Why And How To Break The Bondage Of Sin

Two, is there anything worse than sin? I don't think so. Um, do you feel stuck? Have you been trying to stop sinning? Trying to stop losing your temper? I'm really trying to stop committing fornication. I'm really trying to stop committing adultery. Really trying to stop drinking and drugs. And well, today on this video, I'm going to share with you some biblical concepts on how and why to break the bondage of sin. But before I do that, I want to give you some definitions. Well, first, I'm going to read something to you. I'm going to read a passage. Why should we break the bondage of sin? What, like, what's the advantage of overcoming the evil nature that is a part of us? It's as much a part of us as our hair color, our eye color, and our skin tone. This, this sin nature is a part of us.

I was reading, um, a book, uh, today. Well, I read it last week, but I'm reading it again. It was so good. And, uh, more on that later. But it said, whenever a relationship is based on dependency, it will always create an adversarial relationship. And I thought, that's so lame. Like, so he said, men and women, like, women are dependent on men for, uh, protection and provision, right? So that creates an adversarial relationship. And because it makes the women feel adversarial against the man. This, this is a part of this mind-blowing. It, it'll make sense to you here in a minute. And then, and then, um, men are, um, dependent on women for admiration and, um, shall we call it, reproductive pleasures. Um, because of that, there's an adversarial relationship that men, men have against women. And they attempt to manipulate each other to get the thing they desire. And then children are dependent upon parents, so they, they have an adversary relationship against their parents. And they attempt to manipulate the parents. And then same with employers and employees. And, and, and I was, I'm listening to this and I'm thinking to myself, this is so lame. Why would people do that? This is not in your own best interest. And I was like, oh yeah, sin nature. Like, it wouldn't create an adversarial relationship. Dependency would not create an adversarial relationship unless there's a sin nature. And I started thinking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And before they sinned, they did not have an adversarial relationship with God. In fact, the scripture says that they walked with him in the cool of the day. They w, um, they walk with the, uh, the voice of the Lord walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden. I mean, in the cool of the day, in the garden, in the cool of the day. But after they sinned, it says they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. Why are they hiding themselves? Because now they feel like an adversary. Because they, sin nature, they already had. They already had dependence on God, but there was no adversarial relationship until sin showed up, right? And sin does all kinds of devastating things. And so I want to read verse, a couple of verses to you to show you this is why it's a good idea to get victory over sin before sin gets victory over you. Because when sin gets victory over you, you are dead. Like, not figuratively dead, like done, finished, dead. Okay. So here's what it says in Proverbs chapter 5. And I'll read 21 through 23. "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pth all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be Holden in the cords of his sins." There's so much in that verse right there. One more. "He shall die without destruction, and in the greatness of his folly shall he go astray." It says, "his own iniquity."

So let me, let me, let me give you a couple of definitions. I'm going to give you some you can write down so that you can know when God talks about sin, he's not using different words. When he talks about sin and wickedness and iniquity, he's not using different words so he doesn't sound redundant. Sin, iniquity, wickedness, trespass, transgressions, they all have different characteristics. Are y'all tracking? Okay. So, sin. Sin means to miss the mark. It's an archery term. Means you shoot an arrow at a target, not only do you miss the target, but you fall short of the target. You miss the target because you fall short. In fact, the arrow falls to the ground before it reaches the target. That's what sin is. That's why the scripture says, "for all have sinned and what? Come short or fallen short of the glory of God." It literally falls to the ground before it reaches the target. So sin is when I don't do something I'm supposed to do. That's a sin. Are y'all tracking?

Um, then there is transgression. Now, transgression means to break the law. What's it mean? It means to break the law. So a transgression is when I break the law. There's a law that says, "okay, thou shalt," and then I don't do it. I broke the law. There's a, there's a law that says, "thou shalt not," and I do it. I broke the law. Okay. So transgression is breaking the law.

