ROMANS 6:15-23 JUSTIFIED FRUIT2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 6:15-23 Justified Fruit

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. And we're in Romans chapter 6 this evening. We are going to be in verses 15 through 23, finishing up the chapter. And so let's start by reading through this passage. Romans chapter 6, verse 15 says, What then?

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God bethinked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered."

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Verse 19. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Verse 20.

Verse 21. Verse 22.

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here as we finish up Romans chapter six, we're continuing to talk about kind of some conclusions that Paul is making as a result of justification. And so what we were looking at in chapters three, four, and five, Paul's emphasis on justification by faith, that we receive it, we don't earn it, we don't deserve it, but we are declared righteous and declared not guilty by believing in Jesus. And so what we're looking at in chapter three, four, and five,

In chapter 6, he's been talking about what that means and what the results of that is in our life. Last week, the title of the message was Justified Life. That is, this is what our life is like. This is what impacts our life because we are justified. That's really continuing this week as we finish off the chapter. I titled the message this week, Justified Fruit Life.

So just as we have a life that's impacted by this reality that we are justified, well, there's fruit that comes forth from our lives as a result of us being justified. Now, as we ended chapter five, Paul was talking about sin and grace and making the point that grace abounds much more than sin. And so however much sin there is in the world, however much sin there is in your life, it

There's much more grace. That is, God is able to forgive all of that sin, as much or as little as it might be. Now, he began chapter 6 with the question, if you remember back in verse 1,

He said, So he's drawing some conclusions here. Since we are justified by faith, since there is so much grace that it outweighs, it outnumbers the sin that is there, he says, well, then should we just continue in sin and let grace abound?

And then he answers in verse 2 saying, certainly not. And so that's what we looked at last week. Should we just live in sin? Should we just continue a lifestyle of sin and

Knowing that there's more grace than there is sin. So why does it matter? We'll just go ahead and keep on this sinful lifestyle and there will be sufficient grace. And Paul was explaining, no way. That's not what we teach. That's not the right way to live. We don't continue in a lifestyle of sin.

He ended that passage in verse 14 saying, sin shall not have dominion over you. And then he kind of introduces a new subject. He says, for you are not under law, but under grace. And here in this passage we'll be looking at this evening, that's what he's addressing is this idea of being under the law.

Now, that's also going to be addressed. He's going to clarify that even more in Romans chapter 7, using that chapter to prove that we are not under the law. But the basic idea is, since we died with Christ, we are not under the law. The law is not the means of approaching God any longer.

We are not under the law. And it's also, if you just, based on what Paul has been teaching already, it's a logical conclusion. If grace abounds much more than sin, then, well, we can logically, if you work that out, you can understand we are not under the law.

Because, well, there's more grace than there is the breaking of the law. And so our relationship to the law has changed. That the law is not the means of approaching God any longer. Now the question that some will ask as they understand that is, well, does that mean then that I can do whatever I want? So the original question of verse 1 was, can I live a sinful lifestyle then? Should I just live in sin because grace abounds?

Now Paul's asking a little bit different question in verse 15. He says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? And he says, certainly not. Now when he asks the question, shall we sin? It's a little bit different in verse 15 than it is in verse 1. So in verse 1 he's saying, should we just have this sinful lifestyle, just keep on living in sin? No.

In verse 15, as he asked this question, it goes along more the lines of, shall we dabble in sin? Is it okay if we practice just a little bit of sin? Not a full-on lifestyle of sin, but what if we just sin a little bit here and there? What if we just choose to participate in certain sins? And we just choose to involve ourselves in certain things. Shall we make those decisions because we're not under the law?

When we get this idea that we're not under the law, it kind of goes to the question that many people ask, and there'll be different forms of the question, but it basically goes along the lines of, can I do this, whatever it is, and still be saved? And some people will ask, you know, can I watch this kind of movie and still be saved? Can I...

steal a pencil and still be saved? Can I steal a car and still be saved? Can I have fits of anger and still be saved? Can I give in to this? Can I murder someone and still be saved? What's the line? And a lot of times people were trying to find the line of how much can I do and still be saved? Since we're not under the law,

Some people might come to the conclusion, I can just do whatever I want. It doesn't matter. There's no line. I can just live however I want to live. But notice what Paul says there in verse 15. Same answer is to the previous question. Certainly not. No way, God forbid.

