The Ways Indwelling Sin Spiritually Corrupts
By John Fast
The power and efficacy of indwelling sin is most evidenced by its actual effects in the lives of true Christians, either in the eruptions of actual sin, or in the degeneration, decay, corruption, and cooling of their original love and devotion to Christ and His word. As was shown in our previous study, nothing is more common, nor has anything plagued, weakened, and hampered the cause of Christ, the people of God, and professing Christianity more frequently and tragically than spiritual decay. God appeared to Israel at Mt. Sinai “in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin” (Ex 20:20). The fear of God did not remain with them very long before they were demanding that Aaron build them a golden calf, “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it” (Ex 32:8). It is the sad and consistent history of mankind that most who profess to be believers in God quickly turn aside from the way He has commanded them and fashion for themselves a god and worship more attune to their own self-interests (Is 2:8). The reason given by the prophet Hosea to account for Israel’s spiritual decay and harlotry was, “Because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord” (Hos 3:10). What the Apostle Paul warned Timothy of, that there would be times and seasons in which the mass of professing Christians “will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tm 4:4), has repeated itself over and over again throughout church history. It is painfully obvious to anyone who has eyes to see that we are currently in such a season.
Despite all of the Bible’s warnings and exhortations to be watchful and guard against them, spiritual decays continue to be the norm rather than the exception. We live in an age where it has become commonplace to minimize, ignore, redefine, and even deny the fact of sin and its sinfulness, but its effects, which are all around us, and under which this nation is groaning, are much harder to ignore; “For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, to rebel against His glorious presence…And they display their sin like Sodom; they do not even conceal it” (Is 3:8, 9). This describes not only our culture in general, but the mass of professing Christianity today in particular. From professing Christians, to mission agencies, to churches and denominations, to seminaries, Christian schools, Bible colleges, and parachurch organizations – virtually none have escaped this plague of spiritual decay. Some have succumbed to a greater degree than others, and very few ever make a full recovery.
As it was with the nation of Israel, so it has always been within professing Christendom, “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return” (Is 10:22). Though the number of people who profess to be Christians may be like the sand of the sea, only a small remnant within the mass of professing Christians ever recover from a spiritual decay. It is relatively easy to revitalize a church or Christian institution by more or less worldly means and incentives, human efforts, and natural talents, but to recover from a spiritual decay requires the denial of self, the world, all our idols, false worship and false practices, false hopes and securities, and to follow by faith Jesus Christ and Him crucified wherever He goes. There is a great difference and distance between church revitalization and a recovery from spiritual decay, and the former is often confused and substituted for the latter. The first can be accomplished by the methods and agency of man, but the latter is exclusively a work of the Holy Spirit. It is one of the most deadly side-effects of spiritual decay that it is rarely, if ever, recognized, sensed, or admitted by those who have decayed unless God in His grace rescues them from it.
Just look at the once great universities founded to train men for ministry; universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton which are now hotbeds of atheism, heresy, and apostasy. Just look at virtually all the mainline Protestant denominations today which, if they have not yet totally apostatized, are well on their way. Like the church in Sardis they still have a reputation for being alive, but are really spiritually dead; and if not totally dead, then shallow, superficial, carnal, worldly, self-serving, pragmatic, and most decidedly corrupt. I realize that within some of these denominations there are, as it was within the church in Sardis, “a few people…who have not soiled their garments” (Rv 3:4), but as a whole their denomination, has “for pay…rushed headlong into the error of Balaam” (Jude 11), even sheltering, excusing, promoting, and profiting from known heretics and false teachers. Like Judas they cloak their greed, carnality, worldly ambition, and self-interest with lofty, noble, and spiritual-sounding pretenses and justifications (Jn 12:6). Outwardly they may look like a lamb – meek, loving, humble, gentle, and harmless – but they speak as a dragon – smooth, flattering, pleasant, amusing, seductive, cunning, enticing, and deceptive (Rv 13:11; Rm 16:18).
It brings me no pleasure to write these things, and most will think I am being overly judgmental, harsh, censorious, and pessimistic, but there is no use in denying the obvious and being willingly ignorant of the facts. Facts are stubborn things, they refuse to be whitewashed. We must not be like Israel’s prophets who “have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace”; that is, instilling and perpetuating false hopes and a false security, that, like a whitewashed wall, will collapse under the wrath of God’s judgment. “Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, ‘Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?’” (Ezk 13:10-12). The bulk of professing Christians today have whitewashed themselves with a thin coat of comfortable and respectable religion popular with the masses and a form of godliness divested of its power, chaining them to a false hope. They learn from the world, the flesh, from the traditions of men, and from the conventional wisdom practiced around them how to serve and worship Christ, but all are false and lying guides to follow. They draw their security from the hope that so many others can’t be wrong, despite Jesus’ warning that the way which leads to destruction is wide and broad (i.e. “spacious; roomy; easy; pleasant”), and so consequently, “many are those who enter by it” (Mt 7:13).
