The Spiritual Duty of Mortifying Sin | Sermon 08/04/2024

that I found very interesting and notable. If you know anything about the 1700s in America, Christianity had a period of dramatic highs, like the

First Great Awakening, and dramatic lows, with both periods of incredible revival.

If you ever study this out, just incredible what the Spirit of God did. And there were times of wild spiritual disinterest.

And they both coexisted within the same 100 -year span. Kentucky, which was at that time considered the western edge of civilization, was a frontier state.

And it dramatically exploded in population in the late 1700s.

In fact, it went from only 179 people in the year 1779 to 250 ,000 people in 1800.

Now, for the 1700s, with only a couple million people living in America, that is an absolutely tremendous amount of growth.

And as we Christians tend to do, there were a number of believers who moved out to Kentucky, specifically with the hope and aim of reaching these frontier folk with the gospel.

Though, to be honest, Christianity greatly struggled as this explosion of population was happening.

By 1800, Kentucky was marked as a haven of particular ungodliness.

It was the place where lawlessness was the rule. And you could expect to walk down the streets and find very few people caring about Christianity or righteousness at all.

Speaking specifically about the state of things in the 1780s to 1790s, the Presbyterian of that time wrote about those who were ministering in Kentucky.

Here's what he said. Had they all been men of marked ability, devoted piety, and unblemished reputation, the influence they might have exerted in molding the character and institutions of the growing

West would have been incalculable. Unhappily, the majority of men were so far from being patterns of flaming zeal and apostolic devotion, a dull formality seems to have been their general characteristic.

So the few believers present in the frontier were characterized by impiety, blemished reputations, and a dull formality.

In other words, they practiced the forms and patterns of Christianity. They would go to church, they would hear sermons, they would partake in the

Lord's Supper. But they lacked something. They lacked the character of the

Christian faith. They lacked the zeal which was true of those who have been born again.

They called themselves Christians, but they seemed by and large to have none of the power of Christianity.

In the year 1800, exactly on the dot, however, this all changed in God's good pleasure.

Presbyterian, a different Presbyterian minister, James Magritte, wrote this about that time. The year 1800 exceeds all that our eyes ever beheld on earth.

All the blessed displays of almighty power and grace and the soul -reviving showers of the blessings of heaven have produced overflowing floods of salvation, which the eternal, gracious Jehovah has poured out like a mighty river upon this, our guilty, unworthy country.

Dramatic, unexpected revival swept through Kentucky.

The spirit of the living God convicted sinners and sanctified believers on a widespread scale, the prior dull formality having been swallowed up by true, zealous piety.

Here's what one Christian wrote about this revival. He said, this is what it produced in the believers who were living in Kentucky.

A deep, heart -humbling sense of the great unreasonableness, abominable nature and deadly consequences of sin and the absolute unworthiness in the sinful creature of the smallest crumb of mercy from the hand of a holy

God. A considerable number of individuals appear to me to be greatly reformed in their morals.

The songs of the drunkard are exchanged for the songs of Zion. Fervent prayer succeeds in the room where once there were profane oaths and curses and the lying tongue has learned to speak truth in fear of God.

They're sensible of the necessity of sanctification as well as justification and that without holiness, no man can see the

Lord. To be greatly desirous that they themselves and all that name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity, should recommend the religion of Jesus to the consciences and esteem of their fellow man, that they seeing their good works may give glory to God.

I know that's a lot of quotes from the 1700s and the year 1800, but I think it is incredibly relevant because to me, when

I read this, the parallels between Kentucky and Utah were too incredible for me to ignore.

Kentucky being a frontier state where bajillions of people were moving to to start a new life, where Christianity seemed dead and seemed to have no power over the people living there.

And yet God in his good pleasure saw fit to do a work, an incredible work, and a work that was marked by the righteous living of the saints.

Such is always the nature of God's work. When the spirit of God moves, holiness abounds.

Whether that work be in the frontier land of Kentucky, the frontier land of Utah or in the valleys of our own hearts, we, his people, live differently when the

Holy Spirit moves in us. Church, we live in an age and an era of rampant antinomianism, that is lawlessness, a rejection of moral standards.

And we know that, that's obvious to us. But I think what is far more pervasive and more deadly amongst

Christians is a profound moral apathy. We just don't really care about the presence of sin.

We have a sluggishness in our heart and an indifference to the fact that sin dwells within us.

