Romans chapter 6, verses 8 through 23. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall no longer be master over you, and you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. What good news? The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. What is Christianity? Is it one of the major religions? Is it merely a belief system? Is it an adopted creed and lifestyle of living according to biblical principles? Is it a philosophy or simply a worldview that makes sense of things? What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it just someone who is a Christ follower? Doing his or her best to follow his example? Or is it more than that? And in Paul's letter to the Romans, he is making it clear that it is more than that. To be a Christian is to be a person who in their own right, stood condemned under God's law, but is given a free gift, a pardon for sin, but more than that, saved from the wrathful punishment that their sins deserved, but more than that, they experience a fundamental change of life. In this section of Romans, Romans chapter six, which is delicious, Paul has emphasized the important elements of the gospel. The gospel, you remember, is good news. It's the good news of who God is. He's made himself known. He's given us his name. He's identified himself. And he has shown himself throughout history in his redemptive works. and he has shown himself most fully and perfectly in the person of his son. The gospel is the good news of who God is and what he has done in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners. And in Paul's logical argument, as he sets forth this gospel in his letter to the Romans, is that all of us are in need of this salvation. We all need the rescue work. Jesus' name means God to the rescue. Yeshua, God is Savior. He is proving that our greatest need in life, it's not a better job, it's not a spouse, it's not better health, it's not more wealth, it is righteousness. This is the great need. It is true righteousness. Righteousness before God. The word righteousness is found 36 times in this letter. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. No exceptions. If you come to Jesus, if you trust him as your Savior, he will not cast you out. It's for everyone. There's a welcome mat with this message. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And we've unpacked that. It's about God's righteousness. God is righteous in all his ways. Psalm 145, which you read this morning. He is righteous in the way he thinks. He's righteous in the way he acts. He is righteous always in the right. That creates a problem for us because we who were created to be image bearers, to reflect His character, we are in the wrong and we need to be put in the right. And that's the gospel. The gospel is that God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. We could not put ourselves in a right relationship with God, but God in Jesus has provided a way back to the Father, a way to be in His light and not cast out. Because God is light and light casts out darkness. And all that darkness inside us needs to be dealt with. And so Jesus has come to deal with the sin, to deal with the darkness, the domain of the evil one and the evil within. And we see that God who is holy, we sang about his attributes, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy. God is a purer eyes than can look upon sin in Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13. He requires righteousness of all his image bearers. Jesus gave us the standard. He said, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. That's what I created you to be, a true reflection of who I am, the moral nature. We spoke about that last week. He proves that we don't have the righteousness that we need to stand before him. and that we stand justly condemned under his holy law. And he proves this. He proves no matter what your background is, if you're a religious Jew or if you have come from a pagan background among the Gentiles, he says you're all in the same boat. All have sinned and fall short of God's glorious ideal. We all fall short of the standard of righteousness. We all need a righteousness. And the good news is that Jesus says, I am the way. I'm the way for you to be made right with God. I am the truth. I am the life of righteousness. I can be your holiness. God made Jesus to be for you your answer, your provision, your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. And the God out of his love No obligation, no necessity on his part, but out of his love, he chooses to save sinners. And God loved the world in such a way that he sent his son, Jesus, so that whoever believes upon him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And we've learned in the book of Romans that we are justified, that is, put in the right with God, simply by believing Jesus. But what does it mean to believe Jesus? To trust in his saving work on our behalf? And we've learned that salvation is by grace alone. It's free. We can't do it. God does it for us. It's through faith alone, in Christ alone. Romans chapter three, verse 24 says, being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. And that Jesus, God in man, God, the second person of the Trinity, the God-man, he who is the just judge who will judge the living and the dead, he became the justifier. What a great word, he's the justifier. He's the one who can justify you. You can't justify yourself before God, but he can. He can because he's saying, anyone who believes on me will have a faith union, will be identified with me. And we've learned about that 164 times in the New Testament. We are in Christ Jesus. We are positioned in Christ. There's this faith union identification that takes place the moment we believe God sees us as complete in Christ. How righteous are we? We are in the righteousness of God in Christ. This is good news, isn't it? So when a person hears this good news, it sounds too good to be true. And this is because we all underestimate the righteousness of God. We all underestimate God. We all underestimate what is good about the good news. So Paul has preached this message that salvation is something that