by John MacArthur excerpted from The Wonders of Our Redemption
"What were we redeemed from? What were we redeemed with? Who were we redeemed by? And what were we redeemed for? Let's answer the first question at least, okay?
Question number one, what were we redeemed from? What's the obvious answer? From what? Sin, good. Scripture certainly supports that men are in bondage to sin, that men and women are slaves to iniquity. I don't want to belabor the point because I know you understand it but I want to be true to an explanation of the passage so let me give you some refreshing reminders of this."
John goes on here and discusses Romans 6, Galatians 3, Ephesians 1 and Hebrews 9 in explanation. Skipping down to the Hebrews 9 explanation here..
John goes on here and discusses Romans 6, Galatians 3, Ephesians 1 and Hebrews 9 in explanation. Skipping down to the Hebrews 9 explanation here..
"One other verse comes to mind, I think it's verse 15 of...yes, Hebrews 9. It says there, "And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant." And again we have the idea that we are redeemed from sin. Okay? That's the general thought. Now let's go back to our passage and let me show you some specifics. And the news is all bad, first of all, as we look at what we were redeemed from. Okay? Four elements characterize unredeemed sinners. If this is what you were redeemed from this is what you used to be characterized by, okay? So did I. Four words I want you to draw your attention to.
The first one appears in verse 14 and we reach back a little bit to pick this one up but it helps us understand the sinfulness of sin and its character. In verse 14 it says, "Do not be conformed now that you are obedient children to the former lusts." Okay. The first characteristic of sin is lust...lust. This is an element of the sinfulness of unredeemed sinners. They are basically controlled by lust. Now what is lust? Epithumia, strong desire, strong desire in the heart for what is evil...that's the basic idea. It has to do with a compelling driving passion for what is evil. And so the character of unredeemed sinners is that they are driven by strong desires.
The character of those desires is further defined in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where it says in verse 5 that we are not to behave in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God. And again he says that this lust is a passion and it is a godless passion. So unredeemed sinners are driven by unrestrained desire for what is evil.
Now I want to dig into this a little bit because I think it's very very fascinating. Do you remember Genesis 6:5? Do you remember that verse? Genesis 6:5, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only...what?...evil continually." Now let me get that verse down for you, write it down somewhere because it really characterizes unredeemed sinners. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and here is a definition of that wickedness. Every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. That is a graphic to the point description of the driving impulse of lust. What is it? It's every imagination of the thought of his heart.
Now let me help you see what that means, okay? The heart is the mind...the heart is the mind basically, where you think. So we understand what it means when it says the thoughts of his heart. But what does he mean "every imagination of the thoughts of the heart?" He adds another dimension here, something, somehow distinct from thought, something, if you will, that energizes thought, something that compels thought. Could it be lust? It can be. Lust is certainly associated with the imagination. Basically the same idea comes through in James 1, listen to these words. "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own...what?...lust. Then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin." Same idea. There's something else in you beside thought, it's lust. And it works in your imagination. I love that word, we don't use that word much. Many of the old writers in Christian literature used the word imagination, it's a tremendous word. In many of the new translations they don't use the word imagination, but they do in the King James and I think it keeps the perspective clear. Let me just give you an illustration of how it's used and I can do that by looking at nothing beyond the book of Jeremiah alone.
I was studying this and just digging into it, just listen to this, for example,Jeremiah 3:17, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord," and this is looking ahead to the glories of the future, "and all the nations shall be gathered unto it to the name of the Lord to Jerusalem...now listen...neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination of their evil heart." Chapter 7 down about verse 24, yes, "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels...follow...and in the imagination of their evil heart." Chapter 9 verse 14, talking again of disobedient people, "They have walked after the imagination of their own heart," then he brings up Balaam as well. There's another one in chapter 11 I believe, verse 8, "Yet they obeyed not nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart." Over in chapter 13 and verse 10, "This evil people which refused to hear My words which walk in the imagination of their heart." Chapter 16 verse 12, "And you have done worse than your fathers for behold you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart." Chapter 18, I think it's the same verse 12, it says, "We will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart." And then at least one more I can give you, chapter 23 verse 17, yes, "You shall have peace, they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart no evil shall come upon you."
In looking at the Authorized Version and going through just that one book, you can see that the concept of the imagination was very much a part of the thinking. Now let me tell you how sin works. Sin works in your imagination. And in the imagination of a person is where he or she builds the fantasies. That's where you develop the fantasies that are the impulses to behavior. For example, I am tempted let's say to do something wrong. The temptation comes to me. If I don't deal with it immediately it enters in to my thoughts. I think of it as a temptation. I think of doing it. "Oh I could do that, that might feel good." And then if I continue to think about it it goes from that thought into my...what?...my imagination. And pretty soon I am building the scenario of forbidden pleasure and I'm feeding that thought. It's now in my imagination and I have created the fantasy that...listen to me...will move my emotions which will activate my will which will create the action. That is why so many of the ancient writers said you have to control the imagination. The problem with unredeemed humanity is it can't. Sin works in the imagination. And, of course, the imagination is totally dominated by sin...totally. What else could it be dominated by?
In Luke 1:51 Mary gives that great Magnificat as she magnifies the Lord and she says of the Lord, "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts." Sin starts out as a thought. It is fed in the imagination. And when the imagination concocts the fantasy scenario, lust is excited and it moves the emotion and emotion activates the will and conduct is a result. Listen carefully, in dealing with sin imagination becomes more fundamental in thinking in some ways. And I don't want to split hairs here but I want you to understand it. Imagination becomes more fundamental than thinking and it is what energizes the thought into fantasy that activates the emotion which moves the will. So it is in the imagination that our flesh comes to consciousness in the form of mental pictures of pleasure...mental pictures of certain experiences we believe will make us happy, or certain experiences we believe will fulfill us.
And by the way, the flesh controls the imagination in the unredeemed. And it can control yours too as a Christian. And the flesh controlled imagination produces distortions and lies about everything. Lies about oneself, lies about the world, lies about relationships, lies about God, lies about the nature of things, lies about pleasure, lies about fulfillment, lies about joy. And those lies and distortions in the flesh-controlled imagination lead directly to gross sin, depression, hardness of heart, bitterness, all kinds of sinful behavior and greater and greater misery. And the imagination is where lust conceives.
Let me give you an illustration. This is true for us as Christians so let me move into that realm for a moment. You're a Christian, right? Let's say you're a Christian young person and you're out alone with someone that you care very much about of the opposite sex, you're very attracted to that person. And you are in a situation where you are tempted. This thought will be in your mind. This sin will feel good if I do it. That's a thought, I want to do that it will feel good. If you're a Christian this thought will also be in your mind, this sin will displease God. Will you not have both thoughts? Of course you will, both thoughts. So the issue is not thoughts. Your behavior is not controlled simply in that area of thought, it is controlled in the imagination. You see, both of those are facts in your mind at that time. If I do this it will feel good. If I do this it will displease God. Both of those are thoughts so thought alone isn't going to control what you do. Something is going to energize one of those thoughts. And what we would hope is that all of a sudden the thought "this will displease God" will be energized and your imagination will begin to say "this would bring dishonor to the Lord who loved me and bought me and gave Himself for me, this would grieve the Holy Spirit, this would hinder my testimony, this would strike a fist, as it were, in the face of God, this would rebel against the one I love and who died for me and the one that I live for and love deeply," we would hope that that would be the energizing imagination. On the other hand, you might just create the fantasy of what would feel good.
So, we could, I guess, reduce it to the point where we could say when this sin will feel good if I do it, my flesh wants that thought. And the thought that says if I do it it will displease God, my spirit wants that thought. So I face the conflict. Which will control me? Which ever one does will move my emotions. Which ever one moves my emotions strongly will activate my will and determine my behavior.
You say, "Well which one will be the one?" Which ever one controls your imagination. Now you can't split it anymore than that, we're getting pretty technical right here. Whichever thought is made most instantly vivid to you will control you. Whichever thought pulls you most dramatically, what ever your imagination energizes and if you're dominated by the Spirit what's going to happen? Your imagination is going to be dominated by the Spirit too and you're going to build a case in your mind for what pleases God. And if you're functioning in the flesh your flesh is going to catapult your imagination into that thought and spin the fantasy of what feels good. You've got to take care of your imagination.
