When Lust Conceives

We will sing that song again next week. And so if this is one of those weeks where I don't produce an order of worship by Wednesday or Thursday, at least you know one of the songs. And if you want to turn to James chapter 1 with me, we're going to go to James 1. And sweetheart, could you bring my bag or just bring all the notes from the back of it? Thank you.

Thank you. You may have noticed that I don't use notes normally when I preach, and actually ever since I started preaching on Sundays, I've been experimenting with different forms. The one thing I've never done is just full manuscript. It's just never been something that I... I tried it once in my life. I don't think I could even try it again.

So now I'm experimenting with notes and outlines and so I'm a little bit sometimes discombobulated here. Quick introduction before I read. Last week we opened up the section on coveting. And one of the things I want to remind you of is that every other sin we've covered, every other commandment we've covered, I do believe you break the 10th commandment while you break the other commandment.

So there will be times in your Christian life when you will break the 7th commandment, or the 6th commandment, or the 5th commandment, or the 8th, the 9th, And what you will find is that in each of those cases, you have also broken the 10th commandment at that time. And so today, I want to talk to you about sin, starting in the heart, and what this means. There is a lot of really bad teaching out there about this particular concept and passage of Scripture. and I think in some cases I would say maybe it's even by well-meaning brothers and sisters.

But in James chapter 1, did I already tell you you could turn there? In James chapter 1, I just want to read two verses to you. I do feel like this is cutting in and out. It's really distracting to me. I just don't want to deal with it. Did you turn this one off?

Turn that back on, I guess. Of course. I apologize, but... I didn't mention anything. Oh, okay. I'm human, and it's just too distracting for me.

It's the only alternative if I wore big noise-canceling headphones so I didn't even know what you guys heard. But I think that would probably be some kind of uniform violation of Reformed Baptist polity. In the book of James chapter 1, beginning in verse 14, just two verses I want to read to you. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death there are some interesting thoughts you can have about this passage all of which could seem valid on the surface in fact we experienced this yesterday when my wife and I read Psalm 104 and she said to me, it sounds like the author's jumping around because he was talking about creation.

And then she said, then it sounds like he's talking about the flood. And I was listening and I thought, that doesn't sound right to me. But I said, I agree with you. It does sound like that. And then I went and read a little bit of Calvin and some of the other guys and pretty much everyone said, no, that's not the flood. That's still the creation waters.

And I remember having read that before and it made a lot of sense to me. And but sometimes when you see things in Scripture, we bring our own idea of what it probably means because we're sometimes rightly imposing on a text. Well, I don't want to say rightly. Sometimes we're imposing on a text a thought we have that is a right thought. So it is a correct thought that sin leads to death.

So when you read in James chapter 1 verse 15, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. It's easy to think, well this just means sin brings death. It's just him teaching the same thing that we would teach about sin all the time. and it's also easy to read this passage, I think, and see him say, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.

And it's easy to say to yourself, well, I know English, I just read the words, clearly desire is not sin, because desire then gives birth to sin. And so it's easy to read it, I think, quickly and think to yourself, well, evidently, James was teaching that your internal desires are themselves not sin. And he just talking about sin generally leading to death I don think that what he meant here And I think that if you would actually teach what I just said you be contradicting pretty much all the rest of scripture and you be promoting a form of licentiousness and antinomianism that is really why we have the country we live in today.

So if anyone has looked around and you think there's problems in the United States of America, a lot of those problems are the result of Christians having taught each other that you can think whatever you want inside, and it's not bad, it's not evil, and then ultimately you can do whatever you want externally is what will eventually, that will lead to. But so first verse 14, I want to take a couple looks at these verses, and then give you some practical matters of application. each person is tempted it says when he is lured and enticed by his own desire when James says each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire he's using a connotation of the word temptation that we have to recognize is distinct from other things that temptation can connote. A connotation is what comes along with a word.

A denotation is more like a definition. A word denotes something. If I say, if we're in this room today and I say Jason, everyone knows what I'm denoting. There's only one person today named Jason. You know, if there was another Jason in here and I said Jason, you wouldn't know. But a word can have a connotation as well.

