WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.560 Okay, we're going to turn back and look at the passage that we read in Romans chapter 00:00:05.560 --> 00:00:12.040 6 from verse 15. Now I have to say, I would be pretty disappointed this morning. I'll 00:00:12.040 --> 00:00:16.240 admit this, I'll be pretty disappointed this morning if you found that an easy passage. 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:21.640 Okay? I think you're a real brain box, a real theological giant if you thought that was an 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:28.480 easy passage. Because it's a nightmare passage. It's a really difficult, it's a tough passage. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:33.359 I can't plummet its depths and I freely admit that and I want to say that at the beginning 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:38.320 as a get out. Because it's a tremendously hard passage and what I would like to do is 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.960 capture the essence of what God is saying through Paul in this part. There's lots, I'm 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:47.640 going to have to miss out, there's too much in it to look at this morning. But I felt, 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.960 it's been a really hard week looking at this. I've felt like I've been working with a pickaxe 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:58.960 and thrashing away at rock and not getting very far, hardly broken the surface because 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:03.560 the truths are here. But I am confident, don't get me wrong, I'm confident because of the 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:07.480 promise of the Holy Spirit. I'm confident you'll get at least one diamond out of it. 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:13.879 You might not get much but you'll get something because God is faithful. And there are untold 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:18.960 riches in this passage. We certainly don't have the time nor do I have the gifts to unravel 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:22.879 them all for you this morning. But if you take away one thing from this service, one 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:27.079 thing from this sermon and from this passage that I would really want you to take away 00:01:27.079 --> 00:01:33.359 is that Christ is unbelievably worth it. Okay? Christ is unbelievably worth it and that's 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:38.560 what I would like you to take away as we entrust our lives to Him as Christians. He is the 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:46.199 one person that deals with your future death. He's the one thing that gifts you the one 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:50.920 thing that is out of your depth. Okay, two things that are out of your depth. True freedom 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:56.200 and eternal life. That's what Christ does. And in this passage He also teaches why you 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:05.680 can't ignore His rules, His law, His person and what He demands of us. I want you to think 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.120 and consider how much He loves you with a love that you can't even imagine, a love that 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:15.159 will never let you go. We've been looking at that in the previous chapters. The amazing 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:21.319 gift of His grace that He freely gives you eternal life, that He freely offers you Himself 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:29.759 and we can't earn it. We can't just work up ourselves. We simply can't do it. So I 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:39.719 hope and pray that we can consider these things today. And I hope that you will stick with 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:47.479 me through this. You can't drift. I really need you because it's such a hard passage. 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:55.319 I need you to concentrate so that I can feel that I'm not losing you. These are great truths 00:02:55.319 --> 00:03:02.520 that I need your co-operations anyway, but need it maybe in a very special way today. 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:08.199 So Paul is dealing in these chapters. We saw it last week and we see it again today. He's 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:14.000 dealing with a big question that arises out of the truth of grace, which is that we can't 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.199 do anything to make ourselves right. Our sins have been finished and dealt with on the cross 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.560 of Christ, our rebellion and all the things that make us guilty are dealt with. And he's 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:30.159 answering some questions that might arise from this. And basically they all mean, therefore, 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:35.879 if God has dealt with all our sins, it's okay to live any way we want. It's okay to ignore 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:43.000 God's rules and it's okay to sin because our sins have been dealt with. That was at the 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.039 beginning of the chapter last week that we looked at. Can we say, continue in sin that 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:53.519 grace may abound? And then this week it started with the same kind of question, are we to 00:03:53.519 --> 00:03:58.840 sin because we are not under law but under grace? And then he finishes or he goes on 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:07.000 in chapter 7, verse 7, which we didn't read. He asks the question again, what then shall 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:12.719 we say that the law is sin? And so it's all different angles of the same question. Therefore, 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:18.720 it doesn't matter how I go from here today in church and I can live any way I want because 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:25.160 sins dealt with, sins being forgiven on the cross and Jesus has paid the price. And Paul's 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:33.000 anticipating these dangerous responses to grace and to the cross of Jesus Christ. And 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.920 he anticipates them and answers them in the sections that we're looking at. And we looked 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:42.879 at one last week and we're looking at another this week. And each time when he raises this 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:56.519 