Romans chapter 6. The title of my message this
morning is, Freedom from Sin. Freedom from Sin. The apostle having expounded
the truth of the gospel that where sin reigned unto death,
Even so, grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. The representative men, in the
previous verse, how that Adam, in Adam all died, even so in
a representative man, all are made righteous before God. And this is done by free, sovereign,
Grace. This is done according to the
will of God. It is according to the immutable,
unchangeable love and decrees of God. You this morning that
are saved, you are saved by the free grace of God alone. No merits of the flesh enter
into this salvation. This salvation was determined
of God, purchased of God, applied of God, and it shall be kept
of God. It has nothing to do with us.
The law. What was the purpose of the law?
The law came in that sin might abound. But where sin abounded,
we found grace did much more abound. That's what happened
to us. We were walking about in our
sin, had no idea, no love for Christ, no desire. We were in
our own religion, had our own works, everything was going well.
Then God came in mercy. He saved us by grace. And so where sin abounded in
us, grace over-abounded, and sin is now put out. And so Paul
begins the next chapter, he said, what shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! You know
what? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound, said no believer ever. That's just not so. Nobody that's ever been saved
from sin believes that. Paul said, that's horrible. No. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? That's what I want to talk about
this morning, being freed from sin. How is one who was enslaved
to sin by nature made free from sin? And by what does that mean,
freedom from sin? In this chapter, the Apostle
Paul mentions this phrase, different times. Look at this in verse
7. He said, For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Verse 18, Being then made free
from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. And in verse
22, But now, being made free from sin, and become servants
of God, You have your fruit unto holiness and the end, everlasting
life. So, in these three passages of
Scripture, I want us to see three things. Three ways that a believer
is freed from sin. First of all, a believer is freed
from the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin. The guilt
of sin. The condemnation of sin. Second
of all, a believer in Jesus Christ is made free from the dominion
of sin. The dominion of sin. And thirdly,
a believer will soon be made free from the presence of sin. Presence of sin. So freedom from
sin. Believer in Christ, Believer
in Christ, you are made free even because Christ has declared
it so. He says in John chapter 8 and
verse 36, If the Son shall make you free, you shall be partially free. You shall be free to a certain
extent and then, you know, you got to free yourself. No, you
shall be free indeed if the Son sets you free. This morning,
if you're a believer in Christ, you listen to this for your comfort,
for your benefit, you are free. Free. So first of all, I want
us to see we're free from the penalty of sin. Paul says this
in verse 7, for he that is dead is freed from sin. What is the
penalty of sin? What is the penalty of sin? He
says it at the very last verse, so you don't have to guess. Verse
23, for the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Death is the penalty for sin. Death is the penalty. You have a man who is convicted
of murder and he is sentenced to death. As soon as the switch
is thrown, as soon as the man gasps his last bit of air in
this life, that man is then free from that law that penalized
him. The law then could do nothing
to the man after he had paid the penalty. There's no more
he could do to him. And if you did anything to him
after that, it wouldn't be justice, would it? No, he's dead. So the penalty of sin is death.
Believers in Christ, you should know this. That you are free
from the penalty of sin because of Christ's death. Death. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
in the flesh, the Father, by determinate counsel and by His
foreknowledge, lifted Christ up upon the cursed tree for this
purpose, that He should die and suffer the penalty of sin for
all of His elect people. This is what God has done. Christ
came to die. You remember in John 3, this
was no surprise to our Lord because He told Nicodemus what He'd come
to do. He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent... How long ago
was that serpent lifted up? How many thousands of years was
that? Yet that serpent being lifted
up, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Our Lord
God loved His people to such a degree, an eternal degree of
love, that He sent His Son to be lifted up. The spotless Son
of God was to be lifted up and made sin for us. When people today, a bunch of
people thinking about the crucifixion and resurrection, somebody asked
me, said, well, you know, are you going to preach on the resurrection?
