We each have a besetting sin….
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
What is weighing you down? What care? (2 Peter 5:7) What resentment? What grief?
“Lay aside” here means to roll it on to Jesus.
To really give it to Christ, means that you are not carrying it any more. It is gone….
And what is our besetting sin?
Our besetting sin is one which is so ingrained in our character….so intertwined in our personality….
….that it is like cutting off right hands and plucking out eyes….to deal with it.
Matthew 5:29-30 “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
(Matthew 18:8-9, Mark 9:43-48. This is worth noting, for three times Jesus says this)
Sin is rebellion against God.
It is the desire to rule ourselves.
It manifests itself in lots of ways…..
….but our besetting sin is our “pet”…..it is first in our thoughts….often. It so “easily besets us”….because it has power over us.
God gives us victory through our faith in Him…..but it is a battle we must fight….or we will lose out on the best God has for us.
(And there are many who settle for something other than God’s best….because of their besetting sin.
Think of Demas, who after years of helping Paul….left the work, for love of this present world. 2 Timothy 4:9-10)
This “sin which so easily beset us” is a picture of being surrounded….
…..every way you turn….it is there.
You have to work harder to accomplish anything…….for it is always harassing you.
Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
This sin fights hard for preeminence in our lives…..but the Holy Spirit within us fights back….
Romans 8:13-14 “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
So there is hope against this formidable enemy……for we have the Almighty God in the person of the Holy Spirit within us, if we are born again…..
….which will give us the victory in Christ….
…and that victory is faith.
1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
I have said this often,….Faith is a gift to us from God when we are born again….
….but God gives it to us,……intending for us to use it, to live in this wicked world….unspotted by it.
It is real, making God and His Word real to us, as His Word tells us [Hebrews 11:1].
Real means…..all things are what He says….whether I see it or not.
He will do what He says….whether anyone else believes it or not.
Faith weans us from our sin….pointing us to Christ….
….wooing us to leave all and follow Him….and enabling us to believe.
I knew a woman, who after years of defeat, told about her besetting sin:
She was a little girl, when she heard her parents talking….they did not want her….
…..a feeling of desertion and fierce anger came over her…..and she became determined to never feel alone again.
This led her down a path of self-exaltation….to make her “worthy” of being loved….she would not be “alone” again.
All her relationships suffered because of this….which led to back-and-forth emotions of self-pity and anger.
She was born again, and though she would try and deal with this besetting sin…..trying to commit it to the Lord; yet it always came back….bringing her into failure, again.
Finally,….the Lord dealt with her about the beginning sin of hurt and anger….lead her to reject the self-pity….and brought her….to take her place at His feet….alone! So that He could be her life.
Since then, she has had stronger relationships….she being in her place before the Lord in each of them.
Our besetting sin attacks each of us differently…..though it could be the same sin.
We are to “lay it aside”…..which means that the warfare with it, is personal……God does not do it alone…..nor can we do it alone….
….it is a combined effort of God and us.
Truly, faith….which always sees God….is the Victory…..God is real, He is Able and willing for me.
His Word is Truth. All the promises and threatenings in His Word is true.
That also brings the Victory, for we hang on to the Truth, when we believe and trust His Word….and deal with the root of the matter….which clears our way….back to Him.
We each have a besetting sin…..but there is victory in Christ.
Will we come and have it of Him?
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 