you to turn to the sixth chapter
of Romans. We sure have a lot to be thankful
here, don't we? We do live in troubled times,
and I don't care what anybody says, we live in a troubled country.
But we have a lot to be thankful for when we compare what we have
compared to what God has given other people. I can't help but
wonder what our brother Lance Heller and his wife Robin are
doing right now in the jungles of New Guinea. They got big bugs down there. I don't like bugs. I know I shouldn't, but I squash
them. And it's hot, even more hot than Tennessee or Kentucky
or South Carolina. Or to be over in one of those
deserts where they are lopping people's head off just because
they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a lot to be thankful
here. I get up every morning and I
got hot water to go take a shower. I open up that box that's plugged
into the wall in there and it's got food in it. Milk, water,
meats, cheeses, all the things that are bad for me. Okay, there's sweets in there
too. I think you're getting my point,
aren't you? This morning though, I want to
look at something that, to be quite honest with you, until
I saw this verse, I didn't put a whole lot of thought about
the gratitude that I should have for it. Look at verse 17 with me, if
you would, for a moment of chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 17. But God be thanked. that ye were the servants of
sin. But ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you." Now, I want you
folks to be careful not to miss this, that very first thing that
started off there, the word but. Our text opens with it and refers
us back to what Paul had just told us in the previous verses
about all that we have experienced in God's saving grace. All that we confess in believers'
baptism, all that Christ has accomplished for us in redemption,
all that the God, the Holy Ghost has wrought in us by His grace
and regeneration, The blessed assurance God has given to every
sinner who trusts His dear Son, that sin shall never have dominion
over us again. We're redeemed. The price is
paid. Sin no longer has dominion over
us, but there was a time when it did, didn't it? There was
a time when we had no care for the things of God, And we walked
about through this world, as it says in Ephesians 2, living
lustfully according to our own desires, dead in trespasses and
sin. We've been saved by the grace
of God. By His grace alone, we are saved from the cost of that
sin. We are saved from the judgment
towards that sin. Our Lord who gave Himself to
be judged for us, who gave Himself to be our substitute, took care
of that for us. We were dead indeed unto sin,
but now we are alive unto God. Christ is our life and we live
in Him. After assuring us of those things, Paul, the Apostle,
writing by divine inspiration, says this very thing to you and
I. He says, but God be thanked. But God be thanked. That ye were the servants of
sin. I'm telling you folks, What a
great reason to be thankful of God. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. Every saved sinner has great
reasons to give thanks to God for His infinite wisdom, His
matchless grace in saving us precisely as He has from sin. This is what Robert Hawker wrote
about those very words that we just read. He says, for myself,
if I know anything of my own heart, I hope that I can truly
say I hate sin. I hope that, don't you? Sometimes it doesn't seem like
it, does it? But I truly hope that I can say that and mean
it with my heart. I hate sin. I would not willingly, he goes
on to say, nor willfully commit a single sin for the world. Yea,
I loathe myself and my own sight for sin, the sin of my poor fallen
nature, and sin becomes more bitter to me as Christ becomes
more precious. But with all this, I say I would
rather be a sinner saved, and saved in such a way as I am saved,
by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you have never known sin, neither known Christ as my Savior
would be worse." You getting the picture? Now most read the passage of
scripture this way, God be thanked that though you were a servant
of sin, but that is not what the text says, is it? The text
says this, but God be thanked that ye were the servants of
sin. The words of our text as they
stand in our translation are precisely accurate according
to the commentators that I've read from. They are in exact
agreement with the Greek text that was written, the original
text. If you try to add anything to it or take anything from that
statement, you will do injury to it. Read it exactly how it
is. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin. You say, what are you saying,
John? What are you trying to tell us
here? Are you saying the apostle would
thank God that we were once in the drudgery? and the wickedness
of Satan in doing His service? Should we thank God for that?
Is that what you're saying? Paul says that exactly, doesn't
he? If God's glory is thereby more advanced, if sin is overruled
by Him to show forth His greater glory, we must indeed say exactly
with Paul, but God be thanked that ye were the savants. the
servants of sin. The Holy Lord God, by infinite
wisdom, infinite wisdom and grace, has made our sin and our misery the occasion of our greatest
possible blessedness. When Jonah died in the belly
of the fish, You and I would sit here and think today, if
that was us, it would be a pretty terrible thing, wouldn't it? But Jonah came out of that belly
saying this, salvation is of the Lord. Could he have learned
to say that any other way? What a blessedness to know that
salvation is of the Lord. Yes, we say thank you. Thank
you, Lord, for bringing us through all the things that we have come
through in this world. That's a strange thing for people
to say, isn't it? Because there's some pretty terrible things in
this world that people can go through. I know of one who was raised
with a father that do unspeakable things to them. Yet that very one today thanks the Lord for everything
that they went through. I can't even imagine. You see, our Lord says in Romans
8.28, all things are for the good to them that love Him. And
our Lord is truth, folks. Even the things that we may not
know the good they are for us, we can share and bring good to
others with, as Mike Gelati once pointed out to me. He said, John,
sometimes the Lord takes us through things just so we can share them
with somebody else. I spoke with a friend of Mike
Lovelace's via email. who's going through some trouble
over on the other side of the world from us in the United Kingdom. And my only advice to her is
that our Lord takes us through these things so that we can give
encouragement to others. We've already gone through that.
I didn't share with her with this, but I've seen my brother
encourage people who've dealt with cancer with their children. young children who've gone through
cancer. I've seen our pastor Gene Harmon deal with my brother
when my brother lost his son, knowing exactly what that was
like because he had gone through that. Paul's answer is clear. God be
thanked that ye were servants of sin, just as poison is sometimes
made a medicine for healing, and sickness of the body has
made the means of health for our souls. The sin and the fall
of Adam and our sin and our fall in him laid the foundation for
the revelation of Christ as a Savior and Redeemer. Do you imagine that we could
ever have known our blessed Christ as our Savior and our Redeemer
had not our shame and sin afforded us an opportunity to see Him
as that? He didn't come here to heal those
who needed no healing. He came to heal the sick and
the lame. And I for one am thankful that
I was one of the sick and lame. Because that's what drew me,
just as the woman who had an issue of blood was drawn to Christ
for healing, I was drawn to my Lord and Savior, seeing the sin
that was in me. Now don't misunderstand me here. I'm not making any excuse for
your sin, or for any man's sin, or for my sin. There is no excuse
for it. We do not attempt by any means
to escape our own responsibility for our sin or to charge God
with it. James 1.13, it says, God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. My sin is
my own. And if you're a child of God,
you know that yours is your own. Our great God is so infinitely
wise, so gracious, that He turns our greatest misery into our
greatest good. And He sovereignly overrules
our sin to make it an occasion for our eternal blessedness. Does it not say in Romans 8.28,
all things? Does that not encompass all things? Including what we were at one
time? Jonathan Edwards wrote it this
way, he said, Divine wisdom has found out a way whereby the sinner
might not only escape being miserable, but that he should be happier
than before he sinned. I thought that put pretty well
that he would have been if he had never sinned. Folks, by the
redemptive work of Christ, the sins of God's elect are turned
into a means of accomplishing a greater happiness, a greater
joy, an everlasting glory that we could never have known if
we had never sinned. Our Lord's Word says, where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. Our great God in His infinite
wisdom, He ordained our fall in our father Adam, and He overrules
our abounding sin, that His own elect might forever enjoy the
superabundance of His matchless, free, amazing grace, and that's
the title for this morning's message. You know, we think about
the amazing grace, I think about when I sing that song, how great
and amazing it is that my Lord would look upon me at all. being
a sinner. But after reading this Scripture
in Romans 6, I think to myself, you see how much bigger the picture
just gets? His grace is not only amazing
that He would look upon us as sinners and save us as sinners,
providing Himself the payment as our substitute for our sin, He didn't leave us to that sin. Our great God in His infinite
wisdom, and I've already read that. Sinful man is brought into
a near union. Closer. a closer union with God
in the person of Christ Jesus as our substitute than we could
have ever enjoyed had we had never known sin. If we had never known sin, Christ
would not be our surety. If we had never known sin, we
would not need a substitute. But now that the Lord in His
grace has revealed what we are to us, to our hearts, showing
us what we are, We see His grace. We see that God has assumed our
nature in the person of His Son. We see that we are members of
His body. We see the Son of God who died
in our place. We see Christ as our brother
and our husband. We see Him who is our brother
and our husband, and He is our surety, and He is the one who
is responsible for us. He's the one who will keep us.
