The following 2 videos are from the YouTube site, Jeff Mayfield
These videos provide very basic instructions for the battling of sin in the Christian life. Even if you attend a biblical church, you may not have figured out what Pastor Mayfield presents in these videos; the problem is that all Christians must be able to battle sin, and if you do not know how to effectively do so, then you will certainly be derailed in your walk with the Lord.
Pastor Mayfield explains some basic concepts from John Owen’s book on mortification of sin in each of the following two videos.
Highlights of video one:
- Owen’s book based on Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live
- The main idea of this book is that God wants Christians to sin less often
- Christians actually do sin
- One does not become a Christian by battling sin
- One must first be a Christian: repent and be reconciled to God
- A Christian should set himself daily to battle with sin BY the power of the Holy Spirit
- Pray for the Holy Spirit’s enabling grace to fight sin
- Inward and outward sins briefly discussed
[It has been my experience that one must be shown by God’s Spirit that he cannot be victorious over sin without abiding in prayer and the word, see end of post for more on this.]
Highlights of video two:
- Chapter 2 of Owen’s, Mortification of Sin
- The big question herein, should the Christian battle sin?
- Yes, we must battle sin daily
- Sin is seeking to move you from the realm of thought into the realm of action
- Owen’s most quoted words: …be always killing sin or it will be killing you
- A Christian must always be resisting temptation: that is sin attempting to move you from thinking into acting on your thoughts
- The goal of sin is always to move you further: …every unclean thought would be adultery if it could [if you go with it, give it the freedom to do so]
- Therefore, every sin needs to be taken seriously
- Those sins you do not feel bad about are more dangerous because ‘hardening’ is taking place already…
- How some misuse gospel blessings
- Summary:
- Owen calls us to battle sin by the power of the Holy Spirit
- God has given us the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower us to battle sin
- Recognize that sin is at work in us moving us to actually commit sin [to move from the realm of thinking into acting]
- Pray that God would enable you to see the sin in your life and to seek His Spirit’s enablement to fight it
- Via the above, God would enable us and move us to depend upon Him in prayer
The following points are from the works of Jonathan Edwards and include the struggle that Pastor Mayfield discussed above. Step two of Edwards 5-step process would involve the battle with sin in the believer’s life.
Edwards’ process indicates that believers try to stop sinning in their own strength, but come to realize that this is impossible.
When a believer comes to realize that conquering sin in his own strength is not possible, then he will be moved, out of a sense of need and urgency… to seek the help of the Holy Spirit in mortifying his sin.
It seems that we naturally attempt to do this on our own initially.
I think that this process is actually part of Jesus’ beatitude, poverty of spirit. As we enter the Christian life thinking we have some kind of strength or spiritual power to accomplish things in that realm, we do not. That must be why Jesus declared that beatitude the first blessed attitude, the realization that one can do nothing without Him, His Spirit, prayer…. [To see posts on the beatitudes, see CATEGORIES, the Beatitude Life (narrative form); True Kingdom Citizen (sermon excerpts).]
Edwards established a 5 stage process which he termed, the struggle of faith: 1) horror of being eternally lost; 2), the sinner’s attempt to stop sinning via his will power [it cannot be done independently of God’s Spirit]; 3), realization that only God can save him from sin; 4), conviction, the sinner beginning to see that God’s judgment is just; 5), awakening to God with genuine religious affections.
The following prominent Christians spent many years between stages 1 and 5 of Edwards standard of assessment for genuine conversion:
John Calvin, 12 years; Wesley, 23 years; Whitefield, 10 years; Fox, 12 years; Edwards, 5 years; Brainerd, 9 years; Newton, 6 years; Spurgeon, 4 years….
Link to that post:
The following narrative and links accompanied the above videos:
990 views Jan 26, 2017 John Owen’s Mortification of Sin
Thoughts from chapter 1 of John Owen’s Mortification of Sin.
Here is a short video about chapter 1 of John Owen’s Mortification of Sin. In it I offer some of Owen’s insights that we might find helpful in battling our sinful desires.
You can read Mortification of Sin for free here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/mort.html
If you prefer to purchase Mortification of Sin, you can do so here: https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Tem…
Jeff is a pastor, his sermons can be found here: Stony Hill Baptist Church, YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYVexK7IBL4dCk1OgmWqAQ
Pastor Jeff Mayfield’s series on battling sin from John Owen’s book, Mortification of Sin.
There are 17 videos on in this playlist from Pastor Mayfield’s site, most are under 5 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBWFCQPKG2VLqDD51rxkFejUE-1eRNXks