Those of you who have your Bibles
with you, will you turn please to the sixth chapter of Paul's
letter to the Romans, the Roman letter, chapter six. May I say,
if you are not in the habit of bringing a Bible with you, may
I encourage you to do so, so that you may see with your own
eyes in the Scriptures that which is affirmed and explained by
the servants of God from this pulpit. Romans chapter 6 and
I shall read the last paragraph of that chapter Beginning with
verse 15 and reading through to the very familiar verse which
concludes the chapter verse 23 What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under law but under grace? God forbid Know ye not
that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his
servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or
of obedience unto righteousness? But thanks be to God that whereas
ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that
form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered, And being made
free from sin, he became servants of righteousness. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as ye 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 the servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. But what fruit had ye then? What
fruit had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now
ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. The words human rights, freedom,
liberation, Our common verbal currency at this point in our
own history, in this country and in many parts of the world,
one can hardly expose himself to any facet of the news media,
pick up a newspaper or news magazine or family journal or even a Christian
periodical without confronting words that at least point in
the direction of the words of human rights, human dignity,
human freedom, liberation. However, in all honesty, one
must acknowledge that much of the use of that language in our
own day is deceptive and dishonest to the core. For many of the
so-called liberation movements are simply an effort by a militant
minority to impose a humanistic tyranny in the name of liberation. But when we turn to a passage
such as the one that I have read in your hearing, and we read
such words as servanthood or slavery, freedom, liberty, bondage,
We're dealing with language that is honest language, language
which reflects realities, realities that impinge upon the matters
of the deepest concern to every single one of us. For you will
notice as I read, I emphasized in conjunction with the words
freedom and bondage and slavery, the words life and death as they
occur several times in this passage. In other words, the liberation
motif of this passage is not a matter of political or civil
liberties. It is not a matter that impinges
upon time alone, but it is a matter of life and of death in all the
pregnancy of those words when understood in a biblical context. Life in its fullest dimension
is the enjoyment of God in His presence in the new heavens and
the new earth and that forever. Death is the lake of fire in
all the horror and terror with which our Lord describes it as
a place where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And so as we come to this passage
which may have a semblance of similarity with current motifs
of thought and expression in terms of its freedom or liberation
language, we are in an entirely different world, and I trust
you will not import anything of the sham terminology and language
of the world into this passage. For here we are dealing with
slavery that is slavery indeed. Slavery unto death, damnation,
the lake of fire. We are dealing with life that
is life indeed. Life in the knowledge of God
and in the enjoyment of God, even unto the ages of the ages. Tonight and, God willing, next
Lord's Day evening and possibly a third, our attention will be
particularly riveted upon verses 17 and 18. But as we take up these verses
under the general title, Whose Slave Are You?, I want to pause
for just a moment and pick up the general thread of thought,
for these words do not come to us in isolation from a thread
of thought. Most likely, in a couple of weeks,
those of you who attend the adult class will engage in a study
of the Book of Romans. And in that study, Pastor Fisher,
the good teacher that he is, will introduce it, no doubt,
with giving you background and then move on to the general structure
and plan of the book. So I don't want to steal his
thunder or relieve him of his legitimate task as your teacher.
