Well, you can be seated.
Happy Easter.
It’s a joy to be together. And, you know, we thought we would rather just all be together so no one had to miss the Easter service. So, we have all of our kiddos in here and that’s okay. So, I can just preach really loud if it’s distracting to you, any kid noises. So, we’re going to be in Romans chapter 6. 6, Romans chapter 6 this afternoon, verses 20 to 23. Romans chapter 6, verses 20 to 23. If you have your Bibles and want to look at that with me.
Here’s what Paul writes.
He says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the fruit you get leads to salvation. gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Question, what makes Easter happy? Why is it happy Easter? I don’t think it’s the pastel colors, you know, we wear and decorate everything with. I don’t think it’s Easter eggs and candy. I would submit to you, I don’t even think it’s just simply acknowledging that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. I believe what makes Easter a happy Easter is when Jesus Christ is two things to us,
Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is He, your Lord and your Savior.
You can’t have one without the other. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, Paul speaks very plainly about what you are and what you are not and what you do and what you do not. And the first thing Paul says clearly, if you do know Jesus Christ as those two things, as Lord and Savior, you are certainly not any longer a slave of sin. Slaves to sin. He says it’s something you were. You were a slave to sin. You were slaves of sin. And you were free in regards to righteousness. And you know what that little verse does for us? It flies right in the face of the postmodern society we live in. It flies right in the face of the postmodern man that says he has no rules. There are no norms. There are no norms in morality. There’s no norms in society. Everything is subjective to what I want to believe and do. Everything is subjective to what I want to believe and do. Everything is relative to what I see. I am my own master. That’s largely the theme of the 20th and 21st century that you and I live in. But this verse says, this verse says that no one can be their own master. This verse says that every human being, every soul is a slave to one of two masters. You can only be enslaved to one, and you certainly are enslaved to one of the two. Now, there’s the lesser master. And the lesser master really doesn’t care at all if you’re conscious of your slavery. Satan doesn’t care if you think you’re your own master. He’s just happy that you don’t live as a slave to God, that you don’t live in a way that pleases God. So go ahead and say that you’re the master of your own fate. Go ahead and think the way that you live is the way that you really want to live. Satan’s happy with that. Just as long as you’re doing what he wants you to do in a sinful lifestyle. And the pride of the human heart is so blown up. The pride of the human heart is so covered over in fog that it cannot see that it is a slave to sin and a slave to Satan. And you’re like, well, I’m not a part of a satanic cult. Like, that’s really like crazy and odd. And it is. Satan is not doing his work in the world today. He’s not trying to get everybody in some like really weird, strange cult. You know how Satan does it? He does it through mass autonomy. Everyone thinking that they’re living their life the way that they plan and want to. But Paul says all they’re really doing is obeying what he calls the spirit that’s at work in the sons of disobedience. So Paul has no problem being really explicit that everyone is governed by one of two spirits. The spirit of God. Or the spirit of Satan. There’s nothing in between. And if God isn’t our master, Satan is our master. Again, even if we’re unconscious of that. And Jesus gets really explicit and says he’s your master and you love him. In John chapter 8 verse 43 and 44, Jesus says this to the people. He says, why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear. My word, you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father’s desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
So you see, Jesus has no problem mincing words about people who are somewhere in the middle. He says, you’re slave of one of the others. So the Bible really won’t put up with the postmodern man. Who thinks he can do as he pleases. Who thinks he’s so autonomous. The Bible says you are a happy, happy slave of one of the two. That’s what the Bible says. And he says if you’re a slave to sin, what you are is free from God. Free from righteousness. No, not free from judgment. Don’t make the mistake here. What Paul is saying in Romans is, when you’re free from righteousness, it means that you in your heart, you really have no inner impulse. You have no desire. You have no willingness to know God and do right. You’re free from a desire from it. Your heart, the seed of your love, it loves what’s wrong. It loves what’s impure. It’s not of God. The little master and all those who are his slaves will eventually be brought under judgment. But the master, the master of the house, the universe, the master of the house, though, he reigns. He reigns. And he rules. And he demands your obedience. He demands your obedience. And he lets you know that there’s great consequences if he’s not your master. And he makes quite clear, if you’re not his, you love the little master. And you cannot please God. Paul says, Paul says it quite plainly in Romans 8. He says, if you’re in the flesh, you cannot, you cannot, you cannot please God. So it’s really a stupefied spiritual state when people try to play the in-between. It’s a stupefied spiritual state. Do you believe in God? Oh, sure, I believe in God. I mean, I haven’t given much thought to it, but sure, there is a God. What does it mean for you to know God? Well, I think about Him every once in a while. Or, you know, I’ll give my money every once in a while. Or I try to be a good person. And people generally are fine with the idea of God. But that doesn’t sound like slavery, does it? Because slavery is something in which your whole will, your whole self is explicitly, radically tied to the person who’s telling you what you can do with your life. So it’s not just atheism. It’s not just agnosticism. It’s plainly even soft association.
