Lesson 23a
Romans 6:18-23 · JD McCulley · Nov 25, 2018
Romans (2018-21), No. 44
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492619135188

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are on lesson 23. We've been working our way through the book of Romans. We're now at chapter 6, verses 18 through 23. So if you have an old-fashioned Bible, you can open it up to that or type it in and push the search button. We're going to read those verses together. So chapter 6, verses 18 through 23. Verse 18.

And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am 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.

Alright, question number one. You ready back there? Does being set free from sin mean that the sin nature no longer exists? Alright, question number two. I'm just kidding. It's still there, but we're dead to it. Who agrees with that? Oh, good. Half the class doesn't agree. I don't. Okay. Because it's still there. I think I answered that wrong. It should have been yes. I wouldn't read it.

Does being set free from sin mean that the sin nature no longer exists? No. You're right. Yeah. Yeah as in no? Yeah as in no. Okay. So, see what being absent for one week does to you? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You said your answer was right. Death. What is the definition of death? We need to figure out what it's separated from.

But this idea of free, what does that mean? What does free mean? Are you free? Who's free? What are you free from? I died out of the realm of the sin nature. Okay. And that makes you free. You guys agree with that? He died out of the realm of the sin nature. And that makes him free. Free from or free to? Both. Free to what? The much mores. I think you have a list of go-to things on the back of that paper. And the much mores is one of those. And the switch is the other one. He'll come up in a minute.

Are you free from sin? Positionally, I am. Positionally? What does that mean? Position means that the word of God says that this is true of me because God says it's true. And from his perspective, which his perspective is reality, I may or may not agree with him or believe him. But if it's a position he's given me or placed me into, then in that position I am free. It doesn't mean that I'm necessarily functioning that way.

Okay. Do you guys agree with that? Did you know that there are Christians that believe that when they became a Christian, that there was an eradication of sin in their lives. Has anyone ever thought that or been there? Yeah? One-nature-ism? Is that true? Biblically? No. It's not true? Yes. At what point will we be completely eradicated of the principle of sin. So, your answer was spot on. And I'm going to build on this, so don't ask why it's dodgy. We are positionally eradicated from the sin principle.

Conditionally, because of this thing, as Vernon always chooses the forearm for whatever reason he did. It's this thing, the flesh, that is still susceptible to the commands that this sin nature continues to shout out to you. Now, as we've talked about before, this sin nature is a deposed monarch. It has no power over you at the point at which you believed in the gospel message, but it still shouts out at you in the exact same way it did prior to that. Right? So, this entire relief from sin's bondage over you has to do with where your will is. Okay?

That's going to take us into the second question here. But, freedom, as we think of it, is actually defined differently in the scripture. When I say when we think of it, I'm saying the common understanding of what freedom is, especially for us as Americans. We bring that concept of freedom as Americans to the scripture, and I find that when we look closely at these verses, there's actually a different picture altogether of what freedom is from a biblical perspective. So let's look at question number two.

Just to reiterate, does being set free from sin mean that sin nature no longer exists? It absolutely does exist and we're going to illustrate where that is in relationship to you as a believer. We'll also illustrate what that is in relationship to those who are not believers. But the sin nature is still present so long as you are alive in the flesh.

Okay? Question number two. What is a bond servant and are you one? It's a servant that chooses to serve somebody. Okay. What's the key word in what she just said? Joy. You can't answer your own answer. Free will. Free will. Who said that? Free will. Back there. Cool. Let's talk about the will. Half of my class is spent writing on this board. You know that, right? We like your back.

This is the unbelieving side, and this is the believing side. Is the will for the unbeliever a slave? Or is it completely free? And the reason I ask you that is because in philosophy and all kinds of education throughout our upbringing, we're told that you have a free will and you have the ability to think the way you want to think.

Right? You can make your own decisions. Don't let somebody else make those for you. You're free. Is that completely true? Don't give them your power. Don't give them your power. That's positional. Let's get this over here a little bit, because I'm going to draw a little more.

