The Memory That Shuns Sin, Part 2 B

What gives you victory is not some mystical apprehension, not some esoteric perception, but simply focusing on the devastation of sin.

If we can ever see it for what it is, to see what it did to Christ, to see how it cripples believers, devastates their lives, we're gonna hate it as God hates you. When you become a Christian, how you talk, think, and even what you do for fun changes. But as you may already have found, those changes can come with a cost. In fact, you may pay a steep price. You might lose a friend or many friends, or face out-and-out rejection because of your new convictions.

And yet, you can rejoice in that hardship. Frankly, it's evidence that you've taken steps to break sin's hold on your life, and that's the theme of John MacArthur's study here on Grace to You. He calls it, Breaking Sin's Grip. So far, we've seen that you can break sin's grip by remembering its effect on Christ, on believers, on God, and on the lost.

And now to finish that last point, and then add a fifth one, here's John MacArthur. 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. 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. So remember what it did to lost humanity by remembering what you were like before you were converted. And the rest of this time, do God's will.

You had enough of that. Now Peter doesn't even stop with that injunction. Rather, he remembers with them and gets a little more specific. Note again in verse 3. He describes that former lifestyle as having pursued a course. The verb means to conduct one's life.

That's its idea. You conducted your life along this course, moving along the course of sin, as it were, to the hypnotic beat of a diabolical drummer. It is the devil that calls the cadence for the solemn downward march into sin, and you were doing it, and that's enough. Look to your past.

Isn't it enough? Let's look at it a little more closely. What was it like? Six words describe it. You pursued a course of sensuality, asilgeia. The word is used to describe the spirit which knows no restraint, the spirit which dares to sin any sin, unbridled, unrestrained, vice. In fact, the old word for it is debauchery, and that word meant an excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure.

He's saying that's the way it was. Before you came to Christ in your lost condition, you lived in unchecked lawlessness, open outrages against God. You flaunted your vice.

Certainly, that's true in the culture in which we live, which would have to be defined as a pornographic culture. The second word he uses is very closely associated with the first. He uses the word lusts, passion. It means evil, desire. It is to be driven by the animal instinct, to be driven by passion.

It is mindless indulgence in the pleasures that passion pursues. Then he uses another word, drunkenness. This word literally means wine bubbling up and speaks of intoxication. Habitual drunkenness could well speak of the inebriation that comes from drugs as well.

The fourth word he uses is translated carousals, comas. It really refers to a wild party, a wild orgy. The term was used in extra biblical literature to refer to a band of drunken, wildly acting people who were staggering and swaying and swaggering and singing their way through the streets, causing racket and havoc.

The wildness, public drunkenness. By the way, it was usually associated with the worship of false gods, the cults of the ancient time like the worship of Dionysius or Bacchus. And then he adds a word that is very similar, drinking parties, patas, drinking bouts, just drinking for the sake of drinking and becoming drunk. And then he adds abominable idolatries, the worship of idols that is an abomination to God.

Now their, dear friends, is a characterization of an unregenerate person. And not everybody, of course, is as bad as they might be, but this is pretty typically the lifestyle of an unregenerate person in our culture and was in the time of Peter as well. He said, you did enough of that, enough loose vile debauched living, enough being driven by passion, enough drunkenness, enough wild parties, enough drinking bouts, enough abominable idolatries of worshiping the false gods, enough. From now on, do not live that way. Remember what you lived like. Remember what sin did to you. Remember the pain of your sensuality and your lust, your drunkenness, your carousals, the pain of your drinking parties and abominable idolatries. The interesting thing about all of that is it was packaged up and tied up in a ribbon called religion in ancient times.

It was justified as a form of worship to a deity. And in verse 4, Peter adds, and it's most interesting, and in all this, they're surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation and they malign you. Boy, is that ever true. They're surprised when you say, my life has changed.

I don't do that anymore. They're surprised. They're shocked when your life is different. That's normal for them. It's so much a way of life that when you don't live that way, they're surprised.

The verb means to be astonished, shocked. And it includes the idea of taking an offense. They resent you.

Why? They resent you because you don't run with them into the same excess of dissipation. You see, first of all, when they see you transformed and you're not living your life that way anymore, it's a matter of wonder to them. It's a matter of surprise.

J. B. Nichols writes, the licentious bound by habits they cannot break, inflamed by lusts they cannot extinguish, gravitated downward by a power they cannot by themselves resist, are astonished at the complete change in the lives of those believers whose whole aim in life is now the will of God. And as M. B. Welch wrote many years ago in that lovely poem, but the master comes and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of the soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the master's hand. They don't understand it and it bothers them greatly and heaps guilt upon their head that you don't run with them. You no longer do what they do.

You are not continuing literally to run with them, emphasizing that once you did and now they're offended that you don't. That little phrase, into the same excess of dissipation, is a very vivid phrase. The picture is of a large crowd running together in a mad, wild race, a plunge, a melee.

