in looking out over the congregation
I do notice that there are probably about a dozen of you here this
evening who are not with us this morning and it is particularly
for your benefit and in your interest that I shall take a
few minutes to review what we covered since in reality you
just got half a sermon this morning and tonight is the last half
and I hope for those of you who are here for the first installment
will not find it too tedious But remember, as you would that
others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is
the law and the prophets. And if you happen to come in
for installment two, I'm sure you'd appreciate if someone took
a moment to give you installment one. Because of the nature of
the day, with so many of our people absent at the conference,
I felt it in their interest better to break into the regular course
of expositions in Ephesians and speak today on one basic theme
of the Word of God, namely the whole matter of practical directives
for dealing with remaining sin in the life of a Christian. And
I intimated that recent pastoral dealings with a number of people
have pressured my own spirit to think again of these very
fundamental elements of the Christian life. For a broad scriptural
background, we read together Romans chapter 6, the chapter
of the great contrast between what the Romans were prior to
their entrance into the orbit of grace and what they now are
as those who have been touched by the grace of God. And I suggested
that any treatment of the subject of dealing with remaining sin
in a believer must be done, or must be enacted, must be carried
out within a framework that recognizes three fundamental biblical principles. Principle number one, all men
by nature are under the dominion of sin. Romans 6, 17, and 19,
John 8, 34. Second principle, some men by
grace have been delivered from the dominion of sin. Romans 6,
6, 17, and 18, 22, and particularly verse 14. And then the third
great principle is that those delivered from the dominion of
sin still have remaining sin with which they must contend
to the end of their days. And we find this right in Romans
6, the chapter of emancipation tells us that sin will still
seek to usurp a place of authority. Therefore, we are told in verse
12, let not sin therefore reign. Romans 6, the chapter of emancipation
is quickly followed with chapter 7, the chapter particularly verses
14 and following, in which we have a record of the agitation
of remaining sin. In Romans 8, the chapter again
of great triumph, the people of God no longer in the flesh
but in the Spirit, verse 9, and yet we are told in verse 13 that
they must continually mortify the deeds of the body if they
would live. So then, this condition of remaining
sin will be with us all the length of our days. And this is so beautifully
stated in the Confession, and this is all I'll say now by way
of review of those three principles to read from the Confession.
You may want to turn page 679 in your hymnals. For these three principles, which
I've enunciated from the Scriptures, are very clearly stated here
in the chapter on sanctification, chapter 13. They who are once
effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new
spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally,
through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by His
Word and Spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body
of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more
and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened
and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. This sanctification
is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life. there abiding still some remnants
of corruption in every part. Whence ariseth a continual and
irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh. And then the third statement
is on the fact that though at times we may seem to be defeated
in the warfare, ultimate triumph is assured by the grace of God. Frankly, I find it very difficult
to understand how people take ministerial vows, claiming adherence
to the Westminster standards, and then can teach some of the
teaching that is prevalent in our day on the Christian life,
which says that you can be delivered from all known sin, that you
can be delivered from the struggle. At least they ought to be honest
and renounce their ministerial vows if they teach such anti-scriptural
concepts. Well then, if it is true that
this warfare will be present to the end of our days, the dominion
of sin broken, but the remaining sin a constant source of agitation
and disturbance, it is in the interest of our own safety and
peace that we learn as Christians how to deal with remaining sin. And I suggested that we must
deal with it. For God works in us to will and
to do of his good pleasure, but we are to work out with fear
and trembling. God's working and our working
are concurrent realities and interdependent necessities. Therefore, if we would make progress,
we must work in the dependence upon the God who has promised
to work. And we only had time to give
you one fundamental principle in the working out of this matter
of dealing with remaining sin, and it was this, keep your heart
furnished with gospel motives. As we seek to fight with sin
and wrestle with remaining corruption, it is only the gospel that will
give us power in this warfare, and the heart must be well furnished
with gospel motives, motives that flow out of the grace of
God in the gospel. And we saw the example of Paul
as one who was gripped by gospel motives. The love of Christ constrains
me, 2 Corinthians 5. For to me to live is Christ,
Philippians 1. And then the example of Joseph
there in Potiphar's house. And if we are to keep our hearts
well furnished with gospel motives, we must take seriously all the
appointed means of grace, public and private. for they are God's
instrument to set Christ and the heart of the gospel before
us continually. He who neglects these means will
find his heart overgrown with the weeds of carelessness, the
weeds of legalism, the weeds of rationalizing, and he will
come under bondage of certain sins, under the bondage of certain
sins, and will make little progress in dealing with remaining corruption. And then I concluded with the
two negative exhortations, beware of anything which bleeds away
the vigor of gospel motives, and beware of falling back under
legal principles. We must constantly, in the words
of our hymn, come as those who are sinners, but not despairingly,
constantly looking to Christ for grace. and pardoned. All
right, so much for the review. We condensed 50 minutes into
about six and a half minutes. Now then, let me give you four
other basic principles which must be implemented. And remember,
you must do these. Granted, we ought to pray, Lord,
help me. Lord, give me grace. But don't
ask God to do these things for you. He won't. He will not do
them for you any more than he'll tie your shoes in the morning.
