God's Freedom

As Pat pointed out, our first song made her quest. Quite frankly, it should make us wonder, why are we singing these words? Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Now, if you're like me and my family, we usually, when we're singing this song, we mix up these words, and we say, tune my heart to sing thy praise, and we say, call for songs of loudest praise, and I realize that the second line, I messed up the rhyme. But I think it's fitting, and it should astound us that we're supposed to be asking for our hearts to be tuned to sing of grace. Grace is an extremely important truth for Christians. One of the central truths, one of the central words of what we're supposed to be talking about and why we live together and how we believe and what we do is grace. Grace is undeserved favor. It's a free gift. It's God's action toward us. And you have to kind of ask yourself, why do I need my heart tuned to seeing of God giving me stuff? I don't have to have my heart tuned on Christmas morning. I love getting gifts. When we receive stuff, we usually don't have to say, like, prepare my heart to receive this gift. Why would we sing, tune my heart to sing of your gift, God? Quite frankly, it's because grace, grace is hard. Grace is hard to receive. Grace is hard to give. Grace is hard to receive because by saying I have to receive it, I'm saying there's something wrong with me. This is actually what this song is teaching us to say. Give me the grace to sing about grace. Give me the grace to sing about grace. There's something so wrong with me, I need to receive grace just to be thankful for what you're doing, God. And quite frankly, we have to have this grace because to say there's something wrong with me says, you mean I'm going to get something from God I don't deserve? I'm not going to earn it? I can't do something to work hard to earn it? The song says no. You need grace just to sing about the grace. Grace is also hard to give. Because in order to receive grace, you have to give up that lie that you have a right to earn something. In order to give grace, you also have to give up a right. Grace is giving up a right or what you think you have a right to. Grace is hard to give because of our sinful desires and then selfishness that lingers. Our passage today is the second passage we're going to be meditating upon from Romans 5. If we go back to Romans 5, if you're using a pew Bible, this is page 942. If you don't have a Bible, please take that. It contains the words that can free you and give you life. We're in Romans chapter 5. I just want you to look at chapter 5 verse 20. I'm sorry, we're going to be in chapter 6, but I want you to look back first at Romans 5. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. That is the very provocative statement that is now going to lead to four different questions Paul's going to have to answer. We can see these questions, chapter six, verse one, what shall we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. Chapter 6 verse 15, what then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means. Chapter 7 verse 7, what shall we say then? That the law is sin? By no means. Chapter 7 verse 13, did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. All four of these questions are in response to the very provocative and challenging truth that our sin abounds And grace abounds all the more. See, we first have to realize sin abounds. Our heart's radio station is pre-set to sin. We're already inclined to dance to the rhythm of sin. That's our disposition. That's our sinful nature now, having committed to sin. where that sin abounds, grace abounds. God has given us the grace so that we can hear a different song and we can move appropriately to that song according to his will. We're going to see this morning is a continued call to think about what grace really means. Grace is challenging. If you're not regularly having to ask yourself, do I really believe the gospel and what it's demanding of me? You're not really recalculating. Talk about this last week. To consider yourself dead to sin in Christ and alive again in Christ, you have to continually be recalculating your life according to the gospel. If you're not having to say, do I really believe in the gospel that's going to make me do this very uncomfortable thing? You're probably not recalculating. Because grace challenges everything. Our right to be mad. Our right to hold on to sin. Our right to do whatever we want to do. Our right to spend our money the way we want to. Our right to use our time the way we want to. See, you actually don't have any rights if Christ purchased you with his blood. We are the most bound people. He determines what we do. To move now to our specific text, that's our context. It's all about grace abounding. Last week, he said, should you continue in sin? Absolutely not. Chapter 6, verse 15, I want you to see we're actually talking about the law more. Paul is talking to a church that's divided, Jews and Gentiles. He's seeking to unite them in the gospel. And now he's moving more to a very Jewish question because everything that's going to follow gets more and more about the law. Next week, we're going to really be thinking about the law. What I want us to see this morning is that Paul is presenting there are only two ways to live. You're either a slave to Christ or a slave to sin. You're either seeking life or seeking death. You're either serving by the spirit or you're serving by the law. That's actually the three points we have this morning. Two ways to live. First, we're either slaves to Christ, or slaves to sin, that's verses 15 to 19. We're either seeking life, or seeking death, that's verses 22, I'm sorry, verses 20 to 23. And then we'll see chapter seven, verses one through six, we're focusing on the last verse, so that we serve, not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit. I want you to notice that in chapter 20, I'm sorry, chapter 6, verses 20 to 23, you're gonna hear the words wages, fruit, and end. He's emphasizing the consequences of a decision. Verses 15 to 19 are all about the making of a decision. When you choose to obey, you're saying that one you're choosing to obey, it's your master. It's either sin, Christ, It's either lawlessness or righteousness. It's either death or life. And then he moves into the more focused, it's not the law, it's the spirit. Hear the word of the Lord, chapter six, beginning of verse 15. 