Change of Masters, Practice and Destiny

Introduction: The Danger of Half-Truths in Theology

0:03 Now I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Romans, the book of Romans and chapter 6, and please follow as I read beginning with verse 15, reading through to the end of the chapter. Romans chapter 6, beginning with verse 15.

0:28 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?

0:53 But thanks be to God that whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered, and being made free. From sin you became servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.

1:30 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit then did you have at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, you are having your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.

2:00 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus our Lord.

2:14 Now I would be surprised if there are not many of you who have heard the statement that a half-truth presented as a whole truth is a whole untruth. A half-truth presented as a whole truth is a whole untruth. For example, if you were to ask me, Pastor Martin, what do you believe? What do you believe concerning Jesus Christ?

2:43 Who is He? Tell us the whole truth about what you believe and who you believe He is. And if I were to say, Jesus Christ is a true man. He was conceived in the womb of a woman.

3:00 He was born as other men. He had all the faculties and capacities of all other men. He lived developing as. He was a real man.

3:13 And Jesus Christ is in every sense of the word a true man. And you said, is there anything more you believe about Him? I say, no, that's the whole truth about Him. Well, you see, if I represent who Christ is by only telling part of the truth, it becomes a whole untruth.

3:36 That is blatant heresy. If I'm prepared to say He is true man, but that's all that He is. Conversely, if I were to answer and say, my conviction about Jesus Christ is that He is true God. He is very God of God.

3:55 He has all the properties and attributes and capacities that inhere in the Godhead, Jesus Christ is truly God. And if you said, is there anything else you believe about Him? I say, no, that's the beginning, middle and end of my confession. That would be equally heretical.

4:14 That's only half of the truth. And to present it as the whole truth is to present a whole untruth. You see, the truth is Jesus Christ is just as much man as though He were not God. And just as much God as though He were not man.

4:34 The truth is He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the God man. He is in the language of Christ. He is in the language of classic theology.

4:44 The theanthropic, theos, God, anthropos, man. He is the theanthropic person. The two natures joined in the one person forever. That is the truth about Jesus.

4:59 Now the tendency to take half a truth and to state it as a whole truth is constantly with us. It has been one of the tendencies that has plagued Christendom throughout the centuries of its history on earth. And what is true in the realm of what we believe about the person of Christ is also true with respect to the salvation of Christ. That salvation has many facets.

5:29 And if we confess as the whole truth only something that is a part of the truth, then we have embraced and are confessing a whole untruth. And therefore just as Jesus said with respect to the institution of marriage, those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder. Likewise with all of God's truth, those that God has put together let no man put asunder. For to sever those truths that God has inseparably joined is to destroy ourselves with whole untruths. This morning I want to direct your attention to a passage in the word of God which very succinctly and yet comprehensively tells us the things that God has joined together that we dare not put asunder. And our text is verse 22 from Romans chapter 6. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, that's a statement about a change of masters,

The Three Inseparable Truths of Salvation (Romans 6:22)

6:49 you are having your fruit unto sanctification, that's a statement about a change of practice, and the end eternal life, that's a statement about a change of destiny. But you will notice in our text that the change of masters is inseparably joined to the change of practice, and the change of practice inseparably joined to the change of destinies. And what God has joined together in His word, and in every application of the saving work of Jesus Christ, we dare not put asunder. And in just a few moments we're going to examine this text under those three obvious and simple heads, the change of masters, the change of practice, and the change of destiny. But before we do, let me say just a word about the setting of this passage. The entire sixth chapter of Romans is found with the Apostle Paul answering the question that is raised in verse 1. What shall we say then?

The Context: Answering the Antinomian Question

8:03 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the Apostle's answer is, may it never be. The text does not actually have the word God, but the idiom that is used is the strongest expression of negation, may it never be, God forbid. Now why did the Apostle anticipate that question?