we cannot obtain through ourselves. We can't, no matter, we all know that we've made mistakes, but we can't put ourselves in the right through trying to correct our deeds, to have moral reform. We can't put ourselves in the right by being observant religious people. We cannot put ourselves in the right by, say, making amends. No, the only way we can be made right is to simply receive a free gift. wages of sin is death that's what we deserve but Jesus says I'm taking sin your wages upon my body when he died on the cross he died as a substitute for your sins so that you could have a free gift of eternal life so when Paul preaches this message he anticipates he's going to get some pushback some questions some opponents will have to question so he has this imaginary opponent as he writes this letter and two times in chapter six he gives us these questions remember in verse one he says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase people hear what he says and and previously he says that we're great where sin abounded grace abounded much more and people say whoa and When the law was given, it showed just how sinful we were, and sin abounded with the revelation of God's righteousness. So if that's the case, well then, let's just go and sin. We'll just magnify God's grace by sinning more. And Paul's response to that question is, no way. This shows you don't understand what it means to be a Christian. As I said earlier, a Christian is not simply a person who gives mental assent to the Apostles' Creed. It's not a person who simply is a Christ follower. It's a person who receives this gift of a new life and they are changed fundamentally within. And this question is incongruous. It is nonsensical in the light of the true gospel. The way it comes across in the Greek, may it never come into being. May, in Genoitu, in the Greek language. And we were talking about it in Spanish. It really is like, no way, Jose, in the Spanish. It's not even an option. It's incongruous with what it means to be a Christian. A person who is a Christian is not a person who's going to continually practice sin. A Christian will still sin, but it's not the direction because there's been a fundamental change. We talked about that. It's called conversion. And there's a new nature that we participate in. We said that our righteousness is Jesus. And the person who is a Christian is born again of the Holy Spirit. He also asks the question again in Romans chapter 6 verse 15. Well, he's not asking the question. He's imagining his opponent asking the question. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? And his answer again is the same. May it never be. Why? Because conversion changes everything. And he explains this later on in chapter 8. Remember, we recommend that you read this whole section together. 6, 7, and 8 go together if you want to really understand his thought. So he's going to say, a Christian is one who's received a new life in the Spirit through trusting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In Romans chapter eight, verse nine, he says that we, there's a fundamental change when you believe you are no longer in Adam, you are no longer in your old identity, separated from God, under the wrath of God, in the flesh, But you are now in a new position. You are in Christ. In a new creation. A new humanity. You have a new inheritance. You are not under law, condemned. But you are under grace, forgiven. Pronounced righteous. You're a new position, however you are, and he's talking to believers, he says, you Romans, Jews and Greeks who believed on the Lord Jesus, owning him as your savior, your king, you are no longer. who you were in the flesh, but you are now a new creation in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. So here is, this is what a Christian is. A Christian is someone who has received the gift, the gift of salvation, the gift of forgiveness of sins, and the gift of a new life in the spirit. So they are a new creation. So anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So there's no such thing as I'm sort of a Christian. There's no such thing as I'm a Christian but not the born-again kind. Because the only way to get out of Adam is to be in Christ. How did you get into the inheritance of Adam with sin and death? By being born. Yes, the default position of life. Yeah. You did nothing. to be in that condition of sin. You were born into it. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, because you were born wrong, and now to be born right, to be put right, to be made right, so you can stand before a holy God without condemnation or fear, you must be born again. That means you're putting your faith in Jesus Christ, and it's a free gift. I've met many people who say, well I believe the gospel, I believe in Jesus, and yet there's no change in their life. Notice what John says in his gospel, John chapter 1 verse 12. He's describing what believing is. It's the transferring of your trust from your own plan of salvation, from your righteousness, your own record of rights and wrongs, to trusting the finished work of Jesus Christ. He says this, but as many as received him, we're going to look at that, to them he gave the right, that's a word meaning a legal right there is different words for power and I think dunamis but here's the exousia which is the legal right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name believing all that he has made known of himself his name he who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God this is not an normal physical birth. This is a spiritual birth. It is something that was conceived in the mind of God, a plan of salvation, and it's all of grace. So, it's one thing to say, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus lived a sinless life, was born of a virgin. I believe that Jesus died on the cross. I believe that Jesus is Lord and I believe that He is Savior. But a person who receives Him would say, I believe He is my Lord and He is my Savior. So the question I ask you this morning is, do you know Him this way? Can you say, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnate, and that He was born