Done With Sin
1 Peter 4:1-6
Transcript
Good morning. We're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 4. If your Bible looks like this, we'll be on page 658. There should be one of these near you where you're seated. If someone else tries to grab it first, smack their hand, take it from them. If you don't own a Bible, you do now, you can take this one with you.
It's our gift to you. So we're going to be on 658. We'll be in 1 Peter chapter 4. I was outside yesterday working on a fence and my neighbor came out and started talking to me. His name is Mr. Kirchdoffer and he is 80-something, mid-80s.
He's about this tall, real stocky. And I was watching him cut his grass the other day and I just couldn't help but think that I need to start exercising more because he might be in better shape than I am in. And I was just like really disappointed in myself because he's like 85 and you wouldn't know it. He like goes out dancing and stuff. But he's really cool.
He was in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. So he was in all three of those conflicts. He was what was Bomb Disposal in World War II. It's an EOD now. They changed their name. So what he did was bombs would land places or be put places and he would go take them apart.
And he did this for three wars. He was very good at his job. You don't stay in EOD long if you're not good at it. And so he said he was working on it one time and there was a soldier standing next to him kind of like guarding him while he had to work on the bomb. And he said the soldier was standing there and kind of watching him, standing there kind of watching him. And the soldier looked at him and said, what do we do if that goes off?
Mr. Kirstoffer said, I just busted out laughing. There's only one thing you do if this goes off and you won't know it. There's one option. I do this well or it's been nice knowing you. And so he – so I was talking to him yesterday and what I asked him was I said, hey, November 11th is coming up and I think that's Veterans Day.
And I said I think it used to be VE Day or Victory in Europe Day. And he said, I don't know. They move all that stuff around, he said. And I said, but I think it was Victory in Europe Day. He goes, yeah, I never really remembered that. He said because he was in Europe.
And he goes, but when Victory in Europe Day came, I was on a boat headed to Okinawa. So he was in Europe for a while until it started looking good. Then they sent him to the Pacific. And so he did both sides of stuff in World War II. And I said, but I said, not many people know somebody. And I don't think our neighbors know that you were in three foreign conflicts, what you have done to serve our country.
And I was just wondering if it would be okay with you. And that's why I wanted to ask you if maybe I let our neighbors know and we tried to do something just to kind of celebrate, appreciate you, honor you. And he was like, no, don't want to do that. And I was like, okay, that's why I asked. He said, I'm the type of person that really embarrasses more than anything. And I didn't really do anything.
He said, we buried so many guys over there. What I offered and what I sacrificed really wasn't that much. And on most of those kind of days, I go down to the VFW and we actually are going to be packaging up some meals and taking them to other people. And so there's just something about, and I think specifically veterans of World War II because of how massively destructive that war was. There's just something about those guys that if you talk to them, they'll tell you, I didn't really do much. I don't really deserve much praise.
I don't really deserve much honor. And there's just something that happens with the guys that have gone to war that it changed their thinking forever about their freedom. It changed their thinking forever about how beautiful America is and how much we were offered opportunity. If you talk to some of those World War II veterans, they just have this. It was imprinted on them forever and affected forever their thinking and the way they live because they have seen how costly it was and how evil tyranny can be. And what Peter's going to, what we're going to see that he says today that he wrote, we're going to see that he's going to say that it's a very similar situation for Christians.
That there's something that should have drastically changed our thinking, should have impacted us so deeply that we can't view the world the same way. We can't approach life the same way, that we have so clearly seen the cost of our sins, so clearly seen the weight of it, that we're different forever. And so we're going to be starting chapter four. We're going to look at the first six verses today. Again, it's on page 658. I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in.
God, we thank you that we have hope and salvation and freedom and joy given to us through the cross. We thank you that you suffered so that we wouldn't have to, that you took on pain so that we wouldn't have to. And God, we ask that you would speak through your word today to us as we study it together. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, chapter four, verse one.
