Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing
and give your attention to God's word in
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Romans Chapter six, Roman six verse
fifteen, to the end of the chapter.
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Here God's Word Roman six, verse
fifteen. What then, are we
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to sin? Because we are not
under law but under grace? By no
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means do you not know that if
you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
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you are slaves of the one whom
you obey, either of sin,
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which leads to death, or of
Obedience, which leads to righteousness. But
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thanks be to God that you,
who were once slaves of sin, have
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become obedient from the heart to the
standard of teaching to which you were committed
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and, having been set free from
sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
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I'm speaking in human terms because of
your natural limitations, for just as you
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once presented yourselves as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness,
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so now present your members as slaves
to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when
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you were slaves of sin, you
were free in regard to righteousness. But
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what fruit were you getting at that
time from the things of which you are
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now ashamed? For the end of
those things is death, but now that
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you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of God.
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The fruit you get leads to sanctification
and its end, eternal life. For
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the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is Eternal
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Life in Christ Jesus, Our Lord, please be seated. We come to
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this passage sort of like coming to
the middle of a debate. You come
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in and you're hearing argue. Your
hearing an argument made that is based on
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arguments that have already been made,
objections that are being answered, based on
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other things that are presupposed. So
we have to go back a little bit
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and understand something of what is going
on here and what Paul is doing.
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He begins with this question. It's
an objection. It's the other side of
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the debate. What, then,
are we to sin? Because we are
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not under law but under grace.
You see what this objection is asking?
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It is saying that Paul has set
up these categories, these changes of status
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or ways in which we identify ourselves
under law or under grace, and based
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on that conclusion, this hypothetical person
is offering this objection saying, well,
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Paul, you say this one thing
that people are under law or under grace.
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Well, if they're under grace,
then why should they not sin?
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Won't they sin? Here's another way
to put the objection. What would compel
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a person to be good if they're
no longer under the law? Why would
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they? Why would a person work
towards obedience if they're not under the law?
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So, to understand what that objection
really means, to understand the weight
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of it, you have to understand
these categories of law and grace. They're
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so important to understand. These are
the ways that Paul is categorizing you.
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He is saying that each and every
one of you that are here today,
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each and every person that has ever
lived, is either in one category or
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the other. Which one do you
belong in? Are you under law or
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you under grace? Now those are
big terms, the terms that are used
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broadly and in various ways in scripture, and so we have to ask what
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does Paul mean by them here?
What Paul means by them here is the
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particular relationship that we have with God. Do we relate to God by means
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of the law or what we sometimes
call the covenant, of Works that relationship,
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or do we relate to God by
the means of the Gospel or by
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grace or what we sometimes call the
covenant of Grace. Under the law,
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we relate to God as those that
are in that are held to the law,
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as those that must be entirely obedient
to the law. That's how you
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get blessing. You obey and your
blessed very simple. You Obey God,
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you are righteous, you serve him, you do the things that you've been
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commanded to do and he who has
made you blesses you, gives you good
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things. The problem is that,
Paul has been saying from the very beginning
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of Romans, the problem that you
know in your own hearts is that you
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don't obey. So how do you
relate to God in any kind of positive
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way? You're disobeying. If you
are under the law and yet you are
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breaking the law, then you are
what a Lawbreaker, a criminal? What
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are the wages of sin? What
kinds of things do you get as a
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law breaker, as a disobedient person? Paul Says Verse Twenty Three, the
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wages of sin is death and in
other places of in the Romans. So
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far he's been telling us all of
the terrible things that are attached to this
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the wrath of God, the curse
of God. That's what it means to
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be under the law. It means
to be one who is accountable to the
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law, and yet we know that
we have all broken it. Well then,
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what does it mean to be under
grace? Well, it means that
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you are no longer obligated to keep
the whole law to earn blessing, because
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the whole law has been kept for
you. God has given it to you,
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he has kept it for you,
and he's done that through Jesus.
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At the very beginning of the book
of Romans, Paul Brings out right away
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that the grace that we receive is
the righteousness of God given to us.
