Our first hymn is going to be
out of the hardback, number 110, Alas and Did My Savior Bleed,
110. A lesson did my Savior bleed and
did my Sovereign die. Would he devote that sacred head
for such a work as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done he groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree. Well might the sun in darkness
hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ, the mighty Maker,
died for man the creature's sin. But drops of grief can never
repay the debt of the vile. Dear Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. Our second
hymn will be number 145. And we'll be singing that to
the tune of number 2, Love Divine. Hail Thou once despised Jesus,
Hail Thou Galilean King! Thou didst suffer to release
us, Thou didst free salvation bring. Hail Thou agonizing Savior,
Bearer of our sin and shame, By thy merits we find favor,
life is given through thy name. Paschal Lamb, by God appointed,
all our sins on thee were laid. By almighty love anointed, thou
hast full atonement made. All thy people are forgiven through
the virtue of thy blood. Opened is the gate of heaven,
peace is made twixt man and God. Jesus, hell enthroned in glory,
there forever to abide. All the heavenly hosts adore
thee, seated at thy Father's side. Therefore, sinners, thou
art pleading, there thou dost our place prepare, ever for us
interceding, till in glory we appear. Worship, honor, power,
and blessing Thou art worthy to receive Loudest praises without
ceasing It is for us to give Helping bright angelic spirits
Bring your sweetest, noblest bliss Help to sing our Savior's
merits. Help to chant Emmanuel's praise. May it be seated. Morning. I'm going to be reading this
morning out of John chapter 11. It'll be John 11, picking up
in verses 25. I'm going to be reading John
11, 25, 26, and then pick back up at 38. John 11, 25. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection
and life. He who believes in me, though
he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Then Jesus,
again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and
a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord,
by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.
Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would
believe, you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the
stone from the place from which the dead man was lying, and Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you
have heard me, and I know that you have always heard me. But
because of the people who are standing by me, I said this,
that they may believe that you sent me. Now when he had said
these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came out
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped
with cloth. And Jesus said to them, loose
him and let him go. Father, we thank you for gathering
us here once again, Lord, and giving us the ability to hear
your son faithfully preached today, Lord. We pray that you
would send your spirit, Lord, remove the stone in our hearts,
Lord, that we may receive your son, Lord. And give our pastor
the words to say to preach your son, Lord. And give us hearts,
Lord, to serve our church, each other, to love each other, Lord.
Give us hearts to look to your son, Lord. And we pray for your
preachers, wherever they are at this day, Lord, and their
churches. In the name of Christ, amen. Alright, we're going to be in Romans 6.
Let's turn to Romans 6 and we'll be looking at verses 15 and I
plan to get to the end, verse 23. So Romans 6, 15 through 23. Now, what we've been seeing here
in chapter 6, the glorious truth that the Spirit has been revealing
to us. abundantly clear and wonderfully
is that sin no longer has dominion over believers. You that believe
Christ and trust Him, sin no longer has dominion over you. So that our justification and
our sanctification. Both things are accomplished
for us and in us by Jesus Christ. It's to the glory and praise
of Jesus Christ that we are both justified and sanctified. It's his will, it's his power,
it's his work in us. And so, we're given promises
here in this chapter. There's a number of promises,
but the one that I just wanted to call your attention to before
we move on is found in Romans 6 verse 14. Verse 14, where we
see this is a promise, for, he tells us, sin shall not have
dominion over you. For ye are not under law, but
under grace. He's promised us sin's not going
to have dominion over you because God has taken you out from under
law and he has placed you under grace. You're now in the kingdom
of grace of his son Jesus Christ. the spirit of God's proof, God,
what He's declaring to us, the proof that He's given to us,
which we are to receive by faith, which we do receive by faith,
is that now we're delivered from that law, it's got nothing more
to say to us, and we stand before God in grace. to put your trust now, to put
your trust now under the law, to go back to the law, whether
it's for justification or for your sanctification. Because
there are some, even today, that go back to the law and think
it's by our good works that we're justified. And then there's some
that say, no, I know that we're justified by Jesus Christ, but
they can still go back to the law and submit their necks under
the law for sanctification, to have a holy life, to have an
improved walk with God by their works under the law of Moses. But to do that is to submit yourself
back to the law of sin and death. It's to go back to those things
which are given for sin and because the people are dead and have
no knowledge of the true and living God. And so if you do
that, what the Lord is showing us is that you're not hearing
the promise that God has made to His people in Jesus Christ,
that He is all our salvation. But for believers in grace, those
who have been established by Jesus Christ in grace, we've
yielded our members to Christ unto righteousness. We're now
His. We've submitted to Him. We've
now obeyed from the heart. that doctrine which the Lord
has delivered to us in the gospel, in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
okay? So now, that Christ is now our
hope. He's our righteousness. He's
what we glory in, who we glory in, and not in the law in ourselves,
okay? Now, this is all done for us,
as we know it, but I'll say it again, this is done for us not
because of any works of righteousness that we did. If you heard when
you were young growing up that God helps those who help themselves,
no, no, we have a desire to hear the Lord. We only have a heart
and an ear for the Lord because the Lord has given us a heart
and given us an ear to hear him. It's because the Lord has been
first gracious to us long before we're ever thoughtful or mindful
of the Lord himself. So anyone who challenges this
truth that it's not the law, that has any part of our holiness.
