Paul knew that these two questions will ALWAYS be asked when we try to tell folks about his teachings of chapter 5!
1.  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2.  Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?

Question
15: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

• No - God forbid - it is not the way God designed it to be...
• Ephesians 1:4,5; 9-13
• grace has a purpose, but it is not to just free us up to party hearty!
• see separate sermon notes for the purposes for grace, but none are so we can choose to follow sin and...
• cause someone to stumble
• used for occasion to the flesh
• accept the power something has over us
• not to edify by our doings
• not to do something non expedient
• Now we are talking about our walk - what we 'do' by our choices!
• Can we just continuing living our life like we were when we were lost?
• Hey, maybe some folks weren't all that bad in their lost years... but still... we were alive to sin, living in sin; sinners based on our position in Adam, etc.
• Romans 1; 3; 7; Galatians 5; Ephesians 2; II Timothy 3:1-9; I Timothy 6:4-6
• As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate*, deceit, malignity*; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable*, unmerciful: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance*, emulations*, wrath, strife, seditions*, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings*, and such like: without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof ... silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ... so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. ... proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness ... But godliness with contentment is great gain. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
• debates
• "Contention in words or arguments; discussion for elucidating truth; strife in argument or reasoning, between persons of different opinions, each endeavoring to prove his own opinion right, and that of his opposer wrong; dispute; controversy"
• malignity
• Extreme enmity, or evil dispositions of heart towards another; malice without provocation, or malevolence with baseness of heart; deep rooted spite. Extreme evilness of nature; Extreme sinfulness.
• seditions
• tumultuous assembly of- men rising in opposition to law or the administration of justice, and in disturbance of the public peace. Sedition is a rising or commotion of less extent than an insurrection, and both are less than rebellion
• variance
• Difference that produces dispute or controversy; disagreement; dissension ; discord.
• emulations
• The act of attempting to equal or excel in qualities or actions; desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it; generally in a good sense, or an attempt to equal or excel others in that which is praise-worthy, without the desire of depressing others. In a bad sense, a striving to equal or do more than others to obtain carnal favors or honors. Contest; contention; strife ; competition; rivalry accompanied with a desire of depressing another.
• Implacable
• Not to be appeased; that can not be pacified and rendered peaceable; inexorable; stubborn or constant in enmity;
• revellings
• To feast with loose and clamorous merriment; To move playfully or without regularity.

• yield to whom? - it is our choice now!
• of sin unto death - the lost (see vs 17)
• of obedience unto righteousness - the saved
• not "obedience unto / to / for baptism" as so many preachers say
• Yes, "obedience to the faith;" "obedience of faith," but no place do the Scriptures say "be obedient to baptism!"
• unto righteousness
• for instruction in righteousness, see KJB rightly divided!  II Timothy 3:16
• Genesis?  no
• Exodus-Deuteronomy?  no
• Old Testament law?  no
• Gospel teachings from Jesus to Jews?  no
• Hebrews?  no
• James to Jude?  no
• Revelation? no
• None of those Books / dispensations are TO us today as Gentiles and now church of God!
• But they are there for our learning!
• Romans 15:4 - For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

• God be thanked...
• were
• servants of sin
• but ye have obeyed
• from the heart
• Romans 10:9,10
• doctrine delivered by Paul
• foundation - laid by Paul
• I Corinthians 3:10
• II Timothy 2:8,9
• building blocks from Paul
• Romans to Philemon
• Philippians 4:9 - Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: ...

• became - means we 'now are,' but do we obey the Spirit or the flesh!
• Romans 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
• made me...
• and now the real battle!
• Galatians 5:17 - For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

• Now we can learn to make the correct choices!
• Philippians 1:9,10
• See II Timothy 3:16 - correction, instruction in righteousness
• See I Thessalonians 4:1 - Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

• even if you were a 'good person,' etc.
• His righteousness was not imputed!
• You could not please God at all - when lost!
• Romans 8:8
• You were dead in sins and transgressions
• Ephesians 2:1
• not "doing" or even "being" according to the Scriptures
• II Timothy 3:16
• Philippians 4:9
• even at that, if doing 'right' according to the book, were you still dead in sins?
• your works as being lost were being stored for day of wrath & judgment
• Romans 2:5
• no interest in bible WORDS - as truth, anyway!
• possibly religious, but nothing but folly!

• Are we ever ashamed that we bring up our past.
• not destroy the magnificence of it
• not despise it
• Acts 19:27 - So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
• only glorify it?
• Why would we expect any different response from others today?
• Acts 26:28,29 - And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre.
• Romans 2:16 - In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
• II Timothy 2:15 - Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

• we are now servants to God
• fruit unto holiness or the fires of judgment
• Romans 4:5 - But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
• or
• Romans 6:19 - 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; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
• II Corinthians 7:1 - Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
• Ephesians 4:24 - And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
• I Thessalonians 3:13 - To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
• I Thessalonians 4:7 - For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
• Titus 2:3 - The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

• So much is missed when we don't read the entire context of a special verse, eh!
• eternal life
• by taking care of sin!
• by giving us his righteousness and faith!
• by giving us his grace!
• and sealing it all
• P.S.  Wages of sinning is reaping what you sow!
• Galatians 6:7,8 - Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
• Go back and study the Judgment Seat of Christ for those things we do that we shouldn't and don't do the things that we should!