Well, welcome in, everybody. We're super glad to be back with you. My name's Hank Bowen. I'm here with Johnny Artivannis. This is Dialin. And over the next couple weeks, we're going to be diving through some practical conversations around holiness and the pursuit of holiness. I think today we're going to be

talking about fighting sin. So, Johnny, with that, would you mind setting the table for us? What is

sin and why is it worth fighting in the first place? Well, yeah, sin is really anything that is a

violation of God's holiness. And sin is hostility, it's rebellion. And sin is anytime we prefer anything or

anyone above God. So I think sometimes we have Jerry Bridges used to call them respectable sins,

but it's important to understand that sin is not just the things that we do, it's who we are. We are

by nature sinners. And one of the wonders of the gospel is that if you're a Christian,

you're no longer under the power of sin, you're no longer under the dominion of sin, you're no longer

a slave to Satan. You're no longer a child of wrath. That's Ephesians. But if you're a believer,

you're still vulnerable to Satan's schemes. You still have the remaining sinful flesh dwelling within you, and you will still battle

sin the rest of your life.

J.C. Ryle used to say in his book on holiness, he wrote it probably in the 1870s, that

there is no such thing as a person who goes instantly from justification.

That's our positional

standing before God when he reckons us righteous. No one goes from justification to perfection.

In between justification and glorification, that's when we're totally made like Jesus in glory.

There's something called sanctification. And so that's just the process by which we become

continually conformed into the image of Christ. And so that's just the process by which we become continually conformed into the

image of Christ. And so sin is something worth fighting because if you're a Christian, you want to be

like your Lord Jesus. And I think probably one of the other things in setting the table for

our conversation, it's important that if you're a Christian or if someone's a Christian that's

listening, fighting sin is one of their main responsibilities. for our conversation. It's important that if you're a Christian or if someone's a Christian that's

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