Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
You'd be turning to Romans chapter 6. I'll make the same lament that
Brother Pruitt did last evening. If Gene Harman covered all the
Bible, I don't know what you're going to say about Tom Hardy. Thank you, brother. Put me in
a bind. And one other thing I must say
to this congregation, your hospitality is far beyond that of men and women who know not the Lord Jesus. My subject this morning comes
out of Romans chapter 6 and verse 14. There are three simple declarations
or phrases in this one verse of scripture, and I've tried to get a handle on these declarations, and all
I can muster is just a list of scriptures. But if you and I can enter into
what is being said in this verse, 14, we shall have grown in grace
immensely For sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why? Because you are not under
the law, but under grace. Now you tell me, if a man is
under the law, what must be said of him from this one statement
of scripture. It says, sin shall have the dominion
over you. Now there's no alternative. There's
nothing in between those two things. You can't have half of
one and half of the other. Now let me quickly read this
passage. Brother Fortin, you just ring
the bell if I get too long. Beginning at verse 12. And hang on to Romans 6 no matter
what I ask you to turn to, and if you don't want to turn, you
don't have to. So it won't bother me a bit. Let not sin, therefore,
reign, catch that word, reign, in your mortal body, that you
should obey it in the lust thereof. Now when you run into statements,
this one and many, many, many others like it, in the Bible,
Old and New Testament alike, we must learn to read such demands
that are made upon us as promises in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you just tell me if you yourself can prevent the reign of sin
in your mortal body. It'll belong to you and me only
through the grace of God in Christ Jesus. There's many a man and woman
walking around this morning in religious activity who do not
call themselves lawmongers, but they are under the law And therefore
sin does reign over them. Verse 13, neither yield you 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. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under the law. in any sense
whatsoever, not under the law, but under grace. Boy, that grace must be something
else. What then shall we sin because
we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness. But God bethinked that you were,
listen carefully, let's just put it, I'll speak of it concerning
myself and I'll speak of it as concerning you, we were the servants of sin. And if I
ain't ever been that, I still am. Would I say I'm not the servant
of sin? 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. Sounds to me like
we're passive in that statement right there. Being then made
free from sin, you became what we were not,
the servants of righteousness. I kind of think that's the same
thing as saying we're servants of Christ. All right, let's take the passage
and the verse 14, and if you need a title you can say, we
are not under the law but under grace, or name it anything you
want to. Let me quote you a little statement
or the gist of a statement by a fellow named Thomas Brooks.
I don't remember when he lived, it's before my time, I'm sure
of that. New Covenant mercies. That's gospel mercies. In this covenant, the Lord God
declares three things. that he will require of us, this
is under the gospel now, don't mix it up, this ain't under Moses,
this is under Christ. God will require no more than
he gives, and he will give what he requires,
and he will accept only what he gives. God is not worshipped, Paul said
on Mars Hill, with men's hands as though he needed anything. Yet all over this world this
morning, all over Kentucky, all over North Carolina, God is pictured
to men as a beggar needing something from them. Instead of trying to declare
to men the truth that we need him. And until we have him, we
are not anything. And in our own opinion of ourselves,
we still aren't anything. All right, let's get down to
business. And see, if you want to turn, fine. If you don't,
just ignore what I say about turning. If you'll just listen,
I'll read it. In Matthew chapter 5, I'm simply going to try to
prove to you from Scripture, and that it comes all over the that we, those who are in Christ,
are not under the law, not under the law in any sense whatsoever. All right, let's find out if
we are or not. Matthew chapter 5 is the first
chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, and toward the end of
that chapter Well, I'm in the wrong gospel,
no wonder. I'm still in Luke. The very last
verse of chapter 5 of Matthew, if you insist, if I insist on
being a lawman or a lawwoman, you cannot, you cannot think
of yourself except in this precise terminology. Be you therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The law demands absolute perfection. Absolute perfection. And it cannot give it. It cannot give it. Grace is giving. The law is demanding
absolute perfection. Now let me give you an illustration
and an example of how this played out. I'm turning to Acts chapter
15. I'll read you just a few verses
to show you that the matter of law and grace not being able
to mix is not some new phenomenon, but it's always been. We find it between Cain and Abel
just early in the history of the human race. In the 15th chapter
of the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas were in, I forget the
name of the place, anyway, they were preaching and some people
that came from Jerusalem and from the congregation of supposed
believers in Jerusalem and told those people where they were
preaching the gospel that you must not only believe and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, but you must be circumcised. And the
only reason this issue wound up in Jerusalem is because that's
where the trouble started. That's where the people came
from that brought this terrible heresy. Look at verse 5, Acts
chapter 15. I'm going to read through verse
10. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Now, if you've been
reading the Bible very long, you certainly understand that
the Bible might use an expression that turns out not to be accurate.
There were plenty of people in the gospel accounts that made
themselves out to be followers and believers in the Lord Jesus,
only to discover that they were no such thing at all. And here's
the case in point. I wish they'd have been a little
more, given us a little more detail here. You know, did these
fellows still hang around when this is over? They ought to be
thrown out on the air. There rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful, necessary,
to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses."
