Repeat Offender

Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to Genesis chapter 20.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

!

But we encourage everybody to have a copy of God's Word open in front of you so that we can see and hear from the pages of Scripture as we walk through this text together.

So Genesis chapter 20, and when you found it, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 20, and when you found it, let's stand in the reading of God's Word.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.

Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people?

Did he not himself say to me, She is my sister?

And she herself said, He is my brother?

In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.

Then God said to him in a dream, Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me.

Therefore, I did not let you touch her.

Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you shall live.

But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things.

And the men were very much afraid.

Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us?

And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin?

You have done to me things that ought not to be done.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you see that you did this thing?

Abraham said, I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, This is the kindness you must do to me.

At every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah, his wife, to him.

And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you.

Dwell where it pleases you.

To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver.

It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves, so that they bore children.

For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

The grass withers and flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Father God, we praise you for your word, and we praise you for this story of obvious sin in Abraham's life.

We pray that we would take many lessons from it to apply to our own life.

And we praise you for Christ, who is the Savior of sinners.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated.

I wonder if you've ever experienced deja vu.

Weird feeling that you've been here before, had that same conversation before.

It's a strange sensation of things are happening again exactly like they've happened before.

You all know I was at the Pillar Conference this week.

I've lost count now of how many of those I've been to.

Six, seven, maybe eight.

And each year, I can almost guarantee that many of the experiences there are similar, if not exactly the same, year after year after year after year.

It's always at the same location.

It's at Southeastern Seminary there in Wake Forest.

The schedule, the order of events is usually roughly the same.

I know when to expect the breakouts and when to expect the main sessions.

Even the food is almost exactly the same year after year.

I told the guys as we walked in, I said, listen, we're going to have a sandwich.

We're going to have Chick-fil-A.

We're going to have some barbecue.

And lo and behold, that was what the menu held.

Some of the details around the periphery shift here and there.

The topic of the conference rotates year after year.

It was honey-baked ham sandwiches instead of which-which sandwiches this year.

My company was different this year.

Bill and Treg joined me this time.

But for all intents and purposes, many of the same things happen year after year.

I found myself in a familiar place feeling a sense of deja vu.

You might have felt a little bit like that this morning as we read this story here in Genesis chapter 20.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

And if you did, I want you to know that you are not crazy.

We have been here before.

We are in familiar territory.

Some of the details around this story have shifted.

The location has changed.

Some of the characters have changed.

But you should notice we have been here before.

I want to kind of jog your memory all the way back to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I realize it's been a while since we've been there, Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

But see if this story sounds familiar to you at all.

Genesis chapter 12 tells the story of Abram and Sarai.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Little different names.

Abram and Sarai.

There's famine in the land.

And so Abram and Sarai go down to Egypt.

Abram is afraid that the Egyptians will see how beautiful Sarai, his wife, is.

And they'll kill Abram.

And so Abram comes up with this brilliant plan.

You're going to tell them that you're my sister.

Sound familiar?

She goes along with it.

They take her.

And then they bless Abram with all sorts of goods.

But we see the Lord sovereignly.

He sees all this happening.

He afflicts Pharaoh.

And so he sends Sarai back to her husband.

And Sarai and Abram leave wealthier and better off than before.

Does that sound familiar to you?

Here in Genesis chapter 20, this is essentially the same story.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Details have changed, but we are on familiar ground.

And we're right to ask, well, what in the world is going on here?

Why are we circling back to this again?

You know, there's a proverb that I think helps sum up this story well.

Proverbs 26, 11.

Anybody know it?

Proverbs 26, 11 says this.

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

What we're seeing here in this repeat story in the life of Abraham is a cycling pattern of sin in Abraham's life.

Some of the details have changed, but like a dog returning to his vomit,

here Abraham is foolishly repeating his folly.

And as we look at this story of repeat sin, I hope that we can admit and be honest that each one of us is prone to do the exact same thing, aren't we?

Sometimes we find ourselves feeling a sense of deja vu as we wander back to familiar places and familiar patterns of sin in our lives.

