“The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
In 1819 the Scottish Pastor Thomas Chalmers preached his famous sermon, “The Expulsive power of a New Affection.” 1 He shows that the only way to dislodge one affection from our heart is for it to be pushed out and replaced by a new, stronger affection. He writes, “In a word, if the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great and dominant object, is to bind it in positive love to another, then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all old things are to be done away and all things are to become new.” 2
This is a simple yet profound reality. We have desires or affections for many different things, both appropriate and inappropriate. I once heard R.C. Sproul say, “We will always choose what we desire the most, the moment we have to choose.” There may be a complex mix of desires that our hearts sort through, but we inevitably choose what we desire. The non-Christian does not desire the things of God so left to himself he will never choose God. As believers God has given us new affections but we are not totally new. We have indwelling sin so sometimes our hearts desires sinful things. Any desire for sin is a sinful desire whether we consciously choose it, or it comes unbidden from indwelling sin within us. Therefore, lust or desire for anyone other than your spouse is inherently sinful and wrong. If that person is not married, he or she may not have lust or inordinate desire for any other person. The man lusting after a woman or a woman lusting after a man is inherently sinful because it is a desire for sin. Since marriage is only between one biological man and one biological woman, all same-sex sexual desire is inherently sinful and can never be justified.
So how do we tie this all together? The point Chalmers makes is that every one of us has desires in our heart for a variety of things. The only way to dislodge our sinful desires is for these desires to be pushed out and replaced with other, stronger desires. If we try to push out our desires but they are not replaced by stronger desires, inevitably those sinful desires will find their way back into our hearts. As we looked at what Chalmers said and John Piper articulates, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” The only desire that has the power to dislodge sin in our hearts long-term is a greater desire for God. “When told to shut out the world from his heart, this may be impossible for the man who has nothing to replace it—but not impossible for the man who has found in God a sure and satisfying portion.” 3
We can’t just try to convince ourselves we don’t want what we know in our heart that we really do want. Willpower will never be enough. Yes, learn to hate your sin. Yes, discover the pain and misery that pursuing that sin will cause. However, your faith isn’t just about the sin you hate, it is also a question of Who you are pursuing. Pursuing a love relationship with God and increasingly be gripped by how much he delights in you is the remedy for those competing desires that wage war against our souls.
1 The sermon is public domain, I would encourage you to find a PDF copy online. https://bit.ly/3EGUF9I. If you would like a slightly updated version, you can buy an inexpensive version from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3rPVszX.
2 Thomas Chalmers, A New Obsession: The Classic Sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” updated for today’s reader by Mark Shockley. no publisher. 1819 original, Kindle 180 of 341.
3 Chalmers Kindle 258 of 341.
