We'll commence the worship of God as we read the words of Luke chapter one, beginning at verse 46. Luke chapter one, verse 46. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. Well, we'll pick up our hymn books now and worship that God of Abraham as we turn to number 34. Tell out my soul the greatness of the Lord. you or being treated in hospital for something we don't know much about yet, but please pray for them. And also we've been told that Doreen Chitty's sister is now receiving palliative care and we'll also be thanking God that Elysia had her consultation last week, and the family had some degree of reassurance as a result of that. So let's now come to God in prayer. Almighty God, our loving, merciful, and gracious Heavenly Father, one who is unbounded, by time and place, whose wisdom and knowledge is beyond anything we can grasp, and whose love is boundless. We come to you as one who is altogether higher and holier and different to us. And yet we come also, our Father, knowing that you have a great love for your people, and that the pulpit of that love is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that so many sitting here tonight have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, knowing the gifts of repentance and faith, and sins forgiven, and being drawn back to you through the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you then for the many privileges and blessings we know in him, peace with you, and sin forgiven, a Holy Spirit living within, and a glorious future promised ahead. We thank you for these blessings. We thank you for the many temporal blessings which we experience making us amongst the most wealthy people on the face of this planet. We pray that just as you've been gracious and generous to us in sending your son, you would make us generous people towards each other and towards those amongst whom we live and who suffer around the world. We meet as usual with the backdrop of wars and rumors of wars. Our Father, we think of the situation in Ukraine and Belarus and Russia We pray for your people in the Ukraine, knowing that there are groups and churches around that land. We thank you that despite years of civil war in eastern Ukraine, there have been over 30 churches, we believe, planted there in the last eight years or so. Evidence of your blessing upon those people, despite much difficulty and hardship. But we pray for them now, wherever in Ukraine they may be, and especially thinking of those orphanages and those groups of vulnerable young people being looked after among the churches. And we pray especially that you'd safeguard them, and indeed all your people at this time. Grant them that peace of mind which passes all understanding. We pray if it's your will that matters would be de-escalated and we pray for peace. We pray for your people in other places where there is war and conflict and famine, especially for your people in places where they are persecuted for their faith, Afghanistan and North Korea, China, many, many other places. We lift your people before you tonight and pray again that you would help them in all their difficulties and conflicts. We pray that they remain faithful to you despite opposition and persecution. We thank you for news this week of the appointment of a Christian to the Supreme Constitutional Court in Egypt and for the thought and perhaps real possibility, if you will, that there might be an even-handed approach to the application of the law in that land. And also for the judgment we hear about in India, where a more local judge ruled in favor of Christians to be able to build a church, despite much local opposition. So we do thank you that there are places where there are gains for the gospel and for the kingdom, We pray for your people here, knowing that those particularly in the workplace are experiencing greater stress and difficulty as their consciences are bound to scripture, and yet they're under pressure to celebrate and be involved in things which are distinctly against your will. And so we pray for those in authority over us tonight. We think of the government, And we ask our God that they would be committed to truth, committed to doing what is right in your sight. We think of this measure which is being debated and discussed in Parliament about so-called conversion therapy. And even now we pray our God that you would cause people to reflect very hard upon this measure. whereby a tiny minority, a very small number indeed, would be given a very big stick to beat any who speak against them. We pray, our God, that you'd frustrate their evil designs and protect not only our liberty, but the well-being of so many in our society. Our Father, we thank you for the freedom we do enjoy, and we pray that you'd help us to treasure it and use it wisely. We think of our own number here and for those who are struggling in various ways, we pray again for little Nathan. We pray for those looking after him and for his parents. We pray our God that you'd have mercy upon the child and deliver him to good health. We thank you that Elysia had her consultation last week and that through it there was a degree of assurance for Tom and Hannah. And we pray that this little one would continue to develop healthily and with a degree of strength and better health in the days to come. We pray for Rita as she is now being treated in hospital. We pray that she would know that assurance of faith and that she would have a living and a good hope in you. We pray for Mark Watkins, we thank you that we saw him again today and we pray that he too would receive the help he needs with his various serious medical problems. And we also pray tonight for Anne Burrows, we know that Wesley's mother is going through a difficult time with her health and we pray that she would receive good medical help at this time and that you'd be