So let's take a look here.

And what we'll see this morning is three lessons about our sin.

This will be our outline this morning if you're taking notes.

Three lessons about our sin.

First, we see our sin is self-seeking.

Our sin is self-seeking.

We see this here in verses 1 through 7 of the passage.

Look there with me starting in verse 1.

And we see in the aftermath of Sodom, we saw that last week in chapter 19,

that we're told that Abraham, he journeyed down toward the territory of the Negev,

and he lived there between Kadesh and Shur, and he sojourned in Gerar.

And once again, just as he did in Egypt, he executes this same brilliant plan, doesn't he?

Abraham says to Sarai, his wife, says of his wife, she is my sister.

And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and he takes Sarah.

Here we go again.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream and said to him,

Behold, you are a dead man.

That sounds more like a nightmare to me, right?

God speaks and says, you are a dead man.

Why?

Because you've taken another man's wife.

She's married.

She belongs to somebody else.

And you know, this isn't the main point of the passage,

but I think it's worth mentioning here.

We see very clearly, God takes a high view of marriage, doesn't he?

God protects the boundaries of marriage.

God created marriage.

God instituted it.

It's his design.

One man and one woman in covenant relationship for a lifetime.

The seventh commandment, the men studied this this week.

The seventh commandment says what?

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Now God is protecting the boundaries here of the covenant of marriage.

But it's interesting.

Verse 4 says that Abimelech had not yet approached her.

He was to this point innocent.

He had not yet committed adultery.

And so he says to the Lord, Lord, will you indeed kill an innocent people?

I've been tricked, God.

Did he not say she's my sister?

And she herself, does she not say, well, he's my brother?

I've done all this in the integrity of my heart, in the innocence of my hands.

I have done this.

So the Lord responds, yes, I know that you've done this in the integrity of your heart.

Because it was I who kept you from sinning against me.

The Lord says that I have not let you touch her.

Now you better return her or there's going to be consequences for you and for your household.

Now, I want you to think with me here about the selfishness of Abraham's sin.

How self-seeking Abraham's sin is.

It's clear, isn't it?

He is not thinking about anybody else in this situation besides himself.

His sin is self-seeking.

In fact, his sin is putting everyone else around him in danger.

Did you notice that?

For one thing, Abraham's sin is putting his wife in danger, isn't he?

Abraham's sin is putting his wife Sarah in danger.

Just think about this little plan of his.

His sin is putting her in harm's way, but he doesn't seem to really care about that, does he?

He's just protecting himself two times now.

Sarah's a lot more patient than I would be.

Two times now, she has been traded away for his own protection.

Two times, she's been given away into another man's hands to be his wife.

This is completely self-seeking behavior, isn't it?

And you notice that it harms the person who is closest to him.

Do we realize that our sin harms those who are closest to us?

We may think that our sin only hurts us.

If anybody, it's only impacting us.

But we ought to realize our sin, it also hurts those who are closest to us.

Even so-called secret sins, they harm those who are closest to us.

For a married man or a married woman to have a secret affair, that hurts your family.

Even a secret pornography addiction, it will impact your relationships.

Even internal, invisible sins like selfishness or pride or laziness.

Those often wind up manifesting themselves in external ways that hurt others around us.

We need to know our sin impacts those closest to us.

Not only this, but Abraham's sin also puts Abimelech in danger.

Abraham doesn't know Abimelech as far as we can tell.

This is their first interaction.

They don't have any sort of relationship.

This guy is a stranger.

But does Abraham's sin impact Abimelech?

You better believe so. Absolutely.

He is put at risk of death.

It puts his life at risk.

And not just him, but also his whole family is at risk because of Abraham's sin.

Do we realize that our sin also hurts those around us?

A few weeks ago, the northbound lanes on the Ravenel Bridge were shut down.

I don't know what happened.

I can only assume a cell phone was involved or a northerner maybe.

I'm not sure.