When have I not preached on the resurrection? What Sunday have
I not mentioned the resurrection in great detail to you? It is
every Lord's Day I mention the resurrection. Not just on one
day a year. This is the theme of our song. The resurrection, the crucifixion
of Christ. Our Savior was lifted up, and
I tell you, He didn't just suffer the pains of crucifixion. I tell you, there was never a
man suffered physically as the Lord Jesus Christ did. Never
a man suffered that greatly. But it was not His physical suffering
that caused Him His greatest woe. Christ willingly bore our sins
in His own body on the tree. He was made sin for us. Who knew
no sin? He was made a curse for us. To what purpose? That we should
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That was the purpose
of Him being lifted up. That we should be made free from
the curse of the law. He did, He died in order to redeem
us to God. This was the purpose of the Father
from the beginning. Lo, he said, I come, in the volume
of the book it is written of me to do thy will. By the which
will? By the will of God we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. Once for all. So then, there
on that tree, the sinless Son of God made sin, the strict justice
of God, the holy vengeance of God against every sin. of His people. Every sin of His
people. The vengeance of God fell on
Him, and in three hours of darkness, He suffered in such a way that
no words can describe. Matter of fact, the Scriptures
don't give us many words for a reason. It's beyond us,
the measure of suffering. In prophecy, we read this, you
can read this in Lamentations if you want to, in prophecy we
read, is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Which the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger?
From above he hath set fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against
them. Who else had that kind of suffering
but the Lord Jesus Christ? He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. When the Lord had suffered an
untold wrath of God, the righteous and just God of
heaven then was satisfied with When holy justice then could
demand no more suffering, no more payment. Consider that, that if justice
would have added one stroke more to Christ, it wouldn't have been
justice anymore. Whatever that suffering was,
however dark that suffering and painful that agony was, Christ
endured every ounce of it till it was totally finished, where
there was no more that justice could do to Him. Justice being
satisfied, the Lord announced to the world, it is finished. God satisfied. Payment rendered. He paid it all. He paid all that
justice demanded. Go over to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9, the apostle
tells us the story of redemption that was only pictured by those
animal sacrifices. None of those sacrifices could
take away sin. He said, neither by the blood
of bulls, blood of goats and calves. Let's go back to verse
11, give it its context. But Christ being come and high
priest of good things to come. by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place." He entered into the holy place. This is a picture of that
great day of atonement. Remember that Aaron had entered
into that place only once a year with the blood of bulls and goats. which was only a picture of what
Christ was come to do, come to die under the penalty of sin
and provide atonement for sin. And so, as Aaron went in there,
how many times did he do it? Once every year. But this man,
this man's different. This high priest is different.
He entered in not with others' blood, but his own blood. And he entered not in once every
year, he entered in once, period, into the presence of God. And
what happened when he entered into this with his own blood? Look what it says. Having obtained. Obtained. What does that mean? He got it. That's what it means. He got it. Just as the Lamb stood
before the throne of God and obtained the book, He took the
book. I tell you, Christ by His one
sacrifice obtained redemption. Not just redemption for one year,
not just redemption for one sin or one time, but redemption for
eternity. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. That verse there completely destroys
any thought of universal atonement. If Christ died for everyone without
exception and a man goes to hell, he did not obtain eternal redemption
for that man. Either that or His eternal redemption
was worthless. And we know that's not so. We
know this. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. For who? Those who believe on
Christ. Those who are redeemed, chosen
of God, redeemed of Christ, and called by the Holy Spirit. That's
who He obtained it for. Therefore, we conclude, believers,
We, through Christ, have been made free from the guilt of sin,
the penalty of sin, not by any works of our own, but by the
suffering of Christ upon the cross. And therefore we read, therefore,
Paul says in Romans chapter 8, there is therefore now. When? Now. And that is an eternal
now, because He obtained eternal redemption. This is for us. There is therefore an eternal
now, no condemnation, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is
therefore now no condemnation, no condemnation, no condemnation. Why? The penalty is paid. God, being holy, cannot demand
twice payment. He cannot demand twice payment. He cannot demand it of Christ's
hands and then turn around and demand it of yours. He cannot.