Should we dabble in sin? Should we give in to various lusts that we have? Certainly not. Should we live a lifestyle of sin? Certainly not. But it kind of comes back to this idea of not being under the law. And that's what Paul is addressing in this. And so as we look at this passage and talk about justified fruit, we're going to look at three points this evening.

Starting in verses 15 through 17, point number one is you were slaves of sin. So why should we not dabble in sin? Well, Paul is going to first explain you were slaves of sin, but that has changed. Again, verse 15, he says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not.

Now, don't forget the law has a purpose. So we don't just throw out the law and say the law is meaningless. It has no point. We don't need to read it. We don't need to be concerned about it. The law has a purpose.

Back in Romans chapter 3, Paul explained the purpose. The purpose was to reveal our sinfulness. It also reveals God's heart. It reveals God's desires and intentions for us in the way that we are to live. And so the law has a purpose, but it's not to justify us. It's not to make us righteous. It's not a means of approaching God or deserving God's blessing or earning God's love. And so

We are not under law in the sense that we do not try to approach God on the basis of the law. We talked about being set free from sin last week. And so here we're looking at also being set free from the law. You have freedom in Christ. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are absolutely free. And you are free to choose...

Whatever you want, you have absolute freedom. Now, before you had no choice. You were a slave to sin. There was no question about it. There was no choice to it. But now you have a choice. And now Paul is going to be saying, so basically, though, your choice is to choose life or death.

And that's the choice that you have. You get to choose before you didn't have a choice. You were going to experience the death and judgment of God, but now you get to choose life or death. I like the way that Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12. He says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

So Paul says, all things are lawful for me. That is, I'm not under the law. I can do whatever I want to do. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm not under the law. I don't live by a list of rules and regulations. I don't have to, you know, follow all of these things in order to approach God. I have access to God. I am righteous before God because I believe in Jesus Christ.

And so we're not under the law. All things are lawful to me, Paul says. But he says not everything helps. And also not everything or I don't want to do anything, Paul says, to be brought under the power of something else. And that's the choice that we need to make. That's the issue that Paul is addressing here. Check out verse 16.

He says, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. And so he begins verse 16 saying, do you not know? It's very similar to what we looked at last week, right? He asked the question, shall we live the lifestyle of sin? He said, certainly not. And then he said, don't you know?

Maybe you think that you can live a lifestyle of sin because you don't have all the information. And now he's saying, maybe you think you can play around with sin because you don't have all the information. Maybe you think that you can dabble in sin because you don't know what you need to know. And so here's what you need to know. The one that you present yourself as a slave, you're a slave to that one.

You present yourself to one to obey them. You are the slave of that one. And he gives the options. You can present yourself as a slave to sin, which leads to death, or as a slave of obedience, which leads to righteousness. And so get the picture here. The idea is that you are free. You are not under the law. But although you've been set free, you can become enslaved to sin again.

by presenting yourself in obedience to sinfulness. And that goes back to what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 6:12. He says, "I will not be brought under the power of any." Although you are set free in Christ, you can make choices that will bring you back into bondage.

You can make choices. You're free from sin in Jesus Christ. You're free from the law in Christ. But you can make choices. You can live in such a way that you are in bondage because you have presented yourself as a slave to sin.

And you have continued even though you've been set free. It's like being a prisoner and having the shackles taken off and the door being opened. But then you just sit in the cell and you continue to live there as a prisoner, even though you've been unchained and set free. And so the choices that we make are huge because you can present yourself as a slave and you

The concept here is, listen, you're going to be a slave in one way or another. I like the way that the New Living Translation puts verse 16. He says, don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. And so it comes down to a choice that we get to make.

Now, this is a choice that we get to make that we could not make before. Before we had no choice. Before Christ, there was no option. We were slaves to sin without any option. Now, as a believer in Jesus Christ, we get the choice. You get to choose whether you will obey or whether you will disobey. And if you choose to disobey, well, you are subjecting yourself to bondage again, to sin again.

When you have been set free, you're going to have to be a slave of one or the other. Obedience or disobedience, you have to choose. But the thing that you have in Christ is the option to choose. Verse 17, he says, But God bethinked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered."

