Freedom Through Slavery to Righteousness [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The modern age thinks that what freedom is, is when you have no requirement upon you, no restraint, no constraint, and no need to submit to anyone or anything.

That's what freedom is. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Unleashed as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. You can find out more about it and even receive a copy of your very own for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer at pastoralan.org. Find out more about it and make your request or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Again, our website pastoralan.org. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? If you're in Christ, you haven't just been released from the penalty of sin. You have been released from the power of sin.

So much so that you are invited to count yourselves dead to sin and alive to Jesus. The move from enslavement to sin to freedom is starkly pictured in Romans chapter 6 by Paul as a move from slavery to sin to bond service to righteousness. And today we behold a mystery how being a slave to righteousness is the greatest freedom you could ever imagine.

We're in Romans chapter 6 and I want to read starting at verse 15, but later through this message we're going to look at passages that run all the way through Romans 6. Romans 6 15. What then, Paul writes, are we to sin because we're under law, not under law, but under grace?

By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you're slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.

I'm 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. So after Bob Dylan wrote and performed his song, You Gotta Serve Somebody, and made the simple claim in the song, it might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. He not only won a Grammy for that, but it stayed in the top 25 for weeks, and in top 100 for 12 weeks of songs came a famous song. But interestingly, afterwards John Lennon, the ex-Beatle, wrote an angry, profanity-filled song in response called Serve Yourself. He was so angry at the song, and the refrain of Lennon's song was, you gotta serve yourself, ain't nobody gonna do it for you, you gotta serve yourself.

Well, in many ways, Lennon's notion, angry and so profanity-filled, you don't even want to look up that song, but in many ways was speaking ahead of its time what the whole spirit of the age seems to say. And that is, and that is that we have this huge value on freedom. In fact, as one spiritual leader I heard recently say, freedom may be the only moral virtue that everybody's agreed on that still exists. Everybody wants to be free.

But there's a misconception about freedom that we've been exploring in a series we call Unleashed, because the modern age thinks that what freedom is, is when you have no requirement upon you, no restraint, no constraint, and no need to submit to anyone or anything, that that's what freedom is. And so Dylan's song, in all of its simplicity, actually summarizes much of Romans chapter 6. That what Paul is saying is that in actuality, you are serving somebody. That there actually is no such thing as just going through life without serving something or someone or some thing or some God. In fact, the way the Bible speaks about worship is that whatever it is that you adore and look to for meaning in your life, that's what you worship. And whatever you worship, you serve. And so in a very real sense, if your idea of success or wealth or prestige is the thing that you think gives you life, then you're serving that.

If it's even sometimes in a particular relationship or the idea of being married or the idea of not being married or whatever it might be, if you think, well, that's what's going to give you life, then in a sense you worship that. And what Paul says in Romans chapter 6 is that everybody is either really a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness, and that this is absolutely exquisite and wonderful news. Because the ultimate freedom, Paul is saying here, comes when you're ultimately submitted and worshiping Christ. And so throughout Romans chapter 6, he's talking about what real freedom is. We have been learning that in the first place, freedom doesn't come through rebellion, it comes through submission. We've been learning that freedom doesn't come by having less commitment but having more commitment. We've even seen Jesus saying that freedom comes through a narrow gate, that what looks like it's very restricting actually leads to the most expansive light. And so now we come to the most stark of the images where Paul actually just compares it to a form of bond servanthood or slavery. And I want to just talk to you this morning about a couple of the myths of the modern age about the idea of freedom, and then we're going to go through Romans and see what Paul is actually saying here that's so powerful and such wonderful news that it'll set you free. The first myth is that I think we tend to believe when it comes to sin that sin isn't bondage because sinning is easy, but that righteousness is hard, that upright living is hard and sinning is easy.

That's kind of the way that we tend to think about it. Some years ago, a guest preacher here preached a sermon. I'll never forget. He changed my view about this because it was hilarious, but he also highlighted a wonderful truth, and he preached a sermon called Being a Sinner is Hard. And he kind of talked about some of the sinful behaviors, how hard they are, one of which I've mentioned before, I've been identified with. From early on in my college years, I saw my buddies and friends and classmates and people lived in my dorm. I saw a lot of people living in my dorm.

People lived in my dorm. I saw what happened to them when they would go out and get drunk, and it didn't look fun at all to me. I'd watch them come back to the room sick with their stomachs. Sometimes they'd be throwing up and get up the next morning and their head felt terrible, and they did silly things while they were drunk, and I thought that's way... that's not only not fun, that's a lot of hard work. I mean, you got to really work at that. I hate being sick to my stomach, don't you?

I hate that feeling. That's hard work. But I was thinking about all of the... all kind of sin.