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That's the present we get. We
get Jesus's righteousness. All these good works
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he did, all the things that
he did were things that were given for
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you. More than that, he
not only gives us this righteousness and says
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here it is though you have kept
the whole law, but he also forgives
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our sins. That's why SOSM thirty
two is like. So on thirty two
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says, when David speaks about the
forgiveness of sins, the blessing of being
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forgiven of being healed, of being
in a good relationship with God. He's
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talking about someone who has received that
gift of someone who knows he's a lawbreaker,
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knows he's a sinner and yet stands
in a good relationship with God,
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calls God a friend. It happens
not because what is David say? He
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said. It doesn't happen because he
finally started obeying. It happens because he's
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sins were forgiven. Look at Verse
Twenty Three again at the end of that
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chapter, Chapter Six. Notice how
there's a parallel, but also something that's
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not parallel. There's one thing that
leads to another. The wages of sin
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leads to death. The Gift of
God leads to eternal life. So one
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thing leads to another. Sin Leads
to death, this gift leads to life.
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But notice they come in very different
ways. It doesn't say, for
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the wages of sin is death and
the wages of obedience is eternal life.
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That options ruled out because of sin
in us. What does it say?
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It says the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God
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is eternal life. In Christ Jesus, that's how we receive eternal life.
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That's how we become friends of God. That's how we have peace with God,
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as Paul says in Romans Five,
through the free gift. So when
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he says at the beginning of this
chapter, yes, this or the beginning
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of Verse Fifteen, and he asked
this question about under law, under grace,
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that's what the under grace parts talking
about. That you, as a
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person under grace who has believed in
Jesus Christ, are someone who's forgiven,
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as someone who has had their sins
cleansed and washed away. You are someone
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who no longer stands under the power
and demands of the law because Jesus is
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already obeyed the law. For you, you are justified. So now,
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understanding those terms, here the objection. Well, Paul, if a person
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has been justified, if a person
no longer is obligated to keep the law
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in order to have eternal life,
what is going to compel them to obedience?
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If there's no longer this threat of
punishment or promise of reward for obedience,
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then why would a person obey?
What is going to compel a person
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to do that? As parents,
if your parents, or we've all had
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parents or been in situations where there
has been these kinds of legal relationships,
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so to speak. You Clean Your
Room, you get a bull ice cream.
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You don't clean your room, you
get a time out. These things
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are very motivating. You practice your
violin for a certain amount of time,
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you will play a certain number of
songs. Then x number of good things
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happen. You don't, bad things
happen. Now those are might be added
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on or sometimes we talk about natural
consequences. These things we are so used
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to dealing with, aren't we?
Same in the workplace. You do a
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good job, you make sales or
you get promoted or you keep your job.
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You do a bad job, you
lose your job or you don't make
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as much money. We're so used
to dealing with things. I'm in this
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way that grace is somewhat surprising and
the question is a kind of natural if
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you take away the threats and you
take away the reward, then why is
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a person going to pay obey?
What will compel them to do that?
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Well, this is an accusation that
always comes at the Gospel. It has
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for a long time. Paul deals
with it here. Sometimes it comes from
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outside the church, but in my
experience, which isn't everything, but in
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my experience it often comes from within
the church, from people that Paul Themselves
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Christians, and it seems like this
might be Paul's experience as well, because
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he says here that he's sang these
things in verse nineteen. Because of your
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natural limitations, he speaks to you. The spirit speaks to us, to
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me, because of our natural limitations. We struggle with this concept. And
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so he speaks to us here and
he answers this question. What will compel
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us to obedience? He answers this
question using a very, very powerful metaphor,
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slavery. It's hard to think of
another relationship that is quite as powerful
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as this one, as slavery,
and maybe it's even a little offputting or
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a little shocking that Paul would compare
our relationship with God to slavery. Especially
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for us, and I would think
most people, the experience or knowledge of
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slavery has been entirely negative. It's
usually bound up with all kinds of other
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terrible evils, murder and theft and
man stealing and all kinds of other things
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in the past and even today.
