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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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In this video 0:00 Reigning in Life Through Grace
Reigning in Life Through Grace 0:00 Hey guys! This is Beth Jones and I am so glad you have tuned into the Basics with Beth podcast, and I'm so pumped up about helping you get the basics of the Bible. Or, as we like0:11 to say around here, get the basics. Live the life and do the stuff. I know you are gonna be so encouraged by today's podcast, and I really pray you enjoy0:23 every minute. If you'd like to know more about the basics and what we're doing, just head on over to the basics with beth dot com to get all the deets. And in the meantime, enjoy today's0:35 podcast. Good morning, BFC. How's everybody doing? You ever wonder if God had favorites and maybe you weren't it? Well, I hope you're gonna get encouraged in0:47 this series we're doing called exclamation point, that God loves you, he's got exclamation points for you, to you, and through you, and so we're gonna get into a bunch of stuff. Last week we talked about a gospel0:59 revolution, and that we needed a revelation of the revolution. And so I want to encourage you, get the CD or the DVD or watch it online, whatever you want to do, but I just want to encourage you to get it and listen to1:10 it because, you know, as the speaker sometimes, it's funny when you when you share the word, it's we're anointed to to to preach the word but we're not anointed to live it, like, we're just normal Christians like you. So1:21 I heard the message last week too. Even though I was the 1 sharing it, I heard it too and it ministered to me all week long. How many of y'all God's word ministers to you all the time? And1:33 I kept pondering and still am the truths of last week and I just kept getting, like, these little, you know, explosions going off on the inside, little exclamation points like, God, you are so good.
1:46 Thought I knew, but you're you're, like, so super good. So I want to encourage you, get last week's If You Missed It. Today, we're going to talk about take it. We'll get into that in a minute. Next week we're going to
1:56 talk about you don't deserve it. And we already know that, but don't miss next week because we're just going to drill down a little deeper on some stuff, and it's probably a lot of scriptures that when you get to them in
2:06 your Bible reading, you just gloss over. Like, yeah, whatever, and you keep reading. And then you go back to Proverbs or Psalms. And all the people said, yeah, there's some meat and
2:18 potatoes in the Bible, and we're gonna drill into a couple of verses next week, so don't miss you'll be amazed to find out what you don't deserve but that God has so freely given to
2:30 all of us. Week number 4, a great sozo. The Bible talks about a great salvation. You know, he didn't just say your salvation, he said your great salvation, but how will we escape if we neglect such a
2:41 great salvation? So we don't want to be accused or found guilty of neglecting what Jesus paid a high price for us to have, so don't miss week 4. Week 5, we're going to talk about peace out, and the
2:53 whole purpose of that 1 is just to get a true, refreshed view of what God wants us to experience in terms of rest and peace. How many of you know the promised land for the Christian?
3:06 It's not the land flowing with milk and honey like it was in the Old Testament. The Promised Land for the Christian, the believer in the New Testament, like right now, us, our Promised Land is the land of
3:17 rest. It's when you cease from your own works and you dwell in peace and confidence, and you know God has your back. So we're gonna get into that.
3:29 Week number 5. And week number 6, crazy love. I'm gonna talk about how good God is and how much he loves us, and for a lot of us it's just a cliche, it's just a bumper sticker. Smile, God loves you. But he doesn't want
3:40 it to be a cliche or a bumper sticker, he wants it to be a tangibility. He wants to reveal himself the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth. The 4 dimensional love of God. He wants to reveal it to us in a
3:52 tangible way. And if you're the kind of person you're like, well I know God loves me, but you know, I can't imagine having a relationship with the Lord where like he would call me men and women he would call
4:03 me his beloved. Beloved. I can't imagine that. I mean, that's a little close. That's a little personal. That's how he wants it to be. He wants you to feel cherished and loved
4:15 to the point that you know, beyond any question of a shadow of a doubt, he loves you so much you're his favorite. And aren't you glad God can have a lot of favorites? But that you are feeling that, you are experiencing
4:27 that tangibly, okay? So, week number 6, I'll give you a little commercial for all the weeks to come. So truly, it's an exclamation point, no doubt about it. So today we're going to look at a verse, Romans 5, verse
4:39 17. We are going to pretty much camp out again in 1 verse and tear it apart and get into it, because it's so rich and there's no sense just rushing to get to a bunch of stuff, even though I want to. The
4:51 Holy Spirit is helping me just go slow. Just help everybody get this, alright? So that's what we're going to do. If you need a Bible, raise your hands. The ushers have 1. If you have your Bibles, pull them out and you
5:02 can turn to Romans 5 and then while you're doing that, let me pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you, God. You are so good and your word is so explosive with power and life.
