Righteousness in Christ

Dr. Don Trest begins a new series from the writings of the Apostle John. Salvation is by grace, though we are purchased with a price and belong to God. Therefore, we should represent God in a way that glorifies Him.

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Transcript

 | The sermon talks on the four Sundays of the month.
 | They're doing a really good job.
 | Braden had it last Sunday.
 | He did a really fantastic job.
 | We're real proud of them.
 | They're doing a fantastic job.
 | It's a rather unique, it's a discipleship venue, I think, that is producing some really good results in that.
 | The other thing I want to share before I actually get to the scripture is that what we do on Sunday morning, okay, we're talking about preaching the word or teaching the scriptures, right?
 | The center of what we do is what?
 | It's not ourselves.
 | It is his word, right?
 | We can say that there are really three components to what we do on Sunday morning.
 | One is that we are teaching, we are explaining, we're breaking forth the word of God.
 | Our purpose is to stand up and tell you what the scripture says, primarily.
 | What does it say?
 | And then from that draw implications.
 | So if it says this, then so what, as far as our own, you know, lives, spiritual lives are concerned.
 | So the first thing that is on a Sunday morning, it's teaching the scripture.
 | It's not teaching ourselves.
 | Okay.
 | It's not building a brand.
 | It is doing what God has called us to do from the pulpit, and that is to break forth the word of God.
 | All right.
 | Secondly, and I wrestle with this term because I'm using it.
 | I'm going to use it loosely, and then I'll try to explain it.
 | So we are instructing.
 | Okay, we're instructing.
 | Secondly, and this is the word that's going to be kind of odd to you, we are entertaining.
 | And what I mean by that is, is when we present the word of God, it should be interesting.
 | It should be appealing.
 | Shame on us if we stand up here and just droll on and on and whatever.
 | And I see it every now and then, and our eyes start rolling back in the head, okay?
 | All right.
 | That's not what we're doing.
 | I've even had some parents say, I love bringing my children to church.
 | And I say, why?
 | Says, this is the best naps that they take in their whole life.
 | I haven't heard that in a while.
 | But so that's important.
 | That's what we have to do.
 | So we have to work hard as human beings, you see, to present the scripture in such a way that it grabs a hold of people's minds and hearts, their interests, right?
 | So we try to do that.
 | Some of us do it better than others.
 | But again, that is not the objective.
 | We're not to entertain for the sense of being funny or that people will like me or people will respect me.
 | It's that we're trying to find an avenue, a roadway into the hearts and minds of people for the scripture.
 | That's what we do.
 | And then the third thing is, third important word, instruction, interest, or entertainment was the second one.
 | The third one is the word that I will use is transformation.
 | In other words, why do we instruct?
 | Why do we work really hard to make it interesting and appealing?
 | It's because the Word of God is powerful, it's living, it's life-giving, and the Scripture isn't just to educate us.
 | Remember?
 | Paul said, look, knowledge for knowledge's sake does what?
 | It makes us a big shot.
 | Guess what?
 | I know more than you do.
 | And I want you to know that I know more than you do.
 | So knowledge in and of itself really makes us useless as far as the Lord's work is concerned.
 | So we're not aiming just so that you can cross your doctoral, theological dot, cross T's, those things, okay, to get that right.
 | We're aiming for us to be better people, to live our lives in such a way that it honors the Lord better today and tomorrow and next week than it was last week.
 | And the preaching of the word is supposed to transform.
 | It's supposed to continue to make us into those kind of persons that God intends for us to be.
 | And there's nothing other than the scripture that can do that.
 | And so we want to talk a little bit about that as we move on further.
 | Does that make sense?
 | So if someone walks away from church and they go and tell their neighbor, you've got to come to our church because the pastor's funny, okay, then we failed, okay?
 | If you go and you tell someone and say, you know, our pastor and the people that we speak here are so smart, they know the Bible.
 | You need to come there, then we still failed.
 | All right.
 | But if someone comes and says, you know, not a word about the sermon, but say the word of God, this is what I heard and this is what it means to me, begins to transform us, then we're doing our job.
