Now I would invite you to turn
with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Romans, the book
of Romans and chapter 6. And please follow as I read beginning
with verse 15, reading through to the end of the chapter. Romans
chapter 6 beginning with verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? God forbid. Do you not know that
to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his
servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness? But thanks be to God that whereas
you were servants of sin, You became obedient from the heart
to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered, and being
made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. I
speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your
flesh. For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity, Even so now, present your members
as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. For when
you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit then did you have
at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the
end of those things is death. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, you are having your fruit unto
sanctification, and the end, eternal life. For the wages of
sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord." Now I would be surprised if there
are not many of you who have heard the statement that a half-truth
presented as a whole truth is a whole untruth. A half-truth presented as a whole
truth is a whole untruth. For example, if you were to ask
me, Pastor Martin, what do you believe concerning Jesus Christ? Who is He? Tell us the whole
truth about what you believe and who you believe He is. And
if I were to say, Jesus Christ is a true man. He was conceived
in the womb of a woman. He was born as other men. He
had all the faculties and capacities of all other men. He lived developing
as a real man. And Jesus Christ is in every
sense of the word a true man. And you said, is there anything
more you believe about Him? I say, no, that's the whole truth
about Him. Well, you see, if I represent
who Christ is by only telling part of the truth, it becomes
a whole untruth. That is blatant heresy. If I'm
prepared to say He is true man, but that's all that He is. Conversely,
if I were to answer and say, My conviction about Jesus Christ
is that He is true God. He is very God of God. He has all the properties and
attributes and capacities that inhere in the Godhead, Jesus
Christ is truly God. And if you said, is there anything
else you believe about Him? I say, no, that's the beginning,
middle and end of my confession. That would be equally heretical.
That's only half of the truth, and to present it as the whole
truth is to present a whole untruth. You see, the truth is Jesus Christ
is just as much man as though He were not God, and just as
much God as though He were not man. The truth is He is Emmanuel,
God with us. He is the God-man. He is, in the language of classic
theology, the theanthropic Theos, God, Anthropos, Man. He is the
theanthropic person. The two natures joined in the
one person forever. That is the truth about Jesus. Now the tendency to take half
a truth and to state it as a whole truth is constantly with us.
It has been one of the tendencies that has plagued Christendom
throughout the centuries of its history on earth. And what is
true in the realm of what we believe about the person of Christ
is also true with respect to the salvation of Christ. That
salvation has many facets, and if we confess as the whole truth,
only something that is a part of the truth, then we have embraced
and are confessing a whole untruth. And therefore, just as Jesus
said with respect to the institution of marriage, those whom God has
joined together, let no man put asunder. Likewise, with all of
God's truth, those that God has put together, let no man put
asunder. For to sever those truths that
God has inseparably joined is to destroy ourselves with whole
untruths. This morning I want to direct
your attention to a passage in the Word of God which very succinctly
and yet comprehensively tells us the things that God has joined
together that we dare not put us under. And our text is verse
22 from Romans chapter 6. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, That's a statement about a change
of masters. You are having your fruit unto
sanctification. That's a statement about a change
of practice. And the end eternal life. That's a statement about a change
of destiny. But you will notice in our text
that the change of masters is inseparably joined to the change
of practice, and the change of practice inseparably joined to
the change of destinies. And what God has joined together
in His Word, and in every application of the saving work of Jesus Christ,
we dare not put asunder. And in just a few moments, we're
going to examine this text under those three obvious and simple
heads, the change of masters, the change of practice, and the
change of destiny. But before we do, let me say
just a word about the setting of this passage. The entire sixth
chapter of Romans is found with the Apostle Paul answering the
question that is raised in verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And the Apostle's answer is,
may it never be. The text does not actually have
the word God, but the idiom that is used is the strongest expression
of negation. May it never be. God forbid. Now why did the Apostle anticipate
that question? Why does he raise it? Because
from Romans chapter 3 and verse 21, all the way through to the
end of chapter 5 in the book of Romans, he has been establishing
two very fundamental principles that lie at the foundation of
our salvation. having demonstrated from chapter
1 verse 18 through chapter 3 in verse 20 that all men, Jew and
Gentile alike, those who have seen the written revelation of
God, those who have never seen it, those who have heard God's
