Sunday School - Living In God's Kingdom Part 3

It means a management of a household, essentially. It's what it means. It's really a simple word. It's not that indefinite.

It's not obvious that it has anything to do with money. And yet, in the Bible, we see this word used often.

The administration is sometimes translated, like Ephesians 1, verse 10, talks about the administration of all things, the summing up of all things in Christ.

That word is economy. So God has an economy, or rather, he has a household, and in his household, there's a certain management that he's put in place.

And part of the management arrangement that God has placed in his household is that there be slaves and servants in the household of God.

And that means there's a role for us in the economy of God, and we're going to go in -depth into what that looks like.

And in the Greek, there is the word for slave. Anyone know what that word is in the

Greek? You know what it is. Doulos. Yeah. So doulos is the

Greek word that is sometimes translated as servant, bondservant, or slave. But really, it doesn't mean servant or bondservant.

It means slave. Now, do you know what the difference between a slave and a servant is? What's the difference between a slave and a servant?

Basically, yeah, basically, a servant is a hired help. He can call out sick if he wants.

Yeah. You know, he might get overtime. He might get, you know, certain benefits. A slave is owned.

A slave is owned. Now, I want to present to you that we're actually both things. We are indeed slaves of Jesus Christ, but we're also servants of Jesus Christ.

And those two things, I want you to look at them very differently. Yes, we're a slave, but we're also called to be servants.

And we're slaves in one sense because we're purchased. So the Bible says in 1

Corinthians chapter 7, verse 19, that you were purchased with a price, okay?

How were we purchased with a price? How were we purchased?

Jesus purchased us with his own blood. Acts 20, verse 28 says that God purchased the church with his own blood, okay?

So God died. God purchased the church with his own blood. Therefore, we are owned.

He owns us. We were bought. And what were we bought out of?

Romans 7, we were purchased out of sin and death, see?

So we were all at one time slaves to sin and death, but now we are purchased and we're slaves to God in Christ, okay?

So all of us, every single person is a slave, okay? Everyone, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, free, slave,

Jew, Greek, everyone is a slave. Scripture says that in Adam, we were sold under slavery to sin.

And we all walked in the passions in which we once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.

We were all under slavery to our passions, to our sins, yet in Jesus Christ, we've been purchased to be slaves to righteousness.

We don't have the time to go in depth into this now, but Romans 7, Romans chapter 7 really gives this beautiful dichotomy of slavery.

The slavery to sin and passion, but the slavery to God in Christ. And you see these two things and how they coexist and how we are indeed slaves still to some degree because we've been purchased, because we belong, we have an owner.

In fact, there's a title for Jesus Christ that's used in the New Testament. It's called,

Lord is the most prominent title or among the most prominent titles that's used in the New Testament of Jesus Christ.

And that has a connotation of one having ownership. But there's another Greek word that's used in Jude chapter 4, verse 4 in Jude 1, 4, and it calls

Jesus Christ our owner. Some translations like the NIV, I think actually translates to this, our sovereign.

He's our sovereign or he's our owner. And in that way, Jesus Christ is indeed truly our owner.

But let's look at today's teaching. Did you need one of these though? So both servants and slaves have masters, which is what

I just described to you. Jesus Christ is called our owner. As a matter of fact, let's read Jude chapter 4,

Jude 1, 4, and let's look at that real quick. I'm curious to see how the

ESV translates it because I kind of forget. See there it translates it as master.

And that's not incorrect, right? There's a couple of different ways to translate that Greek word that's used there.

One is master, one is owner, one is sovereign. So I think the NIV translates to our only sovereign.

And the connotation is the same. We have a master. We have an owner.

We have a sovereign. We have someone who's over the household. Remember the word economy means what?

Household. It just simply means the management of a household. And so God has an economy.

God has an economy in his kingdom and he is the owner. He's the head of it.

He's the sovereign of it. And he has slaves and servants. So both servants and slaves have masters who commands they are supposed to obey.

The difference between a servant and a slave is a servant has a choice or in the

New Testament framing grace and a slave does not. They're under law.

So remember the last couple of weeks we've been going over the dichotomy of law and grace and how those two coexist in the

New Testament realm. And so we are, we choose to serve

God as servants, but we are also under obligation to serve

God. And so we are both servants and slaves at the same time.

