Know Your Enemy: So You Too, Reckon Yourselves Dead to Sin | Romans 6:6-14

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:02

So, we're gonna, as you can see from today's sermon title, which is

00:09

Know Your Enemy So You Too Reckon Yourselves Dead to Sin, I'm gonna continue preaching through Romans 6 with a specific focus on our enemy, the flesh.

00:22

And I want to begin with a question for you all. So, as Christians who consider ourselves dead to sin, reckon ourselves dead to sin, can we and do we still gratify the desires of the flesh, okay?

00:42

As Christians who consider ourselves dead to sin, can we and do we still gratify the desires of the flesh?

00:50

And the answer here requires a biblical understanding of bookend doctrines, a number of bookend doctrines of the flesh and of the spirit, of mind and body, of sin, indwelling sin, and regeneration, and so on.

01:10

And think on this throughout the sermon today because that's what we're gonna, one of the questions that we're gonna seek to answer more clearly.

01:20

Let's first deal with something I addressed in Romans 6, 6 through 7 last

01:26

Sunday though. I wanted to kind of clarify something here. Pay close attention to how sin is described and the tenses that are used in this passage as this will inform our answer to this question and our understanding of the rest of the chapter.

01:47

And our understanding of the rest of the Bible for that matter, right? The Bible is systematic by design, by design, because God himself is systematic by nature.

02:02

He is logical. He's a God of order because all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in who?

02:14

They're hidden in Christ, right? Amen? So we need to be fully cognizant of that reality.

02:28

Now if you turn with me to Romans chapter 6 starting in verse 1, we can start here. Read this a few times before, so I want to,

02:40

I want to deal with this something here. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

02:48

May it never be. How shall we who died to sin, notice the tense again, past tense, still live in it?

02:56

Or how do you, or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized, past tense again, into his death.

03:04

Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

03:20

For if we have become united with him, past tense, in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

03:29

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified, past tense, with him, in order that our body of sin, notice the possessive there, our body of sin might be done away with past tense so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

03:51

So body of sin, slaves to sin, no more for he who has died again, past tense has been justified or set free from sin, from the power and bondage of sin.

04:09

So as I was studying this passage, I came across John Calvin, his commentary, and he said something that was very thought provoking.

04:19

And this is what he had to say in about verse six. The body of sin, which

04:26

Paul afterwards mentions, does not mean flesh and bones. It's not physical body, but the corrupted mass for man left to his own nature is a mass made up of sin.

04:45

So this is where I may need to do another recanting, some more recanting.

04:52

As I study this some more, now

04:57

I can see and appreciate more fully what R .C. Sproul was talking about, how he changed his mind in the middle of his studies in Romans six.

05:06

He sometimes changes his mind. And I have to confess that I'm a little more sympathetic to this now.

05:13

The reason, again, is because Romans six can be challenging to determine when

05:19

Paul is speaking physically and literally or spiritually and figuratively.

05:28

However, that's not all. That's not all there is to it. That's not the whole enchilada because we also need to determine if and when the key biblical terms in the passage might mean the same thing or have some overlap in meaning.

05:52

OK, such as the mind, the body, the flesh, sin, death, members, all of these key terms that I've been preaching through, we've been preaching through that that are in these chapters.

06:08

Or if and when they have distinct or different meanings.

06:14

Or when even the same term has different meanings and which specific meaning is being used.

06:26

OK, like the flesh. Now, OK, so that said,

06:35

I'm not really changing my view per se, but I am making sharper, more careful distinctions between the different meanings of the flesh.

06:49

OK, between different the different meanings of the flesh. Between the old man.

06:57

Also known as the body of sin in the spiritual sense and the flesh in the physical sense.

07:07

OK, and between that which is physical and that which is spiritual, natural, spiritual or in like alluding to what

07:24

Christ said in John 3, 6, what is from the flesh and what is from the spirit.

07:31

OK, remember, too, what I preached in the earlier part of this series on the importance of proper definitions always and because the flesh has different meanings in Scripture.

07:46

And if we do not define our terms adequately, biblically, consistently, we will not answer the question above correctly.

08:00

Nor will we make much sense of what the Bible teaches here or anywhere else for that matter.

08:08

Very important. So let's see if we can improve upon what

08:13

Gerhardus Voss initially gave us with what we have learned thus far,

08:19

OK? We know we know that the flesh can refer to man in his human weakness.

