I have a new Master

[0:00] We're going to have our Bible reading now, so if you want to open your devices, your Bibles, whatever you've brought with you, we're going to look at Romans 6, starting at verse 15.

[0:13] Romans 6, verse 15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means. Do not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey.

[0:30] Either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

[0:47] And, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

[0:57] For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

[1:12] For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time, from the things of which you were now ashamed?

[1:24] For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

[1:38] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Would you please pray with me briefly as we get into God's Word?

[1:55] Our Father, what we hear in this passage from you is difficult to accept at first, and so I pray that you might press it in to each of our hearts.

[2:09] Lord, you want us to know the freedom of belonging to your Son. So please help us understand and help us to believe what you're saying here.

[2:21] For our joy, for your glory. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we begin, you think I'm going to do something, I want you to do something.

[2:34] Unless people's lives depend on it or your job depends on it, I wonder if you would get out your phone and put it on aeroplane mode or turn it off completely.

[2:48] Go on. Go on. Ian, I just got a power trip listening to Ian, so I thought, Dave says, put your phone on aeroplane mode or totally off.

[3:05] How many phones can I see? Now let me give you a reason. The reason is to give you full attention to God's Word and being present with God's people.

[3:17] I don't want you to turn it back on until you get into your car. Okay. Honesty time. Hands up. Who just pretended to put it on aeroplane mode?

[3:30] Okay. Thank you, Natalie. Thanks for the honesty. Who's already wondering what notifications they're missing out on?

[3:42] Yeah. Yeah. Good honesty. Thank you. Now, I don't want to make a rule about this. That's not my purpose. I want to illustrate a point about freedom.

[3:55] Freedom is often thought about, spoken about, as if it's having no constraints on you. And I just put a constraint on you. I tried to, anyway. Freedom to have no constraints, it's not possible.

[4:09] So, when it comes to your phone, I should probably do it, actually. I haven't done that. No. There we go. You can be free from receiving notifications that steal your attention so that you can be free for giving your whole attention to being here, being with God's people, God's word.

[4:32] Or, you can be free from having all your attention grabbed by being here so that you can be free for still engaging online to some extent with a notification.

[4:46] It's one or the other. You can't, it's just not possible to do both. So, we often talk about freedom, freedom from, but we don't talk enough about freedom for. Let me put to you a Tim Keller illustration in my own words and maybe the point will sink in a bit better.

[5:06] Say there's a man in his 60s and he has two competing desires. He really desires eating all the junk food he wants and he really desires, he loves spending time with his grandkids.

[5:20] Now, he's got both desires but he can't do both. He can be free to eat all the junk food he wants but the wages of that is probably going to be a shorter life expectancy and so he's going to miss out on more time with his grandkids.

[5:40] Or, he could be constrained by, he wants more time with his grandkids and so he will be constrained in terms of what he eats. Freedom from, freedom for.

[5:53] You can't have it both ways. It's not how freedom works. Or, picture driving on the road. We could be free. We could just abandon all the rules and I can just drive wherever I want on the lane.

[6:05] I can go as fast as I want. I can drive in whatever I want. One of those Pee Wee 50 motorbike, whatever. Do whatever you want. Turn whenever you want. Don't worry about blinking, exiting the roundabout.

[6:17] Gee, it's so hard to remember that. Anyway, we could be free from that if we want. Or, we can be enslaved to the road rules for the freedom for all of us arriving home safely.

[6:34] We've got a choice. You can't have both. Either I can be free from giving my possessions away for the good of others for having an abundance of possessions for myself.

[6:48] Or, I can be free of believing that life consists in the abundance of my possessions so that I'm free for sharing my possessions with others.

[7:00] You can't have both. Jesus said that one clearly, didn't he? You can't serve God and money. You can't. You can be free from RSVPing to an event so that you can be free for having to see if something better comes along.

[7:15] Or, you could be, you could give an RSVP ahead of time so that you can be free for being a person known who keeps their commitments and who actually respects you enough to reply.

[7:29] You can't do both. Now, hopefully, some of those illustrations, I don't know if it's sinking in or not, but freedom is not just about what you're free from.

[7:41] Freedom is about what you're free for. Freedom is not about being free from all constraints. That does not exist. The world talks about that.

[7:53] We wrestled with that with the pandemic rules, didn't we? Freedom from constraints. That idea doesn't exist. That's not freedom.

[8:04] True freedom is giving ourselves to good constraints. Life-giving constraints. That's where you find freedom. Freedom from, freedom for.

