Romans 6:15-19 "Whose Slave Are You?" - 2/21/2018

all right Jonathan so when do we go live okay well sports fans we're ready to get alive as we do I want to recognize and welcome everyone that's joining us by livestream around the world it's extraordinary the number of people we had last week joined for our study so welcome and we're thrilled to be able to have a ministry beyond this room I just need to mention a couple things for those of you watching by livestream if you want to text a question to us that number is four six nine seven oh one oh four two two four six nine seven oh one oh four two two and we'd love to hear from you our next study is going to be next Friday this is Wednesday morning and we normally meet on Thursday morning but we're gonna meet next Friday morning because I'm gonna have to be out of town so I want to keep pushing on this and later this summer I'm going to hit a dead zone where I'll be gone a bunch and so I just want to capture all these opportunities that I can the other thing I want to mention just by way of beginning is my new book has just come out of here hey hey hey okay so to get into heaven you have to have a copy of this book and I just feel burdened for your soul it's called the moment of truth and you desperately need this for your spiritual life yeah exactly so it's a collection of sermons that I've given at Ligonier national conferences over the years as well as a couple of others that have been put in I gave a message in Seattle a couple years ago on John 18:37 36 to 38 Pilate says what is truth after I gave the message I went down to the front pew and RC sprawl was sitting there and he goes we're gonna make that into a book so only wish he was still alive to see the reality of this book come into being but I think that you'll enjoy it and be benefited from it it's all about truth what is truth and why do you need the truth so I've got a copy here you just pick one up if you want to leave something you can if not my main thing is I just want you to have one in your hand so and please do not ask Kent to sign my book okay do not ask Kent to sign my book so all right we're in Romans chapter six and this is all about our Christian life and it's all about growing in grace so we're in verses 15 and following and I want to begin by reading these verses but I think I need to begin really in a word of Prayer so let me begin prayer our Father as we now begin to look into your word I pray that your Holy Spirit will illumine us and enlighten us that he would be the master teacher capital T and that we would be instructed by him from your word use me as just a tool or an instrument in your hand to help bring out the meaning of your word I pray for all of us that our hearts would be receptive and our minds would be teachable our wills would be poised and ready to act upon the truth of your word so father now continue to instruct us as your word speaks to everyone of us directly here today in Christ's name Amen okay John Romans chapter 6 let me just read the passage and Paul is so at times dense in that he just compresses so much truth in a few words that as I read this you just have to to track with Paul so Romans six beginning in verse 15 what then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace may it never be do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you are slaves of the one whom you obey either a sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh but just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness so now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification there's so much in these verses I don't know that we can even get through all of these verses but to begin the key word is the word slaves or slave it's found five times in these five verses I've taken a ballpoint pen and drawn a circle around the word slave in these five verses and it's okay to markup your Bible too it's found twice in verse 16 once in verse 17 once in verse 18 once in verse 19 so this is the unifying thread that runs through these verses you always want to capture the big idea of a passage the dominant thrust and this is the dominant thrust everything revolves around this word slave now the word slave is translated into our English Bible from a Greek word Doulos do you l OS do loss and it is one who gives himself up completely to a master this word for slave is different from the word for servant this is several notches under a servant a servant was someone who still had some degree of freedom he could choose to accept the job he can choose not to accept the job he still could own property he received wages he could go home at the end of the day and that word da cunha we get deacon from and it was used of a waiter like at a wedding feast it was used of of an attendant who would care for the needs of someone else but he had his own life he could do his own thing go his own way he could come back the next day if he chose or he could he could sub out someone else but this word for slave is totally different and it's important that we grasp this this word for slave do loss represented someone who had no personal freedom to do as he pleased his entire life was to be given in servitude of his master who had paid a price to purchase him and to buy him so a servant is hired a slave is owned and a slave had no freedom no self autonomy no personal rights in fact a slave was a piece of property it was owned by someone else and to be someone's slave meant that you were his possession and so now you are bound to obey your master there's no negotiation there's no interaction there's no you know I don't think I want to do that no you've been bought you don't belong to yourself you are owned by your master and so there's no hesitation there's to be no argument and to be a slave meant absolute submission and it meant unconditional obedience and it meant total allegiance to a master I don't know that we around this table can fully grasp the significance of what it meant to be a slave because none of us have really ever been a slave I mean you may have been a servant I may have been a servant but that's totally different than being a slave a slave has a master and the master really has the power and the right of life and death I mean you're held in the hand of your master and he has the right to issue commands without any explanation you just do it and he expects obedience swiftly immediately and completely and so on the part of the master he has bought the slave at a price and the slave is now his possession we need to grasp this to even begin to understand this passage now this is exactly how Paul began this letter by identifying himself as a do loss as a slave if you'll turn back to Romans 1 verse 1 it's the third word in the entire book of Romans this is where the book of Romans be begins with Paul identifying self as a slave and so he says Paul a bondservant of Christ Jesus that's a really poor translation and I think one reason is because of the racial stigma that has always been attached and rightly so to being a slave and so with the end of slave traver ii a slave trading and the british empire and then later in the united states such a stigma that it becomes translated with a different word it's like it's like a almost a curse word and so it just comes politely into our english bible bondservant it sounds a