of a virgin, which means that he was outside of Adam's race, and that he became the sin-bearing substitute without sin. He was fully human, but also fully divine, but without sin. Tempted at every point, yet without sin. And as a sinless substitute, he died on the cross, the Lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world. Do you believe that? Can you say, he's my sacrificial lamb? He's my sin-bearing substitute? He is my Savior, He is my Lord. That's what it means to receive Him. That He is your righteous King. So, with those two rhetorical questions, the Apostle Paul gives the short answer, no way, may it never be, and then the long answer. And we looked a little bit at the long answer in previous weeks. And The long answer is that we need to know certain things. His response in the long answer starts with, do you know? Don't you know? You should know. You should know what it means to be a Christian. You should know that there's more to it than that. You should know that this question that you are asking, should we continue to sin now that grace might abound? You should know that's a ridiculous question. because it just doesn't relate to your life. That's not what a born again believer wants to do. He does not want to continue in sin if he truly has received this transformation of a new life. And so we looked at last week the sanctifying work of Christ and we learned about definite sanctification and progressive sanctification. What does it mean to be sanctified? Just a little background for those who may be here for the first time. The Apostle Paul is making it clear that God from his point of view sees history with only two men in view. The first man, Adam. And so that he was created He was created without sin, untried innocence, but he was tempted and fell into sin, and all his progeny, together with his wife, bore the consequence of sin, death, separation from God. And Jesus became the second man. So from God's point of view, there've only been two human beings made the way God intended human beings to be without sin. The first man, Adam, and then the second man was the God-man, the incarnate Son of God, Christ. And we see that in Adam, all have sinned and all die. But in Christ, when there's a faith union with Christ, when a person believes on the Lord Jesus, they are constituted as part of this redemptive work. They have a faith union. This is a wonderful truth that's emphasized again and again. Jesus talked about this. He says, abide in me. You have a living relationship with me. I will live in you through my spirit. And you will live in me. And there's going to be this, apart from this, you can produce no fruit. We said that this chapter starts with the indicatives. These are facts. If you want to understand this, process of being made holy, you need to be thinking right. So what are some of the facts that he introduces in this chapter? He says that our life, that old life which was identified with Adam, is now crucified. And we're not living in it any longer. We now have a new life where we're identified with Christ. and that life within us enables us to walk in ways that are pleasing to God. We call it newness of life. We have new perspective, don't we? New direction in our life. Our old life in Adam was buried with Christ in verse four. We are raised to a new life with Christ in verse five. We're also promised a physical bodily resurrection in the future, a body like his. In verse six, we are putting the sin factory out of business. We used to check in all the time, that's what we did, that was just where we worked, we were a slave to sin. And so now, having been the old employee of sin has been crucified, doesn't show up at work, We have a new life. That new life could live in the same neighborhood, walk by the factory, but doesn't have to check in, right? So we're no longer slaves to sin in verse seven. We are free from sin. In verse eight, we live with him. For us to live is to reign with him. As the apostle Paul says later on in Philippians 121, for to me to live is Christ. The new life is no longer mastered by death. It does not die. It's no longer mastered by sin. The life of Christ gives us the power not to sin. So I want to be looking at sanctification as actually reigning with Christ, learning to let grace master you and righteousness master you. We have new masters now. Paul uses a human analogy of slavery. We said there's no slavery in heaven, but he uses this example of, and he says it is a truth, we're all slaves. We're going to be a slave to sin or we'll be a slave to Christ. There's no middle ground. And he's gonna make that very clear. So to be sanctified means to be set apart. We're set apart. And it's used in the Bible to describe purpose. The word sanctify. It's important that you learn these things. Sanctify means to be set apart for an ordained purpose and we see how our purpose was to be image bearers and bearing the likeness of God. Last week we said that When God created human beings in his image and likeness, the likeness referred to having a spirit so we could commune with God. We're made for a relationship with God. Your main purpose is to get to know him. Jesus says this is eternal life that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. We are to bear God's image. We're to reflect his attributes. His virtues, as Peter writes in his epistle, he says that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that we've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him, the virtues of him, the characteristics of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now there, sometimes the word Kadesh is used in a different way because he actually uses in the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 13, he uses some people for purposes that don't have to do with salvation. So we see in history how he used the Medes and the Persians to judge the Babylonians. In Isaiah 13 verse three, I have commanded my sanctified ones, meaning the Medes and the Persians, they're set apart, they're consecrated for a purpose, to bring judgment upon the Babylonians. I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. But God's