Reigning in Life - Part 4 — Alan Martin

Experiencing God Rather Than Merely Studying About Him

Let's ask the Lord to help us again in prayer. If you would, just join with me. Father, once again, we ask Your help to steer us away from studying about You. We need to experience You. We need Your manifest presence.

The Effectual Work of the Word and Prayer

We need to experience the life-giving, transforming work of Your Spirit. We need Your Word in us to be effectual. You said Your Word effectually works in those who believe. And You said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

And the last thing we want to do is we don't want to have a form of godliness and not know You in power. And we believe that You minister, that You work. We know You want all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

And every person here with me that has already experienced Your salvation, we thank You. And now, Lord, finish what You've begun in us. Bring us into the full knowledge of the truth. To know You is truth.

To know Your Word is truth. And we don't want to just know it intellectually. We want to know You experientially. We want to know You in how You work in our hearts. We want our families to see it. We want our friends to see Your work.

We want our co-workers to see Your work. We want the evidence of Your presence in our life to produce that which brings You honor and glory. And for that reason, we ask for Your help in the ministering of Your Word so that we can experience the sanctification of Your Word.

Christ's Prayer for Sanctification and Protection

When Your Son was upon the earth, He prayed to You to keep His disciples from the evil one. He didn't ask You to take them out of the world. He just asked You to protect them from the evil one. And then He followed that by asking You to sanctify them by the truth.

Your Word is truth. And I ask again this morning that for Your disciples, Father, You'd sanctify them by the truth. That they'd receive the love of the truth. That they'd continue in the truth so they could really be free.

And we just ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. I mentioned last week in this part of Joshua here, this is the Israelites are about to go into Canaan. And I love to associate this with our need to persevere into entering the rest of Christ and experiencing the promises that God has made.

Entering Christ's Rest and the Promises of God

Because once again, no matter how many promises God has made, in Christ Jesus, every one of them is yes and amen. So the promise to live and rest, the promise for an abundance of joy and peace, the promise for the peace of Christ guarding your hearts and minds, the promise of being kept in that perfect peace, the promise to know joy unspeakable and full of glory, it's all yes in Christ.

That has to be entered in and laid hold of. And here is the actual generation having crossed the Jordan River under the leadership of Joshua. And the first thing they do, it says here in chapter 5, is in verse 2, at that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again a second time.

Because it appears that the unbelieving generation that died in the wilderness had not circumcised their children. And I made this statement last week, and I hope you hear and understand it. If you're walking in the flesh yourself, your children are never going to get circumcised because of your ministry.

If you've not been circumcised spiritually in your own heart, you're not going to lead your children into that. And so this generation didn't lead their children into circumcision. So they needed to undergo circumcision again before they went and started taking possession of the promised land.

The Lord wanted them circumcised, so He had Joshua circumcise Israel. And He said to them here when He had done that, in verse 9, then the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

The Reproach of Living as Slaves

Now, and I mentioned last week, and I didn't have time to dwell on it, but I just wanted to mention it again. What's the reproach of Egypt? What's the reproach of Egypt? That the sons of Yisra, which is the Hebrew word for prince, the sons of Yisrael, the sons of the prince of God were living as slaves.

And were so powerless that the Egyptians could come to them, take their sons, and throw them to the crocodiles without them doing anything about it. Except mourning. That's a reproach. When the sons of God live as slaves, that's a reproach.

So, we need that rolled away from our lives. And how does that relate to us today? How this relates to us today is it does deal with, we've been talking about the fact that God is able to make all grace abound to us.

Grace Reigning Over Sin

That where sin abounded, grace abounded, let's say it together, more. You think sin is powerful, sin has no power compared to grace. The Bible says where sin abounded, grace abound all the more. Sin used to reign in death, now grace reigns in righteousness.

Sin made us all like Adam. The grace of God given us in Christ is going to make us all like Christ. Christ is the last Adam. He is the head of the new race, the race of the righteous, godly, obedient people that God is calling to Himself on the earth now.

And all of this grace is already given us in Christ. Because Christ is the grace of God. It's not just a concept, it is everything God has done for us He has done in Christ already. And so to lay hold of this grace, we talked about it, turn with me to Romans 5, that's where we've been for about three weeks now, talking about if you want to reign in life, you'll see here verse 17 of Romans chapter 5, if you really know the grace of God that's at work in Christ, you'll experience reigning in life, in this life.

