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. Now today,
I'm going to begin a series of messages on the subject of the
eternal security of a true believer, a truly saved person. The title
of today's message is Signed, Sealed, and Delivered. Signed,
Sealed, and Delivered. And I'll be preaching from the
book of Romans, mainly from Romans chapter 7, verses 4 through 6,
but also I'll refer to Romans chapter 6 and some other passages
of scripture if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles.
But as I said, this is the beginning of a series of messages on the
eternal security of the truly saved sinner, a sinner saved
by grace. Now, a lot of people who claim
to be Christians do not believe in the eternal security of the
saved. And they will talk about, for
example, using terms like, once saved, always saved. And many
people use that as a derogatory term, referring to the eternal
security of a true believer, one who's truly saved by the
grace of God. And they'll say something like,
well, that's a Baptist doctrine. And then you have a denomination
like the Free Will Baptist who separated from Baptist because
they don't believe any longer in once saved, always saved. I don't necessarily like that
term because so many people have so many misunderstandings about
it. But what I'd like for you to
do is several things. First of all, as you listen to
these messages, study the Bible. Follow along in scriptures and
try to understand what the Bible says about this issue of, however
you want to put it, once saved, always saved, or the eternal
security of the believer, the true believer. And then I'm going
to, and I don't know how many messages it's going to take me
to go through this series because I'm just going to start and go
as long as I can on each message. And I'm going to start here today
in Romans 7. And then I'm going to conclude the message by going
to some passages of scripture that people use to object or
to deny once saved always saved or the eternal security of the
believer. But much of what is objected to when you hear that
term, and I don't know what each and every one of you all believe.
I assume there's probably differences out there in this issue and your
understanding of it. But one of the most common objections
that is brought against the eternal security of the believer is this,
well, if I believe that, then I would just sin as much as I
want to. or saying something like, well,
that gives me no reason to obey or to avoid sin. So therefore
people will say things like, well, if I believe that, it doesn't
matter what I do, whether I obey or not, doesn't matter. But you
see, that is a common misunderstanding of the biblical truth of the
eternal security of the believer. And I wanna show you that. Now,
first of all, in this first message, what I'm going to address has
to do with the biblical incentive and the biblical motive and the
biblical goal of true obedience. And I wanna show you is this,
the great truth of the eternal security of the saved, the believer,
is used of the Holy Spirit not to give a truly saved person
an excuse or a license to sin or promote sin and deny obedience,
but it is in reality not only the strongest motive and incentive
for obedience, listen, and it's not only the strongest motive
and incentive for obedience, But it is the only right motive. The only right ground of obedience. Without it, all obedience is
evil in the sight of God, and I want to show you that. So let's
start with that. The motives, the goal. And that's
why I entitled the message, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered, because
I want you to see this. Look at Romans chapter 7 and
verse 4. Now, I've preached on this passage
many times on this TV program, in fact, just recently. But I
thought it's one of the best passages of Scripture to show
exactly what I'm preaching here on the gospel doctrine. And I
call it a gospel doctrine of the eternal security of the believer.
And listen to what the Apostle Paul writes by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit. He says, Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law. You're dead to the law. Now, how is a person dead to
the law? That's what we want to understand
here. The scripture teaches that the law of God, the law of God,
pronounces the sentence of death wherever sin is charged, wherever
sin is imputed. That's the word imputed. It means
to charge, to account. In other words, if I have sin
charged to my account, the law of God pronounces the sentence
of death. Over in the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, the scripture says that death is the result of sin and the
strength of sin is the law. In other words, the power of
sin to bring death is because the law of God passes that sentence
where sin is charged. So he says, wherefore my brethren
you also are become dead to the law. And what he's saying is
here is that the law cannot pronounce its sentence of death. You're
dead to the law. Now how did I become dead to
the law? I'm a sinner. If God ever gave
me what I deserved or what I've earned, it would be death. But
I'm dead to the law. How did I become so? He says,
wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. Now that body of Christ there
refers to his holy, sinless humanity. which was offered upon the cross. God, in human flesh, Jesus Christ,
having the sins of God's elect, His sheep, His church, imputed
to Him, and He gave His body He died on that tree as the surety
and substitute of his people. And he says the reason that all
this happened is that you should be married to another, united
to Christ, like a wedding, like a marriage union. Even to him
who is raised from the dead. And look at the next line now.
That or in order that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now
what he's saying here is this. Christ as the surety and substitute
of His people died in their place and satisfied the just sentence
of the law in their place. Christ died so that I wouldn't
have to die. The law condemned Christ in my
place. That's the doctrine of substitution. that was brought about by Christ
as the surety, the surety meaning that my debt to God's justice
was charged to Him, and He died. He satisfied that debt. He paid
the debt in full. Jesus paid it all. That's what
he means. His blood redeemed me from my
sin so that my sins are taken away in a legal sense, objectively,
as Christ bore them away. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away or beareth away the sins of the world, which refers
to His people all over the world, Jew and Gentile, God's elect.
