Death to Sin, Part 7

Members as instruments of righteousness
to God for sin Shall not be master over you for you are not under
law, but under grace What Paul does in These verses
is answer the question. So what what does all this mean
to me? What does it mean that we’re
not to sin? we’re not to to sin it up so
that God would have to grace it up and What does it mean to live a resurrected
life? What does it mean that we were
dead in Christ and now alive with him? That is. The purpose of the verses before
us, it is in a very real sense, the so what to this entire section? Consider, if you would go back
to verse 12. where Paul starts it with therefore,
which is exactly what points backwards. He’s drawing a conclusion
from the facts that he’s been laying out before us. He had
just been. Asking them to consider these
facts based on the correction of this errant twist of his own
teaching. That somehow grace or sin would
cause God to lavish us with more grace. More sin, more grace. Paul lays out a factual and detailed
answer for them, and what he does here is give us a practical
reason from everything that proceeds, everything that he’s talked about
up to this point is encapsulated in the verses. Since believers
are In a very real sense, united with Christ in his death and
in his life, our lives should answer the question, so what? What Paul does here is begin
to bring us to application so that we may be doers. That not
only would we have a right opinion about Paul’s doctrine of justification
by faith, not only would we have a right understanding remembering
back what Paul has reminded us of that we died with Christ. Not only would we have a correct
understanding of what it is to be living a resurrected life,
not just waiting one day to be raised with Christ, but living
in the here and now in a new and different way. Paul brings us to the doorstep
of being a doer and not merely one who has right thinking. Right
doctrine. And he does it immediately. Therefore,
do not let sin reign. Powerful words, Paul has obviously
moved here to the to the idea of exhortation. He looks, as
it were, at those to whom he’s addressing and he points to them
and he appeals to them to be doers and not merely hearers. He says that this ongoing reign
must be over. This ongoing reign of sin that
it ruined lives and cost the Savior his own life on our behalf,
this reign must end. And what Paul does here is he
begins to appeal to his hearers and to his hearers will Up to
this point, Paul has alluded to those kinds of things when
he said in verse six to may it never be, how shall we who died
to sin still live in it? He is, in a sense, appealing
to them to change their life. But now he does it directly.
In Romans 6, 6, when Paul says, knowing this, that our old self
was crucified with him. Why? In order that the body of
sin may be done away with so that we might no longer be slaves
to sin. He does it implicitly, but here
it is explicit. Paul doesn’t mince words in the
least. He says now is the time. And
you must no longer allow this sin to reign in your lives. You have to fight. It’s going
to be a fight to the death. It’s going to be a fight for
the rest of your life. But the fight starts today. Do
not let sin reign. In your mortal bodies, you can’t
let it go on unchecked. You can’t let it go on unopposed. You can’t let your daily lives
constantly be affected by someone who is no longer in charge in
your life. Sin. It’s time for a revolt,
it’s time for an uprising, it’s time for battle. It’s time. That we kick the bum
out. It’s an interesting word, this
rain, and I had to think in the context of our day, you had to
think of Gaddafi wandering the desert, living in ditches, seeking
some way to get back into power. That’s a good image of sin. He’s
been deposed. He’s been kicked out. He’s no
longer the king. So why on earth? Why on earth
do we? Essentially have a re-coronation
ceremony at almost every turn, every time we sin. This word reign. It essentially
means to exercise uncontrolled authority. Now, we would think
that that is a job fit only for God himself, right? Uncontrolled
authority. But the very fact that Paul says
this indicates that sin is still present in our lives. It’s still
present in our mortal bodies. For those of us who have been
justified, it’s not as if sin has been completely eradicated.
You don’t need me to convince that of you. From this point forward, we’re
just merely called to resist, fight against it. As Lloyd-Jones said, sin not
only remains in our bodies, but if it’s not checked, if it’s
not kept under, it will even reign in our bodies. And it will
dominate our bodies. Sin, while we are left in this
mortal body, will always be seeking to dominate our body. That’s
exactly what sin does. It turns the natural instincts
of the body into lusts. Instincts are good in and of
themselves, but sin turns natural instincts into inordinate affections,
lusts. We’ll get there in a moment.