 | And that's a reason for someone outside the church to be able to attend the church.
 | All right, now, the next thing I would like to do is I'm going to read you, I don't normally do this, I'm going to read you a quotation from a famous theologian, well-respected, renowned around the world.
 | And I want you to identify, if you can, who this theologian is.
 | I'm going to take for granted that the elders, that would be Scott, that would be Jacob, that would be Roy, and that would be Bob.
 | I know that these men know the answer, so I don't want them to blurt it out, okay?
 | All right, so, and there's no reason for anyone else to say it, because I don't want anybody to be embarrassed, okay?
 | If these elders do not know the answer, then shame on us as a church in this regard.
 | And you'll see what I'm talking about.
 | All right, let's see if I can get this now.
 | Make sure I got the right website here.
 | Let no one deceive you, says this scholar.
 | A little intimidating for somebody to stand up in front of you and say that, right?
 | Whoever does, practices righteousness, does righteous things, is righteous as he is righteous.
 | Pretty bold statement, isn't it?
 | The one, the person, the individual that makes a practice or does of sinning or sinful activities is of the devil.
 | Now, I'm going to ask you now, I mean, just think about this.
 | Is this what Bible Fellowship Church believes?
 | Is this man in error?
 | And more importantly, what do you believe in regards to that?
 | I'm going to keep reading some more.
 | Makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
 | He goes on to say, no one born again who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, does sinning, does sinful activities.
 | He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
 | By this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
 | Whoever does not do righteousness or practice righteousness, does righteous things, is not of God.
 | All right.
 | I don't want you to comment on this because I don't want to embarrass anybody.
 | But besides the elders who I know automatically, they know who this person, who this theologian is.
 | Anybody else think they might know?
 | How many thought, well, that's a little bold statement there, talking about those who are born of God, those who are not born of God, those who do righteousness are born of God, those who do sinning are children of the devil.
 | That sounds pretty mold, doesn't it?
 | It's not Paul, but it is John.
 | Okay?
 | Famous theologian, right?
 | Yeah.
 | Someone that's world known.
 | And it sounded Pauline to you.
 | And that's actually the connection we want to make today.
 | What we're wanting to do now for the next several weeks or so is we want to examine that statement primarily in the context of John.
 | When you teach, you know, when you're looking at a passage of scripture, understanding it first in the mind, you know, or in the context of the original book is important before you start leaping out and bringing in other texts, leaping out and bringing in another text all over the place.
 | Bible teaching centers on God inspired, he worked through the human instrument to communicate something, to say something.
 | And we want to know what it is that he said.
 | So we kind of have to get it from the vantage point of the author.
 | In this case, it's John.
 | I didn't re-put the text up there because you would have known.
 | What I should have done was give our, I should have went over to Jacob, our youngest elder, and said, Jacob, are you familiar with that theologian?
 | You see?
 | And I would have been very interested to hear what he said.
 | I think he would have said, of course, that's John.
 | So I'm going to read some of this passage, and then I want to do something.
 | Like I said, we want to look at this in the context of John over the next several Sundays or so.
 | I really want to understand what this means.
 | Don't you?
 | Because it sounds pretty odd sometimes to our way of thinking about salvation, about the gospel.
 | Let's see, we're in chapter 3, and verse 4, we'll start there.
 | Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
 | Sin is lawlessness.
 | Is that intimidating to you?
 | I mean, how many here would say, that doesn't describe me?
 | You know, I never practiced sinning, right?
 | Well, you can say that, and then I'll just ask your spouse, and I'll get a whole different story.
 | So there's a sense in which we all know that we are vulnerable.
 | We all know that our spiritual lives tend to want to skirt, want to sometimes slide over in the ditch, right?
 | I mean, that's the reality of it, but how do we align the reality of the way our lives actually work with what John's telling us?
 | This is so interesting because John is the apostle of love, right?
 | He is apostle of belief.
 | He's the last one that you would expect to kind of drill down on this type of topic.
 | But John does it more than any of the others, actually.
 | Interesting enough.
 | No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
 | No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
 | In other words, what does John mean by this?
 | Okay.
 | I know some people, I had a friend years ago, a young friend, worked with on the job site, and he would tell me that he doesn't sin anymore.
 | And I said, I work with you.
 | I know.
 | I see and I hear.
 | And he said, well, that isn't sinning.
 | I said, well, what is it?
 | He says, it's mistakes.
 | And there's a difference between sinning and mistakes.
 | That was my expression.
 | Okay.
 | But he was acknowledging then, wasn't he?
 | Even though he believed in what he termed as sinless perfection, that if someone's saved, they don't sin anymore.
 | He owned up that.
 | However, there's still some things that go awry in that.
 | He says, little children, so he's speaking to believers, let no one deceive you.
 | And when John or anyone of the apostles says this, then what is prone to happen?
 | There are those out there who will want to twist your thinking, want you to take a different viewpoint.
 | One of the viewpoints sometimes I hear, at least recently, is that I need to let my friend that's a sinner, I need to let him identify with me.
 | So I need to show him how imperfect I am or how much I struggle with this, that, and the other.
 | I want him to see my sinfulness.
 | I want him to see my weakness and vulnerability.
 | And there may be something to that, but what does John say about that?
 | Little children, let no one deceive you.
 | There are perspectives on this that would be contrary to what John and others in the New Testament are teaching.
 | Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.
 | And this pronoun he refers to Christ, right?
 | All right?
 | All those who are righteous like Christ, I want you to stand up and shout out hallelujah.
 | And actually the right answer is that is, well, what kind of righteousness are you talking about?
 | There is positional righteousness, which obviously this is not talking about, but as far as practical righteousness from day to day.
 | And most of the men in a church, you know, they were getting ready to stand up.
 | They looked over at their wife and they said, maybe not.
 | Okay.
 | All right, just teasing there.
 | Whoever makes a practice of sinning, we need to understand, you know, the other verse said, whoever practices righteousness, this verse says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
 | For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
 | The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
 | And the devil isn't destroyed yet.
 | I mean, of course, he's been rendered.
 | You know, he's already been destined, you know, to the lake of fire and those types of things.
 | But when he says here, destroy the works of the devil, I think it's referring to the works of the devil working through people.
 | For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
 | Verse 9, no one born of God, no one, absolutely no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning.
 | For God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God.
 | Just kind of blow that off.
 | Say, hey, nothing to that, right?
 | Does that bother you?
 | Am I the only one that this is kind of twisting my t-shirt?
 | You know, God is gracious.
 | We sang that beautiful song about God's grace.
 | All that's true.
 | But how does John, the gospel, the apostle of belief, you know, the apostle of love, how do these things that he's saying in the context of let no one deceive you, how does that fit into all that?
 | That's what we're going to talk about in the next couple of weeks or so.
 | Verse 10, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
 | Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.
 | There's a comma there.
 | Nor is the one who does not love his brother.
 | That's interesting.
 | He's going to talk a lot about that in the thing.
 | I want to turn down to the fifth chapter.
 | Again, this morning, we're just getting a little context, trying to stir a little stuff up.
 | I want you to get you thinking.
 | And in verse 1, everyone who believes what?
 | Talking about how do we get saved?
 | We get saved by faith, right?
 | And someone would say, well, what's the content of the gospel?
 | Everyone who believes what?
 | Believes in Jesus?
 | Well, yes, but is that what this is saying?
 | No, it says, believe that Jesus, believe that he is the Christ.
 | Okay?
 | Really pretty cool.
 | I think it is.
 | Everyone who believes that Jesus the Christ has been born of God.
 | And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
 | By this, we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.
 | For this is the love of God that we hug our brother when he comes into church.
 | For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.
 | I know you don't ever, you know, here in Bible Fellowship Church and all the preaching that I do, we normally don't come across as kind of a legal instinct, do this and don't do that, right?
 | We believe in grace.
 | So how do we fit what we normally, usually understand and teach, into the thus saith the Lord that's saying here?
