Freedom, Slavery and Heaven

Chapter 6, verse 17 and 18. 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 became slaves of righteousness. Do you ever think about what he, what he says here? I mean, we understand the words.

Do you ever think about what it means? He says 2 things here. He says, we've been freed from sin. Think about that. We've been freed from sin.

And then the second thing he says is quite the opposite, and we've become slaves to righteousness. Wait a minute now, I'm free? And now I'm a slave? What's the point of being free if I'm just going to turn around and become a slave? What does this mean?

Of course, Paul is speaking to Christians here, so it means that all of us who are Christians, and only those who are Christians, have been freed from sin, made slaves to righteousness. You know, it says what it says, doesn't it? We understand the words. But what do the words mean in a very practical way in our everyday lives? Let's look at both these ideas.

1st, freedom from sin. At first glance, a person would think that we are no longer surrounded you know, you're freed from sin. There's no more sin. No more sin in your life, no more sin around you. You're freed from sin.

But if you just take a quick look around your life and inside your heart, you're gonna find out that the world is still full of sin. I mean, there's sin everywhere, up above and down below and in back of you, in front of you. We could hope that this means that we are personally no longer going to sin anymore as Christians. Doesn't he say we're free from sin? And yet again, if you take just a quick look at your life, never mind, just look at your life today, and today is Sunday.

Did you say you're free from sin? Well, if it doesn't mean that there's no more sin around us and there's no more sin inside of us, what does being free from sin mean? Does it mean anything? Is it just a bunch of religious babbling? Well, sure it means something.

In the Christian context, in the biblical context, freedom from sin means 2 things. First of all, it means that we have freedom from the dominance that sin has over us. In other words, we still sin, yes. But we don't sin as much as we used to. Because now the Holy Spirit dwells within us to help us overcome sin in our lives.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 13, Paul says, If by the Spirit you are putting to death the sins or the deeds of the flesh So, we're not completely free from the effect or the presence of sin. It's still around us. We still see it. It's still inside of us. We still see ourselves sinning.

But Paul says, because of Jesus Christ, listen now, sin is no longer in charge of our lives. You see, before sin was in charge, sin was the boss. And because of Christ, we've been made free from the dominance of sin. The other thing that freedom from sin means is this, we have freedom from the consequences of sin. That's the one I like a lot.

I mean, I like the first one because I tell you, I'm plumb worn out of sinning. I mean, I'm so tired of sinning. I look at myself and say, You've done that again? I thought I gave that up. I thought I promised myself I'd never do that again.

And yet I went and did it again. And I've been working on that for 6 months, and I've been praying about that for 6 months, and I don't seem to be further ahead than I used to. And yeah, sin isn't the boss, but boy, it sure is bossy in my life. But the one I really like, the idea I really like, is that freedom from sin means freedom from the consequences of sin. You see, Paul says in Romans 623, Romans 623, the wages of sin is death.

You sin, you die. You sin, you're judged. You sin, you're condemned. You sin, you're going to hell. But then in verse 23b he says, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.

The free gift, eternal life. In other words, I am liberated from the judgment against me. Every couple of months you always hear on the radio or the TV, some man, some woman is on death row. And they make an appeal, and they call the governor, and the lawyers are putting in all kinds of appeals because they're hoping to get a pardon, you know, a pardon, which means that their death sentence has been commuted. I mean, it's not much better, they're going to live the rest of their life in jail, but you know, at least they're alive.

That's what Paul is saying here. We've been freed from sin. We've received the pardon. We're on death row just waiting for the judgment and the condemnation of God after we die. And through Jesus Christ, a pardon appears.

You've been pardoned. Not only are we pardoned from the consequences, we're released from jail. And so through Jesus Christ, we are freed from the power that sin has over us, and also the punishment that awaits us because of sin. That's what freedom from sin means. Now, the second thing he says is slaves of right You know, you've been freed from sin, you've made been made a slave of righteousness.

