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dealing with sanctification and just in God's providence for any of you men that have preached before you recognize that hey as you go through the word and prepare the Lord doesn't work on you way before he does the work in the congregation through the preaching. So just in the providence of God, I was sharing with Corey as he had to pick me up from the side of the road this morning after we had that little blowout that, you know, last night we were sitting around talking and one of the things we were talking about was There was a friend that in the conversation came up that Bobby and I used to have. He was actually at our wedding. And we looked, we hadn't talked to him for years. And we looked, you know, online, hey, what's he doing? Well, he died in November of last year. So he's a guy that died a little bit older than me. So I would say, I would maybe biasly say this is a guy in the prime of his life, you know, that I just, you don't know what tomorrow will bring. And so it was shortly after that that we got a call from our neighbor that we had our big 1,200 pound or so bull that had gotten through our fence and into his pasture and was having a wrestling match with his bull. And so me and two of my boys got to go over there and try to deal with that issue. So spent a couple hours doing that. And then by God's grace, we got to postpone that maybe till tomorrow or the next day. You know, this morning, everything, you know, getting ready for the Foreign Fellowship head off to church, and we have a problem with our car. And it was one of those, another lesson the Lord needed to teach me of not listening to my wife fast enough when we were having the problem. And maybe some of the issue could have been avoided. But obviously, you guys that are members of the church know, hey, we ended up on the side of the road in the middle of the 100-degree Texas afternoon on the way to the Lord's Day. but God was gracious once again. And so it's a good reminder for me of just, we're gonna talk about sanctification today. The normative way that God does that is through his word, through his spirit, through the means of grace, but he also does it through trials and through chastening. And so, as Christians, we're gonna be sanctified whether we like it or not and whether we put in effort or not. But the reality is that we're gonna talk about, there are means of grace to grow in our sanctification, that God has given, but it is a good reminder of that God's going to work the things in your life to learn the things you need to learn to make you more into the image of Christ. And so I praise God for his faithfulness in doing that for me as you come to bring this message. And so we, as I mentioned, are coming to chapter 13, dealing with sanctification. So what's happened, if you've been here with us, chapter 7 was where the foundation of God's covenant was laid. So we looked at the new covenant, the covenant of grace, and how all these blessings that we've been walking through in the subsequent chapters flow out of that new covenant that God makes with his people. We saw in the immediately following chapter, chapter 8, how Christ was the mediator of that covenant. The only covenant that Christ is a mediator of in Scripture is the only covenant that offers salvation. Then we move forward to chapter 10. We saw that the Father had predestined all New Covenant members and that they would be effectually called in time and history by the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit. Then in chapter 11 we saw that all God has effectually called, he justifies. He declares them to be righteous, not because of anything inherently righteous in them, not because of anything God has done to them. He didn't infuse righteousness in them, but no, he imputes righteousness to them. He credits Christ's active and passive obedience to them. Then we saw in chapter 12 how All of those who were effectually called, all those who were justified were also adopted. They were brought in to the children of God. So that judge that once stood condemning us came around from the bench and embraced us as his sons and daughters. So today in chapter 13, we turn to sanctification. So this is a term, probably even more so than adoption, that we're familiar with. We hear this. Basically, this word translated in the New Testament as sanctification sometimes is translated as holiness. Its basic meaning would be to be set apart from that which is common or unclean and be consecrated to God. Martin Luther, in his typical maybe short and pithy style, put it this way, he said, we in Christ equals justification, Christ in us equals sanctification. So that's a pretty good one sentence summary of what sanctification is. In our catechism, Question number 39, what is sanctification? The answer, sanctification is the work of God's free grace by which we are renewed in the whole person after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. So that basically is what we're going to be expounding today in these three paragraphs of the confession. And we'll see when we get to that first paragraph in a moment, this idea of union with Christ is now brought in to the confession. And so what we're gonna see is that this union that we have with Christ is really the ultimate source from which all these other blessings and salvation come. We heard this in our scripture reading in Romans chapter six, this is verse five. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So scripture contains this idea of us being united, being in union with Christ if we're saved. And so as a result of that union, we're adopted in God's family, we're justified, meaning we're declared righteous, and then we're sanctified, we're made righteous. So as we talked about last week, these are all theological truths that we see in scripture that we need to understand in a way separately, because when you confuse justification and sanctification, for example, that's what the Roman Catholics do, and that ends in a false gospel. So it's important to understand the way that scripture speaks about these different truths, but it's also important to recognize that these are not things divorced from one another. In the life of a Christian, all of these things come as a package, as it were. So you have to understand them separately, but you have to understand that they don't come separately. Romans 8, verses 29 through 30. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. So does anybody know what this has been called? Yes, so the Golden Chain of Redemption is what this has been termed. And so when we think about a chain, what's happening there? We have one link upon another that can't be separated. And this is a chain that's bound by God's promises. But I was thinking in my head, what kind of chain is just really easily breakable? And I grew up in public school, so I remember in art class making these little paper chains that you would hang up and decorate. I think we've done it at Christmas and things like that. But so it's not that kind of chain. It's not a chain that you can just rip apart. It's the most powerful chain that you could imagine, that this is a chain based upon God's covenant and his promises. It is absolutely, it's an unbreakable golden chain. And so these truths are connected to one another. So all that are foreknown are predestined to be made like Christ. The word foreknowledge there is something that's often misunderstood. It's speaking of God's knowledge of a person, not God's knowledge of what someone would do. So God's not looking through the corridors of time, seeing who would choose him, but he is foreloving a certain person. R.C. Sproul summarized it this way. He said, we could reasonably translate this text Those whom he foreloved, those whom he knew in a personal, intimate, redemptive sense from all eternity, he predestined." So all those that are predestined, they are affectionately called, as we looked at several weeks ago. All those that are affectionately called are justified. and all those that are justified will be glorified. So this is so certain that in that text, Paul can use the past tense as if this has already happened. That's how much we can trust in that fact that yes, we will be one day glorified. There's another link that we could add into this golden chain that Paul doesn't mention that is equally true of every Christian, and that is sanctification, which we'll be talking about today. So our outline this morning is just gonna be based upon the three paragraphs of the confession. First, we'll be looking at the definition of sanctification. Secondly, the imperfection of sanctification. And then lastly, the war and progress of sanctification. So let's pray and ask for God's help as we open his word. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that we have together, together as your people. We thank you for these glorious truths of the blessings that we have in salvation in the new covenant. Lord, I pray that as we come to talk about sanctification, that it would be an opportunity that we could, one, examine our hearts, examine our lives, where maybe these truths today will testify that there's people here that don't know you. Lord, I pray that you would reveal that to them. But for others, true believers, maybe they've not seen the progress that they want to see in their Christian life and it causes them to doubt, Lord, whether they even know you. I pray that today you would give them assurance, you would give them hope that you are working in and through them. And that sanctification is certain, yet sanctification is a process. Lord, I pray all this in Christ's name and for his glory. Amen. Okay, so paragraph one, the definition of sanctification. Those who are united to Christ and effectually called and regenerated have a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the power of Christ's death and resurrection. They are also further sanctified really and personally through the same power by his word and spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed and the various evil desires that arise from it are more and more weakened and put to death. At the same time, those called and regenerated are more and more enlivened and strengthened in all saving graces so that they practice true holiness without which no one will see the Lord." So as I mentioned here the confession it picks up this this new phrase that we don't find previously in the confession, this united to Christ. This was actually added by the Savoy Declaration to the Westminster and then continued to be picked up by the framers of the 1689 Confession. And I personally love that addition because it really helps us to see, okay, all these things that we're talking about, the basis for all those is our union with Christ. That's where all these blessings of salvation come from. And so, All those in union with Christ receive all the blessings that we're talking about. And no one outside of Christ receives any of those blessings. It's a whole sale thing. It's not like you go to the buffet and you get to pick a little of this and pick a little of that. No, you get all of these things because this is a supernatural gift and blessing from God. The paragraph begins this way, it says, those who are united to Christ and effectually called and regenerated have a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the power of Christ's death and resurrection. So we've already talked about that. We heard Brother Corey give a wonderful summary of those glorious truths, but notice what it does is it turns immediately to say these same people are also further sanctified really and