00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Now to the scripture reading
for the sermon. The sermon is the continuation
in our journey through the Westminster Confession. We will be covering
Lord willing chapter 13 today and the text that I will read
in advance now is from Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter
five and verses 16 through 26. Galatians chapter five, verses
16 through 26. Please rise out of respect for
the word of God. When I say then walk in the spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, For the flesh
lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do
the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are
evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as
I also told you in time past, that those who practice such
things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control, Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become
conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Congregation,
the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God
stands forever. Amen, please be seated. Beloved congregation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in our journey through the Westminster Confession
of Faith, we have now arrived at Article 13, which is titled,
Of Sanctification. And you see that our confession
goes more or less through the order salutis, through the order
of salvation, and today it is of sanctification. Now this fits
very well because we covered the doctrine of sanctification
just recently in our education hour as we're going through the
Shorter Catechism. So this keeps fitting together
so well. But let us now turn to the Confession,
Article 13, which you find on page 927 in your Trinity Psalter
Hymnal. Article 13, paragraph 1. They who are once effectually
called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit
created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally,
through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by his
word and spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body
of sin is destroyed and the several lusts thereof are more and more
weakened and mortified. And they more and more quickened
and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Now what
we have here in the first paragraph of the 13th article or article
of the Westminster Confession of Faith is a definition of sanctification. This is a prescription of what
sanctification is and the definition. And right here we see once again
how closely sanctification is connected with effectual calling
and regeneration as it says, they who are once effectually
called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit
created in them. So it refers back to this act
of grace, this act of God in regeneration after he has effectually
called us. And after that, it says they
are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue
of Christ's death and resurrection. In fact, these two are so closely
connected that we see here clearly what I've told you many times
in the past, that there is no true regeneration of anyone in
Jesus Christ without following sanctification. And this sanctification flows
out logically, but not automatically, of our regeneration, out of this
new principle, out of this new heart, out of this new spirit
that dwells within us. Or to say it in Calvin's words,
Christ justifies no one whom he does not also sanctify. Calvin further writes concerning
this connection, justification and sanctification, gifts of
grace go together as if tied by an inseparable bond so that
if anyone tries to separate them, he is in a sense tearing Christ
to pieces. I think this is very well said.
And Calvin then goes on to explain that it is not justification
that, as I said before, not automatically produces sanctification. But
again, by virtue of a union with Christ, it says, he bestows both
gifts. The one never without the other,
says Calvin. It comes from the union with
Christ. Both come from Christ. In other
words, Christ does not only give justification and lets it run
its course, so as if then automatically sanctification will be produced,
Christ not being necessary anymore, but both are individual gifts
from Christ, but Christ never gives one without the other.
He never gives conversion, he never gives regeneration, he
never gives justification. This one act where it all happens
together, he never gives that without the following sanctification. It is true that in our regeneration
as we receive this new life, we receive a new heart, we receive
a new spirit, but that doesn't automatically cause sanctification. As it says, we are then further
sanctified really and personally through the virtue of Christ's
death and resurrection by his word and spirit dwelling in them.
