Strategies for Killing Sexual Sin

Here are the notes from the Wednesday morning men's Bible study (7am @ Cracker Barrel 295/Roosevelt Blvd.). Also, this is great application from the sermon last Sunday morning (2/13/11).

Strategies for Fighting Sexual Sin

Northwestern College Chapel

April 17, 1995 | by John Piper | topic: Sexual Purity

1. Recognize that sexuality is a good gift from God.

Genesis 2:24-25

For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Proverbs 5:18-20

Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

1 Corinthians 7:3-5

Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (Cf. 1 Tim. 4:3)

2. Recognize that Biblical prohibitions are intended to protect something precious not deny something pleasant.

Exodus 20:14

You shall not commit adultery.

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 7:2

But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

3. Believe God is for you.

Psalm 84:11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Mark 10:29-30

Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.

4. Ponder the eternal danger of lust.

Matthew 5:27-29

I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Remember the story of the man who cut off his leg to save his life.

5. Think often that God has given you even now many good things.

Genesis 39:7-9

And it came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?"

6. Preach to yourself that there is more joy in God's presence than in sin. Transpose desire.

Psalm 4:7

Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fulness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.

Psalm 73:25-26

Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Peter 2:2

Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

7. Realize that lust disables and weakens our capacity for higher spiritual joys with God.

Peter 2:11 (war on soul)

Abstain from fleshly lusts that wage war against your soul.

Mark 4:19

The desire for other things enters in and chokes the word and it becomes unfruitful.

8. Don't ask, What's wrong with it? Ask: Does it maximize my experience of the power of Christ, my enjoyment of his fellowship, my perception of his beauty, my reflection of his glory?

Philippians 3:12

Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

9. Cultivate a passionate devotion to the honor of God's name.

2 Samuel 12:10, 14

"Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. . . . However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die."

10. Develop a worldview that views absolutely everything in relation to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

11. (For singles) Recognize that sexual relations are not essential to full personhood and happiness.

Jesus was single and chaste and fully human.

Isaiah 56:3-5

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, "The Lord will surely separate me from His people." Neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." 4 For thus says the Lord, "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, 5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

12. (For the married) Recognize that God designed marriage to be a living parable of his commitment to the church.

Ephesians 5:21-32

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.

13. Be vigilant over your eyes. Avoid unnecessary stimulation.

Job 31:1

I Have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

Romans 13:14

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

2 Timothy 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.

14. Look on the opposite sex as eternal persons. Realize that lust inevitably depersonalizes and despiritualizes people.

John 5:28-29

Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Matthew 25:46

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

2 Corinthians 5:16

From now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

15. Think often that Christ suffered agony for your purity. Fight image with image. Christ crying in agony.

Titus 2:14

Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

1 Peter 1:18; 2:24

You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, [but with the precious blood of Christ]. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

1 Corinthians 5:15

He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Hebrews 10:29

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

16. Beware of assuming past successes guarantee future purity.

1 Corinthians 10:12

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Galatians 2:13 (Contrasted with Acts 11:24 (Barnabas)

Barnabas was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. (Acts 11:24)

And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. (Gal. 2:13)

17. Beware of feeling above accountability.

3 John 9 (Diotrephes not submissive)

I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

18. Do not be excessively alone.

19. Get in a group where you exhort one another every day against the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3:12-13

Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

20. Memorize many scriptures.

1 John 2:14

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Psalm 1:2

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 119:11

Thy word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against Thee.

21. Stockpile your thoughts with good things.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

22. Read the great literature of devotion, biography, etc.

When I read the stories of how much others have suffered and fought and struggled and achieved measures of joy and holiness and fruitfulness in fellowship with God it makes me want to give my all to this quest and settle for nothing less than all that a saved sinner can be for the glory of Christ.

23. Never assume that you are above suffering or that you deserve relief through sin. The pitfall of powerful self-pity.

Acts 14:22

[Paul went to his churches] strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 9:58

And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

2 Timothy 2:3

Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 4:16-17

At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.