personally. So there's this recognition of there's a sanctification that happens and there's this further sanctification. J.F. Packer said, if regeneration is a work of new creation, sanctification is a work of new formation. If regeneration is a new birth, sanctification is a new growth. So that helps us to start kind of make a distinction between regeneration and sanctification. So when the confession speaks of this way being further sanctified, what it's doing is it's making a distinction between what's been called definitive sanctification and progressive sanctification. So that may not be something that you've ever heard done in that way before. Most of the time when we talk about sanctification, we're talking about this idea of progressive sanctification. So what we see here is that those that have been united with Christ, they have been sanctified. At conversion. So this is what's called definitive sanctification. So that's a monergistic work. That's a big word maybe some of you are not familiar with. It just means God acting alone. This is God sanctifying us in the same way that he regenerates us, the same way that he justifies us. It's not because of anything that we did. It's God acting supernaturally and alone upon us. And so that's probably not what most of us think of when we immediately hear that word sanctification. But ironically, that's actually the most common way that the New Testament speaks of sanctification, not in the terms of progressive sanctification. I just want to give us three examples. The first would be in Philippians 1.1. Paul says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons. So the word saints there, it's just the adjective form of the word for sanctification. So it could be translated as holy ones or sanctified ones. Many in the church have come to think of saints as being like this special class of super Christians that basically the Pope has to somehow like anoint, and okay, that person's a saint. Well, that's contrary to what scripture does. Scripture speaks of all those that are in Christ as saints, as holy ones. And so scripture says if you're in Christ, you're a saint. It's not some special category of super Christian. You've been separated from common to holy use. The next place that we're going to look at is 1 Corinthians 1.2. Paul says, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. So he's writing to the church. He's describing them as a sanctified people. He says, called to be saints together with all those who are in every place to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here it's clear Paul's talking about Christians that have been sanctified in the past tense. And then 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor many who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So again, Paul speaking of Christians here as those that have been born again and they have been sanctified. in the past tense. This is something that's already true of them. So this is speaking of this definitive sanctification that happens upon our conversion. A supernatural work of God that happens the same with everybody. We are sanctified in the same way that we're justified, in the same way that we're regenerated. So what about this ongoing work of progressive sanctification? 1 Thessalonians 5.23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that tell us? That we're not fully sanctified yet. Yes, we've been sanctified, but the sanctification is a progressive work that won't be completed in this life. John Calvin says this of this text, he says, we know, however, that under the term sanctification is included the entire renovation of the man. The Thessalonians, it is true, have in part renewed. So they've been in part renewed, that's this definitive sanctification. But Paul desires that God would perfect what is remaining. From this we infer that we must, during our whole life, make progress in the pursuit of holiness. So this progress in the pursuit of holiness, this is what has been called progressive sanctification, which kind of makes sense. You're progressing in your sanctification. And so that's how we normally think about that term, and I can normally talk about it. Not something that has been done, but something that is to be done. Something that even Scripture, we're going to see, is commanded. For example, 1 Peter 1, 14 through 16. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also Be holy in all your conduct. Be set apart in all your conduct. Be sanctified in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So, there we see this command to be holy, this command to be sanctified. So, there's this definitive sanctification that happens at conversion, and there's this progressive sanctification that happens over our Christian life that we're actually commanded to be a part of. The Confession notes that this ongoing work happens through the same power that did the initial work, through the Word and through the Spirit. And so, while I would describe this definitive sanctification as monergistic, meaning God working alone, I think that you could properly call progressive sanctification, in some way at least, as synergistic. God and us working together. It doesn't mean we play equal parts. We're not going to be progressively sanctified, in the least, without God. And as I mentioned earlier, there are things that happen in our life, you know, trials, chastening, those kind of things, where God is working to sanctify us apart from us in our effort. What we see is that generally God is sanctifying us through His Word, by the power of His Spirit, by the means of grace that He has given, by reading the Word, memorizing the Word, studying the Word, praying, sitting underneath sound teaching, being among the fellowship of the saints where basically people are fulfilling one another, exhorting, admonishing, encouraging