Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans chapter 6 and reading
for our text verses 1 and 2. Romans chapter 6 verses 1 and
2. 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? Romans 6 verses 1 and
2. The Apostle Paul in the epistle
to the Romans is, as he is in other epistles, very methodical
in how he sets forth the truth. Often he anticipates his hearer's
reaction to what he is saying. And then after he's made a statement,
he will then set other things forth to counter what their reaction
might be. If we go back a few chapters,
or a couple of chapters, we have in chapter 4, him setting forth
that we are saved by faith alone. And he sets forth Abraham, how
that Abraham was not justified by his works, but by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord said, Abraham saw
my day, and he rejoiced at it. Then we have in chapter five,
beginning with the words being justified by faith, he then goes
on to show that it is not by the law but by grace that we
are saved, not by anything that we have done. And so we read
that it is until the law, sin was in the will, but sin is not
imputed when there is no law, But then when there is sin imputed,
it is that all the world might be brought in guilty before God. So he says in verse 20 of chapter
5, Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound,
but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. that as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So it is established in this
chapter that it is not what we do good or that we do bad is
not of our works, but it is of grace, the free unmerited favour
of God that we are saved. And so then he is thinking, people
that I'm speaking to, they will take license from this. They will think, well, we don't
matter then how we live or what we do, because that is not the
basis on what we are saved. And so that is where our text
comes, the question. shall we continue in sin that
grace might abound? This is the question he's supposing
people will ask after he's set forth with saved by grace. And
so then he answers it, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Now many then, a child of God,
will read this chapter and be really tried and tempted, am
I really sinning that grace might abound, because of all the people
that know that they are sinners, that's God's people, and they
are mindful of what goes on within. So then, he anticipates that
as well, so addresses that in chapter 7, and after the brief
introduction regarding the picture of a marriage, and the woman
that is married while Her husband is alive, she cannot be married
to another, but if he dies, then she can be remarried. And he
speaks of this as the likeness of being joined with Christ,
buried with him, died with him, died under sin, then we can be
joined to Christ who was risen again from the dead and rightly
married to him as our new husband, not married to sin or under death,
but under life. But then he speaks in the latter
part of Romans 7 of the conflict, how that by sin, by the knowledge
of sin, that came to him through the law, thou shalt not covet,
it worked in him all manner of evil desires, and it brought
him in as a guilty sinner before God. And then his desires had
changed. So he says, I now have good that
I want to do. I now have evil that I do not
want to do. And yet, the good that I would,
I do not. And the evil that I would not,
I do. And he said, how is this the
case? He says, If I do that which I would not, is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." He is an unwilling participant
in sin. He is one that would do good,
but hasn't got the power and is not able to do it. And it
grieves him, it burdens him, he's sorrowful over it, but he's
setting forth the reality of the conflict, for one that is
awakened to their sin and seen in their mandates. And he asked
the question, who shall deliver me, or who shall deliver us from
this body of death? He says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. So with the flesh I serve sin,
but with the mind I serve the Lord. And then we have in chapter
8, the beautiful beginning, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And the difference is, they that
are walking now, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
They're not walking after sin, they're walking after spiritual
things, after the Lord, after holiness, their aim, their desires
are all different, yet they still are a sinner, they still have
all nature and you're still working. So the Apostle is going forth,
answering these questions, he is speaking in a practical way,
And the word that we've got for our text, it addresses this thought,
well, if we are saved by grace, then why can't we just sin? And we need such a word as this,
because you know, you and I, we have very, very deceitful
hearts. They will try every way they
can to indulge in sin. Now the Apostle Paul says, I
keep under my body, lest even when I preach to others, I myself
should be a cast away. He's not saying that God's people
can be lost, but he's living as if they could be. He's living
carefully and diligently, keeping under that old nature, that body
that all the time would go to sin. And so you need a very clear
definitions, those very clear prohibitions in the Word of God
that faith can lay hold upon and answer Satan with and be
very clear to restrain that sinful propensity and going after those
things which would bring sorrow and grief to the soul. I want to speak before we come to some
points because the subject that is before us is an abuse of a
doctrine. I just want to think of this
first, how we can, we can easily abuse good doctrines. We can
even abuse the fact that the scriptures are inspired, the
inspired Word of God that is pure, that is without fault,
