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
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for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for this message that I'm about to
bring from God's word in the book of Romans chapter seven. Going through this chapter, Romans
chapter seven, a very, very significant portion of the word of God. And
today I'm going to talk to you beginning at verse four of Romans
chapter seven concerning this subject, fruit unto God. fruit unto God. You know, a lot
of people when they talk about the Bible and they talk about
Christianity, one of the subjects that often comes up quite a bit
is fruit bearing. that a true Christian is one
who bears fruit. And of course, that's true. And
it's called fruit under God in Romans 7 here. But just to give
you a general overview of some things, you know, I've heard
people say, well, I'm not a Christian. You know, I'm not a judge, but
I'm a fruit inspector. Now that's kind of like what
we would call an oxymoron, because if you're a fruit inspector,
you are a judge, but most people, they don't know what they're
even saying when they say such things. And most people don't
even realize what the fruit of the spirit or the fruit that's
under God really is. But the Bible speaks of fruit
in different ways concerning salvation, concerning Christians.
For example, a believer, a born again child of God, is called
fruit in the scripture. It's the fruit of the grace of
God, the fruit of Christ's death. In the book of John chapter 12,
the Lord spoke of that when he talked about his death. And he used a metaphor of a seed,
or he says a corn in the King James Version of John chapter
12. Except a corn of wheat, that's
a seed of wheat, falls into ground and dies. That's the physical
process that it goes through. Unless it falls into the ground
and dies, it will not bear fruit. But if it goes into the ground
and dies, it'll bear much fruit. Now what he's talking about there
is his death. He's the seed of wheat falling
into the ground. He died, he was buried, and he
arose again. That's the fruit of his death
is his own resurrection, but also the resurrection of his
people. And he says later on in John
chapter 12, he said, if he's lifted up, meaning on the cross,
he will draw all unto him, that is all of his people, all of
God's elect, all for whom he died, he will draw them unto
him. He'll bear fruit. In other words, Christ's death
is never in any way described in scripture as being fruitless.
You know, I've heard people say, I've heard preachers say during
what they call their invitations, they'll say trying to get people
to come to Christ, to accept Christ, and they'll say, did
he die in vain for you? Well, Christ did not die in vain
for anyone. He died for his people. He died
for his sheep. He died for God's elect. And
the way you know his sheep and God's elect is they hear his
voice. That is, they have spiritual ears given to them to hear and
believe and love the gospel. They see with spiritual eyes
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's the
fruit that they bear from him. Life is in the vine. Christ spoke
of that In John chapter 15, when he said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches, and the branches bear fruit. But he's the vine.
He's the source, he's the power. The Bible says that as in Romans
5 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. So the life that comes from the
vine and goes into the branches, that's spiritual life, by which
they bear fruit. That life is the product of Christ's
righteousness. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. Where sin is imputed, there must
be death, the wages of sin. But where righteousness is imputed,
there must be life. In the book of Romans, chapter
5, it's called justification of life. That means righteousness. Those who are declared righteous
will live. They'll live forever because
of his righteousness. So when we speak of fruit, we're
talking about the fruit of Christ's death. We also can speak of the
fruit of the gospel in the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people when they go to passages like Matthew chapter
seven, you might look over there just for a moment because that's
really one of the most significant ones. It's the Sermon on the
Mount. And in Matthew chapter seven,
Christ speaks of the the right way, the narrow way, and the
broad way. And the narrow way is the straight
gate, and the narrow way, that's the way of the gospel. That's
the way of God's grace in Christ. It's the only way of salvation.
Christ said, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one cometh unto the Father but by me. And so he's talking
about his own, the way of salvation, The one way of salvation, it's
a straight way, and it's a narrow way. No one is going to be saved
any other way. So now, these people who claim
to be Christian, or these churches that claim to be Christian, but
they're telling you that there are other ways to God other than
Christ, other than the sovereign grace of God, my friend, they're
tares. They're false Christians now.