So you see that the one-time act of regeneration is followed
by a long-lasting, ongoing process, which is sanctification. And
both are individually given and driven and caused by the virtue
of Christ's death and resurrection. I just don't want you to think
that this is an automatism. that all that Christ does or
all that God does in Jesus Christ is to give us this new life,
this new heart, this new principle, and everything else then goes
automatically like a clockmaker gets a clock to go and then it
keeps ticking automatically. It always happens, that is true,
it always happens that where there is regeneration, where
there is this new principle, this new life, this new heart,
there will always be sanctification. But not as an automatism, as
if God wasn't involved, as if Christ wasn't necessary for sanctification
anymore. And it is interesting for us
to see that the Westminster Confession says we are further sanctified. after it says, after it talks
about effectual calling and so forth, we are further sanctified. Now, the reason for this term
further sanctified is that sanctification, this term can actually be used
in two senses. It's just a little blurry in
the English language because we have mainly put one meaning
to the word sanctification, but for example, in the German word
Heiligom, which is the same word almost in Dutch, it is clear
that this word is used in two senses. And the first sense being
to be consecrated. to be set apart, to be set apart
from the common use to the sacred use. That is one meaning. So when we regenerate, when we
become believers, when we receive this redemption, in one moment,
we are turned, we are moved from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of light. In a moment, we are being set
apart for God. And that is also, In English,
you have two words. You have holiness and you have
sanctification. In other Germanic languages,
of which English is one, there is the same word. Holiness is
used for both. Heiligung is holiness. Both start
with the H. I'm sure they have the same root. So the first sanctification happens
when we are regenerated and God sets us apart from the world,
apart from the darkness. And then the second way that
it's mostly used in the English language, theological language,
is becoming morally pure or holy. And that's what's mentioned here
as further sanctified. So first we are sanctified in
regeneration and the most original meaning that we are removed from
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We are
being set apart. That's the original term, sanctification
or holiness, meaning to be set apart. But then, and that's why
it says further sanctified, now the process of sanctification
begins. First, we are just de facto set
apart, or de jure set apart. And now, what we already are
in the eyes of God through Jesus Christ now begins to become reality. In God's eyes, we have the righteousness
of Christ, of course. But what's happening then is
that begins a process where what we only are forensically, only
in the eyes of God through the work of Christ, we become more
and more in real life. And that's why it says that we
are further sanctified, where is it personally and really. so that we are further sanctified
really and personally. So which means what is forensic,
what has been only legally, that God through Christ as a, I don't
want to say legal construct because it is real. The penalty is taken
from us, but what we already are through Christ in God's eyes
now really and personally begins to take shape. of course, very,
very, very slowly. And this process of further sanctification
consists of two activities, two activities, mortification and
vivification. Mortification means bringing
to death something, and vivification means bringing to life something
else. As the confession describes it
in these words, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed.
That's mortification. And the several lusts thereof
are more and more weakened. And what? Mortified. Mortification. Death. Put to death. And they more and more quickened
and strengthened in all saving graces. That is vivification,
to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. So what's happening is we bring
in the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, we lay
to death more and more, we beat to death sin. and its dominance
in our lives, and the cornerstone is being set in our regeneration,
that the dominance of sin is being killed right away, which
means that we have no more excuse not to take on this fight to
mortify sin more and more. And our goal must be, our practical
goal must be that sin is not the rule anymore, but becomes
more and more the exception. and our ultimate goal must be
perfection. And I know this sounds strange,
because there is a doctrine called perfectionism, as the Methodists
or the Westlands originally taught it. The difference is, what the
Westlands taught was that in this life you actually can be
perfect without sin, which, of course, is not true. But the
way that we teach it is that our goal must be perfection.
When I was a young believer, I said many stupid things, many
for which I would cut my tongue out today. And one of these things,
I wanted to be more gracious than the Lord Jesus Christ. I
would tell people when they said they're struggling with sin,
I said, well, you sin and that's okay. That is a very dangerous
statement. It is never okay to sin. We are
involved in a life or death war against sin, and we must mortify
sin at every turn, at every moment. This fight, we must never give
up. John Owen says, kill sin, no
sin be killing you. This is the fight that we are
in. And this sin is not only, you know, the Ten Commandments
in their most literal form, but all the sins that are connected
with it. It is not like some would say
the sin of adultery is actually committing intercourse with somebody
else. The sin of adultery begins as
a desire in a heart The sin of homosexuality is not just the
committing of that sin, it is the lusting thereafter already. So you have plenty of sin to
fight against all day long, even those that we do not think first
of when we think of sins, like pride, like greed, like selfishness. That is, if you think about how
many sins there are, this is a 24-7 activity. We constantly
have to be engaged in the business that in the power of the Holy
Spirit, driven by what we read in the Word of God, we mortify
sin all day long. There's never a moment to sit
idle. There's never a moment when we are not tempted to sin.
This is just how much we have to do. We have to mortify the
sin, and we have to vivify righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit.
Now, this mortifying and vivifying, this putting to death and bringing
to life is explained also sometimes in one text, like Ephesians 4,
verse 22, where we are called to put off concerning your former
conduct. The old man which grows corrupt
according to deceitful lusts. That's mortification. And then
it says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you
put on the new man which was created according to God in true
righteousness and holiness. Vivification. killing and bringing
unto life. Now, of course, you will ask,
how does this work? How can we do this? Because just
admonishing congregations to be good and to be doing what
God wants sounds very good and makes for a good effect, but
it's not good enough for your day-to-day battle against sin.