Peter's writing, he says, 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, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Okay, so if you're familiar kind of with the New Testament, Paul writes a lot of letters, and when he uses the word flesh, he kind of means our sinfulness, our sinful nature. Peter, when he's using the word flesh, he means your physical body. It is not deep. He means flesh.
He's really shooting at our ankles here when he uses the word. So what he is saying when he says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, he means physically, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh physically has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, just your human life, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. And so what he says is that as Christians we have two options, or that everybody has two options on how they're going to live. They can live for human passions or the will of God. Those are your two options.
You're either going to live for your own will, for your own desires, for your own passions, for your own, this is what I think, this is what I think is smart, this is what I want to do, this is how I think life ought to be, this is what I get joy out of, this is what I'm chasing after, or you're going to submit that to the will of God. You're going to live for your will or his, your passions or his. Those are the two options. When he uses the word passion, he doesn't just mean the way we use the word passion, like I'm really passionate about saving orphaned puppies. That's not what he means. He means our inordinate sinful desires, like our passions that are either for sinful things or just that are too big, that we took something that was good and began to care about it too much.
And so, for example, we can do this with really anything, work. We take something that's good, work, God gave us work, and we begin to say, you're where my identity is, you're where my hope is, you're where my freedom will be found, you're where my joy will be found. If I can just make this work out, if I can just make enough money here, if I can just be well-known enough here, if I can just go to work over and over again, I'll prove myself, I'll have joy. If I can just reach this promotion, then I'll be full, then I'll be free. And we've taken something that was good and started expecting too much from it.
Isaiah says, or Jeremiah says that this is like coming to a well that is dry and lowering a bucket and bringing the bucket back up, and there's nothing in the bucket. And so, we lower the bucket again. And we bring the bucket back up. And there's nothing in the bucket. So we lower the bucket again.
But that's what this is like. It's us coming to a dry well and over and over and over again thinking, this time, it's going to have water in it. This time, it's going to give me life. This time, it's going to fill me up. And we do this with everything. So we do it with work, we do it with alcohol, we do it with sex, we do it with food, we do it with relationships.
This will be the boyfriend. Ho-ho, buddy. I'm going to give him a second chance. We do it with everything. We come back to the well over and over and over and over again, and we keep pulling it up empty, and we keep believing, we keep lying to ourselves that eventually this will fill me up, eventually this will give me life, eventually this will give me joy. And what Peter is saying is that because Jesus suffered, you now have an option.
Before Jesus, you didn't have an option. You're on your own, do your thing. But because Jesus suffered, we now have an option. We can live continually chasing after something that won't fill us up, or we can spend the rest of our lives living for the will of God. And so basically what he's going to say as we study it this week and next week is that the way we live for the will of God is to actually turn away from this, turn away from chasing everything that we can possibly chase to try to fill ourselves up, and turning to following him. So we turn away from that, and we turn to Jesus, we turn to our church family, we turn to what it looks like to walk in the Spirit.
And so that's how he's going to kind of unpack this. We're going to spend most of our time today looking at the turning away from, and actually how we can do that, and why we would do that. So let's go back up to the top, and let's look at how he's going to say we actually accomplished this. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. So when he says therefore, you have to look at and know that he's, why is it, what is it therefore?
That's kind of what you ask when you read the word therefore in Scripture. You've got to see what came before it. What he's saying is because Jesus, what he's been talking about was Jesus who was righteous died for the unrighteous. Jesus who was good and holy and pure died to save all of us who weren't, who didn't deserve it, couldn't accomplish it. So he's saying because Jesus suffered, was nailed to a tree, bled, died, since that is true, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.
Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. And so what he's saying is look to Jesus, look at how he approached the world, and think the same way. Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. So when we look to Jesus, what we see very clearly is he was going to live for the will of God, regardless of what it cost him. And he had his face set on the cross. He knew that was what was coming.
He knew that was the penalty for sin. And he was eyes set on the cross. And so what he's saying is that we as Christians get to arm ourselves with the cross, with the gospel. We get to put that in our brains. And so arming yourself, it's kind of like when you wake up in the morning and you have a routine you go through before you're going to hit the day. Some people, you bathe the night before.
