Take Me to Your Master

David J. Mullins: Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: There is not one of you listening to this message who is free to do whatever you want to do. Oh, you may think you're free. You're not free. We are either slaves of sin and Satan, or we are slaves of righteousness and Jesus Christ. No man can serve two masters, Jesus said, but we all serve one master.
David J. Mullins: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. In the United States, we're blessed with liberties like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom to choose our leaders. Yet, the Bible teaches that regardless of one's citizenship, every person is held captive by an unseen master. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explores the difference between sin and righteousness. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When we peel away the mask and let people see who we really are, we discover that every man and woman on earth is a slave to something. We're either a slave to our sinful appetites or a slave to righteousness, nothing in between. That's the case Paul makes in his letter to the Romans chapter 6, and it's the theme of our study today. But before we begin, I want to tell you about a brand new resource I'd love to place in your hands. It's my latest book, and it's called Divine Invasions. Last week, we completed a teaching series on the miracles of God, the ways he still breaks into our ordinary lives with his extraordinary power. And I gathered all of that teaching into this book to show you from Scripture that God is still at work today. He still provides, he still protects, he still heals. Divine Invasions will restore your confidence that God has not gone silent, not in this world and not in your life. It's my thanks for your generous gift to Pathway to Victory. But I have to tell you, this is a time-limited offer, and it ends this Friday. So, please don't wait. Request your copy while there's still time. David and I will share more details about these resources later on. Right now, let's begin today's study in Romans chapter 6. I titled today's message Take Me to Your Master. One of my favorite stories comes from my friend Bob Beale, who tells a story about the day he decided to help out a friend by working at the circus wedding. And so, Bob said during one of the breaks at the circus, he went over to see where they kept the elephants. He had always been fascinated by elephants. So, he walked over there and he started talking with the elephant trainer, who also helped train animals for the Hollywood movies. And Bob asked the elephant trainer, how is it that you're able to stake down these huge 10-ton creatures with such a small stake and a little flimsy chain attached to its leg? And the elephant trainer said, well, it's real easy when you remember two things about elephants. Number one, they're really not very smart. But secondly, they have great memories. And when these elephants are little, that means about 200 lbs. When they're baby elephants, we use this stake and chain to hold them in place. And they'll try hundreds of times to break free, and they can never break free. And that's when their memory takes over. When they become these huge 20,000 lb creatures, even though with one yank of the leg they could be free, they remember their past defeat, and they don't even try to break loose. You know, that's a picture of the way that many Christians live today. Before we are Christians, before we're saved, we are staked down. We are prisoners of sin and its death. And no matter how hard we try to break free from sin, we can't break free. But when Christ died on the cross for our sins and we trust in him, the chains are gone. We are set free. We no longer have to be prisoners of sin and its consequences. And yet, many Christians fail to understand that truth. They remember their defeat before they were saved. They figure why even try to break loose, and they live as though they were still prisoners of sin and death. How can you live as the free person in Christ God created you to be? How can you be free from the consequences of sin and death? Well, Paul answers that question in the passage we're going to look at today. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 6. And now we come to verse 15. The fact is there are many Christians here today. Many of you watching on Pathway to Victory, you're saved, but you feel like you're still a prisoner of your old nature. Why is that? Why do Christians live defeated lives today? I want to suggest to you there are two mental stakes that hold back every Christian, two mental stakes that keeps us prisoners of sin, two wrong thoughts about sin. Stake number one, a misconception about sin is that sin is inevitable for every believer. Many Christians believe that sin is inevitable, and that leads to a second stake. A second misconception about sin is, and that is that sin is acceptable for the believer. Sin is never acceptable in the life of a non-Christian or in the life of a Christian. And yet, we have a culture that says God accepts sin. Now, beginning at verse 15, Paul shares with us an eternal principle. Look at verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? May it never be. And then in verse 16, he explains a very unpopular truth. Look at this in verse 16. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? What Paul is saying is, do you not know you're a slave to someone? There is not one of you here today. There's not one of you watching or listening to this message who is free to do whatever you want to do. Oh, you may think you're free. You're not free. We're all slaves to something and to someone. It's not a question of if we're somebody's slave. The only question is whose slave are we? We are either slaves of sin and Satan, or we are slaves of righteousness and Jesus Christ. No man can serve two masters, but we all serve one master. The non-Christian is a slave of sin and of Satan. But when we become a Christian, we choose a new master. We choose a new way of life. And that's what Paul talks about in verses 17 to 18, the past reality of what happened to us when we became a Christian. Look at verse 17. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Why is it that we should not choose sin? Many Christians, many of us every day choose sin. Why should we not choose sin? Beginning in verse 19, Paul gives us three reasons why we should not live as slaves to sin. Number one, he says sin characterizes the old nature, not the new nature. Disobedience to God characterizes the old nature, not the new nature. Look at what has happened to us when we were saved. Verse two says, we died to sin. Verse three says, we were baptized into Jesus' death. Verse four says, we were buried with him. Verse 18 says, we have been set free from sin. If all of these things are true, if we have been freed from sin, why would we go back and live under sin? Sin is a characterization of our old nature, not our new nature. Secondly, sin leads to slavery, not to freedom. That's why we shouldn't choose sin. You know, God said to Adam and Eve, you can eat of any tree. You're free to eat of any tree except this one tree. But how did Satan twist that? Satan twisted that and said, you know what? God is a cosmic killjoy. He's trying to restrict your happiness. He has something wonderful over here. He doesn't want you to experience that, and that's why he's telling you don't do this. Why not disobey God and experience true freedom? And there are many people who follow that same line of Satan today. They think God is a God who just hates anything good and pleasurable and happiness. And that's why he gives us all these restrictions. Somebody once said all sin is basically contempt for God. When you violate God laws, what you're really saying is God, I don't trust what you're saying. I think you're trying to hold withhold something good from me, and so I want to experience freedom. But the truth is sin doesn't lead to freedom. It leads to slavery. Look at verse 19. I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Notice that phrase in here. Lawlessness results in further lawlessness. You know what he's saying there? Sin is habit forming. Don't think you're going to just sin once and be done with it. Don't think well, I'm involved in pornography right now, or I'm involved in this drug addiction, or I'm involved in this secret relationship either in person or by texting. And I can get out of it anyway anytime I want to. I I'm free. I'm going to do this just until I get to the edge of sin, and then I'm going to break it off. Doesn't work that way. Sin is habit forming. Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 5 verse 22, he said, his own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held by the cord of his sin. Let me show you exactly what Solomon was saying about sin and what it does to us. I've got this flimsy piece of string that I could break with one yank if I wanted to. Not very strong at all. If I wrap it around my hand once, can it hold me, restrain me? No. Break free easily. It's an innocent looking piece of string. But you know, if I wrap it around once, it's easy to break free. But I wrap it around a second time, it's harder. And a third time, it's harder. And a fourth time, and a fifth time, and a sixth time, and on and on and on until I can't break free no matter how hard I try. It's the same way with sin. Lawlessness produces further lawlessness. Sin is habit forming. But so is righteousness. Did you know habits can work for you or they can work against you? But they're powerful either way. The best quote I came across this week was habits eat willpower for breakfast. Doesn't matter how much willpower you have, eventually your habits will take over. It's habits that count. They can work against you and sin, but they can also work for you. And that why in verse 19 he's saying go ahead and present the members of your bodies as slaves to righteousness. You notice how many times the Scripture tells us to practice righteousness? And he uses the word practice for a reason. Just like the more a golfer practices his swing, it becomes a way of hitting for him. It's the same way with righteousness. The first time you say no to sin and yes to God, oh, it seems so hard. It seems so hard. But the second time you do it, it's easier. The third time you do it, it's easier. It becomes your nature, your natural default reaction. Sin doesn't lead to freedom. It leads to slavery. The third reason not to choose sin is look at this. Sin results in death, not life. It results in death, not life. Now, look at verse 21. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? You know what he's saying? Before you go back into that old way of living, ask yourself, was it really that great? What benefit did I really have? What was life like before I came to Christ? Do I really want to go back to that way of living? What benefit is there? For the outcome of those things is death. And then verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, I bet that verse is familiar to you, isn't it? Uh, we all memorize that verse to use in sharing with non-Christians for the wages of sin is death, we say, and death means eternal separation from God. And therefore, if you don't trust in Christ as your Savior, you're going to hell. And so we use that in a witnessing way, don't we? And that's okay to do so, but that's not the primary meaning of this verse. This verse is not written to non-Christians. It's written to Christians. What he's saying to Christians who are in danger of going back to their old way of living, he said, before you make that choice, consider the consequences. The wages of sin is death. Now, that word wage is a Greek term that was used to refer to the daily rations a Roman soldier would receive for his service. In the same way, when Paul is describing the consequences of sin, he's not saying well, if you keep on sinning, in eternity God's going to pour out all of the consequences on you. And now you don't have to wait until you die to experience the consequences of sin. Just as a Roman's wages came daily, so does the consequences of sin for those who choose sin. The wages, the consequences of choosing to disobey God in our life is death. That is the destruction of everything important to us. Choosing sin, choosing unrighteousness results in the destruction of those things we value. Choosing gluttony, for example, results in the death, the destruction of our bodies. Choosing lust, pornography, immoral relationships destroys our marriage. Choosing to express anger in words destroys people around us, either through our words or through violence. Choosing laziness destroys our God-given dreams in life. The wages, the consequences of sin is death. Sin sin destroys everything important to us, including our eternal soul. And that why he says it makes no sense to choose sin. Sin results in death, not in life. The dramatist and late poet Oscar Wilde expressed the downward spiral of sin in his life and the destruction that it brought. And remember Oscar Wilde was not a Christian. But listen to what he said at the end of his life. The gods have given me almost everything, but I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search of a new sensation. What paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of other people. I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on. And I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character. And that therefore, what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop. And get this, I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and I did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me, and I ended in horrible disgrace. That is the slavery, I'm David J. Mullins. Well, we've learned that Christians are no longer enslaved to sin, but how do we continue to cope with the constant presence of sin all around us? Dr. Jeffress addresses that important topic next time. Here a message called Uncivil War. That's Thursday on Pathway to Victory.
David J. Mullins: Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. What if your next vacation changed the way you read your Bible forever?
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Join me for nine nights sailing the Mediterranean with every detail taken care of. When you stand where Paul stood, your Bible comes alive in ways it never has before.
David J. Mullins: Sail with us on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Cruise May 2027, and ask about our optional Athens pre-extension. Call 888-280-6747 or visit ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. And we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in his word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Oh, and one last thing before we go, don't forget to reserve your spot on the 2027 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. Now, you've heard me and Dr. Jeffress talk about this Bible conference at sea and cabins. Well, they're going quickly. Just picture yourself aboard the beautiful Celebrity Infinity sailing round trip from Athens. Now, each day you'll gather for biblical teaching, worship, and fellowship. And then you'll step ashore to stand where Paul stood in Ephesus and walk the streets of Thessaloniki where his letters still speak to the church today. Nine unforgettable nights with more biblical destinations along the way. Every meal prepared, every detail taken care of, plus the joy of traveling with like-minded believers. There's also an optional pre-cruise extension in Athens. To book your spot, go to ptv.org.