Christ In You (Unleavened Bread - Day 4) - 2017 "VIDEO"

by Michael C. Garrett

Owensboro Church of Jesus Christ

Greetings friends around the world, wherever you might be. Here locally, or maybe Washington state, New York state, up in Canada, maybe somewhere on the other side of the world in Europe, or Australia, maybe Eastern Europe. We do get a lot of different responses from a lot of different places, and I want all of the international crowd of friend’s to feel very welcome. We know you’re far away physically, but, because this article goes out unto the world, because of the computer, it’s like we are truly together. And that’s nice to know, very wonderful, a real advantage of technology! Welcome to Owensboro, Kentucky, and welcome to the weekly church service of the Owensboro Church of Jesus Christ. My name is Michael C. Garrett, and it’s nice to have all of you with us.

We have been talking about now in this Passover season and the Unleavened Bread season – and again, if those phrases confuse you, and to a lot of you it would be confusing because you haven’t heard them. So, go back to the past four video’s and go over these message’s. Now, on our website there are several places where you can find sermon’s. We’re probably approaching 250 sermon’s – maybe more. And they are on several different pages, I believe five or more pages. These video’s can be found linked to the page entitled Holy Day Sermons – 2017 – and it’s free of any charge. Today we’re going to continue this series, entitled – Christ In You! And it actually comes from a phrase that we read about in Romans 8:10, when the Apostle Paul says, “And if Christ is in you, …” – and that’s the origin of the title of this series.

the New Covenant and the Promise of Eternal Life

And today in my notes, let’s turn to Romans 5 – and forgive me if I’ve already covered this previously within the last sermon’s. Verse 20 – “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” – now, which law is he talking about!? Is he talking about the Ten Commandments!? I don’t think so. Sometimes in Paul’s writing’s he’s talking about the Old Testament law, meaning the laws surrounding the Jewish religion, the temple, the sacrifices, the ceremonial washing’s and all the little doodads that they did back in the Old Covenant. And I think he’s referring to the Old Covenant here. Sometimes Paul talks about the New Covenant – many times. In fact, just while we’re talking about that, turn to Romans 7:12 – “Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” I believe he’s talking about the Ten Commandments right there. Because he even used the word commandment. And there are some people who – and it’s really hard to explain this one – there’s a group, there’s a mindset, there’s a movement, in some Protestant churches to bend over backwards to try to tell their people that “the law is done away.” Now quite frankly, just to be honest, the origin’s of that type of statement comes from the fact that there are people going to church on Sunday – and they do it because the people before them did it, their mother, father, grandfather, grandmother. And they’re troubled because if they’re honest with the Bible, the day of church – I like to call it Church day – is what we call here in the Western culture Saturday. The seventh day of the week. Now, there are people, there are religious groups that keep Saturday as their church day - Seventh Day Adventists, there were some seventh-day Baptist’s, and other outfits. So they were honest enough with the Word of God that they looked in there and say, “Hey folks! Sunday’s not church day!” The weekly church day. But then church “officialdom” came in and made them change to Sunday. But Sunday is not the official church day. It’s the seventh-day, which we call Saturday. So, if you say that the Ten Commandments are in effect, all of a sudden, you’re looking at the FOURTH COMMANDMENT – “’Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’” And, that means ‘remember the seventh-day of the week.’ Now, what do you do!? How do you get yourself around that!? So, there are people – and I’ve heard of them, in fact, there’s some of them here who has a son which has actually said to them before (and he got this from his preacher), “There’s no place in the New Testament, that requires the keeping of the Ten Commandments.” Well, O’ my! There’s a whole bunch of places, and here’s one of them. It’s just as plain as can be, the Apostle Paul – which in all of the personalities of the Bible, and when you think about the Old Testament prophet’s and you think about the disciple’s, and think about John the Baptist, and the various writers of the Bible. In my opinion, and it’s just my opinion, the Apostle Paul is 2nd in the hierarchy of importance, or significance, below Jesus Christ! Paul wrote the majority of what we now call the New Testament. And he wrote that under the inspiration, guidance, and direction of God’s Spirit and of Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ’s mind. Paul knows what he’s talking about! Paul is an authority! And here he says it, “Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” But like I said earlier, sometimes when Paul uses the word “law,” he’s talking about the Old Covenant, or the law of the Levites and the temple people. And sometimes when he uses the word “law,” he’s talking about the Ten Commandments and the New Covenant. And you have to have enough wisdom and discretion to know which is which! But here he says in chapter 5, verse 20 – “Moreover the law entered …” – now, he’s talking about the gathering together of the people of Israel, who escaped Egypt on the night of the Passover and ended up free from the bondage of the Egyptians – the pharaoh and his army and all the task-master’s. Brought out by the mighty hand of God. And now, while they were free from that culture, eventually God directed Moses and Aaron to set up a physical priesthood with extremely physical oriented laws for some people who were extremely physically or carnal minded. But he says here, “Moreover the law entered [this Old Covenant agreement] …” – so it entered, and then, “…the offenses …” abound. Well, if there is no Law, you have no lawbreaking. Have you ever thought about that!? I mean, if there were no speed limit passed by the state legislature, and posted up on our roads and enforced by the police and government, you could go down a country road doing 120 mph! If there is no speed limit, you can’t be speeding. Well, IF THERE IS NO LAW, YOU CAN’T SIN! Because you’re not breaking anything. But, once the Old Covenant was established, now you had the existence of examples of people who broke those laws. Then he says, “…But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” – this is a reference to the New Covenant! There was no such concept as grace in the Old Covenant. The closest they got to grace was the killing of an animal, like a lamb, goat, bull, and that was substituting of grace. But you don’t hear much about grace in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, Paul, all the time was talking about grace. Jesus Christ lived His life in the personification of grace! Jesus  did not have an issue with anybody. Think about it – the Roman soldier’s were occupiers and they were representatives of a very cruel Roman dictatorial empire. Jesus Christ – remember (John 8) the example, where the woman was taken in adultery – and I’ve always said that story has a creepiness factor. Because whatever the woman was or was not doing, she was doing it in the privacy of, most likely, her home. And so, I’m not condoning her adultery, but I think it’s more creepy that the people were staring through the window to “catch her.” And, to me that’s creepy! Jesus Christ did not take after anybody - except one group. One group only. He had major issues with the established religious leader’s of His day. They were the establishment. They were the “top-dog’s” in the world of religion. And Jesus Christ had contempt for them. He had contempt for their religious practices, He had contempt for their attitudes, He had contempt for how they treated people – or rather mistreated people. He had contempt for the affect they had upon the society of that day. And He quite often spoke out against them! And I love the chapter of Matthew 23 – talking about these very people and He says, “’How can you escape the damnation – the judgment – of Gehenna fire!?” – meaning the lake of fire, the second death, the final death, the ultimate death. I mean, those are powerful Words! Now, again, Jesus is not castigating her, He’s not trying to shame her, He even said, ‘Woman, where are your accuser’s!? – I’m not your accuser!’ All He said was, ‘go and sin no more.’ And I’ll tell ya what, I hope I don’t get myself into trouble with this, I hope I don’t upset any of you, but in the history of my life, in the experiences of my life and the observation’s of my life, the most difficult people that I have met are so-called religious people! And especially the so-called religious people of the WCG and her remnant churches! I mean judgmental, self-righteous – they say, ‘We love you!’ until they think you did something wrong and then they throw you away! I’m reminded in a different vein, the famous singer Michael English, a very talented singer. Came out of North Carolina I believe. He was in some smaller groups, and eventually was discovered by Bill Gaither, and instantly offered him a job with his vocal band the Gaither Vocal Band. Mike English became an instant celebrity in that world of Gaither gospel music. And he became so popular that he began a solo career. And, unfortunately, and I’m sure Michael English would be the first one to tell you, the vagaries of living life on the road, away from home – a young man, a good looking fella, very impressive man – and the accident’s of life caught up with him. The modern issue’s of life. And he made some mistakes, of which he’s expressed deep regret. And, one of his back-up singer’s ended up carrying his child – if you get my drift here. The moment that became public, the so-called Christian public – the people who listen to Christian radio and gospel music – they shut him down like he had a demon! They stopped playing his song’s on the radio. Now, the day before, people loved his music! They found out that he had made a mistake! Well, guess what folks – we all have problems, we’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. But the so-called Christian community, O’ they couldn’t accept that! And so he was shut down at radio station’s, his record sales just dropped off immediately, and he was basically ostracized. And I’ve heard him say, “There was a time when I thought I would never get to sing again in public.” Well, he got his feet back under himself, and he reordered his life, and eventually came back onto the Gaither Vocal Band. But it wasn’t because of the leader’s of Christendom lovingly reached out and tried to help him! No, they ostracized him! And that’s what a lot of church people do. They love you as long as you’re up on top. But if they find out that you have a flaw, O’ my! Even though nobody’s perfect – except Jesus Christ! And, nobody ever will be! Until the resurrection, and until we are changed from mortal to immortal – from flesh and blood to spirit being. As long as we’re flesh and blood, we have issue’s that come up in our life! But upon the resurrection and if you have the Spirit of God within you – if your name is written in the Book of Life – even if you have had issues, Jesus Christ forgives them. And you will be brought into, automatically, at the blowing of the SEVENTH TRUMP, to become a part of the Kingdom of God – the Family of GOD – for all eternity! Now that’s an understanding that the churches of this world just DO NOT TEACH! So much of modern religion is based upon fear – fear of being punished or ostracized or thrown out! And the WCG was an all-star champion at doing that! And I’ve often said, like the Clint Eastwood movie – the WCG was a collection of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! And there was good, I don’t deny that, but there was bad – there really was! And then there were parts of that organization which were just downright ugly! And the way they treated people, who were having trouble’s – they were just going through life and thing’s didn’t quite work out the way the leader’s thought they should – was reprehensible! 

But, as he says here, ‘sin entered when we had an old law – Old Covenant law.’ And then he talks about, verse 21 – “…even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life [by] Jesus Christ our Lord.” – talking about the New Covenant, talking about the promises of the New Covenant. And the ultimate promise of the New Covenant is eternal life! I point out again – the Old Covenant did not give people hope for eternal life. On the other hand, the New Covenant – sanctioned by Jesus Christ, taught by Jesus Christ, taught by the Apostle Paul – does have, hold, and present, and offer eternal life! “…grace might reign through righteousness …” – righteousness comes through the mind of Jesus Christ living within you! That’s why this series is called Christ In You! “…to eternal life [by] Jesus Christ our Lord.” And, he says in chapter 6 – remember human being’s divided the Book into chapter’s and verse’s. Paul just kept writing. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound [even more]?” – and I’m tempted to use an example. And again, I’m not trying to hurt anybody’s feeling’s – I’m not trying to anger you – just trying to point out that from the pages of the Bible some of these practices do not comport. And there is a major church in this country and in countries around the world, and they have set up these little confessionals, and ever so often members of that group is supposed to walk in to this little confessional and a little screen opens, and tell the “holy” man what horrible thing’s they’ve done! And I’ve heard some of the members of that organization, in effect expressed the following – “Well yeah, I went out last night, I got drunk, I spent some time with a whore, but all I have to do is go to the confessional.” Presto-chango it’s all gone! And so the next Friday night, they go out and do the same thing again! It’s sort of like this, “…Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” – ‘Well, on purpose, I’ll just go out and sin some more, and then the “holy” man can “act like he’s forgiving of me”.’ Folks, human being’s don’t forgive sin, Jesus Christ forgives sin! And they say, “Well, you need a priest to take it before God.” No you don’t! JESUS CHRIST IS OUR HIGH PRIEST! There’s no need for a human priest! Because we have the greatest High Priest anyone could ever imagine! And He’s Jesus Christ! And that is one of the main focal point’s of the New Covenant! 

