heaven.
And you're like, no.
And it's like that sounds like someone who's not even saved
that thinks that kind of stuff.
But it's out there.
A lot of independent Baptist will say this junk.
A lot of dispensationalists,
especially hyper-dispensationalists,
will get into this junk and start mixing up faith and works.
And so it's important to understand even these passages,
Romans 6, what it's saying,
because it's teaching the same things that James 2 is teaching.
Honestly, Romans 6 is almost parallel to James 2
as far as just the overall content of, like,
shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
And stop being a dead Christian and come alive.
Start actually doing something for God with your life
and be profitable unto God.
Verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you're not under the law but under grace.
Now, some people would go,
oh, well, if sin's not going to have dominion,
that sounds like there was a change and you're serving God.
No, no, what was the dominion?
The dominion is the same dominion that was over Christ
when he was in hell in the sense that he was taken captive.
You know, we're never going to have the dominion of sin
in the sense that we're never going to go to hell.
We can't go to hell.
Sin's never going to have full dominion over us.
So, because what?
We're not under the law.
We're under grace, meaning no matter what I do,
God's grace will cover and I'm still going to heaven.
So don't get...
It kind of goes back and forth in this chapter
a little bit of what we're talking about,
but it's a pretty clear indication
when it's talking about the law and grace
that we're not talking about what you do in your mortal flesh.
This is alluding back to the fact
that you're not going to go to hell for your sin.
Verse 15, what then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law,
but under grace, God forbid.
So here's what we have to understand.
14 and 15 is a mini two-verse explanation
of what chapter 5 and 6 was all the way up to this point.
It's like it restated everything that we just talked about
in chapter 5 and chapter 6
where it kind of brought up the point of,
hey, you're not under the law, you're under grace.
Okay, so then should we sin?
And it's like, no.
How many times does that have to tell you?
I just told you in verse number 1, no.
Let me tell you again.
Look, shall we sin because we are not under the law,
but under grace, God forbid.
So again, he's hammering this point back and forth
because people are thick.
You know, they're thick-minded and they're slow
and of course those that are unsaved
can't really get the Bible here,
but he's really hammering back and forth.
You can't lead to salvation.
Should we sin?
No.
We can't lead to salvation.
Should we sin?
No.
It's like how many times do you need it?
But of course, a lot of people get confused on these points
and they're pretty important doctrines
to articulate unto people.
Verse 16, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
So here's the point I thought about this verse.
You're gonna serve someone.
Did you notice that you're not in charge, period?
Like either you don't serve, either you serve God
and then of course the word serve is mentioned
and if you don't serve God, guess what, you're serving sin.
It's not like, well, I'm serving myself
or I'm serving the devil.
No, you're just serving sin.
You have one of two options, God or sin.
That's your only options in which you're afforded
and so why would I not then just serve God, right?
And he's trying to say like you realize
whatever decisions you make just illustrates
who you really are serving.
It's not like, and that's why it's important
to be a servant of God by following.
It's important to follow the commandments
because then you're a servant of God.
When you're not following his commandments,
you're just not a servant of God anymore.
Now you're just a servant of sin
and it's illustrating by who you're truly obeying
and of course the sin is unto death
and obedience is unto righteousness.
Verse 17, but God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin.
You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you.
So when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're now his servant in the sense that
no matter what you do, you will always go to heaven
and you'll always be his servant.
Now you can temporarily start serving sin again.
You can still kind of do that,
but you'll never officially be his servant
because your new man is always a servant of God.
But what you can be is an unprofitable servant.
You can be the servant that basically didn't do anything
and has no works and God's upset
with that particular servant.
I always argue, and I think it's clear from scripture,
every person's a servant of God to at least start out with.
We're all servants of his.
We're all supposed to serve him,
but then many people rebel and start deciding to serve sin.
Of course those who never get saved,
they end up going to hell.
Those of us that are saved,
we can either be a profitable or an unprofitable servant
and that's why we have really interesting verses in the Bible
that when some of us are going to die and stand before Christ,
he's going to say,
Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
That's not necessarily every single person that's saved.
That's why it's a really great,
that would be great that you hear those words.
What you don't want to hear is like,
Man, you, you again.
It's like, you're here, right?
It's like, well done, thou good and faithful servant, right?
You don't want to be the guy
who's just got a bunch of wood hay and stubble
and everything's just burned up
and he's disappointed, he's upset,
you buried your talent in the ground.
He wants us to have something to show for ourselves
and the Bible even talks about certain masters
whenever they have to give an account unto Christ
doing with joy, not with grief.