He will not. This is His purpose. This is
what He designed to do. This is what He decreed to do.
He decreed to make Christ's sin for us so that we should be made
the righteousness of God by that representative man. And by doing
so, He set us free from all penalty of sin. All penalty of sin. All condemnation of sin. Who are these people? Well, those
are the people that whom God comes in regenerating power and
grace. To be free from sin, the Spirit
of God comes to everyone that Christ has redeemed. He regenerates us by the Holy
Spirit to faith in Christ, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Those who are given faith in
Christ have this hope. We are freed from all of sin's
penalty. Spirit of God, when He comes
to a person, you know this, He doesn't testify of Himself. How many people run around trying
to testify of the Spirit saying, oh the Spirit's here, the Spirit's
here. If he's testifying of himself, that's not the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit doesn't speak of Himself. The Holy Spirit speaks
only of Christ. Jesus said, the Spirit of God,
He shall come and receive the things of Mine and give it and
show it to thee. What things? Grace, redemption,
freedom from sin and tyranny and death. Christ hath triumphantly,
victoriously redeemed us. That's what He shows us. He shows
us this gospel and we latch on to it with all of our hearts
in faith. That's what the Spirit of God
does. It teaches us of Christ that we have been redeemed from
the penalty of sin. I like this. In Revelation, it
says this twice of those believers. They shall not... I'm going to
read it to you. I don't want to miss it. Revelation
chapter 2. And verse 14, listen to what God says of those
who believe on Him. Let me see, I think I've gotten the
wrong place. It says, He that overcometh,
to him that overcometh, shall not see the second death. There it is, verse 11, sorry.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth to
the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death. And in chapter 20 and verse 6. It says this, Blessed and holy
is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second
death hath no power. Why? You're free from the penalty
of it. You'll never see death. He that
believeth on me, he shall never die. Christ said
that. Believest thou this? You shall
never taste death, believer. Oh, your body may die, but you
won't. You shall never die. Why? Sin's penalty has been paid.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Now, secondly, the believer is free from the power of sin. The
power of sin. Look at that in verse... Go back
to your text and see this in verse 18. Actually, it begins
back in verse 13. It says, "...neither yield ye
your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin." But
yield yourselves unto God, as those alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Listen,
for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
the law, but under grace. Verse 18, being then made free
from sin. You are become the servants of
righteousness. In other words, When God saves
a believer, something changes. Something changes. It's not really a change done
by the man himself, but rather it is something done of God for
the man. It's God comes in power and demonstration
of His Spirit, and God creates in us a new nature. A new nature that was not there
before. That's what changes everything.
Paul says we are new creatures, new creations. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. So God comes in power, He gives
us a new nature. And then He says this to you
and me, Sin shall not have dominion over you. Does that sound confusing? Well, man, sin shall not have
dominion. I sin all the time. I can't stop
sinning. What does that mean? Well, it
does not mean that sin is completely vanquished from us or gone. Why? Because the old man did not change. When God gave you a new man,
the old man is still just as vile and corrupt and God-hating
as he was from birth. He's the same. God did not change
the old man. He did not clean him up. He did
not make him better. God gave you a perfect nature,
and by that nature, that old man's dominion is now put down. Put down. See if I can illustrate this.
Before you came to Christ, you had one nature. One nature. You loved sin. You loved it. You loved what
you loved, and you hated what you hated, and you did not care
of God and what He said. Didn't do it. Now you may have
made your own religion, you may have made your own God, but by
nature no man knows God. No man knows God by nature. God
must reveal Himself to man. So at one point, all of us had
this one nature, this sheriff in town, and it said, I will
have my way and I will not have that man rule over me. That's
what your nature said. But when God came, everything
changed. That man was immediately put
down. That man said, I will not believe. And the new man said, I will
believe. When you believed, didn't you
just realize that you believed even before you knew you believed? What was that? Put him down.
