Romans 6
We are Redeemed, bought back from Satan’s hand.
What were we slaves to?
Sin – in all of it’s forms. Sin is literally ‘to miss the mark’.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Each of us at some point in our life failed God and missed the mark. Jesus died for sinners of this we are all aware. Each of us here has accepted His gracious sacrifice for us when He died upon the cross. If you didn’t, today is your day. He loves you, and died upon a cruel cross 2000 years ago to pay a debt He did not owe, but that each of us did. He died so that we might live.
We are redeemed from sickness.
Is 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Youngs translation of this passage is more clear, because the English translators did not do justice to the original Hebrew text.
It reads:
- He was despised and left of men,
A man of pains (Heb makob) and aquainted with sickness (Heb choli)
And as one hiding the face from us,
He is despised and we esteemed Him not
- Surely our sickness (choli) he hath borne
And our pains (makob) he has carried them,
And we-we have esteemed him plagued,
Smitten of God and afflicted.
- And he is pierced for our transgressions,
Bruised for our iniquities,
The chastisement of our peace is upon Him,
And by his bruise there is healing to us.
- All of us like sheep have wandered,
Each to his own way we have turned,
And Jehovah hath caused to meet on him
The punishment of us all
- And Jehovah has delighted to bruise him;
He hath made him sick (choli)
If his soul doth make an offering for guilt,
He seeth seed-he prolongeth days.
We know that the prophet Isaiah was referring to Jesus because the New Testament reads:
Matt 8:16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy partially when He walked the earth healing the sick, but fully was it fulfilled in His death upon the cross, where He died not only for the sin of all humanity, but also for our sicknesses, and as I will later show you, for our poverty.
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
I have now shown you from the Word of God that Jesus died not only for our sins, but also for our sicknesses.
Now, I need to show you how He also died for our poverty.
Let’s just deal with the idea of curses for a second. Let’s say alcoholism runs in your family for example. Your gradfather was a drunk, your father was a drunk, and now you find yourself on that same slippery slope, heading into alcoholism. Is there any hope? Yes! Now matter what the problems are you inheirated, the gospel is good news. High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, smoking whatever. Perhaps you learned these from your parents, or it was in your genes. The Bible calls these things generational curses. You can also get cursed from a witch or a warlock or voodoo person. These things have supernatural power to destroy you if you do not know Jesus, but look with me at Gal 3:13
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
No curse can come upon one God has blessed.
Everybody say,” I believe, therefore I’m blessed.”
In the Old Testament, God’s people were blessed if they served Him, and cursed if they didn’t.
The Bible says it this way:
Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Well, the first 14 verses of Deut 28 speak of the blessings that would come on the children of Israel when they obeyed God. The rest of the chapter deals with the curses that will come upon someone who disobeys God.
Prosperity is one of these promises. Obey, get blessed. Disobey, go broke.
The New Testament says it this way:
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Now Everyone say. Obey, Good, Disobey, bad.
Remember we are redeemed from the curse.
Well, one of the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy 28, has directly to do with money. Remember, your redeemed. This does not apply to you.
Deut 28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
Well, I want you to see Jesus in this verse.
V47 All we like sheep had gone astray, so the Great Shepherd came to earth to show us the way.
Jesus on the cross was surely hungry. He said, ‘I thirst’, He was naked, because they cast lots for his garment, and this is where I want you to start shouting:
2 Corinthians 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Jesus died for not only our sins, not only our sicknesses, but if we will simply obey Him, we discover that He died for our poverty.
Since that is true, lets read a familiar passage of Scripture to many of you, Romans 6. Instead of the word sin, lets insert the words sin, sickness, and poverty, because Jesus died for them all.
(Rom 6:1 NIV) What shall we say, then? Shall we go on in sin, sickness, and poverty , so that grace may increase?
(Rom 6:2 NIV) By no means! We died to sin, sickness, and poverty , how can we live in it any longer?
(Rom 6:3 NIV) Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
(Rom 6:4 NIV) We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
(Rom 6:5 NIV) If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
(Rom 6:6 NIV) For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin, sickness, and poverty , might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, sickness, and poverty ,
(Rom 6:7 NIV) because anyone who has died has been freed from sin, sickness, and poverty ,
(Rom 6:8 NIV) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
(Rom 6:9 NIV) For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
(Rom 6:10 NIV) The death he died, he died to sin, sickness, and poverty once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
(Rom 6:11 NIV) In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, sickness, and poverty but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Rom 6:12 NIV) Therefore do not let sin, sickness, and poverty reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
(Rom 6:13 NIV) Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, sickness, and poverty , as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
(Rom 6:14 NIV) For sin, sickness, and poverty shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
(Rom 6:15 NIV) What then? Shall we continue in sin, sickness, and poverty because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
(Rom 6:16 NIV) Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, sickness, and poverty , which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
(Rom 6:17 NIV) But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, sickness, and poverty , you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
(Rom 6:18 NIV) You have been set free from sin, sickness, and poverty and have become slaves to righteousness.
(Rom 6:19 NIV) I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing, wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
(Rom 6:20 NIV) When you were slaves to sin, sickness, and poverty , you were free from the control of righteousness.
(Rom 6:21 NIV) What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
(Rom 6:22 NIV) But now that you have been set free from sin, sickness, and poverty and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
(Rom 6:23 NIV) For the wages of sin, sickness, and poverty is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice that every problem you face is the direct or indirect result of sin, sickness, and poverty . Our fallen nature. But what about the devil you ask? What about him? In Christ, you have authority over him. Every addiction is a result of sin, sickness, and poverty , and God’s power is available to us to set us free from it
Let’s pray:
“Father, I agree with your word, and I receive my redemption from sin, sickness, and poverty, today. Thank you Jesus for healing me, for prospering me, and for forgiving and washing away my sins, Amen”