Why Do I Keep Sinning?

Introduction

Good morning. If you have please open in your New Testament with me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. There are many adjustments to living different places in the United States, different weather, different people, different dialects. Kashka’s least favorite part of Florida is the insects. And I’m not even sure if they qualify, but also, and maybe more specifically at our house now, the spiders. We keep finding them. We kill them, and by we kill them, I mean somebody who’s not me kills them because I don’t like spiders either. And I was born here. And then we see spider webs, and we think, well, that can’t be all of them, so we take down the spider webs, and hey, lo and behold, guess what’s nearby? Another spider.

It’s a constant problem. It takes constant diligence. And it’s not just about the spider webs, it’s the spider itself. Who wants that creepy crawly thing walking across your pillow at night? Now there’s an image. Good night, everybody. It reminds me perhaps a little bit of the one man on Sunday who came forward and he prayed, Lord, please remove the cobwebs from my life. And the preacher leaned in quickly and said, And please kill the spider, too. Because sometimes when it comes to temptation and sin, we handle things like we do around our house. We see the outward manifestation of a problem. We see the cobweb, and we say, all of a sudden, I know I have that creepy crawly spider somewhere. And of course, our focus is to find it, but sometimes it’s more difficult.

We can tear down the cobweb, but if that’s all we do, the spider is still going to be there. Because we’re going to want to confront the ugly reality of sin, and that ugly reality is not only did Jesus die on the cross to forgive us of our sins, but even sometimes as Christians. There’s sin in our life, and it keeps popping up over and over again. We talk a lot in our country on a political level, and even sometimes in in our Bible study about addictions. And we talk about addiction to pornography, addiction to drugs, all kinds of addictions, and we realize that’s a mental hold on us that needs to be shaken. But the truth of the matter is, if we’re really honest, even without labeling it an addiction, if I ask you to close your eyes for one minute and think, is there one or two types of sins that you repeat a lot?

I think just about all of us would say, yeah, I struggle with the same types of problem, whether it’s frustration or how I speak or who I do or don’t speak to. We often have the same types of problems. But why is that the case? Why do I keep struggling not just with sin? Why do I keep struggling with the same sorts of sin? I want to learn this morning from Peter. And in Matthew chapter 16, we see one example of Peter being the every man. We like to rag on Peter, but really Peter just says what a lot of us would be thinking. And Matthew chapter 16 is one of those instances. After one of the pinnacle moments of Peter, pre-crucifixion of Jesus, he has just been told in verse 17, Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I will tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

After this great moment where Peter had the right answer, and Jesus elevates him in front of those who were around. Then verse 21. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan, for you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. We’re going to dive a little deeper into this in a few moments, but consider this the enormity of this moment.

Peter is telling Jesus, who says, I have to be crucified. I’m going to be raised from the dead. And Peter says, No. You’re Jesus. You’re the king. You’re the prophesied Messiah. He obviously didn’t understand all the ramifications of that. So he steps in and he says, Jesus, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. Needless that we just sit and speculate and say, well, that wasn’t a big deal. Jesus’ reaction shows this was absolutely an important point. And when Jesus rebukes him and he says, Get behind me, Satan or adversary, notice the following phrase. That first one gets the highlights, but the second phrase, you are a hindrance to me. For you’re not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

And that last phrase, you are not setting your things on the things focused about God. You’re focused on those things that men get focused on. Do you see that that’s our problem? Our sin keeps creeping back, just like it afflicted Peter here, because we don’t think about what God would want, 24-7, like we are. We struggle, and it’s a temptation, and it is real, and it’s a difficult time to always put God first and not get caught up with things of this life. But for Peter, that wasn’t it. If you keep reading in the book of Matthew, you see Peter had another unfortunately shining moment. In Matthew chapter 26, says you’re turning there. Notice with me first, not what’s on the screen, but verse 56. As Jesus has been approached and betrayed in the garden, we often focus on Peter.

I do want to point out verse 56, though. Jesus says, all of this has taken place that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. In the aftermath of fleeing from Jesus, as he has been betrayed and arrested. Now we come to Matthew chapter 26 and verse 69. And as you read the verses in between, you see Peter was the one trying to keep tabs on what’s going on. Jesus, the one he said shall never be crucified, never have to be raised from the dead, is being betrayed, arrested, and about to be crucified, just as Jesus has already told the disciples time and time again. But in verse 69, now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Galilean.

But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man, and immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and he wept bitterly. So I see Peter, now let’s stop for a moment and think about who is Peter.

Peter is the same one from the earlier passage we read in Matthew chapter 16, who understood who Jesus was, at least from a scholastic standpoint. He was with Jesus a lot. That’s how he keeps having these opportunities to say or do these wrong things. He was around Jesus. He listened to Jesus. He trusted Jesus. But even Peter denied Jesus not once. Not twice, but three times in this one painful moment. And again, worse yet is what we find in verse 75. Not just that Peter denied Jesus, which makes it painful and wrong, and is the sin of the circumstance. Notice what Peter remembers. He remembered the saying of Jesus. Before the rooster crows, you will betray me, deny me three times. And he wept bitterly. Peter knew better.

He had been told he would deny Jesus. And it happened anyway. Sin’s grasp is real. It can happen to any of us and all of us. And if anyone should know what it means to trust in Jesus no matter what. And by the way, about the subject of the crucifixion and resurrection, it should be Peter. Remember, what was he in trouble for in Matthew chapter 16? Telling Jesus, you won’t have to be killed. You won’t need to be raised on the third day. Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. And yet it happened, just as Jesus foretold. And what does Peter do? He denies even knowing Jesus three times. We come into the book of Galatians, you fast forward many years.

And you come to Galatians chapter 2, and you know as the churches are beginning to form, you have the churches that belong to God, the churches of Christ in the New Testament world. And in Galatians chapter 2, Paul has to deal with Peter, who’s still not perfect. Peter, even now, who has become emboldened in his faith, when you read in the book of Acts, you see he is one of the absolute bedrocks of the church. And in Galatians chapter 2, Paul has to do something with Peter. When you read in verse 11, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw their conduct and was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? Translation, Peter, you cannot act the hypocrite. You’re acting one way in front of the Gentiles, but when the Jews come, when you’re afraid of the reaction it’s going to cause, guess who you end up acting like? The very Gentiles you’re saying need to be converted to Jesus. You can’t do that. And from Peter, we look at all these negatives, and there’s so many positives we could study from the New Testament about Peter.

1. Like Peter, We Don’t Fully Embrace God’s Plan

But what I want us to notice in light of these negative attributes, these negative occurrences in Peter’s life, is not that Peter was the worst, but that even one of the best can struggle time and again. There is no moving away from temptation to where it never finds you. It never tracks you down. It never presents itself as a struggle before you. And that realization is going to be important because when we start examining why do I keep sinning? Maybe like Peter, we don’t fully embrace God’s plan. Remember back in Matthew chapter 16, what was the problem? Was it that Jesus could tell what was going to happen? No, that’s not an issue. Was it that Peter didn’t know who Jesus was? That can’t be. He just said, as we have recorded in Matthew chapter 16, who Jesus was.

That was the bedrock principle of the church. So what could it be? That Jesus would have to die. Because Peter either didn’t understand or didn’t want to embrace this plan in which Jesus, the Son of God, came into this life and would be allowed to be crucified because of lawless men. To Peter into any right-thinking mind throughout history, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would the innocent Jesus have to die for the sins of everybody else? Why would the Messiah, why would the begotten Son of God come down and have nails through his hands and shed his blood, and have his body broken because of people who were violating his father’s will? It confounds the mind. I don’t always embrace God’s plan myself either. Can I say how that appears in our life?

Maybe like Habakkuk, who doesn’t outright sin in the way that Peter does to be told, get behind me, Satan. But if you remember a lesson from a few weeks ago, and if not, I’m going to do a quick summary here. In Habakkuk chapter 1 and 2, Habakkuk says, God, there’s all kinds of injustice in Judah. I want you to have a plan about this. And God says, I do have a plan about this. I’m going to send Babylon. And then Habakkuk goes, wait a minute, I don’t like that plan. Right? That’s us. We say, God, make a plan. God gives us a plan. We go, well, okay, make a different plan. I don’t see it that way. I don’t like it that way. I don’t understand that plan.

Have we ever thought any one of these thoughts? They just don’t know what I’m going through. They don’t know what it’s like to deal with the coworkers I have. I have to do this because my job requires it. I can’t talk about Jesus to my friends because they’ll ridicule me. I don’t have the blessings another family does. I don’t have the benefits that this local church does. They don’t understand, you don’t know me, you don’t know what I’m going through. That’s why I live the way I do. Have you ever thought maybe I had no choice but to sin? It’s true that 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13 teaches us that God is faithful and that there’s no sin in which we just have to give in and cater to it.

But can I say that when 1 Corinthians 10 13 says that God is faithful and will always allow a way out? Sometimes the way out of sin is never going into the moment. Sometimes it means not walking into the room, not confronting the issue, removing ourselves from the obstacles. It might be that I keep on sinning because frankly, I just don’t see why I would do anything else. I don’t see the benefit. I don’t see why God requires me to be so stringently binding to his word. Have you ever thought this type of thought? Why does God, and why do God’s people take so seriously the need to come together to worship all the time? Why is it so critical that I pray? Is it really that big of a deal if I don’t read the Word of God?

