Please remain standing and turn with me to 1 John 3, verses 1-10. 1 John 3, verses 1-10. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who are the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, neither is anyone who does not love his brother. You may be seated. Please join me in prayer. Father, I thank you once again for this passage of Scripture and for your Word today. As we look at what John wrote to your followers, as we look at this great contrast between practicing sin and practicing righteousness, we thank you for what your Word teaches us. I pray now that you would help us all to be alert, that we would not be distracted. I pray, Lord, that Your Word would go forth with boldness and truth. Thank You in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Last Sunday we spent our time during the message looking at a very harsh reality in our world today. All of those who are outside of Christ are children of the devil. And John is very clear in his contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil. And while it's never our goal as Christians to merely speak truth without love to those who are outside of Christ, we also cannot sugarcoat reality either. People are not basically good. We have a sin problem in our world today. Your neighbor, your co-worker, Your loved one is not a nice guy or a nice gal. They are either those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Or if they are not Christians, they are dead in their sins. And we need that reality so that we do not view the world wrong. so that we do not view other people wrong and so that we can pray that God would save those who do not know him and so we can strive ourselves to live godly lives. There was a book that was published many years ago with the title that said, I'm okay, you're okay. That's the modern mantra, kind of, of our world today. Everyone is just okay. We don't have to worry about anything. Just live and let live. There are no morals. There are no absolutes. There are no values. We all get to make our own rules. But the reality is, according to Scripture, that no one outside of Jesus Christ is okay. The Christian alternative to that book title would be I'm Not Okay and You're Not Okay, but that probably wouldn't make it to the bestseller list. Even the Christian bestseller list today are filled with titles that skew reality and are not scripturally correct. We have been content for far too long with twaddle rather than substance. If you're not familiar with that word twaddle, the definition is something insignificant or worthless nonsense. Why is it that the Christian world today is so satisfied with nonsense? With titles and books that make us feel good about ourselves but do very little to draw us closer to God. It's so easy for us, even as Christians in our lives, to become so self-absorbed. Turn with me this morning to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We're going to start this week where we ended last Sunday. If you remember, we went to Romans chapter 6 to look at how Paul contrasts in his letter to the Romans the difference between being a slave to sin and being a slave to righteousness. A slave to sin versus being a slave to righteousness. Romans chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace? By no means. 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, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting in that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have 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, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now this morning I titled this message, Enslave Yourself. Enslave Yourself. Now that probably wouldn't get a listing on the bestseller list either. That's not a popular thought. Probably wouldn't fit in with some of the Christian self-help books out there telling you how good you are and how great your life is and how wonderful it is and how blessed God is to have you as a part of his kingdom. But today, I want to talk to you about your willingness to enslave yourself. And by enslaving yourself, that is really the only way that you will really have true freedom in this world. Paul says that we who are in Christ have been crucified with Him so that we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been crucified with Christ. In Romans 6, 6 it said, we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. And that, my friends, is freedom. Only in Jesus Christ, only death can bring life, and it is only through a relationship with Jesus Christ that we are truly alive and dead to sin. He is our life and breath and everything. In Him we live and move and have our being. or looking at verses 16 through 18, he says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin that leads to death or of obedience that leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God. that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves to righteousness. In reality, we are either slaves to one or the other. We are either slaves in sin or slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Jesus Christ died to set us free from sin. He died that we may not be bound any longer by the sin that leads to death. And now being set free, we have become, past tense, have become slaves of righteousness. But there's times in the Christian life that we do not live as if we enjoy being slaves of righteousness. that we do not embrace all that Christ has done for us, and that we, in our part, are now called to live out those lives of sanctification working on righteousness by living in such a way that we strive to be holy as He is holy. Have we forgotten to whom we belong? In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul is speaking on sexual immorality in that chapter, and in verses 19 and 20, he writes, We know that immediate context in which Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, but the fact that you have been bought with a price applies not only to morality in our lives, but for everything that you do. You as a Christian are not your own. You were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You know, we as Americans don't like the idea, the concept of slavery today. We like the word independence. We like to think of ourselves as not bound to anyone or anything. We like our freedom. And yet we who follow Christ know the reality that our society wishes to push away. We know that there are only two types of people in the world today, children of God and children of the devil. Everyone belongs to someone. Everyone belongs to someone, and we know the sovereignty of God. We know who is in control. So my question is, why do we not embrace our slavery to righteousness more than we do? Why do we not embrace our slavery to righteousness more than we do? After all, being bound to the Lord is a good thing. That's not a negative thing. We need to seriously examine our hearts today if we do not want to be servants of the living God. Servants of the living God. If we want to lead rather than follow. We are blessed to be able to serve God as the children of God. That is why we were created. Ephesians 2.10 reminds us, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God created us for lives of righteousness, to be enslaved, if you will, to Him. I wonder if we really dislike the term slavery so much or if it is the fact that we have to admit that ultimately everything is really about Him and there's nothing that's about us. Now with these spiritual truths in mind, we can now go back and go through this section of John's letter in 1 John 3 verses 4 through 10, again with the idea that you and I are slaves to righteousness as children of God. Two weeks ago we started into chapter 3 being reminded that we are God's children, that we have been adopted into God's family through Jesus Christ. God's love has been lavished upon us, we read in verse 1. And last week we started a look at these verses that show that contrast between children of God and children of the devil. Now look at verse 10 again. And I know that we would usually start at verse 4 and work our way up to verse 10, but I'm going a little bit backwards. We've been through these verses before, and we're going to eventually go back to verse 4. And we need to discuss verses 5 and 7 that I didn't talk about at all last Sunday. But verse 10 gives us that clear definition again. Who are the children of God? Who are the children of the devil? 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, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Now if that verse of scripture is true, 1 John 3, 10, and it is true, then the opposite must also be true. The children of God are those who practice righteousness and those who love their brothers. those who practice righteousness, and those who love their brothers. Now we're not gonna spend a lot of time this morning looking at how we as Christians can love our brothers as John continues on with that thought through the rest of chapter three, and we'll eventually get there. But what does it mean today to practice righteousness? And as we continue to look at all these contrasts, the children of God versus the children of the devil, there are two types of people in the world, those who make a practice of sinning and those who practice righteousness. Those who make a practice of sinning and those who practice righteousness. Now I know that sounds too simplistic. That sounds too simplistic. those who practice sin, those who practice righteousness. That's not usually how you and I as Christians describe the difference between the saved and the unsaved. But think about the person who is outside of Christ. The one who is not a part of the invisible church, of the elect of God, that person is dead in sin, Scripture tells us. They are not spiritually alive. They really have no concept of or true understanding of sin and the wages of sin. The things they do. in their life, whether they appear good or they appear bad or self-motivated. I behave in such a way so that I can get that desired result that I want. To not have to face a penalty or not be burdened in some way. They're not motivated out of a love for Christ to avoid sin. And so in essence they become good at the practice of sin. What's in it for me? Verse four tells us everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Now you wonder why our world is the way it is today and our society is the way it is today. I think this verse here helps us provide an answer to that. In verse four, the vast majority of the people in our world today are practicing lawlessness. lawlessness. If we are not governed by the law of God, we will be governed by the law of man. Cornelius Van Til wrote, it is either theonomy, God's law, or autonomy, man's law. Those are your only alternatives. And so we see what appears to us in our world today as chaos and suffering and hurt and confusion and sin. we see lawlessness. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Not only are we disregarding God's word when we as a society embrace sin, but we are promoting lawlessness. And the more society turns away from truth, the more we will see lawlessness in our world. Sin has consequences. The wages of sin is death. The end result of a life lost in sin is eternal death, separation from God, but the pain and the suffering caused by sin in this world has an immediate effect as well, and we see that in our culture and in our world. Verse five reminds us, you know, you know, that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. So we have this contrast against those who are practicing sinning and living in lawlessness. And then John gives his readers some good news here. Sin is evident. It's in the world. All of us have a sin problem, but praise God, when Jesus Christ appeared, He came to take away sin, and in Him there is no sin. Paul writes in Romans 6, our old man was crucified with Christ. We died to sin. We aspire to righteousness. For the believer, there is a solution. There is a way out of lawlessness and out of death. And there are two things we need to remember when we look at the second half of this verse. In Him there is no sin. In Him there is no sin. First, we know that Jesus Christ committed no sin. He was sinless. For only a sinless sacrifice could pay the penalty for our sin. In Him there is no sin. Hebrews 4.15 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us, our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. In Christ we can have one who is able to sympathize with everything that we face. We have God in the flesh. Christ became man, and He