Whose Slave Are You? — Rick Leibee

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Greetings and good morning. Grace and blessing be unto you. I guess we do seem like a little band in lowly here with quite a number being sick. I guess that's one of the after parts of men's leadership sometimes or Bible school.

Sometimes those things come in, but that's alright. We trust God for those things and we accept those things as part of our walk with God. Yet, we can pray for those that aren't here and trust that they will soon be raised back up.

I have discovered though, sometimes it seems like that when I am sick or on my back, there are lessons that can only be learned in that position. I don't know what physically has to do with the spiritual, but it does have something to do with it.

When I'm physically in that place, there are lessons that I seemingly, maybe to my shame, I don't know, can't learn in any other position. So, I trust God will continue to work in our hearts with all of that.

This morning, I was a little torn on what to share. I was thinking about Weston's situation and his last Sunday with us and wasn't sure about that. Should I share something along those lines? But then I asked him to share and he felt like he just wanted to share a little opening, which he did.

So, I think I'll leave it with that and be thankful that he was here and able to share those things. It was actually seven weeks ago today was the last time I preached on a Sunday morning, even though I've preached ten times since then at a Bible school and here at Men's Leadership.

I have not preached on a Sunday morning, so though I feel like I have preached a fair amount, it's different on a Sunday morning. And I'm glad to be here on a Sunday morning and recognizing those things and being able to share the Word of God here together and pray that the Spirit of God will speak to me and to you and to us together what He has for us.

Romans 6 and the Turn from Justification to Sanctification

I think we will try to finish here this morning, chapter six. We read the first twelve verses and preached on those seven weeks ago on the last Sunday of the year, December the 30th. And so, we'll pick up this morning and we'll go through verses 13 through 23.

Now, these verses, we're going to stand in a moment and read them together, but I just want to say a few words before we read these and then pray together. And that is, as I told you seven weeks ago, but it may be a bit dim in our memory, is that chapter six is a definite turning point in the book of Romans.

The first five chapters primarily speak about justification by faith. There's also a lot in there about sin and the wrath of God and other subjects, but the primary theme or the primary message of the first five chapters of the book of Romans is justification by faith.

And therefore, we could say, in a way, those chapters are for unbelievers. They are also for believers in that we need to know the gospel to be able to preach and tell the gospel. But they are for the unbeliever, the one who does not know God, who is living in his sin, whose sins have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

To know and to understand those things is very important. And yet, here in chapter six, there is a turning now to you and I, the believer, the saint who sits in the church of God. And it's very interesting that as God begins to turn His focus upon you and I, that strangely enough, the very first thing He talks about is sin in the life of the believer.

We almost want to think, OK, we're done talking about sin because that's for the unbeliever, the sinner. Why does He start this whole thing of sanctification, this walk of Christianity in the life of the believer, talking about sin?

And yet, we can all confess, if we're honest, that once we're saved, sin still does enter into our life. Sin is still a factor. We still make choices to do the wrong thing. And though we have a new nature, that new nature in and of itself does not have the power to totally eradicate all sin in our life.

Because there is still the power of choice and our own will and all those things. Now, God has the power to give us victory over sin, but just because you're a Christian, you cannot say, I will never sin again.

The Bible even says, if you say you have sin, you are a liar. The truth is not in you. And so, Paul chooses to begin here in chapter six, talking to the believer about sin and sanctification. And so, we went over many of those things, and we learned that God desires a holy life, that many of the same elements that have brought you to Christ by faith are some of the same elements that you need to continue your walk with Christ, and that is faith and the grace of God.

I need the grace of God today. I've been a Christian 24 years, and I need the grace of God, I think, more than I did the day I got saved. In fact, I say, I needed a lot more. I need more faith today to walk with God than I did the first hour that I first believed.

Because now I know more and understand more, and I see the kingdom of God bigger, and it is much, much too much for me to figure it all out. And I need faith. And so, the same things that brought you in will be the very things that will keep you along the way.

And those are some of the things that we looked at here seven weeks ago. And so, now we'll get here in verses 13 -23, the end of the chapter, even a bit more practical. We learned in the first 12 verses that sanctification is positional.

We talked about baptism and being identified with Christ, in that once I am in Christ, and He is in me, and I am in Him, positionally, I am holy. I am made righteous because of the righteousness of Christ.

And that's a great blessing, isn't it? That because I'm in Christ, God looks at Christ in me and declares me a saint. Even though sometimes I don't act very saintly, right? And yet, we do believe, not just our theology, but our understanding of the Word of God and God's promises, that if you are in Christ, you are in a position of being righteous or sanctified.

