Virtual Service August 14, 2022
The Amazing Things God Granted To You When He Saved You – Pt 9
You Are Free From The Power Of Sin
Romans 6:6-7 …we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:19-23 …you used to offer your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, righteousness was not in you. What benefit did you reap at that time from the actions you are now ashamed of? Those acts result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become servants to God, the benefit you now reap leads to holiness, the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Power To Freedom From Sin Is In My Personal Choices As A Believer
Romans 8:2-4 …through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. So He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
You Are Released From The Law
Romans 7:4-6 …you died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him Who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us; (the law) we have been released from it, so that we may now serve in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code.
You Are Blessed With All Spiritual Blessings In The Heavenlies
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
(these blessings have benefit in the here and now)
MacArthur Commentary:
-Our heavenly Father blesses us with every spiritual blessing. In the New Testament pneumatikos (spiritual) is always used in relation to the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it does not here refer to immaterial blessings as opposed to material ones but to the divine origin of the blessings—whether they help us in our spirits, our minds, our bodies, our daily living, or however else. Spiritual refers to the source, not the extent, of blessing. Many Christians continually ask God for what He has already given.
-They pray for Him to give them more love, but “the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). They pray for peace, but Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). They pray for happiness and joy and Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). They ask God for strength, but His Word tells us that we “can do all things through Him who strengthens us…” (Phil. 4:13).
-God’s “divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). It is not that God
will give us but that He has already given us “everything pertaining to life and godliness.” He has blessed us already with every spiritual blessing. We are complete “in Him” (Col. 2:10).
Our resources in God are not simply promised; they are possessed.
-Every Christian has what Paul calls “the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19). God cannot give us more than He has already given us in His Son. There is nothing more to receive. The believer’s need, therefore, is not to receive something more but to do something more with what he has. Our heavenly position and possession are so certain and
secure that Paul speaks of God as having already “raised us up with Him
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
Your Name Is Written In The Book Of Life
Luke 10:19-20 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy: nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
Philippians 4:2-3 I plead with Euodia and with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, I ask you, my loyal yokefellow, to help these women who have struggled at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
Revelation 3:5-6 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 13:5-10 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. He who has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.