I've entitled this message, Whose
Slave Are You? And me and you are slaves to
somebody. We serve somebody, every one
of us. We're all slaves. Whose slave
are you? In verse 14, of Romans chapter
six, Paul gave what I think that we could call the emancipation
proclamation of every believer. In on January 1st, 1863, Abraham
Lincoln issued what was known as the emancipation proclamation. And here is exactly what he said. that all persons held as slaves
are and henceforward shall be free. And at that time, everyone who
was a slave was now free before the law. Now, this verse of scripture
is the believers emancipation proclamation. You're not going
to be a slave to sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you for you're not under law. You're under grace. Now, if you're under law, sin
has complete dominion over you. I find it almost interesting
to be around people who seem to want to be under law. They better hope they're not
under law. That's all I can say because it's over for them. The
more law a person is, usually the more immoral they are underneath
everything. But thank God he said, you're
not under law. You see, the strength of sin
is the law. You're not under law, but you're
under grace. In Romans chapter five, verses
20 and 21, and chapter six is a response on into chapter seven
is a response to this statement he made. Moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I love that description of
grace. He uses life and death. Now,
regarding this thing of death, how much ability do you have
to prevent it? Nada. Zero. None. In the same manner, How much
ability do you have to prevent God's grace? Absolutely none. If God's going
to give you grace, you cannot mess it up. You know, when John
read that passage from John chapter 10, it just thrilled me where
the Lord said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them. I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. My father,
which gave them me is greater than all. And nobody's able to
pluck them out of my father's hand. And that just gave me such
joy. God's sheep are secure. Nobody's able to pluck them out
of the father's hand. Now, Paul made this what he knew
people would object in verse one when he said, what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
And that's how people will respond either with Legalism or licentiousness. Why, that'll lead to sin if you
preach that way. Or somebody else will say, well,
okay, let's go ahead and sin, the grace may abound. Legalism
or licentiousness. And Paul improves the impossibility
of that in Romans chapter six. And then he goes on once again
in chapter, or verse 14, sin shall not have dominion over
you. Not if God gives you grace, and here's why. You're not under
the law, but under grace, and he kind of repeats himself in
verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that
to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey. His servants you are to whom
you obey. whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness. Now, I am either under the servitude
of sin. I'm either a slave of sin or
I'm a slave of righteousness. Now, I hope that the Lord will
give me grace to say what that means. I want to know if I'm
a slave to sin or if I'm a slave to righteousness. Now notice
Paul says in verse 16, no you not that to whom you yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants you are. Now that word is used
several times in this chapter and it's quite often translated
present. Who you present yourself. as
a servant to. His servant you are. If you present
yourself to sin, here I am. Be my Lord. Use me. I'm going to yield obedience
to you. Now, nobody generally comes out
and says it like that. Nobody will use that kind of
language, but that's what they do practically. They present
themselves to sin. Here I am. Use me. Reign in me. Let me do your bidding. Or you yield yourself to obedience,
to righteousness. And the root word for obedience,
I think this is very interesting, is hearing. Hearing. In presenting yourself to God,
you do so because you're his slave. You're a slave of righteousness
and you present yourself to him. I love that scripture in Romans
chapter 12, verse one, where he says, I beseech you by the
mercies of God that you present, same word as translated yield,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. Now, when someone presents themselves
to sin, they say, here am I, present to do your will. When they present themselves
to God, they say, here am I. Oh, my father. Our Father, who
art in heaven. This is presenting yourself to
God. Let me give you the prayer, the prayer the Lord taught us
to pray. And this is presenting yourself to God when it comes
from the heart, inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. I say, Our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I worship him for who
he is. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done. That's what I want. That's what
I present myself to. I want your kingdom to come.
I want you to rule and reign in me. And I want your will to
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. I'm completely dependent upon
you. And forgive us of our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us. You know, someone who's yielding
themselves to God, it doesn't mean they don't sin. I wish I
didn't sin anymore at all, but I do, and you do too. But I ask
for deliverance, Lord, forgive me of my sins, as I forgive those
who sin against me. And when you yield yourself to
God, you say, leave us not in temptation, don't let me even
be tried. I know that if I'm tried, I fear I'll fail, so don't
let me even be tried. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Deliver me from evil. Deliver
me from the commission of evil. Deliver me from this evil world.
Most especially deliver me from this evil one. Now that's presenting
yourself to God. That's yielding yourself to God. Now he says in verse 17, but
God be thanked. that you were the slaves of sin. We were born into this world
that way. You were the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you and
which delivered you. Not the doctrine of itself or
your understanding of the doctrine, but what that doctrine states. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
1 for just a moment. What is that form of doctrine?
Well, Paul says in verse 13 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, hold fast
the form of sound words. This is the form of doctrine.
