Romans 6:15-23
Notes
Transcript
No Longer Slaves to Sin
No Longer Slaves to Sin
I want to welcome you to our services today, we are so thankful to see you here today as the church.
There is nothing more encouraging to a pastor than seeing people come to the house of God to worship, to hear the Word of God and then having the opportunity to respond to God as he speaks to your heart.
Such a beautiful opportunity my friends.
And here we are the 126 anniversary of our church, how wonderful to see the faithfulness of God all through out the years.
From the start in a family home, to the building of the first church to where we are today. We give God praise for his wondrous grace.
I want to tell you that I am thankful to you all, for your faithfulness is multiple ways to help our church thrive.
Thank you for allowing myself and our family to be apart of this story for the last 19 years.
________________
Today we come back to Romans, and we are looking at the second part of chapter 6, verses 15-23
Now in our passage today, Paul is reminding humanity that in Christ Jesus they are no longer slaves to sin, they are instead free.
Sin enslaves the person but Christ makes us free… The choice is always ours, which do we want…
So lets consider this first thought today....
1. Strive for Righteousness....
That’s an important phrase my friends, we must remember that Christ leaves our life to choice. We can choose death or we can choose life.
Our Father was worked all through history preparing the world for the coming of His Son, redeeming the world from their sin. And in doing so we have the opportunity to live in freedom, no longer enslaved by sin.
And that is exactly how our Father wants His children to live, free from the enslavement of sin.
Lets look at our text.... verses 15-18
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 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? 17 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, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
The question that came up at the beginning of the passage last week, comes up again in this section.
Should we be free to sin since we are no longer law? the answer is simple, No, in fact Paul says By no means!
Why?
What we do or fail to do, both have consequences.... but in this life event, we know that the consequence of one leads to death while the other leads to life.
The Roman believers had some who were guilty of thinking if they were under grace, if they were saved. Then did it really matter how they lived? God in his grace would enable His children to be forgiven and still have hope.
In a sense, they are saying… it doesn’t matter how you live. Friends, it always matters how we live!
Paul takes them back in this first section of verses to remind them about the outcome of living.
If you make yourself a slave to sin or unrighteousness, you will be its slave . Sin will work you until all hope is lost, it will lead you to death.
But on the other side, if you are a slave to Christ, living righteously, you will have life. Yo will have hope.
You cannot live in the middle, each man can only have one Master! Do you remember Jesus in Matthew 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
You see you ave to make a decision. To you remember Joshua in Joshua 24:15
15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
People were on the fence, some were still lingering with murmuring at times about whether it was good or not to follow God. And Joshua who walked with Moses and have led Israel now for so many years…
He says you all need to make up your mind, you can be stupid if you want and God will let you. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. He wasn’t changing.
He was striving, Paul was striving for righteousness. Why? Christ had redeemed them from the course of the law. He had given them life.
He was committed to following the Lord each and every day...
Who are you commited to following? Is it sin or righteousness? Is it death or life? Is it self or Christ...
We, as the children of God are always called to strive for righteousness.
Now, let’s move on to our second thought for today.
2. Obedience is our Choice....
I want to share this thought with you today, you make the choices in life, you make the choice to be obedient to God or not...
So often we make excuses, its this or that, when really it’s our decision.
Lets go back to our text.... Romans 6:19-21
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. 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.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Now as you see there, Paul tells them I know things never seem that simple, but he confesses he is doing his best to place these spiritual truths in terms all could understand.
So what is he saying....????
A. Make the Choice to live for Righteousness, not Lawlessness....
Paul proceeds to make a argument from comparison for those Roman believers to consider. He says just as you in your freedom presented your lives to impurity, to ever increasing wickedness in the past, sin became your master and you obey it and its desires.
Now this is an important… their former ways, in their lostness, in sin they did live toward impurity in the way people devoted themselves to those pagan idols and their temple. So Sin was their master.
But now in Christ, you have the choice to live differently. Paul says at the end of verse 19. “...So now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
Make the right choice to live in a way that your righteousness is your new pursuit, your new Master.
Remember what we looked at earlier, No one can serve two Masters, what Jesus said the Matthew 6. So make this your new master. Living in righteousness without out come not death, condemnation, lawlessness. Instead Paul said it’s sanctification.
