Start with me here. I'm going
to turn this off because I can hear myself through the speakers
now. Does it really? OK. All right. If you can stand it, I can stand
it. OK. Well, it says here in verse
15. For sin shall not have dominion.
What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Shall we continue
in sin? Now, we've been talking about
sanctification, and the apostle here is still dealing with sanctification.
Last week, we talked about the foundation of our sanctification,
the same place where our righteousness is at, in our union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. God set us apart in our union
with Christ and justified us. And God separated those that
He justified. from the guilt and punishment
of sin because of our union with Christ. Look what it says back
up there in verse 7. He that is dead is freed from
sin. Now Christ died to put sin away. And we died with Him. And when
a man raises from the dead, he has no more obligation to the
law, to its guilt, its punishment, or its justice. And so you see,
beloved, and because of our union with Christ, We're set apart
under this justification. And then sanctification, and
this word sanctification just means set apart. It means to
regard and treat someone as holy, as if they are holy, because
God made us that way. Holiness, and I want you to always
understand this. Don't ever, ever forget this.
Holiness is a state of being. It's a state of being. You'll
never be more holy at one time than you will another. Now, will
God be more holy at one time than He is at another? Will Christ
be more holy one time than He is at another? And in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's where our sanctification is, that's where
our holiness is at. And you find folks trying to
live a holy life, you find folks, it's miserable. You find folks,
it's miserable. But by our sanctification, and
our sanctification by our union with the Lord Jesus Christ has
a practical side. A practical power. You remember
I told you about Sunday morning, you know, doctrinal preachers,
practical preachers, and experiential preachers. We're going to talk
a little bit about the practical side of this business of sanctification,
the practical power of it. And this is what we'll deal with
in these verses. He says there in verse 14 again,
sin shall not have dominion over you. Why won't it? Because you're
not under the law, but you're under grace. Romans 6.14. Nothing. Now, sin shall not have
dominion over you. You're not under the law of grace.
Nothing is more certain than this truth. Nothing. Sin shall
not rule over you. Sin shall not reign over you.
That's what it said. It said it shall not do it. God's
promise, God's purpose, God's grace, God's Spirit, they're
pledged to prevent sin from any low person. And the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ not only puts sin away as to its penalty,
which is death, but He also put it away as to His power over
us in His reigning power over us. Now, here's a new problem
that they come up with. You know, when you start preaching
grace, and you preach justification by faith, and salvation by grace
in such a way that you take everything out of the hands of men, the
first thing they'll say is, well, you all believe you because you're
saved by grace, you can continue in sin. You believe you can sin
all you want to because of the way you believe in grace. Well,
they come up with another thing, Sid, and that word continues
in sin in verse 1, in order that grace may abound. And down here
in verse 15, what then? And they bring up another problem.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? So you see what there said is,
is that, shall we continue, shall we practice sin, continue on
in sin, live in sin, because that grace may abound. And here
in verse 15, the question is this, are we to practice sin
because grace does abound? Now the question is different,
and the reason is different. Oprah in Romans chapter 6 and
verse 1, it deals with the state of our sin. Shall you continue
in sin? How can you continue sin when
you're dead to sin? And here he says, well, since
you're not under law and you're under grace, well, then you can
practice sin every once in a while. You can practice sin. You can
do a sin and get by with it. One deals with the state of sin,
the other deals with the act of sin, what we do. And then the reason why we're
not to sin is because it says here we're not under law. We're
not under law, but under grace. And I tell you, you know, I don't
know how many people I've talked to over the years. They're scared
to death to let folks get out of the law. They think that if
you let folks out of the law, that you've got nothing to restrain
them. You've got nothing to keep them from sinning. You've got
nothing to teach them what sin is, and that they'll continue
on in it. But beloved, the law is what gives strength to sin. Legally, most of us in here are
married. We're legally married in the
sight of the law. But is it the law that keeps
us married? Is it the law that keeps us living
together? Is it the law that makes us love
one another? No, the law, beloved, is not
our task answer. It's the love of Christ Jesus.
