WEBVTT 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.280 Good morning. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.199 We're going to be in Romans chapter 6. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.919 If you want to turn your Bibles over there, Romans chapter 6. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:13.199 I want to welcome everyone here. 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.839 If you're visiting, so glad you get to be here with us. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:21.280 And I want to, of course, welcome everyone into God's Word, and we're going to study God's Word together. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.120 Who are you a slave to? 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.640 It's going to be the main idea of our lesson this morning. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.879 Who are you a slave to? 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:35.840 Who do you present yourself to every day? 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:40.719 What do you give your time and attention to? 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:45.759 Answering these questions helps determine our allegiance. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:49.520 It helps determine where our faith is. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.880 This is what Paul is essentially getting at here in the end of Romans chapter 6. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:57.359 We're going to look at verses 15 through 23. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:00:58.560 And we're going to break them down. 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:03.039 Really, one of the best ways to do that is to simply just go verse by verse. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.640 And so we zoom in on verse 15 and he opens up here with grace. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:11.439 Romans 6, verse 15. 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:16.640 What then are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace? 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.680 By no means, he says. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:23.519 Notice that is almost the exact way he opens up the chapter. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.319 Romans chapter 6 and verse 1. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:26.879 Right? 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:28.079 What shall we say then? 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:31.200 Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:38.640 Paul here is saying right away, reminding us that when we are in Christ, we are under grace. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.519 But either way, when you look at these two verses, the main idea is the same. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.599 Are we to keep on sinning even though we're under grace? 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.200 Actually, no, he says. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:10.080 And contrary to what many might expect, grace does not leave room for a sinful life. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:13.520 At least not a proper understanding of grace. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:19.680 Unfortunately, grace in our culture has sometimes become synonymous with this idea of anarchy. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:21.599 Anything goes. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:24.080 God's forgiveness can be abused. 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:26.159 His love for us can be abused. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:27.599 I don't need faith. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:29.439 I don't need allegiance. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.360 But when we're looking at the scriptures, we realize that's not true. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:38.000 God loves us, but he demands that we have faith in him. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:42.479 To help us kind of understand grace a little bit better, we'll pause here in Romans 6. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:44.479 Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:46.560 Isaiah chapter 6. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:55.039 Imagine for a second as you turn over there that you are Isaiah and you find yourself in God's throne room. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.759 Do you think there's sin in God's throne room? 00:02:58.000 --> 00:02:58.960 Active sin? 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:02.159 Paul would probably say, by no means. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:03.599 Absolutely not. 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:08.560 What do we see the seraphim saying in verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 6? 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.680 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.520 The whole earth is full of his glory. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:18.560 And if there's any sin, it's coming from Isaiah. 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:19.840 And what does Isaiah say? 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:24.639 Isaiah in verse 5 says, he opens it up and he says, Woe is me. 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:29.919 Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:33.919 And I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:37.680 We're going to hear from Paul that lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:43.599 He says, For my eyes have seen the king, the Messiah of Christ Jesus, the Lord of hosts. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:49.520 You think Isaiah here deserves to be standing before God? 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:50.719 No. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:56.080 Does he deserve to be standing in God's throne room as great as it is? 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:57.120 No. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:03.280 The sin that comes from Isaiah comes from his mouth. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:09.280 And in that moment, the seraphim comes and he takes a burning coal from the altar and he places it on Isaiah's lips. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:12.080 And notice what the seraphim says in verse 7. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.520 He says, Behold, this has touched your lips. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:20.800 Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:24.800 And in that moment, God has favor on Isaiah. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:26.480 That's grace. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:28.560 It's a beautiful picture of grace. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:36.240 We're going to see themes that are in this chapter that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 6, things like holiness and so forth. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:43.279 After this moment, in fact, Isaiah goes and essentially does what Paul calls us to be: a slave to God. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:45.839 And so who are we a slave to? 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:52.480 When we have a proper view of grace, you could say the free gift of being in God's presence. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:55.600 There should be no active sin. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:04.160 We have God with us, and as Christians, we are in the presence of God, and there is no room for sin. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:16.800 People who think that they can continuously just live in sin without any respect to change or any respect to transformation is not really living in the presence of God at all. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:23.279 And so to answer Paul's question in verse 15, are we to keep on sinning even though we are under grace? 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:24.879 The answer is no. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:34.560 What Paul is going to point out, though, like Isaiah, is that grace is really about who you present yourself to. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:35.680 And that's what we see. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:38.959 If we turn back over to Romans chapter 6, look at verse 16. 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.360 Remember, Isaiah presented himself to God. 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:43.680 Are you willing to do the same? 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.399 Isaiah 6, verse 16. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:06:01.600 Do you 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. 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:05.439 So this is where Paul begins an analogy on slavery. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:10.480 And by that he means, I want your complete life to belong to me. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:15.680 And he continues this analogy of slavery all the way to the end of the chapter. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:23.279 The slavery analogy that Paul is playing in here shows that there are forces that have real power. 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:28.000 And if we don't have Christ, we are helpless. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.920 We are in a constant state of slavery. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:38.399 Now, many will take this analogy too far and say this is why we don't have free will. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:43.519 But when you read this text, you can clearly see that no, Paul says we have a choice. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:44.399 We do. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:46.720 We need to present ourselves. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:54.000 We need to present ourselves to either, we're going to present ourselves to either sin, but we need to present ourselves to obedience. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:56.319 And so the choice is yours. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.240 You are slaves to the one you obey. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:05.120 Paul says that's either sin or it's obedience. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:15.600 Notice here, Paul in this verse doesn't say slave to God in verse 16, like he's going to say at the end of the chapter in verse 22. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:17.680 He says obedience. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:25.680 I love that he does that because it's almost like obedience there is personified to be God, personified to be Jesus. 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:28.319 And when I think of that, I think of Jesus. 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.959 I think of his life and his life of obedience that led to the cross. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:35.040 It's beautiful. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:40.959 You have one that leads to death, though, the other that leads to righteousness. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:45.759 Another thing to notice as well is he says, righteousness. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:47.360 Righteousness. 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:50.399 Not sanctification or eternal life. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:54.959 Like he's going to say in verse 19, verse 22, later on in the chapter. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:56.720 You can see that on the screen. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:02.480 And what we notice when you look at this passage, it's almost like Paul is building a cake here. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.759 And he's layering things on top of one another. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:08.639 This leads to this, and that leads to that. 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:23.279 You start at verse 15, you realize grace opens the door, and Paul's going to go on to say to obedience and obedience to righteousness, righteousness to sanctification, and sanctification to eternal life. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:36.000 Paul's not denying, though, and I think this is important, the reality that look, even though we're living for God, we're living for Christ, we're trying to follow Him, that we're not going to make mistakes. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:36.960 We will. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:40.559 You make mistakes, I make mistakes, we will sin. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:45.360 That's just a fact of living in this world that is broken. 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:50.159 But the thing is, sin should not be our master. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:51.840 That's the problem. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.919 That's what we're seeing in the text. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:00.720 The problem comes when we choose to obey sin and become slaves to sin. 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.279 And we are without Christ. 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:12.799 The idea that Paul is getting at is that he's going to say here in a second that more righteousness is going to lead to more righteousness, but more sin is going to lead to more sin. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:15.360 It's going to end up in death. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:19.200 That's why he says what he says in verse 17, if we follow the logic. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.279 Verse 17 through verse 18. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:35.120 But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:40.559 And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:42.000 There's another layer there. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:44.960 Slaves of obedience, slaves of righteousness. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:56.399 This is just what's wonderful about God's grace is that it doesn't leave us wondering about what we are to look like and how we are to be obedient. 00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:01.519 There's actually a standard of teaching that we are committed to. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:08.559 Now, depending on your translation, your that phrase might be form of doctrine if it's an older translation. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:13.279 It might be form of teaching or pattern of teaching. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:23.759 But either way, that word for standard or form there invokes an image of being imprinted, if you will, a mold. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:32.399 You can see the definition up on the screen for that word, to mark of a stroke or a blow, a figure formed or impression. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:48.960 When Paul's talking about this, the idea that they have in their ancient minds is that you can imagine this metaphor, a cast or a frame, and you have what this molted material and it's poured into this frame, and then what happens, right? 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:53.279 It becomes hardened, and the frame impresses upon that. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:57.039 And then you take the frame out and you have this image. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:58.879 That's the idea here. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.120 That's the metaphor. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:10.480 That's the idea of what is happening to our hearts when we are obeying the standard, this teaching. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:15.360 The form of teaching, then, is the gospel itself. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:26.559 The gospel itself, the mold, the norm by which believers are to be impressed and to pattern their conduct and following Christ. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:28.639 That's what the Romans did. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:29.759 That's what they did. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:38.639 They left being slaves to this sin and were delivered to the standard of teaching to which they need to be obedient to, and that is here the gospel. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:42.159 What they have, what happened is they changed masters. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:52.559 And so the form of doctrine is the whole gospel as a shaping and controlling power over the believer's life. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.200 It's even how Paul starts off the book of Romans in Romans chapter 1, verse 16. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:03.120 Not going to be ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of salvation of believers. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:30.559 And Romans chapter 6, verse 4, where it says buried for with him by baptism, and in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.120 Ask yourself, who are you a slave to? 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:34.159 What are you doing? 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:37.840 Are you doing things that are in accordance with your newness in life? 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:47.279 Verse 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:55.279 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:00.559 So that we are no longer, notice how similar this is to verses 17 and 18. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.639 No longer to be enslaved to sin. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:10.080 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:16.559 The gospel in its entirety functions as a shaping mold. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:29.600 And that obeying it from the heart means means I'm going to have a total transfer of allegiance from sin to righteousness. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:35.200 The gospel is the standard of teaching that sets us free from sin. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:37.519 Again, Romans 1, verse 16. 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:58.159 Which is what Paul is talking about, why he ends with what he ends his thought in verse 18, when he says, very similar to verse 7, and having been set free from sin, having become slaves of righteousness, no longer slaves of sin, but instead slaves of righteousness. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:11.039 Having been liberated, or as he says, set free. 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:13.679 Set free. 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.360 As a slave to be set free from a master. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.519 We, like the Romans, need to be enslaved to righteousness. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:25.039 Now, this is important for the context of grace. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.159 Freedom here is not the freedom to do whatever I please. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.639 Again, that idea of anarchy. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:33.200 No. 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:35.440 Instead, it's liberation. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:44.080 Liberation from sin's grip and hold on our life, which leads directly to death. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:58.399 If we live in that sin, but if we're free from that sin, what should lead to a willing, ironically, a willing bondage of moral uprightness, of righteousness? 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:00.159 They changed. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:03.440 And if we're not in Christ, we should change as well. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:07.840 Now you might be thinking, why is Paul talking about all this slavery here? 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:14.720 In fact, we had a great class this morning where Paul later says we're sons and we're heirs and we have an inheritance. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.120 What is Paul talking about here? 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:23.200 And this is where Paul admits look, this analogy, this metaphor is not the best. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.559 He understands that. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.039 In verse 19, he even says that. 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:32.240 But he wants us to get this idea that our complete lives belong to him. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:38.720 He's talking in a way that relates to the Romans in their everyday life. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:44.799 I'm speaking in human terms, he says, because of your natural limitations. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:57.759 For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:03.519 Now, this is where I want to slow down because there's a lot to unpack just in this one verse. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.879 You look at that word members, for example. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:12.000 Melos in the Greek originally refers to this idea of a limb or a body part. 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:20.480 But in the broader sense, it means really the whole body or all the parts of the body in which one works in this life. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:31.360 In fact, if you go up and you just look at verse 13, you look at verse 13, and Paul elaborates a little more on what he means by members and what they should do in their function. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:33.840 That they are instruments, he says. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:56.960 That includes how you spend those and use those in your time and your attention. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:59.279 Those things aren't neutral. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:07.039 They're instruments, they're weapons, and they're always being deployed for somebody. 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:11.359 Before Christ, you handed those weapons over to sin. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.319 And what did sin do with them, right? 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.359 It produces just more and more and more of the same. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:22.720 He says there, Paul says, lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:26.480 Sin is never satisfied. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:29.839 It always wants more. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:33.039 You give it an inch, it's gonna take a mile. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:38.559 It leaves your life in just chaos, destruction, hollow. 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:42.400 More enslaved than when you started. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:48.319 But the beauty of what Paul's talking about, what's wonderful is that the flip is also true. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:49.599 You can flip that. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.160 And the same is true in the other direction. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:18:07.039 When you take those weapons or those instruments, those parts of us, our lives, the powers that you have in this life to the disposal of righteousness, the outcome, she says, is sanctification. 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:11.920 And that's another word I want us to zoom in on this idea of sanctification. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:18.319 It means consecration, it means being set apart for God. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:24.960 And at the same time, this is where I want to kind of push it back against a common misunderstanding. 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:34.000 Sanctification is not just this one-time event that happened at your baptism and then it's over and that's it, and that's the end. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:36.640 It's not, it's not what we see here from this analogy. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:43.359 The outcome of righteous behavior is and leads to sanctification. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:47.440 It's notice the text saying, leading to sanctification. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:52.640 The result is ongoing, it's habitual obedience. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:00.319 Every day that you put your members, your weapons, and instruments at the disposal of righteousness. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:10.559 The mold we talked about in verse 17, the gospel mold is shaping you to be more and more into the image of Christ. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:18.000 So the point is, what are you doing with your weapons, your instruments right now? 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:23.440 Are you abusing someone? 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:25.680 Hitting them? 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.440 Is there a substance that maybe you're abusing? 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:32.799 Are you sleeping with someone you shouldn't be? 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:40.480 What we should be doing is handing over those things to obedience and righteousness. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:44.880 Because as he tells us, as Paul tells us, sin just leads to more sin. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.799 Righteousness leads to more righteousness. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:51.839 And that's a process of daily yielding. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.000 That's a part of the sanctification. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:18.640 And he 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, your weapons to God as instruments for righteousness. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:24.240 You've been brought from death to life. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:25.839 You've been sanctified. 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:27.359 That's great. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.839 The question is, will you continue to live like it? 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:39.119 Will you hand those weapons, the weapons, over to God, the one who will set you free? 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:41.119 I love Hebrews 12. 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:42.960 Hebrews 12, verse 14. 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.880 Pursue, it says, some might say holiness. 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:51.759 Pursue sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord. 00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:54.720 And sometimes sanctification is translated holiness. 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:58.240 But you look at that idea of pursuing, and that's not passive. 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:01.519 What are you pursuing in your life? 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.079 Who are you a slave to? 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:07.440 Who are you striving to please? 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:10.960 Where are you giving your time and your attention? 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:15.119 Because sanctification doesn't happen when we're just sitting down doing nothing. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:29.200 It's an active, daily, sometimes costly choice to present your bodies, your time, your habits, your relationships, even, as weapons or instruments of righteousness. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:31.119 To put on the armor of God. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:36.640 And over time, that makes you look more and more like Jesus. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:41.279 I don't know about you, but I want to see the Lord. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:44.000 So I'm going to serve the Lord. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:51.759 But I get it, you take a step back, and being slaves to sin sometimes seems great. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:54.240 There's no obligation to righteousness. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:57.279 I get to, it seems like do whatever I want. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.759 There's no need or desire to want to do. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.440 Right, and that's the case when we don't have God in our life. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:13.119 But Paul says in Romans chapter 6, verse 20 He says this very thing for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:18.400 Of course, this doesn't mean that life is just great. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:25.039 What we don't find in sin is a life abounding and meaning and joy. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:29.279 A life in sin doesn't produce good fruit. 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:34.559 No matter how good of a person we might think we are, and that's another common misconception. 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:44.640 Paul says in Romans chapter 6, the very next verse in verse 21, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:48.720 The end of those things is death. 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.400 Go back to Genesis, Genesis 3, and think about Adam and Eve. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:56.160 Was it worth it? 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.519 Did that fruit that they took from the knowledge of the tree and good and evil, did it taste good? 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:02.799 Maybe. 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:20.559 And that supposedly it was supposed to make one wise as they were tempted and deceived into? 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:24.319 Do you think it was worth disobeying God over? 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:26.000 No. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:30.400 And that's sin in our life as well. 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:32.640 It wasn't. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:37.680 It immediately for them turned to shame. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:45.440 And here Paul's reminding them, reminding us that the fruit we once bore in sin is not worth. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:46.799 It's not worth it. 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.039 It doesn't lead to a better life. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:54.400 If anything, we look back at our sin and who sin was molding us into. 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:58.240 And it's something that we're ashamed of now, now ashamed of. 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.480 But here's the thing: we don't have to be stuck in that shame. 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:08.160 God doesn't want to beat us over the head with shame. 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:10.799 That's really the beautiful thing about grace. 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:15.200 That in the presence of God, shame doesn't stay. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:22.559 What's ironic is that those who see grace as a license to sin often are usually the ones who claim they don't want to be shame. 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:40.079 But God says, in Romans chapter 6, verse 22, but now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.200 I can tell you right now, I don't want to be a slave to my sin and my past mistakes and my shame. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:54.480 I would much rather be a slave to God who's greater than I am, who sets me free. 00:24:55.119 --> 00:25:02.160 Sets me free to produce fruit that leads to sanctification and ultimately eternal life, not shame. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:06.880 That's what grace does, it sets us free. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:18.720 What is unique about the scriptures though, and this idea of freedom, and freedom in the scriptures, is that freedom in that sense does not mean usually what we think it means. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:21.359 Freedom actually means slavery. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:24.799 That doesn't seem like it fits in our mind. 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:27.680 Freedom is not slavery to sin. 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:31.759 Freedom is slavery to righteousness. 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:36.880 I'm going to be free by going back into bondage, but back into bondage to God. 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:43.920 And that just shows us we would rather choose the character of God than sin as our master. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:48.240 And that's how he ends this chapter in Romans chapter 6, verse 23. 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.440 That as slaves we will face our master. 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:54.880 He says, For the wages of death is sin. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:58.880 For the wages of sin is death, excuse me. 00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:04.480 But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:10.160 We can read this verse and we can not read much depth into what Paul's saying. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.319 We can look at verse 23 and think, okay, great. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.279 So sin equals death and God equals life. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:16.000 Got it. 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:16.559 Good. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.279 Which is true, and that is great. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:26.960 But this verse, on a deeper level, is showing again the character of God and the masters that we serve. 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:31.039 For the character of sin as a master and the character of God as our master. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:37.519 You look at that word wages, and it refers to a soldier's pay. 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:44.640 At the end of this passage, Paul is basically saying, you get paid what you're owed. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:46.720 You get paid by your master. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:51.759 We get to the end of our life, but we need to realize where is our allegiance been. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:08.160 Because if so, then the salary that you're due, your earnings, your wage, he says, is death. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:13.279 But if you're a slave to God, Paul says, look, look at the character of God. 00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:14.240 It's so much different. 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:15.440 It's so much better. 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:20.640 You get a free gift, a free gift of God, eternal life. 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:30.400 This is where grace that's mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, in the middle of the chapter, comes full circle at the end of Romans chapter 6. 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:43.599 That yes, you don't deserve a free gift on your own merit and your own ability, or because you think that you're the perfect person, you get the free gift because of who God is. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:47.680 Because of God's grace. 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:56.720 And our God, our King, is much better, much better master than we ever deserve. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.480 Why would we not give our complete lives to him? 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:05.119 And so I have to repeat what I said at the very beginning of the lesson. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:07.279 Who are you a slave to? 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:10.640 Who do you present yourselves to every day? 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:13.519 And where is your time and attention? 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:17.519 My hope is that you enter into his grace. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:27.839 That if you are a slave to sin, you change masters, become a slave to obedience, a slave to righteousness, a slave to God, be baptized, buried with