The book of Romans, chapter 6. Pastor Gerard has always been very good about giving a lot of heads up when he will not be able to preach, and there are several of us that are always in preparation of materials, but I have run out of material. I have not worked ahead as I as I sometimes do, but one of the things that I do is, being that we hang out in a passage so long, I take a little bit of an exploration. I hope that some of you do too. I know that actually some of you do. When he says, look at these couple verses in chapter six of Romans, I know that some of you go home and in your week you read maybe all of Romans, or you go back and read 5, 6, and 7, you explore those chapters to see how the verses that are highlighted for you in a sermon are set in a context. Some of you go beyond that, you might end up in the Psalms, you might end up scattering all over looking for more information, and be tracing out that information. Some of you don't do any of that at all, and it's at your own loss because the Word of God, if all you ever get is the spot references from the sermons, and you never really do any exploration, you're really selling yourself short of God's fuller explanation of his word, his fuller presentation of his mind concerning a subject. But anyway, I'm not prepared to preach, but I am prepared to read some things that I've been kind of hunting down. Chapter 6 of Romans is the first thing we'll read through together. May the Word of God, our prayer is that may the Word of God leap out to you and really illuminate your mind with little explanation. I won't be able to provide much in the form of how we typically expose Scripture, but then after that we'll go to Psalm 35, which will trace out another aspect of things we should be tracking in relationship to this question of submitting to government. The first we would maybe say is how your experience with government will be affected by your own personal service of God as your master. It actually could bring fire into your life and floodwaters into your life to serve God as your ultimate master. to not yield your members to sin might put you in conflict with the government around you, with the magistrates and the representatives that that set law and govern. But generally speaking, I think God's people have enjoyed, by God's kindness, some serious benefits for mastering their own lives in terms of their own personal holiness. So chapter six of Romans is a great chapter for us to read together and maybe ponder together. It would probably never be read in its entirety during a sermon, so we'll take advantage of our pastor's back injury to sort of explore materials together that we wouldn't necessarily read. Chapter six of Romans. These may have been questions, you'll see some questions in here, that may have been arguments that Paul bumped up against. In my own experience, they could very easily also be The vestiges of a sinful mind, Paul's own power of reasoning and analysis, sort of formulating these little sneak outs. trying to squirm out from under the truth. And so it's possible he's dealing with objections from actual people, or it's possible that he's dealing with the workings of his own fallen mind that's trying to wiggle out from the truth that he's presenting. He says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Chapter 5, you really want to go back and read chapter 5 on your own to see how that question comes to be. Shall we continue in sin, continue sinning so that grace may abound? Do we cause grace to be poured out in a greater measure by sinning? Is that the purpose of grace? Is that what God has in his mind concerning grace? The more they sin, the more gracious I can be to them. Well, he says, God forbid. Or how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in sin? Know ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death, that the symbolism of your baptism is that as he bore in his body the sins of the people and was put into the ground, was put into his burial chamber, we ought to reckon ourselves to also have gone into the grave with Him, our sins, our old nature, is baptized with Christ into death. 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. The old man is dead and buried, just as the body, the man that bore our sins was killed and took those sins with him into the grave. And just as he was raised by the power of God, by the glory of God to a new life, also should we walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, then we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, or so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that Henceforth, we should not serve sin. The pastor intended to preach today, and he will, I hope, get his opportunity to preach on not serving sin, but serving God as our master. And so here's where we get into the theme and the sort of direction that the sermons have been tending. Our old man is crucified with him, with Christ, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that henceforth we should not serve sin." Whatever you serve, that is your master, right? So do you find your life in a tendency of service to sin? Is it your master? Then it's your master and the other is not. If you can evaluate yourself honestly before God and find that your life is an attendancy of service to God through obedience and righteousness before him, then he is your master and the other is not. But what you can't have is two masters. You can't pretend to serve the one and also serve the other and vice versa. And so that's worked out very clearly here. The reason Paul is presenting this is so that we develop a mindset, an actual real mindset that we reckon ourselves to be one or the other, that we do evaluate, that we do judge ourselves, which one do we serve? Which is our master? Because he knows we can't have both. We must be clear which one it is. Verse 7, for he that is dead is freed from sin. So do you know that you're free from sin if you have died with Christ to sin? If that old man is put to death, you are free from sin. The wordplay here isn't just wordplay. It's actually very useful to us because it's intended to renew our mind so that we see ourselves differently than the old man used to see. The old man is a in bondage to sin, he must obey the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. He must live according to that law. He has no other way to live, but you are freed from sin. He that is dead is released from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him. knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." So Jesus Christ took the sins of the people into his own body, laid down his life, he took the punishment for those sins on behalf of his people one time, and now has been raised one time to life. He doesn't live transacting those sins any longer. They're just not part of who he is. That is done and in the past, and he is now raised to the glory that he is worthy of. we ought to also reckon ourselves to be done with sin, for it to be a thing of the past. John teaches us that we have to live with a certain reality about sin. We can't deny that it exists. We can't deny that we commit it. We can't pretend that we won't commit it. And yet, in our mind, We're supposed to be working out this idea that we are dead to sin. It's no longer our master. It doesn't rule over us. It has no dominion over us. Verse 11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is a mindset thing. It is a renewing of the mind that must take place. You must see yourself. You must process this logically. You must analyze these things and adjust your mind. Allow the word to reshape your mind and therefore reshape your behavior. There's a therefore here. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. So don't let sin rule in your body. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, which the result of that, if you let it have the throne, you will obey it in the lusts thereof, sin's lusts. and neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God, that is your whole self unto God, as those that are alive from the dead. So you see the mind, as those with the mind that you are alive from the dead. and that your members yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. If you disagree with that, stand right here right now and say, sin shall have dominion over me. Who is so bold? Who would ever stand to contradict in public, in God's house, in the course of worship? Sin shall have dominion over me. No one is that bold. Okay, what about in private? What about in a few hours? privacy of your spaces. Sin shall not have dominion over you. It shall not, cannot, should not, it will not. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? So, short question for all that came before. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Just another form of that kind of squirrely thinking. Shall we sin because we're not under the law anymore, but under grace? Is this a very different thing than before? Is this license? God forbid. 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? So, it's one or the other, is what Paul is saying. Don't you know? Whichever of the two you yield yourself to, that's the one that you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked. He's not opening up a suggestion that you make a choice and that one of the choices can be serving sin. He's not doing that. He's actually doing what he does in a lot of other places. He's working out an argument and he's pushing us into this side of the argument, this side of the black and white of the one or the other. But God be thanked. that ye were the servants of sin. God be thanked that that is the past. You were the servants of sin, but that ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. So being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. So having been released from sin, You are now the servants of righteousness and not of sin. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, let's be clear, it's uncleanness, it's iniquity upon iniquity. As you have yielded your members to those things, Even so now, now, now. If you haven't, then now, now. Yield your members, servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. That was not your labor, that was not your work, that wasn't your concern, you were free from it. But what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death, calling you to consider of all the unrighteousness, of all the engagement, of all those former things, what fruit did you have of them? Can you sum it all up and say that the tendency was good or that the tendency was bad? Can you do that? Can you sum it up? Well, He does it for us. The end of those things is death. It's just dead stuff. It's stuff that is waiting for the final fire to be melted down and consumed. The end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end, everlasting life. Engage the work that yields and yields and yields and tends toward sanctification, toward holiness. and the end everlasting life. Instead of death, he has given us life. Instead of ashes, he has given us beauty. Instead of heaping up piles of dung as the fruit of our life, he has given us the privilege to heap up piles of good works to the glory of God, to the praise of his holiness, and the end everlasting life. He says, for the wages of sin is death. It all sums up for one final payoff, death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ when he is our Lord. May God bless the reading of this chapter of Romans. If you want to look back at Psalm number 35, this one may be a little less personal in one sense, but I think as I've pondered it the last few weeks and gave it consideration, I think It might present for us a posture that we probably haven't explored through the different series of sermons on account of time, but I think this is probably a good attitude for us to carry in our minds concerning how we look at forces that are greater than our personal force, that are a little beyond our ability to manage, beyond our power to control, and it's between people. So I think it's, I'm setting it forth as, I'm setting it forth because it shows a good example of a person yielding circumstances, yielding the outcomes of circumstances to God. Rather than trying to tackle them himself, he gives appropriate credit to where credit belongs. See Psalm 35. You can hear the you here. You plead my cause, O Lord. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight against me. He's not asking for strength to do it. He's just saying, he's going right to God and saying, you plead my cause. You be my advocate. Actually, you fight against them that fight against me. Where did David get these ideas? Well, he got them from God's own history with the people of Israel. God pleading the cause of his people because they are his beloved for no other reason than that. God actually taking out whole armies of hundreds of thousands with hail, fire, brimstone, earthquakes, destroying the enemies with floods. David knows that God can do it. This is a good attitude for us to carry with us through our life concerning those who would fight against us. Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me and say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them." These are very serious words, very pointed. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. The righteous will feel this when they are persecuted in the land. The righteous will feel this when circumstances don't go the way of rewarding righteousness. Without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he have hid catch himself. Into that very destruction let him fall, and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. Not my soul shall be joyful in their demise, This, by the way, we should challenge a lot of our posture before our government. Just survey the room, right? Think about what you've experienced in family get togethers. Think about what you've seen online. Think about the way that your heart gets tickled when, or your senses get sort of excited when someone cuts down a government official, when a government official is caught in corruption, you rejoice. I've been there, when we've been cutting down those that rule over us, I've done it myself. You've heard me do it. We rejoice in their demise, when their foot gets snared, when they are brought low. We laugh at them and mock them. Is that biblical? Is that the posture of the righteous in the land? Not according to Peter and not according to the word of the psalmist here. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him." The idea is here, when you see the unrighteous dealt with by being snared in their own snare, by falling into the pit they dug for you, don't dwell on that and rejoice in that. Turn your attention to God and praise Him. Praise Him for His salvation. Don't focus on the details of their demise, but look to God who arranged for you to be delivered. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul. They soured my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, this is our disposition. He's laying it out for us. David lived it. and we ought to follow it. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. That is in the spirit of when they do evil to you, you do good to them. That will heap coals of fire on their head." Can you imagine being a politician, a ruler, a king, and it trickling back to you or you seeing if you're in the modern age, you could read it for yourself, but it trickling back to you that when you were ill and unto death, there was this group of religious followers of God that were rejoicing in your illness that it came back to you. You know, those people, they were like having a festivity around your death, around the potential for your death. They were laughing and mocking and cackling or Can you imagine the reaction of a ruler who had been unkind to those people, who when he was ill unto death, came around with meals, came around with service, inquired as to the health of the king. Is there something we can do? We have people with knowledge in our ranks that could help. What can we do? Which one should we be? We should be the people that when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth. We mourned with them for their illness. I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I have behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. What a different disposition than we normally carry around. We say, the kind of patriot we want to be is a rebel. That's the kind of patriot that we want to be, right? We want our government to think of us as rebels. And we hold that very proudly and with great distinction. And yet here is a very different disposition. To those who had despoiled his soul, they returned evil for all of his good. And yet my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I have behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother." That is a very, very clearly different disposition than we have been brought up to carry around concerning those who do us ill. And yet it doesn't seem to change them. But in mine adversity, they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. They held get togethers at my adversity. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not in secret. They did tear me and ceased not. With hypocritical mockers and feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth." What does he do about this? Does he hold get-togethers of his own? as he form little factions to work against them. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? He appeals to God. Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling, from the lions. My darling is the singled out, my only one, my dear one, from the lions. I will give thanks, or I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people." See how he's made it about God, not about the circumstances, not about the people. He's made it about God and praising God. Even the solution to the problem is not solving the problem, figuring out how to solve the problems between him and his adversaries. Even the solution is put into the hands of God. You do these things, you take care of them. You know what's in the balance. Evil for good. You know who they are, you know how they've been. Let's just read it out here. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land, that we may live quiet and peaceable lives." Taking it over into the thoughts of the thinkers of the New Testament. They speak not peace, they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. They disturb the peaceful ones, the ones that aren't creating any problems or being troublemakers. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. This thou hast seen, O Lord, and I appeal to you, keep not silence. O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. What's the likelihood that if the spirit of this person was to take matters into his own hands, God would act on his behalf? What's the likelihood of that? Pretty low. You want to act on your own behalf? Act on your own behalf. What's the likelihood that This person yielding all of these troubles, appealing to God for the solution to all his troubles, saying to God, do your will with them, act righteously according to your own character. What's the likelihood that God will act on his behalf? Very high, very high. Though they be killed all the day, God will save them yet in the end anyway. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousnesses, or thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, ah, so would we have it, and let them not say, we have swallowed him up. Instead, Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. But let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." Still, even if he is granted all the success that he desires, even if he's granted the right outcome, my tongue, he still uses that advantage. He still uses that blessing. to give praise to God, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." I hope that challenges, as I've read this psalm several times, it's just challenged that wrong disposition that I've carried around for too long against those who controvert the righteous, those who oppose the righteous, those who who will not let the peaceful in the land, they won't leave them alone. You know, the people that just want to be left alone. There's a reason they want to be left alone. They're doing righteousness. They're doing their thing. And yet they will not be left alone. And so our response to that is not to take matters into our own hands and take up our own cause, but to look to God and say, Lord, you deal with this. Lord, You give them evil for evil. That's what his prayer actually is. But I will not rejoice in their demise. I will rejoice in your salvation of my own life. I will praise you and lift up holy hands continually. Let's pray that it will be so with us. Our Father, we hear your word. We thank you for it. We thank you that in two very different ways it will help to renew our minds. That we would first and foremost not yield our members to unrighteousness and no longer be the servants of sin. which yields death, which end is perdition, but that we would obey, that we would follow hard after righteousness, yield our members unto good works, which adds up to holiness, which yields eternal life, everlasting life, Strengthen us, Father, also in renewing our minds concerning our affairs with men, the interactions of our lives with men. We are generally a peaceable people, and we do desire to be allowed to live out peaceful lives, fruitful lives. And when that is opposed, we do ask, Father, that you would bless, that you would bless your people by intervening for us, that we may continue to be those people in the land, that you would also help us to change our minds away from the mindset of the rebel that rejoices when his opponents have a fall when his opponents are exposed, but that we would actually mourn with them when they mourn, that we would actually be known as a people who pray for them, who desire their good, who desire to see the day of their salvation. Help these things become a reality in our lives through the ministering of your Holy Spirit. And we pray in Christ's name for this power.