Exploring New Life in Christ: A Journey Through Romans 6

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to be in the Book of Romans, Romans chapter six.

We're going to continue on studying the Book of Romans.

And the overall overarching theme that we've had in this book has been theology matters.

What we believe about God, what we know about him matters.

It matters to what we believe about our salvation.

It matters to what we believe about how we are supposed to live our lives.

And a lot of times we think that when we trust in God, that's the end of the story.

But what we're seeing here in the Book of Romans is that when we trust in God, that's just the beginning of the story.

And we looked last week at this idea of how we are given a new life in Christ.

And so in our salvation, in our forgiveness, we have a new life in Christ.

And so last week, we were trying to wrap our minds around what that is.

What is a new life?

Well, it's a transformed life.

It's a life going in a different direction.

Actually, the way the Bible frames it is it's going from death to.

To life.

It's a resurrection.

And as we saw at the.

At the first part of Romans chapter 6, God likens our salvation to what happened with Jesus in his death on the cross, his burial, and his resurrection.

And so as a believer, we are dead to sin before we were dead in sin.

Then when we come to Christ, we are dead to sin, but then we are raised to walk in newness of life.

And so think about it from this perspective.

The, the.

The word picture would be this.

When we are.

When we die to our sin, we are no longer bound by that.

We are no longer defined by that.

And then the word there is buried or immersed.

We're immersed in the love of God, we're immersed in the identity of God, and then we're raised to walk in a new life.

So if we understand that idea now, we say, okay, what does that mean for me today?

Because I can understand that here, but that might not transfer over to how I live my life.

And so what I'd like to talk to you about today are the practical applications of what it means to have a new life in Christ.

What Is that supposed to look like.

How are we supposed to accomplish these things that God has called us to do?

Well, here in Romans, chapter six, I want you to see where we left off.

Romans, chapter 6, verse 10, it says, for in that he died, this is talking about Jesus.

In that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

And so when we're identified with Christ as a believer, we are then, as it says here, dead to sin, but alive in God.

And I love how it says that at the end of verse 10, it says, he liveth unto God.

That speaks of the eternal life that we have with God.

But then we get to verse number 11, and this is where he really puts rubber to the road.

This is really where he's going to put faith into practice.

And he says, verse number 11 likewise.

So, so just as we saw that picture of Jesus being dead and raised to walk in newness of life, so we are dead and walking in newness of life.

And so it says verse 11 likewise, reckon.

Now that word reckon also would be considered like a word in accounting, like, like, like a, like a term that we would use to account and to make note of things.

And so he says, basically, reckon yourselves or account yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, meaning see yourself in that light, see yourself dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So the life comes through Jesus.

The life doesn't come through my strength, my wisdom, my power.

That new life is in a reliance in, as the end of verse 11 says, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so we're reminded over and over again in the New Testament, specifically places like John 15 that say that we must be abiding in Christ, relying in Christ.

So this new life doesn't come from just being a dedicated person.

Some of you out there, I know, have different elements of your life that you are highly dedicated to.

Some of you might say, I'm dedicated to my job.

Some of you are early risers.

You say, I'm dedicated to getting up at this time every single day.

Or maybe I'm dedicated to my garden, or I'm dedicated to a hobby.

Those are all good things.

And those are reflections of the power of God in our life.

But ultimately we can't just work harder to have a new life in Christ.

We can't just avoid the problems of this world.

The Bible says here that walking in the newness of Christ means to walk in his power, to walk in his provision, to walk in his presence.

And so verse number 12 essentially tells us that all we do in our lives in this new path is to rely on Christ.

It says in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, that we are new creations, new creatures, old things are passed away.

And so what we can see here in this case is that a life of a believer is a life abiding in the power of Christ.

And that is how we can rely on him to do these things differently.

Verse 13.

So, so we have the implication.

The implication is this, if you are a believer, you are walking as a Christ follower.

The implication would be that if you are a believer, you are walking in this new path.

You are no longer defined by your sin, you are no longer bound by your sin.

You are not like the world.

You are different.

When I used to read that in scripture, there are different places in the scriptures that say that we are different people, that, that we're a strange people, that, that, that we're distinct from the world.

And I used to read that and go, yeah, we're different, we dress differently, where people talk differently.

And I used to think that was a bad thing.

But actually what the Bible says is that to be different is a good thing because we're not defined by the sins of this world.

We're not defined by the whims and the cares of our culture.

I'm thankful for that because our culture changes.

Some of you that have lived long enough, you have seen the culture change in America from a place of, hey, you know what?

