A deadly obligation - Romans 8:12-13 (2)

Introduction

Last week we took a close look at the text of Romans 8:12-13. We considered yet another facet of the work of the Spirit - namely that the Spirit works in us to mortify the deeds of the flesh, or put to death the deeds of the flesh.

We examined the pre-condition of this deadly obligation, that a person will live if they put to death the deeds of the flesh. We looked at the people called to this obligation, namely, the brethren, or sibling believers. We looked at the power to fulfill the obligation, namely, the indwelling, sealing, life-giving Spirit of God. We saw the prescription - put to death or mortify the deeds of the flesh. And finally we considered the promise - life. If you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live.

In summary then, we observed that spiritual life, vigor, and energy come about specifically for believers by the Spirit-powered killing of fleshly thoughts, desires, and actions.

We could move on from there and be done with our discussion. However, this is something that I think is so important for our church, both corporately and individually, and something I think we need to understand not only as an idea but also as an experience. We need to be equipped to put sin to death in our own lives. So today I don’t want to so much answer the what and why questions, since we answered those last week. I really want to focus in on the how, answering the question “how do I put to death the deeds of the flesh?” What practical, real life steps can I take this week to kill sin, lest it kill me?

Let’s answer that question together.

But before we can really jump into battle, into our sin-killing mission, we need to gather some intel. What exactly are we going to war against? Oftentimes in our world today sin and evil is ambiguous. We are intentionally given the run-around on evil. It starts with small things, like words. It’s not sin anymore, it’s a mistake. It’s not evil anymore, it’s a poor choice. This escalates all the way to where we find ourselves as a culture and sometimes even as a church, calling evil good and good evil.

If we want to effectively put to death the deeds of the flesh, we have to know what those deeds are.

Now I could attack this from a million different perspectives, and this could in and of itself turn into a massive study of the deeds of the flesh. But I want to hone in on just one perspective, as Paul offers it. This comes from the book of Galatians, or as some like to call it, Mini-Romans. In Galatians 5 Paul offers an almost comprehensive look at the deeds of the flesh.

Galatians 5:19–21 NASB95

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In rapid fire succession here Paul lists 15 items here, 15 deeds of the flesh, the same deeds of the flesh that we are called to put to death. Let’s review what they are, and then study how we are to put them to death.

Immorality - this is the Greek word porneia, which as you can deduce, is not just general immorality, it is specifically sexual immorality. Our culture today both inside and outside the church has written tomes on what this means. That’s foolishness. Let me tell you what sexual immorality or porneia is: it’s any sexual act committed outside of heterosexual covenant marriage. This includes adultery, homosexuality, bisexuality, consuming pornography, all these things are included when Paul uses this Greek word porneia.

Impurity - In the Greek it’s akatharsia, and Paul almost always associates this word with porneia, but it has a slightly broader meaning. It’s most well-known use in the New Testament is by Jesus in Matthew 22 when he describes a woe on the Pharisees for being whitewashed tombs, full of akatharsis, impurity. The simple definition is the opposite of purity, the opposite of holiness. In Romans 6 Paul also equates impurity to lawlessness. This word captures in a general sense all that is unholy or impure. For those of you that have been with us for Deuteronomy on Thursdays, you know that we have seen time and again the emphasis God places upon the purity of his people. Therefore, whatever is not pure, must be mortified.

Sensuality - this is the Greek word aselgeia, it could also be translated licentiousness. This is immorality and impurity unhinged, untethered, unbound. This is the pursuit of physical pleasure at all costs. Sensuality says I will eat, I will drink, I will be merry, and you will not stop me.

Idolatry - Compound word here in the Greek, eidolon, notice that our English word is a transliteration of this word, and latreuo, which means to serve or worship. This is placement of anything other than the one true and living God in the place of authority in your life. This is the person who says “I am the master of my own fate” or “I will do what the experts tell me.” This is pervasive. Idolatry in America in the 21st century has less to do with wood and metal figurines and more to do with what is pre-eminent in our lives. What do you fear? That is your idol. What do you expend the most mental and emotional and physical energy doing? That is your idol. What preoccupies your mind? That is your idol. Let me tell you, very good things, gifts from God, can be idols. Your marriage can be an idol. Your children can be idols. Your job can be an idol. To mortify sin, then, is to dethrone false gods. Remove them from the throne of your life, remove them from the place of pre-eminence and authority.

Sorcery - Also known as witchcraft, this is connected with idolatry in that it is a specific practice of occultic demon worship. It is using dark spells and encantations to “ward off” evil spirits. The reality is, you’re actually not warding them off, you’re calling upon their power by engaging in these things. Now you might think this really isn’t a problem for people today, but let me tell you, tarot card readers and mediums and palm interpreters are all over this valley. And not only that, but this type of evil is so ingrained in pop culture that we don’t even think twice about it when it permeates our homes through TV, movies, music, and other pop culture media. The reality is this: sorcery is a dance with the demonic, and must be done away with in the life of the Christian.

Enmities - you might also say hostilities, really the idea here is interpersonal hatred. Now this gets a lot more real. How many times have you said or thought something about a brother or sister that was a little bit hostile? That was something you’d say to an enemy rather than to a family member? How many times have you not been at peace with someone and instead created enmity with your words, thoughts, or actions?

Strife - this is the outward appearance of enmity or hostility. Hostility and enmity is just an attitude, strife is what happens because of it. This is conflict, this is fighting, this is backbiting, this is speaking ill of others. This is starting to get really real for us. With the exception of a two year stint at Grace Community, I have been at churches of less than 100 people for the last 20 years of my life. Strife is, I believe, the single most common sin in the life of a small church. You know these people really well. You see their flaws, their annoyances, the things that irritate your pet peeves. And you allow that to make you hostile. And you allow that hostility to work itself out in the things you say about someone, maybe in veiled terms. Things like “Oh I wish he wouldn’t talk so much.” “Hmm, she seems self-absorbed.” “It seems to me like they don’t raise their kids super well.” All that? That’s strife. Strife will kill a small church and kill it fast.

Jealousy - this one is also common. Trying to get at something that isn’t rightfully yours. Having an intense desire for the gifts or status or possessions of another.

Outbursts of anger - This is another outward manifestation of hostility. Do you raise your voice? Do you get really mad about stuff? Let me tell you, this is something that will leave a mark. If you raise your voice in anger against someone, your husband, your wife, your kid, your coworker, that’s not Christian behavior. That’s a deed of the flesh and it must be killed.

Disputes - this could also be translated at selfish ambition. If a dispute arises, it’s usually because two people are claiming two different outcomes of the same scenario. That’s my toy, no it’s not, it’s my toy. I want the carpet in the sanctuary to look this way, well I think it looks better this way. What’s the center of all this? First person possessive pronouns. My stuff. I want this. Give me that. This is real life stuff, for many of us I suspect.

Dissensions - these are splits, splits between people, divisions. This is rock-throwing at other people. Cutting lines between people that the Bible doesn’t cut.

Factions - this is related to dissension, the same type of thing that Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians - I’m of Paul, I’m of Peter, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Christ. This is real in many churches today.

Envying - This one is connected back to jealousy, a selfish attitude that desires something that someone else has, with an eye toward getting it, no matter the cost.

Drunkenness - this doesn’t seem common among Christians on it’s face, but elsewhere in the Scriptures Paul connects drunkenness to being under the pervasive control of anything other than the Spirit of God. In other words, if your mood or behavior is dictated by anything other than the Spirit of God, perhaps you might have a drunkenness problem. Things like food, caffeine, some might say prescription drugs, things that might seem normally innocuous. Do they control your life? Do they control your behavior? If so, they are no better than drunkenness and should be mortified.

Carousing - this might happen while you’re drunk. This is out of control behavior, loud and rambunctious behavior, carrying on. This is the lifestyle of the fool of Proverbs, more likely the extroverted fool. Do you make scenes? Do you cause trouble? Do you act up in public? That’s carousing.

Now this is just one list. Paul has countless others, and we haven’t even considered the teaching of the rest of the Bible on these matters.

To sum up simply, the deeds of the flesh are any thoughts, desires, or actions that are out of keeping with the Spirit of God. And Paul is clear: these deeds must be put to death, so we might live.

But how do we do it? How do we actually mortify, how do we put to death? I want to share with you 9 practical preparations and 2 practical actions by which you may kill the deeds of the flesh. These are things you can go and do this afternoon, and I encourage you, implore you to consider them and do them even today.

The practical part

I would be remiss if we examined the text, considered it’s doctrinal implications, and did not speak briefly at least of the practical measures we might take to mortify sin in our own lives.

Now I am going to do something that will make you uncomfortable right now. I need you to silently, before God, consider a sin or a number of sins that beset you right now. Don’t say anything, you don’t need to write them down. But I need you to bring them to the forefront of your mind.

Now, with that indwelling sin, that specific actions or attitude which God has forbidden, in your mind, listen to John Owen’s 9 pastoral preparations for dealing with indwelling sin.

Let’s put the gloves on this morning, and consider how we might prepare and train ourselves to mortify sin.

Consider what dangerous symptoms thy lust hath attending or accompanying it,—whether it hath any deadly mark on it or no; if it hath, extraordinary remedies are to be used; an ordinary course of mortification will not do it. (John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 43.) What are Owen’s symptoms? 1) The sin has become habitual. 2) Your heart claims to be in a good state, and yet allows sin to continue within, unabated.) 3) You find delight or pleasure in the sin. 4) You do not mortify the sin for what it is, but only mortify it because you are afraid of the consequences. 5) The sin may be afflicting you as punishment from God. 6) The sin remains, even when measures have already been taken against it. We must consider this morning whether these things are true. If they are, you have identified a sin that will require intense spiritual sweat to mortify.

Get a clear and abiding sense upon thy mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin wherewith thou art perplexed (John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 50.) Do you see your sin for what it is? This is a first step in mortifying that sin.

By the Word of God, load thy conscience with the guilt of the sin. If your conscience is not weighed down with the reality of your guilt, your soul will never be stirred to mortify.

Being thus affected with thy sin, in the next place get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it. Get thy heart, then, into a panting and breathing frame; long, sigh, cry out, as given to us in the example of David in Psalms 32 and 51.

Consider whether the sin with which thou art perplexed be not rooted in thy nature, and cherished, fomented, and heightened from thy constitution. In other words, your personality may lend itself to certain sins. Let me provide a quick example: anyone who knows me knows that I am on the extroverted side of the spectrum, and that I love to talk. Just because I am an extrovert does not mean that I am absconded from my duty to be quick to listen and slow to speak. That does not vacate the truth that a fool is thought to be wise when he is silent. That does not cancel out the reality that the tongue is a flame of fire, and such a little spark can cause so great an amount of destruction. Just because my personality is inclined a certain way, doesn’t mean that I have license to excuse sin on those grounds. And this is why personality tests and such are so dangerous for the Christian. Paul doesn’t say mortify those sins that are easy for you to mortify because your enneagram number is 8. Paul doesn’t say mortify those sins that fit into the context of your Myers-Briggs number. Throw that out! Your personality is not an excuse for sin. Keep in mind that your personality may give an advantage to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and therefore you must keep careful watch on those areas of your life. And finally, often the means by which you mortify sins which you are naturally inclined toward, is the same means Paul put forth in 1 Corinthians 9: I discipline my body and make it my slave, or as Pastor Kent Hughes would say, by working up a spiritual sweat.

Consider what occasions, what advantages thy sin hath taken to exert and put forth itself, and watch against them all.

Rise mightily against the first actings of thy distemper, its first conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground.

Use and exercise thyself to such meditations as may serve to fill thee at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of thine own vileness, and at the same with thoughts of the majesty and excellency of God. “Let us, then, revive the use and intendment of this consideration: Will not a due apprehension of this inconceivable greatness of God, and that infinite distance wherein we stand from him, fill the soul with a holy and awful fear of him, so as to keep it in a frame unsuited to the thriving or flourishing of any lust whatever? Let the soul be continually wonted to reverential thoughts of God’s greatness and omnipresence, and it will be much upon its watch as to any undue deportments. Consider him with whom you have to do,—even “our God is a consuming fire;” and in your greatest abashments at his presence and eye, know that your very nature is too narrow to bear apprehensions suitable to his essential glory.” It is worth noting that John Owen devotes as much ink to this 8th direction as he does to the previous 7, which is appropriate as it is absolutely critical in your mortification of sin.

Heed the Word of God as it speaks to your sin, and do not speak to it yourself out of turn. In other words, you need to apprehend of your sin exactly as God apprehends of it, and speaks to it in His Word.

Having thus prepared our hearts for the mortification of sin, we now turn to the specific actions that Owen lays out for mortifying sin. There are only two, and what a glorious pair they are. You’ve been waiting for it all morning, the practical implications, the obligation of mortification, how do I put to death the deeds of the body? Here they are:

Set faith in Christ at work for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet. Owen implores us: Look to the provision that is in Christ. Wait expectantly for His relief provided to your weary soul. Consider Christ’s mercy. Consider His faithfulness.

This whole work, which I have described as our duty, is effected, carried on, and accomplished by the power of the Spirit, in all the parts and degrees of it, as he clearly and fully convinces the heart of the evil and guilt and danger of the sin to be mortified. He alone reveals the fullness of Christ to us for our relief. He alone establishes our hearts in expectation of Christ’s relief. He alone brings the cross of Christ into our hearts with it’s sin-killing power. He alone is the author and finisher of our sanctification. He alone empowers our prayers to this end.

Remember that sin? The one I had you set on the forefront of your mind just a few moments ago? Recall it again. Christ’s blood is the remedy, and by it you will live to see the funeral of that sin. The Spirit’s work in our lives right now, as He dwells within us and among us, is the power by which we mortify sin. Our life, our vigor, our power as Christians comes by Spirit-empowered mortification. It is our deadly obligation.

Conclusion

We have a debt, an obligation to Christ to live according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. That debt implies that we are slaves of God, slaves of Christ, slaves of the Spirit, and that is accurate. But Paul has more to speak to us regarding our relationship with the Triune God. For we have been called as more than slaves or servants in the house of God. We have been called and adopted as children. And it is to that great doctrine of adoption that we will turn our attention next week.