The Memory That Shuns Sin, Part 2

Every true believer lives in a tremendous battle between the desire of the unredeemed flesh and the compulsions of the new man, the new nature. And the question that we ask is how are we to deal with that warfare? How are we to face the reality of that conflict and know the path of victory? Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Scripture calls Christians to many things, but certainly not to a life of violence, and yet where sin is concerned, you need to do everything possible to destroy its power, break its grip, and just because you're a Christian doesn't mean sin isn't a threat. So what does it take for you to break free from the sins you do battle with? We'll help you find out today as John MacArthur continues a study that explores practical ways, the biblical pattern, for breaking sin's grip.

That's also the title of his current series. And now here's John with a lesson. John Owen, the great Puritan whom I have been reading, it seems, quite frequently in recent weeks, said this, sin in the believer is a burden which afflicts him rather than a pleasure which delights him. Every true believer lives in a tremendous battle between the desire of the unredeemed flesh and the compulsions of the new man, the new nature. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, we love the law of God. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, we battle the law, the principle of sin. And though there is something deep within us planted there by God Himself in the marvelous miracle of regeneration, there is a new life principle that longs for what is right and what is true and what is good and what is honorable and noble and holy and pure. There is also that unredeemed flesh in which that newness is incarcerated, thus the battle. And the question that we ask as we look at this text is how are we to deal with that warfare?

How are we to face the reality of that conflict and know the path of victory? Let me suggest to you that one factor that is very important is to have a threefold perspective with regard to sin. First of all, we must have a forward look. We must have a sort of future orientation in that we are doing what Jesus said, watching and praying lest we enter into temptation. To do what the Apostle Paul said, walking circumspectly, to be on the alert knowing that ahead of us at any moment one breath away is some formidable temptation. And so there must be a sense in which we live in anticipation, we live in watchfulness, we live in alertness. But then there is not only a future dimension to our perspective, but there must be a present dimension as well. We must not only be anticipating, we must be anticipating, we must be dealing with what is presently here.

We must hate what is evil. We must cling to what is good. As Paul said, we must put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make in the present tense no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. And so sensing what is imminent on the future, living in what is real in the present will help us in dealing with sin. But there's one other look and that is the look which Peter really focuses on in his text and that is a backward look.

There has to be a view of the past as well. And I believe anyone who is to deal with sin must have a good memory. Peter is going to help us to understand what we need to remember as we view the text, so let's begin at verse 1. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

And in all this they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you. But they shall give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the Spirit according to the will of God. Now remember that Peter is writing to Christians who are experiencing suffering, Christians who are experiencing rejection, Christians who are undergoing direct persecution. And as he has on a number of occasions spoken about the difficulty of a godly person in an ungodly situation, he has come to emphasize at the end of chapter 3 the very strong point that in the greatest suffering there may be the greatest triumph. It is clear when you study 1 Peter that suffering is the backdrop, and there's a sense in which the culmination to viewing suffering comes in that third chapter, verses 18 to 22, with the understanding that the greatest suffering may lead to the greatest triumph.

And the example of that is none other than Jesus Christ. Jesus, at the hour of His greatest difficulty, at the hour of His highest pain, severest persecution, namely the hour of His death, was winning the greatest victory the world has ever known. And Peter's point is, no matter how difficult the hostility, no matter how severe the persecution, understand that what may be the most difficult time may as well be the most triumphant time. There was Christ being murdered on a cross, and through that very death, He was triumphing over sin, He was triumphing over Satan, He was triumphing over demons, He was triumphing over death, He was triumphing over hell, He was triumphing, as it were, even over the judgment of God. And in the end, He was highly exalted by God Himself. And verse 22 says, He was set at the right hand of God after everything was made subject to Him. So, Christian, suffering can be triumphant.

On the basis of that, we come to verse 1. Therefore, since there is great triumph in suffering, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Peter says, if Christ suffered in the flesh triumphantly, you do the same. You can have the victory that parallels in some ways the victory of Christ.

Now, what specifically does he have in mind? Let me remind you. When he says Christ has suffered in the flesh, he means Christ died. He's talking there about crucifixion, as noted back in verse 18. Christ also died. Some manuscripts there say suffered. We assume that the interchange does intend to point out, one, the death, and one, the suffering associated with it, but both go together, obviously.

When, in verse 1 of chapter 4, it says Christ has suffered, it is implied in that that he died. It is a synonym here for death. He says, then, arm yourselves with the same enoia, arm yourselves with the same idea, the same purpose, the same principle, the same thought. And what thought is that? And what idea?

