Distinguishing Weaknesses from Sins
00:00:00.000 | It's Monday morning, February 3rd, and we're getting ready to kick off the 2014 Conference
00:00:08.720 | for Pastors at the Minneapolis Convention Center this afternoon.
00:00:12.160 | And your prayers are greatly appreciated for the conference and for Pastor John and Sinclair
00:00:15.240 | Ferguson and Michael Horton and for all the pastors that will be in town.
00:00:18.640 | And your questions keep coming in, so we keep going.
00:00:21.320 | Today's question is from Katie Elias, who listens in from Canada.
00:00:24.480 | She writes, "Pastor John, I recently read your blog post about embracing weakness as
00:00:28.020 | a means to show God's strength.
00:00:30.240 | How can I discern between a weakness that needs accepting and a besetting sin that needs
00:00:34.280 | eradicating?
00:00:35.480 | How do I know if I'm making an excuse for a besetting sin by saying it's just a natural
00:00:40.160 | weakness?"
00:00:41.160 | Oh my, that is such a good, penetrating question.
00:00:46.480 | It calls for...
00:00:49.000 | The only way I know how to make those really difficult distinctions in our souls, our motivations,
00:00:59.140 | is the revealed Word of God.
00:01:02.380 | And isn't it remarkable how Hebrews says that in relation to making distinctions?
00:01:07.860 | Because it says in Hebrews 4.12, "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than
00:01:15.140 | a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and
00:01:22.180 | discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
00:01:27.780 | Isn't that exactly what she's asking about?
00:01:30.460 | How can I discern my thoughts?
00:01:32.900 | How can I discern my intentions?
00:01:36.140 | And I would say the summary answer is, let's immerse ourselves in the Word.
00:01:43.660 | And let the Word permeate us like a bath of swords, penetrating and separating weakness
00:01:53.180 | from sin, so that we don't deceive ourselves and justify our behaviors or our attitudes
00:02:00.740 | that are sinful by calling them mere weaknesses.
00:02:05.140 | But here, the reason I appreciate this question so much is it causes me to go a little deeper.
00:02:11.900 | Here's the painful reality.
00:02:14.100 | Our sins typically worm their way into our weaknesses.
00:02:21.100 | One of the reasons weaknesses are called weaknesses, I think, is that they're so vulnerable as
00:02:27.940 | places where sin can insinuate itself.
00:02:32.180 | So people often say, for example, "Our greatest strengths are part of our greatest weaknesses."
00:02:38.180 | And when they say that, I think they're getting at the same thing.
00:02:42.620 | For example, you, let's just say John Piper, may be prone to see in every circumstance
00:02:50.940 | something that needs changing.
00:02:55.820 | You may be the kind of person who almost never sees anything that needs changing.
00:03:01.620 | Those two opposite weaknesses, I would say, or you could say strengths, maybe.
00:03:08.020 | But both of those weaknesses are spring-loaded to be infected by sin at any second.
00:03:15.860 | The first one is almost certainly going to be infected with a critical spirit that is
00:03:22.180 | short on patience, lacking in mercy, lacking in tenderheartedness, all in the name of,
00:03:29.020 | "Well, there are things here that need to be changed," you know.
00:03:32.520 | The second one is almost certain to be infected with carelessness and failure to take sin
00:03:39.320 | seriously and lack of boldness to confront people when there are changes that need to
00:03:45.480 | be made.
00:03:47.520 | And disentangling the sin from the weakness in these is a lifelong challenge and possible,
00:03:56.320 | I think, only by the work of the Holy Spirit using this amazing, sharp Word of God.
00:04:05.360 | So how does God's Word about Christ being glorified in our weaknesses, 2 Corinthians
00:04:12.440 | 12, 9, how does that apply to these complex cases?
00:04:17.160 | And I would say not by saying with a false teacher in Romans 6, "Well, let's continue
00:04:23.320 | in sin that grace may abound," because if grace abounds in my weakness, then my weakness
00:04:29.560 | is vulnerable to this kind of sin, and God can even net glory from showing grace to my
00:04:35.320 | sin, well, let's just not worry about this and go on and let the sin be because God gets
00:04:40.760 | grace from overcoming or overlooking my sin.
00:04:44.920 | Well, that would be exactly the opposite of what Paul said there.
00:04:48.600 | And if we believe that Christ will be magnified in overriding our sins, which I do, I must
00:04:54.720 | never ever exploit that mercy of God by saying, "Well, let's let some sin go because then
00:05:02.600 | he'll have more to override."
00:05:04.440 | No.
00:05:05.440 | No, here's what we do.
00:05:06.680 | We pray earnestly for humility and discernment.
00:05:10.480 | We make war on the sinful entanglements of our weaknesses.
00:05:15.840 | We don't make excuses and turn God into a guilty party in our failure, and we repent.
00:05:23.040 | We turn away from every sinful failure, even if we have to do it every day, and we ask
00:05:28.720 | the Lord Jesus to purify our weaknesses and turn them for the glory of his name.
00:05:35.640 | Yes, very good.
00:05:36.640 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:05:37.640 | And speaking of the pastor's conference, which begins in a couple of hours for us, you can
00:05:41.000 | watch the conference live at desiringgod.org.
00:05:43.840 | Pastor John will kick off the plenary sessions tonight at 7 p.m. Central Time, 8 p.m. Eastern,
00:05:48.480 | with his message, "Glorifying God by Bearing Fruit in Union with Christ," John 15, 1 to
00:05:53.800 | 11.
00:05:54.800 | Again, you can watch that live tonight, as well as all the plenary sessions tomorrow
00:05:58.200 | and Wednesday at desiringgod.org.
00:06:01.280 | Tomorrow we'll be back to talk about hobbies and how our hobbies can bring honor to God.
00:06:05.240 | Until then, I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:06:06.880 | See you tomorrow.
00:06:07.280 | [END]
00:06:08.280 | Desiring God by Bearing Fruit in Union with Christ
00:06:08.280 | © The Blessed Life TV. All Rights Reserved.
00:06:09.280 | This material is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific
00:06:10.280 | advice or encouragement for any individual.
00:06:10.280 | For information on this material and other material available, please visit www.BlessedLife.com.
00:06:12.280 | [END]
00:06:13.280 | Desiring God by Bearing Fruit in Union with Christ
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