Paul West delivers a powerful sermon drawing parallels between the types of caskets sold at a funeral home and the spiritual battle against sin. He emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing the entry points of sin in our lives, comparing them to pests infiltrating a home. Paul highlights the need to rely on the Holy Spirit for strength in resisting temptation and protecting our hearts as the dwelling place of God's Spirit.

At the funeral home where I work, we sell two types of caskets: the sealers and the non-sealers. The “sealers” have a rubber gasket along the length of the lid that is designed keep the casket air-tight when closed. The “non-sealers” have no gasket at all. The gasket works by suction, by metal suctioning against rubber. Think of a refrigerator door closing, the swoop and then the “seal” sound. The purpose of the gasket is twofold: to keep what’s inside the casket to stay inside, and what’s outside the casket to stay outside. We have windows and doors and walls in our homes for the very same purpose. If we find our home is becoming infested with roaches or mice, for example, most of us will want to investigate where and how they are getting in. Basic wisdom dictates blocking the entry point and then killing whatever pests remain in the house. When you see a line of ants marching along the floor, you can trace the formation back to some breach in a window pane, or beneath a door or through some crack in a wall. Likewise, if we are yielding our members to sin and are being continually defeated by the lust of the eyes, by bouts of anger and the boastful pride of life, we should see these things as an infestation. And because it is an infestation, trying to kill the sin is pointless if we do not first deal with the breach by which it is entering the heart and manifesting in the flesh. Some people think that the bugs originate from inside the house, from somewhere within the dark recesses of the cellar or attic. This is an extremely perplexing situation, as the only defense for such is to just spray and squash whenever a sighting occurs. This was all the Old Testament law could do: when you saw a roach, you sprayed it dead. Another roach might appear tomorrow beneath a bathroom sink. Squash that one too. But don’t worry about trying to find out where all the roaches are coming from. They are everywhere, and you’ll just have to live with them like everyone else. As long as they stay beneath the flooring and drywall, count it all victory! This is sad error. The roaches are actually coming in from the outside and laying their eggs inside the house. The termites enter in from the outside and are drawn to wood. The ants march in from the outside and invade for food. In the Texas Hill Country where I live, scorpions come into our home during the months of September and October. Don’t ask me why. A rat does not suddenly molecularize out of thin air and appear on the bathroom floor. This only happens in a state of delusion, in a fantasy world, when a person hallucinates. Many believers actually have a hallucinatory idea of sin and the new heart. If rats are spontaneously appearing in someone’s home, what possible defense could there be for the homeowners but for the Old Covenant extermination law? Thankfully, all the pests are outdoors, the heart is indwelt by the spirit’s new man, and the armor of God is in place to shield the heart by faith. Dear believer, under the blood of the New Covenant, allow the Lord to instruct you in the ways of mortification. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a type of sin-exterminator. He renews our mind so it can work as a sealing gasket for the treasury of the new heart. When a dirty thought suddenly scurries across your mind like a cockroach, the first thing to do is understand that this filthy bug is on the outside, trying to get in. At once, by faith in the operation of the Holy Spirit, set a defense by closing the gasket of your mind’s door. Permit it no entrance to lay eggs that will eventually hatch into strongholds. Do you see an attractive woman and are tempted to look at her in lust? See this is a scorpion on your doorstep. Keep the door sealed, resist the devil, suffer temporarily in the flesh, and you will have the victory. You will find that when you open the door again, the scorpion will be gone. You will have ceased from sin and won the victory. Again, are you tempted to assert yourself and argue your rights, to criticize and accuse other people? These are the thought-whispering termites of Satan, seeking to devour and nest in the wood of your flesh. Allow them no carnal accommodation; gird-up the gasket of your mind. Protect your home. Submit yourself first unto God, and when you resist the flesh, Satan will run for his life from He that is within you. Satan prowls outside the doors of new homes, looking for weaknesses in the structure, and waiting for opportunities to either barge in through the front door like a roaring lion, or sneak in through a crack in the wall like a roach. Maintain therefore golden thoughts, iron doors of mortification. Go boldly to throne of grace in your time of need to obtain flesh-mortifying power. The sanctifying blood of Jesus Christ grants us such a triumphant privilege! Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ!