We're going to begin our second
service by standing and singing 361 Sweet Hour of Prayer, 361. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, that calls me from a world of care, and bids me
at my father's throat make all my wants and wishes In seasons
of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief, And oft
escaped a tempter's stare By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth
and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his
face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I'll cast on him my
every care, and wait for thee, sweet arm of prayer. ? Sweet hour of prayer, sweet
hour of prayer ? ? May I thy consolation share ? ? Till from
Mount Pisgah's lofty high ? ? I view my home and take my flight ?
? This robe of flesh ? The second hymn is going to be Let's see, what was it now? 326,
more about Jesus. 326. More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show, More of His saving calmness see,
More of His love who died for me. More, more about Jesus, More,
more about Jesus, More of His saving fullness see, More of
His love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn,
more of His holy will discern. Spirit of God my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus, More of His saving fullness see, More
of His love who died for me. ? More about Jesus in his word
? ? Holding communion with my Lord ? ? Hearing his voice in
every line ? ? Making each faithful saying mine ? ? More, more about
Jesus ? ? More, more about Jesus ? More of His saving fullness
see, More of His love who died for me. Jesus on his throne, riches and
glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
more of his coming Prince of Peace. More, more about Jesus
More, more about Jesus More of His saving fullness see More
of His love who died for me Thank you. Good morning. I'm going to be
reading from Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, starting
with verse 1. For I would that ye knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea. And
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. In whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. Rooted and built up in him, and
established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in him which is the head of all principality and
power. I'll stop there. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for gathering
us together here to hear your gospel. We thank you for the
account of Peter that you've given to us. We ask that you'd
show that grace to us. We ask that you'd Be with us
and keep our eyes fixed on Christ. Cause us not to look away from
Him and leave our first love. We ask that you go with us in
this second hour. Help us to hear. Help your servant
to preach your gospel faithfully. We ask that you would do this
and forgive all our many sins in Christ's name. Let's turn to Romans 6 verses 12 through
14. Now we've been going through Romans and Paul
has been setting forth glorious truths to us and he's answering
the he's answering the claim by some that ignorantly think
that grace should lead to sin, a lifestyle of sin that if we
preach and teach grace that it's going to lead to a lifestyle
of sin and it's just absurd because the very thing that God has provided
for his people to deliver them from the bondage of sin is the
very point that they say, oh well that's going to lead you
into sin and that's going to going to bind you and bring you
under the dominion of sin. And so they actually turn and
yoke you. They try to burden you and yoke
you with the law to keep you from sinning. But that's the
very definition of unrighteousness. Working your own righteousness
and denying the righteousness of God. That's unrighteousness.
That's wickedness. So now Paul provides believers
with an exhortation. to yield our bodies, our members,
to serve God, to serve Christ. And those that have the spirit,
those that are taught of the Lord, he teaches us this in the
heart so that we hear the exhortation not as a precept, not as a law
for us to keep in our flesh, but as it is in truth, and we'll
see this in the scripture, that it's encased and held up by the
promise of God, for His people in Christ. It's within the promises
of God. Again, we're seeing how God's
Word reveals to us the purpose and will of God for us in putting
us in Christ, His Son. And we see this even in Romans
6, where at the end of verse 4, He said that we were raised
in Christ, that we also should walk in newness of life. And again, that Henceforth, at
the end of verse six, that henceforth we should not serve sin. All right, and so what we're
learning, what I want us to hear is that this promise of our justification
by Christ, the promise of our justification, that's received
by faith, right? We receive this promise that
we are justified, freed from our sin, freed from condemnation,
in Christ, we receive that by faith. Well, even so, our sanctification,
the promise of God that we are sanctified, we are holy in Christ,
we shall walk in Him, that also is received by faith. Alright,
so that's also received by faith. Listen to Ephesians 1-4 that
says the same thing. Our salvation is according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He's
revealing his will and purpose for all those that he's put in
Christ, that we should or shall be holy and without blame before
him in love. All right, our title is Yield
Your Members to Righteousness. Yield Your Members to Righteousness.
