Four Principles of our Changed Allegiance

Introduction

As we finish out Romans 6, Paul has given us two reasons not to sin in chapter 6. I have mentioned this in the past that people sin because they want to sin and the only hope they have of change is a changed heart. Proverbs teaches us that everything about what we do, say, think, or feel precedes from our hearts. So if there is any hope of change, we must give you reason’s not to sin that you truly believe, that grip you in such a way that there is no turning back.

Parents do this all the time. When I was a kid, it was common for kids to drink milk. Advertisements would tell us Milk makes a body good. But our parents would tell us that if you drank milk, it would make you grow up strong and healthy. In my mind I was thinking of like the Hulk. If I drink this stuff, muscles are going to start popping out everywhere. Didn’t happen. But the reason given did motivate me to want to drink milk because I wanted to be strong some day.

My dad also used to tell us that you should eat ice cream because it will put hair on your chest. This was a common motivation for anything we didn’t want to do and the idea was that it would make us a man if we did it. Problem was he told this to my sister too.

Reasons have power over our thinking if they can get embedded into our hearts and minds. God knew this, designed us this way which is why the renewing of our minds, reckoning somethings to be true is so important to living victoriously. So Paul gives us two reasons not to sin as believers.

The first is because we are dead to sin by our union with Christ. When you got saved, you were spiritually united to Christ. That new union caused you to die to sins power. You are no longer the person you once were. That old man is dead and the flesh has been stripped of its power. You do not have to sin any longer.

The second is our found in our text this morning. We are going to cover vs 15-23 (read). The second reason we should not sin is because as believers we are servants of righteousness. When you got saved, your allegiance changed. You have a new master, a new lord. The Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives implies we ought to do what we tells us to do. This morning we are going to look at Four Principles of Our Changed Allegiance.

Principle One: Self-surrender leads to slavery

Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

The first principle is found in Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” This principle basically states that you are under the control of the thing that you keep giving in to. Take this example: Have you ever seen a person or heard of a person who had a problem with drinking? They show up to work drunk and it seems like they are constantly out of money because they spent it on beer. Eventually, someone lovingly confronts them and says I think you have a problem with drinking. And their response is “I don’t have a problem with drinking.” Yet over and over again they keep going back for more.

Many of us struggle with denial like this and as long as we are in denial, we will never really realize how bad our problem actually is. Paul’s argument is that when you make choices to give into a certain course of action, you are putting yourself under its control. There are many voices in our world that clamor for our attention. Each one is saying listen to me and do what I say. A Coca cola add is saying buy my product because it will refresh you. A little green lizard says buy our insurance because it will save you 15% on car insurance. But each of these voices wants you to obey them and when you choose to purchase the product because of the add you are obeying their commands.

The Christian has two voices calling for their obedience: the flesh and the spirit. Which ever one you listen to is the one you are submitting to. The one you follow becomes your leader. The voice you obey is your master at least in that moment.

For the lost person, they only follow one voice. But the Christian has a choice. The word servants here speaks of a slave. But this slavery is more of an indentured servitude. It is something you sold yourself into. Back in Romans times, a person who was starving on the streets could sell themselves as slaves so at least they would have food and housing provided.

So Christian when you choose to give in to sin, you are saying sin is my Lord and master. For the Christian, Life under grace is characterized by obedience. We have a new Lord and a new master that we ought to be obeying.

Principle Two: Salvation involves a change in slaveries

Romans 6:17–18 “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

vs 17-18 Conversion involves an exchange of slaveries. Where you once were a slave to sin, now you are a slave to Jesus Christ. Verse 17 is interesting because Paul says this is true of all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. In that moment, you did change masters. While you may not have known it at the time, Paul in verse 16 assumes that you should have known this. Know ye not- Salvation is not of works. Its not that you changed you life and then God saved you. But salvation does imply a changing of allegiances. Who is it that saved you to begin with? What kinda of savior is Jesus? He is the creator and sovereign of the universe.

In these two verses, Paul catalogues the change that occurred in their hearts at salvation.

servants of sin- This is who were were before salvation. According to Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Even the things we did that were good and right were contaminated by sin before we got saved; so that we have no good we can claim before God.

wholeheartedly obeyed the gospel- but something changed. When we were presented with the gospel, we responded. We accepted. It is interesting that Paul uses this idea of obedience. God calls each of us to place our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for salvation. Elsewhere, this obedience to that form of doctrine is called obedience to the faith. Romans 1:5 “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:” Romans 16:26 “But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:” This obedience is in the heart. Notice the phrase from the heart or you could put wholeheartedly there. Praying a prayer does not save a person rather it is the wholehearted dependance, trust, faith in God that saves a man. Many look back and say they were saved because as a kid they repeated some words, or they walked down an aisle; but salvation is not about those things. It is about the faith in the heart of a man when he hears the gospel.

freed from sin- because of that we are freed from sins power as we have already seen.

became servants of righteousness- And every believer has become a servant of righteousness. That means that we are all called to live a holy life. We are all called to do what God desires of us. Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” God has chosen us to be holy and blameless in love.

Did you realize that this change of allegiances occurred when you got saved? You have a new master a new lord now that you are a believer. No longer do you owe sin a thing. But as out lord and master, when Jesus tells us to live a certain way, we must say yes.

Principle Three: What you Yield to progressively grows

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.”

