Look with me at Romans chapter
six. This passage is, I know most
of you have heard so many messages from it, but it is one of the
most instructive passages concerning salvation in the whole of the
Bible, doctrinally. If you want to know what salvation
is all about, how it comes about by the grace of God, the details
of it, how Christ accomplished it, The book of Romans, especially
the first six, seven, eight chapters, well, you can go on, the whole
book is really like an annotated Bible because it speaks of salvation
from sin. And today I want to talk about
sin conquered by Christ. The main text is verse 14. But
I'm gonna deal with most of the first part of the chapter of
Romans 6. But look at verse 14. He's talking to sinners saved
by grace here, believers, who've been justified by the grace of
God, sanctified by God, and who have been born again by the Spirit,
and living the life of God-given faith. And he says in verse 14,
for sin, shall not have dominion over you, have rule over you.
And he says, for you are not under the law. And you got to
see now sin here is connected with the law. And I'll show you
why that is in just a moment. You're not under the law, but
you're under grace. So sin shall not have dominion
over you. I was listening to one of the
reasons I got onto this message is I was listening to a preacher
talk about the ideas of justification and sanctification. Now if you've
studied the Bible any at all, or read anything about theology,
you know those terms, or something about those terms. Justification,
sanctification. Well, and here's what the preacher
said, and somebody asked me about this too. He said justification
means deliverance from the penalty of sin. Deliverance from the
penalty of sin. Now that's true. And we'll talk
about that in just a moment. And then he said sanctification
is deliverance from the power of sin. And I thought about that. I said, now you have to be careful
there. You gotta understand what sanctification is, and you've
gotta understand what the power of sin is. Am I, as a believer, am I justified
before God? Yes, completely. That is not
a progressive thing. In other words, I'm not more
justified today than I was 40 years ago, And then we'll take
it on back to eternity. And we'll talk about that. But
you don't become more justified. Now what is it to be justified?
Well it means to be forgiven of all your sins on a just ground. That's why it's called justification. It's a legal term. It has to
do with law and justice. And so it's to be forgiven of
all your sins on a on a proper ground and the only proper ground
to be forgiven is the blood of Jesus Christ. If you look at
that chapter 7 verse 4, again that I read in the opening, wherefore
my brethren you also are become dead to the law, how? Look at it, by the body of Christ. That's the body that was given
to die for the sins of his people. So the only just ground upon
which God can look at a sinner like me or you and say, forgiven,
pardoned, is the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not anything we
do. It's not anything we feel. It's
not even our faith now. We must have faith. Faith is
necessary. But faith is a God-given grace. Faith is not a spark of goodness
within us that can be fanned and brought to a fire by some
eloquent preacher. We don't have faith by nature.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So
it's not our faith, it's not upon the ground of our faith,
our believing rather, that God forgives us. It's on the ground
of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why he had to die. We'll
talk about that in just a moment. But now to be justified also
means to be declared righteous in God's sight. Now not in your
sight, you know, when we look at each other, and if we were
to judge by outward appearance, or even by character and conduct,
we could not rightly say that we're righteous, because righteousness
is the perfection of the law. I wrote in an article, I don't
know if it's in today's bulletin, or sometimes I get confused on
that, because I try to get ahead. But I was talking about how a
man told me one time, he said, it's not right or fair or just
for God to require perfection for us to be saved. I said, oh
no, you've got it wrong. First of all, God cannot require
anything less than perfection. You wanna know why? It's because
he's God. He in himself is perfect. And
so he does require perfection. He said, well, that's not right.
He said, that's too high. I said, no. I said, because God
has provided a way of perfection, but it's only to be found one
way. in Jesus Christ. So to be justified is to be declared
righteous in the sight of God on a just ground. And what is
that just ground? It's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. It's the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer,
what he accomplished. It's called the righteousness
of God. It's his righteousness accounted to me. And that's the
only way I'm justified. And again, that delivers me from
the penalty of sin. But now sanctification. Sanctification
is a wider term. The word sanctify means to be
set apart. I was listening on the news this
morning and they were talking about this young man, I think
it was in Italy, who they were getting ready to canonize as
a saint. Well my friend, now I'm not up
here just to criticize other people, but that's a travesty.
