Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of God's grace, explaining that understanding and embracing the gift of righteousness is essential for believers to reign in life. He highlights that grace is not merely about forgiveness but encompasses a new identity and position before God, allowing believers to have confidence and victory over sin. Bickle encourages the congregation to engage with these truths in their prayer life and to resist the lies of the enemy that seek to undermine their confidence in God's acceptance. He stresses that the grace of God is a living revelation that empowers believers to overcome challenges and live in the fullness of their identity in Christ.

That was awesome, I love it. Let's turn to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus and we ask you for the spirit of revelation and for inspiration of your word even now. Lord, I ask you for grace, even as I speak on the subject of grace, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, all growth in the kingdom of God comes from having a strong foundation on the subject of the grace of God. And though the topic of grace is a topic that many people would think, yeah, I kind of understand it. I think that much of the foundational truths on the grace of God are not firmly rooted in a lot of people's understanding. So I wanna take some time tonight and I might just go through some basics so that not only would you understand them and you might well understand them, but you would be able to say them to other people. And that these truths would get into your dialogue with the Lord. See, Bible truth is not helpful to you ultimately in terms of transforming your life until it gets into your prayer language with God. If what I learn in the Bible doesn't show up in my dialogue with God, then it's not going to ultimately transform my heart. And so as I go through some of these simple but foundational truths, my desire is not only to give understanding, but again, I trust that many of you have this fundamental understanding, but to give you language to bring other people into the understanding, and but also to put language in your mouth so that when you talk to the Lord, you use some of these concepts in these Bible passages in your dialogue with the Lord. Now there's two passages we're gonna look at tonight that are two of the main ones on the subject of the grace of God. Romans 5, 17 to 21, and 2 Corinthians 5, 17 to 21. Those are two of the most significant passages in the whole word of God on the subject of who we are in Christ. So I wanna highlight those two passages so that you would spend extra time getting familiar with them if you're not, and then you would use them in your prayer time with God. You would actually say the phrases back to the Lord. You would speak them to the enemy. When the devil comes and lies, you would say, it is written, and you would quote these truths to the enemy to cause him to flee and to leave you. Now we start off in Romans 5, 17 to 18, and we'll look at the next couple of verses in just a moment. But here, what is happening is that Paul is describing the experience of every believer. He says in verse 17, speaking of a believer, he said they are those who've received the gift of righteousness. And he said they will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Verse 18, through one man's righteous act, this free gift, the gift of righteousness, it's a free gift, came available to everyone. Everyone can have this gift if they want it. It is a free gift. And this free gift, we have to understand it, and I'm gonna break it down real simply in just a moment. It is the foundational reality that equips us to reign in life. And to reign in life simply means that we would have a sense of triumph and victory in the face of troubles and also in the face of temptation. That when the enemy sends temptation or when just troubles come, we would have a note of triumph and victory in our spirit instead of being overwhelmed and overcome and ready to give up and give in to the enemy. That's what Paul means in part by reigning in life, having a note of triumph and victory, having a sense of being an overcomer even while the enemy is throwing temptation at us and when troubles are knocking on our door and troubles have a number of different sources of which the enemy is one of those sources. Now Paul talks about, in verse 17, those who receive the gift of righteousness. Now the gift of righteousness is the core truth to understanding the revelation of the grace of God. And by the way, the grace of God is a revelation. It's more than just a head knowledge. It's a head knowledge when the Holy Spirit touches us and it becomes alive in us. And it's more than just information, but it's living understanding. And grace, to really get it, it requires the Holy Spirit touching our heart with it. And the fruit of this is that we would reign, we would have victory instead of caving in to discouragement or caving in to sin. And that we would have confidence before God and each stage of the journey. That's one of the main things the enemy does not want you to have is confidence before God. Confidence that he loves you, confidence that he enjoys you, confidence that your prayers are heard. And we have a biblical basis in truth to have confidence before God, even in our weakness. Even in the midst of our weakness, because of the grace of God, we have a reason to be confident before God. The enemy does not want this to happen because if you're confident in God, you will run to God instead of from him in a time of trouble. If you're confident before God, your faith will get strong. If