This is the outline of doctrine which delivered us. And here
it is in verse 9, he saved us. And he called us with a holy
calling. Thank God for that. He saved
us. And this salvation, here's I
love the way he said this, he saved us and he called us. Because
this tells me that this salvation is something that was accomplished
outside of anything I've done. Because the saving came before
the calling. Aren't you thankful for that? The saving came before
the calling. He saved us, salvations of the
Lord. That's what we believe. That's
what saved me. That he's who saved me. He saved us. He did it all. And then he called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works. but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Now that's the form of doctrine
that saved me. Now, not just me knowing the
doctrine or me giving assent to the doctrine, but he who the
doctrine speaks of saved me. You've obeyed from the heart
You believe that doctrine. You've received that doctrine.
You've rejoiced in that doctrine. You've abated from the heart.
Now, what does that mean to obey from the heart? Well, the heart,
the scripture says so much about the heart. And, you know, I don't
know how many times I've been afraid. Well, I'm afraid I believe
with my head and I don't believe with my heart. That's a distinction
the scripture really does not make. Understand this. The heart is the understanding,
the head, it's the affections, it's the will. If you believe
from the heart that form of doctrine which delivered you, turn to
Romans chapter 10. Verse nine. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Now, in my heart, first of all, I understand. I
understand. Not completely. I don't fully
comprehend it. But I understand that God raised
Jesus Christ from the dead. And not only do I understand
it, I'm reliant on it. Because He rendered complete
satisfaction to God. That's why God raised Him from
the dead. God's justice demanded His resurrection. Now, I understand that. You know
what else? I love it. I love that God raised
my Redeemer from the dead and accepted me in the Beloved. I love it. Not only do I love
this, but if you give me a choice, as far as my will goes, if you
give me a choice, would you rather be saved by what Christ did or
by what you did? What would you choose? I know
what I'd choose. I'd rather be saved by what Christ did. Now
that's what it means to believe with the heart. With the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. I understand that the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is my personal righteousness before God. Not
only do I understand that, I love it. I love being justified by
his righteousness. Not only do I love it, this is
the way I want it. This is my choice. This is the
way I want it to be. with the heart, you've obeyed
from the heart, that form of doctrine, the truth concerning
how God saves sinners by Christ. You've obeyed from the heart,
that form of doctrine, which delivered you, which was delivered
to you and which actually delivered you. You know what that means?
You heard the gospel's gospel. You heard it is good news indeed
to your soul. As I said, to obey, the root
word is to hear. You heard the gospel as gospel,
and you obeyed it from the heart, and the grace of God gets all
the credit. Now let's go on reading, verse 18. Being then made free,
Romans chapter 6, verse 18. Now, you believed from the heart
that form of doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of God,
the doctrine of the gospel. Doctrine is not a dirty word.
Don't anybody ever look at all it's doctrine. Everything in
the Bible is doctrine. It's God's doctrine. It's good
doctrine and being, and it's, it's what delivered us. It's
who delivered us. What it stated being verse 18, being then made
free from sin. You became the slaves of righteousness. Now this is very important being
made free from sin. This has spoken in the passive
voice. means you didn't escape from
the bondage of sin because of something you did. This wasn't
a breakout. This wasn't an escape. There wasn't anything you did
to accomplish this. You were made free. If you've ever been made free,
you know that so don't you? He delivered you. He made you
free. If the son shall make you free. You're free indeed. You see,
you were in jail and you couldn't get the door open. Only the Son
could come and deliver you. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. And be not entangled again in
that yoke of bondage. You think about being made free.
How were you made free? There's only one way. Jesus Christ
died for you. and put away your sins. And He
came to you in power and gave you the faith, gave you the heart
to believe it. You were made free by what the
Lord did. You were justified. You know,
I love justification. I was given a new history. And
it's all good. It's all righteous. It's all
holy. Being made free, you became a slave of righteousness. Now, this is every believer.
He's a slave of righteousness. Now, what in the world does that
mean? How am I a slave of righteousness? Because I find in my own experience,
I still commit sins. So what do you mean you're a
slave of righteousness? Well, I'm a slave to this. captured by this. I can't get
away from this. The only way this sinner can
be saved is by the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to me
to where it's mine and his righteous nature imparted to me so that
I can believe that message. I'm enslaved to that. I can't
get away from it. and I don't want to get away
from it, not in any way. I'm a happy slave. As a matter
of fact, the only happiness I find is to be enslaved to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I can't get away from being
a slave of righteousness. Now, somebody is thinking, what
do you mean by righteousness imputed and righteousness imparted? What does that mean? Well, when
Adam fell, His sin was imputed to me. It was charged to my account. By one man's disobedience, the
many were made sinners. It was charged to my account.
