Good Morning Beloved,
Thank you all for joining today
Heavenly Father,
Thank you, for You written Word this today
for the apostles who have recorded it Scripture
and for Your wisdom shared with us and Holy Spirit,
to guide us to interpret and discern these valuable truths
Father, You know us, that even those of us who have come to Christ, still battle against sin.
Help us to not lose touch with the impact of the affect of sin on our lives, because we all battle sin
remind us that what gives us victory is not some mystical apprehension but the reality of the devastation of sin. Help us Lord, to see it for what it is, so that we hate it just as You hate it
Remind us of what it did to Christ, how He was tortured and torment by those overcome by it
O Lord, help us to be faithful battlers, warriors, against this enemy of sin
Father, we’re reminded in Peter's marvelous epistle, as he talks how important it is to be committed in fervent prayer. May we realize that even when we have cultivated the memory and when we understand the terrible, terrible effects of sin, we still must pray and depend upon You as the resources for victory in our lives. Father make us holy, righteous, pure, continue to move us along to the image of Christ which is both our goal and our destiny. And we’ll give You thanks and praise in His dear name.
Amen.
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with the same resolve—because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin— in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.
I Peter 4:1-6
Today's Message: Breaking Free
As you know, I have frequently addressed the issue of sin and how to deal with it. So easily, and so often, it somehow, still entangles us. So this morning, I really want to address this issue again. I know we need to begin our series and I'm eventually going to get to that. But the Holy Spirit, has guided me, that we need to return to the book of Revelation, and believe me, I'm going to do that as well, but these other issues have been brought into focus by the Holy Spirit. And I was thinking about what a need we have, in today's culture with regard to sin, which so easily entangles all of us and how we must deal with sin as Christians, it struck me, that we need to take a slight detour in teaching. These days, it seems everyone wants to talk about family values, moral values, traditional values, and it strikes me as a rather a fruitless discussion because no one is willing to talk about sin. And as long as you refuse to define sin then you cannot possibly define morality; and so to talk about values amounts to little more than some sentimentality. Do you see that?
In fact, I've been so concerned about this issue, that I am prepared to spend as much time as it requires to deeply dig into the subject of sin. And I find it rather interesting because if anything is true of our society today, and it's certainly true, that we don't want to even acknowledge the existence of sin. We, therefore, continue down a path of improperly diagnosing man's behavior and therefore not having any clue about how to cure it, because we do not want to address the underlying condition, which is sin.
Quite frankly, the topic of sin isn't nearly as marketable, in today's culture, as many other topics. In our culture, I believe it would be fair to say, that sin isn't even an acceptable or appropriate word. You just don't hear anyone talk about the topic of sin, certainly not a politician, and, I'm saddened to say, even rarely a preacher in most cases. Not only has it been deemed an unacceptable word, in society, it is an unacceptable cause for the troubles of man. With all of this talk about values and morals, with no talk about sin, the definition of values is hopelessly vague.
Certainly today, sin is not an acceptable diagnosis of man's problems. Yet, it is most definitely, the underlying cause. We look at the world and what do we see? We see evil everywhere but it's not defined as evil. We can see sin everywhere, and yet, in our society, it's not defined as sin. Because, it's just not an acceptable form of terminology. It's an unacceptable cause. It's an unacceptable diagnosis of man's nature. Sin, essentially, doesn't exist in today's culture, yet it's presence is everywhere.
In fact, things that we once used to so freely and willingly say were sin, we dare not call sin today. I recall, some time ago, reading a column in a newspaper somewhere. The columnist, interestingly enough, wrote this column about sin. This is in part what it said: "Most sins have gained respectability through politics or profitability. They're mostly all legalized, advertised, organized, supervised and taxed. We've got liquor by the drink, and young girls dress like hookers just to be in fashion at their homecoming dance. We've got your basic graphic sex on cable TV and an entertainment market from wind-up toys to electronic state-of-the-art based solely on violence. So, hey, is it fair to name all these little diversions sins? Sin, go figure out how you can make a fortune for Time Warner with a recording about killing cops, how you can refuse to let school children say grace for lunch and then teach them how to use a condom before recess. Clearly we are foundering here, a society preoccupied with values yet hopelessly vague on sin."
Sometime ago, I read a book, a secular book, it was entitled, I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, written by Wendy Kaminer And in this book, the author confronts as a critic the topics of new anthropology, the new theology, the new psychology. The stuff that is today called abuse psychology, or codependency, all of that stuff that basically says, "You're really a wonderful person. Yet everybody keeps abusing you and the problem is what's happening outside of you, because everything inside of you is really wonderful."
