on above all things given into
his hands to save the people of his love Behold the man upon
the throne, who rules in heaven, earth, and hell. That man is
Christ, our Savior God. His throne should all our fears
dispel. Behold our Advocate on high,
He wears our names upon His heart. He will not charge His own with
sin, Nor let us from His love depart. Look, look to Christ,
to Christ alone. Trust not the works that you
have done. His blood and righteousness alone
secure your place before his throne. Amen, that's basically
what we've been preaching about for the last several months,
is not to trust in our own works and righteousness, but upon Him
alone. And it's an amazing thing. He says He wears our names upon
His heart. He will not charge us. He won't charge His own people
with our sin. Sometimes we forget that, though.
You know, we believe that Jesus died for us. We believe that
we've been saved by his grace. But yet sometimes we forget,
you know, the Lord isn't gonna charge us with those sins. They're
definitely there. If you say you have no sin, you
make God out to be a liar. They're there. We sin. We're
full of sin. That's all we can do is sin.
But praise the Lord, that isn't how the Lord looks at his people.
He doesn't look at them in their sin. He looks at them in the
righteousness of Christ. Hopefully that's what is being
conveyed through the preaching the last several months as we've
been going through Galatians. I hope that's what's coming across
to you. And that is that our hope is
not in ourself, and it's not to demean the law, but it is
to preach Christ and Him crucified, and our salvation is in Him,
and because of our union in Him. All right, turn with me now,
if you will, back to hymn number 21. hymn number 21 in the same hymn
book. Hymn number 21, we'll sing this
to the tune of Near to the Heart of God. Don't forget the refrain. I even drew some arrows in my
book because I keep forgetting to go back to the refrain. God sits upon his throne by right,
sovereign over all things. We gladly own his right to rule,
and of his greatness sing. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
we praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. God in his sovereign majesty
appointed Christ to save, and every blessing of his grace Blessing
Christ He gave Great God, Heavenly Father We praise you for your
grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. according to his purpose grace
toward his chosen grace our God predestined everything to save
us by his grace from God Heavenly Father, we praise you for your
grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. From everlasting our God rules
In matchless sovereignty Always performing all His will And His
all-wise decree Heavenly Father, we praise you
for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. Great God of Sovereign, grace
we bow before your glorious throne. We praise you for your gracious
will to save us by your Son. Great God, our Heavenly Father,
We praise you for your grace. We trust your Son, our Savior,
by whom we have all grace. Thank you, Jesus. I said, don't forget to go back
to the refrain, and I did it myself. I just baptized it up to the
next verse. All right, hymn number 40, if you would please. We'll
sing this and if anybody has any requests, we'll take that
after that. Hymn number 40. Sing this to the tune of Stand
Up, Stand Up for Jesus. I see the blessed Savior uplifted
on the tree. The law holds him as captain,
that sinners might go free. His blood poured out in mercy,
it does for sin atone. I hear him cry, it's finished,
the work is fully done. I see the mighty victor arising
from the grave. Death, hell, and Satan vanquished,
this mighty God can save. Christ took his place in heaven,
upon the throne above. To him all power is given, to
save the souls he loves. I hear him intercede, He spreads
His wounded hands For sinners He is pleading More numerous
than sand He asks for those He purchased His blood is all He
pleads The Father can't refuse Him, He'll have His ransom seen. I trust You, Jesus, Savior, I
bow before Your throne. My sovereign mercy, save me and
take me for your own. Your blood's my only cleansing,
your righteousness my robe. You are my only refuge, I have
no other hope. Anybody have a song that you'd
like to sing in the handbooks? 43. 43? There's a struggle on my soul.
He came calling midnight prayer to me. There is a struggle in my soul,
a warfare in my breast. My sinful flesh strives for control
and never lets me rest. My best works are marked by sin,
my goodness is defiled. My righteousness is only sin,
my thoughts with sin run wild. In my flesh there is nothing
good, only my wretched sin. I cannot do the things I would,
I cannot cease from sin. But in my inmost soul I know
I love God's holy law. Of all myself and all I do, My
sin is my soul's gall. O wretched, wretched man I am,
who shall deliver me. The blood of Jesus Christ, the
Lamb, alone can set me free. O God, be merciful to me, I am
a wretch undone. O God, be merciful to me, I trust
your holy Son. I am from condemnation free through
Jesus Christ my Lord. I live in hope of that great
day when I shall see my God. Then I from all sin shall be
free and enter into rest. Soon I shall gain the victory
and be forever blessed. Amen. I think you could probably
name that song Roman 7. Basically word for word, Romans
7. Anybody else have a psalm or
scripture that you like? Or a psalmist or anything you
like? A phrase or a testimony? Hallelujah, Christ is reigning.
