How To Deal With Habitual Sin

the following sermon is by John MacArthur pastor author and the Bible teacher with grace to you if you've never contacted grace to you we want to send you a free booklet by John called found God's peace it's all about helping you defeat anxiety and no true lasting contentment request your free booklet by writing to peace at gty org that's PE AC e at gty org offer good in north america and europe through december 2016 and now unleashing god's truth one verse at a time here's grace to you Bible teacher John MacArthur take your Bible and turn back to the text which I read earlier in Hebrews chapter 12 as you know this is a great monumental scripture there is much here to be considered in the brief time that we have as we anticipate sharing in the Lord's table I want us to focus only on one phrase just one phrase of great import and that phrase is found in verse 1 it says the sin which so easily entangles us I want to see if we can't this morning talked about dealing with entangling sin it is the nature of man even the nature of believer to be easily entangled in sin it happens so easily and frankly there are certain sins which more easily entangle each of us than other ones each of us in our own lives have certain propensity for specific kinds of sins it can be because we have in the past life cultivated habits of sin which now plague us even after our salvation it could be because in our spiritual weakness even after becoming Christians we continued to develop habits of certain types of sin certain specific sins that now we find more easily than others do entangle us it is true of every Christian that we have certain sins that easily capture us but it is also true in general that sin easily entangles us not all sins are what we could call our personal entangling sins or our personal besetting sins our personal habitual sins the sins which we commit and then confess and then commit again and then confess and then commit again and then confess and go on that way in our lives some sins fall into this category but in general all sin seems to have sway with us and maybe it will help you to understand why that is true if I just give you three very simple points about sin first of all sin has great power sin has great power over our flesh sin has great power over our flesh the reason it so easily entangles us is because of its power its strength its force it exerts strong influence on our will it exerts strong influence on our motions it exerts strong influence on our affections it rarely suggests things to us it almost always commands them it rarely leads it most always pushes from the rear drives forces Galatians 5:17 says the flesh sets its desire against the spirit they are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things you please the beachhead that sin has with its power is our flesh and sin exerts tremendous power tremendous strength against our flesh it is a very powerful force and it finds in our flesh a very willing ally a very receptive environment secondly sin easily entangles us because it is so close it is so close more than just forcing its way from the outside powerfully on our flesh it forces its way on our flesh as it were from within us from within the very flesh it is very close in fact it is in our being you can become a monk and sit in a cave and you will still deal with sin Jeremiah 13:23 says can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil the point being you can no more change the internal sinfulness that is a part of your life then the leopard can change his spots or the Ethiopian can change the color of his skin it is a part of what you are sin is very powerful and finds a willing ally in your flesh because your flesh is fallen and your flesh itself as propensity towards sin sin is very close your heart says Jeremiah 17:9 is deceitful it is more deceitful than everything else and is desperately sick there's a third component that makes sin easily entangled into our lives and that is that sin does not remain separate but it mingles in all our motives and all our actions sin is powerful sin is new hearing that it is in US and it isn't categorically separated you can't draw a line and say well this is where my righteousness ends and this is where my sinfulness begins it has a way of weaving itself into the fabric of all our duties and all our motives and all our thoughts and all our actions it entangles itself with our purposes and our plans in fact even your best deed even your best deed is not unmixed with sin it is tangled up in our lives in Romans 7 Paul cries out o wretched man that I am why because no matter how I try I cannot disentangle myself from sin and so sin is powerful and sin is near even within us and sin does not separate itself but is mingled into everything it is interwoven with everything in our lives the best that we do is somehow corrupted in some way large or small by a taint of self will or self pleasure or self aggrandizement or self righteousness or self gain or whatever and so we become easily entangled and as I said there are certain sins that more easily entangle us each of us than others do but if we are going to be the kind of Christians God would want us to be this verse says let us lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us put it aside put it away now the question comes how do we do that how do we do that it's not the first time we've been commanded to do that second Corinthians 7:1 says let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh Ephesians 4:22 says lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit Romans 6:12 says don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts first Peter 2 and verse 1 says lay aside all evil and verse 11 abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul so we are very often told to set this aside the question comes how do we do that from a practical standpoint we know yes it is the work of the spirit and if you walk in the spirit you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh we give all the credit for this to the divine Holy Spirit and yet there is a responsibility that is ours as we yield to the spirit how can I lay this aside before I answer that question let me suggest to you that this is an appropriate moment to be discussing this I suppose it would be typical for many Christians if not most to come to the Lord's table and confess their sins in order that they might partake of this table and not bring judgment on themselves as Paul warned us and so we tend to come here perhaps with our accumulated sin from the last time we had communion or the last time we seriously confessed our sin but with really very little change in the pattern of sinning and that's because while we want to confess our sins and have the confidence that he is faithful and just to forgive them we don't take the steps the necessary steps to so live that every time we come there is a decreased load of sin the list is a little shorter because we're dealing with it on a day to day basis we're laying aside we're not just accumulating it at the same rate dumping it all as it were on Christ receiving his forgiveness in those great moments of confession but seeing no diminishing pattern of sin in the day-to-day routine of our life so let us then this day as we come to unburden ourselves of the accumulated sin and confess it and make our hearts right with God also make a covenant also make steps of commitment to aren't out a new pattern of life in which we will take strides take the necessary strides to lay sin aside a preventive act not simply a remedial act of confession let me give you some principles that will assist you in laying aside sin number one don't underestimate the seriousness of your sin I think the major reason we don't deal with sin strongly and firmly is because we underestimate its seriousness to God to God to us to those with whom we fellowship to the church to the unbelievers our sin steals joy our sin ruins fellowship with God our sin diminishes fruitfulness our sin robs us of peace our sin renders our service useless our sin mitigates against our effectiveness in evangelism our sin hinders our prayers our sin brings the discipline of God we need to understand the seriousness of our sin it violates first and foremost our relationship with the Lord one of the most tragic days in the history of England was August 17th 1660 to a tragic day because it was the last day for certain pastors to be able to preach to their congregations before they were exiled some of them lost their lives some of them were exiled out of England to other countries what precipitated this was something called the act of conformity through the years there had been developing developing in England a group of preachers and a group of churches that were called non conformists because they did not subscribe to all of the ritual and ceremony the Church of England and nor did they confine their worship to the Book of Common Prayer they were more concerned about biblical Christianity they were more concerned about teaching proper doctrine they were more concerned about worshipping God in spirit and in truth and so they were known as non conformists many of you would know them as Puritans they did not conform to the strictures of the Church of England which of course had neglected the Word of God and the gospel for the most part and so a law was passed making them illegal twenty five hundred of their ministers were exiled forbidden to preach three thousand non conformists were killed and sixty thousand families were disrupted and it all came to focus on August 17 1660 - because that was the last Sunday when these nonconformist preachers could preach in their churches for the last two weeks have been reading a book called farewell sermons it is a compilation of 24 of the sermons preached on that day sermons from a pastor who would never see his people again some of them died in exile some of them later came back but this was the end of their ministry and this terrible terrible thing was being done this terrible act of persecution and they were being dispossessed the churches were losing them as their pastors there were going to be none to replace them and they were being shipped off to exile it's very interesting to see their their approach to to hear their sermons to see and hear what was really on their hearts none of the sermons which I've read so far were self-serving none of them condemned really the government for what it did none of them were vengeful or retaliatory there was a common thread in all of them all of them sort of were along this line this is the will of God we accept the will of God we gladly suffer with Christ and our greatest concern is what happens to you one of the sermons me as extremely powerful preached by a man named calamy Cala my he made one statement in this sermon that struck me he said to his people you have experienced a calamity this is a calamitous thing this is a calamitous event but then he said this and I quote there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest calamity there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest calamity and he later said there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest misery that is profound you look at your life and generally speaking you are distressed about your calamities and you are distressed about your miseries but you are tolerant about your sins you do not understand what that man understood there is more evil in the least sin than the greatest calamity a calamity a certain misery is not necessarily sin sin is sin treat your sin seriously it dishonours God it abuses mercy it despises grace it presumes unforgiveness it defiles worship service and fellowship it stains and taints and poisons and destroys everything good and holy secondly another principle that is necessarily understood if you're to lay aside sin strongly purpose and promise God not to sin strongly purpose and promise God not to sin take a solemn vow and say God I do not want to sin I don't want to break your law I