Declare War on Sin
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Katie from Palm Bay, Florida and Jared Bridgman both sent in this clip at the
00:00:11.000 | same time. It's from a message John Piper delivered titled "How to Kill Sin Part 2"
00:00:16.000 | which he preached on February 17, 2002. Here's a clip of what he said in that sermon.
00:00:22.000 | Ed Welch wrote a book last year, published it last year, called "A Banquet in the
00:00:27.000 | Grave." It's a great title. It's taken from a proverb. It's a book on addiction,
00:00:34.000 | addictions. I commend it to you. This is a sentence from an article that he wrote in
00:00:41.000 | preparation for that book. "There's a mean streak to authentic self-control.
00:00:48.000 | Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we
00:00:57.000 | nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for
00:01:05.000 | sin. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of
00:01:13.000 | all-out war." I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and
00:01:21.000 | their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings and I see so little
00:01:27.000 | war. Murmur, murmur, murmur. Why am I this way? Make war. If you wonder how to make
00:01:38.000 | war, go to the manual. Don't just bellyache about your failures. Make war.
00:01:50.000 | He says, I'm continuing the quote, "There is something about war that sharpens the
00:01:57.000 | senses. You hear a twig snap or rustling of the leaves and you are in attack mode.
00:02:05.000 | Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or
00:02:12.000 | no sleep, war keeps us vigilant." There is a mean, violent streak to the true
00:02:24.000 | Christian life. But now let's very carefully ask, violence against whom or
00:02:35.000 | what? Not other people. Not other people. Not other people. Not Muslims. Not Hindus.
00:02:49.000 | Not Buddhists. Not atheists. Not secularists. Not nominal Christians. Not
00:02:55.000 | wives or husband or children or ornery bosses. But on every impulse in our soul
00:03:05.000 | to be violent to other people. Violence, a mean streak in Christianity against our
00:03:15.000 | own selves. And all in us that would make peace with sin and a settling in peacetime
00:03:27.000 | mindset. We make war on that in us. It's a violence against all lust in ourselves.
00:03:37.000 | All enslaving desires for food, caffeine, sugar, chocolate, alcohol, pornography,
00:03:47.000 | money, the praise of man, approval of others, power, fame. This is our enemy.
00:03:55.000 | This is where we make war. It is a violence against all racism in our souls.
00:04:04.000 | A violence against all sluggish indifference to injustice in our souls.
00:04:10.000 | A violence against all indifference to poverty and indifference to abortion in
00:04:16.000 | our souls. Did you know that in the warfare of Romans, Satan doesn't show up
00:04:24.000 | in chapter 16? We tend to think of spiritual warfare as this little thing where you
00:04:34.000 | find some way to pray or some way to lay hands on or some way to do a Satan thing.
00:04:41.000 | Well, that's important. Believe me, that's important. We war not against flesh and
00:04:46.000 | blood, but against principalities and powers and world rulers of this present
00:04:49.000 | darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's
00:04:53.000 | important. But you know what? It's not nearly as important as this. Because the
00:04:59.000 | only foothold Satan has in your life is your flesh and your sin. Nobody goes to
00:05:07.000 | hell because of Satan. The only reason we go to hell is sin. Much more important
00:05:17.000 | than fighting Satan is fighting sin. This warfare in verse 13 is vastly more
00:05:25.000 | important than figuring Satan out. Get that. My biggest enemy is not Satan. My
00:05:34.000 | biggest enemy is John Piper. Fallen, fleshly, rebellious, hostile, selfish,
00:05:43.000 | lusting, power-grabbing, fame-loving John Piper is my biggest enemy. And he's the
00:05:51.000 | only reason I'll go to hell. Not Satan. Satan, you don't have nearly that kind of
00:05:57.000 | power. And therefore, I really care about us learning how to do this battle.
00:06:09.000 | Christianity is not a settle-in, live at peace with the world the way it is
00:06:14.000 | religion. Like most Christians live their daily lives. Verse 13, "If by the Spirit
00:06:23.000 | you kill." There's a mean streak in Christianity, and it's not against
00:06:29.000 | anybody else but ourselves. In fact, it's against the meanness of ourselves,
00:06:37.000 | against other people. If you feel like you're a mean person against others, a
00:06:44.000 | harsh person, a critical person, you know your problem? You haven't learned to make
00:06:49.000 | war. You haven't learned to be mean. You haven't learned to get violent against
00:06:57.000 | your violence, against your meanness, against your critical spirit. And you
00:07:04.000 | complain of it, talk about it, but have you made war 24/7 against it?
00:07:14.000 | Powerful. That clip appeared in Tadashi's 2010 song "Make War." This clip was
00:07:21.000 | suggested by several listeners, including Katie from Palm Bay, Florida, and Jared
00:07:25.000 | Bridgman. The entire sermon, "How to Kill Sin, Part 2," was preached on February
00:07:30.000 | 17, 2002, and you can find it at DesiringGod.org. We're back tomorrow with
00:07:35.000 | Pastor John. See you then.
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