Let's keep it 10 and 0. Revive us again. The name of the Lord is our great
and high tower. We run to Him trusting His infinite
power. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. I'll try to sing it in the right
tunes now. Our Savior, who died to atone for our sins, is exalted
on high. and he sovereignly reigns. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Though tempted and tried, we're
not in despair. Our Savior is ruling, so why
should we fear? Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Yes, Satan may roar. but he cannot devour. For Jesus has broken the serpent's
dread power. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. God's sovereign decree and his
covenant shall stand, and all who trust Jesus are safe in his
hand. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. I don't think I ever got that
right, but it worked, and I apologize. My head is going in
a thousand directions this morning, brethren, and I pray the Lord
will get me focused in my thinking. All right, anybody have a song
that you'd like to sing, or a chorus that you'd like to sing? um Turn with me to Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6 and Galatians chapter 4. We'll read our passage in Galatians
4 where we've been. Then back to Romans 6 where we've
been using Romans to expound on why Paul's emphatic plea to
the Galatians to not look to the law to be justified, to not
look to the law to be sanctified, to not look to the law for righteousness,
whether to get saved or to stay saved, to stay in right fellowship
with the Lord. We want to know why is it that Paul was so emphatic
about that, and that's because the law was never intended to
do such. It was given to expose our sin,
it was given to manifest the inability of man so that the
elect of God would see that, feel that, remorse and be grieved
in that, sorrow in that, but yet they might find their hope
in Christ alone as their salvation. And so we will continue to look
at what Paul, by the Holy Spirit, taught in Romans. Let's look
at Galatians chapter 4 though, that's where we was. And we start
with verse 8. Howbeit then, when ye knew not
God, ye did service unto them, which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage. So we see that the Galatians
listening to these Judaizers who was coming back and saying
that you had to keep the law of Moses to be saved, that you
had to keep the law of Moses to get saved and remain saved. These Galatians were bewitched.
We've seen that in verse 1 of chapter 3. Paul said you're bewitched. Someone's hypnotized you. Someone has spoke things to you
in your ears that's making you want to be drawn away towards
it. That's what these Judaizers were
doing. And brethren, take caution because this kind of preaching
and teaching is everywhere. I mean, even among Baptist churches,
even among Sovereign Grace churches, this teaching of having to keep
the law and that we're still in on them. As a matter of fact,
just this week I had a lady on Facebook, she called me a heretic
because I preach what I'm preaching. She called me a heretic because,
and this is her exact words, was because I do not believe
that the law is the Christian's rule of life. And here in Galatians,
Paul clearly speaks to that, that anybody who is desires to
be under the law is under a curse. We've seen that in our earlier
passages. I think that was back in chapter 3, 2, 3. Was it 3,
6? No, it wasn't. Anyway, I can't think of it off
the top of my head, but we've seen where Paul has said that
anybody who desires to live under the law must keep every bit of
the law and that whoever lives under that law is under a curse.
And so I just tried to politely tell the lady, I said, you know,
you might call me or think that I'm a heretic, but if you desire
to live under the law as your rule of faith, God says that
you're under a curse. You're under a curse. You can't
get out of it. I mean, if you want to live by
the law, you are beholden to keep every bit of the law and
never break it ever. And the sad part is whenever
you come to the realization that you want to keep the whole law
of God, you've already broken it before you've ever got there.
Before you ever come to the place where you say, you know what,
the Bible says that we shouldn't break the law of God, so from
now on, I'm not going to break the law of God, even though we
can't do that, by the way. But even if we say to ourselves
and, you know, delude ourselves in this thinking, you know, I'm
going to keep the law of God from here on out, you've already
broken it. See, we don't just decide. That's why the Bible
says, can a leopard change its spots? Can the Ethiopian change
the color of their skin? No. Man, I'm pasty white. I can't change the color. I can't
decide, hey, I'm going to be tan. I'm going to be brown. I'm
going to be yellow. I'm going to be red. I can't
change the color of my skin just by saying that. And that illustration
is given not to be funny, or anything, you know, you know,
can the Ethiopian change his spots? No, he can't. Number one,
he don't understand. That's who he is. Why would he
even want to change his spots? See, the natural man doesn't
think there's anything wrong with him. Why do they even want
to change? They think that they're right before God by just doing
good things and living a good life, living a moral life. So
they don't even see a problem with having spots or not having
spots. They don't have any in qualms
with that. But the illustration is given
to show us the total inability that we have to change ourselves.