you're confident in God, you'll desire to share the gospel with other people. The enemy wants you discouraged, confused, overwhelmed, and most of all, he wants you feeling rejected and he wants you feeling like a second class citizen when you come before the Lord. So that you're kind of like in a sheepish way, Lord, you know, I don't wanna bother you, but maybe just one more prayer and if you answer this, I won't bother you again for a month. And then the enemy will come and package that as humility. So we think that's humility. There's people that think that kind of attitude before God is somehow humble and it's not humility. It's just religious confusion because of what God did in Christ Jesus, we have every reason in truth and by the power of the Holy Spirit to be bold and confident before God, not just after we mature, but every step along the way and that's what the revelation of the grace of God does. It gives us the ability to reign, to have victory and it gives us the ability to have confidence and confidence, I'll say it again, is dangerous to the devil when the people of God are confident. Our spirit gets happy. We desire God more. Our faith is strong. We hunger for the word. We hunger to share the gospel with other people. So you wanna note these two passages in Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5 and you wanna devour them and again, you don't wanna just learn the concepts. You wanna use them when you're encouraging other people and you wanna use them in your prayer life with God. You want these truths to get into your dialogue with God. I say these truths to God. I thank him for them. I ask him to reveal them more to me. I speak them to the devil when he comes to lie against who I am before God. I go, devil, you're a liar. It is written and I quote these phrases back to the enemy and the devil flees. If you'll take your stand on the word of God, the devil will flee. He'll come back again but then you speak the word of God to him again and he'll flee again. Paragraph B, now the central idea, the central foundational truth to the grace of God is the fact that we receive the free gift of righteousness. Now this has legal and emotional implications that we receive the gift of righteousness. Number one, the legal implications. You receive a new position before God as a free gift because of what Jesus did. It's not because of what you do. It's not how good you're doing the last few months in the Lord. You may be doing really well. You may not be doing so well. Either way, this new position before God is yours because of what he did, not because of what you do. And it's important that we understand it's a legal position. It's based on a legal exchange in the court of heaven. In God's court, there was a historical event that was a legal exchange. Jesus died. That's a historical reality. And he offered his blood for you and I. As our substitute, he took our place. The innocent one became guilty. Jesus, the innocent one, became guilty. And you and I, the guilty ones, became innocent. It was not a sentimental thing. It was a legal, historical transaction at the throne of God, in the court of God. Jesus died. He offered his blood. He said, Father, I pay for their debt. Their debt is now canceled. And because of God's justice, God will never require that debt to be paid a second time. Because God is perfectly just. Once it's paid, it's paid forever. Now, the spirit of religion, religious people try to pay that debt. It can't be paid twice. The books are closed. Your debt is paid. You will never be in debt to God again. And in one moment, the day of your new birth, you were given instantaneously, as a free gift, a new position before God. And it's based on what Jesus did. It's an issue of justice. It doesn't matter how you feel that day, or it doesn't matter what you did that day. As a sincere believer, I'm talking to sincere believers, who want to live under the Lordship of Jesus. Our follow-through is weak, but our desire is sincere. That because of what Jesus did, there was a legal exchange on this historical event, the debt is paid. You can feel terrible tomorrow, and your track record can be bad. But your position does not change, and the debt is still paid. And you can stand before God on the basis of the gift of righteousness. You stand before God with confidence, because Jesus's righteousness has been given to you as a gift. You didn't earn it. It's not based on your maturity. It's not based on how good your prayer life is. It was a free gift given to you the day you were born again. I mean, you couldn't be more spiritually immature than the moment you accepted Jesus. You were really spiritually immature. You've never been that spiritually immature before. Because the moment before, you were not spiritually mature. You were in sin and under judgment. You were not in the kingdom. At your most immature moment of your entire spiritual life forever, you were given the full gift of righteousness as a free gift. And it's Jesus's righteousness. It's a righteousness that can't be improved upon. The righteousness that you received the day you were born again as a free gift, because Jesus paid the legal debt for us, the righteousness you received that day is God's own righteousness, which means it can't ever be improved. A million years from now, when you've had a resurrected body for all that time, the righteousness that you have will not be superior to the righteousness you received the day you were born again. Even God can't increase that righteousness because it's his. It's the ultimate righteousness. It's perfect righteousness. It can't be improved ever. It