Ray Pritchard

Keep Believing Ministries

At the Passion 07 conference in Atlanta last week, John Piper preached a remarkable message with a

remarkable title: How to Deal With the Guilt of Sexual Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global

Cause. The title brings together several themes that at first glance seem unrelated – guilt, sexual sin, the glory

of Christ and the global cause of world missions. If someone wants to know how preaching in the 21st

century can be both biblical and yet realistic and ultimately hope-giving, then read this sermon.

Piper starts with the assumption that many young people struggle with the guilt of sexual sin (a fact we all

recognize), but he goes further and says that that guilt often leads them to give up on serving the Lord and to

settle for a life of middle class materialism. The tragedy here is that Satan then wins a double victory – once

when the original sin occurred, and later (and sometimes for a lifetime) when that residual guilt keeps them

from doing anything for the Kingdom. Here is a taste of what Piper said:

He summarizes a vast area of truth in two rather shocking statements: Theology can conquer biology.

Justification can conquer fornication. I've never seen it put that way before, but it certainly strikes me as a

biblical formulation. Note that he doesn't say "theology will conquer biology," as if victory over sin is

automatic. Theology provides the foundation and justification puts in you a position to receive God's lifechanging

power, but then you must fight and fight hard and keep on fighting, knowing that sometimes you

will fail. What then? Either you give in (which is what the advocates of homosexuality support) or you stand

and fight in Jesus' name, fighting in the power of the Lord but fighting nonetheless. Piper again:

I met a man, a good man, a godly man, a man who truly loves the Lord who told me of his struggle with

homosexual temptation. He is far advanced in years. He told me that when he was in his fifties, he thought

here would come a time when he was no longer tempted. But, he said, it is not so. By God's grace, he has not

given in for almost sixty years. Yet he fights the battle daily. I said he is a good man and I mean that. Fighting

sin -- and sometimes falling (and we all fall and fail in many ways) -- is not a mark of unbelief. Fighting hard

and ending up bruised and bloody is a sign that you have been in the arena for the Lord. Those who give in

and then make excuses are in much worse condition.

I will not quote from the end of the sermon because I do not want to spoil it for you except to say he actually

tells young people what to say on the morning after sexual failure. Here is preaching that mixes strong

theology with gritty realism about the temptations and failures we all experience. John Piper points the way

out of despair to lasting hope in Christ. This is great preaching, and I am happy to commend it to you.

By John Piper / January 4, 2007

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/EventMessages/ByDate/1927_How_to_Deal_with_the_Guilt_of_Sexua

l_Failure_for_the_Glory_of_Christ_and_His_Global_Cause/

The closest I have ever come to being fired from my position as a pastor of Bethlehem Baptist

Church in the last twenty-six years was in the mid eighties when I wrote an article for our church

newsletter titled “Missions and Masturbation.”

The article didn’t come out of nowhere, and my mentioning here is not mainly to get your attention,

but because it has to do with the core issue of what you have been looking at in Colossians 1-3 and

what my global dreams for you are in the Passion movement.

I wrote the article after returning from a missions conference in Washington, D. C. with George

Verwer, the head of Operation Mobilization.

A Dream That Faded

Verwer’s burden in that conference was the tragic number of young people (like many of you) who

at one point in their lives dreamed of radical obedience to Jesus and were joyfully willing to lay down

their lives and sacrifice anything to make Jesus known among the nations, but then faded away into

useless, American prosperity because of a gnawing sense of unworthiness and guilt over sexual

failure that gradually gave way to spiritual powerlessness and the dead-end dream of the middle class

security and comfort.

In other words, what seemed so tragic to George Verwer—as it does to me—is that so many young

people were being lost in the cause of Christ’s mission because they were not taught how to deal

with the guilt of sexual failure.

Note carefully how I am saying it: They were not taught how to deal with the guilt of sexual failure.

The problem is not just how to not to fail. The problem is how to deal with failure so that it doesn’t

sweep you away into a whole life of wasted middle-class mediocrity with no impact for Christ.

The Main Tragedy

The great tragedy is not mainly masturbation or fornication or acting like a peeping Tom (or curious

Cathy) on the internet. The tragedy is that Satan uses the guilt of these failures to strip you of every

radical dream you ever had, or might have, and in its place give you a happy, safe, secure, American

life of superficial pleasures until you die in your lakeside rocking chair, wrinkled and useless, leaving

a big fat inheritance to your middle-aged children to confirm them in their worldliness. That’s the

main tragedy.

I have not come to Atlanta to waste your time or mine. I have come with a passion that you not

waste your life. My aim is not mainly to cure you of sexual misconduct. I would like that to happen.

O, God let it happen! But mainly I want to take out of the devil’s hand the weapon that exploits the

sin of your life to destroy your valiant dreams, and make your whole life a wasted worldly success.

Do you know the real, deeper meaning of Passion’s “Do Something Now” campaign?

20,000 towels for Atlanta shelters,

11 wells for fresh water in Africa,

college education for 20 international Compassion students,

the New Testament translated for the Dela people of Indonesia,

a freedom center for the Kurds in Northern Iraq,

life-changing surgery for kids in South America,

Bibles for families in East Asia,

liberation for those enslaved in sex trafficking.

The Point: Your Life

What’s the point of all that? The point is not this is what you do with your loose change. The point

is: This is what you do with your life. You don’t want always be sitting high in your SUV dropping

nickels into other people’s dreams. Satan wants that for you. But you don’t! You want to dream your

own dream for the glory of Christ. Why am I on this planet? What has God put me here for?

What broke George Verwer’s heart back in the eighties, and breaks mine today, is not mainly that

you have sinned sexually, but that this morning Satan took your 2 AM encounter in the hotel

room—whether on TV or in bed—and told you: “See, you’re a loser. You may as well not even go

to worship. No way are you going to make any serious commitment of your life to Jesus Christ! You

may as well go back to school and get a good practical education, and then a good job so you can

buy yourself a big wide screen and watch sex till you drop.”

I want to take that weapon out of his hand. Yes, I want you to have the joyful courage not to even

do the channel surfing. But sooner or later, whether it’s that sin or another, you are going to fall. I

have come to Atlanta to help you deal with the guilt of that failure so that Satan does not use it to

produce another wasted life.

Two Headings

So here is where we are going: First, we will link up with where many of your have been in

Colossians in your Community Groups. And second, we will go to the prophet Micah to see what

victory looks like the morning after failure.

If it will help to have two headings, here they are: (1) Theology can conquer biology. Or another way to

say it more specifically: Justification can conquer fornication. (2) Trust Christ to the hilt with gutsy guilt.

1. Theology Can Conquer Biology

The backdrop of all the teaching in Colossians 1-3 is Colossians 3:6, “On account of these the wrath

of God is coming.” Hanging over the whole world is the holy, just, unimpeachable anger of God at

sin and rebellion. His wrath is coming and the salvation spoken of in Colossians 1-3 is rescue from

that. No one wants to meet the wrath of “the Lamb” when it comes (Revelation 6:16). So God, in

his mercy makes a way out.

And what is distinctively Christian about the teachings of these chapters is that our rescue was most

decisively accomplished for us by another and was done outside of us. In other words, Christ did

something in history before we existed that obtained and guaranteed our rescue and the

transformation of all who would come to trust in him. The distinctive and crucial thing about

Christian salvation is that Christ accomplished it decisively for us and outside of us and without our

help. And when we put our faith in him we do not add to the sufficiency of what he accomplished

in covering our sins and achieving the righteousness that counts as ours.

For You and Outside of You

The clearest verses on this point are Colossians 2:13-14, “And you, who were dead in your

trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven

us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Those last words are the most crucial. This—this record of debt that stood against us—God set

aside, nailing it to the cross. When did that happen? Two thousand years ago. It did not happen in

you, and it did not happen with any help from you. God did that for you and outside of you.

Make sure you see this most glorious of all truths: God took the record of all your sins—all your

sexual failures—that made you a debtor to wrath, and instead of holding them up in front of your

face and using them as the warrant to send you to hell, he put them in the palm of his Son’s hand

and nailed them to the cross.

Substitutionary Atonement

Whose sins were nailed to the cross—or more precisely, whose sins were punished on the cross? My

sins and yours—the sins of all who despair of saving themselves and trust in Christ alone. Whose

hands were nailed to the cross—or more precisely, who was punished on the cross? Jesus was.

There is a beautiful name for this. It’s called a substitution.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:3, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he

condemned sin in the flesh.” He condemned sin in the flesh. Whose sin? Ours. Jesus had none (it

was the likeness of sinful flesh, not sinful flesh). He condemned our sin in the flesh. Whose flesh?

Jesus’ flesh, not ours.

Have you ever wondered what the next verse in Colossians 2:15 means? Right after saying that God

nailed the record of our debt to the cross, Paul says, “[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and

put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” This is a reference to the devil and all

his demonic hosts. How are they disarmed? How are they defeated? Don’t they prowl around like a

roaring lion today (1 Peter 5:8)?

The answer is: They have many weapons. They can do much damage. But they are disarmed of the

one weapon that can damn us. The weapon of unforgiven sin. Be sure you see the connection

between Colossians 2:14 and 15. In 2:14, it says God nailed the record of our debt to the cross. It’s

punished. It’s finished. And in the next breath he says that God disarmed the rulers and authorities.

He triumphed over them. Sure, they can beat us up. They can make us see weird things on the walls

of our rooms. They can shake your house and cause lying signs and wonders. They accuse you and

call you a loser, but they cannot damn you. That weapon is out of their hands. Only unforgiven sin

damns. And that was nailed to the cross for everyone of you who despairs of saving yourself and

trusts in Jesus.

A License to Sin?