Sanctification is an important thought. It is the means were by we are living in such a way, our pursuit isn’t self but God and in making those daily choices we desire more of him and less of us.
We must decrease and Jesus must increase. in doing so, we became more like him, our desire is to conformed into the image of HIs Son.
So make the choice…
Daily life is a struggle, that is part of life, its keeping our eyes on Jesus and not giving up. The devil wants you to give up, Jesus wants you to grow and find the best Life, His life.
And then Paul give us another thought to compare our lives with…
B. Never forgot Where Jesus brought you from....
It is a sobering thought to remember where you were before Christ and how shamelessly you once lived...
Go back and look at Romans 6:20-21
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Now I know there are some here and in every church who never did anything in what we could call bad. They never smoked or chewed, drunk or stole, they were never disobedient in the since, the were children who did well.
But, the truth remains you were without Christ and you were guilty in front of sin because of your sin...
So when you consider verses 20-21 it reminds us
When you were slaves of that old nature, you were free to do so, there was no obligation at that point in time to live for God. (But we were still accountable in front of him because of sin).
And what was the fruit of your labor. It was futile, it was worthless, your efforts to do good, live good, those things fell short in front of a holy God.
Why? Because you were still walking dead in your sin. So death was all you had to show for your life.
So never forget where Jesus brought you from my friends… You were once lost but you have been redeemed, bought with a price and now you are counted as the children of God.
How wonderful my friends to know God loved you. He wants you to come and follow Him, to grow in Him and to know Him all the more..
But, the choice is yours, Obedience is your choice.
Now just one more thought today...
3. New Status in Christ....
The moment you entered into the family of God, when you found Christ as your Savior. You changed, you received a new status in Christ.
Lets look at the last portion of our text… Romans 6:22-23
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Understand what Paul says here for us… Lets start with the last one first.
A. You Received God’s Free Gift....
Verse 23 reminds us that the nature man, and his life apart from God earned the just wages of a life without God, without Christ. It was death.
I cannot imagine that type of death. To experience death in this life time, and to have no hope, to know that there is a eternal separation for all who die without Christ.
You are separated from Christ, and you are separated in Hell where eternal punishment exists.
People struggle with this, how can a good God send people to hell, people ask? He doesn’t, people make the choice to abandon.
Everyday God’s Spirit reminds people of the need of salvation, but they ignore his call, his message and his revelation in their lives and that is the choice they make.
Their actions, their decisions to live apart from God is the choice they make, God allows humanity to make that choice. He lets humanity have their way. They earn death
But it doesn’t have to be that way.. He has offered humanity a free gift. The free gift is eternal life, through Jesus Christ. God gives life to all who will call upon the name of Jesus.
What people do with Jesus, with His death, burial and resurrection make the decision for life or death. and the life God offers is a gift. No longer a salve to sin, but a servant of the living God.
That is a great gift....
But lets go back to that other thought my friends.. Having the gift of God, you produce fruit in line with His life.
B. You produce fruit in accordance with His Life...
Since you are no longer a slave to sin, to unrighteousness. You have the opportunity to live in a godly way
Lets go back to verse Romans 6:22
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
When we found Jesus our allegiance changed. You became slaves of God and not sin. You have passed from death unto life.
Is there a benefit to this new life? yes! In Christ you are growing in the grace and holiness of God, the end therein is eternal life.
Without holiness no one can see God. Remember Heb 12:14
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Being a slave to God, instead of produces works in accordance with our old way of life, we now produce works in accordance with righteousness.
And it is that way that leads to God. As Paul says it leads to sanctification, whose end is eternal life, glorification.
So think about the word Sanctification. to be saint like at its very core, but the idea is as we walk with Christ, we have the joy of becoming more and more like Him, being conformed into His image.
So each day, we have the choice to walk in Him, not us and not in evil ways.. That obedience leads to life, being made more in His image, Jesus Image
Until that day when we see Jesus. Then crossing the boundary of heaven, we are made as he is, eternal. glorification.
We are in a glorified body, perfect and complete made in the same way as Jesus when He walked out of the grave.
Our lives will be perfect, whole and well.
Are you slaves to God or slaves to sin? You and the good Lord know how you live, what you think, what you entertain and what you rejoice in.
God knows. But as He calls you today, will you abandon self and proclaim I want more and more of Jesus and less and less of me.
Lets pray together.