We can't decide from one day from being a bad tree to being
a good tree. Nobody can do that. You cannot
change that. Only God can make us one thing
or another. We either have it or we don't
have it. If we have it, we have it not because of anything that
we've done, we have it because God has made us that way. And
how did he make us? Now remember, I wish I had my
whiteboard here because I could show it a lot better by drawing
it out. Remember, our flesh profits nothing. Our flesh cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. So it isn't our flesh, who we
are in our old man, but it is who we are in our spirit. It's
our spirit that was united with Christ before the foundation
of the world. When God gave the elect to Christ, it was the spirits
of his elect that were united to him. We were in him, just
like back in, as we read back in Adam. And it, matter of fact,
turn back there. I was going to do this last week,
but I didn't really go there. But turn back to Genesis chapter
1 and look with me at verse 26. See, we understand this because
of our union with Christ Jesus. Why are we in this state that
we are in? It's because we, the old man,
our old self, our carnal man, that has been crucified with
Christ. And we're going to be reading
that here in just a little bit. But it has been crucified. We are
to count ourselves dead. Don't think about our sin. Don't dwell upon your sin because,
listen, Pastor Roy Smith, a good friend of ours, uh... said this
and and i heard about it by way of my other friend jc fulton
but he said you know someone asked him one time he said you
know uh... that he was worried about his
sin you know this guy was worried about his sin and brother royce
told him don't be worried about your sin because god's not worried
about it god doesn't worry about your sin all they let children
of grace all their sin has been taken care of by jesus christ
god doesn't worry about that stuff he doesn't look at that
and fret about how much sin that you're doing. Oh, no, you're
sinning more and more and more. He doesn't fret about that. Now,
does he hate it? Absolutely. Does he have wrath
on sin? Absolutely. But listen, he doesn't
have the wrath on us. He had the wrath upon his son.
Jesus Christ took the wrath of God. All the hatred that God
had for sin of everything that we have ever done as his people,
God took that wrath and poured it out upon Jesus Christ. And
Jesus Christ suffered every bit of wrath of God for sin for every
one of the elect children of grace. And that's the sin that
we collect, that we do in the flesh. Every bit of sin that
we do in the flesh, Jesus died for, and God's wrath was fully
satisfied. Every bit of it was poured out.
We often say Jesus drank the cup dry. There wasn't a drop
left in that cup of wrath. So there's no more wrath. That's
why we don't have wrath. We were not appointed under wrath.
Why? Because Jesus promised to take every bit of the wrath that
was to be poured out upon us and He took it upon Himself.
So He became sin for us and took the wrath of God for us so that
we might be the righteousness of God in Him. See, it's because
of our union with Christ, the outward flesh, the Adamic man
that we are, is full of sin and can't do nothing but sin, but
our spirit, that is perfect. It is the life of Christ. Those spirits come from heaven.
They were born from heaven. Whenever you're born from above,
that's the spirit that was united with Christ. In Christ Jesus,
the Bible says that our life was hid in Christ, or hid with
God, in Christ Jesus. Before the foundation of the
world it was there. Whenever a child of grace is born from
above, that life then comes and enters in, as the Bible says,
in this earthen vessel. We have a treasure in earthen
vessels. That spirit is inside of us,
and that's the spirit of Christ, who is our life. Our life is
Christ's life. And so our spirits, that spirit
that is in us, who we are as the elect children of God, is
not who we are in the flesh. Because one of these days this
flesh will go away. This sinful tent is going to
go away and a new body that God has prepared for each one of
his elect children that has no sin will be united with that
spirit that has no sin. And in that, then we will not
have any sin in the flesh or in the spirit. Right now we have
no sin in our spirit. The Bible tells us that we have
no sin in our spirit. We keep the law of God in the
spirit, but we can't keep it in the flesh. But see, there's
a picture of that here in Genesis 1. Look at verse 26. It said,
And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Now
haven't we turned that around today in our society that, just
a side note, we let everything in creation dictate to the humans
who we are. You know, don't drink milk because
that's offensive to the cows. You know, don't eat beef because
that's offensive to the cows. You know, everybody has to be
offended. But see, God has placed man over
the creation. to use the creation for our good,
for our desires. Okay? Verse 27, end of my rant
there. So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God, created he him, now listen, male and
female, created he them. And God blessed them. And God
said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth,
subdue it, and have dominion over the fish and the sea." Now
remember, God created Adam first, right? It was first Adam, all
by himself. And Adam, here we see whenever
God created man in His image, He created him, you see that? He created him, Adam, male and
female. Now don't get some twisted idea,
because I'm sure some people will take that and twist the
idea if they haven't already taken this passage script and
tried to twist it to their carnal thinking, the way things are
today. But he said, he made them, male
and female, created he them. So whenever he created man and
Adam, he created him as a man in union with someone else. We'll
see that here. Look at verse 29. And God said,
Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is on
the face of the earth and to every beast of the earth and
to every fowl of the air, to everything that creepeth. And
God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very
good. Now, let me read to you now. Chapter two. And let's go to verse 18. It said, and the Lord God said,
it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and
help me for him. I will make him and help me for
him. I'm going to pause again. I told
you my mind was going in a thousand directions today. So it's probably
going to come out in the preaching. I was actually looking at this
