Turn with me to Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6 beginning in
verse 12. We'll look at several passages
of scripture this morning. The Apostle says, Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lusts Thereof. The title of the message this
morning is The Encouragement of Grace. The Encouragement of
Grace. And that's the point I want us
to see first, is that grace does not encourage men to licentiousness
or practice of sin, but rather grace encourages believers to
holy living. holy living. Whereas the natural
man despises the gospel of God's grace and sees it as a motive
to sin. As a license to sin, the recipient
of grace who loves the gospel is rather encouraged by grace
to flee from sin. to abstain from sin, to live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Now, notice the word the apostle
uses here. He says, let not sin therefore. As we have been taught, every
time you see the word therefore, you should find out what it's
there for. You should see what it is there
for. He is using this word as a transition
and conclusion of an argument that he had been working out
for several chapters. And this is the transition, namely
our justification. Our justification. Now what does
justification mean? It means to be innocent. We who
are believers in Christ, Paul, the Apostle Paul says, you are
justified by faith. Not by our faith itself, but
justified through the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. You
who believe, you are justified, you are innocent of all charges
through Jesus Christ. That's how you're innocent. You're
not innocent because you've merited it, because you've earned it.
You're innocent because you were represented by Jesus Christ. Represented. And as we were in
Adam, we were in union with Adam, the first man. Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, So death
passed upon all men, for all have sinned. When did we sin? When did you and I first sin?
We sinned in Adam. When Adam sinned, you sinned. He was a representative man. In our fairness culture, that
is against the fairness policy, isn't it, of this culture. Well,
that's just not fair. It doesn't matter what you think
it is. This is how it is. You were represented
in Adam, and God gave you a representative, and Adam was your representative. And when he sinned, you actually
sinned in your father, Adam. And therefore, that's why death
is passed upon all men, for all have sinned in Him. And what's
the evidence of your death? What's the evidence that you
died in Adam? Don't you sin? You sin. That's the evidence that you
died, is your sin. And as we were all in Adam by
union with Him in nature, Therefore, the apostles said, Sin reigned
unto death. Death came upon us by Adam. So
then all died spiritually by a representative, and sin reigned
over us. Even so, how is a person justified? A person is justified in the
same manner by a representative man. This is his whole argument.
This is the whole point he's been making. is that even so
by the grace of God came Jesus Christ as a representative man. Who did He represent? Who did
Jesus come to represent? He came to represent the elect
of God, those that were chosen of God before the foundation
of the world. This is who He represented. And
therefore we, who are the elect of God, are saved by grace through
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. So then as we are in union with
Christ, how is it that you who believe were in union with Christ? We were in union with Christ
because God put us in union with Christ. You were not in union
with Christ because you deserved it, because you were somehow
better than someone else. No, you were a sinner just like
everyone else. The only hope is that God put
you in Christ. And we who are in Christ, we
who have believed the gospel, and that's the evidence. If you
want to know your election, faith is the only evidence of grace. Do you know that? Faith. The scripture tells us that faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the what? Evidence of things
not seen. Faith is the evidence. The evidence
of grace is that we believed. Consider then the picture of
this great truth of what he had mentioned before of the baptism
of Jesus Christ, that we were baptized into His death. Look
at verse 3. He said, No, you not, that so
many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into
His death. How were you justified? How were
you made innocent? Because of your union with Christ
and because Christ died for your sin. Your sin had to be paid. Justice had to be satisfied. Therefore, you were baptized
into His death. Consider this great truth that
even as we were in the symbol of baptism, baptism is immersion
under the water. And so then we were immersed
and entombed in Christ. So that when He died, we died
with Him. When He was buried, we were buried
with Him. And when He rose again, we were
raised with Him unto eternal life. And so then, his death
to sin is truly what the apostle says, no you not, he said of
God forbid, for how shall we that are dead to sin? Do you
see we are dead to sin? If Christ, if we died in Christ,
we are dead to sin. Our Lord Jesus was made sin. Made sin for us. who himself
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Do you not see that this is justification? Being made innocent is also to
be made righteous. We needed both, didn't we? We
needed to be made righteous and we also needed our sins punished
in a substitute, in someone else. We could not bear the justice
of God. So then God sent his son. God's
justice is not to be deceived. It's not some sleight of hand. You and I know very little of
justice, isn't that right? We know very little of justice. We base justice mostly in our
day on feelings, don't we? Not even a rule of law, as you
can see. Our courts don't even base justice
on a rule of law. They base justice based on how
they feel about a certain thing or a certain person. So really,
we know very little about justice. You see, I can forgive you of
some trespass against me and without payment, really. You
offend me. I can say, well, you know, I'm
sure I offend you, so I can just sweep it under the rug. God can't
sweep sin under the rug. He cannot do it and be just. God's not like us. And God can't
simply declare you to be just. He can't simply say, okay, you're
innocent. He can't say that unless you
are actually innocent. Can He? then that would be a
lie. God cannot lie. Therefore, God
not willing, the Scripture says, listen to this, God not willing,
not willing to impute our sins, to charge our sins to us, He rather in charge them to His
Son. We deserved nothing but the punishment
of God because we were truly guilty. Truly guilty. But God, willing to make a display
of His grace, gave His only Son, His only Son, to die in the stead
of sinners. In the stead of sinners. that
His only Son be the only acceptable offering for sin. Therefore,
believers in Christ, those upon whom the Holy Spirit has given
spiritual life and who has revealed to us the grace of God through
faith in Christ, the Apostle says, verse 11, likewise reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed. In actuality, in reality, dead
to sin. As I've said before, the word
reckon, it means take inventory of. If you have a box of inventory,
you would see the inventory and you would say, yes, there it
is. That's right. I've got it. It's
right there. But as I've studied this word
more, I've seen that this is also translated in other scriptures,
in other places, as impute. Do you not see? He said, likewise,
impute yourselves to be dead to sin. As our sins were truly imputed
to Christ, you may impute this to be true. This is so. Believer, impute this to be so
because it is so. You are dead to sin. This is
not the power of positive thinking. But this is the grace of faith
that sees things as God sees them. We who believe in Christ,
we see things. that the natural man doesn't
see. If you were to look at me, if
you were to watch me very carefully, you would in no way see how I
am dead to sin. Why? Because you'll see me sin.
If I watch you, I know this, eventually I'll see you sin. But see, this is not how we see
things as they are in this world. We see things as they really
are. Because how things are in this
world are not how they really are in the eyes of God, in the
sight of God. Do you know that God sees things
as they really are? Is that not right? Does God see
things as they really are? You bet He does. Look back over
in chapter 4 in verse 16. The scripture says, therefore,
of faith. Therefore, it is of faith. Talking
about the righteousness that is imputed to us by faith. Therefore, it is of faith. That
faith, by grace. That by grace. to the end that
the promise might be sure to all the seed. Do you not see
that? That salvation is by faith through
Jesus Christ and that faith is by the grace of God. You can't
even produce that faith. Faith is given by the grace of
God. Why? So that it might be sure.
so that it might be sure, the salvation might be sure to all
the seed, not unto them only that are of the law, the Jews,
but unto them which are of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations before him, before God, whom
he, Abraham, believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and
notice this, and calleth those things which be not as though
they were. Believers, it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. Is that not right? It doth not yet appear. But God
calls things not how we see them, but how they really are. Because we still have this earthly
tabernacle, we still are men of two natures. We are men of flesh and of the
Spirit. We have an old man and a new
man. We are born with a sin nature
and then now we are born again of the Spirit of God. Two natures. One man. That's you, believer. Jesus said that which is born
of flesh is flesh. And that which is born of Spirit
is Spirit. Do you not see that they are
separate? That they are two? And we cannot see with these
eyes how things really are with us who are in Christ. We see this old man. We see in our own experience,
we see in our experience, our painful experience, we see our
failures, our fears and faults. Is that not so? Is that what
you see? Because that's what I see. I
see fear. I see pain. I see unbelief. I see all these sins in myself. I know them to be there. I feel
them in there. I know them to be so. I know that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And we often cry out like Paul,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? Well, I, like Paul, through faith
say, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. That's who's
going to deliver me. By faith, not by sight, by faith
we are able to see how these things really are, not by our
experience, not by our circumstance, and not by our feelings, but
only by faith in Christ, and that faith by grace. Now let me ask you this, does
this not move your heart, you that love God, you that have
everlasting life, we who deserve only the utter corrupt contempt
and hatred of God and yet we've received the grace and mercy
and love of God, does this move us to sin or to righteousness? The fact that we're dead to sin,
the fact that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His mercy and grace,
now that we see that He's graciously called us, given us life, and
faith in His Son, saved us, made us dead to sin, what does this
move us to do? Does it move us to sin or to
righteousness? This encourages me to righteousness.
This doesn't move me back. This moves me forward. This moves
me toward Christ. He says, I have loved thee, you
thou worm Jacob. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, with sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love. I, your God,
have loved thee, you vilest of men. I've loved you. as much as I love my son." Consider the display of God's
grace on the cross that God sent his only son to
save those who hate him the most. For God so loved the world that
he gave, his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Behold, the child of God,
the great cost of such love that the son was lifted up to die
in your stead. Jesus was sent to purge our sins
with His own blood. Therefore, listen to me, therefore,
let not sin reign in your mortal body. Let not sin reign, therefore,
in your mortal body. What is he talking about? Because
I know this, I cannot not sin. I know this. In my flesh, in
my old man, everything I do is mixed with sin. What is he talking
about? I think it's important for us
to notice in our text that he uses the word mortal body. He is talking about the actions
of the flesh. How many thoughts enter into
our mind daily that we cannot control? We cannot. cannot control them. They rush in. They flood our
minds and we would rid ourselves of them. We would get them out
as quickly as we possibly can. Can you stop that? I don't know. There's no way to stop that.
But I'll tell you this. See these hands? I'm moving them
up and down because I can. I can. I can walk over here. I can step down. I can step up.
These things I can do with this mortal body. You can't stop, Martin Luther
said, you can't stop the birds from flocking, but you can stop
them from nesting. You see, if you remember God's
servant David, You remember, it was out of his
laziness. He was not in the front with
the men. He was in the back. He was in
the palace. He should have been out there
in the fight, but he wasn't. And then what happened? He looked
upon that woman that was bathing, and he lusted. I tell you that that is common
to man. It is common to man to look. And when he looks, the lust fills
in his mind and he can't stop that. But you know what he did?
He didn't just look, he stared. And then, he not only stared,
he said, well, I'll just invite her over for dinner. It'll be
okay. It'll be alright. No problem here. He says, I'm
king, I can do what I want to. And he committed adultery with
her. And that wasn't enough, it didn't end there. It didn't
end until David murdered a man, her husband, Uriah. You see what sin... We are dead
to sin's guilt, friends, but we're not dead to the effects
of sin, we're not dead to the influence of sin, and we're not
dead to the consequences of sin. Therefore, by the grace of God,
I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies. A living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable. Which is your what? Reasonable
service. I'll tell you what, the grace
of God teaches us it's just reasonable for us to sacrifice everything
for Christ. That's just reasonable, isn't it? Seeing what He's done,
seeing what mercy He's had on us, seeing the grace of God,
seeing that Christ died for our sins, He's made us free from
the guilt of sin. He's made us free from the consequences
or the penalty of our sins. Because of that, is it not reasonable
for us to just put away everything? You see, I'm not talking about
mortifying this body to receive some special gift. I already
have all the gifts. Because I have all the gifts,
because I'm saved, therefore, the apostle says, let not sin
reign in your mortal body. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you. Don't let sin have dominion over
you, and sin will not have dominion over you. Why is that? Because Christ has set up His
throne in the hearts of His people. Does that mean his people can't
sin? No, his people do sin. But I tell you this, I know his
people hate sin. Our generation of so-called believers,
they have this idea that if they just accept something to be true,
as I said, power of positive thinking, they just accept it. Everything's clear for them to
just do as they please. And live in this world full of
sin and vice and all kinds of... No. The Apostle says, don't you
know that to whom you yield your members to, that's who you obey? Whether to sin unto death or
righteousness unto life. See, this matter of the grace
of God is powerful. God doesn't save you to keep
you in your sin. He saves you from your sin. And He doesn't save you to keep
the law. He saves you from the law. This is a truly happy thing. This makes me rejoice. That in Christ I am free from
the law. I'm not going back to the law. I'm not saved by grace and returned
to the law. I'm saved by grace and I, by
faith, continually believe the gospel that saved me. I continually
believe. And I'll tell you what, believer,
what constrains you? What keeps you from returning
to your former life? What? The love of Christ constraineth
me. His grace has taught me to live
soberly, righteously, and godly. Where? In this present world. Do you not see how grace teaches
us to live righteous? Doesn't it encourage us to live
righteously and godly? Yes, it does. Absolutely. Doesn't
cause us to live in sin. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. I pray that God blesses to your
hearts.