And we'll first, well, we're looking at three verses, so each
verse will have its own heading. First, the exhortation, then
yielding our members, and then hearing the promise, hearing
the promise. All right now so This exhortation,
don't miss the glorious foundation that Paul has been laying for
us. He's laid the foundation which
is Jesus Christ. He's showing us that all our
hope of salvation, all our justification and our sanctification is Jesus
Christ. That's the foundation stone for
which religionists who trust their own righteousness, they
trip over him. They stumble over Christ. They
can't understand, they can't hear it in the Spirit that Christ
has justified us from our sin. That Christ is our very sanctification. He's our holiness and our perfection
to stand before perfect, holy God. And they don't hear it and
so they stumble over Christ. They're offended by Christ and
they trip and fall over Him. And so, when we say that Christ
has justified us of our sin, It means that we are righteous
before God because He's delivered us from the condemnation. He's
delivered us first from the reign and the dominion of sin and He's
delivered us from the curse and the condemnation that were ours
under the law when we tried to work our own righteousness. He's
delivered us from that. We also understand that it's
His resurrection power, the same power and glory of God that raised
Christ up from the dead, visibly, so that others could see Him
and testify to what God had done, that because God did this, this
is the guarantee, this is declaring to us that we too shall walk
by faith and love to Christ. That's how we know Him. I mean,
if you think about it, God could have justified us by Christ's
blood. He could have gone to the cross
and justified us, putting away our sins, and then God raised
Him quietly without any knowledge of ours. And that He could have
justified us, right? We could have been justified
and live and never know, never come to a knowledge of what He
did until we stand before Him in glory. But the very fact that
God raised Him hand, up to 500 people were told
that because He did that, it's declaring to us also that not
only are we justified, but He makes us to know that we're justified
and makes us to know that we should walk in Him. He's revealing
all these truths to us. He doesn't keep us in the dark,
but it pleases Him to make known what He's accomplished for us
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so now we live in the Spirit. Paul tells us in Galatians 5.25
that if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Alright, if we're alive in the
Spirit, then let us walk in that Spirit because everything that
God has provided for His people in grace and in that light, it's
to make us to know these things so that we hear the exhortation,
which says to us in Romans 6 verse 12, Let not sin therefore reign
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof."
And so, who is it that we're yielding our members to? That's
really what Paul is saying. It's about submission. It's about
yielding our members. Who are we yielding them to?
Are we to yield them to serve in that body of sin which we've
been told Christ has destroyed? He destroyed the reign and the
dominion and the power of the body of sin. So are we now to
go on laboring and serving that body from which we've been delivered?
Or are we to serve our Savior, our Lord, whose body we are now
in, that we've been saved and put into? We're in the body of
Christ. So do we serve our head, who is Christ, or do we serve
that old head and dominion from which we've been saved from?
And that's what Paul is showing us here. So this exhortation
it rests upon the promises that we have of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That as we've been sanctified
by him, even so are we, that as we've been justified by him,
even so are we sanctified and have been raised for this very
purpose. We were raised in Christ for
this very purpose. Therefore, now having said that,
don't think that because we are given an exhortation that you
or I can somehow keep this by our flesh and our power. That's
not why it's given. It's not because we are now able
in this flesh to keep it by our will and our strength and our
power. But Paul is saying, seek to live
agreeably for which Christ has saved you. Don't live contrary
to what Christ has done for you. Don't seek to live in a manner
that is contrary to what the Lord has made known to us in
Christ. But we live consistently with
what Christ has revealed that he's done in us. I like the way
Paul says it in Philippians 2.13. He says, for it is God which
worketh in you. both to will and to do of His
good pleasure." So what we do, we do knowing it's not of my
strength, it's not of my power, but I know that it's God that
works in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He's
raised me in Christ, that I should walk in newness of life, that
I should no longer serve that old master and seek to do those
things which I know that He's died to put away. And so that's
our understanding. When you hear an exhortation
like Romans 6, 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body that ye should obey it and the lust thereof. First we hear,
well, all right, that aligns with the gospel. That just aligns
with the gospel. There's nothing odd or weird
that he's saying there. It's the truth and it aligns
with the gospel. And what do I mean by that? Well,
we know God hates sin. He hates sin. That's why he sent
his son into the world. He's going to destroy the world
because of sin, and yet he has a people whom he loves, so he
sent his son into the world to put away their sin, to make atonement,
to pay for their sin with his own blood and to redeem them
to himself, that they should not come under the wrath and
condemnation of God, which comes upon the inhabitants of the earth. And so Christ came to do that,
to justify us. And we know, according to the
gospel, He was raised. He was raised to sanctify us. To know that we might know that
by that same power, which He raised Christ, that's the same
power that He raised us into. Not this flesh. This flesh isn't
improved in any way, but He's created us anew, being born of
His spiritual seed. So that now we're born of our
Eternal Father, Jesus Christ. We're not born of Adam anymore.
