A Summary of How to Kill Sin - Tim Conway - Romans 8:13

Romans 8.

And I'm sure if you are familiar at all

with your Bibles,

you have read the verse
that I want to look at.

You're familiar with it.

You know it.

Verse 13.

"For if you live according to the flesh,

you will die."

Now, just right there,

think about what the flesh is.

If you look back up in v. 7,

you see some interesting
things about the flesh.

You guys know,

Romans 8 is basically this comparison.

What you have is the comparison

of the life lived in the flesh

and the life lived in the what?

Spirit.

So you have true Christianity

against that which is not Christianity.

That's the comparison back and forth.

As you read through the chapter,

you can see that.

Paul is constrasting very specifically

those in the flesh, those in the Spirit.

Those with the mind on the flesh.

Those with the mind on the Spirit.

Back and forth it goes.

A quick look at v. 7, and you see

what is very characteristic

of those in the flesh:

They're at enmity, depending
on the translation you have.

Enmity.

They are hostile to God.

And they not only don't
keep His commandments

and do His Word,

the Scripture there says they can't.

Okay, when you come to v. 13,

we've got the people in the flesh.

They die.

So listen, if this basically
characterizes your life,

that you do your own thing -

that's what you need to
see about v. 7 back up there

is living in the flesh is not just

you go off to the saloon,

hang out in the bars,

and you're involved in the
wild parties all the time.

Living in the flesh is just simply this:

you're not going to have
God tell you what to do.

I mean, that's it.

That's what you see in v. 7.

That's characteristic of those
who live in the flesh.

V. 13, "if you live according
to the flesh, you will die."

Lay it down.

He's not opening this up for debate.

It's a straight deal here, folks.

If you live according
to the flesh, you die.

Basically, if your life is characterized

by doing what you want to do

and not really having regard

for what God wants you to do,

all you really have to
do to live in the flesh, folks,

you can be moral.

You don't have to be wild.

You don't have to be out of control.

Just say I'm going to do things my way

and you're going to die.

Okay, but if you, by the Spirit -

"if by the Spirit, you put to death

the deeds of the body, you will live."

Let me tell you something
about the life in Christ.

This is probably the greatest
external characteristic

of true Christianity in all the Bible.

You think about it.
You go to 1 John, what do you find?

You find: if you say you know Him

and you don't keep His commandments,

what's true about you?

You're a liar.

The truth isn't in you.

I mean, what you have
right here is this, folks:

live the way you want to live, you die.

Live the way God wants you to live,

and you live.

Now, just for the sake of it,

since we're right here,
I think it's important

that we probably go to the next verse,

lest we have some kind
of misunderstanding.

You know, if we just
had v. 13 all by itself,

it would almost seem to say what?

You almost have this idea

that if you put to death
the deeds of the body,

what happens?

You get eternal life.

It almost sounds like
you work it out, right?

Well, Paul realizes that it has

that sound to it, so
when he goes to v. 14,

he immediately clarifies himself.

And you see, v. 14 in your Bibles

starts with "for."

Or if you have an NIV,
it starts with "because."

It's because he's going to explain.

He's not moving on to a new subject.

He is just going to go in v. 14

to go a little deeper into
what he was saying.

"For all who are led..."

All who are thus led by the Spirit.

To do what? To put to
death the deeds of the body.

"All who are thus led by the Spirit of God

are sons of God."

Now look, this is what he's saying.

He's saying if you put to
death sin, you will live.

Now you don't live
because you put to death

the deeds of the body.

You live because you're a child of God.

You've been born again.

That's what he's saying there.

The whole point is

this is an evidence, not a cause.

It's an evidence of those

who have eternal life.

Now look, we can say this about anybody.

Anybody comes to this church,

anybody a member of this church,

anybody that we deal with
out in this community here,

we know this, if we come across them

and they tell us they're Christians,

this better characterize their life

because Paul says you live.

John says you're a child of God

if you give this characteristic evidence

that it is common in your life.

It is the general characteristic.

It is the general run of your life

that you kill sin.

Listen, you cannot say -

how many times have you heard this?

We get this in our church.

You guys have probably heard it here.

Well, you know, I was a teenager

and I professed Christ back when I was 14,

but you know I ran off
into all this kind of sin,

but I know I was a Christian.

Now, wait a second.

How do you know you were a Christian?