There's not a person here who ever had God tie his shoes. Not a person. And if anyone says
he did, I'll say you're either crazy or some demon tied your
shoes. God never tied your shoes. Now,
you may have to pray for grace to get out of bed in the morning
so that you'll be able to tie them. You may fumble around and
miss it the first time you try to make the knot, but God never
tied your shoes. You say, what does that have
to do with the Christian life? Well, God won't tie your shoes. God will
not keep your heart furnished with Gospel motives automatically. You must apply yourself so to
do. You must read the Scriptures.
God isn't going to read them for you. You must come earnestly
panting after a new sight of Christ when you gather for public
worship. God's not going to do that for
you. You must rid yourself of everything that bleeds away the
vigor of gospel motives. God's not going to do it from
you. He's not going to tear your darling bosom sins from your
lap. You must cast them away. And
likewise with these four remaining directives, you must do them.
Not if you're not in Christ. If you're not in Christ, you
have no power so to do. You must look to Christ that
He would make you His own and then equip you. And as believers,
we do them in the strength of Christ, but we do them. I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but His strengthening
does not cancel my doing. I do them. You see it? All right, what is the second
directive? It is this. made some honest efforts and
continually making such efforts to keep the heart well furnished
with gospel motives, the second directive is, keep your conscience
sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sins. Keep your conscience sensitive
to the guilt and danger of your sins, and in particular, those
outcroppings of remaining sin that are your peculiar problem. We commonly call them our own
personal besetting sins. Now, I don't have time to go
into the whole subject of conscience as it relates to the Christian
life, but let me just quote a verse that indicates that the function
of conscience in the Christian life is a very central and fundamental
one. I quote from 1 Timothy 1. Paul is writing to Timothy, telling
him why he charged him to tarry at Ephesus, to correct false
teaching. And he said, this was my reason,
verse 5. But the end of the charge is
love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfamed. Here is a trilogy of Christian
graces, love, faith, and a good conscience. And the good conscience
is put right up on the same level with faith and love. Suffice
it to say, then, The function of conscience in Christian experience
is a very fundamental one, and it is essential in the battle
with remaining sin that we keep the conscience sensitive both
to the guilt and danger of our sins. You see, the battle with
remaining sin is difficult enough when we regard our enemies as
enemies. But when we begin to look at
our enemies as neutral bystanders or as friends, the battle is
lost. Now, occasionally I watch gun
smoke with my son. If it's not too blood and gutsy
and not too much barroom brawling and the rest, I will watch gun
smoke. And you'll notice whenever Matt
Dillon is going out to get the villain, And he's walking down
the street and the time for the shootout has come. He's never
tipping his hat to Doc Adams. He's never even winking at Kitty.
He's doing one thing. He's got his eyes on that varmint's
gun hand. That's all. And you see his eyes
watching that man's hand. That's it. He's my enemy. He's out to get me. I'm his enemy. I'm out to get him. And the eyes,
and the camera will zoom in, and you notice the eyes are one
place. Even though people are filing out of the saloon and
all the rest to watch the shootout, old Matt's looking one place.
He's looking at that man's gun hand. And the moment that gun
hand moves, his moves. You say, what's that have to
do with mortification of sin? Everything in the world, dear
people. Every single sin that proposes
itself to your lust is out to slay you. And as long as you can stare
your sin in the eye and say, Thou art my mortal enemy, there's
some hope for safety. But the minute you begin to look
at the crowd and doff your hat, or the minute you begin to look
at your sin and say, You're my friend, you've had it. You have
had it. Chapter and verse, all right,
turn to James chapter one. James chapter 1, verse 13, Let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil. He himself tempteth no man. But
each man is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lust and
enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived,
beareth sin, and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth
death. Be not deceived, my beloved brethren." Don't be deceived by sin's modest
proposals. Don't be deceived by sin's apparent
innocency. Sin always has an itchy trigger
finger. That's the teaching of this passage.