little bit more palatable but that's not the word the word is slave Doulos and paul understood completely who he was and what he was that he has been bought with a price by the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ now owns him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet and because he now has bought him and owns him Jesus Christ now controls him and governs him and so Paul devoted himself completely to the Lord Jesus Christ and submitted entirely to the will of Jesus Christ his will has been given up to the lordship of Jesus Christ and the issue is not what do I want to do the issue is what does Jesus Christ want me to do in my entire existence on this earth is lived in compliance submission surrender and obedience to the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ and that's true not just for Paul it's true for everyone for whom Christ died upon the cross and purchased their salvation it's true for every believer in Jesus Christ we have been redeemed we have been ransomed and Jesus Christ went into the slave market of of sin and with the silver and the gold of his own blood he bought us and we now belong to Jesus Christ we have been released from one slavery but now we have been brought into a different slavery there's no one in this world who is not a slave you're either a slave of sin or you're a slave of the Savior and there's no third category that there's no other option so we need to understand this coming into this section in which the key word is slave and so I've titled this message whose slaver you because that's really the thrust here and that's the question whose slave are you you tell me whose slave you are and I'll tell you how you're gonna live so as we walk through this I've got a very simple outline to help us walk through this text so come back to Romans 6 and beginning in verse 15 I want you to see the argument Paul anticipates the argument that will be raised against what he has taught that salvation is apart from any works and we're all in agreement on that so he anticipates what people are going to think well if salvation is without any works then I have no obligation now as a Christian to do any good works if I'm saved without obeying the law just simply by faith in Christ then I have no obligation to the law now that I am a Christian so I can just live however I want to to live and so Paul is a brilliant teacher and he's always out ahead of where of what people are thinking and so people by Paul wants to address now what he knows is in the mind of anyone who is a logical thinker and he wants to know address this issue now this is a very important a very important argument so let's look at it what then shall we sin the we refers to all believers not to unbelievers it refers to believers shall we sin in the verb sin here means to continue as a lifestyle to live in sin a habitual pattern of sin shall we continue to practice sin as the the main thrust of our life and let me just say before we were a Christian before we were born again we lived in sin and we lived for sin and we loved our sin so shall we continue or excuse me shall we sin because we are not under law well that's a false presupposition we're not under law in the sense that we have to obey the law in order to earn our salvation but as believers we are under the law of God to obey it in our sanctification the Ten Commandments are still on the books and are quoted in the New Testament as binding upon our lives but his presupposition is people who are thinking well shall we continue to live as we always lived then if how we lift has nothing to do with giving us acceptance with God shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace so if I'm under grace Paul knows where people are gonna go with this well if I'm under grace then the fields wide open there's no guardrails on the side of the narrow road I can just walk the broad path I can live however I want to live because it's all under grace and and I'm forgiven now this argument is has come down to us to this very day this is not a hypothetical argument there are people today who argue that obedience in the Christian life is entirely optional that it's not mandatory that it's unnecessary all you have to do is just look back at your justification and as you look back at your justification and say wow I'm accepted before God so therefore obedience is is its optional there are people today who say obedience why that's legalism that's duty and duty is bad that's not good there are people today who say I have freedom in Christ I have for him in Christ to live however I want to live but if I wanted to just leave my wife I can leave my wife it's all under grace if I want to cheat on a business deal that's okay it's all under grace I'm not under law I can just live however I want to live I don't have to love my wife as Christ loves the church because it I'm under grace I could just live however I want to let Paul knows the twisted thinking as Jay Vernon McGee would say the stinkin thinkin that is in people's minds and he wants to address this head-on and there are also some people who say hey as I teach the Bible I only teach the indicative I don't teach the imperatives I just teach what the Bible teaches in doctrine but I don't make any application and I don't put the the the the implication of this in front of people's lives and let the imperatives of the scripture command people in fact in my preaching I don't even command people at all I just interpret I just teach I just explain and that is the worst form of Christianity if you can even call it Christianity that train left the tracks before it ever even got out of the station and it produces a warped Christianity that does not stand the test of real life so this is where Paul begins I mean it's a very relevant practical question shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace that's the argument now second the answer and the answer is at the end of verse 15 and Paul immediately slams the door on this kind of reasoning in fact he locks the door and throws the key away he says may it never be it is the strongest negative denial in the Greek language it could be translated no a thousand times no absolutely not this argument is completely unfounded and off-base Paul makes a blunt blatant rejection of that kind of thinking effect to Paul it is monstrous by no means good heavens no we would say what a ghastly thought that you do not have obligation to obey God now as a Christian and you're just going to live your Christian life by looking in the rearview mirror at looking back to your justification and you're not looking ahead at the Word of God so Paul is saying that the thought that a believer has no moral obligation to obedience under grace and under the law is unthinkable it is absolutely unthinkable and I want to go on record as saying any teaching that lessons a believers responsibility ability responsibility to obey the Word of God is that best dangerous teaching and it worse false teaching so may it never be so that's the answer now third the analogy and Paul is a good teacher and he could have just left it at this and moved on in Chapter seven but Paul is a good teacher so he wants to dig down and he wants to peel the the the layers off of this false argument and he uses what I want to call the analogy in verse 16 the