Well, I'm certainly delighted
that you would be here again tonight. Hopefully, and my prayer
is to lift up Christ again from another passage of his dear word. And we want to thank you once
again for your hospitality. And somebody asked me one time,
you know, When we travel around and we sit down and have a meal
together, you know, where did you go? Where did you get the
best food? And I always say the last place I was at. But we certainly
have enjoyed your hospitality. The food has been so great. I
thank you all for preparing it. And hopefully the spiritual food
will even be greater. And that's what that's what we
want. If you want to turn to your in your Bibles to Romans
chapter 7. I'm going to start at the end
of Romans 7 and just read a few verses here at the end, verse
24, and go down to verse 2 of chapter 8. I'm sure you know
that in the original Bible there was no chapter or verse divisions. I'm certainly glad they're there
today so we can find them quickly. But the thought continues, that
what Paul started in Romans 7, it continues on. And what I want
to talk about tonight is three keys to Christian living. Three keys to Christian living.
Now, when I was in false religion, specifically false Christianity,
and studying the Bible as best I could without enlightened eyes,
I read a lot of books about Christian living. And later on, I found
out that the books I've been reading about Christian living,
the authors didn't even know what a Christian really was.
And I used to hear people say, you know, well, I want the world
to know that I'm a Christian. And one day, the Lord opened
up a passage of scripture to me in 1 John chapter three, where
the apostle John said, the world, will not know us. The world does
not know what a Christian is. And at the time, I didn't know
what a Christian really was. We can think about people who
would say, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one, which is not a
biblical saying. People will not be brought to
Christ by watching the way we live. Now does that mean it doesn't
matter how we live? Well of course not, it does matter
how we live. Our lives are to be consistent
with our profession and our hearts. But the Bible says it pleased
the Lord through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
come unto God. The word of God, faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God and it's God's word
and it's God who gives the hearing. Because apart from that we don't
have ears to hear and eyes to see. So when we talk about Christian
living and Christian witnessing, people say, well, I want my life
to be my witness. The gospel is our witness. Now,
should we live honest, moral, dedicated, sincere lives as good
citizens? Well, of course we should. But
that's not our witness. Our witness is the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I wanna show you that in this message. But when you think
about Christian living, you could go to a lot of different passages
in the New Testament, the epistles. You could divide it up into different
ways and different outlines and glean from that and learn from
that. But tonight, I'm gonna boil it down to just three simple
truths that we can build upon as we think about these things.
And I have three words that are easy to remember, the three keys
to Christian living. Number one is standing. Standing. And what I'm gonna
talk about there is our standing before God. What is my standing
with God? And the second word is state. And what I'm gonna talk about
there is our state in this world. What is my state? How do I exist
in this world? And then the third one is a big
word. Struggle. Standing, state, and
struggle. And I believe those three words
describe what true Christian living is. And let's look at
the passage here. Let's look at Romans chapter 7. You know
how the apostle at the end of this chapter He's describing
a struggle that he has within himself. But he concludes it
with verse 24, O wretched man that I am. Present tense. People say, well Paul must be
talking about himself before he was converted. The struggle
that Paul describes here is the struggle that only a regenerate
person could have. A born again child of God. The
natural man doesn't have this kind of struggle. Struggles,
he has natural conscience struggles, but not this kind of struggle.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death or this body of death? Either way. Verse 25,
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. Now go down to verse one of chapter eight. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now some scholars
say that that phrase at last is not in the original, but the
King James translators added it. That may be so, but the truth
of it is still there, and it comes later in vivid technicolor
in Romans chapter eight. But verse two says, for the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. He says, therefore. There is
therefore. Brother Mahan used to say, if
you see a therefore in the Bible, find out what is therefore. Well, what is he saying? Well,
this indicates that Paul's about to draw some conclusions here
from what he'd written before. That reaches all the way back
to Romans 1. And these conclusions that he's
going to draw here are based upon three realities, and I stress
realities, and I'll show you why in a moment. This is important
now. Paul is not dealing in any kind
of fiction or play-like or as-if situation here. This is reality
for every sinner saved by the grace of God. And he's going
to draw these conclusions based on three realities of God's grace
that apply to every one of God's children without exception who
have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ. They apply to everyone
who's been brought by God to believe in and rest in, focus
their heart and their attention on Christ for all salvation,
all spiritual blessedness, all the benefits of salvation, looking
unto Him, the author and the finisher of our faith, and who
have been brought by God with the gift of repentance, of dead
works, and idolatry, repentance of sin, sin in all of its manifestations. And these are three basic tenets
of true Christianity and living a true Christian life here on
earth. And here's the thing we need to understand at the outset.