Some people bathe in the morning. You're going to put some stuff in your hair. I do this. But other people put stuff in their hair. You're going to put on some deodorant. You're going to...
What he's saying is in that process, one of the things that we do is we arm ourselves with this. We should care about the cross and have it so set in our minds that we should care about it as much as we care about our cell phone. You ever walk out of your house without your cell phone? You ever get in your car without your cell phone? And you're riding and all of a sudden you're like, I don't have my cell phone. And immediately you think, what if something happens?
And then you think, what if I get somewhere boring? That would be even worse. Like at first you think, what if there's like a situation? And second you're like, what will I do without Candy Crush? This is a real thing that I do and have done on a regular basis. I'm walking out of the house and I always do like a pocket check to like make sure I've got all my stuff.
So like usually like a pack of gum, my keys and my cell phone. I'll be on the phone talking to someone. I'll be closing my door and I'll be like... And I'll tell the person, hold on a second. Because I'm thinking, my cell phone's not in my pocket. And I'm going, where's my cell phone?
On multiple occasions. I'm not very smart. And then I'll say, and they'll go, what? And I'll go, oh, never mind. I'm good. I was holding it to my face.
It wasn't in my pockets. But you know how you feel? And so that's what he's saying. Arm yourselves with this. Like you should feel lost if we as Christians aren't armed with it. But he actually uses...
It's a violent term. So most of us don't carry weapons all the time. Some of us do. Welcome. Most of us don't carry weapons all of the time. Some of us carry them some of the time.
I think most of us can relate more to the cell phone thing. But he's actually using a violent term. He says, arm yourself with this. That actually when the chips hit the fan... Chips hit the fan. That's a weird game of poker.
When the feces and fan interface... How about that? When it all goes down, what do you reach for? What are you going back to? What are you defending yourself with? What are you armed with?
How are you protecting yourself? And he's saying, arm yourself with it. And what he's hinting us to... What he's cuing us in on is something that he already said earlier. He said it in... It's going to be on the screen.
He said it in chapter 2, verse 11. And... Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. So what we talked about when we studied that was that some of us are being absolutely destroyed by our own passions and our own sinfulness because we don't know that they're at war with us. And the only reason you wage war is to destroy us, to murder, or to enslave. And that's what our sinful passions are doing.
And as he goes through this list in a minute, he's going to talk about some of these sinful passions. He's going to mention things like sensuality, which is our desire to just fill up our senses. Our desire to specifically with sexual sin. To just feel good. He's going to talk about drunkenness. And really, you can see in those two sins specifically how they enslave.
They wage war against our soul and they enslave. It becomes the reason you wake up in the morning, the reason you go to work, the reason you want to earn a paycheck, the reason you want to hit the gym, the reason you want to, is just to pursue sexual sensuality. The reason you want a boyfriend or a girlfriend, the reason you use those apps that you use, the reason that you log on to the internet, is just to pursue that. And eventually, that becomes the main thing that drives your decision making. Same thing with alcohol. Now there's an appropriate way to approach sex inside the confines of marriage, and there's an appropriate way to approach alcohol.
But drunkenness is what he's going to mention. And I have seen it. And know that it starts off nice and then can absolutely enslave somebody. I've known a person that it began as, this is why they went to work, and then it became why they didn't go to work, and then it became why they did everything they did, and they've gotten down to drinking rubbing alcohol because it was the cheapest, best way to get drunk fast. It was all they could afford. And it enslaves us, and it wages war against us, and for the most part, we aren't even paying attention to it.
We aren't arming ourselves. And so what he says is, arm yourselves with the cross. And so here's what we do as Christians. We have our mind so protected and defended and set with the truth that Jesus suffered. And this is the main point of what we're talking about today. Jesus suffered and died so that you can be done with sin.
