Psalm 85: 2. Sin Detested! Psalm 85:4-8

Text: “For we know that the law is Spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would (do), that do I not; but what I hate (sin), that I do…O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…”

Romans 7:14-25.

Good morning, sin-detesting Christian!  Being a ‘sin-detesting Christian’ does NOT mean that you and I are stuffed full of self-righteousness, like some most definitely are today; magnifying the failings and faults of others, while ignoring our own sinful natures.  No! It primarily applies to our own committed sins, even after we are so graciously saved by the precious shed Blood of our Saviour, Jesus Christ! 

Being genuinely saved, does not make the saved person sinless!  Our old Adamic nature is totally depraved, and as so, has the potential to commit every vile sin in the book!  Furthermore, the old nature that we, as genuine Christians have; shall ALWAYS be prone to commit sin, until the body is separated from the soul/spirit by death, and we receive glorified Spiritual bodies that shall never sin again.  Fact.

Detesting our own sinfulness and failings – even when others do not see our faults – is what defines the depth of honesty, integrity, and commitment we have in Christ Jesus.  Christ Jesus, through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, makes us to utterly detest the continued presence of any degree of sin in our Christian lives.  We become, by His grace, ‘sin-detesting Christians’.

Look again at the apostle Paul’s depth of Christian honesty there in Romans Chapter 7.; and again, at the Psalmist’s sincere consciousness of personal and National sin in Psalm 85.

The human will cannot, and will not, turn from inherent sin within our old nature, Romans 8 and verse 7 clearly teaches us this fact.   We are totally depraved, even after we are saved, having an Adamic nature, inherited from our fallen progenitor, Adam, which always desires to commit sin!

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”      (Romans 8:7-8)

After you and I are Spiritually regenerated, born-again, God the Holy Ghost lives within us; we become the temple of God.  There is immediate conflict between God the Spirit living within us, and our old Adamic, sin-prone nature.  The battle is a continuous one within us.

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 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 the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I serve the law of God; but with my flesh the law of sin.”  (Romans 7:22-25)

Detesting any sin committed through the inherited weakness of our flesh, the apostle assures himself (and us) that he belongs to Christ Jesus, and the grief God the Holy Spirit feels when you and I sin, further proves that we have moved from sin’s death unto true Spiritual life in Christ.  We become, by God’s grace alone, ‘sin-detesting Christians’.

Verse 4. “Turn us, O God of our Salvation. Conversion is the dawn of Salvation. To turn a heart to God is as difficult as to make the world revolve upon its axis.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 360)

By the doctrine of Progressive Sanctification (seeking to be progressively cleansed from our daily sins), we show that we are indeed, ‘sin-detesting Christians’.  We have been taught that we serve a thrice Holy Lord God Who cannot abide sin, and must punish it.  Therefore, we seek to be obedient to our Holy Lord God by confession and forsaking of our sins, progressively.  We cannot enjoy close fellowship with such a Holy Lord God, if we are not seeking to walk in the light with Him.  This demands continual, and progressive sanctification from our sins reference our daily state – in our standing in Christ, we have been covered from all sins forever. 

This is State and Standing theology reference the doctrine of Sanctification. (See the Christian Doctrines section on Sanctification on my website www.ulsterchristians.org )

Just as the apostle Paul cries out for deliverance from his sinful nature in Romans Chapter 7, the Psalmist cries out with a similar sin-detesting desire here in Psalm 85.

Verse 6. “Wilt Thou not revive us again… When genuine Christian believers become conscious of having sinned against the Living God – in word, thought, or deed – we feel the pangs of Spiritual defeat, Spiritual failing; Spiritual separation in our state between our sinful selves and our pure and Holy Lord God.  Scriptures call this grief of God the Spirit.

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”  (Ephesians 4:29-30)

Verse 6. “Revive us again. Men in distress never waste words.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 360)

When the Lord God saves thee and me, we become ‘sin-detesting Christians’ who, from the time of our Spiritual regeneration, seek to fellowship with the One Who saved us, and to do so, requires of us continual detestation of all sin, and especially sin committed by ourselves.  We cannot get close to One Who detests all sin, without becoming ‘sin-detesting Christians’.

The prophet Amos put it this way: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3)

Verse 8. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak. Show me the professing ‘Christian’ who has no desire to read his/her Bible, and I will show you someone that is not a true Christian at all.  If we love someone, we shall always desire to be in close communion with them.  We 21^st Century Christians do so by becoming ‘sin-detesting Christians’, who are continually found with open KJV Bibles, communing in harmony with our Lord God.

Verse 8. “He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints. The Lord Jesus Christ creates us as SAINTS, not some high church, or religious system. Therefore, the Prince of all peace, Jesus the risen Christ, speaks Eternal peace to us, ‘His people’, for whom He has suffered to pay the full penalty of our sins, died the death He alone could die for us; and forever keeps us securely in His Divine hand.  This is another reason why we must become ‘sin-detesting Christians’ – for it was OUR SINS that took Christ Jesus to that cruel Cross.

Thought: “Let us not turn again to folly”, but to full worship of our Holy Lord God. All sin must be detested by us, shunned, and repented from.