That most people on average are God fearing people to where we see today that the average is not that people are God fearing anymore.

The culture has changed.

And if we allow culture or we allow our circle of society to dictate to us what we believe, we're going astray.

But what we see here in this case is, he says, the implication is that you're different.

And there's a reason that you're different, because now you're identified as a child of the king.

So we have the implication.

The implication is, is that we're different, that we're changed, that we're unique, that we're, we're strange to the world now.

It's not like I, I used to read that and think like, well, am I supposed to just act like a weird person so that people will think I'm strange?

No, you act according to the word of God.

And guess what?

People will think that you're strange if you're living like the word of God because they're going to say, why don't you join in with us.

Why don't you talk like that?

Why don't you treat your spouse like that?

Why don't you lie to your boss like that?

No, it says here, no, we're different because we're like Christ, and Christ is so different than the world.

But then we see here in verse 13, he talks about the instruments, the instruments of a new life in Christ.

You would say the instruments.

What are we talking about here?

Like a musical instrument?

No, no.

Think, think.

Like a tool or a weapon.

He says in verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

So what's he talking about here?

Your members.

He's talking about your body now.

Now, a lot of times what people do is they try to separate the spiritual side and the physical side.

What the Bible says is our spiritual side and our physical side are connected because what we believe about the spiritual side of us will dictate what we do with our physical side.

Romans chapter 12 says, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Because there's a movement, There was a movement, there still is a movement that says, as long as you believe the right things, do whatever you want to do.

Isn't that what Paul was addressing in verse one?

Like, hey, if you believe that God is gracious, if you believe God has saved you, if you believe God is the only God, that's great.

That's good.

You're saved.

Now just live your way the way that you want to live.

Live the way of the world.

Live in your flesh.

But no, he says, it's further.

So what you believe in your mind that has transferred to your heart should transfer over to your members, your body.

Now, your members are your hands, your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your feet, everything, right?

Your.

Your whole body.

So he says, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

So don't sin with your body, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.

So he says, act in the identity that you have been given and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

So he says, don't use your body as instruments of sin.

Use your body of instruments of righteousness to honor God, to bring people to an understanding of who God is and how great he is.

Now, I have a little bit of an object lesson here.

Now, most of you know what I'm about to show you.

Does anyone know what this is?

It's hammer, screwdriver.

Okay, someone got it wrong.

There's always one, right?

Just kidding.

Love you.

This is a hammer, right?

We all know that.

Now, what is the primary job of this hammer?

What was it designed to do?

For the most part, could do multiple things.

But the I.

The ideal job for this hammer, driving nails, right?

So we could build things, right?

So.

So this hammer could be used for good.

Like, we.

We could say, like, hey, now, this might not be the exact hammer to do this.

I just grabbed one that I had.

But.

But this hammer could be used to build a house for someone in need.

This hammer could fix something in the church.

It could be used for good.

But we all know that not all tools are necessarily used in the right way all the time.

Could this hammer be used for something else that's not good?

Someone could break into your house with this, right?

And steal something they could.

They could hit you over the head with.

Could be used as a tool for evil or wrongdoing.

Now, is there anything inherently wrong or right about this hammer?

Well, no, but there was a designer who designed this hammer to do a specific job for the right way.

But we know that it's the person who's using the hammer that could use it for good or for evil.

And what we can see here in this passage, and really what it's talking about here, is not allowing yourself, your members, that God has transformed.

He's transformed you as a new believer, as a person who was walking in righteousness.

Don't use what God has now designed for good to use it to be an instrument for evil.

Don't sin with the body that God has given you.

We even know that in first Corinthians it says that the bot.

The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so the uniqueness of this is that we do have instruction for us in scripture about what we do with our bodies, what we do with our members.

There are things that you can do with your body that will give glory to God, that will show people the love of Christ, that.

That will show people the truth of the gospel.

Matthew, chapter 5, verse 16 says, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

Okay?

The purpose of the good works is not to be saved and not to have people think you're a good person.

The purpose of the good works is so that people will glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

So the Bible says that we as Christians in our bodies do have a responsibility to think and believe the right things, but we also have a responsibility to act in the right way.

And so the members that God has given Us, our mouths, our tongue.

Remember, we read in James.

We're going to go to James 3 here in a moment because I think one of the members of our body that gets us in the most trouble is our tongue.

What we say, how we say it, what we don't say.

But there's obviously many, many other members of our body that can cause us a lot of issues.

So what we're seeing here, go Back to Romans 6 with me, verse 13.

He says, Neither yield.

That word yield means to submit, to, to have a master, to, to allow something else to guide us.

