TPW 99 Sex Pride Anger Selfishness and Throwing Them All Aside

Welcome to the Protestant Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Birdwell Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. And today I'd like to post the evening sermon from this past Sunday pressing on in the Westminster Confession on.

Marriage and divorce.

Biblical Manhood and the Major Vices Men Face

But I am doing a an excursus here on biblical manhood and I'm gonna do a bunch of sermons on biblical womanhood. I've been doing a lot of studying on that and this particular sermon is about The major vices that men tend to struggle with sex pride anger selfishness that unholy quadranity shall we say and What scripture says about these things and how we have to be on guard against them.

It really is amazing how quickly how easily our minds can fall into a gutter of sin and vice and iniquity and How easily we can be so selfish and if we're going to be men of God we cannot be those things and we need to be vigilant in protecting ourselves from sexual sin from pride and anger from Selfishness, especially if we're married.

Selfishness does not work well in marriage when you have kids as well. So I hope that you will find this to be edifying and encouraging convicting and The passage that we're looking at is Hebrews 12 1 through 3.

It's really amazing. Once again, it never ceases to amaze me how much Our Lord God of heaven and earth can put into three Bible verses and how special they are and how important they are For us to understand and to to lay up their their truths in our hearts and practice them in our lives.

So I hope that you will find this to be encouraging convicting and challenging. Hebrews 12 1 through 3. Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and The sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross? Despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him Who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

We all only live one time and all of us have only a short window of Time allotted to us by God to glorify the Lord Jesus in this dark and simple world in which we live. The time we spend in the world that is still under the curse of sin is quite unique against the backdrop of eternity.

When the believer is resurrected and glorified and brought into the glorious new heavens in the new earth, he will never experience the desire. For or even the presence of sin again ever. It's not a wonderful thought doesn't your heart long for that?

It will be a universe in which righteousness dwells that says at the end of 2nd Peter in which righteousness Oh, it will be like being inside joy and happiness all the time. But before that great day of rejoicing inaugurates our eternity of blessedness and the full enjoying of God.

The Narrow Gate and the Call to Endure

We would do well in this hard and difficult world to listen to what Jesus said and to listen to what scripture tells us. In Matthew 7 13 the Lord and closing out the Sermon on the Mount said to his hearers enter by the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and Difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.

Who would voluntarily pick a harder life than an easier one? And yet as Christ followers, that's exactly what we're exhorted to do. Take the harder road. Take the path. That's uphill. Take the one that has more obstacles on it.

The fools of this world walk at the easy and the Broadway that leads to destruction. They have a lot of company. For there are many who care nothing about eternal things and who flatter themselves with vain thoughts of going to heaven.

But the true disciple of Christ Gladly obeys his master and he enters by the narrow gate and walks the difficult path the often lonely path the painful path. The unending fight with sin is a tough battle.

The battle with ourselves to be more like Christ is exhausting. Trying to understand and apply the scripture to your theology and to your actions.

It's a monumental task.

But with the help of God's grace and with Jesus as our focus, we really can be godly people. We can be different from the world. It is possible to be a godly man and with the help of Christ we will be.

But as our text before us in Hebrews 12 1 through 3 says if you've still got it listen to it again. Therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses talking there about Hebrews 11 and by faith This person did this and by faith by faith by faith all those great people of God.

It says let us lay aside.

Every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.

Despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls a lot packed into those three verses aren't there?

What does the Word of God mean by every weight and The sin which so easily ensnares us. These sad biblical phrases given to us by the Holy Spirit apply to every Christian. Whoever has lived and ever will live both genders male and female both but for men in particular.

There are specific battles which all of them will fight. There are specific weights which will attempt to attach themselves to you which you are being told here by God. Throw them aside. Cast off the weights so you can run faster so you can run farther.

The weights and the sins which hold us back and easily ensnare. So many the things that prevent us from being great men of God and if we can learn to defeat them. We can be men of great influence in this world for the cause of truth and the cause of righteousness and the cause of God.

We can be men whose lives are worth imitating. We can exert an influence for godliness. We can actually be men who don't have some kind of secret that we hide from everyone else. Which if it came to light would destroy us.

