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Take a moment and offer to the
Lord a prayer of adoration. Our intent in that is not to
ask for anything, but just to give God the praise that he deserves. We've been singing this morning
that day by day the Lord is with you, cares for you, bears your
burdens. We heard the choir sing that God's faithfulness to us
is great. I hope your minds and hearts
have been engaged as we've been worshiping with those words.
So I ask you, has God been faithful to you? Has God been faithful
to you? He's met your needs. He's taken
care of whatever problems you've had. There was one line of a
song that says, you know, he'll quickly remove my problems, something
like that. And, you know, maybe he won't
quickly remove your problems. But has he been faithful to you?
All right. He has. And I look at the faces
of of this assembly. And I think of how he has gotten
you through times of tremendous difficulty, how he's answered
prayers for you. The update this week from John
Cormican that his cancer is in remission. Praise the Lord for
that. God has been faithful to you.
And, you know, the Lord faithfully saw you through the time when
you were battling that and it wasn't clear exactly how it would
turn out. Has the Lord ever been faithful to you when you were
dealing with a financial issue? Have you had financial strains,
time of unemployment, times where you just didn't know how you
would make it? Has God been faithful to you? Has God helped you to
resolve relationship issues or has he helped you deal with sin
and temptation? Has God been faithful to you?
He's faithful. He has been in the past. And
we can be confident he will be faithful in the future. There
are those of you, you're not on the backside of a trial. You're
right in the thick of it. And you might be facing things
that I don't know anything about. I know several of you are going
through some times of disappointment. Times of struggle and stress. God is faithful. He always has
been. He will continue to be. Whatever
you come in this morning that you're so concerned about, I
ask you to bow your head and quietly pray. Thank God that
he is faithful. Thank God that he has this covered.
And instead of you trying to bear that burden alone, why don't
you cast it onto the Lord and find that he can give you peace
that passes understanding. He's faithful. Put your burden
on him. Let's pray together. You pray
quietly. Lord, as we just sang, we worship
you. And we acknowledge that there is none like you. You're
without rival. You are so great and awesome. You are so high. You're so powerful,
you're so perfect, and we are none of those things. You're
so far beyond us and yet you stoop to us. You have grace on
us. You hear us when we call. You
are faithful to us. We look back on our lives and
we see times of financial provision. We think of times of our own
spiritual failure. And you've been so gracious and
forgiving. To forgive and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. You have sent your son to bear
the wrath that we deserve. So rather than us drinking it,
the Lord Jesus himself drained the cup. You've been so faithful
when we are heartbroken and there might be times that we think
we just can't continue. We get so discouraged. Life seems
so dark, but you're faithful. You never change and you get
us through. We thank you. Now, Lord, we pray
for those in our assembly that are dealing with challenges today,
whatever they might be, whether they are emotional or spiritual
or relational or financial, whether it's life decisions, whether
it's disappointments. Lord, help your people. You always
have and we're confident you will continue to do so. As we
studied together on Wednesday night, there are times where
we are in a cave and we're surrounded by darkness and enemies are pressing
in like David as he hid from Saul. But you are in the heavens
doing whatever you desire and you send us deliverance from
heaven. You bless us so. We thank you. You've given us your own son
and we are confident that with him you will give us all things
that we need. That you will give us everything that is necessary
for us. No good thing will you withhold
from those who walk uprightly. We thank you. Lord, I pray that
among the good things you give to us today would be the ministry
of your word. I pray for you to teach us. Help
me to communicate clearly. Help me to be thinking straight. That doesn't always happen, but
help me to communicate your word with accuracy and precision and
passion. I pray that it will be well received.
I pray that you will grow your people. And I pray that any who
don't yet know Jesus Christ the Savior today will be the day
where they become aware of their need They realize they don't
just need to be moral or religious. They don't need just to come
to church They don't need just a pastor. They need a Savior.
I Pray that you would draw people to salvation even today Show
your power to forgive sins and to change lives to heal families
to do amazing things that are so far beyond us But they're
easy for you. So please show your power and
bless the ministry of your word in this hour, whether it's here
in the auditorium or in our children's church in the classes to follow.
