The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. God is good. It is by the work of His Holy Spirit that He's brought us together today, as he always does. I'm sure that my brother, Scott Brown, remembers two years ago when we came together for a time of prayer after the NCFIC conference.

And it was an opportunity in which we cried out to the Holy Spirit of God that he would come down upon us as leaders, as pastors within the family integrated movement and bring about a tremendous change of heart and set a new direction for us. And I believe that's exactly what he did. It was a glorious time. In fact, last year, we gathered together the five or six men that were in that wonderful time, that amazing outpouring of the Spirit of God, probably the most unique experience in my life, in which the Spirit of God acted in a dramatic, dramatic way and filled us once again with His Holy Spirit and we took pictures. You remember that, brother, when we did that.

Well, I want to say this before I get into my message this afternoon. There may be some of our weaker brethren amongst us who might be tempted to compare speakers in a conference like this. It's a tendency of some to want to evaluate. In fact, we've talked a little bit about evaluations and how sometimes in conferences we compare speakers and then we Pareto chart it and some speakers are more popular than others and so forth and so on. Now that's the kind of thing that weaker brethren do, and I would highly recommend that you not be tempted to that at all as you attend conferences like this, for that will only diminish the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

Because brothers and sisters, God brings about by His Spirit varying gifts and varying ways in which we present what the Holy Spirit has laid upon us and these varying gifts are intended to encourage and to build up the Church of Jesus Christ in various ways Nobody gets all the gifts you understand that Nobody gets all the gifts And if you ever attempted to think that there are some who might present the word better than others There might be some who would step out as Moses did and raise the rod. And you know that after the Red Sea parted, somebody came up to Moses and said, High five! That's the best rod raising I've ever seen! Tell me the grip! Show me how you did it!

Friends, all he did was raise a rod and it was the power of God that parted the seas as he does in the human heart every time. So please, please do not be tempted ever, ever to think that there was somebody who raised the rod better than anybody else in a conference like this, somebody else say, Amen. Besides this guy in the front row that keeps saying it over and over again. We are tiny men. We are tiny men.

We are two year olds trying to explain the mysteries of God. The power of God, the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God in our various ways. But we are nothing but men. We're just tiny men, tiny, tiny men. And to compare one with another is foolishness.

Now, I want to give you a little bit of background on what God has done in my own life. I think that's appropriate at a conference that's focused on the doctrine of sanctification because that has been my life. God has worked in my life in amazing ways. I can't remember when I first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. My mother put a date in front of my first Bible.

I was three or four years old but it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Remember a little nine year old coming up to me at a conference one time, I was probably 10 at the time, and he asked, when did you give your heart to Jesus? When did you believe in Jesus? I said, I don't remember, all that matters is that I believe in Jesus right now. Well, I was convicted of my sins and God brought about tremendous change in my life at various times.

I remember when I was about 12 or 13 years of age, it would have been in probably 1977, my father got a hold of a series of messages from a guy by the name of Pastor Al Martin. And boy, that had a tremendous influence on me. I'm so thankful for the ministry of Pastor Al Martin. I interviewed him on my radio show a couple of months ago and we talked about how important it is for your children to be in the presence of the preaching of the Word of God on a Sunday morning and preferably also throughout the week. And we've been listening to Martin Lloyd-Jones sermons as well for the last year.

Every single day we go to church and we sit at the feet of this great pastor, this great man of God who is probably one of the most important reformers of the last 150 years, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, bringing the Word of God to my family each and every day. Well, one of the things that's occurred to me before is that, and it occurs to me now, is that If I ran into myself 20 years ago, if I ran into myself just two or three years ago, I don't think I'd like me either. But that's what God's doing in my life. Now that teaches us that God is very patient with us.

God is working on us. And God is not going to leave me alone. Hallelujah! Can anybody agree with you with that? God cares so much about me.

He is going to work on me in every way possible. He has used chronic pain in my life. He's used surgeries, trials, persecutions, spiritual oppressions, agony of mind. Some of my friends do searches on my name from time to time and some have said, one of my friends told me this last weekend, you are the most persecuted man in America right now. From everything I'm reading on the internet, I don't know any Christian receives as much persecution as you do right now.

And friends, God uses that in my life because I need it. God is working on me. He's purifying gold. He's making a diamond out of an old chunk of coal. I'm going to be a diamond someday.

God loves me. Cares about me. He's working on me. So thankful for that. There's a little boy who was born to our church congregation a couple months ago.

His name is little Charlie. Charlie did just fine for a week. His parents were so happy. His pictures went around until Charlie had a problem. Charlie wasn't breathing.

Charlie had an infection. Charlie had multiple issues. Charlie turned out, was blessed with Down syndrome, and he's got problems with his bowels and problems with his heart and problems here and there. We had no idea when Charlie was born, we had no idea how many surgeries Charlie needed. He has already been through four or five, he's got more to come.

And friends I'm telling you when you were born again You had no idea how many surgeries you would need. God is the great surgeon and He is going to work on you and he's going to work on me and he knows exactly what he's doing. Praise be to God for what he's done in our lives already and what he's going to do. Amen. Well, brothers, sisters, my heart is heavy for the Church of Jesus Christ.

I have talked to many of you already and so many have said, oh our church situation is not going well. We have conflicts, we have church splits, not sure we're going to be remaining in this church for very much longer. And one of the things I've noted is that the more doctrinally mature churches tend to have, the more church splits, the more unresolved conflicts, the more pride, the less peace and less joy. Now let me ask you this, is that the more mature church? Doesn't seem to be the case, my brothers, my sisters.