My aim this morning is very simple. I want to convince you of this. Christians are a holy people, a righteous people, people, righteous because we've been forgiven and cleansed, yes, but also because we have been indwelt by the spirit of the

Almighty God, having been born again. And now we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.

My point is simple. Because you have been raised in Christ Jesus by the power of the

Holy Spirit, kill indwelling sin. I'm going to read through our text,

Colossians 3, one through eight, pray, and then we'll walk through it verse by verse. This is the word of the

Lord. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Let's pray. Our great and holy

God, Father, we off the bat confess to you that we are sinful.

Even as redeemed peoples, we are sinful, and sin weighs mightily upon our hearts.

Father, by your word, would you convict us this morning and cause us to see the vileness of the sin in our hearts, the heinousness of our deeds, and by the power of your spirit,

Lord, help us to kill sin which dwells in our bodies. Father, I am all too aware this morning of my own inadequacy to preach this.

I am sinful, Lord. You know my sins and the depth of my heart. Lord, please cause me to preach on the authority of your word, and Lord, help me myself to hear what

I am preaching. Lord, help us to be a holy, righteous people for your glory and for your sake.

Thank you for your word, which speaks with clarity and precision and is able to cut us.

Lord, cut us this morning by your word. We look to you as the author and perfecter of our faith and salvation.

Lord, aid us this morning as we consider what you have revealed. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Start with verse one. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

If you were to look at these eight verses, they are split up into three main commands, three imperatives for the

Christian. In this verse, seek the things that are above. In verse two, set your minds on things that are above.

And in verse five, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And do you notice a bit of a motif with those three commands there?

Seek heavenly things. Set your mind on heavenly things.

Put to death earthly things. Paul exhorts the Colossian Christians here, don't live like you're earthly, because you're not.

Live as though you belong to heaven, because you do. He starts, if then you have been raised with Christ.

And in this statement, we find the very aim and hope of Christianity. Raised with Christ, resurrection with Christ.

Back in chapter two, verse 12, Paul had explained how it is that we can be raised with Christ.

He said there, you were also raised with him through faith, through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God made alive together with him. So two things, he says there. You were raised through faith, you were made alive together with him.

And so as Jesus rose bodily, so too one day will you rise from the dead at his return.

But Paul makes reference to another kind of resurrection, another kind of new life beyond what we await bodily.

Though we were once dead, now we have been made alive where once there was a heart of stone, we now have a heart of flesh.

Our resurrection occurs in really two stages. The first stage happens at the new birth, at conversion.

The second happens bodily at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what happens inwardly is designed to foretell and point forward to the final resurrection that we will enjoy.

And now, because you have been raised spiritually with Christ, sealed now by the

Holy Spirit, you are citizens of heaven, members of the kingdom of God.

Paul wrote in Colossians 1, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

Son. So just by way of summary, the Christian who is raised with Christ has these things true of him.

First, he has been united to Christ through faith. Second, he is awaiting future resurrection.

Third, he has been made alive with Christ in spirit. And fourth, he is thusly made a citizen of heaven, a citizen of heaven.

So if then you have been raised with Christ, the command, seek the things that are above where Christ is.

Church, if you are a Christian this morning sitting here, here is the command of the

Lord to you. Seek the things that are above where Christ is.

Pursue them, long for them, desire them for heavenly things.

And what are heavenly things? Things that characterize the Lord and his dwelling place. Righteousness, justice, goodness, mercy, love, the fruit of the spirit.

You could probably fill in the blanks with any of those attributes that you likely have in your mind. And by way of implication, the other side of this coin is, if you seek after heavenly things, you cannot continue to seek after worldly things.

Let me say that again. If we are to seek heavenly things, we cannot continue to seek earthly things.

Many worldly things are very obvious to us. The overt vices and sins of mankind.

Selfishness, idolatry, lust, deceit. Certainly, we ought not seek after and long for those things.

But I think worldly things encompasses a much broader category than overt sins.

I want you to consider this. There are a great number of insidious desires that can be considered earthly.

Examine yourself and consider this question this morning. What do you practically seek after?

Every day when you wake up, what do you long for? What do you want?

What is your heart set on? There are likely a number of different things, but perhaps great success at work, even just that day.

Maybe just a moment alone, away from the kids. Maybe ease, comfort, health, fame, wealth, pleasure, recreation.

You could fill this in with a whole bunch of things. Such things are not inherently evil. Many of these things are great gifts from God.

Enjoyment, the ability to enjoy life, that is a gift from God. And yet they are by definition,

I think, of an inherently earthly nature. They are not properly heaven -bound desires.

