From Death To DominionFinishing up Romans 5 today with verses 15-21

Power in the name. Healing in the name. Breakthrough in the name. Deliverance in that name. Joy is in the name. Peace is in the name. Just call on the name. Your name is Jesus. Jesus. Your name is Jesus. G, come on, just sing his name. Jesus. Your name is Jesus. Jesus.

Jesus.

Good morning, good morning! Happy Wednesday to everybody. How's everybody doing? I'm mute this morning. Tell me how your day's going.

I just was— I was just reminded that, uh, this Sunday we spring forward, so it's literally the worst day of the year.

Okay, literally. Wow, what a Debbie Downer! What is this?

An hour of sleep?

Praise the Lord! Are my eyes playing tricks on me? You know who I'm looking at, Caleb Spiller, right? I was just gonna say, my goodness, Mr. Spiller!

Good to see everyone.

Can we call him a heathen for being gone so long?

Jump on Bible study just to, just to see some of my friends.

What's happening?

The world famous speaker, Mr. Caleb Spittler.

Good to see everybody.

Yeah, man, uh, talking in front of big, big crowds, big stages. Um, I won't ask you to unmute today because I'll probably have to send a check because I know your, your wisdom and, uh, I, I know your value of the, the words you speak and the wisdom you have.

His agent's on here monitoring, right?

Yeah, I mean, I've probably said enough where I will send you an invoice for just a little bit.

No, good stuff. If you don't know Caleb, uh, Caleb, dear friend of mine, and, um, has often, uh, been on these Wednesday mornings— hasn't been for a while, but, um, teaching, um teaching the word of God, pouring out his wisdom. So, um, yeah, man, absolutely, at any part, you know how this goes, hop in, jump in, and just pour out your wisdom upon us all. I am currently in Findlay, Ohio today and, uh, ready to get home from Findlay, Ohio. Uh, get home a little bit later this afternoon, just changed my flight to get home a little bit earlier. Some thunderstorms coming into Texas that are supposed to last like 3 days and Um, that airport shuts down pretty quickly with the bad weather down at DFW, so get home late this afternoon. Uh, but it's been a great trip. Um, and it's always a good day on a Wednesday morning, get to spend time with my family of faith. I am going to, um, not shamelessly plug, but really invite you guys, if you are in the Dallas area on March 14th, that's a week from Saturday, uh, Rylee and I, we are speaking at a conference at Troy Brewer's church, Open Door Church. And not just speaking, we're kind of doing the conference. Troy is in a series right now about kingship, and he called up Rylee and, uh, hey, uh, send me all the notes you have from, from, from your books about kingship. So I'm sure Rylee sent him like a Google Drive folder of like 1,000 pages on kingship. Um, not that Troy Brewer needs any help with preaching by any means, but he said we need King's Council down here, let's do a one-day conference. So, um, and that was like a week and a half ago he said that. So put it together. Um, just put the registration link in the chat. There's actually quite a few people flying in for this that I know. If you fly in, you'll get the VIP treatment as part of these Wednesday morning for sure, but it's going to be an awesome day. And just anything that— whether Rylee and I are speaking or not, just anything that's done at that church is done well, and they just love the Lord, and worship is going to be awesome. So with that said, we are going to continue our journey through the book of Romans. Last week we only did, um, what was it really? Only 5 verses last week, but you know how we go, we, we move as the Spirit leads. And but I am confident we're going to finish chapter 5 today. Um, chapter 5, I mean, the whole book of Romans is so rich that it's so— there's so much theological doctrine in the book of Romans. And not that you should just kind of breeze through any book of the Bible, Uh, but Romans is definitely a book to take your time with and just truly, um, just graze on the word of God and chew the cud and let it fully digest. So we'll, we'll cover these— this last passage here at Romans 5, starting at verse 12. Therefore— and obviously, if we're starting with therefore, we need to know what it's there for. Uh, we covered last week, uh, one of the, the greatest scriptures in my, my eyes, one of my favorite scriptures, which I tend to say every Wednesday morning. But in Romans 5:8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It was just remarkable verse, a remarkable statement, uh, such a true statement. And I— we talked a little bit last week when Jesus, as he was with the cross on his back, beaten, bruised, battered, mocked, ridiculed, as he was taking his final steps before he hung on a cross, died for our sins, he was thinking about you. He was thinking about me. He knew there may have been times you hated him. He knew how rebellious you would be. He knew how rebellious I would be. Yet out of the love he had for us, he still died for us. So therefore—

come on, Christian, you got through one word, man, one word, and then 5 minutes of preaching. You could do this. I believe in you.