Does that make sense? Right? And so if you choose not to serve

God, then eventually you are or will become a slave to sin and to Satan.

And so we are to choose who we are to serve. Now again, we're good

Calvinist and that word always makes us a little nervous when we hear the word choose. And it shouldn't.

It really shouldn't. Why? Why? Because it's in the Bible. It's like when I was at my last church, most of which were pretty

Arminian, though they said that, oh, we're not Calvinist or Arminian. That basically means you're Arminian.

And so they would always say, well, we just don't like that word predestination.

I'm like, well, why don't you like it? It's in the Bible. Right? Why are we arguing over words and definitions that are in the

Bible? It's not about whether the word is in the Bible or not. It's what do we do with it? How do we harmonize it? What's the hermeneutic?

What's the proper understanding of this word in its proper context? And so we as believers believe that God is sovereign, but that we also have a duty, a responsibility to obey, to choose to obey.

Scripture puts it this way. In Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19 to 20, Jehovah says to his people,

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.

Therefore, choose life that both you and your children may live in order that you may love the

Lord your God and that you may obey his voice and that you may cling on to him for he is your life and the length of your days that you may dwell on the land which the

Lord swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them. This is what's called a

Deuteronomy, the Deuteronomical blessing or incursion. These are the conditions of the law.

So God says in one hand, if you obey me, if you listen to my voice, if you watch carefully to obey my commandments and statutes, you will live and you're going to inherit the land that I promised you.

But if you don't listen, what's going to happen? What's the other side of the blessing is what?

Curse, right? So the other side of the blessing is the curse. So God says, listen and obey, blessed.

Don't obey, what's going to be the result? Curse. And what the curse leads to is what?

Church of a D. Death. It leads to death. And so this is why it's so important that we listen, that we obey the voice of the

Lord our God. So God has called us to obedience, he's called us to choose life, blessing, that we may have longevity in the land that we're about to inherit.

Now the question that should arise is, does this have any bearing on Christians today? Right? Does this

Deuteronomical blessing and cursing have any relevance to the Christian? Because we're a

New Testament, we're New Covenant, and this is an Old Covenant blessing, cursing. Does this have any application to us today?

That's right. I would say that you're right, I think that you're right.

You know, when you look at what Jesus has called us to do, we look at throughout the Gospels, the call to discipleship, for instance.

Jesus says, no one has left father, mother, brother, sister, for my sake, and has not failed to receive ten times more in this life, and a hundredfold in the life to come.

Right? You know what he's doing is he's essentially affirming the

Deuteronomical blessing. If you obey, if you listen, I'll bless you. You don't listen, there'll be a curse.

But the ultimate blessing is the heavenly call in Christ Jesus. It's not the one that is mostly physical, right?

So Jesus says, don't store up your treasures where? On earth, but in heaven.

Because this is a place where still we're under the effects of the fall, so moth and rust and robbers come, and yet we're to store our treasures in heaven.

But yet there is a blessing that is accompanied in this life with knowing and serving

God. Okay? So there's a balance, because one of the reflexes that we have as Reformed people is we hear this type of language of blessing, and we shrink a little bit because we think prosperity gospel.

And I think that that is a, I think it's right to want to steer away from the prosperity gospel.

But the gospel is one of prosperity. But again, not in the same way that they would frame it, right?

It is a prosperity. I mean, eternal life is prosperous, right? It's not a bad thing.

It's not one of just total poverty. And I appreciate how Pastor Connolly frames things often.

As a matter of fact, we were having a discussion yesterday. And one of the blessings is that God does want to bless

His people with money so they can influence the space in the world around them, and they can be generous, and they can be a blessing.

And so God does want to bless us and bless His people. And there is a blessing that's accompanied with serving and being a slave and a servant to Jesus Christ.

Does that mean that God is always going to bless His people materially with money and cars and houses and possessions?

No. But something that shouldn't be lost on us as Christians living in America is that we are amongst the most blessed people.

Even the poorest among us are living better than kings and queens did 200 years ago.

Think about the technology that even a homeless person has in his pocket. The world is at the tips of his fingers with information and opportunity.

Something that would have been unheard of. And so we really are a blessed people. We really are a blessed nation.

