Avoiding Sin's Trap

and sisters in the Lord. The last couple of years has seen quite a number of rather
high-profile Christian leaders, a bite the dust, particularly in areas of moral compromise.
As you will recall, it started a number of years ago with the PDL Club and the things that
happened to Jimmy Baker. It was followed a little while later by the difficulties that
Jimmy swaggered went through, difficulties that were repeated again within the last year
or so if you have followed the news. It came to surface, too, in early December when
Diane Sawyer of Primetime Live did a rather scathing expose of some of the leading tele-evangelists
in North America. And while undoubtedly some of the accusations that she makes are probably
unfounded, there is enough truth in what it is that she had to say on her report that
it has certainly seriously damaged the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these are just
sort of high-profile figures on an international level. Much closer to home, we have seen some
of the same things happening. One of the pastors in Toronto of what is probably the largest
church in Canada within recent years was forced to resign because of an alleged sexual
scandal. And we have all seen in the newspapers the sort of ongoing abuse cases that have been
surfacing in some of the Roman Catholic church. And those of you that are familiar with what's
happening on the larger scene may recall that a man as prominent as Frank Tillipal who wrote
"Unleashings the Church" a book used in many seminaries to motivate the church community
into outreach and action. Some months ago was forced to resign after confessing to an
ongoing adulterous relationship. And I don't know about you, but when I hear those kinds
of stories, they bother me. And they bother me a lot for two reasons. Number one, it of
course scandalizes the church before the world. The world is already convinced that Christians
with their morality are really a bunch of hypocrites. They have to believe that in order to justify
their own position. And so when they find the kind of situation that I'm describing, then
of course, the tendency is to jump upon that and to tar all Christians with the same kind
of brush. And the cause of Christ, the cause of his church suffers because whether we want
to believe it or not, we are nevertheless members of one body. It bothers me number two because
it shakes the faith of God's people. I mean if people that are mature and strong in faith,
under the pressure of temptation can that radically wipe out and destroy their own personal
lives and their ministries. Then what chance do the rest of us have to avoid sins and
trapment? Or to put it more positively, how then can we continue to go on serving God in
righteousness knowing that one day we shall stand before Him without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing? How can we avoid wiping out when the pressures are on life? That's what
I want to talk about this morning. I want to do that on the basis of these closing verses
of Romans chapter 6 and as we look at them we're going to see once again that the biblical
answer, the biblical answer to avoiding sin's trap, the biblical answer so that we can continue
walking faithfully before the face of God. As always is to be found in a revelation and
understanding and an appropriation of the incredible grace of God in Jesus Christ. Listen
to what Paul says in verse 16, 17 and 18, he says, "Do you not know that if you yield
yourselves to anyone as obedience slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either
of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness. But thanks be
to God that you who were one slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the
standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin have become
slaves of righteousness. Having been set free from sin he says, you have become slaves
of righteousness." Now if you take those couple of verses and you put them in the overall
context of the passage then you discover that what Paul is talking about here is that
he is responding to the charge that if you take away the law people are going to live
carelessly. That's of course the context of this whole passage. Verse 14, sin will have
no dominion over you since you are not under the law but you are under grace. We looked
at that two weeks ago and we saw that Paul's whole argument is that all the law can do
is it can tell you how you are supposed to live but it doesn't help you to live that way.