Well, I just know.

Or I had this experience or I did this.

Now listen,

this is not a call to Christian perfection

by any stretch of the imagination.

This doesn't have anything to do

with living day after day

with absolutely no sin in your life.

But what this is is characteristic.

This is definitely a pattern, folks.

And I can look at anybody

and I can make a general assessment

about their life based on this text.

I mean, Paul lays it down here.

There is a vital connection between

putting to death sin and life.

I'm telling you, every
single person in heaven

has lived this life

of putting to death deeds of the body.

Now that's interesting.

Obviously, he doesn't mean
every deed of the body.

He doesn't mean using
your hand to help a widow.

Obviously, he doesn't mean that.

It's plain that what we
have spoken about here

is using the body,

using facial expressions,

using the tones of the voice,

using sexual organs,

using hands, using feet,

using the body overall

to carry out deeds of wickedness.

We are to live a life of doing good.

Have you guys ever read that?

I mean, you go to 2 John,
you know what you have?

John can say this:

Look, we know children of God.

We know those who are saved.

And you know what he says there?

They do good.

2 John. You read that sometime.

He basically says we can know

the saved from the lost.

The saved do good.

These people over here don't do good.

This idea that Christians do good

is a very biblical idea.

You see, being saved is just about

being saved from sin

in its practice right here

as much as being saved from its guilt,

as much as being saved
from the wrath of God.

We are saved from the power of sin.

All we have to do is go back to chapter 6

and you read in v. 14,

"Sin will not have dominion over you."

Folks, this is the working out of that.

Sin will not dominate your life

if you're a Christian.

That's what that says.

V. 13 of chapter 8 - you cannot
make it say anything else.

Purity of life.

You as a Christian have been led by Christ

through His Spirit

to do battle with sin.

If that is not characteristic of your life,

then your life is not
characteristic of the Christian life.

Now look, here's the thing.

Okay, we've got to do this.
We've got to kill sin.

You know what?

As I've really thought
about this, I realize this:

deeds of the body come from somewhere.

So, it definitely is to
our great advantage

to figure out where they come from,

because if you want to attack this thing;

if you're going to do battle,

we need to go to the root of the problem.

And if you go back to chapter 6:12,

you'll see exactly the root;

exactly where these deeds come from.

Romans 6:12,

"Let not sin therefore reign

in your mortal bodies..."

Okay, see, right there you've
got the mortal bodies.

Now remember what we have to put to death.

We have to put to death
these deeds of the body.

Right here you have the mortal body.

Sin is seeking to reign in the mortal body

to make you it obey,
there, the body's passions.

Now that's interesting.

Here's what you've got.

Sin is not plural here. It is singular.

Which means it's not speaking about sins

as in individual sins.

It's speaking about sin as a power.

Sin as a force.

Sin as an evil force seeks to dominate.

It seeks to rule.

It seeks to reign in your body by what?

By making you obey your body's passions.

You see that?

Is that plain? Did I just make that up?

That's there right?

You guys see that.

Well, what's key about that?

Well, here's the thing,

if I'm saved

and the Spirit of God leads me,

and listen, we do it by the Spirit.

But we do it.

This idea of putting to
death deeds of the body -

if you by the Spirit put to death

deeds of the body, you will live.

This isn't a kind of hyper-Calvinism.

You know, we sit back

and the Spirit of God's
just going to purify me.

You remember, the Scripture tells us

to work out our salvation
with fear and trembling.

There's a battle here,
folks, and we fight it.

We do it. Yes, we do it in
the power of the Spirit.

You can't do it outside of the Spirit.

You can't do it outside of Christ.

But in Christ, that which
is impossible otherwise

by nature when you're in the flesh

is very possible.

In fact, so possible
that if you have life,

you will put these things to death.

And what you put to death is this:

Sin seeking to rule in your bodies.

Seeking to dominate by making you obey

the passions of this body.

Now listen, as I began
to think about that,

I thought, yeah, that's
exactly what happens.

I mean, think about when you sin.

Think about the whole chemistry here.

If you begin to dissect this thing,

and you begin to pull
it apart piece by piece,

what happens?

I sin.

I use my mouth.

I use my eyes.

I use my hands

in a way that I shouldn't use them.

And I sin.

When I do what?

When I try to gratify some desire.

That's what drives us to sin.

But how?