If self must be denied,
And sin forsaken quite;
They rather choose the way that’s wide,
And strive to think it right.
Encompassed by a throng,
On numbers they depend;
So many surely can’t be wrong,
And miss a happy end.
But numbers are no mark
That men will right be found;
A few were saved in Noah’s ark,
For many millions drowned.
Obey the gospel call,
And enter while you may;
The flock of Christ is always small,
And none are safe but they.
John Newton
Like the disciples of Jesus, the bulk of professing Christians today are in great need of having their conceptions of greatness, success, and what it means to follow Jesus drastically revised. If professing Christians and Christianity are to be recovered from their current abysmal state of spiritual impotency, worldliness, superficiality, carnality, poverty, unsaltiness, and decay it will require more than new strategies, methods, technologies, and business plans; more than relevant music, messages, and flashier performances; more than trendy programs, décor, and slogans; more than greater community involvement, and gifted communicators and visionaries; in other words, more, much more than all that has and is being done up until now. It should be obvious that whatever the mass of professing Christendom has been doing up until now, it has not been making disciples of Jesus Christ. There will have to be a vast increase in self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-abasement, faith, prayer, obedience, and an unreserved consecration to Jesus Christ at any cost on the part of professing Christians, especially the men. O, but where to find such men in this feminized and degenerate age!
Rather than this current obsessive participation in, partnering with, promoting, and profiting from the unfruitful deeds of darkness, more than a handful of professing Christians will need to expose and shun them, no matter how detrimental it may seem at first to their own self-interests (Eph 5:11). The cross of Christ never becomes comfortable, cool, and popular, and when it does, we can be very sure it is not the cross of Jesus Christ, but a counterfeit. The cross of Christ never becomes comfortable, but it bears sweet fruit. Fruit-bearing always involves cross-bearing. Sadly, it is to be feared, just like the religious people of the Old Testament, just like those in the time of Jesus and the apostles, and just as it has always been, the vast majority will refuse to have their thoughts, beliefs, practices, and lifestyles altered in any way, and instead strive to convince themselves and others that the wide, easy, conventional, pragmatic, and popular way is right.
Common Causes
In this study we want to identify some of the most common ways and means by which indwelling sin succeeds in producing these all too frequent and chronic spiritual decays, even in the lives of true believers, and they are numerous. It is not uncommon for a new Christian to experience a newfound flush of love for Jesus Christ which, like a flooded river that overflows its banks, carries them to new heights of faith, obedience, enthusiasm, commitment, boldness, and holiness. But if the springs which feed this river become clogged or corrupted, their flow will naturally decrease or be polluted, and the river which they feed must necessarily subside or be contaminated. “Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked” (Pv 25:26). We will mention just two of these spiritual springs:
- A new and overwhelming sense of God’s mercy and grace in the forgiveness of their sins
- The newfound delight in all things truly spiritual
An Overwhelming Sense of God’s Mercy
To the degree that a believer has this sense of God’s pardoning grace, so will be their love and obedience to God. To the extent they feel and see their need for God’s unmerited grace to forgive their sin, so will be their love and devotion to God. This is an immutable principle stated by Jesus, “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Lk 7:47). The reason for this woman’s great love was evidence of a great forgiveness, and her profound sense of her own need of it. Jesus is not saying her love was the reason for her forgiveness, but her forgiveness was the reason for her great love for Jesus. By telling a parable of two debtors Jesus made His host admit the obvious fact that the one who is forgiven the most debt will also love the most (Lk 7:42, 43), thereby accounting for the great love of this woman whose sins He forgave. Her great love was from her sense of the great forgiveness she had received, and a true love for Christ always produces a life of loving, willing, submissive, and growing trust and obedience, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15); all of them; not perfectly, but sincerely. This is in contrast with the proud and self-righteous dinner guests who loved not at all because they were blind to the greatness of their own sin.
In the same way, true believers at their conversion are very aware of their great forgiveness because God first makes them aware of their great need, their hopelessly lost condition, and their total inability to make themselves right with God, so that all they can do is cry out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Lk 18:13). A person who is starving is very aware of their need for food, and very grateful to the one who provides it for them free of charge. We can thank God for the hunger that causes us to feel our need for food, and the thirst that causes us to drink; for what good is food without an appetite and drink without a thirst, and what good is Christ to a Laodicean-like soul that is self-satisfied and content with its present circumstances. So it is with a new Christian, they are so amazed that such a poor, cursed, condemned, and foul sinner as themselves could be made an object of God’s love rather than His wrath, and be delivered by His grace from the wrath to come.