24. Get busy with some task.

25. Pray at all times in the Spirit for God's deliverance.

Matthew 6:13

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Luke 22:40

And when He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."

Psalm 119:18

Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Thy law.

26. Be encouraged; God is patient

Exodus 34:6-7

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. "

Nehemiah 9:17

And they refused to listen, And did not remember Thy wondrous deeds which Thou hadst performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But Thou art a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness; And Thou didst not forsake them.

Lessons from the School of Prayer

1. Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.
We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. We must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray.

2. Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift.

To avoid distraction, one of the most useful things is to vocalize your prayers. The energy devoted to expressing your thoughts in words and sentences will order and discipline your mind, and help deter meandering. Another thing you can do is pray over the Scriptures. In other words, tie your praying to your Bible reading. Personalize and pray Psalm 63 and the prayers of Paul in the New Testament.

3. At various periods in your life, develop, if possible, a prayer-partner relationship. Incidentally, if you are not married, make sure your prayer partner is someone of your own sex. If you are married, when is the last time you prayed with your spouse (dinner doesn't count).

4. Write down and organize your thoughts for prayer. Write down your requests, praises, thoughts of God, and confession of sin. When you make requests of God, try to tie as many requests to Scripture and the promises of God as possible. The essence of faith is to place your trust in what God has said in its proper context. Prayer is his ordained means of conveying his blessings to his people. That means we must pray according to his will in line with his values, in conformity with his own character and purposes, claiming his own promises.

5. If you are in any form of spiritual leadership, work at your public prayers.

If we must choose between trying to please God in prayer, and trying to please our fellow creatures, we must unhesitatingly opt for the former. But that is not the issue. It is not a question of pleasing our human hearers, but of instructing them and edifying them. The ultimate sanction for this approach is none less than Jesus himself. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus looks to heaven and prays, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me" (John 11:41-42). Here is a prayer of Jesus himself that is shaped in part by his awareness of what his human hearers need to hear. The point is that although public prayer is addressed to God, it is addressed to God while others are overhearing it. Of course, if the one who is praying is more concerned to impress these human hearers than to pray to God, then rank hypocrisy takes over. That is why Jesus so roundly condemns much of the public praying of his day and insists on the primacy of private prayer (Matthew 6:5-8). Public prayer ought to be the overflow of one's private praying. Judging by the example of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, there is ample reason to reflect on just what my prayer, rightly directed to God, is saying to the people who hear me.

6. Pray until you pray. That is Puritan advice. God is not particularly impressed by long-winded prayers, and is not more disposed to help us just because of them. Our generation needs to learn that God is not impressed by the kind of brevity that is nothing other than culpable negligence. If we "pray until we pray," eventually we come to delight in God's presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Such advice is not to become an excuse for a new legalism. There are startling examples of very short, rapid prayers in the Bible. However, many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.

A few thoughts for today to help you pray from 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Paul begins his prayer with thanks. Why does Paul thank God? For what do we commonly give thanks? Our thanksgiving seems to be tied tightly to our material well-being and comfort. Think about what you give thanks for: homes, health, children, food, cars, safety, money, job. We should give thanks for these things. However, the truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we actually most highly value. If a large percentage of our thanksgiving is for material prosperity, it is because we might value material prosperity proportionately.

1) Paul gives thanks that his readers' faith is growing. Paul is speaking of their continual reliance on the Lord.

2) Paul gives thanks that their love is increasing. Jesus said that love would be the distinguishing mark of his followers (John 13:34-35). The church is made up of people who are a varied as can be: rich and poor, learned and unlearned, practical and impractical, sophisticated and unsophisticated, disciplined and flighty, intense and carefree, extrovert and introvert -- and everything in between. The only thing that holds such people together is their shared allegiance to Jesus Christ, their devotion to him, stemming from his indescribable love for them. When Christians do grow in their love for each other, for no other reason than because they are loved by Jesus Christ and love him in return, that growing love is an infallible sign of grace in their lives. Such love is only attributed to the work of God, and so it is to God that Paul directs his thanks.

