Good morning.
My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
Special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're filling seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace,
and no one so bad that they can't have it, which means that God has something to say to everyone in his word.
And so that's why we come back week after week to look at the Bible, God's word, to hear what he has to say.
We've been studying the book of 1 Peter, and you'll remember that 1 Peter is a letter.
It's a letter written by a man named Peter, and he writes it in the 60s A.D. to Christians in Asia Minor,
what is now modern-day Turkey, and he writes it to both instruct and encourage them.
He needs to do this because these are folks who are feeling out of place in the world as Christians,
and they're facing opposition from the world as Christians.
Peter writes to encourage them that Jesus is worth it.
Jesus is worth living for, and he's worth loving for.
He's worth suffering for, and he's worth dying for.
And he also writes to instruct them.
He writes to instruct them how to live in the world as Christians
and how to respond when they face opposition from the world.
We're in a larger section about suffering,
and you'll remember that there are three kinds of suffering,
and it's very important for us to keep these three categories clear,
even today as we come to this passage.
There's, first of all, suffering, type 1, suffering for personal sin or foolishness.
For example, if you're in school and you cheat on an exam and someone catches you,
you will suffer.
You will suffer for your own personal sin.
Second, there's suffering because of the general presence of evil in the world.
So we're in Colorado.
There's a hailstorm, and it hits your roof.
You will suffer.
Now, you're not suffering.
Yeah, I heard some amens.
You're not suffering for your own personal sin.
You're suffering because of the presence of evil and destruction in this world.
And then finally, there's the type of suffering that Peter is talking about
and only talking about, and that is suffering for righteousness' sake,
suffering for the name of Jesus Christ.
This is what happens when we do what's right,
we do what God has called us to do,
and we suffer because of it.
That's going to continue to be what Peter is discussing in this passage,
which is 1 Peter 4, verses 1 through 6.
Now, you remember last week, we talked about hope and comfort in suffering.
And we saw that God supplies this.
He supplies this hope and comfort through Jesus' pattern.
Jesus suffered and had victory,
and so our suffering will end in victory as well.
And then we had some examples.
Jesus was the example.
His victory was so complete that he declared it over fallen angels and demonic forces.
And then we had the example of Noah, who suffered for a long time and then experienced victory.
This week, we are turning away from hope and comfort
towards the relationship between suffering for doing what's right,
type 3 suffering, and our battle with sin.
We're looking at the relationship between suffering for doing what's right
and our battle as Christians with sin.
And so it's with that we turn to the very beginning of chapter 4,
and remember that this is God's Word.
And God tells us that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
In other words, God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark,
but instead He's given us His Word to show us the way to go.
And so that's why we read it, starting with verse 1.
Verse 3.
Verse 5.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.
Our Father in heaven, we praise you once again that you instruct us.
You don't simply leave us to make foolish decisions or destroy our lives,
but instead you've given us guidance.
We ask for your help this morning as we talk about some difficult topics.
But we also thank you that you don't avoid hard things in your Word.
And so we ask that you'd send your Spirit now,
that you'd give us the ability to hear from you and to believe.
We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
In his book, Black Flags, The Rise of ISIS,
Toby Warwick tells the story of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who is the founder of the Islamic State.
And he chronicles his life even before he was this internationally known terrorist.
There was a point before that when he was in prison.
And while he was a hardened criminal,
there was also some strange things about his personality,
or maybe we might say some quirks.
He was known for his compassion on certain people.
And there was one man in particular that he had especially a strong sense of duty to,
and this was another prisoner who had no legs.
Now, Zarqawi would take responsibility for washing this man
and making sure he was cared for.
He would carry him around.
And it was an example of sort of this selective heart for humanity that he had.
Now, this raises the question,
why did this man have no legs?
This man had also been a terrorist.
And during his time, he'd been part of a group that would go after what they considered to be dens of sin.
So they would go and they would destroy liquor stores or pornographic theaters.
And this man, at one time, had been assigned to be in charge of a bombing of a pornographic theater, an adult theater.
