You'll turn back with me now
to Romans chapter 6. I was asked earlier in the week
by one of our men if I would please do a little bit of a commentary
on Romans chapter 6. So just put your marker right
there. And I'm going to spend most of
my time in the five books leading up to Chapter 6, because without
an understanding of that, Romans Chapter 6 is just not going to
make any sense at all. You have to read Romans 1, 2,
3, 4, and 5. Now in Romans 1-3, actually in
chapters 1-3, Paul declares the awful condition of man. That's where he starts. That's
where the Gospel begins. I don't have anything to say
to a man that can help him until God enlightens him to his condition,
until he becomes aware of what he is and who he is and what
kind of shape he's in, all the rest of these things are just
meaningless to him. They're just points of doctrine
and things to debate about and so on until God makes him to
understand that he's a sinner. That he's a sinner. And in Romans
chapter 1 all the way through chapter 3, Paul declares the
awful condition of man. If left to himself, he tells
us in chapter 1. If left to himself, he'll sink
into the lowest forms of idolatry and moral perversion. If God
lifts his hand from him, he'll sink into the lowest forms of
idolatry. He'll worship a man. Or he'll
worship a bird or a four-footed beast or even creeping things.
He'll just sink lower and lower. The more God lifts his hand from
him, the lower he goes. In chapter 1, he tells us of
God's judgments upon their idolatry. And these judgments are not in
the form of a plague or disaster, but in giving them over to their
selves. The worst thing God can do to
you in this day is to leave you alone. Just leave you alone. Just lift His hand of mercy from
you altogether. Take His restraining hand away
from you. And turn you over to yourself.
When He turned these men over to themselves, they began to
dishonor their bodies among one another. They began to worship
frogs and snakes Four-footed beasts. We're studying back in
Exodus. Moses went up to get the log
before he could get back down in just a little over a month.
He came back down. Here they are singing at the
top of their lungs, naked, dancing around a golden calf. And they're
making so much racket that Joshua, when he came down, said, they're
under attack. There's a war going on. Moses
said, that ain't the sound of war. He said, that's the sound
of singing. Even the heathen knows God by
creation and conscience. But it said when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened
and professing themselves to be wise, they become fools and
change the glory of the incorruptible God into images. like unto man,
and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore,
God also gave them up to uncleanness. They changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than
the Creator, who is blessed forever. And for this cause, God gave
them up to vile affection. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled
with all unrighteousness. Now listen to this. Being filled. He didn't say there was some
unrighteousness among them. He said being filled. That's
the state of man. He's filled with unrighteousness. fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy and murder and debate, deceit, malignity,
whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. These are the things which come
out of the hearts. of a natural man. That's what
he is. That's who he is. Well, you say,
I don't know anybody like that. That's because God's restraining
hand is upon me. And when He lifts His hand, you'll
find out what's in a man. Just let God take the circumstances
away that's been restraining him from doing something. Let
Him give him the opportunities. You'll find out what he's all
about. Put him in the situation. You'll find out. And when these things are not
found, it's owing to the restraining hand of God, not the fruits of
man's nature. If God leaves him to himself,
he'll sink into the lowest forms of idolatry and moral perversion. And then religion, worldly religion,
false religion, has no power to help a natural man. If left
to himself, the greatest of advantages are not going to do him any good.
The greatest of the advantages won't do him any good. In Romans
3, Paul asked this question in verse 9. He said, what then? Now, if you read the first part
of Romans 3, you'll find out that he said the Jews had great
advantage. What did they have? Well, they
had the covenants. They had the types. They had the Scriptures.
They had every advantage. They had the oracles of God,
the spoken Word of God. And for all of our advantages,
and our fathers, and the prophets, and the Word of God, the types,
the law, the priesthood, are we better than the heathen? Now
listen to what he says. No, and no wives. Why? For we have before proved,
both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin. They are all under sin. In John
chapter 5, our Lord said to those who were master theologians and
doctors of the law, whose job included hand transcribing the
Scriptures, He said, you search the Scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me, but you won't come to me that you might have life.