And in this process of sanctification, particularly in dealing with
remaining sin and corruption, seek to keep the conscience sensitive
to the danger of sin. Every single sin has in it the
seeds of a total apostasy from God. and never forget it. Every single sin has in it the
seeds of total apostasy from God. And though in the heart
and life of a truly regenerate man he will never sin into a
state of apostasy, my friend, the only way I can know that
I'm being kept from that is to be kept from sin at its lesser
stages, and that's my responsibility. I'm active. in the perseverance
and preservation of my own soul. Now, how then do you keep the
conscience sensitive to the guilt and to the danger of sin, particularly
our own aggravated sins? Let me give you two suggestions.
Number one, bring your sins to the light of God's law in all
of its purity again and again. It is by the law, the scripture
says, that the knowledge of sin comes, and not only for the unsaved
man, but again, according to 1 Timothy, the law is made to
expose sin wherever it exists. all the way from the gross manifestations
of immorality and idolatry to anything, Paul says, that is
contrary to the sound doctrine according to the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God. In other words, the law is God's
mirror to show us what our sins really are. And you may begin
to think you are doing quite Good, you haven't blown your
stack and cussed for three years, but you prayerfully and meditatively
read through the Sermon on the Mount on your face before God. You hold your inner life up to
the mirror of that standard of God's holy law, and you realize
that failure to love, the verse stirrings of anger, are regarded
in God's sight as murder. And you're humbled, you're slain,
your pride is shriveled, and it is essential to keep the conscience
sensitive to sin by continually bringing our sins to the light
of God's holy law. Have you ever taken the larger
catechism and read through the section on the Ten Commandments
and looked up the verses? What sins are forbidden in the
first commandment? What duties are commanded in
the first commandment? And line after line of application
of the law of God, until going through just one of those commandments
and looking up the verses and references, you feel utterly
slain. You realize what a mountain of
iniquity is yet within me, and the conscience is resensitized. Oh, how vividly this lesson has
been brought home to me with that garden in the backyard.
You forgive me if I talk a lot about it this summer, it's just
much before my mind, and I've got to preach by way of illustration
anyway. What's upon the mind? And just
in a matter of days, I went to that conference in Chattanooga
for five days, and when I came back, even though my wife said,
and I have to believe her, that she had weeded the first part
of the week, that thing was just covered with weeds again. And
yet for the past four days, it's virtually been a weedless garden
because every single morning, Farmer Jones, alias Joel, is
out there before eight o'clock cultivating. And it's only daily
cultivation, loosening up the soil, pulling out the first shoots
of the weed that will keep that garden weedless. And my friend,
that's the human heart. The conscience becomes dull and
insensitive. Remaining sin has this terrible
power to weaken the voice of conscience. We need to come back
to the holy standard of God, His precious, infallible, burningly
bright law, and bring the conscience again and again and again. We
might see our sins as sin, but then in the second place we must
not only bring our sins to the light, of God's holy law, but
we must constantly bring our sins to the light of the gospel
in all of its glory. We need to see our sins in the
light of the self-emptying of Christ. We need to take that
particular sin, that particularly aggravating sin, that besetting
sin, and dare to set it between our eyes and Calvary. Dare to
look upon that thing, not in terms of how it gratifies our
flesh, but in terms of what it did to him when he bore our sins
in his body to the tree. In the words of our hymn tonight,
ye who think of sin but lightly, here its guilt may estimate. This is where you estimate the
measure of sin's guilt. You behold the writhing form
of the Son of God. You behold the heavens shrouded
in blackness. You behold Him in His agony.
Listen to Him in His cry and His groan, in that mysterious,
painful wail, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Look
at that particular sin and say, This is what you cost, my Savior. This is what you did to my Beloved. There is no light. like the darkness
of Calvary to show sin in its true color. There is no light
like the darkness of Calvary to show sin in its true color. Now you see how these things
mingle? While you're seeking to keep the conscience sensitive
to sin, by beholding its guilt in the light of the lawn of the
gospel at the same time the heart is being refurnished with gospel
motives, you see? Though we isolate them for study
in the experience of a believer, they all mingle together. My
friend, may I ask you a very pointed question tonight? Are
you keeping your conscience sensitive to the guilt and the danger of
your sin in the light of the lawn of the gospel? Are there things that once made
you blush at their first proposal that now you can indulge in without
a twinge of conscience? That's no sign of Christian maturity.
