The Great Stumbling Block To Devotion - Part 1

(Thomas Brooks - Romans 7:23-25)

Link to the Sermon: HERE.

Well it’s so good to be here on a Tuesday night. A week past Sunday in the sermon, I mentioned about our lack of devotion and how we can become lukewarm. Well, I hope our regular Tuesday nights, where we mostly draw deeply form the puritans, will help somewhat on that. Of course it will take more than that. But it’s for sure a help.

So tonight I want to delve into a challenging subject that could I believe help your devotion, and prayer life.

For me, all devotion and the lack of starts with prayer. A lazy prayer life, or a shallow prayer life will always be the greatest stumbling block to our devotion.

But I mostly want to talk about a particular subject tonight on what is, for me, that great barrier to our prayer life, and in turn our devotion.

I will be drawing once again from one of my favourite puritans: Thomas Brooks, whom we have spoken of and been in some of his great works in the past, such as: ‘Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.’ Also on ‘Private Prayers’, and the last time on ‘The Beauty Of Holiness.’

Brooks was born 1608 – 1680, studied at Cambridge Emmanuel College. That was Jeremiah Burroughs’ college; they were friends I believe. I know Brooks was one of those who completed Burroughs works on Hosea.

Brooks was one of Charles Spurgeon’s favourites. Spurgeon even wrote a book on Brooks’ quotes. The book is called: ‘Smooth Stones Taken From Ancient Brooks’.

Spurgeon wrote this about Brooks:

Had Brooks been a worldly man, his writings would have been most valuable; but since he was an eminent Christian, they are doubly so. He had the eagle eye of faith, as well as the eagle wing of imagination. He saw similes, metaphors, and allegories everywhere; but they were all consecrated to his master’s service.

Tonight I want to draw from his work from volume five of his complete works. The subject which Brooks calls ‘The Golden Key To Open Heavens Treasures’. It’s over 261 pages long - and that’s with small writing.

Of course we won’t get though that. So within that I’ve picked out one of his, as he calls them, “serious questions, answered”. And I can say for sure they are serious questions. Again I say: this is for me one of the main culprits that affects our devotion. But more than that - it truly is for me the main reason we don’t have deep, sincere, or not enough deep, sincere prayers.

This is the question Brooks poses, then elaborates and then answers. He answers over a course of 33 pages. We will not get anywhere near through that but we will get enough to give us much to ponder and learn from.

Before I pose Brooks’ question I want to read our puritan prayer tonight. And again one that is very much in line with the subject matter. The prayer tonight is from ‘Piercing Heaven’ by puritan Richard Alleine, page 86. The prayer is called ‘I Wrestle With Sin’.

You are my Lord and God, and I will serve you. I have chosen you as my inheritance forever, and I will wait for your salvation. Hear the sighing of your prisoner, and deliver your captive. My heart is with you. I pray that sin would no longer reign in my mortal body. I want nothing more to do with the throne of iniquity. Untie the chains, loosen the cuffs, and bring my soul out of prison. Search me, Lord, and know my heart. Prove me, and know my thoughts. Is there any way of wickedness in me? Do I willingly go after sin’s commandments? Do I harbor iniquity in my heart? It is true: My heart wars against you. It riots and rebels against you. But do I resign myself to it? Is it a pleasure to me? Am I at peace with it? Lord, you know. I cannot rid myself of the iniquity in my heart, I cannot do the things that I would, I cannot pray as I would. I cannot listen as I would—nor think, nor speak, nor live as I would. Wherever I go, sin goes with me. Where I stay, it stays. If I sit still, there it is with me. If I run from it, it follows me. I cannot rest, I cannot work, I cannot do anything—sin is always hounding me. And yet, blessed be your name, this I do: I fight against it. I wrestle with it, though it so often takes me down. I do not trust it, though it flatters me. I do not love it, though it feeds me. My heart is with you, Lord. I am following after you. I groan and I struggle in pain, waiting for your redemption. Until I die, I will not give up. I will die fighting. I will die hoping. I will die praying. Save me, Lord. Do not delay, my God. Amen.

 —Richard Alleine

Maybe the question we ought to maybe ask at this junction is that not all wrestle with sin. Many simply lie down to it, and yield so easily to it. Thats really me giving away some of the content from Brooks.

Brooks doesn’t share from one particular verse here, as it’s not a sermon, but a huge subject, so I’ve picked the one he shares on the subject:

Romans 7:23-25

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Here is Brooks’ question:

What are the special remedies, means and helps against cherishing or keeping up any special or peculiar sin, either in heart or in life, against the Lord or against the light of conviction of a man’s own conscience?

Well isn’t that a nice easy subject? What means do we use to stop cherishing and keeping sin? What Brooks is saying is this: What sins or actions do you know are wrong, that your conscience tells you, yet you have found, or still keep finding reason, or excuse to withhold them from God and your confessional life?

For me, Brooks is hitting on a very important matter that affects our devotion and prayer life. Unconfessed sin will soon numb the conscience, if not confessed.

This is why when you read the puritans prayers they almost always start with deep confession. And do so for a lengthy time mostly. Which in turn brings them into deep communion with God.

Unconfessed sin kills intimacy with God because it blocks-out deep prayer.

I always ask people who I know are obsessing, or are hiding, or are anonymous: ‘how is your prayer life?’ Or I may even say: ‘I know your prayer life if non-existent at the moment.’