With these earthly blessings comes, I think, a great danger for us because we live in an age of unrestrained excess and abuse.

I don't think I need to convince you of that. I think you probably believe we are in an age of ridiculous excesses.

Many gifts that are not inherently sinful have become curses in our age, consuming the souls of men.

In John Bunyan's very famous work, The Pilgrim's Progress, there is a scene, this whole book is an allegory of the

Christian life, and there's a scene where Christian, who's the main character, has to trek up a hill that is called

Difficulty. And it's a hill that all pilgrims must make. At the end of this very long, arduous path lies the celestial city, eternity, glory unending.

And the good king has laid a path for his pilgrims. And though wrought with difficulties, he helps them.

Well, in the book, as Christian marches up the hill, he comes to a place called the Pleasant Arbor. It's a resting place on the path.

It's a gift, actually, given by the king to rest from the weariness of the hike up this great hill.

And it immensely appeals to Christian. In the book, he's so enamored by it, he stops, and he stays there for a bit, and he rests, and he enjoys the king's gift.

Yet, he becomes so relaxed and so indulgent in the

Pleasant Arbor, he foolishly falls asleep. And a pro tip, if you're reading an allegory and something like that happens, it's probably important.

He falls asleep. Christian, in the book, forgot that this was a mere resting place on the journey to true rest and true satisfaction.

It was a thing to enjoy, but not a thing to be longed for. And it became, for him, a deadly snare with consequences.

Brothers and sisters, we are given immense earthly comforts. We are Americans. We have comforts aplenty.

We have pleasures more than we could possibly enjoy given numerous lifetimes.

We are the recipients of tremendous kindness and grace from God, even just in a material sense.

But church, such things are inherently temporary. They are not the things we were built to long for.

For many in our world, the enemy has used earthly delights to neuter them. It's one of his most effective tools.

And it's effective even amongst Christians for this reason. Our eyes are far too quick to lose sight of where we're going.

They're far too quick to lose sight of the future celestial city which we are bound for.

They lose sight of who God is, and they look down. We see earthly things. We see earthly comforts and earthly delights.

And we fixate on them. Oh, it's so pleasant here. Don't you feel the breeze and the stream?

It's so cool. Tastes nice. I'm thirsty. Why do I need to continue up the hill when

I have everything that I want right here? This has met all of my desires and all of my needs. In this great war against our flesh, we far too often cripple our defenses against sin by desiring worldliness.

Desiring worldliness. What do we want? We want entertainment. We want pleasure.

We want enjoyment. We want to watch our movies. We want to play our games. We want a good following on social media.

We want fame. We want recognition. We want money. We want comfort. We want ease. Saints, you were not raised from the dead for those things.

You were not resurrected for the sake of comfort. You were not resurrected for the sake of temporary fleeting pleasure.

You were resurrected for something far greater. Why should we be satisfied with a shady spot on the side of the road when we are going to the place where the king dwells?

We've forgotten the beauty of God far too often.

We've forgotten that we are not citizens here. We're visitors.

We're sojourners in a foreign land. It is that glory to which we belong, and it is that glory that Paul says we must seek.

Brothers and sisters, why do you think this world can give you what Christ could not?

If this world can satisfy you even for but a moment, how much more is

Christ able to fulfill the longings that you have? Jesus is better than the world.

Heaven is better than the world. To seek after earthly things is to believe a lie, the lie being that you were made for earthly delights.

You were not, and those things will never satisfy you. So, Christian, if you have become drowsy this morning in the pleasant arbor, giving your life in the pursuit of worldly delights, then wake up.

How long will you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

Seek the things that are above where Christ is. William Hill, who was a student in Virginia, he wrote about a very similar event in Virginia that happened in Kentucky that we talked about a little bit earlier.

He described what the spirit wrought in his school after a period of particular revival.

He said, it was now as rare a thing to find one who was not religious as it had formerly been to find one that was.

The frivolities and amusements once so prevalent were all abandoned and gave place to singing, serious conversation, and prayer meetings.

Indeed, such things are the fruit of the work of the Spirit of God. If God can do such a work there like that, then surely he could do such a work in your own heart.

Lord, turn us from our frivolities and our worldly amusements, amen? The next command is given in verse two.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

First, he said, seek heavenly things, and now we are to set our minds on those things.

Set our minds, meaning think about, dwell on. This is not only an act of our mind, it's actually an act of our will as well.

We must determine the things we are to think about and not be consumed, utterly consumed in thought about what is earthly.

