The Love Of Christ Constrains Us

Q: What does the Bible say about the love of Christ?

The love of Christ compels believers to live for Him instead of sin. The love of Christ is the central motivation for Christians to live a life of holiness and devotion to God. In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul states, 'For the love of Christ constrains us.' This love manifests itself in the believer's conduct as they realize that Christ died for their sins, which stirs up a desire to live for Him. The believer is motivated not by fear or desire for reward, but by the profound love God has shown through Jesus' sacrifice, as expressed in 1 John 4:19, 'We love him because he first loved us.' Thus, the love of Christ becomes a guiding principle in the believer's life, encouraging them to serve God in all aspects.

Q: How do we know that we are justified in Christ?

Justification is evidenced by faith and a transformed life in Christ. Justification in Christ can be confidently asserted through a believer's faith and their subsequent transformation into a new creature. As stated in Romans 6:18, 'Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.' This indicates that through faith in Christ, believers are justified, meaning they are declared righteous before God due to Christ's work. The evidence of this justification is a life that seeks after righteousness and holiness, as shown in Romans 8:10, which notes that 'if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.' Thus, a genuine faith in Christ leads to a life reflecting His righteousness.

Q: Why is sanctification important for Christians?

Sanctification signifies the believer's growth in holiness and obedience to God. Sanctification is essential for all Christians as it represents the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, making them holy and guiding them toward obedience to God's commands. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Paul emphasizes, 'For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.' This process involves being set apart for God's purposes and is a response to the believer's union with Christ. As outlined in Romans 6:22, believers are no longer enslaved to sin but are now 'made free from sin, and become servants to God.' Consequently, sanctification becomes a tangible expression of the love and grace received through Christ, demonstrating that the believer is indeed saved.

Q: How does the Holy Spirit guide believers?

The Holy Spirit empowers believers to live righteously and fulfill God’s will. The Holy Spirit plays a critical role in guiding and empowering believers to live according to God’s will. In Romans 8:13, Paul instructs that, 'if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' This passage emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is responsible for enabling believers to resist temptation and live a life pleasing to God. Through the Spirit's indwelling presence, Christians receive divine strength and wisdom, allowing them to fulfill God's commandments naturally out of love rather than obligation. The Spirit also convicts believers of sin and arouses a desire for righteousness, exemplifying the believer's transformation in Christ as noted in 2 Corinthians 5:17, where it states that 'if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.'

