How to Deal with Remaining Sin

Review: Three Principles for Dealing with Remaining Sin

0:02 In looking out over the congregation, I do notice that there are probably about a dozen of you here this evening who are not with us this morning, and it is particularly for your benefit and in your interest that I shall take a few minutes to review what we covered, since in reality you just got half a sermon this morning and tonight is the last half. And I hope for those of you who are here for the first installment will not find it too tedious, but remember as you would that others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. And if you happen to come in for installment two, I'm sure you'd appreciate if someone took a moment to give you installment one.

0:46 Because of the nature of the day, with so many of our people absent at the conference, I felt it in their interest better to break into the regular course of expositions in Ephesians and speak today. Today on one basic theme of the Word of God, namely the whole matter of practical directives for dealing with remaining sin in the life of a Christian. And I intimated that recent pastoral dealings with a number of people have pressured my own spirit to think again of these very fundamental elements of the Christian life. And for a broad scriptural background, we read together Romans chapter 6, the chapter of the great contrast.

1:28 Between what the Romans were prior to their entrance into the orbit of grace and what they now are as those who have been touched by the grace of God. And I suggested that any treatment of the subject of dealing with remaining sin in a believer must be done, or must be enacted, must be carried out within a framework that recognizes three fundamental biblical principles. Principle number one, that all men by nature are under the dominion of sin. Romans 6,17, and 19, John 8, 34.

2:06 Second principle, some men by grace have been delivered from the dominion of sin. Romans 6, 6, 17, and 18, 22, and particularly verse 14. And then the third great principle is that those delivered from the dominion of sin still have remaining sin with which they must contend to the to the end of their days. And we find this right in Romans 6, the chapter of emancipation tells us that sin will still seek to usurp a place of authority.

2:40 Therefore, we are told in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign. Romans 6, the chapter of emancipation is quickly followed with chapter 7, the chapter, particularly verses 14 and following, in which we have a record of the agitation of remaining sin. In Romans 8, the chapter again of great triumph, the people of God no longer in the flesh but in the spirit, verse 9, and yet we are told in verse 13 that they must continually mortify the deeds of the body if they would live. So then, this condition of remaining sin

3:21 will be with us all the length of our days. And this is so beautiful, beautifully stated in the Confession, and this is all I'll say now by way of review of those three principles to read from the Confession. You may want to turn page 679 in your hymnals for these three principles which I've enunciated from the Scriptures are very clearly stated here in the chapter on sanctification, chapter 13. They who are once effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection

4:06 by his word and spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man and yet imperfect in this life. There abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit

4:48 and the spirit against the flesh. And then the third statement is on the fact that though at times we may seem to be defeated in the warfare, ultimate triumph is assured by the grace, of God. Frankly, I find it very difficult to understand how people take ministerial vows, claiming adherence to the Westminster standards, and then can teach some of the teaching that is prevalent in our day on the Christian life, which says that you can be delivered from all known sin, that you can be delivered from the struggle, at least they ought to be honest and renounce their ministerial vows if they teach such anti-scriptural concepts.

5:31 Well then, if it is true that this warfare will be present to the end of our days, the dominion of sin broken, but the remaining sin a constant source of agitation and disturbance, it is in the interest of our own safety and peace that we learn as Christians how to deal with remaining sin. And I suggested that we must deal with it, for God works in us to willing to do of his good pleasure, but we are to work outwardly, with fear and trembling. God's working and our working are concurrent realities and interdependent necessities. Therefore, if we would make progress, we must work in the dependence

6:16 upon the God who has promised to work. And we only had time to give you one fundamental principle in the working out of this matter of dealing with remaining sin, and it was this. Keep your heart furnished, with gospel motives. As we seek to fight with sin and wrestle with remaining corruption, it is only the gospel that will give us power in this warfare.

6:43 And the heart must be well furnished with gospel motives, motives that flow out of the grace of God in the gospel. And we saw the example of Paul as one who was gripped by gospel motives. The love of Christ constrains me. Second Corinthians 5, for to me to live is Christ, Philippians 1, and then the example of Joseph there in Potiphar's house.

