Continual Warfare with Remaining Sin

Introduction: The Indispensable Accompaniments of True Conversion

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, July 26, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Pray that help may be sent down, and let us do that very thing, that the help of God the Holy Spirit will be our portion as we study the word of God together. Let us pray. Father, we do give you thanks that the invitations to come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find help in time of need are both clear, abundant, and sealed and given to us in the blood of the everlasting covenant. And therefore, as men and women of faith, we would come to pray, not as a form or a ritual, but believing that when we pray, you do delight as a heavenly Father to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. We therefore pray that help will be sent down from heaven, help to be given to the preacher, that he may preach accurately,

1:26 that he may preach clearly, that he may preach with passion and warmth and zeal and abandonment and silence. Help be given to every hearer, boys, girls, men and women, visitors, strangers among us, those who know the ropes and are well acquainted with the language. Lord, may help be given that the word would come to every one of us with freshness and with power. And, O Lord, we ask that you will bind the powers of darkness, for we know there is no place where the word...

2:06 The word is preached, but what the devil is there like a flock of birds floating about, seeking to swoop down and to snatch away the seed of the word, lest it find a place in our hearts. O God, defeat the evil one, we pray, and may the word find lodgment in every heart, bringing forth fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. We ask, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2:39 Our study in the scriptures this evening constitutes the third installment of one central message which is sounded from this pulpit today, both in the adult Sunday school hour and in the morning ministry of the word and God helping us again this evening in the preaching of the word of God. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:10 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:12 Amen. Amen. With the relationship between saving faith and a life of conformity to our Lord Jesus Christ, or stated a bit differently, we have been wrestling with the biblical truth that one who truly believes upon the Lord Jesus to the saving of his soul will be marked by a lifestyle of likeness. to Jesus. In the adult class, I attempted to show the urgent need for addressing this subject.

3:51 I sought to identify the precise issue of concern with this subject and then to describe briefly some of the necessary related issues to this subject. Then in our morning message, I set before you this proposition. According to the scriptures, a radical break with the dominion of sin, followed by a continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin, are the indispensable accompaniments and fruits of real conversion. Whenever anyone comes under the converting influence of sin, they are not alone. They are not alone. They are not alone. They are

4:37 not alone. They are not alone. They are not alone. They are not alone. They are not alone.

4:37 In the absence of the gracious work of God, there will be in every case a radical break with the dominion of sin, followed by a continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin. We then focused all of our attention on the first half of that proposition, namely the dominion of sin is an indispensable accompaniment of true conversion. And I did so under three headings. We looked at the obvious assumption of the assertion, namely that we are all by nature under the dominion of sin. Secondly, the abundant evidence of the assertion, studying some five or six texts, which clearly teach that whenever converting grace is imparted to a sinner, sin's dominion is the dominion of sin. And then we considered briefly, but I trust to the profit of our souls, the serious implications of this assertion, that if sin's dominion has not been broken in general, and if it has not been broken with reference to our own peculiarly aggravated dominant sins, we

The Obvious Assumption: Remaining Sin in the Believer

6:01 have no biblical grounds to claim that we are the children of God. Now, tonight, I want us to think together with respect to the second half of that major proposition. Having focused our attention on the fact that in true conversion there is a radical break with the dominion of sin, tonight I want us to consider the biblical proof that a continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin is an indispensable accompaniment and fruit of real conversion. It is not only true, according to the scriptures, that a radical break with the dominion of sin is the experience of every converted man on the threshold of his conversion, but it is equally true that that leads to a continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin. And that real and continuous warfare is an indispensable accompaniment and fruit of real conversion. Now, I follow the same outline as this morning, beginning with the obvious assumption undergirding

7:25 this assertion. What is that obvious assumption? Well, it is the fact that though the dominion of sin is really, truly, and radically broken in general, sin's dominion has not been broken in conversion. There is yet sin which remains in the believer and which he must until he arrives in glory.