8:27 Why does he raise it? Because from Romans chapter 3 and verse 21, all the way through to the end of chapter 5 in the book of Romans, he has been establishing two very fundamental principles that lie at the foundation of our salvation. Having demonstrated from chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 3 and verse 20 that all men, Jew and Gentile alike, those who have seen the written revelation of God, those who have never seen it, those who have heard God's truth, those who have never heard it, they are all guilty, all under condemnation, all hell-deserving sinners who have fallen in Adam. Beginning in verse 21 of chapter 3, he begins to expound the glorious salvation that God extends to such sinners in Jesus Christ. And in establishing the truth concerning that salvation, he drives home two fundamental issues. Issue number one is that such guilty, hell-deserving sinners find acceptance with God only on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ.

9:45 He summarizes that in verses 21 to 24 of chapter 3. These sinners, if they are ever to find acceptance with God, if the court of heaven is ever to declare them not guilty, accepted before the law, treat them as righteous, they will be on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ alone. But then he labors to establish a second point that is crucial to the gospel. And that is that these guilty, hell-deserving sinners who can only find acceptance before God in Christ alone, they receive that salvation by faith alone.

10:28 Not by faith plus the works of the law, not by faith plus their own deeds of devotion. It is Christ alone and faith alone. And so much is this true that when he comes to the end of the treatment of this salvation, he can declare in verse 20 of chapter 5, where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly. And because our salvation rests down upon the doing and the dying of another, the more sin the sinner brings into the presence of God as he embraces that salvation, the more the grace of God is abounding.

11:12 There is nothing except the sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be forgiven. And so when someone hears the apostle say, wait a minute, you mean you're telling me that no matter what my sins have been, as part of that group described in Romans 1.18-30, no matter what I have done outwardly and inwardly with my mind, my mouth, my hands, my feet, and my whole humanity in defiance of God, that by simply throwing myself upon Christ, trusting only in Him, all of my sins are pardoned and I am accepted as righteous in the sight of God? Paul says yes.

11:53 Well, someone adds to that glorious teaching the devil's logic. Well, if where sin abounds, grace does superabound, then let's continue in sin that grace may abound. If our salvation depends solely on the work of another and is embraced by faith, and God is more glorified, the more sin is forgiven and pardoned, then let's continue in sin that grace may abound. Paul says no, no, no, no, may it never be.

12:23 And then the rest of the chapter he is opening up why that may never be, why that cannot be. And what he does is to demonstrate that the faith by which the sinner lays hold of Christ, in whom his salvation is to be found, that faith also unites us to Christ. And in uniting us to Christ, verses 2 and following, we are so united to Him that the death He died for sin becomes our death to sin. And since we were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him to newness of life, if we are truly united to Him by faith, we will not continue in sin. And then in the paragraph that I read in your hearing, in that union with Christ, we not only share in the virtue of His death and burial and resurrection, we also experience a radical change of masters. And the whole imagery is that the passage from verse 15 to the end of the chapter opens up that theme of this matter of the master that each of us serves in the capacity of a slave. And as he unfolds that truth in verses 15 to 23,

The Change of Masters: From Sin to God

13:49 he gives us in verse 22 what is a summary of all of the teaching of that paragraph. And in that summary we find the change of masters, the change of practice, and the change of destiny. Now then, let's seek to unpack the text. First of all, the change of masters.

14:11 But now, assuming that this is the experience of every true Christian at Rome to whom he writes, but now, being made free from sin and become servants to God. Let's ask three questions of the first part of our text. The first question we ask is who was the old master? And our text says the old master was sin.

14:40 Being made free from sin. Sin is personified into a master. And the Roman Christians are described as those who at one time yielded allegiance and obedience to that master. And that master, being personified, sin, had in his subjugation servants whose service to him was very real and very evident.

15:14 Look at verse 19. Paul is conscious that he's having to use human imagery and analogy in order to help us in our slowness to grasp spiritual truths. And I would simply say for any who are hiding their heads behind others, please shift a little in the pew. I'm not looking in any direction.

15:33 I want to preach to your eyes. Please don't hide from me, okay? I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members as servants, literally, as slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present.

15:59 You see how he describes their slavery? It was not a theological concept. Oh yes, we are all slaves of sin, but it has no practical expression. No, he says, I speak after the manner of men.

16:11 I'm going to accommodate myself to this imagery to help you to grasp. And this is what he says. You were presenting your members slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. Their servitude, their enslavement was very real and very evident.