Suffice it to say that in the earlier chapters of the Book
of Romans, the Apostle has established the universality of human sin
and guilt. And his statements concerning
this come to a climax in the middle of the third chapter in
which he says, that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God. And from that point
on through to the end of chapter 5, he then gives the divine answer
to the human dilemma of sin and guilt. How shall sinful, guilty
man be right with God? And the answer of those chapters
is that sinful, guilty man becomes right with God on the grounds
of the doing and dying of another, even the doings and dyings of
Jesus Christ, and that we receive the benefits of his doing and
his dying by faith and by faith alone. And the great theme then
of the middle of chapter 3 to the end of chapter 5 comes to
the climactic statement of verses 20 and 21 of the fifth chapter. And the law came in beside that
the trespass might abound, but where sin abounded, Grace did
abound more exceedingly. Grace did superabound, that as
sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life. through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, having made this grand
statement concerning the fact that guilty sinners who have
broken God's law, who stand guilty and condemned before that law,
are saved apart from all law obedience of their own, Paul
anticipates that someone will add to that wonderful gospel
truth the devil's logic. And so he begins chapter 6 with
the words, what shall we say then? If where sin abounds, grace
superabounds, what logical deduction shall we make? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? If you've got this much sin and
grace rises higher and superabounds beyond it, well, let's sin more
that grace may abound yet more and more. Well, the apostle deals
with the devil's logic in verses 1 through 14 in this first two
paragraphs of chapter 6, and in verse 14 he makes another
tremendous statement, for sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under law but under grace. Now the devil's
logic comes in again. If I am saved apart from any
law-keeping of my own, and when it comes to the grounds of my
justification, all law works of any kind have nothing to do
with my acceptance with God, well, the devil's logic then
says, what then, shall we sin because we are not under law
but under grace? And then the apostle answers
that second strand of the devil's logic. And he does so in the
paragraph read in your hearing by drawing out this extended
analogy between slaves and their masters. And he does so because
he knows this is what we need. Look at verse 19, I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
He said, I'm speaking in this slave master terminology to refute
the devil's logic added to the glorious truth of salvation by
grace alone. He said, I'm doing this because
as weak human beings slow to grasp divine truths, quick to
pervert divine truth to ends which God never intended, he
said, because of the weakness of your flesh, I'm speaking in
analogies which will be very clear to all of you who read
my letter. And it is in that setting of
refuting the devil's logic that salvation by grace should lead
to indifference to holiness and obedience that he takes up this
whole subject of whose slave are you now it should be a sobering
thing as you sit here tonight to know that every man every
woman every boy every girl right down to the youngest of you every
single one of us is a slave. There is not a free person upon
the face of the universe. We are either, in the language
of this passage, slaves to righteousness and to God, or we are slaves
to sin and to unrighteousness. But there is not a free man upon
the face of the earth. Not a one. What I propose to
do in the study tonight and in at least one or two subsequent
Lord's Day evenings is to examine this passage with you, first
of all, considering tonight what the Apostle says concerning the
condition of these Roman Christians by nature. How does he describe
what they were before the grace of God came to them? Well, their
condition by nature is first of all asserted, and then it
is secondly described, and then thirdly, the end of that condition
is very clearly pronounced. First of all, then, their former
condition asserted in verse 17. But thanks be to God that whereas
ye were servants of sin, their former condition And he uses
a form of the to be verb which indicates that this was their
constant, unvarying state. Ye were the servants of sin. Now the two key words in the
assertion of their condition are servant and sin. And the word servant is a very
weak translation. It should be translated slave. The word that is used here has,
as its universal significance, the concept of a slave as opposed
to a free man. It is not the house servant who
comes to terms with his master and is what we would call like
a domestic, but it is the servant who is owned lock, stock, and
barrel by his master. It is the slave concept in which
the slave is a commodity which the master owns. Now, whether
he is a good or a poor master is not the issue. We're talking
about the sphere of reference in the choice of this word to
describe the former condition of the Romans. It is a condition
of servitude and of slavery. The energies, the abilities,
The time, all of those commodities possessed by a slave exist for
the will of the master, not for himself. And the second key word
is sin. Notice he says that whereas you
were the slaves of sin, and in the original there is an article,
you were the slaves of the sin. For you see, the apostle is not
here pointing to some specific sin or to sin in a general sense,
but he is personifying sin into the image of a master. And he
says, you were the bondslaves of sin. There was a principle
of sovereignty in sin. Which sovereignty was exercised
over you Romans as the sovereignty of a master is exercised over
his bond slave? Now that's their former condition
asserted. Now in the second place, notice
their former condition described. How does this relationship of
servitude to sin manifest itself? Well, the apostle in this context
says there were two outstanding manifestations of this servitude
to sin. The first one was this. The voluntary
obedience to the demands of sin. Look at verse 19. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for
as ye presented, past tense, as ye presented your members
as slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. Here is his practical description
of the condition which he has asserted as existing in all of
the Romans prior to their conversion. How does the slave of sin manifest
that slavery? Well, he manifested in the language
of the apostle by voluntary obedience to the demands of sin in his
members. Now, what does this word mean?
