Let's open our files again to
Romans chapter 6. I have a title that I believe will
get everyone's interest. Something that we all wonder,
how could I possibly do this? The title of the message is,
Don't Let Sin Reign. I'd like to know how sin would
not reign over me, don't you? I believe Lord willing, if he
be merciful to us, we'll see that from the answer to that
from our text this morning. Now, Paul's been teaching us
that the believer is dead to sin. If you believe Christ, you're
dead to sin. Now, you know that does not mean
that we're dead to the desire to sin. We're not dead. If that
was true, we'd all be sorely disappointed, wouldn't we? We'd
have no hope. We're not dead to the presence
of sin in these bodies. We're not even dead to enjoying
sin. We're not dead to that. That
old man is strong, is alive, he's unchanged as he ever was.
But the believer is dead to sin in this way. We're dead to the
guilt of sin, not guilty, because Christ was made guilty for us.
The believer is dead to the punishment of sin. because Christ has already
been punished as our substitute. And because we're dead to the
sin, the believer is dead to the law. The believer has no
relationship with the law whatsoever. The believer is dead to anything
the law requires because Christ already kept the law for us as
our representative. The believer doesn't have to
keep the law in order to be justified, in order to be made not guilty.
Christ is our justification. The believer does not have to
keep the law. You don't have to look to the
law to see what you're supposed to do in order to be sanctified,
in order to keep yourself holy. Christ is our sanctification.
Now, does that mean that the believer's conduct is not important?
Does that mean the believer's conduct in this world doesn't
matter? Well, of course not. I say with Paul, God forbid.
God forbid we think that. Well, if I'm dead to the law,
what's my rule of life? If the law is not going to be
my rule of life, how am I supposed to know how to conduct myself
if I don't look to the law to see what to do and what not to
do? How am I supposed to know? Well, the believer lives looking
to Christ. Christ is the believer's rule
of life. You look to Him, you rest in Him, and don't look to
the law in the least. Let's look here at our text and
see if that's not what the Word of God teaches. Verse 11, Romans
chapter 6. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore, because
you're dead with Christ, let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.
Now don't let sin, this is what Paul says, don't let sin reign
in your mortal body. And that body that's sitting
in those chairs right now, don't let sin reign in it. Just never
forget this, that our conduct reflects upon our Savior. Every
believer in this room will amen this. I want to honor the Savior. In my daily life, when I go out
to do whatever it is, if I go to Walmart, I want to honor the
Savior, don't you? I want to live in holiness, in
obedience, and I just love to live, I would say a day, I'd
like to live a second in just sinless perfection, just in total,
complete faith and love and obedience to the Savior, wouldn't you? I haven't yet done it, and I
don't expect I will till the Lord calls me home. then how
do I not let sin reign in this body? I still desire to sin. Sin is always present with me.
Everything I do is sin. How can I not reign? Will sin
not reign over me? You can go to some writers, I
mean some good writers, and you can read this. You don't allow
sin to reign by just refusing to sin. Even though you want
to, you just refuse to do it. Is that how I would not let sin
reign? I just, I won't do it. Do I not
let sin reign by going over to the law and check and say, okay,
well, I should do that and I should do that. Oh, I shouldn't do that.
By following that checklist, is that how I don't let sin reign
in my moral body? No. No. A thousand times no. Now strive. to not sin. Strive to live a life of holiness. Make that your goal every day.
But while you strive for that, know the truth of the situation.
All we're going to do is sin. Our old nature is unchanged.
It's all we're going to do is sin. Sin's mixed with everything
we do. So strive to live a holy life.
Be an honest, kind, compassionate person. Do that. But strive knowing
this. Still yet, all we're going to
do is sin. So we don't win the battle against sin. We don't
let sin not reign over us by anything we do in these mortal
bodies, right? We win the battle against sin.
We don't let sin reign over us by looking to Christ. The answer
to everything we need is always look to Christ. Look to him to
be your obedience to the law. Whatever you do, Do not go to
the law to check and see how you're doing in this matter of
sin. Don't do that. The law can only do two things
to us, and both of them are bad. Number one, if you go to the
law and see what does the law say I shouldn't do, that's all
you'll want to do. The law makes us want to sin.