analogy in analogy is a picture it's an illustration drawn from common life and the analogy that Paul uses is that of slavery now I don't know a slave I don't know that I've ever seen a slave I don't know that you've ever known a slave or seen a slave as Paul writes this to the believers in Rome trust me they have seen slaves they know slaves there are millions of slaves in the Roman Empire in Rome it is estimated or in in in the Roman Empire in Italy somewhere between thirty and forty percent of the population were slaves and in the entire Roman Empire at a minimum ten to fifteen percent of the entire population were slaves that were owned by masters and it wasn't even a racial thing it came from every different color of skin every different ethnic background in fact some people would become bankrupt and they would have to sell themselves off to a master just to get out of bankruptcy to pay off their debts and so the master who would buy them instead of giving in the money would give the debtor their money and it was the only way they had to get out of debt I mean there are slaves of all different kinds and if you're born to parents who were slaves now you are a slave and you were born into slavery so there were probably somewhere between 5 to 7 million slaves in the Roman Empire so as Paul writes this this is so common to life they know what this looks like smells like tastes like this would be like for us to say to use the imagery of a businessman or of an athlete or of a singer is just so common to our daily life so let's look at it now he says in verse 16 do you not know and now we understand why he can start this with do you not know of course they know they've got slaves living on every side of them on their left on their right it's just common to life do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience excuse me do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you're this you are slaves of the one whom you obey either a sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness the second key word there is obedience it's used twice slaves is used twice in fact obedience is used three times and in verse 16 obedience twice in the word obey once that's what slaves do that's the heads and tails of the same coin slaves and obedience that's what slaves do that's their job description it's a one word job description obey that that's what you did you obey your master and so slaves give themselves up totally completely to fulfill the desire of their master so he makes the spiritual application at the end of verse 16 he pulls it now into spiritual context and he says every person either is a slave of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness the one who is a slave of sin is an unbeliever and there there are wages that are paid and the wages of working for sin is death spiritual death eternal death the other option the only other category is that you are a slave of God and that's at the end of verse 16 and to be a slave of God is to be a slave of Jesus Christ it is to be a slave of obedience to Jesus Christ and there is a payoff for that there are wages for that it results in righteousness now this is not imputed righteousness and justification this is imparted righteousness and sanctification this is practical righteousness this is daily righteousness in the Christian life and the word righteousness is used here synonymously with holiness personal holiness or godliness so that's the analogy that Paul uses here and he he is painting this picture now beginning in verse 17 well wait a minute before I get ahead of myself let me just pull over in park just for one second I want to make sure that we've got this from from verse 16 we are all slaves everyone around this table and we all have a master and our master the is either sin if you're an unbeliever or as Jesus Christ if you're a believer and we all present ourselves daily to our master we show up for duty we show up for work and if sin is your master then you will obey sin the rest of the day if Jesus Christ is your master you're going to be going in a general direction of obedience to that master not perfectly but certainly progressively in that direction and for every one of us working for one of these two masters brings a result if you work for sin you're working for death if you work for Christ you're working for righteousness and I like the way Paul thinks we in our culture we want 48 options we want 48 flavors we want 48 categories Paul is such a great teacher he cuts through the cotton candy and all the fluff and he goes no there's just one of two categories you're either slave of sin or you're a slave of righteousness and you can just call a Christian a slave and he's a slave of righteousness now let's move on to verse 17 and 18 I'm going to call this the application because Paul now brings home the analogy of slavery in verse 16 to explain what has happened in their lives he is addressing this to Christians and he is explaining to them what happened when you were converted you may not have been aware that this is all that all this took place but you need to understand the transaction that occurred and so he begins verse 16 but thanks be to God now the reason he says thanks be to God is because God is the one who brought about the transfer of slavery from you having one master to you having a different master he doesn't say thanks B that to us as if we work this he doesn't say thanks be to me because I was able to break loose from this one slavery and now step into this other slavery No thanks be to God into God alone because God alone is the one who brought about this change of relationship so but thanks be to God that though you the you refers to Christians it refers to you and to me that though you were and that refers to our past our BC days before Christ before conversion thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin it couldn't be any more clear every single one of us were slaves of sin before we were born again even if you grew up in the church even if you were sprinkled as an infant even if you went forward with your youth group but we're never really saved in a public invitation at the end of the service until you're born again you are slaves of sin you know what slaves do they obey their master and you lived a lifestyle of obedience to the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life and we were in Chains to sin we're in bondage to sin we were in obedience to sin and this is one further reason why I believe in the bondage of the will that for every unbeliever they have no free will no you slaves are not free slaves are in bondage not just their brain and not just their heart but even their will now there are twenty other reasons to believe what I just said they look at it again but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became and that word became indicates a radical change that took place in your life you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed this is why one reason I just don't understand how someone doesn't have the assurance of their salvation I know it's out there but it's like how do you not know this took place in your life I mean there couldn't be a more revolutionary change that you went from being a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness and you're not sure about that you don't know