Would you turn with me to Romans,
the sixth chapter? I have entitled this message,
Yielding to God. Yielding to God. Now, in that passage of scripture
I just read in Romans, chapter 12, when it says, I beseech you
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. That word present is the same
word that's translated in our text yield. And let's look at
it in that light in verse 13 of Romans, chapter six. Neither yield. Or present your
members as instruments of unrighteousness and to sin, But yield or present
yourselves unto God. All the words to that song we
just heard, Savior pilot me, was someone presenting themselves
to God. And we're talking about what
they were going to do. They were presenting themselves to the
Lord God. but yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God. Now, five times in
this passage of scripture, the word yield is used. Look in verse 16. Know ye not
that to whom ye yield, or present yourselves servants to obey,
his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Look in verse 19, I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as you have yielded or presented your members servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield or present
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Now, this Yield
is translated by numerous words that give us some idea of what's
behind it. In our King James version, it's sometimes translated
present, as we've already seen, present yourself to God or bring
yourself to God. Here I am. Come to God. Give yourself. To God's soul
and body, provide yourself. To God, show yourself. to God. Stand before God. Yield to God. All those words
are used to describe this thing of yielding to God. Now, we all
have some idea as to what it means to yield. When you see
a yield sign, what do you do? You know, somebody else has the
right away. And if we fail to yield, we'll get run over. This
thing of yielding is so important When we yield, we submit. We comply. We concede. We give way. We cease from opposition. We yield when we give preference
to somebody else and take the lowest seat. Yield yourselves
to God. Now, something that I and you
have to deal with continually, is I'm all the time dealing with
my sin. I know so much what David meant
when he said, My sin is ever before me. And it is. It's ever
before me. It's always breathing down my
neck. How do I deal with my sin, my acts of disobedience? my transgressions
against the law of God." Now, this is the scriptural way of
dealing with your own personal sin. Yielding to God. I hope you'll understand this
by the time this message is over. Now look what he says in verse
12 of Romans chapter 6. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, this dying body that you're in right now,
that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Let not sin reign
in your body, that you should obey it. If it reigns, that means
it has dominion. That means it has control. You
obey its commands. He says, let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal bodies. Now, I want you to notice the
word therefore. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body. Now, the reason he uses that
word, therefore, he's referring to what he said in verse 11.
This is this is one of my favorite verses in scripture. Verse 11.
Likewise. Reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now listen to me. I'm saying
this to every believer. Sin has nothing to say to you. It has no more jurisdiction over
you than the law has over a dead man. The law doesn't have any
jurisdiction over a dead man. Now how can that be? It's because
of what Christ did on the cross. He actually, literally, really
Put away my sin. If he died for me, I truly have
no sin. If I'm in him, I have no sin. Believe it. Believe it. What about the sins
I commit? Believe it. Reckon ye yourselves dead indeed
to sin. Now if God says, this is a command,
if God says reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, there's
only one reason why he'd say that. You are dead indeed to
sin. Sin has nothing to say to you. What does the law have to say
to someone who's never broken it? Nothing. Remember this. The law was not
made for a righteous man. Isn't that what Paul says in
1 Timothy 1? The law was not made for a righteous man, but
for sinners and disobedient, for ungodly and for unholy, profane,
for murders of fathers, for murders of mothers, and so on. You're
familiar with that passage of Scripture. Because of what Christ has done
for me, I am a righteous man, and I'm to reckon myself As such,
reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. That means without
sin. Now, is the gospel of Christ enough? Just his death. Just his death. Just his life,
death, and resurrection. Is that enough to make you dead
to sin? Is it? Absolutely. Nothing else is needed. His death
has made you dead to sin. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You have a real relationship with the living God. He's your
Father. You're His child. And you can come boldly into
His presence through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is a
command to every child of God. Reckon yourselves. Believe yourselves
to be right now. What about that sin I just committed?
