Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60754/romans-612-23/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6. Just picking up where we left off last week, last week we read verses 1 through 11, we looked at those.

[0:14] This week we are in verse 23 to 20, I mean 12 to 23. We're going to finish up the 6th chapter of the book of Romans. I think that I'm up to date on the sermons online.

[0:24] I know I was way behind, I think this past week I uploaded like 5 sermons in one day. So sorry for the delay, the Christmas season, New Year season got kind of crazy. But I think we are online at wartracebaptist.org.

[0:39] There's a tab, it's got sermons on there. If you ever are so inclined, I know some of you listen to them, but I think that I'm up to date on that now. But here this morning we are in Romans, Romans chapter 6 starting in verse 12.

[0:53] If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God from Romans chapter 6 starting in verse 12.

[1:05] Paul writes,

[2:36] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity.

[2:50] God, we rejoice in this day. And Lord, we thank you for this word which we have been able to read and hear. And pray, Lord, now that it would be more than words on a page, but Lord, it would be a truth that grips the heart and mind.

[3:04] We pray that you would lead us by the power and presence of your Spirit. Lord, that the truth of Scripture would be opened up to us. Lord, that it would grab us and draw us closer to you.

[3:15] And Lord, as a result of being closer to you, that we could be closer to one another. Lord, we ask that in all things you would be glorified, you would be honored, and you would be magnified. And it is in the sweet name of Jesus we ask these things.

[3:26] Amen. You may be seated. We have been looking at the book of Romans, and we have titled this series, as we have been making our way through it, The Foundational Doctrines of the Faith.

[3:43] I don't want to get into a lengthy introduction, but you will remember that Paul is writing the letter of Romans to the church at Rome. It is not just a church in one location, but rather it is multiple churches scattered throughout the city of Rome.

[3:58] He is writing to believers whom he has never met and who he does not know personally. He is writing to believers that were a part of a church of like faith, which he was starting. He is writing to believers that are a part of a church that we don't know who the founding members of that church was.

[4:15] But he had heard of the church at Rome, and Rome is such an instrumental city, because Rome is kind of the center of the world at that time. And he knew that if you could reach Rome, you could reach the world.

[4:29] And you gather from the writings of Paul that Paul had a desire to reach the world by impacting the cities of the world. If you see in his writings, and you even read in the letters, the church at Corinth, the church at Ephesus, all these churches, the church at Philippi, all these churches that he wrote to were cities in influential parts of the world.

[4:51] Paul himself said he desired to go to Rome, and not only to Rome, but beyond Rome, to the regions where the gospel had never been proclaimed. He wanted to go to Spain. History shows us that more than likely, Paul never made it to Spain.

[5:04] He made it to Rome bound in the chains, being imprisoned for the gospel, and he died a martyr's death in Rome. But when he finally arrives at Rome, that we find at the end of the book of Acts, he is welcomed as a brother in Christ.

[5:20] As a matter of fact, it says that the brethren in Rome traveled down to three ends, a location there where he would have been coming up. They walked some distance to meet him, so that they could walk with him in his chains into Rome.

[5:34] He found a church that loved him, and that welcomed him, and that honored him. And all of this because he had instructed them in the early days of their faith.

[5:44] And the way he instructed them was through the letter that we are reading in the book of Romans. And he did not chastise them. He did not rebuke them. He did not correct any wrong faith.

[5:56] As a matter of fact, he just laid a foundation of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus Christ in the world in which you live. And friend, listen to me. Rome was not an easy place to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

[6:10] At the time of Paul's writing, the believers were just now beginning to come under persecution. At the date of Paul's death would have been somewhere around A.D. 64 to A.D. 65.

[6:21] The rulership in the city of Rome would have really had a lot of hatred and animosity towards believers. A lot of things were being blamed on believers that were not their fault.

[6:32] We know that there was a time when the church kind of dispersed from Rome, that they all left Rome because there is this madman named Nero who set Rome on fire.

[6:43] And he blamed it on the Christians because they were an easy scapegoat. So the persecution got so rampant against them that they left. And Paul met some of them because he was of the same trade, tent makers.

[6:55] We know that. We see over and over again that Rome was a very hostile environment. It was a place just historically, if you want to understand it, that accepted a lot of the things that we find being accepted in our own nation today.

