The soul that feels "it's no use" needs Good News.

Sin is a least five things.

First, it is common among every living person (Romans 5:12).

Second, we cannot be naive or overly "spiritual", it is attractive. I wouldn't exist if it wasn't. We do what we want to do and when we sin there is a part of us that wants it. Sin's promise of satisfaction is real and it delivers temporarily with horrible repercussions to our consciences, our faith and our loved ones.

Third, it is self-fueling. The tiny drop of pleasure provided by sin leaves us craving for more. Without an alternative, our thirsty souls will return for more. We trifle with this self-fueling to our own peril. Tolkien's Gollum aptly pictures the progressive implosion of our souls. Eventually, our attention will be adhered to the object of our sinful (read God-less) desire.

Fourth, it is, then, horrible. It strips a person of their dignity and it leads them to despise God and use others - the very opposite of the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40). Sin destroys. Idolatry destroys. Unbelief destroys. There is no avoiding the destruction of God's image when we sin. It is anti-God and His purposes. We tend to see only the vilest and fullest expressions of sin as horrible but that is a deceptive device of the devil. Every rape began with a rogue sinful idea. Every murder's root is an undercover bitterness.

Fifth, it is NOT the Christian's master. In Christ, we have been delivered from bondage to sin (Romans 6:6) to walk in "newness of life" (Romans 6:4). But, just as soon as the celebration of our freedom begins, we find that a battle still rages in our soul (Romans 7:14-20). Is this freedom real? How do we experience it? Peter gives us a glimpse in 2 Peter 1:3-4:

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

Here Peter tells us that an intimate knowledge of the one who saved us and what he has promised us in salvation is God's means of deliverance.

This session of "How The Gospel Changes People" (Summitview's Leadership Training) entitled "How the Gospel Addresses Sin" unpacks this idea to provide hope for those who are tempted to feel that sin has won and there is no longer any use in trying to resist it (Jer. 2:23-25).

Additional Resources
Teaching Notes
"Kill or Be Killed" - a series of supplementary messages to "The Mortification of Sin" by John Owen
Leadership Training Resources from Summitview

• Notes
• Messages
  

These inward trials I employ...

After feeling a little 1 Cor. 4:11-13 for the last couple of days, Mr. John Newton jumped out from the past (1779) to remind me of God's providence in everything.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.


I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
and by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.


Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.


Yea more, with His own hand
He seemed intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.


“Lord why is this,” I trembling cried,
“Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”


“These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

John Newton, “I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow” (1779).

The Gospel is the Power: An Invitation to the 2010 - 2011 Leadership Training Class at Summitview

And God said, (Genesis 1:3)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1–3)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, (Romans 1:16)

take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3)

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:11–16)

(all emphases added) 

Light pierces darkness on the wings of words. Stars, planets, moons, nebula, blueberry bushes, cacti, coral, mountains, rivers, puppies, blue whales, leopards, ostriches, and flamingos arrive with words. Your fingers, your mouse, your phone, your kids, and your shoes are held together with words. Words revive, sanctify and preserve once-dead souls. Luther once proclaimed he had "driven the devil away with ink" because the right words are offensive weapons against the Great Accuser. In the end, a sword from the mouth of the final conquering King will strike down every opposition government.

Words matter to God. His power is manifested in syllables. Nothing changes, nothing improves, nothing finds life, indeed nothing exists, apart from His word. And so one of our great collective sins is the cheapening of words. Our unclean lips have perverted words to deceive, flatter, entertain and distract. How many words did you take in today? Chances are you are fatigued under the dead weight of rotting, meaningless words. Words that bring life are the need of the hour.

This year in Summitview's Leadership Training Class we will be considering how God rescues and transforms us as the Holy Spirit delivers words to our hearts, specifically the words of the Gospel. 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Romans 3:21–24)

Nothing is more practical or powerful than knowing the Gospel. It is the power of salvation for eternity and for today. Please consider attending these sessions or listening to each one as they are posted here along with any supplemental reading.

LTC 2010-2011
In our first two sessions, we established the groundwork for the year by answering two fundamental questions:
Session 1 - What Is the Gospel? (Romans 3:21-27)
Session 2 - How Is the Gospel An Agent To Change? (Titus 2:11-14) - Notes

The remaining sessions build on this groundwork into more specific application (all take place from 7-8:45pm in the Summitview Auditorium).

Session 3 (November 9th) - Discovering Roadblocks to the Gospel: Asking and Listening Rightly for "The Sentence" (Hebrews 3:12-4:2)

Session 4 (December 7th) - The Role of Prayer and the Holy Spirit in Change (John 16:4-15)

Session 5 (January 11th) - How Gospel-Change Addresses Sin (Romans 8:13)

Session 6 (February 8th) - How Gospel-Change Works with Depression (Phil. 4:4-9)

Session 7 (March 8th) - How Gospel-Change Works in Family Issues (Eph. 5:22-33 and 6:1-4)

Session 8 (April 5th) - The Role of the Church in Sanctification of the Believer (Hebrews 10:19-24)

Session (May 3rd) - Set the Captives Free: How the Changing/Freeing Power of the Gospel Affects Our Evangelism (Titus 3:1-8)

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9–10)

Together, let's journey toward that day.

Pursuing maturity without self-loathing or pride

"Our problem is that if we don't continually remind ourselves of how he has chosen, renamed, and remade us, the struggle to grow in Christian character will become nothing more than another attempt at self-improvement, and self-improvement always results in self-loathing or pride. Our Savior declared that we are completely dependent upon him and what he accomplished for us, but in overconfidence we hastily run past his accomplishments and seek rest in our own."

Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life

Humility (video): An interview with an "expert on pride"

It seems to me that every person has some thematic element to their life. It weaves its way through everything they do. And, in the hands of God, under the weight of the gospel, that theme begins to reveal distinctions between spiritual death and spiritual life.

C.J. Mahaney is a great case in point. By his own admission, C.J. is an expert in pride only. He is intimately familiar with his tendency to seek a place of supremacy over God. But, as the gospel has shaped his life, his pride is gradually giving way to humility. This process is C.J.'s theme, or better said (Eph. 2:10), God's theme in C.J.'s life. The following interview is a concise and helpful summary of what he has learned along the way.

Additional Resources
Humility - C.J. Mahaney

Words to the discouraged and overwhelmed - only

For me, it has been a season of tremendous internal tumult. Steady waves of late-thirty-something questions have struck their blows against an already failure-battered stern. This is no kitschy, hipster, I'm-so-much-cooler-because-of-my-crisis attempt at relevance (or whatever). It is an honest revelation of a soul on the verge of breaking up. But, amidst the who am Is, what am I doings and maybe its already to lates, the grace of God appeared and ministered to another man under a broom tree.

In this season, God's means of grace to me were the nearly 400 year-old words of Puritan Richard Sibbes in his exposition of Isaiah 42:1-3. This is the triumph of Christ; the bruised reed he will not break, the smoldering wick he will not snuff out until he brings forth judgment to victory. Through Christ's horrific and justifying death, God's favor is ever towards His children.  "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)

These final words in "The Bruised Reed" are offered as a summary, an encouragement and a commendation to every weary follower of Christ: put this on your reading list.

In conclusion and as a general application to ourselves of all that has been said, we see the conflicting, but yet sure and hopeful, state of God's people. The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies' strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours. Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might' (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory? None is here overcome but he that will not fight. Therefore, when any base fainting seizes on us, let us lay the blame where it ought to be laid.

Discouragement rising from unbelief and the ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit of faint heartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God's good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what we may look for from heaven. O beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us in the breast of Christ. A good opinion of the physician, we say, is half the cure. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily combats: `Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the glory shall be thine.' Let us not allow Satan to transform Christ to us, to make him other than he is to those that are his. Christ will not leave us till he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father (Jude 24).

What a comfort this is in our conflicts with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not `quench the smoking flax' until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back `all the fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, `You are a great sinner.' We may answer, `Christ is a strong Saviour.' But he will object, `You have no faith, no love.' `Yes, a spark of faith and love.' `But Christ will not regard that.' `Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax: `But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to naught."  Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.' And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we can learn to make use of our faith?

...
According to our faith, so is our encouragement to all duties, therefore let us strengthen faith, so that it may strengthen all other graces. The very belief that faith shall be victorious is a means to make it so indeed. Believe it, therefore, that, though it is often as smoking flax, yet it shall prevail. If it prevails with God himself in trials, shall it not prevail over all other opposition? Let us wait a while, `stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD' (Exod. 14:13).

The Lord reveal himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us. And may he persuade us that, since he has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own eyes. And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that, since he is so gracious to those that yield to his government, we may make the right use of this grace, and not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ. And may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for all eternity. Amen.