I know people say, well, you're being too judgmental, you're
being too mean. You cannot be a Christian, a
true Christian, and believe there are other ways of salvation.
The very nature of Christianity is having to do with believing
in, resting in Christ, who alone is the way of salvation, and
seeing that there is no other way. He's the only way. If there
are other ways, then this Bible's lying to us and it's not. Now
the broad road that leads to destruction, there are many ways
on it, but it's all the ways of death. And then in Matthew
7, he says, beware of false preachers, false prophets who come to you
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. And
he says in verse 16 of Matthew 5, he says, you shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistle? And people say, well, now that's
talking about a person, for example, who claims to be a Christian,
but lives an immoral life. Now, let me say something. That's
not what this is talking about. Now, if a person claims to be
a Christian, and lives a totally immoral life without any repentance
and any remorse, well that person is a false professor. And the
Bible deals with that. But that's not what Christ was
speaking of in Matthew chapter 7 when he said you'll know them
by their fruits. What he's talking about is the
fruit of false conversion as opposed to the fruit of true
conversion. And that's when he says, good
tree brings forth good fruit. Well, who's the good tree? Well,
the tree of life. That's Christ as he's preached
forth in the gospel. And what he's simply saying there
is that when Christ is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit,
it's going to bear good fruit. A sinner saved by grace, brought
to faith in Christ, and repentance of dead works. But now a corrupt
tree, the false gospels, the false professors, the false preachers,
they're not going to bring forth that good fruit. All that's going
to be produced under the preaching of a false Christ is false conversions. They may outwardly reform, they
may outwardly appear righteous, but there's no true faith in
Christ, no true repentance. Now, back over here in Romans
chapter 7, what Paul is talking about here is the fruit of being
married to Christ. Look at it, Romans 7 and verse
4. He says, wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now,
I talked about that last week in the message Married to Christ. To be dead to the law means that
I'm not condemned by the law's judgment. You see, the law, if
there's sin, the law demands death, okay? And if I'm dead
to the law, how did I become dead to the law? It says by the
body of Christ, by the death of Christ. Christ satisfied the
justice of the law, the justice of God. And in Christ I'm dead
to the law. The law cannot condemn me because
it condemned him in my stead. My sin debt was imputed, charged,
accounted to Christ. And he became legally accountable,
legally responsible as my surety to pay my sin debt and he paid
it in full. Jesus paid it all. And so I have
in return his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to me. That's
what 2 Corinthians 5.21 means. He was made sin for us, Christ
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. So those who are believers stand
in Christ. They're married to Christ. He
says that you should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead. Why was Christ Himself raised
from the dead? Because He satisfied the law.
He brought forth righteousness. Sin demanded His death. Sin imputed
to Him. And He died. But in His death,
righteousness was established. You see, if we die in our sins,
righteousness is not established. But when Christ died as the God-man,
the mediator, the surety, the substitute of His people, He
drank damnation dry. He took the full measure of condemnation,
of wrath. The cup of wrath of God, remember
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, if it be possible for
this cup to pass from me, but he said, nevertheless, thy will
be done. He's speaking there in the weakness of his humanity,
not in sin, he had no sin, but he had the infirmities of created
flesh, because he was God-man, he was fully man. and he was
hurting, he was suffering, he sweat great drops of blood and
he's anticipating the full measure of the full cup of God's wrath
coming down upon him for the sins of his people. And so he
drank that cup to the dregs and he died and he satisfied justice,
he brought forth righteousness and the result of that is His
people being given life from the dead. And life from the dead,
being married to Him, being united to Him, that, verse four, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now what is that fruit unto
God? It's the fruit of faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the fruit of repentance.