[8:17] Now, I'm labouring this point because I think this is really crucial to get in our minds as we come to this passage about being set free from sin to be slaves to righteousness.

[8:29] Otherwise, we're going to hear that idea of being slaves to righteousness as burdensome, as oppressing our freedom, when it's actually saying, here's where you'll find freedom.

[8:44] So my experience is that unbelievers often see Christianity as the choice between giving up your freedom to be constrained by religious rules. That's not the choice.

[8:55] Here's how someone, Douglas Moo, a commentator, put it. The choice with which people are faced is not should I retain my freedom or give it up and submit to God.

[9:10] The choice is should I serve sin or should I serve God? That's the choice. Sin or God?

[9:22] Lie or truth? So true freedom isn't from all constraints. That doesn't exist. True freedom is being constrained by what gives you life.

[9:36] Okay, so how does this relate to the gospel and living out the gospel life? when we grasp the gospel that we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, simply by faith alone in what Jesus has already done, I'm justified, just as if I've never sinned.

[9:56] I'm saved from the penalty of death that my sin deserves. There is now no condemnation. I am at peace with God. That's what we've covered in Romans. If you grasp this gospel, then the question Paul asks is the obvious question, isn't it?

[10:13] Chapter 6, verse 15. If I'm definitely saved by grace, if the law's threat of punishment for breaking the law, that's gone. If the law's promise of reward, of blessing, is guaranteed, what motivation do I have to not sin?

[10:36] What motivation is there? The assumption here is that it's God's law that keeps us doing the right thing and keeps us from doing evil.

[10:48] Now, the law can tell us what is good and evil, but the assumption here is that it's the law that has the power to make us do the right thing and not do the wrong thing. This is the common objection to Christianity, especially among Muslims today.

[11:04] saved by grace, you'll just do whatever you want, you'll just sin. That can't be right. What other motivation could there be to doing the right thing and not doing the wrong thing?

[11:21] So instead of just talking in the abstract, I want to frame the rest of this sermon in terms of your fight with sin, your individual motivation to do what God says.

[11:34] So I'm going to frame the rest of it. You're facing the choice of whether to sin or not. What motivation is there, if not law? What does grace motivate us to do?

[11:50] So hopefully you've got your Bibles open to Romans 6. Make sure what I'm saying is true. Notice first what Paul doesn't say. he doesn't say sin doesn't matter.

[12:07] Go on sinning, yeah. As if we expected him to say that. I don't think anyone expected that to be the answer. He also doesn't say, well, if a person goes on totally living in sin, then that would show that they were never a Christian in the first place.

[12:27] He doesn't say that. Now, that might be true in an ultimate sense. If someone just lives their life not caring about Jesus at all for all their life, then yeah, that statement is true.

[12:42] But if that person is here today, they've stopped listening to me a while ago. They don't care about the answer to this question. So if you're still listening, that's great news.

[12:56] Or if you're still searching the passage, that's great news. But do you see what's dangerous about thinking, I've got to do the right thing to prove that I'm still under grace?

[13:09] Do you hear what's wrong with that? It's really going, I'm saved by Jesus, but I need a little bit of law. I'm saved by grace, but to make sure I'm saved by grace, I need a little bit of law in my life to try and do the right thing.

[13:28] That's not the gospel. The gospel is you only need Jesus. Jesus is totally sufficient. It's fighting sin, that kind of thinking is fighting sin with a little bit of fear.

[13:43] If I just do whatever I want, maybe that will show I'm not a Christian and therefore I'm facing God's judgment. Notice that it's actually using fear to motivate us to do the right thing.

[13:55] that's not the gospel. We have motivation of love, not fear. We're going to see that in this passage. So how does grace motivate me to fight sin's desire?

[14:09] First, Paul gives an instinctive emotional response, by no means. May it never be. He could not say this more quickly and strongly.

[14:20] Should we keep on sinning? No. He just couldn't help himself. It just comes out of him. I think this little outburst says more than simply no.

[14:30] None of us expect him to say yes. I think it shows it's his instinctive response. It's his gut response. If I ask you a different question, because husbands and wives have given promises to remain together for the entire life, does that mean that they can treat each other however poorly they want?

[14:54] I saw some shakes of the head. Did you have to logically think that through to come up with an answer? Didn't your instinctive response go, no way, that's not right?

