Turn in your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. We've for several months now been considering the topic of gospel holiness. Thus far we've seen its necessity, its nature, its source, that is Christ, its cause, that is the Holy Spirit, its primary means the Word of God and now for some weeks we've been considering its activities and this text actually will be a verse that will come back to to finish our sermon God willing 2nd Corinthians 7 and verse 1 therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let's pray. O Father, as Paul exhorted the church at Corinth, we pray that we too, this day, by your Spirit, through your Word, might be about the activity of perfecting holiness, both in body and spirit, in the fear of the Lord. Make it so, we ask, O God, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Two weeks ago we began to consider the positive side of our activity in relation to holiness, and that is vivification. I mentioned two weeks ago that vivification and mortification are really two sides of the same coin, and that coin is what I've called the activity of holiness. In other words, the pursuit of holiness concerns both the negative and the positive. The negative is putting off sin, and the positive is the promotion of grace. Furthermore, I mentioned to mortify means to put off and to vivify means to animate or give life to. And so they are really two sides of the same coin. One is negative and the other positive. In addition to that, two weeks ago I mentioned that primarily there are two parts to vivification. And the first, if you remember, is what we're considering presently, and that is the cultivation of grace, the inner cultivation of grace. And the second, the conformity of life. That is, true holiness is both inward and outward. It concerns first what we are, and then what we do. True holiness concerns the heart and the life, and these necessarily go together. The heart determines the life. Or, if you remember the text that I alluded to several times before, Jesus said, first make the tree good and then its fruit will be good. Or else the Children's Catechism puts it like this. Sanctification is God's making sinners holy in heart and life. And so we've been focusing last week or last time and today on the phrase holiness in heart, and that will bring us, God willing, next week to life. These necessarily go together. Holiness of heart and conduct. This is the order, the necessary order, brethren, of our vivification. We have to first, by the Spirit's help, cultivate within us a healthy heart, a good soil from which grows good fruit. Now, what I want to do, then, is to First of all, it necessarily entails that I give a brief review of what we considered last time. And then I want to transition into the material that, for sake of lack of time, we were unable to finish. So the headings this morning will be three. A brief review. four clarifications, and then the four cultivated graces that I alluded to last time but ran out of time to consider. Notice first then a brief review Now, if you remember last time, I suggested, as we came to examine this aspect of vivification, namely the cultivation of grace in the heart, I suggested that we look at it under these three heads. How grace is cultivated, why grace is cultivated, and what grace is cultivated. And it's the latter of those three that we never finished. How grace is cultivated, if you remember, I suggested four primary ways in which grace is cultivated, promoted, strengthened, and maintained in the heart of man. The first was through Christ's intercession. All of our sanctification is the result of Jesus' meritorious death and intercession. So, Jesus is praying for us right now, and one thing that he's praying for us is that grace would be cultivated within our hearts. Secondly, through the spirits indwelling. That is, Christ gives us His Spirit. Christ Himself indwells us by His Spirit to ensure that this fire of grace that was started in regeneration, though it may grow dim, will never go out. Brethren, simply put, every person saved will be preserved. And it's the work of the Spirit. Remember, we used that analogy last time. That grace is like a fire. And the Holy Spirit kindles this fire within our hearts in regeneration. He puts life in our soul. And the Holy Spirit then takes up residency within our heart to ensure that that life, or fire, never goes out. Grows dim, yes. But never goes out. But then the other two ways in which this grace is cultivated focuses upon our responsibility. Thirdly, through abiding in Christ. And we abide in Christ by faith. We continually lay hold of Christ. We get into Christ by faith, and we stay in Christ by faith. And if you remember, I used the analogy last time about the ark. Noah and his family had to believe God and get into the ark, and they had to stay in the ark. And everything they needed for their preservation was found in the ark. Get in Christ by faith. Stay in Christ by faith. Everything we need for our salvation, including our sanctification, is in Christ. and then fourthly, through various means of grace as Mike mentioned earlier. God has ordained various means through which or whereby grace by the Spirit is communicated to our souls. Louis Burkhoff said, while