We'll begin the message, we'll
go to God in prayer and ask for His grace upon us. Let me sing
that hymn. Again, made aware that unless
the Lord break this bread to you, unless He open it, we are
incapable of making it effectual to our hearts. You can make it
effectual to your understanding, you can acknowledge and check
off the things that you know I don't know, the more I grow,
the more I grow in understanding of this, the more humbling it
is. The gospel doesn't exalt me. It doesn't exalt me. Every time I come to it, I'm
abased. The glorious thing about it is
every time I'm abased, He's exalted. He's magnified. He's honored. He's glorified. And I pray that He will break this
bread, His bread, to you. This morning I ask for God's
spirit upon us. Remember those who are sick.
Continue pray for Eric. I believe went home Saturday
or he was headed that way. So pray for Eric and Angela.
I think Angela is not feeling well, so pray for her. Ask God's strength upon them.
Joanne is not feeling well. Pray for her. Ask your prayers to me that God
give me the liberty and his spirit to preach to you the gospel this
morning. Ask for God's grace upon those churches without pastors. Remember them. Don't neglect
to forget them. And pray that God would send
them pastors after his own heart. Any other requests need to be
mentioned? Kathy, I'm glad to see you. Maybe you're not looking
at me, but that's all right. Just close your eyes. But thankful
or blessed at surgery, the thing went well, they think. It's gonna
work out eventually, so okay. I'll pray for Kathy and others
that have needs. Anybody else I'm missing? Let's go to God in prayer. Most holy Father, blessed and glorious God of all
things, all creation. I'm so thankful that you have
purposed to be our Father, that you chose us in mercy and grace,
that you redeemed us by the precious blood of thy Son, that you have
called us by the power of your Spirit, and we are here today
only because you have moved us, you have brought us to this place. And I am thankful that you have
promised that wherever two or three are gathered in your name,
that you are in our midst, that you are even walking among us
this morning. I do ask you this day that you
would reach out and be merciful to us. I beg you to touch every heart. I beg you, Father, to reveal
to us our true nature. But please don't leave us there.
Please direct us to Christ. Show us again the glories and
the goodness of our Savior. Show us His power, His dominion,
His majesty, His glory, His might to deliver us from the bondage
of sin. I beg you to refresh the hearts
and minds of your people as they are weighed down by the cares
of life and by the flesh of this mortal frame. We are weighed down with sickness
and trials and troubles and afflictions and even the old man of sin constantly
weighing us down to the earth. Be merciful to give us a glimpse
of thy glorious face. Help us to reckon ourselves to
be indeed dead to sin through Christ and alive unto thee. Give us lively hearts of worship
this morning. I beg you to forgive us our sins.
and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. Those we have mentioned in sickness,
deliver them by mercy. Those churches without pastors,
fill their pulpits with men after your own heart. And Father, give us this day
the bread of life, Jesus Christ, I pray that you would cleanse
us and lead us in every part. I beg you, in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen. If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. If I had a title for this, it'd
be God Be Thanked. God Be Thanked. Let's begin our reading in verse
14. The scripture says, For sin shall
not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law,
but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants you are to
whom you obey? Whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness? 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 unto you. Being
then made free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness."
Now, last time we saw this promise of God in verse 14. immutable promise, unchangeable
promise to you who are justified by faith. Listen, he says this,
sin shall not have dominion over you. We recognize it did. It did have dominion. It did
have power over us. We were born in it. It rained
out of every portion of our body. Yet God says this to you, sin
shall not have dominion over you. We saw that this was the
surety of grace. This is because of grace. This is all because of grace.
