One of the great mysteries of the last hundred years or so has been the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic. Many people are just enamored with the details of this and even some modern mythology about this. And one of the questions that has been sort of lingering in people's minds over the years is what really caused this? What caused them to make such a poor judgment as to miss the obvious that was right in front of them? There's one news story that came out on April 25th, 1912 in the Durango Herald, reported the story of regarding the sinking of the ship. The headline read this, Watchman was asleep, says surviving sailor of the wrecked Titanic. According to this news article, it was a case of lax discipline that was to be blamed for the catastrophe. The story went on to say that after spending the night drinking champagne and celebrating, the watchman crawled up into the crow's nest and fell asleep. And on the deck, one of the passengers spotted the iceberg and ran up to the crow's nest to find the watchman asleep. By the time he could ring the bell, it was too late. More than 1,500 souls lost their life that night, all because the watchman was not alert. Our purposes this morning are to talk about this very issue of watchfulness. And this story, again, whether how true or the details of it, reminds us and illustrates for us the importance of watchfulness. And our time today will be focused on two such stories told by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24. So if you have your copy of scripture with you, go to the end of Matthew chapter 24. We've been here for quite a while now, and I was talking to someone even just a few minutes ago before we started service. They were listening to one of my old sermons from five years ago when we began Matthew's gospel. So we've been here for quite a while, and it has been just a tremendous joy to be in this gospel with you, learning together, growing together. And as we get to this section here, this portion known as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25, the overarching theme of Matthew 24 and 25 is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, his return at the end of the age. And while he does never give us an exact date or an exact time, he does offer us signs pointing to his return. And some of these signs are more generic. We call them birth pangs in verse 8. They can be seen at many points throughout the course of history, but other signs are more specific and point to the days leading up to the glorious return that we read about in verse 30. If I could just ask the sound back there just to bring this down a tad, it's very teeny, I can hear it, thank you. Verse 30, and the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." This will be the greatest day in Earth's history. Now admittedly, a lot of these prophecies that Jesus talks about in these chapters are very difficult to comprehend. So many questions arise, and even though the disciples, they stood there on the Mount of Olives listening to this profound teaching, their minds would have been filled with questions. But however, now is not the time for questions. In the context of our narrative here, Jesus, remember, is only just a couple days away from going to the cross at Calvary. So this is not the time to be answering all the things pertaining to the future, nor will it ever be. He doesn't tell us much more than this, frankly. And so this teaching here that he's giving them is designed to both encourage them and to warn them. To encourage them to continue in the faith, but also to warn them about being watchful. And as the days and weeks and months and even years progressed, it would have been imperative for the disciples to not be misled by false teachers or false messiahs. It would have been imperative that they would not be led away by their doubts and by their fears. but rather starting in 24 verse 42, Jesus provides here a series of parables designed to foster watchfulness. And so from chapter 24 verse 43 all the way to chapter 25 verse 30, Jesus is gonna give us here four parables, four parables, all of them with the same theme. And I'm just gonna let you know what they are right now. The first one is the parable of the faithful householder The second one is the parable of the faithful and wise servant. The third is the parable of the 10 virgins. And then finally, the parable of the talents. Again, these are parables of watchfulness. And so in our time today, as we're spending our time in God's word, we're gonna look at only the first two parables. So Matthew chapter 24, verses 42 to 51. These are the words of Jesus. Therefore be on alert. For you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would have not allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not think that he will. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave who his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, my master is not coming for a long time, and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect him, and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him into pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Now, if we go back up to verse 42 here, we looked at this just very briefly last week here, and verse 42 becomes the key exhortation for this entire section here. It's built on the idea that we don't know which day the Lord is coming. We know he's coming, we just don't know when, and that truth is even more present than even in today. We saw back in verse 36 here, of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." No one is given the knowledge of the day of the Lord's return. Even Jesus, who is truly God and truly man, while He is co-equal and consubstantial with the Father