You want to know, pastor, how do we exactly do that? And I
must say, I don't know. Thank God we have confession.
that are biblical and that are true to the word of God. Now
there are means for sanctification. There are outward means and there
are inward means. So the inward means is the faith
that God has given us as a gift, this new principle that is now
working in our soul, the principle of faith. We have received that
in regeneration. If we wouldn't have received
this new principle in our heart, we would have never gotten, become
converted. We would have never trusted and
believed in Jesus Christ. So faith is the new principle
that we have received inwardly. It is the instrument for our
justification, but it is also our instrument for sanctification
by which we trust God in our daily conduct and in our experiences. So we have the instrument that
we need to be sanctified. That's inward, what God has already
changed in regeneration in us. But then there are outward means,
which we have to use plentifully. First of all, the word. The word
of God is the first means of grace. We must live in and by
the word of God. John chapter 17, verse 17, easy
to remember, where Christ prays to the Father, sanctify them
by your truth. Your word is truth. So how are we sanctified by the
truth? There is no sanctification apart
from the word of God. There is no sanctification in
the mere resolution, I want to be better now. Well, better in
what respect? How will you muster up that strength? How will you muster up that knowledge?
How to be better? And this book, I've said it many
times, even in the danger of being called a mystic, this is
not a normal book. It's not a book that we read
and gain information like with any other book. We have said
this many times, that the Holy Spirit is never far from his
word. This book is like a key that will unlock your soul. You
will never be able to have a real success in sanctification without
living in and by this word. And by reading, by studying,
God especially blesses the preaching of his word. And you can also
thank God, besides all the dangers that are connected with it, there
are blessings that we have instruments on the internet where we can
listen to sermons. We can listen to good sermons,
and we can let the Word of God do its work in our soul. We let
the key of God's Word that the Holy Spirit uses unlock our heart
to more and more sanctification. It is not hard to understand.
In fact, it is so easy to understand that even the world has understood
it a long time ago. With what you fill your mind,
that will be your life. If you fill your mind with television,
with worldly television, if you fill your mind with the things
of the world, if you fill your mind how to get richer all the
time, if you fill your mind with pornography, that's who you're
gonna be. And God says, no, fill your mind with the things of
God. If you fill your mind with the things of God, you'll be
drawn closer to him. Your whole demeanor, all your
emotions will be turned towards God. But you can never be a godly
Christian if the vast majority of your time you think about
things of the world. Now you will probably object
and say, well, I have a job. I'm an insurance agent. I'm a
doctor. I'm a pilot. I'm a school headmaster. How
can I, the majority of time, think about the things of God?
Well, you can actually think 100% of the time about the things
of God and be the best in your profession that you possibly
could be. It is when every thought that
you have concerning your profession is taken captive into the obedience
of Christ. And you look at every thought
that you have for your profession, for your calling, with the addendum. How does Christ want me to deal
with this? How does Christ want me to look
at this? You will be the best in your
profession, if it is an honorable profession, of course. If it's
not an honorable profession, then you shouldn't take it anyway. So the Word is important. It
shall live in you. It shall take root in you, and
you will see what happens when you live in this Word, when you
study this Word, that the Holy Spirit will use this Word. We'll
use this word. You are in a situation that is
difficult and you're about to do something foolish and suddenly
a text comes to mind. Do you think that's your intellect?
No, it is usually the Holy Spirit. If this is a text that is fitting
to the situation, it gives you understanding and insight or
correction how to act in this situation, it is most certainly
the Holy Spirit. But for this, you have to fill
your heart with the word of God. Your inward faith connects with
the outward word. As it is explained in the Westminster
Confession, for example, in Chapter 14, Paragraph 2, that this faith
that you have inwardly acts differently upon that which each particular
passage thereof or of the Word of God contains. And here it
gives some examples. Yielding obedience to the commands,
trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of
God for this life and that which is to come. So this is what the
word does. If we live in the word and faith
connects with this word, this is what it does. It yields to
the commands, it trembles by God's threats, but it also is
encouraged by the promises of God. This is the proper response
to the word of God. So that is a means by which God
confers to us the grace that we need to be more and more sanctified.
