Title: Assurance and Motivation
Text: Romans 6: 14-15
Date: August 4, 2013
Place: Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, New Jersey (meeting in Pompton Lakes for
a baptism of Debbie D.)
Romans 6: 12: Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13: Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14: For sin shall not
have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15: What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid. 16: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
unto righteousness? 17 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. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the
servants of righteousness.
This
morning, I want to speak particularly to our dear sister who is about to
confess Christ in believers baptism. But
for every other believer here, as you listen, let today be to you, as it were
all over again, the first day that you are entering publicly into the service
of our Lord and Savior.
Each
time I have baptized someone it causes me to look back over my life since the
day I was baptized. Doing so always causes mixed emotions in my own heart.
First
and foremost, I am thankful that my Sovereign God has kept me from the first
day until now. It is his grace alone and his power alone. God and his grace has made all the
difference.
Secondly,
I must confess there is a certain sense of regret. Regret over the mistakes I made by which I
have dishonored my God and Savior. Oh, to be free from this body of death for
good!
Thirdly,
it gives me a sense of urgency toward the one being baptized. I say that because if you have not already
begun to experience the assaults of Satan, and your flesh, certainly you shall
very soon. Before our Savior was
baptized and publicly entered the service of his Father the scriptures speak of
no temptation from Satan toward Christ. But immediately, after Christ’s baptism,
the Spirit drove him into the wilderness where God allowed Satan to try him. And
Satan began roaring against our Savior any way he could. That does not mean a
converted believer will not experience opposition before baptism—it simply
means that when a believer takes sides with Christ publicly you can be sure the
warfare has begun.
With
every step I have taken since God called me that has been the case. So I wish I
had the ability to put into your heart the importance of always walking ever so
closely to your Savior. I wish I could make you turn a deaf ear to the vain
promises of this world and keep your ear open to the gospel of his sovereign
grace. I wish I could force you to turn a blind eye to that mirage this world
calls happiness and keep your eye upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But knowing I do
not have that power only causes me to fall at the feet of our Sovereign and beg
him to keep you from the evil.
So I
want to speak about some things we, as believers, should begin each day remembering.
Every believer would do well to begin each day remembering that you are the
child of God our Father, serving as witnesses of Christ Jesus our Lord and
Savior, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as
lights in the world. That sounds like it carries a lot of responsibility. It does indeed!
Romans 6: 12: Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13: Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Now, note, what assurance God gives for motivation
to yield ourselves unto God. He does
not use the law and turn us back to the law—but just the opposite. He says,
Romans 7: 14: For sin shall not have dominion
over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Proposition: Believer your motivation to yield yourselves to God,
rather than sin, is because of the assurance that sin shall not have dominion
over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Title: Assurance
and Motivation
Divisions:
1) First, what does God mean when he says the believer is not under the law—v14:
sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, 2)
Secondly, what does God mean when he says the believer is under grace—v14: sin
shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. 3) Thirdly, understanding what this means, what then shall we do?—v15: What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid.
I. FIRST, WHAT DOES GOD MEAN WHEN HE SAYS THE
BELIEVER IS NOT UNDER THE LAW?—v14: sin shall not have dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law,…
The venomous
sting that caused our spiritual death is sin. And the strength of sin is the
law of God.
1 Corinthians 15:56: The sting of death is sin; and the
strength of sin is the law.
It
means if the law is satisfied then we are free from the law. If the law has no
sin to lay to our charge then we are free from sin. If we are free from sin
then we are free from death. But, as
long as a sinner lives the law has dominion over him.
Romans 7: 1: Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them
that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he
liveth?
Therefore,
sin has dominion over him and death has dominion over him.
Be sure
to get this: The only way that these three—law, sin and death—can cease having
dominion over a sinner is for that sinner to pay the law what it demands
because of his transgressions—and that payment is death. So our text says of
those born of the Spirit of God and brought to faith in Christ—v14: sin shall
not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law. How can this be?
1 Corinthians 15: 57: But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
On
behalf of all the elect of God our representative Head, Christ Jesus has saved
his people from the law, from sin and from death.
Concerning the Believer’s Sin
Romans 6: 1: What shall we say then? Shall we
continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2: God forbid. How shall we, that ARE
DEAD TO SIN, LIVE any longer therein?
