My text this morning will be
taken from the book of Romans, Romans chapter six, verses 17
and 18. Now the subject of Romans six
is an answer to a charge often made against the apostle Paul.
I know it was often made, for he often answered it. in many
of his epistles to the churches. And this charge has been repeated
throughout the ages against all those who would preach the sovereign
grace of God in the salvation of sinners. No single book of
the Bible is more clear on the grace of God and salvation than
the book of Romans. The book of Romans. He tells
us in Romans 3 24 that we are justified freely by His grace. We're going to stand before God
completely justified. Not because of anything we did. but we were justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus whom God
sent forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. Secondly, he tells us in chapter
four that this salvation is of faith that it might be of grace. That's why it's of faith. that
it might be of grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed. In chapter five he tells us that
as sin hath reigned unto death, it entered by one man, death
came. By one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. And
he concludes this chapter saying that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And then in Romans chapter 11,
he tells us that we've been like Sodom and Gomorrah, but God reserved
a remnant. and that remnant according to
the election of his grace. Election is by the grace of God. And then he closes the book of
Romans with this prayer. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. Salvation is by the free
grace of God in Christ. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. God, for that great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Can I say, let that be established?
Those of you who have been coming here for a while know that this
is established in the word of God. Salvation, 100% by the grace
of God. And all those who preach this
gracious gospel will be charged with this accusation that if
salvation is by grace, 100% by grace, then those who are saved
are free to sin. They've got nothing to constrain
them. Nothing to constrain them. They're
not under the law, they're under grace. Nothing to hold them in
line, nothing to force them to walk the line. And to this accusation, he tells
us in Romans 6-2, God forbid. God forbid. How shall we who
are dead to sin live any longer therein. God is not the author
of sin. God does not excuse sin or wink
at sin. He does not promote sin and he
does not encourage his people to sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And there's no part of the salvation
of sinners that encourages him to continue in sin. Now I've
got four things in verses 17 and 18 that I believe will be
a help to you in understanding the believer's relationship to
God and the work which God has done for him and is now doing
in him. Here's the first thing. Salvation
is the work of God. It's not your work. You can't
do it. With men, it is impossible. That's what the Lord said. His
disciples said, who then can be saved? If this man who has
demonstrated such a straight walk, if he can't be saved, who
then can be saved? The Lord said, with men, It's
impossible. You can't do it. Salvation's
the work of God. It's the work of God. Religion has an impotent God.
What do you mean by that, Pastor? Well, he's got no eternal purpose.
He just reacts to things that happen in time. Got no control
over anything. Evolution's in control and Mother
Nature. Things just happen. They just
happen. He has no eternal purpose. He
leans on the powers of nature and evolution and his creation
and he's helpless to save sinners without their assistance. And without their cooperation.
But not with the true and living God. Now let me tell you something. We don't know anything at all
about the living God except what he's been pleased to reveal to
us in his son. Now that's just so. We think we do. I used to run
around as a kid because I was raised in church and raised around
religious men. I used to run around thinking
I knew God, knew something about God. I didn't know God from a
billy goat. The only thing we know about God is what God has
revealed to us, and that whole revelation is tied up in His
Son. He begins this revelation by
declaring to us His eternal purpose of grace. Creation is not an experiment
gone wrong, that's what men would have you believe. It's brought into existence to
manifest the glory of God in salvation. Did you know that
creation was created by the Savior? Huh? That ought to tell us something.
Abstract God, God in the Trinity, God as He is eternal God, did
not create, but He committed that creation unto His Son. In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God and everything created was created by Him and nothing
was created without Him. Nothing. He's God. But He's the
Redeemer. He's the Mediator. He begins his revelation by declaring
to us his eternal purpose of grace. He created this universe through
a mediator. John the Apostle tells us that
in John chapter 1. And Paul writes to the Colossians
and he tells them this. By him were all things created
that are in heaven. and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by him and for him. These things created were not
just created and set into motion and some natural laws created
with them and everything left to evolution and chance. They
were created for him. What's so unique about that?
