Living in the Spirit

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.

1 Peter 4:1–6

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.

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.