A New Kind of Master (Romans 6:15-23)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:05.919 If you're able, please remain standing and give your attention to God's word in 2 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:17.469 Romans Chapter six, Roman six verse fifteen, to the end of the chapter. 3 00:00:21.070 --> 00:00:28.500 Here God's Word Roman six, verse fifteen. What then, are we 4 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:32.979 to sin? Because we are not under law but under grace? By no 5 00:00:33.179 --> 00:00:39.609 means do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, 6 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:44.210 you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, 7 00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:51.079 which leads to death, or of Obedience, which leads to righteousness. But 8 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:55.280 thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin, have 9 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:00.719 become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed 10 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:06.069 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 11 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:11.670 I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations, for just as you 12 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:18.620 once presented yourselves as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, 13 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:26.260 so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when 14 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:30.659 you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But 15 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:34.329 what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are 16 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:40.049 now ashamed? For the end of those things is death, but now that 17 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:42.209 you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of God. 18 00:01:42.890 --> 00:01:49.319 The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For 19 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:55.760 the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is Eternal 20 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:07.549 Life in Christ Jesus, Our Lord, please be seated. We come to 21 00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:13.389 this passage sort of like coming to the middle of a debate. You come 22 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:17.340 in and you're hearing argue. Your hearing an argument made that is based on 23 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:23.419 arguments that have already been made, objections that are being answered, based on 24 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:30.250 other things that are presupposed. So we have to go back a little bit 25 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:34.370 and understand something of what is going on here and what Paul is doing. 26 00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:39.650 He begins with this question. It's an objection. It's the other side of 27 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:44.210 the debate. What, then, are we to sin? Because we are 28 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:49.840 not under law but under grace. You see what this objection is asking? 29 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:55.919 It is saying that Paul has set up these categories, these changes of status 30 00:02:55.960 --> 00:03:04.069 or ways in which we identify ourselves under law or under grace, and based 31 00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:09.270 on that conclusion, this hypothetical person is offering this objection saying, well, 32 00:03:09.310 --> 00:03:14.539 Paul, you say this one thing that people are under law or under grace. 33 00:03:14.860 --> 00:03:17.659 Well, if they're under grace, then why should they not sin? 34 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:24.860 Won't they sin? Here's another way to put the objection. What would compel 35 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:31.129 a person to be good if they're no longer under the law? Why would 36 00:03:31.129 --> 00:03:36.610 they? Why would a person work towards obedience if they're not under the law? 37 00:03:38.530 --> 00:03:42.000 So, to understand what that objection really means, to understand the weight 38 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:46.120 of it, you have to understand these categories of law and grace. They're 39 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:52.560 so important to understand. These are the ways that Paul is categorizing you. 40 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.990 He is saying that each and every one of you that are here today, 41 00:03:57.669 --> 00:04:01.310 each and every person that has ever lived, is either in one category or 42 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:08.189 the other. Which one do you belong in? Are you under law or 43 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:14.020 you under grace? Now those are big terms, the terms that are used 44 00:04:14.139 --> 00:04:16.660 broadly and in various ways in scripture, and so we have to ask what 45 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:21.860 