“What Shall We Do?”

He says in verse 2 – “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in [sin]?” – so Paul is saying, ‘once you receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, once you receive the very Spirit of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, once your name is written in the Book of Life, you’re supposed to try and get a little better!’ You’re supposed to improve your game, not just go downhill. Verse 3 – “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized [because of the same reason] into His death?” – so, if you’re walking with Jesus Christ – and hopefully you are, or soon will be – you have a direct association to what Jesus Christ did! And that’s what the very Passover service was all about, remembering the death, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His broken body, His shed blood. We come together once a year to respect that sacrifice, to pay homage to Jesus Christ and what He did! Verse 4 – “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, …”

Now, the process of being called into the circle of people who were directly related to Jesus Christ, it involves several steps. As we read of in the Book of John, chapter 6, we’re told nobody comes to Jesus Christ unless they are called by God the Father. John 6:44 – Jesus Christ speaking, “’No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; …’” – so the process begins by God the Father picking out certain people and He says, ‘I’m going to attempt to offer them My truth!’ Now, we’re told in other places, like Matthew 20 – ‘Many are called, few are chosen.’ Many people have received that invitation – in fact, if you’re reading this right now, and you’ve read this article this far, or you’ve read other article’s or listened to our sermon’s, you are being invited into the very inner sanctum of understanding the truth of God! You may not have realized it, but that’s what’s happening to you! If you’ll simply understand it and accept it. And as you’re starting to be drawn into that knowledge, you have to decide, ‘I will follow the ways of God, or I will live my life independent of the ways of God.’ And many people, they can’t break out of the hold that society has on them or their family – and that’s the biggest one right there. Their family – husband’s, wives, children, extended family. If some of you – if you were to say – “Well, I’m going to start keeping Saturday as my Church day.” I dare say, a lot of you would get a lot of static from your family. especially if your family has been longtime dedicated members to this or that church. You’re gonna get some grief. You might very well get a whole lot of grief. And, you might say, “Well, I live 813 miles away from you Michael C, I can’t be there with you.” I understand that. But you can read these articles and watch our sermon video’s every Saturday. And I’ll tell ya, there’s plenty on here! It’ll keep you busy for a long time! You could make your Church service, by watching a video sermon every Saturday. Maybe a Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon. And that could become – and God would understand that; God would bless that, God would be with you – and you could do that! And maybe someday we’ll have more opportunities to serve more people on a local basis. But right now, this is a pretty good alternative. So, you get selected – as it were – by God the Father to receive this truth, to receive this invitation. And then you start down that path of gaining knowledge, and somewhere as you start down that path, you either say, “Yes, I’m going to continue!” or “No, I don’t want to go down this road, because people I know will make fun of me, they’ll laugh at me, or they’ll call me name’s and mock me and ridicule me, all that stuff!” And, I know, because I’ve gone through all of it! And probably many of you who regularly read these articles have gone through that. But who are you going to worry about!? What people thinks, or what God thinks!? Think about that! Who do you care about!? If you care about what people think, you become a victim of slavery! You lose your own individual ideas, identity, thought’s and personality, because you must be ‘in keeping’ with everyone around you! Family, neighbors, co-workers, so on and so forth. But if you truly want to serve God, you have to be willing to turn your back on some of those past environment’s - Family, neighbors, co-workers, so on and so forth. And folks, I tell ya, I’m at a point in my life, I literally do not give a hoot what other people think. I don’t care. Because they are NOT my boss! And they’re not my God! And they’re not the One which determines right from wrong. No, God determines that – the pages of the Bible show us all about that. So you get caught up into being drawn into this truth – and you decide, “Alright, I’m gonna keep walking down this path!” And eventually you’ll go through a process in which the Bible calls repentance. You’ll want to be officially recognized as a new born infant  – in the process of becoming a member of the Family of GOD! And you will somehow seek out and find a way to be baptized. And that is a gift! The gift of repentance leads to the gift of baptism, and upon baptism – if it’s being done by the right person, and I hope that it is; and if you ever need to come here to get that done, please just let us know, we’ll arrange it. But then, you, through the laying on of hands, you’re promised the gift of God’s Spirit. There in Luke 2:38 – ‘repent and be baptized, for the remission of sin in the name of Jesus Christ. And you shall [not maybe] receive the gift of God’s Spirit.’ And that starts out as a small “seed.” A very small amount of God’s Spirit. But then with time that knowledge starts to grow in you, the understanding starts to grow in you, God’s Spirit starts to grow in you, the fruits of God’s Spirit starts to grow in you – because Christ is in you! That’s the whole object of this series! To point out that Christ, if we’re doing the thing’s we need to do, Christ lives in us! And He starts to remake us – and I like to say, He starts changing us from the inside out. You know, you can be baptized – in fact, some people get baptized every day, because they take a bath. And you can clean up the outward skin, but unless you have God’s Spirit, you’ll never get the inside cleaned up. And I’m talking about inside your mind – or as we sometimes say, heart. And that’s where you need God’s Spirit, inside of you, changing you – and making you into a new creature. And we talked about that some in the previous sermon’s. A new creature, a new person. With a new destiny. Destined to become eternal members of the Family of GOD and the Kingdom of God. That’s the goal! That’s what we all should be striving for.