All three of these things are products and the fruit of God's
free sovereign grace in Christ Jesus and based upon the merit
of his blood shed for our sins. They're not anything or in any
way earned or deserved by us. They're all gifts from God. And
it comes to us through Christ. It's through His righteousness.
That's the merit of His obedience unto death, which God has accounted,
charged, and imputed to us. And all three are realities,
as I said. And I don't want to just spend
time repeating myself, but I want to stress that because That fact
is under attack today. Much of what I'm gonna tell you
tonight, there are preachers who call it illegal fiction.
But it's not a fiction. It's how God sees things. Do
you know that how God sees things is more of a reality than how
we see it? Because we can be deceived. Let God be true and
every man a liar. All three are realities for God's
people, and it's evidenced by God-given faith in Christ. And
so as I go through these briefly, you might ask yourself, is Christ
really my whole salvation? Is He my wisdom? Is He my righteousness? Is He my sanctification? Is He
my redemption? My all in all? Well, first of
all, here's the first word, standing. What is my standing before God? Now, the only way that I can
know what my standing before God is, is by what God reveals
to me in his word. I can't know it by feeling. I
can't know it by circumstance. Whatever situation I am in this
world, I can't know it those ways. I have to know it because
God has revealed it in his word and given me faith to believe
it. That's the only way we can know it. It's what God says.
It's not what other people say. If I went by what other people
said about me, I'd probably have horns and a tail. But I don't do that. I don't
do that. He goes, I want to know what
God says. That's the issue. Because how God sees me, that's
the way it is. And let me say this, however
God sees me in my standing before Him, now listen to this, it never
changes. It never varies. It never wavers. Now I change all the time. You
change all the time. We're healthy, we're sick, we're
sad, we're happy. Good times, bad times. And sometimes
even in this issue of sin, you know, we can stray. I love what
Brother Mahan used to say, we're on God's leash. He won't let
us go. But our standing before God never
changes. What are we talking about? We're
talking about a believer's, you might say it this way, and I
don't have any problem with this, and I don't know why people do.
Because I'll tell you something about God, He's a just God. He must be just. He's a righteous
judge. And our standing before God is
our legal standing before God in Christ. Now, people say, well, you're
just talking about a legal fiction. Oh, no. You see, it's God that
justifies. Is that a fiction? Not with God. All of this, here's what I'm
saying. In Jesus Christ, I, a sinner,
who deserve nothing but death and hell, right now, who have
earned nothing but death and hell, I, a sinner, have a perfect,
righteous standing before Almighty God. How is that possible? How is it possible? It's by God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's so. Perfect standard. My sins are
forgiven. And it's based upon the glorious
person and the finished work of Jesus Christ. There is, verse one, therefore,
Now, and that's not something that began in some point of time. That's the eternal now. It's
always been. It always will be. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. What does
it mean to be in Christ Jesus? It means that God chose me in
Christ before the foundation of the world. This is not new
to God. Oh, it was new to me at one time.
New to you, but not to God. He chose me in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And he gave me to Christ. Somebody asked me about that
last week. They said, I don't know what it means that he gave
us to Christ. Well, here's what Christ said about that, John
6, 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. He made Christ my surety. That's what it is to be in Christ.
He's my surety. That means that all of the debt
of my sin was imputed. And let me tell you something.
Now, imputation's not a dirty word. It's a word of blessing. And it's not a legal fiction.
It's a reality. Christ took my debt on Himself. He was like, when Paul spoke
to Philemon about Onesimus, the runaway slave, who had defrauded
Philemon, and he said, Philemon, if he owes you anything, put
it on my account, I'll repay it. Forgiven. On what ground? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sins. Paid for. No condemnation. Now, do I deserve
condemnation? Based upon my works, I deserve
nothing but condemnation. Have I earned condemnation? I
fell in Adam. I was ruined by the fall. I was
born dead in trespasses and sins, and everything that proceeded
from me was nothing but sin. Even what the world would call
good works. Fruit unto death. And here's what this means, this
standing, my standing before God. It means God cannot impute
sins to me, because He's imputed them to Christ, who died as my
surety, who suffered as my substitute, and who paid my debt as my Redeemer. There's no debt to be paid now,
Christ paid it all. This means that God has imputed
Christ's righteousness to me so that I cannot be condemned.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. I'm legally not guilty in God's
sight. That's my standing right now.