5:14 Exclamation point after exclamation point. So Lord, we ask you today to teach us, be our teacher, be our revealer. Holy Spirit, illuminate the word to us. I thank you that there will be grace
5:26 deposits in a major way today. Things that will change us for time and eternity and may good fruit, eternal fruit, be the result of our time together. In Jesus name
5:38 we pray. And everybody that agreed said, amen. So here's our verse, Romans 5 verse 17. It says, For if by 1 man's offense death reigned through
5:50 the 1, speaking of Adam, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
6:02 will reign in life through the 1, Jesus Christ. So this verse is loaded just like last week. We looked at Romans 1 16 and 17, verses 1
6:14 16 and 17, and it was loaded and packed, just with 1 exclamation point after another. This verse is just the same as is pretty much the whole Bible. So we're going to start at the end of this verse, and we're going to
6:25 find out what is the finish line supposed to look like as it relates to reigning in life. But the hope, the, you know, the thing that should get us excited and, you know, hopefully after a certain point, you want to just
6:37 come out of your skin and run around the room, hopefully, what you'll get is those who receive an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness can absolutely know and experience this
6:48 reality of reigning in life. Alright? So let's take, the word reign. We'll we'll kind of start at the bottom of the verse to begin with, and let's tear apart the word reign. What does that mean? I mean, because
7:00 God said this. I mean, he he's he's careful. The Holy Spirit, as he inspired the writers of the Bible, was careful about what words to use. Like, if the word shouldn't have been in there, it would not have been.
7:13 So he chose to use this word, reign, it's the Greek word where we would get the word basilica. Overcome, you know, kind of a victory conquering kind of a
7:25 thing. Here's the actual definition, to reign means to exercise kingly power, to reign, to exercise the highest influence to control.
7:37 So he's telling us that what the finish line is supposed to look like for us in our lives, you know, on a daily basis, is there's this potential that we're supposed to reign in life. We're supposed to exercise kingly
7:49 power. How many of you wives, your husband already likes this verse? And wives, you should like it too, maybe it should say queenly power. To exercise kingly power,
8:01 supreme power influence in your own life, not over people, this isn't about reining over people, this is about reining in your life. To exercise the highest influence
8:13 to control. You know, we have a lot of people that are control freaks. Well, this is your verse that gives you permission. Be a control freak in your own life. Don't control other people, but God wants us to tap into
8:25 something so that we have control, take control, under his lordship. You know, we're not misplacing who's the Lord of our lives. He's the Lord, but there's something he's trying to
8:37 get over to us that in life we're supposed to reign. We're supposed to dominate. We're supposed to have the influence. So if we're not reigning, like, how would you know if you're not reigning? I guess that's the
8:47 question. How would you know, in your life, if you are not reigning? The only way you would know that is something else is reigning. If you are reigning, you, the
8:59 spirit man of you, you know, the inner man of you, connected to the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit, you know, all of those things being said. If you are not reigning, then what
9:11 is and who is and how did they get there? Because if you're the supreme authority of your life, under the lordship of Jesus, then you, some way or the other, have given the
9:23 authority to something else to reign. You've allowed, you've delegated, you've authorized something else to reign because according to this verse among others, we're supposed to reign in
9:34 life. So how would we know if we're not reigning? Well, we would know because something else is raining. What else would be raining? Well, a lot of things, you know. For some people, it's hormones rain.
9:47 For some people, other people rain. They're under the control of other people. For some people, it's emotions. For some people, it's depression. For some people, it's fear and
9:58 anxiety. Something else is raining. For some people, it's the stock market. For some people, it's the weather. For some people, it's the
10:10 devil. Right? A lot of things want you guys know this, right? A lot of things want control of your life. The enemy, you know, obviously, first and foremost, wants control
10:22 of your life. But this verse tells us, no, we're supposed to have the reins. We're supposed to be in control. We're supposed to reign over whatever this or that may be as it relates to your life. So
10:34 then, if you were reigning, what would that look like? What would it look like if you were reigning? I mean, Jesus talked about it in John 10 10. He said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it
10:43 more abundantly. If we're reigning, we're tapped in to abundant life. Deuteronomy 28, talking about the blessings and the curses, you know, under the old covenant, and now we're
10:55 under a new and better covenant, tells us, under the old and not so good covenant, tells us we're supposed to be the head, not the tail, above only and not beneath.
