I had a wonderful conversation
this afternoon with Cook Farmer. I spoke often in my messages
about his brother, J.D., and I received a text from Cook this
last week, a very comforting text, a very comforting word
He has been constantly listening to the messages. On Sermon Audio, he has moved
up into northern Kentucky. I may put these on and take them
off. I don't have my contact in. So he's moved up to northern Kentucky,
where he's with his daughter and grandson. And he sends his
love. and expresses his thanks to the
congregation here for the gospel that goes out. And I was very
encouraged, very encouraged by this. And I think it amplifies
the message tonight concerning God's people. We're going to
be dealing with this text. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. It is most certain that everyone
who believes, truly believes in Christ, who are justified,
this is a promise. This is a promise that you shall
never be dominated or ruled by sin and death again. It is a promise. And we see God's
people. We see that maybe they may go
out. They may leave. They may, in our eyes, seem to
abandon what they believe, but in truth we don't know. And I'm
certain of this, if a man belongs to Christ, that man will not
ever be dominated or ruled by his sins so as to perish. He will save everyone he purposed
to save, everyone. every single one of them. And this is a promise we'll see
tonight. I was very thankful to hear that. It was a joy. The Lord didn't have to let me
see that. It didn't have anything to do with my brother or his
standing with Christ, but yet he allowed me to see and I was
rejoicing very much today in that. So pray for him. Pray for
Scott. I did talk to Scott today and
his mother is doing better. She's in the emergency room last
night, I think, and they may release her tomorrow. Just be
in prayer for him and his mother. Hopefully I'll be able to visit
with her this next week. She has been very sweet every
time she's come and visited with us. Just pray for him. Pray for his His mother. Pray
for Eric and Angela, if you would, and ask God's mercies on them. Kathy didn't know she had surgery,
but, you know, pastors last to know, right? It's okay. Is she doing good? It went well?
Okay. Oh. Okay. We'll pray for her. That's, that
is painful. Glad to see Jean. The Lord did
answer our prayers, and she's doing better. Doing good? Good. Okay. Continue to pray for her. And I ask your prayers for me
as I desire to preach this message
to you, and I long to, and I felt like a hamster in a wheel this
morning. I felt like I was rambling, and
I hope I don't, I pray that I don't ramble. I pray that it's very
clear and concise. This is intended for your comfort.
This is intended of God. When He said that, 700 years
before Christ came into the world, He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem,
because her warfare is accomplished. Is accomplished. And this is
our desire, as the Apostle determines, to comfort us. And this surely
instructs us into things we may not feel or think. So pray for
me as I desire to preach this. I want to preach it with clarity
and pray that you receive it as it's intended. Let's go to
God in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we come before thy
throne seeking mercy. Father, we seek mercy concerning
the Word. We seek mercy concerning our
souls. We plead this night that you
would open the text of Scripture that you have written through
your Apostle for our learning, for our understanding. And I
beg you that I do not convolute the message, that it would be
clear and plain through the preaching of the word by your spirit. I
pray for your spirit. Give me strength and wisdom.
Give me understanding. Pour into my heart and out of
my mouth your word. And by the same spirit, pour
it into the hearts of your people. I plead for you to do this tonight.
I thank you, Father, for your your congregation. I thank you
for their faithfulness. I thank you for their love for
the gospel that you have put in their hearts. And I pray you
continue to give us unity and peace around the gospel of Jesus
Christ. I pray that you would give us
grace in our hearts, that we should love you and serve you. that we would see your love for
us and then, in turn, love one another, forgive one another,
have compassion on one another, seeing, Father, that we are capable
of any sin except, lastly, the Holy Ghost, which you keep us
from. And, Father, if we are truly
capable of these things, help us to forgive our brother when
they offend us. Give us love and compassion,
grace. I pray, Father, for your churches.
I pray for every man preaching tonight. Be with them as you
are with us. And these that we have mentioned
who are sick and in need of healing, we plead for them. We beg you
for healing. We pray for it. knowing that
it is but one word upon thy lips and all would be well. And yet,
Father, we bow again to thy sovereign will and plead that you would
give us grace and strength in our time of trouble. Father, I do beg you, forgive
us our sins. Cleanse us of our unrighteousness.
