Why Not Sin It Up - pt 2

Just grab our bibles. Grab our bibles in turn to Romans chapter six.

If you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand. We're

passing those out right now. And if you didn't get a bulletin on your

way in, that's gonna be helpful because there's sermon notes on the back there.

So just raise your hand and keep it up if you need a Bible

or a bulletin, and we will find you. And then turn to Romans

chapter six. We're starting in verse fifteen, and sister, why don't you

come and read our sermon text for us? It's going to be Romans six

fifteen through seven six. Romans six fifteen through seven six, What then are

we to sin? Because we are not under 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 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 are free in

regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the

things of which now you are 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. Or do you not

know, brothers, For I am speaking to those who know the law,

that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives,

but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while

her husband is alive, But if her husband dies, she is free from

that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the

body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who

has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for

God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions,

aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for

death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that

which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the

spirit, and not in the world old way of the written code. This

is God's word. Amen. I was talking to a young man this week

who was right in the gray area between being fully under his parents' authority and

being completely you know, on his own. He's got his own job,

he's paying his own bills. In fact, he said, like, they

just moved me off of their insurance. That was the last thing. But

he went on vacation with his parents, and and while he's on vacation,

there was a there was a gathering, I think it was a family gathering

or so when they said, okay, this is the time to be there

and he was not looking forward to it. And he said to his parents,

do I have to go? And even as he said it, he

knew he didn't have to go. Can't make me so punish hanging over my

head. But also as he said it, he realized he wanted to go,

not because it was going to be a particularly exciting gathering, was going

to be boring. He didn't want to go in that sense. He wanted

there was nothing compelling about it on the face of it. He wanted to

serve his parents from the heart. Obedience from the heart. That's the theme

of our whole passage this morning, obedience from the heart. And you can

see how it comes up in the very first verse that we start with,

in verse fifteen, What then are we to send? Because we are not

under law but under grace by no means. You see, the apostle Paul

is handling this question of Okay, if we're not under the law, if

punishment isn't hanging over our heads for obedience then and we're under grace, won't

that just lead to sinful living? And Paul says, no, not the

way God set it up. The way God has set it up. Grace

does not lead to sinful living. Grace leads to obedience from the heart.

And that is the one thing that I am dead set on convincing you of

this morning, that grace leads to obedience from the heart. That because Christ

died and was raised, because you are joined to him by grace through faith,

and have died as well to sin and died to the law, that

your freedom does not actually lead to lawlessness or sinfulness. Your sin becomes an

opportunity for obedience from the heart. If you want a little bit of a

roadmap, we'll walk through the passage this way. The apostle says that obedience

necessary, That grace leads to obedience from the heart, because you've been given

a new master, because it leads to new fruit, because you've been given

a new husband in a whole new way. The Gospel of grace leads to

obedience from the heart, because you've been liberated for a new master, producing

new fruit, release for a new husband, and freed for a whole new

way. Let's jump into it, new Master, Why not sind it up?

Part two? Does grace lead to sinful living? Now? Why?

Because the Gospel of grace leads to obedience from the heart having been liberated for

a new master. Why do I say that? Look at verse sixteen,

do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,

your slaves are the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads

to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. So again the

scriptures are saying this. You have been freed from your bondage to sin,

and you are freed from your being under the law. So now don't go

back to your old master. At one point in time, you were slaves

of sin, a cruel task master who led you only to death and distortion

of who you were actually made to be. That's what sin is doing to

all who are enslaved to sin. But now present yourselves to God to serve

him. And some might say I noticed there's no middle ground there. I

mean, it seemed like a pretty reasonable idea to say, well, look,

I'm not interested in being a slave of sin. I'm not interested in

being a slave of God. I just want to serve myself, which would

be a very simplistic way of understanding freedom. It doesn't yet actually answer the

question because you haven't answered, well, what is your self committed to because

you will yourself will be either committed to sin or either committed to God.

So either way you're going to serve somebody. Bob Dylan got it right.

You are going to have to serve somebody. There is no middle ground.