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 the 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. 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? 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. Or do you not know, brothers? For I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband, while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit. Will you pray with me? Father, change us today. Change us so that we might see how abundant your grace is. How it changes our identity, how it changes our desires, our actions, our words, our mind. Change us so that we may rejoice in how your grace abounds over our sins. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. First, slaves to Christ or slaves to sin. Now, Paul is really continuing the same basic argument that he addressed in verses 1 through 14. Here he's focusing specifically more on the Jewish questions. But it's really the same thing in that, well, if you're saying grace abounds, does that mean there's no more expectation? We can just do whatever we want, and grace will abound? Are you saying if there's no law, then there's no consequence? That means I can just do whatever I want, and it's all fine and great. There's no expectation. There's no consequence. By no means. Because grace frees you, and it binds you. We are always with a Master. Because that's how God designed us. We go back to the previous passage, I just want to remind us, because these three words have to sink into our hearts and minds because they're so important. If you were here with us last week, there's three commands in that first section. Know you're united with Christ. Consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ. And then, verse 13, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. We have to know we're united, actually consider ourselves united, and then live that truth out. And this is what Paul is saying even more in our particular passage. Now, I want us to drop down very quickly to verse 19 and address this. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. Natural limitations, the weakness of the flesh is how some translations have it. We have finite minds. That is a problem. We don't know everything. We also have sin-tainted minds. We have sin-tainted hearts. I appreciate that maybe the most quoted statement I've made from the pulpit for some is that sin makes you stupid. That is a true statement. It says here in the text, lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. Sin does something to you that confuses you, that changes you, and it simply leads to more sin. I believe that's what he's talking about. The limitations we have are because of our sin. And so Paul is having to talk to us with human language. And the human language I think he's referring to is that he's having to make an analogy with the common day practice in Italy. He's writing to Rome, the church in Rome, of slavery. That's what that is referring to. So we kind of first have to step back and say, all right, well, what was slavery like? Slavery in Rome was nothing like slavery in America. Slavery was very prevalent. It was not taking people from other nations and enslaving them. Most slaves in Rome were born in Rome. Most slaves in Rome chose to be slaves in the sense that many slaves were indentured servants. They would say, I need the security that this master brings so that I will commit myself to be your servant. And that master would then provide safety, shelter, and food. You couldn't own land if you weren't a citizen of Rome, so many people would commit themselves to a master who could own land, and then he got to work that land as his own. So this is using a common practice very different from our slavery, most of the time, in that there were certain people of Rome who would say, I'm going to choose this master. I'm going to be under him, and then he has a rule over the servants. So here we get to verse 15. Let's just think about what he's asking. That gives us some context and background. Are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace? Again, I think he's asking this very basic question. Now he's asking it from a Jewish perspective with the emphasis on the law, unlike chapter six, verse one. Now if there is no law, that means there's no expectation, no consequence? You mean like Deuteronomy 30 isn't real anymore? Deuteronomy 30, obey, be blessed and live, disobey, be cursed and die. Are you telling me that that's no longer the case? So no, it doesn't really matter. By no means. You're not getting grace if that's the way you think. Because grace binds you. Notice the very clear declaration. You are either a servant of sin, or you're a servant God. There's no middle way. It is a very clear declaration. You're either presenting yourself to sin and you die, or you present yourself to Christ and to God and to righteousness and you live. One of the things that's hardest for us to probably grasp is that we're really not free. Because God didn't design us to be free. God did not design us to be autonomous. He designed us for Himself to be under Him because He wanted to care for us. He wanted to provide for us. He wanted to give us the greatest