Jesus suffered and died so that we can be forever done with sin. See, he died so that we wouldn't have to be condemned because of our sin. We wouldn't have to pay the penalty of our sin. He died so that he could take the penalty, so that he could take the pain, so that he could take the destruction, the shame, the guilt. He died to forever remove that from us. He also died so that sin would no longer have to control us, have to enslave us, have to rule over us, have to murder us slowly.
He was murdered so that sin couldn't have that power over us anymore. And he also died so that one day we can all be welcomed to him. We can enter into his throne room where we will be judged, and we will be welcomed because the righteous died for the unrighteous, and we will spend eternity where there is no sin. Jesus died so that we could forever be done with sin. He suffered so that we could be done with sin. And as Christians, we are to arm ourselves with that truth.
That's what he says in chapter 2, verse 24. It's going to be on the screen as well. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Jesus suffered and died so that we could be done with sin, so that we could look at sin. We could look at our passions.
We could look at these things, and we could say, I no longer believe the lie that this will fill me up. I no longer have to be enslaved to the idea that work or a relationship or future married version of me will be perfect and happy and fulfilled. I no longer have to believe that nonsense. Jesus died so that I would no longer put something in his place, and he died so that I would no longer chase after cheap thrills that lie to me over and over again. He died so I could quit coming to empty well after empty well after empty well. He died so that I could be done with sin.
By his wounds, I have been set free. I have been healed, and I can follow after him in joy and peace. That's how we arm ourselves, so that we look at sin and say, Jesus suffered for this. He was crushed for this. How could I continue to pursue it? How could I continue to love this?
How could I walk in my sin and arrogantly say, well, it's okay for me to do this, or I know the Bible says that, but I'm just going to keep rocking up in this. I'm going to keep walking in this and act as if I don't understand that Jesus suffered to set me free. That we are to arm ourselves with the gospel and that our motivation is to be the gospel, and that's actually how we'll turn away from sin. We'll actually be able to turn away from sin because we're armed with the gospel, and so here's what he says. 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.
So as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. So the section where he says, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. I think he's paralleling Jesus' suffering that sets us free from sin and how as a Christian, when we suffer for doing good, when we suffer for righteousness, suffer physically, mentally, emotionally to follow after Jesus, it actually only further breaks sin's hold in our life. That actually, as Christians, when we suffer for doing what's right, it actually makes Jesus more beautiful, makes salvation more sweet, and sin more bitter.
It's just the way it works. So he's saying that as you suffer to follow, it actually begins to break sin hold on you. It actually helps you cease from sinning, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices, which just means it's enough, suffices for doing what the Gentiles, and when Peter uses that word, he just means people who don't know Jesus. He's assuming there's a difference in the thought process between Christians and people who aren't Christians. He's correct.
For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Now, I love that that's in this letter. Because Peter's writing to the church, and you know what his assumption is? The church is made up of the righteous, of the unrighteous, that have trusted in Jesus the righteous to pay for their sins. So he's writing to the people.
Read that list again. Sensuality, which would be pursuing all things that gratify our senses, specifically sexual in nature. Passions, which is just our inordinate desires for anything that is above God. Drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. So drunkenness, which is getting drunk.
And then he includes drinking parties, which is getting drunk with friends. And lawless idolatry. And how many of us as Christians that describes college, that describes high school, that describes the past 15 years of your life. He's writing to the church and saying, I know who's here. I know it's the unrighteous who've been saved by the one who is righteous. And here's what he's saying.
That's enough. All the time that's in the past has sufficed. You don't ever have to go back to that again. Those empty wells, you don't have to return to them anymore. You can be free from that. If you're here today and that's what you're walking in, that's your life.
That's a good description. of your weekends. Welcome. We've got a lot of church family that that was a good description of their weekends and who have been rescued by Jesus and set free from those empty wells. I love that Peter includes that. And here's what he's saying. You're free.
That's enough of that. That doesn't have to be how your life looks anymore. The time that has passed sufficed. That's enough. Meaning you never have to return to that again. You can put it down because Jesus suffered for sin and you can arm yourself with the gospel because you've been set free.