And so even the poorest among us have such incredible blessing in this world.

Any questions so far? We're all following? We're all tracking? In what sense then are we to choose to serve the

Lord? What does that look like? What does it look like to choose?

To follow His commands, right? And is that something that negates the sovereignty of God?

Does our free will or agency to choose to follow Christ or choose to follow the blessing of God, does that negate

God's sovereignty? Not at all. You know,

I don't even think there's much of a tension there to be honest either. You know, sometimes we frame it that way that there's a tension between God's sovereignty and man's free will or man's,

I don't like the term free will because I think that's an incorrect framing. We have a will, but is our will free is the question.

So is the will free? Scripture says no. Scripture says that our will is under bondage to slavery, to sin.

And even as a Christian, our will is still under slavery, but not to sin and death, but to the law and righteousness.

Again, that's Romans 7. Romans 7 is such an important text because it frames this really well.

But we are slaves to sin and righteousness now through Jesus Christ. And so again, the framing of slavery and servanthood is very important.

Let's look at what Joshua 24 verse 15 and then verse 20 to 22 says, and if it seems evil unto you to serve the

Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers, which your fathers served, or the

God of the Amorites. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But if you forsake the

Lord and serve strange gods, that he will turn and do you hurt and consume you, even after he has done you good.

And the people said unto Joshua, nay, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, you are my witness, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you, that you have chosen you, the

Lord, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. Now what we see here in Joshua 24 is essentially the people of God affirming, reaffirming their commitment to Yahweh, the commitment that was made at Sinai.

And God essentially saying, you know, you're going to be a witness to this in a sense that your words are either going to convict or they're going to, what's the other side of conviction is, what?

A quit. They're going to quit or convict, okay? In the sense that you're saying that you're going to choose to follow the

Lord, okay? Because you're saying that, because you're making that commitment, because you're making that vow now, heaven and earth, as Deuteronomy 30 says, is being called to witness against or to witness this.

And by that standard now, you're going to be judged. So if you say, I'm going to follow the Lord, then you better follow him.

If you say, okay, we're going to follow other gods, then you do that. Choose you this day whom you shall serve,

Joshua says, but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh, serve the

Lord, we're going to serve Jehovah. And this is the same call that we are called to make even now as the people of God.

We are to serve Yahweh, we are to serve the true God. And probably now more than ever, because the world has more gods than it ever has.

I was just watching last night a video on ancient Greek mythology.

And the question that was trying to be answered by some scholars, these weren't Christian scholars, but the question was raised, did the ancients actually believe in their mythology or was it just like they knew it was just good stories to motivate them to do right things?

And the answer was mixed, as it is even today in society, right? So if you go to any religious setting, you're going to find people in those religious settings, some who actually truly believe the things of the religious doctrine, they believe it to be historical, they believe it to be true, and there are others who are just kind of there just for the moral framing of things and just to kind of get a good story and maybe a good message out of it.

And it was very, very much the same in the ancient context. A lot of people believed in the ancient mythologies, but also a lot of them didn't believe in the ancient mythologies.

And the ancient mythologies back then had a pantheon of gods. But I would say that even now we have even more pantheon of gods, they're just called different things.

Apple, Google, Facebook, you know, they just go by different names, they're a little bit different than what we would have called them 2000 years ago, but very much still gods that people serve.

Not to say that you work for Apple or Google that you are serving a false god, but maybe kind of you are, but you know, we all have to pay bills and have a master of some sort.

But at the same time, we have more gods now than ever before. Just pick up your phone.

Your phone has become a god and idol to so many people, right? I'll be honest, sometimes it's even hard for me to put my phone down and resist the urge of fiddling with it.

We're all consumed by different things. So what Joshua 24 is teaching us, what

Deuteronomy 30 and 31 is teaching us, is that whatever consumes you, that is what you are a slave to.

You're either consumed by Yahweh, who is an all -consuming fire, he's our God, he's our creator, he's the length of our days, or you're going to be consumed by something else.

If you have an iPhone, probably every week you get this on Sunday, you get this little report that says how many time you spent on screen, and so I'm always trying to be cognitive of that.

I think I got to get that number down, because I'm becoming a slave to this, if my attention is on it far too much.

And so consider what you are a slave to today, dear brother and sister. What is your attention going to?