purpose for the Christian is to be made holy. So let's take the definition a little bit further. Set apart for a purpose, but what is our purpose? Our purpose as those created in the image of God, to have the likeness of God, is to commune with God and to tell the truth about God, radiating the truth about who He is, so all creation looking to us would know what God is like. by the way we love one another, by the way we treat one another, by the way we're kind, by the way we're sacrificial, by the way we rely on God's wisdom, the way we order our lives. There's definitive sanctification and that's an immediate done deal. It's the moment you believe there's a fundamental change in your life and from God's point of view, you are set apart and you are already made holy. Isn't that a wonderful thing? know so we are catching up on our conversion we are becoming what God has already made us to be image bearers and um it's through our faith union with Christ we have a changed position no longer in Adam we are in Christ no longer under the law but under grace no longer a slave to sin but now we're a slave to righteousness with a new nature and our relationships have changed we the way we relate to our past the way we relate to our sin we're now aware of sin We want to be living in a way that is pleasing to God. This is a new relationship that we have to the Word of God. How many of you, you know, you come to know Jesus, and this book, which was dead to me, I had no interest in this book. When I became a Christian, I had new eyes, new ears, new faculty, a new desire, a new hunger. And like a newborn babe, I was desiring the sincere milk of the word of God. And so there's this progressive holiness that takes place. So there's the definitive, that happens the moment that you're saved. And we've got many different verses for that. First Corinthians 1.30 says that God made him to be your sanctification. We talked about how in First Corinthians 6, verse 11, he describes the Corinthians. He says, some of you, you know, you were, you had immoral lifestyles. but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of God. But progressively, we are changing. From glory to glory, he's changing us. His likeness and image being made perfect in us. You know, I only get to see my West Coast grandkids once a year, and you have seven of them out there. And so, you can imagine, after not seeing them for a year, and all of a sudden, how you've grown! Now, Simon, who was playing soccer in his college team yesterday, he probably doesn't think he's grown at all since he saw me. But when I see him, I recognize, whoa, how did you get so tall? Why'd you get so manly? And this happens in our own life. We may not feel that we're being changed. We may not feel like we're growing. But I tell you, there are people around you. They're seeing a change. They're noticing a change. Your neighbors should notice there's a change in you. This is a wonderful thing, progressive sanctification. We're becoming what God has already made us to be. And last week we looked at the means of sanctification, how he uses his word to sanctify us. John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy word, Jesus says, thy word is truth. He uses the Holy Spirit, he's our sanctifying helper and then he uses trials but there are methods also and I touched on them so in this chapter we have in indicatives so important to understand the various moods in the English language and moods aren't like grumpy or happy moods are how a word is the you have the indicative which means a statement of fact or a question of that reveals a fact and then you have an imperative, a command. So the first part of this chapter were all the indicatives, all the statements of facts. We've been crucified with Christ. We died to sin in Christ. We are in a new relationship. We were buried with him. We were raised with him. We're in a faith union with him. He's living in us so we can walk in a newness of life. But now come the imperatives, starting with verse 11. And we learn that the method of sanctification is a thinking process. It's so important that we think properly. The word consider, he says, even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin. and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So we have this Greek word, logisithi, which comes from the word logos. We get logic. He said, be thinking. Think clearly. Think with the gospel. Think with the indicatives. Know who you are in Christ. Know where you are, this new position with these new relationships. Reckon on the gospel truth, because as we do so, our choices will be informed, our behavior will change. I think this is why the most important thing about a church is what is taught. It's the doctrine. It was in the early church. Do you remember at Pentecost, In Acts chapter 2 verse 42, they continue daily in the apostles doctrine. That was first, that was the gospel. We're gonna think with the gospel, we're gonna hear the gospel. Do you know you need to preach the gospel to yourself as well as to your neighbors and your friends? You do so, you want everybody to have this gift. I saw this person at, we were at the checkout line and there's this fellow who got cross earring and he's there at the checkout line at the store and I just said hey I like that cross on your ear and he was kind of chuffed I just got it you know nice showing off a little sparkle on it and I said you know it reminds me of when the message of the cross first caught my ear and He looked at me like, really? And I said, it changed my life. Oh yeah. There was a line, wasn't there? And I pull out my little pocket weapon, my little gospel tract explaining. But you know, this is, to be thinking with the gospel is so important because we want everybody to know the joy. Share the joy. Share the peace. Share the happiness that we have. So we think with the gospel. And again, but to my point about local churches, you know, you can have all kinds of youth groups, you can have all sorts of activities, you can have worship bands that are just excellent, but if the word is not taught, that church will be diseased. It's so important. that the