The more I desire to sin, the more sin's going to reign over
me. Some preacher constantly telling
people what to do and what not to do, telling them how to live,
giving them a template for how to live, is just going to do
nothing but beat them down because we can't do it. Just tell me
what I should do. That's just going to make me
not want to do it. Even if I wanted to do it and
you told me I have to, now I'm going to not want to. That's
just flesh. So the law, all it's going to
do is make us want to sin. And secondly, don't go to the
law to get a checklist what you're supposed to do, because all the
law can do is show us our guilt. All the law can do is say, you
didn't live up to it. You didn't do it. You didn't
do it. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Every time we
look at the law, that's what the law is going to tell us.
And the more I see my guilt, the more beat down I'm going
to be. So looking to the law in this matter of battling against
sin, it's just going to depress us more. We don't let sin reign
in our mortal bodies this way. There's only one way. It's looking
to Christ to be both our justification and our sanctification. Being
justified is being made not guilty. The only way I can be made not
guilty is looking to Christ, my justifier. Being sanctified
is holy. The only way I can ever be holy
is by looking to Christ to be my holiness. So here's how we
live. Here's how we walk through this
world, looking to Christ, trusting Christ to be our obedience. Verse
13. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now don't yield. Paul says don't yield. Don't
yield yourself to sin. Don't surrender to it, but fight
against it. but don't fight against it by
trying to keep the law. Does that make sense? Strive
to be holy, but don't fight against sin trying to keep the law. Sin
will whip us every time that we look to the law. As soon as
we look to the law, that battle's over before it even gets started.
The way sin controls us is through the law. Then quit it. Quit looking to the law to see
how to live. The believer is not motivated
by the law in the first place. The believer is motivated by
love for Christ. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. It's the love of Christ that
motivates us. It's love for him that motivates us. It's grace
that motivates the believer, not law. We fight against sin
by trusting Christ to be our righteousness. Don't yield yourself. This is what Paul's saying. Don't
yield yourself to the demands of the law. Yield to Christ. Surrender to Christ. Look at
Romans chapter 10. This is what the Apostle Paul
tells us was the Jews' problem. The self-righteousness is their
problem. They'll not surrender to Christ. They'll not submit
themselves to His righteousness, to His obedience. They won't
give up their own obedience to the law and submit themselves
to Christ. Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear the record, they have
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves. They've
not yielded themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now this
is good news for sinners. The gospel If we preach the gospel
in such a way it's bad news, we've not preached the gospel.
The gospel is good news. Here's good news for guilty sinners.
You don't have to do all the work it takes to keep the law.
Just rest in Christ. We don't let sin reign over us
when we rest in Christ our righteous. And the rest of this chapter,
Paul gives us four motivations for the believer to live a holy
life by looking to Christ, not the law. Number one, live, looking
to Christ, live, trusting Christ, live, not trying to keep the
law. This is so obvious. You're not under law. You're
under God's grace. If you're, if you're not under
the law, what are you doing? Looking to it. Verse 14. For sin shall
not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law,
but under grace." Christ died to set his people free from the
bondage to the law. Then why would I want to go back
to that bondage? Paul wrote a whole letter to
the church at Galatia to establish that point. If Christ has made
us free, what are we doing trying to go back to bondage to the
law for? Now, a believer is under rule. We're under the rule of
grace. Grace. We're under the rule of
grace that saves sinners that never will do anything to deserve
it. We're under the rule of grace. We're under forgiving grace,
pardoning grace, regenerating grace, life-giving grace, calling
grace, keeping grace. We're under God's sovereign grace
to His people. It's free, sovereign grace that
sets His people free from the bondage to the law. What a wonderful story of grace
for the guilty. That's the believer's motivation
to not want to sin. God's been so gracious to me.
Why would I want to sin against him? Grace never tries to excuse
sin. Never. It doesn't excuse sin
anymore. The law does. Grace forgives
sin, but it doesn't excuse it. Being under grace, how can I
tell if I'm under grace, if I'm not under the law, but under
grace? Being under grace means that we trust Christ to save
us without any help from me whatsoever. So don't strive to keep the law. Why would you? Christ already
did it for you. He already kept the law for you.
And if we think, after conversion, if we somehow think, You know,
I can improve my standing before God. I can make myself a more
blessed child. I can make it more likely God
will bless me. I can make myself closer to God
than somebody else, you know, by keeping the law outwardly
and making people think, oh, wow, look how little he sins,
what a straight, upright man he is. If I think that, you know
what I really think? I think the obedience of Christ
to the law is not enough. It might be just enough to save
you, but I can improve it. God forbid. God forbid. To be
under grace means that we trust Christ to save us by Himself. The believer does not strive
to keep the law. We're saved by grace, not our
law keeping. The believer doesn't strive to
keep the law to keep ourselves holy. Christ already did that
for us. See, we're free from that. We're
free from everything the law requires. That's how I know if I'm under
grace, if I just rest in Christ. He's my obedience to the law.