Jesus suffered so that you can be done with sin. You can absolutely put it down and walk away. The time that has passed suffices. That's enough. And some of you today, that's exactly what you need to hear. That's enough.
As you walk with Jesus, that's enough. Yesterday, sufficed. You've had enough of it. You've gone to that empty well. Enough. It has promised you things that it would never fulfill.
It has promised you. It has lied to you. It has told you that the next time would be better. And that's enough. You can be set free. You can walk in freedom because Jesus suffered to set you free.
As I was thinking about this last week, I had this picture in my brain. And here's what I think this is for us as Christians when we follow after this. There was a couple and they were married, had been married a while, had tried to have children but couldn't. But they had a lot of joy with each other, had a lot of fun. Just one of those couples that when you hung out with them, they made you feel happy. They made you feel good just kind of being around.
They were also the type of couple that when they ate near you in a restaurant, they made you feel sad because they were obviously having more fun than you were. So it's that kind of couple. If you knew them, they made you happy. If you just saw them, you were like, all right. They were that. They had a lot of joy together.
They were real gracious to each other and they prayed about it and decided that they wanted to adopt a child. They felt like there was a good response as Christians to how God had adopted us and so they went through kind of the foster system and were able to adopt a child. And they got a nine-year-old boy, but he was nine, but he had matured quickly. He was keen. He was sharp because he had gone through some group homes and some orphanages and some foster care and he was kind of cold, kind of rough a little bit, kind of withdrawn a little bit and he had had to, throughout his life, eke out his own existence.
If he was going to have anything, he had to get it himself. If he was going to have anything that he owned, he was going to have to steal it. He was going to have to hide it. He was going to have to fight for it because of how his life had been and on multiple, multiple occasions, he had just had the rug pulled out from under him. Every time he had gotten in a situation that he thought was going to work, he thought was going to fulfill him, this was finally going to be the family, this was finally going to be it, he was going to have the happy ending, it had just been jerked out from under him.
And so they get a nine-year-old boy who is mentally much older than nine, emotionally much colder than any nine-year-old should be. They go through all the process and he's fully adopted. He's theirs. Changed his last name, he is forever theirs. And over time though, they begin to realize that things just, more food is missing than he actually probably eats. And things around the house just turn up missing every once in a while and when they have to correct him or discipline him, he just shuts down.
They can tell that he's living in fear that at some point this rug is going to get pulled out from under him and that he's consistently living in the belief that he's got to still eke out his own existence. They go to his room and sure enough, he's been hiding food, things that he thought wouldn't spoil, some things that he didn't know would spoil. His room doesn't smell so great. They find dinner rolls that have turned really hard, pieces of cheese. Pop-Tarts. He got a lot of Pop-Tarts in there.
And they sit him down and they explain to him, you don't have to live like this anymore. You don't have to steal things for you to have something. You don't have to swipe food off the table. You don't have to live in fear that the rug is going to be pulled out from under you. You don't have to consistently believe that you're going to have to fix your own situation, your hours, and your forever hours, and everything in this house belongs to you and we are not going to withhold any good thing from you. We're going to look out for your joy.
We're going to lead. We're going to discipline. But we're not going to withhold anything that actually will bring joy and life and hope to you. You don't have to steal food. You don't have to save money up on the off chance that we're going to kick you out. And the truth is, as Christians, as we consistently run back to those sins, we've been adopted, but we're still living like we're orphans.
We're still trying to steal from the table because we believe that God isn't going to give us what we need. We're going to continue to believe the lie that if we had a spouse, we'd be happier. Or if we didn't have this spouse, we'd be happier because we have a God who obviously isn't going to take care of our needs, who obviously is at some point going to jerk the rug out from us. We believe that when we sin, that's it, He might just get rid of us. And what Peter's saying is, you can actually put all of that down because you have a good Father and you've been forever adopted because Jesus already suffered for and paid for your sin.
