This morning I want to talk to
you a little bit about doctrine. And my main text out of Romans
6, I love this chapter, obviously I love all the scripture, but
this chapter sets forth some of the most fundamental principles
of salvation and God's grace. For example, it speaks first
of a believer's standing before God in Christ, our legal standing,
our righteous standing before God, where he makes the statement
here in verse 7 of Romans 6, for he that is dead is freed
from sin. Well, in what sense are we freed
from sin? Well, the word freed there literally
means justified. justified from sin. And what
is it to be justified? Well, it means to be forgiven.
We're forgiven of all our sins. We're sinners. We haven't stopped. We've never been freed from sin
in the sense of, well, we now stop being sinners when God saves
us. I've often said there's only
two types of people here on earth. There's sinners lost in their
sins and sinners saved by grace. And I love that hymn, I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.
This is my story. To God be the glory. You want
to hear my story? I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
But that freed there means justified. It means to be forgiven. And
that forgiveness comes on the basis of the blood of Christ.
This is how we stand before God in Christ. We're sinners, but
we're forgiven. The forgiveness of sins. Do you
realize how blessed that is? To be forgiven of all our sins.
Not just past sins. Not just original sin. But all
sins. And that's what it is. The blood
of Jesus Christ covers us from all sin. Forgives us of all sins. And so that's our standing before
God. And to be justified is to be forgiven. But to be justified
also means to be declared righteous in the sight of God. And that's
our standing before God. God has declared His people righteous,
not because of anything done by us, or anything done in us,
but because of what Christ has done for us. And that is our
justification. And that's all based upon the
imputed righteousness of Christ. But then he transitions here,
as the Holy Spirit inspires the Apostle Paul, he transitions
here from our legal standing before God in Christ to our state
in this world as those who have been justified and those who
are born again by the Spirit. regenerated by the Spirit. Now
when he says in verse 14, for example, for sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under
grace. The main crux of that is this, we cannot be condemned. The law cannot condemn us. We're
under grace. It doesn't mean that we're lawless
people and that we promote immorality in the name of grace. That doesn't
mean that at all, because we're to be obedient servants of Christ.
But it simply means that sin shall not have dominion over
us, shall not rule over us, in the sense that our sins cannot
be charged to our account. And I love Romans 8. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? We cannot be charged. And if we can't be charged, we
cannot be condemned. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. And here's, that's the foundation
of it all. Christ, the death of Christ,
as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, our life giver,
our keeper, We could go on and on, couldn't we, about it? So
sin cannot condemn us. Our sins were charged to Christ
and he was condemned in our stead. And as the old writer said, he
drank damnation dry. That's the cup that was given
him, the cup of God's wrath. Think about him on that cross.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What an awesome
thought. The Father. forsaking the son. And how did he do that? Well,
we know that it's a substitutionary work that Christ performed and
finished on behalf of his people. So, he comes to this point here
in verse 17. He says, but God be thanked that
you were, or as you were, the servants of sin, but you have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. Now that's the title
of this message, that form of doctrine. That form of doctrine
which was delivered you. Now that form of doctrine was
delivered to you in the preaching of the gospel. But the literal
translation of this would go like this, and you may have this
in your concordance or in your center reference. It's that form
of doctrine where to you we're delivered. And what that means
is God brought you, brings His sheep under, He delivers us to
where we could hear the gospel. The gospel preached. I know where
I first heard the gospel. You know what? It was preached
to me, but God put me there. That's what that's saying. That
form of doctrine which you were delivered to. God put you, if
you're one of His sheep, and this is the case of all of Christ's
sheep, God will always bring them to the field, to the pasture,
where they hear the gospel. And so He says in verse 18, being
then made free from sin. Now as you recall, the word freed
in verse seven means justified. and it refers to our righteous
standing before God in Christ. The word free here in verse 18
means liberated. It has to do with a subjective
writing of the law on our hearts in the blood of Christ that frees
us in our minds and in our affections and in our wills and in our conscience. And so being then made liberated
from sin. Now, how are we liberated from
sin? Well, hold on. You became the servants of righteousness. Now, this thing of doctrine. You know, a lot of people spend
a lot of time talking about doctrine and really kind of painting it
in a negative light. I hear preachers talk about dead,
cold doctrine. Well, I know this. The doctrine
of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of grace is anything
but dead and gold. Now, I can talk about the dead,
cold hearts of sinners who are in our natural state, were born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. If I preach doctrine to you and
it doesn't reach your heart, the doctrine's not the problem.