phrase this week. And I don't know about you guys
how it is in the Spanish Bible, but how it is here in the King
James, I will make him a helpmate for him. I've grown up and we've
called our wives helpmates. We call them a helpmate, okay? And then somewhere along the
way, we've kind of morphed that into a helpmate. Oh, they must've
been saying a helpmate, that the wives are the helpmate to
the husband and everything. If you remember in Hebrew and
in Greek, there are no punctuations, there's no commas, there's none
of this, okay? He's saying here, I will make
him a help, meet for him. That word meet there, whenever
you see that in verse 18, that word meet there means before
him. I will make him a helper before him. I'll make somebody
to be a help that is suitable for him. That's what that means. The wife is not a helpmeet. We've
smashed those words together. There's a pause there. I will
make him a helpmeet for him, meaning meet, M-E-E-T, meaning
suitable for him. So God has brought into union
the husband and the wife, and the wife is a helper suitable
for her husband, to come alongside her husband and to help the husband
in the duties of the family and everything. So anyway, I just
thought that was kind of odd as I was reading that, especially
whenever I was looking at the Hebrew and everything, there's
a pause there. It's not a help me, it's not
all one word. He's made him a help meet for
him or suitable for him. It kind of changes things up
just a little bit in how you look at things. More than anything,
it makes you don't look so dumb when you call somebody to help
me. All right, verse 18, and the Lord God said, it is not
good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help, meet
for him. And out of the ground, the Lord
God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of
the air, to every beast of the field, But for Adam there was
not found a help meet for him. The Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh and stood thereof. And the rib which the
Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto
man. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall
be one flesh. And they were both naked, and
the man and his wife were not ashamed. Now, we also find, if we go back
to, let's see, I think it was back in, in chapter five, I'm sorry, chapter
five, look with me if you would, verse one. So we've seen that
God made Adam, created Adam, but he created Adam male and
female, but yet there was only Adam, right? Then he created
Eve. He brought Eve out of Adam, okay? And then in verse one of chapter
five, it says, this is the book of the generations of Adam in
the day that God created man The likeness of God made He Him. Male and female created He them. So whenever He created the one,
inside the one, He created the both. Does that make sense to
you? I know that was not very good
grammar, but I had to use that to convey what I'm trying to
say. He made one thing, one likeness, one image, But yet in that was
also all the other images that would ever come from him. Okay? Specifically, his wife, his bride. He said, male and female created
he them and blessed them and called their name Adam. Now the
word Adam just basically means man. In the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and
begat a son And the days of Adam after he
had begotten Seth were 800 years and he begat sons and daughters.
All the days that Adam lived there were 930 years. Now, we
see that later everybody began to be made in the image of Adam,
okay? But if you'll notice, he called
their name Adam. He called their name Adam. Adam
and Eve, he called them Adam, and I know in the Hebrew that
that is man. He called him man, like mankind. Okay, this is mankind. But we see here a picture. We
see a picture of Jesus Christ and in His likeness were made.
And His elect are brought out from Him. They are in Him before
they're ever known or ever seen or ever manifested. They were
in Him. But they came out at a specific
time when God appointed them. But before they ever came out,
God blessed them. See, if you'll look, male and
female created He them and blessed them and called their name Adam. Eve was blessed when she was
still in Adam before she was ever manifested as Eve. The blessing
that God give to the head was a blessing that was also upon
the wife. Christ is our husband. We are
His bride. Now we're talking about the spiritual
men, the spiritual women, right? We're not talking about the flesh
because the flesh is a child of Adam. We were made in the
likeness of Adam. What was made in the likeness
of Christ? Our spirit is made in the likeness
of Christ. It's perfect. It's holy. It's
righteous. It's His life. But it was hid
with Christ hid in Christ with God. Just like Eve was hid in
Adam. But yet was blessed. Now what
does Ephesians tell us? Ephesians 1. It said we are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according
as God has chosen us in Christ. We were blessed with all spiritual
blessings when we were in Christ before we ever was manifested
now. See, we call that, the theological
term we call that is eternal, vital union. Eternal, vital union. Some people just say vital union
because they don't believe it was eternal. They believe that
the union came whenever we believed. Some people just call it eternal
unity because they don't believe that it actually happened in
eternity past. They just believe it was purposed
by God, but yet it happens in time. But yet we believe all
three. It's an eternal union. It was
a vital, it was a living union. We really existed as those spirits. We don't recollect that. We don't
have any knowledge of that. All we know is the Bible says
that our life, it was a life. And we know from revelation that
there were names that were written in a book before the foundation
of the world. Those spirits had names and that was hid in Christ
Jesus. just like Eve was. But at a certain
point in time, when God determined, He brought Eve out of Adam, and
He said, this is now, and what did Adam say? This is now flesh
of my flesh, bone of my bone, and they became one flesh. That's
why Paul uses the marriage in the New Testament as a picture
of the relationship between Christ and His people. We read it last
week, remember? we've seen in, and that's why
I wanted to go there, but I wanted you to see that He called their
name Adam. Every one of us, doesn't the
Bible say that we are called, that we are called the Lord our
righteousness? We are called the Lord our righteousness.
