Romans 1:3, 6-7

I'd like to read in Romans chapter 6. I told anyone here from Marion they might hear something they've heard before, but not quite the same. I've been adding more to it. Romans chapter 6. Actually I'd like to read from the last verse of chapter 5. That a sin hath reigned unto death, even so my grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

So chapter 6, knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Tell the chapter a little in verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.

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. And look down to the end of chapter 7, verse 20. Now if I do what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law that is a principle, that when I who would do good, I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Verse 13. But if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And verse 23. Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body.

I think if you study the epistles, and I appreciate what our brother Topley has been telling us about just the first verse of the epistle of Paul to the Ephesian believers, we appreciate some degree of the depth of the instruction and the revelation that is given to us by means of the Spirit of God moving these men to write the truth of the word of God for us. And they're well worth our time of studying them. We need to study the word of God even more than we do, I'm sure.

I think that when you look at the epistles, you find that the Roman epistle is the basis of the nine epistles or the eight epistles that follow it. It's that which establishes the principle of Christian gathering, first of all, that has its beginning first in salvation, that is so clearly dealt with in this epistle. Paul is laying the foundation for that which is to come in relation to the gathering of the saints and first Corinthians and proper assembly order, proper conduct, proper expression of the will of God and local testimonies.

And as well, going on in the depth of the teaching that we have been encountering in the other epistles, such as in Ephesians and going right on until we find ourselves at the little epistle to Philemon. And when you look at the epistle to the Hebrews, you find there again a basis for the eight epistles that follow it right down through the remainder of the word of God. So those two would divide us into sections that have to do, first of all, with the principle of justification, the principle of salvation and the work of Christ entirely.

And then the principle of sanctification that follows in the middle of this book, then other themes that follow on because and follow on behind that. And then, of course, we have other subjects as well that could be considered. I want to consider primarily with you what we have in the Roman epistle in some measure, very briefly.

I think that when you look at this epistle, you can divide it into a number of parts. I've appreciated the fact that you can divide it, first of all, in the first five verses up until five and eleven. And I take it that that section is dealing with how can a guilty sinner like you and I are by nature and by practice? How can we be justified and made and declared righteous in the sight of God? How can we say we say from the condemnation that our sins deserve? How can we brought in to such a place of enjoying the freedom from the guilt and the recognition that I deserve to be punished for my sins? And I would take it in those five chapters, the first five chapters down through chapter five and verse eleven.

Also, it completely unfolds to us the principles of justification that is by faith entirely setting aside all the religious attitudes and practices of the Jewish religion. And establishing very clearly that God has purpose in his sovereign grace to reach sinners simply on the grounds of believing the truth concerning the Lord Jesus and depending upon him. I think that when you come to chapter five and verse 12, the subject changes from the subject of our sins and the condemnation that we deserve.

Then it's a subject of our sin and the power that seeks to overcome us and the means by which we cannot be justified. But how can a justified sinner be sanctified to live a holy and a righteous life? Because one should follow right on the other. The word of God doesn't speak to us in any way about a sinner being justified by faith in Christ and then feeling to be sanctified, set apart to live a holy life that is pleasing to God and honoring to his name.

That's God's expectation. The world may be full of those that claim to be born again. People that say they they're saved.

But the word of God teaches that the results of that is going to be a sanctified, holy life of a believer seeking to do that which is right for God, pleasing to the Lord Jesus and expressing submission to the Holy Spirit. And that's the subject you find in chapter six, seven and eight, I believe. How is it going to be done? Of course, when you come to chapter nine, 10, 11, you have I don't think it's a parenthesis necessarily.

It's just another section. Because there he's answering the question, if that is true, then how could it be? Because God instituted the law as a principle of life. And now you're saying that the law has no effect so far as justification and the law has no ability to sanctify.

The law has no ability not only to save a person, but the law has no ability to sanctify a person and enable them to live a holy life. God doesn't intend to save us by keeping the law. He doesn't want to make us holy just by keeping laws, legalism.