And yet, do you always act or live a righteous life? Do you always act and live in a sanctified way? And so, verses 1 -12, we began to understand our position in Christ. And we must understand that. We must believe that.

That is an issue of faith, that we understand that Christ took our place on the cross, and in Him, we have the position of not only being saved from our sins, but we have the position of being sanctified and righteous.

The Bible says in Corinthians, He who knew no sin became sin that we might become what? Become the righteousness of God. And that is positional sanctification. And though it may seem a little bit of an abstract thought, it is one of those abstract thoughts that is very real and very important, and that we need to believe by faith and have in our hearts.

So now, we'll swing to a bit more practical aspect of sanctification, and that is the choices that you and I make every day and every week and every month. And what is the result of those choices in the life of the believer?

And it is in those choices that we go from positional sanctification to practical and real sanctification and walking in a sanctified way. So why don't we read these verses here? Why don't you stand with me?

And we'll read verses 13 through 23 together, and then we'll go back and walk through them here this morning. While we're standing there and your Bibles are open, why don't we bow our heads and we'll just have a little word of prayer before we read the Word of God.

Our Heavenly Father, our gracious and loving Father, who has loved us first and best with an eternal love, we thank You, Father, for that position in Christ. We thank You for Jesus Christ, whose blood has been shed.

We thank You that we are saved, and yet, Father, we ask You by Your Word and Spirit to teach us how to walk in a way that is pleasing to You. We don't want just a position, Father. We want a life. We want to walk.

We want reality. We want to not just be called the sons of God. We want to act like and live like the sons of God. Help us this day, Father. Open our eyes once again. Let us see Jesus. Let us see the truth of Your Word in our lives and in our hearts.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, let's read starting in verse 13, then through the end of the chapter together. Ready? Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are, to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Let me think that ye were the servants of sins, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Alright, you may be seated. Just so you know where we're headed, look in verse 22 with me. I'm going to skip ahead and then go back to the beginning.

But just so you don't lose sight of this thing of practical walking out of sanctification, verse 22 says,. But now being made free from sin, and become servants. Now wherever you read the word servants in this passage, it's the Greek word doulos, which is slave.

Now in the King James Version when they put the word servant, they knew that a servant was a slave because it was an indentured or bonded servant, which was the same as the slave in England. But we don't use the word servant to mean that today.

We often use the word servant as somebody who either serves in a church, or they're a servant at this or a servant at that. But a servant here is the Greek word doulos, and in the Greek there's actually only one translation.

It's slave. It doesn't say servant, it says slave. And so read slave here. But now being made free from sin, and become slaves to God, ye have your fruit unto, where are we headed? Holiness, and the end everlasting life.

So if you see the connection here, it's saying that where we're going with all this practical sanctification is not to just say we're sanctified, but it is to live a holy life. There is something that God wants you to do, and He knows, strange as it sounds to our western ears, the only way to do it is you have to become a slave.

You know, a lot of people say they want holiness, and I'd say to you, then are you ready to become a slave? Because the only way to become a slave, to be holy, is to become a slave. Now that doesn't fit our western mindset, but just bear with me as you go through this passage, and you'll see this is Paul's way he lays out how to live a holy life, is to become a slave.

And that's the title of the message today is, Whose Slave Are You? Whose Slave Are You? Because if we're honest, we are all slaves of something. And Paul lays it out here. You were a slave to sin. And if you're here today, and you understand what you once were, can you not say, can you not be honest and admit that you were a slave to that sin?

Some of you here have sins you remember in your life. Whether it was lust, whatever it was, lying, gossiping, anger, smoking, drinking, I don't know. But were you not a slave to that sin? Did it not control your life?

Did you not think about it? Did it not enter into the way you thought? Maybe the way you dressed. What you listened to. Who your friends were. It had its tentacles into every aspect of your life. And you, because you were the slave to that thing, your life reflected the character of who was your master.

Did it not? Our life reflects the character of who is our master. And so Paul is going to lay this whole thing out. And so that's why the title of the message today is, Whose Slave Are You? Okay, now let's go back to verse 13.

Yielding Our Members as Instruments of Righteousness

Now you know the whole message. We could stop there, I guess. But let's go through the verses anyway. And we'll see a few things here together. I trust by the grace of God. Now, in verse 13, it says, Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

And then it gives you the cross side of it. It gives you the compare and contrast. But rather, yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive. Meaning the members that are alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Now the word yield here is the same word that we'll find later in Romans 12. Verse 1 where it says, That he beseeches ye that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So the word yield here is the word to present or to offer.

