ROMANS: The Logic of Conversion

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

If you have button, invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in your row.

I'm on page 943.

I want to talk to you this morning about the logic of conversion.

The logic of conversion.

And before you check out, when you hear that title, I want you to think, oh great, this is like Bill Nye, the science guy.

No, Christianity is not just an emotion that you try to maintain, it's a truth that we live and we submit to.

And Paul is writing while you're finding Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and there were believers in the church, obviously, but they were attracting a lot of unbelievers.

And they also attracted two groups of people.

The first group was a Jewish traditionalist.

They were referred to as Judaizers.

They said, hey, the way you control people and get people to do the right thing is by the law.

You've got to keep the law of Moses if you want to be a Christian.

And that's the way you ensure a certain kind of conduct is through the law.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, they attracted this group of people that said they called antinomians.

Antinomian, anti-nous, law.

No law.

Antinomians were like, hey, do what you want.

God is love.

And so if you love what you're doing, God wants you to do that.

They just said, hey, the rules don't apply to us.

And so if you were going to write a letter and you were going to kind of speak to these people that contain radically different views, how would you do that?

Paul does it in Romans chapter 6, verse 15, as he tries to explain the logic, the practical outworking of what it means to be someone who's been converted, who's a Christian, living in a culture like theirs, he says in verse 15, What then?

Romans 6:15

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 are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and have been set free from sin, having 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.

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 are now ashamed?

The end of those things is death.

But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.

And 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.

Paul begins and ends chapter 6 on the same note.

In Christ Jesus.

In Christ Jesus.

You say, What do you mean?

The logic of conversion.

As I said a minute ago in the introduction, you got the church in Rome was attracting all kinds of people.

Two dominant groups of people, the Judaizers and the Antinomians, the rules police, and then the people that said, Law, don't go around here, law dog.

And so, how do you reconcile these people?

The easiest way to do that is that you use an analogy that they both understand, which is what Paul does.

He uses an analogy of a volunteer slave.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Look if you would.

And there's five things basically in the text that I want you to see this morning.

And the first one is this obedience reveals ownership.

Look at verse 16.

Obedience reveals ownership.

He says, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves?

And let me just stop right there.

He says, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, who would present themselves to you as obedient slaves?

Like, do your kids ever come to you on a Saturday morning and say, I am your slave, what do you want me to do today?

I mean, like, oh, by the way, yesterday our 15-year-old got all industrious while my wife and I were gone.

Went to a party last night, and we came home, and the 15-year-old had rearranged my wife's pantry for her.

The men are all going, Yeah, that's awesome.

The women are going, No, that's not awesome.

Memo to you, that's not awesome.

Okay, that was a bigger deal.

I was kind of like, and she's like, and I said, Well, it's kind of rearranged.

My wife at one point was so just focused that she said, Just get out of my kitchen.

Okay, I'm standing in the living room.

No, no, no, go further away.

It's like, wow, this is a big deal.

So, my mother said, don't touch your wife's pantry, okay?

That's her little workshop.

She's got it just the way she wanted.

I just think all the canned goods go in there.

No, they don't, they all have a place, apparently.

Anyway, who presents themselves as obedient slaves?

By the way, the people that Paul's writing to do.

70% of people in Rome understood the slave culture, had some experience, or came out of that.

You say most slaves were either won in war or they were bought at the marketplace.

But if you were poor, desperately poor, and by the way, your kids do this.

I wasn't just making a joke a minute ago.

If you were desperately poor in Rome, you could become what's called a volunteer slave.

You would go offer yourself as a slave to someone because you got a place to stay and you got food to eat.

But what you could not do is offer yourself as a slave to someone and then insist on holding on to your free will.

That was impossible.

And you say, What do you mean you weren't kidding our kids do that?

Your kids ever come to you and say, What chores can I do to earn extra money?

That's what they're saying.

Every time my kids say that to me, what chores can I do to earn extra money?

I say, Clearly, we're not giving you enough chores because you can do them and then want some money to do some extra ones.

So let me give you some extra chores for free.

My kids don't ask me that question anymore.

Paul says, Hey, but who of you?

Verse 16, what do you mean?

Obedience reveals ownership.

He says, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you sing about the most?

No, it's not what it says.

You are the slaves of the one whom you think about or desire.

No, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

By the way, I don't want to go into much detail on this.

I didn't get to preach to you last week, so I'm a little backed up and I got a lot in me.

How to preach to my wife last night and get her saved all over again.

Uh, because she said, Where are we going tomorrow?

And I said, I'm glad you asked.

And she's like, Oh, easy, big fella.

He says, Hey, you're you're slaves of the one whom you obey.

Obedience, if I want to see who your master is, I'll just watch you, and your life will be one of obedience, or it'll be one of death.

He says, You're slaves of the one you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads, and unlogic would dictate that it says obedience which leads to life.

That's not what it says.

It says obedience which leads to righteousness.

You say, What do you mean?

We gotta, for us to understand the implications of this, you gotta understand the nature of sin.

Have you noticed that no one sins anymore?

No one ever says, hey, you know what?

I did this, and it was not only wrong, but it was a sin.

And I knew it was wrong, and I did it anyway, and so I'll accept whatever consequences come for that.

That's just the way it is.

I'll do whatever I gotta do.

That's just that I ain't got a leg to stand on.

But we live in a culture, I don't know if you know this, where sin doesn't really exist anymore.

It's just a personal choice.

People say, Well, that works for you, I respect that from you, and you respect whatever I'm coming from.

And we're in a dangerous place because here's the deal.

Let me make this statement.

Without responsibility, you cannot have moral or mental health.

Without responsibility, an ultimate reckoning of somebody being responsible, individuals being responsible for themselves and their behavior, you cannot have moral or mental health.

If you wonder, one of the reasons they're building all these medical facilities everywhere is because we're trying to do all the therapeutic things we can to fix people without just saying, hey, your problem is sin.

Because here's what we've done with sin.

Sin used to be a long time ago a transgression of God's law.

So we took that and tweaked it a little bit.

Now sin's a transgression of man's law.

And so we see that a crime has happened, we've kind of violated, transgressed man's law, and so there's a crime.

So, okay, what symptoms led to that crime?

Oh, those symptoms in this person caused him to do that.

Well, those symptoms were a product of their environment, and their environment is not their responsibility.

And so what you end up with, and you probably don't know a country that believes this, but what you end up with is if you're one of the few people who believe there is still such a thing as sin, those people aren't responsible for it because what contributed, what made them sin, what lies outside of their personhood, it's their environment, they didn't get a proper nutritious breakfast, they didn't get a free college tuition, they didn't get this, they didn't get that, and so it's not their fault, it's our fault.

And so, if you're one of the few people that still believes there is such a thing as sin, well, congratulations, but you got nobody to make responsible for it.

And so, in such a culture, you cannot have moral health and you can't have mental health.

Because your mind can never be at peace if you live in sin.

That is the greatest insult to the loving nature of God.

Think for just a little bit.

I know it's church and you're supposed to be just feeling, but think about what I just said, because that's what the Bible teaches.

If you could sin and be at peace with yourself, then God cannot be love.

It is the most loving thing God does, then He brings upon us a sense of dis ease, also known as disease, a lack of peace when we sin.

Why?

Because who watches someone kill themselves and doesn't raise a red flag to say, I'm not gonna let you do this?

The Bible, again, if you believe the Bible, the Bible says, don't you know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey.

Obedience reveals to everybody who owns you.

We as a country can go on this progression to say, hell, we transgressed the law of the law of man, and we got symptoms, and well, there's these factors, and it's all that stuff.

Doesn't change what the Bible says.

The wages of sin, he ends this chapter the same way, the wages of sin is death.

And by the way, it's always has been.

Remember back in the garden, don't turn there, Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

God said you can eat of any tree in the garden, but of this one tree do not eat, for when you eat of this tree, you shall surely die.

Along comes the serpent, the devil, Satan, talks to the woman and says, Has God really said you'll die?

You won't really die.

You'll become like God, knowing good and evil.

