Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, Much we need Thy tender care. In Thy pleasant pastures feed
us, For our use Thy foals prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. We are Thine that live,
be free, Keep Thy flock from sin defend
us, Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, O hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve
us, Grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, Blessed
Jesus, Early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Early let us turn to Thee. Early let us seek Thy face, ? Surely let us do Thy will ? ?
Blessed Lord and only Savior ? ? With Thy love our puzzles
filled ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ? ? Thou hast loved us
still ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou hast loved us ever still. Be seated. I'm sorry, my placeholder
come out. See if I can find it again. Number 361. Sweet hour of prayer Sweet hour
of prayer A world of care, and it's me
yet. My father's throne, make all
I want. It's seasons of distress and
grief My soul has often found relief And oft escaped the tears Bye bye, three turns, sweet acts
of prayer Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth
and faithfulness in Cain And since he bids me seek his
face Believe his word and trust his grace I'll cast on him my
every care Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Hey, I'd like consolation share. Till from abyscus, far behind,
I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh to cease the
everlasting cries and shouts while passing through the air. Farewell, farewell, sweet hour
of prayer. Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter
6. I hope to get through the first
14 verses. So I'll read them. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? 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. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion
over Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin once. But in that He liveth, He liveth
unto God. Likewise, reckon yourselves also
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield 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. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under
grace. Our blessed God, Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for giving us this
another day, for keeping us, preserving us, defending us,
upholding us, keeping us saved, and keeping us looking to you
and trusting you. And Lord, I'm so thankful that
you brought us to trust you and to know you and cast our life
and our souls and our cares and everything that would trouble
us in this world, we can bring to you, casting all our cares
upon you because you care for us. And Lord, I pray that you
would give me some wisdom tonight, some understanding of your word.
Lord, I don't want to get up here by myself. Don't want to
be in the flesh in any way. I want to understand the Bible. I want to understand the things
that I'm dealing with. I want them to be made plain.
I want them to be made understandable. And Lord, I can't do that without
you. And Lord Jesus, bless these dear saints that's gathered out
tonight. Keep those who are not with us through burdens, or bodily
weakness, whatever it may be, please have mercy on them, protect
them, and provide for them, and keep them, and do that for Christ
our Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. M number 17. Number 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some good, Lord, You
saw it, Praise the fount I'm fixed upon
it, Fount of thy redeeming blood. Here I raise mine heavenly church,
Hither by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home Jesus, a people and a stranger Pondering
from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed His
precious blood Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained
to be, Let thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart
to thee. Thrown to water, Lord, I feel
it Thrown to me, the God I love Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it Seal it for thy courts above Alright, you've seen where I
read the first fourteen verses, but let's review just a little
bit. The Apostle's introduction was how all men are under sin,
and he taught that man had no righteousness of his own, and
he said you know that there s two revelations, the revelation of
the righteousness of God which is in the gospel which is the
power of God, and the revelation of the wrath of God against all
ungodliness and all unrighteousness. And that man don t have a righteousness
and that s the only righteousness it has, God has to provide it,
and He provides it through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then He
showed us that this righteousness, this gospel, is witnessed by
the Old Testament. You know, just like I read the
other night, Jehovah's akin you, the Lord our righteousness. That
right there is one verse that tells you that the Old Testament
witnessed to the righteousness of God, witnessed the Old Testament,
the Law and the Prophets, even the Law did because it demanded
perfection and it couldn't provide it. And then He taught us that
this righteousness that God s given us and provided for us, this
justification, it s ours, and it s ours as long as God exists. There s no way in the world you
can undo it. No way you can mess it up. You
can t mess it up. And I tell you, and we also seen
that the relationship between the human race between two men,
and these things that happened between these two men were PRIOR
to us being born. Adam sinned PRIOR to anybody
ever being related to him. And Christ died on a cross and
put away our sins PRIOR to us believing on Him. So everything
we was represented in Adam and we became sinners. We was also
represented in Christ And God constituted us righteous and
justified because of what Christ did. Adam got us lost, Christ
got us found. Adam got us in sin and in trouble,
and Christ got us out of trouble. Christ redeemed us from our sin. And that s what we do, and we
learn, all believers, God constitute them righteousness. But then
look what He says here, and I want you to see this. This is why
you follow the argument that the apostle goes through, and
he comes to the conclusion that though we was lost in Adam by
grace, Christ came and saved us and gave us a righteousness
by grace, a gift And then he says, verse 20, Moreover, the
law entered, that the offense might abound, to show us how
far off we really were. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death,
and it did in Adam, and even in us, sin reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. So right then he tells about
grace abounding, grace reigning, grace having power. When sin
abounded what we had in Adam, Christ, grace did much more abound. I mean it s like pouring a bucket
of water on a mash to put it out, that s how abundant the
grace of God was, and it reigns through righteousness. And so
men, and they're always raising an objection to the free grace
of God in Christ. Men always have. I've had this
mentioned to me countless times, and I'm sure you have. And this
is what they say. Well, what shall we say then?
