How Does this Transformation Come to Pass?

Introduction: The Astonishing Transformation

0:02 I would encourage you to follow in your own Bible as I read from the 6th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans chapter 6, and I shall read from verse 14 to the end of the chapter. Romans 6, beginning with verse 14.

0:53 Whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. But thanks be to God that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. And being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.

1:21 For as ye presented your members. As servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity. Even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.

1:35 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin.

1:54 And become servants to God. Ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2:16 One of the most astounding things in all of the world. Is the transformation wrought in the heart and life of a sinner. By the grace of God. By the grace of God.

2:26 By the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the grace of God.

2:26 By the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the power of God through the gospel.

2:31 The Bible uses many strands of vivid imagery in an attempt to set forth something of the magnitude and the glory of this gospel transformation. And in the passage which has been read in your hearing. One of those forms of imagery is very graphically drawn out by the apostle Paul. And it is obviously the image.

2:57 The image of the master-slave relationship with respect to the transforming power of the gospel. In this particular passage, as you have been reminded in this brief series of studies. The apostle is refuting the false deduction drawn from the wonderful truth stated in verse 14. Namely, that in union with Christ we are no longer under the law.

3:23 The law shall not, sin shall not have dominion over you. For, ye are not under law, but under grace. That is, the law no longer can say to us, This do and thou shalt live. This fail to do and thou shalt die.

3:42 Our acceptance with God is based upon the law-keeping of another. And upon the satisfaction made to that broken law in the death of another. Well then, someone adds to that glorious, Truth, the devil's logic in verse 15. And says, shall we then sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?

4:07 The apostle's answer is, God forbid. And then he states his thesis. He says, this is impossible. For, if you present yourself a servant to sin.

4:17 Why then you will have the end of that servitude which is not life and righteousness, but death. However, if you present yourself. A servant to obedience, then you show yourself indeed to be the true child of the living God. Well, it is in the unfolding then of this particular thesis that this imagery of the master-slave relationship as it pertained to the spiritual history of the Romans is so graphically and wonderfully opened up in this portion of the word of God.

Review: The Former and New Condition of Believers

4:51 In the first study, we considered what the apostle says in this passage concerning the former condition of the Romans. He asserts their condition as being one of servitude to sin. He says, ye were the slaves of sin. Then he describes that condition.

5:12 It was a condition in which, according to verse 19, they voluntarily presented their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin and to uncleanness and iniquity. First, furthermore, he describes it in verse 20 as a condition in which there was resolute refusal to acknowledge the claims of righteousness and of God. They regarded themselves free men with respect to the claims of the law of God. Then having asserted the condition servitude to sin, having described it, he then states the end of that condition and he says the end of that condition is nothing less than death.

5:56 Death in its ultimate and horrendous implications in the light of the biblical doctrine of hell, the separation of the soul from God, that soul joined to the body, which presented its members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity. The wages are paid out in that awful day when men hear the frightening words, depart from me, ye cursed. Then he says, Then we saw the new condition of the Romans described. He asserts that condition as a new servitude.

6:34 He says you experienced emancipation by servitude. You were the slaves of sin. But he says in verse 17 and again in verse 22, they had become the slaves of righteousness and of God. Then he describes that condition.

6:53 He says that new servitude is marked. It's marked by shame of the past. It's marked by the voluntary presentation of your members now to do the will of God. Verse 19.

7:06 And it is marked by a life of sanctification. Verse 22. And the end of that new condition is stated as nothing less than life. Life in all of its glory in the presence of God in his own blessed place that he has been preparing for.

7:25 For his people. Well, so much for that very brief review. One in which we focused upon what the Romans were, what they had become. But now the great question which should burn in all of our minds is this.

The Central Question: How Does Transformation Occur?

7:43 How did this amazing transformation come to pass? By what agency were the slaves of sin constituted the servants of God? Well, it is precisely that question to which we address ourselves tonight. And the answer to that question we shall see is very compactly but beautifully given to us in verse 17.

8:13 But as we stand on the threshold of examining the answer to that question, may I underscore in your hearing that this is not an academic exercise or an exercise in idle curiosity. It is a question of the mind. It is a question of the mind. It is a question of the mind.

8:26 It is a question of the mind. It is a question of the mind. For everything that the Romans were by nature, you and I are by nature. We are by nature the slaves of sin.