And he look, he gets further into it. It goes like this verse

seventeen. But thanks me to God that you, who are once slaves of

sin, have become here's our key phrase, obedient from the heart to the

standard of teaching to which you are committed, the model of teaching, the

pattern of the one translator put it, the stamp with which you were stamped,

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

Then he says, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

He's like, I understand, this is a flawed analogy. It works,

it's imperfect, but work with me here. In other words, you have

been set free by dying through Christ, and now you have the opportunity for

obedience from the heart to the standard of teaching the stamp with which you've been

stamped, which is to say, the very character of God. That's what

you're being led in obedience to the very character of God. Give yourselves to

that. That's the New Testament called give yourself to that. And he uses

this slavery metaphor, which he acknowledges as a flawed one because slavery has negative

connotations, especially for us. I mean Antebellum slavery in America. It was

like people in the Old Testament Israel would look at Antebellum slavery in America and

say, that's disgusting, Like that breaks all the rules about how this is

even supposed to operate. There was a vision in Old Testament Israel where you

could you could if you were at the end of your rope. You couldn't

house yourself, you couldn't call yourself, you couldn't feed yourself. You could

you could go to a countryman and say, hey, I want to I

want to be your servant. I want to be your slave. Basically,

I'm selling myself into your service. The maximum period was six years. Right

after six years, they couldn't hold you anymore. But in other words,

it was sort of like an Old Testament Hebrew safety net. See I'm at

the end of my rope, and that person would take you in and you

would be on the hook to serve them in any way. They would feed

you, and they would clothe you, and it'd house you, and then

at the end of six years you would be free unless unless you said,

I love it here. Are you kidding me? This man, this master

of mine, has become my friend. I love this guy. He has

welcomed me into his household. He has welcomed me around his table. I

am well fed, well clothed, well provided for. I love it here.

I want to stay. And then there was a ceremony for that.

Because you have found a master whom you love and who loves you. What

Paul is saying is, if you have that in Jesus, why in the

world would you go back to your old master sin, who was like an

Egyptian task master, who didn't care about you, who was distorting everything about

you. Why would you take yourself and go go say all right, let's

go back to the old ways. Doesn't make any sense. The master you

love and who loves you, has laid out a way for you to live

out his character, in a way for you to have an opportunity to obey

from the heart, living out his way of being a spouse. You have

the opportunity to obey from the heart, living out his very character as a

worker, as a parent, as a brother and sister in Christ, as

you live out obedience from the heart, and serve him just as if you

were a part of his household. Because you are Paul saying, no,

living under grace doesn't lead to sin. It leads to that. It leads

to presenting ourselves to our new master with obedience from the heart. Then he

goes on. Then he goes on, says, and it produces new fruit.

This is really a continuation of the first point, right serving sin versus

serving God, And the point he makes is there are two very different types

of freedom when it comes to this servanthood. Look at verse nineteen. Middle

of verse nineteen, he says, for just as you once presented your members

as slaves to impurity, immorality, and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness,

now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. Right,

So he starts with this, consider the fruit. Consider what the ongoing results

of serving sin look like, darkness, impurity, immorality twisting in on itself,

lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. But consider the fruit of serving the Lord,

sanctification, growth, maturity, consider the fruit. It was a stark

contrast in my life. I can tell you, did you know when I

came to faith in Christ, I didn't even know that I had. In

other words, I thought I was already a Christian. I mean I had

walked an aisle when I was seven. I prayed a prayer. But the

whole trajectory of my trajectory of my life, the fruit the results as I

made choice after choice to serve sin instead of serve God. It was a

downward spiral and nothing but and then came a point where I looked to Christ.

I knew where God, where grace was to be found. I looked

at Christ. I actually placed my faith in him, looking to him for

mercy and handing over my life. And then everything and the trajectory of my

life could changed completely and sanctification led to growth, lead to maturity. Until

I looked back like two years later and go oh, I became a Christian.

Yeah, serving the Lord doesn't result in convenience, but it does result

in growing godliness and sanctification. But look at verses twenty and twenty one.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

There is a kind of freedom that you experience when you're a slave to

sin. There's a kind of freedom 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 for the end of those things is death. So God is

saying that when you are a slave of sin, there is a type of

freedom that you experience. You can blow off righteousness, and when you are

a servant of God you have the freedom to blow off sin. I'm not

going to do that. I'm free from that. I'm not going to be

mastered by that. So on the face of it, it would look like,

well, you know, pick your freedom, But they're not equal.

They're not equal because the difference to consider is what is the result of these

so called freedoms. The fruit produced by slavery to sin and the freedom found

there is compounding darkness. But the fruit the results of slavery to God and

the freedom found there is this verse twenty two and twenty three. But now

that you have been set free from sin that freedom and become slaves of God,

the fruit you get leads to sanctification, to growth, to maturity,

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.