7:09 And if we are to keep our hearts well furnished with gospel motives, we must take seriously all the appointed means of grace, public and private, for they are God's instrument to set Christ and the heart of the gospel before us continually. He who neglects these means will find his heart, overgrown with the weeds of carelessness, the weeds of legalism, the weeds of rationalizing, and he will come under bondage of certain sins, under the bondage of certain sins, and will make little progress in dealing with remaining corruption. And then I concluded with the two negative exhortations,

7:52 beware of anything which bleeds away the vigor of gospel motives, and beware of falling back under legal principles, we must constantly, in the words of our hymn, come as those who are sinners, but not despairingly, constantly looking to Christ for grace and pardon. All right, so much for the review. We condensed fifty minutes into about six and a half minutes. Now then, let me give you four other basic principles which must be implemented.

The Necessity of Active Engagement in Mortification

8:25 And remember, you must do these. Granted, we ought to pray, Lord, help me. Lord, give me grace. But don't ask God to do these things for you.

8:34 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.

8:46 And if anyone says he did, I'll say you're either crazy or some demon tied your shoes. God never tied your shoes. Now, you may have to pray for grace to get out of bed in the morning so that you'll be able to tie them. You may fumble around and miss it the first time you try to make the knot, but God never ties your shoes.

9:03 You say, what does that have to do with the Christian life? Well, God won't tie your shoes. God will not keep your heart furnished with gospel motives automatically. You must apply yourself so to do.

9:17 You must read the scriptures. God isn't going to read them for you. You must come earnestly panting after a new sight of Christ when you gather for public worship. God's not going to do that for you.

9:30 You must rid yourself of everything that does not lead to gospel motives. God's not going to do it for you. He's not going to tear your darling bosom sins from your lap. You must cast them away.

9:44 And likewise, with these four remaining directives, you must do them. Not if you're not in Christ. If you're not in Christ, you have no power so to do. You must look to Christ that he would make you his own and then equip you.

9:59 And as believers, we do them in the strength of Christ, but we do them. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But his strengthening does not cancel my doing. I do them.

Directive 2: Keep Your Conscience Sensitive to Sin's Guilt and Danger

10:11 You see? All right. What is the second directive? It is this.

10:17 Having made some honest efforts and continually making such efforts to keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives, the second directive is keep your conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sins. Keep your conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sins. And in particular, those outcroppings of remaining sin that are your peculiar problem. We commonly call them our own personal besetting sins.

10:59 Now, I don't have time to go into the whole subject of conscience as it relates to the Christian life, but let me just quote a verse that indicates that the function of conscience in the Christian life is a very central and fundamental one. I quote from 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, I'm sorry, chapter 1. Paul is writing to Timothy telling him why he charged him to tarry at Ephesus to correct false teaching. And he said, this was my reason, verse 5.

11:33 But the end of the charge, is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. Here is a trilogy of Christian graces. Love, faith, and a good conscience. And a good conscience is put right up on the same level with faith and love.

11:55 Suffice it to say that the function of conscience in Christian experience is a very fundamental one. And it is essential in the battle with remaining sin that we keep the conscience sensitive both to the guilt and danger of our sins. You see, the battle with remaining sin is difficult enough when we regard our enemies as enemies. But when we begin to look at our enemies as neutral bystanders or as friends, the battle is lost.

12:32 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.

13:07 That's all. And you see his eyes watching that man's hand. That's it. He's my enemy.

13:13 He's out to get me. I'm his enemy. I'm out to get him. And the eyes, and the camera will zoom in, and you'll notice the eyes are one place.

13:22 Even though people are filing out of the saloon and all the rest to watch the shootout, old Matt's looking one place. He's looking at that man's gun hand. And the moment that gun hand moves, his moves. You say, what's that have to do with mortification of sin?

13:36 Everything in the world, dear people, every single sin, that proposes itself to your lust, is out to slay you. And as long as you can stare your sin in the eye and say, thou art my mortal enemy, there's some hope for safety. But the minute you begin to look at the crowd and doff your hat, or the minute you begin to look at your sin and say, you're my friend, you've had it. You have had it.

14:11 Chapter and verse, all right. Turn to James chapter one. James chapter one. James chapter one.

14:26 Verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. He himself tempteth no man.

14:36 But each man is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lost, when it hath conceived, beareth sin. And the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death. Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

15:00 Don't be deceived by sin's modest proposals. Don't be deceived by sin's apparent innocency. Sin always has an itchy trigger finger.

15:17 That's the teaching of this passage.

15:21 And in this process of sanctification, particularly in dealing with remaining sin and corruption, seek to keep the conscience sensitive to the danger of sin. Every single sin has in it the seeds of a total apostasy from God.

15:43 And never forget it. Every single sin has in it the seeds of total apostasy from God. And though in the heart and life of a truly regenerate, intimate man, he will never sin into a state of apostasy, my friend. The only way I can know that I'm being kept from that is to be kept from sin at its lesser stages.

16:09 And that's my responsibility. I'm active in the perseverance and preservation of my own soul. Now, how then do you keep the conscience sensitive to the guilt and to the danger of sin, particularly our own? Aggravated sins.

How to Keep Conscience Sensitive: Law and Gospel

16:32 Let me give you two suggestions. Number one, bring your sins to the light of God's law in all of its purity again and again.

16:44 It is by the law, the scripture says, that the knowledge of sin comes. And not only for the unsaved man, but again, according to 1 Timothy, the law is made to expose sin wherever it exists. All the way. All the way from the gross manifestations of immorality and idolatry to anything, Paul says, that is contrary to the sound doctrine according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.

17:17 In other words, the law is God's mirror to show us what our sins really are. And you may begin to think you're doing quite good. You haven't blown your stack and cussed for three years. But you prayerfully, meditatively read through the Sermon on the Mount on your face before God.

17:41 You hold your inner life up to the mirror of that standard of God's holy law. And you realize that failure to love, the verse stirrings of anger are regarded in God's sight as murder. And you're humbled. You're slain.

18:00 Your pride is shriveled. And it is essential. To keep the conscience sensitive to sin by continually bringing our sins to the light of God's holy law. Have you ever taken the larger catechism and read through the section in the Ten Commandments?

18:21 Looked up the verses? What sins are forbidden in the first commandment? What duties are commanded in the first commandment? And line after line of application of the law of God, until going through just one of them.

18:36 And looking up the verses and references, you feel utterly slain. You realize what a mountain of iniquity is yet within me. And the conscience is resensitized. Oh, how vividly this lesson has been brought home to me with that garden in the backyard.

18:53 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.

19:06 And when I came back, even though my wife said, and I have to believe her, that she had weeded the first part of the week, that thing was just covered with weeds again. And yet for the past four days, it's virtually been a weedless garden, because every single morning, Farmer Jones, alias Joel, is out there before eight o'clock cultivating. And it's only daily cultivation, loosening up the soil, pulling out the first shoots of the weed that will keep that garden weedless. And my friend, that's the human heart.

19:40 The conscience becomes dull and insensitive. Remaining sin has this terrible power to weaken the voice of conscience. We need to come back to the holy standard of God, his precious, infallible, burningly bright law, and bring the conscience again and again and again. We might see our sins as sin.

20:04 But then in the second place, we must not only bring our sins to the light of God's holy, holy law, but we must constantly bring our sins to the light of the gospel in all of its glory. We need to see our sins in the light of the self-emptying of Christ. We need to take that particular sin, that particularly aggravating sin, that besetting sin, and dare to set it between our eyes and Calvary. Dare to look upon that thing, not in terms of how it gratifies our flesh, but in terms of what it did to him when he bore our sins in his body to the tree.

20:47 In the words of our hymn tonight, Ye who think of sin but lightly, here its guilt may estimate. This is where you estimate the measure of sin's guilt. You behold the writhing form of the Son of God. You behold the heavens shrouded in blackness.

21:09 You behold him in his agony. Listen to him in his agony. Listen to him in his cry and his groan. In that mysterious, painful wail, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

21:22 Look at that particular sin and say, This is what you cost my Savior. This is what you did to my beloved. There is no light like the darkness of Calvary to show sin in its true color. There is no light like the darkness of Calvary to show sin in its true color.

21:49 Now you see how these things mingle? While you're seeking to keep the conscience sensitive to sin by beholding its guilt in the light of the lawn of the gospel at the same time the heart is being refurnished with gospel motives, you see? Though we isolate them for study in the experience of a believer, they all mingle together. My friend, may I ask you a very pointed question tonight.

