Sin shall not have dominion over
you. That's the title of this lesson. As I said, that's good
news to anyone who knows what sin is. Now, to those who don't
know that, it really doesn't mean anything. But to those who
struggle with sin daily, because it feels like it does, doesn't
it? It feels like sin does have a dominion. But Paul assures
us here by the word of God that it will not have dominion. Now
he says in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Now Paul
has proved that the objection of the doctrine of justification
by faith and by the grace of God leads to an indulgence of
sin. He says that's just not so. It
doesn't lead to that. The Scripture says the grace
of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. It teaches us to deny ungodliness.
And the believer, when God saves him, he saves that sinner, and
he becomes a believer, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves
the way of Christ. He loves the commandments of
Christ. He loves the Word of God. He loves us. And it's the
love of Christ that constrains him. It's the love of Christ
that constrains him. And his desire is to live for
the glory of God. Is that not your desire? Really,
is it not your desire to live for God's glory? And to have
His grace manifested in your conduct. You know, often I pray
that the Lord will, in our trials, will enable us to go through
them in such a way that it will give glory and honor to his name.
And that's what we want. That's what we want. Now, sin
remains in the believer. We're not without it. We have
it. It remains in us. But it does
not reign over you. There's the blessing. There's
the comfort. Sin does not reign over you. It does not dominate you. It
does not control you anymore. There was a time it did. As we
see here later, Paul says, you were the servants of sin. You
were the servants of the lust of this flesh. You were the servants
of Satan. But not now. Not now. It doesn't
reign over you anymore. And notice the word here, obey.
Sin is obeyed when you make provisions for it. That's when it's obeyed,
when you make provisions for it. And when you make provisions
for it without struggle, without opposing it, without fighting
it, when we look for ways to gratify our flesh, that's when
it's obeyed. Paul said you don't obey it.
You struggle against it, you fight against it, you don't obey
it. And he says here in 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." Paul's exhorting the
believers here in Rome and us to walk after godliness. This
is what the rest of this chapter is about, to walk after godliness. And that's why he's saying here,
don't present Do not donate your bodily members to sin. Do not
give your bodily members away to sin. The Amplified Version
reads like this, Do not continue to offer or yield your bodily
members and faculties to sin as tools of wickedness, but offer
and yield yourselves to God as those that have been raised from
the dead. What's the heart to be filled
with? That new heart that God gives. What's it to be filled
with? Well, it's to be filled with love, kindness. That's what it's to
be filled with. Those things. Not hatred and
envy. That's of the flesh. That's of
the old man. That's of the old nature. That's
the old heart. That new heart to be filled with love and kindness.
Joy and thankfulness, that's what we're filled with. Our minds,
they are our minds. We do have some, I want to say,
say-so, what goes through them. Thoughts pop in your head, but
you can't stop. You can say, well, hold on here
now, that's not from God. Our thoughts ought to be on things
that are pure and lovely and of good report. That's what they
ought to be on. We live in this flesh, and I
know it's a struggle. If it's not a struggle, you've got trouble. I've got trouble if it's not
a struggle. But our thoughts ought to be brought into subjection.
Paul said this in one place. They are to be brought into subjection
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be brought into subjection. Our
thoughts are not to be on this flesh, how to provide for it. how to entertain it. It's not
to be on materialism and the world. It's to be set up on Him.
I know we have to deal with these things. I'm not going to get
out here in a world that we don't know anything about. I know we
have to deal with these things. We have to deal with going to
work and providing for the family, but that's not what consumes
our life. What consumes the believer's
thoughts and life is Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
tongues are to be used in praise and encouragement and in witnessing.
Just think if it was like that all the time. Just think if our thoughts and
our minds and our hearts were set on things above. Our tongues are not to be used
in gossip, criticism, murmuring, Moses said to those Israelites,
God heareth your murmurings. Our hands and feet are to be
used in helping others, not just ourselves, not just ourselves. To put it as Paul did in Romans
12, 1, we should present our bodies, this body right here,
we should present our bodies as living sacrifices unto God. And you know what Paul says,
which is your reasonable service. When you consider what the Lord
Jesus Christ did and what He went through to redeem us from
our sins and for sin not to have dominion over us, is it not our
reasonable service? Is it not a reasonable service
to serve such a Master? To serve such a God? Is that
not just a reasonable service? Is that asking too much? for
the creature to love the Creator? Is that asking too much? No.