We're talking about freedom. What's the opposite of freedom? Slave labor. Verse 18, and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness. Sounds contradictory to what we just said. But in verse 17 we were slaves of sin. Are you free over here? No. Slaves to sin. Is there freedom in any definition whatsoever for the unbeliever? No. Why?

Freedom means that you can make the decision and you have the power to carry out the decision. So if I'm a slave to sin, I can make a decision to be free from sin, but I don't have the power to do it. It means I'm a slave. I could be your slave and decide that I didn't want to be your slave anymore. The problem is that you disagree with that, so I have no freedom.

Okay. So everybody agree with that? And what's the nature that's operating here for the unbeliever? So here we're talking about the will. Your ability, I mean at the heart of the Greek, at the heart of the American is the ability to function according to your will, to make decisions. You have the freedom to do so. And we fought in order to make that privilege yours, right? For an unbeliever though, spiritually speaking, they are slaves to sin. Their will is 100% controlled by the sin nature. There is no other nature in which it can make a decision according to.

Agreed? Without the word of God, you don't know that, right? You don't know that? You do understand that you are operating in disobedience to the God of Romans 1, right? But without the word, I think I'm free, right? Yeah, you think you're free. In reality, you are operating as a slave to sin and the sin nature is the one controlling those choices and you are bound. What are you bound to? Bound to Satan. Right? Satan made me do it. That's what the cartoons say. Yeah.

Romans 5, 12 says that by one man sin entered the world and death came along with sin. So death passed upon all men. For all men are dead. All men die in Adam. So the point is Or is it sin? Is the controlling factor death or sin? Death means separation. Separation from God came in by one man. And so it goes on to say that people are still physically dying even though they haven't violated a statute that God had given them, like he gave Adam. But they're still dying. Death is the reigning principle. That's the key word. We can add that over here. Death reigns.

You know, J.D., there is an aspect of freedom for the unbeliever. Verse 20 says, when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness, but... That's a good point. I mean, free from the obligation to do right. What do you think that verse means? We'll get to this a little bit more, but it's interesting. No, it's an interesting point. There are such things as happy sinners. You were one? I was one. No, no. Completely deceived. Those deceived don't know they're deceived. Yep. It's fun for a season. It's fun for a season? Which one? All of them. Where is your history here? Like Satan's at the piano.

Where is the freedom to choose to trust what God has said about the gospel for the unbeliever? Is that a freedom? For the unbeliever? Only by grace. I can't make myself free from my sin nature. This thing can be broken because of one freedom. Faith. Where sin abounds, grace is much more. So if that's the case, then the freedom has to do with faith. It has nothing to do with anything else other than faith. No merit.

So I have a will, and my will, the only reason I have one is to believe. So I'm either going to believe what God has in his grace has shown me or I'm going to continue to believe what the old man is selling in the world and death and all of that is selling. And God can interrupt that through the work of the Spirit and show me there's a salvation. I've got to know that I need to be saved before I'll even entertain a thought. So I think my will is, I have a will for only one reason, and that's to believe.

I think you're right. What has to happen in order for your will to leave the realm of slavery of sin, operated by the sin nature, bound to Satan, death is reigning, Adam's history. And by death reigning, it means that death in its fullness is reigning over you, meaning three parts.

You're going to physically die. You're spiritually dead. You have no relationship to God. And you will eternally be separated from God. That is what death reigns means for the unbeliever. Now death still has an operation to perform. How do we go from our will being slaves to sin to our will being slaves of...

What's the nature over here for the believer? The new nature. New nature. Let's talk about that new nature a little bit. It's just not abstract. I was a dog and now I'm a cat. That nature has to be defined, I think, in terms of... My old nature, I got from Adam. My new nature, did I get it from Christ? Or is it Christ? Before we answer that question, there is something that has to happen in order for this will to be operating as a slave of righteousness and controlled by the new nature. What has to happen? What? Okay. We'll put faith in the middle.