Trespass. Trespass means to go to cross the boundary. Like just like you see a sign on a fence that says, "no trespassing," which means what? Don't go over the fence, right? So when you go outside the line, you're driving down the road, you look down at your iPhone, all of a sudden you're on the wrong side of the road. You're trespassing, right? You're on the wrong side of the line. That's what trespass means. It means to go outside the boundaries that have been established. That's a trespass. Okay.

The word iniquity means to be bent on doing the wrong thing. In other words, I'm determined, I'm going to do this, and I don't want to be confused with the facts. That's what iniquity is. An iniquity is a sinful habit that I'm, for lack of a better term, I'm addicted to. And I'm going to do it even though I know it's wrong. Okay. There's that. That's iniquity. Okay.

Wickedness means to have evil intertwined in your life. That wicked is the root word of wicker furniture. Like we see wicker furniture, it's woven. It's woven together. The fabric of the wicked furniture is woven together. So wickedness means to have a life that's interwoven with evil. And the scripture says, "his own iniquities" (Proverbs 5:22) "shall take the wicked." His own iniquities, his bent on doing, his determination to do the wrong thing, shall take the wicked, the person whose life is intertwined with sin. And he shall be held in the cords or the bondage of his sins.

So what do I do about this conundrum? This is a conundrum. This is perplexing. This is like the ultimate in being stuck like Chuck in a pickup truck. What am I going to do about my sin nature? I, and there's, there's so many stories. There's a story, story of Jacob and Esau. And if you look at the story of Jacob and Esau, and the scripture says that when Rebecca was pregnant with Jacob and Esau, um, and there were twins in her womb, and she had this, she had this conflict inside of her. And it says, and when she was, she, it says she entreated the Lord. And the Lord said, "well, two nations are in your womb, and one, the one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger." That is a picture of our two natures. Those two nations, Jacob and Esau, are a picture of our two natures. Jacob is a picture of our old man. He was born first, just like your old man was born first. Maybe you received Christ when you, I received Christ when I was 16. So my old man is 16 years older than my new man. Are y'all tracking? So my old nature is the older nature. But it says, "the one shall be stronger than the other." But it didn't say which one, right? So which one's going to be stronger than the other? Well, according to the story, as it progressed, the one that's going to be stronger than the other is the one we feed the most. Cuz it says Esau, I'm not going to go into all of it, but it says Esau came in from the field and he was faint. And it says Esau was a mighty hunter and man of the field. Well, when you see the only other person the scripture ever called him a hunter was who? Nimrod. Nimrod, who put himself before the Lord. And when it says he was a man of the field, that means he was a man of the world. The field is almost always a type of the world system. He was a man of the world. So Esau was a worldly man. That's the, he's a picture of the old nature. But Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. But that word plain, the only place I've been, I've found it translated into the word English word plain in scripture is in that passage when it's talking about Jacob. But it's also in Job chapter 1, and it's describing Job when it says, "Job, Job was a perfect and an upright man." The word perfect and upright, exact same Hebrew word as the word plain that described Jacob. Jacob was the younger of the two twins, but he's a picture of our new nature. And while, and it also says that Jacob sold pottage, which means while the wild, daring, thrills, seeking hunter Esau was out in the world sowing his wild oats to the wind, Jacob was at home. And the word sold literally means he was proudly preparing his portion. He was preparing for his future. And so the one that's the strongest is the one you feed the most. It says that Jacob, Esau came in from the field, he was faint, and he said to his brother, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage." Jacob said, "By the way, this is what this is. This is part of the sin nature. The sin nature is a taking nature. I've wasted my life, I've wasted my time. Now I want you to be responsible for me and give me what you've prepared, right? This is the cry of people who don't prepare. Feed me, I pray thee, with what you've prepared for you. Give me what you've worked for. You shouldn't have as much. You have more than I have. Therefore, give me what you've got so we can both have the same amount." That's the old man talking. That's not the new man, Jacob. Because he understood. And a lot of people say, Jacob stole Esau's birthright. There's no place in the scripture that says Jacob stole Esau's birthright. He didn't say steal it from him. Here's what he said. He said, he said, "Sell me this day thy birthright." He bought it from him. And Esau despised his birthright so much, he