I don't care. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. If He says you're dead to sin,
if He tells you to reckon yourself to be that way, you are that
way. Now this is a command. I am my Beloved's. I've got a relationship with
Him. I am my Beloved's and He is mine. Now in light of that,
in light of this reckoning, verse 12, Let not sin, therefore, reign
in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Don't let sin reign. Don't let
sin have dominion over you to where you obey its commands.
You see, the gospel of Christ does not in any way excuse sin. Now, write that down. The gospel
of Christ doesn't excuse sin any more than the law does. Look
what Romans chapter 6, verses 1 and 2 says. What shall we then
say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! God forbid! How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now, let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust
thereof, neither yield ye, verse 13, your members, your body parts. Your eyes, your ears, your hands,
your feet, your tongue, neither yield ye your members as weapons
or 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. Now, that word yield
means present yourself. Present yourself. And that's
helpful to me. I don't know what else to do.
Lord, here I am. I don't present myself to sin. I present myself to him. Now,
if I present myself to sin. I'm acting as a natural man,
as in a believer is not that I present myself. I don't know
how. Lord, here I am. I can't do anything. I'm totally
dependent on you to do something for me. But here I am. I'm presenting
myself to you. Keep me by your grace. Like Peter
prayed, save me, Lord, save me. I present myself to him. Here is myself. Verse 14. Now neither yield you
your members, verse 13, 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, listen to this, for sin
shall not have dominion over you. Now, notice it doesn't say
it should not. Everybody knows it should not, but it says it
shall not. That's a promise of grace. It
shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the
law, but you are under grace. Now, sin shall not have dominion
over you. Now, somebody says, it seems
like it's got a lot of dominion in me. I look into my heart and I can't control
my wicked thoughts, my wicked desires. It seems like it has
a lot of dominion in me. That makes me uncomfortable to
hear, sin shall not have dominion over you. And it seems to have
such power in me. How can that be? My dear friend, there was a time
when you didn't see that. There was a time when you were
clueless as to sin having complete dominion over you. You thought
you could Turn things around. If the circumstances were right,
tomorrow I'm going to do something about this. You thought, I can
turn this thing around. Now, when you thought that way,
that's when sin had complete dominion and control of you. You were blind. You didn't have
a clue as to what righteousness is in the first place. You were
under the complete dominion and power and darkness of sin. And
now that you see something of sin's power in you, where sin
by the commandment becomes exceeding sinful, and you see your exceeding
sinfulness. That's because you've been delivered
from the power of sin. You're not under the power of sin anymore. Sin shall not reign in you because
you're not under the law, but under grace. Now, a natural man
can't understand this, but a believer can. Now, if law. Now, what do I mean by law? He
says you're not under law, but you're under grace. Law. is anything you do to make what
God does work. If any aspect of your salvation
is dependent upon you, you're under law. And I believe the
greatest scriptural example is when Sarah said to Abraham, I
know God promised us a child, but we need to do our part, and
we haven't done it. So here's what you need to do.
You need to go into Hagar, and you do your part, and then God
will give us a child. Now, I know God made this promise,
but that promise won't come to fruition unless we do our part. So he went into Hagar, and Paul
tells us this Hagar is Mount Sinai. This Hagar is the law. Now, if any aspect of my salvation
is dependent upon me doing my part, I've made the whole thing
of law. Now, is the believer under law
in any sense? No. He says you are not under
law, but you are under grace. Now, when I pay my mortgage payment,
it's due at the first of the month, but I'm given a 15-day
grace period. That means if I'm two weeks late,
I'm not going to get charged anything extra. I'm given a 15-day
grace period. Now, salvation is an eternal
grace period. Not 15 days. It's eternal, eternal
grace. Grace has always been my standing. Complete, unmerited favor. You're not under the law. Now,
if you're under law, all you prove by that is that you're
a wicked person. The law was not made for a righteous man.