So he goes in, he walks in with his bomb.
He puts it underneath his seat in the theater.
And then he sits down
and becomes so engrossed in the film
that he forgets that there's a bomb under his seat.
And then it goes off and it blows his legs off.
No one else in the theater is harmed.
And I tell you this story, and I love that story,
not because I have a dark sense of humor,
but because it highlights the danger and the power of certain sins,
especially sexual sin.
Here's a man who, on paper, was opposed to this theater, right?
Finds himself in it,
cannot resist the power of what's in front of him.
It is so powerful
and so alluring that he forgets,
literally, that there's a ticking bomb underneath him.
It is possible to believe something is wrong
and still face the temptation of it.
It's possible to disapprove of something so strongly
that you're part of this radical group to eradicate it.
And yet that doesn't remove the temptation or the attraction.
Peter, in this section, is talking to them
about something that's been hinted at earlier in the letter,
which is turning away from their former lifestyles,
which involved these types of sins.
And so this has come up before.
In chapter 1, verse 14,
he told them,
do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
Then in verse 18,
he tells them that Jesus has ransomed them
specifically from the futile ways
inherited from their forefathers.
In other words,
you had family members, potentially,
who were involved in these kinds of sins.
Now God has brought you out of them.
Before you knew Jesus,
you were involved in these kinds of sins.
Do not be conformed to those anymore.
And that wasn't the last.
In chapter 2, we were told the same thing.
He tells us that the passions of the flesh
wage war against our soul.
And so this has been coming for some time in this letter.
And finally, in chapter 4,
we receive a full list of these sins,
sins that he's been commanding them to put off
and that hold a special type of power,
a special danger and a special power.
And it's with that that he begins by telling them
the relationship between suffering
and putting away these sins.
And so that's where we find ourselves in verse 1
with this very confusing statement.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh,
arm yourselves with the same way of thinking,
for whoever has suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin.
Which sounds like the opposite of what Christians teach.
Right?
We would say that you have an ongoing battle with sin.
We will battle sin for the rest of our lives,
even as Christians.
We don't believe, as some people do,
that there's a point that we can reach as Christians
where we're finished with sin.
Now, there are some people,
even in this city, who believe that.
It's called Christian perfectionism.
And it's the idea that you can become so holy
and so sanctified
that you no longer have sin in your life.
Imagine being married to that person.
Imagine having someone who believes
that they are done with sin as your boss.
Imagine someone who believes
that they've finished with sin
being one of your elders or your pastor.
As they say, not a good look.
So what is Peter saying here?
In what sense,
what type of suffering is he talking about?
In what sense can someone who's suffered
be done with sin?
This is where our categories of suffering
are extremely helpful.
This is suffering category three.
The one who has suffered
specifically for doing what is right
is done with sin.
We know that because that's what's come before.
That's the section we're in.
And also in this passage,
Peter makes it clear
that's the kind of suffering he's talking about.
Verse four.
First of all, verse three,
you're putting off these sins, right?
Verse four,
when you do,
what's going to happen?
People are going to be surprised
and they're going to malign you.
You will suffer
for doing what's right.
So we're not talking about general suffering.
It'd be tempting to think
that this passage teaches
in general,
people who have faced suffering
have moved on to a point
where they don't struggle with sin as much.
You know, it's given them this perspective.
Maybe they had a battle with an illness.
But of course,
as one person has pointed out,
actually sometimes those things create sin, right?
Sometimes you become more bitter,
more hateful
when you go through suffering in life.
There's no guarantee
that those other types of suffering
are going to protect you from sin.
What is the type of suffering
that relates to sin?
It's suffering for doing what's right.
Think about it this way.
If there was any time
where it would be a good idea to sin,
where it'd be convenient,
it would be when you're faced
with suffering for it,
for doing what's right.
Someone says,
hey, if you don't stop being a Christian,
you're going to lose your job.
That would be a great time
to stop being a Christian.