was given to you instantaneously as a free gift. And this becomes the basis of our security and the basis of our confidence. And the devil does not want this clear in your mind. He wants you constantly in confusion about this truth. Or if you get it clear, he wants you to neglect it. He wants to obscure it. He wants to keep you so busy, so full of fretting or comparing or just distracted to where you don't keep this truth in focus. Because the people that live with the revelation of grace, their spirit gets strong, they get bold, they get mighty in God. And the devil knows this. Number one, it's a legal position. It's a new position to stand in God's presence with confidence. Everything that would hinder God relating to us has been paid for. Every hindrance has been removed. See, God desired to relate to us. God, we created us for relationship, but because of sin, though he desired to relate to us until the sin problem was paid for, he could not relate to us. A holy God cannot relate to people that are unholy. So he had a dilemma because he wanted relationship. There was a hindrance. He could not relate to us in the way that he desired. So his son paid the debt. Justice, the demands of justice were satisfied in the court of heaven. The debt is paid. And now there's nothing from God's point of view that's hindering our relationship with us. Now there are things in our point of view that are hindering it, our wrong thinking or our lack of desire. We can hinder it, but it's not a hindrance from God's point of view. Everything that would hinder our relationship from his point of view is out of the way. He said the debt's been paid. I've wrapped you in my son's righteousness. It can't ever improve. It's perfect righteousness. You can't deserve it. You were given it the day you were born again. The day you are most spiritually immature is when you receive the entire gift. Beloved, this makes us secure. We can absolutely relax and rest in the presence of God. And what I mean by rest, I don't mean be careless or I don't mean being passive. That's not what I mean by rest. What I mean by rest is not be anxious that God is not in favor of our relationship with him. Some people think rest means to be frivolous or to be passive or to be careless about their walk with God. That's not what I mean by rest. When the Bible talks about being at rest, it means there's no anxiety. There's no uncertainty as to where we stand before God. That's what it means by rest, that we have confidence. Confidence and rest are the same thing. Anxiety and uncertainty and insecurity are the opposite of rest. Paragraph two. Well, it's more than just a legal position. It's more than everything changing on one day, the day we're born again, we get a new position. That's the legal truth. There's an emotional truth related to the gift of righteousness because God does accept us because of the legal exchange, but it doesn't stop there. That's only the beginning. There's an emotional dimension because everything that would hinder God relating to us is now removed from God's point of view. And so God now is free to enjoy and delight in the relationship with us. Did you know that God delights? He enjoys relating to you. Not just when you have a resurrected body and perfection and glorification. Yes, he likes us then. He doesn't just enjoy us when we're spiritually mature and we've been walking with God for decades and you've been obedient. Yes, he enjoys us. Servant said he enjoys us literally the day we're born again. Now, God does not enjoy unbelievers. He loves them, God so loves the world, but he does not enjoy relating to them. Matter of fact, he doesn't have a relationship with them. He doesn't delight in the dialogue with them. He doesn't delight in the friendship with them. He loves them, but it says in Ephesians 2, verse 3, that when we're unbelievers, we are by nature children of wrath. We are by nature with, we have animosity in our heart towards God. And God says, I love you, but I don't enjoy relating to you. But beloved, the day we're born again, God begins to enjoy. He begins to enjoy you. He enjoys your prayer. He sees your struggle. He honors and values the pain you go through, even to obey him. He honors it, he sees it. He doesn't write it off and roll his eyes. He delights in his relationship with us. The enemy does not want us to get ahold of this. The gift of righteousness, there's a legal dimension to it, which means it's finished, it's paid for. We have the gift in full. It was given to us instantly and fully in one moment because of a legal exchange, a historical event, but it's more than legal, it's emotional. The gift of righteousness sets the stage for God's delight and enjoyment for us to be expressed. Now, the enemy does not want us to know that. He will let us talk about anything as long as we don't make this point clear. Because again, when it connects with you that God actually enjoys you and it connects to you, there was a legal exchange that guarantees the righteousness that God himself possesses, it's yours. Now again, I'm talking to sincere believers. I'm not talking to mature believers, but sincere believers. Because our faith is sincere and our love is sincere long before it's mature. We may not be mature on our follow through, but we can have sincere intentions to live under the lordship of Jesus. And we manifest that by when we fail, we honest about it, we admit it, we call it sin, we call it failure, we repent of it, we sign back up immediately in the battle to resist that area, we ask forgiveness, we push delete, and we're in full confidence with God before the hour's over. That's