"Who Is Your Master?"
Romans 6:16-23
INTRO: According to the SCRIPTURES, all men are born sinners. David declared in Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Romans 3:10 says, "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." God makes it evident in His Word that all men are sinners, but He also provided a payment for their sins.
Men are born sinners, but they don't have to remain guilty before God. God has provided a way of salvation through His Son. If they remain lost, it is by their own choice! Joshua threw down the challenge to the children of Israel, “choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15). That challenge is still laid before all mankind even today! 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation." Hebrews 3:7-8 exhorts, "Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation...".
Whom will you serve God or Satan? The choice is yours! I'd like to title the message, "Who Is Your Master?" A Sunday school teacher told his class the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. He explained that the wealthy man had wonderful clothes, lived in luxury, and had all the food he could eat: But he had no compassion for the beggar, who longed for a few crumbs from the Rich man's table. The heartless man died and ended up in the flames of hell. The sick and destitute believer, however, found God's comfort in Paradise.
After finishing the story, the teacher asked his class, "Now, which would you rather be, boys-the rich man or Lazarus?" One young fellow replied, "I'd want to be the rich man while I was living and Lazarus when I died." (Henry G. Bosch. You Can’t Have It Bother Ways. Our Daily Bread. December 27, 1993). That's the attitude of much of the world today, live like you want and God in His love will take you to Heaven when you die. But the BIBLE makes it clear that you can't have it both ways. Jesus Himself in Luke 16:13 makes that crystal clear, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." WHO IS YOUR MASTER TODAY?
(1) THE MASTER’S REIGN
ROMANS 6:16-20—“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.”
A. WHOSE WE WERE. All of us were servants in the "slave" market of sin until Christ came to buy us back from the enemy. V17 says, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin…”. Christ by His death redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
B. WHOSE WE ARE. NOW if we are saved by His grace, WE BELONG TO HIM! (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul uses the word "servants" which in the Greek means "bond-servants." It implies the idea of being bound to another thus giving one's self up to the will of another. Many times Paul used this same Greek word, showing that he was once the bond-slave of Satan, but now, being bought by Christ, was bound to his new master! Paul wrote in Romans 1:1—“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.” Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-4—“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Paul realized that Christ was HIS LIFE! Listen to what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20—“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” And in Philippians 1:21 he wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Each Child of God should fell the same! God doesn't force service and obedience on no one, but we should be willing to serve out of Love and gratitude.
We, according to Psalm 100:2, are to “Serve the LORD with gladness:
come before his presence with singing.” Jesus said in John 14:15, 21,
23—“If ye love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him… If a man love me, he will keep my words: and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him.” Our love for Jesus ought to motive our service for HIM!
Notice v20 tells us that the servants of sin are free from righteousness,
but the servants of righteousness are not!
(2) THE MASTER’S REQUIREMENT
Romans 6:21-22—“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
A. THE FRUIT OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Notice v21 asks, “What fruit..." ? All men, saved or lost, bear fruit. In Matthew 12:33, 35 Jesus said, “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” A child of God is to be a fruit-bearer! (John 15:1-8, 15-17). As noted, Romans 6:20 tells us that Satan’s bondmen are free from righteousness, but God's bondmen are not! What is the “fruit” of the righteous? Galatians 5:22-24 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The fruit of the servants of righteousness is holiness and eternal Life.
B. THE FRUIT OF THE REJECTER. The fruit of the servants of sin is
SHAME! Galatians 5:19-21 tells us, “Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,
and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in
time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.”
(3) THE MASTER’S REWARD
Romans 6:23—“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
A. THE REWARD FOR SERVING SIN. “Wages” means "payment or recompense." It implies idea that we are owed or deserve the payment given. The reward for serving sin is death! Romans 6:23a—“For the wages of sin is death...". Ezekiel 18:20 tells us, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” James 1:14-15 says, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
B. THE REWARD FOR SERVING THE SAVIOR. All of us deserve death,
but the gift of God to His servants is LIFE! Romans 6:23b—“...but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." “Gift” comes a
Greek word which means "to grant as from a favor." That's what God's
grace is. The unmerited, undeserved, favor of God! (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We deserved death, but God gave His Son as payment for our sins. 1
Peter 2:24 says, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on
the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by
whose stripes ye were healed.” We, now, are the servants of God, and
should serve Him, we no longer have the sentence of death hanging
over our head! Romans 8:1 assures us, “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.” Because of His GREAT LOVE for us we are
moved, constrained and compelled to serve HIM! (2 Corinthians 5:14-
15, 17).
CLOSING: Who is your Master? We were all born the servants of sin, but we
don’t have to stay sin’s servants. We can by faith become the
servants of righteousness, if we will only choose Jesus. Someone
has said, “he who lives for this life only will have eternity to regret
it.” God pleads, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve…”
Someone has penned these words, “ ‘choose you this day, ‘ the
message comes and urges you to say that you will choose the
upper path and shun the evil way.”
Will you come to Jesus today?