that is to be relied upon. You say, how can I abuse that? We can abuse it by taking it
out of context, by taking just one verse that suits us and ignoring
everything around it and using that as a reason why we can do
something. Remember the temptations of our
Lord, Satan coming to him. And one of the temptations, he
used the word of God, taking him up to the pinnacle of the
temple, cast thyself down from hither, for it is written, he
shall give his angels charge over thee. bear thee up in their
arms, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone." He's using
scripture. He's using that which speaks
about the preservation of God over his people. But our Lord
said it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. And there you put it into the
right context. Satan is one that will take a
good doctrine, a teaching, even the Word of God, and he'll abuse
it. Be very careful that he doesn't
use that way with us as what he did with our Lord. He will
try it, but we have to know not just isolated texts, but what
the Scriptures are teaching, what they mean. And I said before
you briefly, like linking several chapters together here, And the
word is to be read, it's a whole word. You wouldn't think of getting
a secular book and giving it to someone and say, well, read
that paragraph there and then tell me what the book says, what
it means. You'd say, well, I've got to
read the whole book. As a minister, very often, I
would get questions saying, a minister said this, do you agree with
him, or I don't agree with that, why? I said right, where is it
in the scripture, let's find it. And they'll be quoting, I
said no, no, let us come back to the word of God. And very
often you'll find it slightly misquoted, or the minister's
been taken out of context, The first step is to establish, before
you start arguing or defending the scripture or defending a
person, let's come back to the Word of God first and find the
real context of what is actually being said. Establish that first,
and then you can go from there. Be very aware of the doctrine. Good doctrine can be abused. What about the doctrine of election? the full knowledge of God, the
Lord's eternally electing and choosing some to salvation and
some to damnation, before we were born. How can
that be abused? Well, if I'm saved, I'm saved. If I'm lost, I'm lost. There's
nothing I can do. It's God's fault. It's His fault. So I'm just going to live my
life, I'm going to go in and out from the Lord's house, when
it's his time he'll save me, when it's not, when it's not.
And there's no realisation of the wrath to come, the damnation
to come, or anything. An abuse of a beautiful doctrine. Without election, none would
be saved whatsoever. It's absolutely vital. The election hath obtained it,
the rest were blinded. But to abuse that, and say every
exhortation, every warning in the word of God is going to go
right over my head, I'm not going to listen to it, because I'm
sheltering beneath this doctrine of election. It's abusing it. Mr. Ramswold, in his little
book, Bible Doctrine Simply Explained, he explains the difference between
fatalism and election. And he pictures a bus at the
top of a hill, and people on it. And he said, now, if it was
told that at the bottom of that hill the bus will crash, he said,
those that believed in election will get off that bus. Those
that were faithless, they would say, well, we're not going to
stop that, it's going to happen, and they'll stay on the bus.
That's the illustration he gives. If you and I believe in election,
we'll listen to warnings. We'll listen to the word. We'll
pay heed to it. We won't just say, well, what
will be will be. Remember the Ninevites? Wasn't
much hope in Jonah's message, was there? Forty days and that
city was to be destroyed. How many of them said, oh, no
hope then? Israel often did that. Israel
often said there is no hope and solemnly continued on in their
sin, often they did. The Vaninnavites didn't. The
Lord had given them forty days and they used that to turn, to
repent. Where there is life, there is
hope. May that be an encouragement
to any of you that are concerned of your souls. Wait and look
for the Lord. While the Lord has given you
life, there is still hope for your soul. Don't let the devil
tell you any otherwise. But the doctrine of election
can be abused. What about the doctrine of love?
How often today it is, God is love. He loves everybody as if
all love was the same. And so we can have men loving
men and all the perversions that have been taught under the banner
of love today. Now when the Apostle speaks to
the Thessalonians of love, real love to God and love to the brethren,
he clears it first. by making sure that what is to
be understood is pure love. It's not impure, it's not sinful,
lustful, worldly, what the world will call love. And yet how often,
even in so-called churches, there'll be speaking of love, and yet
not the love that is in the scriptures, where the Lord loves his people,
God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were sinners
Christ died for us. Rather than sin be unatoned for,
not put away, He suffered. He sent His Son. We should remember
that. There's a cost. The love that
God shows His people was His wrath upon His beloved Son. you could have used the doctrine
that baptism is not required for salvation. Salvation is not
by works, and we do not believe that you must be baptised to
be saved. But we do believe that the Lord's
commission was he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.
that baptism is an act of love, an act of obedience. But there
are some that will abuse it. And they'll say, well, I believe
I'm one of the Lords, I am one of the Lords, but I don't want
to be baptised. I'm not going to be baptised.