Actually you know the most mature churches ought to be those with the highest sense of God's grace. They ought to consider themselves in a great and ever greater need of Christ. It's the most humble churches. It's the churches that understand the great chasm between God and man, between God's holiness and our sinfulness. The churches that are the most mature ought to be those that best understand what it is to be the sinner woman that could play the part if there was ever a play in which the sinner woman at the feet of Jesus Christ would be portrayed they are the ones who could play the parts the ones who would understand exactly what it is like to be a publican falling on his face before God and crying out God have mercy on me a sinner.

See that that's that's maturity. That's the That's the church that understands the value of Christ. That's the church that is so grateful for what God has done, has a better vision for it and a better appreciation for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. They talk about Christ more, not less. I began to go through some of the magazines and some of the old tapes and things that I was listening to from what I was perceived to be the more doctrinally precise ministries, those that were more mature and those that had a better vision for the church in the 21st century, you know what I began to find?

Less Christ. Less Christ. Less Christ. What does that mean? That means they're breaking down.

That means more apostasy as the years go by. My heart is heavy for the nation. This nation is shaking its fist at Almighty God. The Obergefell ruling that came down two months ago is our nation, the United States of America, declaring war on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Brothers and sisters, I think it's time that we come together for a caramel moment in which we challenge the nation and ask the question, Who will you serve?

Will man be God? Will the Supreme Court of the United States be God? Or will God be God? We're at the carbine moment now, but my heart is heavier for the Church of Jesus Christ. As I hear the stories, it seems that we are struggling.

It seems we are broken. I have more of a sense for the brokenness of the church right now than I have any time in my life. So I want to take a moment and just lift up a prayer to Almighty God, the Shepherd of the Church, that he would have mercy on our churches with the fracturing that's gone on in the reformed Baptist denominations with the compromises happening in the reformed Presbyterian seminaries With the conflicts going on in so many local churches across America, there's such a brokenness, such a weakness of the church. I want to lift up a prayer to God this day that he would somehow look down upon us and have mercy upon the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's all rise for a moment and lift our hearts and some may want to lift your hands but let's ask for God's mercy upon his church.

Father in heaven this day, oh God we pray that you would have mercy upon the church of Jesus Christ. Father, it is this church for whom our Savior laid down his life. He died for this church, Father. He loved this church. He gave himself for this church.

And oh Lord, this day we lay this church before you, our heart is breaking for the fracturing, our heart is breaking for the lack of love, oh God, the desert that seems to be spreading across our country this day as churches seem to be getting weaker and weaker. Oh Lord we pray you'd have mercy upon the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father we pray that this man-centeredness, this Christlessness, Father this lack of worship, Father this watering down, this weakening of the liturgy, the weakening of the hymnology, the weakening of the preaching of the Word of God. Oh God, we pray, and by your Spirit we would come down, and you would Pour out your spirit one more time. Father, we confess that we have been sinful, we have been rebellious against you, oh God.

We have lifted ourselves up, we have developed a star system in this country, Father. We have a tremendous man-centeredness in the entertainment fest that occur in so many churches. Oh Lord, and with the conflicts and with the lack of love and the establishment of these communities in which it just becomes a loveless situation which everybody is fighting each other and there's hardly any unity or hardly any hope and joy left within the congregations. Oh God, we pray that you would pour out your mercy upon the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray we are surrounded by the armies of darkness.

Father, the boars of the forest are eating up the vine that once was healthy across this country, O Lord, where the preaching of the Word of God once sounded forth strongly through the pulpits of this land. O Lord, we pray that your word would come back one more time with a freshness, with a boldness. Oh Lord, we pray your spirit would come down upon us as he did at that day of Pentecost where the house was shaken and Men and women were filled with the Spirit of God. Oh Lord, where children themselves were prophesying and where children were able to take the Word of God and they were able to say it with conviction. And Father, where there was love that poured out amongst the saints, oh Lord, we pray for that fervent love to revisit us one more time.

God, we pray for boldness that we would be able to take the word of God everywhere, that it would be on the streets, it would be at the abortion mills. Father, that it would be at the very most important courts in the land, Father, where we would stand before the Sanhedrin itself and testify of the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, bring about a tremendous change. Oh, Lord, we pray for an outpouring of your spirit today. Lord revive your church, reform your church.

Bring about a big change father and fathers and mothers who are here that they would be filled with your spirit and prophesy and preach the word of God with all of the conviction of their hearts given to them by the spirit of God that their children would hear the word. That they would raise their hands and glorify the God of heaven and the savior of the earth. Lord we pray for a mighty reformation of manhood to bring forth elders for your church and pastors that would seriously revive the church of Jesus Christ in our day. Oh Lord, that we might reach the international groups that are moving into all these lands by your providence, by your infinite wisdom, by your sovereign control of the nations. It's all for your church's sake.

God bring about a great sign that Jesus Christ is alive, that the Spirit of God is active, that the kingdom of God is not stopping, that the Church of Jesus Christ will not fail. God have mercy now. We pray upon every church represented here this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.

And Turn with me to Romans Chapter 8. I'd like to exposit from the 13th verse of Romans chapter 8 today. But first I'd like to move back and give you context to this passage. In order that we might understand the full picture of it, Paul always brings out the entire exposition of the entire gospel. He does that in every epistle.

He often does it in little paragraphs here and there and throughout chapters. He gives an entire systematic theology and this is what the apostles do throughout the word. They give an entire systematic within seven verses. They don't want you to walk away from a church service not getting the entire forest and seeing it from the trees. So it's so important that you understand the entire picture every time that you hear the Word of God.

