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. The past several weeks I've been
preaching a series of messages entitled, The Power of God's
Grace. The Power of God's Grace. And
today I'm going to, the message is going to be the sixth in that
series and the final message in that series and in that series
I've mainly been going through the book of Romans mainly chapter
6 if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles Romans chapter
6 and if you haven't heard the previous programs I urge you
to order them you can order them by phone or by internet from
our website The power of God's grace, six messages. And this
is the final message. Now what I've been trying to
do is search the scriptures concerning the issue of salvation being
all of grace. Showing the power of God's grace,
not only to save sinners, but also to preserve sinners unto
final glory. And we've been dealing with the
issues of the eternal security of the saved, what some people
call once saved, always saved. And I've been very candid with
you on this program because I believe that one of Satan's greatest
deceptions that pervades what people see as Christianity today
is people believing that you can be saved one day and then
lost because of sinning or unbelief or whatever and the Bible doesn't
teach that. Now the objection that comes
to the truth of the eternal security of the saved or the believer
or we'll say once saved always saved, the objection that mainly
comes from that is found in Romans chapter 6 where Paul anticipated
that objection and it's people saying, well, if once I'm saved
I can't ever be lost again, then there's no reason for me to obey,
there's no reason for me to worship, There's no reason for me to fight
sin. I'll just go sin the more or
sin as much as I want to. And like I said, God the Holy
Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to anticipate that objection.
And I want you to know now, again, I want to be very honest with
you, that kind of objection comes from unbelievers who have no
motivation to obey God except legalism. It's either legalism,
well, legalism, you can think about it this way. Legalism has
two facets, basically. It's all salvation by works at
some stage and some degree, all of that, conditioned on the sinner,
which the gospel is salvation conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who fulfilled those conditions, and not only saves his people,
but he secures them. preserves them. He's able to
save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. But legalism
has these two facets. It's either legal fear of punishment
or loss or it's mercenary promises of
earned reward. That's legalism. Negative and
the positive, you see. Both of them end up being a negative
because it's the road to damnation. A person who says, well, I'm
going to serve God out of fear of punishment or fear of hell
is a legalist. Now, does that mean we don't
fear hell? Well, certainly we do. But the
motivation for service to God, the motivation for obedience
is not that fear of hell because those who truly believe the gospel,
they know that and believe by God-given faith that there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. It's the security
that a sinner saved by grace has in Christ is the security
of righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to him. In other words,
I'm a sinner saved by grace. Now, that doesn't give me an
excuse to sin, but I know this. God cannot and will not impute,
charge the guilt of sin to me, which condemns me. Why? Because
I stand washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. In Romans chapter 6, that's what
he means here in verse 14. He says, for sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under
grace. And he says in verse 15, what
then, shall we sin? In other words, because we're
not under the legalism of the law, the condemnation of the
law, the fear of legal punishment, what then? Shall we sin? Does
that mean I can go sin as much as I want to? No, because we're
not under the law but under grace, God forbid. Now that's how the
Bible answers that question. And I'm gonna go on to the rest
of this in just a moment. But you see the motivation for
obedience for a sinner saved by grace is not legal fear because
I don't measure up or don't do what I'm supposed to do. I'm
a sinner, but I do measure up to God's requirement. How? Not by my works, not by my efforts,
not by my sincerity or good intentions, but as I stand in Christ, who
is the Lord, my righteousness. When it says my sins are washed
away, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness. My righteousness is not anything
that I've worked out or contributed to. My righteousness before God
is the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there's my security by the grace of God. It's the power of grace.
That's what Christ did on the cross. It's His work, not mine. And therefore I have a security
of grace in Him. Now, the mercenary promise of
earned reward, you know what a mercenary is. Back in the,
when I was in school, we learned in American history that the
British, during the Revolutionary War, the British hired Hessians,
soldiers, to fight for them. And these soldiers, they fought,
not because they were loyal, not because they were citizens
of a country, or loyal to that country, but because they were
getting paid. That's mercenary. If you're serving
God to earn your rewards, you're a mercenary. But why does a child
of God truly serve God? Why does he fight sin? Why does
he strive to obey? The motivations are grace, love,
and gratitude. not serving God for what we think
we can get out of it. So when we speak of the security
of grace, we're not speaking of a license to sin. We're talking
about a power of grace, not only to set me right with God based
on the imputed righteousness of Christ, that's my legal standing
before God in the court of his justice, but also the power to
change me. The Lord said that in salvation
He would give His people what? A new heart, a new spirit, a
new life. He would cause them to walk in
His statues. And that's the power of God's
grace too. Now one of the objections comes
from people who judge salvation by the appearance and not by
the scripture. For example, most of you may
know somebody who had a great moral change or religious change
in their life and joined the church, as you call it, and then
maybe left it and went back to the world, and you say, I know
that person was sick. Well, that's your judgment, not
God's. Now, most people who go through
those kinds of changes don't even believe the truth anyway,
but Let's say a person did hear the true gospel and there was
a great reformation of life and they joined the church and they
became sincere and they walked in profession anyway and then
later on they left it. and totally apostatized. That's
what the scriptures call it. Totally left it. How am I to
look at a person like that? Well, we find the answer of that
all through the scripture, but 1 John 2, 18 through 19 tells
us, had they been of us, they would have remained. A true believer,
he may stray, but he's on God's leash. Christ said, no man will
pluck them out of my Father's hand. But anyway, let's look
at this Romans chapter 6. He said, verse 15, shall we sin
because we're not under the law, we're not condemned, that we're
eternally secure based on the grace of God through the imputed
righteousness of Christ? But under grace, God forbid,
verse 16. Now listen, no ye not. that to
whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are
to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
unto righteousness." Now, what's he saying there? He's showing
the difference between legalism and grace. Law and grace, that's
the context. You're not under the law. What
is it to be under the law? Well, to be under the law reveals
a sinner who is trying to be saved based on their law keeping. They may be condemned in their
conscience. You know a person who says, I've sinned so much
there's no hope of my salvation because I've sinned so much.
