Shalom, everyone. Shalom. We are going to turn today to Romans chapter 6. And in Romans chapter 6, we begin the third section of the book of Romans, which deal with the theme of sanctification. And I believe that every one of us who is a believer in the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, need to get a hold of Romans chapter 6 to help us to understand why did God leave us here and didn't take us to heaven immediately after He saved us through the finished work of the Lord Jesus, our Messiah. Romans 6, 7, and 8 together compose a passage or an area in the book of Romans, which deal with the word sanctification.

To be set apart for God. You see, brothers and sisters, when God had saved us, when Yeshua the Messiah had saved us, when Yeshua the Messiah had saved us, He want us to live a life that is pleasing for Him here in this world. It's not enough to say, hallelujah, I've got the ticket, I'm going to heaven, my sins are forgiven, and I'm very thankful to God for this, and then to continue to live a life as I please. It's not right. It's not right. In fact, these chapters, Romans chapter 6, 7, and 8 deal with the very questions that may be asked by somebody. Somebody might ask the question.

The question. In fact, here, the apostle Paul is dealing with three objections that people might have. And the objections might be like this. Well, if God's grace is so much abound towards us when we sin, so why shouldn't we continue to sin so God will give us more grace and more grace and more grace? You see? Because if you look at chapter 5 for a moment of the book of Romans, look how many times the apostle Paul, the apostle Shaul, is using the word grace. Look, it says in verse 15 of Romans chapter 5. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace.

Notice a little bit further in chapter 5, in verse 17, he says, If by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace. You notice that? If you go further down to verse 20, it says here, Moreover, the law entail that the offense might abound, but where sin abound, grace did much more abound. Even verse 21 of chapter 5 of Romans, it says, That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Yeshua the Messiah our Lord. You see how many times the word grace is mentioned here? And you see Romans 6 following chapter 5, chapter 6 following that.

And because we receive so much grace when God forgave us our sins, somebody might say the very same thing that I just mentioned. He says, if God's grace had been abounded, abounded means we got so much of it, more and more and more of the grace of God. Somebody might say, well, if I got so much grace because I sinned, so I should continue living a life of sin, so God can show me even more grace. The Apostle Paul is dealing in Romans chapter 6 with this type of challenge or this type of objection. Another objection that he deals with, another question that he deals with, somebody might say, if we are no more under the law, then we can do as we please.

You see, because we are no longer under the law. See, God gave the law to Israel, to our people of old. And now the Messiah Yeshua came and he saved us gloriously when we have accepted his work that he died and he was buried and he rose again. So we are no longer under the law, right? Well, because we are no longer under the law, somebody might say, well, I can continue living and do as I please because I'm no longer under the law. Paul answered this objection in these chapters 6, 7 and 8. Here's the third objection that we find out that he may ask and challenge.

Somebody might say, Paul, you have made God's law sinful. And in Romans chapter 7, all the way to the end of Romans chapter 7, Paul is answering and he says, listen, the law is not sinful. The law is holy. The problem is not with the law. The problem is with us, with mankind. And so Romans chapter 6 and 7 and 8 deals with those objections. And I want to be very clear for all of us today, dear brothers and sisters. I wanted us to see very clearly as we are studying today that it's not hard to understand Romans 6, 7 and 8. It is a matter of understanding us as the spirit of God enable us to see what God has in mind for us as believers when he left us here in this world.

So I'm going to read some of the verses in Romans chapter 6 for us today. And please follow up with me on those verses. I'm going to read the first 11 verses for our ministry meeting today. Romans 6 verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. May it never be, Paul is saying. How shall we that have died to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Yeshua the Messiah were baptized unto his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ, as the Mashiach, as Christos, was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life, in a new type of living.

And since we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with the Messiah, we believe that we also shall live with him. Knowing that the Messiah, being raised from the dead, he dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus, or Yeshua HaMashiach, our Lord. And we stop here with the verses today in verse 11. Now, I want to make it very simple for us today, so we will all be clear here as we hear these verses in Roman chapter 6. And the one who is the youngest in the faith should be able to understand what Paul is trying to tell us here in this chapter, if we will present it in a very simple way today. And so I want you to notice that in this particular chapter, Roman chapter 6, we are dealing with the importance of being set apart, sanctified.

Actually, Romans 6, 7 and 8 deal with sanctification. What does that mean to be sanctified? It's the Hebrew word for kadosh or holy or set apart. And it simply means this, when God had saved us through the work of Yeshua the Messiah, he did not only save us so we can be going to heaven and have our ticket of salvation, but he also saved us that here in this world now, as we live here in Canada, in Israel, in America, in Europe, wherever we are, in Belarus, that we will seek to live a life that is pleasing to him. What does that mean, a life that is pleasing to him?