how it should work if we understand grace. There's no point in wallowing around for three hours, three days, three weeks, three months, and self, kind of self, whatever, probation. You know, to put ourself on probation, spiritual probation. Like God, I blew it, so if I feel bad for three hours or three days or three months, will you feel better about me if I feel bad? He goes, no, the debt's paid, I can't pay the debt again. You can't pay the debt, it's paid. My justice demands that I take no more payment for that debt. I can't take more payment, it would be injustice if I did. You can't offer it anyway. So God doesn't feel better about you if you feel bad for a few hours or a few days. Matter of fact, once we've really repented, there is godly sorrow, and the godly sorrow is what we do when we come to realization that we've sinned and grieved the Holy Spirit, but we agree with it, we confess it, we repent of it, we receive forgiveness, and we push delete. Honestly, we move on, and we begin to enter into our confidence literally that very day. I'm talking about right away. No need for a little spiritual probation to feel bad so God will feel good, doesn't work that way. That's religious logic, God doesn't buy it. It just creates confusion and distraction in our spiritual life. Paragraph C, the point of receiving the gift of righteousness where it's going is that we would reign in life. We would walk with a sense of victory. Even in the face of temptation, we would have this confidence, this boldness, gives us a whole different environment, so to speak, in our inner man. We have a spirit of confidence. We have a spirit of delight in our relationship with God. It's not a drudgery to walk with a God that likes us, that's so kind, who's so fascinating, so powerful. It's exciting to walk with him, it's not a drudgery. It's a drudgery to walk with God if we think he's mad all the time, and we're failing by his standards, and he's about to throw us out of the kingdom any minute, and we're constantly on probation. Now, some people think if you keep people insecure, you'll keep them pressing in. You'll keep them nervous in their walk with God, and you'll keep them sincerely walking with God. I believe it's just opposite. I believe if people live with this very common sense of condemnation and guilt, eventually they give up. They say, you know, instead of fearing I'm going to fail constantly in the anxiety, it's just easier to quit and fail and get it over with and deal with it. I mean, it's not good logic, but that's how the human heart works. People that are secure in God are far deeper and far more resilient and far more resolved to stay steady in their walk with God. Now, the reason so many people, though everyone's received the gift of righteousness as a born-again believer, but why are so few reigning? Why do so few have this note of victory in their spirit? Because they don't have the revelation of grace. Even though every believer would say, yeah, I get the grace of God. Does that mean God forgave me? Yes, forgiveness is a part of grace, but grace is far more than forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the subunits of grace. I mean, if we're gonna be more accurate, forgiveness is more about the subject of mercy, but it is, forgiveness is one of the subunits of this huge reality called the grace of God. But the grace of God is far more than forgiveness, God's mercy, the grace of God is a divine enabling. It's an empowering. And the grace of God gives us a new position before God of confidence. So not only gives us new power, it gives us a new position with new privileges. So the grace of God is far more than forgiveness. It's power, it's privilege, it's position, it's all of these things. That's why Paul calls it in Ephesians, a couple of times in the book of Ephesians, he calls it the riches of grace, the wealth of the grace of God, because there's so much wealth in all that's involved with the subject of the grace of God. Okay, paragraph E. The gift of righteousness is also called the free gift. It's important that we know we receive the gift freely, we receive it fully, and we receive it instantly at the day of our new birth. The reason these three words are important, these three concepts, because if these are true, we don't have fear of losing it as a sincere believer. It was free, we couldn't earn it. We got it when we were the most immature spiritually. We received it fully, 100% of God's righteousness. He didn't say, tell you what, I'll give you half of my righteousness, and if you prove to be faithful, I'll give you the other half next year. No, he gives us the full righteousness of God fully the day we're born again, and he gives it to us instantly. He gives it to us the day before we've ever earned a thing, possibly, because we can't earn a thing anyway, but before we could ever get confused about that. Now the Holy Spirit wants to give us revelation of the freeness of this gift, because the freeness of the gift creates security and confidence, which is the same thing. The enemy resists the revelation of the freeness of the gift. He does not want us to be clear. He wants us to be confused on it, or as I said, if we get clear, he wants us to get so busy and so distracted that we just simply neglect it. Now an analogy, I've heard this analogy and different guys share different versions of it, but it's a good analogy, of the homeless beggar. He receives, here is the man, lives under the bridge. He's a beggar, there's no place to go. He receives notice, a distant relative dies. He's in the will, doesn't even know the guy who died. He inherits this big