[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. And take your Bibles if you would and open them to Romans chapter 6.
[0:10] Romans chapter 6. I am so glad to see every one of you and have the opportunity to share some fantastic truths from the Word of God with you. Romans chapter 6 is one of those exciting chapters.
[0:21] It's one of the most exciting chapters in the Bible. It's kind of a controversial chapter. People kind of get upset about what it says and don't want to agree about what it says. So I think maybe if I could show you before we read a little illustration, maybe it would help you get that.
[0:36] And so I'd like to ask my representative of God and the devil if they'd just step on up here if you don't mind. One of them is wearing a flaming red shirt.
[0:47] You can tell who the devil is here. Amen. And how many of you think he makes a good representation? Say amen. Amen. And then over here we have an attempted beard. So he's trying to look like Jesus.
[0:58] Amen. All right. And so then I want to bring Adam and Eve up if I could. And I want you to go back with me all the way back to the Old Testament. And I want you to realize. Step over that way, devil.
[1:09] We don't want to have much to do with you. And I wanted you to realize what's going on. Because what you're going to find out in Romans chapter 6 is everybody's somebody's slave. Boy, that's a wild one.
[1:20] Everybody's somebody's slave. And the Bible's going to say that to you pretty clearly. And so here's what happened. God made Adam and Eve. And he made them to live forever.
[1:31] He put in the garden a whole bunch of trees. And he said there was only one tree they couldn't eat of. And that was the tree of? The knowledge of? The knowledge of? The knowledge of good and evil.
[1:43] And he told them. And by the way, he put in that garden. He put the tree of life. All they had to do was go down and eat of the tree of life. They could live forever. And they were as free as you can imagine. They were his servants.
[1:54] They were doing what he told them to do. They were to take care of the garden. They were to multiply and have children. And so they were in a relationship of servanthood. And then the devil shows up like a wicked snake that he is.
[2:08] And he came over to them and he said, He said, look, Eve, you realize he's really kind of being mean to you because he told you you couldn't eat of that tree. He said if you ate of that tree, you'd be just like God and you'd be just as wise as him.
[2:22] And if you just do what I tell you to do, you can have real freedom. He is really ripping you off by not allowing you to eat of that tree. And so Eve, being deceived, fell into transgression.
[2:35] Step over here, Miss Eve, and leave Adam. And so Adam, realizing what she had done, said, I will eat also of the tree. And they stepped off into a whole new death. Death.
[2:47] Now they're going to die. They have said, I am dead to God and dead to what God wants. And you can say that God, that they died because he said in the day you eat of it, you should surely die. But the truth is, and they did die, but the truth is in a lot of ways they were saying, we don't want anything to do with you and we'll do whatever we want to do.
[3:05] We will be free. But all of a sudden, everything about their life turned out to have no purpose. You know, they would go out and work the gardens and they would go out and do all the jobs they would and they would even have children.
[3:17] But the truth is outside of God, they were slaves and sin owned them. And so the next thing you know, their children are messing up and they're messing up and they're all dying, of course.
[3:30] And of course, God had really mistreated them. He had offered them eternal life. They could step out in the garden and eat the tree of life anytime they wanted. Now they're out here eating of the tree of death. And then one day, the Bible actually happened there in the garden of Eden.
[3:45] God came down. God came down and he spoke and he gave them the opportunity to be free from slavery. And he called them out and they came with him.
[3:58] And they came with him back and now they are born again. Now we got a real problem though. They lived a long time thinking they were getting free over here. They lived a long time thinking that this is, I got to do what I wanted to do over here.
[4:11] And the things that happened while they were over here it only embarrassed them and brought them shame. You'll see that in the Bible verses. It only brought them death. You'll see that in the Bible verses.
[4:22] And this life they had over here with the devil wasn't as fulfilling as they thought that it was. And so now they're living with the Lord. And now death and sin and the devil have no power over them.
[4:34] All the power is gone. They have no excuse to sin. But every now and then you'll catch my brother, the sinner here. He's saved by grace but he keeps turning his head to look over his shoulder and see if he could.
[4:46] I still remember what it was like back when I didn't do all this righteous stuff. And he still has these temptations and he still has these desires. And he's going to be told in the story today, hey, do you remember how you lived when you was back over here?
[4:58] You did anything he put in front of you. You yielded yourself to him. When he offered you to get rich and make money and make something out of yourself you said, yes, make something out of myself. I like that. You remember I told you you could be like a God.