And so he says, here's the choices. And he says, praise God. And I think that's appropriate. We can praise God because you have chosen life. You've chosen to believe the gospel message. You've chosen to believe the doctrine that has been delivered. And so you have been set free. He says, though you were slaves of sin, notice that it's past tense. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are not a slave to sin any longer.

The power of sin has been broken. There's been a change. You're not a slave to sin any longer, but you can still submit yourself to that bondage by choosing to live or to dabble or to play with sin.

And that's where Paul says, yeah, it might be lawful for me, but I will not be brought under bondage. I'm not going to let anything have that kind of power over me. I'm going to submit myself to God. I like how he says there in verse 17, he says, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.

And so there was this obedience. There was this choice that they made to believe the gospel. And he says, you obeyed from the heart. It wasn't an outward law that was forced upon them that made this change. It was their willingness. They chose to obey. And as they chose to obey, they were delivered. They were set free. And so Paul says, shall we dabble in sin?

Shall we play around with sin? Shall we, you know, engage in this or that and make those kinds of choices? He says, no way, certainly not. You used to be a slave of sin, but now you get the option to choose. And so the point is, don't live that way any longer. Again, we can be set free by Christ and still choose to live like a prisoner, right?

We can still choose to live in bondage by subjecting ourselves to those things that bring that bondage. You're going to be a slave of one or the other, obedience or disobedience. You're going to be a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness. And he says, thank God that you were slaves of sin, but you believed, you willingly from your heart obeyed.

And now there's a change that has been made. And so verses 18 through 20 give us point number two. And here the point is you became slaves of righteousness. So the first point, you were slaves of sin. But now point number two, you became, a change has happened. You became slaves of righteousness. Check out verse 18. He says, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

So you were set free from sin. Past tense, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been set free. We talked about this last week, looking specifically at verse six. If you want to look back just a few verses. In verse six, Paul said, "...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." We have been crucified with Christ.

That is, our sinful nature has been put to death. Jesus is our representative there on the cross, received the death that I deserve. And so I died with him because he is my representative. And Paul says that's so that the body of sin might be done away with.

or rendered inactive, or as John Corson put it, the body of sin has been paralyzed. And so the sinful nature will still shout at us and still scream at us and tell us we have to give into sin, but the power to force us to sin is not there any longer. It's been paralyzed. It's been rendered inactive. Now in eternity,

we'll have full deliverance from sin. But until then, we live with this paralyzed sinful nature that still demands, that still commands, but does not have the power. And so we've been set free from sin. And in its place, we've become slaves of righteousness. Now, you might think about it this way and think, you know,

slave of sin or a slave of righteousness. Either way, I'm a slave. And maybe that doesn't sound like such a great thing to you. But this is a reality that we have to come to grips with. We're going to be a slave, a servant of one thing or the other. That's just the bottom line. There's not an option to not be a slave of one or the other. There's not a third opportunity.

And so what's the benefit then? If you're a slave either way, well, that's what Paul's going to be working towards. There's a huge difference in the fruit, in the results of, well, whatever slavery you're involved in. And you want the, well, the slavery that results in life. So what does it mean to be a slave of righteousness? In verse 19, he goes on, he says, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.

Paul, first of all, says, I speak in human terms. And he's kind of apologizing for the illustration of slavery here. He's saying, look, I'm using this as an illustration of

It's not meant to be exact on every level. It's not meant to be perfect and everything. So the slavery to sin is a really good picture.

slavery to righteousness probably doesn't fit exactly with what it is, you know, the spiritual reality because you're a child of God, you're the friend of God. And so, you know, slavery doesn't really picture all of that. And so he's just saying, you know, hey, I'm using this just to help us understand the concepts. It's not meant to be exact at every aspect, at every level. But so he goes on to say, okay, so here's what it means though.

He says, just as, now he's making a comparison. Just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, then so also you're going to present your members as slaves of righteousness. So think about this comparison. He says, just as. How did you present your members as slaves of uncleanness? Think about your life before Christ.

Think about the way that you behaved, the choices that you made. How did you present your body and maybe even specific parts of your body? How did you present those parts of your body as slaves of unrighteousness? Before Christ, this is what we did. We presented ourselves. We gave ourselves to the things of sinfulness, to the things that are not of God.

