WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:14.560 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. Let's pray. Father, we're going to look at your 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:20.799 Word now, and your Word has some shocking things to say, but we know, Father, you've shocked us to 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:28.399 comfort us and to wake us up, bring us to our senses and see new truths and beauties about who 00:01:28.399 --> 00:01:34.560 you are and who we are in you. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would fall with, continue to fall, 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:40.319 Father, but with gentle and deep penetrating power deep into our hearts, that we might receive this 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:47.919 truth in your Word and be formed by it to live free and whole for your honour and glory. And we ask this 00:01:47.919 --> 00:01:50.799 in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:54.639 --> 00:01:59.919 So one of the things that we do in this church is we try to not just have it as lip service, 00:01:59.919 --> 00:02:06.799 but to actually try to put it into practice that God sets the agenda for the church. And so one of the 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:11.359 things, one of the ways that we try to put this into practice, that it's God who sets the agenda, 00:02:11.359 --> 00:02:16.879 not us, is that we preach through big chunks of the Bible and that over the course of the year, 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:20.879 we'll make sure both the Old Testament and the New Testament are covered, and we try to have a range of 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:26.960 books throughout the years. And by going through big chunks of the Bible, it makes us look at things 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:33.439 that we would normally not pick and look at. So that's, I was thinking about that a lot this week, 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:38.879 because if we were a church which is sort of more what's called seeker sensitive, you try to pick a 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:44.719 topic that you think everybody would like and want to come to, you would not pick a text that insults 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:50.960 Canadians by saying that they're all slaves. That's just probably not what we would pick. But that's 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:56.400 what the text is saying. I don't know if you picked it up, but it's basically making a very shocking claim 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:04.400 claim about what it means to be human, both Christian and non-Christian, is that we, in fact, are slaves. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:12.080 So what on earth is going on there? Why would such a shocking imagery be used? So it would be a great 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:17.599 help. Let's look at what the Bible teaches, and it's going to be Romans chapter 6. We're going through 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:22.640 the book of Romans. We have two more weeks in Romans, and then we're going to a series that we're 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:27.759 going to take a break until January. From Romans, we're going to go into the Psalms. I think we're 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:32.799 probably going to preach the book of Joshua after that, and then some Advent Christmas sermons, and 00:03:32.799 --> 00:03:40.959 then back to Romans. But two more weeks, and here's what it says. And it begins actually with an 00:03:40.959 --> 00:03:48.319 understandable question, if you understand a few things about Christianity, and an understandable 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:53.599 question if you can bring those outside the Christian faith to hear this central Christian claim. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:01.719 And it goes like this. Chapter 6, verse 15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law, 00:04:01.799 --> 00:04:06.659 but under grace? I'll read it again. Are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace? 00:04:07.299 --> 00:04:12.659 So what on earth does that mean? Well, here's where it's a bit of a reasonable type of question, 00:04:12.659 --> 00:04:19.459 an understandable question to ask. And you know, Josiah, when he was introducing the Creed, said 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:24.939 that Christians believe that when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you 00:04:24.939 --> 00:04:31.600 enter into him, you're united with him, every single wrong thing that you have ever done, both sins of 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:36.720 commission, where you've done something, and sins of omission, where you should have done something and 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:42.100 you didn't. Every single thing that you've ever done in the past that was wrong, and every single 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:47.840 thing that you will do in the future until the moment of your death, that Jesus pays the penalty 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:56.400 for that. He dies, and taking the punishment upon himself, and every single sin, from the moment that 00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:01.439 you're old enough to actually commit a sin until what is, you know, for some of you, if Jesus tarries, 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:07.500 it might be another 70 years. All of your sins, next 70 years, all covered, all completely forgiven, 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:15.240 broken, and you're freed from them, and that's what Christians claim. And so the obvious question, 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:21.639 an obvious question is, why on earth would you do anything good? Like, if that's the case, why don't 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:26.439 you just ignore the law? And whether you understand the law to be the entire Pentateuch, or just the 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:31.879 moral law, the law written in your heart, like, what incentive is there to do anything good, 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:40.560 if that's the case? And this question flows from what he's just been talking about. Now, so how does 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:45.399 he answer? Well, if you look at the last part of verse 15, on one hand, he answers in a reassuring 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:50.079 way, but on another hand, not a very reassuring way. Look, we'll read all of verse 15 again. 