It's not the law, but Christ. Anyone that would challenge that,
Paul addresses them in verse 15. All right, what then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. So in one sense,
what he's saying there, and I don't want us to miss this, is we've
not been saved to sin. That's not why God has saved
us. And we should be mindful of that
because what we do in the flesh, what we say, what we do, The
things that we practice, they do reflect the gospel that we
believe. And so if we're careless with
the blessings that we have in Christ, people are going to stumble
over that. They're going to see they don't
care about sin. Now there are some things that
they're going to say is sin, which isn't, which we are delivered
from, and we know that. But those things that the Lord
reveals to us and teaches us are sinful and wrong, don't practice
those things. We shouldn't practice those things
and that's not law to say that. We see clearly in the New Testament
that there are just some things that believers are not to do. We're saved from those things.
Why should we go back to those things? But be mindful that we're
not saved by grace just so we can do whatever. the flesh lusts
for, because the flesh still lusts for things, it's gonna
have a desire for things that are not profitable. Not profitable,
don't adorn the gospel of Christ, and we ought not to do them,
because people will stumble over those things, and they'll judge
the gospel you believe, they'll judge you, they'll judge me,
and they judge Christ. Because they say, well that can't
be the truth, so let me go to the law, where they're disciplining
people, because that seems to be the only way that people can
do that which is right before God. And that's not true. That's
contrary to the gospel because the promise of God is that you
shall, you shall walk by faith. That doesn't mean your flesh
isn't still weak and fighting you every bit of the way. But
we believe God that we are justified now that we don't see it in the
flesh and we yield by the power of his spirit, we yield our members
to him. And we'll talk about that a little more as we go on.
So the other thing though is that there are religious people
that would challenge the truth of what Paul is declaring here.
They say they're in agreement with Paul but they are not in
agreement with Paul. They're still trusting in the
law and so they challenge that a man is saved by grace and so
ultimately what religious people in the flesh, the carnal man,
because it's carnal. It's every bit as carnal as the
person just living as they would want to live in the deadness
of the flesh. Ultimately, those that trust
in the law, it's by their good works that they are righteous.
It's by the things that they do, and their discipline, and
their focus, and their laser focus, and vapor lock on the
law to do what the law says, they think that's their life.
And that's their holiness and acceptance with God. And so the Spirit has to teach us that.
Because the root of our good works is either the Law or it's
Christ. And it's got to be Christ. Because
if it's of the Law, then it's of sin and death. It's just coming
from the flesh and it's not by the work of God in us. Now, we're
reminded throughout what Paul says is, we're so confident in
Christ that we preach Him. 2 Corinthians 3-4, and such trust
have we through Christ to God, or such trust have we toward
God through Christ. We're so confident that Christ
has satisfied God and is able to keep us, that we preach Him.
