Are We Fighting Against Sin or for Joy?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, is holiness the fight against sin

00:00:06.680 | or is holiness the fight for joy in God?

00:00:10.760 | It's a very good question from a listener named Kendall.

00:00:13.880 | Hello, Pastor John, a group of guys and myself

00:00:15.800 | have been reading through your book, "Desiring God."

00:00:18.120 | Awesome book, thank you for it.

00:00:20.360 | My question in overcoming sin and temptation,

00:00:23.280 | the strategy most of us attempt to employ

00:00:25.600 | is to fight it, overcome it, outpower it and outwill it.

00:00:29.480 | But after reading the first few chapters of your book,

00:00:31.360 | I'm wondering if our job as Christians

00:00:32.880 | is not to fight against something,

00:00:35.240 | but to fight for something else,

00:00:36.920 | namely joy and pleasure in God.

00:00:39.720 | My heart was created to be pleased,

00:00:41.760 | so when I fight against sin,

00:00:43.920 | am I unwittingly fighting against my own nature

00:00:46.560 | to find pleasure?

00:00:47.740 | I understand that sin offers a certain level

00:00:49.840 | of satisfaction and pleasure,

00:00:51.140 | so to fight against it with no better satisfaction in view

00:00:55.040 | is to deny my own humanity,

00:00:57.080 | but to fight for pleasure in God

00:00:59.000 | as a means of overcoming sin and temptation

00:01:01.360 | affirms my desire to be pleased

00:01:04.200 | and reorients my desire to its proper place.

00:01:07.760 | So should we fight against sin

00:01:09.720 | or instead should we fight for pleasure in God,

00:01:13.000 | which will in turn kill our sin?

00:01:15.400 | What would you say, Pastor John, to Kendall?

00:01:17.160 | - Maybe the most important thing to say to Kendall is this,

00:01:22.160 | put every question like that through the sieve of the Bible.

00:01:28.760 | When you pose an either or question,

00:01:32.280 | be sure to ask, does the Bible treat these as either or?

00:01:37.280 | So the last way he asked the question I think was,

00:01:41.280 | should we fight against sin

00:01:43.960 | or instead should we fight for pleasure in God,

00:01:48.960 | which will in turn kill our sin?

00:01:53.320 | So if you walk into a question assuming an either or

00:01:56.680 | like that, when it's a both and,

00:01:59.600 | you will force the Bible to say what it doesn't wanna say.

00:02:03.100 | So in this sense, I want to say as clearly as I can,

00:02:07.840 | the Bible does not say we should choose

00:02:12.140 | between fighting against sin

00:02:14.300 | and fighting for pleasure in God.

00:02:17.840 | What it says loud and clear and scary forceful

00:02:23.040 | is that we should with all our might fight against sin,

00:02:28.040 | like cut off your hands and gouge out your eyes

00:02:32.320 | if you have to, to not sin,

00:02:35.160 | in order that we might kill the very thing

00:02:38.560 | that prevents us from having pleasure in God.

00:02:42.480 | So instead of asking, should we fight against sin

00:02:46.800 | or should we fight for pleasure in God?

00:02:50.240 | I think we should ask, how do we go about fighting

00:02:55.040 | against sin so that the outcome is a deep

00:02:59.240 | and lasting pleasure in God

00:03:02.000 | and then avoids sin without such a battle?

00:03:06.440 | So just to make clear from the Bible,

00:03:10.360 | my strong emphasis on the negative side

00:03:13.760 | of fighting against sin, consider these texts,

00:03:17.480 | Colossians 3, 5, "Put to death therefore

00:03:20.840 | what is earthly in you, sexual immorality,

00:03:23.800 | impurity, passion."

00:03:25.780 | Romans 8, 13, "If you live according to the flesh,

00:03:29.360 | you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death

00:03:33.540 | the deeds of the body, you will live."

00:03:35.200 | Or 1 Corinthians 9, 26, "I don't run aimlessly.

00:03:40.200 | I do not box as one beating the air,

00:03:43.960 | but I discipline my body.

00:03:46.240 | I pommel my body, keep it under control,

00:03:49.420 | lest after preaching to others,

00:03:50.840 | I myself should be disqualified."

00:03:53.400 | Ephesians 4, 22, "Put off your old self."

00:03:58.160 | Titus 2, 11, "The grace of God has appeared,

00:04:01.740 | bringing salvation for all people,

00:04:03.960 | training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions."

00:04:08.800 | Romans 6, 13, "Do not present your members to sin

00:04:13.680 | as instruments of unrighteousness."

00:04:16.240 | Matthew 5, 29, "If your right eye causes you to sin,

00:04:20.160 | tear it out and throw it away.

00:04:22.440 | Better that you lose one of your members

00:04:25.540 | than that your whole body be thrown into hell."

00:04:27.400 | So there's no question that we should fight against sin.

00:04:32.400 | And this is surely part of what Jesus meant

00:04:35.320 | when he said, "Deny yourself, take up your cross

00:04:38.020 | and follow me."

00:04:40.520 | But, Kendall is absolutely right in pointing out

00:04:45.520 | that this negative battle will never suffice

00:04:50.080 | in the pursuit of holiness and godliness and Christ-likeness

00:04:53.120 | and a life of sacrificial love.

00:04:56.400 | Jesus pointed out that if you drive out a demon

00:05:00.560 | and leave the house swept and cleaned,

00:05:03.240 | seven more demons are gonna come home.

