Christian Indebtedness, No.4
RO104-01

The Differences in Conduct between Believers and Unbelievers

In the person of our Lord Jesus, we see that he defeated the issue of sin and therefore, there is no further dealing with it. This is sometimes why we say the sin problem is solved; sin is not an issue with God. The problem between an unsaved person and God is not the issue of sin; it is the issue of the person of Jesus Christ. And what Peter is saying here is that our Lord has made the physical payment for sin along with his spiritual death, and therefore, he is through dealing with that issue. We should have the same attitude: that the problem of sin is not the issue that we face any longer. The mental attitude of the Christian should be that of having himself, therefore, nothing more to do with sin in his life. Since Christ has solved the problem, and that problem meant that to which we were once slaves, we are no longer slaves. We should put sin aside. It is no longer to be a problem that preoccupies us or controls us. Since the believer is in Christ, he actually positionally, see, has shared in the physical death of the Lord that has freed us from the control of sin.

Therefore, Peter goes on to say in verse 2, "That he [the Christian, who now has this mental outlook of being freed from control and authority of sin] [no longer] should live the rest of his time in the flesh [whatever days God has allowed him to do on this earth, that he no longer should live those days] in the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The born-again person, Peter says, is not to live in the lust patterns of the unsaved world but in obedience of the will of God. The will of God for the Christian in terms of his conduct is what is spelled out in the Bible.

The Bible, I remind you again, is an understandable book, and it is not subject to human approval. That is the problem we face in society today: the question whether the Bible is the book from God; secondly, whether it's understandable; and thirdly, when it speaks, we cannot reason our way out of it; whether we cannot approve or disapprove of it. It is there, it is from God, it is true, and it is not subject to revision. Furthermore, Peter goes on to say that, "For the time past in our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, carousing, and abominable idolatries." And he goes on here to list the kinds of things that used to be characteristic of those of us in our unsaved days in one way or another.

And the point that he is making in verse 3 is that a Christian has to make an open and deliberate break with his past lifestyle. He has to reject the way he used to live. He cannot practice the evils for any reason including to gain the world's approval. And this is a problem that Christians sometimes have: to make that clean break from the old lifestyle. And that's what he's calling upon us to do.

In verse 4, he then points out that the people of the world won't understand that break in which they, the unbelievers, think it's strange that you run not with them to the same profligacy, speaking evil of you. The people of Satan's world system cannot understand why Christians do not eagerly pursue the evils that they practice. Christians therefore are viewed as being narrow-minded, old-fashioned, out-out-touch with reality, and, in fact, downright bigoted. Because you do not think that you should continue in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, carousing, and abominable idolatries. The people of the world do those things; they can't understand what the problem is with you. The claim of the Christian to know the will of God concerning Christian conduct actually, Peter says, enrages the people of the world so that they begin to badmouth the believers. The reaction of unbelievers to our godly Christians is to blaspheme them and to blaspheme the God that they obeyed.

Then Peter reminds all those people of a very important fact in verse 5, "Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Peter says, "Yes, you Christians will come to the point that you say, 'Now there's a lifestyle I cannot live anymore. I used to be engaged in that thing in one way or another, but now I'm through with it. I'm cutting loose from it, and I'm not going to even appear to be doing these things so that the world will accept me in some degree. I'm going to make the break. I'm going to stand out against it. That's what's required of me. The world will resent it. They'll badmouth you. They'll speak evil of you. They'll attack you for it. Now, Peter says, don't forget that while they're doing that, while they are abusing you, they're actually abusing the God you represent, because you are standing for Him and His principles. And their contemptuous treatment will be treatment that they will live to regret. Because God is as ready to judge the evildoers as they are to condemn the godly Christian. And furthermore, Peter puts it in a very strong way when he says, "This God is ready to judge the living and the dead."

There are actually unbelievers who think that if they die, they'll escape it all. This is one reason people commit suicide. They think that if things get so bad and that they have been so bad that somehow, if they die, it will all be done with. I had a Jewish guide on a tour in Israel say to me that he was not concerned about what he was doing because he says, "In contrast to you, I do not believe that there is anything once I die. When they put me in the grave, I am gone, and there nothing. Therefore, I have no anxieties as you do as a Christian about what is beyond after death. How wrong he is, and how tragic it is going to be the day of his awakening of the realities. Because Peter says, "You can die, sure. But you're not going to escape the judgment of God for the lifestyle that you have lived." So we're dealing with some very serious things. Those who pursue evil get great satisfaction in what they do, and furthermore, they love to see other people do the same thing.

In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul, verse 32 says, "Who [the unbelievers] knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Pleasure in seeing other people do the vile things that the Word of God condemns. Every now and then, you will hear an unbeliever say, "Oh yes, I do all those bad things that you're not supposed to do, and I'm going to end up in hell, but all my friends are going to be there with me." And the impression is given that it won't be all that bad. There will be some social relationships. You'll have parties, and you'll be able to do all those terrible things you did before and just have a wild time, and let those Christians sit up there in the cloud with their harps strumming.

That's why the Bible compares it to finding yourself covered with fire and brimstone. And brimstone is the quality of burning that eats away; it's like phosphorus. If phosphorous hits you, it just eats right through, and it's an agony that does not stop. So, people who pursue evil love to have company. And they just delight themselves, they find a strange comfort, that if there are enough people doing what they do, it must be right. And of course, that's the old concept that 51% decide what is right, and that is the basis of reality today.

Now Romans 8:13 that we have paused on, we see that the Apostle Paul makes a very definitive statement concerning all this. For he has told us at the end of verse 13 to mortify, to put to death, the deeds of the body (and the implication by the context is the evil deeds of the body), put to death, reject the evil deeds that the sin nature wants the body to do, and you will experience life.

So, we have paused to look through lists of evils that we ought to put to death in our personal conduct. It is so easy, you know, to know these things, to talk about these things, but something else to put them into effect. It is so easy to forget them at the point we need to act upon them. So we've looked at the list in Titus 3:3. We've looked at the list in Ephesians 4:25-29. We've looked at the list given in the Old Testament in Proverbs 6:16-19. This morning, we begin another list in Ephesians 5:3-4. If you'll turn to that. Ephesians 5:3-4. The deeds to mortify in this list.

Fornication

In 1 Corinthians 5, beginning at verse 9, we read, "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to hold company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world." Paul says, "Now, I have told you, as Christians, not to have associations with those who are guilty of illicit sex, and you know that they are. Now," he said, "I'm not talking about the general world." That's an interesting observation, because Paul is indirectly saying, "I expect the unbeliever to be guilty of fornication, and for you not to have dealings with him, you couldn't go to the grocery store to buy your food, because they people there are guilty of this. You couldn't go to the counter to check out your food, because the person at the checking counter is guilty of this. You would have hardly way of carrying on any life, relationships, because you're moving through a world where this is approved. And Paul says, "That's not what I mean. I know you're going to have to do business with people who themselves are personally evil who have not put to death these evil things, and they can't, as a matter of fact. Verse 11 says, "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother [who is a Christian] be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." And he names some other things that are equally out of keeping for the lifestyle of the Christian.

And you know, the Bible says that those who do evil are fleeing. They're on their guard, they're on edge when no one is pursuing them. Many years ago, I walked up to the front door, coming up to a service, and there was a man there that I knew well, and I walked up and said, "Hi, good morning, sport!" And his eyes, the pupils got big, and he looked around him, he got nervous, and the reaction was amazing. My mental computer took that in, appropriately classified it, and I couldn't explain it. I just put it in the memory bank. It was a strange reaction. It was a reaction of fear almost. Later, I found that his principle in life was that he could not have one woman, though he was married. He had to have many women, and that was his lifestyle. And when I used the word "sport," he associated with that. Now, the Bible says, when you discover someone who claims to be a Christian, as indeed he did, then you act accordingly and you show your approval by withdrawing the social relationships.

So, what Ephesians 5:3 is saying is that we Christians are to reject the appeal of the sin nature to engage in illicit sex. It is an easy appeal, and it easy to do today, especially for young people, because all around us, there is the impact that this is ok, that there is nothing wrong with this, that this is our modern, freer lifestyle. 1 Corinthians 6:18 however says, "Flee fornication. For every sin that a man doeth is outside the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." You want to bring destruction upon your very physical body, here's a way to do it. Play this game of fornication, and it'll affect not only all the things that sin affects outside, but this one will zero-in right around that breathing structure through which the blood must flow and the breath must be able to come in and out of for you to function in this world. And this includes, as the Lord Jesus made clear, what goes on up here in the head. That's the first step of fornication. Serious business.