truth, those who have never heard it, they are all guilty, all
under condemnation, all hell-deserving sinners who have fallen in Adam. Beginning in verse 21 of chapter
3, he begins to expound the glorious salvation that God extends to
such sinners in Jesus Christ. And in establishing the truth
concerning that salvation, he drives home two fundamental issues. Issue number one is that such
guilty, hell-deserving sinners find acceptance with God. only on the basis of the work
of Jesus Christ. He summarizes that in verses
21 to 24 of chapter 3. These sinners, if they are ever
to find acceptance with God, if the court of heaven is ever
to declare them not guilty, accepted before the law, treat them as
righteous, it will be on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ
alone. But then he labors to establish
a second point that is crucial to the gospel, and that is that
these guilty, hell-deserving sinners who can only find acceptance
before God in Christ alone, they receive that salvation by faith
alone, not by faith plus the works of the law, not by faith,
plus their own deeds of devotion. It is Christ alone and faith
alone. And so much is this true that
when He comes to the end of the treatment of this salvation,
He can declare in verse 20 of chapter 5, where sin abounded,
grace did abound more exceedingly. And because our salvation rests
down upon the doing and the dying of another, The more sin the
sinner brings into the presence of God as he embraces that salvation,
the more the grace of God is abounding. There is nothing except
the sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be forgiven. And so when someone hears the
Apostle say, wait a minute, you mean you're telling me that no
matter what my sins have been, as part of that group described
in Romans 1.18-3.20, no matter what I have done outwardly and
inwardly with my mind, my mouth, my hands, my feet, and my whole
humanity in defiance of God, that by simply throwing myself
upon Christ, trusting only in Him, all of my sins are pardoned
and I am accepted as righteous in the sight of God, Paul says
yes. Well, someone adds to that glorious
teaching the devil's logic. Well, if where sin abounds, grace
does superabound, then let's continue in sin that grace may
abound. If our salvation depends solely
on the work of another, and is embraced by faith, and God is
more glorified the more sin is forgiven and pardoned, then let's
continue in sin that grace may abound. Paul says, no, no, no,
no, may it never be. And then the rest of the chapter
he is opening up why that may never be, why that cannot be.
And what he does is to demonstrate that the faith by which the sinner
lays hold of Christ, in whom his salvation is to be found,
that faith also unites us to Christ. And in uniting us to
Christ, verses 2 and following, We are so united to Him that
the death He died for sin becomes our death to sin. And since we
were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him to
newness of life, if we are truly united to Him by faith, we will
not continue in sin. And then in the paragraph that
I read in your hearing, In that union with Christ, we not only
share in the virtue of his death and burial and resurrection,
we also experience a radical change of masters. And the whole
imagery from verse 15 to the end of the chapter opens up that
theme of this matter of the master that each of us serves in the
capacity of a slave. And as he unfolds that truth
in verses 15 to 23, he gives us in verse 22 what is a summary
of all of the teaching of that paragraph. And in that summary
we find the change of masters, the change of practice, and the
change of destiny. Now then, let's seek to unpack
the text. First of all, the change of masters. But now, Assuming that this is
the experience of every true Christian at Rome to whom he
writes, but now, being made free from sin and become servants
to God. Let's ask three questions of
the first part of our text. The first question we ask is,
who was the old master? And our text says the old master
was sin. Being made free from sin. Sin is personified into a master. And the Roman Christians are
described as those who at one time yielded allegiance and obedience
to that master. And that master, being personified
sin, had in his subjugation servants whose service to him was very
real, and very evident. Look at verse 19. Paul is conscious
that he's having to use human imagery and analogy in order
to help us in our slowness to grasp spiritual truths. And I
would simply say, for any who are hiding their heads behind
others, please shift a little in the pew. I'm not looking in
any direction. I want to preach to your eyes.
Please don't hide from me, okay? I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your
members as servants, literally as slaves to uncleanness and
to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present." You see how
he describes their slavery? It was not a theological concept. Oh yes, we are all slaves of
sin, but it has no practical expression. No, he says, I speak
after the manner of men. I'm going to accommodate myself
to this imagery to help you to grasp. And this is what he says,
you were presenting your members slaves to uncleanness and to
iniquity unto iniquity. Their servitude, their enslavement
was very real and very evident. He says, you presented your members
to your master, your mind, to think his thoughts. Ephesians
chapter 2. amplifies this matter of fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And in your mind
you conceived thoughts of atheism, thoughts of blasphemy, thoughts
of anarchy against God, thoughts of lust, of murder, of envy,
of pride. Your mind, a member of your faculties
given by God to think his thoughts after him, he said you gave your
mind to the service of sin. You gave your eyes to the service
of sin. With your eyes you looked out
and coveted. With your eyes you looked out
in lust. You had the green eye of envy.