A life that is set apart for the Lord. A life that is holy. A life that is separated. That means that once we lived, before we became believers, we lived an ungodly life. Now that I became a child of God, I am to live, and you are to live, a godly life. And Romans chapter 6 is very clearly helping us to understand what's happening here. You see, before we became believers, we didn't have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us. We didn't have any desire for God. We live for ourselves. We live for the world. We live for Satan. We didn't care about the things of God.

We could behave and speak and do and act in ways that were not pleasing to God. But something happened. Jesus, the Messiah, came into our lives. He forgave me. He forgave all my sins. All our sins. And now, he wants us to live a different kind of life. A life that is not, I would say, perfect because we cannot be perfect here in this world. But a life that is pleasing to him. Now, mind you, we have the Holy Spirit of God that can give us a life that is suitable totally for the Lord. But because we experience this with the old nature that we have, we often fail and we don't live the life that is pleasing totally for the Lord.

But there is no reason for us not to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. And so now notice that. In Romans chapter 6, I didn't read the whole chapter. I read only the first 11 verses. But there are three words that I mentioned here that should be brought up to the surface. The first one is the word to know. The second one is the word to reckon. And the word reckon is to consider it true. And the third word is the word yield. Three words. In this chapter 6, all these three words are being presented before us. We are to know in our mind. We are to reckon in our hearts.

And we are to yield in our will. You know, all of us have mind, heart and will. In our mind, we understand things. In our hearts, we feel and we reckon things. And in our will, we are acting upon what we know and what we reckon. All of us have the head, we have a heart, and we have a will. And we are responsible now as believers to know in our mind. To reckon the truth that we have learned in our hearts. And to submit to the will of God. And having our will subject to the will of God. And so Paul, in those verses, actually in the whole chapter 6, deal with these three areas.

Our mind, our heart, and our will. And so he began in the first 10 verses. And he tells us that every believer need to know two things. You have become a believer in Yeshua. I have become a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah. We are children of God. And we need to know things that are fundamental truths of the word of God. Here he tells us we are to know two things. The first thing. Every believer is to know that when he have accepted the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. He or she died to sin. Positionally. Every one of us that have accepted the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

The Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. We must know, biblically speaking, in our mind, on the basis of the word of God. That we are dead. We have died to sin. The second thing that we are to know. Not only that we have died to sin. The second thing that every believer needs to know. Is that he or she should no longer be servants of sin. See, servants of sin is where we serve sin. It becomes like a master controlling us. And mastering over us. It's just like you have a servant. You know, in the olden times, they used to be slaves. And the slaves were told by their master, you do this or else.

And the slave had to do that. Because the master told him or her to do that service. And so, we have to realize, we have to know in our mind. Not only that we have died to sin. But that we should no longer serve sin. That sin would become like our master. Like almost like a tax master. Our people of all Israel have been in Egypt. Where the tax master hid them and told them. Do that and do that and do that. And they had to do what they have told them to do. And so, in the first ten verses, the apostle Paul is dealing with those two things that we are to know.

And you know, all of us here in this room, we have a head on our shoulders. And we have a mind. We know certain things in life we do know. But those are two things that we must know, biblically speaking. That God has taught us in his word through Yeshua the Messiah. The first one is, we are to know that we have died to sin. Now, you notice the word know is mentioned here a few times. Notice, it says in verse 3, "Know ye not." If you jump a little bit further down to verse 6, notice it says, "Knowing this." And go a little bit further down in the next verse, in verse 9.

And you will notice that he says again, "Knowing that." See, Paul is very clear. He says, "You know that." You need to know that in your mind on a basis of the scriptures, the word of God. And so he began in verses 1 to 5. And the first thing that we need to know, that he tells the believer that we need to know, that we are really dead to sin. Have you ever been in a funeral service? Have you ever seen a dead person? Dead person does not react. Dead person does not move. Dead person does not speak. Dead person does not say anything. Dead person simply is dead.

He can no longer do things that he has done when he was alive. Now that's what happened to you and I, beloved brothers and sisters, when we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. When we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah as our Lord and as our Savior, God look at us. He looks at us. He looks at us as we have been just like the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Perfect. Sinless. Not because of ourselves, of course, but because of what Yeshua have done for us on the tree. God look at us, and he must look at us this way. You know why? Because had he not looked at us through Christ, through the Mashiach, through the Messiah, he would have never could forgive our sins.