And I can still be saved because it's not a requirement. And so
it's abused and it's not walked out. open confession, open profession
is not made and there's not that entrance into the church membership. Sometimes the devil can do it.
I remember my uncle Don, a deacon there, he said to me once, he
said, I had it laid in my heart that one day I'd be a deacon.
He said, I didn't want to be a deacon. So he said, I thought,
if I'm never a church member, I never go forward, I can't be
a deacon. And so he refused to be baptized
for a long while for that reason. He thought he would get out of
walking in the Lord's way by just not being baptized, not
joining. You might think, I don't want to pray in a prayer meeting,
and I don't want to be a deacon, and I don't want to have responsibility
in the church. I know what to do. I'll just
be a quiet Christian and I'm not going to be baptised. I'm
not going to join the church. I'll get around it that way.
The Lord will find you out. Maybe this afternoon's service
finds you out. He knows who you are. He knows
the motives of why you're doing these things and don't abuse
doctrine in that way. The Lord would have his dear
people out of love, obey and to follow him. But here then
we have the abuse of grace, the doctrines of grace. By grace
ye are saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. The free unmerited favour of
God and they're supposed to be abused. And the way the Apostle
is speaking in this chapter is to those he believes are saved. It comes back to what I said before,
how deceitful our hearts are. Never trust them. Trust the Word
of God, not our own deceitful hearts. Go on to look then in
the Lord's help. Firstly, we have in our text
grace and sin. I just want to speak on those
two, grace and sin, what grace is, what sin is. And then secondly
they have in this passage four very clear statements that we
should not regarding sin. I want to just highlight those
because sometimes it is the best way when something is to be dealt
with in our hearts to have very clear words of what is right
and what is wrong, what should be done and what should not be
done. And so I want to look at those four things. And then we
have five considerations to help us to not continue in sin, to
walk in ways of sin. The apostle uses different ways
to to bring this before us. So he doesn't just say, God forbid,
we should not sin that grace might abound, but he gives the
Christian, he gives the people of God some ammunition, he gives
them some arguments, some reasons to help them. And really again
that highlights what an important thing it is, and how difficult
it is to deal with sin, how deceitful sin actually is. So firstly,
grace and sin. Well, sin is the transgression
of the law of God. Whenever God has set forth something
as to be done and is not done, or something that should not
be done and it is done, in breaking the law of God, that is what
sin is. Remember in Psalm 51, after David,
a man after God's own heart, had sinned in the matter of adultery
with Bathsheba, and then murdering with the children of Ammon, Uriah
her husband, and God brought him to repentance, convicted
him of his sin, And he immediately confessed it, I have sinned.
And the Lord said that thou shalt not die, the Lord hath also put
away thy sin. But there was consequences, really
for his whole life there were consequences. May we always remember
that, that sin always has its consequences. The child that
was born, it died. The sword shall not depart from
thine. house and right through his generations,
and while we think of the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin for the
whole of human race. But we have David in Psalm 51,
and he's saying this, against thee the only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. And you say, David, but didn't
you sin against Bathsheba against Uriah, those were things done
against people, that sin is against God. We might do something against
one another, so we might lie to someone, we might steal something
from someone, we might injure someone. But the sin is against
God, it's His law that we're broken, and that's what we shall
give account for. Man might say, well I forgive
you, but we need forgiveness from the Lord. And it's good
to remember how David makes it very clear that his sin was against
the Lord. Generally, and the context here
is, that those who've attempted to abuse the doctrine of grace,
they do know what sin is. The Lord has given us a conscience,
and especially if we've been brought up under the sound of
the truth, then we've had it from the pulpit. You children
have had it in the Sunday schools. You've had it at home. And generally
we do know what sin is, so that when we are doing something that
our old nature loves, our heart loves, it is the conscience that
actually says, this is forbidden in the word of God. I'm doing
this with the hope that I'm going to get away with it. I'm doing
this in the hope that I can indulge it, but it's not going to affect
my eternal home or my standing with God and I won't have to
give an account for it, that is the general thought here.