This causes them to love much, to subdue and win their hearts to a pure and simple devotion and obedience to Christ, and constrain them to deny self and live for His glory. “For the love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor 5:14), not our love for Christ, but the love of Christ controls us; that is, the love which belongs to Christ and which He has shown to such a great sinner as myself, and whose love now lives in me. We cannot give to Christ what we do not possess, and the only love we can give and show to Him is the love He has communicated to us. He is the Vine, we are the branches. Everything we give to Him must first come from Him. It is “the love of God” that “has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rm 5:5). The only reason we love is because He first loved us (1 Jn 4:10); believers did not choose Christ, but He chose them before the foundation of the world (Jn 15:16, 19; Eph 1:4). They love much because at their conversion God made them see and feel the greatness of their own sin as never before, making them sensible of a great grace that exceeds their great sin, and would forgive a great sinner such as them, so that they say, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rm 6:1, 2). How could I willingly sin against the One who loved me and gave Himself up for me? How could I doubt God’s loving care and His promises when He has already given me His one and only beloved Son (Rm 8:32)? How could I not submit to all the circumstances and trials through which He causes me to pass? Did I say submit? That is cold. Rather commit all my cares, hopes, concerns, plans, interests, and circumstances into His loving hands with unwavering trust, patience, and joy inexpressible, knowing that I have no trials that have not been appointed by the divine hand of infinite love and grace. If this sense of God’s unfathomable grace ever becomes clogged or corrupted, it cannot help but result in spiritual decay.
A New Delight in Spiritual Things
All the worldly and temporal pleasures in which a believer once sought and found temporary happiness, security, and contentment become empty and vain pursuits. Like the apostles, who when given a chance to abandon Christ along with many of His other disciples, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” (Jn 6:67), answer by way of Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). Or like Paul who counted the loss of ALL he at one time considered to be gain – his worldly privileges, security, and comforts; his prestigious lineage and identity; his high-powered position, sterling reputation, personal accomplishments, and impeccable adherence to the law – “to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8). All these became to him as dry and empty as a hollow gourd. It is an easy thing to sing, “All to Jesus I surrender”. It is not very difficult to sing, say and think, and sincerely mean, though perhaps ignorantly, “Take myself and I will be, ever only all for Thee”. God Himself must teach us that that little word “all” is exceedingly inclusive and comprehensive, and to truly know by experience the surpassing value of spiritual realities and blessings.
To put one’s hand to the plow and never look back, or if one does look back it is only to pity and call back those who have turned back, or to pity those who either refuse or are too afraid and timid to turn loose of all their false securities and put their hand to the plow; and to never turn loose of the plow so as to turn back to what they left behind, or to turn aside into easier bypaths, this requires a true sight and awareness of the superiority of spiritual things. Such a one would never trade all the hardships, trials, pains, the loss of all things, even the loss of the good opinion of friends and family, especially when accompanied by the love, comforts, supports, and presence of Christ, to go back to the nice, respectable, easy, and comfortable life they left behind. They would never trade the cross of Christ for all of the passing pleasures, temporal comforts, fickle praises, and false securities that this world has to offer. They would never trade their trials and sadness for the world’s joys. They see a new worth and glory in Jesus Christ and spiritual things that tarnishes all the delights and enjoyments of earthly pleasures and comforts, so that they say with the psalmist, “And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Ps 73:25); nothing but God in Christ Jesus. Not Him plus entertainment; not Him plus ease, temporal success, self-love, and the praise, esteem, and approval of man; not Him plus a comfortable lifestyle; not Him plus a secure income, a bank account, financial security, and a comfy retirement; not Him plus the world and its toys.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Isaac Watts
Increasingly the believer sees a new beauty in holiness, faith, and obedience, a new preciousness in and reliance on the promises of God, and a new and horrifying guilt and pollution in sin which gives them a loathing of its old delights and pleasures, and an abhorrence for any sort of participation in the unfruitful deeds of darkness (Eph 5:11). They cherish the intimacy of the love of Christ that only comes through a fellowship with His sufferings, and without which they would never experience His faithfulness to His promises, His renewing strength, the necessity and benefit of His loving discipline, and seeing His hand in answer to prayer meeting all their needs and fulfilling their “every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,” (2 Th 1:11, 12). They jealously guard their time alone with God and delight to pour out their heart to Him in prayer, casting ALL their cares, big and little, upon Him, because no one else cares for them as He does or can. When not occupied with their legitimate temporal callings and affairs they desire and delight to set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Their thoughts naturally gravitate to spiritual things because that‘s where their treasure is. Their prayers are more concerned with spiritual things – greater holiness, greater love, and greater usefulness – rather than, like most, their own worldly and temporal interests.