It's not the problem. You're the problem. I'm the problem. I hear preachers say things like
you don't arrive at Christ through doctrine, you arrive at doctrine
through Christ. Well, it is Christ by the power
of the Spirit that brings us to the right doctrine, the preaching
of the gospel and the truth. You know what doctrine is? The
word doctrine just simply means teaching, teaching of truth. There's false doctrine. People
talk about how the Pharisees were straight in their doctrine,
but as empty as a gun barrel. Well, let me let you in on something.
The Pharisees, they were not straight in their doctrine. Christ
called them a crooked and perverse generation. Their doctrine was
a lie. Christ said, beware of the leaven
of the scribes and the Pharisees, and the disciples didn't understand
what he was talking about at first, but after he taught them,
they understood. He's talking about their doctrine,
what they teach. And what were they teaching?
Well, they were teaching salvation by works. They were teaching
justification by your efforts. That's terrible, that's dead
doctrine right there. Somebody says, well, doctrine
does not save a sinner, Christ saves sinners. Well, that's true.
But he always brings his people to salvation through doctrine,
and that's what this verse teaches. I heard somebody say, well, I
don't wanna preach doctrine, I wanna preach Christ. Well,
let me tell you something, that's impossible. If I'm gonna preach
Christ, I gotta tell you who he is, don't I? And that's the
doctrine of his person. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
manifest in the flesh. Now that's doctrine. And if I
tell you about Christ, if I preach Christ, I've got to tell you
about what he did on the cross in his obedience unto death as
our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. That he shed his blood
for a particular people. given to Him by God before the
foundation of the world, as He was made their surety, as He
became incarnate to save them from their sins, He was made
under the law, made of a woman to redeem them that were under
the law. You see, all of those things are doctrine. You know
Christ, He preached doctrine. At the end of the Sermon on the
Mount, It says in Matthew 7, 28, listen to this, it says,
after he finished the Sermon on the Mount, it says, it came
to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at his doctrine. So what is doctrine? Well, it's
teaching. We could go, I could read you scriptures on and on
and on about the glory and the beauty and the, the life-giving
doctrine of Christ and what it means and how it works out. But in all of this, we want to
see exactly what the Lord has for us here. Let's look at it
again. But God be thanked, verse 17, that you were the servants
of sin. Now what is a servant of sin?
Here in this context, a servant of sin is a slave to sin. That's
speaking of all of us by nature before the new birth, before
regeneration. That's what we were, servants
of sin. Now we may have been moral and
religious, or we may not have been, but we're still by nature
all servants of sin. Look at verse five of chapter
seven across the page there. It says, For when we were in
the flesh, now what does that mean? Now we still, even as believers,
have the flesh in us. It's never improved. It's always
there plaguing us. We're in a warfare, the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. Isn't that right? But to be in
the flesh is to be lost in our sins. It's to be unregenerate. It's to be an unbeliever. And
so he says, for when we were in the flesh, the motions or
the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. Now that's a good description
of what Paul's writing over here in verse 17 when he says, you
were the servants of sin. You were spiritually dead in
trespasses and sins. You were unregenerate. You were
in unbelief. You were lost. All of those things. So that's our natural state.
