You are listening to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. I'm glad you're here and on time and ready to go. Romans chapter 5. Now what we want to do is build on what we started yesterday when we dealt with the two big truths. The life streaming that Christ's life is in us being streamed imparts the life of Jesus to us and through us so that we experience his divine life to counteract and overcome world and flesh temptations and we experience the overcoming life of Jesus. We also look at our position in Christ. Ephesians 1-2, far above the enemy. That is the provision of his divine authority to counterattack and overrule the enemy. So two different realms, Christ and us to deal with the physical, us and him to deal with the spiritual realm. Now when it comes to this whole matter of accessing him, the spirit filling us with him, thus the spirit filled life, why is it that there are times when we seek to apply this, we think, we're not pushing back at all, we're seeking to embrace everything that we're understanding, and yet, It's just not working out. It's not playing out. Maybe once in a while, but not consistently. And we don't understand why. So I want to deal with that particular issue in this hour because it's a big deal. It has to do with your focus. is the bridge between these two major sections of the Gospel. The Gospel of Sinners in Romans 1-5, justification by grace through faith. And then we have the Gospel of Saints, Romans 6-8, sanctification by grace through faith. And so what we're going to do is look at that bridge, the platform, that takes us from the one aspect of the Gospel to the next aspect of the Gospel. So I hope your mind is open to this amazing passage of Scripture. And I'm going to begin to read in verse 17. By one man's offense, that's Adam, death reigned. Notice the word reign. That's a big word. Rule and dominion through one. Much more, so there's a contrast. Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign. There's that word again, rule and dominion. Verse 18, and therefore, as through one man's offense, the judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the three of death came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Now look at verse 19. As by one man's disobedience many were made. See the word made? It means constituted sinners. So also by one man's obedience will many be made." There's the same word. Constituted righteous. What does that mean? Is that your experience? What is that? It's phenomenal what it is. We'll come back to it. Verse 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. Did you notice the purpose of the law here? The purpose of the law is not to empower you to obey it, because the law has no power to enable you to obey it. The law is holy, and just, and good, as Roland Sackler tells us, but it has no power to enable you to obey it. That's not its purpose. Its purpose is to show you, when you disobey it, that's what it says. So, the law entered that the offense might have been unlawful, the Holy Spirit, spirit and ailment abounded much more, so that, as sin reigned, that's that term, ruled, had dominion in death, even so grace, spirit and ailment, might reign, rule, have dominion, through righteousness, to, let me put the word into, thus accessing the eternal life, who is a person, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, go back to verse 17. And I want us to see an amazing thought here. It says, much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. So there's a condition there. We'll come back to that at the end of the message. But notice where it promises, will reign. And here's my question. When? It says, in life. So let me ask you, is that future? Is that present? It's present. shall reign, shall rule, shall have dominion right now! So I ask you, is that your experience? Because that's the provision. I want to speak to this moment on struggling sinners or righteous reigning. Let's pray and ask the Spirit of God to open up his truth to our hearts this morning. Lord, we do thank you again for this opportunity to meet. I thank you for these dear people. I sense, Lord, there's an eagerness to search the scripture and see whether or not these things were so. So, Lord, thank you for the brilliant hearts in this congregation. Lord, I pray, would you open our eyes in this hour to the truth of the righteous reigning in life. Lord, show us what's provided. Show us how to access it. Lord, may we enter in in full faith to what you have for us. So Lord, I can't. I plead to the victory of Jesus, to the shed blood, that my deed is finished. Lord, I claim my position here on the throne and exercise your authority where any powers of darkness doesn't seek to enter. And trust me that none will be allowed. Lord, bring us now, quicken us now, thrill us now with the provision and the possibility that's available in Christ. Lord, show us where our focus When I was a young preacher, I heard an old preacher say, if you want victory over sin, well that caught my attention, because I needed it. He said, if you want victory over sin, memorize Romans chapter 6. And I thought, wow. Is that all? I can do that. I was a good memorizer, at least in those days. And, uh, so I thought, man, if I can get a dude from Big River City to memorize Romans 6, I can do this. So I memorized Romans 6, man. I could stand. I could run flawlessly. And guess what happened? Nothing. Have you ever noticed the precision of the inspired words of the well-known verse, Psalm 119, verse 11? It says, Thy word have I hid in my heart. It's a well-known verse. Then why do we interpret it as mine? Because it's not what it says. See what the guy said, if you want victory, he said, memorize Romans chapter six. That's mine. But that's not what it says. It says, Thy word have I hid in my heart. It includes the mind, but it's much more than the mind. Thy word have I treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against you. So what is that? What is the heart? We'll come back to that in a moment. Before we do, I want to ask you some questions. The first couple of questions, you do not have to answer out loud. I just want you to get an answer in your mind. Speaking in my mind. All right, question number one. On an average day, how many sins would you say you commit? Here's just a ratio. On an average day, how many sins would you say you commit compared to acts of righteousness? So the idea is this many sins to this many acts of righteousness. It has some kind of ratio in your mind. All right, question number two. Very similar question, but different in its nuance. On a scale of 1 to 100, what percentage of your day, your average day, would you say is righteous? So on a scale of 1 to 100, what percentage of your day would you say is righteousness? Just looking for a percentage. A number. Now, third question. This time I do want you to respond by raising your hand. Okay? And heads will not be bowed, and eyes will not be closed. Alright, so here we are. Everybody's nervous. If you have not sinned today, raise your hand. I don't see any hands. Folks, it's pretty early in the day. Now, if you couldn't raise your hand, for the sake of everybody, or at least you didn't, what sins came to mind? where has been taken questions it goes something like this on the first question on the average day on the same as you say you can make the average audience There was one secondary class that only had two sins, compared to one act of righteousness. But the average Christian audience had three sins, compared to one act of righteousness. On the second question, on an average day, if you give away 100, what percentage of your day was your day as righteous? The average audience that came in at 30%, that's pretty low, up to 60%. Do you realize that the majority of those answers are 50% or less? This is the average Christian audience. Another final question. If you have not sinned today, raise your hand. In the average audience, like you, nobody raises their hand. Once in a while, I get one hand. Especially if it is early enough in the day. But generally speaking, nobody raises their hand. But, when I ask the following question, or when the following question is asked, if you could raise your hand, what sins came to mind? Some people will say, well yeah, I got mad, I kicked the dog in the wake, or whatever. But others are thinking, I don't know, I can't think of anything, but for sure I did something. And what that reveals, is that people believe that they are dirty, rotten, You know, if you actually believe you're a dirty, rotten sinner, what's it going to lead you to do? Sin. Do you realize how dangerous that thinking is? And in the name of humility, we just say, I'm just a dirty, rotten sinner. No, wait a second. I'm not asking if you sin. I realize we can all make dirty messes. I get that. And if you believe you are, you're doing the right thing, and it's going to lead you, and it has. Because it's showing and revealing her heart. You see, your heart is the solution of your soul. Your heart is the collective response of your soul. Your soul is your mind, your affections, and your will. And on a given day, we have a lot of thoughts come through our minds. We're driving down the street, you know, we see a guy over here selling his whatever it is, tacos, whatever. And, you know, you see all sorts of things, but a lot of thoughts go right in and go right back out. But, there are some things we latch on to, and some things that are of consequence that we really latch on to, so they get embedded, and when that happens, they affect us. Thus, that moves us from the mind of the affections, where you're now affected by what you have embraced in your thinking. And so when that happens, that produces involuntary emotions. and influence our will to make the choices that we make. The summation of that is your heart. It's what you down deep really believe. It's what you've extracted out of the thoughts that are in your head and now they've affected you. You've been convinced by them. You've agreed with them so that you choose accordingly. It's your belief system. Now, I am not that interested this morning in what you say you believe. That may sound a little strange. I am interested, but I'm not that interested in what you say you believe. I'm very interested in what you really believe. Because what you really believe, that's your heart. You can say whatever. You can be taught to say, well, you know, we believe this, we believe that. But I'm not interested in what you merely say you believe. I'm interested in what you really believe. What you're affected by. What you're convinced of. What you're operating on. Your mode of operation comes out of your heart. It comes out of that belief system. The Bible tells us in Chronicles, as a man, he's the old Nicholas of this one, as a man thinketh in his heart. But do you know that's not the word heart? Eventually, that's the word for soul. It's literally, as a man calculates his soul, so is he. And then it goes on to say, in the very next verse, eat and drink. He says to you, but his heart, which is the real word for heart, is not with you. It's describing the mind of the guy who's offering you food. Big Bird doesn't want you to eat it. He says, eat and drink. But his heart, what he really needs is not with you. And he's mind-related. And he's watching how much you take. See, that's what he really needs. You get it. As a man calculates his soul, the whole operation of mind, affections, and will, then the next word, heart, goes back and describes that. You see, the heart is the bigger deal. You can say this, drink, whatever, but as hard as that would, see the heart is the real you, the real you on the soul level, not on the spirit level, as we talked about yesterday, but the reality is, all of us act out all of