22:14 Are you keeping your conscience sensitive to the guilt and the danger of your sin in the light of the lawn of the gospel? Are there things that once made you blush at their first proposal that now you can indulge in without a twinge of conscience? That's no sign of Christian maturity. That's a sign of terrible declension.

Directive 3: Studiously Avoid All Known Occasions to Sin

22:41 That's a sign of frightening declension. You answer honestly in the presence of God. You and I will make no progress, little progress, in dealing with remaining sin unless the conscience is kept sensitive to the guilt and danger of the sin. Then thirdly, not only must we keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives, keep the conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of sin, but we must studiously avoid all known occasions to sin.

23:21 We must studiously avoid all known occasions to sin. And of course, one of the most powerful directives in this regard is our Lord's word to Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane. And I read from Matthew chapter 26 in verse 41. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.

23:51 The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The spirit here, not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to the renewed spirit of a believer. My spirit as a Christian is willing to do the will of God. Paul said it in Romans 7.

24:10 I delight after the law of God in my inward parts. My spirit is willing as a new man in Christ, but my flesh, that is, remaining corruption within, is weak. Now, how am I to counteract this weakness? He says, watch, as well as pray.

24:29 In prayer, I'm spreading my helplessness before God, asking him to come with the intervention of his own might and strength. And in watching, I'm working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Watching is a military term. It means the engagement of all of my faculties in the most careful, intense perception of the slightest stirrings of my enemy.

24:58 When a soldier pulls watch in the middle of the night, what's he doing? He's not out there composing ballads about how nice it was back home in the cornfields. He ought not to be doing it. All of his faculties are focused on one thing.

25:16 There's an enemy lurking out there somewhere in the darkness. And woe be to me and my comrades if I'm careless. He knows that watching is his safety. So it is.

25:30 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.

26:06 I know that if I get in an area where kids are having a pillow fight, I've had it. I'll have a good dose of asthmatic wheezing. If I go out into a flower garden and stir things up so pollen fills the air, I've had it. Now, knowing that, I must live my entire life in the light of my allergic sensitivities.

26:30 If I don't, I'll suffer. Now, if you know there are certain aspects of your, constitution as a new man in Christ, where you're allergic to certain situations, they provoke you to sin, you're responsible studiously to avoid those occasions. That's being watchful. You may pray very earnestly and fervently and sincerely for deliverance from specific sins, but unless you couple that prayer with watchfulness, you will fall again and again.

27:08 John Owen said, so perceptively in this very vein, he that dares to dally with occasions of sin will also dare to sin. He that dares to dally, flirt with occasions of sin will also dare to sin. He that will venture upon temptations to wickedness will also venture upon wickedness itself. You get it?

27:45 Some of you are deceiving yourselves. As a Christian, you can never say, I am going to commit such and such a sin. Everything in you will jangle and jar. I am simply going to put myself in this quote, innocent relationship.

28:06 Hmm? Sounds so plausible, doesn't it? But what does that so-called innocent relationship be with a person or a thing or a situation? What does it lead to?

28:17 Invariably, your life history shows that once you got into that situation, you were bewitched by the constituent elements of that situation until all of your spiritual faculties and signals were mixed up and out of whack. And before you knew it, you succumbed. It was a mesmerizing effect about those situations that seemed to cauterize all of the spiritual nerve endings. It seemed to drown out all of the signals that you normally receive about who God is in Christ and heaven and hell.

28:55 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.

29:21 He can never just buy a newspaper. He can never just pick up Sports Illustrated. He always ends up thumbing through Penthouse, Playboy, Swank, and all the rest of the slop. And he falls and allows this stuff to flood into his mind.

29:40 What's he do? He goes home and he agonizes before God and he groans and moans and pleads the cleansing of the blood of Christ and vows never again. Two weeks later, a modest proposal comes. You need to have a newspaper.

29:58 I mean, Christians shouldn't be ignorant. What does he do? He goes right back in that same situation. And when he's there, what happens?

30:08 The same thing. There is a cauterizing. I don't know what else to say. Of all of the living nerve endings of spiritual reality, they're suddenly cauterized.

