In his sermon titled 'Servants to Righteousness,' Pastor Steve Hopkins explores Romans 6:18-22, focusing on the transition from being slaves to sin to becoming servants of righteousness through the grace of God. He emphasizes the role of God's grace in liberating believers from the tyranny of sin, allowing them to live in obedience to God and pursue holiness. Hopkins uses metaphors of slavery and servitude to illustrate the change in a believer's life, highlighting the voluntary nature of sin's servitude and the transformative power of grace. He calls believers to yield their members to righteousness, resulting in a continuous journey of sanctification and growth in Christ-likeness. The sermon concludes with a prayer for understanding, gratitude for deliverance from sin, and a commitment to serve God in holiness.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. Good morning. You would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans once again, chapter 6, beginning with verse 18. If you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord.

Let's read verses 18 through 22 together. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you 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 we were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness.

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, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your spirit.

We thank you, God, for the indwelling Spirit. We thank you, God, for your Spirit who wields the sword of the Spirit, your Word. And we ask, Lord, that you would continue, God, this morning to open our understanding to see wonderful things in your word and change us thereby, more into the image of our Lord Jesus, for we ask it in His holy name. Amen. So, we'll just look at verse 17 as a review from last week.

We ended our session with verse 17 where the apostle Paul writes some pretty amazing and pretty important words for us to grasp and understand. Very simply, those first four words, but God be thanked. But God be thanked. God be thanked, he says, that you're not what you used to be. How many here would say right now, praise God, thanks be to God, I'm not what I used to be.

I'm not what I used to be. I'm not what I used to be. God changed me. God saved me God be thanked. He says that you were the servants of sin He's not saying you know, I'm thanking God that you were the servants of sin.

He's saying I thank God that though We were though you were the servants of sin God be thanked that though you were the servants of sin, God be thanked that though you were the servants of sin, you aren't anymore. You aren't anymore in bondage to sin and the corruption of your nature. You've been made free from sin by the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has become the servants of righteousness. And of course, if God is to be thanked, which he is, then we understand that the apostle is telling us something about grace. He's saying it's all of grace.

How many see that? God be thanked. It's all of grace. It's all owing to God's amazing grace. He says, God be thanked that though you were the slaves of sin, living under the tyrannical dominion of sin, as it were your ruler, your king, a despot, your master, obeying sin as your master, king, and ruler, under compulsion as slaves to obey its every command.

That's no longer the case concerning you. Praise God. Thank God. Again, how many will praise God and say, God be thanked? That's no longer the case with me.

We who are in union with Christ by faith are no longer in a state, in a condition of bondage to sin. You're no longer in that state. You're no longer in that condition of sin slavery. Our chains of sin slavery have been broken. And they were broken by Christ at the cross.

Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. And if God is to be thanked, then we understand that it's all on account of the free, unmerited, undeserved grace of God given us in His Son. God be thanked. The apostle Paul tells us that though we were the servants of sin, and I'm going to stop right there for just a moment.

Though we were the servants of sin. I said this in the last message. It's not in the notes but I want to repeat this. He's saying, God be thanked that though you were the servants of sin, he's saying this was your old life, this is your new life in Christ. Not perfection, but a new life in Christ and serving righteousness.

He's saying, though you were this, you're no longer this, you're now this, though you were serving this master sin, you're now serving another master, Christ. And he's saying if that's not the case with you, the inference is if that's not the case with you, if you're still in bondage to sin, you're still living in sin slavery, You can't break free, can't break the chains of sin slavery, the repetitive sin going on and on and on in your life. Can't break it, can't get away from it, you're still enslaved to it, you're still in bondage to it, saying then you're not in that state of justification. You know, it would be really sad To only give encouragement to those who are truly saved and to leave behind in deception those who have never come to Christ. Or to make them think that it's all okay.

My profession is enough. My going to church is enough. My baptism is enough. My sharing in the Lord's table is enough. It's all the things I've done are enough.

It's all enough. It's enough. It's it's enough to convince me If you're still in bondage to sin it's because you're still in bondage to sin He's saying God be thanked that though we were the servants of sin, I have to go back again. So, you know, Dr. Sproul said, and you've heard me say this before, there's a difference between being a sinner and being a slave of sin.

We're all sinners. We all continue to commit sin. The difference is practicing sin, living in sin, not being able to break free from the same repetitive sin in our lives over and over and over again. Living in that sin, living in bondage to that sin. We need to be crying out to God, Lord God, if I have never been truly born again, let this be the day.

Raise me from spiritual death to spiritual life. Give me a new heart, give me a new life, give me new desires. Save my soul. Thanks be to God, the apostle says, that having been liberated from the bondage of sin, we are become the servants of God. Every one of us before grace were in bondage to sin.