For all those advantages, you take the Bible and hand it to
a natural man and tell him to read it and study it, he'll come
away an idolater. That's what he'll get out of
it. He'll come away self-righteous. He'll come away pretending to
speak in tongues. He'll come away with all kinds
of oddities. But he won't come to Christ that
he might be saved. For all the great advantages
God showed to the Jews, yet they knew not the Savior and had no
knowledge of the true and living God. Why? Because all mankind
fell in their father Adam and were all under sin. His nature
is that of a beast. When God convicted David of his
sin, he confessed his sin before God from his heart. And he said,
I was as a beast before thee. When God convicted old Nebuchadnezzar,
and revealed to him his sin. How did he reveal it to him?
As a beast. He let him go out and eat grass
as a beast to learn what he was before God. His throat, Paul
said in Romans 3, is like an open grave. What's that saying? That's saying if you could look
down his throat into his heart, all you'd see is just dead men's
bones. Just death and corruption. His
throat is an open grave. His tongue is full of deceit.
The poison of ash is under his lips. His mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. His feet are swift as head blood.
Destruction and misery are in his ways, and there is no fear
of God before his eyes. There are none righteous, and
there are none that doeth any good. There are none that understandeth,
and therefore there are none that seeketh after God. They're
all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. And we are, according to the
Word of God, natural man is absolutely, totally depraved. He can't do
anything for himself. Nothing for himself. He's dead
in trespasses and sins. He's like those dead, dry bones
that the prophet was taken out and shown. By one man, he tells us, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men, spiritual death. For all have sinned. And therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight." Why? Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Man left to himself is helpless,
hopeless, and doomed. And then in the latter part of
chapter 3, and all the way through chapter 5, Paul sets before us
the only hope for depraved sinners, the free and sovereign grace
of God in Christ. Suppose God had not appointed
a Savior for man. Suppose He had not appointed
a mediator or king. Then He would have destroyed
all mankind in the garden. There'd be no point to go on.
What would be the point of going on? There's no hope in man. The hope
was in the promised seed that he gave to the woman. In Romans 3, verse 24, after
going through all of these things and proving through the Scriptures,
proving that's all a believer needs is the Word of God. And
Paul went through the Word of God, and he preached to those
people the condition of man he declared to them. He proved to
them that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. Now, he said,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God hath sent forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. All throughout that Old Testament. Now you remember,
there wasn't a New Testament yet. The New Testament was being
written. But it wasn't written yet. And
what he's talking about here is the sins of all those Old
Testament saints through the forbearance of God. And Christ
was set forth back then. He's set forth in the sacrifices.
He set forth there on that brazen altar. He set forth in that labor,
that labor of cleansing. He set forth in that mercy seat. And all those things of the ark
testify of Christ. And these things were done to
declare, he says in verse 26, to declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be just and justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus. If there were any potential in
man, any possibility of him to reform or reconcile himself to
God, Jesus Christ would not have had to appear in this world as
a man, become a servant under the law of God, and go to that
cross and die such a death as he died. If man could do it himself,
what would be the point of God submitting his son to such agonies
and such grief? Paul said, if righteousness,
and that's what we're lacking, that's what the sinner needs,
a righteousness before God. If righteousness come by the
law, come by your obedience to the law, to the Ten Commandments
or to the ceremonial law, you take it any way you want to.
If righteousness come by the law, Christ died in vain. He died in vain. Jesus Christ
came into this world to save sinners. He came here to manifest
the mercy and free grace of God in a people chosen of God in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And all those for
whom Christ came to redeem, all those given to Him by the Father,
shall be given the effectual presence and power of the Holy
Spirit, causing them to hear the Gospel, causing them to trust
in Christ, and causing them to walk in newness of life. Romans
chapter 5 verse 17, For if by one man's offense death reigned
by him, much more they which receive abundance of grace and
of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ. Just as that sinner could do
nothing but sin, And sin reigned. It reigned over everything he
did. It reigned over his thoughts. It reigned over his motives.