Everything that needed to happen has already happened and you've been welcomed in. And that you no longer have to live like your life and your joy and your hope is up to you. And you no longer have to live like you're going to be the one who has to accomplish everything. You're free. You see, when we as Christians run back to the same old sins, what Peter's doing is the same thing that that family did where they sat him down and said, you don't have to do that anymore. We're not going to withhold anything from you.
And you don't have to try to steal it. We're going to provide everything and everything's already been accomplished to make you ours forever. So what he's not saying is get it together, prove yourself, do these things. It's not a list of house rules so that we can stay in the house. It's not what it is. It's not a do these things and then God will love you.
What it is, is absolutely Jesus Christ already suffered to set you free. How much more will he bless us and give us all things? How much more will he provide for us? How much more can he take care of us? And how on earth can we run back to and live as if we haven't been rescued, as if we haven't been redeemed, as if this honestly still holds promise for us because it does not. Our inheritance is forever held in Jesus.
Our hope is forever in Jesus. Our life and our joy is forever in Jesus. How on earth could we continue to walk in these things? All of the past up to yesterday suffices. You're free. That's what Peter's saying.
And then he says this, With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Basically what he says is, After you've been welcomed into the family, your behavior changes. After Jesus has paid for your sin, your behavior changes because your heart changes. And your friends who haven't been welcomed in, who haven't been rescued, think you're weird. And they make fun of you.
That's what he says. You don't join in anymore chasing after the same things and they go, Really? You're a Christian now? So you can be good now? Really, you're a Christian now so you don't know how to party anymore? Oh, really, you're a Christian now so you've forgotten how to have fun?
And they're absolutely confused but you have the hardest time explaining to them, It's not that. I know how to have fun. I'm not trying to be good to prove anything. I don't have anything to earn. I've been set free and I don't have to chase after this stuff anymore. It doesn't hold the same promises for me anymore.
And that's all he's saying is that your friends, after you become a Christian, sometimes, will tell you you're not fun anymore or that you've become a prude or that you're lame because they really don't understand what it's like to be adopted and welcomed into the family. And then he says, But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead and this is confusing but it's actually not. It's just the way he says it. That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
So what he's saying is, again, in the flesh, he just means physically and when he says, this is why the gospel was preached even to those who were dead, what he doesn't mean is like they went to a graveyard and what he doesn't mean is that some spirit realm stuff. What he's saying is, this is why the gospel was preached to people who became Christians and then died. The word dead there, they have a couple different words for dead which we don't so that would be helpful but this one just means corpse. People who were preached to and are now physically dead. What he's saying is this, the gospel says you're going to be given life and you're going to be given eternal life but it doesn't mean Highlander which is one of the greatest movies the world has ever known.
What it doesn't mean is that you will become immortal and live forever. Peter's not still walking around waiting for someone to like cut off his head like whichever one how it would work anyway because it wouldn't even be Highlander. You wouldn't be able to die. What he's saying is, it's not that. We are all going to be judged in the flesh physically the way people are. We are all going to die because of our sin but because of Jesus we can actually have life eternally in the spirit the way God does.
We can live eternally after death. So what he's saying is this is why the gospel was preached to people who became Christians and then still got cancer. Who became Christians and then still had an accident who became Christians and then still got really, really old and took their last breath. This is why the gospel was preached to everyone because our hope isn't that we'll live life eternally here but that our hope is that we'll live life eternally with God the way that God lives. That's what he's saying. That we'll be made alive forever because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.
That we'll all be judged. Every single one of us will give an account. Think about that for a second. How many of you would like to go to your mother and give an account for your life? How many of you would like to go to your spouse and give an account for your life? How many of you would like to stand up here and give an account?
My guess is one of you and you need to repent of your self-righteousness. You need Jesus. All of us will stand before the King and our life will be laid bare. Every intention of our heart, every reason we did a good thing just so someone could see how good we are. You ever been in the middle of doing something good and thought, man, I'm awesome. Do you know how messed up that is?
Look at how good a husband I'm being right now. I bet people can see it. Let me smile real good. Look at my wife like this. I do that mess all the time. I'm way nicer when people are watching me.