And then when you come to chapter 12 for the end, I take it that there's the practical results of it, beginning with that lovely verse, chapter 12 and verse one and two. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present like a living sacrifice your bodies, holy and acceptable to God. That's what God desires for life.

And I lived and I have lived. I'm sure you have, too, in the past of your life, many years. But the subsequent reality of salvation has not been evident in practical terms and practical results.

It's a wonderful thing to see a believer like we reminded this morning of the Apostle Paul. For the moment he was saved, he had two questions even before he was saved. And I would take those two single questions controlled and motivated his life for the rest of the journey.

The first one was, who are thou, Lord? You find a man that was burning with desire to know the Lord Jesus. Chapter three of Philippians, he says that I may know him. That's his great desire.

That should be our great desire. And that's enough to control our desires so far as what we long to know, to know him. But he had another question that also directed his life.

What will thou have me to do? And his entire life from that point on was not only occupied with seeking to know Christ. Not just know about him, but to know intimate fellowship and relationship with him. And also be obedient to his will that was revealed to him.

There's a man who before the very beginning, even before he was ever saved, he could say, I've lived in all good conscience before God on this day. I envy that man. Tremendous to think that according to the light that he had, even in his unsaved days, he was seeking to please God.

He had a zeal for God like he could say in chapter 10 of Romans, but not according to knowledge. When you look at the first part of this epistle, I don't want to take the rest of the time. It's too much anyway.

We look at the rest of the first part of this epistle. I want to say that I believe that he is dealing with three different groups of unsaved people. You may differ on that, but that's the way I see it.

I believe, first of all, he's dealing with a pagan that lives in absolute darkness. The one that has been degenerating from the very beginning when he says they once knew God, but they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful and their evil heart was darkened.

And so you have from the very beginning a darkening, a blinding, a movement, a direction has been taken that has resulted in men knowing the judgment of God. That they who do such things are worthy of death. They not only do those things, but they take pleasure in them to do them.

He's dealing with men that are not under the law. He's dealing with men that are not too much concerned about trying to live a life like Paul was living. He says, is there any hope for them? I believe that the pagan living in absolute darkness can be saved.

I hope you do too. They might get saved much more quickly than the religious sinner. There are three things I see that they need to come to realize this man that has no knowledge of truth whatsoever.

He needs, first of all, to realize that he has been rejecting the truth that God has given him in creation. He needs to come to realize and to recognize the fact that the glorious hand of God's handiwork, the glorious display of God's handiwork is seen in everything that is seen, everything that is observed. The whole creation attests to the reality of God.

Begin to honor God by the recognition of his creatorial power. Then, in fact, he also needs, I believe, to realize that he's been, in verse 25, chapter one, he needs to recognize he's been serving and religiously serving the creature rather than the creator. He's been directed his worship toward the wrong object.

He's been occupied with the wrong kind of God in his own mind. He needs to realize there is a real creator. It's not only a God in heaven, but there is also one who has made me and to whom I'm responsible.

It's a sad thing, by the way, in our day. The religious Christian so-called seminaries are turning to the worship of the creature more than the creator. It wasn't very long ago that Union Theological Seminary in New York had a chapel service in which they gathered around a number of different kinds of plants and confessed their sins to these plants.

The sins of ecological harm and danger that they have done. That's a seminary. That's a Christian seminary.

And one that attends that seminary I read said that at chapels they don't know whether it's going to be a Hindu service or a Muslim service or who knows what kind of service. He says it's a changing situation. I guess so.

They worship and serve the creature more than the creator. So the pagan needs to understand that you're occupied in worshiping the wrong object. And not only that, it comes to the last verse here.

He says that person needs to realize that he really deserves God's judgment. He's guilty. He's doing things that he consciously knows that are wrong.

And there's a person that can be saved if they face the reality of their own sin and their guilt. Their salvation for them. When you look at the next group, I take it that they're the religious or philosophers that are enlightened.