But we should remember, see, one sin is enough to damn us
all. One transgression. This is why
the law of God in the Old Testament, you can read it and you think,
well, how can anyone be saved? The standard is so, so high,
it's perfection, that none of us can reach that standard. But
the reason why the law is given is that all the world might become
guilty before God. It's to be used as to point us
to Christ, that salvation might be through Him and Him alone. May we remember that Christ has
died to put away sin. The sin is the transgression
of the law of God. Grace is the free unmerited favour
of God, is whereby God can say to one that has sinned and that
he will pass over the transgression. He will not deal with it as it's
deserved. The reason is because the payment
has been required from someone else. Again, I think it's Mr. Ansbourne who puts the difference
between kindness and grace. If a friend came to our door
and wanted food one night and we gave them food, that would
be kindness. If then the next day they broke
up our goods and they did injury to our property and then they
came and asked for food and then we gave it to them, that would
be grace. Kindness in the face of active
hostility, opposition, on our part rewarding the Lord evil,
on His part giving us kindness and goodness. He had not dealt
with us according to our iniquities deserved. We need grace. Without the grace of God, without
the free gift of God, then no one could be saved. at all. It is salvation by grace, not
of works. The two often are contrasted
together. It's either grace or it is works. It cannot be both of them. So on to look then, secondly,
at the four clear statements regarding sin. In the text there is two of these
statements and of course they are closely aligned together.
The first one is in verse 1 that we should not continue in sin. It is put in this way, shall
we continue in sin? Grace my abound, God forbid. So a clear statement, we should
not continue in sin. If we are walking in a way that
is breaking of the Law of God, we should not continue in that. We'll stop. The second thing
is in verse 2, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer
therein? So we can put it this way, we
should not live any longer in sin. We've been walking in her habitual
way of perhaps lying or with going along with adulterous evil
thoughts and letting them have full reign in our hearts and
in our lives or putting them into practice or many different ways where we
would be breaking the law of God, and often it is as breaking
the law of man as well, maybe defrauding the tax man, maybe
walking in a way where we've got anger and malice or envy
or hatred in our hearts. There's many, many ways that
we can actually be living in sin. living as a pattern and
a way of our lives that is day by day committing and doing the
same things. It's our lifestyle. And if you
put extremes you can see perhaps those that are taking recreational
drugs or something like that, those who are abusing their bodies
in that way, those that are living with prostitution, those that
are routinely just defrauding other people. They're not to
continue living actually in that way. A way of life, a lifestyle
that is marked by sin. Then we have in verse 6, a serving
of sin. We should not serve sin. Knowing this, that an old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. And putting it in
this way, because sin when it presents itself to our old nature,
it presents us in a way that wants us to do what is tempting
us to do. It's putting us in the way, you
serve me. You do what I want you to do. You follow after me. And so the
word is very clear. We are not to be like a servant
to sin, and wherever it says do this, we do it. Wherever it
allures us, we just go, with no resistance, with no questioning. No, you can have those that are
in cults or those that are in abusive situations, and you might
get people that are just telling them to do this or that, they're
not questioning it, they're just blindly following along and doing
these things. Regarding sin, we're not to serve
sin. And then in verse 12, we get
another that we should not do. That is that we should not let
sin reign in our mortal body. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the last thereof. Like a king reigning over us,
and we are his servants, and what we're doing is all under
his dominion. Now the children of Israel, they
had kings that were very wicked kings. But the amazing thing
is that they had a people that actually went along with what
they wanted to do. In some cases, like Elijah and
Obadiah who hid a hundred prophets in the caves, they did not go
along with what Ahab wanted, but a lot did. And they just
served sin, or sin reigned in the way of the kings. Well that
should not, that is very clear, let not sin reign in our mortal
body. It is not to be our king, the
Lord is to be our king. So may those statements in this
chapter now be a help to us when we are dealing with sin, that
we should not continue in it, we should not live in it, we
should not serve sin, and we are not to let it reign over