One slip up from one driver caused another car or two to crash, which caused the whole side to be shut down,

which caused hundreds of other vehicles to be stuck in standstill traffic,

including some of you who couldn't make it to where you were attempting to be,

which I am certain caused a lot of anger and a lot of hearts,

which I am certain overflowed in a lot of words that ought not to be said.

But our sin is often like this.

It reverberates.

It echoes.

You see the chain reaction here.

One little decision now has put one man and his whole family at risk.

The impact of our sin is often much wider than we can possibly imagine,

which is why we need to understand that sin, first, is a failure to love God,

but second is a failure to love neighbor.

How does Jesus sum up the commandments?

What's the first greatest commandment, Jesus?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength.

And the second is like it.

What is it?

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Not only this, Abraham here also puts the promise in danger.

Puts the promise in danger.

Let's zoom out here just for a minute.

You remember the big picture context of what's going on here in the book of Genesis?

Do you remember the promise that God has made to Abraham?

God promised Abraham that Isaac would be born to Abraham within the year,

specifically from Sarah's womb.

I don't think I have to explain this to you,

but if Sarah had gotten pregnant by Abimelech,

that promise could not come to pass, could it?

Abraham selfishly and protecting himself,

he has completely lost sight of the big picture, hasn't he?

In this moment, he acts like he's forgotten God's promises.

He's only thinking about himself, not Sarah, not Abimelech, not God.

Praise God.

What we see here, he does not let our foolishness nullify his faithfulness, does he?

Look how God steps in and intervenes.

God makes certain that even despite Abraham's foolishness,

his plan, his promises will come to pass.

What does he say to Abimelech?

Yes, I know you're innocent, but think about why.

I kept you from sinning against her.

I know you didn't touch her, Abimelech.

Why?

I did not let you touch her.

Why?

God's promises, God's plan to bring about the promised offspring,

through Abraham, through Sarah, will come to pass.

You realize our sin is exactly the same.

Our sin, it harms those who are close to us.

Our sin, it harms our neighbor.

And our sin, ultimately, you know what?

It shows a real lack of trust in God and his promises.

So we see sin is self-seeking.

Not only this, second, second, we see our sin is shameful.

Our sin is shameful.

And we see this starting in verse 8.

There's an irony here in the passage.

Did you notice it?

This pagan king, Abimelech, who does not know the Lord,

he is more righteous than Abraham, the man of faith.

His hands are innocent here, but Abraham is guilty.

Do you see the irony here?

This pagan king rebukes Abraham, the great father of the Jewish people.

He comes out looking like the bigger, better man in the whole ordeal,

while Abraham comes off looking pretty bad, doesn't he?

Look there to verse 8.

Verse 8 says that Abimelech rose early in the morning.

He responds immediately to the word of God.

He called all his servants and told them all these things that the Lord had said.

The men were very much afraid.

And then Abimelech calls Abraham.

And he says,

What have you done to us?

How have I sinned against you?

Why have you done this?

What have you seen here that you're doing this?

You've done these things that ought not to be done.

Why in the world have you done this?

What do you have to say for yourself?

Abraham's caught in his lie, isn't he?

This pagan king exposes this great father of the faith.

And right here is the opportunity, right?

Right here is the chance to say,

You're right.

I've sinned.

You caught me.

I put you in harm's way.

I put my wife in harm's way.

I've not loved my neighbor as I ought.

I've failed to trust in the promises of God.

Forgive me, God.

God.

That would be the right response, right?

But what does he do?

Abraham does what you and I so often do.

Abraham begins making all sorts of excuses for his sin, doesn't he?

Three of them here.

Excuse number one, it's your fault.

You don't fear God.

I did this because I thought there's no fear of God in this place,

and so I better come up with a plan.

I thought you were going to kill me.

It's ultimately your fault.

If you were more godly, I wouldn't have to sin so much.

Excuse number two, here in verse 12.

Boy, you know, I didn't really lie.

Technically, she is my sister.

Listen to how he just twists himself up in a knot, trying to explain this away.

Well, she's the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother,

and then she became my wife.

So technically, technically I'm not lying, right?

I mean, who's he fooling?

Third excuse here in verse 13.

Who does he blame?