08:30

For in the words of our master, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

08:37

Right. It can also refer to either the complete sinful corruption of man, body and spirit in his entirety as an unbeliever or to the partial corruption of man in his regenerated state as a believer.

09:00

OK, this is very important to distinguish, to understand. It can refer to either the complete sinful corruption of man in his entirety as an unbeliever or to the partial corruption of man in his regenerated state as a believer.

09:20

OK. And we kind of noted I've noted previously that Owen and Calvin essentially touch on this and agree on this, as we'll see later on as well.

09:33

Now, turn with me to Romans chapter eight. Let's skip over to a couple of chapters, starting to chapter eight, starting in verse six.

09:49

Here's a very clear example of what I just stated. Romans chapter eight, starting in verse six.

09:59

For the mind set on the flesh is death. OK, this is talking about unbelievers.

10:07

But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Talking about believers. Right. Contrast.

10:14

Either or. Because the mind set on the flesh is at enmity toward God, hostility towards God, enemy of God, against God.

10:27

For it does not subject itself to the law of God. It does not obey, nor does it want to.

10:32

For it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh, unbelievers, are not able to please

10:42

God. However, you believers are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

10:52

If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Very clear contrast there.

10:58

OK. The flesh. Now, the flesh can also be used in the physical sense.

11:08

OK, in the physical sense, our physical body and senses touching on what

11:15

I said earlier with respect to believers as well. And unbelievers. And as in flesh and blood, flesh and blood were not inherit the kingdom of God, that kind of thing.

11:26

And as we've also clearly seen in Romans 7, 25. So then, on the one hand,

11:35

I myself with my mind, my spirit, my inner man.

11:43

From verse 22, am serving the law of God. But on the other hand, with my flesh, my physical body, the law of sin.

11:55

There's the contrast once again, mind, body, two parts. That's why earlier in the series

12:01

I covered and established how many parts do we have as men and women. We have two parts, mind and body.

12:09

And that is the contrast that Paul makes here. That is with the body of this death from back in verse 24.

12:20

As opposed to the mind or the spirit. OK, very important to understand this.

12:27

Take good note of this. The flesh can also refer to a more spiritual sense while still acknowledging the physical.

12:41

To our sins or to indwelling sin and sinful lust or desire or passion.

12:51

This is what we learned from John Owen earlier. As in Galatians 5, 16.

13:01

And you can turn with me there to chapter five of Galatians. Galatians 5, verse 16, which says, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

13:18

OK, notice, too, how Paul in Galatians 5.

13:28

How the works of the flesh that Paul lists in verses 19 through 21.

13:34

Are a combination of sins that are more spiritual, some of which are more spiritual or internal, like selfish ambition and lust.

13:45

And others that are more physical, like drunkenness or sexual immorality.

13:55

There is a sense, however, in which we always sin with both our minds and bodies.

14:05

OK, we cannot really separate the two because they are united and connected, especially through our senses.

14:16

And the mind also controls the body. Right. So we sin in the body, even though the source of sin that causes us to sin now is primarily our corrupt, physical, vile bodies.

14:31

Like Romans says later on, like Paul says later on in Romans 8 as well. So this is not a hard and fast like either or.

14:42

Right. It's not something that's meant to be separated, you know, body and spirit that way.

14:49

It's not natural because God designed us to have a body combined with a spirit as a living soul.

14:58

Remember back in Genesis and Nephesh, when man became a living soul after God breathed into the body of Adam, his spirit.

15:08

In Galatians 5, 24 also. We further see that those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh past tense in a spiritual sense.

15:22

OK, not so much the physical sense, but the spiritual sense of the flesh with its passions and desires, lusts.

15:31

OK, that's just like what Owen says. Now, this next section here,

15:37

I thought was clever. I gave it the name the men of old on the old man, the men of old.

15:46

What do the men of old have to say on the old man? So even though I misquoted

15:51

Calvin. So earlier, I forgot to mention this earlier or in my last sermon,

15:58

I mentioned that Calvin acknowledged that we have to escape the corruption of our bodies. But I think

16:05

I misquoted that. Because I had read earlier what he what he actually said there.

16:14

And I do agree, though, with what Calvin says in Romans 6, 6, because the body of sin is a

16:22

Hebraism or a figure of speech that refers to the collective. As in a collection or a collective body, quote unquote.