that that happened so let's let's just dig into this he says you became obedient but you need to know about this verb became it's in the passive you were acted upon God did this God intervened in your life God had to unlock the chains that you were being held in as you were in the grip of sin it was God who had to deliver you and rescue you you became obedient and this obedience now produces a new lifestyle now notice he says from the heart so you know what this means you got a new heart you got a new want to when you were born again and but your heart was changed such that now your obedience is not just your gritting your teeth and doing something that's really against your will know your will has been changed your heart has been changed this is now what you want to do is you're obedient from the heart and this is this has stated as a matter of fact there are no conditions put on this now this isn't true of some Christians this isn't true of a lot of Christians this is true of every Christian if you're a Christian you became obedient from the heart and from the heart means it's an internal desire to obey the Word of God that brings you joy even if it's costly obedience it nevertheless youth since the pleasure of God in obeying his word that is true across the board and so what God does it's an inside job he he goes into your heart and changes your heart now to where you want to obey the Word of God and when you don't obey the Word of God you feel convicted about it I mean you feel you feel bad about it and you ought to feel bad about it because your heart has been changed you used to just love this sin and lap up this sin and now when you stumbled back into that sin because you have a new heart your new heart cannot enjoy this I mean there may be a tint elating moment but that soon passes away and the conviction of sin comes now please note the object of this obedience to that form of teaching the word teaching here is is a Greek word decay that means doctrine sound doctrine it means divine truth it's not talking about just religious fluff it's not talking about little devotional thoughts it's talking about the theological framework of the Bible it's talking about who God is who Christ is who we are what Christ has done for us what is now required of us to live the Christian life to deny yourself take up a cross follow Christ it refers to really the entire teaching of the Old Testament and the New Testament as the New Testament was being written and brought into the Canon of Scripture now this word form is an interesting word to that form of teaching and the word form here was used like if I had a sledgehammer right here and I came down hard on this table and made a dent in this table that form is the same word that's used here such the is that this teaching has made a dent in your life it has made an imprint and left an imprint upon your soul it was it was not a glancing blow that just hydroplaned off the surface of your life it came and made an impact upon your life that that form of teaching to which and the two could be translated into and so that's I think even more that's stronger that that that form of teaching into which you and the you refers to all believers I I want us to understand this that this isn't just for the elders in the church this isn't just for the missionaries across the ocean this isn't just for Sunday school teachers who have taught 20 years and longer this is for every true authentic genuine born-again believer across the board no exceptions so this is true of your life this is true of my life if you're a believer to which you were committed and this word committed we've already seen this word in the book of Romans and I want to show you because it's it it means to be delivered over to another power and I want you to come back to Romans 1 and just see it she's three times in Romans 1 and we and we saw this when we worked our way through Romans 1 it's a Greek word peridot mine and it means to be delivered over to another power like a slave would be handed over to a master for that master now to dominate and you'll see it in verse 24 therefore God here it is gave them over paradiddle me well Phil you taught me the Greek alphabet back in the fraternity so verse 26 for this reason here it is God gave them over it's a very strong verb as you can see and then in verse 28 God just as God did not see fit to ignited not see fit to acknowledge god any longer god here it is gave them over it's a very strong being delivered over to another power that's the word that Paul uses here in Romans 6 at the end of verse 17 you were committed it's even stronger than that you were delivered over by God in the other direction from Romans 1 he delivered over the God haters and the God rejecters to grosser sin he has delivered over the God lovers and Christ believers to greater righteousness so that that's that's what's being said in the word commitment is certainly a strong word but it's even stronger than the word committed and again this is what happened in every Christians life I think the Vikings just pulled anything that they lost the Super Bowl so okay now verse you know and to underscore how important obedience is I mean we've covered this before but let me just show you back in Romans 1 verse 5 just just I'm showing such restraint not to go throughout the rest of Scripture but Romans 1 in verse 5 he talks about the obedience of faith you see that in the middle of Romans 1 verse 5 that's what the gospel produces you believe in the gospel it immediately produces the obedience of faith in the word what's going on here it could be translated the obedience that faith produces there no such thing as disobedient faith true saving faith is an obedient faith to the Word of God the New Testament and the Old Testament as far as that goes knows nothing of disobedient saving faith now he bookends this entire book if you'll come to the end of Romans in Romans 16 and I'm looking for it quickly here I didn't write down this one cross-reference is it verse 26 thank you there it is he talks he concludes this book that according to the commandment of the eternal God and by the way the gospel is a command miss not just a free offer and it's not just an invitation it is that but it's more than that we are commanded by God to repent and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and so saving faith is the first step of obedience saving faith is obedience to the command to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is the first step of a lifelong journey of living in obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ and that doesn't happen five years doesn't start five years after you became a Christian it starts as with your first step through the narrow gate into the kingdom that was a step of obedience and every subsequent step as you move forward as a step of obedience of faith so this is a literary device known as inclusio or inclusion where you book in an entire matter you start and you end with the same emphasis to underscore it and to emphasize it so what Paul is emphasizing in the book of Romans here is the gospel that commands the obedience of faith so he starts it Romans 1 verse 5 that's how he concludes at Romans 16 verse 26 and so we're not surprised in the middle of Romans six as he's talking to us about the Christian life that he