Ultimately.

Ultimately, he says, you know what?

It's God's fault.

He puts the blame on God.

God made me do it.

When God caused me to wander from my father's house,

I said to her, this is the kindness you must do for me at every place to which we come.

Save me.

He is my brother.

God made me do it.

God put me in this impossible situation.

What was I supposed to do?

I was happy where I was.

God called me out into this dangerous place.

He made me a sojourner.

So really, if you think about it,

you trace it all back up to the top of the food chain,

it's God's fault.

Friend, when we wander back into places and patterns of sin,

God is not to blame.

When we fall into sin,

it is not God's fault.

Yes, we believe in a totally sovereign God.

We believe that nothing happens apart from the counsel of his will.

Amen.

Yes, we believe this.

And we believe that we are fully responsible for our sin.

God is not to blame for our sin.

We should learn from Abraham here.

We ought not make excuses for our sin.

When God brings our sin into the light,

that's a grace, by the way.

That is a kindness for him to expose our sin,

to bring it out into the light so that we can see it as it is.

When he does that,

please, Christian,

don't make excuses for your sin.

Don't blame others.

Don't try to explain it away on some technicality.

And certainly do not blame God for your sin.

Acknowledge your sin and bring it to the feet of Jesus.

The word tells us if we confess our sin,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I don't know how Abimelech responded to all of this.

I can just imagine he's just standing there nodding like,

okay, yeah, buddy, really?

That's how you're going to handle this?

Well, he doesn't say a word.

Abimelech here, he takes the high road.

You see what he does?

Abimelech blesses Abraham.

He gives these gifts to Sarah,

1,000 pieces of silver.

You realize that would be about 150 years worth of labor in that day.

More than a lifetime.

He opens up the land.

He gives them full access to the land.

He clears his name in every way.

Abraham prays.

God heals Abimelech.

And he blesses him.

Do you see how backwards all of this is?

Abimelech comes out looking better than Abraham.

He looks more righteous than Abraham.

Do you see the issue here?

Church, it is a shameful thing

for pagans to appear more righteous than the people of God.

Amen?

Do you understand?

It is a shameful thing

for non-believers

to live a more visibly moral life

than the people of God.

And of course we all sin, church.

We all mess up.

I'm not saying that we are perfect.

We are not perfect, myself especially.

But,

we are meant to be light

in the midst of darkness, aren't we?

We are called to be holy.

As God is holy.

We are meant to be distinct.

There is meant to be a difference

between us and the non-believing world around us.

And when there isn't any difference,

we should recognize something is not right here.

This is off.

This is shameful.

Isn't this what Paul does

when he admonishes the Corinthian church?

He says,

it's actually reported

that there's sexual immorality

among you

and of a kind

that's not even tolerated

amongst pagans.

How can this be?

Church, my desire for us

is that we would be a holy people.

My desire for this church

is that we would be distinct.

I don't want our neighbors to say,

man, they're just like us

over there at Seaweed Bay.

They talk like us.

They think like us.

They cheat.

They steal.

They lie.

They sleep around.

They do all the same things that we do.

They value all the same things that we do.

No, I want our neighbors to say,

man, they are different from us.

Something's different over there.

What is that about those people at Seaweed Bay?

Oh, they're not prideful

or holier than thou.

They're not condemning.

They're not rude,

but there's just,

there's a difference there.

They're joyful.

They don't seem to need this drink

when the clock hits five.

They don't have the same apps

downloaded on their phones

as I do on mine.

Sure, they like football,

but they don't worship it like I do.

If South Carolina happens to lose to LSU,

they're mad,

but their life goes on.

And something's different

about these people.

And then guess what, church?

We get to answer.

It's Jesus.

Jesus is alive in me.

Christ Jesus has rescued me

from slavery to sin.

I'm not better than you.

By the grace of God,

I've been redeemed.

Jesus died and rose again

to set me free.

Now let me tell you

how you can get in on this.

Christ came to bear our sin

and our shame, church.

He came and he removed the penalty

and the guilt and the shame of sin

off of us, praise God.