Ye presented your members. Well, it simply means your faculties. particularly, but not exclusively,
the physical faculties of the body which so often become the
vehicle and the occasion of sin, but not exclusively. For in a
parallel passage in Colossians chapter 3, allowing the Word
of God to be its own interpreter, the Apostle says in chapter 3
of Colossians and verse 5, Put to death, therefore, your members
which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion,
those are sins which obviously are committed with the physical
members. But now notice, he proceeds,
evil desire is called a member upon the earth. covetousness. We don't covet with our hands
or feet, we covet with our hearts. And so when the Apostle says
you presented your members, though there may be a predominance of
emphasis upon the physical members, there is to be no exclusive reference
to the physical members. A synonym for members is your
faculties. Now he says, in this description
of their servitude, there was a voluntary yielding up of the
members unto what? Two things. Unto uncleanness,
which points to the subjective polluting influence of sin upon
this slave. It defiles the one who commits
it. It defiles the conscience. It defiles the heart. It pollutes
a man's innards. So that the Bible speaks of having
the heart cleansed by faith. Having the conscience purged
by the blood of Christ. But then he describes this sin
in terms of its objective moral condition. He says, iniquity
unto iniquity, better translated, lawlessness unto lawlessness. The word he uses, the word law,
with that little letter in front that makes it a negative. No
law unto no law. You see, as sin is polluting
in terms of its internal, subjective, defiling influence, objectively,
sin is lawlessness. And that's precisely what John
says in his first epistle. The essence of sin is no law. That is, no law with reference
to God. Law with reference to my own
passions and my own desires and my own appetites, yes. They are
the master whose law I recognize, but while under servitude to
sin, The description is of voluntary obedience to the demands of sin
manifested in the willful, deliberate presenting of our faculties unto
inward defilement and unto external lawlessness. I'll do my own thing. Then he describes in a second
way The expression of this servitude is given to us in verse 21. Look
at the language. For when ye were the slaves of
sin, ye were free in regard to righteousness. As surely as he
describes this condition as the voluntary obedience to the demands
of sin in verse 19, In verse 21, he describes it as a total
disregard to the demands of righteousness. You see, he's using the slave
master imagery again. He says, when you were the slaves
of sin, you regarded yourself as free men with regard to righteousness. That is God's standard of holiness. Now he's not saying they were
free from the obligations to righteousness. No, no. He clearly
established in the first three chapters that all men, whether
they've ever heard the gospel or not, whether they've ever
heard the law of Moses or not, they are accountable to God's
absolute standard of righteousness. So he would not come and contradict
himself in chapter 6, but he's describing the mindset of a slave
of sin. And here's the picture. Here's
a man whose master is Mr. Jones, and let's call the slave
John Smith. Now when Mr. Jones speaks, John
Smith listens. Yes sir, and he takes his orders
and he does his bidding. But now if Mr. Jones' neighbor,
by the name of Mr. Reynolds, also owns some slaves,
but not this particular Mr. Smith, Mr. Reynolds may call
across to the slave and say, hey, come over here, I've got
this job and that job. He looks at him and says, you've
got no rights over me. I'm a free man as far as you're
concerned. I'm not a free man with regard
to my master, Mr. Jones, but to you, Mr. Reynolds,
you can bark your orders all day, yeah, yeah, yeah, I ain't
gonna listen. Now Paul says, the slaves of
sin have that attitude with regard to righteousness. When you were
the slaves of sin, you were free in regard or in respect to righteousness. In other words, the law of God
can thunder from its remains upon your own heart, saying,
Thou shalt not. Thou shalt. Thou shalt not. The law of God can thunder from
the scriptures, come to the external ear, and register upon the mind,
saying, Thou shalt. Thou shalt not. And you know
what the disposition of a slave of sin is? Who are you, Mr. Righteousness? I owe no allegiance
to you. Go your way. I'm a free man in
regard to righteousness. And then he goes on in his voluntary,
willful, deliberate obedience to his master's sin. Isn't that
a frightening picture? But that's the picture of the
text. So we have the former condition of the Romans asserted, slaves
of sin. That former condition described,
two parts to the description, voluntary obedience to the demands
of sin, total disregard to the demands of righteousness. Now
the third thing he tells us about their former condition is the
end to which that former condition leads, verses 21 and 23. What
fruit had ye then at that time in the things whereof ye are
now ashamed? for the end of those things is
death verse 23 for the wages of sin is death and death in
the Pauline language and in the language of scripture means in
contexts such as these nothing less than the punishment of God
judicially executed upon the willful bond-slaves of sin, a
punishment which, though it may have as it were its first fruits
in this life, Romans 1.18, the wrath of God is now being revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. When
