You're Richer than You Think — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Introduction and reading of Romans 5

I've asked, my dear brother to come up and read for us. I am not Alexander Scorby. And he's gonna read Romans chapter five. If you can start in Romans chapter five all the way through six fourteen. And I'm going to interrupt him.

Okay, so follow along. Okay, I'm going to interrupt him. And I was gonna say, no, I'm only kidding. Just kidding.

Alright. Romans chapter five. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with god through our lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of god, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. For when we were yet without in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will...

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet per adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if we were...

And for when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Okay, one one... Just want you to... As we're following this through, I want you to see in this, you're... We're reading about justification by faith. Verse one, actually, therefore being justified by faith, right?

And that's the whole gospel of of... That's the whole gospel. Romans is is opening up the gospel. Unpackaging the gospel. And so when now...

Where you're gonna see here in verse 14, you're gonna you're gonna start in verse 12. You're going to see a change. I want to see if you can pick up a change. There's going to be a change in terms of language. And I want you to see if you can pick that up.

This is this is a significant change.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigns from Adam to Moses.

Just pausing. Notice that phrase. Death reigned. Okey doke? Thank you.

Even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For it is through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many and not as it was by one that sinned, so was the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense, death reigned by one. Much more, they would receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as by the offensive one, judgement came upon all men to condemnation. Even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men on the justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Okay. So many of you have memorized this section, especially verse 21. But starting in chapter six, but note, did you see the change? Did you see the a change in language? Started in verse 14.

It starts with the word rain. That's significant and the Greek word is stunning on this. So go ahead. Thanks. And watch how it continues through chapter six.

4:52 Shall we continue in sin?

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. 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 free 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. For in that he died, he died on the 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 you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourself unto god as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteous ness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are under the law, but under...

Not under the law, but under grace.

Amen. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I'm excited about this passage. I'm excited about this passage because of what it means to us personally.

What it means to us personally. Did you catch the the language? Did you catch this? Because in verse 14, you see a change. A change in not just tempo.

You see a change in terms of our lives. Our lives. Okay. So... The reason I had our brother come up and read this because oftentimes when we read the passage in a situation like this, we just...

We go mindless. I wanted us to look at the passage and look at how it's affecting... Going to affect us. Because this this passage, Paul makes three charges to us Christians for us to listen to and to understand it. And then also act upon it.

This is life changing. This is life... Whether you know it or not, it's life changing. And so we're going to look at this. A number of years ago, there was a guy in, I think it was New York City.

And in New York City, you see a lot of people who are vagrants, people who are... You know, they call them bums or homeless or this. He wasn't homeless. He had an apartment. But it was in a...

What we would normally call a flop house. He was in a house that wasn't well taken care of. I mean, an apartment area which wasn't well taken care of, probably a common restroom, common bathroom type of thing with the other residents, etcetera. And in New York, it still cost a lot, but he probably panhandled to to pay pay the rent or type of thing. And so what he would do is he would go through garbage cans and he would be seen of the people.

Over the years, you could see this guy just shuffling along, picking the garbage, all that kind of stuff. And he lived like a pauper. He did. He lived like a pauper. And then all of a sudden the residents of the area, that's New York, New York has little towns within a town, little villages.

So you'll have people live there and they know each other, etc. And they didn't see this guy for a few days. And they thought to themselves, where in the world is this guy? Where is he? And so they investigated and they took a policeman with them because they went to his flop house, his little apartment, and they had to break into it.

And the policeman was there and they found expired, that the man had died. And looking over his person, you know, to find out what is, you know, who's next of kin, etcetera, they found on his waist a money belt with $20,000 on it. That's amazing. That is totally amazing. And I think to myself, a lot of us are like this.

10:06 You're richer than you think

In Romans chapter six, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Some translations say, may it never be so, God forbid. Well, may it never be so is more to the Greek. The God is not in the Greek.

The word God, it's an expression. The net bible says, absolutely not. And so what you have what you have here is how how... What shall we say then? Say what to what?

What shall we say then? What are you talking about, Paul? What are you talking about? He's talking about Romans chapter five one, specifically verse 14. He's talking he's talking about the gospel.

Now he's talking about in verse 14, actually 12, he's talking about our identification. What happened to us? I trusted Christ and I was gonna say by my birthday, 07/06/1952, I was going to say, I say that every time I come here. And I do, but my birthday was 03/22/1971, that's my second birthday. I got a great crowd in New York City one time telling people I had on the sketch board, I said I've been born twice.

