STEPPING UP…THE JOY OF FREEDOM
FROM SIN
When news came this week of another series of bombing
attempts in London, much of the western world once again jumped into a higher
stage of terrorist alert. Just two weeks
since the fatal bombings in the first attack on London, this second effort was
greeted with firm resolve and grim determination. The threat which has existed for several
years was now branded into the consciousness of people on two continents at
least.
The threat was not new—the consciousness
of it and the diligence in maintaining a great alertness, a more pronounced
attentiveness to the dangers of the threat rushed to the surface as people saw
the deadly consequences of letting down their guard for even a moment.
What does it take for Christians to step
up their diligence in standing up to the threat to sin, the greatest enemy of
their souls? As with terrorism, the
threat has never disappeared and never diminished in danger—we just have a hard
time maintaining the intensity of our awareness to its constant threat to our
spiritual lives.
THESIS: When we dare step up to the joy of holy
living, we will always have to step up to combat the threat of sin to our
spiritual well-being.
I. THE
COSTLY SIN OF UNBELIEF
Heb. 12:1 Therefore, since we
have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every
encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us,
--The
“sin which so easily entangles us” speaks of sin in the singular, one
particular sin that sets off a chain reaction of subsequent sins.
--For
two reasons, I believe that the sin is unbelief.
· The context of Hebrews 11
– Having just praised faith and unwavering belief in this chapter, it makes
sense that the entangling sin of 12:1 is the absence of that faith…or unbelief.
· The convicting ministry of the
Holy Spirit – When He comes, He convicts us on
three major points…sin, righteousness and judgment.
John 16:8-11 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin,
and righteousness, and judgment; 9
concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because
the ruler of this world has been judged.
--When
we are caught in the entangling web of unbelief, we cannot run any kind of race
for Christ who calls us to come to Him by faith, believing and trusting Him
without hesitation or limitation.
--Earlier
in the book of Hebrews, the costly effect of unbelief is pointed out as
perilous to those who desire to know and walk with the Lord.
Heb. 3:12 See to it, brothers,
that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the
living God.
Heb. 4:2 For indeed we have had
good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not
profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
--Unbelief
is simply an unwillingness to trust God and have faith that we can count on
what He says (either that He said it at all, or that
He meant what He said).
1. So the cost of unbelief initially can serve
to keep you out of the eternal rest that comes to those who believe in Christ.
2. Then the cost of unbelief can entangle you
and keep you from stepping up and running the race to which Christ has called.
--Therefore,
we need to step up in our diligence to combat this destructive and entangling
force.
A. STEP UP IN OUR HATRED FOR SIN
--None
of us would tolerate the presence of a life-threatening condition in our
bodies, be it cancer or blood-clots or clogged arteries or anything we could
identify and eradicate.
--Yet
among those who belong to Jesus Christ, an unexplained tolerance for sin
develops for those very forces which threaten our spiritual lives.
Psa. 97:10 Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the
souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Prov. 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and
the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate.
Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the LORD God of hosts may be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph
--In
our naïve idealism, we have tried to sanitize our faith from any harsh and offensive
words so we seldom hear anyone speaking about sin the way God does—He hates it
and what it does to those created in His image!
--He
hates it so thoroughly that He was willing to strike the ultimate blow against
sin by sacrificing His own Son, sending Him to die to eradicate the power of
sin and evil over us.
--When
we trivialize it, tolerate it, toy with it and treat it as if it were not
life-threatening and dangerous, we act as if we think that we have moved beyond
its reach, and see it as a hazy part of our past instead of a present enemy of
our soul!
--All
around us the decline of spiritual vitality increases at a rapid pace while
those within the church and those outside the church continue to deny the
cause—SIN!
Jer. 5:30-31 “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: 31The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what
will you do at the end of it?...Jer.
6:14 “And they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying,
‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.
--Until
we hate sin the way we hate cancer, until sin is as repulsive to us as it is to
God, we will tolerate it and in so doing act as foolishly as one who holds a
poisonous snake to his throat…oblivious to the danger and careless about the
consequences!
B. STEP UP IN OUR SENSITIVITY TO SIN
Several years
ago, George Barna wrote a book entitled The
Frog in the Kettle, based on the notion that if you put a frog in a pot of
cool water, he will get comfortable and not notice when you gradually increase the
heat until he is boiled.