And what purpose? That you are willing to die for righteousness' sake because you know you may triumph in it. Now, if you are armed against persecution with a willingness to die, if you are willing to do what Jesus said in Matthew 10, 38, and 39, and Matthew 16, take up your cross and follow Him, which implies a willingness to die there also. If you are willing to die for the cause of Christ, then you have armed yourself with the same idea that Christ had when He died, for He died because of the joy that was set before Him. He knew what it would accomplish. He understood the triumph in it, and so must you.

And what is that triumph? Look at the end of verse 1. Because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

That's one aspect of it. We noted in our last study some of the discussion regarding that phrase, and I shared with you the conclusion that I have out of this text, that what he's talking about there is very simple. What he is saying is if they kill you, you will cease from sin. The phrase suffered in the flesh, again at the end of verse 1, means the same as it meant in the beginning of verse 1, and it has to do with the death of Christ.

It has to do with death. What he is saying is if you die, you cease from sin. The point is this. The worst that your persecutors can do to you is kill you, and if they kill you, the battle is over.

That's the idea. And if you're armed with that idea, you will not recant. You'll have courage and boldness and confidence and strength in the midst of any trial, any difficulty, any persecution, any threat. And then that kind of attitude will produce the attitude of verse 2. So, as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men.

That's the key. If you are willing to die knowing you shall cease from sin, then you have just taken away the greatest weapon that the enemies have against you, and that is the threat of death, and if that's no threat for you, then that's no weapon for them. And if you understand that the goal of your life is to cease from sin, and all death can do is bring that goal to a reality, if you do understand that that is the goal of your life, then you will live the rest of your life in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men. In other words, Peter is saying, once you arm yourself with the reality that your goal is to be free from sin, it'll diffuse the threat of death, and it'll control the way you live your life. You are to live your life shunning sin, no longer driven by fleshly desire, never compromising because death could only be deliverance from sin, and so what threat could make you compromise? This then becomes a very important stimulus to generate the shunning of sin. Now, Peter then begins to explore this concept of remembering, and I want to just take you through this just simply. We went through two points of the outline, and I'm just briefly condensing this. Remember this, first of all.

Peter will give us several points. Remember what sin did to Jesus Christ. Verse 1, it killed him. If we are going to deal with sin, and if we are going to have victory over sin, we're going to have to hate sin. Part of hating sin is to understand what sin does. No greater illustration of what sin does than to look at what it did to Christ. Christ suffered. Christ died, as verse 18 of chapter 3 says.

Secondly, in our last study, we noted that you must have a good memory about what sin did to Christ, and secondly, a good memory about what sin has done to Christians. The second part of verse 1, it kills them too. Not only does it kill them from time to time – there are martyrs, those who have died for the cause of Christ – but it causes them, note this, to battle all their life long until they die. The implication at the end of verse 1 is that the only way to cease from sin is to die. We ought to hate sin because it killed Christ.

We ought to hate sin because it keeps believers from being what God has intended them to be, perfect, holy, Christ-like, free from sin. It restrains us from being what we ought to be. It makes us do what we don't want to do and not do what we want to do.

It creates a terrible warfare. It provides for us a certain kind of bondage from which we can never be fully liberated, and that is why we cry out for the redemption of our body in Romans 8. Now, thirdly, we must remember if we're going to shun sin not only what it did to Christ and what it has done to Christians but what it has done to God.

This is only by implication, but I think it's a point that needs to be made. Verse 2 says that the believer is to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God. And here we want to remember what sin does to God. What it does to God is violate His what? His will.

That's the implication. Peter calls us to realize that we are to do God's will for the rest of our time in the flesh because prior to our salvation, obviously, we did everything but the will of God. He contrasts living for the lusts of men and living for the will of God, one or the other. Peter is simply saying by way of reminder that we have to look back and understand that sin violates the will of God. And when we live in sin, when we follow the lusts of men, we violate the will of God.

The Bible is full of many exhortations to this matter of obedience, and I will just draw you to a few that are quite familiar to you. Matthew chapter 7 tells us this in verse 24, that everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house, and it fell and great was its fall. That whole thing can be summed up by saying that judgment will come in the end and it will come on those who did not do the will of God.

Back in verse 21, Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. This, then, is an exhortation to the obedience of the will of God. In Matthew chapter 28, we are all reminded of the fact that in the Great Commission, Jesus said, We are to teach them to observe all that I commanded you. That's part and parcel of making disciples, is to bring men into obedience to the commandments which express the will of the will of God. You remember well, perhaps from your childhood, memorizing Romans 12, too.

