for a few minutes in Romans chapter
6. The 6th chapter of the book of Romans.
And let me read that 7th verse. It says, For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Then down here in the first verse, what shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now, I've read to
you, he that is dead is freed from sin. Paul says here, what shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Now, this is the question. Will the real nature of the doctrine
of God's super-abounding grace bring us to continue in sin. Will it entice or induce us to
live a life of rebellion against God? Once we have received the grace
of God freely, will that grace, superabounding grace, cause to
continue as we were and walk in darkness and discredit the
honor and the glory of God in our lives. We'll let do that. Now, a lot of people believe
that. They believe that the grace of God, which is free and There are no conditions whatsoever regarding the grace of God. It
is as free as the air that we breathe. And if we receive the
Lord Jesus and know him as our sent one, anointed one, appointed
one, one with all authority, one whose chief business is to
save sinners, if we believe that God become a man as a man, obeyed the law in its fullness,
every jot and every tittle. And if we believe that he bore our sins in his
own body on the tree and paid our debt in full, whereby we
owe nothing, the charges claims have been
answered and have been met in the person of the Lord Jesus.
And we are free. If the Son hath made you free,
you are free indeed. But are we free to continue in
sin? Well, let's go on with it. Paul said, God forbid, What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! God forbid! How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now, that seventh verse
that I read at the beginning says, For he that is dead is
freed from sin. That must mean something. Well,
Paul says, how shall we continue in sin that grace might abound? Well, I'll tell you this. If
God never brings you and I, feelingly and spiritually, to hate sin
and to love holiness, irrespective of the fear of hell and the terrors
of the damned, we shall never go where he is. If we only profess
with our lips to hate sin and love holiness because we are
afraid that we will go to hell if we do not. Now, wherever the
religion of the Lord Jesus Christ when and wherever, that it's
revealed to the conscience, there becomes a great change in a man. And he always changes for the
good. He's a better person for it. He's a better father and she's
a better mother, a better wife and a better husband. And if we ever come to know what
it means to be dead to sin. If this truth is ever brought
home by the power of the blessed Spirit of God to our conscience,
then we will hate sin even if there was no hell to fear. Because
the man that this truth has been brought home to, He feels it
as a flag in his soul, a monster in him. And that which he hates,
he feels a something in him that loves, and that's his conflict. He hates sin, but yet there's
something there in his soul that he loves. Love and hate. Love
and hate. Man is made up in this, the spiritual
man, in this dual person. It's his nature. It's not so
much him as it is his nature. His nature is loathsome. His nature is horrible. His nature is corrupt and polluted. He does what he does because
of his nature. His nature doesn't change. When
he is saved by the grace of God, his nature does not change. He
still has this inbred nature, nature that loves sin and delights
in it. But the reigning power of sin
is taken away in the believer, the reigning power of it. It
doesn't demonize him like it at one time did. Now, it's not so much the fear of
hell as it is this nature that I'm talking about, the sin of
man, this terrible... Nature is so bad. unhallowed, ungodly nature of
sin. And a man that has this brought
to his conscience, his conscience has been quickened. He'd hate it if there was no
such place as hell or no wrath to come. Yet he'd hate that sin. But yet, Paul says, What shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace might abound? How shall he that is dead to
sin live any longer therein? Now, this staggers the child
of God, even one that has been in the way many years. faithful in his service to God. This staggers him. Sometimes
he says to himself, How can I be in that number that are dead
to sin if it is not possible for them to live any longer therein? Now, this bothers me. This tortures my soul, I find
myself thinking about that constantly. Now listen, it is one thing for
sin to live in you, but it is another thing for you to live
in sin. There is a remarkable difference
in the two. It is one thing to live for sin
to live in you, but it is quite another thing for you to live
in sin. Now, when we were dead to God,
as I read to you there this morning in the second chapter of the
book of Ephesians, when we were dead in trespasses and in sins,
we were alive to sin when we were dead to God. Sin was our home. Sin was our
desire. Sin was our delight. Really,
we was not happy unless we was committing sin. That's when we
were dead to God. But when we were made alive to
God, when we were quickened by the Spirit and born again, and
God hath brought the good news, the message of grace, the gospel
of grace to our conscience, Then we had a different attitude, altogether different. Made alive under God, but you
still find that sin lives in you. You're made alive under
God, but you still find that sin lives in you. It lives like
a monster and it is a hateful and detestable thing which tortures
and robs a man of his rest and robs a man of his peace. A terrible
thing. Now, that thief lives in you
and will rob you and torture you and that will be true until
God tears our house down. This evil nature of ours, which
is a sinful nature, will be in us and torture us. Although we are alive to God,
sin yet lives in us and will be in us until this house falls
and goes to the grave. It will be there. And that is
our conflict. That is the war that goes on.