It’s not because I’ve seen them not praying. It’s because I see them hiding, or obsessing over things not of God. That is the clearest evidence of a non-confessional.

Unconfessed sin, perceptual sin that either shuns, or hides and buries its conviction, truly shuts off God and therefore much strength and blessing.

How truly weakened we are when we find ways, and learn to keep, and or cherish sin that we know our conscience is telling us to take to God.

As Brooks does so much in his writings, he then gives us a list of causes and effects as well as solutions.

Brooks, here in this work, gives 4 points on what happens and the effects of not dealing with sin. In particular feeding sin. I’m not going to dwell on these so much, as Brooks hasn’t either, he is merely giving the problem before he comes to the effects and solutions.

One:

To indulge in sin or to cherish it, is to make daily provision for it.

He adds:

It is to feed it and nourish it, as parents do feed their sick child.

To not deal with it, to not allow your conscience to convict you, is you nurturing and feeding your sin.

Two:

When sin is habitually pleasant and sweet to the soul. When man takes pleasure in sin, then sin is indulged.

The lack of conviction, the drowning of our conscience, works to make sin sweet and pleasing.

What we once maybe felt poisoned by is now something we both pursue and feed on.

Three:

When men commonly and habitually side with sin, and take up arms in defence of sin. And in defiance of the commands of God and the motion of the Spirit, and the checks of conscience and the reproofs of others, then sin is indulged.

In a nutshell: When we defend sin, and go against the ways of God and His Word, when we are able to ignore the prompts of our conscience and even others, then we are feeding on nothing but sin. And feeding the sin itself.

Ephesians 4:22

That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

Old man; former conduct. The conduct of the old man is the same, it just will keep getting more corrupt.

There is never a ‘new-old-man’, just a sneakier one who finds ways to hide his old habits. Sooner than later the sinner who doesn’t repent, always finds they are back to their sin of choice.

Four:

When men ordinarily and habitually do yield a quiet, free, willing and total subjection to the authority and commands of sin. Then sin is being indulged.

Some find it so easy to yield, it takes no fight, or effort: they go along with it without a murmur. And now that God is pushed aside, sin runs the show without a smidgin of fight.

The conscience is so numbed by sin, that it doesn’t even make them stop and think.

I often ask people: “what were you thinking?” Almost always when they get to this stage, they say “I never thought anything about it, or the consequences”.

Yet the great consequence is not that you didn’t get found out. But the great consequence is a separation from that intimacy with God. And a separation from that gives us little to no resilience or strength, or even desire to fight it.

I love the prayer I prayed by Richard Alleine. Because he not only admits and confesses his struggles, but more importantly he never stops fighting, he never gives in to it.

When the fight stops, sin will only keep growing and manifesting, and you will but only get more deceitful, more hostile to truth, and develop a greater taste for sin and the defence of it.

Brooks shares on some of the great losses we as believers encounter due to that lack of convicted conscience, and that of shunning God for the sake of sin.

He actually shares 27. I won’t be sharing that many. I’m sure your flesh is delighted with that news. I will share four.

Let me make it clear at this point, and during Brooks discourse he does at length: No true believer loves sin, their flesh does but not their soul or spirit.

So Satan’s plan is to numb the soul and spirit, and dull the conscience, because ‘with clean hands and pure hearts we will ascend the hill of God’ (Psalm 24:3). But with a stifled conscience we ascend the hill of lust.

Okay here are some of the losses:

One:

It will abate the degrees of our graces and make them more undesirable.

This for me is heartbreaking. I found myself almost welling up with tears as I read and studied some of these points.

To think some Christians are so caught up with pursuing sin and satisfaction of the flesh. That they have not just lost sight of Gods’ amazing grace He has shown them. But that they have no heart to want it anymore at all.

Sin has shut out the light and the goodness of that grace. To the point that sin is all they want to be covered and indulgent in.

Two:

To cherish sin, or to keep known transgressions against the Lord or from the light of man’s conscience will hinder the lively action and exercises of grace.

Again, so sad. Grace is alive, it has energy, it’s a working thing. But to not confess and take sin to God, is to stop the stirring of grace you have at your disposal.

Brooks adds:

When sin is entertained it will exceedingly mar the exercise and activity of grace in your life.

This is why sin does not comfort, nor satisfy, nor make you feel more loved. So you have to keep doing more, keep attempting to work on that fulfilment. It’s like the woman at the well: always thirsting, never quenched.

Three:

To cherish sin:

 Darkens the eyes of the soul that it can’t see its own condition, and therefore cannot see any clear knowledge of its gracious state.

In a nutshell: sin is blinded to real love.

Okay lastly…

Four:

To cherish sin, provokes the Lord to withdraw Himself and His comforts and His gracious presence and assistance of His blessed Spirit.

We need the Lord in our battles brother and sisters.

To cherish sin, to shun seeking Him. To shun the light of our conscience, stops the power of Christ attending our battle.

We are weak, feeble, hopeless. But not with Him. He is our rock, our refuge, our strong tower, our Lord and our help. But we need to give Him our heart, and our cares.

I will close from the words of Apostle Peter - a man who knew how not to cast his cares, and paid the price, and a man who then did and gained the reward.

1 Peter 5:6-11

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.