16:34

Of our sins, plural of the totality of our sin and sinfulness.

16:43

OK, this is in a more spiritual sense as opposed to physical. And I'll I'll reread what

16:54

I quoted from Calvin because he's Calvin to clarify once again,

16:59

Calvin says that the body of sin, which Paul afterwards mentions, does not mean flesh and bones, does not mean physical sense.

17:09

But the corrupted mass for a man left to his own nature is a mass made up of sin. OK, so with that in mind and I do agree with what he's saying there.

17:18

Like I said, because this is a Hebraism, it's a Hebrew, it's a Hebrew, it's a

17:23

Jewish figure of speech. And and this body of sin has already been nailed and crucified past tense.

17:34

It has been put to death so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, according to Romans 6, 6.

17:41

And Peter's God breathed letter, likewise, acknowledges that Christ himself bore our sins, our body of sin, in other words, in his body on the tree, the cross, so that having died to sin.

18:03

OK, not the parallel phrase there from Romans six, having died to sin, we might live to righteousness now by his wounds.

18:14

You were healed. That's first Peter chapter two, verse twenty four. Therefore, the flesh in a spiritual sense is no longer our master because it is dead to us as believers.

18:32

The spiritual old man is crucified and the collective body of sin.

18:39

Our sins are dead. It's dead. We are no longer slaves to sin, to it, because they were nailed to Christ on the cross.

18:52

He paid the price and the penalty of death of the law. Amen. So that is very important to make sure that we understand and distinguish properly.

19:05

Now, I like how Calvin explains here this passage.

19:13

Well, before I read him, let me also so the flesh in the physical sense.

19:19

OK, consequently, the flesh in the physical sense is also no longer our master because God spiritually buried us.

19:29

With Christ in that regenerating baptism of death to sin.

19:36

And raises us to a new Betty, but still a new life with new thoughts, new words, new actions, which consequently.

19:52

Breaks us free from the bondage of sin and of the flesh.

19:57

So we are no longer sins to the flesh in either the physical or the spiritual sense.

20:04

OK, praise God for that. We have victory now. And I like how

20:11

Calvin explains this once again. So but Paul mean what Paul means by the old man is the whole nature which we bring from the womb and which is so incapable of the kingdom of God that it must so far die.

20:27

Spiritually speaking, as we are renewed to real life, this old man,

20:33

Paul says, is fastened to the cross of Christ nailed for by its power, the power of the cross.

20:42

The old man is slain, killed, executed, and he expressly referred to the cross so that he might more distinctly show that we cannot be otherwise put to death then by partaking of Christ's death on that tree.

21:07

Amen to that. That's good stuff right there. Now, does this sound familiar from somebody else that we've read from before?

21:19

This is actually very similar to what John Owen teaches in his book on the mortification of sin.

21:27

That the body in Romans 8, 12 to 13 is the same as the old man and the body of sin in Romans 6, 6.

21:38

Or it may express the whole person, the whole person considered as corrupted and the seed of lusts and uncontrolled affections.

21:47

OK, now there's an issue here that I'm going to take with Owen a little bit later on. But this, in a sense, is very similar to what

21:55

Calvin is saying as well. What Paul is saying in Romans 6 and the body of sin that is spiritual.

22:04

So upon careful reconsideration, once again, I do agree more now with what

22:10

Calvin and Owen mean. That the body of sin in this passage is not so much physical as it is primarily internal or mental, spiritual, indwelling sin in the form of lusts and uncontrolled affections or passions or desires.

22:30

The old man and body of sin are, in fact, the same thing. They are what

22:36

Calvin and Owen describe as that whole mass of indwelling sin, of our personal sin and sinfulness.

22:44

Because Paul says our body of sin and our old man, it's our specific sins and in their totality.

22:59

And also what Burkhoff, that excellent theologian, Louis Burkhoff, defines as human nature insofar as it is controlled by sin, mastered by sin.

23:15

That's what it is right there, the old man. Now, this will help us to answer our question that I asked in the beginning and make sense of the following passage in Romans 6, verses 8 through 14.

23:33

OK, so turn with me there now. Let's go back to Romans chapter 6 and verse 8. So God's word says in verse 8,

23:54

Romans 6, verse 8. Now, if we died, once again, note the tense, past tense, died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again.