We're preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, believing
that He is able. And so, We don't speak of His
grace and then yet have our confidence in the law and trust that because
that'll be found to be what it is, nothing but a work of the
flesh. And we can do that. Even believers, there's times
where we are like ignorant brute beasts and we do sin. And we
need to be delivered from that. And there are times when we are
ignorant and we trust in the law and we think I've got to
get, you know, straighten this thing out now and we think maybe
this is by the law and we do some things that we ought not
to do in the law and the Lord's got to save us from that because
it's ever going to be a walk by the Spirit, by the Spirit
of God in you that keeps us. If you sin, if you need help,
you cry out to Christ, you cry out to the Father and say, Lord
save me, teach me, deliver me from this and He will. And there
will be times where you will know it's painful in the flesh,
but if it's got to go, the Lord will do it. He'll do it. I can
testify to it that He'll do what He needs to do to keep you ever
looking to Christ, ever coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright? What's troubling about the law
man, what's troubling is that they would say to us, you put
far, far too much confidence in Jesus Christ. You're putting way too much confidence
in Christ. If you think that Christ can
save you and you don't need the law, you're putting far too much
confidence in Christ. And that's what they're saying.
You can hear it. That just rings foul and awful. That's false. Can we ever put
too much trust in Christ? Can we ever trust Him too much?
If you have a spirit, you're not going to walk in sin and
live in sin. He's going to keep you. He's
going to deliver you from those things that you ought not to
do. Alright, so there's things that we ought not to do, but
don't be turned to the law for your righteous living. Be turned
to Christ. Be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have an example of those
that lived by the law and were so faithful to the law. And what
did they do? they rejected the Lord of Glory
and crucified him. By the law, that's what they
did. They hated Christ and they hate Paul and they hate grace
and they hated the true living God so that they crucified him.
When they had the chance, they stoned Paul, they did many They
beat them many times, they persecuted them all over the place and it's
happened for many believers throughout by those that are religious and
good moral people. They've persecuted those of grace. So don't trust the law for your
life because the strength of sin is the law. That's why the
law was given, because of sin. So don't sin and then don't trust
the law because you don't have any part in that body. The Lord's
delivered us from that. You look to the law, and it works
enmity in the flesh. It just stirs up wrath and enmity,
and you'll be biting and devouring. And when you think you're somebody,
and you think you've arrived, how much more do you judge your
brethren, right? And you look down on others.
And you think, you're the cause of me stumbling now. How dare
you do what you're doing, you know? And so, don't look to the
law, look to Christ. Because even when the Lord delivers
you from something, You know what you are. You're still ashamed
when you think of those things and you look at your brethren
with love and patience and long-suffering rather than, you need to stop
that. You need to stop doing that.
That's not how we want to be. Our title is God Be Thanked.
God Be Thanked. So let's first look at whose
servants we are. In Romans 6, 16 we read, 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? So the question Paul's asking
here is, who do you serve? Who do we serve? If Christ is
our Lord, who is it that we serve? We, by faith, believe that God
has saved us by grace. Well, then yield your members,
yield yourselves, the things that God has given you, yield
them unto righteousness, to serve our Lord in righteousness. And
what it means is that we trust God, our hope is in God, in His
Son Jesus Christ for justification and for sanctification. And as
we've seen, there's some that claim to believe in the grace
of God and they confess that Christ deserves justification,
but they're still being turned back to the law for sanctification,
for how to live, forgetting what Paul said that The life I now
live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. That's how I live. That's my
sanctification is Christ who loved me and gave himself for
me. That's my life here. And so to
yield our members now back to the law means that we're obeying
the law of sin and death. We're going back under the law
which was given to constrain the flesh. So our righteousness
is either found in the obedience that God has given us and worked
in us unto grace or it's found in the obedience unto sin and
death and the law. That's what we're still trying
to battle it in the flesh and it ain't gonna work. But in grace
it's all satisfied, it's promised to us, it's done in the Lord
Jesus Christ, all right? So you either put to death the
lusts of your flesh by the flesh, which we know cannot work, or
we put them to death by the Spirit of Grace, which is promised to
us in Jesus Christ. And I know, you know, what religion
does is they mask it, they put nice beautiful terms on law-keeping,
right? They say this is But God doesn't call it that. If they kept it perfectly, sure.
But by looking to those things for their righteousness, they're
not hearing what the law says. And they're forgetting Christ.
And they're not trusting that at all. They're trusting in their
works of righteousness. They're trusting in the flesh.
