Ron Dunn Podcast - Why We Can't Continue In Sin

Episode Date: December 13, 2017

Ron Dunn preaches on being slaves to righteousness and not to sin.

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. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye 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 after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye 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. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God,

you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What then? Shall we sin? Because we're not under the law but under grace. Oh, the devil is a tremendous fellow.

He has such good logic. One of the first logical and reasonable things he says to us after we're saved is, you heard what the preacher said, you're saved by grace, through faith, not by law. You're not saved by keeping rules and regulations. Therefore, if you break a rule or two or a regulation or two, or if you violate a law of God, you're not lost again. You heard what the preacher said.

For by grace are you saved. We're not saved by anything that we do. Our good works, our bad works have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation. It's all of grace through faith. If you merely trust Jesus to save you, he'll save you. Not saved by keeping the law. So don't worry about how you live. I mean, after all, the devil says,

there's no use becoming fanatical about it and just going off the deep end. God has saved you. When you die, you'll go to heaven. You're a decent fellow. There's no use just completely getting all hung up and strung out on the way you live. It doesn't make that much difference because it's not going to cost you your salvation if you compromise a little bit, if you don't really go all the way. And after all, the preacher also says that if we ask him to forgive us of our sins, he will forgive us. And so if you're not lost by the way you live,

and if you can always go to God and get forgiveness of your sins, then what difference does it make what kind of life you live? Sure, you're not what you ought to be, but who is? Look at Deacon so-and-so. Why, you heard about that preacher, didn't you, that ran off from his family and ran off with somebody else? Nobody's perfect. Why, you know all those hypocrites in the church.

So don't worry about it. If you sin because you're not under law, you're under grace. Now, maybe the devil's never told you that, but he will sooner or later. The apostle Paul realized that that was one of the most logical arguments the devil ever makes to a newborn Christian or to an older Christian. What shall we say then? Does it make any difference if we sin? After all, we're not under law, we're under grace, and where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. And so our sin isn't going to frustrate the grace of God, isn't going to erase our names from the Lamb's Book of Life.

Paul says, God forbid. If you've truly been saved, you can't go on living the same kind of life you used to live. Now this sixth chapter of Romans is completely taken up with this argument. You see, Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has been arguing, revealing that we're saved by grace through faith, that you're keeping the laws and rules and regulations. Your baptism, your church membership has absolutely nothing to do with your salvation. And so he imagines someone is going to say,

Well, Paul, if I believe what you believe, this means I could live any way I wanted to. I could go out here and live like the devil and still go to heaven. So Paul says we should not, we cannot continue in sin. God forbid that we should even think about the fact that we can go on and live any way we want to simply because we're saved by grace through faith. And the first 14 verses, Paul says, it is impossible for us to continue to live the way we used to live because, first of all, we have died to sin with Jesus Christ.

As far as sin is concerned, we're no longer alive. We have been identified with Jesus Christ. Now he comes to verse 15. He repeats that question. You'll notice the first verse of chapter 6 has a similar question. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And so he argues that. Now he comes in verse 15, repeats the question. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. And the remaining verses, he is giving to us reasons why once we've been saved, our lives ought to be totally and completely sold out to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

A Christian cannot, cannot live the way he used to live and cannot tolerate sin in his life first of all paul says because of the principle of slavery because of the principle of slavery notice in verse 16 he answers his question don't you know 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. Now you take out the word servant and insert the word slave because that's what the Greek word means.

Our English word servant doesn't convey the right word. Paul says, don't you know that if you obey sin, if you commit sin, you become the slave of that sin. The principle of slavery is that it is exclusive. No man, Jesus said, can serve two masters. That is an impossibility. A man can be the bond slave. He can be the property of only one person. Paul says you cannot, you cannot continue to tolerate sin in your life because when Jesus saved you,

you became the slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. You became the servant of God. And just as at one time you used to be the slave of sin and you used to obey sin in your body, now when Jesus Christ saved you, you may not have known it but this is what happened jesus christ bought you with his blood you became his property you are the