What is your energy going to? What is your passion and your desires going to?

What are you a slave to? What's consuming you? And in that way we can discern whether we are actually choosing to serve the

Lord, or if our attention is elsewhere, if our heart is elsewhere. That's a question for reflection.

Yeah. That's right.

That's right. Hmm. Sure.

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's right. That's right.

Yeah, and I think Colossians 4 frames it this way, it says, whatever you do, do wholeheartedly, even as unto the

Lord. Ecclesiastes 12 says, whatever your hands, or I think it's chapter 9,

Ecclesiastes 9 says, whatever your hands find to do, do with all your might, right? And so we ought to be people who are wholeheartedly devoted, and that doesn't mean that we can't devote ourselves to work, to good things, to good endeavors.

Really in this context, it's more so what are the things that are taking our attention to the point of idolatry, right?

To the point of false worship, because we can give our attention to the things of true worship, which are good, obviously, and I would lump work into that, because work is part of the created order of worship,

God instituted in the garden. You know, we are called to do good works. That's part of our

Christian life and our service to God, it's our service to one another. But more so the things that distract us from the things of God.

So for instance, when Joshua frames it this way, he's like, okay, if you want, you can serve the strange gods, you can serve the gods of the

Amorites, right? Those are strange gods. These are foreign gods. These are gods who, you know, aren't true gods, but you can serve them.

They're there for you. Yeah, you know, you can choose. And in the same way, we have that same choice today.

We can serve the Lord or we can serve other things, whether it's the unhealthy pursuit of money, whether it's the pursuit of sin, whether it's the pursuit of other things that aren't godly, that aren't producing life.

And that's the whole point that God is trying to bring out in Deuteronomy, is there's a way that produces life, and there's a way that produces death.

Proverbs puts it this way, there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death, right? And so there's two paths, two ways, two choices that God has set before man, life and death, okay?

Choose life that you may live, choose death and, you know, it won't end up well for you.

And so we want to remind ourselves of what it looks like to serve the Lord and the importance it is in God's economy, in God's kingdom, to be a slave to righteousness, to be a servant of Christ.

Proverbs 129 puts it this way, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the

Lord. Now, Proverbs says the fear of the Lord is what? It's the beginning of wisdom.

Now there's actually two things that Proverbs says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and it's the beginning of wisdom, okay?

What's the difference between knowledge and wisdom? That's right.

So knowledge is information that you gather that's right and true. Wisdom is the application of that knowledge.

And so when you look at Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but it's also the beginning of wisdom.

And so Paul puts it this way in Colossians chapter 2, verse 2 and 3, in Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, okay?

It's in Christ. Christ is the apex. He's the alpha and the omega. He's the source, the fountain of all true wisdom and knowledge.

And the Proverbs is reminding us that they hated knowledge. When we hate knowledge, it's because we did not choose the fear of the

Lord. I think it's in Jeremiah 4 where God calls the Israelites for their sin. He calls them to account, and he says that the fear of me is not in you, okay?

They did not choose to fear Yahweh. Instead, they chose to fear the

Assyrians, the Egyptians. They feared everyone else but Yahweh. And when you fear everyone else but not the true

God, then you begin to see the folly of trusting in man and not in God.

Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 47 and 48 says, because you serve not the

Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore you will serve your enemies, which the

Lord shall send against you until he has destroyed you.

So again, more application of the Deuteronomical blessing and cursing. If you serve

God with joyfulness, with gladness in your heart, there's going to be an abundance of good things.

Remember, we're not talking about prosperity gospel. We're talking about biblical prosperity. Biblical prosperity, meaning that God is going to bless you with some things materially.

What are some of the things that we could expect to be blessed with as followers of God?

What are some things that we can expect to be blessed with? What's that? The fruits of the

Spirit. Spiritual blessings. What else can we expect to be blessed with? A spiritual family.

Absolutely. The church. That's huge. Can we expect physical blessing too? Because I'm hearing a lot of spiritual stuff, but can we expect physical blessing?

What's that? I said yes. Yes. I'd say so too. Certainly. I'll give you an example of it in the both

Old and New Testament. Children. Children are a sign of the blessing. Children are a sign of the blessing.

In the Old Testament, as a matter of fact, when we're going through Luke right now, we see that Elizabeth, what she's going to say is that the

Lord has delivered me. The way that she uses that language is basically saying, I'm no longer going to look like I'm cursed because she was barren.

Because she was barren, the assumption is, well, if you have barrenness, it's because you're cursed.

And she's going to be lifted from that burden because now she's going to be with child. She's going to have a child, which is a sign of blessing.

And so children are a huge sign of blessing in the Bible. Absolutely. And so I think children are a sign of the blessing.

I think that having influence. Just notice how in Luke we're already seeing those two themes.

Luke was compiled for who originally? It was really for an audience of one, but really more than that.

Who was it addressed to? Theophilus, who was a well -respected, well -regarded, influential, powerful man in the early church.

So influence and power. These are all things that could be expected in the

Christian life. Not for our fame, not for our economy, but for the economy of God.

Remember, I want you to think of it as we framed it earlier when we started this discussion. God has an economy. He has a household.

The word economy just means the management of a household. And God is using his slaves, his servants, in the administration of his household.

And part of that means some in his household will have power, influence, authority.

Others will have children. There's going to be a whole litany of functions that servants and slaves in the household of God will have for the overall advancement of the economy of the household of God.

Jeremiah 5 .19 says, and it shall come to pass when you shall say, why does the Lord our

God allow all these bad things to come upon us? What a great question. Have you ever asked yourself that question?

Why did God allow this to happen to me? Why did this bad thing happen to us? Then you will hear the answer.

It is because you have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land.

And where you are living, so for that reason you will become slaves to strangers in another land that is not yours.

Now we have to be careful to read too much into this because we can say, oh, well the reason God did this to me is because I did something wrong.

And that's not always the case, obviously, right? Jesus teaches us such in the Sermon on the Mount. He says things happen, good things happen to the bad and bad things happen to the good all the time.

It's the circumstances of life. Ultimately, all things work together for good for those who are called and who love

God. But in this particular set of circumstances in Jeremiah 5, what we see is the idolatry of the people.

The idolatry of the Israelites, of God's covenant people, and they're breaking God's covenant because they've forsaken the arrangement, they've forsaken

Yahweh, and they began to serve strange gods. So they were no longer being slaves to Yahweh, but they were being slaves to foreign gods, therefore

God says, I'm going to make you a slave to strangers in another land.

And how did God fulfill that promise to the Israelites? Did they become slaves to foreign people?

Yeah. When God destroyed the holy temple in 587 BC by the hands of the

Babylonians, they were led into captivity, and for 70 years they were slaves in a foreign land to a foreign people.

And so God fulfilled this promise in bringing forth judgment. Now Romans 6 is going to be fantastic in framing some of this discussion as we've had so far.

What then, shall we continue to sin because we are no longer under the law but under grace?

God forbid. Do you not know, or do you know, don't you know that whoever you yield yourself servants to, obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

Remember I told you, we're all slaves. Every single human being that's alive is a slave.

The question is, what are you a slave to? The Greek word that's used here for servant, this is a loose translation from the

King James, I've just updated some of the language a little bit just to make it a little bit more readable. But this is the

KJV, and the KJV uses the word servant,

ESV I think uses bondservant, but the Greek word doulos literally means slave, and there is a distinct distinction between again servant and slave that we've already established.

But you are either a slave or a servant to sin, which leads to what, death, or we are a slave of obedience unto righteousness.

It says, but God be thanked that you are the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you.

Now that's really important that Paul says that, they obeyed from the heart, which shows what?

What does that show? Regeneration. But it also shows in relation to the distinction between a servant and a slave, a slave has no choice, a servant has a choice in the matter, and that person chose through the indwelling work of regeneration by the

Holy Spirit to follow, to obey, to be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ.

They obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, being then made free from sin.

You became the servants of righteousness. So, slavery to Christ actually makes us free, isn't that wonderful?

So the economy of God and the household of God and His management of our dispensation, to use that term, not in the dispensational way of the

Tim LaHaye's world, but the proper use of that term, dispensation, and this dispensation of things, of time, in the church,

God has rightfully ordained that we would be delivered from sin and that we would become now slaves to righteousness, which actually sets us free.

It almost sounds kind of crazy that we would be, still be called slaves, but actually be free.

