Romans 6:15-23

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. That's where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word. We have a little bit coffee and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll make it all the way from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. I'm so glad to be with you this morning. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray. And today's a beautiful passage with some very timely truth. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Let's pray. Father, oh Lord, we thank you for the truth that you have given us in your word. We thank you for the spirit that you have given us. And Father, we pray that we would follow after you. We pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts, transform us, that we would love you more and follow in your ways. In Jesus's name. Amen. All right. We are Romans chapter six, the second half of that chapter, Romans chapter six, verses 15 through 23. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to, obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether in sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness? But God bethanked that though you were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize these words? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So, A, what's this about? So he's been talking about us being saved by God's grace and that we're no longer under the law of sin anymore. And so the question is, okay, does that mean we get to do whatever we want? And he says, no, that shouldn't even cross your mind. May it never be. Hold on. No, no, no, no, no. No, let's examine this from a different angle here.
And he brings up this idea of obedience to someone, something. See, he brings up this idea of slavery. And we have concepts of slavery that are different than the concepts then. In Roman times, slavery was ubiquitous. Almost everybody he's writing to here in Rome would have either have been a slave, was a slave, or owned slaves, or knew slaves. Slavery was all over the place. And so this was something that they would have seen with their eyes and they would have understood as they had seen this.
Now he's using an earthly example. Which he even says, right? He's using this example, but it's gonna break down, right? He's using it because he's talking about a spiritual reality, but we're fleshly people, so we're weak in our understanding of this. And so God is accommodating to us. He's giving us an example, something like this that we can understand. The reality is we're not just slaves of righteousness, we're children of God.
But here he's saying, you were slaves once. You were free in your slavery. You could do whatever you wanted in your sin. You loved your sin. You relished in your sin. You did your sin. You loved doing those things that were transgressions of God's law. And you just didn't, right? Because you were a slave to sin.
But now, but now we have a new master. Wait, you brother and sister, you are no longer bound slaves to sin. That does not mean that you are free to do whatever you want. But now we are slaves to righteousness. Now we get to be obedient to the truth. Now we get to follow after God's ways. This is why the book of Hebrews chapter 12 says, without holiness, no one will see God.
See, I'm brought to tears this morning because I've been reading and reading and reading. That's why I'm late for coffee and devotions. I've been reading all morning about what's happened with the Southern Baptist Convention with them hiding sexual sins and And I've been, this has been something the Lord's been working heavy on my heart to realize that. Brothers and sisters, we live in a day and age where people pick up the book of Romans and they hear about grace.
And they don't realize that the grace of God is meant to bring us to obedience. Especially in evangelical circles and even more so in the reformed world. We can get so wrapped up in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast, right? This isn't our boast that we saves ourselves, but this is the gift of God.
But yet, he saved you unto good works, Christian. He did not just forgive you of your sins, wash you of your transgressions, and say, okay, now go on keeping sinning. No, by his blood, he purchased you for holiness. He has made us new creations with a new master.
We must be those who serve righteousness because our King is righteous. We must be those who follow after Christ because Christ is righteous. Who is your master, Christian? The wages of sin is death. If sin is our master, we rightly deserve what we earn. Death, hell, condemnation, judgment from God forever. But thank God, the gift is not like the trespass. But our Heavenly Father takes us out of the kingdom of darkness and gives us and transports us, places us into the kingdom of His marvelous light. He declares us righteous. He deals head on with sin. He says, now you're mine. Now you are my child. And now Follow me, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you abide in me, you will bear much good fruit.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. God gives us eternal life, and we receive it by faith. And as we follow his teachings, As we walk in His ways, we walk in holiness. He has declared you holy. He has said that you are, if you believe in Him, if you are justified by faith in Him, that you are His child, you are holy. So now walk in the resurrected holiness of Christ. You have been united to Christ. So now walk like Christ.
Hate sin. Our flesh, we're going to get into this in chapter 7, our flesh is so going to desire sin, but you must fight against it. You must walk by faith, fight for holiness, be radically about truth, be faithful to the doctrine which we have received. That we are both justified by faith in His works. and in his person, but we are also saved unto holiness. Christian, what sin is there in your life that you need to be killing? What sexual immorality is in you that you must flee? What things have you hidden in the dark that need to be exposed to the light? We must be about radical truth.
You know the John chapter 3 the Jesus came into the world as a light But the darkness doesn't love the light so the light reject or the darkness rejected him But when we come to Christ He's glorious and he is beautiful, but he exposes darkness It's uncomfortable But we must be those We must be those who are slaves of righteousness. Who walk in the light as he is in the light. Who love the light because he is the light.
Cling to the free gift that he has given you. Walk in the holiness that he has called you to. Let's pray. Father, please purify us. God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, please work in us, transform us. Lord, make us holy as you are holy. Let us walk before you. Thank you for how gracious you have been to give us a new master. God, we love you. And we pray that we would walk in your ways.
Seek your face. In Jesus's name, amen. May the Lord comfort you. May you walk in the light as he is in the light. May you love serving your new master, your king, the one who has loved your soul with an everlasting love. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.