16:31 He says you presented your members to your master, your mind to think his thoughts. Ephesians chapter 2 amplifies this matter of fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And in your mind you conceived thoughts of atheism, thoughts of blasphemy, thoughts of anarchy against God, thoughts of lust, of murder, of envy, of pride. Your mind, a member of your faculties given by God to think his thoughts after him.

17:05 He said you gave your mind to the service of sin. You gave your eyes to the service of sin. With your eyes you looked out in coveted. With your eyes you looked out in lust.

17:17 You had the green eye of envy. With your hands you took and touched forbidden objects. With your feet you walked in forbidden paths. Your servitude to sin was not theoretical.

17:29 It was very real and very practical. As day after day you came and presented yourself before your master. Your master called sin. Your master called iniquity and uncleanness.

17:43 And you presented yourself and your God-given faculties given by God to glorify him. And you gave them to the service of sin, of iniquity and uncleanness. But not only that, but not only was that servitude real and evident, according to verse 20 it was exclusive. Look at the text.

18:06 For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What does he mean? What he's saying is this. When you were in that relationship of servitude to sin, you regarded yourself a free man, a free woman, a free boy or girl with respect to this other master called righteousness.

18:28 And when God spoke in his law saying thou shalt or thou shalt not, you said with Pharaoh, who is the Lord that I should obey him? He has no rights over me. I'm a free man with respect to righteousness. And to the God who sets the standard of righteousness and to the God who articulates the path of righteousness, I regarded myself as a free man.

18:54 When righteousness spoke, I said who are you that I should mind you? I'll do what I want to do. I'll do what I desire to do. I'll do what I'm inclined to do.

19:06 I'm my own man. I'm my own woman. I'm my own boy. I'm my own girl.

19:11 All the while not realizing you're serving a cruel master who wants to drag you into the pit. That's the description Paul gives in answer to the question who was the old master. Now we ask the second question of this first part of our text. Who is the new master?

19:30 The new master according to our text, verse 22, now being made free from sin and become servants, bond slaves to God. The new master is God himself. God as we shall see revealed in the gospel. God in the coming forth of his love and pity to these hell deserving sinners described in chapter 118 to 320.

19:58 God in his pity and in his love and mercy to those who were his enemies. This God who has come to you Romans in the gospel, you have him as your new master. And because God is the God of righteousness and the God who articulates his will and pattern of righteousness in his word, he can describe righteousness as their new master. You will see this as we look up in verse 18.

20:33 And being made free from sin, same language as verse 22, now being made free from sin. But here he says you became servants or bond slaves of righteousness. Well did we become bond slaves of God or bond slaves of righteousness? It's not either or.

20:51 It's both and. It's both. It's both. No one can become a servant of righteousness in the biblical sense in which from the heart he embraces God as his God and as his master, desiring to please him from the deepest springs of motivation and emotion as well as the farthest reaches of external conduct.

21:15 He can never become a slave of righteousness until he becomes a slave of God. And if he becomes a slave of God as God reveals himself in the gospel he becomes the willing bond servant of God and of his Christ. If he really is his servant he will automatically become the bond servant of righteousness. His relationship to God in Christ through the gospel will never be merely abstract and notional.

21:44 It will be intensely practical and ethical. And so when he describes the obedience to the new master just as the obedience to the old master was real and evident and exclusive, so the obedience to the new master is real. Look at verse 16. Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants or slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?

22:17 He said, look, if you want to know whose slave are you, don't theorize about it. Just ask, which master do I obey? Do I obey the old master sin or do I obey the new master? It is a real servitude.

22:36 Notice in verse 19. I speak after the manner of men. As you presented your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, your service of your old master was real, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. This obedience is to be real as well.

22:58 And it is also exclusive. Verse 16. You either present yourself in a path of obedience to sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. And verse 18 says, being made free from sin, you did actually become the servants or the bond slaves of righteousness.

23:21 So the new master is God. It is righteousness. And may I say, there is no middle place of loyalty. What did we read this morning in Matthew 6, 24?

23:33 No man can serve two masters. It's impossible. Two masters cannot hold the place of supreme allegiance in your heart and dictate the details of your life from the inside out. So we've asked two questions of our text.

23:51 Who was the old master? Sin. Who is the new master? God and righteousness.