That dichotomy almost doesn't seem to make sense, but it only makes sense in the economy of God.

Because, again, you're under His household, you're under His management, right? And so we're called to be free and to be slaves of righteousness.

Any questions so far? Now I want you to turn, actually, let's look at what the,

I'm going to read this from the ESV, in Romans chapter 6, and then we'll look at some stuff from chapter 7.

Now it says, starting in verse 17 again, But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves, oh, so the

ESV does use the term slaves there, that's good. Slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching or doctrine to which you were committed.

And having been set free from sin, having become slaves of righteousness. So again, the dichotomy there.

You were a slave to sin, you've been set free from that slavery, but now you've become slaves of righteousness.

And he says, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

What does he mean by members? What does Paul mean by members here? The body, that's right.

How do we commit our body to righteousness? I mean, we all kind of know how we can commit our bodies to sin, but how can we commit it to righteousness?

Remember, think of an economy. Think in terms of economics for a moment. You commit yourself to your job by what?

Showing up and doing your job, right? How do we do the same thing for the economy of God?

We show up and we do our job, right? So one of the things that that entails is we come to church regularly.

We don't forsake the fellowship of the brothers and the sisters, that we are obeying the call of discipleship, that we are participating in the life of the church and making disciples, that we're participating in the economy of God so that God's economy grows.

Just like in America, every quarter we get those GDP reports and we want to make sure that our economy is growing because if it's not, then that likely means we're in a recession or a downturn and that would be bad because people will lose jobs and things of that nature.

In a similar way, we ought to think about the economy of God in that way. We want to see God's economy grow because as God's economy grows, it's better for the world, it's better for the church.

And we see that growth through personal growth, right, as individuals that we're becoming more like Christ.

We see it in the growth of the church where we add more members and we're adding more people.

We see it in the salvation of new converts. We see it in babies being born in our midst.

These are all ways in which we can participate in seeing God's economy grow and being a support to it.

Isn't that wonderful that we can see God's economy and His church, His purposes grow in this world?

And that's what we're being called to. We're to commit ourselves, our members, our body, our strength, our vitality to the advancement of God's kingdom.

Does that make sense? What an exciting work it is too, isn't it? There's nothing more exciting under heaven than the work that's being accomplished through the church right now.

This is the most consequential work in the history of mankind. And so we ought to have that mentality and that heart to seeing it continue to prosper and grow.

He says in verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

What does Paul mean by that? You were free in regard to righteousness. Because the word free usually has a positive connotation, doesn't it?

So this might be a little bit of a confusing statement. Basically saying that we didn't have, like you weren't bound to it, you didn't have it.

Yeah, exactly. You couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't have any, you had no righteousness, you were free from it.

Yeah. I have a question. So that's the ESV verse, right? Yeah. So it says servant of sin.

So what's the, I know you were explaining it earlier. You said, like, slave is on, and he has no choice.

Yeah, and a servant's a hired help. There's a choice in the matter. So here it says servants of sin.

So they had a choice? Well, the KJV, yeah, the KJV, I think, doesn't do right in translating it as servant.

That's right. So I think, yeah, translations like the ES, like the

ESV sometimes uses slave, like in this instance, but normally actually uses servant as well. Like, for instance, in Matthew chapter 24, 25, when

Christ talks about the servants and the slaves and the talents, he used, the

ESV translates it as servant, when it should be do -law, slave. And so that would be a translation error, in my opinion.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we don't really have a choice in the matter, in terms of when we are a servant to sin.

In Adam, we're all sold under slavery, Scripture says. So we have a will, but the will is not free, it's bound to sin.

But now in Christ, we actually do have a greater degree of free will in Christ. Isn't that actually pretty amazing?

So you come to Christ and you have a greater measure of free will, because now you can choose him this day whom you shall serve.

You can choose sin, or you can choose to follow Christ. You can follow the sanctification of the Spirit, or you can follow the passions of the flesh.

There's more volition involved with regeneration. Regeneration opens up the door to more free will, so to speak, if that makes sense.

And so it continues on to say in verse 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. So the consequences, natural consequences of sin and rebellion, as it says in Deuteronomy.