You name one. And let's think about it. Depends on how you look at it, but see, honestly, it's hard work. I'll tell you what's hard work. Coveting. Oh, that's hard work.

You know what would be a good, solid, covetous person? You've got to really spend some mental energy focusing on how much other people have. You've got to investigate what they've got. You've got to find out what they've got.

You've got to study on it. It's hard work. And at the same time, you've got to do the hard work of minimizing everything that you do have. This is tough. This is tough stuff. I mean, if you're going to covet, you've got to get committed to that, and you can't let yourself be satisfied with your own stuff and your own people and your own place in life.

You've got to, even if a good feeling comes across you where you're feeling good about what you do have, you've got to get that out of your mind. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.

Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Lying is hard work. Lying is hard work. I tell you, I've got a lot of faults, I'm sure, but lying is not one of them. I have so much going on in my life that I'm sorry for everything that I forget because sometimes I've just got too much and I just don't remember stuff. My brain doesn't work that way to remember everything.

The idea of telling somebody something that's not true and then telling somebody else a different version of the truth and telling a third person some other version of the truth and then I've got to remember what I've told person A and what I've told person C and person B so that when I'm with them I've got to remember that piece and I've got to remember this piece. That is way too hard work for me. I'm just, I'm too lazy to do that.

I'm too lazy to lie. And I tell you, you know what's hard work is bitterness. Bitterness is hard work. I mean, y'all, if you're going to be better, you've got to have a memory on you. You have got to, you've got to remember everything that anybody ever did to you wrong. I mean, there's going to be an exam on this. You better study up on this. You better write it down, seal it in your mind, and make sure. And I'm telling you, and when you take offense at that bitterness and it makes you feel awful, and I know it makes you feel awful, it robs you of all your joy, but you've got to be willing to do this hard work of bitterness now.

You could just kind of go through the list, you see where I'm going. It's a myth to think that sin is easy and righteousness is hard. Now, what Paul is saying in Romans 6 is sin is slavery, oppressive bondage.

So let's get that picture correct. The other myth that we have to address from Romans 6 is that freedom means you can be free from serving anybody, that it's the absence of all restraint. In other words, that freedom is, according to the modern definition, you being able to do whatever you want to do. Now, here's the bottom line to this, is that what Paul is saying is no, you don't get to do whatever you want to do.

There is no such scenario. And whether you realize it or not, you're serving somebody. Now, what you have, apart from Christ, where you are, quote, doing whatever you want to do and serve yourself, it looks like freedom, but what he's saying is that it's bondage. And what he's saying, in contrast, is that in being united with Christ, you find yourself like a slave to righteousness, but that's freedom. So what looks like it would be enslaving is actually free. Whereas in the life of sin, what he says is what looks like freedom is actually enslaving. And you can't have freedom if freedom means that there's no restraint on your life, because life doesn't work that way.

Let me just use a few natural examples, see if I get this point across. Like, for example, I like dessert. I like sweets. I like chocolate. I like ice cream with hot fudge sauce on it and whipped cream on top of a brownie. I like that. I like Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.

And I could list the flavors of Ben and Jerry that I like the most, but we shall not go into all of that. And for some reason, a sweet like that tastes even better to me if I can eat it at 9 30 at night while watching a TV show. It just feels like that's just got to be right. But now that I'm in my 50s, I've discovered a scientific principle. And I don't have, you know, a large scientific study on this. Actually, it's just my own study, but I'm absolutely true. And it's a very simpler formula. You might want to write this down. One dessert at night equals one pound the next day. That's what the formula is for me.

I found that out. One dessert, one pound. That's just it, you know. And so the fact of the matter is I want to be able to say I am free to eat whatever I want. You know, it's one of the things when you're a little boy and you grow up and your mom's telling you what you got to eat, and then finally you get out of the house, you're like, I can eat whatever I want. And so, but then there's some point in your life you go, yeah, I can eat whatever I want, but one dessert equals one pound. And I won't be free if I do that every night.

I won't be as free as I want to because the poundage will increase, which will limit me, but they're actually learning in science now. Too much sugar is bad for you. It shortens your life.

It gives you high blood pressure, and it can, in other words, they're telling us it kills you. So I've got two competing things going on. I want a long and happy and healthy life.

I want to be free to live a long time in a healthy way, but I also want to be free to eat a dessert as much as I want every night, twice a night, or three times. So there are two competing freedoms, aren't they? It's a myth to think you can do whatever you want and you have freedom. No, you can do whatever you want, but you're only getting one version of what that freedom looks like. Let's talk about, let's talk about some other examples that might be a little more substantive.

