Though we've been together since the New Year, I want to say Happy New Year to everyone and recognize it's been a number of weeks since we've had our Wednesday study, so I'll just give you, as I usually do, a little bit of a review of where we are and where we're headed. We are back to our study of the Sixth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, and lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil that started with a long study with Thomas Watson and his book on the Lord's Prayer But as you know, we're having some supplemental studies that I'm just gonna rather than say we're starting a new book I'm just gonna have it as continuing from that study on the same topic. And what we began just before our break was the first chapter of John Whitlock, the Puritan John Whitlock, his book, The Great Duty of Keeping Ourselves from Iniquity, just reprinted by Northampton Press and our brother Dr. Don Kistler and the RPCGA in Florida. I did let him know I sent a link to our first lecture and said we've really enjoyed this. explaining how we're using it. He was very pleased to know that. He said, thank you, you don't get a lot of feedback like that. So he was very pleased to know that. So I want to say, as you know, it's been quite the week and quite the day. So I haven't had time to look through it and try to figure out what I can skip. in terms of not necessarily going through the book to the same degree that we did with Watson's book, but I have not had time. I already have read through everything, and I have highlights. I'm going to be talking off those highlights. I did look through it tonight, but I didn't feel compelled enough to try to skip too much and give you other chapters. We may, in fact, and you might not be surprised, We may, in fact, just go chapter by chapter, but we're going to really go through it a lot quicker and get on to the last two studies, two other sources. What I want to remind you is that Psalm 1823 is the theme of the whole book, trying to apply more directly and personally to each of our own hearts, the Holy Spirit bringing to our attention what we need to know. But if you turn with me in the Bible, first of all, to Psalm 18, 23. And then I'd like to also open to sing that section I've encouraged you to turn to in the Psalter, page 30. But I think I'm gonna go ahead and read our theme scripture. And this will be, of course, we'll look at other scripture references. But this is our theme of the whole book on applying the Sixth Petition of the Lord's Prayer. more directly to ourselves with the words of Psalm 188.23 which reads as follows, I was also upright before him and I kept myself from mine iniquity. I kept myself from mine iniquity. We saw how the Westminster standards say we should repent of particular sins particularly, publicly, privately as the case warrants. So we want to have specific sins and what he'll bring us more through tonight is, we all have certain sins that particularly plague us or as Derek Thomas mentioned, we all have our pet sins or our darling sins as Watson mentioned, things that we don't want to give up. Those are the things that, John Whitlock is saying based on this verse. Those are what we really particularly need to focus on in prayer Asking God to help us attack certain habits certain things More than others. Okay, so that's kind of the idea. I kept myself from mine iniquity not only my responsibility for my own sins, but he's gonna make the case in particular my certain sins that are my pets and darlings that really need to be dealt with. So that's what we're looking at. Before we begin chapter two on that with John Whitlock, I would like to sing with you Psalm 18, page 30, especially since this is his theme verse, verse 23, I'll read it for you here. Sincere before him was my heart, with him upright was I, and watchfully I kept myself from mine iniquity. That's what we're gonna be studying for a while to really apply our long study on the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer Pray that the Lord is going to use this to really apply it to our hearts. Again, the book came out right in the middle of our study. It seems appropriate to go through this before it goes into the library shelves. Psalm 18, verses 20 to 27, page 30. I think I remember the tune here. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Da, da, da, da, da, da. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Da, da, da, da, da, da. So have verse 23 especially in view. According to my righteousness, He did me recompense. He me repaid according to my hands' pure innocence. For I God's ways kept from my God Did not turn wickedly His judgments were before me I His laws put not from me Sincere before him was my heart. With him upright was I. And watchfully I kept myself from mine iniquity. After my righteousness the Lord hath recompensed me. After the cleanness of my hands appearing in His eye. Thou gracious to the gracious art, To upright men upright, Pure to the pure forward Thou gift'st Unto the forward white. For thou wilt the afflicted save In grief that low do lie, But wilt bring down the countenance of them whose looks are high. That last line is interesting. God will bring down those with a look of high countenance, that is the proud. We talked about that in the men's study last night with Jonathan Edwards' book on charity and its fruits, 1 Corinthians 13. Verse 5 was the focus of the chapter we finally completed, chapter 10. Love thinketh no evil. It said love is the opposite of a censorious or overly critical spirit. And one of the things he pointed out in application at the end was when you see a very critical, censorious spirit, you see the opposite, love, but also a significant manifestation of someone who really doesn't have love and is particularly critical unnecessarily. And inappropriately is that they're proud. You're going to see a lot of pride with that. And of course, as we talked about last night, the proverb says pride comes before the fall. So it's interesting right here. It references that not having a high look, a proud look. The reason I want to highlight that is as we study tonight, you know, the idea of looking at our own sins and particular strains of sin that we personally before the Lord, you know, privately, obviously need to really be working on. It's a humbling. Right? It's very tempting to look at everybody else. And one of the scriptures we saw last night was, you know, judge not lest you be judged. Don't try to take out the speck from someone's eye while you got a log in your own. And, you know, that kind of idea of judging others hypocritically, you do. Romans was one of the texts. You judge others for the same things you do. So it's really a humbling thing. It needs humility for us to be able to really give ourselves before the Lord, slow down, open up before him and say, do some heart surgery on me, please, Holy Spirit. Use this study to help me particularly apply what we've studied in the Sixth Petition with Thomas Watson. Now with John Whitlock for a time, not as long, help me to really apply this personally in my own life. So may the Lord humble us that we're willing to do that before him. Okay, I forgot, let me just, should there be any questions or comments? I'll pass the mic around. And now, let's open up. First, let's go to Matthew 6. There's not a whole lot of scripture references tonight in this study, and I am going to try to move through as we're beginning a little bit late. And I don't think it's necessary to elaborate as much. I'm mostly going to read you some highlights from the chapter 2. But let's go first to Matthew 6. And verse 13, the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, that's the context of our study still. And lead us, Jesus teaches us to pray this, it's the last petition of the Lord's Prayer. And again, remember, it's very similar to the last petition of the prayer of Jabez in 1 Corinthians. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the, well, the rest of the verse, thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. But lead us not into temptation, into temptation but deliver us from evil. And if we're going to be praying that, we have to be willing to say the next thing. Psalm 18.23, let's go back to it. You know, a lot of times we pray things but we don't really have any intention of changing or doing anything about it, and then we often lament, oh, why did it happen again? Because we're not being vigilant, and we're not really focusing and personally applying it like we should. So again, our theme verse for this book, The Great Duty of Keeping Ourselves from Iniquity, John Whitlock, The Peer and Preacher, 1625 to 1709, republished recently by the Northampton Press. This is the theme of the whole book. We're looking to apply what we've learned with Thomas Watson. Psalm 18.23, I was also upright before him and I kept myself from mine iniquity. And just as we would emphasize when you say the Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 23, the personal pronoun makes all the difference, right? Luther says, is the Lord your shepherd? Can you say the Lord is my shepherd? Okay. Can you say I'll keep myself from mine iniquities and own them and want to change? Okay. Again, asking the Holy Spirit to help us. So, last time, chapter 1, was just opening words about this. Today, men's special sins. And particularly why I think this is helpful, he's kind of pointing out ways to recognize what yours might be, or sections and areas of life of kind of paying attention and learning to what to be focusing on in the first place. So men's special sins. So I'll just open sharing some highlights. He first opens saying this, the next general heading I propounded to speak is to what things are the rise and seat of men's special sins, where they are to be sought, so as to be found out in order to casting them out and keeping from them. So the goal is get rid of it and keep it away. But how do we do that? We've got to identify them in the first place. And what he's going to say is, here are some suggestions to look and recognize, because the heart's sinfully deceitful. We lie to ourselves all the time. And particularly, we're probably gonna be hiding from what we probably need to look at the most sometimes. Or we know, but it's always blocking it. So he's gonna say, here's some ways to try to recognize what might be something you need to look at and deal with, or also be recognizing to watch for and be careful from it coming back. Okay, those sins, number one, men's special sins, so specific. Really, right? You know, don't just pray generally. Let's get specific and especially in our own confession before the Lord. Number one, those sins that may properly be called men's own iniquities are to be sought for in the natural constitutions and tempers of their bodies. You know, we all have our own kind of who we are from birth, right? Personality, even bodily makeup. And we need to recognize what is our own makeup, physically and even mentally, dispositions that we have. We've got to pay attention to that. Because that can have a proclivity to certain kinds of sins as opposed to other ones, right? And you know, I'm not speaking of sin right now, but it's funny because, not funny, but just as an example, we're all different. He's going to talk about that and make this comparison to the way we're different bodily. It just is. So then when you are, you have to deal with those things, right? So maybe a funny one right now is, especially because Fernanda's pregnant, but even when she's not, man is she sensitive to heat, right? and I'm cold right now and I can't sleep with a cold nose. I finally started turning the heater on and sometimes she'll go, turn it off. I'm concerned for the little guys in their room. So we're always figuring out how to handle that. But it's just different body temperature, body makeup. She jokes when she was in Boston, her mother and cousin would come out at night, why is it so cold? Well, she turned off the heater. They're freezing, she's hot. So just as an example, but today, When we were at Mrs. Northup's for tutoring with the boys, the older boys, she was giving us all this tea, she can't drink it. And she's given us other things, and it turns out she can't have it. Her body's so sensitive. I think it's the citric acid. I said, you can't have this. I said, what's it do? Huh? No, it wasn't corn syrup today. It was citric acid. But anyhow, corn syrup was in other things. She said what happens is she starts, I don't know if she breaks out in hives, but she starts getting terribly itchy in her skin, I'm like, I don't have any problem with that. I could probably eat lead and be fine. I'm just that kind of a guy. Just nothing seems to phase me. Although getting older, I have to be more careful with tomato sauce or something like that before bedtime for acid reflux. I've seen a lot of older men go, I'm with you, brother. But I said to her, wow, you are so sensitive. You're so much like Fernanda. She just has these. Her smell, everything, especially pregnant, but even not, like things that I don't even notice, you know? And so whether or not I'm not making a connection other than to say as he will say, we all have different things about us. And so you need to focus on what is true about you. It could be for me that I'm not sensitive to enough things, like maybe I could be more sensitive, that might be helpful, you know, with the physical things. But just as that illustration, we're all different. We all have our different personalities, our different makeups physically, and we gotta watch for those things because they can be areas of where there could be our special sins to identify and deal with. He says this, These much incline men to some particular sins more than to others. So whatever are your particular natural constitutions and tempers of bodies, this is what would more incline you to certain sins than others. Okay? Which is why some people might have a