Apart from the grace of God, John Calvin writes, quote, the whole race of man was held captive under the dominion of sin, but that kingdom of sin comes to an end as soon as grace puts forth its power. Close quote. Thanks be to God, thanks be to God that once grace put forth its power in our lives and we were freed from the bondage to sin, we entered a state where we can never again be brought under the absolute dominion and tyranny of sin, our former master. Thanks be to God there's been a change in masters. Thanks be to God that sin no longer reigns over us and in us, dictating to us its every command and us willingly yielding and obeying and giving our bodies into its service, giving our members to its service.

Thanks be to God, we have been set free to serve the living God. Thanks be to God, We've been set free to serve Him. I used the analogy last week that Titus had brought to my attention of Egypt. Children of Israel, they're in Egypt. They're in slavery.

They're in bondage hundreds of years. And then God determines to deliver them out of their bondage. And He frees them from Pharaoh. He frees them from Egypt. And They are leaving Egypt.

They've now been freed and they're heading towards the Red Sea going through the desert. And what happens? They are free. They have been freed. But Pharaoh decides he's going after them.

I'm going back to get them. I'm going to bring them back into bondage in Egypt. But the fact of the matter is, is that when we enter the state of grace, and when we have been delivered by God from the dominion of sin, its absolute tyranny, absolute control over our lives, its dictatorial regime that once ruled over us, Once we have been delivered, freed from our bondage to sin, we enter a state where we can no longer again be brought into the absolute dominion and tyranny of sin, our former master. They're not going to get the people of God back into bondage. And it's a picture of the Christian.

You're not going to be brought back into absolute bondage. You may think sometimes, wow, this is pretty strong in my life, I've fallen to this and now I fell again, now I fell again, and I fell again, I must be a bondage to sin." No? How do you know the difference? How do you know if you're a slave to sin? Do you love that sin?

You see, the Christian, one of the elements of true repentance is that we hate the sin that we once loved. And a person can say, well, how can you be drugged into, how can you do something that you hate? How can you go back and do something that you hate? It's possible. And if you're a believer, you know it's possible.

You can be dragged, kicking and screaming by the remnants of corruption in your nature back into things that you hate. With all your heart, you would be rid of if you could. That's the difference, a new heart. It's not perfection, but it's a heart that has a hatred for that sin. You're ashamed, which we're going to get to next week, you're ashamed of the things that you used to do in your former life and sin, and you're ashamed of any repetition of those things since you've been saved.

You're ashamed of that life. All this sin brought you a shame. You're ashamed of it. You hate it. You would be rid of every vestige of it, every contact with it in your life if you only could, which the apostle Paul will talk about later, that which I would not, I do that which I do, I wouldn't do, I don't want to do, it's sin in me.

He's going to bring that out later. But the bondage, The bondage is broken. The dominion of that sin has been broken. We're no longer the willing slaves of sin. In the Old Testament, slavery, you had different types of slavery, but what the Apostle Paul refers to here when he's talking here about this is that kind of slavery where a person sells themselves voluntarily into slavery in order to pay a debt.

It's not a bad system, you know, probably be better for the United States. But you couldn't, you know, hold a debt over someone's head more than what, seven years, right? So we got our bankruptcy laws from. But you could go and say, hey, I owe all this money or whatever, I'm not able to pay it. Hey, can I come and serve you in your house for however many years?

And that debt's paid off? Well, yeah, if your wife and your children all come in here and your wife can do our laundry and you can do the field work and you can do the blah, blah, you do that, and after so many years your debt's paid, you got it. They sold themselves into slavery. I think that's what he's referring to here. There is an actual willingness to serve the master that's over them.

It's not like American slavery where they ran off and they went to the coast of Africa and these men in Africa went and chased down their neighbors and put them in cages and then came and sold them to the European traders, you know, and they're in involuntary servitude. This is a voluntary servitude. So that's a question to ask yourself. Am I voluntary, is this something I, am I still a voluntary servant of sin? My will is to go on in that sin and that thing that's been plaguing me, that besetting sin in my life, whatever, I just wanna keep going on it.

I'm not gonna turn from it. I like it, I love it. I'm gonna, that's my life. It's my master, I'm staying there. You see the difference?

The person who has been set free by Christ from sin, slavery, they're not under that master anymore. They don't wanna go back under that master anymore. They're not going back to Egypt. Try to drag me kicking and screaming, I'm not going back into bondage in Egypt. I may look back at Egypt some time and go, wow, that sure was an easier life than being out here in the wilderness.

But we don't go back, We never go back to sin. So I just wanted to kind of go through that from one other. There's been a change of masters. Sin no longer reigns over us and in us. And Paul has been using these metaphors, these figures of slavery and bondage.

Look at chapter six, verse 19. Because you see him using these figures of slavery, the bondage, servitude, serving masters. And as we pick up with verse 19, he tells us why. He says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. What?

What does he mean by that? What's he talking about? What do you mean? You're speaking after the manner of men because of the infirmity of my flesh? What do you mean?