See, God look at you and I, and he sees us exactly as he sees Yeshua, his beloved son, the Messiah. Perfect. White as snow. Clear cut. Positionally, God looks at us and he says, I see Gideon. I see in any one of us. I see you in the Messiah. Otherwise, how we could ever enter into heaven? If God see one speck of sin in us, he would have never allowed us to enter into his presence. Because sin can never enter into the presence of God. Habakkuk, you remember what he says, Thou art of a purer eye than to behold iniquities, and cannot look upon sin.

And so, he looks at us, he sees us as pure, he sees us as we have completely, without any sin, and we have to see things the way God sees things about ourselves. And so, Paul began here with the thought of knowing it in our mind. And that's why he says in the first verse, there is a question. And the question is like this, that somebody might ask us and we might even ask ourselves. What shall we say then in verse one? Shall we continue in sin that God's grace may abound more and more and more towards us? See, this question truly can be asked.

Well, God showed me grace. God forgave my sins and he made me clean and he showed so much abundant grace upon me and he had given me more grace and more grace. So, if you have given me so much more grace, why shouldn't I continue sinning? So, God showed me more grace. I'll sin and he showed me more grace. I'll continue to sin and he will show me more grace. Now, I want you to understand. It says, shall we continue in sin? What does that mean? Shall we live a life of ongoing, continual sin? Of course, we know that we sin. It's one thing to sin.

It's another thing to live a continual, ongoing sin. You know, when somebody live a continual, ongoing sin without self-judgment, without confession, you might ask the question: Was that person really a child of God from the beginning on? Was that person really receive a new life, a new birth, if he or she live an ongoing, continual, habitual sin? The question may be asked. And so, the answer, of course, that Apostle Paul gives us to that particular question in verse 1. He says, he says in verse 2, he says: God forbid! May it never be, he says in verse 2. And then he says: How shall we, that have died to sin, live any longer therein?

See, the answer is very clearly by Shaul, by the Apostle Paul. He gives us a clear answer. He says: Listen, don't you, he says in verse 2, he says: God forbid! He says: How shall we, and notice he uses including himself. Here it says in the King James that are dead to sin, but it's better to say that have died. It's a past tense. It's already happened the moment that we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. We have died to sin. This is a positional truth that have happened to us the moment we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. We have died to sin. So he says to them: God forbid!

May it never be, he said. He says: How shall we, that have died to sin, live any longer therein? Now, notice he used the word live, in other words, have an ongoing habitual lifestyle. You know, when a person became a believer in the Messiah, there ought to be a change in his or her life. We cannot say: I believed in Jesus, in Yeshua the Messiah, I've accepted him as my Lord and Savior, and carry on life as if nothing happened. You know, it couldn't be. It's not possible. You know why it's not possible? Because the Holy Spirit of God have come to take residence in the person who believe in Yeshua the Messiah as his Lord and Savior.

And there gotta be a change in our lives. There gotta be proof and evidence that something has happened in this person's life. All of a sudden, we desire to read the Bible. All of a sudden, we desire to pray and to give thanks to the Lord. All of a sudden, we desire to gather together with other believers and to hear the word of God. All of a sudden, we want to speak about Yeshua. We want to talk about him. Things have happened. There is a change in the life of the believer. That's what we learn here. How, he said: How shall we, that have died to sin, live a habitual, ongoing lifestyle in the way that we have used to live in the past?

Things have changed. Things are different. And the Apostle Paul saying to them and to those who might object to that or might ask the question: We can continue in sin because, you know, grace may abound. You know, God can show us more grace so we can live a lifestyle of sin. And the Apostle Paul says: Not at all. Not at all. And that's, you know, when unbelievers sometimes telling us as believers, they ask us this question: What do you think? If you just say: I believe in you, Jesus, and your sins are forgiven, and you can go and do what you want? Well, the answer is right here: Not at all.

Not at all. It's a change in the life of the one who has accepted Yeshua, our Lord, as his Lord and Savior. And so, in the first two verses, the questions have been asked. And the answer is that, you know, he says: Look, how we have died to sin. What does that mean, we have died to sin? It means that when we have accepted the Lord, sin in its principle, we have died to it. By the way, you notice he doesn't say that sin died, but we died to it. Because sin and the sin nature is still existing. It's still alive. But we, as believers in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, died to it.

Positionally, where we have accepted our blessed Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And so now, notice in the next verses, verses 3, 4, and 5, Paul gives us an illustration. And he explained this to us with this illustration. He illustrates this in baptism. Now remember, brothers and sisters, that the Bible speaks about baptism in many ways. In more than one way. We often think about baptism when we think of water baptism. But baptism simply means in the Hebrew, as well, "baptizo" in the Greek, "tvila" in Hebrew. It simply means to be put under. It simply means to be identified with. And so sometimes baptism speaks about water baptism. When we go under the water, we are put under.

Sometimes it speaks about spirit baptism, where we have been baptized, put under the authority of God, put into the body of Messiah by the Holy Spirit, where we have accepted the Lord. Even the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, spoke about baptism. He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized, and how I am straightened, getting ready for it." He's speaking about the suffering that he was going to suffer on the tree when he was going to die for us. Here in this passage, the thought is not so much water baptism, neither so much the suffering, the baptism that the Messiah had to suffer, but here the thought of baptism here had to do with the Spirit of God's work in our hearts and our lives.

When we have accepted Yeshua, our Lord and our Messiah, as our Lord and Savior, He baptized us. He put us under a different sphere and authority of our blessed Lord Jesus, the Messiah. In fact, we have been placed under the headship of Christ, of the Messiah, like we used to be under the headship of Adam in our flesh and in our old nature. And so, what we are learning here from verses 3 to 5, that Paul illustrates these truths of us dead to sin through the word baptism. The believer is united with the Messiah by the Spirit of God. Now, turn with me for a moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, if you will, please.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, when Paul is speaking about the body of Christ, the body of Messiah. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he tells us this very important truth that we learn here. He says in verse 13, for by one Spirit, notice that's the Holy Spirit of God. We are all, these all believers, every one of us here that is a child of God and all believers everywhere in this world. We are all, as it says here, being baptized into one body. Notice he used the word baptism here or baptized. Let me change the wording a little bit here. Verse 13 again. For by one Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God, all believers have been put under or placed into the body of Messiah.

The head is in heaven. Yeshua himself is the head. The body is all believers who are under his headship, under his lordship, under his authority. That's what we learn here from this verse. And then it says whether we are Jewish or whether we are Gentiles. Whether we are slaves or whether we are free. Whether we are in other places talking male or female. And then so we have all been made to drink into that one Holy Spirit of God. So you notice now from this verse that baptism here has to do with being put under, put into. Into the one body that have a head in heaven who is our Lord and our master.

And he is in control over all those that have accepted Yeshua the Messiah as their Lord and Savior. And so now I am back to Romans chapter 6 and verses 3 to 5. He gives us the illustration of baptism where he says in verse 3. Don't you know that so many of us were baptized unto Jesus the Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach. Were baptized unto or into his death. You see what happened. We have accepted the Lord Yeshua the Messiah where we became children of God, where we became believers. We have been put into a body of Messiah where all the believers identify with the death of our blessed Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Now we ask ourselves the question and we all know the answer. Why we identify with his death? Well, why did he die? Why did Yeshua have to die? I had a conversation, a very interesting conversation with individuals. Even on my trip here of the importance of the death of the Messiah. We identify with his death. As it says here in verse 3, we have been placed into Jesus the Messiah. We were identified. We were baptized into his death. Why did he have to die? Well, you know why he had to die. So you and I will never need to die eternally. He had to die so he will bear the punishment that I and you deserve to receive from God because of our sins.

That's why. So when we identify with his death, we acknowledge that his death were to deal with the question of sin. And when Jesus died, you and I died. When Jesus suffered and he was judged by God, our sins, our judgment were placed upon him. We died with him. We died in him. That's what really happened. And by the way, here we are talking about spirit baptism. But what do you remember when we are doing water baptism? We do the very same thing just externally. We have a brother or a sister that just accepted the Lord Jesus the Messiah in their life and they want to live for the Lord.

But they want to tell it to everybody else. So the Lord provided a ritual. What's the ritual? It's water baptism. Which means that they are publicly saying to the people that watch them. When I go into the water, I died with the Messiah. And we put them under the water. Different sphere. And then they said, I want to live a new life. I want to live a life for the Lord. We bring them out of the water. It speaks of life again. Resurrection. So they can live in a newness of life. In a different type of life. That's what we are really saying. And that's why water baptism is an expression, external expression of what really happened inside our hearts.

When we have accepted our blessed Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And so he's saying, don't you know, verse 3, in Romans chapter 6, that as many of us as were baptized, identified, or put under, into Jesus, into the headship of the Messiah, we were baptized unto his death. You know what God wants to see here? That we often fail in it. God wants to see Christ, the Messiah, live his life through us. Not that I live, not that you live, but that the Messiah live, Christ live his life through the believer. It is amazing. You know, sometimes we make the mistake, and we say, you know, I want to live the Christian life, or the Messianic, or the Meshichi, the life of the Messiah, and I want to live it, you know.

I want to live it. But you know, the truth of the matter is that it's not that you and I are going to live that life, but that the Messiah will live his life. He will live his life through the believer. That's what really happened. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, Paul said, I am crucified with the Messiah. I am dead with the Messiah. Nevertheless, I live, but not I, he says, yet not I, but the Messiah lives in me. That's what we learn here. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

That's what Paul is teaching us in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. It's a different, it's a life of the Messiah living through us. And you know, when we see a brother or sister that living for the Lord here in this world, we can see the testimony in their life. We can see their behavior. We can see how they speak and how they behave and how they conduct themselves. And we can definitely can say that the Messiah lived through these people. That's what happened here. They died into Christ, into the Messiah, so that his life will be evident in our life. That's what we really see here, as we learn from these verses.

And I hope I make it clear. And believe me, even if I don't make it clear, if we really want to learn those truths, these are positional, real truths that happen to us when we have accepted the Lord Jesus. By the way, even if we don't grasp it enough here, the truth of what we learn here still remains intact. So, Paul is telling, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Yeshua the Messiah were baptized into his death." And now, in verse 4 and 5, he shows us that baptism, here he said to us, speaks of death, burial and resurrection, which demand or shows us that there is a difference of life that we are to live.

And so, in verse 4, he said, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism," this is verse 4, "into death, that like as the Messiah was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in a different kind of life, in a newness of life." Remember, when Yeshua died, he died, but he didn't stay dead. He rose from among the dead. And we are like him, as we died in him, we died with him. And just like he rose from among the dead, we also should live a life, what we call a resurrection life, with a resurrection power, the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Many times we have to confess we are not living this type of life. And the reason that we don't live this kind of life is because we have allowed the flesh to have control over our life. We have allowed the old nature to have supremacy, to have control, to become stronger than what we know as the new nature, the new man. So, the Apostle Paul is definitely showing this to us here in these verses. So, he says, "Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism," verse 4, "into his death, that just like as the Messiah was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, even so, we also should walk," notice the word "walk." It's applied now to a practical walk.

We are to walk in newness of life. And verse 5 tells us, "For if or since we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Do you remember what we learned in chapter 5, when we have studied chapter 5 of the book of Romans, that by one man sin entered into this world, and this sin had been passed to all, for all have sinned. You see, when we were born into this world, we identified with Adam. We were not in the Garden of Eden. I was not. You were not in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago.

And yet, Adam's sin has passed to you and I. Adam's disobedience passed to you and I. We disobey. All what Adam has done, it passed to us. For some reason, we get up in the morning with our old nature, and we desire to live a life that is sinful. Nobody trained us to live a sinful life. Even babies, our own children, when they were born, we never taught them to sin. We never took them to a course, three years course, or five years course. Listen, from year zero to year five, I'm going to teach you how to disobey. We never done that, right? They are professionally disobeying.

They don't need to be taught. They have the evidence of their Adamic nature in them, like myself, like yourself. But something happened when we became a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah. We also now received or identified or planted together in the likeness of the Messiah also. Let me put it in another way, or in a way that somebody put it before. He put it like that. If we cannot stop sinning because of our identity with Adam, we also cannot stop living a godly life because of our identity with the Messiah. You see that? Very clear. We have two headships. Adam, Yeshua. The first man, the second man.

The first Adam, the last Adam. And we have identified with this man by the name of Yeshua as the federal head of all those that have accepted him. So we need to know that, beloved brothers and sisters, in our mind. You don't have to be a scholar. You don't have to be a lawyer. You just simply have to accept the truth that we learn here from Romans chapter 6. Every believer needs to know that he died to sin when he became a child of God. Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17 say it simply this way. Therefore, if any man be in the Messiah, in Christos, in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. That's what happened. Now, I know it is positionally, and we often fail in it practically, but never mind this. We need to learn this in our minds. We need to know it and accept it, what it says in the word of God. So, we learn here that the first thing we are to know, verses 1 to 5, is that we died to sin. Secondly, in the next verses, verses 6 to 10, every believer needs to know that we should no more serve sin. We should no longer allow sin to be our master, our Lord. We should no longer do that, or we should no longer allow that.

Look at the next verses, 6 to 10. And now, notice he gives us the reason, first of all. Now, again, he used the word knowing, you see. In verse 3, he says, "Know ye not." Now, in verse 6, again, he used the word to know. And so, in verse 6, he said, "Knowing this." I want you to know this fact in your mind. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him," with the Messiah, with Yeshua, "that the body of sin might be rendered inactive or destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." It's interesting that he used the word "old man." You know, if you have an old man, that means that there is a new man.

The old man has to do with our sin nature. The new man has to do with the divine, godly nature that we have. Now, I know there's one brother whom I listened to his message, and he says, "I don't agree with the many Christians who teach that we have two natures." He says, "Actually, we really have only one nature, even though two natures are active, but we actually have only one nature." The believer looked by God as if he is a new creation. He has one nature. The old one is not considered. On one way, it's true. We do. God looks at us. He looks at us as he sees the Messiah.

