Romans chapter three, I had something
very heavily laid on my heart. And it's something that I wanted
our older kids to hear also. So I asked our middle school,
high school class to come in here with us this morning. I
have something that I really want to make clear, and I'm speaking
to all of us. I'm speaking to us adults, and
I want our young people to understand this too. I have something that
I very much feel a burden to make clear. Romans 3 verse 28
says, therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith, that means looking to Christ and hoping
in Christ, without the deeds of the law. By God's grace, we
will forever declare, we will forever preach That it is the
blood of Jesus Christ alone that saves God's people from their
sin. That's what we preach here by
his grace. That's what we will continue
to preach here. It is not our obedience to the law. It is not our goodness. If you
want to go to heaven, you better be a good person. That's not
a possibility for me, not in this flesh. In my flesh dwells
no good thing. It's not our morality. It's not
our purity. It's not our anything. It is
Christ's everything. It's Christ's everything. We
look to Christ. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are saved because of His obedience to the law. That's why we're
saved. We're saved because of His goodness. There's none good
but God. We're saved because of His morality,
His purity, His righteousness that was given to His people. He gave that to His people. He took our sin upon Himself
and gave all of His perfection to His people. His blood sacrifice
to God. paid the debt of the sin of his
people. I'm looking at a bunch of sinners
right now. This is a sinner looking at a
bunch of sinners right now. And his blood sacrifice to God
paid the debt of the sin of his people. And his own righteous
obedience to God earned acceptance for his people. Does that make
sense? Do we understand that? All right. Well, that is called
the truth. We preach the truth. All right. That's called the truth. That's
also called the gospel. God's grace. That's what that
is. That's called grace. That's what it's called. God's
grace to his people. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by God's grace and
it is God's grace alone. We don't mix our works with God's
grace. Okay. Turn with me to Romans
11. Romans 11 verse five, it says, even so then at this present
time, also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace, the election of grace. Verse six says, and if by grace,
then it is no more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. You're going to throw works in
at the end, then you've ruined grace. If I give you a present
and you say, Oh, thank you. And then I say, now you owe me
$12 and 13 cents for that. I've ruined the whole thing.
Does that make sense? So verse six, if it's my grace, it's no
more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
What that saying is, it's one or the other. It can't be both. And it's not both. Paul said
it's grace. Paul said it's grace. Salvation
is by God's free and sovereign grace. And God has said in his
word that he has extended his free and sovereign grace to sinners. The scripture says, this man
receiveth sinners. He receives sinners. First Timothy
1.15 says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I am chief. The apostle Paul said, I'm the
chief sinner. In Romans seven, he said, I'm
a wretched man. Oh, wretched man that I am. But
in first Timothy, he said, I obtained mercy because that's who God
chose to show mercy to wretched people, wretched people. Look
at Romans five with me. Verse six. It says, for when we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly,
ungodly people. That's who Christ died for, ungodly. All right, now, let me get your
attention here. Last Sunday night, we looked
at 1 Corinthians 6. where it talked about fornicators,
that's, you know, a man and a woman coming together outside of the
covenant of marriage. It talked about idolaters, people
who worship a false god. It talked about adulterers, that's
two people who made a covenant to each other in marriage, and
then one cheats on the spouse, leaving the covenant of marriage. It talked about the effeminate,
you know, a man not being a man. It talked about homosexuality. It talked about thieves, covetous
people, drunkards, abusers, and extortioners. And it said, all
of that is sin against God. It's sin against God. And it
said, such were some of you, but you are washed. But you are
sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. All right, now, that's the intro. Here's why I brought everybody
in here. This is what I want us to really
understand. I want us to consider this. I
want us to really understand this. Let's answer this question
right here. Do God's people have a license
to sin? Do God's people have a lot? I
mean, just take a minute, recall everything I just said. If all have sinned, if all have
sinned, but God saved some of them anyway, And if he chose
to save the worst of the worst, here's our question this morning.
Do God's people have a license to sin? Do God's people have
an excuse to just go ahead and sin? Let me say it this way. Do God's people have a get out
of jail free card? Here's the answer. All right,
Romans 3, look back at Romans 3 verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. All right.