us act out what we really believe. That means we better believe right. Now, I want us to walk through three parts to a discussion here about this matter of believe and right. First of all, I want to start with a description of a sin-conscious heart. I want to describe the dirtball mentality. I think it's a good thing to say, I'm just a very grown sinner. I want to describe this heart disease, this dirtball mentality, this description of a very sin-conscious heart. It starts with being focused on the law. Now, most of us would never say, well, I'm focused on the law. But this is what I mean by that. We're focused on, well, I've got to do this, I've got to not do this. In other words, we're focused on an outcome. Now, please don't get me wrong. It is legitimate, in fact it's needful, to desire a good outcome. The question is, how do you get there? We're talking about focus. See, if you're focused on the outcome, if you're focused on, gotta do this, gotta do that, if you're focused on your version of law, how Christianity should play out in your thinking, your rules, your standards, your box, then you have a sin-conscious heart. Because remember the law, it doesn't empower you to obey it, it just shows you when you disobey it, and then you realize how much you're disobeying it, and so you're using this sin-conscious heart. Now, when you focus on the list of do's and don'ts, here's what happens. The don'ts get longer than the do's. Believe me, man, I had the list, back in the 80s and 90s. Man, oh man, you talk about a box, everybody else is bad, and this is good, and this list of do's and don'ts, and all this stuff, and the don'ts just kept piling up. Now, please don't misunderstand me. Obviously, there are things we should do, and things we should don't. Here's what happens, this is so sad, this is so real. When you focus on, gotta do this, gotta not do that, then another way of saying that is you're focused on not sinning. Yeah, well that sounds good. You know what the problem is? You're focused on not sinning. You're focused on sin! And when you're focused on sin, what does it lead you to do? Sin! What a tragedy! What a total upside-down dissension! Because we're thinking, oh yeah, how did this guy not do that? And obviously, we do want a good outcome, but the problem is, how do you get there? And if we're all focused on the list of do's and don'ts, we're focused on not sinning, and if we're focused on not sinning, we're focused on sinning, and when you're focused on sinning, that means you commit sins! It is a tragic, When that happens, it produces all these feelings of fear. Oh man, I'm in the revival meeting, I got right with God, I'm trying to unite, I wonder how long it's going to last this time. See, it produces that fear of when will I go down again? How long will it take till I blow it this time? It's always that wrong post. And that fear is already in you. Because you're already eclipsed in faith. It produces those feelings of, you know, I just need to try harder. Sounds good. Doesn't work. It produces those feelings of unworthiness. Because, you know, we just don't measure up. It produces feelings of insufficiency because apparently which produces feelings of frustration because we cannot achieve our goal. The box. The list. That produces feelings of guilt because of failure. That produces feelings of condemnation because our conscience has beaten us up and the accuser of the predator is glad to join right in and say, you're a dead man, are you ever a failure? Why don't you just drop out? At the same time, ironically, this is our focus So there's the description of the sin conscious heart. Now before we move on, I want to take a moment to contrast so we can see clearer where we are. The sin conscious heart compared to a God-conscious heart, okay? So we started with the fact that the same conscious heart is law-focused. It's focused on your version of law-living. Do you know what the Bible says? If you keep something quickly, it's chapter 3, that the letter, referring to the letter of the law, but not the spirit, kills. Why? Because it kills what? Because the law does not empower you to obey it. That's not its purpose. It shows you when you would. And so it's constantly condemning you. And thus the letter kills. It is the ministry of showing you when you would. It is the ministry of death. You realize if you're law-focused, you're death-focused. That's why you can't walk around feeling guilty. But in contrast, when you're in a non-conscious way of thinking, you're not law-focused. You're Jesus-focused. Why? Wow. That's fascinating. Now, here's what happens. There are people that realize this law-focused thing, this legalism thing, this is wrong, and there's death, and so they check it, and they go from law-focused to non-law-focused, which is still law-focused, in reverse. They are reverse legalists. That's a whole other issue. But neither one of those are right. Both of those are death. So in the sin conscious heart, we're focused on non-sinning. In the God conscious heart, we're focused on the righteous one. In the sin conscious heart, you're focused on a list. In the God conscious heart, you're focused on a person, a radical difference, who is life himself. You see, in the sin conscious heart, you're in that mode of fear. Oh, when will I blow again? How long will it take? When will I go down? Whereas in the God conscious heart, you're in a mode of faith, trust, Resting in Jesus, in that sin conscious heart, there is that sense of unworthiness. I just don't measure up. Who is this? In the God conscious heart, there is a sense of worthiness in Christ. Who measured up and continues to measure up for you. In a sin conscious heart, there is that sense of insufficiency because we don't have what it takes. Well that's true, we don't have what it takes, but in the God conscious heart, there is a sense of God sufficiency. Because He does