does Paul mean by them here? What Paul means by them here is the 46 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:28.850 particular relationship that we have with God. Do we relate to God by means 47 00:04:29.089 --> 00:04:34.410 of the law or what we sometimes call the covenant, of Works that relationship, 48 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:39.680 or do we relate to God by the means of the Gospel or by 49 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:46.680 grace or what we sometimes call the covenant of Grace. Under the law, 50 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.399 we relate to God as those that are in that are held to the law, 51 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:56.790 as those that must be entirely obedient to the law. That's how you 52 00:04:56.910 --> 00:05:00.589 get blessing. You obey and your blessed very simple. You Obey God, 53 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:03.069 you are righteous, you serve him, you do the things that you've been 54 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:09.339 commanded to do and he who has made you blesses you, gives you good 55 00:05:09.379 --> 00:05:14.060 things. The problem is that, Paul has been saying from the very beginning 56 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:16.420 of Romans, the problem that you know in your own hearts is that you 57 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:21.089 don't obey. So how do you relate to God in any kind of positive 58 00:05:21.129 --> 00:05:27.490 way? You're disobeying. If you are under the law and yet you are 59 00:05:27.649 --> 00:05:33.290 breaking the law, then you are what a Lawbreaker, a criminal? What 60 00:05:33.410 --> 00:05:38.879 are the wages of sin? What kinds of things do you get as a 61 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:46.120 law breaker, as a disobedient person? Paul Says Verse Twenty Three, the 62 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:50.750 wages of sin is death and in other places of in the Romans. So 63 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:55.790 far he's been telling us all of the terrible things that are attached to this 64 00:05:56.189 --> 00:06:01.870 the wrath of God, the curse of God. That's what it means to 65 00:06:01.910 --> 00:06:09.939 be under the law. It means to be one who is accountable to the 66 00:06:09.980 --> 00:06:15.939 law, and yet we know that we have all broken it. Well then, 67 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:19.970 what does it mean to be under grace? Well, it means that 68 00:06:20.089 --> 00:06:26.730 you are no longer obligated to keep the whole law to earn blessing, because 69 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:30.170 the whole law has been kept for you. God has given it to you, 70 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:34.240 he has kept it for you, and he's done that through Jesus. 71 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:40.040 At the very beginning of the book of Romans, Paul Brings out right away 72 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:45.639 that the grace that we receive is the righteousness of God given to us. 73 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:51.550 That's the present we get. We get Jesus's righteousness. All these good works 74 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:56.149 he did, all the things that he did were things that were given for 75 00:06:56.350 --> 00:07:00.540 you. More than that, he not only gives us this righteousness and says 76 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:05.860 here it is though you have kept the whole law, but he also forgives 77 00:07:05.899 --> 00:07:12.220 our sins. That's why SOSM thirty two is like. So on thirty two 78 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:16.769 says, when David speaks about the forgiveness of sins, the blessing of being 79 00:07:16.930 --> 00:07:24.129 forgiven of being healed, of being in a good relationship with God. He's 80 00:07:24.209 --> 00:07:30.560 talking about someone who has received that gift of someone who knows he's a lawbreaker, 81 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.560 knows he's a sinner and yet stands in a good relationship with God, 82 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:42.480 calls God a friend. It happens not because what is David say? He 83 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:47.509 said. It doesn't happen because he finally started obeying. It happens because he's 84 00:07:47.589 --> 00:07:53.790 sins were forgiven. Look at Verse Twenty Three again at the end of that 85 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:59.819 chapter, Chapter Six. Notice how there's a parallel, but also something that's 86 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:05.620 not parallel. There's one thing that leads to another. The wages of sin 87 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:11.889 leads to death. The Gift of God leads to eternal life. So one 88 00:08:13.009 --> 00:08:16.730 thing leads to another. Sin Leads to death, this gift leads to life. 89 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:22.689 But notice they come in very different ways. It doesn't say, for 90 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:26.759 the wages of sin is death and the wages of obedience is eternal life. 91 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.759 That options