Pastors’ Perspectives

For an excellent resource to accompany Pastor Stacy’s mini-series on physical healing and present-day miracles, please click HERE and scroll down to see the book, God’s Healing Promise by Richard Mayhue. This is a thorough treatment of the subject of miracles and healing through both the Old and New Testaments. It will make a great resource for further reading and study on this important subject.

In yesterday morning’s message, Pastor Stacy mentioned a book that we give away to every person we baptize. The book in entitled, Growing Your Faith. If you would be interested in having a copy for yourself, click HERE to link directly to it.

From last night’s message on learning to effectively listen to a sermon, help us out with some of your own suggestions. How to you prepare to listen to sermons? Or, what do you plan to do this week to intentionally prepare yourself to not only listen, but “hear?”

Before we launch into the last suggestion for growing in your understanding and application of mortification, I would enjoy hearing from any of you who have been following the week’s posts. How have you personally become more aggressive in fighting against sin? Have you begun anything new? Renewed any disciplines that had fallen away? Taken any practical steps that you have found helpful? Share them with us.

How can we make this type of format more practical and helpful? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Now, for some further resources online that would help you in the fight against sin:

More reading on the subject of mortification:

Works of John Owen online

John Owen.org

“Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers” – A discussion of Owen’s works by Greg Herrick at bible.org

The Mortification of Sin by puritan Christopher Love

Online resources of helpful Bible teachers to aid you in your ongoing growth and fight against sin and love for Christ.

The pulpit of First Baptist Church of San Jacinto (I know, self-serving, but I really like these guys here)

John MacArthur, Grace to You

John Piper, Desiring God

Steve Lawson, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church

Thabiti, Anyabwile, First Baptist, Grand Cayman

The Albert Mohler Program

Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Involve yourself more specifically with God’s truth and you will weaken sin’s strengthen and strengthen your affection for Christ’s supremacy in your life.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would point you to some books you can purchase that would help you “study the gospel,” and so help you to increase your effectiveness in preaching the gospel to yourself.

C.J. Mahaney recommends the following books – I would concur:

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges – I would begin here, personally.

The Cross of Christ
by John Stott

The Power of the Cross of Christ by Charles Spurgeon

The Cross & Christian Ministry by D. A. Carson

I would also add:

A Fight to the Death by Wayne and Joshua Mack (Josh is a former classmate of Stacy, James and me).

The Vanishing Conscience by John MacArthur (especially his chapter on mortification, Hacking Agag to Death – you can follow the link to an online copy of this chapter, but the whole book would be worth your while).

Living the Cross-Centered Life by C. J. Mahaney

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

Don’t forget John Owen – Overcoming Sin and Temptation
(this book includes the one I mentioned Sunday evening – it is three of Owen’s books in one).

Don’t neglect the primary resource in mortifying sin: THE BIBLE!!.

Tomorrow, I’ll point you to some free online resources that will help increase your understanding and application of God’s word in the fight over sin.

To mortify sin we must have an attitude of all out war. We must prepare our mind biblically to understand the resources we have and our spiritual position in regard to sin. But attitude and knowledge prove useless if we do not actually and actively engage the enemy.

The first suggestion I made in last Sunday evening’s message was to “Focus on the gospel in everything you do.” How can this be done practically? Let me reproduce for you, C. J. Mahaney’s list of how we can practically preach the gospel to ourselves in an ongoing manner. These suggestions come from his little book, The Cross Centered Life (expanded more recently into Living the Cross-Centered Life).

Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish.

1. Memorize the Gospel
   

   C.J. suggests memorizing verses that rehearse the message of the gospel. Here’s my personal challenge. Go back through the first six chapters of Romans and choose one or two verses per chapter that sum up a particular and necessary aspect of the gospel. For other passages, C.J. suggests these: Isa 53:3-6; Rom 3:23-26; 5:6-11; 8:32-39; 1 Cor 15:3-4; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:21.
   

2. Pay the Gospel. As you begin an extended time of prayer, rehearse the gospel to the Father in prayer.
   
3. Sing the Gospel: There is no better way to start each day than to employ songs and hymns that speak of the cross with clarity and power.
   

   Here are a few places you can go to sing the gospel:
   

   1. Get yourself a Baptist Hymnal (The Trinity Hymnal or The Hymnal are also good ones).
      
   2. Hymns written by James Montgomery Boice, are excellent songs rehearsing the gospel. These are a more formal and traditional sound. We’ve used a few of these in our congregational singing.
      
