Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. Beginning with verse 12. If you follow along with me, you'll find these words. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. This morning I'd like us to return to our study entitled The Mortification of Sin in Believers. It has been about a little over four months since we looked at this subject, this treatise of Dr. John Owen, and perhaps a little brief review would be helpful for us this morning. Let me read first the words of Ed Roberts, or Rob Edwards, pardon me, as he writes in his little book about Owen's work on the mortification of sin. He says, he calls this treatise on the mortification of sin, he talks about the mortification of sin as the dark side of sanctification. Now, some of you probably memorized the Shorter Catechism's definition of sanctification, which is this. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Edwards says, If mortification is the negative side of sanctification, then vivification is the positive counterpart. He says, Owen does not intend to say all that there is to say about the gospel in this short treatise on mortification. His focus is on sanctification, and in particular, on that aspect of sanctification that deals with the remaining presence of sin within us. Remember, he says, that Christ is your righteousness. Take heart to these two vital truths, that his death is at work within you as you struggle against sin, and that his resurrection is bringing new life to you so that you may live to God. Peter says in First Peter, he has begotten us again onto a lively hope or onto a living hope. Because of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we have the hope of life in him. Owen opens up this treatise with what he calls a foundational setting or the foundational platform, if you will, of his whole treatise as he opens up and expounds Romans chapter 8, verse 13b, which was read in your hearing. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. It is very important for us to understand these things. And so as a brief review, let me just run through this table of contents and remind you of the things that we've covered thus far. In chapter 2, after Owen has, in chapter 1, set forth this exposition of the 13th verse of the 8th chapter of Romans, in the second chapter he comes and he talks about the necessity of mortification. And he says that the best of believers, no matter how long you've been in the way, the best of believers must give themselves to this work of mortification. In the third chapter, Owen comes and he deals with the means of this mortification. And he says the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the only author of this work. This work of putting sin to death can only be done by the efficient cause, as Owen says, and that is the Holy Spirit who works in us and causes us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. In chapter 4, Owen talks about the usefulness of mortification. He talks about how it aids us and it supplies us with vigor and comfort in our Christian walk. It gives us strength and peace in our walk. And isn't that not what we want? To have some measure of strength and vigor as we live the Christian life and are able to deal with those sins which so easily beset us, the rite of Hebrew says. And we desire comfort, we desire peace as we walk with God. In the fifth chapter, Owen comes to the principle that is intended in all of this. And he's going to tell us and instruct us in what mortification actually is. He talks about the usefulness, I say, and then we come to chapter five. And Owen sets forth a case of conscience. He writes, these things being premised, I come to my principal intention of handling some questions or practical cases that present themselves in this business of mortifying sin in believers. Owen is a pastor. He's not just concerned, he's not concerned about pontificating and writing lofty truths, sit away in some ivory tower. He's concerned about the people of God whom God has given him charge over, and he knows that these people, each and every day of their lives, are dealing with sin. And Owen wants to help the people of God with this battle that they have with remaining sin. So he gives, he narrows it down. narrows his scope down here and he gives this scenario of this or this case of conscience he says suppose a man be a true believer and yet finds in himself a powerful indwelling sin leading him captive to the law of it, consuming his heart with trouble, perplexing his thoughts, weakening his soul as to the duties of communion with God, disquieting him as to peace and perhaps defiling his conscience, and exposing him to the hardening through the deceitfulness of sin. What shall he do? And a man in such a case as this, Owen asked the question, what shall he do? What can he do to rid himself of this malady? And Owen answers the question this way. There are three things that Owen says must be done in order for this man to fight sin. First, he says, He's going to show what it is to mortify any sin, and that both negatively and positively, that we be not mistaken in the foundation. Secondly, a general direction for such things as without which it is utterly impossible for anyone to get any sin truly spiritually mortified. And then thirdly, he's going to deal with and draw out the particulars whereby this is to be done in the whole carrying out of this consideration. This morning, we want to deal just with what