8:38 And if we remain the slaves of sin, the end of that servitude will be death. And unless we become what the Romans became, that is, the slaves of righteousness, and unless that slavery to righteousness is manifested in us as it was in the beginning, we will be beyond it and we shall not attain it. The only thing that is manifest is life. We shall not attain life as it was in the beginning, unless the fruit of the realidad of the Old Testament that there is in us, which came from the two worlds that is, which we call the Bible and that was in them, shame of the past, voluntarily presenting our members instruments of righteousness unto God, the fruit of sanctification, unless we become what they became and manifest what they manifested, we shall not have their end.

9:15 We shall not attain unto life, for life is imparted in the same pattern of spiritual experience for us as it was for them. in a very real sense this is a matter of life and of death for each of us. Unless we experience what they experience in the same way and by the same means that they experienced it, we cannot escape the death which would have been their portion. And so as we come to this great question, by what means did the transformation occur? May God help us not to address our selves to that question with idle, albeit innocent, perhaps curiosity or a mere desire to discover how it was that this occurred in the experience of the Romans. But may it be with the burning concern, O God, may the means that proved effectual to their transformation prove effectual to mine. And I suggest that the text sets before us three things in answer to that question. 1. By what means did the transformation occur?

Point 1: God Alone is the Author of Transformation

10:26 What means, in what way did the transformation occur? And the first thing our text sets before us is the fact that God alone is the author of this transformation. And this fact is set before us both explicitly in the text and implicitly. Explicitly, look at the language of verse 17. Having stated his thesis in verse 16, 2. Having asserted that whoever you obey, his servant you are, as he enters into this description of the marvelous transformation from servitude to sin, to servitude to God and to righteousness, he doesn't even begin to expound the nature of that change until first of all, he has set God front and center in the whole description. The language, it begins like this, but thanks be to God. Indicating in the apostle's mind that whatever

11:35 follows of a description of the transformation which occurred in the Romans, every single facet of that transforming work is to be attributed to God and to God alone. But thanks be to God. And then he launches into his description that whereas you were this, he became this, and then he expands upon it, he enlarges upon it, but he never moves from that essential and fundamental issue announced at the outset. Thanks be to God. He does not say, but thanks be to the messenger who brought you the news of deliverance and the possibility of an exchange of slavery from sin to righteousness. He does not say, but thanks be to the messenger who brought you to deliverance and the possibility of an exchange of slavery from sin to righteousness. He certainly does not say, thanks be to you Romans. You've done God a great favor by exercising your free will and obeying the gospel. Nor does he even say, but thanks be to the message,

12:40 and certainly he does not say, but thanks be to Mary and to the saints or to the sacraments and to the church. He says no such thing. He says, but thanks be to God, indicating that in answer to that question. In other words, thank you to God.

12:56 How did the transformation come to pass? We are to understand that God and God is the author of that transformation. That truth, I say, is set forth explicitly, patently, in the very language of the text. But it is there latently and implicitly as well.

13:21 There are five passive verbs or participles in this section. Now, you children, don't go to sleep. You ought to understand a little grammar if you're going to understand the Bible and theology. Now, a passive verb is a verb in which something, there's a description of an activity in which something is acted upon.

13:45 In an active verb, the subject does whatever is being done. Let me illustrate. I am now standing on the right side of the pulpit, left to you, right to me. If I say, I, moved to the left side of the pulpit, I am the subject and I performed the activity.

14:07 I moved from the right side of the pulpit to the left side. But I take my glass of water and I put it on the right side of the pulpit.

14:18 It's moved to the left side. Now I would say, the glass of water was moved from the right side of the pulpit to the left. Now, you see, I've used a passive, form of the verb. I did not say the glass of water moved from the right to the left.

14:37 Or I did not say the glass of water moved itself. I said the glass of water was moved. Well, the minute you hear that, you must ask the question, who moved it? Did a spook?

14:50 Did an angel? Did a hobgoblin? Did a fairy come along? Or did the preacher?

14:56 If it was moved, there had to be a mover. A mover acting upon the glass of water. Well, in this passage, there are no fewer than five verbs which speak of an activity exercised upon the Romans. It's not describing what they did, but describing what happened to them.

15:21 Look at the language. Verse 17, But God be thanked that whereas ye were the slaves of sin, ye became obedient from the heart, to that form of teaching, here's one of them, whereunto ye were delivered. Somebody took the Romans and delivered them unto the form of teaching. He didn't say you delivered yourself.

