[0:00] Our text this morning is Romans chapter 6, 12 through 14. I'm going to start reading in verse 11. God's Word says, So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[0:23] ! Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.
[0:39] And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.
[0:50] Let's pray together. Fathers, we've just sung, I need Thee every hour. I need You this moment to guide the words that are spoken, to guide the hearing of those words.
[1:10] May the words that are spoken be Your words this morning. As John the Baptist said, I must decrease so that He may increase.
[1:23] I pray that this morning. That I decrease so that Christ can increase in our meeting. So that we can see Christ. See who He is.
[1:33] See what He's done. See how He loves us, cares for us, and has changed our lives. We thank You for Christ. We thank You for this great privilege to meet together.
[1:45] Father, Spirit, I ask that You continue to move in the hearts of those here. That You would penetrate the hardest of hearts. Soften those hearts to be receptive to Your Word.
[1:58] That You would convict the stubbornness, or most stubborn hearts, that repentance can be acted out.
[2:12] Let us leave here different because Your Spirit moved, You worked, and we learned about You. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be seated.
[2:22] Be seated. So if this is your first time, we are going through the book of Romans.
[2:33] Verse by verse. And as a quick review, chapter 1 and 2 is about the illness, or the problem with mankind, whether you're Jewish or not, and that is sin.
[2:51] We are dead in sin. We are totally dead. Not just a little dead. We don't need a band-aid. We don't need some magic potion or serum.
[3:02] We are dead. We need a miracle. We need God to work on our behalf. Chapter 3 kind of sums up 1 and 2 in saying that no one is righteous.
[3:14] No, not one. No one does good apart from God. Chapter 4 gives us the way in which those of us who are dead can be alive. That is by faith.
[3:25] We are justified by faith alone. That faith is an act or a gift from God. No religious activity can earn that faith, can make that faith.
[3:38] No good deed or nice to your neighbor can earn that faith. It is completely by God's act. Chapter 5, as our standing with God changes because of the faith, because of being justified by faith.
[3:56] We are no longer enemies with God. We are now at peace with God. Verse 1, and that peace is good. That peace is what only God can do.
[4:12] As I've said before, we cannot earn that peace. We cannot say, God, I will just stop being your enemy because what makes us an enemy is inside of us. It is what makes us who we are.
[4:24] It is what we are born into. It is God's act that gives us peace. It is what Christ has done on the cross for us. Later in chapter 5, Paul compares Adam to Christ.
[4:38] Basically, gives you the question, gives us the question, do you belong to Adam? The lineage of sin? Do you belong to Adam or do you belong to Jesus? Which gives us life.
[4:51] And that's the question I end with. Do you belong to Jesus or do you belong to Adam? Are you a child of God or are you a child of the world? Last week, we talked about God's radical grace.
[5:06] This radical grace that is radical enough to kill us. To kill that sin inside of us. And it's radical enough to give us life. To make us new.
[5:19] So that's kind of where we are. Where we're moving forward. This week, we kind of get the action. What are we doing since we are dead to sin? How do we live?
[5:31] In 1941, the U.S. national debt was $48 billion. Manageable numbers compared to our debt this year. In 1945, it rose to $247 billion.
[5:47] The U.S. spent more money in four years of World War II than it had in the first 150 years of its existence. The cost of war is great.
[6:00] World War II to this day remains the most expensive war the U.S. has ever fought. 418,000 men lost their lives fighting in World War II.
[6:12] U.S. men. There was great cost in war. Now, it's the same for us spiritually. We too are in a war. We fight for our own lives to live without sin.
[6:27] We fight for those around us having the courage to live out the Gospel in front of them. In this text, there is a wartime feel, wartime language.
[6:38] It speaks of good versus evil. And we're right in the middle of it. We are at war, and war is costly. When you and I become Christians, it costs us nothing.
[6:50] It's all by grace. It's all the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is by grace. He paid the price. But, to live as a Christian, to live out in the Christian life, costs us everything.
[7:06] It costs us everything. This morning, God's radical grace is costly. So let's dig in. First of all, it costs the Christian their allegiance.