That's a sign of terrible declension. That's a sign of frightening
declension. You answer honestly in the presence
of God. You and I will make no progress
little progress in dealing with remaining sin unless the conscience
is kept sensitive to the guilt and danger of the sin. Then thirdly,
not only must we keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives,
keep the conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of sin,
but we must studiously avoid all known occasions to sin. we must studiously avoid all
known occasions to sin. And of course, one of the most
powerful directives in this regard is our Lord's word to Peter,
James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane. And I read from
Matthew chapter 26 in verse 41, Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation, The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak. The spirit here, not referring
to the Holy Spirit, but to the renewed spirit of a believer.
My spirit as a Christian is willing to do the will of God. Paul said
it in Romans 7. I delight after the law of God
in my inward parts. My spirit is willing as a new
man in Christ, but my flesh, that is remaining corruption
within, is weak. Now, how am I to counteract this
weakness? He says, Watch as well as pray. In prayer I'm spreading
my helplessness before God, asking Him to come with the intervention
of His own might and strength. And in watching, I'm working
out my salvation with fear and trembling. Watching is a military
term. It means the engagement of all
of my faculties in the most careful, intense perception of the slightest
stirrings of my enemy. When a soldier pulls watch in
the middle of the night, what's he doing? He's not out there
composing ballads about how nice it was back home in the cornfields.
He ought not to be doing it. All of his faculties are focused
on one thing. There's an enemy lurking out
there somewhere in the darkness. And woe be to me and my comrades
if I'm careless. He knows that watching is his
safety. So it is spiritually. Unless
we studiously avoid the known occasions of sin by this kind
of watchfulness, we shall fall again and again, and all our
prayers will avail nothing or avail little. Prayer without
watching will never keep us from temptation, just as surely as
watching without prayer will not keep us. It is in the combination
of the two that God has ordained that we should be preserved. As some of you know, I happen
to be troubled with allergies. I know that if I get in an area
where kids are having a pillow fight, I've had it. I'll have
a good dose of asthmatic wheezing. If I go out into a flower garden
and stir things up so pollen fills the air, I've had it. Now,
knowing that, I must live my entire life in the light of my
allergic sensitivities. If I don't, I'll suffer. Now,
if you know there are certain aspects of your constitution
as a new man in Christ where you're allergic to certain situations,
they provoke you to sin. You're responsible studiously
to avoid those occasions. That's being watchful. You may
pray very earnestly and fervently and sincerely. for deliverance
from specific sins, but unless you couple that prayer with watchfulness,
you will fall again and again. John Owen said so perceptively
in this very vein, he that dares to dally with occasions of sin
will also dare to sin. He that dares to dally, flirt
with occasions of sin will also dare to sin. He that will venture
upon temptations to wickedness will also venture upon wickedness
itself. You get it? Some of you are deceiving yourselves
grossly. As a Christian, you can never
say, I am going to commit such and such a sin. Everything in
you would jangle and jar. I am simply going to put myself
in this, quote, innocent relationship. Hmm? Sounds so plausible, doesn't
it? But what does that so-called innocent relationship, be it
with a person or a thing or a situation, what does it lead to? Invariably,
your life history shows that once you got into that situation,
you were bewitched by the constituent elements of that situation until
all of your spiritual faculties and signals were mixed up and
out of whack, and before you knew it, you succumbed. It was a mesmerizing effect about
those situations that seemed to cauterize all of the spiritual
nerve endings. It seemed to drown out all of
the signals that you normally receive about who God is in Christ
and heaven and hell. And once you get in that situation, something strange happens. You
know what I'm talking about, or am I talking in abstraction? as the young man praying about
the matter of mental purity. And he knows that if he goes
to a certain bookshop, a certain newspaper stand, he's hooked. He can never just buy a newspaper.
He can never just pick up Sports Illustrated. He always ends up
thumbing through Penthouse, Playboy, Swank, and all the rest of the
slop. And he falls and allows this
stuff to flood into his mind, what's he do? He goes home and
he agonizes before God and he groans and moans and pleads the
cleansing of the blood of Christ and vows never again! Two weeks
later, a modest proposal comes. You need to have a newspaper,
don't you? I mean, Christians shouldn't be ignorant. What does he do? He goes right
back in that same situation. And when he's there, what happens?
