We will open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and verse 13. This will be our text for the continuation of the series on the topic of the mortification of sin. And our last message, which was part two of the first message, we made a few comments about John Owen and his writing. And our series is based upon that writing. Having made those comments about the author of that book, we began dealing with the foundation of the Dock. the foundation of the doctrine of the mortification of sin. And that foundation will be based upon the understanding of the truths as contained in our text, that text being Romans 8.13. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. We want to give a brief review of the first sermon. One of the things that we did was to place the teaching of the mortification of sin in the biblical perspective of the doctrine of sanctification. And when you think of this doctrine of sanctification, you will find an outline by John Murray to be very helpful. First of all, there is a radical break with sin. That's the beginning of sanctification. When a man becomes a Christian, he is freed from the dominion of sin. Whereas once he was completely dominated by sinful impulses, so much so that the very best thing that he did or could do is only an expression of those sinful impulses. Now when God comes to such a man and converts him, That brings him into the orbit of grace, and there is a sense in which he dies to the old man. But there is a second aspect of the doctrine of sanctification, and that is progressive sanctification. Once having been freed from the dominion of sin does not mean that he is perfectly sinless. Yes, he is freed from the dominion of sin so that he no longer must sin, but because of past habits, because of twisted aspects of his mind and nature, because of remaining sin, the reality of it is he sins. But from day to day, there should be a progression of becoming more and more sanctified by the grace of God. There is the third aspect, and that is final sanctification. The term we use would be glorification. And when a man enters into the presence of God When that time comes that he is freed from the body of sin, then he no longer sins anymore. So we are saved from the guilt of sin. We are saved from the power of sin. One day we will be saved from the very presence of sin. Now it is in the second area of progressive sanctification that we are concerned. And when we think of being more and more sanctified, we think of two things. The first is this. To be progressively sanctified is, in the language of Scripture, to be putting on Jesus Christ, growing in grace and in knowledge, becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ. And that is the positive aspect. But there's also, of necessity, a negative aspect, which is the putting away of sin, dealing biblically with sin, mortifying sin. Next, we did deal briefly with some errors that are taught concerning sanctification. Many of those fall under the heading of self-help. There is a secular self-help and there is an evangelical version of self-help. There are areas of what they call higher life or deeper life. None of these deal biblically with sin. Then we listed the major divisions of Owen's writing. Number one, the foundation of the doctrine. Number two, a definition and illustration of the term mortification. Third, general presupposition regarding the doctrine. And fourth, specific directives for mortifying sin. And we dealt specifically with number one, heading the foundation of the doctrine of mortification of sin. Then we listed five things which Owen derives from the passage. Number one, the conditionality of the passage. And we described that as being means to an end. Not cause and effect, but means to an end. The second point that Owen stresses is the persons who are exhorted. The third matter which Owen brings out is the efficient cause of this mortification, which is the Holy Spirit. The fourth area, the duty of mortification. In other words, we are not to be passive. And the fifth was the promise of eternal life. Now, this morning we take up three deductions based on his exposition. And the first deduction is this, the necessity of daily mortifying sin. The necessity. That's a very brief way of stating what Owen states in his own words. Listen to this quote. The choicest believers who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin ought to make it their business all the days of their lives to mortify the indwelling power of sin. Notice, he puts emphasis on the choicest believers. Those who are assuredly free from the condemning power of sin. Those who are not going to be cast into hell because of the guilt of sin. They ought to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin. We have abbreviated that in these words, the necessity of daily mortification for all believers. Turn with me to Colossians 3 and let us look at verses 1 through 4. And we will use these verses in order to set the stage for this point that we are making. Colossians chapter 3 and verses 1 through 4. If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Let us give reading to verse 5. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead, to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry. The King James uses the word mortify, put to death, therefore, your members. To whom is the Apostle Paul writing? He is writing to those who have died with Christ. He is writing to those who have been raised up with Christ in newness of life. Verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And to those people, he says in verse 5, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality. In other words, mortify the deeds of the body. The point that Owen would derive from this is simple, but it is something that we cannot allow ourselves to miss. Here we have these people who are indeed in a state of grace, the ones that the apostle could say, he could say of them that they have died with Christ, their life is hid with Christ, but even to such people, he says, You are responsible to put to death your members which are upon the earth, and then he goes ahead and lists some of the manifestation of sin which are to be put to death. Owen wants to stress this point, and he will do it over and over again, that the choicest believers must daily mortify sin. Then he asks the question, do you? Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? And then he turns from asking the question and he makes this statement. Be always at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Powerful words. Powerful words. And this is the theme that he will expand over and over again. This idea that you must be killing sin, or it will be about the business of killing you. Remember to whom he's speaking. Choices to the believers. He is cutting the root out of this idea that there is some sort of carnal security. That once you have made a decision, once you have made a profession of faith, once you have signed a card, once you have done thus and thus, and you have some reason to believe that you are in Christ, once you have begun the pathway to life, That somehow there will just automatically be an entrance into heaven. This once saved, always saved nonsense that is preached in our day. That you can get saved and then live like you want to on the way to heaven. It doesn't really make any difference. I ask you, this isn't a parenthesis, I ask you, is that what Christ had in mind when he died on the cross? Absolutely not. Owen further substantiates this truth by bringing in truths from John 15, how the individual believer in the church of God is likened unto the vine. That vine that is a true vine will always be purged by the husbandman. The vine that is not purged is cast out. If the believer is not continually being purged, if their sins are not continually being rooted out, they will be cast aside and be useless. The man who professes to be a Christian, who is not always about putting off his sin, will prove himself to be nothing more than a mere professor, no Christian at all, and one day will be cast out. Having made the statement of the necessity of daily mortification, Owen goes on to set forth particular details as to why all that he has said is true. And he lists several reasons. We will only mention some. And the first reason that he lists for the necessity of continual mortification of sin is this one. Indwelling sin always abides within the believer. Although the true Christian has been freed from the dominion of sin, there is still what we call indwelling sin or remaining sin. There is still that principle of sin within him. So the very first reason why it is necessary to always be about the duty of mortifying sin is because we are not yet perfected. Sin still is there. But the next point he makes is simply this. Sin is not only there, it is still active. It is still acting within you. It is not just abiding in dormant. It is very active in its activity. It is trying to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. It would be bad enough if sin were just still within us and remaining dormant and inactive. But it isn't. It is always active, and that greatly compounds the problem. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Galatians. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." This activity, what is it? What does this indwelling sin do? He says it hinders from doing good. It is an obstacle to doing good. The good that we know we ought to do. Secondly, it tends towards evil. It prompts us to do what is evil. And then he says, sin unframes the mind or the spirit. In other words, it hinders us from having communion with God. Unframes is a good phrase or word. You ever see anybody weaving? Making a rug or a blanket of some sort? My grandmother living in a two-story house out on a farm in West Texas, in the upstairs bedroom, had a quilting frame. And she would lower that frame down where she could reach it and work on this quilt. But the frame held everything into place. And it would not have been good if that frame had come loose. It falls apart. Owen says that indwelling sin does that to the spirit. It unframes you. When you want to give yourself to active communion with God, this active principle of sin is lusting within you. And if it is not kept in check, it will unhinge your spirit. It will hinder your communion with God. What about Romans chapter 7 verse 19? Paul says, For the good that I wish I do not, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. What about Hebrews 12.1? Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witness surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and that sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." In other words, the sin which so easily entangles dear ones is not dormant. It is very active, and if it has its way, it will easily and quickly entangle the believer. There is an active, cunning principle of sin at work which unframes the mind and keeps it from having communion with God. Do you know anything about that? No. Again, let me read a quote from Owen. Sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing. Always tempting. Who can say that he ever had anything to do with God or for God that indwelling sin had not a hand in corrupting of what he did? If then, sin will always be active. If we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures. Do you see the logic? It's a very simple logic. If sin is always acting, sin is always deceiving, always seducing, always conceiving, if we are not always mortified, we are lost creatures. And then he goes on to give this description, he that stands still and suffers his enemy to double blows upon him without resistance will undoubtedly be conquered in the end. And then he says, if sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our soul, and if we be slothful, negligent, foolish in proceeding to the ruin of our soul, how can we expect a comfortable event? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon, and it will be so while we live in this world. The reason for quoting from Owen is that we might catch something of the real battles that he describes in graphic language. Let me say, dear people, This is not just some figment of Owen's imagination. As you've heard what we've said, your conscience ought to bear witness that it is all too true. And what follows, Owen uses a kind of language that makes this mortifying of sin likened unto warfare. Horrible warfare. A warfare that is filled with bloody battles and tremendous efforts, great strain and great turmoil and sacrifice and self-denial. And dear ones, the language which he uses is not exaggerated. It is the language of reality. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived into some false sense of eternal security." And to think that because we have made some sort of decision and have some sort of reason to think that we might be in Christ and somehow we're just going to make it because God is faithful. Dear ones, God is faithful to keep us through the use of means. not apart from them. And one of the means that God is pleased to use is the mortification of sin. Again, no one says the saints whose souls breathe after deliverance from its perplexing rebellion know that there is no safety against it, but in constant warfare Why is it necessary to daily mortify sin in the first place? Because in dwelling sin always abides and always will be there. And in the second place, because of the character of that sin, it is always active, seeking in every way to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. Now, here is the third reason why it is necessary. Listen to this very carefully. If un-mortified, Sin will bring forth great and scandalous sin. See the progression of his thoughts. In the first place, we have this sin abiding. In the second place, we have this sin active. In the third place, he tells us, if it is not biblically dealt with, and let alone, the time will come when it will bring forth great and scandalous sin. And he uses Galatians chapter 5, 19 through 21. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. some child of God not well taught might be inclined to think, those are such gross, scandalous sins. Certainly a child of God would not fall subject to those. Owen says, you know what it did to David. And his point is this, that if sin within us is not mortified, it will work out. Not that it might, it will. It will work itself out into scandalous sins. And he uses David as the prime example. David, who would not mortify that sin of lust when he looked upon Bathsheba. What was the final issue? You know the story very well. If sin is not mortified, it will bring forth scandalous sins. Again, listen to this quotation. Listen very carefully to the wording. Sin aims always at the utmost. In other words, sin is not content just making David to lust, but to commit actual fornication and adultery. He goes on to say, every time it rises up, that is, sin rises up to tempt or to entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin of that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could. Every covetous desire would be oppression. Every thought of unbelief would be atheism. Might it grow to its head? You see the idea, sin always aims at the utmost, and we must never be deceived about this. We must never allow ourselves to think, here is this sin working within us and causing us to have a certain amount of disgust, perhaps with one of our brethren. Or here is this lust, or whatever the sin might be. We must never be deceived into thinking that that's all that sin intends to do with us. No, no, no. The principle of sin is to work itself out into the extreme. If you don't mortify the feeling of indifference towards your brother, somewhere along the line it's going to grow. and grow until it becomes hatred. And if it is not mortified there, it is going to grow to the point where if in the right circumstances would present itself, the brother would be murdered. You may say that's extreme. Dear ones, it is not extreme. We see examples of the scriptures and we have already pointed out the sin of David. Some of you may know the reality of this truth in your own experience. And it is only by the grace of God that keeps some of us who are slothful perhaps in dealing with our sins from going to the full extent of those sins, sins which we pet and fondle in our minds. Sin never comes to you and says, I want you to go to bed with that woman. No, sin comes and tempts you to have pleasant thoughts about adultery or lust. You would be absolutely abhorrent about committing adultery. But you fondle just a little. The ideal. You see what Owen is saying? Sin never comes with a sign around its neck saying, I'm going to make you an adulterer. No, it comes saying, this is just a little sin. Sin is never intending just to make you lust. Sin is intending to go to the fullest extent, to go to the extreme of whatever that sin is. And Owen was a wise pastor of souls in making people to see so as not to be deceived and to be earnest about daily mortification. Here's one of his practical observations. Herein lies no small share of the deceitfulness of sin by which it prevails to the hardening of men, and so to the ruin, according to Hebrews 10, 13. It is modest in its tempting. It is modest, as it were, in its first motions and proposals. But having once got footing in the heart by those modest proposals, it constantly makes good its ground and presses on to some further degrees of the same kind. This new acting and pressing forward makes the soul take a little notice of what an entrance to a falling off from God has already been made. And it thinks all is indifferent, well, that there be no further progress. And so far as the