Brothers and sisters, if you're fighting against sin, which we all are, and you guard your actions very tightly, but you have no watchman over your mind, you don't keep watch over what you think about, then

I tell you, the battle against sin will be swiftly lost. It's like leaving the back gate open in an all -out assault.

If you don't guard your mind, your actions are sure to fall. A man with little discipline over his thinking is inviting the enemy to wreak havoc inside the gates.

It's a general rule of human nature that whatever we dwell on, we tend to delight in.

When we think about something, we are training our heart to want that thing.

So, for example, if you think and talk only about movies, let's say you hate movies, and you think and talk about movies all day long, you will eventually end up loving movies.

If you think and talk about the things of God, you will train yourself to love

God. It's like setting course on a ship. It's our heading, it's our direction, it's where our heart is headed.

Romans 8 says, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. So then consider this morning, what things do you dwell on?

What occupies your thinking that is likely where your heart is?

Satan has succeeded in turning many hearts cold. He doesn't need to kill us. He doesn't need overt persecution.

He needs only distract our minds, to fill us with things that are most hollow.

We are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That means we must commit our minds to things above. When I was contemplating things that people dwell on, one thing that I was particularly aware of is that our proclivity to dwell on problems, anxieties, things that we're stressed about.

For the record, we do need to process through how we will react to things. But there is a kind of obsession that our minds can have when we go through difficulties and troubles, an obsessiveness where we can't get out of our minds what's going on, and anxiety becomes like a feedback loop where we dwell on it and we get more anxious, and our anxiety makes us dwell on it, which makes us more anxious, again and again, down in a spiral.

And I think this is quite common. Paul's command, the

Holy Spirit's command, is to set your mind on things that are above. If this morning, very practically, you are in a season where you are prone to dwell on difficulties, then be disciplined to take time to dwell on heavenly things.

In your schedule, take time to devote yourself to prayer, meditation on God's Word.

Consider the words of Psalm 1. Blessed is man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. On his law, he meditates day and night.

Consider what you think about and learn to discipline your mind to dwell on heavenly things.

Verses three through four reiterate the grounds of why it is that we as Christians should seek after and set our minds upon things above.

He says this, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Why should you seek after these things? Why should you dwell on these things? Because you're dead. That's his answer.

You've died. Your life is no longer on earth. Your life is hidden with Christ in the heavenly places.

He says in Ephesians that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. You don't belong to this world anymore and your destiny is not earthly.

One day you will appear with Christ at his glorious appearing, possessing life everlasting.

All that Paul is doing here is drawing out the necessary implications of that truth. How can you be so devoted to earthly things when you're not earthly anymore?

You're inconsistent. You're not living in accordance with truth. Saints, you have died.

You've died. Your life is in Christ. So seek and dwell on the things that are where Christ is.

With all this in mind, Paul then exhorts the Colossians in verses five through eight. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

Notice the therefore. Because of this reality, heavenly reality, put to death what is earthly in you.

And then he lists here sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away.

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. This is the final command in our set of three.

Put your sin to death. Kill it.

That's very violent language. It's meant to be violent. Destroy what is earthly in you.

The theological term used for killing sin is mortification. We are to mortify, to kill our sin.

Brothers and sisters, do you mortify your sin every moment of every day?

Do you wake up in the morning with the mindset that today

I must kill what is earthly in me? There will be a battle each day for your very soul.

And we must be prepared with marching instructions. Kill what is earthly in you.

Yeah, yeah, you're saying, I know this. This is obvious. We're Christians. We're designed for righteous things.

I'm a Christian now. I think I have a handle on my sin. Perhaps you're saying that. It's under control. Or perhaps you're saying, listen,

I do sin, but I know grace. I know grace. I know forgiveness. If I sin, there will be forgiveness.

It's not that big of a deal. It won't affect my salvation. I do need to kill it, but it's not that big of a deal.

No one says that out loud, but maybe they think it. I think it's a common thought. Or maybe I really don't want to think about my sin.

I don't want to deal with it. I want it to go away. Maybe if I ignore it, just for long enough, it'll disappear, and then

I won't have to tell anyone what I've done. If you think yourself free of sin this morning, you've only been blinded to it.

If you think yourself holy enough, you have lost sight of the holiness of God.

If you think you can sin without any danger to your soul, you've lost the fear of the

Lord. If you're exposing the secret depths of sin in your life, then sin has made you out to be its ally, and it will conquer your soul.

John Owen famously said, be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

And I think that is certainly true. Permit me a moment to rail against the heinousness of sin and the deadliness of sin.