Show the power of the word. We believe it. We claim your
promise that your word will not return void. It will accomplish
the purpose that you sent it for. So do that, we pray. And
we thank you in advance for answering these things in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. And turn your Bibles to Romans
chapter 8, please. And I'm going to conclude the
message that I cut short last week. Most of you probably know
by now that I just had some mental glitch and thought that our service
ended 15 minutes before it did. You might be thinking, Pastor,
that worked. You should just do that all the time. Alright, good luck
with that. I would like to finish this series
up today and then God willing we'll be into Daniel next week.
And I would encourage you, for you to really benefit from Daniel
like you should, why don't you spend some time in the next week
reading it and reminding yourself of the truth. It has so many
cool stories. You know, you're familiar with
flashcards and flannel graphs and color pictures and Bible
storybooks. But the lessons that that book
teaches are so pertinent to life for you today. Get back into
the book of Daniel this week and prepare ahead for this series
that's coming. I'm looking forward to starting
that, Lord willing, next week. Today, I'm sure Bill is going
to mention these things, but let me just give a reminder and
encouragement. There are a couple opportunities
that you need to take advantage of today. Many of you signed
up for our Adult Bible Fellowship classes last Sunday, and we have
those sign-up sheets available again today. We're starting in
the Gospel of John in October. But we're trying to get people
divided into classes. And if there's a group that you
especially enjoy or a teacher that you enjoy, you'll want to
take advantage of the opportunity to sign up for that. And then
we're kind of mingling the classes from the past, hoping that you
can build new relationships. And I think it's going to be
a great thing. But take advantage of that today. Then also in your
bulletin today, There's information about the goal scholarship, and
I don't want to take a lot of time on that But I do want you
to be aware. This is such an important part
of what our ministry does Statistically there are 55 of our current students
that benefit from receiving goal scholarship monies and some from
our own church and some that are not but the Lord has sustained
us through some difficult times of the economy and we have been
able to maintain an adequate enrollment. If we didn't have
programs like this, it would be very, very difficult for us. And we're not trying to fundraise,
but the reality is your tax dollars that you pay to the state of
Georgia are going to support education. They are, somewhere.
And the choice is, do you just allow the government to decide
where that goes, or do you just fill out some paperwork and have
those dollars go to help Killian Hill Christian School? And it's
something that is no cost to you except for a few moments
of time, but it is a big blessing to us and it allows us to reach
out to people who otherwise couldn't be here. So I won't say more
about that, but I do encourage you to help us in what is a really
important venture that is very good for our school, our families,
and for the families of those who are able to attend because
of that. We start in Romans chapter 8,
and let me give a quick review of last week's truncated service. We are finishing a series that
we've called Taking Aim at Godliness. The concept is that godliness
doesn't just happen. It's not that some people just
are genetically predisposed to being moral, to walking with
the Lord. God provides all things necessary
for life and godliness, but those means of grace like prayer and
scripture and the church, fellowship, communion, those means of grace
need to be applied by us. And the Bible tells us that we
are to exercise ourselves to be godly. Don't just wish it
were so. OK, you've heard me say on other
occasions that hope is not a strategy. You can't just hope things improve.
There needs to be some effort, some intentionality about that. And in your own growth and godliness,
you need to be aiming. You need to be laboring. I said
last week, as we conclude the series, I would never want you
to compare your own growth and godliness to the idea of extreme
makeover, where, you know, we have TV shows that teach you
what not to wear, or they teach you how to lose a lot of weight,
or how to improve your house or yourself in some way. You
can do it, you just need to try harder. That is not the idea.
Scripturally, the change that you need has to come from the
inside out, and it's something that is beyond your pay grade.
You can't just grow spiritually through determination and effort
and optimism. There has to be a miraculous
change in you. I use the illustration that there
are people that might dress in a certain way or they might have
certain standards or rules or appearances But if your idea
of godliness can be achieved by those who are Mormons or those
who are Muslims, then we have a defective view. It's something
that even military people or OCD people that are really driven
and disciplined in business. If that conception of godliness
is what's in your mind, we need to change our thinking. What
we need is something that is miraculous. Now, I'm not saying
miraculous like you pray a prayer and God zaps you and you're changed.
