Ron Dunn Podcast - Salvation Is A Twofold Change

Episode Date: May 31, 2013

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the book of Romans, chapter 6. And thank you for that song. I do want to say just one word of gratitude to you, to the church and the pastor and staff

for the beautiful flowers you sent to the church and the pastor and staff for beautiful flowers you sent to the funeral. And thank you for your expressions even last week of sympathy and comfort. We appreciate that very much. Kay and I were talking on the way to church tonight how much was packed into a week. A lot of things have changed since last Sunday. And I just want you to know, we want you to know, and our family wants to thank you for your help and your graciousness in it. And you made a very difficult time a lot easier than it would have been. And I appreciate that very much. Thank you so very much for being such a gracious and thoughtful people.

And the Lord has been good to us during these days, and it was a lot easier than we expected it to be, and I think in large measure because of your help and your encouragement and your prayers. And we appreciate that and thank you very much. Romans chapter 6. I want to read beginning with verse 15 and read through the end of the chapter, verse 23. Romans chapter 6, beginning with verse 15 and reading through the end of the chapter.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace god forbid know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but god be thanked that you were the servants of sin but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak out to the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as you have

yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. And what fruit had you then in those things whereof now you are ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit and the holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In 1966, I became the pastor of the MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, Texas. When I arrived there, I found that all the Baptist churches,

of which there were about 32, all the Baptist churches in that city had joined together to have an evangelistic crusade, and a citywide evangelistic crusade. They had never done anything like this before, and so they were really excited about it. We rented the high school football stadium, had invited a well-known evangelist

and singer to come to the meeting, and we were scheduled to have our first citywide evangelistic crusade. I was elected chairman of the finance committee of that crusade, not because I'm unusually adept at handling finances, but because I failed to show up at one of their planning meetings, which is usually the way you get those things. Anyway, I was chairman of the finance committee. And as chairman, I had a number of responsibilities. One of them was that I had to take the offering every night. I mean, make the appeal for the offering. We had quite a large budget, and so it was my responsibility to, you know, get the people to give.

Another one was that each morning I would go to the bank with two or three others and there we would count the offering that had come in the night before. We didn't bother to count it that night. We just put it in a money bag and dropped it in the night deposit and go down to the bank the next morning and count it. And so I remember one morning very clearly with three of us were in one of these little antiseptic looking rooms, and a bank officer standing over here watching us, and there we were counting the offering that had come in the night before. The reason I remember it is because I've never seen so many one dollar bills in all my life. There must have been around 3,000 one dollar bills.

I have never seen so many one dollar bills. And there were three yellow marbles also that came in the offering. I don't know what happened to them, but about 3,000 $1 bills. Just a towering mountain of them. And so we were sitting there counting these bills. And you know how it is, folks. There's not anything quite as dull as counting somebody else's money. And so when we would count money, we would, you know, make small talk, just pass the

time, you know, whatever came into our mind, just, you know, nothing important. And as I was sitting there counting money, a thought occurred to me, and without really thinking about it, I just expressed it in the form of a question. I really wasn't asking anybody, didn't expect an answer, didn't particularly want an answer. Just something to say. But what I said was this. I wonder how many of these dollar bills are counterfeit. Well, no sooner had I said that than this bank officer, who up to now hadn't said a word,

snapped back at me and said, not a one. And, you know, he said it so quickly and so forcefully, it kind of caught me off guard. I really didn't think any of them were counterfeit either, you know. But it kind of got me the way he was so absolute about it. You just hate to let anybody get by with being that sure about anything, you know. Begging for a challenge is what he's doing. And I said, oh, is that right? He said, that's right. I said, none of these dollar bills are counter. And I said, oh, is that right? He said, that's right.

I said, none of these dollar bills counterfeit. He said, no, sir. Well, I got to thinking, how could he be so absolutely certain? I mean, he hadn't examined these dollar bills. He wasn't helping us count them. I do know that people counterfeit money. I've read about it in the paper.

There is such a thing as counterfeit money. And we've got several thousand bills here. You know, I begin to think the law of averages has to enter in here somewhere. There's a very good chance one of these dollar bills could be counterfeit. And so armed with such tremendous logic, I went back to this man and I said,

well, how can you be so absolutely certain that not a single one of these dollar bills are counterfeit? And he said, and he spoke very slowly, like when you're trying to explain something simple to a child. He said, Reverend Dunn, nobody counterfeits one dollar

bills. Well, of course I knew that. I was just testing him, you know, just trying to see. He said, nobody counterfeits. One-dollar bills are not worth the trouble, not worth the risk. If you're going to all the trouble and the risk of counterfeiting money, you counterfeit something of value, $10, $20, $50, $100 bill.

Nobody counterfeits a one-dollar bill. It's not worth it. And then he made this statement. He said, the greatest compliment that's ever been paid for the American $20 bill is that of all the currents in the world, it is the most frequently counterfeited. Now, I guess that was true in 1966.

I don't know if that's true today or not, but I had to admit the man was right. It is a kind of a compliment, I guess, a backhanded compliment, but it is a compliment. The greatest compliment is the fact that it is the most frequently counterfeited bill in the world. And I guess, as I said, that is a compliment because you don't counterfeit something unless you think it is of value.