And the woman saw that the plant was the tree was good and it was useful for gaining knowledge and wisdom, and she took and she ate, and they died.

When you and I sin, look at me, beloved, every time you sin, something in you dies.

Men, every time you look at something on your computer that you shouldn't be looking at, something in you dies towards your wife.

You don't need your wife like God designed you to need her.

You don't understand her the way God intended you to understand her.

Every time we sin, something dies.

Why?

Because God is loving and God is not going to watch you and I destroy ourselves as slaves to sin without raising some kind of alarm inside of us that says, whoa, time out.

This leads to death.

This is not who you are anymore.

Obedience reveals who owns you.

The second thing the text tells us, if you just look at the next verse, is, and this is probably the most controversial, the text tells us that nobody's free.

Nobody's free.

Have you ever met anybody that's kind of said, no one's gonna tell me what to do?

I'm my own man, I'm my own woman, I'm a 21st century person, I'm a free spirit.

That's just who I am.

The Bible teaches that nobody's free.

Look at verse 17 of Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

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

Do you hear that?

Look at it again, verse 17.

But thanks be to God that you once were.

This is what you used to be.

He said, Paul always uses this, you once were, but now you've become.

He says, You once were slaves of sin and have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to what you have committed.

Verse 18, having been set free from sin, you've become slaves of righteousness.

Where's the freedom in that?

He said, You once were slaves of sin, and now you're slaves of righteousness.

We'll get to how you went from that to that in just a minute.

But there's no freedom in that if you believe the Bible.

You're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness.

Now, before I say go any further under the banner of nobody's free, let me define what I mean by freedom.

Freedom is not the autonomy to do whatever I want.

That's not what I'm talking about.

Freedom, let me give you a definition.

True freedom is the ability to fulfill one's destiny, uh, to function in terms of one's ultimate goal.

True freedom is the ability to fulfill a person's destiny, to function uh uh in terms of your ultimate goal.

And as a believer, our ultimate goal is the glory of God.

That's why the Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

He says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.

But when the Bible says no one is free, this is probably one of the most controversial things you could say to anybody because you go to work tomorrow and tell people you work with, how was your spring break?

I was great, we took our kids to Galveston.

It was cold, we walked on the beach, we didn't get in the water, I kept calculating the expense of the gas, driving down there, blah, blah, blah.

We came back, it was good, went out to eat a couple times, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And what else was spring break?

Went to church yesterday, and my pastor told us that no one's free.

So you're a slave to sin or you're a slave to God.

And see how that goes.

Even leave out the last part about slave to sin or slave to God.

Just say, hey, I realized this week that no one's free.

We're all slaves to something.

And watch your friends prepare to go berserk.

As they insist, oh no, I'm free.

I'm doing whatever I want.

No, you're not.

And by the way, you think that's controversial now.

It was even worse in Jesus' day.

If you're in Romans chapter 6, turn to the left to John chapter 8.

Romans 6 · chapter mention John 8 · chapter mention

Show you what I'm talking about.

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

Jesus is talking to some Jewish people, some people that said, Hey, I think that there may be more to this to Christianity than just being religious.

Matter of fact, John chapter 8, verse 31 says this.

John 8:31

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, Now stop right there and look at me.

That's a big statement.

These are Jewish people that said, Hey, we we believe that you're the Messiah.

We've been waiting for something.

You're right here.

Look what Jesus said.

If you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples.

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Now stop right there and look back at me.

That sounds like an innocuous statement, doesn't it?

You ever get in a fight and forget how the fight started?

You're kind of like, oh, wait a minute.

Why am I about to knock you out here in just a minute?

Jesus said, You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Look what happens.

Verse 33.

They answered him, We are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, unless every everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Sound familiar?

Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Verse 35.

The slave does not remain in the house forever.

The Son remains forever.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Now, what do you mean?

What's the big deal?

It's that phrase where they said, keep in mind, these are Jewish people.

These are Jewish leadership.

We've never been slaves to anyone.

Are you kidding me?

Does the Old Testament ring a bell?

Remember when God started this whole thing?