I'm saying miraculous in that God is doing something that you
can't do. He's applying the gospel of Jesus
Christ in its full orbed understanding. He's applying it to change your
heart. It's David praying in Psalm 51,
God forgive me, but create in me a clean heart, renew a right
spirit in me, change me and use these means of grace and enable
me as I exercise myself for godliness. We talk about Jesus. We talk
about Christ-centered ministry or gospel-focused ministry. What we mean is Jesus is the
source of Christian growth and the measure of Christian growth
and the goal of Christian growth. So we read again from Romans
8, very familiar passage, Romans 8, 28 through 30. Read with me, please. If you're
using a pew Bible, we're on page 944. And you're welcome to take
that Bible home with you and make good use of it. Romans 8
28. We know that for those who love
God, all things work together for good for those who are called
according to his purpose. What is that purpose? Verse 29
tells us 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. It's a certainty. Those whom
he predestined, he also called those whom he called, he also
justified those whom he justified, he also glorified from beginning
to end. Our salvation is as good as done
because it relies on the faithfulness The power of God. Turn to the
right a few pages to Romans 11-36. Paul finishes up the doctrinal
section of this great book. After 11 chapters unpacking the
Gospel, he concludes with this doxology. For from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. So in finishing talking about
salvation, From election to justification, to sanctification, to glorification. He wraps it up. He says all of
that brings glory to God, not to anyone else. All glory to
God in this, because it is all from him, through him. And to
him. To review then a little further
from last week, Jesus is the source of Christian growth. He
talked about the work of Christ. The book of Romans, we are very
familiar with the fact that Jesus paid sin's penalty. In fact,
if you think of songs, we have so many songs that say that Jesus
paid sin's penalty. He died in our place. He took
the wrath that we deserve. He paid it all. But He also broke
sin's power. And what I'm trying to say in
this last message is we're not just the same people But our
relationship to God and our relationship to sin and to the world has been
drastically changed. You're not just forgiven, you're
free. And so when we pray, we don't
just say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. But then we follow that and say,
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I don't
just want to be forgiven for what's in the past. I want to
see life change in the future. Thank God that when I drive in
a ditch, He pulls me out. But I can pray, God, help me
not to go back in the ditch. Because of the power of the Gospel,
that's possible. Jesus broke sin's power. I said
I love the hymn that says, He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. And He sets the prisoner free.
We have the work of Christ. We have our union with Christ.
And really, our entire series is focused on this point. Justification
enables sanctification. The condemned are now accepted,
and because of our acceptance through Christ, we can grow to
be like Christ. Spent a lot of time last week
on this. Definitive sanctification enables progressive sanctification.
If you want a more thorough understanding of that, then listen to last
week's message or you can study it from some good resources.
I'd be glad to recommend to you. We use sanctification as shorthand
for Christian growth, and that's fine. But there is a point at
which I have been completely sanctified in a definitive sense. When I am united to Christ, I
have been set apart. I am holy, I am a saint. And I'm supposed to become more
saintly. Somebody said that Christian growth is really the Christianizing
of the Christian, and what it means is God has made you definitively
holy. He's changed your relationship
to sin, and now he's commanding you. To be holy. So we'll read in Scripture, you
are holy. We'll also read in Scripture commands that we are
to be holy. And I love this. Again, it's the synergism Leviticus
20, verses seven and eight. I'm indebted to my father for
my appreciation of this text. My dad loves to preach on the
names of God. And one of the names of Jehovah
comes from Leviticus 20, where he says, I am the Lord who sanctifies
you. I am the God who sanctifies you.
I make you holy. My dad has preached that for
my entire life, and he's pointed out in Leviticus 20, verses 7
and 8, God tells us to sanctify ourselves. But then he follows
up and says, I'm the God who sanctifies you. And there is
that synergism. We're not just waiting for Him
to make us holy. We're striving after holiness.
We're pursuing holiness. But we would be at the point
of despair where we say, I can't do it. What do you mean make
myself holy? I can't do that. I am the Lord
who sanctifies you. I am the one who makes you holy.
