Now here it is. Five of the most powerful words in all of Scripture. It is no longer I. Right there it is. If someone said, give me one piece of amazing advice from Scripture, that would be one of the pieces right there to live life. If you can somehow wrap your heart, mind, and soul around this thought that it's no longer about me, it's no longer about you, that will fix the majority of our problems. Welcome to This Day in the Word with Pastor John Couch, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. It is a joy to have you listening today, and we pray that you will be encouraged, challenged, and motivated to live for God like never before. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor John Couch. Lord, I come before you again. And as we've prayed, as we've sang hymns to You, as we've sang praise, worship songs to You, as we've opened Your Word and read it aloud, God, as we open Your Word now for the meat to forever feast and forever be changed, Holy Spirit, I pray You would move in power Nothing I can say of myself and my own strength will ever do anything for myself nor anyone. But Holy Spirit, You can. Somehow You can take human words. I pray that You would edit what is not of You, but then what is of You, would You drive it deep like a dagger into the wellspring of our hearts. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you and only you, my Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans 6. And so we are in verses 5 through 11. And the title that we're looking at today is two words, set free. I want us to think through this thought today of what it looks like to be set free. There are many people today all over planet earth that even profess Christ that the reality is they're living lives that are not set free. They are in a self-imposed spiritual prison that they've made perhaps a profession, they've read something that gives a testament to that perhaps they have at least externally asked Jesus into their hearts and yet they've never given Jesus their life. And so, perhaps unbeknownst to them, they are, yes, still in bondage, still in chains, Still wondering why is it I'm on this path, this cul-de-sac going nowhere. Just round and round and round and round, the hamster wheel of life. Because it really is true that often I give the illustration when I'm witnessing to someone that life is like a chair. And a chair typically has four legs. And yes, there's a physical component, perhaps, on one leg to life. There's a mental component, yes, of the mind on another leg. There are emotions and feelings, perhaps, on the third leg, we could argue. But then there's a fourth leg, and it's the most important leg of the life that we live in these bodies that we're here on this earth, and it's the spiritual leg. And so many people will invest in the physical and the mental and the emotional, but they're teetering on a three-legged chair. And they're wondering why life continues to implode. My prayer for you and me today is that we're set free, and it's true, amen? Because who the Son sets free is free indeed. Here in Romans 6, let's look together, verse 5 through 11. I'm gonna read it and we're gonna break it down into two chunks. And I pray, leave here with a shout of praise of how great our God is that we've been set free. Romans 6, Paul writes, verse 5, for if we have been united with Him, who's Him? Any ideas? Jesus, in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him, Jesus, in a resurrection like His. All God's people said, that's an amen moment. Verse 6, Romans 6, 6. What a great reminder. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, why? In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that, why? We would no longer be enslaved to sin. Look at verse 7, 8, and 9. For one who has died has been set, help me, free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him. We know, verse nine, we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death, verse 10, he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Lastly, look at verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen. Two chunks in your worship guide on the back panels, you flip it over, and let's look at this in depth, and let's just ask the Lord to bust through like He never has as we drink deeply, as we internalize deeply. Look for a moment, Romans 6, we're gonna break this down into five through seven as we teach the Bible. Again, that's what we do, we teach it. And so here's what Romans 6, 5 through 7 says, where it says, for if we have been united, now think through this for a moment. So the word united means this, to be in union with. So picture in union, okay? I want you to picture this. This is so important. If you're really gonna grasp Romans 6, you're gonna need to make some visuals to help you connect the dots. So right here in the Bible in front of me and you, it says, for if we have been, and really what he's saying, what it says for if you have been, he's really saying this for the true believer, since you have been. Okay, make sure that's clear. So he's not going, true believer, We hope you're united. That's not what he's saying. He's going for the true believer. He's saying for since you have been in union. You could say this as well. You could say that I identify with Christ. I identify with Him. Ever heard someone say that one to you? I identify with Christ. I'm in union with Him. Brings a whole new weightiness, doesn't