They were in bondage in Egypt to a man named Pharaoh?

Remember that?

Remember Charlton Heston?

From my cold dead hand.

No, never mind.

That wasn't him.

Remember Charlton Heston?

Let my people go?

They were slaves in Egypt.

But it doesn't stop there.

These are the religious morons that say, we've never been slaves to anyone.

Then God gets them out of that Egyptian slavery and bondage, and he brings them into the promised land.

And during the period of the judges, they had no less than seven countries that ruled over them.

We've never been slaves to anyone.

As if that wasn't enough, they still would not obey God.

God raised up the Babylonians.

You ever heard of the phrase the Babylonian captivity?

God sent them off to be slaves for 70 years.

We've never been slaves to anyone.

As if that wasn't enough.

Right there, when Jesus is talking to these guys in John chapter 8, you look around about a hundred yards and you see Roman guards.

John 8 · chapter mention

They're occupied by Rome.

They're controlled by Rome.

They got coins in their pockets that have the inscription of Rome on them, or they swear allegiance to Caesar, and Rome dominates their economy.

We've never been slaves to anyone.

Are you kidding me?

But Jesus is so smooth.

He just smiles like, we got some idiots right here.

And here's how it all got started.

Jesus said, You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Oh, oh, we're descendants of Abraham.

We're good Jews.

What do you mean?

We've never been slaves to anyone.

What do you mean?

We'll be free.

Some of you are kind of like, yeah, how could they be that way?

Some of you are the same way.

You tell yourself the same lie they told themselves.

I can quit anytime.

Here's another lie you tell yourself.

Here's how you know you're in slavery.

You have to lie to keep the slavery going.

You say, I can quit anytime.

Another lie you tell yourself when you're in bondage.

This isn't hurting anybody.

I'm not hurting anybody.

That's the lie that a slave tells.

Notice what Jesus is trying to do with these Jewish people, is what he's trying to do with you and I.

He doesn't want to relate to you as a slave anymore.

He wants to relate to you as a son.

Why?

Because a slave doesn't have a place in the house.

A son has a place in the house forever.

Jesus is saying, hey, you ain't got to go outside and serve me.

Come inside like a son or a daughter and be with me.

We've never been slaves to anybody.

They can't even admit the fundamental truth about themselves.

Let me tell you something, beloved.

You'll never know freedom until you and I can face the fundamental truth about ourselves either.

Somebody said, Well, hey, our church has celebrate recovery on Tuesday nights.

Why did we start that?

Because we want to celebrate people recovering, their habits and their hurts and their hang-ups.

Well, what's that like?

And I just smile because I know the person asking me the question.

I know what he struggles with.

I'm his pastor.

I love that cat.

And I said, Won't you come on a Tuesday night and check it out?

And what's it going to be like?

It's going to be people in the room just like you.

They have habits, hurts, and hangups that they're trying to work through.

Are you saying I got a problem?

And there we are in a fight.

And I just thought, you make a good Jewish leader, man.

We've never been slaves to anyone.

You're saying I got a problem?

As long as you've gone without taking a prescription pill that you didn't have a prescription for.

Well, that ain't very fair.

I'm just going to pull it down to where you live.

You say, Do I say I have a problem?

I'm not saying you have a problem.

I'm saying you're in bondage to something you shouldn't be in bondage to.

You're wasting your life living like a slave, and God's calling you to live like a son.

See, nobody's free.

He says you're a slave to sin, or you're a slave to God.

You're a slave to righteousness.

Ray Stebbin used to pastor Peninsula Bible Church out in California, was walking down the streets of LA.

If you've ever been to LA, you see things in LA on the street, you don't see anywhere.

It's like when you go to New York, you see things in New York.

We took our kids down to New York to Times Square.

I was like, cover your eyes, girls.

There's the naked cowboy right over there.

You ever try to explain to your kids why a grown man's wearing underwear, a pair of tidy-whadies, and a cowboy hat and some boots, and that's it?

And there's women lined up to get their picture taken with them?

I'm like, y'all stay here.

Your mom will just be a minute.

She's gonna get a picture taken.