And Paul didn't trust in the flesh. And so they're not in
agreement with Paul. And they're not in agreement
with what Christ has revealed. They don't see their need of
Christ, whatever they say. But what does the Lord say? Well,
one thing we know that the law isn't wicked. I'm not saying
that the law is wicked. The law itself is good. And that's
what Paul told to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, 8-10. But we know
that the law is good. If a man use it lawfully, right? If it's used lawfully, it's good.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man.
And Christ has made you that believe him. He's made you righteous. So what does the law have to
do with you anymore? You died to it. You are literally
dead to the law. It's got nothing more to say
to you. When we were under the law, when
we were yet in that body of sin, and here it is. But the law is
made for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, liars, perjured persons, and
if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. And the sound doctrine that's
been delivered to us is that I'm a sinner and cannot save
myself. I can't look to the law for my
justification. I can't keep looking to the law
now for sanctification because I died in Christ. I've been delivered
from that. That's sound doctrine. I'm a
sinner, unable to save myself, but that's exactly why the Lord
sent his son Jesus Christ. And so, it's either all of Christ
or it's all the law. They're mutually exclusive. It's
one or the other. Not a mixture of both. One or
the other. And so it's grace. We're preaching
and declaring grace. It's under grace that God deals
with you now. And that He has promised you
these things. That He has made you acceptable
in His sight. Justified you by the blood of
Jesus Christ. His death delivered you, freed
you from the condemnation of sin, and now He gives you His
Spirit whereby you know Him and walk in and believe Him, alright? But if you try to go back to
the law to deliver yourself and set yourself free from sin, you're
just walking in the flesh, alright? And so what happened? What happened
to your faith in Christ then? If you're looking back to the
law, What happened to faith in Christ? Why did it end? Why did
you cease doing those things and trusting in those things? So Paul says in Galatians 5.1,
he said, stand fast therefore in the liberty, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now Paul in the context
there was speaking of circumcision And he equates that to being
justified. You that are circumcised, he's
saying, you're looking to the law for your justification. You're
still doing that. But the truth is the same, that
if anyone thinks that they're to look to the law for their
instruction for life, they're trusting in the law, right? They're saying, I can't be saved
except I look to the law, except I trust it. That's what you're
saying. If you're trusting that I've got to now look to the law,
that that's my rule of life, that that's part of your salvation.
That's part of your hope of holiness and righteousness. and then it
ceased to be the Lord Jesus Christ. It ceases to be about sanctification
at that point, and now it's back to being justification by the
law. If the law is required for you
in any part of your holiness, then it is justification. You're
still trusting that it has something to do with your standing before
God, and that's part of your justification. So, if you would
be sanctified, though, if you would walk faithfully before
the Lord and walk before Him in being sanctified, looking
to Him and trusting Him, then believe the promises of God. Believe what He says concerning
Christ. Trust Him. Grow in that. Grow
in the knowledge of what He's declared to you in the promises
of Jesus Christ. And Paul says in Galatians 5.16,
this I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall
not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Right? It's impossible. If you're walking in the Spirit
and when those thoughts and the lusts arise and they come up,
it's the Spirit that puts it down. It's the Spirit that says,
no, I don't want that. I don't want to go and do that.