With your hands you took and touched forbidden objects. With
your feet you walked in forbidden paths. Your servitude to sin
was not theoretical. It was very real and very practical
as day after day. You came and presented yourself
before your Master, your Master called sin, your Master called
iniquity and uncleanness, and you presented yourself and your
God-given faculties, given by God to glorify Him, and you gave
them to the service of sin, of iniquity, and uncleanness. But
not only was that servitude real and evident, According to verse
20, it was exclusive. Look at the text. For when you
were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness.
What does he mean? What he's saying is this. When
you were in that relationship of servitude to sin, you regarded
yourself a free man, a free woman, a free boy or girl with respect
to this other master called righteousness. And when God spoke in His law,
saying, Thou shalt or Thou shalt not, you said with Pharaoh, Who
is the Lord that I should obey Him? He has no rights over me. I'm a free man with respect to
righteousness. And to the God who sets the standard
of righteousness, and to the God who articulates the path
of righteousness, I regarded myself as a free man. When righteousness
spoke, I said, who are you that I should mind you? I'll do what
I want to do. I'll do what I desire to do. I'll do what I'm inclined to
do. I'm my own man. I'm my own woman. I'm my own boy. I'm my own girl. All the while not realizing you're
serving a cruel master who wants to drag you into the pit. That's the description Paul gives. in answer to the question, who
was the old master? Now we ask a second question
of this first part of our text, who is the new master? The new master according to our
text, verse 22, now being made free from sin and become servants,
bond slaves to God. The new master is God himself. God as we shall see revealed
in the gospel. God in the coming forth of His
love and pity to these hell-deserving sinners described in chapter
118 to 320. God in His pity and in His love
and mercy to those who were His enemies. This God who has come
to you Romans in the gospel, you have Him as your new Master. And because God is the God of
righteousness, and the God who articulates His will and pattern
of righteousness in His Word, He can describe righteousness
as their new master. You will see this as we look
up in verse 18. And being made free from sin,
same language as verse 22, now being made free from sin, but
here He says, you became servants or bond slaves of righteousness. Well, did we become bond slaves
of God or bond slaves of righteousness? It's not either or. It's both
and. It's both. It's both. No one can become
a servant of righteousness in the biblical sense. in which
from the heart he embraces God as his God and as his master,
desiring to please him from the deepest springs of motivation
and emotion as well as the farthest reaches of external conduct. He can never become a slave of
righteousness until he becomes a slave of God. And if he becomes
a slave of God as God reveals Himself in the Gospel, and he
becomes the willing bond-servant of God and of His Christ, if
he really is His servant, he will automatically become the
bond-servant of righteousness. His relationship to God in Christ
through the Gospel will never be merely abstract and notional.
It will be intensely practical and ethical. And so when he describes
the obedience to the new master just as the obedience to the
old master was real and evident and exclusive, so the obedience
to the new master is real. Look at verse 16. Don't you know
that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his
servants or slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto
death or of obedience unto righteousness? He said, look, if you want to
know whose slave are you, don't theorize about it, just ask,
which master do I obey? Do I obey the old master's sin,
or do I obey the new master? It is a real servitude. Notice in verse 19, I speak after
the manner of men, as you presented your members servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity, your service of your old master
was real, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness
unto sanctification. This obedience is to be real
as well, and it is also exclusive Verse 16, you either present
yourself in a path of obedience to sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness. And verse 18 says, being made
free from sin, you did actually become the servants or the bond
slaves of righteousness. So the new Master is God. It is righteousness. And may
I say, there is no middle place of loyalty. What did we read
this morning in Matthew 6.24? No man can serve two masters. It's impossible. Two masters
cannot hold the place of supreme allegiance in your heart and
dictate the details of your life from the inside out. So we've
asked two questions of our text. Who was the old master? Sin.