in the heart of the believer. It hasn't got anything to do
with his salvation. It's just that's the way it is. But then at the same time, it's
not you that lives in that. It's not your home. It's not
your pleasure. It's that which lives in you,
which is this nature. That's what I'm trying to say
here this evening, that this nature of ours is sin, and it's
detestable, and it's a monster, and we'll never get rid of it,
and it'll bring us sometimes into bondage even, this evil
nature. So you could say with the apostle
Paul, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And he goes on and says here,
Know ye not that so many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ,
were baptized into his death? And I read to you, for he that
is dead is freed from sin. Paul says, Don't you know? that so many of us, as were baptized
into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. Now, when Christ
died, I died. When Christ was crucified, I
was crucified. Do you remember that hymn they
used to sing? I don't know whether it was a
hymn or not, or maybe it was a popular hymn. I don't know whether it's
in the hymn book or not. But it goes like this. Were you
there when they crucified our Lord? Remember singing that?
Were you there when they crucified our Lord? Well, if you are a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were there, because that's
when you died. That's when God killed you. You
were there with Christ before the world ever was. He chose
us in Christ from the foundation of the world. Jude says he preserved
us in Christ. We fell in Adam, but we didn't
fall in Christ. We were preserved in Christ. And when he came into this world
and took upon himself our nature, the form of flesh, our humanity,
every step that he took, every step from the cradle to the tomb
and to the crown, from the cradle to the cross and from the cross
to the crown, we was in him. We was in him. We were in Christ
before the foundation of the world. We were in Him when He
took upon Himself our humanity. And every step that He took and
everything that He did while He was here in this life, He
did for His people, for their salvation, for their redemption.
So when the Bible teaches about Christ being crucified, we were crucified with Him. We
was in him when he was crucified and he died on sin. And when
he died on sin and we died with him, we died on sin. We were
baptized into his death. That's spiritual baptism. And
the biblical baptism or the form of baptism that you and I believe
in and submit to, certainly takes on the same, it gets its picture
from Christ dying in our sins. And when we're baptized, we say
we've died, understand, we've died with Christ. When Christ
died, we died. We're happy that He died for
our sins. He's our righteousness. He's
our obedience. He cleansed us with His precious
blood. And when He died, we died with Him. When He was crucified,
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and I live in him. God forbid! How shall we that
are dead to sin live in him? Know ye not that so many of us
were baptized? We were baptized into Christ,
we were baptized into Jesus Christ, and we were baptized into his
death. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death. spiritual baptism, then like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in the 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. We was crucified with
Him. We died with Him. When He hung
on that tree, we hung with Him. We was in Him. We was in Him
before time ever was. Preserved in Him. And while He
was here on this earth, we was in Him. He's the head and we're
the members of His body. And that's who He come for. He
come for His church. He come for His people. a prepared
people, and he's going to heaven to prepare a place for them.
He's the forerunner. He's already there. And if he's the forerunner, there's
got to be some that follow. And those that follow are those
that died, were baptized into his death. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? I say this immersion or this
baptism here into the death of Christ is truly and really being
buried with Christ spiritually in a spiritual baptism. And I've
already said that this water baptism pictures that in a sense,
in a form of it. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried with him. And when this truth, when
he was crucified, I was crucified. When he died, I died. When he
rose again, I rose again because I was in him. Now, when the Spirit
of God, in power, brings this truth home to the conscience,
does that result in a man continuing in sin? Certainly not. He detests
sin, but sin lives in him. It's sinful nature. You can't
tell me, or no one else can tell me, that King David and all the
rest of the saints and patriarchs, that they lived their whole life
without sinning. After they knew God, they sinned
in this nature. It's this nature in us. and it
will bring us into bondage. Well, I said there in verse 6
that the old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, he said. The old man was crucified, yes,
yes, the old man was crucified. Sin was crucified, or yes, sin
was crucified with Christ first when he personally, majestically
hung on that tree. And then the old man, that's
us, we're crucified with him because we're in him. And when
this death of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we died in him
and was buried with him and rose again with him and have all the
promises of, we have this good hope that I read to you about,
that our want will be realized one day. It's a good hope. It's
not a hope against hope. It's a good hope. It's solid. It's sure. It's the anchor of
the soul. And one day we'll be like him. We'll be like him.