And the temptation concept has multiple connotations because we are told, if you turn to Hebrews 4, just a few pages back from where you are, we have a really glorious concept here that should bring us amazing comfort. In verse 4 excuse me, in verse 15 of Hebrews 4 we're told, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. And then it says, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Well, if in your way of reading any kind of text, the word temptation can only have one meaning, then we now have just seen that Jesus was tempted as we are, and then it tells us in James 1, each person, Jesus being a person, is tempted when he's enticed by his own desire. So then what you have is you either have a Jesus who was tempted as we are, and thus has his own internal desires, which were not evil, because he was tempted by his own desire, and thus your internal desires are not evil. Or what you have is you have a Jesus who had internal desires that were as evil as all of yours, but since he didn't do anything outwardly, he's okay, still the sinless son of God.

And there's people that teach both sides of that, and they're all wrong. So I'm going to tell you the right view today. Here you go. I don't mean that pridefully. What I mean is in the humility a guy like I am could muster up. I'm going to try to tell you what I think the Word of God really teaches. by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the power of God through preaching.

And yes, I wouldn't stand here and tell you what I thought it said if I didn't think it was right, okay? There's two kinds of temptations being spoken of here, and although there may be more connotations that occur, there's such a thing as what we call an internal temptation, we'll call it, and what we'll call an external temptation. The example being, internally you may be tempted to do things that are contrary to God's law.

So internally there is a mechanism inside each and every sinner that desires that which is contrary to God's law. an external temptation is when something outside of you appears that gives you the opportunity to satisfy that desire so i'll use a simple example you're driving along and you're you're really hungry you haven't eaten for a while and you drive by a mcdonald's and we'll just say for this example you don't want to eat mcdonald's probably most of the time i think i think most people know that there's nothing wrong with it simply but it's not always what we think is is the best thing for us and yet you're so hungry that that mcdonald's is what gives you the opportunity to fulfill your desire for hunger but when the mcdonald's wasn't there you were still hungry you still had that internal desire and so when you are tempted according to these verses you're tempted by your internal desire for evil jesus had no internal desire for evil is what i'm going to teach you i'm not going to go and explain all that because the purpose of this is just to get to the point of coveting jesus did not have those internal desires jesus never had impure thoughts jesus never had those moments where he was sitting there and, like Paul explains, had to buffet his body or buffet his body, I should say. Mike and I make a joke. Sorry.

He never had to buffet his body to put it in submission so that he could do what was right. Jesus never had to cry out, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Jesus doesn have that problem So when the scripture says Jesus was tempted in every respect as we are what it is referring to is that he was surrounded externally by without getting too specific, every opportunity to sin.

Jesus had every opportunity to commit some kind of sin against God. and yet he had no internal inclination towards it whatsoever. If Jesus had even one drop of desire for something evil, he wouldn't be your savior. He'd be like you and you're not saving anybody. So we have internal temptation and external temptation. Where this starts to be a little confusing is that you and I experience both.

So you have had days when you woke up in the morning, you said your prayers, you read the Bible, you did whatever devotional things you do. Everything was going just right. You were in a good mood, you'd committed, you were going to have a great day. You weren't going to snap at the kids that day. You weren't going to be rude to the husband that day. You weren't going to respect your parents that day. and then something happened externally.

Your breakfast wasn't hot when it was put in front of you. Or, probably I'll say, okay, confession time here. My most frequent, I think, and predictable time of irritability is when I'm about to put the food in my mouth, and a kid does something that means I have to stop to perform discipline. I feel like I'm the one getting disciplined when that happens.

Right now I've got to eat cold food and I've got to spank my kid, you know. Something external happens which we can rightly say in Scripture, bear with me here, causes you to sin. There's a sense that had that environmental change not occurred, you wouldn't have done the thing you were doing. This is how most marital fights turn out. Well, if you hadn't have said this, I wouldn't have responded that way.

And if I hadn't responded that way, you know, that's how a lot of these things go, right? Well, he said this and she said this. Or when kids fight, a lot of it is, well, he did that first, right? The environmental change exists and is real. And in fact, was a contributing factor to you committing the external sin that you committed. But we can only rightly say that deep down inside, somewhere in your heart, the sin has started there.

