Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. I hope and pray that the Lord
will bless you through this message from his word, the Bible. And
today I'm going to be preaching beginning at first Corinthians
chapter six, first Corinthians chapter six. And I'm going to
begin reading in verse nine of first Corinthians chapter six.
If you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, And I'm going
to be talking about this subject, doctrine and ethics. Doctrine and ethics. And what
I want to talk about is the reality of Christian doctrine and Christian
ethics. Now, you know, there's so much
confusion, error, and even ignorance today revolving around the notion
or the idea of what Christianity, true Christianity is all about.
A person who is a true Christian is a sinner saved by the grace
of God. One who is a disciple, a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's where the name Christian
comes. The name Christian was given to the followers of Jesus
by unbelievers in the book of Acts. And that's what they called
them, Christian, because of their doctrine and because of their
ethics. And so many people today are
confused about these issues of doctrine and ethics. For example,
it's not uncommon for some to say that in doctrine that we
really, doctrine doesn't really mean that much. what really means
something is how you live. And they'll say, it doesn't matter
what you believe, it's how you live, or I've even, some friends
of mine told me about visiting a church where the pastor told
them, says that they don't even deal in doctrine because doctrine
divides. But my friend, the reality of
true Christianity is that doctrine means everything, right doctrine. And when we talk about how one
lives, when we're talking about ethics, how you behave yourself,
how you conduct yourself, or what the Bible sometimes calls
conversation, the Bible teaches this, is that unless your doctrine
is right, you cannot in the sight of God, and according to the
truth of the Bible and true Christianity, you cannot live right. You see,
that's the issue. And so, Doctrine is essential and ethics,
right living, is essential. But how do we view these things
in true Christianity and from the Bible? Well, one old preacher
years ago made this statement and I think it holds true. I'm
going to make this statement and then we'll go through the
scripture and unpack it. What he said this, he says, our
doctrine, true Christian doctrine, is sovereign grace. We believe our doctrine, and
the word doctrine just means teaching, the teachings of the
scripture, our doctrine is salvation for sinners by the sovereign,
free grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. and based
upon the merits of His obedience unto death, His blood to put
away our sins, and His righteousness to justify us before God. That's
our doctrine, that's the gospel. When we preach the gospel, we're
preaching doctrine. Now there are false gospels.
There's false doctrine. And then there's true doctrine.
And so without right doctrine, without the true gospel, without
preaching and believing and living by grace, you cannot rightly
call yourself a true Christian. So that preacher, he said, our
doctrine is sovereign grace. Our ethic, our motivation for
living and way of life is gratitude. And I've often said on this program
that the motives for true Christian living is grace, gratitude, and
love. And that's true. In other words,
why does a believer, a sinner saved by grace, serve the Lord,
seek to obey the Lord, and fight sin? There are evil motives for doing
that. And those evil motives would
be legalism, In other words, they're doing it out of legal
fear, legal fear of hell, legal fear of damnation, legal fear
of loss of reward, and then there's a mercenary spirit that's evil. A mercenary is like a person
who does what he does or does what she does for reward, for
hire, a hireling. In other words, serving the Lord
because you're trying to earn your rewards. That's a mercenary.
But God's true people, sinners saved by grace based on the righteousness
of Christ, are to serve the Lord with gladness, the psalmist said,
motivated not by legalism or a mercenary spirit of earned
reward, but because of grace. We've been given a gift that
we did not earn and did not deserve. In fact, it's a gift that we've
done everything not to earn it, not to deserve it. My salvation
is by grace, not by works. Now people who, and my works
have nothing to do, nothing to do with the ground of my salvation,
with gaining or maintaining it. My works do not count. Now understand what I'm saying.
My works are the fruit of God's grace. My obedience is the fruit
of God's grace. But it doesn't count in the law
books of God. The only thing that counts is
the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now to make that point,
I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter six. And I'll begin reading
here at verse nine. And let me say this, the church
at Corinth was a church that had a lot of problems. And if
you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, you'll see that. They had problems
with division over preachers. They had problems with people
claiming to be Christian and living what we would call immoral
lives, doing things that they shouldn't do. and they had other
problems. But here the Apostle Paul, by
inspiration of the Spirit, is dealing with some of these issues
of Christians who would say, or professing Christians, who
would say, well, I'm saved by grace, it's based upon the work
of Christ, it's not my works at all, therefore I don't have
to make any effort to obey God. It doesn't matter what I do.
You see, anybody who claims to be a Christian who says it doesn't
matter what you believe, but it's how you live, or who says
that because of what you believe, it doesn't matter how you live,
they're wrong. They don't know the Bible. They don't know the
power of the grace of God and the reality of that. And so Paul
deals with them. Some of these believers, some
of these professing believers were doing some awful things,
sexual immorality. and using grace as an excuse
to sin. And so Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
6, 9, he says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. Now the unrighteous, generally
speaking, refers to any unbeliever. because they proclaim that they
are righteous, not by the grace of God, but by their works. But
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He says,
be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Verse
10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." Now he's
talking about people whose lives are marked by such sinful practices
that prove that they're unbelievers. But now these Corinthians who
were dabbling in these issues, they claim to be believers. And
so Paul seeks to motivate them to stop living that kind of lifestyle
and to start serving the Lord, being obedient to God, fight
sin. Now, how does he do it? Well,
he doesn't do it by saying, now, if you don't stop, you're going
to hell and all of that. He says in verse 11, now listen
to what he says. Verse 11, he says, and such were
some of you, that was your character, that was your lifestyle in unbelief. But he says, but you are washed. Now, what does that mean, you're
washed? Does that mean they took baths that morning or that night?
No. The washing here that he's referring
to is the purging of their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We sing a hymn in our church, what can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Now, what does that washing entail? Well, it means that Christ, as
the surety, as the substitute, as the redeemer of his people,
went to the cross, having the sins of his sheep, the sins of
God's elect, imputed, charged to him, and he went under the
just punishment of the wrath of God as their sin bearer, their
sin offering. The Lord laid upon him the iniquity
of them all, and he satisfied justice by his obedience unto
death. And their sins were purged away. taken away. That means, and this
washing comes, what the Bible sometimes called the washing
of regeneration, that's the new birth. When the Holy Spirit brings
a sinner, an unbeliever, a spiritually dead sinner, that's what we are
by nature, ruined in Adam, spiritually dead. When the Holy Spirit brings
a spiritually dead sinner under the preaching of the gospel,
and gives that sinner spiritual life, a new heart, spiritual
eyes and spiritual ears. They're born again. That is the
spiritual application of the blood of Christ to their hearts
and their minds, their affection, their will, their conscience.
And that's called a washing. It's a spiritual washing. It's
not being baptized in the baptistry. That's an ordinance which believers
are to confess that they've been washed in the blood of Christ.
And it's not any ritualistic thing, it is a spiritual bath
engaged by the Holy Spirit when he applies the reality, the truth
of my sins being washed away by the blood of Christ. It's
the cleansing of the conscience, the sprinkling of the blood upon
the heart and the conscience. And that's what he's saying here.
You're washed. The Holy Spirit has given you
life and now you believe in Christ. You've repented of dead works.
And then he says, but you are sanctified in verse 11. It means
you've been set apart. And what that means is, that
having been washed by the blood of Christ, being a believer,
a sinner saved by grace, you are set apart not to be with
the world in its immorality or in its false religion, but you
are set apart to live unto God, to live for the glory of God,
to conduct yourself in your ethical behavior, in a way that honors
God and glorifies Him. To conduct yourself as a witness
of the glory and the grace and the power of God in Christ to
save me from my sins. Now I'm still a sinner, but I'm
a sinner saved by grace. But having been saved by grace,
having been washed by the blood of Christ, having been set apart
by God for His service and His glory. I'm to fight these sins. I'm not to give in to them. They're
sinful things within my thoughts, my inner being, that it's like
a law within me that I can't get away from. But I'm not to
put those things into action. I'm to fight them in every way,
not in order to be saved. not in order to be washed, not
in order to be made righteous in God's sight for my justification,
but because I already have been graced, blessed with all of these
things, which I don't earn and don't deserve. It's a gift that
God has given me, and I'm to do this to express my gratitude,
my love for God for what He's done for me. You see the difference? That's the ethic. He says here,
you're set apart, but he says in verse 11, he says, but you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. We're justified. What is it to
be justified? Now, justification is an awesome
truth. And sinners saved by grace are
those whom God has justified by His grace through the blood
of Christ. To be justified means that I'm
forgiven of all my sins. Past sins, present sins, and
future sins. You know, there's some people
who kind of believe that, well, when I accept Jesus as my Savior,
I'm forgiven of every sin up to that point, but then I've
got to do something else in order to be forgiven for future sins.
That's a lie. That's not the gospel. That's
not the grace of God. I am forgiven, I am totally forgiven
of all my sins. The sins that I have committed,
the sins that I am committing, the sins that I will commit.
