#4: No One Can Serve Two Masters

I. Introduction
A. We have been talking about Bible truths we need to know to struggle against sexual temptations.
1. Of course, these Bible truths apply to our struggle with all kinds of sin, not just sexual sin.
2. What we’re talking about here is a struggle with conscious, premeditated sins, when you know something is wrong and choose to do it anyway.
B. Review
1. Week one: The Sexual Struggle is a Spiritual Battle
a. At its core sexuality is a spiritual issue.
b. Sex education classes may teach that sex is a purely biological issue. And many claim it is a moral issue.
c. But sex is a spiritual issue. It always involves a person’s spirit, his relationship with God, not just his body.
2. Week two: There Is Hope for the Sexual Struggler
a. God is in the business of rescuing people from sexual sin.
b. Sexual temptation may seem too strong to withstand — and honestly it is, unless we have the Lord’s help. But God is an ever-present Helper for those who cry out to Him.
3. Week three: Sexual Enticement is a Lie
a. Satan paints sexual pleasure as a spring of happiness, but in reality Satan is the enemy of pleasure. He uses sexual enticement and other pleasures to enslave people, just like bait on a hook.
b. But he doesn’t really want anyone having a good time. He wants them miserable. He promises them a good time but has no intention of delivering, except to allow enough pleasure to make sure the hook is really firmly in the fish’s mouth.
4. Today: No man can serve two masters.
C. One of the great temptations we face when we struggle with sin is to think that somehow we might be able to have both: to keep our sin without losing our Savior.
1. Now obviously we’re going to be sinful and imperfect until glory. We’re torn between two forces:
a. Gal.5:17 “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
b. Romans 7:15–24 “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing...21 I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members...24b So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
2. But this is sad news for believers, not happy news. True believers don’t like being sinners. They long for the day when they will no longer sin. That’s clear from both of these passages:
a. “keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
b. “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...I have the desire to do what is right...I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want...I delight in the law of God, in my inner being.”
c. Believers are not happy that they’re prone to sin.
3. If you LIKE the fact that you’re going to be prone to sin until you die, then you are believing one of Satan’s great lies.
II. No one can serve two masters.
A. Satan wants us to think that we can cling to our sin and also cling to our Savior.
1. Being a sinner saved by grace does not mean you can have your sin and have your Jesus too!
2. The fact is, no one can serve two masters.
B. We can see this in 1John 2:15–17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
1. What does John mean by the world in these verses? He doesn’t mean the planet. He means mankind fallen in sin, mankind in rebellion to God. As it says in v.16, the world is the place where “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” are rampant.
2. So the apostle John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” So, you can’t love the world and also love the Father.
3. There is something else he says in v.17. He refers to the fact that the world is passing away but the child of God lives eternally: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” You only get to have one, this world or eternal life.
4. The point is that you can’t buy into both realms. You can’t be a member of Christ’s kingdom and also buy into this world’s lusts.
C. Now, of course, the expression, “No one can serve two masters” comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
1. Jesus is specifically referring to money in this passage, however, it’s clear that the principle applies to more than money: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
2. That’s the principle Jesus is talking about. Then He applies that principle to money when He says, “You cannot serve God and money.”
3. So it’s just as true that you can’t be ruled by both Jesus and sexual sin.
4. Ultimately you’ve got to choose what you want: to be ruled by sex or to be ruled by Jesus.
D. The problem is, we want both. We want to do what we want and still have the Lord’s blessings.
1. We want to have our reward on earth and also have our reward in heaven.
2. We want to have our party now and then also have a party in heaven.
3. We make desperate attempts to keep one foot in each world – and to have the benefits of both.
4. One reason we think we can pull it off is because it seems to go on for a while.
5. Jesus seems to acknowledge this when He uses the future tense: “he will hate the one and love the other.”
E. But having both is not what the Bible teaches. Over and over and over again the Bible tells us that we can’t have both. We have to pick.
1. If something else rules me, Jesus is not my master.
2. It’s not just that we cannot serve two masters, but we cannot love two lovers.
3. Does this make sense? Think about marriage. Is it possible for a man to love his wife AND another woman? He may feel love for his wife, but the act of choosing to love another woman is inevitably an act of rejection toward his wife.
4. So it is that the Lord is jealous when we try to serve two masters.
5. God is a jealous God (Ex.20:5,7; 34:14; Deut.4:24; 5:9,11; 6:15; 28:30; 32:16, 21; Josh.24:19; 2Chr.16:7-10; Isa.30:1, 2; 31:1, 3; Ezek.23:25; 36:5;39:25; Joel 2:18; Nah.1:2; Zech.1:14; 1Cor.10:22; 2Cor.11:2) because He loves us!
F. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we can have both, and Satan willingly cooperates.
1. But the fact is, if you are unwilling to let go of your sexual sin, then you’re going to have to let go of Jesus. Inevitably, it comes down to that. No man can serve two masters.
G. You see, if you live just like a non-believer, you are a non-believer, whether you admit it or not.
1. Because real faith produces real fruit.
2. Jesus taught this clearly. E.g. Matthew 7:15–20 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
a. There are those who try to look like sheep but are actually wolves.
b. But good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit, so you will able to discern their falseness because they will bear bad fruit. And “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
H. No, I’m not saying that salvation is connected with works. Salvation is by faith alone. But salvatiion is not by faith that is alone. It is by faith which is accompanied by works. Because true faith inevitably produces good works. So true faith brings about salvation AND IT ALSO brings about good works.
III. There are three passages in the NT epistles I would like to talk about which say this clearly:
A. All three of these passages say that certain sins are incompatible with faith in Christ.
1. 1Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
2. Galatians 5:19–21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
3. Ephesians 5:5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
B. These lists of sins aren’t identical. There is some overlap, but there are 22 different sins when the lists are combined (see chart below). That means that most likely these lists are all partial and not complete even when combined. In Gal.5 it actually ends the list by saying, “and things like these.”
C. What are “things like these”? What is the distinguishing feature of these sins which makes Paul speak so forcefully about them, that he would say that they would disqualify someone from the kingdom of heaven?
1. Elsewhere it is so clear that Christians sin and yet remain Christians. We even have examples of the apostles themselves sinning and not being excluded from the kingdom thereby.
2. But the sins listed in these three passages must be different. But how?
a. It’s not that these sins are unforgivable. That’s clear on in the first of the three passages (1Cor.6:9-10) which after saying certain sins make it impossible to “inherit the kingdom of God” says, “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ & in the Spirit of our God.”
b. It’s not that these sins are unconquerable. 1Cor.6:9-10 also makes that clear.
3. When you look carefully at these lists, you can see that the sins listed are life-dominating, life-defining sins. We know the difference between a sin one occasionally commits, and a sin which controls a person’s life – e.g. a con man, a drug addict, a sluggard, a compulsive gambler, a philanderer, a serial killer or serial rapist. These are sins which master a person, and no one can serve two masters. Therefore Paul says that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal.5:21)
IV. Conclusion
A. You’re going to go one way or another, whether you like it or not. Or else Jesus is lying.
B. Whatever rules you, you’re going to have to let go of it, or let go of Jesus.
1. You cannot do it yourself, of course. You have to cry out to God. But He has delivered many from the slavery of sexual sin.

CHART

1. 1Cor.6:9-10
1- fornicators (PORNEIA)
2- idolaters (in all 3 lists)
3- adulterers (philanderers, those having a mistress or mistresses)
4- effeminate (the word here means soft, a euphemism for the passive, submissive partner in a homosexual relationship)
5- homosexuals (the word here is a combination of the word for man [male] and the word for sex [coitus])
6- thieves (KLEPTAI, from which we get kleptomaniac)
7- covetous (greedy, ruled by mammon, living as though earthly things are everything)
8- drunkards (also in Gal 5)
9- revilers (an abusive person, has no love for anyone but him/herself)
10- swindlers (snatchers, extortioners, con men)

2. Gal.5:19–21
— sexual immorality (PORNEIA)
11- impurity (AKATHARTOS)
12- sensuality (given over to sexual passions)
(1) Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. -Jude 4
(2) They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. -Ephesians 4:19
(3) For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. -1Pet.4:3
(4) And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. -2Peter 2:2
(5) righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. -2Peter 2:7
— idolatry (in all 3 lists)
13- sorcery
14- enmity (hostility)
15- strife (disputatious – 1Cor.3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy & strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?)
16- jealousy (1Cor.3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy & strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?)
17- fits of anger (literally, wraths)
18- rivalries (Romans 2:8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.)
19- dissensions (Romans 16:17 Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.)
20- divisions (2Pet.2:1 parties, sects, factions, heresies)
21- envy
(1) Romans 1:29 They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
(2) 1Pet.2:1 Put away all malice & deceit & hypocrisy & envy & all slander.
(3) Titus 3:3 We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
— drunkenness (also in 1Cor6)
22- orgies

3. Eph.5:5
— sexually immoral (PORNEIA, again)
— impure (AKATHARTOS, again)
— covetous (that is, an idolater) Idolatry is in all 3 lists.