Paul's heart is to see the believers in the Roman church love Christ deeply so that they won't lose their first love and fall away from faith. They are faced on every side with persecution and their only hope is the gospel in Jesus Christ. Paul wants them to know that they are slaves to Christ-and this is a good thing-rather than slaves to sin.

This is the shocking message for us. We are salves to something. We are naturally salves to sin and the ways of the world and the only way to change this is to become a slave to God. As Paul tells us, in becoming a slave to God we then know his righteousness and know his love and security. Do not fear being a slave to God because if we are slave to sin (and we are a slave to either God or sin) then we will know eternal death and have no hope.

The truth Paul rings through to us is that the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6 v 23). This is the gift we need and is freely available.

Romans - The heart of the Gospel is a teaching series from Annalong Presbyterian Church. Find out more at www.annalongpc.org/sermons.

So it's been a number of weeks since we've been in Romans, and

2

perhaps that song, There Is One Gospel,

is a good summary of what we've looked at.

3

But I do hope the break

from it has done you good.

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Now, I don't know many ministers

that would say that, but

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I think it's good to stop.

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Whenever we're halfway through or quarter

way through of a series to catch our

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breath and to consider what Paul has been

teaching, because there's no getting away

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from the fact that Paul is heavy and Paul

is meaty and his content, and that's only

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going to get heavier as we make our way

through the rest of this letter, but we

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have to remember why Paul is like this.

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Why Paul is, is giving us this weight

of the gospel and it's understanding.

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Paul is writing to a church

that is fighting for its life.

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The Roman church was a mixed church of

Jews and Gentiles, and they suffered from

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similar issues to those other churches

planted throughout the Roman world.

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And Paul's own testimony is remarkable

on top of all of this, and he is so

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passionate that the believers in,

about the believers in Rome, that even

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believers throughout the world would

know the truth of the gospel so that

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they would not be drawn away from it.

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It wasn't enough just to

know the gospel message.

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The believers were to love it so

that it would be their first love.

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And I want that to be our

perspective of the gospel.

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I've quoted a very famous and well

known verse already in John chapter

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3 and verse 16, what we might

argue the most gospel of verses.

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And so we can say That yes, we know

the gospel and there are certain

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traditions out there that all you

have to do is read a portion of the

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gospel and to them, that is the gospel.

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But there's a difference in knowing

the gospel because we can know the

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head facts and deeply loving the gospel

where it's transplanted into our hearts.

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And so, we get something

of the importance of this.

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Of what Paul is trying to communicate

at the end of the Bible in the

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revelation that was given to John.

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A message is given to the church at

Ephesus and it begins as a message of

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understanding what they have endured.

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But Revelation chapter 2 and verse 4

says, But I have this against you, that

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you have abandoned the love you had.

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This is quite the charge

against this church in Ephesus.

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But it's what Paul is trying to

save the church in Rome and us from.

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He doesn't want us to have this

same charge levied against us.

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The church in Ephesus there, as

in what Revelation 2 is talking

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about, they've endured so much.

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And what they've done is they've turned

away from Christ, not completely.

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They were still a church, but

they had allowed something

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else to capture their hearts.

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And it's this that was held against them.

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Now, I'm not saying that Paul

was aware of this, of what was

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going to happen in the Revelation.

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But I use this verse to highlight the

passion Paul has for the church in Rome.

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That that church, as the church

today, would remain true to Christ.

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And that the church would love him deeply.

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And Paul's been doing this ever

since the beginning of chapter one.

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And we should know this, that's why

perhaps a, a pause for these past

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couple of weeks has been good, where

we can look back and say, well, what

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have we been thinking about in Romans?

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And so as we turn back to the opening

chapter, it gave us this great affirmation

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that should be the heartbeat of every

believer, as Paul writes in verses 16 and

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17, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

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For it is the power of God for

salvation to everyone who believes, to

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the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

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For in it the righteousness of

God is revealed from faith for

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faith, as it is written, the

righteous shall live by faith.

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And you know, if Paul was to write

nothing else, that is a fantastic summary

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of what it means to know the gospel.

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But thankfully, Paul writes more.

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Well, I say thankfully.

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You may not be too thankful in a

couple of weeks time because Paul,

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Paul does want to challenge us.