 | Do we just kind of mumble through it?
 | Do we just kind of pull up some theologian other than John or Paul and say, well, this guy says this, so that's where I stand?
 | And verse 4, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
 | In other words, as children of God, we should project to the world around us that we live above the fray.
 | Sometimes we want to kind of mix and mingle in it, and we think somehow or another that makes us appealing to the lost people because we're dirty just like they are.
 | And I want to assure you that that's not biblical.
 | Not in this context, even though we probably are just as dirty as the world is many times.
 | And that may be to our shame, not to our credit, by the way.
 | For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
 | Who is he that overcomes the world except the one who, oh, we've changed our message.
 | We've changed our content here.
 | Verse 1 says, believes what?
 | That Jesus is the Christ.
 | Verse 5 says what?
 | Believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
 | So interesting, isn't it?
 | I've had some people tell me, I believe in Jesus.
 | And I say, what does that mean?
 | And when it says here, believe that Jesus is the Christ, what does that mean?
 | I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
 | What does that mean?
 | Now, there are actually, you know, my PhD studies, we do a lot with scholars outside of the John and Paul, unfortunately.
 | There are those out there today, this is common in a lot of circles, they'll say, John, the apostle, my friend, he did not write 1 John.
 | It was probably a disciple of John.
 | And then we go back and say, well, who wrote the Gospel of John?
 | And they go, it wasn't the Apostle of John.
 | It couldn't have been.
 | And they give their arguments or whatever.
 | And then I say, okay, well, who wrote the book of Revelation?
 | They'll say, John, Gospel of John never says the name of the author.
 | It's always the one that Jesus loved.
 | And 1 John doesn't identify the author, which is typical of John.
 | He just doesn't put his name on things.
 | Revelation does.
 | So who wrote the Revelation?
 | John wrote, who wrote the Revelation?
 | Well, you know what the scholars tell you today?
 | It wasn't John.
 | They say there are three different authors.
 | One for the Gospel of John.
 | We'll call him John I.
 | And there's another John that wrote, or another writer that wrote the epistles of John.
 | We'll call him John II.
 | And in the book of Revelation, probably a John III.
 | Now, that's just the way these guys think and talk.
 | However, for centuries, and even in recent times, there are those who are conservative in their viewpoint on Scripture and its authorship, et cetera, and on the documents.
 | They say it's obvious that the writer of the Gospel of John and the writer of 1 John are one and the same.
 | And it's obvious from the Gospel of John, the writer identifies himself as one who witnessed all these things.
 | He was there.
 | And the events that he says he was there at are those that the disciples, the apostles would have been present at.
 | It's really unreasonable to think that the authors are not John the Apostle.
 | Now, what we read here, this is the build-up for this, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ.
 | Verse 5, one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
 | You got both of those.
 | Now, if I go back to the Gospel of John, and John gives his thesis for his book, he will tell us in chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, toward the end of his book, he's bringing it to a conclusion.
 | He looks back over all that he has written, and he says, now, Jesus did many, many other signs in the presence of his disciples.
 | That would indicate that those signs, those miracles and those teachings that John has talked about were done in the presence of his disciples.
 | And John was one of those.
 | He says, which are not written in this book.
 | But he said, but these are written so that you may do what?
 | Believe.
 | Believe what?
 | Pray, tell.
 | Believe that Jesus is the Christ.
 | Remember, 1 John, the Son of God.
 | Both of those things are found in John's first epistle.
 | And that by believing those things, you may have life in his name.
 | And his name represents all that this person stands for and represents.
 | It's not just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
 | You know, kind of like you say the name Jesus, and there's this emotion that wells up in you.
 | You know, there is a person that the scripture tells about and talks about, explains to us.
 | That as we come to know him intimately through what we are told in scripture, then we have something to believe about him, don't we?
 | So I'm going to go back now to 1 John chapter 5.
 | 1 John chapter 5 is the last chapter in John's first epistle.
 | That's where he said, believes that Jesus is the Christ.
 | Also, he mentions in verse 5, believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
 | Something to think about.