Pray with me, please. Gracious and merciful Father,
Lord, we pray that You might be with us today in Your love,
showing us Your love in Christ. Enable me, dear Father, to preach
Christ to Your people. And let Your Word be a comfort
to us as in our trials we look to Christ. Gracious Father, we
would serve You in Christ We would walk with You in Christ,
and so we ask that in the power of Your Holy Spirit that You
would enable us to love You more and to love our brothers in Christ.
For it is in Christ's name that we pray. It is in Christ's name
that we have come to worship You. In Jesus' name, Amen. To begin with this morning, would
you open your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14-17. which I'm going to use as an
introduction to our text, although it's going to be a long introduction.
Our text for today is from Romans chapter 6 and verses 11 to 23.
But it's not to 23, it's to 21, because that's the second mistake
I made in the bulletin this morning. I'm sorry about that. In the
preceding verses of Romans 6, Paul was proved that The gospel
of justification by faith does not lead to a life of sin, but
rather it leads to a life of faith and a life of love for
Jesus Christ. And both faith and love are at
the very foundation of and they're at the very motivation for holiness. Holiness or sanctification. In
2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, Paul says, For the love of Christ
constrains us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. All ministers of Christ, all
believers in the Lord Jesus are under the sweetest and the strongest
constraint to do what they do. I don't mean just in worship.
just in church, I mean in all that they do. They are motivated
in their lives by the love of Christ. First by His love for
them, and then by their love for Him. It isn't a fear of going
to hell or a desire for a reward or even a concern for acceptance
with God which motivates believers to serve God. But it's Christ's
eternal love which led Him to redeem them by His life and death.
And it's the love of God shed abroad in their hearts which
motivates them in their lives. In John 21, verse 17, Jesus is
talking with Peter. And He said unto him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? And Peter was grieved
because he said in him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he
said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that
I love thee. And Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Jesus was saying to Peter, If
you love me, Peter, then feed my sheep. And in 1 John 4 verse
19, it says that we love him. because He first loved us. Our
Savior's love for us is the chief motivation of our lives because
we know that if He died, then we were all dead in trespasses
and sins and our life is in Christ, our substitute, because of His
love for us. As Paul says about Christ in
Ephesians 2.1, And you hath He quickened, you hath He made alive,
who were dead in trespasses and sin. If we had been spiritually
dead, then Christ wouldn't have had to die. But He did die. And in His death for us, we see
His love. And also, if Christ died for
us, then we died in Him. We died to the world. We died
to the claims and the curse of the law, and we died to ourselves.
And so we live in Him. as Paul says in Galatians 6.14,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world. And then Paul says about Christ
in 2 Corinthians 5.15, that He died for all that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him
which died for them and rose again. If Christ died for your
sin, then your response is going to be that you will love Him
and that you will live for Him because you love Him. So how
will those men that Christ loved and died for, how will they live,
labor, and conduct themselves? Certainly, they won't live for
themselves. They won't live for their own profit, their own honor,
their ambitions. Nor will they live for their
flesh, fulfilling their flesh's lusts and cravings. Nor will
they live for the world which hates Christ. No, you can be
sure that by the grace of God, they will live for Him, for Jesus
Christ, who died for them and rose again. And their motivation
for living for Christ will be their love for Him. As Paul asks
in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20, what? Know you not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God and you are not your own? For you are bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit which are God's. Do you see how important
faith is? Knowing that Christ died for
you changes your life. It forms the whole basis for
your love of God and your brothers in Christ. That's what your faith
does. It changes you. The end purpose
of Christ's sacrifice on the cross was to redeem us from sin. It was to make us holy. Holy
in Christ. In Ephesians 1, verses 3-5, Paul
says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Why? Why did He choose us? That
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. In Titus
2 verse 14 it says about Christ who gave Himself for us. Why
did He give Himself for us? That He might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous
of good works. But we can't do those good works
in our own power. We need Christ. we need the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. So is it reasonable to think
that a person who was chosen by the Father, redeemed by the
Son, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is it reasonable
to assume that he will then disregard the commandments of his Lord
and live a self-centered, sinful, and worldly life? If you're living
in Christ, and Christ is in you, It isn't possible for you to
live in sin. If you are living in Christ and
Christ is in you, I say again, it is not possible for you to
live in sin. Sin, yes, you will sin because
we're in the flesh. But to live in sin is not possible
if your life is in Christ and you truly love Him. In 2 Corinthians
5 verse 16, Paul says, Wherefore henceforth, henceforth since
we have been born again in Christ, wherefore henceforth know we
no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, and yet now henceforth know we Him no more.
