I'm going to be reading from
the book of Romans. If you have a Bible, I'd like
for you to turn to Romans, the sixth chapter. Now, you'll be
especially interested in my message today. The title of the message
is Free from Sin. Free from Sin. And I'm going to be reading from
the sixth chapter of Romans. First of all, verse seven. In
which Paul writes, for he that is dead, he's talking about being
dead with Christ, crucified with Christ, buried, risen with Christ,
he that is dead is free, free from sin, free from sin. Sin has no dominion over him,
has no control, no demand, no claims, because he's dead. It's like when a man goes to
the electric chair for murder. And the switch is thrown and
he dies. He's free from sin. He's free from crime. The law
has no more claim. The law has nothing else they
can do to him. He's free from sin. Romans 6.18 says this, being
then made free from sin, delivered from sin, you became the servants
of righteousness. Being made free from sin, being
given this blessing, and this glorious standing of freedom
from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Now watch verse
22. But now, being made free from
sin and becoming the servants of God, you have your fruit unto
holiness and the end, life everlasting. Being made free from sin, and
becoming the servants, bond slaves of Jesus Christ. You have fruit
now, and that fruit is unto holiness, and the end, the results of it
all, is eternal life. Now, are you interested in this
message? I believe some of you are. But you'll have to listen,
and listen carefully, because I'm going to deal plainly, very
bluntly, and I believe scripturally, with you on this subject, free
from sin. Our great concern before God
is our sins. Now that's why it's true. If
anybody listens, that's true of myself and everybody listening
to me. David said that. He said, my
sins are ever before me. My sins are ever before me. And
one of the prophets said, your sins, this is your whole trouble,
your sins have separated you and your God. That's what's between
you and God, your sins. That's the whole trouble. There
wouldn't be any trouble if it wasn't for sin. Wouldn't be any
trouble. No death, sorrow, punishment. Sin, that's the whole trouble.
It's between you and your God. And the wages of sin is death.
That's the wages. That's the results of sin. And
sin, when it's finished, when it's run its course and brought
its results, it brings forth death. For all have sinned. There's nobody that hasn't There's
no one who's not plagued with this problem. Everybody has it. Even the little children out
there listening to me are sinners. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, here's my question. What
would it mean to you to have the hope that you were free from
sin? That all of your sins, I mean
past, present, and future, that all of your sins were pardoned,
Forgiven, put away forever and forever, never to be remembered
or mentioned again. When David and Paul wrote about
that, both of them wrote the same thing. Paul said it in Psalm,
David said it in Romans 4. Blessed twice happy is the man
whose iniquities are forgiven. He's a happy man. The man whose
iniquities are all forgiven. The man whose sins are covered,
blessed, twice happy, is the man to whom God will not charge
sin. Now you think about that. You
talk about happiness. You talk about bliss. Total joy. Our sins all forgiven. The man
to whom God will not charge or impute one sin. He talked about
that in Hebrews 10, 17, God said there's sins and iniquities,
well I remember no more. No more. God can't forget anything,
you say. No, but the blood of Christ is
so effectual and so sufficient and strong that even the holy
eyes of God cannot see sin that's been eradicated and removed and
blotted out by the blood of Christ. Now that's so, that's the effectual
work of the blood of Christ. 1 John 1, 7 says, the blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us, cleanseth us from all sin,
not two or three or past sins, all sin. And the hymn writer
wrote that blessed hymn, My sins, O the bliss of that glorious
thought, My sins, not in part, but the whole, are nailed to
the cross, and I bear them no more. Praise the Lord, it's well
with my soul." Now the text from Romans 6, three times, three
times, declares that the believer who is dead, and I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. When he died, we died. When he
arose, we arose. When he ascended, we ascended.
