04. CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4 USEFULNESS OF MORTIFICATION The last principle is the usefulness of mortification The strength and comfort of our spiritual lives greatly depend on our mortification In what sense this dependence is true The dependence is not absolute and necessary; Psalms 88, Heman’s condition The dependence is not immediate and conditional Removing the contrary as a means of proof The effect of any unmortified lust is to weaken and darken the soul, Psalms 38:3; Psalms 38:8 All graces are enriched by the mortification of sin The best evidence of sincerity
Besides the necessity of mortification to life, and the certainty of life after mortification, the last principle I emphasize is this: III. The third general principle: the vitality of our spiritual life greatly depends on our mortification of sin.
Strength and comfort, or power and peace, are the things we desire in our walk with God. If any of us were asked seriously, what troubles us, we would point to one of these. We want strength, power, vitality, and life in our walk with God, that is, in our obedience, or we want peace, comfort, and consolation in that walk. Whatever else a believer may encounter, is not worth mentioning or complaining about.
Now, all of these greatly depend on a constant course of mortification. Observe that, 1. Life, strength and comfort in our spiritual life are not the necessary result of mortification.
They do not result from it as though they were necessarily tied to it. A man may follow a constant course of mortification all his life, and yet perhaps never enjoy a good day of peace and consolation. That is how it was with Heman.72 He lived a life of perpetual mortification, and walked with God. Yet terrors and wounds followed him all his life. God singled out Heman, a good friend, to make him an example for others who might be in distress. Can you complain if you suffer as Heman did, though he was a prominent servant of God? This will be his praise to the end of the world. It is God’s prerogative whether to speak peace and consolation to us. “I have seen his ways, and I will heal him; I will also lead him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.” How does God do this? He creates it, and speaks it. “I create the fruit of the lips: ‘Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,’ says the LORD, ‘And I will heal him.’” 73 It is our choice whether to use the means God has provided to obtain peace. But bestowing the means of peace is God’s choice.
2. Life, strength and comfort in our spiritual life are privileges, not rights.
Mortification is not the immediate cause for any of God’s providing us life, vigor, courage, and consolation. These things are the privileges of our adoption. The Spirit informs our soul when they are present. “The Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.”74 He is the one who gives us a new name, a white stone, adoption, and justification. So the immediate cause of these things is the sense and knowledge we have of our adoption and justification, delivered in the hand of the Spirit.
I have to say that, nonetheless, 3. Life, strength, and comfort in our spiritual life greatly depend on mortification. In our ordinary walk with God, and in his ordinary course of dealing with us, the strength and comfort of our spiritual life greatly depends on our mortification. Mortification is not only the “causa sine qua non,” the indispensable cause, but it has an effectual influence on it. For, (1.) Mortification alone keeps sin from depriving us of them.
Every unmortified sin will certainly do two things: -- [1.] It will weaken the soul, and deprive it of its vigor. [2.] It will darken the soul, and deprive it of its comfort and peace.
[1.] Unmortified sin weakens the soul, and deprives it of its strength. When David harbored an unmortified lust in his heart, it broke all his bones, and left him no spiritual strength. For this reason, he complained that he was sick, weak, wounded, and faint. “There is,” he says, “no health in me.”75 “I am feeble and sore broken,” verse 8; “I cannot even look up.”76 An unmortified lust will sap the spirit of all its vigor, weakening it for anything we do. For,
1st. It brings the heart itself into disharmony, and weakens its attitude by misdirecting its affections. It diverts the heart from the spiritual frame that is required for healthy communion with God. It grabs the affections, making itself the object that is most beloved and desirable. It thereby displaces the love of the Father.77 In this way, the soul cannot truthfully say to God, “You are all I need,” because it has something else that it loves. Fear, desire, and hope, which are choice affections of the soul and should be full of God, become entangled with this unmortified sin.
2nd. It fills our thoughts with plots and schemes about it. Thoughts are the great procurers of the soul. They find the provisions needed to satisfy the soul’s affections. If sin remains unmortified in the heart, then thoughts will always make provision to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. They will enamel, adorn, and dress the objects of the flesh, and then bring them home to give satisfaction to the flesh. They do this in the service of a defiled imagination that is beyond description.
3rd. It breaks out of the mind and actually hinders our physical duty as well. When he should be worshipping God, the ambitious man is driven to study, the worldly one is driven to scheme, and the sensual person is driven to provide himself with all the adornments of his vanity.
If I were to list the breaches, ruin, weakness, and destruction that one unmortified lust will bring to us, this discourse would expand far beyond its subject.
[2.] As sin weakens the soul, it darkens the soul. It is a thick cloud that spreads itself over the face of the soul and blocks all the light of God’s love and favor. It takes away all sense of the privilege of our adoption. If the soul entertains thoughts of consolation, sin quickly scatters them. This is where the strength and power of our spiritual life depend on our mortification. It is the only way to remove the thing that denies us the strength or comfort we want. Men that are sick and wounded under the power of lust make many cries for help. They cry to God when the confusion of their thoughts overwhelms them, but they are not rescued. They try other remedies In vain. “They will not be healed.”78 “Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound,” but nothing will cure them until they come to “acknowledge their offense,” verse 15. Men may see their sickness and wounds, but if they do not come to God to acknowledge their sin, and mortify it, they will not be cured.
(2.) Mortification prunes all the graces of God, and makes room for them to grow in our hearts. The life and vigor of our spiritual lives is found in the vigor and flourishing of the plants of grace in our hearts. If a precious herb is planted in a garden, and the ground is not tilled, then weeds will grow around it. Perhaps it survives, but it will be a poor, withering, useless thing. You may have to search diligently to find it. When you do, you will scarcely recognize it as the plant you’re looking for. Even if it is, you cannot use it. Set another plant of the same kind in the ground, as barren and as bad as the other one you found. But let this one be well-weeded, fed, watered, and protected, and it will flourish and thrive. You can find it at your first glance into the garden, and you will have it for your use when you please. That is how it is with the graces of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts. The graces of the Spirit are still present. They can abide in a heart where mortification has been neglected some, but they will be near death.79 They are withering and decaying. This heart is like the lazy man’s field. It is so overgrown with weeds that you can hardly see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal, and hardly find any. If he can discover these graces, still alive and sincere, they will be so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of little use. But cleanse this heart by mortification, constantly and daily uproot the weeds of lust (because it is their nature to spring up daily), provide room for grace to thrive and flourish, and every grace will act its part and be ready for every use and purpose!
(3.) Mortification, sincerely applied, produces peace.
I know of nothing that is done with sincerity that does not produce peace. Sincerity is no small foundation of peace. And mortification is the soul’s vigorous opposition to self. As such, it is the duty in which sincerity will be most evident. Therefore, the path to peace is found in the sincere application of mortification to our walk.