TEXT: Romans 8:13

SUBJECT: Mortification #14

Tonight brings us to the last chapter of John Owen's great book, On the Mortification of Sin.

This final chapter is also the most important. After giving a dozen rules to mortify your sins, Owen admits none of them will do the job! He says they are

In other words, "identifying your sins" won't mortify them. "Loading your conscience with guilt" won't mortify them. "Longing for deliverance" won't mortify them. "Sensing the majesty and glory of God" won't mortify them. Each plays a part in our holiness, but only one thing effects it. What's that?

WHAT

John Owen tells you: "Faith in Christ kills your sin".

By "faith" he doesn't mean a profession of faith you made years ago, but a living faith. Believing in and trusting Christ every day .

Is he right about this? Of course he is. Many verses say so.

Negatively, we have:

Positively, we have:

John Owen could not be more right than he is. When it comes to mortifying your sins, the "one thing needful" is faith alone in Christ alone!

WHY

Why does faith mortify sin? Common sense would say, hard effort might do the job or a recovery group, but faith alone? Why does it succeed when nothing else can?

The Puritan knows.

It's not your faith that mortifies sin, but your Savior. What He has for you is not earned by faith, but received through faith!

Faith is like empty hands. It's good for one thing: Taking.

That's why faith mortifies sin. It takes what Christ has won for you. What's that? "All things that pertain to life and godliness".

What do you need to mortify your sins? Maybe more knowledge? Courage, patience, hope? A tender heart? Whatever you need to mortify your sins, Christ has for you! You get what you need through faith.

That's why faith is "the one thing needful".

HELP

To increase your faith, John Owen recalls three things you know perfectly well, but are prone to forget.

When He was with us, these traits were on display. On almost every page of the Gospels, we read words like "Jesus was moved with compassion". And His favors--you recall--weren't given to the "worthy", but to those who didn't deserve them!

Think of that man whose son was possessed by a lunatic spirit. The poor boy was deaf, dumb, and suicidal. His father brought him to the disciples for healing--but they couldn't do a thing for him. As a last resort, he turns to Christ: "If You can do anything, help us..."

"If"? That word implies unbelief. Our Lord knew this--and uses it against him: "If you can believe" He retorts. No lack in Christ, but only in the man's faith. The poor man agrees: "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!"

What does the Lord do? Turn him away till he can muster some strong faith? No. He gives him what he wants--in spite of his wavering belief.

The Lord's big heart more than made up for the man's little faith.

Think about that the next time you pray for holiness. Here's a memory verse, Romans 5:20: "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound".

Joseph Hart had it right,

"Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream;

All the fitness He requireth

is to feel your need of Him".

If you want to mortify your sins, ponder the mercy, tenderness, and kindness of Jesus Christ. It is, after all, His "goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering [that] lead you to repentance" (cf.Romans 2:4).

Your confidence in anyone should correspond to his reliability. If he always does what he says, you ought to trust him. If you don't, the problem is not with him--but with you.

How trustworthy is Jesus Christ? Nobody knew Him better than John, and he called Him "Faithful and True". The Jews were very fussy about their oaths. Had our Lord ever broken one--or even bent it a little--they would have called Him on it. Yet, when He said, "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" nobody said a word.

A reliable person doesn't need to swear and promise and take vows and sign contracts, and so on. His word is good enough. Yet the Lord knows how weak we are--how unbelieving. And so, for our sake--not His--He took an oath. "When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by none greater, He swore by Himself..."

Unbelief is a terrible sin because it calls Jesus Christ a liar! It says, "He promised...but I'm not so sure He's good for it".

If you want to trust the Lord more than you do, do two things:

If Jesus Christ is reliable, then you know you can mortify your sins. What do you need to mortify your sins? Three things. You need forgiveness; you need the Holy Spirit; you need hope. Does He promise to give them to you? Yes He does. Forgiveness--I John 1:9. The Spirit--Luke 11:13. Hope--I John 3:1-3.

Thus, if you want to mortify your sins, meditate on the promises of God and their certain fulfillment.

If you want to increase your faith in Christ, look to the cross. Owen says,

The death of Christ leads to the forgiveness of sin. And it's mortification too! Nothing makes sin look worse than the cross. Nothing makes holiness look better than the cross. Nothing makes God's love seem more real than the cross.

And so, if you want to mortify your sins, you must keep believing in Christ. And there's no better way to do that than to meditate on His cross.

That's the end of our study.

Let's go back to where we started. According to Romans 8:13, you cannot "live" unless you "mortify your members that are on the earth". Unless you put your sins to death, you must die. This was true of the Romans. It's true of you and me too.

So what are you doing about it? Reading John Owen? Listening to my sermons? Thinking about it? Discussing it? Praying about it?

Fine! But don't stop there. It is not "hearers of the Word who are justified (or teachers, talkers or pray-ers either), but only "doers of the Word".

What did you do today to mortify your sins? When somebody cut you off on the road, did you "dwell on the majesty and glory of God"? When you laughed at that unwholesome joke, did you "load your conscience with guilt"? When your kids yelled while you were on the phone, did you "exercise faith in Christ"?

These "rules" aren't given to fill up time but to be used! They're means of grace, and things the Spirit uses to mortify our sins.

Let's make good use of them, looking to Christ for the grace to

"Overcome in temptation's hour".

May God bless this study to your soul. And mine. For Christ's sake. Amen.