Hi! Can people please recommend any good books, articles and/or sermons from both historical and/or modern authors/pastors on the topic of self denial. Especially but not exclusive to sexual desires/temptations. Thank you!
I'd highly recommend this little known book by Thomas Manton, A Treatise on Self-Denial. There are a few formats to get it in. This is a kindle-friendly format that I made: A Treatise on Self-Denial (.mobi). You can also read it on this website, or as a .pdf here. You can also read it and download it as a .pdf from Google Books here. Unfortunately, if you want to buy the bound version, it's only in 22 volume set of his works as far as I can tell.
Richard Baxter apparently wrote something under the same title, but I haven't read that. The flip side of the coin you're looking at would be books on love, like Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards. Self-denial would be the negative way of stating the same ideas expressed in love. You don't just deny-yourself for nothing, you deny-yourself out of love for the Savior and put on his priorities, which causes more selfish and sinful self-denial.
A more modern book on the subject is Die Young. It's actually a fairly good book. I've been intending to write a review of it for a bit, but haven't gotten around to it. There were only a few pages where I had questions and thought things weren't so helpful that were said about sanctification and the Christian life in terms of struggles, but it is a good book otherwise and worth the read if you have a couple house to spare on a Sunday afternoon. To be honest, it's hard to say to many things against a book that's so unique in this area. There really just aren't that many books published on self-denial, which is odd since it's one of the few teaching points that all four Gospels include in one form or another, and one that at least Matthew's Account says twice!
Soli Deo Gloria published Thomas Watson's book "The Duty of Self-Denial" some years back. You might be able to find a copy used somewhere (bookfinder.com is a good place to look). Also there is Christopher Love's book "The Mortified Christian" (mortification of sin).
I've got Manton's "Treatise on Self-Denial" ready to send to the printers as soon as the Lord provides the necessary funds.
