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. Now today's message is the third
in a series of messages entitled, The Power of God's Grace. The Power of God's Grace. And
if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles today, turn to
Romans, the book of Romans, chapter six. That's when I'm dealing
with this, going through this chapter. And what I'm talking
about is the power of God unto salvation that resides and is
founded upon the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His blood, and that means His death, which equals His righteousness. It's called the righteousness
of God in the Bible. You see, salvation of a sinner
is not based on that sinner's works. It's not even based on
that sinner's faith. Now sinners who are saved do
believe because salvation and faith are the gift of God. I
quote this all the time on this program, and I'm sure that most
of you are familiar with these verses in Ephesians 2 and verse
8. For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, verse 9, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Now scholars, biblical scholars,
argue over whether or not when it says, not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, does that refer to salvation? Or does that refer
to faith there in verse eight? Well, it refers to both. Because
salvation, which is based upon the work of Jesus Christ on the
cross, His obedience unto death, His righteousness imputed, legally
charged, accounted to the sinner's account, always results in the
gift of faith, which is given by God. Faith is not the product
of your own will. If left to yourself, you would
not believe. If left to myself, none of us would believe. The
Bible tells us that. Faith is not the result of the
fact that you or I in a meeting a religious meeting, rose up
above the rest of the group, and made a decision for Christ.
That's not what faith is. Now, when we believe, we do decide
for Christ, yes. But what I'm saying is this.
What makes the difference between saved and lost? It's not our
faith. Faith only gives evidence of
being saved and not lost. What makes the difference? Who
makes the difference? God's grace in Christ made the
difference. And that's not just splitting
hairs, that's to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now,
the Bible teaches us that salvation in no way, at no stage, to any
degree, is conditioned on the works of a sinner. the best act
of obedience, the service, the charity. All those things are
involved in salvation, but salvation is not conditioned on them, it's
not based upon them, it's not caused by them. Salvation is
totally, totally, totally the grace of God. Totally undeserved,
totally unearned, totally based upon what Christ did in His obedience
unto death on the cross. My works do not save me. My works
do not keep me saved. My works will not deliver me
unto glory. Only God's grace in Christ will
do that. Now, does that mean that we have
no works? Does that mean that a believer
can go out and sin as much as he wants to without any thought
of repentance or without any warfare? And the answer is no.
This is the power of God's grace. And that's what Paul anticipated
in Romans six and verse one. He said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, verse two. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? The power of God's grace is in
the Lord Jesus Christ based upon his righteousness alone that
enables a sinner to be dead to sin. Now, what does it mean to
be dead to sin? I dealt with this a little bit
last week, we're gonna go into more detail on it now. To be
dead to sin doesn't mean that I'm dead to sinning, I'm still
a sinner saved by grace. I've said this often on this
program, only two types of people in the world, sinners still lost
in their sins and sinners saved by the grace of God, but we're
all sinners. Does this mean that I'm dead
to any desire or thought of sin? Well, if it does, none of us
are saved if we're honest. The Bible teaches that a believer
is in a struggle, a continual warfare against the flesh, the
flesh being his sinful thoughts, sinful desires, sinful goals,
sinful motives. There's sins of commission, there's
sins of omission. But here's the point. The only
righteousness that I have before God is what I have in Christ
Jesus freely imputed, charged, accounted to me. And that's why
I've received him by God-given faith. I submit to him and his
righteousness. My works do not make me righteous.
