Mortifying Sin
Irreconcilable Differences

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Teaching Ministries

October 6, 2002
Adult Sunday School
Class #4

Key Points:

Grace changes the nature of man, but nothing changes the nature of sin . . . grace conquers, weakens, and mortally wounds the flesh but its defiant malice still smolders inside.

The flesh hates God . . . a treaty between God and the flesh is impossible . . . the only way to deal with this enmity (hostility) is to destroy it (mortify it). Those who make "provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14) only stoke it.

The flesh doesn"t hate us per say, it only hates us because God is in us—the flesh actually hates God and it therefore resists anything that has anything to do with Him—especially our communion with Him.

The more something enables us to commune with God (church, prayer, Bible study, etc.) the more violently the flesh fights against it. The battleground is our heart (mind, will, affections, and conscience).

Sin attacks holiness and God's authority in our lives. It hates the yoke of the Lord.

The flesh never is nor never will be subject to God. It's whole nature consists of opposition to God, and it never will be anything else.

Hope: The Holy Spirit which indwells the believer is committed to the flesh's destruction—the Spirit wars against the flesh! (Galatians 5:17)