Then, it talks about the fact that in this new anthropology, this new sociology, psychology, theology and it even lists secular sociologists, secular psychiatrists, Christian psychologists into one big bag as all affirming the same thing. In evaluating this movement, articulating what they believe. They are essentially espousing the view, that, "No matter how bad of a narcissist you've been, and no matter how many drugs you've ingested, regardless of how many illicit sex acts you have performed, or on whom, no matter how much corruption you've enjoyed in your life, you're still basically innocent. The divine child inside you is always untouched by even the worst of your sins."
And the hypothesis here, is that because no one is inhabited by evil or unhealthy urges because inside every addict, and apparently that's the new word for sinner, is a holy child longing to be free. And Further, implying that the inner child is always good, innocent and pure, like the most sentimentalized characters, in a childrens fairy tale. Which basically means that all people are essentially good and evil is merely some sort of mask, or a dysfunction. So, the therapeutic view of evil as sickness not sin is strong in codependency theory. So, that's the new theory. That scolding, or shaming children, for their inappropriate behavior, is now, to be considered a primary form of abuse.
The overall consensus here, it that is that if you make your child feel any guilt or shame about anything, that is essentially a form of child abuse. And we can expect, that it will certainly end up as a matter in the courts, as has as any other form of child abuse. Guilt and shame are no longer useful tools in our society, they say. I believe, that someone should remind these people that there is a name for people who possess an utter lack of any guilt and shame. We call them sociopaths.
But here in this secular, morally corrupt, sin-filled world, it is teaching our children, that innately inside in the heart of men, there is only purity, innocence, holy and good. I have to tell you, it's absolutely amazing to me, how all these people who are so "pure, innocent, holy and good," on the inside are so horribly sick, disturbed and corrupt on the outside. I mean, how does that even make any sense? Seriously?
I guess, the point I'm trying to make here is this: We now, basically have a culture that denies the reality of sin. And as I have said before, in other discussions in regard to sin and immorality, if you misdiagnose the cause of a problem then you're certainly not going to be able to offer the proper cure. So what happens is that if you alleviate people from the responsibility for dealing with the sin in their lives, you have, essentially, made them unredeemable. You have damned their souls for an eternity in hell.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23
I can find nowhere, in any of the Scriptures, where it states, indicates or otherwise alludes to the ideology that denying the existence of a particular erasing it's penalty.
And, I have to be completely honest here, I am deeply disturbed by this scenario, needless to say, terribly saddened, by the fact, that's the kind of culture we are living in today, not only minimizing the effects of sin but completely eliminating it. And then coming up with the inconceivable idea that man is some how essentially good, holy, pure inside, longing to be free from these plagues of dysfunctions which have occurred, somehow on the outside because of the way he's been abused by others, primarily, the parents.
Somehow, now we're all victims, to some extent, of that kind of thing in our culture. We have as wicked, as wretched, as sinful, and as vile a culture as could be imagined. And at the same time we have a massive campaign to theoretically remove the word "sin" from our vocabulary. Talk about putting people in an unredeemable position. That is it. They are not even going to understand that they are responsible for their own offenses against God. They're not even going to be in a position to seek deliverance from their iniquities, they are therefore, unredeemable. I can't imagine that Satan could have devised any more concise or effective plan, than would move an entire culture toward the most wretched, vile kind of life, and at the same time sell it wholesale the philosophy that no such thing as sin exists innately in the human heart. Talk about damning a culture, damning a world, that is certainly how you do it.
Now the fallout to this, we feel in the church, and the modern church tends to even minimize the reality of sin, even in its own reality, even among Christians. We tend to be somewhat desensitized, don't we? Failing to even notice the iniquity that surrounds us, and if we are desensitized, let me tell you this, to the iniquity around us we will be desensitized to the iniquity in us. If I am no longer outraged by the sin I see outside, then I am surely less likely to be outraged by the sin I see inside. People always decry the Victorian era, periods of history where even the society itself has had a highly developed sense of sin. But those kinds of societies at least articulated a morality that held the church accountable. Now, modern society doesn't hold the church accountable for anything because society itself, has no morality, there is no longer a definition of sin, therefore the church can behave in just about any way it desires. Because, nothing, is immoral, nothing is sin. In fact, I imagine today that because of the way the church has behaved, at least in recent years, in our culture, it would be very difficult for anyone in the church, to do anything, that would ultimately shock the world's society.