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:57.139 What then, or what therefore, are we to sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? 00:05:57.139 --> 00:06:02.639 By no means. So it gives you the answer, okay? We can move on to the next topic. He just says no. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:10.120 Well, I know that when I've talked to people outside the Christian faith in particular, and it's got to 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:16.539 that point, if I just said no, they'd say, come back, we're not finished here yet. Like, you just can't 00:06:16.539 --> 00:06:24.699 say no, okay? That doesn't cut it. And so on one hand, Christians are relieved, no, yes, you should 00:06:24.699 --> 00:06:29.879 still be doing good things after you become a Christian, trying to grow in doing more and more 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:35.959 good things. But we'd be a little bit hard-pressed to explain why that is. And that's what Paul's 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:44.759 going to do. And he does it now by giving a shocking, a shocking image. And it's more shocking 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:48.599 to us in Canada than it is, than it would have been in the past, but it would have been a shocking 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:57.040 image even in Paul's day when he wrote this around the year 57 AD. Look what he says in verse 16. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:04.660 He says, do you not, actually it's interesting, he begins to answer by putting it in the form of a 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:11.420 question, which is a very interesting technique, right? But he says, do you not know that if you 00:07:11.420 --> 00:07:19.939 if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, 00:07:20.520 --> 00:07:26.460 either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. Now, 00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:32.480 I'll just read it again, just so you catch it. You know, one of the problems with reading and 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:39.700 preaching the book of Romans is it's almost like reading a creed. The words are very tight and compact 00:07:39.699 --> 00:07:46.439 and dense, and you have to read them slowly. And some of them you only understand if you go a little 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:51.399 bit further on and you link back and you understand what's being said. But read it again. Do you not 00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:57.699 know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, now when he says here if, 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:05.459 the if isn't whether or not you have an option to do it. The if is there's only two options about 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:11.479 how you live as a slave. That's how the if is to be understood. That's grammatically, English is clunky, 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:18.899 but that's what the original language is saying. It's saying in a sense, everybody presents themselves 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:28.199 to be a slave. There's only two options, ultimately, as to who you are a slave to. And so if you listen 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:34.399 to that, so if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:43.980 obey. And now here's the choice. You're either a slave of sin, and that leads to death, or of obedience, 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:52.139 and it's almost like capitalized, the obedience, which is referring to God, the triune God, ultimately. 00:08:52.139 --> 00:09:00.659 And if you are, in a sense, the slave, being willing to obey the triune God, this leads to righteousness. 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:07.319 So that's what Paul is saying here. And some of us probably think, 00:09:08.539 --> 00:09:15.259 Paul, you've actually made it worse, not better. But actually, he really does make it better. Now, 00:09:15.299 --> 00:09:20.679 just a couple of things about this before we try to get our minds around why he would use such an 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:28.459 analogy like this, and why it's actually a profound comfort. In some ways, you could say that slavery 00:09:28.459 --> 00:09:37.539 seems to be natural to the human condition. Most of human history, and virtually every society, 00:09:37.779 --> 00:09:45.899 had slaves. The First Nations people in Canada had slaves. The last slaves in Canada were owned by some 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:50.659 First Nations people. I'm not picking on First Nations people. I'm just saying it's a very natural 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:56.479 natural condition for most of human history. When Paul was writing this, it's probable that about 30% 00:09:56.479 --> 00:10:04.859 of the Roman Empire were slaves. And interestingly enough, I was listening to part of a debate by a 00:10:04.859 --> 00:10:12.339 fellow who's an agnostic, and he was saying, very obviously, that it's ultimately because of 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:18.040 Christianity that slavery stopped to exist. Or at least, I mean, if slavery still exists in the world, 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:26.100 obviously, there's a thing in the paper the other day that there's a concern that with the World Cup 00:10:26.100 --> 00:10:32.220 of soccer coming to Canada, that that will go along with sex trafficking, which is a type of slavery. 