What I require, I provide. What I command, I enable. You
be holy as I make you holy, he says. Definitive sanctification
makes progressive sanctification possible. This is the point I would have
made last week had I not wrapped up so early. Regeneration enables sanctification. OK, I've said justification enables
sanctification, definitive sanctification. The fact that you have been made
holy enables progressive sanctification. But this last one is so important
to me. I know I've repeated it in several
message in this in this series. Regeneration enables sanctification. The dead are now alive. You're different. If you have
come to know Christ, the Savior, you're not just forgiven, you're
changed, you're changed. You think, for example, of Second
Corinthians 517, if any man is in Christ, he is you say it with
me, if anyone's in Christ, he is. A new creature. You're new, you're different.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. And there is a sense that progressively old things are
passing away and all things are becoming new. You're a new person. I wish I wish every Christian
appreciated how radical the change in them at the moment of salvation
is. We tend to focus, I say we, me,
And I think Christianity at large, we tend to focus on people saying
you were condemned. And now you're pardoned. OK,
Jesus took your guilt, he died in your place, you were headed
for hell, now you're headed for heaven, you were dirty, now you're
clean. That is true and it's beautiful.
But you were dead. You were dead, you had nothing
you could do. You couldn't fix yourself. You
had no pulse. And you have been brought to
life. Regeneration means you've been
born. You've been quickened. You've
been given spiritual life through your union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that doesn't just change your future. It doesn't
just change your eternal destiny. It changes your life right now. You're not a walking dead man.
You're not a zombie. You're not just forgiven. You're
alive. You're alive. So we should write a hymn about
that. There's been such a change in
your very nature. And that change in your nature
affects the way you live. God doesn't come to a worm and
command it to fly and the worm tries its best. God comes to
a caterpillar and changes it into a butterfly and says, now
you're so very different, you can actually do this. You can
be holy because you're alive. We studied a few weeks ago in
2 Peter 1 that because of Christ, you are a partaker of the divine
nature. Now, listen, I know when you
sit in church, it's easy to go glossy eyed and you just stop
thinking. OK, pretend you're at work. Focus, pretend you're
watching a football game, get on the edge of your seat and
pay attention. If you know Jesus Christ, You
are a partaker of God's nature. What he is has been infused into
you through regeneration. And when we say the dead has
come to life, it's not just some life, it's the very life of God,
a partaker of the divine nature. It almost sounds heretical, it
almost sounds heretical. To say that the Christian has
a divine nature and you say, wow, that sounds like you're
saying that we're becoming gods. We're not becoming gods. But we are the children of God.
And we have a new nature in us. First, John three, nine, turn
there for a moment. I refer to this quite a bit because
it amazes me. The audacity of it. First, John
three, nine, in saying that Christians shouldn't sin and can't just
continue in sin. First, John three, nine. Says this, no one born of God
and we are born of God, born of God. Dead, made alive, the
divine nature is in you, you've been born of God. No one born
of God makes a practice of sinning. It's not the habitual direction
of life. For God's seed abides in him
and he can't keep living the same way. Why can't he keep living
the same way? He's been born of God. The seed of God, the nature of
God, the life of God has been placed in you through regeneration.
So when we say you're supposed to grow, when we say you're supposed
to be resisting sin, you're not perfect, but you're making progress. When we say that's supposed to
happen, it's not just pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. It's not
just try harder. It's not legalism. It's living
the life that has been infused into you through regeneration.
You're such a different person. I've used this example. My kids
have my DNA in them for better or for worse. All right. Sometimes I'm watching and sometimes
you see it physically. You know, when they get hot,
they get all red faced and most of them sunburn pretty well.
Lori helps with those genes a little bit, but not much. And they just
are a lot like me. Once in a while, I'll see my
attitudes coming through them. All right, I'll see physical
characteristics. I'll look at some of you and your children
and they are like the spitting image of you and they might try
not to be, but they can't help it. If you have been born of God,
if God's seed is in you, God's life is in you, God's nature
is in you, you will be becoming like him. There's hope for you. I'm not
talking about passivity. I'm talking about hope. You can
change. Regeneration makes sanctification
possible, it makes it essential. A friend of mine, a mentor. Michael
Barrett has written in his book Completing Him. I think I've
given a couple copies of that book out. I'm out of it. But
the seminary where he now teaches up in Detroit, I think it's Puritan,
has made this book available at a discount price. I'll try
to send it out in my email where you can get a link. Completing
Him is a tremendous book on the work of Christ and how it affects
you and I in real life. He says, without faith in the
finished work of Christ, and our place in him, efforts toward
sanctification tend to be guilt driven and doomed to frustrating
failure. Now, be honest. Have you been
there? Have you been there? You need to be a better Christian.
You need to work hard. You know, come on. What's wrong with you?