We signed up for sin. You know, if we put a sign up sheet on the table over there and said, all right, who wants to sign up for sin? We would be there. We would be signing up. Yes, sign up my hands, sign up my feet, volunteering. Yes, I will engage in sin and I'm going to practice sin. Before Christ, we looked for opportunities to sin. We looked for opportunities. We looked for, you know, something that would be convenient for us to be able to engage in sin.

We were looking for an open door. Is there an opportunity there? Is there an opportunity there? Is there an opportunity there? We'd be knocking on doors. We'd be trying out things. Can I sin this way? Can I sin that way? It was something that we volunteered for. We looked for opportunities. We, you know, even we're striving for before Christ.

I would suggest that we even tried to get better at sinning. We had those sinful behaviors. We had those things that we practice. And a lot of times it's different for different people. And so that's why I'm not using, you know, very specific things. But just speaking, you think about your own life and the things that you were specifically involved in. And you would try to get better at your sin. How can I do this even better? How can I take this to the next level?

to get more out of it. We would try to progress in our sin. I forget the exact scripture at the moment, but there was a passage that talks about us even trying to invent new ways to sin. We try to come up with something new, some new way to disobey. And that is the description, a good description for us before Christ. We presented our members as slaves of uncleanness,

volunteering for sin, signing up for it, looking for opportunities, progressing and developing and trying to get better at our sinfulness, inventing new ways to sin. And so he says, just as you behave that way, he says here in verse 19, so now present your members as slaves of unrighteous or slaves of righteousness for holiness. So think about how you used to behave in

presenting yourself for sin in these ways. And now follow that same pattern, but apply that to righteousness. So sign up for righteousness in the way that you used to sign up for sin. Look for opportunities to draw near to God in the same way that you used to look for opportunities to sin.

Try to get better at walking with God in the same way that you tried to get better before at your sin. And invent new ways to sin. No, don't do that anymore. But invent new ways to serve God. Try to come up with and figure out new ways, new opportunities where you can serve God and bring glory to his name. There is an abundance of opportunities if you will present yourselves as members of

of our slaves, present your members as slaves of righteousness. Now that's very basic things, you know, like you could sign up for retreats. You could sign up for women's potluck brunches. You could sign up for church work days. You could sign up for those kinds of things. Bible studies, learn how to study the Bible yourself, reach out and witness to others or share the gospel. There's those kinds of things, but

But apply yourself. Think about how you used to present your members to sin as slaves of sin. And now flip that around. Use that same pattern, Paul says, but instead present yourself as a slave of righteousness. And try to give yourself that same passion, that same intensity, passion,

And so let's say every day before, you know, before Christ, after work, you had this routine of what you would do and engaging in sin. Well, now, every day after work, engage in righteousness. Or maybe previously, your pattern was on this weekend, you would engage in sin. Now, every day after work,

engage in righteousness. Take that pattern that you used to have towards sin and live it towards righteousness. In verse 20, he says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. He says, think about it this way. When you were a slave of sin, you weren't pursuing righteousness. So now that you are freed and presenting yourself as a slave to righteousness, don't pursue the things of sin. Don't pursue the things of sin.

Before you had one master. And a problem for us as Christians many times is we try to then now as believers, we're set free from sin, but then we still try to serve two masters. And Paul's saying, look, you didn't do that before. Don't do that now. You were slaves of sin. You were free regarding righteousness. You didn't try to serve two masters back then. So don't try to serve two masters now. Present yourself as a slave of righteousness.

You're free from sin. So don't present your members as slaves to sin. Present your members as slaves to righteousness. I would ask you to think about it this way. Think about it like changing jobs. You know, you're working at one job. You give your notice. That day comes and you start your new job the next day. Now, when you change jobs in that way, well, along with that change of jobs comes a change of bosses, right?