3) Paul gives thanks that they are persevering under trial. Paul is saying something like this, "Have you noticed how powerfully the grace of God is operating in the lives of the Thessalonian believers? The way they withstand the pressures of persecution and of assorted trials is truly remarkable, a compelling testimony to the grace of God." If what we highly cherish belongs to the realm of heaven, our hearts and minds will incline to heaven and all its values; but if what we highly cherish belongs to the realm of earth and the merely transitory, our hearts and minds will incline to the merely transitory (Matthew 6:19-21).

Here is the first point: If our prayers are to develop a biblical framework, we must look for signs of grace in the lives of Christians, and give God thanks for them. The specific elements of Paul's thanksgiving show the framework of values he brings to his intercession -- and we urgently need to develop the same framework.

4) Paul expressed great confidence in perseverance of their faith under trial. Beyond their conversion, Paul assumes that real Christians will ultimately persevere. The assumption is common in Scripture (Matthew 24:13; John 8:31; Hebrews 3:14; I John 2:18-19). Many Christians may stumble and fall, doubt like Thomas, and disown their Lord like Peter, but ultimately will utter their "Amen" to Thomas's confession (John 20:28) and weep with Peter (Matthew 26:75). Christians are not masochists: they do not want to suffer out of some forlorn but stupid belief that suffering is intrinsically good. They are prepared to suffer and to endure because they keep their eye on the goal: the consummation of the Kingdom of God. Here is a real sense of expectancy that is increasingly lacking in American churches. We are losing our anticipation of the Lord's return, the anticipation that Paul shows is basic to his thought.

Evidence of our short-sightedness is found in our seduction of devoting almost all of our time, energy, and money to the temporal (Matthew 6:20). Also, it is seen in our propensity to be bitter, unforgiving people. In vv. 6-10 Paul reminds them of the justice of God. The Christian gospel is solidly based on some elementary notions of retribution. Where evil occurs, it must be paid back, or God himself is affronted. If God forever overlooks evil on the ground that he is loving and forbearing, is he not also betraying the fact that he is pathetically unconcerned about injustice? The truth is that every Christian who has thought long and hard about the cross begins to understand that God is not merely a stern dispenser of justice, nor merely a lover who lavishly forgives, but the Sovereign who is simultaneously perfect in holiness and perfect in love. His holiness demands retribution on behalf of others. Forgiveness is never a product of love alone. Forgiveness is possible only because there has been a real personal offense, and a real sacrifice to offset that offense.

The final picture that Paul tells of is not a pretty one. Some people think of hell as a place where sinners will be crying out for another chance, begging for the opportunity to repent, with God somehow taking on a "tough love" stance and declaring, "Sorry, you had your chance, too late." The reality is infinitely more sobering. There is no evidence anywhere in the Bible that there is any repentance in hell. The biblical picture suggests that evil and self-centeredness persist and persist -- and so does the judgment. Men and women will maintain their perpetual desire to be the center of the universe; they will not accept that they are guilty of rebellion. In our pragmatic, materialistic society, where each of us seeks comfort and fulfillment and respect, it is hard to follow a despised, crucified Messiah -- unless we fix our eyes on the end. If we do not aim for the new heaven and the new earth, many of our values and decisions in this world will by unworthy, tarnished, and wrong. Can biblical spirituality long survive where Christians are not oriented to the world to come? And, in this context, can we expect to pray aright unless we are oriented to the world to come?

"With this in mind, we constantly pray for you" (v. 11). We have seen that "this" Paul keeps in mind is discerning gratitude for signs of grace among the people for whom he prays and simple confidence in the prospect of God's perfect vindication of his people when Jesus returns. That is the framework of his thought as he sets himself to pray for the Thessalonians.

Hopefully this will be a source of encouragement, conviction, and instruction for you today.

I Must Become a Humble Man

Today I prioritized several hours for the care of my soul. As a Christian, I want to keep my heart happy and pure in God. I desire to love Him and be humbled by His magnificence. The best things I can offer my wife, children, and Orange Park Bible Church is singleness of heart toward God and personal holiness. Here is what I walked away with this afternoon:

Humility may be defined as a habit of mind and heart corresponding to my comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of my own comparative meanness in his sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.