thing, which is knowing Him and His love and how to worship Him. That is the best thing God could give us. And we gave it up. And God sent his son to get us back. That is what this passage is about. Freeing us from the slavery that takes us away from God in that relationship of worship and love, and bringing us back into that relationship of worship and love. If you're not a Christian this morning, a lot of this is gonna sound like foreign language. So let me try to be as clear as possible. God designed you for himself. When we choose to sin, we reject God. And God is holy and just. He exercises His wrath with righteousness. And it's frightening if we actually think about how much we ignore God, how much we reject God, how much we just do whatever we want to do and don't think about how we should be thinking about how to use our lives that He's given us for His glory. God looked at us, and all He sees is sin. And he looks at it and says, this is not the way it's supposed to be. So he sent his own son down to walk with us. And more than that, to live the life we could not live, that we haven't lived. So that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, he died as a righteous man that God counted a sinner. God treated him like a sinner, even though he was righteous. So that all of us who are actually sinners, when we believe in Jesus, he is punished for what we have done. And now God's going to treat us forgiven. He's going to treat us like we never sinned. He's going to treat us like his own children. Because everything we have done wrong, Christ suffers for. And everything He did right is now applied to our account, so God looks at us differently. He declares you forgiven. He declares you free. He declares you His. If you're not a Christian this morning, that is the most pressing decision you need to make. To see your sin. to see that it will cause great suffering before God because he's righteous, to see that your hope is Jesus Christ. Let's look at verse 17. I love how Paul breaks out in praise and thanksgiving so often in his letters. But thanks be to God. And notice the great declaration of past to present. 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." You see why we're the most free people and the most bound people. We are free from the curse. We are bound to Christ and His righteousness. Makes it clear what happens. Thanks be to God, we were moved from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. We were actually free of righteousness, now we're free to righteousness. Let's think about that great declaration, but thanks be to God. Someone who has experienced this change can only be thankful. We don't tell God you're welcome. Someone who has experienced this change, the grace to sing of grace, only says, thank you. Praise you. It's a heart that constantly praises and thanks God. Resist the temptation to complain to God. Resist the temptation to curse God. You see, we are designed to have a master. And this runs up over against our American worldview and the way we're all trained to think. I'm equally wrestling with trying to figure out how to fight against the way I was trained to think about myself. It's difficult to think. I don't have any rights. Everything I think is my right is gone. A right to use my time the way I want to, Right to spend my money the way I want to? Right to my reputation? Right to everything? Because everything that I have has been given to me by God, and God says everything I've given to you is to be used for My glory. Everything is from Him, and everything is supposed to be to Him. If you think about Romans as a big picture. This is a big picture series. We're not going through every detail of Romans. But we have to remember, Paul is writing to a church that's divided between Jew and Gentile. They're divided, and we're going to get later to a very specific application, the weaker and stronger brother. But here we can see grace abounds where sin abounds, and where we experience grace abounding to us, we're supposed to have grace abounding to others. As Romans 14 says, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. I think that's interesting in light of the passage we read earlier. We just read verse 17. You become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching. This is the beauty of the church. We're all supposed to come together and we all come together with a lot of opinions. But the one thing we're actually committed to all submitting to together is standard teaching. But what Christ has said in the Great Commission, God will make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. Church, if we're looking for harmony and unity, we're only going to find it in His Word. If we're looking for harmony and unity, the kind of unity that makes non-believers come in and say, why do all these different people get along? Why do all these different kinds of people unite? Because we're all committed to submitting to the same standard teaching. If you're here with us, Romans 5, the church is supposed to be a new humanity. Adam was selfish. The new humanity of Jesus Christ is sacrificial. That's what it looks like to be a church that abounds in grace, to be sacrificial rather than selfish. He listened to the call of obedience in verse 19. He's saying how, because of our natural limitations, I have to speak to you in human terms, but look at the next passage here, or the next sentence. 