I've told people this. I made this statement several
times from the pulpit here at Eager Avenue Grace Church. And
I remember years ago, it shocked a person. I said this, that if
God were to ever judge me based upon my best efforts to obey
him, I still will not be counted righteous on that ground. In
fact, I would be condemned on that ground because my best efforts
do not equal righteousness. We read this in the last few
messages. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. My righteousness is
Christ. He's the only righteousness I
have. And I stand in him. Paul wrote about that in Philippians
three, when he said, I want to know him and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. So he says in verse three,
now he's going to explain what it is to be dead to sin. He's
going to talk about the power of God's grace. And he says in
verse three, know you not that so many of us as were or are
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Now the key phrase here to understand
what he means in this baptism is his death. That is Christ
death. That's the issue. And he says,
baptized into Jesus Christ, baptized into his death. What does that
mean? Now, as I mentioned last week, here's where we've got
to apply the responsible and accepted rules of scriptural
interpretation. And I'll once again refer you
to this book. Now listen, when I refer you
to these books, we're not trying to sell books here. We're giving
them away free. We just want to get the gospel
out. And we offer this book called, Rightly Dividing the Word, which
in wherein I list what I consider to be the eight accepted rules
of scriptural interpretation. So that when you come to, and
one of the main rules there is that it's got to be revealed
by the Holy Spirit. But get the book and read it,
study it, use it as a tool in your Bible study. But one of
the main rules, it's got to be revealed by the spirit, but when
the spirit reveals truth to his people, he doesn't suspend our
reason, he doesn't suspend logic. Now I'm not just talking about
human logic and intellect, I'm talking about God's revelation.
And so when he says the word baptized, now normally when you
think about being baptized or baptism, you think about the
ordinance, the church ordinance of the New Testament Church of
believers' baptism. There are two New Testament ordinances
that Christ gave to the New Testament Church. The first one was an
ordinance of public confession called believers' baptism. You
see, Most people think, well, you confess Christ when you walk
down an aisle, shake the preacher's hand and pray the sinner's prayer
and blah. That's not New Testament confession.
New Testament confession publicly is the ordinance of believer's
baptism. And listen, let me tell you something,
you read the Bible now, it's not for babies. It's not just
dedication. It's not a rite of passage. Like
so many use it today, they want to get their kids into the baptismal
pool as soon as they can and so they can feel good. It's for
believers. Those who have been brought to
faith in Christ and true repentance. And it's by immersion. The word
baptized means to be placed into, placed into the water. So where
we symbolically, we who confess Christ symbolically, identify
with Christ in His death, His burial, and His resurrection. That's what it is. It's not sprinkling
or pouring or anything like that. It means immersed. It means placed
into, literally. And so there's the ordinance
of believers baptism. The second New Testament ordinance
is the Lord's Supper, which we partake of the unleavened bread
and the wine representing the body and the blood of Christ.
It's an ordinance of remembrance. It's a memorial. He said, you
do remember Christ's death until he come. And that's a continual
ordinance. But here the word baptized is
not referring to the ordinance of believers baptism. What the
word baptized is referring to is the believer's union with
Christ. Union with Christ. 2 Corinthians
5.17 says, wherefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, all old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are made new.
In Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ?
Well, there are several things, and the context of the scripture
determines what he means by that. But to be in Christ means this.
It means to be chosen by God in Christ. That's divine election,
electing grace. Before the foundation of the
world, God chose a people in Christ. He gave them to Christ. Christ talked about this in his
earthly ministry, especially in John chapter six, but in other
passages, he said, all that, John 6, 37, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. That's the elect. Somebody says,
well, then it doesn't matter if I come to Christ or not. If
I'm not elect, he won't receive me. No, no, no. No, no, no. That's not what the scripture
teaches. So you're using sinful human logic now. Sinful human
reasoning. The Bible teaches that all who
come to Him, He will in no wise cast out. I guarantee you, according
to the promise of God in His word, if you come to Christ as
He's identified and distinguished in the word, you will not be
turned away. But I also guarantee, I tell
you this, according to Scripture, if you truly come to Christ,
it's because you were given to Him by the Father before the
world began. That's election. God chose you,
chose you in Christ. He's your representative. It
means this, it means Christ is the surety. If you've been placed
into Christ, if you're in Christ, united to Christ, He's your surety. That means that all the responsibility
and accountability of the debt of your sins was imputed, laid
upon, charged, accounted, reckoned to Christ. Before the foundation
of the world, in the everlasting covenant of grace, Christ was
made responsible for the debt of the sins of God's people.
