Alright, if you will, open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We're going to begin in verse 11. The Apostle writes here, likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments 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. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know
ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death
or of obedience unto righteousness? 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 unto you. Being then made freed
from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 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 unto iniquity. Even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the
servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit
had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants 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. My title tonight is Motivation
and reward. Motivation and reward. I hope
we can see our motivation to not serve sin and to serve God
in righteousness is Christ. And I hope at the end we can
see that our reward from serving the Lord in righteousness and
living in this earth and Him keeping us, our reward for that
is Christ. That's our hope. Now whenever
we first started here together, I began in Galatians. We laid
the foundation there in Galatians, justification by faith. We saw
that. Then we transitioned into Romans.
Romans is like a more broad spectrum view, but we're seeing what that
means. The facets of that. We're freed
from sin. And then on purpose, we're in
1 John on Sundays. So sometimes on Wednesday nights,
we go through harder things, have a little tougher things
to chew, and then come Sunday morning, we see the application
of that. We see how that lives out in believers' lives of trusting
Christ, loving Him, and loving our brethren. That's what the
end result is. But tonight, I hope we can see
that the motivation of believers to serve Christ and not ourselves
and that precious reward that's given to us on behalf of Christ's
accomplished work in and for us. But Paul's proved in the
beginning of this chapter, first part of chapter 6, that justification
by faith does not lead those that Christ saved, those that
he died for, into further sin. The Lord saving us by His grace
does not lead us to the sinciousness. Grace does not promote or encourage
sin to continue, much less abound. In our text tonight, Paul is
exhorting us to continue serving our Master from the motivation
we are given by the love that is found only in His Son. Paul
wrote to that church in Colossians, put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. That's our example. That's our motivation. So Paul's
speaking here in verse 11 to believers. Those that know the
Lord and they have been given spiritual life. To those in Rome
when this was written and to us today. It's to them and us. He's speaking to us. Romans 6
verse 11, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin. That word reckon there is impute.
Count. That means it's already there,
and you just happen to see it. Reckon ye yourselves also to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your immortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments 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." He's saying, be as
those that were dead in sin, but made alive through the Spirit. You know God, act like it. You
trust Him. Act on that trust. Lean on the
Lord. How can we do that? How can sin-filled
men and women yield ourselves to God and not to our old fleshly
nature? How can I do that? There in verse
14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. What
then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. Let's turn over to
2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Being given grace
from God, we are freed from the law. Sin still has a presence
in us, but it no longer has a reigning power in us. It doesn't reign
over us. With that in mind, what keeps
me and you from running wild? What keeps us from going out?
I get asked that often. What keeps you from just going
out and robbing banks? I guess they like money. Hell,
he's asking if I'm going to rob a bank. I'm freed from the law,
so do I go out now and sin? Do I go sin more? No. God forbid,
is what the apostle said. Since we've been freed from sin,
it no longer has dominion over us. And we now are constrained
by the love of God planted in us. Look there in 2 Corinthians
5.14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. If Christ had to give me His
righteousness, that means I didn't have any righteousness. If He
had to give me eternal life, that means I didn't have life
in me. I'm a mercy beggar, and He provided
that mercy, and now that He's made me aware of that, I'm constrained
by love. I love Him for it. Look at verse
15. And that He died for all, that's all His particular people
given to Him. That they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but live unto Him which died
for them and rose again. Look down at verse 17. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away, behold, all things are become new. That old nature
of wrath in me was replaced by a new nature of love. That old
nature of pride has been replaced by a nature of humbleness. I've
been humbled by Him. Our motivation of self-serving
is replaced with that motivation of serving the One who saved
us. Alright, back to our text. Now we're going to obey one or
the other. We'll either obey our old nature
or our new nature. Men and women born of Adam obey
the nature that is in them. From birth we serve sin. We come from the womb speaking
lies. But the new creature, that incorruptible seed, it only obeys
Christ. It is righteous. It is perfect.
And those given life in this new birth willingly and naturally
want to serve the Lord. That's our new nature. Every
person alive either gives themselves over to sin, willingly, or we
give ourselves over to Christ, willingly. It says there in Romans
6.16, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves, servants
to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey? Now do we turn
ourselves over to our sinful desires or do we submit to God's
holy high command? whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness. One or the other, we will either
fully and completely serve sin or we will fully and completely
serve in righteousness to the Lord. Now this is a proof to
men and women that they are saved. Do we still serve sin or do we
serve God? Do we love ourselves and hate
God or do we love the Lord and hate ourselves? It will be one
or the other. Sin is still present with us,
but do we serve it? Is that the dog that we feed?
Christ said in Matthew 6, No man can serve two masters, for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will
hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon. It is so easy for us to immediately
consider fleshly sin. when we hear those things. Well,
I quit drinking and now I go to church so I serve God. That's not the extent of it.
That's not what he's talking about. It's not just stopping
these outward sins. That will come, but that's not
the extent. Do we still love our will more
than the Lord's will? Do we still seek man's wisdom,
what I think is right, or do I seek the wisdom of His Word?
