Open up your Bibles to Romans chapter 6, which I believe is page 943 in your pew Bibles. Romans chapter 6, we'll be reading verses 15 through 23. This is God's holy and infallible Word. 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 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 were you getting at that 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 its end, eternal life. for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. May God speak to us through the reading and preaching of his word and may the name of Christ ever be praised. Amen. In the late 70s, Bob Dylan attended a weekly Bible study after he heard about a Messianic Jew who was leading it and being born Jewish. Dylan was curious to hear directly from this Jewish man who was teaching and proclaiming Christ. And he attended this study for around six months and eventually prayed to, quote, receive the Lord. Now, what followed after Dylan's conversion was a series of gospel albums, including one of his most famous songs, Gotta Serve Somebody, which won him a Grammy. The lyrics of the song include, you may be rich or poor. You may be blind or lame. You may be living in another country under another name. You might like to eat caviar. You might like to eat bread. You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-size bed, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Dylan was saying that we all live in worship or service of something. We all have a way to find purpose and security. There's some way that you face the difficult circumstances of life. And Paul has already said this in Romans 1. Either the Lord has that place in our lives, or we give that Lordship over to an idol. But either way, it's inescapable. You've got to serve somebody. And the question for you today is whom do you serve? who we serve and our loyalties are mixed. Our hearts are never static, but they're always being pulled in some direction as they dynamically respond to life. And we often find comfort in the alluring but false promises of an idol. Even the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt after being delivered But for the children of God, we are delivered from our slavery to sin. And it's a matter of living consistently with our new given identity, servants of Christ, being in Him, unified to Christ through faith. and our hearts, having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, begin to die to sin throughout our lives, and we begin to live for righteousness, and that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that His divine power is at work in us to grant us all things that pertain to life and godliness. You see, every heart lives in pursuit of something. To help us understand this, we need to examine three things. The nature of the heart, the bondage of the heart, and the deliverance of the heart. First, the nature of the heart. The heart is the inner you. It's the real you according to the Bible. Who Nathanael is corresponds with Nathanael's heart. The Bible speaks of the heart in simple yet complex ways, but they can all be summarized in three dimensions. Thinking, feeling, and choosing, or the terminology cognitive, affective, and volitional. First, cognitive, God created humans in His image. They can reason. We can process information. Adam and Eve were created and given commands. God reveals Himself in nature. He reveals Himself in our conscience. He reveals Himself in His holy Word, and this assumes that we can think and believe and then respond accordingly. Before Jesus heals a paralytic, the scribes were accusing Him of blasphemy. And the Gospel of Matthew records Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? Our hearts have a rational and cognitive dimension, but second, affective. We are desiring and emoting beings. Our feelings, they motivate us. We place value in things, which leads us to act accordingly. Just this week, Ben Everly and I were having lunch at the Blue Ball Town Hall Diner, and I received a phone call from my babysitter that Moses had hurt himself and that I needed to go home and check on him. Now, without thinking, I ran outside, I peeled out of the parking lot with fear and worry. I don't even remember the drive home. Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. In John 14, our emotions are a gauge of what we value. We all long for something, and what we want, we then pursue. Jesus says, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. By the way, Moses was fine. If you saw him this morning, he had a little bit of a black eye, but he's fine. But the third dimension of our hearts is volitional, our will. We have intentions and we make choices. All the countless decisions we make in a day, so many without consciously thinking in the forefront of our minds, they flow from the hidden dedications of our heart. To obey the speed limit or not. To exaggerate a truth. To take a second glance at a woman. Comments that just effortlessly come out of our mouths, these are all a barometer of our heart's hidden dedications. Jesus says what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. Whether distinctly conscious or less conscious, the heart's intentions, they drive us. This is the place where our will functions. Pharaoh hardens his heart and then refuses to let his slaves, God's people, free. Our actions reveal the loyalty of our heart, our will. Actions always carry purpose. I know this is going to come as a shock to all of you, considering just what a perfect angel I am here. It's a joke. But in high school, I was a frequent flyer in the disciplinarian's office, and I was actually very close to expulsion During one of my frequent flyer mile visits to the office, the disciplinarian, he asked me a question that I think changed my life. I think the Lord used it to draw me to him. He said, can you explain to me why you did it? And I thought about that question for months. And each time I ended up in his office, I would have difficulty explaining my actions, but the question made me realize that something was broken in me, and I couldn't fix it. And that's not to say I wasn't culpable for my actions. My heart was revealing its true nature, and I willfully acted, but I was powerless to change my heart. We are slaves to our heart's pursuits, and the biblical writers, they understood this dynamic, that people are moral agents of their intentions and their desires, while filtering what we rationally know through the lenses of our sinful hearts. Jeremiah 17.9 