How does a Christian deal with ongoing sin? Well, first of all, we need to understand that
if a person is a Christian, their heart has been regenerated, they've been made alive, they've been
given a new heart, and also the Holy Spirit dwells within them. So a Christian is going
to experience changes, transformations. They are going to grow
in conformity to Christ. Yet at the same time, we will never be
free from sin on this side of heaven. I want us to look at
1st John and Chapter one. And John says, verse eight, If we say that we have
no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. One of the things that is so evident about
someone who is a Christian, it's not that they're sinless, but that they
recognize sin in their life. And when they see that sin, they confess it. A lot of times we don't
see how extraordinary that actually is. We live in a world that
is sinning constantly against God. And yet so few people recognize their
sin, take responsibility for their sin, confess their sin, mourn over their sin. So when you see a person who has professed
faith in Christ doing these types of things, it is evident that they truly
have come to know Him. You see, a Christian will sin less,
but they will not be without sin. But when they do sin, it
will cause sorrow in their heart, it will lead them to repentance and
the confession of that sin. He says, If we say that we have no sin, we are
deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. There are so many times when I will preach
in a church and this very same thing will happen every time. Maybe I'll preach in a church about sin
or about the necessity of being holy. And sometimes the spirit of God will be working
and and many people will be broken over their sin. And what seems to be so unusual is this:
the people who are usually the most godly, sincere and devoted in the church are the ones most
broken over their sin. While those who show little signs or evidences of having been born again
sit there as though they had no sense at all. And what we're seeing is the working of the spirit
of God in God's people and the lack of that working in people who profess faith in
Christ but really do not know Him. Now, he says this in verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When the believer sins, the believer should
confess that sin turn away from it and ask for forgiveness. Now, what is confession? Confession literally in the Greek is is a
word omologeo and literally it means to speak the same thing. So if I am a Christian and I study the word
of God and reading the Bible, one day the Lord convicts me of sin. Or let's say that a brother in Christ who dearly
loves me sees that I'm not walking as I ought to be. And he speaks to me about my sin. And I know it's from God. He's using the scripture. It really is true. I have sinned. When God tells me through the
word of God or through the instruction of another believer or some other way, when God tells me that I have
sinned, when he speaks to me. You have sinned, Paul. You were impatient. Confession is not just to say, "I'm sorry." Confession is to speak the same thing. When
God says, Paul, you've been impatient. Confession is when I say Lord, I agree
with you with regard to my sin. You say I've been impatient. You are right. I have been impatient. That's confession and then
asking for forgiveness. Forgive me for my impatience now. So we see here that even though a
believer is going to be transformed and continue transforming, even a believer will experience
change and conformity to Christ. We will still have to deal
with sin in our lives. Hopefully it will be a lot less as we grow, but
it will be there and we have to deal with it and we deal with it through brokenness
and confession, recognizing that what God says about us is true and confessing it. Now, let me take you to another
text that is very, very important. Very important. In Psalms 119:11, David says: Your word, I
have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. How can we grow in conformity to
Christ, how can we sin less? Well, one of the essential, essential things we need
is here in verse 11, the word of God. Look what he says. Your word I have treasured in my heart that
I may not sin against You. Now, if you're listening to this,
let me ask you a question. How much time do you spend
in the word of God? How much time do you spend reading the word
of God, studying the word of God, memorizing the word of God, meditating
on the word of God? Most people, when they hear this question, they
kind of bow their head and acknowledge not enough. Some even almost not at all. This is one of the reasons why that we have
so little power over sin, is because we spend so little time in the word of God. You know, you can't miss breakfast
without starting to get hungry. You miss lunch. You're starting to feel weak. You miss lunch and supper and breakfast. You mean you miss meals all day and by
the next day you're probably even going to feel sick. Well, that is a physical
illustration of a spiritual reality. You need the word of God. Sometimes people come to me and they act
like, you know, growing is this great mystery that no one can solve. How can we grow? And then I ask them this question, well, how much