But not only this,

Christ also came,

Ephesians 5 tells us,

Christ also came to present you

holy and blameless and above reproach.

And above reproach before him.

He came to make his people holy.

As he is holy.

To the praise of his glorious grace.

And the good news for us, church,

is that one day,

he will finally complete this work in us.

Do you believe that?

One day,

we will be fully and finally holy.

We can hardly imagine it.

We will be totally free from sin.

Totally clean.

Christ purchased the sinless future for us

at the cross.

We look backwards and see

the atonement and what he's done

so we can look forwards with confidence

at what will come when he returns.

We will be holy.

But it's not here yet.

You and I still wrestle

in the flesh

and wrestle with all sorts of patterns of sin.

We're still prone to wonder.

We're still prone to walk in ways

that dishonor the Lord

and harm those around us.

We're prone to return back again to our vomit.

So in our third point, church,

I want to ask,

what in the world do we do

with this habitual,

persistent,

stubborn sin in our lives?

How do we handle it?

How can we fight it?

Because third,

we see here,

sin is often cyclical.

And we could add,

sanctification is often slow.

Amen?

Now what is sanctification?

Sanctification

is this process

of being made righteous.

We are becoming more like Christ.

Abraham was declared righteous

by faith.

That's justification.

And so are we, church.

The moment you put your faith in Christ,

you are legally,

objectively,

formally,

officially,

truly righteous in the sight of God.

No one can take that away.

Jesus' righteousness is credited to you by faith.

Praise God.

sanctification.

But sanctification,

being made righteous,

whoo,

that takes some time.

it is painfully slow.

A lifetime,

in fact.

John Owen compares it to a tree.

He says,

the growth of trees and plants

take place so slowly

that it's not easily seen.

Daily,

we notice little changes.

But in the course of time,

we see that a great change

has taken place.

So it is with grace.

Sanctification

is a progressive,

lifelong work.

And we see it here with Abraham.

And you realize the first time

that this happened

was 25 years ago.

Here Abraham is,

back to the same thing.

Back to the same thing.

They were young back then.

They were in their 70s.

And now he's in his 90s.

He's almost 100.

And it seems like

that righteousness

hasn't quite taken root.

Sometimes we can find ourselves

right back in familiar places,

familiar patterns,

familiar temptations.

So what do we do

about this habitual,

persistent sin?

I want to finish here

by giving you a strategy.

Okay?

Ten parts.

Ten points.

I promise.

I'll move quickly.

Ten of them.

First,

you must make certain

that your sins are forgiven.

This is a starting point.

If you are not in Christ,

no strategy for fighting sin

will help you at all.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect $200.

Do not put a strategy in place.

Unless your sins have been forgiven

by faith in Christ,

no strategy for fighting sin

will be of any help to you.

You must repent of your sin

and come to Christ by faith.

That's number one.

Make certain your sins

are forgiven.

Then,

and only then,

from this position

of full forgiveness,

full acceptance,

how do we grow in holiness?

Second,

see yourself as dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ.

See yourself as dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ.

Who are you, Christian?

This is Paul's command in Romans 6.

We must recognize

that we are united to Christ

by faith,

so much so

that Jesus' death

is our death,

and Jesus' resurrection life

is our resurrection life.

That Jesus' victory over sin

is our victory over sin.

So you also must consider yourselves

dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ.

Number three,

speak.

And that might sound strange,

but you know,

you can actually speak out loud

when temptation comes.

You can speak and say no.

Say no to yourself

and your desires.

You can speak and say no

to the enemy.

Tell him no, not today.

I'm not going there again.

You can speak to your Savior.

Lord, would you help me?

Would you strengthen me?

Would you keep me from evil?

God, help me.

I'm tempted right now

and I'm weak.

Would you speak out loud?

But of course,

in order to speak the truth

to yourself

and remind yourself of truth,

what do you need to do?

Number four,

you must saturate your mind

with the truth.

Saturate your mind

with the Word of God.