We're gonna stop right there. We're gonna stop it there for today and really dissect and really dive into the therefore. I love it. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned, For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was— is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift of the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. That's the, the first of three times Paul's going to mention much more in this passage. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For it is By one man's disobedient— disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, we've talked about how Paul has written this as if he's like legal counsel, and he's making his case for one and convincing all of humanity that we are all sinners, that we all fall short of the glory of God, and the punishment for that sin is the wrath of God. It's death. Yet we're justified by our faith. God imputes his righteousness to all men through our faith in Jesus. And here Paul is laying out the two men that we, we could live our lives in. We could live in Adam, or we could live in Christ. And Living in Adam, um, just simply means living apart from Christ. There's a couple areas in scripture where it's clearly defined that you fall into one of two categories, right? A simple one is like Jew or Gentile. Either Jewish or you're not, right? So you're one of the two. John lays out in 1 John that, um, you're a child of either God or you're a child of the devil. Right? It's one or the other. And here Paul is saying that we live our lives in one man, one or the other. It's either in Adam or it's in Christ. And Adam is a type of Christ, not a typical type of Christ where we would see like, like Joseph in the Old Testament, Joshua, uh, as a type of Christ. Uh, he's more a type of Christ just simply in the fact that through— by one man's actions, all, all the rest of humanity was affected. Through one man's actions of Jesus Christ, all of humanity was affected. So that's how he's a type, but he's somewhat of an anti-type because through Adam's actions, um, all men are affected as far as we are born with the sinful nature. And of course And ultimately what Paul is sharing here and what's like the heart of this passage is, is that what Adam ruined for all of us, Christ redeemed. What was lost with Adam is now redeemed and restored through Jesus Christ. And God has blessed us with the gift of volition. We have the power to choose. We can live our lives in Adam, and a lot of people find that, that life in Adam where you're seeking to fulfill the desires of the flesh, seeking fulfillment in any which way the world says you could be fulfilled. All the ways that I tried, maybe you tried to, to seek fulfillment, and maybe you get that, that high, maybe you get that rush, maybe you get a little temporary fulfillment. But, um, for myself, and I'm sure everybody else, when you're not filled with Jesus, with the Spirit of God, any high that, that you have, it doesn't last very long. Usually when you come down from that high— and I'm not just talking about a high from a drug, whatever it is that gives us that rush, that excitement, that fulfillment— it comes down. And when we come down, we come down a little bit lower than where we started. What do we do? We seek to fulfill, seek to fulfill, and we get that rush. We, we fulfill that desire of the flesh, and we, and we do for that short term, and then we come lower and lower. And anything that the world offers us just tends to leave us emptier and emptier. And it's a blessing that that's the case, right? Because if we, if we did actually find sustaining—

amen.