7:55 The passages which teach this truth are legion. I have deliberately chosen just several passages which are in the very context of some of the strongest statements concerning the dethronement of sin. And yet they teach. The difference between sin and the verse of the verse of the verse of the verse. 1 Timothy 5 and 6 And I have the following view of this verse which is a whole of the theory of what has happened by sin. It is not mentioned in scripture, but it is stated in the book of John.

8:59 The verse of the word of God. 1 Timothy 5 and 6 And I have the following view of this verse which is a whole of the theory of what has happened by sin. The verse of the word of God. Look at four such passages with me.

9:10 1 Timothy 5 and 6 The first one is Roman chapter 7. You who are with us this morning will remember that one of the major passages we used in order establish the fact that in every true conversion the dominion of sin is radically and fundamentally broken is Romans chapter 6. Perhaps there is no chapter in all of the Bible which more extensively and emphatically teaches that truth than does Romans 6. However, as well as within Romans 6 itself, we find Romans 7 with the account of Paul's with God in the light of the law of his conversion, verses 1 to 13, but then from verse 14 and onward where he moves into the present tense, no longer speaking of what happened in the past, but what obtained as his own experience. We find the doctrine who has told us,

10:23 in chapter 6 of the same epistle, we, 14 of chapter 7, for we know that the law is a ritual, going to explain what that means. He doesn't say for, he doesn't say that at all. Against the back this perception he has of the extent of the demands of the law, that it demands perfect,

11:21 perpetual obedience, notion of the mind and heart and soul and strength every, he says, against the backdrop of a law that touches the full spectrum of motive and desire and thought and intention and disposition. I know that before so high there is that remain me that does not begin to come up to that standard. Though sin's dominion has been radically and fundamentally broken in me, I am no longer the willful. Terry's subject to sin is my master, yet nonetheless, I have this very real problem of remaining sin. Verse 15, For that which I do I know not, for not what I would that do I practise, but what I hate, that I do. But if what I would not that I do I consent unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it as an unconverted man in the full integrity of my sinful rebellion. What I did as a

12:41 sinner. I did as a sinner, as sin's slave, as sin's servant, but sin's dominion has been broken. I am now the servant of righteousness and the bond slave of Jesus Christ. So when I do not love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, when I do not have undiminished, undivided fixation of heart and mind upon my God, it's no more indeed mind, soul, and strength. What is it then that keeps me from that? It is no more I that doeth, but sin which dwelleth in me. Sin, for I know this in my flesh. Good thing, for to will is present with me. Sin's dominion has been broken. There was a time when to will to do the will of

13:42 God was not in me. For the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

13:50 It is only the man in whom sin's dominion is broken who can say to will, this is the abiding, prevailing state of the soul, but to do that which is good. That is to perform to the utmost standard of the law of God, for that defines the good. That power is not yet in me. Why? Because of the reality of remaining sin. For the good which I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I practice, if but what I would not, that I do notice, it is no more I, which, now if passage does not teach, the doctrine, I don't know how God could teach it to us. Do you see it in the passage? There is no contradiction between

15:05 Romans 6 and Romans 7, but a beautiful synthesis which marks out the valid experience of every sin. It is not a matter of casual indifference to Paul. This is not the language of acceptance. It is the language of spiritual agony, and the language of intense conflict. And if your professed experience of the knowledge of remaining sin does not, dominion has never been broken, and what you call indwelling sin is indeed. For this great apostle goes on to say, I delight in the law of God, verse 22, after the inward

16:31 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.

17:09 His manacles and his chains, always plotting how he'll escape, all way of his escape, never capitulating, never lanes, and saying, so be it, I'll accept them. The mark of the man's truly experience, the breaking of sin's dominion, is that the reality of remaining sin produces in him the language of agony and of yearning. So the obvious assumption that undergirds this assertion, that continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin is an indispensable accompaniment and fruit of conversion, is that though sin's dominion has been broken, and that assumption is rooted in the clear teaching of this passage of the word of God. I want you to look at a second witness. Romans chapter 1, verse 1. Chapter 13.