And you know, as I began to contemplate

both of these things

and just mulling these
things over in my head,

I'm thinking okay,

well, let's just look at desires.

So I looked through the
entire New Testament.

Everywhere that word came up.

And I'm trying to focus in on that

and trying to find out about the character

of these desires.

And then also sin - not sins plural,

but sin as a power.

Let's look at that and go all the
way through the New Testament

and examine that,

and even some places in the Old Testament.

And what's very interesting is this,

turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4:22.

"Put off your old self..."

I'm reading from the ESV.

But you guys can kind
of catch the drift here.

Ephesians 4:22 if you've
got a different translation.

"Put off your old self

which belongs to your
former manner of life

and is corrupt through deceitful desires."

You see that right there?

The word desires there -

exact same one you've
got back in Romans 6:12.

Notice what it calls it:

deceitful.

You know something very interesting

about these desires that sin seeks

to have us obey is
they are deceitful desires.

But you know, then as you begin to study

and you begin to think about

the reality of sin.

Turn to Hebrews 3:13.

I mean, basically, this is
what we're confronted with

when we sin.

We have sin as a power

who's an enemy in this,

seeking to make us obey corrupt desires

which is the enemy.

Basically, there are two enemies here

when it comes to my sin as a Christian.

I've got sin as a power seeking to reign

by making me obey sinful passions.

And so I've got sin. I've got passions.

If I can deal with those two dogs,

I can nail this thing.

Now, in 4:22 of Ephesians,

what I wanted to show you

is that these desires
are called deceitful.

Now what I want you to see right here

in Hebrews, "Exhort one another every day

as long as it is called today,

that none of you may be hardened

by the deceitfulness of sin."

Listen!

Sin's power to have sway in your life

goes only so far in the fact that it has

the ability to deceive you.

What I want you guys to understand

is if I'm to put to death

deeds of the body,

and they come from sin trying to reign

in my body - the sin is deceitful,

the desires are deceitful.

Guess what that tells me?

It tells me I sin when I do what?

When I believe a lie.

You know how you put to death sin?

When you stop believing the lie

that you believe every
time you do the sin.

I'll guarantee you,

those of you in this
room that sin the most,

are the most given to believe a lie.

You're doing it because
I'll tell you what,

sin is stupid. It is asinine.

Every time.

It is destructive.

It doesn't help you.

It only separates.

It only damages.

It's only destructive.

And why do you do it?

Because you buy into some lie.

You know what, we see it in our kids.

We see it in the lost.

We've got a young man

who's a member of our church,

and just traded Christ for a woman.

Why?

Was that wise?

Was that to his eternal benefit?

Is that going to be helpful to him?

Is that going to make him
happy down the road?

You know it won't.

But see, it's not as
though he's some alien

and that's foreign to us.

We've walked that path, folks.

We have chosen sin,

and even now as a Christian,

when you choose sin,

you do so because just like that young man

you believe a lie.

Every single time.

You sin only when you believe a lie.

Your pride is a lie.

Your unrighteous anger is a lie.

Your materialism, obsession with comfort,

your greed, your idolatry,

your covetousness, lust, jealousy -

all lies.

Whenever you give into sin,

mark it down,

you have bought a lie.

And if you'll really come
to grips with this,

it will help you.

My brother, my sister,

think about what lie you believe

when you worry.

What lie is it you've bought

lock, stock, and barrel
when you look with lust

at a woman?

What lie have you bought into
when you interrupt others?

Or feel superior? Or get angry? Or gossip?

Or feel jealous? Or fight?

Fight for comfort in this life?

Or have to have your new toy?

Count on it. There's a lie

behind each one of these.

Your struggle with sin

is a struggle with lies.

I guarantee you this.

Those of you who sin most in this room,

mark this down,

are the ones most given to believe

what is not true.

You're the most gullible.
You're the most ignorant.

And you are the most deceived.

Now listen,

I want to leave you
guys with this thought.

Because sometimes what happens is

we have some difficulty

getting a grasp on what that is.

You can say, okay brother, I believe that.

You've shown us.

Sin, desires. They're deceitful.

When I buy into them, I'm being deceived.

You see, sometimes what's difficult though

is figuring out what is
the lie that I believe?

Do you know one thing that I've seen?

You know one thing that I've seen

in Calvinistic circles, reformed circles?

One lie that is so prevalent.