“Dead
to sin” means before the all-seeing eye of God, those in Christ, died to the
guilt and condemning power of sin when Christ died. Believers are not dead to
sins influence, to its presence, or to its effects. But we are dead to the guilt and condemnation
of sin. God regards our old man of sin
no more. We read in Romans 4: 6: Even as
David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works, 7: Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute sin.
Romans 6: 3: Know ye not, that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
When
Christ was immersed in the judgment of God on the cross, so were all his elect
in him.
Romans 6: 4: Therefore we ARE BURIED WITH HIM by baptism into
death:…
By water-baptism—being
totally immersed—baptized—into the grave of water, we are confessing by this
picture, that we believe God that “we are buried with Christ into death.” So first
of all, we are dead to sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you—because we are
dead to sin.
Concerning the Believer and the Law of God
But
what about the law? Remember what we
just read in—Romans 7: 1:…the law hath dominion over a man as long as he
liveth?
But we just saw that our old man died when Christ died under the
penalty of the law on our behalf. So the law has its payment from us.
Romans 7: 4: Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
ARE BECOME DEAD TO THE LAW by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to
another, EVEN TO HIM who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God. 5: For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which
were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6:
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held;
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
The law
is paid in full for all the elect of God by Christ’s death on the cross. That
is why our text says most emphatically giving us the utmost assurance, Romans
6: 14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law. So we are dead to sin and we are dead to the
law.
Concerning the Believer and Death
This
brings us to our death. Believers are
dead to death. We who are born of the
Spirit of God have been sanctified into newness of life and right now we have
eternal life.
Romans 6: 4: Therefore we are buried with him
by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5: For if we have
been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection: 6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Here
the Spirit of God moves Paul to bring in a word about our sanctification. “The body of sin” is the dead body that our
inward man now carries around. The
believer’s old man was crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be “destroyed”,
meaning, it has been made to cease having a reigning power over us like it once
did. “That henceforth WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN” means we “shall” not serve sin;
we shall not be the slaves of sin. Our text says “sin shall not have dominion
over you”. Through Christ’s work on the
cross, the body of sins of our fleshly man is “destroyed”, that is, circumcised,
put off, made of no effect in binding us in slavery to sin. Paul is showing us that our sanctification is
through the blood of Christ, the same as our justification. Paul put it this
way in Colossians 2:
Colossians 2: 11: In whom also ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ: [here is how he did it] 12: Buried with
him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13: And you, being dead in
your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with
him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14: Blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to his cross;
Because
Christ justified all for whom he died by his death, it means they all must be
sanctified of the Spirit. This is
important. He says,
Romans 6: 6: Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him,
Our old
man was crucified in Christ on the cross that through his blood we might be
sanctified—that is what he means when he says, “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin.” Now here is the “because”
that made it necessary, that made it a must that we be regenerated and
sanctified by the Holy Spirit:
Romans 6: 7: For [because] he that
is dead is freed [justified] from
sin. 8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him:
This is
our doctrine—we believe those justified by Christ must also be sanctified
through his blood and made to live with him.
Romans 6: 9: Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10: For in that
he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11:
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our
sanctification was a must because Christ justified us. So Christ has taken over in the hearts of his
people through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
Hebrews 9:14 How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?
Application: So do we understand what it means when we read v14: For
sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law? The main sin that Paul speaks of here and in
every letter—is the sin of turning again to the law for righteousness or for
sanctification.
Colossians 2: 16: Let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days: 17: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
The law,
sin or death can never say another word to Christ so the law, sin or death can
never say another word to us for whom Christ died. We are not under the curse of the law, not
restrained by law, not motivated by law, not even ruled by law. The law is not the believers rule of life!
Galatians 3: 11:…the just shall live by faith 12: And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth
them shall live in them.
The law
has nothing to say to our new man for with Christ abiding in us and us in him,
our inward man of his creating, is as righteous and holy as Christ is—there is
no law against the fruit of the Spirit. The
law is as satisfied with us in Christ as it is with our Savior who fulfilled it
in precept and in penalty on our behalf.
Now
brethren, each of us well know, that after conversion sin is still in us who
believe. Sin still has great power. It entices, it traps us and brings into
captivity—ask Noah, David, Peter, Moses.
Sometimes so much so it seems as it would regain dominion, ask Lot. But
God says it shall not have dominion over you. God will see to it!