The same thing. There is a cauterizing, I don't know what else to say,
of all of the living nerve endings of spiritual reality. They're
suddenly cauterized. And only one thing matters. He's
going to feed that lecherous something in his flesh that responds
to all the glossy pictures on the porno stand. And if some of you were honest,
you'd stand to your feet right now and say, Pastor Martin, you're
describing me tonight. Come on, you be honest. You'd
say you're describing me. I pass through airports and you
see three quarters of the men come off the plane and they head
right to the magazine shops. And there, respectable middle
class and upper middle class American men on their way back
home to see their wives feed their souls upon this film. I don't know whether he came
under conviction or what, but a young man sat two seats away from me
just flying back last week. reading his Playboy magazine.
Thank God I didn't see a thing that was on it. The only reason
I know it was his Playboy is that he turned it to a page that
didn't have any bared flesh on it and finally stuck it in the
container in front of him. And I saw across the top where
it just said Playboy. And I sat there reading my Bible.
I didn't read my Bible because he was reading it. I just opened
my Bible to read it. And I don't know whether he got under conviction
or what, but he put that thing away. But he's a nice looking
chap, wedding ring on his finger, and I said to myself, he's going
home to his wife. He could have been a professing
Christian. And some of you here tonight, I'm describing how you
become ensnared in salacious literature. I'm describing some,
some of you wives, who in your frustration about the humdrum
around the home, This past week, if you've done it once, you've
done it three or four times, you've said, oh Lord, forgive
me. And I find myself watching those innocuous, stupid, and
oftentimes lecherous daytime serials. Lord, I've done it again! Lord, forgive me! Cleanse me! Give me power over! And then
what happens? Monday morning, the suggestion comes, well, just
turn on the Today Show. I mean, you shouldn't be ignorant
of what's going on in the world, should you? And you've turned on the Today
Show, and you're in the orbit where you're powerless now, and
it's as though your hand is actually paralyzed to turn that set off
again, and then you've watched that stupid, filthy, godless
stuff and filled your mind and poisoned your spirit. Am I describing
some women here today? Who, if you were honest, would
stand to your feet and say, Pastor Martin, you're describing me.
About some of you battling with gluttony. You've mourned, you've
wept, you've prayed, you've cried to God. What's your downfall? Those innocent trips to the refrigerator.
God's given us all things rich and to enjoy, just a little glass
of milk or maybe just an ice cube so I can have a little ice
water, no calories in that. And what happens? Well, with
the glass of milk goes the cookie, with the cookie goes... and there
you are again. Until it's crippled your whole spiritual life. And I've just met too many people
in the past year who are utterly crippled spiritually because
of an inordinate attachment to caloric intake, ever to think
this is a non-spiritual issue. What's the problem? You've prayed,
you've wept, you've cried to God. You're not watching. In
great measure, that's your problem. You're not watching. You're not watching. You're not
conducting spiritual logistics against your enemy. And until you do, there's going
to be no deliverance. What about some of you young
people? The devil came to you and said,
look, I'm going to mess your life up. You know how I'm going
to do it? I'm going to get you to get so head over heels, silly
infatuated with an unsaved fellow or girl that you, you are going
to marry him. You say, no, not me. No, no,
I'm a Christian. I, Christians, don't do that.