They still come up. They still go through. They pass
through the mind. You think of these things and
you know what you've done. You remember things. and you're
just ashamed of those things. So don't dwell on those things
and you're not going to put them away by the effort of your flesh. Just put them behind you and
keep walking by faith ever looking to Christ. That what He has said
concerning Christ in you, that's what it is. Believe Him and stand
there. Because if you be led by the
Spirit, you're not under the law. It's so clear. If you're
under the Spirit, you're a righteous man. What is the law for? It has nothing to say to you
any longer. And so that's for those people
yet in the body of sin. Yet there in the body of sin,
because if you won't receive the truth of Christ, if you won't
receive what God has revealed to his people by faith, then
there is nothing for you but the law, which is sin in combination. This is the law, get ready because
the wrath of God is coming. and he's going to destroy all
those that are sinners and workers of iniquity. So that's all that
there is left for those in the body of sin. If you don't hear
Christ and his grace, that's all you got is the law and you're
going to perish under the law. So Paul by the Spirit, he trusted
wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ and he wasn't turned from Christ
and he never yielded back to the law. He ever continued in
Christ and that's why In Philippians 3.9, he says, and it's so beautiful,
he says there in Philippians 3.9, that I may be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. I don't
want any part of that law righteousness. I don't want one stinking part
of it. I want to be found in Christ. having his righteousness
alone, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith." The whole of your righteousness,
brethren, is in Christ. And we see that and know that
and believe it by faith. By faith. That's how he communicates
it. to us. So, to those that are
looking back to the law for something, what more do you need? Why don't
you hear Christ? Why don't you trust and believe
Him? How is it that He's shown Himself
insufficient for your needs to deliver you from the lusts of
your flesh now? Paul tells us plainly in Galatians
5.5, we through the Spirit Wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We believe Him. We're walking
in faith, trusting that everything necessary is in Christ. So our
sanctification, actually what Paul is revealing in Romans 6,
that our sanctification is wrapped up, tied intricately to Christ's
resurrection. It really is, that our life,
now the life we live is directly tied to Christ's resurrection
from the dead. And that's what he says there
in Romans 6, 4. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, because we died with him, 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. See how he's
tied that resurrection now? Christ's resurrection reveals
to us the promise of God that we in Christ will now walk in
newness of life. We'll have His Spirit revealed
to us. The Spirit reveals what we need
to know of Him and the Spirit's life and power is revealed in
us all by faith, all by His work and power apart from what we
do or don't do. He's doing what He's going to
do with you. He's ordained works for you to walk in, and you shall
walk in them. And you shall bear fruit of your
husband, Jesus Christ. So as Christ was raised by the
power of God, that is the same power that now works and lives
in you, brethren. whereby you know these things
and believe Him and you hear this and you're encouraged by
these things because He's the one who lays it to your heart.
He's the one who gives it to you by His power and glory and
faith in Christ. And that's what Paul meant. If
you want to know, wow, Paul, what did you mean when you said
in Philippians 3, 10, this is what he meant, that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection. That's what he's, it's so tied
to his resurrection. It's the promise that you too
shall now live in Christ, right now having his spirit to know
him, whereby you hear and believe him. And that's why Paul said,
I want to know this power. I don't want to know what the
law says to me, how the law yokes and binds me. I want to know
the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,
right, Lord, whatever it's got to be, that I may know you more
and more. and being made conformable unto
his death. That takes the power of the Spirit,
because once you've been tried, once the Lord has given you faith
and he tries that faith, you see, Lord, I need you every hour,
because I'm weak for this thing. I can't do this. I've got no
power or strength of myself. And yet, by faith, not only will
we want to walk, but we're willing, we're made willing. Lord, whatever
it's going to be for me that you've ordained for me, Lord,
I'll go. Keep me, Lord. Keep me going,
but keep me, Lord. Don't leave me. Don't leave me
to myself. Like Moses said, Lord, if you
go not up with us, don't send us. But if you'll go with us,
Lord, we can go. We'll go then. Help us, Lord.
All right? or to hear the word of promise. Here's another one
in Romans 6, 5. For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his
resurrection. It's all tied there. If you're
justified of Christ, you shall be sanctified of him. All right? Otherwise, maybe, you know, well,
I don't want to get off track. So we serve one or the other,
right? No man can serve two masters.
You're either serving our Lord by grace, or you're serving Him,
or you're serving the law, the body of sin still in the law.
You can't serve, right, it's not gonna be law under grace,
and it's not grace under law. It's one or the other. You're
either serving in grace, or you're trying to still serve Him through
the flesh by the works of the law. And so I'm sure that there's
some that won't like that comparison, but Paul makes it very clear
to us that we're not under both. It's one or the other and he
says you're not under the law but under grace. Alright, so
it's not stacked on each other. It's one or the other. There's
no stacking. I don't care which one you put
first. It's still, there's no stacking. It's one or the other. They're mutually exclusive. Alright,
and the thought, I mean if you need the threats of the law and
the whipping and beating of punishment, to force you to do what you don't
want to do, then, you know, what do you trust in Him? What do
you believe in? You're not hearing what the promise
says in Christ. And Paul used very strong language
there in Galatians 5, 4. He said, Christ has become of
no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. And he's talking about
justification and sanctification constantly throughout that epistle. It's how we live, that sanctification. We live by him, alright? So it's
God's glory and power. And then we're told in verse
17, this is The next verse, 17, but God be thanked, God be thanked. It's not of your flesh, it's
of the Lord. This is of his grace and mercy. 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, right? This is you that serve him and
know him by grace. We're thankful to God because
he's the one that's delivered this to us. And so we bow before
God and we give him glory and thanks. Look at Romans 6, 13. Here he says, yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now I don't believe
I brought this up last week when we were going through that, but
I think this is a help. This will be a help to you to
hear that word. That word yield, do you know
what that word yield means? It means to present oneself.