He cast him out immediately. He's cast down. He no longer
has dominion. There is a new sheriff in town. It is the new man. It is the
new nature. It is the holy nature. Sin shall
not have dominion over you. But it doesn't mean that sin
is put out of you completely. But rather, our old nature is
now put in subject to our new nature. The holy nature created
now has dominion in you, believer. Therefore, our conversation before
the work of God in our hearts was only sin, but now God, who
is rich in mercy, has quickened us with a new heart. Go to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel 36. Listen to what God
promises you, His elect. This is the application of the
work of the Spirit of God. I will sprinkle clean water upon
you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from
all your idols. And I will cleanse you. Listen,
a new heart also will I give you. And a new spirit will I
put within you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I
will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. He says he's going
to give us a new heart. He's going to take out that old
stony heart. That stony heart is the old man of sin. And this
new heart, this new heart is made tender. That one by nature
is just a stone. You can't ever plant a seed in
a stone, can you? Can't do it. So what does God
do? He takes a stone out of the way
and He gives you a heart that's able then to receive the things
of God. He gives you a new heart of love,
grace, faith. All of those things are implanted
into the new man, that new nature. We've now become teachable to
the Spirit of God. And we desire to cast off everything
of the old man. We long no more for his dominion. We have no more use for the old
man. We desire him to be gone from
our presence. We have the indwelling of the
Spirit teaching us. You realize this, that you could
not even believe without that grace of God giving you a new
heart. Jesus said, no man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. As it is written,
they shall all be taught of God. The only reason you know anything
at all is God taught you. God taught you. He gave you that
new nature. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. And so now we long to be like
Christ. We long for it. We long to be
without sin. We do not desire it anymore.
We gladly bow down to Jesus Christ as our King and our Redeemer
and our Friend. We are made by Him a holy and
peculiar people, zealous for good works. not trusting works
for salvation, but because of the great salvation we desire
to glorify Him. And this is done by the free
grace of God. It is a gift by the purpose of
the Father, obtained by the Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit. And we are now new creatures
in Christ, made free from sin, free from sin's penalty, and
now free from sin's And listen, believer, one day, thirdly, you
shall be made free from the very presence of sin. Look at that
in your text. Go back to your text. Look at verse 22. But now being made free from
sin, you become the servants of God. You have your fruit unto
holiness and the end everlasting life. One day God is going to
come again. Christ is going to come again
and he is going to take his people home to be with himself. Either
we will flee this life in the death of this body or in the
resurrection we'll all be there. But this is true. Believer, one
day God will come and take away all sin from our presence. Therefore, even in our death,
we shall never die. Judgment being passed, we shall
not be judged of God, but rather accepted of God into eternal
life. The Scripture says precious in
the eyes of God are the death of His saints. Why? Because then
we fully are able to experience the freedom we have in Christ.
Right now is not the case. We have this promise of one day
being free from the very presence of sin, but that's not true now.
That's not true now. Even because the old man still
hangs about our necks. Until then, we have this body
of sin still present with us, so we cry with Paul, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Yet in my new nature dwelleth
no sin. I'm a man of two armies. One man, two natures, same body. And what is the result of this?
There then is a constant warfare engaged in the heart of God's
people as they live in this world. You and I will not escape this
warfare. The moment you think the warfare
is ceased, you've already given in and you're on the other side.