And when he was seated at the right hand of God, we were seated
in him. And Paul is saying that every believer who has died under
the judgment of sin is dead with Christ and he's free from sin,
just like Christ is free from the sins he bore, which were
imputed sins, not his own. But he actually was made sin
for us. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree, did he not? Well, he arose without sin. Where are they? They're put away.
cast into the depths of the sea to be remembered no more. So
he's free from sin, and in him I'm free from sin. That's what
he's saying. And we're free from sin. We're no longer in bondage
to sin, no longer under the guilt of sin. But we're now the servants
of the Lord. We're now the servants of righteousness. He that is freed from sin, from
the service of sin, from the bondage of sin, has become the
servant of God and the servant of righteousness, and his fruit,
the fruit of his life is holiness unto the Lord. And the result
of all of it is a sure hope in Christ of life eternal. Now let me speak to you as plainly
as I can on the subject free from sin. I'm not going to speak
in riddles. I'm not going to speak in religious
jargon. I'm going to speak plainly and
truthfully, even if you don't believe what I'm saying, at least
you'll understand what I'm saying. Now, four things I'm going to
deal with in this message. First is this. What does it not
mean, this free from sin? Free from sin, what it does not
mean. A lot of folks are missing the boat on this right here,
what it does not mean. And then I'm going to talk about
what free from sin does mean. And then, the Lord willing, I'm
going to talk about how this blessing comes to us, being free
from sin. How can I have it? You. And then,
fourthly, the results of that blessed hope. Now, first of all,
free from sin. I read it to you three times.
He that's dead is free from sin. He that's free from sin is no
longer the servant of sin, but the servant of righteousness.
And he that's free from sin is not only the servant of God and
of righteousness, but he has his fruit unto righteousness,
and the end thereof, life eternal. Now, free from sin, through the
righteousness of Christ and the sacrifice of the Son of God,
what this does not mean. All right, first of all, to be
free from sin does not mean that I am free from the presence of
sin. Sin does remain. It doesn't reign. It doesn't control. But it does
remain. Everybody listening to me, believer
or unbeliever, is a sinner. Now the Bible says in 1 John
1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. And verse 10 says, if we say
we have not sinned, we make God a liar. When our Lord taught
his disciples to pray, they said, teach us to pray. One of the
statements in that prayer is this, forgive us our sins. Forgive us our sins. Our Lord
taught his disciples to pray every day for the forgiveness
of sin. How very real to every honest
believer listening to my voice are the motions of sin. I'm not
talking about getting drunk and rolling in the gutter. I'm not
talking about murder, and theft, and rape, and adultery, and these
things. I'm talking about the sins of the mind, and of the
heart, and of the imagination. The sin of pride, and lust, and
covetousness, and envy, and jealousy, and prejudice, and pride. These
things are sin. The thought of foolishness is
sin. We're not perfect. Not in ourselves,
we're perfect in Christ. He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. By one offering, he has perfected
us forever. But we're not perfect. And any
man who claims to be perfect is a liar, and the truth's not
in him. And he's even made God a liar. You never live a day
without sinning. So to be free from sin doesn't
mean that we're free from the presence of sin. That's foolishness
to even talk about. And then secondly, free from
sin does not mean that we're free from an awareness of sin.
We're aware of things about us. Those things that appeal to the
flesh still appeal to the flesh. Not to the spirit, not to the
heart, but to the flesh. There's a constant warfare in
every believer between the flesh and the spirit. That's what Paul
said, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against
the flesh, so that you can't do the things you would. Read
the seventh chapter of Romans. The Apostle Paul talks about,
I would be perfect. I would, I love the law of God.
I would be perfect, but I find another law warring within me,
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death. Oh,
wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of sin? The apostle Paul said, Christ
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I'm less
than the least of all the saints. If Paul were without sin, he'd
be better than all the saints, because he'd be the only one
without sin. He's not worthy, he said, to
be an apostle. So we're not delivered from the
awareness of sin. the consciousness of sin, the
conflicts of sin, the warfare between the flesh and the spirit.
Be honest. Be honest with yourself and be
honest with God. And he said, if we confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But he
that covereth his sins shall not prosper. The man that denies
his sin and covers him, God's not going to prosper him. I'm
not talking about prosperity now, like all these con men on
television are talking about. I'm talking about spiritual prosperity.
I'd rather have patches on my breeches and know God than drive
a limousine and be in the gall of religious bitterness. It's
time somebody spoke against the racketeering in the name of religion,
in the name of God that's going on in our day. Freedom from sin. What does it not mean? Well,
it doesn't mean we're free from the effects of sin. You're not
free from the effects of sin. Sin is the cause of all unhappiness. Are you ever unhappy? Sin is
the cause of all sickness. Sin is the cause of all sorrow,
depression, and death. Sure it is. By one man's sin
enters this world and death by sin. There was no, none of these
things contrary to happiness on this earth till sin came.
Are you free from depression? Are you free from loneliness?
