ROM-89-150322 - length: 59:02 - taught on Mar, 22 2015
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
Whenever we are patient with those who love to take advantage of others, they see it as a sign of weakness. The church on the apostle Paul’s watch that epitomized this attitude of taking selfish advantage was the Corinthian Church. Thus Paul had to write two letters and twenty-nine chapters to them to counteract the work of false teachers in the Corinth community. Such was the suffering of Paul in Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, Verses 1 to 6…
Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the (same) meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!
Paul is attacking his critics, the false teachers and false apostles, with sarcasm…because of his patience with their falseness, they are calling him a wimp! They are saying he is bold when he is writing letters and wimpy when he is present face-to-face.
I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some (the false teachers), who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh (as if we have the same lifestyle as they do as unbelievers).
Paul is not using the weapons of the world for his warfare against false teachers…he is not using “the flesh” … he is not being slick…he is not using smooth talk or flattery…he is using spiritual weapons…like meekness…accepting it calmly when he is wronged…and gentleness…demonstrated graciousness in the face of insults. That doesn’t make him a wimp…it makes him one who agrees with the Lord Jesus Christ about how to handle a thing.
For though we walk in the flesh (a human body), we do not war according to the flesh (using the sin which indwells us to handle our problems)…
…for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
Christians count on silly weapons like prayer and the omnipotence of God to fight our wars.
We are destroying (with a full demolition) speculations (arguments) and every lofty thing (every pretension) raised up against the (accurate) knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…
Paul wanted to get people to agree with the Lord Jesus Christ’s thoughts…
That is what he sought…that is what I seek…every week when we come here, I want you to hear the Lord’s thoughts and to obey them.
…and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
First, Paul’s job was to secure the obedience of the believers in Corinth. When he had done so, his next job was to deal harshly with those who were trying to tear the church apart. Paul did his job when they changed their minds.
There are some among us who have an “I agree-I disagree” approach to learning. When they are talking to you and you say something they agree with, they say, “I agree.” When you say something they don’t agree with, they say, “I disagree.” What they are saying is that they like what you are saying to the degree that it is in line with what they believe…in line with what they want to hear. If you offer something that is different than what is already in their thought repertoire, they reject it … “I disagree.” This is a dangerous approach to bring to the study of the Word of God. As Christians, we are to learn and to agree with EVERYTHING the Lord tells us in His Word. The “I agree-I disagree” approach to learning is something worthy of a full demolition. If you have it, it’s holding you back.
Welcome to a place where I have the same job as Paul…to offer you the opportunity to fully obey Christ’s thoughts, while putting to rout the lying speculations and approaches of God’s enemy and His kingdom of death, all of which are designed to destroy you.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
He Remembers to Forget
Let’s listen to June Murphy sing the opening song…HE REMEMBERS TO FORGET.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful to you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Teach us to follow your strategy, and to fully agree with the tactics that are part of your overall plan for our lives.
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s
name...Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
Do You Do the Things You Know?
The first eleven verses of Romans, Chapter 6 are strategic. They tell you about a lifestyle…they direct you in the Christian walk…the Christian Way of Living. In Romans, Chapter 6, Verses 12 to 14, we are instructed on what to do with our newfound knowledge concerning this lifestyle. Then in the final verses of the chapter, Romans, Chapter 6, Verses 15 to 23, we take a look at some of the tactical considerations of the Christian walk...and we get a few warnings about the consequences of a casual approach to the Christian walk in light of the fact that you have an enemy working on you from the outside and from the inside, who wants to destroy you, and everything that is precious to you. We’ll talk about what strategy is and what tactics are a little later. But for now, let’s just see how the Lord outlined Romans Chapter 6 for us, and let’s understand what He wanted to get across.
ROMANS CHAPTER 6
Outline
PART 1 VERSES 1 to 11
God’s Strategy Designed for You
The Christian Way of Living
PART 2 VERSES 12 to 14
The Do’s and Don’ts of
the Christian Way of Living
PART 3 VERSES 15 to 23
God’s Tactical Suggestions for You
With this outline in mind, let’s examine Romans, Chapter 6…and let’s transition into Part Two of the chapter…Verses 12 to 14. Let’s start at the end of Romans, Chapter 5, and then move into Romans, Chapter 6…all of this to remind you of the context of our study…
The principle of Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…
…so that, as sin reigned as sovereign in death (while we were unbelievers), even so grace would allow believers to reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What shall we believers in Christ say then? Are we to continue in sin (as a lifestyle) so that grace may increase?