They thought I was from what do they call it, the Enquirer, National Enquirer or something, some weirdo. How can... And I get a good crowd. I'll take a crowd any time. Anyway, so it was it was really good.

And I said I was born July 6. I barely made it. And then I was born March 22. I was born again. March twenty second nineteen seventy nineteen seventy one.

When I asked Jesus Christ to be my personal savior, and when you asked Jesus Christ to be your personal savior, what happened? What happened spiritually? What took place that maybe you're not even thinking of? That and you know, like for me, my hair didn't straighten out and I didn't go bald, but I did... I had curly hair, didn't straighten out.

I had some pimples, they didn't go away. I didn't see any lightning. I didn't see anything in the rug burning and you know a message or anything like that. I didn't get any liver shiver or anything. But what I did was I, for the first time in my life, I had peace with God.

And that's very subjective and to say and to say, I'm I'm right with God. That's all I can explain it. But Paul is explaining what took place. What took place with us? And this is where he's going.

This is where he's going. What took place? Now, you'll notice in verse 12 of Romans chapter five. It says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. That's why all people are under the curse of sin.

And that's how sin is transmitted from parents to baby, etcetera, on and on and on and on. It's the seminal headship. In other words, they are the sin nature is passed through the male and it is in in every human being. Every human being. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned.

This blows this blows the gap theory out the door, number one, because you have to have death predate Adam and Eve. And you can't do it with this verse. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. For until the law of the world was was in...

Sin was in the world, verse 13, but sin was not imputed when there was no law. Nevertheless... Now here's the change. Verse 14, death reigned. He uses this word intentionally.

It's the first time it's introduced in the book of Romans. It's used intentionally to talk about us being in a kingdom. And that kingdom is the kingdom of death because of sin. The lord Jesus talked about two kingdoms. This kingdoms of the kingdom of god and the kingdom of Satan.

We, every human being, is in the kingdom of Satan. We're in the kingdom of death, and it reigns. And this is the Greek word where we get the word ruler. We get the word ruler out of it. And it rules us.

And we see this in the world. We see it in our own lives. We see how sin can rule us. And how it rules people. We see this and we see that Satan is the prince of the world.

Prince of darkness, prince of this world. And ruling ruling this world. And so death reigned. And because we were in that kingdom. But notice what he says.

Notice what he says and says, for us by one man death, one man's offense, and that would be Adam's, we're looking at verse 17. Death reigned by one. Much more. Who received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in the life by Jesus... By one Jesus Christ.

16:41 Changed kingships from darkness to light

In John chapter three, you must be born again. Born into the family of God. Born from above. Born into the kingdom of God. And so he doesn't stop there.

Notice what he says in in Romans chapter in Romans chapter five and verse 21, that as sin reigned unto death, Even so, my grace reign through the righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our lord. Now, what kingdom are you in in which the this reigning of the king is controlling. He's the master. He's the lord. It it's when you receive Christ, you pass from death unto life.

Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me. How's that go? Yeah. I got it right. So that's enough 05:12 around.

Yeah. That's a tough one, isn't it? John five twenty four. Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes on him has everlasting life and shall not come into judgement but his past from death unto life. So now you were in the kingdom of death.

That's every every unbeliever, every human being without Jesus Christ as their personal savior are in that kingdom and doing the dictates of that ruler. But when you receive Christ as your personal savior, you are translated, and the King James uses that, we are put into the kingdom of not only light, but of life. Isn't this fantastic? So this is what he is saying. Who did that for us?

Our good works? No. Who did this for us? Our nicety and our church affiliation? No.

Who did this for us? Jesus Christ. Verse 21, five twenty one. And so death reigned and now it changed and everything's changed. Even so my grace reigns through the right, through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our lord.

By the way, when you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, this is you, this is old hat for you. I know it is. But the lord Jesus said something to his disciples and to to the to the some of the pharisees. I give unto them, John 10. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

How could he say that? And by the way, it's it's you shall never never perish. If we do a if we do a double negative in a sentence in English, it turns into a positive, but not in the Greek. It doubles it down. In other words, never never.

You will never perish. In other words, you have, in fact, what do you get the moment you receive Christ as your savior? You gain eternal life. When do you lose it? It wouldn't be eternal if you could lose it.

It wouldn't be eternal. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never never perish. Ain't that a kicker? Why? Because you jumped from one kingdom to another kingdom never to return.

Never to go back. Never to go back. But sometimes, we act like we're going back. Sometimes, we act like we're from that kingdom. And we do those things that we formally did.