The second one is the sacraments. I've often explained to you,
if the sacraments, especially the Lord's Supper, of course,
which you receive basically on a weekly basis, if it is received
by faith, it will strengthen your faith. It will strengthen
your walk with Christ. It will strengthen your sanctification. So in other words, if the sacrament
is being received or connects with the inward faith, it will
produce graces. It will produce a more Christian
life. It will produce more peace of conscience. It will produce
more joy in the Lord. These are the sacraments. And
I'm glad that I have the general impression that one of the reasons
why we tinker around with our service times and so forth is
that all, even those who live far away, want to take the Lord's
Supper. I think the Lord's Supper has
gone under a little bit because we have become so afraid, again,
the pendulum, so afraid to become Roman Catholics that overemphasize
the sacrament, over above the word, and over above salvation,
by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But don't
let the fear of one thing drive you in the opposite heresy. The
Lord's Supper is important. If it's received by grace, by
faith, it truly confers real grace and strengthening in the
Holy Spirit. So we have the word, we have
sacraments, and then the next, what we call means of grace or
ordinary means of grace is prayer. What is prayer? In prayer the
soul engages in communion with God. How shall this not strengthen
you when you are connecting, when you're getting in touch
in prayer and engaging in the communion with your God? And
God also hears your request for spiritual gifts. God hears your
request for strength in the fight against sin, that you want to
mortify sin and vivify righteousness. That's what you pray for, and
these are the prayers that God loves to hear, John 14, 13. and
whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name,
I will do it." Well, then you will object, well, I've asked
many times for a suitcase full of money be deposited in front
of my main door. Well, you will be interested
to hear, maybe amused that I knew a pastor back in Europe who regularly
prayed for a suitcase of money. And he even told me that. Well,
he had some dire straits financially. He was in dire straits financially,
but he prayed for that suitcase of money. I'm also happy to tell
her that that suitcase never came. And then you ask me, well,
doesn't it say that whatever we pray for, we will receive?
That's not what it says. Whatever you ask in my name.
I don't think we can, in accordance with God's will, ask for a suitcase
of money just for the heck of it. Because we want to live well,
because we want to have the best vacations. Maybe we want to buy
a private jet or a new car. That's not how it works. This
is not asking in Christ's name, this is asking in your own name.
Because this is something that is directed towards selfish desires. But I will promise you that if
you sincerely pray for wisdom, that you pray for more strength
in the fight against sin, those are prayers that the Lord loves
to hear. And to grant you, there is no
reason not to grant you these prayers, because these are prayers
that are 100% in line with the will of Christ for us. So keep
praying for wisdom. Keep praying for strength in
your fight against sin. Keep praying for your success
in sanctification. So that is the third, ordinary
means of grace. And many pastors stop here and
say, these are the main ordinary means of grace, which means means
by which God confers grace to his people. And you will hear
pastors often say, well, our church is an ordinary means of
grace ministry, and that's a good thing. They focus on the word
and sacrament and prayer. Those are the basic elements.
If a pastor says that, you're basically dealing with a good
guy. But often, a fourth one is for God. And I, for many years,
have not really thought about it as a means of grace. I did
mention it many times, but then I realized there's another fourth
major ordinary means of grace, and that is God's discipline
for us through his providence in our lives. God's discipline,
as we can clearly see in the Word of God, constantly is a
means of grace. God's chastisement is a way by
which he confers grace to us, not immediately, but immediately. Because it says, for example,
in Hebrews chapter 12, If you endure chastening, that's the
immediate pain. If you endure chastening, God
deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a
father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening,
of which all have become partakers, all true believers, that is,
then you are illegitimate sons. No, it says illegitimate and
not sons. Luther translated bastards, right?
Fatherless. Which means if you don't ever
have chastisement, discipline, hard times, dark times, turbulences,
storms, then there's a strong likelihood that you are not real
adopted children of the Father in heaven. But curiously, often
people come and say, well, there's one hardship after hardship,
I wonder if I'm really saved. I would smile, but it's really
tragic because some people are really beaten up a lot in their
life. like Joseph was, right? Before he became the second most
powerful man on the face of the earth, right behind Pharaoh of
Egypt. God has different plans with different people, but chastisement
is always a part of it. So if there's anything that happened
in your life or is happening right now, and I don't wanna
be overly therapeutical, but also not un-therapeutical, because
the word of God is therapeutical. If you are in a situation or
have witnessed or had in your life a situation for which you
daily ask yourself, why has it happened? Well, the answer is
clear. For your sanctification, for
your blessing, it was immediately painful. It was immediately hard. It was immediately distressing.