objection to grace, this anticipated misunderstanding of grace, he answers the same way, no way. 00:04:56.519 --> 00:05:01.920 That's what he says, may it never be, God forbid, however it's translated. He's using 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:07.600 really strong language and he says absolutely not. We saw that at the beginning of the passage 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:16.160 we read by no means, that's what it's translated here in the ESV here, by no means, absolutely 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:22.439 not. It's very emphatic, strong language. And what I want to do is just ask three questions 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:31.840 that I'll try and be as succinct as I can to unpack what he says in the section we looked 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:37.519 at. And the first question I'm going to ask is a hugely offensive question to you. And 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:45.199 the question is, whose slave are you? Whose slave are you? We've prayed about slavery 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:51.120 and the work of IgM and then we read about slavery. And Paul is using this illustration 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:55.879 of slavery here in this passage. And so I'm asking whose slave are you? A hugely offensive 00:05:55.879 --> 00:06:01.759 question, isn't it? Well, I'm a millennial. I'm from the 21st century. I'm not a slave 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:07.279 of anybody. This is crazy language, this is old language, this is a language I don't understand. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:15.399 I hate that you would even consider describing my faith as an enslavement, as Paul does here. 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:21.680 It's gross. I've been set free, the Bible says I've been set free, I'm not a slave anymore. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:25.120 Or if you're not a Christian you may be saying I'm not enslaved to anyone. That's why I've 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:31.079 not become a Christian so far. I'm my own boss, I make my own decisions, I'm free. I 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.720 don't like this whole language of whose slave are you. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:45.000 Well, on this day when we remember the misery of real physical enslavement in this world 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:52.879 in which we live, we're reminded biblically by God through Paul that we are all slaves. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:59.480 There is something that controls all of us in our lives. There's something that is our 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:06.199 significant other in our lives. There is something we all live for that drives us, that masters 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:12.519 us, our motivation, our reason for living. And Paul says that that is, can be regarded 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:19.600 as an enslavement. And it may be lots of different things that people live for, but 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:24.320 there is their controlling reality, whether it's ambition and career or whether it's 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:31.080 a happy family, whether it's popularity, whether it's your health or your looks or pleasure 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:40.200 or political or philosophical identity or that one relationship that you crave and that 00:07:40.200 --> 00:07:45.720 you must have that shapes everything we do and think. It's foundational to us, it drives 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:51.080 our thinking, it gives us meaning and direction in our lives and saves us from being what 00:07:51.080 --> 00:07:57.720 we feel is having meaningless lives. It's what he speaks about in verse 12, which we didn't 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:07.240 read as the strong passions that we have to obey its passions. That's not necessarily 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:12.960 a word for sins, it's just about a word for desires and our strong desires, he says. It 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:18.680 may be good things, it might not deliberately be bad things, but it's things that have become 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:24.759 good things that have become ultimate things in our lives. But because we make them ultimate 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:29.560 in our lives, whatever it is, whatever takes up our life, they can lead to destructive, 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:35.799 sinful or selfish behavior in us. So what he's saying is that if we are not 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:42.439 Christ's and we're enslaved to Christ, then we're enslaved to sin, he's saying, and that's 00:08:42.439 --> 00:08:49.759 our natural condition. He says, because we are controlled by anything or anyone in our 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:55.639 lives, and that might include ourselves, other than God. If God is in the center of our hearts 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:59.839 and lives, then we are enslaved to sin, and that leaves us in a place where we're enslaved 00:08:59.839 --> 00:09:05.120 therefore also to death, because God is the author and the giver of life. And if we are 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:10.200 separated from him, we are enslaved to things that only end up in result in death, that 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:16.440 cannot save us, that cannot redeem us, that cannot give us life that we look for. 