[7:20] It costs the Christian their allegiance. Verse 13 says, Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[7:38] Now, when we give allegiance to someone or something, we are committing to follow and serve that person no matter what. But even before anything is even asked of us, we commit ourselves and we must make a choice who we're going to serve.
[7:55] Who are we going to give that allegiance to? Is it going to be sin based on our text? Is it going to be sin where then our body is used for unrighteousness?
[8:06] Our members are used for unrighteousness? Or will it be to God where our body is used as instruments for righteousness? These are the questions.
[8:18] This is the questions that we need to be asking ourselves based on our text. Now, the word present here in our text is not an offering or a yield in a passive way.
[8:29] It's not, okay, here it is. I present this gift to you. It's not that. The language is much stronger than that. It's more like I give in service to.
[8:40] Like war. I give in service to fight. I give in service to go into battle for you. You are giving your loyalty as a subordinate to a superior.
[8:53] So for us as Christians, we're giving our loyalty to God and it puts everything in proper order. So what we have is we have creator, creation.
[9:05] Man, God. This is a proper order of way that things should be. Adam and Eve in the garden had it the other way around. Remember, they were deceived to think that they could become like God.
[9:17] Man, God, not God, man. See, when we pledge our allegiance to God, then we put things in proper order.
[9:28] And this is important. We must, we must, must, must, as Christians, we bear His name, we must put ourselves under the authority of God and His ruling.
[9:40] And the gospel, the truth about Jesus Christ, the good news is what empowers us to do that. The gospel tells us who we were. Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3.
[9:53] We were dead in our sins. There was nothing good in us. We could not achieve righteousness. It shows us what we deserve. We deserve death. We deserve damnation.
[10:04] Our sin deserves a punishment. It reveals to us what God has done through Christ's life, death, and resurrection. which is He has made us righteous.
[10:17] He has given us His righteousness and taken from us our sin. And then finally, the gospel compels us to give our allegiance to God.
[10:28] Or at least it should. And there's where the rubber meets the road. The gospel isn't just a one-time decision made for the unbeliever. And then once you become a Christian, there's no need for it.
[10:42] That's not the gospel. The gospel is the fuel of the Christian life. It is what fuels us and empowers us to keep going. And it is what compels us to surrender our allegiance to God and not to sin.
[10:58] The beginning of verse 13 says, do not present your members. This is not a one-time thing. This is a lifelong action. Continuous action.
[11:10] I wish it was a one-time thing. That would be so much easier. So many less struggles, but that's not what it says. Our allegiance is worth fighting for.
[11:24] We must make a decision. And that decision is whether or not we're going to give to the enemy or give to God. God. In a speech before the Battle of Long Island in 1776, George Washington said, the fate of unborn millions will now depend under God on the courage and conduct of the army.
[11:51] Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die.
[12:08] Our enemy, our enemy is not terrorism. It is not Iran. It is not North Korea. It is not the crazy kooks up in the mountains somewhere hoarding weapons.
[12:21] Our enemy is sin and it is cruel and unrelenting. And we must be brave and unrelenting in our allegiance to God.
[12:33] God has already defeated that sin. Our enemy is cruel and unrelenting and it will tell you anything to gain your allegiance.
[12:45] It will tell you anything. John 8 says that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. He is the owner of sin.
[12:56] He lies sin. So that we can give our allegiance to the enemy. Jesus has already fought the fight and he has won.
[13:08] He has already fought the fight. We must now live like it. Live like we have been brought from death to life as our text says.
[13:20] live. Jesus made that possible for us because we have been brought from death to life. He makes it possible. He it is. He empowers us over the enemy.
[13:33] to give your allegiance to God isn't a fatal move. It's not this passive okay God I'm yours. No.
[13:45] There's a fight to be had. There's a battle to be won. It's a decision with action. Look at verse 16 of chapter 4. Looking ahead just a little bit.
[13:57] Verse 16 says do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness.
[14:12] There's no neutral ground. You are one or the other. You are on one side or the other. We must make our decision based on what God has done.