He's the savior. He's the revelation of God. He
is the one through whom God will reveal himself. And that's what
creation is all about. And creation today being still
being maintained by God. Creation today waiteth, it says,
upon the manifestation of the sons of God. It's still waiting
till that eternal purpose be fulfilled. And I'll tell you
this, when the last saint's taken out, this creation is gone. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
creator of the universe. He is the firstborn of all creation. And he's the head of the body,
the church. The same one. The same one. I brought a message up in Virginia
a few years back. The title of it was, there is
a beginning before the beginning. And that beginning is the eternal
purpose of God in Christ Jesus. All spiritual blessings which
God ordained before the foundation of the world were according as
he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
All of God's sons were predestinated unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
And all those who in time obtain this inheritance find themselves
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And our text
here in Romans 6 verse 17 says, but God be thanked. And he is by every man he saves. God be thanked. Salvation is the work of God.
And it began in eternity past by the appointment of a mediator. The dictionary said a mediator
is one who serves an intermediary to reconcile differences. And
there's one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ
Jesus. That's it. He'll make the peace
or there won't be any peace. I get so tired of hearing men,
religious men, talking about having made their peace. If you
offered yourself on a stake and burnt yourself, you couldn't
appease God. You couldn't make peace with
God. To accomplish this mediation,
Christ must take to himself the form of a man. He must be made flesh, made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them who are under the
law. Why? That they might receive the adoption
of sons. And Paul tells us in Romans 6
through 6 how our salvation was accomplished. It was by our eternal
union, our covenant union with the Son of God. When He came
into this world and was made a man, that's us in that body. His whole church was in that
body lying in that manger. His whole church was in that
body when he was baptized. That whole church was in his
body as he walked under that law in strict obedience. His whole church was in him when
they judged him and nailed him to the cross. And his whole church
was in him when God raised him from the dead and seated him
at his right hand. We're saved by an eternal covenant
union. God put us in Christ. Your life
is hid with God in Christ. Isn't that what scripture says?
Who hid it there? God did. God did. And the man who knows that, thanks
God. God be thanked. You see what
Paul's saying here? God be thanked. And God is to be thanked for
his accomplishing of our salvation in Christ. God has saved us,
Paul said. Saved us. That's hard to say, isn't it?
Because you know what you are. You know what you think. You
know all your inabilities. It's hard to say, God has saved
me. But that Paul did. He said, Timothy,
God has saved us. And then he called us, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Jesus Christ came into this world
as God's eternal mediator to accomplish his redemptive will.
And by the witch will, Paul said, we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He said,
here's what the Lord said when he came into this world. I come
to do thy will, O God. Isn't that what he did? How do we know that? Because
it's written in the volume of the book. That's why. And then thirdly, God is to be
thanked for coming to us in regeneration, creating faith and repentance
in us. I want you to listen to this
scripture very closely. Christ was made of a woman and
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
that, what's that mean? That means in order that we might
receive the adoption of sons and because we are sons God has
sent forth the spirit of his sons into our hearts. And we
cry, Abba, Father. Huh? That's right. Every man, woman, boy, and girl
whom God predestinated under the adoption of children in Christ
shall hear his gospel. And by the power of God's spirit
shall be enabled to become the sons of God. He made me made
meet to be among the saints in light, or the enlightened saints.
He partakes of his inheritance with enlightened saints. All
right, now go back to our text in Romans 6, 17. God be thanked,
and he is, by all who believe on him, he is. And here's the
second thing. He said you were the servants
of sin, You know that, right? Everything you did, everything
you thought, everything you prayed, everything you preached, you
were the servant of sin. As in Adam, the scripture said,
all die. Sin entered and death passed.
