Let us turn to that chapter that
we read, turning to the Word of God in Romans, chapter 6. And I want to draw your attention
this morning to the verses 17 and 18. Romans chapter 6, verses
17 and 18. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, 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." In Romans 6,
verses 17 and 18, in the former part of the chapter of course,
we have that reference to the picture that is drawn, the heaven
drawn picture we might say, which is believers' baptism. And there, at verses 3 and 4,
Paul says, Know ye 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. In the service of baptism, we
witnessed it only last Friday evening, we have the picture
of the candidates being immersed in the waters and then rising
out of those waters. It's an outward expression, is
it not, of union with the Lord Jesus Christ and identifying
with Christ in his death and then in his resurrection from
the dead. And we are well and truly persuaded
that the only legitimate baptism must therefore be immersion. Baptising is not sprinkling water,
it's not effusion, it's not the pouring of water. It is taking
the candidates and that person being dipped, submerged in the
water, rising again out of the waters of baptism and expressing,
as I've said, that idea of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. But,
of course, we're all very much aware that baptism is not salvation. Baptism is not essential to salvation. It's an outward expression of
that union, but there must in the first place be an inward,
an experimental union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the
vital thing. The person being baptised is
one who has already known that. This is why it's not a service
of adult baptism, it's a service of believers baptism. Those who
go into the waters of baptism already know what it is to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They already know what it is
to be in the Saviour. They have already experienced
that inward union and now they want to make a public profession
of that blessed truth. And do we not see something of
that in these verses that we've just read? The importance of
that that must first of all take place within the soul Look at what Paul says, God be
thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, or as
the margin says, that form of doctrine where to ye were delivered. That form of doctrine where to
ye were delivered. It wasn't just that the doctrine
was delivered to you, that you were delivered over to the doctrine. Being then made free from sin,
he says, he became the servants of righteousness. And the subject
matter that I want to take up this morning as we look at these
verses is that blessed truth as salvation is formed in the
heart. Salvation has to be formed in
our hearts. There must be that inward experience
We don't just attend to the externals. We don't at all despise the ordinance
of baptism. It is a holy ordinance of the
Lord himself as appointed. When he commissions his apostles,
he sends them out of course. into all the world and remember
how they are to make disciples of all nations baptizing them
in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded
you this is and though i am with you even to the end of the world
we don't then in any sense want to despise the ordinance But
we need to be clear that there must first of all be an inward
experience of grace in the soul before one attends to that outward
ordinance. Well, let's come to the words
of the text. And two things we see in these
verses, or at least two things I want to endeavor to deal with
this morning. First of all, there is the doctrine. He speaks of that Form of Doctrine. And then in
the second place, I want to speak of the Deliverance. That Form
of Doctrine, he says, which was Delivered You. Two very basic
headings. First of all, let's consider
the Doctrine. Now the word that he uses here,
that Form, we can think in terms of a type,
It is in fact a word that is usually translated as type, or
we might think of a pattern. When the same apostle Paul writes
to young Timothy, Timothy being Timothy and Titus of course being
known as the pastoral epistles, he says to Timothy in the opening
chapter of his second epistle, hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. Here is Paul giving instruction
and direction to this young man in his ministry and pastoral
epistles and he speaks of the necessity of him adhering to,
holding fast to that form of sound words, sound doctrine. It's interesting also with regards
to the gospel as we have it recorded by Luke, remember that at the
beginning of Luke's Gospel we have that preamble in the first
four verses. For as much as many have taken
in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which I most surely believed among us, even as they delivered
them unto us which were from the beginning eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word, It seemed good to me also, having had perfect
understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto
thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest
know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed."