ruled out because of sin in us. What does it say? 92 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:37.360 It says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God 93 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:43.070 is eternal life. In Christ Jesus, that's how we receive eternal life. 94 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:48.590 That's how we become friends of God. That's how we have peace with God, 95 00:08:48.750 --> 00:08:54.470 as Paul says in Romans Five, through the free gift. So when 96 00:08:54.470 --> 00:08:56.620 he says at the beginning of this chapter, yes, this or the beginning 97 00:08:56.659 --> 00:09:01.539 of Verse Fifteen, and he asked this question about under law, under grace, 98 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:05.779 that's what the under grace parts talking about. That you, as a 99 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:11.970 person under grace who has believed in Jesus Christ, are someone who's forgiven, 100 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:18.409 as someone who has had their sins cleansed and washed away. You are someone 101 00:09:18.450 --> 00:09:24.600 who no longer stands under the power and demands of the law because Jesus is 102 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:31.879 already obeyed the law. For you, you are justified. So now, 103 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:39.269 understanding those terms, here the objection. Well, Paul, if a person 104 00:09:39.350 --> 00:09:45.029 has been justified, if a person no longer is obligated to keep the law 105 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:50.309 in order to have eternal life, what is going to compel them to obedience? 106 00:09:50.549 --> 00:09:58.019 If there's no longer this threat of punishment or promise of reward for obedience, 107 00:09:58.139 --> 00:10:01.779 then why would a person obey? What is going to compel a person 108 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:09.850 to do that? As parents, if your parents, or we've all had 109 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:13.889 parents or been in situations where there has been these kinds of legal relationships, 110 00:10:13.929 --> 00:10:18.409 so to speak. You Clean Your Room, you get a bull ice cream. 111 00:10:18.450 --> 00:10:20.559 You don't clean your room, you get a time out. These things 112 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:24.960 are very motivating. You practice your violin for a certain amount of time, 113 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:30.399 you will play a certain number of songs. Then x number of good things 114 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.679 happen. You don't, bad things happen. Now those are might be added 115 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:39.149 on or sometimes we talk about natural consequences. These things we are so used 116 00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:43.070 to dealing with, aren't we? Same in the workplace. You do a 117 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:48.669 good job, you make sales or you get promoted or you keep your job. 118 00:10:48.429 --> 00:10:52.019 You do a bad job, you lose your job or you don't make 119 00:10:52.059 --> 00:10:58.740 as much money. We're so used to dealing with things. I'm in this 120 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:03.179 way that grace is somewhat surprising and the question is a kind of natural if 121 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:07.690 you take away the threats and you take away the reward, then why is 122 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:11.889 a person going to pay obey? What will compel them to do that? 123 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:20.720 Well, this is an accusation that always comes at the Gospel. It has 124 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:24.720 for a long time. Paul deals with it here. Sometimes it comes from 125 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.879 outside the church, but in my experience, which isn't everything, but in 126 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:35.190 my experience it often comes from within the church, from people that Paul Themselves 127 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:41.470 Christians, and it seems like this might be Paul's experience as well, because 128 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:46.950 he says here that he's sang these things in verse nineteen. Because of your 129 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:52.100 natural limitations, he speaks to you. The spirit speaks to us, to 130 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:58.259 me, because of our natural limitations. We struggle with this concept. And 131 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:01.970 so he speaks to us here and he answers this question. What will compel 132 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:09.570 us to obedience? He answers this question using a very, very powerful metaphor, 133 00:12:11.289 --> 00:12:18.840 slavery. It's hard to think of another relationship that is quite as powerful 134 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:24.879 as this one, as slavery, and maybe it's even a little offputting or 135 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:35.029 a little shocking that Paul would compare our relationship with God to slavery. Especially 136 00:12:35.230 --> 00:12:39.190 for us, and I would think most people, the experience or knowledge of 137 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:45.539 slavery has been entirely negative. It's usually bound up with all kinds of other 138 00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:52.980 terrible evils, murder and theft and man stealing and all kinds of other things 139 00:12:54.779 --> 00:13:01.529 in the past and even today. So why does Paul Speak About Slavery in 140 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:09.049 this way? He speaks in this he uses this external human institution to describe 141 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:16.159 an internal spiritual relationship that we have either with sin or with God, or 142 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:22.679 obedience, as he puts it in another place. To understand why he does 143 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:26.990 that, think about what a slave is and it's most kind of basic sense. 144 00:13:28.110 --> 00:13:33.870 A slave is someone who is compelled to obey right, someone who is 145 00:13:33.990 --> 00:13:41.980 compelled to obey because of some thing or someone that is greater and more powerful 146 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:46.500 than they are. Now in human institutions that's often because of a legal power 147 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:52.139 or just brute force or any kind of other number of things, but it 148 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:58.370 can happen in other ways. To here he talks about an inward in spiritual 149 00:13:58.529 --> 00:14:03.730 terms and he says that under these two categories, under law and under grace, 150 00:14:05.210 --> 00:14:09.879 you either serve one master or another, you either serve slay. You're 151 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:16.080 either a slave to sin or you're a slave to obedience. So listen to 152 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:20.279 what he says in Verse Sixteen. Do you not know that if you present 153 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.590 yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one to whom 154 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:31.429 you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or obedience, 155 00:14:31.470 --> 00:14:37.509 which leads to life or to righteousness? Then in verse Seventeen, he speaks 156 00:14:37.549 --> 00:14:43.019 to Christians in particular and he says, but thanks be to God that you, 157 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:48.100 who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to 158 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:52.450 the standard of teaching to which you were committed, having been set free from 159 00:14:52.490 --> 00:15:05.570 sin and become slaves of righteousness. Some people live their lives, though they 160 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:11.519 say they are Christians, as though this is not true. They say they're 161 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:15.799 Christians, but they don't seem to be obligated to anyone. They don't seem 162 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:18.519 to do a be obligated and obedience to anyone, or to God, we 163 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:24.590 might say. Especially they say they're Christians, but yet they live as though 164 00:15:24.750 --> 00:15:31.269 they are slaves of sin and slaves of disobedience. They live in a way 165 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:37.860 that is confusing. The profession doesn't match of the actions. How can this 166 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:41.940 be, Paul is saying, because a person who is no longer a slave 167 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:48.179 to sin is a slave to obedience. It's either one or the other. 168 00:15:50.289 --> 00:15:54.970 So what's Paul's answer to this question? What compels a person to be good 169 00:15:54.129 --> 00:15:58.649 who is no longer on into the law? Paul says that there's an inward 170 00:15:58.730 --> 00:16:06.240 a spiritual change that happens when we become a Christian in other words, we 171 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.399 are freed. We're freed from this kind of disobedience and slavery to Sin, 172 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:15.919 but we're not just kind of let out of the cage, so to speak, 173 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:19.309 to go live on our own and do our own thing, because where 174 00:16:19.309 --> 00:16:23.669 withou that wind us up? Well, back in the cage, back under 175 00:16:23.750 --> 00:16:27.830 sin, back under disobedience. We have to have something that's not just a 176 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:34.820 release from it, but a being brought into something else. The flesh hates 177 00:16:34.899 --> 00:16:42.580 the idea of being obligated to God in our sin, but when our wheels 178 00:16:42.620 --> 00:16:48.129 are changed by the Holy Spirit, something different happens. Notice what he talks 179 00:16:48.129 --> 00:16:55.129 about. He talks about wholehearted obedience. He talks about being set free to 180 00:16:55.450 --> 00:17:00.330 the service of God. This is his idea here. It's it's like finding 181 00:17:00.370 --> 00:17:07.160 a