And so he says the law is useless in trying to change a person's life to the core of
one's being. And he says the biblical answer is that God in Jesus Christ introduces a whole
new way of life that is called a way of grace. A whole system of behavior whereby God not
only forgives us our passions but he now provides all the resources that we need so that
from the inside out we can start measuring up to the purposes of God. You are not under
law he says you are under grace the law cannot help you live right. Now you can appreciate
can you not that when he begins to teach like that there will always be those who pop up
and who will make the charge that if you begin to teach that way you are giving opportunity
for people to become wild. I mean look at what happens in our cities when the police
goes on strike. All of a sudden the veneer of civilization disappears. Auton motivation
in the hearts of people starts coming out and so there are always people who will argue
the only way that you can keep people in line is by using the big stick. If you come
tonight you'll see the drama team do a drama that's called the stick holder that pictures
that kind of image. And there are those who say to well if there is no law and if Jesus
died for me then that means I can live whatever way that it is that I want to live and sadly
that's often been true. There are people who have perverted the grace of God into
licentiousness. And so that's the issue that Paul begins to address here in these closing
verses that's why he says in verse 15 what then are we to sin because we are not under
law but under grace just because we don't have the rules to keep us in line he says does
that mean now I can just do anything that I want to do. And his answer that favorite
word of his Megan Oito by no means anybody who even thinks that way he says doesn't really
understand what has happened when we've come to faith in Jesus Christ. And then in these
verses that we read a few moments ago he goes on to spell out his reason for saying that he says
do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the
one whom you obey either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness.
You are slaves he says either of sin which leads to death are of obedience which leads to righteousness.
And what he's saying there I believe is this he says the reason it is impossible for somebody
that has truly come to faith in Jesus Christ to continue living a life of sin is because he has
become or she has become a slave of righteousness a slave of righteousness you see he says that before
we come to Christ we are slaves to sin sin and righteousness are opposite things he says the reason
non-Christians cannot live the way that God wants them to live is because they've been sold
out to sin sin has a power over their lives sin dominates their lives it drags them around
and as we'll see later its purpose is to destroy that's why Paul says passing laws and rules
and regulations does not help change what lives within people the law has a purpose he says later
on as a matter of fact there's a couple of purposes one of which is that it sort of keeps evil in
check but it doesn't change you from the inside out because a slave to sin lives unrighteously
it drags you around but he says when you come to Jesus
sins power over your life is broken and we've looked at that in some detail in the past because
that's his whole argument here in chapter 6 he says we're no longer citizens of that kingdom
God in Christ takes me out of that whole realm and he brings me into the realm of his grace
and his grace not only forgives all my transgressions so that I don't have to live up to the law
but his grace gives me in Christ the resources to live obediently notice how he goes on here now
in Romans chapter 6 and verse 17 thanks be to God that you who were one slaves to sin have become
obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set
free from sin have become slaves of righteousness having been set free from sin you have become slaves
of righteousness something happens when I come to Christ I become a slave of righteousness God now begins
to rule my life and by the Holy Spirit he takes the law and he writes it on my heart and because
his law now is written on my heart just like before I could not help but do sin all the time now
there is a new principle of life within me that says I want to start living for God I want to
love God I want to obey God I want to do his will not because I have to not because I'm afraid
of going down not because of any of the things that that under the law would motivate me but because
I've come to understand there is nothing more precious and nothing more privileged than being
allowed to serve God and do his will because all his ways are truth and righteousness thanks be to God
that you have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were
committed and you now have become slaves of righteousness so Paul's argument in this whole passage
is that when you take away the law and when you say to people the law no longer applies as it did
in the old context of the old covenant it is impossible that then people will start becoming
careless because if you are in Christ and are in the grace of Christ the law of God is written
on your heart and now because it is written on your heart you're not looking to see what you can
get away with in terms of the law you know how little righteous you can be and still be in the
good side of God but now there's something inside you that says God I want to love you more
I want to obey you more I want to do your will and so grace produces holy livy he says you are
slaves of righteousness righteousness now dominates and controls your life you who were one slaves of
sin have become slaves of righteousness I believe it's important we understand that
because I believe there are still people today who distort the gospel of grace
into lessentiousness the kind of people who say well you know Jesus died for me