Let's pray. You know, come forward, bow down
and you'll be forever changed until Tuesday. Have you been
there? Honestly, have you been there?
I've been there so many times I almost felt like I just quit.
I quit. To trust in personal resolve
and willpower is folly. To trust Christ, applying the
truth of our union with Him to individual struggles, that means
victory. The hope for your growth is not
in you. It's in Christ. What He did at the cross. What
he did when through the work of the Spirit, he brought you
to life from the dead. You can change, you can grow. Because of Christ. I say again
what I've been saying repeatedly. You are not the same old you,
now just forgiven and determined to do better. United to Christ,
you're a new person, now capable of practical godliness, enabled
by the Spirit. But you can grow. You can obey. You can change. You can become,
in practice, what you already are in your position and even
in your nature. OK, just get this justification
affected your position. It's beautiful truth. Regeneration affected your nature. Your nature, who you are. And progressive sanctification,
it changes your conduct, your character, your habit, your life. The gospel is so much bigger
than we have have understood it to be. I think in these terms, and I
think it might be helpful to you, we've described it as the
four states of man. Augustine is kind of known for
having described it in these terms. These are Latin phrases. I meant to get with Dan before
the service started so I could make sure my pronunciation was
accurate. How many of you have taken Latin?
See, I only have a few people to worry about. Before the fall, we talk about
Adam and Eve and we say they were able to sin. OK, you want
to say that for me so I don't mess it up. You don't. OK. The
Latin term is posse picare. They were able to sin. After
the fall, they were not able, not just them, but all humanity,
unsaved humanity is not able not to sin. They are going to
sin. It's not just a choice, it's
their nature. And they act according to their
nature. So sinners without Christ are not able not to sin. Non
passe, non piccare. It's not possible for them not
to sin. In Christ, we are now able not to sin. That's the point
that I'm driving at here. We are able not to sin. So before you were saved, you
couldn't change who you were. But now that you've been saved,
it is possible for you not to sin. It actually is very comparable,
pre-fall and conversion are both comparable. You're able to sin
and you're able not to sin. And one day, by God's grace,
when we are glorified, we will not be able to sin. It won't
be possible for us to sin. The point is now because of Christ,
because of regeneration, you don't have to live this way.
You can change, you can grow. It's possible for you because
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to go very quickly
through this point, not to be done by 1115, but because I want
to have some time for the last point. Jesus is the source of
Christian growth, and that's been the lion's share of our
attention. Jesus is the measure of Christian growth. What I mean
is as you grow in godliness, you can because of Jesus. And and when you do, as you do,
you will be measured by Jesus. You're compared to him. OK, let
me just. Set your minds at ease. When
you grow in Christ, my goal for you is not to be more like me. All right, isn't that kind of
the nature sometimes in a church? You know, I want everybody to
be as godly as me. Mercy, I don't want to be as
godly as me. I want to be like Jesus. Okay, I don't have this image
in my mind. Every godly lady will look like
my wife. Every godly teenager will look
like my teenager. You need a higher standard than
that. Our focus is in conformity to some person or personality
or, you know, my tics must become your tics. I'd spare you that. You need to be like Jesus. We
read in Romans 8, that God's purpose for you is to conform
you to the image of his son. You know, Romans 828 without
Romans 829 is a pretty devastating verse. Somebody's going through
hard times. Somebody loses a job. Somebody
finds out about illness in their family. Don't just throw something
at him and say, well, things work together for good. All right,
don't do that. But we know. that God is using
hard circumstances for good, for those who love Him, and He's
accomplishing His purpose. And what is His purpose? You
say, I don't know. Well, read the verse. The purpose
for which God is using hard things in life is to conform you to
the image of His Son. God is using your circumstances.
Kind of as another means of grace. Have you ever thought about that?
Hardships can actually be a means of grace through which God is
conforming you to the image of a son. God wants you to look
like Christ. All right. You've probably heard
me pray sometimes. God, I'm so sick of being like
Chris. I want to be like Jesus. All right, your goal is to be
like Jesus. You're not trying to be like
somebody else in the church. Don't set up somebody on a pedestal.
You know, there's some lady. And if I could only be like her,
act like her, talk like her. You want to be like Jesus. Ephesians four, which we studied
a few months ago, says that sanctification is growth into the likeness of
Christ. We will turn here just for a moment. Because such a
powerful description, and it's funny, it's not a personal description.