Well, here's how I can tell if I'm under law. I am under law
if I think that any part of salvation has anything to do with me keeping
the law, even part of the law. If I think that, I'm under the
law. I'm under everything the law
requires. I am under the law. If I think
that by keeping the law, I can make myself a better Christian,
I put myself in bondage to the law. What horrible, awful bondage. But we don't desire to be under
the bondage of the law, do we? We desire to be under the rule
of God's grace. God's grace gives life. The law
promises to have. God's grace gives us the obedience
of Christ. All the law does is demand I
produce it. Grace forgives sin. The law just
shows us our sin. Grace grants repentance. The
law doesn't grant repentance. The law doesn't tell you how
to be righteous. All the law does to me is make me want to
sin. I don't want anything to do with the law, do you? I want
God's grace. Thank God. His people are not
under the law. We're under grace. So quit looking
to the law. Oh, but now we got to deal with
this flesh. Here's what our flesh, not just the Pharisee out there.
Here's what our flesh, that old man, here's what he's whispering
in our ear. Verse 15. What then? Should we sin because
we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. See the flesh, the Pharisee,
flesh that's in us says this, well, since grace forgives all
my sin, no matter what grace forgives all my sin, then I'm
just not going to worry about how I live. I'm just not going
to worry about how much sin I commit. If I think that, you know what
that means? I don't know anything about God's
grace. God's grace does not make us
want to sin. God's grace motivates us with
a heartfelt desire to not sin. I'm looking for every way I can
to not sin because of God's grace, His free, undeserved grace. Grace is a much stronger motivation
to a holy life than the law ever was. The law uses fear and it
doesn't work. Because of the weakness of our
flesh, the law never promotes a holy life. All it does is promote
rebels. But God's grace gives a true
heartfelt desire to a holy life. Not to excuse sin, but to seek
holiness. So live this life. If you would
not have sin reign over you, live looking to Christ. Don't
look to the law, because you're not under the law. You're under
grace. All right, second. There's a second motivation.
Live looking to Christ. Trust in Christ. Don't live looking
to the law. because you're not servants to
the law. You're not servants of sin, you're
servants of righteousness. Verse 16. Know ye not that to
whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness? But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but you've obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free
from sin, you became servants of righteousness. Here's what
Paul is saying. Don't yield. Don't yield to sin.
Fight against it. Make it your goal to not sin.
But here's the key. While you try to live a holy
life, don't yield to the demands of the law. If you try to obey
the law, all you've done is make yourself a servant to it. If
you're a servant to the law, you've made yourself a servant
to sin. and you made yourself a servant
to death. See, whoever you obey, that's who you belong to. If
you try to obey the law, then you belong to the law. But the
believer's dead to the law. The law has nothing to say to
the believer. You hear me? The law's got nothing to say
to the believer. I thought of this illustration.
Do you know that I don't know a single law in China? I don't
know one. And I'm not interested in finding
out. I don't care what the laws are. The laws of China, now are they
real laws? Are they enforceable laws? You
betcha. Go over there and break one. I bet you'll find out. But
I don't care anything about what those laws are. Even though they're
legitimate, enforceable laws, I care nothing about the laws
of China. You know why? I don't belong
to China. Believer, the same thing applies
to the Ten Commandments to you and the entire Law of Moses.
You don't belong to it. Christ has translated you to
a different kingdom. Those laws have nothing to say
to you. You don't belong to them. Well,
then who do I belong to? The believer belongs to Christ. We're in his kingdom of grace.
So we care about God's grace. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He's ended the believer's relationship
with the law. So the believer obeys him. Paul
says you've obeyed that form of doctrine which was delivered
to you. What's that? It's the gospel of Christ. And
you've obeyed it. You see what he says here? From
the heart. Not with the hands. Not with
this mortal body. Not with the actions of this
body. You've obeyed it. from the heart. That's faith.