 | And then in verse 13, he says, I write these things, okay?
 | I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
 | So Gospel of John says these things are written, you know, that he wrote these things so that you might have eternal life.
 | 1 John says, I'm writing to you little children.
 | I'm writing to you who are believers so you can have some certainty as to whether you are in the fold or not, right?
 | It's not written to unbelievers on how to be saved.
 | It's written to believers as to what constitutes salvation in the here and now.
 | What is the spiritual life, as we sometimes say, supposed to look like?
 | I'll tell you what, it begins between the ears, okay?
 | It begins between the ears.
 | It's what you understand and believe to be true.
 | That's really why I asked when I read that, you know, if I could have kept that going for a little while is like, well, this theologian says this.
 | Where do you stand with that?
 | Not me.
 | Not me.
 | I'm crying grace all over the place.
 | And then when you read and we say, well, John is an incredible author of the grace of God that brings salvation free of charge to those who are willing to receive it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 | Sometimes we tell our children, you know, behave, be a good person, do all that, act right in church.
 | And sometimes we miscommunicate to them to somehow or other that makes them a Christian, where Christianity is a new birth.
 | You know, John, remember, John, he recites the story in John 3 of Nicodemus.
 | And Nicodemus stood before the people and everybody would say, well, that's a righteous man, if there ever was one.
 | And Jesus looked at him and said, you know, that's fine.
 | And then Nicodemus stood before him and he said, and we know, we believe that you are from God.
 | Because no man can do what you're doing unless God has sent him.
 | So he believed Jesus, didn't he?
 | And Jesus looked him, I think, dead in the eye.
 | Of course, it wasn't even a hesitation as far as the story goes.
 | He said, Nicodemus, you, sir, you, sir, must be born again.
 | And Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, probably one of the leading godly men, if you want, in Israel, not a bad person, and one who will be a participant in the burial of Jesus, remember?
 | So he's obvious one who comes to faith in some manner in the Lord Jesus, believes in him.
 | And Jesus said, Nicodemus, I'm going to tell you on this night, even you must be born again, even though you have been practicing righteousness, okay, as far as things are concerned.
 | And Nicodemus said, shook his head and said, Jesus, he said, man, I'm confused.
 | I don't know what you're talking about.
 | He said, you tell me I need to be born again.
 | He said, I'm a full-grown man.
 | And to show you how confusing this is to me, I mean, I can't go back into my mother's womb and be born again.
 | And Jesus said, you're a teacher in Israel and you don't know this?
 | The Old Testament scriptures, and since we're very plain regards to that, you don't know about this?
 | And then Jesus gave a further explanation, back in John again.
 | All right, then my last thing that I want to do this morning, I want to step outside of John for a moment, because sometimes we say, well, maybe John's language is just confusing.
 | Maybe what he's saying here, others have said it differently so that we might understand it better.
 | And that may true.
 | So I'm going to go to Paul.
 | I'm going to go to the Apostle Paul, and what he says in Romans chapter 6, okay, Romans chapter 6, and I'm going to pick up my reading at verse 15.
 | Notice what it says.
 | What then?
 | Of course, we're continuing an argument, and I can't get into that.
 | What then?
 | Okay, he's going to give a hypothetical question, situation.
 | He says that, are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace?
 | What does he say?
 | By no means.
 | So in other words, there was a potential misunderstanding with believers at the church of Rome that they might suppose that because we're saved by grace and we're no longer under the authority of the Mosaic law, then it doesn't really matter what our attitudes and actions are from day to day.
 | We can promote ourselves.
 | We can do all kinds of things.
 | It doesn't really matter because what can we always cry?
 | Grace, right?
 | And I agree, that is what we should call grace, and that's what Paul has been crying here.
 | But he says, however, I don't want you to misunderstand.
 | He says, we are not saying to those who may suppose that it's okay as a believer to keep on sinning because we're under grace.
 | There's a claim on our lives.
 | Paul will tell us in the book of 2 Corinthians, I think it is.
 | He says, you're not your own.