15:45 He said somebody handed you over to the form of teaching. Furthermore, verse 18, and having be from sin would be a literal translation. He doesn't say, and having made yourself free from sin. He says, having been made free.

16:04 Or as we saw last week, perhaps the most accurate translation in terms of our terminology, having been emancipated. Somebody was the emancipator so that they could become the emancipated. A passive verb. And then another one in verse 18, ye were made the slaves of righteousness.

16:27 He didn't say you made yourselves. You were made. Somebody put you in that new state of a slave of righteousness. And you have the same thing in verse 22.

16:39 Now having been made free or having been emancipated from sin and having been made the slaves of God. Five times in this passage, passive verbs or participles are used and we've got to ask the question, if the apostle is very careful under the inspiration, of the spirit to choose forms of the verb, which indicate that something was acted upon, he must have had a purpose for this. And the purpose is very clear. Having said on the very threshold of this description, thanks be to God.

17:21 He doesn't want them. Forget it when he gets down into the details. So every time he uses a passive verb, it's a finger pointing back to the opening word saying, God is the agent of those passive verbs. By whom were they made free?

17:39 Who was the emancipator? Who brought them into the state of emancipation? God be thanked. Who handed them over to the teaching?

17:50 It was God by the mighty secret inward operations of the spirit. Who brought them into this status of the willing servants and slaves? Of righteousness. It was God who did the work.

18:07 And so in answer to the question, how does this transformation occur? Our text sets before us with unmistakable clarity this answer, God and God alone is the author of this transformation. Now what does this tell us in very practical and pointed terms? Well, it tells us that if we, if we have been released from the bondage of sin and made the slaves of righteousness, Almighty God has been mightily active on our behalf.

18:47 And whatever means God was pleased to use, we must look beyond every means, every instrument, every element that God took into the orbit of his working and trace the entirety of the truth, the entirety of the transformation back to the living God and to the living God alone. Here in the most wonderful and graphic language is pure biblical monergism. And you ought to know what that word means. Monergism in theological jargon simply means that it is God and God alone who saves.

19:27 Synergism says it is God plus something or someone else. Here the apostle shows his appreciation for the grace of God. For grace equals monergism. And the moment you tamper God plus something else, you have ended in the realm of synergism and you rob God of the glory of that grace.

Application: Monergism and Hope for Sinners

19:55 Likewise it says to you who are yet the slaves of sin, you who are still, living ugly monuments of the slavery to sin that is the portion of every fallen son and daughter of Adam. This very day you have presented your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. You are living ugly monuments of the reality of that slavery. Oh my friend this text tells you that your hope is not to be found anywhere.

20:31 But in the living God. You hope is not to be found in this church in its ministry. In any church. In any ministry in any ritual in any rubric of worship.

20:43 No no your hope this to be found in God and in God alone. And the sooner you come to that conviction and begin to have heart dealings with God himself begin to cry to God himself. Begin to cry to God changing to the eternal form of life. Begin to cry to God.

Point 2: The Gospel Alone is the Instrument of Transformation

21:00 Begin to cry to the Lord. You may even say. place yourself before the living god pleading that he would be pleased to work mightily in you the sooner you come to grips with that great reality the more hope you will have that you are indeed in the way of salvation but now we must hurry on for the text sets before us a second dimension with respect to this question by what means did the transformation occur and if it clearly teaches that god alone is the author of the change or transformation it teaches secondly that the gospel alone is the instrument of this transformation the gospel alone is the instrument of this transformation what means did god use in the transformation of these romans did he work without means was it a kind of sovereign creative work in which god just put forth divine energy breaking in unannounced into the lives of the romans and breaking the shackles of sin and making them the willing bond slaves of righteousness and of himself you you you

22:23 , did he work without means did he work by means of visions or angelic visitations no look at the text verse 17 but thanks be to god that whereas you were the slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart now notice this next phrase to that form of teaching where unto you were delivered Jesus said in قُالَ أَلَى أَحْمَلُهَا of praise to god for the transformation in nineteen ten and nineteen warto which likely well if all is it is then my brother well you know who the bishop useful 2 Timothy 1 and verse 13, when Paul charges Timothy with these words, hold the pattern of sound words which thou hast heard of me. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 13.

23:43 But here, rather than saying you became obedient from the heart to the gospel or to the word of God, he uses this very rich and pregnant phrase, you became obedient to the form of teaching. And this form of teaching was nothing less than the gospel in its entirety as contrasted with every other teaching no matter what. What its form may have been. It presents the gospel as consisting in a body of truth with fixed boundaries and perimeters.