don't want to grieve your spirit I don't want to dishonor the name of your son which I bear the psalmist did that in psalm 119 106 I have sworn and I will confirm it that I will keep thy righteous ordinances unless you have that kind of resolution in your life you'll find it more easy to be entangled by sin in fact I believe it is that kind of heart purpose it is that kind of bold affirmation that is at the root of all holy living and until you make that kind of conscious commitment to the Lord you're going to battle the same things over and over and be defeated there's a great verse verse 32 in the same Psalm Psalm 1:19 I shall run the way of thy commandments for that will enlarge my heart it's a very beautiful picture I shall run the way of thy commandments for thou will enlarge my heart what it means is I'm going to run in the way of obedience because I have a heart to do that it starts in the heart it's like a runner very good illustration a great runner a long-distance runner an endurance runner a marathoner very often has an enlarged heart muscle because of the tremendous development of his running ability and the strengthening of his heart to keep pumping all that is needed to that body as it pushes itself beyond normal limits and a great runner can run the way he runs because his heart is enlarged and the psalmist is saying I will run in the way of your commandments because you've enlarged my heart you've given me a heart for obedience that's the kind of purpose that is absolutely essential there's a great difference you see between sin dwelling in us and sin entertained by us there's a great difference between sin remaining and sin harbored or sin preserved and to lay aside sin means to purpose and promised God to obey a firm promise I promise you I will obey you there's a third component in this kind of commitment to lay aside sin and it is this be suspicious of your own spirituality be suspicious of your own spirituality Paul said it this way let the one who stands take heed lest he fall job 31:1 job said I made a covenant with my eyes how then can I gaze on a virgin he said I've got to be careful where I look because I don't trust myself I've got to start with what I see because I don't trust myself proverbs 4:23 says watch over your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life there's a certain watchfulness you have to be watching for sins subtle movements within your own supposed spirituality your heart is as I noted desperately wicked very deceitful and Satan is desperately wicked and very deceitful and the seducing motions of your own heart can sometimes rise out of the moments of your most supposed spirituality be suspicious of your own spirituality don't trust it understand that except for the grace of God you would fall into any and every sin and you can be deceived so easily fourthly resist the first risings of the flesh and its pleasures resist the first risings of flesh and its pleasures don't try to stop the process near the end stop at near the beginning James notes for us a certain process people are tempted when they're carried away and enticed by their own lust then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin well you want to stop it at the point of conception not try to stop it at the point of birth you want to stop sin at conception not after it's been conceived and run through a certain period of pregnancy if you will and now is about to give birth to the sin you don't try to stop it at that point you resist and oppose the first risings of the flesh and its pleasures sin comes to you promising pleasure and you remember at the very outset my goal is not to please myself but to please the Lord there's a fifth principle in this and that is meditate on the word meditate on the word there's a wonderful verse verse 31 of Psalm 37 you probably should write this down Psalm 37 31 it's a bit more obscure than some but it really is very very important listen to what it says the law of his God is in his heart his steps do not slip the law of his God is in his heart his steps do not slip when a heart is controlled by the word the steps don't slip another more familiar text dealing with this and a wonderful one at that is psalm 119 and you remember that that psalm begins in the very first part of those 176 verses with these words down in verse 9 of psalm 119 how can a young man keep his way pure how can you lay aside sin how can you win this battle by keeping it a according to thy word by guarding it with Scripture it is the constant input of the Word of God that begins to fill up the mind and control the thinking and that alone becomes the strength and resource in us that can resist the initial impulses of the flesh how can a young man keep his way pure by keeping his heart completely committed and guarded by the Word of God then in verse 10 with all my heart I have sought thee do not let me wander from my Commandments thy word I have treasured or hid or kept in my heart that I may not sin against thee it is the scripture that must be meditated on meditate on the word of god you are always studying the word studying the word learning the word learning the word meditating on the word as you get the word so filling you up so that it dwells in you richly Colossians 3:16 you will find that it controls you and as you start into some kind of attitude of sin or some kind of act of sin the Word of God will act as a restraint when you feel the impulse of the truth you know meditate on that not on the enticings of the flesh and its pleasures so watch for sin subtleties and don't trust your own spirituality resistant oppose the first risings of the flesh and it's desires to please itself and meditate on the word the engrafted word which is able to save your souls number 6 be immediately repentant over your lapses be immediately repentant over your lapses it says in Matthew 26 75 that Peter having obviously been aware of his sin at the crowing of the went out and wept bitterly something very admirable in that we castigate and rightly so Peter for his defection but we must also honor and respect him for his immediate his immediate remorse be immediately repentant over your lapses and go back to the place of confession and repentance isn't only saying I'm sorry Lord forgive me it is saying I'm sorry Lord forgive me and I don't want to ever do that again that's the stuff of real repentance and if that third element isn't there then you're not fooling God about the genuineness or lack of genuineness when you confess your sins and when you say I'm sorry I did that please forgive me I don't ever want to do it again name it name it specifically let your own heart and even your own ears hear the naming of that sin so that you develop in your heart a high degree of accountability with God for having named the very sin for which he is holding you accountable not to commit again that's how you develop accountability that's how you develop the fear of God if you if you hold back from naming your sin it's because you want to do that again and it's bad enough to sin without having to be responsible for telling God you didn't want to do it and defying what you told him so you'd rather send only once rather than twice that's why you don't want to name your sin then you're guilty not only of sinning again but of being hypocritical before God true repentance will name the sin specifically name the sin be immediately repentant over your lapses number seven and they're just one more after this continually pray for divine help continually pray for divine help fees in 618 after all the armor is put on in the battle against Satan and demons after all of the warfare has has been said and the battle is engaged against Satan and all of his forces he says praying always with all prayer and supplication jesus said to his disciples watch and pray for you know not when you're going to enter into the hour of temptation devote yourselves to prayer Colossians 4:2 being alert in it don't fight the enemy on your own when you engage the enemy pray plead with help but even in a preliminary sense I really think anticipate Ori prayer is the most effective you need to start your day Lord this is the way you taught us to pray lead us not into what temptation and deliver us from evil Lord please today lead me away from temptation please today Lord deliver me from evil you need to set the course of your prayers before the tempter arrives before the flesh begins to rise and entice and then lastly establish relationships with other believers establish relationships with other believers that hold you accountable establish relationships with other believers that hold you accountable bear you one another's burdens says Paul in Galatians 6 and so fulfill the law of Christ we're all in the same boat folks we all struggle the same way and we need each other if a man is caught in a / optoma fall of sin trespass you or spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness each one looking to yourself lest you to be tempted bear one another's burdens we're all in this together it might be you going down this time might be me going down next time but between the two of us we're going to hold ourselves accountable for holy living by the way that is in my judgment the greatest factor in a Christian marriage is the intense and intimate spiritual accountability with regard to sin that exists at that level that is a very very important reason for Christian marriage I believe that there ought to be in every single sense a high level of spiritual accountability between a husband and a wife for every aspect of their life in that marriage the most intimate knowledge of my spiritual life apart from God himself is in the mind and heart of my wife the most intimate knowledge of her spiritual life and her struggle as a Christian apart from God himself is in my mind and heart we know each other better than anybody in the world knows us therein lies the highest level of spiritual accountability for me and for her no one apart from God himself holds me as accountable for what I am before you and before the Lord as she does and vice versa and that is what makes a Christian marriage really Christian and really distinctive that's the highest level of accountability but beyond that there are other relationships in which you engage that can be very very strengthening for your own spiritual life you want people around you who lift you up not people around you who pull you down we you want people around you associated with you as friends and close co-workers who will see your failures just like you'll see there's love you in the process and lift you up and demand of you the highest standards how you going to come to the place where you lay aside the sin that so easily entangles you and especially those besetting sins which you tend to fall into over and over again first of all realize sin is powerful it is near even in you and it is intertwined with everything in your being and in order to deal with it you must understand its seriousness you must promise God not to sin you must watch carefully for your own spiritual weaknesses don't trust your spirituality you must resist the first risings of sin in the flesh you must meditate on the word you must be repentant immediately for the lapses that come you must continue in prayer and dependence on God's power and establish intimate relationships of spiritual accountability and I would say that there's no better place to start this kind of life pattern than right here at the Lord's table we're here not only to unload the burden of sin we've accumulated for which we will be forgiven but I hope we're here to start afresh in a new course that's going to bring us back here next time with a lighter load and a shorter list and maybe the sum of it all is found here in Hebrews chapter 12 in those wonderful and magnificent words verse 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith listen he is one who in his striving against sin never fell never fell he was an all points tempted like as we are yet he was without sin he