Are you never lonely? Are you never sorrowful? Are
you never depressed? Are you free from pain, never
have a headache? Are you free from sickness? Are
you never sick, never have a cold? Are you free from sadness? Are
you never sad, blue, huh? Are you free from fear? Are you
free from all tears? Do you never cry? Are you free
from old age? Are you free from death? It's
appointed unto men once to die. And I tell you this, if you had
no sin, you wouldn't die. Sin bringeth forth death. The effects of sin are going
to stay with you until you do leave this earth. Now, so, when
I say we're free from sin in Christ, I'm not saying we're
free from the presence of sin. I'm not saying we're free from
the awareness of sin and the conflict of sin. I'm not saying
that we're free from the effects of sin. I can get sick just like
anybody else and will someday according to God's good providence.
And all these fellows talking about God wants you to be well
and prosperous and be a millionaire and all this sort of thing. They
want to be millionaires is what they want. It doesn't matter
about you, just send us a cut on what you get. Well, what does
it mean? Let me ask you this. What does
it mean to be free from sin? What are we talking about free
from sin? He that's dead is free from sin. Well, let me tell you,
number one. It's to be free from the condemnation of sin. That's
what it means to be free from sin. It means to be free from
its condemnation. Listen to Romans 8 and 1. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. No
judgment. No wrath. No charge. Christ has freed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. You know why
there's no condemnation against the believer? Christ took his
condemnation. Payment God's justice cannot
twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, His
hand, then again at mine. Nobody pays a debt twice. If
it's paid, it's stamped paid in full. And a man is not fined
by the judge twice for the same crime. He's fined once, pays
his fine, it's over. Romans 8.33 says, Who can lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? God has justified them.
Justified means to be without sin, not guilty. Who is he that
condemneth? Christ is died. Yea, rather,
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh an accession for us. He that believeth shall not come
into condemnation. Now, these preachers can talk
all they want to about the believer being judged. But we've already
been judged. And the debt's already been paid.
And full satisfaction has been rendered. And there's no charge
against the believer. There's no condemnation against
the believer. There's no judgment to the believer. We may be witnesses of the judgment. We may be bystanders at the judgment. But I tell you, Christ has perfected
forever them that are sanctified, and we have already been accepted
and are already seated at the right hand of God, and there
is no judgment. That's like bringing Christ into
judgment again. We're one with Him, I in them
and thou in me, that they all may be one, even as we are, my
Father. You think God's going to bring
Christ back into the judgment? Well, if he brings his people
back, you'll have to bring him, because they're one. You can't
disassociate that which God has associated. You can't disunite
that which God Almighty has united forever. To be free from sin is to be
free from condemnation. Secondly, it's to be free from
guilt. Not guilty. The jury comes marching out of
the jury room, and the judge says, have you reached a verdict?
And the jury says, not guilty. All right, what are you going
to do? Well, you've got to let him go. A man's not guilty is
not guilty. He's not chargeable, not punishable. Therefore, Romans 5, 1, being
justified by faith. And justified means not guilty.
Pardon doesn't mean not guilty. Parole doesn't mean not guilty. Forgiven doesn't mean not guilty.
It means guilty but pardoned, guilty but paroled, guilty but
forgiven. But justified? That means no
guilt. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have received atonement. And we're justified. The law
is honored and justice is satisfied. No charge. What does it mean
to be free from sin? It means to be free from sin's
penalty. Free from sins, punishment. We
shall never die. Christ said, he that believeth
on me shall never die. You say, but everybody's going
to die. He's saying that they may sleep, their body placed
in the ground, but we'll never die. We've already died. You
can't die twice. We've already died. We may sleep,
but we're not going to die. If this earthly house of our
tabernacle be dissolved, we have already a building of God not
made with hands eternal in the heaven. We'll never be judged. That's what I told you. We'll
never hear God say, depart from me, I never knew you. We'll never
be ashamed. He that believeth shall never
be ashamed. That's what it means to be free
from sin. Free from condemnation. Free
from guilt. Free from punishment. Free from
the penalty. And then fourthly, to be free
from sin is to be free from its reigning power, its reigning
power. Now listen to me. There was a
time before we heard the gospel and before we met Christ when
sin not only remained in us but it really controlled us and it
reigned over us and it ruled over us. We delighted in darkness. We delighted in rebellion. We wearied of the light and didn't
want anything to do with it. We delighted in sin. Sin controlled
us and ruled us and reigned over us and dictated our course and
we had very little conscience about it. We cared nothing about
God and about truth and holiness and righteousness and honesty
and integrity. But now, being new creatures
in Christ, we love God. We love His law. We love His
Word. We love His commandments. We
love to do His will. And though we have a constant
warfare and a battle and an awareness of sin, yet we do not love sin. We love righteousness. We long
to be like Christ. Sin shall not reign over you
to obey the lust thereof. What does reign? Christ reigns. And Christ's reign is not a reign
of rules and laws. Christ's reign is a reign of
love. He loves us and we love Him.