So he says, don't, don't yield your members, your body as instruments or tools or weapons for unrighteousness that lead you to sin.

But yield or submit yourselves unto God for his purposes as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments or tools or weapons of righteousness unto God.

So what do we think about when we think about these members?

When we think about what we can do with our bodies, and there's a lot of things that we can do with our bodies.

Are we going to choose to do those things that are going to cause God to be pleased and glorified and magnified and worshiped, or are we going to choose the things with our bodies that we do that are going to bring focus to ourselves, pleasure to ourselves, dishonor to God, rejection to his word?

And I think one of the areas that I was really, really convicted on as I was studying this is what we do with our tongue.

Because a lot of times we're tempted maybe to go out and slug somebody, but maybe we won't because of the implication that might happen if we do that.

There was times in my life where maybe I wasn't as controlled by God as I am now.

And there was times where I was tempted to go, like, show someone something with my hands or whatever.

And then I looked at them and they were like way bigger than me.

You ever had that instance in your life?

You're like, I'm going to give it to him.

Then he stands up and he's like 6 foot 8 and you're like, whoa, okay, so, so, so I'm going to stop for my self preservation here.

Not because God has convicted my heart, but because I'm fearing what could happen to me.

And I think that's a lot of times why we don't do certain things with our bodies and sin is because we're afraid of maybe that will harm me.

But really, if we think about it from a biblical perspective, the reason why we shouldn't use our body to sin is because ultimately it's against our nature.

It's against the one who has created us to be different.

And a lot of times if we feel like we can get away with something, we will do it.

Because you know what?

It's all about me.

It's all about my flesh.

It's all about my pleasure.

It's all about what makes me feel better.

And so, yes, the point was, is that sometimes we're not as tempted to do something physically in public because that might give us a bad character.

But you know what?

Sometimes that we're tempted to do is say things that will cut people, sometimes just as deep or more than something with our hands.

And I want us to go over to the book of James because this is one connection piece that I wanted to add here today.

The book of James speaks of the power of the tongue, the power of this little member.

Remember it says there in, in Romans, present your members as instruments of righteousness.

Well, the Bible says in the book of James that the tongue is a little member, but one of the most powerful when it comes to what we say.

Because through things that we say can lift people up, but things that we say can also tear people down.

Things that we say can glorify God and honor him, but also things that we say can tear down his testimony before others.

And I want you to see what the Bible says here in James chapter three.

Read it as our scripture reading this morning.

But it says in this context it's talking about teaching and false teachers.

But I think by way of understanding we could apply this to every element of our life.

It says, behold, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body.

So.

So some of you that know about horses know that there's this little bit.

It's a small thing, but it can control a huge animal.

He says that sometimes in our life the tongue is like a br.

Like.

Like a bit.

Like what we say dictates every other aspect of our life.

Then he goes on to say more here, verse 4.

Behold also the ships, which though they be great, so a big ship are driven of fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small helm.

Let's talk about the rudder there.

Like it's a huge ship and there's a lot of wind that needs to move that ship.

But this little tiny rudder can change which way this ship is going to go.

It says, yet they are turned about with a very small helm.

Whithersoever the Governor listeth even so the tongue is a little member.

And both sith great things can do a lot of good.

Behold how a great matter, a little fire kindled, meaning it can be started as a little thing, but it can grow to something huge like a wildfire.

And so the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

What we say can be a world of iniquity.

So the tongue is among our members.

So he's just one of the members.

I mean, we could sit here today and talk about each part of our body and how each part of the body can offend us in our sin.

But ultimately, I think that this is a great passage that highlights one of them.

So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body?

So you say, well, my arm wasn't doing anything wrong, but if your speech is off, you're defiling your whole body.

That goes with every aspect of our bodies.

Well, I wasn't doing this over here.

It's kind of the classic thing.

It's like, well, I'm not as bad as that person.

Or I didn't do that.

The Bible says here that if we're living in sin, we're defiling the whole body.

And it says, and seteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

For every kind of beast and bird and of serpent and of things, of the sea is tamed, meaning humanity.

Mankind is powerful because we've tamed a lot.

If you ever go, go to, like, different places, they have an.

I know some elephants can't be completely tamed, but you know, this huge elephant, they tame it.

It can do tricks and stuff.

He says, these big animals, these big beasts can be tamed.

But it says here at the end of verse 7, and hath been tamed of mankind.

But the tongue can no man Tame.

Verse 8.

It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.

Now, I want to stop there because I've heard some people read verse eight and say, see, Pastor, there's no way that we can tame the tongue.

It says that no man can tame it.