That sin will not have dominion over you. Now we know this as believers,
still sin remains in us because of the old man of sin. But now,
something has happened. Something glorious has taken
place. Now, by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, He has
created in us who believe a new nature. a new heart, and He has put down the old reign
of sin. Sin reigned unto death, but through
grace, through grace, by grace, Christ now reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. And God is promised by this that
sin shall never reign over us again. We will never be brought
back into such bondage so as to lose our life. He promises never to bring us
again to death. Over in Revelation 20 in verse
6, he that hath part in the first resurrection. He said, blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Well,
he told me the new birth. That's the first resurrection, isn't
it? And you hath he quickened who were dead. That's the first
resurrection. And what does he say about us?
We are blessed and holy. That's glorious. Blessed and
holy is to everyone who is born again of the Spirit of God. And
over them the second death shall have no power. The second death,
eternal death, shall have no power over them. So then, in
each of us, now, we confess as Solomon said, we are a people
of two armies. We are a people of two natures
warring within ourselves. The flesh lusting against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
one to another, so that you cannot do what you would. But we who are in Christ have
this promise of victory. We have this promise of victory.
What should this encourage us to do? Listen, let not sin reign
therefore in your mortal bodies. If you were sent to a battle,
if you were sent out to do warfare, And someone come along and say,
you know what? I've seen the end of this, and you're going
to win. Would that not encourage you
to fight? Of course it would encourage you to fight. What
encourages us to fight against the old nature? This is the encouragement. It will not have dominion over
me. It will not win. Though I fail,
though I miserably fail, though I constantly fail. The promise
of grace is, it will not reign. It will not reign over you. It shall not have dominion over
you. Paul says in another place, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. So what is the hope of this?
What is the evidence of this? Look back at your text. He said,
for sin shall not have dominion over you. Here's the cause. You
are not under the law, but under grace. Now we've been through
this. The law has a purpose, doesn't
it? And that is only to expose sin. That has its part. The law can only tell me I'm
guilty. That's all it can do. It can't
help me with my guilt. It can't save me from my guilt.
It can only expose my guilt. But in the light of the gospel,
we see this by grace, by the grace of God through the Lord
Jesus Christ, our sins have been removed. Our sins have been removed. They have been paid. Obedience
to the law has already been rendered. Justice of the law has been satisfied. That's what the gospel tells
me. The law tells me I'm guilty. The gospel says Christ has already
honored the law that you could never honor. He's already obtained
righteousness. He's already, by His blood, satisfied
the law's justice against you. And therefore, what can the law
say to us who are under grace? If he's already done that, if
he's already obtained our righteousness and obtained our redemption,
what then can the law say? I read this just this morning again,
a guy was asking another pastor a long time ago, what does it
mean to be dead to sin? He said, okay, remember your
brother, he died, Go out to his grave and then tell him how horrible
he is." And he comes back and he said,
what'd he say? He said, well he didn't say anything, he's
dead. He said, now why don't you go back and tell him how
good he is, how wonderful he is. He went back, told him how
great and how wonderful he is and he comes back to the preacher
and he says, what'd he say? He didn't say anything, he's
dead. He said, now you understand what it is to be dead to sin.
No amount of condemnation or no amount of glorification is
going to have any effect. It doesn't have any effect. Nothing
that is done has any effect on us. The law can condemn us or
the law can try to glorify. It can't say anything to a person
that's dead. It has no effect. Why? The effect has already been
rendered. Christ has already satisfied
the law for me. Christ has already justified
me before God. What then can the law say to
someone who is dead? Nothing. It has nothing to say. It can't say. It can't affect
that. It can't do anything. I remember they hated Wycliffe
so much. Now listen, this is what the
men hated him. He translated the Bible into English, what
he did. That was his big crime. He translated the scriptures
so the common person could read the Bible. You know, after he
had died, after he died, buried him, they hated him so much they
dug up his bones and burned him and threw him in the sea. What
effect did that have on him? You see what it is to be dead
to sin? None of this has an effect on anyone who is dead to sin.