18:20 We're just trying to establish the biblical basis of this assumption, that though sin's dominion has been broken, remaining sin is a reality. Romans 13. Here, in a section of various exhortations to Christian living, in its differing relationships and contexts and circles of responsibility, the Apostle brings near the last division, and says in verse 11 of Romans 13, this knowing the season that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep, for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day.

19:20 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 swirling whirlpool and is drawn down, sucked into the vortex and out of sight. And these were the crowning sins of Roman sensuality, reveling and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, but a literal sensual order.

20:44 That would be a literal, chaste, honest rendering of the Greek words, not in strife and jealousy. Sensuality, pride, ambition with their horrible twin children of strife and jealousy are always found together. And he says, we as the people of God must not positive polarity respond likened unto negative polarity. There must be no dry fusion of your life with the lifestyle of Roman paganism, but as Christ, and make provision for the flesh to fulfill those thereof. Dominion has been broken, but remainality, and if that reality is not dealt with by instant effort, provision, responsibilities, and spiritual endeavors indicating that though sin's dominion has been broken,

22:13 remaining sin is yet a horrible reality which can take us into shameful practices. And then a third passage, Galatians chapter 5. We saw this morning that one of the most powerful passages teaching that sin's dominion is broken in all true believers comes at the end of that contrast of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And Paul asserts in Galatians 5.24, they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lust thereof. It's been a definitive, fundamental, with the dominion of sin. It is called crucifixion of the flesh with the passions and lust thereof. But look at the following exhortation.

23:11 If we live by the Spirit, if we have been given such life by the Spirit, life in which sin's dominion has been broken, by the virtue of His cross, slaying flesh with its passions and lust, if we have thus received spiritual life by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not, let us not become vain-gloating one another, envy one another. Brethren, if a man be taken in any trespass. You see what he's saying? Sin is there waiting to ensnare us. Let us not become vain-glorious. Let us not provoke one another.

24:16 Let us not envy one another. And then he assumes that some will even be overcome and will need the loving, gentle, restoring, adorative ministry of the brotherhood. Well brethren, I don't want to beat a thing thin at the edges, but surely these passages are enough to convince you, I trust, that the obvious assumption undergirding this assertion that in every truly converted man or woman there is a continuous and real warfare with the remains of sin, that assumption that sin does remain even where it no longer and that where it has been dethroned it has not been eradicated, that assumption is based upon the clear teaching of the Word of God. So, the Bible which teaches the radical dethronement of sins of dominion also teaches the humbling reality of remaining. Now then, having looked at the obvious assumption, now secondly, consider the abundant Biblical evidence demanding this assertion. I've asserted that in every true conversion there is not only a definitive radical dethroning of sin, but there is the issuance upon a constant

Biblical Evidence: The Lord's Prayer and Daily Warfare

25:44 real warfare with remaining sin. And now let's look at just a sampling of the abundant Biblical evidence which proves that assertion. Start with me in the very familiar Sermon on the Mount and what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. At prayer, we envision their walk in this earthly pilgrimage.

26:18 What things does He envision will, as it were, be the horizon of their spiritual concern? Well, perhaps nothing is more telling of what a man, woman, boy or girl is really concerned about than what he prays about. And so our Lord says, in this well-known section of Matthew 6, when you pray, you are not to do certain things. And He sets up as negative examples the Pharisees.

26:48 So when we preachers sometimes set up negative examples and say, don't be like this, we have good precedent. You say, well, that's not flattering. Well, so be it. It's still Biblical.

26:59 And we don't govern how we preach by the dictums of Dale Carnegie. How to win friends and influence people. But we seek to frame both the substance and the manner of our preaching by our Lord, His apostles, and the prophets. And so the Lord shows up the Pharisees, uses them as negative examples.

