I never get over the privilege that is mine to be the pastor here and to be the pastor of a church that is capable of musical encouragement like we have experienced today. So, so moving. Last song is one of my favorites. And if you have been around me much, I talk about grace a lot. And that song about God's grace with us when we're being useful or when we're not being useful. God's grace is oxygen for our souls. Kathy, thank you for your ministry to us in writing that song and then playing that. We had a conversation on Wednesday night about Kathy, and the guy I was talking to said, you know, if you've ever heard her play, she can bring some of her Japanese experience into her piano playing. She knows how to adjust the chords that way. And as I was listening to the song this morning, I thought, I wonder if she wrote that, because there was a little bit of that oriental sound. Really beautiful. And all of the music, it's not just performed with excellence, but it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not amazed at the performers, we're amazed at the truths. And it's just been a great blessing to worship with you again in this way. When the bullies finished singing, I was afraid that we might have a downpour, because the last time I heard them in a duet, about the time they were ending, we're in an outside wedding, and it rained so hard that by the time we got to shelter, everybody at the wedding was absolutely drenched. And fortunately, nothing like that happened today. Really a blessing. Well, let's bow in prayer and let's continue to worship. And I'm going to give you a moment to just thank the Lord in private. And you offer your own words, adoring him for his love, for his grace. And then you pray that the Lord will speak to you through this message. This will be the last in our series on godliness. Why don't you pray both a prayer of adoration and a prayer of surrender asking God to minister to you today. And after you pray quietly for a moment, I will join you. Lord, you are so good. And we are so not. And it is of your mercy that we are not consumed. We thank you for your love that was demonstrated to us while we were yet sinners. You sent Christ to die for us. We thank you for grace that by its very definition means it's undeserved, but it's favor given just because of who you are in spite of who we are. We thank you that Your love is infinite. As Lonnie read from Romans 8, that nothing can separate us from your love. We thank you that your love is displayed to us every day just in your benevolent care for us, your provision for us. Even making us part of a church like this where we can come together and pray and sing and be encouraged by the fellowship and the communion with your people. That's love for us. But chiefly, your love is demonstrated through the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He paid, purchasing us out of our sin and out of our sinful lifestyles, not with silver or gold or anything that perishes, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Thank you for such amazing love. I thank you, Lord, The work that you have begun in us at the time of our conversion, you will continue in us until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, his great day. And I pray, Lord, that you would answer that prayer even this morning and continue your work in us, continue to grow us. I pray that you would use this series and culminating this message, I pray that you would shake us from our lethargy if necessary. For some, perhaps, we haven't been growing for a while. We've been coasting and things have become kind of habitual, old hat to us. But I pray that we would long for not only more personal godliness, but closer communion with You, that we would long after God as well as godliness. I pray that You would work in our hearts in that way even today. I pray, Lord, for those who are here today and those that have other contact with this ministry and they have heard the Word, the Gospel, and the seed has been planted, but they haven't yet come to know Jesus Christ as their own Savior. Oh God, I pray that they will not just have some religious experience. I pray that they won't just go home feeling better about themselves because of what they've heard or participated in. I pray that everyone that has any contact with this ministry will understand their sinfulness and their peril. They will understand that the only way that they can be forgiven of their sins and avoid the terrors of hell and enjoy your fellowship forever in heaven is to know Jesus Christ themselves. Help them to understand that no church can save them. No religion can save them. No good works can save them. No baptism waters can save them. They need the Lord Jesus Christ alone. I ask you, Lord, to save people. Now, Spirit of God, do your delight and take the word that you have authored and now help us to understand it and apply it to us. Enlighten our eyes spiritually so that we can perceive wonderful things out of your law. Help us, we pray. All of this we ask in confidence, not because we're good people, but because we have a magnificent Savior and mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray in his name. Amen. This announcement has been made several times, probably Bill will mention it today at the close of the service, but today we have an orientation class that's starting just across the foyer in the parlor. Thank you very much. I'm so helpful for people on the front row that are tracking with me in the parlor. And some of you may be interested in membership at our church, but even if you're just interested in finding out more about our church, you could be a first time visitor. Come and sit in our orientation class and just find out why we do what we do. I trust that will be a blessing to you. That happens today and for the next four weeks after today. So you're invited to join us for that. I mentioned in my prayer that today we are concluding our series on godliness. We don't only want to have visions for what is God doing through