11:07 That'd be a picture of somebody raining. And all the people said? That'd be a person a person who's reigning has learned how to tap into something so that they're the ones who are
11:18 reigning over their emotions. Their depression or their bipolar or their anxiety or their whatever is not dominating their life. And
11:30 thank God for medicine and all this stuff, you know, little parenthesis here. Thank God there's a lot of measures that God has given the innovation and the discovery in to help people. But at the
11:42 same time, he's saying, look y'all, there's a life here. I've got an exclamation point for you. There's a life here where you can reign. Reining in life.
11:56 If you're a student, what would it look like if you were a student and you reigned in life? You'd be a superior student, you'd be an excellent student. What would it look like
12:08 if you reigned those of you who are in sales? What does it look like if you are reigning in life in sales? You're a top performer. I'm not saying you're competing with other people, you're competing with yourself. You're
12:20 a top performer. What does it look like in whatever sphere of influence that God's given you? What does it look like if you're reigning? You are the
12:31 influence. You're the 1 that is dominating not other people, you're dominating yourself. You know, some of you, maybe the reputation you have at the place of work is, you know, you're moody.
12:44 And you know, you just never know if you're catching her on a good day or him on a good day or bad day. The way that you would know that you're reigning is all of a sudden people around you are like, wow, you're like,
12:52 you're like on the up 3 days in a row. You're beginning to reign over your emotions and you're going to tell your emotions how to behave. If you're reigning over your appetite,
13:06 you're in charge. Food's not in charge. Right? I mean, you know, I'm just giving you a lot of different ways to apply this. There's so many ways to apply it. This will affect your marriage, this will affect your kids,
13:16 your relationships with your kids. I mean, there's so much potential for what God wants to do in you and through you as we tap into this whole idea of reigning in life, alright? So, with that said, then, let's sort
13:28 of go back to the top of the verse, alright? It says, for if by 1 man's offense death reigned, death was an eternal separation from God no, you know, no life
13:40 death was reigning through the 1 it says much more like how much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
13:52 will reign in life. So let's go back to the top. We're going to look at the word receive. Let's start there. How much more will those who receive? And I want to just kind of camp on this word for
14:04 just a couple of minutes because sometimes you read words in the Bible, like we said, you know, and and we just assume that we know what it means. And for a lot of people, the word receive is a little bit passive.
14:17 Like, okay, well, God, I'm just here waiting, I'll just receive. And it's a little bit passive, but look at this definition for the word receive. This is a literal definition,
14:29 it's the Greek word lambano. I think it sounds like a mafia family. The lambanos. Here's what it means. It means this to take to take it's proactive
14:41 to take with the hand, to lay hold of, to take in order to carry away, to take what is one's own, to claim. Well, I don't believe in all that name it, claim it
14:52 stuff. Well, you don't believe in lambano means to claim, To take to oneself, to lay hold upon, take possession.
15:04 You know, no wonder in the Old Testament, God would tell the Israelites, go into that promised land and possess it. He didn't say, you know, sit back here at camp and I'll try and get it to you. He said, you go possess
15:16 that thing. Go take it. Go take the land. It's the same principle here. Take possession, in other words, to appropriate to oneself, to take a thing due,
15:29 to collect, gather, to receive what is offered, to receive what is given, to gain, to get, to obtain. Can Can y'all see the definition for the word receive
15:41 is very proactive. It's not this passive, just sit back in the lazy boy thing. Well, I don't know, you know, he's God, he's in charge, you know, whatever he wants me to receive.
15:53 There's a there's a proactiveness, you know, assertiveness attached to this word. This word is also translated in the New Testament, just to give you some ideas, like, some parallels.
16:06 It's when Jesus said to somebody said to the disciples, he said, if somebody takes your coat, give him your tunic. The word takes, same word, lambano. Somebody takes your coat.