30:18 And only one thing matters. He's going to feed that lecherous something in his flesh that responds to all the glossy pictures on the porno stand. And if some of you were honest, you'd stand to your feet right now and say, Pastor Martin, you're describing me tonight. Come on, you be honest.

30:36 You'd say you're describing me. I pass through airports. You see three-quarters of the men come off the plane and they head right to the magazine shops. They're respectable, middle-class and upper-middle-class American men on their way back home to see their wives feed their souls upon this film.

31:00 I don't know whether he came under conviction or what, but a young man sat two seats away from me just flying back last week, reading his Playboy magazine. Thank God I didn't see a thing that was on it. The only reason I know it was his Playboy is that he turned it to a page that didn't have any bared flesh on it and finally stuck it in the container in front of him. Then I saw across the top where it just said Playboy and I sat there reading my Bible.

31:26 I didn't read my Bible because he was reading it now. I just opened up my Bible to read it. And I don't know whether he got under conviction or what, but he put that thing away. But he's a nice-looking chap.

31:36 Wedding ring on his finger. And I said to myself, he's going home to his wife. He could have been a professing Christian. And some of you here tonight, I'm describing how you become ensnared in salacious literature.

31:54 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.

32:19 Cleanse me. Give me power over. And then what happens? Monday morning, the suggestion comes, well, just turn on the Today Show.

32:26 I mean, you shouldn't be ignorant of what's going on in the world, should you? And you've turned on the Today Show. And you're in the orbit where you're powerless now. And it's as though your hand is actually paralyzed to turn that set off again.

32:41 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.

33:05 You've mourned. You've wept. You've prayed. You've cried to God.

33:09 What's your downfall? Those innocent trips to the refrigerator. God's given us all things rich and to enjoy. Just a little glass of milk or maybe just an ice cube so I can have a little ice water.

33:25 No calories in that. And what happens? Well, with the glass of milk goes the cooking. With the cookie goes, and there you are again.

33:34 Until it's crippled your whole spiritual life. And I've just met too many people in the past year who are utterly crippled spiritually because of an inordinate attachment. To caloric intake. Ever to think this is a non-spiritual issue.

33:57 What's the problem? You've prayed. You've wept. You've cried to God.

34:01 You're not watching. In great measure, that's your problem. You're not watching. You're not watching.

34:11 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.

34:28 You know how I'm going to do it? I'm going to get you to get so head over heels, silly infatuated with an unsaved fellow or girl that you, you are going to marry him. You say, not all, not me. No, no, I'm a Christian.

34:42 I, Christians, don't do that.

34:45 Does the devil come and make such proposals? Oh, no.

34:49 No. He says, look, you're so strong, you would never marry an unsaved fellow or girl. In fact, you're so strong, you can be a witness to one.

35:04 And you're stupid enough to think you're the first one to whom he's ever said that.

35:13 What?

35:17 Watch.

35:20 Watch, let's pray.

35:26 You see, my friend, that fellow coming down the main street of Dodge, he's not coming to play tiddlywinks.

35:37 That's it.

35:39 Death is in its eyes. Sin, when it is finished, bring it forth. Death.

35:47 You better watch. I better watch. We're in a death struggle.

35:55 Now, have I given sufficient application for you to get the idea? I trust I have. If we're going to deal effectively by the power of the Spirit of God with indwelling sin, not only must the heart be kept furnished with gospel motives, not only must the conscience be kept sensitive to the guilt and danger of sin, but we must avoid all of the known occasions to sin.

36:20 If we don't do it, you know what we're doing? We're actually tempting God. When you pray for deliverance from temptation and sin and then don't avoid the occasions of sin, you're tempting God.

36:33 You're tempting God. You're casting yourself down from the pinnacle of eternity, from the temple, saying, Lord, deliver me.

36:43 And it's a frightening thing when we rise from our knees praying for God's help and then we go off with our feet to tempt God. You'll pay for it. And you can stiffen up your neck and purse and pout your lips and say, not me. Oh, my dear friend, someday you'll come with bitterness and say you were right.

37:08 If a man after God's own heart, named David,

37:13 who has actually been a vehicle to convey to the church the book of the psalm, a great number of the psalms, to be God's instrument to conquer the land of Canaan, if a man with all that grace and privilege gets so bold as to put himself in a place of temptation and never gets out until he's crippled for life, who in God's name do you think you are? Who in God's name do you think you are?