it? If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly, so here's a promise, we shall certainly be united. What's that word united mean? To be in union with Him in a resurrection like His. We love that, don't we? Now look here, it says we know. Now stop there for a moment, just stop. We know. So the word know there in the Bible in front of you, K-N-O-W, means that there's zero ambiguity. So if someone came up to you today and they said, hey, and they put your name in the blank and they said, I know, like, I know, I know, I know my team's gonna win today. Like, I know, I know, I know I'm gonna get that promotion. I know, I know, I know that this situation is gonna work out. What could you argue that they have a spirit of what inside of them? They have a spirit of what? Confidence, don't they? Like, I know. That's exactly right here. When you look at 6-6 Romans, remember Michael Jordan was 6-6, so that's how you're going to remember that one, okay? Romans 6-6, for we know. It's like, I know. I'm not going to doubt. I'm not going to waver. I'm not going to waver at all. I know. There is confidence in this. I think so many times the reason that the church all across the world today is having such little impact on the culture and the culture is having such great impact on the world is because the world has figured out that we're not sure what we know. They're like, these people don't even know what they know. When you begin to live a life where where you understand you've been set free, where you understand that the Word of God is everything, because it's living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, and as it goes deep into the wellspring of your heart, as you commune with God every morning or night, or whenever you're communing with God through His Word, that He speaks, the words are coming off the page, and they're coming into your mind, transforming it, being renewed by His mind. you are going to begin to know. So many people, they tell me, and I'm just sick and tired of it, they will tell me how they feel. I don't care how you feel about the Word of God. I wanna know what you know about the Word of God. Because our feelings will betray us. And Satan is crafty and slithery and scheming. And if we're not careful, He'll trick us and dupe us as he plays on our sin. He'll play on it. No one can blame. We already learned that from last session. No one can blame anyone else for my sin, only me, vice versa for you. But Satan is right there. Satan's always there with like his gallon of lighter fluid, isn't he? Ever been by a fire and, well, you put some lighter fluid and what happens to the flame? Right? That's Satan. He's sitting right by each one of us going, when can I douse this one? I'm gonna douse it. Right? And we open that door and we give him that opportunity. We're gonna be on our guard. We're gonna talk more about that in a moment, but it's important that we know. Right there in verse six, we know. We know that what? Our old self was what? Was crucified with who? Yeah, isn't this great? What an amazing visual this is. How many people understand this that call themselves Christ followers? When's the last time you heard someone go, hey, how you doing? What's going on in your world today? I got great news. My world is challenging and difficult, but I've been crucified with Christ. That'll cause a stir on aisle six at Food Line, won't it? That will. I've been crucified with Christ. That our old self, it means this. So when you look at old, old as in useless, Old as in dead, not physically. But when Paul's talking about the old man and the new woman, he's not talking about an 80-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman. He's talking about a spiritual context of the old man, the old woman. They used to be in the natural state of the flesh. but they've been crucified with Christ. That's what water baptism, it does not save, as we talked about, but it gives a beautiful picture, doesn't it? It's a symbol, is what it is, of going into the water. You're there vertically and you go in as the old man, the old woman. and you come out of the water, again, not salvific, it's just a symbol, but it symbolizes that you're coming out as the new man, the new woman, and you're now walking in newness of life. You could say you've been set free. Because who the sun sets free is free indeed. We know. Do you know? That's my question this morning. Do you know? Do you know or do you not? I pray we do. We know what? Again, the old self was crucified, verse six, with him. In order, this is the why. There's always a why. God does everything with a purpose. So in order that the body of sin, okay? So remember, the old self was put to death. Right there, we just read it. We died with Christ. Sin's no longer alive and ruling and reigning, that the body of sin, so think about this, the body of sin is this, it's the flesh, it's, again, not necessarily, you could argue to some degree that it is the physical, but it's the spiritual, right? That the flesh, the desires. And so often when we talk about fleshly desires, we kind of have this, we got this list over here of like all these big, horrible, nasty, dishonoring, wicked things, and those are included, amen? But where we give ourselves a pass is on the other list, which is still sin, still wicked, but it's these bodies of death that crave, I want to be first, I want to be most, I want to be noticed, I want to