[15:05] And then you work out, why was that my instinctive response? Something deep inside our worldview of relationships told us straight away, no, that's not right.

[15:19] That's what's happening here with Paul. Shall we keep on sinning? No. The point I'm getting at is that prior to Paul's conversion, he would have been the one asking this question, going, the gospel can't be right, I'm a Pharisee.

[15:35] He would be the one posing this question, but now Paul is the one going, no way. Yes, it's all by grace. No, something fundamental has changed inside Paul.

[15:49] this outburst, I think, comes from Paul's grasp of who he now is in Christ. That's the purpose of this section.

[16:02] Chapters 5 to 8 is all about training us to think of ourselves as in Jesus Christ, our Lord. God. So, would you, I want to spend a little bit of time pressing in this point because someone helped me to see it this week and I haven't seen it before and I just want to show you.

[16:25] So, turn to chapter 5 verse 1. Chapter 5 verse 1. What is this section of Romans about? Chapter 5 verse 1.

[16:36] See if you can pick up a key phrase that keeps repeating. We're going to look at a few different verses. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:50] Now, look, jump to 5 verse 11. I'm not going to give context, we're just going to jump. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.

[17:03] Then jump to chapter 5 verse 21. So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[17:19] Have you got the phrase yet? It keeps repeating. Look at 6 verse 11. This is the first command in Romans. Do you know what you should do in response to the gospel?

[17:30] Here's the first command that you should respond. This is how you should respond. 6 verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[17:44] The first thing we're told to do is to consider ourselves something. Okay, we're not done yet. 6 verse 23, which we've heard this morning.

[17:55] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God. Then jump to 7.

[18:06] 25. Thanks be to God. Who's going to save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God that keeps sinning. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[18:20] I won't read the rest of the verse, but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Last one, 8. 39. 9. Nothing, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[18:42] Did you pick up the key phrase that unites this whole section? In and through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's training us to think of ourselves as in Jesus Christ our Lord.

[18:56] We see ourselves as in him. So how does being united to Jesus motivate us not to sin? I think Paul gives us four ways of thinking now that we're in Christ.

[19:10] There's more than this. We need chapter 7 and chapter 8. The fact that we keep on sinning, we need chapter 7 to go, that is the normal Christian experience.

[19:24] Sin is still present. Who's going to save us from this body that just keeps on doing what I don't want to do? So we need to hear more than this as I'm saying. Wait for chapter 7 and 8.

[19:35] There's more to the story but this morning we get four motivations, four weapons to fight sin with, with grace. The first one is to see sin as it really is, an enslaving lie.

[19:55] The second motivation is understand what Christ achieved for you when he died and rose again. He didn't just pay the penalty of sin, he liberated you from sin's dominion over you.

[20:09] You have a new master. The second weapon is compare these two masters and what they offer you and you will find that you never have to choose between doing what God wants and what gives you life.

[20:24] You never have to choose between the two. And I think the fourth motivation we get in this passage is this slavery metaphor analogy, it's not the full picture.

[20:36] We're only slaves in as much as Jesus Christ is, a slave of God. So let's go through each of these. So first, we need to see sin as it actually is.

[20:50] It's an enslaving lie. So verse 16. verse 16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

[21:14] I think we can think of sin like the occasional bad decision that we commit, like eating that 11th piece of chocolate, or 32nd piece of chocolate.

[21:28] We know we shouldn't do it, but we commit it, the transgression. I'm not saying chocolate's evil, but Paul is saying sin here is not the occasional transgression, but really we're still in control.

[21:45] We don't have to have the 33rd piece of chocolate. That's not how he views sin. He sees sin more like alcohol, an alcoholic. It's not just the occasional mistake.

[21:57] It's actually controlling the person. It is affecting every area of their life. It is damaging everything. They don't have self-control.

[22:09] They are under the control of the alcohol. It affects everything. That's how he's viewing sin. Sin is enslaving.

[22:24] sin. I just want to pause at this point and qualify something we've been saying in this Roman series so far. Dave and I have been saying that sin is claiming autonomy.

[22:39] Claiming autonomy away from God. God, you're not ruling my life. I'm ruling my life. Rejecting his rightful rule over us. While that's still an accurate description of sin, do you see that it's not quite the full picture?

[22:55] There's something wrong with that definition or something not quite complete. The idea that we can have autonomy is a lie. It's a lie.

[23:10] God is God. You can try and have autonomy, it just doesn't exist. God is still God.