Does the devil come and make such proposals? Oh, no. No. He says, look, you're so strong,
you would never marry an unsaved fellow or girl. In fact, you're
so strong you can be witness to one. And you're stupid enough to think
you're the first one to whom he's ever said that. Watch! Watch! Watch as well as pray. You see it? My friend, that fella
coming down the main street of Dodge, he's not coming to play
tiddlywinks. That's it. Death is in its eyes. SIN, WHEN IT IS FINISHED, BRINGS
YOU FORTH DEATH! You better watch. I better watch. We're in a death strike. Now, have I given sufficient
application for you to get the idea? I trust I have. If we're
going to deal effectively by the power of the Spirit of God
within dwelling sin, not only must the heart be kept furnished
with gospel motives, not only must the conscience be kept sensitive
to the guilt and danger of sin, but we must avoid all of the
known occasions to sin. If we don't do it, you know what
we're doing? We're actually tempting God. When you pray for deliverance
from temptation and sin, and then don't avoid the occasions
of sin, you're tempting God. You're tempting God. You're casting
yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple, saying, Lord,
deliver me. And it's a frightening thing
when we rise from our knees, praying for God's help, and then
we go off with our feet to tempt God. You'll pay for it. And you can stiffen up your neck
and purse and pout your lips and say, not me, oh my dear friend. Someday you'll come with bitterness
and say you were right. If a man after God's own heart,
named David, who has actually been a vehicle to convey to the
church the book of the Psalms, great number of the Psalms, to
be God's instrument to conquer the land of Canaan. If a man
with all that grace and privilege gets so bold as to put himself
in a place of temptation and never gets out until he's crippled
for life, who in God's name do you think you are? Who in God's
name do you think you are? And the fourth directive is this, If we would make progress in
mortifying the deeds of the body by the spirit, we must learn
to strike at the first risings of our sin. And I've already
hinted at this, I just want to underscore it as a separate point
for a few minutes. The first proposals of sin are
often very modest, and we reason I can go thus far in compliance
with the proposals and no further But we've read from James 1 that
every proposal of sin has death in it. And I know of nothing,
I know of nothing in this area that helps me more than to look
at it that way. When I find something in the
world appealing to something in my remaining corruption, seeking
to entice some appetite, some passion that is inordinate, and
it promises me this or that, I find great blessing comes when
I look through its modest proposals and say, yes, and in your proposal
is the kiss of death. And I shall not comply. Has it ever struck you, dear
child of God, that every single breathing of pride in its first
stirrings, if it had its way, would not stop until it ran up
to the throne of God and tore God from His throne and put you
there in its place? Every stirring of pride, if it
had its way, would un-God God. I will be like the Most High.
The Scripture says, he alone is worthy of praise. Every stirring
of pride says, I alone am worthy of praise. Has it ever struck
you, Christian, that every single breathing of envy, if it had
its way, would end up in murder? Thievery? Grasping at what is
lawfully another's at any price? Has it struck you, Christian,
that every unclean, lustful thought, if it had its way, would lead
us actually to wallow in the filth of lechery and immorality?
When you begin to get convinced of this, Christian, you're going
to strike at the first risings of sin. The first risings, you're
going to say, Lord Jesus, slay it while it is yet a seed in
the ground, before it becomes a mighty oak and falls upon me
and slays me. The history of the professing
visible Church of Christ, among other things, is the history
of the strewn wreckage of people who thought they could dally
with the first risings of sin and get away with it. My friend, will you join the
wreckage? Will you join the wreckage? I
think of you dear young people. One of the peculiar lies that
the devil brings to boys and girls and teenagers and young
men and women is that you know better. You know how to handle yourself. Oh, look at the wreckages. Look
at them in Scripture. There's a man who could pray
with Paul, could preach with Paul. Paul calls him, Demas,
my fellow laborer. Yet he has to write, saying,
Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present age. You say, how could it be? You
think that just happened like this? That one night Demas went
to bed with a heart deeply attached to the Lord Jesus, deeply attached
to the work of the gospel, and woke up the next morning and
spat on the whole thing and said, I want no more. No, no, no. It
didn't happen that way. How did it happen? modest proposals. Paul's not
around, Bemis. Go ahead and let your thoughts
and your affections run out to some of the old life and some
of the old patterns. The more he looked at it and
the more he turned it over in his mouth, the more sweet it
became until finally he said, I can't keep up to the front
anymore. That's where my heart is. Now I'm going to put my body
and my affections and my appetites and my interests and energies
where my heart has been subtly retreating all the while. You
know, it's a tragic thing to stand up here tonight, dear ones,
and to know that though some of you have a body in the assembly
of God's people, you know where your heart is tonight? It's in
the world. And it's only a matter of time
before your body is going to go where your heart is. That's
a tragic thing. And I look among you and I say,
Lord, who will it be? Who amongst us, now sitting here,
apparently adhering to the truth and to godliness, but whose heart
is suddenly, subtly complying with the modest proposal of sin
in the world, and it's only a matter of time before your body, that
is you in your entirety, will be where your heart is tonight! If anyone had ever told me 22
years ago when God saved me, some of those young people that
were apparently saved the same time I was, would this day be
as far from God and truth in the gospel as heaven is from
hell, I would have said impossible. When you've prayed with people
and heard them weep before God in prayer, when you've seen them
stay up on their knees half the night or all night in prayer
meetings, when you've seen them preach on a street corner with
conviction and authority. I think of another one, a young
woman who, when she sang one time in a meeting, there was
such conviction in her singing that sinners broke down and wept.
And there is far from God and the gospel and truth is heaven
is from hell tonight. And it didn't happen overnight.