She'll be right back.

It's a touristy thing to do.

New York is that way.

It's crazy.

Los Angeles is that way.

You'll be walking down the road in Los Angeles and somebody come on and try to sell you a snake.

You're like, no, I'm good.

I got all the snakes I need, man.

Come on, man, that's the python.

$500.

I don't want a python.

I don't want you talking to me.

Get away from me, you freak.

You want map to the stars houses?

No, I want to stop this conversation.

Ray Steadman's walking down the street in LA, looks up, and there's a man walking towards him, got a sandwich board sign on.

And on the front of it, big letters.

It says, I'm a slave for Christ.

And Ray, being a preacher, he said, I just thought, yeah, that guy's reading, that's exactly right.

And he said, I just passed him, and then my curiosity got the best of me.

I thought, what's on the back?

So he turned around, and on the back of it, it said, in equally large letters, Whose slave are you?

See, we're all slaves to something.

You're going to be a slave to God.

Which, by the way, that's the best kind of slavery.

That's having a good master.

Or you're going to be a slave to sin.

Being a slave to sin leads to death.

It's going to kill you.

Oh, it's not hurting anybody, it's killing you.

Or you're going to be a slave to God, which leads to sanctification.

Which brings us to a third point.

What you teach matters.

What you teach matters.

Look at verse 17.

You still with me?

I kind of fell off on you there and got a little personal, didn't I?

Some of you are like, don't talk about prescription drugs, please.

I'm good.

Some of you it's not, it's like, yeah, yeah, get them prescription pill poppers.

Some of you it's not that.

Some of you just like wine too much.

Some of you are like, I just like a little glass of wine at the end of the day, take the edge off.

I ain't got a problem with that.

Hear me.

The Bible says, nothing wrong with that.

There's something wrong with drunkenness, though.

You say, I don't get drunk.

Do without it this week.

Every night this week.

Some of you like Uncle Sil and Doug Dynasty, you get that Tupperware glass and you top that bad boy off.

But there ain't tea in there, Jack.

I'm not making fun of you.

I'm just saying, if you don't think you're in bondage, do without it this week.

Because fasting, abstaining from anything, reveals what controls you.

It just does.

What you teach matters.

Verse 17.

This is what the Bible says.

You back with me?

Hello?

Look what the Bible says.

Verse 17.

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to 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 asked you a few minutes ago, how'd they go from being slaves to sin to being slaves of righteousness?

Here's how.

It's right there in verse 17.

He spells it out.

He says, But thanks be to God.

You were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching which you were committed.

They became obedient from the heart.

I don't have time to go into this, but just like back in Jeremiah, God said when he made covenant with his people, I write my law on your heart.

You became obedient from the heart.

It's not trying to get something external on the inside of you.

To be a slave to God is to have something on the inside of you that is longing to get out of you.

And he says, you became obedient from the heart.

Hear this, to this standard of teaching.

This standard, depending on your translation, I preach from the ESV, it may say type or the form of teaching.

It's the Greek word tupas.

Tupas.

And it's basically the word picture behind it is to imprint.

It's they took that metal tool and they put it down on a piece of leather and they took a hammer and they pounded on that tool until it left this indelible impression on the leather that can never be washed off or taken away.

If you're looking for a church, you're more than welcome at this church.

But whatever you do, find a church when they get up that they actually teach the Bible.

And when they do, it leaves an indelible impression upon you, such that six months later you heard a sermon and you think, that wasn't really where I was living today.

That didn't scratch where I was itching.

Come on, kids, let's go to lunch.

And six months later, you're at your practice or at your office or at your home, having ladies over for lunch, and a conversation goes a direction, and all of a sudden the words start coming out of you, and you're like, man, I never thought about that.

What was that?

It was written on your heart.

And it's not, oh man, I wish Wade was here.

He would know what to say.

I wish Lance was here.

Hang on, ladies, let me get my pastor.

He likes to talk a lot.

He'll drive right over and fix this.

Your salvation is not about what's written on my heart, it's about what's written on your heart.

And if you ain't got nothing written on your heart, the Bible says you don't know God.