 | As a believer, you are not your own.
 | You've been bought with a price.
 | Who do you belong to then?
 | Him.
 | And what are you supposed to do?
 | Glorify God.
 | Not shame him.
 | Not try to relate to others and say, you know, I'm a loser like you.
 | I have the same problems you do.
 | And I'm thinking, they're thinking like, well, what good is it that you have?
 | It says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey.
 | Either of sin, and it's singular here.
 | Sin is personified here as a potential master, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to what?
 | What's that word?
 | Righteousness, okay?
 | But thanks be to God, says Paul.
 | And I'm hoping that this is something that you can say too as we conclude this section here.
 | But thanks be to God that you who were, at one time, once, slaves to sin, but are no more, okay?
 | Have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed or have committed to.
 | And having been set free from sin as a master, have become, what?
 | What's the next word?
 | What phrase there?
 | Slaves of righteousness?
 | Okay.
 | So if I ask you, all you slaves of sin, stand up and make yourself known.
 | Okay?
 | Well, I said, all you who are slaves of righteousness, you know, stand up, but stand up straight.
 | You know, like righteous, you would expect you to be standing straight.
 | And obviously he is making a distinction, right, between two kinds of people.
 | He says now, verse 19, which is helpful, I am speaking in human terms.
 | I'm bringing in some human analogies to help us understand the spiritual realities.
 | He says, because of your natural limitations, for just as you once, and that would have been before we were born of God, where you once presented your members, which is the parts of your body, like your eyeballs, like your emotions, you know, your hands and your feet, where you once presented your members as slaves to impurity or uncleanness and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.
 | So now, present your members, the parts of your personhood, as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
 | So sanctification is a word that we like, right?
 | Salvation, then sanctification, and then glorification, right?
 | And so how does sanctification work?
 | I don't know.
 | It says here, present your members, the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness.
 | It doesn't say want to do it.
 | It doesn't say anything other than just do it, okay?
 | Walk away, walk away from those thoughts, those emotions, those actions that are contrary to the grace of God working in our lives.
 | That's the problem that faces the church of Jesus Christ today.
 | We like to muddy this thing called spirituality.
 | We like to make excuses for our egos and our so-called human frailties.
 | This is just who I am.
 | It may have been who you were, and sometimes you may act like who you once were, but it's important that you understand that in Christ now, there is capability now to be far more than you ever were or ever thought you could be in Christ.
 | Verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, for when you were slaves of sin, guess what?
 | You were not born of God.
 | You were free in regard to righteousness.
 | But are you free now as someone who's been born again by the Spirit of God, by the grace of God?
 | Are you free now?
 | No.
 | And if someone preaches the gospel and says, just believe in Jesus, then understand, ask them, who is this Jesus to you?
 | And is there any claim upon your life when you trust in Christ?
 | And they say, no, no, no, no.
 | No, no, no, no.
 | All you got to do is believe.
 | All you got to do is believe it.
 | Everything's going to be hunky-dory from that point forward.
 | In reality, we are no longer our own.
 | We belong to the Lord, and we should exhibit a likeness to him, increasingly so as we move forward through life.
 | By the way, John, even though we're in Romans, back in the first chapter, tells us that if we sin as a believers, we have a provision.
 | It isn't to moan and groan and say, this is just who I am, and I can't help it.
 | And guess what, to other people?
 | I'm like you because I'm still like an old.
 | No, he said, we confess our sin.
 | We just call it what it is.
 | We don't make excuses for it.
 | We don't blame somebody else like our parents, our church, or our employers, our employees.
 | We own it.
 | If we confess our sins, and it says that God then is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, man, have I ever read that over and over again?
 | Especially when I was young.
 | Okay.
 | I actually need it more that I've gotten older.
 | But I like that he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.
 | But the second part of that has been so precious and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 | I know some people who sin and say, God, forgive me, and then they just go right on.
 | And the same emotions, you know, same thought patterns or whatever, it's because they're not wanting really to agree with God that that's sin.