He's saying I'm speaking to you in a manner that you can understand. I'm speaking to you in a manner that will help you to grasp the reality of what has happened to you in the spiritual state. I speak in these physical and human terms so you'll understand what's taken place with you and has happened with you in the spiritual state. I'm speaking in human terms using figures that are familiar to you, figures like masters and servants and slavery and such, because of your weakness in comprehending spiritual things on account of your flesh. What do you mean, on your account of my flesh?

On account of the effect that sin has on your understanding and on my understanding. So that's why I'm doing this. I'm speaking in these human terms, these figures that you can understand that are familiar to you on account of the effect sin has on your understanding, affecting your ability to grasp spiritual things clearly and precisely. So what I've done and what I'm continuing to do is to speak to you in these familiar terms, human terms, so that you can better understand. And what I want you to grasp, he says, in using these figures of masters and rulers and servants and bondage and all this stuff is that as you have, look at verse 19, as you have as former slaves to sin yielded your members, remember we went through that, members, your faculties, you've enlisted, employed your faculties, your eyes, your mouths, your hands, your minds, etc.

As servants to uncleanness, that is impurity, and to iniquity, unto iniquity, that is to say ever-increasing unrighteousness. Even as that's what you used to do when you were in bondage to sin, even so now, now that you have been freed from your bondage to sin and are no longer enslaved, enslaved by your lusts and desires that are contrary to God and his law. Now yield your members, enlist your members, employ your members as servants to righteousness unto holiness in the service of God and righteousness leading to ever increasing progress in your sanctification, which is to say your growth in holiness and Christ-likeness. Paul is saying, even as you in the unregenerate state employed your members, you enlisted your members in the service of sin when you were in bondage to sin, and grew increasingly worse and worse, now that Christ has freed you from your former master, do the same with regards to righteousness. Do the same.

Surrender your whole self to God to be ruled by Him and enlist your members in the service of righteousness unto ever increasing holiness." That's what he's saying. A note in my Reformation Heritage Bible commentary says, Paul's saying, we should be as consistent. Listen to this. We should be as consistent in pursuing holiness as we were in pursuing sin before we were called by grace. Did we get that?

We should be as consistent in pursuing holiness as we were in pursuing sin before we were called by grace. Did we get that? We should be as consistent in pursuing holiness now, Now that we're in the state of grace and have a new master, we're serving God, as we were in pursuing sin back when we were in the unregenerous state, at least that much, right? At least as consistent in pursuing holiness as we were in pursuing sin before we were called by grace. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, quote, the process that went on before, listen to these words, the process that went on before in which you went from bad to worse in the unregenerate state is entirely reversed.

It's flip-flopped. It's entirely reversed. Does everybody catch that? It's all reversed now. When you were slaves of sin, you obeyed sin as your master and went from bad to worse, Jones is saying.

But now, having been freed from sin's dominion and rule and having become the servants of God, you enlist your members in the servants of righteousness under ever-increasing holiness. And Lloyd Jones says, you become cleaner and cleaner and purer and purer. Before, see, you just got worse and worse. You went from bad to worse. In the unregenerate state, people don't get better.

They get worse. They get worse. They may be able to hide it better, but they're not getting better. They may do outward reformation of their life, but inside, as Jesus said to the Pharisees, it's full of all manner of wickedness and dead man's bones. You can clean the outside of the cup all you want, but if the inside of it's filthy, cup's filthy.

Lord Jones says you become cleaner and cleaner, purer and purer, holier and holier, and more and more conformed to the image of the Son of God over time. That's what happens. There's incremental progress in our sanctification. Before, listen, there was progress in sin. You progressed in sin.

You progressed from bad to worse. In Christ, God's now your master. You're serving God and righteousness. You're serving a new master. Now you're growing in holiness.

You're growing in purity. You're growing in Christ-likeness. You've been freed from sins, dominion, and rule and having become the servants of God, now you begin to enlist your members in the service of righteousness under ever-increasing holiness. Sanctification by definition is growing in holiness and that is the life employment of the Christian until death do us part. Until death parts you from your body or Christ returns, whichever comes first.

That is your new job description. That's your new job description. Now, yield your members, servants to righteousness unto holiness. And that's where we will end this afternoon. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you for your Word. We thank you for the truth of your Word. We thank you, God, that Christ redeemed us not so that we could do whatever we want to do, but so that we can do what you want us to do, God. Help us, God, to understand that we have been, we who are in Christ by faith have been delivered from the bondage of sin, from sin slavery, from the yoke of our former despot and that we are now under a new master. We serve you, God.

We serve the living God. We serve Christ. Help us, O God, to yield our members, to employ our members, our faculties, our bodies, our hands, our minds, our feet, our words, our voices, our minds, everything to your service, God, and to the service of righteousness, unto greater holiness. Help us to grow in Christ's likeness, God. We can't do it apart from you, God.

Your word says it, apart from me, you said, you can do nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing. But Lord, through you, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And we can grow in Christ's likeness and in conformity to the image of our Lord Jesus who suffered and died for our sins, rose again the third day. We thank you for this promise, Lord, and we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen.