Make No Provision for the Flesh

The point: Welcome greater measures of light and grace that result in triumphs over remaining sin.

The imagery of 'putting on the Lord Jesus Christ' is described as dressing oneself, self-consciously appropriating all realities of union with Christ, serving as a foundational metaphor for the positive command.

Two clear imperatives, one positive, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the other negative, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. In our second study, last Lord's Day evening, we focused our attention on the first half of the text, namely the divine mandate to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tried to open up the imagery embodied in that text, a bold and almost shocking imagery, and then to suggest, from the Scriptures, and in particular the previous focal points of emphasis in the epistle to the Romans itself, what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw in ...

3:10 - 4:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He places the mandate within its original Roman context, where society was characterized by making provision for fleshly lusts (Romans 1). Martin then applies this directly to…

Roman society is depicted as a 'sickening monument' to making provision for the flesh, illustrating the pervasive nature of sin in their culture and the challenge for Christians.

And now the people of God at Rome, living in the midst of that, are obviously feeling the pressure of that lifestyle of Roman sensual excess. So much so that as we saw in studying the context of our text, the Apostle had to warn Christians against these sins of excesses in eating and drinking, excesses in sexual activity, and these cursed inward sins of interpersonal relationships that created envy and strife. Well, what was going on at Rome? Well, Roman society was a sickening monument to what happens when people make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Romans plotted, schem...

19:52 - 21:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He places the mandate within its original Roman context, where society was characterized by making provision for fleshly lusts (Romans 1). Martin then applies this directly to…

The analogy of filling cabinets, storehouses, and cupboards with provisions for the flesh vividly illustrates the deliberate planning and preparation people undertake to gratify sinful desires.

all of the provisions of their redemptive union with Christ, all the implications of that union. And in the midst of that mindset of faith, they are called upon to be radically different from their fellow Roman citizens who are not in a state of grace, who are continually thinking and plotting as to how they may, as it were, fill the cabinets, fill the storehouses, fill the cupboards with provisions for the flesh so that whenever fleshly appetites cry out to be gratified, they find themselves well-stocked with provisions to gratify the passions and appetites of the flesh. They are called to a ...

21:18 - 22:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He places the mandate within its original Roman context, where society was characterized by making provision for fleshly lusts (Romans 1). Martin then applies this directly to…

Modern Western nations are likened to 'modern Rome,' engaged in a contest to stock up provisions for the lust of the flesh, applying the ancient context to contemporary society.

at this very point in the history of our nation, and this is true for the most part of the other Western nations, are engaged in a contest about doing one another in stocking up provisions to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

22:47 - 23:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn that remaining sin and fleshly lusts are powerful, active, and demanding even in your most spiritual frames.

Martin quotes John Owen: 'Indwelling sin is never more active than when it seems most inactive,' emphasizing the deceptive nature and persistent power of remaining sin.

Even though you are putting forth true, solid, constant, biblical endeavors to be thoroughly clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, this does not place you in a position where the flesh is either eradicated or inactive. I thought of the words of John Owen on this point in my preparation. He said, Indwelling sin is never more active than when it seems most inactive. Some of you young people have been listening to Pastor Chantry's expositions of the life of David, and David's tragic fall is the sad monument of that principle.

26:18 - 26:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn that remaining sin and fleshly lusts are powerful, active, and demanding even in your most spiritual frames.

The story of King David's fall with Bathsheba is used as a tragic monument to the principle that indwelling sin is most active when it seems least so, illustrating how seemingly innocent actions can lead to grave sin.

Even though you are putting forth true, solid, constant, biblical endeavors to be thoroughly clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, this does not place you in a position where the flesh is either eradicated or inactive. I thought of the words of John Owen on this point in my preparation. He said, Indwelling sin is never more active than when it seems most inactive. Some of you young people have been listening to Pastor Chantry's expositions of the life of David, and David's tragic fall is the sad monument of that principle.

26:18 - 26:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Sit down and prayerfully concentrate on stubbornly resistant pockets of remaining flesh in your life.

The metaphor of a 'pocket of very stubbornly resistant remaining flesh' is used to describe a persistent area of sin in a believer's life that requires specific attention and self-examination.

So to be thoroughly clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ does not place us beyond the duty of intense watchfulness and self-examination. Now let me ask you, dear child of God, when was the last time you ever sat down and for five minutes prayerfully concentrated your attention upon what we might call, for the sake of identifying what I'm after, a pocket of very stubbornly resistant remaining flesh in your life? You have a pocket of stubbornly resistant flesh. Maybe it's in the realm of an attitude, as Paul deals with envy in this very context. Maybe it's something that breaks out into a very spe...

33:23 - 34:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Identify and cease the subtle ways you have been laying up provisions for the flesh.

The imagery of 'laying up in a cupboard here and in a closet there and under a tree here and behind a house there' provisions for the flesh illustrates the subtle, often unconscious ways believers prepare for sin.

not even perhaps self-consciously, as the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, though perhaps even at the level of the self-conscious yet very really, you have been, as it were, laying up in a cupboard here and in a closet there and under a tree here and behind a house there, all along your pathway you've had little points where provisions for the flesh have been laid up so that when the flesh cried out, the provision was there. You wonder why you have fallen again and again and again? It's because you haven't been doing what God tells you to do. You've been making foret...

34:51 - 36:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Direct yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation, forgiveness, and liberation from bondage to lust.

The analogy of trying to lift oneself three feet off the ground by pulling on a chair illustrates the utter impossibility for an unregenerate person to obey the command to make no provision for the flesh.

There must be the inclusion of divine life and power, implanting an entirely new principle of operation, in which the spirit dominates, in which, though there is remaining corruption and residual flesh, there is now this longing. The flesh is lusting against the spirit, yes, but the spirit now lusts against the flesh and is the dominant power in the life of a child of God. Perhaps I am speaking to someone who, sitting here tonight, has a tremendous problem. The problem is that because of your training or because of the influences of God's common grace upon you, you have not been able to give y...

38:23 - 39:34 Read in full sermon