Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you wish to follow along,
turn of course to Romans chapter 6. I want to read as my main text
this morning, verses 12 through 16. My title and my subject, I could
say, is yield yourselves unto God. That's actually found within
our text. Yield yourselves unto God. Romans chapter six, verse 12,
Paul continuing here says, let not sin therefore, based upon
everything that he's already said. And not just what he said
in this chapter, but especially what he said in chapter five.
because of our substitute, because of our representative, because
of who Christ is and what he has accomplished for us at Calvary.
Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye
should obey it in the lusts 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 that's the
prerequisite. There is no ability to do this. Either one, yielding not your
members or yielding unto God, apart from life from God, not
physical life. though that's certainly necessary,
but spiritual life from God. As those that are alive from
the dead, again, let me say this, life from God, spiritual life
from God is not some talking point that God's people speak
of. Religion talks about life from God, but they have no idea
what they're talking about. This life is spiritual, but it
is real. It is real. As those that are
alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Four, sin shall not have dominion
over you for you're not under the law but under grace. What
then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know you not? Now look at this. 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. I know there are those out there in the world that accuse
God's people of being all kinds of things. They've come up with
all kinds of names to accuse God's people of. And I know that
there are legalists. We've had one even in our own
midst, but that person is gone now. Praise be to God. I say that now. Praise be to
God, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We're
not under law, but we're under grace, under it. That is, it
dominates. It is over top of us. It controls. It controls. If you're under
the law, you're under the what? Curse, curse, but look at it. Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin or death or of obedience unto righteousness.
And those who preach and believe and give witness to the free
and reigning grace of God in Jesus Christ are often accused
of not being concerned about our walk, but they are dead wrong. Let's get right to the word.
We are commanded by Paul to refuse sin any throne time in our mortal
bodies. That's what we're commanded to
do. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye
should obey it in the lusts thereof. It honors Christ's person and
work to rebel against sin. There's your way to think about
it. We like rebellion so much, it's
okay to rebel against sin. It's okay to not allow sin any
throne time in our mortal bodies. Sin, again, sin exists in us. Sin still affects us, and we
still find ourselves under the influences of its lusts. But being alive unto God, we
can. We are enabled by God to not
yield ourselves, our members, as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but that's the key. Don't yield to sin, but yield
to God. So again, it honors Christ's
person and work to rebel against sin. Sinful lust resides in us. but let us disobey its lustful
leanings. Secondly, there is a vitally
intertwined twofold facet to yielding. You can't yield to
God and at the same time be yielding to the flesh. It does not happen. It does not happen. There is
a refusal to yield our members, and there is a yielding ourselves
unto God. This is something that we are
actually engaged in, that we should cry out for mercy from
God because of his mercy and grace. Cry out for the lead and
the direction of his spirit. A God-wrought life from God is
the only impetus to such a thing. Romans chapter eight, look at
what Paul will go on to say. There is therefore now no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Now let's get that first straight. To them which are in Christ Jesus,
not to those who've made a profession of faith, though those who are
in Christ do have a profession of faith. But we hold fast to
our profession, we hold fast our profession. We keep on professing
Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, but look, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law, here's the authority,
here's the law. Now here's the law that you can
be glad for. Here's the law that you can clearly
serve. for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, not by us. And we'll look at this in more
detail, not by us, but fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh,
what do they do? They mind the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. And
I just have to be straightforward, I think that that some of God's
people, God's people, actually think they were saved before
they were really saved. They made some profession of
faith. They professed even according to the truth, but they had no
love for the truth. They love this still more down
in here, but somewhere along the line, God Almighty moves
in and saves their soul, but they're not instructed so that
they grasp that what happened before was of no avail. I don't know exactly when God
converted me. I don't know exactly when God
converted me. Now Saul of Tarsus can tell you
exactly when God converted him, but I can't tell you when that
was because I had so much baggage with me, so much things that
I was still clinging on to. But one day, one day, God finally
opened my eyes, and I seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. But let's go on. For to be carnally
minded, doesn't say you will die, it says is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it's not subject to the law of God. And that means,
in other words, the law is not your schoolmaster. Well, that's
what it means to be subject to the law, having been your schoolmaster
and forced you to flee to Christ. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, no matter how moral they may be. no matter
how much they may drop immorality for morality. And I'm not telling
you, immorality is a crime against God. Let's get that straight. Let's get it straight. For which
things sake, Paul wrote to one church, cometh the wrath of God
upon the children of disobedience. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, if so be. And there's the question. Only God can answer that question
for you in your own soul. I cannot answer that question
for you. I have a difficult enough time
dealing with it myself, in myself, and about myself. Somebody says,
what do you think I'm saved? I have no idea. I'm more persuaded
of you all than I am of myself, but I have no idea. But you're
not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. So again, a God wrought life
from God is the only impetus to such a condition. to such
a walk, and that's why I chose this, oh, for a closer walk with
God. If you can't relate to that,
then you don't know God. Because no matter how close I
have walked with him in the past, I know it has not been close
enough. I know it has not been close
enough. And the only reason I can say that and confess that is
because I'm in the spirit, not in the flesh. because countless
thousands of people are religious, even profess Christianity, but
they're in the flesh and they feel quite well about their own
selves. That's called deception. That's
called deception. Number three, dominion is determined
by the ruling power. We see it in verse 14. I'm not
explaining every word in these things, but I'm trying to kind
of summarize these verses so far. Again, remember, number
three, dominion is determined by the ruling power, not by you,
not by me, but by the ruling power. The question is, what
rules over me? What rules over me? I can never,
ever hope to not yield my members as members of instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin, and yield myself unto God, unless
God's grace has dominion over me. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. We'll deal with that, God willing,
more later. I'm not gonna deal with it in
a lot of detail. But listen, these few things though. Under
law, under law, sin dominates. And oh, if God would show these
legalists, if he would open their eyes to this truth. Under law,
sin dominates. I'm talking about God's law.