said, "I'm, I'm about to die. What good is this birthright going to be to me?" And he sold. This is what it says. He sold his birthright unto Jacob. Now, after he sold his birthright unto Jacob, whose birthright was it? Jacob's. It was Jacob's. So the reality is, the reality is, yes, Jacob did steal the blessing. But Jacob stole the blessing, and it wasn't right that he did it. He should have, he could have let God take care of it because God already gave the prophecy. God's going to keep his word. But him and his mother got involved. They started manipulating, right? But Esau was actually attempting to steal back the birthright that he had already sold when he wanted to get the blessing from his father. Okay. Anyway, you say, what does that have to do with anything? Because the scripture tells us in Hebrews about Esau, "lest there be any fornicator and profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." So he was so he was such a fornicator, so profane, he was so in tune with his flesh that he sold his spiritual blessing in exchange for some food so he could satisfy his flesh. Okay. So the one that's going to, the one we feed the most. So there's two natures, okay? So because there's two natures, by the way, when you receive Christ and you get a new nature, because you don't have it. If you have not received Christ as your savior, you don't have a new nature. You only have an old nature. Yes. You don't even have anything combating that old nature except conscience. And so when you receive Christ, you have a new nature. But unless you feed the new nature more than you fed the old nature, and the old nature has been eaten a lot longer than the new nature, then your chances of having victory over sin are slim to none, and slim has just left the building. Okay.

So, so what do I do about this conundrum? Well, I'm glad the Bible doesn't leave us without a clue. Like, one of the best places, it'll, it'll take us way longer than we have today to get all the way through this, but it's okay because we'll, we'll get through it farther. I promise. We'll have more answers by the time we get done today than we've had so far. So in, um, Romans chapter 6, starting with verse 12, God shows us, starting with verse 12, going all the way down to the end of Romans chapter 8, God shows us how to have victory over sin, and he shows us step by step. So let's see what he says. "Let not sin therefore reign like a king in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof." There's so much in that verse. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof." Don't let sin rule in your body, your mortal, fleshly, weak, temporal body that's going to die. Don't let sin rule in that body, um, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. The first thing we see is this: if sin, you're going to have a sin nature. But if the sin nature rules, and you received Christ, the sin nature is ruling because you let it. "I can't help it. I just lose my temper sometimes." Well, you might lose your temper sometimes, but you can help it. "I can't help it. I just eat too much." No, you might eat too much, but you can help it. "I, I can't help it. I'm just addicted to alcohol." Well, you might be addicted to alcohol, but you can help it. If you receive Christ, you can help it. There's no, "I can't." You, there, there is no, "I can't." "There's nothing I can do." Oh, there's something you can do because it says, "Let not sin therefore reign." In other words, if sin is ruling in your body, it is because you let it. And ever, in other words, whatever rules you, when you receive Christ, it rules you because you've let it rule you. And your purpose, the purpose of your life now that you've received Christ, is to let God be the king of your life. That's why Jesus in the model prayer, not the Lord's Prayer, they call it the Lord's Prayer, it's not the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name" is not the Lord's Prayer. Jesus never needed to pray that prayer. Why? Because it says, "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." He didn't have any trespasses. How do you know he didn't have any trespasses? Because over in the book of Hebrews chapter 7, I think it's verse 28, but I'm not sure, it says, "for such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, then for the sins of the people, for this he did once when he offered up himself." He's perfect, sinless. Okay. So when you are in Christ, you can now help it. I couldn't help it before I was in Christ. Now that I'm in Christ, I can help it. Man, I used to cuss so bad, you can't imagine me cussing, can you? Well, well, I could. It was bad. It was bad. It was almost poetic. It was terrible. Oh yeah, it was terrible. It was like, it was like, I don't know, it was like freestyle. And I know it might be hard for you to imagine, but I, I, I used to cuss. Back fight, child, please. Fight at the drop of a hat. And sometimes throw down two hats. Yeah, bad attitude, child, temper. What? I punch holes in walls. Oh yeah, I had a temper. Woo, woo. Well, when I received Christ, literally when I received Christ, I stopped cussing. Like, just don't do that. That's not who I am anymore. God gave me a new nature that doesn't cuss. And if