[14:24] And not what we can do. Not what we think we can do or what we have done. See when we do that when we base our decision and we make our decision of who we're going to give our allegiance to based on what we do.
[14:38] And there's only two outcomes. Those outcomes are either moralism or legalism. Moralism, the idea that we can be holy and do acts of righteousness as verse 13 says, just by doing them, just by being good, just by not cursing or just by loving our neighbor, being a good person.
[15:01] Holiness does not come from what we do. Okay? Does not come from what we do. The other side of it is legalism. The idea that if we follow rules and if we make rules to live by, then that will make us holy.
[15:18] If we just make a list and check them off. I've done this and I've done this and I've done this. If I stay away from this sin, then I won't cross that line and do that sin, so I'm just going to step further back.
[15:36] It does not lead to holiness either. Both are a deception of sin and the evidence that your members, your body has been used for unrighteousness.
[15:51] So the way you defeat both of these tendencies, the way you don't fall off one side or the other is by being who you are. Or another way to put it, become who you are becoming.
[16:05] In other words, you have been brought from death to life. Now live like it. That's where the rubber meets the road.
[16:16] You have been brought from death to life. Now live like it. It's the indicative of what God has done and who we are in Christ followed by the imperative.
[16:28] What we should do. What should we be like? How we should live. When we think about what Jesus did and who we are now, that we are made righteous, we are standing before God righteous because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we should be compelled to place our allegiance to God and not to sin.
[16:49] Place our allegiance to God because of what He has done for us. Galatians 5.16 says, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
[17:02] Now if you're in Galatians chapter 5, you look a little further down and you get the list. Not an exhaustive list, but you look through that list and you go, yep, yep, yep, I got that. I see that.
[17:13] The list of the fruits of the flesh. If you don't want to gratify the desires of the flesh, if you have a sincere, convicting desire to not sin, and walk by the Spirit.
[17:29] But, we cannot walk by the Spirit without allegiance to God. You cannot walk by the Spirit without being in service to God.
[17:40] If you're in service to sin, you cannot walk by the Spirit. There is sin. There is no neutral stance.
[17:52] You're one side or the other. God or sin. So, verse 13 says, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[18:15] not only does God's grace cost the Christian their allegiance, it also costs the Christian their obedience. Verse 12 says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
[18:33] Therefore, it connects us to what has been previously said. In other words, since you are dead to sin and alive to God, since you have been brought from death to life, do not let sin reign.
[18:49] And the only way that happens is if you are a Christian, if you love Jesus and He is your Lord, can you not let sin reign? You have died to sin.
[19:03] When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the price. He paid the price for us. And in so doing, He took on our sin and gave us His righteousness.
[19:15] That righteousness makes it possible to live as if we are dead to sin. That righteousness is also how we can approach the throne room with boldness and confidence because it's nothing of our doing, it's all of Christ's doing.
[19:32] So Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 10 tells us, approach with confidence. Verse 12 of Romans chapter 6, let not sin therefore reign.
[19:43] It's actually connected to verse 14. Verse 12 without verse 14 is like telling somebody who's drowning, just swim to the shore. It doesn't help them.
[19:55] If somebody is drowning, you have to get in and help them. You have to throw them something. You have to do something to help them. You can't just say, man, you're drowning, just swim over to the shore.
[20:05] It's right there. Ten yards, you got it. That doesn't help them. Verse 12 without verse 14 is the same way. Look at verse 14.
[20:18] For sin will have no dominion over you. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. I said last week that sin is a choice.
[20:33] Sin is voluntary. Voluntary. We choose to sin. We choose to give sin power. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body because sin will have no dominion over you.
[20:53] For us, without verse 14, verse 12 is useless. Without verse 14 being dead to sin and knowing that it has no dominion over us, verse 12 does not help.
[21:11] God's grace costs you and me our obedience. Look at the last part of verse 12. To make you obey its passions.
[21:24] We will obey one or the other, but only one. We are at war and you cannot fight both sides.
[21:37] There's no secret spies. There's no double agents. You can't do it. It's black and white here. The battle is a spiritual battle that is fought and won or lost on the daily decisions you and I make and how we're going to use our body.
[21:56] How are we going to do action? If I told Britain, my beautiful Britain, if I told her, Britain, go clean your room, and 30 minutes later, she comes back and I said, Britain, did you clean your room?
[22:11] And she says, no, but dad, I thought a whole lot about what you said. I memorized what you said. Britain, go back to your room and clean your room.
[22:28] 30 minutes later, she comes back. I said, Britain, did you clean your room? She says, no, but dad, I thought about it a lot. I thought about what you said.
[22:39] I looked up in the Greek what you meant to say, what it really means. that's not obedience, is it? That's disobedience. That's straight sin.
[22:50] Good intentions, maybe. Good thinking, but that's not obedience. It's the same for us.
[23:04] The same for us as we know what God has commanded us to do, and yet we don't do it. God, I've memorized half of Romans.
[23:18] Okay, but have you lived it out? Did you clean your room? Did you put things away? God, I know exactly what verses 12 through 14 means in the Greek, what it's saying.
[23:30] I know the tenses of the words, and I've actually memorized it in Greek. And I can tell you the Greek alphabet, and I can tell you the Hebrew, and God, I'm doing a lot for you.
[23:43] Are you living out my words to you? That's where the rubber meets the road. See, we are at war.
[23:55] We are in a battle. And the question to you, and to me, is are we willing to pay the price of obedience to God? Are we just going to skip out on obeying Him and continue in sin?
[24:09] God's grace costs us our obedience. When Jesus called His disciples in Matthew 4, what does He say?
[24:20] He says, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. I'm pretty sure that follow is a verb. There is action there. And He doesn't give them, follow Me and I'll do this for you and it'll be happy and it'll be great and you'll do a lot of things.
[24:37] He doesn't really give them a lot of information. He doesn't give them the core syllabus of what's going to turn out. The disciples obeyed.
[24:54] Action. In Matthew 13, Jesus is teaching some of the parables and in verse 44 He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.
[25:08] Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. And again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it.
[25:26] There is great price. God's grace is costly. And there's action that needs to follow our obedience.
[25:36] obedience. A kingdom of heaven requires obedience. Will you obey?
[25:48] Will you obey God? If you obey God, you cannot obey the passions of your bodies. If you obey God, no matter what happens, no matter where that takes you, no matter how hard it seems to be, see, the disciples didn't know.
[26:05] Peter had no clue, no clue that he was going to be crucified upside down. But he did, and he went. The disciples gave up everything they knew.
[26:20] They were fishermen. This is what they did. That was their livelihood. That's how they did things. That's how they paid for things. That's how they lived.
[26:30] And yet, they gave it up to follow Jesus. And the same call is on your life and my life. God said to Abram the same thing. Go.
[26:43] Just go. And I'll show you the way. Didn't give any details, but Abram was obedient to God and he acted on God's commands. He obeyed with action.
[26:55] See, the good news is that as daunting as it may sound, as crazy or dangerous or radical as the command that God has in your life. No matter the situation, for some of you, it may be obeying and not dating a certain person.
[27:13] For some of you, it may be quitting a job. For some, it may be having to have a talk with somebody that's going to be difficult and a little scary. It may be raising your kids an entire new way.
[27:25] A paradigm shift. Shifting what you know. It may be stop drinking certain things. It may be giving up your addictions. Whatever it is, God gives us the strength and the endurance and the ability to do these things.
[27:43] He will not let us flop around like a fish out of water, gasping for air. He enables us to do what He commands.
[27:58] Augustine put it this way, grant what thou command and then command what thou will. Grant what thou command. Enable me to do it and then command what thou will.
[28:13] In other words, I'll do what you say if you enable me to do it. God will guide and help His children. The question is, will you obey? Are you willing to pay your obedience to Him?
[28:29] We are at war and our obedience determines which side we're on. Plain and simple. Which side are you fighting for? Are you fighting for God?
[28:40] Are you fighting for sin? Are you obeying God or are you obeying sin? So not only does God's grace cost us our allegiance and our obedience, but thirdly, it costs the Christian their security.
[28:56] Now this is a little bit of a play on words, but you'll see what I mean. It costs the Christian their security. Verse 13 again, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[29:22] Now the word instrument here can also be translated weapon. So your member, do not present your members to sin as weapons for unrighteousness, and your members to God as weapons for righteousness.
[29:39] Our bodies are either weapons for righteousness or unrighteousness. When we place our allegiance to God, we are giving up our security to live under His rule and His commands.
[29:51] Sounds confusing. Here's what I mean. When our bodies are weapons of unrighteousness, we fight for only one person and that's ourselves. We fight for ourselves.
[30:02] We're on the side of sin. We obey sin. We obey the passions of our flesh. And our security is found in what we do.
[30:14] We think as long as we're fighting that we have security. As long as we have weapons, we are secure. It's kind of like the Occupy Wall Street stuff going on.
[30:28] Occupy Wall Street, New York, Oakland, whatever city you name. It's like that because no one knows why they're doing what they're doing.
[30:41] Inside the camp or outside the camp, nobody can really, there's no unity to what they're trying to accomplish. And the only thing positive, the only thing coming out of that is they're accomplishing more work for the police, more work for the street cleaners, and more work for the coffee shops.
[31:01] See, nothing positive is being accomplished. But they think that because we're protesting and we're doing something, we are accomplishing something great.
[31:12] In reality, there's no unity there, there's nothing being done. Likewise, when we use our bodies as weapons of unrighteousness, we think we're doing something, we think we're accomplishing something.
[31:27] And in reality, we are doing nothing. Nothing is being accomplished. We, in fact, are being devoured by the enemy.
[31:38] And we don't even know it. If you take a frog and you throw them in a hot boiling pot of water, the frog jumps right out. A pretty smart frog.
[31:49] But, if you take the frog and you lay it in cold water, take the pot and put it on the stove and you start heating it up, the frog stays in until it's finally cooked. Until it's done.
[32:00] Until it's ready to eat. You and I, when we fight and use our weapons of unrighteousness, we're like the frog in the pot being devoured, being cooked without even knowing it.
[32:16] See, as we walk towards one direction, as we obey and pledge our allegiance to sin, we're walking away from God. We're walking away from the other direction.
[32:32] The place where Jesus made it possible for us to live without sin. Having power and reign. So what we thought was security, what we thought was accomplishing something, was actually just smoke and mirrors.
[32:49] It was nothing. We must lay those weapons down. We must lay our bodies down and pledge allegiance to God. Surrender them.
[33:00] See, when a person or army would surrender to the king, their weapons would be handed over to the enemy. The enemy would take those weapons. God works in such a way that those weapons, our bodies, instead of taking them, instead of removing them from us, He uses them for righteousness, for His glory, and for our joy.
[33:28] So, when we place our allegiance to God, we are giving up our pseudo-security, security that we think we have, to live under His rule.
[33:41] That will mean that some of us, God may take to an unsafe place on earth. It may mean that He'll have us in a place where our only security is in Him, and not in what we do, not in what we achieve.
[34:00] And there, we're bold. There, we're vocal. There, we are dangerous because our dependence on security is in Him.
[34:13] Our dependence on security will be in Him and not in our home, not in our normals, our routines, not in our job, but only in Him and His provision.
[34:26] See, God's grace costs us security. not only does it cost us allegiance and our obedience and security, but finally it costs the Christian their freedom.
[34:44] It costs us our freedom. When a person becomes a Christian, there are several things that happen. First of all, their sin is removed by Jesus, and His righteousness is given to them.
[34:57] the great exchange, our sin for His righteousness. Secondly, their standing with God is no longer as enemy, but as child, adopted child of the King.
[35:12] Thirdly, the Christian is now at peace with God, no longer enemies. We are now at peace with God. And finally, the Christian is set free from the bondage and power of sin.
[35:29] Because on the cross, Jesus destroyed that power and that bondage of sin. Christians are free. Free from the first time to sin.