Verse 17 of Romans chapter 5, if by the trespass of the one man does reign through the one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

And I've mentioned to you that when you see the term those who receive or whosoever in the Greek, that's almost always a present participle. The ones receiving the abundant provision of grace are going to reign in life.

And we've mentioned again, most of you probably know already about the gift of righteousness. That's important for you to know that. But receiving the gift of righteousness and receiving God's abundant provision of grace are two different things.

Are you now today, daily, receiving God's abundant provision of grace? Because if you are, this is the effect it has. And I'm going to show you that the effect this will have is that you will undergo a spiritual circumcision where your flesh is gone.

The Grace of God and Temptation

Because I know that's the big issue that most people wonder about. Yes, I know that the grace of God is given us in Christ. None of us would argue with the Scripture. We know that the Spirit's been made available.

We know that God won't let us be tempted above what we're able to bear. But with every single temptation, He'll provide a way of escape. First, we know that. But there does come a question in our mind, but what about the flesh?

Good question. Good question. Because we must deal with it that the flesh is not a problem when you undergo the real work of God in Christ. I'll show you this in Romans. Follow with me here in the end of Romans 5.

Romans 5–6 and the Actual Change of Life

Let's start in verse 19. We're going to read right through Romans 6. Quite a bit into the chapter 2. But starting with Romans 5 .19. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners...

And again, we talked about that. Oh, you know what that's like. You know what it's like to have been made sinners. When you're a sinner, what do you practice? What do you do all the time? That's what sinners do.

Okay, so in that same way, in that same way, because you're not just a sinner without practice. You're not really a righteous person that God just calls a sinner, are you? Are you sure? Because that's how a lot of people interpret the next verse.

I mean, the verse following it. It says, for just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man, many will be made righteous. Well, if you want to believe that God will call you righteous even though you're still a sinner, then you really should believe.

What's wrong with believing you're still righteous? God just calls you a sinner. No, He calls you a sinner because you actually sin. But He will make you righteous because you'll actually obey. That in the same way that you actually sin, you will actually be made righteous through the grace that's at work in Christ.

So, in verse 20, But the law was added, so that trespass might increase, but where sin increased, not a problem, is it? Grace increased all the more. Sin is not our problem. So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Okay, now, and if there's any question in your mind that Paul was not talking about an actual stopping of sin, an actual change of practice, change of pace, and a completely different life, he goes straight in.

There probably shouldn't be chapter marks. That was man-made. If they're in there, we deal with them. If there wasn't a number six there, we'd read it right on like the next verse in the letter. So let's back up and read just to make sure you understand He's not talking about some just superficial judicial thing.

He's talking about an actual change of practice. I'll read verse 21 again. And I'll read right into chapter 6 then. So then, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? What's the answer there? God forbid. Now, how does Paul deal with sin? Now you know how a lot of people in my... I'm just... this is an honest...

The Death of the Old Man

I don't know what percentage out there in the world is. I get in trouble sometimes making statements that are unsupportable. And the Lord's helping me with that and I have to deal with that. You can pray for me in that.

But I've heard a lot people say, come on, how can you stop sinning? That's what I've heard most of my life. How can you stop sinning? But how does Paul deal with it? What does Paul say? Paul deals with it, how can you keep sinning?

That's how he deals with it. Why can't we deal with it like Paul? Come on guys, how can you keep on sinning? If grace is reigning in righteousness. That's how Paul deals with it. We shouldn't be asking, what do you mean, how can we stop sinning?

We should be asking, how can we keep sinning? That's the question we need to... That's actually the question that needs to be asked. And if you understand the work of circumcision God does on the flesh, you'll see how this is possible.

Because we do need to come to the place where we experience spiritual circumcision and that's where we're headed. Let's read on in this chapter. Shall we keep on sinning that grace may increase? By no means.

We died to sin. How can we still live in it? We can't still live in sin. Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live...

What? A new life. Now, is he talking about in heaven? No, we don't know that. That's part of it. We may live a new life here. And we know that that includes here because we know what Paul taught and also in Jude wrote, Titus says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly, righteously, and godly.

And then he adds, in this present life. So we're talking that we may live a new life here. Not with sin reigning anymore, but grace reigning in righteousness. So verse 5. If we've been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.