00:10:33.019 --> 00:10:37.700 In Canada, in the United States, they're worried about that will be an increase of sex trafficking, 00:10:37.700 --> 00:10:43.600 which is a form of slavery. But this fellow made the comment, just like a casual thing, 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:49.940 and he defended it, that it's ultimately because of Christianity that slavery came to an end. It's 00:10:49.940 --> 00:10:56.160 easy if you understand it. The atheist regimes have had a horrible history, in fact, have not eradicated 00:10:56.160 --> 00:11:02.860 slavery, but when in power, have in fact reinstituted slavery. And for our Muslim friends, 00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:07.860 you know, just to be very honest, they, I mean, most people don't know this, many Muslims don't 00:11:07.860 --> 00:11:13.759 understand that according to the Quran and the ancient and best hadiths, Muhammad was a slave owner 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:22.860 and a slave trader. And so it's actually woven right into the Quran and the binding hadiths of 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:29.840 permissible slavery within Islam. And so it has been Christianity, which is responsible ultimately for, 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:34.420 if not eradicating slavery, beginning to outlaw it and see it as being something cruel. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:40.960 So why on earth would he use an analogy like this? Well, here the original word is going to be a little 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:47.019 bit helpful to us. And the original word in the language is doula, and there's no English equivalent 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:53.920 to it, like absolutely none. Some Bible translations translate it as bond servant, which is a bit more 00:11:53.919 --> 00:12:00.959 literal, but is such an archaic word that nobody knows what it means. Or they'll translate it as slave 00:12:00.959 --> 00:12:08.539 or as a servant. Now, the problem with slave is that in North America and throughout the First World, 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:14.240 when you hear the word slave now, you think of the horrible situation that existed with the slave trade 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:22.860 in the United States and in the empire and through Europe. And it's not slavery. The word doula does not 00:12:22.860 --> 00:12:29.600 mean the same thing as when we think of slavery. Amongst other things, the word doula has no connotation 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:40.480 or connection whatsoever to race. It's a completely different thing. But so it's not as cruel as what 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:49.220 happened in the European and North American slave trade. But on the other hand, it's definitely not the word 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:55.399 servant, because a servant is just somebody who gets paid, goes home, you know, they get a pay. It's no, no, 00:12:55.460 --> 00:13:02.200 what it's trying to capture, which and here it is still going to be a bit offensive, is so by the way, in the 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:08.039 ancient world, a doula could be actually almost as bad as an American slave trade thing. If you were in one of the 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:14.379 galleys rowing, your life would be nasty, poor, brutish, and short. But on the other hand, you could also be a 00:13:14.379 --> 00:13:20.259 doula and be in charge of the master's family, in charge of estates, you could even be paid. But what 00:13:20.259 --> 00:13:27.339 unites this word, and what is at the heart of it, is two particular ideas. A doula does not belong to 00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:37.100 themselves. They belong to someone else. All doulas do not belong to themselves. They belong to someone 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:45.360 else. And since they belong to someone else, it is their responsibility to obey that someone, 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:53.900 and to live according to that someone's desires and their glory, their prosperity, not your own. 00:13:53.899 --> 00:14:01.840 So that is very clear there in this particular text. So is that help? Well, it lessens it a little bit, 00:14:01.939 --> 00:14:10.120 but here's the big idea, which I'm going to return to in a moment. And this is very, very, very contrary 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:18.139 to how North Americans think, but I am going to suggest that it's actually the truth we need to be free 00:14:18.139 --> 00:14:27.240 and less anxious. And the truth is this, no one belongs to themselves. You do not belong to you. 00:14:28.059 --> 00:14:37.340 I do not belong to me. That's why he's using this particular text to shock you. And in a few verses, 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:43.539 in verse 19, he's going to sort of semi-apologize for using the image, by the way, realizing that it's 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:49.519 like, whoa, even because in the Roman days, like a Roman senator or a tribune hearing this, 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.620 that they're a doula, like would have been a shocking type of thing. So it was shocking then. 00:14:54.659 --> 00:15:00.179 It's even more shocking now. But that's one of the big things. Human beings don't belong to themselves. 00:15:01.599 --> 00:15:05.399 And to think that you belong to yourself is to be caught in an unreal world, 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:11.100 which if I have time, we'll talk about this a little bit more. Now, if you think about it, 00:15:11.100 --> 00:15:16.699 actually, if you think about it, on one level, we do understand that there are a lot of people who 00:15:16.699 --> 00:15:22.720 don't, they are slaves to something. They are doulas to something. Like, we just go out the door here, 00:15:22.860 --> 00:15:28.480 out there, or out that way, and just walk around. There's obviously people who serve fentanyl 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:35.539 and alcohol. It's obvious that some people are completely and utterly caught up by something, 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:41.879 and which we would describe as sin, as evil, and they serve that evil, and they belong to that evil, 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:48.259 and it's just bringing them obvious ruin. So we can understand that that can be true of human beings, 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:57.300 and we understand that people can give themselves to some person or some tribe or some things or some 00:15:57.299 --> 00:16:05.559 ideas, and they can serve and trust it and serve it and get their identity from it and get their 00:16:05.559 --> 00:16:12.399 meaning from it. And we understand that that can happen, and we can see how that's happening very 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:19.099 bad. But here's what we don't consider. Do you guys know that when I say somebody's being catty? 