24:26 It is a form of teaching. It is not some kind of mystical, misformed, sentimental religious slush.

24:39 You see the vigor of this language. It is teaching. There is substance and to that substance. There is form.

24:48 And in so doing, the apostle reminds us that this is precisely what the gospel is. It is that form of teaching with its pivotal points of assertion concerning God. The one who has created us. The lawgiver and judge of the universe.

25:08 With its fixed propositional pronouncements about man as accountable to God. Man as follower. Man as common. Man as sinner.

25:19 Man as guilty. Man as helpless. Man as hell deserving. It has its fixed declarations concerning Christ.

25:29 In all the uniqueness of his person. In the nature and sufficiency of his work of atonement on behalf of sinners. It has its fixed perimeters of declaration concerning the necessity and nature of faith and repentance. In a very real sense.

25:46 this entire epistle is a commentary upon that form of teaching now notice what the text says it's a concept that is not to be found anywhere else in all of the writing of the apostle at least in this very vivid kind of expression if you have the 1901 edition it renders the passage in a way that may sound strange and it has even bothered commentators and they've tried to alter paul's greek and stretch it a bit and make it seem to be something other than what it is the translation in the 1901 edition is a very good translation he says you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching where unto ye were delivered now the picture you see is not that form of teaching it's not that form of teaching it's not that form of teaching it's not that form of teaching it's not that form of teaching it's not that form of teaching that the form of teaching was delivered to them now it was as we saw this morning the form of teaching the gospel is to be proclaimed to all men without discrimination but he says when that

26:56 message came these romans who at that point were the slaves of sin experienced the intrusion of a teaching in other words by the mighty power of god the teaching acted like a mold or a die and these romans were cast into or handed over to the influence of that die or that mold so that it shaped them their minds no loss the wastelands of free thought i think god is like this or i like to think of as like that i think that man is this and i think that man is that and my feeling about morals and ethics is this or that the wastelands the barrens of human speculation paul says the transformation occurred when by the power of god you were cast into the mold of this

28:16 teaching and your mind began to think that you were a man and you were a woman and you were a man and you began to think god's thoughts after him the gospel now dictated how you thought about god and you understood him to be your creator the one who had every right to demand that you love him with all the heart mind soul and strength the one who had the right to bind your life by those standards of righteousness expressed in the ten words of moses with all of their authoritative thou shalt and thou shalt not he says you were cast into the mold of this teaching and you were cast into the mold of the gospel you began to think about yourself in terms of what the gospel said that god is your creator he is your lawgiver you're accountable to him you've broken your law his law you began to think of yourself as god thinks of you as an alien as a rebel as one who's under condemnation one who is exposed to divine wrath and then you began to think as god says you ought to think about his son that he was not just some self-appointed religious leader who arose there out of palestine but he was indeed the one who was sent from the very bosom of the father

29:36 the eternal word made flesh who dwelt amongst us you began to let your mind think god's thoughts concerning who he was and what he did and his death upon the cross was not a tragic tragedy it was not merely the epitome of selfless love and the martyr spirit it was a propitiation he was satisfying the demands of the law of god he was swallowing up divine wrath in his death upon that cross you began to think about him as god says you ought to think about him and then he says you were cast into the mold of the gospel notice he says you in the entirety of your humanity you were cast into the mold of the gospel notice he says you in the entirety of your humanity were delivered to the form of teaching they didn't just get a shift of their mental furniture they began to feel about the realities of life the way god says they ought to feel that's why he says they were now ashamed of the things in which they once boasted they began to feel grief for their sins and horror that they did not love god and their affections took the stamp and the mold and the form of the gospel but not only their heads and their affections but their wills as we shall see they became obedient from the heart and then their feet and their hands and their lives so that he could say you have your

31:04 fruit unto holiness do you see the emphasis of the text transformation come to pass well god alone was the author but the gospel was the means not the gospel in their case as an empty word but the gospel as a fixed word of the gospel as a fixed word of the gospel as a fixed word of the gospel it was a form a pattern of instruction and by the power of god they were cast into its mold so that they were now gospel men and women who became the embodiment of all the truth that is preached in the gospel as they themselves lived and fought and felt and chose and willed no wonder paul could say in chapter 1 in verse 16 i'm not ashamed of the gospel i'm not ashamed of the gospel it is the tunamis of god the power of god unto salvation what kind of salvation it comes to rebel sinners and said if you'll nod your head to the fact that jesus died on the cross you're all fixed up doesn't matter how you live what you do nod your head to jesus you're in you're in for good you might make pretty well do pretty well in living for him if not don't worry about it you've nodded to jesus all this no no my friends that's no gospel that's not the gospel of the gospel