and the Spirit, He is in every way conceivably and inconceivably God. And yet we know that in His humanity, He has submitted to the will of the Father and has surrendered the full use of His divine omniscience while on earth. What does that mean? Well, in other words, Jesus does not know because he chooses not to know the day or the hour. And so, seeing that no one knows when the Lord is going to return, Jesus exhorts the disciples to be on the alert. We looked at this last week. Be watchful, be vigilant, stay awake, be ready. And this key exhortation functions as the launchpad for this first parable about watchfulness starting in verse 43. Again, this parable is known as the parable of the watchful householder. Now, of all these four parables here in this passage or in this discourse, this one is the shortest. This is a very brief parable, keeping in mind that a parable then, if we were to define a parable, a parable is really a simple story that is used to illustrate a deeper or a spiritual truth. In this case, it's the deep truth of the imminent return of Jesus Christ and the need for being watchful. And so we read again in verse 43, Jesus says, But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at which time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. This is a relatively simple parable. It's what we would call axiomatic. It's a self-evident truth. You read this and you say, well, obviously. And so it features a householder, a head of the house here, and a large estate. In Jesus' time here, it was not uncommon to hire a house manager. Now, most of us just have very small houses and it's just our own immediate family, but if you were living and you had an estate, with lots of servants and maybe extended family and guests that were traveling. If you had a large estate, you would need to hire someone who would oversee the entire house. Of course, along with that, the responsibility of overseeing all the functions of the house was certainly to oversee the security of the house. And so in Jesus' story here, there's this idea that there is a thief that is on his way to break into this house, and somehow the head of the house knows that the thief is coming. We don't know how, we don't know why, but we know that that's the truth of it. And so Jesus includes that if he knew that the thief is coming, he doesn't know what time of the night that he's gonna come in, but he knows that he's coming to break in. And so Jesus reasons this way, if the head of the house had known what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on alert. He would have been watchful. That makes sense, right? And he would not have allowed the house to be broken into. Again, that's self-evident, that's axiomatic. If you knew that a thief was coming to break into your house, would you be lazy? Would you simply just go to bed and hope that everything goes well? No, you would be awake. You would be vigilant. You would be on alert. Again, this is self-evident. It needs no explanation. Except that far too many people would be more alert for a burglar, and we're not alert for the coming of the Lord. We're more careful about our own things. We lock our cars, we lock our doors, but we do not lock up our hearts in preparation for the coming of the Lord. And that's his application in verse 44. Again, this self-evident truth about watchfulness, verse 44, Jesus says, for this reason, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not think he will. And so if a householder would be on guard for his house, then how much more should we be on guard with our own lives? That is the exhortation here. But this is more than a loose exhortation toward readiness. Just thinking about a couple of verses here, 1 Thessalonians 5.2 says that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. Uses that exact same imagery of a thief coming at night. The same thing with 2 Peter 3.10, almost the exact same verbiage. Jesus himself says in Revelation 3.3, I will come like a thief and you do not know at what hour I will come upon you. So Jesus employs that imagery of himself. I am coming like a thief in the night. Now, he's not saying that he is a thief. He's not saying that he has the wicked character of a thief. Rather, this is about the utter shock of unexpectancy. There's one day that's coming that He will simply appear, and it will be so unexpected, the coming of the Lord, it would be like you came home and there's a thief standing in your living room. That's how shocking it's going to be on the day that He returns. And so, what is the exhortation? Again, we've been waiting for thousands of years here, but we know that He could come at any day, any hour, any time. And we talked about that last week, about the constant expectancy, the sort of spiritual sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting, the Lord could come any time. And if we know that, what is the exhortation? Be ready. Be ready. We looked at this Greek word last time, gregoreo, which means be vigilant, be on alert. Well, how do we do this? How is it that we are to be on alert in looking for his coming? Well, certainly, number one, most baseline thing we could even look at is certainly make sure that you're a Christian. Make sure that you belong to Christ because when he comes, if you're not in the faith, you will be judged. So be sure that you belong to Jesus. Well, how do you know? Because if he returns or calls you home, how do you know? Will I be found in him? Have I recognized my own sinful behavior? Have I recognized and been made aware of the fact that I have transgressions against the Lord? The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And yet there are many people walking around today who have no idea that they've sinned against a holy God. Most people, if you ask them, so tell me, do you think you're a good person? I'm pretty much a good person. And they always, and I love this, they always go right to the worst example. I never killed anybody. Well, good job. I mean, you know? But if that's the standard of what's good and what's not good, then my goodness, we do have quite a skewered view of morality here. Ever told a lie? Ever looked on someone with lust, committed adultery in your heart? Ever slandered somebody? Ever thought poorly of someone and hated them in your heart? All of these things, and if you go back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expounds on this pretty substantially. All of these sins reveal the inner content of our heart. If you were to die today, or if Jesus was returning today, would you see him? Would you be in heaven with him? Would you be forgiven for your sins? And the only answer to the forgiveness of sins is the cross of Christ. Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior, as Lord? Have you turned away from your sins and put your faith solely in Him? If you don't do that, then when He comes, you will not be found in Him and you will be judged, the Bible says. And so we have to ask ourselves these difficult questions. But the second thing to consider is this, okay, say that we are in Christ. Say that we are believers and by God's grace, we are an assembly of believers here. We have to ask these questions there. Are there sins or behaviors that I need to repent of? Am I stuck in some kind of indwelling sin? Now, I'm not talking about random sins. You stub your toe and you cuss and you have to repent for that. I'm not talking about those kinds of things, even though those are important as well. I'm talking about indwelling sins, pervasive sins, patterns of sins. If the Lord returns, would He find you in drunkenness? Would he find you in addictions, sinful addictions? Would he find you in sexual immorality or adultery? Would he find you, beloved, in bitterness? Jerry Bridges wrote a book years ago called Respectable Sins, and he talks about these kinds of sins that we don't really think are a big deal. Let me tell you, bitterness in the heart is a big deal. It's hatred and malice towards somebody else. Do you have that kind of thing in your heart even now? If the Lord comes and finds you, will He find you in unbelief? Will He find you in fleshliness? These are things we ought to consider and to be on guard, be watchful. I know I told you last week about a very substantial church leader who fell in sin last week, or it was found out last week. The sin had been going on for at least five years and was found out. Let me ask you the question again. Are you an unrepentant sin and need to confess? And if he comes even this night, will you be ready? Will you be ready to receive him? And so that is the exhortation. Be ready. Be ready for the coming of the Lord. And that brings us very neatly into the second parable here. Because again, he's talking about watchfulness. The second parable is the parable of the faithful and wise servant. This parable is presented in two parts with really an overarching question to be posed here. Look at verse 45 because Jesus asked the question and he's standing among the disciples and he says, This question assumes that being a faithful and a sensible slave was desirable. Well, how so? Well, remember, keeping in line here this whole idea of estate and a house manager and servants and things like that, that not only did a wealthy business owner or a noble have a master over his estate, he also owned likely several servants. Now, some have translated this word here in the original as servant or steward, but literally in the Greek, doulos is slave. Some have rendered this bond servant, but it's a slave. Now, it's not a slave in the way that we are normally accustomed to thinking about slavery. And in our American context, we have an extremely negative view of slavery, and I believe that we should because of the way that it was done. And again, I'm not excusing any form of slavery. But we do need to recognize the cultural context that we're dealing with in Matthew's Gospel here. At this time, nearly one-third of the Roman Empire was comprised of slaves. And yes, while some were treated very poorly, the majority of slaveholders in this empire treated their slaves more like employees, oftentimes providing them with good accommodations, responsibilities, and even a fair amount of freedom. And there's even times in the course of Roman history that they would actually go and help their slaves to purchase their freedom and get them set up with a good life and so on and so forth. But for some people, a life of indentured service to a good master was better than any life they could make for themselves. Some slaves actually preferred to be a slave. And there were times, there's even an old custom where if a slave was about to be freed, but desired to then submit himself back to his good master, he would then go and present his ear And the master would take an awl and pierce his ear to a door as a sign. His pierced ear was a sign that he was gonna be indentured to this master for the rest of his life. This is something they desired to do. And so when the Bible talks about rejecting the evils associated with certain slavery, yes, it's true, but it also recognizes that it is a cultural institution. And as an institution, it even gives commands to those who are living in it. The Bible deals with us as we are. For example, in Titus 2, verses 9 and 10, it says this, And so what is this? How does this play out? Jesus here is citing an example of a doulos, a bond servant, a slave. And he poses the question, what would constitute a good slave, a faithful and sensible doulos, slave servant? He qualifies the kind of slave that would be desirable. First, they are faithful, pistos in the Greek. There's a few ways to understand this word. Faithful could literally mean just full of faith. They have a lot of faith. But another sense of this word could also mean a person who is faithful or trustworthy. And that is certainly the meaning here. We're talking about a trustworthy servant, a trustworthy slave. One who can be entrusted with a responsibility, a stewardship. A second qualifier here is for those who are sensible. Phronomos is translated wise or sensible or even prudent or discerning or judicious. The implication here is that this faithful and sensible slave will be so trustworthy and so wise that his master will put him in charge of his entire household. What does that entail? It includes giving them their food at the proper time. What does that mean? What is that regarding? It means that this master's faithful servant is entrusted with the responsibility of caring for the welfare of the entire household. It's a serious charge. It's a grand responsibility. Now, in the course of this parable, some have even applied this to pastoral ministry. One of my favorite old Gilmonton friends, the Reverend Isaac Smith, who was the first pastor in Gilmonton, he used this parable as the basis of an ordination ceremony preached for Reverend Ethan Smith, no relation, Ethan Smith of Hopkington in 1800. Incidentally, I also used this parable myself when we installed our ministering pastor back in 2022. But even Isaac Smith acknowledged that Jesus' words here are, quote, applied to all common Christians. He says, they are, by profession, the servants of Christ, are under obligation to exercise wisdom and fidelity in discharging all social, relative, and religious duties, end quote. So Isaac Smith saw the application of this parable, and it's not hard to apply this parable. And the general exhortation of this is to be faithful and wise, and to set all of this in the context of this master returning. Again, there's the return of this master. Verse 46, blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes, when he returns. This word blessed, makarios in the Greek, it's the same word used in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5. It literally means to be happy or to be joyful. Some have even gone so far to render this verse, it will be good for that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. When the master returns, he'll be so pleased to find his faithful servant diligent to do what they have been entrusted to do. And so what will be the result when this servant, when this slave is faithful and wise to engage in this stewardship he's been entrusted? The master then returns from his journey, finds the faithful servant working hard, doing what he's supposed to do. What is to be the result? Verse 47. Jesus says, truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all of his possessions. Now this is interesting because you almost expect him to say something like, when the master returns, he will receive a reward. Your mind almost kind of goes there, right? That's what we want. We want to work hard and then get the reward, right? I want to stop working at a certain point. But that's not what Jesus says here. Instead, We see that the reward for faithfulness is actually greater and more honorable responsibility, more honorable service. Therefore, we see the slave is not only entrusted to feed the household, but after he has proven to be faithful, he is entrusted with the master's personal possessions, which is a tremendous honor. Now, keeping in mind here that this is a parable and not an allegory. Well, what's the difference between parable and allegory? Well, an allegory would be to take every single word and every single concept in the story and apply it directly to some other truth. There is a one-to-one connection with an allegory, whereas with a parable, it's a little bit looser. There's a larger truth that's being communicated and the details don't have to be as exact. But if we were to allegorize this, we might be tempted to say something like, the master represents God, the slave represents the faithful Christian, the household is the kingdom, the food maybe is gospel promises, and the master's possessions are the benefits of heaven, the glory of God, and so on. Now that's certainly not Untrue, that certainly could be the case. But again, remember, the greater idea here, the greater concept is that we are to be faithful and wait for his return. Whatever these possessions are that we're then entrusted with, we don't know what that means directly. But we do know that there is a reward, a faithful reward for those who are faithful to God. But there's a larger lesson to be learned here. that we are to be on watch and on guard and ready and faithful and wise, and to keep our eyes on heaven. Because here's the temptation, the temptations to wander away, which we're gonna talk about in just a second. But we are exhorted here that before the master comes, as we wait for the master to be faithful, to be wise, to be diligent, to be a good steward, so that when he comes, he will find us to be faithful. But then he goes and he issues this warning here in verses 48 to 51. Look at this with me. But if that evil slave says in his heart, my master is not coming for a long time, and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him in an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This comes as a second alternative to Jesus' question in verse 45, who is the faithful and sensible servant or slave? Who is faithful? Now, he's already given one example of who is faithful, but now we're seeing an example of who is not faithful. The faithful slave is diligent to be responsible to the Lord and his duties, but not so of the evil slave. Verse 48, the Greek word kakos is evil or wicked. Note it here that Jesus doesn't say it's the faithful slave versus the unfaithful slave, or the faithful slave versus the lazy slave, or the non-committed slave. There's only two options here given, right? Faithful and wise, or evil. That's all he gives. And so this is the slave that does not have the heart for the master, and is not living his life in light of the master's return. But Jesus qualifies the nature of this evil slave here by noting three characteristics. And I've borrowed these from a New Testament commentator named William Hendrickson, who is just a brilliant scholar and very helpful for when you're studying the scriptures, he's great. But he has kind of a simple outline here, the three characteristics of the evil slave here. Number one is carelessness. Carelessness, verse 48. Evil slave says in his heart, my master is not coming for a long time. The evil slave, he looks around at the world, he looks at his present condition, and he doesn't see that the master's here. Well, where is he? He's nowhere to be found. He hasn't been here in quite a while. And he concludes that he's either not coming back for a long time, or maybe he's not coming back at all. And isn't that the temptation for people today? When we talk about the return of Jesus Christ, Now you might imagine the first couple of years, the disciples were saying, he's coming back any time. And you read 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, and they feel like, boy, maybe we missed the return of Christ. But they felt like it could be any day then. And then 100 years goes by, and they were saying, okay, we're still waiting here, we know he could come back. The disciples, most of them are still alive. Okay, John's the last one, but maybe when the last disciple dies, maybe Jesus will come back then. And the first three centuries go by, and Christ hasn't returned. And then a thousand years goes by and hasn't returned. And now it's 2024 and he still has not returned. And the temptation is to say, well, maybe he's not coming. Maybe we misread the scriptures. Maybe there's something else going on here. But that's not what we understand here, that the evil slave is the one who says that, not the faithful slave. And so, this evil slave, he's both faithless and foolish. And you guys know the old saying, when the cats away, the mice play, right? The substitute teacher comes in, the regular teacher's gone, the substitute teacher comes in, and what do the kids do? Well, they don't do what they're supposed to do. And that's the sense here. When the evil slave sees that the master's not here and not coming, he says in his heart, well, maybe the master's not gonna see what I'm gonna do. Maybe I can do whatever I want. He's not gonna catch me in my actions. This is utterly careless. This is foolhardy. And in this carelessness, his true colors begin to show, which leads us to number two, characteristic of the evil slave here, cruelty. Cruelty, verse 49, this evil slave begins to beat his fellow slaves. This is abject cruelty and malice toward others. Now I want to keep in mind here that this parable, Jesus is using very extreme language, and that's a lot of times the function of the parables. You can use very accentuated or very extreme language to prove a point, and we understand the point. other similes, other metaphors. And Jesus says, pluck out your eye or cut off your hand if you're in sin. He's not talking about literal violence against your physical body, right? But we understand the extremity of the language here. But Jesus is talking about the wicked slave's true heart. Because here's the thing, a false convert can only fake it for so long. I've seen professing believers who reach a certain point, They simply grow tired of the charade and the mask comes off and it reveals their cruelty and their wickedness toward other people. And why, why do they do this? Why do they act wickedly toward other people? Because in so doing, they're manifesting their true hatred, which is that of God, the hate the Lord, the creator of all humanity. That's really what's going on. And so in their hatred for God, they're cruel toward other people. And in that cruelty, we see finally, number three, carousing. The second half of verse 49, the evil slave begins to eat and drink with drunkards. This represents abject rejection of righteousness and a headlong plunge into fleshliness and sinfulness and debauchery. Not wanting to live for God or other people, they resort to living for themselves. But here's the thing, does the master plan on returning? Yes, he does. Look at verse 50. The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and an hour he does not know. So here, Jesus is using the same language as before, way back in verse 36 here, to describe the suddenness of the return. You look back at verse 44, he gives the application of the first parable. Verse 44, for this reason also, you must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not think he will. That's the first parable's application, right? It's certainly true here. Keep that in your mind here. And so the idea is that the master, he returns unexpectedly. And when he returns back to his estate, he finds this evil slave passed out drunk in a pigsty with bruised knuckles on his hands from beating other slaves. And he says, what's going on? I trusted you to take care of the things that you were in charge of. The things that belonged to me. And so he sees this wicked slave and what does he do? Verse 51. When he returns, he will cut him in pieces. and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Now, some