I like how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this in the Message, which is just a

loose translation in contemporary language. He puts Romans six twenty three this way,

work hard. For sin. Your whole life and your pension is death.

But God's gift is real life, life delivered by Jesus. See, when

you're evaluating these two freedoms, you really have to ask yourself the more philosophical

question, what is freedom? What is freedom? Really? Here is my

working definition for freedom. Freedom is the ability to do and enjoy what your

heart longs for and which leads to the thriving of your true nature and design.

You have to have both. Freedom is the ability to do and enjoy

what your heart longs for and which leads to the thriving of your true nature

and design. See an addict might an addict might say, Look, I

get to do and enjoy what my heart longs for. But it's killing me.

It's absolutely sucking the life out of me. It's turning me inside out

and withering me. I there's no thriving on my true nature and design?

Are you kidding me? This leads to death. The stamp with which you've

been stamped, the standard of teaching to which you've been committed, is actually

the perfect picture of your original design. You were created in the image of

God, and so the freedom that you find in serving him is you actually

start to live out His character. You actually find the thriving of your true

nature and design in that freedom. You were created very good. You have

been created now in Christ to be free to grow in the expression of the

very character of God from the heart. That's actual freedom. Alignment of how

you are created and what your heart longs for and what your Master instructs you

in and the ability to carry all that out with joy, that's freedom.

That's freedom. So those who are asking, like, doesn't grace lead to

sin, Paul saying no, this is the pic. This is the whole

picture here of what it really means to live under Gospel grace. Taking your

person created in the image of God and presenting it to your good master,

who is God, and growing obediently in his character with a heart for God.

That's freedom. So I would just ask you, you who are consistently

and consciously returning to sin. What fruit are you getting from your freedom?

Thriving thriving in the way that God has created you, who he has created

you to be, and the character He's created you to have, and the

obedience he is calling you to. That's not living under grace going back to

sin. Why would you go back to serving the kind of master who sucks

the life out of you and twists you into a deformed version of yourself until

you're literally literally undone. Instead, experience the freedom of serving a master who

builds you up, straightens you out, helps you become what you were made

for, eternal and abundant life. In other words, under grace, go

produce new fruit. Now Paul is going is about to switch the metaphors on

us, right, He says, the Gospel of Grace leads to obedience from

the heart because it gave you a new master and new fruit. But now

he switches it to a different metaphor. He goes from employment to marriage.

He says, this grace leads to obedience from the heart because it released you

for a new husband. Why do I say that? Look at verse one,

or do you not know brothers for I'm speaking to those who know the

law that people familiar with Judaism, that the law is binding on a person

only as long as he lives. So back again to this idea of dying

with Christ. Right, if you are united to Christ by grace through faith,

and you died with him, then you're in some spiritual reality you're dead.

Well, how does that apply. We'll look at his analogy in verses

two and three. For a married woman is bound by law to her husband

while he lives, but if her husband dies, she's released from the law

of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with

another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she's

freed from that law. And if she marries another man, she's not an

adult Okay, it's pretty simple. The idea is this, a dead person

can't be married, and you can't be married to a dead person. Now,

I mean, if your spouse dies, obviously, there's a time of

morning you might very much feel attached, there's pictures, there's memories, you

might wear your ring for a while. But death dissolves the bond and law

of marriage. You are free to remarry. Right, You're released. If

your spouse dies, you are released from the marriage. You can remarry.

If you die, you're released from the marriage. You can remarry. Usually

doesn't work that way because you're dead. But in dying through Christ, that's

exactly what takes place. You've died and are released from the marriage to the

law. Read verse four. It's one of the most consequential verses in us

in all the Bible. Likewise, my brothers, you have also died to

the law through the body of Christ. You have died to the law through

the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another right. So,

just like we saw last week in regard to sin, if you're in

Christ, you're united in as death. You've died to the law. The

law only applies to a live people. A Christian is no longer bound to

the law any more than a dead person is legally bound to their late spouse.

