April 2, 2009

• the visitor we can't ever entertain (mortifying sin)

  As Christians, we're supposed to be welcoming visitors and showing hospitality, but there's one visitor we can't ever welcome or entertain. . .

  
  We will do better in dealing with temptations if we keep an eye on them in the very beginning. Temptations are more easily overcome if they are never allowed to enter their minds. Meet them at the door as soon as they knock, and do not let them in. One simple thought can enter the mind and start the process.
  
  
  The process works like this. First, the thought is allowed to enter into the minds. Second, the imagination is sparked by the thought. Third, we feel a sense of pleasure at the fantasy, and we entertain. Fourth and finally, we engage in the evil action, assenting to its urges. This is how, little by little, temptations gain entrance and overcome us if they are not resisted at the beginning. The longer we let them overcome us, the weaker we become, and the stronger the enemy against us.

  –Thomas à Kempis, "The Imitation of Christ"
  

  In his book "The Mortification of Sin," John Owen [1] reminds us that

  Three things are required in this fighting against sin. . . .
  
  i. We need to recognize the enemy we are dealing with and resolve that it is to be destroyed by all means possible. The battle is a vigorous and hazardous one that deals with the issues of eternity. When a man is not very concerned, and sees his lust as a trivial thing, it is an indication that he is not mortified or even heading in that direction.
  
  We cannot go forward unless we recognize the plague of our own hearts (1 Kings 8:38, AV). It is to be feared that too many do not realized the enemy that they carry about with them in their hearts. This makes them ready to justify themselves, and to be impatient when they are reproved or admonished. They do not begin to realize what danger they are in (see 2 Chron. 16:10).
  
  ii. We need to be intimately acquainted with the ways, wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions which give lust its success. This is how men deal with their enemies. They search out their plans, ponder their goals, and consider how and by what means they have prevailed over them in the past. Then they can be defeated. Without this kind of strategic thinking, warfare is very primitive. Those who indeed mortify lust deal with it in this way. Even when lust is not enticing and seducing, they consider, while at leisure, "This is still our enemy; this is his way and his methods, these are his advantages, this is the way he has prevailed, and he will do this, if he is not prevented."
  
  One of the choices and the most important parts of spiritual wisdom is to find out the subtleties, policies, and depths of any indwelling sin; to consider where its greatest strength lies – how it uses occasions, opportunities, and temptations to gain an advantage. We need to find out its please, pretences and reasonings, and see what its strategies, disguises and excuses are! We need to set the Spirit against the craft of the old man; to trace this serpent in all of its turning and windings, and to bring it most secret tricks into the open. We must learn to say; "This is your usual method; I know what you are up to." So to be always ready is the beginning of our warfare.
  
  iii. We need to continue to attack our lusts daily with the spiritual weapons that are most detrimental to it. This is the key to the warfare. Even when we  think that a lust is dead because it is quiet, we must labour to give it new wounds and new blows every day (Col. 3:5).
  
  When the soul is in this condition and dealing in this way with lust, it has the upper hand. Sin is under the sword and dying. (36-38)
  

  Owen reminds us we must
  
  Rise mightily against the first sign of sin. Do not allow it to gain the smallest ground. Do not say "Thus far I shall go, and no farther." If you allow it one step, it will take another. It is impossible to fix boundaries for sin! It is like water in a channel. If it ever breaks out, it will flow on through the breach. It is easier to stop it in the beginning than after it has begun to run.
  
  James teaches that sin is progressive (James 1:14-15). Do you find corruption beginning to entangle your thoughts? Rise up with all of your strength against it, as if it had already started to overcome you. Consider what an unclean thought desires. It desires to have you immerse yourself in folly and filth.
  
  Ask envy what it aims at. Murder and destruction are its natural conclusion. Set yourself against it as if it had already surrounded you in wickedness. if you do not in this way attack temptation, you will not win the battle. If sin gains ground in your affections so that you delight in it, your understanding will also come to think little of it. (85-86)

  How can we ever do battle with sin and be victorious?

  Owen reminds us that apart from Christ, we can never win the battle against sin.

  Unless a man is a true believer, and grafted into Christ, he can never mortify a single sin. Mortification is the work of believers: "If by the Spirit you . . ." (Rom. 8:13), that is you believers, to whom there is no condemnation (verse 1). Only believers are exhorted to mortification. "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you" (Col. 3:5). Who should mortify? You who "have been raised with Christ" (verse 1), and whose "life is hidden with Christ in God," who also will "appear with him in glory" (verse 4).
  
  An unregenerate man may do something like mortification, but the real work itself, so that it may be acceptable with God, he can never perform. Some of the philosophers declare how they have conquered the world and self, and are able to regulate their affections and passions! Their lives however of most of them reveal that their boasts differ form true mortification just as the sun which is painted upon a fence differs from the sun itself; it has neither light nor heart. There is no death of sin without the death of Christ. (40-41)

  There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.

   The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
  Luke 18:27
  
  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...
  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth... (KJV)
  Colossians 3:5

  What sin is crouching at your door?
  What temptation is knocking at your door?
  Where have you already opened the door to sin?
  Where have you let the devil get his foot in the door?
  Where have you gone ahead and begun dining with the devil?
  What temptations are you entertaining in your mind?
  Where has sin begun to overflow in your life?

  Are you praying "Lead us not into temptation"
  while welcoming temptations into your heart and mind?

  When was the last time you asked God to search your heart?

  Are you a student of the devil's ways and wiles?
  Are you always ready to battle?
  Are you aware of your own weaknesses?
  Have you considered what one small sin might do?
  Do you really think you can deal with the devil and manage your sin?
  Where have you compromised with sin?

  Have you been united to Christ?
  Does your sin grieve you?
  Or do you delight in your sin?
  Have you received His grace in vain?
  Are you making a mockery of His cross?

  Do you continue to justify and excuse your sin?
  Do you see that if you are Christ's you must be mortifying sin?
  Have you become slack and let up in the battle against sin?
  Do you battle daily against Satan, sin and the flesh?
  Are you trying to fight sin in your own strength?

  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...
  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth...

   The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

  12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

  –Romans 8:10-14, KJV

  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works
  

  .–Titus 2:11-14

  You may also be interested in reading:

  • Bible Reading: Job 2:1 - "Again" (To press on we must always be mortifying sin | John Owen)

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  [1] All quotes from John Owen from his book "The Mortification of Sin," orig. published in 1656, abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing (Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004).

  The Bible references in the Owen excerpts as well as the rest of this post are from the English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  References marked AV and KJV are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

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