never fell he never succumbed so if you're going to look at somebody as a model look at him he was striving with sin even to death and never fell he's our model he's our example so we're here to remember his death we're here to ask his forgiveness and were here to ask him again to be our example as we lay aside our sin and fix our eyes on him to follow the path a victory over the sin that easily entangles us let's bow together in prayer father we thank you that again your word speaks so pointedly and powerfully and directly to our hearts we thank you that you have given us the rezident Holy Spirit who could enable us to be obedient when we otherwise would not have the strength help us this morning to make the vows that we've learned about as we've considered entangling sin and how to deal with it help us to take these steps so that we can pursue the path of holiness and not need to be disciplined as often so that we can not miss the joy in the piece that should be ours and the usefulness and the worship and fellowship and ministry and now as we come to this table we pray that as we think of the bread and the cup we will remember what a price our Lord paid for our sin and we will take it seriously as you do we come to confess our sin and to renew our covenant delay set aside to walk in a holy way we now confess our sins all of them and ask you to wash us and make us clean forgive us every sin known and unknown every sin and help us Lord not to do them again but to walk in obedience you've been listening to John MacArthur Bible teacher with grace to you for more information as well as free access to all of John's lessons and a listing of study Bibles and books available for sale visit Grace to use website at gty dot org john macarthur and grace to you reserve all copyright protection under applicable law hour copyright policy is available at gty org and includes instructions for and limitations on duplicating this digital file the following sermon is by John MacArthur pastor author and the Bible teacher with grace to you if you've never contacted grace to you we want to send you a free booklet by John called found God's peace it's all about helping you defeat anxiety and no true lasting contentment request your free booklet by writing to peace at gty org that's PE AC e at gty org offer good in North American Europe through December 2016 and now unleashing God's truth one verse at a time here's grace to you Bible teacher John MacArthur take your Bible and turn back to the text which I read earlier in Hebrews chapter 12 as you know this is a great the monumental scripture there is much here to be considered in the brief time that we have as we anticipate sharing in the Lord's table I want us to focus only on one phrase just one phrase of great import and that phrase is found in verse 1 it says the sin which so easily entangles us I want to see if we can't this morning talked about dealing with entangling sin it is the nature of man even the nature of believer to be easily entangled in sin it happens so easily and frankly there are certain sins which more easily entangle each of us than other ones each of us in our own lives have certain propensity for specific kinds of sins it can be because we have in the past life cultivated habits of sin which now plague us even after our salvation it could be because in our spiritual weakness even after becoming Christians we continued to develop habits of certain types of sin certain specific sins that now we find more easily than others do entangle us it is true of every Christian that we have certain sins that easily capture us but it is also true in general that sin easily entangles not all sins are what we could call our personal entangling sins or our personal besetting sins our personal habitual sins the sins which we commit and then confess and then commit again and then confess and then commit again and then confess and go on that way in our lives some sins fall into this category but in general all sin seems to have sway with us and maybe it will help you to understand why that is true if I just give you three very simple points about sin first of all sin has great power sin has great power over our flesh sin has great power over our flesh the reason it so easily entangles us is because of its power its strength its force it exerts strong influence on our will it exerts strong influence on our motions it exerts strong influence on our affections it rarely suggests things to us it almost always commands them it rarely leads it most always pushes from the rear drives forces Galatians 5:17 says the flesh sets its desire against the spirit they are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things you please the beachhead that sin has with its power is our flesh and sin exerts tremendous power tremendous strength against our flesh it is a very powerful force and it finds in our flesh a very willing ally a very receptive environment secondly sinn easily entangles us because it is so close it is so close more than just forcing its way from the outside powerfully on our flesh it forces its way on our flesh as it were from within us from within the very flesh it is very close in fact it is in our being you can become a monk and sit in a cave and you will still deal with sin Jeremiah 13:23 says can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil the point being you can no more change the internal sinfulness that is a part of your life then the leopard can change his spots or the Ethiopian can change the color of his skin it is a part of what you are sin is very powerful and finds a willing ally in your flesh because your flesh is fallen and your flesh itself as propensity towards sin sin is very close your heart says Jeremiah 17:9 is deceitful it is more deceitful than everything else and is desperately sick there's a third component that makes sin easily entangled into our lives and that is that sin does not remain separate but it mingles in all our motives and all our actions sin is powerful sin is near in that