Whom Shall You Serve?

Muriel and I are grateful to God for the opportunity to be back among you again. I want to thank the leaders of the church for their invitation to do one of the services while Pastor Keith is away. He did ask if I would be available, and so even though I am doing an interim down in Hampton, the church let me off so that I could fulfill my obligation here at Jefferson Park. Muriel and I have such precious memories of your love, your kindness, and your generosity to us, all your encouragement during the last year. So it's good to be back with good people. Our text for this morning is Romans 6 verse 23, For the wages of sin is death, But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, all scripture is God-breathed, living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But some scriptures are more convicting than others. Romans 6.23 is one of them. For it catches in one short simple sentence the whole gospel of salvation by grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. And it was this verse more than any other that the Holy Spirit used to convict me of my spiritually lost and damned condition. The experience was so intense it still seems as if it were just yesterday. I was 16 years of age and I was walking through the Johannesburg subway, that is the Johannesburg railway station subway, It was 500 yards long and halfway through the words of Romans 6 verse 23 were printed in bold black letters on the white tiled wall. I had walked past them many times and hardly noticed them, but this time they gripped my attention and filled my heart. with deep foreboding. A tangible fear came over me as I read again, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And from that moment, the words, the wages of sin is death, plagued me every time I had to walk through that subway. For the apartment in which my parents lived was on the other side of the railway station and town on the other side was actually the south side of the station. And they plagued me every time I had to walk through until I was converted two years later by a very strange providence of God in which my Sunday school teacher was led to abandon the lessons that were set for our boys' class and he decided to show us from the Old Testament, how so many scriptures, hundreds of years old, were fulfilled in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Slowly my eyes were opened during those Sunday School lessons to see that Christ was for real. And it was only then that the second half of Romans 6.23 became so meaningful to me. I now saw that in sheer unsolicited love, God in Christ died on the cross of Calvary to bear the penalty of my sins so that I could be justly pardoned and receive eternal life as a free gift by faith through Christ. That's the power of the simple text I want us to consider together this morning. You will see it comes at the very end of Paul's argument in Romans 6 that Christians must never look lightly upon indwelling continuing sin. Continuing sin, he says, should not be tolerated for two reasons. First, Verses 1 to 14, the first half of the chapter, it contradicts our confession of dying with Christ and rising with Christ to a new life in baptism. Our baptism was a symbol of our union with Christ, crucified and risen. who on the cross bore the condemnation of our sin and accepted the wages of death for us. Sin therefore, says Paul, has no claim upon us, and it is now our duty, verse 11, to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ, or by reason of Christ. and what he has done. In other words, we must ponder this truth every day until it is so integral to our mindset and our lifestyle that a return to the old life of acquiescence to sin is totally unacceptable. Now, Paul's second argument In the rest of the chapter, from verses 15 to 23, his argument against trying to excuse indwelling sin in a Christian's life is based not on the doctrine of baptism, but on the doctrine of conversion. Conversion is an act of self-surrender to God in which a Christian turns from being a slave of sin, and Paul uses sin there in a personified way, because sin does not exist by itself. It exists in persons, in myself, thy flesh, or in the world, ungodly society, or in the devil himself. And conversion is turning from being a slave of sin, personified, to being a slave of God. As Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. No one can serve God and sin. If he loves one master and is loyal to him, then he will hate and despise the other. So Paul argues, once we offer ourselves to God as his slaves, we are permanently and unconditionally at his disposal. That's the background of our text, and it acts, our text acts, as a kind of summary in which the Apostle draws two contrasts from what he has said for our blessing. And the first contrast highlights the fact that in this life we either serve God or the devil. verses 15 to 23, underscore the fact that it is not possible for any human being to be free in the sense that they have no master and are not the slave of anyone at all. Even if some people may be living in a country in which they enjoy political freedom, Every human being is either a slave to sin or a slave to God. The picture of slavery that Paul is using here was very familiar to his Roman readers, for Rome was one city in the world that had more slaves than any other. And so, when he talks about being slaves of sin, verse 17, he is not thinking of being in bondage to some particular sin, like adultery, or lying, or cheating, or robbery, or whatever. Rather, he is talking