We can actually be someone who doesn't have anything like that in their life. We can win souls to Jesus. We can have this one opportunity to live this one life. God has given us and to run it. Well. We can be wise and we can be fools.

We can be humble teachable and self-critical or we can be stubborn and prideful. Foolish and unteachable and I trust that the men in this room who do know the Lord are Serious in their desire to follow him.

If we see weight Attached to us and have sins we are easily ensnared by. We want to cut those weights off and cast aside those sins. Which easily ensnare us? If the things covered in the sermon leave you discouraged and down I just want to encourage you you will overcome them in Christ.

You will overcome these things in Christ. With men change is hardly possible. But with God all things are possible. With God all things are possible. There are many sins that men struggle with which function like weights attached to us.

Snares attached to us to prevent them from moving forward and being what God designed them to be. But I'm going to focus on three which I think are the worst ones. Number one sexual immorality. Number two pride and along with pride would come anger and then three good old-fashioned selfishness.

These are the three. These are the weights that need to be thrown off. These are the refrigerators on your back that you need to dump so you can run faster. And please understand brethren that these all work slowly and incrementally.

That's the way sin works slowly and incrementally almost imperceptibly at times. Thomas Brooks described the slow incremental way in which sin will begin to dominate a person's life. Brooks said this quote sin is of an encroaching nature.

It creeps on the soul by degrees step by step until it has the soul to the very height of sin. David gives way to his wandering eye and this led him to those foul sins That caused God to break his bones and to turn his day in the night and to leave his soul in great darkness.

Jacob and Peter and other saints have found this true by woeful experience that the yielding to sin My manuscript is out of order. That the yielding to a lesser sin has been the ushering in of a greater sin.

Please remember that that is one of the most important concepts. You need to understand. Giving into a lesser sin will almost always give way to a greater one almost every time. Satan will draw you first to sit with the drunkard then to sip with the drunkard and then at last To be drunk with the drunkard.

He will first draw you to be unclean in your thoughts that unclean in your looks and then to be unclean in your words. And at last to be unclean in your practices. He will first draw you to look upon the piece of gold then to desire the piece of gold and then to handle the piece Of gold and at last by wicked ways to steal the piece of gold though you run the hazard of losing God and your soul forever.

As you see in Gehazi, Achan, Judas, and many in our days. By all this we see that the yielding to lesser sins draws the soul to the committing of greater ones. Ah, how many in these days have fallen, first to have low thoughts of Scripture, then to slight Scripture, and then to make a nose of wax out of Scripture, and then to cast off Scripture and ordinances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves and their Christ-dishonoring and soul-damning opinions above Scripture.

I was listening to the briefing by Al Mohler. He was talking about tweets coming out of Union Theological Seminary about how we need to repent to plants and confess our sins to plants. Robert Dabney taught at Union Seminary long ago.

I'm glad he's not alive to see such utter nonsense, but that's what happens in those seminaries. What Brooks just said, to have low thoughts about Scripture, then slight Scripture, then make a wax nose of Scripture, and then to cast off Scripture altogether and embrace every form of lunacy that's out there.

Sexual Immorality and the Sanctity of the Body

First, let's talk about sexual immorality. Human sexuality is a precious gift, special gift from God. Sexuality, like human beings, is sacred. We often rightly speak of the sanctity of human life. Why do we do that?

Why do we speak of the sanctity of human life? We don't speak of the sanctity of our dogs or the sanctity of our cats, at least normal people don't speak of the sanctity of their dogs or cats or plants, because a human being is not in the same category as a puppy, a plant, or a flea.

Human beings are special, elevated, and important to God because they are His images and His likeness in their very persons. To harm that image of God is to strike out at God Himself. It is the same with the sexual component of who we are as God's image bearers.

Sexuality is a good gift from God, one that is to be enjoyed and celebrated by a man and a woman together in a marriage covenant. And in that context, sexuality is sacred. Outside of that context, outside of the context of marriage between one man and one woman, please, if you're taking notes, write this down, outside of that, sexuality is cursed.

Outside of that, it doesn't work. Outside of that, it's a source of grief and heartache, pain and suffering, guilt. The Word of God teaches us a very simple, very important truth in this matter. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 -6, key text.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. That term apeko, that Greek verb means abstain, none. You should abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned and testified.