It's faith in Christ that sets us free from sin's dominion over
us. And here's how we obey the gospel. When we quit trying to keep the
law and just rest in Christ who already kept it for us. Christ
has made us free from the law. Now you're still a servant. You're
the servant to whom you obey. Whoever it is you belong to,
that's whose servant you are. Believer, you belong to Christ
that you serve Him. Serve Him out of love and thanksgiving,
not out of fear, not because you have to, but because of His
undeserved grace. Believers, serve our Savior as
sons and daughters, not as hired guns. Not as hired guns. If you're
a hired gun, I saw this show, this assassin, he's out trying
to kill this person. And they can't escape the guy.
They don't know where they are. He's got advantage. He's going
to try to shoot them. And this was the smartest solution to
that problem I've ever heard of. He's a hired gun. Somebody hired him to kill me.
You know how I'm going to solve this problem? I'm going to go pay more and
make him my hired gun. If we're serving Christ as hired
guns, somebody could come along and pay you more, offer you more,
entice you more to go serve them. You can't do that to a son. You
can't do that to a daughter. Sons and daughters serve out
of love. That's how we don't let sin reign over us. Everybody
who serves the law serves the law out of fear, how the law
punishes. Everybody who serves Christ serves
him out of a thankful heart for his mercy and grace to us. Everybody
who serves the law, at the root of the issue is this. I want
some honor. Even if I know I'm not going
to get any honor before God, but I want some honor before
me. I want somebody to take note how straight and godly man I
am. Everybody who serves Christ serves
out of a heartfelt desire to serve and glorify him. That's the desire of a believer.
That's the desire that grace gives us. And here's a warning. Trying to make ourself a better
person. I wish I was a better person.
I mean, I really do. But if I try to be a better person
by keeping the law, you know what the result of that's going
to be? Self-righteousness every single time. Even if I don't
want to be self-righteous, even if that's not my real goal in
this situation, if I try to make myself a better person, try to
make you think I'm a better person by keeping the law, it's going
to produce self-righteousness every time. but obeying the gospel,
by trusting Christ and resting in Him, resting in Him to be
our obedience, that'll make us a humble person. That'll make
us a whole lot easier to get along with, won't it? So you who believe Christ, you're
the servants of righteousness. But it ain't always been that
way, has it? Look at verse 19. So here's where I'm talking about
killing this self-righteous attitude. Paul says, now I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as you have yielded your member servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your member
servants to righteousness and to holiness. For when you were
the servants of sin, you were free from unrighteousness. You had no interest in righteousness. Now, Paul said, I use this illustration
because of the weakness of our flesh to be able to understand
spiritual truths. He said, when you were only in
the flesh before the Lord saved you, How did you live? Well, every one of us lived in
uncleanness and iniquity. I don't care what your background
is, whether you are a drunk in the gutter or you are a deacon
in the Southern Baptist Church. I don't care who you were. Before
Christ saved us, when we were in the flesh, we lived in uncleanness
and iniquity. We yielded to it. You just yielded
yourself to serve sin. And more than likely, I think
I can safely say this about everybody in this room. When you were just,
from the time you were teeny tiny, and you grew to an adolescent,
a teenager, an adult, I bet every person in this room always knew
what the law said. Did you always know that you're
not supposed to tell a lie to your mama? Did you always know
that? How come you did? You're servants
of sin. You yielded yourself to it. The
law didn't stop you from doing it, did it? And suppose you were
in false religion. You still yielded yourself to
uncleanness. You yielded yourself to the greatest
uncleanness there is, your own righteousness, your own obedience.
You yielded yourself to that. And at that time, you had absolutely
no interest in the obedience of Christ. The obedience of Christ
didn't say anything to you, did it? You had no interest in the
gospel. Oh, somebody brought you just
somebody preaching the gospel. You just thought, oh, when will
this guy shut up? He got nothing to say to me.
Sovereign grace. Oh, I don't want to hear that.
That doesn't say anything to me. What a mess. Why aren't we a mess? But that's
all we could be because we're dead. Spiritually dead. We're
dead to righteousness. We didn't have any relationship
with righteousness and we didn't have any relationship with Christ
the Savior. Oh, but God saved you. That's not true anymore,
is it? No, it's not true now. Now you
have a relationship with righteousness because Christ is your righteousness.
Now you're dead to the damning power of sin because Christ has
made a curse for you. Now you're dead to the law. You're
dead to everything the law requires. because Christ died in your place.