It's kind of like if you were arrested and thrown into jail. But somebody got you out on a bond. You ever heard of a bail bondsman? Yeah, bail bondsman. But then the judge tells you, I'll release you on bail.

But you are to present yourself here tomorrow morning at 9 o 'clock. And the inference of that is,. And whatever he says to you tomorrow morning at 9 o 'clock when you present yourself, It's going to happen.

You can't get out of it. You may be free to go home and sleep in your bed tonight. But it's not just your presence that he wants there. You are to present yourself. And you are going to be under the authority of the court.

Even though you may be sleeping. I remember when I was in the third grade in school. I had a third grade teacher. Her name was Mrs. Howell. And she was one of those teachers that was a bit of a taskmaster, I guess you could say.

But it was for our good now that I look back. And back when I was in school, we called the roll. Every morning, she called the roll. And we weren't allowed to stay here. We had to stay present. And then about every two or three weeks, she would give us this same speech.

You know, Rick Leiby, present. You know, John Smith, whoever was here. And then about every two or three weeks, she would say, Now, remember, being present isn't enough. Being present just means you are sitting here.

You are to present yourself in the right way before we're going to begin the lessons. And she'd do a desk check. You know, and everything had to be tidy and orderly. She was one of those from another generation that believed that a tidy desk meant a tidy mind.

And an organized way you kept things was in order. And she says, Being present isn't enough, Rick. The way you present yourself to me here is going to tell me what you're going to learn today. Well, it's a little bit like this.

God isn't just saying He wants you to say, Yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm here. He wants you to present yourself in that you are offering. You are not just here, but you're ready for whatever He has to do or wants in your life.

You are going to give to Him, and you're going to do, and you're going to obey. So it's a word that means something like that. Now, the idea of a surrendered life or a yielded life at first doesn't sound very exciting.

It might sound a bit colorless, maybe a bit bland. And yet, when we yield, when we surrender, we actually then finally discover the victorious Christian life. Amen? It is not when we fight and struggle, but when we surrender and present or offer or give ourselves totally to God, we then begin to find victory.

And so it's not unexciting. It's actually very exciting. It's just we have to understand what's going on and turn our thinking around to make the right connection here so that we can present ourselves and our members for righteousness.

And by an act of the will, we yield or present ourselves to God with our new nature. And though we will never get rid of our old nature entirely in this life, we are actually told here, but you can yield yourselves.

Because He wouldn't say it if you couldn't do it. He says, but yield yourselves or present or offer yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness.

And so the hope is here that if you'll surrender and give over your life totally to God, that you can be alive in Christ and it's more than being born again, may I say. This passage is not to the unbeliever.

It is to you and I that are sitting here today. Because what is the real problem? The real problem is that we still have sin. The real problem is there are things in our life that shouldn't be there. And Paul is talking very straightly and plainly to these Roman Christians and he's speaking the same way to you and I today.

Spiritual victory won't happen until our yielding, our offering becomes very specific. You know, I can sort of say this out loud and Paul can say it and it can sound pretty good and we can all nod our head.

But the problem is, it really won't impact your life until it becomes specific into the specific members and elements of your life and my life. Spiritual victory won't happen until our yielding becomes specific.

And so the question to you and I today is, have you yielded those parts, those members of your life, your body to the Lord? Your mind. You know, your mind is a member of your body. What thoughts fly around that head of yours?

What thoughts have flown in and out of your imagination this week? The Bible says in Colossians, to set your mind on things above, not on things below, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

But if in your mind, if you're playing things in the theater of your mind, fantasies, worldly fashion, maybe for the girls, lust for the men, or whatever it may be, that big red shiny new truck, those things which can just play in our mind.

You know, technology today is a big thing among people and a lot of people just think and dream about getting the latest this, the latest that, the latest cell phone, the latest computer and all those kind of things.

And those things play in our minds. And if you have not surrendered and yielded and offered that to God, it can't be used for righteousness. And so it has to be specific. You can't just say, well, yeah, I'm going to yield my life to God.

I'm sorry if that's all you say and do. You'll never find the victorious Christian life. You'll never walk a sanctified holy life because you'll just kind of float around in this general unspecific thing.

What about your heart? Your heart and your mind here are similar in the way that I think we think of it. But what do you value? Our heart is the center of our being. And the center of our being focuses on those things that we value.

What does your heart value? And what does your heart go toward when it's not a Sunday morning? You know, what is your heart chasing? Because we know that out of the heart flow what? The issues of life.

And so, you know, Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things and who can know it? And yet somehow as a member of our body and of our life here, we have to turn and give those things that we place value on to Christ.