one another. All those things are means of grace where It's been described this way, where there's this shower of grace that's coming down. God has said, hey, it comes in this form. It comes through opening this and reading it. It comes from being in fellowship with other believers. And so you can choose, I'm going to sit myself over here, not underneath that shower of blessing. Or I can come under here and do these things that God has commanded and God has promised. Those are the means that I've given that you be made more like Christ. You could summarize it this way, that we cannot do it without God, but God will not do it without us. Generally speaking, as I mentioned, yes, there are ways where we're sanctified progressively, monergistically, like the trials that I talked about. But generally speaking, if I talk to someone that's struggling and growing in sanctification, it's not going to surprise me if they're not faithful in the means of grace. They're not faithful in the word. They're very rare in attendance. It's not going to surprise me when those things happen. why we talk so much around here and have for years about this whole idea of the concentric circles of the Christian life, that the center of the Christian life is the nurture of your own soul, all those means of grace with the word and prayer and the saints, and then you move out from there with your spouse, with your family, with your church, and then the lost world, and that helps us kind of organize and orient how we're to live the Christian life, but all those things are dependent upon us becoming more like Christ. Because if you're married, what your spouse needs is not more of you, they need more of Christ. If you have kids, what your kids need is not more of you, they need more of Christ. What everyone in the church needs is not more of me, not more of Corey, not more of Rob, not more of mine, they need more of Christ. And the same thing for the lost world. They don't need more of us humanistically speaking, they need us to be more like Christ. So that's why we have to be faithful in partaking of those means of grace. First Peter 2.2, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, or the NASB puts it, the pure milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up into salvation. That's not saying that all Christians are like, it's spoken of elsewhere in scripture negatively, that you're like a baby, that you just need milk still instead of solid meat. But this is talking about in the same way that for all of you, If you haven't had kids, you've seen enough kids around here where you get this, you have the baby longing for milk. That's how we need to be longing for God's word. And so to try to grow in holiness without diligence in the word. would be like trying to be a world-class power lifter and not being diligent in the weight room. It would be like trying to be a world-class runner and not be diligent around the track. We recognize that. Those things don't go together. It's not going to happen. Paul says in 1st Timothy 4-7, it says, have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths, rather train or discipline yourself for godliness. J.I. Packer says, sanctification is not mystical passivity, as our use of the slogan, let go and let God, is too often implied, but it is active moral effort, energized by prayerful and expectant faith. And Paul It says this in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 25 through 27. It says, Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as when boxing the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. I mean, that speaks of the intensity of the Christian life, right? I mean, you can go out in the world on social media and it'll take you five seconds to find all the different health tips, all the different workouts and exercises and people zealous for those things. And so Paul is saying, And the same way that the boxer goes to the gym and boxes, that needs to be the seriousness with which you approach the Christian life. The same way that the runner, every time we come to the winter and the summer Olympics every two years, like everybody flocks to that because it's this wonderful testimony of just God's, I guess the world is not doing it for this way. I think they are, they just don't recognize it. This is wonderful testimony of God's creation and what humankind can do and just the feats that they can do. And so how much more so for us as Christians should we be pressing in and laboring to become more like Christ? So here in the Confession we actually see this two-sided aspect of this growth. First it says, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed and the various evil desires that arise from it are more and more weakened and put to death. So it's speaking of the old man being put off, it's speaking of sin being mortified, sin being put to death. Romans 8, 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So there you see, it's by the Spirit, but you're also active in it. You're active in putting to death the deeds of the body. John Owen said this, be killing sin or it will be killing you. Sin is not something that you can just toy around with. Colossians 3.5, "...put to death, therefore, that is what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Scripture is telling you to kill those things. Put them away. Don't toy with them. Don't play with them. when you see them popping up or sense that they're there. Think about if you were out in the jungle somewhere with your child and you see this King Cobra approaching and you're sitting there with this sword. What are you going to do? you're gonna go over there and you're gonna try to lop that thing's head off as quick as you can, and you're probably not gonna stop until it's cut into pieces, right? And Christians, you've been given a sword, you've