Salvation and Sanctification

All right, let's let's pray Heavenly Father we just thank you for the opportunity to come worship you this morning.

We thank you for Just your word and the church and how you've sustained your church

You've given us all we need in your word Lord. I just thank you for Laurel Bible Church I thank you for calling a pastor here

And I just pray that you would continue to grow this church and especially just grow this church in holiness

And more and more into the image of your son we Pray in Jesus name. Amen So it's not been an uncommon thing throughout the history of the church that the church debates various Doctrines or various scriptures that they might have different interpretations on so many councils throughout church history have met out of necessity to assemble and they come together to Protect the integrity of God's Word or the truth of God's Word or at least

To discuss the truth of God's Word an example of this would be the Council of Nicaea So Emperor Constantine of the

Holy Roman Empire in about the year 325 AD Called for this council to assemble in Nicaea to establish some core

Christian Doctrines and largely to be discussed was a belief known as Arianism Arianism was a set of beliefs that came from a man named

Arius and what areas taught is that since scripture? Clearly teaches the oneness of God There were several conclusions that must be made about the nature of God and especially the nature of Jesus Christ So in Arius's mind because God is one the

Son of God in essence Could also not be divinely God and the

Son of God was created out of nothing because if he was not eternal God He had to be Created so what

Arius held to was a denial of the deity of Christ or a denial of the divine nature of Jesus Christ Which is also a denial of the

Trinity So the Council of Nicaea would rightly conclude that Arius had it wrong

They concluded that the Son of God in all ways is Equally a divine person as the father is and they also rightly concluded the

Spirit also is God in the truest sense And they held that the scripture clearly taught this they saw that God had one nature

Yet three distinct individual persons God the Father God the Son and of course

God the Holy Spirit and the church Not only just concluded that Arianism was wrong that it was actually heresy

It was damnable heresy on the basis that a wrong view of the nature of Jesus Christ is

Now a gospel issue a false view of Christ means a false faith if Jesus is not divine in nature

He's not eternal God. He cannot save you We might sit back and ask questions like well.

How could Arius have got this so wrong? How is it the Arius didn't see Scripture clearly teaching the divinity of Christ didn't he ever read?

Philippians 2 6 that Jesus existed in the form of God or John 10 30 when Jesus said

I and my father are one or John 1 1 in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the word was

God just a couple verses later and the word became flesh and dwelt among us I mean, how could he have not seen the clarity of Scripture in this matter?

and what I would pose to you is That the error that he used in his

His methodology was probably more common than we realize and I believe This error this type of error in our method of how we apply

God's Word Actually can even come from good intentions people are trying to understand the

Word of God and I think undoubtedly Arius rightly did understand at least one thing he understood the clarity of God's Word that God is one

Deuteronomy 6 for hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one and Jesus quoted this even

Mark 12 29 the scribes Came and asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and he said the foremost is this hero

Israel the Lord our God is one Lord And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and the second you shall love your neighbor as yourself

So what Arius wrestled with was something that at times? We also must wrestle with how do we handle

God's Word when in our minds we may have? Difficulty making sense of all pieces of his word.

I mean this is difficult How can God be one in nature yet Scripture clearly teaches the

Father is God the Son is God and the Spirit is God How do we think about the scriptures when maybe in our minds it seems like there could be a contradiction well

One thing that we must always remember 2nd Timothy 316 it says that all

Scripture is inspired by God or God breathed And because Scripture is inspired by God We can be sure that in all ways his word is truth.

That's what Psalm 119 160 says it says the sum of your word is truth and because the sum of his word is truth

We can be assured there is absolutely no contradiction if we have difficulty in understanding we must recognize

The issue is not with the sufficiency of God's Word or with the inerrancy of his word

The issue isn't that God contradicts himself and the issue lies with us Isaiah 55 8 9 says

For your thoughts are not my thoughts nor are your ways my ways Declare us the

Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts higher than your thoughts so where Arius was just fatally wrong was that he saw

God's Word perhaps as Contradictory and instead of believing the entire in the entire counsel of God's Word he

He embraced at least just one piece of God's Word And he did this and he willfully ignored or denied at least other clear biblical truths

That maybe he had a difficult time reconciling and I admit the doctrine of the the Trinity is challenging to grasp

I confess it's difficult in our minds, but God's Word adequately teaches us this

Therefore we must believe it He calls for us to have faith in him and in his word.

He says his word is settled forever in heaven It is truth Therefore we can gladly and confidently believe in his word and obey his word

Even if at times we feel inadequate to wrap our minds around all aspects of his truth.

I Think we do well to consider that placing more priority on one truth of God's Word At the expense of another truth of his word can quickly turn into error

With huge ramifications even like this one. These are eternal ramifications So an overreaction to areas his belief would maybe just be looking at well

We acknowledge father son and spirit are all divine persons They can't share the same nature.

So there are three individual deities Well, this would this would be an equally wrong error on the other side of it

So I believe Oftentimes we can misunderstand truths of Scripture and The error that might result on that when we focus on one aspect of God's truth at the expense of another

Creates a huge a huge error where we can actually wrongly

Understand the gospel. I'm increasingly more convinced that one of these errors

That might occur from misunderstanding of the whole counsel of God's Word is a doctrine of progressive sanctification

One question that may be asked is who's at work to live the Christian life or who's working in the

Christian life Is it Christ in you? Or is it us? the answer to this question is

God's Word does make it plainly clear that Is God who is sovereignly at work in us to conform us to the image of his

Son? And his word is also equally as clear that man must participate in this

In other words, you will not grow into the image of Jesus Christ if you sit back and idly

Wait for God to change you. I'd like to invite you again to open up your

Bibles to Philippians Philippians chapter 2 And we'll start in verse 12.

I notice in the bulletin. It said 12 through 16. We're actually just going to be looking at 12 and 13 this morning, but We'll read 12 through 18 just by way of introduction.

So Philippians 2 12 through 18 so then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only

But now much more in my absence Work out your 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 And do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will be blameless and innocent children of God without Blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world

Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith

I rejoice and share my joy with you all and you also rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me

So Paul he's previously Exhorted the church in Philippi to live humbly with one another

Live in such a way that they're seeing to the needs of others before themselves And he uses the superlative example of Christ and Christ humbled himself to the point of death

So Christ came in humility in his incarnation humbled himself in his death and now he's reigning as Lord over all and Paul continues his exhortation as He continues to deeply focus on how the

Philippian believers live their lives So again verses 12 and 13 is going to be our primary verses of consideration

So then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence

Work out your 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

So these verses can often be hotly debated What is it that Paul's actually saying?

What is working out your salvation and why is Paul calling the Philippians to work out their salvation?

And then in the very next breath, he says that it's God at work in them. Anyways Paul is speaking of a very very specific part of our redemption when he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling

What the Apostle Paul says in these two verses is perhaps one of the most insightful scriptures and understanding again what we call the doctrine of progressive sanctification so sanctification is this theological word that we use to describe the process of an individual believer being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ and the word means purified or made holy or were set apart, so Though the believer at the moment of the new birth is justified before God they're declared righteous

They have Christ's righteousness applied to them We are not yet completely without sin

So the Lord in his grace conforms the believer more and more into the image of his son starting at Regeneration in this process as progressive sanctification occurs throughout the entirety of our life

So many times we see in scripture commands both, you know This specific command even in the

Old and the New Testament be holy as I am holy Well sanctification is how God is making us holy and make no mistake about it all

Believers will be sanctified to one degree or another Some are going to progress far far beyond others

But God's Word is very clear Believers are being sanctified and as I mentioned earlier the doctrine of progressive

Sanctification can be wrongly understood in such a way that it can become very dangerous.

We see time and time again in scripture That the believer is Charged to live a godly life

The believer is called to be holy Ephesians 4 22 through 24

It gives instruction to us. It says lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of Deceit and that you be renewed by the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God Has been created in Christ in in righteousness and holiness and truth

Then on the other side of things just as our text says this morning It is God who is at work in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure

Ephesians 2 10 also says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works

Which God has prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them

So the scripture is abundantly clear that it is God Who even prepares our good works so that we walk in them?

So you again might be asking yourself? Why am I commanded to live in such a way? That's pleasing to God if he's the one that has to do it.

Anyways, and I would suggest to you the tension We see is what again often leads to error some will

See the amount of commands to obey him and completely overwhelm themselves

Trying to obey because they're doing it solely from their own strength They in essence they create a law that they must live under they seek to obey all that he's commanded

But they're doing it without any sort of reliance on him to work in them This sort of practice would inevitably lead to misery and despair and you will certainly be crushed by the weight of the law

And you will never be able to obey if he's not working in you the other example of this

People will at least attempt or probably better better said to claim to live the

Christian life with absolutely no discipline in their life They might use phrases like Jesus take the wheel or let go and let

God and there's certainly something to be said about resting in God's sovereignty You might even be a good

Calvinist that gladly recognizes that you can't do any good outside of Christ working in you

But what you what some might do is they might fail to understand that doctrine they might understand fail to apply

Their theology even to their lives they misunderstand in such a way that they have such a low view of personal holiness and mortifying sin

That they're not living for his honor and glory at all they may complacently sit back with the mentality

Okay, God if it be your will change my heart make me walk in obedience. I I certainly can't do it

So you got to do it? But not my will your will be done So either side of the day either side of the road of sanctification

There's a ditch and if you fall off on either side in either one of those ditches

You're going to be completely stuck and ineffective in your Christian life, so we must recognize Sanctification is to the work of God's grace whereby we are renewed in our flesh

After the image of God and we're now enabled more and more to die unto self and live unto righteousness

Charles Hodge said this about sanctification. He said though sanctification is a work of God Sanctification does not exclude all cooperation on our part

Or on the part of its subjects, but on the contrary calls for their unremitting and strenuous exertion

I Just love what Hodge has to say the subject must cooperate for one and not only that he speaks of the degree of which their

Cooperation must be it must be one of unremitting and strenuous exertion

Nevertheless, it's God who is at work to accomplish this and bring this about so we can say this

You will not be sanctified outside of God's gift of grace to work in you and through you

But you will also not be sanctified if you are not an active participant in the process our text again

Work out your 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.