Robert Hawker says that the word know in this verse means to approve
or to acknowledge or to esteem. Paul, I think, is saying that
he values no man from a human point of view in terms of a natural
standards of the law. Whether a man is descended of
Abraham, circumcised, learned, rich, gifted, or weak, Paul regards
no man with respect to any fleshly considerations because Christ,
his Lord, has taken away all distinctions of the flesh. and
has brought us into a spiritual kingdom. Christ brings us into
His kingdom, the kingdom of God. In Colossians 3, verses 10 and
11, Paul describes what has happened when God has brought us into
His kingdom. Paul says that those who have put off the old man
with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all in all."
Christ is all and in all. Jesus Christ is a man. A man
who once walked perfectly on this earth, and we esteemed him
not. We didn't esteem Him as being
the holy and righteous Son of God. But with our new birth in
Christ, and with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, we
certainly have other thoughts and opinions of Christ now, because
by God's grace, the Holy Spirit has revealed Christ to our understanding. Now we see Christ as our exalted
Savior and Redeemer, whose kingdom is not of this world, We don't
make images or pictures of Christ as a man and then use them in
worship. But we do love and worship Him
in spirit and in truth. As Philippians 3, verse 3 says,
we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice
in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence
in the flesh, our own or someone else's. And that's all the work
of the Holy Spirit of Christ in us. And then finally, in Corinthians
5, verse 17, it says, Therefore, because of these things, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. Paul is saying that if any man
be in Christ, if any person is in Christ, not in the religion,
not in the church, not in immoral reformation, but if he is in
Christ by the God-given faith of Christ, if he is in Christ
by a new birth, which is worked in the soul by the Spirit of
God, and in Christ through God's electing love, redeeming grace,
and a living union, then he is a new creature. But I emphasize,
as strongly as I know how, that this is all the work of God.
And it's all of God's grace. It's nothing that we have done
and that we have even deserved. It's all from and by God. As Paul says in Galatians 6.15,
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but what counts is a new creature. Christ making us a new creature. The old creature born in sin,
living in sin, must pass away and God must create a new creature. And this new creation describes
a creation work, not that's done by man, but a work of God's creation,
which is done by God all according to his will. As Ephesians 2 verses
8 to 10 says, for by grace are you saved through faith. And
that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works, created under good works, which
God has before ordained that we should walk in them. And in
Colossians 3 verse 10 it says, And we have put on a new man,
which was renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. a new man that is renewed in
knowledge after the image of Him that created him. So the
new man is a new creature. He's a new man and a new principle
of grace and holiness which was not there before and which is
distinct from the old nature, the old man which we were born
with in the flesh. Listen to what Jesus said to
Nicodemus in John chapter 3. about the enabling power of God
in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Christ in the born-again
believer. When Nicodemus came to Jesus,
he asked the Lord, how was he able to do the miracles that
he saw Jesus doing? Now you, I think, probably know
the answer to that question. God was in Christ. Jesus Christ
was fully man and He was fully God. And that was together in
one person. But in John 3, verses 5 and 6,
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which
is born of the spirit is spirit. And that's what every born-again
believer is. He is one in union with Christ. And in John 1, verses
12 and 13, it says about Jesus, But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but they
were born of God. And so Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Old things are passed away. The
old way of life which loves and serves the flesh, the old legal
righteousness and the old religion, the old companions and the old
acquaintances, the old desires for riches and honor and human
philosophies, the old foolish thoughts about God, self, and
future glory, all are passed away. Whole things are passed
away. The new man thinks and acts from
new principles, from new rules, with new goals and objectives,
and in a new fellowship. And this is most important. The
new man has a new commandment, and it is a commandment of love.
He has a new name, a new song in his mouth. Even, praise to
God, a new and living way is opened by the blood of Christ
and an inheritance in the new heavens and new earth. And in
this new creation, absolutely nothing of the flesh is needed. Nothing of the flesh is used.
and nothing of the flesh is continued. Our Lord said in Revelation 21,
verse 5, Behold, I make all things new. There is a new way of life,
both of faith and holiness, a new way of serving God that is through
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the principles
of God's grace rather than the law. There is a new and better
righteousness which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is received
and embraced so that new companions are sought after and delighted
in. So it is in new riches and new honors and new glories that
are now valued, not the old things of the world which for believers
are of no value. There's a new Jerusalem, yes,
and a new heaven and a new earth which are expected and longed
for by these new creatures that God has changed from a natural
state to a Spirit-filled state. Well, I pray that you all might
see and know and experience what I'm talking about. That you might
know that all things become new in Christ. To be in Christ is