And I plead these things in the name and by the merits of thy
son and for his sake, amen. All right, take your Bibles,
turn with me to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. The text will be found in verse
14. Romans six and verse 14. I've entitled this message, The
Certainty of Grace. It could also be The Security
of Grace. The Apostle says this in verse
14 of chapter 6, he says, 4, Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Now here's the reason, here's
the cause, that sin will no longer reign over you, for you are not under the law,
but under grace." Now the argument of all who oppose salvation by
grace is singular. All who oppose the doctrine of
salvation by the free grace of God, without the works of man is singular. They oppose salvation by grace
without merits and the obedience of man to the law. And we see
the argument in verse 1. The argument is found in verse
1. What shall we say then to grace? To salvation by grace? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And then if you look at verse
15, he's going to get more specific. He said, what then, shall we
sin because we are not under the law but under grace? The
answer to both is what? God forbid. God forbid. They say this. They say, well,
since salvation is of grace through a representative man, if God's
favor, if God's peace and pardon and forgiveness and reconciliation
are absolutely independent of us and totally dependent upon
the grace that is found in Jesus Christ, then they say this, this type
of doctrine will only promote sin. This type of doctrine will promote
ungodliness and men will use grace, they'll use grace as an
excuse to sin? What is our answer? You that
have been born again of God, what is your answer to such a
statement as that? God forbid. God forbid. No one saved by grace desires
to even think in that way. Then he gives us the reason why
no one saved by grace will seek to live this way. Why? Because
of what we went over last week. Because of this. You are dead
to sin. This is the reason why you won't
do it. You are dead to sin already. So can one who is dead to sin
live in sin? No. It's impossible. Where sin
reigned unto death, Paul says in our oldest state, we were
free from righteousness. Isn't that true? Where sin reigned
in us, we were free from righteousness. You could never accuse me of
being righteous, ever. Before Christ came to me, I was
totally consumed from head to foot with iniquity. Corrupt. Sin reigned in my heart, in our
hearts, our minds, and our bodies. This is what Paul said to us.
He said, And you hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. We all had our conversation in
time past. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others." This was our experience, wasn't it, before
Christ came? We weren't dead to sin. We were
very much alive to it, excited by it, corrupted. But when grace came, when grace
came, Paul says in that same chapter in Ephesians 2, he says,
but God. Here's the difference, isn't
it? There's no difference in us and the rest of humanity.
All of Adam's race is cursed. And yet here is the difference.
God. But God. Read it so I don't misquote
it. Ephesians chapter 2, you can
look at it with me. He says in verse 4, But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you are saved, and hath raised us up together to sit, and made
us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see what
he did while we were yet sinners? We died. When Christ came into the world,
God, in love, sent His Son to die. He says, even when we were
dead hath quickened us together with Christ. When He died, we
died. And what is the experience of
it? The experience of it was in verse 8. And for by grace
you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Isn't
this your experience? that you were saved by grace?
Is there any other way you were saved? You were saved by grace,
weren't you? Well, by grace you were saved. And how did you know you were
saved? Through faith. You can't be saved apart from
faith. Faith is the evidence of it. Through faith. And that,
what do we confess about faith? Faith, even faith is not of ourselves. It is a gift of God. and not
of works, lest any man should boast." That's the experience
of everyone who is born again of the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God then in that moment gave us righteousness. You that believe,
you are given the righteousness of God, merited by Jesus Christ. He's given us that righteous
nature that can't be corrupted by the old nature of sin. He showed us that Jesus bore
all our sins, He bore all our guilt, the holy justice of God
He bore. And the result, the result of
His death was the complete and absolute destruction of our sin. He tells us that. See, he says,
see if I can find it, I lost my place
a second. He says this in verse 7, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. When Christ came, He died. And what was the result? He freed
us from sin. Therefore, when we believe on
Jesus Christ, we are confessing our union with Him. Isn't that
what we're doing? Paul uses the illustration of
baptism in verses 3 and 4. He uses baptism because
baptism is the picture of it. We were confessing our union
in his death, in his burial, and his resurrection. He confessed
that just as Adam died by his disobedience, all of us died. Even so, I confess that all my
righteousness and life come by another man. by the obedience
and blood of Jesus Christ. And now that he's given eternal
life to us, the scripture tells us our life is hid with God in
Christ. How safe is that? How safe and
secure is that? If your life is hid in Christ,
how safe is that? Who's going to remove it? Who's
going to take it away? Our Lord Jesus Christ, in John
chapter 10, you remember what He said? He said, I give unto
them eternal life. Now, tonight, you that believe,
how is it that you have eternal life? How is it that you are
dead to sin through the death of your Savior? How is it you
have been given eternal life? Because He gave it to you. I've
given to them eternal life without any merit of their own. I give
it to them. And they shall never perish. Now when are they going to perish?