Look at verse 31. He said, do we then make void
the law through faith? If we are not saved by the law,
but totally saved by faith in Jesus Christ, do we completely
just forget about the law? Just ignore it altogether and
continue in open rebellion and sin before God no matter what
He has to say to us in His Word? Do we just ignore His Word to
us? Here's the answer. Verse 31 goes
on to say, God forbid. What that means is absolutely
not. Absolutely not. Do we make void
the law? and treat it as though it never
existed and pay absolutely no attention to it at all. Here's
the answer. God forbid. Absolutely not. He said at the
end of verse 31, we establish the law. Not only do we not make
it void, we establish it. We establish it. Look with me
at Romans 5 verse 19. It says, for as by one man's
disobedience, Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one, Christ, shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the
law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Where we sinned, God's grace
has so overpowered our sin, all right? Look at chapter six, verse
one. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Verse two says, God
forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Because God's grace in the blood
of Christ has saved us from all of our sin, past, present, and
future, Does that give us the right to say it doesn't matter
what we do? It just doesn't matter what we
do. I'm just a sinner anyway. There's a man who used to say
this. When I was a young person, there was a man who I can remember
him saying this all the time. I'm just a sinner anyway. Christ
came to save sinners. I'll just keep on living my wicked
life, spitting in God's face. That's what we're doing in open
rebellion, bringing reproach and shame on the ministry and
the gospel and the witness and the faith of being a believer,
follower of Christ. Do God's people have the right
to take that attitude? Here's the answer. God forbid.
God forbid. Many years ago, a man made this
statement and this is. This is a facetious statement,
it's it's a statement to make a point, that's what it is, it's
a statement to make a point, but. He said we are not preaching
free grace. and complete forgiveness in the
blood of Christ clearly enough. We're not preaching it clearly
enough until someone accuses us of being antinomian. You ever
heard anything like that? Now that's a big word, and I
don't like to use big words. I spend a lot of time trying
to find smaller words. I just don't, I don't understand
big words, and I don't think people who use big words understand
big words. And I'm gonna tell you what that
means in just a second, but God's sheep, true believers, are not
antinomian. But when the finished work of
Christ is preached clearly enough, I mean complete, no matter what
you've done, our Lord said all sin, all sin, complete forgiveness,
total redemption in His blood alone. When that is preached
clearly enough, and a child of God believes it wholeheartedly
and is clinging to it, at some point that believer is going
to be accused of being antinomian. That word means without law. That's what the word means. Lawless. You're just lawless. It means under no obligation
to the law. Totally free from the law. People
who are accused of being antinomian are accused of believing that
they have the right to go out and live however they want to
live. Live by their own rules with
no regard to God's commandment. People say this all the time.
People say this all the time. They say, well, if I believed
what you're saying, the truth of the word is I could go live
however I want to live. I can go do whatever I want to
do. I could go sin just as much as I want to sin. All right,
here's our question this morning. Is that really the case? Is that
really the case? Do God's people have a license
to sin? Is that what this word says?
And is that what true believers believe? The answer is God forbid. Absolutely not. Now, let me show
us something. I want to warn us of some things. And let's see if God will give
us a right mind and a right understanding of this, okay? Turn with me to
Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Freedom from the law, total forgiveness
in the blood, complete redemption from all sin is only for those
who are in Christ. It's only for those who are in
Christ. For somebody to take the mindset
of, well, I'm just a sinner. Christ came to save sinners.
So I guess that means I can do whatever I want to do. To that person, this word warns
that only applies to those who are in Christ. That only applies to those who
are in Christ. For a person to think that way,
that person is making a pretty big assumption that he or she
is in Christ. Is that clear? For a person to
think that way, I'm just a sinner. Everybody's a sinner. Everybody's a sinner. And for
a person to think that way, That person is making a pretty big
assumption that he or she is in Christ. That redemption and that salvation
does not apply to every soul on this earth. Yes, all have
sinned. But only some are going to be
redeemed from it. And for a person to hear the
free grace of God, That he has given to his chosen elect particular
people for that person to just assume that he's one of them.
That's a pretty big assumption. This freedom from the law, this
deliverance from all condemnation, it only applies to those who
are in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. Our first warning is let's not
just assume that we're in Christ. Just because our parents are
in Christ, let's not assume that we're in Christ. I had the young
people come in here. Let's flip this on the adults.