Who's death? The Lord's. My death. My death. And how does your death happen? How does it happen? Yeah. When I believe I'm co-crucified with Christ. So who's death? Christ. Oh, I see what you're saying. Sure. It's the death of Christ. Who was made sin? Me too. That says me. So you have death. Is it enough to die to this, so that you are now slaves to righteousness? No. To be made alive. Made alive.

Two sides of the same coin? We could be free from sin, but that doesn't solve the need for righteousness in order to be in the presence of God, does it? Does that make sense? We have to not only be put to death with Christ, but we have to be risen with him. As we talked about this, this entire scenario is positional truth. And it's true of every believer.

But if they're ignorant of this, they won't walk in newness of life. They don't know. The best example is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. They've moved from the evil branches to the good ones, but they haven't left the tree. That's very true. For the unbeliever, their will is 100% controlled. Right? What about the believer? Is their will controlled?

What does doulos mean? That's what bondservant is in Greek, doulos. Addie, just coming back in the room. Addie, when you said bondservant, what does it mean? Willingly serving another. Our will as believers, because of the bondservant, role that we now operate according to, this concept to do us has this idea of swallowed up in God's will.

Our will becomes swallowed up in God's will. Have you ever heard that? Have you ever thought of your will being swallowed up in the will of God? I'll just say swallowed up. Explain to me how that word work. Again, God's will. Explain how that might work in a human bond-servant relationship. Marriage? Under grace? Okay.

A bond-servant is one who willingly serves a master. So much so that the will of the master becomes the will of the bondservant. I want my will to 100% align with my master's will. So, who is the master for the unbeliever? This guy. Who's the master over here?

Who are we bound to? The will of the believer is a slave. They're not just a slave though, they're a bond slave. Meaning that they freely, and this is where we start to get to the biblical definition of freedom, they choose to have their will aligned with God's will. So we'll add bond slaves over here to further clarify what kind of relationship that we have to our master. Let me ask you this. Is there any human without a master? No. So can freedom exist? Well, in the definition of freedom means I can do whatever I want. It doesn't exist.

Why can you not do whatever you want as an unbeliever? Because I'm either a slave to one or the other. If I'm not a believer, I'm a slave to sin and Satan, and whether I know it or not, I am. Do you think there's those Christians that say, man, I'm kind of jealous of those unbelievers sometimes.

They just have the freedom to do whatever they want. Is that true? No. It's not true. No. They're serving. Day in and day out, they're serving. And they have a master. There is no human being without a master. You're either Bound to Satan or you're bound to Christ? You can't sit on the fence. There's no fence.

Last week we talked about this. I think it's important to mention again. There's no, hey, I'm over here. I'm free from all of this stuff and I'm just still kind of trying to figure it out. We call this neutrality. Right? The gray zone. A lot of people think they're in the gray zone.

They're like, I'm not saying I fully disagree with everything in the Bible, but I'm not saying I do agree. I'm still trying to think it through. Have you ever heard the analogy of a marriage proposal? Will you marry me? Let me think about it. She's saying no until she says yes. She's not in between. She's simply saying no until she says yes. Yeah. What if you don't know this? and you're a believer. Alright, let's go to Romans 1. 18. Romans 1, 18. So, this doesn't exist, right? We're saying this doesn't exist. There's no, whoa, how does it work? There's no neutrality. And here's why. Verse 18.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood, being understood through that are through what has been made so that they are without what? excuse so these guys claiming and I'll add that claiming neutrality they've never heard the gospel but what does Romans 1 Romans 1 tell us? 118 He has revealed What? Eternal attributes, divine nature, eternal power.

Do they know the gospel? No. Do they understand that they are a creature under a God who is divine, who is eternal, and do they know aspects of his invisible attributes? They do. And what does that make them? Responsible. Believers. That makes them responsible. Believers in what, Mike? Believers in what? This makes them believers in the gospel? No. No. No way. Maybe I'm messed up here. That's okay. It does not make them believers in the gospel.

The gospel has to be communicated to them, clearly, so that they understand and can believe. But what do they understand here? There is a God. They understand that there is a God, with the divine nature, indivisible attributes, and eternal power. They know that.