When will they perish? If He gives us eternal life,
They shall never perish. Listen, and while they're here,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So behold then the security of
this truth of divine grace that none of his people shall perish,
none of them shall be plucked out of his hands. Why? Because
this is all the work of grace. It's all the work of God. And because we are dead to sin,
the gospel of grace does the opposite of what men suppose
it would do. This message of grace and salvation
is all done by somebody else, they suppose it's going to drive
us to sin. But what does it do? It does
exactly the opposite. It constrains us from sin. You
know why they don't know that? Because they haven't experienced
it. They don't know anything about grace. And so because we are dead to
sin by grace through the union of Christ, because we are alive
under God by the grace of God through our union with Christ
and His resurrection, this is the result that sin and death
are forever dethroned in the hearts and souls of God's people. Therefore, it is by God's grace,
by His constant, super-abounding, super-pardoning, cleansing grace
By His strengthening grace, by His keeping grace, we will never
be moved to sin. We will never be dominated again
by sin. In fact, the opposite, the scripture
testifies that the preaching of God's grace only encourages
us to godliness. Look at Titus. Look real quick
at Titus. I'll just read this to you. Titus
chapter 2. The apostle is talking about
the grace of God. He says in verse 11, look at
what he says. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men. And what did it do? Teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior. You know what grace teaches
you? Doesn't grace teach you that? If you see the love of
God in the death of His Son, if you see the grace of God delivering you from the curse
of sin. This teaches us to deny it, to live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world with what? Our eyes looking on
Christ. He didn't say live soberly and
godly and righteously by the law, does he? No. How do we look
to Christ's coming? We look by faith, don't we? Well,
that's how we live soberly, righteously, and godly. Simply by looking
by faith. Constantly looking by faith. And so grace teaches us that
Christ is what? All my salvation. That's what
grace teaches me. Isn't that what Paul said in
1 Corinthians? For God hath made him. God hath made him to be wisdom.
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God made Christ to be all our
salvation, all of it. And grace teaches me that I am
born by the power of the Holy Spirit, that I am now by Christ
dead to the guilt and penalty of sin. And again, I want to
remind you, that's what it means to be dead to sin. It means to
be dead from the guilt and penalty of it. I will never, you will
never suffer the guilt and the penalty for sin. How does that
drive you to sin? Or does that drive you to love?
It drives us to love. It moves us to love. And by this
I see the love of God. I see the love of the Father
that chose me. I see the love of the Son that
condescended to become a man. I see the love of Christ as He
walked in this world, as a man obeying the law of God for me. I see the love of God in the
death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. I see the love of God
in the resurrection of Christ as He is now seated in heaven,
moving everything in heaven and earth to save His people. You got that? That everything
since He started this world. The first time He said, Let there
be light. From that time forward, He has been working toward the
salvation of this sinner. Astounding! That all creation
and all time and all providence and all events were moving so
that I should hear the gospel at an appointed time and believe.
Same with you. It's astounding the love of God,
the care that He takes in that. And it is the love of Christ,
His grace, this super, listen, it is this constantly abounding
grace. It's not a one-time thing, is
it? Salvation's not a one-time thing. I'm telling you, I am
constantly I like that way, the way John says it, He cleanseth
us from all our sins. It's a perpetual, constant cleansing. You need forgiveness today? Anyone? Any believer need forgiveness
today? You bet we do! And guess what you have today?
You have forgiveness today. You know what? You'll have it
tomorrow. If God gives you a thousand years,
you'll have it. That's what grace is. It's super
abounding. Wherever sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. I tell you what, sometimes my
sin abounds a lot. My sin is deep. My sin is so
strong. And yet what does God say? My
grace super abounds it. Somebody, I was talking about
that scripture where it says, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. Underneath. Do you realize that the arms
have to go lower than you to pick you up? If you're laying on the ground,
the arms have to go underneath you, don't they? They have to
go lower. Grace goes down deeper and lower than our sin. There
was a hymn about that, right? Deeper than the stain is gone.
That's how far grace extends. And so then I recognize as a
believer I'm in constant need of this grace. Constant need
of this grace. And it is this grace that constrains
me by the power of the Spirit. The flesh then is put down and
restrained. I was talking to someone about
a man that was dating his daughter and it's very wicked, wicked,
wicked man. And these two had a child and
he was talking about that child's going to grow up and I want to
tell him what kind of man his father is. I said, you rather should
tell him what kind of man his real father was, Adam. And how that man's sin translated
not just to his daddy, but to all of us. That that man was
no greater sinner than we are by nature. His nature was no
different than ours. This is something a believer
understands about himself. That if God would remove his
hand off me, sin would reign. Isn't that true? Is that not
true? Sin would over-aboundingly reign in my body, mind, and spirit
if God had not given me a new nature in which it could not
abound. Had God not given me this, had God not kept me from
sin. And so yet we see this grace
of God, we see how superabounding this grace of God is, and we
realize we are dead to sin. We are dead to sin's guilt, and
we are dead to sin's penalty, which is death. Yet every believer knows that
sin is not put away from our presence. Isn't that true? I
am dead to sin's penalty and guilt, but I am not yet absent
from its presence. Every believer knows this. Even because the old man of sin
still abounds in us. That's why Paul said in Ephesians
4, he said, put off the old man and his deeds. Now why would
he say that? If there were no old man to put off, then why
would he? There is an old man to put off
and we must be put off. He's constantly in need of being
put off and his deeds mortified. There's no doubt about it. We
understand this. Though we are dead to the union
of Christ, dead to the penalty of Christ, we are not dead from
its presence. And so yet when I think about being dead to the
penalty, what joy that should give every believer. I thought
about this verse in Revelation 20. It says, blessed and holy
is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Now what was he
talking about? Is he talking about the resurrection
from the grave? That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about what Paul said in Ephesians chapter
2. And you hath he quickened who were dead. He's talking about
the new birth. He's talking about the first
resurrection. You that believe, you all are partakers of the
first resurrection. And I like this. He said, blessed
and holy are you. Isn't that something? I didn't
say that. I would never say that about
you or me. That's what God says about us.
Blessed and holy is he that part in the first resurrection, listen,
over which the second death hath no power. Listen to that. Has
no power whatsoever. It'll never touch you. The second
death will never touch you. Why? because you've already died
that death in Christ. Yet we know that we are not free
from sin's presence, we still fail constantly. Our love, what
can you say about your love for Christ? What can we say about our faith
in Christ? I mean, really, is your love
or my love so great we can brag about it? in any measure? Our love is cold, our faith is
low? We fall into many foolish and
hurtful lusts? You know, in chapter 7, the Apostle
is going to show us that experience. Yeah, you're dead to sin, you're
dead to its penalty. You're not dead to its presence.
and He shows us an example of this, and He uses Himself in
chapter 7. Chapter 7, He's going to show
us an example, and when I read this, I can put my name on that. I can sign my name to it, because
His experience is exactly my experience. Look what He says in verse 14.
Tell me if this is not you. He said, for we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, soul under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that I do not. For what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent that the law is good, you will never catch me
disparaging the law of God. The law of God is perfect in
every way. Every way. Now then, it is no more I that do it. but sin that dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me, clarifying,
in my flesh. We just talked about the old
man. Dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the
good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Is anybody recognizing
any of this? For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against my mind. bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. You see then the struggle of
every true believer in Christ, longing to do good but not finding
how. And when I would do good, what
do I find? I find evil is mixed with all
I do. We, like Paul, see two men, two
armies, I like this, he said, I delight after the law of God,
listen, in the inward man. Now, is he lost or saved? Now,
believe it or not, there are men who would take this passage
and say, well, Paul's talking about when he was lost. Oh, he
had an inward man when he was lost? He desired to do good when
he was lost? He just told you in Romans 3
that none of us has ever done any good. You're talking about
a man who knows good now, a man who desires to do good. He loves the law. If he could do it, he would. And so he has an inward man,
an inward conflict, and what is the cry of the believer in
such a state? Though he's dead to sin and alive
unto God, though he has no penalty, not going to pay any penalty
for sin, Christ's already paid him. But yet that inward struggle
brings us down to this point where we cry, O wretched man
that I am. He did not say, O wretched man
that I was. I am. The struggle within ourselves
causes this to loathe ourselves. Now if you go over to Jeremiah
and you read the account of the covenant of grace, I think Jeremiah
31, Ezekiel 32, Listen to what God promises.