People who say, well, yes, I know who God is, but I don’t quite read my Bible. I don’t quite pray. Or, yes, I’m fine with the idea of Jesus, but no, I’m not really involved in church or being with God’s people.
Friend, I want you to know this morning if Easter is supposed to be a happy one for you or not. Because if you can’t say, surely, with all assurance, I’m a slave to God and He has my whole self, Easter is not happy for you. It’s a terror to you.
And Paul tells us why in verse 21. He says, what fruit were you getting in that time? What fruit were you getting at that time? The things of which you were now ashamed? He says, the end of those things is what? Death. So no one chooses the wrong path because it’s wrong. People do wrong because they think it’s delightful.
Sin seems delightful. People don’t look at porn because they don’t like it. They look at porn because they like sinning. People don’t steal money because they know it’s wrong and they don’t like it. They do it because they like it. Why do people scream and yell or cuss people out? Or why do people act selfishly? It’s because they like it. They’re just acting on their impulses. You are a slave to your greatest impulses and what you do. You give in to it.
Thomas Watson, a Puritan writer, he says, sin though, sin, it tastes so sweet in the mouth, but it bitters in your stomach.
Paul says it this way, sin promises life, but it only ends up giving you death. It only ends up giving you death.
But Paul says, these are the things of which you now should be ashamed. In other words, a point in time. Paul’s assuming to these Roman Christians who he’s writing, you have a now. You have a then. We all have a then if you’re a Christian. You have a then, but you have a now. And you can say quite clearly, I remember what my then was like, but I know what my now is like. I know what my then was like, but I know what my now is like. Then I did what I chose to do. Then I did what I chose to do. Then I did what was convenient for me. Then I sinned. Then I didn’t care about God’s Word. Then I just sought pleasure. Then I just sought self. But Paul says, now I look back and I’m ashamed. Why? Because God in His grace, He lifted that spiritual fog and I could see clearly, I was a slave to sin and Satan and that was taking me to death. But now I’m a slave to God. And I don’t want the fruit of the life I had. Because he says what? The fruit is death.
So I’m happy to pop your happy Easter bubble with pastel colors and candy and eggs and even the resurrection of Jesus in your mind because it means nothing if you still are a slave to sin and Satan. Do you have a now and a then? I think sometimes we like to dress our then up and it’s still our now. Well, I’m trying to be a better person. Well, you know, I try, friends, you can try and try and try and try and try. But if you’re a slave to sin and Satan, you’ll never be pleasing in the sight of God. God calls you out of that slavery. Who is your master? Who is your one master? Is it God? Is it stark? And I would say to you, that’s the great problem with what we’ll call easy believism in the church today. Easy believism. Do you believe Jesus died on the cross? Oh, yeah, I totally believe that. Do you believe he was raised from the dead? Oh, I totally believe that. All right, so you’re a Christian. Oh, I’m totally a Christian. Well, tell me what that looks like. Well, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know. Tell me what it looks like for you to reach other people for the cause of Christ. Well, I don’t. Tell me what you’re laboring for in prayer on a daily basis. I don’t. Tell me what God’s teaching you in his word. I can’t. Tell me what Christian community looks like in your life. I don’t have any.
