Reckoning that Counts
Mike Doyle · Feb 6, 2005
Reckoning That Counts, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826232020207

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, Romans 6, the reckoning that counts, chapter 6, Romans 6. Now, up until this time, we've been talking about principles and foundation. Romans 6, I think it begins the discussion and information that has to do with one's spiritual growth. So, I don't know if we'll get through all this today. There's a lot of stuff here. But, Romans 6 has to do with the reign of the principle of sin.

True or false? True. What's the principle of sin? It's the old nature. It's the sin nature. Do you remember what a principle was? The principle is a way a thing operates or functions, like the principle of gravity. Well, sin has a principle, and the sin nature always functions the same way.

And so when we get to Romans 6, we're no longer talking about sins, S-I-N-S, all that bad stuff that the sin nature produces. We're talking specifically about the sin nature itself. So it's important that we distinguish between those two. Because, I mean, as you read, especially as you read Romans, when you get to 512, it stops talking about sins and starts talking about sin, S-I-N, and if you look at it in the Greek, it's got the definite article in front of it, which means the sin, the sin, the sin, which means it's talking about a specific entity, which is the sin nature, which all of you have. Including me. So, we're not talking about sins. We're talking about the sin nature here. Or another way to say it, the principle of sin. And the cross of Christ has dealt with the principle of sin. Okay, number two. The King James Version fails to set forth our death with Christ in the past tense.

True. Why is that important? Why is it important to know that? To remember ourselves, we have to know that this is in the past tense. The reason the past tense is so important is that it's done. The King James says our old man is crucified with him. The New American Standard says was. So was is important. That it happened. Your sin nature, you were crucified with Christ 2,000 years ago. The world, the flesh, the devil are to be reckoned dead. True or false? How many say true? How many say false? False is right. Why is it false?

Is the world dead? Is the devil dead? Are you dead? No. So what does death mean? It means separation. It never means annihilation. Right? It always means... So, the flesh, the world, Satan, they're not dead. So what's the best way to say that? You're dead to them. Right? You've been separated positionally. Okay? So, okay.

What's interesting, the world, let's talk about the flesh first, the sin nature. What's God going to do with the sin nature? What's He going to do with it? Well, let's maybe clarify here. What happens to a person who doesn't become a believer while they're here on this earth and they leave this earth, they die, what happens to their sin nature? It goes with them. Okay. a believer while he's here, when he dies, what happens to his sin nature? It stays here.

At the time that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Romans 6, you're identified with his death, burial, and resurrection. So positionally, the separation from you and that sin nature took place at that time. So, once you are separated from your body, the sin nature stays with the body. And you go to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. When you're present with Him, there's nothing about you that is not acceptable to Him when you go.

Okay? Now, as we all live here though, that sin nature is still in us and still active. But we've been positionally separated from it. It's a key point. Alright, what happens to the world? Does it ever get obliterated? It gets judged. It's been judged. But there comes a point when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to recreate everything, right?

So this world that's full of sin, it's gone. How about our friend the devil? He isn't going to be obliterated, but he's going to be put in the lake of fire and never be able to influence the new creation at all. He won't be part of it. So for us as a believer, positionally, all three are already true of us. Conditionally, not yet. Okay? You okay with that? Why did God do it that way? Why did He effectuate this positional separation of us from the sin nature? Why would He do it that way?

Never grow, that's for sure. Because I think If the Old Testament and the Gospels teach you nothing else, it teaches you that the old man is not fixable. He can't be fixed. No matter how much he's blessed, no matter how much he's regulated, no matter how much he's punished or intimidated, he won't change.

Why? Because he functions based on the principle of sin. You know, I can't teach my dog to meow. He won't do it. He's the principle of a dog. He barks. Right? You can't teach a sin nature not to sin. That's what it does. All the time. You know? And it doesn't intermittently sin. It sins 24-7. All the time. Okay.

The purpose of reckoning is that we may be able to abide in the Lord Jesus. True or false? Yeah, it is true. So, you know, reckoning yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God, and we'll tackle that in a minute, is designed specifically so that we might be able to abide in Christ.

If you don't reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, what right do you have, from your perspective, to even get close to God? None. You never would feel worthy. Right? And also, if you never reckoned yourself alive unto God in Christ Jesus, you wouldn't dare go there. You know, you'd always be living outside the veil, hoping to do enough spiritual push-ups that maybe God would smile on you favorably once in a while.