And so, just at a logical level,
when you suffer for doing what's right,
you are proving
that there has been in your life
a definitive break from sin.
When you suffer for doing what's right,
you are showing
that there has been
a definitive break from sin.
To put it in the words of this passage,
it's clear that the orientation of your life
is no longer for human passions,
this is verse two,
but for the will of God.
There's two orientations of your life.
It can be for human passions,
it can be for the will of God.
When you suffer,
you are demonstrating
that there's nothing more important to you
than living for the will of God.
Because that would be the time
to jump ship, right?
And so, it's clear,
not that you're done with sin
in a full and final way,
but you are clear
that you and sin
are not together anymore.
You are done with sin
in a Taylor Swift sort of way.
You are never, ever, ever
getting back together.
You are not done with sin
fully and finally.
So, there's a definitive break from sin.
Now, in what sense?
So, that's the sense
of which suffering
creates a break from sin.
In what sense
do we no longer struggle with sin?
It's helpful to remember
not just our three categories of suffering,
but our three categories of sin.
Sin has a penalty,
it has a power,
and it has a presence.
Sin has a penalty,
which is at the center
of what we believe
as Christians in the gospel,
which is that we deserve death
for our sins.
That's why Romans says
in chapter six
that the wages of sin
is death.
That's the penalty of sin.
We believe that God
in Jesus' death and resurrection
removes the penalty from sin.
So, we don't even need
to worry about that.
We're already done with sin
in that way because of Jesus.
Then there's the power of sin.
The power of sin means
that if you have not had
Christ come and regenerate
your heart,
give you a new heart,
that you are not capable
of not sinning.
As Christians,
when Christ gives us
a new heart,
we believe we actually
have the capacity
to do what's good.
But we still have
the final P,
the presence of sin.
Peter is not telling
these people
that they no longer
have the presence of sin.
He is telling them
that their suffering
for doing what's right
makes it clear
that the power of sin
has been broken.
It has been proved
once and for all
that Christ's work
in their life is real.
They can be confident
that the power of sin
is broken.
Doesn't mean they don't
still struggle
with the presence of sin.
Galatians 5, 17
talks about the battle
between the spirit
and the flesh.
Christians continue
to struggle with sin.
1 Timothy 1, 15,
Paul says near the end
of his life,
Paul's an apostle,
by the way,
says that he's the greatest
of all sinners,
so clearly he doesn't
believe in Christian
perfectionism.
If there's anyone
who could claim that,
perhaps it would be Paul,
but he knows that
the presence of sin
continues.
And so that's what's
going on in this
confusing verse.
When you suffer,
specifically for doing
what's right,
it's clear that you've
made a definitive break
from sin,
which shows that the power
of sin is broken
in your life,
even as the presence
continues.
In other words,
when you suffer
for righteousness' sake,
it is a sign that God
is at work
in your life
now.
His power
lives in you.
There is a decisive
turning point
in the battle,
and sin will not win.
The orientation
of your life
is no longer
towards what Peter
calls human passions.
The orientation
of your life
is towards the will
of God,
even as you struggle
with sin.
Also,
to highlight,
there are two ways
to live.
As I mentioned before,
there's living
for human passions
and living
for the will
of God.
And Peter
here outlines
for us
in verse 3
a list
of sins
that are the type
of sins
that these folks
need to put off
that show
their willingness
to live
for the will
of God.
And he gives us
a list.
And I'm going to say
as we come
to this discussion,
we're going to talk
about some hard things.
And as I say,
every time we talk
about something hard,
I'm not going to say
everything,
I'm going to say
something.
I'm not going to say
everything,
I'm going to say
something.
There are a thousand
different things
we could talk about
with this list
of sins.
And this is not
the end of a conversation,
it's the beginning
of a conversation.
So we're not going
to say everything,
we're going to say
something.
It's not the end
of a conversation,
it's the beginning
of a conversation.
So we're going to
focus on a few
things this morning.
If you would like
to talk about it more,
I am more than happy
to talk about it more.