able to and willing to restore her fully to the family and to the church. We thank you, our God, for the blessings we've enjoyed here over recent months. We thank you for the ways in which you've undertaken for us and the way that we've been able to come through this difficult time with restrictions. And we thank you that so many have remained quite well and that we've been able to carry on doing virtually all the basic things we want to do as a church, all the things we're required to do to please you. We pray that going forward we'll be able to relax things. We pray that you'll help us to be wise in this, that we would have regard to those who need to be careful, but also to be free from fear, free from worry as we seek to do things without restriction. Our God and Father, we thank you for this hour of worship now. We pray for Simon as he comes amongst us. We thank you for bringing him safely. And for his ministry this morning, we pray again that you would speak through him. Speak to your people tonight. Give us listening ears, help us to understand and help us to obey. We pray for his church in Shepshed. We ask that you bless and encourage them. in the weeks and months ahead as they seek to proclaim faithfully the word of truth. So we bring you now all these things, Father, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please take up your hymn books and turn to number 120. you And before Simon comes up to preach, we're going to read our second portion of scripture, which is from Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, and beginning at verse 32. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, also of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to fight flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment, They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Therefore, since we also are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. So this evening we turn to the book of Hebrews which describes itself very helpfully for us in chapter 13 and verse 22 as a short word of encouragement. That's what we turn to this evening. And we're coming into chapter 12, that part after the gallery of faith in chapter 11, where the Christian is encouraged to run the race that is marked out for them. To live the Christian life, described here as running the race. And our one simple theme this evening is to look at an essential part of running that race. And it is that we as Christians deal ruthlessly with indwelling sin. Please turn with me to chapter 12 and verse 2, sorry verse 1, verse 1, where we are instructed to do four things. We are firstly instructed to lay aside every weight. I've just laid aside my jacket, I took it off. I've separated myself from it and it from me. I've lain it aside. And the weights being referred to there would be such things as vain regrets, which so many Christians carry round with them as enormous weights as they're running the race. And it impedes them with these weights that they're carrying. That's the first thing we're instructed to do. The third thing we're instructed to do is to run with endurance, with patience, with perseverance, the race that is marked out for us. And we can picture ourselves there in our own lane. There's no need to be over-concerned about the one on the left-hand lane or the right-hand lane. We are instructed to run the race that is marked out for us. That's the third instruction. The fourth instruction is that we do all that looking to Jesus. We lift our eyes off of ourselves and to him who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. That's three of the four things we're instructed to do. And our concern this evening is simply with number two, which I haven't yet mentioned, where we are instructed to lay aside the sin which so easily ensnares us. We're called to run the race marked out for us, our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who has endured the cross, scorning its shame for the joy set before him. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. But as part of our race, we are to lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares us. So our topic this evening is simply that of mortification, which is putting to death our indwelling sin. We're to put to death our indwelling sin. It's a very relevant Christian theme. In many ways, it's bread and butter Christianity. It should be part of our everyday lives. We're to run the race which we acknowledge, but part of running that race is to lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares us. And I would put it to you this evening that every one of us in some measure should be able to answer the question this evening, what are we particularly concerned at the moment to be putting to death? What are we working on in our own lives that the Lord has brought to our attention? Maybe our impatience, maybe our envy, maybe our jealousy. What are we working on to put this to death? Our answer might not be instant, but I don't suppose it should take us very long to recognize some of the things which in our daily race we are seeking God's help as we put them to death. Now, why is this important? Well, it's very relevant, but it seems to be often forgotten and neglected today. In his very interesting book, Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges in chapter two quotes a book that was written in 1973, and some of us remember that year. He asked the question, whatever became of sin? That was a question in a Christian book in 1973. Not that sin had disappeared, the practice had not disappeared, but mention of it, even in evangelical churches, appears to have been diminishing. In chapter 2 of his book, Jerry Bridges quotes the last time the word was used by the President of the United States at his proclamation. And that was at the annual day of national prayer back in 1953. And the President