So the error, in having a sinless definition of humanity, paralleled with the overexposure that even Christians have to iniquity and to sin through the media, desensitizes us to our own sin. And if I may be so bold, as to tell you what that will do. Because we no longer recognize the sinfulness of sin, because we no longer understand how sinful we are, it is certainly possible to think ourselves to be more holy than we are. If you refer back, for example, and read in the writings of godly men in years past, you very often find them bemoaning and bemoaning in regard to their own sin. And you read about their lives, everyone seems to be so holy, so pure and so devoted to Christ, and yet so obviously overwrought with sin. Sin was highly defined in ancient times, even in the society in many cases. And it held even the people who were Christians, to a higher standard. It has become more that evident, that in our society today, no one, regardless of their position, or religious affiliation, is held to any form of higher standard.
However, at one time, nobody was letting them off the hook in culture. Nobody was projecting their responsibility onto their parents, for the way they behaved, nobody was claiming some sort of codependency or addiction. Everybody was dealing with sin as sin, at least to some degree. And consequently, people were confined to those definitions, they saw them for what they really are, sin, and I think in some ways the sort of general human goodness in the culture, the sort of pervasive morality helped control the thinking of Christians. Now we no longer have the benefit of a moral society to hold the church accountable, nor do we have a church, that holds society accountable for their behavior. The bottom line is thus: We can call ourselves Christians and live any way we choose to live. And if, by some strange chance, we exceed what is considered to be the "norm," or the average, we now tend to think of ourselves as holy and righteous.
J.I. Packer, who is a well-known English born - Canadian evangelical theologian, and skilled thinker, writes this, "Christians often imagine themselves to be strong, healthy and holy. But the way to health is to recognize that we are weak and sick and sinful." He is also quoted as saying, "There are no small sins against a great God."
Look, the point is here, we cannot allow society give the church the standard for immorality. I mean, if you're a little better than the society you're in, that certainly doesn't make you very good because they have no definition of sin.
Packer goes on to say, in speaking about believers. "In moral and spiritual terms we are sick and damaged, diseased and deformed, scarred and sore, lame and lopsided to a far, far greater extent than we realize. We need, to realize that the spiritual health we testify to is only partial and relative, a matter of being less sinful and less incapacitated than we were before." And then here's a great statement: "Our spiritual life is a fragile convalescence. It is a fragile convalescence easily disrupted and we are prone to damaging delusions about it." Beloved, that is an absolutely profound analogy.
I am grieved by the way today's culture has affected the modern church. And because we're, barely, and I do mean barely, a notch above the standard by which they live, we somehow, presume ourselves to be holy. Are you kidding me? We are engaged in a fragile convalescence from the near fatal disease of unregenerate life. Therefore, we need to deal with sin and we need to deal with it, just as strongly in our own lives. And we cannot allow the world's standard to become ours. The politicians can talk all they want about morals, values, family values, traditional values, but when they talk about it, they do not mean a word, just look at the manner in which they are conducting their own lives. It in no way resembles what you and I understand to be as biblical Christianity. Beloved, we as a church, as Christ's church, have got to deal with sin on biblical terms, not those imposed by misguided, depraved society.
Because we no longer choose to acknowledge the existence of sin, in no way, indicates that it's not there, and we have to understand that. We have got to tackle it,and triumph over it. That is the proper way for the church to address and deal with sin. Scriptures gives us some basic principles for dealing with the sin that so easily entangles us. We must look to the Bible, for what you need to do now in the present battle with sin, and in order to defend yourself against it in the future.
There's another component that I want to talk about today and that's the past. I think there is a certain sense in which you have got to look into the past, in order to deal with the present, especially is the case with sin, in order to triumph over the sin that so easily entangles you, to protect ourselves in the future, we must be capable of arming ourselves against it. "Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41. In the present, we are to battle sin, according to Romans 12:9, "Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good." But there's also a past look and I want to give you that, in order to do that, I'd like all of you to turn to I Peter 4.
Now this particular text yields some very rich truths and could be approached in any number of ways, and I'm not going to take the time to expose it in great detail. However, some of you may recall, I have already done that in our earlier study of I Peter. However, I really want to draw from this text, what I consider to several key elements, which are directly related to our lesson here today, in dealing with the sin in our lives.
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with the same resolve—because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin— in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the living and the dead." I Peter 4:1-5
The key point within that particular verse, I wanted to draw your attention to is, "equip yourselves also with the same resolve." What Peter is saying here, is we must equip ourselves with a certain kind of purpose in order to battle sin. What kind of purpose? Verse 2, to "in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will." So, in order to live that way, in order to live not controlled by the lusts of men, we've got to have a certain purpose of heart. In fact, it's a purpose of heart that is demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the first illustration that he gives right there in verse 1, he then later, reaches back into their own past and illustrates from their former lifestyle another point in calling them to holiness.