it is in us and it isn't categorically separated you can't draw a line and say well this is where my righteousness ends and this is where my sinfulness begins it has a way of weaving itself into the fabric of all our duties and all our motives and all our thoughts and all our actions it entangles itself with our purposes and our plans in fact even your best deed even your best deed is not unmixed with sin it is tangled up in our lives in Romans 7 Paul cries out o wretched man that I am why because no matter how I try I cannot disentangle myself from sin and so sin is powerful and sin is near even within us and sin does not separate itself but is mingled into everything it is inter woven with everything in our lives the best that we do is somehow corrupted in some way large or small by a taint of self will or self pleasure or self aggrandizement or self righteousness or self gain or whatever and so we become easily entangled and as I said there are certain sins that more easily entangle us each of us than others do but if we are going to be the kind of Christians God would want us to be this verse says let us lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us put it aside put it away now the question comes how do we do that how do we do that it's not the first time we've been commanded to do that second Corinthians 7:1 says let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh Ephesians 4:22 says laying aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit Romans 6:12 says don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts 1st Peter 2 and verse 1 says lay aside all evil and verse 11 abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul so we are very often told to set this aside the question comes how do we do that from a practical standpoint we know yes it is the work of the spirit and if you walk in the spirit you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh we give all the credit for this to the Divine Holy Spirit and yet there is a responsibility that is ours as we yield to the spirit how can I lay this aside before I answer that question let me suggest to you that this is an appropriate moment to be discussing this I suppose it would be typical for many Christians if not most to come to the Lord's table and confess their sins in order that they might partake of this table and not bring judgment on themselves as Paul warned us and so we tend to come here perhaps with our accumulated sin from the last time and we had communion or the last time we seriously confessed our sin but with really very little change in the pattern of sinning and that's because while we want to confess our sins and have the confidence that he is faithful and just to forgive them we don't take the steps the necessary steps to so live that every time we come there is a decreased load of sin the list is a little shorter because we're dealing with it on a day to day basis we're laying aside we're not just accumulating it at the same rate dumping it all as it were on Christ receiving his forgiveness in those great moments of confession but seeing no diminishing pattern of sin in the day-to-day routine of our life so let us then this day as we come to unburden ourselves of the accumulated sin and confess it and make our hearts right with God also make a covenant also make steps of commitment to start out a new pattern of life in which we will take strides take the necessary strides to lay sin aside a preventive act not simply a remedial act of confession let me give you some principles that will assist you in laying aside sin number one don't underestimate the seriousness of your sin I think the major reason we don't deal with sin strongly and firmly is because we underestimate its seriousness to God to God to us to those with whom we fellowship to the church to the unbelievers our sin steals joy our sin ruins fellowship with God our sin diminishes fruitfulness our sin robs us of peace our sin renders our service useless our sin mitigates against our effectiveness in evangelism our sin hinders our prayers our sin brings the discipline of God we need to understand the seriousness of our sin it violates first and foremost our relationship with the Lord one of the most tragic days in the history of England was August 17th 1660 to a tragic day because it was the last day for certain pastors to be able to preach to their congregations before they were exiled some of them lost their lives some of them were exiled out of England to other countries what precipitated this was something called the act of conformity through the years there had been developing developing in England a group of preachers and a group of churches that were called non conformists because they did not subscribe to all of the ritual and ceremony of the Church of England and nor did they confine their worship to the Book of Common Prayer they were more concerned about biblical Christianity they were more concerned about teaching proper doctrine they were more concerned about worshiping God in spirit and in truth and so they were known as non conformists many of you would know them as Puritans they did not conform to the strictures of the Church of England which of course had neglected the Word of God and the gospel for the most part and so a law was passed making them illegal twenty five hundred of their ministers were exiled forbidden to preach three thousand non conformists were killed and sixty thousand families were disrupted and it all came to focus on August 17 sixteen sixty two because that was the last Sunday when these nonconformist preachers could preach in their churches for the last two weeks have been reading a book called farewell sermons it is a compilation of 24 of the sermons preached on that day sermons from a pastor who would never see his people again some of them died in exile some of them later came back but this was the end of their ministry and this terrible terrible thing was being done this terrible act of persecution and they were being dispossessed the churches were