Jesus taught the familiar passage, every man here knows it from memory. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It's one of the most important concepts Jesus taught us about, the heart of human beings. The heart is the center in the biblical view of man and his relationship to God. Every time we see another news story about another well-known Christian leader who has fallen into gross sin of some kind with no warning whatsoever, nobody had any idea, we must remind ourselves of a simple truth.

Please remember this. What we saw in the news story was the tail end of a long series of compromises in the hearts, in the mind, in the theater of our imagination. That biblical term there for heart is the word kardia, and it means heart, man, inner life.

What we saw was the final manifestation of deeply embedded sin in that individual's heart, in his inner life, in his thought life. And the simple fact is, it has probably been there for a very, very long time, ever so carefully hidden and concealed.

The Word of God speaks directly to that phenomenon of what goes on in our inner life, in our thoughts, our minds, our imaginations. Psalm 19, verse 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, let the meditation of my inner man be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Let the things that I think about, the things that play out in my mind, the scenarios that go on, let that be acceptable in your sight. The thing that only God and I can see, and no other eyes can see or know about.

Let that be acceptable and pure in your sight. I hope and pray that's part of our prayers all the time. Psalm 90, verse 8. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your countenance.

You hear what that's saying?

Before the face of God is everything in your inner life. If you know that and you don't think you need a Savior, you are, as Jonathan Edwards would say, miserably deluded. If God actually knows everything that you think about, I remember coming to that realization more and more when I was about 18 and thinking, you're going to the blackest corner of hell, and that's all there is to it.

Romans 2, 16. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. That phrase used to strike terror into my heart. God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Everything that no one else knows about, he knows.

Yep, it's in the light of his countenance. It's right in his holy face. One great mark of conversion, true conversion, is that you will be troubled, genuinely troubled, and disgusted by the things in your heart that are known only to you and God.

You will be troubled and grieved by that which no other living human being has ever seen, but in your heart you know that God has seen it. Hebrews 4, 13. There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

While all men know this is true in the deepest part of who they are, many find a vain comfort in the fact that they know no other man or woman can see their hearts. They will lie to others and lie to themselves regarding such things.

But Jesus is pointing out here that the law of God in the Sermon on the Mount requires not just outward, but inward conformity. I dare say that there are men here, and there were men listening to Jesus preach, who had never physically committed adultery.

But they have committed adultery in their hearts, in their minds, in their inner man. Jesus goes on to say, If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Our Lord's advice there is rather startling, isn't it?

If you know what the things are that cause you to sin in your life, Jesus' orders are very clear, eradicate them. He's using those as hyperbolic examples. He's obviously not saying actually pluck your eyes out or cut your hands off.

What his point is, get rid of it. If you know what it is that causes you to sin, be rid of it. Get rid of it. Cut it off. Throw it away. Jesus is speaking of getting rid of things. For example, internet access, cable channels, driving down certain roads which have bad stores on them, etc.

I remember a pastor sharing a story about a young Christian man who had a real problem with going into bad stores. And this young man told his pastor, every time I walk down the street, I'm lured right into that place.

And the pastor said, have you ever thought about going home a different way? When someone comes to you and wants you to cure them of alcohol addiction, people want me to cure them of alcohol addiction, I say, okay, first stop drinking it.

You hear what the Lord's saying there? What is the thing that's causing sin in your life? Pluck it off and cast it away from you. Cut it off and cast it away. People so often complain when they're given good pastoral advice to get rid of your laptop, cancel your internet subscription, call the cable company and get rid of that TV service,.

Be rid of the beer or the drugs or whatever else,.

And people will talk about how inconvenient that is.

I pay all my bills through internet banking.

I have to have the internet. I watch a lot of educational stuff on the History Channel.

I have to have cable.

I'm just using my Christian liberty to have a few beers. Don't give me this legalism stuff. But do you hear what Jesus' illustrations here are saying? It's better to be inconvenienced and be holy in these ways than to die and go to hell.