It reigned over his reasoning. It reigned over his will. In
the same way that sin reigns, Christ reigns. Grace reigns. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, Romans 5.18, judgment came upon all men, all that were
represented in Adam, came to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men, all those
represented in Christ unto justification of life. For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." Now listen to this, "...that as sin hath
reigned unto death, Reigned in His nature and His mind and His
will, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation is all of God, and
it's all of grace. He said, God hath saved us. God
did it. We didn't do it. God has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began and manifested in
His glorious appearance and brought to light in chosen sinners by
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Until in the power of God's Spirit
we are made to take our place with the damned, we cannot take
our place with those who are blessed by the Father in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now, let me tell you something. I don't care what the religion
is that's on the sign out front. They all deny two things. They
deny the total depravity of man. You're not going to get them
to own up to it. They're not going to take their place with
Adam in the fall. They're not going to do it. They'll
say he's wounded. They'll paint man in a bad way.
But they'll never tell you he's dead. You're not going to get
them on up to it. No way, shape, or form. I don't
care how many scriptures you quote, how many places you take
them and show it to, only God can convince a man of what he
is and what his condition is. And that's where he begins. That's
where the work begins. And until in the power of God's
Spirit we're made to take our place with the damned, we can't
take our place with those blessed by the Father. And I don't care
what it is. They're going to deny this total
depravity of man, and they're going to deny this, the free
and sovereign grace of God. Now, they'll try to paint grace
as a reward. But if grace is a reward, it's
not grace, is it? It's a work then. Now it's a
work. It's not grace. You can't touch
grace. Grace stands on its own. The minute you mix a work in
with grace, it becomes work altogether. The minute you take grace and
stake grace, that's what it is. It's the free gift of God. It's
all of God. It's all of grace. And you can't
preach works in any form and not deny man's total inability. If you preach works concerning
man's salvation, you deny the total depravity of man. You deny
the Word of God. And you can't preach free will
and not deny the total depravity of man. He's either under sin,
as Paul said he was, He's a captive. Christ said He
came to set the captives free. Well, man is not a captive if
he has a free will, is he? He's free. He isn't captive.
And if you deny this, you breach of work salvation
of any kind. You totally deny the grace of
God. For if it be of grace, it's no
more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. And it's an absolute absurdity
to believe man can save himself. It's an absurdity. Once you learn
what salvation is, all of these things that used to seem to be
an argument are not arguments anymore. They're just totally
absurd. He can't appropriate a Savior for himself. How could
he do that anyway? The Savior was appropriated before
the world began. You can't appropriate for yourself
a Savior. Oh, I'll just make Jesus Christ
my Lord. You can't. God's already made
Him Lord. He was Lord from the beginning.
We're talking about God coming into the flesh. Not a little piece of God. God
come into the flesh. Man can't appropriate a Savior
for himself. He can't justify himself. It's
God who justifies. You justify all day long, it
doesn't carry any weight. God who justifies. You can't birth yourself, can
you? I got tickled one day listening
to a Baptist deacon, I guess he was. I was working with him
on a job. I said, tell me what you know
about the new birth. And he said, well, man comes
down to hell at the end of the message and accepts Jesus as
his personal Savior and he's born again. Man can't birth himself. He can't
birth himself. He can't change his nature. He
can't raise himself from the dead. He can't preserve himself. He can't ascend unto heaven.
He can't put on incorruption. How are you going to put on incorruption?
You can't do it. He cannot cause himself to be
a partaker of the divine nature. And any man, any woman still
engaged in trying to save themselves are yet in their sin, and they
know nothing of the saving grace of God in Christ. A saved man
is a new creature. You look that word up, it means
creation. He's a new creation. in Christ. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things are become new. Old principles don't apply
anymore. Old reasoning is baseless and
useless. Old ideas and old customs and
old professions. A man was telling me one day,
he was telling me a story. I've heard them from all kinds
of religions. This particular one happened to be a Catholic.