[7:09] It was a place of rampant immorality. It was a place of rampant sexuality. It was a place of rampant wickedness that they wanted male children so much that they would literally, if they had a daughter, they would just set that child outside and abandon that child.

[7:26] And then people would come along, either believers would take in that little child, that little girl and adopt her and raise her in a loving Christian home, or those who ran the brothels would come and take her and raise her in a very wicked home.

[7:42] Rome was so wicked at that time that it was once written by one of the historians that the men would go to the brothels and ran the risk of doing business with their own daughter and never knowing it.

[7:57] Rome was ugly. But it was Rome that Paul wrote to to encourage how to live out their faith. My friend, listen to me.

[8:08] If there is a book in the Bible that ought to lay the foundation for what the church ought to look like today, it is the book of Romans. Because if it works in a time such as that, then it will work in a time such as this.

[8:25] We live in a time where it seems that the church is weakening, when in reality we know that it is actually strengthening. We live in a time that seems of desperation, and we live in a time where it seems of rampant wickedness, and we live in a time where it would be easy to stick our heads in the sand and to say, woe is us, woe is us, I wish it wasn't this way.

[8:44] But my friend, I want you to understand, I'm glad I live in the day in which I live, because this is the greatest day for a gospel opportunity that there has ever been in American history. There was a day when Christianity was accepted as the norm, and Christianity was accepted as the right tradition, and Christianity would pack the pews.

[9:03] But the problem is, we get it from the historical archives of the Great Awakenings, that that Christianity, while it appealed to the mind, and even sometimes would affect the outside, it never changed the hearts.

[9:15] Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, to a packed house, to a church that was full all the time. And it's said that as he stood up, after spending the night on his knees, and he opened up his Bible, and in his Bible, he had written the entire message, a manuscript, and he read in a trembling voice, very quietly, not boldly, not proclaiming, he just read the sermon, rooted in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, that it is an awful thing, or a dreadful thing, for the sinners to fall into the hands of an angry God, that as he read that message, to a packed house of believers, members, that people were gripping the back of the pew, because they felt as if the floor of the church was opening up, and hell was going to swallow them whole.

[10:01] And these were people whose names were on the church roll, and the church had to repent, and a number of people converted, because their faith was a historical faith, not a personal faith.

[10:13] And you say, oh, well, Jonathan Edwards did good in that church. He did for a day, and then they fired him and let him go, because it didn't last long. But we live in a day of darkness, and I have always found that the light shines bright, when the night is the darkest.

[10:30] I have a little flashlight in my truck. It's on a keychain. It's actually on the key to the P.O. box of the church. I don't know why. It's just a keychain I have. And my daughter was riding in the truck with me the other day, in the middle of the day, and she said, Dad, this light isn't very bright.

[10:45] I said, well, that light's not going to be very bright when it's very bright in here. She said, well, look, it doesn't show anything. I said, it has to be dark before you can notice how bright the light is. It's not like a mag light. It's just a little push-button light.

[10:56] I said, you don't pull out a mag light to find your keyhole in your door when you're trying to open it, but the darker it gets, the brighter the light seems, right? And it's exactly the same way in today's time. Friend, the world may be dark, but we have the light that shines in the darkness.

[11:12] So if we want to see what was good for the church at Rome in that day of wickedness, then we read the book of Romans and see what is good for the church today in our day of darkness. And I read all those things and I say all these things to you because I want you to see how we are to live out the resurrected life.

[11:31] Living the resurrected life. Paul has just admonished us in the first 11 verses of chapter 6. He has just shown us how we can break this curse of sin.

[11:44] It is not whether or not you can change your actions. I believe it was Martin Lloyd-Jones who was writing to preachers who said, the main issue of the people before you and the main issue of the person behind the pulpit is not that we have to correct our actions.

[12:00] It is not that someone could come to us and talk to us as pastors or you could go talk to someone and say, well, if I could just stop doing this, then I would be okay. That is not the issue. Because as soon as you stop doing this, you're going to start doing something else.

[12:13] It is not the things that you are doing that are making you unacceptable to God. It is the person that you are. It is that sin nature. You are represented by Adam. And sure, we must change our behavior.

