Well, it is my delight to be
with you again, as always. What a blessed, blessed song,
Kara. Thank you so very much. Thank
you. And it's been a long time since
I've heard Brother Paul Harries read scripture. It takes a Brit
to read Elizabethan English the way it ought to be read. And
I mean that. I use the King James, the only
translation of scripture I think is fit to use, but I realize
that I read it like a southern boy from North Carolina, and
I mispronounce things. My friends in England, I sometimes
see them kind of chuckle when I read something, but I so much
appreciate the privilege of worshiping with you, and I thank God for
meeting with us thus far. Lord willing, after I leave here,
I'll go up and preach at Pikeville tomorrow night, and then in English
West Virginia, Friday night and Saturday morning, drive home,
preaching home Sunday, and I ask you to pray for God's blessings
on those meetings. Turn with me, if you will, to
the Gospel of Romans, chapter six. I believe God's given me
a message for you. I pray he'll give me grace to
proclaim it to your heart. I have some friends whose businesses
were destroyed yesterday and today, I'm sorry, Monday and
Tuesday from the flooding, the aftermath of the hurricane that
hit the North Carolina coast. And it's difficult to deal with
those things. I have some friends who are enduring
great hardship, some physical. some physical and emotional,
some difficulties that just hard to bear. And this by the direct purpose,
the deliberate purpose, by the sovereign hand of our great God
who sits upon the throne, undisturbed by anything. He sits upon the
throne. Nothing bothers him. He sits
upon the throne, totally undisturbed, totally at ease. We worship God. God who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. I've been told all my life as
a believer, you can't carry that too far. No, you can't. You can't
come close to carrying it far enough. He worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. There are no accidents
in God's universe. There are no second thoughts
with the Almighty. There are no alternative plans
with him. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will, the evil and the good, that which
is painful and that which is pleasant, and all those things
he works together for good to them that love God, that is,
those who are the called according to his purpose. And the question
is often raised by people who do not know God. Raised by people
who do not know God. That can't be for good. If there's
a God in heaven, how do you explain these evil things? Sickness,
disease, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, devastation
to people's lives. If there's a God in heaven, How
do you explain that? How is any good going to come
from this? Let me ask you to consider the
most evil things in history. And let me tell you about some
good that's come from them. The most horrible thing in history
was the murder of God's son by the hands of wicked men. The
desire that his blood be upon them. 2,000 years ago. And oh, what
good has come from it. Who could ever have imagined
the good that would come from the sacrifice of God's darling
son? You read it in the scriptures,
but who could ever have imagined it? If he can work that for good,
I have no problem understanding that hurricanes and earthquakes
and tornadoes and sickness and disease and pestilence and war
and famine, all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. All things, all
things. The evil that men do and those
things that men look at and say are the good things men do. Go
back to the garden. God could easily, easily have
prevented the entrance of sin into the world. You understand
that. You know that he's God. He kept
the angels from sinning. He could keep Adam from sinning.
He kept the angels in their first estate. He could have kept Adam
in that state. But that was not his purpose. That was not his
intent. That was not his design. He intended
a day to come when Adam would eat of the forbidden fruit and
plunge our race into sin and death and ungodliness. That out
of that horrible fall, he might gather a people in his own son. through his blood and righteousness,
in the perfection of holiness, around his throne forever, to
the praise of the glory of his grace. Now look at Romans chapter
six and verse 17. But, but, be sure you don't miss
that little word, but. which opens my text. It takes
us back. To all that Paul has just told
us about everything we've experienced of God's saving grace. All that
we confess in believers baptism. All that Christ has accomplished
for us in his redemption. All that God the Holy Ghost has
done for us and brought in us by his grace in regeneration,
that is in sanctification. And the blessed assurance God
has given to us to all sinners who trust his dear son. that
sin shall never have dominion over us. Sin will never bring
evil upon us who are gods. Sin will never bring judgment
upon you. Sin will never bring death to
you. Sin will never bring you to hell.
Sin will never have dominion over you who are born of God.
