How to Deal with Remaining Sin

The point: Read the scriptures earnestly, pant after a new sight of Christ in public worship, and rid yourself of everything that does not lead to gospel motives.

Martin uses the analogy of God not tying one's shoes to illustrate that God does not perform for believers what they are commanded to do themselves, emphasizing active obedience in spiritual disciplines.

He won't. He will not do them for you any more than he'll tie your shoes in the morning. There's not a person here who ever had God tie his shoes. Not a person.

8:34 - 8:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Keep your conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sins, especially your besetting sins.

The example of Matt Dillon's focused vigilance on a villain's gun hand illustrates the intense, unwavering focus believers must have on sin as a mortal enemy, never treating it as a friend or neutral party.

Now occasionally I watch Gunsmoke with my son. If it's not too blood and gutsy, and not too much barroom brawling in the rest, I will watch Gunsmoke. And you'll notice whenever Matt Dillon is going out to get the villain, and he's walking down the street and the time for the shootout has come, he's never tipping his hat to Doc Adams, he's never even winking at Kitty, he's doing one thing. He's got his eyes on that varmint's gun hand.

12:32 - 13:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly bring your sins to the light of the gospel in all its glory, seeing them in the light of Christ's self-emptying and Calvary.

The analogy of daily weeding a garden to keep it weedless illustrates the constant, diligent effort required to keep the conscience sensitive and prevent remaining sin from taking root and growing.

You'll forgive me if I talk a lot about it this summer. It's just much before my mind. And I've got to preach, by way of illustration anyway, what's upon the mind. And just in a matter of days, I went to that conference in Chattanooga for five days.

18:53 - 19:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Couple prayer for deliverance from specific sins with watchfulness, knowing your 'allergic sensitivities' to certain situations.

Martin shares his personal experience with allergies to illustrate the need for believers to know their spiritual 'allergies' (situations that provoke sin) and studiously avoid them, just as he avoids pollen or pillow fights.

Church, unless we studiously avoid the known occasions of sin by this kind of watchfulness, we shall fall again and again, and all our prayers will avail nothing or avail little. Prayer without watching will never keep us from temptation, just as surely as watching without prayer will not keep us. It is in the combination of the two that God has ordained that we should be preserved. Some of you know I happen to be troubled with allergies.

25:30 - 26:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Couple prayer for deliverance from specific sins with watchfulness, knowing your 'allergic sensitivities' to certain situations.

The example of a young man struggling with mental purity who repeatedly visits a bookshop illustrates the danger of dallying with occasions of sin, where spiritual nerve endings become cauterized, leading to repeated falls despite prayers.

And once you get in that situation, something strange happens. You know what I'm talking about, or am I talking in abstraction? There's the young man praying about the matter of mental purity. And he knows that if he goes to a certain bookshop, a certain newspaper stand, he's hooked.

28:55 - 29:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest about how you become ensnared in watching godless daytime serials and take steps to avoid those situations.

The example of wives watching 'innocuous, stupid, and oft-times lecherous daytime serials' illustrates how seemingly innocent situations can lead to spiritual compromise and poison the spirit, despite prayers for deliverance.

I'm describing some of you wives, who in your frustration about the humdrum around the home, this past week, if you've done it once, you've done it three or four times, you've said, oh, Lord, forgive me. And I find myself watching those innocuous, stupid, and oft-times lecherous daytime serials. Lord, I don't. Forgive me.

31:54 - 32:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest about your battle with gluttony and avoid 'innocent trips to the refrigerator' that lead to downfall.

The example of someone battling gluttony and making 'innocent trips to the refrigerator' illustrates how small, seemingly harmless actions can lead to a full-blown sin, crippling spiritual life due to a lack of watchfulness.

And then you've watched that stupid, filthy, godless stuff and filled your mind and poisoned your spirit. Am I describing some women here today? Who, if you were honest, would stand to your feet and say, Pastor Martin, you're describing me. About some of you battling with gluttony.

32:41 - 33:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Young people, watch out for the devil's deceptive proposals regarding relationships with unsaved individuals, which lead to compromise.

The example of the devil's deceptive proposals to young people about dating unsaved individuals illustrates how sin presents itself modestly, promising witness but leading to infatuation and compromise, highlighting the need for watchfulness.

You're not conducting spiritual logistics against your enemy. And until you do, there's going to be no deliverance. What about some of you young people? The devil came to you and said, Look, I'm going to mess your life up.

34:11 - 34:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third directive is to watch and pray, studiously avoiding situations that provoke sin. He uses personal allergies and various examples (pornography, gluttony, ungodly…

The example of King David's fall illustrates that even a man after God's own heart can be crippled for life by putting himself in a place of temptation, serving as a warning against overconfidence.

If a man after God's own heart, named David,

37:08 - 37:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The fourth directive is to attack sin at its earliest proposals, recognizing that even modest stirrings of pride, envy, or lust contain the seeds of total apostasy. He warns…

The example of Demas, Paul's fellow laborer who forsook him 'having loved this present age,' illustrates how apostasy doesn't happen overnight but through subtle, modest proposals of sin that gradually draw the heart away from Christ.

There's a man who could pray with Paul, could preach with Paul. Paul calls him, Demas, my fellow laborer.

41:11 - 41:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Take heed lest you fall, especially if you are flirting close to the edge of a precipice and tempting God.

Martin shares anecdotes of young people and a woman who once seemed genuinely saved and zealous but are now far from God, illustrating the tragic reality of apostasy that begins with entertaining the first risings of sin.

If anyone had ever told me 22 years ago when God saved me, some of those young people that were apparently saved, at the same time I was, would this day be as far from God and truth and the gospel as heaven is from hell? I would have said impossible. When you've prayed with people and heard them weep before God in prayer, when you've seen them stay upon their knees half the night or all night in prayer meetings, when you've seen them preach on a street corner with conviction and authority. I think of another one, a young woman who, when she sang one time in a meeting, there was such conviction...

43:15 - 43:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The final directive is to look to Christ, the author and perfecter of faith, for strength to mortify sin by the Spirit. He emphasizes that the Spirit's work is focused on Christ's…

Martin commends John Owen's exposition of Psalm 130 as a helpful manual for Christian experience, emphasizing the need to fix one's gaze upon God and wait for grace to conquer sins.

In expectation of deliverance from him. And this is where I commend to you a careful reading of Owen's exposition of Psalm 130. In the last half of volume 6 of Owen's work. One of the most helpful manuals of Christian experience.

54:16 - 54:31 Read in full sermon