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. He's calling for an intentional turning. Instead of presenting yourselves to lawlessness, which leads to more lawlessness, present yourselves to Christ and obedience, which leads to sanctification. There's two ways to live. This is the hard part that we don't get about sin, because we do think, we think this way, I'm gonna play with this sin, I'm gonna have a little fun with it, but it's not gonna go this far. That's you thinking it isn't mastering you when you choose it. Lawlessness leads to lawlessness. Lawlessness leads to lawlessness. Sin only breeds more sin. However, if we commit to righteousness, it leads to sanctification. Sanctification is God taking us and making us more like Christ. Sanctification is God changing us by His grace. So I ask you, which way are you growing? In lawlessness or sanctification? Are you stagnant in sanctification? Are you seeking to say, I want to be led more into sanctification? Here's the hard part I think a lot of us wrestle with. I can't wait to worship when I get in heaven, I can't wait to worship God when all things are made right and I'm purified. No, we're supposed to say, God, yes, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, but make me as pure of a worshiper as I can be today. Sanctification is a process that we should long for because it changes us. Sanctification is a reward. We should desire for God to take the sin, those secrets Pat mentioned a little while ago, and we should desire for Him to rip them out of our hand, and if He has to rip our hand off with Him, so be it. Because that sin, that secret sin we're holding onto, it keeps us from sanctification, and it keeps us from enjoying and alighting in Christ. Let go. We pray that God will rip our hands off with it. So what does this look like? Paul says, use your members as instruments. Present your members as instruments. So what is it? Well, you got hands and feet. Something you can do with your hands. You could steal. You could take things. What's interesting in Ephesians 4, Paul says, if you're a thief, stop it. Work so that you may have something to give. Now, let's just think about that for a moment. Stop stealing, okay, we can all agree with that, but he takes it a step further because grace just doesn't say stop stealing. Grace says stop stealing, work with your hands so you have something to give. That's when grace actually abounds, when you actually stop taking and you give. That's grace abounding in the way we present ourselves. We use these instruments not just to be static, I'm gonna stop, No, I'm gonna use whatever God's given me for His glory to do what He wants me to do. Now, I don't think I'm looking at a lot of thieves. So let's talk about a member of our body. That's a little more difficult for all of us. What James calls the smallest member, yet boast of great things, the tongue. James describes it as restless, full of deadly poison? He says that if we cannot bridle our tongue, we are deceived about religion and our religion is worthless. This particular member is important. As we think about it, let's think about the power of speech. How did God create? And God said, God is powerful. God made us in His image. Adam and Eve actually spoke to one another and with God. Speech is the way we were meant to relate to God so that He could speak to us and we could speak with Him. This is one of the most unique things about Christianity. Our God speaks. Don't take that for granted. He speaks. And He says to us what we need to hear so that we can know who He is. How we can be reconciled to Him and how we can live for Him. He speaks. This is how we relate to God. This is a unique gift that we have as human beings made in His image so that we can know Him. Even more, we could go further into John 1. Jesus Christ is the Word. When God saves us, He declares us righteous. What is declared is so important. What is said is the theology of language and of the tongue and of the power of the word and words. It's important. And so it should frighten us when James says the tongue is full of deadly poison. And that frightens us because the tongue reveals what's in the heart. See, James, he describes the jealousy and the selfish ambition and how that causes quarrels. The tongue and the quarrels, they're caused by the selfish ambition and the jealousy. We think about the two ways we can use the tongue, right? There's two ways to live. We either present the tongue for the purposes of sin and selfishness, or we present the tongue for the purposes of Christ and righteousness. James 3, 9, we bless God and we curse men made in His image. That ought not to be so. That's one of the best phrases in all of Scripture. That ought not to be so. We bless God and curse men made in His image. With the tongue, we tell lies. When we're saved by God's truth? With a tongue we defame others with gossip and slander when our words are supposed to promote the fame and the glory of Christ? With a tongue we let corrupt talk come out of our mouths when we're supposed to build up? It's amazing what words can do. They can so quickly destroy. They can so easily build up. The Bible makes it actually clear, even in a greater theology of words, is that our words reveal our worship. Something you'll see everywhere in Scripture. Idolatry leads to grumbling. True worship leads to thanksgiving. 1 Corinthians 10 makes it absolutely clear. Idolatry leads to grumbling. Praise and thanksgiving are the outcome of grace. instruments. A little different. Eyes and ears. These are the receptors that input the mind, that change the heart. And this is a little tricky because we're always seeing and always hearing. So at some level this is important to make sure we've got a filter because we live in a sinful world full of sinners. So things we see and things we hear are going to be sinful. And we need to make sure we have a filter that keeps those things from truly affecting us. But what I'm more concerned by is how much we may actually choose to put our ears underneath sinful things and our eyes upon sinful things. We teach our children, be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear. Let me be clear, children and youth, your purity is your most precious possession. And once it's gone, it's gone. You can be forgiven, but whatever you see can't be unseen. Whatever you hear, it can't be unheard. Sin has consequences. What we look at does affect us and change us. Our actions create habits. Those habits form a character, and that character is what's supposed to be loving and worshiping God. And that character, well, it becomes corrupt when we begin to look at things and hear things we're not supposed to be looking at and hearing. Adults, let's model this. Let's be careful what our big ears hear. Let's be careful what our big eyes see. So something to think about in home groups and around the dinner table, what do your words say about your worship? What do your words say about your worship? What does your time say about your commitment? What does your time say about your commitments? What does your credit card billing statement reveal about your heart? Those are all members meant to be used for worship. Second point, seek life or death. Here we look into the consequences. As I read this, listen, hear for the words, wages, end, fruit. 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. Notice again, leads to sanctification and even more so eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Notice a difference here. Slaves of sin, free to righteousness. Free from sin, free to God. Christian, you're the most free person and the most bound person. Slavery to Christ is unique. Because when you're a slave to Christ, You're free and bound in the right ways. When you're a slave to Christ, you're free and bound in the right ways, the way God designs it. If you think about it, you're really not free unless you're bound in anything. You're only truly free to love when you're bound to a spouse. That marriage love. You're really only free to play beautiful music when you're bound to the rules of music. You're only free to play a game when you have the right cards or instruments or the participants. You're only free to dance. Oh, never mind. Verse 21. Paul draws to the fruit of the wedges. Our focus here is that the end, the fruit, the wages. And I wanted to draw attention real quick, verse 21. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? God has a proper place for shame. Genesis 2, they're not ashamed. Genesis 3, they're ashamed. Sin has a proper effect in bringing the right kind of shame. Here's the problem. Satan wants to take shame and he wants to shackle us to it. He wants to take the shame we have from sin and shackle us. He wants to accuse us and make us feel that we are so bound to it, it's now our identity. But Christ says, no. Shame leads you to recognize the sin, repent of the sin, and receive grace. from me for that sin, because where your sin abounds, my grace abounds." If you experience shame, praise God, because He's convicting you. But don't let Satan shackle you. Where your sin abounds, grace abounds. Very quickly, We talked about sanctification twice. Last few weeks we were talking about justification. Justification is God declaring us righteous by faith and by grace. Sanctification is God making us righteous by grace and by faith. The key thing you need to realize is it's by faith and because of God's grace that we are declared righteous in our relationship with God. And then he doesn't declare us righteous so we can keep on sinning. He declares us righteous so we can begin a change of heart. So we become less sinful. So we become more like our Savior. Because here's the reality. We do not enjoy the justification, the state of grace God has declared for us if we're not pursuing sanctification. and God sent his son to die for you and declare you righteous so that you can enjoy him. If you're not enjoying him, the problem isn't on God's side because his grace is sufficient. If we're not delighting in the declaration of our righteousness, it's because we have decided to stop pursuing righteousness and sanctification. We too often think of this world as a playground. Too often think about it as somewhere I get to go play. This is a battleground. This world is a battleground for our worship. And Christ has come to be the victor, to secure and bind us to worship. It's not a place to play with sin. It's a place to fight it. Our last section, chapter 7. Paul begins with an analogy. And I first want to make it clear, he's coming back to brothers. I'm speaking of those who know the law. He's speaking to those who are Jews. That the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. He wants to make it clear that if you're a Jew, yes, you're born and bound to the law, unless you die. then you're free. He uses the analogy of marriage. Marriage is a covenant. It's not meant to be broken. If somebody has a You lead to adultery if it's broken in the wrong way. And I want to make sure we understand what he's saying here. So let me read the beginning of verse two. Thus, a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. It's important to recognize he's using marriage as an analogy, and like he's using the analogy, he's not saying everything there is to say about divorce and remarriage. Paul's purpose here is not to say everything there is to say about divorce and remarriage. If you want to know more about what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage, I would say go to Matthew 19, where Jesus tells us more. What he's doing is making a relationship analogy where if you are born, In the law, you're bound to the covenant of the law. Just like if you're married, you're bound to the covenant of marriage. But if you die, you're free. Now what Jesus makes as a clear qualifier in Matthew 19 is that there are legal grounds for divorce that would allow for remarriage. But what Paul is making the clear statement is, you are bound as long as you are alive to the