[12:25] But friend, changing your behavior does not change your nature. We need to be born again. And Paul has shown us this, that we can have a new representative. That is, being represented by Jesus Christ.

[12:37] And since we have come under a new representation, he tells us in verses 1-11 to chapter 6, that we no longer have to sin anymore. We don't have to live in sin anymore.

[12:49] Before accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, before the new birth, we cannot help but sin. But now we know, according to Romans 6, verses 1-11, we can help but sin.

[13:01] It is just when we choose not to submit to Christ, and we rather follow the desires of the flesh, then we end up falling into sin. And he closes that chapter in verse 11, says, Even so, here's this encouragement or this charge, Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[13:21] So, last week we ended with this charge, that we ought to look at our lives as if we are dead to who we used to be, because in Christ we are. And we are allowed to who he wants us to be, because in Christ we are.

[13:34] That we can choose to believe the Bible, even when the world seems to contradict, or our feelings seem to contradict, when it says that we have been crucified with Christ, and the old man is a dead man, and dead men no longer have any rights.

[13:47] It is just a matter of accepting the Bible as it clearly teaches. And if we are dead to sin, but alive to God, then we are living the resurrected life.

[13:59] Verses 1 through 11 gives us a great thought in theory. It gives us a great practice to think about. But the Christian life is not one of theory.

[14:10] It is not one of thought. It is not one of the mind. There are faiths around the world which find their root and their place in the mind. They seem to find a state of nirvana or nothingness.

[14:22] We know that from other faiths, where they just want to be dissolved into nothingness. And Christianity is not that way. Christianity moves beyond the world of thought and into the world of action.

[14:33] It is a life lived. It is not a thought believed. And we see here, going through the rest of chapter 6, how we are to live out the resurrected life.

[14:48] Some call this marketplace Christianity, how it is to look on a daily scale. How it is that we ought to do it each and every day. When the church gathered together in Rome, they would have probably gathered together on Sunday nights.

[15:01] Only on Sunday night. Because Sunday was a work day. It was the first day of the week. It was a work day. And the reason they gathered on Sunday is because it was the resurrection day.

[15:12] And they would have gathered together after work and come together on Sunday night. And had their meeting on Sunday night. And after leaving the marketplace, they would have come to talk about how they lived out their faith in the marketplace.

[15:25] And how the next day they can continue to live out their faith in the marketplace. And Paul here gives us three great challenges to living out the resurrected life.

[15:36] Number one, it is a choice of presentation. To live out the resurrected life. Considering yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God.

[15:46] The old man is dead, but the new man is alive. To live out the life of Christ today. Number one, it is a choice of presentation. Look at what he says in verse 12.

[15:58] Therefore, because all of these things are true. Because everything he just said happens to be accurate. Because God says so. Therefore, it is so. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust.

[16:12] Here is something that we must accept at the very beginning. Sin no longer has dominion over you. You say, well, I woke up this morning and I did things which I knew I shouldn't do.

[16:24] Or I woke up this morning and I had a desire to do things which I shouldn't do. And I woke up this morning and I still felt the same way I used to feel. And I still have this nature inside of me. You're right, that nature is still there.

[16:35] We'll get to that in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans. You're right, that nature is still there. But that nature used to control you and dominate you. But in Christ, that nature no longer reigns over you.

[16:47] You have the ability in Christ because of what the Bible says about Christ. Now, this is for those who he is writing to the church. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have surrendered their life to him.

[17:00] He says, you now have the ability to disobey your own sin nature. You don't have to be that way anymore. And that is a fact that is stated.

[17:11] He said, since these things are true, do not let sin reign in your mortal body anymore so that you obey its lusts. Here it is. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.

[17:25] But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Here it is. How do we live the resurrected life? First of all, it is a choice of presentation.

[17:38] Paul reminds us here that the thing that Christ has done is a thing on the inside of us. None of us are living in a redeemed body. But we are redeemed.

[17:50] When we have been crucified with Christ and we live. Now, these are deep truths, but you stay with me. When Christ saves you, he saves you from the inside out. Okay?

[18:00] He redeems you. He doesn't redeem your body. The true you is the soul, the person. Death in Scripture is always a separation.