understands the things that we go through and what we deal with. He was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin. Secondly, as this verse says, in Him there is no sin because of the sacrifice of Christ. Those who are in Christ do not face, ultimately, the penalty for sin. We have been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The guilt of our sin has been paid for. Remember that we have been bought with a price for those who are in Him. Sin no longer reigns. Sin no longer reigns. Now, we still struggle with sin. We still battle with the flesh, but we who have been redeemed and have passed from death to life, from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of God, and because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we stand in a right standing before God Almighty, not by our own power, not by our own strength, not for our own merit, but only because of Jesus Christ. Oh, what good news the believer has today. that as we consider ourselves slaves to righteousness, we remember that Jesus Christ ultimately has set us free from sin. We have the opportunity today to practice righteousness that the unsaved do not have, that they are incapable of. And that slavery to righteousness is a blessing and not a burden. In the law of God, we find freedom and not oppression. We find mercy and strength to help us every step of the way. In verse 6, John writes, no one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. No one who abides in Him, abides in Christ, keeps on sinning. If you remember back to chapter 2, John repeats himself. probably repeats himself for people like me who are kind of dense. We need to get it over and over again. But he talks about abiding in Christ over and over again in chapter 2. Verse 24 says, Let what you hear from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and the Father. Chapter 2, verse 27, But the anointing that you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is it true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him. In 2.28 we read, "...and now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from Him in shame at His coming." John says over and over again, abide in Him, abide in Him, abide in Him. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. Continuous action. Those in Christ consciously now give up a life of sin, for we are abiding in Christ. We are in Him and we are resting in Him. John says, abide, rest, remain in Christ. Praise God for our state today as believers in Christ. Praise God because of the Holy Spirit's power in our life, we don't have to keep on sinning. We can live differently today than the world around us lives. Praise God for that. Verse 7, John says, little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Now what a great truth and a great challenge as well. Today we are righteous in the sight of God as those who are redeemed, and yet we also need to practice righteousness in our day-to-day lives. That whole idea that Paul fights against in Romans chapter 6 has to do with the fact that there were some who believed that because their sins were forgiven by the grace of God, that the more they sinned, the more grace they would receive. So go out and continue in your sin, and God will pour more grace upon you. And Paul combats that idea, and he says, by no means should we ever strive to continue on in sin. In fact, he says, you've been buried with Christ. That old man was crucified. We're not to live in sin any longer. We're to resist. We're to live lives worthy of the calling that we have received to practice righteousness. We are to live right lives before God Almighty. Both the shorter and the larger catechisms spend a lot of time dealing with the Ten Commandments. And as we strive to follow God's law and live it out in our lives today, we are practicing righteousness. And what a blessing that is. The unsaved look at the law of God is a curse, as binding, as restricting, We look at the moral law of God today as believers as that which shows us the way to a better life, how we can follow Him. It is there that we find true freedom. It is the practical nuts and bolts of how we live in the world today as believers in Jesus Christ, and it's a joy and not a burden to practice righteousness. You know, I love reading through the questions and answers in the larger catechism on the Ten Commandments, because it reminds me first of how much I need a Savior. Because there's no way that I can stand up to God's law. There's no way that I can fulfill God's law. When I read of how the Westminster divines look through the Ten Commandments and all the scriptures that support these questions and answers, I am reminded of the wretched state that I have without the grace of God. I am reminded of how far I fall short of God's ideal. And in the words of truth in God's commandments, I also see a way of life that when lived out provides security. and joy and grace and blessing. Practicing righteousness is what I was created to do. Practicing righteousness is what you were created to do. How great it is today that we have the privilege to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Forget the Christian bestsellers that tell you how to find your purpose in life or your best life and focus on the reality that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. To glorify God, to enjoy Him forever, there's joy in giving glory to God Almighty. There is joy in practicing righteousness. Hollywood and the Internet try to lure and tempt us to think that in sin is where you find satisfaction and joy. But in reality, it is that sin only leads to despair, and it leads ultimately to death. The momentary pleasures of sin are fleeting, and the eternal rewards of righteousness bring joy to a life surrendered to God. Verse 8, 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. Last week when we looked at verse 8, we looked at it from the perspective of the one who is of the devil and the one who was practicing sin. Today I want to focus on the second half of verse 8, the good news for you and I. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. There is no contest in our world today. Satan's power is limited. The reason we can be secure as Christians in a world that's crazy from our perspective is that you and I believe in a sovereign God and one who appeared to destroy the works of the devil. So many people today avoid the book of Revelation because they don't want to enter into the eschatological hype of this view versus that view, and they miss the beauty of the simple message of the triumph of the Son of Man over the works of the devil. Jesus Christ is victorious now and forever. Amen? Amen. Christian, what do you fear? What do you fear? Why would you doubt? Why the worry and trepidation at what may or may not come in the future? Kingdoms will rise and kingdoms will fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. And it's true. Romans 8, 35-39, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. will be able to separate us from the love of God. It does not matter what life may bring or what man may do to us, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse nine, no one born of God, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. I shared a little bit last week of the difference between a Christian struggling with sin and one who makes a practice of sinning. Now when he talks here about making a practice of sinning, we're talking about deliberate, unrepentant sin. I love my sin. I coddle my sin. I don't want to get rid of my sin. I love my sin more than I do the Lord or I do my Savior, and I want to keep in my sin. The reason that we practice church discipline in churches is not for any desire to lord it over one another, but because we love our brothers and sisters in the faith so much that we cannot bear to stand by and see someone caught up in sin. So we help one another. We at times confront one another or even chastise one another and tell each other to repent and help us and help each other as we go through the struggle of sin in our lives. In the account of Cain and Abel at the beginning of Genesis, we read this warning in Genesis 4-6 prior to Cain killing his brother Abel. And you remember, they both offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and Abel's was accepted, Cain's was not, and he was downcast. And Genesis 4, 6, it says, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. We must always be on guard against sin in our lives. But praise God, we're not alone in this struggle with sin. Praise God that God's seed remains in us, that we have been born of God, that we have the Holy Spirit as a deposit of our inheritance in Christ. And now we as Christians have the ability not to sin. We can resist sin. The life of the Christian is not sinless. but a life that is characterized by practicing righteousness versus practicing sin. And verse 10 again, 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, nor is the one who does not love his brother. And with that verse, we come full circle again in this two weeks of looking at these verses 4 through 10 on practicing sin and practicing righteousness, or children of God and children of the devil, or slaves to sin and slaves to righteousness. And the reality is each one of us today falls in one of those two camps. There's no middle ground. May we stop living with the false assumption that everyone is basically good and that we aren't all that bad. We need to face the reality of sin head on. We need to understand the problem clearly and how sin separates us from the love of God. And the title this morning of the message, Enslave Yourself, is really for the person who has not yielded their life to Jesus Christ, for the reality is we are all slaves. We are slaves either to sin or to righteousness, and yet Scripture compels me to proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ and what He did securing redemption for His own. And I, as well as all those who bear the name of Christ, are commanded to tell the sinner to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ today, I tell you to enslave yourself to righteousness. Repent of your sins, believe in Christ, and I pray that God would bring you from death to life, that He would raise the dead and give you the gift of faith in order that you might believe the truth and be forever changed. Enslave yourself. Stop practicing sin and practice righteousness. And those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to remind you this day to whom you belong. You are already a slave, and that's a good thing. For only when you are actively living as a slave to righteousness are you truly free. Do not despise your bondage to Christ, but see it as it really is true freedom. Do not despise your bondage to Jesus Christ, but see it as true freedom. Jesus said in Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30, Come to me all who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What a blessing you and I as Christians have in Jesus Christ that we can practice righteousness. Practice righteousness, not to earn a right standing before God, but as a blessing to grow in our faith in obedience to the Lord on that road to sanctification. Encourage one another on this road of sanctification that we're all on. Watch out for sin. Resist it. Turn from sin and embrace righteousness. And praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life and the lives of fellow believers. Let us pray together that God would give us the strength that we need today and every day to follow Him. Please join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the reality that we face. I pray that we would not be ignorant to the reality of what we face in our world today, that there are those who are slaves to sin and those who are slaves to righteousness, that there are those who are children of the devil and those who are children of God. We ask, Lord, that you would help us. Yet our bondage to Christ is see that. Not as the world sees the term slavery or bondage as oppressive and negative, but as true freedom. For Father, we are bound to you through Jesus Christ, your Son, and we thank you for what you have done for us. We thank you that Christ has secured our redemption. that He has set us free from the bondage of sin to which we were enslaved, to which we were suffering, and which ultimately leads to death. You have given us life. You have given us everything. May we be grateful and may we proclaim Your truth to those that would listen. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.