Mortification: Overcoming Indwelling Sin Through the Spirit

First of all that we need to deal with indwelling sin. There is sin to be dealt with ongoing, remaining sin in our lives even though we are Christians and we are justified and we are in union with Christ and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Sin still dwells in this mortal body. [00:04:07]

Robert Murray McShane, the 19th century Scottish Presbyterian pastor, died just a few days before his 30th birthday, once wrote that the seeds of every known sin lies within our hearts. We may not be as sinful as we possibly could be, and we have particular sins and what the Bible calls elsewhere besetting sins. [00:05:00]

There ought to be in us a desire to deal with indwelling sin. We want to deal with indwelling sin. We want to grow. We want to flourish as Christians. We want to grow in holiness. We want to be more holy today than we were yesterday, this year than we were last year, this decade than we were a decade ago. [00:05:43]

We want to grow and we want to display the fruits of the Spirit. So we need to deal with sin. We want to deal with sin. And let me pause just for a second and ask, is that perhaps the problem, that we don't really want to grow in holiness, that we're content with the progress in sanctification that we've already made? [00:06:21]

Because we're in union with Christ, because we have died to sin and we live to righteousness, because we have died with Christ and we've been buried with Christ and we've been raised again to newness of life in Christ, so we're in a position now to deal with sin because sin is no longer our master. [00:07:08]

The power of negative thinking, not the power of positive thinking, but the power of negative thinking of saying no to sin. Titus 2:11 and 12, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness, to say no to sin. [00:09:38]

Sometimes I think as Christians we are content if we get a little victory here and a little victory there, and we know there are vast areas of our lives where godliness does not seem to manifest itself in any credible form. And we're content. We're content with a partial holiness. And I think Paul is saying here, don't be content with partial holiness. [00:10:54]

Kill sin at its source. Where does sin begin? You've noticed the segway from verses 8, 9, 10, and 11 to these verses that we're looking at 12 and 13. And Paul in the previous section had been talking about a mindset, minding the things of the Spirit. He'd been talking about the importance of a Christian mind. [00:14:29]

Be accountable to each other. The verb here is actually in the plural. It's not in the singular. Mortify as a collective, not just individually, because you belong to each other. You are brothers and sisters. You are part of the family of God. You have a relationship to one another. [00:16:57]

Godliness is never just a personal thing. I live in my small corner and you in yours. We are part of the body of Christ, and when one member hurts, the whole body hurts along with it. And when one member sins, the whole body grieves along with it, and our collective witness to the world is marred as a consequence. [00:18:29]

This is a command. This is an imperative. Be killing sin. Be about the business of killing sin. It's what is expected of us. It's what the Spirit wants us to do. There's really no place for the presence of the Spirit of Christ and sin in our lives. [00:19:28]

No, we put sin to death because it's the right thing to do. We put sin to death because sin has no right to be in the presence of those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Can you identify your besetting sin? Is thinking here, I think, not just of having a general thought about sin, but having very specific thoughts about it. [00:22:40]