So why does Paul Speak About Slavery in
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this way? He speaks in this
he uses this external human institution to describe
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an internal spiritual relationship that we have
either with sin or with God, or
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obedience, as he puts it in
another place. To understand why he does
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that, think about what a slave
is and it's most kind of basic sense.
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A slave is someone who is compelled
to obey right, someone who is
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compelled to obey because of some thing
or someone that is greater and more powerful
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than they are. Now in human
institutions that's often because of a legal power
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or just brute force or any kind
of other number of things, but it
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can happen in other ways. To
here he talks about an inward in spiritual
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terms and he says that under these
two categories, under law and under grace,
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you either serve one master or another, you either serve slay. You're
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either a slave to sin or you're
a slave to obedience. So listen to
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what he says in Verse Sixteen.
Do you not know that if you present
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yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves to the one to whom
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you obey, either of sin,
which leads to death, or obedience,
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which leads to life or to righteousness? Then in verse Seventeen, he speaks
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to Christians in particular and he says, but thanks be to God that you,
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who were once slaves of sin,
have become obedient from the heart to
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the standard of teaching to which you
were committed, having been set free from
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sin and become slaves of righteousness.
Some people live their lives, though they
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say they are Christians, as though
this is not true. They say they're
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Christians, but they don't seem to
be obligated to anyone. They don't seem
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to do a be obligated and obedience
to anyone, or to God, we
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might say. Especially they say they're
Christians, but yet they live as though
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they are slaves of sin and slaves
of disobedience. They live in a way
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that is confusing. The profession doesn't
match of the actions. How can this
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be, Paul is saying, because
a person who is no longer a slave
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to sin is a slave to obedience. It's either one or the other.
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So what's Paul's answer to this question? What compels a person to be good
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who is no longer on into the
law? Paul says that there's an inward
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a spiritual change that happens when we
become a Christian in other words, we
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are freed. We're freed from this
kind of disobedience and slavery to Sin,
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but we're not just kind of let
out of the cage, so to speak,
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to go live on our own and
do our own thing, because where
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withou that wind us up? Well, back in the cage, back under
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sin, back under disobedience. We
have to have something that's not just a
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release from it, but a being
brought into something else. The flesh hates
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the idea of being obligated to God
in our sin, but when our wheels
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are changed by the Holy Spirit,
something different happens. Notice what he talks
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about. He talks about wholehearted obedience. He talks about being set free to
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the service of God. This is
his idea here. It's it's like finding
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a new home. If you come
out of one bad and evil country and
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come into the country of a good
king and you are under the obligation to
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obey him. What's the problem with
that? There's no problem. You could
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compare it to a tree that is
withering and dying because the soil it is
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in is is poisonous and and and
and incapable of producing anything good. But
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you transplant that plant into a place
where it should be, a plan,
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a place where that plant was designed
to thrive. And what happens? It
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blooms, it grows, it thrives. This is what it's like for the
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Christian. Would you you? Might? You speak of it in this Paul
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speaks of it in this strong way
of slavery, to show the to describe
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the way that a tree, for
example, is compelled to produce that fruit.
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It does it right, if you
put it good tree and good soil,
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does what it does. It's compelled
to do it. But does a
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tree to personify it, hate that? Is it frustrated? No, it's
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Indian. Enjoys it. There's a
pleasure in it. Christians are like that
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too, when God changes our hearts, when he changes our wills, yes,
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there's a kind of compulsion in that. We will do the things he
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has called us to do, but
it's a wholehearted, full throated, happy
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kind of obedience. Consider, for
example, this way that these two images
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of a man in a tree or
combined in Psalm. One blessed is the
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man who walks not in the council
of the wicked, nor stands in the
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way of sinners, nor sits in
the seat of scoffers, but his delight
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is in the law of the Lord
and on his law. He meditates day
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and night. He's like a tree
planted by streams of water and yields its
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fruit in its season and its leaf
does not wither, and in all that
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he does he prospers. You see
the picture here. This is a happy
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tree. It's by the streams,
it's being fed by this water, it's
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producing strong leaves that don't wither and
die. It's producing good fruit. This
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is a good thing, a blessed
tree first, for then in Psalm,
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one goes on. The wicked are
not so. They are like chaff that
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the wind drives away. They're unstable, they're consumed by curse and and wrath.