our church corporately. But we long for people individually to be growing in godliness and growth doesn't happen by accident. OK, growth is not something that some people just, you know, they just kind of fall into out of good fortune. In fact, again, this morning, Kathy, I won't mention you again after this, but this morning I'm standing next to Brian Lewis and we're listening to her beautiful piano playing and he kind of got a smirk on his face. He says, man, isn't she lucky? And he was referring back to the first message in this series where I used the illustration of an accomplished musician. And sometimes people say, wow, you are so lucky to be able to play like that. Now she has worked her entire life to be able to play like that. It didn't just happen by osmosis and she wasn't just born with it. She might have been born with some some latent abilities, but she has labored to be able to do that. And in the same way, growing in godliness doesn't just happen by accident. It doesn't just happen by showing up at church. It happens as you exercise yourself, you train, you discipline yourself to grow in godliness. And I hope I hope that the. series has been good for you as it has been for me. We close it today and I have so many things I want to say in wrapping it up. I warn you that we're going to be looking at several passages and there's a lot of content that's going to be coming at you. I hope it's not so much that it's unhelpful. I hope that it will be a good conclusion. It's not like we're not desiring to grow in godliness next week, but we'll be on a new series anticipating starting our series in Daniel next week. I want to clear up any misconception about this series. I was thinking this week how we live in the era of extreme makeovers. We have all these reality shows that talk about how you can drastically improve your life. And it might be on some commercial where you can get something life-changing for $19.95, but wait, there's more. Or it might be all of these shows that are teaching you that your drab life can be drastically improved. We watch people change, learning what not to wear or by becoming the biggest loser or making extreme changes on their home. And the idea is you can change. You can do it. We're inspired to see people lose weight or get better clothes or hairstyles or whatever. Our society is consumed with self improvement, that is not what the series on godliness has been about. All right. We're not just talking about you working harder to become better in some do it yourself endeavor. OK, what we need. Is a deep change, and I say a miraculous change, I want to be very careful that you don't misunderstand me when I use the word miraculous. Your Christian growth should be miraculous. And I'm not saying that you are passive and God, you know, does some amazing Red Sea splitting work and he changes you without your participation. But I am saying this, it needs to be miraculous if it is to be Christian. If your spiritual change can be attributed to something other than a supernatural work of God, then it's not Christian. You say, you know, Pastor, what you're saying is we need to be more devoted in prayer. No, that's not necessarily miraculous. I mean, the strict adherence to Islam are very devoted to prayer. Pastor, you want us seeking purity. You want our ladies to be modest. You know, you want us not to be involved in egregious sin, right? The adherence to Islam or Mormonism are able to do those things. You know, you want us to you want us to be very generous. There's all kinds of false religion that is able to to guilt or or scare people into making external changes. Well, Pastor, you want us to be disciplined, the military is able to make people disciplined and it's not Christian. We don't just need you working harder. There has to be something supernatural. There has to be something miraculous. There has to be something happening in your heart that a non-Christian cannot have. Because it's a work of God's grace. So I want to conclude today by talking about Christ centered growth. Our growth is centered on Christ is not not just discipline, not just exercise, Christ-centered growth, you say, well, what does that even mean? It's a good question. We talk about being Christ-centered people. We talk about being a gospel-centered church. It sounds really good. It sounds really spiritual. You know, anytime you use hyphenated words as adjectives, you just sound like you're really on to something. I mean, who wants to be Christ-centered? Anybody? Who wants to be Christ-centered? Of course you do. What does it mean? What is that about? What we mean is this. We look to Jesus as the key, not only to our initial conversion. We know we are converted. We're saved. We're justified. We're born again by looking to Jesus. But we believe that Jesus is the key to our entire Christian life. OK, we've discussed it in terms like Jesus is the author and the finisher and the in-betweener of our faith. All of it is focused on Christ. We talk about how the Christian life is lived between Christ's first coming. And we're looking for the blessed hope, his second coming from Titus two, and we're walking with him every moment in between. OK, we know that we're justified by faith in Christ, we will be glorified when we're with Christ, but we are being sanctified by Christ, not just by effort, not just by rules. It's centered on Christ, all of it. Today, here's a preview of where we're going. We'll spend most of the time on the first point. What we want to remind ourselves of or or maybe be instructed about is this. Jesus is the source of Christian growth and the measure of Christian growth. And the goal. Of Christian growth going to be reading from Romans chapter six, if you will turn there with me. I'm reading the chapter and I have I have no delusion that I'm going to be able to adequately explain Romans six in. One part of one point of one message. I want it to kind of be a springboard for us as we consider what do we mean when we talk about Christ centered growth, Christ centered sanctification. If you're using a pew Bible, page 942 is where we are. And again, if you're using a pew Bible, it's probably because you didn't bring one. Take one home with you and we'll replace it. We'd like you to have that and to make good use of it. Romans chapter six. Let's read this together seriously, but I'm going to read rather quickly as well. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? All right. Let me just say very quickly, he's not I don't believe he's talking about water baptism. He's talking about this spiritual union that baptism symbolizes. But he's not talking about water. He's talking about when you came to faith in Christ, you were joined to him. And he uses baptism in that sense. Verse four, we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 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. For we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their 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 not have will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under grace. What then are we to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace by no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness. Leading to more lawlessness So now present your members of slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification or to holiness When you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed the end of those things is death but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God and The fruit you get leads to sanctification, and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Turn to your right to chapter 8. Verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then the entire picture of what God is doing and saving us is kind of recorded for us in Romans 8, 28 through 30. Don't take Romans 8, 28 by itself, all right, keep on reading. We know that all things we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, 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. Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. Paul goes on talking about this amazing salvation. He's unpacking the doctrine of salvation for 11 chapters. And look how he ends chapter 11. Turn again to your right. He concludes his doctrinal. Discussion of Jesus work by saying this, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him, be glory forever. So he unpacks 11 chapters of teaching about salvation, and at the end he offered this doxology and it's all by him, through him. For him, it's all about him. Once you read one more passage as we get started. Book of Colossians. Chapter three is a classic chapter on. Sanctification, how we grow in Christ. We're especially focusing on verse 10, but start reading in verse eight. You must put them all away. All these all these sinful habits, you must put them away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouths. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. And here's what I want to focus on. We have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. The new self that is ours because of Christ is being renewed in the image of its creator. We have a lot to talk about. OK, now we've read a lot of scripture, let's make some observations from it. Point one is this, Jesus is the source of Christian growth. If we want to talk about Christ centered growth, we see that Jesus is the source of our growth. Everything we believe comes out of the work, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His person is who he is. His work is what he has done. Your Christian growth is rooted in the work of Christ. I'm going to give a very broad generalization of these chapters, but. In Romans three through five, there is discussion about Jesus paying sins penalty. We keep coming in Romans 3-5 to this idea that He died for us. That He is the propitiation that paid for our sins. So we're looking at the work of Christ in paying for sin. But chapter 6, which we read today, keeps using words like free. Not only forgiven, but free from sin. We talk so much in church about how you can have your sins forgiven. But Romans 6 goes on and it says, it's not just that you're forgiven and the same and you keep on sinning and being forgiven. Your relationship with sin is fundamentally changed by what Jesus has done and by your union with Him. You're not only forgiven for sin, you're free from sin. Jesus has broken sin's power. So you don't have to live a life of perpetual regrets. I love to sing Charles Wesley's hymn when he says he breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me that that phrase that says he breaks the power of canceled sin. Sin is not merely forgiven. It's not just excused. It's not even only propitiated its power in your life. is broken. You don't have to live as the slave to sin. OK, so when I say that. Christian growth and learning to obey and becoming holy is rooted in Christ, it's centered in Christ. What we mean is this. The only reason you can. Break free from sin habits is because of what Jesus did and because you have been. United with him. If we understand those two things together, the work of Christ and our union with Christ, then sanctification actually makes more sense and it becomes possible. The Bible says all through Romans 6 and elsewhere, I had a statistic, I think it, I'm going to mess it up. I want to say like 300 plus times the New Testament talks about how we are in Christ. We are in Him. We've been united to Him. We're connected with Him. We enjoy His privileges and His powers. We're in Christ. Our union with Christ is such a key point to understand, not just becoming a Christian, but growing as a Christian. Our union with Christ is so vitally important because you're connected to His death. Sin is dead to you because you're connected to his resurrection. You're raised again to walk in newness of life. Let's break this down just little by little. Justification enables sanctification. We've talked about this in the past. Justification means that I have been declared to be righteous based on the imputed