[23:23] What's actually going on when you try and rule your own life is you're giving yourself to enslavement to a lie. You're not living according to the truth. It's the fundamental lie that Adam and Eve believed.

[23:36] You can be like God. No, you can't. The sadly ironic thing is by claiming self-rule we're selling ourselves to be slaves to sin, to a lie, 24-7.

[23:55] Whatever we obey, we are slaves of the thing we obey. We can either serve sin or God. So, first, we fight sin by seeing it for what it is.

[24:10] It's not the occasional transgression. It's an enslaving lie. God to die. The second thing, and this is the main motivation in this passage, understand what Christ's death and resurrection accomplished for you.

[24:27] Jesus didn't just die and rise again so that you escaped the penalty of sin, although that is wonderfully true. Christ's mission was like a prison break.

[24:39] He came into the prison to break us out, or it's like a military operation to come in and get the prisoners of war out. It's like a police raid on a house with women trapped in human trafficking.

[24:55] It's being oppressed and enslaved, not in control. It's a rescue mission. We weren't just saved from the penalty, we're saved from the power of sin over us.

[25:09] In Christ, I have been liberated, I have a new master. That's what verse 17 and 18 is saying, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

[25:37] Let me try and use a few illustrations here. Imagine you get a new job, and at 9.15am you get a call from and it happens to be your previous boss, and there's a sharp voice on the other end of the line, where are you?

[25:54] The meeting started at 9. What would you be thinking in that moment? You're not my boss anymore, I'm not coming to that meeting.

[26:07] What? What do you mean you're not coming to that meeting? I've got a new job, that's who I am, you have no authority over me, I am not turning up, end call.

[26:22] Isn't that how you'd be thinking about yourself? You might be more polite than that, I don't know, but you have no authority over me. Or to use the illustration by, it's on the back of your bulletin, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, he's a Scottish preacher and writer.

[26:44] So say I became an American citizen, I'm speaking as Sinclair Ferguson now, then out of the blue I have a letter from Buckingham Palace signed by Elizabeth II, or Elizabeth R as I believe she signs herself, Dear Dr.

[26:59] Ferguson, I command you to come back and serve in the forces here in the United Kingdom. But I've become an American citizen. I can send my little letter back to her, and especially if I'm no longer a monarchist, I'm not sure what we'll do here in Australia, but Dear Lizzie, isn't that good?

[27:21] It was so nice having you as my sovereign, and I actually loved living under your reign, but I am no longer under your reign. I am an American.

[27:32] I am no longer under your dominion. You have no authority over me. Now, we might be thinking, doesn't the fact that I still sin often suggest that I'm still under the reign of sin?

[27:54] Are we just meant to pretend and imagine like sin has no power over us when, let's be honest, it is a strong force constant in our life, isn't it?

[28:06] Are we just pretending here? We're not pretending, because the grounds of this reality is not in your behaviour. It's not in your present daily behaviour.

[28:18] That says nothing about whether you're slaves or not. We'll come to that in chapter 7. The grounds of being set free is what Jesus has already done. He died to sin, in him we have died.

[28:32] He's raised to live for God, in him we have new master. The ground isn't in our experience, the ground is what Jesus has done for us.

[28:44] This is trying to teach us, train yourself to think like this. I am free from sin, even though I sin so much, and I don't want to, but I keep doing it.

[28:55] I am free, because of what Christ has done. Notice the passive voice in these few verses. It's not that you committed yourself to this new master, it's that you were handed over.

[29:11] This was something that was done to you. So it's not that the standard of teaching was committed to you, it was you were committed to the standard of teaching.

[29:23] So you were committed into this new life in Christ. It's a passive voice. You didn't do it, and that's why Paul gives God the credit. Thanks be to God.

[29:37] He transferred you, he liberated you. When did it happen? When you first believed into Christ. Now that's a, it's a strange way of describing becoming a Christian.

[29:53] So you have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching. It's a bit of a strange way of describing becoming a Christian, but I like how FF Bruce, another commentator, puts it, so let me share it with you.

[30:08] What is this pattern of teaching? It's the pattern of teaching which was embodied in Christ himself. So it wasn't this list of rules.

[30:19] What were we committed to? Christ himself. What he embodied, this new way of life. So when we first believed we have been brought into this new way of life, we've been brought into Christ.

[30:37] And being in Christ, he is both saviour and Lord. Alright, if you, I'm not sure if I've said that clearly enough, but feel free to come talk to me afterwards if you're a bit confused still on that point.