It's one of the dangers of going into each individual tree but forgetting to step back and seeing the forest. So let's look at verse 1 of Romans chapter 8. There is Therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Glorious words. From the beginning, Paul explodes with this message, there's therefore now no condemnation.

We hear those words, we remember those words, hopefully you've memorized those words. What a glorious concept, what a good place to begin and that's where this conference of course began this weekend. We don't just talk about holiness and sanctification, We begin, we get into that, yes that's the next 13 verses of Romans 8, but we begin with that glorious statement, there is therefore now no condemnation. Hear those words. Internalize those words.

Receive those words. Celebrate those words. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? That means we are not condemned.

We work off of a position which there is No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. We are freed from guilt and from judgment or from the breathings of the law. They're shouting at us, He's guilty! He's guilty!

He's guilty of violating the laws of an eternal, infinitely holy God. And he is, and friends, this is the position in which the ungodly operate all the time. And if you study psychology and you don't ever see the concept of guilt and the position of a man is unreconciled with his creator, friends, it's the wrong psychology manual. Because man by nature, he knows that he knows that there is a God and he has violated his law. But praise be to God we're freed from that.

We're not bound to this condemnation and to the psychological sense of guilt and shame and the sense of a need for self-atonement, for sadism and masochism and all the things that are constantly nagging the natural man again and again. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But then finish the verse again friends, let's not fragment the verse. Another problem with conferences and the preaching, Paul is sure not to negate the distinct but not separate relationship of justification, sanctification, but I want you to note this verse again. This verse contains pretty much it all.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but after the spirits. What do we have? No condemnation, justification to those who are in Christ Jesus. Relationship, adoption, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit? Sanctification.

Now, can you have one without the other? Is it possible that you might... There might not be any condemnation for one who is not in Christ Jesus? For one who doesn't walk according to the flesh but a... Or according to the spirit but according to the flesh?

Is it possible to slice it? To give a 47-part series on the first five words of this sentence, but to negate the others? Paul wouldn't dare do that. He wouldn't dare do that. He says, no, no, no, there's no condemnation to those who are now in relationship with God.

Those who are in Christ Jesus, those adopted in the flesh, Those who have that identity of being in Jesus Christ, who are in the process of sanctification which they are walking, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Jesus Christ cannot simply impute his righteousness with us or to us without imparting his righteousness to us by way of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. See you cannot separate these things and those that say, no, no, I just want the forgiveness. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker, Christians aren't cleansed, just forgiven. Have you seen that bumper sticker before?

Christians aren't cleansed, just forgiven. Have you seen that before? That is, is it possible for us to confess our sins? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but he will not cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is that possible?

If he's faithful and just, will he forgive us our sins and not cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Do you see again, is it possible to take the one without the other? That's the way of course that American evangelicalism has, work its separation. In its excitement for the division or for the distinction, they've lost the separation. They've gone a given way to separation.

It's possible to take the blood cell of Jesus Christ that was shed there on the cross. Say, I'll just dissect that blood cell. You can't dissect a blood cell. It's no longer a blood cell if you dissect it. But if you dissect that blood cell and you say, I want the little half of that blood cell that forgives me of my sins, but I don't want that element of that blood cell that's going to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

I don't want, I don't want that, I just want this. It's impossible. Jesus Christ, He imputes His righteousness. And then He imparts, He makes us willing in the day of his power. He is there to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let's move on to verse 2 now. Romans 8 and verse 2. For the law, now I want you to think about the word law for a moment. The law is the idea of authority and jurisdiction. So whenever you see that word just think to yourself, okay that's the jurisdiction, that's the rule, that's the guy in charge.

For the law, the rule of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, have made me free from the jurisdiction for the inevitability of the law of sin and death. What that means is friends, we are free from sin. We're free from the condemnation. So there's no more condemnation. We're free from that.

But now Paul gets into it a little deeper and he says, For the law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the inevitability of the rule of sin in our lives. Now, friends, this describes us. We're going to get into a little bit more on what the Bible instructs us to do in a moment, the imperative. But it's so important that your imperative always begins with the indicative, that is what the Word of God is telling you about yourself. Who are you and what has Christ done for you?

If you don't get that down straight, friends, there's no sense in us getting to the imperative and the application. The one grows out of the other and has to be formed firmly in the other. Some don't like the imperative, some don't like the indicative, but friends, we need both. And here the Word of God just establishes that connection for us. This is who we are in Jesus Christ.

We are free from sin. You are a Christian if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who you are. You are freed. You are officially freed from sin.

Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from our what? From our sins. That was his, that was why he came. My chains fell off. My heart was free.

And then what happens? I rose, went forth, and followed thee. You see, now it's the freedom that we have in Jesus, no longer sin binding us down where it's inevitable we're under the jurisdiction of it. No, we're free from the law from the jurisdiction of sin and death. On to verse 3, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the death in the in the flesh what does that mean was again the word condemn means that Jesus did something at the cross he condemned sin again important for any Christian here to understand where we are historically and where you are historically.

As you have received Christ, you are in Christ, you are associated with Christ Jesus Christ has condemned sin He has broken the back of sin in your life, it's already done I ran for governor of Colorado used to be joking about this that I ran for governor of Colorado in 1994 and now I'm running for the border. Have you ever heard that expression before? Some of you may have heard that before. I use that expression. I think that applies right here.

Sin was running for governor in your life. Sin was governor in your life. Now, sin is not running for governor anymore. Sin is running for the border. You see, sin has the most wanted son on every post office in your life.

