p. 83 | SIN MAY BE OVERCOME by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1889

SIN MAY BE OVERCOME.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

WHEN a man is converted by divine grace, certain sins are readily overcome: they fly away at once, never to return. But certain other sins are much tougher to deal with. They mean fight, and some of them seem to have as many lives as a cat. There is no killing them. When you think that you have slain them, they are up and at you again. They may be said to have chariots of iron. These sins are sometimes those which have gained their power—their chariots of iron—through long habit. Did you never catch yourselves with a snatch of an old song coming to your memory, when you have been in prayer? When you have drawn very near to God, have you not been suddenly startled with the recollection of a filthy thing into which you once plunged? Terrible is the power of habit which has long held sway. It is not easy to uproot the oak of many years' growth. These habits make chariots of iron, into which your sins mount, and they become terrible enemies to our holy desires and fervent resolves.

Some sins get their chariots of iron from being congenial to our constitution. Certain brethren and sisters are sadly quick-tempered; and as long as ever they live, they will have to be on their guard against growing suddenly angry, and speaking unadvisedly with their lips. They are quick and sensitive, and this might not in itself be a serious evil; but when sin wields that quickness and sensitiveness, evil comes of it. How many a sincere child of God has had to go for years groaning, as with broken bones, because of the quickness of his temper! As for these constitutional sins, you must not excuse them. I beseech you, mark what I say about this; for many are ruined by supposing that their constitutional faults are hardly faults at all, but unavoidable accidents.

Perhaps one of the things that is worst of all to a Christian is that certain sins are supposed to be irresistible. It is a pernicious error. You have to overcome and destroy the sin for which you claim toleration. Mark that! You must not—you dare not—allow any sin to master you; and if you know that it does overpower you, do not therefore claim that you may indulge it, but draw an inference of the opposite sort; because it has mastered you, concentrate your entire strength upon its utter destruction.

I have said that we must drive them out. Secondly, they can be driven out. I do not say that we can drive them out, but I say that they can be driven out. It will be a great miracle, but let us believe in it; for other great wonders have been wrought. Note first that you and I have been raised from the dead. Is it not so? "You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." If a dead man has been raised, then anything can be done with the man who is now made alive.

He that could raise Lazarus from the dead, can cause his grave-cloths to be unbound, can raise him beyond his imperfections and infirmities, can make him perfect in every good work to do His will. It can be done. The raising from the dead is the evidence that it can be done.

In the next place, you have already conquered many sins. Look at the heaps of Canaanites that you have killed. Begin at the beginning, where God began with you in the work of grace in your soul; is there not a wonderful difference between what you were then and what you are now? Were there not sins entrenched in your nature like the Canaanites in their walled cities? But Jericho fell flat to the ground. Hosts upon hosts of unbeliefs and iniquities dwelt within your daily life, but you have driven them out. By God's grace you have resisted temptation, and escaped from lusts, and risen above doubts. You have hitherto overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Be strong and very courageous, for the Lord of hosts himself is at your side.

Beloved, we have been talking about what can be done and what cannot be done. Have we thought about it? We are dealing with the Almighty; and with him we know all things are possible. I think I see the battle now going on: the enemy seems to prevail, and the timid hearts of the soldiers of the cross sink within them. Listen! You have not yet drawn upon your reserves. Do you not know that within call there is eternal power and Godhead waiting to help you in your struggle against all evil? Call up your reserves! Entreat your great ally to send re-inforcements in this hour of need. Beseech the Lord to give you more grace; and as you have received life at his hands, pray that you may receive it yet more abundantly.

And then we close with, They shall be driven out. They must be driven out; they can be driven out; they shall be driven out. That is a speech for a monarch. "Must," is for the king, and "shall," is for the King of kings. Well, well, we venture to say it, because we only give the echo of His sovereign tones. This is what Christ died for. He loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. Christ died to save his people, not from some of their sins, but from all their sins. His precious blood cleanseth from all sin.

Brethren, this is what Christ lives for. Up in Heaven he pleads for us, and "he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." The desire of his heart is, that we may be kept from sin. "Holy Father, keep them through thy word." He pleads that, though Satan may desire to have them and sift them as wheat, they still may be preserved. This is what the Holy Spirit is given for.

This is the very object of the gospel which we preach to you; and we have preached in vain unless you are striving against sin.

May the mighty grace of God, without which you can do nothing, help you to keep your sword out of its sheath, driving at the very heart of sin with your utmost strength, until the last sin shall lie dead at the feet of Christ, and you shall be perfectly happy because he has made you perfectly holy. We shall soon be with him where he is when we are made like him. The Lord grant it, for Jesus's sake!—C. H. Spurgeon.