God gave you your desires hunger thirst sex sleep rest these are not evil but when sin takes them and corrupts them and distorts them they become anti- good they become Judas what role do our desires play in the battle within our mortal body IES in this episode of light and Truth John Piper turns to Romans 6 11-14 to reveal how sin seeks to gain control of our desires in its war against us the sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 5th 2000 one of the greatest privileges of my life is to be
able to spend so much time dealing in the greatest realities in the universe that I find in the Bible I am privileged to be commissioned to study and to pray and to figure things out and to commune with God over his word and then to try to think through how to say things that I find there that's an awesome privilege I I do live in the real world I live in the same world you do I have to brush my teeth and I have to put storm windows down and put towels under freezers when they
leak and figure out why the car is not working I live in that world but God has in his wonderful kind Providence granted me to have a calling where the greatest things in the world are my bread and butter and you don't have to be a pastor to enjoy that you don't have to be a pastor in order to set your mind on things that are above and not on things that are on the earth to be caught up into great things and glorious things and magnificent realities you you could do just what I did
yesterday so yesterday Noel is coming home after being away for 3 weeks taking care of her sister's children in Illinois so that her sister could do a mission trip so my wife is coming home after three weeks with our little girl and I'm on my way to the airport at 10:00 down hawaa the radio is on by default MPR news and it hits me somebody must have been praying it hits me God is so good to me we've all been safe we've all been healthy she's on her way home I think I should turn the
radio off and just commune with God here for a little bit so I turned the radio off and I said out loud by memory then I saw the new heavens and the new Earth for the first heavens and the first Earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God prepared like a bride adorned for her husband and I Heard a Voice a great voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling of God is with men and he will be with
them they will be his people and God himself will be among them and he will wipe away every tear from their faces and death will be no more neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away and he who sat upon the throne said behold I make all things new and as I'm driving I'm seeing everything in relation to this great and glorious coming reality the grass is going to be new the grain elevator are going to be new McDonald's Burger King the construction equipment at the new
tunnel it's all going to be new and I'm just I'm just basking in the brevity of this world the shity of the age to come the glory of God being here all my tears all my frustrations all my disappointments all my depressions and all my aches gone forever and everything made new in a new Heaven and a new Earth that will put this one into the Shadow and I get there to the airport and I park I walk in and I head down Concourse e to gate number 10 I'm not in a stuper I'm alive
I see things I see the casino ad and there is no inclination to want to get rich in this world I see short skirts and provocative dress and there is no desire to fantasize or lust I smell the cinnamon and the sweet rolls and I see those little frozen yogurt cups full of brown chocolate frozen yogurt and there is no bondage to appetite everything belongs ons to God everything it's in its place some good some bad and everything has to do with this great and glorious reality that's going to put all that into the shadow
someday and I thought about these people forg and I thought most of these people are in a dream world they really think that s cinnamon rolls and frozen yogurt and casino winnings and short skirts are where it's at I got home with Noel and talitha and we had lunch together and showed me some pictures put talitha in a bed and I went in to look at this text that John just read to you and I looked at it and I thought look at this just look at this text this is incredible everything's here the great
things are here let's list them off for you starting at verse 12 death sin life God Christ mortal bodies desires law Grace this massive realities these are the big things in life these are the huge issues we're going to spend two weeks on this text it is so dense with reality where we live and where God intersects with where we live the reason we're going to spend two weeks on it today and next Sunday is because as I pondered it I saw two things that need to be done and I I didn't think I could
do them both on one Sunday the first one is to describe the battlefield in this text and the participants in the battle and what's at stake in the battle there's a battle going on in verses 11 to 14 of Romans 6 and the second thing I want to do is describe the way to win it how do you fight it to win and that's a separate thing we need to understand it first what's the nature of the battle and my guess is that if we understand the nature of the battle and what's at stake in
it and who the participants are then we'll be well on our way to the victory so here's what I see I see eight things and I'll mention them boom boom boom boom and I want you to see them with me in the text as the description of the battlefield or the conflict number one there is a kingly throne here or a rain verse 12 do not let sin rain so there's a rain being contested here resist don't let sin have this Throne there's a throne there's a Reign number two there's a challenger to the throne
there's a revolutionary an insurrection a rebel trying to take over the throne its name is sin do not let sin Reign verse 12 so he's in Revolt he's in Mutiny he intends to lead a coup and gain control of the throne and Paul says no don't let him number three there is a castle under attack and it is your body do not let sin rain in your mortal body Your Body Matters sin this Pretender to the throne would re in your body number four there are servants in the castle they may be taken captive and
made into secret agents behind the castle walls to seduce and capture parts of the castle these are called desires do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires now the word is neutral I know the translations all say lusts or evil desires the word is simply neutral it's the same word used for Paul's desire to go and be with Christ his desire to go to the Philippians it's a neutral word there are neutral servants in your life called desires they're neither bad nor good but can be taken captive by
sin or put into the use of righteousness fifth there is incremental surrender possible that's what I get from the word obey do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its desires if sin the leader of this Revolt takes captive some of your servant desires and corrupts them and sends them back into the castle where they belong and they yield and take captive apart of the castle there is an incremental surrender these desires will promise immunity if you capitulate and reward and they lie they're deceitful number six there are weapons in the castle