Do we serve our experiences, or do we serve the truth of the
Master's finished work, what He's already accomplished? Do
we still come to that throne of judgment on our terms, or
do we come to that throne of judgment and the only one that
the Father says He's pleased in? We come in Christ to Him,
our representative. Do we stumble around in the darkness
of our holiness, or do we walk in the light of God's holiness?
Which do we desire? Which do we want? Someone may
ask, how can I obey righteousness? How can we go from death and
sin to life in Christ? Look there in verse 17, Romans
6, 17. But God bethinked that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart. You have
obeyed from the heart. that form of doctrine which was
delivered you. Being then made free from sin,
ye became the servants of righteousness." Now obedience to God is a heart
work that was delivered to us. Just like a package comes to
my house. That obedience was hand carried to us. It was delivered
to us. It was opened in us and we received
it. Let's turn over to chapter 7,
over one page. Romans 7. The child of God has
a new creature in them, delivered in them. But that new creature
is housed in this body of death. That sin is still present with
us. Romans 7.22. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. in that new heart, but I see
another law in my members, that's the fleshly body, the old man,
warring against the law of my mind, the mind's the new heart,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members, old man. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind, I myself serve
the law of God in this new heart, In this new mind I'm given, I
serve God. But with the flesh, the law of
sin. Our motivation to serve the Lord
is formed in that new creature in us, the inward man. And to
serve the law of God, to believe Him, to love Him, to love our
brethren, it's now natural in that new man in us. The new nature
that's been put in us, been planted in us, delivered in us. Alright,
back in our text here in chapter 6. In times past, before the
Lord did a work in our heart, we fully gave ourselves over
to sin, and it was natural. Now, Christ's sheep will just
as naturally give themselves over eagerly to serve the Lord. Look here in verse 19, Romans
6, 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 unto iniquity, even so now yield
your members, servants, to righteousness and to holiness." What's that
mean? That's a hard thing to read.
I always like it when Paul says, I speak as a man, or I speak
after the manner of men. That means he's about to put
it in terms I can understand. He's going to put it in shoe
leather for us. But he says there, he says, I'm going to make things
real simple for you, because in this flesh, it's real hard
to grasp spiritual things. He says, for you have yielded
your members, servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniquity.
Our bodies' members, like we just read, that's our parts.
We live in this body, and that's what the Lord uses as an example.
Before the Lord did a work in our hearts, we surrendered our
eyes and our ears to sin. We wanted to see things we shouldn't.
We wanted to listen to things, preaching we didn't need to hear,
listen to anything. It wasn't good for us. We gave
our hands to work iniquity. Our feet walked in darkness,
and our mouth spewed blasphemies. We talked about our decisions
for God. We bragged on ourselves of what
we've done. We talked about our wisdom, how
smart we were, how wise we were. But just as those members, physically
and spiritually, were given to unrighteousness, Paul says, even
so now, yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto holiness.
Just as equally as it was natural and fully as you did it before,
you gave yourself to sin without thinking of it. He said, just
like that, do that in righteousness. Turn yourself over to the Lord.
John Guild wrote this, I think it's concerning one of the Psalms,
but he said, let your eyes be employed in looking and diligently
searching the scriptures of truth. Let your ears in hearing the
gospel preach to you, your lips, mouth, and tongue in expressing
the praises of God for what he has done for you. Your hands
in distributing the gospel and the necessities of the saints. and your feet in hasting to attend
on public worship and observe the testimonies of the Lord."
That's what that new creature desires. However, this ability
is not of us. Those desires and willingness
and effort we have to serve the Lord, it doesn't spring out of
this old nature. It doesn't grow up out of this old man. Christ
speaks this obedience into the heart of His people. He comes
in power and He makes us willing to do it. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 6 real quick. Matthew 6. Just as we used to
serve our sinful desires without care and without thought for
godliness, so much more should we serve our Master now without
care or thought of things of this earth. Matthew 6 verse 25, Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold
the fowls of the air, for they sow not, Neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they?" Verse 31. Therefore, take no
thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink,
or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. He's speaking of the unregenerate
man there. Jews, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
I pray I could be given the faith and grace to live without caring
for this world. I truly desire that. I wish I
could live boldly before all men, truly trusting my Heavenly
Father to provide all things for me. Not only just the clothes
I wear on my back, but that robe of righteousness He gives me.
I wish I could be aware of that, conscious of it. Not only that
water to drink on a hot day, but the living water He's given
us through Christ. Not only the food I need to sustain
me until tomorrow, but that living bread that will give me life
for eternity. I want to be bound to serving
the One that saved me. When He's shown a believer what
He's done for them, that desire is there. We want to be willing
bond servants. I want to know Him more and I
want to trust Him more. Our new nature is free to serve
Him. I wrote that down as one paragraph.
Our new nature is free to serve the Lord. Think about that. What
a thought! I'm allowed to serve Christ now. He gave me a new nature, and
that new nature is able to serve Him, able to worship Him. I have
nothing to worry about. I'm not bound to the law. I'm not bound to this world.