That can be lumped in the category of not embracing God’s plan. It may be that we understand the benefits of worship, or we are to stir one another up to love and good works, that we learn more about God, that we worship, praise, and give him the thanks and glory that he deserves.

2. I Might Feel Defeated or Outnumbered

But we don’t like it because it’s inconvenient. It’s difficult. I don’t understand why we’re doing it. And so sometimes we just don’t. Consider a second with me. Another reason is I might feel defeated or outnumbered. Have you ever felt that way? You just feel like there’s nowhere to turn. I’m by myself on this island. I can’t get out of it because I have no one to help me. I read in the Bible, I look about the local churches, and I say, These are people who should help me, but here I am all by myself. God says you’re never alone. When you think about Elijah, he shared those thoughts. And again, Elijah liked Peter, perhaps in Matthew 26, who probably felt defeated that Jesus had been taken away and arrested.

That this death that Jesus prophesied was really going to happen. Certainly he felt outnumbered. That’s perhaps why the disciples fled. But you think about Elijah, another man of God, perhaps who could have known God even better than Peter. And Elijah, after the great victory at Mount Carmel in 1 Kings chapter 18, where the prophets of Baal are slaughtered because they have been proven conclusively to any reasonable mind, only our God reigns and lives. When you come to 1 Kings chapter 19, notice just a few of those verses with me. In 1 Kings chapter 19, notice exactly where this great prophet of God is in his mind and where his head’s at, and maybe I can relate it. 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse 3. Then he was afraid.

He rose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. In verse 4, he asks himself and speaks to God, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father’s. Elijah, the great prophet of God in verse 3, was afraid. And verse 4 and 5 says, I need just to move on. Let me just give up. Let me go. I am all alone. And verse 9, behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said in verse 10, I have been very jealous for the Lord the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only am left.

And they seek my life to take it away.

In other parts of the world, there is, unfortunately. But for us, do you ever feel like, you know, I’m the only one? Everywhere I look, there’s sin here, there’s sin there, there’s lying, there’s slander, there’s blaspheming, there’s a lack of care, there’s atheists, there’s agnostics, there’s everyone who doesn’t want to do anything but what’s right. I feel alone. When you look at God’s answers, in verse 11 and 12, first of all, he says, I want you to see what? I want you to see me. And then also the line, of course, that draws most of the attention from 1 Kings chapter 19, as we come down into verse 18, he says, Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

He tells Elijah, you are not alone. I am with you, and there are others with you too. Sometimes, even though we don’t like to talk about it, and it’s those places hidden away in our minds, we keep doing the wrong thing, whether it’s just outbursts of wrath, whether it’s speaking, whether it’s outright blatant sins that even the world recognizes are wrong. Because we feel there’s no point in doing anything else. God’s people are losing. Turn on the news, you’ll get some bad news for sure. You pick the channel, you’ll be depressed. I feel defeated. I might feel outnumbered. And the truth is we are outnumbered. But we’re never going to be defeated. When Jesus says, enter by the narrow way in Matthew chapter 7, we learn not only is there a numbers disadvantage, but what does the narrow way lead to?

3. We Sin Because It’s Easier

It leads to life. Life is possible because of the blood of Jesus. Don’t feel outnumbered or defeated. And if we’re being completely honest, when we go back to Galatians chapter 2 and we think about Peter acting hypocritically around the Jews, because he’s fine to eat with the Gentiles when no one’s there, but when the Jews come, all of a sudden he steps back and goes, Well, I’m not with them. Can we be really honest, even for all of us from age zero to 105? We sin and we do it a lot because it’s easier. It’s hard to restrain yourself. It’s hard to discipline yourself to keep a pattern of putting God first. It’s difficult to do the right thing surrounded by people who are not only doing the wrong thing, but aiming for you in the process.

Take up his cross daily and follow after me. That is the choice that we have. It’s a hard choice. It’s a difficult choice. But when I think about sin, I don’t want the lesson this morning to be we need to make sure we’re not murderers. We need to make sure we’re not rapists, that we don’t steal. I’m talking about every sin that ensnares and tempts each and every one of us. It is possible that we will fail our Lord this day. And if we’re really honest about why, it’s simply because it’s easy. It’s easy to get upset. It’s easy to slander those who have slandered you. It’s easy to lie to those who would lie about you. To use others as a stepping stool rather than as somebody that you should be looking to help up.