be praised, I want to be glorified. selfish, jealous, enemy of self flesh that's bitter, unforgiving. That's wicked is all that is. That's a wicked list. And what he is saying here is that the body of sin, its rebelliousness, its corruptness, the desires, the ruling and reigning of sin, might be brought to, what's it say? Nothing. That's an amen moment. Now, we gotta pause here, because I know probably right now you're going, wait a minute, I still struggle with some of those things that were listed. I get it, so do I. Here's the key, don't miss this. When you are set free by Christ through His atonement, that substitutionary atonement that He died the death, you should have died, I should have died. He paid the price that I should have paid. He paid it. Remember, He was the ransom. He paid the immeasurable price for a costly freeing of a hostage. And you and I were the hostages. because He stood in our stead, died the death we should have died. He bled, He was scourged, whipped, go on and on and on with the horrific crucifixion that He, yes, that God heaped. He treated Christ as though He was sin so that God could treat us as though we've never sinned. And there's people running around all over the place today inside churches going, I wish God would do something for me. And you're like, what? Have you lost your mind? When you get in your Bible and you understand your Bible, you see He did everything. He gave everything. God gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes, that's faith and action, total surrender, whoever believes in Him, not under Him, not over Him, not apart from Him, but believes in Him, you give your life to Him. Here's the promise. You will never perish. Never. but have everlasting life. That's the promise from God. That's His promise to anyone who calls on the name of the Lord in true repentance will be saved. Anyone, the greatest murderer, the greatest thief, the greatest addict, the greatest adulterer, on and on we go, whoever calls on the name of the Lord in true humility, true surrender, true repentance will be saved. And the Apostle Paul would be a great example of that. So, think about this in your Bible there, Romans 6. In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, literally rendered of no effect. So here it is, we still struggle, amen, we still struggle. There's still moments we do something, we say something, we think something that is not of the Lord. But here's what it means, make a note of this. You are no longer under the power and control of sin. And there's a big difference. There's a big difference. A true believer will not be under the power and the control of sin. They may stumble. We will stumble at times. We'll be convicted, we repent, and we grow in more sanctification to be more like Christ as we're growing in holiness. That's the path we're on. But what Paul is saying here, we are no longer under the rule and the reign of sin. It no longer rules and reigns. That's why it's just so insane when you see people who profess Christ and who continue to live in sin. Like with no remorse, they're not affected or impacted in any way, shape or form. It's just, hey, I walked an aisle two years ago, 10 years ago, six years ago, whatever, fill in the blank. When I was five, fill in the blank. But we've learned here today from James, and we read that earlier, that faith without works is dead. Again, our works do not save. No, no, no, no, no. They don't save, but they give evidence of a true conversion. It's very clear, very plain. People that try to squirm out of this, you know why they try to squirm out of that? Take a wild guess why. Just take a wild guess. Why would someone want to squirm out of, hey, the Bible says that if I'm really saved, I'm going to prove it by my actions. Why would anyone want to profess Christ and try to squirm out of that? Why? Why? Well, they're living in sin, accountability, 100% of the time. Yeah. There's conviction there. The true believer goes, I want to be held accountable. The true conversion goes, I want to grow in holiness. I don't want to be like this anymore. I want God to take it from me. I'm no longer under the power, but the temptations are still there. And that's where we play the role because if we still lay the temptations out in front of us, whatever you're tempted to do, whatever I'm tempted to do, at some point our flesh is weak. We're going to want to play patty cake at some point with that, with that sin. That's why right here, I love this, it says, so that, verse six, so that we would no longer be enslaved under the control of, no longer under the control of sin, the power of sin no longer beats us into submission, no longer. When you were a reprobate, a unsaved person, By your desires, by my desires of the flesh, we willingly participated in things that were not of the Lord. You willingly do it. That's what you do. Why? Because the Holy Spirit's not in you. You're walking in foolishness. You're walking in darkness. You're walking in the spiritual fog constantly. Just fogginess everywhere you go. Proverbs even says this, that the wicked, they stumble in the darkness and they don't even know what makes them stumble. That's how blind the wicked are. They don't even know. They're just like bouncing into the walls. It's easy because the blinders have not been removed. you give your life to Christ, and that's when the blinders come off. There still can be struggle, but