Okay, how's this for everyone now? Okay, very good, very good. Thank you for your patience. It's always good when you have moments of awkwardness to simply embrace them, take advantage of them, ride them for all they're worth. And speaking of awkwardness, they say never to begin any kind of lecture or any kind of teaching session with an apology. So I want to apologize for the apology that I'm about to make. I mentioned this to some of you and I don't even want to bring it up, but I feel it may be a little bit explanatory. I've wrenched my back twice in the space of just about eight days. And so if you notice any particularly awkward movements or any screams in the midst of the lecture, Usually, my talks are minimal on the screens, or at least not coming from me. Any extra stiff movements can be explained. I'm also usually a lot more theologically accurate than I may be tonight, so any accidental misspeaking or deeply disappointing aspects in general, please blame it on the back, and we will go from there. I am very, very appreciative of the session's invitation to do this. This is a topic that is, on the one hand, present within tomes of theological literature. But as always, whatever starts in the seminary, it's going to end up on the street. And whether we're speaking about highly known theologians throughout church history or just the average Christian, so to speak, these are topics that hit home and very heavily. We only have three sessions together and a sermon on Thursday evening, and each of the sessions is only three hours, so this is going to be difficult to get it all in. Good, you're still laughing. The sermon is potentially three hours, but please come anyway. I do want to mention, though, that next weekend, one week from tonight, I believe, down at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, There will be dealing with some aspects of the same topic that we're dealing with this evening. And so I'd highly encourage your attendance at that conference as well. There's a lot going on and the Holy Spirit is obviously directing God's people to this topic from many different angles and in different places. So trust we have something very important for us in front of us this evening. The subject matter is huge. It could be summed up in one word, sanctification. sanctification, becoming more like Jesus Christ. And hopefully all of you, or at least someone next to you, has an outline. Consider this a roadmap. Like all roadmaps, it's subject to correction at the last minute. It'll be a general outline that I'll follow without necessarily announcing that I'm on a particular point, but hopefully the logic will flow along with the outline But the main topic is sanctification and even more particularly getting very serious about our becoming more like the risen Christ and about living the vibrant abundant life to which the living Christ has called us and for which he has saved us. The goal this weekend is not to explore every avenue branching out from this topic. That would take us far more than a weekend. But the goal, rather, friends, is to open an avenue of thought. And this is an avenue of thought that has always been open before God's people. It's come under fire throughout church history, as most truths do. But particularly in recent days, among God's people, in the name of protecting God's people, this particular avenue of thought and pattern of life has been sealed off. It has been roadblocked, and there are pastors and theologians who are saying, not this way, go the other way. We know what direction you're going. You're going in a good direction, but you need to go a different way. This way is closed. This way is not safe. However, we need this avenue reopened. And this avenue is all about how we pursue holiness. As Christians, we want to pursue holiness. We know that the Lord called us to be a holy people, but we want to reopen an avenue that many people would rather close. J.I. Packer and his book, Rediscovering Holiness. He cites a poem which he says really haunts him and which he finds so applicable to the church as we have lost a right understanding and therefore a right pursuit of holiness. And the poem is by Rudyard Kipling and it's called The Way Through the Woods. You'll see that in your outline there as we begin. And here's an excerpt from that poem, The Way Through the Woods. They shut the road through the woods 70 years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again. And now you would never know. There was once a road through the woods. Now you would never know. that there was once a road through the woods. These are very few words, but you get immediately from them that aching sense of loss, that sense of what was, and especially that sadness that a new generation may never have any idea of what was once wide open to previous generations. As you know, we as God's people are encountering, if we're going to use the woods analogy, some rather thick and confusing forestry in our day. Socially, theologically, politically, all of the above. Increasingly dense thickets are in front of us, and there are those who are coming out from the shadows in order to oppose us. Our call as a church always remains the same. We are to be a people holy unto the Lord, and to make known in word and deed the risen Christ. But again, there's a path