been given the sword of the Spirit. And so what Scripture's telling you, when you see that sin, you don't coddle it, you don't play with it, you get over there and you kill it with that level of seriousness. But what we see is that putting off the old man, killing sin, is not sufficient. We also have to put on the new man. We also have to put on Christ. So here we see the other side in the confession. It says, at the same time, those called and regenerated are more and more enlivened and strengthened in all saving graces so that they practice true holiness. Romans 12.2, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So this transformation of mind is speaking of sanctification. John MacArthur says this of that word transformed. He says, the Greek word, from which the English word metamorphosis comes, connotes a change in the outward appearance. Matthew uses the same word to describe the transfiguration of Jesus. Just as Christ briefly, and in a limited way, displayed outwardly his inner divine nature and glory at the transfiguration, Christians should outwardly manifest their inner redeemed natures. Not once, however, but daily. So here you see this reality that you've been made a new creation in Christ with a new heart, with new desires. Sanctification is living like who you are, living like the new man. And so, the positive side of sanctification is having our outward actions match our inward reality. And notice how this paragraph ends. It says, without which no one will see the Lord. There are not some Christians that are being progressively sanctified and some that are not. Yes, it's true that this progressive sanctification occurs at a different rate in different people. Some of that's due to God's providence. Some of it's due to our lack of practicing those spiritual disciplines. But Hebrews 12.14 says, Strive in peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And so, if we're not being sanctified, it points to the reality that we have not been justified, we have not been called, we have not been adopted. Let's just take a moment for some further self-examination. Let's say, I think many of you in this room have professed to be Christians for probably 5, 10, 15 years or longer. So, just take a look and turn and look back over your life. and just honestly assess, have I seen this progressive sanctification happen? Am I more like Christ now than I was five years, 10 years, 15 years ago? Because that's what scripture says will be true of you if you're in Christ. Yes, maybe you look back and see the growth is not as it should be, and that may be partly due to your lack of discipline in your life. But you also have to recognize that it could be due to a lack of ability to be sanctified, which is due to the lack of you not being a new creation in Christ. Thomas Watson says this, sanctification is progressive. If it does not grow, it is because it does not live. And so, if you're not a new creation in Christ, you are not going to be sanctified. John Owen said, let not men deceive themselves. Sanctification is a qualification indispensably necessary unto those who will be under the conduct of the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation. He leads none to heaven, but whom he sanctifies on earth. And so it is a dangerous heresy to think that someone could have Christ as their Savior, but not as their Lord. If Christ is your Lord, he will be making you more like himself. He'll be making you more into his image. So now let's turn to paragraph two and see the imperfection of sanctification in this life. This sanctification extends throughout the whole person. Though it is never completed in this life, some corruption remains in every part. From this arises a continual and irreconcilable war with the desires of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So that paragraph begins with the pervasive nature of sanctification. This sanctification extends throughout the whole person. We already heard this text, 1 Thessalonians 5.23. So just as every part of our nature was impacted by the fall, so in sanctification, every part of our nature is impacted for Christ. And so this includes even the most mundane areas of our life. I think this is an error that we can fall into, this sort of really high-minded, ivory tower sort of view of when we get to these doctrines and don't actually see, how does this actually matter, Pastor? Like, once we leave here, how does this sanctification matter? minister of the gospel named Dr. James Buckley, who he was once asked to give a testimony meeting at a church. And so it was a woman that stood up during this time and gave a witness to the preciousness of her religion as a bright light bringer and a comfort giver. And so Dr. Buckley said, That's good, sister. But now about the practical side. Does your religion make you strive to prepare your husband a good dinner? Does it make you look after him in every way? So as he's speaking, he felt a yank on his coattail from the pastor of the church. And the pastor said, press them questions, doctor. Press them questions. That's my life. And so we often think of sanctification in this very high-minded way that, yes, it impacts our understanding of these glorious truths. It impacts our gathering here on the Lord's Day. But we have to ask ourselves, does it impact Our role is husband and wife. Does it impact wives how you think about dinner for your husband? Wives, do you think about how that impacts the honeydew list that you have at home? Children, it impacts how you approach the list of chores that you have and the list of school things that you have to do. Your sanctification gets down and affects every part of life holistically, not just the high-minded doctrinal conversations that you may have after church on the Lord's Day. We are sanctified for all of life. But this sanctification won't be completed in this life. The Confession says, though it will never be completed in this life, some corruption remains in every part. Romans 7. Verses 18 through 23. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I rely on the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members." Different people have a different understanding of who is Paul talking about here. Is he talking about himself after he's converted? Is he talking about himself pre-conversion? Some people even think, well, it's Paul talking about a religious Jew, a follower of God before the coming of the Spirit. Well, I would agree with the framers of the confession here that Paul's talking about himself after he's converted. I think that's a plain reading of the text. He's using present tense verbs. And then, I don't believe that it could be said of an unbeliever what he says of himself in verse 22. He delights in the law of God and his inner being. And in verses 19 and 21, that he hates his sin. So Paul, I believe, is speaking of this battle against sin in the Christian life. There's times that we know the right thing to do. We have the desire to do it, but we believe the lies of the evil one and end up lacking the ability to carry out what the desire of our heart is. The truths here in the confession, they stand against any kind of perfectionism. And we don't often have people coming into the church talking about perfectionism. But me and a couple of the brothers, we sat at a table a few months ago with someone in our homeschool group talking about this doctrine and trying to promote it. It's a very dangerous doctrine. What happens is when people start going down the route of perfectionism, what happens is they begin to accommodate the definition of sin to be able to fit what they can keep. They do the same thing the Pharisees did. I want to come up with all these little minutiae of laws so that I can actually feel like I'm keeping God's commands perfectly. And so we've minimized what the standard is in order that we can make ourselves feel like that we can keep them. The first John 1.8 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And so, on one hand, this perfectionism can lead toward, I mean, a proud Phariseeism, a deception to think that you're keeping God's law perfectly. Probably more often what happens is it ends up in despair. Because even those list of laws that you come up with, if you're honest, you're going to recognize that you're not keeping those things perfectly. You're not keeping them out of 100% hard obedience and desire to glorify God. And so what happens is you see how short you fall of that standard, and you begin to think, man, maybe I'm a second class Christian, or maybe I'm no kind of Christian at all. It's absolutely true that if you look at your life and see no sanctification, it should cause you grave concern of whether you've truly been converted. But if you look at your life and you see that sanctification and you recognize it's not what it should be, That's actually what's normal in the Christian life. As Paul says, for the true believer, that's not going to cause you to excuse sin and be like, oh, it's okay that I haven't grown in Christlikeness. No, it's going to cause you to press on, but it's going to cause you not to be discouraged and it's going to cause you to have hope and look at what God has done in you previously and see that work continue. James Renahan put it this way, he says, this does not mean that the work of the Word and the Spirit is defective, but rather that it is unfinished. And so it's not saying that the preaching of the Word, the power of the Spirit, is not doing its job. It's just saying that that job is a lifetime job. And so it's not something that's defective, it's just something that is unfinished. The Confession summarizes this conflict this way, it says, From this arises a continual and irreconcilable war with the desires of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And so, that battle, that's actually a good sign. The natural man doesn't have that battle against sin, doesn't have that struggle. There's an analogy that we've used here over the years. If you think about the natural man, put him in an inner tube, and you have this, the river, the courses of the world, following the prince of the power of the air. What does the natural man do? He's got his feet kicked up. He's having a wonderful time as he goes down that river, content with all the sin and misery of the world. But what happens when God saves that man? He plucks him up out of that river and now tells him to walk upstream. And that's going to be a continual battle of the Christian life. But if you're having that battle, that's a very favorable sign for you. That's a sign that, yes, God has done a work in you. And press on, Christian. And paragraph three goes on further to describe this war. It says, in this war, the remaining corruption may greatly prevail for a time. Yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part overcomes. So the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. They pursue a heavenly life in gospel obedience to all the commands that Christ, as Head and King, has given them in His Word. So we just heard in Romans 7.23, Paul says, So this This text, this paragraph is alerting us to the fact that in the Christian life, there's going to be times where the remaining corruption that we have may actually seem to get the upper hand. It may seem to be gaining a victory. But as the Confession says, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate heart overcomes. So that's the hope and the promise that we have in Christ. Here again from our scripture reading Romans 6, 11 through 14. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. So what we see here in this text is something that's common in scripture. We have indicatives and we have imperatives. What indicatives are, are things that are true of you. Things that in Christ you can bank on these realities. And then the imperatives, these are commands. Go do this. And what we see constantly in scripture is this pairing up of these realities that say, because of this redemptive indicative, because of who you are in Christ, now go do this. Now go be who you are. So that's what we see. We see in verse 12, this moral imperative, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. But what does Paul say before that? He says, you have to consider or reckon the redemptive indicative in verse 11, that you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So this redemptive indicative has to be the drive, the power, the motivation for the moral imperative. It has to be the drive for this battle of the new man, this battle to put to death sin, this battle to put off the old man. What Paul's not saying is, consider these things true of yourself in order to make them true. It's not like the Word of Faith movement where I'm going to speak this reality and so it's true. No, what Paul is saying is, these things are already true. Remember who you are and now go live like who you are. It's an undeniable fact as if you walk outside and see that the sky is blue and the grass is green. If you're in Christ, you've died to sin and you're alive to God in Christ Jesus. He's saying that you need to grab a hold of that truth and now fight this battle in light of it. It would be like you were a general going to war, and you're fighting the battle like you've got like ten guys with shovels, but yet you've really got an army of a thousand men with the most powerful modern weapons at your disposal. Right? You're acting like this over here that, man, I'm powerless against this. I just can't do it. Well, that's right. You can't, but Christ can, working in and through you. Reckon that to yourself consider that to yourself and live in light of it He's saying that you are a blood-bought son or daughter of God You have all the power available to you in the killing of sin that raised Christ from the dead Reckon that to yourself We do have the reality that in this life there is a certainty of battle against this remaining sin. We're to wage this battle with confidence of who we are in Christ and what He's accomplishing in and through us. We can be confident that we're no longer the old man. We've been made new creations with new hearts and new desires. We have to pursue our progressive sanctification with confidence of the victory at hand. In the words of the Confession, so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Then this chapter ends with a sentence that was actually added to the 1689, it doesn't appear in either the Westminster or the Savoy. I think it really summarizes this very well. It says, they pursue, this is speaking of those Christians, those sanctified, it says, they pursue a heavenly life in gospel obedience to all the commands that Christ as head and king has given them in his word. So probably if you went to the Christian bookstore today, you wouldn't find a lot of books talking about gospel obedience. If you went back and bought some Puritan paperback books, you would find books talking about gospel obedience. That was common language at the time the confession was written. So what it's meaning is that we're recognizing that Jesus as King of all, that he's given us laws in his word. and he's given us a heart that we've been born again, that this law has been written upon. And so we actually, with all of our heart, want to obey this law that God has given us, this law that's written on our heart. We want to obey, not just a few, not just some, we want to obey all of what God has commanded. When we read our word, which hopefully you're regularly reading, Bible reading plan, when you come across something, man, I didn't know that God commanded this. What's your response? Man, I can't wait to obey that. That's the response of the Christian. And so we don't obey to be made right with God. We obey because we have been made right with God. We've been adopted into his family. I know sometimes we hear the word obedience, and it may rub us the wrong way because of maybe the culture that we live in. But we need to be not deceived into thinking that a life of gospel obedience is somehow this life of drudgery, this life of gloom. Try and Edwards put it this way, he says, a holy life is not an aesthetic or gloomy or solitary life, but a life regulated by divine truth and faithful in Christian duty. It is living above the world while we are still in it. I didn't realize that the WWJD bracelets were such a thing until I saw one of my kids wearing one the other day. And maybe they're not a thing. Maybe it was just a, I don't know. But it's been a thing for a long time. So what would Jesus do? Unfortunately, what most people do when they put that on and think about that, they go, well, what would the Jesus that I've created in my own mind, how would he actually act? That's sort of what happens, right? And so that's not a bad way to think about it. What would Jesus do? But the reality is we know what Jesus did. What was his standard? Well, he obeyed God's law perfectly. And so we can look at what Jesus did, we can look at God's law to know what Jesus would do. It's oftentimes not a very big mystery to figure that out. But the problem is once we've created a Jesus in our own mind, divorced from the Jesus of Scripture, well yeah, then it becomes a free-for-all as to what it actually means to love as Christ is loved. And so, What we're saying in sanctification is, you're trying to live a life like Jesus lived. That's what it means. This is your Lord and Savior. He lived a perfect life of obedience for you that you're never gonna be able to do. It's