was then quoting Abraham Lincoln's words of 1863. It's a word which has fallen out of use. And this century, Don Carson, the Canadian pastor, professor, teacher, speaks of his frustration in doing university evangelism. When students, he says, know how well to sin enough, but they have no idea of what constitutes sin. But surely it's a disappearance largely from some elements of the evangelical world which is much more concerning for us this evening and even alarming. Studies of evangelical sermons reveal an absence of a reference to sin and to judgment and to repentance and to mortification. then that should really cause alarm bells to ring. It isn't always what we hear that should concern us, but what we don't hear should ring alarm bells. It's been said of us that there is an absence of confession and repentance in public and private prayer as we accommodate the spirit of the age. And so I want to look at four simple headings this evening as we, as believers I trust, look to lay aside the sin which does so easily ensnare us. And the first thing to say, very simply, is that like me, you have a responsibility. The responsibility is to lay aside. Now nobody else is going to do that for you. It's your responsibility in the Lord Jesus Christ. I understand you've been going through the book of Romans recently, and Romans 6 of course makes it perfectly clear that in Christ we have been saved both from the power and from the penalty of sin. We are now dead to sin and alive to the living God. And that should make a difference to us in the way we practice our lives, the way we run our race. In the Lord Jesus Christ we've been saved ultimately from the very presence of sin in that glorious eternal age yet to come. The responsibility there in Romans chapter 6 is spelled out in these words, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. You who are now dead to sin and alive to Christ, this is your responsibility, don't let sin reign in your mortal body. Elsewhere, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Thessalonica, it is God's will that you be holy. It is God's will that you be holy, utterly devoted to Him and to the Lord Jesus Christ. His magnificent purpose for you in Christ is to conform you more and more to the likeness of His beloved Son. And so we have a responsibility and it's spelled out for us throughout the New Testament. We could have turned to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14, pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. We're to be a holy people as we run the race marked out for us. And that involves a responsibility to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles. Robert Murray McShane said that his people's greatest need was his own personal holiness. as he ran the race marked out for him, laying aside the sin that so easily ensnared him. It's a great reminder here that we are at war. The word race here used in these verses means a contest, a strife, a contention, a peril, a toil, an inward and outward conflict. Don't you know there's a war on? And as Christians we face that war on three fronts, against the world and the flesh, our indwelling sin and the devil. We're not to be naive. I think it may well have been John Owen who said, the quality of your enjoyment of Christ depends upon this issue. Listen to these words, the vigour and the power and the comfort of our spiritual life depends upon the mortification of the misdeeds of the body. So the first thing to underline this evening is we have a responsibility to put these things to death, to lay them aside. As Paul says to the church at Rome, by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body. When the same author writes to the church at Colossae, he says, put to death your members which are of the earth. You see, it's part and part of the bread and butter of everyday Christian life. Peter says in his first letter, chapter 2 and verse 1, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking. We find the same in James chapter 1 and verse 21. Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, put off the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. We have a responsibility. As Jesus himself says in Matthew chapter 5, we are to pluck out the right eye, if he defends us, cut off the right hand. And that's vivid language isn't it? It's not to be taken literally, it's almost violent language telling us that decisive, drastic, determined action is needed by us as we run the race marked out for us because we have a responsibility to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us. So secondly, we then need to be realistic, don't we, as believers about sin. We need to call it for what it is. In Matthew, et cetera, Jesus is dealing with lust. He's dealing with sexual immorality in the heart, a violation of the seventh commandment. He's dealing there with sexual sin. And he tells us that the command is broken not only by the actual act, but by the sinful indulgence of the heart and mind, the desires, the thoughts, the look. and he calls it sin. When we do that, we are sinning. We need to be realistic that when I slander, I'm sinning. When I'm running down a brother or sister behind their back, I'm sinning. When I'm gossiping, I'm sinning. When I'm bitter, I'm sinning. There are many such lists, aren't there, in the New Testament. Fornification, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, Paul says in Colossians chapter three and verse five. We're to put off anger, and wrath, and malice, and blasphemy, and filthy language. We're not to lie. These are sins. And for too long, as Jerry Bridges' book is indicating, we've come to accommodate certain sins as almost respectable in our lives. Anxiety and frustration, discontent, unthankfulness, pride, a lack of self-control, impatience, irritability, sins of the tongue, judgmentalism, they're