Excelling in Christ-likeness must produce greater humility in me. Humility is one of the excellencies of Christ, because he is not only God, but man, and as a man he was humble. If I am to be like Christ, the Holy Spirit working in me is conforming me in deeper humility. Humility implies a compliance with that rule of the apostle (Romans 12:3) that I think not of myself more highly than I ought to think, but that I think soberly, according as God has dealt with me. To strive for humility is to strive to see God. To see God is to grow in humility.

Jonathan Edwards has said thus: A truly humble man, since the fall, is also sensible of his moral meanness and vileness. This consists in his sinfulness. His natural meanness is his littleness as a creature; his moral meanness is his vileness and filthiness as a sinner. Unfallen man was infinitely distant from God in his natural qualities or attributes. Fallen man is infinitely distant from him also as sinful and thus filthy. A truly humble person is in some measure sensible of his comparative meanness in this respect, that he sees how exceedingly polluted he is before an infinite holy God. He sees how pure God is, and how filthy and abominable he is before him. Such a sense of his comparative meanness Isaiah had, when he saw God's glory, and cried out "Woe is me!" or Job who said, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." To this sense of our own meanness and unworthiness that is implied in humility, it is not only necessary that we should know God and have a sense of his greatness, without which we cannot know ourselves, but we must have a right sense also of his excellence and loveliness. The devils and damned spirits see a great deal of God's greatness, of his wisdom, omnipotence. God makes them sensible of it by what they see in his dealings and feel in their own sufferings. However unwilling they are to know it, God makes them know how much he is above them now, and they shall know and feel it more after the judgment. But, they have no humility, nor will they ever have, because, though they see and feel God's greatness, yet they see and feel nothing of His loveliness. And without this there can be no true humility, for that cannot exist unless the creatures feel his distance from God, not only with respect to his greatness, but also his loveliness.
(Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards)

This thought from Edwards was ground to worship on today. Who is more aware of God's greatness than Satan and demons, yet who is further from humility? Scripture teaches that Satan was not content with his estate, but desired to exalt himself to the throne of God. However, understanding that God brought himself low, condescended to us, and placed upon His innocent Son my sin causes me to see that God is incomprehensibly great, yet merciful, compassionate, and lovely. "The love of Christ compels us" (II Corinthians 5:14). Merely having a sense of the fact that God is infinitely above me is not working humility in me. I must be sensible that as there is an unimaginable gulf between God and me. I must also understand that He has brought me near to himself in sovereign choice by the death of His Son (Ephesians 2:13). Satan, demons and those judged in Hell will one day fully understand the highness of God and the lowliness of their estate, yet will not be made humble because they have not additionally been made near to His loveliness by the work of Christ. I have been brought near (Ephesians 2:13) and now must draw near (Hebrews 4:16). What grace I enjoy and I pray I never get calloused to the thought of my access to the throne and the blood of the Cross by which I draw near. A God who lends His ear; a God who gives faith; a God who gives wisdom; a God who employs my broken life to bring the Word of God to others; a God who is patient; a God who reveals Himself and dispenses mercy without measure. It is not the realization of the separation between God and me that produces humility; it is also the Holy Spirit working in me as I am then brought bear by the blood of Christ. The perspective of my separation from Him coupled with the realization of my nearness to Him produces humility.

I am unworthy of any mercy and deserving of all misery. It should be the disposition of my soul to lie low before God and to humble myself in the dust in His presence. Humility disposes me to be distrustful of myself and to depend only on God.

Humility further disposes me to renounce all the glory of the good I might think I do and deflect all praise to God. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory."

Humility is manifested in how cheerfully I submit to God's will as manifested in what He orders for me; and though God orders affliction, and low and depressed circumstances, I should not murmur, but feeling my meanness and unworthiness, I am sensible that trying circumstances are what I deserve and that my circumstances are ALWAYS much better what I truly merit.