With that being said,
verse 3 gives us
a list of this
overlapping complex
of sins.
If we were to
boil it down,
there is a focus
here on sexual sins
and sins related
to alcohol.
And he tells us
the time that's
passed suffices,
which is,
as some have pointed
out,
an ironic understatement.
For doing these things.
Sensuality,
passions,
drunkenness,
orgies,
drinking parties,
and lawless idolatry.
In other words,
he's talking about
people who have
an unrestrained
activity when it
comes to sex
and alcohol.
And they're doing
this not just
by themselves,
but they're doing
it in these groups.
There's parties
where they'll get
together and both
of those things
will be present.
There's this unrestrained
lawless sin that's
occurring.
And it's focusing
around two areas
that are especially
prone to be
causes of addiction.
These are especially
powerful sins.
It's part of what
that story about
Zarqawi's friend
illustrates.
No matter how much
he believed
something was wrong,
he still came up
against the incredible
power and attraction
and temptation
of sexual sin.
If we were to,
we could expand this,
by the way.
if this were written
to Colorado Springs
in 2020 rather than
Asia Minor,
we could of course
include all these
things and we could
add some other
things.
We could add
internet pornography,
all forms of
sexual sin,
anything that's a
sexual relationship
that is not between
one man and one
woman who are
married.
We could include
fornication and
adultery.
We could add
marijuana and
hallucinogenic drugs.
By the way,
Denver, psychedelic
mushrooms are coming
in.
We could add those
to the list.
These are the
unrestrained passions,
the things that are
especially oriented
to create addiction
in the life of the
believer.
Now, as I said
earlier, there's a
thousand things we
could say.
We can't say all of
these and so our
focus this morning
is going to be the
focus of the passage
and it's this.
How do we arm
ourselves?
That's what Peter
tells us in verse
one.
He says,
arm yourselves
with the same way
of thinking.
How do we fight?
Addictions to
pornography.
How do we fight
alcoholism?
How do we fight
the sins in this
world that are
especially strong,
especially and
especially addictive?
We can think about
this in a broader
category as well.
How do we fight
sin in general?
You might be
thinking now,
these aren't things
that I struggle
with, so this
isn't for me.
And yet, as I say
many times, we're
one community.
And so if there's
a member of our
body who struggles
with these things,
there's a sense in
which we as a whole
body struggle with
them.
Not that you receive
their sin, but that
we are part of the
process of change.
And as people walk
away from addiction,
as they walk into
the light, they're
going to need the
rest of the church
to walk with them.
And also, never
underestimate the
power of these
things.
We need to arm
ourselves whether we
are actively struggling
with them or not.
And so how do we
arm ourselves?
First of all, verse
one, we know that
it's a battle.
If it weren't a
battle, we wouldn't
need to turn to
Jesus' example.
But there's a
mindset here.
We're arming
ourselves with the
same way of
thinking.
There's a
determination and a
discipline.
There's a focus
that comes with
fighting sin.
Now, Jesus was
without sin, right?
So it's not a
one-to-one analogy,
but we know that
Jesus required
determination and
focus.
In the Garden of
Gethsemane, he
asked God to take
the cup away from
him.
And yet he set his
face to the cross.
We're told in the
book of Hebrews that
Jesus learned
obedience.
through suffering.
Jesus' faithfulness
to us was not
easy.
He armed himself
for it.
He knew that he
was in a battle.
He did not take it
lightly.
And so the same is
true for us as well.
It is not going to be
easy for us to
fight sin.
There are many
people in the church
who will claim that
if you are a
Christian, then the
next day you're just
done with sin.
sin.
That is a lie from
the pit of hell.
Sin is a battle.
We need to have the
focus and determination
of Jesus whether we're
in one of these
struggles right now or
we're not.
I had a student when I
was teaching, and he
shared with me at one
time that he had
become aware of where
some of his friends
would go in town when
they wanted to smoke
weed together.
He knew where
their cove was.