If you just treat God's Word

like a reference book,

if you just crack it open

once or twice a week,

if the pages of your Bible

still stick together,

I'm not sure what to say

other than you are neglecting

the very means

that God has given you

to fight sin in your life.

How did Jesus resist

the temptation of the devil?

What did He do?

Three times,

He quoted the Word of the Lord.

What does the psalmist say?

How can a young man

keep his way pure?

By guarding it

according to your Word.

I have hidden your Word

in my heart

that I might not sin

against you.

You must saturate your mind

with the truth.

Number five,

cultivate spiritual dependence.

Spiritual dependence.

Walk by the Spirit

and you will not gratify

the desires of the flesh,

Paul says in Galatians 5.

Or again, Romans 8,

if you live according

to the flesh,

you will die.

But if by the Spirit

you put to death

the deeds of the body,

you will live.

We have to cultivate

a posture of spiritual dependence.

You know,

Christians are needy people.

That's okay.

We don't just grit through it

and try to be better.

We need the Lord.

We need His help.

We need the Spirit.

Number six,

study yourself

and strategize.

Study yourself

and strategize.

You know,

if you can memorize

the stats

on your fantasy football team,

you can study

your own patterns

of your own sin.

Pay attention

to yourself.

Paul tells Timothy,

keep a close watch

on yourself

and on your hearers.

Zoom out

and try hard to notice.

When do I tend to let

my anger get the best of me?

What are the circumstances?

What are the factors?

What's going on

when I'm most vulnerable

and fall into lust?

What am I feeling

when I feel like

I need that drink?

What circumstances

are leading up to me

bursting out

in rage and anger?

What inside of me

compels me to boast

or to stretch the truth?

What are the patterns here?

Am I lonely?

Am I isolated?

Am I afraid?

Am I stressed?

Maybe I shouldn't

drive past the liquor store

every day on the way

home from work.

Maybe I set some rules

and some boundaries

around my phone

and around my computer.

Study yourself.

Strategize.

Or you can be certain

the enemy is studying

you.

But you know,

as good as that sort

of strategizing is,

at the root of all sin

is something

infinitely bigger,

which is why,

number seven,

you must seek

real satisfaction

in Christ.

Seek

to satisfy

your heart

in the glory

of God,

in the gospel

of Christ.

This is the key.

If you hear nothing else,

this is it.

Listen.

this is the key

to conquering

repeat sin

in your life.

You do it.

You go back there

because you think

it's satisfying.

You do it

because you enjoy it.

Be honest.

The only way

to really change this

is to truly begin

to develop

in your heart

a deeper

and greater

love for Christ.

John Piper

says,

I know of no other way

to triumph

over sin

long term

than to gain

a distaste

for it

because of a

superior

satisfaction

in God.

Thomas Chalmers,

he calls this

the expulsive

power

of a new

affection.

You get that image

in your mind?

That new

love,

that superior

satisfaction

in God.

It launches

the old

satisfaction out.

It's expelled

from your heart.

Cultivate a love

for the glory

of God.

Church,

I go back

to the Pillar Conference

every year

because I love it.

And we go back

to our vomit

because we

love it.

Do you actually

believe

that the glory

of God

is better

and more

satisfying

for your soul

than all

the pleasures

of the world?

Psalm 1611

would be

a good verse

for you to memorize.

You make known

to me

the path

of life

in your presence.

There is fullness

of joy.

At your right hand

are pleasures

forevermore.

Satisfy your heart

in Christ.

Number eight,

surround yourself

with others.

Now this is why

we need a church

family.

You are not

meant to be

isolated.

There are no

lone ranger

cowboy

Christians.

If you are

isolated,

guess what?

You become easy prey

for the enemy

who prowls around

like a roaring lion

seeking someone

to devour.

Who's he going

to go after?

The one with the herd

or the straggler

off on his own?

You need others

in your life

in such a way

that they can help you

and pray for you

and walk with you

and encourage you.

God's mechanism

for this

is the local church.

Number nine,

strap up.

Get ready

for a fight.

Two things are true

at this very same time

here.

Sanctification

ultimately

is God's work.