Friends, easy believism, it sends people straight to hell. God’s not calling you to that. He’s calling you out of slavery to sin. He’s calling you to new life that only his Spirit can give you.
Remember, Satan was an angel of light. He knows how to dress himself up. He knows how to help you think. He knows how to help you think. What you’re doing is just fine all the while. It’s not. But I think this text, it’s shining a light down into our spiritual fog. It’s shining a light into that spiritual darkness. And it’s saying to you on this Easter Sunday, who is your master? Who is your master? There’s a story of President Lyndon B. Johnson and he called up a really prominent economist, intellectual at the time, and he wanted to talk to this economist about some things. And the housekeeper answered the phone. And it’s the president. And he says, let me talk to him. And she says, oh, I’m sorry, he’s taking a nap. And he said, no one can disturb him. And the president said, well, wake him up. I want to talk to him. And the housekeeper said, I’m sorry, Mr. President, but I don’t work for you. I work for him.
Later, the president called back and said, get that woman to the White House. I want her to work here.
Who is your one Lord? Who is your master?
Paul goes on in verse 22.
He says, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become, here it is, slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and its end, eternal life.
Its end, eternal life. So he goes back to the chronology thing, the now thing. He’s saying, now you’re different. Now there should be a drastic change. Now there’s an undeniable transfer of your allegiance from one to the other, from one master to the other master. And it’s not like dual citizenship. You know, like, well, I have my American citizenship, but I’m also, you know, a resident of Canada or whatever. It’s not even like I give up my American citizenship and I transfer it completely to a different country. Because, you know, if you were to do that, you would still always have, like, English as your first language. You would always probably, like, prefer, like, garbage, horrible food we eat in America. Like, you know, you’d always, like, prefer, like, just a certain culture and way you grew up knowing just because it’s what you knew and it’s, like, just ingrained in your bones. So this kind of… Now, this kind of drastic transfer, it’s far superior to that. The change that God’s talking about that He expects, you know, to be evident and for there to be evidence of in your life, it’s something that only the power of the Gospel can do. Because I want you to understand what the Gospel of Jesus Christ does and does not do.
The Gospel of Jesus, the power of it, it doesn’t just alter you a little bit. It doesn’t improve you. It doesn’t improve upon what you are. It doesn’t modify you. It doesn’t update you. God takes what you are. He crucifies it with His Son, Jesus. He buries it with His Son, Jesus. And then He rebirths it. He resurrects it from the grave. A whole brand new person and thing with and in Jesus. You see, the Gospel’s not about what God can do to take your life and make it better. The Gospel is about Jesus. Jesus Christ coming, living a perfect life, dying a sacrificial death, being resurrected over sin and death. And when you and I say, I’m turning from myself, I’m turning from sin, I’m turning from Satan, God takes your heart and He crucifies it. He buries it and He brings it up victorious over sin and over death and over the grave. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the difference between a living person and a dead person, but you can tell the difference.
You’ve never gone to a funeral. And you’re like, now who is this funeral for? Who’s this funeral for? There’s like so many people here. Who’s it for? They’re dead. They’re in a casket. They’re rotting. In the same way the Scriptures say, you should look, you should be that different from who you were. You should be that different from the world.
Paul says you were slaves elsewhere and now you’re dead. But he says now you’re obedient from the heart.
He says you were enslaved to those passions, but God’s given you new passions. The Spirit of Christ has come in you. And you know what you have a passion for? Obeying God from the heart. And friends, when you do that, you’re going to look different. You’re going to stand out. You’re going to be somebody that the world can say, they’re different. They’re different.