[18:11] When someone dies, the soul and body are separated. In 1 Corinthians 15, there is the redemption of the body. So their bodies shall be raised from the dead and join their soul and they shall meet together in the air and so they shall ever be with the Lord.

[18:24] But at present, we have a redeemed person. That is me, who I am on the inside. The soul living inside of a fallen body.

[18:34] There is a redeemed person. There is a redeemed person living inside of a fallen body. And this is something that is so important to us. Because Satan has tricked us and told us that the body is master over us.

[18:49] That what feels good, what sounds good, what looks good, and what tastes good must be good. My friend, that's not so. See, I used to love, and I've told you this before, to think that the body was just the body.

[19:05] That it just existed. That it was just there. And it was an unnecessary evil. It was just something I had to put up with. And I used to lean on that truth that bodily exercise is profitable for little, but godliness is profitable for much.

[19:18] Remember that? I always said, therefore, I didn't worry about the things that were for little. I always focused on the things that were for much. And I just kind of let my body go by the wayside. And whatever happened to my body, so be it. But that's a problem.

[19:29] Because this is a problem that was even dealt with in the early church. There's a thing called Gnosticism. Which means that you could believe that the inside of you was good, but your body was desperately wicked. And God only redeems the inside.

[19:41] And since he's only worried about the inside, then who cares what happens to the body? So if it feels good, do it. If you want to do it, do it. If it's fun, do it. Who cares? Because the body is desperately wicked. Well, that runs headlong into what Paul is teaching us here.

[19:53] Because Paul says your body's a tool. Because your body is a tool to be used for what God has done on the inside. And Paul gives a challenge here.

[20:07] Paul says if you're going to live a resurrected life, then you must choose daily who you present your body to. Now this is where we start, as they say, plow a little close to the corn.

[20:20] Maybe step on some toes a little bit. But I understand. Who's he writing to? The church at Rome. Dealing with things that we deal with today. Look at what he says. He says you are going to either present your body to sin and therefore be a minister or a tool of unrighteousness.

[20:37] Or you will present your body to God and therefore be a minister or a tool of righteousness. There is no neutral ground. And Paul says we must stop presenting our bodies to sin.

[20:50] And here is the reality, my friend. That while God has saved you and redeemed you on the inside, it is of utmost importance of what we do with that which is on the outside. Because when you look at me, you don't see what's inside of me apart from seeing what I'm doing on the outside of me.

[21:07] And that's true. It is a statement that, you know, pastors live in glass houses. And that's just one of the things that we've dealt with. Everybody looks at you and there's not a problem with that. And the reason I don't have a problem with that is because the truth of the matter is in the world in which we live, all believers live in glass houses.

[21:22] It's not that you can just determine the faith of the pastor based on what his household looks like because most people come to faith in Jesus Christ not based on the profession of the pastor but based upon the profession and the living of a friend or a co-worker or a church member.

[21:38] So it's not just the pastor the world's looking at. And whether or not we admit it, what we allow our bodies to be given to today will determine the influence we have today and tomorrow.

[21:53] What we present our bodies to today will be what is used. Someone once said both sin and God are looking for instruments to be used. Sin longs to have you.

[22:04] Devil is the author of sin. We understand that. So understand this, that we wrestle not with the flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities of the air and the spiritual forces of darkness. I don't know how many of you have ever seen the devil.

[22:16] I don't know how many of you have ever seen darkness. I don't know how many of you have ever seen angelic influences, demonic influences. Some people will think you're crazy if you go talking about that.

[22:27] But I have seen them and you know how I have seen them? Through what they're doing to people. And I've never seen them when they have not embodied somebody and they have not had a body.

[22:38] Both Satan and God are both looking for a body that could be used for their purposes. God does not work in the course of history apart from humanity. God does not do things in the course of history apart from using the tool of his choice and that is mankind.

[22:55] You can read it all throughout scripture. Every time God wanted to intervene, he used man to do it. Okay, that's just, I don't know why. I don't understand it. Why he would want to use tools that seem so messed up as me, I don't get it.

[23:09] But it's what he decided he was going to do and who am I to tell him he's wrong in doing it. But the thing that we must acknowledge is that every day we now, in Jesus Christ, have the opportunity to make a choice.

[23:21] But every day, you either consciously or subconsciously are choosing whose tool you're going to be that day. You are either going to allow Satan to use your body as an instrument of unrighteousness or you're going to intentionally present yourself to God and allow your body to be used as an instrument of righteousness.

[23:44] This is some of the things that I struggle with. I'm just being honest with you, just being real to you. Because as we said, what? Life has a way of happening. And unless we're intentional about the choices we make, we are always influencing others.

[24:02] Some of the, I hate to look back with regrets, but some of the greatest regrets I have in the past, things of my life. Some of you knew me before I came to Christ. Some of you in here knew me really well before I came to Christ.

[24:15] Some of you, my best friend, growing all, growing up, is in here this morning. And he knows me far better than I would like for any of you to know me. And some of you are trying to figure out who he is so you can go talk to him.

[24:25] Some of you know who he is. Don't talk to him, okay? Knows me all so well. But some of the greatest regrets I have from the past are the influences I had on people other than myself.

[24:39] And some of them I led down paths they never came back from. My friend, listen to me. Today, we are still influencing. And living the resurrected life is choosing each day who we present our body to and who we are allowing to use us as a tool.

[25:01] You cannot wake up today and say, well, I'm just going to be myself today. That doesn't happen. There is no neutral ground in the course of world's history.

[25:12] Somebody's using you. And you must choose who you're going to allow to use you. Not only is living the resurrected life a choice of presentation, number two, it is always a commitment of dedication.

[25:27] A commitment of dedication. And this is where it kind of concerns us a little bit as believers in America because we do not like these terminologies. But I want you to stay with me. He says, as we continue on, verse 14, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

[25:44] Friend, listen to me. Next time you have this temptation, next time you have this desire, it could be in just a moment. It could be in just a couple of hours. Or maybe if the Lord spared you, it would be tomorrow.

[25:55] But I promise you, there will be a temptation to sin. And the next time the temptation comes to sin, all we have to remind that temptation is, sin is no longer my master. I do not have to obey its lust.

[26:08] I do not have to come to it and do its bidding call. I do not have to be what I used to be. I am no longer under the law, for the sting of sin is death. And the weight of death is found in the law.

[26:20] And I am no longer under the law, but I am under grace. I am under God's mercy. And look at what it says. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be.

[26:30] Here's this argument. If I am no longer judged by the law, but rather I am judged by grace, then what difference does it matter what I do? Shouldn't I just live my life as I would like to live my life because the grace of God is sufficient to cover the sins of man?

[26:45] And that is absolutely an accurate statement, but it is completely backwards thinking. Because when we rightly understand grace, we cannot continue to sin in the light of grace.

[26:56] When we know what the law is, there is something within each one of us to see how far we can push the bounds of the law, to see how close we can come to the edge of the law.

[27:06] How far can I go and still get away with it and not really break the law? But when we understand grace, that tendency passes away because we see as we move on here, shall we sin, may it never be.

[27:18] Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

[27:30] Let me just clear this out for you, okay? Here's the reality. Satan comes to you and he gives you a temptation. I don't know what your temptation is. I don't know what your struggle is, but I know what your nature is.

[27:40] Your nature is the same as mine. We have a sin nature. The way we live out that sin nature may be different. It is different among each one of us, but the nature is the same. And here's the truth of the matter is Satan knows your nature and he knows your weakness.

[27:54] And Satan comes to you and he hits you with something that may not bother me. It may not bother the person next to you, but it has a weakness in you. And when Satan brings you this thing and you say, well, I'll submit to it just for a moment, there is no such thing as just for a moment because the Bible says that whatever you obey, you are enslaved to.

[28:13] Whatever it is you do is your master over you, whether in sin leading to death or in righteousness leading to life, whatever it is, if you wanna know what you're enslaved to, then look what you obey.

[28:27] You say, well, I just do what I think is right. Then you are enslaved to yourself and yourself is wrong. I mean, that's just a reality because one thing I have found out about me is that naturally I am a messed up, confused individual who has no sense of right and wrong as found in the scripture.

[28:42] That's just the honest truth. When I read the word of God, it seems that it contradicts everything that I thought was right. I thought it was okay to stand up for myself, to take care of myself and to do all these things and to take the punishment and the authority for myself.

[28:55] Somebody did me wrong, I was gonna make sure I did wrong back to them. The Bible tells me that's completely wrong. It says leave the judgment up to God, to love my enemies, to pray for those who hate me, to bless those who curse me, to heap coals of ashes upon their head.

[29:09] Some of you say, well, that's absolutely great. That's exactly what I wanna do. Somebody makes me mad, I wanna put hot coals on their head. Well, we've completely misunderstood scripture because you know what that says there.

[29:20] That means if you have a fire in your house for cooking and your enemy walks by your window and he doesn't have a fire, you give him some of your fire so that he can cook his supper too. You're sharing your blessing with your enemy.

[29:34] And somebody going, that doesn't seem right. No, it doesn't, does it? Because naturally we wanna throw our blessing at our enemy's face rather than giving it to our enemy so he can go cook his food. But that is what I have found out, that if I do what I think is right, then I will always do what God says is wrong.

[29:51] So if I obey what I believe, then I am the slave of myself and that is a poor master. But we see here, he says, whatever you obey, that is what you are enslaved to.

[30:02] But it says in verse 17, look at this, but thanks be to God. Isn't that great? But thanks be to God. Give God the glory that though you were slaves of sin, listen to me, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you don't hear anything else, I want you to see this.

[30:19] You were slaves of sin. Listen, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the hearts, not of the deeds, not of the actions, from the heart.

[30:31] You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching. This is why the Bible is so important. You didn't become obedient from the heart to what you saw. You didn't come obedient to the heart from what you heard.

[30:43] You came obedient to the heart from the teaching of the word of God. And Paul is putting it out there. He said, you've surrendered to the form of teaching to which you were committed. And look at this, having been freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.

[30:59] Friend, all of that to say this, listen to me. Living the resurrected life is a commitment of dedication, which means you have escaped the slavery of sin and you have embraced the slavery of God.

[31:14] See, we don't like that, do we? Sounds bad. It sounds backwards. It says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God came to set me free. And man, I'm glad about freedom. I love freedom.

[31:25] I want to live in freedom and I want to be free to be me. And well, no, you know, not really. You say, well, I'm glad he set me free. Well, God didn't just set you free to let you go. He set you free to bring you in.

[31:38] Exodus, remember that? Those were on Sunday nights. God set them free from the captivity of Egypt, not just to say, there you go. These are my people. I'm going to set them free. Boy, I know the Egyptians are treating them bad. Their masters are not doing them right, so I'm going to go set them free.

[31:51] Now, aren't you glad I set you free? I'll see you when you die and everything will be okay. That's not what God did. God set them free to bring them into the promised land, to be their God, to live with them, and said, you will be my people and I will be your God.

[32:03] Friend, listen to me. It is a commitment of dedication. And if you want to live the resurrected life, then you are making the choice that I used to be a slave to sin, but now I am a slave.

[32:14] The word is doulos. I am a servant. Paul says elsewhere, the bond servant. I am a slave to God. It was William Barclay who once wrote, and I have to read it so that I can quote it right because it is so good.

[32:27] William Barclay, I don't recommend every one of his commentaries, but some of them are very good, especially the one in Romans. He once wrote, the believer's obedience is no longer, listen to this, the believer's obedience is no longer a result of fear of what God may do to him, but rather it is a response of what God has done for him.

[32:47] Why is the believer joyfully enslaved to God? Not because he or she is terrified of what God is going to do. It is because he is under grace, and when he understands what God has already done, then he'll say, yes, I want him to be my master.

[33:03] Yes, I want him to be my Lord. Barclay said again, it is no longer a burden to be born, but rather it is a privilege to live out. Do you want to know what the greatest constraint on anyone in history is?

[33:15] You cannot convince someone to do it because you're going to make them do it. You cannot convince someone to do it because you're going to punish them if they don't do it. How many of you parents have told your children, boy, if you do that, I'll beat you to the moon and back.

[33:28] I'm not, you probably didn't say it like that, right? If you do this, you're going to get a spanking, or if you do that, you're going to get in trouble, or if you're going to do this, I'm going to punish you. I'm going to chastise you, and how many of you have seen your kids do it anyway?