Now, would y 'all read... This will be an interesting event with so many versions. Let's all read out loud at the same time. Don't worry about it. It'll sound scrambled. We'll unscramble here in a minute.

Verse 6. Would you all read verse 6 with me out loud? For we know that our old self... That's about how clear we understand it. Right there. That's about how clear we understand these kind of spiritual implications.

You know, we all have our own way of reading it. And we all have our own way of thinking about it. But I want to deal with it because we must deal with the flesh right here. Who was crucified? Read that verse again.

Just who was crucified? Our old man. Now, wait a minute. Is your old man still living? Do crucified men still live? They don't. Well, then why do we talk about the old man as if he's still alive? If you've been united with Christ, you've been united into the death of Christ, your old man has been crucified.

Then you might be thinking, well, then what's been causing me the problem? You know, you don't have to have an old man to be tempted. Christ was tempted. Did He have an old man? He suffered when He was tempted.

Did He have an old man? No. You're still going to be subject to temptation. You're still going to suffer because of your temptation. You're still weak in your natural self. But your old man? Gone. Crucified.

Why? And He goes on to say, for our old man has been crucified so that the body of sin might be done away with. Some versions say, render powerless. The Greek word is kata-a-ergon. It's a combination of the word kata, according to, or down, the prefix a, which is a negative, and ergon is to work.

It's basically saying, your old man's been disemployed, laid off, not working anymore. Gone. And it happened when you were united with Christ through death. Baptized into His death. So your old man, crucified, rendered powerless.

Disemployed. You're not serving Him anymore. You're not working for Him anymore. He's been laid off. He's been fired. And it says that, so that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Have you died? The Bible says if you've been united with Christ into His death, you've been, let's read on what Paul says. Here it says, verse 8. Now if we died with Christ, I guess that's the question.

Did you die with Christ? Are you still alive? Your old man's still running around? Or are you dead? You can't have it both ways. If your old man is still running around, and he's still in charge, you haven't died with Christ yet.

Which is true. If you're in Christ, you're going to see what's happening. What the Scripture says has happened to your old man.

It's appointed unto a man to die once. If we can have the choice to die now, here, and be risen in Christ,.

Later we'll be done for. Wouldn't it be, wouldn't it be said that those who have believed have crossed over already, haven't they? From what? Death to life. And they've done that by faith. By being united with Christ into His baptism into death.

And it goes on here, verse 8. Thank you, Ron. Now if we die with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. But we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He can't die again. Death no longer has mastery over Him.

I mean, if He conquered death once, there's no point in death trying to control Him again. He's already proven He's stronger than death. The death He died, He died to sin. The death He died, He died to sin once and for all.

Now if you've been united with Him, what death have you died? If you've been united into His death, you've died to sin. Your old man is rendered powerless. It's been crucified with Christ, and it's disemployed.

Sin's no longer your master. Now grace is your master, and it's working in you a different work. The death He died, He died to sin once and for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. And here's where last week's message ties in with this one.

Because last week, those of you who were here, we said that the righteous shall live by faith, and some versions say from first to last. But last week's message was titled, Out of Faith, Unto Faith. Expistuo, ice, piston, or pisto.

Out of faith, unto faith. And here's where it is right here. What does it tell us to do? When Paul says, this is what Christ did. Christ died to sin. Those of you who were in Christ, were united into His death, through baptism into death.

The death He died, He died to sin. The life He lives, He lives to God. Now there's a response from us. What's the response? In the same way, what are we to do? We're to reckon ourselves dead to sin. You know what he says?

In the same way, this is the same word for accounting. Reckoning. It's an accounting term. Look, He's given you the facts. The facts is, Christ has conquered death. The facts is, the death He died, He died to sin.

The fact is, you've been united with Him to His death. Add those things up. Your old man's rendered powerless. It was crucified with Christ. Sin's not your master. Grace is. Add it up. And you know what it's supposed to add up to?

You're dead to sin. That's what it adds up to. Reckon yourself to be dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus. That's what it adds up to. In the same way, count yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. And don't offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

Crucifying the Flesh and Walking by the Spirit

And offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness, for sin shall not be your master because you're not under law, but under grace. You know, when it says that your old man has been crucified, let's look and see where Paul said that on another occasion.