I praise God that after living on God’s promises and faithfulness for many years (though very inconsistently and only by His grace), I can testify from personal experience (little as it is) that all the attending tests and trials of walking by faith and not by sight and of renouncing the world (even though very imperfectly); and that all the times of need, lack, hardship, opposition, crushing anxiety, discouragement, and misunderstanding which we are forewarned such a life of faith entails, have always been times of special spiritual blessings or have led to them. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps 23:1); “I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread” (Ps 37:25); “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Ps 34:19); “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat? What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these thing will be added to you” (Mt 6:31-33); “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hb 13:5); all these promises and more have been put to the test and God has and must always be found faithful. It is doubt and unbelief, not trust and obedience that is tempting God. When faith is tried and tested the most that is when His love and faithfulness is experienced the most. If we are, from time to time, purified as in a furnace heated seven times, it is not merely to fit us for greater earthly service, but for eternity. All our difficulties simply afford opportunities for learning God’s faithfulness and the surpassing value of spiritual things.
Let worldly minds the world pursue,
It has no charms for me;
Once I admired it trifles too,
But grace has set me free.
Its pleasures now no longer please,
No more content afford;
Far from my heart be joys like these,
Now I have seen the Lord.
I pity all that worldlings talk
Of pleasure that will quickly end;
Be this my choice, O Lord, to walk
With Thee, my Guide, my Guard, my Friend
John Newton
As long as these and similar spiritual fountains are kept open and uncorrupted in the lives of true believers, they provoke and empower them to a vigorous, persistent, prayerful, devoted, dependent, and increasing life of active faith, love, obedience, holiness, and usefulness (2 Pt 1:8). Paul offered prayers of praise to God for the Christians in Thessalonica “because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater” (2 Th 1:3), and all this while they were “in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure” (1:4). They can never do enough for God, to where, in their youthful, inexperienced, and newfound zeal, they often make many mistakes. But God uses their mistakes to humble them and show them their own weaknesses so they learn to patiently wait on and to depend more and more upon His grace and strength, and to prepare and prune them for greater usefulness.
This is one of the ways, if not the primary way, by which indwelling sin primes believers for decays and erosions in love, faith, devotion, holiness, and obedience. It works to clog and corrupt these spiritual springs, and there are several ways it works to do this, and as history and experience bear painful witness, are habitually successful in doing so.
Ways Indwelling Sin Blocks and Taints Spiritual Springs
First, indwelling sin works to clog and corrupt these springs by laziness and negligence. It is through negligence that people fail to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard”, resulting in their drifting away from it (Hb 2:1). Their attention gets diverted by other things; “the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mk 4:19). They get sidetracked by the plethora of new, novel, and exciting false teachers and teachings, multi-step programs, counterfeit spirituality, and the latest religious fad. They are pulled away by friends, family, and the prevailing opinions of their peers, social media, and the culture. Since the flesh, the world, and Satan wage a continuous war against the Spirit, it requires much effort, discipline, diligence, and self-control to habitually set our minds, hearts, wills, and affections on the things that are above; that is, on the spiritual truths and realities that influence and motivate us to fruitful obedience and growth in love, trust, and holiness. The Apostle Paul emphasized the necessity to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tm 4:7, 8).
The self-discipline required to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” is not a natural personality trait. It is not something that can be instilled, taught, or developed by sheer determination. It is not the same self-control required to be an Olympic athlete, to achieve worldly success, to lose weight, diet, and exercise, to be a leader of men, and to work hard and reach personal goals. Unbelievers exercise this self-discipline every day and it is praised and admired by the world. But the self-discipline of which Paul speaks is of a different nature. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23), therefore it is spiritual, not natural, and as such it is foolishness to the natural mind (1 Cor 2:14). It is contrary and opposed to the way the world, the flesh, and the bulk of professing Christendom thinks and operates, therefore this self-discipline can expect to experience various, frequent, and vigorous discouragements and oppositions and have many counterfeits. The fact that Felix became frightened when Paul “was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come” (Ac 24:25) is evidence that this self-control is not a natural virtue admired by the world.