So, your question was, those that are over here claiming neutrality are actually right here, And they are controlled by the sin nature and they are slaves to sin. And what does that cause them to do with that information that they understand? Suppress it. Suppress the truth in what? In unrighteousness. Unrighteousness. And what does suppress the truth in unrighteousness mean?

You three. Munchkins. Not so much munchkins anymore. Hey, is he playing with us? You were hiding back there. Munchkins. Remember when we talked about... You're going to have to work hard to remember. Well, hold on. Give them a chance to answer, too. Remember when we talked about suppress the truth and unrighteousness? What was the picture I gave you? You don't remember? Okay, Addie, go for it.

A jack-in-the-box. A jack-in-the-box. Explain it. Um, that people suppress the truth and it's like a jack-in-the-box on an alarm clock where it keeps beeping and they keep pushing the snooze button or keep pushing it down even though it keeps coming back. That make sense?

These guys are snoozing. God's revelation. Constantly snoozing. Now, can you snooze so much that it just becomes a natural thing for you? In the sense that you're not even thinking about snoozing anymore? I like the alarm clock, Addy. I don't remember saying that. It's even better. Snooze, snooze. You said it. I did? Yeah, it sounds like, yeah, I'll take it. I'm not going to lie.

She is operating as a bond slave to righteousness today. Let's give her a hand. I'm just kidding. The jack-in-the-box scenario, same as the snooze, it pops up out of the box and says, You are a creature underneath a God who is eternal, who has invisible attributes, and is divine in his nature. And they say, eh, right back in the box. And it pops back up. So the same thing.

And they suppress it. And suppress means that they're literally not just hitting the snooze button, they're like holding that thing down. It's like, don't talk to me anymore about this. Do you think God at that point continues to reveal to them who he is, or does he at that point, because the following verses talk about the fact that they have rejected the light they have. Well there's some, it's a good point, there's something that happens in verse 24. It happens right there in the first part of it, read it. Well let's read verse 23.

So if we're talking, and this isn't the purpose of this class necessarily, but it's a rabbit trail that's worth taking. The first thing they do is, I call it the worst exchange you could ever imagine. They exchange something for something because of this. I've got a Weymouth translation, it's kind of cool.

It says, For when they had come to know God, they did not give him glory as God, nor rendered him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened. futile, foolish, those are other words that, yeah, and their heart becomes darkened. So, through the act of suppressing the truth and unrighteous, they become foolish, and their hearts become darkened, and they make an exchange. And that exchange is that they begin worshiping the created realm rather than the creator himself. And that is where every single unbeliever is. They are serving Satan, They're bound to him as their master, but their worship is in the created realm. And they could focus it on any number of created things.

What are some examples? Trees. Trees. Who's that? That didn't take long. Give me a religion. Name one. Buddhism. Buddhism. Who does the Buddhists worship? No. Buddha. Who's Buddha? A man. He's a man. He had special patience under that tree, but he was still Buddha. What's another one? Islam. Islam. Okay.

They claim monotheism for a god who created. What makes him a creature and not a creator? He was... His grave is an amphitheater. That's interesting. Muhammad. His number one prophet. Christians. Mormons. What you're going to find is that anything outside of biblical Christianity, you'll go back to, even if they claim a creator who is monotheistic in nature, will have creature attributes. You can buy Allah out. He's not just 100%. How do you buy Allah out? That's a different subject. That's a different religion.

How do you battle it out? What can you do to jump ship and go to the highest level? Kill. Kill creatures. Right? So this creator gives you the one way pass into paradise with lots of perks if you kill the infidels. Seven virgins. Or if you're killed, killing people else. Right. Is that a godly creator attribute, scripturally?

It's not just. We also don't believe there's a trinity. No triunity? Nope, none of that. So this is what happens. There are those controlled by the sin nature, slaves to sin, claiming that they're making a decision, and maybe they claim that, but what we know is that they understand, it's been revealed to them, that without excuse, in their foolishness and darkened heart, they've exchanged the worship of the Creator for four-footed things and all the like of creation.

