That is what sanctification does
for you. Makes you want to be like Him
in your heart. We're going to sing that again, Mike, for the
closing. I want to sing that for the closing again. Turn to
Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We have heard it said and been
taught over the years that faith and repentance always
go together. A man who believes is also a
man who repents. And what Paul is teaching us
in this chapter If you don't get anything else, get this.
This is the message that Paul is giving us in this chapter,
that justification and sanctification always go together. That's what
he's teaching in this chapter. So there's the message right
there. It always goes together. If I
stumble and fumble all the way through this, at least you know
what the message is. Paul has made it very clear in
the previous chapters that the whole human race, Jew and Gentile,
law keeper and law breaker, those who profess to keep the law, are totally depraved and guilty
before God. There is not one human being
on this earth except for Christ, born without
sin. We were all born with it. We
were all born with a depraved, vile, wretched nature. We were all born with a nature
that absolutely hates God. We were born that way. And all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Turn over,
back a page. Here I believe it's in chapter
3 of Romans. Paul says in verse 19, Now we
know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no
difference between the Jew and the Gentile before God. It is
upon all those who believe. no matter what race he's from, it is freely given to those who
believe. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, even me. Even me. That's what he's
saying. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and it's impossible by our personal obedience
to God's law to be justified by it. We cannot live good enough,
perfect, that's the better word, perfect enough to stand before
God justified. Can't do it. There was only one
man who was able to magnify the law and make it honorable, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he did it for a multitude
of sinners like us. He did it for a multitude of
sinners that hated him. who were enemies at one time.
And so Paul makes it very clear that salvation is by the grace
of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by grace through
faith in Christ alone. Add anything to it, and you're
guilty. Take anything from it, and you're
guilty. And Paul knew He knew there would
always be someone out there that's going to object by salvation
and by grace alone in Christ alone. And so he says here, what
shall we say then? How shall we answer such an objection? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Because it says back in chapter
5, verse 20, Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Shall we continue to live after
the lust of our flesh and still follow after the principles of
the world, seeing we are not justified by our obedience? Shall
we just not sin more if God's grace is magnified by that? God's
grace is not magnified. By allowing me to sin, it's magnified
by stopping me. It's magnified by turning me
from sin to Him, from sin to righteousness. That's where grace
is magnified. If God's grace is magnified by
my sinning, well then, human logic, human logic says this,
well then sin more. Sin more. If it's magnified by
my sin, then let's sin more. But human logic and spiritual
logic never come together. They never match up. The natural
man cannot receive the things of God. He cannot comprehend
what's being said here. Not at all. God's grace, salvation
by grace alone, in Christ alone, It has never encouraged anyone
to continue in sin. You who believe, you know it
by experience. It does not encourage you to
sin. It breaks your heart. Does not
sin break your heart? Every last one of us sin a lot
more than we want to. It breaks the heart. In fact, it
does the opposite. The grace of God, the spirit
of grace in you, teaches us, the scripture says, it teaches
us to deny ungodliness. It teaches us to turn from it.
It teaches us to run from it. That's what grace does. That's
what grace in the heart does. Grace is glorified, listen, in
turning us away from sin. It turns us away from sin and
it turns us to God. Which is more constraining? Love
or commandments? Paul said it's the love of God,
the love of Christ that constrains me. Ten commandments, a thousand
commandments is not what constrains me. It's the love of God shed
abroad in the heart and that never leads to sin. The sanctifying
work of the Spirit of God never leads to sin. It leads to holiness
and righteousness. Now Paul says here, God forbid,
God forbid. How shall we, speaking of believers,
how shall we that are dead to sin? Dead to sin. Live any longer therein. Obey
it any longer. If we are dead to it, how are
we going to live to it? How are we going to obey it?
How are we going to seek after it? I thought about this last
night as I was reading this. How can a man who is dead, physically
dead, live after the cares of this
life any longer? If you are dead to it, you are
dead to it. How can a dead man hunger? This food smells good. I know
it's probably distracting. But the reason that food smells
good to me is because I'm alive and I need that food. My body
wants that food. This body, me, not just this
body, me, I want that food. I crave that food. The longer
I smell it, the more I want it. That's because I'm not dead to
it. I'm alive to it. If we are alive
to sin and not dead to it through the death of Christ, we are going
to follow after it. You'll follow after it if you're
not dead to it. It matters not what you think of a person when
he's dead. You know that peer pressure ends at the grave? Peer pressure. It ends at the
grave. It doesn't matter what you think
of me when they bury me in the ground. Now it does, you see. We don't care at what level it
is. We do care what people think
of us. But when we're laid in the ground, it all ends. Why? Because we're dead. Dead to this
life, dead to it. Here's the question. How shall
we, who are dead to the penalty and the guilt and the reigning
power of sin through the death of Christ, live in sin? That's what Paul's saying. He's
talking here about the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. We are justified by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're sanctified by the Spirit of God
in regeneration, in the new birth. If you're dead to something,
it has no power over you. This is something that's real.