Please note, that in center of verse 2, there is a reference to the will of God, and therefore, I just want to take those three points, which are: Looking at Christ, looking at God, and looking at the past life. And I want to say to you that if you're going to be able to be properly equipped, so as to live the rest of the time in your flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, then you have to look back at Christ, you have to look back at God, and you have to look back at your former life.
I believe, that Peter gives us very insightful glimpses here. So, let's examine verse 1. Peter is saying, that anyone who is going to be equipped to deal with sin, who is going to live his life without yielding to the temptation of the lusts of men, is going to need to look back and see Christ. And here's the context, "Therefore since Christ has suffered in the flesh..."
So what does he mean by that? Well, "suffered in the flesh" simply means he's died. It is a phrase that is used, referring to death. And the, at the end of verse 1 he says, "because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin" You finish with sin when you die.
What I mean to say here is, that Jesus Christ has suffered in the flesh, that is dying, and in dying has finished with sin. That's right. But Jesus Christ never sinned? That's right, also. So what is Peter saying? What he is saying is, that Jesus Christ, was in a constant battle with sin. And, isn't that true? He was in all points tempted, as we are, yet He was without sin. There was a personal assault on Jesus Christ by the powers of darkness. You get a window in that when you see the temptation of Christ in both Matthew 4, Luke 4, and you see how Satan came to Him in the time of His greatest physical weakness, after fasting forty days and forty nights and being alone in the desert. He then came to Him, and it was at that time and he tempted Him. There was an assault on His person, an assault on His will, and on His emotion, to try to get Him to capitulate to Satan and to engage Himself in sin. Sin assaulted Him personally in the matter of temptation.
The second point is that, sin assaulted Him through the means of persecution. Satan was after Christ from the very beginning, attempting to destroy Him. He wanted to destroy Him as a baby and if you recall, when He was born he massacred all the babies under two years of age in that region, in order to try to effect the slaughter of the One, who would be the King, the Messiah. It was, as we know, unsuccessful. The story of Scripture doesn't recount it but you can be certain that there were other occasions, in which Satan may have moved against the child Christ, in the years of His growing up and would have at any time, taken His life, had not God preserved it. You know as well as I do that when He began His ministry the multitude tried to kill Him, effecting the work of Satan in an untimely way. And He disappeared from among them. They would have thrown Him off a cliff, if they could have.
And let's be honest, there were many times when the Jews, the leaders of the Jews, would have killed Him. They repeatedly were plotting His death. There was persecution of all sorts. There was blasphemy against His name. There was maligning against His character. He was persecuted incessantly by those who rejected Him. Sin was after Him, first, personally through temptation, second, through persecution. And lastly, sin was thrown upon Him, in its fullness, as He bear our sins on the cross. In fact, the Bible says, He was made sin on the cross and there the heavy weight of sin was placed upon Him. He suffered, as it were, in the flesh and He suffered from the attacks of sin. Sin attacked Him in temptation, obviously from outside since He was impeccable, sinless and could not sin on the inside because He was holy God. Sin attacked Him through the persecutions. Sin, of course, then was even poured upon Him in its fullness by God the Father as He became the substitute
And we can know, from the accounts recorded in Scripture, in every case, and please remember this, , sin made Christ suffer. He battled it through temptation. He suffered the indignities and the persecution, the blasphemy, the extreme hatred, the hostility and the violence of evil men and women. And He suffered. He suffered until it crushed His life right out of Him, when He bear our sin on the cross.
So, the key point here, is to look back. If you're going to entertain sin in your life, says Peter, look back. He's reminding persecuted believers here, by the way, who are undergoing some heavy, heavy persecution. And under that kind of duress it is not unreasonable to assume that some of them may have begun to defect, maybe not wanting to take the heat, some small compromises. And he reminds them that Christ, the very One he has just described in verses 18 to 22 of chapter 3, who gave His life for them, who when reviled reviled not again, who when He was being evil spoken of never retaliated, and who paid for their sins, that same Christ suffered extremely beyond anything they will ever know and never sinned and never fell to sin, and never stopped trusting the Father, and never yielded up His confidence, and never gave away His hope, and never defected. And He becomes your model.
Satan and sin did everything they could to destroy Jesus Christ. It was of course, ineffective and He was ultimately triumphant. He endured it all and it was all painful. As perfect as He was, even temptation must have been some great offense to His holy nature. Certainly blasphemy was, mockery and all the rest, that's to say nothing of sin bearing. He suffered. He suffered and never ever gave in. He suffered and never sinned. He suffered and never uttered a harsh word. And he says, does Peter, you have to equip yourself also with the same resolve and because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin. The one who goes all the way to death is relieved from sin.
So what the point? The point is this, if you are faithful like Christ was, even to the point where they take your life, as bad as it sounds it's really good because when you die you cease from what? From sin. hat's how you equip your mind. I will be holy and I will be pure like my Lord, He is the author and the finisher of faith. He is the model and the example and He suffered all the way to blood. And if I go that far in my suffering, if I stand for Christ, holiness, righteousness and it cost me my life, the reward is no more sin, for death means sin is finished."
When Christ died on the cross He was relieved from sin. Never again would He be tempted. Never again would He be persecuted. Never again would anybody spit in His face. Never again would they mock Him. He was exalted to the right hand of the Father. Never again would He bear in His own body our sins. Sin was gone forever from any personal contact with Christ.
And so it is with us. He says, look, if you're going to deal with sin you've got to have the same resolve, the same perspective is probably the best way to say it, that Christ had. I will endure to the very end, and if I die in the process, I will then be freed from sin for good. That's the volition that you see exemplified in Christ. The One who was made sin, the One who came into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh, Paul says in Romans 8:3, gives us the model. If we are to live no longer in the flesh, following the lusts of men, we have to have that kind of perspective.
In Closing....
Here's just another thought, at the end of verse 2, that really gets to me. If we are going to have this same perspective as Christ, and if we're going to see what sin did to Christ and therefore, its heinousness, we must realize that like He, we are to endure without compromise, to the very end. Because even that means only reward and bliss, and if we're going to live the rest of the time in the flesh we have to recognize not only how sin affected Christ, but how it affects God.
Look back in the past. He says you are to live no longer in the lust of men but for the will of God. You've got to realize that every time you've committed a sin in your past, you've defied God's will, you've disobeyed God's will, you've rejected God's will. So, in a sense, you've usurped the throne. You've shoved God aside and saying I will take charge of my own life; I will do whatever I want, when I want. You're not in charge, I'm in charge. Beloved, that is the ultimate act of blasphemy, really, because it questions God's authority, it questions God's sovereignty. Follow me on this, it questions God's wisdom. It questions God's goodness because sin says I'm in charge, I'll do it if I want, I'll make this thing work out into my life, I'll do it because it will bring me pleasure, it will bring me instant gratification. And all of that says, "God, You don't really love me or You wouldn't be withholding this from me because it's good. God, You're really unwise or You would see how this thing can be good for my life and produce some benefit or pleasure. And You cannot stop me from doing this.
All of that is inherent in sinning. So when I sin, I say, "God, get out of my way, I'm in charge here. God, You're not as wise as You think You are, because if You were You'd let me do this and know it will all work out. And You're not as good and gracious and kind as You claim to be because if You were You'd let me have what I want." So you see, all of that, is attacks against the character and purpose of God, therefore, I become a rebel. So, look back at your sin and understand exactly what it was. It was an attack on the will of God, an attack on His authority, on His sovereignty, and the purpose of God. It is flat outright, overt disobedience. And how then can you, as we read this today, say that you love Him and yet, disobey Him? You must look back, and see sin for what it is. Back in Psalm 51 David said, "Against You, You only, have I sinned." Here is the bottom line: All sin is against God. Period. It attacks Him first and foremost. That's the point of confession. You may affect others with your sin but the primary purpose of confession is always to God. You may need to ask for forgiveness from others because you have sinned against them. The primary point is still God. He is the One most holy, and He is the One most offended.
Look again at verses 3 to 5. You must remember what sin has done to a lost humanity. Or to even make it more personal, remember what sin was doing in your life before you surrendered to Christ. before you became a Christian. Verse 3, "For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do."
Then just look at what it did to Christ, how it violently pursued Him all throughout His life and brought Him such great pain, such sadness, so many tears, and mockery, it even spit in His face, and ultimately caused His death. Beloved, that's what sin is like, it wants to kill Christ. It wants to kill the purest person who ever lived. And you really need to remember that. That's exactly what it wants to do and guess what else? That's what it wants to do to you, kill what is pure, what is Christ-like in you!
How it must grieve the heart of God that His children, who He so loves, are so rebellious against Him. So, I leave you with this final thought, "Would you tolerate the same behavior from your children toward you?" Think about that.
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries