She'll turn back with me now
to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 is devoted to show a kind of
before and after picture of the sinner. What he was before God
intervened. what he is and what he shall
be in that day. And it's written, no doubt, to
refute the claims of deceived religionists that a full and complete justification
by grace without any works on the part of the sinner would
lead them to live with a license to sin. You're just telling people
when you preach grace, full, sovereign grace, saved by grace, you're giving a man a license
to sin. That's what you're doing. I've
heard that ever since I've come to know anything at all about
the truth. And no doubt this chapter, Paul
mentions that over and over and over in his different epistles
that people charged him with that. And you're not only giving them
an excuse for sin, they say, but you're encouraging them to
sin. You're encouraging them to sin.
You're taking away the fear of God. And if you take away that
fear, what's going to restrain them? Paul said, the love of
God restraineth us. And let me say that no doubt
there are some who, having received the gospel in word only, believe
this very thing and so continue to wallow in the hog pen claiming
all the while to be saved. I'm saved, they say, saved by
grace. Sin and grace are not just doctrines. They're not just doctrines. They're not just facts of the
scripture. They're powerful sources that
exercise a reigning power in men. If you read Romans chapter
five, before we get to this chapter, the last thing he tells you that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign. If grace is nothing but a doctrine,
how can it reign? Where's its power? Well, grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. And that same grace that came
and was manifested is raised up and secured at the right hand
of God and it reigns. At the close of chapter five,
Paul tells us this. So this is my message this morning.
Before and after. what we were and what we are. In Romans 6, verse 15, the apostle
writes, I'll read it to you again, what then? Shall we sin because
we're not under the law but under grace? Is that what we're to
do? Is that what believers do? They're saved by grace and they're
free to sin. Shall we freely permit ourselves
to sin without any resistance, without any conscience, without
any restraint, simply because we're saved by grace? Now I want
you to hear this, because this ain't just a phrase, this is
a fact. God forbid. God forbid. If one of your children
get out of line, you're not gonna let him go. Now your neighbor's
kid, you might just let him go. But you ain't gonna let your
kid go, because you love him. You love him and you're gonna
chastise him because you love him. And that's what God does
to his children. He's not gonna let you do He's
not gonna let you go, He's just not gonna let you be whatever
you want to be. God has intervened, you're His
child, and He's gonna teach you. He said this, verse 16, know
you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey,
His servants you are, to whom you obey? If you're living a
life in obedience to sin and you give in to sin constantly,
there's no restraint, no conscience, no anything about sin, no restraint
whatsoever, then you can know this, you're the servant of sin.
You're not God's servant, you're the servant of sin. And that's
what Paul tells them, don't you know that? Don't you know that
this is taught from Genesis all the way through Revelations?
Know ye not to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his
servants ye are to whom ye obey? Whether of sin unto death or
obedience unto righteousness. Now I fear that I don't preach
enough about obedience. God demands obedience. When he
says something, it's not a suggestion. It's a command. It's a command. I tell you, when my dad told
me to do something, if I didn't do it, I was gonna get one of
these. And that was it. That's all the warning you're
gonna get. He demands obedience. And that's what Paul's telling
us. Don't you know this? Well, do we? Do we know this? Are we aware of this? Is this
a part of your daily reason and knowledge? Do I ever ask myself,
whom do I serve? Whose servant am I? You ever ask, does that even
enter into your thinking? Now you either serve sin unto
death or you serve Christ in obedience unto righteousness.
Watch this, verse 17. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. But ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made
free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. Salvation is a new creation. It's not a little card like you
get from the insurance company, and you can put it up on the
shelf and then use it someday if you actually need it. That's
not what it is. It's a new creation. It's a new
mind, a new heart, a new will. Old things, he said, are passed
away, and behold, all things have become new. In every saved
man, there is a story of before and after. You don't have to
talk to a Christian very long. He'll tell you a story. Here's
what I was. Here's what I was. Here's what
I am in Christ. Here's what I am by the grace
of God. Now the first thing I want you
to see is I want you to see the sinner before. He's the servant
of sin, that's what he said. You were the servant of sin. And I bet you, if you was to
tell the truth, some of you here today don't know what that means.