Instead of looking to the One who did it, they looked at what He did, and they start to worship it. Right? And not only do they worship it, in verse 25, and serve the creature rather than the Creator. So they're bound to Satan, and they're serving the creation, in some respective form. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, that person can come to hear the truth of the Gospel, and by faith, believe it. And positionally, They die and are made alive in Christ.

I would say too that probably the biggest hurdle there is that the entire old system is based on law or rewarded punishment or God is always angry. And I would venture to say that grace is probably the most difficult thing for a non-believer to accept. As an example, I was talking to a guy a couple of weeks ago, a Catholic friend of mine who is a believer, and we were talking about the eternal security of salvation. He said that is the most difficult thing for a Catholic to accept because it takes him totally out of the realm of performance. have to accept the grace by faith. If you don't, if you say, well, okay, I'll add Christ on as my savior, but I still have all this stuff to do. You know, I have to please him, I have to work for him, I have to do this on myself, and I don't receive grace is the most difficult thing, I think, for someone who is mired in the old man to accept. Does that make sense?

I think there's a lot of different systems out there. Because at the end of the day, Catholicism is a system that operates according to law. And every system has a performance type monitor embedded in them. But don't they get that from the priest? Or what's his name that sits on the chair? Well, I mean, every denomination is like that.

If you're a Reformed covenant, You look at the tulip principle, it's all based on making it to the end. You gotta keep hustling. Don't we get it from the sin nature? I think so. In that sense, we're all born into some system of that manifestation of the sin nature, right? Well, let's just call it...

What's the operating principle for this guy? What's their environment? They can't escape it. What? Law. What's the operating system over here? Grace. OK. You can't see my writing anymore. We're going to talk about, next week, we're going to talk about this free gift part.

This is a very interesting word. The reason this is dotted is because the work of the Spirit, through death, this can't be broken. This cannot be broken. This is 100% sealed. But here's the sin nature. We're going to have to figure out this relationship. And we're going to have to do that next week too. Is that the first bell? So I've got three minutes. He's sealed too. When? That's the question. Because this is a flesh thing. This is flesh, sin nature flesh. Why did I put it next to the will of the believer? Is the will of the believer controlled by the sin nature? No. It is not. But it is present in the what? The flesh. And it barks. It just barks and barks. What's a good bark? It goes the other way too.

So say that again, did you say that the will of the believer can't be controlled by the sin agent? I asked you that question. I think it can. Because either way we're slaves, we're a free agent who can control. As a matter of fact, that's a trap in and of itself. I agree. due to spiritual insanity choose to be controlled by this in nature?

Yeah, Paul found that out. Have you found that out yet? This morning? Why is this spiritual insanity? Because you're exchanging the truth for a lie. And the truth is this. And all of a sudden you want to do this? It's not normal. Huh? It's not spiritually normal. It's not your reality anymore. In order to continue in sin and grace may abound. That's spiritual insanity by no means. It is. Who's spiritually insane?

Not me. Huh? In your condition you could be. In my condition. We are, but we don't want to be judgmental. No, no, no. Fruit inspection. When does this get broken? And I put a dotted line around it because it is going to get broken. When we go to heaven. And what are the two passages in which that can happen? When we die or when God comes to earth. We go there, but experientially it can be broken continuously by the power of the Holy Spirit, if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body or others.

The one difference for the sin nature in terms of how it operates through the flesh when we are separated from it, is that this barking is no longer, and there is no longer the option for spiritual insanity. Absolutely. Right? That's it. That should be physical death. I should just write a funeral. Alright, I gotta stop.

Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the truths that we read here in Romans 6, and what a privilege it is to know that freedom does exist as a slave to righteousness, that that kind of freedom is the freedom to know who you are and who we are in Christ. Just the joy it is to be swallowed up in your will and to know that you love us eternally and you are sovereign and we can trust in the type of God you are. We thank you for these revelations in the Book of Romans. Pray that we would take them to heart and contemplate them at the point in time where we truly understand and believe that we might have 100% faith in the truth of what they say. We just do pray these things in your name. Amen.