You can't be canonized by a church or a group to be a saint. Sanctified, it means to set apart. When were God's people sanctified? Well, there's several aspects
of that. First of all, we were sanctified,
set apart before the world began in God honoring, electing grace. God chose a people. That's what
the Bible says. Their names were written in the
Lamb's book of life before the world began. Set apart. We were set apart as we are justified. Not when, but as we are. If you're
justified before God, that sets you apart from those who are
condemned. You see? And so there's those who are
vessels of wrath and those who are vessels of mercy. The vessels
of mercy have been set apart by God, by His grace in Christ. Read that in Ephesians chapter
one, you can read the whole thing. And then we were sanctified when
Christ died on the cross for our sins. The Bible says in Hebrews
10, 14, for by one offering, he hath perfected, completed
forever them that are sanctified. When he died, and we're gonna
talk about that in Romans 6, when he died, his people died
in him. Not personally, but he as our
representative, our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And
then we're sanctified, set apart in time by the Holy Spirit when
he brings us under the gospel and we're born again. Sanctification
by the Spirit. But is there any sense that we're
delivered from the power of sin? Yes. And really what it amounts
to is this, that in sanctification by the Spirit we are delivered
from sin's power to deceive us. to keep us in the dark, to keep
us ignorant. God brings us to see His glory
in the face of Jesus Christ, but we'll talk about it. So we
have to be careful here, especially when it comes to the power of
sin. Think about what sin means, what it involves. Let me show
you a verse, though, before I get into that. In 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. The apostle in this passage,
you know, he's talking about the resurrection. But I want
us to go over to verse 55, 1 Corinthians 15. Now let me read again the
text, Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. It will not have rule over you.
For you are not under the law, but you're under grace. Now sin's
connected with the law. Now how is that? Look at 1 Corinthians
15, 55. He says, O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. Why do we have to die? The wages of sin is death. This
physical body, even for believers, is dying. The body is dead because
of sin. Thank God that verse in Romans
18 goes on to say, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
We'll live forever in a new body. I mean, Paul deals with that
here in 1 Corinthians 15. But he says the sting of death is
sin, and the strength or the power of sin is the law. Now
how is that so? Well, what is sin? Let me give
you some terms. to think of sin. I want you to
see this first. Sin is not a substance. It's not a liquid. It's not a
gas. It's not a solid. This is water. I'm drinking this water. Now
the Bible uses metaphors for sin. And one of the metaphors
it uses is like drinking water. It said, man drinketh iniquity
drinketh sin, he drinketh iniquity like water. You can't drink sin. If I were to pour this out and
fill it up with whiskey this morning and took a drink, I wouldn't
be drinking sin. Now I may be sinful in doing
it, but you can fill this whole cup
up with whiskey and it's still not full of sin. And you know
Christ taught his disciples that by making this profound statement.
And by the way, anything you abuse, that's sinful. All right? He said this, he said, it's not
what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. It's what comes
out of the what? The heart. Now there, if you
can understand that profound statement, which basically is
opposed to everything that man by nature thinks. You'll get some idea of what
this sin is and what the power of it is. Let me give you several
words about the meanings of sin in scripture. Number one, the
word debt. Sin is like running up a debt
that you can't pay. In the model prayer, Matthew
6, didn't the Lord say, pray this, forgive us our debts as
we forgive our debtors. That means sin is an economic
thing. It's a legal thing. We're debtors who cannot pay
our debt to God's law and justice. You've heard of people who commit
a crime and they convict them and send them to jail to do what?
To pay their debt to society. So sin is a debt that we owe.