who is the new master, God and righteousness. Third question,
how and when did the change of masters occur? Our text says,
now being made free from sin and become servants to God. How in the world did that change
occur in these Romans? What was it that took them out
from under the dominion and servitude of sin and brought them over
under the gracious dominion and servitude to God as revealed
in Christ. What did it? How did it happen? The answer is in verse 17. The
answer is given to us in verse 17. But thanks be to God. However it happened, God gets
the credit for it. Paul is not going to describe how it happened
without saying, look, whatever I describe, The credit is to
be given not to the Romans, not to whoever preached to them,
not to whoever prayed for them. Thanks be to God. What I'm going to describe that
happened among you Romans, God is to receive all of the praise
and all of the glory. And what does he give God thanks
for? Look at it. Thanks be to God that whereas you were on
slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of
teaching where unto you were delivered and being made free
from sin you became servants to righteousness. You see how
he answers the question? How and when did the change of
masters take place? It took place through the mighty,
powerful application of the gospel to the hearts and lives of these
people. Notice how he develops it. This
change took place when the gospel came in what Paul calls a form
or pattern of teaching. He's describing the gospel. When
he says you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching,
that's a synonym for the gospel. It is a form, it is a pattern,
a discernible body of objectively revealed truths. It is not a
mushy, gushy, abstract, theoretical, ephemeral, mystical thrill and
chill that tingles up the spine that in some way or another has
something or other to do with Jesus and knowing God. No. It came with such distinct, explicit
affirmations about God and man and sin and grace that he can
call it a form of teaching. That's when the transformation
occurred. When the gospel came as a form
of teaching. But you see, the gospel can come
as a form of teaching and we still serve the old master. That's
true of many of you sitting here. For the change of masters is
not automatically wrought simply by being confronted with the
form of teaching that is the gospel. But notice how Paul describes
their interaction with the gospel. He says, you became obedient
from the heart to the form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. If you have a translation that
says that was delivered to you, that is a wretched rendering
of the form of the verb. It is a passive. You were delivered
unto the form of teaching. It's a beautiful description
of God's effectual call in the gospel. What does God do when
with the gospel He puts forth the arm of His power to take
dead sinners and quicken them to life by His regenerating work,
bring them to repentance in faith and unite them to Christ? What
He's doing is He's casting them into the mold of the gospel. That gospel says to all sinners,
you are lost, you deserve hell, you are helpless, you are undone.
Christ is a willing, Christ is an able, Christ is an inviting
Savior. He stands ready to forgive you
for the guilt of sin. He stands ready to break the
power and the dominion of sin. He stands ready to recreate in
you the very image and likeness of God. That's the gospel. And
when the Spirit of God attends that gospel with power, what
does He do with people who hitherto have been the bond slaves of
sin? He casts them into the mold of the gospel. And as they are
cast into that mold, what's the first thing they do? The text
says, they obey from the heart that form of teaching which was
the gospel. They obey it. from the heart. And what does it mean to obey
the gospel from the heart? It means to comply with the gracious
gospel commands. Repent and believe. Turn from sin and trust the Savior. And when God is casting people
into the mold of the gospel by the efficacious work of the Spirit,
It becomes their possession at the level of their consciousness
when from the heart they say, yes, I am just the sinner God
says I am. I am the slave to sin that God
says I am. I know I deserve wrath as God
says I do. I know that I deserve hell as
God says I do. But I see in Christ as He is
presented in the Gospel, a Savior perfectly suited to my need,
a Savior gracious and merciful and compassionate and mighty
to forgive and to break my chains. From the heart I rise up and
I go to Him. There is an obedience from the
heart. to the command to repent and
turn from self-will and the deliberate servitude of sin, and henceforth
to give myself up to God in Christ to be his servant. And I lay
hold of the promise in the gospel that whosoever believes on him
should not perish." That's obeying from the heart the form of teaching
unto which we are delivered. Now that's what transformed these
Romans. It wasn't someone who came along
with the latest sociological insight, who learned how to transfer
guilt to this structure of society and to this segment of a perverted,
fallen, degenerate Roman society. No. They owned from the heart
all the indictments of God against them. And then they embrace from
the heart all of the glorious truths that surround the blessed
person and work of our Lord Jesus. And when they obeyed from the
heart the form of teaching unto which they were delivered, what
happened? Verse 22, being made free from
sin and become servants to God. Verse 17 tells us how and when
the change of masters took place. I want to say by way of application
before we move on more briefly to the change of practice, it's
evident that just as Paul assumes that all of the Christians at
Rome were by nature slaves of sin, he now asserts that all
the Christians at Rome are the willing bond slaves of God and
of righteousness. He doesn't have any other category.