real problem with a certain sin, the other person has no temptation with that, no problem at all. But then the other person has a real problem with a certain thing, the other person does not. And sometimes this can be the reason. He says this, for instance, those who are of a sanguine constitution. And I'm going to read through these quickly. I have seen these kind of phrases, and it's a little bit like behavioral psychology in an appropriate way. I'm not going to get into all the details, but he does kind of mention like those who are maybe get red-cheeked quicker or different things, you know, softer disposition. Then he says, there are those of the Constitution in which phlegm is predominant. I had to look these things up as a study. He's not talking about, you know, I don't know how to say it. That's what I first think of, right? And maybe more cold and idle. Then he talks about those who are of a choleric constitution. Choleric, we talk about sometimes with certain babies struggling, might be more of a temper. He talks about a lot of other things, rashness. I'm rushing through this stuff. And then he says those who are of a melancholic temper, more melancholy, more prone to get depressed, more cloned to be as I'll joke, be the Eeyores, you know? And of course, Thomas Watson spoke about that in his book, you know, Melancholy Tempts Satan to Tempt Them, you know? So it isn't the only, but he talks about those four general dispositions. You know, I think we recognize from some of those modern personality trait studies and tests. I don't want to say too much about them for good or evil, but I think we do recognize it's like, wow, they really know me. You fill it out. Like, yeah, that's pretty much who I am. We have characteristics and traits that generally seem to be in You can't narrow it down to four categories, there's lots of overlap. But generally recognize what is your general disposition bodily, temperament also related to your general way you feel and think about things. That's the first area to pay attention to where you might uncover and discover or deal more directly with what you could be avoiding. Special sins, that's one area to pay attention to. The second place to look to recognize special sins, again, so the goal is we get rid of them and we keep them away. This isn't to try to make us all feel woe is me or run and never come back. This is to help us grow in holiness, progress in piety. Okay, number two, a second place or seat where men should seek for and may probably find their special sins is the particular callings and employments they are of in the world. What's your job? This will particularly relate to those who are, you know, maybe out of other training longer and been in the work world longer. What is your job? Your place of business, your career is a place where you might have particular dangers of sins, certain sins over others. maybe certain temptations that aren't going to exist in a different kind of work. Now, he gives a number of examples. I'm going to give you the one I highlighted, the dangers that I face as a pastor. You can try to figure out what are yours, borrow the book, but I'll highlight as an example for me. He says, if one is a person of learning, parts, gifts, a scholar, yea, a minister, the sins such a one is in danger of having to be, his iniquity are pride. self-conceit, despising of others. curiosity, prying into the divine secrets, conversing about unnecessary things to show his parts, affecting high notions and high-flown expressions, being a factor for errors, crying up reason in things above natural reason, or resisting in the notion of divine truths and mere formality without experience and practice of religion and the power of godliness. So that's the danger for a pastor. That's an area to look for specific sins you're more likely to fall into. Now, he does give other examples. If you're a tradesman, a shopkeeper, a physician, you know, I'm not going to go through all those. I highlighted for me what I need to pay attention to. But you can be thinking about what about your job or calling. And if your calling is in the home, You know, I think moms and homemakers, you know, there's probably particular dangers of certain sins. You might especially think about just the challenge of working with children all day and all the highs and lows of that, right, you know? And what those can bring out that, you know, a person in the study isn't necessarily as in danger of because he's not trying to handle kids all day. He's handling other things that can make him too proud, for instance. So think about that. Third, men's special sins that may be fitly called their iniquities are to be sought for and often are to be found in their relations. Now, again, you could say relationships as well. And I have more to share with you of other examples. But again, first thing I highlighted is the danger of relations as it relates to pastors. Remember, this is a preacher. These are all sermons he preaches. I'm sure he's preaching to himself. He says this, those who stand in the relation of ministers and pastors to people, the iniquities that they are most in danger of are carelessness and negligence in their studies or preaching. Preaching seldom and only generally, not particularly or plainly. Not pressing truths practically and suitably to the case of their people. Preaching to please rather than to profit people. To tickle their ears and fancies rather tend to affect their hearts and reform their lives. To show their own parts more than to edify their hearer's souls. Affecting words more than matter and high notions or expressions above the capacity of the people. neglecting personal instruction, not acquainting themselves with the spiritual state of their flock, nor watching over their souls and conversations so as to admonish and warn the unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, suffering the ordinances of Christ to be defiled by promiscuous administrations of the sacraments, neglect of scripture discipline, minding their worldly gain more than gaining souls to Christ, covetousness, and too much involving themselves in civil and worldly affairs, and not being affected with nor endeavoring to experience and practice the truths they deliver to others. So many times I almost stopped and said something. I'm going to keep moving on. Speaks for itself, right? Plus, in this case, I highlighted a few other things. Mostly for myself, but you can be thinking about them. Next, husbands. You have some particular danger of special sins in your relations as a husband to your wife. Husbands, if you do not love your wives, walk with them as men of knowledge, do not honor them as the weaker vessels, bearing with and covering their infirmities, but are bitter against them. That is your iniquity. There's a danger of that. How about you parents? By the way, I think he does address, he does address the wives. All right, I'll give it to the wives just to be fair, but I didn't highlight