He says, and you shall loathe yourselves. Is that true? You
that believe? Now the world, they want to dignify
themselves. That's why I don't like this
message of total depravity, because it's undignified. It doesn't
give man any honor or praise. But we that believe, what do
we do concerning our nature? We loathe ourselves. And what is our longing? Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? That's what Paul
asks. In the midst of his struggle, he asks that question, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? What is he saying by that? He's talking about the old man
as a burden. This is a picture of a man carrying
a rotting corpse on his shoulders. Isn't this a beautiful picture
of how we walk through this world? with a rotting corpse about our
neck, weighing us down, burning us. Now listen, there was a time
when I was in this world and this corpse didn't have any weight. You know why? I was dead. I didn't
feel any weight of sin, of guilt, of shame. But when God quickened
me to life, I began to feel the weight of this old man that is
bearing down on us. Now we are made to feel the weight
of the flesh, and Paul likens this burden to carrying a dead
corpse from the cradle to the grave. And we can't lay it aside. We can't lay it down until we
put it in the ground. And so when we are weighed down, when we are and seem to be enslaved
by our sin, ensnared by it, tempted, tried, troubled by our sin, by
our condition. We often feel that sin has somehow
come back and reigns over us. That's how we feel. When I am cast to the earth,
my guilt overwhelms my soul. when I feel that God has abandoned
me. I feel that God would forfeit
his reign of grace over me. And I cry, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Am I now brought back under the
rule of sin? Listen to the answer of God.
No. Listen to the answer of our text. Sin that once reigned over you shall not have dominion over
you. Shall not have dominion over
you. This is not an exhortation as
some read it. Some will read it like this,
let not sin have dominion over you. That's not what the text
says. The text is not an exhortation,
it is a valid promise of God. to you that believe. Sin shall
not ever again, regardless of your failures, regardless of
your lack of merit, regardless of the matter of your circumstances, you that are under grace, sin
shall not ever, ever, ever have dominion over you again. Ever. You will never be ruled by it. over in Colossians chapter 1
and verse 13, listen to what he says, "...who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness." Now we were under the power of
darkness. There's no denying that. We were under the power
of darkness. But He, God, hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath, I like that, He already did it, translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. I think when I hear that
word translated, I think of Enoch. Old Enoch was walking along.
He believed God, and God saw fit to translate him into heaven. That's exactly what happened
when you were converted. You were taken out of that kingdom
and that dominion. and you were translated into
another kingdom, the kingdom of his dear son. That's what
happened. And the result of this kingdom,
in whom we have redemption, we have it, constant, perpetual,
eternal redemption through his blood. Constant, perpetual, eternal
forgiveness. That's what's in this kingdom.
This kingdom is a constant, perpetual forgiveness. That's what you
have in this kingdom. And in order for you to be kicked
out of this, the kingdom of darkness would have to overthrow the king
of light. That's what would have to happen.
To remove me from this grace. You would literally have to move
Jesus Christ from His throne. That's how sure this promise
is. You are now under the kingdom
of grace. Sin shall never lord over you
again and bring you under condemnation. Sin shall never remove you from
the grace and love of God. Now listen, if such a task were
left up to us, surely we could not keep ourselves in this kingdom. If I removed myself from the
kingdom of darkness, and I put myself in the kingdom of light,
then surely somebody's going to come get me, and get me out
of there. I have no strength to keep myself
in this kingdom. But see, I didn't put myself
in it, and I'm not keeping myself in it. He is. Now sin does war against us.
It does at times ensnare us. It does often wound our hearts
and bring us pain in our minds and bodies. But behold, it will
never be able to bring us back to death, ever bring us back
to death. Even because we are now delivered
by the grace of God into the kingdom of Christ and we are
kept from any accusation or condemnation. You got that? This is how sure
it is. This is what it means that sin
is not going to have any dominion on you. No one is ever going
to be able to accuse you or condemn you of sin. I don't know if you're over there
in chapter 7, again, just look down below what he finds out.
He says, you know, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver
me from the body of this death? You know what he does? He says,
I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. That's how I'm going
to be delivered, right there. So with my mind I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. But here
is my hope. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus." See what it means to have no
sin, to have no more dominion over you? It means this, that
you have no more condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. There is therefore now Constantly,
eternally, perpetually, what? No condemnation. Why? Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Ever. You look at chapter 8 and verse
33, he says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies, so who's going to accuse me? That's what
he's saying. Who's going to accuse me? Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather than risen again. It's even at
the right hand of God making intercession for me. Who's going
to condemn me? Who? Now how can this be? How can
I be sure that I am not under the dominion of sin? Look back at your text real fast.