Now here's the answer from the early church on whether or not
you and I can keep the law. You know the answer, I'm sure,
already. You ain't kept it since you've been here this morning. So the apostles and elders came
together to consider of this matter. And when there had been
much disputation, I think that's got something to do with debate
and argument, don't you? Much disputing, Peter said some things he should
have waited on, but not this time. Peter rose up and said unto them,
listen carefully to these words, my friend. Lawmongers are not found in former generations. They're found in every generation.
And some seem to have an unusual curse, such as our own. These
are important words. Peter stands up, and when there
had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. Acts chapter 10 is where you
have the record of that. And God who knows the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them. purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why, if you don't
listen to anything else, if you'll listen to verse 10, Acts chapter
15, now therefore why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck
of the disciples? That yoke is the law which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear. And no man ever has
been or will be except the God-man, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. One more statement, verse 11.
But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
We shall be saved even as they. It doesn't say they shall be
saved even as we. Peter puts himself below them.
Marvelous statement indeed. All right, back. Did you hang
on to Romans now? You've got to hang on to Romans 6. I want
you to look at another statement. Romans chapter 6. Verse 18, being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. Now, let me give you an illustration. If you want to turn, fine. If
you don't, fine. And I'll give you another case
in point if I can get to it. I'm so nervous I can't turn my
Bible pages. I'm just kidding with you. John chapter 8. Verse 30, as our Lord spoke, he's basically
speaking in the previous section in John chapter 8, on himself
as the light of the world, Christ the light of the world. So in
verse 30, things look quite promising. As he spoke these words, many
believed on him. Well is it genuine faith or is
it supposed faith? Do you believe on him? Do I? Then listen to what comes with
the package. A certain view of ourselves is
created by the grace of God in the gospel of Christ, and a man
or a woman gets a view of themselves that they've never ever had before. Let me show you what I mean.
Verse 31, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on
him, and he said, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. And if he had just stopped right
there, but he didn't. He simply said, and you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now you
can make that statement virtually in any church in America this
morning, but when you start explaining it, you might find yourself on the
way out. Spurgeon said, you can call a
man a horse. You can call a man a sinner.
But when you start telling him what kind and how big a sinner
he is, it's like riding that horse. When you put a saddle
on him, that's another story. He starts to buck. We do too. You shall know the truth. And
the truth shall make you free. Oh, they were incensed. They
said, we're Abraham's seed. We've never been in bondage to
any man. What are you talking about? You
shall be made free. They weren't free politically,
they weren't free spiritually, and they weren't free religiously
speaking. In bondage, in bondage, but proud,
arrogant. That's you and me. That's how
we are, every one of us by nature. Ain't but one thing can change
it, and that's that new birth that Brother Harding was speaking
about. All right, back to Romans 6 one more time. Look this time
at verse 12. I'm telling you, if we don't learn to read statements
like this as promises that belong to us in the grace of God in
Christ, we just put ourselves under unnecessary bondage. and unrealistic expectations. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Now if you will look right next
door in Romans chapter 8 and put this statement right beside
that one, chapter 8 verse 13. Romans 8, 13, for if you live
after the flesh, you shall die. But if you, watch this carefully,
through the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, if you through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. God, the Holy Spirit, is the
author of this mortification. It's not something that you can
write down ten simple instructions to follow, number one, number
two, number three, and at the end you're going to be, you'll
be, you will have mortified the deeds of the body. Never happened. Never happened. That ain't the half of it. We
don't even want it to happen. Let's see, how does that verse
of that hymn go? Joseph Hart's hymn, let not conscience
make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness
he requireth. You know the rest of it? is to
feel your need of him, but that ain't the end of the verse. That's
the modern hymn book version. Mr. Hart wrote, this he gives
you, this he gives you, tis the spirit's rising beam. The first evidence of grace in
the soul. All right, I need you to turn
to Acts chapter 13. Let's see, last time I checked
it was right before Romans, I think. Acts chapter 13, and if I'd have been smart we'd
have covered this right after we finished 15, but I had it
I don't understand why I put it in the order I did, but that's
the best I could do, and that's what I thought was where it should
go, and I was probably wrong. But anyway, two verses, Acts
13. Now what are we doing? We're
looking at places in our Bibles that address the issue of the
believer and follower and lover of the Lord Jesus, and whether
or not he is under the law in any regard whatsoever. All right,
verses 38 and 39. Tom even quoted these for me.
So I'll let you read them this time with me, right out of the
book. Acts 13, 38, Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man, the Lord Jesus, the God-man, is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Now listen to that expression. Is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. The gospel is a message concerning
sins being forgiven. And it's delivered how? by the
foolishness of preaching, God purposes to save them that believe. Verse 39, I wish I could stop and work on this a little
more than I'm going to, but you already know it anyway, I'm just
reminding you what you already know. by him, by Christ, all that believe,
unless that believing be of the version we just read about in
John chapter 8. That calls itself believing,
but it isn't believing. We didn't go three verses until
we discovered that what seemed to be the case was certainly
not the case. And that's still how it works.