that's been covered over increasingly with haste in our days, because some who have walked that way before us have made a mess of it. And out of a good pastoral and protective instinct, the shepherds are saying to the sheep, no, no, go around. There's a there's a roundabout way. Now, I know I'm being fairly vague so far. So perhaps the poetry of Pittsburgh can help put some perspective on this. Some of you are thankfully up from the South Hills or surrounding areas of Pittsburgh. I pastored there for seven years. Now, in order to say this in the proper dialect in Pittsburgh, referred to as Yinzer, you perhaps heard this, Yinz can't get there from here. People actually say that when you're asking in Pittsburgh, how do I get, no you can't, you just can't get here from here. Now you know on the one hand that they're not trying to lie to you, but what they've said cannot possibly be true. It can't be possible that you cannot get to that destination from this destination, from this point. There has to be a way through. It may be difficult, it may involve tears, and if you've ever been stuck in Pittsburgh traffic, it involves a lot of tears. It may involve some twists and some turns, but there absolutely is a way to get there from here. It's hard, but it must be done. So what's our destination? That's what we're talking about all weekend. It's the vibrant, visceral, joy-filled Christian life which Jesus called us to live. And what's that path that is being beset by roadblocks. The path is self-denial. Self-denial in the way that Jesus describes it. And what's blocking it? What are these roadblocks? Well, fundamentally, self. Self always gets in the way of self-denial. There's a certain sad logic to it. But even more specifically, and even more sadly in our day, self and various kinds of what we might call pseudo self-denial, which we've decided to pursue instead of the way the Lord lays before us. Now, they have the look and they have the feel of the real thing, the real path, which Jesus calls us to walk. But in reality, they leave us stranded. They leave us lesser and vulnerable to the predatory sins which surround us. So this weekend, we want to explore the distance between the vitality that we are currently experiencing as disciples of Jesus Christ. And the vitality that we can experience as disciples of Jesus Christ. We want to explore those disconnects that we sometimes unknowingly set up, thinking, ironically enough, that we're serving Jesus in setting up those roadblocks. We want to expose those disconnects and we want to close the distance between us and that abundant life. The vitality experienced by Christians of a different time and today by Christians in different places. Have you ever talked to a Christian from a country or a region of the world in which life is very hard and in which being a Christian is even harder? Have you ever noticed a certain shine in their eyes? And they're not pretending that life isn't difficult. And they're not ignoring the pain. And they're not simply just keeping a stiff upper lip and grinning and bearing it. No, they're hurting and they're crying. And they're often pleading with us for help to send the Word of God along with them back to their homeland. But there is a vibrance and there is a shining vitality as they speak to you of the risen Christ and of their soul deep desire that the people in the land from which they come would know him vitally. And if you ever had a conversation with a brother or a sister like that from a place like that and walked away thinking how I envy what they have. the closeness that they seem to have in Christ, the freedom that they seem to have in self-denial. They're living out a fully colored, deeply textured, authentic, full-hearted faith. And Christ calls us to do the same. So let's begin to, on your hand out there, diagnose the disconnects which create that distance between us and that fuller experience of Christ's grace. Everything still OK in terms of sound? Everybody all right? OK. I'd like you to think of a situation in your life. Thanks, Matt. I'd like you to think of a situation in your life in which you were just so intensely happy. you were intensely happy, you knew it, and maybe even started clapping your hands, or stomping your feet. And I mean that quite literally. Have you ever had a situation or a moment that seizes you with such a sudden happiness and such a sudden joy that you can't help but cry out? You can't help but clap. You can't help but stomp your feet and just let everybody know, without trying to make a scene, that you are exuberant and perhaps unspeakably happy. I'll give you an example from my own life. For me, so many of those moments happen when my daughter smiles at me. My daughter's smile is a force of nature, and it leaves me beaming in blessed, unselfconscious sincerity. I don't care who sees the silly grin on my face, and I'm not even thinking about other people in the room. I'm thinking about my daughter and the radiance coming from her beautiful face. In those moments, I'm lost in the enjoyment of another. Not in the enjoyment of myself, but of someone else. Now that someone else, my daughter, does indeed have a vital connection to me. And certainly that is a key part of my reaction. And I realize that. I'm biased. I realize that other people may not