Well, that is true.

No man can tame it.

But the Bible doesn't say that God can't tame the tongue.

And so the way that we see that trans.

That transition, that change, that.

That renewed way of speech, that renewed way of our life and every element of our members comes from the power of God changing us.

I can't change the way that I talk in my own strength.

It's the power of God, the conviction of The Spirit, that changes that.

So he says, therewith we bless God.

So.

So we get up on Sunday morning and we bless God, we worship him, even the Father, and therewith curse we men.

So he says, guys, this is what's happening among you.

You're saying things.

Oh, bless God.

He's amazing.

He's a good God.

I even sing the worship songs.

But then in the same breath, with the same tongue, I curse my brother.

It says, why is that wrong?

Well, they deserved it.

Well, it says, you're cursing someone who's made in the similitude of God.

You're cursing an image, bearer of God out of the same mouth, proceeding, breath, blessing and cursing my brethren.

These things ought not to be so says.

If you're a Christian, you shouldn't be blessing God in one breath and cursing others with the other.

That's not good.

That's not in your character.

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet and bitter?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?

Either a vine figs.

So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

This is the idea of whether or not we're going to yield our members to the Spirit or yield our members to our flesh.

Our flesh is going to bring that bitter water, that flesh is going to bring that fire.

But the Spirit of God is going to lead us to a place of righteousness and sweet and clear and God honoring speech and action.

That's just one of the many examples of the instruments that we can use for good and righteousness unto honoring God or to evil in unrighteousness.

And he says, if you are a Christian, you should take note of what your body is doing in every way, how you're responding.

I'm going to tell you here today, as I am preaching this, as I've been studying in this, I am super convicted because the Holy Spirit's pointing out to me many times in my life where I don't think before I talk, I respond in just the way I feel.

And things that I have said to people that I love out of just fleshly reaction has caused harm, has caused scars.

You've heard that.

You've heard that statement, sticks and stones may break my bones, words will never hurt me.

That is not true.

That's not biblical.

Words can cut and sometimes words are hard to forgive.

I'm not saying that it can't be forgiven.

I'm not saying that God is limited by our past issues.

But why would we want to live in that when we could have that newness of life, our Speech being different.

And I'm talking about speech here, but this could go for anything.

You know, if we had someone here today that was struggling with being a brawler, they always wanted to fight.

They were always ready to, you know, drop their gloves.

You ever seen hockey?

When they throw the gloves off and they start ready to go, okay, like, then it would be the same issue.

It would say, hey, look, you know what?

Why do you always revert to this?

Other people, they.

They deal with other sins.

Maybe it's the sin of fornication, Maybe it's the sin of adultery.

We could list every single sin, but ultimately it's tied together with acts of our flesh.

Our members are acting out with what's in our heart.

Now, the greatest issue is that sometimes people will say, well, I don't want to do all these sins, so I'm just going to try to stop doing them.

I'm going to try to put all these precautions in my life.

I'm going to put filters on my phone.

I'm going to not go to this place.

I'm not going to ever talk to that person again.

Because they always make me, you know, sin by what I say.

And there are certainly outward stimuli that we can avoid in our life.

And I'm not against any of those things.

But at the core of our sin is a heart issue.

And if our heart is not clean and changed in the spirit, hey, we can try to avoid it over here, but we're going to find it over here.

We're going to avoid this person because this person gets under my skin and makes me say things that I don't want to say.

So I'm going to avoid them.

But guess what?

I'm going to find someone over here that's going to cause that same issue for me.

If my heart has not changed in the spirit of God, if I've not yielded myself to him as an instrument for righteousness.

And so we got to think about the bigger picture.

What I do matters for the cause of eternity.

What I do matter causes in.

Causes a change in whether or not I'm a messenger of the gospel or not.

Think about it from this perspective.

Many of you have heard me say this before.

Let's say the person that you are speaking to or acting out in, they need Jesus as Savior.

But yet I act in sin.

I act in unrighteousness.

And I lead them to a place of turning their backs away from God, because I'm the only Jesus that they might know.

Folks, right then and there, I've drawn A wedge between the gospel and that person that needs the gospel.

And so it's not just about me.

It's about others around me that I need to impact for the cause of the gospel, for the cause of the kingdom.

And so we go back to Romans, chapter 6, verse 13 is really His.

His thought here.

And he says, don't yield yourself.

Don't yield your members to unrighteousness and sin.

Yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Submit yourselves to God.

Submit your body, your mind, your heart, your everything to the cause of God.

Say, lord, where do you want me?

How do you want me to be used?