I'm yielded to the, if I, if I, if I'm yielded to letting the new man be in charge of the life instead of the old man being, I don't have to cuss people out anymore. Wow. Amazing. I didn't cuss at my brothers anymore. I didn't cuss at kids at school. I didn't cuss at teachers. I didn't cuss at anybody. I didn't even cuss at my mind anymore. I was just done. I stopped fighting the day after I got saved. I'm 16, I'm in high school, I'm in shop class. I was, I mean, I'm a good fighter. I'm just keeping it real. I'm, I don't like to fight, but I don't mind. And if I get in one, I did not get in it to lose, okay? I don't want anybody to be confused about it. This little, skinny kid in my shop class sucker punched me in my jaw the day after I got saved. You know how I know I'm saved? I did not hospitalize that dude. I didn't even hit him back because I remember reading something, hearing something my whole life going to church about turning the other cheek. I'm like, okay, why didn't I do it? So everybody's like, "Oh, Cody, you going to let him get you like that, bro?" I said nothing. I did nothing. I said, "Oh, God changed me." The low peanut hit me. And the, "Ch, boy, you don't even know." Okay. But I didn't do anything. Why? Because God changed me. Now, that doesn't mean I never did anything wrong. But I'm going to tell you right now, sin has not ruled my life. Sin has not been the ruler of my life. Why? Cuz I ain't going to let it. It'll, it'll, it'll get ahead every now and then. No, bro, you got to go. You ain't in charge of this no more.

So I'm going to keep reading. "Let not sin therefore, um, reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof." So I was thinking about this. I, I need to talk about, not today, but eventually, I need to talk about how, how spiritual warfare is fought on three fronts. And we don't even understand sometimes that it's spiritual warfare because it's fought on the front of our fleshly appetites. See, we have three enemies. How many enemies? Three. Three. The world, the flesh, and the devil. We have to understand the difference between how those enemies, or where those enemies attack us. The world attacks us in our ambitions. That's my desire to be somebody. And when I say be somebody, I don't literally mean be somebody. I mean be somebody that people think is somebody. So when I have a desire for you to believe something about me, that is a worldly temptation. When I'm doing something solely for the purpose, or primarily for the purpose of creating an image in the minds of other people about me, that is a worldly temptation. Are y'all tracking? The flesh attacks us in our appetites. That is my desire to feel something. So maybe the thing I want to feel is satiation. So I eat, and then I feel satiated, and I keep eating. Or maybe my desire is to feel affection or to feel intimacy. And so I overuse that and let it become my master to the point where I'm having, I, I got to be careful how I say this because people edit stuff, where a person would have sexual relationships with somebody they're not married to, right? When I'm yielded to that, my flesh is where that battle is being fought. That's the, that is the battleground. It's my fleshly appetites, my desire to feel something. And then the devil attacks us on the grounds of our attitudes. And my attitude is my desire to be, often times, it's to be in charge of something. Or more accurately stated, to be in charge of everything. My desire for control is a satanic temptation. My desire for me to be in control, for me to be in control of you, that's a satanic temptation. Are y'all tracking? And so, but the scripture says, "don't yield your body." It says, "what?" It says, "um, that sin should not reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof." And then it says, "neither yield." By the way, yield is a biblical term. Everybody say, yield. I'm going to tell you what's not a biblical term. Surrender is not a biblical term. "I'm going to surrender my life to God." There's the, not only does the Bible not tell us to surrender our lives to God, the Bible doesn't use the word surrender. "What all to Jesus I surrender all to him, I freely give," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? It's not biblical. Makes nice lyrics, but it's not, doesn't make good doctrine. Why? Because surrendering is something you do to a foe or an enemy. And God is not our foe, and he's not our enemy. But yielding is something you can do to a friend or a family member or somebody that you love. You can yield to anyone. Do you see how important words are? And it says, "neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness." In other words, the hand that used to steal, this hand used to steal, this one did too. Okay. I don't yield my hands to take things that don't belong to me anymore. The tongue that used to cuss the wallpaper off a wall, I don't yield my tongue to profanity anymore. What do I yield my tongue to? I yield my tongue to praising God. And what does the scripture say? "Out of the same mouth proceeded blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." Okay. I can tell you are with me. And it says, "um, neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness, uh, to sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of un, as instruments of righteousness unto God." In other words, this mind belongs to God, and I will use it to think about the things he desires me to think about. These eyes belong to God, and I will use them to behold the things he desires me to behold. This mouth belongs to God, and I will use it to say the words that he desires me to say. These ears belong to God, and I will use these ears to listen to the things that God desires me to listen to. Why? Because I am not my own. I'm bought with a price. And I'm supposed to yield my body to God because he paid for me by sending his son to die on the cross for my sins. So I don't own my sin anymore. I never really did own my sin. When I thought I owned my sin, Satan really owned me. He didn't really own me, but he controlled me. "I don't, well, I just don't believe I have to yield to God." Well, no, I know you don't because you're yielded to Satan. Everybody's yielded to somebody. Okay. And then it says, it says, "yield your members." Members, your feet to only go where God wants you to go. "Yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Is what it says, um, in verse 13. Verse 14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you." This is going to get so good. Oh my goodness, I'm getting chills thinking about what we're about to do. Okay. "For sin shall not have dominion over you." Why? Because you're not under the law, but under grace. Now, most people take, "you're not under the law, but under grace" as a license to commit sin. But Jesus, I mean, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote here, "sin's not going to have dominion over you anymore. Why? Because you're not under the law, but you're under grace." What? That's so powerful. And so freaking, literally, the hair is standing up on my arm because I understand that the freedom that I have, I have because I'm no longer under the law, but I'm under grace. Now, um, I'm going to ask somebody to come help me. Max, can you come help me? So me and Max, and I, we're going to illustrate this. I'm going to stand, I'm going to stand over here. So, no, up here, up here. So if you can put me on the, switch me to the whiteboard, to the blackboard camera. So, so what we're going to do, I'm going to show you what "not under the law but under grace" means. Okay. I'm going to show you all that. In fact, do you need me to move back over there? Michael? No, you're, you're being broadcast. Okay. I just can't see it. Okay. Cool. Okay, no worries. So I want you to hold out your right hand like this. Hold out your right hand like this. Now, we're going to pretend that Max's right hand is the center. Okay. His right hand represents, my right hand represents, no, I'm going to make my left hand because my left hand's weaker than my right hand. So my left hand represents the law. Left hand of the law. Okay. So the law says to the sinner, "You're a sinner." The sinner says, "I know I'm a sinner." Say, "I know I'm a sinner." "I know I'm a sinner." Right? So the law says, "Well, you're a sinner." Say it again. "I know I'm a sinner." "Well, you need to get right." "I tried and I can't. I tried and I can't. I tried and I can't." That's where we were stuck when we had the law. What do I mean? I mean the law told us we were sinners. The law proclaimed we were sinners. The law told us, "If you don't get it right, you're going to have to, you're going to have to pay for that sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But the sinner still had to say, "I can't help it. I, I'd like to do with the stuff in the law, but I can't." By the way, this is the problem that Jesus had with the Rich Young Ruler. Because he came to Jesus, said, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" He said, "One of the things he said to him, I don't have time to teach the whole thing." One of the things he said to him was, "If you will, he said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God." In other words, he's saying to the Rich Young Ruler, either you're good, or I'm good, but we can't both be good. But since you asked the question, here's the answer: keep the law. He was giving the young man the opportunity to say, "I've been trying to keep the law my whole life, and I can't." Because that's the reality for everybody. I've been trying. Even for people who want to keep the law. Here's, here's how it works. I've been, I've been trying to keep the law my whole life, and I can't. Why? Because the scripture says, "what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." We'll get to that sometime way down the road. "What the law could not do in that was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he, um, he eradicated, um, the power of sin over us." So here's, here's what happened. "Get right." "You're a sinner." "I know I'm a sinner." "I know I'm s." "You better get right." "I can't get right. I can't get right." "Okay, if you don't get right, you're going to have to die." "I can't get right. I can't get right." "Get right, you're going to have to pay." "Can't get right." "Judgment." "Can't get right." Right? And so he's under the law. But when grace comes around, comes along, we know based on Matthew chapter 5, grace does not come short, up short of the law. Grace go, is higher than the law. "You have heard that it has been said by them of old time, that thou shalt not, what? Commit adultery." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But what did Jesus say? "But I say unto you, who, he who is full of grace and truth says to you, but if a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he committed adultery already within his heart." That's not lower. That's not a lower standard. That's a higher standard. Grace has a higher standard than the law. Not a lower standard. Being not being under the law, but under grace, doesn't free us up to sin. It frees us up from sin. And so grace, when I receive Christ, grace comes and rescues me from myself and the curse of the law, and places me here. Now, I was under the law. I had neither the desire nor the power to do the things contained in the law. I didn't have the desire, didn't have the power. When Christ saves me, he brings me here. I'm no longer under the law, but under grace. I now have both the power and the desire to do the things contained in the law, which I didn't have when I was down there. How do I know that? Because Philippians 2:13 says, "for it is God that worketh where in you." See, the law worked on you, but God works in you. It's God that worketh in you both to will (that's the desire) and to do (that's the dynamic) of his good pleasure. It's God that worked. See, the law couldn't do it, and there was weak through the flesh. But God could. Why? It's God that worketh in you both to will (that's the power, I mean, that's the passion) and to do (that's the power). His good works. God is the one. When we're no longer under the law, but under, that's what it means. Be the reason you're going to have victory over sin, the reason you don't have to let sin dominate anymore, is because you're no longer under the law, but you are under grace. And now you have the power and the desire to do the things contained in the law. Thank you. Give it up for Max, y'all. Appreciate that. That's how it works. That's that's that's what "not under the law but under grace" actually means biblically. Okay. And we know because it's in the context, it's telling us the story. It's showing us the story. Okay. So that's verse. This is this is how we have this is how we have victory over sin. Um, then it says, uh, okay, I'm going to read verse 13 again. "Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves." See, remember what it said in verse 12? "Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in the lust thereof." It didn't say make sin not reign. It said, "don't let sin reign." If sin reigns, it's because you let it. If you have victory, it's because you let yourself have victory, not because you made yourself have victory. Are y'all with me? Yes. It's about yielding. It's not about striving and trying and efforting. It's about yielding. It's about letting the power work through you and in you. It's not about you being the power. Greater is He that's in me than he that is in the world. But I'm not greater than he that is in the world. Greater is He that's in me. The one that's in me is greater than he that's in the world. The one that's in me has power. The power over the flesh. The one that's in me has power over the world. The one that's in me has power over the devil. I don't have the power. I just yield to the power. And if I don't yield to His power, then I'm going to yield to the power of the enemy. Why would I yield to the power of the fake king who wants to make me a slave my whole life and kill me, when I could yield to the power of the real king who wants to make me a king? [Applause] Okay. And then it says, okay, verse 14. "For sin shall not have dominion over you." It shall not. Why? Because you're not under the law, but under grace. "What shall we say then? Shall we say?" I'm so glad God answers this question without me having to do it. "What shall we say then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace?" That's what people think, right? Oh, that's the excuse they make. "Well, I can go ahead and get drunk every week because every weekend because I'm not under law but under grace. I can go ahead and get high because I'm not under law but under grace. I can go ahead and abuse my wife and my children because I'm not under law but under grace. I can go ahead and cuss people out because I'm not under law but under grace. I can go ahead and lie every now and then because I'm not under law but under grace." No, that's not what it's saying. What should we say? That said, "Shall we continue?" And man, the Bible, and is the best commentary in the Bible. Um, "shall we, um, shall we, uh, what shall, what then shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace?" God forbid. It's not that I forbid it. It's that the one that I'm yielding to forbids. This is so powerful. I don't have to make myself, and I don't have to fix myself. All I have to do is yield myself. So freeing. Okay. "Know ye not?" This is so good. Verse, God forbid. Verse 16. "Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are ye to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness." It says, whoever you yield