From slaves of sin to slaves of Christ

REVIEW QUESTIONS

QUESTION: What must happen in order for us to no longer be slaves to sin?

ANSWER: We must die to sin. The old man must be crucified with Christ.

QUESTION: Can some explain the metaphorical testimony in baptism.

ANSWER: (v 4) “buried with Him through baptism” raised to “newness of life”

QUESTION: Can a believer sin and what must he do sin? (v 12)

ANSWER: do not obey its lusts! Tell sin no!

INTRODUCTION:

We are going to finish up chapter 6 tonight. And chapter six is really about victory over sin.

Verse 1 begins with the question: “are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” In other words, why not just keep on sinning after conversion since grace is the means by which we are saved, not by our works.

And he answers himself, (v 2) “how shall we who died to sin still live in it?” In other words dying to sin is an inseparable part of our salvation.

And he illustrates this by using the death, burial and resurrection of Christs and compares it to what happens to us spiritually.

WE DIE TO SIN

ARE RAISED TO NEW LIFE

AND THEN LIVE FOR GOD

(v 15) sounds just like verse 1: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” Paul is almost repeating the same thing he said before in verse 1. Since we have grace, does it even matter if we sin?

QUESTION: Why do you think Paul asks essentially the same question again?

ANSWER: When Scripture is repetitive, it should make us think this is very important and God really wants to hammer this home.

People today often have this same low opinion of the seriousness of sin, thinking that forgiveness is easy to obtain. Paul responds as he did in 6:1, By no means! This assumption is terribly wrong

It is something we are to not overlook!

1) We are slaves to the desire that we obey

(v 16) “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves of obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey”

What he is saying is that Everyone is enslaved to something.

If someone gives himself over to sin on a regular basis he is a slave to sin

If one gives himself over himself to righteousness on a regular basis he is a slave to righteousness.

But there is no one who is not a slave. In other words there is no middle ground. There is no, well I wont give myself over to sin or righteousness, everyone falls in one of these two categories.

Just imagine a person that gambles. He started off as a young man and when he turned 21 he went to the boat and played slots. And he liked it. And he won some money.

So he continued playing for years, but as with all gamblers, he started losing money, eventually he lost his house, then his marriage, and then took his own life.

He knew he that gambling was destroying his life, and what he reaped from it was negative! It was taking everything he had!

But he could not stop. Every time the thought came into his mind, and it then became a temptation, an he obeyed it. And it eventually destroyed him.

He was a slave to sin. It told him how to live, and he obeyed.

Now take that same person, but after a couple years of gambling, he was invited to New Beginnings Baptist Church, heard the gospel, heard about sin, heard about the Savior, AND PUT TO DEATH THE “OLD MAN”, was buried with Christ, and was raised to new life.

He leaves and that thought about gambling pops in his mind. Sunday was his favorite day because they had 2 for one slots.

That thought then becomes a temptation, BUT that temptation no longer has power over him, and he can simply say: NO and move on with his life.

He no longer live in sin, because Christ has broken the power of sin in his life.

Heres the main point: Everyone is a slave to something! The mark of slavery is our obedience! We know who our master is by whom we obey! And remember there are only two masters: Sin or God.

QUESTION: If we know the right thing to do is obey God, why do struggle with it? What struggles do you have with obedience?

2) Becoming a slave of righteousness results in sanctification

Romans 6:17–19 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and 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 your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”

QUESTION: According to these verses, how does someone become a slave of righteousness? (2 things)

ANSWER: Commitment to biblical teaching & being freed from sin

This is the first step in putting to death the old body of sin. Because he who died is freed from sin.

Then we are to be obedient from the heart to that teaching to which we were commited.

The NLT says “whole hearted obedience”

Webster says: free from all reserve or hesitation; complete and sincerely devoted

The we should ask ourselves: Is that my life? Am I truly sincerely devoted to doing everything and anything the Bible tells me to?

Obedience Illustration

When I became a Christian, I had no idea what to do. I was ignorant of anything more than skin deep in Scripture.

But I knew the pastor knew what I should do. So I said to myself, “anything he says to do I will do it, I dont care what it is”.

And almost immediately he wanted me to get up in front of the church and give a testimony, and I was terrified to speak in public. And then wanted me to teach youth, and then adults and so on.

But I had predetermined that i would do whatever he said and God blessed me for it.

That is what we need. A predetermined will to obey. We must not say let me see the options and then I will decide.

It must be I have already decided, just show me what to do.

Guess which one God will direct the steps of?

And what happens when we do this? (v 19) You will present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification.

QUESTION: What is sanctification and what does it look like in the life of a believer?

ANSWER: The fruit of the Spirit, control of the tongue, the ability to obey, sensitivity to sin

It is holiness. It os Christlikeness! It is Christian Character! It is godliness.

And it is God’s will for your life:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification”

We will never mature, until we approach God’s word with sincere devotion. Without hesitation! If God says, then we do. That will result in sanctification.

So many Christians live hard lives because they cannot get this obedience thing right!

God says do this, they do it halfway or don’t do it at all.

Or acts like a teenager who says no I think my way is better only to discover God was right all along.

God gives principles, do them. And if you will do them, what seems fuzzy will become more clear to you.

3) The outcome of sanctification: eternal life

Romans 6:20–23 “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Notice he says, what benefit was there from living in sin?!

Nothing but to be ashamed!

People who live in sin receive nothing from it but shame that piles up inside of them.

And then a lifetime of that eventually brings about death

But now being freed from sin, there are also benefits!

Sanctification and then the outcome: eternal life

There is a flow of thought in these verses:

Become obedient from the heart to the Lord and you will become a slave of righteousness

A slave of righteousness obeys the Word without hesitation and then experiences sanctification

The outcome of sanctification (which is life-long) is eternal life

This is the highest benefit of Christianity, yet also so distant in many of our lives that we think we have time

Eternal life does not mean as much to us when we are young (like Bentley and Luke) as it does to someone who only has a few years left.

Nevertheless it is no less important for those who are 15 or 85.

I preached a funeral today and I used the story of Lazarus and Jesus raising him from the dead.

And in that story, Jesus waits two