He looks at you, and he sees the Messiah through you. He looks at me, and he sees the Messiah through us. He sees us as we are in the Messiah. New creation. Everything has passed away. Remember, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17, all things have passed away, finished. But we also need to recognize, in reality, that yeah, while it is true that all things have passed away and all become new, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and yet, experientially, we know the truth that we do have two men, two natures. The old nature is Adamic nature. With this old man, this old nature, I have committed every sin under the sun, and you as well.

Lying, coveting, lustful, pride, all the sins that we can imagine. The new nature can never sin, because this is a divine nature. That's the nature that God had given to us, when he had placed within us the Holy Spirit of God, when we have accepted Yeshua, our Messiah. That nature cannot sin, and will not sin. So every time you and I do something wrong in our life, we know who did it. It's the old nature. It's the Adamic nature. I remember the story that I told you that somebody said before about a boy that went to court, stood before the judge, and because he had done something wrong, the policeman caught him and brought him into the court, and he was standing before the judge, and the judge was saying to him, you know, he was telling him, "Did you have done that?" And this person happened to be a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, and he had two natures.

He says, "Judge, this wrong was not me. It was this man. It was the old man that did it." The new man didn't do it. The judge, he was wise. He says, "Well, we will not punish the new man. We'll punish only the old man, the one who did it. But since you have both natures, we'll take both of them and put them in jail." Because both natures are still within us. So we know very well. We always excuse ourselves when we say, "That's the old man did it. That's the old nature did it." But here Paul is saying to us clearly, "Knowing that the old man died or crucified," speaks of death, "crucified with the Messiah." Why it died?

It was crucified with the Messiah in order that the body of sin might be rendered inactive. The King James says destroyed, meaning that it will be rendered, considered inactive. And henceforth we should not serve sin. See what he's really saying? That the old man, this is the Adamic nature that we had, the old man. This old man is crucified with the Messiah. As far as God looks at this old man, he's dead. Good for nothing. Crucified. Why? Because the old nature moved about the members of our body, as it says here, that the body of sin moved about our bodies to do all kinds of things.

All kinds of things. We have done with our hands, with our eyes, with our ears, with our mouth, with our feet, with every member of our body. That's called the body of sin. That God wants that this body of sin will be rendered inactive. He, this body of sin, will no longer be active in wrongdoing. You remember in Genesis chapter 5, where we read that God was ready to punish this world with the flood. And you remember what God said about man with his old nature? He says, and I'm reading this in chapter 6, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil continually.

Only evil continually. When God was ready to punish the world with the judgment of the flood, he said, he saw, he knew the heart of man. He knew the condition of man. He says, listen, he saw the wickedness of man. He saw that the thoughts, the imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil. Only evil. And the word here continually in Hebrew means all the day long. That means 24 hours a day. That means 60 minutes in an hour. That means 60 seconds in a minute. That's what it means. And no wonder, brothers and sisters, Yeshua the Messiah had to come to die. Because if you and I have 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, our mind and our thoughts are dishonoring to the Lord, which lead our bodies to action of sins, all kinds of sins.

No wonder Yeshua had to come to die on the cross. No wonder he had to pay the penalty for our sins. So the old man, in contrast with the new man, the old man, as it says here in our verse 6, the old man is crucified with the Messiah in order that the body of sin might be rendered inactive. That we'll no longer be actively living a life of sin, a life of dishonor to the Lord. You know, if you're like me, and I'm sure you are, every day you're struggling with these things. Every day, from the morning to the evening, we are struggling with these decisions.

What should I do now? Who should I let go first? The old man or the new man? If I have an issue with, let's say, my wife or my friends, and I want to fight with them, what do I do? What is the decision that comes to my mind? Am I going to respond in anger? Or am I going to say, wait a minute, I am crucified with the Messiah. I am going to respond in love. Am I going to decide to hurt somebody or hurt me, as the old man says? Or am I going to say, no, love covers a multitude of sins. Amazing, isn't it?

Every day we are struggling, like Galatians 5 says, the flesh lusters against the spirit, and the spirit lusters against the flesh, and they are contrary to each other. We are struggling with it every day. Every day of our life. By the way, we are struggling with it when we came in this morning to the meeting. When we got up this morning, we are struggling with this. The Bible teaches us, knowing this, that our old man is dead, he was crucified with the Messiah. Why he was crucified with the Messiah? In order that this body of sin, of ours, might be rendered inoperative, inactive. That it will not have an activity, an ongoing activity of sin.