company with vast wealth. He's thinking, wow, I have control over this company, I'm the number one owner, and all this wealth. But if he doesn't engage in the appropriate legal processes, none of that money, though it's all his legally, but if he doesn't engage in the process necessary, he won't ever live in the good of it. He says, well, cool, I got the notice. Great, I don't wanna bother with it. He will continue to live in poverty, though he has the will, the title deed, so to speak, of the business. He has to engage in the processes to get the benefit, even though he has the title deed in his hand, so to speak, by virtue of having the will. Well, to complicate matters more, the lawyers in that company, they don't want this homeless beggar to be their boss. So the lawyers are creating all kinds of resistance, all kinds of laws and rules, and giving them new information that's lies and confusing, and this beggar just, you know what, I don't wanna bother with all this stuff. I'm just gonna live happy under the bridge. Too much hassle. Well, the beggar might go the other way and say, no, I'm going to engage in the process, and I'm going to get the benefits of this money. Now, some people are content because they have a beggar's mindset. They've been living in poverty under that bridge so long. They have a condemnation mentality. They're so used to feeling bad with God. They're so used to yielding to sin that the slightest temptation, when it comes their way, instead of even pausing to talk to God about it, they just give up and give in and get it over with because they have a beggar's mentality. They have a defeatist mentality. Even when they face sin, they go, oh, I can't stand against this. Forget it. I'll just give up and give in. Some guys, they have this beggar mentality. They'll even read the will. They'll study these kind of things, but they're still content to live under the bridge. They never, ever cash in the money. They don't want to go through the hassle of learning the information and engaging in the information because I guarantee you, there's the enemy will try to throw curve balls. He will tell you it's not for you. It's not for now. You're not worthy. You didn't get it right. It's like those lawyers throwing all this confusing spin to try to take the rights, the legal rights away from that beggar. Says here in Romans 12, verse two, that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Now this is a very important passage because a lot of people pray that God would transform them. And that's okay to do that. God changed me. And the Lord says, okay, I will, but here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to change you not by giving you more because that's what we really mean. Give me more and change me. And the Lord says, no, I'll change you by helping you change the way you think. I've already given you everything. So even our approach of transformation, a lot of folks, God transform me, God transform me. Give me more, transform me, break in, transform me. And the Lord is, no, change your mind. And that's how the transformation will happen. Line up with truth. And it takes a bit of effort. It takes engaging with the word of God. And it takes taking the word of God, learning it. I mean, these key truths. They're very straightforward truths. And we speak the word of God against the enemy when he comes to like these lawyers trying to steal the will, the inheritance. We have to say, no, it is written. The legal facts are this. Jesus took my sin and I have received the gift of righteousness. It is written, I have the gift of righteousness. Well, we say, God transform me. And God says, no, change your thinking and you will be transformed. The changing of our emotions is the fruit of changing what we believe and buy into in our mind. But it's more than just intellectual information. It's intellectual information that we've talked about with the Holy Spirit. It's information that we carry in our heart, but we carry it while in relationship with the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Meaning, that information becomes living understanding in time. We call that revelation. When I get Bible information, that's good. That's only step one. Then that Bible information gets into my prayer dialogue with God. Meaning, when I talk to God on the throne, the Father of the throne, or I talk to the Spirit who lives in my spirit, whether I talk to the Father on the throne or I speak to the Holy Spirit, I use the Bible in my conversation. And when Bible information gets into our dialogue with God, it becomes living understanding. Then it becomes activated and powerful at a whole nother level. It's not enough to get the Bible verse and underline it and say yes. The Holy Spirit says no. It's gotta be part of our dialogue. You and I have gotta talk about it. You and I have gotta apply it together. You talk to me while you're applying it, and I'll put oil on it. Then it's living understanding. Then it's revelation. Then it will transform your emotions. Our emotions are transformed when our mind agrees with truth. Okay, let's go to Roman number two. Continue on to the next verses in Romans five. Paul makes this very astounding declaration. I mean, it's a powerful declaration. If you just stop and think about it for a minute, which we'll just take a minute on it. He said, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. That is a very powerful statement. Now, we all, from our own testimony of our life and what we've seen in the lives of others and what we've seen in history, we all know that sin has abounded. Our own story, we look at our heart and go, oh, do I know sin has abounded? I know what it means to feel the defilement and the shame of sin. I know what it means to live in sin. I know the darkness, the loss of sin, regardless of what level, we all know it. We've seen it in other people and we've seen it through history. The death that happens and the loss and the damage when sin abounds. And we look at human history, we say, yes, it has not just abounded in me and in my friends, it's abounded all through history. Yes, sins abound, it's the most terrible force that exists. Paul says, let me tell you something. There's something stronger than sin. There's something that's more powerful in the presence of God than even sin. It's called grace. It's more comprehensive, it's stronger, it's more powerful. When the two are put against each other, grace will win every time. Now, the way that grace defeats sin is when the sin is repented of. But when you and I repent of our sin, we repent of it but we feel vulnerable and weak and the Lord says, no, my grace will help you. You repent of your sin, I promise you, the grace will forgive it, the grace will empower it, empower you, the grace will make a way for you to triumph over your sin. What a powerful statement. Where sin abounded throughout all history or in our individual life, grace abounds more, no, much more, grace is far more powerful than any sin, any sin repented of. Grace will dominate it and swallow it up and throw the sin away and it will be as though the sin did not exist. This is powerful, the most powerful force in all of existence, the grace of God that is released to abound whenever sin is repented of in the name of Jesus. Because repenting of the sin in the name of Jesus is the context where grace explodes and flexes its muscles and shows its superior power. Oh, I love that verse. Paul, I'm guessing he wrote where sin abound, grace abound all the more, just oh, wait, stop. Oh, Lord, oh, oh, that felt so good. Let me write it again, let me say it again. The implications to this phrase, you could talk an hour on this phrase. But he's making another point, verse 21. He goes, here's where this goes, here's the logic, here's where this takes us. That in the same way that sin reigned, in the same way that sin reigned as king, as monarch, sin reigned as a tyrant, as a king over everyone that submitted to it, he came as a tyrant and crushed people. He stole their heart, he killed their hearts, he took their destiny, he ruined relationships, he destroyed their walk with God. Unrepentant of sin, I'm talking about. Sin marches through the earth like a tyrant, like a king that's powerful, boasting and strutting, nothing can stop me. But there's the reign of grace. It's even more superior, because grace is more powerful than sin, so the reign of grace is superior to the reign of sin. Now, in the same way, I'm here in paragraph A, that sin reigned in our life before we were saved, in the same dominance, in the same comprehensive way, grace reigns, but here's the problem with the reign of grace. We don't enjoy the benefits of it in our everyday life if we don't engage the Holy Spirit in the process, meaning if we don't go to the bank, so to speak, to cash in the will, we have to engage in the process. We can be, have this great will, this great bank account, billions, and still live like a beggar under a bridge. So though the grace of God reigns, and for billions of years it will reign in us, but I'm not concerned right now for grace reigning in me for billions of years in the resurrection, trillions of years, forever, I'm concerned with grace reigning, giving me triumph now. But we have to engage it. But you can receive grace like that beggar could receive that will, that title deed. You can receive it, but never, ever engage in the process. You can receive and say, cool, I read the will, I like it. I know one of these days I'm gonna get around to it and still live like a beggar. Because living under the reign of sin for however long, any of us did, different ones, different amounts of time, we end up with a mindset. We end up with a beggar's mindset. We end up with a mindset of condemnation and defeat. And even when we receive the grace of God, if we don't receive the truth, if we don't receive revelation, we end up with the grace of God, we end up with the will, we end up with the title deed of the company, but we have the beggar's mentality, so we never cash it in. We never engage in the process, so the good of it comes, happens in our life and circumstances. Top of page two. Just a real simple description of what the reign of sin was in your life. Everybody's under the reign of sin before they're born again. Just a couple, this is not comprehensive because it would be more descriptive than this, but people under the reign of sin, they're under the judgment of God. They are under condemnation. They feel condemned. Some doesn't feel right. They are powerless and defenseless before sin, at least at the heart level. Now, when sin comes and attempts them, they may be able to restrain themselves in terms of outward behavior. I mean, a lot of ungodly people restrain themselves. If they don't, they go to jail, so you can restrain yourself externally. A lot of ungodly, demonized people do because they're afraid of the consequences, but a man under the reign of sin, an unbeliever, has no ability to resist sin at the heart level. He may be able to restrain his behavior, but at the heart level, his heart engages in that sin. He has no power whatsoever to overcome it. He may even say, no, no, no, but it will overcome him, whether that sin is fear, envy, jealousy, or any manner of different