[35:42] The life that we were born into is no more. That sin that once controlled and reigned over us no longer has control or power.
[35:53] The Christian has been set free. As Horatio Spafford says, in it as well with my soul, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought.
[36:06] My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul. We have been set free.
[36:19] Look at verse 14 of Romans chapter 6. grace. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under grace.
[36:33] You have been set free. Now live like it. Skipping down to verse 18, looking ahead just a little bit, here's where our freedom is costly.
[36:47] Verse 18 says, And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. That freedom, the freedom that we have from the control of sin, from the control of and having power over us, is no more.
[37:08] We have been set free from that. But we are now slaves to righteousness. Sin that leads to death and destruction, that leads to pain and suffering, that leads to remorse and strife, can no longer lead you to the stockyard.
[37:27] No longer lead you towards death. It no longer has power over you. You've been set free all because of God's radical, amazing, glorious grace.
[37:41] We are now slaves to righteousness. Which means that we are at the service of the king of kings who will never leave his throne. You're in it.
[37:53] The king of kings who will never be defeated. The king of kings who has defeated death that which no man could ever have done. Who will never leave you or forsake you.
[38:08] Who will not leave us as orphans. Who will guide and direct us. Who is a gracious God. A ruler who is gracious and just.
[38:19] Who is holy and righteous. This is who we're in the service to. There should be no worry in you to ever be gypped by God.
[38:30] You're not going to be gypped by God. He cares for you and He loves you. Pay the price. Give Him your obedience and your allegiance and your security and your freedom.
[38:41] There should be no worry that He'll not do what He says He's going to do because He will. He cannot lie. He is faithful.
[38:57] Before Christ you were free to sin. You were free to sin but that freedom was not freedom at all. You were actually enslaved to sin. Your master was sin.
[39:09] After Christ after becoming a Christian you are free to live holy lives. But that freedom is not really freedom because you're enslaved to righteousness. And being enslaved to righteousness leads to a life of righteousness.
[39:27] Being enslaved to sin leads to a life of sin. As a Christian we are compelled to live lives as if we've been brought from death to life.
[39:40] because that is who we are. Because we have been brought from death to life. And we can only do that because of the grace that God has shown us.
[39:52] We can only do that because of His glorious grace. We are under grace and not under law. The last part of verse 14.
[40:03] Meaning sin no longer has reign. It has no power. As I said a few minutes ago what power it has we give to it as believers. And law which reveals our sin no longer reigns over us as well.
[40:22] Does it mean we don't follow the law? No, absolutely not. But it does not condemn us. For we are righteous, we are perfect, we are made right before God.
[40:35] God's grace is costly. It requires action on our part. When there is no action, when there is no action, we cheapen the grace of God into something invaluable.
[40:51] Something worthless. Listen to Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his book, The Cost of Discipleship. It says, Cheap grace is represented as the church's inexhaustible treasury from which she showers blessings with generous hands without asking questions or fixing limits.
[41:15] Cheap grace without price, grace without cost. The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance. And because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing.
[41:29] Since the cost was infinite, the possibility that's using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap? Cheap grace, therefore, amounts to a denial of the living Word of God.
[41:43] In fact, a denial of the incarnation of the Word of God. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Baptism without church discipline.
[41:57] Communion without confession. Absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship. Grace without the cross.
[42:08] Grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. But, costly grace, costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field.
[42:20] For the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for whose sake a man will pluck out his eye which causes him to stumble.
[42:37] It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his net and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again.
[42:50] The gift which must be asked for. The door at which a man must knock. God's grace is costly. Are we willing to pay?
[43:01] Let us not cheapen God's grace into some form of insurance or some form of cheap potion that we can get what we want so that we can live how we want to live without any rules or regulations.
[43:17] Let's not cheapen God's grace. Let us be a church of action where our bodies are used for righteousness and not unrighteousness. God's radical grace is costly.
[43:31] It costs us our obedience. It costs us our allegiance, our security and our freedom and many, many, many more things. May God help us strive to be used by Him, to glorify Him and to proclaim the gospel to the world.