But look where, under law, this means ruled by a principle as
the principle as a covenant of works. Do this and live. Here's
what the law does. It commands us to do things,
but it can't control us and make us do it. The law can order us
around, but it can't enable us to do one thing. The law can
tell you to love, but it can't cause you to love. The law can
tell you not to lie, but it can't keep you from lying. The law
can tell you thou shalt not covet, but it will not keep you from
coveting. And there's three things about
being under the law here. God's commandments, He orders
perfect obedience. If you're going to be under the
law, you've got to render perfect obedience to it. Perfect. I mean
not part of the way, not 99%, perfect obedience to it. And
then God's promise of reward is this, for perfect obedience
is that you'll have everlasting life because of your perfect
obedience. If you perfectly obey the law,
then God will take you to glory. And then God's threatening of
punishment for falling short of that perfect obedience. It
shall be perfect to be accepted. That's why the apostle last of
Galatians says, you that desire to be under the law, don't you
hear what the law says? Abraham had two sons. One was
of a bondwoman. She was a bondwoman. And her
child come out from under bondage. She was a slave. So her child
was a slave. But Isaac was the one of covenant,
the one of promise, and he's the one that's the heir. The
bondage cannot live with the free children. The free children
in Abraham were saved by the way Abraham was, by supernatural
act of God. And by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Then what does it mean to be
under grace, then, if you're not under law? What does it mean
to be under grace? Well, it means two things. Let me give you two
things quickly. It means when we see grace, understand
grace, teach God reveals grace to us, that's exactly what it
is. It's a revelation. God reveals His character and
His will to us as gracious. Gracious. I will be gracious,
God said. I will have mercy. I will have
compassion. And beloved, do any of y'all
ever remember God being a hard-passed master? He has always, always
thought to his manager that you had to do something to satisfy
him, had to do something to get on his good side, had to do something
to appease him. You know, if you had a frat tire,
the first thing you thought was, what in the world have I done
that God called me to have this frat tire? If you got sick, one
of your children got sick, the first thing you said, oh Lord,
what have I done? Where am I seeing that? That's the nature. That's
what we were raised under that stuff. But boy, when God revealed
His character as gracious God, the God of all grace, the God
who will be gracious, the God that Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord, the God whose will is a will of grace towards
us, and then grace also will be under grace as God gives us
grace. He fills us with grace. Grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. And He gives us in this
grace the power, power to overcome the power to obey. Under grace
cannot possibly give us a license to sin. God's people are not
looking for an excuse to sin. We're looking for strength to
avoid it. Let me show you something here in Romans 5, too, just a
moment. Let me look at this here, talking about grace. What it
means to be under grace. You know, we need grace preached
to us so strong, so pure, so free, so sovereign, and man's
such need of it that we only think in terms of grace. And
look what he says here in verse 2, "...by whom also through Jesus
Christ our Lord, by whom also we have access by faith." Now
watch this, "...into this grace we're in restating." We're standing
in grace. Standing by grace, standing through
grace, standing to call them grace. Now back over in our text
over here. But oh, he goes on and he says
there, watch him, verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we're
not under the law but under grace? And Paul, he says, oh God forbid. He's indignant about it. He's
indignant about it. It troubles him. And then look
what he says again. Remember he says, no you're not?
Well, here he says, no you're not. You know this. You're not ignorant of this.
That to whom you yield yourself service to obey, His service
are to whom you obey. And what He said is, if you give
yourself up, whom you give yourself up to obey, that's your master. If you give yourself up to obey
sin, to follow sin, to live in sin, then sin's your master.
Sin rules over you. Or else you yield yourself up
to the obedience of Christ, the will of God in Christ, His will,
His word, Christ in His person, Christ as your master. You submit
unto Him under righteousness. And I'm telling you, if you give
yourself over to sin, it's a dead giveaway. You live in sin, it's
a dead giveaway. That's the grace of God not eating
you. And if you, by the will and grace of God, obey with the
heart man believes unto righteousness, and if you yield yourself over
to God, and that's an obedience that don't make you righteous,
you're obeying because grace has already made you righteous.
Don't you see? Huh? Oh, the tenor of our lives, the
tenor of our lives reveals our Master, who our Master is. It
does. And what do you enjoy? That's
the thing about it. What do you enjoy more than anything
else? Do you enjoy the Lord's people? Do you enjoy the gospel?
Do you enjoy grace? Talking to Ruby today, she's
crying because she can't come be in the service. She's weak. She's crying because I can't
come be with her. I can't come hear the gospel.
I can't come see my brothers, my folks in the church that I
love so much. She's crying over it. Her heart was breaking over it.
And then she started preaching to me and telling me about a
message she heard yesterday. Oh my goodness, it was so good.
I wish I would have been the one to preach it to. She was
talking about Brother Henry. But listen, when we're talking
about, oh, should we continue in sin because we're not under
the law but under grace? God help us. God help us to never
yield to the subtle temptation. Let us sin not that grace may
abound, but let us sin because grace does abound. No, we're not going to do that.