It's more profitable for you that one of your members perish. It's more profitable for you that your laptop perish, that your internet service perish, that your convenience perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Yes, not having one eye would be a little inconvenient, wouldn't it? But it's worth that inconvenience to stay holy in that area. Yeah, not having one of your hands would be very inconvenient, but it's worth that inconvenience to stay holy in that area.

What's Jesus' point? Men must be serious and radical about avoiding that sin. There's no sin that paralyzes and destroys men and keeps them from being affected more than sexual sin. There's just no other sin in a man's life that does that worse than that.

Brothers, if you're playing with this kind of sin, I'd like to remind you of what you already know if you're a Christian. Proverbs 6, 27. Memorize it. Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? You know, I have a fire pit in my backyard. That does not feel good, to step on hot coals. I've done it a couple of times. It hurts. Sadly for some men, they've been playing with fire for so long, they can't feel the burning anymore.

They don't feel shame anymore. Our culture feels no shame anymore. Read Jeremiah. What was one of the ways that God rebuked the people of Israel through Jeremiah? He said, you all have forgotten how to blush.

You don't even have shame at all anymore. People sleep on beds of hot coals and can't even feel it burning them. So deep are those calluses against sin. Brothers, every time you give in to sin, it's like one more layer of callus over your heart.

When that which used to startle us and frighten us no longer does so, it's because we're callous and indifferent. May the living Christ shake us out of our folly, if such is the case. Remember what Paul said to Timothy?

There will be a time when men's consciences will be so ruined, it'll be as if they're seared with a hot iron. Can't feel anything at all anymore. So I want to encourage you. On this point of sexual purity, it's time to be radical.

It's time to inconvenience yourself if it's a problem. It's time to learn to live missing one eye and one hand. Jesus taught us it's worth it. So brothers, if those are things you tolerate in your life, get rid of them.

And remember that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to empower us to boldly do battle against such things and in the power of his might to defeat them. How can we live in and communicate the love of God and the joy of Christ if our minds are constantly in the sewer?

Men, we have a choice. Always remember that you have a choice. The second big problem that most men will deal with in life is pride and anger. Pride and anger. Proverbs 8, 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate. James 4, verse 6. He gives more grace, therefore he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. C .S. Lewis wrote this wonderful paragraph about pride.

Listen closely to this. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone loathes when he sees it in someone else, and of which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine that they're guilty of themselves.

I have heard people admit that they're bad-tempered and that they cannot keep their head about girls or drink or even that they're cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice, and at the same time I have very seldom met anyone who was not a Christian who showed the slightest mercy to it in others.

There is no fault that makes a man more unpopular and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking about is pride or self-conceit and the virtue opposite to it in Christian morals is called humility.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil.

Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.". In Proverbs 6 .16, the scripture says that the first sin which the Lord hates, which is an abomination to him, is a proud look.

Proud-looking eyes. God detests pride in men. If you want to assure yourself and all the world around you that you are an enemy to your creator, be a proud and arrogant man. Be proud and haughty about who and what you are.

Advertise and parade about for all to see your accomplishments, your great learning, your beauty. All who do such can know for sure that God is their sworn enemy. Why? Because they insist on competing with his rights to have all worship, praise, honor and adoration given to him alone.

Remember the great 5th Reformation soli deo gloria? To God alone be glory. Pride is without question one of the most irrational and foolish parts of being a sinner. We have nothing that was not sovereignly given to us by God.

Right?

We have nothing that was not given to us by God. We are nothing that was not sovereignly planned by God. And yet we boast in glory as if we can take credit for these things. The proud man is the father of fools.

Pride is an abomination to God. And yet men have a mighty struggle with it. And as C .S. Lewis said, it is loathsome when you see it. And Lewis said, and the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

A person who really is pitiless towards others who are arrogant very often is pretty arrogant themselves. C .S. Lewis also said, Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next guy.

Pride gets no pleasure out of having anything, only of having more of it than the next person. It is the comparison that makes you proud. The pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.

End quote.

Compare yourself to God and pride won't be a problem. Just make it God that you compare yourself to. Pride will not be a problem then. And thus, what is the only source of pride in the heart of man? The desire to be and to appear to be better than other people.

Such ought to be vile to us as Christians. And if we really do understand grace and understand unconditional election, how can pride ever have any place to take root? Calvinists often have a reputation of being kind of arrogant, and yet isn't that a direct denial of everything we believe about why we're Christians?