and he forgave all my sins and he's going to forgive all my sins in the future so therefore now
it really doesn't matter very much how I live because I can always go back to God and repair
we've all done that one heaven way the kind of people who say well you know since we're saved
by grace anyway and there is nothing that I can do to earn it in any way who I am or how I live
or how I behave is irrelevant to the situation Paul says anybody that talks that way
hasn't really understood the gospel of grace Jesus didn't die just so that we could keep on sitting
Jesus didn't arise from the dead just so that he could keep on forgiving and forgiving
the same old sins again and again and again praise God he does that and he'll continue to do that
but you notice the emphasis in this chapter and the emphasis in the whole book of Romans
is that he wants us to present our bodies to him as a living sacrifice
and his argument is that if we have really come to faith in Jesus
have really repented of our sins have really been bound together with him
and we've become slaves of righteousness God's law is written on my heart there is something
inside me that can no longer be content with sin there is something inside me that begins to
groan at the rebellion there is in the world isn't that your own experience and there's something
inside you that says God I want to know you better I want to serve you more I want to be more
obedient to your will that's the law of God written on our hearts and the biblical key
that's in carefully now to avoiding sin's trap and the biblical key to growing to maturity in
Christ Jesus is to learn to be obedient to the new life that is within us just as before
the cause for our entrapment was to yield our bodies to sin listen very carefully now to the
concluding part of verse 19 he says just as you once yielded your members to impurity
and to greater and greater iniquity so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification
as once you yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity so now yield
your members to righteousness for sanctification why do people get trapped in sin
why do people take their whole life and their whole ministry in some of the cases that I've outlined
earlier and for a moment's pleasure sacrifice everything they have worked for for years and years
and years why do even some of the most godly people continue to abide in deeply rooted habits
of sin well Paul says it's because there is a principle at work later on in Romans chapter 8 he
calls it the principle of the law of a sin and death and that principle he says here in verse 19 is
that as you yield your members to impurity you also yielded to greater and greater iniquity
see a lot of people think that people wipe out because the devil comes along with a super powerful
temptation and they cannot resist and therefore there isn't anything they can do about it it's
not true it is true the devil will come along with temptation and the more determined you are to
follow Jesus the more surely you will face that kind of temptation in your own life it is not true
however the devil can just really nearly take you by the hand and make you fall into sin again
and again and again he must win our yieldedness to that sin and that's the function of temptation
the function of temptation is to try to convince us that what God says is bad is good
and he does that by appealing to everything within us that would make sin look attractive and of
course the classic case of that is the story of Eve in Genesis chapter 3 where God says you
eat from that tree it's going to kill you and the devil comes along and begins to talk to her
about how this tree is to be desired and she begins to look at it and the story is fascinating
because the Bible says when she saw the tree was good for food that it was a delight to the eyes
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and she ate the devil
didn't stuff it in her mouth what the devil did is he stirred up in her life the desire
and when she began to listen to the desire more than she began to listen to the voice of God
Sid and grabbed hold of her life and started that incredible chain of anguish and death that is with
us to this day you know why people fall into sin one reason is they become careless
and other reason is that they think too highly of themselves they you know there is
the tendency in all of us to say well that one little sample would hurt me I mean God doesn't
want me to go through the world naive and and not know what other people are doing so let me
sample sin just a little bit and we begin that whole rationalization process that says well I
can quit anytime I want I just don't have it a want to just yet when it gets more serious then I'll
quit and we don't understand that every time we yield our members to sin sin builds a tent on
that spot and it becomes harder and harder to let go of it until we wake up one day and we discover
we can no longer move over against that scene because it has us in bondage and many of God's
choices people in moments of honesty well confess that because they have yielded their lives to
sin in certain areas sin continues to reign and that's sin if unchecked will one day produce the
kind of death that we see when people's lives and ministries fall apart James in chapter one puts
it this way he says let no one say when he is tempted I am tempted by God for he says God cannot
be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one but each person is tempted when he is Lord
and enticed by his own desire then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it
is full grown brings forth death notice what he is saying God doesn't tempt you he says we're
tempted by our own desires and the analogy that he uses is that of a fisherman we are
Lord and enticed by our own desires the devil baits us he hangs it in front of our eyes and the
more we look at it the more we think that cute little worm will make a wonderful meal he doesn't