What about our eyes? Have we looked at things we shouldn't be looking at? Have you yielded your eyes to the Lord? Job had to make a covenant with his eyes so that he would not look wrongfully upon a maiden.

It talks about in the Bible and many other areas what our eyes look towards. And it can look towards fashion. It can look towards worldly dress. It can look to a lot of things. But have we yielded our eyes?

Have we specifically said, I want to not just stop looking at those things, but I want to look and see the things of the kingdom of God. Our ears are the same way. How many testimonies have we heard over the years at Bible School, Brother Moses, about young people who admit they've been listening to wrong music?

And sometimes they're good young people. They're born again, and yet they've snuck and let their ears be full of country music or contemporary or whatever it is, Christian rock or whatever, and it starts just by a little bit of listening.

Their ears are pretty much surrendered to God, but when nobody's around, they kind of turn that thing on a little bit, and then it grows and grows, and their ears are not yielded or offered up to God as instruments of righteousness, and pretty soon, they become a slave, and they'll admit it.

I couldn't stop listening. We've heard testimonies like that. I couldn't stop listening. I was doing it all the time, and I was collecting more of that, and I was hiding it in my closet, and I bought CDs.

And you know, whose slave are you? And again, Paul is writing this to Christians, and so it has to become very specific. Our mouth. What comes out of your mouth most of the time? What comes out of your mouth during the week?

Proverbs says, he who guards his lips guards his life. We could go on with different members, our feet, different things like that, but I'll say it this way, maybe in a positive way or another way to say the same thing.

When your lips become His, when your eyes become His, when your ears become His, when your heart becomes His, when your mind becomes His, when your hands become His, when your feet become His, then guess what happens?

You will be His. Then you will be His. Because then you'll look back over your life and know, yes, I am His. I have surrendered. I have presented. I am walking in practical holiness, practical sanctification.

It isn't just an idea in my mind or that I read in the Bible. I have presented and offered those things to Jesus Christ this week. It ultimately comes down to those choices that we make. This passage, 13 -23, is a passage of choices for the Christian.

Daily choices that the Christian must make. Verse 14 is a very wonderful verse in many ways. Listen to this verse. For sin shall not have... See, just as I finished verse 13, some of you are getting a little depressed and you're thinking, Brother Rick, I'm not sure if I can do this.

I keep making the wrong choices. Paul knows that. God knows that. That's why verse 14 is here. Listen. For sin shall not have dominion over you. Praise God. Isn't that wonderful? For sin shall not have dominion over you.

For ye are not under the law, but under grace. You know, breathe a little spiritual air, Christian. Rise up. Let your heart beat again. Amen? For sin shall not have dominion over you. There is hope. There is a way.

And yes, God knows you're afraid. God knows you are not perfect. God knows you will make mistakes. That isn't the point. The point is, He loves you. You are under grace. You know, we get the idea sometimes that once we're a Christian, that we put ourselves right back under the law.

Maybe not the mosaic law, but we put ourselves right back under the law. And Christians struggle because they know that they have a sin. They know that they've not yielded some area of their life and it brings depression or discouragement or condemnation.

And listen, I've preached enough on the law here that you know this. The law always brings condemnation, right? Because we can never keep the law. Right? We cannot keep the law. No man can keep the law.

Is that true? It's true, isn't it? No man can keep the law. No man has ever kept it except Jesus Christ. No man has ever walked perfectly except Jesus Christ. You cannot do it. And just because you've become a Christian, you cannot keep the law.

And yet people become Christians and they think, okay, now I'm a Christian. I've got to live right. And amen, we do. But we go at it. We go back to the same way we were before in religion and drag the laws into that.

And some Christian churches say, well, okay, you've got to keep the Sabbath here if we'll know that you're really walking with God. Some churches say you've got to speak in tongues. Some churches say you've got to drive a horse and buggy.

Some churches say you've got to wear a head covering. And all those things may, in their own places, may or may not be good. And yet, that is not how you have a relationship with God. Those are just fruits.

Those things that we do that are maybe holiness, whether it's our dress or the music we listen to, but those are just the fruits or the evidences of the path we're walking. They are not the way that we access the grace or the faith in God.

Even after we become a Christian, it seems like we get it turned around so many times. And then you meet Christians who are actually depressed. Christians who are feeling condemned and you're going, what is going on?

Why are they so low? And you're realizing their thinking got turned around. And they're not understanding. And so that's why there's verses like this that says, Christian, for sin shall not have dominion over you.

Not because you have it figured out. Not because you now have enough strength. You don't need any more grace. You don't need any more faith. You're going to do okay now. That's not what the Bible is saying.