the Spirit can and does in some respects operate immediately on the soul of the sinner, He has seen fit to bind himself largely to the use of certain means in the communication of divine grace. And we said that those means historically have been divided into two, public and private. Public means includes what we're doing now, public worship. singing, and hearing the Word of God read, and praying in sacraments, but especially the preaching of the Word of God. Private means would be meditation, Bible reading, family worship, and all of the rest. Through these means, a diligent use of means, not as ends, but as means to an end, the Holy Spirit communicates grace from Christ to our individual souls. That's how grace is cultivated. Why is it cultivated? Well, I suggested three reasons why grace needs cultivation. First, there's opposition. That is, we have enemies, brethren, without us, but even within us. Remember, we looked at Galatians 5 and 17 briefly, that the spirit and the flesh are at opposition, one with another. And so the flesh is, if you will, to continue the imagery of fire, is attempting to put it out. Your own flesh within you, brethren, is pouring water on that fire, but the Spirit, because of the merits of Jesus, through ordinary means ordained of God, is adding oil to the fire. Not only opposition, but secondly, declension. That is, there's, if you will, a hole in the soul. And we need ongoing, continuing, filling by the Spirit of this grace or oil for the fire. And then thirdly, progression. That is, Christians are not only to not go backward, but they're to positively go forward. There's to be growth in grace. There's to be growth in sanctification. There's to be growth in holiness, in maturity. So there's these three reasons, at least, behind the necessity of the cultivation of grace. And then that brings us to what grace is cultivated, and that's where we finished our study last time. Well, simply put, let me put it first like this. What grace is cultivated? All grace is cultivated. All graces need cultivation. But what I want to do here is, and I think I mentioned five last time, or at least I mentioned I had five, and I've reduced that to four just because two of them were so closely connected. I want to suggest four key graces that are absolutely essential for the promotion of grace within the heart. Four key graces. But, before I come to those four key graces, I have to first of all suggest four clarifications, and that's our second main heading. While it's true, brethren, that all grace, every grace, needs cultivation, these four graces possess a unique place in the pursuit of our sanctification. And so I want to very quickly suggest four things in clarification of these graces. First of all, these four graces, like all grace, these four graces are fruit of the Spirit. And this goes back to what I've said recently, and that is that these messages build upon each other. I've already asserted, haven't I? I gave one message over to the great truth, that it's the Spirit who works all grace in us. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit, and notice, some of these fruit mentioned will be the graces that we identify. is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the result of the Spirit's work in our hearts. Thus, as we read through the Psalms, we find the psalmist over and again crying out to God that He would revive, that God would revive, by His Spirit, grace in our hearts. Now, you may not think of it like that, but that's exactly what the psalmist is praying for in such texts like Psalm 80 and 18. Revive us, and we will call upon You. Revive us. Kindle within us by Your Spirit this flame of devotion, and the result will be that we'll cry out to You. Or how Psalm 85, 65 revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you. Joy is a grace. You need joy. We're going to see, we won't see joy specifically, but we'll see related graces and we'll see how central, essential the grace of joy is in our pursuit of sanctification. Nehemiah put it like this. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And where do you get joy? From the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And so the psalmist is crying out to God all through Psalm 119. For example, verse 25, Revive me according to your word. Verse 37, Revive me in your way. Verse 40, revive me in your righteousness. Verse 88, revive me according to your righteousness. Verse 107, revive me according to your word. Verse 149, revive me according to your justice. Here, the psalmist is enlisting various incentives to call upon God that he would revive religion within his heart. He's enlisting all of these things, the various attributes of God, and the Word of God, and the promises of God, and even the commandments of God. Everything he enlists, brethren, as incentive, as motivation to cry out to God that God would revive. God would revive, or to use the phrase we're using, cultivate grace in the heart. So, we have to be mindful, brethren. First of all, that these graces are the fruit of the Spirit. But secondly, these graces must be diligently pursued by the Christian. Now, what is one way we pursue these graces? Brethren, we cry out to God. We cry out to God that He would cultivate these graces in