24:09

Death no longer is master over him. Note that language, mastery, slavery and mastery for the death that he died.

24:20

Past tense, he died to sin once for all. For that whole body of sin, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

24:31

Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin. But alive to God in Christ Jesus.

24:39

Amen. That's that's gospel promise right there. Therefore, OK, notice the transition now.

24:50

Therefore, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body.

24:58

That is body in the physical sense so that you obey its lusts.

25:06

And do not go on presenting your members, remember the members in Romans 7 as well, your physical members to sin as instruments, as weapons of unrighteousness.

25:20

But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, because sin has our sin has been crucified and done away with.

25:30

And your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin shall not be master over you any longer, for you are not under law, but under grace, the grace of God.

25:45

Amen. That's law and gospel right there. Right.

25:51

That is powerful stuff. But now let's ask ourselves again, as Christians who consider ourselves, therefore, dead to sin in the spiritual sense, can we and do we still gratify the desires of the flesh?

26:11

How do we make sense of this? And how can we who die to sin still live in it?

26:18

Right. Like Romans, like Paul says in Romans, the beginning of Romans six. How do we make sense of this?

26:26

Now, Paul's God breathed answer is yes and no.

26:32

It depends. Okay. It depends on what you mean. No, on the one hand, not in an ongoing sense, not in a prolonged state of zero, no sorrow, no remorse for sin, no repentance and no mortification of your sin.

26:52

Okay. So if you're not wrestling, if you're not struggling against your sin, then no, that's not what it, what

27:01

Paul means. That's not what the Bible means because we will wrestle against the flesh.

27:09

That's what the Bible clearly teaches us. And Romans in Galatians five, Romans six, seven, eight.

27:17

That is clearly what the Bible teaches. There is a warfare going on between us, our inner man and the spirit, the law of my mind, like Paul says in Romans seven at the end of it and the law of my members, my body, my flesh and the physical sense, right?

27:37

So there is a sense in which that is no, a no, but there is also a yes.

27:46

Yes. In the sense that we still nevertheless sin. Okay. It is still possible then to gratify the flesh as believers, because all sin, ask yourself, does the sin gratify the flesh?

27:59

Does sin gratify our flesh, that corrupt part of our bodies? Well, yes, of course it does.

28:06

It feeds the flesh. Okay. So there is a sense in which we still gratify the desires of the flesh because we are still in the flesh in some sense.

28:23

Because we still have these corrupt, vile bodies, like Paul says, remember also when

28:32

I previously called our attention to the tension, the struggle, the warfare that we as believers all face in Galatians five and elsewhere, which is, which is that even though we who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh already, verse 24, past tense, spiritual sense, we still face the reality of sin and of the flesh as believers every single day.

29:04

Amen. Do not deceive yourselves like these folks who say they, oh yeah, we can be sinlessly perfect.

29:11

That's not a reality that the Bible describes and teaches. Yes, we can overcome sin in our life and break the patterns and the habits of sin.

29:21

Of course we can. But we still struggle with sin every single day because we have not been fully redeemed yet.

29:30

We still have the partial corruption of our flesh in our bodies, in the physical sense to deal with that causes us to sin mentally, spiritually, internally as well, lusting and sinning and pride and all of those things.

29:47

That's why we have to put to death, put it to death. It's not dead yet.

29:53

It's not quite dead yet. Not until the resurrection.

30:00

And Paul further warns us with a law principle in verses 25 through 26 in Galatians that if we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit.

30:14

That is, we must follow the spirit in humble obedience to his word through his means of grace and of deliverance.

30:22

OK, remember the six S's that I dealt with in the previous series on the devil, right?

30:31

What are those six means of deliverance and of grace? Number one is scripture.

30:36

Two, sound doctrine. Three, the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper. And prayer as well.

30:45

Four, self -awareness and self -denial. Five, sage counsel, wise counsel.

30:51

And six, spiritual warfare. And by which the spirit also empowers us to obey.

31:00

That is why there is no excuse. There is no excuse for us to follow

31:06

Christ in righteousness and in holiness, because the spirit of God is now living in us.

31:11

Has regenerated our inner man. And now we want to obey

31:17

Christ because we have a new life. We have new desires, new thoughts, new words, new actions that now glorify

31:27

God. Even when we sin, we now repent and we seek to stop sinning any longer.

31:40

That is the power of the regenerating power of God and that regenerating baptism of death in Christ, in his death, amen, and life as well.