[5:10] You can go get you a lot of money. Go get you a big house. Go get you a lot of kids. Name all your land after yourself. You can be a big God. And he did all that but one day he woke up and said it doesn't make a lot of sense.
[5:20] I might be named Howard Hughes and I might be really famous but I'm not really happy. There's this empty spot in me because he was following death. And so one day when he is saved he says no back to that.
[5:33] He says no to the Lord and then the Lord says to him, do you remember how you used to yield your life to him? Do you remember how anything he put up in front of you you said I'll go for it? You wanted to build a house. You wanted to get drunk.
[5:44] You wanted to have sex. You wanted to be prideful and arrogant. You wanted to be adultery. You wanted to be just vain and prideful. You remember how you gave yourself to that? Even so now yield yourself to what I want you to do and he offers him that opportunity.
[5:57] Now there's no doubt he still has a temptation and a pull to go over here and somebody said to me that day he said hey I'm saved and you say I'm a new creature. Why do I still have such a pull? I said well the longer you live over here and the longer you stay over here and the longer you focus over here the more you're going to have that pull.
[6:11] But it has no power and you have no excuse. You can turn. You were a slave. You were a slave. Let me just give you a good illustration. There was a guy one day named the prodigal son and the prodigal son walked away from the father did his own will and got down here and one day realized hey my life has no meaning and no purpose and man I'm down here and life has brought me to the bottom of the stake and pit and I want out of here and he rose up and he went back to the father.
[6:40] And if you were to ask him what? Hey do you want us to keep on sinning? He just said what? What? Shall we sin? Because we have grace? God forbid. How should we that are dead to sin live any longer there and he wouldn't have wanted to go back to that sin.
[6:54] Can you say amen right there? If you, there was a there's a guy named Samson. He went all the way down and he did everything but he loses his eyes and in the last moment he realized man I gotta get back I gotta do what God wants me to do.
[7:06] You remember a guy named Legion? A guy named Legion was over here he's full of demons thousands of demons are in the guy and he's over here under the leadership of the devil and doing that and I'm gonna show you the story in just a minute and give you the text but you know what happens?
[7:19] Jesus comes by and heals him and saves him and you know what? He doesn't say can I go back? He says can I go with you? I don't wanna go back. I don't wanna go back.
[7:30] I wanna go with Jesus and I wanna tell other people about Jesus and Jesus said no you stay here and you tell them what great things I've done for you. Thank you guys. Alright take your Bible with me and go to Romans chapter 4.
[7:41] Let's read the passage and I promise you this is so beautiful. Now what I got to say but what the word of God says and I want you to know this morning you have victory in Jesus Christ.
[7:52] You have victory in Jesus Christ. Now let me say that's your position. that doesn't always mean your practice lines up with your position but it can and you have no excuse. Nobody in this room can say the devil made me do it.
[8:06] The devil cannot make a born again Christian do anything. Could I get an amen right there? You cannot say my old self made me do it. No your old self doesn't have the power to make you do anything.
[8:19] You will choose to yield. You will choose to do wrong. It is your choice and I will prove that if you'll look at the word of God with me. Romans chapter 6 if you would read starting in verse 15.
[8:31] What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto sin of done to death or of obedience unto righteousness.
[8:49] Would you circle in verse 16 yield yourself? That's your choice. You choose. You decide you'll do what the world the sin and self and the devil would want you to or you choose to do what God and righteousness and holiness and the word of God would want you to do.
[9:06] You choose. Yield yourselves. Verse 17 But God be thanked. Look at what it says. You were the servants of sin. You were the servants of sin.
[9:16] Would you underline? You were. That's past tense. How many of you understand that I was is not the same as I is? I am. How about it? How many of you understand the difference? Is there a difference?
[9:28] Huh? I was a man of 30 years of age but I am not 30 years old anymore. That's my past. That's not who I am now. And it says you were the servants of sin but you have obeyed underline obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered you.
[9:46] Being then made underline free from sin. You were made free from sin. Sin has no power. Ye became the servants of righteousness.
[9:58] I speak that to the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Underline for as ye have yielded as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield underline that even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
[10:18] For when you were servants of sin you were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are now what's the word? Can you help me?