Now, God's people don't owe that debt because that debt was placed
on Christ in the everlasting covenant of grace before the
foundation of the world. And that's found in the word
surety. Christ is my surety. What does
that mean? It means he voluntarily made
himself responsible to pay my debt. And for that reason, he
had to come to earth, be born of a virgin, take into union
with himself a sinless human nature, walked this earth under
the law, keeping it perfectly in my place, my substitute, my
surety, and he had to go to the cross and die for the sins of
his sheep. Didn't he say, I lay down my
life for the sheep? What was he doing? He's paying their debt.
The debt that had been charged to him, as he willingly took
it now, he wasn't forced, but he willingly did it. And that
was before this world was ever created. Read the Bible. In Hebrews chapter two, there's
a verse that says, it behooved him. Now we don't use that word
behooved much anymore these days. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that's his sheep, his people, God's elect,
so that he might die. That's what it says. That word
behooved is the Greek word for debt. He was indebted. When he
voluntarily took that debt to himself, he obligated himself
to pay the debt. And how did he pay it? With the
price of his blood. And so he took my debt. And then let me give you this
one. Here's another one about sin. Sin is missing the mark. Falling short, you've heard that?
Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's what sin is. Sin is not just doing bad things. Sin has to do with our efforts
to do good things, but we don't come up to the mark. We're like that old king, Belshazzar,
the handwriting on the wall, you're weighed in the balance
and found lacking. Now you say, when you get up
tomorrow morning, say to yourself, and I hope you do say this, today
I'm going to be the best person I can be in every facet of my
life. In my relationships, I hope you
do that, I hope I do that. And you know you should do that?
You should get up tomorrow morning, well, do it now. I'm gonna start
being the best person I can ever be. But realize this, there's a problem. If you achieve to be the best
you can be, you will still miss the mark. you will still come
up short. Doesn't the Bible say that man
at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. You say, well,
that doesn't make sense. Well, consider what the mark
is. The mark is the perfection of
the law that can only be found in one person and based upon
one work, and that's Christ crucified and risen from the dead. You see, we need a righteousness
that we cannot make. And that's why salvation is by
grace. I had a fellow tell me that.
He was asking me, what does God require? And I said, perfection.
He said, well, nobody can do that. And I said, well, that's
right. That's why salvation is by grace and not by works. By works of the law, by deeds
of the law, shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. You cannot make it. I cannot
make it. The best of the best cannot make
it. I don't care who they are. Our only hope is God's grace.
And the Bible says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. So that's what sin is, missing
the mark. And then listen to this. Here's another one about
sin. Sin is a crime against God. It's breaking the law. Have you
ever broke the law? You say, well, I stole a grape
the other day out of Publix. Well, you know what? That may
sound silly, but that's breaking the law. You ever sped in a car? You ever
broke the speed limit? Yeah, but they let us go 10 miles
an hour. Well, that's too bad. It's still breaking the law. But I'm talking about really
broken the law. Yes, we have. Self-love is breaking
the law. Did you know that? The law says
love your neighbor as yourself. Love God perfectly. That's the
summation of the law. Have you ever not loved God perfectly?
Well, yeah. Have you ever loved God perfectly?
No. You've broken the law. That's called trespass. That's
called transgression. That's stepping over the line.
God drew the line in the Garden of Eden, and Adam stepped over
it, and he represented us all, and we all fell into a state
of sin and death. We'd broken the law. When God made us, he set the
boundary. You say, well, I don't like that. I want to set my own
boundary. You know what that identifies you as? A son or daughter
of Adam. Because that's exactly what Adam
said. That's what Eve heard Satan say. When Satan told Eve, he said,
the Lord knows that if you eat of this fruit, you'll be as God's. What that means is you'll be
able to set your own standard, and you won't have to go by God's
standard. What's the problem there? God
is the supreme creator. God is the judge. God is the
sovereign. He sets the standard of what's
right and what's wrong, not you, not me. And then one last one, the word
enmity. That's what sin is, it's enmity.