Amen, Daniel Walker. If we did find any, anything of the world that actually sustained us, right, why would we seek a Savior? Why would we seek the true, um, the true remedy for, for all? The true remedy for all. Now, in this passage here, Paul, he mentions, you know, the, the fall of man spread sin to all mankind. And again, that's how Adam is the type— is a type of Christ. Through one, one man's actions, one man's decision, the rest of humanity was affected. Now, interestingly enough, as, as death entered through the, the fall of Adam and death spread to all, and every grave that we see is evidence of that, right? Uh, people die. But when we die, you know, um, a dear friend of mine passed away last week. Um, her son, who is a younger guy just in his 30s— she was only 56, she died of ALS— and she got sick and it was a rough couple years, and, and the Lord called her home. She had a— her and her son had such a remarkable testimony. They got saved on the same day in 2015, and they weren't together. Like, God radically showed up in their lives on the exact same day, like close to the very same moment, and they both surrendered to the Lord the very same day. And it was just remarkable. And, um, I watched her funeral on YouTube. They had like a video link of it. And for those of us who are in Christ, when physical death comes, man, it's hard. There's grieving, there's mourning. We have emotions. There's sorrow, there's loss, there's heartache. But even as I was tearing up watching my friend Matthew, um, just share, share some words about his mom— and he and his mother were as close as you could possibly be— there was just that this peace, and there's still this rejoicing. Because when we pass from this earth, we're, we're not, you know, you could say, yeah, I, my body died on this day. Your tombstone could have that, that the birth year, the dash, and the year you die. But we never die. We never die. When we're born again, we're never going to die. And it's just remarkable. It's like a simple concept in Christianity, in this faith, that we become born again, we become children of God. But the idea of that just still is unfathomable to me, that, that, that God could be that good when I was so bad and so rebellious and hated him so much, that his grace abounded much more than my sin did. And there's no death for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, in, uh, kind of prepping this message, I came across, um, very interesting article. And in 1926, the Minnesota Crime Commission, they, they put out a statement as to the reason for why the crime rate was going up.. And when you hear this, I'm going to quote this paragraph here. And when you, when you hear it, you're going to say, wow, that sounds very biblical. They seem to have a pretty good biblical grasp of this concept of depravity. So in 1926, the Minnesota Crime Commission— now you'll never see a government agency put out a statement that sounds anything like this, but in 1926 The Minnesota Crime Commission said, every baby starts life as a little savage. He's completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it—his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toy, his uncle's watch. Deny these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. This means that all children, not just certain children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free rein to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child will grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist. Now, you never hear any government agency say anything like that today. But when you hear that, it's like, wow, they— that, that's biblical depravity right there. That depravity is the, the term we use to, to describe our condition. And what does that mean? It just means we're marked by corruption in this fallen nature that we have. We're marked for corruption. We're marked to sin. And I've said it plenty of times, and anybody who has children, you know this. You don't have to teach a kid to say no, right? You don't have to teach a kid how to talk back. You don't have to teach a kid how to bite somebody. They're born little savages, right? As cute and precious as these little babies are when they're born, and as cute and precious as they are— a lot of you guys know Ash, Rylee's wife, and I sent— if you guys I mean, I think I mentioned this last week, uh, but, but Rylee and Ash, they adopted their, their second baby. He was born, and so now they have Titus, who they adopted, who's 18 months old, and now Isaac. Um, and I, I sent, I sent them— my wife and I sent them a package of little jammies for, for Isaac and a little hat for Titus, and Ash posted it and he's like the cutest kid in the world. This little 18-month-old kid, this hat on his head that says Brave. And it's like, that, that boy, as cute as he is, he's a little heathen. He's a little savage. He's got a fallen nature, right? And it's the truth. And what this crime commission essentially is saying with this is when we're born, we're born delinquent. And if we kind of stay in that environment, if we're not taught the right things, Right. I don't think the end of this statement, like, brought anybody to the cross. But if we're not taught how to do right and we just give way to our fallen nature, I mean, we're going to be criminals. Things are just going to be chaotic. It's going to be out of control. And what this statement from the Crime Commission really identifies is a couple of verses in Scripture. Psalm 51:5: Surely I was sinful at birth. Sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Ephesians 2:3, like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. So my guess is whoever from this crime commission wrote this statement probably had an idea of biblical depravity. Could have also been somebody who's just trying to save their job and say, yeah, crime rate's going up because everybody— we're all born savages, we're all born delinquents, right? Blame it on the parents. But it really does express the, the true essence of biblical depravity and what, what this depravity, this total depravity that we have. It means that sin affects every part of our being, right? Our mind, our will, our emotions, our desires. Sin affects that. We're drawn to things that are going to lead us to death. If we sow into the flesh, the flesh is going to reap corruption. Um, total depravity means that we can't save ourselves, right? We cannot save ourselves. Only Jesus Christ can save us. And total depravity means that we're spiritually dead apart from God's grace. We're all spiritually dead. It doesn't mean that we're all equally wicked, that people can't do relative good, right? Paul writes out in those first few chapters of Romans that, uh, none of us are good. However, I, I still, when I talk to people about my mother growing up, my mother and father who didn't have a relationship with the Lord, like, they were good people, right? They, they raised me with good morals, good values. And actually, I had a conversation with a woman just yesterday, and it kind of dawned on me, they were actually biblical morals and values. They were both raised in the Catholic Church, but being raised going to Catholic school is part of why they rebelled about God, because they had some strict nuns that used to— that they were both lefties too. So if they tried to write with their left hands, they would get hit on the hand. So part of the reason they rebelled against God altogether. But I would identify them as good people. So total depravity doesn't mean that there can't be like a relative good. You can have good morals, good values. It's not like everybody is murdered, literally murdering everybody every single day, although we do in our hearts oftentimes for certain. And what total depravity does not mean definitely doesn't mean that we have no conscience, right? We talked about that in chapter 1 of Romans. One of the ways that, that God reaches humanity, even if you haven't heard the gospel, haven't heard the name Jesus Christ, he reaches us through our conscience. But This explains why the gospel— why the gospel is so crucial and so imperative. It's because we're spiritually dead and we need resurrection. If we're— if we're born once, we're going to die twice, right? If we're just born out of our mother's womb, we're going to die twice. We're— we're gonna physically die, spiritually we're just gonna remain dead for all of eternity. But if we're born twice, we're only going to die once. So if we're born out of our mother's womb, then born again in Jesus Christ, we're only going to face that physical death. But we're going to— our spirit and our glorified bodies are going to live on forever. Now, Adam brought into this world sin, death, separation. But as that anti-type of Christ. Um, what Christ brought is righteousness, life, and reconciliation. So that Adam is a type of Christ, but it's more of that anti-Christ. Now, when it says in scripture, it says, for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. What it means is that from the time of Adam to Moses, yeah, people sinned, right? But once the law was revealed, now it was exposed. Now it was recognized, like, okay, now there's, there's this accountability. God revealed the law, and now it's like, okay, it's not just a free-for-all. God has, has given mankind his law of how we are to act, how we are to behave, um, how we are to be obedient. So it wasn't that there, there, you know, there was less sin between Adam and Moses, just that when the law came, it was revealed. And we've talked in the past that the, the law wasn't given to us just to be a checklist that, that we fulfill. It— part of it is to, to— for us to know that we can't possibly fulfill the law of God apart from him. And in God's mercy and God's grace and God's loving kindness for us even if we fall short of God's written law, he still imputes his righteousness as if we've never screwed up, we've never messed up, not one time in our life, that we are that, that, that, that, that spotless lamb without a blemish. That's how he views us when he imputes his righteousness upon us and into us just through our faith in him. It's so, it's so simple, it's like so easy, but it's so hard. It's so hard for our stubborn, thick-headed, um, uh, you know, we always think of like the, the Israelites in the wilderness. They're like, man, they, they were so dumb, they were so thick-headed. Like, God literally performs these miracles, can't be anything but God, can't be anyone but God, supernatural things happening. And then it's like, oh, things don't go my way a couple days, start murmuring, start, start losing faith, start talking junk about God. And then if we really examine our own lives, like, man, we're the same exact way. The same exact way. We're those stubborn, uh, thick-headed, rebellious men. But thank God for his grace and his mercy upon us. Now, what we lost in Adam— we became sinners, right? We're born with the sinful nature. We're worthy of God's wrath. We're worthy of his righteous judgment. Um, we don't— sinning doesn't make us sinners. We sin because we're born sinners, right? As I mentioned, that, uh, Minnesota Crime Commission, um, statement: we're born little savages. We're born little savages. And as cute as we are as kids, cute and precious and adorable as kids are, we're born with that nature. One man's act