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TEXT: Romans 8:13
SUBJECT: Mortification #8
Tonight brings us to Chapter 8 of John Owen's classic book, On the Mortification of Sin. The goal is to help believers "put to death" the sins that remain in every one of us.
To mortify your sins, Owen says, you must observe two "General rules". Later, he gets particular, but for now two broad principles must be followed.
1.You must be a believer. Mortification is not for all, but only for those who belong to God through faith in Christ.
Why shouldn't the unbeliever mortify his sins? Owen gives five reasons:
a.It is not his present duty.
b.It diverts him from his most urgent duty.
c.Any victory he achieves over his sins will only make him proud--a sin worse than the one he mortified.
d.If he fails to overcome his sins, he will sink into despair or blame God for his failure.
e.Mortification is a work of faith, which, by definition, the unbeliever doesn't have.
The unbeliever's duty is to repent of his sins and trust the Lord for salvation.
And so: If you want to mortify your sins, you must be a believer in Christ. That's the first "general rule".
Owen's "second rule" is a bit wordy, but here's what he means:
2.If you want to mortify any sin, you must try to mortify every sin.
To support his case, Owen refers to Isaiah 58:1-7.
"The Jews, under a sense of their sin, drew near to God with much diligence and earnestness, with fasting and prayer...But God rejects all. Their fast is a remedy that will not heal them. The reason is, because they were particular in this duty. They attended diligently to that, but in others were negligent and careless".
Is he right? Sure he is! The people were very serious about their fasting, but what about paying their servants a fair wage? Or helping the poor? These are duties, too. No less God-given than fasting. But they wanted no part of these duties. And, hence, they could receive no good from their fasting.
We must be serious about all our sins if we want to mortify any of them.
Why is this? Owen explains. There are two good reasons.
1.The desire to mortify special sins (and not all of them) is wrongly motivated.
Let's think about it: A man wants to quit drinking but not to stop taking the Lord's name in vain. Why would he feel this way? Maybe because drinking gets him in trouble. It hurts his liver or it costs him a job. Does profanity have the same effects? No it doesn't. That's why he doesn't care much about mortifying the sin of cursing.
And so, what moves him to quit drinking? Is it the hatred of sin? Is it love for Christ? Is it a fear of God? No, it isn't. It seems to me, it self-interest that makes him give up drinking. Owen is less polite than I am. He says,
"Now it is certain that what I speak of proceeds from "self-love".
To help us mortify all sins--and not just the ones that bother us--Owen pleads:
"These are no less sins and evils than the ones you groan under. Jesus Christ bled for them also. Why do you not set yourself against them also? If you hate sin as sin, you would be no less watchful against the sins that grieve the Holy Spirit of God than you are against those that grieve your soul. It is evident that you contend against sin merely because of the trouble it causes you. If it did not trouble you, you would not trouble with it!
"So then, it is not only an intense opposition to this or that peculiar lust, but a universal humble frame [of mind] and temper of heart, with watchfulness over every evil...that is accepted".
If you want to mortify any sin, you must be sincere. But if you're sincere, you'll try to mortify every sin. Therefore, only he who tries to mortify every sin will mortify any sin. That's the first reason.
The second reason is this:
2.Embarrassing sins are often a chastisement of respectable sins.
To quote Owen,
"How do you know but if God is allowing your [hurtful] lust to gain power over you to chasten you for your neglect and common lukewarmness? The rage and power of a particular lust is often the fruit of a careless, negligent [way of living]".
He couldn't be more right. We all have evil desires--some of them shockingly wicked! These things are controlled by God's Spirit within us. But God's Spirit may be grieved by our lukewarmness. If He is, He won't resist our lusts they way He would if He were happy with us. And so, left to ourselves, we fall into them.
This means: If we're not trying to mortify every sin, we're grieving the Spirit, without Whom we can mortify no sin.
It also means: The sins that embarrass us are often very good for us. Not good, but good for us! Why? Because they expose the neglect and hypocrisy that lies behind them.
Peter, for example, was a proud man; nobody was more self-confident than he. What broke his pride? It wasn't reading the Bible or prayer. It was his denial of Christ. When the rooster crowed, Peter felt his pride. And "went out and wept bitterly".
[Two quick asides may be helpful: (1) You know you're in a bad state of mind when all you confess to the Lord are technicalities. "Forgive me for yelling at the kids; Forgive me for snapping at my wife; Forgive me for cursing at the traffic; Forgive me for grumbling about the boss; and so on. Do you see a pattern here? Don't all these "technicalities" tell you that something more is wrong with you than random sins? That maybe you're proud or bitter or contemptuous, or impatient? And that these things are deeper than a bad word here, an ugly look there, and so on?
(2) When people fight (especially couples) here's how to tell who's sorry and who's not: The person who apologizes for "technicalities" is not penitent. Real sorrow is not a surface thing! It cuts to the heart. Here's how Paul describes it:
"For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed after a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourself to be clear in this matter" (II Corinthians 7:11).
Think of David: How did He confess his sins? "Lord, I shouldn't have looked at this or touched that or said the other?" Not at all! Read Psalm 51 for the details.
Back to the subject: If big sins are the result of small sins, don't think you'll mortify the big ones without mortifying the small ones too!
That is Owen's second general rule for mortifying sin. Unless you're serious about mortifying it all, you won't mortify any of it.
Are you willing to subject your whole life to God's inspection? And to clean up the areas He doesn't like? I know you're worried about some sins. But what about the others? Those nobody knows about but God? Those you can get away with? Those that--even if you're caught--can be explained away or blamed on others?
How about it? Mortification is an either/or deal. You either want to be rid of all sin or, honestly, you don't want to be rid of any sin. If you're sincere, the Lord will help you! "They shall seek Me and find Me--He said--"When they search for Me with all their hearts".
You need His grace to overcome any sin--the smallest sin is too great for you! If you seek it for all your sins, you'll have it for every one of them. May God give it to you and me both. For Christ's sake. Amen.
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