us. In our third point, the Apostle
gives us, he gives us five considerations to help us, to help us not to
continue in sin, not to walk in these ways. The first one
is our baptism. He says in verses 3 and 5, Know
ye not that so many of us, whereas were baptized into Jesus Christ,
were baptized into his death? And here we have baptism, a beautiful
type, an illustration of it, setting forth what has happened
in a regenerated person person that has been born again, a person
that has been brought dead to sin and dead to themselves and
raised again in newness of life. And so this especially should
be a help to us that have been baptised, that have made a profession
in the name of the Lord. Why were we baptised? What were
we professing? What were we stating? And there's
particularly I believe is helpful because often the sins that will
be set and the sins that most likely be the ones that we sin
that grace might abound will be sins that at our conversion
the Lord has delivered us from. If we've had a particular besetting
sin A thing that is agreeable to us, and the Lord has shown
us the evil of it, we've stopped doing it, walked in the way,
you can be sure that one thing will be the plague for the rest
of your lives. Some things, some sins, to some
people are not a temptation at all, because they've seen no
beauty in it, they're not tempted at all. Others, it will be a
temptation every time. and some of the Lord's people
that have been completely engrossed in sports and in all the worldly
things that have gone on with that, professional sports, and
they've been brought out of that, but right through their lives
there's still that temptation and drawing to that. Some of
us have been hopeless of sports and never interested in it at
all, and it offers no temptation, no drawing whatsoever. And so,
very often, it is what we profess to the church, what we testify
the Lord has brought us out from, and delivered us out from, that
is most likely to be the thing that Satan thought, I'll try
and get them back into that same way they've been in. I know they
like that sort of thing, and sin will go along that sort of
way. And so the apostle bringing us
back to our baptism and what it was professing and what it
was setting forth is a very good thing. I remember in the time
between when I'd given my testimony to the church and my baptism,
my father was over from Tasmania, he was with me where I was living. And one of the things I told
the church was how the Lord had brought me out of the Welsh Marlborough's
choir I was in. Because of the things that were
in it, I couldn't continue in it. And I'd been brought out
from it. Well, we were working out in
the garden together, and I thought I could hear the Welsh Marlborough's
choir. And I thought they might be actually
singing in one of the parks that was nearby. It was quite, I don't
know how I heard it. Anyway, I went in and out, and
I said to Dad, I said, I think I can hear the choir over there,
I might go and hear them. Well, he didn't say anything
at first, and then he said to me, Rowan, he said, after what you said
to the church, would that be a good idea? And you know, that
went like an arrow. I never, I think I managed to,
I spoke to one of the choir members once, I said, that particular
day, were you singing, were you anywhere? No, I weren't. How
I heard it, whether it had been someone playing the music, I
don't know. But how easy it is, you could
even make a profession and testify, Lord brought me out of this,
and next minute your heart is going straight back to it again.
And so the baptism, let us not forget the profession we've made,
and that which we are to remember, that we are professed to be dead
to those sins and alive unto God. So the Apostle uses that. Then he uses identifying with
Christ's crucifixion. In verse 6 through to verse 7,
he says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed. So we are to think
of crime. What Christ did on Calvary, died
to put away our sin. Those sins that we might be tempted
to still go along with, they were what were laid upon the
Lord. Shall we add sin to sin? Shall we continue it in that
way? And also if we are identifying with Christ's death, which he
is setting forth, here we are, in the likeness of his death,
Then we have to think this, crucifixion was a slow, agonizing death. And the Lord said of his people,
they are to take up their cross and follow me. It's not an easy
path to follow the Lord. It's a crucifying path. The flesh is all the time wanting
to be indulged. This speaks the language of the
other dying thief. Save thyself and us, come down
from the cross. How many of the Lord's people
think, oh, I'd be a much better Christian if I didn't have this
old nature, if I didn't have this constant battle with sin,
if I didn't have this constant opposition. But you wouldn't,
you know. The Lord's salvation suits sinners,
and their help is in the Saviour of sinners. His name shall be
called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Not
just eternally, but day by day from those sins that plague us.