affected all of mankind. However, any of us could be made righteous. Any of us. Now, what did Adam and Eve do when they sinned, right? They were naked. They had this realization that they're naked. What did they do? Somebody on mute. They hid. They hid, right? They closed They clothe themselves on here, right? They clothe themselves. They clothe themselves with skins, the Bible says. Most likely sheepskins. They clothe themselves. Now, the gospel message, right, the message of Christ, is found in every book of the Bible, every single book of the Bible, and What happened when Adam and Eve sinned, uh, they covered themselves with, with fig leaves. You got to imagine, pretty uncomfortable, right? Pretty uncomfortable, the fig leaves. I know, uh, some of us, if you don't have your, your, your satin boxers on, you get a little— you shave a little bit, right? So imagine fig leaves. But God gave them skins to cover themselves with, and in that moment he established two foundational truths. That one, death has to come because of sin. And number two, a substitute could stand in your place. So in that time, there was Adam and Eve, right? They sinned. The one lamb for one person, right? So I need this sheepskin, I'm going to kill this lamb. Um, he that death is required, right, for me to get that skin. And that lamb is standing as a substitute because I sin. I'm the one who's worthy of death, but this lamb is going to be the substitute for that sin. And that foundational truth goes on throughout scripture, go— going up to the day of Passover. Instead of one lamb for one person, it was one lamb for one family. Right? One lamb for each household. But there was still the, the death coming because of sin, and that lamb's serving as a substitute. Then you look at Yom Kippur, it's one lamb that is sacrificed for a whole nation. So it goes from one lamb for one person to one lamb for one family to one lamb for, for one nation And then you get to John the Baptist in John 1: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So that act of God offering the, the skins of the lamb, one for one— one lamb is going to be killed for, for you to be covered— then on to one for one family, one for one nation, and now one for all of mankind, Jesus being the, the Lamb. Who was killed for the sins of the world, to take away the sins of the world. And it's just fascinating when you look at, at the, the whole counsel of scripture. It's like, man, God in that moment, you just read, is like, yeah, they hid, they were ashamed, they covered themselves, they realized they were naked, they covered themselves with, with fig leaves, and God offered them animal skins. But that foundational truth that he established there, where where if there's sin, it requires death. Sin requires death, and a substitute could stand in your place. And Jesus, as we spent most of last year in the Book of Revelation, we pointed out that of all the titles of Jesus, of all the names he's called, and although he's the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the name he goes by most in the Book of Revelation is the Lamb. The Lamb of God. And he was the Lamb who shed his blood so we could be covered, our sins could be forgiven, and he stood as a substitute for us. Now, I don't know if you're like me, there's been times, um, where I, I've like kind of put all the blame on Adam. It's like, man, if Adam wasn't such a knucklehead And then, you know, I'm a guy, so I'm like, I'm gonna blame Eve, right? I'll just blame Eve for the whole thing. But it was Adam, right? It was the fall of Adam. Paul doesn't compare Eve here as a type of Christ. It's the fall of Adam. And you say it's not fair, Lauren blames Eve. All right, all right. Um, but when you think about it, if any of us were in Adam's shoes— or I mean in his bare feet, I guess, not really in shoes at that point in history. But if anybody was that one who was Adam, we all would have done the same thing. We all would have done the same thing. Because when the enemy came for Adam and Eve, he approached them the way he approaches all of us and entices us to sin. He approaches all of us, and there's really 3 core lies that he, he offers us. One, that God is not good. Two, that God is holding out on us. Three, that we could become like God. And that really, that really speaks to, as John mentions in 1 John, the, those three elements of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Any one of us would have fallen at that time. Any one of us. We can't blame Adam. We can't blame evil. We can, I guess, but none of us would have done any better. We all would have fallen. And that's the way the enemy approached them, attacked them, got them to look at the lack. You could have all this, just not that one. My wife and I had a conversation the other day because we have prayers that we're praying and there's things we're hoping for, or things where we're expecting God to do. And Lucy, she's just like— and this isn't like some big revelation. But sometimes it is a big revelation in our lives. It's like, why don't we just thank God? I know we're praying for these things, but let's just pray and praise God for the things that we do have. Like, look at the house we have. Look at the— look, look at what we have. We've never missed a meal. We've never been so down and out that we've had it rough. God's never not been faithful to us. Although we're praying for these things, and we are to pray for things and pray with expectation and even praise God, uh, like when we talk about, um, uh, Abraham in chapter 2, right? Abraham's faith— part of Abraham's faith is he praised God because before it was done, he was praising God as if it was done. So we know we can have that expectation and believe in faith, pray in faith that, that God is going to work on our behalf, that things— that those desires of hearts. If we're in alignment with God, those desires of our hearts, they're going to be God's desires for us, right? He doesn't just give us the desires of our hearts that are, are self-centered and, and prideful. He actually shifts the desires of our hearts to, to meet and align his desires for us. So when we are praying for those desires or praying God's will to be done, we could have that healthy expectation of it, that hope, right? The hope that, that, that happy, blessed assurance that it's gonna, going to come to pass.. But then just stop and think, like, and if it doesn't, look at what we have. Look at what we have. But the enemy always gets us to focus on the one thing that we don't have, the one thing we don't have. And I mean, look at a little kid. I mean, uh, I— you guys know my daughter and her family have been living with us for, for a little while now. They're going to be moving out shortly, but Ezzie although he's got 4 older siblings, there was nobody his age, right? So it was essentially he was being raised as an only child as far as having to share your toys. Now, 3 other kids in the house, man, you know how kids are. You get them a toy, they play with it for a few days, and that thing is in the corner. That thing is in the bottom of the toy box. It's nothing. And, and then guess what happens? One of the kids goes to the bottom of the toy box. They pick up that toy that he hasn't played with in 3 years. And what does he do? In the midst of playing with his new toy, stops what he's doing, looks with like that savage look that I spoke about, and runs to his niece or nephew and rips that toy out of their hand. Right. The enemy and part of our fallen nature is We want the things that we don't have. If there's one thing that we lack, he gets us, or he tries to— I don't want to give him credit and say he gets us— he tries to get us to focus on that one thing and forget every other new toy that we have in that, that toy box, to look at the one thing that we don't have. With Ezzie, there's a particular toy. He's, uh, he's like out of the Paw Patrol stage of his life. But there was one Paw Patrol, like the special of Paw Patrol, all these toys, it's unbelievable. The spin-off shows, the spin-off toys, to this, to that. There's 13 different models of Chase and Marshall and all those Paw Patrols. So there's one in particular that he wanted from the Adventure Movie City Paw Patrol or whatever it is, and the one that he wanted For some reason, I couldn't find it, like, for like the same price as the rest of the other figurines. And I, I was like, all right, you know what, bud, we're gonna put it in the Amazon box, uh, to save for later. We're gonna check in periodically to see if that price comes down a little bit because I'm not paying that full amount for this little thing. And it's probably about once a week, he's like, Dad, you check the Amazon box? You see if the price went down. And I, I mean, it's only $32. It's only $32. But when this particular one's $32 and the rest are $16, I'm not paying $32, all right? I'm just not gonna do it. But he doesn't even play with the other Paw Patrol as much anymore. But it's like that one thing, he's focusing on that one thing that he doesn't have. But that's what the enemy does. That's even what the enemy did to Jesus when he tempted him in the wilderness. He, he— the enemy tried to prey upon us by way of the lust of our flesh, the lust of, of our eyes, and the pride of life. What did he tell Jesus? He said, command that these stones become bread. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days. Satan targeted that physical hunger that he had. And what did Jesus respond with? Jesus responded with the word. And we need to— that's why we need to know the word, and that's why we need to know our identities in Christ. And that's why we need to know— the more time we spend with our Shepherd, we start to recognize the the Shepherd's voice. You start to know the sweet whispers. We start to know that, okay, that doesn't sound like my Savior's voice talking to me right now, right? And the enemy— I, I think I've shared with you guys at some point in the past, you guys know that I got delivered from a 14-year drug addiction, hooked on the painkillers. And I work with a guy who, um, was also hooked on painkillers. Right? And he was starting to take a lot, and he, he was actually my foreman, and in his desk he had like bottles of pills. I remember, and you know, he was dealing with pain, but he got hooked on those things. Now I remember there was times where like my back was bothering me, and I was like, I could take one of those things, just help with the pain for the day, right? And then I'm just— then I was like, wait, Wait a second, I was hooked on these things for 14 years. But it wasn't just, just me. I believe that the enemy, in the way that he connives, in the way that he attacks us, he would— he was whispering something in my ear to kind of let my guard down and be like, oh, that's okay, you can have this thing, right? And then I found myself like, oh yeah, I mean, if I take one right now, what's the big deal? It's like, what's the big deal? It's like, that's just ridiculous to think, what's the big deal? But the enemy will get us to focus on those things and whisper those lies to us to get us convinced that, oh, it's not that bad. Oh, I could dabble in this thing over here, it's not that bad, right? And then we, we start to compare ourselves to, to others. Like, I could do one and, you know, it's not a big deal.