16:18 When Jesus, the Bible says he took the bread and the fish, he broke it, you know, when he was doing the multiplying the loaves and fishes, the Bible says he took the bread and the fish. It's the same word, lambano. He
16:29 took it. There was something proactive. He went he took it. When, Jesus was passing out the, Lord's supper elements to the disciples, he said, Take and
16:41 eat. Same word. So there's a different twist on it. I'm trying to help you see it's not a passive word. You know, we read that verse, you know, how much more
16:53 those who receive Okay, Lord, I'll just sit here and receive. Nope. You gotta take. Take it. Blame it. Possess it. Lay hold of it, take what is due. It's not
17:04 due because you did anything to earn it or to pay for it, in fact, it's the exact opposite, you didn't do anything. You receive, you take, you don't achieve, you don't, you know, earn it, it's not by merit.
17:17 Jesus paid the price, that's why he got it here last week and, you know, we'll hit on it a little bit yet today, but Jesus already purchased, he paid the price. So he says, those who receive an abundance of
17:29 grace, those who take, those who claim, lay claim to it. Alright? So let me give you a couple more thoughts and then I have an example for you. How many of you have insurance policies and you've ever had
17:40 to file a claim? When you file a claim, who's noticed the insurance company doesn't come find you? You have to go find them. And sometimes, you have to push past the pain, don't you?
17:53 To receive what is due you, to file the claim, to receive it, to get it, to obtain it, to claim it. And so, you have to understand that even as it relates to some of the things we're gonna talk about, we have
18:05 an adversary too, you know, The devil, the last thing the devil wants you to know is this is even available and then he wants to resist you a little bit as you begin to claim, as you begin to take, as you begin to
18:15 receive. He wants to resist you a little bit to see how much tenacity do you have. Well, you know, I tried that for a minute. It didn't work. How many of you know, sometimes through faith and
18:27 patience, you obtain, you inherit the promises. So I'm just giving you a little advance warning, like, you know, hopefully you'll be a doer of what we talk about, and then just push on through until you own it.
18:39 Okay, now I have oh, they've got it taped. I had to put don't eat on the box. You never know, these worship teams, they get back there, you know? Okay. So this is fresh from Sweetwaters this
18:51 morning. Stop there on the way in. I have a dozen donuts. Okay? So I would like to say to the congregation, I would like to say, receive the donuts.
19:05 Just receive them. I don't see anybody moving. Okay. Let me say it this way. Get ready. Let me say it this way. Let me say it like Lambano actually is. Take the donuts.
19:17 I see 1. I see a couple more. This might be a good picture of the Christian life. We might have a few doughnuts left. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
19:30 I hope this is not a commentary on your faith. Take the doughnuts. Those who receive, those who take. Now, we'll wait
19:41 till they're empty here. Let's see. We've got 2 left. Take the donuts. Alright. Looks like we got some winner. Oh, now we're gonna fight
19:53 over it. Good. Awesome. Way to go, Brad. Way to be a share a sharer. Awesome. Okay. So here's the
20:05 thing, take the donuts. When I said receive, it's pretty passive. Receive ye the donuts. No. Take the donuts. Now here's the thing, right now, who is benefiting
20:17 from the box of doughnuts? Yeah, about 12 people. It's the ones that took it. Now, you know what? In the Christian world, it's really kind of sad, but if you don't take it, if you
20:29 don't lay hold of, claim what belongs to you, you cannot be mad at God that you didn't get a doughnut. And all the people said, Yeah, you can't be mad at God if
20:41 you didn't get a doughnut. You couldn't be mad at me this morning if I said, Take the doughnuts, and there was still a box of doughnuts left. Right? So now it's not a doing, it's a
20:53 receiving, but it's a proactive receiving. You didn't have to earn it, I bought the doughnuts. What do you have to do? Just take them. It was a free gift, I'm not charging for the donuts. Price
21:05 has been paid. Yeah, but do you want me to say thank you? I mean, if you want to say thank you, so be it, but it's not required? Does God want us to be thankful and have gratitude?
21:17 Absolutely. But does he take away the donuts if we're not? No, but it's just rude. It's just rude on our part, right? Right? So
21:29 just want you to get this picture, this word, this this scripture, how much more those who receive, those who take. Take what? Well, you know, God's not passing out donuts per se, but let's talk about then 2 things
21:41 mentioned in this verse if we'll take hold of these things. This is what enables us to reign in life. Hey. I hope you are enjoying today's message and I wanted to
21:53 interrupt this program to bring you a special announcement. I wanted to offer you a free book that will help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. Just
22:05 click the 'Free Book' button on the 'Pray dot com App' or go to The BasicsWithBeth dot com to get your free copy of the 7 Basics.