He's the one who will surely have us. Our temporary situation, our
temporary separation from God by sin has been made the means
of our eternal union with God in Christ by redemption. Look
over at the 17th chapter of John, will you? Hold your place there in Romans,
we're going to come back to it. John chapter 17, beginning at
verse 20, we read this, Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also, which shall believe on Me through their word. That
they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee. That they also may be one in
Us. That the world may believe that
Thou hast sent Me, and the glory which Thou hast
given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are
one, I in them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and
hast loved them as Thou hast loved me." Saved sinners, by reason of their
sin, have greater and fuller knowledge of God. They have greater
and fuller knowledge of His glory. They have greater and fuller
knowledge of His grace, His justice, His holiness, His love for them,
than we could ever have possessed had we never sinned. We see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, our dying substitute. And in His death we have the
love of God commended to us. In Revelation 1 verses 5-6 we
read this, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings
of the earth, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests, unto the
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verses 19 and 20. What? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God? And ye are not your own? For
ye are bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Would we have known
that we belonged to God if we didn't know that He went to the
cross and paid for us? Are you getting the picture?
Do you see why we can be thankful to God for what we once were?
For the sin that we had to go through? Folks, there's some terrible stuff that
you and I have to go through still. We're going to lose loved
ones. Don't try to think you won't.
We all do. Family's going to go through
sicknesses. If we can thank God for not leaving
us in our own sin and showing us our Savior, cannot we be thankful
for the troubles that are before us? If for no other reason to share
our Lord and Savior with those who go through those very same
troubles. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look at
verses 14 and 15 with me if you would. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all
were all dead. and that he died for all that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again." Now look over at 2 Corinthians
5 verse 16 and 20 through 21. Wherefore, henceforth know we
no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after
the flesh, we now henceforth know Him no more. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things
are of God, who has reconciled us unto Himself. by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we, now then we, because of what our Lord has done for
us, because God put His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to death
for our sakes, taking our sins into the grave and coming out
free. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for He hath made Him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. You see where the glory is going?
It's where the glory needs to go every time I speak. Fallen men saved by grace have
a greater and more sensible dependence upon God. A greater and more sensible dependence
on God than he could otherwise have had. And God is glorified
by His creatures depending upon Him. Fallen man saved by grace
knows by painful and abundant experience that he has no hope
but the free grace of God in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who
is our all and all. Fallen, helpless man cries out
these words, The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore I will
hope in Him. Did you ever notice in Genesis
2.17 that the forbidden tree was called the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil? Did you catch that? God is the one who planted that
tree, isn't He? He planted it in the midst of
the garden and He ordained that our father Adam eat that fruit
of that forbidden tree to taste the evil of sin. That's right. because He had wisely, speaking
of our Lord, and graciously determined that the elect might know the
great and glorious good of redemption." How are you going to know how
good redemption is if you don't need to be redeemed? Plain and
simple, huh? Look again at our text. Look back again, Romans 6, verse
17. Verse 17, But God bethanked that
ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. You were a servant of sin. But God has come to each and
every one of His children in the day of His love, and removed
that bondage of sin from us by taking it and placing it on His
dear Son, our Lord and Savior. Being then made free from sin,
ye became the servants of righteousness. We're no longer servants to that
flesh. We now serve our Lord and Savior
with our spirit. I want to turn away from sin,
but I'm not going to be able to totally do it until the Lord
takes me from this flesh. We continue the battle. But here's
the wonderful thing about it, folks. Our Lord's already won
that battle for us. He won that battle 2,000 some
odd years ago when He hung on that cross. Today, we are the
sons of God. not tomorrow, not when He takes
us from this world. Today we are the sons of God. Live like it. Live like it. What are we to
fear? Fear of sin. Verse 19, I speak
after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh,
for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity, even so now yield your members, servants to righteousness
and unto holiness. For when ye were servants of
sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye were now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death, but now being made free from sin and become service to
God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting
life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord." Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Faith in
Christ is the obedience that Paul is speaking of in the 17th
verse. I ask you this morning, will
you obey that form of doctrine that is set before you? Our Lord
doesn't say, go out and feed the poor and you shall be saved. He does say, go feed the poor.