mortification is. Last time we were together, Owen talked about what mortification is negatively. When the puritans say negatively, he's saying what it is not. And so Owen sets these things forth. Lest we be mistaken about what mortification really is, Owen sets forth, first and foremost, the things that mortification is not. First, he says, mortification is not utterly to destroy sin. If you think in this Christian life you're going to get enough Bible verses memorized, David says, thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against God. So if I get enough Bible verses in my heart, then I can reach a state of sinless perfection. That is fallacy, it's an error, and it's not taught in the Bible. There is no perfectionism, brethren, in this life. Sin will remain to us till our dying days. And we must fight it till we reach the grave. We must all our days be killing sin. It is true, this is that which is to be aimed at, but it is not in this life to be accomplished. Remember that. So don't be discouraged when you think that, I've been a Christian for 50 years and I'm still fighting sin. That's the lot of God's people that we must take up arms in the church militant and fight sin, not just the sin around us out there. Owen's talking about something closer. He's talking about the sin that resides still, that hangs around in our own breasts and seeks expression. He says, it will not be eradicated in this life. Secondly, he says, I think it need to be said that this mortification is not some dissimulation. It's not hiding sin. Just to hide sin is not mortification. Sometimes people think if they hide their sins, if no one knows what they're doing, then they're in a pretty good fair. You know, well, I'm putting it where no one can see it. So that's not mortification. Mortification of sin does not consist of an improvement of a quiet and sedate nature. Some people think that if I'm a calm, cool, and collected, mild-mannered person, it must be that I'm mortifying sin. That could just be the way God put you together in your mother's womb. It's just your temperament to be that way. He says also, sin is not to be mortified and is not mortified when we divert it to some other sin. Sometimes people leave off one sin and they embrace another. And they think that they've mortified sin because they no longer do this. It's the picture of a young man who's not gotten the grasp of his father's instruction to be industrious and so he hangs around the house and he lays around and the bills are paid by the parents and the food is supplied by the parents and the meals are provided by mom And he comes and enjoys the meal and he sits around and he just loves it. Mom's cooking is the best ever. And then he gets up from the table and he goes to his room and leaves mom and his siblings to wash the dishes or to clean the table. And so he doesn't cut the grass. He doesn't take out the trash. He's just there enjoying the good life. And the writer of the Proverbs would call him a name. He's a sluggard. He's lazy. But maybe one day he gets, you know, it's like this prodigal son, he came to himself. And perhaps he goes and he says, you know what, this isn't wrong. My dad's been exhorting me, he's been telling me I need to be, not be a slugger, I need to work. And so he gets up and he gets a job. And he loves his job. And he starts working. He starts out working 30 hours, part time. Then he gets a 40 hour job, he works now, full time. Now he's looking at his paycheck. Oh, this is great. I got money. And so now he works and he works and he works and he works 60 hours and 70 hours and now he's what we call a workaholic. And some people might look at that and say, he really mortified his sin. He's no longer a sluggard. He's no longer a lazy bum. He's working, he's industrious. Oh, but he's turned from one sin and now he's given to his money and his love of money. And the reason why he's so industrious is because he loves money. Now he's a covetous man and he consumes all his days consuming and doing all that he can to make money because he loves it. He hadn't mortified, he just changed one sin for another sin. Owen says, mortification sin is not just the conquest or occasional conquest of sin. Sometimes sins erupts and men are disturbed by the eruption of sin in their life or scandal in their lives, and then they change their ways only for a season. Judgment or calamity might befall them, and it's like the, we mentioned last time, the soldiers in the foxhole who promised God that they would serve him till they die if he would just get them home, safe and sound to see their loved ones. And when they do, they come home. And they go to church for a couple of weeks. maybe a couple months, but then has soon forgotten the promises that they made when they were under fire. And some people might think, oh, when he came home from the service, he was such a mortified man. It's like Ahab. Remember Ahab? God told Elijah, do you see what Ahab has done? He's humbled himself. But it was only for a season. And we see Ahab taking Micaiah and putting him away in prison because he did not like his words. So Owen says these things are not really mortification. So if you think that because you have occasional conquests, if you think that maybe because you left off one sin, perhaps unbeknownst to others, you've adopted or incorporated another lust or sin in your life, or if you think because you're quiet and sedate and calm and cool and controlled that