23:56 Third question. How and when did the change of masters occur? Our text says, now being made free from sin and become servants to God. How in the world did that change occur in these Romans?

24:14 What was it that took them out from under the dominion and servitude of sin and brought them over under the gracious dominion and servitude to God as revealed in Christ? What did it? How did it happen? The answer is in verse 17.

How the Change of Masters Occurs: Obedience to the Gospel

24:33 The answer is given to us in verse 17. But thanks be to God. However it happened, God gets the credit for it. Paul's not going to describe how it happened without saying, look, whatever I describe, the credit is to be given not to the Romans, not to whoever preached to them, not to whoever prayed for them.

24:54 But thanks be to God. What I'm going to describe that happened among you Romans, God is to receive all of the praise and all of the glory. And what does he give God thanks for? Look at it.

25:07 Thanks be to God that whereas you were bond slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered and being made free from sin, you became servants to righteousness. You see how he answers the question? How and when did the change of masters take place? It took place through the mighty, powerful application of the gospel to the hearts and lives of these people.

25:41 Notice how he develops it. This change took place when the gospel came in what Paul calls a form or pattern of teaching. He's describing the gospel. When he says you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching, that's a synonym for the gospel.

26:04 It is a form, it is a pattern, a discernible body of objectively revealed truths. It is not a mushy, gushy, abstract, theoretical, ephemeral, mystical thrill and chill and tingles up the spine that in some way or another has something or other to do with Jesus and knowing God. No. It came with such distinct, explicit affirmations about God and man and sin and grace that he can call it a form of teaching.

26:44 That's when the transformation occurred. When the gospel came as a form of teaching. But you see the gospel can come as a form of teaching and we still serve the old master. That's true of many of you sitting here.

26:57 But the change of masters is not automatically wrought simply by being confronted with the form of teaching that is the gospel. But notice how Paul describes their interaction with the gospel. He says you became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching where unto you were delivered. If you have a translation that says that was delivered to you, that is a wretched rendering of the form of the verb.

27:25 It is a passive. You were delivered unto the form of teaching. It's a beautiful description of God's effectual call in the gospel. What does God do when with the gospel he puts forth the arm of his power to take dead sinners and quicken them to life by his regenerating work, bring them to repentance and faith and unite them to Christ.

27:49 What he's doing is he's casting them into the mold of the gospel. That gospel says to all sinners, you are lost, you deserve hell, you are helpless, you are undone. Christ is a willing, Christ is an able, Christ is an inviting savior. He stands ready to forgive you for the guilt of sin.

28:13 He stands ready to break the power and the dominion of sin. He stands ready to recreate in you the very image and likeness of God. That's the gospel. And when the Spirit of God attends that gospel with power, what does he do with people who hitherto have been the bond slaves of sin?

28:31 He casts them into the mold of the gospel. And as they are cast into that mold, what's the first thing they do? The text says, they obey from the heart that form of teaching which was the gospel. They obey it from the heart.

28:54 And what does it mean to obey the gospel from the heart? It means to comply with the gracious gospel commands. Repent and believe. Turn from sin and trust the Savior.

29:10 And when God is casting people into the mold of the gospel by the efficacious work of the Spirit, it becomes their possession at the level of their consciousness when from the heart they say, yes, I am just the sinner God says I am. I am the slave to sin that God says I am. I know I deserve wrath as God says I do. I know that I deserve hell as God says I do.

29:38 But I see in Christ as He is presented in the gospel, a Savior perfectly suited to my need, a Savior gracious and merciful and compassionate and mighty to forgive and to break my chains. From the heart I rise up and I go to Him. There is an obedience from the heart to the command to repent and turn from self-will and the deliberate servitude of sin and henceforth to give myself up to God in Christ to be His servant. And I lay hold of the promise in the gospel that whosoever believes on Him should not perish.

30:21 That's obeying from the heart the form of teaching unto which we are delivered. Now that's what transformed these Romans. It wasn't someone who came along with the latest sociological insight who learned how to transfer guilt to this structure of society and to this segment of a perverted, fallen, degenerate Roman society. No.