says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? People are thinking, desiring, and choosing beings all simultaneously. And I'm not sure we can accurately separate our feelings from our thoughts and our choices in our decision-making. Our hearts dynamically respond to life's circumstances. the trajectory of your heart, its desires, its will, its thinking, will steer the course of your life. Think about some man living with his girlfriend, having premarital sex, that will affect his ability to receive Christ as his Savior, because he's going to conclude, and he may conclude in his heart, that it's not worth it, because he'll have to stop having premarital sex. And the scary part is how conscious he is of this process. His will and desires are at war with his thinking, and it's all under spiritual darkness. And he willfully obliges. This leads to our next point, the bondage of the heart. We are all conscious of what our hearts are doing to some degree. We just don't understand it, as Jeremiah tells us. But we are without excuse. Paul says in Romans 1, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. The heart, then, is in utter spiritual bondage. Jesus says, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin, John 8. Some Christians, they argue for free will, that our will is somehow unhindered. And I always wonder, free from what? We're not even free from ourselves, from our sinful desires. The Scripture is frightfully clear on this point. Our hearts are dead. that they're in need of God's spirit to regenerate them, to give them new life, what Jesus calls in John chapter 3, a new birth. Ephesians 2 opens with this, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived. and the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Free will and self-determination is a myth of Western culture, left over from Adam. And Paul says you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin or of obedience. There's only two options There's no third option given. Jesus says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You gotta serve somebody. We all live for something, either sin or Christ. Our actions have purpose. They reveal our heart's loyalty, either to the one true God or a false God. One of my close childhood friends, he's fiercely loyal to and cares for his friends, but he cannot care for himself. He has an alcohol problem, he lives a licentious lifestyle, and I notice, of course, when his life becomes more difficult for him, his use of alcohol and licentious living becomes worse. His heart's response to life's trials are to escape to sit in front of a television or social media, to jump into a video game, or jump into a bottle, or to jump into the arms of another woman. Escapism has allowed his heart to shield itself from the difficulties of life without having to run into the arms of our Savior. There's some way everyone in this room faces the difficulties of life, our circumstances. There's some God we all worship. And the arms of a false savior promises my friend deliverance, but it's a lie. It enslaves him and it will kill him. This is the sort of living that leads to death. Paul says, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. One master leads to death. The other to life. James 1 says, Adam and Eve were warned, don't eat of that tree or surely you will die. Paul tells us the wages of sin is death. Sin is a harsh, oppressive master which places you in its bondage and it kills you. Like the Pharaoh with the Israelites. More bricks. More bricks. More drinks. Just one more peek at pornography. Just exaggerate one more truth. Just one more time use your anger to intimidate your spouse or your children into giving in. More bricks and then you'll be free. And it's a lie. Paul says, for when you were slaves of sin, what fruit were you getting at that time from the things which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Paul has also been making the point in the book of Romans that when we sin as Christians, grace abounds to cover that sin. We, in Christ, we can't outsin our salvation. Praise God. The temptation here now is to straddle the fence, to try to rationalize our sin. I was a 16-year-old when I became a Christian, and a classmate in English, I remember him telling me, you're doing it all wrong. He said, you need to go to college and enjoy yourself, enjoy life first, and then become religious and let Christ's blood cover it. And I thought at that moment, Even as a dumb, foolish 16-year-old. Sorry to the youth group. But I thought, if I do that, then Jesus is not really my Lord. And I can't have him as Savior and reject him as Lord. That will lead to death. What a sad perspective for someone like that young man to have, who actually believed in Christ. And I ran into that classmate not long ago, and he's not doing any better. And in the last few years I was thinking about this, I've met at least three people I can think of who recognize that Christianity is the most logical explanation for life, but they're not Christians. You see, our sin problem is more than just thinking and accepting propositional truths. Our hearts are not only rational, but affective and volitional, and are deceitful and sinful. This is why in the Bible God wants the entire heart. Because only when God has our hearts does he truly have us. Our hearts were created for worship. Dylan was right. You've got to serve somebody. Think of those three men. They weren't willing to stop serving their false gods. This is why the first of the Ten Commandments says, you shall have no other gods before me. Unbelievers, people who don't know Christ, they need more than to be persuaded of propositional truths. They need a changed heart that puts Christ before all things, that leads them to desperately run into Jesus' arms for salvation, for a new identity, for a new purpose. But this requires a new birth, the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, which leads us to our third point, the deliverance of the heart. Our deliverance from this bondage is twofold. First, we are delivered from the bondage of identity. We are slaves of sin. Slaves of sin. Pastor Tim preached on Romans 5, and you remember in that passage, we learned that Adam was actually a representative for all mankind. So when Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden, all mankind was plunged into sin. And now after Adam, everyone, everyone, including babies in the womb, are born sinners. This is why David, the king, in Psalmist