That's why God had to deal with his son on the tree. And so, he tells us now, he continues to explain to us, because God does not want us to have a life of service to sin. He doesn't want us to be slaves to sin. He wants us to have liberty to live a life that is pleasing to him and honoring him. That's what he wants. And so, in verse 7, he says, speaking about sin nature, the sin nature should have no longer power over the believer. Verse 7, it says, "For he that is dead is freed from sin." He that is dead, this is us, the believer, we have been freed to live an ongoing sinful life, an ongoing, habitual, ongoing.

Now, we have available for us the throne of grace when we sin. You remember we read in 1 John 1, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." You remember what the right to the Hebrew believer says, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace." There we can get grace from him, but it should not be an ongoing lifestyle of living an ongoing, habitual, continual sin. Why? Because he that is dead is freed from sin. You never have to see a dead man or dead woman ever doing something wrong. Never. Well, that is what happened to us positionally.

That is actually what happened to us positionally. We died with the Messiah. The old man is crucified with the Messiah. That this body of sin will be rendered inactive, no longer active. So, in verses 8, 9, and 10 of this chapter, Romans chapter 6, he shows us here that the believer entered into a new sphere of life. What happened to us? We really entered into a new sphere of life. Different life. Completely. We used to be in the world and its ways, under the old nature, the old man, the Adamic nature. But we have entered into completely new life. Do you remember when you first became a believer how you really saw a change?

I know I've seen it in my life at least, because I know myself and I'm sure you can speak for yourself. The appetite is different. You don't have any longer hunger to go after the company and the friends and the things that are wrong. You might do them at times, you need to confess them, but it's not habitual, something that you want to live like that anymore. Things have changed. All of a sudden, Yeshua has become important in your life. You read a word. You hear about Him. You talk about Him. You sing about Him. You enjoy the things of the Lord. It becomes so clear, so important for you in your life.

What happened? Well, something happened. The Spirit of God entered into our life. He taught us that we died with the Messiah and we are to live now in newness of life for Him. And that sin now should no longer be our master. We should not serve sin. We should not serve it. So, in those verses, in verses 8, 9, and 10, a believer entered into a complete sphere of life different. Union with the Messiah delivered us from sin's power. In verse 8, we see here, union with Christ, with the Mashiach, had placed us in, completely delivered us from sin's power. Verse 8 says, now, if we be dead with the Messiah, or since we have been died with the Messiah, we believe that we should also live with Him.

And so, it put us in a completely different sphere of life. If we are going to live with the Messiah, can you imagine what's going to happen for us in heaven? Do you know what's going to happen in heaven? Have you thought about it? In heaven, we are no longer going to sin, no darkness, no sadness, no sorrow, no separation, no evil, no nothing. You know, somebody said to me the other day, when I talked to him about the gospel, he says, "Well," I told him, "I'm so tired of all the fighting and fighting everywhere." He says, "Well, if people will not fight, it's going to be boring." So I told him, "Believe me, I prefer to be bored." "I'm tired of all this fighting." If it's not fighting among the believers, if it's not fighting among the country people, if it's not fighting among husbands and wives and children and parents and friends are fighting, all over is fighting.

Well, let me tell you, make me bored. I wish I will be bored and stop the fighting myself. That's the lesson, you see, what we learn. We learn here that we have entered into a different sphere of life and union with the Messiah deliver us from sin's power. And therefore, he says, "If we are dead with the Messiah, we believe also that we are going to live with him." What a joy it will be to live with him. What a joy it will be to be with him, to be with somebody that only wishes good for you, only want to bless you, only want to give you and help you and support you and encourage you and give you joy in your life.

That's what's going to happen when we are going to live with him. Read Revelation 21 and 22 when you have a chance. The eternal order. What a beautiful thing that will be. You never have to be afraid anymore. Nothing but joy and blessing. So he's telling them, listen, union with the Messiah deliver us from sin's power. We are completely in a different sphere. And sin has no longer power over us because we are going to be with him. We are going to be living with him. In verse 9, he tells us that Messiah rose from the dead and the death have no power over him. You see, in verse 9, it says, knowing that, here is the third time the word knowing, knowing that the Messiah being raised from the dead, he dies no more.

Death has no more dominion over him. You see, why people are afraid to die today? Why are they afraid to die? You know why they're afraid to die? Because they do not know what's going to happen beyond death. And they know very well that they're going to have to stand before a holy God who will have to send them to eternal separation from him because they did not deal with the question of sin in their lives. For the believer, we might not necessarily look forward in a sense for death, but we know on the basis of the word of God, that death become a servant to assure the believer to the presence of God.