27:22 Don't be like them, but do this. Don't be like the Gentiles, but do this. Then He says, verse 9 of Matthew 6, After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Let your prayer be Let your prayers follow these basic tracks.

27:39 Not that you memorize and say by rote, though there's nothing wrong with memorizing, and saying the Lord's Prayer from the heart, verbatim. One would be hard pressed to say that was unscriptural, because in the parallel passage it doesn't say, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. It says, when ye pray, say. So if you have a problem with people who pray the Lord's Prayer verbatim, you've got a problem with the Lord Jesus.

28:10 But the real thrust in this passage is to give us a framework, a pattern, into which the main focal points of concern in our prayers are to find expression. And this is what our Lord says, After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Father, who art in heaven, hallowed above all else, and known and loved as holy, may you be known and loved, and loved. Your kingdom come, as in heaven, so on earth.

28:54 And to the person so committed to the honor and glory of God, there should be no embarrassment then to pray. And Lord, give me whatever I need in order to pursue that noble end. Give us this day our daily bread. You see, don't start out by coming, saying, God, give me, give me, give me.

29:13 I can do, do, do my own thing. Oh, no. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

29:18 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Lord, that's what I'm committed to. But Lord, I'm not committed to that like an angel, a disembodied spirit. I got belly.

29:27 And if I'm going to do the work of the kingdom, I need energy. And I can't have energy without calories. And I can't have calories without food. So Lord, give me my bread for the day.

29:36 There's the connection. Give us this day our daily bread. Now notice. And forgive us.

29:44 Luke 11, 4. And forgive us our sin. Trespasses we have forgiven us. We have forgiven our debtors or those who trespass against us.

30:01 And not into temptation, but will one. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Once we get beyond the need for bread, the rest of the prayer is taken up with one basic concern.

30:28 Do you see what it is? It's the concern of the problem of remaining sin. Do you see that in the passage? Give us this day our daily bread.

30:37 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.

31:18 Oh Lord, deliver us. Lead us not into temptation. Because when my heart gets in the presence of temptation, it's dry leaves. It's dry leaves in the midst of living sparks.

31:31 Oh Lord, it's coals in the midst of a raging fire. Oh God, it's kindling of a fire. Lead us not into temptation. And oh Lord, above all else, deliver us from evil or from the evil one.

31:52 And then oh Lord, if I'm at all reluctant to forgive, remind me of your word. If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you the language of sinners and sinnerhood and indwelling sin. And if ye forgive not, neither will your heavenly Father forgive. Do you see, dear people, that our Lord assumes that among His people the reality of indwelling sin is a daily dominant concern?

32:21 Do you see that in the passage? If you don't see that, I don't know how to teach the Bible. And frankly, I wonder if you know how to read the Bible.

32:31 That's as plain as anything in the Bible. That's telling us that the community of the true people of God has been broken. If the only thing that gets you to pray is your lumbago, the latest flu, the threat of cancer, if the only thing that gets you serious at the throne of grace is something other than the reality of remaining sin, there is real reason to question if you have the root of the matter in you. Because Jesus assumed that His heaven is to keep short accounts with God, to keep right accounts with their brethren in the issue of remaining sin. Now, if that isn't what the passage teaches, will you please be my teacher and help me? Because it seems to me it's right there on the surface and you don't need to know a word of Greek.

Biblical Evidence: Mortifying the Deeds of the Body (Romans 8)

34:00 Passage number 2, Romans chapter 8. Remember now, what we're looking at now, is we're looking at passages that teach that real, constant warfare with remaining sin is an indispensable accompaniment of true conversion. So if you're having no real, no constant warfare with remaining sin, you have no grounds to claim you're truly converted. Romans chapter 8.