yourself to, that's whose servants you are. What? For life? No, but in that circum, in that moment, whoever you're yielded to is who you're the servant of in that moment. Wow. If you're a king, can you imagine a king going to a foreign country and then becoming someone's slave and then going back home to be the king? That doesn't, that's what every time we go visit sin and let it run us, that's what we're doing. We're going to a foreign land and we're just yielding to, we're yielding to some evil tyrant to be his slave. Isn't the Bible awesome, man? Like, this whole thing keeps going all the way through the end of chapter 6, all the way. I'm going to keep going till, probably about 10 minutes till I, then it keeps going all the way through chapter 7, all the way through chapter 8. Like it, but then, and then, and more, and this, and then this, and then this, and then, oh, no wonder in Romans chapter 8, it says, "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." It's a crescendo. Okay. Okay, man, breathe. I'm breathing. Know ye not to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are ye to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. In other words, what if I yield to sin? If you're going to yield to sin, know this, it has an objective. Sin has an objective. Here's the objective: it desires to kill you. Just like we read about in Proverbs chapter 5, verse number 23, when we first got started. Sin desires to kill you. What does that mean? Because I have a sin nature, that means my flesh and your flesh and everybody you ever met's flesh is suicidal. It's, it's literally self-destructive. We live in a body that is bent on self-destruction. And if we don't yield our body to Christ, to the spirit of Christ, I'm going to talk about that more. If we don't yield to the Holy Spirit, we're doomed. We're doomed. You are doomed to die a death that you didn't have to die if you resist yielding to God. Because the, the fake king, the tyrant, wants you to make you a slave. And then he'll make your first day your best day with him, and every day after that, it'll get worse and worse. Okay. Whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. And then it says this. Oh, this is so good. Just so he doesn't leave us down there in the dregs too long. He says, "But God be thanked." What? "That you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." I yielded. I learned the truth. I felt hope over the self-destructive flesh. And I yielded my body to do the doctrine that was delivered me. This is so good. And then it says in verse 18, "Being made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." Wait, what? I thought I was free. Right. You are free. You're free to be a servant. That's how it works. There's no such thing as absolute freedom. Wrap your mind around this. Freedom from anything is bondage to its opposite. Which means freedom from righteousness is bondage to sin. Freedom from sin is bondage to righteousness. But bondage to righteousness is the ultimate freedom. Because when you're bound to righteousness, righteousness is the ultimate freedom. When we get into verse, when we get into chapter 7, we're going to see that freedom can only exist inside of boundaries. I'm not going to go there yet because it goes into much more beautiful and great detail in Romans chapter 7, showing us more depth in what we just read, that freedom is created by boundaries. This is so refreshing. Oh, now I'm understanding better how life works. If I understand better how life works, I can understand better how to make my life work. I don't know. I'm just, I'm just like, I, I feel a sigh of relief that I don't have to do this thing. I don't have to make myself. I don't have to fix myself. I'm not the person who, like, who fell off a ladder and I hurt myself and you call the ambulance. I said, "No, don't call the ambulance. Let me fix myself up first." Religion tells you to fix yourself. Salvation tells you that the only one that can fix you is the Great Physician. Okay. "But God be thanked" (verse 17) "that you were the servant of sin, but obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine was delivered you. Being made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." "I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh." In other words, I'm talking in analogies and illustrations that because of the weakness of your flesh, so that you can understand what I'm saying. Um, and then it says, "for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." He said, "Just like you were all in on the poker table, just like you were all in at the slot machine, just like you were all in in smoking weed, just like you were all in in getting drunk and going to the parties, just like you were all in in in sexual debauchery, just like you were all in in losing your temper, go all. Just like you let that happen in you, just like you yielded to that, yield your members as instruments unto God, instruments of righteousness unto God." Like you went all the way when you were on sin's side, you went all in. Now that you're on God's side, go all in. So good. And then it tells us again in verse 20, "For when you were servants of sin, you were freed from righteousness." What's that