God's holy law, God's just and righteous law. But if it's what
you're under, you're under sin. You're under its curse. You're
under its death. You're under its condemnation.
You can only be freed from sin if grace dominates you. These legalists know not what
they say. Nowhere have they affirmed. And they do not want to deal
with the truth of scripture. They'll refer to some old Baptist
document. but they don't want to deal with
the truth of the words of scripture. Under law, sin dominates. Under
grace, spiritual life in Christ dominates. Because grace is not
just a doctrine, it is an act of the almighty God. Never Never, ever, in any way,
let us never in any way conduct ourselves sinfully because of
the ruling power of grace. The ruling power is grace and
not law. And that's what he says, what
then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under
grace? God forbid, because whoever you subject yourself to, whoever
you yield to, that proves who your master is. Now, it is asinine. I just like that word. Now I
will explain to you what the word means so you'll know. I
had to look it up myself. I thought I had an idea but I
wanted to make sure I was really, I just like that word. Why? Because
it upsets people. It is asinine, that means extremely
stupid and foolish. It is asinine to live by human
logic. Asinine. What then? Now, either you're under the
law or you're under grace, one or the other. If you're under
grace, you're not under the law. Period. Not gonna sit here and
debate with a bunch of legalists. You keep preaching the truth,
the legalists will get mad enough, they'll leave, they'll leave
you alone. We don't have to come out from among them, they will
run from us. If you hold firm to the truth and you don't, just
smile at them. You don't have to yell back at
them. I've been yelled at several times here. I'm not getting yelled
at now and it feels good. But here it is. Again, it is
asinine to live by human logic. Grace does reign. Not it ought to rain, it might
rain, it'll rain if you let it rain. That ain't no kind of rain.
That is it. Rain means something outside
of yourself comes to you and conquers you. That's what a rain
is. Listen, moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound and the law still tells us what
sin is. It still defines sin for us.
Being under grace doesn't mean now we can sin because there's
no more sin anymore. There's still sin. And we feel
it down in here. We feel it down in here. But
look what it says, moreover the law entered, that the offense
might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign. But what's the impetus? Me? Me
yielding, is that the impetus? No, the impetus is through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the impetus
that brings about the rain. Then, if I'm so rained over,
I can yield to God. And I can refuse to yield to
my sinful passions and lusts. The reason we don't, if we ever
don't, is because we simply give in to them. You just give in
to them. And don't you kid yourself, we
all have this asininity. I don't even know if that's a
word, but it's a new one. I'll have them put that in Webster's
next time I do a new one. It is asinine, but it still resists
in us. It exists in us. What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law? That's in our minds. Since I'm not under the
law, then why does it matter? Because grace reigns. Either
Jesus Christ is all to you or he's nothing to you. He can't
be 90%, 95%, 99.9%. He is all or he is nothing to
me. And he's all or he's nothing
to you. Now somebody says, well you sound
like you're saying a believer never sins. No, I have not said
that. That's more of that assininity.
That's more than trying to bring your human logic into the equation.
You know what John said? No, I don't want to try to quote
it, because I'll foul it up miserably. You know what John said? If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not
in us. even in light of what we're reading from this letter
from our beloved brother, the Apostle Paul. These things, don't
try to make them fit. Don't try to make two plus five
equals 12. Don't try to do none of that.
If we say we have no sin, that's talking about the foundation,
the root problem. We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Do you see that?