as we talked before, the Holy Spirit's not going to give us a free pass and say, hey, continue to struggle with sin. There's going to be conviction in a good way, a healthy way. to grow us into Christ, to make us more like Him. Which is why verse seven lastly says this, for one who has died to sin, that's the enemy of self, okay? Love this, this is so good. You're in union, remember you're in union, picture the union. You're now in union with Christ. You're no longer in union with yourself. You're no longer in union with Satan. You're no longer in union with the world. You are in union with Christ. And that's why he says, for one who has died has been set free from sin. You have been, when it's real and true, you have been fully justified, declared righteous, which means you have been declared right with who? God. you've been declared right with God in His eyes. His eyes are the only eyes that ultimately matter, amen? My eyes, your eyes, your wife, your husband, your friend, your dog, I don't care who it is, their eyes don't matter in the end. It's only God, like when God looks at me and looks at you, He'll go, You've been declared righteous because you've given your life to my son Jesus, or you haven't been declared righteous, you're not right with me, you have not given your life to Christ, and God's gonna say to me and you as we've learned in Romans, God's gonna look at me and you, if that's us, he's gonna go, I'm still at war with you. Continuing to declare war on you. And that's a war we'll never win. But there's a flip side. Because who the Son sets free is free indeed. Amen? That's the beauty of being set free. You can say today, if it's you, put your name in there. Go, God loves me. He loves me today. He loves me. He's given his life through his son, Jesus Christ. He loves me, and I am loved. And thank you, Jesus, that you love me so much that you didn't call 10,000 angels and pull the plug on the plan. You said, no, I love my sheep, who the Father has given me. These sheep, I love them. And for you that have given your life to Christ, you can say, I'm one of the sheep. And there's no greater thing to say than I'm one of Christ's sheep. That's it. I mean, think about it. You've been paroled forever. Maybe in modern context, that's how you look at it. I mean, you're paroled forever, spiritually. I'm paroled. The shackles, the chains that you and I were in, the shackles, the self-imposed prison that we tried this and tried that and continued here and over there. We just continued to walk and walk and walk in selfishness and feeding the flesh and the enemy of self. And sooner or later, we realized, man, this isn't working. And we gave our lives to Christ. Oh, the shackles were broken forever. The prison doors of your life spiritually were flung open. Just picture that. They're flung open. Isn't that beautiful? Just flung open. That should be you and me today, man. I'm no longer a slave to sin. But I'm a child of the King. King Jesus. It was once said that when Christ calls a man, He bids them come and die. You know, when you think about that thought, when Christ calls a man, a woman, He woos and He stirs, John 6.44. No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws, woos, stirs. That's what it says, John 6.44. There it is, right there. It's plain as day. Plain as day, right there. There it is. It's called being a doulos. A willing slave, a slave, a servant that says, Jesus, you gave everything for me. I'm gonna willingly, not under coercion, no peer pressure, but I'm gonna willingly give everything back to you. Willingly. Just willingly. And how many people across the world today inside churches are just hanging on to their own lives while they claim that Jesus owns them. The only way Jesus can own you is if you've given Him all of you. It's the only way this works. Here's the reality, and this is so true, isn't it? None of us, none of us, I'm talking me, you, whoever's listening, none of us, None of us are forced to sin. Just let that sink in for a moment. You say, where do you get it from? Right there in the Bible. In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who died has been set free from sin. So no one is forced to sin, each one of us choose to sin. So whatever foothold is in my life or your life today, whatever the foothold is, the reality is that we gave Satan the foothold. We gave it to him. We said, psst, come on in. Get the doorway. This one's triple bolted. Hang on a second. Click, click, click. All right, come on in. Come on in here. There you go. Have a seat. No one can blame anyone else. And if there's a foothold in my life and your life today, the only footholds that Satan has in our life are the ones that we've given him. Because we don't have to sin. We don't have to. I choose to. I choose to. It's where I choose to worship myself versus worshiping the Lord. And again, be careful. Be real careful about this really big list over here, which really is easy to point fingers and go, yeah, look at those people. I'm not on that list. Yeah, but you're certainly on the pride list. There's a pride list over here. And God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. So actually, maybe you're actually on this list, you don't realize you're on this list. And so, on the big list are the consequences greater. Of course, they can be far-reaching, catastrophic, but so can bitterness, so can selfishness. All these things that