Sin is condemned. Sin is done for. It was a total rout. Jesus Christ broke the back of your sin on that cross. Now it's for you to believe that.

Brothers and sisters, you've got to believe it. I can't go forward with a message on sanctification until you understand what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Hey, something happened in the garden when Adam fell. Does everybody agree with that? Something happened in the garden.

Look around, it's obvious, isn't it? Look at this world. Everybody knows it. Everybody talks about it. Every religion references the problems with man and the problems with death.

Everybody understands there's something wrong with us. Something bad happened. It was a major accident. It wasn't like there were a few dents on the bumper. This thing's been in an accident and the steering wheel's in the trunk.

Something wrong with man. Everybody knows it. You'd be a fool to deny it. Even the atheists know there's something wrong with man. They're always complaining about him.

Something happened at the garden. Something terrible happened when Adam and Eve made that fruit. You believe that? Everybody needs to be out nodding right now. Something happened at the cross.

If something happened in the garden, and we all say yes, then my friends, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to acknowledge today that something happened at that cross with the second Adam. And as sure as you look around you and you see that sin and death came upon billions of people because of what happened in the garden. You have to say that life and righteousness came by somebody who went to that cross. You had better be equally convinced of it if you are a Christian. Verses 4 through 12 continue in the passage.

Describing the two groups of people. Some will live after the flesh and some will live after the Spirit. In which Paul defines the Christian in no uncertain terms. Verse 9. You are not in the flesh of the Spirit of God dwells in you if any man has not the Spirit of God Spirit of Christ he is none of his so there it is just definitively if you do not have the Spirit of Christ you are none of his two groups of people some walk according to the flesh some according to the Spirit and that brings us to verse 13, our passage this afternoon.

For if you live after the flesh you shall die, Paul says, But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Now let's dissect this passage. It's a first day warning. There's two parts to it. Let's take the first part first.

For if you live after the flesh you shall die. Very plain words. No ifs, ands, or buts around that. That's a warning friends and the Word of God brings out warnings and that's effective. That's important for us.

We need to take on these warnings because the Word of God contains these warnings. Remember, this is given to the church. There is a sort of a presumption in Paul's minds that y'all are going to walk according to the Spirit because the Spirit of God is in you, but he says if the Spirit of God is not in you, you're none of his. So he is talking to a church, perhaps not unlike those who are gathered here today, many of whom are professors in the Lord Jesus Christ, but Paul is still going to say, there very well could be some of you in which the Spirit of God does not exist and you are living after the flesh. It is a true warning and the irony of it is as we bring these things out friends, it is always the most complacent that need the warnings.

But it's the complacent that won't listen. That's the hardest thing about being a pastor. So these warnings are primarily for those who are complacent. But if there is somebody here today who may be slightly given to hearing the Word. In other words, they've felt a prick of a conscience.

Perhaps the Spirit of God is for the first time convicting you that there's something wrong, Something wrong with you. This warning is exactly designed for you. You are a fleshly person, and if you're a fleshly person, you are going to die. This is what the word says. Now to be a fleshly person is somebody who is given to the flesh, who lives and walks according to the flesh.

Now, what is the flesh but what was described by our brother Jeff last night as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It is that part of you, and all of us should recognize the flesh. This is not difficult. The flesh is that little part in you That says, I wanna that. Give me that.

I wanna that woman now. I wanna that. I wanna this. I wanna be God. And I want everybody to worship me." Everybody knows what this flesh is.

Now those who live their lives according to the flesh, whenever the flesh says, I want to, I want to, you say, yes sir, get it to you right away. You're at the beck and call of the flesh. That's someone living according to the flesh. Not mortifying the sinful flesh. If you do not mortify the sinful flesh, my brothers, my sisters, my little brothers, my little sisters, those of you who attend church, maybe those of you who do not attend church, if you are Not in the business of mortifying the flesh, you shall die.

You shall die. These are the words of God. These are warnings. These are severe warnings. If you have sensed no power over your sin.

If sin is the ruling principle in your life. If sin always has the upper hand in your life. Then you have not come face to face with the power of the cross of Jesus Christ. You are still in your sin and the word of God warns you, you're heading towards death. That's eternal death.

That's hellfire forever. These are severe, severe warnings. Now again, however you receive this warning friends, it is important. I believe it is vitally important that when you hear these warnings, You're not those who are complacent about it, those who ignore the warnings, nor those who are irritated about the warnings, but those who actually will take these warnings seriously. Those who say, I really don't need these warnings.

I don't think my eternal security hangs on my fighting sin. Hangs on my fighting sin. God uses means whereby He will secure your salvation. You understand it's the sovereignty of God and that He preserves. Yes, He preserves and will do by His sovereignty, but He uses means by which He accomplishes His preservation, which includes the warnings that are given to you in conferences like this, where we say if you are living according to the flesh, you will die.

And those of you in whom the Spirit of God is right now will heed these warnings and you will say, I need this, thank God a pastor has come to me today. Thank God that he has come to me at a critical moment in my life in which I was down for the count before a polyon in the valley of humiliation Or I was in the enchanted ground. I was half asleep, but thanks be to God that Jeff Pollard came into the room Thanks be to God that he woke me up, and I realized I needed to fight sin or die. Pastors, let me ask you this. Are pastors any different than captains in war or captains of ships that are navigating those boats through 5.0 hurricanes.