The question is, what is the dominating ruling power in your
life? If you can't quit sinning, and
I don't mean become sinless, I'm talking about you got something
you're dealing with in your life and you can't say I will not
yield to that anymore. You can't stop the thoughts.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should
obey it in the lusts there. The lusts are in there, but you
don't obey them. You don't carry them out. You
don't go through with it. And if you cannot cease from
sin, Jude says you are apostate. I think it's Jude. Jude or Peter,
one of them said. Beguiling unstable souls that
cannot cease from sin. Why? Because grace doesn't dominate
them. Now, here's the fourth thing.
The proof is actually in the yielding. The sum, in other words,
I don't say this to be flippin' or funny, the proof's in the
pudding, as we say. Right, the proof's in the pudding.
Know you not? Why do we have to say it? Because
sometimes we don't. We're not gonna know until someone
instructs us. We're not gonna even really get
it until the Holy Spirit applies it to us when someone instructs
us. But we've been instructed. This group here can't say, well,
I never was told the truth about this matter. You've been told
the truth about this matter over and over and over and over and
over and over and over again. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey. And it's one or the other. You
see it? Now folks, that's just where
it's at. And somebody says, that don't give me comfort. It ain't
supposed to give you comfort. It's supposed to warn you to
keep yielding unto God. It's supposed to warn you and
give you impetus to not yield your members as instruments of
unrighteousness under seeing. It's in here, but don't give
in to it. Don't give in to it. Now, this wasn't just Paul's
take. I'm gonna read a verse. You don't
have to turn, but let me turn to the passage. Now these are
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This is not some fanatic. This is not some guy standing
up for Baptist doctrine, or Church of Christ doctrine, or Church
of God doctrine, or whatever it is. Listen to what he says.
This is the Lord of glory himself. No man can serve two masters. Now Christ said it's an impossibility. If you think you're serving both,
you're really only serving one. and it's the wrong one, I can
guarantee you that if you think you're serving both. No man can
serve two masters. Four, either he will hate the
one and love the other. Now we're getting down to the
nitty gritty. Well, I gotta do this because I'm a Christian.
If I don't, I go to hell. And it's out of love. You love to
serve God. If you don't love to serve God,
you don't know God. You get it? For either he will
hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And what is that? Everything
else but God. Let me just put it that way. That's the simplest
way for you and I to think about this thing. You know, people,
we're indoctrinated into this stuff. Not here we're not, but
we're indoctrinated into this stuff in Sunday schools. This
is wrong and this is right. And here's the right words to
say and here's the wrong words to say. And everything seems
so cut and dried, but everything apart from the glory of God manifest
in the face of Jesus Christ is a farce before God if my first
thoughts are not of love toward God himself. We love his gifts,
but we love the gifts because we love the giver. It's not I
just want salvation. I do want salvation. But I want
to be saved by that what I love. Because I know if I love him,
it's because he first loved me. So again, number four, the proof
is in the actual yielding. So then, What is instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin versus instruments of righteousness
unto God? And as I just prefaced this statement, many people are
told exactly where you're supposed to go, exactly where you're,
you can go to the movies but it has to be under a certain
rating. Well they've changed them all up now so I can't keep
up with it. You know what I mean? And then wait a minute, I'm supposed
to be listening to Hollywood as to what's really good and
bad in their movie? Really? Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, or you don't
wanna be shootin' pool, even if it's in your house, in your
den, you don't wanna be shootin' pool when Jesus comes. Well,
why not? Eight ball side pocket, go up
to glory. That'd be a pretty good way to
go, wouldn't it not? Hmm? Hmm? Didn't hear a whole lot of answer
on that one, did I? That was tongue-in-cheek, folks, you understand
that? Look at it. 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
of instruments of unrighteousness unto God. This book will tell
you what sin is. It will tell you what to avoid
or eschew. If it don't define something
as sin, it ain't sin. Now get that out of your head.
Don't try to use your human logic again. Let me give you a passage. Now, before I do, let me give
you this statement. Man-centered, free will based,
legalistic, flesh glorification mongers, did you like them kind
of, did you like them explanations of who they are? They all stress
this thing of verse 13 as this, immorality versus morality. Living
in sin versus living right. And I'm here to tell you there
is a validity to that. Don't you kid yourself. Just
cause they say it, don't make it wrong. Now look at it. 1 Timothy,
turn with me to 1 Timothy. I want us to read this. 1 Timothy
chapter one. And I know we have the Lord's
table to take, but I will try not to be too long. Look at what it says, 1 Timothy
chapter one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment
of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
or more directly, our hope. That's what it is, our hope.
Under Timothy, my own son in the faith, that means that. Timothy
was under Paul's ministry, and that's where Timothy got most
of his instruction was through Paul. Under Timothy, my own son
in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus. And this is the same young man
that he told him, flee from youthful lusts. Is it not? Same one. Why'd he have to tell him that?
Because they're down in here. But there is a twofold yielding.
Yield not. unto unrighteousness, and yield
unto God. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give
heed to fables and endless genealogies. Oh, how men love the fables of
their religious assumptions in their mind.