00:16:20.079 --> 00:16:24.000 You know, being catty means, you know, you're just really being quite insulting about other people 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.759 and really looking at them in a negative type of way. So let's just say for a moment we were to go 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:36.799 out in a field exercise, and I said, I want you to channel your inner cattiness. Be as catty as you 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:42.340 really are out loud. And we're going to go into different coffee shops, and we're going to go to 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:46.440 Costco, and we're going to go to a grocery store, we're going to go to Whole Foods, we're going to go to 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:52.879 different places, and I would just like you to unleash your inner cattiness and talk about everyone you 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:59.799 see and say, what idols do you think they give themselves to? What idols do they give themselves 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:06.980 to? And once you finally, maybe I have to give you a little drug to get that inner cattiness really out. 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:12.420 We'll all effortlessly go and say, oh, that person's really full of themselves. I'm sure they're a raging 00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:17.500 narcissist. Obviously, they give themselves to clothes. Obviously, they give themselves to money. 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:22.319 You know, this particular person, I look at it, they just give themselves to all the prestige, 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:26.159 like you would be able to do it for every single person that you saw. 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:31.779 And don't give me any baloney that you wouldn't be able to do that. 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:39.819 I know that I'm a worse sinner than a lot of you, but I'm not that much worse. We'd all be able to do 00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:45.399 it for people we saw. Now, here's the shock. You get back, and you realize, you don't realize that 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:52.900 Josiah has led another group, and his group looked at your group, and his group all said, 00:17:53.040 --> 00:18:03.100 look at those people over there. There's their idols. And you'd be shocked. What? How dare you think that 00:18:03.100 --> 00:18:09.620 about me? I mean, even the fact that we realize that that's probably true, doesn't that sort of indicate 00:18:09.619 --> 00:18:15.859 to you something about the fact that this profound truth, that actually every human being is a servant, 00:18:16.039 --> 00:18:21.679 a doula of sin, that that's, well, actually, it's probably true. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:30.519 And part of that sin is that I flatter myself too much to detect or hate my own sin. Part of my sin 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:35.039 is that I'm very good at seeing specks in other people's eyes and not seeing the logs, some of the 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:43.039 logs in my own eyes. And the fact is, if you just think about it for a second, about this whole world 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:49.440 system, like, isn't it true that everybody's going to die? Like, why is that a shocking thing? Later on, 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:55.000 it's going to connect serving sin to death. Well, aren't we all going to die? And even this idea 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.440 of everyone's sins, if you actually, I've talked about this endlessly, but you can't talk about it 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:03.400 too much, because it's one of those things that we say yes and then completely and utterly ignore. 00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:09.059 If you met somebody who said, you know, I have a 12-year-old, I have a 14-year-old kid, and from the 00:19:09.059 --> 00:19:14.059 moment they could make moral decisions to now, they have never done anything wrong. I can't even say it 00:19:14.059 --> 00:19:22.019 without laughing. And no one would believe it. In fact, you'd go back and say, is this person ever 00:19:22.019 --> 00:19:29.059 deluded? You know, we don't believe, like, why? On one hand, we're offended by this, but the Bible's 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:33.980 actually just the same thing. You know, the fact is, you are under the reign of death, and you are 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:39.200 under the reign of sin, and if you don't think so, then tell me the person who hasn't died, and tell me 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:43.860 the person who's never done anything wrong, and tell me whether you actually believe it, and isn't 00:19:43.860 --> 00:19:48.340 it true that if you channeled your inner cattiness and were able to get in a very catty circle where 00:19:48.340 --> 00:19:52.819 you could chat with each other more and more and more and more and just unleash your full cattiness, 00:19:53.140 --> 00:19:58.840 wouldn't you be able to identify the idols that rule other people's lives? And wouldn't you be 00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:02.460 shocked to discover they did it for you? Like, isn't that, in fact, just the case? 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:07.799 So why are you so offended by verse 16? 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:11.519 Ouch. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:21.259 But then you say, okay, George, you know, here's the problem with you religious people. 