Now does that give me an excuse to sin more? No, no. Because the grace of God is not
only a doctrine, it's also a power, it's also an inner being that
as the Holy Spirit indwells me, that urges me and inspires me
to fight sin, to avoid sin, in a way of grace and gratitude
and love. That's the case. So to be justified
is to be forgiven. And the reason it's called justified
is because that forgiveness is based on a just, righteous ground,
and that ground is the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, what
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
To be justified also means that I am literally and spiritually
and eternally declared righteous in God's sight. How am I declared
righteous? It's based upon the righteousness
of Christ, imputed, charged to me. As my sins were charged to
Him, and he went to the cross and died for my sins, his righteousness,
the merit of his whole work of obedience unto death is imputed,
charged to me in the law books of God. Romans four and verse
six says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without works. The righteousness that I have
before God, by which I am justified in his sight, is not my works,
not my efforts to obey, not my sincerity. It's totally, completely,
and exclusively the work of Christ on the cross. That's my righteousness
before God. He is the Lord my righteousness. Jeremiah the prophet stated that
twice, talking about the name of Christ and the name of His
bride, the Church. I have no righteousness of my
own. I have no righteousness within. I am righteous in Christ. Now, from that righteousness
imputed to me, from the life of Christ, comes life within
me by the Holy Spirit that enables me to look to Him and believe
in Him and to repent of my dead works and repent of my sins and
to fight sin in a way that's honoring to God. And that's where
we come down to grace and gratitude and love. So you see, that's
what Paul's saying here. You're justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus. It's up to his honor and glory.
And by the Spirit of our God, when the Spirit of God shows
us who we are, our sinfulness, our depravity, when he shows
us how much We deserve the eternal damnation and wrath of Almighty
God. That's when he brings us to this
grace and gratitude, this doctrine and ethic. You see, that's what
we're talking about. Look over at Romans chapter six
with me. In Romans chapter six. And this
is a very, Very telling passage. But we'll look at verse 17. Look
at Romans 6, 17. It says, but God be thanked that
you were the servants of sin. Now a servant of sin is an unbeliever. An unbeliever can be one who
not only delves into the immoral practices of the world, the sexual
immorality of the world, the thievery or whatever, but a servant
of sin can also be a religious person who's doing his or her
dead level best to avoid such immoral practices, but in a way
of legalism, a way of being a mercenary. trying to keep the law, trying
to clean themselves up in order to earn their way into God's
favor. Now that describes people like
the Apostle Paul before he was saved. Paul, he made the statement
in Philippians chapter three that before he was converted
to Christ by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, as touching
the law, he was a Pharisee. outwardly appearing righteous
unto men. Fighting the sins that men and
women naturally recognize. So understand that now. A servant
of sin doesn't refer just to the immoral faction of the world. It refers to the false religion
of the world. So Paul says, You were the servants
of sin, but listen, you have obeyed from the heart, this is
Romans 6, 17, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. Now there was a doctrine, and
what was the doctrine? It's the gospel. It's the truth
of salvation by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Bible
says in Romans 521, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And what he's saying here is
you were the servants of sin, but you've obeyed from the heart.
Now that heart there is the mind, the affections, the will, it's
the new heart given by God as a gift through the Holy Spirit
from Christ. This is not the natural heart. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. But he says, you've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And
that phrase literally would say which you've been delivered to.
The Holy Spirit brought you under the gospel, the doctrine. Now
look at verse 18. He says, being then made free
from sin, liberated from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. There's the ethic. A servant
of righteousness. Now what is a servant of righteousness?
It's a person, a sinner saved by grace, who looks to, believes
in, and rests in the Lord Jesus Christ for all righteousness,
and who follows Him in His Word. That's the ethic. In other words,
a servant of righteousness is not one who is serving to work
out a righteousness of his own in order to be justified before
God. He's a person who serves the Lord because God has freely
given him all the righteousness that God requires through the
Lord Jesus Christ. We'll look across the page there
at Romans 7 and verse 4. In Romans seven and verse four
he says, wherefore my brethren, you also are become dead to the
law. Now what is it to be dead to
the law? It means the law cannot condemn you. The law cannot charge
you with sin. How did we become dead to the
law, believers now? By the body of Christ. That's
by the death of Christ. We didn't become dead to the
law by our efforts to keep the law. Because I'm still a sinner
saved by grace. And my efforts to keep the law,
and I should make an effort to be obedient, to be good, but
my efforts don't make me good or righteous. It's the body of
Christ, the righteousness of Christ, and he says that you
should be married to another, that's a spiritual marriage union
between Christ and his people, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should what? Now here's the ethic, bring forth
fruit unto God. Bear the fruit of God's power
and grace and love in Christ. Now what is that fruit? Well,
the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, which speaks of obedience
and service to the Lord. He says in verse five of Romans
7, 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 the passions of sin can refer
to the immorality of the world or the false religion of the
world. Either way, it's fruit unto death. And he says in verse
six, but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead
wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit. That newness of spirit is the
ethic of grace, gratitude, and love, not legalism, not a mercenary,
but grace, gratitude, and love, not in oldness of the letter.
That's that legalism. Serve in newness of spirit, a
new spirit. That's what happens when the
Holy Spirit gives life to a dead sinner, life from Christ to a
dead sinner. He brings him to that doctrine
of grace, salvation by grace based upon the blood, the righteousness
of Christ, freely given, and the ethic of grace and gratitude
and love. Doctrine and ethics, they go
together. The doctrine teaches us that
the ground of our salvation And the merit that we have before
God is Christ crucified and risen from the dead. And then we spend
our lives thanking God for his grace. Hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.