That's not how God sees us. He doesn't deal with us in Adam.
He deals with us in our head, Jesus Christ. And so all the
inheritance that Christ has obtained and earned for Himself, He's
done so for His people as well. So everything we have is in our
head, Jesus Christ. And everything those others have
that are yet in the body of sin, they have in Adam. So whatever
Adam's got coming to him, that's what they'll have coming to them
as well. So, which we know is condemnation and destruction. Alright? So, we know that it
aligns with the Gospel truths. And so, yeah, why would I continue
living in sin if God hates sin? We know that. We know the truth
of that. We have to know the truth of that and understand
that because that's why God's revealing it to us. And then
we understand that It's not me and my strength and my power,
but it's God that worketh in you, and God that worketh in
me, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Because sin,
sin's power over my weak flesh, it's not going to be put down
by my power, and my strength, and my ability, and my will.
not to the perfection that God needs it. So will not come by
the exertions of the flesh. And so we see this, right, in
our flesh. We know that sin persists in
this flesh. We, if we're being honest, we
know that this sin, that this flesh is weak and it's prone
to wander. It does filthy things and it
does horrible things. And as we saw even with Peter,
and so we struggle with it. We war with it, it leads into
captivity, and it would dominate us. It would bring us right back
to what we were before Christ. And until Christ looks upon us
in grace and mercy, there we go off into it. We go off into
that until the Lord calls us back and turns our hearts back
to him again. And so what we see is that our
God is so promised to us that are in Jesus Christ, that we
shall never once and for all be lost to sin. We won't go back
in it so as to be destroyed and lost to sin and its dominion
and reign and power over us. And we seek him for that. We
trust him for that because there are times when we see our wicked
hearts and we think, Lord, have mercy on me. How is it that I'm
here? Wow, how am I, what is it that
I'm doing here? But we're thankful that the Lord
won't let us ever be lost. And that's what Paul says in
2 Thessalonians 5 24, he says, faithful, faithful is he that
calleth thee who also will do it. He'll do it. The Lord, the
Lord who calls you, he's the one that's working this in you,
brethren. So in his time, he's the one
that stirs our heart, He shows us, where are you? He calls us,
we hear His voice and He says, where are you? What are you doing?
Why are you doing this? Have you had enough of this?
And He turns us back to Himself and gives us a heart and a desire
and we cry out to Him, Lord, save me. Here I am doing those
things which I ought not to do. Those things which You saved
me from and have put away in Christ and forgive me of my sins.
He turns us and when we're delivered, when we're turned and when we've
gone through it, we're thankful to Him. We don't go and brag
to our brethren and say, you know what I just put away and
I'm done with today. I just ended it. I just put that
thing away and I took care of it and you'll never see that
again in me. You're right, like we know how good our Lord is,
but we go and we thank the Lord. We thank the Lord and we say,
Lord, thank you and please keep me, keep me from it and let me
not go wandering into that. And so even though our flesh
is crucified, there are some things for which are very painful
to to depart from us, and when the Lord delivers us from it,
though it will crucify the flesh, though it will be painful, and
you cry about it, and it's hard and difficult, yet the Lord always
brings you to see that in Him, we're thankful, because we see
I'm nearer to Him now, or I'm closer to Him, I love Him, I'm
thankful, I see more and more how He does these things, and
what He does and works in me, all right? So even though it's
painful, we're thankful for it, this it's grace that puts away
sin in us right it's grace that puts away that sin in us at the
first and it's grace that puts away sin in us every time all
the way to the very end. It's always going to be grace.