You are not under the dominion of sin, so you're not under its
penalty, you're not under its guilt, and listen, you're never
going to be. That's what this text is telling
you. You're never going back. And how am I sure of this? Look
at this. Because, verse 14, you, sin shall not have dominion over
you, for, because you are not under the law, but under grace. I want you to know this is not
up for debate. You that believe, you listen
very carefully, you are not under the law. I read a man, I thought, made
a very good quote about being under the, not being under the
dominion of sin, that nothing was going to remove us from Christ,
nothing, we're totally kept from sin's guilt and power, and it
will not consume us though we do fall and though we do sin
in this body. Yet grace so abounds, it's not
going to come to your condemnation. It won't have dominion over you.
It'll never reign over you. You that believe will never unbelieve. You'll never go away into perdition.
Why? It's not going to have dominion
over you. But then you get to this matter of not being under
the law, and he says things like, well, it's not talking about
the moral law. He's talking about the dietary
law, and the ceremonial law, and the governmental law. No, you're not under those, but
you're still under the moral law. Where do you read that? There's
no room in this text to place all that there. It simply stated
the fact. You are not under the law. They don't need to clarify it
to me. Why? Because the law is the law is
the law and I don't care which part you turn to. Therefore,
you are not under the law, but what? Under grace. That's what
you're under. You're under grace. Therefore, we are in no measure
under the law, but under grace. The law was a covenant, wasn't
it? The law is a covenant. It's a
covenant of works. Do this and live. Don't do this and die. Very simple covenant. There's
613 of them. And you fail in one, you fail
in them all, and you die. That's a simple, that's a very
simplistic explanation of it all. It's a covenant. What did
God say concerning us in that covenant? That we already have
failed. None of us have ever obeyed the
law or kept any measure of the law. We all have failed. You see, then why was the law
given? We've been over this multiple
times, but I'll just give it to you. Verse 20 of chapter 5,
the law entered that the offense might abound. What's the purpose
of the law? That the offense might abound.
You notice I don't need to do any gymnastics with this. I don't
need to do any scriptural gymnastics. That's just pretty self-explanatory,
isn't it? The law came in so that for one purpose, sin might
abound. It didn't say anything about
being a guide for your life or being a help to get you to heaven
or going to God. It says simply that sin may abound. That's it. Go to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians
chapter 3 is, I think, one of the clearest things concerning
the law there is, because that's what the church was duped to
believe. He says, for as many, in verse
10, as many as are under the works of the law are under the
curse. So are you under the works of the law? See, I don't do any
gymnastics for this. Are you under the works of the
law? Then you're under the curse. Why? It's written. That's simple. It's written. curses everyone
that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. But no man is justified by the
law, the sight of God is evident. For the just shall live by faith."
And listen to this statement, the law is not a faith. Do not
tell me you believe in salvation by grace through faith and put
men back under the law. Why? The law is not a faith. The law and faith are two distinctly
separate things. You are either under the law
or you are under grace. You are either saved by your
works or you are saved by faith in Christ. These are distinct
things. How then shall those who are saved live? We live by
faith, don't we? shall live by faith. Now why
we do that? We're not under the law. We're
not under the law. Notice what he says in verse
19, wherefore then serveeth the law. I like the apostle, he keeps
answering the same questions over and over again. I'm not
a smart man and sometimes I ask the same questions over and over
and over again. Well, that's good, because Scripture
keeps giving me the same answer over and over again. Wherefore
then serveth the law? What's the purpose? It was added
because of transgression till Christ should come. It was added
because it exposed the transgression. That's what it was there for,
to reveal sin. Please hear what the Word of
God says. to anyone who desires to be under the law. You're under
its curse. The law was never intended to
keep you from sin. You found the law to be a good
keeper of you from sin. Have you found it to help you? Only the self-righteous would
say yes. Only a self-righteous man, a man who has no idea of
grace, would say, yeah, the law's a good help to keep me from sin. First of all, he's not an honest
man. He's not an honest man. He's not being honest with himself. I was telling Cook today, you
know, I had not really known sin had not the law said thou
shalt not, right? And what happens, I usually,
this little kid walks by and you see a sign that says, wet
paint, don't touch. What's the first thing you want
to do? Well, you, that's our nature. Our nature is to oppose it. So the law can't constrain me
from that. Is that sign going to do anything