tell us that hiding under that worm is a hook that once it's got us it's not going to let us go
he says we are Lord and enticed by our own desires and desire when it has conceived gives birth
to sin you look at it and you look at it and you say well maybe I will maybe I won't and the more
you think about it the stronger the desire becomes until your resistance is broken and you and
you snap out and you bite it out and that's when you discover you're hooked and the fight is on
and desire when it is full grown gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth
death don't ever think people fall into sin because there is a crosswind that comes along
that just blows them off their socks it ties into something that is in their own lives
that hasn't been surrendered to Jesus and the more they surrender it to sin the more sin builds
a fortress a mad spot and it drags them down to where they never thought they could ever go
because it destroys their will it destroys their sense it destroys everything because that's
the nature of death but now notice what Paul says there is a reverse of this process also
as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity so now yield your
members to righteousness for sanctification when I come to Jesus if I have truly come to Jesus
I have repented of my sin I've said Lord I want to be obedient to you and I want to be obedient to
you from the very core of my heart none of this game playing whereby I'll give you this part of
my life but this part of my life I want to hold on to no sir true commitment to Jesus Christ as
Lord Jesus you are Lord and no matter how much I might need to struggle with sin in my life
I want to be what you want me to be for the praise of your glory and we enter into that whole
realm of grace and a lot of us have experienced that where where we know our sins have been washed away
we've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and it's like a load has been lifted off our shoulders
and we know that we have access to God's grace and his spirit lives within us
and now the word of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord begin to come along in your life and my life
and that new law that is now written in my heart begins to want to direct my life in paths of
righteousness and when that happens I can make a choice I can continue going back to my old
way of life and I can say well I don't want to listen to what God has to say to me today I just
want to do what I want to do and we're living contrary to our confession and God will have to
bring us into the discipline of his children until what we love we begin to hate and we begin
to love righteousness with everything that is within us and he's very good at doing that
or we can say Lord I know that you love me and I know that you're my father and I know that in
Christ you give me everything that I need to be faithful and Lord I want to begin to obey you
with everything that is in my heart I may not know how to do this just right and that's okay
Lord because you are loving and you're faithful and you are forgiving but I understand Lord
that you call me to be obedient you haven't just saved me to make me feel good you've saved me so
that I can live before your face and we begin to step out and we begin to act on that which God lays
before us and every time we do we become stronger because we're using you see what we've got
our vision begins to clear and my life begins to change just as you once yielded your members
to impurity and to greater and greater inequity so now yield your members to righteousness for
sanctification and just as the one leads to death into destruction the others' Paul leads to life
into glory and that's how it works as you have received Christ Jesus is Lord he says in the book
of Colossians so live in him rooted and grounded in all that God is in all that God has why
do people wipe out not because they are overcome by temptations that are bigger than what they are
because God has promised that we will not receive temptations bigger than the grace to deal with
them it's because there are areas in our lives that haven't been yielded to the Lord and the
less we yield those to the Lord the stronger becomes you but he says if you're a Christian then
you've given it over to the Lord Jesus and he says now begin to live it and begin to act it out
and he says as you do God's grace and God's power will be there to break those chains that defeat you
and you will rise up and you will become more and more holy in the sight of God that's God's
promise for you and that's God's promise for me and I believe that what God wants to do in the
world is raise up a people who in the simplicity of faith can learn to walk after the spirit and
not after the flash and if the Lord speaks to you this morning is he often does to me as I work
on these messages a pinpoint things in your life that aren't right I want to encourage you to
avail yourself of the means of grace that he provides within the body of Christ I believe that
one of the primary ways the Lord has designed for us to overcome these deep seated habits is for
God's people to confess their sins to one another and to pray for one another that you might be
healed and I know all kinds of people that have been fighting for years and years with deep dark
secrets that they've sat upon that keep them out of the joy of the Lord and that keep them living
at a record of condemnation and God says it doesn't have to be that way because in Christ you've
become a slave of righteousness everything that we need for life and Godliness is Peter
God has provided for us in Christ Jesus with the key
just to get over our pride confess our sins lay it all out before God and sometimes before other
people and say Lord here's my life and take at it and the joy and the liberty and the freedom
that God provides for his children is what enables us to face a hurting and a broken world
with a song of praise and a song of testimony that God is able to