I invite you to turn with me this evening to Romans 6, Romans chapter 6, and we'll read this chapter and consider it in connection with Lord's Day 24, which you'll find on page 31 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Romans 6, along with Lord's Day 24, page 31. We will first respond to the questions found in the Lord's Day, Numbers 62, 63, and 64. Question 62 asks, Why can't the good we do make us right with God, or at least help make us right with Him? Because the righteousness which can pass God's scrutiny must be entirely perfect and must in every way measure up to the divine law. Even the very best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin. How can you say that the good we do doesn't earn anything when God promises to reward it in this life and the next? This reward is not earned. It is a gift of grace. But doesn't this teaching make people indifferent and wicked? No. It is impossible for those grafted into Christ by true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude. Romans chapter 6. Hear now the Word of God. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all. but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness, for sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And again tonight, may God add His blessing to the reading and the preaching and the hearing of His Word. Well, beloved, in Christ Jesus our Lord, we live in a society that wants to get something for nothing. And that's evident today, isn't it? Especially over the past number of weeks as we have heard day after day about the government bailouts which are promised, which are taking place, which have resulted in individuals and corporations and organizations and even states standing there with their hand out. And boys and girls, you can understand this wanting something for nothing too, I trust, because if you do receive an allowance, no doubt you would much rather get that allowance in your hand by not having to do your chores. Or maybe you would prefer to get that good grade by not putting forth the work of studying for it. We all would like to get something for nothing. But we also know, as the saying goes, that there's no such thing as a free lunch. There's nothing free in this life. And when it comes to that, there are many, especially evangelical Christians who treat salvation that way. That there's no such thing as a free lunch. They treat salvation that great something that is truly for nothing. They treat it as something that takes us doing our part. That takes us working for it. But then the Word of God comes and says, no, no, no. The justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And Paul says in Galatians chapter 2, by observing the law, no one will be justified. In other words, no matter how good you and I are, or no matter how good we think we are, no matter how much good we think we do, the only thing that you and I can contribute to our salvation, and indeed we do, is the need to be saved. That's the only thing that we can contribute, the need to be saved. But this truth of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, results in two reactions that arise either from ignorance or from unbelief. On the one hand, there is the reaction that says, why? As question 62 asks, why can't the good we do make us right with God, or at least help make us right with Him? Maybe to put it another way, a bit of a twist on it, doesn't this teaching make for cheap grace? Isn't this something that is too good to be true? The answer, as the catechism rightly says, is because the righteousness which can pass God's scrutiny must be entirely perfect and must in every way measure up to the divine law. Must be completely perfect. And of course, as we considered last week, Paul makes it clear in Romans 3 that that's impossible For all have sinned. And the Catechism goes on to quote from Isaiah that even the very best that we do is imperfect. It's stained with sin. We considered this last week with Lord's Day 23. But therefore, beloved, we should not want our efforts to count because the only thing it will count, it will count, but it will only count against us. If we truly receive what our works earn, It will be only death. But on the other hand, there's another reaction, and that reaction is by those like some of Paul's accusers who are glad that their good works don't count for anything because they take on the attitude that goes along with a saying I heard once ago, something like this, Rejoice, rejoice, O blessed condition, I can live like I want and still find remission. I can live like I want and still be forgiven. Jude, in his short one-chapter epistle in verse 4, speaks of godless men who changed the grace of God into a license for immorality. In question 64, the catechism points to this, but doesn't this teaching make people indifferent and wicked? Doesn't it make for weak and unmotivated and uninspired Christians who don't do good works because it doesn't gain them anything anyway? the answer says no. It is impossible for those grafted into Christ by true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude. This is the truth of God's Word. Our Savior said in John 15, verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Now, boys and girls, you can understand that analogy. Think of a fruit tree, maybe an orange tree. Think of a branch on that orange tree. as long as that branch is firmly connected as it ought to be to that tree, that living tree, it will produce leaves. It will produce