Turn with me to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 14. I'd like to look this morning
at one verse of Scripture. Verse 9. For to this end Christ both died
and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead
and living. When the Lord calls one of his
own out of spiritual darkness They
are taught something of who they are and who He is. That's the evidence of life. You see, I'm nothing and He's everything. John the Baptist said that. I
must decrease. He must increase. They know when they're called
out of darkness that salvation is by grace, by the grace of
God. And it is understood, it's perceived,
and it's believed by faith. Faith is not the reason for salvation. God's grace is the reason for
salvation. Faith understands it. We're not
saved by faith. We're saved by grace through
faith. It's the gift of God. And no longer, when a believer
is called out of darkness, do they look to the works of their
own self-righteousness and flesh. They realize. One time I thought that. That's
what they think. I used to think that I was saved
because I walked down an aisle, baptized, go to church, I prayed
through. No, they realize God saw fit
to set His affection on me. And He made me what I am. What did He make me? He made me to be the recipient
of His mercy. That's what He made me. They believe that God has ordained,
has accomplished, has provided all that's demanded for their
salvation, and He did it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
just to come down to the brass tacks that believes that salvation
is of the Lord. That's what it is. Not a me and
you, Bob. No. Me and you and the Lord don't
have a good thing going. No, I'll tell you what we are. We're just redeemed sinners. But while they're convinced that
their salvation is all of grace, The scripture sets forth that
they grow in that grace, not that God's grace grows. That's not what that means. How
do you grow? How does the grace of God grow?
God is gracious, period. You don't grow in holiness either.
I'll tell you that. Either you're holy in Christ
or you're not holy in Christ, but you don't grow in holiness.
What does it mean to grow in grace? It is to mature. in your
knowledge and your understanding of God's grace. Now that I can
understand. God's grace does not grow. God's grace is God's grace. It's
all of grace. But how much I know about it,
how much I understand, now that I can enter into. The evidence of growing in grace. is that you grow to despise yourself more. And you grow in the understanding
of your love for Him more. I said, no, no. You. You grow to love a person. And do you know what causes you
to love that person more? The more you know, the more you
understand them. You may have some affection and
it may be considered love. You know, you're introduced some
young man's introduced to a young lady and he sees and her outward
Maybe physical appearance or his outward appearance may have
an attractiveness to it, but love is something that grows. It's a growing. The more you're with someone
that you love, the more you love them. I told my daughter, Becca,
she was getting ready to get married, and I told her, I said,
concerning her and Tommy and I said, let me tell you something,
Becca. I said, you're getting ready. It was just before she
got married. I mean, it may have been the day that she was getting
married. I told her, I said, I'm convinced that you love Tommy,
but you don't love him now like you will. The more you're with
him, the more you know him, you learn him. He learns you. Love grows. Not God's love for
us. God loved us with an everlasting
love. God never changed, but our love
for Him, our knowledge of Him, That grows. And how does it grow?
I'll tell you how it grows. It's by the Spirit of God blessing
what we're doing right here. The more you hear, the more every
once in a while you're sitting there and something, you know.
I'll preach for a while and there may be one thing that the Spirit
of God was pleased to take and just brought it home to your
heart. And you remembered that one thing.
It just, you know. What all did Marvin say yesterday?
