Remaining, please stand for the Word of God. Remaining standing, please. Romans 6, verses 15 through 23. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, but what fruit you were getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed. For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and it's in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated, please. Let's pray together, shall we? Father, once again, we thank you for the word of the Lord. We thank you that you lovingly revealed yourself to us through two means. The son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, and then the written word of God. We're thankful, Father, that this passage of scripture and all the passage of scriptures can make us wise to salvation and fully furnished to follow Christ. And so, Father, we pray now for the ministry of the illumination of the Holy Spirit of God. Open our eyes to these glorious truths. Help us to learn and glean something today from your Word that we can apply to our lives and we can change and become more like your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, if there be somebody without Christ, open their eyes to the gospel this morning. Give them faith to believe. And we'll be careful to give you the thanks and praise because we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this morning we're going to begin looking at verse number 19. This verse actually corresponds with verses 12 and 13. I want you to look back with me at Romans chapter 6 and I want to read that passage to you. He says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. And do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. And so what I want you to see is that the Apostle Paul is going to tell us the same thing again. And it's amazing how often God's Word does that, isn't it? In fact, sometimes I study that and I think to myself, well, God must be writing that to me because He knows sometimes I've got to hear it a couple of times before I get it. Now listen, the apostles method has always been to lay down doctrine and then begin to make the appeal based on that doctrine. And having stated the doctrine in verse 11 of chapter 6, so you must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The next thing he does then is he makes that appeal, the one I just read, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. and your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace. Now in the very same way, having stated the doctrine in verse 18 of chapter 6, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness, He makes the appeal. This is what we're supposed to do. And I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. And then Paul will then go on and support this by some additional arguments in verses 20 through 23. Now this morning as we come to verse 19, I don't know about you, but I got to tell you I was puzzled by Paul's preliminary statement. Listen to what it says again. I am speaking in human terms. because of your natural limitations. Does anybody know what that means? I didn't. And so I began to investigate. And what I'd like to do this morning is show you what that means. Now, here Paul was referring to the way in which he had been using an illustration or an analogy And he stated this illustration in verses 16 through 18. So go back there and look with that with me. Verse 16, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. So in this extraordinary phrase at the beginning of verse 19, he is referring to this illustration, this analogy. He says, I am speaking in human terms. I am using a familiar illustration or analogy taken from ordinary life so you might get what I am trying to say to you. So the question then is why does he use this particular phrase and call attention to what he is doing? Why not just go on with his illustration? Let me put it another way. Why turn aside to make a comment on his procedure? And if you're familiar with Pauline writings, what you're going to find is, is this is something that Paul rarely does. Okay? But right here, why here in this text, you see? And listen, there are some people who think that what he is doing here is apologizing for using an illustration. Now how they can come to that conclusion, I have no idea. But there are some who say we shouldn't even use illustrations. But folks, listen, he's not apologizing for it, he's explaining why he uses it. Now just off the top of your head, Why would we not use illustrations? Do you remember what Jesus did when He was here on this earth? Let me make it simple for you, Mr. Bonehead Bob McNutt. The seed is the Word of God. And the seed is sold. And some seed falls on hard ground. Duh! Do you get it? You see, God's speaking to our hearts. Listen, it can't be that. So what I want to do this morning is, is I want us to look at the reasons which led the Apostle Paul to use this illustration about slavery. And I believe with all my heart that if you hang in there with me, you're going to learn something and it's going to make this whole passage of scripture come alive. So the first reason that Paul wants us to make this subject matter this way is because he wants us to make it very clear what he's doing. You see, look, the business of preaching and teaching is always to make the meaning and the matter as clear as possible, right? Now, when I say that, I got to say there's two ditches on both sides of the road again in this situation as well. On the one side of the ditch, you have the danger of being childish or simple. Now look, the word simple is good as long as the meaning is plain and clear. But, we should never spoon feed people and treat them as children. A sermon can be an illustration But it also can be just illustrations, and all of a sudden the sermon becomes entertainment, right? And listen to me, my friends. There are people that can tell a good story, and you can sit there and listen and laugh and smile and have all kinds of emotions, but if the Bible is not truly taught, and it's just kept so childless that you never pick up the meaning, what good is it? That's the ditch on the one side of the road. Now listen, the ditch on the other side of the road is what? That's the danger of preaching over people's heads. When all of a sudden a sermon becomes nothing but academics. Now every once in a while someone will say, Pastor, you know, sitting under your