delicious oranges. But as soon as that branch is cut off, as soon as it is disconnected from that source of life, it's not even going to produce leaves anymore. Jesus said, if a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Not maybe, he will. And James, in James 2, verse 17, says, Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. And we know that James is not contradicting what Paul teaches, not at all. In a sense, James is enhancing it. Pointing to the fact that good works is not a condition for grace or to be saved. But good works is a result from grace, from salvation. Because true faith, beloved, is faith that works. Now when it comes to good works, Lord's Day 32, which is a few Lord's Days down the road, addresses why we do good works. And that answer points to this fact, that we do them out of gratitude to God, but also by them God gives to us an assurance of our true faith. And then as well we do them that others, if it is God's will, might be brought to Him through our good works. And then Lord's Day 33 points to what good works are. They are those which flow from true faith. They conform to God's law and they are done for God's glory. So why we do good works and what good works are, that's still coming up. But here, Lord's Day 24, especially question and answer 64, deals with the fact of good works. That the believer will do good works. And Paul in Romans 6 emphasizes the fact of good works by addressing in a negative way that the believer will no longer live in, he will no longer be controlled by sin because of a new life source. And the believer will no longer approve of or be content in sinful behavior because of a new allegiance. And then finally he points out that all of this flows from a new motivation. Now Romans 6 is divided by two similar yet different questions in verse 1 and verse 15 verse 1 says what should we say then should we go on sinning so that grace may increase paul is anticipating a question there in response to what he says in chapter 5 verse 20 but where sin increased grace increased all the more and his point there very simply is that there is no sin so great or no abundance of sin so great that god's grace is not more sufficient for that god's grace is greater than that but he anticipates the question what shall we say then shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase and then verse 15 what then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace and to both of these he answers emphatically by no means absolutely not and then he goes on to give an explanation of what he means with regard to question one. Faith that works, beloved, in the first place is empowered by a new life source with the power of sin broken by baptism into Christ's death. You see, Paul makes it clear that for the Christian, continuing to live in sin is not only impermissible, it's not permitted, but along with that, it is impossible. Because a death has taken place. He points to Christ's death. And that death, we know, points to the reason that He came. He came to save His people from their sins. And in chapter 5, Paul makes it clear that Christ died for sinners. And that means that by His sacrifice and death, He paid the penalty for our sins. And He satisfied God's justice. And he removed God's wrath that was against us with the result, as Paul says, that many are made righteous, many are justified, many are made so that they now stand in a right relationship with God. And then he talks about us, the believer, being baptized into Christ's death. And very simply, that means being brought into union with Jesus Christ by faith. Faith which trusts completely in Him. faith that receives all that Christ earned for me by his death. In congregation, death, we know, means separation. When death takes place, a separation has taken place. There is a separation, we know, with physical death with the body and the soul. There's another kind of separation. There's a separation of the one who died from his or her loved ones who are left behind. Death means separation. Christ died for our sins and in Him by faith we die to our sins. We are separated from our sins. And along with that, God's grace also makes provision for an inward change in the believer by the Holy Spirit. We have died to that old self and there is a new self that comes to life and that results in a new inward state. The early church father, Augustine, spoke of the fourfold state of man. These are the four states. Before the fall, as Adam was created, he was able to sin. After the fall into sin, along with spiritual death, man was not able not to sin. In other words, that's all that he could do. No good in the sight of God. In Christ, those who are born again then are now able not to sin. And then one day in that glorified state, we will not be able to sin. So once again, before the fall, able to sin. After the fall, not able not to sin. In Christ, able not to sin. And glorified, not able to sin. Believers find themselves in that third state, able not to sin. Beloved, faith is empowered by a new life source that receives Jesus Christ and all of His benefits. Jesus who frees us from the power of sin with its demands. Those demands which before new birth only compel us to sin. It's the only way the unbeliever knows. It's the only way that he can see clear. But by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, the child of God is given a desire and a power to live a holy life because that new life source makes us partakers of the divine