Why? Because you are not under the
law anymore. The law is satisfied with you. You are under grace. You are under grace. Just like
Whitefield. He was in heaven. What in the
world could that do to touch him? You know, just as much as
he was literally in heaven, so are we in Christ. You know what
that hymn we sing often? It says, More happy, but not
more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. Now they're a lot
more happy than we are, but they're not more secure. Why? We're already
dead to see it, but alive unto God. And it was by the grace
of God. It was by the grace of God. Consider
you that are justified, you were chosen by grace. Where were you when you were
chosen? You were in the purpose and mind of God chosen to be
saved. And it was by grace that God
sent His Son into the world to free us from sin. It was by the
grace of the power of the Spirit that we were given life. Well, now that you're given life,
who's going to keep you? Who's going to maintain you in
this state of grace? You? No. He swears that He is going to
keep me. The same way He chose me, the
same way He redeemed me, the same way He called me is the
exact same way He keeps me. And that is by grace. That's it. By the grace of His
own sovereign will. And so then the question comes
up in verse 14. And verse 15, what then? What
are you going to say to that? Well here in comes the objection
of the legalist again. Now we answered this same question
in a different way at the very beginning. But he's going to
ask it again. Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? This is always the question of
the legalists. Those that desire to be both
under grace and under law. They say this, well salvation
is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace.
That you are no longer under the law in any measure. You're going to have a big problem
because then men are just going to sin, sin, sin and say grace,
grace, grace. These who ask this question,
they all believe that grace has a part. Every false religion,
ask them. They'll say, are you saved by
grace? Well, of course I am. They always believe grace has
a part in their salvation. They believe that salvation begins
by grace, but that somehow We ourselves, by obedience to the
law, must finish the race, finish our salvation. They say, well, salvation is
by the free grace of God alone with no human merit, and it is. That's what I'm telling you.
I'm telling you, salvation is by grace without any merit whatsoever. They say, well, if you preach
salvation, it has no incentives. This is the religion of the world
to incentivize it, isn't it? Well, you know, if you do this,
then you will get more rewards in heaven. No. Salvation has no incentive
for us to live or serve God. In other words, if I serve God,
I'm not going to be rewarded with more. And what men will say then, according
to them, as they say, let us sin, since we're not under the
law anymore, then we can sin as we please. What do we say? You that are saved by grace,
what in the world do you say something like that? The very thing that my Lord died
to deliver me from, how then shall I ever continue to live
in that? We say, God forbid. I want you to understand this.
Grace teaches me I'm free from the law. But grace does not teach lawlessness. Grace never teaches us to excuse
sin, either in others or especially in ourselves. never teaches us
that. The grace of God teaches us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. That's what grace
teaches me. Grace teaches me that. Those who are under the law,
those who are under grace, I'm sorry, are free from the law
of Moses. Well, what's the principle of
the Law of Moses? Obey and live. That's the Law of Moses. Disobey
and die. That's the Law of Moses. There's
no middle ground here. There's no middle ground to where
you can say, well, I partially obeyed and I partially disobeyed.
To partially obey is to disobey. The law says do this and live. Don't do this and die. You see, the law of ordinances
and commandments then was against us, wasn't it? The law is against
us in that we disobeyed. We all sinned. We have all failed
in every part to obey. But now, by grace, the law has
been established. That's what we're trying to say.
The law, we're not destroying the law. We're establishing it. We're doing something that the
legalist could never do himself. They say they want to honor the
law, but they only seem to want to demote it. They say, well,
the law is not really a commandment to life and death. It's more
like a rule. I mean, you hear them all the
time. Ten rules for living. That's not what the Word of God
says. There are ten commandments. Actually, there are 613 commandments. And in order to be under the
law in one commandment, you've got to be under the law in all
612 others. You can't pick and choose. You
don't get to pick and choose which part of the law you want
to honor and which part of you say is not valid. You don't get
to choose. And so what do people who desire
to be under the law do is that they demote the law and they
dishonor the law in all their sincerity to honor it. Because
they've never honored it. But we who are under grace, I
want you to know this, we have really obeyed that law. In Jesus Christ, we have obeyed
the law. What did you think he was doing
the 33 years he lived on this earth? Why did he have to stay
so long? What was he doing? He was earning
our righteousness is what he was doing. meriting our righteousness
as a man in our place. That's what he was doing. And
when he died, we died in him. We died in him. And so grace teaches us that
we have obeyed the law in Jesus Christ. And now that we are saved
by grace, we are set free from the law of Moses and bound to
another law. What law is that? It is the law
of faith. The law of faith. Go to Galatians,
look at Galatians chapter 3. What the apostle tells us in
verse 11, he said, But no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God as evident, for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. What is he saying? He's saying this, that we're
under faith, not under the law of Moses. The just are going
to live. They're going to live by a certain
law, and that law is faith. The just shall live by faith. That's our rule. That's our commandment, is to
live by faith. Look at Romans chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3 and verse 27. He said, where's then boasting?
You know what grace does? Grace excludes all boasting.
You don't get to brag on anything you've done or anything you are.
Nothing. You get nothing to brag about yourself. Excludes it. It's excluded by what law? Works? No, law does not exclude boasting. Law only seems to promote it. If I do something you don't,
then I have somewhat to brag over you. It's not by works. How is it
excluded? By the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. The law
of faith is the law of grace. This is the law we live under.
We're not under the law of Moses. We are under the law of grace.
And as James calls it, he says, we live in the perfect law of
liberty. That's how he describes the law
of faith. It's a law not of bondage, but
of liberty. Of liberty. He said, we who are
in the perfect law of liberty continueth therein, not being
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man shall be
blessed in his deeds. We that are saved by grace, are
you forgetful of that? Listen, if we ever become forgetful
of grace, what are we going to do? We're going to try to find
something in ourselves. But we're not a forgetful hearer
of grace. We're constantly reminded that in myself dwelleth no good
thing. I'm constantly reminded that,
aren't you? That's grace. Who reminds you of that? God
does. So that you what? Appeal to God
for grace. You appeal to God for mercy. And this is constant in the believer's
life. We are under the law of grace,
under its rule. So the believer in Christ is
not a forgetful hearer, but we are made more and more aware
of the depths of our depravity and more and more aware of God's
grace in our salvation. Isaiah said, He said, look unto
the rock from which you were hewed. Who's that? That's Christ,
isn't it? He's the rock. And the pit from
which you were digged. You need to remember both of
these things. Isn't this our constant view? Always remembering
the pit from which we were digged. But praise God by grace, we remember
that we were united to Christ, we were in union with Christ.
By grace. And I know this, the more we
grow in grace, the more we despise ourselves. In this part of the covenant
of grace, God says in Ezekiel 36, I believe it is, you shall
loathe yourselves. If you're under grace, I know
this, you loathe the man that you are by nature. But in the same moment, we glorify
Christ, we magnify Christ, because it's only by His grace that I
am saved. Have you learned grace in such
a way as to excuse sin. Is that how you've learned grace?
If you've learned grace that way, if you use grace as a means
to excuse your sin, you've not learned grace. You don't know
anything about grace. Grace never excuses our sins. Grace always brings us to the
feet of Jesus Christ. In verse 16, look at what it
says to those who are under grace. He said, No you not, that to
whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are,
to whom you obey. Isn't that reasonable? If you
obey this guy, you know who you belong to. You belong to the
guy you obey. Whether of sin unto death, or
of obedience unto righteousness. Don't you know that? Let me ask you this question.
Can the believer use his liberty as an occasion to sin? Has a
believer ever done that? Yeah. Yeah. Because the apostle
says this, He exhorts those people in Galatia to do that. Remember,
the Galatian church was divided. You had a group of people that
went off believing a heresy. They were putting themselves
back under the law. And you had another group in
this church who were themselves very steadfast. And so Paul rebukes the ones
that went off into their sin, and he corrects their doctrine,
and he tells them, we're not saved by the law in any measure,
you're under the grace of God by faith in Christ. And you see
these people with their heads down, and they're sorrowing,
and they've repented, they've turned, and you've got this other
group of people over here who, they've always believed right.