Leslie, Um, I don't know if it was on this call, but, um, somewhere else I heard, and this resonated with me, about how, um, like when the enemy came to Eve, he immediately attacked her identity as a child of God. Like, that's the first thing he did, where he makes you question, like, did he really say that? Um, and when you're— and I don't remember if it was on this call, but that's something I've been thinking about a lot. And so in there, like, and if you're like, no, I'm not an addict anymore, He's like, oh, you're not an addict anymore. That's not your identity. You're fine doing this. And it starts to go. And so just kind of seeing that lie and how it starts and just seeing it for what it is, where he's trying to de-identify you with Jesus and identify you with his— the wiles of the devil. He's trying to get you to go to his plan and identify with the world and not with Jesus.

Yeah.

Yeah, amen.

It, uh, yeah, that's, that's interesting. Like, he convinces you of your identity in Christ, like, oh, you're not hooked on this stuff anymore. And, and I mean, the enemy— I never want to give him more credit than he's due, but he, he's a wily SOB, right? He's had a lot of time to think about how he, he's going to get to us in those areas in our lives where we are the weakest. What's our vices. He knows what they are, and he's had nothing but time to figure out a game plan for each and every one of us. And but part of that, you know, not giving him credit or just like kind of being in awe of how powerful he is— he's not all-knowing, he's not godlike in that regard, but It's like, dang, that, that there is a lot of power there, right? And so not to give him credit, but to be like, I'm in the crosshairs of the enemy and, and he wants me bad, right? And guess what? If the enemy doesn't want you bad— and we talked about this briefly on the prayer call— then you need to kind of question, evaluate what you're doing in your walk with Christ if the enemy doesn't want you bad. But when the enemy wants you bad, you know— not that I'm welcoming, yes, all right, devil, just attack me today. I'm not welcoming it in my life. But if I'm not in the crosshairs of the enemy, I do need to question and evaluate what am I doing. Because if the enemy could take a day off in his attack on me, that means I'm not fulfilling what God is calling me to do for that day. I never want the enemy— I want the enemy to get no sleep because of me, right? I, I, like, I can imagine that there's times, there's seasons where if I could literally see Satan himself, he's kicked up, he's in a recliner, he's probably got an ice cold beer, he's watching the football game, and he's like, oh yeah, my mission was Christian Adam Edwards today, but nah, I'm good, I, I could kick my feet up today.