William Kelly says, a euphoric stampede of pleasure seekers racing. The term excess used only here means primarily the confluence of waters. It has the idea of waters coming together to flow.

Some suggest it has the idea of a cistern. Others suggest the idea of refuse pouring into a cesspool. He pictures pre-conversion life as this wild, mad race of lustful, drunken, pleasure-seeking, passionate idolaters who are running like some mucky waters into a cesspool of dissipation. Dissipation means the state of evil in which a person thinks about nothing but evil, doesn't think about health, doesn't think about money, doesn't think about reputation, doesn't think about character, only indulging passion. There is such a burning passion in sin that people are mindlessly pursuing their passion, irresistibly, compulsively rushing into the cesspool in dissipation.

They are attracted to it. Peter says that it's hardly a spa for a Christian, hardly the place for you. Remember how it was.

Remember how it was. And he says they malign you, blaspheme you to defame, to attack someone's reputation, to slander them. They speak evil of you because you're no longer running into the same cesspool that they're running into. Again, Kelly says there is plenty of evidence from pagan as well as Christian sources that it was precisely the reluctance of Christians to participate in the routine of contemporary life, particularly conventionally accepted amusements, civic ceremonies, and any function involving contact with idolatry or what they considered immorality that caused them to be hated, despised, and themselves suspected of illicit practices. It was that very reason that made people hate them. Lost humanity is an ugly bunch. They malign Christians. They despise Christians. They run like mucky waters into a cesspool of dissipation.

That is an ugly picture. And what Peter is saying is remember that you used to run with them. You used to run into that same sexually perverted, drunk, idolatrous, mad cesspool of dissipation, and you were saved out of it.

You became the object of their bitter acrimony. And are you now going to indulge in the sins that you did in the past? It would be better to be righteous and to suffer triumphantly than to go into that cesspool. And then he adds a note in verse 5, but they shall give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. That verb, they shall give account, means to pay back. They'll be paid back. In fact, people who do that, who live like that, and who cast aspersions at Christians and who malign believers are amassing a debt to God that they will spend all eternity paying back. They'll be required to pay.

This verb is a bookkeeping term. God has it on his books, and they're going to pay. Scripture describes that payment. You read Matthew chapter 18, verse 23 and following. You read Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 to 15.

There is coming a time when they will pay. And they will give account to the one who is ready to judge when they stand at the great white throne judgment. He says this, the one who judges will judge the living and the dead.

The living, those presently alive. In Peter's time, the dead, those already dead, they're going to all be judged, all of them. As Romans 3 19 says, Paul writes that every mouth will be gagged and no one will have a defense. They will not escape judgment. They will be struck dumb before a holy God, before the judgment throne, without defense, without an advocate, without an excuse. They will be judged.

In fact, the severity of their judgment is perhaps as graphically described in 2 Thessalonians as anywhere. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. Their day will come.

Their day will come. One note in chapter 4 and verse 5, the word Him, they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge. Who is the judge? Who is the one identified as Him?

We could say on the one hand it is God. 1 Peter 1 17, if you address as Father the one who impartially judges, that refers to God. But if we read John 5 22 to 27, it tells us there that all judgment has been committed to Jesus Christ.

And so we believe that God will judge them, but God will judge them through the agency of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom He has committed all judgment. What has sin done to the unsaved? It has made their life debauched. It has plunged them into a filthy, vile cesspool of dissipation. And it has made them the enemies of the people of God.

It has thus made them the enemies of God Himself, the enemies of Christ, and the objects of an eternal, damning judgment. I think what Peter has in his heart is to remind us to say look at that and don't you forget it. It should help you shun sin. It should help you be willing to suffer for righteousness sake joyfully. So, shunning sin requires a good memory, a good memory of what sin has done to Christ.

It killed Him. What sin has done to Christians, it keeps us from being what we could be because the only way we can cease from sin is to die. We are so bound in the flesh. To look again and see what it has done to God, it has offended Him greatly for sin is rebellion against His will. And look and see what it has done to the lost.

It has made them filthy and vile and set them for damnation. Finally, Peter has one more magnificent remembrance in helping us to shun sin and gladly be willing to suffer for righteousness sake. And it is this, remember fifthly what God promised you in overcoming sin.

Remember what God promised you in overcoming sin. Look at verse 6. 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.

This is a simple and profound verse. For the gospel has been preached means the saving message of Jesus Christ. Even to those who are dead simply means those who are now dead. He has in mind some believers who heard the gospel and are now dead.