What's the temptation of these over here? is to look down on
those who failed. You see, they would use their
steadfastness as an occasion to say, aha, I told you so. Done
that? And yet there are other believers
who say, well, you know, God's going to forgive me, and they
just give in to their sins. So they use their liberty. You
can use it on both sides. But true believers are never
allowed to remain there. That's the deal. When those people
in Galatia sinned and they went after the law, you know this,
if they really belonged to God, there was no doubt that it was
coming back. Why? Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Doesn't mean you're not going
to fall in it, but I know this, it will not reign over you. God
will always draw His people back to Himself. God will never allow
sin to have dominion, but he will restore his people. I like this. In Proverbs, it
says this. Listen to what Solomon said in
Proverbs 24, 16. He said, a just man. Now who's
that? That's someone who believes,
right? A man who is justified. He said, a just man falleth seven
times and riseth up again. And he's not saying a just man
only sins seven times. Seven is the number of perfection.
A just man recognizes this, that his fall in Adam was perfect. Absolute. Absolute. But here's God's promise to those
who have fallen. They will rise. Isn't that true
of you? You were fallen in Adam and yet
now by grace you have been saved and you have been risen. But
yet how many times a day you still fall? One thing about a justified man
is this, he's always going to get up. He's always going to get up. The wicked, he said, shall fall
into mischief." Period. That's it. They don't get up. I've seen many a believer fall
into grievous and hurtful sins, and yet I know this, God always
restores His people. I may not see it. They may go
away and I may never see them again. I know this, if they belong
to Christ, He'll restore them. He don't need me to see it. He
don't need me to know about it. I've had times where the Lord
has shown me that. I've seen a man fall, and I've
seen him fall so far away, and you know what? Several years
later, here he comes, head tucked between his legs, tail tucked
between his legs, he just bowed down. Why? Because God said this,
sin shall not have dominion over him. Believers do fall. But every believer that falls,
God swears this, they'll find forgiveness. Isn't that glorious? To the self-righteous, that just
don't seem fair. I don't want fair. I need mercy. I need grace. I need forgiveness. The very
definition of mercy means this, I don't deserve it. If I deserve
it, it's not mercy. But I want mercy! You know what
God's people always find? Mercy. If you're under grace,
listen, you'll always find mercy. You'll always find mercy. Even
because of God's grace. And what is it about sin? I don't
want it. Do you want it? I don't desire to be found in
it anymore. This is the constant experience
of everyone who is under the grace of God. We see in, we fall, and yet because of the
grace of God we are not cast out. Ever. Ever. It is by the grace of God we
seek to serve Christ, to honor Christ. This is the heart of the believer,
to serve Him, to obey Him, to love Him. By what motivates this
love? What is it that stirs you to
such service? Is it law or grace? Does law move you to serve? It may make me feel guilty, which
it'd be right, but it's not gonna move me to serve God. Therefore,
Paul then gives thanks to the one who does all this. Look what it is. He said, but
God be thanked, listen, that you were the servants of sin. You were the servants of sin.
Wait a second. Man, I'm like Paul. When I would
do good, evil is present with me. What I want to do, and I know
something is good, that's the thing I don't do. The thing that
I do is a thing I don't want to do. What do you mean? How is it that
I am no longer a servant of sin? Here's the reason. You have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Give thanks unto God. You that
are under grace, we are to give thanks to God because this is
a true statement. We were the servants of sin. If there's anyone to be thanked,
it's God for that. You can't thank yourself. God gets all the glory for it.
Those that have been delivered from the bondage of sin are delivered
by His grace. Now the religious man, the self-righteous
man, those who profess to be saved by grace and law, they often begin their prayers
with thanks to God. The religious man always thanks
God. What does he thank God for? I think of the Pharisee. The
Lord said that there was a Pharisee and he stood in the midst of
the temple and he prayed thus, listen, with himself. He was
talking to himself. He wasn't talking to God. God
wasn't paying him no mind. He was praying to himself. What
did he say? I thank thee, O God. See, he thanked God. What for? I thank thee, O God, that I am
not a sinner like that fellow over there. That's what religious
men will do. They point at a man, they find
a man lesser than themselves, they say, I thank God I'm not
like that sinner, like that drunkard. I don't drink. Thank God. I'm just better. I thank thee that I'm not a thief.
or an adulterer, or a fornicator. I thank God that I'm not like
that sinner over there. Why do they say such things?
Even because they suppose themselves to be able, by their obedience,
by not being those things, somehow that they earn favor with God. Somehow they're They're a step
on the ladder above someone else because they didn't do this or
do that. I suppose they can merit God's
favor by their obedience but the heart of one who is freed
from sin, you remember who he is? He's the publican. Pharisees stood in the midst
boasting of his ability to keep himself from sin. But there was
a man in the corner. There was a man that would not
even lift up his head. He was not worthy to lift up
his head. He wouldn't even look to the
sky where God is. And he said this, Lord, be merciful
to me. I like these two words. The sinner. Not a sinner among many. The sinner. That word merciful means propitious. It means you need to offer a
sacrifice for me. Lord, offer a sacrifice for me. The sinner. This is the heart of one who
thanks God. You know, that man, Jesus said,
that man over in the corner went to his house justified, rather
than the one stood praying with himself. When we are now justified by
faith in Christ, it is because we are given a new heart, a new
nature. See that this was by the grace
of God that I had no part in this myself, for the work of
grace The work of grace is of God. Whereas I was once bound to sin
and death and only served it, now I am free to walk in newness
of life. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Look at verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Listen to this. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't you know that?
Isn't that true? Be not deceived. I want you to
not be deceived about this. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor homosexuals or feminists, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God." You understand that? To inherit the kingdom of God,
you must be as holy as God. Now, we know this. Notice what Paul said, "...and
such were some of you. Now there is no doubt that many
of those people in the church of Corinth outwardly did every
one of those things. They were sinners. And he says this, such were some
of you. And I know this, when they believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, I know this, their life changed. I know
this. I know that those that were all
in for these sins have now, by the grace of God, they struggle
with those things, they despise those things. Why is it now that
you that believe despise your sin? Why is it now that you seek
to serve God? Listen, because you were, such
were some of you. What made the difference? But
you started to get better. Is that what it says? What's the difference? Why are they no longer these
things? But you are washed. But you are sanctified. But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Just what
I've been telling you. Just like I told you, you died
in Christ. You were washed in Christ. You were washed by His blood. You were made holy by His blood. You were justified by His blood
and now by the power of the Holy Spirit. He has taken those things
and He has put them in us with a new heart, a new nature. See, I'm no longer going to bear
the guilt of my sin and the shame of my sin because I've been washed. Not by myself. I didn't do it.
He washed me. I've been sanctified. I didn't
sanctify myself. He sanctified me. I didn't justify
myself. He justified me. And this was
by the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
what? God be thanked. God, be thanked that I was washed.
God, be thanked that I was sanctified. God, be thanked that I was justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of the
Holy Spirit. It is the work of God that has
set us free and given us a heart of obedience. Look what he says
back in your text. Look why you are no longer servants
of sin. You have obeyed. What did you
obey? The law? No. Look what he says. You have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
unto you. Religion tells men this. He has a problem. Every
religion knows that there's a problem, right? They can see it. And they
say, well, here's the problem. Here's why men won't come to
Christ. It's their environment. So what do they do? They change
the church to be this big cathedral beautiful structure or they put
it in modern, look like a movie theater, look like a rock concert. You just got to get them excited.
You got to change their environment. Then they'll believe. Well, you just need to change
the people you hang out with. You need to change Maybe you
need to marry a new person or get rid of your husband. Maybe
you just need a change of your family. I remember Jack Shanks,
a pastor a long time ago, he used to be a principal at this
school. And this lady came up here. She was always in trouble. And
he said, you know, Mr. Shanks, I know the problem. He said, my kid, my kid is just
hanging out with the wrong crowd. And Jack looked across the desk
and he said, ma'am, your kid is the wrong crowd. We don't need a change of environment.
The problem is us. People say you just need to change
religions, the problem. You just need to get people into
the church. Your government's a problem,
that's a big one, isn't it? The government, if we could just
change this government, I know this, then everything would just
be well and men would swarm in and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we can just get them to stop
doing this, if we can just get them to stop, just stop fornicating,
stop doing drugs, stop doing this, start doing this, then,
then they'll believe. They spend a lot of money on
that, don't they? Spend a lot of time on that. You know why
they fail? They fail because they miss where
the problem is. The problem is the heart. Our Lord told us that. He said
this, out of the heart perceive evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetous, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. They all come from within a man
and then defile him without. I like this. Make the tree good
and the fruit will be good. Isn't that just so simple? You
got a tree right there, and from the very core of its roots, it
is bad. What are you going to get? You're
going to get bad fruit. Got a good tree, well, well,
well-nurtured tree. What is it going to do? It's
going to give you good fruit. So what do you need? You need a
new heart. How can you give yourself a new
heart? You can't. God has to give you a new heart. And when he gives you a new heart,
this is the evidence of it. You will obey that form of doctrine
which you receive. What is that form of doctrine?
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will receive it. You will believe it. That is
the evidence of the new heart. What's this obedience about?
Listen to this very carefully. Here's what God commands. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There's the command. Have you obeyed the command?
Well, that is out of the heart. And who is to be thanked for
a new heart? God. God. We don't need a new environment. We don't need a new government.
We don't need a new family. We don't need new friends. What
we need is a new heart. And when God gives us the heart,
the evidence of that new heart is faith in Christ. and faith
always gives thanks to God. Because we were enslaved to sin,
but now we are justified, we are sanctified, we are washed. Therefore, we were the servants
of sin, but now by the grace of God, we have obeyed his gospel in
full. Do you believe? Do you believe? that form of doctrine, which
is the gospel, then what is the heart of one who believes? Listen
to me carefully. God be thanked. God be thanked. And that doctrine
exposed my sin. It showed me that salvation was
completely of the Lord. I was chosen by grace. I was redeemed by grace. I was called by grace. I believed by grace. And I know this, if I am to endure
to the end, it must be by grace. It must be by grace. The Apostle Peter said that,
who are kept by the power of God. If I'm going to finish my course
in faith, it will be by the power of God. It will be by the power
of God. So what shall the sinner do? I say believe. on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. What about election? Does election
bar anyone from faith? Does election hinder anyone from
believing? No. In fact, without election,
no one would believe at all. But because there is an election
under grace, I know this, that God has a remnant, and they shall
believe, every one of them. I'm going to give you an illustration
in closing. over in 2 Kings, chapter 7. You
can read it later. But there were some lepers. The Assyrian army had surrounded
Jerusalem. And now, there was no way for
them to get food in. They were starving the people
in the city to death. And there were some lepers on
the outside of the city, and they also were starving to death. And they said this among themselves.
They said, if we go into the city, they'll kill us. The law demanded that they be
cast out. The law demanded that they enter
not in the city. But even if they were allowed
in the city, guess what? They were starving in there too. And they said to themselves,
if we stand here and do nothing, we'll starve to death. Now. We can go out there to the
Assyrian army, who are our enemies, maybe, peradventure is the word,
peradventure they may give us some food. You know what happened? They
went out to the very edge of the Assyrian army. They tried
to find the least guarded place they could find. You know, that's
what I'd do. I'd find the least guarded place. There were just
one or two guards. And I'd come in begging, you
know. And they came to that post and
there was nobody there. Gone. And they walked into the
camp and there was one tent, the first tent they came to,
they went right into that tent. And there was food! And they
started eating and eating and eating. I see their bellies just
extending out as they were eating. And then they had all these robes
and jewels. They had left all their gold
and silver. These lepers, they're clothed
in all this purple linen with all these rings on their fingers
and bellies full of food. And they're sitting there and
they said, Oh man, day one, what a great day. And then the next
day they go to the next tent. What they do is, first of all,
they take that gold treasure and they go bury it, just in
case it was a fluke, just in case they're going to come back.
We might have to bury that. So they go to that second tent
and they do the same thing to the second tent. And by this
time, their conscience is getting to them and says, man, all those
people in that city are starving to death and we're out here and
there's more food than we could possibly eat, more jewels than
we could possibly bury. And they go back and they tell
the porter, they said, hey, you need to tell the king, there's
food out here. There's food! There's riches! The Assyrian army has fled and
they've left all of their stuff. All you gotta do is come out
and get it. There was one guy that was the king. Scripture
says it wasn't the king, it was a man who the king leaned on.
Obviously the king was crippled and he had to lean on a man.
And so this man was obviously the king's counselor as well.
And so this lord, he says, Well, that's just too good to be true.
That's just too good to be true. I know what's going to happen.
As soon as you go out there, the Assyrian army's going to ambush
you, and they're just going to come on you and kill you. These
lepers are saying, ain't nobody here. Ain't nobody here. And
the king said, well, we're going to send some men out there just
to check. And those men went out there, and they checked,
and they said, that's right. Man, just like they said. There's
food all over the place, treasure. As they were running, they threw
off their armor, threw off their gold, so they could run faster. And when the lord of the king
said, OK, that lord, he said, you go to the gate, and you just
kind of let them out a little at a time. When the people heard
that there was food there, They stormed the gate and trampled
that man to death. What a picture of the gospel. A leper. An unclean. I could not go into the city
to worship God. I was cast out. If I stayed in
my condition, I would die in my sin. But I heard There was
food. I heard that Christ died. Just like those Assyrians were
the enemies of Israel, my sins were my enemies. And just as God made those people
to flee, the Assyrians, in the death of my Savior, my sins were
forever removed. There was no guard to keep me
from coming in. It was free. And I went in, and I found life. I found food. I found treasure. I found eternal life. So what
do I do? Go and tell people about that. You may say it's too good to
be true. I understand. It's nonetheless true. Everyone who comes to Christ
with nothing but their leprosy shall be forever saved. Is it a wonder then we are no
longer servants to sin? Is it a wonder why we desire
not to sin? It was sin that caused my death. It was sin that caused my pain.
I only want Him. I want to be found in Him. God be thanked. God be thanked
for the bounty of His grace, that I can go to Him at any time
and plead for mercy and find it. I can go to Him at any time
and seek to be cleansed, and I'll be cleansed. And this kind of love moves me
to live righteously in His world. That's what motivates me. I pray that God will bless this
to you. God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but
now, you're servants of righteousness. How? Through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Because you obeyed the gospel. You believed. That's the evidence
of it. Why then would I ever want to
go back? I don't want to go back. I'm so thankful for grace. Stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Pleasant Father, dismiss us with
your own mercies, your own kindness, your own grace. I plead for mercies, Father,
upon your people. We should eat of this fruit,
the fruit of Christ, the bread of life, and live. Give us grace to serve and honor
you by believing on your Son and trusting your grace. Help
us as we struggle with sins of our flesh and nature. Give us
grace that we might put aside those things that hinder us and
set our hearts only on Jesus Christ. I beg you to do this
in His name. Amen.