And do not go near the door of her house. I hope every man in this church is listening to this. They say, well, Pastor, I have a good marriage. Pastor, I'm single and I've lived a pure life. Pastor, I don't think I need to worry about this.
Oswal Chambers, who I've quoted many times over the last 35 years, said: An unguarded strength is a double weakness. Let him who thinks he stands Be careful. Lest he fall. If you ever get to the point where you think you're so strong, so infallible, so unsusceptible to this, then you're tempting the devil to tempt you. Welcome to Search the Scriptures.
the Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Carl Broge. Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Today is part two of Pastor Carl's sermon entitled, A slave that brings freedom from the book of Romans chapter 6. Verses fifteen through twenty-three.
We will see that Paul addresses the question Since believers are under grace, can we continue to sin? He answers firmly no. He explains that everyone is a slave to whatever they obey. Either sin, which leads to death, or obedience would leads to righteousness. Let's join Pastor Carl Now.
As he begins.
So here's the principle. Obedience Results in a slavery. Let me say it again: obedience. Results and a slavery.
Now, remember that when you obey the impulses of the old nature, you're not simply. Sinning You're developing a habit. You're developing a character. You are yielding to a different slavery. For instance, you go home and you watch some central movie on the television.
or you read some romance novel. You listen to some filthy sitcom. And what does your sin nature say? Your sin nature says, I enjoy it. I want that.
And what does it say? It says, I want more, because the wages of sin is more sin. And so this slavery grows and it deepens. Likewise, when you choose righteousness, because first you know you have a choice, and then you consider or reckon it to be true, and then by presenting or yielding yourself to that obedience, you start. A new habit.
through continued obedience.
So your old self Your old man. Your flesh, your sin nature, however you want to describe it, says, go ahead and watch that central movie. Doesn't really matter. You're saved. You're headed towards heaven.
You're not under law, you're under grace, God will forgive you. But then you realize and reckon it to be true that you no longer have to. Follow that. prompting of the flesh. And you present yourself to God.
You look to him. You believe his promise. You've hidden scripture in your heart. We'll come to that later in this series. Jesus counters temptation each time it is written, it is written, it is written.
And you rely upon the Holy Spirit, and what happens? You become a slave. of obedience. Hold your finger here and turn to Proverbs chapter 5. I want to illustrate this truth.
Go to the book of Proverbs. If you're new to the Bible, you can just find Psalms, which is about death. Dead center. And then flip over to the next book, Proverbs. There's 31 chapters in Proverbs, one for every day of the month.
Some of you were in this chapter earlier this week. Proverbs chapter 5, where Solomon gives an illustration of this truth. In Proverbs 5, he's reminding us of the same truth that Paul is echoing here in Romans 6: that you become a slave of the one whom you obey. Notice how chapter five opens. He says, my son.
Give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding, that you may observe discretion, and your lips may reserve knowledge. There are families today that are falling apart all across America for a lack of wisdom or understanding or discretion or knowledge. Look at verse 3. For the lips of an adulterers drip honey, And smoother than oil is her speech.
Now, as interpreted by the Song of Solomon in the fourth chapter, When he speaks here of an adulteress whose lips drip with honey, he's not speaking of her kisses. He's speaking of her words. Sweet talk. or flirtatious words are only to be between a husband and a wife. And many a man has been seduced by the sweet talk Of a woman.
Solomon is speaking here to his son. If he was speaking to his daughter, he would have given you the man's line. Most immoral relationships don't simply start in the physical. Unless someone is so enslaved to sexual sin Two people, they just Jump into bed with each other. Most of it starts with flirting words that will later lead to the physical.
And people will rationalize immorality in our day. How could anything so wonderful be so wrong? But Solomon warns in the 20th chapter of Proverbs: Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
So, Solomon here in Proverbs 5 is telling his son to spend some time getting wisdom. understanding And knowledge, which is one of the key reasons why we need to spend time alone with God and in His presence. In Proverbs 6, turn over there for just a second. Proverbs 6, well, don't lose 5. In Proverbs 6, he says in verse 20, My son, observe the commandment of your father.
and do not forsake the teaching of your mother, Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you. When you sleep, they will watch over you. And when you are awake, they will talk to you.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light, and reproofs for discipline are the way of life. To keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. There it is again. Nothing will protect you more. Then packing your heart with the Word of God each day.
Every now and then we hear of some pastor, some Christian leader. Who has fallen into sexual immorality, and people say, well, look how far he fell. Really the truth is is how low he had been living all along. There's a process. that leads up to immorality.
He didn't fall very that far. The problem was, he had failed to keep his heart close to the Lord.
Now look here again in Proverbs 5. In verse 4. He says, but in the end, this adulteress, in the end, She is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of Sheol. What a deadly power sexual immorality has.
It's often said that immorality fascinates and then it fascinates, and that's true. The text says her feet go down to death. That's what this sin brings: death. Death to joy, death to purity, death to a marriage vow, death to happiness, death to holiness. Death to a home.
Spiritual death.
Sometimes physical death and if unforgiven, eternal death. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lay hold of Sheol.
Now, Sheol in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is what most Jews read in the first century, we call that the Septuagint. The word Sheol is rendered Hades. It simply meant the place of the grave, and there were two compartments to Sheol or to Hades. There was righteous Hades.
Now, today, when you use the word Hades, we think of it only in a negative way, because righteous Hades no longer exists. But it did in the Old Testament. It was called paradise, it was called Abraham's bosom. And those who lived in Solomon's day, who were righteous, who were saved through their faith in the Messiah who would come, when they died, they went to Abraham's bosom. They were awaiting the death and resurrection of Christ.
And so when Jacob hears of the alleged death of his son Joseph, because Joseph was not dead as he thought, he was serving as the prime minister of Egypt, the Bible tells us in Genesis 37: then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted. And he said, Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.
So his father wept for him. Jacob was not going to die and go to a place of torment. He knew he was going to go to righteous Sheol where the righteous dead went. But there's also a place of the unrighteous dead where the lost went. Here's a slide from our Revelation series to remind you of some of the names that are used.
There's the word Sheol, there's a word in Greek Hades. Also, a place of judgment, Gehanna, the valley of Gehanna outside of Jerusalem. It's many times just rendered hell. The lake of fire, eternal punishment, the second death. These are all terms that are used to describe the place of eternal judgment.
And so, if you remember in the Old Testament, When Korah and Dathan and Aberan led that rebellion against Moses. Numbers 16:30 says that God literally opened up the earth and they went down alive. And is she all? or into Hades if they were reading the Greek.
Now, synthesizing different passages together that we won't do this morning, but we cover in the Revelation series, we know that when Christ ascended into heaven, he emptied out righteous Sheol. It no longer exists. Though it does carry one name, one parallel name, and that is paradise. And so today, to be absent from the body is to be immediately present with the Lord. That couldn't happen in old covenant times because, in time and space, Jesus had not yet paid for sin.
Now, with that said, verse 5: her feet go down to death. her steps. Lay hold of Sheol.
Now, the King James doesn't translate it, it interprets it. And it says her feet lay hold of hell. But that's what the context is referring to. The place of the unrighteous dead. And this is a sin that I think is worth illustrating today because the Bible teaches in the end of time, the last of the last days.
And we know we are in that time frame because in the end of time, God would put Israel back in the land. Most Christians are asleep to what's happening. And two aspects of immorality would grow and deepen and broaden. One is heterosexual immorality, and the other is homosexual immorality. And so we need to listen.
Look at verse 7. Notice his exhortation.
Now then, my sons, listen to me. And do not depart from the words of my mouth. Listen to God's wisdom, because you will become the slave of the one whom you obey, to quote Paul. And so respond to this exhortation. Keep your way far from her.
And do not go near the door of her house. I hope every man in this church is listening to this. They say, well, Pastor, I have a good marriage. Pastor, I'm single and I've lived a pure life. Pastor, I don't think I need to worry about this.
Oswal Chambers, who I've quoted many times over the last 35 years, said an unguarded strength is a double weakness. Let him who thinks he stands Be careful. Lest he fall. If you ever get to the point where you think you're so strong, so infallible, so unsusceptible to this, then you're tempting the devil to tempt you. Keep your way far from her.
Do not go near the door of her house, or the door of her website, or the door of her television program, or however it may express itself. Don't walk past her house. Don't flirt with this temptation. Why? Because you become a slave of the one whom you obey.
Paul said to Timothy, Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those.
So there's a negative aspect, flee, and there's a positive aspect, pursue.
Some of you are at home today when you could be here. You're in disobedience because you could be here. Pursue. righteousness, faith, love, and peace with Those who call upon the name of the Lord in a pure heart.
So you just saturate your absence from this sin. You don't go to places, barrooms and clubs and Websites and linger and hang around. Notice the warning in verses 9 and 10: lest you give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one. Lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien. The price of infidelity is high.
All that you work for, your zeal, your vigor, That you use to provide for your family, your heart, earned goods, go to an alien, a stranger. They weren't meant for him. As you know, many of you, I was the director of executive ministries in Dallas. And I worked with one prominent businessman who fortunately came to Christ, but. Sadly, before he came to Christ, he started flirting with a woman who was very attractive.
And he had an adulterous relationship with her. And he lost everything. He lost his reputation. He lost his precious wife. Before long His children were calling someone else daddy.
That's all part of immorality. It drains you, it also diseases you. Notice, and you groan at your latter end. When your flesh and your body are consumed, Our society is littered with STDs, or now they call them, I guess, STIs. Where there's no cure for many of them.
Where antibiotics won't solve the problem. And our government I'm reading right off the government website, the CDC. estimates that we are spending approximately $26 million on new STIs in 2023, with young people aged 15 to 24 accounting for nearly half of all these new infections. Billions of dollars of your tax money they're spending on this. Yet the cure is so simple.
A closed system. God designed sex to be a closed system. between one man and one woman. And you won't get this disease. Just obey the book.
Live by the design of the designer. Your body will remain healthy in this realm. Look at verse 12. You say, how I have hated instruction. This end's going to disappoint you.
How I have hated instruction, and my heart spurned reproof, and I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors. I fear that some listening to me today will later say, why didn't I listen to my pastor? Why didn't I obey the word of God? Immorality, it promises you freedom. But in the end, it enslaves you.
One paraphrase says, Oh, why wouldn't I take advice? Why was I so stupid? Satan always tries to make this sin attractive. Verse 14 says, Well, in the end, disgrace you. I was almost in utter ruin.
in the midst of the assembly and the congregation, The living Bible says, For now I must face public disgrace. You can hide this sin for so long, but sooner or later people find out. And even if somehow they never know, God knows. And so, as we've been reading in Romans 6, that there's a slavery to it. Let's keep reading here, verse 15: drink water from your own cistern.
and fresh water from your own well. That's not only true in the physical realm, but that's true in the emotional realm. Men today are driven by drugs. Because they perverted Through the things they put in through the I-gate. Things that God never intended for us to put in through the eye gate.
Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed abroad? Streams of water in the streets. Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your lo.
Youth, as a loving hind and as a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love. Don't get the idea that if you obey God's law, you're going to miss out. The problem is, if you don't obey God's laws, you can break them, but in the end, they'll break you. God's way is best.
He's always trying to protect us. He's always trying to provide for us. I tell teenagers, God is not trying to keep sex from you, He's trying to keep sex for you. Save yourself from the heartache, from the humiliation, from the destruction. Notice verse 20: For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his paths. His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. This sin has a way of chaining you. such that you will do things that you thought you would never do. I know of no other sin that enslaves in the way that this sin brings.
In Proverbs 5 and verse 22, it's an illustration of what we're reading in Romans 6:16. Don't you know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience? You're a slave of the one whom you obey. That's what the scripture teaches. Verse 23, notice how he ends.
Very similar. Obey sin, it results in death. Proverbs 5:23. He will die. for lack of instruction.
and in the greatness of his folly, he will go astray. There's moral death. There's spiritual death and for some sadly eternal death. The warm flames of lust, as it's often said, turn into the fiery flames of hell.
Now back to Romans 6, back to Romans 6. He's writing to believers. Here in Romans 6, who've been saved by the grace of God. And he's trying to help us to understand. that slavery to sin can bring alienation.
If you're a true child of God, you cannot lose your salvation. But you can sever. That intimacy with God, and if you do, it will bring God's discipline. And there's people all around saying, I'm born again, I've been saved, I've made my profession of faith, and they live immorally, and there's no discipline, they're just lost. And Paul will bring that out before we're done with this section 6 through 8.
But while if I'm truly saved, I cannot lose my salvation. I can lose my intimacy. And I can lose the plan that God has for me. All right, that's the first point. God's presentation of two slaveries.
Secondly, there on your outline now in verses 17 through 20, God's contrast between two slaveries, God's contrast between two slaveries. Notice how verse 17 begins. But thanks be to God. Paul's heart is so excited over this change of masters, it's like his heart explodes. But thanks be to God.
that though you were slaves of sin. This statement, of course, dovetails the truth of Psalm 51:5, that in sin did my mother conceive me. We have this innate propensity. Because when Adam sinned, we sinned in and with Adam, and so we're born with this fallen nature. We discovered that and worked through that in Romans 5.
But thanks be to God, that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart. To that form of teaching to which you were committed. What happened? The moment you were converted, you became a new creation. You became obedient from the heart.
The second birth changes everything. And so our first slavery began at natural birth. This new slavery begins when we have a spiritual birth. And so here in the latter part of verse 17, it says, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. You see that phrase, that form of teaching?
I have the word form circled, and above it I wrote the Greek word tupos. Many of you know that to be the word type.
Some of your Bibles say that's standard of teaching or that pattern of teaching. Outside of the Bible, the word type was used of the impression a seal would make. It was used of the imprint of a branding iron, say on a calf, or the indentation of a footprint in the sand, or even the marks left by teeth. It was used of someone who made a mold, like we make a mold, say, with jello.
So what's molding us as Christians? Paul says here the form of teaching. The truth, Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. That's why Satan wants to remove that mold out of the American pulpit.
That's what Rick Warren and Bill Heibel said. It was a total disaster. They helped ruin the American Evangelical Church, and they have a serious. Facing they're going to have to deal with before the Lord. And sadly, many.
Young pastors adopted their way and form of teaching because it built crowds. Paul will later say and Romans 12, J.B. Phillips renders it: Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold. into its type. But let God remold your minds from within.
Verse 17 is really a powerful thought because it teaches that we're being molded somehow. And it's related to our thinking. Look at verse 18. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Again, you're still capable of sinning, as verses 12 and 13 teach us, but at our conversion, we're rescued from the lordship of sin into the lordship of God.
That's why Paul can tell the Colossians: He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and he transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Two slaveries. One by natural birth. The other by a spiritual birth.
So having described the beginning of these two slaveries, now he's going to underscore the development of these two slaveries. Look again at verse 19. I am speaking in human terms. Because of the weakness of your flesh. He gives kind of an apology of sorts.
He says I have to use human charms. I have to speak of slavery, something that Paul despised. An institution that was degrading and pervasive in the first century, with 60 million people in the Roman Empire who enslaved. But he says, at the same time, I want to use this term because it helps to define with our fallen, finite minds, the truth of an infinite God. He's telling us that the analogy of masters and slaves will help us to see a truth that we want to know.
Part of it bothers him to say this, but remember what Jesus said no longer, John 15, 15, no longer do I call you slaves. For the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I call you friends.
Now, are we still slaves? Yes. He underscores that throughout the gospel. But at the same time, we're more than slaves. And that's why Paul's a little bothered by having to use and restrict himself to this term.
We're more than slaves. We're friends of God. And so this is the term the Spirit of God inspires Paul to use because of our humanness, because of the weakness of our flesh, and because of our vulnerability, and because of our tendency towards sin.
So Paul wants to remind us of this new allegiance that we are to live out. Notice verse 19, with this brief concession, he now says, For just as, you should circle those two words, just as, for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now, circle those two words, so now.
So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. He's trying to help us to understand the way to develop these two slaveries. Each slavery will develop, neither slavery will stand still. One results in further lawlessness. The other results in sanctification or holiness, the King James says, or Christ-likeness, if we were to summarize its meaning.
Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity into lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness. Be just as enthusiastic to presenting yourself to the Lord as you were at one time to sin. Be as good a saint As you used to be a sinner, that's the thought behind it. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures. At 877-8787.
787 The first thing that we have to do is that it's a very important thing. and requesting program Our Identity in Christ 011. Don't forget that tomorrow, Pastor Carl's wife Audrey is in this time slot with her program for women. Mothering from the heart. You can hear more of Audrey's messages in the Search Descriptures app.
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