It's a description of the whole church growing in Christ likeness.
Ephesians 4 13. It says God has given the church
these gifts, including pastor to equip the body so it can build
itself up. Verse 13 now says, here's the
goal until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God. To mature manhood, what is mature
manhood? To the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. So we may no longer be children
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind
of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every
way into him who is the head that is into Christ. Think of
it this way. Christ as the head of the body
has no growing to do. He's not maturing. Christ is
not growing in godliness. But if you picture it, it's like
the body of Christ has this perfect head and the body is kind of
scrawny, kind of boyish. OK, looks like Charlie Brown,
nice big head, little bitty body. But we grow. And as we grow,
we begin to fit our head more. We're growing up into him, becoming
more and more like him. Verse 16, from whom the whole
body joined and held together by every joint with which it
is equipped. When every part is working properly,
it makes the body grow so that it builds up itself in love.
OK, I've been focusing on your personal growth and rightly so. But Scripture says our whole
body should be growing together. There's something encouraging
about the fact that it's not just you doing your devotions
in private, trying to grow on your own, but we're all growing. We're all working toward the
same goal. We're all maturing in Christ.
And Jesus accomplishes it. And he's gifted the church with
a pastor to help you. But then the pastor's job is
to get all of us functioning so every joint is doing its job. And we're all growing up together.
And God willing, nobody is left behind. We grow as a church. God, help us grow as a church. Help us grow. What do you mean,
get bigger? No. Get more like Christ. I'm idealistic enough to think
if we grow spiritually, God willing, we will grow numerically. I think
where there is vital Christianity, people want to be there and we'll
see people converted and we'll see Christians who want to move
here and be part of this. But our desire isn't numerical
growth. It's spiritual growth. It's maturing
into the image of Christ. That's what we are after. Christ does this. Look at the book of Colossians
for just a moment. Turn to your right, Colossians
3. It's page 984 in your pew Bibles. Again, I don't have time to uncork
on this like I wish I did. Talking about Christian growth,
it says you can't live in the same old sin that you were saved
out of. said, you used to walk in these
things, verse seven, when you lived in them. But now your nature
has changed and so your habit has changed. But now you must
put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander,
obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing
that you have put off the old self with its practices. You
put on the new self. Which is being renewed in knowledge
after the image of its creator. All right, I'm going to guess
that for many, this will be a whole new concept, a way of understanding
Christian growth. The new self, the change, the
new nature that is creating new behavior, new character, what
is happening in me when I grow? Is that God is restoring the
image of the creator in me. OK. I put it this way, sanctification
is the restoration of the fall marred image of God in us. OK,
humanity was made in the image of God, right? All humanity,
those who don't know Christ, they're still made in the image
of God. But the Christian is being reclaimed,
the image of God has been marred by the fall, morally marred. And as we grow, we say we're
becoming like Christ. Beautiful. All right. But the
language that Colossians uses is that we're being remade into
the moral image of God that was lost at the fall. And what God
is doing, he's making me like Jesus, which means he's making
me like the perfect man. And he's restoring his image
in me. So when I say, God, I want to
be like Jesus, he's not just the standard by which I'm measured. He's actually the standard that
is being recreated in me morally so that I reflect the image of
God more perfectly. The fall has messed me up. The
fall has messed up all of humanity. And how many times have we talked
about this? What God is doing through the gospel, He's not
just saving individuals. He's putting Humpty Dumpty back
together. He's fixing what the fall broke. And part of that has to deal
with a marred image of God now being repaired by God's grace. Sanctification, conformity to
the image of Christ, it is growth and maturity into the likeness
of Christ. It is the restoration of the
image of God in us, not that fallen humans don't have it,
but they have it in such an imperfect state. Morally, it's being recreated
in us. Westminster, shorter, catechism
asks a question. You imagine this is especially
being taught to children. Ideally, what is sanctification? The answer given is sanctification
is the work of God's free grace. whereby we are renewed in the
whole man after the image of God. That is Colossians 3. We
are being renewed in the whole man after the image of God and
are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. It's a great definition. Christ
is the source of Christian growth. Christ is the measure of Christian
growth. And we end on what I hope will
be An inspiring note for us, Christ is the goal of Christian
growth. OK, I'm speaking to Christians
today and I'm not naive enough to think that everybody in the
building is a Christian, but I'm addressing Christians today.