pulls over in parks and verse 16 on this dominant idea of obedience three times in verse 16 and then again in verse 17 so now let's just look at verse 18 and again this is a statement of fact and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness there's nothing you need to do now as a Christian in order for this to become a reality in your life this is ancient history this is the moment you were converted you were freed from sin and what that means is that the Dominion of sin the mastery of sin the reign of sin the tyranny of sin the chains of sin the bondage to sin you were set free it's a fact and Jesus said in John 8 if the Sun shall set you free you shall be free indeed that's one side of the coin here's the other side of the coin and you became slaves of righteousness so you just went from one slavery to another slavery and in this slavery you God delivered you over to the mastery now of righteousness and of holiness and a new desire now to live to that form of teaching to which you were committed which is the teaching of the word of God in Ezekiel 36 26 and 27 it says when God took out our hardest stone he put in a heart of flesh and it says he wrote his law upon our heart and put his spirit within us who causes a strong verb to walk in its statutes you you have the law written upon your heart I mean that's why it's a joke to think we have no obligation to the moral law of God to the Ten Commandments are you kidding me it's written on your heart I mean you can't live in that much denial and and it's written in permanent ink by the finger of God himself it's there forever and he's put his Holy Spirit who is the author of this law who inspired this law he's put his Holy Spirit inside of you and the Holy Spirit now is the dominant force that is moving you and causing you to use the biblical word to keep its statutes to walk in its statutes that's a very strong statement again I say I mean how do you not know this took place in your life I mean could you actually go through a heart transplant surgery and not know you were ever in the hospital and not know what has happened and and now you can like actually have some energy and you can breathe a whole lot better and you you don't have to just wheeze all day sitting in a in a chair and just be a couch potato and now you've got energy to get out and walk and live and you don't know that you had a heart transplant or you you go you are kidding me right so the more you understand what God did in your conversion the deeper is your assurance of salvation because you see that it's God who's at work within me both to willing to work for his good good pleasure I couldn't be faking this that this is God working from the inside out in my life so let me give you one last heading verse 19 I want to call this the accommodation and the reason I want to call this the accommodation is because how he begins verse 19 Paul has to accommodate himself to us and talk to us in essence in baby talk baby language I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh Paul is communicating to us with this analogy of slavery master and obedience to put the cookies on the bottom shelf so that we can all easily understand what took place in our conversion if Paul launched off and do a systematic theology he would probably just kind of leave us behind even Peter said it's hard to understand Paul and second Peter 3 and so to be extraordinarily simple and a picture is worth a thousand words so that we can visualize the pro funda T of this truth that Paul has been teaching us he has used this analogy because of the weakness of our flesh meaning the limitations of our mind so I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh because of the finiteness of your minds for just as you presented your members and members here refers to body parts we looked at that last time your mind your ears your eyes your heart your hands your feet through which your life activities are carried out he says just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness and lawlessness is disobedience to the law of God resulting in further lawlessness you you you're on a slippery slope there's no such thing as evolution it's all devolving you're going from bad to worse to awful you're going from lawlessness to further lawlessness if you're an unbeliever no one's just holding their mark and and remaining at the same place unbelievers are becoming more unlined and believers are becoming progressively more holy and so that's what we see taking place in our country right now is it not that this great divide this great polarization the unbelievers in our country are becoming even further ungodly even further lawless and that's exactly what we see here I mean the Bible tells it like it is and it's Romans 1 it's Romans 6 and on the other hand true Christians are growing in Christ's likeness and the middle is vanishing that the middle is going away and so the the the the juxtaposition is the contrast is becoming starker and starker and starker and it's like you live in America and the other question is which America because of this extraordinary contrast so he says in verse 19 resulting in further lawlessness and that's true of every unbeliever so now and here's the other side of the coin so now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification and sanctification is your spiritual growth into Christlikeness and we're just increasingly day-by-day being conformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ so he says present your members your members refer to all your body parts and we saw that in verses 12 through 14 last time so you need to present your eyes to God what you're looking at throughout the day you need to present your ears to God what you're listening to throughout the day because it's affecting your spiritual life you need to present your mind to God what you think about during the day you need to present your feet to God where you go and where you travel there are some places you ought not to be there are some places that it is lawful for you to be you need to present your your hands to God and what you lay hold of and what you do from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet every member of your body must be continually being presented to God and oh yes also your mouth and your tongue needs to be presented to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to present these members means it's like a priest putting a sacrifice onto the altar and it is no longer in your hands it is being given over to God and it is pleasing to God to have it given over to him and the result is very clear it's sanctification that's good that's what we need you need to meet you need me to become more like Jesus Christ and I need you to become more like Jesus Christ so that we can encourage one another minister to one another minister together along side by side so that we can love one another as as we truly ought to and it gives us power as we go out into the world because we are so different from the world that is going from lawlessness to further lawlessness as I said last time we need to be standing out like bright stars on a dark night I mean it should be very obvious that the flag that we're flying is that of holiness and righteousness and the Lord Jesus Christ so verses 15 through 19 they they helped me greatly to