31:54

His life, his resurrection. Verse 26, Paul continues in Galatians 5, let us not become conceited, arrogant, boastful, prideful, provoking one another to sin, envying one another to jealousy or jealousy.

32:12

Okay, this is still a possibility, even though the flesh in the spiritual sense has been crucified, but not in the physical sense.

32:23

Okay, there's a similar warning also in Romans 13, 14. Romans 13, verse 14.

32:30

Where God's word says to, but put on, put on the

32:35

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

32:41

No opportunity given to the flesh. Do not gratify it nor give it any opportunity to cause you to sin or stumble.

32:51

In regard to its lusts, its desires, its passions, we must deny our flesh, deny ourselves.

33:05

This is very clear. God's word is very clear on this issue now. I hope we see that more clearly.

33:13

This includes a command for us to not do something that is still possible for us to do, even though we should not do it, right?

33:22

We still have partial corruption to deal with. And this is why I think Owen is somewhat mistaken when he identifies the flesh in its entirety with the old man and the body of sin in Romans 6, 6.

33:40

Because even though it is true that those who belong to Christ crucified the flesh past tense with its passions and desires, this is only in the spiritual sense.

33:53

But our physical bodies, which is our flesh in the natural sense, that Paul refers to in Romans 7, being taken over by the law of sin or still being susceptible to the law of sin, is still active, is still alive and attacks our minds primarily through our senses and our physical bodies.

34:19

That there, therein lies the problem. That is our problem.

34:27

That is the flesh that has not been killed yet and is why we have repeated instruction to put it to death.

34:38

Amen. The physical, this physical flesh of ours has not died yet.

34:47

It has not yet been redeemed and resurrected. And we must maintain this distinction.

34:59

So because our physical flesh is not quite dead, we are still at war, therefore, with the flesh and must, therefore, put it to death, to mortify it.

35:11

That's what mortification means. Through God's means of self -denial, those means of grace, okay, that's the problem.

35:24

If you say that the body of sin is dead, well, but it's not because what about the passages that clearly say that we must put it to death?

35:33

Why would you have to put something to death if it was already dead? That makes no sense, right?

35:41

We have to make proper sense of the whole counsel of God, okay? Remember, both the world and the devil, as well as the flesh, attack us through our flesh in the natural sense.

36:05

These members, this body of death that Paul refers to, I really like also,

36:12

I really appreciate how John Bunyan put it. In his allegory,

36:18

The Holy War, he says, Man's soul, it was the very seat of war.

36:30

Why? Because our mortal enemies, the world, the devil, the flesh, attack us through our sense gates.

36:41

Remember the sense gates that Bunyan refers to? Eye gate, nose gate, ear gate, feel gate, okay?

36:50

Those sense gates, that is why we have to guard ourselves, our eyes, our senses, to keep us from being tempted to sin and from activating the law of sin in our mortal bodies of death.

37:11

And mortal, obviously, meaning in the sense that it will lead to death, okay?

37:21

And so, that's the reality. Every single one of us faces this enemy, this mortal weakness, and ultimate weakness that we all struggle with.

37:35

It is the flesh in the physical sense. The flesh in the spiritual sense has already been crucified.

37:43

Christ took care of that on that tree, amen? But it is that physical flesh that we need to be careful with and still put to death.

37:53

I hope that's more clear now. Note the warning also in Galatians 5, 16 through 17.

38:00

But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

38:09

You must walk in order to not carry out the desire of the flesh, by walking in the spirit.

38:15

For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

38:23

For these are in opposition to one another, at war with each other, that seat of war, so that you do not do the things that you want.

38:38

This parallels, right? This is a clear parallel to what Paul says in Romans 7. In my inner man,

38:44

I want to do the right thing, but I am prevented because my flesh, my mortal body, my physical members keep me from doing so, right?

38:59

That's the warfare that we must all face and take seriously.

39:07

It's why, like Jesus said back in the gospel, in Matthew, why he says, pluck your eye out if you need to.

39:16

Cut your hand off if you need to. Do not let your flesh bring back what has already been dealt with through the regenerating power of God's spirit.

39:34

Do not let the flesh become activated once again. We must constantly put it to death and keep it at bay.

39:43

As long as and until we reach that blessed resurrection where our bodies will be glorified and renewed.