of sin as a whole, as a principle of life in which our goal is to live for self. As John was saying in his prayer, self-rule, our desire is for self-rule. And make our own rules for our life. So the essence of sin is to serve self rather than our Creator. And the irony behind it all is that sin buys its slaves by promising them freedom. Oh, it says, if you live for me, you can do as you like. You'll be free from psychological inhibitions and social conventions and any mores. You'll be free to live a spontaneous life, free to be yourself. And that, of course, is a very attractive idea. But unfortunately friends, it's a confidence trick. Because as Paul says, sin is not freedom at all, but slavery. It's bondage to guilt for one thing. No matter how hard we may try to shake off our guilt, we are moral creatures. We know the difference right from birth between right and wrong. God created us with a conscience. And so if we live in a way that ignores our conscience and believes that we can make up our own rules for life, we will very quickly become slaves to guilt. and not be able to throw that bondage off. For the one person we can never forgive when we know we have done wrong is ourself. Then again, the slavery of sin is to be found in the bondage of a habit. Because we are so constituted as human beings that behavior is something we learn. And so if we start following a particular pattern of behavior for some time, it soon becomes a habit, a trait of character that we can't unlearn. And no matter how much we may insist that we are free, the habit we have, that we have learned, has us in its grip. And we are in bondage to it. Now, we may at times break it for a while, but generally it's apt to return. But I think most important of all, the slavery of sin means that we are in bondage to futility. Because if I can do anything I want to do, then it means that all my actions are equally self-serving and pointless. In the end, they achieve nothing. It's like saying to a man who is adrift on an ocean, well, you can go any direction you like. Is that freedom? In a sense, yes, but it's a pretty futile kind of freedom, isn't it? Because what's the point of going anywhere if you're not going to get there? Life without any purpose is not freedom. It's a prison of futility. Now, Paul in Romans 6 wants us to know that it is possible to be released from the slavery of sin. But ironically, If we are to know that freedom, we have to become the slaves of God. Verse 22. And God makes no secrets of the constraints He will impose on our behavior if we are to know His perfect freedom. In His service, you and I don't get to make the rules. God does. and he demands that we obey them for his glory and our happiness. Now it sounds contradictory, but it's not surprising when you really stop to think about it. Imagine a soccer game where everybody plays to their own rules. There is no such thing as a foul. You just do as you like. You can pick up the ball and run in any direction with it. And you can score between either of the goals, as long as you get it through those two posts. Well, it wouldn't work, would it? It only works when there is a prescribed set of rules and a referee appointed to see that they are adhered to. Well, in the same way, the Bible says that God has created life and set the rules by which it is to be played. Rules to help us and make the game of life worthwhile for Him and for us. Now, this is the truth that Paul is outlining for us in Romans 6. A Christian does not willfully and persistently continue in sin because he or she has changed masters. By the grace of God, he is no longer the slave of sin, but the slave of God. And in making that change of ownership The Christian discovers that God's law and obeying it is perfect, absolute freedom. Or as John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople in the fourth century put it, serving God is better than any other freedom to do our own thing. Now this is the sad and terrible thing about the vaunted freedom of our so-called permissive modern society, our progressive society. There's no freedom in sin. It leaves a man rummaging in the trash cans of this world like the prodigal son who wanted to be free from the constraints of his father's home. and ended up in a pigsty. True freedom is freedom not to do as I want, but as I ought. And it can only be experienced, I say again, by changing masters. But you know, for many, many people that involves too much of a sacrifice. It involves giving up sleeping with your girlfriend or some other pet's sin. Our text in verse 23, however, warns us of our dire need to change our masters and become the slave of God, which is perfect freedom, rather than the slave of sin or self, which is abject tyranny. Now, secondly, Paul not only draws a contrast between the masters we serve, but also between the wages sin pays and the gift God gives. For instance, if we choose to serve sin, our employment is going to be in terms of wages earned. The wages of sin is death. That is what we get Because that is what we have earned. Again, there is an irony here. Because the word that Paul uses for wages is the common term in the Greek language for the daily or regular food allowance given by the owner to his slave to sustain his life so that he is useful. The irony, however, says Paul, is that serving sin has the exact opposite effect. Instead of sustaining true life, it diminishes it and ends it in death. The physical termination of our present life at some point in the future is, of course, partly what the Apostle has in mind when he says, the wages of sin is death, or the grave. That is the consistent teaching of the Bible everywhere, even though the Bible also makes it clear that human beings were never meant to die. That of course is why you and I resent death so much and find it very hard to come to terms with if we are not Christians. Why should such sophisticated creatures exist for only 70 years or so? It doesn't make any sense. If the grave is the end, And we are right to feel that way about death. Strictly speaking, death is not natural for creatures like us. Death is something, says Paul in Romans 5 verse 12, that entered the world through sin and thus spread to all men because all men have sinned. But physical death at some point in the future is certainly not all that Paul is referring to when he warns us that the wages of sin is death. For as I've already said, the word wages refers to an allowance that was paid daily or regularly on a weekly basis, not just one lump sum given to you at the termination of your contract of service. And we are right to understand Paul's words in this way, that it's something that is paid daily or regularly. Because the Bible clearly teaches us that the death of sin is something which is progressive and spiritual. The word spiritual, of course, refers to a person's relationship to God, whether good or bad. And sin cuts us off from God, and therefore It is an unspiritual thing, because we no longer have communion with God and share and participate in his life. We are dying. And it is only when we become Christians that we are made, as Paul says in verse 11, spiritually alive to God. But both states, being spiritually dead to God or being spiritually alive to God, are never static. They are progressive. Now, while the Christian grows spiritually, the sinner dies spiritually. While the Christian becomes more and more holy, the sinner becomes more and more lawless. Listen to how Paul puts it in verse 19. Just as you presented your members, that is your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your hands and your feet, just as you presented your members as slaves, of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. So now, he says, present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. And the word literally there is, as it was in the ESV in your bulletin, unto sanctification, which is a process, a continuing process. of holiness leading to more and more holiness. The wages of sin then is a state of present progressive spiritual death, of being dead to God and the things of God, namely holiness, in a progressive way. It can never be static. But the terrible thing of all is that this death, the wages of sin, is going to result in everlasting death in hell. Or what the book of Revelation calls the second death. the death of the spirit, because after sinners die physically, they have to still go on living in the outer darkness of hell where Jesus said, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In other words, an endless state of dying, of being cut off from the life of God. The wages of sin is death. Imagine being in hell and knowing I am getting exactly what I deserve. I'm getting what I have earned. This is the pay I have worked so hard and so faithfully for all my life and it's never going to end. What kind of insane contract do men have with the devil to willingly serve for such wages? Because sin pays in only one coin, death, spiritual, physical, and eternal. Why would anyone settle for that? when there are infinitely better terms of service with God. For God, by contrast, does not pay wages. For a sinner can never put God in his or her debt. Indeed, every sinner is a debtor to God. Because God is our Creator, and everything we have and everything we are, we owe to Him. We have no claim on Him. But God, because of who He is, has great claims upon us. But even more so, if we are Christians, God has ransomed us from the slave market of sin at the enormous cost of the shedding of the precious blood of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. If then we want to cease being the slaves of sin in order to become the slaves of God, we must give up any thought of doing anything that could put God in our debt. Instead of looking for wages, God says, if you accept me as your master, then you must accept charity. Grace is the word that the Bible uses to describe this, because grace is God's kindness shown to undeserving sinners. And Paul is saying here that if we rely totally on God's grace, on his favor which we cannot earn and have no right to, We shall receive eternal life as a free gift. That is the nature of the contract, the covenant, under which God alone, through Christ, will become our master and accept our service. We must rely on His charity for eternal life. And that brings me then to the last five words of our text, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because the only ground on which God can give us eternal life is the penal substitutionary death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Sin's wages have to be paid. God's law says the soul that sins, it shall die. If a sinner is to be pardoned and spared the death penalty, then an innocent substitute must bear the penalty for him or her. Now, since all human beings are sinners, and all must die on earth and in hell, God, in amazing love, sent his Son to die in our place, to bear that wage of death. He bore our condemnation. He bore our damnation when he was forsaken by God on the cross. And to quote Peter, Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust. that he might bring us to God. And friends, Paul is saying here in our text, this is the only basis on which God can be merciful to sinners. And the only condition upon which we can receive eternal life is if we submit to Christ in repentance and faith as our Saviour. And so Jesus said right at the beginning of his ministry, repent and believe the gospel. And again, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life. So as I conclude, I want to ask three questions. First, Are you ready to submit to Christ? Because eternal life can only be found, says Paul, in Christ Jesus our Lord. United to Jesus Christ our Lord. You will not find it in Muhammad. You will not find it in Buddha. You will not find it in Krishna or in Confucius. And you certainly will not find it doing nothing. Eternal life is to be found only in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because he alone suffered and died for our sins and rose again to sit at the right hand of God as our great high priest and justify us before the judge of all the earth. Our Lord himself said, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal God alone is the source of eternal life, and only His Son, Jesus Christ, by His atoning death on the cross, can reconcile sinners to God, put away the estrangement between them and God, so that they are connected again to the source of eternal life. The tragedy, however, is that sinners don't want to come to Christ. As I have already explained, they like their self-pleasing life too much. And the nearer they get to the grave, the more they want to believe everybody is going to enjoy eternal life afterwards. It's as our Lord told the Jews who wanted eternal life. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Now, that is still true today. People will look for eternal life in every place, even in liberal churches. but they do not want it at the price of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. To any who have not yet come to Christ for eternal life, I simply ask, what is holding you back? Have you not had enough of the wages of sin to be done with your paymaster? Come to Christ while you may." His offer still stands. I came, he said, that they, those sheep for whom I had laid down my life, might have life and may have it more abundantly. On those grounds Jesus will never turn you away. Again, to any who are thinking about coming to Christ and submitting to Him for eternal life, I have a second question. Are you willing to receive charity? Some people are very proud, I think most people are, about receiving charity. They take it as a personal affront that anyone should think that they are incapable of taking care of themselves. And this is a problem that welfare and socialist states have faced. And so, to make their citizens feel good about receiving government assistance, they have had to condition the recipients to believing it is their right. It's what is due to them. And in that way, the bureaucrats say, people don't lose their self-respect. Well, that may pass in a sinful and proud society, but it will never pass with God. For sin is not some minor peccadillo. It is high treason. It's rebellion against God's rules in life. And it must be confessed for what it is if we are to be reconciled to God. What we sinners deserve is God's wrath and damnation, not mercy, not forgiveness, not the gift of eternal life with him in heaven. And we can never have that until we acknowledge that we are sinners. We can never be sure that we will have eternal life until we humble ourselves as those who have no claim on his mercy but for his unsolicited love. I beg you then not to let pride hinder you from accepting heaven's charity and becoming the undeserving recipient of God's free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you are still hesitant, I have a third question. Are you prepared for death? Death, people say, is the great equalizer. No matter how great or wealthy you may be, or how high you may rise above the heads of your fellow men and women, ultimately, all are going to die and be reduced to a common level six feet under the ground. But while it is true that death does not recognize class distinctions, it is also true that death does not equalize the future fortunes of men and women. And the whole Bible insists that beyond the grave society is going to be polarized by a gap more uncrossable than any social distinction ever known here on the earth. Eternal life or eternal death. Living in heaven or living in hell. These are the only two destinies for human beings and they are determined by which master we serve and by what contract we have agreed to. So, I urge you to consider seriously changing jobs. Instead of being a slave of sin, I urge you to become a slave of God. Instead of seeking wages, I urge you to ask God for charity. Why accept death when eternal life is offered to you as a free gift through the grace, the undeserved mercy? of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for demonstrating your love toward us in that while we were still sinners, you sent Christ to die that horrible death on the cross in our place. We thank you for not leaving us to perish eternally in our sin, but giving us instead your very own life, eternal life, as a free gift in Christ Jesus. And Lord, our prayer is that You will help us now to receive, if we have never done so before, you will help us now to receive that gift with the empty hands of faith and begin serving Him for the rest of our life. Him whose service is perfect freedom. We ask it in His name and for His sake. Amen.