You don't know what it means to be the servant of sin. It's
not just an idle declaration. Paul said, he hath before proved,
this is the apostle of Christ, the highest office in the church,
one taught by Christ personally, was caught up to the third heaven
and Christ taught him these things. And he said, I have before proved
both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. All under sin. They're under
the judgment of it, the cursedness of it, the power of it, the deceit
of it, and the awful reality of it. What is sin? What is sin? We were the servants
of sin. Well, what's he talking about?
Does that mean we're all drunks? Crousing the town on Friday and
Saturday night, is that what he's talking about? Sin is a state of being. It's a state of being. It's a
nature. He said we were by nature, that's
what we were, and that's what we're talking about. What was
a man before God intervened? We were by nature children of
wrath, even as others, living out our days in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of our minds.
Sin is that which the believer is born in. We go astray, David
said, as soon as we be born, speaking lies. He said, in sin
did my mother conceive me. We're sinners. Sin is what we
are. And sin is what the unregenerate,
are you listening? Sin is what the unregenerate
calls normal. That's in. Normal. None righteous. No, not one. And for all the laws and ceremonies
and holy days and feast days and religion from its conception,
there's none righteous. None righteous. No, not one.
All the world has put on pedestals of all the popes and doctors
and reverends and bishops and priests and so on. They're non-righteous. Non-righteous. Adam's race is
void of righteousness. They don't even know what righteousness
is. They being ignorant, Paul said,
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted unto the righteousness of God. And there's none that understandeth.
Somebody said, well, it took me a while, but I finally figured
it out. No, sir, there's none that understand
you. God may reveal it to you. Might
do that. If he does, he'll do it while
you're doing exactly what you're doing here, while you're listening. And none that seeketh after God. Listen to what the scripture
says. I want to read you a few things. In John 6, 42, they said,
is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother
we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come unto
me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. at the last day. He has to be
taught of God. And all those taught of God come
to Christ. All come to Christ. They don't sit around trying
to figure things out. They hear. And God gives them
ears to hear. Natural man, if left to himself,
we're talking about what sin is, will self-destruct because
destruction and misery are in his ways. We are together, the
scripture said, become unprofitable. What's that mean? That means
you're good for nothing. That's what that means, good for nothing. Man is not aware of the simpleness
of his nature. He calls good evil and evil good. I'm quoting things to you from
scriptures. And then he says this about the
natural man, the sinner. He said, there is a way that
seemeth right unto a man. Millions all over the planet
are gathering in synagogues and churches and cathedrals and temples
this morning. Why? Because it seems right unto
them. That's why they're doing it. They all believe in their own
ways that they're all worshipping God. Whether they're speaking
in tongues or whatever, they all believe that they're worshipping
God. Why do they believe that? because it seems right unto them. Millions right now here in this
country are at home and earnestly striving to live
a good moral life and they feel as though God is pleased with
them because they do that. Why do they think that way? Because
it seems right unto them. He said, There is a way that
seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. Why? Because the way of peace
they have not known. Sin leaves a person easily deceived. And sometimes sin just leaves
a person to live what they think is a normal life. He gives them a satisfaction
with just being them. My mother was one of those. I
loved her dearly, but she was one of those. She said, I'm as
good as any of them hypocrites down there in that church. I
said, well, you may be better. Don't know. But that's not got
anything to do with how sinners are saved. Don't have anything to do with
it. Sometimes he just lets a person,
she did. She was good. Anybody she thought
needed something, she'd give it if it was a whatever. She'd give it to them. Just give
it to them. She was that way. But that's not righteousness.