Sin is a monster. It is a monster with insatiable hunger.

Sin begets sin. Hebrews warns us that we can become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Too many of us live like sin has no consequences, like we get away from it, like we get off free.

No one found out. I'm okay. I'm forgiven.

It doesn't affect me. Church, please take this point to heart. You will never, ever in your life get away with sinning without it affecting you.

You will not sin and walk away unscathed. It is like fire.

It will burn you. And if you think it will not, then you are a fool as to the dangers that surround your soul even this very moment.

Sin hardens the heart. It darkens the soul and our desires.

It twists us. It twists our thinking. It has these effects on us even as Christians.

Sin can easily make our hearts indifferent to its presence and in time can even turn us into willing co -conspirators.

It's dangerous. I was thinking about this. My mind went to the ring in Lord of the

Rings. And I know it's cliche, but you gotta throw a Lord of the Rings somewhere in there.

But the ring corrupted people. If they had it even in their possession, it corrupted them.

It darkened them. It hurt them. You could not bear it without it causing damage to your soul.

So too, and even more deadly than some fantastic ring, is sin dwelling in your body.

It's dangerous. We cannot ignore it. It cannot be brushed aside. And hear me, it is not just going to go away.

It's not like that. Unmortified sin is like weeds in your backyard.

If it's there and you pick it, all right, next week, more weeds. But if you miss one week, and I have experienced this, it takes over the yard.

And then it is impossible to get rid of. That is like sin in your soul. If you give it an inch, it will corrupt your heart.

If you feel this morning that you have been in a season of restlessness, joylessness, carnality, feeling dissatisfied, then perhaps consider the possibility.

There might be other explanations, but consider the possibility that the weeds of sin have overgrown your soul.

Beyond what sin does to us, it's terrible for our souls. Beyond that, sin is heinous because of what it is.

It is heinous because of who God is. I like to say that sin is cosmic treason against God.

Let me just go down on this a little bit. Before there was time and matter, before there was light and darkness, there was the

Almighty. Before angels filled the heavens with their songs, there was the

Creator. Before the mountains that we see every morning loomed with grandeur, before streams rushed the torrents of water, before the winds blew, before the sun itself shone in all its brilliance, there was the

Immortal Majesty on high, enthroned before times eternal, unchanging, immovable, stable, self -existing, incomprehensible,

Almighty, and we are told, holy, holy, holy. The Supreme One enthroned in yonder heavens in unimaginable glory, whom no man has ever seen or can see.

There was God before the beginning in infinite holiness, and as an act of pure grace, as an expression of all that He is, the

Lord Omnipotent created the heavens and the earth with beauty and goodness, as a mirror to reflect who

He is. He said, let there be light as the one who was Himself light. And the very jewel of His creation, the diamond in the ring of everything that He made us, made of dust and breath, but treasonous creatures were we, high treason, vile, rebellious.

We turned against that immortal, unchanging, thrice holy

God, stupidly thinking that we should be God instead. And even beyond that, in mercy that is unfathomable, right after we sinned and turned against Him, what did

He promise? There shall come one, a seed of a woman, who will redeem you.

And indeed the Son of God, humbling Himself, dying in our place on the cross, redeemed a people for Himself.

You and me and every Christian have been redeemed. Why in the world would

God redeem us? I don't know other than His good pleasure, but He did. He saved you and He saved me.

Once we were rebels, we were shown mercy. Once we were objects of wrath, now objects of grace.

We were citizens of a domain of darkness of our own creation. Now we're united in Christ, belonging to a heavenly kingdom.

Once we were dead, now we are alive. We don't deserve this. This is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.

Look at how much we have. And yet, what do we do still to this day?

When you leave here this morning, it will likely happen. We sin. We are still treasonous in parts of our heart.

How can we be like this, saints? We were made for something different.

How can we mock and spit upon the wondrous redemption that the Lord has wrought? Will we continue to stand against Him as though we are

His enemy? As Paul would say, by no means.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.

The Christian man is the man who kills his sin. And he is the only kind of man who can do that.

You need to understand something. Unbelievers cannot kill their own sin.

It is a snare to them, a trap to them. The unregenerate who try to live good lives is kind of like a man furnishing his coffin.

You can purchase nice furnishings and try and cram it in there somehow, but you cannot remove the stench of death.

Even the most precious furnishings are defiled, impure, eaten by worms and maggots, and such a man is lying dead in the grave six feet under.