understand what all happens when I was born again and I didn't know all of this I just knew I was a great sinner in Christ was a great Savior and I needed great forgiveness and I needed to commit my life to Christ and I was born again but as now we read our Bible we understand oh wow there were a whole lot of wires below the surface that were being wired together and I was being unplugged from my old way of life and my old sinful patterns and now I am being plugged have been plugged in to the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ so I mean let's talk about this for a second I know I just ran five stop signs but this is phenomenal this is absolutely phenomenal truth and I pray that it it really grabs your Babur that I mean it grabs you by the lapel and and and won't let you go this tremendous truth you got something down there Jonathan it's very encouraging a believer can never go to hell so that is a theological impossibility and there are 48 reasons for that not the least of which is we have eternal life an eternal life lasts throughout all eternity and you receive eternal life the moment you believe in Jesus Christ can unconfessed sin break my relationship with Jesus the answer is no in the fullest big picture sense nothing can break my relationship with Jesus Christ now there are times when I am walking closer there are times when I'm more intimate there are times when I am more focused on God than at other times but when I'm not as focused that does not mean that my relationship has been broken or severed it's impossible for my relationship to be broken with Jesus Christ so I in in some ways it may be a matter of semantics and in other ways it's a matter of doctrinal integrity that relationship cannot be broken now it can be disrupted and it can become distant but it cannot be broken some matter of words anyone here around the table I thank you for that was who was that Shiloh thank you very much for that question and you need to really understand the Scriptures teaching that you a believer can never become an unbeliever and a believer can never fall from grace and a believer can never forfeit his or her eternal standing of acceptance with God if I could lose my salvation I probably would have done it the first five minutes of my Christian life so it's not a matter of me holding on to God it's a matter of God holding on to me and he's a whole lot stronger than my grip on him and he will never ever ever let me go John 10:27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them from my hand for my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one shall pluck them from his hand i and the father are one it takes it through verse 30 it just couldn't be any more clear and that's why the analogy of being born again once you're born you cannot be unborn I mean once you're born into the family of God by the Spirit of God you can never be unborn it's an irrevocable pardon that God gives that can never be rescinded or taken back so well I probably need to close in a word of Prayer and we'll hang out here just a little bit and have more fellowship whoever wants to stay father thank you for these verses that are so insightful into what you did in our life when you converted us you literally delivered us over from our former bondage to sin now to a new slavery to righteousness and we are so thankful that it's a slavery because left to ourselves we would wander and probably stray to some extent but you have a grip on us as our master and we now want to please you so I pray as we leave this study that there will be stirred up within our hearts a new desire to please our master with obedience we know we cannot increase our acceptance with you but we can do that which is displeasing to you help us walk in a manner worthy of our calling that will bring great pleasure to you this is our heart's desire as your as your slaves in Jesus name Amen amen guys thank you I there's just a lot in this I should have given more time for for our discussion yeah here needs to leave can slip out and here wants to stay can stay yeah yeah Wow well what a great champion for the Lord I wrote my doctoral dissertation actually on a Billy Graham crusade and had the privilege of speaking at every Billy Graham crusade in North America for a decade for 10 years and worked with the Billy Graham team and he was a very godly and humble man who preached the Word of God and if you if you can ever hear sometimes they play him on Saturday night on cable television from the 50s and 60s Billy Graham preaching oh my goodness I've never preached a second in my life compared to that and to see him in Los Angeles Chicago New York preaching to extraordinary extraordinarily large numbers and really the hand of God upon his life I know what some who are watching may say that you know when he was on the Robert Schuller program he said there were different ways to heaven and and I've actually purchased the copy of that to listen for myself and he actually did say it I think he went senile and said some things that he doesn't really believe because all those years the banner over him was I am the way the truth and the life so a great warrior has gone home to be with the Lord you know just says just as I am and it's awesome you'll change your life in terms of a guy that just live the way yeah yeah he never let money or women [Music] interfere with his life you check into a hotel room first thing you do is put a towel over the television set put a Bible on top of the towel so there's no temptation to be watching something that he shouldn't watch he would never be alone with any woman for any occasion other than his own wife and he just kept himself above reproach and in those ways so there we may never see another evangelist quite like that in our lifetime we have one of Trinity Bible Church we met last week we've taught we had nearly 90 people here below us in herbs house it's really a fun place to meet and so we want to invite everybody Sunday at 9:30 to come to Trinity Bible Church we've got some guest preachers coming in that are great preachers here for the next month thank you know be great preachers until I get there I'll be back March the 18th if anyone know where it is like yeah yeah I spoke on eternal life Sunday what is it why do you need it it gives it how can you have it and what are the marks of it so well we'll have something else good as you leave feel free to pick up a copy of my book the moment of truth put a lot for you to have it and thank you so much for for being here I'm kind of kind of saddened to hear about dr. Graham I mean everything has been written for years for this day when he would die that they would have immediate releases and articles etc you know it's funny for all of my I'm always asked about a public invitation or did I get monetary my conferences and I really argue against it having said that for many years when Billie would step out of the pulpit I actually stepped into the very same pulpit you know there's like fifty thousand sixty thousand people in the stadium and people are coming forward and match up counselors with people it was kind of interesting look back over your life but I remember I sat on the platform I mean I've done this from New York City to to Seattle to Portland and lots of cities in between I remember sitting on the platform him preaching