covenant. This is why we have to get that first point from chapter six, verses one through 11. We have to know that we are united with Christ in his death. We're dead. The Jews were bound to the law as long as they live. If they believe in Jesus Christ, they've died. They've died in Christ. His death was for them to free them from that law. This is the glorious truth. He died for us so that we might die to the old man in all the old ways and live in a new life. This is even more clear for the Jew who dies according to the law. Now as we're going to see next week, the law is good. God gave the law, so therefore it is good. The law is effective in what it's supposed to do. It reveals sin. It's effective in what it's supposed to do in that it shows us how uncontrollable our sin is, so we bow down and say, God, save me. The law was never meant to cure our sin. It was meant to lead us to God the Savior. Now he's saying to the Jew who, when under the law, didn't feel free. Remember the law came and it was fearful. And the worship was distant. But God now says, you're dead to that. Now there's a new way. It's by the Spirit. And we need to take just a little bit of time here to think about what does it mean to serve in the new way? What does it mean to serve in the new way? Well, one, it means we don't keep going back to the old way. I think something we can actually think about from this passage on the marriage analogy, when you're married, you don't go back and you don't date old boyfriends or girlfriends. It's breaking the covenant. When you're free in Christ and you're bound to Christ, you don't go back and date sin. When the great bridegroom, Jesus Christ, claims you to be his own, we don't go back and play around. We don't go back to our old ways. That makes us unfaithful. But praise God that he is faithful to us when we're unfaithful. So what does it mean to be served in the new way? It's by the Spirit. Now some people want to say, this is really mysterious. And I want to protect you from thinking that serving by the Spirit is mysterious because your sin wants to linger where mystery is. The way of the Spirit isn't mysterious at all. The way of the Spirit is actually crystal clear. Because the way of the Spirit is the way of Christ. They're the same way. Christ told the disciples, I'm going to send my Spirit and He's going to tell you the same thing I told you. I'm going to send my Spirit and He's going to take everything I've accomplished for you and He's going to apply it to you. The way of the Spirit is the way of Christ. They're not beside each other. They are the One. The Spirit simply takes what Christ accomplished and finishes it, completes it, perfects it. The way of the Spirit. We know from the words of the Spirit. He gave us these words. This is why this must be the standard of teaching that tells us this is where our minds go. This is what transforms our minds, because our minds are going to think about the fleshly things, the sinful things, but our mind needs to be set on the things of the Spirit. Now, Paul's introducing this very quickly, and we're going to see it very thoroughly and fully in Romans 8. So let me just go ahead and read Romans 8 1 through 11. Give you a little taste of where we're going with the Holy Spirit and how clear it is. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind of the flesh is death, but to set the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, Although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Friends, this is how close and intimate God wants to be with us. He sent his son to teach. He sent His Son to die for sinners. He sent His Son to adopt us. And now the Spirit of the Son comes to remind us of all the things He's taught us. And to illuminate our eyes so we can see the things He's taught us. The Spirit has come to apply everything Christ accomplished for us in our hearts. He dwells. He applies these things. You have to realize the Holy Spirit is that grace that tunes our hearts to sing. The Holy Spirit has to tune us. The Holy Spirit has to realign our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to reorder our loves because we're always loving the wrong thing in the wrong way. The way the Spirit is submission to Christ. The way the Spirit is trusting the work of Christ. The way the Spirit sets our minds to the things of Christ. Here's the tricky part about knowing you're walking in the Spirit. You don't really think about the Spirit. The Spirit never draws attention to Himself. Nowhere in Scripture does the Spirit ever draw attention to Himself. You know you're walking in the Spirit if you're thinking much of Christ. That's the work of the Spirit. The more you're thinking of Christ, the more you are walking in the Spirit. That's how you know if you're walking in the Spirit. That's why we don't sing about, well, this is what we sing specifically about how we glory in Christ. We glory in the Redeemer. Because as we sing these words of Christ, the Holy Spirit takes them and applies them and changes our hearts because that's what He wants us to dwell upon. The Spirit draws our attention to Christ so that Christ can draw us closer to the Father. Let us stop presenting ourselves, our members, as instruments for unrighteousness. Helen, let us lead to sanctification by presenting ourselves to Christ and His righteousness, by submitting to His Spirit and the standard of His teaching. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you, we thank you for your word We praise you that you've spoken. We praise you that you've declared your great word, that Christ has come as that word so we may know you reliably, confident in your love, confident in your salvation. Holy Spirit, help us to think much of Christ, to truly glory in him as our Redeemer. In his precious name we pray, amen.