Free Audio of The Mortification of Sin

Last year, when my pastor and I began reading John Owen’s “The Mortification of Sin,” I had no idea that such a small book would have such a massive impact on my life. This being the first Puritan-authored book I’ve ever read, I thought I was in for a lot of dry, heavy-on-the-theoretical-light-on-the-practical kind of stuff. I was proven very, very wrong

This is the kind of book that so convicts, moves, and encourages you that not to share it with others would be doing them, the author and the book’s subject a great injustice. There are several free online books available, most notably of which is “Overcoming Sin and Temptation,” a recently published compilation of three of Owen’s works including The Mortification of Sin. However, to my surprise, I discovered that there are very few audio recordings of The Mortification of Sin and even fewer that are free. And so began a project to record this great book. I’m very glad to report that the recording of The Mortification of Sin is now complete and may be downloaded for free in mp3 format. (Please note that the text used for the recording is not from the above mentioned book, but rather was made from a published copy that is no longer under copyright.)

Here is what John Piper has to say about Owen’s book:

“What Owen offers is not quick relief, but long-term, deep growth in grace that can make strong, healthy trees where there was once a fragile sapling. I pray that thousands—especially teachers and pastors and other leaders—will choose the harder, long-term path of growth, not the easier, short-term path of circumstantial relief.

“Owen is especially worthy of our attention because he is shocking in his insights. That is my impression again and again. He shocks me out of my platitudinous ways of thinking about God and man. Here are a few random recollections from what you are (I hope) about to read. You will find others on your own.

“‘There is no death of sin without the death of Christ’ (Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, chapter 7). Owen loves the cross and knows what happened there better than anyone I have read. The battle with sin that you are about to read about is no superficial technique of behavior modification. It is a profound dealing with what was accomplished on the cross in relation to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the deep and wonderful mysteries of faith.

“‘To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live’ (chapter 7). Oh, the pastoral insights that emerge from Owen! As here: If you are fighting sin, you are alive. Take heart. But if sin holds sway unopposed, you are dead no matter how lively this sin makes you feel. Take heart, embattled saint!

“‘God says, “Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost”’ (chapter 8). Astonishing! God ordains to leave a lust with me till I become the sort of warrior who will still seek his aid when this victory is won. God knows when we can bear the triumphs of his grace.

“The list could go on and on. For me, to read Owen is to wake up to ways of seeing that are so clearly biblical that I wonder how I could have been so blind. May that be your joyful experience as well.”

As Piper states, whether you read the book or listen to this recording, I hope that the truths, challenges, and convictions you find bring you closer to the joys found only in glorifying God!

(If you would like the mp3s in short, 3-4 minute sections for easier bookmarking or burning onto a CD, I have those available also. Simply contact me at: esky@juno.com)

Music Monday - He Holds the Keys

John Owen, in his excellent book, The Mortification of Sin, says this of the struggle Christians face in the daily battle against sin.

Let, then, thy soul by faith be exercised with such thoughts and apprehensions as these: “I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and is at the very door of ruining my soul; and what to do I know not. My soul is become as parched ground, and an habitation of dragons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have been as a thing of nought. Many persuasions have I had that I had got the victory and should be delivered, but I am deceived; so that I plainly see, that without some eminent succor and assistance, I am lost, and shall be prevailed on to an utter relinquishment of God. But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Behold, the Lord Christ, that hath all fullness of grace in his heart, all fullness of power in his hand, he is able to slay all these his enemies. There is sufficient provision in him for my relief and assistance. He can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror. ‘Why sayest thou, O my soul, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint,’ Is. 40:27-31."

Steve Green's song, "He Holds the Keys" says "Against the gates of hell I now resist, For the shackles that had torn my wrists Lay before me now upon the ground, To sin I am no longer bound For from death's barren womb, He heard my cry, And loosed the chains that bound me to a lie, For he holds the keys!" Listen and enjoy.