This is actually a perfect mirror of the Deuteronomical blessing. When you look at the blessing and cursing of Deuteronomy, chapter 30, 31, really starting in chapter 27,

Jehovah lays down the parameters of the law and the blessing and cursing that will be accompanied with either obedience or disobedience.

And Paul is essentially laying out the same thing here. It's really masterful what's being done here.

Because the end of those things of not following Yahweh, of not following the word of the

Lord, is always death. But there's a blessing that's accompanied with following Christ.

Verse 22 says, but now 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.

That is exactly what Deuteronomy talks about. It is literally a restating of the

Deuteronomy blessing and saying, in Christ, you get the full reward that was promised in Deuteronomy.

Not just the blessing of longevity and life, but that which leads to eternal life.

Paul is just laying it down so masterfully here. He ends with verse 23, for the wage of sin is death.

This is a famous verse. Many of us probably haven't committed to memory. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And so, if we sin, we are accumulating for ourselves a wage.

Again, think of the economy. There are two economies. There's the economy of God and there's the economy of the world.

And in the man's economy, when we sin, we are accumulating for ourselves a wage that will lead to death.

But in God's economy, we are accumulating a wage onto eternal life.

And not in the sense that we're earning our salvation. Really, it's more of our glorification that we're working towards in this life because Christ has purchased fully our salvation.

There's nothing that we can add to or take away. We've been fully purchased by the blood of Christ.

We're under His household, under His management arrangement. But ultimately, as it says in verse 22, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification and its end is eternal life.

Essentially, sanctification leading to glorification. Any questions or thoughts on this so far?

And so, the moral of the lesson for today is in God's kingdom, there's servants and slaves and you and I are both servants and slaves.

It's a weird dichotomy in a sense because it's almost contradictory. But this is the way Scripture lays it out for us.

We were slaves to sin, now we're slaves to righteousness. We were servants of our passions, which means that we were choosing to sin.

So in one sense, we were a slave because our nature dictate that we sin.

That's part of the fallen nature, the fallen order. Yet, we got to freely choose the sin that we partook in.

You see the voluntarianism behind it and also the authoritarianism behind it.

We were sold under slavery to sin. We had no choice, but we did get to freely choose the sin we partake in.

But now, it's the opposite in Christ. We're sold now to righteousness leading to eternal life.

And now, we can choose to follow Christ. And we can choose to follow Him in various capacities.

Ask yourself the question, where's our need? In God's economy today. Where's our need in God's church today?

Where can I freely give of myself, of my talents, of my efforts, of my wages, so that I can help advance the management of God's household?

And we can freely choose to serve God in various capacities. Isn't that wonderful?

Now, we've been called to be slaves of Christ to righteousness, but now, we get to freely choose to serve the

Lord with gladness, with joy in our hearts. Not being like the ancient

Israelites who harbored ill will against serving the Lord, and they saw it as a burden, but rather for us, it's a joy.

It's our pleasure. It's our blessing to serve the Lord with gladness and joy.

And so, ask yourself the question, where am I best to serve in God's household?

How can I serve God with joyfulness and with gladness, so that you can continue to receive the blessings that Yahweh promised

His people in the Old Testament, and continue to benefit from it as a New Testament people? Any thoughts or questions?

Hopefully, this made you think and helped you consider what your place is in God's household, in God's management of His kingdom.

Because again, the main overarching theme here is living in God's kingdom.

So, you're a servant and you're a slave. Don't forget it. Don't forget it.

All right, let me pray. God, thank you that you've given us your word, that you've called us to be slaves and servants to righteousness, no longer to sin.

But Lord, we're also reminded of the words of our Lord, of Christ our Savior, who, in John chapter 15, says,

I have not come to call you slaves, but I have come to call you friends. Indeed, we may be those who are counted blessed, who can be called friends of God.

Lord, help us, Lord, to serve you of gladness, not as ones under obligation, but out of a joyful heart, not ones that do so out of compulsion, but Lord, out of love and friendship with the true and living

God. So, Father, help us to find our place in your economy, in your kingdom, that we may know where it is that we are to serve best and how it is that we are to serve you of joy and gladness.

Father, help us not to harbor bitterness in our hearts against your work, but Lord, help us to continue to see the joy and the blessing that it is to know you, to follow you, and to be found in you.

And may we be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of our own, but a righteousness that comes through faith.