The first step which led to Israel’s apostasy from God was they did “not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands” (Is 5:12), which led to the inevitable cause of their apostasy, “they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Is 5:24). Because they “neglected the Rock who begot you”, they “forgot the God who gave you birth” (Dt 32:18). They went from neglecting, to forgetting, to rejecting and despising God and His word. The scribes and Pharisees “neglected the weightier provisions of the law; justice, mercy, faithfulness” (Mt 23:23); that is, the spiritual truths and realities revealed in the word of God. For these they substituted outward forms of religion, “you tithe mint and dill and cumin” (23:23). “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men” (Mk 7:8). It takes a great deal of self-control to avoid falling into the habit of neglecting prayer, self-denial, the word of God, trust in it, and obedience to it; to be a doer of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves (Jm 1:22; Ezk 33:31), and to not substitute it with the traditions of men and a form of godliness devoid of its power.
The Greek verb translated “hold to” in this verse (Mk 7:8) is very descriptive. It means to “hold fast to; refuse to let go”, and is in the present tense and active voice. Because they neglected the word of God they actively, habitually, and continuously refused to let go of “the tradition of men” as their ultimate authority. This “tradition of men” might be, as it often is, just your own opinion, personal preference, and self-interest. Very often it is some denominational dogma, theological tradition, or religious system in which you were raised. Perhaps it is some “Christian” celebrity, or a favorite tele-evangelist or You-Tube preacher. Perhaps it is the prevailing opinions currently trending on social media. Perhaps it is the latest religious fad. Perhaps it is the conventional wisdom held and practiced around you. Whatever it is, there is a persistent refusal to have what they “hold to” subjected to the authority of God’s word, causing the person to despise His word. When people neglect God’s word, they will always persistently hold to something other than His word as their ultimate authority. There is no third alternative. “They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires;” (2 Tm 4:3), not those in accordance with God’s word. As a result of their neglect, the Pharisees despised what is truly spiritual; Jesus Christ, God the Father, and His word which exposed as worthless all their own traditions and man-made religion on which their own self-interest depended and to which they stubbornly held. “He who hates Me hates My Father also” (Jn 14:23). No wonder the Apostle Paul warned that “the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rm 8:6).
We live in a place and time where our minds, wills, desires, and affections are continuously being bombarded by offers, messages, allurements, and the wisdom of this world. But what is worse is that most people, even most professing Christians, willingly and habitually expose themselves to, wallow in, are constantly connected to, influenced by, and embrace virtually all that the world is throwing at them. If it is trending, then so are they. They are diligent in the things pertaining to their life in this world – their careers, goals, ambitions, fashions, fads, finances, comforts, pleasures, appearances, reputations, technologies – but wholly negligent in spiritual things. And if not totally negligent then by no means diligent in proportion to the surpassing value and importance of spiritual things over and above the things of this world. There is no app for being diligent in spiritual things. There is no technology that makes setting our minds on the things of the Spirit any easier and less self-denying. The cross never becomes comfortable and easy. But what is even worse is that so much of the world’s thinking, values, wisdom, and methods are embraced, integrated with, and reinforced by most of professing Christendom today, to where in most respects it is virtually impossible to discern any meaningful difference between a professing believer and an unbeliever; between a mind set on the flesh and one that professes to be set on the Spirit.
Most of professing Christendom panders to, facilitates, encourages, feeds on, and financially profits from this laziness and negligence in spiritual things. The typical modern church keeps people busy, distracted, and preoccupied with endless outwardly religious and seemingly spiritual activities, programs, and gadgets, yet they neglect the one thing most needful; a mind set on the Spirit. They latch on to every new religious fad, promote and sell the latest trendy books, use the resources of the most popular teachers, utilize the latest technology, but they neglect the diligent study of their Bibles, prayer, faith, holiness, and obedience. As a result, most professing Christians have come to reject the law of the Lord of hosts, and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel; especially when His word conflicts with their own self-interests and opinions, worldly ambitions and desires, and views of themselves and God; in short, with what they hold to.
Everyone who professes to be a Christian wants their soul to be saved and to go to heaven, but where is the person who makes it evident by their vigorous diligence and attention to “take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Tm 4:15); that they mean business and take seriously the surpassing value of spiritual things? If wishing, good intentions, professions of faith, religious busyness, I-phone apps, Twitter tweets, blog reading, listening to sermons, going to church, theological knowledge, and outward spirituality would bring people to heaven then most might enter in. But as for this diligence, this wrestling; this persevering, this waiting, this making spiritual things our highest priority, this setting our minds on the things of the Spirit and keeping it set on spiritual truths, most are as far from this as they are likely to be from heaven; “… how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hb 2:2, 3).