But it will bring forth the fruit of righteousness. For whom? For
those who are trained by it. This means that hardship is an
ongoing process. Training is an ongoing process.
Training, we use that term, we go to the gym, we train, and
the English still say that way, they don't go to the gym, they
don't work out, they train their muscles. It's an ongoing process,
and if you don't follow up, or you will realize this when you're
sick for a while and you cannot work out, your muscles will shrink
immediately. So you have to keep training
them, and that's the reason why hardship is a common denominator
in all Christians' life. And it is not a necessary evil,
it is a blessing from God. And never say to a Christian
when he experiences hardship, that might be a blessing in disguise. You know better than that. You
can say this is a blessing in disguise. Because what else is
there? What do you do with Romans chapter
8, 28? That all things, and it says all, work together for good
for those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose. So it might not be a blessing in disguise when hardship comes,
it always is. As perplexing as this might be,
the word perplexed is used in the New Testament, which tells
me that some things can hit us. as Christians, as Christians
even in good standing with the Father, that can hit us so hard
that we are perplexed. What does that mean? When a boxer
is being hit hard, he gets a strong right. For a moment, he's out.
And then he has to shake his head to come back. That's what
hardship in the Christian life can do to you. And the next thing
you know is you want to ask out, you want to exclaim and ask God,
why in the world can this happen? I'm your child. And we all know
this situation. We know the temptation, but this
is where we have to put our hand over our mouth and say to ourselves,
the Lord knows. It will be good. And I know it's easily said,
but that doesn't change the truth of it. I've been in a situation
where I wouldn't have been able to say this in such a cavalier
manner, but it is still the truth. It doesn't matter how I feel
right now. There is no other conclusion that you can draw
from the word of God, that God's discipline is one of his most
potent means to sanctify us and to strengthen us. So this paragraph
one can be scary. If you look at its demand, we
have to constantly put sin to death and vivify righteousness
and this and that and the other. It almost sounds like a success
story here, but it can be scary in its description of the Christian
life. But paragraph two brings us some comfort when it says,
this sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect
in this life. There abiding still some remnants
of corruption in every part, whence arises a continual and
irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and
the spirit lusting against the flesh. So first of all, this
paragraph makes it clear that this sanctification has to happen
in the whole man, every area of life, intellect, affections,
will, soul, and body, because all areas of life have been fallen. All areas of life have been affected
by sin. Every faculty of our soul, every
part of our body has been in some form affected by sin. It
doesn't mean that it has been fully destroyed. But total depravity,
I mean, we needed the T for tulip. It's not the best word, but what
it means is not that we are as bad as we possibly can be, but
it means that every area of our life, every faculty of our body
and soul has been in some form affected by sin, even every cell. Why do you think you're gonna
die at some point and wither away? Before the fall, that wouldn't
have happened. And therefore, really, every faculty has been
affected by sin. So total depravity would be better
called radical corruption, as R.C. Sproul recommends. But then
we had Rulip. It cannot do much with the flower
called Rulip. We could rename the plant. But
I don't think that's going to happen, or anytime soon, at least. So paragraph two does not only
describe or explain to us the fact of indwelling sin, but also
its relationship to sanctification. That indwelling sin and this
desire to sanctification are dead set enemies. They're dead
set against each other within us. And the Christian reads this
and I hope the response will be ah. This is what I feel every
day in my soul, in my life. So this is not something that's
only befallen me, this constant struggle against sin. I almost
thought something's wrong with me. Well, something is wrong
with you. But the fact that something is wrong with you is normal,
sadly, ever since the fall. It is this war of indwelling
sin against the new principle, against sanctification that Paul
describes from his own life in Romans chapter seven, for example,
verse 18, when he laments, for I know that in me, Paul says
that, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing
good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what
is good, I do not find. Now, does that sound familiar?
Isn't that every day of our lives? Oh, we know what's right. We
know what we want. And then we find ourselves again
in desperation. Again, I failed. Again, it didn't
work. Again, I wasn't perfect. Not
even close. And this is what is normal ever
since the fall. It is exactly what our text describes,
Galatians 5, verse 17. It describes what is going on
in us. The flesh, which is the old man, the old principle, for
the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do
the things that you wish. I mean, in theory, we got it
all figured out who we want to be, right? In theory, I would
be a perfect minister. I would preach one perfect sermon
after the other. I would never lose my temper.
I would never think a bad thought. I would never do anything that
would make you even think that I could have sins. That's in
my mind. Now, reality is a completely
different animal. You have these wonderful plans.
You aim for perfection, which is right, but then you find yourself
on the floor with your face in the mud over and over and over
again. This is not an experience that
only you have. This is an experience that we
all share. And what we do in this life,
we will fight against it as much as we can to fall on our faces. It will never disappear. And
that's why the doctrine of perfectionism is heresy. It's wrong. We cannot
attain it in this life. But yet we have to envision it
and we have to, if we do not aim for perfection, we will compromise
with sin. So this is kind of a paradox,
right? It is kind of hard to grasp, but we aim for perfection
knowing that in this life, we will not attain it, but we will
continue to aim and to run. And it is a supernatural principle.
that lets us get up again and again and again and again and
keep aiming for perfection without ever being utterly discouraged.
That is already you experiencing the supernatural power of the
Holy Spirit. Don't you ever ask yourself,
why in the world am I still a Christian? Everything else I would have
given up a thousand times. If I would fall that often in
reffing ice hockey that I fall as a Christian, I would have
stopped 20 years ago. And yet here I am. Even optimistic. There's another principle when
it comes to the things of God. We keep going, and we fall, and
we keep going. Do you know these kind of children
that fall, and instead of crying, they laugh and want to get up
and want to try again? You want to have these children,
right? But somehow the Holy Spirit makes us these children. Yeah,
we might be upset for a while, but then we get up. And even
if our personalities are such that we are not these kind of
people who have the most stamina or are the people who really
hold out or hold on to things, in the faith it's different.
And how do I know that? Well, you're still here. I'm
only speaking to those who hold on and those who are truly of
Christ will hold on. They will persevere. It is a
supernatural principle. But this is the war that we are
facing every day, every moment. This is the war that you have
to fight. This is the discouragement that
wants to bring you down, but which you have to overcome. This
is the battle that you must fight and win. No mercy with the old
man, no patience with your own sin. Paul at some point says,
I beat my body into submission. What he means is the old man.
No matter what the cost, it must be submitted. Everything must
be submitted to the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
war against sin will never be perfect in this life, but in
paragraph three, we have nevertheless the wonderful assurance of victory. It says, in which war, although
the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, Yet
through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying
Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part does overcome, and so the
saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now, this should be a great encouragement
to you all, as this makes it absolutely clear that ultimately,
By God's grace, you and I will win this war within. You and
I will win this war that rages in each one of us. We must understand
that it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. And because of
that, our sanctification will continue on and on and on. And while there will be setbacks,
maybe with some even periods of backsliding, by the grace
of God, the regenerate part in us will overcome. We will overcome
evil with good. And why? Because it is God who
works both in us, to will and to do. And when we will one day
close our eyes for the last time on this planet, We will be finally
done with sin and look towards the completion of our sanctification. And that is when our glorification
happens, when our bodies will be raised and reunited with our
souls in the blessed eternal presence of our Lord. Then there
will be no more war in us. There will be no more sin. There
will be no more pain. There will be no more sleepless
nights. There will just be the blessed presence of the Lord
into all eternity. May we all meet there one day.
Amen and amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank
you for this wonderful encouragement like a spectator in a race or
in a match of football or whatever, you cheer us on through your
word. Keep persevering, keep persevering, and at the end,
it is still your spirit who does it in us. Oh, Lord, what a wonderful
principle of grace this is. Help us all to persevere until
the end, to grow in sanctification, to put to death sin, and to bring
to life righteousness. And may you bless us in it until
that one day that we will spend all eternity in your presence. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Of Sanctification
Series WCF
Galatians 5:16-26
| Sermon ID | 519241631314068 |
| Duration | 43:37 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Galatians 5:16-26 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.