That's why we live in a dangerous world, my dear friend. You sit in front of televisions and movies and all of that kind of trash long enough and you won't even be in control of your imagination. You will have played out vividly before your very eyes so many compromising scenes that you don't even need an imagination. You feed that illicit fantasy world and you will have a problem.
I've had people actually say to me, "I have a terrible problem with immorality."
And I've said to them on a number of occasions, "Do you read pornography?"
"Well, yeah."
"What do you expect, you have stuffed your imagination with fantasies." Do you see why it's so important to do what the Bible says? You've got to protect your imagination, my friend, don't expose it to that trash. Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth...listen to this...you shall meditate on it...what?...day and night." Psalm 19, do you know it? "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be...what?..." that's talking about your imagination, you meditate in your imagination. You feed the imagination a steady diet of sin and you're going to have a hard time controlling it. You feed the imagination a steady diet of biblical truth and it will control your behavior.
So, beloved, we were redeemed from the state of being controlled by lust and evil imagination. I mean, look at the world, is it any wonder they act the way they act? Is it any wonder? You want to know why we've got so much garbage in this nation, why we've got so much sick sin everywhere? You want to know why we've got so much debauchery in this nation? Because everybody's imagination is filled to the hilt with it. There's no way to restrain it. Every imaginable fantasy is not even a fantasy anymore, you can look at it and it's a reality...polluted minds beyond description, evil imaginations. If it was true inGenesis 6:5, it's certainly true today. From what were we redeemed? We were redeemed from an evil imagination. Isn't that a wonderful truth? And we certainly ought to protect our imagination. We certainly ought not to be in a situation where we just continue to feed it filth and then wonder why we fall all over the place trying to live the Christian life.
Listen to 1 Chronicles, I'll close with this, 1 Chronicles 29...I didn't get very far, did I? First Chronicles 29:10, "Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation," he's dedicating the temple here and his son Solomon, and David said, "Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever," then 1 Chronicles 29:11 says, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine, Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all, both riches and honor come of Thee and Thou reignest over all and in Thine hand is power and might and in Thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of Thee and of Thine own have we given Thee, for we are strangers before Thee and sojourners as were all our fathers, our days on the earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding. O Lord, our God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee a house for Thine holy name cometh of Thine hand is all Thine own."
Now listen, "I know also, my God, that Thou tryest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things and now I have seen with joy Thy people which are present here to offer willingly unto Thee. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people and prepare their hearts unto Thee and give unto Solomon, my son, a perfect heart, to keep Thy commandments, Thy testimonies and Thy statutes and to do all these things."
You notice that little phrase in verse 18, "Keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people." David prays, "O God, keep their imagination focused on You, on Your truth, on Your greatness, on Your power, on Your glory, on Your victory, on Your majesty, on Your exalted headship, on Your sovereignty as the source of riches and honor, on Your power and might, on Your ability to make great and to give strength, praise Your glorious name." What's he saying? He's saying, "O God, may the imagination of the heart of my people be on You."
How do you do that? Feed that imagination, feed that part of you by meditating day and night on the Word of God and don't wonder why you are battling losing to sin if you expose your imagination to things sinful. It's inevitable...it's inevitable.
No enough just to have the thought because when you're tempted you're going to have as a Christian both thoughts, the good one and the bad one. But what compels you and what energizes one or the other is what's feeding your imagination. And if your imagination is filled with the fantasies of sin, it will activate lust. If it is filled with meditation on the Word of God it will activate virtue.
Beloved, when you were redeemed from lust. And that's why Paul says don't walk in it anymore, there's no need to, no need. You were taken out of that, that's his whole message in Ephesians 4, Colossians 3. You were taken out of that. Don't walk in it anymore. The key, guard your imagination. So we were redeemed from lust that conceives in the imagination. Well, we'll have to pick it up from there next time and see what else we were redeemed from. Let's bow in prayer.