We are by nature at enmity with God. Romans 8, 6 says this, for
to be carnally minded is death. What is to be carnally minded?
It's an unregenerate mind, an unbelieving mind, it's the natural
mind. that we're born with as fallen
creatures. So to be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. In other words, that
carnal mind does not want us to bow to God's will, God's way,
God's glory. We want our own way. You see,
it's even in religion. When people talk about salvation,
they want salvation their own way. But not God's way. God's too strict. Oh, if you
say God does it that way, where does that leave my grandma and
my grandpa? Huh? Who taught me this? This
way. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. One way of salvation. The world hates that. No, no,
no. There's got to be many ways.
Just like the dead Pope said. He said that every religion,
he said, leads to God. No, it doesn't. There's only one religion that
leads to God. That's the religion of grace. He said, well, you're
just too strict. You're too narrow-minded. It's
a narrow way. Few there be that find it. But
that's what sin is. And you say, well, I don't hate
God. That's what enmity is. If you don't believe in the God
of this book, and you go your own way, God views that as hatred. There's no indifference to God.
The light that comes into the world, and men love darkness
and hate the light, because what does it say? It tells us that
our best efforts to be good and to get ourselves in right to
God and live forever are evil. Not because they're immoral in
the eyes of men and women, but because they don't glorify God. They don't honor Him. They don't
honor Christ. Christ is my only righteousness. God is sovereign. He's the potter,
we're the clay. One way of salvation. Now let
me just read through Romans 6. And I'll make a few comments.
I won't hold you very long now. But just look at Romans 6 with
me. How did Christ conquer sin? Well, look at verse one. Now,
Paul had already made the point, salvation is by grace and the
works of men and women do not enter into salvation as to attaining
or maintaining it. Now, there are works, but they
are the fruit of God's grace and power, not the cause, not
the ground. You understand that? We read
that in Romans 7, there's fruit unto God and there's fruit unto
death. Fruit unto God is the obedience
of a believer not aimed at salvation, but simply giving glory to God,
thanking God, motivated by grace and love and gratitude. Fruit
unto death are the best works of the best of people trying
to save themselves by their works. So he says it's by grace. And
so the objection comes. Verse one, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Remember Paul said that? Well,
shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He says, God
forbid. No, that's not the way we're
to think. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Now, how are we dead to sin? Does that mean that once God
saves us, we stop sinning? Well, if it does, we're all in
trouble. None of us are saved. Doesn't
mean that. How are we dead to sin? Well,
look at verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us,
as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Now, baptism there does not mean
the ordinance of water baptism. by which a believer confesses
his or her unity with Christ. Baptism, baptized here means
placed into. You could read it this way, that
so many of us, as we're placed into Jesus Christ, we're placed
into his death. That's talking about the believer's
union with Christ. God chose us before the foundation
of the world. placed us into Christ, you might
say. And so that when he came and lived a perfect life on this
earth, he did it as a substitute, a representative, a surety. When
he died, he did it as a substitute, a representative. He didn't die
for himself, he died for his sheep. They were united to him. So that when he died, If I'm
a believer now, if I've been given the gift of faith, been
born again, when he died, I died. He did it for me. When he was
buried, I was buried. He did it for me. When he arose
again, I arose again. He did it for me. He's my substitute. He's my surety. He's my redeemer. He's my ransom. All of that,
you see. And that's why baptism is by
immersion, not by sprinkling or pouring. Because you're identifying
with Christ in His death, His burial, His resurrection. You're
confessing that. So when He died, now this is
how I'm dead to sin. Our sins were charged, imputed,
accounted to Christ. Our debt was put on His account. And He died to pay that debt.
So He died unto sin. So when He died unto sin legally,
I died unto sin legally, that debt cannot be charged to me.
That's how I'm dead to sin. Legally. Forensically. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
He's risen again. My sins are not imputed to me.
Didn't David say that in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity? Didn't Paul write it in Romans
4, 6, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without works? My sins, my debt was charged
to Christ. His righteousness was charged
to me. That's what the Bible says. We're
made the righteousness of God in Him. So verse 4, therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death, placed into Him.
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.
The result of our dying with Christ and being risen with him
legally is that God in the new birth under the preaching of
the gospel will bring us to walk in newness of life. And that's
what a believer does. As we're born into a state of
death and depravity and ignorance, God reveals Himself to us, gives
us life, a new heart, a mind of faith, repentance, and the
obedience of love. And He says in verse 5, for if
we've been planted together in the likeness of His death, we
shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. If He died
for me, I'm going to be resurrected. You mark it down. There's not
going to be anybody in hell for whom Christ died. Knowing this,
verse six, our old man is crucified with him. Our old man is our
old association with Adam in sin. And when he died on that cross,
he died for my sins. I was crucified with him. That
the body of sin, everything that I told you about sin, the debt,
missing the mark, breaking the law, enmity, That whole body
of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve
sin. We're not slaves to sin. How
do we know that? Because we've stopped sinning?
No, it's because we look to Christ, believe in Christ, rest in Christ. Our hope is in Him. He is my
salvation. He is my Righteousness. He is my forgiveness. He's my
wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption. He's all. So he says in verse
seven, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now that word
freed is the same as justified. I'm justified. I'm forgiven of
all my sins by the blood of Christ. I'm righteous before God by his
righteousness imputed to me. And he says, now if we be dead
with Christ, verse eight, we believe that we shall also live
with him. We cannot die, if we're in Christ, if we're united to
him, if we're justified, we cannot die and perish. We must live
again. And verse nine, knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath
no more dominion over him. Christ died unto sin one time.
Our sin's imputed to him. and he was raised from the dead.
Now death has no more power over him. So he says in verse 10,
for in that he died, he died in the sin once, but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. So in verse 11, now look at this.
Likewise, or in the same way, reckon or account you also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. Sin cannot condemn me now. Sin
cannot even be charged to my account. I'm dead to it legally.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. His life is
my life. So how are we to react to this
now? Now Jim and I were talking about this last week. He segues
into the power of sin to keep us in ignorance, in a state of
death and depravity and no faith. And he says, verse 12, let not
sin therefore rule or reign in your mortal body that you should
obey it in the lust there. Fight sin within yourself. That's
what he's saying. Fight it. Neither yield you yourselves
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead." You've been born
again by the Spirit. You're justified legally, and
spiritually you've been raised from the dead. And you're members
as instruments of righteousness unto God, for sin shall not have
dominion over you. For you're not under the law,
but you're under grace. So are we dead to the power of
sin? Christ conquered it. He conquered sin in every aspect
of it. And even that sin that still
dwells within us, that we have to fight daily, fighting the
flesh, fighting the warfare of the flesh and the spirit, that
soon for many of us, sooner for some than others, will be totally
gone because Christ conquered it. And He's now seated at the
right hand of the Father in heaven, ever living to make intercession
for us. And when we die and leave this vile body that's dying because
of sin, we'll go to be with Him. And even the presence, the contamination,
the influence of sin that still dwells within us in the flesh,
that'll be gone. It'll be gone. It's certain. Paul wrote it in Romans 7, who
shall deliver us from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. Think about that. Every pain you feel, every sickness you go through
is because of that presence of sin within us. But it's already
been conquered. Christ raised from the dead,
ascended unto the Father. And when we die, we have the
assurance of a new life without sin, without sorrow, without
sickness. It'll be perfection within. We
have perfection now in Christ, legally. But at that time, we'll
have perfection within. No sorrow, no thoughts of sin. Can you imagine that? Going through
life and no thought of sin. Somebody said, well, that's just
a pipe dream. No, no. It's the assurance of
God's Word, of God's grace, because we have a wonderful Savior. And
that's what we're going to sing, hymn number 454. What a wonderful
Savior.