32:23 that's the power of god unto salvation that's a gospel that is the power of the devil unto deception and damnation the power of god unto salvation is a gospel that operates according to verse 17 it comes as a form of teaching and when god by the spirit makes it effectual he takes sinners and he casts them into its mold until until the entirety of life is a reflection of gospel perspectives

Application: Taking the Gospel Seriously

32:58 they were cast into the mold of the gospel i would say by way of application to you who are sitting here tonight still bound to your sins if god's method of transformation is the gospel as his means let me ask you a question are you taking the gospel seriously are you studying the gospel are you praying that god will open your eyes to the gospel are you fixing your mind upon the gospel now listen carefully one of the greatest dangers that can come to anyone who begins to be concerned about his soul is to turn away from fixing his gaze upon the form of teaching the objective revelation of god in the gospel and to begin to look in his own heart to see if he can see some repentance in his own heart see if he can see some seeds of faith in his own heart see if he can see some budding seeds of holiness in his own heart my friend if you've begun to be seriously concerned about your sin and about judgment in the world to come occupy yourself with the gospel read through the gospel records see what jesus did

34:25 whenever needy sinners came to him see if you can find one instance in which he ever turned a needy sinner away see what he did when the needy of sinners begged for mercy you see fix your mind upon that form of teaching which sets forth the lord jesus as the savior of sinners read through the epistles seeking to discover what the writers say about the lord jesus what they say about forgiveness what they say about pardon and justification oh my unsaved friend if you're ever to be saved the means god will use is the means he used in the case of these romans it was the gospel alone that was his means let me say a word of warning to some of you who may be trying to stifle that form of teaching when the gospel is proclaimed it stirs you it disturbs you sometimes sooner your sins don't taste quite as sweet in your mouth in the world wind from your nice whisperings my friend hold

35:53 has garrison aciated engines if the time comes when the gospel entrepreneur you've already been giving up the hell color school you'll be as good as in hell. For my spirit will not always strive with man, is the teaching of the word of God. And I would not hold over any man an idle threat. It is no idle threat to say God is not under obligation to draw near and cause you to feel the pressure of the gospel.

36:33 He is not obligated to even bring the gospel to you, let alone make you feel something of its power and its authority. Oh, my friend, don't despise that one means by which God breaks the slavery of sin that leads to death and through which he brings to servitude unto righteousness, which leads to life. And I would say by way of application to you who are the people of God, who sitting here even now have said, you know, I never thought of it that way, but that's what happened to me. That's exactly what happened to me.

37:13 I see now why I began to think about God the way the Bible says I ought to think about him and why I began to think about my sin and Christ and repentance and faith. God was delivering me into the form of teaching. Oh, my friend, as you've had your own spiritual history, as it were, placarded before you, do you see why you're under solemn obligation? To love the gospel as a Christian.

37:41 How a slave would cherish a facsimile or a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation if that was the means which publicly and formally and legally freed him from a cruel master. Would he ever grow weary of looking upon that transcript, the declaration of his liberty? Oh, if a child of God grows weary of the gospel, something's wrong with him. Now, I know there's a sense in which you grow weary of a trite, truncated, emasculated semblance of the gospel.

38:18 Gospel didyism. I grow weary of that as well. But I mean this full-orbed, tupos didykes, this form of teaching. We grow weary of that which was the instrument of our liberation.

38:38 Oh, study the gospel. Oh, child of God. Pray that God will enable you to love the gospel. Pray that you may be willing to defend it at any cost, to propagate it at any cost, to disseminate it at all costs.

38:56 And what I lay upon your conscience as an individual, I also do as a church. What do we exist for? Well, the function and purpose of the church is manifold and should never be stated in simple or simplistic terms. But surely, in the light of what we studied this morning, one of our great purposes for being upon the face of the earth is to be a sounding board of this gospel.

Point 3: The Obedience of Faith is the Condition

39:24 That's the great means that God uses. Well, there is one more major line of thought in the text. In answer to the great question, how does the transformation occur? Our text tells us God alone is the author.

39:41 Secondly, the gospel alone is the means. But now, thirdly, the obedience of faith alone is the condition. The obedience of faith alone is the condition. Look at the text.