He seeks here then, he says, to set forth the truth concerning
Jesus Christ, his miraculous birth, the life, the death, the
resurrection, he seeks to set it forth in order, to write unto
thee in order, he says, the most excellent Theophilus. This is what we are to understand
then with regards to this word, the form of doctrine. It's, we
might say, the outline of doctrine, the sketch, the pattern of doctrine. Now, what is the doctrine that
he set before us here in the Word of God? Well, there are many doctrines that
we have to be familiar with, but I mention just a few this
morning, and those that are so basic to our understanding of
salvation. First of all, of course, there
is the doctrine of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wasn't Christ the very subject
matter of Paul's preaching? His determination, he tells the
Corinthians, was to know nothing amongst them, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And so when he writes here to
the Romans, and speaks of that form of doctrine which was delivered
you doubtless it was the same doctrine as he was teaching in
all those churches the same truth as he was teaching to the Corinthians the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ it is such a vital doctrine the Lord Jesus
himself says to Those Pharisees in the Gospel,
what? Thinking of Christ, whose son
is he? Whose son is he? And in that
well-known hymn, John Newton takes up that question, does
he not? What thinking of Christ is the
test? To try both your state and your
scheme, you cannot be right in the rest. unless you think rightly
of Him. Here is that that is so basic
then. What this morning are the views that we hold concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ? What do we believe concerning
Jesus of Nazareth? Think of His person, the person
of Jesus. He is God, is He not? God manifest
in the flesh. All without controversy great
is the mystery of godliness. God, says Paul, God was manifest
in the flesh. Now what does that mean to be
manifest in the flesh? Well it means that in this person
there is a human nature and there is a divine nature. He is in
the flesh in the sense that he is a real man. But he is never
anything less than true almighty God. And doesn't John take up
the importance of these things with regards to the person of
Christ when he writes in those epistles? At the end of the New
Testament, the three epistles of John, There in the short second
epistle in verse 9 he says, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If we are truly in the doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ we will have the Father and the Son.
In other words, He is the Father's Son. He is the Father's eternal
Son. He is the Father's only begotten
Son. That is His deity. The eternal
Son of the eternal Father. The Son of the Father in truth
and in love. But then as He is divine so He
is also human. And John says, much with regards
to the reality of the human nature of Christ. But John was very
familiar with that human nature. This is the beloved, the one
who was there at the Last Supper, leaning upon the Lord's bosom.
Oh, how real Christ's human nature was to John. And so he says in
his first epistle, Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, But this is that
spirit of antichrist to deny the blessed truth of his human
nature. It's a grievous error. In the
person of Jesus Christ, we see two natures. He is God and he
is man. And the two natures are distinct. There's no mixing or mingling
of the natures. their distinct natures, and yet
he is one person. It's a mystery. It is a mystery. But how important it is, friends,
that we are brought to acknowledge it, to bow before it, to have
right views of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the last Adam,
is it not? Remember the first man is of
the earth, the earth is the second man. He is the Lord from heaven
and he has come, has he not, to put right all that came as
the consequence of the first man's transgression. And of course
for us this morning the important thing is which of those two men
are we. By nature we are all in the first
Adam. We are all descended from the first Adam. We all sinned
in the first Adam. But are we those who are in the
last Adam? And we know it, we trust Him
in Him, we have an experience of it. Here is the person of Christ,
but then there is the work of Christ. This was the form of
doctrine which the Apostle Paul delivered to the churches God be thanked, he says, that
you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Not just the person of Christ. Paul has much to say with regards
to his work. Remember out of the Galatians
he speaks of the fullness of the time. That that was foreordained
from eternity, concerning the Messiah, when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman. There you see we have again the
incarnation of God manifest in the flesh, made of a woman, but
also He says, made under the law. to redeem them that were
under the law. Oh, there was a work when it
concerned the law of God, that holy law, that law which is holy
and just and good. Christ came to honour and to
magnify that law. Christ came to obey it in every
detail, in every precinct. I came down from heaven, He says,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me,
and to finish His work. And He did. He did always those
things that pleased His Father. And so when He comes to the end
of His earthly life, and He prays to the Father there in the 17th
of John, what does He say? I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. He finished the work. He fulfilled all righteousness.