By Him all that believe. So how did we come to faith in
Christ? By Him. By Christ. Sure we did. Yes we did. We absolutely
did. By Him all that believe are justified
from all things. Now listen. From which? You could not be justified by
the law of Moses. Under no circumstances, at any
time, anywhere, or anybody. You want universalism? There
she is right there. You could not be justified. Now there's nothing wrong with
the law. The problem is with us. Alright, one more scripture,
I mean one more, I better quit saying one. I learned this a
long time ago, there's no need to say it because it's rarely
true. One more. 1 Timothy chapter 1. I need to read several verses. You know the difference between
the Gospels and the letters. They just work a little bit differently.
Paul is writing to Timothy. He's not up preaching to a crowd
of folks. He's expressing himself in a
different way. But it's more instructive, designed
to teach. And here's a passage concerning
the law and the believer that must not ever be ignored. This
is one of the most powerful statements in our Bibles. And it tells us
what the right use of the law is. And most people don't know
it. Here you go. 1 Timothy 1, we
begin with verse 5. And read, I'm going to read through
verse 7 and I'm going to stop. Why am I going to stop? Because
those verses are actually just one sentence in our Bibles. And then I'm going to read the
second sentence that starts with verse 8 and takes us through
verse 11. All right? Verses 5 through 7. Now the end of the commandment,
the end of the law, if you'll allow me to substitute that word,
is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience. And you can't
have either one of those except in Christ. You can't get them
from Mount Sinai nor from Moses, nor can you get it, heaven forbid,
by mixing the two, which is what most of us do. love out of a pure heart and
a good conscience and faith unfeigned or unpretended, genuine God-given
faith in Christ, from which some, speaking of faith unfeigned,
from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling."
I wonder what Paul would have put in that sentence if he were
here on this earth today. I don't think it would have been
made any weaker. It could have been easily made even more strong. Look at verse 7, desiring to
be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they
say nor whereof they affirm, period. That's it. Now we take the second
sentence. Time's running out, so let's
go ahead and keep going. But we, Paul and Timothy, and
you and me for that matter, We know that the law is good when,
if a man use it lawfully. There is a right use of the law.
Well, I was going to take you down that road, but we better
just go ahead and address it now because we're going to run
out of time. What is the right use of the law? I'll give you
the scriptures, you can read them later. One of the best summations in
all the Bible is Romans 3, 19 and 20. The law's purpose is to shut
the mouth of man's boasting and give him no recourse, no
out, no escape except in Christ and
him crucified. And that's all. That's the purpose of the law,
is to show us how desperately we need the Lord Jesus. That, my friend, in my humble
opinion, is the right use of the law, or if you like, the
lawful use of the law. All right, verse 9, 1 through
11, noting this, that the law is not made for a righteous man.
And since none of us are righteous by nature, the law was made for
all of us. We're all under the law. I mean,
initially, to begin with, until we're born again, until God delivers
us, we're all under this divine law of God. Knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. According, verse 11, according
to the glorious Oh, the glorious, let's see, who was it last night
talking about the gospel of God? According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, period. Hallelujah. Now, I got to do
this, I hate to do this, but I got to do it. And you go back
to Romans one more time. I can do this from memory. I
don't trust my memory anymore. It never has been too good, but
it's about shot. It takes vacations. People call
them senior moments, but let me tell you, they ain't moments. Sometimes they last for days,
and sometimes it just You never do find out what it
was. I saw a friend yesterday, and
I couldn't call him by name. Saw him here last year for the
first time that I remember. And it took me about, let's see,
that was Friday. It took me to yesterday afternoon
or last night, going to supper last night. His first name came
to me, and then a little bit later, the last name. So his
name's Warren DuBose from Yazoo City, Mississippi. All right, verse 14, here's our
text. I'm not fixing to start preaching, I'm fixing to stop.
For sin shall not have dominion over you. Why not? For you are not under the law, but under grace. Under grace. Now do you remember
in the gospel accounts I think it's in Matthew and Mark and
maybe Luke, but Mark gives a pretty complete rendering of it. Our Lord and his disciples went
to the area called Gadara, and our Lord went there specifically
to find one of his sheep, whom we've learned to call the maniac
of Gadara. the maniac of Gadara. And if
you recall, they used everything imaginable to control this man, to tame this man, and to subdue
this man, and religion is still attempting but never succeeding. That whole passage is a picture
of man's attempt to control other men. Somebody said earlier in
the conference to make unbelievers act like believers, or non-Christians
to act like Christians. But when our Lord spoke to him, it just happened all at once. And that's how it is with us.
That's exactly how it is. This man was totally changed. Those Gadarenes weren't too happy.
They lost a big farm in operation, 2,000 hogs at one time, and we
thought we had mega farms, but I wonder what they did with all
that pork. I have a feeling it showed up
on the breakfast table. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, because without this little phrase now, it will have. because you're not under the
law. And if you're in Christ, the quicker you find that out,
the better. You have a miserable, miserable life otherwise. You're not under the law, but
under Christ in the grace of God. Thank you.