39:59 But God be thanked that whereas ye were the slaves of sin, here's the phrase, ye became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching, unto which ye were obedient. To which you were delivered. You obey the heart.

40:23 And you see how balanced is the Bible? On the one hand, the apostle is emphasizing the mighty activity of God. It is God that delivered you unto the form of the teaching. But how did, as it were, treat it as stocks and stones?

40:47 And suddenly the Romans found themselves...

40:51 No, no, no. He says God delivered you unto the form of teaching. That you were very conscious of rendering Elf free and an unreserved obedience from the heart. Unreserved.

41:13 That's why he puts in the word from the heart. Now what do we mean by that? Well, you kids know what you mean by that. Your mom may ask you to do a task.

41:23 Maybe vacuum your room. Or go tidy up your room. And you want to go out and play. Maybe the guys are playing football down the street.

41:30 Or maybe the girls are doing whatever girls do down the street. And you want to be there.

41:36 And so you go up to your room and you start to pick up things and all the rest. And your mother comes by and she says to you, but now listen. It's obvious your heart is not in what you're doing. What's she mean?

41:46 Well, you're obeying. But you're just doing it on the outside. Your heart's not in it. It's not a free.

41:52 It's not a willing. It's not a joyous obedience to her directive. You see? But now Paul says, these Romans, in this process of transformation, became obedient from the heart.

42:15 Obedience of faith to the message which demanded repentance. Which demanded that they stack arms and cast themselves down at the feet of Christ in submission and in trust.

42:32 Now surely if anything should teach us that the gospel comes as we saw this morning. With overtures of command as well as entreaty. A passage like this should teach us that. He is describing faith in this language.

42:50 You became obedient from the heart.

42:55 And that's not strange to the apostle even in this very epistle. Turn back to chapter 1. When he's introducing the epistle, he says this.

43:06 That it is through Jesus Christ the Lord, verse 5, through whom, whom we received grace and apostleship unto obedience, and it's the same word in the original, unto obedience of faith among all nations. He says our apostleship has as its end the bringing of man of faith. And for the apostle to mix the words faith and obedience was no problem whatsoever. You see, any obedience that did not spring from, from faith is dead works in the eyes of God.

43:51 Any obedience by which we hope somehow to climb up to, which we may then, that is the obedience that God called dead works. All obedience must spring from faith. There must be the casting of the soul in all restitution and nakedness upon the free offer of mercy. And in that posture of trust, in that posture of repose, in the offered savior and his complete salvation, there is the spirit of loving submission to the savior and willingness to take up his yoke and to follow him. Now you see any obedience that doesn't spring from faith is not gospel obedience. Conversely, any professed faith that is not subdued with the spirit of obedience is not the faith that saves. It's the faith according to James 2 19 of the demons.

44:58 It is a purely intellectual faith. If it is not suffused with the spirit of obedience. Now notice I've chosen my language carefully. I did not say if our professed faith does not result in perfect obedience, it's not real.

45:14 No, I said the faith that is real is suffused with the spirit of obedience. So that the heart that goes out in trouble, the trust to the savior is the heart that goes out in submission to the same savior. And so the apostle tells the Romans that the transformation occurred, not only because God worked, not only because the gospel was the means, but they were brought to the obedience of faith as the condition of entering into this new and glorious, this servitude to God and to righteousness. Now, this should be of help to some of you who are still entangled in a net and a web. To change the analogy, you're trotting through the quicksands of saying, well, if I could just sort out the matters of my election or whether or not God was drawing me and all the rest, then I could really get down to the business of believing. My friend, my friend, you must cut yourself loose from that web.

46:26 You must extricate yourself from that quicksand and deal with God as God says you should deal with him. Now, when God comes to men with the gospel, how does he deal with men? He says, I come to you in the offer of my mercy. Now, deal with me in faith.

46:48 Trust me. Believe me. Look unto me, O friends of the earth, and be ye saved. For the words of our Lord himself, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.

47:10 You see the wonderful objectivity when God says, look unto me. He's saying, look away from your own heart. Look away from your own questions and cogitations about him. Moses lifted up the serpent.

47:46 God was using that wonderful situation in Israel, I should say, that tragic situation to teach a wonderful truth. Moses, go out with that brazen serpent. Stand in the midst of the camp. No doubt as Moses made his way out into the midst of the camp, people were looking at the fang marks where the serpents had bitten them.

