THE MIGHTY CONSTRAINT OF GRACE

Dr. Jim Means

November 4, 2007

There are two powerful forces at work in the world

Spoken of in Romans 5:21 “Sin reigned in death” “Grace reigns through righteousness.”

‘”IN ADAM” ... i.e., “Under the power of Sin and Law, which leads to Death”

“IN CHRIST” ... i.e., “Under the power of Grace which leads to Life”

1. The first powerful force is that of sin— brought into existence, enabled and spread by the Prince of the Power of the Air — i.e., Satan.

1. Sin — as we have seen — is:

1. The exchange of truth for a lie

2. Denies the existence, the supremacy and holiness of God

3. Asserts the supremacy of the human will over everything—so that the human usurps the place of God, denies the authority of God, and determines to “do its own thing” ... “I will be my own God”

4. Brings alienation from God

5. Brings all of mankind under a sentence of “GUILTY”

6. Brings all of us under the condemnation of God

7. There are no exceptions:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one... There is no fear of God before their eyes.” - Romans 3:10,11,14

2. The LAW WAS GIVEN THAT THE REALITY AND THE DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF SIN MIGHT BE MADE OBVIOUS

1. The law could never bring life ... or righteousness

2. “For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.” Gal. 3:21

3. The Law given to show us the absolute hopelessness of being “good enough” to gain a right relationship with God.

3. What a powerful force it is!

Romans 1

Shameful lusts - Depraved minds - Evil, greed, and depravity - Envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice - Gossips, slanders, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful - They invent ways of doing evil - They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless...

In short, sin denies the existence, the supremacy, and the holiness of God ... they thumb their noses at the Word of God.

Most people reject the truth of this text — a colossal rejection of this message!

4. Live as though God does not exist

5. Despise the gift of God’s grace — Jesus

6. Spurn the salvation offered by God

7. Ridicule his church,

Take his name in vain,

Loathe his cross,

Sneer at his Word

Crucify him afresh daily

“I DO NOT NEED THE GRACE OF GOD”

2. The second powerful force in the world is grace — and what a mighty constraint is that energy of the Holy Spirit when it operates upon the human soul. That is the subject — the “big idea” of Romans, Chapter 6. The very essence of this chapter is that we—who have truly received the grace of God and have been regenerated by God’s Spirit—have died to sin and have become slaves to righteousness. To be “justified by faith” is to enter into an altogether new relationship with God in which our sins are forgiven sin and progressive sanctification begins.

Vs. 14 “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” “Under sin” means “under the power and control of sin and law which leads to death.”

I. GRACE MAKES CONTINUING IN SIN UNTHINKABLE AND QUITE IMPOSSIBLE — i.e., GRACE RESTRAINS US FROM SIN AND CONSTRAINS US TO HOLINESS.

3. “Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, not the apologist for sin.”

4. This grace works by love and purifies the heart

1. Grace is a saving, holy, sanctifying, sin conquering, Christ

appropriating gift of God.

2. It staggers not at difficulties

3. It trembles not before adversaries

Sinks not in the floods of many waters

Fears not to confront the tyrants of earth or the demons

of hell.

4. It removes all mountains

Brings distant events near

Realizes the promises of future glory.

Joyfully makes acquaintance with prisons, persecutions, tortures and death itself for the Redeemer’s sake.

5. It seeks and finds Christ ever the Lamb of God in all things

6. This grace kills us, and makes us alive to God

Humbles us to the dust, yet exalts us to the skies

Overwhelms us with afflictions, and sustains us with

abundant consolations

7. It suits all ages, generations and conditions of mankind; for

by it the young and the old, the ignorant and the learned, the

civilized nations and the semi-savage barbarians, have equal

liberty of access to God, may equally triumph over the

impediments and restrictions of human nature and rejoice in

the prospect and assurance of glory.

5. There is a bald-face lie that many in our evangelical churches have come to believe: “Grace, rather than being a constraint to holiness, is a license to sin..”

1. Namely, it is the lie that one may have truly received the

saving grace of God and yet continues to live a life of sin.

2. “They imagine that they can live as they like, and yet be the

dear people of God. Beloved, may God save us from this spirit

of Antinominianism! [lawlessness] for of all the devils that have

ever come up from hell, I believe it is one of the most

brazen‑faced and deceitful, and has done more damage among

professing Christians than almost any other.” - Charles H. Spurgeon

3. Saved, yet a friend of the world at the same time?

4. Saved, yet live just as before they heard the gospe>l

5. Thus, they deny:

1. This chapter

2. The book of James,

3. The book of 1 John which says “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey his commands...” “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk...” “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk at Jesus did”. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed is in him, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God...”

4. Titus: “The grace of God has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “NO” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing...”

5. 1 Corinthians “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation...”

And many other Scriptures as well. New creation; led by the Spirit; etc.

6. "The faith which saves is not an unproductive faith, but is always a faith which produces good works and abounds in holiness. Salvation in sin is not possible; it always must be salvation from sin. As well speak of liberty while yet the irons are upon a man's wrists, or boast of healing while the disease waxes worse and worse, or glory in victory when the army is on the point of surrendering, as to dream of salvation in Christ while the sinner continues to give full swing to his evil passions. Grace and holiness are inseparable as light and heat in the sun. True faith in Jesus in every case leads to an abhorrence of every false way, and to a perseverance in the paths of holiness even unto the end."

- Charles H. Spurgeon

7. "As for those whose ungodly lives stare them in the face, so far from being saved by their pretended faith, they are trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots. If they say they continue in sin that grace may abound, their damnation is just. The salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a salvation from sin. They who would be saved by him must come and trust him just as they are, and he will enable them to forsake their sin; but while they continue to say, ‘We will take pleasure in sin,' there is no salvation possible for them. God brings us to Christ, and nails our sins to the cross, and gives us life in our Saviour's life." - Charles H. Spurgeon

6. Vs. 2 “How can we live in sin any longer?”

7. Vs. 18 “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

8. Vs. 22 “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God...”

9. A SERIOUS WORD:

1. “If you...

1. DO NOT HAVE A FAITH WHICH RESTRAINS SIN

2. DO NOT HAVE A FAITH, WHICH TEACHES, &

TRAINS YOU IN GODLINESS AND CONSTRAINS

YOU ON THE PATH OF HOLINESS...

3. THEN — YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE GRACE

OF GOD, YOU ARE YET IN YOUR SINS.

10. “Very possibly your religion costs you neither trouble, nor time, nor thought, nor care, nor pains, nor reading, nor praying, nor self‑denial, nor conflict, nor working, nor labor of any kind. Now mark what I say. Such a religion as this will never save your soul. A religion which costs nothing and changes nothing is worth nothing.” - J C Ryle

11. "Professing Christian, if your life is unholy, your heart unchanged, you are not saved. If the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, then you have not experienced salvation. Grace that does not make you holy is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves His people not in their sins, but from their sins. The grace which does not lead to holiness is not the grace of God at all." - Charles H. Spurgeon

There are two great and clear marks of the genuine Christian:

1. The true Christian hates sin with a passion and seeks to avoid it.

2. The true Christian desires righteousness with a passion and seeks to attain it.

Two metaphors:

1. Identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, symbolized in baptism.

2. The freedom from slavery to sin, and the beginning a new slavery to God.

II. The TWO METAPHORS:

12. GRACE MEANS CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION

1. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death ... Ro. 6:3-4

2. “Our old self was crucified with him...” Ro. 6:6

3. “We died with Christ...” Ro. 6:8

4. The sinner is crucified with Christ. [POSITIONAL CRUCIFIXION]

5. Vs. 4 “...buried with him”

6. Vs. 5 “...united with him ... in his death”

7. Vs. 6 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with”

8. Vs. 8 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

9. Symbolized in water baptism.

1. When Christ died, He died to sin

2. When Christ rose from the grave, He rose in mastery

over sin & death

3. When the Spirit of God “baptizes us into Christ” we

are crucified w. Christ, we are buried w. Christ, and

we rise to newness of life.

10. The heart of what it means to be “in Christ” ... i.e., a

“Christian”

13. GRACE MEANS FREEDOM FROM SIN, SLAVERY TO GOD

1. Vs. 7 “anyone who has died has been freed from sin”

2. Freedom from sin’s