For ye are not under the law, but under grace. Meaning, get back under grace. You know, what do you want? How do you want to have a relationship with God? Do you want your relationship to God after you're a Christian to be measured on how you keep the law?

Or do you want it to be measured on how much grace you're under? Well, we know the answer. That's what we need to walk in. So even though we're making choices, even though we're getting practical here, the choices have to be backed by and under the power of grace, or you'll still get frustrated.

You'll still have this feeling of condemnation. And Paul is trying to make that clear here. You know, it's a relationship. God knows that it's going to be a struggle. We have believers who think that once they sin, God doesn't care about them anymore.

And they get depressed and they listen to the devil and feel like what's the use? Paul is saying that is not true. You are not under the law. God knows your frame. You need to be under grace. You don't need to be discouraged.

You need to be convicted and walk in those things. And the Bible says that a righteous man, though he falleth seven times, what does he do? He rises up again. And he walks in faith because he's looking to God.

And it's kind of like when you're teaching your two-year-old toddler to walk, you could explain, you could give the laws, the physical geometry of walking. If we could analyze it, it's a bunch of levers and muscles.

We could explain that to our two-year-old. We could make a chart. We could put pictures on the wall. This is how you walk. We could decide we're going to explain it 20 times. And after 20 times, they better get it because the law of this house, thou shalt walk.

Right? Because how many people here don't want their toddler to ever learn to walk? There's nobody like that, right? We know we want them to walk, right? But you know what the funny thing is? I wonder how many times, I've never counted.

Todd, you have a lot of little ones. How many times does your toddler fall before they walk without falling? You can't count. It's whatever, hundreds, thousands, I don't know. Now, after the 20th time, did you start spanking them and pointing to the pictures and say, no, the law of this house is thou shalt walk.

Because you were doing it for their good, right? The law is good. They do need to learn to walk, right? So you're doing it because it's a good thing. But what do you do instead? Okay, honey, let's try again.

And you pick them back up. It's not that they don't want them to learn to walk. It's not that they're not going to learn to walk. It's the way they're going to learn to walk is grace, love, encouragement, and helping them along and even helping them up when they don't feel like it.

And maybe they don't want to try again, but you say, yeah, honey, we're going to try again. And all those kind of things. And that's what Paul is saying here. You know, God understands those things. And that's why you need to be under grace and not under the law.

Okay, verse 15. What then? Shall we sin? And again, remember, you've got to keep reminding yourself or you're going to forget. The we here is who? You and me. It's Christians, right? You know, we can read this so quickly and we think, well, that's those other guys.

It's not those other guys. It's you. And it's me. If you do not read this passage and make it very personal, it'll seem like a bunch of theological something or other. Well, it's not. It's practical sanctification for you and for me, okay?

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. And it's similar to how we started this whole chapter in many ways. This whole sixth chapter deals with what happens when a believer sins or is tempted to sin.

And again, we do not like to think that believers sin, but unfortunately, they do. So the real question is this. Can you go on living as you once did before you were a Christian in your sin? And the obvious answer is God forbid.

No. We know we can't do that. And yet, sometimes Christians find themselves with a sin that they are repeating more than once. This passage isn't for that what I call the oops accidental sin that just happens every now and then.

We go, oh, why did I do that? This is that thing that's up in the attic in that dark little corner and it just stays there. And nobody knows about it, you think. And maybe you don't go up there every day, but you've been up there more than once, more than twice, and it's there.

And it's still there after a month and it's still there after two months. You know, it's there. And we know what it's like. We've all felt the shame of some of those things in our lives since we've become Christians, haven't we?

And Paul, God knowing that, is trying to lay this out to say what shall you do? Shall you just go on living in those things because you're under grace? Shall you just leave it up in the attic? God forbid.

God forbid. Now, he doesn't want to condemn you as we'll look at in chapter 8, but he doesn't want you to deal with it. God is trying to give you a way to get up just like the toddler does and try it again.

And walk. A righteous man falls seven times, but he rises again. Come on, let's go. Yield this to Christ. Present it to Christ. Be specific. He's dealing with a very important subject here that if we're honest, we have all faced sin in our life as a believer.

And we've all faced a sin or sins that have hung on for more than a day or a week or a month. Sins that have come back several, several, several times in our life until we almost want to, you know, go, what is the matter with me?

Why is this still here? And yet, it's still there. You know, it's there. You know what sin that is in your life. I know what that is in my life. We have experienced it. We've had it in our life. And this is what he's talking about here.

For sin, he says here, well, let's go on. Now, I don't think I'll go over that. I will say this. The Christian life is not going to be lived because you have figured out once you're a Christian, a set of rules.