Continual Warfare with Remaining Sin

The point: If your experience of remaining sin does not produce spiritual agony and intense conflict, question if sin's dominion has truly been broken in your life.

Paul's struggle with remaining sin in Romans 7 is likened to a prisoner of war (POW) who is never at home in his confinement, always plotting escape and never capitulating, illustrating the agony and yearning of a truly converted soul.

man, but I see a law in my members, one language of warfare, it's biblical, one which is in my members, wretched manly of this death. Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's like a POW, never at home in his sweat box. Never at home in his sweat box.

16:31 - 17:09 Read in full sermon

The point: If your experience of remaining sin does not produce spiritual agony and intense conflict, question if sin's dominion has truly been broken in your life.

The dominant sins of Roman lifestyle (reveling, drunkenness, sensuality, strife, jealousy) are compared to a swirling whirlpool that can suck a 'little chip of wood' (a Christian) into its vortex, illustrating the danger of remaining sin if not actively resisted.

Now notice, people to whom he had already said, you died to sin, sin shall not hand over you. You were slaves of sin, you were righteousness to such people, he says, let us walk becomingly not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. In other words, Paul believes it's possible for these Christians in whom the dominion of sin has truly been broken to be so eroded in their moral and ethical sensitivity that the dominant sins of Roman lifestyle could suck them into its vortex like a little chip of wood that is dropped down on the edge of a swirlin...

19:20 - 20:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your prayer life: if your primary concern at the throne of grace is not the reality of remaining sin, there is reason to question if you have true conversion.

The human heart in the presence of temptation is likened to dry leaves amidst living sparks, or coals in a raging fire, or kindling, illustrating its inherent susceptibility to sin and the need for God's deliverance.

As we forgive those who sin against us. Wherever you give. With the bread you give. And this world is like a whole world full of life, matches glowing.

30:37 - 31:18 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not putting to death your specific 'deeds of the body' by the Spirit, you have no grounds to claim you are a Son of God.

The specific sin of a husband's 'mute, non-communicative role' and 'stubborn, stinking silence' is used as an example of a 'deed of the body' that must be mortified by the Spirit, illustrating the practical application of Romans 8:13.

If ye by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Believe that. That's why those fleshly patterns continue to go on and yet you think you're on your way to heaven. The fleshly pattern of your mute, non-communicative role as a husband, breaking the wife of your heart with your stubborn, stinking silence.

40:56 - 41:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, if you do not by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh that make you an insensitive, unresponsive husband, you have no grounds to name the name of Christ.

The example of a lazy husband who neglects household tasks, leaving his wife frustrated, is used to illustrate another 'deed of the body' that must be mortified, connecting it to the command to love and cherish one's wife.

You telling me the Holy Ghost and the living Christ are no more powerful than the example of your rotten father and your rotten uncle. If I didn't believe God's power was greater than their example, I'd fold my Bible up and hire myself out to somebody to mix mud and throw bricks around. You are a terrible, terrible witness to the Gospel. And it's time you gave up your profession and said, God, by the Spirit, I am going to put to death this deep, stubbornly silent tongue that's going to start talking to my wife, talking to my kids, talking to my pastors. You wives, you know what your deeds of t...

43:06 - 44:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not meet the powerful activity of remaining sin with 'a few little finger skirmishes'; instead, double up your fist and deal with it in the name of God.

Martin recounts asking a man if his resistance to temptation was so strong that 'capillaries burst' or 'blood start to break out of your skin,' illustrating the intensity of the struggle implied by 'resisting unto blood' (Hebrews 12:4).

I said to a man this week who felt the pull I said did you feel it so strong and resisted so much that you began to have capillaries burst in blood start to break out of your skin? He said no. I said well you haven't gone far enough yet because my Bible says you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. That's what my Bible says.

50:34 - 51:00 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not fighting, you are not in God's army, and you must recognize that heaven is only for 'overcomers'.

The concept of an 'overcomer' is clarified by contrasting it with taking a nap and claiming to have 'overcome' sleep, emphasizing that true overcoming involves conflict, conquest, and battle, not passive indulgence.

This is Olympic time and this is the time when we think of athletic exertion conquest victory defeat overcoming and you'll remember in those marvelous chapters where the risen Christ himself gives a spiritual analysis of the seven churches in Asia Minor that there are common denominators in each of the messages messages through the messengers to the seven churches and one of the common denominators is that every message closes with a promise to one group of people only at the end of every message there's only one group of people who are comforted and you know who they are? Overcomers now you k...

53:28 - 54:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He quotes Bishop J.C. Ryle extensively on the 'absolute necessity,' 'universal necessity,' and 'perpetual necessity' of the Christian fight. Ryle's words underscore that…

An extended quotation from Bishop J.C. Ryle's essays on holiness is used to powerfully describe the absolute, universal, and perpetual necessity of the Christian fight against sin, reinforcing the sermon's main argument.

I give you these words of, while this I close tonight, to whet your appetite. To get out the old bishop and read him again if you haven't read him for a while. This is what old Ryle says. It's a fight of absolute necessity.

63:26 - 63:44 Read in full sermon