Turn back to Romans chapter 6. I have thoroughly enjoyed studying
Romans. It's been such a blessing to
me. I hope it's been a blessing to you. I felt like after we go through
this, that we ought to go through it again, and then maybe one
more time after that. They say human beings learn in
sets of three and seven. So maybe we ought to go through
it three times. And then we'll say, oh, I get it. But here, I titled the message
in this portion of the description we're going to look at. Grace,
justification by faith, salvation by grace alone, Christ alone,
through faith alone, does not lead to sin. It does not lead
to sin. Now in verses 1-14, Paul tells
us that we are dead to sin. That's sin nature he's talking
about. There, in verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? He says, God forbid, how shall
we that are dead to sin? How shall we that are dead to
the power of that sin nature reigning over us? How shall we
continue in sin? He tells us we are dead to sin
and we're dead to that sin nature through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross. Sin, that is that sin nature,
is not our master anymore like it was. It was our master. It was our master. It controlled
us. But now, the Lord Jesus Christ is our master. He sits enthroned
in the heart. And that sin nature that we were
born with has been dethroned, severed, or been made a sever
between us and that old sin nature. But even better, we are alive
unto God in Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. And
that being so, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal body
anymore. And Paul is going to tell us
if we don't yield up the members of our bodies to that old nature. We are not to yield any part
of our body to the satisfying of that old sin nature. But we are to yield our bodily
members as instruments, weapons of righteousness unto God. We
used to use our minds to think upon our sinful conduct, to think
upon things we wanted to do and achieve, and we had no problem
with it. It didn't bother us at all. We
used our eyes to look upon things in an unholy manner. That's why
our Lord said to look upon a woman to lust after her is to commit
adultery, and the same thing for a woman to look upon a man.
There was a time There was a time that we could look upon these
things and it never bothered us at all. We yielded our eyes to it. We
yielded our minds to the thought of it. And Paul here, he's going
to teach us and tell us that those who are born of God, yield yourselves up to God and
the members of your body up to God to be used of God. In Romans
12.1 it says this, Paul says, "'I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Yield them up to God.'" So what Paul is going to teach
us here in these next few verses, and I can just sum it up with
this statement. We are to live in a manner that
is agreeable to our holy nature that God has given us. That new
man that's created in Christ Jesus is created, it says, in
righteousness and true holiness. And we are to live in a manner
that's agreeable to that and consistent with the gospel. So,
in verse 11, he said, first of all, in verse 10, for in that
he died, that Christ died, he died unto sin once, but in that
he lives, he lives unto God. Now, likewise, reckon, count,
and this he is speaking of faith, not feeling. We're not talking
about what you feel like or what I feel like. By faith lay hold
of this." Get a hold of this is what he's saying. By faith
count yourselves also to be dead indeed to sin. Not the presence
of it, not even the influence of it, but that sinful nature.
You're dead to it. It doesn't control you. God is
not going to allow it to reign again. So you count. you reckon yourselves to be dead
to sin, indeed to sin. But alive to God through Jesus
Christ, just as you reckon Christ to be dead to sin, you believe
Christ died on the cross for sin, you believe He died on the
cross for sin. By the same faith, you reckon yourselves to be dead
to it. He died to it and you died in
Him. Whatever is said of Jesus Christ
is said of the members of Christ, the members of His body. So reckon, count yourselves to
be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let not sin that sinful nature
reign and take over your body, your members again, the members
of your body, your eyes, your mind, your tongue. Don't let
it take that over again. Don't render service to it again.
That's why he's saying, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body that you should obey, submit to, that you should submit your
body. to it in the lust thereof. Neither
yield ye your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God." Yield to God. Yield your bodily members to
God because the power of that sin nature is broken. It is really
broken. You say, but I don't feel like
it. I ain't talking about feelings. We're talking about what happened at
the cross, and faith lays hold of this. And when you really
get a hold of that, then you'll really understand something about
Christian liberty and freedom, and you'll enjoy assurance by
faith. See, we are so much on feeling,
aren't we? Well, I feel good today. I feel
bad today. I feel this, I feel that. It's
not talking about what you feel. When we talk about salvation
by grace through faith, faith is to believe God. You're taking
God at His word. And by faith, we know that we
were baptized into Christ by the Spirit of God. We were baptized
into His death on the cross. And just as we are dead with
Him, we live with Him, and Paul says here that sin for sin, that
sin in nature shall not have dominion over you, it's not going
to reign again. As Henry said, he said that there's
no such thing as carnal Christians. We do things that are carnal,
but we're not carnal Christians. If sin dominates you, we're going
to see this here in a minute, but if it dominates you, that
sin nature dominates you, God has never saved you. He's never
saved you. If it's the dominant force in
your life. Because He says here, sin shall
not have dominion over you. God's not going to allow it.