OK, Christians, look at me just for a moment. How many of you
want to grow? You know, we've studied for too
much. How many of you want to grow?
Of course you want to grow. I want to grow. Why do you want to grow? Why do you want to grow? Well,
I don't know. It's a churchy thing to do. Of
course you want to grow. What do you think I am? Of course
I want to grow. Yeah, but why do you want to
grow? When you have had times in your life where you've sought
after growth, you've wanted to be more like Christ, you wanted
to be a stronger, more mature Christian. What motivates you? Could it be personal satisfaction?
Could it be a sense of perfectionism? Why do you want to become a better
Christian? Because that's the kind of person I am. There's
no weeds in my garden, I don't even own a junk drawer. My house
is flawless and I am a growing Christian because I won't tolerate
anything else. Well, amen. Seriously, there
have been times where I have been motivated for Christian
growth because because I'm just a good person and I'm not settling
for less. That's not Christian growth. Maybe worse than that, maybe
I want to be respected by other Christians. Call it pride of
grace in his in his great book on sanctification, by the way,
I'd recommend this to you book called Holiness by J.C. Ryle. Read read dead people, they have
not all of them, but dead people have good things to say and they
don't change their mind anymore. I had somebody endorse one of
the gospel meditations books, and the more he speaks, the more
I think, oh, no. You know, I wish I could adjust
that. All right, J.C. Ryle is strong. He writes in holiness. He writes
about pride. And he says there are people
that have pride of grace, that is, they're proud of their spiritual
accomplishment. He compares it to pride of race, pride of face. I think he says pride of place. He uses all these different images,
things we're proud about, he says, but especially sinister
is pride of grace. You're proud of your Christian
accomplishments. Is that why you want to grow? You imagine we have a family
conference. We're going to help people be
better dads. We're going to help people be better husbands. Imagine
we give a testimony time and I ask Robert, I say, Robert,
why do you want to be a better husband? And he says, because
I just can't live with myself if I'm not. Because I must be
awesome because I'm generally awesome. And I'm going to be
the best dad ever. You know, when they give out
those mugs on Father's Day that say world's best dad, I will
know deep down it's true. Okay. Robert wants to grow. He wants
to be a better dad because that's just the kind of guy he is. Isn't
that a bogus answer? Okay. Give me, give me a good
answer. Why do you want to grow to be
a better husband? Give me a good answer. Why do you want to grow
to be a better husband? I'm not looking for a God related answer.
Why do you want to grow to be a better husband? Because I love
my wife. Why do you want to grow to be
a better parent? I just want everybody to know how awesome
I am. I want to have a reputation. When people see my kids, I want
them to think I'm awesome. You say that's ridiculous. Really? I want to be a better dad because
I love my kids. I want to be a better pastor. Why do you want
to be a better pastor? Because I want people to think
I'm an awesome pastor. Or because I love our church,
I love our sheep. You don't become a better Christian
Because you want to feel better about yourself. And the irony
is, and again, Ryle says in his book on holiness, the more you
grow, the more you're aware of how much you need to grow. The
more you grow in humility, the more you're sickened by your
pride. Now, I'll warn you, the more you grow, you're not going
to feel like you're growing. You're actually probably going to feel
like, man, I'm more grieved about my sin than ever. I'm not making
progress. No, you probably are. And you don't despair. Why do you want to grow as a
Christian? Not so you're awesome. You want to grow as a Christian
because you love Jesus. You want to know him. You want
to walk with him. Paul isn't doing a self-improvement
program. So he can post pictures of of
himself on his blog or so he can go on Pinterest and show
how clean his his house is. He's saying, I want to grow.
And he puts it in Philippians three. He says, I want to. Know
Him. The power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering. I want to know Him. Jesus is
the goal of Christian growth. I mean, God forbid you should
use Christian growth as some excuse to make a spectacle of
yourself. Christian growth is not a platform
by which you can be made to look better. You grow as a Christian
because you love Jesus. You say, what if nobody notices?