That's not righteousness. And whether you know it or not,
sin is an invisible force. It's a nature that reigns over
you and causes you to do whatever it dictates to you, whatever
it can deceive you with. And you can't resist it because
you cannot see it. And even if you could, you wouldn't
condemn it because it feels right. Sin. Not as simple as people
think it is. They think that's stealing a
watermelon or something, you know. And I don't want these things
to, I'm not trying to flippantly talk about thievery as though
it wasn't a sin. It is a sin, but it's not sin. Sin is a nature. We steal because
we're sinners. And you can't resist it. It's
beyond your resistance. We say, I would never do what
Charles Manson did because God restrained you. Don't mistake God's restraint
for holiness. You do anything that any other
man or woman has ever done, you do it if God raised his restraining
hand from you. That's all he has to do. And then there's the religious
sin. Did you know under the law they had offerings for the sins
of their righteousness? The sins of the holy things,
he called it. And they had to offer a sacrifice
because they knew that there was sin in those things. There's religious sin. Men walk according to the prince
of the power of the air, believing things, doing things, singing
certain things, preaching certain things, praying certain things,
all the while sinning. The Pharisees said this. They
were religious people, zealous of God, self-righteous. They told the Lord, we'd be not
born of fornication. What they were saying was, we're
not Gentile dogs. We don't have a nature of sin. We don't sin like what you're
talking about. We'd be not born of fornication.
We have one father, even God. God's our father. And Jesus said
unto them, if God were your father, you'd love me. where I proceeded forth and come
from God. Oh, what's that leave? Well,
he tells in verse 44. John 8, 44, listen to this. Ye
are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you
will do. Sin is like a chameleon. When a chameleon gets on something,
he turns that color. He'll get a little pattern on
his back. You can't see him. Don't matter what he's on. He'll
get on a green leaf, he'll turn green. He gets on a brown leaf,
he turns brown. That's sin. It takes on the appearance
of the surroundings. And this is another thing about
sin. You look around and you say, well, this is just normal. Everybody's doing this. I used to tell my dad that. He'd
tell me I couldn't go somewhere because he knew it was going
to be trouble. Well, everybody's going. Does
that make it right? Oh, my. That's what we were. That's what we were. But when
God intervenes, he said, when God intervenes, there's
going to be a change. There's going to be a change. I'm told
is a turning. I'm going this way. And then
God does something for me. And now I'm going this way. I'm
not there yet. I wasn't to the end of sin yet. And when I turn and go this way,
I'm not to the end of this yet either. But I turned. I turned. When God intervenes,
these old things pass away. All these old inabilities, inability
to seek, inability to hear, all these inabilities are taken away
in Christ. Old things are passed away. We're
not left to a fallen mind and will, but made meet by our Heavenly
Father to be partakers of the inheritance of enlightened saints.
Once sin kept you from believing, blocked your path, left you ignorant,
filled you with lies. Now John said, you are of God,
little children, and you have overcome them, because greater
is he that's in you than he that's in the world. The spirit of the
living God has taken up his abode in us, and he's caused a new
birth and Christ is formed in you. That's what that new birth
is. A new birth ain't something you
can't detect. You can know if you be born of
God. Paul said that. He said unless
you be reprobate, you don't know that you been born of God. The new birth is Christ in you. That's what that is. It's Christ
in you. It's not this invisible force,
well I wasn't willing and now I'm willing. No, you're willing
in the day of his power. And the day of his power, you
read what it says over, I think it's Romans 1 16. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. When he reveals Christ in you,
now old things have passed away. All things have become new. Paul said to the Galatians, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. He liveth in me. Listen to our
Lord as he prays to the Father. He said, I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. You can't imagine that, can you?
God loves you just like he loves his son. And here's another one. When
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Now listen to this. And because
ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The only way you can see a sonship
is in Christ. The hope of glory is not some
willing force in you to want to do better, it's Christ in
you, the hope of glory. And to the troubled saints at
Galatia, Paul said, I travail in birth again, now listen, until
Christ be formed in you. It is the crucified, resurrected,
ascended Christ, the victorious Christ, Christ who manifested
the love of God and the grace of God to men. Christ is altogether
the incarnate mercy of God on poor sinners. He is the perfect
image of the true and living God and the surety of all God's
covenant promises. The reigning Christ whose rule
is set over Zion for their salvation. When he talked about putting
his king on his holy hill, he wasn't talking about a hill over
here. He wasn't talking about Genoa. He wasn't talking about
those Alps. He's talking about his church.
And I'm gonna put my king On the mount, on top of Zion, he's
the king. Is that just a name only? No,
he's king. He's king. Fact is, our Lord gave this little
story. He said they accused him of casting
out demons, being possessed by Satan. And he said, if Satan
divided against yourself, he can't stand. He said, I'll tell
you what's going on. He said, the strong man armed
keepeth his palace, and all his goods are at peace. The strong
man armed, that's Satan. And he's keeping you. He's keeping
all of his goods safe. He keeps them safe by building
this refuge in your mind. And you think you're safe and
saved and so on. And you're walking as though
you and God are just like this. And he said, it's safe until
one stronger than him comes along. And he takes his armor from him. And he takes his power from him.
And he sits up. He spoils his goods. He takes
over his palace. That's Christ in you. The new man is the God-man. It's his image projected in us
by faith, and as we grow in grace, we grow in knowledge of him.
We see what we want to be. We see what we are, secured in
Christ. We see what we are, promised
by God in all the accomplished work that he performed. With growing grace and knowledge
of the Son of God, Paul said, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God didn't reveal Christ to Paul,
he revealed Christ in Paul. And Paul said, that's what enabled
me to preach Christ. Believers are consumed with his
glory. I guess you could say they're
fanatics. That's what my sister said about me. He's a fanatic. They cannot and will not give
an inch. They cannot and will not compromise. They will go through the fire,
if that's where God puts them. They'll go through the fire.
They'll give themselves to His service. They'll spend the remainder
of their days longing to be like Him, anxious to be with Him,
and willing to serve Him. One morning, after a worship
service in a small southern church, the pastor asked one of his deacons
to pray at the end of the service. And after a few minutes of silence,
the man began to pray and he said, Lord, he said, I hate buttermilk. I don't like buttermilk. And
the pastor raised one eye up, kind of looked over to see what
was going on. And then after a short pause, the man continued,
and he said, Lord, I don't like flour much either. Now you got the pastor's attention.
He opened both eyes and looked at him, you know. And having
the full attention of the pastor, His head turned toward him and
the man again prayed and he said, and Lord, I'm not crazy about
Lord either. I don't like it. I just don't
like it. And just about that time, pastor's
ready to set him down. And then he said, but when you
mix them all together, I just love biscuits. I just love biscuits. And so
it is, Lord, he continued to pray with many of the doctrines
that are taught, but when they're properly mixed, as we've heard
this morning in Christ, they perfectly fit my appetite. I
love biscuits. I love biscuits. Amen. That's what we do when we labor
to preach. I want you to see these doctrines
as they relate to Christ and as they relate to you. Oh, my. Needy sinners, hungry
sinners, bankrupt sinners, dying sinners, hopeless sinners find
all they need in Christ. That's all they need. And in
the Scriptures, our Lord shows us a diversity of sinners. He tells us something about these
sinners. They're blind sinners, dead sinners, demon-possessed
sinners, lame sinners, halt sinners, paralyzed sinners, Leprosy covered
sinners. Sinners with an issue of blood
and palsied sinners. And they all had two things in
common. They all learned that they were sinners. And they all
found the cure in Christ. Before conversion, we were the
servants of sin. Sinners by birth, by choice,
and by nature. No intervention, no grace that
we could Detect? Oh, but God be thanked, he said,
you were the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then
made free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. Now I can worship God and even
though sin's mixed with it, It's made pure by the blood of Christ.
It's made pure through His intercessory prayers. It's made pure through
that righteousness imputed to me by faith. And He accepts it. He accepts it. And the same thing
with my faith, the same thing with my giving, the same thing
with everything. It's all mixed with sin because
that's what we are, sinners. But Peter said he makes these
things acceptable through the Lord Jesus Christ. All right,
thank you.