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But when we are changed by the
spirit of God to be who we
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ought to be, then we are
who we are. Christians are slaves in
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the sense that they are compelled to
do something because their nature has been changed,
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but they're not compelled in a way
that they don't want to do it
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any more. A Christian is someone
who wants to obey the Lord word,
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who wants to do that, and
that's not because the threat and reward have
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been taken away, it's because they've
been changed inside. To go back to
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the relationship of parents and children.
Parents, that's what you want, right
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you want your kids to obey,
not because they're going to get a piece
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of candy or or have to have
a time out or something like that.
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You want them to obey because they
want to obey. They love to obey.
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It's a part of who they are
as your children. Now, we
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don't have a lot of control over
that, do we? And so we
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pray and we ask God to work
these things in them. That's the same
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thing for us, as sons and
daughters of God. We aren't automatically obedient.
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We have to be changed. The
Lord has to work this in us,
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and that's why this objection, that's
is I'm put and that Paul describes
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for us, doesn't make any sense. Remember the objection. If you take
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away frets and reward, why will
people obey? Paul's answer because they haven't.
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That's what they do. Somebody who
no longer serves slave and a slavery
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and sin no longer someone who is
no longer a slave to sin is someone
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who is compelled, who is a
slave, who is a servant and wholeheartedly
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and willingly of God. They no
longer fear the threats, they not no
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longer hope for a reward based on
their obedience, because they are fully trusting
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in Jesus Christ to give them those
things. So when we consider our own
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obedience and in our own lives,
when we feel our own natural limitations in
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understanding these things, consider what Paul
says here. If you find yourself in
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a position and you look inside your
heart and you say I am not a
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slave of God, I am not
a person who is compelled to obedience by
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the spirit, but for me what
matters is this threat and promise of Wrath
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and reward, then you need to
pay attention to what Paul has said in
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these first six chapters. You have
no hope for reward. Disobedience is what
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belongs to you, because you are
not a slave to anything other than sin.
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Under the law, that is what
you are compelled to do. But
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if you believe in Jesus, if
you call yourself self a Christian, then
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what Paul teaches here, what God
teaches here through his serve and is that
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something else is operating inside of you, a compulsion to do good things a
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desire to do those good things and, when we do the bad, to
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feel the sting of it, to
feel sadness and sorrow and repentance, because
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that's not us, that's not who
we are as those people who have been
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changed. So there's kind of a
self evaluation a passage like this calls for.
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But if, upon evaluating yourself,
you know yourself to be one who
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is in Jesus, one who has
received these gray and blessed gifts of God,
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then our response is given for us
here and in verse seventeen, thankfulness,
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thanks be to God, and,
of course, service as well.
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If you are a servant and obedient
child and God's household, you will serve
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and it will be your pleasure.
It is your pleasure, isn't it,
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to love, to obey, to
know him in this way? Going back
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to just a few verses, and
will close with this before Verse Fifteen,
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remember what Paul says. They're based
on this reality, based on this changed
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based on this transplantation that has happened. Let sin, therefore, let not
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sin. Therefore reign in your mortal
bodies to make you obey its passions.
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Don't present your members to sin as
instruments for UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, but present yourselves to
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God as those who have been brought
from death to life, your members to
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God as instruments of righteousness. Christians, this is what you have been called
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to do. Enjoy it, have
pleasure in it, seek it, pursue
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it. There's blessing in it,
comfort in it, joy in it,
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assurance in it. Give your lives, your members, your very bodies and
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your whole hearts over to the Lord, for you have been bought and purchased
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for this very end, and know
that when you stumble and when you fall,
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God will not let you go.
He has changed you, he has
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transplanted you and he will work in
you to the very end because of the
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sure salvation that we have in Jesus. So that means that when you fall,
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do the same thing you did at
the very beginning. Put your faith
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in Jesus over and over and over
again, and you will find great blessing
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in the Lord. Let us pray