 | They just want God to alleviate some of the stress, you know, some of the anguish and agony that may associate with that.
 | But true confession is saying, God, this is wrong, and I don't know what to do about it.
 | But I know that through Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus Christ, I know you're faithful to forgive me because of what Christ has done for me, but I need something other and more than that in my life.
 | I need the cleansing that's available to me day by day and moment by moment so that I can walk out of this mess.
 | When I was a high school, worked for our friend, they had egg-laying chickens.
 | They would lay the eggs, we would gather them, we'd put them in a cooler, then they ship them off to a hatchery.
 | And being boys, right after we're done gathering those eggs in the summertime over the summer break, we're going swimming in the river.
 | So sometimes I'd go through that chicken house gathering those eggs barefoot.
 | And you know what I got between my toes?
 | Yeah.
 | Oh, yeah.
 | I got it on me.
 | Okay.
 | And I didn't like the way that felt.
 | Okay.
 | So I would acknowledge, you know, to, you know, the mother of my friend who was our boss at the chicken houses that I should have worn my shoes.
 | That was dumb of me.
 | This doesn't feel good.
 | And then guess what would happen the next day?
 | Go ramp back and do the same dumb thing.
 | And then we would go to their house and she'd feed us lunch.
 | My feet are still pretty nasty.
 | And then something would happen and we wouldn't get back to the river.
 | So I have to go to bed that night with this still on my feet.
 | No, I'm just kidding.
 | I washed them off somewhere.
 | You once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.
 | So now, step outside of this.
 | Step apart from that lifestyle that's continually two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, sometimes one step forward, two steps back.
 | He said, and present your members, the parts of your body, as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
 | Verse 22, and now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of, oh, we got our term changed here.
 | What have we been saying?
 | Slaves of righteousness.
 | And now that's been changed to what?
 | Have become slaves of God, servants of God.
 | I would prefer the word servant, don't you?
 | Slaves is kind of degrading, wouldn't you think?
 | And I ain't no slave of nobody, right?
 | I serve God.
 | But you know, when we use that word serve God, it's almost like it's kind of on my terms.
 | Or this slave or bondslave is, it's on his terms entirely.
 | I don't do what I want.
 | I don't do what I think is best.
 | I do what I understand he wants and what he thinks is best.
 | And that satisfies more than if I had had my way.
 | But now you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.
 | The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
 | For the wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 | That the free gift of God is eternal life.
 | The free gift of God is eternal life.
 | That means it costs you how much, Bob?
 | Not a penny.
 | Not a righteous deed.
 | Not anything that you can do, right?
 | That doesn't mean it comes cheap because it cost the death, the blood of Jesus Christ.
 | And it was Christ who cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why are you forsaking me?
 | Such agony coming from the Son of God.
 | And it's so that you could have now an offer of eternal life as a free gift.
 | And notice, it's in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 | Isn't that precious?
 | Yeah.
 | Most of us understand the gospel that way, right?
 | But what about this righteousness and sinning stuff?
 | What about this born of God and, you know, of the devil stuff?
 | I think we need to somehow or another dovetail that into our understanding of what God says in his word about salvation.
 | I think if we miss that, I think we hamstring our spiritual lives and we may even have adverse effect on our children as they grow up.
 | I've made some mistakes here in my thinking, which has led to, you know, some mistakes, prospective mistakes that have influenced the lives of others.
 | And when you stand here in this pulpit or you stand out in front of the church and you speak for the Lord, we need to be very, very careful that we are teaching his word, doing our very best to make it interesting, but for the purposes of transforming our lives through the grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 | Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, and we ask, Lord, that you would continue just to cleanse our perspectives.
 | Help us, Lord, to be ready to renounce those ideas that tend to cause us to stumble in our walk with you.
 | And we ask, God, that you'd help us, by your grace, to be the very, very best representatives of you to our families, to our friends, to those that we work with, those out in the neighborhood or on the sports field.
 | Help us, Lord, to represent the grace of God in a way that can truly transform and have impact on the lives of others.
 | We pray this in Christ's name.
 | Thank you for listening to this.