And He bore those sins away, so that all for whom He died
are dead to the law. The law cannot condemn me. I'm
dead to the law. Why? Because in my case, the
sentence has been served. The payment has been made. And
who made it? I didn't make it. I couldn't.
But Christ did. And that's what salvation by
grace is all about. Christ satisfied all the conditions,
all the requirements, all the stipulations. Every condition
that God required to save me from the just sentence of death
under the law, Christ fulfilled it. Romans 10, 4. Christ is the
end of the law, the fulfillment, the finishing, completion, perfection
of the law for righteousness for everyone that believe, to
everyone that believe it. So that if I believe in Him,
that gives evidence that He died for me and my sins were put away. Now also it means righteousness
has been established. Now, being dead to the law means
that the law can demand no more payment for my sins. The payment's been made. You
see, the gospel is not Jesus did his part, now you do yours. Christ did it all. And my believing,
my repenting, my obedience does not save me. No sir, Christ saved
me. I'm signed, sealed, and delivered
from the law. Signed when God chose me before
the foundation of the world. My name was written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. Sealed unto the covenant of grace
as Christ is my surety. My sins were imputed to Him.
His righteousness is imputed to me. and delivered when He
redeemed me by His blood and sent His Spirit into the world
to unite me to Him in the new birth whereby He gave me faith
to believe." Sign sealed and delivered. So that there is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You understand that? I'm dead
to the law. Over in Romans chapter 6 and verse 7, it says, for he
that is dead is freed from sin. That means justified from sin.
That means I'm not guilty in God's court of justice. It means
I'm righteous in the sight of God, not by my works, not even
by my will. I'm righteous by the righteousness
of God, the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's the entire
merit of His obedience unto death charged to me. Now all that took
place only by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
grace is all about. You see, salvation by grace means
it is not conditioned on me. It's conditioned on Christ and
in Christ I'm signed, sealed and delivered from the law. so that the law cannot condemn
me. I'm justified. I'm not guilty. I'm righteous
in God's sight, not based upon what I do, not based upon what
I continue to do. That's important now for this
series on eternal security. My security in salvation is not
conditioned on me. It's conditioned on Christ. He saves me by His grace. He
keeps me by His grace. and He will bring me to glory
by His grace. And at no time, at no stage,
to any degree is it conditioned on me. Now, does that mean, therefore,
that kind of security? Does that mean, therefore, that
I can go out and sin as much as I want to? Does that mean
that I can throw caution to the wind and never worry about or
never engage myself in the warfare of the flesh and the spirit?
And the answer is no. All of this, verse 4 of Romans
7, was accomplished by Jesus Christ that I should bring forth
fruit unto God. Now notice the word fruit there. Fruit is something that is born
out of life given from the root or the vine. Now who is the root? and the vine. Is it you or is
it me? No. Is it my will or your will? No. It's Jesus Christ crucified
and raised from the dead. He's the root. He's the root
of Jesse, the scripture says in prophecy. He's the vine. He said, I'm the vine. You're
the branches. Those who are in Him, they bear
fruit. They don't throw caution to the
wind. They're still sinners. I'm still a sinner. If God were
to even right now give me what I deserve or what I've earned,
it would be death. But you see, grace says that
God will not give me what I've earned or what I deserve. Grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. You see, I'm secure in salvation
by the grace of God in Christ Jesus based on His righteousness
alone. And so I'm signed and sealed
and delivered. Well now look at verse 5 of Romans
7. He says, for when we were in
the flesh, now to be in the flesh means to be in unbelief, an unregenerate
person. A person who is in the flesh
has not been born again by the Spirit. And I want to tell you
something, that refers even to God's elect before they are brought
under the gospel and brought, given spiritual life, the impartation
of life, spiritual life. They're literally raised from
the dead. It's what Christ said, you must be born again or you
cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. So when we were in
the flesh, when we were not born again, when we were unbelievers,
he says, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now the motions
of sin, another word for that, you may have this in your concordance,
if you have a Bible with a concordance, is the passions of sin. Something you were passionate
about. Something that you were really interested in and energized
to do. And he says, when you were in
unbelief, when you were an unbeliever, when you were without Christ,
the passions of sin, he said, which were by the law. What law? The law of God. He said, did
work in our members. The members refers to the physical
body. The hands. How did I use my hands?
my eyes, my ears, my mind, even my heart, as far as my desires,
my motives, my desires, my goals, all of that, did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now, what is fruit
unto death? Well, the passions of sin express
themselves, I believe, mainly in one of two ways. You'll have
it in people who totally disregard any notion of morality, any notion
of trying to be a good person. For example, we know people who
are out and out rebels. They live to break the law. The prisons are full of them.
You lay down a law to them and all they have in their mind is
because they hate you and hate the law, they hate authority,
they hate God, they're gonna break that law. And we know we
all have that in us by nature because we're rebels by nature.