Uncleanness

A few years ago, there was a group of American entertainers who were commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and they had a special performance in England, in London, in a prestigious theater, with the royal family in attendance. And this was a celebration of a cultural and the social relationships between England and America. And so they were having the commemoration of the independence in England. And in the very presence of the royal family, these American comedians got up, and I could not believe the uncleanness of the jokes they were using - the filthiness of the things that they either said or they alluded to. And you would think that being in the presence of a royal personage, one would some sense of dignity to refrain from doing that, but the sin nature knows no restraint. It wants to do what's dirty, and it enjoys seeing other people participate in it. And indeed, every time some dirty remark was made, everybody in the audience laughed. They had the royal family hidden from view, so I don't know whether they laughed or not, but the rest of them did.

Covetousness

"But they that will be rich [those who have an obsession to be wealthy] fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in their destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some have coveted after, and they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." And again, we are hearing in the news the reports of people in positions of prominence who were guilty of "pleonexia." They were guilty of covetousness, and they have degraded themselves, their positions of trust, by stealing and by doing the things that were illegal in order for them to gain material wealth. Christians should look to God to secure their legitimate needs for earning the funds that they need with which to serve Him, and we should reject the sin nature's appeal of greed to have more. How much is enough? There is no more pathetic sight than a person who has knocked himself out getting more and more and more in life and suddenly comes terminal point. Bingo. Everything is gone, and now only, as the saying says, "One life. Only one life to live. It will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." And to spend it in covetousness for more is very short-sighted.

Filthiness

And the saddest thing about it is to hear this in a young person - some kid in school that believes he's demonstrating his maturity, his manhood, his womanhood by the fact that he can use obscenities. There's something is very offensive when you hear a man using obscenities. There is something just near total shock when you hear a woman do it, and yet it is just commonly done. The Bible says, "Reject the sin nature's appeal to be obscene."

Foolish Talking

Do I have to remind you how much moronic talking you hear to justify something like abortion? How much moronic talking you hear to justify something like communism? I read an interesting article about communism. Communism, which, of course, is based on socialism. Socialism always produces one primary thing, as I hope you've learned; that is, it promotes, it provides scarcity. And one of the greatest scarcities that socialism provides in every socialist country on the face of the earth is a scarcity of food. Do you know how China is currently solving that problem? People do not have an incentive to work to grow food, so they cannot supply themselves with food. So they come over to come over to a country like the United States which is dumb enough to sell them the food.

But in China, they have a whole new approach. I read the other day, the government has started a campaign for people to learn various ways to prepare rats for their meals. The country has billions of rats, and they're encouraging local parties and banquets to use rat meat instead of the other things that they're doing. They believe that in this way, they will help eliminate the rats and they will at the same time provide nourishing protein. And you can't deny that rat meat is very nourishing protein. Now, one of the things that the article went on to say was that the government officials were confused. Why? Well there were no recipes available for the cooking of rat meat, because after all, in China, they have recipes for how to eat earthworms and other delicacies like that and they can't understand about why they have been so backward about developing a cuisine for rats. Well, lots of luck.

There's socialism for you. That's and everything to defend communism and socialism is ultimately to bring you to where you're eating rats. That's the welfare state, and that's where we have an image for the United States, which is where it is going to go, because that is the sure road to national destruction, so we can bring in the end times.

Listen to the moronic language that we are hearing concerning Nicaragua. Here is Soviet Russia and the rest of the communist world pouring armaments in, giving every bit of help that they can in order to break out of the beachhead of Nicaragua and come sweeping up all the way through Mexico right to the Rio Grande. And then, waiting for them to pour across a border in our south which is so long, it's almost indefensible. What is our Congress saying? No, we will not help the Contras who are beating the brains out of the Communists in Nicaragua even with the limited material they have to work with. And one of these men in Congress got up and said, "We cannot do this. If we give military aid to the Contras who are opposing the Nicaraguan government, it will drive the Nicaraguan government into the hands of the Communists."

Now, that was day before yesterday. We've got a bumble brain that hasn't caught on yet that they're already in the hands of the Communists, that they're already in that camp, and that's where they stand. But let's let them get themselves blown out of the water, and then we won't have to face any conflict. Now we could multiply this on and on, and I'll let you do that, but the Word of God says foolish talking is under divine condemnation. And you better be careful, you better get your brains together and your facts together and your ducks lined up in order, before you go sounding off. Christians should not talk stupid. They should talk with biblical orientation to reality.