What is it they say, that imitation is the most flattering form of whatever it is you're talking about? You don't ever hear of anybody counterfeiting brown paper. It's not worth counterfeiting. It's of no value. The minute you counterfeit something, you're saying, I believe this has great value. And I have never forgotten that. But I thought, as I sat there that day and counted those genuine dollar bills, I thought, you know, it could be said

that one of the greatest compliments that's ever been paid to Christianity is that of all the religions in the world, it is the most frequently counterfeited. I can't even begin to remember how many times through the years I've heard people say, well, I would be a Baptist, but there are so many hypocrites in the church. Have you ever invited two people to church? Chances are good one of them gave that as an excuse for not coming.

We've all heard them. Well, I knew this preacher, I knew this deacon, I knew this Sunday school teacher. I had one man tell me some years ago, he said, if just the Baptists would pay me what they owe me, I could retire. And they're telling the truth. There are a lot of hypocrites in the church. There are a lot of counterfeits.

There's no use in denying it. All of us tonight more than likely can remember and can recall somebody that looked and acted and talked like a Christian and we discovered later on that they were nothing but a phony. They were nothing but counterfeits. And the church role is littered with people like that. And that's no surprise that Jesus told us that it would be that way. But the very fact that the devil works so hard

at counterfeiting Christianity is one of the greatest compliments that's ever been paid to it. And the more I think about that, the more I realize that counterfeiting is one of the master techniques of the devil himself anyway. It is the devil's task to counterfeit the things of God. As a matter of fact, the very first temptation that he ever brought against the human race was the temptation to be a counterfeit. He said, if you will do what I tell you to do, I will make you to become as gods.

You'll be just like God. The desire to be a duplicate, the desire to be a counterfeit. You remember when Moses stood before Pharaoh and was performing certain miracles trying to persuade the ruler to let the people of God go. Pharaoh had his magicians who literally duplicated the very miracles that Moses was doing. Jesus said in what I believe is one of the most surprising and dangerous texts in all the Bible, in Matthew chapter 7, He said that in the day of judgment, many, not a few, but many will come to Me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name?

Have we not worked miracles in Your name? Have we not cast out demons in Your name? Have we not worked miracles in your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name? And I will say to them, I never knew you. Now that's a puzzler. Here are people who call him Lord, Lord, and the repetition of that title indicates enthusiasm. I mean, these were people who were enthusiastically counterfeits. And look at what they've done. They said, we have prophesied in thy name. We have performed miracles in thy name. We've cast out demons in thy name. Jesus didn't deny it.

He simply said, you've done that, but I never knew you. Now that's a puzzler. Do you realize that Judas Iscariot himself healed people and cast out demons? And he was a devil himself from the beginning? Folks, I want to tell you something. Just because something is supernatural doesn't mean it's of God. The devil is a supernatural being and he's a master counterfeiter. One of the great problems today is that many of us are deceived and being

deceived by counterfeits. It is the devil's master technique to deceive us by duplicating the very things of God. I said this morning that one of the most important things, if not the most important thing a Christian needs to know, is what kind of we worship. Tonight, I want to say that one of the most important things that a Christian needs to know after that is what does it mean to be saved in the first place. How do you distinguish between the real thing and the counterfeit? I remember several years ago, I was out in Fort Collins, Colorado. And I don't remember now how I came to have it, but I had a $100 bill.

That's all I had. I didn't have a quarter or a dollar bill or anything. I had a single bill, a $100 bill. Somebody gave that to me, and I wound up in Fort Collins in this conference with that $100 bill. Well, the first day I was there, I needed to pick up a few things at the store,

so I went down to a department store and picked up about $7 or eight dollars worth of stuff, laid it on the counter, and whipped out that $100 bill and laid it down there. And the clerk looked at it and he said, don't you have anything smaller than that? I said, no sir, that's the smallest bill I'm carrying. I didn't tell him it was the only thing I had, I just said it's the smallest bill I'm carrying. And so he was impressed. And he picked that bill up and held it up to the light like this. And I said, well, I guess, you know, he's trying to see if there's any phony marks or anything on that, you know.

Then he did something, though, I'd never seen done before. He picked up a piece of paper, white paper, took that $100 bill and began rubbing it against that piece of white paper. Just rubbing, rubbing, rubbing, rubbing, rubbing. And I thought, what in the world is he doing? But as I stood there and watched him, that piece of white paper began to turn green. I mean, that dollar bill was fading on that piece of white paper. And I said to myself, my my soul that thing is phony

oh where did i get that who gave that to me they'll never believe me boy this is a classic way of passing funny money you go in and buy about ten dollars worth and get a hundred dollars change oh they'll never i can see the headlines now baptist jail for phony bill or something like that he just stood there rubbing, rubbing. And finally he stopped and he looked over at me and smiled and said, Well, it's good. I said, It is? He said, Yes, sir.