so easily work their way into my heart and your heart and take root. And the fangs and the talons begin to expand, they get released. and with a toxicity, with a poisonous vengeance, but yet with a subtlety that falls like a feather on a pillow. He sinks his fangs into us as we've opened the door to his lies and devices. So, with that, we must be people that are not convincing ourselves, deluding ourselves, that we can serve two masters. I think that's where, especially in the American church and the American landscape, I think that's one of the things that is so endorsed, as weird as it sounds, because there's certainly a blind eye turned to it. Let's just turn a blind eye and you can serve two masters. And when I open the word, Jesus is really clear. You cannot serve two masters. You will love one and you will hate the other. That's what it says. And so we want to be those people that walk in freedom. And freedom is not toying around with sin, not enjoying it, not playing games with God, right? There's a lot of gaming going on today. Man, it's easy to play games with God, right? We're just playing games. We don't want to be those people, amen? You are listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. All of Pastor Couch's messages are archived and are free to download at thisdayministries.org. In addition, you can share your prayer requests with us via email. Our email address for prayer requests is prayer at thisdayministries.org. That's prayer at thisdayministries.org. And now, back to This Day in the Word with Pastor John Couch. That's why key number one, write this down in your notes there. Write this down, key number one. It says this, key number one. As we see here in Romans 6, five through seven, for everyone who gives their life to Christ, our old self was crucified with him so that we would be set free from the control of sin. Again, I know real simple, these aren't overly theologically deep thoughts, but how often, how often we miss the simple. Key number one, as we see here in Romans 6, 5 through 7, for everyone, this is the beauty, for everyone who gives their life to Christ, so everyone who does this truthfully, our old self has been crucified, was crucified with Him. Why? So that we would be set free from the control, the dominion, the ruling, the reigning, the power of sin. No more, no more. That's why John, write these verses down, I'll give you several. John 8, 34, these are all supporting verses. So write these down as I go through these. John 8, 34, it says, Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone, how many are excluded from everyone? Any ideas? None, none, nothing. There you go. Everyone who practices sin, that's habitually, is a slave to sin. So if you and I are here today and we're like, and again, we'll go over just for argument's sake over to the lower list, we'll call it. You know, if we're living in selfishness, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy, If you're practicing this stuff, like it's habitually, this isn't one of those where you're warring against it, you're battling against it, and you know what, it's been nine weeks, and oh, oh man, I slipped up, and I felt a jealous feeling there towards someone else, and I quickly repented. That's not what he's talking about. This is habitual living in this stuff, just feeding it, stoking the fire. Remember the thought, we will never be set free from a sin that we keep feeding. Remember that. We will never be set free from a sin that we keep fueling and feeding. So in John 8, 34, he's saying everyone who practices sin is a slave to it. So be careful about this thought of rationalizing sin, justifying sin. Well, you don't know, Pastor, what they've done to me. I probably don't, but I know what Jesus did for you. And what He did for you is far greater than anything anyone's ever done to you. So what Jesus did for you is greater than anything that anyone's done to you. And you gotta remember that, because if you don't, if I don't, talking to me, we'll get tripped up. Galatians 2.20, all right, this is a famous one. I know some of you, you got this like embroidered on your toothbrush at home, right? Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with who? Christ. Now here it is, five of the most powerful words in all of scripture. It is no longer I. Right there it is. If someone said, give me one piece of amazing advice from scripture, that would be one of the pieces right there to live life. If you can somehow wrap your heart, mind, and soul around this thought that it's no longer about me, it's no longer about you, that will fix the majority of our problems. Someone once said, I don't remember who it was, but they said something like, if you win the war within you, you'll win the war outside of you. Biblical in context, no. Applicable in context, yeah. So often, the biggest problem for me is not you, it's me. It's me. And if I can crucify by the power of the Holy Spirit, not in the flesh, not in self, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's no longer I that live, Galatians 2.20 says, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. So we're still in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and he gave himself for me. That's an amazing verse, Galatians 2.20. Galatians 2.20. Right there. Write that down. Galatians 2.20. That should be your life verse right there. It's no longer I. Why? Christ died for me. We just read