You see, we can see the physical, and that's more real to us, but
we can't see the spiritual. But this is real. Those who have
been crucified with Christ are dead to it. Your life is not
after those things no more. I didn't say you're dead to the
presence of it, or the influence of it, or falling into it from
time to time. But the tenor of your life is
after godliness. That's what Paul's saying, that
a man who's born of God, that his life is after godliness. It's not after sin. It does not
lead to sin. It leads to holiness. It leads
to righteousness and a right walk. It's not your master. It is not. Sin is not your master. That old nature is crucified. It is crucified. You notice it
didn't say it was crucified? It is. It's crucified. And someday when we die, it'll
be finally laid in the grave. By the Spirit of grace, it's
crucified every day. If you're dead to it, it has
no more power. No more power over you. The strength
of sin is the law. But now the law satisfies. You
can read the law of God in the scriptures here and know with
comfort, know with assurance, that in Christ, because of your
union to Him, the law is satisfied. There's no curse. There's no
curse. The law is satisfied with you
in Him. Therefore, sin has nothing to back it up. It has nothing
to back it up. We do feel the presence of it.
We do feel the influence of it. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. But the mastery of it, the mastery
of sin is broken. The stronger man has taken over
the house. Christ rules in the heart. Christ
in you is a hope of glory. Salvation in Christ through His blood and
righteousness has not and never will lead to a sinful life. Won't do it. Won't allow you
to do it. You can't do it. I didn't say
you can't sin. I said you're not going to live
a life like that anymore. You're not going to be allowed
to do it. And here's why. There is a radical change that
takes place. The strongman of the house has
been disarmed. He's been dethroned. That old
nature has been dethroned. That old nature that ruled you,
controlled you, has been dethroned. It doesn't feel like it. It doesn't
always feel like it, but it has. It's been dethroned. There's
a radical change that takes place in regeneration. A new heart. You really have a new heart.
You have a real new nature that's born of God. You have new principles. There's
a new man. There's a new man. And he's under
a new master. And that new master is Christ. He's the master of the house.
He's the master of the house now. He is. Know you not, he says, that so
many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death. Now, this is not talking right
here that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ. That's
not talking about water baptism here. That's talking about a
real union to the Lord Jesus Christ made by the Spirit of
God. You are truly united to Him. It is a real living union to
Christ. Believers have this real union
to Christ. In Him. I in them. Look over
in John 17. Over here in the Gospel of John. Cecil told me to keep this short,
so I'm going to work on it. We had this food over here cooking. Let's see, verse 23. I in them,
and thou in me. Now listen, that's real. I wish I could express this.
I would to God that we could get a hold of this. This is real. Christ is really in you. And
you are really in Him. That new man in you is Christ. And that new man in you is you. It's real. That we may be made
perfect in one. It's a real union. And that's
what Paul's saying here. Paul's saying that there is a
real union to Christ. And He's the master of the house.
And He will not allow you to live in a life of sin anymore,
a life of debauchery and sin and self. No, your life is going
to be surrounded by Him. By Him. We were baptized, He
said, by the Spirit of God into Jesus Christ. We were baptized
into His death. Now get a hold of this. We really
died in Christ. The law of God sees me as dead
in Christ. I mean, He dealt with me. The
law of God dealt with me at Calvary. We really died in Christ. And
we not only confess Christ, but we are possessed of Christ. We've become one with Him. His death is our death. His death
to sin is our death to sin. We are members of His body. We are so united to Him that
when He died, we died. It's real. And this is also real. See, if
it stops there, Well, it doesn't stop there.
It does not stop there. When he died, we died. But now
listen, when he arose, we arose. We too arose. Now, we do identify,
we make an open identification and confession of Christ by water
baptism, which shows his death, burial, and resurrection. We
identify that way. But there is a real baptism into
Christ by the Spirit of God. I in them, thou in me. Therefore,
he says, we are buried with him by baptism into death. We died
in him. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. If God has made you a partaker
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, if He has made you
a partaker of that, that He'll also make you a partaker of the
divine power that raised Christ from the dead to walk in newness
of life. We don't walk this by ourselves. Paul said, the life that I now
live is Christ in me. It's Christ in me. We walk by
the power of God, not by this flesh. Now, if we've been planted together,
you know anything more close than that? To be planted together,
be joined to Him. We were joined to Him in eternity.
