Sin Shall Not Have Dominion Over You - (Rom 6:12-14), Part 3/4

Nothing you do is neutral. That’s the uncomfortable claim we keep circling back to as we open Romans 6:13 and ask the question that exposes everything: who is your master? We talk about how sin doesn’t just tempt you toward “big” outward failures. It tries to recruit your mind, your mouth, your imagination, your habits, and your body into its service, one small yield at a time.

From there we lean into spiritual warfare and the real-life tension of flesh versus spirit. We unpack why temptations can hit harder when your life starts producing genuine fruit, and we slow down on James 4:7 because the order matters: submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. We also challenge the idea that “tribulation” is only something external or future, and we bring it back to the daily internal battle where obedience actually happens.

A major turning point is the word instruments. We explore why Paul’s language is closer to weapons than tools, and what it looks like to weaponize righteousness instead of weaponizing our faculties for unrighteousness. Along the way we talk motives, why two people can do the same outward “good deed” with totally different spiritual weight, and how consecration, holiness, and sanctification all point to being set apart for God’s use. We finish with resurrection identity: if you’re alive from the dead in Christ, act like it.

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Transcript

No Neutral Ground In Life

SPEAKER_06 0:00

It's like seeing your ex uh somewhere and you d and you bump into him, you know, and and all feelings and things start to come up depending on what side of the spectrum you were on when it when it ended. But it's uncomfortable nonetheless. There is no aspect of human life that is morally neutral. No aspect. What you what you yield your members to and for will either be for unrighteous purposes or righteous purposes. They'll be done by motivations that come from and stem from unrighteousness, or they will be motivated and stem from righteousness. But every faculty that you have serves a master. Who is your master? Who is your master? This is what you have to always think about when whatever it is you are doing or entertaining. Who is my master? And when you if you are able to sit back and make a conscious effort to see this, it's going to have an impact on what you do next. Who do you serve? And so Paul commands believers not merely to avoid outward acts of sin, but to refuse the enlistment of any part of themselves. Yourselves, ourselves, our faculties, your faculties into the service of sin. Don't do it. Sister Joni.

Sin Attacks Fruitful Christians

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Yeah. This is not Joni. This is Jeffrey.

SPEAKER_06 1:58

That's all fine, Brother Jeffrey. Go ahead and speak, brother.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Well, I'm glad it wasn't Joni.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Listen, Jonathan, a lot of times we get in trouble because we underestimate the power of sin and its desire to destroy and corrupt every last thing of God that is within us. We underestimate sin's power. Or we we don't take it seriously enough. Right. Okay. We've got to learn what exactly we're dealing with. Yes, we have been set free from it, as you have taught this evening. Absolutely. We are set free from it. But that doesn't mean that it's going to roll over and stop trying to molest us while we're producing this fruit that you're talking about. Hey, Christians, let me tell you something. As Jonathan was saying, Christians, be aware of the fact that as your life produces more fruit, bountiful fruit, good fruit, godly fruit, sin is gonna come after you harder and harder and harder. That is a sad, tragic spiritual truth. And we just have to lean into Christ and depend upon him to work through it. Love you, brother.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Amen, brother. Love you too, man. Sister Candy, go ahead.

The Flesh Versus The Spirit

SPEAKER_10 3:23

You know, remember in the old animal wants to think you got the good angel on one shoulder and the bad angel on the other shoulder, and they're constantly eating one ear or the other. It's like no need to do this, and the other one's saying no, don't do that. That's that war. That is our flash versus spirit.

SPEAKER_07 3:40

Right.

SPEAKER_10 3:41

And that that is no joke because it's so easy to get caught up and thinking that you're doing something right, but the reaction to some action.

SPEAKER_07 3:54

Right.

SPEAKER_10 3:55

It's not always good.

SPEAKER_07 3:57

Right.

SPEAKER_10 3:57

So again, it's it's keeping our minds focused in all crafts, all top by his grace alone. It's the only way that we will not be able to laugh the evil.