I'm righteous in God's sight. Not in your sight, but in God's
sight. And I'm still a sinner. Somebody said, well, you need
to get better. I agree with that, but it ain't gonna help me. It's
not gonna change my standing, not with God. And that's evidenced
by God-given faith in Christ. I love that passage in Psalm
130 when the psalmist said in verse three, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? None of us. Aren't you glad he doesn't mark
iniquities? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn me? It's Christ that died. And all
that happened before I was born. And that didn't become real when
God showed it to me. It was real before. This legal standing in Christ
is the foundation and ground of my whole salvation. It's my justification. Justification
does not mean just as if I've never sinned because I have sinned
and I still sin. But it means God does not charge
me with my sins. It means my sins are forgiven.
It means I have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
requirement, His justice, and it cannot be taken away, and
it cannot be contaminated. It's Christ, washed in His blood,
clothed in His righteousness. And that was true even when I
was an out-and-out rebel God-hater. You agree with that? Oh no, God waited till he changed
you, or you changed you, or, oh no. You see, God's mind never
changed. I love those, I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob,
you sinners saved by grace are not consumed. It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. When did God purpose mercy towards
his chosen people before the foundation of the world? Doesn't
the Bible speak of a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began? Do you see what we're dealing
with here? Do you see how great and marvelous and awesome and
mind-boggling this whole thing is? There's nothing like this in
the annals of human philosophy and religion. Nothing! A God who is both a just God
and a Savior. Think about that. When I was
lost in religion, I studied comparative religion. I looked at the philosophies
and the ideas of men, and there was nothing to even compare with
what we have in Christ, in God's Word. I remember hearing Brother
Mayhem preach the first message that I always say where God really
got my attention. I wasn't converted, It was a
message that Brother Mayhem preached, and I thought, I've got to hear
more of that. I've got to search that out more. It was from Isaiah
45, a just God and a Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. And I thought, I've studied philosophy,
I've studied religions, and I've never even heard that even dealt
with. But in God's word, it's the heart
of the gospel, isn't it? If God ever shows you how he
can be just and justify sinners like us, you've heard the gospel. We're in the righteousness of
God is revealed. That's our standing. It never
changes. False religion says it changes
all the time. You know, if you don't straighten
up, you might be condemned. You might lose your salvation.
Or you can enhance this standing by your, oh no, There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that
the grace of God? Grace. Sin demands death, but
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's my standing before God.
But now here's the second one. Now Christian living is living
in light of that standing, knowing by God-given faith That that's
how I stand with God in Christ. And you know what that does?
That forces us to look away from ourselves and to look to Christ
alone. That's what it does. But here's
the second word, state. What is my state on this earth
right now? Well, the Bible teaches us that
we start out in this existence, this human existence, as fallen,
Depraved sinners. We fell in Adam and we're born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And our state of depravity,
in darkness, in deception, in ignorance, is how we begin this
life. I read it last night in Ephesians
chapter two. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. And my friend, you understand
now that that includes even the most religious, moral person,
even to the dregs of society. If you wanna really see the reality
of total depravity, tell somebody the gospel and see how they react.
If they can walk away from it, ignore it, deny it, that's total
depravity. It's not just looking at the
brothels and the drug dens and the drunk tanks, all that, that's
all bad stuff, that's all sin. But depravity comes forth because
Satan has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. That's how we start our natural
state in this world as we're born. Look back at Romans 7 and
verse 5. Here's our natural state. This
is how we start out in this world as we're born in sin and depravity. He says, for when we were in
the flesh, that's all we were by nature, just flesh. Sin, that's
what that is. That's not just talking about
the physical human body. Christ had a physical human body,
but he didn't have sin. But that's all we were, sin.
And he says, the motions, the passions of sins, which were
by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. That's our state by nature. That's
how we begin. And let me tell you something.