34:35 I pick up the reading at verse 13 or verse 12. Having described the old opening twelve verses, eleven verses, the marvelous work of God in union with Christ that not only brings us to the state of no condemnation, but delivers us fundamentally out of the realm of the flesh and places us into the realm of the Spirit. Justifying grace is always joined to the liberating grace that takes us out of that tyranny of a clenched fist where the carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, brings us into the wonderful liberty of joyful submission to God in Christ. And in the light of that, Paul says, verse 12, So then, brethren, we are debtors. We have a debt. We have a debt of grace, a debt of gratitude.

35:32 And what is that debt? So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for it is marked of fleshly, it's contrary to the revealed will of God. You are in the way that leads to death. And that's not talking of physical death because the most spiritual people die physically.

36:08 It's talking of, not talking of physical death, it's talking of spiritual death. If you live after the flesh, you must die. If your life is specific fleshly appetite, it's not living after the flesh. To live after the flesh means to have a lifestyle characterized by the indulgence of flesh as a way of life.

36:52 It is by the enabling as if you by the spirit. In other words, whatever the activity of the spirit is, no matter how expensive and powerful, it never so operates as to cancel my conscious endeavors, my judgment, my sense of motivation, my choices, my will, my affections, self-denial, my buffeting desires, my buffeting my body, or the dunes of the body. You see, he takes the concept of the flesh and he gets it nice and specific. What are the deeds of your body

38:18 which are the characteristic manifestations of indulging the flesh? What are they? For some, it may be excessive TV watching. For some, it may be laziness.

38:34 For some, it may be gluttony. For some, it may be excessive use of alcohol. For some, it may be obsessive use of Nintendo. For others, it may be you name it.

38:51 What is the deed of your body? What are the deeds of remaining sin? Nobody else is yours. Not somebody else is yours.

39:07 Not your wife, not your husband, not your kid, not your mom, not your dad, yours. This text says, if you use of the greater power of the Holy Spirit, you will go to heaven. Four. Fourteen.

39:49 Four sons of God. In the context, what does it mean to be led by the Spirit of God? It means to be given grace to carry on not a perfectly successful warfare with my peculiar deeds of the body, but a fundamentally victorious warfare over the deeds of my body. And if that's not true of me, I am not being led of the Spirit.

40:29 I have no grounds to claim I'm the Son of God. Now folks, if that's not what this book teaches, will you please, and this is not sarcastic, will you kindly come up here and tell me what the passage means? Does this passage say anyone will live who doesn't mortify his specific deeds of the body? Not according to this.

40:56 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.

41:28 Some of you husbands are viciously cruel with your silent, mute relationship to your wife. Why? Because you would need an operation of the Holy Ghost to overcome all of the things that make you a mute, retiring, silent, stubborn husband. And you just don't care to put them to death.

41:58 It would take too much effort. It would take too much humiliation. It would take too much intense dealings at the throne of grace. It would take too much and you don't care.

42:11 Then, my friend, you're going to die and go to hell for your mute, stubbornness and refusal to become a biblical husband. That's what my Bible says. You live after the flesh, you must die. Your fleshly way of being a silent, mute, unfeeling, uncommunicative husband who tortures your husband, why?

42:36 That will make you believe it in the day of judgment. Excuse it. Rationalize it. My father was this way.

43:03 My uncle was... Who gives a hoot?

43:06 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 the body are. Some of you men, lazy as you can be, sit on your back and sit on your backside. As long as you put in your 40 hours and bring your check home, you have your conscience and you've done all you should do.

44:27 Your poor wife is frustrated with all the unfulfilled tasks around the house that only you can do. And it's a form of emotional and psychological torture. And you go on doing it day in, day out, week in, week out. And all the while God says, love your wife as Christ loved the church, nourish and cherish her.

44:46 And you say, it costs too much. Oh, it does. My friend, it'll cost you your soul if you don't start doing it. If you do not by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh that make you such an insensitive, unresponsive husband to your wife that you will not love her with the tender, nourishing love of Christ to the church, what grounds have you got to name the name of Christ?

45:18 This is not optional. This is essential. This is necessary. Galatians 5, 16 and 17.