And grace reigns in righteousness. And we've been delivered from
the reigning power of sin. That which we once loved, now
we really hate. And that which we once hated
and wearied of and found no joy in it at all, we now love and
treasure and cherish. And that's the presence of our
Lord. And that's the blessings of our Lord. And that's the presence
and fellowship of His people. To be free from sin is to be
free from its reigning power. To be controlled by another is
like when you pass a building on the street and you see a sign
on the door, under new management. That means the store has a new
owner and a new manager. And I tell you, when a man is
redeemed by the grace of God, he has a new owner, and he has
a new manager, and he has won the Holy Spirit who has taken
up his abode in that place, and he reigns. All right, last of
all, how does this blessed hope to be free from sin come to us? How does it come to us? Well,
first of all, it comes to us by the grace of God. It's a gift.
This freedom from sin, this blessings of eternal life is not something
we buy, something we earn, something we work for, it's the gift of
God. Now the wages of sin is something
we work for, but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal
life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Where sin abounded, overflowed,
the grace of God did much more overflow. It was His grace that
gave me to Christ. in an everlasting covenant. It
was His grace that chose me in Christ in His sovereign election. It was His grace that gave His
Son to redeem me by His blood on the cross of Calvary. It was
His grace that awakened me on my Damascus road to hell and
arrested me and stopped me and revealed Christ to my heart.
It was His grace that brought me safe thus far, and sustained
me, and kept me, and it's His grace that will keep me until
I lie down to die in faith. And it's His grace that will
raise me from the tomb, and His grace that will give me a new
dwelling place in glory, and His grace that will conform me
perfectly to the likeness of His dear Son. So how does this
blessing, freedom from sin, come to us? by the grace of God. And then secondly, it comes to
us by the life and death of Christ. Now, people may accuse me of
playing a one-string fiddle. Well, that's all right if you've
got the right string. Having one message, that's all
right if you've got the right message. And Paul had one message. He said, I preach Christ and
Him crucified. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Christ and Him crucified. Well, that's my message,
and I'm saying this, that I'm free from sin by the work and
by the labor of another. It's not I that did it, it's
Christ that did it. He came to this earth in the
flesh, born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were made under the law, born under the law. He came to
this earth, and by one man's disobedience I was made a sinner,
by another man's obedience I was made righteous. He went to Calvary's
cross. You say, well, how can one man,
how can one man pay such an enormous, enormous debt of sin, of all
the sins of all believers, of all generations, of all nations,
kindred, tribes, and tongues unto heaven, because of who He
is. Because of who He is. It's not how much blood Christ
shed, it's whose blood was shed. Who is He that condemns? It's
Christ that died. And he died, and he was wounded
for our transgressions, and by his stripes we're healed. And
then he arose from the grave. And his resurrection says that
God the Father accepted all that the Son paid. If God the Father,
law, justice, and righteousness were not satisfied, Christ wouldn't
have risen. But when he brought him from
the tomb, he arose without sin. And he received him, he said,
come on up here, and sit down on my right hand. till I make
thine enemies thy footstool and he intercedes for us and he's
coming back and he said if I go away I'll come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there you may be also and then
thirdly we're justified and this blessing of freedom from sin
comes to us by faith if thou shalt confess with our mouth
Jesus to be Lord and believe in thine heart God raised him
from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Where, preacher? Before God. And I'll tell you,
if it's before God, it'll also be before men. You can't keep
it down. You can't put a lid on it. What
God does, He does openly and permanently and eternally and
powerfully. And men will know about it. Now,
the title of this message is Free From Sin. And the title
of the message I brought last week was Faith and Undelete.
If you want these two messages on a cassette tape, send a $2
donation and we'll put it in the mail the same day we receive
your request. Write to me. Until next week
at this same time, may the Lord bless you, everyone.