have what it takes! And it's in you! And you're in! Okay, so in the sin conscious heart, there is that sense of frustration. In the God conscious heart, there's peace. In the sin conscious heart, there's guilt. In the God conscious heart, there's joy. You experience this freedom, this liberty in Christ. In the sin conscious heart, there's condemnation. In the God conscious heart, there's no condemnation! Because the love of God is being shed abroad in your heart! Sin counts as heart and judgmental of others. Do you know in a not conscious heart you're actually not judgmental of others? Is this a graciousness? A biblical attitude? You see, in a sin conscious heart, living the genuine, true Christian life would be unnatural to what you believe you are, because you believe you're a dirtball. living the true Christian life would be natural, because you're accessing the Christian life itself. Now, which of these descriptions best describes This is heart disease. It's a bad heart disease in a spiritual sense. And so we give seven symptoms of a sin, conscious heart, versus heart disease. This would be assuming that you know Jesus as your Savior. Number one, you consider yourself still a sinner, saved by grace. Now the key word of the phrase is the word still. You consider yourself still a sinner, saved by grace. Now let's get technical, because the Bible does. When you look at the words of the New Testament, and the verb tenses, and the word meanings, if language has meaning, if words have meaning, if language has integrity, then what the New Testament is teaching is, if you're saved, you WERE a sinner! But there's a radical change in who you are. I'm not talking about what you do. Obviously, all of us can still sin. But do you know something radical happened when you were born again? So that now, from salvation moment onward, while you're still able to sin because you can ignore your provision, you're able not to sin because God has given you prevention! So that means when we sin, technically we're not sinners, we're failing saints. do you know that in the New Testament, God, in the inspired text, calls believers in Jesus saints, which means holy ones, 63 times. It's mammoth. Only one time do we see the idea of sinner in the present tense. It's when Paul says, the chief of sinners, but in the context, he's talking about the fact that he used to persecute the church, he used to persecute Jesus. And obviously, we can say we're a sinner in the sense that we can still be a sinner, but when it comes to your core, who you are, that radical change of the old man and the new man that we were talking about yesterday, no, no, you're not a sinner. You're the new man, which is greater than righteousness and true holiness, you are a saint! Okay, number two. Second symptom of a sin conscious heart. You assume, you sin often. You live without knowing it. Thus on that question, if you've not sinned today, raise your hand, don't forget to raise your hand. If you didn't raise your hand, what sins came to mind? And yes, for some I'm sure you can think of something, but for others you're thinking, I don't know what I did, but I'm sure I did something. Okay, there it is. That's this assumption. that you should offer even without knowing it. Now look, I'm not talking about sins of ignorance that you don't even know are sins. I'm talking about the idea here is that things that you do know are sins, but you don't know when you commit them. That doesn't even make sense. the Holy Spirit to warn you when sin is approaching, and to convict you if you cave in to it. And so, yes, you know. I recognize you can get these sense of that, because I get that. But when you ask Dr. Sergey Hartman, he shows you what it is. You see, if we assume that we set off an evil without knowing it, then we think the problem is the sin of all time. Do you know if that's what you think? That's going to affect your fellowship with God. Not him towards you, but you toward him. It's going to affect your faith, your prayer life will be hindered because you're just walking around feeling guilty. I walk the hallways of a lot of churches, about 42 churches a year. I walk the hallways of Christian schools, Christian colleges, and you know what I find It's the number of people who walk down the sidewalk or walk down the hallway with their head down. It's a sense of shame. I'm going to tell you something, friends. That does not fit with the joy of the Lord that Paul talks about under inspiration in our New Testament. There's something wrong with that. Number three. Third symptom of heart disease. You assume it's normal to sit regularly. You assume it's NORMAL to sin REGULARLY. In fact, we have a phrase that when we blow it, we say, well, you know, I'm good, but hey, I'm only human. Now look, if you're born again, is that even true? No. You know, this idea that it's normal to sin regularly, where does the New Testament teach that? You know, in Romans 8, just a few chapters from our text, the Bible says we are born again, Well, that's different from the society that Schmaltz is in regularly. First John 5, this is the victory that overcomes the world in our faith. The emphasis of the New Testament is victory. Now, it is conditioned by faith. It's not automatic, that's obvious. But it's available by faith. And since it's not automatic, since it is victory by faith, then we have some warnings. Plead for litigation. Plead all for litigation. walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." What an amazing verse! We have this wonderful statement in 1 John 2, 1. Now, look at children. I'm talking to the same people. These things cry out at me that you sin not. Imagine a man saying, we have an advocate, glory be to the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, praise the Lord, and then if we can blow that, if we just ignore our provision, make a tragic choice, and crash, and we stumble, confess