Now, make a distinction. This is always good to do when
we read the Scriptures. To make a distinction between
a believer standing before God in Christ, which never changes,
and our state in this world, which does change. if you're
one of God's elect. Because we all start out spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. That's totally depraved. That's
our state in this world. And at the time that God is pleased
to bring us under the gospel, this doctrine which He delivers
us to, and send the Spirit to give us life, impart life and
knowledge, and faith and repentance, our state changes from a servant
of sin to what he calls a servant of righteousness. Now, how does
that come about? Well, he says, look at this in
verse 17, but you have obeyed from the heart, that form of
doctrine. Now, what is the heart in the
scriptures? I heard a preacher one time,
he said that the difference between saved and lost is one foot, 12
inches. from here to here. Now that sounds
good, but it's not true. Because this right here, this
organ pumping blood, that's not the heart that the scripture's
talking about. And I know what he meant by that. You know, we
like to romanticize, we like to get a Hallmark card every
now and then, you know, get emotional. We like that stuff. But the heart
is the mind. And it reaches to the affections
and to the will. It's through our minds, the teaching
of God. He teaches us. Look over with
me at John chapter six. How does God bring a sinner from
being a servant of sin, unregenerate and unbelief, to being a servant
of righteousness, which is to be a servant of Christ? How does
God do that? Well, look at John 6 and verse
44. And I could show you so many
scriptures on this, but look at verse 44. Now Christ had already
said that all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He said,
this is the will of the Father that sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, that I should lose nothing, but raise them
up at the last day. Well, look at John 6, 44. Now,
no man can, that's the word that we get our English word dynamite
from. It means power. No man has the power or the will
to come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. We were talking to Brother Craig
about this. That word means drag, like the dragnet. And he says,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now how does
the Father draw us? Look at verse 45. It is written
in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. God's gonna
teach us. Now, he uses poor pitiful guys
like me and Norm. and other teachers to do that.
He uses us clay pots. That's what the scripture says.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. But if you're
drawn to Christ, it's not the preacher who draws you. He's
just an instrument. He's just a signpost. That's
what John the Baptist said. I'm just a voice. Behold the
Lamb of God. If you're drawn to Christ, it's
God who did that. It's the irresistible, invincible
power of the Spirit. It's not your free will. It's
not a spark of goodness that some preacher has fanned to make
it aflame. It's all of God. It's His power. and His grace
and His will. Now He makes us willing in the
day of His power through the teaching. And He says, look at
verse 45, it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
what? Heard. That's the here and here,
isn't it? By nature, we don't have that.
By nature, our ears are deaf to the things of the Spirit,
the natural man. But he gives us a hearing, a
hearing ear. And what do we hear? We hear
the gospel. And my friend, that's doctrine.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. That's doctrine.
It's truth. And it says, therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father. Now, what does that mean? It's not simply saying that we
learn that God is everybody's father. You know, man by nature
thinks that. Isn't God the father of us all?
Well, the answer's no. This means God's redemptive character. His father, He's my father. How can He be my father? A loving
father, a gracious, merciful father, and still be my righteous
judge. That's what we learn in the gospel.
And it's through Christ. It's by His grace through the
blood and righteousness of Christ. And if you ever learn that as
taught by God through a preacher, you know what you'll do? You'll
come unto Christ, cometh unto me. And that's what he's talking
about. Go back to Romans 6 now. You
obeyed from the heart. And what did you obey? And that's
the new heart. He said, I'll give you a new heart. The natural
heart is deceptive. You remember what Jeremiah said?