[10:29] Whereof you are now ashamed. For the end of those things is what? Death. But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
[10:44] For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Father I pray that you let me take these next few minutes and help your word to be explained and expounded and shown to your people so they'd be excited about your truth that you give us and I pray God you'd help us to never make excuses for sin and to just accept our responsibility and stand up like we ought to to serve you and the power you've given us to have victory and I'll give you praise and honor and glory for all you do in Jesus name amen.
[11:17] Everybody's somebody's slave. Whose slave are you? If you want to write something down I'm calling this freedom in slavery. Freedom in slavery.
[11:27] I am a slave of Jesus Christ today. I want to be as good a saint as I was a sinner. I want to serve God with the same passion I once served myself and my sin.
[11:40] I want you to picture a slave being freed from sin and freed to serve God. I don't know if you get this at all but that guy named Legion who was once full of demons and he was cutting himself and hollering at the moon and was the laughing stock of the community I don't know if you get a hold of the picture but that old guy man the devil had given him freedom he was free to go without his clothes he was free to live in the tombs if he wanted to he was free to do anything he wanted but man his life was empty and worthless and Jesus came along and changed him and saved him and his new idea was I want to do what you want me to do because the last guy running my life wasn't doing anything to help me wasn't being a blessing to me and he wanted to serve Jesus you'll learn that there is real freedom in serving God when you are his slave you are free free from death free from sin free from fear free from embarrassment the lost man thinks that freedom is being free is being free from God but that is the opposite of freedom number one thing
[12:44] I wish you'd write down somewhere we are not looking for an excuse to sin look at that we are not looking for an excuse to sin I just want you to get a hold of the picture of Romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6 in no way is trying to teach that you have all of a sudden gotten rid of all sin and you're never going to sin and you're holy and you're righteous and you don't have any problems with sin that is not at all what Romans 6 is saying it's not what Romans is saying it's not what the word of God is saying by any stretch but it is saying this we're not looking for an excuse we have no excuse look if you would at verse 15 what then shall we sin because we're not in the law thank God there's no more law you mean there's no rules for me praise the Lord no rules good when we go into sin God forbid and here's why listen to this we know what sin brought us everybody in this room ought to know you need to think back and remember what sin brought you you need to look back at your past you need to look at the Bible and figure out what sin brought you it's found in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 that sin hath reigned unto what help me sin hath reigned unto help me only one person said it
[13:52] Romans 5 21 sin has reigned unto death before sin we had life in the wonderful presence of God before sin before sin we were free to enjoy all that God had prepared for us before sin we had dominion over all of his creation sin brought death this chapter is not written isolated from the rest of the Bible he assumes you know the Bible he assumes you know the 39 books of the Old Testament he assumes you understand what's going on in the gospel and he wants you to know hey sin brought death it was death that cut us off from God and all that he had prepared for us it was death and sin that showed us our nakedness and our vulnerability it was death that made us fearful and ashamed one day Jesus comes down to walk in the garden like every other day we step out and we walk in the glory of his holiness and the brightness of his person and boy things are exciting and the next day we've chosen to do our own thing and we are covering ourselves up with leaves and we're hiding in the bushes and God comes down and says
[14:53] Adam Adam where are you and Adam says man I'm afraid and I'm ashamed sin sin took control of us sin took control of us it caused us to have uncontrollable lust we thought that we would be free but found ourselves to be slaves to something that embarrassed us and destroyed us one sin led to another sin look if you would at Romans chapter 6 and verse 19 you need to underline this Romans chapter 6 and verse 19 I speak out to the manner of men because the infirmity of your flesh for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanliness and look at this and to iniquity unto iniquity you guys bounce from one sin to the next sin sin always pulls you further down says that sin brought us death and shame look at Romans 6 21 what fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death you were ashamed in death I want to say before I tell you that we're going to look at the story of legion just for a real quick second
[15:54] I want to tell you you're sitting there thinking well I never have been a drunkard and I never have been a rapist and I never have been a pedophile and I never have been really bad and I've never been like legion and I've never been naked no but you've tried to build your own kingdom and you've tried to build your own money and you've tried to build your own inheritance you've tried to build your own name and you have really tried to build a life on your own that's as wicked as sin as it is to be all those other guys it's just as wicked and now I'm a born again Christian and I don't have an excuse to sin and I don't want an excuse to sin And I can tell you this, that men get rich and still aren't happy.