Biblical Evidence: The Warfare of Flesh Against Spirit (Galatians 5)

45:27 Very quickly, I'm going to read a passage of so many that we could park on. And in my preparation I ask God to give me discipline of spirit just to sit on them long enough to convince your judgment that what we deduce from them is right and proper. But it's so difficult to do that because so many areas come to mind born out of pastoral interaction, not out of reading books, but out of dealing with people that sit in this building and have been sitting here too long, unchanging. Galatians 5, verses 16 and 17.

46:07 Galatians 5, verses 16 and 17. But I say walk by the Spirit. Walking is again a lifestyle. Walking is setting out in a given course one step following another.

46:26 Walking is not merely taking a step or stumbling in the effort to take a step. It speaks of a pattern, a drift, a way of life. Walk by the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For, this is why you've got to do this, the flesh is constantly lusting against the Spirit.

46:49 And, the Spirit, the verb lust, understood, is constantly lusting against the flesh. For these, like the language of warfare, the spirit does to me. The flesh is lusting against the spirit. The spirit is lusting against the flesh.

47:17 Contrary, irreconcilable principles, I didn't say too equal and contrary. They are not equal. In the true believer, the spirit dominates. The flesh remains and agitates.

47:29 See that? The spirit does not have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. You are not in the flesh but in the spirit. Let God have his home in you.

47:47 Romans 8 and 9. There is nonetheless presence of flesh not to eat. The flesh is dominant. I mean, the spirit is dominant but the flesh is resident and active.

48:03 The flesh lusts against the spirit. The spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary the one to the other that ye may not do the things that ye would. What would I do that I would love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength every hour of every day, every day of every week, every week of every month until I go to heaven and then do it forever?

48:32 Isn't that what you would do? Isn't that what the Holy Ghost has made you long to do? I would say to every sin that proposes itself to me be nailed to the wretched thing that put my Savior to death and caused his shrieks and caused his groans. You vile, venomous, hellish son of the from whence you came.

49:02 That's what I would do with every sin. Whether it's a sin of the thought, a sin of desire, a sin of the word, a sin of an attitude, a sin of deed. This remaining principle of indwelling sin I'm unable to do what I would since then. He determined for a man or woman to be this side of heaven. Or contrary the one to the other. And in many of you it's evident that the flesh is contrary to the spirit. Its warfare is real.

50:07 Its activity is powerful. What is it met with on your part? A few little finger skirmishes putting away fleas. It's been a long time since you've doubled up your fist and reared back and said in the name of the God of heaven I'm going to deal with this thing.

50:34 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.

51:00 Hebrews 13 4 Who is here ready to stand up and say this week I was so tempted in the Kibben Eri that he was drawing ready to stand up until blood resisting sin. If not then stop complaining. You've not yet resisted unto blood he did for he went to Gethsemane and being in an agony he prayed and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down. To have in his train what? A bunch of soft 20th century spiritual wimps who name is ready with him to resist unto blood striving against sin. That's what he died to have. Well time is getting away so quickly.

Biblical Evidence: Promises to Overcomers (Revelation)

52:24 We could turn to Ephesians 5 3 to 12. I'll just give you the text cause I do want to go to the book of Revelation. Ephesians 5 3 to 12 is another key passage. First Peter 2 11 and 12 I beseech you as strangers and sojourners abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul.

52:45 There's the language of warfare again. First Timothy 6 11 and 12 But thou O man of God flee these things follow after lay hold of eternal life fight the good fight of the faith. Get out your old Bishop Ryle his essays on holiness read his chapter on the fight based on that text. It's thrilling but I want you to remember and this is where I want to close our exposition of the abundant biblical evidence and go with me to the book of the Revelation remember that every promise of the risen Christ for heaven under all of its various figures to whom does he give the promises?