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.120 The kind of thing I was thinking, and I've used this, you must think I've ever watched 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:24.600 two films in my life, because it's the only two I ever mentioned. And this is saving, 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:29.240 it shows my age as well, I'm saving Private Rying. So yeah, okay, it's a good film, but 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:33.480 I know I should stop using examples from it. I'll try and watch our films sometime like 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:39.120 Parry Potter or something, and try and get some new ideas. And I haven't really watched 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.519 it for years, don't think I'm at home not wrestling with Scripture and watching Save 00:09:42.519 --> 00:09:50.879 and Private Rying, I'm not. But as a kind of example of this living and having something 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:59.080 as your core ambition in life that really enslaves you, because Private Rying himself, 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:04.320 remember he's behind the enemy lines and a group of people is sent in, a group of soldiers 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.879 is sent in to take him home, because his other four brothers have been killed in the war 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:15.480 and he needs to go home to his mum and dad. And Captain Miller is the guy who's in charge 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:23.120 of leading that troop, and he gets shot and is dying on the bridge near the end of the 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:30.120 film and Ryan goes up to him and he hears Captain Miller's dying words, which is, 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:36.519 Ernit, Ernit. And what he's saying is, Ern the freedom that my death and the death of 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:43.159 my colleagues has brought to you. And then the rest of the film, or that isn't the end 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:47.759 of the film, and just at the very end, we move forward to when Private Rying is an old 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:54.679 man and he's visiting the grave of this Captain Miller who said, Ernit. And he's an old man 00:10:54.679 --> 00:11:00.000 and he's weeping with his family and his grandchildren, children and grandchildren and so on. And 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:06.639 he says, every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I've tried 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:13.200 to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that at least in your eyes 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:19.879 I've earned what all of you have done for me. See, he was enslaved by that, all his life, 00:11:19.879 --> 00:11:25.160 trying to live a life that was worthy of the death of these other people on his behalf. 00:11:25.160 --> 00:11:30.440 And it enslaved him because it didn't set him free. And at the end of his life, it was 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:36.920 a hope that he had no idea was fulfilled or would make any difference for him as he 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:43.799 grew old and faced death. Because God says to us in His Word that our dreams die with us. 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:49.599 And death remains, it's a hugely unpopular subject that no one can really speak about. 00:11:49.599 --> 00:11:54.759 But it's the great spiritual megaphone, isn't it, that something is wrong with us or something 00:11:54.759 --> 00:12:00.360 wrong with our lives that we live when there are 40 million slaves in the world in which 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:06.000 we live. We live in a broken society, in a broken world. And he says that not just in 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:13.559 societal terms, but in individual terms, we are condemned and we have given ourselves 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:23.440 to idols and to lifestyles and to be enslaved by things that can't redeem us, that can't 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:30.120 ultimately set us free, that are absolutely unsatisfying, that can't die in our place. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:35.000 And he says none of these things can make us right before God. Even living like Ryan, 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:42.200 the very best he could, it didn't touch the depths of the realities of his need. None 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:47.159 of these passions, none of these reasons we have for living can give us the freedom and 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:54.480 the eternal hope and the life and the peace that we are looking for in our lives. 00:12:54.480 --> 00:13:00.440 So we recognize that we are enslaved to sin naturally. But he also says then that we can 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:08.840 become slaves of righteousness here in this passage that we've looked at. And that is 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:12.800 really what Paul is saying here, that we offer ourselves to Jesus Christ because he is our 00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:18.320 only hope. Now in the ancient Near East, there's different kinds of slavery. And I think what 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:24.640 Paul is speaking about here, when he talks about offering yourself as slaves, present 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:29.960 yourselves as obedient slaves, offering yourself, you know, we don't think of slavery in these 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:35.680 terms, you don't think of a slave offering himself to you. But there was a situation 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:40.120 in the Middle East, the ancient Near East, where if you were so indebted to somebody 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:44.400 that you couldn't pay it, you offered yourself to them as a slave because you couldn't pay 00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:52.720 the debt. And you were their slave until it was either repaid or you lived as a slave 00:13:52.720 --> 00:14:01.320 the rest of your life. And he's basically saying that we owe a great debt to God as 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:08.920 sinners and we can never pay that debt ourselves. We can never pay it by all the good things 00:14:08.920 --> 00:14:13.759 we try to do. We can spraff about in life without Him. But we will always remain enslaved 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.360 and we will always remain those who are dying. But Christ, and this is going back to what 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:24.720 he sees in the earlier chapters, Christ, he says, paid the debt. Yeah, you see it? Christ 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:31.680 paid the debt. And as we give our lives to Him, we serve Him out of gratitude and out 00:14:31.680 --> 00:14:36.720 of love for what He has done for us. He's paid the debt, but out of gratitude we come 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:44.960 to Him. So we move, last time we looked at moving from death to life, but this time we 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:52.720 move from one lordship to another, from being in self-control in the enslavement that brings 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:59.680 to being under God's control and being His servant, or, you know, it says, being His slave. 