SPIRITUAL-WARFARE-ENEMIES-SIN
Sin comes to
us, taps us on the shoulder or tugs at our shirttail and whispers in our ear:
“You deserve better than what God has provided. He’s holding out on you. You
deserve to feel good about yourself. I’ll affirm you in a way no one else can.
Why live in misery any longer? Come to me. I’ll give you a sense of power
you’ve never known before. I’ll expand your influence. I’ll fill your heart
with a sense of accomplishment. I’ll nourish your soul. You’ve never had a
physical rush like the one I’ve got in store for you. Obeying God is boring.
It’s a pain. He’s always telling you to do stuff that’s
difficult and burdensome and inconvenient or ordering you to forsake the few
things that really bring you happiness. Come on. You’ve only got one life.
Obedience is ugly. My way is fun. My way feels good.”
Sam Storms
Copied
from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms,
© 2000, p. 27. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights
reserved.
The strength
of all sin, whether simple or scandalous, is the lie that God can’t do what it
can.
Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.156. www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
What then is
the killing of sin? It is the constant battle against sin which we fight
daily-the refusal to allow the eye to wander, the mind to contemplate, the affections to run after anything which will draw us away
from Christ. It is the deliberate rejection
of any sinful thought, suggestion, desire, aspiration, deed, circumstance or
provocation at the moment we become conscience of its existence.
Sinclair Ferguson
The Christian Life, p. 162, 1997, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
If God has
done a work in our hearts, we should want to battle the sin of our hearts.
Karl Graustein
Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 180. Used by Permission.
The choicest
believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet
to make it their business all their days to [put to death] the indwelling power
of sin.
John Owen
Temptation and Sin.
If, then, sin will be always acting, if we be
not always mortifying, we are lost creatures... If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the
business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish in
proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event? There is not
a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be
so while we live in this world.
John Owen
Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, 1850.
Use sin as it
will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you;
it is your murderer, and the murderer of the world: use it, therefore as a
murderer should be used. Kill it before
it kills you; and though it bring you to the grave, as
it did your Head, it shall not be able to keep you there.
Richard Baxter
While
God most often appeals to our wills through our reason, sin and Satan usually
appeal to us through our desires.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, © 1996, p. 127. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
Your life as
a Christian is seemingly full of Christ and there is no room for self, but an
aggressive sin comes in and wiggles his way in, crowding out Christ just a
little bit. You give place to this sin and soon another does the same thing.
Sin by sin, error by error, selfishness by selfishness, the backsliding
continues until you are virtually empty of Christ and full of self.
If
Christ has died for me – ungodly as I am, without strength as I am – then I can
no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed
me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy
for his sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?
C.H. Spurgeon
Look to the
cross, and hate your sin, for sin nailed your Well Beloved to the tree. Look up
to the cross, and you will kill sin, for the strength of Jesus' love will make
you strong to put down your tendencies to sin.
C.H. Spurgeon
We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will
rarely present itself to us in its true colors, saying, “I am your deadly
enemy, and I want to ruin you forever in hell.” Oh no! Sin comes to us like
Judas, with a kiss; like Joab, with outstretched hand and flattering words. The
forbidden fruit seemed good and desirable to Eve; yet it cast her out of Eden.
Walking idly on his palace roof seemed harmless enough to David; yet it ended
in adultery and murder. Sin rarely seems (like) sin at first beginnings. Let us
then watch and pray, lest we fall into temptation.
Holiness.
It is easier
to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own.
John Flavel