30:49 They were thrown from the heart, all the indictments of God against them. And then they embraced from the heart all of the glorious truths that surround the blessed person and work of our Lord Jesus. And when they obeyed from the heart the form of teaching unto which they were delivered, what happened? Verse 22, being made free from sin and become servants to God.

Application: The Certainty and Source of the Change of Masters

31:17 Verse 17 tells us how and when the change of masters took place. Now I want to say by way of application before we move on more briefly to the change of practice, it's evident that just as Paul assumes that all of the Christians at Rome were by nature slaves of sin, he now asserts that all the Christians at Rome are the willing bond slaves of God and of righteousness. He doesn't have any other category. He doesn't say, but now since some of you have been made free from sin and become servants to God, why don't the rest of you catch up and get yielded and surrendered and get off your ducks and get off dead center and begin to really be sold out Christians.

32:02 No, he says if you're a Christian, this is true of you, you have been made free from sin in terms of sin being your master, sin being the master to whom you willingly, deliberately, consciously, delightfully yield your members and when righteousness speaks, you say I have no allegiance to righteousness. He says you have been made free from sin and you have become the slaves of righteousness. Our text is not an exhortation. It is not an appeal to become something they're not.

32:35 It's an affirmation of what they are. And furthermore, Paul is confident that whenever and wherever such a work is done, that it's God who is to get all the credit. Why? Because there's no explanation for anyone in whom there is the change of masters but the putting forth of omnipotent grace.

32:58 Men by their influence upon other men can get people to make professions. Men by their influence upon others can get people to make decisions. Parents by their noble God-given influence can make perfect little Pharisees who know their Bibles and can quote their text and who live respectable lives. But parents cannot break the dominion of sin in their children.

33:22 And they cannot make them the willing, joyful bond-slaves of God in Christ and to righteousness. Paul says God did that. God did something at Rome. God did something in the hearts and lives of these people.

33:38 And he blesses God that he has indeed done it. And I would ask you as you sit here this morning, could Paul have this confidence of you? Could he say of everyone naming the name of Christ in this place this morning, man, woman, boy or girl, God be thanked. It's evident that you once were slaves of sin.

34:03 And it's just as evident that you are now the bond-slaves of righteousness. Is there anything about you that defies any other explanation but God be thanked? Anything about you that defies any other explanation other than God be thanked? Almighty God who spoke the worlds into being has cast you into the mold of the Gospel.

34:30 The contours of your life are shaped by the truth of the Gospel. Now all kinds of people profess allegiance to Christ but the contours of their life are shaped by the world, by their peers, by society, not by the Gospel. Paul can write to people living in that veritable sinkhole of iniquity at the center of the Roman Empire and confidently say, God be thanked! God be thanked!

34:59 Whereas you were the slaves of sin, you've obeyed from the heart that form of teaching unto which you were delivered and being made free from sin, you became servants to righteousness. And this ought to be a comfort to some of you young people who struggle with the fact that because God has wonderfully protected you from a lot of external sin through the influence of a God and the constant sensitizing of your conscience through the Scriptures preached and taught at home, school, and in this place, you wonder, am I really a Christian? I haven't had no dramatic conversion. Am I really a child of God?

35:42 This ought to comfort you. Listen, listen. If from the heart you want to please God from the inside out, not just enough on the outside so mom and dad don't ground you or spank you or take away your privilege, or take away your privileges, but from the inside out, you really want to serve God because you love God and you want your life to be shaped by the Gospel. God be thanked, you'd never want that if God had not cast you into the mold of the Gospel.

36:13 You'd never want that. You'd be content to be a perfect little Pharisee saying the right things, being at the right place at the right time with your mind and heart a thousand miles away, no desire to pray, no desire to read the Word. But that's not true of you. You're reading your Bible now not because mom and dad are going to check up on you, though they do.

36:35 You read it because you do get some real sense of the Lord speaking to you when you read your Bible. And you do pray. You do pray. Well, no one else knows but you and God.

36:47 Why? Because you do know what it is to come before God and confess your sin and confess your love to Him and confess your desire to serve Him and please Him. And you say, Lord, give me grace today as I go off to school or wherever I'm going and help me in that situation to do what pleases You. You're a slave of righteousness.