Though we're in the new kingdom. We're new in new life. Right? But sometimes we go, no, no, I'm going to I'm going to exercise my old man and I'm gonna do what I wanna do and that kind of... So we get selfish.

21:36 Living in the new kingdom

He's getting very practical here. He's giving them their position. This is this is Paul all the way. He does this in Colossians chapter three. He first gives their position in Christ and then he's going to tell them to act like it.

So, he's telling them, you've you've changed kingdoms, you've changed, you're no longer in this realm anymore. It's not raining over you. What's who's reigning over you? The righteousness of Jesus Christ because he's placed you into the new kingdom. You are born again, never to return.

Is this clear? I hope it is. This is this is this is so cool. What shall we say then? To these things.

Actually, it just says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? That would be the old realm. Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound?

Okay. I'm going to sin. We're going to see the grace of god and god's going to forgive me and that's fantastic. Paul says, god forbid. May it not be so or absolutely not.

Now, that's not that's not us. Notice how he says it. Notice what he says. He he's telling us in these three charges. He's telling us that we need to know our position.

We need to know our position. Notice what he says here. What... And then he says, god forbid, how shall we that are... Notice what he says, dead.

Dead. I hate that word. I do. I hate that word. We we see death all the time.

I think about death all the time. I hear about it. I look at myself and I'm going, you're dying, Chris. And maybe you're thinking right now, I'm dying now too. Listening to you.

But I look at this and I say, you know, we're dead. How shall we that are dead to what? To sin. Live any longer in it. He's going to get really personal here.

Don't you know, know you not, and this this word is you're not to be ignorant of this. Don't be ignorant of this. Don't you know that as many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death. He is not talking about water baptism. He is talking about spiritual baptism.

Baptism literally means to be placed into. He's telling you and he's telling me, don't you know that when you receive Christ as your savior, you died and were placed into him? This is what took place. You died and you replaced, you were you were placed into him. Know you not as many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ.

We're baptized into his death. So, what is he what is he saying here? He's saying that you you died when he died And if you think this is a foreign thing to the scriptures, think again. You have in Hebrews chapter seven, you have Levi paying tithes to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham. Levi wasn't even born when he met when Abraham melt Melchizedek when he met him.

Didn't do that. He paid tithes to him. How did he do it? He and it says that Levi did that because he was in the loins of Abraham. And he did it.

It's identification. It is identification. It is really cool to see this couple. I remember when Heather was up with us and I got it right, right Heather? High school.

Pretty girl. Then they moved down and he was thrilled. You know, he was thrilled. But in them, they have all these kids now. They didn't then, in the loins.

In the loins. And so this is the this is the beautiful thing. This is this is beautiful. So, you were baptized. Don't you know that as many of as many as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Then he goes on. Therefore, we are buried with him and the the Greek is clear. It's in the passive. You didn't do anything about it. You are buried with him.

It happened to you. You were buried together. That's exactly what it means. Buried together. With whom?

With Jesus. So when he died, you died. When he arose, when he was buried, you were buried. When he arose, you arose. That's exactly what he is saying here.

You can't come up with anything else except that. Except that. He is giving us our identification. We have died with Christ. We've been raised with Christ and that's exactly what he's going to tell us.

Therefore, we are buried with him. We are buried with him by baptism into death that verse four, the last half of it, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. How can we walk in newness of life? Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things become new. He is telling us that newness that we have when we receive Christ as our savior at any age happens because you've been you've died with Christ, you've been raised with Christ. Now, you're to walk in that newness of life that you have. You're to walk in it. So it seems to me that we are...

And he tells us in in the preview... In some preview... Verse three, don't you know this? Don't you know this? In other words, I want to know this.

I want to count it true for my life. I want to say to the lord, yes, I agree with your word. This is what has happened to me. Now, he's he's it's even going to get better. It's even going to get better.

Notice what he says in verse five. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection. And the answer is they they're not an answer but the thing is it's not a guess. You have been planted together in the likeness of his death, and now you have been planted together in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this knowing this know this, Know this to be true and understand it completely.

30:16 Not serving sin anymore

He's given us everything that we have needed. He's he gives it to us and notice what he says, that henceforth, we should not serve sin. For he that is dead notice that, he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if any, if, now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more.

Death hath no more. Notice the word. What is what is your translation say? What is your translation say? Verse nine, death hath no more dominion.

No more notice this. This it that's that comes from king at kingship language. You're in a different king, kingdom. It will no longer have dominion over you. Death reigned and we did all those things that that that kingdom asked us to do.