Turn with me to Galatians 5. The reason I'm speaking this this morning and the reason it fits in the series of messages that the Lord has had on my heart to share with you is because the way to really lay hold of reigning in life is appropriating the abundance of grace.

Well, the grace of God, He set men free from sin. And Christ delivered us from sin and the power of the old man. Here in Galatians 5, read with me verse 24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have done what?

Well, again, unless you have a different understanding of crucifixion than I do, do crucified people get up and live? Then is your sinful nature alive? Is it alive or is it crucified? I mean, which is it?

What are you going to go by? Your experience? Does your experience tell you that your old man is alive? Well, then you haven't come to the place like Israel needed to come to and you need to come to the place where you leave your flesh behind once and for all before you really begin to lay hold and appropriate all the promises of God in Christ.

Israel didn't begin to really take hold of the promised land until they laid their flesh aside. And we are not really going to lay hold of all the grace that there is for us in Christ until once and for all, by faith, we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, put our flesh away, and walk by the Spirit the rest of the time.

That's appropriating the grace of God that's in Christ. Because if you're really Christ, you've crucified the flesh. It says again, the body of sin has been rendered powerless and we're no longer slaves of sin.

Circumcision of the Heart

Now another place that this is seen, look in Romans chapter 2. Look back to Romans chapter 2. Because circumcision is just kind of a picture and this is going to talk about circumcision. Remember I asked last week, because the things written in the past are types and shadows for us, what is actually circumcised from a male?

Usually it's everyone or an infant, but what is it just basically? It's just flesh. It's just a piece of flesh. So that's why this is pictured. There is a flesh that we need to be circumcised from, but it's not covering that part of our body, it's covering this part right here.

We need to be circumcised right here. Right there. Look what it says here in Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, verse 28. A man is not a Jew if he's only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

No. A man is a Jew if he's one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Now this is beautiful. Listen to me. Follow this. Remember what we said earlier, what we've been talking about for weeks?

Deuteronomy's Promise of Heart Circumcision

No matter how many promises God has made, they are all what? Yes in Christ. Listen to this precious promise. You don't need to turn there, but in Deuteronomy chapter 30, this is a promise that God made, and this is one of those things that are yes and amen in Christ.

Here's what God told Israel. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. And it says, He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers, and the Lord God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants forever.

The Lord God will circumcise. Do you want to experience this? You want to experience circumcision of the heart? Guess where circumcision of the heart can only take place? If it's one of the promises of God, the only place you can guarantee to receive the promises of God are in Christ.

And in Christ, the old flesh is crucified. The body of sin is rendered powerless. You are no longer slaves to sin. As a matter of fact, in Colossians chapter 2, turn to Colossians chapter 2, Paul states this again.

Fullness in Christ and Freedom from Captivity

Yeah, both places. Colossians chapter 2, and I'm going to start in verse 6. Colossians chapter 2 verse 6,. So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness.

And then it says, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends upon human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than Christ. Can I exhort us, beware no one takes you captive because you've heard things like, well, you're just always going to deal with the old nature.

Beware of that kind of teaching. That's not what Paul taught. That's not what is true according to the Scripture. According to the Scripture, the question is, how can you keep on sinning? Your old man's been crucified.

You've been united with Christ until his death. That's the truth of Scripture. Don't let anyone take you captive by a fine-sounding argument. Believe the truth. Reckon yourself to be dead to sin and alive unto God.

Don't let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Let grace reign in your body. And the results of that are going to be righteousness. It says in verse 9,. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

And you've been given fullness in Christ who's the head of every power, authority. And in Him you were also... what? Are you in Him? Well, choose you this day where you are. You still got your old man running around controlling you?

I don't know if I'd want to say that. Because those who are in Him have been circumcised. In Him you were circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature. Now, most of the time, I think, what do we describe putting off?

You know what that means? You still have something on that you put off? Well, then we need to stop claiming we have an old nature. We need to stop saying we're still troubled by the flesh. You'll still have trouble without the flesh.

Adam had trouble, didn't he? He had no flesh, except the natural man. Christ had no sinful flesh. He suffered when He was tempted. As long as you and I live in this world, we'll be tempted. It's going to be difficult.

We're going to groan. Paul says as long as we live in this tent of the body, we groan. We're weak in our natural selves. But that doesn't mean we have some old sinful nature controlling us. Because in Christ, we've been circumcised with that thing.