Well those waves are going up 25 feet in the air and these ships are tossed from one side to the other and people are rolling down that side of the ship, rolling down that side of the ship. Is there any difference between a pastor and a captain of a ship? God is no less sovereign over the ships in the wars and who is lost in wars and who are lost on the ships than he is in terms of who's getting saved and who will be preserved to the end. But let me ask you this, pastors, is your job any less serious than a captain of a ship or a captain of the war in which the very lives of those people are right there at his fingertips. This is important for pastors, for shepherds, for elders to be watchful, to be on their game, to be concerned about the perseverance of the Saints.

Friends, we step onto that pulpit on a Sunday morning. It is persevere or perish for every single person in our congregations. And I don't know how much of God's means hangs upon the pastors who bring the Word of God and bring the warnings to God's people. But friends, it's got to be at least as critical. No, no, it's more so.

Why? Because the captains of this ship have the lives of men in their hands. The pastors are dealing with souls, eternal souls. It's not just life and death here. It's heaven or hell.

And yes, The perseverance of the saints is essential, and God uses the warnings of His Word to waken up people on the enchanted ground so that they will make it to the celestial city eventually. God have mercy on our churches. Let's move on to the second part of the verse. But if you, let's back up, If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

Now as we say these things, you need to at least say in your heart, Amen to these things. You know, amen. Amen to the indicative, amen to the imperative. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, that's my life.

Yeah, I'm signed up. That's what I do. Put it on the business card. I'm a sin killer. That's what defines me.

Hey, when people are born, they open their eyes, they come out of the womb, they begin to breathe. When you wake up for the very first time, you're regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, you hear somebody preaching at you, and you, you know, eyes kind of go up, I think I'm hearing something, starting to sink in, I'm believing in Jesus Christ, The Spirit of God is doing his work. Your eyes flutter a little bit. Now what do you do? Living people breathe.

That's what they do. Christians fight. That's who they are. That's what they do. You wake up for the very first time.

You look over to the side. You see a sword. You say to your pastor standing right there, what's that for? You say from now on until you make it and you fight through 10, 000 enemies as big as Goliath, that sword is going to have blood on it. Here pick it up, get a feel for it.

Take it in your hand. Go ahead, take it in your hand. This is what you do if a little baby doesn't breathe, if a little baby doesn't nurse, that baby's not alive. If you're not fighting, you're not a Christian. It's what Christians do.

We fight, we kill sin. I want you to think for a moment the seriousness of sin. First of all, if you're gonna go out after sin you need to understand something of the evil character of this monster called sin. The world doesn't understand this at all, but it's very important that every single one of you here understand something about sin. It's the right estimation of the enemy that's important in this battle.

I want you to think about, see the ungodly are always casting up these arguments against the word of God And they're telling us why in the world would one bite of a fruit bring death upon billions of people, father to son, father to son, for hundreds of generations. One bite sentences billions of people to death forever and ever. What's with that? Here it is. Sin is evil.

Sin! That's how bad it is! Sin merits eternal hell. Some wonder about, and again this is a little more pictorial for us as we read the Old Testament. I've been reading Joshua recently and hearing about all the women and children and everybody and Canaan slaughtered.

Of course, the atheists again, they cast this up and say, see what a wretched God this is. Bring about this wretched God, friends, the problem is not God, the problem is us. The problem is sin. The problem is bringing about this wretched thing to us. Of course I'm in trouble all the time for mentioning the death penalty for homosexuality and adultery but friends when it comes down to it That's just a little down payment to what's to come.

That's nothing. It's hardly worth discussing. Now in church history we've done a study on church history in this little book, Keep the Faith, in which we've looked at the way the rest of the church over 2, 000 years has dealt with adultery and homosexuality and the role of the civil magistrate. But you know what? Most of the Reformers and most of the church fathers would say, yeah, they're death penalty crimes, but that's hardly worth mentioning on a Sunday morning in light of what these sins deserve and that is the curse, the eternal punishment of Almighty God forever and ever and ever.

And that of course is every sin but see there they're horrified by all this slaughter and Canaan friends that sin that's the wretchedness of sin if there's any doubt friends again what was the eternally beloved Son of God doing on that cross? If there's any question in your mind concerning the wretchedness of this sin, which you were to kill, which you were assigned to kill, If you've got any question in your mind as to the wretchedness of that sin and you ask yourself, why would the Father put that son on that cross? He loved that son more than any father here loves his son. Eternally, infinitely so. He put his son on that cross.

And of course we heard the sermons about the agony of it, the holiness of God's justice, his wrath poured out. Think about the infinite wrath of God poured out upon the Son, whom he loved with an infinite love for eternity. And you get something of the picture of that sin in your life. Kill sin. Kill it.

Kill it. It is the immortal enemy of God Almighty. And it is ours as well. As I was preparing for this message several weeks ago, by God's providence, first time in my life, God gave me a mass of welts that covered my entire body to the point it was the most miserable experience in my life. For a couple of days I sat there scraping the wounds.

I was head to toe, miserable, took off all my clothes and laid in the closet. My wife would come in and see me from time to time and it was wretched. I looked at myself and I thought, this is disgusting. Not only was it disgusting, it was incredibly torturous and painful for me to be experiencing this. But Friends, that's a picture of sin.

We don't always see it on the outside. Men takes the wretched sin, which may be in some way the tip of the iceberg, the pinnacle of expression of rebellion against Almighty God in human cultures, the homosexuals. And here we are, we've made it. So now we have to get all of the profits of the public schools, all of the profits of bail all lined up, all of the media, and the Supreme Court of the United States to put a stamp of approval upon it. And what they're doing is they're carving happy faces on open pussy sores.

And it's a very gay thing. But That's what America does for all their sins. They're doing it for everything. Hold ministry geared towards walking into hospitals, coming up with people who are covered with sores. I'm here with my pocket knife to carve a happy face into your sore and make it look gay.

Now, let's have a pride celebration. That's America! It's exactly what we've become. It's beautiful, it's the picture of the Supreme Court and almost every one of our religious institutions. It's what we do.

We minimize sin. And then we celebrate it. God have mercy on us. Think about yourself. As one who has woken up to who you are.

Even now as you're sniffing a little bit, see some stinks here. Like a bum who walks into a room, hasn't bathed for five months, his clothes covered in feces. And everybody in the room scatters because they realize, just sit here. Stinks here. When that bum wakes up, friends.

I was in an airport a couple weeks ago and this woman right behind us, screaming out obscenities at the top of her lungs. Most ugly obscenities, the most horribly descriptive sexual references, sexual violence, etc., etc., at the top of her lungs. So almost the entire waiting area I could hear. And all the pagans just scattered. Fortunately by God's providence, three Christians jumped on her and witnessed to her for an hour.

It was beautiful. But what she kept saying, I was listening to my daughter as she was witnessing to her, and she kept saying this, I'm so beautiful, I'm so beautiful. God thinks I'm beautiful, I'm so beautiful. Then she'd take his name in vain, say it a few other expletives, I'm such a beautiful woman. She'd been sitting at the prophetess Oprah for too long.

She knows she's beautiful. That's the one thing she knows. Jesus loves her and she's beautiful just the way she is. And that, my friends, is the problem with American religion. Right there.

We just think we're too beautiful without Christ. But as God cleanses your olfactory system, friends, you begin to be aware of something stinks. I think this coat's got a little cow manure on it. You begin to realize that kind of stinks. I'm taking the coat off.

I've got another jacket over here. I'm taking that off too. I'm thinking because You begin by the Spirit of God to awaken to the realities of your sin, and you begin to strip off the theses, ridden clothes that are on your back, and praise God you're delivered. You begin to realize, children, that you've been horribly dishonoring to your parents. At one time you thought you were a beautiful person.

Turns out you're not. If you define yourself by who you are in these sins, you realize you have an unclean mouth, you've got a gossiping tongue, You have contaminated many in your church with a bitter spirit. You have done so much damage to your relationships. It's unbelievable. Your anger problem, Dad?

Horrible. Horrible. It's destroyed your relationships in your home. But more than that, it's disrupted your relationship with God. Where you realize that you have an impure mind, the way that you interact with sisters in the church and it's disgusting.

It's just disgusting. Young men, you begin to realize you look at that woman, that sister, and you say, I'm disgusting? God help me. I'm disgusting. God help me.

Let me give eight practical elements to mortification. Here's the first one. You've gotta define sin as sin. It's the first point. Define sin as sin.

Strip back to Madison Avenue, cover the justifications, nice wrapping paper. Sin always comes with nice wrapping paper. We used to call it chocolate-covered cockroaches. The first layer of it tastes kind of good, but then you crunch down into it, and maybe not so good the next day. Chocolate-covered cockroaches.

Define it for what it really is Define sin for what it really is By the way the Word of God is so explicit here listen now the works of the flesh Are manifest that is Paul says they're obvious, okay? It is so obvious It is so obvious that you shouldn't miss this kind of stuff. But sadly, a lot of our flesh detecting antennas aren't well calibrated, so we don't identify the fleshiness. Elders are together in that meeting on a Thursday night, and somebody begins to kind of harp on somebody else and somehow our flesh detecting antennas aren't really operating. There's a pride happening right now, right about, well here with me.

See I got to have those antennas well calibrated, don't you? Flesh detecting calibration, be sure you know when you can sniff it out flash where is it go after it go after it Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They're manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, that is, competitions, exactly what people do when they come to conferences and try to compete with other speakers. When people are in the competitions, whatever it is, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Friends, the destructive element of these sins are mind blowing. There ought not to be any underestimation in our minds right now.

Families are affected for generations when a father commits adultery. Churches are impacted when pastors fall into sin. Ministries, whole ministries shot through. You see sin, you know sin, you understand the effects of sin. It's obvious we see it all around us.

John Owens said this, where sin through the neglect of mortification gets a considerable victory it breaks the bones of the soul. It makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die so that he cannot look up. And when poor creatures will take blow after blow, wound after wound, foil after foil, and never rouse up themselves to a vigorous opposition, Can they expect anything but to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and that their souls should bleed to death? So we see the vital importance of killing this sin. That's my second point.

I define the sin first and kill it. Your right eye offends you, pluck it out. See, what does that mean? Do anything it takes to kill sin. That's all it means.

Do whatever it takes. Your right eye offends you, pluck it out. Your right arm offends you, cut it off. I know a young man confessed to me one time. He had a pornography problem.

He pulled out a table saw, turned it on. Turned it on again, turned it on again, it wouldn't turn on. God had other plans for the level of self-denial he had to go through in order to kill sin on that day. Now if Somebody came to me and said, I don't know, might it include the removal of a hand or an eye? I wouldn't dismiss it, but I would say this, we need to be more serious than that.

You need to be more serious. You're out to kill sin, you'll do anything to kill it! And there are levels of cutting off the flesh that involve more than arms and eyes, physical arms and eyes, the point Jesus is making. It goes even deeper than your own physical arm. There's more to be done.

Jesus says whatever it takes, kill it. Kill fornication. Fornication shows up again and again. When you see sanctification in the New Testament, I almost always go to fornication first. I give you an example.

1 Thessalonians 4 Verse 3. This is the will of God, even your sanctification. Then what does Paul say after that? It's the will of God. This is what Christians do.