And so your old boss was at your old work and your new boss is at your new work. Now, when you start that new job, stop obeying the old boss. So you go to work the next day, it's your first day on the new job and your old boss calls you up and says, hey, I need you to come in at eight o'clock. And you say, well, you're not my old boss. I mean, you're my old boss. You're not my boss anymore. Now, if you started obeying your old boss, even though you had a new boss, well, you're going to be in trouble because you're

You have a new boss and you're accountable to that new boss. And so when you change jobs, you change your obedience to that superior, that boss that you have. In the same way, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you've changed jobs. Stop obeying the old boss. You used to obey that boss. You used to be subjected to that master, but you've been set free.

from sin and you are not under the law. So don't continue obeying that boss, but now present yourself as a member, present your members as a slave of righteousness. When you believed in Jesus Christ, you became a slave of righteousness. You have a new boss.

So present your members as slaves of righteousness. Behave in a way that is consistent with who you are in Christ and present yourself, pursue. And as much as you used to pursue and engage in sin, pursue and engage in the things of God. Well, finally, the third point in verses 21 through 23, point number three is you have your fruit. You have your fruit. Whatever choice you make,

whatever boss you decide to obey, you will have your fruit from that choice. There's going to be results from that choice. You're going to be a slave one way or another. Now, again, you might think, well, if I'm going to be a slave either way, what's the difference? Well, the difference is in the fruit. You are not under the law, Paul has been saying, but understand that doesn't mean that there's no consequences, right?

It just means that you don't use the law to try to present yourself righteous before God. And you don't use the law to try to approach God, that you keep this list. And so now you can have access to God and pray to him and seek his blessings. That's not what the law is for. So you are not under law, but that doesn't mean that there's no consequences. That doesn't mean that there's no results from choosing to sin. It,

There are consequences. There are fruits that are produced as a result of the choice that you make, whether you choose to live under the law or under sin, or whether you choose to live under grace. Verse 21, he says, This verse says,

It's maybe not one that you have already memorized. It's probably not in one of the books or the common verses that people would memorize, but

I would suggest, especially if you're struggling, you know, we all go through different seasons of struggle with different types of sins. This is a great verse to memorize and chew on and meditate on. Let me read to you again, verse 21. He says, Think about your life before Christ. Think about how you presented your members as slaves of sin.

And then think about verse 21. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? Think about that. You engaged in those things. You practiced those things. What fruit did you have? Now you're ashamed of those things now. You're ashamed of what you used to do. You're ashamed of what you used to practice.

If I would call you out on the spot here in the service and say, hey, tell me what you used to practice. You know, you'd be ashamed. You wouldn't want to announce. You wouldn't. And if you had to, you might just kind of like scratch the surface. But no way are you going to get into all the details of what you did. Because there's shame. You're ashamed about what you used to do. Paul says, what fruit did you have? Was it worth it? Did you get something great out of the things that you engaged in?

end to such a degree that you gave your life for those things? And did you get anything out of it? Yeah, you got something out of it. What was the fruit? Misery, death, destruction. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? He says there in verse 21, for the end of those things is death. The result, the fruit of sin is death.

And as you engage in sin, as you served sin and you gave your members as slaves of sin, it produced. The fruit was death, destruction. And now there's regret, there's shame over what you have done, but you don't have anything to show for it. You didn't get anything out of it except death. Again, I would encourage you to consider verse 21. What fruit did you have then?

in the things of which you are now ashamed. You have your fruit. And let me remind you, in a few verses earlier, Paul says, you get to choose who you're going to obey. You get to choose who your master is going to be. You can present yourself as a slave of sin, but what's the fruit going to be? The fruit is going to be death. And you're going to be ashamed of what you did in order to get that.

But if you choose to present your members as slaves of righteousness, well, then we see verse 22. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and to the end everlasting life. There's a whole new story now. You can have a whole different kind of fruit. It's completely different. It really doesn't even compare.

You can have the fruit of death and misery and all the destruction that came along with that sin that you practiced, or you can have the fruit of holiness. The idea of holiness is to be set apart to God so that you can be what we talked about, the idea of sanctification last week. You become set apart for God. You become closer to God. You become more like God. And the things that you do in order to...

receive this fruit to holiness are not shameful. And you don't have to be ashamed about what you did in order to draw near to God. You don't have to be ashamed about what you did to obey God, to walk with God. They're not shameful. And they produce way better fruit all the way until the end, he says at the end of verse 22, and the end everlasting life. So the fruit that is produced by

is valuable in this life, you get to draw near to God. You get to walk with God, to be close to God. But then it also results in, at the end, everlasting life. Now compare that to the end of slavery to sin. In verse 21, he says, for the end of those things is death. And so again, we get this choice. We get to choose life or death. And we make that choice by who we choose to obey.

by whether we present our members as slaves of sin or as slaves of righteousness. Paul says the way that you used to pursue sin, the way that you used to present your body as a slave of sin, do that towards righteousness and you're going to have amazing fruit. You're going to have abundant fruit. You're going to have good fruit and you won't be ashamed of what you did in order to receive that fruit.