He said, The real thing always rubs off. I was in Denver sometime after that in a church, and the man in that church had a son who worked for the Treasury Department. He said, you know, when my son went through his training, I asked him, how do they teach you fellows to spot counterfeit money? I thought he would say,

well, we take samples of counterfeit money and study it, and we study the techniques of known counterfeiters and such as this. But he said, my son simply said, they teach us to spot the phony by studying the real thing. We get to know the real thing so thoroughly

that we can spot the phony. And maybe the reason we cannot always spot the phony is because we're not all that certain what the real thing is. What does it really mean to be saved? What is the real nature of salvation? This is what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 6. Now Paul has some critics. He's preaching and his basic message, as you know, is that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Nobody is ever saved. Nobody is ever made right in the sight of God by keeping the law or by keeping the works of the law. It is only by faith. A man, a woman is justified, made right in

the sight of God simply by his faith in Jesus Christ. And there were people who said, well, Paul, that kind of message, you see, leaves all kinds of possibilities open. Here are people who say, well, it doesn't matter how I live. I can go out here and live like the devil if I want to as long as I believe the right thing. And they said, you've got to keep people under the law to make them toe of the line,

to make them behave. If you take away the law and just say, well, it's all a matter of faith, then these people are going to get out here and live like the devil. You've got to have rules and regulations to make folks behave. You know, I've heard this. I remember the first church I ever pastored, we got into a lot of discussions with some other folks in that area about eternal security. They were always throwing up, once saved, always saved to me. And they'd say, well, if I believe like you Baptists believe,

that you can get saved and go out here and just live like the devil and still go to heaven, then I'd get saved and then live any way I wanted to. Well, what I tried to tell those folks was this, the trouble with you is you don't understand the nature of salvation. And that's what Paul is saying. Salvation is such an act of God that the real thing, you no longer need rules and regulations to make you behave because you're so changed throughout that the motivation for godly living comes from within. Not from rules and regulations. And if you understood the nature of salvation, you would understand that.

And so that's what Paul is dealing with. And I want us tonight to look at this passage of Scripture. And I want to read again two verses that I believe just zero in on it. And to me, give one of the most concise and complete descriptions of what it means to be saved that you'll find anywhere in the Bible. Verses 17 and 18. And there are two phrases in each verse that I want you to pay a special attention to. One in verse 17 and a phrase in verse 18. Paul says, but God be thanked that you were, now there's the first phrase, those two little words,

you were the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became, that's the second phrase, underline those two words, you became the servants of righteousness. Now look at it. Verse 17, Paul says, you were the servants of righteousness. Now look at it. In verse 17, Paul says, you were the servants of sin. In verse 18,

you became the servants of righteousness. Isolate those two phrases. You were, you became. You were, you became. You were one thing, and then you met Jesus Christ, and you became something else altogether different. What's Paul say?

Paul is saying salvation is a change. It is a transformation. You were one thing and when you met Jesus Christ, you became something else. You're not the same person you were. It's a transformation. It's a change.

You were this and you became this. I remember hearing Vance Havner, whom your pastor quotes a great deal and was a great friend of both of ours, and I remember hearing Vance Havner in our church make this statement. He said, if you are what you have always been,

you are not a Christian. Boy, that's a tremendous statement. If you are what you've always been, you are not a Christian. Why? Well, because you were this and you became this. I made that statement in a meeting in England not long after that. Beginner denominational meeting. And I had two or three pastors come up to me and ask me not to say things like that. I said, why not? I said, it upsets our people. I said, why?

Well, because they believe they've been Christians all their life. Well, if that's what they believe, they need to be upset. Now, you may have been saved at such an early age that it seems like you've been a Christian all your life, but I have news for you. If you are what you've always been, at such an early age that it seems like you've been a Christian all your life, but I have news for you. If you are what you've always been, you're not a Christian.

Because a Christian is a person who was the servant of sin, and then in Jesus Christ he met the Savior, and he became something else. Salvation is a change from one thing to the other. It is a radical transformation. You're not the same person you used to be. You're not the same person you used to be. You're not the same person you once were. You were one thing,

and in meeting Jesus Christ, you became something else altogether different. Well, what kind of change is it? Basically, it's a two-fold change that I want us to look at tonight. Now, I want to emphasize that what we're talking about now is foundational, fundamental to

everything in the Christian life. You see, I'm convinced that the reason so many of us live inferior and defective lives for Christ is because we have an inferior and defective understanding of what it means to be saved in the first place. The reason we have to be begged and pleaded with and cajoled and all of this in order for us to do what we ought to do anyway is because we have some gross misunderstandings of what it means to be saved. And everything that God says to us, every command He gives to us throughout the Word of God

is based and founded upon the principle we're talking about tonight. Salvation is a change, two-fold change. First of all, it is a change of ownership. It is a change of ownership. Now, there is a word that runs throughout this passage. It's the common denominator. It's the thread that holds the whole fabric together. It's the common denominator. It's the thread that holds the whole fabric together. It's the word servant. Now, in your translation, it might be rendered

either slave or bond slave, and that's really what the word means. But notice how many times that word appears. Verse 16, Paul says, know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are. In verse 17, you were the servants of sin. In verse 18, you became the servants of righteousness. In verse 19, you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness. And then he says, now yield your members servants to righteousness. In verse 20, you were the servants of sin. In verse 22, you have become servants to God. In verse 22, you have become service to

God again and again and again. There's that word servants. It is the word that holds the whole thing together. And as I mentioned a moment ago, it is the word for a slave, a bond slave, someone who is owned lock, stock, and barrel by his master. It indicates absolute ownership. And it reflects the culture of that day, of course, when the Roman Empire had slaves. And if a man owned a slave, he could do anything he wanted to with that slave. He could kill him if he wanted to.

