This document is a sermon about mortifying or killing sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. It discusses how Moses chose to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy sin's fleeting pleasures. It quotes CS Lewis saying our desires are too weak rather than too strong. The sermon argues we must take sin seriously and aim to kill it at the heart by fighting for the infinite joy available through Christ. It encourages making war on sin rather than murmuring about failures and shortcomings. The overall message is that believers are licensed to kill sin through the Spirit so that they may know fullness of joy.

1. Licensed to Kill
Killing The Sin That Kills Our Joy
“Licensed to Kill: An Intro to Mortification”
Romans 8:1, 12-14

2. “By faith Moses…refused to be called
the Son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing
rather to be mistreated with the people
of God than to enjoy the fleeting
pleasures of sin. He considered the
reproach of Christ greater wealth than
the treasures of Egypt, for he was
looking to the reward.”

3. ~ CS Lewis
“The Weight of Glory”
“If we consider the
unblushing promises of
reward and the
staggering nature of
the rewards in the
Gospels, it would seem
that our Lord finds our
desires not too strong,
but too weak.

4. “We are half-hearted
creatures, fooling about
with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is
offered us, like an ignorant
child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum
because he cannot imagine
what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea.
~ CS Lewis
“The Weight of Glory”

5. “We are far
too easily
pleased.”
~ CS Lewis
“The Weight of Glory”

6. Am I far
too easily
pleased ?

7. Licensed to Kill
Killing The Sin That Kills Our Joy
“Licensed to Kill: An Intro to Mortification”
Romans 8:1, 12-14

8. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemna-
Romans 8:1, 12-14
tion for those who are in Christ Jesus.

9. “For all have sinned
and fallen short of
the glory of God.”
~ The Apostle Paul
in Romans 3:23

10. Question #14: What is sin?
Answer:
Sin is any lack of conformity to,
or transgression of the law of God.

11. “The slightest sin is an
act of defiance against
cosmic authority. It is a
revolutionary act, a
rebellious act where we
are setting ourselves in
opposition to the One to
whom we owe
everything.”

12. “What is justification?”
“Justification is an act of God’s free grace
in which he pardons all our sins and
accepts us as righteous in his sight
because of the righteousness of Christ
given to us and received by faith alone.”
~ Westminster Shorter Catechism #33

13. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not
Romans 8:1, 12-14
to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

14. “It is the big delusion,
the height of arrogance,
the seductive trap.
It leads
nowhere good.
It’s destiny is death.

15. “It sat at the center of the
disaster in the garden.
It propelled the sad
rebellion of Adam and Eve.
It tempts us all
again and again
in situation
after situation,
location after location,
relationship after relationship.

16. “We fall into thinking
what multitudes of our
lost forefathers thought.

17. “We buy into this one
fateful thought,
that perhaps we’re
smarter than God,
that maybe our way
is better than
his way.
Only grace can
deliver the deluded
from the danger they
are to themselves.”

18. ~ The Apostle Paul in
2 Corinthians 5:9
"You are not your own,
for you were bought
with a price. So glorify
God in your body.”

19. 13 For if you live according to the flesh
Romans 8:1, 12-14
you shall die, but if by the Spirit you
put to death the deeds of the body,
you shall live.

20. "We are called to
aggressively hate our sin
--to despise it, reject it,
deplore it, starve it, and
make every effort to kill it....
Simply put, mortification
is killing sin.

21. "This includes putting to death
both sinful actions (deeds) and
sinful motivations (passions
and desires) which produce
them.... The imagery of
mortification is intended… to
communicate the vehemence,
enmity, and total-war mentality
we must have toward sin."

22. “The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy. I
have come that they may
have life and have it
abundantly.”
~ Jesus of Nazareth in
The Gospel of John 10:10

23. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of
Romans 8:1, 12-14
God are sons of God.

24. ~ The Apostle Paul in
Galatians 5:16, 25
But I say, walk by the
Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the
flesh…. If we live by the
Spirit, let us also keep in
step with the Spirit.

25. Always be killing sin,
or sin will be killing you.
Bottom Line
~ John Owen

26. A licence to kill our sin
means we take our sin seriously.
1

27. “Put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and
make no provision
for the flesh.”
~ The Apostle Paul
in Romans 13:14

28. “Those who belong
to Christ have
crucified the flesh
with its passions and
desires.”
~ The Apostle Paul in
Galatians 5:24

29. "If besetting sins
persistently plague us, it is
either because we have
never truly repented, or
because, having repented,
we have not maintained our
repentance. It is as if,
having nailed our old nature
to the cross, we keep
wistfully returning to the
scene of its execution.
~ John Stott
Anglican Minister

30. “We begin to fondle it, to
caress it, to long for its
release, even to try to take
it down again from the
cross. We need to learn to
leave it there. When some
jealous, or proud, or
malicious, or impure
thought invades our mind,
we must kick it out at once.
~ John Stott
Anglican Minister

31. “It is fatal to begin to
examine it and consider
whether we are going to
give in to it or not. We have
declared war on it; we are
not going to resume
negotiations."
~ John Stott
Anglican Minister

32. A licence to kill our sin
means we aim for the heart.
2

33. "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For
from within, out of the heart of man, come evil
thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness. All these come from within, and
they defile a person."
~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Mark 7:20-23

34. A licence to kill our sin
means we fight for joy.
3

35. "You make known to
me the path of life; in
your presence there is
fullness of joy; at your
right hand are
pleasures forevermore.”
~ Psalm 16:11

36. Augustine’s Confessions

37. “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those
fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose…! You
drove them from me, you who are the true, the
sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their
place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure.”
Augustine’s Confessions

38. “I hear so many Christians, murmuring about
their imperfections, and their failures, and their
addictions, and their shortcomings.
And I see so little war.
‘Murmur, murmur, murmur.
Why am I this way?’
Make war!!!”
~ Pastor John Piper

39. images used for educational purposes:
http://thecityforum.org/interviews
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