We're not righteous and we're not the Lord, but that's what
we're called. Why? Because we are in union with
Him. But see, remember we read last week back in Romans again,
Romans chapter 7. It's still in my Bible, I'm sure.
Romans chapter 7. We look at verse 2. It says, For the woman which
hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as
he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loose from the law of her husband. So then if, while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, or in
light of what is being said, in light of this principle that
we know by the law, what do we understand? Ye also are become
dead to the law. See, we've been married to the
law all this time. You are become dead to the law
by your law. I mentioned it last week. Are
we dead to the law by our law keeping? We've died to the law
because we've kept it. No. We are dead to the law by
the body of Christ. See, because Christ died for
us, We are dead to that law. That law died and we died to
it. There is no longer a union between
us and the law. There is no longer a communion
between us and the law. That union that we had with the
law died when Christ died. Why? Because he nailed all the
ordinances to his cross. Although he nailed those ordinances
and all of our iniquities that has broken those ordinances,
that was nailed to the cross and he died for those things.
And then that law now is dead to us because the purpose for
which the law was given was to expose our sin, to show us our
inability, and then to lead us or to show us that we have a
need for Christ. The gospel then comes in. and
sings the blessed hope in Christ Jesus. So what does it say there? We are dead to the law by the
body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. So see, as long as we try to
keep the law, That's why I was saying to this lady, if you want
to live under the law as your rule of faith, all you're going
to do is bring forth fruit of death, unto death. You're cursed. You can't bring forth fruit.
You can't bring forth... Remember whenever Jesus cursed
the tree and it withered up and died? It couldn't bring forth
any fruit. Why? Because it was cursed. Same
picture with us, brethren. If we live by the law, all we
are is cursed because we never can bring forth fruit. Our flesh cannot produce anything
fruitful unto God. The Spirit who is in us, who
works in us, who grants us repentance and faith and love and joy and
peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and meekness,
temperance and faith, all those fruits of the Spirit, that's
the works that we are ordained to do in the Spirit. And God
brings those forth by His Spirit. We don't work at that. We don't
muster all that up. It says, but now we are delivered
from the law. See, brethren, don't feel like
I'm cheating on God if I'm not keeping the law. Actually, if
you're keeping the law, you're cheating on Christ, according
to this passage here. Remember, a woman who is still
married to a man, but yet goes to another man and is married
to him is called an adulteress. That's cheating on her husband.
We, if we are the children of Christ, have been married to
Christ. And if we go back to the law, we are cheating on our
husband, who is Christ. And that's why I said the same
thing for churches. If there are churches out there
who are preaching the law and are preaching false gospels of
conditions, that is not the gospel. That is not preaching Christ. They're preaching another gospel.
Therefore, they are cheating on Christ, if they're Christ.
They're cheating on Christ. That's another gospel. That's
why I say whenever we go places like on vacation or out of town
for some reason on a Sunday or anything like that, we don't
go to church just to go to church. We don't just go to any church
we can find. We don't just find a Baptist church and go to it.
Because we find, we try to find, if there's any available, we
try to find a church that preaches the true gospel, who is preaching
Christ who is preaching gospel of free grace because if we go
somewhere else we're cheating on Christ by going back to the
law that says do this your righteousness is conditioned upon that or this
that you do so that's why we seen last week and long introduction
but last week that we are dead to the law we are dead to the
law because we are married to Christ and going back to the
law is to cheat on your husband. Now, today let's look at Romans
chapter 6 and in verse 2 we see almost the same language and
I think there's a connection here. In Romans chapter 6 and
verse 2, or we'll start in verse 1, what shall we say then, shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, that was said
in light of what he said in verse 5, that the law came in so that
the offense might abound. Adam's offense, in particular. The law was given so that it
might expose sin. We already looked at that, right?
But he says, if that's the case, shall we just continue to sin
so that grace might keep going more and more and more? He said,
no, that's not what I was talking about. The law came in to expose
your sin Not to give you more grace, because grace never comes
by the law. Grace comes by Christ. Grace
comes by the Spirit of God. So he says, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? No, you've got it all wrong.
That wasn't what I was saying. God forbid, how shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer therein? See, we can't live in sin because
we're dead to the law. What is sin? It's transgression
of the law, right? Well, we can't transgress the
law. Wait a minute, you're telling me that we don't sin? No, I didn't
say that. There's a difference, right?