Word be given its rightful place. That's why I had you all stand when we read it, just to know the primacy of the Word of God. In 1 Timothy 5, 17, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 6, the apostle Paul writes his protege, he says, that you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. The word sound doctrine means healthy. You want a healthy diet of the word, the whole counsel of God. So we're just very, very grateful for our community that, men and women who are living under the word. Right teaching leads to the right thinking. The right thinking leads to the right behaving. Then there's a beholding process. Beholding. Second Corinthians chapter three verse 18 says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory Just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So we know that as we look away to Jesus, we're changed. So we keep Him in view. We make more of Jesus than we make of our sin. You know what I mean? We are to make more of Jesus than we are to make of our problems. our situation and circumstances. Colossians chapter three, verse one says, therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is. That means beholding him. See that the work is finished and that you are hid with Christ in God. He is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on things that are on the earth. Thirdly, there's a watchful process. There's a thinking process that goes on, there's a beholding process, and there is a watchful process in verse 12. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. I read an interesting book by a Puritan here that really spoke to me. It was written by a Puritan named Benjamin Needler. How would you like to be a preacher named Needler? He's a little Needler kind of a guy. And the title of his message was Identifying Beloved Lusts. Whoa. You know, your darling sins. The ones that you kind of make excuses for. The beloved lusts. And he refers to Matthew chapter five, verse 28. He says, I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. There's a fast track. from the eye to the heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. In other words, take drastic action. Don't make allowances. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, Cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. We're to be watchful warriors. So let me read to you a little bit of his message. How do you recognize those beloved lusts? And he gives a reference to what he calls our right eye sins, our right hand sins, the ones that are close at hand, the ones that are so liable to trip us up. Some, I say, by the right eye and the right hand understand our beloved lusts. It is the usage of the spirit of God in the scriptures in a figurative way to express corruption by the parts and members of our bodies. Although all our sins are our own, yet there are some sins that in a more special manner may be called ours, namely our right eye sins and our right hand sins. Or if you will, every man hath his proper particular iniquity, his beloved sin. And the handling of this doctrine will suit the case that is my task. How can beloved lust be discovered and mortified? And then he gives several, I won't read them all, but he gave several clues of how to recognize your beloved lusts. And one that spoke to me was, it's a sin that distracts you from your most holy duties. You think about, sometimes, you know that this is God's word, and you know that most of what you read in the papers is not. You know, it has nothing to do with truth. You know, you could spend time on social media hearing what people have to say about different things, or you can actually hear the word of the Lord. So sometimes it could be those things that distract you from your holy duty. Pride, he says, was the disciples' master sin. While they were healing diseases and casting devils out of other men's bodies, the proud devil was stirring in their own souls. Our Savior gives them a rebuke for that. Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Our sins can be made known to us by our conscience. The Greek word for conscience signifies a joint knowledge, conscience. We get science is knowing, con together with, knowledge with another. It takes notice of things together with God. Conscience is God's deputy, God's spy, God's intelligencer within, an exact notary. of whatever we think or do, a co-witness with God, as St. Paul is bold to call it in Romans chapter 9 verse 1. Now would you know your beloved sin? Hearken to the voice of conscience. Doth that condemn thee for pride, for passion, for worldliness, for persecuting the ways of God? O remember, it is God's viceroy, honor it so far as to weigh and consider thoroughly what it saith. Of course, he's writing in the 18th century. It is true, that sin which a man wishes were not is likely to be his beloved sin. The case of the young man in the gospel is considerable to this purpose. Saith our Savior, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast. and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful. That is, he was very much troubled that there was such a truth as this. The world, for Christ's sake, was to be parted with. And we see this with atheists, and I've given you the example of Bertrand Russell and others who were atheists, who say in their hearts that there is no God. Benjamin Needler says that atheism was the beloved sin in that case. First men wish there is no deity, then they judge so and say so. as was the case in his, the reason they didn't want to believe is because they didn't want to believe because of moral reasons. And then another diagnostic tool that Benjamin Needler pointed out for recognizing beloved lusts was that It may be that sin which we think of first in the morning and last in the evening. That's likely to be our beloved sin. A beloved lust is usually the sinner's first and last. He gives it entertainment first in the morning, identifying beloved lusts, and takes his leave of it last in the evening. Yea, this darling sin must be entertained and made much of in the bedchamber. The psalmist, speaking of a wicked man, tells us, quote, he deviseth mischief upon his bed, end