4. Recognize the Cost of Sin and the Weight of Salvation

Jesus lived sacrificially for others because he had compassion and love. And we take that for granted as if it’s easy. It’s not. It is the most difficult thing we can do. But embracing that reality is the only way we can understand how to stop. And the first way is to recognize the cost of sin and the weight of salvation. Look in Romans chapter 3. You know Romans 3 and verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But do you know Romans 3, verse 21 and 22? Romans chapter 3, as we think about sin, as we think about the cost of sinning, whether it be a flippant or errant word, or whether it be a rude disposition towards someone, and Romans 3 and verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness. Because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. What do we learn in Romans chapter 3? Yes, we all need the blood of Jesus. That is absolutely Paul’s point. But can we see also that my sin is real?

And no matter what it be, whether it be a moment of sin, a day of sin, a week, year, or months of sin. That when I do wrong, Jesus is crucified because of my weakness. My sin is not a problem that just I face. My sin is a problem that crucified Jesus to the cross. And my sin impacts others and perhaps puts them in a situation. Well, they’ll violate God’s will too. We have to be really serious and count the cost of sin. We think about what it means to follow Jesus and we get galvanized and we say, yes, we didn’t deny ourselves daily and pick up our cross and follow after Jesus. That’s hard, but sign me up. That’s difficult, but I’ll go because it’s worth it.

5. We Have to Know We’re Never Alone

But I also want us to stop and count the other side. What’s the cost of sin? Hell is the cost of unrepentant sin. If we think about eternity every morning, every afternoon, every evening, I’d like to think that’s going to change the way I approach pleasing God. It’s going to change how my flippant view of how I view sin. And it might just save my soul in the process. Secondly, we have to know we’re never alone. In Galatians chapter 6, perhaps there’s another answer to Elijah’s dilemma and one that so many here may be facing. In Galatians chapter 6, not only do we learn in verse 1 that if anyone is caught in any transgression, but you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, that verse 2, we should bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Notice with me in verse 7. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6 is where Paul says we need to look out for one another. We need to be careful what we sow because that’s what we’ll read. But verse 10, on these bases, verse 10, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everybody.

If we think about doing good to everyone, not only will that change my outlook, not only will that allow me to avoid sin and put on the righteous acts of Jesus, to follow in his footsteps. But I might encourage somebody else as well. And if you’re struggling and you feel alone, please reach out. Picking someone up is a two way street. Someone not only has to be down, but someone has to be willing to be pulled up too. I may go around looking and seeing who I can pick up. I may be on the ground, but unless both hands are extended and the offer is accepted, then no one will be getting up from anywhere. We need to know as God’s plan, not only are we not alone because God is faithful and always with us, but we will never be alone.

6. We Need to Always Think of Others

And finally, let’s close with John chapter 13, what Jesus says, we need to always think of others. The easiest way to stop the simple sin, the flippant sin, the patterns of sin that we may not call an addiction, but seem like it in our lives. It might be that our focus is in the wrong place. If we count the cost of eternity and consider the righteousness of Jesus, we’ll be too busy, our plate will be too full to do anything else. In John chapter 13 and verse 31, beginning, when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. And by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Many of you may know I don’t love eating all kinds of vegetables. And by all kinds I mean any kinds of vegetables. So going to potluck places, especially where people are trying to invite Kashk and I proactively into their homes, is a strategic game for me. And so what I do is I find the biggest things that I do like, and I put them on the plate so that it’s full fast.

And so when people look, there’s a nice full plate. Not to mention it tastes good. The same principle applies to our living lives of righteousness. It’s one thing to focus on cutting out sin, but it’s a whole nother to say, you know how I can start cutting out sin? You know how I can begin the narrow pathway? I’m going to fill my life with righteousness. I’m going to say, what would Jesus do? And I’m going to take that on. I’m going to look out in verse 34 and say, not only do I love one another, I have to love the way Jesus sacrificially loved. And that might just mean that my mind is so preoccupied with building up, encouraging, and loving, that there’s no room, place, or time for any discouragement or sin of any kind.

Conclusion

Peter was a great apostle who served the church incredibly well. Because he taught what Jesus commanded. That to have your sins forgiven, you need to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. You need to be willing to confess Him as Lord, not just in the risen Savior, but as the Lord who has control of your life.

Peter needed forgiveness of sins. I need forgiveness of sins. We all do. If you’ve never become a Christian, recognize your sins are upon you. And as Romans 3 23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But if you are a Christian this morning and you’ve erred like I do or like Peter has, recognize forgiveness is possible too. God is faithful. If you will confess your sins, he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness and forgive us of our iniquities. We’ll pray with you. We will pray for you. If we can help you in any way, come now as we stand and sing the invitation song.