righteousness of Jesus. And that is foundational for my sanctification, the process by which I am becoming righteous. OK, the difference justification. I'm declared righteous sanctification. Once saved, I am becoming righteous. And so Romans eight says there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. You have the union with Christ. And then the rest of the chapter is going to talk about not only your position in Christ, but your experience of life with Christ. how the Spirit of God is working in you and changing you. We read how He is working in your life to make you, to conform you to the image of Jesus. The chapter that starts with saying you're not condemned now says you can change. You can change. You're not stuck being the way you've always been. In your desire for godliness, You're not some guilt laden sinner hoping to make God like you by becoming more godly. OK, that's legalism, that's dead religion, that's false faith. No, you are a Christian justified by grace through faith in Christ and therefore out of gratitude, out of love, not out of fear, but out of love, you want to change to please him. Kevin Young has described it this way. Do not strive after holiness because you cower in dread of God. Strive after holiness because you are confident you already belong to God. Why do I belong to God? Because I've trusted Jesus as my savior. I've been justified. I'm not condemned. I'm telling you, I spoke several weeks ago about about the crushing effect of legalism. And the basic idea of legalism is you better watch out. God wants to zap you. You better do better than you're doing or he's going to let you have it. Now, Christianity says God has dealt with my sin in Christ. He accepts me in Christ. He loves me as much as he will ever love me. Do you get that? God will never love you more than now. And God will never love you more than on your worst day doing the worst sin. God's love for you is unchanging. So you're not afraid of him. You're overwhelmed with gratitude and you're you're wanting to grow and to obey, not because you're afraid he's going to bop you on the head, but because you say, if he did that for me, I want to obey. His commands aren't burdensome. I love him. grow because of what he has done. I'm just making a split second decision. Barry, you're going to laugh at me because I said today's a long message and Barry told me before church, he says, Pastor, just turn it into two. I said, no, no, I want to finish. It's going to be two. There's just so much for us to consider. By union with Christ, we say justification enables sanctification, we look at it from another angle. Definitive sanctification enables progressive sanctification. All right, and a lot of you are like, well, what those are terms we don't typically use, and I need to take a second to explain them, but this is really, really important. Usually when I talk about being sanctified. I'm using it as a synonym for Christian growth, for progress and holiness, to conformity to Christ's likeness. And it's fine to use it shorthand that way, as long as we understand that the Bible uses the term sanctification in a much more complex manner. Turn with me to 1 Peter. Turn first to 1 Peter 2.9. I hear a lot of pages turning, that's a good thing. On page 1015, 1 Peter 2, 9. Peter says, But you are a chosen race. He's talking about Christians. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. A people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. All right, we have this we have this honored position where Christians who have been gathered as a chosen race, as a holy nation, as a priesthood. He says, you are a holy nation. He doesn't say to become a holy nation, he says, you're a holy nation. That's a fact. That is who you are. How many times does the New Testament describe us as holy people? All right, you say, you know, I can't think of a lot happens a lot every time that Paul will say, I am writing to the saints. Saints means holy ones. It's the same word in English or in Greek. He's writing to the holy ones. He says, you are holy. Isn't that what we understand when we say I'm a saint? I'm a saint. What do we mean I'm a saint? I mean, have I been voted on by the Catholic Church and Into the Hall of Fame, I'm a saint. It's not that. How many Christians are saints? Every Christian is a saint, every Christian is a holy one and. Ironically, Paul uses the term saints to describe the Christians, especially in the city of Corinth. Now you know about the city of Corinth, you know about the Christians at Corinth. Did they live like saints? Not so much. But he says, you're saints. OK, now, first, Peter two, nine says you are holy. First, Peter one. Look at first, Peter, chapter one. We'll start reading in versus verse 14. It says, 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, since it is written, quotes from Leviticus, you shall be holy for I am holy. I say, be what you are. What do we mean by that? You are holy. In theology, we call that definitive sanctification. And and it's kind of, you know, we have we have some we have some hard rowing for a minute. And it's something that I didn't understand, you know, I'm I'm a pastor preaching the doctrine of salvation, and I still wasn't clear on this concept until a few several years ago. Definitive sanctification means I am holy. Now, here's what I would do. I would come to I would come to passages that say I have been sanctified or I am a saint and I would say, OK, that's justification. It's not the same definitive sanctification is not the same as justification. OK. What is justification? Justification deals with my legal standing, although I am a sinner, I am counted as righteousness and as righteous. Why am I counted to be righteous? Because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus. OK, I haven't changed. I'm still guilty, but I'm counted, I'm I'm considered to be righteous because of the work of Christ. When the Bible says I am holy, it's a different concept. He's not saying that holiness has been imputed to me. He