And that the Messiah, when he died, he died only once for sin, that the believer will have no longer fear of death, and death has no longer power over him. And therefore, death has no longer power over the believer, over the Christian, over the Messiah follower. Clearly, knowing that the Messiah being raised from the dead, he died no more, and death has no more dominion over him. He died once, he died no more. He will never die again. He rose, and death has no more dominion over him. And therefore, the Messiah rose from the dead, and death has no more power over him. And therefore, death has no more power over those who have trusted in him.

And then, the last verse here in verse 10, the Messiah died only once. And we were once justified because of what he have done for us. For in that he died, verse 10, he died unto sin one time, once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And that's what happened. When the Messiah died, he died once. And when he liveth, he lives unto God. And because we belong to him, we also live unto God. There's a verse in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14. It says, "For by one offering, he has perfected forever them that are sanctified." When he died once, he set us apart for God.

And therefore, you see, we have entered into a complete sphere of life so we are no longer to be servant to sins. And servant, like he's a master telling us, "Do it again! Do it again! Go astray! Do this and do this, which is not honoring to the Lord." And we learn here that no, we are no longer to be servants to sin. And if we do sin, it's not something we do habitually, continually, willfully. We do sin if when we sin, we confess it before the Lord, and we ask the Lord to help us to live a life that is pleasing unto him. So we talked about those ten verses.

Knowing. Two things that a believer need to know. Number one, to know that we died to sin. The believer died to sin. Number two, to know that a believer should no longer serve sin. The sin is no longer to be our master. But the Messiah is to be our master. Now quickly, for one more verse, allow me to speak about verse 11, please. And in verse 11, we are shifting from knowing in our mind to reckoning or counting it to be so in our hearts. And so in verse 11, I'll read this verse as well. Romans chapter 6 in verse 11. The believer is now to reckon or to count it to be true.

To consider the fact to be true that he died as true. To consider it, to reckon it true. Not only to know it in your head, but now to consider it in your heart. And let me read this verse 11 of Romans chapter 6. Likewise, just like you are to know, verses 1 to 10. Likewise, reckon or take it into account practically in your heart. Practically, consider it or reckon it also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin when we respond to temptation as dead men would respond. You know, when temptation comes and they come, oh boy, they do come.

Satan will not going to leave us for a moment. The world will not leave us for a moment. The flesh, the old man will not leave us for a moment. But yet, we are to reckon, we are to count it true. We are to consider it. We are to respond, to consider true that we have died. We are dead unto sin. And when temptation comes our way, we are to respond to it the same way that person will respond to temptation. What a dead person will do when temptation comes, he will not answer it. He will not respond to it. His heart will not long after those temptations.

Now, this is a real challenge, brothers and sisters. This is a real challenge. And we know that we fail tremendously when we think about these reckoning it true. We know it in our head now that we learn in those first 10 verses of Romans chapter 6. Now, none of us can say, I do not know according to the word of God. We all know that we die to sin and that we are no longer to serve sin. We know it right now. All of us who have heard this message know it. But the second part is not to bring it down from your head to your heart.

And there is what we are exhorted here in verse 11. Take it into account on a regular basis. That you are yourself being dead unto sin. You died to sin. But alive unto God through Yeshua, the Messiah, our Lord. You notice the contrast? Dead and alive. Dead to sin, alive to the Messiah. That's what we are to reckon. Every day, every time we are facing with temptation and challenges. We are to reckon it. To consider it. Lord, I am not going to go ahead in that direction because I died to sin. But not only did I die to sin. I live for the Messiah. How would he want me to live?

How would he want me to behave in this particular situation? That is where we often fail. Is where we, for a moment, say, ah, Lord, it's okay. I know you are forgiven, Lord. I know you are loving, Lord. I know that your grace abounds. And so what we do, we allow ourselves to respond to temptations. Which end up leading us to fall and to sin. And instead of living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, we end up dishonoring him and not honoring him. And yet he desires to see in our lives a life that is pleasing unto him. So this is something we should not only know in our head, but we should really, with our hearts, with the help of the Spirit of God, ask him to help us to reckon this true that we died.

And to live, to reckon this true that we are alive. We are to live for our blessed Lord, Yeshua, the Messiah. And so this is verse 11, reckon. Lord willing, in our next meeting, we're going to move down from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. And we will deal not so much with the head, knowing. Not so much with the heart, reckoning. But with the will, our own will. That which is very important for us. And that's where we need to yield. That's where the word yielding will come before us vividly. Well, may the Lord bless our thoughts. And I hope I was clear. May the Lord help us.

So we will, by His grace, with His help, we'll be able to live for Him a life that is pleasing to Him.