And you can explain it away if you like. But the truth of the
matter is that we're all by nature the children of wrath, even as
others before our regeneration. We have in us, Paul said, the
sentence of death. And we all manifest it. We all
demonstrated it. And we prove it to be so every
day of our lives. Paul the Apostle, even after
conversion, he says this when he looks at himself and he said,
the good that I would, I don't do. And the evil that I wouldn't
do, that's what I do. It ekes out of me. And as much as I want to suppress
it, it still comes out. And finally he cried, oh, wretched
man. Huh? You know anything about
that? Y'all ever showed you what you
were? Like looking into a live sepia
tank. You can't look at it. You can't
bear the smell. Oh, wretched man that I am. How am I gonna get out of this?
I ain't what he said. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So then with the flesh, I serve
the law of sin. Can't help it. But with the mind,
with the mind, I serve Christ. That is, I walk by faith. If God has done a work in you
showing what he has done for you, then by reason of your experience
of grace, you must know something about your sin. Sin is in our
nature. It's in our minds and affections
and deeds. And he tells us in Romans 3,
13 through 18, that our throat is like looking into an open
grave. The poison of Asp is under our
lips. Our mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. Our feet are swift as shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in our way. And no fear of God before
our eyes. Carnal mind, he said, is enmity
against God. It won't submit to the truth
of God, to the light of God, to the way of God, or to the
law of God. And it can't be. It can't be
brought into subjection. So wicked and evil is natural
man that he will not receive the things of the Spirit of God
because of their foolishness unto him. You were the servants of sin,
Paul said. Sin dictated everything you thought
and did. That's what you were. Now watch
this. Here's the third thing, Romans
6, 17. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. Let me show you this in just
a couple of scriptures. In 1 John 4 verse 4, it says,
ye are of God, little children. You're of his election. You're
of his provision, his redemption, his regeneration. You are of
God, little children, and have overcome them, these false prophets,
this anti-Christ religion. You've overcome them. That spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, you have overcome them because
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Now question is, is he in you? We know what we were. We were
by nature children of wrath. We were the servants of sin.
But God did a work. He did a work. He sent his gospel
and his spirit and in power he regenerated us. And we become new creatures in
Christ. He gave us a heart of flesh,
a heart to feel, a heart and a mind to acknowledge. You know the scripture said that
it's never entered into the heart of man the things that God has
prepared for them that love him. Never had, never entered in.
But God revealed them unto us by spirit. by spirit. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. They, these false prophets are
of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the world
heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. That's how we know a man's sin
of God, when God opens your heart and mind to believe. And you
can hear that man speak, where the rest of the world not hearing
him, but you're hearing. There's some here this morning,
I'm preaching, I'm raising my voice, but you're not hearing
me. But there's some here that's hearing me. Why? Because greater is he that's
in you than he that's in the world. This thing of salvation is not
just adapting a new school of thought. It's not just receiving
a point of doctrine. It's a new creation. We must be born again, he said. We must be. God is to be thanked because
we were the servants of sin, but we've obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered us. Now let me tell
you something here about these last four words that I just read,
which was delivered you. Most of what I get in the mail
is from me personally. I don't go down there expecting
to get a letter from Sister Alice. I go down there. I'm looking
for things with my name on it. And I open that little box down
at the post office, and I look in there, and here's a stack
of things. I get them out. Now, most of them got my name
on it. It contains, within these things
in this box, it contains my personal information or personal instruction
and it comes to my P.O. box and it's delivered to me. To me. Paul is telling us here
that that form of doctrine, that doctrine of Christ was delivered
to me. And when it was opened to me,
I found my name on it. I found my name on it. Well,
you say, I don't understand that. It said sinner. This is a fateful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to die for sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm to. Think not that
I come to call the righteous. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. You ever found your name on it?
On the gospel of God's sovereign grace? It's delivered to you
and you find your name on it. I'm the sinner. He's talking
to me. The Romans, those believers there
in Rome, had their names written in this letter. They were the
servants of sin. But you say, this is not how
God saved me. Then God may not have saved you.