nature. Peter speaks of this in 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. The believer is united with Christ in His death that breaks the power of sin and in His resurrection to new life. He rose again as victor over Satan, sin, death, and hell, and all the power thereof. And in Christ, then, believers are new creations, as Paul says, being remade in the image of God in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And Paul says in Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And Paul points to the character of this new life source, this new life from this new life source in Colossians chapter 2 when he says, beginning in verse 9, For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In Him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with a circumcision done by Christ. Having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. You see, beloved, over and over and over again in his writings, Paul answers the question why it is impossible to go on sinning so that grace might increase. And that's because God's grace has broken the power of sin which leads one only in an ungodly direction. The old self is crucified. And the new life source opens the eyes of the child of God by faith to a new direction. and that new life source is active. And it is now life which results in purposeful living, and that purpose is no longer a walk of sin. No longer is sin a way of life for the child of God. No longer is the child of God only focused on sin. No longer is he set in a direction away from God. But instead, he consciously knows that new state. That he is able not to sin. Paul says in verse 11, In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. Count yourself, consider yourself, know yourself as dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. You see, there is a paradox here. There is what we might call a seeming contradiction. Indeed, we know that state that believers in Christ are able not to sin. But unfortunately, as believers, we are still able to sin as well. And we do. Yet that new life in Christ, beloved, is to be lived consciously. Consciously knowing that the power of sin has been broken. consciously knowing and being reminded that sin no longer reigns over us as king, constantly knowing that we no longer follow the old path of sin and no longer abound by sin's demands. But instead, as Paul says, and this is how it is, as Paul says in Colossians 3, Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your light is now hidden with Christ in God. See, beloved, what I think Paul is pointing us to understand is that faith is a conscious activity. It works. And in this way, the justified believer, the one who has been made right with God, both now and forever, by grace alone, In this life then, that justified believer cooperates with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, consciously putting to work those new desires and that new direction. The child of God enjoys a conscious knowledge of being dead to sin and of being alive to God in Christ Jesus so that as one commentator says, that is the take-off point for all of their thinking and planning and rejoicing and speaking and doing. In other words, our lives are to be governed by that conscious knowledge that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. And therefore, beloved, walking in newness of life means walking in a new direction, a new direction of heart and mind with new inclinations and new desires. Walking in newness of life means that in the face of temptations that confront us or in the face of evil impulses that do come from within us, We are to consciously perform righteousness. That is to be our desire. That is to be the direction that the new self seeks to follow. Paul says, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. When he says this, when he says, therefore do not sin, do not offer the parts, he is saying do not continue to do so. No longer let this be the habit of your life. Because no longer is this the habit of one who is justified by faith. When Paul uses the word instruments here, it also has the idea of weapons. We are engaged in a battle. We know that Jesus Christ is victorious and we are more than conquerors in Him. But still, in this life, we are surrounded by that battle. Satan is busy, he is active, he is shooting his flaming arrows. He is out to get us. And sin, indeed, demands one to use the body, the instruments of the body, as Paul says, arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, and we could say the whole body, physical, mental, emotional. Sin demands that one use that body to attack God. But sin's military wages is only death. Yet Satan and sin no longer have a claim on the believer. And therefore, the child of God is called to use and to rely on the power with which the Holy Spirit empowers us to stand against sin and to stand for right. The believer is called to trust that the Holy Spirit will suppress the activities of the evil nature which is contrary to the Spirit, Paul says, and that the Holy Spirit will produce in the believer a Christ-like life, the fruit of the Spirit. Beloved, faith works. Because faith represents that new life in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, as we were reminded this morning. The Holy Spirit who gives new direction and new desires so that the transformed heart is turned from hate for God to love for God. So that the entire course of living is transformed as the believer's life and faith is in the second place