quote, Psalm 36, 4. For the most part, that is a very friend that we admit to our bedsides. That sin which most infests us and troubles us in our solitudes and retirements is our beloved sin. My meaning is, when a man is alone in his closet or in the fields, and his thoughts run adrift, that sin which of themselves they move towards and close with, that may be his beloved sin. O Christian, mark the workings of thy heart in private, and thou mayest possibly make some discoveries. When a man retires himself into some solitary place, it is usually absurd to trouble him. It is a friend, indeed, that falls in with him and offers his company in that case. That sin is more than ordinarily beloved by us that interposes in our privacies." What he's saying is that we do have some sins that we are extraordinarily fond of. that we would not want to have dealt with. There are some sins to which we say to our conscience, pipe down, pipe down. I don't want to hear it. So be watchful. Don't yield to sin, but yield to God as new creatures. The indicative is that sin is no longer your master. so don't check in at the sin factory. You are under grace, so live in new creation realities. Fourthly, there's that reliance process. We talked about this. Jesus said, abide in me and I in you. Except you abide in me, you cannot produce fruit. Paul says it this way in Romans 6.13. 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. So we wake up in the morning and we say, here I am, Lord. I am yours. Verse 14 says, for sin will no longer have dominion over you. will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. So we have this indwelling standard of righteousness within. Christ is your righteousness. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We rely upon him. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be. That's the short answer. The long answer is that we're not in a neutral position. And some people misunderstand this verse. Never quote a Bible verse. That's what Greg Kuchel says, meaning you always see it in context. You might read this verse and say, do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as a slave for obedience, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? So you might think, just reading that verse alone, that you might say, okay, today I'm choosing this. and tomorrow I'll choose that. Today I'm a servant of sin, tomorrow I'm a servant of righteousness. It's not the same as choose you this day whom you may serve. Even that one's used out of context a lot because when Joshua says choose this day which one you serve, he's saying choose which idol you're gonna have because you already have rejected God. Choose your God. But then he says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But in this context, he's not saying that You choose today whether you're going to be a slave of sin or you're going to be a slave of obedience. He's saying, you have been sanctified. You are no longer a slave to sin. So don't think that way. Don't act that way. Don't feel that way. Speak to your feelings. Speak to the feelings. So he clarifies it in verse 17. He says, but thanks be to God. You see, if it were up to me to make my decision, today I'm going to serve obedience today i i failed to serve obedience then we would say thanks be to david thanks be to david he made a good decision but it's not this way thanks be to god that though you were you were notice the tense you were slaves of sin You became obedient from the heart, that's the new nature, to that form of teaching, that's the gospel, to which you were committed. You were committed to the gospel. How committed are you to the gospel? You were committed by God to this gospel. You are no longer a slave to sin. You are a slave of righteousness. Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Clarifying statement, right? That's the indicative. If you're going to obey the imperative, you've got to understand the indicative. And indicatives always come before the imperatives. Does that make sense there? I'm not just being a boring grammar teacher, you know? No, this is gospel. This is great news. So what do we learn? The indicatives. Who you were, I was in Adam, a slave of sin. Who you are, I am in Christ, a slave of righteousness. What is your new position? I'm freed from sin's mastery. There's no greater freedom for a human being than to be an in-Christ one walking after the Spirit. because then you are doing what you were created to do. That's when you experience true joy, true peace in the Holy Spirit. This is the kingdom of God. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's freedom. A lot of people say, I just want my freedom. Do what they want to do. And they go, and they do what they want to do, and they end up being miserable because they're mismanaged. They're under the rule of sin. and they need to be under the rule of righteousness. Fourthly, what are your new inclinations? It's obedience from the heart to the teaching to which we were committed, the gospel. And what are our responsibilities? Instead of checking in at the sin factory, I'm saying, I'm yours, Lord, and I'm loving it. Slaves of righteousness. then who is at work in you? It's the Holy Spirit. And what wonderful confidence we can have that he who has begun a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. The Holy Spirit started this work of sanctification. He's going to complete it. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence But much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure He's giving you these new inclinations these new desires. He's at work in you on your outline in your bulletin i've given you just a little picture of of how there are two two rulers in your life you know there was the old ruler of sin and there's the new ruler of righteousness there are two realms you were born in this realm where you were under the law standing condemned as a sinner under the wrath of God. But then there's the other realm, which is being under grace, where you are forgiven. There are two responsibilities. Under the law, you were to be dutiful. That was your duty. But under grace, it's obedience from the heart. The Holy Spirit, Christ in you. giving you this certain hope that you will be sanctified and glorified. And then the results were impurity under the old rule, sanctification under the new. I was free from righteousness in the old. I didn't even understand righteousness. Now I'm free from sin. There are two outcomes. Under the old rule, the outcome was death. And there's a new rule, the outcome is eternal life. In verse 19, he says, I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. He's saying, I'm trying to put this in ways that you can get hold of it. And obviously in the Roman society, people knew what it was like to be slaves. And so he's saying, I'm using this illustration. But spiritually, you're born in Adam, you are a slave to sin. If you're born again, you will be a slave to righteousness. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. And so we see these contrasts, two rulers, sin and righteousness, two realms under law or under grace, two responsibilities, duty under the law, or obedience from the heart two results impurity or sanctification and freedom from righteousness in the old free from sin in the new two outcomes death and eternal life so the truth the indicative is that if anyone is in christ they are a new creation they now are ruled as a by righteousness they're under grace they obey from the heart they're sanctified they're free they have sin but they're free from the mastery of sin and they have eternal life so let's look at the motivation and these are exclusive benefits What do I mean by that? I mean that when you are in Adam, before you are converted, you do not have these benefits. We have these benefits. This should motivate us. Motivating us. A right understanding of our past. And he goes on to explain in verse 20, when you were slaves of sin, before you were converted, you were free in regard to righteousness. What an unusual expression. Usually we think of freedom in a positive way, but here he's speaking of freedom in a negative way. You were so lost, you didn't even know righteousness. When God incarnate came to this earth, the religious leaders did not recognize him. They couldn't recognize true righteousness when it was standing in front of their nose. Pontius Pilate could not understand what truth was when truth was standing right before him. And we need to understand that we were ignorant of true righteousness in the past. We were ignorant of true righteousness. You lived without reference to the righteousness of God. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. We don't even know where to start when we're lost. Seeking the kingdom of God. Seeking righteousness. When we're slaves of sin, we're free from righteousness and its rule. And isn't it true that no lost man or woman understands what true righteousness is about? In 1 Corinthians 2.14, a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them. because they are spiritually appraised. There are some people who profess to know Jesus Christ who do not understand that their old life, their past, was one in which they were truly lost. Sometimes when a person asks me, they say, I'm not sure if I'm saved. I'd say, when did you recognize you were lost? You need to know that you're lost before you can get found. said that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost in Luke 19 verse 10. He didn't, the physician doesn't come for those that are well but for those that are sick. Jesus Christ came to save sinners and we need to recognize that we are sinners and that we need to be saved. We were slaves to sin and unaware of righteousness. You know sometimes people glory and things in their past, like this was a great life. When I look back on my life before I was a Christian, my BC life, it was just a waste. I remember Malcolm Muggeridge, when he did his memoirs, he was a BBC correspondent, he was an atheist outspoken, then he was converted to Christ. He wrote a book called Rediscovering Jesus. But when he did a two-volume memoir, he said, he titled it Chronicles of Wasted Years. And we have a whole book in the Bible that's dedicated to life that's under the natural, the natural life. What's it called? Ecclesiastes. It's the word, it has to do with the word meaning the reporter. The report is that if you're living your life without Christ, all is vanity. Man at his best estate. is vanity in psalm 39 verse 5 all of us have become like one who is unclean all our righteous deeds are as a filthy garment in isaiah 64 6 you see the apostle paul once thought he was he was the cat's pajamas you know he thought he was He was the bee's knees, top drawer, you know, Jew, Pharisee. He said concerning himself, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. Check, check, check. Here's my self-righteousness. As to righteousness which is in the law, I was found blameless. He kept his nose clean. He was just keeping the law as best as he could. He says, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. We sang that earlier, knowing you, Jesus. knowing you there is no greater thing and like the uh hymn writer Isaac Watts when he wrote when I survey the wondrous cross he says that he pours contempt on all of his pride the things he once boasted in he recognizes as being what Paul says here rubbish he says more than that I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. And what we see is that when we don't understand God's righteousness, the righteousness that God requires, we make up our own righteousness. We had the characters in Pilgrim's Progress measure their own goodness in ways they cannot lose. Self-righteousness. The Apostle Paul describes that of his Jewish peers that were priding themselves in their religious righteousness. In Romans 10, he says, brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them, that is the Jews, is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own. You see, not knowing about God's righteousness, true righteousness, they seek to establish their own, a substitute righteousness. They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. What does that mean to subject yourself to the righteousness of God? It simply means to agree with God's