Directive 4: Strike at the First Risings of Sin

37:50 And the fourth directive is this. If we would make progress in mortifying the deeds of the body by the spirit, we must learn to strike at the first risings of our sin. And I've already hinted at this. I just want to underscore it as a separate point for a few minutes.

38:11 The first proposals of sin are often very modest. And we reason I can go thus far in compliance with the proposals and no further. But we've read from James 1 that every proposal of sin has death in it. And I know of nothing.

38:30 I know of nothing. I know of nothing in this area that helps me more than to look at it that way. When I find something in the world appealing to something in my remaining corruption, seeking to entice some appetite, some passion that is inordinate,

38:48 and it promises me this or that, I find great blessing comes when I look through its modest proposals and say, yes, and in your proposal is the kiss of death.

39:01 And I shall not comply. Has it ever struck you, dear? Dear child of God, that every single breathing of pride in its first stirrings, if it had its way, would not stop until it ran up to the throne of God and tore God from his throne and put you there in its place? Every single breathing of pride, if it had its way, would un-God God.

39:30 I will be like the Most High.

39:34 The scripture says he alone is worthy of praise. Every stirring of pride says I alone am worthy. Has it ever struck you, Christian, that every single breathing of envy, if it had its way, would end up in murder,

39:51 thievery, grasping at what is lawfully another's at any price?

39:59 Has it struck you, Christian, that every unclean, lustful thought, if it had its way, would lead us actually to wallow in the filth of lechery and immorality? When you begin to get convinced of this, Christian, you're going to strike at the first risings of sin. The first risings, you're going to say, Lord Jesus, slay it while it is yet a seed in the ground. Before it becomes a mighty oak and falls upon me and slays me.

40:29 The history of the professing visible church of Christ, among other things, is the history of the strewn wreckage of people who thought they could dally with the first risings of sin and get away with it.

40:44 My friend, will you join the wreckage?

40:48 Will you join the wreckage? I think of you, dear young people,

40:54 and one of the peculiar lies that the devil brings to boys and girls and teenagers and young men and women is that you know, you know how to handle yourself.

41:08 Oh, look at the wreckages. Look at them in scripture.

41:11 There's a man who could pray with Paul, could preach with Paul. Paul calls him, Demas, my fellow laborer.

41:21 Yet he has to write saying, Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present age.

41:31 You say, how could it be? You think that just happened like this? That one night Demas went to bed with a heart deeply attached to the Lord Jesus? Deeply attached to the work of the gospel and woke up the next morning and spat on the whole thing and said, I want no more.

41:46 No, no, no, no. It didn't happen that way. How did it happen? Modest proposals.

41:55 Paul's not around, Demas. Go ahead and let your thoughts and your affections run out to some of the old life and some of the old pattern. The more he looked at it and the more he turned it over in his mouth, the more sweet it became until finally he said, Sorry, Paul, I can't keep up with the front anymore. That's where my heart is.

42:13 Now I'm going to put my body and my affections and my appetites and my interest in energies where my heart has been subtly retreating all the while. You know, it's a tragic thing to stand up here tonight, dear ones, and to know that though some of you have a body in the assembly of God's people, you know where your heart is tonight? It's in the world. And it's only a matter of time before your body is going to go where your heart is.

42:39 That's a tragic thing. And I look among you and I say, Lord, who will it be? Who amongst us now sitting here apparently adhering to the truth and to godliness, but whose heart is suddenly, subtly complying with the modest proposal of sin in the world? And it's only a matter of time before your body, that is you in your entirety, will be where your heart is tonight.

43:15 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 in her singing

43:56 that sinners broke down and wept. And there is far from God and the gospel and truth as heaven is from hell tonight. And it didn't happen overnight. The first risings of sin were entertained, and now sin is brought forth.

44:19 Who would it be? Who among you will break your pastor's hearts if the Lord is pleased to keep us here? Who among us 10 years from now will become illustrations for a similar exhortation as I'm giving tonight? Will you?

44:36 Will you be fuel for the preacher's illustration of the reality of this terrible danger? If you're not striking at the first risings of sin, you're set up. You're set up. And it's only a matter of time before you're going to fall.