And nobody would ask any questions. Why? Because he's no more than a dog or a cat or a cow. You can do anything you want to with him. He's yours. He's your property. He's chattel. He belongs to you. He's not more than a dog or a cat or a cow. You do anything you want to with Him. He's yours. He's your property. He's chattel. He belongs to you. He's not worth anything except to you. He's a slave, a bond slave,

bound for all His life to be nothing but a slave, owned lock, stock, and barrel by His Master. Now, there are two things that Paul brings out here. Number one, he's telling us that every person outside Jesus Christ is a slave to sin and the devil. You were the servants of sin. You were the servants of unrighteousness. You were the bond slaves of the devil.

Jesus said if a man commits a sin, he becomes what? The slave, the servant of that sin. And here is one of the devil. Jesus said if a man commits a sin, he becomes what? The slave, the servant of that sin. And here is one of the most important truths in all the Bible, that every person outside Jesus Christ is a helpless and hopeless slave to sin and the devil. Now, of course, they don't admit it. And that's a part of their lostness, is the fact they don't know it. What they think is they're free. I'll tell you what, folks, the great American myth is this matter of free will and free choice. We're totally free.

Now, we do have the ability to choose, but I want to tell you something. The most frequent word used in the American language, the English language, is the word because. I did this because. I made this decision because. I made this decision because. I feel this way because. I think because. There are always forces that are influencing us. And we make our so-called free will choices,

but we have been influenced by all kinds of things to make that choice. And every person outside Jesus Christ is a bond slave to the devil and doesn't know it. He thinks he's free. He can say, well, I'm glad I'm not one of those narrow-minded Baptists. I'm free. I can do anything I want to. The poor fool doesn't know that he is nothing more than a slave of sin and the devil.

And every part of his life is run by the devil. Now that's what God says happens to a lost person. Now the second thing that Paul is telling us here is this, that when Jesus Christ comes in to save us, He does this, and when He saves us, He sets us free from the slavery of sin and the devil. And that's the good news of the Gospel, folks.

When Jesus Christ comes into the life, He breaks the chains that bind us, and He sets the prisoners free. And when I came to Jesus Christ, the Lord set me free. He broke the chains that bound me and I was set free. And that's what your pastor's talking about in Galatians.

That we're set free by the blood of Jesus Christ. We're set free from the bondage of the law. We're set free from legalism. We're set free from sin and the devil. That's the gospel. That's the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been set free. But that's only half of it.

I want you to notice something. When you come to Jesus Christ, and in that act of salvation, Jesus breaks those chains that are binding you to the devil. But notice what He does. He takes those chains and binds them to himself. You see what Paul says? You are the slaves of righteousness. Salvation does not eliminate slavery.

It simply gives you a new owner and a new master. And just as much as I was a slave to sin and the devil before salvation, now I am a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bond slave. Owned by Him. Lock, stock, and barrel. When Paul was writing to the Corinthian church,

and every time I hear the word Corinthian, I think about that carnal bunch. I've been to Corinth, Mississippi twice. I'm going back, and I don't know, but I don't know. I think that I'd take an awful lot of joking if I lived in Corinth, Mississippi and was called a Corinthian. You know, because that was the lousiest bunch of folks

that ever troubled the waters of baptism. I mean, you talk about a bunch. When I was a pastor, I always got a lot of encouragement out of the Corinthians. I felt like, well, if Paul can put up with that bunch, then I can certainly put up with this bunch at Irving. They were terrible. And the word that characterized them, of course, is the word carnal. Now what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians is trying to cure them of their carnality.

Now let me ask you a question. What would you say to a carnal church? To cure it. What would you say to a carnal Christian? To cure him of his carnality. Well, first of all, you'd have to know what constitutes carnality, wouldn't you? Now, when I first started preaching as a teenager, I thought I knew exactly what carnality was. I had it all down about five things.

Carnality, that was smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, going to the wrong kind of picture shows, dancing and parking at the Portsmouth Reservoir. And as far as I was concerned, that was carnality. And boy, you came down hard on it every time you preached. Well, I'm not going to argue that point with you tonight. That may be carnality. But I tell you what, since then I've discovered that you can be as righteous as a Pharisee and be as carnal as a Corinthian. Carnality does not primarily involve what you're doing, your activities.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul gives us the answer. As a matter of fact, in that 6th chapter, he says 6 times, this phrase is repeated 6 times, know you're not, know you're not, know you're not. You see, the trouble with the Corinthians was they didn't know really what it meant to be saved. He comes down to verse 19 and he says, Know ye not that your body

is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and which you have of God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body which is His. What does Paul say? You are not your own. You are not your own.

You have been bought. And when he adds those three words, with a price, what Paul is doing is saying, you have been bought and actually paid for. In other words, he's saying, folks, I'm not using figurative language here. I'm not talking in poems or poetry. I mean it really and literally. You were bought with a specific price when Jesus shed His blood on the cross.