00:05:06.420 | Negative struggles never suffice

00:05:09.600 | to provide power for godliness.

00:05:12.200 | And C.S. Lewis threw this door open for me

00:05:16.280 | 50 years ago with this quote.

00:05:19.960 | Very familiar for anybody who's read "Desiring God."

00:05:23.360 | "The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial,

00:05:27.760 | but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

00:05:30.600 | We're told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses

00:05:33.780 | in order that we may follow Christ.

00:05:35.520 | And nearly every description of what we shall ultimately

00:05:38.280 | find when we do so contains an appeal to desire.

00:05:42.800 | Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward

00:05:47.400 | and the staggering nature of the rewards promised

00:05:50.520 | in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord

00:05:53.400 | finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

00:05:58.400 | We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink

00:06:02.000 | and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us

00:06:06.600 | like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies

00:06:10.880 | in the slum when he cannot imagine what is meant

00:06:14.800 | by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

00:06:16.960 | We are far too easily pleased."

00:06:20.400 | In other words, telling ourselves no when tempted by sin

00:06:25.400 | is simply one strategy of making possible

00:06:30.880 | for our souls to feel what a holiday at the sea

00:06:34.960 | is like spiritually.

00:06:37.880 | If Jesus offers himself to us as a all-satisfying treasure,

00:06:42.880 | and between us and Jesus, the devil is presenting himself

00:06:47.920 | to us as an angel of all-satisfying light,

00:06:51.720 | well, we need to run him through with the sword

00:06:55.080 | of the Spirit and kill the temptation,

00:06:58.600 | not as an end in itself, but so that we have access

00:07:03.600 | to Jesus who is all-satisfying.

00:07:07.200 | Here's the way Paul put it in Philippians 3, 7.

00:07:11.000 | "Whatever gain I counted as loss, whatever gain I had,

00:07:14.640 | I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

00:07:17.600 | Indeed, I count everything as loss

00:07:20.120 | because of the surpassing value

00:07:22.480 | of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord."

00:07:26.400 | And here's the way Jesus put it when he talked

00:07:29.080 | about self-denial in relationship to the kingdom.

00:07:32.320 | It says, Matthew 13, 44, "The kingdom of heaven

00:07:34.640 | is like a treasure hidden in a field

00:07:36.760 | which a man found and covered up,

00:07:38.440 | and then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has."

00:07:43.440 | Now that's self-denial, right?

00:07:45.600 | You sell all that you have and buys that field.

00:07:49.480 | So in the end, such a deal, right?

00:07:52.520 | You sell all that you have, which looks like self-denial

00:07:55.240 | to the world, and you gain the kingdom of heaven

00:07:57.480 | and everlasting, eternal, supreme joy, such a transaction.

00:08:02.480 | We can joyfully sell everything

00:08:07.520 | because of the value of Christ.

00:08:09.440 | One more example because of what love really is

00:08:13.480 | in Hebrews 10, 34.

00:08:16.800 | "You had compassion on those in prison,

00:08:19.960 | and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property

00:08:23.640 | since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession

00:08:27.960 | and an abiding one."

00:08:29.360 | So the reason they could joyfully accept

00:08:34.120 | the plundering of their property, that's self-denial,

00:08:37.560 | that's loss, that's the willingness to sacrifice,

00:08:42.560 | is because they felt a superior value

00:08:46.920 | of what they had in Christ,

00:08:48.760 | which means the main battle for love

00:08:51.960 | is a battle, like Kendall says,

00:08:54.920 | a battle for falling in love with the treasure given by God

00:08:59.920 | and which is God.

00:09:01.800 | So yes, many times we will meet the enemy of temptation

00:09:06.800 | with the resounding, "No, get out of my life.

00:09:11.000 | You can't have me."

00:09:13.440 | And we will do that first

00:09:16.720 | because we've tasted the superior value of Jesus.

00:09:22.080 | And because we want more of Jesus.

00:09:26.560 | Amen, self-denial in service to our eternal pursuit

00:09:30.440 | of more and more joy in Jesus.

00:09:33.280 | This is brilliant.

00:09:34.120 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:35.520 | Podcast listeners out there,

00:09:36.640 | have you read the book "Desiring God"?

00:09:38.800 | If not, I would encourage you to do it,

00:09:41.480 | find some friends and go through it.

00:09:43.400 | The book is titled "Desiring God,

00:09:45.240 | Meditations of a Christian Hedonist."

00:09:47.760 | It's available at Amazon

00:09:49.120 | or wherever quality theology books are sold.

00:09:52.360 | Thanks for listening today over at our online home.

00:09:54.680 | You can explore all 1,250 of our episodes,

00:09:57.160 | scan a list of our most popular ones,

00:09:58.680 | read full transcripts, and send us a question of your own.

00:10:01.460 | Go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:10:05.120 | So how did John Piper become a Christian hedonist himself?

00:10:09.520 | It is a really good question.

00:10:12.040 | It's a fascinating story.

00:10:13.520 | And we're gonna hear the 10 stages

00:10:15.280 | or the 10 steps of that story

00:10:17.340 | when we return on Friday.

00:10:19.200 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:20.560 | We'll see you then.

00:10:21.560 | (upbeat music)

00:10:24.140 | (upbeat music)

00:10:26.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Are We Fighting Against Sin or for Joy?

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