48:08 No doubt they were looking at the red streaks as the poisoning worked through their system. No doubt they were looking in horror at one another as they saw loved ones feverish and other loved ones and friends and neighbors dying. But into the midst of that confusion of looking upon a thousand objects, Moses sets up a standard and says, He's telling people, turn away from looking at your streaked arms. Turn away from looking at the tragedy of death all about you.

48:41 And it says, everyone who looked lived. He didn't say, keep looking at your arm and when you see your arm getting better, then you'll know God is healing you. Then you can look. That's what some of you are doing.

48:54 You see, looking at your heart. Looking for some seeds of faith, seeds of repentance. Look at Christ in the beauty and the glory of His saving mercy. The obedience of faith was the condition of their deliverance.

Application: Dealing with God Objectively

49:18 And when they became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching, what happened? Verse 18, they were made free from sin. That is, sin was no longer their master. Sin's power was broken.

49:37 Sin's dominion was smashed. How? In making them the bond slaves of righteousness. And verse 22, the bond slaves of God.

49:52 Oh, how wonderfully this text sets forth all we need to know concerning the great question. How can I, natively a slave of sin, on my way to eternal death, how can I be made a slave of righteousness in an air of eternal life? My friend, drink in the teaching of this text. God in God alone is the author of that change.

50:20 The gospel in the gospel alone is the means of that change. And the obedience of faith alone is the condition of that change. And until you are cast into the mold, of that teaching, if you're going to try to get saved some other way, have God plus the church your savior. God plus the sacraments your savior, my friend.

50:45 You'll never be saved. Or if you want to save, some other means must be used. Some other means must be employed. Or if you think there's some other condition, faith plus your own mourning.

50:58 Faith plus your own seeking. Faith plus anything else, my friend. You are doomed to self-destruction. You must believe.

51:11 You must repent. You must throw yourself at the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus. You see, this text leaves no room for synergism. God be thanked.

Application: Confronting the Generation and the Church's Role

51:26 It leaves no room to hope that any other means will break the servitude of sin. And here I want to pause in one of my final applications tonight. There are many people who are appalled as they see the explicit abounding manifestations of slavery to sin in our generation. Much of common grace has been removed.

51:48 And we find men sinning with a high hand and with a blatant boldness that is shocking. And there are many people whom we have reasoned in the judgment of charity to believe are true Christians and they are concerned. And they say, how can we confront this generation? How can we see a return to righteousness?

52:10 And we have some that say, well, this generation is no longer tuned in to the ideas of guilt and divine righteousness and divine law. So we've got to try to alter the gospel, change its form, so that it fits the mindset of our generation. My friend, we have no such right. It is a form of teaching fixed by Almighty God.

52:35 And we need in love and in the power of the Spirit and in the boldness of the Holy Ghost to hurl into the mindset of this generation that form of teaching. There are others who say, well, there's been such an erosion of law. We need to get to work as Christians and impose the law on the structures of our society. My friend, that's putting the cart before the horse.

53:01 Paul did not come and say their hope was in Moses. He said their hope was in Christ. It also speaks to us, if there should be any tendency on our part to accept the first line of teaching in this text, and maybe your heart rejoiced as I sought to open it up, God and God alone is the author of the change. And you sit there and say, ah, that's what I love to hear.

53:31 Good, solid, reformed, God-honoring preaching. My friend, that's not the whole teaching of the passage. As surely as God alone is the author of the teaching, the author of the gospel alone is the means. What are you doing to get that gospel out?

53:45 What are you doing to get that gospel into the ears of men? You can't put it in their hearts. But may I say it reverently, God doesn't put it in their ears. That's the job He's given to you and me.

53:59 What are you doing? Ask yourself. Search your own heart. What have I done this week in the way of conscious effort to get this message to my own generation?

54:13 Have I prayed for my neighbors? Have I pleaded for the salvation of my children? Have I sought, perhaps not succeeded, but have I at least sought to steer a conversation at work or at school so that I could introduce the gospel? Have I prayerfully passed out a book, a tract, something that sets forth the form of teaching?

54:41 It's one thing to sit back and say, ah, I love to hear that. God does the work. My friend, He does it by the gospel. May God grant that we shall not only be known as a people who love the truth, the Bible truth, that God and God alone saves, but may we by our practice manifest our conviction that the God who alone saves, saves alone through the gospel.