He's stumbling himself. Raj? Yeah, man, I'm going to be kind of a little bit transparent. I've been skating for a little bit, you know, just kind of living life and doing things, and life's been pretty easy. But recently, you know, we've had this— we've kind of had this stirring in our church and, for a men's ministry. And, um, we're, we're launching this thing. It's actually really cool. I can't wait to talk to you, you about it, Christian. Um, but it's very similar to King's Council. There's pillars and, and it's just like super, super right up my alley. And we've been having leadership meetings. We're getting ready to launch this. And I tell you what, tell you what, those crosshairs, you know, if you are not in— if you are not being challenged, if you are not in the crosshairs, if, uh, if Satan is not actively trying to mess with your life, um, I would challenge you. I think that you're, you're, you're, you're not, you're not where you're supposed to be. Um, and it's, and it's, it's, it's, it's crazy. It's amazing because when I saw it, I just started laughing. I was like, all right, all right, I'm back. This is where I'm supposed to be. This is, this is good. And it felt, uh, it, it, it, it felt good. It felt good. But, uh, yeah, you're 100% right, man. If if we're not in the crosshairs, if we're not—

if Satan's not losing sleep and, and, uh, and sweating, and we're, we're on the wrong page.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Sean. So I didn't know, um, that Jeff Foxworthy is a Christian. Um, I was listening to him on a panel the other day with a bunch of other, uh, pastors and things, and, you know, like, he's been running a a ministry for homeless men in Atlanta for like 25 years. Jeff Foxworthy is pretty awesome, but he's almost 70 years old, and I heard him talking on this panel last year about the things that the devil will use against him. He's like— and it's funny listening to him talk at like 67 years old— he's like, I've always thought the girls are really cute. So I'm on the blue collar— I'm on the blue collar tour, the comedy tour with the guys, and they're finishing up with their set. And like, ah, we're gonna go and have a beer. And he's like, by no means do I think that having a beer is gonna send you to hell, but I know me and the devil knows me. And he's been watching, you know, he's been watching the, he's been watching me, you know, he knows what's gonna trip me up. And if I sit down and I have a beer and I have maybe two or I have maybe three, I'm having a good time. And some pretty girl sits down beside me, she smells nice, and she starts talking to me. That's what I would do if I was the devil, you know. That's how I would come after me if I were the devil. So like, he will— he'll question you. He'll make you question your identity in Christ, or he'll say, yeah, you're fine now, you're saved, you don't have to worry about this thing anymore. And that's—

he'll do whatever it takes to get you. Yeah, yeah. I, I was talking to somebody yesterday um, you guys know him, he, he's, uh, uh, now tied up at this time, so he's not on these calls as much, but Joe Geraldo, uh, I given him a call and he was at the gym. He was like, yeah, man, I gotta go at this time, I can't go, can't go at certain times. It's like, what do you mean? Said, yeah, he's like between, he's like from 8:30 to 11, there's this girl, half-naked girls there working out. He said, I gotta wait till after it's done, right? And for him, it's not like he's, uh, a womanizer. Like, he's a new creation. Like, he's got a checkered past, if you know Joe Geraldo, but he knows Christ now. He's got a new identity. But he knows that, that he could be tempted in a way he doesn't want to be tempted. So what does he do? He, he puts up the boundaries. The boundaries for him is I'm not going to work out at that time. I'm going to work out when these, these old big muscle guys are there working out. Just, just the men, none of the women. Although, I don't know, I've been to the gym all times of day. I don't think I've ever been to a gym in the last like 10 years where it wasn't at least one half-naked girl working out. So, but if he's found a gym where they they're done by 11, by all means. But we have to do that. As much as God gives us the, the, the strength to overcome and, and the strength to abstain, we need to be smart about it too, right? I, I'm not going to— my, my wife and I, we're not going to text, have a private text thread of some— with somebody of the opposite sex if their spouse isn't on the thread, right? And that's just a safeguard that we put up in our marriage because We, we want to protect what we have. Does it mean that if she was texting some guy about something, or if I had to text some girl about something, all of a sudden we wound up cheating on each other? Not necessarily. But why give the enemy anything to work with, right? And why trust ourselves as like, oh no, I'm good, I'm good? I don't want to trust myself. I don't trust myself. I suck. I proved for 30 years of my life that I suck. I make bad decisions. Really bad decisions. I trust Jesus now, and I trust that Jesus that, that who lives in me, um, but come on, Christian, come on. Yeah, I'm not going to give the enemy any, any ammunition to work with at all. I want to hop into this one verse real quick, in verse 20, where Paul says, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded grace abounded much more. So what, what we lost in Adam, we didn't just like regain in Christ. What we gained in Christ, we, we gained much more. Again, 3 times in this short passage here, Paul talks about much more. So what was lost was sin. God didn't just redeem, he redeemed it much, much more. And when we talk about sin abounding. Um, sin can't erect a dam high enough in our lives that God's grace can't overflow it, right? No matter how much sin is in our lives, God's grace outweighs it, overflows it, just pours over the top of it. Think of a literal dam, the highest dam you could think of. Right? I'm thinking of the Hoover Dam, but I know that's not the highest dam, but it's a big dam. And think of the sin in your life is all the way that high. Sin has erected this, this dam this high in your life. It's nothing. The grace of God just completely overflows it, overpowers it, overcomes it. It's remarkable, God's grace. God's grace is— it— we can't wrap our heads around God's grace. So when sin reaches its high watermark in our lives, whatever the high watermark is, whatever the worst thing you've ever done, whatever the worst thought you've ever had, God's grace completely overflows that high watermark of sin in our lives. It's, it's truly remarkable, and we're truly unworthy and undeserving of it. Truly undeserving of it. Charles Spurgeon, he preached a message one time that said grace abounding over abounding sin, right? So when, when it says that sin abounded, grace abounded much more, it's really that grace, grace, God's grace overly abounded, abounded, aboundedly. That's what that much more means there, that abounded, aboundedly. So, uh, abounded sin abounded, aboundantly abounded grace to just truly remarkable. Um, I have a hard stop in 7 minutes, which is good because usually I don't ask Jonathan to interject until about 7:59 on East Coast time. 7:59 and like 35 seconds. So, um, Jonathan, if you got anything, that's— now's the time to speak up. But just a couple thoughts and, you know, discussion points. The, the lust of the flesh, the, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Um, you know, Adam— well, really Eve faced all three of those temptations. She fell. The enemy came the same way with, with Jesus. The enemy comes at us at all times with those things. Um, but like, where do we Where do we see Adam's nature in ourself still today? And where have we experienced that, that much more grace in God? And then we, we talked about the lies of the enemy, even the, the lies that people believe, period. Maybe it's a lie they believe just based on the way they were brought up from, from their family, from their parents. Like, why— what lie makes people resist the need for a savior, that, no, I got this, I could do this, I'm self-sufficient, I got this all on my own. And when it says that God's grace reigns, God's grace reigns in our life, not like rains, but we could, we could think about as rains, but reigns, R-E-I-G-N-S, but we could think of it as rains, not just rains like thunderstorms, like waterfalls pouring out over our life. And it says that God's grace reigns in our life, doesn't just visit from time to time.

It's like we can't outrun God's grace. Gita, wow, thank you. I love this so much. I know we're out of time, but I just want to thank you for this wonderful message. And, you know, again, just being a former Hindu, um, I come in contact with a lot of people who are from the New Age or trapped in a different— yeah, I don't like the word religion, but belief system. And that's it, Christian. They— the thing they all have in common is that they can save themselves. And there are many gods, and they kind of— they don't need that grace, and they can forgive themselves. Or, you know what, as long as I go and apologize to the other person or do what's right, or, you know, hey, donated some money, or I helped a homeless guy, I'm okay now. But, you know, we're all stained with that original sin. And this, this is a very hard thing to explain, you know, again, to an outsider. Don't like that word, but they, they don't understand the concept of that we're all sinners saved by grace.

So thank you for reiterating this. Is. Man, amen. Paula, I see what you wrote there. Wow, said Satan tried to get your father to take your life. Yeah, the enemy, he'll come, come at us. He'll come at us. Uh, Ray Comfort is an evangelist, pastor and evangelist, and he's phenomenal. And when he's talking to people on the streets And he's explaining because it is hard for people to, um, to resolve that they suck, right? That we're sinners. But when you ask people, it's like, have you ever lied? Yes. Have you ever cheated? Yes. Um, ever like cheat on a girlfriend or something like that? Yes. Um, and you know, when he talks about we are were due God's wrath, right? It's owed to us, and that's the penalty for our sin. And, you know, all these people, they're like, well, I'm a good person, I'll get to heaven, I'm a good person, I'm a good person. And then he'll be like, well, you just told me you're, you're a liar, you're a cheater, like, like all these things. And then they kind of look at themselves, they're like, oh yeah, I guess I am all those things. But he has just a phenomenal way of getting people to come to on their own accord that they're not as good as they think that they are, that they are. And even now, I mean, I am drastically different, right? I, I live in Christ now. And even to, to live in Christ, you know that Paul mentions the, the phrase 'in Christ' over 120 times in the New Testament? And we, we are now in Christ. And I've pondered that in the past, like, like, what does that actually mean to be in Christ? Zach, I don't know if you're answering that question, but whatever was on your heart.