It's not going to be because we've so grown in our flesh and
become so mighty in stalwarts of the faith that now we have
the power to put away sin. We always need the grace and
the mercy of God because we cannot do it for ourselves. The psalmist
says this and he affirms it in Psalm 119, 117. He says, hold
thou me up. Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe. Hold thou me up, Lord, and I
shall be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. We'll respect that, we'll hear
the word of the Lord, we'll want to hear the word of the Lord,
and we'll want to serve the Lord. But we know it's only by His
power holding us up and keeping us, looking to Him and walking
in Him by His Spirit. Alright, and so if God doesn't
keep us, if He doesn't hold us up, we may strive in the power
of Adam, but we're going to see that it's no real lasting power
and that we're nothing in ourselves. And He'll bring us to see that.
We'll feel the infirmity of our flesh and we'll strive against
sin's dominion and we'll keep succumbing to it and falling
and and going down and find that we're not able to work a righteousness
for ourselves. You know, and I was thinking
about Peter as an example of that. I was thinking of Peter
a lot this week. And, you know, Peter said, Lord,
if it's you on that water, bid me to come to you. And so Peter
gets out of the boat, you know, the Lord says come and he gets
out of the boat and he starts walking on the water and I can
just hear him now because this is what I'd be thinking. I am walking on water right now.
I can't believe it. I'm walking on water. And then
he goes, I, I, I, I, I'm doing this. And then he starts sinking
down. And then he began to cry out, Lord, save me. Have mercy
on me. I'm sinking down. Right? He was
looking at himself, and he began to sink. And it was Christ that
raised him up and delivered him again. So yeah, we might think
we do something for a time, but the Lord will will show us and
remind us it's Him, it's His grace that keeps us and we'll
see that. All right, so that's the exhortation. Now let's look at yielding our
members at verse 13. So here now with this understanding
that it's our God who accomplishes this salvation in us for Christ's
sake, for His sake, and we know it's by His power. And so He
says in verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments
or weapons, that word instruments is arms or weapons, don't use
your instruments, don't use these things as weapons of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead and your members as instruments or weapons of
righteousness unto God. And I like that because you could
see how we can use, right, we can use our tongue as a weapon
against another. We can say some pretty hurtful
things to others, and it is like a weapon of unrighteousness.
Or we can use our tongue to be kind to one another, right, and
to say things that edify and build one another up. We can
use it as a weapon for righteousness. And so think of it in that sense. How are you going to use your
members." Well, Paul tells us, yield them to righteousness.
Yield your members to the Lord and to His work. And so this
too, it's still of grace. It's still of grace. It's not
of law. Our working and serving righteousness isn't going to
be by the law, it's going to be by grace. And so we're to
yield and to submit to Christ. Because again, it's about submitting.
We're just a vessel in the hand of either Christ or the hand
of the body of sin. We're just a vessel, and it's
who are we yielding to, who are we submitting to? Are we submitting
to our head, or are we going back to that former head to serve
the lusts of our own flesh? And so we're not to continue
yielding to sin, but to the will of God for us. And so he tells
us this, again, not because there's any power in us to do it, but
so that we know the truth that we know the promise of God because
he's revealing to us this is the will of God we only know
that God hates sin and that God says don't continue in sin because
he tells us he tells us right in his word don't continue in
sin so we know it and again If we hear it in the flesh, we'll
turn back to the law and we'll strive against it, thinking this
is on me to figure out and on me to get right. But when we
hear it by the spirit, we know, Lord, you hate this, help me. I need your grace and your power.
I need your spirit. If I'm gonna walk in your spirit,
I need you to do this in me because I can't do it. But it helps us
first to just even know what his will is, Otherwise, we don't
know. But now we know, so that we hear.