But he doesn't say, you shall be saved for doing it. What does
he say, you shall be saved for doing? Whosoever believeth on
me. And our faith is His gift to
us. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, praise the Lord. What else can we do but praise
and give thanks to our Savior for His amazing grace that He
sheds in our lives, not leaving us to that sin that we were once
servants to. But we can be thankful that we
were once servants to it, because now we see that we are servants
to Him. To His righteousness. To believing
in our Lord and Savior. Oh, what love our Father has.
Look at Luke chapter 7 if you would, and I'll bring this to
a close. Turn to the book of Luke chapter
7. beginning at verse 36 through
the end of this chapter, and we read, And one of the Pharisees
desired him, desired Christ, that he would eat with him. And when he went into the Pharisee's
house, and sat down to meet, and behold, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat down to meet
in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment.
A sinner! Not a Pharisee, not a self-righteous
one, but a sinner. And stood at his feet, behind
him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and then
wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet,
and anointed them with the ointment. Pay close attention, folks, because
this is what it would be like to not know that you're a sinner.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within
himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that had touched
him, for she is a sinner." Our Lord did know she was a sinner. That's what He came for. He didn't
come for the Pharisee sitting there. He came for that woman.
And when she knew she was a sinner, she got down and worshipped Him. Which is what we do. It's what
we do. Not just coming here on Sunday
mornings, folks, but we do it all day long. Thank You, Lord,
for bringing every stoplight between here and Sacramento in
my way. I'm sure there's something down there that You saved me
from. Thank You, Lord. I'm worshipping my Savior. Thank
You, Lord, for the trouble that is coming to my life with my
boss. Because I needed that trouble
for one reason or another. Thank You, Lord, for the trouble
that is coming to my body because I have a disease of some kind
that could kill me. Because, Lord, You know better
than I do. And Jesus answering, verse 40,
said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. Remember
what it just said in that last one? Now the Pharisee which was
bent saw it, and he spake within himself. He didn't even speak
outward. He didn't speak outward. Our God knows everything, folks.
And if He knows everything, can we not trust everything to Him? I have some what to say unto
you, He says. And He saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. One owed 500 pence and the other
50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me, tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and he said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto
him, our Lord, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the
woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into
thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath
washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of
her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time
I came in hath ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou
didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, Thy sins are forgiven, And they that sat at meat with him
began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also?" Who are you to forgive sins? This man in the flesh.
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in
peace. Now I have a question for you
folks. Do you have any sin in your life? Do you seek a Savior as this
woman needed? Then come. Come to the One who
came here to this earth to save sinners. Come to Christ. Believe on the true and living
God, Jesus Christ the Lord, and thou shalt be saved. The simplest
way for you to understand that verse in Romans, we do not glory
in our sin, we glory in Him who revealed
it to us. Think where you would be this
very day if God had never revealed your sin to you. You'd be out there in the world, just like I would be, living
after the lust of our flesh, fulfilling our own desires. Aren't
you thankful for our God's amazing grace? He that glories, let him
glory in the Lord.