And we're going to lay our intentions bare. We're going to lay our hearts out before God and here's what's going to happen. He's going to judge all of those right now who are alive and He's going to judge all of those who in the past have died and everything's going to be laid bare and we're going to give an account. And the one thing that is going to matter is who's going to pay for your sin? Who's going to suffer for your rebellion? Either you or Jesus.
Either He's going to die so that you can be made alive or you are going to be forever destroyed for consistent rebellion against the Holy God. Those are the two options and here's what's true for Christians and for everyone who will place faith in Jesus. He's already paid the penalty. He's already suffered. He's already died so that we can be done with sin. So that we can stand before God and our sin as it is laid bare only proclaims how beautiful the gospel is.
Only proclaims how good Jesus is. Our sin as it is tallied up as it is read before the King only works to provide proof that Jesus is glorious and He is good and He is a Savior and He is righteous and He died for the unrighteous. When they roll out my account all I will be able to do is praise Jesus that I don't have to stand condemned for my sins because He stood condemned for my sins. I can arm myself now with the cross because later it is the only defense I will have is that my sin has already been paid for. My debt has already been paid and I can be set free from the penalty and the condemnation and I can right now walk in life no longer going to an empty well after empty well but I can be free to know that my hope and my foundation and my identity is secured because everything has already been done on my behalf to welcome me into the family and I no longer have to steal from the table and I no longer have to eke out my own existence but that I can put on the cross and I know that one day when I stand before the righteous judge it is the only thing I'll put forward.
That's what Peter is saying. That we can be made alive because Jesus was murdered. That we can be set free from sin because he suffered for it and that one day we can stand before the judge and know that's the only thing we put forward. Absolutely I deserve to be destroyed but Jesus the righteous died for the unrighteous and he swapped places with me. The band's going to come back up and we're going to praise God. We're going to make much of Jesus that we get to be set free from sin and some of you in here today are not Christians and that passage rightly describes the goal of your life.
Some of you aren't Christians but the goal of your life has been to prove to everyone how good you are. To prove to everyone how much you can behave. That you will one day believe that you will stand before the righteous king and you'll say look at how good I've been look at how much I've served look at how nice I've been and you will be declared guilty. I'm begging you to place your faith in Jesus. To arm yourself with the fact that Jesus suffered for you and have that be your defense and that be your shield and that be your hope and to no longer run back to the things that lie to you. There's some people here who are Christians but you keep going back to the empty wells.
Yesterday sufficed. Because Jesus has died on your behalf sin no longer has to enslave you. You have a new king who already went to war on your behalf so that your passions no longer have to wage war against your soul. And today is a beautiful day to repent and to trust once again fully and forever in Jesus and to say I no longer want to believe that this will fill me up and I no longer want to believe that my hope will be found here and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in popularity and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in the future married version of me or the future unmarried version of me.
And I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in a relationship and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in work. I want to live the rest of my life for your will and I need your help and I need the cross. I'd invite you to begin praying that right now. Jesus, I need your help and I need the cross. Let's pray.
God, we need your help and we need the cross and we thank you that because you suffered we can be made alive. And we thank you that because you suffered we can live our lives for your glory and for your name and for your will that we've been welcomed into your house where all good things are provided and we no longer have to run back to the empty things that lie to us. And God, we praise you for your goodness and for the joy that you've set before us through the cross and through the gospel. And God, I ask that your Holy Spirit would help Christians to repent and to quit believing lies. God, I pray that you would help them to see right now so clearly how empty the well is and how full you are.
And God, I pray that for those who haven't actually placed their faith in you that you would grab them and you would adopt them and you would change their name and you would make them yours. In Jesus' name, Amen. I want to invite you guys to stand and sing with us. In light of what we've just read and what we've just talked about, if you need to spend some time just praying and repenting, I would invite you to do that. And if you, once you repent of your sin, you get to praise Jesus and sing because you've been made alive in Him that all Christians get to celebrate that and that's what we're going to sing.