If I need law, all I say by that is I have no righteousness before
God, and I'm trying to work up one. The law was not made for
a righteous man. You are not under law, but you
are under grace. Well, shouldn't we strive to
keep the law? No, I've kept it. I kept the law. I don't strive
to keep the law. I have kept it. In the person
of my beloved Savior, I myself have personally kept the law.
I stand righteous before that holy law. His righteousness literally
is mine. We are under grace. Paul says, by grace are you saved. I love what Peter said. We believe
that through the grace, the unmerited favor of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we should be saved just like those Gentiles. Now, the only
way a Gentile can be saved is by grace. We're saved the same
way they are, by the free grace of God. Now, every aspect of
salvation, I love to think of electing grace, God choosing
me graciously. He didn't see anything in me
that caused Him to choose me. He did it because He's gracious.
justifying grace that makes me just before God and makes me
not guilty before God. I love redeeming grace that pays
for all my sins, so I owe nothing. I love life-giving, regenerating
grace that gives me life. I love preserving grace that
keeps me. I can't fall away. I'm preserved
by the grace of God. Oh, I love salvation by grace. Here's why sin's not going to
have dominion over you. It doesn't say it shouldn't.
It says it doesn't. And the reason it doesn't is
because of God's grace. There's not one believer where
sin has dominion over them. Now, they're aware of their sin.
Oh, what a grief it is. But I also know that I'm in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I do not have sin. Believe it. Believe
it. You're commanded to believe it. Isn't it great to be without
sin? Well, I don't feel guilty, but I feel good. I mean, this
is great. I have no sin. That's the gospel in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, how do we respond to this?
Verse 15. What then? He makes this glorious Verse
14, this ought to be something everybody memorizes and rejoices
in. Sin shall not. That's a promise. It shall not
have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under
grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? How do we respond to this? Well,
oh, let's have a Mardi Gras then. I mean, we're under grace. We
don't have to worry about it. Let's sin all we want. Let's
revel in our sin because we'll not be held accountable. We're
not under law, but under grace. Does any believer respond that
way? No, a goat responds that way. A goat says, well, you know,
that's that's the way we're going to do it. But not a sheep. You know, how many times have
you heard people when you when you try to tell them about what
you believe, somebody who's not a believer, maybe even a religious
person, they'll hear about the freeness of grace and they say,
well, that's a license to sin. That means you can just sin all
you want. Listen, I sin a whole lot more
than I want. I don't want to sin at all. I really, I don't
want to, I would be without sin. This isn't a license to sin. That's like Lynn telling me she
loves me. Oh, I love you and I'll never
leave you. Oh good, then I can go out with all the different
women I want as long as you'll stay with me and I don't have
to worry about it. See that's, a believer's not going to respond like that.
Shall we continue in sin and grace may abound? God forbid. Shall we sin because we're not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, verse
16, know ye not that to whom you yield or present yourselves
servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether
of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Now, whoever
you present yourself to, you're a slave to. Do you present yourself
to God? That's not talking about making
promises. Lord, I'm never going to do that again. That's not
what that's talking about at all. It means you present yourself. Here am I. Do something for me. Have mercy on me. Give me grace. Save me. Here am I. Here I am,
body and soul. Here am I. You present yourself
to the living God. Now, if you present yourself
to sin, here am I. Use me. That's what the natural
man does. He may not know it, but that's
what he does. He presents himself to sin. Here am I. Here am I. But a believer presents himself
to God. Here am I. Verse 17, but God be thanked. Now, remember, whoever you present
yourself to obey his servants, you are. But God be thanked.
He said, I'm not thanking you. I'm thanking God for this. But
God be thanked. that you were the slaves of sin,
under complete dominion, unable to believe, unable to see the
truth, but you have obeyed from the heart, that new heart that
God gave you, that he placed within you, you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you Or where
and to you were delivered. This doctrine, the doctrine of
God, the gospel, is what that's a reference to. It's delivered
you. This is the form of sound words. And let me show you how
this is delivered. Just hold your finger there and turn to 2 Timothy 1. This is the form of sound words,
the form of doctrine, the same words used here in 2 Timothy
1. Here's how we were delivered. Verse 9, Who hath saved us? God saved us. He did the saving. That's all
of our belief right there. He saved us. And He called us. And I love this. What came first? The saving or the calling? What
came first? He saved us. He saved us in His
purpose. He saved us by His grace. He
saved us by His Son. Listen to me. I was saved when
Christ was raised from the dead. I was saved when God elected
me. I was saved when I said, Lord,
save me. All those things are true. All
those things are true. That's just the way the scripture
presents it. I was saved in eternity. I was saved when Christ died
on the cross. I'm saved when I believe the gospel. And I'm
crying, Lord, save me. Now He saved us, and He 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. Now listen to me, everything
you had, you've always had. He gave it to you in Christ before
time began. Everything you possess, every spiritual blessing in Christ
Jesus, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who has abolished death. and hath brought life
and immortality to life through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for
the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed." And I'm persuaded,
I'm convinced that he is able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day. Now, hold fast upon the sound
words. Now, this is the point I want
to make about this, this thing of committing. If you believe in works in any
way, if you believe in free will, that's a failure to commit. You've
not committed your salvation to Him. It's only when your hands
are totally off and you're completely dependent upon Him that you commit
the salvation of your soul to Him. Now, this is the form of
sound words. This is the doctrine which delivered us, isn't it?
Christ did it all. Back to Romans chapter 6. Verse 18, being made free from sin. The Lord said, if the Son shall
make you free, what comes next? You shall be free indeed, set
free by the blood of Christ. I owe nothing. Stand fast in
the liberty, the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free. Now,
he says, being then made free from sin, you became the slaves
of righteousness. You became a slave of righteousness.
You know how I can tell somebody is a slave of righteousness?
If they believe the gospel. Anybody who believes the gospel
is a slave of righteousness. They can't get past that. They believe the gospel. Now,
verse 19, he says, I speak after the manner of men because of
the infirmity of your flesh. I'm using the human analogy of
a slave with his master so you can understand. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as you have yielded or presented your member servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity and to iniquity, even so now yield ye, present
your member servants to righteousness and to holiness. For when you
were the servants of the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. You didn't have a clue as to
what it was. You didn't even have your ideas, but you didn't
know. What fruit had ye then? Verse 21. What fruit had ye in
those things where you are now ashamed? As a slave of sin, I don't care
if it's religious sin, there are some of you that are ashamed
of what you used to believe. It was so dishonoring to God,
so dishonoring to the gospel, it was worse than the bad sins.
And you're ashamed of the open transgressions and so on, you're
ashamed of those things. What fruit had you in those things? You're now ashamed for the end
of those things are death. Verse 22, but now being made
free from sin. Now, are you? If what Christ
did is enough, you are. Being made free from sin and
become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and
the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. And there's two words that stand out to me there. Wages
and gift. The wages of sin is death. You know why God sends men to
hell? Is it because he predestinated them to go to hell? Well, there's
scriptures that seem that he's in control of all that. I don't
understand it all, but it's, you know, where and who also
they were appointed. But also know this. If a man goes to hell,
he goes to hell because of his sin. It's wages, it's wages paid. He doesn't go to hell because
God arbitrarily decided to send him to hell. He goes to hell
because of his sin. The wages of sin is death. But the gift, the gift, the free
gift of God, is eternal life, a gift with no strings attached.