new home. If you come out of one bad and evil country and 182 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.680 come into the country of a good king and you are under the obligation to 183 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.710 obey him. What's the problem with that? There's no problem. You could 184 00:17:17.750 --> 00:17:22.549 compare it to a tree that is withering and dying because the soil it is 185 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:29.509 in is is poisonous and and and and incapable of producing anything good. But 186 00:17:29.630 --> 00:17:33.980 you transplant that plant into a place where it should be, a plan, 187 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:37.700 a place where that plant was designed to thrive. And what happens? It 188 00:17:38.500 --> 00:17:44.259 blooms, it grows, it thrives. This is what it's like for the 189 00:17:44.289 --> 00:17:48.170 Christian. Would you you? Might? You speak of it in this Paul 190 00:17:48.289 --> 00:17:53.250 speaks of it in this strong way of slavery, to show the to describe 191 00:17:53.329 --> 00:17:57.839 the way that a tree, for example, is compelled to produce that fruit. 192 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:03.319 It does it right, if you put it good tree and good soil, 193 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.559 does what it does. It's compelled to do it. But does a 194 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:12.789 tree to personify it, hate that? Is it frustrated? No, it's 195 00:18:12.829 --> 00:18:18.990 Indian. Enjoys it. There's a pleasure in it. Christians are like that 196 00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:22.630 too, when God changes our hearts, when he changes our wills, yes, 197 00:18:22.750 --> 00:18:26.380 there's a kind of compulsion in that. We will do the things he 198 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:33.140 has called us to do, but it's a wholehearted, full throated, happy 199 00:18:33.299 --> 00:18:41.690 kind of obedience. Consider, for example, this way that these two images 200 00:18:41.769 --> 00:18:51.130 of a man in a tree or combined in Psalm. One blessed is the 201 00:18:51.210 --> 00:18:55.410 man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the 202 00:18:55.490 --> 00:18:59.240 way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight 203 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.319 is in the law of the Lord and on his law. He meditates day 204 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:11.309 and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water and yields its 205 00:19:11.390 --> 00:19:15.630 fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither, and in all that 206 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:21.150 he does he prospers. You see the picture here. This is a happy 207 00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:25.660 tree. It's by the streams, it's being fed by this water, it's 208 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:30.819 producing strong leaves that don't wither and die. It's producing good fruit. This 209 00:19:32.019 --> 00:19:37.500 is a good thing, a blessed tree first, for then in Psalm, 210 00:19:37.609 --> 00:19:41.289 one goes on. The wicked are not so. They are like chaff that 211 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:49.569 the wind drives away. They're unstable, they're consumed by curse and and wrath. 212 00:19:52.490 --> 00:19:56.519 But when we are changed by the spirit of God to be who we 213 00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:02.960 ought to be, then we are who we are. Christians are slaves in 214 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:07.750 the sense that they are compelled to do something because their nature has been changed, 215 00:20:08.230 --> 00:20:11.430 but they're not compelled in a way that they don't want to do it 216 00:20:11.470 --> 00:20:17.309 any more. A Christian is someone who wants to obey the Lord word, 217 00:20:17.349 --> 00:20:22.259 who wants to do that, and that's not because the threat and reward have 218 00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:30.460 been taken away, it's because they've been changed inside. To go back to 219 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:34.299 the relationship of parents and children. Parents, that's what you want, right 220 00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:38.890 you want your kids to obey, not because they're going to get a piece 221 00:20:38.930 --> 00:20:42.609 of candy or or have to have a time out or something like that. 222 00:20:44.690 --> 00:20:48.089 You want them to obey because they want to obey. They love to obey. 223 00:20:48.690 --> 00:20:53.319 It's a part of who they are as your children. Now, we 224 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:56.839 don't have a lot of control over that, do we? And so we 225 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:03.079 pray and we ask God to work these things in them. That's the same 226 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:10.390 thing for us, as sons and daughters of God. We aren't automatically obedient. 