God's Grace Is Not a License to Sin: Live as Slaves of Righteousness
Reading from Romans 6
If you have got your Bibles, you go ahead and open up there. You pull it up. It will also be on the screens here. But we are going to read from there in Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 15.
I do invite anybody that would like and is able to stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word. Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 15. The Word of God says,
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Hallelujah.
Let Us Pray
Our Lord, let us pray. God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this reminder in Your Word that as believers in Christ, we are no longer slaves of sin.
God, I pray as we continue to worship through the preaching of the Word, Lord, I pray, Holy Spirit, keep moving in this place. God, I pray You move in hearts of believers to mold us, to shape us, to convict us. And I pray, God, if there is anybody that has never fully surrendered all their life to You, Jesus, I pray today would be the day.
We love You. It is in the name above all names, the name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, we pray. All God’s people said, “Amen.”
Grace Is Not a License to Sin
Amen. You know, I read this and the opening verse—if you still have got your Bible, keep it open there for a minute—the opening verse, verse 15, is almost identical to verse 1 of Romans 6. They are almost saying, almost word for word, saying the same thing.
It says there in verse 15, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” And Paul emphatically says, “Certainly not!”
You know, as I read that, it reminded me that as believers in Christ, God’s grace is not a license for us to sin. God’s grace and how He is so forgiving and forgives us our sins does not mean, “Oh, I will go out and keep on sinning because He is full of grace.”
Now, understand when we are picking back up in Romans 6—where we have not been in Romans for a while—if you were to flip back or you go back today or you look now in Romans 5 right before this chapter, Paul under the inspiration of God is talking a lot about God’s grace. God is so full of grace. Amen.
I mean, to save someone as sinful as me—God is full of grace. And I can tell you, not even knowing you—I am not judging you—I am just saying I know you are a sinner too. God to forgive you—He is full of grace. Amen. Because we do not deserve His forgiveness. We are like filthy rags, the Bible says, the prophet said. But God is so full of grace.
In chapter 5 of Romans, it says there in verse 15, “But the free gift is not like the offense.” See, God’s grace is a free gift. “For if by the one man’s offense”—talking about Adam—“many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”
God’s grace—it abounds to many. Now, we got to choose to believe in Him, but His grace is amazing the way He will forgive us of our sins when we trust in Jesus.
Chapter 5:17, Paul uses these words, “abundance of grace.” And in chapter 5:20 it says, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”
So when we come to verse 15, it is so important when we are reading the Bible, we are looking at the whole context, the chapter before, the chapter after, and so forth. When we come to verse 15 where it says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” And Paul says, “Certainly not!”
What we understand is what is being talked about here is the fact that God is full of grace and He has made a way for us to be forgiven and we have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But His grace does not mean we go on living in sin.
The Danger of Misunderstanding Grace
Have you ever maybe heard somebody—maybe thought this way yourself—says well or thinks, “Well, I am saved. I am forgiven because, right? I mean, when I have given my life to the Lord, I am forgiven. I am going to heaven. I will go on and live however I want to.”
Have you ever maybe—maybe you have thought that way. Maybe you have met somebody like that.
Has anybody ever heard the term? You will hear it a lot in SBC churches: once saved, always saved. Sometimes a person might take that to say, “Well, I am always saved, so I can live however I want. It does not matter because God has forgiven me.”
Now, I will tell you this. I do believe with all my heart—I gave my life to Jesus at age 27 and I have made mistakes since then, but I was changed. And with all my heart, I know I am saved. I know I am forgiven. I know I am going to heaven one day. I have no doubt. I know I believe. I have faith. I am not going to lose my salvation because I have given my life to Jesus. Even though I have fallen short and even though I have messed up since then, I truly believe with all my heart when somebody makes a true conversion.
Do I believe there are some people that say they are a Christian and are not? Yeah. Because the Bible even says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
See, someone that is truly saved. And remember what Jesus spoke about in the parable of the sower and the soils where He talks about the seed. The seed represents the gospel and the Word of God. Some of it fell by the wayside. Some of it fell on stony ground. Some of it on thorny ground. But some of it fell on good soil.
When there is a conversion, when somebody accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior on good soil, when it is a true conversion, truly giving their life to Jesus and truly believing in Jesus, I believe just what it says. They are saved and they are kept by the power of God.
It says this in John 10: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
When somebody truly gives their life to Jesus, they are going to heaven.
