Today’s sermon is now online. In it, we look at Peter’s denial from Mark 14:66-72. Gotten some good feedback and how this made our battle with sin and temptation come alive, so thanks for that. Some might wonder about that quote from Sinclair Ferguson on killing sin I alluded to in discussing the way sin seeks to master us from Genesis 4:6-7. You can find the quote here. Hope you have a good week fighting sin and temptation to the glory of God.
Assessing Reality…
In my sermon intro this Sunday, I will be quoting a blog post by Paul Tripp (which ended up in his book Whiter Than Snow). Here’s how it begins…
Sin lives in a costume, that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Prevented lust masquerades as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, that is part of its draw.
You’ll never understand sin’s slight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they are because no one talks to themselves more than they do. We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We’re all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We’re all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us to not hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but to compound matters, we tend to be blind to our blindness. (also found on p.32 of the book)
As we look at Peter’s Denial this Sunday, it would be easy for us to take a posture of exaltation as we look at the sin found in that story, but I hope this weekend that God can expose us for who we are and we can make headway in aggressively putting sin to death and putting on holiness. Hope to see you there.
Sin & The Cross
When sin is ignored, minimized, or redefined we no longer live aware of our desperate need for Jesus Christ nor appreciative of what He accomplished on the cross for us.
— Anthony Hoekema (quoted in our Small Group material from 3/8/09)
MM – Surveying the Damage
In the Danvers Statement, it is interesting to note, when thinking about roles, how the Fall radically affected mankind. They say:
The Fall introduced distortions inot the relationships between men and women.
– In the home, the husband’s loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity; the wife’s intelligent, willing submission tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility.
– In the church, sin inclines men toward a worldly love of power or an abdication of spiritual responsibility, and inclines women to resist limitations on their roles or to neglect the use of their gifts in appropriate ministries.
What this reminds me of, then, is my need for a change of heart through the Gospel.