preaching sometimes makes me feel like I've been back in school. And I always take that with a grain of salt because that's kind of scary, you see. I hope it was a good going back to school, alright? But listen, we've all had professors that sat there and just read their notes and used those big long words and we couldn't get a diddly out of what he said, right? And so we've got to listen to it, we've got to scrabble a few things down and we've got to go back to the text where he got that from and say, what in the world's going on here? So the ditch on the other side is, is they have forgotten the business of making it plain. So the bottom line is, is I'm using this illustration so that you can better understand what I'm saying. That's what Paul is saying here. The second reason is that he doesn't want any misunderstanding. Not only does he want to make his doctrine plain and clear, He realizes that there is a possibility of serious misunderstanding of what he is saying. Or to use a scriptural phrase, he is afraid they might twist it to their own destruction. Now I want you to look at a passage of scripture with me that we really need to grasp, alright? And so if you would, take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3, please, verses 15 and 16. And listen, alright, keep your finger in there because before this sermon is over, we're coming back to this text. But in 2 Peter chapter 3, listen to what it says in verse 15 and 16. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he has done in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do other scriptures. How many can say amen to that passage of scripture? There are some things that Paul writes that are what? Hard to understand. But don't twist it. And so he's given this illustration so they don't misunderstand what he's saying, you see. The Apostle Paul realized that there was danger in what he was saying and he might be misunderstood, so he uses this illustration of slavery in order to protect the truth. You say, what is he protecting? Well look again at Romans chapter 6 and verse 14. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace. So some say, if we're not under the law but under grace, then we need not bother about our conduct or our behavior. We are free. We are absolutely free. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, that's not true. Paul says it's not true. You are slaves to what? To righteousness, he says in verse 18. Look at it there. And having been set free from sin, we have become slaves of righteousness. In other words, The man who was no longer under the law is now under the law of Christ. And in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2, God's Word says, Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. He's not free from righteousness. He is free to righteousness. You see the difference? He is free for the practice of righteousness. Listen, He is saying, look, you once was a slave. And you had to do what your master said. And he was a tyrant. But listen, He sold you to another master. And that master came along and loved you and cared for you. And now he has made you his slave, you see. And he says, I want to put it as plainly as simple as possible so nobody can misunderstand this teaching. We once were a slave of Satan, we now are a slave of God. Now let's look at the third reason Paul says I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. In other words, he's saying do not be mistaken about this. Now listen closely. There are limits to an illustration even when it is of value. You've got to take the illustration and just take it what God gives you and then not put more meaning in it than it says. Yes, it helps to make the meaning plain and clear, but it also helps to protect against misinterpretation, but no illustration is perfect and no illustration must be pressed too far. Let me show you what I mean. Here it is. There is a kind of slavery in the Christian life, but it's not like the old slavery. The new form of slavery is not completely identical with the other. Let me put it another way. There is a similarity, and yet there is a difference. When I was a slave to Satan under sin, That was totalitarian tyranny. But now that I'm a slave to Christ under grace, I'm enslaved to righteousness, to God and to Christ. And here is where the illustration breaks down. There is a unique and wonderful quality about our relationship to righteousness. And here's what it does, listen. It combines the elements of slavery and freedom together. What? Yes, it combines the elements of slavery and freedom together. In this new slavery there is a kind of compulsion, but it's not compatible with the compulsion that preceded it. A Christian is a slave but not a slave in the same sense that he was before. There's a difference. It is that now he is a slave of love. Once we were a slave to sin, pure tyranny, now we are a slave to love. The element of love comes in and it begins to change everything. A kind of slave, a person who is in love, lives for the other, for the object of this love, you see. Because now I'm in Christ, and I can remember what it says in Romans 5, 8, But God commends His love toward me, while I was yet sinner, Christ died for me. Everything is changed. Because the one that He loves, then begins to really control them, does it not? And I got to thinking about that even in our relationship with our spouses. There are things that we don't do because we love our spouses, right? And in a sense, there's a control there in some way. And what a difference that is between that and the slavery imposed by a tyrant. So what I want us to do is I want us to think about a statement made by the Apostle Paul to show exactly what this means. And I'm not going to ask you to turn to this text, but it's in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14. And here's the phrase I want us to grasp. For the love of Christ controls us. If I say constrains us, you know I've been taught in the King James Bible. The love of Christ constrains us. Listen, the Christian is like a man in a vice. And that vice is being tightened up more and more. And as he is under pressure, all of a sudden there is now this tremendous sense of compulsion. to do what my master wants me to do. You say, but what produces that pressure or that vice being tightened up? Ladies and gentlemen, it's the love