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He wants to correct us because again his

passion is that we will not fall away,

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but that we will love Christ deeply.

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And so, in many ways, verses 16

and 17 are the great introduction

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and purpose of why Paul is writing.

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And throughout this letter, he has been

presenting us with an argument for faith.

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That is being weaved for us so

that we can understand its logic.

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But we can also understand the dangers

of falling away from this gospel

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because Paul, remember, is a lawyer.

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He's used to arguing and so he

wants to present it as if he was

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presenting a case in a courtroom.

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And so he has challenged people's thinking

about sin and also about their birthright.

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He's opened eyes to the truth of the

gospel and to the security that it holds.

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And in chapter 6, he tackled

original sin, its consequences,

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and how Jesus is enough to save.

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In the earlier verses of this chapter,

Paul challenged the notion that if we

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keep on sinning, it somehow shows God

in a better light because he gets to

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demonstrate his grace more towards us.

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In other words, the more sin

God gets to forgive, well, it

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shows how greater a God he is.

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Paul says that this is rubbish, and

anyone professing the name of Christ must,

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must do so, that is follow Christ fully.

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Being committed to him, and

being committed to his way.

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Not trying to think you can get away

with sinning because God's omni nice.

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No, living the way God desires us to

live because that is his best for us.

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And so as we move now into the second

half of this passage, Paul shifts to

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what is an uncomfortable topic for

us today, and he speaks of slavery.

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An issue that still raises much

debate in who is at fault in

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slavery and what restitution should

be made by countries such as our

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own for our historic slave trade.

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But the issue of slavery in Paul's

time was different from that of the

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16th and 17th century slave trade.

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Now I'm not saying that what was

going on on Paul's day was right, but

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slaves of his time had more freedom

than the transatlantic slave trade

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that we might be more familiar with.

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So the context is different.

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And Paul begins by picking up what

he has just taught in verses 1 to 14

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and asks the question about sinning.

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Paul sees the idea, as we've already

said, but he recounts it for us again,

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this idea of sinning because God's

grace is a grace of forgiveness.

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He says this is ludicrous.

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So, to help us, he changes the

imagery and draws us to the concept

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of what it means to live as a slave.

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And in verse 16, he states, Do you not

know that if you present yourselves to

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anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves

of the one whom you obey, either of sin,

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which leads to death, or of obedience?

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Paul is blunt.

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Paul's not giving you a wee

gentle tap on the shoulder.

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Paul's gone out to the shed and got a

sledgehammer and he's whacking us with it.

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He's making it clear that we don't

miss what is being said here.

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It doesn't matter who we think we are.

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We.

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are slaves, and we are

all slaves to something.

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We are either slaves to sin

or we are slaves to obedience.

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Let's think about what this

means because verse 16 stresses

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obedience as an aspect of slavery.

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You are slaves to the one whom you obey.

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We can obey sin, but if we obey sin, then

that leads us to death, eternal death,

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or we can obey God, and obedience to

God leads us to righteousness, and the

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right choice should be obvious for us.

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Everyone knew that if a man offered

himself as a slave, he had to obey

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his new master, and when we believe

in God, we gain a new master and offer

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ourselves to him without reservation.

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Now, Paul does bend the Roman

customs for his purpose here.

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Seeking the heart of this verse,

we read that you are slaves

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either of sin or of obedience.

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Everyone has a master.

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Everyone devotes themselves to a

person, to a cause, or to a goal.

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We obey it.

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We take direction from it,

roughly as a slave obeys a master.

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And if a person is not devoted to God,

then he is devoted to another master.

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And what was it Jesus said?

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No man can serve two masters.

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So the question is not, do you serve?

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The question is rather, whom do you serve?

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Ultimately, most people serve

themselves, although the form of

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that varies in one way or another.

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Will it be pleasure, power, security,

family, knowledge, or something else

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that will force us away from God?

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All of those things, they're not bad

in and of themselves, but when they

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replace God, then they're dangerous.

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And so when Paul calls this

devotion slavery, he means that

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people do what their God demands.

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When Paul labels believers slaves

of obedience, he doesn't mean that

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we are devoted to the law per se.

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Rather, we are slaves of God.

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And we manifest what we serve,

that we serve him by heeding all

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of the teaching of scripture.

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Verse 22 goes on to say, But now that

you have been set free from sin and have

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become slaves of God, the fruit you get

leads to sanctification and its end.