And I'll guarantee you, the devil will

have you believe this every time.

It's the lie that I can't have victory.

I am just doomed to perpetual failure.

Listen, folks.

You may come to that conclusion

by some distorted hyper-Calvinism,

but you will not come to that conclusion

by the Word of God.

In fact, the verse we just
looked at in Romans 8:13

tells me exactly otherwise.

It tells me if the power of
God is real in your life,

if you're truly in Jesus Christ,

you have His Spirit.

If you have His Spirit, by that Spirit

you will put these things to death.

And one of the biggest
lies that I have seen

that Christians oftentimes fall into

is this idea I am just wretched,

I am just defeated,

I just cannot have victory in this.

I'll tell you what, you read Romans wrong

if you're reading it that way.

You look at Romans 6

and you look at v. 14.

Sin will not have dominion over you.

You look at v. 17.

It says God makes men and women

obedient from the heart.

Sin, if you are a Christian, we are told,

you are dead to sin.

Now, I'll tell you, those
are strong expressions,

but that does not just have to do

with our justification before God.

That has to do with the power of sin

in a practical and demonstrable
way in our lives.

Folks, if you're not putting it to death,

then you will die.

Now listen, that's one of the
great lies that's believed.

But there's another one.

I can remember as a young Christian.

I can remember as I was reading
through my Old Testament.

I was raised in a Catholic home.

I was not exposed to
the truth of the Word.

And so when was first saved,
I didn't have a church.

I was listening to John
MacArthur on the radio.

And I didn't have anybody mentoring me.

I wasn't hooked in somewhere.

As I'm reading through my
Bible for the first time,

this stuff is new.

I read about David numbering the people

and God came in and brought a plague.

I read about one fellow reaching out

and touching the ark

and God striking him down dead,

and I was scared.

I began to think this God is not like

I thought He was.

In fact, I was finding God
to be very terrifying.

Let me tell you something,

there was a day - this struck me too -

as a young Christian, there was a day

when a prophet - you guys know about this.

In Isaiah 6, a prophet,
very famous prophet -

probably the most famous one of all

aside from Jesus Christ -

at least Old Testament prophet.

Isaiah.

This man, he's probably
one of the godliest men

among the nation of
the Hebrews at that time.

He comes in to the temple

and he beholds the Lord

high and lifted up.

And I'm telling you,
this guy, he saw this.

You can be sure he
went right to his knees.

I mean, he probably covered up.

The glory of the Lord,

the train of His robe filled that temple,

and the doorposts shook

and you've got seraphim
and they're shouting

back and forth antiphonally:

Holy, holy, holy!

And the place is just in smoke

and shaking and he's saying,

"Woe is me!"

You know what?

You know what he was not
doing right at that moment?

He was not thinking about the young lady

he passed on the way to the temple!

He was not lusting over her!

He was not thinking about going home

and fighting with his wife!

You know why?

Because when you're confronted

by the glory of the Lord -

I'll tell you this,

one of the lies you buy into when you sin

is you buy into the lie that
God is not what He is like.

You forget who God is.

You buy a lie that He is
somewhat knocked down,

subordinate, sub-standard, sub-biblical

to what He really is in the Scriptures.

You know why?

You know what, he sees this,

and the thought in his mind right now

is not go gossip and back-stab somebody

and be bitter over somebody.

Because when you see God for who He is,

that has a way of burning through

all the falsehoods.

You see, one of the problems, folks,

we buy into a small God.

That is a lie we buy into when we sin.

I'll tell you what,

if the glory of the living Christ

hovered at the end of your kitchen

the way He did in the temple that day,

when you go home tonight,

you might not say the things

you would otherwise say.

You might not do the things
you would otherwise do.

And I'll tell you what,

when Isaiah saw himself -

when he saw God, he saw himself as well.

And you see, that's one of the problems

in our sin as well.

We think way too highly of ourselves.

Way too highly.

We think our way.

We think what we want trumps all.

That's true every single time you sin,

you totally blow off and cast off

the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

You despise it.

You count it as a little thing

and you certainly are exalting yourself.

You know pride is behind every sin.

You are exalting yourself.

You know a lie you believe
every time you sin?

You believe you're pretty great.

You believe your ways, your agenda,

your needs trump Christ's commands.

Now listen, there may
be a lot of other lies

that you believe, but you know what?