sins. And when we do these things, we're sinning against the God who loves us and has saved us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to recognize that fleshly lusts wage war against our soul. The flesh lusts against the Spirit. And sometimes we need to give ourselves a rather firm talking to. When we hear that murmur, we have to tell ourselves that, well, that's sin. That is wrong. That is an offense against a holy God. We need to unmask it. We need to tell ourselves it's unacceptable for someone who's now dead in sin, dead to sin, and alive to the living God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That our continuing sins dishonor Him. It's as though we're disowning Him, despising Him, distrusting Him. It's as though we're going again to defile ourselves. These sins which we are to lay aside because they so easily ensnare us, have we not recognized that they are weakening our souls? And very often it's the continuation of this indwelling sin within us that deprives us of spiritual strength and peace, of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. These things hinder and divert and they can rob us of so much peace and joy in the Savior. We have number one, a responsibility, and that responsibility involves us being realistic about sin, recognizing it in our own lives for what it is. The third thing here is that we have a requirement, and that is to lay it aside. It's a picture taken from the world of athletics, where at the beginning of a race, you would put aside your garment. You leave it behind as you begin the race. You leave it behind you as you make progress. You wouldn't dream of wearing it as you're running around the 400 meters of the track. And why wouldn't you wear this long flowing garment? Well, it would impede your progress. You wouldn't win. You wouldn't get very far. It's likely that you trip yourself up with a garment that you fail to lay aside. And so it is with indwelling sin. We have to recognize and engage in the battle with the flesh. We have to recognize at times something of its upper hand that it so easily ensnares us. We can be so vulnerable to certain temptations. They can easily encompass us. At times, some of the sins seem to have an advantage in prevailing against us. We have to lay them aside. It's like the shower curtain that sticks to your body and you have to throw it to one side. In a decisive, determined action, it needs more than a flick. It needs determined effort by the grace of God. Otherwise these things are like creeping ivy all over our lives. The little book published in the name of John Owen on mortification of sin is a really helpful book to bring this theme to our eyes to our hearts in a very practical way and help us to run the race marked out for us he says a number of things in that book and i'm going to mention some of them now we have this requirement as believers to lay aside this sin which so easily entangles what can help us in that well number one is that we need to remind ourselves of what we are In the Lord Jesus Christ, we are now nothing less than temples of the living God. For God's Spirit dwells within us. That's the importance of what Paul is saying there in the book of Romans. We're to live in accordance with the Spirit. We're indwelt by the Spirit. We're led by the Spirit. We're controlled by the Spirit. And from time to time, the temple needs to be cleansed, doesn't it? We're nothing less than temples of the living God. The spirit who lives within us is no one less than the Holy Spirit. And when we're reminded of that, sometimes we very quickly say to ourselves, don't we, well, you shouldn't have thought that. Well, you shouldn't be desiring that. A temple of the living God shouldn't be thinking like that. What are we? We're temples of the living God. That's the first picture I pick up from John Owen. The second I tend to think of that bleach known as Domestos. We've all seen it, we've all seen the advert. The great thing about Domestos, and there are other well-known brands, is that it kills all known germs. Dead. All of them. Not just some of them. That's why we must have it in our bathrooms. And I find it interesting that in 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1, Paul says, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Sometimes we need to take ourselves in hand, don't we? and remind ourselves that we are not to be careless in any area of our lives, but our joy and our privilege to please our Savior is to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The fear of God, which means that we truly recognize Him for who He is in all of His transcendence. in all of his height, this sublime God. And yet in his nearness, his imminence, to fear God is to know him as he truly makes himself known here in the scriptures, is to have that sense of his presence as we run the race marked out for us. And how that fear of God is to delight in being his children and wanting to run the race in such a way as to bring him pleasure and delight. We're temples and we need a spot of spiritual domestos. The third picture I pick up from John Owens is that of a doctor. A doctor who wears the stethoscope and who puts it on the heart and other places too to try you for your symptoms. And I think as believers we should be doing that. We should be testing our own pulse, spiritual pulse, from time to time. I mean, is it my right hand which is more likely to be offensive than my right eye? We should know something, shouldn't we, of our regular patterns of sin, testing, as it were, our spiritual blood pressure? And sometimes, as we put the stethoscope to our lives, we have to confess that it might pick out sins that in our own lives have been rather dangerously established. Now lust may be more visible, but envy can grow over the whole patch and be equally destructive. As can