In talking about God it should never seem in my speech or behavior that I esteem myself better than any saint because I might know more about a particular subject.

I should never be found treating what others say and do with contempt and scorn or speaking of others in ridicule and sneering reflections, making a sport of placing myself in a higher position as I differentiate myself from other men and their faults/mistakes.

I should not be stiff and inflexible and insist that everything must go according to what I happen to propose. I should not be presumptuous and self-willed, always bent on carrying my own points.

Humility will prevent a leveling behavior. Some persons are always ready to level those above them down to themselves, while they are never willing to level those below them up to their own position. But he that is under the influence of humility will avoid both these extremes.

Humility should also prevent in me a self-justifying behavior. He that is under the influence of a humble spirit, if he has fault, or has injured another, or dishonored the Christian name and character, should be willing to acknowledge his fault, and take the shame of it himself. I should never be hard to be brought to acknowledging a sin.

The gospel, above all things in the world, holds forth the exceeding condescension of God. No other manifestation that God ever made of himself exhibits such wonderful condescension as the Christian revelation does. The gospel teaches how God, who humbles himself to behold things that are in heaven and earth, stooped so low as to take an infinitely gracious notice of poor vile worms of the dust, and to concern himself for their salvation, and so as to send his only-begotten Son to die for them, that they might be forgiven, and elevated, and honored, and brought into eternal fellowship with him, and to the perfect enjoyment of himself in heaven forever. If our Lord and Master is humble, and we love him as such, certainly it becomes us who are his disciples and servants to be so too; for surely it does not become the servant to be prouder or less abased than his master. As Christ himself tells us, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord" (Matthew 10:24-25).


I know that the number one reason I desire to be humble is found in James 4:6, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The original language would read, "God sets himself in battle array against the proud." I want to be made humble because I was to be made suitable for the presence of God where my joy is found and my soul is refreshed. "God please make me humble because it is the humble man you hear and the humble man you commune with." Time to pray...

The Sinfulness of Sin

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree!" 1 Peter 2:24

The most significant and appalling demonstration of God's holiness that the universe ever beheld, infinitely distancing and transcending every other--is the sufferings and death of His only and beloved Son! The cross of Calvary exhibits God's hatred and punishment of sin in a way and to an extent which the annihilation of millions of worlds, swept from the face of the universe by the broom of His wrath, could never have done!

Behold the most solemn display of God's hatred of sin! Finding the sins of the Church upon Christ as its Surety, Substitute, and Savior--the wrath of God was poured out upon Him without measure! Finding the sins of His people laid upon His Son--God emptied all the vials of His wrath due to their transgressions, upon His holy soul! Go, my soul, to Calvary, and learn how holy God is, and what a monstrous thing sin is, and how imperiously, solemnly, and holily bound, Jehovah is to punish it, either in the person of the sinner, or in the person of a Surety. Never was the Son of God dearer to the Father--than at the very moment that the sword of divine justice, flaming and flashing, pierced His holy heart to its hilt!

But it was the wrath of God, not against His beloved Son--but against the sins which met on Him when presenting Himself on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice and offering for His Church. He gave Himself for us!

What a new conception must angels have formed of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, when they beheld the flaming sword of justice quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus! And in what a dazzling light does this fact place the marvelous love of God to sinners! Man's sin--and God's love; the indescribable enormity of the one--and the immeasurable greatness of the other; are exhibited in the cross of Christ as nowhere else.

Oh, to learn experimentally these two great facts: sin's infinite hatefulness--and a loving God's infinite holiness! The love of God in giving His Son to die; the love of Christ in dying--and the essential turpitude and unmitigated enormity of sin, which demanded a Sacrifice so Divine, so holy, and so precious!