Just because our children are in Christ, let's not assume that
we're in Christ. Just because our spouse is in
Christ, let's not assume that we're in Christ. Let's not assume
the great error of false religion is when men and women assume
that they're in Christ. And the great horror of the truth
will come on the day that they have to stand before God only
to find out they were not in Christ. And they have to answer
now for every sin they committed. Every sin that they say, well,
I might as well just go ahead and do it. So are God's people carefree,
lawless before Him? God forbid. God forbid. God's people are clinging to
Jesus Christ. God's people are clinging to
Jesus Christ. God's people have received the
fear of the Lord. They know that outside of Christ,
they're going to have to die in their sins. They live their
lives daily, casting their all on him and on his mercy. God's
people know. If I go stand before God outside
of Christ, He is going to do to me what He did to Christ on
the cross. And God's people know that because
of this right here. Turn with me to John 16. Our Lord is speaking to his people
right here. He spends the first six verses
talking about you and them. And he's establishing this difference
between his people and those who are not his people. And in
verse seven, John 16, verse seven, he says, nevertheless, I tell
you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he is come, speaking
of God's Spirit, he will reprove, that word means convince, convict
and convince the world, every soul he comes to in this world
of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. When God's spirit comes to and
quickens and calls one of God's people to life, spiritual life,
the first thing that he does is he convinces that person of
his or her own sin. Sin against God. Sin against
the word of God's law, sin against what God has said. If we are
not yet convinced of the fact that we are sinners before God, all right, if we are not, as
we hear this, if we are not yet convinced that we are sinners
before God, if that doesn't really enter our minds and we don't
really give that a thought, If we're not utterly convicted and
broken over our sin against God, then we should not assume that
we belong to Christ. If we do belong to Christ, he
will convict us and convince us of that. In his good time,
he'll do that for us. But if we feel no conviction
and no conscience over sin, We would be pretty wise to not
assume that we belong to Christ. We should not assume that our
sins are forgiven in his blood. We just shouldn't. We should
assume that we're gonna have to stand before him in all of
the sins that we are committing. We're gonna have to pay the price.
We're gonna have to pay the debt. And, Where redemption is, conviction
over the sin that required that redemption is. That's just so. Where redemption is, absolute
conviction over the sin that required that redemption is there. This is what this means. God's
people don't ignore the law. They establish the law. They
establish their sin against the law. They cast their all on the mercy
and the redemption that is in Christ because of their sin against
the law. That's what God's people do.
Turn with me to John 8. John 8. This is the story of the woman
who was caught in the act of adultery. She was a married woman
and she cheated on her husband. All right. John 8 verse 3, and
the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they say unto the Lord, they brought her before
the Lord to judge her. They say unto him, master, this
woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the
law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse
him. But Jesus stooped down and with
his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and
said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and
wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being
convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning
at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone,
and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted
up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Now
this is what happened. They brought this woman to him.
and said, she has sinned against God, all right? You tell us,
what should we do to her? Moses said in the law, she is
to be stoned to death. What do you say? So he ignored
him and he wrote, started writing, took his finger and started writing
in the dirt. And I feel quite confident that he was writing
their sins. He said, whoever's without sin,
go ahead and cast the first stone. What he's saying is, you're all
sinners too. That's what he's saying. And
they saw what he was writing, and they left. They backed away
and left. And so he stood up and looked
around. There's nobody but him and that woman. And he said,
where are your accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Verse
11, she said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now here's my question. Did the woman sin no more? All right. Was she no longer
a sinner after that? Okay. He said, you're forgiven.
Your sin is forgiven. Now you go and sin no more. From that point on, was she no
longer a sinner? Here's the answer. I don't know if I should say
yes or no, but I'm going to say no. She was a sinner just like
every other human being till the day she left this world. All right. Was she still a sinner? Yes. Did she sin no more? No. She kept on sinning. She
was a sinner just like everybody else till the day she left this
earth. All right. Well, then was it
just that she no longer committed that sin of adultery? Did she
just stop committing adultery? I hope she stopped committing
adultery, but it doesn't say. For me to say, oh yes, she never
went back to adultery, that's my assumption. It doesn't say
that. I hope she didn't, but it doesn't say that. All right,
well then why did the Lord say that? It's because that's the commandment. That's the commandment of God.
It always has been, it always will be. The commandment of God
doesn't change. And with his word to her, she
now knows it. Law has come. The quickening
of the law has come. All right. She knows it. And
now she's convicted of it. She's going to be convicted of
this before she celebrated it. You're doing what she wanted
to do. Now she's convicted of it. And that's how it is with
all of God's people. Before the Lord converted a man
called Saul of Tarsus, he is also known as the Apostle Paul.