that sin, and the blood of Jesus comes in and cleanses us off every time. Bless the Lord. And thus, our sins are under the blood, they're under the blood legally, physicially, because of salvation of Jesus, and they can be cleansed when we get off. But did you notice what that verse gives as the exception, not the rule? It says, and Then why don't we make it the rule? See, in your heart, what you really believe down deep, that's gonna be how you act out. That's why these things matter. Number four, this is a big one. For a symptom of heart disease, you believe that temptation itself is sin. Oh, how could that even be in my mind? Oh, God, it's a kidding. Now, wait a second. Some of you have been talking on the hook. You know that, okay, temptation itself is not sin. It's only if we came into it. You're right. If, when, whatever goes through your mind that you know is wrong, if you immediately confess it, then, then immediately it's sin. But now, wait a second. Is temptation itself sin? If it is, we're in trouble. Because there's lots of traps. There's lots of triggers. There's lots of snares. Plus the fiery darts and the flaming arrows from the enemy that we talked about yesterday. There's all this stuff. And just being tempted is a sin. We're sinning all the time. But being tempted is not sin. Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted. That's why Jesus said pray that you don't enter into temptation. Indicating that the temptation itself is not sin. It only becomes sin if you enter in. This truth alone is a paradigm shift, a flag changing if you're trapped into the wrong thinking. Now somebody said to me one time, well yeah, yeah, but preacher, what about that verse in Proverbs that says, the thought of foolishness is sin. Well, what about the word thought? It means the devising, the scheming, the planning to do evil. Yeah, that's sin because you've already entered the temptation. But that a thought enters your brain is not sin because that's out of your control. Number five, if that's a symptom of a sin conscious heart or heart disease, you assume it's easier to sin than to do right. Now if you believe that it's easier to sin than to do right, what's going to lead you to do? To sin. Because we're all locked out of what we're going to believe. You see, if you believe it's easier to sin than to do right, we all act out what we really believe. I was in a meeting with him 10 years ago and the pastor was looking at the calendar and he noticed that April 1st, April Fool's Day was going to land on a Sunday and he thought, I'm going to have some fun. Maybe he'd been to the church a good while, he liked it and so forth. But he got up at the end of the Sunday school hour and he solemnly announced his resignation. They get dismissed, you know, a little break between Sunday school and church. He goes and hides. And, you know, it's a mess. And I'm sure the deacons are saying, hey, did you tell me? Did you tell me what's going on? And all of this mess is going on. And then the Sunday morning service starts. He comes out of hiding. He stands up and smiles and says, April Fools. It did not go over. And three months later, they got him back. Now, when they were all crying, and Wade Bennett, and it was a big scene, it really wasn't true. But they were acting according to what they believed. We all do. Did you notice what the Bible says in 1 John 5? God's commandments, 1 John 5, are not burdensome. I always say, okay, but you're not. It says, but I'm telling you, sometimes they really seem like a big, huge burden. You see, when God stirs you, and you respond in faith, and God enables you, that's why it's not a burden. You don't try to obey without His power. It's a big burden. Because the flesh proffers nothing. Jesus said we've got to be eaten of nothing, but we don't have to be without Him. You know what Jesus said? He said, my yoke is... Do you believe that? Is it difficult for a dog to act like a dog? No. Let me ask you, if you are a saint, which you are, shouldn't it be easy to act saintly? To act what you are, just like a pig acts like a pig, and a dog acts like a dog, because that's what they are? All right, let's go to number six. This is another big one. The sixth symptom of heart disease, the dirtball mentality. You assume that your default mode This is illegal. Default, this is like when you have a computer and it's at the default to print off of this printer and that's what's going to happen unless you go in and deliberately change it. Okay, so you assume your default mode is to send unless you deliberately choose rights and customs, which means the whole world is on you and you're in trouble. Do you know that that is not an accurate way of thinking? Do you know that something radical changed when you got saved? We looked at it in the first session Your spirit, that old man, was joined. That old master called it dwelling sin. But Romans 6.2 says you died to sin. Why? Because Jesus died in the sin once. And the moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were placed into Jesus, baptized into Him, and when you got placed into Him, you got placed into His death. Romans 6.3, which means when He died for sin, now you're in Him, you died in Him according to Romans 6.2, to sin! That's what it means! You see, inside of us, there's this something, this pole, this entity that when there's a trigger of temptation shows us and influences us and says, go for it! We feel a pole that's indwelling sin. Not sins, but that something in us influences us to commit sins. And we used to be joined to that guy. You can't die to something unless you were previously joined to it. In physical death, your soul can't separate from your body unless your soul and your body were connected. OK? And so in the same way, when you die a sin, it means your prior joins a sin. But now you're not. That's a radical change. You know, when I was in high school, I