scholars have objected to the severity of Jesus' language here, trying to soften it a little bit, and they will go to the Greek and they'll say this Greek word, Dichotomeo, dichotomy, dichotomeo, refers to the cutting off of the fellowship of Israel. It's excommunication. And they'll soften it that way. But that's certainly not it. Well, how do we know? Well, because this parable, he's speaking about the second coming and final judgment. He's not talking about excommunication of believers. He's talking about swift and severe punishment of evildoers. And so if Jesus' language is strong here, it's because he's issuing a very serious and stern warning to those who would reject him. Just cutting into pieces. This is the ultimate corporeal punishment for a criminal. Furthermore, we understand theologically that even the wicked, even those who have died in their sins, are resurrected at the judgment and punished eternally by God. And so after being cut into pieces in terms of judgment, physical judgment, here Jesus then assigns this evil slave to a place with the hypocrites. He places that slave, that wicked servant, in a place where other people who claim to serve God and yet prove to be false, the frauds, he puts them with the frauds. And he says, in that place, the place of judgment, there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That phrase, weeping and gnashing of teeth, that's a repeated phrase all throughout the Gospels. When Jesus is talking about the torments of hell, he talks about a place being where the worm does not die, the fire is not quenched, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. You ever seen someone get so pent up with anger and frustration and sadness and grief that they clench their teeth and they just grind their teeth? It's a horrible thing. What about weeping? What does weeping entail? Again, our friend William Hendrickson says this, this weeping is that of inconsolable, never-ending wretchedness and utter everlasting hopelessness. Oh heavens, I don't want that for any of you. Friend, this is not a place where you wanna go. A place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And yet many will hear this warning and they'll ignore it. And they'll instead prefer a life of carelessness and cruelty and carnality, carousing. But here's the exhortation, don't be the evil slave. Don't be the wicked slave. Instead, be the faithful and wise slave. Be that one. Now, we're talking a lot about slavery here. And you might be thinking to yourself, wait a second, wait a second. I thought God was a God of love and grace and not slavery and submission. What gives? Where does this come from? In our final moments here, I wanna actually focus our attention then to a place in Scripture where you might find this very imagery of slavery and service. But here's the thing, I want you to consider what life might be if you were in service to a perfect and righteous Master. Turn over your copy of Scripture to Romans 6. Romans 6. along with the rest of this epistle is just a masterful exposition of the gospel. The Apostle Paul, he's applying these gospel truths to the Christian life. And he begins chapter six by answering the hypothetical question here. If God's grace is free to us and it's abundant, If we're not able to out-sin the grace of God, then am I allowed to just sin and ask for God's forgiveness and mercy later? And Paul answers that hypothetical question that's kinda hanging in the white space between chapter five, verse 21, and chapter six, verse one, and he says then in chapter six, verse one, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace might increase? And then with the strongest negative in the Greek language, he says, may it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? How can we, who've been redeemed from sin's curse, go back and throw ourselves into sin's company? Why would I confess my sins to God and then say, well, I'm glad that's off my chest, back to the drawing board and go right back into it? and go back to your old life. Again, Christ came to destroy sin through the cross and rescue its prisoners. And that's what he says in verses five through seven. For if we become united with him, with Christ, in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be, look at the words here, slaves to sin. For he who has died is free from sin. This is the imagery of slavery here. Before Jesus saved you, you were a slave to sin. Now, maybe you did nice things for people, horizontally, but vertically, there was nothing in you that desired to honor God. Maybe you were afraid of God, so far as you knew Him, but you were a slave to your own flesh, a slave to your own sin. And you could not stop living for yourself. Every sinner, it's the same story for all of us. All of us, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so that's our life before Christ. We were slaves, and yet, because of the work of Christ, look at verse 14. Because of Christ, sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. And so now you're seeing this master-slave imagery, right? Then Paul continues in verse 16, Romans 6, 16. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you have become what? Slaves of righteousness. And he says in verse 19, I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, pause there, because you guys just couldn't stop giving yourselves over to the flesh, that's what fallen people do, he says, so now as born again, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, You were free in regard to righteousness. But then he reasons, therefore, what benefit are you now deriving from the things which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so there's only two options here. And again, he's using pretty severe language, right? And he says, I'm speaking in these human terms because I want you to get it. that there is only two options. You're either a slave to sin, which results in impurity and lawlessness and death, and that's what we all once were. So you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to God, which results in righteousness and sanctification and eternal life. There's only two paths. There's only two ways. We see that even in Psalm 1. We see the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. We see the faithful and wise slave, we see the evil slave. That's it. There's no in the middle. Well, I'm kinda here, kinda there. The Bible doesn't deal in those terms. It's one or the other. And so, what are we? Slaves of God. And we're slaves of God because Christ has redeemed us. What does that mean, redeem? He has bought us off the slave block. He saw us there humiliated, dead in our transgressions, and He said, you, and He purchased us, and He redeemed us, and He washed us clean, and He wrapped us in His own righteous robe, and He set us in the heavenly places in Christ, and He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You've read this before, I know you have, Ephesians chapter one. He did not buy us off the slave block to treat us poorly. He bought us to make us beautiful and righteous and pure and godly and holy. And yet he says that we're bond slaves, doula, servants of God. To do what? Not to do our old life, the things that we were ashamed of. No, we're now enslaved to righteousness. resulting in further righteousness. Beloved, the Lord God has redeemed you so that you will follow him in paths of righteousness. Why? For his namesake. That's why he bought you. That's why he gave his own blood for you. That's why he redeemed you. So that you would not only live unto him, but you live unto righteousness unto him. And so God in salvation gives us a new heart and a new nature, and guess what? Our slavery to God is not against our will. Our slavery to God is based on a new heart that desires to obey him. I want to do the things that are righteous. I want to do the things that are pleasing to my master. Don't you feel that tug in your heart? I want to do what's right. I hate my flesh. I hate my old self. I want him gone. But I want to obey the Lord. I want to love Him. And so what happens as slaves of righteousness? We're living and we're working and we're doing our thing. We're living our lives as Christians on earth here. We say no to sin, we say yes to godliness, and then one day, beloved, mark this, one day when he returns, he will find his people serving him faithfully and wisely. And he will reward us and give us to partake in his heavenly possessions. We will, as Jesus says in the Beatitudes, we will inherit the kingdom of God. We will not be sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp, I promise you that, unless you want to harp to the glory of God. No, you will be in heaven with Him, doing the things that He has set before you to do, and all of them will be good, and all of them will be righteous. We will be busy in heaven doing wondrous things in His honor and in His glory. But those who are slaves of sin, They will be given over to that sin and they'll be punished accordingly. Again, verse 23, what are the wages of sin? Death. Death. But thankfully, the gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so that is my plea. to any and all who don't yet know Jesus Christ as Savior. Have you received His free gift? Now it's free to us, it's not free to Him. He provided this gift by shedding His own blood on the cross at Calvary to pay for our redemption. To pay for the transgressions that we have committed. And yet, in salvation, He gives it to us. by his grace, through our faith in Christ. Have you ever trusted in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins? Have you received this free gift? And in so receiving this free gift, have you received a new heart that desires to serve him as a faithful and wise servant? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord, these parables, they teach us so much, and even though, at the outset, they're so simple. And that's your brilliance, O Lord, that you'll use such simple imagery and such simplistic metaphor to teach us profound divine truth. And we know that one day you are coming again. We don't know the day, we don't know the hour, and Lord, our temptation is to be timid and faithless, and wavering, and, oh, what if you don't come, O Lord? And yet, we know that a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day to you. You are outside and superintending over time. It doesn't make a difference to you, O Lord. You see all things eternally perfectly. We're the ones who are stuck waiting, O Lord. And yet, while we wait, help us. Be merciful to us. Help us, O Lord. to be ready and watchful and faithful and wise. Let us not be found to be wicked slaves. Let us be found faithful. The Bible says, oh Lord Jesus, you have said this, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? Oh Lord, may it be that you find faith here in this church with these people. Find us faithful, Lord, waiting for you, anxious for your arrival. And Lord, I beg you on behalf of those who don't know you, that you would break their hearts, that you would turn them away from their own sins and their own carelessness and carousing and carnality, cruelty, Lord. Would you turn them back to you? Restore what has been fallen and broken, Lord, bring them back. Save them, redeem them for your glory. We love you, oh Lord, and we cannot wait until you return. And yet we will wait for you. We do so gloriously and joyfully. We do this in your name, oh Lord Jesus, amen.