I know that there are hundreds in this room right now who see so little of the beauty of Christ in

this salvation that it simply sounds to them like a license to go on sinning. If all my sins are nailed to

the cross, then let’s all sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). Paul confronted that blindness in

his own day and said, “Their condemnation is just” (Romans 3:8). The reason they will be

condemned is that we are saved by grace through faith. That’s plain in Colossians 2:12, “You were also

raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God.” This faith connects you with Jesus so

that his death counts for your death and his righteousness counts for your righteousness (compare

Romans 5:1, “by faith” and 8:1 “in Christ”). And this faith receives Christ. It’s not a performing. It’s

not an adding to what Christ has done. It is a receiving. Saving faith receives Jesus as Savior and

Lord and Treasure of your life.

And this faith will fight anything that get’s between it and Christ. The distinguishing mark of saving

faith is not perfection. The mark of faith is not that I never sin sexually. The mark of faith is that I

fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior. I fight anything that

diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace

Jesus as the supreme Treasure of my life. Anything that stands between me and receiving Jesus faith

fights—not with fists or knives or guns or bombs, but with the truth of Christ.

So if all you can see in the cross of Jesus is a license to go on sinning, you don’t have saving faith.

And you need to fall on your face and plead that God would open your eyes to see the compelling

glory of Jesus Christ.

Justification Can Conquer Fornication

Now I said that one heading over this first point would be theology can conquer biology. Another way to

put it I said was justification can conquer fornication. I haven’t spoken about justification, but it is very

closely related to the work of God in nailing our sins to the cross in Christ Jesus.

Justification is the act by which God declares us not only forgiven because of the work of Christ, but

also righteous because of the work of Christ. God requires two things for our right standing before

him: 1) our sins must be punished and 2) our lives must be righteous. But we cannot bear our own

punishment (Psalm 49:7-8), and we cannot provide our own righteousness. None is righteous; no,

not one (Romans 3:10).

Therefore, God, out of his immeasurable love for us, provided his own Son to do both. Christ bears

our punishment and performs our righteousness. And when we receive Christ as the Savior and

Lord and Treasure of our lives, all of his punishment and all of his righteousness is counted as ours

(Romans 4:4-6; 5:19; 5:1; 8:1; 10:4; Philippians 3:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Ballast of Knowing Christ

When I say theology can conquer biology and justification can conquer fornication I mean that a deep and

growing biblical knowledge of God and Christ and the cross and salvation and faith and how God

does it all for the glory of Christ can give such ballast to the boat of your life that the wind of

temptation will not be able to tip it over so easily. The reason this is not a popular remedy for

temptation today is because it is not a quick fix. It’s the work of a lifetime.

The prophet cries out, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;” “My people are destroyed for

lack of knowledge” (Hosea 6:3; 4:6). Our people are laid waste with sexual temptation and failure and

guilt because their soul and their mind have shriveled down to the size of a TV sitcom.

And of course someone will say to me when this talk is over: “You think theology conquers biology?

I know a Ph.D. in theology who ran off with the department secretary.” Of course theology by itself

won’t keep you out of bed with your boyfriend or girlfriend. I am not replacing passion for Jesus

with theology. I am saying that the human soul was made to be strong in the rich, deep, powerful

knowledge of Colossians 1-3. For too long we have belittled theology in favor of passion, or

belittled passion in favor of theology. We were created to know much about God, and we were

created to feel much for God.

and justification by faith (even if you don’t remember the names), you can conquer the devil tomorrow

morning when he lies to you about your hopelessness.

2. Trust Christ to the Hilt with Gutsy Guilt

And what will you say to him? I conclude with my second point, Trusting Christ to the hilt with gutsy

guilt. Micah 7:8-9 is a picture of what you say to your enemy when he scoffs at your defeat. Here is

what you say. My summary of these words is to call them gutsy guilt. I call it that because the believer

admits that he has done wrong and that God is dealing roughly with him. But even in a condition of

darkness and discipline, he will not surrender his hold on the truth that God is on his side. Listen to

these amazing words. Mark them. Memorize them. Use them whenever Satan tempts you to throw

away your life on trifles because that’s all you’re good for.

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a

light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads

my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his

vindication. (Micah 7:8-9)

This is what victory looks like the morning after failure. Meditate on it long and hard when I am

gone. Learn to take your theology and speak like this to the devil or anyone else who tells you that

Christ is not capable of using you mightily for his global cause. Here is what you say:

The Increasing Preciousness of Christ

O my brothers and sisters, when you learn to deal with the guilt of sexual failure with this kind

brokenhearted boldness, this kind of theology, this kind ofjustification by faith, this kind substitutionary

atonement, this kind of gutsy guilt, this kind of unshakable position that you have in the crucified, risen,

invincible king Jesus Christ—when you learn to deal with the guilt of sexual failure this way, you will

fall less often. Because Christ will become increasingly precious to you. And best of all, Satan will

not be able to destroy your dream of a life of radical obedience to Christ. George Verwer will not

have preached in vain. I will not have written my “Missions and Masturbation” article in vain, I

will not have come to Atlanta in vain, and the Passion movement will not exist in vain because

by this Christ-exalting gutsy guilt thousands of you—thousands of you—will give your lives to

spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus

Christ. Lord, may it be so.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org.

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