slave of god and the principle of slavery is it is exclusive you cannot serve sin and serve righteousness at the same time you cannot be a servant of satan and be a servant of god at the same time. You cannot be a servant of Satan and be a servant of God at the same time. The principle of slavery just won't let it be. I think it's high time for Christians to come and make their calling and election sure. I think it's time that we either march under the flag or pull in our banner. I think it's time we wake up to this biblical truth that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are his slaves and we are his property and we are his bodies. And it is inconsistent with our spiritual relationship to Jesus Christ if we tolerate the slightest and most insignificant sin in our lives. Because if you tolerate one sin in your life you become the slave of that sin you reverse

the processes of salvation because jesus saved you in order that he might control you in order that you might be his slave you cannot be the slave of two masters we need to go back to the old testament invitation when joshua, why halt you between two opinions? Very graphic picture there in the Hebrew. He said, what are you doing on crutches? It's the picture of a man on crutches and he's hobbling along and he's on this foot one minute

and he's on this crutch the next minute and he cannot walk in a straight line. He said, that's the way God's people are. They're trying to live on both sides of the fence. They're trying to be slaves to God and they're also trying to be slaves to sin. They're trying to live on both sides of the fence. They're trying to be slaves to God, and they're also trying to be slaves to sin. They're trying to live for Jesus and also get in a little living for self on the side. And so Joshua said, why halt ye between two opinions? Why are you wavering? He said, choose you this day whom you'll serve. And every Christian needs

to face daily that issue. Who are you going to serve? Choose you this day, today, who you're going to serve. You cannot serve two masters. One of the greatest curses that has ever fallen on God's people is the curse of partial obedience. And the familiar story that illustrates this is when Saul, King Saul, went to fight. God had commanded him that he should not spare

anything of the enemy, even the goats, even the sheep, even the dogs. Every part of it was to be slaughtered. Not a single animal, good or bad, was to be spared. That was the word of the Lord. To obey God meant that every part and parcel of the enemy was to be killed. You know the story, Saul comes back and he meets the prophet of God in the road. And the prophet of God, Samuel, says, well, Saul, how did things go? And Saul gives a glorying report. He said, oh, I obeyed the Lord. I did everything God told me to do.

And about that time in the background, those sheep began to bleed. And Samuel says, oh, what meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep? To obey is better than sacrifice. And Saul learned that day that partial obedience is total disobedience. And some of us in this place this morning have been trying to pacify God with partial obedience. With partial obedience. We have the idea that if we tithe or if we come to church on Sunday, if we obey God in some things, somehow this offsets the other inconsistencies in our life.

You need to understand, friend, that partial obedience is total disobedience. The principle of slavery makes sin in the life of the Christian inconsistent. The principle of exclusiveness, you've got to choose this day who you're going to serve. But also the principle of the expense of a slave. You don't get a slave for nothing. You have to pay of a slave. You don't get a slave for nothing. You have to pay for a slave. And several times in these verses that we read, Paul uses the word freed. He said, you have been freed from sin. Now that is a word from the marketplace.

And it means to go to the marketplace and to pay down a certain amount of money and purchase a slave. Implied in the word freed from sin is cost, price, expense. Some of us have made the mistake of thinking that because salvation is free that it's cheap, but it's not. I was reading not long ago the biography of Evan Roberts, who was the great leader of the Welsh revival. Evan Roberts had one prayer. He said, Lord show me your cross. If I could just somehow get a glimpse of what the cross means it would transform my life. And that was his prayer for some time. And one night in a service, suddenly as Evan Roberts was leading that service, he immediately fell to the floor while the congregation watched.

And witnesses said it looked as though Evan Roberts was going through hell itself as he lay sprawled on that floor. And that night God answered his prayer. And God took him to the cross and showed him Calvary and showed him the tremendous expense that his salvation cost. And he was never the same after that. He was never the same after that. Peter says when we sin, we forget that we were purged from our old sins.

The reason some of us live the lackadaisical, nonchalant lives we live is because we minimize the cost of our salvation. Friend, if you could ever, carnal Christian, indifferent Christian, member of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church that never witnesses and seldom prays and that has unconfessed sin in your life and has bitterness in your heart, if God by his spirit this morning could take you to the cross and show you the tremendous price that was paid for your salvation, I don't think you could continue to live as you live. Old John Newton, I told you about him last Sunday morning,

wrote Amazing Grace. He was a slave trader. Oh, he was a mess. He wrote another song. He said, In evil long I took delight, Unawed by fear or shame or fear, Till a new object grabbed my sight

and put a stop to my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood. He fixed his loving eyes on me as near his cross I stood. Sure, never till my latest breath can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair.