The heart is deceitful. Desperately wicked. Your natural
heart, my natural heart will always deceive us. Religiously
or in however other way. And what does God do when he
teaches us? What does God do when he brings us under the preaching
of the God? He gives us a new heart. He gives
us a new way of thinking. Thinking about ourselves. I'm
not worth saving. That's what he tells me. I'm a sinner who deserves nothing
but death and hell. I'm a sinner who cannot rise
above my sin in any way. That everything I am and everything
I do in myself naturally is nothing but sin. That's called total
depravity. That means without Christ, I'm
nothing but sin. And so it brings me to see that
I am at the mercy of God. To save me or to damn me. God
would be just to do either one. If He damns me, He'd be just
to do so. If He saves me, He'll be just
to do so. And so I take my place with that
old publican. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the only thing we have
to bring to God. Somebody said, well, bring your
best. Well, I'll bring my sin. Because that's the best I have. I don't have any claim upon God. And God is sovereign. And it's
by God's will that I'm saved. God is the source. You see, the
doctrine of unconditional election, it's not just Calvinism. It shows me that God alone is
the source of my salvation. God alone is the power of my
salvation. God alone, it's His will alone
that saves me. Yes, He changes my will. He gives
me a new heart. He makes me willing in the day
of His power. But my friend, it's His sovereign
will. He said, I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll
be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. And you know what? He said, that's
my glory. That's God's glory. Did you know that? When God said
that originally back in Exodus 33, He was answering a question
that Moses posed. God, show me Your glory. And where does God's glory reside?
in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. So he says, you've
obeyed from the heart. Well, that obedience, how does
that come? It comes by the power and the will of God, who draws
us, drags us, as the scripture said, to Himself and He teaches
us. And in giving us a new heart,
He makes us willing to believe and obey. his will, his gospel,
his way of salvation. That's why the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
He's not being drawn by God. And he says again, which was
delivered you, which you were delivered to. Aren't you thankful
that God brought you under the preaching of the gospel, the
true gospel, not just religion, but the true gospel. Now, he
says you obey from the heart, that form of doctrine. That word form is an interesting
word. That word form, have you ever
heard, I'm not a mechanic or anything like that, but I know
what tool and die is. And I think the die is a form
or a model that they use to make tools or to make machinery or
whatever. And that's what this word form
is. It's like a die. It's like a stamp. It's like
a pattern. It's an identifying mark. It's
the same word in 2 Timothy 1 verse 13. Listen to this. Hold fast
the form of sound words. There is a form in this doctrine. It's not just what you think.
It's not your opinion. It's not the product of man's
discussion and intellect. It's a message of truth that
God has set down and cannot be changed. Cannot be altered. So he says, hold fast the form
of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. Do you remember when Christ was
with his disciples and he said, look, in John 20 and verse 25,
he showed them the print of the nails in his hands. That word
print is the same word as form here. In the book of Titus, Paul wrote
that we should be a pattern of good works. That word pattern
is the same word as the word form. A pattern, you know, in
Hebrews 8, 5, it talks about how God showed Moses the pattern
of the tabernacle, how it was exactly to be made in its dimensions
and its materials. That's the word form. So what
this word form is, is this. It is something that is distinct
and identifiable. It's not blurry. It's not unclear. It's the gospel. wherein the
glorious person and finished work of Christ is preached at
and identified and distinguished and made distinct from all false
gospels, all false Christ, the doctrine of Christ. It's the
truth of God, the truth of all things that God uses to bring
a sinner to salvation. And thank God he gives us a heart
to believe in, a heart of faith. A new heart. Somebody said that's
radical spiritual heart surgery. The call of the gospel is not
give your heart to Jesus. The call of the gospel is Lord
give us a new heart. Well, what has to happen? He
has to give us that new heart. Now, look at verse 18. He says,
being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
Then, what is that? When you're born again. When
you're brought under the preaching of the gospel and God gives you
that new heart and you obey from that new heart that form of doctrine.
That's when you were made free from sin. You were liberated
in your mind, your affections, and your will. How are we liberated
from sin? Well, as before, I was in the
darkness of unbelief, but God gave me faith. to believe in
Christ, to rest in Christ, to submit to his righteousness.