telling us? Same thing I already said. What? Freedom to anything is bondage from its opposite. Bondage in anything is freedom from its opposite. When we, when we, in bondage to sin, we are freed from righteousness. But now that we are freed in right, I mean, freed now that we are freed from sin, we are bound by righteousness. Righteousness becomes our new boundary. "What fruit had ye in those things whereof you are now ashamed?" For the end of those things is death. He said, "So what do you have to show for all those years of sin? Like yielding to the sin nature? What do you have to show for it?" And here's the answer: all of us have to conclude nothing. Bunch of bad memories, a bad reputation. But I don't have anything good. It didn't give me anything good. It made me feel good for a minute until I felt bad after that minute, right? And then he says, "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have fruit unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life." When you are yielding yourself to sin, the end of that is death. But now that you're yielding yourself to God, the end of that is everlasting life. This is so beautiful. You know, next Thursday, next Thursday, we're going to jump on Romans chapter 7 and understand Romans chapter 7. People have misinterpreted Romans chapter 7 for so long and misunderstood what it's talking about. But it's so beautiful when you understand the foundational principle that I'm going to show you next Thursday on Romans chapter 7 when it, anyway, it's, it's more of this pure juiciness. "Now being made free from sin, you are become the servants of God, and you have fruit to holiness, and the end is everlasting life." And, and then he says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Isn't that fascinating? I, I, that's to me, that is so, that's such a poetic way to end our discussion today. The wages of sin is death. What is wages? It's the pay that we get for our time and activity. The payment that we get for our time in sin is death. Death to relationships, death to reputation, death to peace, death to joy, death to hope. The wages of sin is death. The payment that you get for doing evil deeds is death. And then if you take it all the way to Revelation chapter 20, uh, Revelation chapter 21, and the Great White Throne judgment, and the book, and the book was open, and another, the books were open, another book was open, which is a book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the book according to to their works. That's the ultimate end of death, of sin leading to death, the second death. But then it says, "The way of sin is death." So the pay that you're going to get for the evil deeds you have done is death. And then it says, "But talk about total contrast. The gift, what? Of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." There it is right there. God did not establish a religion. Jesus did not establish a religion. I get it. Buddha is a religious figure. I get it. Muhammad's a religious figure. I get it. Confucius is a religious figure. Jesus is not a religious figure. Jesus is a king. The Bible is a governmental document. And here's what the king says: All of those religions where you've been trying to fix yourself your whole life, but your flesh doesn't, your flesh doesn't want to help you conquer your flesh. Why? Because your flesh likes sin. And I ain't looking at you funny because so does mine. He's saying, while you're doing all of those things to try to appease God with all of your religious activities and all your religious exercises and all of the things that you have that the religious leaders in your religion told you you have to do, God says something like this: I have a gift for you. It's the ultimate gift. I'm going to send my son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and he will be perfect because only, only a perfect man can die for sinful man because he has no debts on his own account. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life is not something that I've worked for. It's not something that I've earned. It's not something that God gives me because I gave my life to Jesus. It's not something God gives me because I started going to church. It's not something God gave me because I got baptized. It's something God gave me because he is good. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But I have to yield to even receive the gift. Yield to what? I have to yield to the idea that I can't be good enough to undo my bad works. I have to yield to the idea that I can't help God save me by doing some good thing before, during, or after the time he saved me. He either does all of it or he does none of it. Why? Because it's a gift. And if I do something to get it, then he owes it to me, and I've earned it. But if it's a gift, the only way I can receive it is to receive it. So hopefully this has been helpful as the first in a series of why and how to have the vict, how to have victory over sin. No more bondage. We don't have to live a life of bondage just because we lived in bondage for 37 years or 42 years or 63 years. You can be free. Yield to God. Be blessed. And by the grace of God, we'll see you next Thursday on the next video. Bye for now. [Applause]