the word death is used, it brings within its compass not just those
previews of present manifestations of the frown of the Almighty,
but it brings within its compass such things as we find described
in chapter 2 of this epistle and verse 8 But upon them that
are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
shall be wrath, indignation, tribulation, and anguish upon
every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also
of the Greek. Is not that reminiscent of the
words of our Lord? They shall be cast into outer
darkness, where there shall be weeping and wailing, and gnashing
of teeth. Or in the language of Revelation
chapter 20 and verse 15, whoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death. Now, to me, that's a terribly
foreboding, discouraging, heavy description of what the Romans
were. But that's the Pauline assessment
of every single Roman Christian in terms of his past. Now that
raises a very burning question. How could the apostle, having
never been to Rome to observe the lifestyle of the Romans,
How could the apostle, having never interacted with them and
seen the level of their morality or lack of it, their religiosity
or lack of it, how could he make such a sweeping description that
included every single Roman who is now a Christian and say of
all of them without exception, you were the slaves of sin? You manifested that slavery by
the voluntary yielding of your members to the service of sin,
by the total disregard of the demands of righteousness, and
you were in the pathway to death, which is nothing but hell itself.
How could he be sure that there weren't some pretty nice people,
who through the gospel had simply become better people? How could
he be so sure there weren't some people who weren't quite good
enough to make it to heaven, but they weren't so bad as to
be on their way to hell? Isn't it rather presumptuous
for the apostle to group the whole kit and caboodle together
and say, all of you were slaves of sin? They weren't all drunkards. They weren't all first century
junkies. They weren't all idol worshippers. They weren't all whoremongers.
But he says they were all the slaves of sin. They all voluntarily
yielded their faculties to sin. They all totally disregarded
the demands of righteousness. They were all in the path of
death. Well, you see, he could make such assertions and descriptions
not because he went to Rome and psychologically analyzed the
people or sociologically evaluated them or religiously evaluated
them. He could say this because this
condition at Rome was no different from the condition that exists
in every single human being from the time of Adam until this present
hour. Until grace arrests a man, a
woman, a boy or girl, the condition described in this passage is
true of every man, woman, boy or girl. I want to bring it closer
to home. It is true of every person in
this building. And my friend, until what you
are by nature becomes a spiritually oppressive burdensome, vexed
from reality. You will never, you will never,
I say you will never embrace the Son of God as your only hope
of salvation. Until what you are by nature
becomes a burdensome, vexing, crushing spiritual reality, you'll
saunter on your way a slave of sin until death overtakes you,
and you'll land in the pit of eternal So in the time that remains,
having opened up the text, being honest with the words which the
Holy Ghost has given, I want to go back now and apply each
of these dimensions of truth to the consciences of my hearers.
Your natural condition is that of a slave to sin, if you are
not in Christ. If you are in Christ, this was
your condition. How do we know it is so? How
did Paul know it was so? Because the scriptures prior
to the truths that he unfolds in Romans had already clearly
established the fact that all men are conceived in sin. Psalm 51 in verse 6, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. When that egg and sperm were
joined, and there began the formation of a man called David in the
womb of his mother, he says, from the point of conception,
that which was formed in my mother's womb was a sinner. In sin did my mother conceive
me. And we are born in sin. And we have no less an authority
than our Lord Jesus for that truth. John chapter 3, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. And when our Lord uses the term
flesh in that context, He doesn't mean flesh in terms of that which
constitutes the covering of our bones. That which is born of
the flesh, that is, that which comes forth from a creature that
is morally polluted, is of necessity stained with that pollution. So the scriptures teach us that
we are conceived in sin, we are born in sin, and then our lives
are simply a commentary on the sin that is bound up in the heart. For Jesus said in Mark 7, beginning
with verse 19, for from within, out of the heart of man proceed. And then he lists these general
categories of sin, ranging all the way from evil, to moral looseness,
to religious perversions, and he says these proceed from within,
out of the heart of man. It doesn't say they are pressed
in from without by the pressures of society. It does not say they
are programmed in by materialistic He says they proceed out of the
heart of man. And my friend, I would ask you
tonight, has it ever come home to your heart until it has been
an oppressive, vexing, carking reality? I am a slave of sin. Well, if it hasn't, you're living
in a fool's paradise, because that's what you are by nature.
Thanks be to God that ye were the slaves of sin, but... He says that's what they were.
Now you see, the manifestation of your condition is exactly
the same as was that of the Romans. What was the two-fold manifestation? Remember it. Look at it again.
Verse 19. The voluntary obedience to the demands of sin. as he yielded or presented your
members, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity.
You see how graphic is the imagery? Mr. Jones speaks, and a servant
runs before him and says, yes sir, I am waiting your orders. No grudging service here. There
is the presentation of the members. Sin speaks and the members run
to yield their obedience. And is not your life, many of
you sitting here tonight, a living monument of that truth? Your
members are willingly, deliberately presented to the service and
use of sin. Your mind is given deliberately
to think your own thoughts about God. It's the height of blasphemy. To form God after the dictates
of your own notions. Think of it. Almighty God. who existed from eternity in
the perfection of his triune being, independent, self-sufficient,
what the old theologians call the aseity of God, in perfect
love and tranquility, eternal Godhead, that God is pleased
to create. make a creature that is dependent
upon him for all the stuff of his creatureliness physically,
emotionally and mentally and now that which God has made turns
around and tries to remake God after its own notions it's the
height of blasphemy but that's what you're doing
some of you sitting here now You are presenting your members,
your mind, as a willing slave of sin. Sin says, hey, make a
God who doesn't punish sin. And you're trying to make a God
like that. Just a little sin. Not great, not bad. Make a God
who can wink at sin. The God who made you says, I
am of pure eyes than to look upon iniquity. I will by no means clear the
guilty. Be sure your sin will find you
out. The wages of sin is death. The God who made you says that's
what he's like. And you know what your sin is
saying? Make a God who doesn't see all
sin. Make a God who doesn't get upset
with some sins. And you know what you've done
is a foolish lackey of the sin that will damn you? You've presented
your mind a willing bond slave to your sin. Then you've given
your heart to bitterness, to selfishness, to lust, to covetousness. You've given your hands to theft.
You've given your hands to licentiousness. There are young men here whose
hands have touched the bodies of women in a way that they ought
not. Hands that have taken things
from mom's pocketbook, or from dad's dresser drawer that they
ought not to have taken, when sin said, it's just a little
thing, go ahead and take it. You said, yes sir, sin, at your
service. And your hands took the forbidden
objects, touched the forbidden objects. Your feet have walked
in paths forbidden by the word of God. Your sexual organs have
been given to adultery, to fornication, to perversion, to lesbianism,
to homosexuality, to self-abuse. Sin says, use your sexual faculties
any way you want. They're yours. And you say, yes,
sin, at your service. Paul says, ye presented your
members, servants, to uncleanness. And listen, listen. You cannot
deny that sitting here tonight is a slave of sin. You're conscious
of mold and cleanness. That's why you feel uncomfortable
around God, where his presence comes near. That's why some of
you, if you had your choice, the last place you'd be is here! When people pray, you know they're
not mouthing words. God is real to them. And when
the Word is preached, eternal issues are real. That's why you're
uncomfortable. Why? Because you're conscious
that you've given your members to sin unto uncleanness. And also unto iniquity unto iniquity. That is lawlessness unto lawlessness. You've lived as though God's
law had no claims upon you, and you've broken that law. You see,
the proof of your slavery is your voluntary obedience to the
demands of sin. But secondly, as in the case
of these Romans, verse 21, verse 20, when you were the slaves
of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Your total
disregard to the demands of righteousness. You have the remains or the evidences
of the work of God's handiwork in that in the language of chapter
2 of this very epistle, you show the work of the law written in
your heart. You have a conscience. And for
some of you, that is a terrible thing. Conscience is the one
great barrier between you and the unfettered abandonment of
yourself to sin. And that conscience is living
proof that you were made in God's image and he inscribed his law
upon the creature. For that law that is written
upon the conscience, upon the heart, manifesting itself in
conscience, and then sitting in this place, the law of God
comes to you from the scriptures. And you know what your life is? It's a living proof of verse
20. You regard yourself a free man, a free woman, a free boy,
a free girl with regard to righteousness. God's law says thou shalt have
no other gods before me. And you say, huh, who's God to
boss me around? If I want to make a God of my
own plans and ambitions, that's my business. If I want to make
a God of my friends, that's my business. If I want to make a
God of my notions, my appetites, it's my life, they're my faculties,
I'll do my own thing, my friend. That's living proof that you're
a slave of sin. Because you regard yourself a
free man with regard to righteousness. The righteousness expressed in
the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before thee.