He came into this world, became bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. He went to the cross. He was buried. We were planted
with Him when He was buried. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection." Now listen, if God has so united us in his
death as being one with him, shall he not do the same in his
resurrected life? If we are partakers of the death,
are we not partakers of his life? Because I live, ye shall live
also." Partakers of that life. Dying with Him would not do me
any good if I'm not raised with Him. Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified. He's crucified with Christ. He's
crucified daily by the Spirit of grace. That's why he can't
control the believer anymore. That's why he does not control
the believer anymore. He's crucified. He's not allowed to. That the body of sin, the nature
of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
ourself. That's what God has saved us
from is serving self, serving sin, serving Satan and serving
self. God saved us from that. This old man is that old nature
that we received from our parents, Which goes all the way back to
Adam. It goes all the way back to Adam. It is crucified with
Christ. Nailed to His cross. And we don't serve. Here's what
Paul says. We do not serve that old nature anymore. We don't
serve it. We are the servants of God now.
And not that old corrupt nature. And the purpose of Christ's crucifixion
was to satisfy justice and destroy this corruption that
we were born with. Dethrone it and put it in the
grave. Do away with it. He has disarmed
that old nature, that old man that we were born with. He has
taken over. He's taken over. That's what
sanctification is. It's Christ in you, taken over.
New heart, new nature, new man. He's taken over. For he that
is dead is freed from sin. And that word freed means justified. He that is dead with Christ,
he that died with Christ is freed. He's justified. He's cleared
of all charges. through the death of the Son
of God. It says in Acts 13.39, by Him
all that believe are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe, there is faith, we believe We shall reign with Him.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that you are going
to be with the Lord? If you died with Him, you will. If you see that you died at Calvary
in Christ, your sins were dealt with, put away, the law is satisfied,
then you are going to live with Him too. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead, he doth no more. Death has no more dominion over
him. He's free from its claims. It has no more dominion over
him. And everyone in him is free. Free. Oh, one day we will know
what that means. One day. We'll know what it is
to be free from this body of sin and death. But if we are partakers of His
death, if God made us partakers of His death, then we have a
sure hope of living with Him hereafter. We have it. The law
of sin and death have no claims on us. The full price has been
paid. It has been paid. Justice satisfied. And this is
why I read Romans 8 this morning. Who can lay anything? Well, that covers everything,
doesn't it? Anything covers everything. Who
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No one. No one. Absolutely no one. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. He liveth unto God forever. My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because of sin. That's why.
Well, that issue's been dealt with. And the fellowship that
he now has with the Father and that we have with the Father
in him will never be broken. It'll never be shattered. It's
forever. Forever. He suffered the penalty
for sin one time. One time. He will never bear
that burden again because he satisfied God's justice. Sin
was imputed to him one time. He was made to be sin one time. That won't happen again. It's
done with. It's done with. He now lives
unto God in unbroken fellowship, seated at God's right hand. Where
are you seated? Where is the believer seated?
Well, right now, we are seated all over this earth in local
assemblies, aren't we? But every one of them is seated with Christ
at the right hand of God. That's real. That's real. Already there. Already there. Already been dealt with. Those
whom He justified, He did what? Glorified. It's already done.
You'll not have to experience it, but as far as God's concerned,
it's already done. This thing's settled. This matter's settled. Likewise, now listen. Likewise, in the same manner,
in the same manner, he died to sin once. That sin issue has
been taken care of. He's satisfied justice. And now
he lives in unbroken fellowship with God. Likewise, you reckon
the same way. You reckon the same thing. What
he has, I have. As he is, so are we in this world.
What belongs to him belongs to me. Does he stand before God? Is
he there, cleared, justified? We know he is. He will be there.
Well, so are we. So are we. Likewise, reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin, the guilt of it, the penalty of it,
the reigning power of it, but alive unto God. We are alive
unto God. We can call upon God. We can
have fellowship with God. Think of who God is. We can have
fellowship with Him now through the Lord Jesus Christ. Can we do this? You better do
it. We had better do it. If we don't
do this, it will open the door to unbelief and lead to self-righteousness. That's why Paul met this objection. They said, well, if we are justified
by grace, by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone
without our obedience to the law, then we can just sin all
we want to. No. No. The sanctifying work of the
Holy Spirit of God in you won't allow it. There's a new man in
you. There's a new owner, new master.
Sin shall not have dominion over you. Let not sin, therefore Paul says
this, and here's what he's saying. Our walk is to be consistent
with the gospel we believe. Justification and our sanctification
will always go together. That's why it says here in verse
12, let not sin therefore reign, rule in your mortal bodies, take
over your body like it did before, like it had in the past, that
you should obey it in the lust thereof, neither yield yourselves,
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. Don't feed that old nature. It's still with us. I'll never forget what Donnie
Bell said one time, just a brief statement and a message. He said,
I still have one leg that wants to go dancing. Never forgot that. I thought,
oh, I can identify. I can identify with him. When
he said that, I thought, there's a brother. There is a brother. I can identify with that. I still
have one leg that wants to go dancing. But we're not going
to feed that one leg. Starve it. Mortify, he says,
therefore the deeds of the flesh. Mortify it. Don't yield your
members. Don't feed that old... Make no
provisions for it. A baby in Christ doesn't... How to say this? A baby in Christ
doesn't recognize a lot of things As you grow older, you recognize
and you stay away from. You know, a child who doesn't
know something burns, when he gets burned, he doesn't go back
to it. Make no provisions for it. Starve
it. Do not yield your bodily members up to sin. You've been
redeemed. You're born of God. Yield yourselves,
he says, up to God. Present your bodies as a living
sacrifice which is just your reasonable service. Our hearts
are to be filled with praise and love to God and not self. My hands, my feet, everything.
