Indwelling Sin

I just want to put up a song lyric that I resonate with 100%. The singer says-'yea your heart keeps making tracks to were it shouldn't be going back..' I guess this is a similar thing to what Paul says in Romans 7:15-20-"15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." Other than the Bible John Owen has helped me more than any other writer with this battle with the flesh that we are in each day. His work on Indwelling Sin was amazing to me. I just bought the updated version of Owen's three masterpiece works edited by Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic. I will post more on that as I read through it. I guess I also relate more and more with the tax collector that Jesus talks about in Luke 18:13-"13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

I will leave some words from Matthew Henry that seem like a good resolution for myself.
-"Follow on to know the Lord. Labour to know him more clearly and more fully, to know more of Christ and to know him to better purpose, so as to be more like him and to love him better."

2nd Peter 3

Amazing verses-

"10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

11Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

12looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!"-2nd Peter 3:10-12 (NASB)

Gethsemane

I was thinking about Christ in gethsemane today, and was once again moved as I meditated on that event. Here is one of the accounts of gethsemane from the book of Mark.-

"32And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." 33And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch." 35And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."-Mark 14:32-36 (ESV)

Matthew Henry has some powerful words commenting on this passage in Mark-

" Now the consideration of Christ's sufferings in his soul, and his sorrows for us, should be of use to us,

(1.) To embitter our sins. Can we ever entertain a favourable or so much as a slight thought of sin, when we see what impression sin (though but imputed) made upon the Lord Jesus? Shall that sit light upon our souls, which sat so heavy upon his? Was Christ in such an agony for our sins, and shall we never be in an agony about them? How should we look upon him whom we have pressed, whom we have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness! It becomes us to be exceeding sorrowful for sin, because Christ was so, and never to make a mock at it. If Christ thus suffered for sin, let us arm ourselves with the same mind."

I thnk Charles Spurgeon said that the more we look at the cross the more amazing it becomes. I am sure that is true from my experience. The more I look at Christ the more odious sin becomes. As I think about the cross and the sufferings of Christ it makes me want to not only hate sin more, but to 'let my light shine before men.' I am reminded of Paul's words in Philippians 2:14-16-

"14Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." (ESV)

Let me leave two quotes from Matthew Henry on Philippians 2.-

"It is our duty not only to hold fast, but to hold forth the word of life; not only to hold it fast for our own benefit, but to hold it forth for the benefit of others, to hold it forth as the candlestick holds forth the candle, which makes it appear to advantage all around, or as the luminaries of the heavens, which shed their influence far and wide....The work of the ministry requires the putting forth of the whole man: all that is within us is little enough to be employed in it; as in running and labouring. Running denotes vehemence and vigour, and continual pressing forward; labour denotes constancy and close application."

Let us all 'shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life,..'

First post

Well, this is my first post on my second blog. Maybe I will post more frequently on this blog. For my first post on this blog I thought I had to talk about the cross of Christ. Which to me is by far the most amazing thing in history. Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, the Alpha and the Omega-"humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8)." Paul tells us this in Colossians talking about Jesus- "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him." When you go outside sometime look up at the amazing sky with its millions of stars. Think how Christ Jesus created all that you see in the sky! Then think on some of these verses-
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
"But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief;"
"All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him."
"But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed."
"he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

Here is Matthew Henry on some of Isaiah 53 -

"The low condition he submitted to, and how he abased and emptied himself. The entry he made into the world, and the character he wore in it, were no way agreeable to the ideas which the Jews had formed of the Messiah and their expectations concerning him, but quite the reverse....It was expected that he should have some uncommon beauty in his face and person, which should charm the eye, attract the heart, and raise the expectations of all that saw him. But there was nothing of this kind in him; not that he was in the least deformed or misshapen, but he had no form nor comeliness, nothing extraordinary, which one might have thought to meet with in the countenance of an incarnate deity."

"Our sins were the thorns in his head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side. Wounds and bruises were the consequences of sin, what we deserved and what we had brought upon ourselves, Isaiah 1:6... Christ was wounded for our transgressions, was tormented or pained (the word is used for the pains of a woman in travail) for our revolts and rebellions. He was bruised, or crushed, for our iniquities; they were the procuring cause of his death."

"He suffered himself to be ranked with sinners, and yet offered himself to be an intercessor for sinners, Isaiah 53:12. (1.) It was a great aggravation of his sufferings that he was numbered with transgressors, that he was not only condemned as a malefactor, but executed in company with two notorious malefactors, and he in the midst, as if he had been the worst of the three, in which circumstance of his suffering, the evangelist tells us, this prophecy was fulfilled, Mark 15:27,28. Nay, the vilest malefactor of all, Barabbas, who was a traitor, a thief, and a murderer, was put in election with him for the favour of the people, and carried it; for they would not have Jesus released, but Barabbas. In his whole life he was numbered among the transgressors; for he was called and accounted a sabbath-breaker, a drunkard, and a friend to publicans and sinners. (2.) It was a great commendation of his sufferings, and redounded very much to his honour, that in his sufferings he made intercession for the transgressors, for those that reviled and crucified him; for he prayed, Father, forgive them, thereby showing, not only that he forgave them, but that he was now doing that upon which their forgiveness, and the forgiveness of all other transgressors, were to be founded. That prayer was the language of his blood, crying, not for vengeance, but for mercy, and therein it speaks better things than that of Abel, even for those who with wicked hands shed it."

Words are not adequate to describe the person of Christ!!

Let me leave just two more verses reminding us to look to Jesus daily. Or as Alistair Begg says "we should keep close to the cross."

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (by) fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."-Hebrews 12:1-2

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."-2nd Corinthians 3:18