No, I was just, uh, thinking about what you were saying, that when you're talking about Ray Comfort and how common that point of view is, uh, among people, that whole idea that, oh well, you know, if I'm good enough, I'll get to heaven. That's what I believe. And Lauren was having this conversation with, uh, with a kind of a relative of mine, um, by marriage, uh, just this last week. And she was, she was so patient. And there may have been some drinks involved on the other side of the fence, if you know what I mean. And, uh, but she was just very patient through that conversation. And I'm like, wow, she's a saint. But he, he was explaining, you know, that's his point of view, and she was just like, no, you can't be that good on your own. But he's like, yeah. Meanwhile, he's telling all these stories about all the hell he's raised throughout his life. But yeah, you know, I do this and I do that and, you know, whatever, if I'm good enough. And, you know, eventually it turned out to him saying hallelujah, I'm a first because she led him in a salvation prayer. But it was like, it was wild because somebody who revels in all the stuff that they've done you know, living wild and crazy their whole life can still hold that belief saying, oh, you know, if I'm good enough, you know, everybody— or the human condition, we all think that we are, we're that good. And that's why it's so devious. It's so hard to set those standards for ourselves, you know, to set that standard that, you know, because we think, oh yeah, I'll be good enough to make it. But if we can hold that belief, then it's also hard to be like, well, I'm not going to go to the gym at that time. Or I'm not going to have that pill that's gonna help me through this today knowing I'm gonna want one a little bit more tomorrow. It's hard to make that decision and that choice. And not only that, but also just the pressure of it. Everybody will tell you, oh, that's just overboard, that's crazy, because it challenges them, right? Like Lauren's friend one time, she was like, 'cause I don't text, girls on the side either, like, individually. I mean, on the side makes it sound like something else. But, um, she, she was telling Lauren, oh, that's okay, Zach's not my type anyway. And I'm like, no, I'm everyone's type. Like, I'm not texting you. Um, and so it's, it's hard to set that higher standard because people will try to deconstruct that for you. Oh no, you're fine, you don't need that. Like, that's— you're just being overboard, you're being excessive. Uh, but really it's, uh, we should be people of uncommon holiness, right? God has called, uh, has called us to more than, than just what you see, that this, this average amount of holiness, right? And, and we should be okay with that. And if it makes people uncomfortable, well, so does the light in the morning when our eyes are adjusted to the darkness. It makes people uncomfortable. And so, um, if it's like the two things that, that hold people back the most in life, I feel like, are chasing that comfort themselves, like procrastinating by doing everything except for that one thing that makes them uncomfortable. That's the one thing that is that dam, and all the water stops right there because they avoid that one thing, um, because we chase comfort. And it's that identity crisis. But then on the other side is that, uh, fear of, you know, what, what other people think, that fear of man, um, that fear of failure. And so it's like, if we, if we can deal with our own discomfort and be okay with making other people uncomfortable, uh, then this whole thing breaks down and the Lord can move in some incredible ways. And it's less about what we do in life and more about, uh, getting out of the way and letting God do what he wants to do, right?

Yeah, amen. That's good. And, and Zach, you are everybody's type. You're, you're a handsome man, Zach Gross. But, uh, That's just so silly to say because I, I mean, by grace of God, I've never cheated on Lucy. And like, I've had a clean slate since I got saved with that, with that. But in the past, I, I wasn't the most faithful to girls I called girlfriends. And guess what? I messed around with girls that weren't my type. They don't have to be your type to fall into that sin. Right? There's plenty of people who've gotten into, uh, devious relationships where they weren't that person's type. So, um, good on you, man. Good stuff. Well, I want to leave you guys with this, um, 1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. So that we don't get less temptations because we're saved, right? Before we're saved, now we're saved, same temptations are out there. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Not meaning like, oh, I'm a Christian now, I'm a super Christian, and hey, I could just bear this, right? No, it's not that. It's that the Spirit of God now lives in us, and if we choose to live our life in Christ rather than in Adam and give way to our flesh, then God always gives us the ability to withstand it, right? There's not really no excuse. Not, not saying that we're going to be sinless, but when we are in Christ, we truly will sin less. And God will always, by way of the power of the Holy Spirit, give us the ability to withstand that sin, withstand that temptation that comes our way. He gives us the ability, right? We just have to make sure that we are living our life in Christ and through Christ. He's given us a new identity. We've been crucified. It's now Christ who lives in us. And through us. And there's a reason Paul over 120 times references being in Christ and a life in Christ. That's, that's what Jesus wanted, right? John 14, that, that communion, that we could be one with, with him as he's one with the Father. And not only are we one with Jesus Christ, but we're one with one another as brothers and sisters. That's powerful. That's powerful. And there's times where we feel that oneness, that communion, that fellowship, And it's like, it doesn't matter what bills I have. It doesn't matter if, uh, somebody pulled in front of me into that parking spot when I clearly had my signal on. Like, all the things in life that on days could be mountains, right, that, that are really molehills— we turn these molehills into mountains when we truly live a life in Christ and we, and we live through the power of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing the enemy can— no fiery dart he could shoot at us that, that will actually pierce us. And it's just a matter of, are we going to give him those invitations, those open doors where we're like, here I am? Are we going to play with fire, open the, the door to sin, to the enemy, just a crack where we've clearly established how much he hates us, right? It's not to be in awe of how powerful he is as far as knowing our vices and our specific temptations, the banana peels to put in our specific paths. It's— he's that evil and he hates us that much that he will do anything to get us to slip up and, and draw us apart from Christ. Sometimes he just does it simply through distraction. He knows it doesn't have to be something where like, oh, I tempt that man so bad I get him to cheat on his wife. Just like, no, I'm gonna just distract him. I'll even distract him. I'll help usher in these good things into his life to help distract him, to just kind of take his eyes of Jesus, but we need to be in Christ every single day. And I appreciate you guys being in Christ on these Wednesday mornings. I love the hearts that you guys have, your dedication, your devotion to the Lord, all the input and wisdom that you guys have. And I said I have a heart stop 5 minutes ago, so I gotta bounce, guys.

I love you guys.

Good job this morning, Christian. Thank you, man. And now you, uh, you're obligated to be back next week. So you could speak more and share more wisdom. Absolutely. Yeah, you're committed. Yeah. All right, guys, I love you. Have blessed weeks. Live your life in Christ and Christ in you. Take care, guys. Bye, Paula. Nice to meet you.