And then we'll be free then from this nature because this nature
will die then. We won't have this nature to
bring us into bondage anymore. Well, when this truth of what
Jesus Christ did or who Jesus Christ is, That's the first truth
that a man's got to learn. Who is this man called Jesus?
Is he the man that is trying to save people, but he can't
save them? Or is he God's anointed and God's
appointed? Is he God himself? Is the Lord
Jesus Christ God Almighty himself? Yes, he is. And he won't be disappointed. And he's not trying to do anything.
What he desires to do, he does. His will is not thwarted. His
purpose is always accomplished. Who is this man? Jesus. He's
God manifested in the flesh and as a man. He stands accountable
for every one of his people. And when he was crucified, I
was crucified. When he was buried, I was buried.
And when he rose again, and now we're in the heavenlies with
him. And I say when this is brought spiritually, when it's spiritually
revealed to a man's conscience, Well, I'm not talking about perfection
or anything. If you remember, right, when
Christ was crucified, that was a lingering death. He didn't
die that quick, did he? He lingered. He lingered. He
lingered. They kept looking as he did. As a matter of fact,
some of the soldiers come around with a stick of some sort, a
club of some sort, and was going to break his legs. Remember that?
Bring on death quicker because it's a lingering death. And this
death I'm talking about, this spiritual death that I'm talking
about, this nature that we have, it's a lingering thing too. It
stays with us and it bothers us. It tortures us, robs us of
our rest at times, and sometimes brings us into bondage. But it
won't be like that forever. One of these days we'll be rid
of this old man. See, this old man was crucified
and was buried and rose again in Christ. When that's brought
home, when that's brought home, what he's done and who he is
and where he's at and what he's doing, that'll help a man. That'll bring him into reality,
I believe. Well, in reality, I'll quit by saying
this, that I believe that there's not
a sinner There's not a sinner that would ever go to heaven
if God would let him go to hell. But God won't let him go. He's
determined to save his people. Isn't that right? Well, he that
is dead is freed from sin. We could talk about that some
more. Where is that? Well, in the seventh chapter.
Look at this real quick and then I'll quit. He's talking about
Almost the same thing. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he lives. If he is dead to sin, the law
does not have any more dominion over him, because the law has
been satisfied in his substitute. The Lord Jesus satisfied justice,
satisfied the law, bore the curse of the law, and satisfied the
law. Now listen, for the woman which hath a husband is bound
by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the
husband be dead, if the husband die, she's loose from the law
of her husband. So then if while her husband
liveth she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's
free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be
married to another man. Therefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. If you are
dead to the law, you are dead to sin. This is the death that
God brings upon every one of His, that they find out that
I am dead. And what can a dead man do? I
can't offer anything. I can't bring anything to the
table. I can't raise my hand high enough that would cause
God to look in my direction. I haven't got anything that I
can offer to God. No merit, no virtue, no goodness.
Everything is filthy, contaminated, corrupt, and polluted. I haven't
got anything. The only thing I've got is what
He did on my behalf on the tree. He satisfied the law, he satisfied
justice, and he paid the penalty for my sin, so it's Christ. The
only thing I can bring to the table is the Lord Jesus Christ. All I need is in Him. All I need
as a sinner is found in Him. He that is dead is freed from
sin. I need to be free from sin. Well,
if I died in Christ, then I'm free from sin. Another place there, I forget
now where I was reading it, but he says, Likewise reckon ye yourselves
dead unto sin. Consider yourself dead unto sin
if you be in Christ. And he says here, Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him. even
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is raised from the dead, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Well, we'll do better the next time.