of Christ. For the love of Christ controls us. No longer under terrible tyranny, it's Christ. And folks, listen, this is the paradox, the paradox of Christian faith and the entire Christian position. You say, what is a paradox? Let me give you the definition. A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true. The Christian is not a free man. He is a man, so to speak, under the tyranny of love. And he says that the love of Christ constrains him. He is a bondservant of Jesus Christ. But that is all the time within the relationship of love, you see. And it seems to me that the Apostle is explaining the paradox to us right here in this passage of Scripture, at this very point. And what he's concerned about is to bring about this compulsion in both cases. The certainty of obedience is secure in both cases, but the moment you have said that, everything else is different. Because the Christian is now under the power of righteousness. He was formerly under the power of sin, He is now under the power of righteousness. His position must not be thought of as one of detachment. He is not a man who is free and detached and who may do what he pleases because righteousness is now the controlling power. Because we are under grace. Now let me ask you, doesn't that make that slave illustration a little simpler for us to understand? Yeah, I'm a slave, but not the same kind of a slave that I was before. I am now a slave to righteousness. Why? Because the love of God constrains me, you see. And I feel that compulsion in my life every day, don't you? And as He turns the vice, I'm saying, I want to do what Jesus wants me to do. Why? Because He loved me and gave Himself for me. He shed His blood so I could be forgiven of sin. He rose again so I could be justified freely forever. Now, that brings us to the second part of our teaching this morning, and it's this. What does this teaching illustrate? Why does he put it here? All right. Well, let's go back to the text. Paul says what? I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. Natural limitations. What does Paul mean by that phrase? Well, let me give you the answer and it's this. The natural limitations are the faculties of man as influenced by and perverted by and controlled by sin. That's our natural limitations. And so what he's talking about here is what we also call the flesh, right? Now why is this vitally important? For this According to biblical teaching, man's trouble by nature is not that he merely lacks intellect. What man lacks is spiritual understanding. Man's trouble is not his mind alone, but in the lack of capacity to understand and believe and follow spiritual truth. It's because of sin, it's a result of the fall. Because before the fall, he possessed it. And so when God says, when you eat of this fruit you shall surely die, what happened when they ate the fruit? They died spiritually right then. Boom. Everything changed. Natural limitations. but before he possessed it, you see. Folks, this is the matter of biblical doctrine that we call total depravity. The problem with one becoming a Christian is not a matter of intellect. The Jews regarded it as a stumbling block and the Greeks regarded it as foolishness. Now, somewhere on the church page, someone talked about presuppositionalism the other day and they gave a little a couple of passages, or a couple of videos to go take a look, see, and I started one, but I didn't have time to finish it. But what does a preceptualist say? They say, listen, the only way you can come to Christ is God's got to move. There's a book out, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. That's a good book. But ladies and gentlemen, listen, intellectually you cannot come to Christ all by yourself. The Jews regarded it as a stumbling block. You got to be kidding me. Jesus shed his blood, died, and rose again. That's it? The Greeks regarded it as foolishness. That's dumb talk. But we who are saved is the power of God unto salvation, that all who believe, right? Now you say, Pastor, don't you think he ought to prove your case? I think so. So take your Bibles and go with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I want you to notice with me verse 14. Verse 14 says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. You see it there? They lack spiritual apprehension, spiritual understanding. This is not a matter of intellect. But ladies and gentlemen, listen, let's look at the other side. How about the simple, ordinary guy like us? How is it that we can get it? Well, they're able to receive these things and rejoice in them and revel in them because God opens our eyes to the truth. We who were dead in trespasses and sin, He's made us alive. Ephesians 2. You can't convince someone of Christianity without the Spirit's help. How then can we become Christians? God has to reveal himself to us. And according to 1 Corinthians, I hope you're still there, he does that through the Spirit, does he not? Look with me down at chapter 2 in verse 10. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Drop down to verse 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. Being a Christian has nothing to do with intellect or natural ability. Obviously, that does not mean we put a premium on ignorance, right? It just teaches that intellect is not the determining factor. What is important is this, spiritual discernment, no matter the intellect. And you know what's amazing is, is right here in our text, the Apostle Paul puts a premium on this and he gives glory to this fact and truth. Look back with me at chapter 1 starting at verse 26. Now maybe you can identify with that like I do, but listen to what he says. For consider your calling, brothers, Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Oh, I'm so wise and smart, I get it. I said, no, that's not why you get it. You get it because I opened your eyes to the glorious truth. The means is the gospel. But you love me because I first loved you and gave myself to you. But listen to the next two verses. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who become to us, what? Wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Now folks, listen. This is huge. Without the illumination of the Spirit, nothing. But with the illumination of the Spirit, there are all kinds of possibilities, isn't there? The faculties that God has given us can be developed by the Spirit. You're still in 1 Corinthians. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 3, 1 and 2. Listen to what Paul says to the church there. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it, and even now you are not ready. Now listen to what he says. You're not getting it like you could. I gotta give you milk. Start eating some beefsteak. But I want you to contrast that now with what he says in 1 Corinthians 2.6. He says, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom. Although it's not the wisdom of this age, of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. I got to give you a melt plate. To the mature I impart wisdom, discernment. What's the difference? Here's the answer. The difference is the extent into which you have used or failed to use the power that has been given to you by the Holy Spirit of God. That's the difference. You have the Spirit of God living within you who takes the Word of God and illuminates it and helps you to understand it. And the more you get in it, the more you're going to get. And isn't that the teaching of Jesus? Listen to what Jesus says in Mark chapter 4 and verse 24. And He said to them, pay attention to what you hear. with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you, and even more will be added. But pastor, I don't like reading. I don't like books. Listen. Get into the Word of God and let the Word of God do its work. You know, I used to be in that position. I hated books with a passion. I'm the only one that ever graduated from high school and college and never went to the library. But you know there's another passage that bears this out even better. I'm going to ask you to turn to Hebrews chapter 5. And I want us to look in verses 11 through 14. Hebrews 5, 11-14. Listen again to God's Word. About this we have much to say, and it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have the powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. You see it, there it is again. You should be eating beefsteak with some morels side on the side. But instead, I got to give you another glass of milk. And here's the reason why you're not eating beefsteak. is you're not living out what God's word says. And when you do what God's word says, and you keep doing what God's word says, what's gonna happen? You're gonna get more, and you're gonna get more, and you're gonna get more. God's gonna keep giving, and giving, and giving. And pretty soon, someone's gonna turn around and call you someday, well, you're an awful wise guy, in the right sense of the word. I've been called a wise guy for another reason, but that's another story. But have you ever noticed I notice this sometimes in the Christian ministry. You see a guy who's got an intellect that's unbelievable. And when they're teaching the languages in school, you're killing yourself trying to memorize all of this. And they sit down in 15 minutes and everything's right there. And you say to yourself, self, I'm never going to be able to do anything for the Lord Jesus. I don't have that kind of intellect. But that's not what God uses, is it? He through the spirit enables us to be the godly person that we could be. The wise person that we could be if we read the scriptures and begin to do what it says and keep reading and doing and reading and doing. And pretty soon we're tired of that old, especially that 2% milk. Why did anybody spend money on water? The way I look at it, if milk's not 7 or 8% and it's got chunks in it, it's no good. Instead of eating steak. And over the years, I've seen this. I've been at conferences at question and answer time when the guys that are sitting on the stage all have earned doctorates. I mean, smart, unbelievably smart. They've written the books. And on that question and answer, there's some guy there who went to Moody Bible Institute for three years. And them guys all talk and ramble on and the guy from the Moody Bible Institute in ten words says everything they said that took them three hours. And he says it in such a way that it just hits you between the headlights and you say, well that's what it means. Now why is that? Because they're walking with Jesus. They're reading God's Word. They're doing what God's Word says. And God keeps giving them more and more and more and more and more. And these are the guys you want to talk to when you're in trouble, because they get away from the peripherals and get right down to the very heart of the issue, right? And here's the problem. Let me share with you. Now you say, Pastor, what are we going to do with all this? Well, listen. If you're here without Christ, it's not intellect that's gonna save you. I'm glad you're here and you're trying to get that understanding of the gospel. But here's what you need to do. You need to say, God, I don't get this without your help. Open my eyes. Give me faith to understand. Help me to understand the gospel so it becomes real in my heart. But listen, if you're here and you're a Christian, do you have any idea on how much more God can use you? But it takes means, does it not? And the means is, is learning God through His Word, walking with Him, and letting Him change you day by day, and He'll give you more, and He'll give you more, and He'll give you more. What a promise, huh? Christian, I hope you're here today, you're saying what the psalmist said in Psalm 42, my heart pants after you like a deer pants for the water brook. I gotta have more of that, Jesus. I gotta know him better. so I can change in my own life and I can help others as they move forward in their walk with the Lord Jesus as well. Let's pray together. Father, once again, thank you for your word. Thank you for this glorious illustration that Paul gives us. Father, we're not slaves like the old slaves of tyrancy when we were under sin. We are slaves to righteousness. And God puts us in a vice and turns it, and the compulsion from that comes from the fact that God loves us. And it's the love of God that constrains us. Father, this morning, may it be the love of God that causes my brothers and sisters in Christ, that causes me to get into my Bible and study it and live it so I can get more. And then, Father, for those that might be here this morning without Jesus, open their eyes to the glorious gospel of Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand together and sing the hymn of...