Paul acknowledges that none of us live this out perfectly. Because of the flesh, we have a daily battle with righteousness and sin. In the past we did yield to uncleanness and iniquity. But now we must choose to yield ourselves as servants to righteousness.

There are two phrases that I don’t want you to miss. You might think its just the weird wording of old English when it says iniquity unto iniquity in one phrase and righteousness unto holiness in another. But these phrases are important. iniquity unto iniquity- that one sin leas to further sin and bondage to that sin while choosing righteousness leads to greater holiness.

The principle is that what you yield to progressively grows- If you yield to sin, sins power and influence in your life will grow, but if you yield to righteousness, its power and influence will grow. Example of a drug addict- the slavery exhibited over you by sin is not one of coercion; rather, it is one you freely chose for yourself over and over again as it now became a pattern of behavior in your life. Unbelievers are slaves to sin in that they always willingly carry out the edicts of their master. Addicts like the drug addict may wish to be freed but ultimately they desire the drug more than they desire the freedom. So how can that bondage be liberated? It is only as the believer receives new desires from God.

There is only one command in this paragraph and that is because of your new allegiance, you must yield your members as servants of righteousness unto holiness. A basic definition for Holiness that summarizes wheat we talked about last Sunday evening is- Holiness- the act of becoming more personally dedicated to God and his will.

The basic idea is that the choices you make will lead you into greater and greater bondage to whatever master it is that you are choosing.

Principle Four: What you choose to serve has consequences

Romans 6:20 “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.”

Vs 20- When you lived in sin, you were free from righteousness. Meaning you didn’t follow its rule in your life. You could be tempted to think that life is so much easier if I just do what I want and don’t have to worry about doing right. It is isn’t it. Take for example dieting versus eating chocolate cake. It takes some effort and work to say no to certain foods when you are on a diet. Your body doesn’t like it and you mind and heart for sure don’t like it. It would just be so much easier to “Say Yes to the Cake.” so why not just live that way.

Romans 6:21–22 “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

Paul gives us a bonus reason not to give in to sin. Sin has consequences. Sin brings death. The life of sin that we lived before salvation only ever brought death. What we had to look forward to was an eternity in the lake of fire because of our sins. Sin separated us from God, sin brought judgment upon us, sin wrecked havoc in our lives. It breaks homes, it breaks marriages, it causes people to feel powerless and enslaved, sin crushes dreams, sin hurts.

Sin brings shame- Paul asks what benefit or fruit did you have in those things that you are now ashamed of. When you look back over your past, do those thoughts of the sins you committed not bring shame. Why would we want to go back to living like that.

Now we are free and servants of god. But the benefits of our new service are holiness and everlasting life. We never have to fear condemnation, judgment, from God because Jesus already bore both for us. Rather God will continue to change us to be like him until the day we are like him and we have eternity with him to look forward to.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We often use this verse in our plans of salvation, but that is not how Paul is using it here. This verse is used as a reason not to live in sin. Vs 23- Sin only gives you what you deserve, god gives you a gift you don’t deserve. Sin pays a wage and it is a horrible wage, but God gives gifts freely to us. He gives us what we never could have hoped to earn. There is a positive motivation for not sinning here. Because of everything God has done for you and given you, why would we want to spit in his face and do exactly the opposite of what he desires for our lives? Why would we rather not be grateful and show that by our obedience?

Conclusion

Satan wants to convince you to just go ahead and give in to sin as a believer. Our response should first of all be what Paul’s is. God forbid. No way. but then follow it up with these two thoughts: I will not give in to this temptation because I am united with Christ and have died to sin. Not only that but I am called as a servant of righteousness and all sin ever brought me was death and destruction. I am pledged to Christ and to do what my Lord and master desires of me.

I want to close with a story about the Duke of Windsor who was King of England for a short period of time before abdicating to marry an American woman.

The Message of Romans (v) The Conclusion: The Ultimate Antithesis (23)

On 28 May 1972 the Duke of Windsor, the uncrowned King Edward VIII, died in Paris. The same evening a television programme rehearsed the main events of his life. Extracts from earlier films were shown, in which he answered questions about his upbringing, brief reign and abdication. Recalling his boyhood as Prince of Wales, he said: ‘My father [King George V] was a strict disciplinarian. Sometimes when I had done something wrong, he would admonish me saying, “My dear boy, you must always remember who you are.” ’ It is my conviction that our heavenly Father says the same to us every day: ‘My dear child, you must always remember who you are.’

Maybe this morning, you are living in a sin. No one knows about it, you believe, but you just continue to go back to it. Maybe you are contemplating a sinful course of action, you just haven’t had the opportunity or courage to got through with it yet. Can I reason with you as Paul did? You don’t have to give in to that sin. If you feel powerless, that is exactly the opposite of what is true. But if you need help please come talk to me during the invitation and we will get you help.

For the one who wants to pursue that sin. Paul asks, don’t you know that that isn’t who you are supposed to be. You are now a servant of righteousness. Remember who you are. Repent of those desires and bring them to the Lord this morning. As Paul will eventually say in Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Present yourself to serve your master this morning.

For those who do not know Jesus, today you can change allegiances. You can come to know Jesus Christ. Staying with your current master will only ever bring you death and shame, but Jesus offers forgiveness, he offers to make you clean, he offers a life without fear of dying and going to hell. I would much rather serve a master who loves me and delights in giving me good; than a master who only brings destruction.