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death …” – and baptism is a symbolic death. Meaning, if you go under water, you are at risk of dying. And so we are saying when we submit to baptism, “I am submitting to the very thing which happened to Jesus Christ.” Remember verse 3 – “…as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” You coupled yourself, you joined yourself, you joined yourself with Jesus Christ! “…that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory [and the power] of the Father, even so we …” - if we submit to baptism, if we submit to having the laying on of hands and the prayer, and we receive God’s Spirit. “…also should walk in newness of life.” CHRIST IN YOU equals newness of life equals New Covenant equals eventual eternal life! Now folks, this was a Message which was NEVER taught in the WCG, and I dare say, most likely is not being taught in the remnant churches from the WCG! And Brother Guy, down in Alabama, throughout his life, he has studied some of these character’s, and he tells us what he has learned, and how some of them act, and how some of them treat their people. And I know how it is, because it’s just like the old Worldwide day’s! It’s that old-time religion! And folks, that old-time Worldwide culture was screwed up! It was ugly! But you see – the WCG is gone! I think Jesus Christ and God the Father had a major hand in that! They had said, ‘Enough! Enough of this!’ But we who know the truth of God, we get to know the truth of God, we get to walk in newness of life, and a certain newness of freedom! And liberty! We’re not bound by the old way’s and the old culture, and the way people think. We get to walk in newness of life! In newness of freedom! Verse 5 – “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, …” – meaning, we’ve went through the process: 

1) Being called. 

2) Learning. 

3) Repentance. 

4) Baptism.