He honoured and magnified the law by the obedience of a sinless
life. And then he honoured and magnified
that same law by a sin atoning death. Oh, that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did, being found in fashion as a man. He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. The person of Christ,
yes, but also the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all in
order to the salvation of sinners. Look at what it says in chapter
5 verse 19, as by one man's disobedience, that's the first Adam, as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one, the Lord Jesus, shall many be made righteous. He has fulfilled the law for
his people. He has brought a robe of righteousness. But not only
that, he has also borne that penalty that was there deserved.
He has suffered in the room instead of his people. Again there in
verse 6 of chapter 5, in due time, or as Imogen said, according
to the time, or when the hour was calm, you say. In due time
Christ died for the ungodly. That's the work that the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. Here is one of the great principle
doctrines to which Paul is referring us in this verse, that form of
doctrine. It concerns the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then also another doctrine
we have to be familiar with surely is this, the doctrine of sin
and the doctrine of salvation. Christ himself says that he came
not to call the righteous but sinners unto repentance. The
whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick. We need
to know the truth concerning sin, the truth concerning ourselves
as the transgressors. We need to be made to feel what
we are, if we would know that great salvation which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says this is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. That's why Christ came, there
was an end that he had in view. That people that the Father had
given to him in the eternal covenant, he must come and do all that
is necessary for their redemption. All the faithful say, and it's
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ has come to save sinners. In this epistle to the Romans,
of course, we see much said with regards to that great salvation. It's a great gospel book, is
it not, Romans? The gospel as it really is. When Paul begins to address this church,
he says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God which he had promised before
by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead
How he defines this gospel. This is what he is called to
be the minister of. He was separated to this. This
gospel which God promised from all eternity. This gospel which
is a subject matter of all the Old Testament prophets. This
gospel that concerns God's eternal son Jesus Christ. Of the seed
of David. this Christ who rose again from
the dead. He goes on at verse 16 there
to say, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the
Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just
shall live by faith how poor glorious in this gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ he sets it forth and yet it's strange is
it not when we read just read the opening chapters the first
three chapters the opening part of chapter 1 he has so much to
say about the gospel but then from verse 18 following he speaks
of the horror that sin is. Having said he is not ashamed
of the gospel, he then says verse 18 in chapter 1, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has
showed it unto them. and we can read on and on, he
speaks of the great evils, the great wickedness that men are
so often guilty of and then again we come through the second chapter
and into the third chapter and then at verse 10 he speaks of
that that's written, written in the Psalms, Psalms 14 and
53, as it is written there is non-righteous, no not one, there
is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God,
they are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one, their
throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have
used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness and so on. From verse 18 in chapter
1 right through into chapter 3 then, he speaks so plainly
of the great evil which sin is. He speaks of sin. And he speaks of salvation. Why? Because the salvation of God
is for sinners. And we need to come to terms
with his doctrine. What is sin? What is salvation? Oh, we need
to know these things. God be thanked. He were the servants
of sin, but He have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. And that's salvation. In Romans we see it so much bound
up with the doctrine of justification. Throughout chapters 4 and 5 Paul
speaks so plainly of that great doctrine. Of course he makes
mention of it there in verse 17 of chapter
1. When he speaks of the Gospel,
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith, the
justified sinner lives by faith. But he says much more about justification,
does he not? And the faith that justifies
is the faith of Abraham. Chapter 4, what shall we then
say? Abraham, our father, as pertained to the flesh, hath
found, for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to
glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Not that his faith was his righteousness,
he was the blessed object of that faith. Christ says, your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and his story, and was
glad. Christ was the object of Abraham's
faith. Look at what he says here in
chapter 4, verse 20, concerning Abraham, he staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised
he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. What does the it refer to? The
it that was imputed to him for righteousness? It's the promise.