Let me die to my agenda.

You know what my human agenda is?

Is I want people to think that I'm something.

Some of you are looking at me like I would never do that.

Come on, you know what I mean.

You want people to think good of you.

You want people to think maybe in whatever field you're in, that you're.

You're the best, that.

That you're good, that you're wise, that you're smart, that you're talented.

And what happens is, is that if that is our core agenda in our life, we will act that way.

We will do everything that we possibly can to protect our image.

We might even be tempted to sin or lie to cover up something that's insufficient in our lives.

But what I'm going to tell you here is when your agenda changes from exalting me to exalting Christ, now I'm focused on lifting up Christ in everything that I say and do.

It's not about me.

So what do they think?

Bad about me?

So what if they think that I'm a silly person, not very smart person.

Well, actually, the gospel is foolishness to those that don't believe anyway.

So people are going to think we're foolish because we're living a certain way.

But that's okay because of Christ being honored.

Who cares what happens to me?

And that's what he's saying here in Romans, chapter six.

Have your agenda, be God's agenda.

Work your life, work your speech, work your actions towards lifting him up and not yourself.

So verse 14.

Let's move on.

He says, for sin shall not have dominion.

That word, dominion, means control, power over.

And some of you probably in your life can recognize that there has been a time that you have been controlled by a sin.

And we don't ever want to admit that, but there's times in our life that we might say, man, all I could do was just turn to that One sin, that was my comfort, that was my out, that was my.

What some people would say is that that's my opportunity to just find my peace.

It's just falling into the sin.

But he says, don't let that sin have dominion over you.

Why for a year and not under the law?

The law always brings us to a place of finding out that we're sinners.

Let me give you a little hint.

If you were to look at all 613 of the Jewish laws, eventually you would find yourself to be a sinner.

None of us can keep those laws.

None of us can keep really any of them.

Just take it down to the 10.

Let's take out the other 603.

Just take the 10 commandments.

How many of us could actually keep those 10 commandments perfectly for our whole lives?

We can't.

So.

So the law always brings us to understanding that I'm a sinner.

But what does it say here?

He says, you're not under the law, but you're under grace.

We talked about grace so much.

Grace is the gift that God extends to us that we don't deserve salvation, patience, forgiveness, all of those things.

Basically, God is a God of grace.

So he says, don't live under the control of sin.

Why?

Because you're not under the law.

You're not defined by the law, you're not defined by the sin, you're defined by God's grace.

So therefore you're not under the control of sin anymore.

Now, do we still wrestle with the old man, the.

The flesh?

Yeah.

Does the Bible say that we have to constantly put off the old ways and put on the new?

Yeah.

So it's not just a one time decision.

I wish it was.

I wish I could tell you that when you were saved, you just came to a place in your life where you said, I choose God and I never choose sin ever again.

And, and that's my one choice.

But that's not how it goes, folks.

It's daily decisions.

I would even say that it's more than daily, it's hourly, maybe even every minute.

You have to choose whether or not you're going to yield to the spirit or yield to the flesh.

And he says, if you're growing in the Lord, you're growing in your understanding that you are no longer under the dominion or the power of sin.

You now can choose righteousness.

And that's the beauty of being a believer.

You can choose righteousness.

You are no longer in your default mode to go to sin.

But what we do is that we Understand that, yes, when I do sin, we have an advocate.

This is First John, chapter three.

We.

We have somebody.

Excuse me, First John, chapter two.

We have an advocate, Jesus, who is petitioning in our case saying this, yes, I know that somebody sinned, but yet he is under my authority.

He's under my dominion.

The blood of Jesus Christ is now on our account.

And so that's not a license the sin, but it's a comfort and a peace and a hope to know that when I do, I'm not defined by that failure and I can give back up.

And I can choose in the power of God to walk in righteousness.

I can change.

That's the beauty of the walk in the Christian life.

Newness of life means I am not bound or defined in the dominion of sin.

I am bound and defined as a servant of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is so much better of a master than sin is, because you're going to have a master.

The master is either going to be the Lord or your sin.

And sin is not a good master.

Sin will not take care of you.

What does the Bible say about sin?

Sin always leads us to destruction.

It leads us to separation, it leads us to pain.

It leads us to brokenness.

But the Master Jesus Christ our Lord is the one who leads us to everything opposite of sin.

He leads us to satisfaction.

He leads us to sufficiency.

He leads us to service.

He leads us to everlasting life.

And folks, why would we want to go back?

The Bible says that.

And this is kind of a graphic analogy.

I've used this before.

But he says, you know, when we go back to our sin, it's like a dog returning to his vomit.