In other words, sin like crazy without impunity. Just sin, sin, sin. Now, he's telling us because you're in another kingdom, you are now going to have this, this is going to reign over you. It will have dominion. If I say I have dominion over a group of people or I have a dominion over somebody I dominate.

It's domination time. That's dominion. And so he's telling us that we're not only in a different a different realm in terms of kingship. We're in the Lord's king. He is our king.

Dominion over him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death, eth, no more dominion over him, and that he died, he died unto sin once and that Greek word is powerful. It's used five times in the New Testament and it's used of the lord Jesus Christ. He tasted death for every man and he died once for all. In fact, in in Hebrews chapter seven, it tells us that he actually ten ten, he he died once for all. He paid the penalty never to have to pay it again, ever.

Never have to pay it again. He died, he died under sin once. Notice when he he died, he died under sin once for all. That's what he did on the cross But then and he lives, he lives unto god. So, we look at this.

We look at the old realm and then the new realm of the kingdom. This is what happened to you when you trusted Christ as your personal savior. You died with Christ, you've been raised with Christ, now we're to walk in newness of life. That's how we can do it. I've seen people in in terms of the outward expression of what has happened to an individual.

I've seen people change before my eyes when they've trusted Christ as their savior and I've seen people that it takes, you know, it takes a while for that to be looking at, you know? I've seen people, you know, I saw, I saw a woman who was dying and she was is in Richmond Heights Hospital in Richmond Heights, Ohio. She trusted Christ. She couldn't even move her. She prayed with me.

She couldn't even move her body. I mean, she had so many tubes and everything and she was dying. And I said, would you like to receive Jesus? And she just barely perceptible nodded her head, yes. And after she prayed, I said...

I prayed with her. I said, did you pray that prayer? And she barely nodded her head. Yes. But I saw a change in her.

It was almost angelic. I mean it. I have never had a situation like that. She almost glowed. It was it was stunning to me.

35:15 What happens internally when trusting Christ

You might not have had the... The I feel good about this. None of that. You might not have had any of that. You just simply asked Jesus to be your personal savior and he saved you from your sin.

But this is what took place. You went from one dark... One kingdom to another kingdom. You passed from death unto life. Never to return to that.

You're his forever. I asked to... I talked to a kid one time in in Brooklyn, New York and he had trusted Christ as a savior in a kids meeting in Brooklyn and I said, you know, you know what happened now? He goes, what's that? I said, you're stuck with Jesus.

You're stuck. He goes, is that bad? I said, no. No. That's that's fantastic.

That is fantastic. I asked another kid one time. This is an aside. I said I said to him, I said, where is Jesus right now? I want him to...

He's in my heart, he's in my life, you know, I want him to tell me this. He looked at me and he says, he's at the right hand of the father right now. I'm going, what theology book are you reading? I'm thinking to myself, my, that is absolutely true, but where is... Oh, He's in my life.

And this is what has taken place to us. This is what has this is what has happened. We have transferred from an old kingdom, the kingdom of sin and death, to the kingdom of life, eternal. That is what happened to you. It's pretty cool.

I think that's really cool. But often times, we don't live like it. Oftentimes, we feed the old man where it just it just told us, he just told the old man has been crucified. The old man has been crucified, put to death and now he's want you're to walk in newness of life but sometimes we don't do that. We follow the old dictates of the flesh.

He is telling us to stop doing that and how does he tell us? Look at verse 11. Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto god. So, he's telling us not only to know our position in Christ but also to reckon upon it. This word, this word reckon, I love it because in the King James, I reckon it's good.

How you doing there? Friend, I always think of Annie Hilton when I say that but no, I'm only kidding. I reckon. This is where they get this from. It's an accounting term.

It means like if I'm an accountant, I'm adding up numbers from above and I'm going down and I'm adding this stuff up. Right? He is telling us to count on this to be true for you. Count on what? That you have died with Christ, you've been raised with Christ.

Now you're to walk in newness of life. Count on that. Count it up. What are you to count up? Romans one through 10.

Romans six one through 10. Add it all up. Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto god through Jesus Christ our lord. In Colossians chapter three, he tells us the... He tells the church at Colossae the exact same thing.

He tells them this, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above or Christ sit at the right hand of god. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in god. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then you shall also appear with him in glory. And then in verse five of of Colossians three, he says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.

And by the way, that's a command. Put to death. Mortification. This is where we get mortician. It talks about death.

Put to death, what? Your members which are upon the earth. That's us. That's not you, that's my arms, that's my legs, that's every every part of my being. And this is exactly what he is telling us in Romans chapter six.

Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto god through Jesus Christ our lord. He is now lord. We are in his kingdom. We are under his domination. We are never going to return to that, to that old world, that old domination, that old kingdom.