227 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:15.470 We have to be changed. The Lord has to work this in us, 228 00:21:15.829 --> 00:21:19.579 and that's why this objection, that's is I'm put and that Paul describes 229 00:21:19.660 --> 00:21:23.980 for us, doesn't make any sense. Remember the objection. If you take 230 00:21:25.019 --> 00:21:30.099 away frets and reward, why will people obey? Paul's answer because they haven't. 231 00:21:30.579 --> 00:21:34.890 That's what they do. Somebody who no longer serves slave and a slavery 232 00:21:36.289 --> 00:21:40.970 and sin no longer someone who is no longer a slave to sin is someone 233 00:21:41.049 --> 00:21:45.529 who is compelled, who is a slave, who is a servant and wholeheartedly 234 00:21:45.650 --> 00:21:56.240 and willingly of God. They no longer fear the threats, they not no 235 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:00.950 longer hope for a reward based on their obedience, because they are fully trusting 236 00:22:00.990 --> 00:22:08.589 in Jesus Christ to give them those things. So when we consider our own 237 00:22:08.630 --> 00:22:15.150 obedience and in our own lives, when we feel our own natural limitations in 238 00:22:15.390 --> 00:22:21.700 understanding these things, consider what Paul says here. If you find yourself in 239 00:22:21.819 --> 00:22:26.940 a position and you look inside your heart and you say I am not a 240 00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:32.329 slave of God, I am not a person who is compelled to obedience by 241 00:22:32.450 --> 00:22:38.690 the spirit, but for me what matters is this threat and promise of Wrath 242 00:22:38.849 --> 00:22:44.640 and reward, then you need to pay attention to what Paul has said in 243 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:51.759 these first six chapters. You have no hope for reward. Disobedience is what 244 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:56.119 belongs to you, because you are not a slave to anything other than sin. 245 00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:02.349 Under the law, that is what you are compelled to do. But 246 00:23:02.430 --> 00:23:07.549 if you believe in Jesus, if you call yourself self a Christian, then 247 00:23:07.630 --> 00:23:11.029 what Paul teaches here, what God teaches here through his serve and is that 248 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:18.059 something else is operating inside of you, a compulsion to do good things a 249 00:23:18.220 --> 00:23:21.980 desire to do those good things and, when we do the bad, to 250 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:29.450 feel the sting of it, to feel sadness and sorrow and repentance, because 251 00:23:29.569 --> 00:23:33.849 that's not us, that's not who we are as those people who have been 252 00:23:34.009 --> 00:23:41.759 changed. So there's kind of a self evaluation a passage like this calls for. 253 00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:48.599 But if, upon evaluating yourself, you know yourself to be one who 254 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:55.039 is in Jesus, one who has received these gray and blessed gifts of God, 255 00:23:56.309 --> 00:24:02.109 then our response is given for us here and in verse seventeen, thankfulness, 256 00:24:03.349 --> 00:24:07.589 thanks be to God, and, of course, service as well. 257 00:24:07.509 --> 00:24:14.140 If you are a servant and obedient child and God's household, you will serve 258 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:18.980 and it will be your pleasure. It is your pleasure, isn't it, 259 00:24:19.140 --> 00:24:26.289 to love, to obey, to know him in this way? Going back 260 00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:30.329 to just a few verses, and will close with this before Verse Fifteen, 261 00:24:32.369 --> 00:24:37.529 remember what Paul says. They're based on this reality, based on this changed 262 00:24:37.170 --> 00:24:45.400 based on this transplantation that has happened. Let sin, therefore, let not 263 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:49.279 sin. Therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. 264 00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:56.309 Don't present your members to sin as instruments for UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, but present yourselves to 265 00:24:56.430 --> 00:25:02.509 God as those who have been brought from death to life, your members to 266 00:25:02.630 --> 00:25:07.980 God as instruments of righteousness. Christians, this is what you have been called 267 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:14.700 to do. Enjoy it, have pleasure in it, seek it, pursue 268 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:18.460 it. There's blessing in it, comfort in it, joy in it, 269 00:25:18.819 --> 00:25:25.009 assurance in it. Give your lives, your members, your very bodies and 270 00:25:25.210 --> 00:25:30.970 your whole hearts over to the Lord, for you have been bought and purchased 271 00:25:30.049 --> 00:25:34.799 for this very end, and know that when you stumble and when you fall, 272 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:40.880 God will not let you go. He has changed you, he has 273 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:47.200 transplanted you and he will work in you to the very end because of the 274 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:51.630 sure salvation that we have in Jesus. So that means that when you fall, 275 00:25:52.230 --> 00:25:55.589 do the same thing you did at the very beginning. Put your faith 276 00:25:55.630 --> 00:26:00.789 in Jesus over and over and over again, and you will find great blessing 277 00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:03.549 in the Lord. Let us pray