The first risings of sin were entertained, and now sin is brought
forth again. Who would it be? Who among you
will break your pastor's hearts? If the Lord is pleased to keep us
here, who among us, ten years from now, will become illustrations
for a similar exhortation as I'm giving tonight? Will you?
Will you be fuel for the preacher's illustration of the reality of
this terrible danger? If you're not striking at the
first risings of sin, you're set up. You're set up, and it's
only a matter of time before you're going to fall. Let him that thinketh, he standeth. Take heed. Lest ye fall. 1 Corinthians 10, 12. Some of
you are flirting so close to the edge of a precipice, you're
so tempting God, that one of these days God may say, look,
I've had it with you. You want that? Go ahead and you'll
remove the barrier. You know what's going to happen?
You're going to find suddenly the thing that your flesh wanted
and which you dallied with, but from which there was some restraint,
the restraint will be gone. And when it is, you'll be clean
gone from the circle of the visible saints of God. John said in 1
John 2.19, look at it, it's a key text in this regard. 1 John 2.19,
speaking of these false teachers, with their heretical doctrine
and their ungodly lives, they went out from us. But they were
not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would have continued with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they all are not of us." You see what
he's saying? As long as they were in the visible
community of God's people, we thought they were one of us.
But he says, they're gone now. And he said, their going is not
a denial of the truth of the preservation of the saints. No. It's an illustration of the principle
that many seem to be saints and never were. And all the while
they were among us, he says, they were never really of us.
But then when God took away the restraints, they were where their
hearts were all the May God help us to receive the exhortation.
And then I close tonight with this fifth directive. Not only
must we keep the heart well furnished with gospel motives, not only
must we seek to keep the conscience tender to the guilt and to the
danger of sin, not only must we avoid all known occasions
of sin, but we must look continually to Christ for the killing of
our sin. Romans 8.13 says, and I want
you to turn to it for a moment, If ye by the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live. It is only in the strength
and power of the Spirit that we are enabled to mortify the
deeds of the flesh. We must mortify, but by the Spirit. And now get hold of what I'm
about to say. And the work of the Spirit is always inseparably
joined to the focus of the soul upon the objective glory of Christ
person and work. Now follow me closely. The Spirit's
operation is present not when your attention is on the Spirit,
But when the attention of the soul, the focus of the mind,
and all the inner faculties of life, when they are focused upon
the glory of Christ, person and work, it is in that context that
the Spirit works. Paul says to the Galatians, Received
ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith? In other words, it's in the context
of Christ being preached that the Spirit is given initially.
Having heard, ye believed, ye were sealed, Ephesians 1, 13
and 14. And this is true in the continuance
of the Christian life. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He it is that shall save His people from their sins. Matthew
1.21, Titus 2.14, He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us
and purify to Himself a peculiar people. Romans 6, the great chapter
of emancipation, says that the virtue of our power to walk in
newness of life comes from what Christ did when He died and rose,
and we died and rose with Him. You see, the Spirit's work is
carried out in the orbit of the objective truth concerning Christ
in His person and work. Therefore, if you and I are to
make progress in dealing with remaining sin, We must look constantly
to Christ for the killing of our sin. Turn to Hebrews chapter
12 for this passage from which I extract the phrase, looking
constantly to Christ. I'm fully aware that that has
become a shibboleth in certain circles, but since it's a biblical
term, we'll not allow the shibboleth makers to rob us of its proper
use. Hebrews 12, verse 1, Therefore
let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God, for consider him." There's the emphasis. Here's
a race that is before us. No one receives the prize who
doesn't finish the race. My friend, listen. Just as the
Bible said it's certain that every elect sinner will finish
the race, it's also necessary that he finish the race. And
certainty and necessity are not contradictory in the economy
of God. Yea, I to the end shall endure! Right. But I to the end must
endure as well. Say, I don't understand it. Well,
you just better believe it and live accordingly. I don't care
if you understand it or not. There is no sinner who has been
joined to Christ that shall ever perish. I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. They're all going to complete
the race. Some are just going to drag over the line and poop
out when they hit it. Right. But they're going to make
it. They're going to make it. Whom he justified, then he glorified. It is certain that we shall make
it, but it's also necessary that we make it. And the necessity
brings within its orbit all of our faculties. Who is to lay
aside the weights? We are. Who is to run with patience? We are. Who is to look unto Jesus? We are. Who is to consider Him?