May it never be! How shall we believers in Christ (such ones as we…spiritual royalty…the children of a King), who died to sin (as an established and irrevocable fact at the moment of our salvation), still live in sin (as a lifestyle as if sin is still our master)?
Or do you not know (are you ignorant of the established and irrevocable fact) that all of us who have been baptized into (union with) Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore (all of the above things being true) we have been buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (so we might walk in a new lifestyle…the resurrection lifestyle).
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, and we have, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection…
…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin…
…for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, and we have, we believe that we shall also live with Him (in the resurrection life…right now)…
…knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God the Father.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God the Father in union with Christ Jesus.
PART 2
Therefore (all of the above things being true) do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts…
…and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead would present themselves, and present your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
PART 3
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either a slave of sin resulting in death, or a slave of obedience resulting in righteousness?
But thanks be to God the Father that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed (the gospel message)…
…and having been freed from sin (we died to sin), you became slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God the Father is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s talk a five-minute break and we’ll see what the Lord has to say to us about the next section.
BREAK
Indescribable
Welcome back!
When you hear the word strategy, what do you think of? Most people think “long term.” Actually, strategy is the thing you do for distinctive advantage.
STRATEGY
The thing you do for distinctive advantage
For example, Apple counts on customer intimacy for distinctive advantage. While other companies in Apple’s competitive space boast of how great their products are…Samsung would be an example…Apple counts on providing an amazing customer experience…the coolness of the products, their ease of use, the Apple Stores which bring generations together…a grandfather getting taught technology by a grandson…the packaging of the products…it’s amazing to see the care with which Apple wraps its products…it’s almost fun opening them.
As human beings, we look for a distinctive advantage in our spiritual life. The objective of every creature that comes to this earth should be singular…
THE CREATURE’S LIFE OBJECTIVE
To be saved before physical death
The creature’s life strategy is very simple…CHRIST. John, Chapter 14, Verses 6…
Jesus said to doubting Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through believing in Me.
When any creature believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, He is saved. In the matter of salvation…in the matter of being saved…Christ is the strategic advantage…Christ is the only advantage…the first eleven verses of Romans, Chapter 6 highlight this lifestyle…it is the acceptance of a lifestyle of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, in grace, overlooks our faults, overlooks our mistakes, overlooks our total depravity, and overlooks our sins, because He was willing to suffer the wrath of God the Father on your behalf by taking on the consequences of your sin…and the Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY acceptable payment for sin in the eyes of God the Father. In the Father’s eyes, His Son is the only sin substitute.
Well we had a few verses from the first passage to finish…beginning at
Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 8…
Now if we believers in Christ have died with Christ, and we have, we
believe that we shall also live with Him (living in the resurrection life in this
world)…
We don’t just live with the Lord for all eternity…we live with Him now on the earth, in the kingdom of death.
Often, Christians believe that because they have believed in Christ…because they are dead to sin…because they died with Christ at the Cross…that their lives with Him on earth ought to be a bed of roses. Perhaps that would be true were it not for the fact that God has an enemy. John, Chapter 12, Verse 31…
Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out (dethroned).
John, Chapter 16, Verse 11…
…and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
If we share Christ’s death…we share His resurrection life. Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 9…
…knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
First we believe…then we know.
Because of the Cross, death no longer has dominion over Christ…sin no longer has dominion over Christ like it did for the three hours when He paid for the sins of the whole world on the Cross…He lives a resurrection life in a resurrection body…we live a resurrection life in a mortal body…and in the future we will be given a resurrection body. Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 10…
For the death that Christ died, He died unto sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God the Father.
Even so, believers in Christ, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God the Father in union with Christ Jesus.
Do you consider yourselves to have the lifestyle that the Lord is describing through Paul in the first eleven verses? Do you know this lifestyle of grace? Are you doing it? Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 21…
God the Father made Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God the Father in union with Him.
Our righteousness is because of CHRIST not because of us. Because of our union with Christ we have become what He is…you must be “born again” means you must be dead to Adam. The New Man is not a polished Old Man…it is an alive New Man, given to you after your Old Man was put to death by God. No one who remains “in (the first) Adam” will be saved…only those “in union with the Last Adam” … Christ…will be saved. Christ is the way! First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 45…
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
We are to forget the things that are behind, and to reach forward to what lies ahead. Christ is our lifestyle for salvation…Christ gives us a lifestyle called the Christian Way of Living. Now that we have a strategy, what are the day-to-day things we must do? The second passage in Romans, Chapter 6 gives us the action instructions. We KNOW what God has provided. How well do we DO the things we know?
The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ
are Guarantees!
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.//But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren (other believers) who are in the world.
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,//casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
CLOSING SONG
How Great You Are
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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