it. You who are wives, though you make a high profession and have many commendable things in you, yet if you are commanding, domineering, self-willed, unquiet, cannot bring your hearts and practice to that necessary, though to the flesh-unpleasing duty of reverencing your husbands and being in subjection to them as your heads, This is your iniquity, which you must, as you would prove your sincerity, keep from. Now, partly why I didn't highlight all of these different angles is I didn't intend to be really going through the book as closely as we did with Watson. But I figure if I bring it out to the husbands, we'll give the counterpart what they can think about as well. What about parents? I did highlight this. Search whether coddling your children Indulging them in sin, not restraining sin or correcting them for it, suffering them to have their wills, feeding their lusts, is not your iniquity. Hereby ruining of them both soul and body, both here and to eternity. This is an iniquity that many godly parents have and are greatly guilty and much under the power of. Or, so still talking to parents on the other side of it, is not your iniquity in not bringing them up in the knowledge, nurture and admonition of the Lord, taking care for their bodies to get estates and provide portions for them, but not care to instruct them, to bring them to ordinances, to press them to duties and to look after the graces of God's spirit, faith, repentance, new obedience, and to give them good examples. Are not these, some of them at least, your particular iniquities? Again, in the context of your special relationships is an area where you might have special sins to deal with that take on a lot of your moment. He goes on, or are you not guilty, on the other hand, of too much severity? and provoking your children to wrath, keeping them at too great a distance, not allowing them necessaries of conveniences suitable to their condition, rank, or age, and thereby making them weary of your government, if not your lives, and tempting them to be more extravagant when they come to have estates or power in their own hands. And you children, I didn't highlight that part, might as well give a little something to the children, Is it not, or has it not been your iniquity that you have been disobedient to parents, not hearkening to their instructions and counsels, not following the examples of godly parents, not reverencing them, yea, not relieving and maintaining them when they are old and poor? So I didn't highlight all of that, but I figure I'll give a few applications as it is related to our relationships. I think that's probably one we can particularly relate to, if you excuse the play on words there. Number four, the fourth area to think about focusing on to recognize if there's an area of secret special sins you need to particularly be mindful of, and say I have kept myself from my iniquity by dealing with it in prayer and in growth. Number four, persons should search for their iniquities in the various estates and conditions, whether high or low, of prosperity or adversity. It's interesting, Paul says, I've learned in whatever state to be content, right? In Philippians. But he talks about whether high or low, in abundance and in want. Both are in danger of not being content, right? What's the proverb that says, don't give me too much or too little, only give me my daily bread, right? I might be in danger of stealing, I might be in danger of crediting myself. So if you are in an extremely high place, of a state and condition or low. Now, at this point, I think you might talk a little bit about as it relates in society as well, that overlaps with relations, but mainly just like, you know, is life really good right now? Well, you're in danger of what does God warn the people about we saw in Deuteronomy. Don't go into this land and start crediting yourself as if you got the land, right? Or I gave it to you because of your righteousness. Quite the contrary, in spite of your unrighteousness and wickedness, right? Stiff-necked people always going astray. Don't think it's because you're so big. You're very little. You're the most little pipsqueak. It has nothing to do with you other than I simply chose you. I mean, how much does God warn them that we're going into the promised land? Don't start getting all high and mighty and thinking you don't have to watch out for things because of your high estate, because the danger is you can start doing idolatry, worshipping false gods, all kinds of bad things. Also, your low estate. If you have a very low place, you can start complaining against God's providence. Being ungrateful and unthankful for all you do have, you're unwilling to look at and recognize. Maybe he never trusts us to be faithful with more, because we never really are faithful with the little we have. There's a danger of a really high state of good things or a really low state of bad things, which is why we need to learn to be content in all things, whether it's high or low pulses. Number five. Men should seek, and often may find out, what their particular reigning, or at least tyrannizing corruptions are, by looking into the several ages of their life. Different phases of life, you're in danger of different things. So what phase are you, youth? What phase are you, mid-age? What phase are you, you know, more golden years, retired? Each of those ages has its particular temptations and particular sins you can be more susceptible to as a regular problem than you might earlier in life or later in life. He says every age of a man's life has its peculiar sins. I'm going to go on to the next one, but one thing I'm going to highlight along the way, as he lists a lot of different sins, it's interesting how often he lists Sabbath profanation. And one day, what I intend to do is go back through all these books. I should keep a list now, because now I've got to go back and find them. It's striking to me how often Puritan writers, when they list sins that are particularly bad, breaking the Sabbath is one of the few they list. That's so striking to me. I think it's low on the list today, even for Reformed churches, sadly. And that's a whole other message and sermon. I hope to have an article for you someday on it with Meet the Puritans. But as I say, I'm skipping a lot of the details he's saying. I'm not giving the same detailed attention as Thomas Watson. I encourage you to borrow the book or think about these things and apply it to yourself. And again, think about that. How does that apply to me, each of these? What should I be looking at right now? Don't wait till later to think about it. Think about it right now. Okay, apply it to yourself. Because you've already probably been thinking about it, right? Okay, number six. A person's own iniquities may be the sins of the times and places wherein persons live. Sins that men have contracted by the examples or traditions of their fathers, by the power and influence of education, the company they have most conversed with. Yeah, the traditions of men is something Jesus says, you bring down the law of God by the traditions of men, right? That's often a problem that, well, we do this because everybody did it. We always do this in our nation. We always do this in my church. I grew up with this. My parents did it. And we're not willing to consider whether it's wrong and against what God wants. I'm tempted to go back to last month to consider an application of that. I won't, other than to, I just kind of did by illusion. But he says this, men are ready to say, this was the religion, the practice of our fathers, and are we wiser or better than they? Of course, that's going to be the word against Martin Luther, John Calvin, right? The Reformation. So sins that men have been educated and brought up in, they are apt to make their own. I own it. This is, we always do this. I'm not going to question that this is, I'm not going to be willing to question whether I should be doing it and simply always doing it. It could be a sin. I'm unwilling to take a look at that and consider whether we need to reform and something as a church or families or persons. And again, listed among a number of things right away is Sabbath breaking. I'm just going to mention that as I keep going, okay? Number seven, men's own proper sins that may be most prevailing over them may lie and be found in the undue, immoderate, unseasonable, and unchaste excuse me, uncharitable use of lawful and indifferent things, as in the use of meat, drink, apparel, sleep, and lawful recreations. Sometimes, you know, Paul says many things are permissible to us, but they're not profitable, right? And having wisdom like, well, I can probably do this, but for me, it's not profitable, might lead me to sins I wouldn't otherwise do, or simply, I don't spend enough time with things that are more holy and profitable. This thing's okay, but it's taking too much of my time. Now it's becoming a sin of sloth for spiritual things, for instance. He writes this, men sin if they take up and devour too much of their time and strength if their heart is set upon them. waste their estate, hinder the duties of their general or particular calling, taking up the time that should be spent either in public worship or family or secret religion, things such as secret reading, prayer, meditation, and self-reflection. This is a time of year where we often think about, I don't want to say New Year's resolution, but being resolved to get back, such as reading through our Bible. I want to challenge us all, how much time are you reading your Bible? How much time are you praying? These are things I've said to myself, and I keep working on myself, for instance. I have plenty of reasons to excuse myself with busyness, including, well, I'm working on sermons on scriptures. How much time are you giving boys and girls, men and women, to reading the Bible and praying every day especially morning and evening. Ask yourself that. And maybe you're giving yourself to things that are adiaphora in themselves, things indifferent. But for you, they're crowding out time with the Lord and growth in the spirit. And the danger is, as we'll see, these can lead you to all kinds of more serious sins. Because if we're not eating and drinking of Christ and his word, we're going to be malnourished for holy things, right? So how are you using your time? And what might be crowding out time that, oh, I'm always so busy, I don't have time for devotions, time for family worship. And how do you need to try to take that over? This is a battle I've shared with you, and I'm always vulnerable with the family. Right now it's really hard to get a regular time of family worship. It's really hard to have a meal with everyone. I can better appreciate as kids get older and schedules get more complicated, or just having a lot of little kids and the difference of what a little kid can handle. But I'll keep pushing and getting back, and I'll say, guys, I'm struggling. I need your help. And they're always encouraging. And when we do, we're always so thankful. But, you know, working on things and not making excuses. You know, yeah, the house is a mess and I got to be five places right now. We're not going to skip family worship right now. It may have to be very brief. It may sometimes be singing Psalms, but giving ourselves to something with the Lord as opposed to I'm busy with all these other things that are not sinful. How are you using your time? Especially as you're starting the new year, we tend to be more open to thinking about kind of recalibrating or recharging. Think about that. And pick something now, beloved. Pick a place you're going to find that time for it. Pick a devotional or a prayer book or a Bible book you're going to start reading, and don't worry about whether you get it all done by the end of the year. It's a good goal to set, but some of us who are perfectionists can stray away when we're not keeping up on a certain thing. Number eight. Men's special sins that may, in a proper sense, be called their iniquities their, my iniquities, may be gathered and found out from the consideration of the different spiritual estates of persons, both before and after their conversion. So, you know, sometimes, for instance, you know, when we have a young believer, a new convert, they can tend to have a more zealous heart than we can, because we're just so familiar over time, right? And I think about The lukewarmness of Laodicea. You're neither hot nor cold. I wish you were hot or cold, but not lukewarm. I want to vomit you out of my mouth. What good is that? Be refreshingly cold or be warming things up with light and heat, but don't just be lukewarm. Or I think it's the Church of Ephesus, you've lost your first love. You used to bring me candy. You used to bring me flowers. You used to write me poems. Now I hear, hey, how was your day? I'm going to bed, right? I don't know. I'm making this stuff up on the fly. But you get it. We're all prone to this. And we can be that way with the Lord. And so we could be in danger of being with the Lord for a long time where we could begin to get lukewarm about it. Or we could be particularly overly zealous without knowledge and without love, right? As is often said, a new Calvinist should be locked up in a cage for the first three years because they can get so proud and so domineering that whatever stage you are, you need to recognize what stage of the faith that I am. Children who grow up in the church, you need to think about, hey, I've grown up in the church, do I take for granted what I'm hearing? Do I kind of take for granted my dad's a pastor, some of you? Am I paying my own attention to studying the scriptures and the catechisms to own it for myself? And to grow and know the Lord closely in my own relationship with him, right? You want to be thinking about those things. Number eight, men's special sins that may, in a proper sense, be called their iniquities may be gathered and found out from