Thank you, Winston. That's a
good song. Opened up my message this morning. Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. This morning, those of you, first
of all, welcome. Welcome, everybody. I pray that
God will bless you because of being here this morning. I'm in the book of Romans. been
going through the Book of Romans, and I'm at chapter six now. You
can go ahead and turn there. And beginning at verse 19, it's
going to be our text, going through the end of the chapter. I'm going
to be talking about some other verses and going in some other
things to start with, but that is going to be our main text
that we're going to deal with this morning. I want to say a
few things. leading up and giving a little
background to our study in Romans. I want to say a few things as
we begin to close out the sixth chapter of Romans in our study that we're having. As we look
back, we're able to see that beginning in Romans 1, verse
16-17, Paul talks about the righteousness of God that is revealed in the
gospel when he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believeth. Then he says that for therein,
therein this gospel message is the righteousness of God revealed.
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. Then Paul goes in Romans 1 in
verse 18, goes on to deal with the depravity of man, and that
all men without exception deserve God's wrath, even God's elect
by nature. All Jews, all Gentiles, all of
mankind, He says in Romans 1 verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Then beginning in chapter 3 verse
21 to the end of chapter 5 is an overview of the divine method
of justification. that it is by grace and that
it is apart from law as it relates to the sinner keeping the law
to be justified before God. Look at Romans 3 and verse 21,
beginning of verse 21 says, but now the righteousness of God
without the law, that is without the sinner's obedience to the
law is manifested, shown forth, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, unto all and upon
all them that believe. For there is no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus." That's pretty clear on how A sinner is justified freely
by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Paul
devotes the entire fourth chapter in speaking of Abraham. That
Abraham was justified by faith before he received a sign of
circumcision and before the law was even given. Look at Romans
4 beginning at verse 9. It says, cometh this blessedness,
this blessedness of God not charging his elect with their sin. Speaking
of talking about King David and everything is where this is all
relates to back in these verses here. This blessedness of God
not charging the sinner with sin, but charging them with the
righteousness of Christ, imputing them imputing to their account
the righteousness of Christ. Cometh this blessedness then
upon circumcision only, the Jew only, or upon the uncircumcision
also. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? Was
he when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in
circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received a sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet been
uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that
believe, though they be not circumcised, that the righteousness might
be imputed to them also. Abraham believed God and was
a justified man in the sight of God. The case of Abraham is
very important to the case that Paul is representing and setting
forth here. First of all, to the Jew at that
time, Abraham was the most reverent man out of their ancestry. Paul
pointed out to the Jews that Abraham not only was justified
in uncircumcision, or before he was circumcised, but before
the law was even given. Then in chapter six and following,
Paul shows the influence that justification has upon sanctification. The freedom of the dominion of
sin and the guilt and the condemnation of sin is actually absolutely
necessary to the sanctification of the children of God. You must
come. You must be born again. God must
regenerate and convert that individual, reveal to him his gospel, how
he saved the sinner based on the righteousness of Christ,
that he justifies you based on that righteousness and that righteousness
alone, you must come to that point in order to worship the
true God and the true Christ. You cannot know the true God
apart from knowing how he justifies a sinner based on the righteousness
of Christ. Our justification in Christ actually
secures and promotes a life of sanctification and fellowship
with God our Father, a fellowship with God which can only be had
under the shadow of a consciousness in our own mind of our justification
in Christ. As Paul moves along, as he unfolds
the ground of our justification, he discusses in certain places
where one might bring forth an objection against this doctrine
of justification by the grace of God. He discusses an objection
that people might take it the wrong way and take occasion to
sin. Y'all remember those verses?
This same argument that's raised in Paul's days, also raised in
our day, that teaching sinners that our justification before
God, that we're justified before God not based on what we do or
don't do, but based on what Christ accomplished at the cross, His
blood and righteousness alone. That's how we're justified before
God the Father. that teaching sinners that our
justification before God and our eternal security is by what
Christ accomplished in his death on the cross that this teaching
will lead men to sin and it will become a license to sin. Paul says God forbid every time. What upsets those opponents of
free grace the most is that true children of God are free from
the law. That we're free from sin and
dead to sin by the body of Christ. When Christ died, we died. That
God's elect are not under law, but under grace. And that our
works are totally, totally excluded from having anything to do with
our justification before this God that we worship. That makes
them angry. when they hear these things.