What he does, Paul here, is masterfully, by the direction of the Holy
Spirit, he personifies sin as this reigning dictator. It’s regarded here, sin is as
a principle and not just merely an act that we do. Sin and sinfulness
is, as it were, assuming or proposing to assume or reassume the throne. That’s where it was comfortable.
That’s the dominion under which we lived prior to Christ. And
sin here is personified, personified rather, as a dethroned, but a
very powerful king. And he’s absolutely bent on reassuming
that throne. As I said, that’s where he’s
comfortable. As one said, sin, although mortified in the believer,
is not destroyed, its power to injure remains long after its
dominion is overthrown. We should not just yield We should
not yield to this deep-throned adversary of Christ, but strenuously
strive against his efforts to gain rule over us and to bring
us again into bondage. You see, whereas sin and death
formerly reigned, and Paul has even said it in the passages
in which we’ve considered. That’s the way things used to
be. Romans 514, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until
Moses. Romans 517, by the transgression
of the one, by way of reminder, Adam, by the transgression of
the one, death reigned through the one. Adam brought that sinful
tendency into all humanity. Romans 521, so that as sin reigned
in death, death and sin were absolutely in charge. They were
the potentates of our life. And that’s the way it used to
be. That’s at least the way things
should be. Now that we are justified by
faith in Jesus Christ alone, we don’t have that king. in our
lives anymore. He is an unwanted guest in the
kingdom. And Christ, as it should be,
is on the throne if things are right. But every time that we
open the door, every time we turn, we see this deposed ruler
waiting for his chance, desiring to sit again on that throne.
As one pastor said, it is not supposed to be that sin is reigning
in the believer and that now he is exhorted to terminate that
reign. That’s not what Paul is saying.
He’s not telling you to go and terminate the reign because God
has already done it. If you are in Christ, you have
already been justified and God kicked him off the throne. The
presupposition of the exhortation is not that sin reigns, but that
the very opposite is true, that it does not reign. And it is
for that very reason that the exhortation can have validity
and appeal. Sin does not have the dominion.
And therefore, it does not we do not allow it to reign. You
see, what sin does is start to call the shots, it starts to
bark out orders to us. And the sad thing is we begin
to obey. We begin to yield, we begin to defer and we begin to
essentially. Begin to serve as the campaign
manager. To reappoint him to the throne.
Paul says, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. The mortal body that we walk
around in this life that is still yet to die. Paul points to mortality here. Paul reminds us that we are preparing
to die, and he reminds us that it is in this life that we are
to live a resurrected life. We are to live a resurrected
life in the here and now until we die, and then we will experience
resurrection, capital R, then. But in the here and now, we have
a battle to wage. Currently, the process of sanctification
in each one of us is incomplete. It’s underway. In some, it’s
more complete than in others. What Paul refers to when he points
to the whole man is all of us or the mortal body, rather, is
the whole man, all of us in our fullness, every part of us, our
minds are part of our mortal body. Our hands and our arms,
our ears and eyes and all of those elements that allow us
to sin. Our entire being is part of this
mortal body that is ultimately subject to death. And it is over
the entirety of our fallen nature and not just our physical bodies
that sin has established its rule. Because if you were an
ascetic, if you followed the Gnostic theories and you mortified
your body, you still haven’t begun to touch the two things
that God most points out as problematic in our lives, our mind and our
hearts. So it is the body that’s under
this dominion of sin. The body is under the power of
sin. encompassing not only our flesh, but also our mind, our
hearts, our will, our affections, all of it. The body is under
the power of sin and the power. Is that which Paul says we must
resist, we have to fight against this usurper. He doesn’t belong on the throne. Look at the third clause, look
at it in context. Therefore, do not let sin reign
in your mortal bodies that you should obey its lusts. I hear
I see everybody squirm when you read that word, and I know what
we’re thinking of. It is quite simply referring to the lusts
of the body, almost as being the commanders, if you will. It’s interesting in the book
of James. It is precisely the pathology
of sin that James presents in his book. Listen to how James
presents it, James 1, 13 says, let no one say when he attempted. Remember when I was a kid, there
was a guy that used to blame for everything was blamed on
the devil, right? The devil made me do it. But in our day and
age, it’s God’s fault, right? God didn’t give me the right,
you know, stamina. He didn’t surround me with enough
Christian friends. I didn’t have enough good teaching.
It’s all God’s fault. Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by
evil. He himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when
he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then, when lust
is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished,
it brings forth death. It’s an incredible image that
sin, as it were, becomes, as it were, an infant inside us.
He takes the most beautiful image from human life, that of conception,
and he says that sin ruins lives. And the pattern continues here
in Paul’s passage. Following on the pattern that
James established, each one is tempted when he’s carried away
and enticed by his own lust. And the pattern continues here
in Paul’s passage when he says, when sin is accomplished, dominion
is established. And we can’t allow that. And
we know what naturally, as I said, what naturally comes into our
mind, we hear this word lust. We think of those impure and
unchecked thoughts. which cater to our more base
nature. But is that all that Paul has
in mind here? I’m not saying that it doesn’t
include that it absolutely does include those impure thoughts. But I would suggest the answer
is no, that there’s much more here. Much more that Paul had
in mind, much more in our system of desire, deep-seated desire
that is well beyond just the sensual. One said that it’s desires after
evil, any kind of evil, and away from God. So anything that takes
you away from God can be conceived as a lustful desire. Another pastor said, one day
our mortal bodies will be glorified and forever out of sin’s reach. But in the meantime, it’s still
mortal, subject to corruption and death. It still has sinful
lust because the brain and the thinking process are part of
the mortal body. And Satan uses those lusts to
lure God’s people back into sin in whatever ways he can. It’s
despicable. So these sinful lusts are those
things, ultimately, which are used to create domination over
people. Now, as I said, I think this
goes well beyond just the sensual. In order to prove that flip over
to Second Timothy one just for one minute. Second Timothy, chapter
two. And I’ll have to edit this part
out of the tape, because this is my as I recall. This was my first fight that
I won with. The venerable Dr. John MacArthur. He doesn’t know that I won because
I didn’t even I didn’t even sharpen my sword against his own. I just
as I read this and I heard his exposition, I looked at it and
I went in a different direction. It was actually quite liberating.
I knew that now I had to stand on my own two feet. I have to
answer for the direction that I’ve taken and. I still may not
be correct. So Pastor MacArthur said this.
Look at verse twenty. Now, in a large house, there
are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of
wood and of earthenware, some to dishonor and some to honor.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he
will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful for the master, prepared
for every good work. And so he’s talking about these
things. He’s talking about purity and things that lend itself to
impurity. And what Pastor MacArthur did
is take twenty two and say that verse twenty two explains verses
twenty one and twenty and twenty one. Now, flee from youthful
lust. That’s what he’s referring to
in verses twenty and twenty one. Or is he? You see, this is where
I went the other direction. When Paul says, now flee from
youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those
who call upon the Lord from pure heart. I think he’s setting up
the statements that follow. Flee from youthful lusts and
what he refers to as youthful lust is encompassed in verses
twenty three and following, but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations. You talk about a youthful lust.
We want to be right. We want to. We don’t even care
if we’re right. We just want to talk. Right.
Foolish and ignorant speculations. If ever there was a youthful
lust, that is a youthful lust. But refuse foolish and ignorant
speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. Well, that’s
kind of what young people do on into their college years.
And some never really let go of it. That’s what Paul is telling
Timothy. Timothy, grow up already. You
can’t get drawn into some conversations. You can’t enter into some of
these arguments. You cannot be perceived as quarrelsome. Can’t be. You’re Pastor Timothy. Get over it. Grow up. Flee from
youthful lusts, and he’s not done. flee from youthful lusts. Look at verse 24. The Lord’s
bondservant must not be quarrelsome. But be kind to all able to teach
patient when wrong. You talk about fitting into the
paradigm of youthful lusts, quarrelsome, unkind, unable to teach, impatient. Paul says Timothy. Timothy, you
are a servant of God. You cannot live like that any
longer. Grow up. The Lord’s bond servants must
not be quarrelsome, but kind to all, able to teach, patient
when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. That is our great calling. Everything
we do is to go to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to
patiently appeal to them. Because it isn’t even us that
brings them to repentance, is it ever? With gentleness, correcting
those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them
repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come
to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having
been held captive by him to do his will. Paul essentially tells
Timothy to grow up And that’s why I say I would put that in
the category of lust. And, you know, I’ve talked about
it before. Lust is sometimes used in a good sense. He who
aspires, desires passionately to be an elder, desires a good
thing. But so often in scripture, it
is used of the natural desires there in a sinful sense. Galatians
5.16, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire,
the lusts of the flesh. Ephesians 4.22, in reference
to your former manner of life, that you lay aside the old self
which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. Essentially, lust just denotes
any sinful desire, sinful desire of every kind, desire for any
pleasure, any supposed pleasure, any most fleeting pleasure, which
in any degree is contrary to God’s will and desire. Whether
it’s our ease and taking comfort, whether it’s enjoying wealth,
whether it’s seeking revenge, Gratifying your bodily desires,
whatever it is, if he takes you further away from God, it’s a
lustful passion. As one Puritan. referred to it,
lust, seduces or draws men aside. It actually takes himself out
of the ways of duty. The first and leading attempt
of lust is to possess the mind with such a kind of loathing
of virtue as a thing harsh and insipid. Do you hear what he’s
saying? That’s what lust says. Lust says the same thing that
the snake said to Eve. Oh, that’s such a hard rule.
How can you submit to that? It’s a thing harsh and insipid,
administering no kind of pleasure and satisfaction. The other course
it takes is by enticing, by representing the pleasures of sin, stripped
of all the troubles and inconveniences of sin, by representing that
pleasure that is in sin to be greater than it is. Wow. What a deceitful tyrant this
deposed ruler is. You better believe it. It’s not
like he’s going to come to you and tell you the truth. What Paul says is that as long
as we’re in this life, as long as we’re in these mortal bodies,
There is a cruel master that cannot wait to take over if you
let him. But Paul says, do not let sin
reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey its lusts. As
one pastor, we will all sin will always be a powerful force for
the Christian to reckon with. But it is no longer master. It
is no longer Lord. It can and must be resisted. Must not reign. Because now it has no right to
reign, it has no power to control unless the believer chooses to
obey its lusts. Paul uses a second exhortation
and he’s arguing from the negative here in the first portion of
this section in verses 12 and the first part of 13, he’s arguing
from the negative. Do not. Do not let sin reign
and look at verse three thirteen. Do not go on presenting the members
of your body to sin. That just seems ludicrous, doesn’t
it? For somebody who’s been justified by grace and and, you know, we’re
saved and we’re in the process of sanctification. We have glorification
to look forward to. How on earth, why on earth would
we yield our members, present our members of our body to sin
here, use whatever you please for sin. And it’s a it’s a powerful
statement, he says, stop it and do not continue to place your
members at the disposal of this master called sin. It’s it’s
military kind of language, like a soldier rendering his service,
signing up for active duty. That’s what we do when we yield
our members to sin. Now, the members, this word members
is an interesting one, too, and the basic meaning is that it’s
part of a whole. And so we talk about church members,
Paul uses it the same way. The original meaning was limb,
just part of your body, one of your extremities. But ultimately,
the word came to be used in an even broader sense, covering
even the organs of our body as well, the eyes, the ears. Ultimately,
though, the word takes on an even broader sense to encapsulate,
to encompass, rather, any natural capacity that we do. Our thinking. are doing, are moving, are speaking,
are listening. Paul uses that in 1 Corinthians
12, 24 to speak of the members as part of the body, such as
the foot, the hand, the ear. And so ultimately, sin now is
conceived of this cruel master, can’t wait to get back on the
throne. at whose disposal we place the members of our body.
Here, use my hand and my arm for whatever purposes you see
fit. Use my eyes to watch whatever you please. Listen to whatever
gossip comes my way. Paul says, Do not go on presenting
the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. That word for it translated in
the New American Standard Instruments is an interesting one, and we’ll
spend more time on this in just a moment. But the word in its in original
Greek and classic Greek had a pretty diverse use, but in the New Testament,
it definitely had It leaned in the direction of referring to
military implements weapons. Paul’s use of the word Paul usually
uses it in that sense, we’ll see in a moment. It’s interesting. Think back to the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John, chapter 18, verse three, it says that Judas,
then having received the Roman cohort, the soldiers. Going to
arrest Jesus, the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests
and the Pharisees came there with lanterns and torches and
instruments. Weapons. Romans 13, two, that’s exactly
how Paul uses it. The night is almost gone. The
day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness
and put on the armor, the weapons of light. Second Corinthians
six, seven. says that we we wage war in the word of truth and
the power of God by the weapons of righteousness for the right
hand and the left. So the apostle here essentially. Depicts this life as a fight,
as long as we’re in the flesh, it’s a fight. And the strange thing here is
that he has to say, do not go on presenting the members of
your body to sin. Do not go on presenting. Your members as instruments,
weapons of unrighteousness were arming the enemy. That’s what
he says, he says, if we’re not careful about how we live, if
we’re not careful with what we do with the various members of
this mortal body, we are arming the enemy. And Paul says, stop
it. Stop it. And in the verses that
follow 13b and forward, Paul then begins to give the positive
commands, the positive commands, and look at it simply in 13b.
But present yourselves to God. Don’t present yourselves as the
members of your body to sin. Don’t present the members of
your body as instruments to be used in this battle. Present
yourselves to God, present yourself to God for his use and for his
glory. Believers here are called. That’s
what I said in a very stark moment. This is a very explicit application
of everything that Paul has said. And Paul says, stop it. You’re
enlisted now. You belong to a different army,
you cannot go on giving weapons to the enemy. Believers are called to present
ourselves to God. It is complete, it’s decisive,
we are to from here forward put ourselves at God’s disposal.
You use me for your glory, not my own. We’re to offer ourselves to him
and to him alone. Give yourselves up to God, as
one said, and not only your various powers, but your very selves,
a dedication which involves that of each separate faculty. In
other words, it would it would be absolutely ludicrous if we
said, God, I give you everything. I give you everything. But my
mind. God, I give you everything but
my left foot. I mean, that’s about as ludicrous
as it can get. God, I’ll let you have all of
me, just let me have my eyes to wander as they will. Present yourselves to God as
those alive from the dead, because that’s what we are, remember?
We’ve been given new life. How many times have you seen
on the news or read in a new story someone who has been snatched
from the jaws of death by some miraculous thing? And they always
talk about it, don’t they? I have a new lease on life. That’s what we have. Only we
were dead. We’ve been restored. We’ve been
restored to life. We can’t even imagine for a moment
Lazarus. Remember Lazarus raised from
the dead? You know what? I think I’ll go
back. It’s inconceivable. That’s why
one pastor said, having been quickened by the power of God
raised from death and sin and all of its dreadful consequences,
we are bound to live for God. Having been restored to death,
who would desire to return to the loathsomeness of the grave? Who? Nobody. Nobody would go
back. present yourselves to God as
those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. Now, we begin to get a sense
of the battle that all of us, all of our constituent parts,
every part of our being is to be dedicated to the glory and
the righteousness of God Almighty. Now, we’ve already addressed
this word, this The word for members just talks about the
parts of the body, but ultimately Paul uses it to point to this
word instruments or tools or weapons. Put the weapons of your body
into the into the hand of God as weapons that are to be used
for righteousness, for his good purpose. Years ago, Whenever
I hear a young person say, I don’t, I just don’t like hymns. I use
words that I don’t understand. I don’t get it. I know that’s
exactly, that’s exactly how I started. And I can remember, I used to
almost devotionally pick up a hymn book and just read through a
hymn, read through the lyric line. And I can remember all
kinds of things, even the one that we sang today. Remember
Ebenezer? What a great study, young people. I’m not going to
give that one to you. What a great study. And so when I would come
across these words, huh, Ebenezer, I would have to go look it up
in the Bible or look it up, you know, in some way, shape or form
that wasn’t Google. Then it wasn’t that easy. I would have to actually work
at it. And I came across one that said panoply. Oh, that’s
an interesting word. And we sing right past it, don’t
we? Came from an old Wesleyan hymn, Soldiers of Christ arise. Listen to this. Soldiers of Christ
arise and put your armor on strong in the strength which God supplies
through his eternal son, strong in the Lord of hosts and in his
mighty power, who in the strength of Jesus trust is more than conqueror. We’re ready to march out now,
aren’t we? I mean, that’s good stuff. Listen to the second one.
Stand then in his great might with all his strength endued.