you're mortifying sin, or if you think because you hide your sins that you're mortifying sins. If you think that those things will be dealt with throughout this life and be completed before you reach the grave, you're mistaken. That is not the mortification of sin. So Owen comes to what mortification actually is. What is it to mortify sin in general? He's going to set forth. And he sets forth what real mortification is under three heads. The first one is, real mortification is the habitual weakening of sin. Every lust is a depraved habit or disposition, continually inclining the heart to evil. Dense that description of him who has no lust, truly mortified, in Genesis chapter six is every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. The un-mortified man's heart is always conjuring up, it's a factory of uncontrolled lust and desires, And Owen says, if you really are about the business of mortifying sins, there is a habitual weakening of your sins. This sin, Owen says, must be dealt with and is dealt with in a habitual way. The definition of habit is it's an acquired behavior or pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. There are many things in this life that are just second nature to us. And that's the way sin is. It's just a part of our nature. It's not something we have to study. You don't have to teach children how to be selfish. You don't have to teach them how to lie. We come away from the womb, the Bible says, as soon as we are born, speaking lies. And so this habit of sin is a part of us. It's like the habit of looking both ways before you cross the street. You were taught that when you were young. But now when you come to the edge of the street in traffic, you look, it's just second nature. You look both ways for safety's sake. It just happens. Now, I know some of you don't look both ways. And your driver's license should be revoked. But some things, brethren, are habits. It's a dominant or negative disposition or tendency prevailing in our character, in our quality. Romans 5 19 says, By one man's disobedience, by one man's disobedience, many, many were made sinners. And because we are sinners, we sin. Our nature is permeated with sin and our disposition is towards sin. Listen to Richard Rushing as he clarifies Owen's 17th century language He says, even though a lust is not always exerting an influence on our imagination and thoughts, we should consider that lust that we seek to mortify a strong and deeply rooted habitual inclination and bent on the will and bent of the will and the affections. Men are said to have their hearts set upon evil and the inclinations in their spirit is to make provision for the flesh. Romans 13, 14. Our moral and holy habits, he says, exert themselves differently from lust. Moral habits speak to the soul gently and appropriately as they should. Sinful and depraved habits arrive with violence and impetuousness. These lusts are said to fight and wage war against the soul. That's what we read in our consecutive reading just the other Sunday in First Peter, last Sunday, First Peter 2, 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts that do what? They war against the soul. The things that we desire that are not Godward war against the soul. John Brown, I can't resist to take this little path down away from Owen and read these words of John Brown as he speaks about this whole issue of this sin, this remaining sin, these desires, and how they war against the soul. He says these desires are not to be regulated, but they're to be destroyed. They don't have to be managed or shuffled around. He says they are to be destroyed. To abstain from fleshly lust then is to refrain from doing that which is forbidden. It is, in other words, to yield obedience to the 10th commandment. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not desire that which God says thou should not seek to obtain. Then he says. It is not to be tampered with, but destroyed, strangled in its birth. Repressed on its first rising. nipped in the bud. But he uses this language strangled in his birth. That's the language of abortion. When it is conceived, abort it. This is holy abortion. When sin seeks to rise, when it's conceived in the heart, as James says in chapter one, the 15th verse, lust, when it's conceived, brings forth what? It brings forth sin. And John Brown says, it must be aborted. But this is not all. To abstain from fleshy lust is to refrain from all inordinate or excessive desires, even what is in and of itself lawful. It is in this form of the evil that Christians chiefly need to be warned against, fleshly or worldly lust. Listen to his insightful words. He says, it is a sad mistake to suppose that our desires are lawful. It is a sad mistake to suppose that our desires are lawful because the objects of our desires are not forbidden. We think if it's not forbidden, it must be okay. Brown says that's not the case necessarily. It may be that they are so far from being forbidden that we would sin if we did not desire them. And yet in desiring them inordinately, we may sin. To love one's wife is desirable. It's a command. God calls us to love our wives. And to love our wives is not forbidden of us, I say in the Bible, but commanded. But to love our wives more than we love God, that is sin. There are some legitimate things that we engage in that, in an inordinate way, that become this sinful desire, this fleshly desire, this love of the world that Pastor Sean spoke