Got to be something written in there, something longing for expression.

See, what you teach church matters.

And let me just say this.

Here's my concern.

I don't have time to go into this, uh, but here's my concern.

The American church, we we could we kind of beat the same drums every Sunday.

Marriage, marriage, marriage, kids and money.

Back to marriage.

There's churches that have on their website.

Oh, a friend of mine, oh, yeah, we go, and then you fill out this survey, and then they, and I'm like, oh, on the state of your marriage.

Hey, the church is not a marriage counselor.

Do we do marriage counseling?

Absolutely.

But have we not figured out that maybe one of the reasons so many marriages are jacked up is because you got an underdeveloped woman and a spiritually underdeveloped man.

It's like two ticks and no dog, and there's can't go anywhere.

I want to say the state of your marriage is a reflection of the state of your relationship with God.

He says, hey, what you teach, church, matters.

Don't fall.

Now, by the way, we have a marriage class going on right now, right upstairs.

Over there.

So I'm not against teaching on marriage.

But I'm not going to subject every one of you every Sunday to I'm flipping channels this week.

Some church, oh, we're in our new series called Sizzle, how to make your marriage sizzle.

Really?

Have we not heard this before?

And rarely does it even come from the Bible.

And when it does, it's so fundamentally out of context, it's not even applicable.

And nobody in the crowd is discerning enough to kind of go, hey, that's not what that's about.

You're taking that out of context.

I'm not going to say what you want it to say.

We just swallow hard and go, I just want a happier marriage.

You want a happier marriage.

Develop spiritually.

As a man or woman.

Grow in your faith.

And I promise you, you'll get a happier marriage.

I'm not saying don't go to a marriage class.

I'm not saying we won't ever teach on marriage here from the pulpit.

I'm just saying what we teach matters.

And if we're not careful, here's what we're going to do.

The church is going to become a dispenser of counseling services that insurance won't pay for, and we're going to fix a lot of people.

And here's what happens, beloved.

Think outside your preference or your need right now.

Here's what happens.

People come to church not for God, they come to church for relief.

And the church is just another form of government.

Come to us and we'll give you what you need.

Food stamps, marriage counseling, welfare checks, whatever.

And you never take responsibility and grow as a person.

Fourthly, presentation leads to progress.

I gotta get done.

Are you still listening?

Look at verse 19.

I don't want you to just hear this and go, oh, that's cute.

That's really cute.

No, I'm not trying to be cute.

Verse 19, he says, I'm speaking in human terms.

He's talking about this reference to slavery, to volunteer slavery.

I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

For just as you once presented your members as slavery to impurity, you hear that?

He says, You have a frame of reference for what I'm asking you to do.

God's not asking you to do something you've never done before.

He says, just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness, which leads to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

Sanctification is a big word, but it's simply it's that process by which you look more and more and more like Christ.

You look more and more and more like the Bible describes a Christian as being.

What are you saying?

Presentation leads to progress.

You wonder why you're not progressing, maturity in your Christian life.

You wonder why, hey, I'm basically the same person I was eight years ago.

You're not presenting your members as uh to God as instruments of righteousness.

You say, I don't know what that means.

Think about it this way.

It's very practical.

When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing you do?

Well, I look over and go, Well, he's still here.

God didn't answer my prayer.

Uh now I don't do it every morning.

I don't want to sound like I'm super spiritual, but most mornings I try to because I I cannot just assume that I'm gonna walk with God today.

So this morning, for example, I woke up, my alarm went off at 6 o'clock, and I woke up and I just laid there and I just said, God, I want to present my mind to you.

I don't want to talk.

Romans 6 is a deeply profound passage.

I don't want to talk over my people's head and make them feel stupid.

I don't want to talk below the dignity of the gospel.

And so, God, I want to present my mind to you.

I want to present my mouth to you.

God, let me slow down because sometimes I get going so fast my people can't even write it down.

Shut up.

And so, God, I present my hands to you, and I'm doing all this, and all of a sudden, in the dark, here it is.

Little three little light taps for my wife.