The ones that know. The ones that have a high standard of living. The one who, like the Greek philosophers, sought to realize and to determine what is the purpose of life? Where does life come from? Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? Men that sought to know the answers to life's riddles on the wrong level.

What about those people? I believe that when you look at chapter two, we find, first of all, they need to realize that God's judgment is not according to man's estimation. It's not a matter of whether they think they're right or whether friends think they're right or others think they're right. They need to realize God's judgment is according to truth against those that do such things.

God's standard is never deviating. Religious or rather, I'm sorry. Enlightened philosophers, those that seek to live by a high standard, need to come to realize my standard is not high enough.

It falls short of God's requirements because God's standard is too high. The second thing that person, I would take it, needs to understand is that there is going to be a judgment. Now in verse 12 and 13, it's not according to what the law itself says necessarily.

It's going to be according to even the fact that what I believe to be right, I don't even live according to it. Man naturally knows a lot more than he practices. And because of that, he's judged by his own standard and he comes short and he fails.

There's hope for that man as well. And he needs to realize as well in verse 16 of chapter 2 that there's a day when God is not only going to judge his deeds. He's going to judge the secrets of his heart.

And when that's exposed, he's going to find himself condemned before God. He needs to face reality. And there's salvation for even a man like that.

But he has to be honest. When you look in the verses following beginning in verse 17 of chapter 2, he's turning his attention to the Jew as a law. He claims to be a teacher.

He claims to be one that is upholding right standards and the principles that God has given. But he says, first of all, you have to realize if you're going to be saved, that even what you claim to hold as a high principle in your life, that you're not even attaining to it yourself. And as Paul unfolds the history in this chapter, he looks down over their history and their past and their condition.

As he looks inside them, he says there's nothing but ruinous, rottenness, ritualism and religion. Nothing there that's pleasing to God. And ultimately, that person would have to come to verse 19 like the Apostle Paul did.

Wherefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. There's salvation for a religious Jew as well. And so God, by the pen of the Apostle Paul, unfolds in verses that follow.

How can a man like that be justified? Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And God has set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness. That he might be just, that he might be righteous and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.

What a blessed salvation we enjoy. You know, you and I ought to rise every morning with thanks to God for his salvation. We ought to enjoy it for 24 hours of the day until you rise again and thank God again that he ever saved your soul.

Because you and I were just as steeped in sin as any other person in this world tonight. And I found that out before I was ever saved as a boy in a Christian home. We all have to face the fact that we are, we have sinned and come short to the glory of God.

But God has the means by which sinners can be justified. And sinners today in this meeting, as we've been hearing already, they can be justified freely by the grace of God through the work of Christ and through Christ alone. He develops that in chapter 4 where he makes it very clear that just like Abraham, believe God, just believe God.

And it was counted to him for righteousness. The same principle holds today. But when I think about chapter 6, which is where I want to look at primarily, there you have six mentions of the believer's body.

There's no mention really of a believer's body at any other part of this epistle. But when it comes to this section having to do with sanctification, with the exercise to live a holy life. A life that is set apart to God.

A life that recognizes the claims of Christ upon us. A life that is seeking to rise in the responsibility and the responsiveness to the grace of God expressed toward us. He says now we have to think about your body.

In chapter 6, I think it's down about verse 12 or so, he says it's your mortal body. That's where we have the fight. That's where we have the warfare, that's where we have the contention.

Because he's not dealing with the sins that we commit so much as he's dealing with the power of sin that seeks to dominate us. And dear child of God, you and I still have a problem with it. We still sin.

But God is basically saying that we should not be under the domination of sin. Sin does not have to control you and me. As it did in the days before salvation.

He talks about our body. Now the body is neutral. The body has its potential to live for God and to be used of God, to be an instrument in service.

To be a means of bringing the gospel to others. To be instrumental in serving God's people. But the body can be used either one way or the other.