If a believer grows lazy and negligent, and does not take care to exercise a vigilant watch over their own heart, and to engage in a diligent use of all the means appointed by God to keep and increase a lively sense of God’s love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, and power, and the surpassing value of spiritual things, then these springs will dry up and decay, along with the obedience of faith that should flow from them. If diligent and watchful care not be taken to avoid, shun, resist, and expose all that would pollute these springs – pollutants such as low, ignorant, superstitious, and false thoughts of God; unbiblical views of grace, love, faith, Jesus Christ, holiness, and salvation; low views of sin and inflated views of man; irreverent and loose handling of God’s word and worship; love of self and the world – then these spiritual springs cannot help but become corrupted with pollutants which are toxic to spiritual growth, health, and life, resulting in spiritual decay. It was the lazy slave who buried his talent in the ground rather than risk anything or go to any trouble for the sake of his Master (Mt 25:26), “The way of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway” (Pv 15:19).
A Second Way
Secondly, indwelling sin will work to plug and pollute these spiritual springs with rote, formal, mechanical, traditional, prevailing, novel, and powerless thoughts of those spiritual truths which should produce a deep and holy fear and reverence for God. Today reverence for God and His word has virtually disappeared, even among professing Christians. Nothing so describes the thoughts of the mass of professing Christians today as does God’s accusation that, “You thought I was just like you” (Ps 50:21). We have become irreverent toward what is truly spiritual and holy, and nowhere is this more obvious than in what passes for Christian worship today. There is much effort and emphasis placed on showing reverence and respect for false religions, but what is truly spiritual and holy is oftentimes the object of ridicule, scorn, criticism, caricature, and misrepresentation, not only by the culture at large, but by much of professing Christendom. True reverence is seen as being antiquated, boring, dreary, intolerant, narrow-minded, and bigoted. The primacy of reverence has been superseded by a priority for relevance, fun, unconditional acceptance, and emotional experiences.
Irreverence is the result of an ignorance of God, His word, and His holiness. We are warned by the author of Hebrews that the gratitude we express to God in offering ourselves to Him is to be “with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Hb 12:28, 29). Nadab and Abihu paid with their life for their irreverent worship of God, eliciting Moses’ statement, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored” (Lev 10:3). It is a distinguishing characteristic of the ungodly that “there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps 36:1). God’s instructions to Isaiah are just as obligatory for us today, “For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people,…And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary;” (Is 8:11-14). God not feared and reverenced is a consuming fire, not a sanctuary.
The believer is to have a great awe and reverence for God and all that pertains to Him – His worship, His word, His nature and attributes, His commands, His promises and warnings, His principles, patterns, and examples, and in all our thoughts of the things of God. To claim to have a reverence for God yet refuse to submit to His word, trust His word, to be guided and governed by His word, to live out His word in a conduct becoming the gospel, and to be willingly ignorant of His word, exposes such a claim as patently false. The more a believer grows in a true knowledge of God, the more they love, trust, and fear Him, whereas the more an unbeliever learns of God the more they hate Him. No one can say of any divine and spiritual thing that they possess it until it is, not just in their head and on their tongue, but in their heart. When I hold an object in my hand I can say that it is my own, but I cannot say God is mine until He is in my heart, or that Christ is mine till in my heart, or the Holy Spirit is mine till in my heart, or that grace is mine until it is in my heart. Holding a Bible in my hand does not make its truths mine until they are in my heart and have their perfect work in me.
When people begin to have slight and common thoughts of spiritual things, or to add their own thoughts to God’s thoughts and mix their own works with His plans; when they try to accomplish spiritual ends through worldly means, or manipulate His word to justify their worldly lives; when we take God’s blessings for granted, and even worse, despise them by attributing them to good luck, fate, or our own schemes, abilities, and efforts, all becomes corrupted and decays. When we do anything where faith and love toward God is to be exercised, we are to do it with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, not flippantly, mechanically, ostentatiously, conditionally, or half-heartedly, all which God rejects and abhors. We are to remember all His past love and gracious dealings with us and respond in reverent love, thanks, trust, and praise. It was the habitual sin of Israel that “despite all the signs which I performed in their midst” (Nm 14:11) they failed to return to God the trust, love, devotion, and reliance He deserved. It was the sin of Hezekiah that “he gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud” (2 Chr 32:25). It was to the nine leper’s shame that they did not return to give glory to God after experiencing the blessing of Jesus (Lk 17:17, 18).