53:28 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 know what an overcomer is? It's somebody who fights and who wins you don't go lie down for a mid afternoon nap drift off into the land of Nod wake up a half hour late and your wife says how you doing you say well dear I really had a good overcoming nap I tell you it's wonderful to be an overcomer you didn't overcome anything you gave in to something you gave in to the desire to sleep may have been perfectly legitimate you didn't overcome anything now you may have had to overcome

54:57 laziness power but you see the word overcomer is the word of conflict and conquest and battle and blood and sweat and tears to the promise of Christ Revelation 2 7 to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life verse 11 the spirit says to the churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death verse 17 to him that overcometh will I give of the hidden manna and give him a white stone same chapter and verse 26 he that overcometh works unto the end to him will I give authority over the nations chapter 3 verse 5 he that overcometh must be arrayed in white out of the book of life chapter 3 and verse 12 he that overcometh I make him a pillar in the temple of chapter 3 and verse

56:24 21 he that overcometh to him to sit down with me in my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne hear me now there is not one promise of heaven to anyone but an overcomer only overcomers only those with the word and in particular with remains because your life if you don't the battle is sporadic it is it is unplotted it is not marked by a seal you really think someone other than overcomers will make it but if you will read through the book of the revelation from chapter 3 onward all the pictures are validated with this overcoming motif let me just tease you with a couple of them chapter 6 verses 9 through 11 and when he opened the fifth seal

57:52 underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God testimony which they held and they and the true does not judge and avenge our blood and there was given to them a white robe and they were dressed for a little time until their fellow servants also and their brethren who should be killed should have fulfilled their course their own and in the very presence of God and of the land chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 and one of the elders answered and said these that are arrayed in white robes who are they whence came they and I say unto him my lord said these are they that are come out and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb they came out in spite

59:12 of great great great chapter 12 and verse 10 and I heard a great voice in heaven saying now is the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ for the accuser of the brethren is cast down and they because of the blood of the lamb the word of their testimony and love is even unto death dear people can God make it any plainer in his word people who go to heaven get there because they count it worth anything to make it they count it worth anything are you one of them are you one of them are you one of them they fight in the midst of an irreconcilable and they conquer and they go on in the train of their conquering lord the warfare is real the warfare is continuous and the battle is permanent to fight and not to give over until the battle is over now next week we will look at the nature of the battle the qualifying aspects of the battle where we get our strength for the battle where we get our armor for the battle where we get our motives for the battle how the cross fits where Christ so I have not included any of that

Call to Arms: If You Ain't Fighting, You Ain't in the Army

60:41 because I have tried to just get one simple thing into your mind this day and it is this if you ain't fighting you ain't in the army And you can go home tonight and say, oh, well, you know, Pastor Martin once in a while gets on these kicks and gets all worked up. He'll get over it. Yeah, I may get over this, my friend, but God isn't going to come back and rewrite one of these verses we've expounded. Not one of them.

61:06 And if I've accurately expounded them, Jesus said, the word I've spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day. Then what are you going to do? Then what are you going to do? What are you going to do then?

61:17 Well, yeah, Pastor Martin's on a kick. He's on a tear on something. Friend, I know how some of you think. I wasn't born yesterday.

61:24 I'm neither nervous nor insecure because of it.

61:29 Really.

61:31 But I am concerned for your soul.

61:35 Because though I preach it plainly and do everything but call some of you by name, you're no different now than you were five years ago. And that concerns me.

61:48 That deeply concerns me. I don't see you fighting. I don't see you worrying.

62:11 I'm going to spend my strength and look at one thing today and one thing only. That in every true conversion,

62:21 the dominion of sin, the dominion of sin is radically broken and it puts a man into a real and constant warfare with remaining sin for the rest of his days. Is that you? If it isn't, then you need to go to Christ, the mighty Deliverer, and say, Lord Jesus, break my chains. Lord Jesus, I'm a coward.

62:45 Lord Jesus, I'm no fighter. Lord Jesus, I have no courage. Lord Jesus, this world will shock me. This world will bring me down in its vortex into hell.