various lusts. There's many types of lusts. At the heart level, he is defenseless. Even if he doesn't want to yield, it will dominate his emotions. He may never be honest about it, but he has no power before it. He's under the reign of sin. So he's under judgment or condemnation, let's just say condemnation, and he's powerless at the heart level to combat that sin. And he has no ability to challenge Satan's attack. Satan could come and attack his life. Of course, he doesn't have insight to know it's Satan, but there's nothing he can do. If he gets tormented with nightmares, he can take drugs, go to a doctor, and take pills or something to try to get rid of the nightmare. He can't get rid of the torment of the evil one. And there's many ways the enemy torments us besides that. What happens, again, I could add several more areas to what it means to be under the reign of sin, but it's a monarch, it's a tyrant. Before we're saved, what happens is we begin to develop over time a mindset of condemnation. We have a mindset of defeat. We get so used to yielding to lust and anger and envy and jealousy and competition that at the first glance, the first show of it, because we're so used to yielding to it, we just yield to it. The Holy Spirit's on the inside saying, talk to me about it, we can overcome that. We really can, I can help you, but I need you to engage me. Cash, go to the bank and draw from the account. Talk to me, I live in you, I'm real. You're not defenseless. You're not on your own against that emotion. God lives in your spirit and a God who's jealous for you with power. But he will not activate your faith if you have to do it. The Holy Spirit's saying, I'm waiting. Bring me into the dialogue. What do you mean, the dialogue? Well, when we're confronted with sin or opportunity, we have a thousand dialogues to ourself. We're thinking, we're talking to ourself all the details of the sin or the opportunity or the situation and the Holy Spirit says, instead of just talk to you about it, talk to me and you about it. Bring me into the conversation and I'll help you. A lot of believers, I believe the most neglected part of the grace of God is the person of the Holy Spirit living in us. We buy into the mercy and we buy into the fact that God likes us, but there's more to the reign of grace than just God forgives us and God likes us. He actually will help us right through the journey. Let's look at paragraph C, the reign of grace. We have new abilities to resist sin and Satan. We have new privileges. We have a new power source in us if we will activate it by dialoguing with the spirit. That power will be released in us little by little and our emotions will change over time. They really will if we stay with it. Now on the reign of grace, we're under the reign of grace the instant we're born again. Now we don't know about how much money is in the will. You know the guy's one day old in the Lord. He doesn't know the huge inheritance he just received. He has a massive bank account. He doesn't know anything about it. And most believers, it takes them years before they ever find out what's in the will or what's in the title deed. They got a Bible, but no one ever told them some of the key points of it, so they just live forever wallowing around. Now here's important. These three things on the reign of sin, and the reign of sin would be more than this, but this is kind of the core truths. We don't ask God for these three things. We thank him for it. And the three things are right there on the notes, the father's affections, the authority to use the name of Jesus, and the indwelling spirit. We receive those the minute. The moment we're born again, we receive those three realities. The father enjoys us. We can use the name of Jesus with power, and the indwelling spirit lives inside of us. God, the Genesis 1 God, lives inside of us. God, the Holy Spirit, is inside of us, waiting for us to engage him in the processes of our life. He will not force our cooperation. He waits until we call on him. So these three things, by the way, I wanna say this point. These three things, we don't ask God for them, we thank him for it. Meaning, I'll sometimes hear somebody pray, Father, give us the authority. He says, I already did. We thank him for the authority. It's good to ask for a greater understanding of it, that's good, or even a greater manifestation, but don't ask him for power and authority because he's already given it to us. He gave us the authority to use the name of Jesus. It's like praying to get in a room you're already in. Give us the authority. I did. Give us the authority in the name of Jesus. Give us the authority. I did. Give us the authority. Father, give us the authority. I mean, bless God, give us the authority. I mean it this time. I did, I did. Open your eyes, read your Bible. I did, I did. Now, again, it's okay to say, Lord, increase the manifestation of that authority in our life, or something like that, but he really did give it to us, so we need to be focused on the fact of these three things as realities. These are facts in our life. These aren't going to be things. These are facts that happen the day we are born again. It's called the reign of grace. God likes us, number one. Number two, we have the authority to use the name of Jesus to release the works of God, to hinder the works of Satan. And number three, we have the indwelling spirit we are no longer defenseless before sinful desires, nor are we in darkness with no divine guidance. The Holy Spirit will teach us the word, though we receive teaching from other people, but he will teach us. He will give us direction. We