That was the silver and gold that was paid. You have been bought and paid for. You don't belong to yourself. You're not your own. Now, I'll tell you what I believe a carnal Christian is. A carnal Christian is any believer who thinks he has a right to live his life the way he wants to. That's carnality.

Paul says the cure for that carnality of these Corinthians is for you to understand that you don't belong to yourself. You don't have a right to your own life. Why? You've been bought and paid for, friend. A Christian doesn't belong to himself. He has no life of his own. His life is Christ. He's been purchased.

He's on lock, stock, and barrel. And our failure to either understand that or acknowledge it is the result, is the cause of our failure in Christian living. And 99% of our problems as Christians would be solved if we just

simply understood that very simple statement that Paul is making. You are not your own. I remember one day while I was pastor, I was out visiting and I found myself in the neighborhood of a family that had recently joined our church and I had never been able to catch them at home, so I really had not had a chance to actually sit down and visit with them. So I was in their neighborhood and I said, well, I'm going to stop by and see if I can catch them at home. And I went to the door and rang the doorbell. The door opened and there was the man. And when he saw me, he said, oh, pastor, I'm glad you're here. I've been wanting to talk to you.

Well, I went in, we sat down and visited for a few moments. And then I said, well, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about? He said, well, my wife and I are having a real struggle with this issue of tithing. And I was wondering if maybe you could help us with it. Well, I said, I'll try. I said, first of all, let me ask you, are you saved? I mean, well, are you? He said, yes, yes, I'm saved.

I said, well, good. Well, that settles it. And I got up and started heading for the door. And he said, no, wait, Pat, wait, wait, Pat, just a minute. No, it's not my salvation that I'm worried about. I know I'm saved. What I'm struggling with is this issue of tithing, whether or not to tithe. That's what I need help with. So I sat back down. I said, well, I'll see if I can help you with it. I said, let me ask you a question. Are you saved? Well, are you?

He said, well, yes, I'm saved. I said, well, that settles that. I'll see you later. And I acted like I was going to get up and leave again. Of course, he didn't know what was going on. I was baiting him naturally. That's what I did. I said, all right.

Let me say this to you. And I talked to him like I've been talking to you about this concept of slavery. And I said, I don't know if it was really true or not, but let's just pretend that back in the days of the Roman Empire, they had such a thing as slaves day off. I mean, maybe it was the second Tuesday of every month, slaves day off. And I don't know if it was true or not, but let's just play like they had slaves day off on the second Tuesday of the month. And you were a slave and it was the second Tuesday and you were off. And there were about a dozen of you walking downtown, having a wonderful time, enjoying your slaves day off. And so as the dozen of you moved down the street, suddenly from behind you, somebody shouts a command.

Now, you being a slave, you know what that means. Well, I mean, that means you'd better get with it and do it. Now, at that moment, though, the issue is not obedience. You don't just automatically obey at that moment. Why? Because you don't know who it is giving you the command. You turn around and see who it is giving you the command. And if the fellow giving you the command is not your owner,

then friend, you go about your merry way. But if he is your owner, that settles the issue of obedience. You see, the issue is not will you obey. The issue is He your owner. And if He is, then obedience goes with the territory. You don't even have to talk about that.

I said the issue is not will you tithe. The issue is are you saved. And if you are, He's already told you what to do about that. The issue is not will you forgive your brother, the issue is are you saved? And if you are, He's already told you what to do about that.

It's ridiculous to pray about something when our Lord's already told you what to do about it. The issue is not will you be faithful to the things of God, the issue is are you saved? You see how that simplifies everything? Again, I quote Dr. Hebner. Heard him preach many times on the storm, on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus asleep there in the ship and the disciples terrified and they run to the Lord and they say, Lord, carest Thou not that we perish? And Jesus stands up and after rebuking them for their little faith, He speaks to the winds and the waves,

and they lay down at His feet and quieten down. And old Dr. Havner used to say, you know, there were other ships out there on that sea that night, and they were tossed to and fro by the same storm. But when the Lord's ship got calm, all those other ships out there got calm too. And he would say, Friends, when you get the Lord's ship settled,

all the other ships will get settled too. Fellowship, stewardship, worship, all of those other ships will get settled too. And that's the truth. You get the Lord's ship matter settled, it settles everything else. The issue is ownership. You are not your own.

You've been bought with a price. And that leads us to the second thing. Salvation is not only a change of ownership, it's a change of obedience. Well, of course, that makes sense, doesn't it? If you have a new owner, then you've got new obedience, a new allegiance. Listen to what the apostle says in verse 16.

Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin and of death or of obedience unto righteousness. What a tremendous principle Paul is enunciating here. He says very simply this, that whoever you obey, that's who owns you. Obedience is revealed by ownership. One day the Pharisees came to Jesus

and they said, we're children of Abraham. And Jesus said, no you're not, you're children of the devil. They said, no, we're children of Abraham. He said, you're children of the devil. He said, if, we're children of Abraham. He said, you're children of the devil. He said, if you were children of Abraham, you would do what Abraham says to do. But you're always doing what the devil says

to do, therefore you're children of the devil. You see, your obedience reveals your ownership. Now, it's one thing for us to come in here tonight and all of us sing and praise and give testimony and say I belong to Jesus but this is not where we find out the real truth what we need to do is to

put you under surveillance for a few days bug your home bug your car tap your telephone see who it is that you're obeying see who it is that gives you your cue for living. See who it is that gives you your lifestyle. Friend, I want to tell you something. Whoever you obey, that's your owner, no matter what you say. Obedience reveals ownership.

