Free Slave
Romans 6:16-23
The bible says: When I was a child I thought like a child… How do children think?
They think that true happiness is out there in the future when they can leave their parents’ house and rules and control.
They see those rules as chains
They think they will then be able to do what they want, when they want, where they want, how they want, and with whomever they want
Why do they think that way?
2 reasons 1 They are human… it is natural for all humans to want to throw off the chains of restraint and be free
2 They are children… they have not lived long enough to get away from their parents and learn the truth
What is the truth? The truth is what Jesus said in Romans 6:16-23
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Look at verses 18 and 22… what truth do they teach?
The Bible declares in no uncertain terms: Everyone is a slave to something…
1. You’re either a slave to sin and free from God
2. Or you’re a slave to God and free from sin.
3. There is no other option open to you.
God’s Word tells us: If you FREE yourself from obeying God, you will be a SLAVE to sin. You can deny it, fight it, reject it – do whatever you wish - it’s still going to be true.
If you are not a servant of God’s, you will be a servant to sin.
For the 18 year old, hot to rip the chains out of the hands of their parents and cast them away and BE FREE
ONLY TO FIND OUT that they do not cast off the chains of captivity… they just take the chains out of the hands of their parents and hand them to others
THEIR BOSS who tells them when to come and go, what they can do and what they can’t, what to wear, where to sit, etc
Their LANDLORD who tells them what they can and can’t do, how much they have to do, where the boundaries are
THE GOVERNMENT who makes rules about how they can spend their money, how they can save it, and takes it away to give it to others
THE CLOCK which rules their day and night, controlling what they do and where they go and disallows them to do what they want with their time
AGE which places increasingly restrictions on everything and takes away more and more of our choices
The truth is… we go from being slaves to our parents to being slaves to others… WE ARE NOT EVER FREE
I remember when I was a child… thinking that I could not wait until I was on my own… I would have a job and money and my parents could not tell me what to do.
But I left home and went to college… and I didn’t have any money and I could not do what I wanted
Eventually I got out of school and thought… now, at last, I’ll be able to do what I want, I will be in charge
But I got married… and had kids… 1…2…3…4…and I still had no money, no control I worked hard and the money was gone before I got it. I had no free time. My time was controlled by little mouths that cried and bellies to be fed and diapers to be changed, and baths to give
Then they got older and I thought… now I’ll have more money
But there were braces and private school and pretty little dresses for the girls. I had no money to do what I wanted.
And I had no time because there were t-ball games to attend and practice and babysitting and school functions. And I was working harder to pay for all the stuff… so I had no time to do what I wanted
Then they got older and there were more expensive clothes and proms, cars to buy and take care of, and weddings… and wrestling matches to see, and I had to trade in my car so my son could have a truck. And I still did not have the time of the money to do what I wanted.
Yeah… I broke loose from my parents… I was free… but I just transferred the chains into the hands of other… WORSE… captors. Now we are captives of old age.
Now Donna and I are looking at the empty nest when, finally, we should free… we should have the time and money to do what we want. Well … we may have more time and money… but we don’t have the energy, and the list of things we want to do is much smaller… now all we want to do is stay at home and watch TV.
It is true in life and it is true in the spiritual realm…
Paul said … YOU ARE NEVER FREE… EITHER YOU ARE A SLAVE TO SIN OR A SLAVE TO GOD
You don’t get to choose to be slave or free… it is just a question of TO WHOM WILL YOU BE SLAVE?
All of us enslave ourselves to sin… we choose to sin and when we do we become a slave of sin
God loves us and sees us in our chains and desires to set us free. So He offers us freedom through Christ… freedom from the chains of sin if we will submit to the chains of Christ.
Let me use a story to teach you.
Once there was a race of people who lived high, high up in the mountains. The lived on the top of a very high mountain on a plateau. The sides of the plateau were sheer cliffs that dropped off hundreds of feet. When they first came to the plateau, they lived in constant fear of the cliffs. They stayed far from the cliffs, huddled in a small area at the center. The land outside their huddle was rich and good. But fear held them captive and they could not enjoy the goodness.
One day their king built a high thick wall around the cliff. Now the people were free from fear. They began to enjoy the plateau, all of the plateau… all the way to the edges. Life was good, they were free.
But an outsider snuck in and began to convince the people that they were captives and the king was robbing them of their freedom by putting walls, limitations on their freedom. They signed petitions, they lobbied their leaders, and they carried protest signs saying, “TEAR DOWN THE WALL” and “WE WANT FREEDOM”
Eventually, the people rioted and tore down the wall. They screamed for joy. They held a victory parade but one of the paraders fell off the cliff. The next thing you know… they people were back in the middle of the plateau, huddled together, afraid of the cliffs, afraid to enjoy the edges of the plateau
The people in that story are you and me… people
The cliffs are the consequences of our sin…guilt, distance, silence, deafness, hopelessness
The King who put up the wall is God. He put up a wall called GRACE and because of the grace of God we do not have to fear the wages of sin
The outsider who convinced the people they were slaves is Satan. He tells us that God is a mean God who has too many rules and laws that rob us of our freedom
So we reject God’s wall… Jesus Christ… wanting to be free
Only to find out that we are not free… we are prisoners of our sin
You get a choice:
SLAVE TO SIN Deprived of joy and happiness
Robbed of true (abundant) life
Helpless and hopeless
Unforgiven and guilty
Jesus replies: "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)
Paul says here in Romans 6:16-22
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Or SLAVE TO JESUS Living life in its fullness
Joy, happiness, peace, hope, forgiveness,
Set free from the failures of the past
Free to enjoy the present and future
Is there a wall? Are there rules? YES!!!
Do the walls make a prison… or a paradise????
To whom are you a slave? SIN
JESUS
CLOSE:
If you’re here this morning and you don’t belong to Jesus you have no God and no hope
If you don’t belong to Jesus this morning you have no purpose, no value, no meaning that will last beyond the day of your death.
If you don’t belong to Jesus this morning, you have no forgiveness and no way of removing your past sins.
BUT, God doesn’t want you to live like that – that’s why Jesus came to die on the cross and that’s why we offer an invitation at the end of every service…