We’re making this path, and eventually we get to the step of baptism. “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death [meaning baptism], certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” - Folks, that is the ultimate Good News of the New Testament! The Gospel! Now, if you have a marking pen, verse 5 should be marked up like a neon sign! You’re eyes need to see it when you open your Bible to that page! Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb! No one has ever done that before to eternal life! Now there were a few people, dozens, scores, throughout the history of the Bible, that walked out of their tomb physically, to live a little longer as a physical being. You know, Lazarus, isn’t alive anymore – is he!? Lazarus was a young man, who died. His two sister’s wanted Jesus to come to save him, to heal him, before he died. Jesus postponed His trip, delayed it on purpose, so that Lazarus would die. So that when He showed up, He could show all of those people that within Him and combined with the power of God the Father, They could restore life to a previously dead body! And that young man laid in his tomb, his grave, for four days. So long, as the Bible says in the old King James English, ‘he began to stinketh.’ And Jesus Christ talked to Lazarus, and with the power of God’s Spirit said, “Lazarus, come forth!” And here Lazarus wrapped up, coming out of the tomb, and He said, ‘Go help him get out of that stuff!’ And all of a sudden, Lazarus is perfectly healthy and alive again! Now, Lazarus didn’t live forever – not yet. I’m sure he will. If you’ve gone through that experience, you know where to place your trust! If you’ve been called out of death – you know which side the bread is buttered on! I want to be on His team! I want Him to be my Coach and my Captain and my eternal great Priest! 

But what he’s saying here is, Jesus Christ is the only Being who has ever lived -  who lived on the Earth for a time as a human being – was murdered, and after three-days and three nights He walked out of the tomb through the power of God back to His original state of being an eternal member of the Family of GOD having all of the power of God the Father – and basically having the authority to look over the progress of this Earth and all of us. Jesus Christ only will determine life or death. Not even God the Father. God the Father basically said, ‘Jesus, what You did was so spectacular! That for all eternity You will decide who get’s to follow Your example.’ And that means becoming an eternal member of the Family of GOD! Verse 6 – “knowing this, that our old man …” – the carnal person. What does that mean!? It just means the natural human being. It’s not a bad word, it’s not a cuss word, it’s not a dirty word. Carnal means you’re just a natural human being. You’re just flesh and blood. Devoid of God’s Spirit and God’s knowledge. Knowing that your old self “…was crucified [or put to death] with Him, that the body of sin might be [destroyed], that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” – we should walk in newness of life, as it says, following the example of Jesus Christ! And again, after your baptized you don’t live a perfect life. Being baptized, and moving forward towards the Kingdom of God, is like the old saying, ‘He took three steps forward, and two steps back.’ In other words, you have your up’s and down’s. But the thing is, you’re always striving for that ultimate goal! That is to be resurrected and the Return of Jesus Christ! Verse 7 – “For he who has died [meaning baptism, receiving God’s Spirit] has been freed from sin.” – and it doesn’t mean that you’ll never sin again. What it means is that you’re freed from the death penalty of sin. Verse 23, really quick – “For the wages of sin is death, …” – which means, the wages of sin which are not forgiven, is death. “…but the gift of God is eternal life [through] Christ Jesus our Lord.” – these are the two possibilities that wait us. We either die, and we die eternally, or, we live, and we live eternally. Verse 8 – “Now if we died …” - meaning we have been baptized, going through this progression of marching towards the Kingdom of God, “…with Christ, we believe [or we know] that we shall also live with Him.” – this is just like verse 5, you’re marking pen should light it up like a neon sign! Because this is the crux of the promise of the New Covenant! This is the goal that all of us should have!

Verse 9 – “knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.” 

Verse 10 – “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” – He’s not going to have to go through that again. He already did it! And He did it perfectly, you can’t do it any better than that! Verse 11 – “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, …” – meaning, sin will not have the power of death over you. “…but alive to God [through] Christ Jesus our Lord. 12) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13) And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, …” but rather, here’s the key, “…but [yield] yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, …” – because you’re going to follow the example of Jesus Christ! He walked out of His tomb, became eternal. Someday you’re going to walk out of your grave, be changed for all eternity, or some people might still be alive as physical human beings – and some people will – and be instantly changed. “…and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Verse 14 – “For sin shall not have dominion over you, …” – that’s the goal! Remember, we’re talking about walking down this path, where each step brings us closer to the Kingdom of God? Well, one of the steps is that we become so empowered by God’s Spirit that sin shall not have dominion over you. And it will not have the dominion of death. And I think that’s an even bigger point of what he’s saying. “…for you are not under law but under grace.”