to be in union with Christ. It's to love Christ and to be
motivated by that love to not only live for Christ, but to
serve God in the strength and the power of Christ's Holy Spirit
which indwells all believers. So turn now, please, to our text
in Romans 6. The object of Romans 6, verses
11 to 23, I believe, is to exhort believers to live agreeably to
their union with Christ. Now that may sound contrary to
what I've just said, but in Christ, motivated by His love, God enables
you to do what you are not able to do in your own power. Paul
said in Ephesians 1 verse 4, that according as He hath chosen
us in Him, chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. And I emphasize that it is all
in love. And also in Colossians 3 verses
12 to 14, Paul tells us to put on, therefore, as the elect of
God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, hovelness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against,
even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all things,
Put on charity. Put on love, which is the bond
of perfectness. Love is the bond of perfectness. It's very important to understand
that Paul is speaking only to those who are justified and sanctified
in Christ. These two blessings are never
separated. Justification and sanctification
are never separated. not in Scripture anyway, and
it is by the working of the Holy Spirit that we see that we are
both justified and sanctified in Christ. If you can see that,
that's been taught to you by the Holy Spirit. The word sanctified,
of course, means to be made holy. And we are made holy in Jesus
Christ. As Paul said in Romans 8 verse
9, but you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be
ye that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now, if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And as we have
just been looking at, and I pray that the Holy Spirit has given
you the ability to understand, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17,
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things
are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. And
as the Apostle says in 1 John 4 verses 7 and 8, Behold, let
us love one another, for love is of God. It's the evidence
of justification and sanctification in Christ. That's what love is.
And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. And he
that loveth not knoweth not God, because God is love. And so let's
take Romans 6, verses 11 to 23, verse by verse. Actually, it's
11 to 21, isn't it? In which the Spirit of God is
exhorting believers to live agreeably in their loving union with Christ,
which God enables you to do if you are in Christ and motivated
by His love. In Romans 6, verse 11, Paul says,
likewise, Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." That should
be a born-again believer's way of thinking. Because of our relationship
and our union with Christ, there are two things which we should
understand to be true. First, we are dead unto sin. So let me ask you. It's the same
question that Craig asked in Sunday School this morning. Do
you believe that Christ died for your sin? I mean really,
do you believe it? If we believe that Christ died
for our sin, then as our substitute, Christ died for all of our sin. Not some of it, but for all of
it. And we have also died in Christ. Our belief, our faith, is the
evidence that our sin is totally pardoned, totally paid for, and
totally put away in Christ. Our belief isn't the cause of
our salvation, but our belief is the evidence that Christ has
saved us. And so if this is true of us,
that we trust that Christ paid the penalty for our sin, that
we no longer have or we no longer should have any fear of condemnation
or death because of our sin. Nor do we have any fellowship
with sin. Nor will God permit sin to reign
over us any longer. Then the second truth that all
of God's children are taught by the Holy Spirit and a truth
which guides our way of thinking is that we are alive unto God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. As people who are justified in
Christ, we live in Christ, having the righteousness of Christ placed
on us, and so we have eternal life through Him. And yet, because
we are still in the flesh, we still sin. And so as sanctified
persons who still feel the burden of their sin and the corruption
of their flesh, We love Christ. We love His Word. We love His
people. We love His commandments. And
so we are motivated by that love and we walk in the Spirit, not
fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Now please, don't misunderstand
what I'm trying to say to you. We are responsible, but in our
own power, we're unable. We're unable even to love God,
let alone to live in Christ. And so we walk in His Spirit,
as Paul tells us here in Romans. We walk in the power and the
wisdom of Christ, because His Holy Spirit enables us to live
in Christ. If you struggle with this, then
know that sanctification isn't any different than justification
in Christ. Both are completely in Christ.
Both are by the grace and love of God in a believer. Both justification
and sanctification are completely in Christ and by the grace and
love of God. Truly regenerated, truly born-again
believers who are trusting in Christ are restrained by the
love of Christ. They are upheld or restrained
from breaking God's law by their love for Christ. We're still
in our flesh. And there is still indwelling
sin which remains in this body of sin and death. Even the best
of men carry this body of sin around with them and we do sin.
But in our love for Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit
working in us, our sin is restrained. And we don't live in sin. We
live in Christ. For if, as the Apostle says in
Romans 8 verse 10, Christ being you, the body is dead because
of sin. The spirit is life because of
righteousness. And how, as Romans 6-2 asks,
shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Oh,
please listen to me carefully. We are not dead in sin, but we
are dead to sin. Because being dead in sin is
the state that the unawakened or the unregenerated are in by