See? Okay. Water baptism is not a picture of reckoning. What do you think? That was a hard one. Water baptism is to be a picture of reckoning. Now he says it is. He says water baptism actually is a testimony of our reckoning. We count ourselves to have been baptized or placed in union with the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit and therefore we died unto sin with him. So actually it is. It's a testimony, I think, of your reckoning yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God. Baptism isn't taking a shower, a spiritual shower. That's not what it is. It demonstrates a profound spiritual event, which is your having died with Christ, been buried and resurrected.

According to Hebrews 2.14, the devil has been annihilated. We've already talked about that.

Hebrews 2.14, Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

That's that word katergeo or katergethe, which you'll see In Hebrews 2.14 and other places, Romans 6.6 says, My old man was crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed. King James uses the word destroyed. Makes it sound like the sin nature gets wiped out.

No. Hal Malloy, being an electrical engineer, uses the term that it might be taken offline, or that it might be rendered powerless, or that it might be rendered useless, or that we wouldn't rely on it anymore. You see that? Okay. His power has been broken. Tell me how.

How did the power of the old man and the devil get broken? Yeah, but mechanically, how does that happen? Yeah, I mean, if I'm logically, you know, reviewing in my mind what God is teaching me, and at the same time taking into consideration my absolute awareness of how strong my sin nature is, and God says, well, you know, I have rendered it powerless to affect you. Mechanically, how did that happen?

It happens simply by the fact that you were separated. And so what reckoning does, reckoning agrees with God about what He tells you. You see that? It's no fair going to God and saying, I know what I'm supposed to reckon and I know what you've told me, but my experience doesn't line up with what you're telling me. That's not reckoning. That's not faith either. You understand what I'm saying?

What you find is that as you get into Romans 6 and 7 and 8 and as we go further, the Lord in his word makes some astounding statements about who we are and about what he did. I mean, how many of you have felt like you got crucified 2,000 years ago? How did it feel? Was it cool? And now that you've been resurrected, huh? What do you think about that? And so you look at those things and you say, now wait a minute. Did this really happen? Is God really telling me the truth? Is he? Yeah, he is. As you believe and reckon, the Holy Spirit implements that truth into your life.

If you don't buy it, it isn't going to get implemented. If you just think it's pretty pious language and, boy, if I get this down, I'm going to sound really holy. That's not the purpose of it. The purpose is to free us conditionally from the power of the sin nature, like we have already been freed positionally from it, so that we would walk in newness of life. We would walk as God has designed us to walk, resurrected. See? I mean, it's very practical in my mind to understand that I was crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected, turned a light on inside my mind I said to myself, it's possible not to sin so much.

It really is. Because of these truths. Does that make sense or not? The Lord's Supper is a once and for all picture of our being conformed to the Lord's death. What do you think? That was a hard one too. Yeah, it's false. Why? Yeah. A continuous picture. Say that again. Yeah, it's the conformity process. That's what it is. Yeah. Miles makes a great point here.

He says, we do not leave the influence of the cross to live, but we continually receive the benefit of its emancipation for our walk in newness of life. It's a really good statement. To what we are, are we testifying and receiving and assimilating the broken bread and the fruit of the vine? As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show, proclaim, or preach the Lord's death till he comes.

It's conditional. That's the issue. That is the issue. The usual mistake in reckoning is to stop at the wrong point. True or false? True. So what's the stopping point that's wrong? Yeah, you only do half. You know, you're supposed to take two pills and you only take one. So reckoning is a two-sided coin, or both sides of the cross. And both of them function in our life, I think, conditionally at the same time. You don't get one without the other.

Romans 6.11 says to reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, the sin nature, and alive unto God. Both go on at the same time. You know, it is not true that God implements the crucifixion side, then lets you hang around out there for a while, and then implements the resurrection side. It's both at the same time. So... The separation is instant. Yeah. It's not a continuous process. Right.

See, when we first enter into understanding the identification truths, the really exciting part to us is the debt unto sin part. Am I right about that? I mean, this is really information that is exciting that I am freed from the source of sin in my life, positionally I am.

But, you know, if I don't at the same time get equally as excited about being resurrected and united to Christ, I'm not just an entity left out there. You know, God just doesn't separate me from sin and then I sort of swim around for a while. I'm dead unto one principle, but I'm alive unto God at the same time. And the alive unto God part is probably more important. Because as you grow spiritually, as you grow in the knowledge and the grace of the Lord Jesus, the alive part is what the life functions from. You see that? It isn't just being dead to sin. Dead to sin is as wonderful as that information is. That information doesn't allow me to live. The alive unto God part is what the life is.

Do you see that? Do you see the difference? And they both go together. They're simultaneous. And I think for Myles to point that out in this chapter is really key because, I mean, I've walked up to Christians and said, how's it going? And they said, I'm trying to die to self. Well, number one, the statement, you can't die to self, you either are or you aren't. And two is, it's only half the issue. It's only half the issue. The real issue is living unto God. Because you've been united to him in Christ. See that? So, fill in, the old man has not been But its power has been an old put-down made without effect. Okay? Now, do you think it's important that there's lots of repetition about this? Yeah.

The problem of sins, S-I-N-S, has been dealt with at the source by the... What was the problem of sins? What is the problem of sins? They have consequences. Yeah. If you commit one, you're toast. You've got to pay for it. So the consequences of your sins were dealt with by the what? By the cross. And what specifically about the cross dealt with your sins? It's the blood of Christ. That was the commodity that paid the penalty. That's what God demanded, was a blood sacrifice. You okay with that? Well, let's do the other half. What dealt with your sin nature? Did the blood deal with your sin nature? Yeah, the blood didn't deal with your sin nature, it's the death itself. Okay.

11. In the King James we've been over this, the word destroyed is used in reference to the body of sin, thereby causing many to take for granted that the self is dead and gone once they begin to reckon. Are you aware of the fact that there is a whole group of a whole group within Christianity that believes this viewpoint. We refer to them as one nature. There are people who know the identification truths but believe that the sin nature was eradicated.

What's the problem with that? How do you deal with the sins in your life? If my dog died, how come he's still barking? That's really, you know, and so what they do is they come up with, well, I have memories of sinning, or I have a habit of sinning, so I keep doing it. Nonsense. Sin has to have a source.

Don't they too sometimes believe that if they're sinning again, then that means they're really good to leave in the first place? Ultimately where they go is they start to blame Satan for their activities. That's where they end up. Here's another, which I think is the biggest problem they have.

If the sin nature has been eradicated from their viewpoint, and they are still sinning, they're still committing these things, sins, then they're stuck with dealing with sins. And so their focus is always on sins. See that? And they never go beyond that. maybe a dozen books by different one-nature authors, and they always deal, they never go beyond dealing with sins in their life.

Whereas if the viewpoint is the two-nature position, where I have a sin nature, I've been separated from it, but my reckoning is both sides of the cross, that I'm dead unto sin, but alive unto God, it means that I'm free to get on with the business of being alive unto God.

I begin to learn that what God would really have me do is behold the glory of His Son, not fight my sins. Or chasing devils around the kitchen, you know, big deal. He doesn't want me doing that. He wants me to behold the glory of His Son. And if I'm constantly going around, you know, that kid toy with the hammer and the little things that come up.

And you hit this one down, you know, you're doing this stuff all your life with sins. That's not what God would have you do. He wants you to rest in Christ and behold Him and to walk in the Spirit. If you don't know and are resting upon the fact that you're free to do that, you won't ever do it. When we first encounter the identification truths, the most serious mistake we can make is to what? Try to reckon ourselves dead. Right?

And when you do that, what have you done? What have you implemented in your life? A whole new law system. Now I have this new law. It's called reckoning myself dead. And I'm going to keep doing it as hard as I can do it until it's true. The old man has been fill in the blank, at Calvary, in order that it may be rendered to, what, enslave us, and made so that we may be delivered from, what, the reign and tyranny of the indwelling sin principle.

Does that make sense? How many of you recognize the fact that Sin is an enslaving principle. Do you see it as that? I think young believers look at sinning in their life, and because they're so blessed by God, because they're so young, that they can pray a little bit and God will just deliver them. When you go on for a while, you find out that sin is not just a once in a while kind of a thing.

It's an enslaving principle. It's got me. So this information about being separated from the sin nature via the cross comes as really good news. But that doesn't mean that I've now got my free will back and I can go do whatever I want. What does it mean? It means that now you are free, as Romans 7 says, to be married to another. You are now free to be directed and controlled by the Spirit of God. That's very cool.

Matching. Water baptism refers to our position. The Lord's Supper refers to our condition. We cannot rest in our risen Lord until we know we have been positionally released from the first Adam. That's a great statement. You can't rest until you know you've been released. We cannot rest in being released from the domination of the Adamic life until we know and count upon the fact that we already loosed.

Remember we spent 12 weeks going through position and condition. You see the practical part of it now? Knowing your position is key to reckoning and being conditionally free. If you don't know your position, you don't know what to reckon on, you aren't going to get free conditionally.

It isn't going to happen. Spiritual growth doesn't happen by osmosis or just hanging around with a bunch of cool Christians. It doesn't happen that way. Or going to church on Sunday or smiling a lot. It doesn't happen that way. Believer, growing believers are intelligent about what they believe. They know. And God would have us be that way so that we can live by faith. You know, faith just isn't faith for faith's sake. It's specific in terms of what we believe. These are really good facts to believe, because they're freeing.

I think probably the key statement is that it has to do with 1 Corinthians 11, 26. As for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. The issue is that from a conditional standpoint, what the Lord's table or the Lord's supper really is a demonstration of is the conditional implementation of the work of the cross in a believer's life. You can never get away from the path of the cross.

And that's what it's about. Is it positionally true? Yeah. Like, baptism shows our position, you know. But the Lord's Table is experimental in the sense that it demonstrates we are showing the Lord's death until it comes every time. And we're showing that it is implementing in our life.

I prefer to do this in remembrance. I see it as particularly to remember the grove as being conditional. We forget. We are a forgetful people. We are to be reminded through the Lord's Supper because we forget the conditional. We fall back, and he's asked us, because it's a conditional thing, to remember, to remind, to bring back into focus. And that to me is a conditional thing, that he's asked us to remember. you know, towards that conditional part. So he asks us to do it, to remember to refocus, and that's where I see the conditional part.

Yeah, I think so. And proclaiming or showing or preaching the Lord's death is done practically, conditionally, you know. Yeah, it is. I think early on you think that the celebration of the Lord's table is that he just died for me. But it's way more than that in the sense that, well, his death, and I'm included in that, and showing forth his death in my life means all of the identification truths and the implementation of them. Proclaiming the Lord's death isn't just saying it.

You can't function in newness of life unless you have been crucified, buried and resurrected. You can't do it. You can't imitate the cross. It has to be part of the resurrected life of Christ in you. And so, how did that, what event caused that to be the principle? It was your being involved. with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You were there. You got crucified. You got separated from that old man when he did. And so the Lord Jesus says, show my death until I come. Not only talk about it, but show it in your life.

And the implementation of the Lord's Supper is a demonstration. Well, the next question is, how does baptism and communion fit into the positional-conditional framework? We can jump over that. The paragraph that Miles used, water baptism testifies to our position. We have died to the old life and are alive in the new. The Lord's Supper sets forth our experience, condition, we are being conformed to his death so that his life may be manifested.

By the way, let's talk about that principle for a minute. You know, Corinthians talks about that there might be death in me so that there would be life in you. It has always seemed to me that within every believer, it's almost like we have a fixed amount of capacity.

So much Dr. Pepper in there, right? And let's say that Dr. Pepper represents the sin nature. And where there isn't the sin nature is where there's life, from a conditional standpoint. So the Holy Spirit, His job is to drain down the Dr. Pepper so that the life of Christ can fill the space.

Right? So what does He do? How does He drain down the Dr. Pepper? There you go. He is applying that cross to the old man, the sin nature, the Dr. Pepper. To do what? To render it inactive. Because if it isn't functioning, it can't be manifested. Right? And so the degree to which there is the putting out of business of the activities of the old man...

What's the word I'm looking for? Math term. Proportion and ratio? Ratio and proportion? Proportionately, the life of the Lord Jesus is manifested in and through us. You see that? That make sense? And so, as the Holy Spirit comes and implements conditionally the cross in your life, if you understand the principle of why He's doing it, it makes it a lot easier for you to let Him do it. Because you know that the degree to which the death of Christ is implement it conditionally. Conversely, the life of the Lord Jesus will be manifested in and through us. And he operates on that principle. Death first, then life. Death first, then life.

See that? It lists several facts, which Paul states in Romans 6, 1-16, that we should know. We talked about this last week or the week before, or maybe it was someplace else. If you look, you know, God works so carefully based on principles. The first thing for the believer is to know something, right? Then the next step is what? to believe and reckon on what you know, right? So, in the first 16 verses, I got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. What are you supposed to know? Give me the first one. We've been baptized into Christ's death. Gotta know that, okay? Give me another one. They're buried. That's the next thing. Why burial? Why would he even mention burial? Yeah, they don't bury live guys. They've got to be dead to be buried. It's a proof that you died.

What's the next one? What else do you need to know? Raised. Got to know that. What's the next one? Seated. I think the next thing is knowing that you're to walk in newness of life. The reason that he did all this is so that you could know that you would walk in newness of life. By the way, the noun there is newness, not walk. Okay, what's the next one?

Knowingness. I didn't hear you. Verse 6 is that knowing this, that my old man was crucified. Got to know that. And not only that, was crucified with him. What's the next one? Knowing this, that the body of sin might be rendered inoperable. What else? Knowing that I'm no longer a slave to sin. Okay? So far there's a lot of stuff to know. Right? What's the next one? Yeah. Christ is raised from the dead. I know that. And he's never going to die again. We're not going through this process again. Why not? That's right. Doesn't need to be. So, next one. I put down that death no longer would be a master.