I was convicted for it. But not only was his sin charged
to my account, his evil nature was imparted to me so that I
was born into this world with an evil nature. Now, the only
way I can be saved from that situation is for just as Adam's
sin was imputed to me. And God did that. I was in him. The very righteousness of Jesus
Christ is imputed to me and becomes mine so that I'm guilty of it.
I'm guilty of his righteousness and his Holy nature is imparted
to me in the new birth. It's regeneration. It's being
born of the Spirit, being born again. And I can't get out of
that. You know, I'm enslaved to His
righteousness. And it's slavery that I love. I don't want it to be any other
way. You're enslaved to this. You
don't want to get away from it. You see, He's a good Master,
isn't He? This one we're enslaved to. See,
righteousness is not some kind of concept. Righteousness is
a person. I love thinking about that. There's
one righteousness, the righteousness of God. And I'm enslaved to him. He's a good master. I'm like
that bond slave that doesn't want to get away. I love my master. I love my children. I don't want
to go away. Every believer is a slave of righteousness. Whose slave are you? a slave
of sin or a slave of righteousness. Now go on reading verse 19. Paul
says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity
of your flesh. I'm using these human analogies
of a slave and its master because of the infirmity or the weakness
or the inability of your flesh. I speak after the man or men
because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded,
presented your members, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity,
unto iniquity, and you know you've done that. Every one of us have. We've all presented ourselves
to sin. until we're delivered by God. For as you have yielded
your member servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniquity,
even so in the same manner now yield, present your member servants
to righteousness, unto holiness. The same manner in which you've
presented yourself to sin, present your members as a slave to its
master, righteousness, which always is unto holiness. Now
understand this. He's not saying do righteous
acts in order to become holy. Bible never speaks like that. It's righteousness that makes
us holy. The imputation and the impartation
of righteousness. Now he says in verse 20, when
you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. Righteousness wasn't your master.
You're free from it. You felt no need for Christ and
his righteousness, either imputed or imparted. It didn't even make
sense to you. There wasn't a connection there. You were free from righteousness. It was meaningless to you. You
were very much like John Wesley. When he was talking, when he
heard about righteousness being imputed, he said, why, that's
imputed nonsense. He didn't have any understanding
of the gospel. Now, there was a time when you
were like that. You were completely free from
righteousness. You weren't enslaved to it. You
were enslaved to sin. Verse 21. What fruit had ye then
in those things whereof you're now ashamed? For in the end of
those things is death. What fruit, what good things
did you have from your master? Fruit is the outside of what's
going on on the inside. Did being a slave to sin, a slave
to the law, bring forth any good fruit? Any at all? No. It didn't bring forth any good
fruit at all. I don't care whether it was religious
sin or irreligious sin, sins of self-righteousness or sins
of the flesh, the wages you got from your master. You're ashamed
of all of that. And the end of that is death.
And he's not just talking about physical death. He's talking
about spiritual death. The end of those things is death. Verse 22, but now being made free from sin. And once again, this is in the
passive. You were delivered. You were
made free. This is something Christ did
for you. And I love the way he says, but
now being made free from sins and becoming or having become
servants to God, you have your fruit fruit unto holiness and
to the end everlasting life. But now. Now. I love the word now in the
scriptures being now justified by his blood. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, because now is Christ risen from
the dead. You who before time were far
off are now made nigh by the blood of Christ, because there
is one now appearing in the presence of God for us. Being now made free from sin,
being justified, and becoming slaves to God, you have your
fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Now, the only
true freedom there is, is being a slave. The absolute worst thing
that could happen to this sinner is to be left to himself. To
be left to my own, what they would call, free will. Worst
thing that could happen to me. I remember one time when I was
in high school, in an art class, there was a girl that was, I
mean, she was claimed to be a witch. And I mean, she was a very, she
was a very bad person. I remember we had to do this, Self-portrait. I don't know. I remember looking at her self-portraits
and had seagulls and stuff in her hair and everything. And
each one said, freedom, freedom, freedom. And even then I knew
she was a slave. Just a complete slave. Oh, what a blessing it is to
be made free from sin. and become a slave to God where
you can't get away. And what's the fruit of that?
You have fruit under holiness, and that's talking about the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. Don't you love the fruit of the
Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. You know, I love the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I rejoice that he's my savior and he's my redeemer.
And it gives me peace to know his righteousness is my personal
righteousness before God. All God requires I have. And
that gives me peace. And the fruit of the spirit is
long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. Every time I talk about
long-suffering and being long-suffering and patient, 50 people come up
to me after the service and say, well, I don't have any of that.
Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. If you're a believer,
if you're a believer, when you see the way the Lord's been patient
with you, you're patient. Gentleness is graciousness. Goodness
is a merciful attitude. That's your attitude towards
your brethren. That's your attitude toward others.
The fruit of the spirit is faith. meekness and temperance. That is your fruit toward you. You believe. You're meek before
God. Temperance is controlled from
within. You've got the Holy Spirit within
you. You don't do what you would because
you have the Holy Spirit. The fruit of being a slave to
God is the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. I love where the
Lord, I mean, Paul, after he mentions the fruit of the Holy
Spirit, he says against such there is no law. There's no law
against the fruit of the Spirit. These people who wanted to bring
people under law, and they wanted to be under law, where Paul said,
tell me you that desire to be under the law, don't you hear
what it says? Don't you see what it's made
you? You bite and devour one another. He said, oh, the fruit
of the spirit against such, there is no law. Being now, our text,
Romans 6, 22, being now made free from sin and become servants,
slaves to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end
everlasting life. for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now wages, what are wages?
Well, you go out and work and you expect to receive compensation,
don't you? I don't know anybody here that
will work for free. I mean, when you go out to work, you expect
to get a paycheck, wages, compensation for what you have done. Now,
the wages of sin is death. It's the fair payment. It's the
compensation. And he's not just talking about
physical death. He's talking about eternal death. If any of us go to hell, I hope
nobody in here goes to hell. I sure hope I don't. And I hope
you don't either. I want us all to be saved by
the grace of God and bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ
and trust him completely. But if anybody here goes to hell,
he will be getting exactly what he earned. It will be fair wages. How many times have you heard
people object to the gospel? How could it be fair for God
to love one and pass by somebody else? How could it be fair for
Christ to die for one and not die for somebody else? How could
that be fair? Fair is God sending me and you
to hell. Fair is God punishing us. The wages, the fair payment,
the compensation for sin is death. And may I say this with a broken
heart, but if you go to hell or if I go to hell, it'll be
all my fault. It'll be all your fault. You
can't say, well, I wanted to be saved, but God wouldn't save
me. I wanted to trust Christ, and he turned me away. He said,
nope, you're not one of them. Nothing like that ever happened. If anyone
goes to hell, it's all their fault. You believe that? The wages of sin is death. But the gift The gift. And that's literally
the free gift of grace. The charisma. The free gift of
grace. The gift of God is eternal life. Now, eternal life, you know,
it's not just the endless existence of life that will never stop.
It's the quality of that life. This is eternal life that they
might know thee. the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou has sent. That's eternal life to know God,
to know Christ, to have him know me, to have him know my name. First John 5 20 says, and we
know that the son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we might know him that's true and that we are in him that's
true. This is the true God and this
is eternal life. The gift of God is eternal life. You notice that phrase that we're
in him that's true. I love that. What about where
the Lord said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, if I talked about Aubrey
and I said, this is my beloved daughter, you know how I'd say,
I'd say with whom I'm well pleased. I'm pleased with whom I'm well
pleased. But when God speaks of his son, He doesn't say, this
is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. He says, this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And everybody that's
in him, he is well pleased with. That means right now he is well
pleased with me. He's well pleased with all of
his elect, with all who are in his son, the gift of God. It's called, in Romans 1.11,
a spiritual gift. It's called in Romans 5.16, the
free gift. The free gift. It's called in Romans 11.29,
the gift without repentance. Have you ever had somebody give
you something and take it back? It's almost funny when that happens.
They give it to you, and then, oh, I've changed my mind. I'm
taking it back. Lord never does that. It's the gift without repentance. And it comes to us through our
Lord Jesus Christ. I love the way Paul always makes
sure the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life. But he doesn't end the sentence there. He always makes
sure we understand this. It comes to us through, through,
through, through the mediation, through the person for the sake
of, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift, the free gift. I love what the Lord said to
that woman in John chapter four. He said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it was that saith to
thee, give me to drink. you would have asked, and he
would have given you eternal life. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Now, who's slave are you? Who's
slave are you? Who do you present yourself to? May God make every one of us
slaves of righteousness. Every believer is a slave of
righteousness. Let's pray. Lord, I'm asking, we're asking in Christ's
name, That by your grace, you would rescue us from being
slaves to sin. Lord, we can't emancipate ourself. We can't free ourself. We ask
that you would do this for us by your grace and Lord cause us to present
ourselves unto thee. that we might be enabled by your
grace to be slaves, servants of righteousness, that we might
bring forth fruit unto thee. Oh Lord, enable us to be fruit
bearing. enable us to bear the fruit of
love, of joy, of peace, of long-suffering, of gentleness, of goodness, of
faith, of meekness, and temperance. Lord, bless this message, and
Lord, as we Look toward this coming week ahead of us. We ask
that you would give us grace to continually present ourselves,
our bodies, all that we are unto thee, a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto thee, which is our reasonable service. Lord,
enable us to do that. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
Al, we thank you for him, thy gift. In his name we pray, amen.