Finally, verse 23, he says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The wages of sin is death. This is what you earn when you present yourself as a slave of sin. You earn death. It's due to you. It's owed to you. You're going to receive it. There's no way around that. Even as a believer in Jesus Christ, you will experience death and

As you present yourself as a slave of sin. You will present yourself as a slave of sin and receive destruction. It's the wages. Wages are not optional, right? So you quit your old job. You started your new job. After two weeks, you come to your boss and you say, hey, can I get my paycheck? They're like, we haven't really decided if we want to pay you yet. I know. I'm owed that. That's my due. Those are my wages. I've earned that money. In the same way,

The wages of sin, what you earn by pursuing sin, by practicing sin is death. And so going back to his original question in verse 15, shall we dabble in sin? Hey, I'm not under the law. There's no list of rules that I have to follow. Should I dabble in sin? Why not? I don't have to keep those rules. Paul says, no, certainly not. No way, God forbid, because that will result in death. It will result in destruction.

Remember that sin is not called sin. God didn't forbid sin because he wanted just, you know, people to follow his list of rules. But things are called sin because God says these things result in death. So don't do the things that result in death. Or in other words, don't sin. And so he says the wages of sin is death. That's why it's called sin because God doesn't want you to experience death and destruction anymore.

So don't present your members as slaves of sin because that produces the fruit of death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. See the contrast between wages and a gift? There's a gift. You get to just receive it. And by God's grace and in his mercy, he gives you eternal life in Christ Jesus. And with this gift, you have the option now as a believer in Jesus Christ to

You get to choose your fruit and you choose your fruit by choosing to whom you will present your members as slaves. Slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. This is the fruit of being justified. The fruit of being justified. The fruit of understanding that we are declared not guilty in Christ. That we are declared righteous. The fruit that should come is us then being

making the choice, making the decision and presenting ourselves as slaves to righteousness, pursuing righteousness in the same way that we used to pursue sin. You're not under the law, but you can still subject yourself to bondage if you continue to dabble in sin, to practice sin. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23, a similar verse to what I shared before, Paul said, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful for

All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. You're not under the law. You don't have to keep a list, but not everything is helpful for you. Not everything benefits you. So do the things that benefit you. Do the things that help you. Do the things that produce good fruit, fruit of holiness to God. That is the way that we are to live. Shall we dabble in sin? No way. We risk enslavement again.

We will reap what we sow. And so if we are dabbling in sin, if we're pursuing sin, it's going to produce bad fruit. It's going to produce death. Instead, present your members as slaves of righteousness. Look for opportunity to do good. Look for opportunity to walk with God and to serve God.

I'm going to invite Ronnie up to lead us in a couple of worship songs. And as he does, I want to encourage you to look for opportunity to pursue righteousness, pursue the things of God and spend time in prayer, spend time in worship, seek God in this time. Also, as we always do on Wednesday evenings, as you feel led, if you want to minister to one another, and maybe that's an opportunity that you can pursue, present yourself as a slave of righteousness and say, God, I'm

I want to pray for somebody. I want to encourage somebody. You can invent new ways to grow, invent new ways to do good for God. Maybe you've never done it before, but maybe today's a good day to present yourself as a slave of righteousness, doing God's work in the same way that you present, you used to present yourself as a slave to sin. So minister to one another as the Lord leads, as you want to take those steps and spend this time with God. Draw near to God.

In the same way that you used to dedicate yourself to other things that had bad fruit, you can take time this evening. Now listen, I know it's cold, but you've endured much more cold for sinful things. Endure some cold for good things, for the things of God. Hang in there and present yourself as a slave of righteousness. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.