If we want our lives to be used by God, if we want God to use our lives for the Lord, there must be first and foremost a death to self and a death to sin. You would say, "I am no longer that. I'm no longer doing that." Why? "Because I'm now in the service of the King." Amen. There is a statement that I cannot quote exactly, but the gist of it is this: it says that the church throughout history has suffered more through prosperity rather than poverty. I'll repeat that again: the church has suffered more for prosperity rather than poverty. What does that mean, preacher? It means the church has struggled more and Christianity has become weaker because they embrace many things, many blessings, rather than when they are in distress. And could we say that is true? Why? Why? When we have something, we don't pray often. When we have something, we don't need fellowship as much. When we have something, it's more okay for us to just be outside. But when we are suffering, oh, we will draw near to God. Why is that? Why is it that when you suffer more, that's when you draw near to the Lord? Maybe because when you have nothing, you see that you have no one else to turn to. But the Apostle Paul knows, in whatever state he is, he is content. Could we learn that, my brethren, that even though we have a good life, should we trust in God? Of course, we should. We should still trust in the Lord, even though we have blessings, we have money, we have these things. And we should not neglect God, even though we have those things, because in the first place, without Him, those things wouldn't exist. But we often forget Him when we have a lot of things, or should I say, we have a lot of time to spend, when we have a lot at our disposal. When you have so much time, it seems wasted. Why? Because we do all sorts of things instead of the things of God, instead of obeying the will of God. Right? But the Master could not use an unclean vessel. He cannot use an unclean vessel. And what is the agent of cleansing? None other than the word of God. The agent of cleansing, you have no other soap, no other cleaner, no other rinse except the word of God. If our lives are unclean in the eyes of God, you have no other source of cleaning except the word of God. There could be no other source. If you will resort to your intellect, if you will resort to your nobility, if you will resort to what you know, that is not enough in the sight of God. What we need is the principle found in the word of God: I need to die to myself, I need to die to my sin, to be resurrected unto Christ. Let's go back to Romans Chapter 6, my brethren, and this is the principle that we are talking about. By the way, if you are looking for a topic, okay, this is no longer the centrality of death but through death to resurrection. Okay, we're talking about resurrection now through death. I hope you can see it now. Is that thin? No, that's thick now. Through death to resurrection. [Music] This is what we want. We want resurrection, that's why we went through what we studied about the centrality of death. There must be first death before resurrection. So now we are progressing through death to resurrection, my brethren. Romans chapter number 6. Romans chapter number 6. And maybe, maybe we can't relate too much to the topic. We might think it's all just doctrine. Again, the Bible, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." We need doctrine first. We can't be corrected, we can't be rebuked without the Bible. It's like, "I just don't like your life that way." Why? What's your basis? "Oh, I just feel like it." That's not allowed. Our source of rebuke, our source of reproof, our source of instruction must be none other than the word of God again. Amen. The preacher is just the preacher, the only difference between me and you is that I talk a lot, that's all. And what I talk about is the word of God. Amen. Romans chapter number 6.
In Romans chapter number 6, we have this principle, and I'll read it to you. Let's look at the sequence. Verse number one has a question: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" What's the Bible's answer? Of course not. "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Okay, let's skip to verse number 11 to 13. This is the principle, take this: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."