22:17 These 7 truths will definitely set you up up for an intimate and successful relationship with the Lord. Now, let's head back into
22:29 our regularly scheduled program. Let's look at this next word, the word grace. Those who receive abundance of grace. Okay? So let's look at it. Grace is the Greek
22:41 word charis or charisma. You've heard those terms. Literally means this. There's there's the Bible describes 3 kinds of grace, or 3 dimensions of grace, probably more than that, but this makes sense to
22:53 us. 3 dimensions of grace: saving grace, serving grace, standing grace. Saving, serving, standing. Alright? I want to talk about the first 2 real quick, but I
23:05 really want to emphasize standing grace as it relates to this verse. So, saving grace, those of you that are taking notes, you can jot down Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. Here's what that means literally. It means merciful
23:17 kindness by which God exerts his holy influence upon souls and turns them to Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith, that
23:29 not of yourselves, it's a gift of God to all who believe so that nobody can boast. So all of us in the room, or I would guess many of us in this room, we've experienced saving grace. We have received it. We have
23:41 taken hold of saving grace. This was the situation where you were just living life and maybe not that interested in God and maybe living your own way and doing your own thing and somehow or another, God, unbeknownst
23:53 to you, began to exert his holy influence upon your soul. You didn't even know it was happening. But suddenly you start to think about God, or think about heaven, or think about
24:05 eternal things, or think about, you know, your purpose, or just what's it all about. These thoughts and these kind of things began to go to work on you, and you began to recognize you're separated from God
24:17 or you need God in your life, I mean, whatever the whatever the situation was for you, how did that how did that happen for you? How did you suddenly just have this desire and this working of God
24:29 towards ultimately a decision you made at 1 point where you received Christ, you took hold of salvation, you invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life and you were saved. How'd that happen? Grace.
24:41 It was all God, you responded and you received it, and you got saved. Saving grace. How many of you would you can totally vouch for the fact that you did nothing to be
24:53 saved. Like, you didn't do anything. Jesus did it all. It's not based on your good works. It's not based on any merit of your own. You know, if you had any question of a shadow of a doubt, once I was lost, but now I am
25:04 found. I was a sinner, but now I'm saved. And you know you didn't do anything about it to make it happen. You just simply received the free gift. It was God's grace that went to work on you
25:17 to draw you and to influence you to come to Christ. Saving grace. Serving grace is this, the power and equipment for ministry, grace or
25:28 grace gifts, denoting extraordinary powers, distinguishing certain Christians and enabling them to serve the church of Christ, the power of divine grace operating in
25:40 their souls by the Holy Spirit. In Romans 6, it talks about that we have different gifts, all of us. We have different gifts according to the grace according to the grace of God. All of us have different serving
25:52 according to the grace of God. All of us have different serving gifts according to God's grace. There's a serving grace. In other words, everybody's got their own, you know, natural human talents and gifts and
26:04 personalities, but in case you didn't know, when you became a Christian, when Jesus became the Lord of your life, God also equipped you with supernatural, extraordinary gifts.
26:17 You might think, well, everybody has these gifts. Everybody doesn't. There's all different kinds of gifts described in the Bible. Grace gifts that God dispenses to those
26:29 in his body for the purpose of building up his body. It's really not for the purpose of your business or even the purpose of your family, although a lot of things in our lives overlap and, you know, and work together.
26:41 But, but really, the gifts, the serving gifts that God's given you, the gift of hospitality, the gift of mercy, the gift of administration, the gift of leadership, the gift of teaching, the gift of exhorting,
26:53 the gift of comfort, you know, whatever your gift is. God gives us those gifts for the building up of His body, for His church. So if you're not employing, you're serving gifts
27:05 in his body, you're missing out on about a third of your life. There's a whole third of the grace world that you're not even enjoying. Those who receive an abundance of
27:17 grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. Saving grace starts there. Serving graces distinguishes how God's wired you supernaturally, not
27:29 just your natural birth, but your supernatural birth. But then, this other dimension of grace I want to talk about, over in, in Romans five:two, it says this, it says,
27:40 concerning standing grace. It says, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which
27:52 we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So, that might sound a little confusing, or, you know, whatever. What is that talking about? He's talking about that we have the ability to access,
28:04 by faith, the grace in which we stand, or what we're calling standing grace. It's the grace that really enables us to live the Christian life
28:16 from the point of salvation all the way up until we leave our bodies and leave planet Earth and go be with the Lord. There's this standing grace. And in Romans 5
28:28 17 where it talks about those who receive, those who take, those who claim the gift of righteousness, an abundance of grace I'm confident he's talking about all, you know, all the different dimensions of
28:39 grace, saving, serving, standing, but especially standing. Because that's the grace by which you stand for your whole Christian life. What does that mean? This is the grace, this is
28:51 God's supernatural influence and favor I'll read the definition in a minute on your life that enables you just to live the Christian life with strength, with inner strength, with
29:03 divine favor. Let me read it to you and then we'll talk about it. Here's what it means literally. It means to be highly favored had nothing to do with you achieving it, you didn't earn it, you don't merit it. It's
29:13 unmerited favor, highly favored. God's goodwill, it's benefits, rewards, loving kindness, a favor which 1 receives without any merit of his own.
29:25 This is the grace that keeps you. You know what keeps a Christian in the Christian life to the finish line? Grace. The grace by which we stand.
29:37 Strengthens. This is the grace that strengthens you and your inner man. When the Apostle Paul said, Lord, you know, this thorn, this thorn in the flesh has come to buffet me, and I asked the Lord, you know, 3 times, take
29:49 it from me. And a lot of people, the the traditional view on that whole story is that, you know, Paul was being plagued with something that God sent and and Paul asked the Lord 3 times, you know, God remove it and God
29:59 said, no Paul, I'm not gonna do it. My grace is sufficient. I sent this to you. My grace is sufficient. You can endure it. How many of you know that's like the traditional view of Paul's thorn? When the Bible itself
30:11 says that the thorn was a messenger from Satan, it was persecutions and buffeting coming against the apostle Paul, and Paul asked God to take away all of that, but, like we said last week,
30:23 1 thing we're not saved from is persecution. And there's tribulations in life we're going to go through, but the Lord spoke to Paul and said, Paul, my grace is sufficient.
30:35 My standing grace. I will strengthen you in your inner man. By my grace, you can stand, you can resist, you can keep on trucking. This is the kind of
30:47 grace where he says those who receive an abundance of grace will reign, have to receive this. I call it a grace deposit, a tangibility, where God strengthens and
30:59 reinforces us in our inner man, and then he gives us unmerited favor. It's like you don't have to achieve it, you just receive it. Unmerited favor. What do I have to do for that? Just receive it?
31:10 Unmerited favor on your job. Unmerited favor when you put your resume in somewhere. Unmerited favor. It doesn't mean you call the shots, it just means, God, thank you for your unmerited favor. What will probably happen
31:22 is you'll have your choice. You'll be offered so many jobs, you'll get your choice. When you're reigning in life because we've received an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, grace is unmerited
31:33 favor, benefits. There's a stress on its freeness and universality. I was going to say universality, but that's not right.