Now, let's go ahead with the conclusion of Romans 6 this morning.
I want to begin, though, by going over the last verse in our last
study in Romans that we had the last time. We're going to go over again
what it means to be free from sin and to become servants of
righteousness. Turn to Romans 6 and verse 18.
where it says, being then at regeneration and conversion,
made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
God's elect at regeneration and conversion are delivered in our
conscience and in our experience from the condemning power of
sin. We come to see that we are free from any condemnation and
we're brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And
as such, we have our fruit, that is, the blessed effect of Christ's
redemption into holiness. Even the holiness of God, our
Savior, we have it as ours by virtue of union and communion
with him. And in the end, we have everlasting
life. We have all grace here and a
sure earnest of glory hereafter. To be a servant of righteousness
is to come to see, by faith, that we do not owe a debt, which
is eternal death. We do not owe a debt to God's
law and to his justice. God has enabled us to see that
Christ has already paid all the debt we owe, and that we now
stand perfectly righteous, not by works that we do or that we
might be unable to do, but by Christ's work alone. His righteousness
imputed and charged to our account by our heavenly father. We see
that our father does not charge us with our sin, but that he
charged it to Christ. And Christ came in the fullness
of time and paid the debt and he paid it in full. Not just
part of the debt that we might have to pay the other part, but
he paid all the debt. I like the phrase that our brother
Bill uses often. He says, Christ drank damnation
dry. He paid all the debt. All that
the father required from his elect, Christ performed it. Every
jot and every tittle. I like the lyrics of this song
here. Jesus paid it all. All to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. Now we will begin our study this
morning as Paul discusses the two servants here. One, the servants
of uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, or servants of
sin. And the other, servants of righteousness
unto holiness. And in Romans six and verse 19,
and I'll read these, Paul says, I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded
your members, servants of uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now yield your members, servants to righteousness, unto
holiness. Now, human language is so inadequate
to express and describe the glory of a salvation that God is freely
and fully provided by his grace in Jesus Christ. Paul used the
simple terms to describe it. not because it's so deep and
so complex, but because of the weakness of our minds to perceive
these great spiritual truths. Slavery was an inadequate illustration
of a believer's relationship with Christ, especially in the
days of the early church. The Romans were often hard and
harsh in their treatment of slaves, but a bond slave of Christ. are
treated by him with love, mercy, and with care. These bond slaves
are those that serve their master. They're not in bondage to him
or slavery to him, but they do it out of love and gratitude. Okay? Now, before we were born
again, we submitted ourselves as slaves to impurity, which
resulted in sin upon sin. This is true of unregenerate
natural man at his best state. Without Christ, without faith
in him, without a conscience and heart purified by faith,
all we are and do is sin upon sin. Psalms 39 5 says, Behold,
thou has made my days as a hand breath. A short period of time
in mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his
best state is altogether vanity." Folks, this is a position that
we all are in by nature. We're all sinners. We're all
in need of mercy and of grace. Then Paul says, even so now. He talked about this earlier
right here, that you've yielded your members, servants of uncleanness
and to iniquity. But then Paul says, but even
so now, now that we're born again and realize our standing before
God in Christ, now that we have been given spiritual life, knowledge,
faith, and love to Christ and his word, Let us submit ourselves
as willing, loving bond slaves or servants of righteousness,
servants to Christ himself and his word unto holiness. We know
that to be holy is to be perfect and to be without blame. And
that is our standing. That is the standing of every
one of God's elect, not based on what we do, but based on the
merits of Christ's blood and of his righteousness alone. God's
elect are holy and without blame as we stand in Christ's righteousness
alone. Holiness here, correctly translated,
means to sanctify, to set apart, or to consecrate. Consecration
is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service by God. The
word consecration literally means to associate with the sacred
or to be used by God and to be in fellowship with God. God has
chosen to elect a people for his own glory, and that his elect
may worship him as he is a just God and a savior. I think of
the verse in 2 Peter, in chapter one, verse three and four, where
he says, according as his divine power has given unto us all things
that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him
that have called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great precious promises that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that's in the world by lust. And I know a lot of, there are
preachers out there that would take that partakers of a divine
nature and put another nature within us that's a divine nature
within us. And we know that the Holy Spirit
is in every believer. We know that, but they'll take
it and abuse it and bring about doctrine that dishonors God when
they say these sort of things. But this phrase here, partakers
of the divine nature, partakers means to be an associate or to
be in fellowship with God himself. We worship and serve the true
and living God. A servant of righteousness is
one who has been convinced of his own depravity, one who has
come to see that there is no hope of salvation apart from
Christ's obedience unto death on behalf and in the process
Christ working out a righteousness that God the Father accepts and
that he charges it to our account freely by his grace. Also the
Apostle Paul quotes David in the Psalms when when he says
in Romans 4 in verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord,
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Paul begins the next verse
talking about our state before regeneration and conversion.