When we hear and read God’s word, our utmost attention and sincerest desires of our soul should be to truly know, understand, be transformed by and conformed to those truths that we hear and read; that is, that they may have their full power and effect on and in us. This is usually the case with a new believer. They never think of spiritual truths without laboring to have their whole life affected by them and conformed to them. This makes them humble, holy, trusting, thankful, and fruitful. However, if they do not exercise the utmost watchfulness and diligence to keep this spiritual fountain open and uncorrupted, indwelling sin will insensibly bring them to be content with where they are spiritually, and to be satisfied with slight, perfunctory, and ordinary thoughts of these things. They become like the person, whom the Apostle James tells us, “looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (Jm 1:23, 24). God’s word makes no impression on them. Any reflection they may see of some sin in themselves or beauty in Christ is immediately lost because they give it only a passing look. They read God’s word, not to know and apply it, but to check off a spiritual box, or simply to find support for their own opinions and actions. So it is with people who will indeed think about spiritual truths, but they do so in an insincere, slight, and cursory manner, without endeavoring with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength to have those truths live in their hearts and produce all their fruit in and through them. They are content with a superficial and vague understanding of God and His word, and a form of godliness without its power. They wither away to almost nothing. They may talk of religion and spiritual things as much as ever, and perform religious works as much as they ever did, and outwardly appear righteous to men, but when it comes to any real, effectual, and experiential spiritual growth and communion with God, their souls are dry and barren. They learn to deal with spiritual things in a manner that outwardly appears genuine, but inwardly they have lost all their life, love, beauty, and affect towards them. Always be reverent and serious in spiritual things if you ever hope to be watered and benefited by them.
A Third Way
Indwelling sin often clogs and pollutes these spiritual springs by false, erroneous, and silly opinions corrupting the purity and simplicity of the gospel; opinions such as “I died and went to heaven and back”; like “Jesus Calling”; like “health, wealth, prosperity”; like God used evolution to create, etc. Never before in the history of the world, thanks to the explosion in cults, false teachers, and false teachings, the lack of any clear distinction between what is true and what is false, and the ease with which falsehood of all kinds can now be disseminated, have these false and foolish opinions prevailed more than they do at this time. False opinions are the work of the flesh and the devil. They spring from a darkened and deceived mind and corrupt affections. It was these false and foolish doctrines concerning Jesus Christ and the gospel which made Paul fear for the Corinthians that, “your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (1 Cor 11:3, 4), which he knew would result in a decay and corruption of their love, faith, obedience, and holiness.
Today we are witnessing droves of professing Christians who, after being faithful to the truth for many years, are, by their minds being corrupted and led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ by one or more of the array of these false opinions, walking away from and despising all the truth they previously affirmed and held, and all the springs of the their former obedience. It was for good reason that the Apostle John warned “the chosen lady and her children” against the “many deceivers who have gone out into the world”, to take care that they were not deceived by these false and foolish teachings, and “not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward” (2 Jn1, 7, 8).
We have no shortage of these deceivers today. Among them are those who now turn the grace of God into liberty and freedom to indulge the flesh and worldly desires, who permit what God has forbidden, and who turn salvation into a matter of human choice and add their own works to His plan. It includes those who under the pretense of some extra-biblical revelation from God introduce all sorts of strange doctrines and practices into the church. Such are all those who plead the freedom which special grace allows for adding their own pragmatic methods, practices, and worship into the church, integrating the wisdom, philosophies, traditions, and elementary principles of the world with the word of God, and then point to their success as vindication for their use and practice. But they are all works of the flesh and the mind of man. No matter how much they plead and pretend their usefulness and indispensableness for promoting love, trust, holiness, and obedience, in the long run they always have and always will taint and corrupt the springs of true Christian obedience, subtly and imperceptibly turn the heart from God, and bring the entire life into spiritual decay, “How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own hearts, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?” (Jer 23:26, 27).
There is nothing against which we should be more watchful and take more seriously if we intend to deal with this subtle enemy of indwelling sin. Jesus warned the disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees (Mt 16:12). He warned them to “take care what you listen to” (Mk 4:24), and to “beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Mt 7:15). Paul, Peter, John, and Jude were preoccupied with warning believers against the false and foolish opinions swirling around them. It is a large part of biblical discernment to observe and examine whether spiritual truths continue to have the same effect on our hearts and minds as they formerly had, both in our own life in particular and among professing Christians in general. Is there the same seriousness and diligence to continually grow and improve in spiritual things as there was at first? Are we more or less spiritually minded? Those who truly set their minds on the things of the Spirit, and who, by the Spirit, are serious about putting to death the deeds of the flesh and growing in love, faith, obedience, and holiness, though they hear spiritual truths a thousand times, it will always be new and exciting to them because they incite them to newness of practice, whereas others grow cold, indifferent, and accustomed to them, until, like Israel with the manna in the wilderness, they come to loath them and will no longer endure them.