Now, does that raise a lot of tongue wagging! The people who want to say that the Ten Commandments are done away, they will site that verse and say, “See, you’re not under law, you’re under grace.” – the very first sermon of the Owensboro Church of Jesus Christ is entitled, Look To Jesus Not Moses.  Well, the very first series, that we did back in Owensboro, summer and fall of 2013 – is entitled Is The Law Done Away? I gave that first sermon in Tyler, Texas on the 9th of March in the year 2013, and I was never invited back. It upset them and troubled them. And within that first series I pointed out that the Old Covenant – the law of the Old Covenant – is done away. And if you want to know about this subject and explore it, just click on the red title above and it will take you there. And even after that, was a 20-part series entitled The Eternal Relevancy of the Ten Commandments. Now, if you want God’s truth, that’s a good place to go – a good reference place.

Well, let’s continue – “For sin shall not have dominion over you, …” – meaning, the death penalty will never take effect in your life, because you have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “…for you are not under law but under grace.” – remember early on in this article, I said sometimes when Paul uses the word “law,” he’s talking about the Old Covenant, or the law of the Levites and the temple people? And sometimes he’s talking about the Ten Commandments. We saw in chapter 7, verse 12, “Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” – so Paul is clearly referring to the Ten Commandments. So, if you go back to chapter 6, when he says, ‘we are not under the law’ what’s he talking about!? He’s talking about that law or that collection of practices of which we would normally label under the umbrella as the Old Covenant. We’re under grace – we’re under the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, under the priesthood of forgiveness, and hope, and help, and love. And you know, that’s what we should do to people.

“…for you are not under law but under grace.” – grace, love, forgiveness, compassion. But under the history of the WCG and her remnant’s, they’ll say, ‘we love you,’ as long as you do exactly what they tell you to do! But the moment you sort of do something a little different, then you’re met with just contempt, and hatred, and being ostracized. Being thrown out, being rejected, “Well I can’t talk to you anymore! I don’t want to look at you anymore!” And if you were to ask them, “Why?” And, if they were honest, they couldn’t tell you, but all they know is, “Well, the higher up says that you are now contemptable, so therefore I worry more about them than I do what Jesus Christ might say, so therefore I hate you.” And it’s not just hate, it’s just an unbelievable level of contempt and disrespect. Well, that’s not the way it was supposed to be my friends. Verse 15 – “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? …” – same question he asked basically back in verse 1. No, you’re not just supposed to go out of your way on purpose to defy God’s Laws. Just to say, “Well, anything I do I’m free!” What’s the term you hear amongst some Baptists, and I’m sure other Protestant groups!? You hear this term, eternal security. They will say, “Once saved, always saved.” No, not true. Once saved, if you continue marching down that progression of advancement – you have the Kingdom of God wrapped up, you’ve got your ticket. But if you just openly reject everything God says, and go, “Well, I have grace now, He’ll just forgive me.” And you do it with this disrespect of what He went through, His crucifixion, His torture. No, you can lose out. And I’ve said this before – I don’t think God takes the Spirit away from you, because the Book of Hebrews says, ‘the gift’s and the calling of God are without repentance.’ But I think what you can do is that you can go so far astray that you lose contact with God, you lose contact with Jesus Christ, you lose contact with the Bible. And you can in effect – if you work at it hard enough – you can drive the Spirit of God out of you. And that normally happens through thing’s like jealousy, and hatred, and bitterness. And I know a lot of people that’s turned bitter. Just bitter. 