We have a body that has been given us. And the body is made out of flesh and blood. And it's intended as a result of God's salvation.

Because salvation has claimed you and me entirely. More than our possessions. More than our plans and all the rest of it.

God wants you and me physically, emotionally, spiritually, entirely. That's what we read in chapter 12 in verse 1 and 2. And if we fall short of that, because we do. We're failing to really respond as we should to the grace of God.

Now he deals with the body, he says in chapter 6. Going down here he says, verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign. He's looking at the picture of a king.

A despot. Who has absolute control over his subjects. He says, don't let sin control absolutely in your mortal bodies.

You know our bodies are mortal. That means they are subject to death. Apart from the Lord's coming that we hold as a precious hope in our hearts.

We are all going to die. In 1 Corinthians 15 we read about the mortal putting on immortality. I take it that refers to the rapture of the believer.

Because as long as we're in this world we're mortal. But we're going to put on immortality and we'll be in a condition we'll never die. He says the corruptible needs to put, will be put in on incorruption.

That is those that have died are going to be raised again to be incorruptible. But right now we're in mortal bodies. And brother or sister your body can be used for the fulfillment of God's purposes.

You know God didn't save you and me just to save you from hell. That would be the very lowest level. And in fact I don't even read a place in my New Testament to tell me that the Lord Jesus died so that I wouldn't go to hell.

He saved us so we might be his. He saved us so we might live for him. He saved us so we might devote our lives in full service for him.

We all should be full-time servants. We can't all be full-time preachers. I'm not sure any of us are full-time preachers because we do other things too.

But we should be full-time servants. And we should all be the Lord's servants. That's who we should be living for.

He says don't let sin, because sin was never intended to dominate and control a believer's mortal body. He says the reason is there's a new master that's taken over. Going back to chapter in verse 6 he says knowing this that our old man, that's what you and I were before God saved us.

That's not the flesh. We still have the flesh. He says our old man has been crucified with Christ.

It was judicially executed when Christ died on the cross. All that we were before God in our sinful state, in a body that was totally devoted to sin, a body that could do nothing else but sin. He says that has been crucified with Christ.

It's not something you and I have to do. It's already been done. He says so that the body of sin, a body that was devoted to sin, a body that could do nothing but sin, regardless of what kind of sin it might have been, might have been religious sin.

It might have simply been a matter of self-will, sin of some form or another. It was still sin because all that the body could do was sin. That that body that was entirely occupied with sin might be annulled.

That its power might be broken. It's not destroyed. Well it might no longer be in that condition under absolute control of sin.

Sin was a master. And you know when sin was our master, brother or sister, we didn't even realize it. We might have been occupied with sins, but we weren't occupied with the whole principle that was behind it.

The principle of sin that was operating and causing such havoc in the life. But in this chapter he says very simply that there's a basis for our sanctification. A basis for our liberation from the dominating power of sin.

He says that's the fact that we died with Christ. You say well baptism really is a picture of death. No it's not a picture of death, it's a picture of burial.

But you bury people that have died. It's a bad deal when you bury somebody that's not died. You know they don't like that.

But baptism indicates something has already taken place. And that's why a person really has no business getting baptized if death has not already taken place. But a dead person should be baptized.

And if there's a Christian here today, younger or older, that has never been baptized, you fail to realize or confess before others and to God himself, I died with Christ. And that means the old life is over with. That means that's a separation that has taken place.

That's what happens you know when there's death, there's separation. You don't communicate with dead spirits. At least I never saw the reality of that.

So here's a person that died with Christ. He says you're separated and it's expressed symbolically in the fact that you've been buried by baptism. But he says Christ was buried but he wasn't left in a grave.

He rose again the third day. He says you and I are raised also. But it's not to walk in the same kind of life.

Because that old life was under the control of the body of sin. But now he says you're living in association with a risen Christ. The one that is at God's right hand.

He's the one that you're linked with. He's the one you're identified with. You're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And you're identified with a Christ who died for you. And you died with him and he rose again. And we live in the newness of life.