their natures. But we who are in Christ are
born again. And all things have become new.
So sin no longer reigns over us because we are quickened by
the Spirit of Christ who indwells us. We didn't literally die for
our own sin because Christ died for us as our substitute. The
just for the unjust to bring us to God. but we died in Christ
and are quickened or are made alive by His Spirit. As 1 Peter
3.18 says, For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just
for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And so because
Christ died for us, we died in Christ. And so we are dead to
sin. which is the situation of every
regenerated, justified, and sanctified believer. They are dead to the
guilt of their sin, they have bowed down before Christ in humble
adoration and love, because their sin is completely done away with
by the blood of Christ, and humbly they live in Christ by the power
and wisdom of Christ's indwelling Spirit. They are one in union
with Christ. Can I emphasize that any stronger?
They are one in union with Christ. As Ephesians 1 verse 7 says about
Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. And as Micah 7
verses 17 to 19 says about those who have been humbled in Christ,
they shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall move out
of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid
of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee. Who is
godlike unto thee that pardons or bears iniquity, and passes
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will
turn again, and he will have compassion upon us, and he will
subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea. And in Isaiah 53, verse 5, the
prophet of God says about Christ, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes
we are healed. That's justification in Christ,
isn't it? And in Colossians 2, verse 13
and 14, Paul says to us about Christ's sanctification of His
people. He says, and you being dead in your sin, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, together with
Him, having forgiven all your trespasses, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And
Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6, John says, and he's introducing
us to his revelation of Christ. He says, And from Jesus Christ,
who is the faithful witness, the first-resurrected of the
dead, the first-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings
of the earth, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and His Father, To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. And so, because Christ died for
you, you are justified. And because Christ has made you
righteous by the washing of His blood so that sin no longer reigns
over you, and because Christ has given you His Holy Spirit
to lead you and to guide you into all righteousness, and because
you love and trust Christ your Savior, you are sanctified. You are sanctified in Christ
who has made you holy in Christ. As Paul says to us in Romans
6-12, Let not sin, therefore, reign in your immortal body,
that you should obey in it the lusts thereof. Turn please to
Romans 8 and verse 13. I think we need to be careful
here. When Paul says to us, Let not sin, therefore, reign in
your immortal body, He isn't suggesting that in yourself,
in your own power, that you have the power or the ability to not
let sin reign in your mortal bodies. This would be to make
the grace of God dependent on the will of man. Because Paul
says in Romans 8, 13, if you live after the flesh, if you
live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye, and hear this,
Through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall
live." Notice, it's through the Spirit that we are able to mortify
the deeds of the body. Part of the change that God has
made in those sinners who have expressed their love for Christ
by humbly bowing their hearts before God in love, acknowledging
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master, Part of the change is
that God has made His way pleasing to them, and so to them His commandments
are not grievous. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
in our hearts and our minds. The change that God makes in
us in our regeneration is that because we love Christ, we want
to live for God's glory. We want to manifest His grace
to our neighbors. We struggle with sin. Sin tries
us and troubles us. But sin doesn't dominate or control
us because Christ is our Lord and our Master. So in love, we
seek to serve Christ. We seek to do that. We draw on
and empower the Holy Spirit in prayer as we look to Christ. We don't live in sin. We are
living in Christ. And although our love for Christ
restrains our sin, sin is said to be obeyed when we make provisions
for it without a struggle or opposition. In Romans 6, verse
13, Paul gives us a very clear way of living in Christ. He says,
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God. Yield yourselves unto
God as those that are alive from the dead. And yield your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. In the English Standard
Version of the Bible, Romans 6 verse 13 is translated this
way. It says, Do not present your
members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. but present
yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death
to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
What I hear Paul saying is that if we are living in Christ, then
our hearts should be filled with love and kindness, not hatred,
envy, and complaints. If we are looking to Christ in
love, our hearts will be filled with love and kindness. Our thoughts need to be on things
that are pure and lovely and of good report, not on flesh
or materialism in the world. Our tongues should be used in
praise, encouragement, and in witnessing to our love for Christ,
not in gossip, criticism, and murmuring. Our hands and feet
should be serving others out of our love for our brothers,
not employed only in selfish pursuits. And though you may
have a struggle living for Christ at times, I believe sincerely
that if you are looking to Christ for your strength and for your