to keep me from touching it? It can warn me of the consequences,
but it sure can't keep me from it. And the law can't keep you
from sin. It can only reveal you're a sinner. So the law is never intended
to help keep you from sin. but rather expose the greatness
and ruinedness of our nature. See, then the grace and the law
can never be mixed. You are either saved by grace
or you're saved by the law. And if you claim to be saved
by both, you're saved by neither. But here's the confidence of
us who are under the reign of grace. This is so good. You're
not under the law. You're not under the law. That's
the greatest thing I've ever heard because I've never obeyed
the thing. I've never, I could not, with all my trying, ever
obey that law. But you know what I have? I have obeyed the law. Listen,
in my representative. I have obeyed the law. Just like
I died under the justice of the law, I have also obeyed the law
in Christ. Now how did that happen? Was
that by law or grace? It was grace. You are not under
the law but under grace. Paul says in Romans 10.4, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Does it mean that the law is
destroyed? One person, one fool called me up and said, you mean
to tell me that the law is destroyed? Of course the law is not destroyed. I'm just not under it. I fulfilled the law in my representative. I got kind of a smart alecky
with him. Have you fulfilled it? You want
to be under it so bad? Have you fulfilled it? No response. You that believe
you are now under the reign of grace. Grace of God reigns supreme
over all your sin and failure. Grace now declares us to be free
from the law even because God himself has
covered our sins. Listen to what God said, I have
blotted out thy transgressions as a thick cloud and thy sins
as a cloud return to me because I have redeemed you. I have redeemed
you. This is what grace says. Grace
says God has blotted out my sins. He removed me from the law and
its curse and gave me the blessings of absolute obedience through
Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how. Paul says in Colossians 1, 1
Corinthians 15, 56, he said the sting of death is sin. But what
is the strength of sin? He said the strength of the sin
is the law. But listen, thanks be to God
which giveth us the victory. Now who won the victory? Who
won the victory over sin? Did you have a hand in this?
Were you helping Christ in this? Did you help him out? No, you
didn't help him out. He did it. He got the victory. And then what did he do with
that victory? He gave it to you. He gave it to us. He gave us
the victory. Total, complete victory through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And it was by grace that purposed
this victory. It was grace that purchased this
victory. And it was grace that applied this victory. to our
hearts and gave it to us. And listen, because of this, because of the grace of God, we shall never be ruled again
by sin. I know this. Every believer is
often fearful. You read those passages concerning
the apostates. You know who's most fearful about
being an apostate? A believer. There could be nothing worse.
There could be nothing worse than to expect heaven only to
realize that your faith was a vain illusion. You know who doesn't worry about
being an apostate? An apostate. But we do. We struggle. We struggle
with this often. And this is the security that
God swears that yes, you once were ruled by sin and death,
but now sin will not have dominion over you. In other words, you
will never return to your former state. You will always believe. That's what it amounts to. If
God has given you life and faith by grace, He will continually
give you life and faith by grace until you die. It's never going
to have dominion over you. Ever. And even when you die,
does sin have dominion over you? If sin had dominion over you,
you certainly would not go to glory. But because it has no
dominion over you, as soon as you die, you ascend into the
very presence of God. Why? Sin hath no more dominion. Why? Because you're not under
the law, you're under grace. You're under grace. And we'll
deal with that Same question, the same objection, he's going
to say it again. Well, if we're not under the law, then surely
we'll just be a bunch of vile wretches running around doing
evil things. God forbid. God forbid. That's not the heart of anyone
who's under grace. I'm so thankful to be under grace.
I'm so thankful that he delivered me from the kingdom of darkness. He translated me into the kingdom
of his Son. He died for my sin. He provides
my righteousness. He quickened my soul. He keeps
me in the faith until he comes and receives me to himself. I'm just a recipient of grace.
That's all I am. I'm a beneficiary of it. I didn't
do anything to earn it, I ain't gonna do nothing to keep it.
And this doesn't excite me to sin, it excites me to love. It
excites me to love and obedience. And I know it does you. I pray
God will help you with this and give you comfort. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Holy Father, dismiss us with
your mercies and kindness and pour out your grace on us. Keep
us safe, I beg you. Father, I plead for your people.
I plead for your gospel. I pray that you keep the light
in this place and give us strength. Be with those in our congregation
who are sick. Please heal their bodies. We
miss them, long to be with them. Forgive us our sins in Christ's
name.