That's how we'll stay except God sovereignly and powerfully
intervenes. In that state of depravity and
sin, No human being is going to wake up and come out of that
of their own free will. They don't have a free will,
it's in bondage to that flesh. There's no spark of goodness
there. There's no bent or leaning toward
the things of God. Whether you're religious, whether
you're the most brilliant example of humanism, there's no life
there. But at some point, if we have
a right standing with God now, at some point in time, the Bible
says it this way, when it pleases the Lord, He's going to bring
us by His Spirit under the truth of the gospel, and in a sovereign,
invincible work of powerful grace, He's going to raise us from the
dead. in the new birth. And he's gonna
give us life from the dead. That's what he's gonna do. And
he does it under the gospel, not under the preaching of a
lie. You see, a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit. He's going to bring us to see,
look over at Romans chapter six and verse 17. He says here, but God be thanked,
Romans 6, 17, but God be thanked that you were the servants of
sin. Now a servant of sin refers to an unbeliever. Any unbeliever,
it doesn't just refer to somebody who's immoral in the eyes of
the world. Before God brings us to see the
glory of Christ, to see our sinfulness, to see Christ in his glory and
his way of salvation, we are all slaves to sin, even in our
religion. That's our state as we start
out. But you were the servants, but you have obeyed from the
heart. Now what do we know about what
the Bible says about the natural heart? It's desperately wicked. Who can know it? This heart is
the new heart. He said, I'll give them a new
heart. I'll give them a new spirit. I'll give them life from the
dead. And you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine,
that doctrinal stamp which was delivered to you, or which you
were delivered to. Being then made free, liberated from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. Now to be liberated from sin
here is not that you now no longer sin. It means you are liberated
from the darkness and deception of sin that keeps you from seeing
the glory of God in Christ. And now you're a servant of righteousness.
What is it to be a servant of righteousness? I'll tell you
exactly what it is. It's to be a servant of Christ who is our
righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. Jehovah
Sid Canoe. And then we're into a state of
grace. Then God has given me faith to believe and to see my
righteous standing before Him in Christ. Then He's brought
me to repentance of dead works. Look at Romans 7 and verse 4. He says, Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. What
is it to be dead to the law? It means the law cannot condemn
me. It means the law is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. And how
did that happen? Well, it happened when you believed. No, sir. How did it happen? By the body of Christ, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. That's how it happened. And he says, that you should
be married, united, wed to another by faith in Christ, even to him
who's raised from the dead. That means righteousness established,
sin put away, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. The
fruit of faith, the fruit of repentance. The fruit of following
Him, made free. He's delivered us from bondage.
He's delivered us from Satan's deception. and brought us to
faith in Christ in light of the Gospel. And yet, we know that we're still
sinners. But where do we go for relief? When we're convicted of our sins,
when we're down because of our lack of love and lack of obedience,
where does He drive us back to Christ? For relief. for relief. And that's our state
in the world. And when we're brought into that
state by the power of the Spirit in the new birth, then we see
our complete, full, unchangeable, righteous standing before God
in Christ. We believe in Him. We rest in
Him. And then let me give you the
third thing. When God brings us to faith in Christ, repentance
of dead works, then begins the struggle. And I can't emphasize enough
of what a struggle it is. Now, you may say, well, preacher,
doesn't the Bible speak of when we believe in Christ, there's
peace? Yes, it does, and I thank God for that peace. Peace with
God. Based on what? The blood of Christ. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. Peace reconciled to God based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed to us. Doesn't the Bible talk about
a peace which passes understanding? Yes, it does. But my friend,
as much as we love and bask in and think on this peace, there's
still a struggle. And what is that struggle? It's
called a warfare. Over in Galatians chapter five,
it speaks of it. The warfare within every true
child of God. All who have a righteous standing
before God, all who have been brought to faith in Christ and
repentance of dead works, there's a warfare. And here's what it
says in Galatians 5, 17. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things you
would." Somebody said you cannot do the things you would in the
issues of the flesh and sin. You can't go the full swing.
And others say you can't do the things you would in obedience
to Christ. Here's the point. Within every
one of us who have a righteous standing before God, who have
been brought to a state of grace and spiritual life, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, our life here on
earth is a struggle, it's a warfare. And it's mainly a warfare within
ourselves. The warfare of the spirit and
the flesh. It's a warfare with the world. It's a struggle with
the world, but Christ told his disciples, in the world you'll
have tribulation. Well, where's there any peace
and comfort? He said, be of good cheer. I've
overcome the world. You see, my victory over the
world is not something I accomplish. Christ has already accomplished
it. And we'll have a struggle with Satan. He says, be ready to understand
and to know and to Find the ways of Satan, he'll attack, and he
says, put on the whole armor of God that you'll withstand
his wiles. But my victory over Satan is
the blood of Christ. Read Revelation 12 sometimes,
it tells you about that. He's the accuser of the brethren.
