Mortification of Sin - Chapter Two

...always be killing sin, or it will be killing you. (pg. 5)

You really, really need to read this entire chapter, as does every Christian. I will, however, excerpt a couple of important sections:

Indwelling sin always abides while we are in this world; therefore, there is always a need for it to be mortified. Some have wrongly and foolishly believed that we are able in this life to keep the commands of God perfectly and are wholly and perfectly dead to sin. Through ignorance of the true live in Christ and His power in believers, they have invented a new righteousness that is not in the gospel. They are vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. Indwelling sin continues to live in believers in some measure and degree while we are in this world. ((pg. 6)

Before proceeding, I cannot but note that even though there is in this generation a growing number of professors, a great noise of religion, religious duties in every corner, and preaching in abundance, there is little evidence of the fruit of true mortification. Perhaps we might find that, judging by the principle of mortification the number of true believers is not as multiplied as it appears from those who have made a mere profession. Some speak and profess a spirituality that far exceeds the former days, but their lives give evidence of a miserable unmortified heart. If vain spending of time, idleness, envy, strife, variance, emulations, wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness (1 Cor 1.) are the mark of Christians, we have them among us in abundance. May the good Lord send us a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we will be in a sad condition! (pg. 11)

Fellow Southern Baptists, please keep the preceding paragraph in mind as you participate in the convention in Indianapolis, especially as you vote on Tom Ascol's resolution on regenerate church membership. Can we really claim to have "umpty-ump millions" of members when we don't even know where the majority of them are?


Is it any wonder that lost people want nothing to do with Christ, His church, and his followers when the following is true?

Others are hardened in their own sin by persuading themselves that they are in just as good a condition as the unmortified professor. They see their zeal for religion, but it is not accompanied with righteousness. They view their worldly and selfish lives. They see them talk spiritually but live vainly. they hear them mention communion with God, and yet they are in every way conformed to the world. They see them boast of forgiveness of sins, and yet never forgive others. Thus, as they see the stain of sin in the unmortified professor, they harden their own hearts in their unregeneracy. (pg. 13)

...always be killing sin, or it will be killing you. And, it appears, others as well.