Certainly it is.

Yet that filthy pride persists in us. No less than three separate times in the Bible, Proverbs 3, 34, James 4, 6, and 1 Peter 5, 5, God declares his opposition to proud men. He opposes the proud. He opposes the proud.

He opposes the proud. The great remedy to pride is, of course, to turn your proud eyes to the Lord Jesus. Remember his infinite step from glory to humility for us and for our salvation. Philippians 2, 5, listen to the word of God.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Meditate on passages like that, and others like Psalm 103, 14 to 16, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes, for the wind passes over and it is gone, and his place remembers it no more.

When your heart begins to swell with pride about anything, and every man in here who was good at anything knows exactly what I'm talking about, remind yourself how foolish that really is. Remind yourself what you are.

What did that psalm say? You're dust.

You and I are dust.

Made out of dust, we will return to dust. Remind yourself of what you'll be in a hundred years, dead in the ground. Man exists for the glory of Christ, not his own glory. How hard is it for us to get that into our minds and hearts, though?

1 Corinthians 4, 7, another great passage, for who makes you differ from one another? Or what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Those are all rhetorical questions and we all know the answers to them. Thirdly, finally, selfishness. Selfishness,.

Massive vice.

James 3, 14 -16, great text. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Where you have selfishness, there will be confusion and every evil thing will be there. If you have men in the church that want attention, that constantly want to promote themselves, that always want.

To be the center,.

There you will find confusion and every evil thing.

Will follow it.

Philippians 2, 3, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Luke 9, 23, Then he said to all of them, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

The consistent call of the Word of God to the converted man who is a disciple of Christ.

Is this,.

You must not be selfish any longer. You must not be self-seeking any longer. You must not have selfish ambition to further glorify your own name and you must die to yourself and to your selfish desires.

The call of Christ to a man of God is to repent, believe in Christ and follow him. The mark of a man who really does this is that he's not characterized by selfishness in his desires, actions, or priorities.

He puts the needs and desires of others before his own. And if he's single, he does this with his parents, with his siblings, his friends, and his church family. Their needs come first. Because that's the example he wants to set for others.

Their happiness, the happiness of others, the comfort of others is above their own. If he's married, he's devoted to studying his wife in order to find out how to make her happy. He lays aside spending excessive time on his hobbies and other interests and focuses his attention.

On her.

But perhaps more than any other sin in married life, selfishness is at the heart of all marital conflict. Why do women feel neglected and unloved? Because their husbands are selfish.

They don't care as.

Much about making their wife happy as they care about doing all the other things they want to do. And this is why the word of God calls selfishness, listen to me, it calls selfishness.

Demonic,.

Earthly,.

Sensual. It's.

Demonic, satanic.

To be selfish.

James 3 .14 says if we have self-seeking in our hearts,.

We are lying.

Against the truth. Let us learn from the word of God on this. When Paul was making his final exhortations to the elders of the church at Ephesus, his words are the epitome of selflessness. Paul's words to them are quite long in scripture, Acts 20 verses 18 to 35, but here's the last sentence as he says to them,.

I have shown you in every way by.

Laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he has said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

Isn't that amazing? The very last thing he wanted them to.

Remember, elders of the church of Ephesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And then Paul just falls to his knees and prays with.

All of them.

Men, we have to have a heart for other people. Forget about yourself.

We have to have genuine care.

And love and concern for others first.

Before ourselves. And when you think about getting home from work, when you think about getting home from school, from practice, don't be thinking about what you want to do to unwind or.

Decompress or relax.

Think immediately, however,.

On the contrary, how can I love my wife better today? Could you really benefit from some time to decompress, relax, and do your own thing? Yeah, sure. But you're not important. You don't matter.

They matter. You live your life.

For other people now. What can I do to love her better? How can I encourage my children better?

Do my children know the Lord?

What do they need from me? How have I.

Failed them? How do I need to change?

Lord Jesus, help me. Help me redeem the time for the days are evil. Help me be a walking example of the gospel to my wife and children. Help me be a walking example of the gospel to my parents, to my older and younger siblings, to my teachers, my coaches, my friends.