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eternal life.

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See, that's what slavery

to God leads us to.

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It leads us to being sanctified,

that daily renewal where we

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are made right before God.

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So that the day will come when

we will enter eternal life.

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And yes, this language of

slavery is uncomfortable for us.

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We say that Christ gives us

freedom, and that is true.

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Christ's death and resurrection means

that when we trust in Him, we escape

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the penalty that our sins deserve, and

we call this substitutionary atonement.

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A way to understand this is

possibly to think about a goldfish.

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My parents went out for a night.

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When I was small and I was left in charge

of my grandparents and when my parents

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came home late that night and went to

feed the fish There was a fish missing.

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To this day I have no idea what happened

that fish But the fish could nowhere to

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be found and no cat was in the house at

the time So the mystery of the goldfish

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continues, but it's very clear that that

goldfish no longer existed See, when a

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goldfish is in a goldfish bowl, answer

me, is it free or is it a captive?

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The fish bowl has boundaries that hinder

the fish's opportunity for more than

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just the ten cubic litres of water.

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But what happens to the goldfish

when it goes outside its bowl?

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It turns out the boundaries of the

goldfish bowl are what keeps the goldfish

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safe, and more importantly, alive.

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Outside of those boundaries, the

goldfish is as free as it wants, and

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if you've ever seen a fish out of

water, you would think it's having a

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party the way it's going up and down.

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But of course, what's it

doing in going up and down?

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Struggling for life.

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You see, a goldfish may be free out

of its fishbowl, but only for a short

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period of time, because the boundaries

provide security for what it needs.

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When we come to Christ, we

are free to be slaves of God.

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God sets the boundaries so that

we are safe and we are secure.

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Go beyond those boundaries or go

beyond God's law and his best for us.

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A slave to God is no bad thing because

it means we live for Him as He always

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intended in the love and security of

our Creator and our Heavenly Father.

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Which do you prefer?

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To be free and have no

boundaries, but certainly die?

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Or to know that boundaries

are there to sustain life?

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And provide security.

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This is what Paul wants us to grasp.

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That matters of faith are serious

matters and should be considered

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well so that they may be lived well.

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And so moving on, Paul confirms that

our default is to be slaves to sin.

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None of us, not one,

has been born righteous.

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Now let that sit for a moment.

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Because sometimes we can have a

high opinion of ourselves that

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we are simply too good to be bad.

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Nowhere in Scripture do we read of

humanity being born right before God.

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The only one born without

sin was Jesus Christ.

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Every other person was born with

the problem, the problem of sin.

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But Paul gives us great news for this

problem because in verses 17 and 18

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he says, But thanks be to God that you

who were once slaves of sin have become

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obedient from the heart to the standard

of teaching to which you were committed.

208

And having been set free from sin,

have become slaves of righteousness.

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This is, this is great news, even

though it now calls us slaves again.

210

It's, it's the best news we can

hear, because God has made a

211

way for us to be right with him.

212

Yes, our problem is sin,

but it need not define us.

213

Jesus died so that we

could be free from it.

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And yes, Be a slave to God because only

God can be trusted with our very souls

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There's an interesting phrase here in

the middle of this verse, if you look at

216

it there, it says standard of teaching.

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Paul dedicates the believers to

the apostles accounts of Jesus

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words and deeds, which they

carefully delivered to the church.

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This teaching may have become

more formally established after

220

Paul wrote Romans around A.

221

D.

222

57.

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But regardless, Paul says not that the

teaching was entrusted to us, but that

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we were entrusted to the teaching.

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The voice here is passive, and

that keeps an appropriate balance

226

between human and divine action.

227

Believers present themselves to God,

but God commits us to his truth.

228

That's an interesting way of

looking at scripture, isn't it?

229

This is not something we

have been entrusted with.

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It's something that we have been invited

to, that we are entrusted to it, as

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our only rule for life and faith.

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So we are neither masters of the truth nor

guardians of traditions that we control.

233

God is the master.

234

And so as he delivers us from

bondage to sin, he also delivers

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us to the authority of his word.

236

We are subject to God's word,

never the other way around.

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That's why, for me, it is important that

we read Scripture and learn from it both

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personally and as a body of God's people.

