Dealing with Private Sins B

The Christian people sit in churches all over the world, all their life, and have only a Christian understanding who you're fighting. You don't have to be a four-star general to know that is a losing strategy. But sadly, lots of Christians go to war with sin just that way.

How about you? What is your plan for battling sin, especially the secret sin that no one knows about? Well, today on Grace to You, John MacArthur is going to show you some practical biblical strategies that will help you uproot and defeat private sin. John originally preached today's message during chapel at the Masters University.

It's part of his study titled, A Course for Life. And to the lesson now, here's John. It's where nobody sees and you know you're not righteous there, it will show up. Be sure your sins will...what?...find you out. Nobody on this planet knows what's in my heart.

Nobody. And nobody can hold me accountable there. That is where the battle is won or lost. And if you're losing it, you're losing it. And there you're going to lose it on the outside because you can't keep the lid on the inside. Five people can see the same image and have five different reactions to it. You can't keep the lid on the outside because you can't keep the lid on the inside.

You can't keep the lid on the outside because you can't keep the lid on the inside. We like to think that one of the blessings that God has given us is a good memory. You know, there are many times I thank God for a bad memory. Can you understand that?

There's so much stuff. In fact, most of the things that I've heard in my life and seen I would like to forget, wouldn't you? You know, we only want a good memory when somebody says nice things about us or when we have these really nice experiences or when we're having a test.

But sins of the past are a big problem because you can sin by remembering the past. I remember talking to a guy one time who had married a beautiful Christian girl and before he was a Christian, he lived a really wild life full of immorality. And it was just soon after his honeymoon and he had married this pure, beautiful Christian girl. And I said, well, did you have a wonderful time on your honeymoon? Just kind of off the cuff question, making conversation. Turned out to be pretty profound. He said, no.

No. And I said, why? He said, because I just kept thinking of all the past sexual experiences and I couldn't...I just couldn't keep my mind pure with his own wife on his own honeymoon. It's recycling the past. Young people, at this point in your life, you're filling up your memory bank and I'll promise you this, that if you stick stuff in there that's sinful, Satan is really good at recycling that stuff. It isn't just when you did it, it comes back. It's like the images of those videos you shouldn't have seen, the images on the Internet you shouldn't have seen, the movies you shouldn't have seen, the lyrics to the songs you shouldn't have heard, the images that were vividly portrayed in your mind when you were reading something you shouldn't read. It doesn't go away. It makes vivid, vivid memories, particularly if you're sitting in a theater watching people doing things they ought not to be doing and they're 25 feet high in full color.

Tough images to forget. What happens is you cherish the memory of past sins. I can't tell you how many times I've talked with homosexuals who've come to know Christ and I've asked them how they're doing and inevitably, inevitably, and we've had a lot of them converted at Christ. I've talked with Grace Church and you wouldn't even know this about them, numbers of them have married and gone on with life, but inevitably they tell me the same thing. They just can't get rid of those past experiences.

They keep recycling. That's why David said this. David said to God in Psalm 25, 7, don't forget it. In Ezekiel 23, the Lord condemned Israel and the way He did it, why He compared Israel to a harlot prostitute named Oholabah and this is what He said about the harlot that was analogous to Israel. He said, Israel is like a harlot who gets old and all she's got is a lifetime of harlotry to remember and that's Israel. Israel is plagued by the memory of Oholabah.

So all its youth and all the harlotry. Satan will take the garbage of your past and you don't have much of a past yet, so protect your past by protecting your present because you're going to always live with that past in the background, potentially to be cycled. Some of you know exactly what I mean. You engaged in a sin at some point. You can actually have that sin come to mind. You can accept the temptation, move into the lust and savor again. That lustful, sinful experience by just recycling it in your mind.

Certainly that's what Jesus had in mind, in part when He said if you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart and not just once, but every time you recycle that. So that's the past and you need to protect it. And then there's the future. You know, your mind not only wants to sin in the past, but it wants to sin in the future, too.

It's really amazing. It not only wants to reach back and recycle all the garbage of the past, but it wants to invent sin for the future. Psalm 36 is so insightful.

Listen to what it says. Devising evil plan. You find that if you read through Psalms 64, Proverbs 14, let's see, Proverbs 15, Proverbs 24, the section in Proverbs 6 talks about devising evil plans, planning to do evil. We would call it premeditated sin, wouldn't we?

So, you know, your mind is a...your mind is a frightening thing. So you've got to grapple with the sins of the past to get recycled and you've got all of the plans for the sins in the future that you allow yourself to indulge in. Those things, your envy by stealing something, how you're going to elevate yourself in a certain environment, it's a sin of pride. And you haven't really done it, but you're plotting it and the plotting itself is sin.

So you have to deal with sins that are directed toward the past and sins that are directed toward the future as you devise them. Proverbs 1, this is the fantasy world of the mind. The Bible calls this the imagination.

In Genesis 6, 5 it says that God looked down on the world and all He ever saw was that all the imagination of their heart was only evil continually. Sin is about the imagination. It's about fantasies.