And once you really come to reckon yourselves dead to that, you're going to start entering the promised land of Christ. You're going to start taking care of business and putting to death those things that belong to your natural life.

And you're going to start going from victory to victory like Joshua did. From faith to faith. From glory to glory. And you're going to start reckoning yourselves to be dead to sin. And the real question is not going to be can we ever stop sinning?

The question is how could I have kept on sinning so long? How could I have been tricked so long and robbed of all the grace that God has given us in Christ? That's where we need to be. In Him you were also circumcised into putting off of the sinful nature.

Not with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ. Having been buried with Him in baptism. Where did we just read it? That's Romans 6. See, when you're buried with Him in baptism to death, Paul said, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless.

I'd call it pretty well powerless if it's cut off of you and thrown away. Wouldn't you? I'd call that put off. Wouldn't you? Then let's stop acting like it's not there and reckon ourselves to be dead to that old thing.

And alive to God in Christ. You know what? It's pretty important that we do. It's pretty important that we do. Let me read you this verse. If you want to turn there, it's in Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 25 and 26.

Circumcision in the Heart and Knowing God

Jeremiah chapter 9. Read with me verse 25. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all who are circumcised only where? What's He saying in that? The days are coming where I'm going to punish everyone who's not circumcised in the heart.

If you've not been circumcised in the heart, you're going to get punished by God. He's going to punish all who are not circumcised in their heart. He's going to punish all who don't really know His Son.

Because if you know Jesus Christ, your body's dead to sin. The old man has been rendered powerless. And it's time for you and I, in Christ, just like the death, he died, he died to sin, we're to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And that experience is cutting off this old flesh, throwing it away and beginning to live by the Spirit. Now, this is maybe one of the shorter messages I've shared. I just want you to turn to see how critical this is and how it fulfills God's promises in a beautiful way.

Abraham's Covenant and the Sign of Circumcision

Turn to Genesis chapter 17. I believe this will be the last Scripture we turn to. Genesis chapter 17. Abraham is called... What is Abraham called? Father in the faith. Abraham is called our father in the faith.

And the Bible says we have been blessed by being included in the covenant God made with Abraham. And I'll show you that. Don't leave Genesis chapter 17. Let me just show you where it says that God included us in that covenant with Abraham.

What it says of Abraham in this passage is, therefore the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.

He is our father. All of us in the sight of God. And it says that the words that were credited to him as righteousness were credited not to him alone, but to us whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

So we're included in this covenant with Abraham. And I want you to look at this covenant as it pertains to getting rid of our flesh. Okay? Let's see that in chapter 17 of Genesis. Abraham is 99 years old there in verse 1.

And the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I'll confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. So the Lord brings him into this covenant.

Verse 6 says, I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you. Kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Then he tells him something. Verse 11. Well, I'll go ahead and read verse 9. I don't need to skip that much. Then God said to Abraham, As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your generations after you, for the generations to come.

Now would that include us? Would we be in the generations to come? Absolutely we would. This is my covenant. Verse 10. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you. The covenant you are to keep.

Every male among you shall be what? Circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision and it will be the sign of the covenant. The covenant was made to Abraham by the promise of God. God said, I have chosen you, I have called you, I have blessed you.

That's by grace. But you know what the sign of that covenant is? The sign of that covenant is you've been circumcised. Have you and I been circumcised? See, that's the sign of the covenant that we really have entered into the covenant of Abraham, the man of faith.

Christ as the Seed of Abraham

Because the promise about Abraham receiving a son, who did Paul say that son really was? The seed. Remember he says the law was put into effect into the seed to whom the promise referred should come. Who's that seed?

Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham. And those who are in Christ have crucified their flesh with his passion and lust. The body of sin has been rendered powerless so that we're no longer slaves of sin.

Crossing Into the Promised Land by Faith

And what I want us to just go through is I think we need to as believers, we need to come just like Israel did and if you would in your hearts with me, would you take a little journey with me? Would you cross over?

Would you cross over with me to the place just like Israel did? Let's enter into the promised land. Let's get out of the wilderness. Let's cross Jordan, enter into the promised land and reckon ourselves dead to sin.

Just like Christ. Count the old man gone. Put away. Rendered powerless. Fired. Unemployed. And now there, Christ is reigning in grace. Lay that flesh aside. Throw it off. And begin to walk by the Spirit.