But I do believe when somebody truly gives their life to Jesus—based on the Word of God—they are changed. None of us do it perfect, but we are changed. And we are not going to want to stay in a state of habitual sin.
If you are a believer today and you are in a state of habitual sin, you are miserable if you are truly a believer because that is not who you are meant to be.
God’s grace does not mean, “Oh, I am forgiven. We are going to go on and sin.” And actually, if there is no change in a person after a profession of faith, are they really saved?
You know, the Bible says this about a person that has met Christ: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things have become new.”
So when I love that, Danny, that is what it says. He is right. That is what it says. It is pretty simple.
But when we have truly given our life to Jesus, just because God is so amazing and God’s grace is so amazing and He forgives our sins as far as the east is from the west, that does not mean we go out and say, “I am going to live in sin.” And in fact, if we are truly saved, we are not going to want to live in sin.
Again, I know we are human and I know we all mess up, but we are going to want to live for Jesus. Amen.
If you are a believer, do you want to live for Jesus?
You Are No Longer a Slave to Sin
God’s grace is not a license to sin. And you know also what you also read in addition to change in a person that has truly given their life to the Lord is you will see fruit in their life. In John 15 it talks about that a believer will bear fruit while we rely on the Lord. And you know the fruit of the Spirit. You will see fruit in their lives. You will see change in a person that has given their life to the Lord.
Have you ever seen somebody that placed their faith and trust in the Lord and they did a 180? Have you ever seen somebody that trusted in Jesus and they started saying, “I am not living in that sin and ungodliness anymore”?
I remember there was a guy out of the pallet company where I am a chaplain that gave his life to the Lord and he will see me some weeks and be like, “I went to church.” Other weeks he will be like, “Pastor, I did not go to church.” You know, or some weeks he will be like, “I read the Bible, Pastor, I did not read the Bible.” But you can tell he is striving to walk with God.
And I remember a couple months after he gave his life to the Lord, his coworker came up to me. He is like, “Man, I have really started to see change now.” I was like, “What do you mean?” He is like, “Well, he used to cuss every other word and he is not cussing ever anymore.”
And then that guy said to me back a while back, he is like, “Pastor, I laid out a bad word the other day.” You know, but you can see in him is you can see God has changed and he is striving to walk closer to God.
Now, listen, we got flesh and the enemy will try to get us off target. That is one reason the church and being around other believers is so important.
But God’s grace is not a license to sin for us as believers. And in fact, you know that Paul uses the word “slave” in this passage. And you know, you think about something that takes over your life, you know, and something that kind of can put you in bondage.
And if you are saved, you are no longer a slave to sin.
Watch what it says in verse 16: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
You know, as I read verse 16, something I thought about is this—like we can give in and obey certain things and obey sin. And when we do, whatever we give into, it will take over our day.
If we give in to sin and become slaves to sin and start justifying this is okay and that is okay and it is okay for me to lust, nobody will know, or it is okay for me to look at this or it is okay for me to do this even though I know it is wrong. As we start to justify it, as we start to allow it, eventually it will take over our day.
And you know what happens? You know what? When something takes over our day, you know what eventually it takes over? If we do not address it, it will take over our life.
And if we allow ourselves to say it is okay to sin, I can just—I can stay doing this and I can stay doing that and you know what, nobody will ever see me. It is okay. I can do this. I can do that. Eventually, we will wake up one day and we are living in a state of habitual sin and we are not living for God.
And you know what the Bible says—the Bible says here in this passage, you have been set free from sin.
If you are a believer today and you are struggling with some area of your life with that you know does not need to be in there, you are no longer a slave to sin. God set you free.
I love what it says in Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” Yeah. “And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
If a believer keeps sin in their life, that is not who you are meant to be. And you will feel tangled up in it. It will feel like prison. It will feel like bondage. That is not who you are anymore. You were—it says, you were a slave to sin, but you are not a slave to sin anymore.
A believer, if you are saved, you are no longer a slave to sin.
Do you remember before you met Jesus? Anybody? Do you remember sin ruling your life? I sure do.
I mean, I truly lived to just—I wanted to party. That is probably what got kind of drove a lot of my—I was looking forward to the party. I was looking forward to whatever—getting drunk, living the party life, you know, all that—whatever the sin is. If it is getting drunk, if it is getting high, if it is sexual immorality, if it is something, whatever it is—that life will not bring peace. It will not bring joy.
In fact, it will hold you in bondage. Well, and before you are a believer, you know, at least you are a believer and you do not have that conviction. But when we are a believer, we know better, right? That is not who we are meant to be.
If you are saved, just I hope we are all reminded that you are no longer a slave to sin.
Present Yourselves as Slaves of Righteousness
And let me say this. If you are saved, you ought to be a slave to God.
Now, that word “slave,” it has got a lot of—it can be hard to hear because of the history. We know here in the US and throughout the world. But the point of that word when Paul is using it is to submit to God.
By the way, God will not make you. God is not going to force you, but we are going to be submitted to something. There is going to be something we obey.
Do not we think it is better to make that something God? Yeah. Than sin and then ungodliness.
There is going to be something that rules my day. There is going to be something that rules your day. There is going to be something that rules and whatever rules our day is going to eventually rule our life.
What is it that is ruling today for you? What is it that is ruling throughout the week for you? Is it sin? Is it the world? Or is it the Lord?
You know, when Paul is talking about being a slave to God, he uses those words. It is that idea where we have been forgiven by God’s grace. We should be in submission to our holy God. Amen.
He created the heavens and He created the earth and He gave—so He gave us life and also by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for us He makes a way for us to have eternal life.
What is ruling in you right now? And are you a slave to sin or you surrendered to God?
Verse 17 says, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
That we would let living for God rule us instead of worldly things. And there is going to be all kinds of temptations around us in this world. Our phones, the people we are around.
I was talking to a young man who is in the eighth grade that plays basketball with the Blackhawks. Yet, I was so impressed by this young man yesterday. And I could tell when I was praying with Lily—uh, what a blessing to have you—I could tell when I was praying with him, he wanted to come over and pray.
And then I got the chance to talk to him. I had never been able to have a conversation with this young man. And what this guy was dealing with was I said, “Have you ever trusted the Lord?” He said, “Yeah, but I am struggling to be consistent.” I was like, “This guy is in eighth grade. This is cool.”
And then as we got talking, he is like, “Can you tell me how I can have help with that? How I can be helped basically better walk with God?” And he is like, “Can you give me tips on sometimes I struggle when I read the Bible to really catch everything it is saying? Can you give me help with that?”
I thought to myself, how awesome is that? The way this young man who is only in the eighth grade, he is probably 14—he is wanting to pursue a closer relationship with God. He is still got a lot of questions like all of us do. But in my heart, what I heard this guy saying is he wanted to live for God.
And he talked about a couple struggles he has got and he said, “I do not want to think that way or do that.” And it was awesome to hear.
When we have given our life to the Lord, what better thing than to submit our daily life to Jesus with God’s help to say, “I want to put God first in my life.”
You know, and I do not know where each of y’all are at if you have trusted in the Lord and if you have not and if you have trusted in the Lord, but is God—are you submitting to Him? Are you submitting to Him or are you submitting to sin and worldliness? Because we are going to see a whole lot of worldliness all around us.
And what we put in our minds and our hearts is important. Who we are around is important. We should be in the world but not of the world, right? We should want to put Jesus to drive our life.
And by the way, when we do that, it is going to bless us. But we do not want to make it like a chore. We just are so in love with Jesus. I want to submit to the Lord. I owe You everything.
And by the way, it is a joy. It is a joy when we submit to God and just say, “God, I am Yours. I am Yours.”
Verse 19 says, “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.”
Got a question if you do not mind raising your hand. Who is giving their life to Jesus? Who is trusting the Lord?
Let me ask you this. Are you presenting your body and yourself as a slave to sin? Or are you presenting yourself as a slave to God, as someone submitted to God, as someone wanting to live for God?
We will not regret living for Jesus. It will bless you.
And do not go out of here thinking if you are struggling. If you are struggling, that is what people in the church are for. If you are struggling and you are a believer, that is what brothers and sisters in Christ are supposed to do. We are supposed to help each other.
And by the way, every—it is like I told that young man yesterday, we all struggle. Like I struggle, too. We all struggle.
But remember what we are told here. We are to present ourselves as righteousness to God. To say, “God, I want with Your help You to help me not to live in sin, but to live for God.”
Walk Worthy of Your Calling
And I just I want to just close just by saying this. I hope we are reminded and remember we ought to be set free from sin and all in to live for the Lord.
When we do that, when we go all in for Jesus, you are going to be amazed what God does in your life.
When you submit to Jesus in your life and to putting Him before anything and to putting Him first, it is going to bless you.
We try to find peace from all kinds of things. Nothing brings peace like Jesus. When you put Him first, and putting Him first means you are going to spend time with Him.
We can get so busy and all kinds of stuff and before you know it, we are not even taking time for God.
Putting Him first means we are making time for our relationship with Jesus. Putting Him first means we are living for Jesus.
Verse 22 says, “But now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
I love what it says in Ephesians 4:1, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
Did you know that if you are saved, God called you? You chose Jesus, too. But God also chose you.
We are the greatest call is the call to salvation. The greatest call is when somebody makes the decision to say, “I know I am a sinner. I know I need forgiveness of sins. Jesus, I am crying out to You. I am asking You, forgive me my sins.” Amen.
And Jesus, I am placing my full faith and trust in You as the Lord and Savior of my life.
And what does it say there in Ephesians? Walk worthy for the calling for which you were called. You believed in Jesus if you are a believer and God called you. Walk worthy for that call.
That call. I hope we are encouraged today daily in our walk as believers to walk worthy.
You have heard the old saying, what would Jesus do? You know, as we are going about our day, we are thinking, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus have me to do? Not is the—not what is everybody else doing around me? Not what is this person doing. No, what would the Lord have me to do in this situation today and every day?
And I just hope we are encouraged. I mean, God saved—God is full of grace. It is amazing what He has done for us. God sent His Son Jesus to die for us.
Jesus came down from heaven without sin. “For God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God sent His Son. Jesus suffered for us and died for our sins and rose on the third day so that anybody who believes in Him will be saved, forgiven of sins, promised heaven.
And with all He has done for us, we ought to live for Him. We ought to turn from sin and live for Jesus.
So I would just close today to just saying we are set free from sin. Let us live for Jesus. Let us be all in for the Lord.
And when I think about being all in, I do think about growing our relationship with Jesus. These should—this should be something we enjoy doing. I want to get up and spend time with my Savior. I want to—I want to go home and I want to go out on a walk and talk to my God.
Like Connie Castine said today in the hospital, she said, “Pastor, I have been having a lot of talks with God.” We should want to talk with God. We should want to grow closer to God. We should want to be in the Word.
And hey, being active in the church, you know, being a part of a place where we can worship together and serve together, you know, God left us His church. It says, “Not forsaking the assembling.”
There is something so special. It does not happen the same way on Zoom. It does not happen the same way on a sermon that is on a TV. I am not saying those things are bad. It is still good to hear sermons on TV. I am just saying there is something about coming together with God’s people, preparing your heart for worship and worshiping together, hearing the Word of God together and the Holy Spirit moving.
Being all in means—I mean being a part of His body, of the body. Being all in means loving one another. Being all in and when we say we want to be loving, teaching, reaching. Being all in means praying for others, ministering to others both in our church and outside of the church walls, discipling each other.
So I hope when we think about I want to die to sin and I want to be all in for Jesus and be a slave to God. I hope God just puts a fire in you today. Puts a fire in you to want to be all in for Jesus.
And if God is dealing with you about that, like you are going to be amazed what God does in your life. When you get that sin out, when you do not let that sin stay and when you are all in for Jesus.
And there are all kinds of opportunities here to serve. You know, Vivian is leading our women’s ministry and she has got a meeting for all the women. It will not last long. She said maybe 10 minutes. Come in there.
And by the way, when somebody leads, there are so many people that lead different ministries. You know, I am called to shepherd the flock, to preach the Word, to lead the church overseas. But there are a lot of people that lead in different areas.
Crystal is leading kids in VBS. Gloria and Tabitha are leading Wednesday night kids. Brenda is leading hospice. You know, Scott is leading music. There are Sunday school teachers that lead. Pray for those people that lead and support them.
And if you are looking to be more all in for the Lord, you can do it every day in your life by growing. And there are all kinds of opportunities to serve here. We need help.
So I am just excited to see what God does as we serve Him.
Let us pray. God, we love You and we just thank You and praise You for this day. I thank You for Your Word. And I pray You use Your Word to—for us as believers in Christ to want to put You first, to want to live for You, Lord, and to want to be bold witnesses for You.
I am excited to see what You do in my life the more and more I crucify the flesh, the more and more I live for You. And I am excited to see what You do in the life of our church family.
Lord, I know the Scripture says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.” I know when we choose to submit to You, we are going to see great and mighty things that I cannot even imagine. And I am looking forward to seeing.
God, we love You. It is in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