us. This is the foremost way in which we pursue these graces. Because, brethren, these graces are the fruit of the Spirit. But, that we are responsible to pursue these graces is the clear teaching of Holy Writ. Let me show it to you very quickly. Look at 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11. Now understand that 1 Timothy 6.11 has a direct relevance to Timothy. Brethren, I think that we all would concur that this exhortation, this two-fold exhortation is as relevant for all of us. Verse 11, But you, O man of God, and that refers to him as a minister, the man of God, flee these things, these things goes back to the sins mentioned in the previous passage, and specifically the love of money, verse 10. But you, O man of God, flee these things. Now that's the negative. Flee these things. That's what? Mortification. You're to flee them. You're to hate them. You're to run from them. You're to put to death the deeds of the body. But notice, that's only half of the activity that he's called to perform. And, Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Now, we're going to see that several of these graces are among the key graces that we're going to examine. But Paul would have Timothy, yes, to mortify the deeds of the body. Flee these things, O man of God. But not only flee these things, but pursue these things. And again, how is it that he was to pursue them? Well, first of all, he was to cry out to God. And he, Timothy, like all of us, was to enlist all of the other means and ways to cultivate and increase grace in our hearts that we've seen in previous studies. He told Timothy to be strong where? Basically, what Paul is telling Timothy to do is to cultivate grace in your heart. But where do you get grace from? Christ. And that's why he tells them in the next letter to be strong in the grace that's found in Christ. but it's the Holy Spirit's work. And so, you have to cry out to God, like the psalmist Timothy, and say, Revive me, O God. Revive these graces in me. But this is all in and through the Word, and abiding in Christ, and through the ordinary means of grace. So that's how you do it. But that you're to do it is the point that I'm here making. So first of all, these graces are fruit of the Spirit. Secondly, they are to be pursued after diligently. by Christians. Thirdly, these graces, now let me just, if you have an outline, you can see the four graces that I'm focusing upon, but let me just give them to you. Faith, love, hope, and fear. Okay, these are the four key graces that I'm focused upon. I could argue that all the graces could be assumed under one of these four. Faith, love, hope, and fear. So, these graces, promote holiness. This is my third clarification. That is, they promote holiness by motivating us. These are motivating graces. They motivate us and they strengthen us in our pursuit of holiness. In other words, the more faith in God you have, the more hope in God you have, the more love for God you have, and the more fear of God you have, the more you will be equipped, motivated, and strengthened to pursue holiness. Now, I'm going to show you in a minute that assertion, that these four graces are especially fitted or suited to motivate and strengthen us in our pursuit of holiness. These four graces energize or motivate the soul to walk in holiness of life. I'm asserting that without proving it. But perhaps I can put it like this by way of illustration. These four grand graces, these four grand graces, are like four great pistons that move the soul to pursue after holiness. God made us, if you will, as a four-cylinder creation. We have four grand pistons that turn the engine, that motivate the heart and soul. So I'm not in any way denying all the other graces. I'm just giving prominence to these four graces. and say that these are four grand graces that motivate, that energize, that strengthen the soul to pursue after practical holiness of heart and life. But fourthly, these graces not only motivate and strengthen us to pursue holiness, they not only promote holiness, But these four graces comprise holiness. They are holiness. Brethren, what is holiness? Go back to the lesson. The nature of holiness. It's Christ likeness. It's being conformed into the image of Christ. And if we have time today, we'll see. And if not, we'll see it next week. that these four great and grand graces were evidently fully present in the heart and life of our Master. So as we pursue these four graces, as we cultivate these four graces by the ways mentioned, they will not only enable us to pursue holiness, but they are in fact holiness itself. Now, as we come then to these four graces, let me say by way of introduction that I have basically two goals under each of these four graces. First, I want to largely explain the meaning of the grace. And then secondly, show you how that grace promotes holiness in heart and life. Perhaps you could say, I want to first of all provide the meaning of the grace, and then show you how the grace motivates, the meaning and the motivation of the grace. What is this grace, for example, of faith? And then how does faith energize the soul as a piston? How does it motivate the soul to pursue holiness of heart and life? Notice first, faith in God. Now, the scripture speaks of this grace of faith in two closely related ways. First, there's faith in God's Word. And then secondly, faith in God's Son. And these go together, but we distinguish them. Jesus distinguished them. John 14, 1. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust in me. Perhaps put more theologically, faith has a two-fold object. It first of all has God. God. as made known in His Word as the general object, and then it has Christ as Savior as its specific object. In other words, first of all, we're to have faith in God's Word. And then secondly, in God's Son. First, faith in God's Word. That is, faith rests in the promises of God as contained within the Word of God. Faith has, in the first place, more generally considered as its object, God and His Word. Let me show you that from one text quickly. Look at Proverbs 30, verse 5 and 6. Proverbs 30, verse 5. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar. Now, this verse is something like a sandwich. You find in verse 5, every word of God is pure. And then you find verse 6, do not add to his words. But in the middle, he is a shield to those who put their trust in him. In other words, how is it that we are to put our trust, our faith in Him, but in and through His Word? So, faith is believing God's Word and resting in the promises of that Word. It's taking God at His Word. Everything God says in His Word, we're to believe it. to use the imagery, He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Now the author here suggests several motives for us to do so. His Word is pure. That is, it's without error. It's trustworthy. It's sufficient. It's complete. Simply put, faith believes and rests upon the character of God as manifest in the Word. It believes and it rests in what God says. And here we're told why we should. Because His Word is pure. It's sure. It's without error. It's trustworthy. And also, it's complete. Do not add to His Word. Everything we need, brethren, is found in the Bible. Everything the Christian needs for this life and the next is found in the Bible. And we have to believe it. And we have to rest in it. Because that's what faith is. Faith is not merely believing it as true, but it's resting in it as true. We have to believe and rest in God's character as manifest in His Word. Everything that God says He has done for us in Christ must be believed and rested in. What has He revealed to us in Scripture that He has done for us in Christ? Well, He's forgiven us and He's accepted us. And brethren, it's belief in that that empowers us and strengthens us and motivates us to pursue after a life of godliness. Let me put it like this. The assurance that my sins are forgiven. The assurance that I'm right with God. That all of my sins have been nailed to the tree. That there's no condemnation for me. That God loves me and He's with me and He's for me in Christ. The confidence of that, as we read it and rest in it, as revealed in the Word, grants the soul energy. to pursue after a life of principled obedience to the Word of God. Simply put, assurance of salvation is pivotal if anybody is going to make progress in their pursuit of holiness. J.C. Ryle said, he that is freely forgiven by Christ will always do much for Christ's glory. And he that enjoys the fullest assurance of this forgiveness will ordinarily keep up the closest walk with God. My friend, if you or I are going to grow in holiness, then we must grow in the grace of faith to God's word. We have to believe everything that He has said, that He has done, but also we have to believe everything that He says about what He will do for us. Hasn't He promised us in His Word that He will make His grace sufficient for us? Hasn't He promised us that He will never leave us nor forsake us? That the work that He has started in us, He will continue it even unto completion? And so, brethren, first of all, we have to have faith in God's Word. We have to believe everything in that Word that He says He has done for us in Christ and that He will do for us in Christ. But also, we have to have faith in God's Son, God's Christ. That is, not only faith in God's Word in general, but His Messiah, His Christ, His Anointed One, His Son in particular. Now remember my definition of faith. Believing what God has said, believing what God has done for us, and resting in the same. More technically, we typically say there's three ingredients of faith. Knowledge, assent, and trust. But we can boil it down to this. There's belief. Believing what God says and trusting it or resting in it. Let me show it to you from one text quickly. Look at Galatians 2 and verse 20. Galatians 2 and verse 20. Very familiar words. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I live, but Christ lives in me, that is, by the Spirit. The Spirit of God indwells me. And He's not only worked life in my soul, but He's maintaining it. And the life which I now live in the body, in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Brethren, that goes back to what I've just said. You have to believe that and rest in it. That Christ died for me. That I'm dead in Him and I'm raised in Him. That when Jesus died and rose again 2,000 years ago, I died and rose again with him as my federal head. And then in time, when he made himself known to me, he applied these merits to my own heart. And the old man has been put to death, and a new man has been raised in his place. And the Holy Spirit now indwells me as the Spirit of Christ. And the life that I now live in this frail body, in this wicked and godless age, I live by faith. Faith in Christ. So it's faith in the Word that motivates us as I contemplate all that He has done for me and will do for me. And it's faith in Christ that strengthens me, that enables me, by His grace, to walk in a life marked by principled obedience to His commands. My friend, very simply put, you and I will never make any progress In our holiness, if we do not, by the Spirit's indwelling, grow in the grace of faith in God, in God's Word, and in God's Son. Faith is the queen of all graces. And that's why I put it here first, in relation to these other three. Secondly, hope in God. What does hope in God mean? What is Christian hope? Well, Christian hope can best be defined by two words, confident expectation. It's the confident expectation of what God has promised me in His Word. Thus, oftentimes, hope is coupled with waiting, because it's confident expectation. It's the souls waiting to receive what God has promised He'll give. Romans 8.25. If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience. We're waiting. We're hoping. We're anticipating something that we presently do not see. And what is it that Christians hope for? Well, they hope for heaven and all that that entails. What does heaven bring? It brings Christ. He's their hope. It brings a sinless soul and a deathless body. It brings the new heaven and new earth. Paradise restored, brethren. It brings all of these things. And these things are our inheritance. And this is the Christian's hope. The Christian is confidently expectant of these things. Now, let me show it to you from one text very quickly. Look at 1 John 3 verse 2. And here we'll find not only what is the object of our hope, but we'll see how this hope has a powerful influence upon us as we wait. 1 John 3 verse 2. Beloved, now we are children of God. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now this is the nature or the object of our hope. What is the object of our hope in verse 2? We shall see Him and we shall be like Him. This is the substance of our hope. that we're going to see Christ, and that we're going to be like Christ. This is the hope, brethren, of all of God's people. This was the hope of the psalmist in Psalm 1715, as for me. I will see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness. I'm going to see God and I'm going to be like God. Brethren, that's our hope, to be with Christ and like Christ. And those go together. Because we're going to be like Him, that means we're going to be enabled to love Him and be with Him in an intimate way that we fall very short of presently. So this is the object of our hope. But notice the work of the hope in the soul, verse 3. And everyone who has this hope, What hope? The hope of seeing Christ. The hope of being with Christ. The hope of being like Christ. This, brethren, is the Christian's hope. And everyone, without exception, who has this hope in him, that is in Christ, purifies himself just as he is pure. In other words, this confident expectation of seeing Christ and being with Christ and being like Christ has a present, powerful influence upon the soul. Let me illustrate it like this. Think of a lady whose recently wed husband is forced to leave her and go off to war. And yet every week he writes her a letter, reinforcing his love for her and his commitment to return for her. And so she anticipates the letter every week. And as she reads it, her heart begins to swell with love for her beloved. And hope is necessarily related to faith. Faith, if you will, reads the letter and believes it, and rests in it, in the promises, and hope, if you will, looks out the window and anticipates his coming. And so the Christian has been wed, hasn't he, by faith to Christ, and yet there's a sense in which we're absent one from another, as he's in heaven and we're on earth, And he has left us his word filled with promises. And these promises not only reiterate and confirm his love for us, but his commitment to come back for us. And as we rest in these promises, faith believes them and rests in them and hope anticipates them. Think of the lady in our illustration as she's looking out the window. Any day could be the day that her beloved comes back. And that anticipation motivates her to keep herself and her house in order. Because she doesn't want it to be unkept when he comes back. This is the same thing, brethren, that we find over and again by Jesus' parables in the Gospels. But there he switches the imagery from wife and husband to master and slave. Our Master is away, and He's committed to us this charge to labor. And we have to be ready, Jesus says in those parables, because we don't know at what hour or day our Master comes back. And so as we read, brethren, with the eyes of faith, the promises that Christ has left us in His Word, Hope looks out the window and anticipates His coming. And as we anticipate His coming, this hope, as it's kindled within our hearts afresh, it motivates the soul to purify the soul that we would be ready, that