losing them as their pastors there were going to be none to replace them and they were being shipped off to exile it's very interesting to see their their approach to to hear their sermons to see and hear what was really on their hearts none of the sermons which I've read so far were self-serving none of them condemned really the government for what it did none of them were vengeful or retaliatory there was a common thread in all of them all of them sort of were along this line this is the will of God we accept the will of God we gladly suffer with Christ and our greatest concern is what happens to you one of the sermons struck me as extremely powerful preached by a man named calamy Cala my he made one statement in this sermon that struck me he said to his people you have experienced a calamity this is a calamitous thing this is a calamitous event but then he said this and I quote there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest Kalama there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest calamity and he later said there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest misery that is profound you look at your life and generally speaking you are distressed about your calamities and you are distressed about your miseries but you are tolerant about your sins you do not understand what that man understood there is more evil in the least sin than the greatest calamity a calamity a certain misery is not necessarily sin sin is sin treat your sin seriously it dishonours God it abuses mercy it despises grace it presumes on forgiveness it defiles worship service and fellowship it stains and taints and poisons and destroys everything good and holy secondly another principle that is necessarily understood if you're to lay aside sin strongly purpose and promise God not to sin strongly purpose and promise God not to sin take a solemn vow and say God I do not want to sin I don't want to break your law I don't want to grieve your spirit I don't want to dishonor the name of your son which I bear the psalmist did that in psalm 119 106 I have sworn and I will confirm it that I will keep thy righteous ordinances unless you have that kind of resolution in your life you'll find it more easy to be entangled by sin in fact I believe it is that kind of heart purpose it is that kind of bold affirmation that is at the root of all holy living and until you make that kind of conscious commitment to the Lord you're going to battle the same things over and over and be defeated there's a great verse verse 32 in the same Psalm Psalm 1:19 I shall run the way of thy commandments for that will enlarge my heart it's a very beautiful picture I shall run the way of thy Commandments for thou will enlarge my heart what it means is I'm going to run in the way of obedience because I have a heart to do that it starts in the heart it's like a runner very good illustration a great runner a long-distance runner an endurance runner a marathoner very often has an enlarged heart muscle because of the tremendous development of his running ability and the strengthening of his heart to keep pumping all that is needed to that body as it pushes itself beyond normal limits and the great runner can run the way he runs because his heart is enlarged and the psalmist is saying I will run in the way of your Commandments because you've enlarged my heart you've given me a heart for obedience that's the kind of purpose that is absolutely essential there's a great difference you see between sin dwelling in us and sin entertained by us there's a great difference between sin remaining and sin harbored or sin preserved and to lay aside sin means to purpose and promise God to obey a firm promise I promise you I will obey you there's a third component in this kind of commitment to lay aside sin and it is this be suspicious of your own spirituality be suspicious of your own spirituality Paul said it this way let the one who stands take heed lest he fall job 31:1 job said I made a covenant with my eyes how then can I gaze on a virgin he said I've got to be careful where I look because I don't trust myself I've got to start with what I see because I don't trust myself proverbs 4:23 says watch over your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life there's a certain watchfulness you have to be watching for sins subtle movements within your own supposed to spirituality your heart is as I noted desperately wicked very deceitful and Satan is desperately wicked and very deceitful and the seducing motions of your own heart can sometimes rise out of the moments of your most supposed spirituality be suspicious of your own spirituality don't trust it understand that except for the grace of God you would fall into any and every sin and you can be deceived so easily fourthly resist the first risings of the flesh and its pleasures resist the first risings of the flesh and its pleasures don't try to stop the process near the end stop it near the beginning James notes for us a certain process people are tempted when they're carried away and enticed by their own lust then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin well you want to stop it at the point of conception not try to stop it at the point of birth you want to stop sin at conception not after it's been conceived and run through a certain period of pregnancy if you will and now is about to give birth to the sin you don't try to stop it at that point you resist and oppose the first risings of the flesh and its pleasures sin comes to you promising pleasure and you remember at the very outset my goal is not to please myself but to please the Lord there's a fifth principle in this and that is meditate on the word

Channel: Learning Sound Theology

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Keywords: John MacAthur, Habitual sin, Theology, Learning sound doctrine, Learning sound theology, sword of truth

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Length: 60min 13sec (3613 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2016