I haven't seen a sign this week, but I'll see it for the weeks that I'm confident somewhere here in Albany. I've seen it in every town, I guess, in the country. You've seen it. There are dozens of towns and dozens of signs like this over the towns. The sign I'm talking about

is the sign that's put out in front of a business, usually a restaurant, that says, open under new management. Now what they're saying basically is this, hey folks, I know the food's been terrible and the service's been awful, but we're under new management.

Give us another try. I really believe some people just put that sign automatically out there every six months to lure in some new folks. But I love that sign, open under new management. And I believe that every time somebody walks down the aisle of a Baptist church and trusts Christ as Savior,

that you could hang a sign around their neck that said, open under new management. Well, that's what it means to be saved. I'm open under new management. Now, there's one thing more that I want to share with you in verse 17 that I think just puts this so well.

He says in verse 17, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine or teaching which was delivered you. Now I want us to examine that last phrase for just a moment.

You have obeyed from the heart wholeheartedly. You've obeyed that form of teaching which was delivered you. Now let's take that last part, which was delivered you, and turn it around. If your Bible has a marginal reading, it may read something like this. You've obeyed that form of teaching to which you were delivered. Paul is not saying it was delivered to you. He's saying you were delivered to it. Some translations read in which you were instructed. Others read to which you were committed.

But literally, the word means to hand over to something or to somebody. Paul is saying you've obeyed from the heart that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. You see, it's not so much tonight that I'm delivering the Word of God to you. But you have been delivered to the Word of God.

See, you have been handed over tonight to the Word of God. The form of truth. The word form there is the word for a mold. It's the kind of form you build if you're going to pour concrete. Paul says there is a form of doctrine. There is a word for a mold. It's the kind of form you build if you're going to pour concrete. Paul says there is a form of doctrine. There is a form of truth.

And you have been handed over to that form and you've obeyed it from the heart. A number of years ago, my dad built for all of us a tennis court. We have a place in Arkansas, a farm. We don't farm it, but we call it that for lack of something else. My brother has a home there.

My dad has a home there. And we've always spent a lot of time there, especially in the summer, every chance we get. And we always like to play tennis. And so one year, dad, as a gift to the whole family, had a tennis court built there on the place. And I was there when they built it. I watched them build it. And I never will forget, when they had the ground all fixed up and had it cleaned up and fixed up and everything. Then they took some wooden planks and they built a form. And it was just a bunch of wooden boards

nailed together in the shape and size of a tennis court. It wasn't a tennis court, but it looked like one. It was the shape and size. It was a form of truth. When they had that form built, one of those big cement mixers came out to the place, backed up to that form, and delivered the cement to the form. And you know what that cement did? It obeyed the form to which it was delivered. I know because I stood there and watched it. That cement allowed the form to shape it, to direct it, to turn it.

And when it was finished, it looked exactly like the form wanted it to look. Now, what Paul is saying is that you and I have a form of truth. It's right here in this book. There are times when God delivers us to the form like He's done tonight. And what it means to be saved is that you obey wholeheartedly the form to which you've been delivered.

I was saved when I was nine years old. I didn't know a lot about the Bible. I didn't know a lot about God. But I believe that if a person will take Jesus for all he knows Him to be at that moment, God will save him. And I did. As a nine-year-old boy,

I gave all that I knew of me to all that I knew of Him. But I didn't know a lot. And what has been happening throughout the rest of my life is that the Lord has continued to every once in a while deliver me to a new form of truth.

I'll open this book or I'll hear somebody preach it or maybe somebody will quote it and it's something I've not seen before. I discover, well, here's something about the Lord I didn't know. Here's something about myself I didn't know. And I'll tell you what has been

or should have been my response. Every time throughout all of my life as God hands me over one day to a new form of truth, what am I to do? I'm to obey that form. And when I obey it, then I start looking more like the Bible

wants me to look. Very simple. There is a form of truth right here. And God hands us over, delivers us to the form of truth. And the essence of being a Christian is that I give unhesitating, unquestioning,

wholehearted obedience to the form to which I've been delivered. The best illustration I ever saw of this happened in that meeting out in Denver, Colorado. There was a young Air Force couple in that church that had never been in that city, that had

never been in church even once in their whole life. I never thought I would live to see somebody who was born and raised in the United States who had never been to church. I mean, not once. They had never owned a Bible. Not even a Gideon Bible.

I don't know how they missed it. They never read the Bible. These people knew absolutely nothing. They may as well have come from Mars as far as that was concerned. But he was stationed out there at the Air Force Base. Some friends invited them to the meeting. They came, they heard the gospel, and they were saved. And I want you to know, folks, they were saved.