in a massive football stadium in Portland there like 50,000 people there on John 3:16 God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son it was powerful he did he kept the cookies on the bottom shelf so that an unbeliever could understand so anyway very fond memories I remember one Billy Graham crusade I'm literally in a prayer room with like six people it's Billy Graham me Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton and like two other people I can't remember who the two other people are having this prayer before Billy goes out onto the platform so it was a collage of individuals say the least brings back a lot of memories so yeah so what else you want to talk about yeah yeah I would love for you to see the book again it's called the moment of truth and yeah yeah you would need to go to the bestseller section in the largest bookstore you can find no there probably be some guy selling some Tomatoes on the side of the road that would be selling he'll throw this in if you'll buy tomatoes I'm sure you can go on Amazon I know you can go to Ligonier dot org and get a copy it's a hardback it's two hundred and thirtysomething yeah two hundred and thirty six pages and it's divided into three sections just to talk for one second is it I talked about the reality of truth what is truth and where is truth found and then the rejection of truth and I preached a sermon in Seattle on atheism and Seattle is blatant with its atheistic beliefs there were billboards on the side of the interstates that atheists had purchased and put up on side of the highways so it was an interesting place to preach on atheism and a and the truth under assault in the world and the culture and the truth under assault sadly in the church and then the last section is on the reign of truth rei GN and the correct as this morning Thank You Phil and it ends up that we'll all be judged by the truth and the final judgment and it will be the truth that will be the arbitrator that Christ will use to examine every man's life that everyone will either be saved by the truth or damned by the truth but you'll be judged by the truth and you'll be sanctified by the truth and you'll grow by the truth so that's why we have to preach the truth and teach the truth you just can't get there from here without the truth you're lost without the truth it's only way that's that on that book I'm glad for someone to ask so we'll see how it does I actually lot really like the way that it reads he asks the context of slaves to sin or slave to the Savior would you address yeah all right free will is nowhere found in the Bible so the only place you find those two words together free will is in Leviticus for a free will offering but there's no mention of free will in the Old Testament or in the New Testament so just even those two words other than a free will offering in Leviticus is kind of a human invention a way of saying something now I realize the word Trinity is not in the Bible so there are theological truths that we believe and that word or words are not found in the Bible but free will just to clear the deck is not found in the Bible those those words it really boils down to this and I said there's 20 reasons why the Bible teaches this that to start at the most basic point Ephesians 2 verse 1 says we are dead in trespasses and sin that's true of every unbeliever so the simple question is what can a dead man do and it's a long period of silence after you ask the question what can a dead man do and I had a classmate once I stink and that's that's all a dead man can do a dead man can't think a dead man can't feel a dead man can't choose a dead man can't do anything can't believe that's the spiritual state it's far worse than you're sick it's far worse then you're just not feeling well in the sin you're you actually are dead and so therefore the new birth is a resurrection of the Dead it's a spiritual resurrection being raised to life in Ephesians two talks about that John 11:26 John 5:28 and 29 are sees me verse 25 John 5:25 talks about this that those who hear the those who are dead who hear the voice of the Son of God shall live what can a dead man do so you have free will in the sense if I go up to the roof of this building and take a step off it's a rather preposterous to say I have free will to fly to to the moon I have free will in one direction there's the law of gravity that pulls me down I cannot go up I can only go down so all those who are unbelievers are in the grip and under the law of sin and death they can't go up they can't exercise their will up they can only exercise their will towards sin so that's why it's such a dramatic divine intervention when God saves someone Jesus said in Hebrews 12 are the writer of hebrews hebrews 12:2 jesus is the author and perfecter of faith who authors faith Jesus not you Jesus Philippians 1:29 it has been granted to us not only to believe in his name but to suffer for his sake it has to be granted acts I think it's 31 in acts 11:19 it could be 18 or 19 repentance has to be granted so no one can just repent on their own it has to be granted and second Timothy 2:26 says that repentance has to be granted to the unbeliever Ephesians 2:8 and 9 for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves what's not of yourselves of yourself not only the grace but the faith it's only repeat the verse for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves that faith is not of yourself you didn't just dredge up faith God had to conceive and sire faith within you because dead men don't believe a further question that could be asked what did you do to be born and there's long silence after that question that's why the imagery to be born again is so god centered and we had nothing to do with it God acted by himself and for himself to birth us into the kingdom of heaven so there's many other verses you know that we could point you know go to for free will you're a slave of Satan he's not urging you to believe in Christ you're a slave of sin sin is not evangelistic sin is not urging you to believe in Christ sin is not unlocking the lock and letting go the chain so you can go believe in Christ and remember I said in Ezekiel 36 he takes out the heart of stone verse 25 and 26 and puts in a heart of flesh hearts of stone do not believe in Jesus Christ hearts of stone reject the gospel and reject Jesus Christ so you know there's many many more and let me just throw in this footnote the word foreknowledge I know that's kind of the last little crutch to hold up free will that God looks down the tunnel of time to see what we would do the word for knowledge does not mean foresight the word for knowledge means whom he fore ordained or whom he fore loved with a distinguishing love Jacob I loved Esau I hated I mean there there was a distinction that was made in God's relationship for the twins were even born the Potter has a ride over the clay to make from the same lump vessels of wrath and vessels of Mercy the clay doesn't make those decisions the Potter has the right over the clay to make some for Destruction and some for salvation so I could keep going but all of those it's it whatever you believe about one doctrine tells me what you believe about ten other doctrines because the whole Bible is so wired like a tapestry so even when you mentioned when you mention free will you