By: Mark Engler, Mt. Vernon Christian Church, Mt. Vernon, MO
Sermon done with help from The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible
The Believer is Not to Continue in Sin (Part 3)
He Does Not Have License to Sin, 6:14-23
Intro: Just because we are under grace and not the law does not mean that we should sin. Sin is something that traps, entices, and can control you; it is very hard to break away from. We should not seek to abuse God’s grace, but to live under His grace day in and day out.
There are 6 things that we are to look at today in this passage of Scripture. 1. We learn something. 2. We know something. 3. We remember something. 4. We do something. 5. We question something. 6. We consider something.
1. We learn something; sin shall not dominate the genuine believer. (v. 14-15)
There is a strong reason that we do not let sin dominate us and that is because we are under grace and not under the law.
The person under law is always struggling to keep the law, yet he is constantly aware that he fails and comes short of the law. The law is ever before him. He struggles and strives, wrestles and grapples, works and labors to obey; but his experience is full of tension and pressure, disappointment and discouragement. The person under law never lives a victorious life, for he is constantly coming short of God’s glory and perfection.
ILLUS: I can remember when times and I suspect that others can to when we did everything we could possibly do to please our parents, but came up short. We try to live up to all our parents’ expectations, but we come away feeling like we let them down when we don’t accomplish everything they set for us to do. And that’s how we would feel if we had to live under the law and not under grace.
The person who is under God’s law, when he fails, he goes through periods of self-accusation, of reproaching and censoring himself for having failed. He accuses and downs himself, feeling unworthy and undeserving, wretched and vile before God. He is constantly feeling unacceptable to God, as though he no longer has the right to approach God; and he often does not approach God for long periods of time, living a defeated life, always bearing the burden of his sin and failure. The Scriptures talk about how people react or feel about their sins:
You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning! "- because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. (Deut. 28:66-67)
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. (Ps 38:4)
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. (Ps 51:3)
Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. (Ps 107:17)
Isn’t it good to know that we are under grace and not under the law? God is not a legal judge hovering over us to punish us every time we sin by breaking a particular law. We are not under such a frightening dominion: we are not under law, but under grace. What does this mean?
It means that we accept the grace of God demonstrated in Jesus Christ. That is, we accept the righteousness, the sinless perfection of Christ as our own righteousness. We identify our life with the life of Christ, and God takes our acceptance of Christ and counts our acceptance as righteousness.
Simply stated, God credits righteousness to the believer when the believer accepts the righteousness of Christ. We are placed into Christ and positioned in Christ once-for-all when we truly believe. Such is the righteous position of the believer.
However, what about the righteous life of the believer? Very practically, how do we keep from serving sin and keep from living under sin and keep from displeasing God? How can we honestly live under grace day by day? How can we live under God’s favor all of the time? How can we go about pleasing God and receiving His approval and acceptance?
Well, we must constantly keep before us the truth that we are under God’s grace. God is our Father, and when we truly believe, we become a true child of God. Therefore, we are favored and accepted by the Father. What we have to do is stay in that favor. When we sin, we need to go to the Father in all sincerity and ask forgiveness and repent of our sins.
If we keep an open relationship with the Father; always approaching Him and asking His forgiveness and repenting we will be forgiven. The slate is wiped clean and sin does not have dominion over us and there is nothing (no sin) between the Father and us. All has been discussed between us and the Father and all is forgiven. The offense is gone, resolved, put away forever. Therefore, sin does not dominate and rule over the true child of God.
Now, note the point: God is a gracious and loving Father. He cares and suffers long with us as His growing children. When we fall into sin, God is long-suffering, ever willing to forgive if we will only come and ask forgiveness and turn from our sin. (Lk.17:3-4; 1 Jn.1:9). Just how patient, how long-suffering is God? "His love endures forever;" His mercy covers every sin and all sin. John says,
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
And look what Peter says about God’s patients with us,
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
In light of this wondrous a relationship with God, a question needs to be asked. Is the child of God (are we) allowed to continue in sin? Can we sin and sin expecting God to forgive and forgive us? Paul shouts: By no means! Then he argues that a true child of God must not continue in sin. We are not to set God aside for a night or two and sin. We are not to rationalize that we can go ahead and sin because God is going to forgive us anyway. Why does the true child of God not do this? Why do we do all that we can to keep away from sin?
Ø Because God loves us and we love God. A true child of God does not want to hurt and displease the Father, because we know the Father is displeased with sin. Consequently, we are to strive not to sin.
Look at what the Scriptures say about how God feels about sin and those who sin.
For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. (Deut 25:16)
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. (Ps 5:4)
Again, why do we do all that we can to keep away from sin?
Ø Because we turned to God in order to get away from sin and its shame and destruction. We did not turn to God in order to have the freedom to sin, but to be set free from the enslavement and habits of sin, to break the bondage and consequences of sin.
Therefore, it goes against all logic to seek to sin rather than strive to keep from it. Rom. 6:21 says, What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
The emphasis of this chapter is of supreme importance. A believer who is genuine, who really belongs to Christ, shows his genuineness by obeying Christ as his Master. He takes Jesus as his Lord, not only his Savior. He does not consistently practice sin, but consistently strives to live right before God.
2. We know something: you can serve only one master, sin or God. (v. 16)
A person is either the slave of sin or of God, and there is a very simple test to tell which master a person serves.
Ø Do you yield to sin, that is, serve sin?
Ø Do you yield to God, that is, serve God?
If you yield to sin, you will die. If you yield to God and obey Him, you will be counted righteous and live.