He is the one

who brings victory

over sin.

It's his work.

He's the one

who brings his people

to holiness.

Only he can give you

a love for him

and for his word

in such a way

that it overpowers

your natural love

for sin.

That is God's work.

It is God

who works in you

to will

and to work

for his good pleasure.

That's true.

And it's true.

You must pursue holiness.

Some seem to think

that holiness

doesn't require

any effort.

Well, then why in the world

does the Bible

command us

over and over

and over again?

Put to death,

therefore,

what is earthly in you,

Paul says in Colossians 3.

Do not let sin,

therefore,

reign in your mortal bodies,

he says in Romans 6.

Don't let it.

You fight it.

Do not present

your members

to sin

as instruments

for unrighteousness,

but present yourself

to God

as those who have been

brought from death

to life

and present your members

to God

as instruments

for righteousness.

The Bible

seems to think

that we ought to do

something about this.

put on the whole armor

of God

that you may be able

to stand

against the schemes

of the devil.

You will not just

happen to stumble

into holiness

by accident.

It must be pursued

by the grace of God

and in the power

of God.

J.C. Ryle

says it like this.

He says,

In justification,

the word to be addressed

to man

is belief.

Only believe

in sanctification.

The word must be

watch,

pray,

and fight.

Strap up,

finally.

Number ten.

Here's where we close,

church.

Set your hope

fully on

Christ Jesus,

our Lord.

Set your hope

fully

on Jesus.

Jesus.

The fact is,

Christian,

this may or may not

be encouraging to you,

I don't know.

The fact is,

you will wrestle with sin

until the day you die.

We will not

fully be freed

from the presence

of sin

until glory,

until the Lord

returns,

or we go to be with Him.

I know that may not

sound too encouraging,

but it's true.

You will wrestle,

you will struggle,

you will fight,

and you will grow.

You will have some victories,

and you will

have some defeats.

You might find yourself

back in that same

familiar place,

maybe some details

are different here

and there,

but right back

in that same

old cycle.

Church,

remember Paul

in Romans chapter seven?

I'm so glad

this chapter

is in my Bible.

Romans chapter seven,

don't you love

this chapter?

Paul,

the apostle,

champion missionary,

hero of the early church,

he says,

I don't understand

my own actions.

I don't do

what I want,

I do what I hate.

Can you relate to that?

He goes on,

he says,

I know nothing good

dwells in me

that is in my flesh.

I have this desire

to do what is right,

but not the ability

to carry it out.

I do not do

the good that I want.

Instead,

I do the evil

that I do not want.

That's what I keep

on doing.

Wretched man

that I am,

who will deliver me

from this body of death?

Who will save us

from our patterns

of sin?

Who will finally

rescue us

and put an end

to this lifelong

battle

and wrestling

with sin

and darkness

and the weakness

of our own flesh?

Who can do it?

Thanks be to God

through Jesus Christ,

our Lord.

Christ alone

has done it.

Christ alone

is the hope

for sinners.

There is therefore

now no condemnation

for those

who are in

Christ

Jesus.

Jesus has come

to defeat

the powers

of sin

and darkness

for all

who know

Him by faith.

And though we

wrestle with

the presence

of sin

in our life,

yet we look

to Him.

We look

to the power

of the cross.

We look

to His return

to the day

when He will

finally put an end

to sin,

death,

and the devil

and we will

be holy

as He

is holy.

Church,

put your hope

fully in

Christ

and know

that God's

grace towards

you in Him

is greater

than all

your sin.

Father God,

we confess,

Lord,

each one of us

is so prone

to wonder.

We are prone

to pursue

the sins

of the flesh

and the desires

of the flesh

and to wind

back up again

in familiar

places,

familiar patterns

of sin.

Lord,

we ask with Paul

who will rescue

us from this

body of death

and we praise

you with him.

Thanks be to God

through Jesus Christ

our Lord.

Christ gives us

the victory.

We praise you

for the good news

of the gospel,

for freedom

from sin,

for the hope

of holiness

in the age to come.

We love you.

We pray this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.