You ever think about that? Might not be God who saved you
at all. Because he said to these precious
gifts that they come from him in whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Who of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. You're not saved that way. It
could just be that you're not saved at all. Oh, here's what happened. God
sent you who were actively engaged as a servant of sin, the gospel. And as this man set forth the
doctrine of Christ, you found yourself convinced of the truth. That man is telling me the truth. I understand it. I see it in
the Word of God. I'm convinced of it. Now watch
this. Here's the fourth thing. Being
then made free from sin, you become what? The servants of
righteousness. Not self-righteousness. Not the righteousness of the
law. Many people preach all through
Romans chapter 6 and then they talk about after this conversion
you're empowered to keep the law. That's not what he's saying
here. Being then made free from sin
you become the servants of righteousness, bond slaves of Christ. Christ said you're free to go.
You say I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I love my
master. I'm going to stay. All right, stand here by the
door. I'm going to take the oar and
I'm going to bore you here. You're free to go, but you're
determined to stay. Huh? He turned to his disciples and
he said, will you go also? And they said, to whom shall
we go? You've got the words of eternal life. You're free to
go. Free to go. I don't like it here. The door opens both ways. Leave. You're free to go. But by the grace of God, believers
are determined not to go. They want to stay. They want
to hear. They want to live. And what's more than that is
that we were Born of God, we've got a new nature and a new understanding,
and we see our sin in the light of God's love and goodness and
in the light of his justice and righteousness. And we see it
in the light of our dying substitute. We see the old man, that old
nature, crucified with Christ, buried in shame and contempt,
and we see God's just and righteous judgment of the sinner, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. Here's the end of the center. Let me give you a little illustration.
Suppose you had a friend that you knew as far back as your
memory could take you. You were as close as two people
could get. I mean, you were just like that. You thought alike. You had so
much common ground that you were like one person. And you and
your friend grew up together, side by side. Everywhere he went,
you went. His friends were your friends.
You trusted him. You shared intimate secrets with
him. When you needed advice, he was
always there to give it. And you were willing to trust
him. and trust him with your own life. But then one day, a
man brought you the truth about your friend with undeniable proof. And he showed you that your friend
was an habitual liar. You can't hardly believe it.
He was a liar from the beginning. He was never your friend. but
just pretended to be your friend for his own gain. There's never any love and never
any loyalty on his part. And suppose you found out that
this old friend that you thought you knew so well had sold you
out over the years. Just told you what he thought
you wanted to hear. Would you still seek his company? Huh? Would you still cultivate his
friendship? Would you still follow his counsel? Would you still value his company? When God saves the sinner, he
makes him fully aware of what he is. what he is. And he no longer looks to himself
for advice. You see what I'm saying? He no longer wants to walk by
those old feelings. Rather he looks to Christ and
he looks to the Word of God and he's led by the Spirit. Those
who are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. And they that are after the flesh,
they mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. They quit talking like this.
Well, it seems to me, no, I know what that old man is, and I don't
want to walk with him anymore. I want to walk with Christ. People who live with this charge
that God's people are free to sin have never been born of God
and they don't know that old man. They are still like one with
the flesh. To be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And so Paul
says, being then made free from sin, you become the servants
of righteousness. And I say again, not self-righteousness,
not a righteousness which one acquires from obedience to the
law. He said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. But the righteousness
of Christ, which we have received by faith and which leaves us
in a state of gratitude and love. And that's how we walk now. We
walk in love and gratitude to him. So when men tell you, well,
I know what you're preaching. You're preaching a license to
sin. Now you understand why they say
such things. And here's the only answer there
is, God forbid. And if he don't, you will. you'll
serve sin, and you'll keep on serving sin. But God said, you're
not gonna serve sin anymore. And he arrests the sinner, and
that's what repentance is. He turns him from himself, and
turns him from this world, and turns him from his old religion,
and points him to Christ. Being made free from sin, we
become the servants of righteousness. May God give everyone here an
understanding of what I just said. Thank you.