Well, I don't remember what he all said, but I'll tell you one
thing I do remember. Good. One thing. Growing in grace, we learn to
despise ourselves. Isaiah 6-5, Isaiah said, Then
said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, This is what
Paul is dealing with this morning in this passage of Scripture. To this end. Paul had been dealing with some
that were weak in the faith. That is, those that, verse 1,
him that is weak in the faith. Romans 1.14. Him that is weak
in the faith. What do you mean weak in the
faith? Well, I'll be just frank with
you. Those that have been taught less than what you may have been taught
doesn't make you better than them because all of us are what
we are by the grace of God. But if there's someone that God
has called out of darkness, understand this, maybe the Lord hasn't taught
them yet. what you know. But if you're
a strong one in the faith, let me tell you something. You ought
to be the one that sees less of yourself than they. And ought
to understand. Him that's weak in the faith,
receive Him. Verse 7 says, None of us liveth
to himself. No man dieth to himself. No man
or woman That is, a believer considers himself to be his own
master. You that believe, you're not
the master of yourself. You're not at liberty to regulate
your conduct according to your will. What? Verse 8 says, Whether we live,
we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die to the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore die, we're the Lord's. A believer
doesn't live to himself. God, I think, God's called me
to preach. I believe He has. And that's
what I want to do. What do you do? You do what you believe God wants
you to do. None of us lives to himself. This verse of Scripture states
that a believer lives according to what he believes the will
of God is, God's glory. Why? Because the Scripture says
we're the Lord's. Whether we live, we live to the
Lord. Whether we die, we die to the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we're the Lord's. Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 6, now what? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God? And you're not your own. What does a believer desire to
do? Whatever they believe God's called
them to do. That's what they do. Paul said,
For me to live is Christ. The Father chose. His people
and gave them to Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ lived
and died for His elect. And in His life, He earned as
their federal head, as their representative, He represented
them. Just for every one of God's sheep, Christ as their representative. God was looking at every one
of His sheep in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever
He did, God charged them to do it for doing it. Whatever He
did, they did. You see how the righteousness
of Christ is? That is my obedience before God. Now, whether we eat don't eat
certain things, whether we observe or don't observe a certain day,
whether we live or die with the Lord. All right. For to this
end, for this cause, according to the absolute sovereignty and
dominion of God, for this cause. Boy, you know, when you stop
and think, And you know we're convinced that the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world. We're absolutely convinced. We
know that the Word was made flesh. We know that. I'm talking about,
as I mentioned in the first service, as great as the mystery of godliness,
God was manifested in the flesh. Why? I mean, you're talking about
this verse of Scripture right here. I'm talking about this
verse of Scripture is going to reveal the magnitude of everything
that we know and believe and hope. This is it for this cause. Why? I mean, you can ask me, Marvin,
why did you come to West Virginia? I mean, compared to the grand
scope of everything. This little puny nobody coming
to this place right here, what is it? Well, this is what I believe
God wanted me to do. But now we're talking about God
Almighty. We're talking about the magnitude of everything that
is contained in the fullness of God Almighty. For this cause,
to this end, Christ both died And he did. He died according to God's purpose. To this end, for this cause,
Christ died being made his people's guilt, the guiltiness. Christ was made sin. to this end for this cause, he
died as the forsaken substitute. He died. He died being made sin
for his sheep. Who did he die for? He died for
his sheep. He said that, and that ends it. That ends it. People
can say that the Lord Jesus Christ died to make salvation possible
for all men. That's a lie. That is a lie. Marvin, you know why it's a lie? Because God said it's a lie.
Let God be true and let man be a liar. And that ends it. That
ends it right there. Christ died for everybody without
distinction. That's a lie. Who did he die
for? He said, I died from a sheep. I laid down my life for my sheep. And not one ounce, not one drop
of that precious blood was shed in vain. No! No! I defy anybody that says
anything different. How can you be so bold? The Word
of God. His Word is not going to return
void. I'm telling you, this is so. To this cause, for this cause,
to this end, He died. He died. I know that. Why did
He die? Because God sent Him to die.
He set His face as a flint. He was going to bear the guilt
of His people. He died, and to this end, He rose. He rose according
to the Scriptures, openly. Exhibiting. Now let me tell you
something. If he died, and he died for any
other reason except that he was dying for his sheep, then he
didn't really put away their guilt. But if he rose for any
other reason, and he rose on his own merit, he rose according
to his own power, When God raised Him from the dead, He raised
Him from the dead because there was no reason to hold Him. He died. And when He died, He
paid the debt. Okay, the debt was paid, but
there was nothing else because He was holy and harmless and
undefiled, separate from sinners. When He died, it was over. There
was nothing else there except His holiness. He rose as the federal head of
His people. He rose because God accepted
what He did. When He came out of that grave,
there's the assurance. He rose, the Scripture says,
and I've told you this before, it bears repeating. He was raised
for our justification. Now you remember what justification
means. It means the declaration of innocence. Justification, declaration of
innocence. I gave you that example back
when I was living in Tennessee. Big shootout there in Brentwood,
Tennessee. Some people robbed a bank and
the police officers got them hemmed up in an intersection
there right there in Brentwood, right out of Franklin. And there
was a big gun battle going on right there in the middle of
town. And a police officer came driving up, started to get out
of her police car, and one of the bank robbers saw her and
started running toward her, pistol drawn, getting ready to execute
her, assassinate her. And in a hail of bullets, they
cut him down and killed him. And I was listening to the radio
broadcast about it, telecast later, broadcast later, and it
says that they had looked at the evidence. and the police
officers were justified in the killing of that bank robber.
What does that mean? They were declared innocent before
the law. They had actually pulled a trigger and actually shot somebody,
but they were justified. There was no guilt before the
law. They were justified freely by
His grace before the foundation of the world. God justified us
in Christ. He chose us in Christ. Justified
us in Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross and paid, justified us by His blood, why did He die? He died because we were guilty
in ourselves. God had declared us just in Him.
And His death was the actual payment of it, the payment of
it. But how long had he been slain? Well, in the mind and will and
purpose of Almighty God, Brother Scott, from the foundation of
the world. You say, well, that didn't happen until time. God's
eternal. God is eternal. All things with
God are now. There's now, no condemnation.
Brother Scott said, how long is now? When was now? Last week when he read that.
And with God now is eternal. He justified us. Declared us
innocent in Christ. And when He died, being made
what we are, and when He rose, and it says, and He was raised
for, that word is better understood, because of. He was raised because
of our justification. He was raised on His own merit.
And He was raised because God had justified us. And when He
came out, we came out. We died with Him. We were raised
with Him. And the Scripture says, to this
end, Christ both died and rose and revived. Now, there's a word. There's
a word. Revived. It means to live again,
to be alive again, revived. Now, I can understand that in
a sense. To be alive again and concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
it is to enter into the state before. Turn with me to John
17. This gives us some understanding. of what talks about Him being
revived. You say, well, does that mean
He just came back to life? Well, yes, but that's not all
it is. He revived. John 17, 4 and 5,
the Lord Jesus Christ is praying and He says, I have glorified
Thee on the earth. What does that mean? Well, you
remember the word we talked about a minute ago, the word glory
or glorified. It means the opinion. What he
said, when I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have set forth,
Father, Your opinion. By Him coming into this earth
and living before the law of God, the Lord Jesus Christ established
a righteousness by His life for His people. He lived for His
people, died for His people, raised for His people. I've glorified
Thee on the earth. I have set forth your opinion,
Father. I have glorified thee on the
earth," colon. That means he's about to tell
us what he meant. I finished the work that thou gavest me
to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me, set forth your opinion. You remember when he says, sit
down at my right hand. Well, what does that mean? Well,
I know it means the respect, the honor of, but I'm going to
be honest with you. You try to tell me that you can understand
the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the right hand
of God. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self Set forth, Father, Your opinion, Your thoughts. Glorify Me with Thine own self,
with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was." Now
let me tell you two thoughts on that passage. Number one,
glorify Thou Me with the glory and knowing that the word glory,
just keep it in your mind. It means the thought of, the
opinion of, to think. and to have the power to accomplish
what you think. Glorify thou Me. He is in the
garden. He's praying. He has yet to go
to the cross. And he's about to enter in to
laying down his life. Glorify thou Me with the glory
that I had with thee before the world was. It was always the
opinion, always the thought of God the Father to redeem His
people, always. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I said
a moment ago, was always the Lamb, slain from before the foundation
of the world, slain from the foundation of this world. That
was God's opinion. That was God's glory. So He's
saying here, when He says, Glorify Thou Me, knowing that He's about
to go to the cross, what He's saying is this. Father, set forth
Your opinion in my death and in my reviving. Glorify Thou
me with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was." He's going
to die. That was God's opinion. And He's
going to be revived. That's God's opinion. And He's
going to be where He was. from before the foundation of
the world. That is God's opinion. Almighty God said in Revelation
118, I am He that liveth. I am He that liveth, the ever-living
God, and was dead. God was made flesh and died,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. with the glory that He had with
the Father from before the foundation of the world. I mean, we're talking
here about the glorious union of the one God, Father, Son,
and Spirit, three that bear witness in heaven, and these three are
one God. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
flesh, and He revived, and He died, and He lived and died,
and He revived again, and that is to live in the state which
was before. You see how we still see through
a glass darkly? But we still see. And why was this? Why did all
this happen? To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived. Why? That He might be Lord both
of the dead and the living. The cause. the purpose in dying,
in being raised and reviving is set forth, that He might be
the Lord of all His own. You say, well, I thought He was
always the Lord. He has been always the Lord.