He will notice he's good at those things. And the truth is, Paul
tells Timothy that when you grow, he says your your your progress
will be apparent, but not as a goal. What you want is to be
closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to grow for a relationship,
not for a reputation. OK, I want our church to be genuinely
godly. Corporately, I want us to be
godly. I want us to be holy. I want us to be gracious. I want
us to be loving when people arrive. I want them to see a sincerity
about us that we're glad they're here. We're welcoming. We're
not condemning. We're not judging. I want us to be mature. But not
so that we have a reputation, I want us to be genuinely that
so that we honor the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, I say we're longing
for God himself. We're not just longing for godliness.
God, when I say I want to grow, I'm not just saying I want to
knock a few items off my to-do list. I want to know you better. I want to walk with you more.
I want to bring more pleasure to you as you look at my life.
I want to be more useful to you. Ultimately, we grow for God's
glory, just like everything else. And that's where we read in Romans
11, everything is about Him. You grow through Him. You grow like Him. And you grow for Him. So we say that Jesus is the measure
of Christian growth. He's the source of Christian
growth, but he's the goal. I want to grow for Jesus sake.
Christian, you're a part of a cosmic design, and I'm not exaggerating. There's a cosmic design whereby
God is bringing everything under the feet of Christ. Everything
in creation will acknowledge Him as the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. Every knee will bow. Every tongue
will confess. God's cosmic plan is to bring
glory to Jesus. And you're part of that. As you
fight temptation, as you develop Christlike character, as you're
not so petty and not so selfish and not so self-righteous, But
you're more loving and you're more joyful and you experience
peace and you share peace and you embrace grace. It's not just
so that you have a better experience, it's not so you have a better
reputation, it's for the glory of God. You grow for Jesus sake. Wrap up with these reminders.
Christian growth is the only real proof of Christian life.
Christian growth is your vital science. If you're not growing,
you may still be dead. So, Pastor, what are you talking
about? I've been a Christian all my life. If you don't have
a pulse, if you don't have some indication that you're growing,
why would we believe that? Some of you may be really religious
and really good at following the system and the rules. But
but your dad. And you need Christ. Christian
growth is a miracle, it's not self-improvement, it's rooted
in the full or gospel of Jesus Christ, especially regeneration,
it's a miracle. And you're a participant. You're
not merely a recipient, you are participating in this synergism
of sanctification. God sanctify me. And I'm going
to do everything in my power to pursue holiness. I've been speaking to Christians,
but I say to everyone here today, if you don't yet know Jesus as
your savior. I'm begging you to trust him
today. Some of you say I would, but
Christians are such hypocrites. Yeah. You don't need Christians
to save you, you need Jesus. You say, I can't grow. Yes, because
you're not born yet. Once you come to life, once you
trust Jesus, you're forgiven, you're saved, you have a new
nature. not through this church, not by becoming a Baptist. You
need Jesus alone. If you trust him as your savior,
repent of your sin and ask him to forgive you and save you,
then you can start a life of growth and change. If you don't
yet know Jesus, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting
for? Today would be a great time for
you to bow your head and quietly pray, Jesus, I don't understand
the whole Bible. But I know I'm a sinner. My conscience
tells me, the Bible tells me, I need a Savior. Jesus, you died
for me. You rose again. I'm so sick of
my life of sin. Jesus, save my soul. Right where
you're seated today. You can pray say Jesus saved
me You can pray it in English you can pray it in in Spanish
or Portuguese or whatever language is of your heart you pray and
say Jesus saved me and he will do it Jesus saved me. Let's bow in prayer, please Thank you Lord for the Bible
Thank you that it is not the mere opinions of men. It is the
living, powerful Word of God. I pray that you'll use it today
to accomplish your purpose. And I don't have to guess what
that is. Your purpose is to mature your people. I pray for that,
myself included. Grow us in godliness. Individually
and as families and corporately grow us, mature us, make us like
Jesus for Jesus' glory. For any who don't yet know Christ
as Savior, I pray that today will be the day when they confess
their sin and say, Jesus, save my soul. I pray that people will
be born again and experience the very life-changing power
we've been describing from the Word. I pray, Lord, that you
will win as we sing this concluding hymn. Wage war on our selfishness. Win. Conquer us. Grow us to be
more and more like Jesus, and we will give you all the glory.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Christ-Centered Growth, Part 2
| Sermon ID | 91014130445 |
| Duration | 57:14 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Romans 8:28-30; Romans 11:36 |
| Language | English |
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