Your sanctification. Then he goes directly to fornication. That you should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel, that is his physical sexual organ. You need to know as a Christian how to possess, how to deal with your physical sexual organ.

You say, what in the world does that have to do with anything? It has everything to do with sanctification, according to this passage. So anybody who's not talking about sexual problems and the dealing with fornication, these sorts of sins as part of mortification, friends, ignoring most of what the Word of God has to say about mortification of sin better include sexual sins, huge part of it, huge part of it, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor not in the lust of concupiscence. Now this is almost a universal challenge as I've said before And this is the thing that kills me. CovenantEyes.com reported on Barna's study that happened in 2014.

Friends, 80% of our young men, 18 to 26 years of age, are addicted to online pornography. 80% weekly. Weekly. Getting the drug on a weekly basis. 80% friends.

Doing a document on the people I will not officiate their weddings. I am including this. I will not officiate the wedding for a young man, or a young woman for that matter, who are addicted to pornography. I won't do it. Eighty percent of young men are not qualified to get married right now.

This is a disaster for the nation. Do you understand the implications upon hundreds of millions of marriages in the years to come. Does anybody understand the depth of the destruction? The brimstone and fire has already fallen. This is Sodom Post brimstone right now.

This is destruction. We have arrived. It is here, but for the grace of God and the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, it's the only thing I believe in when it comes to this matter. God have mercy on us. If there are young men here right now dealing with pornography, or older men for that matter, friends, kill it.

I say by the authority of Jesus Christ, by the power of his cross, by the influence of his Spirit, who has the power to pull it off in your life, you've got to believe that first. You kill that sin. Kill it. You've got to kill it. And whatever you do, don't get married until you've pulled up that sword and you have engaged the battle for some time.

God have mercy on this nation. Covenant I says the problem tends to be worse with young men who claim to be Christians. But you've also got to kill sensuality because sensuality is more of a root sin. Sensuality is the idolatry that is given towards and that loving the sensual desires of fulfillment of sensual desires that is your life is geared towards food entertainment and sexuality including making love with your wife. This tends to be the root problem in our day, where men and women are so given their sensual desires as such an idol in their life they'll do anything to serve that idol and it displaces just about everything else certainly the worship of God all idols underfoot be trod the Lord is God the Lord is God.

Amen. All idols under foot be trod, the Lord is God, the Lord is God. I said, Amen. Louder. Amen.

It's a carmel moment, my friends. You're not saying it loud enough. Those of you who believe it, if you don't, don't say it. This is the mortification of the flesh. All idols under foot be trod.

The Lord is God. The Lord is God. And everybody said, Amen. These are the idols of the day. Idolatry itself.

The idolatry of anger is the idolatry of self. Pride is the idolatry of yourself again. So here's the third practical element. What are you living for? John Piper says, you've gone to bed with the wrong woman if you have given yourself to your sinful lusts.

And he applies that to any kind of a a sin, any kind of an idol in your life. Jacob woke up with the wrong woman with Leah in the morning and realized he was married to the wrong woman. Now what's the solution to that? The solution to that is Rachel. You need to be married to Rachel.

You're married to your sinful lusts. You're married to the wrong woman. You've got to be married to Jesus. God is better. Jesus is better.

The cross is better than the world, the flesh, the devil, and hellfire forever. Y'all agree with that? This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication, not in lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. What's the real issue? The real issue is they've got the wrong relationship.

They need a relationship with the true and living God, first and foremost. They're crawling around in the muck and the mud and they haven't seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I've got a simple question to ask everybody who is here because on Thursday night we heard some amazing words, a description of the holiness of God, the glory of God in the very throne room of God. And here's my question for everybody who is there, would you rather have been in the throne room of God on Thursday night hearing the message of the beauty of God, the holiness of God, the glory of God, or in a theater watching Hunger Games Part 4 in all of their blasphemy, in all of their godlessness, where would you rather be on a Thursday night? That's a simple question.

It's really very simple. Who are you? And who do you serve? There's nothing more beautiful than God's grace. You can say them anytime you want.

There's nothing more attractive than God's holiness. There's nothing more majestic than God's glory. There's nothing more lovely than Christ. And there's nothing more hopeful than everlasting glory. The Spirit says yes.

The Spirit says amen to all that. God is the very source of all that is good, attractive, and glorious. In fact, the glory of the sun, the brightness of the sun, you've never flown into the sun. Nobody wants to. You hardly want to stare at it.

But you put all the stars in the universe together and you lump them against the sun and then you fly into the sun and into 10 billion trillion stars and all the glory of it, You will be consumed by it yet. It is nothing compared to the glory of the God who made all of it. What are you living for? Fourthly, at the center of the Christian view stands the bloody cross. The Christian life would not be such a blood-stained affair had it not been for the cross of Jesus Christ.

He was killed for our sins. And you were killed there with him. Therefore kill every remnant of that quivering corpse in your own life as well. Fifthly, there is a process to the mortification of the flesh and it includes grief, includes burden, mourning over your sin. Problem with America?

Not enough mourning. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. There is so little comfort in America. We have a glib, chipper kind of joy, but not enough tears over sin, not enough grief, not enough heavy hearts laid out before God. I'm talking hours upon hours upon hours of feeling the weight of it, feeling the grief of it, understanding what sin is and what it's done to you and to your church, to your family members, your friends.

Not enough mourning as a nation, hardly any weeping over sin. God give us the gift of grief. I'm praying for more mourning because I know we'll never get any comfort in our church until we get more tears, more grief, more mourning. Number six, confess your sins to God, cry out to God. In a raw, transparent, open confession.