It's like.

It's like a going back to something that should be repulsive to us now.

And what I want you to see here In Romans, chapter six, he says in verse 15, he reiterates the question.

So, so, so he's.

He asked the question in verse one.

He says, should we just sin habitually knowing that God will forgive us?

And the answer, of course, is, God forbid, no.

How could we live in that if we've been saved from that?

But now he's going to bring up another question, very similar question, but a question that's just a tad different in this.

Well, I know I'm not supposed to just habitually sin.

Okay, I know that now.

I know that that is a red flag to someone who says they're a Christian and just continues to live in sin.

But then he's going to ask a question and he's going to say this, but isn't it all right if I just go back here and there?

Isn't it all right if I go and just make sure I repent at the end, verse 15.

What then?

Shall we sin because we are not under the law?

Because that's.

Because that's the argument, right?

The human argument is this, Paul, you just said we're not under the law, we're under grace.

So why can't I just sin when I feel like it?

I won't be habitually in it.

It won't be my lifestyle, but I'll just pick it when I. I can, and I'll make justification for it.

He says, no, you're.

You're even though you're under grace.

God forbid that.

Definitely not.

And he's going to explain it again why he says, know ye not to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants?

Ye are to whom ye obey.

Meaning this.

If you give in to sin, that's your master.

Who you obey is who you worship.

If I obey my flesh, guess who my my new master is?

Me.

Humanism.

I'm my own God.

So he says, no.

The reason why you just don't choose sin willingly is because when you choose that sin willingly, you're choosing a new master, a new Lord.

He says, whether of sin unto death.

So he says, if you sin, that brings you to death.

But then he goes on to say this, and this is beautiful, or of obedience unto righteousness.

But God be faint.

Thank you, Lord, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Meaning this.

Thank God that you're not in your default mode.

Thank God you're not back in the bondage of sin, but thank God that that's not who you are anymore.

Sometimes we just need to thank God for His transformation that he's extended to us.

Because in our thankfulness comes that spirit of gratitude.

And in the attitude of gratitude comes a willingness to say, no, I want to choose that I'm indebted to the Lord.

I want to prove to him my love, even though I don't have to prove my love to him because he's already proved his love to me.

I should have that desire to say, you know what?

I want to prove my love to Him.

And so we're going to conclude here in verse number 18.

He says, but being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

So it's like, are you going to be a servant to sin?

Are you Going to be a servant to righteousness?

Well, it depends on who your master is.

Depends on who your highest authority is.

Who's your highest authority?

Well, some people would say, well, you know what?

As far as I know, the highest authority in the land is the president, okay?

And this isn't a matter of politics here this morning, but the idea would be this.

There are certainly earthly authorities that are set up in our life, and we should respect earthly authorities.

So my children should respect me, okay?

I'm their father.

Honor their father and mother.

That's a biblical thing.

The most biblical thing that my children can do is obey their parents and serve the Lord through that.

That's the way that they demonstrate their love for Christ, okay?

But I should not be their highest authority.

So my son.

I'm specifically using my oldest son because my oldest son is definitely one who wants to please his father, okay?

And so, like, there's fear there.

He's like, dad, I want to make sure you think that I'm good at whatever I'm doing.

And so let's say I work under that realm of thinking for his whole life, okay?

So I say, son, you read your Bible, because Dad says you read your Bible, and that pleases me.

So he reads his Bible every day.

Son, you go to church every single Sunday.

Because that makes me happy.

And I'm his highest authority.

Ultimately, he's going to get to his place in his life where he becomes 18, 19, 20 years old.

And Dad's not the fight.

He's not afraid of dad anymore.

Maybe he's bigger than dad, or maybe he's got freedom to know that dad isn't as strong as he said he was.

And he goes, you know what?

Now why would I want to do these things?

Because now my highest authority is not my dad.

Maybe it's something else.

So I would be wrong by appealing to me being his highest.

Highest authority.

The highest authority must be the Lord in every element of our life.

So there is different levels of authority that we are to respect.

This isn't me saying, go out into the world and just disregard any authority because God's your authority.

No.

God tells us we're going to get to Romans 13, that there's a role of authority in this world that God has ordained, and we obey that.

But the highest authority must be the Lord.

Why is that?

Because sometimes human authority can be wrong.

And we don't go.

Well, they said for me to do that.

So I just.

I just took what the pastor was saying.

I trusted what the pastor said.

Now I want you to trust what I say.

But also the Bible says in the Book of Acts that you should test what the preacher is preaching.

Okay?

Don't just take someone's word for it.

So.