I mean, they were saved. I mean, they got saved. They really did. And they got so excited. And they were there at every service, morning, noon morning noon and night they were just soaking it all up i've never seen anybody so excited in all my life one night after the service the wife came up to me and she said preacher can i ask you something i said of course she said well last night in your sermon, you mentioned, and she had to get her mouth fixed to say this strange word. She said, you mentioned tithing.

And I had, sort of like I've done tonight, just kind of referred to it, illustration point. And she said, I'd never heard that word before, which proves she'd never been in a Baptist church before. And she said, I didn't know what you were talking about. When my husband and I got home, we talked about it. He had never heard the word tithe, and he didn't know what it was either. But she said, we knew it was in the Bible, and that Christians were supposed to do it.

And so last night, we told God we would tithe. Now, what is it? You know I hated to tell her. Boy, what a big disappointment. Here is this girl thinking she stumbled on to some great new spiritual truth. Boy, what do you say to somebody? I mean, boy, you need to break this to them gently.

Well, there was nothing to do but just tell her. Tithing means you give the first tenth of all your income to God. Do you know what she did when she heard that? No, she didn't gasp in horror. She didn't faint or run away. That girl never batted an eye. She never skipped a beat.

She said, good, we're tithing. As far as I'm concerned, that's about the best evidence of salvation I've ever seen in my life. Not because she tithed, but because she obeyed the form to which she'd been delivered. That's what it's all about.

I want to ask you a question. Is your obedience up to date? You say, what do you mean by that? I mean, can you say tonight, as far as I know and as much as I'm able, I'm obeying everything God tells me to obey in this book. I mean that I do not know of any command or any precept in this book that I am willfully and knowingly and deliberately disobeying. As far as I know,

I'm obeying all I know to obey. I'm not obeying it perfectly. I don't mean to say that. But in my heart, as much as in me is, I am trying to obey and my obedience is up to date. I can't think of anything in my life right now that is definitely out of the will of God

and I know about it, is your obedience up to date. We talk about revival, but Charles Finney was right when he said revival is nothing more than a new beginning of obedience to God. Obedience. There's no substitute for obedience. I have found also

that when God deals with me about something He doesn't deal with me about six or seven things at once He usually deals with me about one thing at a time one thing at a time it's that same thing that keeps coming up every time you get in a situation like this you know what I mean?

every time God gets close to you or you're forced to have to get your mind on these things and consider, that same thing comes up. There's something there. There's something there. And you know that's not been settled with God. I want to tell you something. You'll go no further until that

thing is settled. Now what we often try to do, of course, is we try to negotiate with God and there's something that we don't want to take care of, but what we often try to do, of course, is we try to negotiate with God and there's something that we don't want to take care of, but what we say is, I tell you what, I'm going to kind of just ignore this

and play like this is not here. And what I'll do is I'll come over here and do double time over here and that will satisfy the Lord. You know, we try to compensate, substitute. In 1970, we had a revival meeting in our church. Had in a well-known evangelist. I'll never forget, on Sunday morning,

he walked in and, folks, he had the most beautiful black-on-black suit I've ever seen in my life. I mean, it was gorgeous. I'd never seen anything like it. Black-on-black suit. Solid black suit with little black, shiny stripes in it.

It was beautiful. Every preacher ought to have a black-on-black suit, a solid black suit with little black shiny stripes in it. It was beautiful. Every preacher ought to have a black suit. I told Kay, I want to get a suit like that. So Monday, after the meeting, I went downtown, and I went shopping for a black-on-black suit. Now, I found a lot of black suits, but I wanted a black-on-black. I couldn't find one anywhere.

And I remember standing downtown on the street corner of Dallas and I looked over and there was a store I'd never been in before, but I knew it was a good store and they had men's clothes and I thought, well, I've tried everything else I know.

I'll go over there. And the minute I walked into that store, I should have known. I should have been warned. Because it was quiet in there. I mean, quiet. There were no little kids running around. I'm not talking about Kmart folks.

It was quiet in there. And somebody said, may I help you? I said, well, I'm looking for a suit. Oh, if you'll just go over there at that elevator, just step on that elevator and take the third floor up to men's clothing.

Okay. I'd never ridden an elevator to men's clothing before, but I went over there. Got on that elevator and take the third floor up to men's clothing. Okay. I'd never ridden an elevator to men's clothing before, but I went over there. Got on the elevator, rode it up to the third floor, the doors whooshed open, and there should have been my second warning. Because there were about six real old guys

standing around in blue suits. And I want to tell you something. It's the real old guys that can sell these suits. I mean the white haired guys that know it and it was quiet in there too deep carpet class I stepped off the elevator

one of these gentlemen stepped over to me and he said good morning sir can I be of service I said well I'm looking for a black on... Say no more. Led me around to the rack of suits. Took a suit off.

Took that coat off. Turned me around in the mirror. Draped that black on black coat on me and it was gorgeous. He said, is this what you had in mind? I said, boy, this is it. I mean, this thing is gorgeous. Well, I said, I'll take it.

Tried on the pants. They brought the little fellow who sits up in the attic. You know, there's a little fellow up there with pins in his mouth and tape measure. And they brought him down. And he made pin marks and made chalk marks on it. And I got back into my clothes. And this gentleman said, now, will that be cash or charge? Well, I hadn't even thought about that.