[30:53] We'll talk to each other. Maybe even better. Okay, first one. See sin as an enslaving lie. Second motivation is realise what Christ has done for you.

[31:04] You were liberated. You were set free. And then we've got a third motivation that grace compels us. In your daily choices, compare what these masters offer you.

[31:18] What fruit do you get? And that's what verses 20 to 23 are about. There's two masters, sin or God, two results from serving them, death or eternal life, two methods of rewarding, wages or free gift.

[31:33] life. So let's compare the pair. Hopefully that's not a legal catchphrase that I just said there, but anyway, we can scrap that.

[31:47] Back then when you were free from God, you were free from what God said and you were just obeying sin, what fruit did you get? Try and think back.

[31:57] What fruit did you get when you just handed yourself over to sin's desires? When you were full of impurity, envy, hatred, lying, intentionally causing others harm, gossiping, slandering, hating God, insolent, proud, boasting, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

[32:25] What fruit did you get from that? Didn't you get shame inside of you? Didn't you get destruction of relationships around you?

[32:39] Didn't you have the knowledge that you deserve God's judgment, it's coming? What kind of fruit is that? What fruit does righteousness offer?

[32:53] Or to turn the question a bit, when is doing what God has said made you feel ashamed? I can't think of the time. I can think of the time when people tried to put me to shame.

[33:07] That's very different from, so it could be a painful thing, but that's very different from feeling ashamed. That's a different thing. The fruit you get from God is honour, peace, eternal life.

[33:22] These two masters reward you by two very different methods. Sin does want to reward you. Sin can't wait to give you the paycheck at the end of the day.

[33:35] You've earned it. Death. Can't wait to pay us. But your new master only wants to give you life as a free gift. He is generous.

[33:47] He is gracious. That's the only way he relates to us. That's his character. So I think the motivation we're meant to have here is it's not saying give up what you really want now so that you get eternal life later.

[34:03] It's not saying that. It's saying why would you want to keep doing the things that cause you shame? Start enjoying the eternal life you have now. I think this paragraph boils down to a thought so profound.

[34:22] It's not my thought. I'm indebted to John Piper for explaining this. It has totally reshaped the way I think of obedience to God. If God will always, sorry, if God's will, if his will always leads to eternal life, always, that's the fruit, then I never have to choose between doing what God wants me to do and what will bring me life and joy and peace.

[34:51] They're never two options. They're the same choice. You never, ever, ever have to choose between doing what will truly satisfy you and what God commands.

[35:05] they're the same choice. It may be a painful path at first, but it will lead to no shame, the Lord's pleasure, eternal life.

[35:21] I think we see this principle played out most fully when Jesus was sweating drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane and he said, not my will that yours be done.

[35:36] And what's he saying there? It's a painful path. Absolutely. He's sweating drops of blood. I've never done that. Painful. Did he want to go to the cross?

[35:48] No. Absolutely not. In one sense. But then he prayed this, not my will but yours be done. His most fundamental desire was to trust that the Father's will would result in life and peace and joy.

[36:07] And did it? And honour. Did it. Didn't we celebrate that it did last Sunday? As sin claims that you will never be satisfied until you give in to it, you can say, you are lying to me.

[36:28] You can't wait to pay me in death. I never have to choose between submitting to God's will and what will actually give me joy, everlasting joy.

[36:41] They are always the same choice. I think that's a profound thought. It's a profound weapon to fight with sin. I think there's one final motivation in this passage.

[36:58] It's a bit disguised. I think it's a hint that we need chapters 7 and 8 still to fully understand ourselves as being in Christ.

[37:09] So in verse 19 we've got I'm speaking in human terms about this slavery metaphor because of your natural limitations. So we're slow to understand who we now are in Christ.

[37:24] We're slow to get the fact that being free from all constraints, ruling your own life, doesn't exist. That there's only sin or God as our master. We're slow to accept that.

[37:35] We need this slavery metaphor to understand that Jesus has liberated us. So we need it. But the analogy isn't good enough.

[37:46] This breaks down here, people. We need to understand this. And I think in our modern thinking we might go, of course slavery is not a good example.

[37:59] That's awful. It's dehumanising. It's brutal. Of course that's a not good enough analogy. But that's thinking about slavery with modern eyes.

[38:13] If we go back into Paul's day in Roman times, it really depended, and talk to Sean if you want to know more about this. He's the historian here. But hopefully he's agreeing with me when I say this, that it really depended on who your master was, whether slavery was a bad thing or not.

