WWUTT 144 The Free Gift of God (Romans 6:15-23)

Those who are enslaved to sin will show that they are enslaved to sin because they will do sinful things.

But those who are servants of Christ will show that they are servants of Christ when they do Christ -like things, when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website, www .utt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. I've been loving the Shepherds Conference. Hope you have been as well. If you don't know what

I'm talking about, go to shepherdsconference .org. Whatever sermon they're right in the middle of is what's going to start playing for you.

I loved John MacArthur's opening address and then a great sermon with Phil Johnson followed that up.

I didn't get the chance to hear Stephen Lawson, though. I understand it was great. I saw the reaction on Twitter, but didn't get the chance to see the sermon.

I'll just have to catch it at another time. Last night was our last evening in Deuteronomy. We've been in Deuteronomy since last year, and we want to start

Joshua when families start coming back from spring break. So we had to finish up Deuteronomy last night.

I was committed to that and love being with that class. So I'll just have to catch the sermons that I miss later.

But anyway, shepherdsconference .org. That's going on for the rest of the week. And enjoy some great teaching there, especially if you're a pastor.

That's why it's called the Shepherds Conference. If you're not a pastor, still wonderful, because you will get to see what we are to understand should be coming out of our pulpits.

Our congregations need to be holding our pastors accountable, and you will know how you can pray for your pastor.

And also maybe some other members of your church may be as passionate about sound gospel biblical teaching as you are.

And so the group of you can be praying together for wanting to see this kind of movement sweep through your church, a devotion to sound biblical doctrine.

That's what when we understand the text is all about. That's why these videos were started up, was to encourage sound teaching, dispelling some of the myths that have come about because of faulty teaching.

We are continuing this teaching through the book of Romans. Yesterday, I finished up, I think, somewhere around verse 17 or 18.

So we'll come back to that again. To keep all of this in context, let's come back to verse 15. We'll go to the end of the chapter.

Romans chapter 6, starting in verse 15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace?

By no means do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

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

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you were now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death. But now that 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.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. One of the most glorious sections of scripture. It's all good, but if I had to say.

Romans 6 verse 15. Are we to sin because we're no longer? We're not under the law, but under grace by no means.

Okay. Again, Paul is responding to a criticism that he has heard from those who have contended with this gospel that he preaches.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one who whom you obey?

Either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

So get here. You know, Paul is answering his question outright. He's answering the contention outright. He's not avoiding it in any way.

Are we to sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? No, you're going about this the wrong way.

When you ask that question, are you a slave to sin or are you a slave to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

In other words, there are commands that we follow. Jesus said, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commands.

The problem is we cannot obey those commands in a way that is pleasing to God because we're corrupt from the inside out.

Deep down in our very souls, we are sinful beings.

But Paul goes on to say in verse 17, thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

I'm speaking in human terms. That's why he's using the word slave here, because all things considered, when we are in Christ, we've been set free.

We're not a slave any longer to sin, which leads to death. We've been set free from that and instead are a slave to righteousness, which leads to Christ, which leads to life, eternal life.

So all things considered, that's freedom. That's not slavery. The real slavery was when we were enslaved to sin and then there was nothing we could do to get out of it.

No good deed, no righteous deed that we could do was going to break those bonds that we were in to the sinful flesh.

In Ephesians 2, verse 1, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air in the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

That was who we were before we were set free from the bonds of sin. But God, it says in verse 4, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. And Paul even comes back to this again later in Titus chapter 3.

We read this starting in verse 3, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures.

There you have it again. We were slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days and malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We went from being slaves to sin to being heirs of the eternal kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Friends, that is freedom. How glorious is that? The great love and grace of God.

So who we once were were slaves to our sin. We've been set free in Christ. But Paul uses this term slavery because of our natural limitations.

For 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.

The process of being made more righteous, more holy, shaped in the image of our

Savior, as we read in Romans 8, verse 29. For when, as we go on here to verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

And really, that wasn't freedom at all. Again, Paul is using terms here to appeal to our natural limitations. But what fruit were you getting at the time from those things of which you are now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death. We have to understand that God hates sin.

He hates sin. And the result of the sins that we have committed against a righteous

God and His perfect law, the wages of that is death. As we read here in verse 23,

Psalm 5 says this. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness.

Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies.

The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.

Now notice that there. David says, Psalm 5, 7, it's not because of my righteousness that I get to enter the house of God.

But through the abundance of your steadfast love, I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness. Because of my enemies, make your way straight before me.

And lest any of us be reading this and go, yeah, but David's talking there about evil people. I'm not evil.

Yes, you are. In Genesis 8, after God had judged the world and destroyed all sinful man in a flood, save for Noah and his three sons and their wives,

Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains seed time and harvest cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

Notice that there that God says thoughts of man are evil from his youth.

That's all of us, folks. That is every single one of us. Ephesians 2, Titus 3 both clearly said that we all once walked in this sinful, evil state, rebellious against God, leading to more and more lawlessness, enslaved to the passions of the flesh.

It was God, by his mercy, who stepped in and freed us from those bonds.

And we are no longer slaves to sin, which leads to death. But we are slaves to righteousness and to God who gives eternal life.

That is freedom. Now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end.

Eternal life for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. We don't deserve it, but God is loving and gracious to give it to us.

Praise you, O God. In the name of Jesus, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your

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