00:14:59.680 --> 00:15:03.200 We don't like the language, I know, but I'll go on to speak about freedom, because Paul 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:10.120 starts this letter by saying, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. And in these verses 16 to 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:18.039 19 he speaks about being slaves to righteousness and slaves to the sanctification and to Christ, 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:24.360 in other words, just another way of saying to Christ. And that leads us to true freedom 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:30.759 in our lives, verse 22, but now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves 00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:40.879 of God, because He is the truth. And Jesus said, it is the truth that sets us free. And 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:47.799 that's a hugely significant thing, because there is no absolute freedom, okay? I'll just 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:52.120 be philosophical for a very short minute. There's no such thing as absolute freedom, 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:59.039 there's only absolute truth, okay? And if there is no truth, there is no freedom anyway, 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.399 because if there's no truth, everything is relative, and if there is no God, then there 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:12.319 is no truth, and if there is no truth, then we are just atoms made up and fused together, 00:16:12.319 --> 00:16:20.399 and we are determined by all things materialistic around us, by culture, by environment, by physics. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:24.199 And we have no freedom whatsoever. That's one of the great problems of absolute total 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:31.160 atheism, is that it needs to deal with material determination, is that actually if there's 00:16:31.160 --> 00:16:36.040 no God, there's no truth, and if there's no truth, there's no freedom, and if there's 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:43.440 no freedom, then we are enslaved. But He says that we are true, we are free, set free from 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:50.440 sin to follow Him. And therein is true freedom. That means we live within the parameters of 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:58.760 His laws of love, because we can see Him for who He is, and He becomes our significant 00:16:58.760 --> 00:17:06.840 other, our identity, our motivation, our governing principle, and we serve Him rather than just 00:17:06.840 --> 00:17:14.880 serving whatever it might be, or even just ourselves, and He's our governing, our governor 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.360 for our lives. So we see that there's this question, who's 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:23.839 slavery, and as a Christian, who's slave are you? Who governs our lives? Not just for 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:28.479 the hour we're here, but as we make decisions, as we think about our careers, as we think 00:17:28.479 --> 00:17:32.919 about our relationships and our marriage and our thoughts and our desires and our longings 00:17:32.919 --> 00:17:37.199 and our ambitions, do they come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ because He sets us 00:17:37.199 --> 00:17:43.240 free to live and enjoy them as only we can in Him? 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:49.960 So the second question I want to ask, more briefly, is what road are you on? And it's 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:54.920 all related, because He goes on at the end of that chapter to say, you become set free 00:17:54.920 --> 00:18:01.559 from sin, slaves of God, the fruit that leads to sanctification and to its end eternal life, 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:06.759 for the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:10.240 Lord. The wages of sin is death, the free gift of 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:15.880 God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. You say, well, I don't know really what that means, 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.920 because we still all die. Everyone dies, even the Christian dies, what's he talking about? 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:27.359 He's saying we don't die, do we all just live our lives and then we all die, and that is 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:30.680 the way of life, you know, the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:38.039 life. That's true, we all die, and yet we recognize 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:42.440 that there are different types of death. And the Bible makes clear that the death of a 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:50.200 believer is fundamentally different, and our death as believers will be fundamentally different, 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:55.440 because it will not be a spiritual death, it will not be a death that ultimately and 00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:01.319 eternally separates us from the living God. It's a physical death, body and soul separated, 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:09.480 eternally, because we've moved allegiance from death to life, from being enslaved to 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:17.599 sin to being enslaved to God. And when Christ died in the cross, our sin and our old nature 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:27.359 died with Him. And as He was raised, so we will be raised from the dead, and we remain 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:33.119 linked with Jesus Christ who is the author of life. And even in our physical death, our 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:38.759 souls will go to be with Jesus Christ, one day to be reunited with our resurrected bodies 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:55.599 and to a world of unimaginable beauty. That's why Easter is not about bunnies or wish fulfillment. 