If you look back at Romans 5, it says at the end there that sin, the sin principle reigns unto death. Think about what that means. The whole world is under this principle, the principle of sin, and it reigns. It's not just something that sort of showed up one day. It's the reigning principle unto death, separation from God, total. I think only believers understand that principle is operative in the world system. that they have lived in it all of their life, too. That sin reigns unto death.

And it's tough for Americans because we never think about anybody reigning over us in anything. We're free. The Constitution says so. But the Constitution didn't address the sin nature, right? So you find out that sin reigns unto death. But then the next principle in 5 is that grace might reign unto life, or righteousness. Grace is a reigning principle. just like sin is. Knowing this, that you die once, Christ died once, and that I might live eternally.

What else? I find out that I am alive from the dead. I'm to know that. Because I'm to present my members as instruments of righteousness unto God as those that are alive from the dead. Only those guys that are alive from the dead get to do the presenting. I am alive from the dead. What else do I know? I know that I'm not under law.

But I'm under grace. I've told you that I counsel with a guy over at the Third Reformed Church, a really neat guy. And so we have been going through Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. When we got to this verse, he blinked. He said, I'm not under law? What does that mean? If you know anything about Reformed theology, you're under law. And they're not shy about telling you. So I said, oh, wait a minute, we need to erase that out of your Bible. And I said, if you're not comfortable with it, just take it out of there. Don't they redefine that to mean the ceremonial laws? Yeah, they do. That's what the reform guys have to do.

But when you start talking to them about principles and law principle, And the next part is that I'm under grace. So I'm under grace so that I can live the Mosaic Law, except for the ceremonial part of it. The last thing I put down, the other thing you learn is that who you present yourself to, you're a slave of. So, the things that we as believers just learn about in the first 16 verses of Romans, it's incredible, the information is there that we're to know. Right? Now, let's say you all know it. Now what do you do with it? Memorize it and be a quiz next week. What do you do with it? You believe it.

If it isn't true, it wouldn't be in there. It's very interesting, just in the first 16 verses of Romans, if you believed everything that was there, and the Holy Spirit began to implement just those truths in your life, what a difference it would make. How free you would be.

How does verse 9 and 10, which relate to Christ's resurrection, help us to overcome the power of sin as we apply it in practical life? What do you think? 9 and 10, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over him, for in that he died unto the sin principle or nature once, but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Miles made an interesting point. He said death was the means, life is the goal. You see that? That's an important point. Your death is the means by which you can live unto God, but the goal is to live.

True reckoning is to step out firmly and keep on going. When you reckon something to be so, your reckoning doesn't make it so, but what does your reckoning do? What does it do from a conditional standpoint? If you reckon on just these truths and you put them down as true, and they are true of you, your frame of reference and your whole viewpoint of how you live your life changes.

Explain the difference between each of the following words. Knowing, reckoning, and yielding. What the word knowing means, or knowledge, or whatever it means, just to receive information, to receive knowledge. It's to come to know something. You get it. You understand it. Information. or concepts.

What about reckoning? What's the word reckoning mean, now that we've talked about it so much? Is it just a belief? Is it just faith? Yeah, that's a good way to put it. To count it as true for you. You know, reckoning is a very personal thing. It's not only objectively true, but it's true of me. I was crucified. You know, it's the thing that's true about me. It's an accounting term. It means to calculate and to make decisions based on your calculating and that the decisions are true. 2 plus 2 is 4. I reckon it's 4, because it is 4. My reckoning didn't make it 4. It already is 4.

I died with Christ. It is true. It's true of me. And it is true because He said so. How about yielding? What's the word yield mean? Or present, same word. Better word is present. What this word means in the Greek is the cause to stand near or before, to be present When the verse says to yield your members or present your members, the best explanation I have is that when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I presented myself to them.

I signed on the dotted line and raised my right hand, and they said, thank you very much. You know, as one who's alive from the dead, you present yourself to God or your members to God as alive from the dead, he says, thank you very much. You're now mine. Can't take it back. Several times I went to them and said, you know, could we change this? This isn't anything like I thought it was going to be. No, I'm sorry. You already yielded, buddy. Let's close.

Our dear Father, how we thank you for the cross of your Son and how thankful we are that we were included and that we are. separated from all of our sin nature, from the world, from the devil, from the law, that we might live unto you in newness of life. Father, we thank you and we pray in your Son's name. Amen.