So he says that's the fact that you should not. He says you should not allow sin to dominate your life. In fact he says verse 14, sin shall not or will not have dominion over you.

For you're not under the law but under grace. You know child of God and I say this to myself. When we allow sin in our life.

We're yielding to something that has no right to control. Sin does not have a right to control your life. And when we sin.

What we're doing is allowing sin to exercise a right that it really doesn't have. But it'll do it every opportunity it gets. And sin itself is a principle, is a power that motivates and controls.

Still works for the flesh. And still seeks to control your life and mine. I have two more chapters to look at but I'm going to say it very quickly.

Chapter 7 tells us very simply. The law is absolutely ineffective. Paul says I tried that.

I think it's Paul's experience. He says I tried keeping the law before I was saved. And I came down to the Ten Commandments and I thought I was doing really well.

But then I came to the last one. Thou shall not covet. And you know coveting is only an attitude of the mind.

It's not really an action at all. And he knew I was lost. He says the law doesn't make a person sanctified.

It doesn't make them holy before God. Because all it can do is to judge him and condemn him for his sin. No he says what the law really does is that sin nature.

That thing that is within me, the flesh. It just reacts against the law. And all it wants to do is to do it anyway.

In spite of the fact that God says no. The natural tendency is to do it anyway. He says the law will never do it.

The law can't make a person righteous. The law can only tell you when you're unrighteous. When you're wrong.

He says I tried that before I was saved. I think that's the first part of the chapter. And if you allow me so, I think it's biographical.

I think that he is also saying that I tried that in the early days of my life as a Christian. And I found it wouldn't work anyway. Because he says I was subject to a body of death.

A body that just simply didn't cooperate. A body that didn't do what it was supposed to do. He says who is going to deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord.

When you come to chapter 8 though. I'll leave that to another night, another day. Chapter 8 is a beautiful chapter.

I love chapter 8. In chapter 8 you learn that there's one resource for you and me. That has been provided so liberally and abundantly. It's the indwelling presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.

You know that's why he's there, child of God. He indwells us so that he might enable us. Not to do what the law demands, but to do what pleases the Lord.

And to do it because there's a nature within us that responds. When you look at the first 27 verses of chapter 8. You'll notice you'll find there that the Spirit of God himself is energetically moving on your behalf. The Spirit of God is for you.

He's the one that is encouraging. He's the one that empowers. He's the one that makes us able to overcome these evil impulses.

He says the Spirit of God even himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. In other words, even in our failures and our infirmities, our limitations. He says he's the one that stands before God on our behalf.

He's the one that is able to meet our every need. The next section we find out that God himself is for us. There's a forged link of God's eternal purpose that is going to be fulfilled.

He says of God before us or since he is for us, who can be against us? And then I love the last part of the chapter because we find out the Lord Jesus is for us as well. He's a God's right hand interceding for us. He says nothing, nothing ever can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

You and I feel like failures, don't we? Maybe I shouldn't say you and I. I feel like a failure a lot of the time. I feel like I'm not what I ought to be and I know I'm not. I long to be something more.

But you know, that's a healthy desire. We could never have a better position than we have presently before God in the Lord Jesus. Or we can have a better condition.

And we should seek with all of our hearts to enable, to put into practice the truths that God has given us. And to allow the spirit of God, the liberty of working in us to produce what only he can produce. The law can't produce it.

The flesh can't do it. Other means are of no avail. But thank God, remember the spirit of God is in you.

He dwells there. He represents Christ there. And he wants to empower you and me as well.

To respond in a warm, wholehearted way to the desires of the Lord Jesus. And to enable us to put it into practice. He's the one that is the power for Christian living.

He works with the word of God that he might enable us to please the Lord Jesus. Thank God we have such a blessing in Christ. I wish I could appreciate it more.

Wonderful to be saved. And even better to live for the Lord Jesus with true joy in your soul.