This does help.

Listen, some people come along -

Christians will come along

and they'll say,

"I've tried to fight that sin."

And I know they have.

The guy's not lying to me.

The guy's not trying to deceive me.

I know that sin grieves that brother.

I know it grieves him.

I can see the grief on his face.

I know he's prayed over that sin.

I know he struggles over that sin.

I know he's repented of that sin

and he's been sincere.

But then he says why do
I keep going back to it?

And you know what?

It's because even though

he may not like that sin,

and even though he may
be trying to fight it,

he has never yet gotten
to the root of the matter.

He has never really gone after the lie

that he believes every
time he commits that sin.

It will really help you, it will help me,

it will help us if we come to grips -

identify the sin.

And then, figure out,

what am I believing every time

I give in to that?

Because there is a thought process.

We don't sin in a vacuum.

There is thinking.

We weigh things out.

We do things.

There's a perception.

We size things up.

We look at things from a standpoint

of what is desirable.

Remember, desires are
in this thing, folks.

We have to figure out

how is it that those desires,

how is it that sin is deceiving me?

What lie am I buying into?

And I'll tell you this,

once you identify the lie,

how do you battle sin?

How do you battle corrupt desires?

I'll tell you,

if they're both deceitful,

your weapon to kill these things is truth.

If lies and deception are at the root,

truth.

You've got to come to the place

where you have a handle, you have a grip

on what is true.

You think with me.

Nadab and Abihu laying there dead.

They've been incinerated.

Aaron was not all of a sudden prone

to get angry with God.

The Scripture said he held his peace.

You better believe he held his peace.

It didn't all of a sudden occur to him

to get lazy with worship.

It didn't all of a sudden occur to him

to get sloppy as a Christian.

It didn't all of a sudden occur to him.

Why? Because the presence of God

was so real in the midst of that.

And I'll tell you, why do I
keep bringing that back in?

Because that has a whole
lot to do with truth, folks.

When you begin to see God more clearly,

you begin to see the way
things are more truly.

You see, one of the
problems we have, folks;

one of the reasons sin
is so rampant oftentimes

in our lives or in our churches,

is because the presence of God

is so little felt and experienced.

I'll tell you what, when
the glory of the Lord

descends on a church

and the fear of God descends on people

and there is a presence there

and people begin to draw close,

and there's at least some manifestation

similar to that which was
experienced by Isaiah

or experienced by Job

or experienced by Aaron -

listen, sin begins to
go out of the church.

When people really begin
to see God for who He is,

and they begin to take that
vision of God through their life,

then putting to death
the deeds of the body

becomes something that is
going to be more of a reality.

Do you guys see this
connection with truth in all this?

I mean, I hope you guys see this.

I hope you guys see, first -

I'm going to end with this.

But just to kind of summarize this,

there's a connection.

You put to death the deeds of the body.

That's evidence you're going to live.

This is life and death, folks.

Putting to death the deeds of the body.

You've got sin. It's deceitful.

Hebrews 3:13 says so.

Ephesians 4:22 says that these desires,

they're deceitful.

You've got these things.

Sin trying to make you obey

these corrupt desires.

This thing is deceitful.
This thing is deceitful.

You ought to do battle
with this thing, folks.

Truth is your weapon.

You've got to nail truth.

You begin to pinpoint the lies

you believe when you sin.

And you begin to attack that with truth.

You begin to memorize

those Scripture texts

that lie in direct contradiction

to that lie that you believe.

That truth that is in direct opposition

to that lie that you fall for.

You begin to permeate yourself

with the reality of the presence of God

and begin to see Him how He is.

You begin to come to
approaching day by day

your Christian life from this perspective:

I can have victory.

No, not only, I can have it -

I must have it. I will have it!

And if I don't have it, I'm going to die.

Not that I gain life by this battle,

but I prove that I have
life by this battle.

I get this life to battle

by becoming a child of God.

By being born again.

That's where this power's
unleashed by the Spirit.

And listen, the Spirit doesn't do it.

You must do it by the power of the Spirit.

He does it through you.

Not aside from you. Not without you.

He does it as you do it.

He calls us to an impossible life,

but we're given the third
Person of the very Trinity

to cause us to carry this thing out.

And listen, this is no small matter.

This is a life and death deal.

This is not only a life and death deal,

this is a really major church deal.

Holiness.