In the mind of God, in the eyes of God, we cannot transgress
the law because every transgression that we've already done has already
been paid for. Everything that we've done sinful has already
been paid for, has been justified by Christ, and has been removed,
forgiven. We've been forgiven of every
sin. So God does not look at his children in that sin. So
we don't live to the law, and we don't live to sin. We have
died to the law, therefore we have died to sin. We are dead
to sin and so that we cannot live in it anymore. Does that
mean that we don't sin? No, it just means that now that
we have died to the law and that we have Christ in us, the Spirit
of God in us, that now sin doesn't have dominion over you. It isn't
just everything that you do is sin because now we have a principle
of life in us, our life that's in this flesh that does nothing
but sin is perfect and holy And the Bible says it's created in
righteousness. I know that's confusing. It's
hard to kind of keep straight. But remember, we're two men in
one body. We are the old man. We are the
new man. Not two natures. One nature. One nature. But we have now Christ living
in us. Our Adamic man, he can't do anything
but sin. But Christ in us cannot sin.
Therefore, we don't live to sin anymore. We have that restraining
power of Christ in us that keeps us, a lot of times, from the
sin that we would probably do without that. Look at verse seven. It says
almost the same thing. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin. Now, that doesn't
mean that we are actually without sin. It says, reckon yourselves.
What does the word reckon mean? Sometimes we kind of go over
these words and we think we know what they mean, but do we know
what they mean? The word reckon is counted as so. Think about
it that way. Think about it this way. Whenever
I say reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, that means consider
yourself to be dead to sin. Look on yourself as dead to sin.
Think about yourself as being dead to sin. That's what reckon
means. Count it. Count yourself. If I reckon You know, if I reckon
myself to be, you know, I don't know a good example, so I ain't
gonna try. The word reckon, though, means to count yourself a sin,
dead to sin. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. I guess the best way to sum this
part up is, brethren, whenever we go through our lives, don't
dwell upon your sin. Don't let sin have its mastery
over you. And definitely don't think by
keeping the law it's going to get rid of that sin, because
it's only going to multiply it. Okay? The law that we have been given
to believe, the commands that we have been given to keep, are
the commands and the law of the New Testament, of the New Covenant,
which is to what? To believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, to love God, and to love the brethren. The only way that
we can love God and love the brethren is if God sheds that
love abroad in our heart. So that's not anything that we
can do. I can't buy that. I can't go over to Kevin's house
and borrow some of it. muster it up. I can't get online
and mine it on the computer. I can't do anything to get that. God has to divinely and sovereignly
give me that love. And when he gives me that love,
that love is not me doing the love because my flesh can't love.
My flesh only loves in a fleshly way, in a carnal way. I love
you if you love me. I love you as long as you're
agreeing with me. I love you as long as you're
good to me. Right? That's how our flesh does. So
we have absolutely zero ability to love God and to love our brethren
in the flesh, but in the spirit, we love God and we love our brethren.
And then we're told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
look to him for our righteousness. See, that's what Abraham did.
Whenever Jesus told Abraham that his righteousness wasn't by his
obeying those idols, it wasn't him coming out of Ur and following
him. It wasn't all of that. It was
him believing that Jesus was his righteousness. Oh, okay,
I don't have a righteousness of my own. So I'll look and I'll
believe that Jesus is my righteousness. And if he's my righteousness,
then he's promised that he will keep me. He will never forsake
me. And that one of these days that
he is coming back to take me away to be with him. See, we
have, that's why we say we have a hope in Christ. Our hope of
salvation isn't in our law keeping. Our hope is in Christ Jesus and
what He's already done. So that's why it says, likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey its lust thereof,
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness,
but yield yourselves unto God. This is how we ought to reckon
ourselves. Reckon ourselves that way. But look at verse 14, for
sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the
law. I don't know how many times I've said it a lot now over the
last several weeks. We're not under the law. And
people like this lady that attacked me on Facebook this week, who
says, you know, hey, we're judging by the law. Well, if we're judging
by the law, then no flesh shall be justified in God's sight. Because the law condemns every
one of us. We were condemned in Adam. In Adam there was condemnation
and that condemnation, that guilt before God was there. We were
doomed from the very beginning because we are the flesh of Adam. We're doomed. So brethren, we
are to count ourselves not under the law but under grace. Know
ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves to obey ye servants
his servants ye are to obey? See, if we think that we're servants
to the law, then we're going to be obeying sin. We're going
to be serving sin. But if we are looking to grace,
we're looking to obey Christ, obey grace, then we'll be servants
to Christ. Now, think of that. We will be
servants to Christ. by what? By obeying grace. Now,
remember what Paul said, and I know a lot of my preaching
takes time to develop, it's long and things like that, over long
periods of time, weeks upon weeks, but we're building. The Bible
says that we are to teach this thing line upon line, precept
upon precept, here a little, there a little. To get up here
and just take a block of passage and just say this, I'm gonna
preach on this right here today, it is almost impossible. Because it entails a lot of what
is being said in other places in the scripture. To get the
doctrine and to understand it rightly, we need to know what
the whole Bible says, because the Bible is the one that interprets
itself. But a lot of preachers, they want to try to condense
everything down to some little A, B, C, and 1, 2, 3. It's hard
to do. But if you'll remember, go back
with me, think. Turn back to Galatians. And look with me in chapter 1,
Paul started off this letter to the Galatians in this very
way. He says in verse 6, I marvel
that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel. See, if we are to serve
the gospel. If we are to obey the gospel,
and I mentioned this way back here, obeying the gospel is believing
upon Christ. That's what it means to obey
the gospel. Obeying the gospel isn't repenting
and believing. Obeying the gospel is looking
upon Christ along for salvation. He says, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel. So in essence what Paul is saying
is the grace of Christ is the gospel and if you are believing
or walking in a way that is not in the grace of Christ but is
in another way like under the law, that's another gospel. He
says, which is not another but there be some that trouble you
and would pervert the gospel of Christ. That would pervert
the preaching of grace alone. See, there are people that want
to pervert the preaching of grace alone. You mean we just, like,
trust Christ and do nothing. We don't have to work for a righteousness. We don't have to keep the law.