Ray Boltz and John Owen

For years, his name has been synonymous with great Christian music, with such songs as “Thank You,” “Watch the Lamb,” and “Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb.” In a shocking revelation yesterday, Christianity Today posted an article with the blaring headline, “Ray Boltz Comes Out.” This announcement is sure to rock the CCM world, fuel the fire for those who might oppose the CCM style of music, and create not a small stir among conservative evangelicals.

Which leads me to question what exactly should our reaction be? I am of the firm belief that the homosexual lifestyle is condemned as sin in the Scriptures. But that’s not the point of this post. How should the church react to someone who confesses a struggle with a “big-ticket” sin such as this (or any sin for that matter) or even that they no longer wish to fight against it but to accept it as “just the way God made me”? There will be many in the church who will want to burn his music, forbid ever singing “Thank You” at a missions conference, and thoroughly castigate Boltz for his sin.

I’m not entirely sure this is the most gracious way of handling Boltz’s tragic decision. I believe that it is decisions such as this throughout Christianity that may reflect a lack of compassion in our churches. I am deeply saddened by something Boltz is quoted as saying in the Christianity Today article. He states “I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore…. If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live.” I wonder if there was anyone in his church or circle of Christian friends that was willing to help him in his struggle. I wonder if he got the feeling that if he admitted to this struggle, he would be thrown out of the church.

John Owen in his excellent book The Mortification of Sin, stresses that the fight against sin, even one particular grieving sin, is ongoing and may indeed never stop until we’re dead! I think that often we may fight and fight against a sin until at last we give up because we’re under the impression that at some point we’re not supposed to struggle with it anymore. Owen writes, “Indwelling sin always abides whilst we are in the world; therefore it is always to be mortified.” Or perhaps one of the best, most succinct phrases from this book is “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” This should help us in two areas. First and most obvious is that while we will always struggle with sin, God’s word promises the power to have continual victory over that sin. Fighting against sin is never easy, as Boltz eludes to in that he “prayed hard and tried for 30-some years.” But the second area in which this truth should help us is being able to reach out to others offering the same love, grace, prayer and encouragement we ourselves need in our struggles.

Things like this convict me of my own gracelessness and encourage me to reach out to those struggling in sin. I am so thankful to God for those he has placed in my life who have often listened to me pour out my struggles and have lovingly prayed with and for me without condemnation yet at the same time being willing to point out where I am wrong. Yes, I could say that God made me prone to pride, selfishness, impatience and lust. But the fact is that all of these things are still wrong, still sin and only the power of God can help me continually win the battle against these sins, for sins they are. And to continue the fight against these sins, I need the prayer and encouragement of others. I can’t help but wonder if Boltz had such Christians around him to provide this much needed support. May God help me to be the listening ear and praying heart for another Christian who may be in fervent battle with their own sin.

Send in the sheep!

As I mentioned before, I’m currently reading John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin with my pastor. This week we read chapter 8, a very convicting chapter. While reading, the following scene crossed my mind.

There I was living on some remote island in the middle of the Pacific. Life was good. My wife and kiddos were great. The farm (?) vegetables were growing nicely and the animals (??) were behaving themselves. I got along great with my neighbors. I had a good job collecting shells along the beach. Life was great.

Oh, did I mention it was a volcanic island that I lived on? Well, inevitably, the volcano god got angry about something or other. Pretty soon, ash and soot started flying here and there and everything smelled like sulfur. Being good Islanders that we were, obviously we wanted to stop the volcano god from blowing us up. To appease the Vg, we pick out a nice fluffy sheep, cart him up to the volcano (it was pretty hot, too!), and toss him in. Not a happy ending for the sheep, to be sure, but we wanted to go back to our happy lives down in the village and figured this was the best way of going about it.