44:59 Let him that thinketh, he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10, 12. Some of you are flirting so close to the edge of a precipice, you're so tempting God, that one of these days, God may say, look, I've had it with you.

45:23 You want that? Go ahead, and you'll remove the barrier. You know what's going to happen? You're going to find suddenly the thing that your flesh wanted and which you dallied with, but from which there was some restraint, the restraint will be gone.

45:42 And when it is, you'll be clean gone from the circle of the visible saints of God. John said it. He said in 1 John 2, 19, look at it. It's a key text in this regard.

45:54 1 John chapter 2 and verse 19, speaking of these false teachers with their heretical doctrine and their ungodly lives. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out.

46:21 That they might be made manifest that they all are not of us. You see what he's saying? As long as they were in the visible community of God's people, we thought they were one of us. He says, they're gone now.

46:38 And he said, they're going is not a denial of the truth of the preservation of the saints. No, it's an illustration of the principle that many seem to be saints who never were. And all the while, they were among us, he says, they were never really of us. But then when God took away the restraints, they were where their hearts were all the time.

Directive 5: Look Continually to Christ for the Killing of Sin

47:03 May God help us to receive the exhortation. And then I close tonight with this fifth directive. Not only must we keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives, not only must we seek to keep the conscience tender to the guilt and to the danger of sin, not only must we avoid all known occasions of sin, but we must look continually to Christ for the killing of our sin. Romans 8.13 says, and I want you to turn to it for a moment,

47:39 if ye by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. It is only in the strength and power of the Spirit that we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the flesh. We must mortify, but by the spirit. And now get hold of what I'm about to say.

47:58 and the work of the Spirit is always inseparably joined to the focus of the soul upon the objective glory of Christ, person, and work. Now, follow me closely. The Spirit's operation is present not when your attention is on the Spirit, but when the attention of the soul, the focus of the mind, and all the inner faculties of life, when they are focused upon the glory of Christ, person, and work. It is in that context that the Spirit works.

48:37 Paul says to the Galatians, Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. In other words, it's in the context of Christ being preached that the Spirit is given initially. Having heard, ye believed, ye were sealed. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.

48:56 And this is true in the continuance of the Christian life. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he it is that shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1, 21. Titus 2, 14.

49:09 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us and purify to himself a peculiar people. Romans 6, the great chapter of emancipation, says that the virtue of our power to walk in newness of life comes from what Christ did when he died and rose, and we died. And rose with him. You see, the Spirit's work is carried out in the orbit of the objective truth concerning Christ in his person and work.

49:42 Therefore, if you and I are to make progress in dealing with remaining sin, we must look constantly to Christ for the killing of our sin. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12 for this passage from which I extract the phrase looking constantly to Christ. I'm fully aware that that has become a shibboleth in certain circles, but since it's a biblical term, we'll not allow the shibboleth makers to rob us of its proper use. Hebrews 12 and verse 1.

50:18 Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him. There's the emphasis. Here's a race that is before us.

50:56 No one receives the prize who doesn't finish the race. My friend, listen. Just as the Bible said, it's certain that every elect sinner will finish the race, it's also necessary that he finish the race. And certainty and necessity are not contradictory in the economy of God.

51:14 Yea, I to the end shall endure. Right. But I to the end must endure as well. Say, I don't understand it.

51:22 Well, you just better believe it and live accordingly. I don't care if you understand it or not.

51:28 There is no sinner who has been joined to Christ that shall ever perish. I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish. They're all going to complete the race.

51:39 Some are just going to about drag over the line and poop out when they hit it. Right. But they're going to make it. They're going to make it.

51:47 Whom he justified, then he glorified. It is certain that we shall make it. But it's also necessary that we make it. And the necessity brings within its orbit all of our faculties.

52:00 Who is to lay aside the weights? We are. Who is to run with patience? We are.

52:05 Who is to look unto Jesus? We are. Who is to consider him? We are.

52:10 And it's as we look unto him that something wonderful happens.

52:16 We look unto him and we say, Lord Jesus, you're the mighty victor. You conquered sin, death, and the grave. Lord Jesus, conquer this sin in me. Oh, Lord Jesus, by the virtue of your death and resurrection, slay in me this sin.

52:32 By the power of your own risen life, Lord, conquer in me this area. Otherwise, I'll be in a state of error and infidelity. Oh, Lord, this is a state of weakness and deflection from the standard of the word of God. And then when you get weary and you say, I can't go on, and I've heard from the lips of some of you, there are times when you've all but said to me, Pastor, I'm ready to quit.

52:56 I get so tired of fighting with sin. I get so weary. When will the struggle end? Listen.

53:03 Look unto Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith for the scripture says in this very context, verse four. Consider him, for ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. When did any of you here actually find your life's blood coming out of your veins in your battle against sin?

53:25 Anybody here?

53:28 He resisted unto blood.

53:31 In the agony of his obedience in Gethsemane, he sweat as it were great drops of blood. In the agony of Calvary, he poured out his life's blood there upon the cross. My friend, look unto Jesus.

53:48 Behold him who in travailing for your salvation resisted unto blood. You have not yet resisted unto blood. This is what it means to look unto Christ. Look unto him for strength to press on when you feel I just can't go on anymore.

54:05 Look unto him for the virtue of his own saving work to sway the sin in you. Look to Christ. Convince that there is provision in him. And raise your eyes.

54:16 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.

54:31 Where he deals with the fact that we must with the psalmist fix our gaze upon our God. And wait for grace from him to conquer our sins. Dear child of God. Unless you're constantly looking.

54:46 Unto Jesus. You'll make very little progress in dealing with remaining sin. Look unto him. Not unto yourself.

54:55 Not unto others. Not unto the world. But unto him. Consider him.

55:02 And as you see what he endured that you might be holy. How can you ever say I'm too weary in the struggle to be holy. I'm going to quit. My friend he was so determined to make you holy.

55:13 He carried his obedience even to the death of the cross. And he was so determined to make you holy. And he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. I fear that the great problem most of us have.

Concluding Exhortation and Warning

55:26 As we don't take the matter of remaining sin half so seriously as does God in the devil. Carelessness is our great sin.

55:39 Ten years from now there will be perhaps a number of you. Clean gone out of the orbit of the Christian church. That's a frightening thing. But if the apostles had it under their ministry.

55:50 If Jesus Christ had it under his. And the greatest servants of God in the history of the church. Had had it under theirs. Who are we to think we'll be exempt from.

55:58 But I can't be cold in calculating when I say that. Because I yearn that not a one of you. Not a one of you. Prove to be an apostate.

56:09 But that every one of you run with patience the race that is set before you. And if you are to run that race with patience. Here are some of the biblical principles that must be part and parcel. Of the necessary baggage.

56:24 Lay aside the weight and the sin baggage. But this is the spiritual baggage that we must carry with us. Keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives. Pray for your elders.

56:37 Pray for those who minister the word. That we under God may in our opening up of the scriptures. Constantly be instrumental to the stirring up of gospel motives. Pray that we'll not become legalist.

56:50 Pray that we'll not become moralistic. Just giving rules and regulations and duties. Pray that there shall be throbbing through every aspect of our public ministry. Something of the glory.

57:04 Something of the majesty. The beauty. The preciousness and the grace of Christ. Second place.

57:13 You must keep your conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sin. You must do this. The moment you cease to look at your enemy as your enemy. You've had it.

57:24 And you must studiously avoid all the known occasions for sin. I've seen breaking certain friendships even with other fellow Christians. There's some people when I'm around them. I fall into a kind of levity that is grieving to the Holy Spirit.

57:39 I must avoid those relationships wherever possible. That's what it means. You take it seriously. It will alter many things.

57:50 And then by the grace of God we must strike at the first risings of sin. And in all of our endeavors ever looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. May God help us to make progress in dealing with remaining sin. And I'm speaking tonight to some.

58:10 Your problem is not remaining sin. Your problem is reigning sin. You're the devil's lackey. You're his little servant boy.

58:17 His little servant girl. And whatever sin speaks you obey. You give your mind, the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Romans 6.13.

58:29 My friend. You need the great emancipator. The Lord Jesus. Who alone can break sin's dominion.

58:37 Who died and rose that he might break that dominion for all who come unto God by him. May God grant that you will know though there may be much that you didn't understand tonight. That the answer to your dilemma is in that person. And that person must be sought until you know that he is yours and you are his.

59:00 Let us pray.