Licensed to Kill: An Into to Mortification ~ Romans 8:1, 12-14

February 14, 2016 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Intro: Christianity is a battle over desire. Its a war over pleasure. Its a contest for what will capture your heart.
And thats why the Bible is quite frank about the alluring power of sin and temptation.
Hebrews 11:24-26, By faith Mosesrefused to be called the Son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to be
mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ
greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory, If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the
rewards in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted
creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants
to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We
are far too easily pleased.
And because the stakes are so high, were going to have to get violent, and in particular, were going to have to wage war
against lesser pleasures in order to attain higher pleasures. Were going to have to become murderous because we have
been licensed to kill the sin that kills our joy.
Licensed to Kill: An Intro to Mortification ~ Romans 8:1, 12-14
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
1. Why is there any condemnation? Answer: B/c there is a moral order to the universe.
(1) Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the law of God.
(2) WSC 14, Sin is any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God.
(3) RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act where we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything.
2. Why is there now no condemnation? Note the location: in Christ Jesus.
(1) Justification is the opposite of condemnation.
WSC 33, Justification is an act of God's free grace in which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous
in his sight--only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to us and received by faith alone.
(2) To become a Christian means to be so closely identified with Christ that God sees us literally in Christ. God
places us in Christ and our life is hidden in him; he literally becomes our life. We have a sacred obligation.
8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
1. What is "the flesh"?
(1) The "flesh" (sarx) is not our physical body, but rather our human nature that is attracted to sin.
Is it our sinful nature (NIV)? Good dog vs. bad dog so that whichever we feed gets stronger?
It is more accurate to say that the Christian is both fallen yet redeemed. Our life is a battleground of competing
desires. Because were still sinners, we are drawn to sin. But b/c we are Christians were drawn to Christ (cf.
Gal. 5:16-17).
Paul Tripp, New Morning Mercies (Feb 13). We buy into this one fateful thought, that perhaps we're smarter
than God, that maybe our way is better than his way. Only grace can deliver the deluded from the danger they
are to themselves.

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(2) So "to live according to the flesh" is to follow this suicidal impulse thinking it will bring us life apart from God.
2. What is this sacred obligation?
(1) The Scriptures teach that there is no obligation to live according to the flesh. Sin is a cruel task master that pays
now in brief moments of pleasure and in a slow, creeping death. Why? B/c you are pursuing life apart from God.
(2) 1 Cor 6:19b-20, You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you shall die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
1. Remember these are the wages of sin = death.
(1) If you live by / are ruled by / desire to live according to your sinful nature, you shall die.
(2) Sin may bring pleasure for a season, but it steals, kills, and destroys real joy.
2. What is mortification?
(1) Brian Hedges, Christ Formed In You, We are called to aggressively hate our sin--to despise it, reject it, deplore it,
starve it, and make every effort to kill it.... Simply put, mortification is killing sin. This includes putting to death both
sinful actions (deeds) and sinful motivations (passions and desires) which produce them.... The imagery of mortification is intended....to communicate the vehemence, enmity, and total-war mentality we must have toward sin.
(2) Mortification is active (present, active tense), not passive.
3. We mortify sin "by the Spirit."
(1) You are in the fight of your life and for your life. The Spirit enables you to fight, so we keep in step with the Spirit to
put sin to death in our lives so that we can truly live the life that Christ died to give us.
(2) John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it
abundantly.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
1. One way you can have assurance that you are a child of God is because you are growing to hate sin in your life
more and more, and that growth is seen in following the Spirit's lead to put sin to death.
Galatians 5:16, 25, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If we live by the
Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
2. Sons / daughters of God take on the family image of hating sin. And because they hate the sin they see in their
own lives, they are inspired by the Spirit to be ruthless in killing sin.
Bottom Line: John Owen, "Always be killing sin, or sin will be killing you."
Implications:
1. A license to kill our sin means take our sin seriously.
(1) Romans 13:14, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
How can I love the sin that nailed my Jesus to the Cross?
(2) We shouldn't negotiate with temptation and sin.
Gal. 5:24, Those who have belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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 John Stott, "If besetting sins persistently plague us, it is either because we have never truly repented, or
because, having repented, we have not maintained our repentance. It is as if, having nailed our old nature to the
cross, we keep wistfully returning to the scene of its execution. We begin to fondle it, to caress it, to long for its
release, even to try to take it down again from the cross. We need to learn to leave it there. When some jealous,
or proud, or malicious, or impure thought invades our mind, we must kick it out at once. It is fatal to begin to
examine it and consider whether we are going to give in to it or not. We have declared war on it; we are not
going to resume negotiations.
3. A license to kill our sin means we aim for the heart.
(1) If you just pinch off the head of a dandelion, what happens? It comes right back.
Mark 7:20-23, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come
evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness. All these come from within, and they defile a person.
E. Peterson, The Message, ...all these are the vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.
(2) That means there is always a sin beneath the sin. It comes from the desires of the heart that wants the wrong
things.
4. A license to kill our sin means we fight for joy.
(1) Psalm 16:11, You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand
are pleasures forevermore.
Piper, Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God.
(2) Augustine, How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!
You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place,
you who are sweeter than all pleasure.
Don't forget, the centre of Christianity is not sin, but our Saviour.
Conclusion:
1. John Piper, I hear so many Christians, murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their addictions,
and their shortcomings. And I see so little war. Murmur, murmur, murmur. Why am I this way? Make war!!!
2. Imagine if Christians in this city actually believed that Christ is sweeter than all pleasure? What if we actually made
war against our sin & our selfish tendencies? What if we truly believed that there is no happiness apart from a life of
pursuit of God?

NCC, may you always be killing sin, so that sin will not be killing you.
May you be replace the fleeting pleasures of sin
with the superior pleasure of Christ who is sweeter than all pleasure.

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