Whereas before I was in the darkness of false religion, but now God
has given me repentance to turn away from all that and count
it but loss in light of the glorious gospel of Christ. Whereas before
I was motivated by legalism, Fear of punishment, fear of hell,
fear of death, or mercenary promises of earned reward, but now I'm
motivated by grace and love and gratitude. Whereas before I had
a warfare in my natural conscience that stirred me up to be a Pharisee,
but now it's the warfare of the flesh and the spirit, whereby
it always drives me to Christ for salvation, for righteousness,
for forgiveness. That's the liberation. Christ
said the truth shall make you free. That's what he's talking
about. What is a servant of righteousness? Look at it again. Being then
made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
What is a servant of righteousness? Well, that's when God gives you life and you start
on the road to making yourself righteous more and more each
day. If that's what you think, you're
still a slave to sin. What is a servant of righteousness?
A servant of righteousness is a servant of Christ who is our
righteousness. We believe in Him. We rest in
Him. We follow Him. And Paul writes
here in verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of
the Firmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded your members
as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now yield your members, servants to righteousness unto holiness."
What he's talking about is that we are to be in the service of
our Savior, not in order to be saved, but because we already
are. Not in order to make ourselves
righteous and be acceptable with God, but because we already are.
We're already dead to sin, freed from sin justified. Now we're
liberated in our minds by the power of God through the doctrine
of Christ. And that's what he says in verse
20, look here, for when you were the servants of sin you were
free from righteousness. You didn't know anything about
righteousness before God drew you to himself. You thought you
did, I thought I did. I thought righteousness consisted
in me walking an aisle, confessing Christ, getting into the baptismal
waters, and then trying to serve him, and when I didn't, rededicating
about a thousand times. I thought that was righteousness.
Paul, when he spoke of righteousness as a lost man, he thought he
was a physical descendant of Abraham, a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee, all of those things. He thought that was righteousness.
At one point in time, we thought righteousness was doing the best
we can do. But what happened? That's when
we were free from righteousness. But when God drew us by the power
of the Spirit, what we found out is that righteousness can
only be defined as it's revealed in the perfection of Christ.
The obedience unto death of Christ. And we serve Him. And that's
what distinguishes us. That's what holiness is. It's
being separate and distinguished from the world. And so he says
in verse 21, what fruit had you then and those things were of
you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death. When
we were in the flesh, Paul said, we were so proud of our works,
so proud of our religious activities, so proud of our decisions, but
what happens when when he draws us under the gospel and gives
us a new heart to obey that form of doctrine, that gospel, Christ,
what happens? We're now ashamed of what we
were then proud of. Think about that. All my religious
activity, all my religious doings that I was engaged in before
I saw the glory of God in Christ under the gospel, I used to be
so proud of that stuff, now I'm ashamed of it. Now I count it
lost, even dumb, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ. And that's what Paul
says here. Look over at Romans 7 and verse
6. He says, but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead
wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit
and not in oldness of the letter. To serve in newness of spirit
means to be motivated by God's grace and God's love and gratitude.
How did we get that way? Look back up at verse four of
Romans seven. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
become dead to the law. How did we become dead? What
is it to be dead to the law? It means the law cannot condemn
us. The law cannot judge us in any way so as to condemn us.
How do we get that way? Well, I made a decision for Christ.
Or I walked an hour, I got baptized. No, look at it. You become dead
to the law by the body of Christ. That's his sacrifice. That's
his substitutionary work. that you should be married to
another, not married to the law, but married to Christ. Even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should what? Bring forth
fruit unto God. That's what the obedience of
a believer is. It's fruit unto God. It's the
result, the outcome of being in the vine who is Christ. He's
the vine, we're the branches. And we don't produce fruit, We
just bear it. We bear it. It just comes out. We'll go back to verse 22 now,
Romans six. But now being made free from
sin, you become the servants to God. You have your fruit unto
holiness, that is, that which distinguishes us from the world
and the end of everlasting life, for the wages of sin is death.
That's what we earn. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And don't you remember, think
about it, when you first began to hear that doctrine, that form
of doctrine. I know when I first heard it,
I was totally against it. But God broke my will and drug
me to it. And boy now, it's the greatest
message in the world. There's nothing to replace it.
Okay.