Remember John the Baptist told the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
bring forth fruits, meat appropriate for repentance. Well, that's
the gift of God, just like faith. In other words, it's not something
we produce. You don't produce faith, you
don't produce repentance. If left to ourselves and our
own decisions, we'll go on in our unbelief and in our lack
of repentance. We will not come to Christ. But
those for whom he died, He sends His Spirit forth to give them
life under the preaching of the gospel, the good tree, that bears
the good fruit. And Christ, in His power of the
Spirit, to give them life, to raise us from the dead, that's
the new birth. Regeneration, it's called. Conversion. And in that new birth, we bear
the fruit of faith in Christ, we believe in Him as He's identified
in the Word, Repentance of dead works. We repent of our sins.
We repent of our own righteousnesses. Read Philippians chapter three,
where Paul talked about all those things in religion and morality
that I thought saved me and recommended me unto God and made me righteous
before God. I do count them, but dumb that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith, the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the fruit
of repentance. It's the fruit of obedience,
but not just obedience in and of itself, because there's another
kind of obedience that we must repent of. We call it obedience,
but really it's disobedience. Well, what is that? Well, now
look back at verse five of Romans chapter seven. Now he says, we're
married to Christ, that's believers now, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God. Now I'll talk more about that
fruit unto God. And that fruit is obedience, but not just what
men naturally call obedience. Verse five, he says, for when
we were in the flesh. Now let me tell you what it means
to be in the flesh. It means to be unregenerate. It means as we are naturally
born. Christ said you must be born
again. And one of the reasons you must be born again is because
you don't have spiritual eyes to see and you don't have an
understanding and a will to enter the kingdom of heaven until you're
born again. And the reason is, he said, that that which is flesh
only produces flesh. But the Holy Spirit produces
spirit. Now the Bible says in 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man Receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned." The natural man. That's what it means to be in
the flesh. An unbeliever is in the flesh. All right, he may be a religious
unbeliever. Now let's go on and let me show
you that verse five. For when we were in the flesh, when we
were unregenerate, when we were natural, when we were in our
natural state, the natural man, before we were born again, before
we were brought to faith in Christ, he says the motions of sins. Now the word motions there, you
may have this in your concordance, means the passions of sin. the
motions or the passions of sin, now listen to this, which were
by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Now you brought forth fruit, in our natural state we bring
forth fruit, but what kind of fruit is it? It's not fruit unto
God. Now fruit unto God means fruit
unto the glory of God. That's what it means. Well, we
didn't bear fruit under the glory of God when we were in the flesh,
but we brought forth fruit. But what kind? Fruit unto death. Fruit that leads to death. That's what he's talking about.
Well, give me some specifics on this. Okay. He says the motions,
the passions of sin, which were by the law. Now, what are the
motions? and the passions of sin. Well, the passions of sin
that are, let's say, incited by the law now, shows itself
in one of two ways. This is for unbelievers now.
This is in the flesh. It will either appear in an abject
rebellion against everything the law says. Everything the
law commands. Just openly, immorally breaking
the law. We see that in the criminal elements
of society. The perverted elements of society. Men and women who have no, it's
almost like they have no conscience. They have no moral compass. They're
lawbreakers. The jails and the prisons are
full of this kind of thing. And that is certainly fruit unto
death. A man or a woman who lives life
in the unbridled passions of their sinful desires, the murderers,
robbers, all of that, and you give them a law and their one
thought is to break it. to break that law. They want
what the law forbids. They live for sale. That's one
way the passions of sin, which are by the law, do bring forth
fruit unto death. But there's another way, and
this is what most people in religion do not want to hear and do not
know. The passions of sin, which are
by the law, also refers to false, self-righteous, man-centered,
free will religion. That's exactly right. Now, I'll
give you an example. The first example that we have
in the Bible of fruit unto God and fruit unto death. And you
know where you're gonna find it? In the book of Genesis, chapter
four, Cain and Abel. Now here's two brothers, came
forth from the same father and mother. And they're men who are
coming to worship God, coming to seek acceptance and blessing
from God. One comes based on the best works