And when John Newton saw Jesus hanging on the cross, he cried out on that ship as he was about to go under, Lord, save me. I wish that I could tell you this morning some of the things that have gone through my heart in past days.

I'll tell you, when I begin to realize my sinfulness, sometimes I get to thinking that, you know, since because I'm a preacher and been saved since I was nine years old, and all these wonderful things I do for the Lord, I get to thinking sometimes I'm all right. God must be pretty pleased with me. And somehow God really made a wise choice when he chose me. But you know what happens? God brings you to a point. God lets some things happen in your life. God puts you through a process and all of a sudden you see just how worthless and sinful you are. And there came a time in my own life, just in recent days, when God just showed me the blackness of my own heart and showed me the sinfulness of my own life.

And I felt that if I had not known that Jesus Christ had died upon the cross for me, if Jesus Christ was not my Lord and Savior, that at that very moment I would slip down into hell. And I had to come away and say, Lord, I know I've already presented to you my body. I've already yielded myself once and for all to you. But I had to say, Lord Jesus, I just want to do it all over again

and reaffirm that this morning. I must do it. Because I realized the tremendous cost that was paid for me when Jesus died on the cross. I think that some of us have the idea that because our salvation is free, that it's cheap, and it is not. Paul says you cannot continue to live the same kind of life you've always lived because of the principle of slavery. You belong to Jesus Christ, but not only that, because of the progressiveness of sin. The progressiveness of sin. I want you to look in verse 19. Paul says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as ye have yielded your members, servants to

uncleanness. Now notice this expression, and to iniquity unto iniquity. Now I want you to underscore that little expression there, to iniquity unto iniquity. That's a strange expression found only here in the New Testament. When I read that, I had to find out what does it mean? What does that mean? To iniquity unto iniquity. Here's what the idea behind that little expression is. It means to more and more iniquity. One iniquity leads to another iniquity. One sin leads to another sin. Paul is illustrating the power of the development of sin

in the life of an individual. And you can sum up that little expression this way. Sin always goes beyond the intention of those who give themselves to it. The progressiveness of sin. Paul says you must not tolerate sin in your life because sin has the power of development. If you withhold one area of your life from the Lordship of Christ, it's not going to stop there. You deceive yourself if you believe it's going to stop there. Because sin never remains stable.

It never stagnates. It's always developing. It's like a cancer that is always spreading throughout the human life. The progressiveness of sin. Some of you, when you were saved, and some of you, God has brought you to a new experience with Jesus Christ, and you stop at a certain point, and you divide your life up into certain sections, and you say, now I've gone this far with the Lord, and I've done this much for Jesus, and I've given to him this much of my life. This is enough. I'll keep this one part for myself, or I'll excuse this one sin

in my own life. I'll tolerate this one sin in my own heart, but it never stays just that one sin. It never remains just that one area. It never does. For instance, you get angry with somebody. You have a falling out with somebody. You know what the Bible tells you to do? It tells you to go to that person and make it right. But you say, well, now that, I just can't do that. And just this one little thing is not going to ruin my whole Christian life. And so you just tolerate that. You admit this into your life.

But sin always progresses. You know what happens next? You find that you have a hard time praying. When you start to pray, every time you begin to pray God brings this little unforgiveness this little bitterness up before your face and so you can't pray you know what happens next the joy of your salvation just seems to be ebbing away you can't pray because every time you try to pray this thing gets in your way you lose the sense of god's presence you'll lose it every time

it just seems that god is a thousand miles away after a while the bible won't mean anything to you after a while you'll find yourself becoming irritable irritable snappish losing your temper saying things to people you ought not to say and it just goes on and on and on and on. Paul says you cannot continue in sin. You cannot allow even one speck of unrighteousness in your life because this sin is going to go beyond what you intended it to go beyond. We had time this morning and if you had the courage to stand up there's a hundred people here this morning could say amen to what I'm saying. Give your personal testimony. There was a time in my life, preacher, when I thought I would just let this one thing go, but it never stayed right there. It always leads to another. It always leads to another. It always leads to another. And some of you are as far away from God as you ever have been

simply because there came that moment in your life when you tolerated one little sin in your heart. And it has gone beyond what you originally intended it to be. You cannot, you cannot tolerate it. Paul gives us a third reason. Not only because of the principle of slavery. Not only because of the progressiveness of sin. But also because of the purpose of salvation. Why did God save us in the first place?