[38:32] You could have more security, more honour, more status, more prosperity if you're a slave in Caesar's household than if you're a free person. Just another pleb.

[38:43] Is there a... Okay, great. Good. Good. It's more dependent on who your master was, whether slavery was bad or not, back in Paul's day.

[38:56] And in biblical language, being slaves of God, Paul is proud of that title. He opens every letter with that. I am a servant, or you could say slave, of Christ Jesus.

[39:08] There's nothing to be ashamed of. What greater master could you have? And that is an honouring title. When we talk about saint, to be a saint, that's basically what we're saying.

[39:19] We're saying we're totally dedicated to God. We are set apart for God. Biblically, being a slave of God is an honouring thing.

[39:30] So why is this analogy of slavery not the full picture? I think it's because we need to get to chapter 8.

[39:43] Chapter 8, verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, as you relate to God, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

[40:05] I think we are only as much a slave as Jesus Christ is himself to God. We need to learn to think of ourselves as in Jesus Christ. You read the Gospels, especially John's Gospel.

[40:19] Jesus delighted to do the Father's will. It wasn't a burden. Anything he said and did, he said, was what God the Father told him to do.

[40:33] So in a sense, he was a slave of his father. But, gee, that analogy isn't good enough. That analogy gets just expanded out when you think of it in terms of sonships.

[40:44] We are children. The devotion is not just the devotion of a slave. It's the devotion of a child to their loving father. So there's our weapons in this passage to fight sin.

[41:00] How will this thinking go with us into this week and beyond? A sin wants you to think that you are compelled to obey it.

[41:11] You will never be satisfied until you give in to its demands. What will motivate you not to go on sinning? When that lustful thought and temptation is just overwhelming.

[41:25] I have to keep dwelling on this. When that untrue comment just screams out, vindicate yourself, your reputation. When that hurtful word is pleading, get vengeance.

[41:40] Get it now. It'll feel so good. When the envy of our neighbour's house and whatever they've got spouse, children says, you won't be happy until you have what they have.

[41:55] When the idea that your value is tied to you being a competent parent or competent at your job or school or sport and so all your concern and all your energy has to be devoted to this thing.

[42:08] We could keep describing how sin might pop up in our week but whatever the expression of sin is, it comes with brutal force, doesn't it? It just feels like I have to give in to this.

[42:20] You must obey me. Don't fight it simply by laying down God's law saying God says do this. God tells me I must do this.

[42:33] That is a true comment but it's not powerful enough. We've got stronger weapons. Think of yourself. Preach to yourself who you now are in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[42:48] See sin as the enslaving lie it is. You promise satisfaction. At the end of this, it is going to pay me in death. Shame and destruction around me.

[43:03] Remember your liberation in Christ. Like that old boss who calls you at 9.15. You've got no authority over me. I don't have to obey you.

[43:15] I have a new master now. The fact that I have a new master means you're not it. I don't have to listen to you. And look ahead and compare what fruit they're going to give you.

[43:30] Aren't you sick of the payment that sin gives you? Like I know the feeling too well. I don't have to choose between my joy and what God says.

[43:44] They are the same choice. And so I want to choose life. I want to choose peace. It might be painful at first but it's going to lead to life.

[43:56] And I'm not ashamed of submitting to God's law, God's way. I'm only a slave as much as Jesus Christ is a slave. Obeying God is not a burden. It's not a dutiful burden.

[44:09] I'm not missing out. I trust that my father only wants to give me life. Brothers and sisters, Christian, you're not your own.

[44:20] You're not your own. You were bought at a price. You have been set free from sin's reign over you. You belong to a new master.

[44:32] Constrained, compelled by his love. In Jesus Christ, your Lord, is where you will find freedom. Would you please pray with me?

[44:47] Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us to think of ourselves as being so united to Jesus that what is true for him is true for us.

[45:09] Lord, I pray that you would help us to not just hate the consequences of sin but also hate the sin itself. I pray that you would help us to see how enslaving it is.

[45:24] I pray that you would help us to rejoice and think of ourselves as being free from sin's reign. Help us to realise the freedom we now have belonging to you.

[45:37] Lord, help us to choose what will give life for us and those around us. Father, I pray that you would press this into our hearts so that we fight sin with grace and not with law so that we can get the victory so that we can honour you in how we live.

[46:03] Lord, we need your help. So please do these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:28] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.