The Quest for Joy: Killing Sin in Our Lives

!~ Galatians 5:16-17 & Romans 8:12-14 ~

#WatchingTheWorldBurn

“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people

somewhere insidiously com-mitting evil deeds, and it were

necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line

dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of

his own heart?”

~ Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

The Gulag Archipelago

The Quest for Joy: Killing Sin in Our Lives

!~ Galatians 5:16-17 & Romans 8:12-14 ~

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and

Galatians 5:16

you will not gratify the desires of the flesh….

For the desires of the flesh are

Galatians 5:17

against the Spirit, and the desiresof Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other,to keep you from doing the thingsyou want to do….

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the

law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

~ The Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-21

“…For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I

keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within

me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”

~ The Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-21

The Christian…is practically a self-contradiction. What takes

place within the heart, mind, soul, and body of the believer is nothing

less than a civil war, a violent confrontation of two opposing

forces, an irreconcilable antagonism.”

“”~ Phillip Ryken, President of Wheaton College

“These two forces are constantly

fighting each other, and your choices

are never free from this conflict.”

So then, brothers, we are debtors, Romans 8:12-14

not to the flesh, to live according tothe flesh. For if you live according tothe flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all whoare led by the Spirit are sons of God.

“…by the Spirit… put to death

the deeds of the body”

“…by the Spirit… put to death

the deeds of the body”

“Mortification”=

To keep in step with the Spirit is to be intentional and

aggressive in putting sin to death in our lives.

Main Idea

Clarify…1

…what is at stake

image: revedavion.com

“Every time sin rises to tempt or entice, it always seeks to

express itself in the extreme. Every unclean thought or

glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire

would be oppression; and every unbelieving thought

would be atheism. It is like the grave that is never satisfied.”

~ John Owen 1616-1683

2 Declare war on your sin.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:

sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetous-ness, which is idolatry.

On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

~ The Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:5-6

“I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings. And I see so little !war. ‘Murmur, murmur, murmur. !Why am I this way?’ !MAKE WAR!”

~ John Piper

3

Refuse to negotiate.

image: Tim Ellis

“It is as if, having nailed our old nature to the

cross, we keep wistfully returning to the scene of

its execution. We begin to fondle it, to caress it, to

long for its release, even to try to take it down again from the cross. We need to learn to leave it there.

~ John Stott 1921-2011

“When some jealous, or proud, or malicious, or

impure thought invades our mind we must kick it out at once. It is fatal to begin to examine it and consider whether we are going to

give into it or not. We have declared war on it; we are

not going to resume negotiations.”

~ John Stott 1921-2011

Always be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

~ John Owen 1616-1683

4

Aim for the heart.

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil

thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit,

sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All

these evil things come from within, and they

defile a person.”

~ Jesus of Nazareth in Mark 7:21-23

5

Remember the Gospel

image: Eifion

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in

Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God

has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,

could not do.~ The Apostle Paul in

2 Corinthians 4:4

“…By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled

in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” ~ The Apostle Paul in

2 Corinthians 4:4

image: Christopher Brown

“There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.”

~ John Owen

Keeping in Step with the Spirit to Live the Kind of Life Jesus Died to Give Us

revedavion.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/francoisroche/2604339312/

Gianni: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/8299680591/

Tim Ellis: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14113765@N00/3802846468

flickr images courtesy of:

Lynn Morag: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/2958674081/

Eifion: http://www.flickr.com/photos/86794183@N00/324692907/

Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/

Ian Britton: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freefoto/2747072912/