The premise when applied to the
church is that few of us would have agreed 20 years ago that couples living
together outside of marriage could ever be acceptable for Christians…that
casual viewing of pornographic material could ever be prevalent for what some
estimate to be the majority of Christian men…that aborting unborn babies would
be commonplace in a nation founded on biblical principles…that homosexuals
could have found a way to rationalize perverse behavior and gain acceptance
even within major denominations of Christian churches.
Now all of those things are
realities…not because of dumping us into the boiling water and us reacting with
violent resistance, but by eroding the resistance step by step with small
accommodations of sin which de-sensitized us to it and allowed the water to be
turned up gradually…and now we are in really hot water regarding our toleration
of sin!
1. Recognition and Identification of Sin
--As
we re-orient ourselves to see sin from God’s perspective, we have to use the
same standard He uses—eternal truth.
--Therefore,
we cannot relegate certain kinds of sin to the past and reach the conclusion
that what once was considered sinful was simply the result of “unenlightened
thinking” and now as progressive, enlightened modern people we know better.
--No,
if gossip was sin in Paul’s day, it is sinful today—if sexual immorality was
sin during the time of Moses, it is still sinful today—if substance abuse was a
sin in Corinth it is still sinful in Raleigh—if holding grudges and withholding
forgiveness was sin in Paul’s day, it is still sinful today.
--Identifying
sin is not that hard…just read the Bible and it will spell it out most of the
time quite clearly, and in other circumstances give ample information by way of
principles so that we can figure it out without much confusion.
--The
problem we normally face is recognizing it when we see it in our own lives…we
tend to have double standards when it comes to identifying what sin is and
recognizing when we have sinned.
u
Maturity in Christ can accurately be measured by how sensitive we are to sin in
our own lives.
The
closer we get to the light, the better we can see. Therefore, if I have some dirt on my face and
I am in the shadows or in dim light, I may not be aware of it even when looking
in a mirror. However, when I come into
the light, I can see it, recognize the dirt and do something about it!
The closer I get to Christ, the more
aware I am of sin in my life…things that I might not have noticed before become
painfully and embarrassingly clear when I am next to the Radiant One.
As a pastor, I sometimes run into
folks who do not know that and their conversation can run in an unwholesome
direction. Then when they find out I am
a pastor, sometimes they try to apologize and clean up their language. When we are aware that Christ is present, we
become keenly aware of anything we think, say or do that we should be ashamed
of…that growing sensitivity is a mark of a growing maturity in Christ.
2. Heartbreak and Suffering Because of Sin
--Once
I have learned to recognize and identify sin and know what it is, I soon
discover what it does and that discovery causes the godly heart to grieve!
--When
were you last heartbroken by sin in your life, by the devastation it caused in
your own heart, in your relationship with others and in your fellowship with
Christ?
--We
seldom grieve and suffer for sin when we do not consider it to be a major
concern anymore…we gloss over it, deal with it almost flippantly, and endure
none of the heartbreak that it brings to the heart of God!
--Someone
made the observation that we as a culture have lost the capacity to be ashamed,
forgotten how to blush!
--We
are so good at playing the role of the victim, assigning the blame to others on
the one hand OR good at rationalizing what we did, excusing our behavior that
it does not occur to us that we should be embarrassed by and heartbroken by
what we have done.
Jer.
6:15
“Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not
even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall
fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast
down,” says the LORD.
--If
you have ever shed tears of remorse when asking for forgiveness, then you
understand the pain sin can cause.
--If
you have not, or if it has been a long time since you have, perhaps you need to
step up to a deeper and more profound understanding of what sin is and what it
does to you, to others and to your relationship with Christ!
3.
Impatience with and Determination against Sinful Inclinations
--Once
we have suffered because of sin, we will be less inclined to sin again and more
careful to guard our hearts against the temptations and inclinations which
encourage us to keep doing what causes such pain.
When
I do something foolishly or carelessly that causes me pain, I become much more
careful so that I can avoid reproducing such suffering! Hitting your thumb with a hammer while
working on a project gets your attention!
But if I do the same thing again, I
can get frustrated and impatient with myself for repeating the same suffering
all over again.
Why is it then, that many Christians
keep hitting themselves in the head with the hammer of sin and then insist on
repeating the blows without determining to avoid the pain by refusing to do it
again?
--Until
we make the connection between our pain and the sin that causes it, we will
repeat the behavior that produces our suffering.