We are. And it's as we look unto Him
that something wonderful happens. We look unto Him and we say,
Lord Jesus, You're the mighty victor. You conquered sin, death,
and the grave. Lord Jesus, conquer this sin
in me. O Lord Jesus, by the virtue of
your death and resurrection, slay in me this sin. By the power
of your own risen life, Lord, conquer in me this area of weakness
and deflection from the standard of the Word of God. And then
when you get weary and you say, I can't go on, and I've heard
from the lips of some of you, There are times when you've all
but said to me, Pastor, I'm ready to quit. I get so tired of fighting
with sin. I get so weary. When will the
struggle end? Listen, look unto Jesus. The
author and finisher of our faith for the scripture says in this
very context, verse 4, Consider him, for ye have not yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. When did any of you here
actually find your life's blood coming out of your veins in your
battle against sin? Anybody here? He resisted unto
blood. In the agony of his obedience
in Gethsemane, He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. In
the agony of Calvary, He poured out His life's blood there upon
the cross. My friend, look unto Jesus. Behold
Him who, in travailing for your salvation, resisted unto blood. You have not yet resisted unto
blood. This is what it means to look unto Christ. Look unto
Him for strength to press on when you feel, I just can't go
on anymore. Look unto Him for the virtue of His own saving
work to sway the sin in you. Look to Christ, convinced that
there is provision in Him, and raise your eyes in expectation
of deliverance from Him. And this is where I commend to
you a careful reading of Owen's exposition of Psalm 130 in the
last half of Volume 6 of Owen's work, one of the most helpful
manuals of Christian experience, where he deals with the fact
that we must, with the psalmist, fix our gaze upon our God and
wait for grace from Him to conquer our sins. Dear child of God,
unless you're constantly looking unto Jesus, you'll make very
little progress in dealing with remaining sin. Look unto Him,
not unto yourself, not unto others, not unto the world, but unto
Him. Consider Him, and as you see
what He endured, that you might be holy. How can you ever say,
I'm too weary in the struggle to be holy, I'm going to quit?
My friend, He was so determined to make you holy. He carried
his obedience even to the death of the cross, and he shall see
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. I fear that the
great problem most of us have is we don't take the matter of
remaining sin half so seriously as does God in the devil. Carelessness
is our great sin. Ten years from now, there will
be perhaps a number of you, clean gone out of the orbit of the
Christian Church. That's a frightening thing. But
if the Apostles had it under their ministry, if Jesus Christ
had it under His, and the greatest servants of God in the history
of the Church have had it under theirs, who are we to think we'll
be exempt from it? But I can't be cold in calculating
when I say that. Because I yearn that not a one
of you, not a one of you, prove to be an apostate. but that every
one of you run with patience the race that is set before you.
And if you are to run that race with patience, here are some
of the biblical principles that must be part and parcel of the
necessary baggage. Lay aside the weight and the
sin baggage, but this is the spiritual baggage that we must
carry with us. Keep the heart well furnished
with gospel orders. Pray for your elders. Pray for
those who minister the Word that we under God may in our opening
up of the Scriptures constantly be instrumental to the stirring
up of gospel motives. Pray that we'll not become legalists. Pray that we'll not become moralistic,
just giving rules and regulations and duties. Pray that there shall
be throbbing through every aspect of our public ministry something
of the glory, something of the majesty, the beauty, the preciousness,
and the grace of Christ. Second place, you must keep your
conscience sensitive to the guilt and danger of your sin. You must
do this. The moment you cease to look
at your enemy as your enemy, you've had it. And you must studiously
avoid all the known occasions for sin. That may mean breaking
certain friendships, even with other fellow Christians. There's
some people, when I'm around them, I fall into a kind of levity
that is grieving to the Holy Spirit. I must avoid those relationships
wherever possible. That's what it means. Take it
seriously. It will alter many things. And
then by the grace of God, we must strike at the first risings
of sin. And in all of our endeavors,
ever looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
May God help us to make progress in dealing with remaining sin. And I'm speaking tonight to some.
Your problem is not remaining sin. Your problem is reigning
sin. You're the devil's lackey. You're his little servant boy,
his little servant girl. And whatever sin speaks, you
obey. You give your mind, the members
of your body, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
Romans 6.13. My friend, you need the great
emancipator, the Lord Jesus, who alone can break sin's dominion,
who died and rose that he might break that dominion for all who
come unto God by him. May God grant that you will know,
though there may be much that you didn't understand tonight,
that the answer to your dilemma is in that person. And that person
must be sought until you know that he is yours and you are
his. Let us pray.