the consideration... Oh, I already read that, didn't I? Different special estates of persons both before and after their conversion. Sorry, I read that already. Okay, I'm flipping through to try to get through the rest of it quickly, but I will just note that on one page, in the midst of a lot of stuff I didn't highlight, what do you think I saw listed as a big sin again? Sabbath-breaking. That's three or four times already. That's not the only thing he lists, but I don't know that I see that in any modern writings, including of Reformed people. Like, right up there at the top of the list of horrific sins, regular, habitual, terrible, special sins, some people need to stop breaking the Sabbath all the time. It's just striking to me how much it comes up, Sabbath breaking, and I think that's an issue today, probably more than then I would think. So I can't help but comment as I see that, and like I say, eventually I'm going to write an article when I have the chance to go back through all these readings. Oh, there it is again, Sabbath breaking is listed as one of the top sins. Still in that section, he writes this, in weak doubting Christians, their iniquities are indulging doubts and fears, listening to Satan, entertaining hard thoughts of God, refusing the comforts of the word of God holds forth. I would say that's probably more of the melancholy disposition we looked at earlier. But there are some, it's like, man, you don't seem to ever really want assurance. You're always crying out for the lack of it, but you don't seem to ever be willing kind of take it, you know, or do what it takes to have it. And we have a chapter on that, of course, in our confession that talks about that. He says, and so to stronger, so some who are weak, oh, I can never, I'm no good, I can't, I'm too, I'm not worthy of God's mercy. Well, of course you're not, none of us are, that's the whole point, right? You know, and we make our sin and our misery bigger than God's mercy in Christ, right? But on the other hand, he says as to stronger and more ancient Christians, The sins that they are in danger to be beset with, as their peculiar sins are, too much rigidness towards your beginners, expecting too much from them, as much knowledge and prudence as they themselves or other ancient Christians have." You know, we've been doing it so... I'll give you an example today. You know, Abraham, woo-hoo, got his permit. Was it yesterday? Today, I can't remember. Yesterday, okay. What's today? It's Thursday, right? No, just kidding. Okay, Abraham got his permit. And so we were driving home today and we were talking about, you know, just what to observe, what to watch and look for, and whether he's going to be, you know, he said, well, I don't know whether I'll be ready for that with the highway. And I said, well, you're right. We'll wait to see when you're ready." I says, one thing I'll need you to remind me, and I lamented and repented over my poor first child that had to first have dad teach them how to drive in the car and I could relate to my mom in a way I never could before when she was teaching me, her first child. It wasn't her fault, but I want to do better. Thankfully, Rachel is so forgiving and merciful, and I did learn to do better with Liv, but I said, one thing I need to better realize is I've been driving for a long time. And one thing Abraham says, like, I'm kind of concerned that when you have to look back over your shoulder that I don't end up veering. I said, yeah, that is something I've noticed. Younger people have to watch out for. I said, it becomes second nature. But I said, as I work with you, you help me remember. I'm going to maybe forget that this isn't natural to you at first. First drive, we went out with Rachel. Poor Rachel, she should have put me up on charges, I tell you. I mean, I am exaggerating, but it just didn't occur to me how those first roads in that parking lot would feel. Then we realized, oh yeah, we need to go to an empty parking lot for a while first, just because you have your permit, right? I can't be expecting them to be ready to have the instinct and just, I don't have to think about it, right? And similarly, young Christians, those of us who have the blessing of growing up in the church or having been growing in the faith or the Reformed faith for a while, We've got to be careful not to be judgmental if somebody doesn't know this, or that doctrine, or doesn't know that part of the Bible, because they weren't really raised to know it. And we have to be careful not to be, you don't know that! You know, it could be a temptation to say, oh, okay, well great, this is a great opportunity, let me share about that, right? And nurture them along. He says again, another special sin of stronger Christians, or those who think themselves so, that's interesting. That's an interesting parenthetical comment. Okay. Another special sin of stronger Christians is using or indeed abusing Christian liberty by going to the utmost extent of it to the offense of others, not caring if they do but satisfy themselves how much others may be dissatisfied, grieved, offended, and damaged. Yea, worldliness is an iniquity that is a very apt to seize and grow up ancient professors. Yeah, now there's a chapter on liberty of conscience, right, and Christian liberty in our confession. I'll point you there for more thoughts in the membership class. You know, certain denominations, people joke that the initials stand for, you know, cigars and pipes and alcohol. I'm going out of order to try to not seem like I'm identifying one. But I think in a lot of Formed Churches, I have noticed, there seems to be a proclivity to, hey man, smoke them if you got them, and if you don't, let's make sure you got them. You know, like the getting together after Presbytery seems to be, if everybody's walking by, not so sure they would recognize this is a bunch of ministers in the room. You know, there seems to be a letting your hair down in a sense. I don't know. And I'm not wanting to overstate things, but it does relate to things like Romans 14. Be considerate of the weaker brother. Don't be a stumbling block for them. You know, it isn't that the weaker brother may not want to try to educate them over time, but not be so careless and casual and cavalier about things indifferent, but things that naturally could be a stumbling block, especially for someone who's trying to control a former sin where there was an excess of it, right? But sometimes those freedoms and liberties, it's hard to sometimes see where the line is. Is it excess? And especially for leaders and ministers, I think we've got to be more concerned to err on the side of caution and prudence. So for instance, it may be that elders and pastors are comfortable sharing privately a beer or wine together in moderation. But in a church gathering, probably that wouldn't be something that's there. just to play it safe, especially we don't know who may be coming, friends, visitors, and we wouldn't want