   3. For good contemporary hymns and songs, I would suggest:
      
      1. Songs for the Cross Centered Life
         
      2. The Valley of Vision
         
   4. For a list of classical hymns, I really enjoy this CD: Hymns Triumphant, volumes 1 & 2
      
4. Review How the Gospel Has Changed You. Have you ever written down your testimony in one or two pages, rehearsing how God has changed your life? Try it. Then, make it a habit to remind yourself how God has changed you.
   
5. Study the Gospel – more on this one tomorrow – I will list different resources I think you will find helpful in studying the Gospel and applying to your battle against sin.
   
6. You Can’t Do This On Your Own. Who do you spend time with? Do they have a passion to fight sin? Find and befriend those who are zealous to be holy and God-centered. Think of ways you can spend time together and help each other.
   

The second point of Sunday evening’s message, in learning to wage an effective war against sin, was to “Plan for War” The primary way we plan for war is to strengthen our theological comprehension of the gospel and its particular elements. The purpose of Romans 1-5 in the grand scheme of the epistle is to do just that – provide the reader with the proper comprehension of what the gospel does, so that one’s behavior might be firmly founded upon it.

No true and effective mortification of sin can be accomplished outside the proper basis of the details of the gospel. The motive and means of killing sin in its details must derive from your clear and ever-growing comprehension of the multi-faceted diamond that is the gospel.

As stated in the message, we need to strengthen and deepen our theological perspective on the issues already addressed in the first six chapters of Romans if our war is to be effectively carried out. Growing in your understanding of the depravity of man, the accomplishments of justification, the effects of justification are all essential.

How can you do this? Let me suggest a few was and resources that might help you set up a proper war room in your heart for effectively defeating sin.

1. Read your Bible. In regard to our study of Romans, perhaps you could review the first six chapters of Romans and write out (on your Reading and Meditation forms) what you learn about the theological topics mentioned above.
2. Listen to sermons on this subject.
   1. Here’s a link to John Piper’s messages on Romans. They are all free and you can download or stream any and all of them.
   2. Here’s a link to John MacArthur’s messages on Romans. These are written transcripts of his sermons. If you want the audio, you will need to order them through their system.
   3. Here’s a link to the series we have been providing on Sunday evening’s on Romans. Not that you will want to subject yourself to listening to me again, but sometimes a second or third listen helps to get a better foothold on a particular subject.
3. Read books of theology on these subjects. I want to suggest a few systematic theologies that you should eventually purchase and own for yourself.
   1. The Moody Handbook of Theology by Paul Enns. This is an excellent overview of Theology. It is easy to read and has extensive bibliographies for finding more resources on the topics addressed.
   2. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. This work is longer and more involved, but worth the money and the time. You will not agree with everything in his book (rarely will you ever agree with everything in anyone’s book), but his treatment of the theological elements revolving around the gospel are great. At the end of each chapter he suggests Scripture memory verses and even a fitting hymn.
   3. The Gospel According to the Apostles by John MacArthur. While this book specifically addresses the issue of what some call “Lordship Salvation” I find the book to be an excellent overview of the key theological terms and concepts of the gospel and how they should be practically fleshed out.
4. Write down your meditations on theology. Learn to record your thoughts after reading theology or listening to theological sermons. Writing forces you to be concrete and specific. Writing makes your thinking more exact. Writing will make your application of truth handy and forceful. Don’t trust me on this one. Try it and find out for yourself.

Yes, all of these suggestions take time and effort – but they will be abundantly rewarding in setting up a war-room in your heart to battle the details of sin in your life.

Any other suggestions? Be sure to leave a few ideas of your own in the comment thread.

STOP IT! (Funny MadTV sketch on Psychology) VideoSift

It’s not John Owen, but Bob Newhart has a similar take on mortification of sin. Click on the link above.

The first point in last night’s message on waging war with sin, was that we must “Declare War on Sin.” I mean by that, we must have an all out seriousness about this being a fight to the death with the sin that dwells within. The resources of God’s grace are sufficient and immeasurable to win the war. We must begin by declaring war.

When the U.S. Congress formally declares war with another nation, they are unleashing the full financial, intellectual, social and military resources possessed in the country to do all they can to win the war. War is costly. War is constant. War is violent and nasty. And war with sin is no less. Our war with sin is absolutely necessary.

So, under this first point I suggested that you examine some of the effects of having NOT waged war with sin:

coldness in worship

hypocritical joy

forced friendliness

heartless Bible reading

passionless prayer

Are there any sins in your heart and actions that you have found yourself avoiding? Making excuses for? Saying to yourself, “I’ll deal with that later, I have other issues that are more important?”

Are there any areas of disobedience to God of which you have even planned to avoid or ignore? Continue Reading »

Here’s a look at last week’s activities (click on images to enlarge - they aren’t great shots - taken from Bret’s cell phone):