we would be found waiting for Him when He comes back. You know, one major reason, brethren, why we pursue after holiness so little. You know why? Because we fail to have this hope. We fail to have kindled in our hearts the reality that Jesus is coming back. And when I see him, I'm going to be with him and I'm going to be like him. And in light of that, I have to purify myself, the text says. I have to perfect holiness in body and spirit, in the fear of God, by all the ways and with all the clarifications that I've already given. We have to do so because He's coming back. And I want to be found ready. My friend, this wonderful grace of hope has a powerful influence in the heart with regards to the pursuit of Christian or Gospel holiness. Our third grace, love to God. And here again, I want to first of all clarify in our minds what it means to love God. Well, I think the best way to define love, or to begin to explain what love is, is to make the distinction that it is first an affection, and then secondly, it is an action. Or, love is affectionate and active. First, affectionate. That is, love is more than an action, as we'll see in a minute. Sometimes you hear people reduce love down to mere activity. And love does always result in activity, and if it doesn't, it's not true love. But brethren, love is more than activity, it is an affection. Now perhaps the best way to explain this aspect of love is to remind you of the distinction that our forefathers made with regards to God's love. Historically, when it comes to describing God's love, they distinguished between His love of benevolence and complacency. His love of benevolence concerned His love for mankind in general in providing them with what we call common grace. An act of love towards mankind, an act of his benevolent love would be that he shines his sun upon the heads of all mankind and he gives them rain as well. These are common, generic manifestations of his benevolence to mankind as a whole. But by complacency as men, his love as shown toward his elect that carries with it the additional idea of delight. Now we talked about this recently in one of our study school classes about complacency and you have to again rinse your mind of any negative thinking with regards to that term. To be complacent simply means to be satisfied or content. And so God has a love of complacency for His people in that He delights in them. He has a delight for His people. He loves them, yes, with a love of benevolence. He shows love to them in many ways. But the reason He shows them love in His actions is because he has this love in his nature for his people called the love of complacency. And so too Christians. Christians love God by showing love to God. But Christians also love God by possessing this satisfaction and contentment in their hearts with God. For example, think of a famous text like John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Love is active. It gives. But notice the distinction. God loved the world and because He loved it, He gave. Giving isn't the sum of his love. It's the expression. So love is an affection and it's active. Love gives. Love does. Love shows itself. If there's real love, it will, of necessity, manifest itself in activity. And so, what I'm here asserting is simply this. Christians love God. in these two ways. They love God with a love of complacency. They're satisfied with God. They delight in God. But they also love God with their actions, by obeying His commandments. And that's why Jesus said, if you love me, then keep my commandments. If we fail to keep His commandments, then we do not love Him. But doing His commandments or keeping His commandments isn't the sum total of love. It's the expression and manifestation of love. In other words, our hearts, brethren, are taken up with Him. Our hearts are satisfied. They're content with God. They see in God. this gracious and great and benevolent being that's worthy of all of our affections. And because he's worthy of all of our affections, he's thus worthy of all of our allegiance. Jesus elsewhere said, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it's he who loves me. So the more we come to love God, the more our hearts will be satisfied and content with Him, and less likely to search after or seek after the things of this world. And that's precisely, brethren, why John in 1 John 2 says that we're not to love the world, and then he goes on to say that if we love the world, the love of God isn't in our hearts. We can't love both. One is going to swallow up the other. And so my point here is that the more we love God, the less we love the world. And the less we love the world, the more we'll pursue after the things of holiness. My friend, do you want to pursue holiness? Then here's one way. You fall in love with God more. Does that mean just obey God more? No, it doesn't tell that. But it doesn't start there. It first starts with this love of delight. This love of complacency. My friend, fall in love with God more. Love Christ more. See in Christ one worthy of your heart's affection. Consider Him as He is. is God. Consider Him as He's man. Consider Him as He's the God-man. Consider Him as the God-man crucified, suffering. Consider Him as the God-man resurrected, glorified, exalted, and