No, my soul. Oh, he said, present your body
as a living sacrifice unto God. For sin, he says in verse 14,
shall not have dominion over you. It will not reign over you. It will not rule you. For you're
not under the law. If you were under the law, sin
would reign over you. But you're not under that law
anymore. You're under grace. You're under the grace of God.
And that is continually. You are continually under the
grace of God. No truth is more certain than
this. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. No truth is more certain than
that. God's purpose, God's grace, And God the Holy Spirit will
not allow it. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. They will not allow it. It won't
allow it. Believers are dead to the guilt of sin, and therefore
his power will not dominate them. There was a time, I'm sure each
of you can look back at some point in time, but there was
a time that sin dominated. There was a time when your thoughts
were on things sinful, not godly. It didn't have to be some kind
of weird thing, but I'm just talking about something that
was not godly. It was not after God. It was not after Christ.
It was after the things of this life and the things of this flesh.
But not anymore. Its power has been broken. The power of sin has been broken
and it does not dominate the believer. It doesn't dominate
them. They have put on the new man,
and the warfare with that old man is going to be won. And that warfare is going to
be terminated in death. The old man, the old nature is not going
to win this battle. It's not going to win. No, the
old man, he's not going to reign. Christ reigns. Christ reigns
in the heart. Not sin no more. Oh, it's present,
and you know it, and you feel like it reigns. But it's not. It's not. The believer shall
not fail in his walk with Christ, because he says here, sin shall
not have dominion over you. True holiness is not the result
of the law. It's not the result of commandments,
of following commandments. You know what true holiness is
the result of? Grace in the heart. Grace in the heart. That's what
it's a result of. We are literally not under the
law as a way of life. I'm so glad of that. And you
are too. You are too. Because you know
and I know we can't keep that law. Can't even come close to
it. We can't even drive the speed
limit. How are we going to keep God's law? How are we going to
do that? Why is it when a policeman You
just see a policeman come up behind you and all of a sudden
you just, you feel like you're going to be pulled over, even
if you're driving because you're conscious. You know you're, somewhere
down the road you're guilty. You can reach back there somewhere.
You say, well maybe he saw me back when I was driving a little
faster. No. We are not under the law as a
way of life. The law has no claim on me now
in Christ. The law has no claim on me. The
law has claim on criminals. It has claim on criminals. A
man who commits a crime, the law has a claim on him. The law
has a right to that man. It has a right to punish that
man. It has a right to bring that man to justice. But I've
already been brought to justice in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the law has no claims on me. Isn't that good news? It'll really
be good news when it comes time to die, won't it? It's good news now. But, boy,
when you're laying and you're taking that last breath, that's
going to be good news. It has no claim on me. Now listen, I have fulfilled,
I have obeyed the precepts of the law in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's my righteousness. His right
doing is my righteousness. But now everyone that's outside
of Christ that does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
law has a claim on them. It has a claim. A warrant for
their arrest. And a warrant for their arrest.
And it will arrest them. And it will execute them. But
we who have believed are not under that law anymore. We are
under a covenant of grace that God the Father made with God
the Son. And we are recipients of that covenant of grace. Everything
we enjoy as believers, all the blessings we enjoy, all the heavenly
blessings we enjoy, come to us through this covenant of grace
between the Father and the Son on our behalf. Isn't that something? And we live in a state of constant
reconciliation to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. What then? Paul says, what then? Shall we sin? Because we are
not under the law, but under grace? He says, God forbid. God
forbid. Don't talk like that. Don't think
like that. Don't think like that. Don't
talk like that. God forbid. A believer doesn't look for a
way to sin. Really, he doesn't. If you could live like you really
want to, you'd live without sin, wouldn't you? I guarantee you,
every believer, if they could live like they want to, would
live without sin. They'd go and be with their Lord.
And that would be without sin. But Paul knows there are going
to be some false teachers come in. They're going to object to
this. Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace?