encouraged by a new allegiance. Verse 15 says, What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Now again, the first question in verse 1 seems to deal with the general life of walking in sin. The leading of sin. Which Paul says is impossible because that life is one that is forever crucified and is dead and is no longer controlled by sin. But the second question seems a little bit more pointed at whether or not the law as an expression of God's will for our lives has any place at all. In other words, is it okay to commit sin or acts of sin because God's grace will forgive me anyway. And again, Paul answers, absolutely not. One whose old life has died and enjoys a new life in Christ will not be content in sinful behavior. Because faith that works is encouraged by a new allegiance, a new master. The believer enjoys freedom from sin, freedom from sin as a master, as a king that demands subjection, that makes the rules. Paul uses the slave and master analogy you can see throughout this chapter, but notice specifically verses 16 through 19. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. And when Paul uses the word slave here, he is talking about a bond slave. He's talking about one who was born into slavery, one who was bound to his master until death, One whose will is swallowed up by the will of the Master. One who disregards his own interests and is devoted to the Master's interests. But when we think about that in the context of the old self, the old self is a self that is born into slavery to Satan by first birth. We are conceived and born in sin. And that self is bound to Satan by the bonds of sin. and that one's will will only recognize Satan's will and will follow his interests alone. And Satan is one who demands life in disobedience to the law of God. He demands life of ever-increasing wickedness leading only to our destruction. And that bond with Satan can only be broken by death. It is broken by being united with Christ in His death. So that for the believer, Satan and sin is no longer our master. It no longer makes the rules. We are no longer obligated to obey sin. But the believer is set free and obligated to obey a new Master who gives life. As believers also enjoy freedom in Christ. And that new self, we know, comes about by second birth. And by that, we are born into slavery to Jesus Christ. And therefore, then, we are bound with the bonds of eternal life to Him. And that is a permanent relationship, beloved, because since death no longer has mastery over him, as Paul says, neither he nor we will ever die again. We'll die physically, we know, unless Christ comes first. We will never die eternally. Death no longer reigns over him. And with transformed heart and mind, the believer's will is swallowed up in his will. His will is the believer's desire. His interests are ours. And for those who enjoy new life in Christ Jesus, beloved, we are called to offer the instruments of our body, the weapons of our body in His service. As we are called to fight for His kingdom and His honor and glory. Because freedom in Christ, beloved, means no longer being bound to the power of sin and the eternal destruction that it leads to, but instead it means freedom of life. Freedom of life governed by the protective hand of God that knows what's best for us. Freedom in Christ does not mean laziness on your part and my part, but it means an opportunity for rendering service. We are called to fight for Christ, to fight for His righteousness, to fight against entertaining sin on purpose. We are called to fight against having an apathetic attitude that says, well, you know, I know that if I do this, it's going to be sin, but if I just do it this one time, it'll be no big deal. We are called to fight that when we are faced with life's decisions, especially when one direction would clearly be and lead to sin, we are called to remember our Master and His will and His interests. Because freedom in Christ, beloved, is also for our benefit. Paul says in verse 22, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Beloved, being a slave to God and to righteousness empowered by the Holy Spirit leads to holiness. It leads to holy living by the grace of God as those who are set apart unto the Lord. And that is rewarded. Question 63 asks again, How can you say that the good we do doesn't earn anything when God promises to reward it in this life and the next. The answer, this reward is not earned. It is a gift of grace. Now, if you're like me, you probably have a hard time understanding this particular reward because we have our own earthly conceptions of what a reward is all about, doing something great and being rewarded for it. It's a little bit difficult sometimes to understand, but maybe this can help just a little bit. just as we are rewarded as we keep the civil law. Think about that. As you and I do not steal and do not murder. We are not sent off to prison, but instead we are rewarded in that we keep our freedom. And as long as we obey the laws of the road, we do not receive a ticket or a fine, and instead we are rewarded, as it were, with keeping a clean record. In the same way, the good work of faith is rewarded in this life as the believer finds that God's commands are not burdensome, that they are not restrictive, but that they are a delight. And they are a blessing in service to God. The believer is rewarded as God gives joy and contentment. Maybe not the kind of reward that we would like to have from His hand. Maybe not physical