reigning at the right hand of His Father. My friend, look to Christ in all of His offices. Look to Christ in both states of humiliation and exaltation. Get your heart fixed upon Him. And the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And the more we see these excellencies in Him, the more we have this love of affection, the more we will want to obey Him and evidence that love in obedience to His commandments. How is it that you or I grow in our obedience? We'll come to this next week, to the commands. But brethren, here's one way. We love God more. We love Christ more with this love of affection, which then gives rise to this love of action. We obey God because we love Him. We want to obey Him because we see God as our Father, reconciled in Christ. We see in God every worthy, every reason, and every attribute that renders Him worthy of our love and obedience. Our love of affection and our love of action, of obedience. We see in Christ one worthy of our heart's affection and worthy of our life's obedience. My friend, simply put, you and I will never grow in holiness to God if there's not this ongoing cultivation of the grace of faith in God, and hope in God, and love in God, or loving God. But fourthly, fearing God. And this is perhaps one of the most important of all graces. And it's absolutely essential to a diligent pursuit of holiness. Now again, very quickly, before I show you the importance of it with regards to our pursuing holiness, let me first of all define it. And let me first of all clarify what it's not. It is not fearing God. It is not fearing Him in the way that sinners fear Him or are afraid of Him. Whatever fear of God is in Scripture, it's a good thing that Christians should have. Watson says, the godly fear God as a child fears his father. The wicked are afraid of God as the prisoner is of the judge. So this fear isn't the fear of a slave to his master, or prisoner to judge, or sinner to angry God. But this fear of God is the Christian's heart knowledge of God as God reconciled in Christ. Perhaps I can put it like this best. Fearing God is knowing God as He's known to us, as He's revealed to us in Christ. My friend, the more you know God in the totality of His divine perfections as Creator and Redeemer in Christ, the more you fear Him. In fact, the Bible sometimes puts fearing God and knowing God synonymous. Proverbs 9, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Fearing God and knowing God as the Holy One are the same things. Let me put it as plain as I can. What does it mean to fear God? It's to know God. It's to know God in the whole of his divine perfections. It's not just to know God as creator. is to know God as Creator and as Redeemer in Christ. It's to know God in the totality of His divine perfections, reconciled to you in and through Christ. That's what it means to fear God. Ryla said, a holy man will follow after the fear of God. I do not mean the fear of a slave who only works because he's afraid of punishment and would be idle if he did not dread discovery. I mean rather the fear of a child who wishes to live and love as if he was always before his father's face because he loved him. That's the fear of God, brother. is to, above all, desire the smile of God. And, above all, to dread the frown of God, as our Father reconciled to us in Christ. Now, here I have to take you back quickly to the text that we started with. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. And notice how Paul speaks about the sphere of this pursuit or activity of holiness. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in, that is, in the sphere, in the context, in the atmosphere, if you will, of the fear of God. In other words, We're to labor at perfecting our holiness. We're to pursue after our holiness, both negatively, by mortifying, and positively, by vivifying in the conscious awareness that God, our Father in Christ, is watching our every move. It's being conscious, brother, that God's eyes are in every place beholding the good and the evil. It's walking conscious of the fact that God is our God and that He is our God for the sake of Christ. It's walking conscious of the fact that I'm reconciled to God because of the blood of Jesus. It's conscious of the fact that God is my Father. But that doesn't ungod him. He's still my God. He's my God and my Father. He's my Father who art in heaven. And my friend, the scriptures everywhere attach this fear to the pursuit of holiness. For example, Proverbs 8.13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Ecclesiastes 12 and 13, fear God and keep his commandments. And so Christians are told here by Paul in 2nd Corinthians 7.1 that we are to perfect holiness in the fear of God, in the conscious recognition that God is my Father in Christ and that God's eyes are ever upon me. Now, Paul tells us in Romans 3 that the reason why man lives unholy and doesn't obey God is because there's no fear of God before their eyes. They don't fear God. They don't see God's face before them. My friend, the Christian is one who does, generally speaking. See God's face before them. So, if we're going to grow in our holiness, Brethren, these four key graces must be cultivated. Let me finish very quickly, in a few minutes, with a