I'm not bound to sin. I'm bound to Him. I can just
look to Him alone. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Alright, back to our text. When we lived in unbelief, I
had not heard of the saving grace found in Christ. We were not
bound to serving Him. That hadn't happened yet. We
were not motivated to worship the true and living God. We may be motivated to worship
a God, but not the true and living God. We were free from Him, but
we were imprisoned in our sin. Look there in Romans 6 verse
20. For when ye were the servants
of sin, ye were free from righteousness. When we were in sin, we were
completely free, we were completely separated, we were dead to righteousness. We had nothing to do with it.
But just the opposite is true now. We are no longer servants
of sin. We're made free from sin and
we're made servants of righteousness. We're free from death and partakers
of life. We're free from condemnation
and we're the recipients of mercy. Now Paul asks us here, verse
21, do you miss it? Think back to before the Lord
saved you. Was there any benefit in it? Was there any fruit? growing out of that wicked branch.
Any benefit in living for ourselves, serving ourselves only? No. And
I'm embarrassed of my thoughts, I'm embarrassed of my words,
I'm embarrassed of my deeds, and I don't want to remember
them. And I'm thankful the Lord doesn't remember them anymore.
I don't want to return to those days. I don't want the good old
days. Look here in verse 21. What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. The Lord brought us to see that
all of our old works and all of our old deeds were filthy
rags. All my thoughts and deeds led me only to death. That was
the end state. But the Lord Almighty Through
His perfect wisdom and providence, led me to know Christ. Knowing
the Lord's providence brought me to know Him, I don't wish
for the old times. That's why I was thinking, I
love the 1950s. Tiki times, everybody had Hawaiian
shirts, especially out here. To me, that had been fun. Them
cars were nice. I like that. That's not for me. How do I know
that? Because the Lord's got me here.
The Lord's got me now. I don't wish for those old times.
There's nothing there but death. No fulfillment there. And you
know what the believer that's living now that may not know
the Lord or just heard of the Lord, this time's for them. Everything
throughout creation has led up to bring them under the sound
of the gospel so they can hear of Christ. And whenever they
grow in the Lord and live, walk with Him longer and see through
His providence, His keeping hand, His preserving power, they'll
look back and say, I wouldn't change a thing. I like it right
now. I know the Lord now. I want to stay right here. When I consider my sin-born nature,
not what I do, but what I am. Not what I do, but what I am. My glorying and rejoicing is
not of myself when I see what He's done for me, but it's in
the Lord. And God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved me, even when I was dead in sins, hath He quickened
me together with Christ." I'm thankful whenever someone
can say that for themselves. The Lord's given it to them to
believe on Him, and they said, Lord loved me. He did all this
work for me. So what does all this end up? When we see that our whole motivation
is the Lord's love for us, what Christ did for us. He's our example. He's the source of the motivation
to live for Him, to serve for Him. What does the end of that
work do in us? When a saint is set free from
the love of sin and the power of sin, we have the fruit of
holiness. We now have love, love for our
Savior. We now have joy. Now when we're
freed from the law, freed from condemnation, the warfare is
over. We now have peace. We're not warring against God
anymore. We have faith in Him. And now we're long-suffering.
We can be long-suffering to our brethren. Why? Because He was
long-suffering to us. And we have eternal life. We'll
live in Him forever. Look here in verse 22, Romans
6, 22. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruits unto holiness
and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord. It says there the wages of sin
is death. What's a wage? It's a payment
for work completed. It's a payment for work done. And outside of Christ, anything
a man or woman does is sin. That's all our old nature does
and that's all the work it can perform. And the payment for
that work, that long day we put in called a life, The payment
is eternal death. But our God's gift, His freely
given gift, is eternal life in His Son. Our works are the works
performed by Christ, our Lord and Savior, and the wage paid
for that work that Christ accomplished, that He performed, is eternal
life, is being conformed in His image, being made like Him. And
just like a husband goes out and works does a job, gets paid,
comes home. Anything I make, it's hers. It's one. She don't ask me if she
can go buy groceries. She goes buy groceries. It's
for us. It's one. We understand those
things. But we're made joint heirs with
Christ, our husband. We're his bride. He did the work
and we reap the benefits. I speak as a man. These spiritual
things are hard to understand. I don't fully grasp that. I can
enter into it a little bit. Oh, would I walk through this
world without a care if I knew what the Lord, His power is and
what He's done for me? I pray you're able to be made
to see Christ's love for us, His finished work. It is our
motivation. And He's not only our motivation,
He is the reward. I hope that was a blessing to
you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, forgive us. Lord, forgive our sins. We're
so unworthy and so weak, so powerless, we're dead. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for sending Christ.
be in our propitiation. How thankful we are that He's
the satisfaction we have in Your eyes. What a perfect sacrifice,
Lord. Thank You for His righteousness.
Thank You for His holiness. And keep us tuned to Him. Turn
our hearts to Him, Lord. Allow us to see Your power, Your
providence, Your holiness and wisdom. Let us trust You. What joy and peace we'd have.
Let us be long-suffering with our brethren. Thank You, Lord. It's in Christ's
name that we ask it. Amen.