He doesn't say, but now since some of you have been made free
from sin and become servants to God, why don't the rest of
you catch up and get yielded and surrendered and get off your
ducks and get off dead center and begin to really be sold out
Christians. No, he says, if you're a Christian,
this is true of you, you have been made free from sin in terms
of sin being your master. Sin being the master to whom
you willingly, deliberately, consciously, delightfully yield
your members. And when righteousness speaks,
you say, I have no allegiance to righteousness. He says, you
have been made free from sin and you have become the slaves
of righteousness. Our text is not an exhortation.
It is not an appeal to become something they're not. It's an
affirmation of what they are. And furthermore, Paul is confident
that whenever and wherever such a work is done that it's God
who is to get all the credit. Why? Because there's no explanation
for anyone in whom there is the change of masters but the putting
forth of omnipotent grace. Men by their influence upon other
men can get people to make professions. Men by their influence upon others
can get people to make decisions. Parents, by their noble, God-given
influence, can make perfect little Pharisees who know their Bibles
and can quote their text and who live respectable lives. But
parents cannot break the dominion of sin in their children. And
they cannot make them the willing, joyful bond-slaves of God in
Christ and to righteousness. Paul says, God did something
at Rome. God did something in the hearts
and lives of these people. And he blesses God that he has
indeed done it. And I would ask you as you sit
here this morning, could Paul have this confidence
of you? Could he say of everyone naming the name of Christ in
this place this morning, man, woman, boy or girl, God be thanked.
It's evident. that you once were slaves of
sin and it's just as evident that you are now the bond slaves
of righteousness. Is there anything about you that
defies any other explanation but God be thanked? Anything
about you that defies any other explanation other than God be
thanked? Almighty God who spoke the worlds
into being has cast you into the mold of the gospel. the contours
of your life are shaped by the truth of the gospel. Now all
kinds of people profess allegiance to Christ, but the contours of
their life are shaped by the world, by their peers, by society,
not by the gospel. Paul can write to people living
in that veritable sinkhole of iniquity at the center of the
Roman Empire and confidently say, God be thanked, God be thanked,
Whereas you were the slaves of sin, you've obeyed from the heart
that form of teaching unto which you were delivered, and being
made free from sin, you became servants to righteousness. This ought to be a comfort to
some of you young people who struggle with the fact that because
God has wonderfully protected you from a lot of external sin
through the influence of a godly home, and the constant sensitizing
of your conscience through the scriptures preached and taught
at home, school, and in this place. And you wonder, am I really
a Christian? I haven't had no dramatic conversion. Am I really a child of God? This
ought to comfort you. Listen, listen. If from the heart
you want to please God from the inside out, not just enough on
the outside so mom and dad don't ground you or spank you or take
away your privileges, But from the inside out, you really want
to serve God. Because you love God. And you
want your life to be shaped by the gospel. God be thanked, you'd
never want that if God had not cast you into the mold of the
gospel. You'd never want that. You'd be content to be a perfect
little Pharisee. Saying the right things, being
at the right place at the right time, with your mind and heart
a thousand miles away. No desire to pray, no desire
to read the Word. But that's not true of you. You're
reading your Bible now, not because mom and dad are going to check
up on you, though they do. You read it because you do get
some real sense of the Lord speaking to you when you read your Bible.
And you do pray. You do pray. Well, no one else
knows but you and God. Why? Because you do know what
it is to come before God and confess your sin and confess
your love to Him and confess your desire to serve Him and
please Him. And you say, Lord, give me grace
today as I go off to school or wherever I'm going and help me
in that situation to do what pleases You. You're a slave of
righteousness. And Mommy and Daddy could never
make you that. Pastor Martin and all the other elders together
couldn't make you that! So what if you don't know when
the transaction took place? If God wanted you to know, He'd
have made your experience more definite. But you see, if you've
been cast into the mold of the Gospel, and you are a servant
of God in Christ and to righteousness, then for you to doubt that God
has done it is to be a shameful thing. Won't you acknowledge
the work of God's gracious hands in your life? And stop worrying
about the fact, well, I didn't come to grace it. You know you
did enough sin to send you to hell, don't you? You've got no
quarrel with that. If I ask you, if God gave you what you deserve,
where would you be? You say, oh, Pastor Martin, I
know God would send me to hell. And if I ask you, what's your
only hope for salvation? You say, oh, it's in Jesus, in
what he did. And how do you lay hold of that?