few lessons. One. Behold, first of all, the means to holiness. Do you know why Christians often fail to diligently pursue holiness? It's because these graces have grown cold and weak. We've left our first love. We're no longer putting before us the anticipation that Christ is coming back. Our hearts are no longer taken up with him. We don't love him like we should. We don't hope in him. We don't believe and trust him like we should. And the fear of God isn't being cultivated in our hearts. But brother, we find here, do we not, that these graces are essential if we're going to pursue after Christian holiness. But also, secondly, behold the identity of holiness. That is, sometimes holiness can be perceived as an abstract concept, undefinable. But here we find that, concretely, holiness in part can be defined by the cultivation of these four graces. Let me put it like this. Would you judge your holiness today, Christian? Would you want to know how holy you are? Well, in part. Not in whole. But in part, ask yourself this. How healthy is my soul with regards to these four key graces. Do I believe God and rest in His promises and in His Son? Do I set before my eyes daily the hope that Christ is soon coming back and I shall be like Him and with Him? Do I love Him above all things? Do I see in God? Do I see in Christ an excellency that takes up all of my affections and demands my allegiance? And do I walk and do I live, brethren, before the face of God? Do I ever have the face of God before me? And is His smile as my reconciled Father my greatest delight and His frown greatest fear and dread. But finally, the pattern. We behold here the pattern of holiness. And this is what I hope to come back to God willing next week. And that is simply this, that in these four graces, we see the beautiful image of our beloved Savior. Faith in God Christ said in Psalm 22 of His Father, You are He who took me from my mother's womb and You made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon You from birth. From my mother's womb, You have been my God. My friends, our Savior always trusted. His Father. He always believed and entrusted Himself to and rested in the promises of His Father. Hope in God. He said it elsewhere in Psalm 16.9. My heart is glad. My glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. And then He goes on to speak about what His hope was. That is His resurrection. For you will not leave my hope, my soul, and shield. Nor will you allow your Holy One to seek corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Brethren, these are the words of Christ. Faith, hope, love. Everything He did was out of love for His Father. Everything he did in life was in obedience to his Father's commands. Because he delighted in his Father. And he had that love of complacency in full. His love was affectionate. His love was active. Fear of God. Isaiah 11.3 Speaking about the Messiah. His delight is in the fear of the Lord. In other words, brethren, our Savior always lived knowledgeable of the fact that his father's face was before him. Now let me quickly say two things. One, to you sinners who are not saved. And then to you sinners who are. First to you who are not. Here's your salvation. Sinner friend, your salvation isn't to go and get more graces. It isn't trying to work up or cultivate grace in your heart. Your salvation is in Christ. Your salvation is in the graces that were perfectly manifest in Christ. His love, His faith, His hope, His fear. Therein lies your righteousness. And therein also lies the blood to atone for the lack of your faith, love, hope and fear. You say, I haven't lived like that. I haven't lived trusting in God's promises. I haven't lived trusting in God's Son. I haven't lived with love to God. I haven't lived with this hope before me, this fear before me. I know you haven't, my friend. And that's why you need a Savior. You need blood to atone for your sins, the lack of those graces, and you need the positive righteousness that only Christ can provide. And what would I say to the sinner saved? The same thing. My saved sinner friend, behold your Savior. Your hope doesn't lie. Your hope doesn't lie in your faith, hope, love, or fear. Your faith is very weak. Your love is very weak. Your hope is very weak. And your fear is very weak. And you know it. And with God it would be strengthened. My friend, you and I would be a fool to trust in that, wouldn't we? Our hope doesn't lie in our graces. Our hope lies in our Christ. We don't make a Savior out of our graces. There's only one Savior. And that one perfectly had these four graces most evident in His heart. Faith to God, love to God, hope in God, and the fear of God. Well, may God give us eyes for Him. Let's pray. Our Father, we bless You for Your Son, our Savior. We pray, O God, that we would have these graces, not as the basis for our acceptance, but that we would have these graces in relation to our sanctification, cultivated within our souls. Help us to be holy, more like Jesus. Help us to have faith in your Word and Son. Help us to have hope in your promises. Help us to have love to your person. Help us, O God, to fear you, to walk in the fear of God, to ever have your face before us. We pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.