You fellas believe so much in grace. You believe so strong
in grace. You believe that salvation's
by grace, and grace abounds over sin. Well, what shall we say
then? Let's just continue in sin. and
then we'll get a lot of more grace. And what they're saying
is, is if I believed like you did, I'd live in sin. That's what they're saying. And
oh, why shall we care? That's the first charge against
justification. That's the first charge against
righteousness alone by the merit, by the work, by the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Call you an antinomian. You know
what an antinomian is? That means you have no law whatsoever.
and I don't. I'm not under the law in any
way, shape, form, or fashion, so call me an antinomian, I don't
care. But I believe in the grace of God so strongly that if God
didn't save us by grace and Christ didn't make grace abound over
sin, that all of us would be left in our sin, left without
God, left without hope. So I'm thankful grace so abounded,
grace so abounded that He took care of all the sin of all of
His elect for all time. And oh, does this doctrine, and
this is what they talk about, does this doctrine of unrighteousness
by faith through faith give an encouragement to sin? If grace
abounds, why not sin some more? So grace will abound some more.
If a superabundance of God's grace is given, we're sin-bound.
Why not continue in sin to obtain more grace? And if justification
is by grace alone without works, why quit sinning? Why not continue
in it? Well, here's the difference. You know, a fellow told He heard
Walter Gruber preach several times. He said, If I believe
what you did, I d send all the time. And Walter said, I d send
more than I want to. He said, I d send all I want
to. And Walter said, I d send much more than I want to. And
we all do. You know, the thing is, grace
justification means to regard as righteous. You know, Grace
is glorified in putting AWAY sin. God is glorified in putting
AWAY sin, and I tell you what, grace is glorified in putting
a STOP to sin. You know, grace, thank God that
God saved us FROM grace, but grace saved us from sin, saved
us from ourself, I tell you, grace is glorified and putting
a stop to sin and not letting sin reign over you anymore. And
oh, how s Paul going to answer this question? I tell you, I
ve told folks time and time again, I m not under the law, and I
ain t going under the law. I'm not going under ten commandments,
I'm not going under a ceremony, I'm not going under a ritual,
I'm not going under a holy day, I'm not going under ANY kind
of a commandment. You know, we're complete in Christ,
we're perfect in Christ, so why in the world go try to do something
else and find some hope someplace else? And oh, why is Paul going
to answer this? Well, let's just continue in
sin. Oh, so grace will really raise up, you know. He said,
and this is his strongest language, God forbid! God forbid! Don't even THINK of such a thing! God forbid! Oh, my! God forbid! He answers with abhorrence,
he shows he's abhorred by it. He expresses SHOCK at such an
idea, and this is how he describes it. How shall we that are DEAD
descend? dead to it. How should we live
any longer therein? Well, how in the world did we
die to sin? Same place Christ did, on the
cross. Oh, in what sense are we dead
to sin? Well, we aren't dead to its influence. Look over here
in Romans 7, 15. We're not dead to sin's influence,
that's for sure. For that which I do, I allow
not For what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that
do I. So you know, sin still has its
influence over us. Look down at verse 19. For the
good that I would do, for the good that I do not, for the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
which I do. So he's still under the influence
of sin. And I tell you something else, and we're not free from
its presence, we're not free from its presence. Ain't that
what he said in verse 21 here of Romans 7, 21? I find in this law, this principle,
when I would do good, evil's right there with me. You do something
good, you say something and you feel good about what you've done,
next thing you know, evil's right there making you think, Boy,
I really done something. Oh, my, and I tell you, but oh,
my, and that s why we say, Lord, please forgive us of our sins.