It's about looking and lusting. It's about, like Proverbs 24, 9 says, the thought of foolishness is sin. Just the thought of some disobedience, of some iniquity, just the thought is sin.

Just the thought. And that's why you go back to what I read you in James 1. Sin is conceived in that fantasizing, in that imagining. So, I mean, we're still diagnosing the issue here and the battle has to be won inside in the mind, in the conscience, in the heart. That's why David said, created me a clean...what?...heart. Created me a clean heart, Lord, just do the work on the inside.

And it's not easy to do that because you would think, well, you guys that are older, you don't have the same problem. Well, sure, I mean, there's a certain spiritual maturing. There's a decreasing frequency of sin. There's an increasing love of righteousness. But the older you get, the more you have a memory bank of sinful things.

And those can be recycled. That's why Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? That's why Paul said, for to me to live is Christ and to die is what?

Gain. It wasn't because he wanted to wear a crown. It was because he wanted to be delivered from past, future and present sin that beleaguered him. That's what makes heaven attractive to me. I don't care about gold streets, honestly.

I mean, it doesn't move me that much. I'm sure I'll appreciate it when I arrive. I can't really comprehend what transparent gold looks like and I've never imagined one pearl being big enough to make a whole gate.

Those are sort of interesting and novel things, but what interests me about heaven is the absence of sin. And that's where David was, creating me a clean heart. The work has to go down inside and be done there. So I'm just trying to give you the focus, young people. That's where the battle has to be won. And if you're losing it there, you know what you need to do. Let me give you some steps. Confess and forsake any sin that is secret sin.

I'm talking practical, on your face, on your knees, explicit. Say the words to the Lord. If nobody's around, say them out loud and confess and forsake any sin or pattern of sin that is inside that nobody knows about. Isaiah 55, 7, let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. Forsake those thoughts.

And you start by confessing. Hack Agag to pieces. Don't let him live. The Old Testament analogy from 1 Samuel 15, they let the king live that God said to kill and so he came back and he came back and he came back and every time he came back, he was destructive again. And God says, why didn't you kill him when I told you to kill him? Well, when you find the sins that are there, hack Agag to pieces.

Second, do not expose yourself to evil attractions. Job 31, 1, Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes. I made a covenant with my eyes.

And he said, you know what? I kept my covenant. Guard what you see.

I'm not talking about a glimpse or a glance, I'm talking about guard what you look at and absorb. And another element is feed on the Word of God. David said, Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not...what...sin. You know, it's amazing when you're...you're saturated with the Word of God, how fast that puts the brakes on things. That's what the Bible means when it says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, which is the same as being filled with the Spirit exactly. You're filled and controlled with the Holy Spirit when the Word of God dominates your thinking. Feed on the Word. Feed on the Word.

I mean, I can tell you this, it's as simple as this. The output of your life is in direct proportion to the intake of Scripture truth. And I'm talking about the honest, heartfelt intake. So start on the negative, confess and forsake the sin.

Be specific. If there's patterns of sin in your private, secret life that nobody knows about, you bring those before the Lord, confess and forsake those things. And then avoid evil attractions, anything that incites sin.

I mean, for some people, just don't keep getting catalogs of stuff that you don't need but that generates discontent. I mean, there's a million ways you can approach that. Feed on the Word of God. And then I think Philippians 4.8, think on righteous things.

I mean, that's about as practical as it gets. Think on righteous things. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good reputation.

I mean, if there is such a thing as excellence, and there is, if there is such a thing as being worthy of praise, then let your mind dwell on those things. Find praiseworthy things, spiritually excellent things, things that honor God. One other practical thing, cultivate loving the Lord. Cultivate loving the Lord.

I would say, just from my human viewpoint, the single greatest influence on my life through the years has been my study of Jesus Christ. Whether Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and I've spent, I've spent nearly nine years teaching Matthew, and then when I did that, I went back and wrote commentary on it, and then I went back again and wrote the notes in the study Bible on it. So I've been through Matthew, oh I don't know, maybe 10 or 11 years of Matthew. I spent several years going through the gospel of John. I'm now going through the gospel of Luke. I went through the book of Hebrews which exalts Jesus Christ in absolutely overwhelming and magnificent ways. I've gone through the book of Colossians several times in my life, and that too is an exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most glorious experiences I've had is twice to go through the book of Revelation to teach it twice and completely and then to write two-volume commentary on the book of Revelation as well. I suppose if you added up the 35 years of ministry, maybe 25 of those years I have been dealing pretty directly with Jesus Christ, and the rest of the epistles like the book of Romans, you're dealing indirectly, and Galatians indirectly, and the Thessalonian epistles and the other epistles as well. But I really believe the single greatest contributor to the way my spiritual inner man functions is my love for Jesus Christ. Every passage, and I don't know if you detect this if you hear me preach on the gospels, I literally find myself thrilled at the process of learning more about Jesus Christ. Every passage in the gospels, now of course in Luke, every passage just unfolds His beauty and His majesty and His glory and...I mean, it's taken me to a point where more than most people by far because, I mean, who does this?

