Sin No More

Mark Dunagan
01/22/12 - Sunday Morning

Sin No More

In John chapter eight, Jesus encounters a woman who had been caught in adultery.  His parting words to her were, “From now on sin no more” (John 8:11).  While some may have expected this woman to simply slip back into her own ways, Jesus knew that she could live differently. How encouraging! “From now on” her life could be completely different.  He knew that she could go through the rest of her life without committing adultery ever again. 

The Clean Break

How heartening to know that yielding to temptation over and over again need not be the repeated cycle of my future.  It is altogether possible to put the old life behind us:

• “Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to…” (Colossians 3:5).  It is possible to live in a faith-filled life in which nothing in me responds when temptation calls. “How shall we who died to sin still live to it?” (Romans 6:2).
• “No one who abides in Him sins” (1 John 3:6).  Conversion and spiritual growth can result in a lifestyle in which habitual sin has stopped.  And it does not matter what the sin is—any sin can be ceased as a practice. “No one who is born of God practices sin” (1 John 3:9).

What positive, hope-giving words God give us.  While this world is constantly trying to tell us that a person cannot truly change, that everyone is failing, everyone is giving in, everyone is a slave of their appetites and that God’s standards are just too unrealistic and high, yet the truth is that victory over evil is altogether doable!  “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 3:4).   How do we overcoming temptation? Read on.

Believe in the Way of Escape

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Failure, misery, addiction —does not have to be our future.  Surrounding any temptation is allurement, but right beside it are at least an equal number or even more incentives not to sin. Look for them. Focus on them. Use them. Thank God for them.

Talk to Yourself

“I will sing…I will give heed to the blameless way…I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart…I will set no worthless thing before my eyes…I will know no evil” (Psalm 101:1-4).   When it comes to living, we need to continually and honestly speak truth within ourselves.  We need to realize and repeat truths such as:

• “This temptation has always lied to you”.
• “Remember how you felt last time?”
• “Remember seeing what this choice has done to other people's lives?”
• “Do you really want to grieve the God that loves you so much?”
• “Remember how short-lived the pleasure was last time?”
• "What could the consequences look like a month, year or decade from now?"

Be Honest with Sinful Entrances

Often people will justify some sin by telling themselves, “Well at least I am not involved in something even more perverse”.  Yet Thomas Brooks observed, “The giving way to a less sin makes way for the committing of a greater”.  Every sin will kill us (Romans 6:23), yet even within evil there are levels of depravity, from soft to hardcore pornography to alcohol to heroin or meth, from shoplifting to armed robbery.  In order to continue in sin, often the sinner will in a vain attempt to justify it, by rewriting realities. Like Thomas Manton has said, “First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it”. Be honest about sin. Be honest about yourself. And catch your footing early on while you still have the strength.

See the End

Satan does his best to see to it that we cannot see how the dots connect from unbelief and sin to misery, and how a present temptation is going to ruin my future happiness.  His focus is all on the here and now, the pleasure or need of the moment.  He does what he can to see that the real end is not discussed. Yet God is very much about forward thinking:

• “Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity (future)” (Psalm 37:37).
• “Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days” (Proverbs 19:20).
• “Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always.  Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off” (Proverbs 23:17-18).
• “At the last it bites like a serpent” (Proverb 23:32).

Learn from Others

The world often justifies sin by saying that you really are quite "uninformed" unless you first try any given. first.  That one needs to personally experiment with evil in order to have one's "eyes opened", i.e. "Don't knock it, 'till you've tried it," Yet such is not only completely unnecessary when I comes to sin, it leaves the door wide open for Satan's destructive work. One advantage of helping people out of their sin, is growing an aversion ourselves to it, and learning spiritual lessons when dealing with them and seeing their pain and remorse, or as Jude says, “Save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 22).  I believe Jude is speaking of the horror that one should have when they see and hear the stories of how far sin has taken any given individual.  “I have sat with friends of mine who destroyed their ministries through adultery, their faces twisted with shame, tears of sorrow streaming down their cheeks, their consciences racked with despair and disbelief.  And I have prayed silently as I wept with them, ‘God, don’t let me ever forget the expression on his face!  Don’t let me forget that look of anguish and pain!  Let that vivid image stay with me for life.  It’s not worth it, it’s not worth it, it’s not worth it!....As George Hutchenson warned several centuries ago, ‘Take heed an hour, produce not that which may shame us forever’” (Go And Sin No More, Michael L. Brown, p. 81).  Be involved in restoring sinners, both for their sakes and so that your own eyes can be opened concerning how sin can:

• Complicate our lives.
• Destroy years of work.
• Never be hidden in the long run.
• Lead to other sins in our own lives
• Weaken the resolve of those around us to resist temptation.
• Cause long term damage for generations.
• How the damage caused by sin is worlds greater than any pleasure it offered.
• How no one is immune—that is, no one is strong enough to dabble in it and remain untouched.
• How sin can be forgiven—and yet life here may never be the same.

Remember the Joy

• “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22)
• “A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14).

“We can endure almost anything when our spirits are up.  But when we are wounded, crushed, depressed, and down, even a bright sunny day looks bleak” (Michael Brown p. 41).  Sin steals the joy.  We see this vividly in the life of David when he says “My body wasted away, through my groaning all day long…My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer” (Psalm 32:2-4).  This can never be worth it!  Whatever the devil offers cannot make up for losing one's contentment, peace of mind, joy, happiness and confidence.  Sin will steal our confidence as well.  For how can one be truly optimistic about the future, confident about tomorrow, upbeat about what might be up ahead –and all the while be in rebellion to God? 

A Life of No Regret

The devil enjoys humiliating us.  He wants to see us suffer and fail.  The good news is that we can cry out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from the body of his death” (Romans 7:24)—and actually find deliverance in God's omnipotent power!  There is an answer.  “Therefore is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  You can escape from the guilt and the misery.  You can have a great life!

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.com
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net