[16:29] Men build big houses and still aren't happy. Men, hey, in Hollywood, where they are born with perfect bodies and everybody applauds them, their lives are despicable, and you know that to be a fact.
[16:40] And the facts are, if you're honest about yourself, sin has never been a good master. Sin has never been a good master. And you may say, well, I didn't fall into, I didn't go from drugs to alcohol to sex to pedophilia.
[16:54] I didn't go from pornography to fornication. No, I didn't do all that stuff, and you might not have. Maybe you just went from pride to more pride to arrogance. Maybe you just went from selfishness to more selfishness.
[17:05] But the whole deal is you weren't serving God. And here's what the Bible says. We've been saved by grace and pulled out of sin. We don't want to. There's no rules for us.
[17:15] There's no law over us. And we are dead to sin, and I don't want to sin. No excuse. No excuse. In your Bible, you'll find the story in Mark chapter 5, verses 15 down through 20.
[17:27] It's the verses I'll just reference real quickly. We don't have time much to read them. But in Mark chapter 5, they came to Jesus. The people out of town came to Jesus, and they saw the guy that had been possessed of the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid.
[17:44] Verse 18, they asked, when he was coming to the ship that he might be, that he that had been possessed of the devil prayed Jesus. He asked Jesus, can I go with you? And Jesus said, no.
[17:55] Go home and tell them. Now just look this way just a second. As a born-again Christian, you do not have to sin. Listen to this. Get this straight. You do not have to sin.
[18:07] We love sub-clauses that say we have to sin. We love to build little things in our life that say, I have victory in Jesus, but you know I still got an old nature.
[18:18] I have victory in Jesus, but sin's real powerful. I have victory in Jesus, but I still have a lot of temptation. I know there's no law, and I'm saved by grace, but I still got a lot of temptation. Those things are true, but that's not what they were saying in Romans 6.
[18:29] Here's what Paul was saying in Romans 6. Hey, I don't want to sin. I don't want to sin. I don't want to go back to sin. That's not who I am. I don't want to go back to being legion. I don't want to go back to the Garden of Eden and eat the fruit.
[18:41] I don't want to. Shall we sin? Could you answer the question with me? We're not out of the law. Shall we sin? God forbid. We're not out of the law. Shall we sin? God forbid.
[18:52] Thank you for two or three people that said it on this side. Hey, how are the rest of you? Would you say it with me? Do I want to go back to sin? We're not out of the law. Shall we sin? God forbid. We don't want to sin. We don't have to sin.
[19:03] Sin was horrible. Be honest. Here's the way we tend to live. Before I give you the next thing. We tend to live like this. Like Lot's wife. I want to follow Jesus, but I really like the world.
[19:17] Boom. Statue of salt. Because you weren't really born again. You're still stuck out there in the wilderness as a statue of salt. Number two. The verses say you have a choice.
[19:29] We have a choice now. Look at verse 16. Romans 6, 16. We have a choice. Know ye not? Don't you guys know that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey? His servants you are to whom you obey.
[19:41] Whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Jesus. Before sin ruled and dominated us. We all. We are all someone's servants. Either life and the Lord.
[19:52] The Lord Jesus. Or death and sin. Choice came the day I trusted Jesus. The day I trusted Jesus, I now have a choice.
[20:03] Can I just say? You are tempted to sin. You are tempted to sin. You have a lot of excuses to sin. And you can easily go around saying, I just can't help a preacher. I just can't help. I don't know what to blame it on. I just can't help it.
[20:13] The truth is you can. You know, I had this one guy come to me in my first church. I was a youth director there. And I was just a young kid. And he came to me and he said, I have a real problem lusting after girls.
[20:24] He said, I look at them. I see their bodies. And I just think thoughts I know ain't right. And I said, well, you can have victory. You don't have to do that. God will give you victory over that. I know you're a teenager. But you don't have to look at naked girls.
[20:35] You don't have to look at girls and think thoughts. You can control your thoughts. Bring all your thoughts into captivity. So we prayed. We read some scripture. We talked. And he left. And about 30 minutes later, he comes driving back in the driveway.
[20:46] Sliding the car in the driveway. Ran in the building. And said, it didn't work. None of it worked. And I said, what do you mean? He said, after we prayed, you told me I had victory. So I went down to the swimming pool. And I was looking at them girls.
[20:56] And I'm still thinking them thoughts. Well, maybe you yielded your body to go back to the swimming pool where you could check out the girls. Maybe you wanted to go look at the girls. Maybe you weren't really trying to live.
[21:08] You have a choice. You choose who you'll yield yourself to. You choose who you'll yield yourself to. Look at verse 17. When did I get free? When did I get free from sin?
[21:20] Now, free from sin doesn't mean that there's no sin. It just means sin has no real power over me. Verse 17 says, but God be thanked. You were the servants of sin.
[21:31] But, big but, man. You ought to circle that. That's a really large word. You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. You were the servants of sin.
[21:44] Old Legion was sitting over there in this cave and he was cutting himself. They had bound him with chains. They had done everything they could to try to help the guy, to stop the guy, to quieten the guy, to do anything they could.
[21:55] They couldn't stop him. Now, Jesus came and spoke to him and gave him a form of doctrine, a teaching, a truth, grace, and salvation. And Legion said, I hear, I obey from the heart, I believe.
[22:09] And when he did, he was freed and in his right mind and able to live a new life. We believed in our heart, but we more than believed, we obeyed in that from the heart.
[22:21] We obeyed a specific doctrine, not a Baptist doctrine, not a Christian doctrine, but a Bible doctrine. We believed that we had all failed by sinning against a holy God.
[22:33] We believed that the only hope we could ever have was to die and go to hell. We believed that God in his great love took on human flesh and dwelt among us and died on a cross for us. We believed that on the cross he took our sin debt and paid it for all of us.
[22:47] I want to just stop real quick and tell you, I'm afraid there's a lot of cultural Christianity. Christians that can't quit sinning because I think you're just a cultural Christian. I think you got baptized.
[23:00] I think you took a few new members classes. I think you took some basic discipleship classes maybe, but you know, you never believed and obeyed from the heart. There's not one reference of old Legion saying, I think I'd like to go back to the graveyard.
[23:17] There's not one Legion, one reference of old Legion saying, I want to go back and be who I was. The reference about Legion is, can I go with you, Jesus? You see, did you ever believe you sinned against the holy God?
[23:31] One of the problems in the southeast of the United States is we don't really believe that. And when we do it, we might say this, well, I could be a couple of pounds overweight, but I'm not fat. I could be a little bit of a sinner, but I'm not a real bad sinner.
[23:45] And we tend to want to think that being saved was saying, well, I'm not really a bad guy. But the truth is, until you've been sick, you can't get well. Until you've been sick, you can't get well.
[23:57] Until you're sick, you don't even need a doctor. And if you think that you are somebody on your own, no wonder sin still owns you. When we obeyed the truth from our heart, we were freed from sin.
[24:14] Romans 6, 18, read that with me. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Satan, sin, and self lost their grip on me.
[24:29] I had a choice. I became a servant of righteousness. I chose. When Travis was over here under the devil's control, under his power, he didn't have any choice.
[24:44] He had walked away from God. He was cut off from God. He had no power of his own. Satan was bigger than him, and Satan dominated him. But on the day he believed in his heart the truth that was preached to him, he was free.
[24:56] That doesn't mean he quit sinning. That doesn't mean that he got perfect in a day. We get saved instantly. We get sanctified progressively. We get saved immediately. But it takes time as we grow in the Lord.
[25:08] But you need to realize who you are. You need to realize who you are. You've got to stand up and say, no, I'm a born-again believer. I can remember when I was 16.
[25:19] I can remember when I was 14 and 15 driving a car, and it was illegal. You know, but I was living in the hills of Tennessee. We only saw a policeman about once every 100 years. But if I ever saw one, it scared me to death.
[25:31] And then I got my driver's license. And I'd be driving. I would be doing right occasionally. And I'd see a policeman. And when I saw that policeman, it just sent fear all over me. It sent fear all over me.
[25:42] Because I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to ride here. He's going to stop me. Now we'd be riding down the road. And Betty would say, there's a cop up there. And I'd say, that's all right. And I'd go, right on by him. I'm doing a little over the speed limit.
[25:54] Three or four miles over the speed limit. I'd go right on by him. He never says where. But he says, I can't believe you drove by that cop. I said, I ain't doing nothing wrong. I know who I am. I'm within my rights. You getting it? Here's what you're doing.
[26:05] You're serving Jesus and going, here comes the devil. I ain't got any power. You don't have an excuse to sin. You can choose to obey Jesus Christ. You can choose to obey the truth.
[26:17] You choose. By the way, the same story is told in the Old Testament. Once slaves to sin, we can now choose to sin and suffer. The consequences are obey and reap the benefits.
[26:28] In Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 26 through 28, he says, and I won't read all the verses because my time's almost gone. But he says, hey, hey, look, behold, I set before you blessing and cursing.
[26:39] Obey me and be blessed. Disobey me and be cursed. And as a Christian, I choose who I'll yield to. A Christian can do wrong. A Christian can.
[26:49] He's going to be tempted. He's going to have desires. He's going to have thoughts. And he can choose to do wrong. And when he does, he'll suffer the consequences. We're studying the book of Genesis at the same time we're studying this book.
[27:02] And it's interesting. Lot chose, though he was just right, Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, according to 1 Peter. He chose to live in Sodom.
[27:13] He chose to live in sin. He chose to do his own thing. He chose to get riches. And he chose to make a name for himself. But look at all the consequences. He will be rescued out of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[27:25] He will be taken out. But his wife will turn to a pillar of salt. His two daughters will stand with him. His other daughters will die. And all his friends will die. And all of his goods will be burned up. I set before you choice.
[27:35] Do right. Do wrong. You choose. I just want you to hear this real quickly. You choose. You can be his servant. Now, I chose not to be his servant.
[27:46] I'm not his servant. And you're not either. But I can sure act like one. I can sure act like one. I can look back over my shoulder and go do what he wants me to do. Third thing. We are here called to understand how we live out who we are.
[27:59] Here's how we live out who we are. Romans chapter 6 and verse 19. This is one of the most powerful verses. It like screams off the page at you. Romans chapter 6 and verse 19.
[28:10] I speak after the man. I'm going to talk to you like a man. Because I don't think y'all are getting it. I'm going to speak after a man. Because you're of the weakness of the infirmity of your flesh. As you have yielded your members as servants to uncleanliness and to iniquity unto iniquity.
[28:27] Even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. I want you to look this way just a second. I want this verse. Watch this verse. Do you know what you did when you got involved in sin?
[28:39] You gave yourself to it. You said, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know. It was the sin of making lots of money. It was the sin of building a life for yourself. It was the sin of being number one in your world.
[28:49] It was the sin of everything revolves around me. I'm not even trying to accuse you of doing some wicked vile sin. Because all of you are looking at me like, I never ever done any of that. But most of us have put ourselves on a throne and thought we was God.
[29:02] Most of us have built our lives around that. And by the way, let me just tell you. Do you ever watch what happens when a young guy. Let's just use sports for an example. When a young guy gives himself to sports. It's amazing what they'll do for that sport.
[29:14] They'll break bones for it. But our son David, as a young man, was extremely talented on rollerblades. And we told him, don't be doing any crazy jumping.
[29:27] Don't be showing off to people. We'll buy you these rollerblades, but don't be doing stupid stuff. You understand us? So one day, Betty and I are out to eat. We're on a little date with the two of us.
[29:37] The phone rings. And David's in the hospital and he has destroyed his leg. So we get to the hospital and they've got the skate off and they're fixing to work on the wall. Our friend that's a doctor is there fixing to do the surgery.
[29:48] And I said, David, what were you doing? He said, Dad, I just skated. There was stuff on the thing. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. There was just some rocks there. And my skate hit those rocks and I fell. And it's not my fault.
[30:00] Sounds good, son. Betty goes to get the skate from the family where they had taken the skate off. And the family said, we don't know what happened. He's very good. He can jump like 10 stairs at a time.
[30:11] He can spin in the air. He can do the wildest stuff you've ever seen. The whole community gathers around to watch him and they all clap for him. Oh, wait a minute.
[30:23] Even so now, yield yourself like you used to. You know how you get that good? I've been on a skateboard before. You know what happened when I got on a skateboard when I was in my 20s? I busted my rear end.
[30:35] And so I never did that. But you know, David, I'm sure, busted himself at two. But he just kept on. It don't matter. Pay the price. Pay the price. Pay the price. My mother-in-law had a student that was going to the Olympics.
[30:45] And this girl got up at like 4 o'clock in the morning and went and worked out until 8 o'clock. And then went to school and got through school. And then after school, she went and worked out some more. And she never had friends over. And she never went anywhere because her life was lived around one purpose to get to the Olympics.
[30:58] Here's what Paul said. I'll talk to you all like humans. Y'all remember how you did your sinning? I mean, you went all out. You bought every magazine that talked about getting rich, didn't you? You bought those positive thinking tapes so that when you rode down the road, the thing would say, You're the man.
[31:12] You're the man. If anybody can make money, it's you that can make the money. You are the man. The whole world is falling at your feet. You're the man. You went into the mirror and you looked in the mirror and you said, Whoa, look at you, man. You are the man.
[31:23] Check you out. You go down to the gym to work out. You get as many clothes off as you can so you can see yourself while you're working out. Man, check me out. Whoa, check me out. You know, you're like, come on.
[31:34] It's a cop built around yourself. He said, I know that's how you were. He said, now you're going to follow Jesus. Even so now yield to Jesus. I know what you used to do, man, to climb the corporate ladder.
[31:45] Where'd you stop? What were you willing to do? He said, that's how you used to be. You have a choice. Now yield yourself. Look at verse 19. Even so now yield your members as servants to righteousness and to holiness.
[31:59] We have learned and we know great truths. And we've read truths in the book of Romans that are like, that's not possible. Sin always beats me up. That's not possible.
[32:11] I just can't have victory. But we found out we could. We know that we're free from sin. We know that sin no longer has dominion over us. We know that sin's power has been destroyed. We know we're new creatures in Christ.
[32:22] This is the very truth about us. But now we have to live it out. Our position must become our practice. Paul explains in human terms how to live out this new life.
[32:34] And here it is. Yield to God like you yield to sin and self. You used to go from iniquity to iniquity. How about now going from righteousness to righteousness?
[32:46] You tried one sin and said, I like that sin. I think I'll try the next sin. You tried that sin and said, whoo, like that sin. I'll try the next sin. And you just kept doing more and more of whatever it was that floated your boat and fit your life.
[32:59] He said, why don't you decide to follow me now like that? In the same way you used to give yourself to sin, now give yourself to do right and serve God. When you were sinning, you didn't have any desire to do right.
[33:13] You know, when you live your life around yourself, you don't have time for anything else. It's all about you. Romans 6.20. When you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
[33:25] When you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. In the same way now, you should be so excited and motivated to serve God that you have no desire to do wrong. You love your other master and now love your new master.
[33:38] I'm just going to tell you, this is the honest truth. When I was a boy, my favorite TV show was The Rifleman with Lucas McCain. He had this kid, Mark, and he could sling that rifle.
[33:48] Boy, and I loved it. I wanted to be a daddy when I was 12. I really did. And I liked girls. I'm just going to tell you up front, I liked girls. I never did like guys very much. Not that way. I liked girls.
[34:00] You say, when did you want to get married? I don't know. I think it's 10 or 12. I'm not sure. But somewhere around there, I decided I liked girls. I want to get married. And man, I dated all the time. If one girl dumped me in the morning, I was finding another one by the afternoon. I said, would you be my girlfriend?
[34:11] Check yes or no on the box. I liked girls. I wanted a girl. Man, I'll just be honest with you. I just never did get over that. I like girls. Anybody in this room ever like a girl or girls?
[34:22] Did you? Oh, you guys. No, I never did like girls. I found the one perfect one. The only girl I've ever seen in my life. Man, that wasn't me. Boy, I was like a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower until I found the right one.
[34:33] But can I tell you that in 1972 in December, I met a girl named Betty. In January, we had our first date. In January, I started really trying to become her friend and to try to court her in 1973.
[34:46] And, you know, on the day, August the 18th, 1973, I became a slave to Betty. A servant to Betty.
[34:57] My life revolves around loving her and helping her and serving her and making her happy. But can I tell you, I never look back over and think, boy, I had it better getting dropped every other week.
[35:13] You say, why'd you marry Betty? She's the only girl I ever dated didn't drop me. And she still hadn't, praise God, 40 years later. But the truth is, I don't have time to think about other girls because I'm too interested in the main girl.
[35:27] The one girl, the great girl, the girl that God put in my life. And I do live for her. I live for Jesus. I live for her. And your problem is, you decided to follow Jesus. But the whole time you keep saying, I just can't help it.
[35:39] I just got to look around to other girls. Maybe you got a love problem. Maybe you got a yielding problem. Maybe you got a heart problem. Think about what you're giving of yourself and what you earned when you were serving sin.
[35:57] The Bible says in Romans 6, 21, he says, look back. What fruit had ye then and those things whereof you are now ashamed. The end of those things is death.
[36:09] So many Christians remind me of the nation of Israel. When they're out in the wilderness and on their way to the promised land. And they look at Moses and they said, we were better off in Egypt when they used to kill our babies and beat us.
[36:22] And we were slaves. We were better off there. Hey, we're missing the leeks and the onions of Egypt. We're free now, but we'd rather go back. They wanted to go back.
[36:33] I've met men. And it's always interesting. You'll meet their men. And I've been in the ministry a long time. So I've had a lot of men in my church. And this guy's not here now. He may not even be alive. I'm not sure. But he told me one day. He always liked the glory in his old life.
[36:45] He used to tell me, I drank enough booze to float this church. I was like, well, I wouldn't admit that. You know, I mean, it's like, it's like y'all. Everybody was go around bragging on what they used to be.
[36:57] And Paul said, why don't you forget who you used to be and be who you are? Even so now, yield yourself servants. Romans chapter 6 and verse 22.
[37:08] But now being made free from sin and become servants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. You will produce fruit for him. Your life will leave lasting results.
[37:20] I'm going to leave off most of this message I'd like to share with you. But the Apostle Paul modeled this truth. Before he was saved, he persecuted the church.
[37:30] But then he became the persecuted. Before he got saved, he thought a lot of himself. And in Philippians chapter 3, he said, if you want to talk about a guy that was perfect, that was me. But later on, he says, I'm the chief of sinners and I count everything I had to be but garbage.
[37:43] He was never, ever satisfied with what God had done in his life. He was always seeking to reach out and grow. In Philippians chapter 3, verse 13, he said, I don't count myself to have apprehended, to have arrived. But I stretch out and I reach forth and I press toward the mark of the high calling of God.
[37:59] So this lets me tell you, there's only two lives out there. Romans 6, 23 says, for the wages of sin is death. You play with sin, you die. If you're saved and you play with sin, you won't go to hell because you're saved by grace.
[38:14] But believe me, sin always burns us. And you've got a choice. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I would challenge you to consider this.
[38:26] I would challenge you to consider this. You were in this kingdom and you're now in this kingdom. Quit looking at this kingdom and focus on this kingdom. I want to focus on Jesus.
[38:38] I have no excuse to sin. By the way, if you quit making so many excuses for sin, you'd probably get a lot more victory. If you quit making so many excuses, you'd probably have more victory.
[38:54] And you know that about everywhere but the Christian life. I was going to take a test one time. And when I walked in the room, I said, I'm not sure how well I'm going to do.
[39:04] And they was a lost people, nothing about Christianity. And the guy looked at me and said, man, don't think negative thoughts. Don't think negative thoughts. And, you know, everything you do, it's always about believing.
[39:18] You say, hey, when you're going to put that ball, see it go in the hole. When you're going to shoot that, see it go in the hole. You know it's in you. You know you got it. Yeah, you know all that when it comes to that. But in Christianity, here's what you think. I just can't do it.
[39:29] I just can't do it. I just can't do it. He said you could. Amen. He said you could. He said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
[39:40] What's the answer? God forbid. You don't have to. You don't have to. I didn't say there wasn't temptation. There's always temptation. Going to be temptation.
[39:51] We have been freed from sin and the power of the penalty of sin. We're being freed from the power of sin. Every day we're being freed from the power of sin.
[40:03] We are. We're free. But every day sin keeps attacking. And every day I just lift my shield and turn to Jesus. And soon I'll be freed from the very presence of sin when I go to heaven.
[40:13] But you have no excuse. You're a slave of Jesus. Live it. Act it out. Be who you were made to be. Father in heaven, I love you.
[40:25] And I pray that your word would deal with Christian hearts and help us to live in victory that you have given us. Help us to trust you and believe in you and thank you. Father, there might be somebody here that's lost this morning that's never heard the gospel and before and they've never been saved.
[40:39] And today would be the day that they would trust you and they'd be saved. Would you deal with their heart? Would you convict somebody and show them that Jesus is the answer that you paid for sin? And would you save them today?
[40:50] And dear God, there might be some Christian here that's been making excuses for sin. And when he could simply lift his shield of faith and trust you and have victory, would you convict him that he can live by faith and he can have victory?
[41:05] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.