What he had promised. And the promise centres in the
seed, which is Christ. Therefore being justified By
faith, he says in chapter 5, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. All justification by faith, that
blessed doctrine that was rediscovered at the time of the Great Protestant
Reformation. It was burnt into the very soul
of Martin Luther, that Romish monk. And Derelici came to recognize
the importance of it, the article he says, by which the church
stands or falls. This is why the Romanist church
is no true church. It doesn't believe in the doctrine
of justification by faith. It's a false church. These are the doctrines, some
of the doctrines, that we must be familiar with. Christ, His
person, His work, the doctrines of sin and salvation, the doctrine
of justification by faith. But then also here we have mention
of the deliverance. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, he became the servants of righteousness. Two things I want to mention
as we come to consider the deliverance that he has spoken of here. First
of all, there is the preaching of the Gospel. Look at what he
says at the end of verse 17. That form of doctrine which was
delivered How was that form of doctrine delivered to them? Or
was it not through preaching? Was it not through preaching? This was the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was a preaching ministry that
Christ exercised after John was put into prison. John the Baptist
being the one who was the harbinger, who comes to prepare the way.
for Christ. There in the opening chapter
of Mark, verse 14, now after that John was put in prison,
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of
God and saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent and believe the Gospel. Christ preached. He is that great prophet, that
great teacher sent from God. He is the fulfilment of the prophetic
office. He declares his message of salvation
and as Christ preaches so do the apostles of Christ. Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders
of his ministry testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20, 21. That was his ministry. It's the same as Christ's ministry.
Same as we just read in Mark, chapter 1. Paul and the other
apostles also then testified to Jews and to Gentiles repentance
toward God. and faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. This was the commission that
Christ had given. Go into all the world, he said, and preach
the gospel unto every creature. And doesn't Paul speak here in
chapter 10 of that ministry of the gospel? Familiar words? Verse 13 in chapter 10, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
their tidings of good things, But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, you have believed our report. So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. The importance then of preaching
is spelt out so plainly there by the apostle. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, of course, who is pleased to come in and through that vehicle
of the preaching of his gospel. Those words that Paul speaks
to the Ephesians concerning their experience, ye have not so learned
Christ, if so be ye have heard him, and been taught by him,
as the truth is in Jesus, They'd heard Christ, not just heard
of Christ, that's what Paul is saying there in Ephesians 4.
If so, they have heard Him, not just heard of Him. Oh, friends,
to be those who hear His voice in the preaching, where the word
of the King is, There is power. That's when the word comes, you
see. It's not just the outward call then, it's the effectual
call. The effectual call. It's when the gospel comes, not
in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. How was the doctrine delivered
to the men? It was through preaching. It
was through preaching. But there must be more than just the office of preaching. As we've
already intimated, there must be that power that comes with
the preaching. There must be that blessed anointing of the
Holy Spirit. If the word is going to be effectual,
there must be that gracious application by the Holy Spirit. There must
be that work that's wrought in the soul of the sinner. There must be that experience
of a real, living, inward union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where we began, is it not? I said at the outset in baptism
there is that heaven drawn picture That beautiful picture of union
between the candidate and the saviour, that outward expression
of burial with Christ, resurrection in Christ. But that must first
of all be experienced in the soul. That God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you or with the margin where
unto ye were delivered being then made free from sin you see
there was something that was accompanied here in the soul
of the sinner he was freed from sin and he became the servant
of God the servant of righteousness he was a child how significant is that alternative
reading in the margin. It's not just the matter of the
Gospel being delivered to us. There is that, even now. As you sit here this morning
and God's Word is before us, there is the deliverance of the
Gospel, the form of sound words, the form of doctrine. But there
must be something more than that. You have to be delivered to the
doctrine. The doctrine has to be formed
in your heart and it has to be formed in my heart. There are
these two aspects, are there not? That form of doctrine Where
to ye were delivered? Now this is what Paul means when
he says in that first chapter, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believes that
it's the power of God, you see, when we're delivered to Him.
When we're brought to acknowledge the truth of it. The problem
is all us, there's no problem with the word of God. God's word
is all right. And we're all wrong. And there's
much that we can't understand, there's much that we can't fathom,
but we feel that we have to bow to this, we have to accept the
authority of this. Those words that we've already
referred to in the epistle to the Thessalonians, oh the gospel,
or the word of the gospel, when he came to
them, how did he come? It wasn't just in word, it was
in power, it was in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom of God, says
Paul, is not in word only, but in power. Now what is the evidence
of us being delivered then to this doctrine? There will be
something felt in the soul, will there not? First of all, there
will be that real conviction of sin. There will be conviction of sin.