No doubt about that. But you see, before we forget,
You and I had a problem. You and I had a problem. What
problem was that? When we fell in Adam, something
took hold of us that only death is going to satisfy. Sin. I want you to turn to Romans
6. As I wrap this up, Romans chapter
6 and verse 14. For sin, Romans 6, 14, sin shall
not have dominion, the rule, the rule over you. You see, when
Adam fell in the garden and he died, You know what ruled him? Sin. And the law now was going
to have to be dealt with. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace.
Sin was in rebellion against God. That was the ruler. God's just. Let me ask you then, why did
Christ die? That He might be the Lord. I
want you to look at Romans 5, verse 20. Romans 5, verse 20. Verse 19, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded." Sin was
the rule. Sin was the governing force. Grace did much more abound. "...that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reigned through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What
are you saying? I'm going to tell you this. Without
Him, let me tell you who reigns in a man. Sin. Sin. Rebellion. And what's going to happen? Without
a substitute, the law is going to take over. And there ain't
going to be no plea bargaining. No plea bargaining either. I
mean, not one jot or tittle is going to deviate from the law
of God. The wages of sin is death. What's the punishment? Eternal. To this end, for this reason,
for this cause, Christ both died and rose and revived again that
He might be the Lord. He was going to have to take
what was due me, sin that ruled in me, and He was made that. And how do I know what it deserved? What did He get? What happened to Him? He died that He might be the Lord both
of the dead and the living. When he was raised, he was raised
for me. So now, when the dead, the elect,
are called out of darkness, they are powerfully called and they
are justly called. The Lord Jesus Christ is faithful. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our
sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful to His promise.
But He's just. Do you know when God forgives
a sinner? Do you know that's in absolute
justice? It's the right thing to do. Why? Because Christ has paid His debt.
Christ has paid my debt when God forgives. He does that in absolute justice.
You know, people talk about His forgiveness as if it's just some
kind of, well, I just feel sorry for you. Like I see some little
animal on the side of the road, a deer or something, and it's
kind of twitching or something like that. And I just kind of
feel sorry for it and wish I could do something for it. That's how
they put forth forgiveness or help. Not God. God is a just
God. And when He forgives, He forgives
in absolute justice. Mercy, but never at the expense
of His justice. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is the reason, this is the
cause that Christ died and that He rose and He revived that He
might be the Lord, both of the dead and the living. I'm telling
you, A man or woman, they live in this world. God calls them
out of darkness. He's the Lord. He's their Lord. But I'll tell you this, if they
died in the faith, He's their Lord. Death has no dominion whatsoever
over them. What was the cause of His life
and death reviving that He might justly, justly, For me, Lord
over me. Somebody say, well, isn't He
the Lord? I mean, if I'm a sinner, but
He's the Lord. God's a just God. How is the Lord Jesus Christ
going to be my Lord? He's going to have to take that
which is Lord's over me, make it His own, and pay the penalty
of it. And then He's the Lord. He put
away sin and its sting and its death and it has no more dominion
over me.