[33:40] Sometimes I see the look on Braden's face that Braden, if you do that, you're going to get in trouble, and he'll think about it for a minute, and to him, it's worth it. Whatever it is, he'll do it because it's worth it.

[33:51] He knows that the joy comes for a moment, and punishment only lasts a second, right? It doesn't matter. He said, I think I'm going to do it anyway, and we have that nature within us.

[34:02] We'll think about it, and how many of us have tried to constrain people? How many churches have tried to legalize Christianity, and say you have to do this, and you can't do that, and you have to do this, and you can't do that, you can't do this, and you can't do that, the do's and don'ts, and they have all this list of deeds, and friends, just about every one of those churches have dried up and died.

[34:21] Why? Because it is not a constraint to be obeyed, rather it is a love that binds you to cause you to do it. You don't do it because God's making you do it, you do it because He loved you enough, and you love Him in response by doing it.

[34:35] If you want to get someone to do something for you, then love them. Love them, and they will respond in love. Something that I learned in coaching sports, and it is a pretty amazing thing the way God wires individuals.

[34:50] I coached my sons in baseball and football, and that's about it for them. Yeah, I had them in baseball and football, and I remember, I would always coach these young men, and I coached all the way through middle school in football, and I could make a boy mad enough he would do anything.

[35:05] Right? All you got to do, especially when they get in middle school, you know, when testosterone starts kicking in, all you have to do is tell the boy, you can't do this. And most of the time, they'll try to do it. Right?

[35:15] But then I taught, I coached my daughter in basketball. I'm not a basketball player. I don't know a whole lot about basketball. But I realized something. You can't make a girl, now ladies, you can get mad at me if you want to.

[35:25] I'm not trying to be sexist here or something. It's just a difference in species, all right? You can't make a girl do anything. I found out, especially there's a reason I didn't coach them in middle school. For one, I'm not qualified, and two, I didn't want to.

[35:36] Because, whether there's testosterone in boys, there's, you know, other stuff going on in girls, and you just leave them alone. It's a weird world right there. But even when they're in elementary age, you can't tell a girl, I bet you can't do it because she'll just look at you and go, yeah, you're probably right.

[35:52] You can't do that. But one thing I found about coaching girls, that if they liked you and loved you as a coach, they'd do anything you asked them to do. But if they didn't like you, they shut down in a moment.

[36:06] I don't care if they were in kindergarten or if they own up. That's just my experience. Maybe I'm completely wrong. You could tell a boy, if a boy hated you as a coach, it gave him more motivation to prove you wrong.

[36:18] If a girl hated you, she wasn't going to do anything for you. Husbands, not a whole lot different at home, is it? It's not. Why is that? Because the greatest motivator in the world is love.

[36:31] It is. And do you know, while we make a dedication to be committed as slaves of God, is because, praise be to God, we're not under law anymore.

[36:42] We're under grace. And I know how much He loves me. I know how much He cares for me. I know how much He's forgiven me. And there's no way I want to go back and do what He's already forgiven.

[36:54] Because He loves me. I'm constrained by love. Paul would write, we are compelled by love to carry forth the gospel. What a commitment of dedication.

[37:07] So if we want to live out the resurrected life, number one, it's a choice of presentation. Number two, it's a commitment of dedication. And here's the third and final one. And it'll be short, I promise. It is a consequence to be reaped.

[37:19] It is a consequence to be reaped. Look at what Paul says. Every choice we make comes with consequences. Not all consequences are bad. Okay, not all consequences or outcomes are bad.

[37:29] But look at what Paul says. He says in verse 18, Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented in the past, your members as slaves of impurity unto lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness.

[37:45] By the way, it is easy to see that once you sin, you sin again. And when you sin again, it's easier to sin again. And then it's easier to sin again. Sin always breeds out sin.

[37:57] Lawlessness always breeds lawlessness. So now, present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. Verse 20, For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

[38:10] By the way, that's something we need to know. Those who have never accepted Jesus Christ, they are free from righteousness. They don't need righteousness. They don't have righteousness. They're not bound to righteousness that is being right with God because they're free to do whatever they want to do.

[38:22] Satan has made sure. Now look at verse 21. Therefore, here's the question. Here's the question I had to ask myself before I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and the question that we must ask ourselves even after accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the question that rings within our hearts, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of those things is death?