We're redeemed. Redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. We've been saved by God's free grace. We are dead
indeed unto sin. Dead unto sin. Just as Christ,
who was made sin for us, died once to sin. We died in him and
we are dead indeed to sin. So that sin has no claim upon
anyone who's in Christ. And we're now alive under God,
risen with him in the newness of life, to walk with him as
new creatures in a new way of life all the days of our lives. Christ is our life and we live
in him. Now after assuring us of all
these things, the apostle writes by divine inspiration and makes
this profound statement to you and I who are gods. But God be
thanked that ye were the servants of sin. But ye have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. What
a great, great reason saved sinners have to trust and constantly
give thanks to God, living for his glory. What a reason you and I, saved
by God's free grace, have to trust and give thanks to God,
constantly living for His glory. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you. God be thanked. That's my subject. Every saved
sinner has great reason to give thanks to God for his infinite
wisdom and matchless grace in saving us precisely as he has
saved us. For myself, if I know anything
of my own heart, I hope I can say truly, I hate sin, my sin. I would not willingly, willfully
commit a single sin for the world. And yet sin is what I am. I loathe myself. for sin, the sin of my poor,
fallen, corrupt, depraved nature. And sin becomes more and more
bitter to me as Christ becomes more and more precious to me. The more precious he is, the
more bitter sin. And yet with all that, I tell
you, I would rather be a sinner saved and saved in such a way
as I am saved by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ than never to have known sin. Are you listening to me? If I
had never known sin, I would never have known Christ. If we had never known sin, we
would never have known the Savior. If we had never known sin, we
would never know forgiveness. If we had never known sin, we
could never know grace. If we had never known sin, we
could never know salvation. Thank God. Ye who were the servants
of sin, but are now obedient to Christ. Thanks be unto God. Let me show you just a few things
from this passage of scripture. And I pray that as I do, God
will graciously burn it into your heart. First, I want you
to be assured that our translation is exactly accurate. I said before,
I don't use any translation except the King James. And there's good
reason for that. I'm not a Greek scholar, Hebrew
scholar, don't pretend to be. This is without question the
best translation of the manuscripts of the scriptures in the English
language. There's not any need for a modern
translation. Folks talk about what is old
English. Nobody understands that. I've
never heard tell of a literature teacher or professor suggesting
that they upgrade Shakespeare and put it in modern English. I've never seen that suggestion
from anyone. The only reason for continually
modifying the scriptures is you want to modify God out of it
and you in it. You want to make God look weak
and man look big. The scriptures stand exactly,
in this verse of scripture, exactly as it's stated in the Greek text.
I checked it very carefully. Each word is exactly as it would
be translated properly from the Greek text. Nothing can be added
to it. Nothing can be taken from it
without doing injury to the text and changing its meaning altogether.
Here in verse 17, Paul gives thanks to God that we were once
the servants of sin, but are now in obedience to Christ. He
thanks God for both. The fact that we were once the
servants of sin and that we are now in obedience to Christ. He
thanks God that we were lost and now saved. Once unregenerate
and now regenerated by his grace. Once dead in trespasses and in
sins and now alive in Jesus Christ the Lord. Most read the passage
like this. God be thanked that though you
were the servants of sin, but that's not what the text says.
Read it with me again. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine, that is the gospel of God's free grace, which was
delivered you. You might ask, can it be imagined
that the apostle would thank God that we were once in the
drudgery of Satan, doing his service, doing his bidding? The answer is crystal clear.
If God's glory is thereby more advanced, if sin is overruled
by him to show forth his greater glory, we must indeed delightfully
say with him, God be thanked. You were the servants of sin,
but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered to you. Most of you are aware that many
years ago, I had cancer, as your pastor did, same age. We got
Hodgkin's disease, same age I did. I was 26 years old. Mine was
a long time before his, but same age. And the doctors had just
come up with this strange form of medication. It was chemotherapy. And they loaded me up with it.
They loaded me up with it. And Cobalt. I've still got tattoos
where they put blocks on me to keep me from hopefully not injuring
my spine, my heart, my lungs, so forth, because I had to use
that severe form of radiation. Those medications, just slightly
misused, would be deadly. Just slightly misused. But those
medications were in the hand of God, instruments to restore
my health. So I'm standing here now. Sickness
is often, often. Pain is often. Sorrow is often. Trouble in the flesh is often
an instrument by which God brings good to our soul. just as poisonous
medications bring health to the body. And the Lord God Almighty
has done us good through the sin and fall of our father Adam
and through our sin and fall in him, giving him in us an opportunity
to display all the glory of his holy being in all his attributes. and all the perfection and merit
and worth of his darling son, his blood, and his righteousness.