But his accusations cannot stick to one who has a righteous standing
before God. To one who's washed in the blood
of Christ. But our warfare is mainly within
ourselves. Our struggle to persevere in
the faith, to walk after the spirit, to war against the flesh,
to stand firm against all enemies. It's a warfare for us to cling
to Christ and live by his word. Did you know that? We persevere because he preserves. If he didn't preserve, we would
not persevere. And why is it such a struggle?
It's because even in our present state here on earth, as born-again
people, we're still plagued with the remaining power and influence
and contamination of the flesh that keeps us from attaining
by our works and within ourselves the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. Listen to what Paul wrote. Go
back to Romans 7. In verse 14, he said, for we
know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. Verse 15, that which I do, I
allow not. Things that I do, I don't approve
of. For what I would, that I do not. But what I hate, that I
do. What is it Paul wanted to do?
He wanted to be like Christ. He wanted to be conformed to
Christ. But he said, I can't achieve
that. In fact, he said he didn't even know how to do it. Think
about that. Verse 16, if then I do that which
I would not, I can sin unto the law that it is good. It's not
the law's fault. It's my fault. Now then, it's
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Paul's not
shifting the blame here on some entity within himself. He's just
simply saying that you're not seeing the real me. Now, what
does he mean by that? You may see me at a bad moment.
But that bad moment doesn't tell you the reality of what I am
in Christ. Do you understand that? If you
would have walked upon King David when he was committing adultery
with Bathsheba, if you judged by sight, you'd say, that's a
lost man. Do you know that was a man who had a right standing
with God? And that was sin. That was the
flesh. It was wrong. It's not to be
encouraged, it's to be discouraged. We're to war against that, fight
against that. But see, that doesn't tell you
the whole story of who I am. I'm a sinner saved by grace,
washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness,
looking to Christ for my whole salvation. Somebody said, well,
that'll give people an excuse to sin. They don't need an excuse,
friend. It's a struggle, it's a warfare,
and it's every day. Somebody asked me one time, well,
when's it gonna end? When I die. That's when it'll end, I go to
be with the Lord. Why does God leave us in this
struggle? Let me give you this in conclusion.
He does this to show us that our salvation is now and forever
by His grace and His power in Christ. It never lets up because
God will have it that we never depend upon self. We always look
away from self and look to Christ. He does this to keep believers
looking away from self and continually looking to Christ for all salvation
Forgiveness, for all righteousness, for all eternal life, and all
glory. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. That's it. It's like the disciples
when Christ, when they had the storm, and they got their eyes
on themselves instead of on Christ. And then when he was walking
on the water and then Peter went out looking at Christ and he
got his eyes off Christ and he sank. That's what happens to
us. When we get our eyes off of Christ
and what he's accomplished, his glorious person and his finished
work, we sink. But he won't let us sink to drown.
He'll hold us up. This keeps us continually realizing
that we are totally dependent upon the Lord for our salvation
in its beginning, in its continuation, and in its culmination. I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that what? He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him. And what have I committed
unto Him? My whole salvation, my whole eternal destiny. This
keeps believers continually giving God all glory for all salvation
by His grace in Christ. I can't take credit for anything
in this. Any benefit, any blessing of
salvation, I cannot take credit for it. I cannot glory in myself
because of it. All credit, all glory goes to
God. Even, you know, Matthew 5, 16, let your light shine before
men that they may see your good works and do what? give you the
key to the city? No. Draw attention to you? No. Glorify your father which
is in heaven. Because it's the fruit of his
goodness, the fruit of his grace, the fruit of his power, it's
his work in us. He gets all the glory. This keeps
believers continually giving thanks to God. Thank you, Lord,
for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so
rich and free. That's it. Our standing before
God, chosen in Christ, justified by his blood and righteousness,
redeemed by his blood, our state being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, redeemed by that blood and brought to
faith in Christ and repentance, and then our struggle, which
the victory's already been won. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. Amen.