Now you listen to these verses. Verse 17, 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 to you. Verse 18, Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Verse 19, the last part of that verse, even so now yield your members servants

to righteousness unto holiness. Verse 22, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end is everlasting life. Paul says you cannot, you cannot as a Christian tolerate sin in your life

because the purpose of salvation is that not only are you to be made free from sin, but you're to be made fruitful in your everyday life and you're to have the fruit of holiness. The fruit of holiness. And that's a word that immediately scares a lot of us. But it's a good biblical word.

You know what it means? It means that in my life, in my daily character, in my daily attitude, in my daily disposition, I become more and more and more like Jesus. You know what fruit is? Let me give you a definition of fruit and it'll explain verse 22. Fruit is the outward expression of the inward nature. You go out here to an apple tree and you see apples hanging on the tree.

What is that apple? That apple is the outward visible expression of the inward nature. I know that thing's an apple tree and you see apples hanging on the tree. What is that apple? That apple is the outward visible expression of the inward nature. I know that thing's an apple tree. Why? Because I see apples on it. If I see peaches on a tree, I know that the nature of that tree is peach because the outward expression reveals the inward nature. If I see figs, I know the inward nature of that plant is that of a fig because I see the fruit. If I see a watermelon on a vine, I know that that vine is not a tomato vine.

I know it's not a potato vine. I know it's a watermelon vine. Why? Because the inward nature expresses itself in outwardness. Paul says God saved you in order that you might have the fruit of holiness what is the fruit of the Christian life? it is the outward expression of God's life inside us and that outward expression, that apple, that peach, that watermelon is what?

it's holiness holiness of life gradually, day by day, moment by moment, becoming more and more like Jesus. Now listen. If there's no outward fruit, don't we have the right to assume there is no inward life? If there is no outward fruit, don't we have the right to assume there is no inward nature? Or if I should see a tree and I see a crabapple hanging on that tree,

don't I have every right to assume that that nature is of a crabapple nature? If I see a persimmon hanging on a tree, don't I have every right, am I not justified, in saying that that tree is a persimmon hanging on a tree, don't I have every right, am I not justified in saying that that tree is a persimmon tree? And if all that is outwardly manifested in your life, in your home, at work, is a sour disposition and sinfulness and selfishness

and using your life and using your body as pleases you, don't I have the right to assume that there is no life of God in you? Paul says as a Christian, you cannot tolerate sin because sin is the fruit of unrighteousness. And God has saved you and his life dwells in you and God saved you in order that you might have the outward expression of holiness. Now the fruit's what everybody sees. That's what everyone sees. When you walk up to an apple tree, you don't see the roots. You don't see the life, the sap flowing through the branches. You cannot see that. That's invisible to the eye. The only thing you can see is the fruit.

You can walk down the street and people can look at you. They can't tell you're a Christian. They can't see Jesus in you just by walking down the street. They can't see the roots of your life. They can't see the life of God flowing through you. The only thing they can see is the fruit. That's the only way they can identify you. Now, I think the question the Apostle Paul wants to ask us this morning is as you live your life in your home as you live your life at school as you live your life in the office and people see the fruit of your life what do they say how do they judge you how do they evaluate you

if all they can see is the fruit of your life, what does it show? What does it reveal about you? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? Since we're saved by grace and through faith, since it's not by works of righteousness, but by his mercy that he saved us, does it make any difference how we live? Yes, it does make a difference how you live. And God, God calls us to a place where we will not admit of any sin in our life. A low toleration level is God's standard for every Christian. Now let's bow together. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, Christian. Now let's bow together.