Of course there's still a judgment seat of Christ
that we as the saved are still going to experience
and it's important that we're the best servants that we were,
that we weren't serving sin with the rest of our lives,
we were serving Christ.
But I like the fact that when we have this conversion
in a sense, because when you were unsaved,
you could only serve sin, that was your only option.
You were just only a servant of sin.
When you get saved, you're now his servant
but you can still go back to the old master,
you just shouldn't.
But notice what got you to that.
It says in verse 17,
ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.
Notice it wasn't that you repented of your sins,
notice it wasn't that you were willing to surrender your life,
notice you obeyed a doctrine.
And I know that some people, they'll literally criticize
my soul winning or our soul winning
and they'll say, oh, you don't have to have
your form of doctrine to be saved.
And it's like, yes you do.
It's not doctrine that saves people.
Yes, it is.
It's like, oh, it's an experience,
oh, it's a feeling.
No, no, no, it's a doctrine.
Why are we so sharp on our doctrine?
Why is it so important exactly what we believe?
Why does salvation need to be articulated exactly right?
Because it's doctrine that saves people.
What's another word for doctrine?
Belief, what you believe.
If salvation's by believing,
then you better believe that what you believe matters.
And that's called doctrine.
And I'm not afraid of that word.
We're not going to get away from doctrine.
You know, non-denominational churches,
they want to hide their doctrinal statement.
They don't want a doctrinal statement out there.
Why?
Because they don't want anybody to know what they believe.
And they'll say doctrine divides people.
You better believe it also converts people.
Doctrine's all, it's everything.
That's super important.
What was the point of the preacher?
To preach sound doctrine.
What's the point of church that we're all unified
and gathered and rallied around the same doctrine, okay?
And so doctrine's really important
and it's what saves you.
It's not your works, it's not repenting of sin.
When's the last time you heard someone say
it's doctrine that saves you?
But you know what, that's what the Bible is teaching here.
Verse 18, being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness.
I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh.
So again, he's kind of going back and forth
in the sense that he's talking about us
deciding not to serve sin,
but then he's also talking about how
we're no longer the servant of sin,
we are simply servants of righteousness.
So it can get a little bit confusing
when you're reading this passage
just because of how he's having to use
the exact same language
with two completely different meanings.
Because in one sense, you're not a servant of sin
in the sense that you're saved,
in the sense that you're a servant of God,
you're a servant of righteousness
because you've been saved.
But in another sense, you could be a servant of sin
by continuing to serve sin and continuing to do sin.
And so we have this dichotomy
which is gonna be further explained in chapter 7
about the old man and the new man.
But here he's trying to use different language
to help you understand this distinction, right?
He says in verse number 19,
I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh.
So he's trying to say,
look, I'm talking about your flesh man.
The reason why I'm bringing this stuff up
is because you're flesh man.
He mentioned earlier, you're mortal man, right?
Because he's really wanting to drive in
this flesh aspect, this infirmity is the sin
of your flesh.
That's another way to word infirmity, is sin.
The sin or the iniquity in your flesh.
This is also described in great detail
in chapter number 7 where it talks about
it's no longer I that sinneth
but sin that dwelleth in me.
Because why?
In your mortal flesh, you have sin.
It's not desiring to serve God.
But the person who you truly are inside,
that new man, it's a servant of God
and we want to walk in that newness of life
and walk in that spirit.
And he's trying to articulate these points.
So he says, for as you have yielded your member
servants to uncleanness into iniquity and iniquity,
even so now, yield your members servants
to righteousness and holiness.
So what is he trying to say?
Take your flesh body, take your mortal body,
take your physical body, your old man
and force him to do right.
Force him to serve God
because, you know, when you were unsaved,
you were just only serving sin.
That's all you could do.
But now that you've become a servant of righteousness inside,
you know, drag that old man with you
and start serving the Lord.
Don't continue in sin.
We got baptized.
We're supposed to walk in newness of life.
And, of course, even now, yield your member servants
to righteousness unto holiness.
What's the goal of doing this?
To become righteous, to become holy.
What is holy?
It's set apart.
It's to sanctify, okay?
So no longer being just like everybody else,
being different.
This is articulated in 2 Corinthians 6.
Wherefore, come out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord.
You know, a church that looks exactly like the world
is really not doing this.
There should be an obvious difference
between the church and the world.
We should be sanctified.
We should be righteous.
We should be holy.
There should be something completely different about us
than from them.
And, of course,
that's what I believe our church is very much like.
I think it's very evident and very obvious
from the people that are in here.
Now, of course, does that mean that we're perfect?
No.
Does that mean that we're sinless?
No.
But it does mean that we're all trying
to strive for righteousness,
and we're striving for holiness,
and that's what God wants us to do.
This has a great benefit.
Verse 21...
Or verse 20, I'm sorry.
For when you were the servants of sin,
you were free from righteousness.
Notice you couldn't even do righteousness
when you weren't saved.
You were free from it.
Verse 21, what fruit had ye then in those things
whereof ye are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
Saying, okay, tell me about all the great works
you did for God when you were not saved.
You have none.
In fact, if we talked about the things you did
when you weren't saved, you'd be ashamed.
You'd be embarrassed of the life that you lived
when you were unsaved, the actions you took.
So he's saying, why would you want to continue
doing the thing that you're ashamed of?
Like, when we look back to what you were like
before you got saved, it's embarrassing.
So then why would you want to continue
just being an embarrassment?
No, no, no.
You should walk in newness of life.
You didn't have any good fruit in that.
Verse 22, but now, being made free from sin
and become servants to God, you had your fruit
unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
So now, you don't have to be a slave to sin.
You don't have to just do whatever sins
that you're kind of forced into because you're
just so fleshly and carnal.
Now you're free to actually walk in newness of life,
walk in the Spirit and not have to necessarily
do all those things.
And you have this great opportunity
to end up serving God and have your fruit
unto holiness, being holy, being godly, being righteous.
And of course, the end, meaning the goal,
is the fact that you're going to have everlasting life.
We're going to live with God forever.
So if we're going to live with God forever,
don't you want to have some fruit?
Don't you want to have some reward?
Don't you want to have something to stand before Christ
and not just only embarrassment and just say,
you know what, I didn't do anything?
It's like, that's embarrassing.
If the goal, if the end of our lives is everlasting life,
don't we want to take something with us?
Don't we want to have some reward to come with us?
So it's like, that's the whole point.
Verse 23, for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the only thing that sin can give you,
the only thing you can earn from sin itself is death.
But praise God, we've already been saved,
so we don't have to experience that.
Jesus paid that wage for us.
He took that wage.
And what do we get?
We got a gift, which was eternal life.
So we're going to live with Jesus Christ forever.
But this point is hammering in the fact
that why would I continue sinning
when it will get me nothing?
It's just putting my money in a bag with holes in it.
It's going to have no positive effect in my life.
It has nothing good for me.
The only thing that I can get from sin is death.
Whether that be physical or spiritual, it leads to both.
And so there's no point in sinning.
We shouldn't continue in sin.
We shouldn't yield ourselves into sin.
We won't be a servant of sin.
We want to be a servant of God,
going unto righteousness and going unto holiness
and having fruit unto our account.
Now look back at verse 21.
It has the same message here.
For the end of those things is death.
Notice it's saying the same thing as in verse 23.
What's the end of sin?
Death.
What's the wage of sin?
It's death.
What does verse 19 say?
Because verse 19 to 23 is one thought.
Verse 19 is telling us that when we serve God,
we're going to have two different things.
Number one, servants to righteousness and holiness.
It will make us holy.
And number two, eventually we're going
to all get everlasting life.
So it makes sense to serve God and to be as holy
as you can now because we're going to spend
the rest of our lives with God.
Now I want to go to one more verse.
Go to 1 Timothy, chapter number four.
And of course, you know, when it comes to this chapter,
the big picture is that you're not under the law.
You're under grace.
That's the big picture.
We're not under the law.
We're under grace.
So then what should we do?
If I don't have to serve God in order to go to heaven,
what should I do?
And the just hammered point is you should still serve God.
OK?
And I was thinking about another just parable.
This is my parable, OK?
Of how this under the law and under grace could work.
Imagine you work for a company.
We all work for a company, OK?
And your company has rules about how
to perform the job and all the different instructions.
And when you first come on in the company,
they say you're under probation.
You're under a probation period.
And in this probation period, if you
violate any policy, any rule, if you break any merchandise,
if you lose any sale, if you do anything bad,
you're immediately fired.
It's not just you don't have to break two rules, one rule.
You do anything wrong while you're
in this probation period at work,
we're going to immediately fire you.
OK?
This is what it's like to be under the law of God,
where any sin will take you to hell.
It doesn't matter how big or small.
There's no grace.
It's just, hey, you can keep serving here.
And if you never make a mistake, it's fine.
But you know what?
Here's the problem.
You're probably going to make a mistake at the company.
And you're for sure going to break one of God's commandments,
OK?
So then another guy comes on the first day.
He shows up.
And he says, hey, that probation policy, it's not that cool.
He's got some problems because you're not very good.
All right?
But there's a new policy that's been instituted.
The CEO, his son, is offering a new policy
called the grace policy.
And his policy is essentially that if you ever
make a mistake at the company, if you skip work,
he'll show up and take your place that day before work.
And if you break something, he'll pay for it.
If you make a mistake, he'll pay for it.
Every single time you screw up at the company,
he's just already decided he likes you.
And he wants you to work for this company.
He wants you to work for his dad.
He wants you to be part of the program.
And he knows you can't really fulfill all the tasks.
So he's willing to make up any lost days, any bad time,
anything you do wrong, he's going to do it for you.
All you have to do is just call him and say,
I want the free grace program.
And so what do you do?
You believe that the son is willing to do that for you,
and you just pray one time, and you get eternal life.
You get the, hey, it's the eternal grace program.
You get to work for this company forever.
Now, here's the thing.
What should you do after you got the grace program?
Should you just never go to the job?
Should you just never work for the company?
Should you just break all the merchandise on purpose?
No.
Now, can you?
Yes.
Should you?
No.
You know what you should do?
Why?
Because you're going to be working for them forever.
And let me tell you, when you're the worst employee,
they're going to put you in some closet
down in the basement with Milton, OK,
where he doesn't even get his own stapler, all right?
Whereas whenever you're hard working,
you're going to get that nice office, you know,
up in the corner office, up near the CEO,
and you're going to be doing great things in the company.
This is the same when it comes to,
working for God.
You know, hey, I want to be as close to that CEO office
as I can be.
I want to actually be a profitable servant
for the company.
I'm so glad that I got the grace program.
I'm so glad that no matter what, I get to work for them.
You know, this is the silly thing.
You have a lot of other Christians,
they all work in the basement, and they come up and say,
ah, we're not under probation.
We're under grace.
And you're like, yeah, you loser.
I'm going to get promoted, and you're not.
But I'm not going to continue sinning.
I'm not just going to blow off work
and just blow, and just say nuts to the company policy
and just rebel.
You know what?
I want to be the best employee that they've got.
Okay?
This is my parable unto you, all right?
So take it or leave it.
But look what the Bible says.
First Timothy chapter four, verse eight.
For bodily exercise profiteth little,
but godliness is good.
For godliness is profitable unto all things.
Notice this phrase, having promise of the life that now is.
Notice that serving God has a promise of the life that now is,
meaning there is a benefit and a profit to serving God right now.
Not just later, but then what does it say?
It says, and of that which is to come.
So notice being godly has a benefit now and later.
It's a good candy, all right?
Now and laters, all right?
And what is the Bible saying?
There is a huge benefit to serving God.
And what was the wages of sin?
Death.
Why would I want to just continue just doing nothing?
Just being a dead Christian, not helping the company,
not helping the Lord Jesus Christ,
not being a good servant, just serving sin.
No, no, no.
I want to be someone that yields myself unto the Father,
that gives myself unto God, is willing to serve Him,
walk in newness of life, and to be as holy as possible
because that's why we're here.
You're part of the company if you got saved.
Praise God.
You're under the grace policy.
But you know what?
Let us be those who also appreciate that gift
and appreciate what He's done and do the best that we possibly can
because you're going to have great reward here
and great reward in the afterlife.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us the free gift of salvation
that we could never lose, the free gift of eternal life
that your son bought and paid for with his blood
and he even experienced death for us that we wouldn't have to.
I pray that we wouldn't just take all that for granted,
that we wouldn't just be unthankful,
but rather we'd be good stewards of the Gospel,
that we'd be faithful servants,
that we would do our best to not yield ourselves to our flesh and our sin,
but rather we would yield our members and yield our bodies
to serve the living God who's purchased us with a great price,
the blood of Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray, Amen.
Alright, for our final song, 452, All I Need.
452, All I Need.
Jesus Christ is made to me,
All I need, all I need,
He alone is all my plea,
He is all I need.
Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
Holiness this very hour,
My redemption full and free,
He is all I need.
He redeemed me when He died,
All I need, all I need,
I with Him was crucified,
He is all I need.
Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
Holiness this very hour,
My redemption full and free,
He is all I need.
He's the treasure of my soul,
All I need, all I need,
He hath cleansed and made me whole,
He is all I need.
Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
Holiness this very hour,
My redemption full and free,
He is all I need.
Jesus is my all in all,
All I need, all I need,
While He keeps I cannot fall,
He is all I need.
Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
Holiness this very hour,
My redemption full and free,
He is all I need.
Glory, glory to the Lamb,
All I need, all I need,
By His Spirit sealed I am,
He is all I need.
Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
Holiness this very hour,
My redemption full and free,
He is all I need.
Thank you all for coming, God bless, you are dismissed.
.