The righteousness expressed in the second, the third commandment,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in a light
and frivolous manner. And yet you've done that times
without number. The fourth commandment, remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And the Sabbath day is a burdensome
drudgery to you. Why? Because it's a day when
there's too much concentration upon the world of the Spirit
and upon the truth of God. My friend, that's the living
proof. What's the proof? Total disregard to the demands
of righteousness, the fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. Children, obey your parents. And what do you do? You say,
I don't care if God says I've got to honor my old man and my
old woman. I'll do as I please. And if I've got to rip them open
in the pursuit of my own lust? Too bad, that's their problem,
not mine. I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask them to have
standards that if I violated them they would get them upset.
That's their problem. Free in regard to the righteousness
of the fifth commandment. Poor slave. Poor slave. You're to be pitied. Your vaunted freedom is the most
vicious slavery this side of hell. The seventh commandment, thou
shalt not commit adultery. Whoso looketh to lust, some of
you young men, you deliberately feed into your eyes by way of
television, magazines, that which causes lust to burden, that which
causes you to commit mental adultery with woman after woman after
woman. You regard yourself a free man
with regard to righteousness. God says thou shalt not commit
adultery. You say, who's God to tell me
what to do? He doesn't have to wrestle with
my sexual drive. What does he know about a sex
drive? I do what I gotta do. That's the proof you're a slave
of sin. You regard yourself a free man with regard to righteousness.
What about the ninth commandment? Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Now you children, listen to me. Perhaps the greatest living proof
of the slavery that you have to sin for you children is in
the realm of whether or not you tell the truth. Lying is a peculiar
sin to children. And I'm speaking to some children
sitting here who have lied to their moms and dads not once,
not twice, but five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred
times. You know what that proves, children?
You're a slave of sin. God says, don't bear false witness. Speak the truth. You say, I don't
care what God says. If I told the truth, I'd get
a spanking. So to avoid a spanking, you lie
and you show that sin is your boss and not God. You see, we're not dealing in
theories. When the Apostle said to the Romans, ye were the slaves
of sin, the assertion was valid then, it's valid right now. When he said the manifestation
of that slavery was twofold, voluntary obedience to the demands
of sin, he presented your members, total disregard to the demands
of righteousness, you regarded yourself as free men, It's as
relevant right here as it was then. And my friend, I must be
honest and say that as the Apostle tells them what the end of that
condition was for them, it will be the same for you. Verses 21
and 23, the end of those things is death. But tell us, when those
things have done their work to the ultimate, They result in
what? Not what you're pursuing them
for. Sin says, do my will and you'll really live. And God says,
do sin's will and you'll surely die. And my friend, the yawning
mouth of hell and the multitudes who've already descended into
it is a monumental witness that sin You remember the first words
breathed by the tempter? Oh, Eve, you shall not surely
die. Death? That's radical. I mean,
let's be reasonable. You're God's creature, Eve. Does
God treat his creatures with such radical destruction as death? We shall not surely die. Well,
something a little along the way, in the way of expressed
displeasure may come, but death? Surely not death. And rarely
do I pass a cemetery, but what I look at every gravestone and
I say, as I pass that cemetery, engraved upon every single tombstone,
is what you can visibly see in Mary Smith, 1822 to 1878, but
etched by the finger of God upon every tombstone are these words,
Thou shalt surely die. Thou shalt surely die! The end of those things is death. My friend, you can't escape the
conviction that that's what your slavery for sin deserves. You
know, that's a wonderful thing when you preach. I know I've
got a friend in your bosom when I preach. I do. Paul describes it in Romans 1.
Look at it for a moment. Speaking of the Gentiles, who
never had the written law of God, who never heard the Gospel,
what does he say of them? After describing in graphic detail,
detail that is almost indiscreet to read in a public congregation,
he says of these people, verse 32, God that they that practice such
things are worthy of death. Now how do they know it? They've
never had the law of God coming to them in written form or preached,
but they know it because of that law risen upon the heart. And
sitting here tonight, my unconverted man, woman, boy, girl, young
person, you know that what God says is true. The end of your
slavery is death. The wages of sin is death, not
extinction. But in the language of Hebrews
10.31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. Oh, what a frightening concept. to fall into the hands of the
living God, who is alive with pure and holy wrath, to the sinner
who said, I will not acknowledge your law. I will not acknowledge
your claims over me. I'll take the life you've given
and live it to my own ends. And the day comes when God takes
that into his hands and says, if that's your choice, then to
hell you must go. My friend, as long as sin is
your master, he's going to pay your wages. The wages of sin
is death. Now that was the former condition
of the Romans. It's the condition of each of
us by nature. And as we bring our study to
a close tonight, I'm not going to go into the new condition
of the Romans. It's described beautifully in
this passage. Nor am I going to expound in
detail how they came into that new condition. But oh, I would
not leave you on this base note But look, just catch as it were,
the glimmer of light that breaks through these words. Notice how
they began in verse 17. But thanks be to God that where
I, ye were, ye have become. You see, God has broken into
this miserable state of human slavery to sin. And according
to verse 23, the activity of God, which brings about the transformation,
centers in the gift that He imparts in His Son. The free gift of
God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, it's wonderful
to know that the God who's been offended, The God whose law we
have despised is the God who's come to the rescue so that man
might be delivered from the tyranny of sin. But now listen to me.
You know the only escape from the tyranny of sin? It's to come
into slavery to Christ. That's why I began with the question,
who's slave are you? You see, my friend, you are either
sin slave or Christ slave. And the only way to escape the
slavery to sin is to become the bond slave of Christ. Now, what kind of a master is
he? Well, he's a master who says, I will exert my claims from a
bloody cross. He's a master who says, I so
love the rebel sinner that I will, in all the dignity of my sinless
humanity, join to all the worth of my essential deity. I will
go and be stripped naked. I will be taken by cruel hands
of pagan soldiers. I will be hung up upon a cross
to be made the object of the apostate religionists and hardened
soldiers. And then I will swallow up in
myself all of the billows of my father's wrath, to what end? That I might come to the slaves
of sin and bid them become my slaves from my passion. My friend, how in the name of
the God of heaven Can you cling to a master who dragged you to
hell? When such a master appeals from
his cross, but he's no longer on that cross. He cried, it is
finished. And the Father raised him from
the dead to stand as it were upon the words of Jesus. Amen. It is finished! Raised for our
justification! Now he is the exalted Lord. And he says, on the ground of
my passion, my suffering for sinners, my promise to receive
the vilest of sinners and set them free, come and embrace me
as your new master. But my friend, a master you must
have, sin or the Savior. There's a wonderful hymn, and
I checked into six or seven of my hymn books at home to try
to find the entire hymn and couldn't track it down, but I'm glad I
remember the first lines of it. It goes like this. Make me thy
captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up
my sword. Force me to render up my sword. And I shall conqueror be. My friends, that's the message
of this passage. Can you find it in your heart
to say tonight to the gracious, loving Lord Jesus Christ, make
me thy captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to
render up my sword, and I shall conquerer be. My friend, who
slave are you? Who slave are you? Sin slave, it will lead to death. The bond slave of Christ, Jesus
said, where I am, there shall my servants be also. And some of us, and I know I
speak for many of you tonight, would stand here and say, how
gracious a master is the Lord Jesus. We think back to the years
in which we presented our members' servants to sin, and we think
of the toll that was paid short of hell. We can say, if we only
knew what we've known of the gracious rule of Christ in this
life, it is far better to be the bond slave of Jesus. and
the slave of sin. Will you add your Amen to that
child of God? Dear Christian, this has a word
for you and for me. In the light of the time, I'll
not dilate upon it much, but look at verse 19. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye presented your members
as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now present your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. You see what he's saying? Be
no less earnest and thorough in your servitude to Christ and
to righteousness than you were to sin and to the devil. You know, it's an amazing thing.
You see a lecherous man giving his energies to booze and to
broads and to filthiness and to rottenness, and he'll work
till six and he'll carouse till He's very earnest and zealous
in his servitude to sin. And God graciously saves him.
And for a while, the zeal that was poured into the service of
sin is poured into prayer and witnessing in the cause of Christ. Every time the church doors are
open, he can't get enough. The thought of his Savior brings
joy to his heart and tears to his eyes. And then you see him
a few years later. And he can skip prayer meeting
consistently with no pangs of conscience, not feel the loss
of the Savior's presence in his gathered people. He sleeps in
mornings, rushes off to work, no longer prays, no longer reads
the Word what's happened. He's not presenting his members
as zealously in the servitude of righteousness as he was in
the servitude of sin. And you know what he's saying
in essence? sin is a more worthy master than Jesus. Oh, my friend, does your life
eloquently bear witness to the fact that Jesus is a worthy master,
far more worthy than the devil? And I have found, as I've entered
my mid-forties, the idea of a long life is not very attractive to
me. that the thought that I might expend my energies for my blessed
Savior is the most wonderful thing in the world. If that can be had with a long
life, then thank God. But if the price to pay for a
long life is lassitude and dullness and lethargy, then away with
it all! Let the worms eat us before we
see our 50th birthday, so long as we shall live well and die
in the flesh of our zeal for Christ and go out in a blaze
of glory rather than peter out as a bunch of has-beens. Is that
romantic? Well, you may want to call it
that, but it seems to me it's apostolic. I count not my life
as dear unto myself. that I may finish my course. Why mean ye to weep and to break
my heart, Paul says. Don't play on my heart strings.
You're all upset because they said when I go to Jerusalem,
I'm going to have a rough time? He says, look, I'm prepared not
only for rough time, but for the end of time. I am prepared
not only to suffer, but to die! Stand aside! To me, to live,
is Christ! That's why his favorite title
for himself in the epistles is what? He doesn't start off by
polishing his brass and saying, hey, I'm one of the Lord's generals
here, take a look. He starts off, Paul, what? A doulos. Paul, a born slave
of Christ! Then he says, called an apostle. but bond slave before apostle. Oh, my dear Christian friend,
how much of your energies fit the description of verse 19,
as your servitude to sin was extensive and real and tangible. Is your servitude to Christ more
real, more tangible, more extensive? If not, then go back again and
sit down before the cross and gaze upon him. Think of the price
he paid for your release and for mine. God willing, in our
next study, we'll take up what the Romans became and the means
that were effectual to bring them to that new state. But I
leave you where we began. Who's slain? Are you? And I hope as you leave this
building that question will just burn itself into your conscience. And my friend, if you have no
more regard for your soul than to try to stifle the voice of
conscience by whatever means you will use, then I fear, I
fear for the state of your soul forever. For he that being often
reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be cut off, and
that without remedy my spirit shall not always strive with
man. Oh, that you would pray those
words. Make me thy captive, Lord. Then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword. and I shall conquer thee. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious
and almighty Savior, we worship you tonight. We praise you that
you were so set upon the release of captives as to come from the
unlimited glory and freedom of your eternal place in the bosom
of the Father is the eternal word to take to yourself our
humanity. In that humanity to live, to
suffer, to die that we might be released from bondage. Lord
Jesus, cast, we pray, the mighty cords of your own redemptive
love around those who this very moment are the slaves of sin. Rest them from the grasp of that
fiendish master. And oh Lord Jesus, make them
in this the day of your power, your willing servants. and we
who have been captured by your love and your grace and power. Oh, forgive the paltry measure
of our zeal. Forgive the meager measure of
our love. Help us. Oh, help us. Help us, Lord Jesus. Look upon
us with pity in all of our vacillation, in all of our coldness. and be
to us what you are promised to be as Messiah the one who would
not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax who would
deal gently with his lambs and carry them in his bosom Lord
Jesus be merciful to us and may that great day of unveiling reveal
that this night this word did not go forth in vain Oh God,
for the sake of your son, seal the word we pray in his name.