Let’s note a crucial point. Either sin is your master or God is your Master. You either yield to sin or you yield to God. Now, yielding to God does not mean that you become sinless and perfect, but that... you do not plan to sin. You hate sin and fight against it. You struggle to please God by not sinning. You diligently seek to make God the Master of your life by obeying Him. You study God’s Word so that you will know His commandments and can obey Him. You immediately seek God’s forgiveness when you do sin and you repent - you turn away from the sin. You walk in open confession before God, talking to Him all day long, ever gaining an unbroken fellowship with Him as the Master of your life.
Again, note the results, for whom we serve determines our destiny. If we yield to sin, we will die; but if we yield to God, we will be counted righteous and live eternally.
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Mat 6:24)
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. (1 Cor 10:21)
3. We remember something. Remember your decision. You chose righteousness. (v. 17 –18)
Note the stated fact: believers "used to be slaves to sin." The word "slaves" (doulos) means bond slaves, persons bound to a master. Believers (we) used to yield to sin, all kinds of sin ranging from...
Ø Simple off-colored jokes to using God’s name in vain.
Ø Immoral thoughts to adultery.
Ø Simple thoughts of pride to drunkenness.
Ø Simple acts of selfishness to stealing.
Ø Wanting more to actually indulging.
Ø Seeking position and power to hurting and crushing people.
But now the believer has obeyed the teaching of God, that is, the gospel of justification.
They obeyed God’s commandment. They "believed" in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ; therefore, God took their faith and takes our faith and counts (credits) it as righteousness. The believer chose God and righteousness, and because they did, God accepted them as righteous and he accepts us as righteous when we do the same thing. 1 Jn 2:17 says,
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)
Note the result that is given: believers are set free from sin. We are counted righteous by God, not sinful. God sees us as righteous people when we believe, not as sinners. Therefore, we are set free from sin and its consequences. God does not charge believers with sin; He does not lay sin against us. God has set us free from sin through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (cp. Ro.8:33-34).
Now this means something significant, very significant. Once we believe we become a slave of righteousness. Once we truly know God’s glorious love, we are driven to serve God in appreciation for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. We are driven to be the servant of God by living righteously and godly in this present world.
The degree to which a believer grasps the love of God in justification is the degree to which he is driven to serve God and to live righteously.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor 5:14-15)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:17, 21)
The degree to which a believer grasps the love of God in justification is the degree to which he is driven to serve God and to live righteously.
4. We do something - serve God with the same fervor that you served sin. (Vs.19-20)
Your sin did further sin; it resulted in more and more sin, an ever-increasing wickedness. The word "parts" means the parts of a person’s body: the eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, hands, feet, mind, or any of the covered and dressed parts. Before a person obeyed the gospel, truly believed in Jesus Christ, he yielded parts of his body to serve uncleanness and to work sin upon sin. He sinned and found that sin worked sin, it just increased and increased, and grew and grew. He found that sin enslaved him, became a bondage, a habit that he could not easily break. Sin simply led to more sin, no matter what the sin was... grumbling, drugs, drinking, cursing, immorality, selfishness, overeating, popularity, greed, recognition, lust, power, gossip, fame, criticism.
The point is this. The believer had found that his sin worked more sin and that he could not break the power of sin, not the power of all sin. Therefore, he had turned to the only hope he had, God Himself. Many of us here have been to that point.
For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. (Rom 7:5)
Now, we, the believer is to let righteousness work holiness (hagiasmon). We are to yield the parts of our body to serve righteousness, and to let righteousness sanctify us more and more. We are to live righteously and become more and more holy like God.
The believer, we, never had the opportunity to work righteousness before we were justified. Before believing in Christ, we were not counted righteous, not by God. God never credits a person with righteousness unless the person honors His Son by believing in His Son’s glorious, name. Only those who believe are counted righteous.
5. We question something-what benefit is there in sin? (Vs. 21-22)
Note several clear facts.
1. The true believer is ashamed of his past sin.
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." (Gen 3:10)
My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame (Ps 44:15)
2. The fruit of sin is death. The fruit of sin is not good; there is nothing good about it. Sin corrupts, destroys, and dooms all who seek its fruits. This should always be remembered by men.
3. Believers are "set free" from sin by justification, that is, through the glorious love of God. Therefore, they have become slaves to God...
Ø Bearing the benefit of holiness.
Ø Bearing the glorious hope and result of eternal life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
6. We consider something, the wages of sin vs. the gift of God. (Vs. 23)
Consider this, the wages of sin is death. Sin deserves death for two very clear reasons.
First, sin is acting against God, acting against His very nature. Sin strikes out against God and attempts to tear down God’s nature... of purity and morality, of holiness and glory, of justice and righteousness, of love and grace.
Secondly, sin is rebellion against God. It is rejecting God, ignoring God, disobeying God, denying God, and refusing to live for God.
The point is this. True justice demands that sin receive its payment or its wages. Since sin is so opposed to God’s nature and is actually rebellion against God, it deserves to die... to be cast far, far away from God, to have no part of God, to be banished from God’s sight, to be separated from God’s presence forever, to be condemned and punished for having dishonored and cursed God so much.
As a laborer receives his wages, so sin shall receive its wages. Just as it would be unjust not to pay the laborer, it would be unjust not to pay sin for its work. In fact, if sin did not receive its just punishment, it would be the most gross injustice of eternity. Why? Because sin is against the Sovereign Majesty of the universe, against God Himself. Sin must receive its just wages. Sin must die; it must be banished forever from the presence of God.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Rev 21:8)
The truly righteous man attains life, but he who pursues evil goes to his death. (Prov 11:19)
Also consider this, the gift of God is eternal life. We should note that eternal life is not the payment of wages. A man cannot work for and earn eternal life. It is the gift of God, and it is only through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7)
Invitation: Jesus Is Calling #482