The Difference Between Gospel and Law-Driven Mortification

So, with my own spiritual need in mind (and yours) I decided to post in full this remarkable piece from Ralph Erskine (1685-1752). He really gets to the heart of the difference between being motivated by the law and motivated by the gospel.
Enjoy…


1. Gospel and legal mortification differ in their principles from which they proceed. Gospel mortification is from gospel principles, viz. the Spirit of God [Rom. 8. 13], ‘If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live’; Faith in Christ [Acts 15. 9], ‘Purifying their hearts by faith’; The love of Christ constraining [2 Cor. 5. 14], ‘The love of Christ constraineth us.’ But legal mortification is from legal principles such as, from the applause and praise of men, as in the Pharisees; from pride of self-righteousness, as in Paul before his conversion; from the fear of hell; from a natural conscience; from the example of others; from some common motions of the Spirit; and many times from the power of sin itself, while one sin is set up to wrestle with another, as when sensuality and self-righteousness wrestle with one another. The man, perhaps, will not drink and swear. Why? Because he is setting up and establishing a righteousness of his own, whereby to obtain the favour of God here is but one sin wrestling with another.

2. They differ in their weapons with which they fight against sin. The gospel believer fights with grace’s weapons, namely, the blood of Christ, the word of God, the promises of the covenant, and the virtue of Christ’s death and cross [Gal. 6. 14] ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [or, as it may be read, 'whereby,' viz. by the cross of Christ,] the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.’ But now the man under the law fights against sin by the promises and threatenings of the law; by its promises, saying, I will obtain life; and win to heaven, I hope, if I do so and so; by its threatenings, saying, I will go to hell and be damned, if I do not so and so. Sometimes he fights with the weapons of his own vows and resolutions, which are his strong tower, to which he runs and thinks himself safe.

3. They differ in the object of their mortification. They both, indeed, seek to mortify sin, but the legalist’s quarrel is more especially with the sins of his conversation, whereas the true believer should desire to fight as the Syrians got orders, that is, neither against great nor small, so much as against the King himself, even against original corruption. A body of sin and death troubles him more than any other sin in the world; ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?’ [Rom. 7. 24]. His great exercise is to have the seed of the woman to bruise this head of the serpent.

4. They differ in the reasons of the contest. The believer, whom grace teaches to deny all ungodliness, he fights against sin because it dishonours God, opposes Christ, grieves the Spirit, and separates between his Lord and him; but the legalist fights against sin, because it breaks his peace, and troubles his conscience, and hurts him, by bringing wrath and judgment on him. As children will not play in the dust, not because it sullies their clothes, but flies into their eyes, and hurts them, so the legalist will not meddle with sin, not because it sullies the perfections of God, and defiles their souls, but only because it hurts them. I deny not, but there is too much of this legal temper even amongst the godly.

5. They differ in their motives and ends. The believer will not serve sin, because he is alive to God, and dead to sin [Rom. 6. 6]. The legalist forsakes sin, not because he is alive, but that he may live. The believer mortifies sin, because God loves him; but the legalist, that God may love him. The believer mortifies, because God is pacified towards him; the legalist mortifies, that he may pacify God by his mortification. He may go a great length, but it is still that he may have whereof to glory, making his own doing all the foundation of his hope and comfort.

6. They differ in the nature of their mortification. The legalist does not oppose sin violently, seeking the utter destruction of it. If he can get sin put down, he does not seek it to be thrust out; but the believer, having a nature and principle contrary to sin, he seeks not only to have it weakened, but extirpated. The quarrel is irreconcilable; no terms of accommodation or agreement; no league with sin is allowed, as it is with hypocrites.

7. They differ in the extent of the warfare, not only objectively, the believer hating every false way; but also subjectively, all the faculties of the believer’s soul, the whole regenerate part being against sin. It is not so with the hypocrite or legalist; for as he spares some sin or other, so his opposition to sin is only seated in his conscience; his light and conscience oppose such a thing, while his heart approves of it. There is an extent also as to time; the legalist’s opposition to sin is of a short duration, but in the believer it is to the end; grace and corruption still opposing one another.