have as intense a reaction when they see my daughter's smile. But I also realize that other people are stupid. And there's nothing I can do for them. Love my daughter. My connection to my daughter is very real and it influences the width of my smile, no question. But it is not the reason, it is not the only reason that I find her smile so pleasantly paralyzing. There's an objective beauty there. A beauty that remains whether I see it or not. It's an objective beauty which draws me in with particular and personal force. And so it's not merely the fact that she's my daughter which leaves me beaming, although that's a big part of it, but nor am I totally forgetting myself as I gaze at her. See, this joy involves me personally, but it is not a self-serving joy. Nor is it even ultimately a self-referential joy. I don't go around saying the only reason she's so beautiful and vivacious is because, well, hey, check it out. Isn't it obvious? No. My wife has so much more to do with that than I do. But my daughter is a person in and of herself. And she has an objective beauty and a life on her own. It's a deeply personal joy in someone else. And when I experience it, it feels like freedom. Freedom. It is freeing to be forced beyond your ability to remain still or stoic. Again, to have that instinctive, automatic, sincere response of gladness before the habits of civility begin to choke it out before we begin to wonder about who's around us and what we're looking like as we're getting ready to shout for joy. There's a freedom there. And there's even a weakness that doesn't want to be strong in the presence of something so wonderful. Now, to be more objective, and to take it beyond my personal examples, let's think of something less spectacular than my daughter's smile. Let's think of a sunset. And it is less spectacular than my daughter's smile. How about a scarlet sunset over a sparkling ocean? Or whatever scene in God's creation pleasantly paralyzes you. Think of that right now. Maybe it's the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, or even more locally, perhaps on a bleary-eyed Saturday morning, it's seeing a box of Orms donuts in front of you. Most of you are familiar with that. We can't call it a delicacy because it weighs six pounds. It's a cake called a donut, and it's blissful. Those could actually pleasantly paralyze your heart, but what a sweet way to ride into glory. The last sounds we hear in this life are clear. Is that frosting on his face? Now, Orms is not even officially sponsoring us. That's how much you know I like them and the fact that I'm actually speaking to you and we may have them tomorrow morning. Is that correct? All right. Isn't it true in those blissful moments of pleasant paralysis that you tend to forget yourself? Now, again, it's not that you're denying yourself in the sense of hating yourself or or just thinking loathsome thoughts about yourself, but you're taken beyond yourself. Sometimes you're speechless. Sometimes you can't help but cry out. Sometimes you're wide eyed and sometimes those eyes are filled with tears. And so what's missing in moments like that is not self. But preoccupation with self. See, self-denial is not about blanking into some oblivion in which we no longer exist. It's about the denial of self-exaltation and living to serve self. It is the opposite of what we, for this weekend, are going to call autonomy. Autonomy. That's our focus for this evening. Freedom versus autonomy. There are, at times, seemingly close connections between freedom and autonomy. But there is a world's worth of difference, in fact, an eternity's worth of difference, between freedom and autonomy. Autonomy literally means self-law or self-rule, being a law unto yourself. And so Jesus says it this way, in Matthew chapter 16, verse 25, after calling for self-denial, he says, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Notice there's no language there of oblivion. Whoever would save his life, whoever wants to seize it with a vice like grasp and say, this is mine. I am the commander of my own vessel. I am the captain of my fate. I did it my way. Whoever lives that way will lose his life. But whoever loses his life for the sake of the living Christ will find it. Autonomy is seizing one's own life and seeking to live it on one's own terms, and therefore for one's own glory. Where Jesus calls for self-denial, and by it, the gaining of real life, autonomy calls for self-exaltation. Self as the standard for all things, self-rule, or as I said more literally, self-law. It is a recognition of no other ruler, or at least no other ruler, unless that ruler passes the test of self. No higher authority than the self. Autonomy is, in a very profound sense, to your outline again, synonymous with sin. Or at the very least, autonomy is always present at sin's very root. It's the soil in which sin grows. Think of it back in the garden, where Adam and Eve decided that the rule of God was not good and generous enough for them, that they had the right to more than what they foolishly thought was better. The Holy Spirit defines sin for us here in the book, I'm sorry, in the book of First John. Everyone, first John three, four, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Now, for those of you who are aware of contemporary debates about the role of