Sin has victory over him. But that is not true of the Christian. With us, Christ raised us out of that pit.

He took us out of the coffin. He made dead bones come alive. He gave us new life, and then

He set us free. He put us in a mansion, and now we can furnish that mansion with real good works.

No more are we trying to make something out of a coffin. No, we can furnish this glorious salvation that we've been given with good works.

Only the Christian can do that, and only by the power of the Spirit of God. The same

Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, the same Spirit who dwells in you will also give life to your mortal body, for the law of the

Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

When we consider the great task of mortifying our sin, we must understand that it is a cooperative work that we do by the power of the

Holy Spirit daily. In other words, mortification can't happen automatically. We can't just sit around and hope that our sin will just die.

No, it takes work. It takes planning. It takes effort.

And also, it cannot happen apart from the Spirit of God. It's cooperative. Though we know we need to fight our sin, as you know, we're weak.

We need constant reminders and encouragements and exhortation. I preach this as much to myself as to you.

It is good for us to be reminded of these things, to hear these things, to be encouraged in this fight. And so I want to encourage you this morning in your warfare by giving several tactics, which

I think the Bible and implications of the Bible give us to help us in the task of mortifying sin.

A few very, very practical things that I think is helpful for us to keep in mind. First, when we consider the task of putting our sin to death, we must know our sin.

Brothers and sisters, know your sin. You need to know the battle plans of the enemy.

You need to know their allies and their weaknesses. John Owen wrote this.

This is how men deal with their enemies. They search out their plans, ponder their goals, and consider how and by what means they have prevailed over them in the past.

Without this kind of strategic thinking, warfare is very primitive. This is our enemy. This is his ways and his methods.

These are his advantages. This is the way he has prevailed. And if he will do this, and he will do this if he is not prevented.

We must know our own weaknesses. One of my professors in college always said this, and it's stuck in my mind.

He said, it's what you don't know about yourself that will end up slitting your throat.

It's the place where you're ignorant about your own frailties. When you realize that you're particularly tempted by lust late at night when you're alone, well, then you can plan for that.

You can prepare for that. You can take steps to ensure the enemy will not get an upper hand. If you know that when your husband gets home from work and the kids have been crazy all day, you're more likely to have outbursts of rage and anger that are unjustified.

You can more readily prepare for that. You can pray against that. You can prepare your heart. We all have sinful weaknesses.

We must know our own. Second, you must train your conscience to be sensitive to sin.

All evil is grotesque. It's not alluring, it's grotesque.

It's repulsive to God, and we must fight to make it repulsive to us by instinct. Christians can too often sear their consciences by becoming either desensitized to sin, or worse, by having a tantalizing kind of interest in it.

And I think that perhaps the greatest tool our enemy uses to desensitize our consciences to sin is media, modern media, what we take in.

There are no virtuous heroes anymore. It's just compromised people with depraved morals. And we delight in that.

We say, oh, it's good storytelling, right? But have we considered how the world is catechizing us, what it's teaching us, inadvertently, maybe without us even thinking about it?

Brothers and sisters, why are we so thoughtlessly gluing our eyes to screens that display a buffet of wicked desires, taking in garbage again and again and again, thoughtlessly?

We'll sit there endlessly scrolling through Instagram reels, though everyone is filled with evil and impure things, and we remain undisturbed.

It doesn't affect us. We don't care. We have become far too numb to the reality of what sin is.

Our consciences have been neutered in many cases. As a truism of Christian culture,

I don't know if you've observed this, we have learned to be outraged by silly, trivial little things, political, interpersonal, whatever.

We're outraged! But we have little to no reaction about the gaping immorality we consume in mass quantities every day.

Ah, I can't believe this! Let me just gobble up wickedness all day long. Saints foster grief over sin and hatred, hatred, godly hatred for all things wicked, both external and internal.

Third, grow in holiness through the ordinary means of grace, through the ordinary means of grace.

What do I mean by that? The ordinary means of grace are those things which God has given us normal tools by which we receive his gifts and his kindness.

So through the Lord's Supper, through the preaching of the Word, through meditating on Scripture, by fellowshipping with the saints, so on and so forth.

He uses these things to conform us to the image of the Son. They're not magic, but they are the means by which the

Spirit works on our hearts. If you find me a man who never misses church, who meditates on God's Word, who is deeply in secret prayer regularly for himself and his family and his country, you'll find me a man who has had some degree of success in the task of mortification.

A man who is constantly engaged in the ordinary means of grace will be equipped on the day when temptation comes.