John Gill wrote, “This is not a precept, exhortation, or
admonition,…; nor does it express merely what ought not to be, but what cannot,
and shall not be; it is an absolute promise, that sin shall not have the
dominion over believers; and respects not acts of sin, [isolated acts]…but its
tyrannical, governing power: "it shall not lord it over you,”…for in
regeneration, sin is dethroned; Christ enters as Lord, and continues to be
so….Now this is a noble argument why saints should use their members as weapons
of righteousness for God and against sin; since they are sure of being
conquerors, and are secure from the tyrannical government of sin over them.”
II. SECONDLY, WHAT DOES GOD MEAN WHEN HE
SAYS, YOU ARE UNDER GRACE.
The
Saints of God Are in Another Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ and His Grace. There
is not even the slightest possibility that Christ shall ever lose one whom he
has redeemed and who has been regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Romans 5: 17 For
if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one,
Jesus Christ…20: Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21: That as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are
under the covenant of grace.
2 Samuel 23:5:…he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure: for this is
all my salvation, and all my desire,…
We are
under the regenerating, sanctifying, keeping grace of our Lord and Savior. He
rules us by grace and mercy, not by law.
Hebrews 8:12: For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Grace
works in us a far more superior motive than those ruled by law.
2 Corinthians 5: 14: For the love of Christ constraineth
us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And 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. 16: Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:
yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we
him no more. 17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18: And all things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Love
and grace toward the undeserving is the prevailing power!
1 Peter 2: 15: For so is the will of God, that with well
doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
That is
what Christ has done for you and I who now believe him. We were ignorant and
foolish men and women. Yet, by doing
well to us who did not deserve the least of God’s favors, he drowned our
flaming enmity with his grace and love! Again we read
1 Peter 2: 19: For this is thankworthy, if a man
for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20: For what
glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it
patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it
patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was
reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
What
overcame the power of sin but the power of his love and grace toward us when as
yet in our minds he was our enemy. Christ endured our grief. He was buffeted
for our faults. Christ suffered for us. He was reviled for us. Christ bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. He died under the law in our room and stead. AND
BY HIM BEARING THE STRIPES WE DESERVED, BELIEVER, WE ARE HEALED!
Now, you
who he has called—does this grace of your Redeemer make you want to sin against
him? God forbid! His grace toward us makes
us want to suffer patiently for his sake as he did for us. The love of our Redeemer for us does not make
us want to revile again but for the sake of our Savior who on our behalf opened
not his mouth but committed it all to God—his grace makes us want to do the
same. The power of his grace make us
want to do that which is right because by his stripes have healed us.
Sovereign,
free, electing, redeeming, regenerating, preserving, resurrecting, glorifying
grace—grace from A to Z—is the only reformer of men. Grace works from God down
to sinners, from inside out. Grace implants the right motive and gives strength.
Grace saves and loses none!
Illustration: Workers sharing a water bottle—all envy—the water may run
out. Drinking from a river—there is
plenty—that is God’s grace—“of his fullness have all we received grace for
grace!”
III. THIRDLY, NOW THAT WE UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD
MEANS, WHAT THEN SHALL WE DO?—v15: What then? Shall we sin that grace may
abound. God forbid.
First,
do not let sin reign.
Romans 6: 12: Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13: Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:
Secondly,
and this is how we do the first, yield yourself to God.
Romans 6: 13:…but yield yourselves unto God,
as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.
Instead
of yielding to the flesh, attend the preaching of the gospel—forsake not
assembling together. Rather than yielding to lusts of the flesh, use your
members to study the word of God. When
the fleshly thoughts attack yield yourself to God by being instant in prayer—thanking
God for his grace as much as asking him for grace. Instead of yielding to the covetousness of
the flesh, always try to treat others justly and delight in mercy rather than
judgment, even when it means personal loss.
Illustration: This country is so divided. Folks choose sides not
based on righteousness but on which side will mean more money in their own
pocket. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Tim 6: 10)
Galatians
5: 16: This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh. 17: For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye
cannot do the things that ye would. 18: But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are
not under the law. 19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20: Idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21: Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22: But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23: Meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law. 24: And they that are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25: If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26: Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another!
Ephesians
4: 32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. 1: Be ye therefore followers
of God, as dear children; 2: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweetsmelling savour.
Here is a
song that describes what it is to yield yourselves to God and your members as
instruments of righteousness.
Ever Only All For
Thee
Frances R. Havergal
Take my
life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use,
Every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Amen!