239

It is God's Word, the standard

of teaching that Paul speaks of

240

here, that keeps us in His ways.

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Don't think you can live without it.

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You can't.

243

You need to read it, and you need

to understand what it teaches.

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But Paul knows us, and he wants

us to know ourselves, and in verse

245

19 he tells us that our humanity

hinders our full understanding.

246

And again he impresses on us

that in Christ we are free,

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free to be slaves to God.

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So flee the sin that so easily ensnares us

and keeps us from eternal life with God.

249

That's the challenge that Paul gives

us, so that we may be deeply rooted

250

and know the love of God deeply,

that we will never depart from it.

251

And Paul finishes this passage

with a sobering thought.

252

Chapter 6 has been about

enjoying God and his salvation.

253

We're not to abuse it,

but to love it deeply.

254

So we are drawn back to our former state.

255

We're reminded of who we were and Paul

says in verses 19 to 20 for when you

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were slaves of sin You were free in

regard to righteousness But what fruit

257

were you getting at that time from the

things of which you are now ashamed?

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For the end of those things is death.

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If this doesn't make you think then

you're not paying attention Here is the

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sobering truth without Christ is death.

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And this is our natural position.

262

The only way to change this is to

come onto Jesus and rest in his love.

263

And please hear this, whether you're here

in the building, whether you're watching

264

online or listening on the podcast,

eternal death is the default from birth.

265

No amount of good living, good

works, or kindness can change this.

266

Now you might say,

David, hold on a minute.

267

This is all getting too heavy

and not sounding very loving.

268

Well, the reality is, this is the greatest

message of love you will ever hear.

269

Jesus died for you.

270

So that you would not die eternally.

271

He died so that you might hear the truth

That is found in the love of Jesus Christ

272

This is why Paul finishes with the well

known words of verse 23 for the wages

273

of sin is death But the gift of God is

eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

274

This is both good news and It's a warning

275

and we have heard both of these

before Know that we will receive

276

the correct wage for our sin.

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And you might ask, well, what is our sin?

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Well, it might be lying.

279

Might be cheating.

280

Maybe it's the things we

don't like talking about.

281

But we need to.

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Adultery.

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Abuse.

284

It might also be refusing to greet

our brother or sister in Christ,

285

preferring our own self righteousness

than the unity in the Spirit.

286

It might be refusing to forgive someone

for how they have wronged us, yet we

287

are so willing to receive the free gift

of forgiveness from Jesus Christ, and

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we become unwilling to forgive others.

289

Remember what sin is.

290

Sin is any want of conformity

onto or transgression off.

291

the law of God.

292

Sin is anything that is against.

293

You are a slave, a doulos,

as the Greek word says.

294

Will you be a slave to sin or

will you be a slave to Christ?

295

Whichever captures our hearts.

296

That is our true answer, and the

best way for each and every one

297

of us is to be a slave to Christ.

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The Protestant reformer Martin Luther

captured this whole paradox of slavery

299

in saying a Christian is a perfectly

free Lord of all, subject to none.

300

A Christian is a perfectly dutiful

servant of all, subject to all.

301

We can only know true freedom in Christ,

but that freedom secures us as a slave.

302

Where we live willingly for God, I urge

you this evening to know true freedom

303

and to know true security in Christ

as you submit to him and serve him for

304

your good and his glory for there is

no other way to live but to be a slave.

305

Let's pray.

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Our Father God, we have talked about

things we don't like to talk about.

307

Mention the word slavery that is so

political, such a topic of our time.

308

We've called sins, not for what we make

them, but for what you call them to be.

309

Things that go against your way for us.

310

And we need to come back day and

daily to seek forgiveness for

311

those, so that we will be right.

312

For the sake of the gospel, for the

sake of our unity as the church, and

313

for the sake of our eternal heritage.

314

Father, help us to know

what to do with this.

315

Paul holds back no punches.

316

He makes it clear that we are to

love Christ deeply, so that we will

317

not be drawn away and fall into sin.

318

So may we love well.

319

May we enjoy being a slave to

you, for in you we find security.

320

There are boundaries that protect us.

321

May we not be the goldfish out

of its bowl, that may enjoy the

322

freedom for a little while, but that

freedom will lead to eternal death.

323

Father, help us to know you and to love

you well, and it's in Jesus name we pray.

324

Amen.