of in our past few Lord's Days. It becomes sin to desire anything seen or temporal. to be it pleasure, knowledge, power, fame, money, or anything else as absolutely necessary to and sufficient for our happiness is a fleshly desire. That is, in other words, to make that thing our God. And it is in direct opposition to the commandment, thou shall have no other gods before me. Brethren, we need to pray like the psalmist who said, "'Whom am I in heaven but Thee, and there is none that I desire beside Thee.'" Sin comes in all kinds of ways, and Owen says this sin must be habitually weakened. Now, the first thing in mortifying is the weakening of this habit of sin or lust that shall not, so that it shall not with violence, earnestness, frequency, rise up, conceive, tumultuate, provoke, entice, disquiet, as naturally is apt to do. That's what it wants to do. All of our sin wants to rise up and disturb us and have its way in our lives and call us away from the things that God has called us to do. And so Owen goes on and he gives these two words of caution. He says, now, when you consider this issue of habitually weakening sin, bear this in mind. He says, one lust or a lust in one man may receive many accidental improvements, heightenings, and strengthenings, which may give it life, power, vigor, exceeding above what another lust hath at the same in him, that is, of the same kind in nature. And it also may be vehement and might work with energy and aggressiveness in a man so so much so that it's different than the same sin in another man. Don't judge yourself by other people. You may be a covetous man, and it's very evident that you're covetous, and someone else might be even a greater covetous man than you are, and so you think your situation is all right because you're not like him. Is that not what the man in the temple says, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men? He's comparing himself to someone else. And sometimes people think that they're mortifying sin as they compare themselves to others. I'm not as bad as that man. Or this sin that I'm putting down is not as vehement as the other sins or not as unruly in my heart as the other sins in my life. Owen says, Our natural constitution sometimes disposes us to certain kinds of sins. Sometimes it's just the way we're put together. We're prone to some sins. It's just our natural constitution. Some people are given to fits of anger. It's just their temperament. And beware, brethren, lest we think that We're mortifying sin because we're not like that. Satan has a lot of different ways that, thousands of ways to come and to, as Owen calls it, get a handle on our remaining corruption and cause us with violence to sin against God. And then he says there are temptations also. He says, but especially lusts get their strength by temptation. Our Lord's disciples were in the garden when he was praying, and they went to sleep, and he called them and said, could you not watch with me but an hour? In Matthew chapter 26, but he says to them these words, and these words are for us as well. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. So our Lord calls us to watchfulness, to be on the alert, and to be on guard, and to give ourselves to prayer. And that's a plug for this evening, brethren. As we come here and plead with God for the needs of the kingdom of God and for our needs, and that we might join hands and join our hearts before the throne of grace, our Lord calls us to pray. Watch and pray, our Lord says. Some sins and lusts are far more sensible and discernible in their violence, he says. Paul puts a difference between uncleanness and all other sins. He says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body, but he that committed fornication sins against his own body. Hence the notion of that sin, or the motions, pardon me, of that sin are more sensible and more discernible than others, when perhaps the love of the world or the like in a person is no less habitually predominant than that sin. Pride may not be seen, but it is just as wicked and it is just as active and is just as dominant in men's lives as immorality. Now, I know immorality is at the top of the list. When you read those catalogs of sin and all the immorality and fornication and adultery and murder, those always top the list. Sometimes we think, well, I'm not over there. But my heart is full of pride, or I love the world. And the love of the world is not of the Father. And so Owen says, be careful, be cautious. Don't think of yourself more highly than you are, like the rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19. All these I've kept from my youth up. He thought he was pretty good. He thought he was mortifying sin. He thought he was on top of his game. And our Lord dealt with him faithfully just like he dealt faithfully with the woman at the well. And he called her to go get her a husband. She didn't have a husband. Jesus pointing out her sin. He's going after the juggler. And he tells this young man, go sell all that you have and give to the poor. Now he's touching my idols. And the Bible says he went away sorrowful because he had much possession. He thought he was a good fella. He thought he was doing all right. Brethren, that's how God came to us. Some of us thought we were all right. and we judged ourselves by other people. Perhaps we were in churches where we thought things weren't going well, and the preaching wasn't what it was supposed to be, and