Is that true? That's true for every believer
in you. Then live in this world like
you've got no relationship to the law. Live in this world like
a citizen of the United States, especially as long as we're here
in Kentucky, treats the laws of China. They don't say anything
to you. Treat the law of God the exact
same way. You're dead to it and you're
alive to the gospel because God has saved you. What your interest
is, is in the gospel of free, sovereign, saving grace, not
in what the law says. Once God saved you now, have
no interest in what the law says, just like you used to have no
interest in what the gospel says. That's what he's saying. Just
completely ignore the law and rest in Christ. Now, this is
part of what Paul's saying here. Let's never forget. where we
came from. Let's never forget what we were
and where we were when God found us. Don't ever forget that. I'm telling you, wherever and
whatever we were when God found us, that's what we still are.
That old flesh has not changed a bit. And that will promote
humility and it'll kill self-reliance. Self-righteousness, what that
really is, is just self-reliance. Remembering where we were and
what we were when God found us. That'll kill self-reliance. Look
over at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and remembering that. You can't preach the gospel.
It's an utter impossibility to preach the gospel without preaching
man's total depravity, our complete inability to do anything for
ourselves. and being reminded of that will give the believer
the desire to obey the gospel by trusting Christ and not in
anything that I do. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
should not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God." Boy, those are awful people. They shouldn't
inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, wait a minute. Such were
some of you. Such were all of us. But you're
washed. You're sanctified. You're justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Such were all of us. But you're
washed. You're justified. You're sanctified.
Then live with a thankful heart, serving God out of love. Live
looking to Christ who redeems you and running away from the
law. Alright, here's the third motivation. Back in our text,
Romans 6. Live looking to Christ and trusting
Christ, not trying to keep the law, because you desire good
fruit, not dead fruit. Verse 21. What fruit had you
then of those things whereof you are now ashamed? You know,
it bothers me if we talk about those things that we used to
do, like we have some glory in it, you know, like, well, that's
what I used to do, but the way I talk about it makes it seem
like I wish I was still doing it. You know, there's a lot of
fun in that. Well, I'd be ashamed of those things, shouldn't we?
What fruit had you then? And those things whereof you're
now ashamed. For the end of those things is death. All they bring
is death. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, You have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end, everlasting life. You know, the believer is ashamed
of ourselves all the time. We're just ashamed. We're ashamed
of what we used to be before the Lord saved us. There was
no fruit in any of that stuff. The only fruit that would come
from it is death. I'm just ashamed of it. And we're
ashamed of ourselves now. ashamed. We don't love the Lord like we
should. I'm so ashamed. Oh, I'm ashamed. I don't trust
Him like I should. I don't walk and follow Him like
I should. I'm just utterly ashamed of myself. But a believer does have a desire
to live a holy life because we desire good fruit. fruit that
will honor the Savior. Look at Galatians chapter 5.
Now, what is fruit that honors the Savior? Well, it's not fruit
we produce. You know, we're talking here
about good fruit. It's not fruit we produce. It's His fruit in
us. It's the fruit of the Spirit
that He produces and allows to hang off us. Look here at Galatians
5 verse 19. Now, the works of the flesh are
manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, This is the work, this is the fruit that the flesh
produces. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like. Of the witch I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. All that fruit,
this is the fruit our flesh can produce. produces death, that
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If you
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Walk in the
Spirit. Don't walk in the flesh, in the
deeds of the flesh, trying to obey the law. Walk in the Spirit. Live in His Spirit that He's
put in you, the fruit that He's put in you, love, joy, peace,
long-suffering. That's good fruit because it's
fruit of the Holy Spirit, which He enables us to bear. And then
fourthly, here's the fourth motivation. Live looking to Christ. Live
trusting Christ. Don't live looking to the law
to find out what you're supposed to do because God's given you
a great gift. Verse 23, back in our text, Romans
6. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the believer doesn't
want anything to do with the law. All the law can do for us
if we try to keep it is make us sin more. And the wages of
sin is death. Sin deserves death, eternal death.
Well, I don't want anything to do with it, do you? I don't want
to be a servant to the law. If the wages I'm going to get
from the law is death, I don't want anything to do with the
law. And God pays fair wages. God pays fair wages. He gives
all of us exactly what we earn. No more, no less. Either what
we've earned in ourselves trying to keep the law, which is death,
or what we've earned in Christ our representative, which is
eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ earned
acceptance. He earned peace with God for
his people by keeping the law for them. And he gives them that
life and that acceptance as a free gift, as a free gift. They live serving him out of
a thankful heart for this unspeakable gift that he's given you. Look
at Colossians chapter two. Live serving Christ. Live avoiding
sin of a thankful heart. Don't try to earn something from
Him. He's already given you everything. Colossians 2 verse 6. As you have therefore received
this gift, you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in. Now there's how you walk through
this world, not letting sin reign over you. How did you first receive
Christ? Did you receive him because you
kept the law and you're better than somebody else? How did you
first receive Christ? By grace through faith. Then
keep walking that way. In God's grace, through faith
in Christ. Now let me give you this in closing. I've said it before, it's worth
saying it again. Don't look to the law. Don't
look to the law for salvation. Don't look to the law to find
out how to live, what to do, what not to do. Don't try to
keep the law, thinking you'll get some spiritual blessing from
God. Simply look to Christ. Is the law going to save you?