This body is to be used as a living sacrifice to the praise and glory
of God Almighty for what He's done for me in Christ for the
rest of my life. It's earthly life and then eternal
life when we leave this place. He has to be used for His glory. Something hit me the other day
on this, really along this line. I was listening, I think it was
out in the shop, there was a song on the radio. That song kept
going through my head all day long. And I thought, now if I
hadn't heard that song, I wouldn't be thinking of that right now. If I hadn't fed myself on that
song, I wouldn't be chewing on it right now. What we put in is what we put
out. And what we allow ourselves to
really, what we allow ourselves to be absorbed in, that's what
we absorbed in. And Paul says, absorb yourselves
up in him. Be absorbed by Him. For sin shall
not have dominion over you. You're not under the law. You're
under God's favor. You're under God's grace. The
law is satisfied. It has no claims on us now. It
has no claims on God's elect. Therefore, sin cannot dominate
you now. It can't do it. Too great a price was paid for
you. You're not under rules You're not under the laws of covenant
of life. You're under God's grace. You're under grace. Well, if
that's so, then he said, then someone's going to say, well,
then shall we sin? Because we're not under the law.
We're not under these commandments. But under grace, Paul says, God,
you've misunderstood us again. You're not listening. That's
natural. That's natural logic. You know,
naturally, that does sound logical. But spiritually, it's not. It's not. Know ye not that to
whom ye yield yourselves to obey, that's who ye belong to? Well, that's a powerful statement. Powerful statement. In verse
16, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves, servants,
slaves to obey? His servants ye are to whom ye
obey. Whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
Whoever you yield yourself such to. Whatever controls you. That's who owns you. That's who
you belong to. That's what Paul is saying here. Now, if you're given to sin,
he says you belong to darkness. But God be thanked. Will God
be thanked this morning? God be thanked for His grace,
for His mercy, and for the work of His grace in us. God be thanked
that you were the slaves, the servants of sin, but you have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you. Salvation, he's saying here, is a heart work. You obeyed the
gospel, not as a command, not just as a list of commands. You
obeyed it from the heart. This is a response of the heart.
Salvation is a hard work, and God is to be thanked for it,
but we'd still be slaves to sin. Listen, we were delivered from
the guilt and the penalty of sin through the death of Christ,
and we are delivered from the power of sin through the sanctifying
work of the Holy Spirit. New creation. Being then made free. Now that
word free there means liberated. Being made liberated from sin. It doesn't reign over you now.
It doesn't control you now. When it whistles, you don't have
to run to it now. You're not its dog anymore. Now you've been made free. You've
been liberated from the reign of sin. And you become servants
of God, servants of righteousness. Paul said, I speak, and I'll
close here. Paul said, I speak after the manner of men because
of the infirmity of your flesh. I use such simple terms because
of your inability to understand. For as ye have yielded your members,
servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity and to iniquity,
even so now, Yield your members, servants, to righteousness and
to holiness. And to put it simply, serve God with all your heart
the way you used to serve sin. You used to go after sin with
a vengeance. Drink iniquity, the scripture
says, like water. He said, go after God now That same passion,
attitude, but in righteousness. Serve God with your heart like
He used to serve sin. For when you were the servants
or slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. If you had
no interest in righteousness, you were free from it. No interest.
What fruit had you then and those things were of your now shame?
If you had no fruit in it, it was fruit unto death. But now
being made free from sin, liberated from it, the guilt of it, the
penalty of it, and the reign of it, you become the servants
of God. And now you have your fruit unto holiness, which is
the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, faith, longsuffering. He said that leads to holiness. For the wages of sin is death.
God's going to give every man what he's earned. Every man outside
of Christ. But the gift of God, gift of life, the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. If God has given you this gift,
if He's given you this gift, give thanks. Oh, be thankful
unto Him. and walk before Him in humility. And serve the Lord, as it says
in Psalm 100, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His
presence with singing. If He's given you this gift of
eternal life. I tell you, salvation by grace
alone. And Christ alone does not lead
to sin. Does not. It will enable man
and lead a man to walk after righteousness. I'm not afraid
to preach Christ alone. Look to Him alone. He's all you
need. He's all I need. Okay, Mike,
let's sing that.