Of course, he assured
me at the end of this
conversation, but don't
worry, I'm not tempted
by this at all, and I'm
not going to get involved
in it in any way.
And I said, hold on.
It's that kind of
mindset that's going to
result in you falling
into that with them.
I'm worried about the
person who says, I'm not
tempted by these things.
I'm much less worried
about the person who
says, I am tempted by
these things, and so I
know that I'm in a
battle.
I know that I need to
be on the guard about
these things.
I know that I need a
filter on my computer.
I know that I need to
stay away from people
and places that cause me
to drink.
There is a mindset, and
we have to arm
ourselves.
Second of all,
addiction is real and
very powerful.
that's why Peter has
hit this multiple
times.
Verse 14 of chapter
one, it's passions that
we're up against, passions
of your former
ignorance.
Verse 18, and I'm going
to keep coming back to
you, back to these.
They're futile ways that
come through our family.
If you know anything
about families, you know
that the patterns that
they create are hard to
break.
And finally, verse 11 of
chapter two, these
passions are waging war
against our soul.
We are at war with sin.
When we come up against
these kinds of sins, it
is not a little arm
wrestling match.
It is a battle.
And so going off of that,
how do we wage war?
If we've armed ourselves,
we know that the challenge
and the struggle is real.
What are the strategies
that we have?
Some of this I'm going to
pull from first Peter.
Some of this I'm just
pulling from our beliefs
as Christians because
Peter does not go into
depth about all of the
ways that we would fight
these sins.
First of all, though, we
can notice what Peter
doesn't do.
Peter does not begin by
pouring a bucket of shame
over the readers of this
letter.
Doesn't begin by posting
a video on YouTube of him
yelling and losing his
self-control as he is a
preacher screams at them
about how in the world
could they think about
doing such things.
He doesn't tell them that
they're clearly not
Christians.
And that their struggle
with sin reveals that
God's not at work in
their lives.
In fact, he addresses
these people as
Christians.
He also doesn't tell
them the story about
that one guy who never
struggled with sin the
day after he was
converted.
Now, I believe those
stories, right?
There are some people,
they face addictions,
they come to Christ,
and the next day they're
done with addiction.
That is not the normal
story of everyday
Christians.
And we do tremendous
damage to people in
this church when we
create those stories
and we present them
as normative.
Our struggle with sin
is real.
So Peter doesn't pour
shame on them,
doesn't tell them
they're not Christians,
doesn't tell them
stories about an
unrealistic pace of
change.
Instead, he recognizes
some of the factors.
First of all, he
recognizes this is
something that runs in
their family.
Again, chapter 1,
verse 18, the
futile ways you
inherited from your
forefathers.
Some of us struggle
with the sins that are
in this list, and our
parents struggled with
them too.
It's no surprise, right,
that they're present in
our lives.
He also recognizes not
just things in their
family, but things in
their past.
Remember, 14, the
passions of your
former ignorance.
He's reminding them,
these are things that
were normal to you
before you became a
Christian.
That's going to make it
hard to battle them.
Sin patterns are real.
One thing I was going
to mention later, but
I'll mention now, that
the journey in is often
the journey out.
If you hike 10 miles
into a forest, how many
miles are you going to
have to hike to get
back out of it?
10 miles.
There is a journey to
our war and struggle
with sin.
Peter realizes that.
He acknowledges the
influence, family
influence, personal
history.
All of those things
matter.
And then he
acknowledges that these
things aren't easy,
right?
He calls it suffering.
Jesus suffered in the
flesh.
Arm yourselves with the
same way of thinking.
You're going to suffer
if you fight against
sin.
It is going to be a
real battle.
Now, having noted
what Peter doesn't do
and what he does do,
what are the tools that
we have as Christians?
If you have clothes and
you put them in the
washer, and then you
leave them in the
washer after the cycles
run, and you keep the
lid closed, and you
don't put them in the
dryer, what's going to
happen?
It's going to mildew.
Sin grows in the
dark, and it dies in
the light.
Sin grows in the
dark and dries in the
light.