SPEAKER_07 4:11

That's right, sister. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sister Mayor, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

So, you know, when you it's I was talking to a sister on the phone the other day, sis white, and I was like, you know, we were talking about the flesh versus the spirit. And to think that the battle is truly with your flesh, it really is. And it's because it is at enity with God. And and in this same person, right, the new creation that we are, we have this dirty rotten meat sac that we carry around that wants nothing to do with the Lord or wants to submit to him in any way. The flesh literally takes no thought. None at all. And, you know, I I find myself like kind of a best practice for myself when I'm going through something or when I'm making a decision. I have to stop myself sometimes and be like, Lord, is is what I'm about to do, is it going to bring me closer to you or further away from you? And I literally have to stop myself. And so, and I'm like, and I, even though I know the answer, it's good to stop sometimes and say, all right, Lord, here I am. And then we can make sound decisions. But what I also notice is that when we are continuing to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting and believing his word and trusting and believing him, to me, it gets a little easier because the word of God says, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. So many people say, Oh, all you gotta do is resist the devil. Well, don't forget the first part of the verse. Submit to God. Good point. Resist the devil and he will flee. Lisa put that in the chat and I said, I said, you're so right. And she put submit in there. So many people don't say that. You know, we don't make Jesus Lord. He is Lord. Whether we make him Lord or not, he is. You know?

SPEAKER_05 6:13

Absolutely, sister. Amazing. Great room.

SPEAKER_06 6:16

Brother Heath, you want to add anything to the conversation before I move on in this verse?

Tribulation Is Now And Internal

SPEAKER_08 6:21

Yeah, I just I just wanted to add on to what the other guy said about how when you when you uh like like the attacks are gonna come, basically.

SPEAKER_07 6:33

Right.

SPEAKER_08 6:34

So so it you have you have to look at that as almost a positive thing because then you know you're doing something right. Right. You you know you're doing something right for the Lord when when temptations or persecutions or tribulations come in your life, then you know you're doing something right.

SPEAKER_07 6:56

Right.

SPEAKER_06 6:57

That's right. You know, and I'll tell you something like that. I like the fact that you mentioned the word tribulation because this is what we're talking about. See, see, the dispensationalist, you know, and I don't know where you stand on that, but the dispensationalist is always focused on the external. They talk about the tribulation, the thing that hits the world. Yeah, absolutely. That's what they focus on. Yeah. That's not what the Lord is. That's not what the Lord is focusing on.

SPEAKER_08 7:27

Nope. You're right. I agree with you, bro.

SPEAKER_06 7:30

You see what I mean? He's focusing on sin. And and all the and how men and women, how we all utilize our faculties, using, you know, being members of our bodies, you know, and you know, and our makeup, you know, and then leaving it into the service of sin.

SPEAKER_08 7:52

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_06 7:54

And so the dispensationalists, they're missing the point. Yeah. Yeah. We we go through tribulation. If you are a Christian, you are going through tribulation right now.

SPEAKER_08 8:07

The Bible says that in this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. Absolutely. Absolutely, brother. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 8:16

Absolutely.

Your Members As Weapons

SPEAKER_06 8:18

So, Paul here, again, in in verse 13, yield your members, neither yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God that those those as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. Does anybody have a real good understanding? Does anybody know, by the way, does anybody know what instruments really means here? Does anybody has anybody ever studied that? Instruments. Don't go look for it now. But what does it mean? Instruments? What is he talking about? The sound? Nope. Not musical instruments.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

That we are his we are his workmanship. Things like being used.

SPEAKER_06 9:05

Things being used. He said, okay, listen to this. He says, neither yield your members as instruments of righteousness, but use them as instruments. I mean, neither yield yourselves as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves as instruments of righteousness. So he's not talking about body parts or instruments or tools. Tools gets there. But what he's talking about, don't you don't let them become weapons. These instruments are spoken of here are speaking about weapons. Do not yield or use your members, your faculties, as weapons for unrighteousness, but rather use your faculties for to weaponize righteousness. That's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Expound on that a little bit more, please.

SPEAKER_06 10:06

Well that's it. Don't use it. So in other words, he when he talk when he talks about the instrument, he's talking about you know it's the same thing as using a weapon. For example, if you have a rifle, don't use it for uh wicked purposes, use it for uh righteous purposes in righteous defense or whatever it may be. But he's he's but what he's basically alluding to is uh taking these things that you have and not allowing not allowing them to be used as a weapon in service to Satan, but rather use them in your warfare. That's right, Terry says it is warfare language. This is what he's talking about. Don't allow your members, your tools, your instruments, your weapons, don't use them for ungodly purposes. Because to do that, guess who you're fighting against? The Lord, the Lord Himself, to yield your members for unrighteousness as instruments of unrighteousness is to wield them against the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Like your like your mouth, for example. You can even you you can use your mouth to curse somebody out and be rude and hateful, but out of the same mouth you can you use it to praise the Lord. So use your mouth to praise the Lord and speak his word and not for those other things.