Listen to it. Do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 7, the Scripture says that we are not to be partakers with those who are deceivers, upon whom the wrath of God comes, who are called the sons of disobedience. In Ephesians 6, it says that we are to be slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

I love Colossians 4 that speaks of Epaphras, who was always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. And so it goes and goes and goes through the New Testament, the call to obedience. Sin, on the other hand, starting with Lucifer and his fall, is an expression of disobedience, a refusal to do the will of God. Sin is rebellion, the Scripture says. Sin is hostility against God. Now, beloved, this is a simple point that I make, and just those Scriptures to remind you of how important obedience is. But this is a simple point.

The point is this. How can we sin when we understand that it violates the will of God, God who has been so gracious to us, God who has been so loving and merciful and kind? How can we live, to put it in Peter's words, the rest of our time in the lusts of men rather than the will of God? We can't.

We can't. If you desire to shun sin in your life, you must have a backward look. You must understand what sin did to Christ.

It killed him. It is a despicable, hateful thing. You must understand what it has done to Christians.

It has retarded them and prevented them from being all that they should and could be apart from it. You must remember what it does to God. It violates His holy will. There's a sense in which it strikes a blow in His blessed face. It rebels against Him.

See it for what it is. In Jeremiah chapter 22 and verse 21 and Jeremiah 35 and 14, it says, I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not listened to me. That's the essence of sin, the essence of sin, rebellion. Fourthly, I believe Peter suggests to us here that if we are to shun sin, we must remember what sin has done to lost humanity, not only what it has done to Christ, what it has done to Christians in retarding them from being what they could be, not only what it has done to God, but what it has done to lost humanity. This is the heart of verses 3 through 5 to which I draw your attention. What you have in verses 3, 4, and 5 is a rather graphic and tragic description of the devastating effects of sin on mankind that should provide your memory with plenty of reason to shun sin. He says, you ought to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God because the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the pagans or the gentiles or the nations. In other words, you've already had enough time. You've already had sufficient opportunity to live in sin.

Why drag it on any longer? And he here refers to your pre-conversion life, to the time before you came to know Christ. And he says your pre-Christian experience of sin is sufficient. The sense of the word, by the way, sufficient, the sense of that word, is actually more than sufficient. The sense of it is more than enough.

You've already had more than enough of that kind of life. You have carried out the desire of the gentiles to an extent that you don't need to do it any longer. By the way, the desire here is bulimah, which seems to have the idea of a desire that is a purpose. It's a purposed desire. And when you were unsaved and when you were without God and without Christ, your heart purposed to fulfill your evil desire. It is what Peter calls in chapter 118, a futile way of life. You've already spent more than enough time on that, enough time to have worked it out, to have produced, to have accomplished the pagan lifestyle to its limit.

Now leave it alone. That concludes today's look at the power sin has, and the greater power you as a Christian have to avoid it. The title of John MacArthur's study here on Grace to You, Breaking Sin's Grip. Along with teaching every day on the radio, John also serves as chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John, I'm thinking about what we spoke about in the book of John MacArthur.

Also serves as chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John, I'm thinking about what we saw today about the effects of sin, and a foundational question comes to mind. I know people ask this all the time. Scripture says God is not the author of confusion, and therefore he's not the author of sin. So where did sin come from?

How do you answer that question? What would you say to the person who's trying to reconcile the fact that God is the creator of everything, and yet somehow he's not the creator of sin? Well, I would reconcile it, first of all, by saying God declares himself to be holy. The angels declare him to be holy, holy, holy. God cannot sin.

God is perfect holiness, perfect righteousness. So by the definition of his character, he cannot be the author of sin, and Scripture even says God is not the author of sin. So sin had to come from somewhere else, and we know where it first came from.

We know where it first appeared. That was in Lucifer, who was one of the angels, one of the highest-ranking angels, who decided that he wanted to be equal to God or even superior to God, and rebelled against God and led a third of the angels in that rebellion with him, and they were thrown out of heaven and became the demonic force led by Satan that we're so familiar with. So sin originated with Satan. It originated with Lucifer.

As to how that originated, there's no answer in Scripture. Yeah, I think it helps, though, to know that sin isn't a created thing. It's an act of destruction. Yes, it is an act of destruction, and apparently within the creation of God, of angels first of all, and even of human beings, God allowed for the potential for sin to take place.

He wasn't responsible for it, but he allowed for it. And the question then comes up, why would God allow for that? And the answer to that is because God could never put on display his redemption, all of his mercy and grace and loving kindness and forgiveness and compassion if there were not sin. The whole expression of eternal worship is going to be glorifying God for saving us.

So God had every right to put those attributes of his nature on display, and he allowed for sin while not being responsible for it. Thank you, John, for that clear answer. And friend, if you're looking for one source that can answer just about all the questions you have about God's Word, a reminder about the MacArthur Study Bible. With about 25,000 detailed notes written by John, the MacArthur Study Bible is a library in one volume that you will turn to for answers again and again.

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