rewards or all those kinds of things. But He gives joy and contentment. He gives peace that passes understanding. He gives satisfaction and obedience because we know that it pleases Him. He gives you and me the reward, beloved, that we live today with the assurance of living in His presence forever by His grace. What a reward! We are rewarded, beloved, that we have no fear in death because of life in Jesus Christ. Faith that works is empowered by a new life source, the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is encouraged by a new allegiance to Christ. And also, finally and briefly, it is energized by a new motivation. And that is the gift of Christ. There are many things in this life that motivate us, in one way or the other, to do certain things. But faith that works is energized by a new motivation, the gift of Christ. For the wages of sin is death, Paul concludes this chapter. but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eternal life is that reward earned by Christ. And beloved, the believer's motivation, the motivation of that new life, includes that knowledge and the assurance that you and I have been delivered from the deserved. What is clearly deserved. For the wages of sin is death. Death, in all of its fullness, is all that you and I can accomplish. but in christ jesus we are freely given the undeserved that which we don't in any way shape or form deserve and that is eternal life and that is the foundation of the believer's hope faith that works trusts true faith trusts in jesus christ in his perfect work it knows that i am right with god only in him both now and forever and beloved there is no greater motivation than the confidence and the assurance of eternal life. No greater motivation than that to put into practice the gift of new life. The desire is to only be associated with the God who saved me. The perfect work of Jesus Christ applied to our lives makes it impossible as the catechism says again, for those grafted into Christ by true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude. Justification by faith. Being made eternally right with God is truly the great something for nothing. Indeed, we are to come before our God with our hands wide open, empty as they are. Wide open. Because He alone can and will fill. It is truly the great something for nothing, but it produces something so wonderful. It produces a desire for God, a desire of life lived for Him, a desire to be used in His service. And this, too, is the work of God in us, as Paul says in Philippians 2, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. But then we know we have a long way to go, don't we? We have a long way to go. But we also know that as we have considered, we know the way to go. We know how we get there, and it's not by us. Sometimes, in fact, often, we demonstrate that alongside of being able not to sin, that we are all so able, so capable of sin. But beloved, when we sin, and our conscience accuses us, and that accusing conscience is also a great blessing of new life, of faith, of working faith. When we sin and our conscience accuses us, we are to be comforted and motivated by the truth that that sin does not, again, separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Not at all. But we are to be comforted and motivated by the truth that the blood of Jesus Christ that saves us covers all of our sins. We are to be comforted and motivated by the truth that we are right with God right now. And that the Holy Spirit is molding and shaping and strengthening us that we might see more clearly the danger of sin. And that He is equipping us to stand stronger next time and the next time and the next time. And we are to be comforted and motivated by the truth that the Holy Spirit will complete that great work that He has begun in you and me. Dear people of God, our work of faith doesn't in any way save us or keep us saved. but those who are saved work gratefully and busily for the master who gives us life both now and forevermore and therefore in Jesus name may we pray that the Holy Spirit would empower and equip each one of us to fight against sin and temptation to fight against laziness in our Christian walk and instead that he would motivate us as believers as people of God because of that gift of eternal life. Motivate us that in all that we think or say and do that we might represent the Lord well and make Him known in all the earth. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank You and praise You for such a great salvation, so rich and so free. We thank You for the gift of new life. For removing from us the dominion of sin, the power of sin to rule over us. And for giving us a new Master, even Yourself, Your Son, by Your Holy Spirit. And Father, we pray that You would accept the meager praises that we bring. That You would accept the work of our hands given to You out of gratitude. Not as a payment for anything, not as trying to earn anything in Your sight, but simply arising from gratitude in our hearts, indeed. Because of Your love and Your mercy and Your grace poured out upon us in Christ Jesus, we cannot, O Lord, begin to fathom it. And we know, too, that we cannot begin to repay You for that. And we thank You and praise You that that is not what You call us to do. But You call us to love You and to express that love in our daily lives. Father, thank You for Your work in us, so powerful, so continuous, that work that will be completed. Hear us for Jesus' sake and in His name we pray. Amen.