Now that's not to say that the law has nothing for us. The

law has something for us in a positive way, has for us wisdom and

encouragement. The Old Testament law is a reflection of God's character. Right,

so we can see in his word examples of moral principles. We can see

expressions of the holiness of God. So the law still has something for us,

just like sins still has something for us. Even though we've died it

in a negative way. Sin still has temptations for us. So the law

is still for our use and for our encouragement. We're just dead to the

law as law. Instead, we're released verse four, so that you may

belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead. Right,

so the picture is shifted. You don't just have a master whom you

love. You have a husband whom you belong to. Jesus has gone through

death and life and brought you through death and life to rescue you from sin,

release you from the law, so you would be married to him as

you as your living husband present to help and to guide. He is present

with you. You actually have a living relationship with the living Christ. And

still in our legalistic tendencies, we take our living relationship with the living Lord,

and we can turn it into a religious exercise of measuring sticks regarding memory

verses and achievement metrics regarding hours of prayer. These are good things, but

Jesus graciously takes the measuring sticks and the achievement metrics out of your hands and

looks you in the eyes and says, I am the measure, I am

the achiever you have me, I am yours. You are mine, And

there is no failure that can break that. You have nothing for me but

handfuls of failure and repentance. I have more grace than that for you.

Now follow me in fruitful living. That's what it looks like to live on

or grace instead of law. That's why what fits with the Gospel is not

sinful living, but obedience from the heart. Because you got a new master,

new fruit, a new husband, and lastly, a whole new way,

a whole new way. Why do I say that, Well, we're

gonna look at these two ways first and verse five the old way. For

while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law,

we're at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Huh huh.

Well, we've already talked about living in the flesh and fruit for death

and sinful passions. But did you notice this phrase, sin aroused by the

law. Operating under law actually strengthens sin. And we're gonna see how that

works all throughout chapter seven. Right, Paul's given us a picture of what

it looks like to operate under grace. He's about to give us a picture

of what it looks like to operate under law. But he's saying this,

the Gospel of grace actually strengthens us against sin. Living under the law actually

strengthens sin against us. The law arouses sin. Legalism provokes sin. Super

important to understand about the human heart, because I know there are some people

who operate with the instinct of like, let's just dose a little legalism into

my Christianity to keep it safe. It's not safe. It provokes sin.

Legalism and sin react to each other. They're combustible. I used to have

a boss who had a chemistry background, and he was also a lawyer.

And it was also a multimillionaire and a business founder, and a rancher and

an oilman. It was a lot of things, but a chemist also.

And he used to tell me, Josh, I love that guy, Josh.

Of all the chemical reactions I know of, the most combustible is whiskey

and perfume. We know what he's talking about. I just want to take

his comment and take it a little further, a little deeper. As a

pastor, and say this. Of all the chemical reactions I know of,

the most combustible one is pressure about outside appearances and a legalistic frame of mind.

The most combustible combination spiritually, Most of the most grotesque and damaging sin

I've ever seen has been a reaction of those two things over time. It's

just the kind of dangers that Paul was warning the Galatians about. It's exactly

the sort of thing that Jesus was confronting the Pharisees about. It's how religious

cults are constructed, and if we're not careful, it can be what parenting

sinks to parents. No amount of legalism is safe. Legalism provokes sin.

What you're after, and what God is after is obedience from the heart.

You say, well, there have to be rules. Are you saying to

parent without rules? No, I'm not saying that. Jesus gives us rules.

Jesus gives us commands and yet still handles us under grace instead of law.

You say, well, I don't know how to do that. I

know, but Jesus does. So now you know who to ask, and

you know what to ask. Ask Jesus for the ability to train in all

righteousness without dosing legalism, ask him to put on display in you the kind

of grace that would engender obedience from heart. I'm not saying that parents are

the wind that pushes children into sin or obedience. I'm not saying that you're

not the Holy Spirit. But if scripture reveals something so profound as this,

we have to take it into account in those places where we have the greatest

influence to set a tone of law or set a tone of grace. Well,

finally, Paul gets to his summary statement here in verse six. We'll

look at it. What are the two ways? But now we are released

from the law, having died to that which held us captive sin and the

law, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not

in the old way of the written code. What is it to serve in

the old way of the code? I think that's largely what the rest of

chapter seven is all about. Right, So we'll look at that in detail

next week. We're talking about serving in the flesh. We're talking about sin

being provoked by the law. We're talking about sin winning. What does it

look like to operate under grace this new way of the spirit. It looks

like grace, Grace motivating you to freely present yourself to your new master,

the one whom you love. To obey from the heart. It looks like

the fruit of that growing more and more into your true design. It looks

like, under grace you belonging to Christ as your new husband and following him

in fruitful, fruitful living. In a phrase, under grace you obey from

the heart. M