We don't have to keep the Ten Commandments. We don't have to
keep all this. You see their mindset? That right there, automatically,
whenever I hear people talking about that, I automatically know
they've not been taught. They've not been taught the gospel.
The Holy Spirit has not yet Convey to them the fullness of the gospel. The fullness of the gospel will
bring us to rest in Christ. See, we go from Canaan, or we
go from Egypt into Canaan, but yet there's some time that we
have to wander around in the wilderness, right? The Israelites
didn't go straight from Egypt into Canaan. They came out and
there was some doubt there. God said, hey, I've given you
this, go in and take it. And they was like, whoa, I don't
think so. There's giants in there. How about we just kind of take
this a little bit at a different approach at that. So what did
God do? God caused them to wander in the wilderness. And so for
40 years, they wandered in the wilderness. And what did they
do? It weeded out the ones who believed
and the ones who didn't believe. Brethren, in church, in believers,
in non-believers, the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the
goats. Listen, for the elect of God,
you've been given Canaan. You've been given a place of
rest. It's in Christ. And to be brought out of Egypt,
or sin, or Adamic person, and to be brought into the rest that
is in Christ, that is a promise that God has made. But sometimes
we, because of our ignorance, because of our doubt, because
of the place where Christ has us, He causes us to wander a
little bit, and we know that that's ours, but we just don't
know quite how to get there yet. Then all of a sudden one day
God dings you in the head and gives you the understanding,
wait a minute, it isn't about me trying to keep the law, it's
about just trusting Christ who already did keep the law for
me. And that's the point where you enter into his rest. So remember,
this is kind of what Paul, the image that Paul's pulling up.
He said, those who would pervert the gospel of Christ, but though
we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
That's why I don't go to other churches that don't preach this
gospel. It's because that gospel is accursed. The preacher that's
preaching that, look here, he's not a preacher of the gospel.
And look at verse 9, as a matter of fact, he says, As we said
before, so say we now again, If any man preach any other gospel
unto you, than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men of
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. See, those men that preach those
other gospels, they're preaching something to tickle your ear.
And Paul even told us, those Judaizers coming in and bewitching
you, they're coming down so that they might fill up in their flesh
your obedience. See, whenever they preach to
you the law and you obey it, that shines back glory on them
for making you better. See, they were preaching that
gospel because it made them good. And listen, that's the same way
of preaching. I was the same way. I was a preacher
of that. I used to preach adherence to the law, adherence to the
law, adherence to the law. And I would, I mean, I would
preach hard sermons to people to make them feel guilty and
to make them feel remorseful and to make them feel sorrowful
and everything like that, to get as many down to the altar
as I could so that they would get right with God. But see,
that was filling up my flesh. See, that was filling up my pride
that I could boast. And you see people about it all
the time. I see people on Facebook all the time and these Armenian
churches. boasting upon how many people they've led to the Lord.
How their ministry has led thousands to the Lord. That they've had
so many people come to Christ because of their ministry. Brethren,
it's boasting in the flesh. But what does Paul say here?
He says, if they preach another gospel, they're not the servant
of Christ. And isn't that what we just read
back here? Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience unto righteousness? See, if we are a servant unto
Christ, we're going to be serving grace, not the law. They're opposite. They don't
work tandem and hand in hand. They're opposite of each other,
brethren. But God bethink that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart. You see where we obeyed? We didn't
obey in the outward man, outside in the flesh. What did we obey?
We obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine which was delivered
unto you. See, that's how we obey Christ,
is in the inner man. And that's exactly what Paul
goes on to say in the next chapter there in Romans, in chapter 7,
whenever he says, I find in, verse 21, I find in that a law,
find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me, For I delight in the law of God after the inner man, but
I see another law in my members warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I serve
the law of God. See, we still can serve the law
of God, but it's not in a fleshly outward way. We serve it in the
spirit by serving Christ's law, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. He says, I myself serve the law
of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. The law of sin is
the law that we're talking about here. The law that brings forth
cursedness, the law that brings forth sin, the law that was meant
to expose and to manifest our sinfulness, that's the law. that
we serve in the flesh, but in the spirit we serve the law of
God, which is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are not under law, but
under grace. We are dead to the law. We are
dead to sin. We're to recount ourselves or
reckon ourselves dead to sin. And we are set free from the
law. That was there in 6.2. I think I skipped over that.