We re not free from the effects of sin. That s why Paul said,
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of sin. David said, Oh, my sins are ever
before me. But I tell you what we are dead
to, we re dead to its penalty, which is death, you know why? We're dead to the penalty of
sin. And I'll tell you something else, we're dead to the guilt
of it. Anybody in here feel guilty over their sin? You know why
you don't feel guilty over your sin? Because Christ purged your
conscience from dead works. Christ's blood applied to your
heart and soul saved you from the penalty of sin and saves
you from the guilt of sin. I ain't felt guilty over sin,
and I don't know when. Why would I feel guilty over
something that Christ put away once and for all? I don't have
no guilt. Why would I have guilt? I'm dead
to sin. We're dead to it. It's not our
master. It don't rule over us. And all
Christ is our Lord. We're dead to it as a course
of life. you know there s a lot of people
in their course of life, you know, and what that means is
sin is our enemy. Living in sin to continue in
the world gives oneself when you re living in sin you continue
in the world and you give yourself up to sin. You delight in sin! How can we live in something
that's so repugnant to God, so repugnant to Christ, so contrary
to our new nature. How can we do that? Oh, our union,
our union with Christ keeps us from the penalty of sin. And
our union with Christ keeps us from living in sin, living in
sin. Now look in verse three and four
with me. Oh my, how shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer there? We're dead to it. 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 unto death. See,
He just keeps talking about death, death, death. And it talks about
by Him, in Christ, through Christ, therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism, that like Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. And oh, my! And what He's asking
them is, No, you're not. Surely you're not ignorant of
this. And that's why He says, Don't you know this? You surely
know this. Huh? Of our union with the Lord
Jesus Christ, you ought to know it, and you ought to know this,
and our spiritual union with our Lord Jesus Christ is a BAPTISM,
you know, being immersed into the Body of Christ. Now, I can
show you that, and you keep Romans 6 here, and look with me over
in I Corinthians 12. What does it mean to be baptized
into Jesus Christ? Well, this certainly isn t water
baptism. That s not how you get into Christ. But look in 1 Corinthians
12, verse 13. You know, as many of us were
baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. Remember
our Lord Jesus said, are you able to drink my cup and be baptized
with my baptism? And that's what He says right
here in Acts 12, 13. Now listen to this, for by one
Spirit, and that s capitalized, talk about the Holy Spirit, we
are all baptized, immersed into one body, put into one body,
whether you re a Jew, whether you re a Gentile, whether you
re a bond slave, or whether you re free, and have all been made
to drink unto one Spirit. How do you get into Christ? The
Holy Ghost PUTS us into Christ, BAPTIZES us! That s why the Body
of Christ is just one Body. And oh, my, that s why Paul said,
I m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, and the
life I now live in the flesh, I live by the FAITH of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. And you know,
this is our actual experience, not only that. Believers can
t be more joined to sin and live in sin any more than Christ can.
Can you be in the Body of Christ? Can Christ sin? Can Christ rebel? Well, then if Christ can't and
we're members of His body, we can't either! We can't either.
That's our experience. We can't live in sin no more
than Christ can. And then he talks about there
in verse 4, our water baptism is emblematic of our union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. as a dead man can t continue
in sin, neither can we who died and was buried and rose again
in Christ, and that s what he talks about. We are buried with
Christ by baptism into death, like as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father. Our Lord s death, burial,
and resurrection DEALS Oh my, water baptism is union with our
Lord, as a dead man cannot continue in sin, neither can we, who died
and was buried and rose again in Christ. We can t do it. Our
Lord s death, burial, and resurrection DEALS with our sinfulness, DEALS
with our sinfulness, as well as our sins, our sins, not only
what we are, but also of what we do. And our sanctification,
our holiness, whatever you want to call it, rests upon the same
foundation of our justification and our union with Christ. And
I want you to see this. His death put away our sin once
and for all. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
5. You know He says, We are buried
with Him by baptism unto death. baptized into Jesus Christ, were
baptized into His death. So baptism is emblematic of us,
our oneness with Christ, when He was buried, we was buried,
when He rose again, we rose again, and God raised Him up to walk,
and He was raised up to the glory of the Father, so when He saves
us, and when we confess Christ by our water baptism, we walk
in a different walk, we walk in a newness of life. Look what
He said here in 2 Corinthians 5, talking about our union with
Christ. Look what He says here in verse
14. This is what I'm trying to say.
His death put away sin once and for all. And then not only that,
but it was the death of sin itself. For the love of Christ constrains
us. Christ's love for us and our
love for Him constrains us. And this is why, this is the
way we judge things, that if one died for all, if Christ died
for all, then all for whom He died, then they were all dead. He died, they're all dead. They're
dead, too. And listen to this, And that
He died for all, and all for whom He died, that they which
henceforth live, Now we are living, not live unto themselves, but
unto Him which died for them and rose again. We live, His
love constrains us. You know, as His death and our
union with Him put away sin once and for all, it was the death
of sin's power and penalty. He was raised, and we by God's
grace walk in newness of life. But you can't walk in newness
of life if you're dead, if you're dead in sins. You've got to be
saved from your sin, that's what Christ does, that's what Christ
does. Now look what he says here in
verse 5. The consequences of this death with Christ and raise
with Christ and walking with Christ. For if we blend planted
together in the likeness of his death, WE SHALL ALSO BE IN THE
LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION, KNOWING THIS, THAT OUR OLD MAN
IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED,
THAT HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN." This planted together,
that means when our Lord Jesus Christ died, He died that we
should not If we have died with Him, we shall not live, we shall
also live with Him. And what He s talking about when
He talks about being planted together, it s like taking trees
and planting them in the same place. And Christ was grown up
out of the grave, and when He come up out of the grave, what
He was coming up out of the grave, when He was planted in His grave,
we were planted with Him, and we were born with Him there.
And then we'll also be like He's in the resurrection. And that,
you know, it says we shall be, that tells us what we're gonna
have in the future. We're also gonna be with Him in the resurrection. And oh my, look what He says
now. You know, in the likeness, when
He talks about the likeness of His resurrection, I remember
Scott mentioned it one time, and he'd always come up with
something most fellows didn't even think about. But he says,
now, you know, this is our confidence. This is why our confidence is,
and why we don't fear the judgment, because as Christ is in this
world, even so are we. And when he talks about the righteousness,
how is Christ right now in the world? What is He? And whatever He's like, that's
what we are. He s not in this world, He s
in glory. Did you all see that sign down
the street that says, You know, look up to Jesus, but don t do
it while you re driving? We look to Christ SPIRITUALLY.
I ve drove many a mile looking to Christ. Ain t you? That s what we re talking about.
People don t understand what they have with Christ, and so
He s not in the world. Let me tell you something else
He s not. He s not in the flesh! He s not under the law! He s
no longer on the cross! He s no longer in the place of
sin! And neither are we! And I tell you what, and then
look what He says here in verse knowing, We knowing this, He
says, Knowing this, THAT THE OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM,
THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED. NOW, WHAT BODY OF
SIN IS HE TALKING ABOUT HERE? HE'S NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS BODY.
THAT'S NOT WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. HE'S TALKING ABOUT SIN
BEING A MASSIVE SIN, A BODY OF SIN, A MASSIVE SIN. YOU KNOW, PEOPLE GET CANCER AND
THEY FIND THESE BIG MASSES IN THEM. WELL, THAT'S WHAT WE WERE,
WE OURSELVES WERE A MASSIVE SIN. And Christ says that He took
that body of sin, that mass of sin, because it don't have nothing
to do with this body here. This body here is weak, frail,
come from the dust, gonna go back to the dust. And oh my,
and He destroyed that mass of sin, and look what He says, destroyed
it. Did you see that? Destroyed it.
That means if he destroyed it, it don't exist anymore. All that sin we were, he destroyed
it, abolished it, smashed it, destroyed it. And you know what? That we no longer should not
serve sin. If he took care of that massive
sin, why would anybody want to continue in sin? And that's what
he's saying here, huh? Oh my, and sin's power. And he made it impotent is what
he made it do. Sin is robbed of his power over
us. And oh, here's the fact, here's
the fact. And we get down right to it now.
And this is it, for he that is dead is free from sin. Now, right
now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall ALSO
live with Him! Live with Him! Oh, my! You know, when a man dies, and
Christ, He died and that He's dead, you know, He's freed from
sin. He'll never, He bore sin once
in His own body on the tree. When He raised from the dead,
He's free from sin. He sits now in God's right hand,
and if He died and He's being dead, He's free from sin. Now,
watch this. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we shall also believe that we shall also live with Him. Now, you take a dead man, When
my father-in-law died, before they took him in a helicopter
down to Chattanooga, I got a bill in the mail, $40-something
thousand dollars, astronomical bill. I just wrote on it, he's
dead! He's dead! He owes some money in the bank,
they said, he's dead! They couldn't get nothing from
Him. And that's the way it is. We're
dead to sin. Sin cannot have its power over
us. We're dead. Christ died to sin,
and He rose again to show us that sin's put away. and oh,
my, and I tell you, death sets a man free, and death sets a
man free from sin. You know, He appeared once in
the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,
but He shall appear the second time, the next time, WITHOUT
SIN, without a sacrifice for sin, not putting His sin away,
but to salvation for us. And oh my, and I tell you, death
sets a man free, and we become dead to sin, we become dead to
its penalty, dead to its power, even dead to its pleasure because
of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh my, I tell you
what, death with Christ, death to sin, sets us free, and I love
this, He sets us free to live with Him, and we don't serve
sin, we serve our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he says,
let's get some proof of it here. He said in verse 10, for in that
he died, he died unto sin once, just one time, but in that he
lives, he lives unto God. Oh my, we know that Christ being
raised from the dead, Oh my. He died to sin once and for all,
shall die no more. He effectually put sin away.
Death has no more dominion over him. Death has no claim on Christ,
and it has no claim on us. If he, you know what he did?
The wages of sin is death. Our Lord Jesus Christ paid the
wages. How? By dying. died under sin
once. He paid our wages, paid the wages
of our sin, He died, and He died under sin one time. Sin was put
away once and for all, effectually, by our Lord Jesus Christ. And
death has no claim on Christ, it has no claim on us, for He
paid death all its due, and there's no reason for I mean, He paid
its due, He paid its due. And then look what He tells us
here, He lives under God, we live under God. And oh, look
what He says here in verse 11, Since Christ died unto sin once,
and now He lives, that He's living, He lives under God. He said to
God's right hand, everything He did, He did for God's glory.
And look what He says, Likewise reckon, Likewise, reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know reckon means the same
thing as impute or count. God reckoned Abraham righteous. And so you know when He talks
about reckon that means COUNT IT to be so. count it to be so. It s not like, Well, I reckon
I ll go here, or I reckon I ll go there. I reckon I ll try to
get there if I can. That s not what he s talking
about. He s talking about we re dead to sin, and act as if
you re dead to sin, and count it to be so. If in Christ we
re dead to sin, And we reckon it to be so, count it to be so
by faith, but we're alive. This is what's wonderful to me.
We're alive under God. We're alive under God. I tried
to deal with that Sunday night. I tell you what, we're alive
under God. We enjoy God. We enjoy his word. We enjoy our relationship with
Him. We're grateful that because He lives, we live. We are alive
unto God Himself. What causes us to cry out to
Him, to look to Him and believe Him? What causes us? Sin is so grievous to us that
our attitude is a burden to us at times. Sin is so grievous
to us that the way we treat somebody is a burden to us. Sin is so grievous to us that
our imagination becomes grievous to us. That's what I'm saying. You can't be that way and not
be alive under God. You cannot be dead to sin and
not be alive under God. Sin, you know, people say sin's
something done with a hand. Listen, there's enough sin goes
on in our brain to damn the human race. There's enough sin goes
on in our attitude, and in the way we talk to people, and the
way we treat people, and the way we judge people, and the
way we criticize people, and the way we do things to other
people and other believers, that if it wasn't for the grace of
God, we'd all be just, we'd be at one another's throat. That's
what he's talking about here, but I count myself to be dead
to sin, and I'm alive under God. Does that make any sense to y'all?
And then look what he goes on to say. In verse 12, let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Now see, he's talking about
the body now, the mortal body, that you should obey it in the
lust thereof. you know, down in verse 13, Neither
yield your members as instruments, your members, your arms, your
weapon, you know, your body, as instruments of unrighteousness,
or arms of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto
God as those that are alive, there we go again, alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments or arms of righteousness
unto God. Now, this is the way I understand
this. Let not sin reign in your mortal
body. This body is dying. It's destined to die. This body
is temporary, and it's so frail, and it's from the dust. Are we
going to let it be our king, let it reign over us? And oh,
don't use your body, your arms, your eyes, your hands, your mouth,
to be instruments, instruments of sin. Oh, turn around and say,
God, here I am. I yield myself unto you. I give
myself up unto you. And oh my, I yield my, not sin,
but under righteousness. I want to, I want my life to
be glorified to you. I lift myself up to you. I yield
myself to you. Oh my. And I tell you what, don't
use your members as tools. That's what he's talking about,
tools of unrighteousness. And then, oh my, I love this,
and then I'm done. I was trying to get done in 35
minutes. I think I'm gonna make it. But
look what he says here. And he comes to this conclusion,
talking about death from sin, dead with Christ, raised with
Christ, walk in newness of life, baptized into Christ, crucified
with Christ, dead to sin, alive under God. And he comes to this. And he comes to this conclusion.
This is a promise now. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why not? Because it's dead. It died with Christ. It shall not reign over you.
You know, grace reigns and sin reigns, but he said sin shall
not have dominion over you. Why won't it have dominion over
us? Why won't it rule over us? Why ain't it our master? Why
ain't it a sovereign that rules over us? Here's the reason, because
you're not under law. You're not answering to law.
You're not answering to do. You're not answering to something.
You gotta do something. You gotta accomplish something.
You gotta do a work. We're not answering unto that.
But just like he said, where grace abound, sin did much more
abound. You're not under the law. You
know why sin won't reign over us? Because of grace. You're
under grace. All the law make you do is mad. Oh, we're not under the law.
We're not under a covenant to do, but a covenant that's done.
And I'll tell you what, our righteousness, our sanctification and everything
relates to our Lord Jesus Christ and what we have in Him. Our Father, our blessed, blessed
Father, I thank you for your word. Oh, your word has such
power. It's so quick. It's alive. It's
a living word. It's a living word. And our Lord
Jesus, we're so thankful, so thankful that you put away our
sin and you died unto it once. And oh Lord, we died with you
to that sin. And oh God, by your grace, we
live unto you. Our lives are yours. Our hearts
are yours. Our souls are yours. Our will is taken up in your
will. We live just because you live. And Lord, we're so grateful
that you brought us out from under that law, that law that
says do, do, do, do, do. that demands perfection, but
oh Lord, you provided that perfection for us. Where that grace abounded,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so Lord,
we're not under the law to sin against it, but we're under your
blessed grace. Thank you for the grace of God
given us in Christ before the world ever began. And Lord, bless
these people, these dear saints, as they go their way. Go to their
homes. Go to their jobs tomorrow. Do
whatever they do tomorrow. Put your hand over them. Put
your grace over them. And as we sung tonight, oh, to
grace what greater debtor daily we're constrained to be. Let
thy goodness like a fetter bind our wondering, wondering hearts
to thee. We bless you in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. See you Sunday, God
willing.