A Fourth Way
Indwelling sin will take advantage of the bad, unbiblical, and corrupt examples of other professing Christians to clog and corrupt these springs from their first faith, love, and obedience. A new believer will oftentimes have a high regard and respect for those they believe to have been Christians longer than they have, especially those among whom they live. After a while, however, they begin to notice that the lives of these professing Christians bear little distinction from the lives of the unbelievers they know. Here is where indwelling sin will take advantage. Imperceptibly it succeeds in bringing them into a compliance with these bad examples. “So and so does this and they do well enough, so why shouldn’t I? This book is a best seller, and all my friends are reading it, so it must be true. Others think this or that practice and teaching is legitimate, so it must be legitimate. This popular preacher said and does this, so it must be right.” Such are the inward thoughts of many, and so, through the subtly of sin, one generation of professors corrupts another generation. Do not be deceived, bad company really does corrupt good morals (1 Cor 15:33), and those who sow to their own flesh really do from the flesh reap corruption (Gal 6:8).
A stream arising from a clear and clean spring, while it runs in its own channel, remains uncontaminated. But when it meets with other streams that are muddy and polluted, and runs in the same course with them, it too becomes contaminated. Once a lump of dough becomes leavened there is no unleavening it. New wine cannot be put into old wineskins without ruining both. Even so, when a new believer comes forth newly washed from the fountain of the new birth, they have some spiritual purity which they maintain for a while. But then they come into contact with old friends, or fall in with professing Christians whose lives are muddied with sin, worldliness, carnality, human wisdom, false opinions, and are often corrupted with them and by them, thereby decaying from their first purity and simplicity of their devotion to Christ, “be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 3:17, 18). It is Christ and His word which is to be our guide and standard, not the lives and opinions of other people. As the great 19th century minister J.C. Ryle once so rightly expressed,
“The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are his marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away.”
A Fifth Way
Another means by which indwelling sin will bring about spiritual decay is growth in theological knowledge without practical expression in the life. We live in a time where there is an immense amount of outward religion and showy, gaudy, and ostentatious forms of godliness, but precious little of its power. A significant and painfully large proportion of all the churches today consist of unconverted people and preachers who know nothing of practical faith, love, holiness, self-denial, and obedience. There are myriads that are always running after this popular preacher, or following that personality on social media, or this novel teaching and practice, or exposing the latest error, and who adorn their homes with religious décor, yet are nothing but empty tubs, noisy gongs, and religious groupies without any real vital Christianity in their hearts and homes. The Apostle Paul tells us that “knowledge makes arrogant” (1 Cor 8:1). If it is unaccompanied and unimproved by practice it inflates people beyond all due proportion. They are all leaves and no fruit. They impress themselves with their increasing theological prowess, but without any diligent effort to have those truths impressed upon their hearts, and to know them, not just intellectually, but experientially. In so doing they decay in their purity and simplicity of their first love, trust, and obedience. Instead of a simple childlike love, trust, and obedience, they decay into an empty, talking, fruitless profession.
A Sixth Way
The final common cause of spiritual decay we will mention, and there are many others, is a growth in carnal and worldly wisdom, “Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; for you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me’” (Is 47:10). The prophet Isaiah is not advocating any sort of anti-intellectualism or antiquarianism, but condemning an intellectual pride that dispenses with the necessity of taking at face value the plain word of God. As commitment to and reliance on worldly and human wisdom and our own understanding increases, to the same degree faith decreases and decays. The proper work of worldly wisdom is to teach people to trust in themselves. The proper work of faith is to teach us to trust solely in another, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Pv 3:5); “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord,…Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” (Jer 17:5, 7). Indwelling sin will work to destroy the entire work of faith by causing a person to trust in their own human reason and understanding, their own plans, methods, efforts, and abilities, and to focus on things as they appear outwardly; to be self-reliant, not self-denying. If we could distill the dominant theme of all that characterizes professing Christendom today into one word, that word would be self – self-love; self-interest; self-centered; self-promotion; self-gratification; self-importance; self-reliance; self-empowerment; self-indulgence; self-absorption; self-determination; self-fulfillment; self-improvement; self-salvation; self-righteousness – nothing more and nothing less than a pure, unadulterated obsession and fixation with self. It is the age of the selfie in more ways than one. This cannot help but promote and result in spiritual decay.
These are just a few of the many ways indwelling sin will cause spiritual decays. Many other things which sin makes use of to produce this effect might be mentioned, but these will suffice to prove our point. Whatever indwelling sin uses, sin is still the principle that affects it, which is abundant evidence of its power, even in believers. This should serve as a great warning and motivation for us to watch over our own hearts with all diligence, especially in the spiritually dangerous and degenerate times in which we now live.