bitterness, which of course we can hide with our Sunday best smile, morning and evening. thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Sometimes in our lives we detect that there have been sins which are so dangerously established, it is as though sin reigns, it doesn't, but nevertheless some are so dangerously established they've got such a foothold in us and we must lay them aside, put them to death. If we're honest, we might recognize that there are sins that we have compromised with. That we've made an exception for this or for that. We've made peace with it. We've made peace with it rather than seeking pardon for it. Maybe there's certain sins which we've rather left alone in our lives. Self-deceiving, really. but they're there and the instruction is to lay them aside. There can be those regular sins, can't there, which have in a perverse way nevertheless been a companion to us and brought some short-term comfort to us. And we've turned to them frequently and we've returned to them repeatedly. We've even made them a choice of delight. If we're honest, we might find these things when we put the stethoscope to the heart. There are other sins that we might have resolved to do, were it not for any punishment, because we've taken such pleasure in them, whereas we're instructed to hate them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are there places that you know in your life where you've resisted God's dealings with you? known something perhaps even of being afflicted and yet you still persist. The temple of the living God, spiritual domestos, a doctor with a stethoscope around their neck. Fourthly, a preacher with glasses because that way we can tell it to ourselves as it really is and see it for what it is. and remind ourselves. Wasn't it Dr. Lloyd-Jones who said that one of our main problems as Christians is that we listen to ourselves rather than talking to ourselves? And I'm sure in this matter we need to talk to ourselves. That should have no place in your life anymore. That's sin. That grieves the Holy Spirit. That offends your loving Heavenly Father. That reduces your usefulness as you serve in the body of the Church. I'm in danger if I don't deal with this indwelling sin. Sometimes we need to be a preacher with glasses who sees it for what it really is and tells us what it really is like. A temple, spiritual domestos, a doctor with a stethoscope, a preacher with glasses. Fifthly, I'm sure John Owen encouraged us to be, an insomniac, someone who gives yourself no rest until you've known a measure of victory over indwelling sin. There's lots of other things which give us no rest, aren't there? John Owen would encourage us to give ourselves no rest until we know something of a victory over these patterns of sins in our lives as Christians. We're to lay them aside. Sixthly, and it's a rather old-fashioned picture here, going back to old pirate ships, really, of standing in the crow's nest of a ship. You're put in a crow's nest to look out for the land, to look out for the icebergs, to look out for dangers. And you know, sometimes it's not a bad thing to begin the week looking ahead into that week from the crow's nest. And we don't know what's going to happen to us during the week, but we do know that there are certain circumstances and certain opportunities which are due to be presented to us which we know in our own hearts might well present an opportunity for us to sin. There are those occasions, aren't there? There are those seasons when we're more vulnerable to certain sins. And if we recognize that from the crow's nest, we can tell ourselves and seek God's help for it. There are some circumstances. There are some people. the certain company where we are more vulnerable than others because of our propensity to sin in this way. And if we're in the crow's nest and we can see it coming, then we have every opportunity, don't we, to walk on the other side of the road, to avoid the opportunity if we're able to. Seventhly, what I call 999. When we get on the phone and we dial 999 as a rapid response, don't we, to an emergency situation. Oh, wouldn't our lives have been different if we dialed 999 as a rapid response to the first movement of certain sins in our lives? If we'd been aware of it and we'd shut the door in its face. rather than keeping the door ajar and letting it have an entrance. Perhaps you can think of sins this evening where you particularly are not to give them a millimetre. Certain sins are like water, aren't they, in a channel and when they come in there'll be a cascade, there'll be a waterfall, there'll be a river in which you're in danger of drowning. If only we knew that 999 immediate response to the approach of sin and were able to say no. In the Old Testament, Joseph in the house of Potiphar with Joseph's wife, with Potiphar's wife, what does Joseph do? He flees. He gets out of the situation rather than be caught in sin. And how many of us would learn well from Joseph. Just two more. Our next picture, a walker with the map. We're having a holiday this week in Shropshire. We shall look at maps and we shall hopefully know where to go and we shall hopefully follow the footpaths. I shall be looking at it regularly to find out where it is that I've gone wrong to get back on the right path. What do I mean here? Well, the map is the scriptures. And we simply need to be a people who are regularly referring to the map that is the scriptures. The scriptures that speak to us of the holiness of our God. The scriptures which speak of our proneness to selfishness. The scriptures which remind us of our need for humility and to walk humbly with our God. It's such a helpful declaration to us, isn't it? As we're running this race that's marked out for us, and we have this instruction to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles, it helps to be