Second, understand this. The Holy Lord God, by infinite
wisdom and grace, has made our sin, our misery, the occasion
of our greatest possible blessedness. Oh, what great reason this is
for thanksgiving and praise to our God. And let no one misunderstand
my words, and folks who want to can, they'll do what they
want to, but I want you to understand. I offer no excuse for any man's
sin, especially my own. We do not in any way attempt
or think that somehow we can escape our own responsibility
for our iniquity or charge God with sin. We recognize and declare
plainly God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he
any man. But our great God is so infinitely
wise, so infinitely gracious, that he turns our greatest misery
into our greatest good. and sovereignly overrules and
overrides sin to make it an occasion for our eternal blessedness. I know you didn't get that. Will
you listen to me one more time? Our God is so infinitely wise,
so infinitely gracious that he turns our greatest misery into
our greatest good. and sovereignly overrules and
overrides our sin to make it an occasion for our eternal blessedness. Jonathan Edwards put it this
way. Edwards, you remember, was once
president of Princeton University. He was a brilliant man. He said,
divine wisdom has found out a way whereby the sinner might not
only escape being miserable, but that he should be happier
than before he sinned. Yea, than he would ever have
been if he had never sinned. By the redemptive work of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the sins of God's elect are turned into a
means of accomplishing greater happiness, greater joy, and everlasting
glory than we could ever have known had we never said. As Paul
put it in Romans 5, where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. Our great God ordained our fall
and our father Adam and overrules our abounding sin that has only
left might forever enjoy the super abundance of his matchless
free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Third, sinful man is brought
into a nearer union with God in the person of Christ, the
sinner's substitute, than we could ever have enjoyed had we
not known sin. How can I say this with clarity? Had we never sinned, Christ would
never have been our surety. Had we never sinned, He would
never have taken on Him our flesh. Had we never sinned, He would
never have been our substitute. Had we never sinned, He would
never have shed His blood. Had we never sinned, He would
never have performed righteousness. Had we never sinned, He would
never have died. He would never have risen from
the dead. But now, yonder in glory is a man in my nature. God came into this world in human
flesh. God became a man. God became a man. Now I know the theologians say,
you don't say that, he didn't become man. God said the word
was made flesh. God stepped into humanity and
became one of us. In all things, sin alone except
We are members of His body. When Paul writes in Ephesians
about the husband and wife, and the husband loving his wife as
Christ loved the church, and the two of them becoming one
flesh, he's now, this is a great mystery, but I'm not talking
about a man and his wife. That's just an illustration.
I'm talking about Christ and the church. We are one flesh
with Jesus Christ. One life with Him. won in union
with him, so much so. It's easy for us to understand
He is our fullness. But Paul says in Ephesians 1
that we are the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. So that
there is a union now between Christ and His people. He who
is our Savior, who is our God, who died in our place at Calvary,
is our brother, our husband, one with us in the same body. so that we are the sons of God
in him and the sons of God with him. We now have him who is God
in our flesh, one with us, who before the world began assumed
total responsibility for our souls. Total responsibility for our
souls. Mitch, you didn't have to get
that. I haven't either. God Almighty looks to Him from
everlasting for everything God requires from Mitch, Brian, and
Don. He gave us into the hands of
the chivalry. The sheriff struck hands with the father and became
totally responsible as the shepherd for his sheep. The sheep are
not responsible for themselves. The shepherd's responsible for
them. He bears the blame if any harm
comes to the sheep. If any sheep fails to be brought
at last into the heavenly fold, he who is God became one with
us And He who is God, one with us, is our everlasting surety. Our temporary separation from
God by sin has been made the means of our eternal union with
God in Jesus Christ in redemption. Read again our Lord's Prayer
in John chapter 17, how He speaks about He and the Father, one. He, the Father, and the Spirit,
one. He said, now, Father, this is
what I've come to accomplish, and this is what I ask you to
do for them through my accomplishments, that they may be made perfect
in one, thou in them, and I in thee, and them in thee. Even as we are one, one with
God, my Savior, in an eternal indivisible, indestructible,
immutable, perfect union. Number four, save sinners by
reason of our sin. Have greater and fuller knowledge
of God, his glory, his grace, his justice, his holiness, and
his love than we could ever have possessed. Never sin. Now, we see what could not otherwise
have been seen. We see the glory of God in the
face of the man, Christ Jesus, who was crucified for us. And
in his death, we have the revelation of God's love. God commended
his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. God commends his love. When I
was in high school, and when I was in college, I used to sell
shoes. And I was pretty good at it. And I often had the responsibility,
back in those days we'd have stores that had windows and you
had to dress the windows. And we were trained how to dress
the windows. The object was to arrange things in the window
to get the attention of ladies. Men you don't pay much attention
to. If you can get the wife in, you got the man. So you'd arrange
the windows to get the attention of the ladies to draw them into
the front door. If you get them in the front
door, you might sell them something. If they don't come in the front
door, you're not going to sell them anything. So we would arrange
the windows. Caught your eye. You just kind
of just keep walking this way. And all of a sudden, you're at
the front door, and I'll go in. God Almighty so commends his love
to sinners. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. When I went shopping for that
ring my wife is wearing, it's not much, it's the best I could
do, but I went to the jewelry store in Winston-Salem. The gal took that ring out from
behind the counter, out from underneath the counter, and she
spread out a piece of black velvet. And she laid that ring right
in the middle of that on a little bit of a cushion, pushing it
up just a little bit, and a bright light shining right down on her.