time do you spend in the word of God? And their answer is usually:
It can't be that simple. Show me some trick or
some key to spiritual growth. And I say, I'm trying to. You need
to spend time in the word of God. Now, look what he says again. Your word I have treasured in my heart that
I may not sinned against you. Now let's change it a little. Your word I have not treasured in my heart
so that I might sin against you. Do you see? It works both ways. If you're going to neglect your study
of scripture, the memorization and meditation of scripture, then you're opening your life to less
and less conformity and to more and more sin. Now, when I talk about the Bible and
studying the Bible, how should you do it? Well, I don't have the only way to do it. But let me tell you
something that's very important. Most people jump back and forth. They read one portion in one book and then
maybe another chapter in another book, and they go from here to there. And they never really understand
the council of God. They never really see the big picture. I would recommend that if you've never read
the New Testament, start in the book of Matthew and read all the way through to the
Book of Revelation and do that several times and then go to the Old Testament. Start in
Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation and spend the rest of your life
in that life discipline, whether it's three, four or five or fifteen chapters a day. The important thing is that you're reading
through the Bible systematically and you're beginning to see how all
the pieces fit together. You're beginning to see the big picture of God
and the big picture with regard to God's salvation and God's will. Very, very important. Now, I want us to go to the Book of James
for a moment, and I want to show you something that is often overlooked. But it's been very helpful for me
in my life in chapter one. You know, James is is
is talking about trials. And then after he's talking about trials, James
comes down and he says this. Verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for
God cannot be tempted by evil. And He himself does not tempt anyone. When I'm being tempted to do something, I need
to realize, first of all, this is not from God and this is not according to God's will,
and this is not conformed to God's character. I need to see sin for what it really
is, something that stands in opposition to everything that God is and everything that he desires. This is not just some little mistake. This is hostility. It's enmity. It's fighting against God and
God's purpose in my life. And so I need to recognize
sin for what it is. It's not coming from God. And when when I'm living in this world and
maybe a person asked me to do something or there's a possibility to
do something over here. And I, I consider it in the light of
scripture and I realize it's not something God would want me to do. I need to recognize this is not from God. I am a child of God, and I
should have nothing to do with it. There is nothing. We have no fellowship, no no truce, no
unity with darkness, with sin, with the devil. And so recognize when temptation comes It's not from
God and it needs to be rejected. Now, verse 14, it says, but each one is tempted when
he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Now, when a temptation comes and it enters
into your mind, do this or look here, that's not sin. That's a temptation. That's not sin. It becomes sin when you give into it, when
you give yourself over to it, when you devote yourself to it, when you deliver yourself to
do that very thing, that's when it becomes sin. But when it first enters
into your mind, look at that. No, that's not temptation. But here's what you need to understand. You can't play around with temptation. You can't play around with sin. It will grab you and
it will grab you quickly. If you're out working in the fields in India
or Pakistan and there is a big cobra and you've got a machete in your hand and all of
a sudden that cobra rises up, you don't have... You can't sit there and talk to it. You can't reason with it. It's going to strike in a
matter of a second or two. You've got to take off its
head or you've got to flee. You've got to get out of there. You can't play around with it. How many children do we know, at least in
and around that have been around me in my lifetime, that have sat there and played around
with poisonous snakes, having a good time, and then all of a sudden they
get too close, they get too careless. And what happens? The snake strikes when you see the temptation,
when it appears, don't play with it, don't meditate on it. Don't think about it. Kill it, get away from it, flee from it. We're told to flee from
certain sins, you see. Do you remember when when Cane was angry, he was
very, very angry and God said to him, sin is waiting at the door and
its desire is to have you. You need to realize something. Sin is like a wild animal. And when it approaches, it wants you. It wants to devour you. It wants to destroy you. The Bible says the devil is like a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So don't play with this. Cut it off immediately. And here's another thing that's
very important about sin. Don't go to places where sin is easy. You know, sometimes I've had to deal with