still get counsel from other people, but we're not in the dark. We have a counselor and a teacher who lives in us. And he goes, if you'll get me involved, I will give you new desires. I will help you in temptation. Talk to me in every step, not at the last moment when you're going down in flames, like, Lord, I'm sinning. Help me this last, not kind of an SOS, last second. When you're deciding to get in your car and drive there, start talking to the spirit before you decide. And if you forgot to do that, then while you're driving, talk to him. Holy Spirit, bail me out of this right now. Then if you forget to do that, when you show up and you haven't gone to the building, talk to him there. And if you forgot that, when you're in the place, start talking to him. Lots of times what happens, I mean, sincere believers, they do what they do, and then they start talking to him like, oh God, oh God, oh God. He says, if you only would have started earlier, we could have saved this crisis. Let the reader understand. You can do the math on that. Let's read one more verse. 2 Corinthians 5. We're out of time, but I just wanna give it to you. We'll look at this many times. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things are new. Everything is new. We have a new authority. We have a new position. We have the indwelling God living in us. We have God's affection. All things are new. Our position is totally new. We're not under the reign of sin. We're not defenseless before sinful desires. We now have a person in us that we can talk to and engage with. We're not just defenseless and powerless when lust touches our heart. All things are new. Verse 21, this now tells us how the gift of righteousness was provided. God the Father made Jesus, him who knew no sin, that's Jesus. God the Father made Jesus to be sin for us. The innocent one became guilty so that the guilty one becomes innocent as a free gift. And we become, this is just inconceivable in the natural, we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Beloved, we become it. We don't grow into it instantaneously in God's eyes. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And even when the enemy is coming with all kinds of lust and distraction and condemnation, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I love God. God loves me. That's who I am. That's what I do. I'm in his kingdom. I'm in his righteousness. I'm not defenseless. I'm not powerless. I'm not rejected by God. Those are lies. I got a whole new mindset. Maybe you grew up under the bridge as a beggar, but you've inherited a great wealth. It's time to get a different mindset. We don't look at sin and go, I'm about to give in. We say, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The spirit of God lives in me. I'm a lover of God. That's who I am. That's what I do. I'm not even about that stuff. Confess the word before God and before the enemy, and your spirit will begin to get bold. I said last verse, but I'm gonna throw one more in, paragraph B. There is now no condemnation. No condemnation. I'm just gonna end with that verse. There's now, it's not just there's no condemnation in eternity, there's now no condemnation. No rejection by God. There's no sense where God is saying, you know, I am so tired of you and your lame arguments and your weak prayers. You're not welcome. He doesn't roll his eyes and go, oh no, it's Bickle again, with all of them, it's me, God. Like, oh, he doesn't do that. You're welcome. You're desired. There's no condemnation. He's not exasperated. He wants fellowship. There's now no condemnation. Now, not in a year when you mature, not in eternity with a resurrected body. Now, there is no condemnation. The devil accuses us, Hebrews 12, 10. The devil accuses us, God doesn't accuse us. The devil tells us it's God accusing us. We say, it is written, Satan. There is now, N-O-W, no condemnation. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He enjoys me. Stop your accusation. Be gone in Jesus' name. And the devil accuses and tells us it's God. Amen. Let's stand. It's not enough to read the will and live under the bridge. I read the will, man, I love that will, but I've got a beggar's mindset. No, it's time for us to move into the palace. Get out of the bridge mentality, the beggar mentality. I wanna invite people to come down that you're saying, you know, this is right, but it seems, I know it's right, but this truth, I hear it, and it seems like it repels off of me. And I want prayer tonight. I mean, we all wanna feel this truth more. But I'm talking about, you say, no, no, I mean, I need a breakthrough on this revelation. I need to feel the power of this more, like now. You would like prayer, I wanna invite you to come forward. But again, remember, this is more than just you getting it in your mind. You wanna get this in your mouth so you can tell other people, and you wanna get it into your prayer life with God. If these ideas don't get into my prayer life with God, they don't move my heart. They don't mark me. There is no condemnation. God really likes you. He really likes you. Not in a few years, when you settle that one issue, He likes you now, actually now. There's no condemnation. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I want you to just say that, just to the Lord. Say, I'm the righteous in your, just whisper it in your own way. I am the righteousness of God. I am. There is no condemnation. I've received, it's what it says, Romans, I mean, Romans five. I've received the gift of righteousness. Whoa, I've received it. I'm under the reign of grace. I'm under it. I'm no longer under the reign of sin. It's gone.