Not our standing before God, but our state. He says here in
Romans 6 20, for when you were servants of sin, you were free
from righteousness. When we were unregenerate, before
we came to faith in Christ and true repentance, we were free
from or without a void of righteousness. We were free from righteousness.
This does not mean that righteousness had not been charged or imputed
to our account by God the Father, all based on what Christ accomplished
at the cross. It does not mean that God did
not view us as righteous before him based on the blood and righteousness
of Christ. It simply means that we were
ignorant of the gospel of how God saves a sinner by the righteousness
of Christ, what he worked out by his perfect obedience and
his shed blood. It means that while we were without
faith in Christ, not looking to him alone for all of our salvation,
We were exempt from and had no obligation to the standard of
righteousness seen and fulfilled by Christ, who is the only standard
of righteousness that God will accept. In our unregenerate state,
before God brought us to faith and repentance, we always fell
short of righteousness. The only righteousness that we
knew about or knew anything about was our own righteousness, one
that we performed with our imaginary God's help. We were ignorant
of the true God and of the true Christ. We were ignorant of his
righteousness imputed, and we were going about to establish
one of our own. Look at Romans 10, verse 3 and
4. And we've gone over these verses
many times. It says, for they, this is Paul
speaking of his fellow brethren according to the flesh, speaking
of the Jews. He says, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish one of their
own, have not submitted themselves into the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Now, And even though we still, as
unregenerate people, as regenerate people, fall short of righteousness
within ourselves, even after regeneration, we have Christ
as our righteousness, the one he worked out and imputed and
charged our account. Christ is our righteousness,
our Lord and our Savior. What more do you need? God has
accepted it. Why don't we accept it? God's
well pleased with it, why shouldn't we? But by nature, we won't have
anything to do with it. We have to cling to our works
of righteousness, being ignorant. If you're ignorant of God's righteousness,
there's only one place you can go. You know that this God is
angry, you know you're a sinner, and so what you do, you go about
to establish a righteousness of your own, trying to appease
this angry God. being ignorant of the only righteousness
that God will accept, and that is the righteousness of his dear
son. Now, in Romans 6, 21, our next verse, it says, what fruit
had ye then in those things whereof you're now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death. What was the fruit of our labors
when we were in unbelief and seeking to establish or righteousness
of our own before God. Before God, the Holy Spirit opened
our spiritual eyes and ears and convinced us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, we were not ashamed of our efforts to save
ourselves and to make ourselves holy. In fact, we're proud of
those efforts at that time. But now, having been brought
to see our depravity and our sinfulness, Having been brought
to see how did our best efforts to save ourselves dishonors God
and denies Christ. We are now ashamed of them and
brought to repentance. Repent of ever thinking that
what I did could appease this angry God. Repent of all those
dead works that we did before God brought us to reveal to us
himself in Christ. Paul was a great example of this
repentance, as described in Philippians 3, beginning at verse 3. Listen
to what Paul has to say about the fruit, the fruit that he
is now ashamed of. Paul says, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof,
he might trust in the flesh, I more." And then he's gonna
go about telling him all those things that he thought so highly
of in his former religion as he was a Pharisee and all these
things that he was proud of at that time before God saved him.