remember the evangelist coming to me saying, you died a sin! And I remember thinking, OK. I don't feel like it. At all. You know, I am now 62. You were supposed to gas me. I said, no way. Well, whatever. But do you know at 62, I still don't feel possessive. But I am. And so are you. Because in the core of our being, we get separated from that guy. Yeah, he still hangs around on our soul body level. That's why when there's temptation, we still feel the pull. But we're not connected yet. We're not forced. into that slavery that we were prior to salvation. Now we're set free, raised a new man, and joined to Jesus. And that new man is God's nature implanted in you, God's DNA. And do you know that God's DNA wants God every time? That's your default mode. The real you, the down-deep core, the new man. God's nature implanted into you. That's where the Holy Spirit moved in. And that nature of God wants the leadership of God all the time. That's your default mode, unless you deliver what you say. the leadership, the power of the Holy Spirit. He's imparting to you the very life of Christ. And when that's happening, it's I live, yet the life of Christ lives in me. And do you know when Christ is living in you, unhindered by unbelief, but now fully accessed by faith, do you know that when that's happening, that everything you do is an act of righteousness? Because it's Him. Do you realize when you trust God, you get out of bed in the morning when you're supposed to? and he managed to get the second part out. Okay, do you realize that's a act of righteousness? And it really is, for some. See, when you're walking in the Spirit, you're walking in the provision of His leadership and power, He's comparting you to the very life of Christ. Do you realize everything you do in that reality is an act of righteousness? Why? Because the Righteous One is animating you. By brushing your teeth. Whatever it is. See, it's not just when you go to church, study the Bible, and go to Holy. Everything a Christian does when he's walking in the Spirit, it means he's not walking in the flesh. Because you can never have a picture. And we can vacillate pretty quickly. Most of us are a little schizophrenic. It's called walking in the flesh, walking in the Spirit. You can't do wolves simultaneously, but you can vacillate quickly. But my point is simply this. everything a Christian does when he is walking in the Spirit, it means he's not walking in the flesh, that means he's accessing Jesus, which means everything else is an act of righteousness. Do you realize on that question about the, you know, how many sins we've saved compared to acts of righteousness? It should be way weighted to acts of righteousness. What do we understand? One guy got ahold of us from Tennessee and he was so excited. And the next day his wife came home from the grocery store. She said, honey, I'm joyful in the Lord. He said, now here's my opportunity for active graciousness. Lord, help me. And he opened the door. And she's thinking, like, what in the world? You see, the new nature is a new natural, as my dad put it. New is natural for the new you, which is the real you, to walk with Jesus. Number seven, the seventh symptom of a sin-conscious heart. You assume God loves you more when you perform well. And less when you don't. Wow, I don't know why I'm thinking. You assume that God loves you more when you perform well. You know, I've been good a couple of weeks. God's gonna, you know, when I feel so good today, He's gonna bless because I've been good for three weeks. That's meritorious thinking. That's self-dependence. That's works. Or, you know, I blew it yesterday, man, if anybody knew what I did yesterday, oh my goodness, it would be a couple of weeks ago, God bless me again. See, that's performance-based acceptance. You know, if that's how you think, and I mean, I meet Christians all the time that think that way. I used to, I used to listen. He said, all steps and symptoms. He said, I was guilty of all. The reality is if three or four are pretty prevalent, then we've got the sin conscious heart then. We've got some heart disease going. So let's get to the third part of our discussion. We've been talking about the description of the sin conscious heart. And now the diagnosis of the sin conscious heart. And now let's look to the deliverance for the sin conscious heart. Oh, wow. Now think. Pretty simple. If you have a wrong way of thinking, In other words, your heart. What you don't really believe. If you believe wrong, then what's the obvious solution? You've got to change what you believe. You've got to change your thinking. Now what Bible word means to change your thinking? Repent. Obviously not repentance for salvation, but repentance for revival. You've got to change your thinking. You've got to believe right. heart transplant? You've got to change your system of relief because you have the wrong way of thinking. Now, this can't be based on wishful thinking, that'll get us nowhere. That's based on truth. What truth? Well, we did have a text. Let's go back to it. In Romans 5, and let me point out three truths that are the basis for this change of thinking. Number one, positional truth. This is the truth of justification, whereby through faith you are declared righteous. In the end of verse 18, it talks about justification. In chapter 5, same chapter, verse 1 and 2, by faith. You see, when you understood the sin of the problem, the hell of the consequence, Christ alone is the answer. And you put your faith in Jesus to save you. At that moment, not only were your sins forgiven, not only did you receive the eternal life of Jesus, he moved in. But at that moment, you were declared righteous. You were justified. The reason is, on the cross, all of your sins were credited to Jesus. But by faith, all of his righteousness is credited to you. This is amazing truth. Justification means that from a legal standpoint, God declares you righteous. Your sins were put on Jesus so that when you put your faith in Him as Savior, His righteousness is legally put on to your account. It is imputed to you. Now I'll be honest with you, it's a trick question. But a trick question, I get it. Because we think the question is, what percentage of your day did you act righteous? That's not the question. It's what percentage of your day is righteous. And you know the answer for every child Friends, this is what God says. Do you realize, when you pass from this life into the next, now don't miss this, when you walk into heaven, you will not walk in with your head down. Cause you will walk in on your righteousness. Did you see it? I understand there's going to be some, I'm sure, regret there. But I'm telling you, when it comes to just walking into heaven based on the doctrine of testification, you are declared righteous. When you put your faith in Jesus, your sins are put on Him at the cross so that His righteousness is legally put on your account. You walk into heaven with the 100% righteousness of Jesus Christ. Your head won't be down. I have some dear friends. Years ago, we knew them well. When I was an assistant pastor there, the boys were little. And I remember, you know, all the boys got saved. And they were in church, growing in the Lord. Well, later on, they moved somewhere else. And I don't know what happened. But one of the boys got into drugs. And it sucked him in. He was an addict. And then he got off of it. And he was doing well. He was clean for six, excuse me, 18 months, a year and a half. Then they found him dead in his apartment of an overdose, which we still don't know what happened. I remember his brother called me. It was difficult. I said, look, you need to know something. We all know your brother trusted in Jesus as a child. He loved the Lord. He made some bad choices as a teenager. And I don't know what happened here, but you need to know that when he OD'd and died, he walked into heaven with the 100% righteousness of Jesus Christ. It was called justification. Trust the Lord. See, legally, positionally, you're declared righteous. Let's move on, because it gets even better. Not only is there positional truth, there's provisional truth. In positional truth, it's justification whereby through faith in Jesus as Savior, you're declared righteous. But in provisional truth, we move from justification to regeneration whereby through that faith in Jesus the word made, constituted sinners, prior salvation, after salvation made, constituted righteous. Now, the human constitution, since we're talking about constituted, the human constitution has three parts, their body, their soul, and their spirit. On the body level, we actually could legitimately call ourselves dirtballs, because generally It's going to be glorified one day when mortality will put on immortality. This body is going to be saved. That's easy. That's future. Your soul is what is to be being saved. That's the present tense aspect of salvation through faith choices. Growth accelerates through choices of unbelief. Growth is tiny and hindered even if you're saved. They're saying to get progress with the faith, lack of progress when there is not faith. But do you know your spirit is completely saved? The under-generated spirit, the old man, dies with Christ, but then, through that new creation, is raised with Christ, the new man, created after God, in righteousness and through holiness. We saw it described in 1 John 3, 9, as God's seed, God's sperm, God's nature implanted in you. God's DNA, it got re-gened when they got re-generated. And the core of your being, the real you, is the very nature of Almighty God. You're not only human. There's a part of you that is constituted righteous because it's the righteous nature of God has turned it into you. There had to be some terms made holy so the Holy Spirit could move in to now lead and empower from that beat you. Last four. You see, thanksfully we're declared righteous even though the soul and body haven't caught up yet. But there's a part of you that's not just declared righteous, it is righteous. because nature is in you. That's not just a legal thing. You're actually righteous in your core. You're constituted righteous. That's what it said there in verse 19. You're made constituted righteous. This is not the absence of our weaknesses, it's the presence of the strength. Now I'm afraid, because this is so key. There's practical truth, positional truth, justification, made righteous, provisional truth, regeneration, made righteous. Now practical truth We can actually experience the Righteous One. I live, yet though I recrease, lives in me by faith. See, if you're saved, He's living in you, but without faith, you miss out on the full benefits. You don't experience Him if you're not depending on Him. But when you take the provision that He's given you, and you act on it, instead of just acting so that it's just you and the flesh profiting nothing, but when you take, He's living in me! Thank you, Lord! And now you act with the Spirit imparting to you the very righteous life of Jesus and His patience and His love, and all of that animates you. Wow! Now, let's go back to verse 17. This is so cool. Look at what this is. for everyone. One man's strength has to reign through one, much more, those who receive. See how we're receiving? You know in many passages in our New Testament, the strength that it take, I emphasize that because often we interpret it as be given. That's not what it says. It's receiving. It's taking what's being given. And it is interesting to note that it's in the present tense, so it's not just the moment of salvation. So there it is. Let's read on. Those who receive, they take and keep taking. Now notice. Abundance of grace. Not just grace, but abundance of grace. Grace is that supernatural enablement through the Holy Spirit. That's actually new to us as well. It's spirit enablement. It's spirit leadership and power. And those who take, and they keep taking, they keep healing, they keep trusting, they keep depending, they keep taking. The leadership and power of the Spirit. Grace! In verse 17, of the gift of righteousness. Do you realize that for us, righteousness is always a gift? Because the only righteousness that meets God's standard is His own. Only God meets the standard of God. That's why we need imputed righteousness, a justification, and imparted righteousness. in sanctification. And friends, when you receive this grace, the Spirit imparts through the life of Jesus, the very righteous one, and that's when that righteousness of God is met, because He's animating you, and He meets the standard. There's that gift of righteousness, so those who keep taking this abundance of Spirit enablement, leadership and power, they keep taking this therefore gift of grace, of freedom, will reign, who will have dominion in life, right now! You can learn everything that we talked about yesterday, but if your focus isn't on Jesus, then what we talked about yesterday won't evade you. Now here's why this is so important. Whatever you focus on is what you depend on. all sorts of stuff, that's not really in the Bible, but let's suppose it actually is in the Bible. You know, things God says to do, and things to shun, you know, take your manners, whatever. If that's your focus, you won't be able to fulfill it. Because whatever you focus on, you depend on. And you know, if you depend on the law, the law has no power over you. And so you can fall right back to self-dependence, and you see it in Romans 7, just a couple chapters later. You know, Romans 6 is the provision. We talked about it yesterday morning. Romans 7 is the same work. And a wretched man that I am, I used to wonder, why is Romans 7 in Romans 7? Romans 7 should be Romans 6 in Romans 6. It should be Romans 7, at least in my thinking. But God's thinking is better than our thinking. Here's what happens. We become aware of the provision that's available in Jesus, Romans 6. So what we do is say, OK, I'm going to go to him for his power. Oh, there's the provision to get in my box. Wrong goal. So we get awakened to his power. And we go to him for his power. We think, as the power to get in our box, as the power to obey our list. And the problem is, whatever you focus on is what you depend on. The law has no power to enable you, so you default back to self-dependence, which means you don't even access the power that you're talking about. And so in Romans 7, what happened to Paul? He fell into the same thing. And by the way, Galatians lets us know that between Paul's salvation and the first missionary journey, 17 years went by. It took him a while to learn this too. And in Romans 7, after he was sort of made aware of this provision in Jesus, Here's this great power, and his goal was the law. Because in Romans 7 down to verse 13, the word law and commandments occurs 12 times. That was the focus. And there's no power there. And that's when in Romans 7 verse 14 to the end of the chapter, the personal pronoun I occurs 25 times. That's that section that says, the good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not. That's what I end up doing. Ever been there? And then he cries out, oh, what should men I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord and that's what launches him into Romans 8. Friends, you can have a desire for a good outcome. That's a good thing. You need to have a desire for a good outcome. The way to get there is not to focus on the outcome. The way to get there is to focus on Jesus. Do you realize if you focus on holiness, I fell into that in the 90's. and then God had to awaken me and adjust my focus. But if you focus on holiness, it will evade you. You'll either crash and burn, or you're going to have the form of darkness that denies the power thereof, and still falls short of the glory of God. You see, if you focus on holiness, it will evade you. But if you focus on the Holy One, then you'll access the Holy One, and you'll have holiness as a by-product If you focus on patience, it'll avenge you. If you focus on Jesus, you'll access Jesus. You'll access his patience. That's how it works. That's how you fulfill the law. That's how you get the right outcome. You will fulfill the law the way God intended. Which, in some areas, may be a little different than what we thought. But, it'll be right when it's handed. My friends, there's your focus. You see, it's Bobby on the person. He's the leader. He's the goal. It's not just his power. Yes, he's the power. But he's the goal. And when he's the goal, you have the right outcome. If you make the outcome the goal, you bypass the person, and therefore you lost the power. But with the focus on you. So reign in life by one. Because it's Jesus reigning in your body. Bless the Lord. Thank you for tuning in to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. We are conveniently located in Corona, New York City, and are devoted to loving God and making disciples. For more resources and helpful information about our church, visit StudyGodsWord.com. We'd also like to extend a personal invitation for you and your family to join us on Sundays at 9.30 in the morning. for a time of interactive Bible study for young people and adults, followed by an 11 o'clock worship and preaching service. If you have young children, they will really enjoy our exciting Bible-based children's ministries in both the morning Bible study hour and worship service. If you have any questions about the church or would like to learn how to have a personal relationship with God, please give us a call or leave some feedback at StudyGodsWord.com. We would be thrilled to meet you in person and show you firsthand what God is doing at Faith Baptist Church. Until next time, may God richly bless you.