So one day, yes, I will have.

The Book of James actually talks about this in James 3.

I. I will have to respond for what I teach.

But all of you are responsible for how you live your life.

You can't say one day when you're standing before the Lord, well, I was misled.

You have to say, ultimately, hey, this is why I believe what I believe.

This is why I appeal to the Lord.

So the question would be this.

Who is your highest authority?

Because your conscience, by the way, your conscience.

There, There was the.

Isn't there that song, Let your conscience be your guy.

That's good.

When your highest authority is the word of God and the power of God, because your conscience should be aligned to that.

But your conscience is something that God has given you in your life that is going to appeal to your highest authority.

So if my conscience is me in my own flesh, I'm only going to feel bad if it hurts me, if my authority or something that I appeal to is different that that.

So conscience is not always what we go by.

Because sometimes I hear people say, you know what?

I didn't feel bad about doing that.

You know why I didn't feel bad about cursing that person?

Because they wronged me and that's what they deserve.

But guess what?

My highest authority is my good.

And therefore I can justify it in my conscience and not feel bad about it.

Maybe if I'm not appealing to the Holy Spirit as my conviction and my authority.

So what I need to say in my life is, no.

God is my highest authority.

His word, his way, his will is what I desire for my life.

And that's what we see.

Verse 18.

Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness, the servants of God.

Folks, for whatever reason, we're afraid to think about this idea of being a servant because none of us want to be subservient to anybody.

Because we're, we're in a society that teaches independence.

And though independence is good in some capacities, ultimately you can't be independent of God.

You have to have a servant and you have to have a master.

And now the question is, is am I going to have everyone in the world try to serve me or am I going to be the one that tries to serve the Lord?

And if I'm serving the Lord, I'll serve others.

The question I would Say for you today is, are you okay?

Are you comfortable?

Are you actually embracing the fact that as a Christian, you are called to be a servant of God?

And think about the implication of that.

If I am a can a servant, a servant can say no.

But a good servant doesn't say no.

A good servant doesn't look at the Lord and go, lord, that doesn't make sense for me.

How long do you think that person's going to be a servant in, in the capacity that's being explained here?

If he just rejects his master, not very long.

And so the Bible says here, if we want to be servants of God, if we want to be disciples of God, and by the way, that word disciple just means completely committed follower of Christ.

If we want to be disciples, if we want to be servants, we have to be willing to go where God calls us to go.

We have to be willing to say what God has us to say.

We have to be able to do the things that God has called us to do.

And so when we say here this morning, am I willing to use my body, my life, my time, my treasure, my family for the cause of the kingdom and the gospel, or am I saying, you know what?

That's asking too much.

Now, if you are on the side of saying, lord, I think you're asking too much, think about what we are trusting in his work.

What did he do for us?

He gave everything.

He gave his life.

So we would be, I, I, I would venture to say that we would be very disrespectful and almost to the place of blasphemy by saying, lord, you're asking me to do too much after I understand what you have done for me.

He gave everything for us.

And if we're not willing to give everything for him, there's a huge issue in our commitment to Him.

Because if you love God, the Bible says you will serve him, you will obey Him.

Now, not everyone's on that same path of exactly where they need to be.

Like, so, for example, you know what, if there's a Christian who gets saved today, I don't expect them to completely understand what it means to yield their bodies, a living sacrifice unto God.

There's, there's growth that needs to happen.

But if we've been saved for a long amount of time, if we've been saved for decades, there is a reality in our life to say, are we serious about what we are doing, or are we just going to live our lives as it says here, yielding our members as instruments of unrighteousness?

It's a very.

It's a gross understatement.

But think of yourselves as a tool that God has designed.

So think of this hammer, right?

God has designed this hammer for a specific job.

And for this hammer to be used in the right way, it needs to be guided by something, by a worker.

Right now we know the guidance for the instrument for our lives as Christians is the Lord allowing God to utilize what he has designed for his work.

Now, there's going to be some times where God just steps in and we don't have a choice.

He's going to throw us into the.

The mix.

But there's other times where we're deciding to reject the Master and do what we want to do.

And think of the craziness of this.

Like, let's say, for example, I was about to use this hammer and it spoke to me and said, no, I'm not doing that, and it jumps out of my hand.

Think about how, like, ridiculous that is.

That's exactly how ridiculous it is.

When we as the creation, tell the Creator that we want to do our own thing, to yield ourselves to him, submit ourselves to Him.

What?

What?

When you come to a yield sign in the road, what do you do?

Well, don't tell me what you do.

Some of you might.