Addiction grows in the
dark and dies in the
light.
Addiction grows in the
world.
If you want to wage war
against these sins, you
cannot do it by
yourself.
If you want to wage war
against these sins, you
cannot do it by
yourself.
That's not the way God
has designed the world,
and it's not the way that
these sins work.
This is how the Bible
talks.
Ephesians 5 talks about
walking in the light.
Psalm 32 says, when I
kept silent, my bones
wasted away.
It was when the
psalmist confessed his
sins that he was able to
find healing.
And I don't just mean
confessing privately to
God in prayer, and no one
else knows, although that's
good.
Necessary, but not
sufficient.
If no one else knows
about your addiction, you
will not have victory
over it.
If no one else knows
about your addiction, you
will not experience
victory over it.
Sin grows in the dark
and dies in the light.
If you are fighting a
private battle against sin,
you are fighting in vain.
sin begins to die.
We need other people.
We need the church to
walk with us.
Sin begins to die.
The process of sin dying
begins when we confess it,
not just to God, but other
people.
By the way, this is the
proof that we believe the
gospel.
We know when we confess to
other people that our only
standing is based on Jesus'
blood for us.
God is.
And we lay aside all pride
and claim to everything
else.
If we confess it only alone
in prayer, but then avoid
sharing it with anyone else,
we have failed to experience
the gospel, which is the
confession that we are
broken.
And it's Jesus' approval of
us that matters and no one
else's.
And so we're no longer
afraid of the fear of man.
Application would be this.
If you are struggling with
addiction, the first step, and
I'm not trying to make
addiction simple in any way,
it's very complicated.
So don't hear me oversimplifying
anything, but the first step of
many is sharing it with a
believer that you trust.
Until you do that, I cannot
offer you much hope of victory.
God offers hope to anyone and
everyone who confesses their sin.
Finally, or not finally, but next,
I mentioned this last year.
The opposite of addiction is not
sobriety.
The opposite of addiction is
connection.
Problems and solutions go together,
by the way.
There's a logic.
If you create a mess, if you
pour out a bunch of water on the
floor in the church kitchen,
you're not going to solve that by
running into the bathroom and
turning on a faucet.
That problem and solution have no
connection to each other.
Addiction is a problem.
It's a dysfunction of our
relationships, especially sexual
addiction.
sexual addiction relates to how we
view and relate to other people.
Good luck solving that, addressing
that, without changing how you
relate to and interact with other
people.
I have a friend, I think I shared
this last year, who's going through
an addiction recovery program.
And he was the one who highlighted
this for me.
And at one point, he was really
struggling.
And so he sent out a text to
several of us saying, hey, I
really need to talk.
I ended up being the one who was
available and free to talk.
And so I called him that evening
and he shared with me that he was
in the midst of a struggle with
temptation.
And he remembered that the
opposite of addiction is
connection.
And so he called someone.
This goes along with point one,
that things die in the dark.
We conquer these sins together as a
church.
And by the way, if you're not
struggling with this, one of these
sins right now,
the application for you would be
this.
Think through how you're going to
respond if someone comes to you
as a trusted friend.
You want to be a first Peter kind of
a Christian.
And to let them know that you'll be
with them as they do that.
They can call you when the battle
becomes fierce.
Again, I'm not going to say
everything.
Addictions are always the tip of the
iceberg.
So there's all kinds of different
factors that could play in.
I can't address all of that.
Problems and solutions go together.
Relational problems have relational
solutions.
Sin grows in the dark.
It dies in the light.
Path in is the path out.
The longer you're involved in a
type of sin, the more challenging
and difficult it is to remove it.
Just simple logic, right?
This is how the world works.
The longer a weed grows in your
yard,
especially on some of those zero-scape
sections,
the more challenging it is to get rid
of it.
And so if I were going to summarize
our tactics like this, how do we
address these sins?
We begin by addressing them.
And remember, addiction is not easy
and I don't mean to present it that
way.
We address it first in relationship
with other people as we confess our
sin together.