wisdom, you will find that the Holy Spirit leads you into all
righteousness. Turn now please to Matthew 3
and verses 14 and 15, and let me show you how even John the
Baptist struggled with his obedience to the will of God. It's strange,
isn't it, how our pride and our fleshly desires seem to naturally
rebel against the ways and the will of God. Our ways and our
thoughts are not naturally His ways or His thoughts. And so
we must constantly be looking to Christ and praying that His
will would be done in our lives. We need to humbly bow down to
the will of God in all things. When Jesus went from Galilee
to John, John who was at the River Jordan, he went there to
John to be baptized. Matthew 3 verse 14 and 15 says
that John forbid him. John would have prevented him
saying, I have need to be baptized by thee, John would say. Comest
thou unto me? And Jesus answering said to him,
suffer to be so now. Let it be so now. For thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." And then he suffered it. Then
John consented to baptize Jesus because that was God's will. That's why John baptized Jesus.
It was God's will. Did he feel up to it? No, he
didn't. He knew that he was a sinner.
Our first reaction, or at least my first reaction, is often to
want my own will. Anybody else out there like that?
But when we look to Christ, when we look to Christ seeking His
will in our lives, regardless of the consequence, regardless
of what that will is, when we look to Christ seeking His will
in our lives, the Holy Spirit will often reveal God's will
to us. And He will lead us into righteousness. The struggle comes,
or it should come, when we know that God would have us do and
then we want our own will in opposition to what God would
have us do. That's when we're not to yield our members as instruments
of unrighteousness to sin, but yield ourselves unto God as those
that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. Now that won't happen, though,
in our own power. We must be motivated by the love
of Christ. As Paul said in Romans 6.14,
for sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under
the law, but under grace. Turn please to Galatians 5 and
verses 13 to 17. And I pray that you can hear
this. There is nothing that is more
certain than what I'm about to say. God's purpose, God's grace,
God's Holy Spirit, are all pledged to prevent sin's dominion over
us. We are living in the kingdom
of His dear Son. Christ is our Lord and sin is
dethroned. We are not under law as a covenant
or as a curse or as a condemnation. We are under God's grace. We
are under the reign of God's grace and the principle of His
grace. True holiness is not the result of the law. but true holiness
is the result of God's grace in the heart. True holiness is
the result of God's grace in your heart. Wasn't it God's grace
that took away the dominion of sin in the first place? And isn't
it now that same grace which must prevent us from yielding
to the temptation of sin today? It is because of the love of
God that we see in Christ as we see in Christ's death that
our sin is restrained. And if that's true, then that's
God's grace working in your life, and you are sanctified in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 5,
verses 13-17, For brethren, you have been called into liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another.
This I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill
the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
the one to the other. so that you could not do the
things that you would. Then in Romans 6, verse 15, Paul
raises the objection again. It's the same objection that
he raised in verse 1 of Romans 6. Now in verse 15, Paul asks
again, what then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. There will always
be many people who in their own minds reject the will of God.
But the person who suggests that since we are not under the law
but under grace, then we should therefore give vent to the flesh
and to our sin, that person reveals his total ignorance of the grace
of God and the work of Christ in the heart of those who live
in Christ. Before a man is regenerated, before he's born again by the
power of God, he loves evil and he loves himself. And he hates
God and he hates the holiness of God. But then God works a
miracle of grace in his heart. After God changes his heart and
creates in him a new spirit of love, that new man will always
love God. He'll love holiness and he'll
love others as himself. So if you're living in Christ,
then you aren't looking for an excuse to sin, but you're looking
for the strength to avoid sinning. The prayer of God's church is
always, as we find it in Psalm 119, verse 117. It says, Hold me up. Hold me up, the psalmist says,
that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually.
Hold me up. Isn't that your prayer? Hold
me up. Hold me up, dear Lord. Keep me
from falling. Hold me up. So in Romans 6, verse
16, Paul asks another question. He asks, 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? The best way, I think, of knowing
that God has saved you is to ask yourself, do you believe
that Jesus Christ died for your sin. But this that I have just
read to you in Romans 6, verse 16, may be another good way for
you to determine if you have been saved. We all should know
that if sin masters us, if we delight to do evil, if we enjoy
evil companions, if we walk in darkness, then Jesus Christ is
not our master. Our Master is He who, or whatever
we yield our lives to, what do you really enjoy? In
what direction are you really going? Who is really your Lord
and Master? Who is in control of your life?
And in chapter 6 and verses 17 and 18 of Romans, Paul says, but God be thanked. That 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 became the servants of righteousness. If
that's true of you, then you don't live in sin, you don't
serve sin, but you seek the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if that's
true, than thank God who has delivered you from the slavery
and the bondage of sin. This has been a heart work that
God has done in your heart. It's not just a mental acceptance