Man, it looked like it was worth $1,000. It's beautiful! That's the one I want. She was
commending the ring. God commends His love to sinners
this way. You can't know it any other way. You can't get it any other way.
And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We have illustrations
of love many places. We have examples of love many
places. But here in his love, not that
we loved God, but that he loved us and sacrificed his own son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Now that's the love of
God. That's the love of God. Our redemption by Christ, by
which God's love is revealed to us and in us, will be the
theme of our heavenly praise forever and ever. To him who
hath made us kings and priests under God, who washed us from
our sins in his own blood. Fifth, Our redemption from sin,
our redemption from sin and death by Christ causes us to have love
for God that we could not otherwise have. One day the love will be brought
to perfection. But even now, the love of Christ
that constrains us is something that Adam could never have known
in innocence. And the angels of heaven can
never know. You remember the parable, not
the parable, the story our Lord gives in Luke chapter seven of
a woman, a woman who was a sinner. If I'm not mistaken, all examples
given of this story speak of the same woman, Mary. That vile,
base woman. But that woman whose heart the
Lord had opened. A woman that all the ladies in
town would cross the street if she was on their side. A woman
that they'd keep their husbands and sons away from. But the Lord
was gracious to her. And he forgave her her sins.
And she believed what he said. She believed and understood,
Rick, what Peter, James, and John could get a hold of. It
just flew right by them. She understood. He's going to
Jerusalem to die in my stead. And she came in the Pharisee's
house and knelt behind him. And she brought her life savings
with her, an alabaster box of ointment, spiked and very precious. And she broke it and anointed
him for his burial. and washed his feet with her
tears and kissed them and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
And Simon and Judas. And then the other apostles joined
in, ridiculing this woman. And the Lord said, Simon, let
me ask you, if a man has debtors, And one owes 50 cents, one owes
$5 million. And it frankly forgives them
both who love him most. And Simon answered very reasonably,
as I suppose the fellow that was forgiven $5 million. He said,
you said well. And this woman, forgiven much,
loves much. The love of Christ constraining
us. The love of Christ puts pressure
on us that we can't resist. The love of Christ pulls us with
a force nobody can explain, but nobody can resist. The love of
Christ constrains us because we thus judge. Brian Dufour,
the son of God, died for me. He died for me that I should
no longer live for myself, but for him who died for me and rose
again. Is that what the love of Christ
does? That's what he said. Romans 2nd Corinthians chapter
5 verse 16. The love of Christ tells me I'm
not my own. I've been bought with a price.
It is mine therefore to glorify God in my body and in my spirit. Great forgiveness is the greatest
motivation for love, adoration, devotion, and praise that can
be found. Nothing compares to it. Number
six, fallen man, saved by the grace of God, has a greater,
more sensible dependence upon God than he could otherwise have. God is glorified by his creature's
dependence on him. Fallen man saved by grace knows
by bitter, painful, long, abundant experience that he has no hope
but for the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. Did you ever
notice in Genesis 3 when the Lord describes the garden, or
Genesis 2 rather, when he describes the tree in the garden? It's
called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God's the one who planted the
tree there. God is the one who ordained that the day would come
when Adam would eat the fruit of that tree and taste the evil
of sin. Because God had wisely and graciously
determined that his elect might know the great and glorious good
of redemption by Christ Jesus. God the Holy Ghost tells us that
this grace abounding to us in, through, and by Christ Jesus
is a reason for thanksgiving and praise to our God. But God,
be thanked. Ye were the servants of sin.
But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered you. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Now one more thing, one more
thing. Faith in Christ is the obedience
Paul speaks of in the 17th verse of Romans 6. obedience, the obedience of faith. Listen to me now. God, throughout his word, calls
you to believe his son. He commands you to believe his
son. He sent me here as his ambassador. me as his ambassador to you. And by this man's lips, God speaks
to you and says be reconciled to God. Now you can do one of two things
and you will do one of two things. You will either obey the command
of God in the gospel and believe his son, trusting his blood,
his righteousness, his power, his grace, his intercession,
trusting him, trusting him as your only hope before God. Or
you can refuse to believe his son and keep trusting yourself. and your goodness, and your works,
and your decision, and your will, and your experience, and go to
hell. Now this is what I pray. Oh God,
will you tonight force sinners who will not come
to Christ to come to Him. Force them. Force them. Oh, God, force them to come. If you don't, they'll never come. And if God sweetly, graciously
forces you to come, you'll be tickled to death to come.