To God first, but then secondly to the church body as well confess your sins one to another James 5 so you say how do I do that? Stand up in the middle of your church congregation during prayer request time and you say this you say I have not confessed this sin in 10 years of my life, in 14 years, in 20 years of my life. I have pretended to be a holy kind of guy, a deacon in this church or whatever it is, But I'm telling everybody I've been a fornicating wretch. I've been addicted to pornography. I need God's help.

I need God's forgiveness and cleansing. And I need you to forgive me. That's what I'm talking about. See, that's pretty violent. Yeah.

Mortification of the flesh. That's what's involved. And then finally, you've got to establish new habits that choke the flesh and nurture the Spirit. Utterly soak yourself in biblical teaching and worship. God has worked in my life so much in the last number of years.

Largely through the ministry of Martin Lloyd-Jones and sitting around listening to sermons. It's amazing. Taking notes and doing everything I can to hear the words of the Spirit of God as he comes to me and he brings these prophesies which I no longer despise. In order that I no longer grieve the Holy Spirit of God, receive the Word of God and prayer, brothers, sisters. You've gotta take this to God in prayer.

You gotta get serious about it. Not enough seriousness, not enough sweating it out over. You wake up at two in the morning. You've got something on your mind. Holy Spirit is convicted of you.

Nothing wrong with the next four hours of crying out to God for his mercy upon you. You get into that war room, you engage that battle, you write out your prayers, you testify to God your need, you cry out to him again and again and again and again. I guarantee you will find him. He will open to you. Okay, I've got a couple of yeah buts.

You say, yeah but I can't. Yeah but I can't. That's cheap grace. That's weak grace. You don't understand grace.

Grace is a powerful thing. Romans 6, 14, and 15 says, sin shall no longer have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. What then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. The grace principle is not a weaky-weaky thing.

There was a pastor of a church, of a grace church out in Colorado and he was the most famous grace preacher in Colorado. Preached about grace, grace, grace, grace for 13, 14 years. Finally came out of the closet. I'm a homosexual and there's nothing God can do about it. I'm done for.

Friends, what's the problem with grace in America? It's too weak. It's too cheap. This grace principle is powerful in the life of Christians. Sin cannot have dominion over you because grace is just that powerful in your life.

You got a new law working, it's called grace. You say, I can't, I can't, I can't. I've tried, I've tried, I can't, I can't, I can't. The problem is too many eyes, not enough God. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

The flesh you say is too strong for me, that's heresy. That's heresy. You say it for what it is, friends. The Word of God does not bear that out. If you say, the flesh is too strong for me, you are contradicting my book, God's book.

Don't you dare say that. You don't ever say, my flesh is too powerful for me in Jesus Christ. Romans 6-11, likewise you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's reality. That's the indicative.

You start with that. I am. You say to yourself, you preach it to yourself. Stop preaching the devil's message to yourself. He's putting ideas in your minds about your flesh and its power.

You negate that for a moment, and you say, no, I'm gonna preach the word of God to myself. Reckon yourself dead to sin. I am dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, here's the imperative, do not let sin reign over you. If you are dead to sin, do not let sin reign over you.

Live men can beat dead men down. That's the principle. Live men, Does that make any sense? Live men can beat dead men down. Now if you think the flesh is too strong for you, you're denying the victory of Christ.

You're not pursuing the Canaanites after the Red Sea, after God destroyed the greatest empire on earth in separating the Red Sea and entire ocean for what, 40 miles across this bay, after God separated the Red Sea and did this mighty work of redemption, You're up against these tiny Canaanite tribes going, I don't think we can handle it! I don't think we can handle it! After what Christ did on the cross, you can deal with the Canaanites. Absolutely. And this public celebration of sin, the preservation of Agag, and the private preservation of sin with Achan hiding that little sin under that tent, friends, that's got to go.

No, we're taking down Canaan, hook, line, and sinker. We're pulling down all of these strongholds to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Why? Because it does honor to the Lord Jesus Christ who already conquered sin, who already separated the Red Sea, who already redeemed us, who already gave to us His Spirit. Because remember, we mortify the sinful flesh through the Spirit that is in us.

If there is any power in the death of Jesus Christ, if He did anything at the cross, if the Spirit of God is who He says it is in the Word of God, He has the power to work in you and through you so that you can do His good will. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, oh God we pray that we would in faith understand what Jesus Christ did at that cross. Father we pray we would understand the wickedness of sin but the power of the cross, the beauty of the cross, the accomplishment, the efficacy of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we pray we understand the Spirit of God works innocent through us to bring about a mighty sanctification, this mortification of flesh. And Father, we pray we would look back and see what you've already done in the slaying of sinful flesh everywhere. We see the dead carcasses of sin all around us in our lives, in our church. Father, we pray we would know that Jesus continues to reign, Jesus conquers in our lives, in our churches, in our families. Father, increase our faith as we reach for the sword, as we begin to excite the sinful flesh from our own hearts and lives.

Oh Lord, we pray we would live as Christians. We pray, oh Lord, that these words would encourage each Christian here, Not discourage them, help them to see the beauty of this. Help them to see the power of Jesus Christ. Help them to see the efficacy of that redemption. Help them to see the importance of that blood that was shed, Father, to forgive us, yes, no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but to also cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Thank you. We praise you, God, for this great and powerful redemption. Now we take Canaan with your strength in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to this presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. We invite you to visit our website at www.ncfic.org, where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The N.C.F.I.C. Exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life.