To turn from sin and to trust Him. And with all my heart I'm
seeking to do that. And I'm seeking to obey God out
of a heart of love, not to try to earn brownie points in heaven,
but because God has sent His Son to die for the likes of me.
Dear children, don't trouble your minds about not knowing
when the transaction took place. God be thanked that whereas you
were the slaves of sin, you've obeyed from the heart the form
of teaching unto which you were delivered, and being made free
from sin, you've become the servants of righteousness. You see, nobody
sitting here this morning is a free man, a free woman, a free
boy, a free girl. Everyone's a slave. Every one
of you. Every one of us. You're either
a slave to sin or a servant of God and of righteousness, and
there is no middle ground. You were, you are, you either
are and have not yet become, or you were and you have become.
Change of masters. More briefly, now notice secondly,
change of practice. Paul assumes that where this
change of masters has occurred, now being made free from sin
and become servants to God, you, now notice he doesn't say you
ought to have, Some of you may have. All of you ought to have.
No, no. You are having. It's a statement
of fact. It is an indicative, not an imperative. It's nothing in the way of exhortation. It's a statement of fact. You
are having your fruit unto sanctification. Now, two questions of this part
of our text. What is the fruit unto sanctification?
Well, fruit is something produced in the life as fruit is produced
on the tree or a plant. And what is that something? Well,
look at verse 22 where the same word is used. I'm sorry, at verse
21. What fruit had you at that time
in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those
things is death. What fruit did you have in the
things whereof you are now ashamed? Their past life and deeds were
not fruit. They are things that have given
occasion for shame. What is the fruit now? The last
part of verse 19. You now present your members
as servants to righteousness, and here's the same word in the
original, unto sanctification. Fruit of righteousness unto sanctification. This is the fruit. It is the
result of the members of our body no longer being the slaves
of sin. That produced non-fruit. That
produced only things that now cause shame. That's one of the
acid tests of whether or not we're new creatures in Christ.
If we can think of our past with anything but shame. He says you're
now a shame. Not you ought to be. You are.
The stuff that was non-fruit makes you ashamed. But now there
is fruit. And what is that fruit? It is
that righteousness that is produced as you now present your members
unto God. Where once your mind thought
wicked thoughts, mean thoughts, murderous thoughts, envious thoughts,
lustful thoughts, that mind now seeks to think God's thoughts
after Him. thoughts of God, thoughts of
Christ, thoughts of my duty, my privileges, thoughts of others,
how to be a light and salt in their presence, how to bear witness
to them, how to do them good. My hands that once took things
that didn't belong to me are now jealous that they only touch
what God says they ought to touch and only take what God says they
ought to take. And my feet I desire and am jealous
that they only walk in paths commanded by God and never in
paths forbidden by God. That's the fruit unto sanctification. And he says, wherever there's
been the change of masters, there will always of necessity be the
change of practice. What is this fruit unto sanctification? It is the members of the body,
once the servants of sin, now acting out their new relationship
as servants of righteousness. The second question is this,
in how many true Christians is this change of practice found?
Look at our text. Now being made free from sin
and become servants to God, you are having, not some of you,
a few of you, most of you, all of you who've had the change
of masters are manifesting the change of practice. You are having
your fruit unto holiness. The change is not perfect. You
read on into chapter 7, and Paul acknowledges that there is yet
this contrary principle that would drag him downward and away
from the service he desires to render to God. But the very fact
that he's conscious of the conflict, it's not a matter of mere naggings
of conscience, which is no proof of being in a state of grace.