people were living immoral lives, and they're making professions of faith, and they're in positions of leadership in the church, and I can remember those days, and pointing at others and saying, what hypocrites, and all the time living in sin myself. Paul says, thou who steals, thou who says thou shall not steal, do you steal? Brethren, be careful about making other people and other men the standard of your holiness and what is and what is not mortification in your life. He says it must be this weakening of sin. This is called crucifying the flesh with his lust, Galatians 5, 24. That is, taking away his blood and spirit that give it strength and power and wasting the body of its life and bringing it to death day by day. So he says, this is the imagery from Galatians 5 of putting sin to death. It's like crucifixion. As a man is nailed to the cross, he says, he first struggles and strives and cries out with great strength and might. But as his blood and spirit waste, his strivings are faint and seldom. He cries low and hoarse, scarce to be heard. When a man first sets on his lust or distemper to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose. It cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved. But when by mortification the blood and spirit of it is let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparingly, and is scarce heard in the heart. It may have sometimes a dying pain that makes an appearance of great vigor and strength, but it quickly is over, especially if it be kept from its considerable success. This the apostle describes as in that whole chapter, especially in Romans chapter six. Sin, said he, is crucified, is fastened to the cross. To what end? That the body of sin might be destroyed or done away. The power of sin weakened and abolished by little by little. And henceforth, we should no longer serve sin. Owen says, you know you're mortifying sin when you take away its strength and power, you're crucifying it. And when you work and fight against it, it's gonna fight back. It's gonna scream and holler and desire to have its own way. When husbands and wives have to make decisions, They don't want to come to the Scriptures to find the right way to approach this decision-making. One might desire their way above the other, and selfishness starts to rise up, as opposed to us looking to God's Word and the principles of God's Word to discern how we should move forward or what we should do. I want to have my way, and it starts rising up, and you must suppress it and take the Scriptures in hand. and do battle with that sin, and fight it, and it's going to fight back. It's going to scream. And then you bring some more scriptures to hand. Do you ever see a boxing match? There are blows given, and there's a defense, trying to defend oneself, but there's also, you'll never win by just blocking. Now, there are some boxers they say have won fights by just a defensive position. But you've got to strike blows. You've got to score. You've got to do all you can to pummel your opponent. And sin must be pummeled. It must be, and how do we pummel it? We pummel it with the word of God. We pummel it with prayer. We fight and we pray to God for strength to do battle with our sins and it will rise up. But the more we fight it, This habitual weakening, Owen says, it will get weaker and weaker and weaker. God gives us strength and vigor. God gives us peace because we've done battle with sin and we subdued it and we are able to live lives that are pleasing in God's sight. And we're not kept back from our responsibilities to follow Christ and to be witnesses in the world. Our mouths are not shut. Our lives are free to serve God and to glorify him and to proclaim the riches of him, the glories of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, because this sin which wants to keep us from godly living is suppressed. by not occasional slaps at it, but a constant, habitual battle each day of our lives, we must give to this work of mortifying sin. Owen goes on and he talks about it's a constant fight. It's a contending with sin. We must fight back, he says. We must do all in our power to put it down and to put it to death. We mustn't give up. We must know our enemy, he says. We must consider his ways. We must consider how sin makes its inroads into our lives. No one goes into battle while we're in the season of football playoffs, college football playoffs. No one goes into a game and doesn't consider how the enemy or how the, I was gonna say Buckeyes, but how the other team plays and how they line up on the field and on the line. They study the tapes. They look at how that team comes at their star running back, and they study his moves. And then they look at the tapes of their games, and they say, wait a minute. OK, last game, you missed a block here, and you missed a block there. And young man, you need to get in a little better shape here. And so they study the tapes, and they figure out, what can we do to be victorious? but we study what we must do better, and we study what our opponent is doing to foil us. The apostle says, we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. Brethren, study his schemes. Look in the scriptures and see how he has foiled many saints from years ago. And God has left us a record of all these things in his word, of how even the choices of saints have been foiled and brought low because they've not been serious about this constant battle and being aware of their enemy's attack and how they come. David stood on a rooftop. A man after God's own heart, he did not mortify his sin. David was never the same, though he repented. And don't take comfort in the fact that, you know, David sinned, I can sin too, but David repented too, a great repentance. But he was never the same. Brethren, Know your enemy. Know your weaknesses. How has sin conquered you in the past? What have been the occasions for your sin? Where are there breaches in the wall? What needs to be shrewd up in your life that you might be able to fight sin? Where are you going, and what are you listening to, and what are you watching that is weakening your soul, that makes God's word just, ah, this dull, and it's another scripture reading? Or is this word precious? See, sin will make this word dull to you. It'll make preacher's sermons long to you. Because you want to be somewhere else, and you want to be doing something else, as opposed to learning about God and learning how to serve God. Know yourself. Take a catalog, write it down. I fell here. Actually, every time I go over here, I fall. Well, why do you keep going over there? Find another way. I remember when I was driving through New York City, there's a section of Chinatown. You'd have to go there with your hands like this. You're driving an 18-wheeler like this. That's not good. But to get to your stop, perhaps you need to go another way. but it's gonna take me another 30, 40 minutes to get where I'm going if I go another way. What's more important, being a little detained or stuck in traffic a little longer or your never dying soul? Are you concerned about whether you get to heaven or not? Because these things will bring you to apostasy if you do not mortify them constantly and vigorously. Know your weaknesses, know where you have fallen, know What needs to be shored up in your life? We'll consider next time Owen's words about frequent success. That's real mortification. Frequent success, not occasional victory and skirmishes. But Owen says it's constant, it's real success, real dealing with sin, real mortification is actually being successful, seeing sin weakened in your life. May God give us grace to follow Him and to walk with Him and to put to death the deeds of the flesh. There are some of you here this morning. who are not concerned about putting to death the deeds of the flesh, or maybe perhaps you think the little effort you're putting forth to quiet your conscience is sufficient. Mortification does not save us. This is the duty of believers, and only believers can mortify sin. If you don't have the spirit of Christ, you do not, you do not have the ability to fight sin. And that means you're on the broad road that leads to destruction. Without God's Spirit, there is no hope of mortifying sin. And so we plead with God and we pray for you, and we trust that you will give your attention to God's Word and listen to the preaching of the Word in this place and at home when you sit in family devotion, that you might understand the ways of God and how God saves sinners. You might learn something about God and about Christ and about your own soul and about this righteousness that's been provided for needy sinners. I pray that if you're not saved here, that you would come to the place where you might recognize, I'm in trouble. I'm in real trouble. You ought to feel like someone sitting on a railroad track, tied to a railroad track when the train's coming. I'm in trouble. If you've not come to Christ, if you've not laid the weight of your sins by faith upon Him and trusted Him to save you from your sin, then you will endure the wrath of Almighty God throughout all eternity. I plead with you, throw down the weapons of your warfare and flee from the wrath to come. There is a Savior provided for sinners, and He's preaching this place every day, every Sunday. Christ Jesus, who bore the sins of needy sinners on a cross, bid you come. Won't you come to Christ? And He will give you the power by His Spirit to put to death those things which are trying to drag you to hell, Come to Jesus." He says, "'Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.'" Are you working hard trying to mortify sin? You don't have the power to do it? "'Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly, and you shall find rest unto your souls.'" You're in trouble if you're not in Christ. Believers, let's pray that God would help us to fight sin and that God would give those who we love amongst us the grace to believe and to repent. Let's pray. Father, we confess that this is a difficult work. It is a hard work. But we will not give up this work because we know that this work is essential. And so we plead with you, Father, even now, that you would give us fresh measures of power and vigor to fight by your Spirit. Father, we pray for those who are amongst us that have not come to Christ, who continue to be enamored and in love with the world. We pray, Lord, that you would strip that away and that they might see the world for what it is and where it is going, that they might flee to Christ for refuge. Father, we pray for the preaching of the next hour. We pray for the worship of the next hour. And Father, we pray that You would be pleased to meet with us and that we might give You glory and praise because You're worthy and that You might fit us for the work You've called us to do, to be bright lights in a dark world. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.