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:27.579 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You say that, but, you know, you're really giving yourself 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:33.460 a mulligan. You're really one of those guys as well, seeing specks in other people's eyes and not 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:37.419 logs in your own, and that's the problem with you Christians. You think your poop smells better than 00:20:37.419 --> 00:20:44.819 other people if you even poop at all, and you just look down your nose at people, and, and, and, and, 00:20:44.819 --> 00:20:52.199 and, and, and, and that's actually obviously often true, often true. But it's not true here in this 00:20:52.200 --> 00:21:05.000 particular text. And that's why, um, look at verse 17 and 18. And, uh, here's what he says. 00:21:06.360 --> 00:21:16.080 But thanks be to God that you who once were, who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:24.519 the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:32.480 have become slaves of righteousness. That's a very, very dense sentence, but here's, here's this idea. 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:39.000 The, the first idea, but thanks be to God, um, what Paul's going to say is that his new status, 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:44.179 all he can do is be grateful because it's not something he's accomplished. 00:21:44.180 --> 00:21:52.299 And, um, and then when it says that you who once were slaves of sin, and here the, the you is plural, 00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:57.539 yous, who once were slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching 00:21:57.539 --> 00:22:02.980 to which you were committed. Very complicated sentence in the Greek, but here's the fundamental idea. 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:12.200 The idea is of being carried. The verbs are all passive, divine passive. So the idea is, I was born 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:18.539 human, human, like everybody else. So was Paul, all of you are born, and when you're born, you're born into 00:22:18.539 --> 00:22:26.480 a realm. There's a master called sin, also sometimes called death, but here in this particular text called 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:33.620 sin, and this master is one whom you serve, and you serve under their, in a sense, dominion or world, 00:22:33.619 --> 00:22:39.419 and you breathe its air. And it's a whole other topic of conversation about common grace and why 00:22:39.419 --> 00:22:44.459 people aren't as bad as they could possibly be, but that's an aside. We're going to talk about that in a 00:22:44.459 --> 00:22:50.119 couple of weeks. Uh, but fundamentally that's, that's who you are, and why am I no longer saying 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:55.719 that I am part of that? Why am I saying that there's actually a second master who can reign, 00:22:55.720 --> 00:23:02.240 to whom you can belong, and, and whose culture, in a sense, you start to imbibe, and whose values and 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:09.319 goals and ends you start to imbibe? Well, I'm going to tell you this, it's not by, I don't get there by, 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:15.960 by getting, by being so good that God has to accept me, that in fact, what happens is that God does 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:22.319 something for me, for which I can only be grateful, and what he does is he, in a sense, carries me into 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:28.700 this new world, and I get carried into this new world when I believe what he has proclaimed at 00:23:28.700 --> 00:23:34.339 the level of my heart, the center of whom I am, and I believe that he says, when, if you come to me, 00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:38.879 all who are labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, 00:23:38.919 --> 00:23:43.399 for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your soul, for my yoke is easy, and my 00:23:43.399 --> 00:23:49.059 burden is light, and I believe him when he says that, and I come to him at my heart, and he carries me 00:23:49.059 --> 00:23:57.960 into this new realm, and in this new realm, I now belong to him. I belong to him. Let me say it again. 00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:08.579 I belong to him. I don't belong to sin. I don't belong to death. I don't belong to Canada. I don't 00:24:08.579 --> 00:24:16.119 belong to my shame. I don't belong to the terrible things that I've done. I don't belong to terrible 00:24:16.119 --> 00:24:23.319 memories. I do not belong to any of that now, not because of my righteousness, but because I put my 00:24:23.319 --> 00:24:32.099 faith and trust in Christ, and God has carried me into a new relationship where I now belong to the 00:24:32.099 --> 00:24:41.819 triune God through Christ. That is who I belong to. I belong to him. I don't belong to demons. 00:24:41.819 --> 00:24:51.559 I don't belong to slander. I don't belong to belittlement. I don't belong to state power. 00:24:52.259 --> 00:25:00.179 I don't belong to cruel words. I don't belong to unforgiveness. I belong to Jesus. 00:25:00.180 --> 00:25:10.320 I belong to him. And you might think, and sometimes Christians get really worried about this language 00:25:10.320 --> 00:25:15.259 of sin and righteousness, because frankly, it is very corny in our Canadian culture, but it's actually 00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:22.100 profoundly helpful, because the sin word emphasizes, if you could just say law, I mean, it's going to talk 00:25:22.100 --> 00:25:29.220 about lawlessness, and there's moral laws and all of that, but those all are a bit abstract. Sin is a 00:25:29.220 --> 00:25:39.220 personal word. Sin says that I have usurped the position of God. I try to usurp his position. I try 00:25:39.220 --> 00:25:47.539 to be a God. I try to ignore him. I try to belittle him. I put him in my rearview mirror. I don't care 00:25:47.539 --> 00:25:53.180 what he says, and all of these different things is I usurp a relationship with the triune God, and 00:25:53.180 --> 00:25:58.060 righteousness is at its heart being right with the triune God. 00:26:00.180 --> 00:26:07.620 And what's not talked about, but you're going to see when you get to Romans chapter 12 and 13 and 14 00:26:07.620 --> 00:26:13.980 and 15 and 16, where it's going to talk about more and more about what it means to follow, to belong to 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:19.740 God when you're saved by the