No, no, no. The doctrine of free justification
by faith, if that works, furnishes no license to anyone to sin. That's a twisting of the Word
of God. That's what that is. The death
of Christ for His people and His resurrection for them secures
their walk in holiness. It really does. It secures our
walk in holiness. Because the Lord's in you. The
Lord's in you. He's in His people. And because
He's in you, you want to live. You want to live godly in this
present life. Just turn them loose. That's
why I say just let them go. Don't put fences and hedges about
everybody. Try to get them rules and regulations so that you can
get them in and get what you want out of them. No, just turn
them loose. They're sealed with the Holy
Spirit. He'll guide and direct and teach. He'll do something. He'll do it. Now the word law
here is used Not in reference to that moral law. I mean, to
the ceremonial law, but it's to the moral law. It's not used
in reference to the ceremonial law, but it's used in reference
here to that moral law. And here's what he's saying.
A believer is free. Now, listen, he's free from the
personal fulfilling of the moral law for his own justification.
He's free from it, from his own fulfilling of it, for his own
justification, because you can't do it. You can't keep the law
perfectly enough to be justified by it. But one did. One person
did. The Lord Jesus Christ. He did. And He did it as the
federal head of God's people. And we are justified. We are
cleared of all charges in Him. Isn't that good news? We ought to be encouraged every
week to preach the gospel, to teach the gospel, to witness
the gospel. We have good news to tell. We don't have a list
of commandments to go out and say, you have to do this, this,
this, this. No, you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He did
this, this, this, and this. He's the one that did it. Now,
Paul illustrates his point here in verse 16. No, you're not. that to whom you yield your self-service
to obey, his service you are to whom you obey, whether of
sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Here's a
good way to determine if a man or woman has been saved,
if you've been saved, and me. We should know that if sin masters
us, if it masters us, if we delight in the things that are not good. If we delight in those things,
if we enjoy, if our real joy is found in evil companions,
ungodly companions, if we walk in darkness, then Christ is not
the master. Sin is. Sin is. And we are not saved. The Scripture
says, how can two walk together except they agree? They can't. There's going to be a fight.
There's going to be a disagreement. There's going to be a party in
other ways. The tenor of a man's life reveals
his master. Is that not so? It's not what I profess. You
can profess whatever you want to. You can just profess whatever
you want. But the tenor of a man's life
tells who his master is. What do I really enjoy? In what direction am I going? Who is really my Lord and who
is really getting the glory? Really. Paul says, no, you're not. No,
you're not. Everyone knows that when they
yield themselves to someone, they are the servant of that
someone. They become that person's servant. Slave is what that means. Become their slaves. And the
man who yields himself to sin is the servant of sin. He's a
slave to sin. Sin's his master. That's why
the drunk, that's why he can't sober up. Because his master,
he's mastered by that sin. It's master over him. Whoever
your master is, who you're going to yield to? If it's the Lord,
you're going to yield to Him. If it's sin, you're going to
yield to Him. But God be thanked. God be thanked. Not the preacher. Not anyone else. God be thanked. He's the one who delivered you.
He's the one who delivered us. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. You were the servants of sin.
You were slaves to it. Slaves to it. But you now have obeyed, listen,
from the heart. That's where salvation takes
place, isn't it? You have obeyed from the heart. Not from the
head. You've obeyed from the heart. Your whole being is in
this. You are passionate about this. You are affected with this. You
have obeyed from the heart. God's given you a new heart and
you've obeyed God from the heart. That form of doctrine which was
delivered you. We have only God to thank for setting us free,
don't we? It wasn't me and God. It wasn't
a cooperation on my part. God set me free. God gave me
life. God gave me forgiveness. God
gave me all that I have in Christ. He's blessed us with all heavenly
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. Didn't He do that?
I didn't bless you with anything there. He did. He did. We have only God to thank for
setting us free from the mastery of sin and making us servants
of righteousness, servants of the Lord. This thing of being a servant
of righteousness comes from the heart. You do it gladly, don't
you? Believers do it willingly. They
serve the Lord willingly. They come here willingly. They
sing willingly. They pray willingly. They listen
willingly. They're willing bond slaves.