The best things that he can do that he's worked for, he's sweated
for, the best thing he can offer God. He's a religious man. And he's coming to God bringing
the best, the fruit of the ground. And his name is Cain. And what
he is bringing forth to God is fruit unto death. Because God
will not accept it. But now here's another man, his
brother Abel. who comes to God seeking salvation,
seeking blessings, seeking acceptance, and what does he bring? He brings
the blood of the Lamb. You see the difference? Here's,
Cain comes in his self-righteousness. Cain comes thinking that he could
do enough to please God. Abel comes as a sinner seeking
mercy. seeking grace by the blood of
the Lamb. And that Lamb was a picture,
a type, a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abel brought forth fruit unto
God. Cain brought forth fruit unto
death. And here's what I'm saying. The passions of sin, which are
by the law here in Romans 7 and 5, My friend, that can include
the most religious people on earth who are seeking God, coming
to God, thinking they're accepted with God and blessed of God apart
from God's grace based upon the blood and the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I'm telling you, any
religion, that teaches salvation conditioned on man, based on
man's works or man's decisions or man's goodness. is nothing
more than the passions of sin, which are by the law. You remember
Matthew 7, where Christ spoke to those at judgment, who came
to him saying they preached in his name, they did many wonderful
works, they cast out demons, only to hear him say, depart
from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. Again, I mentioned
earlier, Philippians chapter three, where Paul talked about
all of his Jewishness, he was circumcised, he was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, he tried to keep the law, but when he saw the
glory of God in Christ and what God in His holiness and justice
required for salvation, which is perfect righteousness, which
can only be found in Christ, he said, now, he said, I count
it all but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. I count it done that I may win
Christ. I need his righteousness. The
Bible teaches that salvation can only come to sinners based
upon what the Bible calls the gospel, the gospel called the
righteousness of God. And those who come to God without
Christ, without having been washed in his blood and clothed with
his righteousness and married to him, all they're doing is
bringing forth fruit unto death. They may look like the best people
on earth. They may be religious, they may
be sincere. They may be doing their best
sincerely to be the best they can be. But if they think that
that recommends them unto God, it's fruit unto death. Over in
Romans chapter six, look at verse 20 of Romans six, just across
the page. Paul writes, for when you were
servants of sin, that's unbelievers, that's in the flesh, you were
free from righteousness. You didn't see where righteousness
is or where it comes from, you didn't see it in Christ, you
were trying to establish one of your own. Verse 21, what fruit
had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?
Now there are people in the natural realm who become ashamed of their
immorality. But my friend, if you ever come
to see the reality of sin and depravity, that in us by nature
there's none righteous, no not one, there's none that doeth
good. If you ever come to see the glory of God in Christ and
what God requires in perfect righteousness, you'll then become
ashamed of your best. You'll become ashamed that you
ever thought that anything recommended you unto God, but the merits
of the obedience unto death, the righteousness of Christ.
And he says, what fruit had you, verse 21, then in those things
whereof you are now ashamed, for the end of those things is
death. You see, unless I have Christ's blood, unless I have
his righteousness, it's all death. Verse 22, but now being made
free from sin. Now we've already talked about
that. That means sin cannot condemn me. sin cannot be charged to
me because I'm in Christ, and become servants to God. You have
your fruit unto holiness, unto separateness, and the everlasting
life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now look over at verse 6. Talking about fruit under
God. That's the fruit of faith. It's
the fruit of repentance. It's the fruit of obedience.
And here's the obedience, verse six. But now we are delivered
from the law. Again, the law cannot condemn
us. Those who are in Christ, the law cannot require anything
of me in order to attain or maintain salvation. That being dead, being
dead to that wherein we were held, that we should serve in
newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the latter. The
obedience, which is the fruit of God's grace, is the obedience
of a child of God, not motivated by legalism, fear of hell, and
not motivated by mercenary earned reward, but motivated by grace,
by love, by gratitude, knowing that I'm secure in salvation
based upon the grace of God through the righteousness of Christ.
That's the newness of the Spirit. I 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.