mourns in Psalm 51, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive me. There's no such thing as an innocent person, not even an innocent child. Because we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are born sinners. That's mankind's identity. We're born with dead hearts, which is why we have skewed and sinful desires, covetousness, greed, hatred, all forms of lust. We're seeing that in our culture today. You know, having these innate desires for something doesn't make it right because we're born sinful people with sinful desires. But in Christ, we're freed from the bondage of sin. We're freed from being identified as sinners, of being identified in Adam. The other deliverance is the bondage of purpose because we're in slavery to sin. We live in accordance with our identity. Some functional sense of who we are, even if you're not aware of your view of yourself, you have one. And it sets the trajectory for how you live and respond to life's circumstances. In other words, our identity drives our purpose and our behavior. So if your identity is in anything other than Jesus Christ, if you have any other God before him, then your purpose and your behavior, your words, your thoughts, your desires, your will, all are enslaved to sin, which means we're compelled to sin. But when our identity is in Christ, our purpose is actually aligned with our identity. Paul says, 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." Ephesians 2 began with how we were dead in our trespasses, living in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies and our minds, but then it suddenly changes in verse 4. It says, but God. being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses. He made us alive together with Christ. It's a new identity. And by grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. A new identity. So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. A new purpose. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works. so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, a new purpose, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them." It's a new identity and a new purpose leading to a new life. of good works in service to our new master, a benevolent master. You see, my identity in Christ now negates any identity before. For those whom God's Spirit regenerates, God calls you to a new identity in Christ and therefore a new way of living. You have a new master to serve. This is why Paul says, but now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. He says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. And Christ Jesus, our Lord. A new identity in Christ. A new purpose, which results in a new hope. Sanctification. At its end, eternal life. You see, the price of serving the false master is a price that none of us can afford to pay. Christ paid that wage as a free gift on our behalf. So Christ, He died on the cross to save us from our sin, and when our hearts have been given this new identity in Christ, then God works in us to conform our hearts to Jesus' heart, our character to Jesus' character, so that we can desire and think and choose in ways consistent with Him. For those whose identity is in Christ, he promises in 2 Peter 1 that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires. True change is rooted in a heart's transformation. By Christ, and in Christ we are freed from the slavery of sin. Paul says elsewhere, for freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. What's slavery? The yoke of sin. Christ tells us my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This is why Paul asked, are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. We can't go back to Egypt now. But because of remaining sin, we will still desire, think, and choose in sinful ways. But for the Christian, we are convicted of it. It grieves us like it grieves God's Spirit, and we cling to Christ to ask for forgiveness, and that by His strength we could continue to live for Him, to serve Him faithfully. We pray for God to illuminate our understanding of His Word and to convict us of where we are disobedient. This is how we die to sin throughout our lives and live to righteousness. You see, our identity is in Christ, unified with Him, desperately dependent on Him. We're all beggars before God. We're all beggars in need of God's grace. We all have to fight against arrogance because we're in this fight together. Because the root of adultery is the same root that takes another peak. Or the root of murder is the same root of gossiping and anger. Because the route of drunkenness to escape life's problems is the same route that escapes through mindless hours of cable news or social media. Or the heart that is in denial, ignoring life's problems, or the heart ruled by control or fear or self-pity. It doesn't matter. Our hearts dynamically respond to life. And sin knows no limits, and our hearts seek to serve somebody or someone. So whom do you serve? Are we putting our thoughts, our words, our deeds under subjection to the Scripture? Are we building up one another in Christian relationships, carrying one another's burdens, taking our concerns for each other? to them, so that we are living in harmony with our identity in Christ. This battle against sin is lifelong. The Christian life is constantly fighting this. Paul says, 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. That's an imperative by Paul. That's a command. It's an ongoing work that we go through for the rest of our earthly lives. And it will be filled with joy, and painful, excruciating times. Sanctification, becoming like Jesus, will have excruciating times. And if you're wondering, how in the world do we complete such a task? Remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we do praise you that we have rebelled against your Lordship, that we have sought meaning and worship and other things in the created, that we've become futile in our thinking, that our hearts have rebelled against you. And at that point, you owed us nothing. The wages of sin is death. But in Your mercy and in Your love, You have seen fit to come to this world to give us this free gift, that You would bear the punishment against sin that we deserve, that You would pay this penalty on our behalf, and Lord, that You would, through Your Spirit, regenerate our hearts. And we ask that by Your Spirit and Your Word, we would live as faithful servants to your merciful reign. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.