SPEAKER_06 11:48

Right, absolutely. Terry, Mariah, and then Candy. Terry, Mariah, and then Candy. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Oh, gee, I had something. You were talking about warfare, and I'm I I think that that's such a good analogy because God's giving us his perspective, just like he does in Ephesians with the full armor of God.

unknown 12:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

He's giving us his perspective as seeing us as his mighty warriors upon the earth.

SPEAKER_07 12:23

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Uh, and and and we are to encourage and and take stand our ground and take ground. And I think we have to take our ground first within ourselves, and then we take the ground around us.

SPEAKER_05 12:41

Right.

SPEAKER_06 12:43

That's exactly right. Exactly right. That's what he's talking. He's talking about warfare here. Sister Terry's nailing it, nailing it on the head. That's exactly right. That's what he's talking about. Sister Mariah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

That was great, Sister Terry. I was gonna allude to something as a such as the sword, right? There's some people who wield the sword or the word of God in unrighteousness, and they use it to cut down people instead of edifying and uh building up people. And you know, we've seen this happen in uh Job's friends, they use the word of God improperly to cut someone down, and so we ought not to do these things, we ought to yield it in such a way that will be glorifying our Lord.

SPEAKER_05 13:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

And we need to be careful when we're tired, brothers and sisters. When we're tired or when we see our brother and sister tired and and and overcome in some area or going through great tribulation, we need to be very careful.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

That's right. I agree. I agree with that. True words, Sister Candy. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_10 14:03

If it's not done out of love, then it's not done. Sister Jerry, that's that's what you said. It defines that we are supposed to love everyone of ourselves because it starts with us first. Like you said, it's him first. He works in us to do his goodwill through us to be helpful for others around us. Absolutely. And then what I raise my hand for was the faculty. And it just makes me think of a school, and what these people know about faculty, and what they're doing with the instrument that they can with the word uh I want to say it's after the word I just lost, but it's basically teach, teach Jesus, teach the good good things of Christ, teach his ways, not teach the simple worldly know what they're teaching in schools nowadays, and that's just I think why that came to my mind when you were talking about the instruments and how they were used. Because they take it, they don't care anymore.

unknown 15:20

Right.

SPEAKER_10 15:21

Well, you have to care to be of Christ, and if you care, then you don't want children to go in the wrong path. You want to lead them towards Jesus. That's what I was saying.

SPEAKER_07 15:34

Amen, sister. Sister Sister Lisa, go ahead.

Motives Behind Good Deeds

SPEAKER_09 15:38

You know, I just thought of something Brother Pat said last night when we were having a discussion about these verses, and that two people, maybe Sister Cindy and and Sister Mariah can kind of remember this better. He was talking about that we are either in the kingdom of darkness or we're members of the kingdom of light, and two people can help an old lady across the street, but only the person in the kingdom of light who does it in the to that that will glorify God. It is oh, I don't know how he worded it. It was so good, Jonathan. We were just talking about it, it it came to my mind because of what what we're talking about here. Present your body as instruments, and it it was as though you know, you'll see the guy that takes the selfie while he's walking the old lady across the street. You know, people who are not of God still can do seemingly nice things, but it's about if it glorifies anybody but God, it is therefore sin, and it is against God. And God can look at two people across walking, helping a lady across the street and detest one person, right? And you know, the other person not it's yes, right, Nathan said their motives, right? So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:07

You're right, motives has a lot to do with everything. I used to I used to use a similar type of expression in talking about somebody who may be on their deathbed in a hospital, for example. So somebody's in a hospital with a serious disease, you got two family members that come to visit the person in the hospital. One is relying on the science and the medical profession, the other is trusting in the Lord. And so the person who's a believer is praying that God would raise that person up from that bed of affliction, the other person is going is always constantly badging, badgering the medical professionals so that they can do the right thing. Well, when the person raises up from that bed of affliction, the Christian realizes that what you know what God has done. The other person gives credit to science, the science profession. If the person dies, the Christian understands that this was the will of God. The other person starts cursing out and starts looking for reasons to sue the hospital. So you have all these kinds of things, but there's there's so many, the world is fraught with myriad ways that what you're saying, Lisa, you know, the way that can be expressed, but it and it's true. We have a different perspective because we have God's perspective. And so if we if we respond in a way that is consistent with the will of God, we see things in a in a in a in the most true sense possible, and we respond, hopefully, in a way that is consistent with that. Joni, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

The whole all of it.