There will be a real sense of our sinnership before God. Paul
knew that. Oh, Paul knew it. Paul felt it. Does he not go on to speak so
plainly of his experiences here in the seventh chapter? This
man who was such an expert in the Lord of God, He was schooled
of Tarsus. He'd been schooled at the feet
of one of the great Jewish rabbis, Gamaliel. All touching the righteousness
of God's Lord, he was a blameless man. He knew it. He kept it.
He obeyed it. He understood nothing at all
about it, really. Until God took him in hand. Until
God came, you see, and didn't just delivered the word to him,
but delivered him to the words. What does he say here in chapter
7? We know that the Lord is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold on the
scene. Oh friends, that's a sad truth,
is it not? We are carnal men and women. Fleshless. We are the offspring of Adam
and Eve. We love the earth, earth with
sinners, you see. And God's law is a holy law. He says here in verse 18 of chapter
7, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. No good thing. As a believer
he can say, the will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good I find not. Or there was that time when the
Pharisee thought himself to be alive to the Lord of God. As
he says previously, I was alive without the law once, but when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the commandment
which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. for sin taking
occasion by the commandment you see me in my saloon he was convicted
and he was made to realize what he was as a sinner to be carnally
minded is death the carnal mind enmity against God not subject
to the Lord of God neither indeed can be This is what we feel,
you see, when God doesn't just deliver his word to us, but delivers
us over to his word. We feel what it's saying. We
feel the awfulness, the deadness of our sins. We feel the impotence
of our sins. We can do nothing. We're lost. We're undone. Condemned. Without hope. But there's not just the dark
side, thank God there's not just the dark side, there's also the
bright side. What does he say in the text?
Ye have obeyed from the heart. Ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine where to ye were delivered. Oh, we're not to come short of
that. not to come short of that, to obey from the heart, to know
that inward work of the Spirit of God, how He is the one who
must come and accomplish all our works within us, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. This is an inward work. There are many people, I dare
say, who have passed through the waters of baptism and know
nothing of that real experimental union with Christ in their hearts.
That's the vital thing. Christ dwelling in the
heart by faith. That's what we need, friend.
Or look at how Paul writes here, ye were the servants of sin. He speaks in the past tense.
That's what they were. Being made free from sin, he
became the servant of righteousness. Oh, there's a change, you see.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are
passed away. All things are become new. That form of doctrine. where to ye were delivered. As we conclude, let's just observe
again the significance of the word that he uses here. The form,
such a rich word. In some ways he does the idea
of a die or a mould. You can think of a die that's
used in the making of coinage and how the figure in that die,
of course, is then pressed onto the coin as it's put into the
die. And so what's in the die is transferred,
as it were, to the coin. Or you could think in terms of
a mould. Think of a foundry, you see,
where they work with molten metal. And a mould is made and the molten
metal is taken and poured into that mould, and the shape of
the mould is then transferred to that metal, and when the metal
sets, you have the finished article. And it's the same idea here,
when that form of doctrine is something that we're delivered
to, it's transferred into our souls, we bear that imprint.
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was Paul's experience, was
it not? Oh, he tells us in Galatians
chapter 1 that when he pleads God to reveal his Son, and he
says to reveal his Son in Christ in you it is, the hope of the
Lord. Oh friends, do we know anything
of that inward Kingdom of God established in our souls? That's what we need. God to come
and to establish that blessed reign of His grace in our hearts. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you and as a result where to
ye were delivered being then made free from sin of righteousness, there's the
doctrine you see, but there must be the experience of the doctrine.
And where there's the experience of the doctrine, why there's
the outward walking in the ways of obedience, deliverance from
sin, and conforming more and more to the image of the Lord
Jesus Christ. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us.