It is the pull of a vital principle in the direction of God and of
holiness. I delight in the law of God after my inward man. No one who is a slave of sin
can say that. Only one who has had his stony
heart removed and been given a heart of flesh and the law
of God written upon that heart can say, I delight in the law
of God with my inward parts. Yes, there is a contrary principle
fighting against me and warring. Yes! But nonetheless, Paul can
write, you're having your fruit unto sanctification, not perfectly,
but in principle, not universally even, but consistently manifested. It is real. It is evident. It
is unmistakable. Now let me ask you a very personal
question. Will you bring your life from
the past week to this clear teaching? and ask yourself if an impartial
observer were somehow able to be equipped with devices that
would enable that person to record every thought you thought during
every waking moment of every day of the past week, was able
to record every word you have spoken, every deed you have done,
would that person be forced in the weight of the evidence to
say, That man, that woman, that boy, that girl is bringing forth
fruit unto holiness, unto sanctification, unto a life separated unto God
with the moral and ethical implications of that separation. Now you ask
yourself that with Judgment Day honesty. If someone were able
to record the first springs of thought from Monday morning past
to the last thoughts before you drifted off to bed, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, every word, every day. Would they be forced to say there
is no explanation for that person's life, but that they are bringing
forth fruit unto holiness? Not perfectly, because part of
the words they would have heard you pray, part of the words they
would read in your silent prayers is, Oh God, forgive. my lustful
thoughts, O God, forgive my unclean and impure thoughts, my unloving
thoughts. But you see, that is bringing
forth fruit unto righteousness. Repentance is something and utter. A person who has never been changed
by Christ is an utter stranger to the reality of heart repentance
for heart sins. They are only concerned with
the sins that will bring them into trouble with the law or
with others. Whereas the one who has had a
change of masters wants to please his new master in the deepest
springs of his thoughts. He desires to have every thought
brought captive to the obedience of Christ. And when vagabond
thoughts have roamed into wastelands and forbidden territory, part
of the fruit of righteousness is repentance for wandering thoughts. What about your words? Would
your words reflect that your tongue has been brought unto
the service of God in Christ, and is being governed by the
principles of righteousness? Let no corrupt speech proceed
out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace to those who hear. Let all bitterness,
wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. Would someone be forced to acknowledge
there's no explanation for what we've recorded from that man's
lips, that woman's, that boy's, that girl's lips, but that he
is a servant of righteousness, bringing forth fruits unto holiness,
unto sanctification? Ask yourself, and you better
answer as honestly as you must answer in the day of judgment.
Because if it's not true, And that's been the pattern not only
for the past week, but the past month, the past six months, the
past year. You've never known any other
pattern, my friend. You have no biblical grounds
to say that you're a child of God. Because whenever God cast
men and women and boys and girls into the mold of the gospel,
and there is a change of masters, there will always be a change
of practice. But you see, that has its comforting
side as well. For some of you who can say,
yes, during the past week, though my thoughts have been the occasion
of repentance, I've had spontaneous thoughts about God and about
Christ and about how to please Him and how to walk before Him.
And my hands have refused to touch things they should not,
even when mom and dad weren't there, and husband and wife and
employer were nowhere around. I have refrained my hands out
of the desire to please my God, and I have steered my feet, and
I have clicked my remote because God was there. Seeing all I saw,
and I wanted to please God in terms of what I would let come
into the eye, Now, if that's been true of you,
it matters not. If you can't point to when God
worked in your heart and life, that would not be true of you
unless God, by His power, had brought you into the mold of
the gospel, changed you from a slave of sin to a slave of
righteousness. And as you ought to take encouragement
from the fact that the evidence of a change of master is there,
so the change of practice But if there is no change of
masters and no change of practice, we come now in the third place
to look at the change of destiny. The change of destiny and the
end, eternal life. What is the meaning
of these words? The end is the conclusion, the
destination, eternal life. Eternal life is used broadly
in the scriptures. Sometimes it's speaking of the
quality of life primarily. This is life eternal, that they
may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. John 17.3. 1 John 3 and verse
16, 15, where John says, If a man hates his brother, he's
a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life
abiding in him. There the emphasis falls not
so much upon duration or consummation of life, but upon quality of
life that will endure forever. But in this passage, it's obviously
pointing to eternal life in its consummate full glory when we
are brought home into the presence of our God. And this text says
that eternal life is the destiny of those who have had a change
of master and manifested in a change of practice, but to no others. The end of what? Not the end
of everyone who makes a decision, makes a profession, who declares
himself to be a Christian, but the end of those who have experienced
the change of masters. are experiencing the change of
practice and their end is eternal life. What was their former destiny?
