May I please God to bless his
word to us as we read it together from the epistle of Paul to the
Romans and we'll read chapter six. The epistle of Paul to the
Romans and reading chapter six. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know you not that so many of
us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his
death? Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed, unto sin. but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness. God be thanked that ye were the
servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as ye have yielded your member servants to uncleanness, and
to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members, servants,
to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servants
of sin, you were freed from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now be made free from sin, and become servants to God,
you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Well, may it please God to help
us as we consider his word further in the epistle of Paul to the
Galatians. And this evening we'll turn to chapter five and we'll
read verses 13, 14, and 15. The epistle of Paul to the Galatians,
chapter five, reading verses 13, 14, and 15. For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. So we have in these verses again
gracious instruction from the Apostle Paul to direct us into
living in a right and God-honouring way. And he first of all says,
for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. And the truth is
that the whole Church of God are called into liberty. That means, as we've already
considered, freedom in Christ, free in Christ. That is the liberty
that the Church of God are privileged to enjoy. And the reason it is
so, because we are no longer under the law, because the Lord
has, the Saviour has died to obtain that pardon for us as
he undertook to keep the law and to make it honorable. And
so here we have then a warning to us because we are blessed
with freedom but we are not to use it as the Apostle says here
not to use it for an occasion to the flesh. See so often we
hear well of course I'm under the gospel and therefore I can
do this and I can do that and I can please myself and people
follow that pattern and continue in sin believing that they can
do so because they are not under the law but they are under grace
well we are under grace by grace and we're not under the law but
we must never use that as an excuse to satisfy our flesh the
Word of God makes it very clear that we are to Crucify our flesh
and that liberty is not therefore to give us freedom in the flesh
It is to give us freedom in the spirit and what a great and glorious
truth that is and how necessary and how wonderful when we read
that that chapter in the Romans the six of Romans which is a
very instructive chapter and It does speak to us really about
these things. The Apostle, about in the middle
of this chapter, he says, 15th verse of the 6th chapter, What
then? Shall we sin, because we are
not under the law, but under grace? He says, God forbid! 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. You see, it's
very easy to fall into the subtle temptation of Satan, who will
say, no, it's okay, you can carry on and you can do that, and what
we're really doing is being a servant to sin, and obeying the devil
rather than obeying God. And the Apostle continues and
says in verse 17, but God be thanked that ye were the servants
of sin, ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from
the heart." Now we only obey from the heart when the Holy
Spirit moves our heart and produces that new nature, that God-given
nature. And so, but ye have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
And he says, I speak after the manner of men because of the
infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your
members, servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto
holiness. It's a complete change. It's
a total difference. And what a blessed evidence it
is when we have the effect of the gracious work of the Holy
Spirit in our hearts, turning us to this liberty which is to
be found in Christ and turning away from the things of the flesh,
the lust of the flesh. And so the Apostle says, you
only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve
one another. Now how relevant that is today,
and how important we always need to recognize the great truth
of that, to have love one toward another. And why should that
be? Because of Christ's love to us. When you think how unworthy we
are to receive that love, and yet how gracious our God is to
give us that love, then what a wonderful example we have. And therefore, this word must
therefore be true, but by love serve one another. And again,
this is really picked up by the Apostle Paul when he wrote to
the Corinthians in the 13th chapter, which speaks about love. I know
in the version we have it spoken of as charity, but a better translation
is love. And he speaks about this in this
chapter. and how good it is, therefore,
if we follow it in a right way and not in a wrong way. It's very easy, I'm in the 14th
chapter, I said the 13th, the 14th chapter of the Corinthians.
And he starts by saying, follow after charity or love, and desire
spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that
speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto
God. For no man understandeth, howbeit
in the spirit, he speaketh mysteries. So it's a great blessing if we
are favored to walk in love. And to follow this admonition,
which the Apostle sets before us here in this fifth chapter. And he says, thou shalt but by
love serve one another. And then he confirms this by
saying, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Naturally, we love ourselves.
It's a good thing, therefore, to have this before us, to love
our neighbor as ourself. What a blessing it is if we desire
to do that. Remember the Lord Jesus was asked
on one occasion, what is the great commandment? And he said,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all
thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. It's an illustration
of God's grace in our heart to turn us to desire to do this
and again let us not forget who our neighbor is sometimes we
may think well that's a nice person and I can love that person
well when the Lord was asked who is thy neighbor you may remember
he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan and we have the example
of the The church people, the scribe and the Pharisee, they
didn't want to know. They passed by on the other side. You see, it's very easy for us
to see something which is not very acceptable to us and to
pass by on the other side. But the blessing was, there was
this Samaritan who came to this man where he was. He came to
this Samaritan and blessed him. poured in oil and wine and did
all that was necessary. What a mercy therefore if we
follow this pattern, you see, love to our neighbour. Of course also we're encouraged
to love our enemies. That's a wonderful statement,
isn't it? But what does it show? It shows the wonderful grace
of God. What a good thing it is if we
follow the Word of God and don't follow our own inclinations. It's very easy to follow our
own inclinations. Because if we are amongst those
who fall into this category that the Apostle spoke when he wrote
to the Romans in the 8th chapter in verse 13 for if ye live out
of the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body ye shall live and to mortify of course
means to put to death for as many as are led by the spirit
of God they are the sons of God for ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So it's a blessing for
us today if we desire to follow this pattern and to love our
neighbour as ourself. And then he says, but if you
bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed
one of another. What does that mean? It means
speaking wrongly about one another. It's about doing wrong things
one to another, biting and devouring, just because we seem to be offended,
just because we don't seem to like what we see. And instead
of following this blessed statement of love, we operate in an opposite
way. and we bite and devour, and we
think we're justified in so doing. But here we have the instruction
of the Apostle under the influence of the Holy Spirit to do that
which is the opposite to that nature. But if ye bite and devour
one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. And I'm sure we do not want to
be consumed, we need to follow the gracious Word of God. And again, following this pattern,
really, in the third of the Romans, where the Apostle says in verse
19, Now we know that what things soever the law saith is said
to them who are under the law. Because the law is not the gospel,
that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth may be stopped. and
all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And it's good,
isn't it, when the Spirit of God stops us from saying offensive
things, stops us from saying those things which will not honor
God, but perhaps will just satisfy our own ego, and we recognize
this fact, and if we bite and devour one another, take heed
that ye be not consumed one of another. And so you can carry
on reading these words in the third of Romans. They're very
wonderful words, but just the last couple of verses, verses
23 and 24, I'll read. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. So we all stand on equal ground.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We can't
boast and say, well I'm better than you are and therefore I'm
entitled to say this and do this. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. And surely, if the Holy
Spirit convinces us of our guilt and our sin, we won't be found
throwing stones. And we'll be so thankful that
the blessed Saviour died to atone for our sins. And we'll be so
thankful to realise that his sin-atoning death did take away
all our sin, and it was through the shedding of his most precious
blood. So often, as we have a view of
this, It puts everything in a right perspective.