He said to the father, in essence, put it on my account, I'll repay
it. He's the surety of the covenant. And the covenant is an eternal
everlasting covenant of grace. And then if you're in Christ,
it means he's the substitute. As the representative and the
surety of God's people, Christ actually came into this world
and took upon himself the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without
sin. He is God in human flesh. And
he walked this earth in strict, perfect obedience to the law,
and he went to the cross as their substitute, the lamb, to die
for their sins. That's what the payment of the
debt meant. And that's what this means here,
Romans 6.3. Know you not that so many of
us as were baptized or united to or placed into Jesus Christ
were baptized, united to, placed into His death. What does that
mean? That means if I'm saved, if I'm
a sinner saved by grace, if I've been brought to faith in Christ,
that proves He died for me. People say, well, didn't he die
for everybody? No. Scripture doesn't teach that.
You say, God so loved the world. The world, there's not everybody
without exception. Never is in the scripture. Read
the book. God has a people all over the
world. Every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. How do you
know who God chose? How do you know whom Christ represented? How do you know for whom he stood
sure? How do you know for whom he died?
They come to believe in him. You say, well, well, then it
doesn't matter what I did. No, that's sinful human reasoning. The Bible commands you and commands
me to seek the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you called upon the name
of the Lord? You say, well, yes, I have. Are you sure? Read the
Bible. Who is the Lord whom you called
upon? Is He the Christ of this book
or is He a counterfeit? You know there are counterfeit
Christ. Read the book. Study the scriptures. Pray that God will open your
heart and eyes and ears to see and understand and know and believe
this truth. Not what tradition teaches, not
what the denomination teaches, but what God teaches. That's
why I've written these books in the first place, rightly dividing
the Word. What is a Christian? What is
salvation? Examine yourself. Those for whom
Christ died were baptized into His death. Now what does that
mean? Look at verse 4 of Romans 6. And what I'm showing you here
is the real power of God's grace now. It says in verse 4, Therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death. Now that tells you
he's not talking about water baptism. He's talking about Christ's
death as the representative, the high priest, the surety,
the substitute, the Lamb of God for his people. And it means
this, when he died, I died. Not personally, I didn't die
personally, but I died in the person of Christ, my substitute,
my surety. So therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of what? Of life. Now, what he's saying
is, if I'm a sinner saved by grace, not by my works now, if
I'm saved by grace, kept by grace, and brought to glory by grace,
That means this, that means I'm united, I'm baptized with Christ
into His death. When He died, He died for me.
When He was buried, He was buried for me. When He arose again the
third day, according to the glory of the Father, I arose with Him. He did it all for His people. He calls them His sheep. He said
the Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep. He did it for
His church. His blood was given to redeem
His church, His people. All that the Father giveth Him.