Number four, temptation will come. And when it comes, do not compromise and do not trust yourself.

Listen, it is guaranteed you're going to experience temptation, even those godly among us will certainly be tempted.

But listen, don't compromise, don't surrender, don't give in.

Remember Jesus's words, if you love me, keep my commandments. Too many people compromise when temptation comes, thinking that they've won a victory.

They deceive themselves. They're like, well, I'll commit this little transgression instead of this big thing

I was going to do, just kind of let off some pent up steam, maybe that'll help me. It won't be as bad. It's not as bad as it would have been.

So instead of committing adultery, I'll just look at porn, that's better. Instead of a bigger lie,

I kind of will tell a half truth. That's still defeat. Don't be deceived, that's still defeat.

All sins are defiling. All sins are abhorrent and all sins harden you. Part of fighting strong temptation is also realizing that we can't really trust ourselves.

We have far less willpower than we like to think that we do. We think ourselves so strong and mighty and then temptation comes and we wilt.

There's been a number of times, both in my own life and people that I've talked to where people have said, well, that's not something

I would ever do. And then you have the ability. Suddenly an opportunity presents itself and we sin in ways we never thought we would.

When the battle comes to your shores, fight it using every weapon in your arsenal. If you can't flee the battle, the temptation, then hold the ground, hold the city walls.

Day will come, it's night right now, dawn will come, the spirit is with you. Fast, pray, meditate on scripture, call a

Christian brother or sister, fight against your sin when temptation comes and don't compromise. Fifth, consciously cling to the promises of God.

Consciously cling to the promises of God. Be encouraged this morning, Jesus does not fail what he tries to do.

And we are told that Jesus died so that we would be practically righteous and holy.

Titus 2 .14 says this, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Christ died to make us zealous for good works, a people for himself. So are you his?

Because if you are, he won't fail in doing that. Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he may sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor.

Romans 8, well -known one, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of a son.

We use that verse all the time as good Calvinists and we think, ah, foreknowledge, predestination, let's talk about it.

And we far too often glaze over what it's actually saying. That text is saying that before the ages began,

God predestined you to progressively look more and more like Jesus. You can't trump the predestining work of God.

You're just not that powerful. He will accomplish what he sets out to do in your heart.

So cling to these promises, hold on to them, be encouraged when you find yourself discouraged because of the power of sin still.

And last, number six, permit absolutely no secret sin in your life.

No exceptions. No exceptions to this. The Pharisees were a seemingly righteous group.

They exuded knowledge and obedience. They taught right things about God's law. Do you remember what

Jesus says? Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, hypocrites.

You clean the outside of the cup, inside you're full of greed and self -indulgence.

Woe to you, hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs. They appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness.

You outwardly appear righteous, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Please let me speak particularly forcefully and bold here.

If you bear the name of Jesus Christ and indulge in unrepented of, unconfessed secret sin, your soul teeters on the precipice of destruction.

You bear the name of the Lord Jesus like we baptized into him, and yet you hide a corner of your soul, saying,

I will be God over this part of my life. You are bearing the

Lord's name in vain. You hypocrite, you

Pharisee, woe to you. All your theologizing, all your evangelizing, all your outward works, they're dead people's bones inside.

If you harbor secret corners of sin in your life, you demonstrate that you are doing your works for men, not for God.

You don't care about what God thinks because you are harboring sin. Those good works are worthless for you.

They condemn you more than they help you. You hide your sin because you think others will think highly of you.

Make no mistake, your soul is in a considerably precarious position.

Pagans love the darkness. They love concealing their sin and hiding it.

Like rats that live in the sewer, they scatter when there's light. So are you a pagan or are you a

Christian? Oh, that you could see the severity of your position this morning, the danger that is before you.

The Lord, the Lord, He is a righteous, holy God. He cannot stand evil.

Brothers and sisters who hide profound secret sin, who do you fear? Would you rather the wrath of men come against you and have a ruined reputation?

Or would you rather suffer the wrath of God? Please understand this.

You have to understand this. The Christian claim has never been that we're perfect.

That is not the claim. If you thought that's the case with Christianity, you are sorely mistaken.

The Christian claim is that ungodly sinners like you and me can be saved by the grace of God, that the liar and the thief and the glutton and the idolater and the drunkard and the fornicator and the adulterer and the murderer.

Yes, even the murderer can be forgiven and such were some of you, but you were washed and you were cleansed.

You're sanctified. The entire thrust of Christianity is that you are not perfect.