Do you know that's legalism? A person who says, well, I've
sinned so much, there's no hope of salvation for me, therefore
I'm just gonna sin all I want. That's legalism. You say, well,
they're not trying to keep the law to be saved. No, but they
look at the law as the pivotal judgment upon themselves and
refuse to look to Christ as the keeper of the law. You see, my
hope of salvation is not in my sinning or my obeying. My hope
of salvation is in Christ. How many times, if you've listened
to this program very often, you've probably heard me quote my favorite
hymn. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. No other ground is sinking sand.
So look at verse 17 of Romans 6. He says, but God bethink that
you were the servants of sin. Now, servant of sin there includes
more than just immoral people. A servant of sin is an unbeliever. You may be the most religious
person that ever showed his face on God's green earth. You may
be the most dedicated. You may be the most sincere.
Saul of Tarsus, think about him before God saved him. He was
moral. He tried to keep the law. He
was meticulous about it. And yet he was still a servant
of sin. A servant of sin is an unbeliever. A servant of sin
is one who is under law. But you were the servants of
sin, he said. Now he's talking to believers
here. And he says, but you have obeyed from the heart. Now that
heart there, that's the mind, it's the affections, it's the
will. It's the new heart that God gives by grace in the new
birth. You see, Christ died for the
sins of his people. He satisfied justice. He brought
in righteousness that God imputed to all of his people. How do
I know that he died for me? How do I know that righteousness
has been imputed, charged, accounted, reckoned to me? God, the Holy
Spirit, at some point in time, ordained by God, brings me under
the gospel and regenerates me, births me again. You must be
born again. He gives me a new heart. That's
the new birth. And listen to it. You have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine, that form of teaching, which
was delivered you. That form of teaching is the
gospel of God's grace, which reigns through righteousness,
Romans 5.21, through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. In other words, the Holy Spirit
brought you to Christ for salvation. brought you to Christ for forgiveness,
brought you to Christ for righteousness, and brought you to Christ for
security. Literally, if you would read
this in the original Greek New Testament, it would be that form
of doctrine where to you were delivered. God brought you under
the gospel. Not under a lie now. Now we all,
you know, we all start out believing a lie because we're self-righteous,
we're fallen, we fell in Adam, ruined by the fall. We're born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We don't have righteousness,
we can't work righteousness, and by nature, on our own, we
don't want one God's way. We want righteousness, but we
want it our way. But at some point in time, God
the Holy Spirit by an act of divine providence, and it's different
for different people, not the truth now. The truth is the same
for everybody. The gospel's the same for everybody. But he brings
that person under the sound of the truth, the gospel, the teachings
of God's grace, how God saves sinners by his grace, how God
is just to justify the ungodly based upon the blood, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ without the works of man. And then he
gives them a new heart and they believe it. And listen to verse
18, he says, being then made free from sin, liberated, you
became the servants of righteousness. Now to be liberated from sin
does not mean that then you stop sinning. Again, only two types of people
on this earth, sinners lost in their sins and sinners saved
by grace. God's people, true believers,
still sin. Now, their lives are to be marked
by a warfare against sin and a striving to obey, motivated
by grace, love, and gratitude. And their sins cannot condemn
them because they stand before God in Christ, clothed in His
righteousness imputed. And they have their moments,
we all do. We see it recorded in the scriptures. Yes, we'll
succumb, we'll give in. But God always brings us back,
if we're His, unto repentance and godly sorrow over sin. That's
the power of God's grace. And He says, you became the servants
of righteousness. Now, just as a servant of sin
is not necessarily a moral person, you say, or an immoral person
rather, because the most moral who do not believe in Christ
are servants of sin. A servant of righteousness does
not mean that what a believer does equals or measures up to
the righteousness that God requires. What a servant of righteousness
is, is a believer who finds righteousness in Christ and to serve righteousness
is to serve Christ. That's what it means. You see,
even as a believer, a sinner saved by grace, I cannot plead
anything I do or anything God does in me or through me as my
righteousness before God. Because even that which God does
in me and through me becomes corrupted by the remaining flesh. That's what Paul wrote about
in Romans chapter seven, verses 14 through 25, the wretched man. You see, my only hope of righteousness,
of salvation, of security is in Christ. And we serve Him. Again, we fight sin. How? Motivated by grace, love, and
gratitude. Now, look at verse 19. He's talking
about servants and masters here. He said back there, he says,
whom you yield yourself servants to obey. And that's human language. And so he says in verse 19, I
speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your
flesh. The weakness. You see, we're
so weak. A believer, Paul said this, when
I'm weak, I'm strong. You know what he meant by that?