the law and the life of the believer, and again, I commend you to next weekend's conference. That's a very important passage to keep in mind. First, John three, four, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. In fact, a lot of what the apostle John writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit inspiring his words is so applicable to these issues. And more on that later in the Q and a time, if you'd like, and maybe certainly more than our last session tomorrow. But again, autonomy is a power grab. It's an illegitimate sense of entitlement. It's a willingness to use others for the sake of gaining power, or simply, and more sympathetically, of gaining relief from pain. Sometimes we assert ourselves because it's the only way we can figure out how to get rid of something which haunts us, of something that hurts us. Back to examples that I mentioned before, the parent-child dynamic. Autonomy is someone's wanting to be a parent simply or primarily for the sake of self-fulfillment. But don't we often hear that? I want to have a child so that I can feel loved, so that I can feel needed. Now, in a good parent-child relationship, there's a wonderful exchange of love and mutual dependence. But is it the primary motive of the parent to bring a child into the world or perhaps from a terrible situation in some other home simply for the sake of self-fulfillment? What kind of life is that setting the child up for when the child does things that the parent does not like or does not make the parent feel fulfilled? autonomy is romanticized all the time. I will not sing it for you, but I'll paraphrase it. There was a country song very popular when I was in high school, and I generally disapprove of country music as a rule. This one, I just don't like the style, and the steel guitar frightens me on a profound level. But this particular country song is called, I Love the Way You Love Me. It says, I love... Sounds ridiculous. Love the way you love me and I'm gonna skip the other parts. It's really creepy But basically all of the reasons that this man gives for loving this woman boil down to this There's only one reason that I could never live without you. I love the way you love me I'm not just saying that in a wedding vow. I Can't live without you sweetheart. Well, why dear because I love the way you love me I Well, how about me? I love the way you love me. And that's what makes me want to stay with you forever. That's why I can't live without you. It's kind of parasitic. And it at least begs the question of who the songwriter really ultimately loves. Perhaps, yes, mixed with genuine affection for that person. But that's the subtlety of autonomy. It sneaks in subversively and mixes in with legitimate emotions and turns them the wrong way to be self-serving. This happens even in appeals for missions. Go serve on a mission field, because you will be so blessed. And yes and amen, hopefully that will happen. And hopefully you will come back with that shine in your eyes, so to speak. But what if you don't? What if it's a miserable time? What if the people can't pay you? What if it's just that they need help? Is that not the real reason to go? Or do we only go because, wow, it's going to be such a great blessing for me. And autonomy is subtle. And autonomy is much more pervasive in our lives than we tend to think. They hover around the same subjects. Freedom is a day at the beach, a well-earned day after a hard season of work. Autonomy is the refusal to leave the beach when it's time to work again. Freedom is enjoying the Aurum's donut, but knowing when enough is enough and being willing to have none tomorrow if something should happen. And I don't know of anything that should happen, but autonomy insists on having them and is offended when they're not provided. Got that, Matt? Okay. And there's even a profound sense in which our addictions to food or to whatever are expressions of autonomy. It's ironic, but it's food for thought there. Again, autonomy is much more pervasive in our lives than we think. Even this evening, we may be allowing it in ways of which we're not aware to exert kind of a chokehold on our faith. I'm so happy to say that I know most of you in the room, and I'm looking forward to meeting those of you whom I don't. And some of you know that I have a background in the martial arts, and I really appreciate a good chokehold. And a good chokehold is often executed from behind the person in such a way that the victim cannot see the attacker. He or she definitely feels the effect of it. Life is draining away. There's a vitality of oxygen that's missing, but you can't see it. And so in our spiritual lives, there's a vitality missing, but maybe we're not exactly sure why or who's behind it. For instance, let's think back to those pleasantly paralyzing scenes of life. We thought about how self self-exaltation is missing in those moments, and that's a welcome absence. But there's often something else missing in those moments, too. And its absence prevents us from enjoying those moments even more. It's good that self-praise is missing. But so often, so is the self-conscious praise of God in those moments. The immediate, sincere instinct to praise God for giving us that upon which we are gazing in happy wonder. And for giving us the eyes to see it, or the