--For
many, the only way they will stop is when they have become completely entangled
in the sin and simply cannot go on…they are totally paralyzed by their choices
and stopped in their tracks!
--Our
text tells us that all of us need to “lay aside, throw off, strip away” the sin
which so easily entangles us.
--Little
things turn into bigger things if we let them, so our goal is to recognize sin
in its early stages of development while we can confess it, repent of it and
lay it aside long before it has us completely in its grip.
If
you wrap thread around your legs, you can quickly snap it if you choose and go
on your way. But if you allow it to be
wrapped around your legs over and over again, it no longer is a single strand
but a binding cord which will entangle you.
Therefore, keep short accounts with
sin and do not allow it to go unconfessed, to develop into a habit or into
addictive behavior, to become a tolerated part of your “scaled down” version of
what you have come to call the Christian life.
C. STEP UP IN OUR RESISTANCE TO SIN
--We
give up and give in too easily—either because we do not hate sin for what it is
or recognize it for what it is!
--Just
as we need to step up in our hatred for sin, our sensitivity to it, we need to
step up in our resistance to it—we have to fight against it and overcome it,
not surrender to it.
--If
we are aware of the consequences and sensitive to the dangers of sin, we will
be much more likely to do everything we can to keep ourselves from it.
1. We Can Lay It Aside
Heb. 12:1 … let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin
which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us,
--The
sin of unbelief needs to be laid aside, stripped away, thrown off, if we are
going to enter into the joy of holy living.
--With
it, we must also lay aside all the other accompanying sins that attach
themselves to that nasty garment!
Eph. 4:22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside
the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
2. We Can Have Dominion Over It
Rom. 6:12, 14 Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body that you should obey its lusts… 14 For sin shall not be master
over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
--Before
Jesus Christ freed us from sin, taking away both its consequence and its power,
we were under its reign, but now it need not be master over us ever again!
3. We Can Escape From It
1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and
God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be
able to endure it.
--We
are not promised that there will be no threat, that there will be no
temptation—only that with the threat, there will always be a way to escape so
that we do not have to be the victim of sin again.
4. We Must Flee From It
2
Tim. 2:22
Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace,
with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
--In
our proud moments, we may think we are up to the fight and decide to do battle
with certain areas of sin that threaten us, but the Lord tells us a better
way—FLEE!
--There
will indeed be times when you have no choice but to stay and fight it out, but
if you have the opportunity to flee, take it!
5. We Must Not Indulge Ourselves in It
Eph.
4:19-20
Having lost all sensitivity, they have
given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity,
with a continual lust for more. 20 You, however, did not come to
know Christ that way.
Rom.
13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard
to its lusts.
--If
you say you want to enjoy the freedom Christ gives you over sin, you cannot
continue to surround yourself with ways to keep sinning—you have to step up and
rid your life of those influences which lead to sin!
6. We Must Put It to Death
Rom. 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but
if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
KJV -- …but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
John Owen
– “Mortification robs sin of its debilitating, inharmonious, and emotionally
distracting influences…Mortification is the soul’s vigorous opposition to the
fruitless self-life” (p. 159, The
Mortification of Sin by John Owen, published by the Banner of Truth Trust.)
--And
so as we define mortification, it is according to Owen (p. 156-158)…
a. The Habitual Weakening of Sin
b. A Constant Fight and Contention against Sin
c. Evidenced by Frequent Success against Sin
--We
must be crucified with Christ and in that death, die to sin, putting it to
death every day of our lives!
Now, having said all of that, if you do not consider sin to
be your mortal enemy, you will not take any of this seriously and will continue
to be subject to something which will rob you of your ability to pray, steal
your spiritual vitality, undermine your Christian testimony, and take away your
joy.
When the deadly serious threat of
terrorism finally makes an impression on people, they finally resolve to do
something about it. The same must be
true for Christians—we must resolve to deal with sin—deal a death blow to
sin!—if we expect to find the joy of overcoming it and the joy of holy living
that comes with our victory.
Are you convinced enough to take your
stand today—to step up the fight in your battle against sin? When you do, you can turn to Jesus Christ who
stands ready to take us through to victory if we will believe in His mighty
name.
Lay aside the sin which so easily
entangles and let’s run the race with endurance for the glory of Christ, our
King!
July 24, 2005
Providence Baptist Church
©
David Horner 2005
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