of creeds, but it's a changed heart's obedience to the Gospel
of Christ. And it's guided and worked by
the Holy Spirit of God. As Paul said in Romans 7, verses
22 and 25, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man,
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from
the body of this death? I thank God, Paul says, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind or with
my heart, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh
the law of sin. What a confession. Well, let's
look at Romans 6 verse 18 which says, being then made free from
sin. Now hold your place there or
your eye because it's probably on the same page, but look at
verse 7 and compare verse 7 with verse 18. Romans 6 verse 7 and
Romans 6 verse 18. They use the words Romans 6 verse
7 uses the word free from sin. It says, For he that is dead
is freed from sin. You became the servants of righteousness. Henry Mahan says that in verse
7, the word freed means justified. But in verse 18, free means liberated. In verse 7, free from sin means
that we are justified or made free from the guilt and the penalty
and the condemnation of sin. But in verse 18, Paul is saying
that to be free from sin is to be freed or liberated from the
control and servitude of sin. In other words, in Christ, sin's
hold has been broken. You and I aren't wholly free
or liberated from our sin. Far from it, or at least I'm
speaking for myself. We have a great and a constant
sorrow for our sin. and that we are too much subject
to our sin. We carry around with us this
body of sin and death, and in our thoughts and words and actions,
we often feel the working of sin according to our human nature. But we're free from sin. We're
free from sin in the sense that we are completely justified in
Christ. So that sin has no more power
over us So in Christ, we're free from the condemning power of
sin, and we are made able to live in the power of the Holy
Spirit of God. Then in Romans six, verse 19,
Paul begins to sum up all of Romans chapter six, and he says,
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of our
flesh. For as you had yielded your members,
in other words, in the past, you had yielded your members
as servants to uncleanliness and to iniquity, even so now,
now in the present, yield your members, servants to righteousness
and to holiness. I speak, Paul says, in familiar
human terms, because spiritual truth is so difficult for you
to understand. but as you have in the past cheerfully
yielded up your minds and hearts and tongues and hands to do evil,
now cheerfully you have the liberty to yield them to God and to holiness."
Paul is saying, let the same members that have been used in
the service of sin be made use of in the service of righteousness
or in the service of Jesus Christ who is our righteousness. Let
your eyes be used in looking and diligently searching into
the truth of the Scriptures. Let your ears be used in hearing
the Gospel preached. Let your lips, mouth, and tongue
be used to express the praises of God for what He has done for
you. And let your hands and feet be used to distribute those necessities
that are needed by the saints. These works won't save you. But
if God has saved you in Christ, then the love of God and the
love of your brothers in Christ will cause you to serve God in
righteousness unto holiness, humbly doing His will as a servant
of the Lord, freely, willingly, and cheerfully, and all will
be done out of love for the glory of God. And continuing his summary,
Paul says in Romans 6, verses 20-22, For when you were the servants
of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now being made free from
sin and become servants of God, you have your fruit on the holiness
and the end everlasting life." The end is everlasting life.
Paul is saying that when you were the servants of sin, you
had no use for or any interest in righteousness. You didn't
care much about the glory of God. And so what benefit did
your sin or your evil bring to you? The end and the result of
all sin is death. But now that you are servants
of God and you are set free from the love and the dominion of
sin, you have the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruit of the
Spirit is love and joy and faith and peace. And finally, the end
result of the work of the Spirit in you is eternal life. So in Romans 6.23, Paul sums
it all up saying, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Pray with
me, please. O gracious Lord, Lord, we praise
You for sending us our Savior. We praise You for the leading
and guiding and teaching and comforting of Your Holy Spirit.
Keep us from falling. Keep our mind fixed and our eye
fixed on You, dear Lord. As we continually seek Your grace
from Your Spirit, may we never forget that every part of Your
redemption work and Your redemption glory, they are all Yours. And so we praise You and we thank
You that we were once the servants of sin, Now we have the joy of serving
you in the righteousness and the power of Jesus Christ. Cause
us, dear Lord, to love you more. Humble our hearts, humble our
minds as you convict us of our sin, causing us to continually
have a need and to seek Christ, in whose name you have called
us to preach your gospel and in whose name we have come to
you in prayer, praying that the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ
might be a comfort to your people, leading and guiding them in all
righteousness. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

The Love Of Christ Constrains Us

What does the Bible say about the love of Christ?

How do we know that we are justified in Christ?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

How does the Holy Spirit guide believers?

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The Love Of Christ Constrains Us

What does the Bible say about the love of Christ?

How do we know that we are justified in Christ?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

How does the Holy Spirit guide believers?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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