have to talk about total depravity you have to talk about regeneration you have to talk about sovereign election you have to talk about all these other doctrines because they all speak with one voice with without any contradiction yeah yeah he makes you willing which is what psalm 115 i think it is says could be 1:10 I think it's one it's one of the two he makes he makes us willing in the day of his power oh yeah absolutely yeah and the flipside and if anyone's still listening is we are under under moral obligation and human responsibility to believe in the gospel and if you do not believe in the gospel you cannot blame God you can only blame yourself that you have chosen to remain in unbelief and when you go to hell all who are who go to hell are there by their own choice that's free will everyone who goes to heaven is there by God's will everyone who goes to hell is there by their will it's a careful distinction that needs to be made and when you talk about free will there's only one who ultimately has free will and that is God God has free will to do what he pleases as he pleases when he pleases with whom he pleases or he wouldn't be God he would just be one of us so God is the one who has free will in the unrestricted sense but as Kent has reminded me I do need to say you are commanded to repent and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and no one else can do that for you even God will not believe for you you must believe but it will be with a faith that God gives thank you for watching and thank you for coming good to have my old friend Phil SWAT cyl here Phil change jerseys he really did and I loved him before and I love him now so he like you mentioned regenerates the spiritual life you'll never have that genuine desire to obey the commands of God and have a new will and yeah I've heard RCL talking about that and that's life-changing when you realize and recognize that distinction between the Willetts and bondage - sounded in the will it's been made alive in Christ and now I have the desire to act in a way that's pleasing to God in 1/4 this commands yeah a sinful lost heart will never desire to believe in Christ yeah you're quoting Edwards thank you for that Dewey and you quoted our CRC is on record as saying that book by Edwards it's called the freedom of the will which really argues for the same as the bondage of the will by Luther is the most profound book ever to be written on American soil well you can you have the ability to choose whatever you want to choose and man is basically good and you know make it a great date or not the choice is yours you know in reality that teaching should be well know your dad said and so you experience the read the new birth until you were born again you will never willingly act in a way that's in line with the family's commands yeah God must induce labor to bring about the new birth and when he gives you the new heart he also gives you a new will and a new new affections Edwards would say in a new disposition and all things are made new and so now I have a new want to a new desire and and you know we didn't figure all this out when we were born again we had to come to Bible studies and read on our own and we realized oh this is bigger than I ever thought so oh my goodness yeah it's a game-changer it is I you know it's almost like being saved all over again in the sense of realizing how God centered God initiated God produced all this is and I'll never forget when like the lights came on and I saw it in a moment it was like where have I been what where have I been I was in that class here in Dallas and the professor asked that question what can a dead man do and I and I'm on the front row just waiting for everyone to answer this because I'm like a free-will ER and it's like it was like silence and it seemed like we waited an hour for someone to break the silence and say something and it's like everyone we couldn't say anything we were studying the sermons of Edwards and Whitfield for that class and the guy in the back row said stink and it was like John Hannah it was a class called American revivalism and I'll tell you this only because Billy Graham died this morning we studied six the sixth great American revivalist Jonathan Edwards George Whitfield Charles Finney Billy Sunday DL DL Moody Billy Sunday Billy Graham and so we covered the two hundred plus years we study their biography we studied their theology and then we read sermons from each of those men and like well there's a lot of contrast going on here and a lot of difference but what you said is so true Dewey and when God opened my eyes and I can truly say like John 6:45 I've been taught by God I mean it was like I didn't figure that out you remember when jesus said to Simon Peter flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who was in heaven it was like oh wow it's like a shaft of light came shining into my little pea brain and it's like it was there in the Bible all along how could I have been closed my eyes close to that sort of creature I go to Grace Community Church that first Sunday I'm on campus you know save maybe a year at that point just like you said all really IQ is that I'm a great center in Christ every Savior yeah I need repent and trust in him alone for salvation I go out there I hear to preach and yes like this is this rooted like this is what I've been it crushes your pride because you realize like we're just talking about life you're dead said you can't make yourself like feeder this alley God's the one that like interviewed your life and if you didn't give me grace in that sense I wouldn't you just like the people that are just continuing to grow inward face and were in bondage to their sin like you pointed out message it it crushes your pride that changes everything your view on how God's transform your life and it's somehow motivates you to live you know here's the thought that hit me Dewey I thought I was doing God a wild favor by coming to seminary that's how stinkin proud I was that I just like you just like you did at the fraternity Phil I thought you know I've given up all this career and this and that security and yeah yeah I could have been this and that yeah and now here I'm at seminary I'm and in God you know you know yeah lucky whatever to have me and then this truth I just put my hand over my mouth and really I thought I just need to be quiet I I have been babbling of what I do not know for so long that I just need to be quiet because I have to be wrong ten other places like to miss this this is like a significant deal that I've missed I mean I thought the Mississippi River was flowing south to north yeah now if I say it's fun north to south are you kidding me I couldn't have been more wrong I thought this was all flowing out of me and it's like no it's flowing out of God to me and he could have just as easily passed me over as as parked this in my lap and it's like wow this is so humbling both for salvation and to serve Him I am what I am by the grace of God Paul said I mean I didn't in you know like I didn't come up with this it was God who pursued me it was God who found me it was God I was running away anyway so wat so you desperately need one of these books [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Length: 92min 19sec (5539 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2018