men who have been converted out of alcoholism and they say, what are some
of the things I should do? I said, don't go back to the places where
you used to frequent, don't run with the same guys and don't go near those taverns and
places where you used to drink physically. Stay away from them. This is very important on the Internet and
other things, never put yourself in a position where you can be alone with temptation,
build guards around you to protect yourself. You've got to realize how weak you are and how
strong the devil is and how strong sin and its lust can be. Now it says in verse 15, then when
lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished,
it brings forth death. Another thing that you need to
realize about sin, it's deadly. And you say, well, I'm a
Christian, OK, you're a Christian. It's still deadly. How many Christian homes have
I seen destroyed by sin? How many Christian ministries are
no more because of sin? How many men who have been used mightily of
God to do great things, And then they fall into sin and it and it does
everything that was good before? Sin is deadly. It's monstrous. You need to fear it. You need to run from it. Now, verse 16, this is the important part
in dealing with temptation. Do not be deceived, my beloved brother, and every good thing, given
every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom
there is no variation or shifting shadow. Now, what else should
you recognize? When temptation comes, do not be deceived about the goodness
of God. You see? In the garden, that's one of the first things that the
Devil did. When the devil was tempting Eve, he tried to make her believe that God wasn't
good, that God had prohibited her from eating from all the trees of the garden. That wasn't true. And so the devil will basically always get you
to think, well, God's not going to help you here. God's not going to meet this need. And so you need to
succumb to this temptation. I'm offering you something because
God won't offer you anything. And you need to realize when temptation comes, I'm
not going to grab a hold of it. Why? Because God is good and he's got something
better for me, especially I tell this to young men who are who are not married. I say, you know, you have these
temptations and these opportunities to commit immoralities and fornications and other things. And they're very, very strong to to look at
things on the Internet, very, very strong and very, very evil and very,
very damaging to the soul. But when those temptations appear,
what should you do? Recognize that God is good, that he has a
plan, he has a plan even to fulfill those physical desires you have. He has a righteous plan and the
devil is offering you a counterfeit plan. And when you see that counterfeit plan, you need
to reject it because it is not the best thing for your life. It is not a good thing for your life. You need to wait because God
has promised to give you good. That's where I find some of my greatest
strength against sin is recognizing the goodness and the kindness of God that whatever temptation
comes, it is a counterfeit of the goodness of God. It's like a beautiful apple may be on the
outside, but it's full of poison on the inside. But everything God gives is good
on the outside and the inside. It is good through and through. So those are some of the ways
in which we deal with temptation. But but come on now. Use some wisdom here. If you're awake 16 hours a day, you're in
this world behind enemy lines, 16 hours a day. Do you see that? You're hearing the world, you're being influenced by the
world if you do not spend time in the word of God, copious amounts of time, if you
do not spend time in prayer, if you do not spend time in the good fellowship of
a sound church with other believers, you're not going to be able to overcome. And don't go out there looking for some TV
evangelist to touch your life and give you power. Don't look for some silly gimmick that's
not going to help you with sin. What do you need? You need to study the word of God. You need to pray for strength. You need to be in the fellowship of a
very strong local church under elders that care about your soul and under elders that
are preaching the exposition of God's word. That's what you need. All right. Well, God bless you.
Paul Washer will put the fear of God in you like nobody else. Scary but necessary
Just wanted to add that this is something that is very helpful in highlighting the danger of our sin, and the remedy that God provides to us as well. I found this very helpful as I continue to struggle and fight with this myself (19M). God bless you all
Last I heard from Paul Washer, he was talking like a hardcore legalist. Summary of this video? Is it better than vain legalism?
AMEN.
I’ve been wanting to post this here for the past few days but I kept forgetting. Thanks for posting it, it’s a great video and people here need to see it.
thank you for posting this friend. i was going to post something about trying to find another pasttime to abstain from masturbation, but this video is all i need. like he said, there is no miracle thing to becoming sinless christian other than avidly studying the word, being in community with other christians and walking with God in mind through the everyday life.