Why? Because I am born again, born into the family, into the kingship of god. So, one of the Paul says, thanks be unto god for his unspeakable gift. Praise you Lord. That's what he was saying.

40:54 Let not sin reign in your mortal body

Don't let sin reign in your body. Control your body. You have the power and the strength to do what he wants you to do. God has given that the moment you pass from death unto life. That is fantastic to me.

That is fantastic. Because how do I live the Christian life? It's not do's and don'ts. It's a life that he gives me. The moment I trust in him and the power to live in.

He changes everything. He changes my whole orientation. He changes my whole life. Everything that I am. He changes it.

Not the color of my eyes but my heart my mind Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust. Neither yield 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. Why? Why?

Because you've died with Christ. You've been raised with Christ. Now we're to walk in newness of life. Now we can say to him, help me to live that life. Give me the power, let me see that power every day.

That's why Paul writes to the book of Romans, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy unto God, which is your reasonable holy holy... Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your normal form of worship. It says reasonable service, normal form of worship. It is normal for us to present ourselves. And we are consistently to yield ourselves to him.

You might do this every moment. And this is exactly, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How do you renew your mind? By looking and counting on these things to be true for you. In other words, taking god at his word.

When you're tempted to sin, you ask god, you ask god for strength to overcome and a lot of times, he's going to tell you to flee. The promptings of the spirit of god. Get out of there. Don't hang here and then the word of god is going to tell us, don't look at this. Tells us, I I like what Job said, you know, I'm not going to put my eyes in anything sinful, Schroeder lose paraphrase.

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to look at anything that causes me to sin. I'm not going to do it. It takes discipline. But god gives you the strength to be that disciplined person.

He gives you everything you need to be that disciplined person and then he tells us in in Romans chapter six again, he said, don't let your, don't let your instruments of, don't let your arms, don't let your legs be instruments of unrighteousness. You know what he's really saying? He's saying, live like it. If I was walking down the street, I think we've used this illustration before, but if I was walking down the street in Downtown Cleveland and Andy is walking down there too. But I've got spiked heels and I've got a dress on and I've shaved my legs and I've shaved real close and put a nice little wig on.

I got a blouse and I've got this, I look really nice. A little pinch of the cheeks. If Andy saw me, I'd be six'ten by the way. And if he saw me he'd go, Chris? Oh hi, hi Andy.

It's Christine. How you doing? How's it going? He goes, Chris Schroeder? Chris?

I go, no, Christine. If he had any guts, and he does, and if he cared about me, and he does, I hope. He grabbed me by the blouse. He grabbed me by the blouse and he'd say Chris Schroeder, you're a man. Act like it.

You know what Paul is saying to us in this passage? Christian, you have died with Christ. You've been raised with Christ. He has given you the power to live the life. Now, act like it.

Act like the Christian that he has already made you. Already empowered you to be. Act like it. You're richer than you think. Ain't that true?

Notice verse 14. He's telling us to yield our bodies to obedience to... As instruments. And then notice this, for sin shall not have, and notice that word, dominion over you. Sin shall not have dominion over you.

For you are not under the law, which tells everybody how sinful you are. I mean, tells you how sinful you are. You're not under the law, but you are under grace. By the way, this word is used in the Greek under, under someone else's domination. You're not under the law.

You're not under that domination anymore, but you are under the domination of grace. Wow. Wow. It was 1916 and Hattie Green was dead. Hattie lived.

Hattie's life is a sad demonstration of what it's like to be among the living dead. When Hattie died, her estate was valued at a $100,000,000. Yet Hattie lived in poverty. She ate cold oatmeal because it cost money to heat it. When her son's leg became infected, Hattie wouldn't get it treated until she could find a clinic that wouldn't charge her anything.

By then, her son's leg had to be amputated. Hattie died arguing over the value of drinking skim milk. She had money to meet every need that she had, but she chose to live as if it didn't exist. You have been born again if you know Jesus as your savior. He's given you all everything.

And you need to mind the word of God to find out what he's given you. But we were looking at it now. You've died with Christ. You've been raised with Christ. He's given you all the power.

The spirit of God lives in you. In fact, the trinity lives within you. Let's live like it. Let's stop being paupers spiritually. Let us live in the victory that he has provided in his kingdom because we are under the domination of grace.

50:31 Prayer for understanding and blessing

Thank you for what you have done for us. Dismiss us with your blessing, pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

You're Richer than You Think — Romans 5-6

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You're Richer than You Think — Romans 5-6

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