62:58 Lord Jesus, make me a fighter. Lord Jesus, in the strength of your grace and in the glory of your cross and in the virtue of your death for sinners such as I. Lord Jesus, accept me. Conscript me.

63:18 Equip me. Finish me. Be a battler. And make me an overcomer.

Ryle's Description of the Christian Warfare

63:26 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.

63:45 Let us not think in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it's utterly impossible in the conflict that concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non-interference, the masterly inactivity which pleases so many statesmen, the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone, this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here, at any rate, no one can escape serving under the plea that he's a man of peace.

64:16 To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be the enemy of God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost. Furthermore, he says, it's not only a fight of absolute necessity, but universal necessity.

64:33 No rank or class or age can plead exemption or escape from the battle. Ministers and people, preachers and hearers, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, gentle and simple, kings and subjects, landlords and tenants, learned and unlearned, all alike must take up arms and go to war. All have a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin. All are learned.

65:01 All living in a world beset with snares, traps and pitfalls for the soul. And all live near, a busy, restless, resisting. It's a fight of perpetual necessity. It emits no breathing time, no armistice, no truce, on weekdays as well as Sundays, private and public, at home by the family fireside, as well as abroad in little things like management of the tongue and temper, as well as in great ones like the government of kingdoms, the Christians' warfare must unceasingly go on.

65:37 The foe we have to do with keeps no holidays, never slumbers, never sleeps. So long as we have breath in our bodies, we must keep on our armor, and remember we're on enemy's ground. Even on the brink of Jordan, said a dying saint, I find Satan nibbling at my heels. We must fight until we die.

66:00 Let us consider well these propositions. The saddest symptom of many so-called Christians is their utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. And I say that is one of the saddest things of too many members of Trinity Baptist Church. The absence of anything like fight and conflict in their Christianity.

66:25 They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services. Once or twice every week. But the great spiritual warfare, its watchings, its strugglings, its agonies, its anxieties, its battles, its contests, of all this they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own.

Conclusion: Are You Fighting?

66:52 The worst chains are those which are neither seen nor felt by the prisoner who wears them. The worst chains are those which are neither seen nor felt by the prisoner who wears them. Are you fighting? Dear people, I've poured my heart out today.

67:23 I've preached myself into a pounding headache. But my hands are clinging before God. What are you going to do with what you've heard? I don't want you going home admiring a preacher's performance.

67:44 I've not been performing. I've been seeking to deliver my soul as one who's going to give an account. You'll give an account for what you've done with my effort. Let us pray.

68:11 Our Father, we have again brought before our minds the great and the weighty issues of eternity. We have entered that realm of the things that this world mocks at because with their five senses they can neither see nor touch nor taste nor feel them. But we know that when this present world of sight and touch and sense and taste and feeling is burned up at the second coming, all the things we've talked about tonight will remain and will be the only things that matter. God have mercy on any in this place who are self-deceived, who after this day, if they've listened with even half an ear, must surely be willfully and deliberately self-deceived. O God, let none go out in chains they do not see nor feel. Those who are in chains, give them to see and to feel their chains. To see them and feel them until the most crushing concern is to be delivered from them.

69:27 Give them an acute sense of the galling power of their chains that they may know the blessedness of the liberating power of Jesus. For your people, our Father, who've grown careless, for this preacher who's grown careless, O God, have mercy on us. And in these days as a church, grant us a fresh baptism of the spirit of holy soldiery, a fresh baptism, O God, of heavenly militance, a fresh baptism, O God, of determination to resist unto blood, striving against sin. O fill us with your blood, your holy spirit.

70:11 Suffuse our hearts with the sight of Christ crucified. Surround us and envelop us with gospel motives that by your grace we may pursue holiness as never before, waging warfare with our remaining sin for the mortal enemy that it is to our souls. And may we be found at last among the overcomers. Seal your word, we beg of you, for the good of our souls and for the glory of your dear Son.

70:45 We ask in his worthy name. Amen.