Oh, here's one. I would like to be able to fly. I don't mean get in an airplane and fly. I mean, I'd like to be able to fly. Anybody ever had a dream where you're flying?

Oh, they're wonderful dreams. Just fly. Just fly all over. I want to be able to fly like Superman can fly, or I could be the new flying nun. I could be the flying pastor. I could fly. I could just fly around, preach the gospel wherever I want, you know, just fly there.

You could say, I'm going to be free. Nobody's going to tell me what to do, and go up on your roof and jump off because you're going to fly. Well, you will find out real quick you are not free to do whatever you want to do because you want to fly, but what's going to happen is you're going to fall down and break your face on your own lawn because of gravity, because you are designed.

You didn't make it up. This is just what you were born into, but you are designed to live according to gravity on this earth, and so as much as you may not like it, you are not free to fly. Freedom cannot mean nobody tell me what to do. I'll do whatever I want to do.

Let's take something a little deeper even than that. What about something that we really need and want, and that is to have friends. Do you know that you're designed for friendship? You're designed for human relationship. You know that science has shown us that without friends, without human relationships, that you will not be healthy, and I'm not just talking about emotionally healthy.

You won't be physically healthy. Many studies are showing it shortened your life, and so we are designed for friendship. We can no more live without other human beings than we could live without oxygen. We cannot thrive without friends. You need friends, but you say, well, I'm free, and I'll do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it.

Guess what? You're not going to have any friends, because if you just want to do what you want to do all the time, you want to do it. Good luck on finding somebody who wants to be a friend with you. If you say, well, we'll be your friends, and we'll meet for lunch every week, and you say, all right, well, where I want to meet is at the Mexican restaurant, because that's what I like. I like Mexican. Another person said, I don't like Mexican. It upsets my stomach.

They say, I'm sorry. I'm going to do what I want to do, but that's where I'm going to meet. Well, you're free to do that, but you're not going to be free to have that person as your friend, and you might find somebody else that wants to eat Mexican every single week also at the same spot, but then you're going to say, but I like to play golf, and they say, I don't like golf. I hate golf, and then that person is a sad person who doesn't like golf, but what I'm just saying is you can say, I can do whatever I want to do, and nobody's going to tell me what to do.

I am free, but you will not be free because you will not have a friend. Let's go a little deeper than that. Getting married. I know that people are getting married and older now, and marriage is not held in as high esteem, but you realize still almost everybody wants to get married or says they want to get married, and why? Well, because there's a rich reward. It doesn't mean you have to get married.

I mean, some people call it to be single, but I'm just saying there's a rich reward, right? You get in a marriage that's working well, and you get in a marriage that's working well, where now what you've got is not just a friendship. You've got a friendship, but you've got a covenant. You've got a covenant.

You've got a covenant here, and you've got two people that are in a covenant like that, and there's a lot of trust there, and when you get a whole lot of trust, there are beautiful things that can happen in that, right? Well, but to be married, you give up a whole lot. You can't say, I'm going to be married, but I'm going to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I want to keep dating other people.

I want to go places and do things and not tell you where I am and when I'm going to come home, and I just want you to always be there for me loving me. What I'm saying is that there is a myth that if you think about it, it just doesn't even make sense to say what the modern age is saying is that I don't have to serve anybody. That's what the version of freedom is, and Paul's saying, no, that's not it at all, and what instead he's saying is that the freedom that you have in Christ is not a transfer from being a slave to sin to now just do whatever you want without serving anybody.

He's saying, no, it's not like that. Alan Wright and today's teaching freedom through slavery to righteousness. We're going to talk more about that in a moment with Alan's parting good news thought for the day as our series continues on Unleashed. This is what the Lord says. I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and have compassion on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt on her ruins and the palace will stand in its proper place. Those timeless words from Jeremiah 30 reveal the heart of God. He loves to restore. In ancient times, cities would often be rebuilt on top of the ruins of the former city.

The new city would stand higher with safer walls and a greater perspective. In Pastor Alan Wright's eight message CD album Out of the Ruins, you'll discover how God can rebuild your life gloriously out of yesterday's disappointments. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. Alan, back here in the studio, and as we put a bookmark here, freedom through slavery to righteousness. What's our big good news takeaway here? Well, Bob Dylan was right. You gotta serve somebody.

And one of my favorites. It's a great truth in the end. We think we have the illusion that real freedom would be serving nobody. But in the end, you're serving somebody. And so this is a profound but paradoxical image that when you really are following Christ, something in you becomes a servant to righteousness.

Something changes inside of you. And in that sense, he uses this image of being a slave to righteousness. So really, it's not a move from having an allegiance to a master and then having no allegiance. It's a new allegiance that is the measure of true Christian freedom. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.