Now He did all that. And what He did, now listen to
me, the power of God's grace lies totally in what Christ accomplished. In what Christ did. It's not
in what I accomplish. It's not in what I do. It's in
what Christ accomplished for me and it's in what Christ has
done for me now what he does to me and in me by the power
of the Spirit is the fruit the result the product the effect
of grace and he didn't do all that so that he could have a
people who are rebellious and unfaithful and unbelieving and
disobedient No. He did it in this way, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. That walk there means
spiritual life given. Now here's the power of God's
grace in the new birth. It's the resurrection life of
Christ imparted, infused into God's people by the power of
God unto salvation, the gospel revealed to them by the Holy
Spirit. He gives them a new heart. That's the power of God's grace
too. You see, it's not only just in, when we talk about what Christ
did, that's the ground of salvation. That's my righteousness before
God. But salvation involves more. Salvation involves the fruit
and the result and the product, which also are the power of God's
grace. My new birth is not the product
of my choice or decision or will. The Bible doesn't teach that
it is. The Bible teaches that the new birth is the product
of the will of God and the power of His grace so that sinners
who are born naturally dead in trespasses and sin, naturally
deceived, are now given new life by the Spirit from Christ. And it's not the new birth that
makes me righteous before God. It's the death of Christ. It's
not the new birth that washes me clean legally from all my
sins, it's the blood of Christ. There is a cleansing in the new
birth, but it's the washing, it's the cleansing of regeneration
wherein my mind is brought to see my sins and I mortify those
deeds of the body, put them to death as I look to Christ alone
for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all righteousness and I repent
of my works. as forming any part of the ground
or cause of my salvation. And I walk by faith, God-given
faith. God in the new birth, He gives
life, spiritual life, through the knowledge of Christ. He gives
faith to believe. He gives repentance to fight
sin, to godly sorrow over sin. He sheds abroad in the hearts
of God's people, the new heart, the new spirit, the love of God,
the love of Christ. And he gives them a desire to
obey God and to fight sin, not out of legalism, but because
of grace, love, and gratitude. He takes away that old legal
evil motive, that old mercenary motive, and he replaces it with
a godly motive that glorifies him. Again, the motive of grace
and gratitude and love. You see that? So here's a believer. The Bible calls a believer a
bondservant of Christ. A bondservant is one whose debt
has been fully paid already, who is secure in the family of
his master, and who serves the master not because he has to
or he fears not to, but he serves the master because he wants to. And his sorrow comes from the
fact that he cannot serve the master perfectly. That's what
Paul expressed in Romans 7, 14 through 25. I want to obey God,
I want to glorify Him, but I fall so far short. Oh, wretched man
that I am, that's what he said. So the power of God's grace really
is twofold here, and he shows us here. It's in the power of
being justified, made right before God, based upon the imputed righteousness
of Christ, and then as a result, as the fruit, as the product,
the power of God's grace to give me life within, to cause me to
walk in His grace by faith in Christ. You see, grace, which
cannot be earned and cannot be deserved, will not inspire you
or motivate you to sin. That's the flesh. Grace will
motivate and inspire God's people to obey. And verse 5, look at
Romans 6 and verse 5. He says, for if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death. You see, this shows you
what he's talking about here. If I'm a sinner saved by grace,
I'm planted together in the likeness of his death. That means I died
when Christ died. And again, I didn't die personally,
I wasn't even born yet, but he did it for me. He did it for
all whom the Father gave him in election. Then he says, we
shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. In other
words, if Christ died for me, then that guarantees my resurrection
with him. And that also guarantees the
new birth. And he says in verse 6 of Romans 6, he says, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him. That old man there
is our old relationship in the flesh with Adam. That's been
put to death. And he says, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin. In other words, before salvation,
before the new birth, What was I? A servant of sin. Now, as
I mentioned last week, I was religious. I was a moral person
before this, but I was still a servant of sin. And that's
one of the key things about understanding the Bible. Whenever you hear
the term a servant of sin, You say, well, now that refers to
the most immoral people of the earth, the people like Hitler,
the people, the bank robbers, the drug pushers, the whoremongers,
and the prostitutes, and all of that, and the materialists. Listen, those people are servants
of sin. But let me tell you something,
a servant of sin in the Bible describes the most dedicated,
professing religionist who does not truly know Christ and believe
in him. You can be in a pulpit preaching
a false Christ. You're a servant of sin. You
can get baptized. Used to have an old fella up
in Kentucky where I'm from who'd say, he'd say this, that he ran
into a person who's been baptized so many times that the frogs
know him by his first name. You can be baptized. I don't
care how many times. And if you don't know Christ,
you're a servant of sin. But God's grace turns a servant
of sin into a servant of righteousness. We'll deal with that next week.
I hope you enjoyed this and 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 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.