in the scriptures that we might have this word in our hearts that we might not sin against God. Be a walker who's regularly in the map. And then ninthly, well, I think there's a time for us to be stingy, with a sticking plaster. How easy it can be just to find a graze and to put a plaster on and we haven't really dealt with what's going on underneath. There might be some grit underneath that reads eking out with a knife or a sharp instrument. But we don't want to be concerned with that, we don't want the hard work and the pain, we'll just put a little sticking plaster over the mark that we have on our wrists. You know there's a place, isn't there, for ongoing repentance and godly sorrow. As we see our sin for what it is, as we sorrow for it, as we shame over it, as we confess it to the living God, as we hate it now in our own hearts and then we turn from it, laying aside the sin that so easily entangles. We have a responsibility as we run the race that is marked out for us. Nobody else will do this for us. That responsibility involves recognizing and being realistic about sin. And thirdly, has the requirement that we lay it aside. And some of those pictures from John Owen may be a help to us to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles. But lastly, it's an instruction that we resolve to root it out. And as we run this race, we are to root out and lay aside these sins in the light of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is something that we're to do in the light of the cross. This is something to do as we are to look at Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame. How quickly in the Christian life we can forget the cross and the gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ, where mercy met the anger of God's rod. How quickly we can forget the holiness of God, the offence of our sin. How quickly we can forget how gracious and merciful God has been to us in the Lord Jesus. We need to think, don't we as Christians, about our sin, past, present and even future. And the words of that great hymn, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And such a thought can help us to root out indwelling sin within us. We know that Christ's perfect righteousness has been credited to us. And so the one who is at the centre of our mortification is none other than the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. We're to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles as men, women and young people who've been forgiven. As men, women and young people who are accepted as righteous before God because we're acceptable to him in his beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be those who root out indwelling sin, knowing that united to Christ through faith, hallelujah, I died to sin. I died to sin and I'm alive to the living God. And so we're to go on putting sin to death by the Spirit. It's not a work by self-imposed torture. It's not a self-righteous act of self-love. We put to death the misdeeds of the body by God the Holy Spirit. It's a spiritual work and he's sufficient for that work. As he goes on applying to us the work of redemption on Calvary's cross. It's as we look to Jesus that we see the truth of our indwelling sin and our resolve to lay it aside. And we need to look to Him from whatever else it would be that would distract us. He's the author and the perfecter of our faith. He has sat down at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He ever lives to intercede for those who are His own. Our names are inscribed upon the palm of His hand, across His heart. He bears our names as our Great High Priest upon His shoulder. In the light of who He is and what He has done for us, we are to continually depend upon His Spirit and to live under His controlling influence to help us to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles. He has begun a good work in us. That work is pleasing to Him, it's a work to conform us to the likeness of Christ. There will be progress in each and every one of us who is truly the Lord's. So as we see these things, as our attention is brought to them in our daily lives, let's be those who lay them aside, because otherwise they so easily ensnare us. So in the coming days, may you be helped by God to run with perseverance the race marked out for you to keep on, to be patient, to endure, to bear up, to remain constant. You're in a race and it's been marked out for you. You have from chapter 11 here the encouragement of those who've gone before. but there are weights and sins which can impede you in the Christian life. Can I encourage you this evening, encourage all of us to hear what God has said to us this evening, to humble ourselves before him, maybe to come afresh to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, To look upon the mercy of God which he continues to delight to show to us. And to seek to love him and to hate sin. We're to strangle the indwelling sin which remains in us. We're to throttle it. We're to put it to death. knowing that the grace of God is at work in us, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. May God help us to resist temptation and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, and all for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Run the race marked out for you. looking to the author and perfecter of the Lord Jesus Christ and as part of that bread and butter everyday Christianity, lay aside the weights and the sin that so easily entangles. Our closing hymn this evening is number 708 708 708 And we close with some very searching words, which is something of a prayer from us to our Father in heaven above. Let's stand as we're able and sing our closing hymn. And now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To God our Saviour who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for evermore. Amen.