Some of you might push the gas and say, okay, I'm only yielding if it's going to hit me.

But really, yielding is stopping and allowing something else to take the lead.

That's biblically what we're supposed to do with God in the Spirit.

Stop our work, stop our busyness, stop our agenda and say, lord, you take over, you take control.

And that's a scary.

That's a scary thing at first, but it's.

I can tell you by way of experience, it's the most comforting thing to know where God has you and you utilizing the members as his purpose.

Doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect.

Doesn't mean that you won't mess up.

Like, I'll be honest, I messed up this week.

If you're honest, you messed up this week.

That doesn't mean that we quit.

It just means that we need to yield ourselves more and more to the Spirit first.

John 1:9.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's the beauty of grace.

So a proper understanding of grace is not, hey, license the sin.

Proper understanding of grace is, I get an opportunity to serve and love him when I do make A mistake.

He's there to forgive me, lift me up and equip me to not make that mistake again.

That is the beauty of grace.

And so we're going to come back next week and we're going to conclude our thought here because really what it is is he's talking more about living that life yielded to him.

And he's going to conclude in verse 23, which I would argue that verse 23 is, if you were to take one verse to picture the gospel, Romans 6, 23 is that verse because it gives you the problem of sin, it gives you the payment of sin, and it gives you the promise of salvation.

And so we're going to come back next week and we're going to look at the rest of the chapter and we're going to look at the beauty of the gift of grace.

Well, when we close here today, what I want to ask you is this, a couple questions.

Number one, who's your master?

Who are not only who are you trusting in, but who are you allowing to guide your life?

Secondly, what, what are you doing with your members?

Your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your hands, your feet?

Are you using the opportunity for those members to be used for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Does our speech reflect his Gospel?

Does the our speech reflect his love?

Or are we using those members for, as it says here, instruments or tools or weapons for sin?

You know, there's no shame in recognizing where we're going astray and getting it right with God.

I think so many times we just think that if we avoid the situation, it'll all just go away.

But let me tell you, in almost every instance in my life, when I ignore a situation, it just gets worse.

What I would say here this morning, if you have recognized an element in your life, a habitual member of your body going off astray to be instruments of sin and not instruments of righteousness.

Get it right with God today.

And what does it say?

Well, not to tame your own tongue, not to tame your own hand, not to tame your own mind and your eyes and your ears.

But what?

Let God tame it.

Let him.

Let God take it into his control.

And folks, if he's controlling all those members, we're in good shape.

Because he is the author and finisher of our faith.

He is the one who created us.

He knows the right tool.

He knows the right purpose of our lives.

And if we're created in the image of God, what do we do?

We don't trust in our own image.

We don't trust in our own ways.

In the world's way, because the world wants to jam you into the image of the world.

You say that's not biblical.

Romans, chapter 12.

He says, and be not conformed to the image of this world.

The idea there would be this.

There's a mold that the world has created.

Really, ultimately Satan's created and there's this like play doh or clay.

And the world wants to jam you into that mold and change who you are.

The Bible says, don't be conformed into this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

And so don't allow the world to give you your image, your identity, your purpose.

Let God give you your purpose, your identity, your.

Your.

Your overall goal, your agenda.

So here this morning, think about that.

As we come to this time of invitation, I'm going to ask if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every I close.

As the music plays here now, there's a time to respond.

Number one, do I have a master?

We have a master.

But who is it?

Is it Jesus?

If it's not, get that right here today.

Number two, though, if you've been allowing your members to be used as instruments of sin and unrighteousness, turn it over to him today.

Give him control.

Give him the opportunity to be.

To use you.

And I'm going to say this, he can use you, but he doesn't need us.

We don't have to sit here and go, God, I guess I'll come alongside of you and make your life better.

No, God doesn't need any of us.

He can do his work.

But the beauty of this is that in his grace, he gives you an opportunity to be a part of it.

So it's really upon us.

Are we going to be ready to jump on the ship, so to speak, and say, you know what?

I want to be used by you, Lord.

So if that's the case with you this morning, come forward and commit that to him.

But the biggest decision that you can ever make is, do you know that Jesus is your Savior?

Have you trusted in him to bring you out of that life of.

Of sin and.

And death and bring you to life and light in him?

If that's what you need here this morning, come forward and we can show you in the word of God what it means to trust in him for salvation, to put your faith and trust in his work and not your own.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.

We thank you for your grace.

We thank you for this new life that you have given us to yield ourselves to you.

Lord, we thank you for your guidance, your grace, your conviction, your comfort.

I pray that you be in this time now.

Jesus name, Amen.

As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here this morning.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.