sense to experience it. What does a scarlet sunset over a teeming ocean tell us? Well, that the one who made it is spectacularly glorious. What does my daughter's smile tell me? That the one who made her and humanity itself is glorious. And that, by the way, is the theological reason why my daughter's sunset, my daughter's smile is better than the sunset she's made in the image of God. And she's beautiful. What does a successfully digested Orms donut tell us? That God made the human heart strong. But even as parents, even as we beam at our children, do our thoughts go higher to the one whose image they bear? And if not, why not? Now, we quickly affirm, and rightfully so, that our children are gifts from God. But as our hearts transition from thinking about the gift to thinking about the giver, it's sometimes as if there's a loss of color and a loss of vibrancy along the way. Why do our passionate thoughts about the creation not rise to even more profoundly passionate thoughts about the creator? It's not that our affections are totally absent in those moments. And I mention that particularly because sadly for more and more people, especially young adults in rising generations, the absence of affection is a very real thing. The song made popular by Trent Reznor and covered by Johnny Cash called Hurt. Again, I won't sing it for you. But one of the lines is, I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. How sad is that? I'll come back to that in a few minutes. But for those of us not afflicted with that total lack of access to our affections, why is there that disconnect? Why do our thoughts not fly higher to the first and most proper object of joy, the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth? Put more simply, and on your outline, Why is it so easy to love the gift more than the giver? It must be because on some level, in some way, we accept these gifts in praise of ourselves. It's subtle and it's certainly not intentional. But even as Christians, we can be unknowingly engaged in a Romans 1 type suppression of the obvious realities of God's existence and glory. Somehow, we've let self-rule slip in. We push against the praise which naturally belongs to God, and we try to stuff it down into our own hearts. And again, it's a quick and subtle move, like a good chokehold. And to some extent, even as Christians, we exchange the truth of God for a lie. And we worship the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Again, don't we know this as parents or as people who have very good friends? And it's so quick to put those people in front of our love and loyalty for the Lord. And should the Lord remove those people from our lives or our immediate fellowship? When does that do damage to our understanding and our affection for him? We falter at times in feeling with bright vitality that all glory and praise belong to God. Nor is God some kind of killjoy. He wants us to enjoy his gifts, but as gifts and not idols. And why does my daughter smile? Because God is so good. Now listen to just a little of the language that God uses in the Bible to describe the vitality of a life lived self-consciously and with self-denial and service to Him. God says this, I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out for you so much blessing that you will not have room for it. Though you do not now see Jesus, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Do we feel like that frequently? And I don't mean just the surface level emotion, but down in our gut, in our inmost being. Do we live like that? And if not, and where we don't, why the disconnect? Well, those words that I just read from the Word of God describe present experiences in the lives of believers, or at least possibilities which may become their present experience if they would but deny themselves. if they would stop living autonomously, according to self-law. Now, how exactly does this play out? And again, for those of you familiar with the debates, you know, we're deep into it now without even announcing it. But how does that happen? We'll talk about that in sessions two and three in a lot more detail. But for tonight, We need to examine what's become a common effort to do so, to to to deny self and to live for the glory of God alone. It's an effort that is full of good intentions, but it's lacking in good biblical grounding. It ends up being a pseudo self-denial again for your outline. It's very popular among Christians. I want to be very careful of the ninth commandment here, and I want to be very careful not to name drop. But here's a quote from a pastor whom I don't believe any of us know, but it captures so perfectly the gloss of great intentions and of seemingly scriptural ideas which make this overall way of life shine as a light for so many. Here's the quote. God does everything. Through people who understand that they are nothing. And God does nothing. Through those who think that they are everything. You say that again. Here's the quote God does everything through people who understand they're nothing. And God does nothing. through those who think they're everything. Doesn't that sound so right? I mean, isn't there something about it that is deeply attractive to our regenerated hearts that just says, of course, he must increase, I must decrease. I mean, this is just the language of the Bible put in simply just a little bit different terms, is it not? Well, let's think carefully and with all due respect to the one who said it. Perhaps a little bit more biblically. First of all, this idea that God does nothing through those who think they're everything is just patently untrue and easily provable in history. Do you remember a man from scripture named Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar, who stood atop the palace in Babylon and who wandered about in absolute autonomous self delight. He is beaming in his own glory and he surveys this massive kingdom. And he says, is this not Babylon, the great that I have built by my might and power for my majesty and the sake of my glory? Somewhat paraphrasing there, but that's the heart of what's going on there. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was everything. And yet did God use him to do mighty things for the sake of his people. Yes, this man was a bloody tyrant. This man was willing to toss a prophet of God into a furnace that was heated so hot that it killed the people who approached it. And yet God uses him. You think of God's words to Cyrus, as recorded in the book of Isaiah. You don't know this, Cyrus. But the true and living God is using you as his servant. Or the nation of Assyria, in Isaiah chapter 10, where God raises up this vicious, bloody nation, who, and I don't mean this facetiously, but basically make the hall of fame in terms of historically bloody nations. And I say that because the kings of Assyria used to record in their diaries their atrocities. And what is so chilling about reading those atrocities is how unemotional they are in writing it. I'll be careful because of present company, but the violence described is horrific and almost unimaginable as to what they would do to people, men, women and children. But they're writing it out as if they're describing a day having gone to the market. God used that nation. To purge his people. And then God says to the king of Assyria, that why should the axe boast itself against the one who wields it? When his work among his people is done, he is going to toss away that king in that nation on the scrap heap. So God definitely uses people who think they're everything. And secondly, the first part, God does everything through people who understand that they're nothing. There is not one person in this room who is nothing. There is not one person who has ever lived who is nothing. Think about that for a few moments. And I understand. I want to be very careful and not make a mountain out of a molehill, much less break the ninth commandment. And this represents a brother in Christ. The argument, the objection could easily come up. This is semantics. That's not what the guy means. But this is not just semantics, and we have to be very careful with what we say publicly. This hurts people who aren't satisfied with the surface level of statements. people who take what's said from the pulpit or in print very seriously and very deeply, or who are yet still forming foundational thoughts about themselves and about God and how the two relate to one another. Imagine someone sitting in the pew who may not have ever heard the song, but who is living out the words of hurt. And the preacher, ironically enough, in order to encourage, says, you're nothing. But it's OK. Because God uses people like that. Similar to what I've called, I think in your outline, painful prayers. You'll sometimes hear pastors troll on in prayers like this. We are nothing but miserable, wretched, festering boils of people. That's all we are, God, and we know that. But you love us. And there's the good news of the gospel. What do you say to a boy, as a parent, or what would you think of a parent who does this? A boy walks up to his parent and just says, I'm just a stupid kid. Now, does the parent lean down and say, no, son, it's even worse. You're nothing. But I love you. So cheer up. This is how we think that we honor God at times by referring to ourselves and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And God is a much better parent than we are. You are not nothing. You are image-bearers of God. Our fundamental condition in this world is absolutely horrific, and Scripture describes it as our being dead in our trespasses and sins, as our being enemies of the living God. The image, though badly totaled, And so James in the New Testament tells us that with the same mouth, we bless God and we curse men who are made in the image of God. My brothers, this must not be. Sometimes we Christians refer to ourselves into one another in the family of God in ways that God does not even refer to as enemies. And it so often happens when we wander beyond carefully chosen spirit inspired biblical vocabulary And we begin to sloganize Christianity. And we put our own words there instead, and we come up with catchphrases and easy things to place in front of us with the best of intentions. But when we think biblically and seriously about them, they seem a bit shallow. And so that quote that I mentioned earlier is not a legitimate way to think about self-denial, as the Lord Jesus describes it, about humility, as the Lord describes it and calls for it from his people. Here's in your outline a wise word from old Jack C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis writes that humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less often. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less often. Now, In fairness to the pastor whom I quoted before, we've got to be careful with C.S. Lewis at times in terms of when he spins things theologically. We've got to go a little bit deeper than that. It's a great idea and maybe a great introductory to the conversation, but we've got to take that concept in a more explicitly theological direction because it's not ultimately about the frequency of our thoughts about ourselves, but the accuracy of our thoughts about ourselves. And so there's an irony in that slogan. God does everything for people who think they're nothing. And in most, if not all, similar slogans. The intent is so good. The intent is clearly humility. The intent is an abasement of self and an exaltation of God. But the result is a description of the human, humble self, which opposes God's own assessments and statements. This is how God describes his adopted children. Every one of you here this evening who know Jesus Christ, what I'm about to read to you is just the tip of the iceberg about what the Lord, your heavenly father, thinks of you. What he has said is most fundamentally true about you. You are part of a new covenant. You have the law of God written on your heart. God has taken your heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh that which is alive and responsive to him. You are dead to sin when formerly you were dead in sin and you are alive to God. You have been united to Jesus Christ. You've been sanctified and labeled as saints. You're a new creation in Christ. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ so that you would be holy and blameless before him. You've been adopted as his sons and daughters. You have redemption and forgiveness. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. You've been delivered from the domain of darkness, darkness and transferred to Christ's kingdom. You've been reconciled, made alive, hidden in God with Christ, and you are siblings of Jesus Christ. And he is not ashamed to be called your brother, to have you referred to as his brethren. Now, these are not just positions which we occupy facelessly in the house of God. These are statements about what God has done to us in the inmost being. These positions are very personal. Here's an example of someone who is utterly captivated by another. Again, think of the pleasant paralysis. Here's an example of someone who is utterly captivated by another who is not exalting himself nor artificially debasing himself. He is personally vested in the objective beauty and glory of the one who he beholds. And here's what he writes. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me. See, that's a self-description. That's not arrogant. But nor is it artificially humble. It's a fact. It's a fact in which the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20 is very deeply, personally invested. God has made it true of him. So who is he to say otherwise? Notice how personally he applies it. It's not as if God saves a bunch of people, tosses them in a box called justification, and walks away. God declares us righteous in His sight, gives us, as we receive it by faith, the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we have an unbreakable standing before Him, and constant, bold access to the throne of grace. And he adopts us, which some theologians who know their stuff a whole lot better than I do, refer to as a blessing even higher than justification. He makes us his sons and daughters. And Paul self-identifies. The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me. and gave himself for me, not for some position for me. How many of you have a hard time believing that about yourself? Yeah, it makes sense that God would say someone else makes sense. God would say that lady. I mean, she does nothing but pray. But me, I mean, I know he saved me, but we put all the asterisks there. We put the distance there. And those are some of those disconnects. And ironically, we're speaking out of autonomy there. Because we're saying, OK, here's what God says, but that doesn't apply to me. And yet we've called upon the name of the Lord for salvation. The Lord has given us faith to trust him. And so we can say, and you must say, Jesus loved me and gave himself for me. And God even wants you to sing about it. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Getting ahead of myself into our third time together. But children learn their lessons so well when they sing them. God gave you that lesson in the form of a song. The Lord is my shepherd. Not my individually, autonomously, I and I alone have saved, no. and my brothers and sisters, but that's not to bland me out of the picture. So it's not that you need to be so small as to be nothing compared to God's being big and everything. No, it's that our sin needs to be put down so that we can share all the more in God's holiness. Which is the reason for which he redeemed us. Now, that's the aforementioned avenue that's being blocked off by well-meaning Christians. It's the path of taking seriously, and I will put the terms to it, the law of God in the life of the believer. And I'll say these words which sound so loaded, and I understand, given some of the backgrounds that some of us come from, that sounds so scary, and which prompt well-meaning pastors to build strong hedges to keep their people out of this kind of thinking. It's the path of taking seriously the law of God in the life of the believer and strenuously seeking to keep it. Again, alarms go off. Legalism. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. You're not under law. You're under grace. We'll talk about those things, especially in Q&A here in just a few minutes. But again, remember the definition of sin. Lawlessness. We have been saved such that, what does Jesus say to those whom he heals? Go your way and do your best. Go your way and sin no more. And again, the Apostle John, he's got it covered. He can hear the objections coming. But I do sin. John says, well, if we say we're without sin, we're a liar. But my little children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. If we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous and cleanses us from our sins. And so as one pastor puts it, Jesus saved us not just from sin, but from sinning. That's at least one major part of the disconnect that we feel between that vitality that we read about and see shining in the eyes of other believers in oppressive circumstances and what we sometimes experience. Remember that brief list I read you, riding on the heights of the heavens, pouring out blessings from the open windows of heavens, riding on the heights of the earth. Excuse me. It's got the whole creation covered in the language of blessing. What's the common connection among those descriptions? Well, in every case, God is calling His people to do something. Not just to believe harder, which ends up becoming a work. But to do something. The benefits listed, the vitality described, would come upon successful completion of an assigned duty from the King. There's a pastor who gave this analogy once. He and his son were in the backyard and there was a rather large rock in the backyard. And the father said to his son, son, I want you to move that rock. And the son tried with all of his might. He loved his dad. He didn't want to disappoint his dad. He tried it as best he can. And he said, I can't do it, dad. And his dad said, no, son. I said, all your strength. Okay, maybe I was holding something back. And so we tried it again, and it still did not budge. I said, Dad, I'm sorry, I can't do it. And the father said, no, son, you're not hearing me. All your strength. Let me help you. And the rock moves under the strength of the father, with the son pushing. The king calls his people to a sometimes counterintuitive trust and a stepping out in faith to obey a command to a grace propelled keeping of his law. But that's perfectionism. No. No, we will not be fully done with the sin that yet entangles us until heaven. But there's a whole lot of distance between us and perfection right now. And we should make every effort to close the gap in God's grace. As we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. Where is righteousness described but in the law of God? But this approach doesn't take sin seriously enough. It doesn't realize how deep it is. It doesn't realize how pervasive it is. It doesn't realize how it's there even when I don't realize it. How can I possibly be free from this? How can I possibly... on and on. There's a major irony in that objection. It seeks to take sin seriously. But perhaps it doesn't take grace seriously enough. Therefore, my beloved, As you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. All your strength, son. It is God who, we're not denying the grace of God active in sanctification. What we're denying is that it's okay in the Christian life to look at the house rules, so to speak, and to not pursue them. These house rules are wonderful. The psalmist says, every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Paul says in Romans 7, I delight in the law of God, my inmost being. I want to keep it all the more. And Ephesians 5.1 says, be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. And then Paul goes on to quote some Old Testament commands as abiding on the New Testament church. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. There's the path. It needs to be uncovered. And by God's grace, and with a view towards seeing its spectacular power in our lives, let us deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow our Savior. Let's pray. Great and gracious Father in heaven, We are so quick to balk at your glorious promises. And at times, Lord, what we believe is an objection which honors you. And yet we pray, O God, that we would not be thinking as man thinks, but as you think, and as you have said, and as you have promised. Protect us, O God, from presumption, but protect us also from paralysis. from stagnation in the name of sanctification by grace. And guide us, O God. Invigorate us by the power of your word and spirit. And lead us on that our lives would reflect all the more the glory of the one who purchased us. In whose invincible strength we live and will live forever. Grant these things, O great and glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for your glory, and that it might be more palpably evident in your people, and that the lost would be called to this so great a salvation. We ask in the name of our risen Savior. Amen.