I was so excited about finding what I was looking for. Well, as a matter of fact, I hadn't even looked at the price tag. I didn't even know how much the thing was. And you know, I knew I was in a classy place. And it would be uncool for me to, well, how much is it?

You know, I don't care how much it is, I'll take it. So what I did was I sneaked a peek at Christag. Now this was 1970. That's been 20 years ago. The most I'd ever paid for a suit up to that time was $125, and that made a choke me. That same suit today sells for between $700 and $1,000. We're that made a choke me. That same suit today sells for between $700 and $1,000.

We're talking about a real suit. I looked on that thing. It was $250. Ooh! Twice as much as I'd ever paid for a suit. Oh! I can't pay for this. But I'm not going to let these folks know I can't.

I mean, I'm committed. The pins are in it. The chalk marks are on it. I said, I don't have a charge account. He said, no problem. Open you one right now. You know, it's easier to get a charge account at those fancy stores than it is at some other.

Really? And I thought to myself, I said, well, I'll charge it then. And I said to myself, I'll be all right if Kay doesn't find out how much it's going to cost. And I wasn't worried about that because to tell you the truth, we never asked each other what we paid for anything.

Well, maybe a car, but if she comes home in a new dress, I don't say how much was it, or I come home in a new suit, she doesn't say how much. We had never, I mean never, asked each other what did you pay for that shirt or that suit or that dress. So, and the bills came to my office and I took care of it. So she'd never know, you know.

She'd never ask and I'd be all right. It's stupid and foolish for me to spend this much money. I don't have it. It's poor stewardship. But I'm too vain to admit I can't afford it and I want it and I want it. So I went back to my office and I was sitting there working on my Sunday sermon and the phone rang and it was

my wife. She said, well, did you go shopping today? Yeah. Did you find your suit? Yeah, I found a suit. Was it what you were looking for? Yes, it was what I was looking for. Did you like it? Yeah. How much was it? $125. I know it's too much. Shouldn't have paid that much for it.

We can't afford it. She said, it's all right. You deserve it. Hung up the phone. Went back to my sermon preparation. And I'll tell you immediately, immediately I was overcome. I'm telling you I was overcome

with conviction that I had never known before. Oh, I felt miserable. I felt like God was right there in the room with me, pushing me down, looking at me with those glaring eyes. Oh, I sinned. No doubt about it. I'll get on my knees and confess it to God.

And I did. I got down on my knees and I said, Lord, Lord, I did a foolish thing. I did a sinful thing. I told Kay a lie. Lord, I want you to forgive me. I confess it. I want you to forgive me. And nothing happened.

God didn't say a word. The heaviness was still there. Well, I went back to my sermon. And I couldn I went back to my sermon. And I couldn't really concentrate on my sermon. Two or three times I remember praying that day, Dear Lord, I know I sinned.

I confess my sin. Lord, please forgive me. And nothing ever happened. I knew. I knew what had to be done. I had to tell her. And I wasn't willing to do that. That was a miserable week for me.

About every day, I'd pray a different way. I remember doing like this. Dear Lord, Lord, I tell you what, this has really taught me a lesson. Lord, you know, I haven't been praying as much as I ought to pray. And I just somehow know that if I had really been a prayer warrior

like I ought to have been, I would never have gotten into this mess. And I want you to know, Lord, I have really learned from this. I'm going to pray more than I've ever prayed before. God never said a word. And Lord, not only that, but I haven't been reading the Bible like I ought to.

I study for sermons, but my devotional life hasn't been what it will be. And I tell you what, Lord, if I'd been in the Word like I should have been, I would never have been in this mess. And I tell you what, I'm going to start reading the Bible more and more and more. God didn't say a word. And Lord, I haven't been witnessing like I ought to. If I'd been out witnessing, sitting down there shopping for suits,

I'd never have gotten this. You know what I was doing, don't you? I thought God would sit down at the negotiating table and we could strike a bargain. Lord, I'll pray more if I don't have to make this thing right. And you do the same thing. I'll do anything to avoid that one thing.

I want to tell you something, folks. God does not negotiate. You cannot compensate for one lack over here by double duty over here. We are to abound in every good work, not in 99% of them. Well, it came Saturday. I was out mowing the lawn. No, I wasn't. I was out mowing that black-on-black suit because that's the only thing I could think about. The only thing I could see. Boy, the morning was Sunday. I had to preach. And I said, I can never preach like this.

I cannot go into the pulpit with this kind of conviction and burden on my heart. There was nothing to do, folks. Finally, I shut down that lawnmower. I went inside and Kay was in the kitchen. I said, honey, that suit I bought, I lied to you. I didn't pay $125 for it. I paid $250 and I was

foolish and I was stupid and I was sorry and I was ashamed and I'm sorry I lied to you. And she just, of course, put her arms around me and said, that's alright. But I went back out and the burden was gone and the Lord was there. And I learned a great lesson.

You can't substitute extra obedience over here for disobedience over here. It won't work. And until you deal with the thing that God is dealing with you about at the moment,

you can't go beyond that. And you can't get God interested in anything else. He can't go beyond that. And you can't get God interested in anything else. He zeroes in on that one thing. He deals with us generally about one thing at a time. And so I want to ask you tonight, is your obedience up to date? podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.