Foolish Jesting

Christians should always speak as if they were, as indeed they are, in the very presence of God, for God the Holy Spirit indwells them and listens in on all conversations. All of our conversations are tapped by God, and therefore, we should speak with that awareness. Our language should be such even that it cannot be condemned by the worldlings. Because I'll tell you, even the worldlings hate you as a Christian, while they have nothing but contempt for you as a Christian, they'll shove it right down your throat when you don't act what you claim to be. Now if you start using this kind of dirty language, they'll make a great deal of it; rightly they should. So the Bible says, "Reject the sin nature's appeal for vulgar jokes, just to get your cheap laugh." A very sobering list. "Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not fitting: but rather the giving of thanks." Language that cannot be condemned.

Another list is found in Galatians 5, Galatians 5 beginning at verse 19. A very excellent list because it is specifically introduced as the works of the flesh. Here in Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul sits down and says, "I'm going to make a list for you of the kinds of things that the sin nature does. These are the kinds of things you should put to death." Some of these we've touched upon in some way before, but here's this list.

Galatians 5, beginning at verse 19, "Now, the works of the flesh, the works of the sin nature are manifest, which are these: adultery." Adultery is not in the Greek text. The next word, "fornication," is. Fornication is "porneia." This is the word for "sexual immortality" as we have seen in Ephesians 5:3. Same word. Society today has drifted so far from God's will in human sex that people take illicit sex for granted, even to feeling that they can dignify and justify prostitution. Only a deep personal conviction of the fact that God is real, that He's out there, that He has omnipotence, that He has revealed himself, that he has wrath to exercise toward evil, will enable a Christian to reject all the justification that is a thrust against us today for illicit sex. Christians should reject that.

Uncleanness

Lasciviousness

Idolatry

The Lord Jesus pointed back to Deuteronomy 6:5 and said that this is the first and the greatest of all commandments from God, and it says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might." And the implication is the adoration of the true God alone with no substitutes. So idolatry is a serious thing, and if you read on in Deuteronomy 6:10-15, you'll see what the loss is and what the divine discipline is when you fall into idolatry. The sin nature says to substitute something for God; the Word of God says, "Don't do it." Reject any appeal to substitution.

Sorcery

Today, drugs satiate American society with horrendous, destructive results to lives and property. We are constantly hearing of people who are being hit by thieves. Why? Because of the desire for people to get quick money for drugs. And the drug addicts are hitting us constantly, left and right, in order to take from us which you have earned by your labors so that they can indulge this drug experience, and experience which they say expands their consciousness and brings them in touch with the real world. Well, a society which is adrift with respect for the Word of God and obedience to biblical principles is incapable of stopping the drug traffic.

One of our men recently said to me, "I know exactly how we can take a major step towards stopping the drug traffic in the United States." He said, "Number one, automatic death penalty for anybody convicted of selling and dealing in illegal drugs." Now, that would stop a lot of people right there. "Secondly, ten years, no probation - sentence for those convicted of using illegal drugs." Now, when you think about that, you say, "Yeah, that's good." When you have seen what drugs do to a person. When you see what it does to society. And when you become the victim of the thievery that drugs inspires in order for people to be able to finance the habit, you rise up in enragement, and you say, "Yes, I'd like to see that, and that sure would stop it."

You know the problem? The country could not rise to that kind of a status of righteous indignation; it is so degenerate. Secondly, how would you have enough prisons to hold all the people who are now engaged in the use and the sale of drugs in the United States? But here again, we have an end-picture situation. The Bible is very clear that one of the things for which God finally condemns mankind is the widespread, worldwide use of drugs. The problem is impossible to solve in a degenerate society. This which violates the very temple of God, the Bible says, "Reject it; have nothing to do with it."

Hatred

When communism takes over a country, when they came into Cambodia, you know how they followed the Marxist-Leninist doctrine? They lined the people up, and they examined them as to what their background was. If you were born into the family of a laborer, you were put in one group. If they found that you were in the family of a businessman, you were immediately executed. And out of six million people, three million were rapidly destroyed in Cambodia, and many of those simply because they were in a class that the Communists say, "Hate them." The hostility toward racial and ethnic groups, which God himself has created, the sin nature says, "Do it." God says, "Reject it."

Strife

Jealousy

Wrath

Factions

Seditions

Heresy

The book of Galatians 5 then has listed for us a very serious list of the things of the flesh. They lust against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusts against them. And here they are. "They are manifest: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, seditions, heresies, envies, drunkenness, revelings, and the like of which. I tell you before, as I've told you in the past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." This is what takes people into hell. And if you and I, as Christians who are headed for heaven, do the same things, how far have we sunk indeed? This is the kind of thing that Paul says, "Put to death in your experience."

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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