verdicts, to agree with Him that, you know, our, we believe what the Bible says about the sinfulness of the human being, his inability to live up to God's standards. We believe what God has said about the necessity of being given a right standing before him. We submit to righteousness by saying, I cannot save myself. I need Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I need to recognize that the one who was born of a virgin, the second man, not of Adam, the one who lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death, shed his blood to atone for my sins, I need him as my Savior, my Lord. To submit to righteousness means that we recognize that Jesus can be the forgiver of our sins. and that he forgives us, not on the basis of a whim, but on the basis of his righteous, finished work on the cross. The Apostle Paul says, may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. So, to be motivated, we need to realize that in our past, we failed to recognize the true righteousness of God. We also need to recognize that in our past we were spiritually barren. He says this in verse 21, therefore what benefit, the ESV says, fruit, what fruit was there deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? Your old life, what was the outcome of it? It was death. So our past was shameful and we see it that way. You know, I go to reunions and visit old classmates, and they'll talk about, oh, the good old days, and it was so cool, you know? Just this week I was talking with another person who was at Woodstock with me, and I'd say, oh, that must have been great, and I'd say, no, it wasn't. I was lost. It was a shame. It was, when I think about it, I was created for a relationship with God. Here's an interesting story. There was this Norwegian woman who shared how she came to faith in Christ. She had a vision after she heard about Revelation chapter 19 and the great white throne judgment. She had a vision of that last judgment and God was on the throne and everybody was lined up in front of him and behind the throne was a white curtain. And when each person came before the throne to be judged by God, God gave a signal and the white curtain opened. And there was this being of inexpressible beauty, something beyond anything she had ever seen before. And so she asked in this dream, seeing herself standing before the Lord, what is that? And the Lord said to her, that's what you would have been if you had not rejected me. And the Bible tells us that we were created to mirror God's image when Peter, James, and John went with Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus gave a preview of his glorified self. It was almost like a pro video. He went right into the future, and his face began to shine like the sun, and his garments were radiant, this beauty. And then, of course, we see that Moses and Elijah appeared together with him on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17 and Luke chapter 9, and that picture is really of what we will be. John Newton said it in Amazing Grace. When we've been there 10,000 years, what's the next phrase? Bright shining as the sun. That's what we would be. That's what's in the end view. Did you know anything about that in your past? No. Your past was barren. It was shameful. And the end result of it was death. The outcome of those things is death. For the wages of sin is death, in verse 23. Another motivation, and I'm closing with this because time's running out. What motivates us in the present is communion with God. To have fellowship with Him in the present moment. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, which is the greatest freedom, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome is eternal life. And what did we say eternal life was? It's to know Him. That they may know you, the only true God, Jesus said. This is the purpose of life. and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. You cannot know the Father unless you know the Son. And then the assurance of glorification in the future. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, this should give you great encouragement and confidence. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. Who's at work? The God of peace. What's he doing? Sanctifying you. How much is he going to sanctify you? Entirely. Spirit, soul, and body. And you will be preserved complete. What does it say? Without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I love this, verse 24. Faithful is he who calls you, who what? Will what? also bring it to pass. Different translations of it. But he's going to do it. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. And this is good news indeed. We can rest in this salvation. Beloved, John writes in chapter 3 verse 2 of his epistle, now we are the children of God. When? Now. How do we become children of God? By receiving Him as our Lord and Savior. And it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, bright shining as the sun, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as he is pure beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord we are changed from one degree of glory to a greater degree of glory to a greater degree of glory from faith to faith from strength to strength from glory to glory He's changing us until when we see him, we are like him. Let's pray and worship. Father, we pray that you would use this word to deepen our appreciation, our estimation of you, and the goodness of the good news. Thank you for this work of salvation, which goes beyond just our justification, the legal acquittal, of our guilt and the pronouncement of righteousness, but gives us a new life where we can experience your righteousness and experience the freedom that comes with it. And we ask, Lord, that you would empower us through your spirit to do what is pleasing to you. Help us to identify beloved sins and repent of them and move with you cooperating with you. We pray as you taught us to pray that your kingdom would come, your rule would be established in our hearts, in our neighborhoods, in our families, in our places of work, and your will would be done. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.