31:45 Universality. The pleasure or joy he designs for the recipient, the sum of earthly blessings, it is set in contrast with debt,
31:57 works, and the law. In other words, we owe a debt. We have to work ourselves into getting this grace. It is in contrast to works, our good deeds. It is in contrast to the
32:09 law, something we have to do, like, keep 9 out of the 10 commandments, you might get some grace. No. It's in contrast to anything we do. It's free and it's universal to
32:21 all who believe. And all the people said, alright, hold your thought there, and then let's look at this, this last word. Righteousness. Those who receive
32:33 an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. Okay? So, righteousness, we talked about this a little bit last week, but let's review. It's the character or quality of
32:44 being right or just. Do you remember last week we talked about the word just and the word righteous or right, and that really, they all come from the same root word, the same Greek
32:56 word. In some places, it's translated just or justified, which literally means God's declaration, his legal declaration, that you are not guilty. When he justifies you, it
33:08 has nothing to do with what you did. In fact, we would be condemned, except he has declared we are not guilty and makes us his righteousness. Same same basic words. So
33:20 the definition says, it is the character quality of being right or righteous or just or justified. It is used to denote an attribute of God, the righteousness of
33:32 God, that gracious gift of God to men, whereby all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are brought into a right relationship with God. This righteousness is
33:43 unattainable by obedience to any law or by any merit of man's own, than faith in Christ. I mean, you gotta ponder this, don't you? Because the human side is like,
33:55 I know, but come on. There has got to be something we're supposed to do. There isn't. Now, here's where confusion is. Let
34:07 me just mention it. We'll probably get into it in weeks to come. A lot of times where people get confused is they they try to equate or they overlap being made righteous. The righteousness of God, you are seen in
34:19 God's eyes as righteous as he is. You are justified, declared not guilty. It's a legal decision. You were declared righteous and
34:31 justified 1 time. You don't have to have this done every year. Doesn't happen, you know, a couple times in your life. 1 time, it's never repealed. God is very, you know, he's very just and legal. And because of what
34:41 Jesus did on the cross that paid in full, 1 drop of blood would have done it, but he shed his blood. So that over and above, once and for all,
34:53 we could be justified, just as if I'd never sinned! Exclamation point. It's almost too good to be true because there's a part of the
35:05 enemy, you know, yeah, but you just can't, come on, you just can't believe that. There's got to be more to it. Well, the other the other dimension has nothing to do with your righteousness, has nothing to do with you
35:17 being justified, is sanctification. I know these are big words. Sanctification is the process through the rest of your life, by his grace, through the rest
35:28 of your life where God goes to work in us, and we become more and more conformed to the image of his son. It's a process the whole rest of our life. But our
35:40 sanctification has nothing to do with our legal position. And nowhere in any of these scriptures so far that we've looked at the last couple weeks does it say that our sanctification is a
35:52 prerequisite for reigning in life. For enjoying salvation. Because when you go that way, then the emphasis is on us. Then we begin to put
36:04 the emphasis on us again, and the emphasis is not on us. The emphasis is on Jesus and what he did. And really, what all of this should do, it should be like, God, you are so good. And this
36:16 just inspires me and motivates me to want to live a life worthy of you, a life that pleases you. Not because I'm trying to earn anything, but because you have so blessed me,
36:27 I want to do it. I'm not doing it so that you bless me. Can you all see that's a big twist? That's a big paradigm shift in a lot of Christians' minds. We know we got saved by grace, oh, I didn't have to do anything,
36:39 thank you, Jesus. But then somehow or another, we get ourselves under legalism again. We get ourselves under works. And the apostle Paul majorly dealt with that in the book of Galatians. He said, who cut in? You were
36:50 running the race. Who cut in and all of a sudden got you back under legalistic works? Now you have to earn it again? No, you can't earn it. But it should just, like,
37:02 put a pep in your step. It should just be like, God, you're so good. Holy camoly. I can reign in life. I can
37:14 now receive or, you know, how how we describe it today. It's not just this passive thing, but God, I can lay hold of, I can claim, I can take, in the name of Jesus, some things that you have purchased for
37:26 me. And because the only reason that you wouldn't do that, the only reason you wouldn't take it, the only reason you wouldn't be like just crazy people running after the donuts, the only reason would be intimidation,
37:37 fear, condemnation, self consciousness. We're so conscious. I know, though, I know why a bunch of people didn't run down and get donuts. Oh, I'm not gonna do that. I don't want people to
37:49 see me. Because we're so self conscious. But what the Lord's trying to say is, don't be so self conscious. Y'all, be righteousness conscious.
38:01 Be Jesus conscious. And all the people said Amen. Alright. Now, let me read you a couple definitions here. It's too good to be
38:15 true. Justification. To justify means to declare righteous or just, to impute righteousness to. To proclaim that 1 is in right relationship to God's holy law,
38:27 to announce that the demands of justice have been satisfied, to declare that there are no grounds for condemnation. There are no grounds. The only reason you wouldn't receive an
38:38 abundance of grace and a gift of righteousness and then just stinking rain in life is because you feel condemned. But there are no grounds for condemnation. You've been justified. You've been made righteous.
38:50 Those who receive the gift of righteousness. The opposite of to justify is to condemn. It's the exact opposite.
39:02 The enemy to righteousness, most of the time, is self righteousness. We're still trying to earn it. We're still trying to figure out there's got to be a catch. I cannot just come get a donut.
39:15 Yeah. You can just reign in life. You can just begin to go, God, I just am gonna agree with you, and I am just gonna thank you today, that today as I get up driving to work, I receive abundance of grace. IShow more
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