It's a complete free gift. Damnation is of man. Salvation
is of the Lord. Now, what I'd like to do in closing
is turn over to Isaiah chapter six, because this is what came
to my mind as an illustration of what it is to yield to God. Verse 1, Isaiah says, in the
year that King Uzziah died. Now that's very important that
I know what happened in the year that King Uzziah died. Do you
remember how King Uzziah died? He took it upon himself to offer
up a sacrifice. He bypassed the priest and thought
he could come into God's presence on his own. And the priest tried
to stop him. They said, that pertains not
to the Uzziah. Don't do this. Eighty-three priests
warned him, don't do this. He did it anyway. He offered
up incense apart from the priest, and God turned him into a leper
right then. You see, you don't dare come
into God's presence at any time apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way I come. Now,
Isaiah said, when I saw how unapproachable God is, how He can't be approached
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. And if I ever see the
Lord, I'm going to see Him on a throne, ruling and reigning,
having absolute control, high. And lifted up, verse two, above
it, his throne stood the seraphims, and each one had six wings with
twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet
and with twain he did fly. He covered his face because he
felt himself unable to look. He covered his feet because he
was ashamed of his walk. He used the other two to fly,
ready to obey whatever God told him to do. And they cried one
to another, verse three, and said, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Now, that's what they said regarding
him. They didn't say love, love, love. They didn't say mercy,
mercy, mercy, although he is love, he is mercy, he is gracious.
But when they described him as they saw him, they cried out,
holy, holy, holy. is the Lord of hosts, the whole
earth is filled with His glory. And the post of the door, verse
4, moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was
filled with smoke. Now, you think of the foundations
of that door moving. That talks about the power of
this. And the house being filled with smoke. I can't see very
clearly. It's smoky. It's misty to me.
I can't see as I would the glory of God filled the temple. And
He couldn't see. Then said I, verse 5, Woe is
me. Now, if you would read the previous
chapter, five times he said, Woe unto them. Woe unto them. Woe unto them. And when he sees
the Lord, he doesn't say, Woe unto them. He says, Woe unto
me. He said, because I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm a reprobate. He saw who the Lord was and he
thought, I can't be anything more than a reprobate. I'm cut
off. I'm undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips. Everything
that comes out of my mouth is filth because I say it. That's
the problem. The problem in the words, the
problem with who says them. It's base hypocrisy. Everything that
comes out of my mouth. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
what comes out of my lips comes from my heart. And I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. Everybody's just like me.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Woe is me
then. Not before then. when he made
this, by the grace of God, confession of what he was. Then flew one
of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which
he taken with the tongs from off the altar for sacrifice.
This has something to do with the sacrifice of Christ. And
he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched
thy lips. And thine iniquity is taken away. And thy sin is purged, washed
away. Now, that's the gospel, isn't
it? My iniquity is taken away. I don't...it's gone. My sin has
been purged. It's been cleansed. Verse 8, And I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Now, this is interesting. I see
a draft here. God's army is a drafted army,
isn't it? Whom shall I send? But he also
says, who will go? They're all volunteers. It's
both a divine draft and it makes them willing and they're all
volunteers. Whom shall I send? And who will
go for me?" Now here is presenting yourself to the Lord. Lord, here
am I. Here am I. Send me. And you don't care where He sends
you. I love what John Newton said.
If God commissioned two angels one to rule an empire, and the
other to sweep streets. They would both do their master's
bidding, not caring which job they got. If he said to do it,
that's fine. Here am I. Now, I beseech you,
by the mercies Oh, the mercies of God. Oh, salvation by the
mercy of God. He didn't say, I beseech you
because you'll get punished if you don't. He didn't give any
kind of rules like that. He said, I beseech you by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies. Lord, hear my. You present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Holy. That's what he calls it,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is only your reasonable service.
Is anything less than this reasonable? Absolutely not. And be not conformed
to this world, this world that hates the living God, this world
that does not believe the gospel. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. And you know when he tells them
to do that, you know what the first thing he tells them to do? Let
not any man think too highly of himself as he ought to think,
but let him think soberly, as God has dealt to every man the
measure of faith. Read Romans Chapter 12 real carefully
this week. May the Lord give us grace to
yield ourselves, body and soul, to the living God. Let's pray
together.