39:51

Amen? So, you must, we must know our mortal enemy.

40:02

Sin, the law of sin, can still tempt and attack us. Our minds, primarily through this body, our mortal bodies of death, our physical members, and our senses.

40:20

Our enemy, the flesh, once again, consists primarily of our physical bodies and members, which is the seat and instrument, the source of the remaining corruption that lies in us and causes us to continue that, to commit this indwelling sin.

40:46

But also, and it also includes our senses. Those central appetites and lusts, which take place in our mind as well, because our senses are connected to our bodies through our mind, in our minds as well.

41:02

They're all connected. It's the nefesh, right? The living soul that we are. Body and spirit.

41:10

Now, I really, I really appreciate and enjoyed reading

41:17

Calvin. And I want to conclude with some very sound words from Calvin on this, you know, this passage in chapter six.

41:30

So that as long as we are children of Adam and nothing more than men, we are in bondage to sin.

41:47

And that we can do nothing else but sin. But that being grafted into Christ, we are delivered from this miserable thralldom.

42:01

That's a great word. I love that word. That's like one of my new favorite words now. It means bondage or slavery, thralldom, this miserable thralldom.

42:12

Not that we immediately cease entirely to sin, but that we become at last victorious in the context.

42:22

Amen to that, right? We now have the power to overcome sin in our life.

42:34

And the flesh, whereas previously we were completely ruled and mastered and in bondage to the flesh, we are now in Christ, more than conquerors in him.

42:46

And we have the power, the means of grace and the spirit of God that empowers and equips us to now overcome sin in our life and put it to death.

43:02

Amen. I hope this is becoming more clear now that God's word is just amazing.

43:13

And I really appreciate, I've really been blessed to wrestle with this, even though I've had to make some adjustments.

43:20

Because we have to be careful with the laws of sound hermeneutics and exegesis, right?

43:27

We need to understand the analogy of faith and of scripture and apply it properly. And keep in mind that body doesn't always mean a physical body.

43:40

The body of sin, that's what we just saw in Romans 6. The body of sin is referring to something else.

43:47

It's referring to our sins. And our sinfulness, not so much the physical body, like what

43:53

Calvin explains, right? But it also obviously means our physical body.

44:00

And even when Paul talks about the flesh, like in the passage in Romans 7. The law of my mind in contrast to the law of my members, this body of death, the flesh.

44:13

Amen. So with that in mind, let's meditate on these things and seek the

44:20

Lord in a word of prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,

44:27

Father, for this wonderful Lord's Day fellowship. And of your means of grace, Lord, the preaching of your word.

44:34

And of the worship of this day of yours that you have set apart. We ask,

44:40

Father, that you would bless us as a church. To encourage us and equip us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our

44:47

Lord and Savior. Father, we ask that you would help us, Lord. And equip us to continue to seek to understand our mortal enemies.

44:55

The world, the devil, and this most pernicious of enemies, the flesh,

45:01

Lord. Help us and equip us to put sin to death in the flesh, in our flesh.

45:07

That remaining corruption in us, Lord, through our physical bodies and our senses.

45:13

And that indwelling sin, Father, in our mortal bodies. As those great men of old and of the past have taught us.

45:21

And as your word teaches us in these amazing passages in Romans 6 and onward.

45:28

Father, help us, Lord, to make sense of this. To know our enemy, to understand the enemy.

45:34

So that we may properly fight against and deal with our enemy. And make proper spiritual warfare.

45:41

And to keep sin out of our life, Father. And when we do sin, even though we still sin,

45:49

Lord. You help us to embrace and to take hold of your means of grace.

45:58

That you have given us to approach your throne boldly. And to repent, to not be ashamed of the fact that we can repent.

46:10

Because you have already cleansed us from all our sin. If indeed the Spirit of God does dwell in us,

46:15

Father. Give us that assurance, Lord. Those means and that assurance to grow in the grace of our

46:22

Lord and Savior. And to continue to seek the truth in love.

46:28

And to walk victoriously as conquerors, as more than conquerors.

46:34

Through your Son who loved us first and died for us. And by dying, putting sin and that flesh, that spiritual flesh to death once for all.

46:46

Lord, we thank you, Father. We ask these things in Jesus' almighty name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church.

46:59

Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

47:10

Christians. Who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

47:15

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area. Or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries.

47:21

Such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast. Please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.