SPEAKER_07 18:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

So God is good and He He does the work in us.

SPEAKER_06 19:02

He does the work.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 19:05

So we we have to yield our members or use our weapons for God's glory. And that that's our mind, our eyes, our feet, our hands, our thoughts, our imaginations, all these things. The Christian life is not passive neutrality, but it's an active engagement in spiritual warfare, spiritual conflict. And Paul's is he Paul deals with this thing often in his epistles. But believers, we are all called to refuse every attempt by sin to take to be moved to use our faculties in rebellion against our Lord. And this is important. And so He tells us to yield ourselves unto God. Yield ourselves to God rather than using them as instruments for unrighteousness.

Sanctification Means Whole Self Surrender

SPEAKER_06 19:59

And we need to understand that there is absolutely no sanctification without the recognition of sin. And yielding yourself to God is the heart of Christian sanctification. And so yielding to God means not yielding to sin. And these are two things that are happening simultaneously. To say yes to God is to say no to sin, and vice versa. So our struggle and our combat, our fight is always with that resistance, especially from those things from which we once clung to. Holiness in the Christian life is not simply produced by resisting evil, but also by presenting oneself entirely, entirely and wholly unto God. Completely. And it's in this horror. It's horror. And it's not going to come easy. This is why, as long as we're still in this body, this body of death, as Paul calls it, we're going to have this struggle. And so yielding to God requires us yielding our whole persons, our affections, mind, desires, ambitions, possessions, everything. Sister Terry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

So I've I've been some had a lot of troubles, you know, like just a lot of a lot of tribulation, I guess you could say. And lately the Lord's been saying, take a nap.

SPEAKER_07 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I mean, I I I really believe, you know, it's I'm exhausted and I have this work ethic that's ridiculous. And the Lord's like, just take a nap. It's okay, take a nap.

SPEAKER_07 21:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You're not gonna be any good to anybody the way you are right now.

SPEAKER_06 21:44

So and I really think that there is I think there's a spiritual truth in that, and what you just said. I I do believe that sometimes we have to, you know, put set our minds to rest because we can be distracted so much by the worldly things and trying to make the most of what happens in the this world. So so you're right. Sometimes we just need we do need to just sort of relax a little bit in some in some regards. So you know this is this so this is really these things are really important and I'm glad that we're that we are are closing in on this whole thing. But when we talk about God here you know or sanctification you know sanctification it it improves and it advances as believers continue to increase their devotion in you know a righteous devotion in every aspect of life of our lives to the service and glory of God. And I know that many of you here after you know having been able to know all of you here on the panel especially excuse me and others that there's a lot of people here that are genuinely devoted to God's glory for sure. And the motivate and the motivation for our you know for the consecration of ourselves to God which is sort of like what yielding our members to righteousness is all about it's consecrating ourselves and and progressing in sanctification. The believer's obedience in these things it arises from having a resurrection life. And so and that resurrection life comes from understanding that we are alive from the dead look what he says in verse 13 yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead we are alive from the dead and so what Paul is saying is this if you are arrived from the dead if you are alive from the dead basically what he's saying in modern speak is then act like it you were dead you are now alive in Christ so act like it what do you do to act like it yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God unto God this is what he's saying and so our believers are the obedience of a believer it arises from the fact that we have this life in Christ we are alive you can't yield yourselves as members to right unto righteousness unless you were alive to God. That's the only way and because we are alive unto Christ we cannot fail. It's an impossibility we cannot fail. Christians are not striving to earn acceptance with God we have already been accepted in the beloved so Christians do not strive as they do for acceptance we obey because we have already been brought from death to life being made alive is our motivation that's the that's the framework for our motivations we are alive. So it's basically like yippie kaye what can I do in service to my Lord I've been saved I'm alive I was dead and like Sister Mariah says that's the only reason that we can obey and being alive is the only reason and the only means by which we are able to use our instruments our weapons as righteousness unto God Sister Meg, go ahead.

Peace With God And Chastisement

SPEAKER_02 25:55

You know if somebody had said something oh yeah it was Linus of course he says consecrating with a question mark well the thing when we're when we are made new in Christ we for the very first time like we were talking about in Romans chapter 5 verse 1 where we have peace with God think about how one operates in peace versus the fear of losing their salvation thinking the Lord has a lightning bolt what people don't understand is we are now his children. Right right so when you have a child do you not know that your your child's gonna mess up do you not know that your child's gonna blow it but our Lord is not looking at us in a way where he's looking at us as his daughters and his sons and he's our father. And so when we go through these things I see it as glorious like in the times that we we do fail or we do get chastised what it does is it brings us back to the knees of Lord every single time and that's what it should do to believers.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

You know and so you know I'm thankful for those times and we don't even realize like when we do go through these things they're literally a blessing because what what the word chastisement is it's training. What do fathers and mothers do to their children they train them right and that's what he's doing with us.

