Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - How to Kill Indwelling Sin: A Biblical Strategy with Dr. Beeke | Christian Sanctification

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Discover powerful biblical strategies to overcome besetting sins with Dr. Joel Beeke. Drawing from Puritan wisdom and Scripture, learn practical steps to mortify sin and live in victory through Christ.In this deep-dive conversation, Dr. Beeke unpacks:- The Puritan concept of "bosom sins" and how to identify them- Why zero tolerance for sin is essential for Christian growth- How to use accountability partners effectively- Practical wisdom from Thomas Watson and John Owen- The "fight or flight" approach to temptation- Why watchfulness is crucial for spiritual victory📚 Featured Book Recommendations:"The Mischief of Sin" by Thomas Watson"The Sinfulness of Sin" by Ralph VenningBrian Hedges' book on Watchfulness Watch VideosVisit the Website Buy Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

I actually start thinking of ways to combat sin more clearly when I'm expressing what I'm going through to someone else. You don't need a lot of people like this, but you need at least one accountability partner for the things you struggle with. Dr. Beeky, thanks for sitting down. You know, one of the common questions that many people struggle with is the issue of indwelling sin. You would maybe call them a bosom sin, according to the Puritans, a besetting sin, a darling sin. That one thing that maybe someone struggles with particularly could be lust. It could be worldliness. It could be covetousness. My question for you is how do we kill? how do we mortify indwelling sin in our

lives from a biblical perspective? Yes, well, it's great to be with you. This is a very personal question for everyone, but there are some real concrete biblical ways to kill indwelling sin. And the first thing I need to say about it is you've got to really want to kill it because you're a new creation. So you know the struggle of Romans 7, the good that I would, I find myself not doing, and the evil that I would not do, I find myself doing. Oh, wretched man that I am. So first thing to do when you want to kill sin is to fall flat on your face and confess you need God's help. You need the Holy Spirit to help you do this. And you need a constant reminder in your life

about the dreadfulness of sin. So one thing that helps me if I feel my conscience is getting desensitized is I go back and read one of the great classics on the enormity and the heinousness and the dastardliness and the anti-godness of this monster we call sin. So I'll go back to Thomas Watson, The Mischief of Sin, devastating book. I'll go back to Ralph Vinning, The Sinfulness of Sin or The Plague of Plagues. It goes by two titles. And I'll just, I don't always read the whole book again. Just read a couple chapters. Just convict my soul again of just how bad sin is and what the damage that sin does in my relationship with God. So that's just a starter. But then you need to, secondly, you need to actually take concrete steps to kill it, to put the sword through it. And one of those is an inward

conviction, given the enormity of sin, that you say to yourself, I've got to have zero tolerance for sin. You know, it's like Ephesians 5, I think it's verse 3, where it talks about lustful sin. It says, don't even let this be mentioned among you, not even a hint. That's what you got to say to your own soul. I've just got no business sinning. I'm a Christian, and sin shall have no more dominion over me when I'm a Christian. So I want to rest in Romans 6, 11, where it says, you are to reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ. So that's second. Third, I think you want to say to yourself, my new identity is in Christ. I have no business sinning against the Savior I love. I like to think of it this way.

I love my wife really like crazy. And just the thought of hurting her in any way sends me into a tailspin. I mean, how could I do anything against my wife who loves me so much? Now multiply that times a thousand. Look at God's track record in my life, in your life, Johnny. And it's unbelievable how faithful God has been to us. How do we dare to sin against such a good God? So you talk to yourself like that. And fourth, you also give yourself warnings. One warning that I say to myself quite often, I quote just in my own mind, John Owen's famous statement, be killing sin or it will be killing you. And then I go from there and I think about, wow, I mean, if I fell, if I fell into some sin

that became public, oh man, oh man, what damage it would do to the cause of God and to my family. I mean, sin is just so, so bad, so dishonoring to God, so destructive, so devilish. One of the great problems today is that God's people tend to be too tolerant of sin. And with bosom sins, darling sins, you can leave a little window space open for possibilities. And no, no, shut the window. Shut the window. There's no room. There's no room in me to go against my God. You got to have those kinds of convictions. And we can't fall prey to what's so popular in America today, which is practical antinomianism, where you say something like this, praise God, I'm saved by grace, and oh yeah, I sinned again, but you know, I just go to God for forgiveness. Or you hear these people who claim to be Christians, and maybe some of them are,

but I get uncomfortable when they talk flippantly about their past sins or even almost joke about how God saved them from sin in their former life. I think of what God saved me from. I don't think it's funny at all. I grieve that I still—sins of youth, remember not. And so, yes, God saved me from sin. That's wonderful. But I never, never, never think lightly of sin. So part of it's a mindset. And then lastly, I would say, use what Ralph Erskine said. When it comes to sin, you

either, you do one of two, you have one of two reactions, fight or flight. And so if you're very strong in an area, you might just want to fight Satan head on. But if it's a weak area, you want to flee even the temptation. I know an alcoholic who said, a recovering alcoholic, who said, not only will I not go into a bar, I won't even walk on the street past a bar. I'll go around the block so I don't even get within the range of temptation of opening the door. So that's how a Christian should live. How far can I stay away from sin? Avoid the very appearance of evil. And don't say, well, can I do this and still not sin?

There's a really interesting story of a hermit that was living on top of a mountain. And he was the only relative of a little girl in the valley beside her own parents. She was an only child. So they put him in the will in case something happened to the parents and the parents both got killed in a car accident. So the hermit really wasn't qualified to handle the child, but he put an ad in the newspaper and said, I don't have a car. I need someone to drive this child down from the mountaintop down to the valley, a winding road. I need to have someone drive her down there every day to go to school and back.

So he had three applicants. And the first applicant, he said, how close can you come to the edge of the road and not go into the valley? And the guy said, I'm a great driver. I can come within a foot. Don't worry about me. I'm very safe. Second guy said, no problem. I can come within a foot. Don't worry about me. I'm very safe. Second guy said, no problem.

I can come within six inches. Third guy said, sir, I don't really know because I'll be hugging the other side of the road. Well, you know who got the job? Guy number three. And that's how we should feel about sin. How far can I stay away from sin? So use all of these techniques to kill sin, but underline all of that, of course, of course, is you've got to be in the Word every day, soaking up the Word, being filled with positive things, thinking good thoughts of God, thinking about how you can live for the glory of God, excited to live the Christian life,

for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. When you live watchfully, by the way, there's very few books on watchfulness. We published one by Brian Hedges, and it's on watchfulness, and he leans hard on the Puritans. It's such a good book. So on the one side, you're watchful. And on the other side, you're excited to live for the glory of God. Maybe one final thought, Dr. Beeky, is talking about the element that this is a battle

that we face every single day. Where is the place for other believers in our fight against our own indwelling sin? Obviously there's a personal element between us and the Lord and we're fighting Satan like in Pilgrim's Progress, but how do maybe we recruit other believers, the church, even acknowledging,

hey, this is my particular besetting darling sin. Help me put this to death. I'm already pursuing the Lord in it. How do we navigate that? I think there's three ways to navigate that. One way, two of them I would not recommend and one I would. One way is to go out and tell every Christian we meet all our struggles. There's an expression in Dutch that goes like this, you don't hang all your dirty wash out on the line so everyone can see it. In other words, don't just spill your guts to every Christian and it gets to be messy. The other extreme,

which I would not advise either, is you go it alone. You don't tell anybody, and you try to fight it all alone with the Holy Spirit. The proper way, I believe, is to, especially for bosom sins, you find a bosom friend who you can really trust, who's very wise, who's very respectable. Maybe you just share it with one or two people, but you've got to make sure the person's confidential and more holy than you are and more wise than you are. Find someone like that, whether it's a pastor who you know is confidential, has got a good reputation, but you don't need a lot of people like this, but you need at least one accountability partner for the things you struggle with. So in my own life, for example, every church I've served, I've always settled in for a while and looked at all the elders. And then I've selected one elder, and I've gone to him and said,

after maybe being there half a year, would you be my accountability partner? And in all three cases, he said back, would you be my accountability partner? And in all three cases, he said back, would you be my accountability partner? So I developed a real close relationship with that particular elder and talked about things I struggle with and things like that. And I found in all three cases, one case much more than the others, but all three cases, it was helpful. And one particularly so, where I got very, very close to that elder and we could just share everything. And that's valuable because sometimes when you're all by yourself fighting this battle, I mean, the Word of God is foundational. The Holy Spirit helps you. But I find that when I have a really close friend that I can share everything with,

and that friend might be your wife if you got a really good relationship. But I find that I actually start thinking of ways to combat sin more clearly when I'm expressing what I'm going through to someone else. And you've had that too, I'm sure. Yeah. When you talk to other people, actually, you start thinking of your own solutions. Yeah. Sometimes. So, yeah, I think that's helpful.

No, that's really helpful. And I think what you said at the beginning is you have to want this. And, you know, like you have to want to kill indwelling sin. And I think maybe for the person that is discerning the level of dissonance between what they know they should want and what they actually want, you still have to fall on your face and say, God, make me want to kill the indwelling sin that maybe I still hold dear. Yes. And the primary motivation here has to be love. Yeah. Have to be love. Yes, the wrath of God can move you to a certain extent. But it's the love of God.

How can I do this against my great and good God? Well, thank you, Dr. Beeky. This is really helpful. Appreciate your time. Thank you.