He wasn't just putting forth a paradox there. He's simply
saying that when he realizes his own weakness, that causes
him to look to Christ more. and Christ is his strength. God
said to him one time about the thorn that he had in his flesh,
this thorn in the side. He said, my grace is sufficient
for you. So he says in verse 19, for as
you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants
to righteousness unto holiness. Yield to Christ. and be separate. That's what holiness means. Before
God brought a sinner to obey from the heart that form of doctrine,
that sinner could be classified, no matter what that sinner was
doing, could be classified as a servant to uncleanness and
to iniquity and to iniquity. And again now, don't always relegate
that to the immoral segment of society. That's the religious
too, without Christ. All religion and morality without
Christ, without grace, without truth, is iniquity in God's sight. Iniquity because it doesn't equal
righteousness. So where is there any hope for
any of us? It's in looking to Christ, and that's what he says
in verse 20 of Romans 6. For when you were the servants
of sin, when you were in unbelief, you were free from righteousness.
He's talking about how we lived and walked and thought. We may
have thought we were righteous or did enough to equal, but we
didn't have it. The only way we have righteousness
is in Christ, and he says in verse 21, what fruit had you
then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the
end of those things is death. In the context, what he's talking
about is the best works of unbelievers. When a person who is an unbeliever
who thinks that he or she is doing enough to be right with
God, is not ashamed of their works. But when God the Holy
Spirit gives us the new heart, brings us under the preaching
of the truth, the gospel of God's grace, He shows us that the best
we can do, the best we offer, is sin in the sight of God. It doesn't hit the mark. It's
iniquity. It doesn't measure up an equal
out to righteousness so that He brings us to be ashamed of
that of which we were before so proud. Things we thought recommended
us unto God, now we see our iniquity in His sight. And the reason
that we see that is because we see that what Christ accomplished
on the cross to attain forgiveness for his people, to attain righteousness
for his people, is the only way. And that's when we can really
sing amazing grace. Look across the page to Romans
chapter 7. When he says in verse 4 here,
Romans 7, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the
law, that is, dead to the law's condemning power, How? By the body of Christ, not by
your works. And he says that's the power
of grace, by the body of Christ, his substitutionary sacrifice,
that you should be married to another, that you should be united
to Christ, in a spiritual marriage, even to him who's raised from
the dead," that means righteousness established, that we should what? Bring forth fruit unto God. That's the obedience of a believer
motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. It's not the cause
of salvation. It's not the ground of salvation.
It's no part of our righteousness before God. That's all Christ.
It's the fruit of the power of God's grace. He says in verse
5, for when we were in the flesh, that is unbelievers, the motions
or passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death before we came to a saving knowledge
of Christ, before a sinner becomes to that knowledge of Christ and
becomes a servant of righteousness. Liberated, you see. All we can
do is bring forth fruit unto death. Verse 6 of Romans 7, but
now we're delivered from the law. Now, how were we delivered
from the law? That is God's people now, believers,
by the body of Christ, that being dead wherein we were held, when
he died, I died, when he was buried, I was buried, when he
arose, I arose, that we should what? Go out and sin as much
as we want to? No. Serve in newness of spirit
and not in oldness of the letter. Now, what is the newness of the
spirit? That's serving the Lord as a willing, loving bondservant
motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. Oldness of the letter,
the letter being the law there, that's trying to serve God out
of fear of punishment or mercenary promise of earned reward. Now
go back to Romans 6. What fruit had you, verse 21,
in those things whereof you're now ashamed? For the end of those
things is death. When God brings a sinner, Giving
that sinner a new heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, he brings
that sinner to repentance of dead works, whereof he becomes
ashamed that he or she ever thought that he or she could be saved
or recommended unto God or made righteous by their works. It's
all Christ. So verse 22, he says, but now
being made free from sin, not free from sinning, but free from
sin's condemning power, and become servants to God, you have your
fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life." Now, holiness. People are confused about holiness
today. They always have been. What does
that mean? He says you have your fruit unto
holiness. That fruit is one of the things
that separates God's people from the world. That's what that means.
It doesn't mean sinless perfection there or sinless purity. But
what it means is this, a child of God is serving the Lord in
a different way than the children of the world. Now that can't
be seen unless the light of truth shines upon it. And here's the
light of truth, verse 23, For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There's the power of God's grace. 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
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.