already been credited to you, but now go strive to live like that. And one day when you get to glory, That's what it's gonna be like. I mean, it should concern you now if you're like, man, I just don't wanna do this obedience thing. It's like, man, you're gonna spend, we talked about this, I can't remember what chapter it was, but just about, it was free will, I think, about the difference of will and the different parts of redemptive history. Like, yeah, when you get to glory, you're gonna have free will, but your will is going to be to obey God perfectly all the time. And so, That's what you're looking forward to, Christian, and so it should really affect how you live now. And think about, and yes, there's the lies of the devil, the flesh, the world that tells you, man, those things are drudgery, those things are boring. It's like, man, those are the things that you're gonna do for eternity. Maybe correct that mindset and embrace those things. And so, We need to recognize that we can have assurance that despite the trials, despite the tribulations, despite the conflict with sin, despite the ups and downs of the Christian life, that because it's Christ working in us that we will be sanctified. And I know many of you, I've known many of you for a long time, and for some of you there's been lots of trials, there's been lots of ups and downs in this life. And so you need to grab hold of that promise, that reality, that one, all those things were for your good, even though you might struggle to see it in this life. And the goal of it was to make you more like Christ. That's how much he loves you, that he will do things that are unpleasant for you to make you more into his image. And yes, it's true that we can provide a climate to foster that growth, right? Like we recognize, you know, if you get a seed from the store, a little baby plant, and you take it home, well, you could take it and you could set it out in the sun in your driveway and leave it there. How long is that thing gonna live right now? I mean, it might not make it till the next day, right? But if you take this plant, take this seed, give it good sunlight, give it fresh water, put it in a good soil, what's going to happen? It's going to blossom and grow. And that's analogous to the Christian life. that when we put ourself underneath those means of grace, when we're faithful to what God has said, hey, these are the ways that you can grow Christian, that you will grow in Christlikeness. We do have to remember, as I mentioned earlier, that this is not a uniform thing. And so what you don't want to start doing is like looking over here, looking at the brother or sister next to you, the person in your home as, your gauge for sanctification, right? It's either gonna make you proud or it's gonna cause that person to stumble, right? They're not your gauge. You're to look back, you're to look at your own life. I heard one brother put it this way. It's kind of a helpful way to think about it. Like what happens is if we're always looking at the example that we have in Christ, like what we're called to, we're called to perfection. If we're always looking here, what's gonna tend to happen? We're going to tend into discouragement because I don't know about you, but I fall short every single day. On the other hand, you can look back over here. Look at who you once were. Look at all that growth in Christlikeness. What will happen is if you focus back here, it's really easy to become proud. Look at how I've grown, how I'm doing, all those things. If you kind of keep looking over your shoulder behind, but keep pressing on ahead, that's gonna give you the motivation. Man, look at how gracious God has been, how he's worked in my life, and it's gonna let you put the hand to the plow and not turn back and trust him to continue to work and make you more like Christ. And so I hope that that was a helpful overview of sanctification. I hope it maybe challenged you and sharpened your understanding of what God is doing in the life of his people. So let's pray and then we'll have the privilege of celebrating the Lord's Supper together. Heavenly Father, I come in the name of Christ. Lord, I come thankful for your word. We come thankful that it gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Lord, that you provided for us the means that we can grow more into the image of Christ. Lord, I pray for those of us that have been lax, those of us that have neglected the things that we know, neglected the reading of the word, neglected family worship, neglected prayer, neglected the gathering of the saints. Lord, that this would be a wake-up call to them, Lord, that what they're doing is they're short-changing themselves and they're short-changing all those around them in their lack of growth in Christ-likeness. Lord, maybe there are people here today that believe themselves to be saved, but they look back and they see no evidence of this growth. Lord, I pray that they wouldn't leave here without hope, but they would have hope in Christ that today would be the day of salvation. They would truly repent and believe the gospel today. And Lord, for those that may be struggling, Lord, with the trials and tribulations, suffering of this life, help them to look back and see your grace and kindness, and be able to look forward with the expectation that they have been made new creations in Christ, they're no longer slaves to sin and can live lives of righteousness. I pray all these things in Christ's name and for his glory. Amen. Just a few reminders for us as we come to the table
Chapter 13 – Sanctification
Serie 1689 Baptist Confession
ID del sermone | 8323354345809 |
Durata | 56:54 |
Data | |
Categoria | Servizio domenicale |
Testo della Bibbia | 1 Corinzi 1:2; 1 Tessalonicesi 5:23 |
Lingua | inglese |
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