Can you keep the law and save yourself? Well, of course not.
Then what are you looking to it for? Don't look. Look to Christ.
Is keeping the law, is that going to make you more saved? Is that
going to make you more holy than somebody else? Is it going to
make you closer to God than you already are in Christ? Well,
of course it won't. Then what are you looking to
the law for? Don't look to it. Look to Christ. Now, I know that
this is what this this text is saying. This this is the gospel. Preaching it this way, look to
Christ for your obedience, look to Christ for your justification,
look to Christ for your sanctification. That that's the gospel of safe
centers. That's the gospel that motivates his people to. I'm
not going to motivate you to live a holy life by just, you
better do this, you better do this, you better not do this.
That's not going to motivate you. You're going to say, who's
that guy? But this gospel of justification, salvation, sanctification,
redemption in Christ, that gives, this gives, telling you to look
to Christ, that gives you assurance of salvation. Brother Todd Nyvers
says, he's always liked preaching that makes me know I'm saved.
Preaching Christ this way, telling you to look to Christ, that lets
you know, I'm saved. He's my salvation. And then there's this too. You
know, we don't preach the gospel to the air. We don't preach the
gospel indifferent to people who hear the gospel. You just, you can't, you know,
if you don't preach, I suppose you can't understand how desperately
I want you to see Christ. I desperately, I want you to
close with Christ and come to Him and rest in Him and find
joy and peace and salvation in Him. And I also know this. I know that people going through
this life, this is a tough, tough, tough journey. This world is
a tough place to live. And people are hurting, people
are bereaved, people are wonder what to do this... Would you get any comfort in
me telling you, here's the message, don't commit, here's how you
don't let sin reign, don't sin, just don't do it. Would you draw
any comfort from that? If I took this text and told
you, you know, a child of God gets to the point you don't want
to sin anymore, and you don't enjoy sin anymore, And he can
just not commit sin by fighting against it. And the way we show
everybody we're a child of God is we just don't commit sin anymore.
We commit a whole lot less than other people. Would that comfort your heart
or would it just add to your burden? It would add to your
burden. Then that's not the gospel and
that's not what this text is saying. I'll tell you what this
text is saying. Live looking to Christ always. for everything. Look to Him for
your salvation. Look to Him for your righteousness.
Look to Him for your sanctification. Look to Him to be your guide.
Look to Him to be your motivation. Look to Him to be your comfort.
You will not let sin reign over you if you trust in Christ. Amen. I hope the Lord will bless that
to our hearts and give us the faith to do it. Look to Him. Our Father, how we thank You
for the Lord Jesus Christ. What a gift You've given Your
people, the unspeakable gift of Your Son. What good news there
is in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's forgiveness
of sin in Him. There's righteousness for sinners
in Him. We freely confess We are such
vile, rotten, hopeless, helpless, dead sinners. There's no other
way for us to be made righteous other than through the obedience
of our Lord Jesus Christ. What good news? There's cleansing
in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We freely confess we're
such vile, corrupt sinners. There's no other way for us to
be cleansed, made holy and just and right before you. other than
being washed in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We freely
confess we are so vile and such darkness and inability and deadness,
it's impossible for us to walk through this world keeping the
law. Oh, but how we thank you for
faith to look to our Lord Jesus Christ, to trust in Him, to rest
in Him. And Father, I beg of you that
you would In your mercy and grace, allow every person here this
morning that you grant us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you allow us leaving here looking to Him, finding our rest in Him,
finding our comfort and assurance in Him. Let His name be so magnified
in our hearts that we not hear what the law says anymore. Just
look to Him, hear Him, rest in Him, trust in Him and serve Him. Father, we know we ask a great,
great blessing for how we thank you. You're the God of all grace.
Oh, what great God we have to come and lay these cares and
these worries at your feet. Cause us to leave them there
and rest in you. It's in the precious name of
our Lord,