We're people who confess our sins.
We're also people who are able to
receive those confessions.
And so we all have a role.
This church is not what they say,
a hotel for saints,
but a hospital for sinners.
And so if you find yourself in verse
three, you are in the right place.
God knows that these are the solutions
and so he's provided not just a
relationship with him, but a community.
Now there's much more that we could
say, but that's where it begins.
It begins in confession with other
people in relationship.
Finally, Peter ends verses five
through six with some encouragement.
By the way, this was all in the
context of suffering for doing what's
right.
The folks who are up against this are
going to suffer because the friends
that they used to hang with are going
to malign them.
And so Peter ends with the theme that
he's given us over and over again,
which is that judgment is coming.
And so even now, as you maybe feel
like Noah from last week,
know that there's hope and God is
coming back to make everything right.
Verse five.
They will give account to him who is
ready to judge the living and the
dead.
Our obedience, our war against sin is
not in vain.
God is coming back.
This is everything we saw in first
Peter chapter one with obedience.
We obey the father.
We walk in the ways of the father
because we're sons and daughters and
we know that he's coming back for us.
And finally, there's this strange
sentence in verse six.
This is why the gospel was preached
even to those who are dead, that
they're judged in the flesh the way
people are.
They might live in the spirit the way
God does.
And I'll simply say this.
So this is not referring back to
what we talked about earlier, the
spirits in prison.
This is simply making the point
that even after you die, you have to
answer to God.
And so the gospel was preached to
people while they were alive.
There are some people who are dead
now that when they were alive, the
gospel was preached to them.
And that's important because the
gospel has implications for their
life after death.
In other words, all of us will
answer to God.
And God's judgment and his coming
and is real.
But God offers hope and salvation
from sin in general and these sins
in particular to anyone and everyone
who repents and confesses and
recognizes that they are without
hope outside of Jesus.
But that Jesus, through his death,
through his resurrection, as we saw
last week, offers the solution.
That he pays the penalty of sin for
everyone who has faith and hope in
him.
I'll end with this.
God gives us his grace.
He also gives us his weapons.
And God changes the way that the
battle is fought.
If you're familiar with the story of
the Iliad, the siege of Troy, you know
that the Spartans had no success as
long as they sieged the city from the
outside.
It wasn't until they were able to get
the Trojan horse inside the city and
fight from inside that they had any
victory.
When we fight sin apart from Jesus
Christ, we are fighting it from the
outside.
And we will not win.
But God comes and changes our hearts so
that the battle is now on the inside.
That's the hope that he offers in the
gospel.
That as we fight with sin, as we wage
war, we know that we will win because
Jesus is with us and he has changed our
hearts.
He has given us the kind of heart that
can live for the will of God rather than
the passions of the flesh.
And it is when and only when we embrace
that hope that we will have victory not
from outside our hard and cold hearts, but
from inside with the new hearts that Jesus
gives to those who believe him and follow
him and have faith in him.
We're going to end with a hymn that
expresses that hope, tells us that Jesus
stands in victory and so sends curse.
has lost its grip.
That's the battle from the inside, not the
outside.
And so no matter where we are in our battle
with sin as we wage war, we have no guilt
in life and no fear in death because the
power of Christ is in us.
Jesus commands my destiny and so no power
of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me
from his hand.
That's the hope of all of us who have faith in
Christ.
And so I invite you to pray with me before we sing
that song together.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you that like a good
father, you have hard conversations with us.
And we thank you that you offer us real hope in our
battle with sin.
We ask you for this community, for Cheyenne Mountain
Presbyterian Church, that we would be a hospital for
sinners rather than a hotel for saints.
And that this would be a place more and more where because of
the war that you are waging, because you are fighting from
the inside, giving us new hearts, we would confess our sins to
each other.
We ask that this would be a place of safety and challenge and
growth for all of us as we fight our battle with sin.
And we thank you that we have hope because Jesus has won that
battle for us.
And so we ask this in his name.
Amen.