Before the Lord converted Saul of Tarsus, he celebrated his
sin against God in being the enemy of the gospel. He said,
I thrived in it. I was so proud of it. I was top
dog. He celebrated murdering God's
people. Get your brain around this. The
Apostle Paul murdered God's people and he celebrated it. After his
conversion, he was so convicted over it. I'm sure he had memories
of accounts. I'm sure he pictured Stephen's
face saying, Lord, this is a thorn in my soul. Please remove it. The Lord said, no, my grace is
sufficient. You're going to stay convicted over this. He was so convicted over it.
Paul was convicted over his sin. That's why he cried, I'm the
chief sinner. I'm the most wretched man I know. God's people are sinners just
like everybody else on this earth. But here's the point. They don't
celebrate it. They don't celebrate it. And
it's because the Spirit of God has convicted them over it. There was a time when I was not
convicted over my sin. And then there came a time when
I was, and I still am. Throughout the month of June,
I want everybody to understand this. I want our young people
to understand this, okay? Because we're living in a world
where everything is becoming so tolerant and normal and tolerable. Throughout the month of June,
people go around wearing Pride Month t-shirts. Okay? Homosexuality is a sin against
God. You know, we could be shut down
for saying this. I'm quite sure it'll become illegal
to say something like this at some point. Homosexuality is
a sin against God just like adultery is. Just like the pride and self-righteousness
of false religion sitting in those pews is. Just like murder
is. I want us to understand, if we
don't understand, murder is sin against God. We can't just say,
I think I'm going to go murder somebody. Well, you be you. You just go be you, all right?
If that's what you want to do, then you go be you. Homosexuality is a sin against
God, period. Adultery is a sin against God. They're in the same category.
They're in the same boat. Murder is a sin against God. Pride over
thinking I've done none of those things is probably the greatest.
I don't know if that's in the same category. Our Lord said
that's top dog. Sin against God, sin against
God, sin against God. And people go around celebrating
it. They go around celebrating it. You know, pride month. Let's
make a pride month out of it. Let's go around celebrating it.
This woman caught in the act of adultery sinned against God. But can you imagine her picking
the month of July to go around wearing a t-shirt that said adultery
month? Celebrating her sin against God.
Can you imagine that? Or can you imagine the Apostle
Paul picking August to go around wearing a t-shirt that says murder
month? God forbid. God forbid. Every soul in this room has murdered
in the heart. There's not a soul in here any
better than the Apostle Paul. We've all done it. Our Lord said,
you hate a man without cause. You get angry with a man, is
what he said. You get mad at a person without cause, just
cause. You've murdered him. Do we celebrate it? No. God's
people hate their sin against him. They hate their sin against
him. Do God's people see themselves
as being better than others? No. They all cry, I'm the worst
one. They're so ready to be done with
sin in the flesh. And the reality is they can't
live like they want to. That's the reality. They just
cannot live like they want to. God's people are ready to live
and be just like Jesus Christ. I can't wait. I just can't wait. They want to be just like Jesus
Christ. But until they are delivered from this body of sin and death,
they're going to have to keep casting their all on the mercy
of Christ. They're just going to have to
keep putting all their hope in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
all we can do. Trusting, believing, rejoicing
in the fact that there is no condemnation for sin to every
soul that is in Christ. That's the key. We're no better
than anybody. We're no less sinners than anybody.
Would you see you pointing a finger at that person? Yeah, let's go
ahead and turn it right back here. The key to everything is being
in Christ. My hope is that this will help
our understanding. My hope is that this will make
sense. If we wonder, well, what's the deal? Are we lawless? No.
We don't make void the law. Honestly, God's people truly
are about the only ones who really do establish the law. Really. The law is what makes us cry,
Lord, put us in Christ. Put us in Christ. That's what
a soul in Christ will cry. Put me in Christ, Lord, set me
free from the condemnation of the law by putting me in Christ
my Savior. Put me in Christ my Savior. If
anybody here does not feel the conviction of sin and the need
of Christ, Cry out to Him for it. All right? If you do not,
you say, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't feel conviction
over my sin and this need of Christ. If you do not feel it,
but you realize in your head that this is the only hope of
eternal life, cry out to Him for it. Lord, show me my sin. Show me my Savior. Save my soul. Cry out to Him for it. All right,
you're dismissed.