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Authority to Rule Scripture: Romans 5:17-19 “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Introduction: The death of Jesus Christ was the most powerful event of all time. Most people on the planet have never considered His death except perhaps in a passing thought and then only as one of several interesting events that have happened in the history of the world. But Christ’s death totally reversed the direction of the entire world and released mankind from the darkness that had engulfed them from the time of Adam’s fall. His death made available to man a release from sin and a return to the intimacy that Adam and Eve enjoyed with Father God. Not only that, but everyone who receives Jesus Christ and the work accomplished at Calvary gains ability to rule, or exercise authority, and is enabled to live in victory over everything that comes to bring defeat through the course of live on the earth. I. Having authority to rule means that the tedium of life is overcome and life becomes a joy to live.John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”A. The devil is a hard taskmaster and purposes that we live lives of poverty, failure and defeat.B. Jesus Christ returns us to the place of true joy in life by restoring fellowship with Father God.C. Restored authority means that we no longer are under or subject to our circumstances.Deuteronomy 28:13 “And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”D. Success in life comes because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by 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 has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”1. He ministers to us by taking away all kinds of sorrow, even the sorrow we feel for our sin.2. He took our punishment upon Himself.3. Because of Calvary we can live at peace with God who teaches us how to live at peace with men.4. Provision for every kind of sickness, physical, emotional and spiritual, has been made.5. We no longer live under bondage but have been made free to live full exciting lives for God. II. We receive the authority to rule in life because of the abundance of grace.A. We have done nothing to earn our way into the favor of God but we are accepted because of our identity with Calvary’s work.Ephesians 1:3-6 “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”1. God is not looking for reasons to disqualify us from sonship.2. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we have all the rights that come with being a son of God.3. Whatever blessings of the family of God that we need are made available to us as sons.B. Our blessings are all because of grace and have nothing to do with our own righteousness.Ephesians 2:4-9 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast.”1. Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense.2. Grace is God’s unmerited favor.3. We have not earned the right to rule (or sit together in heavenly places) but have had the right provided by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.4. The right to rule is a gift, not earned by our own individual efforts. III. The other thing that secures our right to rule is the righteousness that we have because of Jesus Christ.A. Jesus Christ’s own righteousness is imputed to us as we identify with the work of Calvary.B. Everything that could be held against us and keep us from the right to rule has been stripped of its power.Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”C. Our victory over everything that comes against us has been secured by the work of Christ.Colossians 2:15 “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” D. There is nothing else we need to do except stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.II Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” IV. Since we have authority to rule, let us overcome those things that are out to hinder us and keep us from our rights and destiny as sons of God.A. We have authority to rule over the devastation of sickness and disease.B. We have authority to rule over the discouragement of poverty and distress.C. We have authority to rule over sin and its awful consequences.D. Authority to rule means that I can reign in this life as well as the next one.Romans 8:37-39 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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