37:09 And mommy and daddy couldn't have you make you that. Pastor Martin and all the other elders together couldn't make you that. So what if you don't know when the transaction took place? God wanted you to know He'd have made your experience more definite.

37:25 But you see, if you've been cast into the mold of the Gospel and you are a servant of God in Christ and to righteousness, then for you to doubt that God has done it is to be a shameful thing. Won't you acknowledge the work of God's gracious hands in your life? And stop worrying about the fact, well, I didn't come to grace. You know you did enough sin to send you to hell, don't you?

37:50 You've got no quarrel with that. If I ask you, if God gave you what you deserve, where would you be? Pastor Martin, I know God would send me to hell. And if I ask you, what's your only hope for salvation?

38:03 You say, Oh, it's in Jesus and what He did. And how do you lay hold of that? To turn from sin and to trust Him. And with all my heart I'm seeking to do that.

38:12 And I'm seeking to obey God out of a heart of love, not to try to earn brownie points in heaven, but because God has sent His Son to die for the likes of me. Dear children, don't trouble your minds about not knowing when the transaction took place. God be thanked that whereas you were the slaves of sin, you've obeyed from the heart the form of teaching unto which you were delivered. And being made free from sin, you've become the servants of righteousness.

38:44 You see, nobody sitting here this morning is a free man, a free woman, a free boy, a free girl. Everyone's a slave. Every one of you. Every one of us.

38:54 You're either a slave to sin or a servant of God and of righteousness. And there is no middle ground. You were, you are, you either are and have not yet become, or you were and you have become. Change of masters.

The Change of Practice: Fruit Unto Sanctification

39:12 More briefly now, notice secondly, change of practice. Paul assumes that where this change of masters has occurred, now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you, now notice he doesn't say you ought to have, some of you may have, all of you ought to have, no, no, you are having. It's a statement of fact. It is an indicative, not an imperative.

39:41 It's nothing in the way of exhortation. It's a statement of fact. You are having your fruit unto sanctification. Now two questions of our, this part of our text.

39:53 What is the fruit unto sanctification? Well, fruit is something produced in the life as fruit is produced on the tree or a plant. And what is that something? Well, look at verse 22 where the same word is used.

40:07 I'm sorry, at verse 20, 21. What fruit had you at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. What fruit did you have in the things whereof you are now ashamed?

40:26 Their past life and deeds were not fruit. They are things that have given occasion for shame. What is the fruit now? The last part of verse 19.

40:39 You now present your members as servants to righteousness, and here's the same word in the original, unto sanctification. Fruit of righteousness unto sanctification. This is the fruit. It is the result of the members of our body no longer being the slaves of sin.

41:02 That produced non-fruit. That produced only things that now cause shame. And that's one of the acid tests of whether or not we're new creatures in Christ. If we can think of our past with anything but shame.

41:16 He says you're now ashamed. Not you ought to be. You are. The stuff that was non-fruit makes you ashamed.

41:23 But now there is fruit. And what is that fruit? It is that righteousness that is produced as you now present your members unto God. Where once your mind thought wicked thoughts, mean thoughts, murderous thoughts, envious thoughts, lustful thoughts, that mind now seeks to think God's thoughts after Him.

41:45 Thoughts of God, thoughts of Christ, thoughts of my duty, my privileges, thoughts of others, how to be a light and salt in their presence, how to bear witness to them, how to do them good. My hands that once took things that didn't belong to me are now jealous that they only touch what God says they ought to touch and only take what God says they ought to take. And my feet I desire and am jealous that they only walk in paths commanded by God and never in paths forbidden by God. That's the fruit unto sanctification.

42:20 And he says wherever there's been the change of masters there will always of necessity be the change of practice. What is this fruit unto sanctification? It is the members of the body once the servants of sin now acting out their new relationship as servants of righteousness. The second question is this.

42:46 In how many true Christians is this change of practice found? Look at our text. Now being made free from sin and become servants to God you are having, not some of you, a few of you, most of you, all of you who've had the change of masters are manifesting the change of practice. You are having your fruit unto holiness.

43:14 The change is not perfect. You read on into chapter 7 and Paul acknowledges that there is yet this contrary principle that would drag him downward and away from the service he desires to render to God. But the very fact is that he is conscious of the conflict. It is not a matter of mere naggings of conscience which is no proof of being in a state of grace.