it in Romans 6. He died for me. He freed me. He did the work. Now in response to Him that He gave everything, I'm giving everything back to you. Here it is. Here it is. So many that profess Christ are kind of like a spiritual Annias and Sapphira, aren't they? Now remember, it's open-handed living. Open-handed living. Not clenched fists. God can't put anything in your fists that are clenched. But you give your life away. Just give it away. That's where true joy is. The most selfish people I know are the most miserable people I know. Interesting thought, isn't it? The most selfish are the most miserable. and the most miserable, take a wild guess, are the most selfish. Me. Me. Planet me. No, planet Jesus. Planet give your life away. That's life. That's living. That's what that means. How about Galatians 5.24? That's fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5. Write that down. Fruit of the Spirit. Amazing section in scripture, if you're a true believer, you'll be bearing these fruits, this fruit, if you will. And those who belong to Christ, you've given your life to Him, Galatians 5, 24, have crucified the flesh with His passions and desires. They are doing battle against the flesh. I mean, battling against it. whatever is rearing its ugly head in my life, in your life, we don't ignore it, we don't push it to the side, we don't sweep it under the rug, we go, no, we bring it into the light and go, this is a challenge, it's an issue, it's keeping me from growing in sanctification, it's keeping me from growing in holiness, and I'm gonna go to war against it, I'm gonna battle against this stuff. Just don't sit there and just, cross your fingers and cross your toes and cross your eyes and criss-cross applesauce and hope this thing just magically disappears. We will never stumble into obedience and holiness by accident. Never. Won't happen. It's an all-out assault by the power of the Holy Spirit abiding in Christ that we declare battle nuclear nuclear war on sin. Think about this thought here. I made a note here, and this was one from 1 Corinthians. Just write this down. So 1 Corinthians, Paul's writing to the church in where? Any ideas? Corinth. Good, good. Someone said Bethlehem? No, close, but I mean you're kind of over in the general region, but you're a little far away. So 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20. This is just another good one. Read later the whole section. It's 15 through 20. It's dealing with fornication, sexual sin, before marriage, adultery, during marriage, et cetera. It's dealing with all of sexual sin. Read that later. Starts there in verse 15. But I'm gonna read you verse 19 through 20 because this same principle works with any sin. Here it is. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20. It says, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Like, have you ever thought about that? Like, for the Christ followers, the true believers, we've said it before, but if it's real in your life that the Holy Spirit is in you and you are now a mobile tabernacle. Like, wherever you're going, like, okay. And by the way, it's not, hey, Holy Spirit, we're going over here today. The real approach is, Holy Spirit, where are we going today? He's leading, he's directing, he's guiding, he's convicting, he's comforting, he's illuminating, and so you're this mobile tabernacle right there. Do you not know, Paul says, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own. Wow, that'll draw a crowd in 2025, won't it? Hey, I got news for everybody. You're not your own. What are you talking about? All week long, that's what I've been fed. I'm my own. It's me, what I can do, how I can climb the ladder, trample on whoever you have to to get to the top, and who cares who you destroy in the way? Jew. No, verse 20, for you were bought with a price. You're bought with the most precious blood that's ever been shed through Jesus Christ. You were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. Pretty wild stuff, isn't it? All from Scripture. That's why James, last verses under Key 1. James, write this down. James, back to James. James 1, 21 through 22. So James 1, 21 through 22, therefore, put away all filthiness, put it away, and rampant wickedness, put it away, and receive with humility, with meekness, the implanted word of God, which is able to save your souls. And then verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only," and we forget the last part of this verse, comma, deceiving who? Yourself. So let that sink in for a moment. I profess Christ, but I'm not in His Word. I don't obey His Word. I don't follow His Word. I could care less about His Word. And right there it says here, I'm deceiving myself. Not somebody else, not your friend, not your co-worker, me. I'm the one being deceived. I'm just hearing it, but not obeying it. We gotta be obeyers and just not sayers, right? It's easy to be sayers. We'll spout it off all day long, right? But are we obeyers? How do you become an obeyer? Well, you surrender your life to Christ. It's all, remember, root and fruit. It's all backtracked upstream. And so many people are struggling way over here, but they need to backtrack all the way up here and go, well, what's the root issue? What's the root cause? Where's the infection? That's what God does through the power of His Word, and we can be set free, amen? All right, lastly, Romans 6, 8 through 11. Romans 6, 8 through 11, here's what it says, real simple again. Give you a key and some verses and we'll run out of here declaring the glory of the Lord. Romans 6, verse 8, now, okay, so now, if we have, or since we have died with Christ, we believe, we believe it. So pause for a moment, stop. You got to stop at times and go, OK, what are we reading here? Because it's going to be real easy. You ever done this before where you read scripture and all you're doing is just reading over it and you're not internalizing it? Like, it happens to me. Happens to me. Like, I'll be reading, I'll go, wait a minute, John, I have no idea what I just read. Start over and read it slowly and analyze it, internalize it. We want to be internalizing it, right? We want it to come deep into our heart, our mind, and our soul. If we've died with Christ or since we have, true believer, we believe. There again is confidence. We believe it. We believe that we also will live with him. That's the amazing part of this dying, isn't it? The Bible, you gotta remember, it's backwards from the world. It's backwards from the culture. It's backwards from the flesh. We win by losing. You win by losing, by giving your life away. That's how you win. Right in that book, it's right there. You win by losing. You live by what? By dying. You say, where do you get that from? We just read it, Romans 6, 5 through 11. You live by dying. And the reality is this, there's people again, even inside churches today, that are really truthfully, if we're honest, spiritually, they're dead men and women walking. Dead. Not dead as they died, spiritually dead. Because if you've given your life to Christ, you're not dead men and women walking, you are alive men and women walking as you have died to self. And so many are Just caught up, just caught up in the traps and the allures of the flesh and the world. And I mean, we could go on and on. We talked a bit last week about what's out there for kids. Just the music. Did you know this? That the music industry right now for kids and teenagers, I don't know all of the data, but I could throw out some of the biggest names right now. And those names are all promoting and caught up in witchcraft. We're just feeding our kids this stuff. I was told that movie Wicked, which by the way, who wants to go see a movie entitled that? I mean, somebody needs to go, this probably isn't a good idea. I was told there were witches on the set casting spells while the movie's going on and being filmed. Can we just feed our kids? We have no idea. They're going to like youth group or whatever. We have no idea what they're learning. Pizza and video games and it's a great time. But is it pushing them to holiness? That's always the question. That's always the question. Whether it be an adult, a kid, a student, is what we're involved in, even regarding church, air quotes, is it pushing us towards holiness? And if the answer is no, run, like run, like leave your purse, leave your phone, I get it, leave your phone, like run, like get out of there. Synagogue of Satan. Incubator, it's a grow house for sin. Be careful. Satan's crafty. He shrouds and cloaks everything in what looks good. That's why we give in to it. Because we look at it and go, okay, wait a minute, if you just taught us through God's Word that we don't have to sin, amen, and yet the reason we still sin is because we look at it and go, ooh, that looks good. That looks good. I need that. And then you know it by now, sin will always, always, 100% of the time, the old saying goes, it will take you far, far, far, farther than you ever wanted to go. It will require a price far greater than you ever wanted to pay. And it will require you, yes, to set up shop and stay longer than you ever wanted to stay. Sin does. It allures, it allures. So think about this thought. As we think about these great verses here, Romans 6, 8 through 11, we know, I love this, we believe in verse nine, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God, amen? So you also, finally, verse 11, might consider yourselves What? Dead to what? Sin. And alive to who? God and Christ Jesus. Have you heard of the term being born again? I love when people use that term. Because in my mind, A, it's biblical, amen, but B, in my mind, it gives me such a visual that they were born physically, but they've been born again spiritually. And that's where we all wanna be, I pray. You gotta remember Romans 6 deals with two things, justification, sanctification. Justified, declared righteous, made right with God. He's no longer at war with us. Sanctification, becoming more like Christ till the day you die. Growing in holiness, obedience, righteousness. And don't miss this, the two terms, those two big terms are always 100% of the time tied together. You don't go, hey, I'm justified. I don't have to worry about sanctification. That's not a true believer. A true believer goes, I'm justified. I'm declared righteous. God did the work on my behalf. He set me free. And now for the rest of my days, I'm no longer looking in darkness and sin and wickedness, but I'm looking towards the cross of Jesus and the power of the empty tomb. And I'm going by his strength, by his enabling, by his power to become more like Jesus for the rest of my days. That's a Christian. It's a Christian right there. You say, where do you get it? Right there in that Bible. Right there. That's why key number two, write this down, our last key. It says this, our last key. As we see here in Romans 6, 8 through 11, Romans 6, 8 through 11, for everyone who gives their life to Christ, they will forever live with Him in all God's people's head. That's an amen moment, as they are dead to sin, the power of sin, the dominion of sin, the ruling of sin, the reigning of sin, and alive to God through the person and finished work of Jesus. I could give you a ton of verses that could back that up. I'm gonna give you one section, and this one's amazing. It's 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1, 3-7, write this down. Let me read this. Write down 1 Peter 1, 3-7. I wanna read this, and I pray, even now, that the Holy Spirit would drive this so deep into your heart and mind and soul. Listen to this. 1 Peter 1, 3-7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again, isn't that good? To a living hope, not a dead hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. Have you thought about this? It's reserved in heaven when in the Gospels there, especially in John, it says so many great things, but it says that Jesus has gone to prepare a mansion. Like it's kept in heaven, it's reserved, it's got your name on it. But here's the beauty of this, listen to the further statement here in these verses. It's kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith. Guarded, picture this, guarded, like there's a, a wall, a wall of protection that God Himself is guarding. He's standing guard. Jesus Christ, through His blood, through His righteousness, is standing guard. He's guarding. He's guarding. He's guarding through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials." Why? So that the tested genuineness of your faith, that is so good, the tested genuineness of your faith, that's more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found, that your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Oh, that's good, isn't it? Man, that's just awesome. And again, where do we get it from? This glorious Bible I hold up. These are the words of life. This is the imperishable seed for the Bible says. It will give you hope, encouragement, strength, endurance, the necessary rebuke and challenge. But it's all because Christ has set us free. Here's a thought. galvanized in my mind. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul said so many things that stirred in my mind. But then I dropped down to Galatians 3, and it's one verse. It's a snippet of a thought. He says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has seduced you? Who's tricked you? Who's duped you? Who's baited you and then given you something that wasn't what they promised? And as he talks to the church there in Galatia, I believe he's dealing with the thought of, have you really been set free? Because if you've been set free, you won't turn to a different gospel. because there isn't another gospel. Oh, Satan gives us what he would call his gospel, but there's only one gospel. There's only one good news, and his name is Jesus. And my prayer today, my prayer for you is that we would be set free. See, the irony is the concept of being set free in both the physical and the spiritual realms, think about this for a moment, is that you know, we're back to that word, write it down, K-N-O-W, that we know we've been set free. Have you ever seen someone who actually has been paroled, who is no longer incarcerated, and they're running around going, am I free? Am I free? They know they're free. See, in the spiritual realm, when you're a true Christ follower, sin has lost its power, its grip. The fangs, the talons are no longer embedded. They're trying. They're constantly attacking. But they're no longer gripping and dominating the true believer's life. Even though sin is all around, they're no longer ruling and reigning. And the believer who's truly in Christ doesn't ask anyone if I've been set free. They know they've been set free. Because who the Son sets free. It's free indeed. Amen. Praise God. Let's pray. Oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. There is none like you. And Lord, our goal is to glorify you, to praise you, to edify you, to make your name known. And so, Lord, we rest in the howling of Your name. We howl Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so, Father, I pray. I pray for these here that are gathered here at this church today. I pray for those that are listening. Lord, may those that have given their lives to you truly rest in the reality that they've been set free. And yet, God, for those who perhaps think they're free but are still enslaved, I pray today they would fully surrender all of their lives to Christ, because who the Son sets free is free indeed. Lord, we love you. We love your word. May we treasure it. May we guard it. May we stand for it. May we be bold for it. May we grow in it. And may we never be the same again. And we pray this all in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen. You've been listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. Don't forget that all of these messages are archived and are free to download at thisdayministries.org. That's thisdayministries.org. In addition, if you have been blessed by the teaching of God's Word during This Day in the Word, we would love to hear from you. Our email address is info at thisdayministries.org. Thanks again for listening as we strive to honor Christ and impact our world as we spend This Day in the Word.