That's who and what we are, willing bond slaves. Glad to be His servant. Satan's a cruel taskmaster. Our
Lord's not. Our Lord's not. Any attempt at obedience by an
unconverted man is an obedience produced by fear, self-interest,
or constraint, but not from the heart. There's a real difference
of being here and worshiping God and listening to this from
the heart than being here because it's Sunday. Big difference. Big difference when it's from
the heart or if it's just out of duty. There's nothing that is more
convincing of the truth and the power of the gospel than the
change that a man has in the heart when God saves him. Oh, God makes a change. He makes
a change. Now, it says, being then made
free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. This
phrase here, being made free from sin, is in reference to
emancipation. The emancipation of a slave from
his master, being set free. Before we were slaves to sin, when that master whistled like
a dog, we came running. It mastered us. We were slaves
to it. But now we've been set free.
Whom the Son sets free, He's free indeed. Free. Now verse 7 where it says that
we are freed, that means justified. There in verse 7. It means we
are justified. But here it means free from the
dominion, the reigning power of sin. And after being set free, we
became the servants of righteousness. Entirely devoted to God. Highly
devoted to Him. Now we live to promote His glory,
not ours. Although we stumble and fall,
and every now and then, too often, self-righteousness raises its
ugly head, and self raises its ugly head, but it's not going
to rain. It's not going to rain. The Lord's
not going to allow it. The cost was too great for Him
to allow such a thing. He's not going to allow it. Now
Paul says, I speak after the manner of men, because in the
infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members'
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, even so now yield your
members' servants to righteousness and to holiness. Paul uses terms
here that we can understand, doesn't he? He doesn't try to
use eloquent speech and wisdom of words. He uses, and I like
to listen to someone that uses language that I can understand,
and illustrations that I can easily grasp. And Paul did that. Paul could have used some words.
I mean, Paul was a well-educated man. He could have used some
high-sounding stuff. But he didn't. And neither did
our Lord. He spoke so simply, didn't he? He spoke so simply. You didn't
have to have a dictionary. Just the Bible. That's all we
need. Just the Bible. And what he's saying here, what
Paul's saying is, As you have in the past cheerfully yielded
your hearts and minds and tongues and hands and feet to evil, now
cheerfully yield them to God and to holiness for which they
were created. Now yield them to Him. For when
you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
When you lived in sin and were a servant, you had no interest
in righteousness. You didn't think of God. I can
remember a time when I never thought of God at all. Not at all. That's sad, isn't
it? But it's solid. Not interested in God, not interested
in righteousness, but I am now, and you are too. He said in verse 21, What fruit
has you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. Sin is unprofitable, it's
shameful in its character, and the end of it is death. It's
just death. It never leads to good. Sin never,
ever, ever leads to good. Never. And Paul says, when he
says, what fruit? He says, what advantage? What
advantage did you receive from your former misconduct? None.
None. The end of it is death. The end
of it is death. The end of righteousness is life.
Life. Sin brings forth death. But now
being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have
your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Now
that you've been made free from sin through the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've become God's servants. You've
become His servants. In one place it says you're bought
with a price. Be not ye the servants of men.
Servants of God. We are now his servants, and
we have our fruit, that is our conduct here, unto holiness.
We seek to live after godliness. We seek to live after godliness.
And in closing, he says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death. The just deserts of sin is death. When God gives a man death, He's
giving him just exactly what he deserves. Nothing more, nothing
less. He's giving him exactly what
he deserves. Sin merits death. Eternal banishment
from God's favor. And God's going to pay it up.
He's going to pay it up. But the gift of God, we didn't
buy this one. He's not paying up this one. This is a gift. You don't buy
a gift, do you? If you do, it's not a gift. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what He's given us through
Christ, eternal life. Those for whom Christ lived and
died and now lives and makes intercession for them have eternal
life. They have it. Not going to have
it, they have it. Doesn't feel like it, does it?
His body aches, troubles, trials, heartaches. I mean, that doesn't feel like
eternal life. But you have it. You have it. The flower has to go through
a lot of dirt before it ever blooms, doesn't it? They have it through their federal
head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're never going to lose
it. Never going to lose this eternal life. And it's a gift. All that we
have in Christ is freely given to us by the Father. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All yours in
Christ. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.