SPEAKER_06 27:25

That's right. You know I I I saw I saw Lina say that and I don't understand when Christians are asking about things that should be basic to our understanding. I get it though you can't be mad at it because this is modern day Christianity today knowing what consecration is not knowing what consecration is to me is unbelievable. Not knowing what sanctification is is unbelievable. If you are a Christian not knowing what holiness is I don't understand how people don't know these things because all three of those things are basically variations of the same thing being set apart for God's use consecration holiness sanctification all these things speak about being separate from the world and separated unto the Lord I don't know why that causes a question mark in Christians' minds and you get to a point where you go you know what there's no point makes it make sense when you understand that Linus doesn't believe that he's flesh anymore that he's only spirit well yeah that's that's what I mean that's what I mean is that like dealing with these kind of people they just like stir things up they contribute to nothing they are just using their faculties to be instruments of chaos Linus you never say anything uplifting or exert or exhorting to anyone I say that all the time I've never heard you offer anything good to any believer on this platform you complained you complained about people cutting you off and removing you from the from the from the panel or whatever and when I offered you on several occasions to come up you refused so enough with the drive bys enough said on this issue.

First Resurrection Then Act Like It

SPEAKER_06 29:48

So now Paul here again yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead notice his language yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead you need to know that you are alive from the dead and what is being alive from the dead it means that there has to there has to have been a spiritual that a spiritual resurrection has fundamentally altered your identity you are not the you you used to be man that's not you you have been partially resurrected the spiritual nature that is in that was in you has been changed it was dead and now you are alive and all that trails behind your spiritual resurrection is your bodily resurrection like my sister Vanessa and I were talking about earlier when you get to Revelation and we're going through that book in chapter 20 in verse 5 and 6 it says this but the rest of the dead the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished notice what he says this is the first resurrection let me read this one again because I want to make a point here verse five in Revelation 20 but the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished this is the first resurrection listen to verse six blessed and holy is he holy meaning separated consecrated blessed and holy is he that has part in what the first resurrection why because on such as have been made a partaker in the first resurrection the second death has no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ priests us first Peter Hallelujah hallelujah That's right that's right we bring it okay they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years so when does this first resurrection take place anyone when we were born again again when you're born again that is the first resurrection now look what he says the rest of the dead did not live again to after the thousand years were over this is the first resurrection so that means the first resurrection takes place when you are born again which means that we must be in the 1,000 year period that he's speaking about right now.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

And the second resurrection which we are blessed to partake in because of the first resurrection is when anybody when he comes back and so that's why when when hell is brought up from the sea then they have the second death because they already were dead once in Christ because according to John chapter 3 verse 18 for he who does not believe is what condemned already we were not condemned so when we are risen the second time we don't suffer the second death because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus glory to God.

SPEAKER_06 33:57

Praise does anybody not get this anybody is this confusing to anybody speak up I'll address it if you're confused. But you see this now blessed is he who has taken part in the first resurrection for on such of such the second death has no power no power Paul says in Ephesians 2 1 you have he quickened who were what dead dead dead dead dead so once they were dead in once they were dead in trespasses in sin incapable of pleasing God that was us now we possess new life because of our union with Christ in verse five of this same chapter it says we were planted together with him in his death and in his resurrection if Christ died we died. So then it follows that if he resurrected so did we the first resurrection Thomas does a spirit have flesh and bone because that's what the Lord is up there in heaven right now in his physical spiritual body just like we're gonna be that's right sister Mariah got it right too now all of this is now we are alive unto God now we're dead to sin now we have been made partakers of the first resurrection when we became born again believers I'm so excited tonight this is really good this is unbelievable what we have here but Paul is telling us listen you are alive now act like it Christians you are alive act like it behave like the living person under God and in Christ that you are because if you don't you are robbing yourself of all the joy that isn't intended for you to have and go into battle don't worry he told you you have already won he told the Israelites long before they began the journey on the Exodus that they were going to take Canaan we are his kingdom of priests royal priesthood