That is what I want you to be able to understand. Now, understanding this, though, should be a little bit instructive for us. If you know that the people around you, and I'll just say every one of us, lives with sinners. If you know that the people around you are in fact sinners and that they have this potential, and some of us more than others at times, have this potential for our internal inclinations towards evil to manifest themselves in sin, why would you make it harder for someone you love? it's one of the most difficult things for us sometimes is to simply try to create an environment for others that maybe is a little bit safer for them especially if they tell you something like hey you know I'm really tired today well maybe maybe give the person a break because them being really tired might lead easier to the environment where they're going to sin this is one of the reasons why we tell men that confess to difficulty with things like pornography, well, you've got to get rid of your computer.

Maybe you can't have a smartphone anymore for a while. You shouldn't be traveling for work by yourself. This is why we come up with some of these, we'll call it an extra-biblical rule we might give somebody to keep them a little bit further away from an environment that would allow them to indulge into the sin that they've confessed to struggle with.

And I use an obvious example where we'd want to really cut something off, and I hope that everybody in here can think of their own examples for themselves, not for others. What are the environments that you recognize in your own life lead you more to sin than others? They're not the reason you sin, but they make it a little bit easier for you to indulge in your sin.

So Jesus, no internal temptation. You, internal temptation all the time. Before you were a Christian, and those of you who are not Christian yet, you have no, you can't even control it. As Christians, this is what we call the spiritual war, the battle you're in. This is why Paul, I'll say without fear of making an error here, the greatest Christian who ever lived, was able to say, the things that I want to do, I do not do, and that which I hate, I do.

Because Paul recognized as a man who loved Jesus Christ, who had been saved by him, who had seen him personally, who had spent his life suffering for his sake, Paul recognized that in him there was something that still indwelt him, that dwelled in him, the Adamic nature in his flesh, that constantly still wants control. And Paul, at the end of Romans 7, cries out, O wretched man that I am. So if you research Romans 7, there's different views of that.

When he says O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ So even though Paul could say that he dealt with these internal desires and ended up even doing things he didn't want to do, but especially at least in his mind, he knew one day he'd be delivered from that. Part of the fun of heaven is not that, you know, there'll be all you can eat buffets and you'll never get fat. Okay.

I'm sure there'll be fantastic. All right. Sure. The The best food you ever tasted here won't taste like it tastes in heaven. But what's really great about heaven is Jesus Christ will be there first and foremost. And you'll see him face to face.

And the reason you'll see him face to face is you're going to be made like him. And you will no longer have the ability to sin. And there will be no better feeling in the world than that first instant that you don't have to fight your flesh. should be nothing more hated by the one who loves holiness than the fact that you have to fight so hard against your own unholiness.

A couple more comments about James 1. When it says each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, you hear that word lure, and those of you who have ever gone fishing, you know what a lure is, don't you? is a lure is something that we put on the end of the line that attracts the fish. So that the fish will actually bite the thing that's going to lead to his in some cases, demise.

Sometimes you throw him back, I guess, right? Now the fish doesn't know what he's doing in this case but the fish is like you. he is seeing something right in front of him that externally is now tempting something that's in him. And he doesn't realize that once he grabs that lure, he's going to get pulled all the way up. And then maybe he's going to get taken off, he's going to get thrown in a bucket, and just like the verse tells us, it's going to lead to death.

And so if somebody's able to talk to a fish, Okay, so now I got the kids listening. Talking fish, okay? We got talking donkeys, talking snakes. Pastor Michael's talking about talking to a fish. If you were able to ask the fish, why did you go into that boat and get thrown in a bucket? If the fish said, well, it wasn't my fault, it was the line that pulled me up.

And it was the fisherman that was pulling the line, and he's the one that dropped me in the bucket. you would rightly be able to say, but if you had never pulled that lure, if you'd never bid on the lure, you wouldn't be there right now. And it's the same with you and your sin. This is why when you outwardly commit sin, so often it feels like you couldn't help it.

This is why when you start to have a fit of rage, start speaking rudely to people you're supposed to love, if you're indulging in the flesh whether it's thinking about taking something that's not yours or ended up maybe stealing this is why it always feels like something was pulling you and the problem becomes when you stop recognizing that you're the one that took the bait it started somewhere in you And then, yes, I do believe there is a point in a lot of sinners' experiences where you have lost control. Where you are no longer the master of your own flesh in such a way that the fruit of self-control of the Holy Spirit is exhibiting itself, or frankly, in that moment, even possible for you. Because we've given ourselves over to the desires of the flesh.

And it started internally. You're lured and enticed by your own desire. If you have no desire for a strange woman, no matter how many come across your path, we're never going to find you with one. You understand me? If you have no desire to disrespect your parents, no matter how difficult your parents are at times, and trust me, I know all your parents.

I'm sure they're all difficult, I promise. Maybe not Gail. maybe Jason, Jason's got a good mom over there, so he doesn't have to worry about how hard it is to honor her, but it's your internal desire to disrespect God and to find a way to show God that you think you're the one on the throne by disobeying his law that actually leads you to find the circumstance that allows you to indulge in your flesh. And it may be absolutely true that there are people in your life who are making it difficult for you. it may be true that there are people who are doing things that provide the external temptation that you are incapable and not strong enough to overcome.

But it is not their fault you sinned. Although we can rightly say that we cause each other to sin. And so we need to have that internal attitude that says, I want to deal with my own sin. in verse 15 it says when desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death I don't think that James is intending with this one sentence to provide a treatise on when sin actually starts here I think it's already assumed that that desire in your heart is sin because it's covetousness you don't give birth to something that wasn't the same thing before you gave birth to it.

It's not like you give birth to a baby and nine hours earlier there was something else. Alright? Desire, giving birth to sin, is just James using different terms to describe the process. begins in your heart. Your sin begins in your heart. When it says it gives birth to sin, what it's saying is that desire eventually becomes an outward commission of the sin.

So there is a distinction between that which we do inwardly and outwardly. I think we all have to understand that. This is why, this is an older movie and I wouldn't recommend any movie at this point, but there was a movie called Minority Report where Tom Cruise was the policeman guy who would find out that somebody was going to commit a crime and then he'd go and arrest them before it happened.

They virtually prevented all crime at this point. The idea is we can't criminalize somebody having a bad thought. And so there is a distinction between what people are thinking about and what they actually end up doing. And praise the Lord for that because how many times have you thought about something evil and then by the power of the Holy Spirit maybe and the grace of God in your life you didn't carry it out. and some of your most heinous thoughts have never seen the light of day praise the lord for that so there is a distinction but then james is letting us know sin when it's fully grown brings forth death as you follow the desires of your heart if it's a wicked desire it will eventually give birth to real sin.

If you continually incubate your sin in your heart, practical sin is going to hatch. And if you continue to do this, you will commit more and more sin and it will lead to your actual death. I don't think this is referring to the spiritual death that we know comes from sin. Spiritual death would come from sin that you committed in your heart and never actually came outwardly.

This is referring to the fact that sin only brings destruction. And the more you leave it unrepented of, the worse it's going to get. And so, the question then becomes, well, why not take care of it while it's, you know, in its youngest state? I'm almost hesitant because of the analogy and the horror of abortion in our day, But in a sense what you want to do is you want to kill your sin in the womb.

Okay? Maybe we should do more of that and less of killing children in the womb. Be a better country. So a few points of application. And some of it is just more teaching. Every internal inclination towards sin is sin.

So you need to remember that. Every internal inclination towards sin is sin. So that means if you dwell on it. So you think a thought that maybe you shouldn't think. And then you play it around in your head a little more and think about it a little more. If you dwell on it, it's sin.

Also, if you don't dwell on it, it's sin. Now, can we all easily see that one's better than the other? You have a bad thought. and can everyone see that stopping then praying for help repenting of it asking god to cleanse you from within that that's better than continuously entertaining it that one of the goals of the christian life would be to become the kind of person who would have that kind of mastery over self where you would sin less i i think we can all see that will that earn you righteousness before God?

No. Does it make you holy in some way? Not holier than you're already made in Jesus. But it seems to me that would be the call that we are called to. If we're going to walk worthy. Even if you didn't consciously conjure the thought, your internal inclination towards sin is sin. now God help me if I'm the only one in the room but I have had numerous occasions in my life where a thought popped in my head that I don't even know where it came from that suddenly something that I knew was evil appeared in my mind there was nothing that happened at the time to put it there there was no external thing that even brought it to mind There was no reason for it other than I still have a sinful flesh that I cannot completely mortify on this side of heaven.

Only when I get a glorified flesh will I no longer have to deal with that. I think we are remiss if we fail to recognize those things as real sins in our life I think we can recognize that a thought that popped in my head that I didn even consciously want to have happen to me is different from one that I put there myself and then that's different from one that I play around with for a while and that's certainly different from one that I act out. Can we understand these things?

Because the all sin is sin to God, it's all the same kind of teaching, that doesn't make any sense when we think about our practical experiences. A neighbor that thought about stealing from you once and a neighbor that actually steals from you is a very different kind of neighbor. I think we can all appreciate that. I think we know that God's more reasonable than even we are.

If you're not sure if your dreams that were wicked, if your thoughts that pop in your mind, if the thoughts that you dwell on a little bit, if you're not sure that they're sin, ask yourself a real simple question. Do you think Jesus had them? Because if you tell me that you think Jesus fantasized about evil things, even that he didn't put there, then you believe in a different Jesus than the one that I worship.

You understand me? He was perfect. His flesh was perfect. and he never did the kinds of things that we do. Part of the new covenant promise, and it's a promise, is that you will loathe yourselves for who you once were. Okay, so having established that every internal inclination to sin is sin, let me remind you that every external sin starts in the heart.

So, last rhetorical question, where else could it have started? Where else could it have started? In Matthew 15, verse 19, Jesus says something. And I think it's Matthew 12, 19. I think I wrote it wrong in my notes. Matthew 12 I think I'm in the wrong book let me see if it's Mark 12 this is what happens when I have notes yep I rely on my notes and then I have it all wrong well I don't remember the verse somebody here probably knows it But in Matthew 15, 19.

That's what I said and that looked wrong to me. Maybe I went to the wrong, maybe I was on 14 or 16. Matthew 15, 19. Oh, you're right. Okay, thank you. Matthew 15, 19.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. and we'll look at this verse during communion but the idea here is that out of the heart come it says evil thoughts but this is murder murder comes from the heart this is very important and it's why our pro-life establishment has utterly failed to honor God in their battle against abortion in our country because failing to acknowledge that somebody murdering another person starts in the heart, unless you can somehow prove it's involuntary manslaughter, is a violation of what Jesus has taught us. Every sin starts in the heart. So when you sin externally, your problem is not that that circumstance happened again that was hard for you.

Your problem is that still internally you desire something and you took the bait again. and you were lured and enticed by your own lust, your own desire, your own coveting. This is also instructive for you in dealing with other sinners, particularly as an elder of a church, particularly as parents, spouses choosing to love one another, men discipling each other, women helping each other. when you are dealing with somebody in your life who is sinning. Notice I don't say struggling with sin.

You struggle with sin when it in your heart and you battling it like Paul When you sinning you sinning okay When you dealing with somebody that sinning and they are seeking help to repent and even your non children or non-believing friends or neighbors, you need to recognize that sin starts in their heart. So as much as you may be tempted to fix things externally, okay, you meet the guy that's struggling with pornography, says he wants to stop and having trouble, you say okay well we'll just turn off your phone and your internet and everything will be fine look he'll find a way to keep sinning unless you work on his heart with him each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin sin when it is fully grown brings forth death the sin you commit externally you name a few not worshipping God with your whole heart, mind and strength worshipping God by images or making any carved image or any likeness of anything that is on the earth using his name in vain not keeping his Sabbath holy dishonoring your parents or anyone who is in a relationship where you owe them honor and due even inferiors you're supposed to treat properly murder hatred, malice, slander, covetous, greed, envy, jealousy, lust, adultery, pornography. Even the approval of people who are perverts is a sin in the eyes of God.

Thievery, bearing false witness. All of these things start in your heart. so now that we've established that hopefully everybody feels sufficiently sinful at this point we must notice Christ's perfection in this matter it's easy to see that Christ never stole, murdered lied, nor committed adultery it's really easy to know this and most people that would even call themselves Christians would confess these truths that he never outwardly sinned everyone, I shouldn't say everyone, I'm sure there's some weird cult out there. I don't even want to worry about that one.

Though we must believe by faith that he also never inwardly lusted for anything forbidden to him by the law of God. So some people when they describe your internal lust, they may say something like I think I've heard Phil Johnson say, coveting is desiring anything that you cannot righteously have. Jesus would have never inwardly lusted for anything that he could not righteously have or anything forbidden by the law of God.

That doesn't mean that we don't want something we don't get sometimes. You may want a certain job, and then you don't get that job. You ask God for it. You weren't sinning by desiring something he didn't give you. It's not your responsibility to know the secret mysteries of the will of God. It's enough for you to try to figure out what he has revealed to us.

So when Jesus prayed that his father would take the cup from him and he expressed that internal desire, that wasn't an unrighteous prayer at all. He wasn't coveting something he couldn't have because it was forbidden to him. He was wanting something very natural as humanity. and he submitted himself totally to God's will we must acknowledge that Jesus' vicarious atonement for his elect included the justice of God executed upon him for even our internal inclinations to sin that never see the light of day so when we talk to people about the gospel and we use the rate comfort analogy and say, imagine if we took all your thoughts for one week and we made a movie out of them and we showed them to people and people realized, wow, I wouldn't want people to know my thoughts.

Recognize that if you're a Christian today, Jesus had to pay for every single one of them. And he did happily because he loves you. So therefore, since covetousness is sin and Christ died for those sins, sin must be repented of specifically. Remember our confession. As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives upon the account of the body of death and the motions thereof.

Listen this is 15 So it is every man duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly so it's not enough for you to get on your knees and say God forgive me for my bad thoughts and then go on about your day at least not now you need to acknowledge your sins to him confess them to him agree with him about the fact that they are sin He already knows. And He does promise to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And I'm going to read 15.5 because it contains my favorite phrase.

Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation, that although there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation, yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent. Now this is what I want on my tombstone, which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary. There's a lot of ways we covet.

There's ways that you may not think are coveting, and I'll maybe go into some of these someday, but just some examples for you. If you're sitting here thinking, well, I'm sure other people in this room have problems with some of this stuff, but I'm really a decent person. God sanctified me so much, I can't even think of a way that I covet. Anxiety and worry, those are forms of coveting.

You're coveting something you don't have at this time. Discontentment in general would fall under the category of the Tenth Commandment. envying others, something they have, something they've been given, jealousy, and I'm not talking about God honoring jealousy, which there is such a thing. I'm talking about, you know, neighbor just pulled up in a nicer car than you have, and you're jealous.

Complaining. Every single time you complain, you're saying God did something wrong. See, sovereign. Greed. And a lot of us think, oh, I'm not greedy at least. But simply overspending is just a form of greed.

You're coveting something that is not within the budget that you have that God's given you with the stewardship he's provided. Ultimately, remember this, coveting is an attack on God's sovereignty. If you believe what we read here, that he is the sovereign one, that he's decreed all things that will come to pass, that he's the one who is providential over all his creatures and all his creation, then every single time you covet, you are attacking his sovereignty.

When you covet, when you allow internal motions towards sin to continue without repentance, what you are saying is that you know better than God what you need. It is blatant idolatry. It's the sin that condemned the prodigal son's brother, who hated the father who lavished grace upon another, although that good father had already given him all that he required.

It's vile and detestable and oh so damnable. Many will say to God on that final day, Lord, Lord, and be cast into the torments of hell who outwardly obey the letter of the law while inwardly harboring forbidden desires. May God expose our corruption that we might be cleansed and may He give us sensitive hearts to this pernicious sin that we might truly repent and have assurance of our justification.

May we loathe this inward faithlessness more than we despise the outward unrighteousness of others. Let's pray together. Father, we do indeed confess to you our need for deliverance from this body of death. But while we are remaining here in the body and we are trying to do your work on this earth, we ask that you would give us, by your grace, a loathsomeness for our own sin and a desire to see your spirit work in us, no matter how painfully, to cause us to be more conformed to the image of Christ, even in our inward inclinations.

Amen.