Which means your alarm went off.

Did you hear it?

And I just said, I'm awake, I'm awake.

And so I went back to God, I present my feet to you.

I don't want to go anywhere today.

It's gonna dishonor you.

I got, and then about two minutes later, a little bit of a harder tap.

I said a little bit louder, I'm awake.

When I said that, the dogs, because our dogs have to sleep in our room, otherwise, they're gonna get in our kids' bed and wake them up.

So I'm sitting there now.

I'm having this beautiful moment of presentation as I'm presenting my members to God as instruments of righteousness, and now my old lady done woke me up, and she done woke them dogs up now.

And them dogs are up, and those dogs gotta go outside when they first get up because they gotta do their business.

And I'm thinking, hey God, I ain't got time.

Take them dogs outside, make my woman get up, make me some coffee, take them dogs outside while I shower and put them on my battle gear.

I'm going to battle today.

And that little voice said, Oh, by the way, you gotta love her like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

Because see, letting the dogs out is not as easy.

Y'all like, right, you can't go let the dogs out.

No, we have a sprinkler system, and it went off this morning at five o'clock.

That grass is wet, their feet are wet, their miniature schnausers, they got like an undercoat, it's all gonna be wet, so you gotta catch them at the door and dry them off.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

All because of my wife.

I thought to myself, I ain't a little kid.

I don't need you to pat me.

And right on the heels of that, I thought, sometimes I am.

Sometimes I do need the hat.

So I got out of bed a little bit irritated.

And hey, my wife didn't do anything wrong.

I wanted to get fully dressed, and she's laying there asleep with a pillow over her head, so the light from the crack underneath the bathroom door doesn't wake her up.

I want to get fully dressed and walk over and tap her on the head.

I'm going now.

I'm awake.

That thought went through my head.

Like a juicy piece of steak.

I just swirled it around on my tongue and I thought, no, because then I got to come home and be with her all day.

I'll take a zero.

Here's what I'm saying: presentation leads to progress.

Presentation leads to, he said, you used to present your members of your body as instruments of sin, which leads to death, in the same way.

You got a frame of reference for that.

How many of you remember getting ready, putting on your little cologne, getting ready to go to the club, and you were hoping you'd get a chance to sin?

Y'all like, I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, you do.

He says, in the same way.

Put as much intentionality into offering your members of your body to Christ as instruments of righteousness.

Why?

Because what you're ashamed of, God has made right, so it's instruments of righteousness.

There's no part of you that God hasn't redeemed.

Fifthly and finally, he says, notice the contrast.

Let me be brief here.

People are peeking in the back window.

Y'all stop looking that window ain't making me on memory.

Look at verse 23.

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

Notice the contrast.

For the free the wages of sin is death.

It's always been that way.

From the garden to the time Jesus comes back, the paycheck, what you deserve, if you're sitting here thinking, Oh, I just want God to give me what I deserve.

No, you don't.

That is the confession of a foolish person.

But the free gift, the caris of God.

Now look at it.

Look at it.

Don't consume it upon your lust.

See it as it's written.

The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You do not get eternal life apart from Jesus.

So the question for us today is: Are you in Christ Jesus our Lord?

That's what it means to be a Christian.

It means to be in Christ.

Paul began chapter 6 by saying, What shall we save then?

Or we're to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

It's like Lance talked about last week.

You used to be in that field, you've been transferred into this field.

You were born in the kingdom of darkness.

And Colossians 1 says, He's brought you into the kingdom of his son, whom he loves.

That's what it means.

Wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

That's where life happens.

And so if you're here today, ask yourself, are you in relationship with Christ Jesus?

Not on your terms, but the way the Bible describes it, in terms of surrender.

Have you ever surrendered your life to Christ?

And if not, why not right now?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

I appreciate your patience.

I get a little excited about the Bible.

Pray for me.

When your God redeemed your body, he redeemed all of it.

Which means he's not ashamed of any part of it.

Leave now and stop being ashamed of what your father's proud of, what he's paid for.

He knew what he was getting.

That's why he purchased you.

Depart now and live like accepted people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.