gospel, is being right with God means that not only am I now right with God 00:26:19.740 --> 00:26:25.059 myself, but I'm right with God. I belong to God. I belong that I'm working in a world where people 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:30.500 don't belong to themselves, but belong ultimately. They're tragically seeking to belong to sin, or they 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:35.940 belong to God. Like, we come together as a church, all of us individually belonging to God, and you not 00:26:35.940 --> 00:26:41.940 belong. The church doesn't belong to me. You don't belong to each other. You belong to God, and because 00:26:41.940 --> 00:26:46.220 you want to be right with God, being right with God means not only doing moral types of things, but it 00:26:46.220 --> 00:26:51.420 also means acting justly, seeking the good of the city, seeking the good for creation, because at the 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:56.620 end of the day, the creator God has created the entire world with all of its structures, and he wants 00:26:56.620 --> 00:27:02.100 all of that to be right with him. He's deluded. If you think that's going to happen, it'll never happen. 00:27:02.180 --> 00:27:06.960 You just join us with living a life where we don't care about any of that type of stuff, and Christians, 00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:16.000 it's so different. Why is it that I do good things? I do good things because I belong to Jesus. 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:27.740 And I'm learning to live under his authority in his world, seeking his criteria and his ends, and his 00:27:27.740 --> 00:27:35.559 ends are that oppression would cease. His ends are that marriage would be between a man and a woman, 00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:42.640 and it would be harmonious. His ends are that people would be free. His ends are that people would be 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:49.920 generous and not enslaved to money. His ends are that we would learn to forgive, and that is why we do good 00:27:49.920 --> 00:28:01.080 things. Not to belong, but because I belong. And the world is completely different when you strive to try 00:28:01.079 --> 00:28:06.759 to belong, rather than because you belong. And that's the profound truth. 00:28:08.759 --> 00:28:12.679 I just want to say a couple of things here to bring it to a bit of a close. 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:19.960 George, oh yeah, I mentioned one other thing. You know that whole slave image? And some of you might say, 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:25.240 George, you know, over the other weeks you've said how the Christian doctrine is radically different, 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:32.420 that the pagan gods created human beings to serve them, in a sense to be their slaves, and how it's 00:28:32.420 --> 00:28:37.680 very common in lots of thought about that type of slavery. Now you're saying that Christians are saying 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:43.980 the same thing, and George, isn't that like a bit of a contradiction? And it's, here's the profound 00:28:43.980 --> 00:28:51.299 difference. Look again at 17 and 18. Actually, just verse 18. And having been set free from sin, 00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:58.519 had become slaves of righteousness. That word set free is containing a very important idea that 00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:03.000 completely transforms what we're just talking about, and that's the word ransom. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:09.819 And Bishop Dan mentioned this last week, and I thought it was very profound, so I'm going to try 00:29:09.819 --> 00:29:16.019 to say it again, because I think it just was a very profound thing. So see, so the thing is, 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:21.380 in the pagan world, and in all other religions that ultimately see human beings as slaves, 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:27.400 you are a slave, a slave, a slave, a slave, a slave, a slave, a slave. Say a slave a few more times. 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:38.160 But in this text, you're rescued out of slavery. And the idea here is one of ransom. Now here's what is 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:45.759 shocking. So I don't know who, if, you know, if, I don't know, my guess is, you know, maybe you over 00:29:45.759 --> 00:29:50.160 there, brother, if you have maybe the most money, whoever has the most money, you get kidnapped. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:54.900 There's probably going to be a very large ransom sum that has to be paid. I mean, not because you're 00:29:54.900 --> 00:29:58.280 worth more, but just because you have lots of money, so your family can pay more. You have 00:29:58.280 --> 00:30:02.660 ransom insurance. And I don't know, if I've gone to Zimbabwe, and I've gotten kidnapped, 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:06.120 and there was a ransom, I mean, good grief, if it's more than a couple of thousand dollars, 00:30:06.180 --> 00:30:11.019 or out of luck, they're just going to have to put up with me for all eternity, because my wife 00:30:11.019 --> 00:30:15.740 couldn't pay it. And maybe the congregation could raise 5,000 or something like that. But that's not 00:30:15.740 --> 00:30:21.640 very much. Because the whole idea of being ransomed from slavery is, the more important the person 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:27.140 is, the higher the price goes up. So why does this at all help to transform this whole understanding? 00:30:27.820 --> 00:30:35.580 Well, here's where, and this is where this isn't just a story, it's true. The whole message is that 00:30:35.580 --> 00:30:44.340 you are of so much value that God, the Son of God, is the ransom price to free you. 00:30:44.339 --> 00:30:55.559 I mean, in my flesh, maybe my family and congregation could reach 10k to ransom me. I'm not that important. 00:30:58.139 --> 00:31:06.379 But God views every person, even in the Roman Empire, the slaves, even if those sex-trafficked 00:31:06.379 --> 00:31:12.019 guys and gals who are brought into Canada and the United States because of the World Cup of Soccer, 00:31:12.019 --> 00:31:19.960 and they come to Christ, they are just treated as terrible property and terribly abused. 00:31:20.680 --> 00:31:30.539 But this text is saying they are of such unbelievable value to God, that God, the Son of God, would be 00:31:30.539 --> 00:31:39.900 the ransom price to free them. I belong to the triune God when I put my faith and trust in Christ. 00:31:39.900 --> 00:31:51.660 I now serve him. And do I matter? I matter so much that God, the Son of God, died for me to ransom me and set me free. 00:31:56.800 --> 00:32:02.660 Profound teaching. Let's just finish the text, and I'll just draw a couple of things in closure. 00:32:02.660 --> 00:32:08.200 Look at verse 19. Here's where he sort of semi-apologizes for the analogy. 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:13.820 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. In other words, he's saying, 00:32:14.360 --> 00:32:18.860 I'm sorry for shocking you. I want to get your attention. Right? And then he goes on, 00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:23.820 for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, 00:32:24.100 --> 00:32:29.660 leading to more lawlessness. In other words, every human life is in a trajectory. We're not static. 00:32:29.660 --> 00:32:34.820 You're either moving into farther and farther and farther away from the triune God. 00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:39.620 Verse, and it continues, to now present your members as slaves to righteousness, that is, 00:32:39.860 --> 00:32:45.700 being right with the triune God, leading increasingly. Sanctification here means that you both become 00:32:45.700 --> 00:32:52.500 ever more clear that you belong to God and that you're not only becoming clear and clear in your mind 00:32:52.500 --> 00:32:57.400 that you belong to God through Jesus, but you're becoming more like Jesus, and you're in this 00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:04.560 trajectory into this. And presenting your members means everything that makes you you. 00:33:05.500 --> 00:33:10.519 You're giving to serve something. Right? And then verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:16.560 that is, usurping God's place, you were free in regard to righteousness. In other words, you were 00:33:16.560 --> 00:33:22.340 completely and utterly outside of his kingdom and domain. But what fruit were you getting at that time? 00:33:22.339 --> 00:33:26.839 Verse 21, from the things to which you are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death. 00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:32.359 That's the end of being completely and utterly usurping the relationship with God. It's just going to end in death. 00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:38.919 Verse 22, but now that you have been set free from the dominion of sin, you've been ransomed by the death of 00:33:38.919 --> 00:33:44.299 Jesus. You are of such value that he ransomed you, and you've now become the doula of God. 00:33:44.399 --> 00:33:47.980 The fruit that you get from belonging more and more to God, 00:33:47.980 --> 00:33:52.839 and being more and more like Jesus, is that you continue to become more and more like God, 00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:57.059 and more and more like Jesus. And it's something that begins on this side of the grave, 00:33:57.500 --> 00:33:59.960 eternal life, and will go into eternal life. 00:34:00.980 --> 00:34:04.819 And then the powerful closing sentence, for the wages of sin is death. 00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:09.860 If you're serving death, you get wages paid, and those wages are death. 00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:15.539 But it doesn't say, but the wages of following Christ is, no, no, because it's all gift. 00:34:15.539 --> 00:34:20.519 It's all gift. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:34:20.779 --> 00:34:23.139 He doesn't weigh my merits. He pardons my offenses. 00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:27.639 So just a couple of things to bring home to you as we come to a close. 00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:32.599 We cannot remember enough that we belong to Jesus. 00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:38.259 You don't belong to the state. You don't belong to evil. 00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:39.920 You don't belong to your addiction. 00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:42.680 You don't belong to your alcoholism. 00:34:42.980 --> 00:34:44.619 You don't belong to your debt. 00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:47.079 You don't belong. You belong to Jesus. 00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:52.700 And it's partially our role to remind each other that we belong to him. 00:34:52.900 --> 00:34:54.539 I don't belong to myself. 00:34:55.400 --> 00:34:56.860 I belong to him. 00:34:56.860 --> 00:35:03.240 And if you're outside of the Christian faith, there's no time better than right now to say, 00:35:03.320 --> 00:35:05.240 Jesus, I want to belong to you. 00:35:05.420 --> 00:35:08.280 Thank you that I am of such huge worth that you died for me. 00:35:08.860 --> 00:35:16.120 The other image, and I meant to call you up, brother, and borrow your tool belt. 00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:22.599 When I had supper with you a year or so ago, and you came from work. 00:35:22.660 --> 00:35:24.099 He's a carpenter over there. 00:35:24.099 --> 00:35:26.259 And they have their tool belt. 00:35:26.420 --> 00:35:32.579 So one of the things which this whole thing is, you know, the only verb in this entire thing is the second part of verse 19, 00:35:33.179 --> 00:35:33.920 where it says, 00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:38.920 So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. 00:35:39.400 --> 00:35:44.960 It's saying take a pause to ask yourself a little bit about how to understand your mourning, 00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:49.299 and how to understand particular meetings and particular confrontations. 00:35:49.300 --> 00:35:53.180 And just picture yourself as belonging to a carpenter's union. 00:35:53.660 --> 00:35:58.120 And a carpenter shows up at the job site with a tool belt around his waist, 00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:02.539 filled with tools, and maybe something that he's carrying with tools. 00:36:02.900 --> 00:36:06.260 And just say to yourself, every day when you wake up, what job site are you showing up at? 00:36:06.260 --> 00:36:12.020 Are you serving, are you showing up at the sin job site? 00:36:12.700 --> 00:36:14.240 Or the Jesus job site? 00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:19.260 And then when you're serving, you're showing up at whatever job site you're at, 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:20.820 what tools do you have with you? 00:36:22.700 --> 00:36:24.900 You know, what tools do you have with you? 00:36:24.900 --> 00:36:28.099 And that's a way to understand how your day is doing. 00:36:28.180 --> 00:36:30.380 It's also how to understand different particular things. 00:36:30.460 --> 00:36:33.539 I had to have a very difficult conversation the other day. 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:37.019 And I'll be honest, I'm a fallen human being. 00:36:37.200 --> 00:36:39.160 Partly I just want to smash the person. 00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:40.539 Okay, now you understand. 00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:42.360 When I say I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner. 00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:43.340 I'm not very religious. 00:36:43.780 --> 00:36:46.160 That's what I wanted to do in my flesh, just smash them. 00:36:46.940 --> 00:36:49.039 Well, I don't want to show up at... 00:36:49.039 --> 00:36:51.380 I'm not showing up at sin's job site. 00:36:51.460 --> 00:36:52.400 I don't belong to sin. 00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:53.559 I... 00:36:53.559 --> 00:36:56.420 The sermon preparation was unbelievably helpful to me. 00:36:57.139 --> 00:36:59.320 I said, I'm going to show up at this conversation. 00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:04.539 I'm not going to show up with anger and pride and violence and getting my own way. 00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:09.360 I want to come knowing that this person that I had to have the difficult conversation with, 00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:10.619 they also belong to Jesus. 00:37:12.300 --> 00:37:13.660 And I'm going to come in a different... 00:37:13.660 --> 00:37:15.680 I'm going to come with different tools. 00:37:18.300 --> 00:37:20.480 I want to come with prayer and with listening. 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:25.740 I want to just come with different tools in this particular situation. 00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:29.440 And I want to be under my master Jesus with different criteria. 00:37:30.219 --> 00:37:35.860 And the criteria there is for that person's good, for their healing and their wholeness and their restoration. 00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:40.659 Not for me to inflict my sin and my anger on them. 00:37:40.659 --> 00:37:47.299 So, what job site are you showing up for when you begin your day? 00:37:48.799 --> 00:37:51.440 Or when you go into awkward meetings or other types of things? 00:37:51.539 --> 00:37:54.000 Or when you're having to have a conversation with your wife or your kids? 00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:55.819 What tools do you have with you? 00:37:56.359 --> 00:37:57.159 Who are you serving? 00:37:57.879 --> 00:38:02.059 And always remember, if you're in Christ, you don't belong to yourself. 00:38:02.379 --> 00:38:03.379 You belong to Jesus. 00:38:03.380 --> 00:38:05.420 I invite you to stand. 00:38:12.300 --> 00:38:19.900 Just before we pray, another way to summarize this sermon and what Paul is getting at is, 00:38:20.780 --> 00:38:23.900 when that original question, if you're not under... 00:38:23.900 --> 00:38:29.000 if you're not under law, why don't you just sin as much as you want? 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:34.000 One of the common ways to misunderstand the gospel is to take it as fire insurance. 00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:36.099 With fire, in a sense, referring to hell. 00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:43.300 And Paul is saying, if you just understand coming to Christ is like a type of fire insurance, 00:38:43.820 --> 00:38:45.739 you haven't understand Christ at all. 00:38:46.579 --> 00:38:49.519 You give yourself to Christ, he takes you. 00:38:49.739 --> 00:38:51.260 And you now belong to him. 00:38:52.380 --> 00:38:54.860 You belong to him now. 00:38:54.860 --> 00:39:04.200 And he will call you and urge you and prep you to serve him and his purposes and his glory, 00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:05.140 all for your good. 00:39:05.900 --> 00:39:06.920 Let's bow our heads in prayer. 00:39:08.720 --> 00:39:12.599 Father, we thank you that sometimes you want to shock us to get our attention. 00:39:13.700 --> 00:39:18.880 Father, we acknowledge before you it's a shock to think that no human being can be their own master, 00:39:19.099 --> 00:39:22.059 that we human beings were designed to serve. 00:39:22.059 --> 00:39:28.980 And we give you thanks and praise, Father, that you thought us of such great worth, 00:39:29.079 --> 00:39:32.739 that God, the Son of God, would die for us as a ransom, 00:39:33.380 --> 00:39:34.860 to free us from slavery, 00:39:35.420 --> 00:39:37.119 that we might belong to you, 00:39:37.480 --> 00:39:38.900 that we might belong to Christ, 00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:42.000 that grace might be the air we breathe, 00:39:42.179 --> 00:39:48.299 that the fruit that comes from knowing Jesus more is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 00:39:48.539 --> 00:39:50.320 faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:54.980 So, Father, we ask that you would bring to our memory time and time and time again 00:39:54.980 --> 00:39:58.320 that we who are in Christ, that we belong to Jesus. 00:39:59.420 --> 00:40:04.760 And help us, Father, to think of whose job site we show up at when we show up and do our day. 00:40:06.240 --> 00:40:10.580 And, Father, grow within us a deep desire to be generous and forgiving 00:40:10.580 --> 00:40:13.320 and to seek justice and to do good and to pray 00:40:13.320 --> 00:40:16.559 that we might become more and more like Christ. 00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:19.880 And we ask these things in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. 00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:20.799 Amen. 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:20.960 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:21.960 Amen.