For you're not under the law, you're not under that covenant
of works, you're under the grace of God. Well, Paul says that,
and he's going to answer a second objection here. What then? Shall we sin? Now, he's talking here about
an act of sin. I was doing a word study on this,
and in the first part of this chapter, he's talking about a
nature of sin. In this one, he's talking about an act of sin,
a planned act of sin. And he's saying, somebody's asking
this question. Well, if that be so, shall we
sin, shall we commit acts of sin? How far can we go? What
can we do? How far can I go in sin? Can
I commit an act of sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? He says, God
forbid. Perish the thought. First of
all, listen, the believer knows this. Christ died for me. Christ died for me. And He's
not going to let that sin have dominion over me. That sin nature
is crucified and He's not going to be allowed to reign. Christ
died for me. And secondly, the Holy Spirit
regenerated me. There is literally a new man,
a new nature created by God in righteousness and true
holiness. The Holy Spirit gives a new life. There is a new me. There is a
new me that has not sinned. That new nature has not sinned.
And it can't sin. It's born of God. It's born of
God. And as Paul said in 2 Corinthians,
all things are passed away and behold, all things are become
new. He says in 2 Corinthians, you have been made a new creation,
a new creature in Christ Jesus. In the Lord Jesus Christ, you've
been created new. And then the Holy Spirit indwells
you. He lives in you. He dwells in
you. The Holy Spirit, who is God,
lives in you. And He's not going to allow sin
to reign over you. Listen, the stronger man has
taken over the house. He's taken over the house. And
you're not under the law. You're not under the law, the
power of the law, the condemning power of the law. You're under
grace. You're under the grace of God. Grace provides what the law could
not provide. Grace provides the ability to
believe God, to follow after Christ. The law doesn't provide
any of that. God in grace has provided us
with righteousness. The law cannot provide that and
did not and cannot. You're under grace. Now he says
here, here's something you know, and this is what he's talking
about when he says, I speak after the manner of men because of
the infirmity of your flesh. You know this, here's something
that you know, that to whom you yield yourselves
as yourselves servants, and that word servant there is slave,
and it means slave in the lowest form of slavery. that was known in Rome. He uses
the lowest form of that meaning. You know this, you yielded yourselves
slaves to obey. His servants, His servants you
are to whom you obey. Whoever you submit yourselves
to, that's your master. That's your master. You know,
we can say we believe this, believe that, we can say a lot of things.
But when it comes down to it, it's who we yield ourselves to. That's our master. That's who
controls us. That's who owns us. That's the
one we are a slave to. Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves slaves to obey, his slaves you are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness."
Now listen, here is the acid test of knowing whether God has
saved me or not. Who's my master? You know, in
business, there's a thing called acid test. And I think it's when you take
your liabilities and you take your assets and you put them
together, you divide them out. And if your assets are two to
one to your liabilities, that's the acid test of your business.
That's how you can tell real quick if you have a pretty decent
business or not. Well, here's the acid test. as
to whether God has saved me or not. Who do I obey? Who is my master? What is it
I give myself to? What is it that I enjoy? Whose
companionship do I really enjoy? I mean, really. What is it that I really love?
Or who is it that I really love? Either way. Where do I really
find pleasure? Where do I really find pleasure?
The tenor of our lives reveals who our Master is. The tenor
of our lives. And that's what Paul's saying
here. You see, we have dealt with justification by faith.
He's dealing now with sanctification of the believer. And the One
that we obey and make provisions for and follow after, that's
our Master. If it's sin, then it'll lead
to death. If it's righteousness, well,
it leads to life. Because now He says here in verse
17, after verse 16, "...whoever you yield yourselves up to, that's
your Master, but God be thanked." God be thanked. You were the
slaves in the lowest form to sin. You went after the passions
and the lust of your flesh. And that's not just talking about
this skin here, this body of bones and muscle. It's talking
about that nature that we were born with. That nature used this
body to fulfill its desires. That's why this body has to be
buried and perish. That's why this body has to go
back to the dust, because that sin nature used it, used it to
sin in. And when God raises us from the
dead, we're being raised with a new body, a new body that has
never, sin has never touched it and never will. But God, bethank
that you were the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the
heart." Those Pharisees didn't obey the law from the heart. They outwardly obeyed the law
for what they could get, for what they could get out of it. David says over in the Psalm,
"'O how I love thy law!' I love it. I love it. Sometimes when
we speak of the law, it speaks of the commandments, and sometimes
it means the whole Word of God. I love whatever God has written. I love it. It's right. It's right. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Or listen,
read it like this. You have obeyed the teachings
of the gospel that has delivered you from that nature of sin,
the power of sin. The gospel has delivered you.
It came in power and it delivered you from the power of that sin
nature you were born with. And you obeyed, look here, you
obeyed from the heart. You are willing bond slaves of
Jesus Christ, aren't you? I want to be His. I want to be
His, and I want to be used of Him, and even more, especially
after studying this chapter, I want Him to use my tongue,
my tongue to speak and to preach and to witness. I want Him to
use my eyes to read His Word. I want Him to use my eyes to
be able to look at creation and see the glory of God in it, not
what I can get out of it. To use my ears to hear the gospel. Listen to this. You were the
slaves of sin. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians
6 9-11. I'm going to read them to you. Paul writes this to them. Know
ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
those who yield themselves up to sin? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators... And he's talking about a lifestyle
here. He's talking about a lifestyle. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, as such were
some of you. But you're washed." That's not
you no more. You don't live that life no more,
do you? You don't live that life no more. You know, I know a man, and I
may have mentioned this before, but I know a man, he made a profession years ago under
Arminianism. And where he went, they believed
in this thing of once saved, always saved. Now, I know that
all of God's sheep are going to be saved and they're not going
to be lost. I know that. But not in the way they know it.
But anyway, I talked to him a few years ago, and this man has been
a drunkard. He made a profession. He even
tried to preach for a little while, a few times. Stood in
the pulpit. But his real self came back out. It came back out. It showed up. And he became a drunkard, a womanizer. I don't know how many affairs
he's had on his wife. And I was talking to him not
too long ago and he said to me, and I don't know why he needed
to say this, but he said to me, he said, you know, when I die,
I'm going to go to heaven. Well, I don't know about that
because he said here that no drunkard, no fornicator is going
to go there. And he's talking about a lifestyle,
a lifestyle. No, you're not going to be there,
not unless the Lord does something, not unless He breaks that old
nature, not unless He saves you by His grace and gives you a
new heart and a new nature. And such were some of you, but
you are washed. Now listen, but you are sanctified. God set us apart in Christ, God
has made us holy in Christ, and God has made us holy in a new
creation. You're sanctified. But, he says here, but you're
sanctified, but you're justified also, you're cleared. There's
no charge against you. But you're justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You're sanctified
and you're justified. If you've been justified, I assure
you, you've been sanctified. Justification, sanctification,
they go together like faith and repentance. You can't have faith
and not have repentance. You can't be justified and not
be sanctified, be born of God. You can't do it. But he says here now, you believed,
you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, you obeyed
the gospel which delivered you. Being then made free from sin. Now, when he spoke of that earlier,
he talked about being freed from sin in verse 7. In verse 7, for
he that is dead is freed from sin, that means justified from
sin. You're justified from that old sinful nature. That's not
going to come back up again. You're not going to go to court
over that. You're justified, you're cleared.
But here, what Paul is saying is that you have been, now you
have been emancipated. You have been liberated. This
is freedom. This is true freedom here. Get
a hold of it. Being then made free, emancipated,
liberated from sin, the domination of that old nature, you become
the slaves to righteousness. You're not slaves to sin no more.
You're not slaves to it. You're slaves to righteousness. free from the reigning power
of that nature, you are now free to be servants of righteousness."
Servants of the Lord, our righteousness. And Paul says, now I speak in
verse 19, I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity
of your flesh. I'm using earthly terms, terminology
that you can understand. They knew what a slave was. They
knew what was. They knew what that was all about.