You know, normal people don't spend their whole life studying all week long for decades so they don't have the opportunity to go as deeply into the things of Christ as I do. But I will tell you this, that the most controlling feature of my life is the love that I have for Jesus Christ. And it's not some sentimental thing.

It's not some schmaltzy kind of weepy thing induced by some emotion. It is this reality of who He is and the glory and the wonder of His person and what He's done and how He loved me enough to give His life for me and how He...I was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world that I may be made into His image to dwell in His presence forever and ever and reflect that image and all that goes in between, all of the characteristics of Christ, the wonder of His meekness and gentleness and yet His strength and the perfect combination of grace and glory and justice and tenderness and you see it unfold on every page of the Scriptures. And to me, that is the single greatest contributor to the victory inside, is that I have a hard time with the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ would be disappointed with me. I don't want you to be disappointed with me. I can kind of control that on the outside. I don't want my wife and kids to be disappointed with me.

I could control that on the outside. I don't want Jesus to be disappointed with me and He knows my heart. And I'm like Peter. I'm saying, Lord, I love You. I'm telling You I love You. I know what it looks like but I still love You. And then Peter finally says, you remember, Lord, You know my heart.

You know I love You. John 21. And Jesus responded by saying, Feed my sheep.

I know you love me, Peter. That to me, when it's all said and done, is where the battle is won. So get to know your Savior. Christian people sit in churches all over the world all their life and have only a superficial knowledge of Christ which takes away from my standpoint the most powerful, powerful motive for holiness. Father, we are grateful again this morning that we've been given Your Word that we might know what it is You want of us, but that we might also know our glorious Savior. I pray for these folks that are here, I being one like them who has to fight all the same battles and has through all the years of my life.

Help them, O God, to win on the inside. May there be a real breaking in many hearts and a real honest openness and may they find that secret place where they can unveil to You what You already know and trade in that deception for a true and pure love for You so that what they hide in the heart may not break loose like a broken sewer line someday to dirty their whole life and all those around them. May they win the battle now on the inside day by day by day as they confess and forsake sin over and over again, as they feed on the Word, as they think on the things that are holy and pure, and mostly as they grow in their love for our dear Lord Jesus who gave Himself for us, and in whose name we pray. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us.

Along with teaching on the radio, John serves as Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is part of his series titled, A Course for Life. Now, John, I know that as a pastor you counsel a lot of people who are dealing with private sins, habitual sins, and it's important to note that just resisting the old sinful habits isn't enough. There's a positive side, something you have to do if you're going to deal with those old habits effectively. Yeah, habits are just the response of your thoughts.

As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. What does it say in Proverbs? Guard your heart, because out of it are the issues of life. Guard your heart.

Well, what do you mean by that? How do I guard my heart? How do I guard my eyes?

How do I guard what I say, what I do? And the answer to that is you guard it by being controlled by righteous thoughts. You guard it by having Christ on your mind. I used to think about this when I was young. If I can just see Christ in everything, and sometimes you see that reduced to what would Jesus do on a bracelet or something, there's really truth in that.

That's a simple thing. What would Jesus do? It's like the psalmist who said, I have set the Lord always before me, therefore my heart is glad. In other words, I'm always looking at life through the lens of the Lord. When Christ is your preoccupation, when the Word of God is ruling in your heart, and you know the will of God because you know the scripture and you want to honor Christ, and your love for Christ dominates, when your affection for him exceeds all other affections, when your love of the truth of the scripture exceeds all other loves, then you're going to behave in ways that are righteous and virtuous.

So how do you get into a pattern of doing that? Let me tell you about something. The MacArthur Daily Bible. No substitute for daily Bible reading. MacArthur Daily Bible takes you verse by verse through the entire Bible, one day at a time, gets you through the whole Bible in one year. This would be a great time to begin to do that.

It has a portion of the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs for every day with some comments to instruct you as you read through the Bible in a year. This will change your life. Don't worry that today is the last day of August. You don't have to start on page one, or you could start on page one and just go from August to August and recalibrate.

But just do this. The point is start reading the Word of God. Whatever day it is, when you receive your copy, just begin there and follow through.

And when it's time to go back to the beginning, at the beginning of the next year, you'll be well on your way to having established that habit. The MacArthur Daily Bible is available. Shipping is free in the United States. And friend, if you're looking to be more disciplined in your study of God's Word and to build a habit of immersing yourself in Scripture, the MacArthur Daily Bible is for you. It's particularly helpful for a young person or a new believer. To pick up a copy, contact us today. The Daily Bible is available for $16, and as John said, shipping is free. To order, call toll-free 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. Again, to purchase the MacArthur Daily Bible, call 800-55-GRACE or go online to gty.org.

And if John's teaching is benefiting you, if you've seen your family strengthened spiritually, or if someone you know has come to faith in Christ because of these broadcasts, we would love to hear about that. Email is a great way to reach us. Our address? Letters at gty.org. Or you can send us a note addressed to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. And thank you for mentioning the station you hear Grace to You on whenever you get in touch.

That is more important than you may realize. Our address again? Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. And our email address? Letters at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us, and be here tomorrow when John continues his study titled, A Course for Life, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.