You know, there's some misunderstanding about this passage, and this is the misunderstanding. Some people think that slaves to righteousness means that as Christians, we become slaves to perfectionism. Slave to perfection or perfectionism is a person who is never satisfied unless one's behavior is without fault. One's work is without mistake. One's accomplishments are always better than everybody else.

You know you're one of them. If when people are doing real good, you start getting worried that maybe they're doing better than you. Not just in physical things, like if they plant their garden and their tomatoes come up and yours don't come up as nicely, you get a little nervous about that. Or if they buy a new car and you haven't had one in 3 years, you feel a little bad about that. Even in spiritual things, you see people getting ahead and kind of growing, and you look at them and you figure, oh boy, you know, they're getting ahead of me.

Those people are not slaves to righteousness, they're slaves to perfectionism, because what they want is to be perfect. Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Christians think that Christianity is all about. And worse still, here's the worst part, a lot of non Christians think that that's what Christianity is all about. And you know why? Because we give them that impression.

We give the impression that Christianity is all about perfectionism and not about grace. Slave to righteousness is not being a perfectionist. A slave to righteousness is a person who is committed to pursuing what is right. A slave to righteousness is a person who loves what is right, who rejoices in what is right, even if you can't accomplish it. I can be a slave to righteousness if I know and love what is right, and I want what is right, even if I don't make it all the time.

That's being a slave to righteousness. Jesus refers to these slaves of righteousness when he says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. The passage implies that they're not satisfied. They want it badly. They can taste it at times, but they're not satisfied.

Do you ever get the feeling you're not good enough? That you see what good enough is, but you're just not there? Jesus says to you, blessed are you because one day if you persevere, you'll be satisfied. People like this are slaves in the sense that whatever is right, and whatever is good, and whatever is pure, and whatever is holy, and whatever is worthy of praise, therefore it. Regardless of the cost, regardless of the suffering, regardless of the opposition, they will always side with what's right.

Even if they aren't perfectly accomplishing what is right. There's you know, I'm for what's perfect even if I'm not perfect. I am for what's perfect. This thirst for righteousness will be satisfied to a degree now, in the sense that the present imperfection is covered by God's grace. That's what God's grace is for.

It's for people who understand that they're not perfect, but they want perfect. And God says, I'm going to help you get through that period of your life where you desire righteousness, but can't achieve it. I'll give you grace. But one day, one day, I promise you will have perfect righteousness. For now, don't quit, persevere.

There will be no sin, when there will be no death, that thirst for what is right will be completely satisfied. They will be themselves perfect, not through perfectionism, and not through accomplishment, but through resurrection to perfection. We had to put that on the building. Resurrection to perfection. Not perfection through trying and through accomplishment, perfection through resurrection.

And you know what gets you to resurrection? Not perfectionism, faith. Faith. When you put these ideas together, Paul is saying that when you are freed from sin, you begin to be a slave of righteousness. And so we need to ask ourselves the question: have we experienced this freedom?

And do we feel this thirst for righteousness? We cannot overcome sinfulness, and we cannot overcome condemnation, and we cannot overcome death, and we cannot know the joy and blessedness of thirsting continually for what is right, thirsting continually for what is right, unless we are first freed from sin. And this freedom only comes when we are forgiven for our sins through repentance and baptism in the name of Christ. And Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 6, verse 17. You know, when he says because you obeyed the teaching, you were freed from sinfulness.

The teaching is, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin. When you obey that teaching, your sins are forgiven and you become a slave of righteousness. Are you free? Are you thirsty? If not, we encourage you to come now and acknowledge your belief in Christ.

We encourage you to repent of your sin, be baptized, and obey the teaching that'll free you tonight as we stand and as we sing our first song of intercession. It kind of throws you right? You get 2 sermons? Well, I didn't feel like preaching a long sermon tonight, I wanted to preach 2 short ones. So if you were putting your gloves on, getting your keys out, you're going to have to put them down, because we're not through yet.