43:38 It is the pull of a vital principle in the direction of God and of holiness. I delight in the law of God after my inward man. No one who is a slave of sin can say that. Only one who has had his stony heart removed and been given a heart of flesh and the law of God written upon that heart can say, I delight in the law of God with my inward part.

44:03 Yes, there is a contrary principle fighting against me and warring. Yes! But nonetheless, Paul can write you are having your fruit unto sanctification not perfectly but in principle. Not universally even but consistently manifested.

Application: Self-Examination of the Change of Practice

44:21 It is real. It is evident. It is unmistakable. Now let me ask you a very personal question.

44:28 Will you bring your life from the past week to this clear teaching? And ask yourself if an impartial observer were somehow able to be equipped with devices that would enable that person to record every thought you thought during every waking moment of every day of the past week, was able to record every word you have spoken, every deed you have done, would that person be forced in the weight of the evidence to say that man, that woman, that boy, that girl is bringing forth fruit unto holiness, unto sanctification, unto a life separated unto God with the moral and ethical implications of that separation? Now you ask yourself that with judgment day honesty. If someone were able to record the first springs of thought from Monday morning past to the last thoughts before you drifted off to bed, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, every word, every deed, would they be forced to say there is no explanation for that person's life, but that they are bringing forth fruit unto holiness? Not perfectly,

45:57 because part of the words they would have heard you pray, part of the words they would read in your silent prayers is, O God, forgive my lustful thoughts. O God, forgive my unclean and impure thoughts, my unloving thoughts. But you see, that's bringing forth fruit unto righteousness. Repentance is something an utter, a person who's never been changed by Christ is an utter stranger to the reality of heart repentance for heart sins.

46:28 They're only concerned with the sins that will bring them into trouble with the law or with others. Whereas the one who's had a change of masters wants to please his new master in the deepest springs of his thoughts. He desires to have every thought brought captive to the obedience of Christ. And when vagabond thoughts have roamed into wastelands and forbidden territory, part of the fruit unto righteousness is repentance for wandering thoughts.

46:58 What about your words? Would your words reflect that your tongue has been brought unto the service of God in Christ and is being governed by the principles of righteousness? Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to those who hear. Let all bitterness, wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

47:26 Would someone be forced to acknowledge there's no explanation for what we've recorded from that man's lips, that woman's, that boy's, that girl's lips but that he is a servant of righteousness bringing forth fruits unto holiness, unto sanctification? Ask yourself and you better answer as honestly as you must answer in the day of judgment because if it's not true and that's been the pattern not only for the past week but the past month, the past six months, the past year, you've never known any other pattern, my friend. You have no biblical grounds to say that you're a child of God. Because whenever God cast men and women and boys and girls into the mold of the gospel and there is a change of masters, there will always be a change of practice. But you see, that has its comforting side as well. For some of you who can say, yes, during the past week though my thoughts have been the occasion of repentance, I've had spontaneous thoughts about God and about Christ and about how to please Him and how to walk before Him. And my hands have refused to touch things they should not even when mom and dad weren't there and husband and wife and employer were nowhere around.

48:52 I have refrained my hands out of the desire to please my God and I have steered my feet and I have clicked my remote because God was there. Seeing all I saw and I wanted to please God in terms of what I would let come in to the eye. Now, if that's been true of you, it matters not if you can't point to when God worked in your heart and life. That would not be true of you unless God by His power had brought you into the mold of the Gospel, changed you from a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness.

The Change of Destiny: Eternal Life

49:36 And as you ought to take encouragement from the fact that the evidence of a change of master is there, so the change of practice. No change of masters and no change of practice. We come now in the third place to look at the change of destiny. The change of destiny and the end eternal life.

50:04 What is the meaning of these words? The end is the conclusion, the destination, eternal life. Eternal life is used broadly in the Scriptures. Sometimes it's speaking of the quality of life primarily.

50:16 This is life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God in the world. John 17.3 1 John 3 and verse 16 where, 15 where John says if a man hates his brother he's a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. There the emphasis falls not so much upon duration or consummation of life but upon quality of life that will endure forever.