to risk their confusion and never have a chance to witness to them again, you know. So that's another danger of stronger Christians. Number nine, those sins that may properly be called men's own iniquities may often be found out in or about the duties they should or do perform in regard either of the omission of duties and ordinances or carelessness in performing them. So remember one thing we were reminded of in Thomas Watson's study, it's not just what you do, it's what you neglect to do. Who is my neighbor? The Good Samaritan, as one example. It's not just what we do, but what we neglect and avoid doing. That's an area to recognize. What are we less motivated and prone to give ourselves to that we should be doing? He writes this, living in the neglect of family duties, or reading, prayer, catechizing, or omitting secret duties. You know, what are habits, things that you should be doing privately in family that you're just omitting and neglecting? And again, I think this overlaps with what we looked at earlier, maybe when you're just giving yourself too much to things indifferent that crowd such things out. He writes, drowsiness of body, if you do not endeavor to the utmost against it. I'm telling you, beloved, be careful how you spend your Saturdays before you come here on the Lord's Day to worship. There are plenty of things that could be happening to us that isn't any neglect, it's just what we had to deal with. But a lot of the time, we just need to think about how are we preparing for worship. It's funny, where we were today, I heard a father guiding his son. He said, yeah, it was amazing, this or that. I said, yeah, that's right, you get up a certain hour and you gotta get some exercise. It's amazing how much better I feel and I can do all this more. We don't wanna live in neglect of things, including how we're taking care of our body. Because we are psychosomatic beings, as you know. And again, what we do with our body can have a lot to do with our spirituality. They're not separated. Right? We don't take good care of our house, which the Bible teaches is what our body is. It's going to affect our soul that's living within it, who we are. So for instance, if we leave our house in disarray, that really affects how we feel. You know, Fernanda and I will talk about, boy, it's great when we kind of get on top of getting the house in better order. It really affects how you feel, cheerfulness, and then you're kind of more likely to praise the Lord. and spend your time well. That's why we kind of joke it's nice when we have visitors. It forces us to get things in order we've been meaning to. But not being neglectful of things that will set us up for being spiritual. And this includes diet and exercise, for instance. Number 10. I believe this is the last one. Yeah, perfect number. And last, in terms of men's special sins, areas for you to look at and recognize, yeah, that is a danger for me particularly in that particular part of that category. Number ten, last, this concerns only the truly godly. So he does seem to be addressing you who are not really Christians, there's still an aspect of this. and you who are true Christians, he talks about how the first one is sin is your master, the second one is more of a tyrant. It bothers you, but it's not your master, okay? But this last one he says really only applies to Christians. Person's special sins may lie in or about their very graces, namely they're not endeavoring to grow in those graces and to act and exercise them, or falling into and being foiled by those sins that are directly contrary to the graces wherein they have been most eminent." There's overlap here. Of course, there always is with the Puritans, right? They have like, you know, point number 10, which is under subcategory five, which is under section seven. So there's always a lot of overlap. But I think what he's saying particularly here is only a true Christian can truly grow in grace. Only a true Christian can actually exercise oneself unto godliness. It doesn't really apply to non-Christians. They don't have the spirit. They don't have grace. They don't have the blood of Christ over them. But it still kind of applies that we need to be careful that we're not endeavoring to grow in grace, that we're not exercising. And then we wonder why we're flabby spiritually. Same reason if we're not exercising physically, we're flabby. If we're eating too much and sitting around too much, we shouldn't be surprised that we're growing in the wrong areas. If we want to grow spiritually, we need to be giving ourselves to exercise and to godly things. Picking up that Bible every day over time. Even just picking up that Bible. Do it five times, boy. Get that bicep going and then read it. Yeah, our eyes is going like this. Lift it up over your head. OK, I'm going to. If you want, borrow my preaching Bible. I've decided it's so heavy I never bring it anywhere but the pulpit. Borrow my preaching Bible. Put that open. Maybe I'd say, how about you, dad? Yeah, you're right. I'll start working on my curls with my preaching Bible in the morning while I'm reading and praying, right? He says this, God permits this, that the best of his people may learn to rely upon not the strength of their graces received, but the strength of Christ and of his spirit, and constantly to look up to and depend upon Him for fresh supplies of His grace to be derived from Him by faith. And we want to remember, as there was a disclaimer here, the disclaimer of Watson at the very end of his study, you ask God, you go to God. You remember your dependence on God. And that's why we have to go to His Word. That's why we need to pray. We have to depend on God and not ourselves. And we can get to where we're really depending on ourselves more, one way or the other. If we know the Lord and we have His grace and the Spirit of His grace, may the Lord bless us to grow in the fruits of the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If you don't walk, there will be spiritual atrophy, just like anything else, right? You'll start to lose your muscle mass. You'll start to lose your strength. It can be gotten back, and that's the point of the study, remember, beloved. The point is that we would make progress and piety by identifying these issues, casting them out, keeping them away, and the other side of that will be growing in godliness and growing in piety and holiness, which the Bible says, without which no one will see the Lord. Yeah, Mr. Randall, oh, hold on. I'm actually done, perfect timing. Okay, but you gotta use the mic. So I'll try and remember this as best I can, but I recently read something about sin and how sin begins in our thoughts and that a thought if you entertain a thought for 15 minutes, that you are generally, that thought is going to lead to action. So if you, when you're, when you have that sinful thought that comes into your mind, the recommendation was that you need to to be able to cast that thought away, and it listed