[38:49] Here's the question. When we present our bodies to sin, when we allow ourselves to get carried away by our own desires, our own temptations, our own lust, when we do what the body tells us feels right, seems right, and should be right, it tastes right, it acts right, when we give ourselves to our natural man, what benefit is there?

[39:13] What benefits? What's the outcome? Oh, you say, well, a little sin never bothered anybody, or a little of this has never offended anybody, or a little of this has never done anything, but I just want to ask you, if you take it to its uttermost end, what does it ultimately end with?

[39:33] Whatever that little thing is, not in moderation, okay, let's just say you give your life completely to this, whatever that is. Maybe it's worry, let's pick on something, maybe it's worry, you know the Bible says do not worry, we're commanded, do not worry.

[39:51] Do you know how many people have, if you want to take worry to its end, how many people have died from worry, they've worried themselves to death? Why? Because the ultimate fulfillment of rebellion against God's standard always ends in death.

[40:08] What benefit is there? What benefit do we have of worry? Jesus answers that for us, can you add an inch to your height? Can you add any hair on your head? Can you change anything? You can change the color of it, but it's going to come back.

[40:20] Can you change your circumstances? What benefit is there to worry? Not a single good one I can think of. And that's an easy one. What other thing may be tempting you or trying you?

[40:33] The question we must ask as Paul says, what benefits? What is the outcome? What are the consequences? And everyone I can think of is the same.

[40:43] For the end of those things is death. Death. And I say, wow. Why would I keep doing it?

[40:57] Because the body seems like it wants it, but it's killing me. Oh, because I can't help it. Yes, you can. Let sin no longer be master over you.

[41:08] You don't know how hard that is, preacher. Yes, I do. But I know how big my Savior is. But now, verse 22, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, here it is, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification.

[41:25] The more you are enslaved to God, the more sanctification, that is, He makes you better and better and better. Breaking down. Yeah, there are things now that He's working on me He used to not work on me in the past.

[41:37] Sanctification. The more I obey Him, the more He calls me to obey Him. And the more I obey Him there, the more He calls me to obey Him. He's not through with me yet. He's still got a long way to go. That's why I'm still here. If He was through with me, I'd be there.

[41:48] It says, it results in sanctification. The outcome of those things is eternal life. When I enslave myself to the things, there is not one great truth in Scripture that I have found that did not end in eternal life.

[42:01] Not one. I find a lot of believers that died when they obeyed Scripture. I find a lot, and Paul himself ends up dying, gets his head chopped off.

[42:12] But guess what the outcome was? Eternal life. You kill me, I'll live with Christ. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Look at this. For the wages of sin is death. You know this verse.

[42:22] For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Friend, listen to me. That verse has so many implications for the non-believer. If you are here today and you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to tell you that the thing that you are earning right now is eternal separation.

[42:40] Just as much as there is eternal life, there is also eternal death. We see that in the book of Revelations. If you have never given your life wholly and completely to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then the thing you are earning is death.

[42:52] But the thing that God is offering is eternal life. There are so many implications for the non-believer. But friend, listen to me. Church member, hear me out. When Paul wrote this, he was writing to believers.

[43:05] He was writing to believers. When Paul wrote one of the verses that we used to use in that gospel tract of Romans, road to salvation, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[43:19] He was writing to church members, people who were going to church as if their life depended on it because it did depend on it. He was writing to people that were going to be dying for their faith. He was writing to people that were going to be impaled and set on fire to light the streets of Rome.

[43:32] He was writing to people that church membership meant something and he told them, you keep presenting your bodies to sin, it's going to eventually kill you. But if you keep presenting yourselves to God, he's going to keep giving you that gift over and over and over.

[43:50] Friend, I don't know what your life looks like in the marketplace, but I know it's a battle and the call of Christianity is to live the resurrected life each and every day.

[44:02] Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for this day. I thank you for the privilege of gathering together. I thank you for the privilege of worship. God, I pray that these truths would resonate within our lives and grip our hearts and move us closer to you for your glory.

[44:18] In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

[45:19] Amen. Amen.

[46:19] Amen. Amen.

[47:19] Amen. Amen.