The Spirit of Jesus, friends, it transforms. The Spirit of Jesus gives you a new mind to think. The Spirit gives you a new heart to believe. The Spirit gives you new desires for godliness. New eyes to see as God sees. New ears to hear as God hears. New priorities that are of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of man. The Spirit of Christ gives you new hands to serve. The Spirit of God gives you new feet to walk with, behind, following Jesus. The Spirit gives you resurrected life, freedom from sin, freedom from death, because Jesus was resurrected victorious over sin and death. Freedom from Satan. Freedom to God. So that you can say only, Jesus is my life. What’s your life, Jesus? I’m alive because He lives. I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive only because Jesus lives. My life is in Him.
He goes on in 22, the second half, and He says, here’s the fruit of that. He’s told us already, what’s the fruit of sin, of living a sinful life, of being a slave to Satan? What’s the fruit of it? Death. Eternal separation from God. But now He says, the fruit you get, it leads to sanctification, and it’s in eternal life. Now, I want you to look really hard at that verse with me, because here’s how we would like to read that verse if we’re still in the flesh. Here’s how my sinful self wants to read that verse. I want to read it like this. The fruit you get leads to eternal life. Cut out that middle big word.
Just, I’ll, yes, I’ll take God to be Master. Give me eternal life. The problem is it’s not at all what it said. Here’s the fruit of it. What’s the fruit of God making you alive in Christ Jesus? What’s the fruit of having turned from Satan and sin to Christ? Here’s the fruit of it.
Sanctification, welling up to eternal life. In other words, God is so good, He’s not just saying, alright, Jesus saved you, just do whatever you’re doing, and you’re alive, and then you’ll get to come into heaven. Not at all. Sanctification means God is growing you. Sanctification means God is setting you apart. Sanctification means God is making you holy. In other words, if you really are a slave of God, you know what one of the great evidences will be in your life right now?
Sanctification. You’ll want to every day die more and more to your sins. I want to push those away. And I do fail, but God’s good to convict me of that, and I’m grateful. I’m growing that. I don’t want to lie. I don’t want to steal. I don’t want to be selfish. I don’t want to be sexually immoral. I don’t want to live for me. I want to live for God. It’s in you because the Spirit of God is sanctifying you, and the work that God begins in you when you’re converted to Christ, He doesn’t stop that work until you get to heaven. It’s a work He’s doing. So friend, if you’re a slave of God, what is the great evidence of it? It’s your being sanctified in the Spirit. Sanctified in the Spirit. Growing up in Christ Jesus. That’s terribly convenient, isn’t it? Yeah, I’ll take the guy on the cross and the grave and that, and I’ll go to heaven. Sure. And that’s most people. That’s most people.
But the Word of God calls us out to not be most people. It calls us out to be Jesus’ people. And if I really want to be Jesus’ people, it means just like Jesus in this life, I’ve got to live in the power of the Spirit. Dying daily to the old man and coming more and more alive in the new man. That’s what it means. So yes, because of what Jesus did for you, you are right before God. Jesus washes your sin clean. He gives you all His righteousness in your account. So when the Father looks down at Chad, He doesn’t see Chad’s horrible record of sin. He sees the perfections of Christ. So thank you Jesus that I am right, right before God. But there’s more than that. Because I’m in Christ Jesus, I get to do right before God. I get to please God. So what’s the fruit? What’s the benefit of Easter? It’s not when you die, you go to heaven and not hell, but that’s good. The benefit, the fruit, should be you get to know and be like Jesus right now.
So I think Easter, really is a giant waste of time. If it’s just like once every, you know, 364 days, we’re like, oh, Jesus and the cross and we get excited and then you go back out to just live a normal life the next day. It’s not what God wants for you. He wants Easter to be a present reality every single day. Why? Because Jesus Christ’s resurrection is a present reality every day. His salvation, great, but also His Lordship in front of Jesus is your Lordship. Lord, He’s calling you to faithfulness right now, today, and every day after. That’s Easter. That’s Easter.
Sanctification doesn’t earn your salvation, but hear me say it, it is a proof of it. It is a proof of it.
Jesus cannot be your Savior if you will not also allow Him to be your Lord. Jesus cannot be your Savior if you’re not going to also allow Him to be your Lord. Allow Him to be your Lord. Who is your Lord? Think of it, you know, a simple illustration. A tall, healthy, strong oak tree is proof a good seed had been planted.
A healthy fruit coming from a vine, it’s proof someone planted a good seed. It’s proof someone planted a good seed. And someone watered that seed and someone cared for it and someone guarded it from some predator destroying it. You see, in the same way, you have to look at your life and you have to see, do I see the evidences in my life that God planted that seed? And through the process of sanctification, He’s watering me and He’s guarding me. And yes, there’s seasons where, man, maybe I’ve died down a little bit and I’ve not been faithful, but what’s God good to do? He’s good to prune me. He’s good to grow me. He’s good to call me back. So we’re not talking about perfection here. My Christian discipleship looks like this. Nobody looks like that. It looks more like this.
But you should be able to say, I’m on an upper trend here. I’m loving Jesus a little more and He’s keeping me and I desire Him and He is on the throne of my heart.
Are there evidences in your life of God at work? Are there evidences of the righteousness of Jesus in your life? Friend, deal with that. It’s the most important question in your life. It’s the most important question in your life. What a wonderful Savior Jesus is. Let’s today remain worshipful and overwhelmed with what Christ did. To die for sinners like us. Let’s worship God for this gospel of grace that calls out sinners like us to eternal life instead of eternal damnation. And let’s do it every day. Let’s not stop doing that. But today on Easter, I want to ask you also, is Jesus your Lord? Because He demands obedience. He demands obedience today and He demands it every day after. That’s the call of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Has God called you? Have you given God your everything? I want you to know that in your bones that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is Savior. And it’s not an obedience I have to give. Like, fine, I’ll obey Jesus in this life if He’ll let me get into heaven. Like, that’s forced obedience. That’s not love. See, the Spirit doesn’t just change us to do right things. The Spirit changes us to love to do right things. So friend, come to Christ. He’ll take you, what you are, where you are, what you’ve done, no matter who you are, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, and Jesus will baptize you and He will bring you up a different person. Would you give your life to Jesus? Would you give your all to Jesus today?
He closes this little passage with what is a really popular Scripture. He says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Notice it’s not a parallel. It doesn’t say the wages of sin is death and the wages of serving God is eternal life. You think that’s what the parallel would be. It’s not. Because righteousness can merit you nothing because your righteousness can never please God.
He’s helping you one more time ask yourself the question, are you still working as a slave? Are you still working as a slave for Satan who can only pay you in death? Or have you received the life of Christ? And in receiving the life of Christ, you’re being grown up in sanctification. You’re growing up in holiness and it’s welling up like a spring that’s going to burst forth from the ground into eternal life. What have you done? Who are you living for? Who have you given your life to? My plea to you this Easter Sunday,
won’t you let it be Jesus? If you’ve not done that, won’t you let it be Jesus? Call Jesus Lord and Savior. Would you pray with me?
I just want to give you a moment just to talk to the Lord. Process that Word.
I know we come from different places and we’re all in our hearts just thinking different things, but I want you to wrestle with that truth of do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Because Jesus is not trying to stay away from you. Jesus isn’t trying to hide from you. Jesus came and Jesus is still pleading through the Spirit to you today to cry out for salvation. To cry out from the heart.
So Lord, I just pray for this afternoon that maybe this Easter isn’t just another Easter, for someone.
But this Easter, Lord, we’re surrendered to Jesus fully and truly.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice.
Thank you for what you’ve done.