And as we saw with Peter, in his time, when the Lord looks
upon us in grace, he may use providence, or he just may look
upon us in grace and use his word, we'll remember, Lord, I
understand more now. You hate this. You hate my sin,
and you hate what I'm doing there. All right. We aren't saved so that we can
go on sinning. That's not why the Lord has saved
us, clearly. And that's what He's showing
us, not so we can go on sinning. So the power is of Christ, the
will is of Christ, and He works that submission in our hearts
unto Christ, to submit to Him. And so we, like Adam, sometimes
I've really felt there were times where I was like Adam in the
garden, who heard the voice of God in the cool of the garden,
and I ran and hid, and I was afraid." Because there's just
times where you're brought to say, where am I? What am I doing? I'm naked, and here comes the
Lord, and I've got no righteousness, and I've got nothing to cover
me. And I run away. But that's not what we're to
do. Go to the Lord, and confess your sin, and seek Him for mercy,
and to clothe you with the righteousness of Christ. All right, now, Currently
we remain in these bodies of sin, we remain in these bodies
of sin and we see our weakness, but we know that when Christ
shall return we shall be like Him as He is. And I brought this
up a few messages ago, but in 1 John 3, 1 John 3, he says in
verse 2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is." So we know that right here in this flesh we're nothing,
but we know what He says we are by faith. We understand it and
we believe it by faith. And when He returns, then we'll
see Him. These bodies of corruption will
be transformed to incorruption, and we shall know Him then. And
he says in verse three, every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself even as he is pure. So first, that purifying
is what? It's believing that we are justified. We have faith by the work and
power of God in us. We believe and know this is my
purification. It's Christ. It's His blood.
I'm pure in Him. This is how I'm saved. It's by
Christ. Not by my works of righteousness
under the law, but by His faithful, kind, loving work for me to put
away my sin once and for all. forever. And then second, we
do seek to yield our members as instruments or weapons of
righteousness rather than just continuing on carelessly doing
those things that we used to do for which we know Christ came
to put away those sins, to put them away once and for all forever
and that he rose again to sacrifice. So, as an example, I was just
looking at these various verses and the apostles, they acknowledge
the old man of sin. They acknowledge it. They're
not trying to say you're perfect now in your flesh, that your
flesh now has no sin and there's no weakness and there's no infirmity
in your flesh. They tell us that the flesh is
weak and infirmed and full of sin. And so they confess, they
use the word lusts, they're running through us. The lusts are running
in these flesh. We have things that we like,
right? You might like this thing, I
might like that thing, but they're all lusts and they're things
that are done in the body of sin there. And so when they're
speaking of that, if you notice, they don't turn us to the law,
but they turn us to the head, which is Christ. They always
point us to Christ and have us look to Him. It's not about what
we're doing in the flesh and under the law, it's that we're
walking by faith in our Savior. And so Paul wrote this a lot. In Romans 13, if you want to
follow along, He says in Romans 13 verse 14, and I'll just go
through them in order of the books to make it easier to turn
there. Romans 13, 14. He says, but put
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof. That tells us that we have this
body of flesh and it's got its lusts, but Don't make provisions
for it. Don't keep entertaining those
things that the flesh lusts and looks for and wants. Look over
at 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. Here he was writing about the
Jews back when they were coming out of Egypt. And he says, 10
verse 6, Now these things were our examples
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as
they also lusted." Don't pursue those things because they perished
in the way of lusting after those things. Look at Galatians 5.16. Galatians 5.16, he says, this
I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Again, if you're walking in the
spirit then you're not walking in the flesh. You're looking
to Christ. You're walking, believing and
trusting Christ. And the lusts will rise up, but
as you're unable to look to Christ, those lusts will have no effect
or power. And when you do sin, because
we still do, we confess, Lord, there I go again. Save me. Forgive
me, Lord. Wash me with your blood. And
then Galatians 5, 24, 25. and they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. All right, turn
over to Ephesians 4.24. Ephesians 4, I'm sorry, Ephesians 4.22. that ye put off concerning the
former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts." All right, so we see this word, right?
They're one, acknowledging that there are lusts in this flesh,
that the flesh is still what it is. It hasn't improved or
gotten better. It's still full of lusts, and
that our righteousness is Christ. We're in his body, we're under
his dominion now. So the question then, likely,
I ask it is, well, how? How do I do this? How is it that
I'm gonna walk in the Spirit when I have no power or ability
of myself to do that? How can I deny these lusts in
me? Look over at Titus 2. Titus 2, and Titus 2 verse 11. We'll look
at verses 11 through 13. So Paul says here, Titus 2.11,
for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men. The grace of God, he brings it
for you to see it, for you to know his grace and what he's
accomplished in Christ. Look at verse 12, teaching us.
teaching us. So that's how we're going to
know these things. The Spirit teaches us. He reveals
this to us in the gospel that denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world, looking for that blessed hope. and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." Which
is what Paul said. Every man that hath this hope
purifies himself. We're looking for trusting that
Christ is returning and that we're not trying to earn or labor
or work for salvation. We're just seeking to live unto
Him while we wait for His return. We're trusting because we believe
that we are justified and that He's the one that sanctifies
us. So that by His Spirit, He's teaching us. And it's not that
we're doing this by our flesh, but that's why the Gospel is
so wonderful to hear the Gospel, because we're feeding upon Christ. And we're being strengthened
in the new man to keep looking to Him. And we hear and know
the promise of God who says, I've raised you in Christ. I've
given you my Spirit. I've given you my spirit that
you should walk in him and it's by his grace and power that we
do walk in him and continue to walk in him and when we see our
sin and when it rears its head and when we do those things that
we shouldn't do because we back to Christ and seek His forgiveness
and seek to walk in Him going forward, right? So the purification
isn't of our flesh. It's not of our flesh. It's not
something that we can do of ourselves, right? We're dependent on the
Spirit teaching it to us. Even though, I mean there's times
when I've read the Word and was dead and cold and it was blessed
in my heart. And there's times where I was
so excited to read it and I sat down and read it and it was like
a brick. I got nothing out of it. I read it three, four times
and still didn't get anything out of it. So it's all the grace
of God. We can't control it, but we know
His will, so we're turned to seek Him for it and to see that
worked in us by His glory and power. So this old man is never
going to be willing. This old man isn't going to be
willing to submit to the Spirit. It's not. It's always going to
fight against us. We're always going to have a good excuse in
the flesh why we suddenly, what we said we were going to do.
How many times have you been driving home from work and said,
when I get home, I'm going to open up my Bible and I'm going
to jot these things down and take a little time and study.
You get home, and it's the furthest thing from your mind. And even
if you do think of it, you're like, oh, but then this just
happened, so I can't do that now. So every endeavor that we
usually set our minds to comes to nothing. But then there are
times when, by His grace, we see it. And so we seek Him for
those things, because we know it's of Him, right? We need Him
every hour. Paul's just putting our mind
to understand that this is the promise of God for us in Christ
Jesus. All right, let's look at the
last one, hearing the promise. All right, so look back in our
text now in Romans 6, 14. Romans 6, 14. And the best thing that we can
see in this, the best thing that we can get out of this is that
we don't hear this as a precept, right? Because there's many that
hear this and think, this is a law and a commandment for me
to do. But with the Spirit, you hear
that this is actually a promise. So he says in Romans 6, 14, for,
he's telling us, this is the promise of God, for sin shall
not have dominion over you, For ye are not under the law, but
under grace. And so he's telling us, set your
hearts and your minds on this promise. Know that. That this
is what the Lord has done for us. Set your heart and your mind
on these things, knowing that He's promised us. Sin's not going
to have dominion over you. You're not going to be lost forever
to sin. You're not going to have your
part and inheritance with the body of sin. Your inheritance
is with Christ. Believe Him. Trust Him for that. Trust Him. Just as you trust
Him that He's justified you, trust Him that He's the one that
sanctifies you and keeps you and will keep you walking before
Him, loving Him and serving Him. over you and you're no longer
in that kingdom under its rule and dominion. You're in the kingdom
of Christ under his rule and under his power. And so the things
of this world, it's less, they're all passing away. So don't, don't,
don't look for those things and don't seek out those things because
they're passing away. But instead, Paul tells us, set
your heart and your mind on the things of Christ. Turn over to
Colossians 3, Colossians 3, 1. I'll just look at two more passages. Colossians 3, 1. He says, if
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. All right, so he's telling
us, brethren, Don't keep setting your heart
on this world and feeding and catering to the lust of the flesh.
Set your heart and mind on Christ who saved you. That's what he's
saying. Look to him and trust him because
your life is hid with God and Christ. Alright, so turn over
to Philippians 4 now. Philippians 4, 8 and 9. And here Paul is telling us,
rather than feeding those things that provoke the flesh, and feeding
those things and seeking after those things that just keep provoking,
stirring up that lust from the flesh, rather than doing those
things, he says in Philippians 4.8, finally brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things. And those things
which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in
me do, and the God of peace shall be with you." You know, true
holiness is not in our keeping the law. That's not where it
is. That's not going to produce love
in the heart. That produces a hardness and an exacting kind of attitude
both with yourself and especially with others, with your brethren
when you start looking to the law. But you look to Christ and
you're reminded of how tender He is and how gracious He is.
That's how you'll be with your brethren. When you see the tenderness
of your Savior, that's how you'll be because you'll see that. You'll
see His work of grace in your heart and you'll You'll want
to do that for others, right? And if you don't, you'll be sad
and you'll say, forgive me for being so hard with you, brother.
I'm a sinner too. And so the Lord does that. And
it's like what we were talking about in between services where
it was John, right? John who leaned upon the breast
of Christ. And that's what I see here in
Philippians 4.8. He's saying, lean upon your Savior,
lean upon Christ. and look to Him and trust Him,
just as you trust Him that He's justified you, even though you
don't see it, but you believe Him, you believe Him. Same thing
with sanctification. Though you see in yourself all
manner of folly and weakness and inconsistencies and inaccuracies,
to put it lightly, sin, even though we see things that ought
not to be, Keep looking to Christ. Keep leaning on his breast. Seek
to lean upon him and to know him. And he works all that in
you. Just as he's given you faith,
he's the one that works virtue and godliness and patience and
experience and brotherly kindness and brotherly love. He's the
one that works it in you. Trust him. That's what I'm really
trying to get at is that's the promise of God to you. It's not
about whipping you and saying you need to improve. It's about
trust the Lord to do this. Trust Him and seek Him for it
and He'll do it. And He'll do it in you, alright?
So I pray that the Lord puts that in our hearts and helps
us to hear by faith and hear for what it is, the promise of
God for us in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
We confess our sin to you. Lord, we confess that in ourselves,
Lord, we are nothing. We see in this flesh, we acknowledge,
Lord, that there are lusts and passions and things that remain
in us, in this old man of flesh, remnants of that body of sin,
which you've destroyed. Lord, you've promised that we
are justified in Christ. that we're freed from sin, justified
because of Jesus Christ and what He's done. Lord, we ask that
you would indeed help us to hear the promise, to receive it by
faith, and that you would indeed seal us with your Holy Spirit,
that we might know these things and grow in the grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That we would be
a people that loves one another and that use our members as instruments
or weapons for righteousness. That we would edify one another
and build one another up. Lord, though we ourselves in
this flesh are not perfect, Lord, but we know that Christ is perfect.
And we do pray that you would use us in your grace to be a
help and to serve one another, and to be kind and generous and
loving and patient with one another. Lord, it's in Christ's name that
we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 512, Saved by Grace, 512. The silver gourd will break,
and I no more, as now, shall sing. But, O, the joy when I
shall wake, within the palace of the King. And I shall see
Him face to face and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face
and tell the story saved by grace. Someday my earthly house will
fall, I cannot tell how soon't will be, But this I know, my
all in all, Has now a place in heaven for me. And I shall see
Him face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace. Some day, when fades the golden
sun Beneath the rosy-tinted west, My blessed Lord will say, Well
done, and I shall enter in to rest. And I shall see Him face
to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him
face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. Day till then I'll watch and
wait My lamp all trimmed and burning bright That when my Savior
opens gate My soul to Him may take its flight Then I shall
see Him face to face And tell the story saved by grace Then
I shall see and face to face, and tell the story saved by grace.