In the summer of 1992, probably about 1992, I preached about that this morning. In 1992 I watched a girl from Oklahoma, her name was Shannon Miller, and I watched her rise to the lead in the individual gymnastics competition at the Olympics. And then, as many of you, most of you, watched her win many medals. Well, during this time they interviewed her coach, and they did a story on her coach, and his particular style, and his career. And as I watched Shannon Miller and her performance, I also kept my eye on her coach because if you remember that time he was a very dynamic guy and he was in there and so on and so forth, and he was always on the sidelines.

And I remember one very important thing that he continually did, not only for Shannon, but for her teammates as well. He kept her focused on what they were doing. I mean, he continued to talk to them from the south lines, he'd shout encouragement, he'd clap his hands. But I noticed that what he was doing was keeping them focused on the task at hand because there was so much distraction. I mean, there were a lot of events going on at once, and there was applause going on over here, and there was music going on over here, and there was the crowd shouting over here.

And you know, so they had a lot of different events. It was hard for the athletes to kind of stay focused on what they were doing. And that was his job, I noticed. He continually kept them focused on the task at hand. You know, that's usually the secret of success in any sport or in any enterprise: focusing on what you're doing.

Those of you who coach, either for a living or, you know, part time coaching, you know that keeping your eye on the ball let's say it's keep your eye on the ball that's what a golf instructor says to the guy he's teaching or the girl he's teaching, keep your eye on the ball. And batting coaches, right, keep your eye on the ball. In business, they teach you to keep your eye on that margin of profit, because if you don't, you'll go bankrupt. If you're learning how to do CPR, they'll teach you how to stay focused, you know, find the pulse, keep the pulse, keep stay focused on what you're doing. Well, there's some similarities here in a biblical context.

In Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4, Paul, who is our spiritual coach, and that's where I'm going. Paul the apostle who is our spiritual coach, he tells us as Christians what we need to stay focused on in order to win the medal or the crown that we're trying to win. Let me read to you Colossians chapter 3, if you want to read along that's fine. Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 to 4. He says: Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ Now that means, if you're a Christian raised up, just like Luke Gill this morning.

He was raised up with Christ out of the waters of baptism. He says, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Basically, Paul is saying that if you are a Christian, you're going to go to heaven. And so therefore, you need to keep your eye focused on where you're going. If you're a batting guy, you've got to keep your eye on the ball because that's what you've got to do. Well, if you're a Christian guy or a Christian girl, you're going to heaven. That's what being a Christian is all about.

And you've got to keep your eye focused on where you're going, and that is to heaven. Now, that's important because this life is going to provide a lot of distraction. You're either going to be rich or poor, or somewhere in the middle. And no matter where you are, rich, medium, or poor, you're going to have all kinds of distractions in the form of pleasures, or problems, or being, you know they say the young, they have so many problems today. And that's true, but you know what?

Us middle aged guys, we've got problems too, they won't go into them either. And growing old, growing old, it has its own problems that young people just can't understand. I mean, I'm 50 years old and I'm just now beginning to understand a little bit what it's like and what the particular problems are of people who are elderly. Throughout all of this, in order to win the prize, we've got to keep our eye on our eventual resurrection and our final destination in heaven. You know, if you don't know where you're going, do you think you'll actually get there?

And if you don't keep your eye on where you want to go, what stops you from getting lost or losing your way? Paul explains how we stay focused on our goal in the balance of chapter 3. And in the balance of chapter 3 of Colossians, he says 3 things, 3 things that we need to do in order to keep our eye on heaven. Because you know, he's not saying, Look up into the sky, obviously we can't do that. So, how do you keep your eyes focused on heaven?

Well, he says three ways. First of all, he says, deal with the sin in your life. Verses 5 to 11, let me read that. He says, Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

And in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman. But Christ is all in all.

Now, he says a lot of things in these few verses, but the main thing he's saying is, in order to keep your eye focused on heaven, you've got to deal with your sin on a daily basis. And he mentions not all the sins you could ever do, but he just mentions some pretty general ones: immorality, lying, anger, malice, slander, those types of things. Don't let sin blind you because that's what sin does to you. It gives you pleasure, that's the upside. The downside is it makes you blind, and you can't see heaven anymore.

All you can see is sin. And that's the danger. That's why we continually offer the invitation. That's why we promote small group interaction. That's why we have to have a brother or a sister or a wife or a husband or a best Christian friend or whatever, to whom we can confide in and confess our sins to and pray for.

Because we need a way to deal with our sins every single day, so that our sins don't blind us and we can stay focused on heaven. The second way to stay focused on heaven is in verse 12 to 15. He says, basically, develop a loving and submissive attitude. Verse 12 to 15. He says, So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone.

Just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in 1 body, and be thankful. Keeping your eyes focused on heaven requires you to develop a loving and submissive attitude towards one another in the church, and towards those outside the body. You know why that's important?

Because it helps you get your eyes off of yourself. When you have your eyes just on you, you can't see heaven. But when you have your eyes on other people and their needs, then you begin to be able to see the kingdom of god and you don't lose your way. You know, I'll tell you brothers and sisters, I know you, you know me, Instead of using one another as sounding boards for your complaints against others, why not use each other as prayer partners to pray for those you can't stand, to pray for those that you think are not worthy, to pray for those who have hurt your feelings, to pray for those who are not living up to your standard. The more time we spend putting each other down, the further into the darkness we go, and the more we lose our way.

3rd thing, he said, if you want to stay focused on your goal of heaven, learn to continually be thankful. Learn to continually be thankful. He said that in verse 15 at the end, he says, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom and teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the father.

Learn to continually be thankful for everything in your life and when you do, that'll keep your vision clear. Being thankful helps you to maintain a spiritual balance. It helps you to fight depression, it helps dissipate anger and frustration. You know, I've always said to myself, when there's nothing left for me to do, you know, have you ever gotten to one of those, 'Ah'? Did you get to one of those moments?

With your spouse, with your class, with somebody, with the church, with the company, with the government? When you're at that point, it's time to pray. And it's time to and you say, Pray for what? Start being thankful. Find something that's good in your life and start thanking God for it.

But why? That's not gonna change another situation? No, it's not. It's going to change you. It's going to get you, because you're like this, you're going, eee!

That sound is the motor of the plane heading to crash. When you begin to pray in thankfulness, that you take off again. You find your balance, and you get some lift, and you get perspective. Well, we know, of course, by now that Shannon Miller won. And even though I'm just a transplanted Opie, I even felt a surge of hometown pride every time they mentioned her name.

And in those days we actually lived in Edmond, so boy, it wasn't only a girl from Oklahoma, it was a girl from my hometown, Edmond, Oklahoma. I was happy for her and I was proud of her. And you know what? As a preacher, more importantly, I'm hoping that we win the prize that's set before all of us. And I hope that we will learn to keep our eyes focused on heaven No matter what, no matter what.

And we will be able to do that if we deal consciously and conscientiously with sin each day in our lives, If we learn to grow in love, I mean, ask yourself, is what I'm saying and is what I'm doing and is what I'm planning, is this born out of the love of Christ? What's my motivation here? And thirdly, if we learn to be thankful in every circumstance. You may be here tonight as one who has lost that concentration, lost that focus for whatever reason. And you know what, there may be some legitimate reasons.

And maybe you'd like to get back on track and get your eye and get your life heaven bound once again. If you need to repent before God, then do that tonight. Before you leave this building in your heart, tell God you're sorry and you're going to start again. If you need to repent before the church and receive the prayers of the church, then do that tonight. And if you need to confess Christ and be baptized for the 3rd time today, for the 3rd time today, I invite you to come and confess his name and be baptized for the remission of your sins as we stand and as we sing our final song of invitation.