Addressing Tensions and Mysteries

55:15 And then for any who are tempted to feel, well, if God alone saves and God casts men into the mold of the gospel, surely it's fruitless to tell men to believe. If faith is the gift of God, why tell them to believe? And if repentance is the gift of God, why to repent? My friend, for the simple reason that God tells us to do so.

55:39 And it's in the proclamation of that message and in its being made effectual that the mystery is at least resolved at the practical level. It didn't bother Paul in one verse to say, you were delivered to the form of teaching, you obeyed it from the heart. Well, did they obey it or did God make them obey it? Well, both.

56:03 Their being cast into the mold of the teaching was God's. I don't like all those tensions and mysteries. Well, my friend, you either have to rewrite the Bible or learn to live with them. May God grant us the humility to learn to live with them and not only to tolerate them, but to glory in them.

Concluding Exhortation: Whose Slave Are You?

56:25 Every gospel mystery should be a reminder that you're a creature and God is God. And anything that makes you feel that reality is your friend. Oh, my dear people, I ask you now, as I close our study, who's slave are you? Who's slave are you?

56:46 No free men in this building, no free women, no free boys, no free girls. Everyone is somebody's slave. Obedience unto righteousness and life. Sin to uncleanness.

57:02 Iniquity and death. Who's slave are you? Who's slave are you? If you're not the bond slave of Christ, He stands before you in the gospel tonight and says, Come, come unto me all you that labor in a heavy laden.

57:21 Aren't you weary of sin's servitude? Aren't you weary of it? The tormenting awareness of the uncertainty of life and the certainty of judgment. The emptiness of life.

57:35 Without the knowledge of God in Christ. Christ bid you come. Come all that labor in a heavy laden. I will give you rest.

57:45 Take my yoke upon you. And when the eye beholds the glory of forgiving mercy, the heart gladly says, Lord Jesus, your yoke I will embrace. Anyone who would so love sinners as to die, surely cannot, cannot carve a yoke. That is filled with ugly splinters.

58:09 My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Oh, dear sinner friend bound by your sin. Come to the great emancipator.

58:21 Even the Lord Jesus. And if you're able to say tonight, I am God's free man in bondage to Christ. My friend, may your thankfulness be increased. May your appreciation deepen.

58:38 May the sense of wonder permeate your spirit. That you were delivered unto that form of teaching. That God's mighty arm was put forth on your behalf. And bless him and praise him.

The Hope for Revival and the Power of the Gospel

58:54 And show your gratitude by a life of obedience. And zealous endeavor that others shall know this blessed gospel. That they too, might be delivered. I'm frequently asked when I'm in pastor's conferences and such matters are discussed.

59:14 Brother Martin, do you believe that there's going to be a great outpouring of the Spirit prior to the coming of Christ? Do you believe there is any hope for revival in the classic, historic sense of the word? And I must always answer and say, if you're asking me if I have light from scripture, that gives me some promise upon which I can, as it were, plant my feet and plead with God, I must claim at this juncture. I know of no such promise.

59:44 It may be there and it may be my own boldness that I don't see it. But I hasten to say this, whether or not God is going to be pleased to reap a mighty harvest, whether there will be nothing but gradual declension of our own Western society and our own country, these things I do not know. But one thing I know, is that this gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And if it could come to Rome, the citadel of paganism, the bastion of immorality and of pagan thought, and there mightily work and break the chains of sin.

60:29 There's not a verse in the Bible that says God cannot do the same in this generation. Oh, that we may labor and pray, and plead and preach and witness and be zealously involved. I'd far rather go to my grave kicking and pleading and laboring and never see much than to just rest and say, there's no hope to see anything. Oh, may it not be said of us, He did not bear many mighty works because of their unbelief.

Final Prayer and Benediction

61:10 Let us pray. Our Father, we rejoice this night in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in that glorious gospel, which is in a very real sense, nothing more or less than the radiation of His glory. How we bless You for its power. We thank You that it is a form of teaching, that we need not be at the mercy of some kind of nebulous, intangible, undefinable subjectivism, but that we may take hold of such wonderful truths as that given to us in Your word, declaring Christ died the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to You. We thank You. Oh, we bless You for the gospel. We thank You for Your working in many of our hearts, and oh Lord, as You have had dealings with many even this day, continue to have dealings, and grant that the gospel in all of its glorious simplicity and purity may burst upon the consciousness of needy sinners, and that some who sit here right now

62:35 may find their hearts running out in the obedience of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our cry. Oh, hear our cry. And answer for Jesus' sake.