several different ways. Take a walk, call a friend, begin to pray, begin to pray against the thought, and The sooner that you can do that, the better off you are going to be. And you're creating habits. That you don't continue to entertain the thought, because the more you do, that thought is more likely going to become an action. As you say that, it reminds me of what we're studying in the Shorter Catechism in the evening time on the Lord's Day, number 71. What's the seventh commandment? Thou shalt not commit adultery, right? Listen to what's required and what's forbidden. The Seventh Commandment, number 71 of the Shorter Catechism. The Seventh Commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity in heart, speech, and behavior. What is forbidden in the Seventh Commandment, now notice the parallel, just using different words. The Seventh Commandment forbideth all unchaste thoughts. words and actions. But again, notice the heart and the thoughts coming first in that sequence of the three. It really does, and of course you can think of, there's so many scriptures, but one that comes to mind is Psalm 119, 11 I believe it is, I have hidden thy word in my heart. that I might not sin against thee." By the way, let me say this, as you think about areas that you need to work on that are your particular challenges, think about a number of scriptures that relate to that. I encourage you to think about putting them down on a piece of paper. and regularly meditating, memorizing some of them, and praying over them. Because he's really arguing, that's where we really need to give our particular attention. And many other things will benefit from that. Here's the other side of what you're saying, Mr. Renner, which is encouraging as well. The more we don't do that, the more we don't have those habits building, right? And those patterns. Because a lot of this is supernatural grace, but it is also related to patterns, building habits, right? Positively, If you are quicker to repent, quicker to give your thoughts to the Lord in prayer, quicker to be doing those things, you build a habit of how you respond to them, right? But also, when you do that, now you're spending more time in prayer. Now you're spending more time in fellowship. If you get out and say, hey, I need to hang out. Now you're getting more time in reading your Bible. And so that cumulatively has its own effect as well. I did preach on that text related to this topic if you're interested. But again, I have hidden thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee. All right, thank you. Great study. Yeah, Isaac, you have a, okay, can I get the mic to you? Real quick, real quick. Hold on, let me give you the mic. Let me give you the mic, because that'll be quicker than me trying to repeat for you, okay? Go ahead. I think we'll close with this so we don't leave too late. So, it says, you know, you shouldn't think about evil thoughts, like go on a walk or whatever, or whatever, so then they don't turn into actions. So, think about godly good thoughts, so then you do godly good actions instead. Exactly. Kind of what we're touching on, which is sort of related to what Paul says, put off the old man, put on the new man. More of the right activity, will make a difference in us. These are spiritual truths, especially when the Holy Spirit's building this fruit in us, right? That reminds me, though, to come back to one other thing about the thoughts. Love or charity thinketh no evil, 1 Corinthians 13, 5. Thinking evil is the idea of a censorious or overly critical, inappropriate critical spirit. One of the things we looked at is, when you look at thinketh no evil, the Greek word has the idea of counting, or calculating, as one translation has rendered it, keeps no record of wrongs. Now there is an example of not building up a begrudging, hateful, unforgiving spirit, keeping a list, or keeping a file. Actually, we're told to overlook a multitude of sins and wisdom and love, as the Lord does for us. We don't keep a file. We don't keep a list. We don't think evil all the time of someone. Because if we do that, we're building a habit of the way we think towards someone. Rather, we want to do what Paul says. We studied this last night in the men's study. It came up in Philippians 4. If you want the God of peace to be within your midst as the people of God, when you're having relations with people, think on the good things, the noble things, good report. Think on what you can think of that is good. Focus on that. And so that idea of thinking, what Mr. Renner brought up, really is so significant. It starts with our thoughts, right? It starts with our heart, as Jesus says. Okay, let's close. Thanks for your time. Our Lord God in heaven, we pray that you have helped us to think about what each of us has to deal with particularly. And as we go home tonight, we'd be praying about it and that we might make some notes about it and make an effort to do something about it, even in a small way, which would be more than we would normally do to respond to our lessons and study. Help us to be on our knees praying before you about it and asking for your help. guiding us to your scriptures and in prayer and to new habits and holy ways. And Lord, give us wisdom as we discern these things. We pray, oh Lord, that we can apply the prayer, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As you would help us to be able to pray, I have kept myself from mine iniquity. as we are learning and understanding in particular our special sins, our little darlings, our pet sins that we actually feed and cradle. Lord, help us to see their ugliness for what they are and to kill them and to raise up holy, godly things in us. We ask you to do this work in us, Holy Spirit. We cannot do it of our own. We pray you help us to respond to your word, to this teaching, and to prayer. And Lord, help us to make progress in piety as we start this new year, and help us to start tonight. Help us to start tomorrow, and then the next night, and the next tomorrow, through that week, and the next week, and the months, and to be encouraged What will life look for like for us and what will our lives look like for Jesus and others three months from now as we would take our own iniquities and deal with them. We pray indeed that you would let this be so as we pray, deliver us from evil and we thank you. that you have given yourself to us and paid for our sins and given us your righteousness and given us the Holy Spirit. And we pray, Father, you give us more of the Holy Spirit to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. And bless us, Lord, to get home safely and have a good rest and a good start to tomorrow with you in your word and prayer, as brief as it may be, trusting indeed and waking up to the truth for our motivation and movement, your mercies are new every morning by your great faithfulness and joy cometh in the morning. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and all your people said, amen.