says my relationship with sin is changed. What does it mean to be holy? When we talk about both the Hebrew and Greek, the concept of holiness, what does it mean? To be holy is to be set apart. To be set apart. The term is used in the Old Testament. Sometimes God speaks to people ethically and he says, be holy, live a holy life, obey the law, be different from the people around you. But sometimes it's used in a ceremonial sense where you might you might have tools that are used in temple worship and they are holy. They are consecrated to God. They're not obedient. They're objects. but they're set apart for Him. They're removed from common use and they are set apart as belonging to this particular use. When the Bible says that I have been sanctified, I am holy, it doesn't just mean I'm the same person but God looks on me differently. That's justification. It means my relationship to sin has changed. Romans 6. I'm not a slave to sin. I have been set apart from sin. Sin's power over me has been broken. And it's not just a judicial pronouncement. It's a fact. Do you see the difference? Justification focuses on I'm really not different, but I'm considered different because of Christ's righteousness credited to me. And that's true. And it's beautiful. It's glorious. But definitive sanctification, when the Bible says you are holy, it says this isn't this isn't just your standing. It's not kind of legal position. It's not fictional. You are a saint. Your relationship to sin is changed, you belong to God. And then he says, since you are holy, I want you to be holy. Your relationship to sin has changed, and now I want you to live that out. You have been claimed as God's peculiar possession, set apart to Him. Now live like it. So the Bible can say you are holy. And the Bible can simultaneously tell you, now be holy. Live like you are. Your inheritance. Who you are. You're not a pauper. You're a prince. So stop living in poverty. And stop living in filth. Because you have been set apart unto God. You are a saint. So let your life resemble your saintliness. Now, again, remember how we've talked about how this is a synergism, this is us and God working together. OK. My growth in holiness. Is is God and me, it's not monergistic, it's synergistic, God and I are working together, look back at Leviticus. Told you we had some tough rowing today. Leviticus chapter 20. Verses seven and eight. Page 98 Leviticus 27 says, consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I thought you said to consecrate myself and be holy. It sounds like I'm supposed to do that. And then the next verse says you're the one who makes me holy. Yeah, it's awesome. He says he says to his people, he says, Chris, I understand I'm not under the old covenant, but he says to his people, I want you to be holy, set yourself apart. You need to live like you're my people. Be holy because I'm holy and I'm your God. And left to myself, I'd say, no, that that is a that is a nice goal. God, you want me to live like you, OK? I can't do that. The very next verse, he says, I am the God who sanctifies you. I want you to be holy and we're and we're crushed by that until he says, and I'm the one who makes you whole. What God requires. God performs. God enables. So he says, because of your union with Christ, you are holy. And he says, in light of that definitive sanctification. I will make you holy and I want you to be holy. We'll close with this. Gary Bridges writes a book called The Gospel for Real Life. It talks about how the personal work of Christ changes us and the way we live. It says the gospel received in our hearts at salvation guarantees definitive sanctification. And the gospel believed every day is the only enduring motivation to pursue progressive sanctification. You are holy if you know Jesus Christ. Now be holy. And thank God that He is the one who makes you progressively holy. Now I'm wrapping up this series. And I have debated all week, how do I go about this? And I tried to pack ten pounds of information into a five pound bag. So we'll be back to it next week. But you know, part of me wondered, what do we need to wrap this up? Do we need kind of a go-get-em? Do we need an inspirational speech? You can do it. Rah-rah for the gipper. You say, Pastor, that is not what I'm getting today. I know. It's deep. It's doctrine. It's theology. It makes you think. And you go, hmm. Definitive and progressive. Pastor, is this really going to help me? If you understand the riches of the Gospel, and you go out of here and instead of charged up, you're kind of scratching your head, but you're thinking about Bible truth, it will change your life. I want you motivated, but I want there to be a structure underneath that motivation that is unshakable. The Lord Jesus Christ has done it. He has bought you for himself. He's freed you from sin. And now he says, what I am commanding you to do is actually possible because you're united to me. We'll talk more about it next week. Let's bow in prayer, please. Lord, I thank you. The amazing truth of Scripture. And I confess, sometimes the beauties of what you've done through the gospel are hard to fully comprehend. But I ask you, Lord, that we will be people of the word, people of the book. And that the doctrine We work at understanding will be life changing for us. I ask you, Lord, to take. The beautiful work of Christ. And the wonders of the fact that we are united to Christ. So his death is our death to sin and his resurrection is our resurrection to new life. We're crucified with him. Nevertheless, we live. The life we live, we live by faith in the Son of God. I pray that these realities will be true for us. So that growth and godliness is not merely something we aspire to. But it's something that as your holy people. We are growing in through our effort, but through your divine enablement. Oh God, I love that title. You are the God who sanctifies us. And I ask you to do it. Sanctify your people. Make us holy. Grow us in godliness. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.