That is the very starting point of the gospel. If you're sitting there, either because of this thinking about secret sin or just anything, and you're sinking down in your seat, trying not to think about the thing you don't want to think about, today is the day.

Adultery, pornography, deceit, theft. You may have made excuses for not telling anyone.

You're just hoping that it's been long enough. It'll just go away. It's sliding into the background. It's forgotten. Do you really think the enemy and your own flesh won't leverage that in some way?

You've sinned. It happened. You can't change that, and sin does have consequences, but you can be forgiven and you can be cleansed and you can be washed.

Brother, sister, repent this very day while it is still today.

Godly repentance, godly sorrow, it includes owning sin, owning it. I did this.

Confess your sin both to God and to another believer, maybe Pastor Wade, maybe Pastor Andrew.

Tell them with specifics the depth of your sin. Don't sit here and suppress the stirring of the

Holy Spirit right now. Fear his terrible judgment, and remember the words of 1

John. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. I've just spent like an hour hammering you with law.

I get to call it encouragement, but that's what it is, hammering you with law. So let me for a moment pause and turn to gospel.

You might be feeling crushed when you consider this crazy standard. How am I to kill sin every day?

You might think I am utterly unworthy. I know my heart. I know that it's vile.

It's way worse than anyone knows, way worse than anyone knows. You might say to yourself, shouldn't I be better than this by now?

I've been a Christian for decades. Or am I even a Christian at all? It doesn't feel like it. Let me encourage you.

A Christian is not one because he calls himself a Christian. We know this, millions of our neighbors call themselves Christians, and that doesn't make them

Christian. A Christian is not one because he lives righteously. Righteous living is a mark of a Christian, but that doesn't make you one.

A Christian isn't even one who is sad about his sin. No, a true Christian is the man who has been brought from death to life, justified, washed, and cleansed.

It is the Christian who, when confronted with law, with rules and standards, and realizing

I am utterly abhorrent, I am so deeply sinful, they realize they can't look to their own righteousness for salvation.

A Christian is the one who then instead says, I turn from this and I look to Christ. I cling to him.

He alone, he alone is my hope. I have no, no possible option other than the grace of God.

Don't look to culture or upbringing, even the act of your baptism or the fact that you're a member at a church.

No, a Christian is the one who looks to the Lord Jesus in godly repentance, leading to faith for forgiveness, perfect righteousness that is not our own.

Romans 8 says, God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

If the law of God reveals to you your own sin this morning, then let the law drive you to the gospel.

Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven for all your sins. First John says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Today, repent of your sins. They're vile, they're grotesque, they're evil, and there are many, let's quote the song, our sins, they are many, his mercy is more.

Let's pray this morning. Lord, we need your help,

Father, to fight against sin in a way that is proper, in a way that honors you.

Lord, we confess that in and of ourselves we would be dead, we would be six feet under, we would be nothing but bones.

Yet, Lord, in your kindness, you saw fit to save us and rescue us and now we ask for your aid in our lives.

Help us to live righteous lives in accordance with all that you have revealed in your word.

Help us to put to death what is earthly in us because we have been raised with Christ.

Lord, help us to think very concretely about our own sins, about where we fail, about where temptation lies.

Help us to confess those things specifically to you. Father, we do confess those to you. Even just right now, we confess those things to you.

Please forgive us and please help us, Lord. Help us in this war against sin.

Father, for those who are young, for those who struggle with the temptations of the world which are plentiful, with the desire to be liked, with the desire to be something in this world, with lust and with the want for fame and riches,

Lord, please rid our hearts of the desire and longing for such things and cause us to long for heavenly things, for righteousness and truth and justice and godliness.

Lord, help us also regularly to dwell on the things that are above, not on the things that are below.

Lord, you know our minds. You know our proclivities. You know what occupies our thoughts. Father, we need your help.

We are weak creatures. By the power of your spirit, please help us, Lord, to think rightly, to concretely, concretely dwell on things that are above.

And Lord, thank you that you give us law in order to point us to the gospel.

Lord, help us, help us, Lord, to cling always to you for your grace and your forgiveness and your mercy.

Remind us that we have no righteousness in and of ourself. If we come before you with only our works, we will surely be condemned.

But if we come before you on judgment day clinging to the Lord Jesus, then you will say, not guilty, enter into eternal rest.

Father, we are weary pilgrims on this trek to the celestial city. Please help us, strengthen us.

Thank you for your word, and thank you for the gift of your spirit who enables us genuinely to kill our sin and live righteous lives.