That's what the word means. It means to present oneself.
It's like when Paul says in Romans 12, 1, present your bodies. And
it also means to stand at the ready. You see, we're not anything
in this. You're the servant of one or
the other. You're either the servant of God or you're the
servant of sin. And so he says, yield, present
your bodies. It's like when Isaiah saw the
Lord sitting on the throne in all his glory and he said, I'm
undone. Woe is me. I'm a sinner. I've got unclean lips. And after
the angel, the serpent, took the live coal off the altar and
touched his lips and said, there, you're clean now. All your sins
are put away. Then he heard, he heard the Lord
said, who will go for us? Whom shall we send? And what
did he say? He didn't run off and say, I'll
do it. I mean, he didn't just go and do it. He said, Lord,
here am I, send me. He was made to stand at the ready. He was yielded to the Lord. He
couldn't do anything. The Lord had to send him. And
that's what that word, what Paul's saying is, present yourselves
to the Lord. You're a servant of one or the
other. So present yourself to the Lord. Lord, use me. I don't
know what to do, Lord. I don't know how to do it or
be faithful, but Lord, make me faithful. And let me walk before
you. serving you and your people and
your kingdom. So that helps when you see it
that way. It's the staying at the ready.
You can't do anything, I can't do anything, but He can. And
just think of Isaiah when you forget about it. Here am I, Lord,
send me. Why not me? And He's gonna prepare
you for that. He's gonna do things that strip
you of the flesh and He'll give you the graces and the fruit
that you need to bear. He does it all. It's all of Him.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
It's all to His glory and praise. So God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, but now you're the servants of righteousness.
Lord, I don't want to do those things. I'm tired of those things.
I don't want to sin. I don't want to keep doing those
things. I don't want to love the things that the world loves.
I don't want to walk in the way that the world walks. But Lord,
I need you to do it. I need your spirit to do that,
all right? All right, so verse, and then
it says, and ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. And the reason why we've obeyed
from the heart is because it's his work. Otherwise we wouldn't
obey from the heart, all right? So it's not our works. Romans
5.11 says, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement. He's the one that
atoned, it's his blood, it's his power, he's justified us
and he rose again and it's a spirit whereby we live and walk in him. All right, so let's conclude
this and we'll go through these last verses here. Verse 18, being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Now, that's all been covered
in pretty good detail, and what he's saying there is, you've
been delivered from sin's dominion. Now, you have the Spirit of Christ. We're not like those men in Ephesus
who only heard of the baptism of John. Said, we don't even
know whether there be such a thing as the Holy Spirit. You've heard.
He's promised us his Spirit. You have a Spirit whereby you
believe and follow him. His Spirit now and are become. Lord, use me. Teach me. Instruct me and send me, Lord. Alright? And so we're free now
to serve God without threat and fear of punishment and worrying
that, you know, I'm just going to mess it up. The Lord helps
you. You will mess it up. I mess it up. But it's the Spirit.
We trust Him to do all things well and so we follow Him. Alright? And so It's a work of
His grace and not of the flesh. Verse 19, 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, present your members,
servants to righteousness unto holiness. So he's just giving
a disclaimer. I know you're weak, he's saying. Brethren, I know. you're weak
and you have nothing in your flesh. And so I'm trying to just
explain these things to you in a way that we hear it and understand
these spiritual things. Because it's the Spirit that
gives them to us. And He makes us to understand them more and
more as He grows us in Christ. Alright? And then the flesh is
unable, verse 20, for when you were the servants of sin, you
were free from righteousness, free from the knowledge of the
truth. That's why Paul speaks of knowledge, because he is making
these things known to us, what Christ has done in us and accomplished
for us, what he is doing. He's making this known to us,
that's why we grow. We don't know all things, we're
constantly coming to Christ. And then Paul asks, verse 21,
what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?
for the end of those things is death. When we labored in the
flesh, under religion even, we had no fruit in righteousness.