8. They differ in the success. There is no believer, but as he fights against sin, so first or last he prevails, though not always to his discerning; and though he lose many battles, yet he gains the war. But the legalist, for all the work he makes, yet he never truly comes speed; though he cut off some actual sin, yet the corrupt nature is never changed; he never gets a new heart; the iron sinew in his neck, which opposes God, is never broken; and when he gets one sin mortified, sometimes another and more dangerous sin lifts up the head. Hence all the sins and pollutions that ever the Pharisees forsook, and all the good duties that ever they performed, made them but more proud, and strengthened their unbelieving prejudices against Christ, which was the greater and more dangerous sin.
Thus you may see the difference between legal and gospel mortification, and try yourselves thereby.

In light of the recent discussion regarding the nature of Christian growth and sanctification, I thought I would re-post the helpful quote below from Sinclair Ferguson. In it, he reminds us that any piety and pursuit of holiness not grounded in, and driven by, the gospel will eventually run out of gas:

The first thing to remember is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual … but from the New Testament’s point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about us and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sinclair reminds us that the secret of gospel-based sanctification is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him. In fact, those who end up getting better are those who increasingly realize that their relationship to God does not depend on them getting better. This means, as I said in a post a couple weeks ago, that Christian growth does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners (Col. 1:12-14).

Originally posted by Tullian Tchividjian

Beware of Pope Self

Pope Self

(J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Luke" 1858)

"An argument started among the disciples as to
which of them would be the greatest." Luke 9:46

Astonishing as it may seem, this little company
of fishermen and publicans was not beyond the
plague of a self seeking and ambitious spirit.

There is something very instructive in this fact.
It ought to sink down deeply into the heart of
every Christian reader. Of all sins, there is none
against which we have such need to watch and
pray—as PRIDE.

No sin is so deeply rooted in our nature.

Pride cleaves to us like our skin!

Its roots never entirely die. They are ready,
at any moment, to spring up, and exhibit a
most pernicious vitality.

No sin is so senseless and deceitful.
It can wear the garb of humility itself!

Pride can lurk in the hearts of the ignorant,
the vile, and the poor—as well as in the minds
of the great, the learned, and the rich.

It is a quaint and homely saying, but only
too true—that no pope has ever received
such honor as "Pope Self."

Of all creatures, none has so little a right to be
proud as man; and of all men, none ought to be
so humble as the Christian. Is it really true that
we confess ourselves to be "miserable sinners,"
and daily debtors to mercy and grace? Are we the
followers of Jesus, who was meek and humble of
heart? Then let that same mind be in us which
was in Him. "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart." Matthew 11:29

The Puritans on the Help of the Holy Spirit in Prayer

William Fenner (1600-1640) stated that Spirit-less prayer is no better than the lowing of oxen, or the grunting of hogs.

James Ussher (1581-1656) listed the many infirmities that comprise our need for the Spirit's help in prayer: "Roving imaginations, inordinate affections, dullness of spirit, weakness of faith, coldness in feeling, faintness in asking, weariness in waiting, too much passion in our own matters, and too little compassion in other men's miseries."

Our human condition renders us, Thomas Boston said, "apt, instead of bread, to ask a stone; instead of a fish, a scorpion; to pray for what would do us ill, and against what is for our good." He elaborated the following:

1) We might pray against God's mercy

2) We might pray for that which could hurt us

3) We might pray for that which would feed our sinful desires     

4) We might not pray for what we truly need

5) We might forget what we ought to pray for

6) We might not pray according to God's will

Boston concluded, "There is so much remains of corruption in the best of us, that it is hard even in our prayers to keep within the compass of what is agreeable to His will. We must have the Spirit's help in prayer if our prayers are to be pleasing to God."

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).

Romans 8:26-27 must surely be one of the most dear and assuring passages of Scripture to the heart of the believer. Think about God's goodness and mercy continually provided to believers in providentially directing our desires and our prayers.
Anything pleasing to God that we pray, any pure desire, any prayer agreeable with the will of God, any desire and petition strained of all selfishness and desire to human gain - is conceived in the heart the Holy Spirit and is willingly expressed by His prompting. Praise be to God.