soul is made insensible to any sin, that is, as to such a sense as the gospel requires, so far is that soul hardened. But sin is still pressing forward, and that because it has no bounds but utter relinquishment of God in opposition to Him. He is describing a very insidious process which takes place in the soul, a process that may take many years. You see, it takes one from that which at first seems very insignificant to the gross forms of sin. Looking at ads can gradually lead to looking at the gross forms of hardcore pornography. this same process can take place within a marriage relationship. where a husband might think that he could never have bitter thoughts against his wife, or a wife have bitter thoughts against her husband, but little thoughts and attitudes are entertained. And as a result, there's a hardening process going on. And the day comes when there are not only bitter thoughts, but thoughts of divorce. Dear ones, sin's design is always to go to the utmost. It is never to make you have corrupt thoughts in your mind. It is always at work to bring you to the utmost, to the actual expression of that sin. There is one point that I would like to close on. We've considered three reasons why it is necessary to daily mortify sin. Sin is always with us. Sin is always active. Sin, if left unmortified, will bring forth scandalous deeds of sin. Owen points out two evils that attend someone who claims to be a Christian but will not mortify sin. Someone who claims to be a Christian or may even appear to be a Christian. But he will not give himself with any earnestness to the duty of mortifying sin. He may put off some of those things that are repulsive to him. But those things that he really desires to keep, he will not deal with them. You see, Owen is talking about a professing Christian who may even appear to be a Christian, but he doesn't mortify sin. And Owen points out two evils. One is in reference to himself. One is in reference to others. We will take the reference to others first. The professing Christian who refuses to mortify his sin does two evils to others. Number one. People look at that man and some are going to be deceived by him. And they will say, well, if that's a true Christian, I'm pretty much like that. So I guess I'm a true Christian also. Some professing Christians' children will be deceived by their parents. And it seems that the children are the most susceptible to this evil. A father or mother who claims to be a Christian and does not deal biblically with their sin, there is not only evil that will happen to the father and mother, dear ones, in many cases the children will be deceived. Or you will have just the opposite, for that kind of person will harden others. Others will say, if that's a Christian, I want nothing to do with it. Again, children will be susceptible to this. They see Dad leading in prayer. But if he is a man that will not deal with his sins, those children will be hardened to the gospel. And then Owen deals with the harm that such a person does to himself. And here's his own words. Let him pretend what he will. He hath slight thoughts of sin, at least of sins of daily infirmity. The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying if you can just sin and there's no bitterness in the digestion of that in the heart, when a man has confirmed his imagination to such an apprehension of grace and mercy as to be able without bitterness to swallow and digest daily sins, that man is at the very brink of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. See what I want to say? When a man can think of grace and mercy, when he can have such a misconception of grace and mercy, when he can think of grace and mercy in such a way that he allows himself to daily be involved in sins without feeling bitterness in the heart, that man is on the brink of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. He is at the door of turning away from God entirely. And then he describes the normal course of apostasy. At this door have gone out from us most of the professors that have apostatized in the days wherein we live. For a while they were, most of them, under convictions. These kept them unto duties. and brought them to profession so they, quote, escape the pollutions that are in the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But having got an acquaintance with the doctrine of the gospel and being weary of duty for which they had no principle, they began to countenance themselves in manifold neglects from the doctrine of grace. Now when once this evil had laid hold of them, they speedily tumbled into perdition. Dear ones, God will not save a man who will not mortify his sins. God is not in the business of saving a man. who refuses to deal biblically with the sins. A man that God is saving is a man who is mortifying his sin. The man who takes the doctrines of the grace of God and the mercy of God and allows that truth to dull his sense of conviction and dull his sense of the necessity of daily mortifying sin, that man will become an apostate. Dear ones, we must not allow ourselves to misconstrue the doctrines of the mercy and grace of God so that we allow ourselves to think that God will save those who will not mortify their sins. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the You are putting to death the deeds of the body. You will live. Do not be deceived. We have indwelling sin. That sin is not dormant but active. And if that sin is not mortified, it will bring forth scandalous sin. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we must in your presence confess that these are sobering truths. In our own experience, we would have to agree that it is true. And we pray, Father, that we By your grace, we'll be able to lay hold of the reality of these truths. And by your grace, know what it is to be about the business of killing sin. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.