In the last post I talked about why we must put to death sin–mortify it. This post is about how we do it.

1. Self-flagellation doesn’t do it. Victory comes through Jesus Christ alone.   

2. The Holy Spirit does the work of putting in us an undivided heart and a new spirit (Eze 11:19; 36:26). Without Christ we can do nothing (Jn 15:5)

3. How the Spirit Mortify Sin?

• By causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the Spirit (Gal 5:19-21). As we live in the Spirit and walk according to the Spirit. As we abound in the grace of the the Holy Spirit and walk according to him

Goals for 2009

1. Walk close to God:

• Daily practice of spiritual disciplines
• Engaging God becomes more than just devotional time, and becomes a practice of talking to Him all the time
• Hearing Him becomes more clear
• I will listen to promptings and checks, be patient, and wait for answers.

2. Passion for life

• A passion for God will overflow into my everyday life and will prioritize my life
• I will live from vision, priorities, and choice, not emotion and past patterns.
• I will not make excuses, but learn from choices and grow

3. Life will not control me.

• i will continue to create organizational systems in my life and home
• I will become physically fit

When I read the bible I try to ask God what to Read. Usually its something in Isaiah. Today on the plane ride back from Las Vegas opened the Bible to Psalm 88 randomly, read it, and then asked God, “What do you want me to read?” The response came back, “Psalm 88.” So I figured I missed something.

If you read Psalm 88, there is nothing really redeeming about it. There is no real positive statements. Most Psalms that are “angst” psalms have a positive conclusion at the end, something like, “But I know that the Lord will save me. He will hear from his holy mountain and rescue me.” I was looking for an ending is Psalm 88 like that.

But it’s not there.

This guy is depressed. He feels like God isn’t listening, or God is angry at him. He is crying and praying, wondering where God is going to show up. Actually, He seems to wonder IF God will show up. The conclusion:

“You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend (Psalm 88:18 NIV).”

So I asked God: “What is up with this?” The response I got was that:

I don’t want you to feel like you can’t vent to me. Even when you feel like the world is coming to an end, and you are wondering why life is sucking, you can talk to me about it. I want to be your closest friend. I want you to release to me.

I don’t get it though. I thought we were to “do all things without complaining or grumbling,” but this is Scripture that shows that the Father wants us to be able to release to Him. Maybe this isn’t considered complaining, its more like stating you emotions to God, stating how we feel and what we think about God, e.g. “I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me (v 15b-16).”

What do you think? Is God your venting source?

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…”–Col 2:5

The father is always pruning our lives so that we would bear more fruit (John 15:2), and we must yield to him in the task. Paul states, “I beat my body and mke it my slave…(1 cor 9:27).”

Lets look at six reasons we need to be about killing sin:

1.  Indwelling sin patterns will always be a problem in this world.

• We are not already made perfect (Phil 3:12).  We are inwardly being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:1), and in the renovations that are going on within is the tearing down of the old, broken ways of that past.
• We have a war to overcome between the sinful nature and the Spirit of God that dwells within (Gal 5:17)
• We have a body of death (Rom 7:24) that we must be delivered from by putting it to death (Phil 3:21)
• If we are to kill an enemy, we can’t give up half way; we must persevere (Gal 6:9)(Heb 12:1)()(2 Cor 7:1)

2. Sin is always at work seeking to ensnare us and others, so we must always be weary of letting our guard down.  This battle will last all our days, and if we stop fighting against it we will be like a boxer who goes to fight and drops his gloves.

• The sinful nature desire what is contrary to the Spirit (Gal 5:17)
• Lust is always trying to temp us to sin (Jas 1:14)
• Sin “easily” entangles (Heb 12:1)

3. Sin, if not continually killed, will slowly kill you.  Ever sin that rises to temp or entice desires to move you to its extreme.  Every unclean glance seeks to be adultry, every coveting look seeks to be oppression, ever hatred or bitterness to be murder, and ever unbelieving thought to be atheism. This is the deceitfulness of sin.

• Sin seeks to harden your heart to itself and drive you away from God (Heb 3:12-13)  Sin’s foothold is small in the beginning, but seeks to take further ground and press on to higher heights.  Ted bundy attributes the beginning of his slide into depravity with pornography and slasher films.  Lust is never satisfied (Prov 30:15-16)and calls out for a deeper and deeper deprafity.  This growth has no boundaries except utter denial of God and opposition to Him.  Sin proceeds higher by degrees; it hardens the heart as it advances.  Nothing can stop this advance but killing it.

4.  The Holy Spirit, our new nature, and the Word of God are given to us to oppose sin and lust. (Gal 5:17)1 Pet 1:4()

• It is our participation putting off the old mand putting on the new man (Col 3:9-10).  We can’t do this in ourselves but must ask for grace from God to overcome.  If we don’t ask and recieve this help, and try to do this in ourselves, the result will be self-righteousness.

5.  Neglect of the task of killing sin makes our inner man shrivel instead of renewing him.  Paul affirms that the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16), but this is a choice we must make (Rom 12:2).  If we neglect this renewal, the inner man perishes, and the outward man is able to strengthen.  The world, the flesh, and the devil are continually pushing against us, and we cannot stop pushing back or we will be knocked backward.  Letting sin advance can cause a humble, tender, zelous believer into a carnal, cold, and wrathful person if it is allowed its full course.

• Grace must be excercised or it can wither and die (Rev 3:2)
• Sin seeks to harden our hearts (Heb 3:13)
• When sin starts to gain a foothold, it rots us out on the inside (Ps 31:10)
• Sin makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die (Ps Ps 40:12), and death is the chief end of the devil

6.  Spiritual growth is our daily duty (2 cor 4:16)

• We are to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1) every day.
• We are to be growing in grace every day (1 pet 2:2)(2 pet 3:18.

In summary:

Though we have a new nature though Jesus Christ, though we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and though we have the precious promises of God to latch hold of, we are still in a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Mortification of sin is our daily duty, and to do so we must not only be aware of the schemes of the devil (2 Cor 2:11), but must also renew our inner man day by day to fight this battle. In all of this we must rejoice that God has given us victory through Jesus Christ, if we only will choose to take hold of it.

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, wagin war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our lord!” (Rom 7:21-25a)

Note:  much of this is from the book “Mortification of Sin” by John Owen