that may be taken captive and turned around and used against the throne for unrighteous purposes the reference here is to the parts of your body Eyes Ears tongue hands feet sexual organs verse 13 do not go on presenting your members that is the parts of your body to sin As Weapons of unrighteousness now I know your version says instruments this word is used four other times in the New Testament one in the ministry of Jesus 3 in the Apostle Paul it is always translated weapons it means weapons the reason I think that's important is because
the whole imagery I'm developing here is at least partly in Paul's mind you got a a throne you got a contender for the throne sin you got weapons of defense or complicity is not just instruments here these are weapons in the in the wall of the castle intended to do battle for justice and righteousness which sin seditious takes captive of by coming in duping the servants called desires the desires becoming corrupt take a part of your body and turn it around and and blow the place up if you're not rescued seventh there is a true
king over the realm and he is God verse 13 again do not Surrender Your members to sin the rebel Contender for the throne so he can make weapons of unrighteousness out of your body parts but what present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members As Weapons of righteousness to God he's on the throne sin is contending for this Throne he wants to Reign because he doesn't like God's Reign so this is calling you to be loyal to your king be loyal to your king this is talking to Believers that's I
hope clear this is not talking to unbelievers this is how Believers are to deal with sin and their own bodies finally number eight there is a constitutional Authority in this Kingdom in this castle and it is Grace not law verse 14 for sin shall not be Master over you for you are not under the Constitutional authority of law you are under the Constitutional authority of grace we'll talk about that next week as how that works let me give you three comments on these eight elements of the battlefield and the Warfare to show you how they
work together number one God is our King the castle the castle belongs to God every other Contender is an alien give your body to God number two sin is a power and not just an act so many people think that sin is like stealing or killing or lying and of course that is sin but that's not the main problem if that were the main problem willpower could save us the main problem is that sin is a power and it takes captive desires and turns them into seditious servants that brings parts of the body under control
and makes them instruments or weapons of unrighteousness third observation last one the desires of the body are not sin but they may become sin they can be captured by the power of sin and distorted and corrupted look at verse 12 do not let sin re in your mortal body so that you obey its now that its there refers to the body not sin you can see that in Greek you can't see it in English because it agrees in gender with the noun body and not sin so don't let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey the body's desires so something happened to these desires God gave you your desires hunger thirst sex sleep rest these are not evil but When sin takes them and corrupts them and distorts them they become anti-god they become Judas I thought of Judas he's on the inner ring Judas one of the disciples and it says Satan entered into him it's like here sin wants to rain in your mortal bodies and it takes an innocent good desire captive and makes it a Judas desire a betrayal desire so now when you follow that desire you
sin against Christ I thought of Samson and Delilah as another picture of it Samson it is perfectly legitimate for Samson to satisfy the desires of his wife Delilah while Delilah is a faithful wife but if Delila becomes a a partner with the Enemy then to satisfy her desires will destroy everything and it did Delilah desires Judas desires see where the battle has to be fought here sin this power taken captive just take a couple of examples the desire for food it's a good servant but when sin takes it what do we get gluttony belief lemia
anorexia death desire for drink that's a good desire When sin takes it what do we get alcoholism bondage to caffeine the Apostle Paul said I will not be enslaved by anything the desire for sexual satisfaction it's a good desire it has served the human race well in the service of procreation and marital marital joy and When sin takes it turns that good servant into a seditious behind thewalls complicitous servant of the enemy what do we get lust for pornography Lust For masturbation Lust For fornication lust for adultery Lust For homosexual activity and the good servant
becomes a turncoat and a Judas desire and kills us or the desire for rest and sleep are you tired this morning that's okay that's as innocent as the day is long God put the desire for for sleep and the need for Sleep into us what happens if sin comes in there takes captive that love of rest and sleep it rises and what do we get sloth laziness can you make those distinctions you see the difference between the way God designed us ultimately to be and what this power sin does so next week how do you
fight how do you fight and oh how wrong it would be wouldn't it be wrong to say well the real issue here is those members of our bodies doing acts of unrighteousness like lying and stealing and whatever else and I'd say no no no that is not where the battle's going to be fought beneath actions there are desires and beneath desires there's the power of sin and beneath the power of sin there's Union with Jesus Christ and beneath Union with Jesus Christ there is the historic work of Christ on the cross where he did something
once for all for us and we experience something in him and if you don't build from there up you will either be one colossal leer or one colossal legalist you will not succeed in the battle if you fight at the level of action or even the level of Desire so come next week and we'll talk about how do you fight this thing where do you go how do you think what do you do how do you feel in order to win this battle against the contender against the throne and I just have one last question
for you as you go who is your King this afternoon when you leave here who will rain in your life and I just plead with you don't head down the E Concourse of Sunday afternoon and think cinnamon Bon bonss frozen yogurt some good winnings at the casino and a nice short skirt is where it's at it's not wor it don't Marvel at your little troughs that you've dug or anybody has dug get up turn around look at the Grand Canyon of God of the Cross of this table stand by the table this afternoon and Marvel
at what that bread and what that cup means Christ died so that he might purchase the presence of God in your life as a glorious and joyed Grand Canyon and not a judge this is light and Truth God's centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan kru thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our 12-part series The Sanctified life with a sermon titled doing battle with sin I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org