So that's one way the passions of sins work. Abject rebellion. And their motive is self. Selfishness,
self-love. But another way the passions
of sin works in our members to bring forth fruit unto death
is through religion. Think about the Apostle Paul
before he was saved. His name was Saul of Tarsus. What was he passionate about
as he looked at the law of God when he was an unbeliever? He
wasn't out here trying to get drunk or trying to rob banks
or trying to kill people. You know what he said? And you
can read about it in Philippians. One of the passages you can read
about is Philippians 3 where he talked about when he was in
the flesh. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Circumcised
the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin as touching the law
of Pharisee. Very dedicated. is touching the
law blameless. He was trying to do his best
to establish a righteousness of his own. And he says that
when he was in that shape, not knowing Christ, not having been
brought under the conviction of sin and depravity, not having
been brought to Christ by God-given faith and repentance of dead
works, he said, all I was doing was bringing forth fruit unto
death. All of his religion, all of his
morality, all of his sincerity was fruit unto death. But now
look at verse 6. But now, this is Romans 7 verse
6, but now we are delivered from the law. Remember, sign, sealed,
delivered. Delivered from the law. The law
doesn't have any hold on me now, he says. I've been delivered. Now how'd that happen? Not by
anything I did or do or try to do or promise to do. Not by anything
I don't do. It's all what Christ did. I was
delivered from the law. That being dead wherein we were
held, that was my case in that darkness, that we should serve. Serve who? Serve God. Not disobey God, but you do it
in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the latter.
Now, what does that mean? What does all that have to do
with the eternal security of the saved? Well, my friend, basically,
they're really, and generally speaking, they're basically about,
especially those who call themselves Christian, there's only two motives
for obedience. One is an evil motive, and the
other is a godly motive. That evil motive is what comes
to us naturally while we're in the flesh bringing forth fruit
unto death. You can label it a lot of different
ways, but let's label it legalism. Legalism. And legalism seeks
to motivate people in one of two ways. either fear of punishment
or mercenary promise of earned reward. That's legalism. In other words, here you have
people who claim to be serving God, but they're doing it out
of fear of punishment, fear of loss of reward, fear of loss
of blessing. or they're doing it out of the
promise, as they see it, of earned rewards. Both are legalism. Both result in fruit unto death.
Fear of punishment makes you an unwilling, forced slave. And then promise of earned reward
makes you a mercenary, getting paid a wage. Like a wage. I'm trying to earn my way into
God's favor. You see that? That's the way
it is. And that's what the Bible says, the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. You see, as long as you think that you have to earn your
way into God's favor, or you have to earn your blessings from
God, or you have to serve God or you'll lose salvation, My
friend, that is unbelief and all it will bring forth is fruit
unto death. It's actually evil on the side
of God. You want to know why? Not because it's necessarily
immoral or even insincere, but because it does not glorify God. It exalts the sinner. It exalts
man. Makes him think more highly of
himself. Trying to establish his own righteousness. Thinking
that he's earned something from God. I can't earn anything from
God. God's the creator. I'm the creature.
And I'm a sinful creature. It exalts man. It does not exalt
Christ as the only one who fulfilled all righteousness for his people.
It denies the Lord Jesus Christ because He came to fulfill all
conditions for salvation and here you are thinking that you
can still meet those conditions. It's a denial of Christ. That's
why it's evil. But that other motive. And it's
labeled here serving in newness of spirit and not in oldness
of the letter. The oldness of the letter refers to the old
covenant law which was conditioned on Israel and they failed. Legalism. The newness of the Spirit, that's
the motive of God's grace that is based upon the fact that I'm
secure in the grace of God, based upon the merits of Christ's blood
and righteousness alone. I don't have to earn my salvation.
Christ earned it for me. I don't have to fear punishment.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
This is the motive. Here's the godly motive. This
is what brings about love. Serving Him out of love. Gratitude. Serving Him because we're grateful. And grace. This is the motive
that comes from the truth of eternal security in Christ. And it can come from nowhere
else. It's the service and obedience of what the Bible calls a willing,
loving bond slave. You know what a bond slave is?
He serves his master, not in order to pay a debt. The debt's
already paid. He serves his master because
he loves him. And that's the motive that is
established by eternal security in Christ. Eternal security by
the grace of God in Christ Jesus is the greatest motive and incentive
for obedience. It is the only right motive that
God accepts for acceptable obedience and service. It's serving God,
not for what you can get out of Him, It's serving God because
of loving Him. And it's loving Him because of
what He's done for me. He saved me by His grace. I didn't
deserve it, didn't earn it, still don't. He washed away all my
sins by the blood of the cross. He gave me a righteousness that
I have no part in producing. the righteousness of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of His obedience unto death.
And why did He do that? I have no idea. It seemed good
in His sight. This is the issue of being signed,
sealed, and delivered. Over in Romans 6 and verse 17,
we read, But God bethanked that you were the servants of sin.
Even religious people, if you're not in Christ securing Him, You're
a servant of sin, but God made us servants of righteousness.
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 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. 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.