And then look what I'm talking about a new master. Now, if you
yield yourselves to sin, you're going to obey it. It'll be sin
unto death. If you'll die, the wages of your
sins are going to be death. And if you Obedient to the will,
the Word, the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's your Master,
and you love His will, you love His Word, you're righteous. But
God be thanked, look what he says here, but God be thanked
that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you.
Being made free from sin, you became what kind of servants? service of righteousness. I speak
after the manner of men. Excuse me, I'll stop there. You
see, grace enables us. Grace enables us to be under
subjection to righteousness. Now listen to me. There ain't
but one righteousness, and that's the righteousness of Christ.
And that's what this obedience is. It's under His righteousness.
We're not looking for another righteousness. We're not looking
to our obedience to produce a righteousness. We're not looking by our obedience
to make ourselves more acceptable to God. Grace enables us to be
under subjection unto the righteousness of Christ, and believe in the
righteousness of Christ, and not look for another righteousness.
And where grace enables us and we're under subjection to the
righteousness of Christ, it destroys the love for sin and subjection
to sin. Oh, isn't that what he says?
But God be thankful. What's this? God bethink you
were, you were the servants of sin. Huh? And that's where servant
means a slave. And what a slave will do is determined
by the master to whom he belongs. What a slave will do is determined
by the master he owns. Look with me over in Exodus 21.
I think I used this here just recently. What a slave will do
will be determined by the master to whom he belongs. If you've got a mean master,
a hard master, they can make you do a lot of
things, but they don't have your heart. But boy, if you've got
the right master, oh, it'll determine what a slave will do and how
he'll act. He says in verse 2, excuse me, verse 1, Exodus 21,
now, these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, Six years shall he serve, and
in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came
in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married,
then his wife shall go out with him. If his master hath given
him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out
by himself. And if the servant, now listen
to this, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master,
I love my wife, I love my children, I ain't fixin' to go out free.
You're just too good to me. You're just too good to me. And
that's why he says, you were in the service of sin, but God
be thanked. You were, you're not anymore.
And I'll tell you, for the kind of master we have, Phineas, master,
shall bring him unto the judges. And God looks at us right now.
God sees us the way we are. He shall also bring him to the
door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with it all, and he shall serve him. For how long? Forever. So back over in our
text again. And that's what he says. May
God be thanked that you were of the service. He said, now
listen to this. But you have obeyed, listen now, from the
heart. From the heart. Nobody made you
do it. God gave you a new heart. And
it says you're from the heart. Huh? Salvation is a heart work. A heart obedient to the gospel. And then he says, you know, God
deals with the heart. It's the heart that bleeds unto
righteousness. And you have obeyed from the
heart. Now watch this, that form of doctrine which was delivered
unto you. Now, if you look in your margin of your Bible, if
you've got The Bible has got definitions in it. It says, the
doctrine which were to you were delivered. Not delivered to you. You were delivered in. And God
be thanked. And that word, form, means the
same thing as a mold. You were the service of sin,
but from the heart. You've obeyed. You love the Gospel.
You love your Master. And that form, that mold of doctrine,
you were to deliver it unto or hand it over to. And you know,
Everybody knows what it is to build a farm, to pour something,
to pour concrete or something like that. You build a farm,
and you pour into it. Well, God delivered us to a form
of doctrine. A form of doctrine, and He put
us in that form of doctrine. He molds us, and the doctrine
that we hear, the truths that we hear, shapes us and forms
us and molds us. Don't you see? And we were handed
over in. We weren't handed to us. We were
handed to it. We would never believe the grace
of God if it wasn't for the grace of God. We would never believe
we were sinners as we are if it wasn't for the grace of God.
We would never believe that we have a righteousness strictly
of another without the grace of God. We would have no hope
of eternity And facing God without sin right now, and without sin
in eternity, and be no more righteous in eternity than we are right
now. You can't believe that apart from the preaching of God. And oh, the believer, God
placed the believer in a mold, in a form. And he's shaped by
it. And he works it in his heart.
And then look what happens then. When that form of doctrine is
delivered unto you, since God delivered it to you and delivered
you unto it, you've obeyed from the heart, being then made free. Not you hope to be made free,
you think you're going to. Being then made free from what? Sin. Oh, being made free from sin. Now, I want you to see something
back up here again in verse 7. Romans 6 and verse 7. Here he's
talking about justification. Free here means that he that
is dead is freed from sin. That means he's justified from
sin. Now here when it says we're made free from sin, that means
we're liberated from a tyrant, from a despot, from a tyrant,
from a monster that rules over us, sin. Here it's liberated
from the tyrant of sin. And so we're made free from sin.
