Romans chapter 6 and we'll be looking at verses
15 through verse 17 this morning. The scripture says, For sin shall
not have dominion over you. For, because you are not under
the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness? but God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Now last week we saw the promise
of God in verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Now, we know that sin still remains
in every believer. We know this by our experience. We have been born again of the
Spirit of God. We have a new creation inside
of us. We are given faith and life to
believe. And yet, the old man, the old
nature has not changed at all. He has not changed at all. in the book of the Song of Solomon,
when the Lord is describing the Shulamite, which is a picture
of the church, He says, when we see thee, we see as it were
two armies, two armies warring against one another. This is
the believer's life. We know that sin still remains
in us, the old nature, but now, but now Jesus Christ has come
in and conquered the old man. He has set up His throne inside
of our hearts and put out, put down the reign of sin. Whereas we only had one nature,
which was to sin, sin, sin, now then we have a new nature that
is only holy. And these two are constantly
at war with one another. As you sit there, I know this,
you're warring now. You're warring now. The old man
is trying to raise his head. This is your experience every
time you worship. Who has trouble going to entertainment? Nobody. It's so easy to get there. But look, see, when you go to
worship, what happens? The world seems to fall apart.
That's the way it is. And the flesh just, oh, no, you
need to quit. And the Spirit says, no, I need
life. I need to hear. And these two
constantly struggle. But we have this promise of victory.
Sin shall not have dominion over you. What is this hope? What is the evidence of this?
The evidence is in the next part 4. You are not under the law,
but under grace. What was the purpose of the law?
The law has a purpose. It was never to save you. The
law was never meant to save you. The law was only meant to show
you sin. And that's all it does now. You
see people fighting to put the Ten Commandments up in monuments
and things like that? If they really knew what that
law was for, they wouldn't put it up. Because it would expose
them of the guilt of their sin. That's all the law can do, is
damn you, is condemn you. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy strength, with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as
thyself. Have you done that? No. Well, then all that can do is
send you to hell. All that can do is condemn you.
The law is a purpose to show us the exceeding sinfulness of
sin. But we who by the grace of God
have the light of the gospel, not only have our sins exposed,
but we have the gospel revealed. The gospel has been revealed
to us. We saw what we are, we know what
we are, but we also know what Christ has done for us. This is the revelation of the
gospel. The gospel message is not something
simple. It's something that's impossible. It's something that God has to
reveal to you. I have heard this all the time.
I know that! I know that! I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know. No, you don't. I'm telling you
over and over again and yet you can't get it. Why? Because this
is a revelation. God has to give it to you if
you have it. And if you have it, you see that the grace of
God is in Christ. In Him we have perfect obedience. In Him, we have perfect justification. And in Him, justice is satisfied. The justice of God is satisfied
in the death of Jesus Christ. And this comes how? How did you
earn this? How did you merit this? You didn't. It's by grace. It is by free
and sovereign grace. It is the only way that God reveals
this to sinners. And it was by grace that God
chose you to salvation. It was by grace that Jesus Christ
came into the world and redeemed you, paid your sin debt. It was by grace that the Spirit
of God came to you and opened your understanding, gave you
life and faith. That was by grace. You weren't
seeking God. Scripture tells us that there
is none that seeketh after God. If you tell me you're seeking
after God, I'll tell you that's the work of the Holy Spirit.
That can't be any work of man. It was by grace the Spirit gave
us life and it was by grace. Listen, it's by grace that He
keeps you. If you are still a believer, if you have believed and you
still believe, and I'll tell you if you continue in this faith
until your death and depart and go to be with God in glory, it
will be by grace. It will be by the free grace
of God not because you merited it. Then comes the question of
the legalist. Salvation's all of God. It's
all of grace. None of you. None of law. Then the legalist comes in and
says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? That's what the legalist is going
to say. If you're telling me I'm no longer under the law,
then you are giving me a license to sin. No. God forbid. God forbid. That's not grace.
That's not grace. We preach salvation by the free
grace of God alone with no human merit, with no incentives. That's what they do, isn't it?
They offer incentives. Well, if you believe in God,
then you'll be healthy. That's an incentive, isn't it?
Kind of like when you're trying to get somebody to work for you.
You say, hey, come over and work for us. Look at our bonus package.
This is what they do in the church. They're saying, look at our bonus
package. We've got a whole bunch of things. You can be healthy.
Jesus wants you to be happy. Jesus is going to keep you from
all kinds of trouble if you'll just come in and believe. That's
a lie. That's a lie. That's not true. Salvation is by free grace. And
they say if you don't have any incentives, if you don't try
to write some law, keep your people in line, then they're
going to go off and just sin. They're just going to follow
their lust with no restraint. We say God forbid. God forbid. We preach no such message. Grace
never teaches lawlessness. Grace never excuses sin. Never, never, never, never. Those who are under grace are
free from the law of Moses, which is to obey and live, disobey
and die. Isn't that the law? Is that not
the law? Do this and live or don't do
this and die. We are free from the Law's ordinances
and commandments because we failed them. We could not do them. The Law of ordinances and commandments
was against us because we failed in every part. But now by grace
the Law has been, listen, established. The law's been honored. How? By grace. It can't be honored
by works. You've already messed that up.
You and I have already sinned against God. There's no way to
correct this. The law gives no way to correct
sin or to make up. Isn't that what the mind does
immediately when you sin? And the first thing that comes
to our heart is, I need to make that up. That's the old man. That's the nature. That's a lost
man's thoughts, is how to make it up. Now those who are supposed to
be saved by Christ plus their obedience to the law, they dishonor
the law. They dishonor the law. If you
try to mix works and grace, listen, you are dishonoring the law. How? Because those people begin
to pick and choose which parts of the law they can obey and
they stick to those. Or think they can obey. They
use it as a rule of life. The law was not meant to be a
rule of life. God wasn't saying this is an
option. God said this is a necessity. Obey and live. Disobey and die. There's no way around it. And
anyone who uses the law in such a manner as to just a rule of
thumb, they've misused the law. They've misused it completely.
But we who are under grace, listen, you and I have really obeyed
the law. Really. I don't feel, I'm not
talking about how you feel because that's not based in reality.
If you are in Christ, if you are saved by the grace of God,
remember, that's not of you anyway. And neither is disobedience of
your merit. Disobedience is by the merit
of another that's imputed to you. And it's really yours. It's
really yours. We really have obeyed the law
in Jesus Christ. And now that we've been saved
by grace, we've been set free from the law. The law of Moses,
the law of sin and death. But we are not lawless, are we?
We're not without law. We're not antinomians. You see,
grace has a law. And I'll give it to you right
here. It is the law of faith. There it is. Go back to Romans
chapter 3. Look, Paul tells us this. In
Romans chapter 3, He's telling us that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. He's telling us
we were justified, how? Freely by the grace of God through
the redemption that's in Christ, whom God has set forth to be
the propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness. that he might be just in the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Where is boasting
then? If salvation is by grace, what
do you have to boast in? It is excluded. Is it excluded
by law? By the law of works? No. Not of works, but the law of
faith. The law of faith. You who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's your law. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the law. That's your law. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The law of faith. There is no boasting in this
law because where did faith come from? It came from grace. It came by grace. For by grace
you are saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself.
It, faith, is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. See, again, excluding the law
of works, the law of Moses, not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are His creation, we are
His workmanship in Christ Jesus unto good works. And listen to this, which God
hath before ordained that you should walk in them. That is
amazing. You don't see how that you and
I are just enveloped by grace? That everything is by grace?
Even down to our works. Our obedience, and we are under
the law not only of faith, for the just shall live by faith.
That's what Paul says in another place. But we are also under
the law of love. Is that not the commandment he
gave his disciples in John before he left? He said, this is the
commandment, a new commandment I've given to you, that you love
one another. Faith and love are evidences
of God's mercy, of God's grace. They're graces. Just as faith
is a grace, so is love. And as Jesus said of us who are
under the perfect law, oh, James says this, who are under the
perfect law of liberty, that we are to continue in this, not
being forgetful hearers, but doers of the work. What are we to remember? We're
to remember the perfect law of liberty, the law of faith, the
law of love, not the law of works. Because in these graces we see
that God is our Savior, that God has saved us, and we have
not saved ourselves. We are not forgetful hearers,
but the more we grow, the more we understand our sin. Isn't that right? The more you
grow, the more you see what you are by nature. I tell you this,
I know myself to be more wicked now than when I first believed. Why? Because the Spirit of God
is revealing this to me. And the more I know of that,
Consequently, conversely, we also are aware of the great greatness
of God, of His grace. I'm more aware of His grace. We're more aware of the grace
that plucked us out of a horrible pit. And we despise the flesh more
today than we ever have before. Is that not right? The more we
grow, the more we despise the flesh. If you have so learned grace
as an excuse to sin, then I tell you, you've never known grace. Grace causes us to loathe our
sins. to hate self. Is that not against
this culture? Is that not against what man
says? You just need to love yourself more. You need to just take everything
that you want and go for it. Grace doesn't tell us that. Grace
says to deny ourselves. Grace says I must have Christ
and everything else must go away. Paul said for me to live is what? Christ. Is that what it is for you to
live? Are you living just to make a
living? Are you living to raise children?
Are you living for your family? Are you living for yourself?
Are you living for riches? Are you living for fame? Then
you've not known grace. Grace causes us to live for one
person, Jesus Christ. For me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. Well, can and do believers use
liberty as an occasion to sin? Sadly, yes. That's why the apostle
exhorts us, use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh.
If you'd be honest, believer, you and I both know we have. But one thing about a true believer
is he can't stay there. We're just not allowed to stay
there, are we? We're just not allowed to stay
there. Our Father who loves us, He also chastens us. And if you be without chastisement,
then are you bastards and not sons. A believer can't live there.
He can't remain there. Because sin shall not have dominion
over you. In Proverbs 24, 16 it says, For
the just falleth seven times, and riseth up again. But the
wicked shall fall into mischief. I'll tell you, we've all, who
are believers, fallen seven times. What is seven? It's a number
of perfection, isn't it? So you mean to tell me my fall
was completely perfect. Yes, your ruin was completely
perfect. But we are raised again. You see? The wicked have already
fallen just like we have, but they fall into mischief, into
sin, and they can remain there. We cannot. We cannot. All men have fallen in Adam,
but only the just fall the perfect number. All we know our fall
is perfect. And all we do is mixed with sin. Yet, when we sin, we do not excuse
it, and we must not excuse it. We must confess it. This is why
God left his word. This is why, because he said,
when you sin, John, in first John, he said, brethren, when
you sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. If any man says he's without
sin, he's made God a liar and the truth's not in him. But whosoever
confesseth his sin, Confess it. Believers, we confess. This is
who we are. We confess. Not to each other,
not to another man. We confess to God. We confess
to Christ. And we need forgiveness of sins. We need this. We must have it. When we sin, we have been taught the grace
of God. do not refer back to the law, but rather, when our
sin is exposed, we lean more on the grace of God. This is the heart of the believer
to serve God, to obey God, to love God because of His great
grace. He says in verse 16, No you not,
to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants
you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness. Whose servant are you? Whose servant? I'm glad for verse 17. But God
be thanked that you were the servants of sin. But now, But
you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered unto you. If there be any who give thanks
to God, it is those who have been delivered from the bondage
of our sins by His free and sovereign grace. Religious men, they often
begin their prayers with thanksgiving, but theirs is like the Pharisee.
Father, I thank Thee that I'm not like that other man. I thank You that I'm doing well,
that I'm obedient. I thank You that I'm... He was
thanking himself. He was praying thus with himself. The self-righteous pray to themselves
and they look down on another man and say, I thank God I'm
not like that man. I thank God I'm not a drunkard.
I'm no thief. I'm no adulterer. I thank God
I'm not like those sinners at that church there. But the heart of one who is freed
from sin is like the heart of the publican who knows what he is. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. I don't know your sins, but I know mine. And I must confess that if I'm ever going to be
saved it has to be by free sovereign grace. The heart of the believer is
to confess that we are sinners and those who confess. This is
the heart of grace. We confess and now we are justified. Isn't that what the Lord said
of that publican? He said, now that man went home
to his house, what? He believed God to offer a propitiation,
a sacrifice for his sins. And we too believe that God has
offered a sacrifice, which is His Son, Jesus Christ, for our
sins. And we have been justified. We've
been given a new nature. And we know what grace is. And
true grace is always thankful. Thankful to God for His grace. Whereas we once only walked in
sin, but now we have a new heart, a new heart. Not because of us,
but because of God's grace that quickened us and gave us this
new heart, this new life, this new faith in Christ. And it was
the work of grace that set us free and gave us such a heart
of obedience. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. From the
heart. Listen to me. Man does not have
a habit problem. Man does not have an addiction
problem. Man does not have a government
problem. Man does not have a relationship
problem. Man has a sin problem. Man has a heart problem. If you were to fix every problem
you thought you had, do you think that would do you any good? Would
that help your soul? No. Man has a heart problem,
for out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, adultery, fornication,
murders, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from the
heart. Man don't need a new environment, a new relationship, a new religion,
or a new government. All of these our Father had to
perfection and still sin. How can these things help you
whose heart is corrupt? It can't. The only hope for you
is if God give you a new heart. This is the covenant of grace. He said, I will give them a new
heart. And put within them a new spirit. My spirit. And all who have this spirit,
All who have this new heart are set free from sin. Has God given
you a new heart? What's the evidence of that?
I can't see this heart, can you? You can go and take some x-rays,
you can go and take one of those heart machines and you can see
your heart beating, but you can't see a new heart. How do you know
you have a new heart? Do you believe on Jesus Christ
alone? Has he come and conquered your
soul? Is he your master? If so, you have a new heart.
That only is a gift of God's grace. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, evidence of things not seen. Faith is the only evidence.
And from this faith comes love, and mercy, and kindness, and
gentleness, and all of these other graces pour out of that
new heart that God gives. But believer, do you give thanks? to those graces? You say, man,
I'm just so thankful for my faith. My faith is so good. I have such
a strong faith. Oh, faith! Oh, faith! I thank
you, faith! No. We don't give thanks to our
faith. We don't give thanks to our meekness
or our kindness or our love. We give thanks to God who gave
us such wonderful gifts. And you know what happens when
God gives those gifts? We use them. Believers use them,
and we love to use them. Not for any self-glory, but to
glorify our Savior, our Master. That's what it is to be under
the grace of God. God be thanked. He chose you. He redeemed you. He called you
and He'll keep you. And one day he'll bring you safe. If God be for us, who can be against us? Not even yourself. Not even yourself. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. May God bless you.