Okay, so what does all this Pacific islander stereotyping have to do with a Puritan writer, you may ask? Up to this point in the book, Owen has been discussing general principles of killing sin in the believer. In Ch. 8, he brings up the convicting point:

“Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification…Thou settest thyself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify such a lust or sin; what is the reason of it?(emphasis added) It disquiets thee, it hath taken away thy peace, it fills thy heart with sorrow, and trouble, and fear; thou hast no rest because of it… It is evident that though contendest against sin merely because of thy own trouble by it. Would thy conscience be quiet under it, thou wouldst let it alone. Did it not disquiet thee, it should not be disquieted by thee.”

In other words, if sin did not poke our conscience or stir things up in our life, would we even bother to “mortify” it? Why do I confess sin? Is it so that I can go back to my peaceful way of living or is it because I have a hatred of sin, recognizing “the filth and guilt of it” as Owen puts it. We throw a sheep into the volcano simply to appease God, when we are really simply trying to have our lives nice and peaceful once more. I know I’ve been guilty of this. It’s Saturday night (or Sunday morning!?), and I’ll be teaching Sunday School in a little while. Yet my conscience is bugging me over some sin. So I confess, not because I recognize the “filth and guilt of it” but because I want to appease my conscience so as to be able to teach. And in goes another sheep.

Owen’s point (one of them anyway) is that if we are to have victory over sin, we are to have a deep, abiding hatred of it, so much so that we want to see it deader than a volcano-roasted sheep. Sin is an affront to God and until we see it as such, all we're doing is throwing in sheep, trying to get our peaceful lives back. "He, then, that would really, thoroughly, and acceptably, mortify any disquieting lust, let him take care to be equally diligent in all parts of obedience, and know that every lust, every omission of duty, is burdensome to God."

So Many Books, So Little Time

I have this tendency (not sure if I should necessarily call it a bad habit) to read more than one book at a time. Maybe it’s due to a short attention span. Maybe it’s genetic. Who knows. But it’s a lot better than what it used to be. I used to start reading one book only to get drawn into another book of equal interest. Before long, I’d have a bookmark in 4 or 5 books at a time. Eventually I’d finish one, only to replace it with yet another. Unfortunately, some books didn’t get finished and I’m sure there are several on my bookshelf with some piece of paper stuck in a long forgotten chapter, eagerly awaiting the day when it can see daylight. That is, if books can be eager about anything.

I can now proudly say that I am only reading THREE (3) books right now and am making some headway in each of them. It helps that one of them is an audio book that I get to listen to everyday on my way to work. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s my opinion that audio books are one of the best things in the world. I think I average about one unabridged book a month.

So what am I reading? The audio book is John Adams by David G. McCullough. This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. It is perhaps one of the most fascinating biographies I’ve ever read. Not surprisingly, when it was first published in 2001, Publisher’s Weekly called it “one of the fastest-selling nonfiction titles in history,” and publisher Simon & Schuster said that “the demand for the book ‘is the greatest in the history’ of the publisher.” That’s a pretty high compliment considering Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 and is one of the four largest English language publishers.

I’m also reading John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin with my good friend and pastor, Tim. This has been a very good and very convicting read in the daily battle to “mortify” sin. Owen encourages Christians to “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” The book has a way of cutting to the heart of the matter and leaving no room for excuses for sin.

The third book – Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations - is one that I’ll probably be reading for at least another year because I’m working on narrating/recording the entire thing and making it available through Librivox. I’ve finished Book 1 and am about halfway through Book 2.

And of course, every time I go to the library, I find at least 2 more books to add to my reading list. But this is a good thing.

Edit: well, Sarah has reminded me that I'm reading a fourth book - Great Illustrated Classic's The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I'm in the process of recording this one as well for the kiddos to listen to in the car when we go on vacation. Speaking of which, dads, this is something that I would highly recommend doing for your kids. I'm sure they already love to have you read to them and making a recording for them will be a great gift. All you need is a microphone (available at most office supply store) and some recording software, such as the freely available Audacity.