50:45 But in this passage it's obviously pointing to eternal life in its consummate full glory when we are brought home into the presence of our God. And this text says that eternal life is the destiny of those who have had a change of master and manifested in a change of practice but to no others. The end of what? Not the end of everyone who makes a decision, makes a profession, who declares himself to be a Christian but the end of those who have experienced the change of masters are experiencing the change of practice and their end is eternal life.

51:26 What was their former destiny? It's described in verse 21b as death. What fruit had you then at that time in the things you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.

51:38 Verse 23 the wages of sin is death. You serve sin as your master payday comes someday and he'll pay you and what he'll pay you with is death. The wages you earn for going on in the servitude of sin is death. But now notice verse 23 the free gift of God is eternal life where?

52:04 In our fruit unto holiness no but it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's God's free gift it's in Christ but if you're in Christ you have a change of masters and a change of practice. This is victorious in the change of masters and in the change of practice. All the merit is in Christ.

52:32 Eternal life is God's free gift in Christ but it is not realized by any who don't experience change of master and change of practice. You see how it all fits together? Are we saying that our perseverance in the way of holiness earns life? No!

Conclusion: The Inseparable Union of Masters, Practice, and Destiny

52:53 There's enough sin in our text. These three things God has joined together and let no man put them asunder in his own conscience or in his own judgment of himself. He could write of every single Roman Christian thanks be to God that whereas you were what has happened now being made free from sin and become servants or slaves to God you are having your fruit eternal they are inseparably joined. If you sit here this morning and say you've described me pastor those passages that describe the slave of sin that's me. Yes I do present my members as servants to uncleanness unto iniquity and to iniquity. My members are indeed in servitude to the devil. How can I break the chains?

53:56 It is only in Christ Jesus our Lord. You don't take the hacksaw of your own unblessed effort and try to cut your own chains. You don't try to pick the locks of the prison but you cry out of the prison Lord Jesus come and break my chains. Lord Jesus come and open the prison to this man this woman this boy this girl who is bound in his sins.

54:27 He's been anointed and he can break the chains. You cry out son of David have mercy upon me. And as he hears that cry he will by his own almighty power cast you into the mold of the gospel and then your life will take on the contours of a gospel that proclaims Jesus who saves his people not in but apo away from their sins away from their galling damning power and he saves them unto a life of holiness as well as unto acceptance in the court of heaven. My dear unconverted friend you desperately need a change of masters without which there'll never be a change of practice without which there'll be no change of destiny. The wages of your sin will be eternal death separation from almighty God weeping and wailing and gnashing till the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and forever. In the gospel God offers life and salvation and liberation to you but it's in Christ. Go to Christ cast yourself upon Christ

55:57 and for you who have sat here this morning who have been struggling with the issue yet you have to be honest and say I discern in me things that I know have no explanation. Don't make what you discern of grace in you the ground of coming to God in Christ. Wherever you're at in the issue of your assurance make the primary motion of your mind and heart to say oh God I would lay hold of your promise in the gospel him that comes to me I will in no wise be the witness of your soul not the act of a moment and indeed there will be evidence enough that there's been a change of masters and that there is an ongoing change of practice and then you will be able increasingly to rejoice in the best that is yet to come the destiny and we shall see him and be like him and we shall be transformed body and spirit into the moral likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now being made free from sin and become servants to God you are having your fruit unto sanctification and the end eternal life. Change of masters is that true of you? Change of practice is that true of you?

Prayer

57:21 Change of destiny will not be true of you unless you can affirm the first two by the grace of God are your experience. Let's pray. Our Father we thank you for those portions of your word in which you have brought together in a very short and succinct way the great issues of the soul's salvation and we pray that you would take the words of this passage and write them upon our hearts and by the power of your Holy Spirit that even this day you will come and cast some into the mold of the gospel that they may obey from the heart that they may be a part of this teaching and we praise you our Father that you have done that work in many of us and as Paul desired to give you thanks for what you had done in effecting that change in many at Rome so we would give you thanks for effecting that change in many here in this place today. Seal your word to our hearts out of your perfect knowledge of our specific needs. May you apply that word to our hearts and inescapable pressure. Seal then this truth to our hearts and be with us as we leave this place

58:50 we ask in Jesus name Amen.