But take to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God. Having all things done and all
your conflicts past, you may or come through Christ alone
and stand entire at last. And then you walk out going,
if I don’t know what the panoply is, I’m in deep trouble. You
know what the panoply is? The panoply is where the soldiers
stored their weapons. That’s where the soldiers kept
all their weaponry, was in this storage thing called the panoply,
or it referred to everything that was in there. That was the
whole group of weapons available at our disposal. Now, when Paul says, present
yourselves as instruments, weapons in God’s hands, you become part
of the panoply of God. You become part of the weaponry
available at his disposal to wage war, not only in your own
life, but in this fallen world. Present all of your parts to
be employed by God as implements of righteousness, instruments,
weapons, for the purpose of righteousness. Paul’s given us the positive
exhortations, which followed the negative exhortations. He’s
giving us piece by piece. The answer to the question, so
what he’s giving us the application so that we may be doers of this
grand calling. And he closes with the reason
for this exhortation to holiness. Why, father? Why do all this? Let’s take a running start at
verse twelve, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal
body that you should obey its lust and do not go on presenting
the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin
shall not be master over you. It’s powerful. And you know what? It almost
sounds like an exhortation in verse 14. It almost sounds like
Paul says now, mind you. It’s not a command, I don’t believe
it’s a promise. Sin is not master over you any
longer. This is a statement of fact. It’s not saying that it’s something
that we’ll enjoy in the future. Someday that evil master sin
will be put to death. That’s not at all. We are not. Like we used to be. Constantly
bearing under the weight and the harassment of sin. As one
pastor said, Paul is thinking of sin as a power, a person personifies
it. It is a promise that sin will
be no more their Lord, because another Lord has taken possession
of them, namely Christ. That does not mean that sin will
have no power at all over them, but he does. It does mean that
they will never again be left in sin’s power. Unless they wantonly
turn their back on the Lord who has redeemed them, though sin
will still have a hold on them until they die, they will, as
subjects of Christ, be free to fight against sin’s usurped power
and to demonstrate their true allegiance. So in a very real
sense, what Paul says is whose side are you on? Are you aiding
the enemy, abetting the enemy by giving him the weapons that will be used? To wage war
against righteousness. Paul gives the reason for this
stark statement. It’s not a wishful thought, not
a hopeful thought of the future, it’s the fact sin shall not be
master over you because you are not under law, but you are under
grace. See, the law demanded. Abject
obedience. Absolute obedience, but grace
essentially gives the power to obey. Grace breaks this mastery
of sin. We don’t have to obey the law
of sin anymore. We’re not subject to the law
of sin and death anymore. As one said, the contrast is
the keynote of this entire section. The Christian state is a state
of grace, a state in which a man is the object of God’s free favor
and a recipient of a new power of moral action, not a state
of law. It’s a state in which man receives
a revelation of God’s will, but not the power to fulfill it.
Paul is not here thinking of the law generally, but of the
law as condemning sinners. We’re no longer under that law.
Since grace denotes God’s undeserved favor, the natural opposite of
grace is to be under God’s disfavor or condemnation. Believers are
not under God’s condemnation pronounced by the law. We’re
now under his undeserved favor. And so I ask. Whose side are you on? Not whose
side you want to be on, whose side’s doctrine sounds better,
whose side end sounds more pleasing. Whose side are you actually on?
Whose side are you on on a day-to-day basis, hour by hour? Whose side
are you lending support to? Let’s examine our hearts before
our Lord. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves before you. And father, we bow before you
in repentance. For the countless ways that we
yield our members. So plainly. To the power of sin. Almost begging him to take back
over our life, and we do not want that. As we sit and stand
here this morning, Father, we pray. That you would give us
Paul’s mind on this matter, that we would see sin for what it
is. Lonely, wandering. Deposed dictator. That has no place in our lives.
Father God, we pray. that you would grant us the grace
to take every part of our being, our mind and our hearts and our
hands and our eyes, what we see and what we say, what we do.
Grant us the grace to take every part of our being from this day
forward, if we’ve never done it. From this day forward, let
it be so. It’s by the grace that is provided
by our Lord Jesus Christ that we would do this. Lord, we desire
to be on the side of righteousness. We desire to be done with the
master of sin. We could only do it by your grace.
It’s that for which we pray in Jesus name. Amen.