Some of them perhaps had been martyred. Maybe some in the association of those to whom this letter was sent had died for their faith in Christ. And so the whole overarching idea here is that the believer under persecution, under unjust treatment, under punishment and even death should be willing to suffer knowing there is triumph because though he may die in the flesh as a man, he will live in the Spirit according to the will of God. What Peter is saying is that God has promised you that through death you'll overcome sin. So he reminds his readers the gospel was preached to those now dead for this purpose, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, literally put to death for their faith in Christ, they will live in the Spirit according to God. And so he takes us back to where we started. All death can do is bring you into everlasting life in the presence of God.

You see, it's a parallel to the end of chapter 3, verse 18. Christ died, but He didn't stay dead. He was made alive in the Spirit. His body was dead. His Spirit was alive.

Same point here. They may kill your body, but your Spirit will be alive. And you will enter into the promise of eternal life. So, shunning sin in the face of great threats, in the face of persecution and even death is possible, noble, righteous. It is commanded, and one way to assist in that overcoming is to remember, and to remember what sin did to Christ, what it does to Christians, what it does to God, what it does to the lost, and then remember what God has promised you in the future.

No matter what they do to us, we can be victorious. I guess Jesus said much the same thing when He said, Fear not those who destroy the body, but fear the one who destroys both soul and body in hell. Beloved, we all, as those who have come to Christ, battle sin.

And this has been a somewhat careful and perhaps even technical presentation. I don't want you to lose touch with the impact. But we all battle sin. And what gives you victory is not some mystical apprehension, not some esoteric perception, but simply focusing on the damage and the devastation of sin. If we can ever see it for what it is, we're going to hate it as God hates it. To see what it did to Christ, to see what it does to God, to see how it cripples believers, devastates their lives, their marriages, their families, retards them from being what God wants them to be. And understanding how it leads the whole human race into a cesspool of dissipation and ultimately judgment should make us hate sin. And then when you flip that over and compare the other side that God has promised us that in the end, no matter what they do to us, we will live in the Spirit unto God forever.

There should be no pressure from this ungodly world that can make us fall to their standard of living, not even the threat of life. Well, may God help us to be faithful battlers, warriors against this enemy. Let's bow in a word of prayer. Father, we're reminded that in the very next verse in this passage, Peter talks about how important it is to be involved in fervent prayer. Father, 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 resource 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. We'll give you thanks and praise in His dear name. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. John's a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary.

He's titled our current series, Taking Sin's Grip. John, here's a question as we wrap up this study. What encouragement would you have for that believer who is just plain weary of the battle against temptation? You know, the fight just doesn't seem to go away. It can even make a Christian wonder if he's normal. If other Christians battle the same level of temptation, what help would you give to a person who's feeling that way? Yeah, well, first of all, I would say you're not intended to fight this battle by yourself, okay? You're intended to fight this battle with the power of the Spirit through the Scripture. So, you know, David said, Your word of I hid in my heart that I might not sin. So if you're not in the Word of God, if you're not studying the Word of God, dwelling on the Word of God, memorizing the Word of God, you're going to find yourself more vulnerable.

And then I would go one step further. I know there are a lot of people who think, and particularly during this COVID thing, well, we don't need to meet as a church. We don't need to have church.

We can do live stream. The church doesn't have to meet. Why are you making such an issue out of that? I'm making an issue out of that because the Bible says that you are to gather together for the sole purpose, really, of stimulating one another to love and good works. The power of the church is that it provides the mutual strength, the mutual relationships, the friendships, the accountability, the encouragement, the ministry of the spiritual gifts, the mutual prayer for one another, the feeding of the Word of God that comes from the gifted men in the church. You're going to make it much harder on yourself to try to be victorious over sin if you are not regularly, routinely a part of a thriving church where the Word of God is being preached and taught and your soul is being washed in that truth every week and where you're interacting with other believers who are loving you, ministering to you their spiritual gifts, ministering to you the one another, holding you accountable, building you up, nurturing you, encouraging you. That is the intention of the purpose of the church in your life.

Don't set that aside. That makes it far more difficult to live the way God wants you to live. So we wrapped up today the four-day study on Breaking Sin's Grip. If you want to get a copy of this, it is available in two CDs. You can order it from Grace to You today, or you can download the messages at gty.org.

Yes, this series is a quick and practical look at how you can conquer sin, whether it's everyday temptations or something you've been struggling with for years. To pick up Breaking Sin's Grip, contact us today. To order the two-CD album, call 800-55-GRACE, or you can place your order at our website, gty.org.

The title again to look for, Breaking Sin's Grip, or as John said, you can download both messages free of charge at gty.org. And friend, a reminder that right now nearly everything we sell is 25% off the regular price. It's a great time to purchase one of John's books, maybe The Glory of Heaven or The Gospel According to God, or individual volumes from John's New Testament commentary series. You can also get a copy of our flagship resource, The MacArthur Study Bible.

The sale ends next week, so place your order soon. Just call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. That's our website, one more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. An important message comes your way tomorrow, keeping a pure mind. Prepare to be challenged by God's word when you join us for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.