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:59.519 We recognize, we sung about it in the song that we introduced the service with, we worship 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:03.599 on the Lord's Day, which is the resurrection morning, the first day of the week, because 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:09.519 it's based on the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ that is so significant and 00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:14.679 so important. And the baptism that we will witness shortly is baptism of Anna, it's a 00:20:14.679 --> 00:20:21.199 baptism that speaks about newness, about freshness, about vitality, and about what Christ has 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:26.840 done and that He has brought us into newness of life. The destination where He speaks about 00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:32.960 the wages of sin and the gift of God. He makes a great comparison, a great contradiction 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:38.680 here between the two. It's either a spiritual death, the wages of sin is spiritual death, 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:44.480 separation from God at physical death. And He says, that's our wages, that's in other 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:48.480 words, that's what we deserve. That's what every one of us deserve in our lives, that 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:53.720 separation from God, because we've fallen short of His glory. We have not been able to keep 00:20:53.720 --> 00:21:00.960 His laws of love to love God and love our neighbor perfectly. So it's either that or 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:09.440 it's eternal life. That's the destinations that are offered to you, very clear and succinctly. 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:16.640 And that eternal life is His gift. Spiritual death is our wages, it's what we deserve because 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:22.560 of our broken relationship. But eternal life is His gift and it's what we don't deserve. 00:21:22.560 --> 00:21:26.360 You see the opposite and the parallel that is given here, it's not what we deserve but 00:21:26.360 --> 00:21:33.240 and we can't earn it, we simply accept it. Because Jesus Christ knew the only way that 00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:39.600 He could bring a people back to Himself was if He paid the price, if He died in our place 00:21:39.600 --> 00:21:44.240 on the cross, which is what the cross is all about, so that we wouldn't need to be separated. 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:48.240 That's the extent of His love. That's why it matters for us this morning. That's why 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:54.480 we should go from here, recognizing the amazing difference that grace makes, because it changes 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:03.799 our whole perspective, our whole living, the whole way we act and work our lives. So what 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:09.440 I say, what am I saying? I'm going back to the beginning. Christ is unbelievably worth 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:17.200 it. That's what I'm saying. That Christ is worth, He's worth your Lord becoming under 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:22.799 His Lordship. He's worth being enslaved to Him because He offers freedom and life that 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:33.360 only He can offer. And it's a marvelous thing. And Paul recognizes that so that he says in 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:40.319 verse 17, but thanks be to God. Thanks be to God, he's talking about this illustration 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:46.959 of slavery. He says, but thanks be to God. So and if our lives can't shout out, thanks 00:22:46.959 --> 00:22:53.439 be to God. That we do need spiritual glasses. We need to think about who we are and where 00:22:53.439 --> 00:23:00.639 we are and how we're living if we don't recognize that Christ is unbelievably worth it for us. 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:08.400 So and I'm going to finish with this third point briefly this morning. And this is, he 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:15.920 speaks a lot about this and it's a difficult subject. The third question is, my second question 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:22.200 is what road are you on? My third question is, are you now above God's law or God's rules? 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:27.400 You know, we've seen that's the kind of base, the whole underlying basis of the argument 00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:31.120 that he's speaking about. He says, because Christ has paid the price for our sins, He's 00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:37.080 dealt with sin in the cross and sin is breaking of the law, isn't it? Because He's done with 00:23:37.080 --> 00:23:44.720 that on the cross, does it mean that we're above God's law, that God's rules don't matter 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:50.160 to us? You know, that's what He introduces this section with. Are we to sin because 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:56.680 we are not under law but under grace? And He finishes the section by saying, so that 00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:05.200 we serve in a new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So what 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:09.799 is He saying to you as Christian? This might be a question that's more for you if you've 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:14.560 thought through things as a Christian. Do you say, do I just ditch the old way of the 00:24:14.560 --> 00:24:20.320 written code? Do we get rid of the Old Testament, for example, with all its laws and commandments? 00:24:20.320 --> 00:24:25.680 Because we're not under the rule of the written code of God's law, the Ten Commandments, but 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:32.279 we're now under the Holy Spirit and that's all that matters. Are we above God's law? 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:39.759 This is a difficult section, but it's a really good section. And God's law, God's laws of 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:46.000 love, the Ten Commandments, okay, as they're expressed in the Ten Commandments, among other 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:55.880 things, these laws are important and every verse from verse, this section is from verse 00:24:55.880 --> 00:24:59.319 1 of chapter 7 through to verse 6, that last section that we're looking at, every verse 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:05.160 mentions God's law. So it's obviously the theme is important. And He's speaking about 00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:09.400 a relationship with God's law, therefore, as believers. What do we do with God's law 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:18.560 as believers in our lives? And He uses a provocative illustration about marriage and about being 00:25:18.560 --> 00:25:25.960 under the law of marriage. And if that is broken by one partner, when both partners are still 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:31.960 alive by adultery, then the law is broken and the marriage is broken. But if one of the 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:38.440 partner dies, then the other partner is free to marry again and not break the law as far 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:48.400 as the law of God in marriage goes. And it's not an allegory and it's not a parable. It's 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:52.240 simply an illustration and a lot of commentators have got absolutely twisted in knots with 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:56.440 it. And I was twisted in knots for about four hours with it, trying to understand it. But 00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:01.120 basically what He's saying in this whole argument about the law is that He said, you can't belong 00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:05.240 to... and using this illustration of marriage, you can't belong to someone else unless there's 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:09.799 been a death in your life. You can't belong to someone else in marriage unless there's 00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:15.640 been a death in that marriage. And your relationship to the law then changes. You're not bound 00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:20.240 anymore by that law of marriage, but you're free to marry another. The point is not that 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:26.359 marriage is a bind. The point is not about marriage. The point is about a relationship 00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:31.000 to the law. And He's basically saying, we can become Christians unless there's been 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:40.319 a death in our life, unless we have died to the old way of the law. And that can only 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:46.599 come via Christ at Calvary. And the old way of the law was that it exposed our failure 00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:53.039 and we couldn't live up to it and we can never please God by obeying the law. And it points 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:59.640 us to that. It exposes that we're failed. It says we can't keep the law outwardly, let 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:05.080 it be not outwardly. And so it points us to Jesus Christ who did it on our behalf. And 00:27:05.080 --> 00:27:10.200 when we go to Jesus Christ, we recognize that we put to death that whole way of trying to 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:18.440 please Him by our own good works. And we recognize that He alone can justify God's law. And we 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:26.800 die to the old way of thinking. And we are then bound to Christ by grace and by love. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:33.200 And that gives us a new relationship to His law, because we are empowered then to love 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:40.759 it and to love Him and to love what He has given to us. Our guilty relationship to the 00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:45.680 law has died. It no longer condemns us. We no longer need to earn our favor with God 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:51.079 by good works, but we trust in what Jesus has done. But then through the Spirit, as He 00:27:51.079 --> 00:28:00.000 says, we can bear fruit by obedience to the law. We're empowered to love Him and to serve, 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:05.720 to be willing, and Romans goes on to speak about being willing sacrifices in Romans 12, 00:28:05.720 --> 00:28:10.839 because they're laws of love that He gives us. We're not to, in other words, He changes 00:28:10.839 --> 00:28:17.079 our hearts so that we don't think the law is a drudge or a bind or a set of rules or 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:22.039 to be trivialized. Jesus said all the law and all the prophets are summarized in these 00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:27.199 two words, two phrases, love the Lord your God with all your heart so strengthening, 00:28:27.199 --> 00:28:32.240 and love your neighbor as yourself. And in John 13, He said, I give you a new commandment. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:39.679 I give you a 11th commandment, love your neighbor as I have loved you. So it's on the basis 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:47.440 of His own unparalleled grace and gracious living that we love His laws. They don't 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:53.920 condemn us anymore because Christ has fulfilled them on behalf, but we love them and we recognize 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:59.200 them as the parameters that give us freedom. It's a bit like recognizing the vows you take 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:05.039 at marriage, the vows to exclusivity and to sacrifice and to service and to keeping pure 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.839 and faithful. You do that voluntarily. You offer yourself to your partner. And so we 00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:19.000 offer ourselves as slaves to righteousness because Christ is unbelievably worth it. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:26.319 So that's what I want you to take away this morning. Christ is unbelievably worth it. 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:33.359 No one else can give you what He offers. He is offering this amazing change from darkness 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:38.959 to light, from death to life, from guilt to freedom and innocence and forgiveness. And 00:29:38.959 --> 00:29:44.559 He has done it because He knew we couldn't do it ourselves. We can't change our death. 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:52.199 And whatever we seek to do in life, whatever is our goal, our focus, our ambition, if it's 00:29:52.199 --> 00:29:57.079 anything other than Jesus, it will let you down. It will fail you at the moment you need 00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:05.119 it most on your deathbed. And it will be a recognition that all has been in vain without 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:14.919 Jesus Christ. Christ is unbelievably worth it. Please take that with you today. And although 00:30:14.919 --> 00:30:21.879 there's much unspoken in this passage, please remember that truth. And I believe Paul was 00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:28.600 seeking by God's grace and under God's Holy Spirit to recognize and get that truth across. 00:30:28.600 --> 00:30:38.200 And if you're not a Christian, please consider the solemn and yet amazing love of Jesus Christ 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:45.480 who was willing to do this on your behalf freely and fully and offer you life eternal. 00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:54.640 Amen.