I worked with him a lot, really liked him. But he was telling
me this story and he said, he was talking about a Baptist preacher
he'd listened to coming down to the farm to work. And he said
this, he was telling about a, because this man was a Jew, that
God was going to send him to hell because the Jews had rejected
Christ. And so on. And he said, do you
really think that God... He said, let's say there's a
good little Baptist boy and a good little Catholic boy and a good
little Jewish boy. He said, do you really believe
God's going to send the Catholic boy and the Jewish boy to hell
because they're Catholic and Jewish? And I said, I don't believe
God's going to send anybody good to hell. But I said, the problem
is there's none good. There's none good. You see what I'm saying? Old
things have passed away. All these things that we used
to read, they're gone. They're gone. We're not in darkness
anymore. We're in light. We're children
of light. We're the saints in light. We've
been enlightened of God and we see the truth. We know the truth.
Don't walk in darkness anymore. That old reasoning is baseless
and useless. Old ideas, old customs and old
professions, they've all been exposed. They're just not a part
of the equation anymore. And because we're new creatures
in Christ, nobody understands what we preach or how we live. Listen to this scripture in 1
Corinthians 2. It said, he that is spiritual
understandeth all things, yet he himself is understood of no
man. Isn't that true? That's absolutely
true. And for this reason, Paul and
the rest of the apostles were always being accused of preaching
a gospel which gave men a motive and a right to sin. In Romans 3, verse 8, he said,
we'd be slanderously reported. And others affirm that we say,
let us do evil that good may come. Godliness in the believer's
walk in this world necessitates a work of God in him. That's
what I've been working up to. It necessitates a work of God
in him. Redemption is the work of God
for him. When the Holy Spirit comes revealing
the truth to him and filling him with light and revelation,
this is a work of God in him. And it's just as necessary as
that work of God for him. He doesn't begin in the Spirit
and then look to the flesh for his sanctification. Paul deals
with that in Galatians. Rather, we find him who begins
the work to be sufficient to finish the work. Now, having
said all these things, Paul out now asks in Romans 6, verse 1,
for the conclusion of the matter. You can read in different versions
of the Bible, and he said, what shall we say then? Other versions
read it this way. So now then, what is the conclusion? What's the conclusion of all
these things? If salvation is by grace alone and not owing
to any works of man whatever, shall we continue in sin then
that grace may abound? Shall we continue on the broad
road? Continue on after the prince
of the power of the air? That's where the natural man
was. Shall we continue on living in greed and covetousness? Shall
we retain our old companies and habits? Shall we continue on
in our old speech? Shall we go on without any visible
Outward change at all? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Are you listening? God forbid. Who does? God forbid. God forbid. God's not going to
have that. He's not going to have that.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Let me see if I can give you
a little illustration to get us started here. Suppose we had
someone that we'd known all our lives. We grew up with them. We played together when we were
kids. We went to school together. We lived close to one another
all our lives. Someone we'd come to trust. Someone
we'd look to for counsel and advice. And then one day, We're
sitting there in the yard together talking and the law shows up. And the law comes and gets him
by the car and drags him out in the yard and puts his hands
behind his back and puts the cuffs on him and roughly takes
him out and puts him in the back seat of the cruiser and drives
off. Arrested. Took him away. Turns
out he was a pervert. Turns out he was a thief and
a robber. He was an extortioner and a liar. He'd been using you all your
life. Using you to his own advantage.
He used you to get to your children. And he used you to get to his
friends. Turns out he was the most despicable
man you ever knew. And knowing him now, for what
he is, knowing him as he's been exposed, would you still want
his advice? Huh? Would you go down there
and ask him what to invest your money in? Would you still rely
on his judgments? Will you still cultivate his
friendship? Brethren, this is how the grace
of God reigns in the hearts of men. It exposes you, the old
man, for what you are. And I'll tell you this, when
you know it, you're going to quit looking to yourself for
advice. Huh? Because you've been exposed.
You've been exposed. Listen to the Scripture. Romans
chapter 8 verse 1. Now, all through chapter 7, Paul
says there's a law out here and it declares this, but I'm carnal,
I'm sold unto sin, I can't do what it tells me to do. All down
through. Who's going to deliver me? Oh,
wretched man that I am. Who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? Who's going to take this old
man? Who's going to govern this old man? How am I going to live? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now listen, here it goes, Romans
chapter 8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, now watch this, who walk not
after the flesh. Why don't we walk after the flesh?
Because we know what the flesh is about. We know what that flesh
has done to us. We know that it has lied, it
has manipulated, We know it for what it is. And we walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free
from the law of sin and death. Now watch this. For what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh." You see, the believer does not
see his death in Christ as merely a point of law and doctrine,
but he sees what he is before God in Christ on the cross. Condemned. This is our substitute. This is us in this man before
God. And we look at ourselves in him
and we see ourselves condemned and dying under the wrath of
God. We see what we are before God.
He sees all His righteousness and all His goodness and all
His religion and all His intentions and ideas and His nature and
His mind and heart forsaken, despised and dying under the
wrath of God. Now watch this, back here in
verse 3, Romans chapter 6. Know you not that so many of
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His
death? What's that talking about? That's
talking about being identified with Him in His death. Don't
you know that? Isn't that what you did when
you went under the water? Weren't you identified with Christ
in His death? Have willingly, willfully took
our place with Him under the judgment of God. Verse 4, Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. That is, we see ourselves
raised from the dead in him, see our sins taken away, taken
away, dead to see. When Christ was raised from the
dead, it was not so He could die again and again and again.
He came out of that tomb in perfect, sinless justification, having
fully satisfied the law and the justice of God, and having a
perfect righteousness brought out for His people. This is the
mind of Christ and the principle of grace by which we walk. Every
old principle has been exposed and the grace of God established
in the heart. Paul tells us over in Colossians,
when Christ died, he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way and nailed it to his cross. And in so doing, he spoiled
principalities and powers who used those things to deceive
us. and made an open show of them and triumphed over all. And then in chapter 3, verse
1, he said, If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of
God. Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth,
because you're dead. You're dead. How am I dead? I died in hell. I died in hell. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Watch this now, Romans 6, verse
14. For sin shall not have dominion over you. It didn't say it might
have dominion, it said it shall not. It said it shall not. For ye are not under law, but
under grace." Now, brethren, listen to me. If the grace you have doesn't
reign, you don't have His grace. That's what this is saying. This
grace reigns. It reigns. It's effectual. It's
effectual. Grace is how the Father sanctified
us in eternal election before the world began. Grace is how
our Savior came into all His appointments for us. Grace is
what came down with Christ in His incarnation as a man. Grace
is how our redemption was accomplished. And grace is how we are made
meat to be heirs together with the saints in life. And if grace
doesn't reign in your heart, you don't have the grace of God.
Sin shall not, isn't that what he says here? Shall not have
dominion. That don't mean that you're going
to be sinless. That means sin don't reign. That's
what it means. It don't reign. Verse 15, what then? Shall we
sin because we're not under law but under grace? God forbid.
Know ye not that 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? Salvation, our Lord said, begins
with the conquering of the strong man. Isn't that what our Lord
said in His parable? He said, there's a strong man
armed that keepeth his house. That's Satan. He's armed. I hear these silly preachers
come out of him and pointing at me. He'll laugh at you. He'll laugh at you. Satan's a
powerful, powerful enemy, powerful enemy. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. And salvation begins with the
conquering of the old man. He must be overturned in his
possession of the house. And when the strong man's arm
is overcome by a stronger than he, that's Christ, then his goods
are going to be spoiled. So what's the conclusion? Here
it is, verse 17. But God be thanked. You were
the servants of sin. Paul has already proved that. He has already showed it to us.
He has defined it to us. I don't know what else I could
say to you this morning from the Word of God to convince you
that you are a sinner. You were the servants of sin,
but you have obeyed, now listen, from the heart. Now it begins
in the head. It comes through the head. But
if that's all the farther it gets, it's not going to rain.
It has to go to the heart. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was preached to you, delivered to
you of God. Being then made free from sin,
you become the servants of righteousness. May God make it so in every heart
here this morning.