He says, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of
the tribe of Benjamin, And Hebrew of Hebrews is touching the law
of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. But what
things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. For
all those things that when he said gained to me, those things
that I thought so highly of at that time, he says, I count lost
for Christ. Yeah, doubtless. And I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, my obedience
to the law, Paul said, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness, which is of
God by faith. Before we were born again by
the Holy Spirit and the word of truth and life, we thought
our efforts to be righteous would result in eternal life and glory. But now, but now, we know that
the result of those efforts is eternal death, fruit unto death. Our next verse that we'll deal
with, Romans 6 verse 22, Paul says, but now, being made free
from sin. Now, after God regenerated him,
converted him, brought him to faith and repentance, being made
free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto
holiness and the everlasting life. Having been liberated from the
total domination of sin in heart and life, and having been liberated
from darkness and unbelief, and having been made bond slaves
to God, we bear the fruit of obedience unto holiness. Once
again, as we mentioned in verse 19, holiness here correctly translated
means to sanctify, to set apart, or to consecrate. Consecration
is dedication to a special purpose, the service of God. The word
consecration literally means to associate or to be used by
God and to be in fellowship with God. The end result of such obedience
is everlasting life, not because we earn or deserve such blessed
life by our obedience, but because such obedience is the fruit,
is the fruit of grace. and evidence of the life of Christ
within every believer. So now that we who believe in
Christ have been delivered from any possibility of God's wrath,
and now that we are assured of everlasting life, we should be
diligent to obey, to obey Christ in love and with zeal having
the right motive, which is by grace, by love and by gratitude
for what Christ has did for us in our room and in our stead.
He has enabled us to now see how he saves us by his grace
alone, not by works that we've done. Now, the last verse that
we'll deal with is verse 23. Then he goes on to say, The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Here, death is contrasted with
eternal life. Eternal death is the just recompense
or wages for sin. Look at Ezekiel 18, 20. It says,
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Notice that in the
last part of this verse concerning those that obtain eternal life,
the Apostle Paul does not use the term wages connected with
eternal life, but a gift. Because the sinner does not earn
eternal life. Eternal life is not earned by
the sinner, but it's given. It's a gift. It's not the demand
of merit, but the blessing of grace. The Lord's free, voluntary,
and gracious act is His gift. The gift of God, which is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord, based on what He done,
what He did in our room and in our stead. Thanks be to God for
His unspeakable gift. Eternal life is the gift of God
based on the shed blood and imputed righteousness of God's Son. Although
true believers, are everywhere exhorted to obedience. Eternal
life and all that it includes is neither the fruit nor the
effect of our obedience in what we do. It is the free gift of
God based on the work of Christ alone. Our sin in Adam and our
personal sins are the grounds of our death, but our obedience
is not the cause or the ground of our eternal life. Sin demands
death. But only Christ's obedience unto
death demands justification in life for all he represented,
all his people. We are reminded of the freeness
of God's grace toward sinners, and this free grace, which reigns
through Christ, also ensures the absolute certainty of salvation
for all who believe, who look to this righteousness alone for
all their salvation. Look at Romans 5.21. It says,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
What an encouragement for all who hear God's gospel. A gospel
like we've gone over here, that reveals the righteousness of
God, worked out by Christ. His shed blood, His obedience
unto death. What an encouragement for all
who hear God's gospel to believe His promise of salvation in Christ,
to repent from former idolatry and dead works, and to obey Him
as motivated, not by mercenary means or reward, not motivated
by any kind of thinking that we owe a debt, so we got to get
to working, that we can pay that debt, that God will reward us
because of it, but motivate it by grace and love and gratitude
for what he's already did for us in our place. Thanks be to
God that he opened our eyes and brought us to see that salvation
is not based on works that we might do or being able to do,
but salvation based entirely on what Christ did in our place. It's our surety, substitute,
and representative. Amen.