This warfare is one that does not cease, except the body return
to the earth where it came from. Until then, we are in constant
struggle. The old and the new nature are
in constant warfare with one another. Constant struggle. And because of this we are easily
cast down. Are you not easily cast down
by your sin? David in Psalm 25 says this,
the troubles of my heart are enlarged. David had a lot of
problems on the outside, but you know where his biggest problem
was? On the inside. He said, my troubles, that word
in large is mean like a balloon ready to pop. He said, they're
expanded within me, in my heart. Believer, our troubles, our foes
without cause us great grief, but the greatest, the greatest
difficulty we face is our own heart, our own foolish nature. James said, when we are tempted
and drawn away, we are drawn away of our own lusts. In Ezekiel
36, God even prophesied about this. He said, you shall loathe
yourselves. Is that not true, believer? Do
you not loathe yourself? Yes, we loathe ourselves because
of our sin, because what we desire in our heart is to be righteous,
to be after God in true holiness, and yet here we are, we have
this body of sin and death dragging us to the pits of hell every
single day. Struggle after struggle after
struggle in this body. Cannot do what we want to. I tell you, can believers sin?
If a man says he's without sin, that man's a liar. You got that? John said that. Bunch of people
running around in this holiness movement saying, oh, I don't
sin anymore. You liar. Truth's not in you. If we say we have not sinned,
you make him a liar. You call God a liar. The truth's
not in you. And herein is our greatest problem,
is our struggle with the old man, the sin and body of death.
We long to be holy, but we cannot in this present world. Though
we put off the former conversations, yet our mind, our thoughts, and
even our best deeds are mixed with sin. So then we must confess there
is no merit in us before God. So then we are ever repenting,
ever turning from self to Christ. Now repentance, people got a
misconception about repentance. They see, they only see like
one evil thing they're doing. They say, oh, I need to repent
of that. No, you need to repent of the
whole thing. You need to repent of the whole thing. Because that
one little spot you see is only one of a multitude of spots. Because Isaiah said the whole
head is sick. From the sole of the foot to
the crown of the head is sick with sin. So what do we continually
do? We continually repent from self
and works and self-righteousness and turn by faith to Christ. It is a continual thing. We do
this every day. Every minute. Turning from self
to Christ. Therefore our hearts become full
sometimes of guilt and we are cast down The world's religion
tells us to change habits just to pick yourself up by your bootstraps
and you'll be fine. We know this, only God can handle
our afflictions. Only God can deliver us. David
said, look upon my affliction. What is my affliction? He said,
forgive all my sin. What's my affliction? What's
your affliction, believer? Is it not sin? It is sin. So now, in your trouble, cry
out to God, you who cry out to God, free me from my sin. You not hear God's reply, you
are free from your sin. If Christ had made you free,
you are free. That condemnation you feel and
suffer is not of God, it's of yourself. Because there is therefore
now no condemnation. Who is he that condemneth? Christ
that died, yea rather is risen again. There is no condemnation
to us. Blessed is he whose iniquity
is forgiven, whose transgression is covered. Blessed is the man
to whom God will not impute sin. He will not impute my sin to
me. He already imputed my sin to
His Son, and He paid the debt in full. I'm free. Free. Free. I'm free from its dominion. I'm
free from its penalty. And one day I'll be free from
its presence. But until then, I must look continually to Christ. Why? Because he's the key that
set me free. He's the one that set me free.
And in him, I am free. Free. so free that none could ever
condemn us before God, because to condemn us is to condemn Him. You got that? You are so in union
with Christ that to condemn you, they would have to condemn Him. And that just ain't gonna happen. You're free. Free from the law. I know people that say, well,
you know, Christ has made us free so we can obey the law.
Hogwash! Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Why? The law
hath no more power over me. Why? I've paid the penalty. I've honored the law. When? In Christ my substitute. When He did it, I did it. When
He died, I died. When He rose again, I rose again.
And now He has given me the fruits of righteousness even in this
body by the new nature. And though I struggle with sin,
one day I won't. Blessed day, one day I'm not
even going to remember what it's like to be a sinner. What a blessed day. I won't have one evil thought
to repent of. One evil deed to regret. Sin can no longer molest us there. It'll be gone forever. I pray God give you comfort with
this.