Verse 16 – “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” – so you can try and live your life going down that path of progression – the pathway to eternal life. Or, you can reject that and all you have to look forward to is death. Now, let’s look at the first part of that verse again. “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, …” – Now, who are you going to listen to!? Are you going to listen to Jesus Christ that talked about love and mercy and forgiveness and tolerance!? Or, are you going to listen to someone else!? Are you a servant of Jesus Christ, or are you a servant of a man who has a real hard time using the name Jesus Christ!? Jesus Christ, who is your High Priest, who is your Apostle, who is your soon coming King of kings and Lord of lords! If you don’t obey Jesus Christ then I guess you’ll have to hang out with the other guy, and take his condition! That’s not a good idea.

Now, in case your wondering, I am thinking about one person directly. The last time I ever spoke to him he told me how much the “little guy” down in Tyler, Texas was upset with me because I had remade Look To Jesus Not Moses. We had made it again, and we had it up on our website, and I guess the “little guy” was just absolutely out of his mind with anger. And so the “West Virginian” called me up and said, “Well, he demands that you take down that sermon!” And I said, “Well, guy, I live with the assumption that we are still Americans, and have the right of the freedom of religion. Now, can you tell me where my sermon is wrong!?” And he retorted, “Well, no! I haven’t heard it. But Mark didn’t like it! And the other guy didn’t like it!” And I said, “Well, no, we’re not going to take it down!” And so then he said, “I can never talk to you! We’re done! I will have nothing to do with you again!” and the phone went silent. Wow – what an example of love and help and concern and friendship. And, that’s sad. I hope he figures it out someday, I really do. I don’t wish him eternal harm, but with an attitude like that, it seems to me you’re not going to have a good time on judgment day. It just seems to me that you’ve got some problems coming down the road. 

Verse 17 – “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, …” – at one time we all were, and at times we still are. “…yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.” – meaning, the Words of Jesus Christ, the words of the Apostle Paul. Verse 18 – “And having been set free from sin, …” – and free from the death penalty. That’s what that means. “…you became the [servants] of righteousness.” – and because you are servants of righteousness – that is the Spirit of God resides in you, CHRIST IN YOU, because you’re the new man, new creature. That’s because you’re free of the death penalty. 

Now, folks, we have another day coming! The part’s never end! And that’s the great thing! We’ve always got something to talk about! And we always keep progressing in our ideas. Now, every sermon that we’ve put up on the website – which you can listen to if you want. If you were to go through every one of them in order, you would realize that every week, every month we are continuing to tell a story. The majority of sermon’s I’ve heard over the years has no consistent theme. Because they don’t have a consistent theme. It’s just like popcorn. And that’s what a lot of sermon’s are – they have no direction. Well, these have direction, and they have progression. And we keep striving to learn more and more about the Word of God, the Truth of God, and the Plan of God. And if you listen to these sermon’s we will actively have a hand in feeding the sheep and the potential sheep of God, which are all of you, and all of us.

So folks, thank you for being with us, we love you, we pray for you, we hope you feel the same in return. Spread the word. Talk to your friend’s, neighbor’s. We ask that you share these articles on Facebook. Share the Good News! You could have an active hand in publishing the gospel of Jesus Christ just by sharing these articles. Please consider it. If it’s in your heart, please do it. So, until tomorrow, goodbye my friends.

Items of related Interest:

The Night to be Much Remembered? - Is this a sanctioned by God separate holy day!? A commanded time to get together with brethren and have dinner!? What does the Bible (not Jewish tradition's) truly say!?
Be You Kind - Part I (Sermon) - The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 4:32, said, "And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." "And I think about people who I once knew who were members of the Work of God at Ambassador College, fellow students, and now I hear about them and some of them are just filled with – just like a leaf that’s turned to brown and dust, it’s just a shadow of what it once was. …
Suffering for Righteousness Sake - "And I think I’ve heard people at times express, “Well, God just doesn’t know what I’m going through!” Well, maybe theoretically God the Father has never gone through it, but Jesus Christ sure has! And He suffered to the point of death, and He was tempted in everything possible, yet without sin! So don’t say, “Well Jesus Christ never had to deal with this!” Yes He did! And He passed the test perfectly! …"