But 6.2, he says, but now being made free from sin and become
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end
everlasting. See, our fruit unto holiness
is not an outward moral turnaround. Our fruit unto holiness is in
the inner man serving the law of Christ, which is, look unto
Him, trust Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why
they said it. Those men who in Acts, who after
the preaching of the gospel was receiving the gospel, believing
the gospel, they were already born again or they wouldn't have
received the gospel. You can't receive the spiritual
teaching of the gospel without spiritual life, right? So those
men who were saved, that 2,000 that were saved that day on the
day of Pentecost, they were already born again in the multitude of
people that were being preached to. I don't know how many was
there, but we know that 2,000 of them, the Lord had already
given them repentance and faith. And they said, you know, what
must we do? And they said, well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt, past tense, be saved. If you're believing on
Jesus alone for salvation and not looking to the law, that's
a good sign. that you are the elect of God.
Because only the elect of God can look to Christ alone for
salvation. Our self-righteousness in the
endemic man is always going to be trying to take that over.
And so we see that is true in the child of grace, we look to
Him. So we're set free from the law
and it's no longer our master, it's no longer having dominion
over us. And any act of trying to go back
under the law for getting right with God, we used to say this
a lot as I grew up and everything, man, we just need to get right
with God, you know? They're living in sin, they just
need to get right with God. Well, how do you get right with
God? By law keeping? Well, if you go back under the
law, you're cursed, okay? Because you can't keep it. What
is getting right with God? Getting back to quit looking
at your sin and look to Christ alone for your salvation. Alright,
we'll stop right there brother and we'll pick up still back
in Romans again next week I think but there's a couple more things
I want to look at there then we'll move on out of Romans to
some other stuff. Any questions or comments or
any confusion that I might be able to clear up? It's a beautiful gospel It's not a popular gospel with
the people that's out there that
are not the children of God. But to the children of grace,
this is blessed truth, brethren. So I hope it is to you as well. Again, I apologize for some of
my scatteredness this morning. Sometimes I'm like that. A lot
of times I'm like that, I guess my wife would probably say that.
But, anyway, it's good to be with you guys. Alright, if anybody
has anything or comments that you'd like to make or anything,
scriptures, anybody have a song that you want to sing now? You're
welcome to do that as well. Alright, let's go to the prayer. Father, we thank you today and
we are so grateful for Christ. We're thankful for the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We're thankful for freedom from
sin, freedom from the law. Father, we thank you for the
Spirit of God in us that continues to point us and direct us to
keep us in Christ Jesus. Father, we just are grateful
for the Word of God that reveals these things to us. And Father
Lord, we just ask that you might be with us as we leave this place guide us and direct us or that
you might give us safety in our endeavors that you have us appointed
for us this week. Lord, we pray that you might
give us opportunity to bear testimony of Jesus Christ to those that
we are around. Lord, we pray for any of your
sheep that are out there still wandering with no place to come
and to fellowship Lord, we pray that you bring them across our
path. Bring them to us or bring us
to them that we might enjoy fellowship with them as well, Father. I
just thank you so much for all that you do for us, the way you
take care of us and provide each and every need that we might
have. Father, we just are so grateful
for the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus, for forgiveness
of sin and for removal of wrath, for love that cannot be broken,
that is an everlasting love, a justification that was by blood,
sanctification of the spirit by your word. Lord, we just thank
you so much that you have given this salvation to us. Lord, we
know that we are of the same lump of Adam and that we do not
deserve these blessings of grace given to us. Father, and I pray
that we might keep that in our mind, that you might help us
to be humble before other men whenever conveying these truths
and not be haughty or puffed up with pride because of the
grace of God that's been given to us. It's easy for men to think
that in their mind that you have been a respecter of persons and
given grace to some and not others and that that's not fair. But
Father, they've not been taught to trust you for who you are,
that you are sovereign. and you are the creator, you
are the potter, that you can make the pot any way that you
desire, that the clay is yours, and you can mold it and make
it into whatever vessel you desire it to be, and at that, Lord,
we cannot accuse you, we cannot judge you, we cannot even question
you for why you did it. So Father, may you help us understand
those things. Lord, I pray for these brethren,
and I pray that today, the Word of God as it was being preached,
Lord, was edifying to them. Lord, I pray that you would keep
me from error and Lord, that you would teach me and continue
to help me to be able to preach the Word to these brethren. And
Lord, I thank you again for all that you have done for us here.
And we just are so grateful. We praise you in your name. It's
praised in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.