and that which we'd be tempted to indulge in and to go on with. Remembering not only Christ's
cross, our cross, is dealing daily with those sins of our
heart that constantly want to be heard, indulged, and followed,
and walked in. Make that consideration. Be held
to some of you that know that battle, and that conflict, and
that sorrow of heart. and deliver from this temptation
that we can sin that grace might abound. The third thing is identifying
with Christ's resurrection. Live like Him in verse 8. Now if we be dead with Christ
we believe that we shall also live with Him. And it follows
right through to verse 11. all the time in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves
also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. So he's giving this indissentive,
not just in the thinking of being dead to sin, but alive unto Christ. And this follows very much in
In Romans 8, if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of
the body, ye shall live. The more we are dealing with
sin and try to have our mind on that and to stop it, the more
we'll be led away with that. But if you turn away from that
and you're looking unto Christ and walk in the Spirit and after
the things of God, that deals with the sin. If you have a small
child and they're playing with some scissors and you think any
moment they're going to cut themselves, the more you try and rest them
and to take the scissors away from the child and hold on to
them harder, but you bring out a packet of sweets and you give
them something to lure them and they look away from the scissors
and to the sweets and are drawn to that. And that's what we're
to do with the things of God. We're not only dead to sin, we're
alive to God. We have a Saviour, we have a
hope beyond the grave, we have food and manna in the Word of
God, we have a rich feast in the things of Christ. Those are
the things that our hearts, our minds should be filled with,
not with our sin. So it's identifying with Christ's
resurrection, live with Him. The fourth thing is members as
instruments. In verse 13, he says, neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Our members, what are they? Our
minds, our eyes, our ears, our mouth. How many times have we
listened to things we should not listen to? Or we looked at
things we could not look at. or we've spoken things that we
should not speak, evil, bitter words to one another, or where
our feet have taken us into forbidden paths and ways that are wrong,
or our hands are used to hurt someone or to work in ways of
iniquity. Our members, all the time our
sin is using parts of our bodies, isn't it? And so the Apostle
says about our bodies, using them as instruments. What a different
thing, when one that has been given to profanity uses that
same mouth to speak the words of God. When one has been used
at hands to hurt people, now uses them to minister to them
and to help people. How different use of our members. So this is a consideration. How
are we using our bodies? Are we using them as instruments
to good or to evil, to that which is righteous or that which is
unrighteous? And so he says in verse 19, I
speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your
flesh as ye have yielded your members, servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity and to iniquity, even so now yield your members,
servants to righteousness and to holiness." Those same members,
that same hands, that same mouth, now used for the honour and for
the glory of God. Some of you may look upon this
and bless God that the Lord did convert you and change you And
you can picture when you used your bodies and you used your
members for that which is ungodly hurtful. And maybe a real help
to when the devil tempts that you are not really changed, you're
not really converted. Because when you think of this,
you think not just of what we believe or say we believe, but
what we've actually done. You think of the apostle Paul
who's writing this. You think of what he did. Those
hands, taking men and women, hailing them to prison, putting
them to death, looking after the clothes of those that stoned
Stephen. And now those hands, ministering
to the people of God, and his voice speaking and preaching
the word of the Lord. What a different man, and how
differently he was using his members of his body. And what
a token that was to him, that he could look upon this and others
would see it as well. This man is a very different
man, how he is acting and what he is doing. The last one is
that we are servants to whom we obey. In verse 13 through
to verse 22, just verse 13, neither yield ye your members
as instruments of righteousness, yield yourselves unto God. And
he's speaking of the servitude, serving the things of sin, that
we are servants to those that we do obey. As ye have yielded
your members servants, for when ye were the servants of sin,
verse 20, ye were free from righteousness. Verse 16, know ye not that to
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness? Whose servants are we? Whose
do we serve? is that consideration as well,
that the Apostle here, the inspired Word of God, gives to the people
of God these considerations to help them, help them deal with
this sinning which grace might abound, deal with an abuse of
a blessed, sacred doctrine of grace, and overcome the wicked,
deceitful tendencies of the heart. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And this, this
word here, is what the Spirit saith to this church, to this
congregation this afternoon. May it be a help to you, a help
to me in dealing with the sin of our hearts and the propensity
to abuse a blessed doctrine, and if there are other doctrines
that maybe I've hinted at and some I haven't, that you are
abusing, may the Lord open your eyes to see it and deliver you
from that snare. The Lord add His blessing. Amen.