It was just dead, dead fruit, stinking fruit of the flesh,
and it didn't profit anybody, it wasn't anything to boast in. And now, when we think of these
things, whether recently or long in the past, ashamed of those
things, right? What we thought was good and
what we thought was evil, we're ashamed when we think of the
folly in our minds, right? And I'm ashamed to think of the
things I thought were fine, that I could just do. I don't like
thinking about those things that I thought was fine for me to
do, things that are sinful, things that are shameful now to me. And the doctrines I held, and
the things I said to people, I can still remember things I've
said to people. thinking I knew the truth. And now when I think
about it, I think, oh, I'm so ashamed that that ever came out
of my mouth. And I thought that and did that
and said this thing. I'm ashamed. But what can I do? I can't do anything about those
things. Like Paul said, forgetting those
things which are behind, I now look to Christ and I press toward
the mark. I press to him and look to him,
all right? Because the end of those things
is is death. I don't even want to go back
there and look to those things. All right, verse 22 and 23. Here
we are turned to Christ, but now being made free from sin
and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness
and the end everlasting life. Believe it. That's his promise.
You are justified in Christ. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So under the law, brethren, we
had what was coming to us. The wages of sin is death. That's
what we had coming to us. Don't look to that. Don't put
your trust there. Go back to it. But under grace,
there's no wages. We receive as a gift something
we didn't earn but we receive what Christ earned for all you
his people that have no hope in yourselves and don't have
any confidence in the flesh you trust Christ so you believe him
what your husband has earned for you Jesus Christ your husband
you believe him and you trust him and thank God for it thank
God for it so I pray Studying that chapter was a help to me,
going through the detail of chapter six. And that's why I reviewed
so much too, because I had to see it and understand it rightly. And as the Lord shows me more
and helps me to see it more clearly, I'll gladly show it to you. And
I pray that he does, because there is such confusion. I'm
ashamed sometimes to think, how come I don't know these things
more? There's so much confusion in religion about the law and
grace, and I just want to see Christ and know Him and the power
of His resurrection and grow in Him. So I pray, I trust that
that's the heart He's given you as well, so. Alright, let's pray
and give thanks. Lord, we thank You. Lord, You
know what we are in this flesh, and You know the weakness and
the infirmity of our flesh. Lord, We thank you for your grace
and mercy in Christ, that you may be gracious and kind to us
and long-suffering with us, Lord, and that you've given us your
spirit whereby we hear this doctrine and we receive the sound doctrine
of your gospel. Lord, we can't do anything in
the flesh to make it more Lord, we're ever dependent upon
your spirit to make these things known to us and to be received
by faith by your spirit in us. Lord, teach us the truth of these
things. Teach us, Lord, your spirit and
your truth in Jesus Christ. Help us to obey from the heart,
the heart of the new man, your new creation of Christ in us,
Lord. We pray that you would indeed
have mercy and pour out your Spirit upon us. Help us to grow
together as one body in your Son, Jesus Christ, and that we
would, Lord, be used of you. We have nothing and can do nothing,
Lord, but we present our bodies to you and stand at the ready. or to, indeed, go where you would
send us, and make us to stand upon the everlasting foundation,
which is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks, trusting that you'll do all these things
for us. Lord, look out upon your people, and you see our weaknesses,
you see our struggles, Lord, you see our sicknesses and infirmities
and the things which trouble our mind. Lord, we ask that you
would comfort us. Let us not be troubled by the
things we see and hear and feel in our flesh. Lord, let us be
comforted ever by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray
and give thanks. Our closing hymn will be number
334 out of the hardback, 334, Be Thou My Vision. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Naught be all else to me, save
that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee, and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father and thy
true Son, Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art. My King of Heaven, my victory
won. May I reach Heaven's joys, O
bright Heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, Still be my vision, O ruler of
all.