It's described in verse 21b as death. What fruit had you then
at that time in the things you are now ashamed? The end of those
things is death. Verse 23, the wages of sin is
death. You serve sin as your master. Payday comes someday and He'll
pay you. and what He'll pay you with is
death. The wages you earn for going on in the servitude of
sin is death. But now notice verse 23, the
free gift of God is eternal life. Where? In our fruit unto holiness? No. But it is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. It's God's free gift. It's in
Christ. But if you're in Christ, you
have a change of masters and a change of practice. There's
nothing meritorious in the change of masters and in the change
of practice. All the merit is in Christ. Eternal
life is God's free gift in Christ, but it is not realized by any
who don't experience change of master and change of practice.
You see how it all fits together? Are we saying that our perseverance
in the way of holiness earns life? No! There's enough sin
in our holiest deeds to damn us. But my friend, according to our
text, these three things God has joined together and let no
man put them asunder in his own conscience or in his own judgment
of himself. He could write of every single
Roman Christian, thanks be to God that whereas you were what
has happened, Now being made free from sin and become servants
or slaves to God, you are having your fruit unto sanctification
and the end eternal life. They are inseparably joined.
If you sit here this morning and say, you've described me,
Pastor. Those passages that describe
the slave of sin, that's me. Yes, I do present my members
as servants to uncleanness, unto iniquity, and to iniquity. My
members are indeed in servitude to the devil. How can I break
the chains? It is only in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. He has been anointed to open
the prison to those that are bound. You don't take the hacksaw
of your own unblessed effort and try to cut your own chains.
You don't try to pick the locks of the prison, but you cry out
of the prison, Lord Jesus, come and break my chains. Lord Jesus,
come and open the prison to this man, this woman, this boy, this
girl who is bound in his sins. He's been anointed to open the
prison to those that are bound. He can open the prison. He can
break the chains. You cry out, Son of David, have
mercy upon me." And as he hears that cry, he will, by his own
almighty power, cast you into the mold of the gospel. And then
your life will take on the contours of a gospel that proclaims Jesus
who saves his people, not in, but apo, away from their sins,
away from their condemnation, away from their galling, damning
power. And he saves them unto a life
of holiness as well as unto acceptance in the court of heaven. My dear
unconverted friend, you desperately need a change of masters, without
which there'll never be a change of practice, without which there'll
be no change of destiny. The wages of your sin, if you
continue in it, will be death, eternal death, separation from
Almighty God, weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth, and the smoke
of their torment ascends up forever and forever. In the Gospel, God
offers life and salvation and liberation to you, but it's in
Christ. Go to Christ. Cast yourself upon
Christ. And for you who have sat here
this morning, who have been struggling with the issue of assurance,
yet you have to be honest and say, I discern in me things that
I know have no explanation. Don't make what you discern of
grace in you the ground of coming to God in Christ. Wherever you're
at in the issue of your assurance, make the primary motion of your
mind and heart to say, Oh God, I would lay hold of your promise
in the gospel. Him that comes to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Let that coming be the disposition
of your soul, not the act of a moment. Indeed, there will
be evidence enough that there's been a change of masters and
that there is an ongoing change of practice. Then you will be
able increasingly to rejoice in the best that is yet to come,
the destiny. We shall see him and be like
him when we shall be transformed body and spirit into the moral
likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now being made free from sin
and become servants to God, you are having your fruit unto sanctification. and the end eternal life. Change of masters, is that true
of you? Change of practice, is that true
of you? Change of destiny will not be
true of you unless you can affirm the first two by the grace of
God are your experience. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for
those portions of your Word in which you have brought together,
in a very short and succinct way, the great issues of the
soul's salvation. And we pray that you would take
the words of this passage and write them upon our hearts, and
by the power of your Holy Spirit, that even this day you will come
and cast some into the mold of the Gospel. that they may obey
from the heart that form of teaching. And we praise you, our Father,
that you have done that work in many of us. And as Paul desired
to give you thanks for what you had done in effecting that change
in many at Rome, so we would give you thanks for effecting
that change in many here in this place today. Seal your word to
our hearts out of your perfect knowledge of our specific needs. May you apply that word with
close and inescapable pressure. Seal then this truth to our hearts
and be with us as we leave this place, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.