Let's pray together. Father, my prayer is that this message would prove to be in the

lives of these friends a fulfillment or at least part of a fulfillment of David

Platt's message in that you would cause Christians millions of Christians to so think and

so feel and so act that they would bring all of their lives into harmony with the enjoyment and

the exaltation of your glory among all the nations. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

I want to begin by stating my aim in six different ways. If one of them doesn't click, maybe the

others will, they all mean the same thing. First, my aim is that those of you who preach and teach

the Word of God would do so in a way that makes clear the effective connection between the sin

bearing work of Christ and the sin killing work of the Christian. Second, that you would make clear

the effective connection between canceled sin and conquered sin. Third, that you would make clear

the effective connection between the horrors of Christ's suffering and the holiness of Christ's

people. Fourth, that you would make clear the release of people from guilt and how it effectively

connects with the securing of their lives of righteousness. Fifth, that you would make clear the

effective connection between justification by his blood and progressive sanctification by that

same blood. And sixth, finally, that you would make clear the effective connection between the

tearing off of the flesh of Christ in crucifixion and the tearing out of your eye in the battle against

lust. Now, I choose to pursue this aim, stated those six ways, because it seems to me that in the last

40 years or so of the gospel-centered emphasis in America, there has not been a biblically

proportionate emphasis on or execution of preaching for holiness of life and godliness and righteousness

and radical counter-cultural Christ-likeness. Instead, it seems to me that to be gospel-centered

has filtered down to the pew to mean something like this. Preach the gospel to yourself every day,

which has heard to mean something like, rehearse the good news every day to yourself that you are

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