Look what else it says. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants, the slaves of righteousness. Righteousness is your next term.
You think in terms of righteousness. You think in terms of the way
that God has done something for you. No middle ground here. There's no middle ground. You're
either a servant of sin or a servant of righteousness. No middle ground.
No middle ground. Either you're a slave to sin
or you're a slave to righteousness. You're bound to sin or you're
bound to Christ. No middle ground. Now look what
he says in verse 19. I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you yielded your
members service to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members service to righteousness. And
what he's saying here, he said, I speak in familiar human terms. Why does he say this? Because
of the weakness of your flesh, the infirmity of your flesh.
And we're so slow to understand spiritual truth. And he talks
about yielding yourselves. First of all, as you have yielded
your members' servants to uncleanness. You did that. And then he says,
even so, now yield your servants unto righteousness, unto holiness.
You either yield them, and he's two yields here. One, you once
yielded yourself as members to uncleanness and nigglety, and
now you yield your members, your body, your mind, your soul, your
heart, your thoughts, your emotions, your affections, your self, your
heart, what you are. You yield yourselves, members,
to righteousness. Huh? And oh, look what he says
there in verse 20. He said, For when you were the
servants of sin, when you were the slaves to sin, you were free
from righteousness. You didn't know a thing in the
world about righteousness. You didn't know about God's righteousness.
You didn't know about Christ's righteousness. You didn't know
about righteousness, period. When you were slaves of sin,
you were not righteous before God. You wasn't righteous in
yourself. You had no interest in or no
interest in for righteousness or wanted a righteousness. And
that's what our Lord meant by no man can serve two ministers.
And I love this right here. Unless you think about this.
Now, he asked some questions then. Verse 21. What fruit had
you been in those things whereof you now are ashamed? When you
were lost, whether he is lost in the world or whether he is
lost in religion, what fruit had you in those things where
you're now? You're now ashamed of the way you thought of God.
Now ashamed of the way you thought of yourself. Now ashamed of the
things you did, the places you did, the things you said, the
people, how you treated people. You're ashamed of the life that
you had. What fruit had you then? Well,
I'll tell you what fruit you had. For the end of those things
is death. You're ashamed of them now. And
that was the fruit that we had. It was going to be unto death.
That's what it was going to be. Even our religious past is ashamed
of that. And it would have led us to death
had not God intervened. But now, look what he says in
verse 22. But now, look at your present. That's what he says.
Look at where you're at right now. But now, I love those nows
all the time. They're always now. Now in Christ
there's no condemnation. Now being made free from sin. Now being made free from sin. Look where you become service
to. To God. And what kind of fruit you have
now. Fruit of the holiness. And what's the end of it? Life. Eternal life. Sin, shame, death. Righteousness, being made free
from sin, you become servants of God, now you have fruit unto
holiness. Oh my, you were slaves to sin,
now you're servants of God. With fruit you used to be ashamed
of, now you have fruit that you're not ashamed of. Fruit unto holiness,
fruit of the Spirit. Love and joy and peace and faith. and the end of its everlasting
life. Now listen to this right here. You know, in the context
of this, when we get down to verse 23, this is a law of God's
government in this universe. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now this is speaking to the same people he's been talking
to, primarily to believers. Huh? And what he's saying, for
the wages of sin is death. This is speaking primarily to
the believer, not to the Lord. And what he's saying here is
wages is what is earned. But life is God's free gift given
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying here, what
a blessed master we must have. What a blessed master instead
of paying us off with judgment and justice, and hail that we
deserve, what does He do? He gives us grace. What does
He do? He gives us life. What does He
do? He gives us righteousness. What
does He do? He takes us out from under the
law. He gives us an atonement. He gives us justification. And
how does He do it? Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So how can we continue in sin? Let me give you three observations
real quick. First of all, here in verse 14.
Go back to that. That was the text we started
with. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're
not under the law, but under grace. That's a promise. God
says sin shall not have dominion over you. God promised that.
Sin will have dominion over you. You say, sin's going to be my,
it's going to be the death of me. You just don't know what
I'm like for you. You don't know what I think.
You don't know what I feel. You don't know what I say. You
don't know what goes through my mind. You don't know what
goes through my flesh. You don't know how I act sometimes. God
said sin shall not have dominion over you. It'll not reign over
you. And that's God's promise. Now,
I'll tell you why I know it's true. Look at what God did to
destroy sin and His power to put it away. He sent his own
Son into this world, and through a sacrifice for sin, put sin
away once in the end of the world. God made Christ to be sin, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness of
God in Him. God delivered His Son up for
us all. It's Christ that died. Do you
reckon God would let sin reign over us after Christ has put
it away? After Christ, God paid such an
awful, awful price to put it away for His elect? Do you remember
the spies? You know, they went down to the
land there and they come back out there with a bunch of grapes
on a pole. I mean, it took two men to carry
the grapes on a pole. I mean, they had to be some big
grapes. They had them on their shoulders. And they come back
in there and they said, oh, the land is good, but we're unable
to possess it. They took twelve spies down there.
Two of them out of the twelve said, oh, no, no, no. We are
able to take that land. We're able to take it. We can
go get it tomorrow. How? God in Christ will help
us to, He'll cause us to take the land. And beloved, we're
going to get the good land because Christ has done bought it for
us. And not only the promise, but
look at the provision. Here's why sin ain't going to
have dominion over you. Because you're under grace. You're
under grace. This is the highest, nobler principle
that God ever put in a man. It causes us to press forward.
It causes us to press upward. Oh my! It's like when... I've
told you all this so many times. You need to read it sometime
for yourself, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. But when Christian,
when he went into the interpreter's house, and the first thing he'd
done when he went through that, before he went through the Wicked
Gate, he went around, he said he'd seen a shortcut, going around
the mountainside. He wouldn't have to go through
that Wicked Gate to Scrooge's Cemetery. He went around the
mountainside. He met a man up on the mountainside. A fella
had on a robe, and he had a big stick in his hand, a big stab
in his hand. He said, I got up there about
halfway up that mountain, and said, he beat me in the person
with that stick. And the evangelist told him,
he says, don't take no shortcuts, there ain't none. And he got
up there, went up there under the log with a little sardine,
and moaned as if I could beat him to death. And he kept running
back down off that mountain, went through the wicked gate.
But anyway, and he went by the way of the cross, but anyway,
he got into the interpreter's house. And there are so many
things happening in the interpreter's house, telling him things that
God's going to do, what God has done. He was in this room, and
there was a big fire, a great big fire burning. And there was
a fellow standing there with a bucket of water, throwing it
on the fire. We should get another bucket, throw it on the fire.
We should get another bucket, throw it on the fire. And the
interpreter, that Christian student, says, here's this man, he's throwing
water on that fire, and the fire won't go out. He said, how can that be? Who's
this? He said, well, that's God. That's your enemy. He said, now come around here
and look behind. He went around there and looked
behind, and there's another man, for every time that fellow throws
a bucket of water on another fellow, pour a little oil on
him. That's the reason our fire don't
go out. We got plenty of stuff in us
to cause the fire to go out. And we got plenty of enemies.
There's plenty of things to sow water on the fire. But Christ
is going to stand there and keep that fire going. He's going to
keep it burning. He ain't going to let it go out.
No, no. So now we're under grace. And
then look at the position. I love this right here. Down in verse 23, look at the
position we're in. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is, listen, this is our position, through
Christ Jesus our Lord. We're in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we're in. We're in
Christ our Lord. Look back up there in verse 21 of chapter
5. Let me show you a couple things
in closing here. That's our position. We're in Christ. What we have,
we got through Christ. And he says here that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life. How? By Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at the end of chapter seven. I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. So everything we're in Christ
is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 says, Romans 8.1, There
is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Look down here in the last part of verse 39 of chapter 8. Talking about our position in
Christ Jesus our Lord. He says here, nothing in the
last part of the verse shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Life is in Christ. Grace is in Christ. Here is our
life. Christ is our life. Here is our
victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is
our glory. Here is our liberty. Our union. Our union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's our courage. That's our
confidence. That's our assurance. We're in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And everything we have, God gave us through Him. Our Father, oh, thank You. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your Word. By your grace, I pray that you'd
make me and teach me how to use your Word, be skillful in your
Word, and make these dear saints to be skillful in your Word.
Teach us, Lord Jesus, the precious Word of God. Break it to us,
the bread of life. Father, there's so much in there
for us to learn, so much for us to absorb, to think about,
to consider, meditate on. The one thing we know for sure,
that everything we have, everything we know, and everything we'll ever know
is because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we have and
everything we'll ever have is because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't continue in sin. Not because our flesh wouldn't
do it, but because of Christ in us, the hope of glory, the
grace of God that you put in us, that loves righteousness,
that loves the truth, that don't want to hurt, don't want to offend,
don't want to dishonor, our Lord Jesus Christ. We bless you in
His holy name. Amen. Amen.