And Paul said, I'm using this terminology because of the infirmity
of your flesh. Now, for as you have yielded
your members, slaves, to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members, your bodily members, he's talking
about, talking about your bodily members, Yield them as slaves
to righteousness and to holiness. You know, in the past, as I said,
we used our eyes to feed the lust of this flesh. We used our
eyes to feed the lust of this flesh. We used our tongues to
curse God and curse men and curse this and curse that. We used them to curse with. our
hands to do evil things with, our feet to go to evil places. He says, now yield that body,
that same body, to righteousness. Right now, I'm yielding my tongue
to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God gives you an opportunity,
He opens a door, use your tongue to glorify Jesus Christ. Use
your eyes to look into the Word of God. And most of all, listen,
use your mind, because this mind controls everything else here. Use your mind to think upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, think upon these things.
Think upon these things. Take control of it. That's why
he's saying, at new nature, at new nature, take control of your
body. your mouth, your ears, you know, you and I control what
we listen to. We can control what we listen to. I'm not going
to go to another place that preaches another gospel. I'm not going
to listen to it. I don't get on the internet and
listen to men I know do not preach the gospel. I'm not going to
let that come into my mind. That's what he's saying here.
Yield your body not to sin, because they said, what then, shall we
sin? And he's talking about acts of sin. He said, no, no. Yield it to acts of righteousness. Listen, verse 20. For when you
were the slaves of sin, you're not now. No believer in here
is a slave to sin. Yes, you sin. And yes, you feel
the influence of it, the presence of it. You struggle with it.
It's a warfare. But you're not a slave to sin
no more. When you were the servants of
sin, you were free from righteousness. You had nothing to do with righteousness. Everyone in here can remember
a time in your life when you had nothing to do with anything
that was righteous. I mean, any righteousness. He's
talking about here the righteousness of Christ, doing right, from
a right principle, from a right heart. He says, you were free
from that. You had nothing to do with it.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof? Now listen, you're
now ashamed. Now when someone wants to tell
me what they used to be, what they were like and how bad they
were, they're not ashamed of it. You don't talk about things
you're ashamed of. And every believer here is ashamed.
you're ashamed of your life, your past. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. That's all it is. You know, if
I can talk about my past life, all I'm talking about is death. If I talk about what I used to
be, used to do, I'm talking about death. It's got the smell of
death all over it. How in the world can I glory
in something that I say that Jesus Christ died for, that I
caused the death of? No, you're not. You're ashamed
of it. The end of those things is death. But now, being made
free from that sinful nature that you were born with, and
you have become slaves to God, servants to God, you have your
fruit unto holiness. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering. You have that. That fruit's there.
If that fruit's not there, the Lord's not there. And the end,
everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death,
or the wages here, the wages that sin pays. It's speaking
here of sin being a master. Sin being your sovereign, basically,
your master. It rules you. And at the end
of the day, here's what sin's going to pay you. Death. Death. That's what sin pays. You say,
oh, but there's pleasure in sin. Well, Scripture says there's
pleasure in sin for a season. But when that season's over,
you know what your wages are? Death. And that's not talking
there about judgment, that's talking about death. You're gonna
die. You're gonna die. Judgment comes after we die.
For the unbeliever. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God, not a way, see the gift. Eternal life is not
a wage that God's paying you because you're good boys and
girls, good men and women. Salvation is not a wage paid
to us. It's a gift given to us. And
there's one thing I know about a gift. If it's really a gift,
you didn't earn it. Those two terms, you know, gift
and earning don't go in the same language. They're not even in
the same room. If you're given a gift, you didn't
earn it. So the gift of God, the gift
of eternal life that God's given you, He's given it to you by
grace. You didn't earn it, I didn't
earn it. Don't deserve it at all. Sin will pay what, its wages
is death and it'll pay up. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I tell you what, that's been
a powerful chapter for me. Powerful. I told Ben, he was
mentioning last Sunday's message, I said, now listen, and I say
this to everyone here, go home, listen to the two messages that
Henry preached on it. I've listened to them four times.
I mean you're talking about a blessing and a much better handling of
this than I am able to handle. It's part one and part two of
Romans chapter six. Go home and listen to it sometime
this week when you have time. I'm telling you, it is a blessing. It is a blessing.