So verse 13 it starts with the word for so we could also say because God is the one who is at work in you

Now you need to obey so the command of verse 12 work out your salvation is only possible because God first is acting and Working in both our will and our actions or our behaviors because God is working in you

Now you must work out your salvation with fear and trembling So we'll first look at God's work in salvation.

Then we'll come back to verse 12. We'll look at our responsibility or man's Responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling

God is at work in us both to will and to work. So why must he be at work?

Why why does he need to be working in our will as well as our behavior? as I mentioned earlier sanctification is only

Happening in the life of a true believer in Jesus Christ, so something must happen in our lives before we can even start to be sanctified before we can even begin to be

Transformed into the image of Christ and that is we must be born again I'd like you to open up to John chapter 3 to look at this and we'll see the words of our

Lord as he's Discussing this with Nicodemus the Pharisee John chapter 3

John chapter 3 now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews This man came to Jesus by night and said to him

Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is

With him Jesus answered and said to him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again.

He cannot see the kingdom of God So Jesus under no uncertain term tells Nicodemus look unless you're born again

You will not see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to him How can a man be born when he is old can he entered a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water in the Spirit He cannot enter into the kingdom of God that which has been born of the flesh is flesh and that which has been born of The Spirit of Spirit do not marvel that I said to you

You must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound But do not know where it comes from and where it is going.

So is everyone who is born in the Spirit? So Jesus answers

Nicodemus this question. How can one be born again? Well unless you were born of Water and spirit you will not see the kingdom and in verse 8

Jesus Describes the new birth as when he said the wind blows where it wishes you hear it sound

You do not know where it comes from or where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the

Spirit? So Nicodemus you hear the wind you see its effects you by no means control it and neither

Can you control the new birth neither? Can you control the Spirit? This is totally outside of you Nicodemus This is completely and totally an act of the

Spirit The new birth is also commonly Known as regeneration.

So why must we supernaturally be born again by the Spirit? Because again, this is a gift of God's grace to give life to a spiritually dead person

This is the gift of spiritual life We need spiritual life Ephesians 2 1 says and you were dead in your

Transgressions and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world According to the ruler the power of the air the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience among whom we also formally conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind and Where by nature children of wrath even as the rest so you see before Christ We're dead.

We're not just ill We were spiritual corpses so to speak so we had no ability to even seek after God some some would liken salvation to this that you're you're in an ocean and you're drowning and Jesus out of his kindness he sees you

He comes and throws you the the life preserver he sticks out his hand and you have to make a decision to reach out and Grasp on for help.

It's a really beautiful picture. Jesus does love us He does care about us, but that's not what Ephesians 2 is actually teaching us

Ephesians 2 says that you're dead Says you're completely dead in your sin

So the probably a more accurate picture would be that you drown you were already dead He came and breathed life back into you.

That's a far more accurate picture You conduct yourselves in the lusts of your flesh you did the desires of your flesh and mind you were children of wrath

That's who we are outside of Christ. You could do no other you were doing exactly

In only what your nature is allowing you to do you had no ability to not live according to your flesh

Because truth be told we had no desire to do otherwise Outside of Christ we would have no desire to do anything righteous

If I could ask you let's go to Romans now Romans chapter 3 a couple books to our right

Romans chapter 3 and we'll start in verse 9 and Paul his first couple chapters of Romans is essentially giving an indictment of humankind

This is his final catch -all indictment of all humankind Paul says this

Romans 3 9 what then are we better? Not at all for we have already charged that both

Jews and Greeks are all under sin as it is written There is none righteous not even one there is none who understands

There is none who seeks for God all have turned aside together. They have become worthless There is none who does good.

There's not even one their throat is an open tomb with their tongues They keep deceiving the poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed

Blood destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known

There is no fear of God in their eyes So no one's righteous none understand none even seek after God so they have no

Desire for him in any way at all in our in our natural condition again one of spiritual death you can't even desire life

You're dead There's no fear of God in you you want nothing to do with him.

We call this man's inability You're completely unable to do anything

That would be pleasing to him left to our own devices Man is completely unable to even respond to the gospel call.

This is why we need his grace This is why we need a supernatural work of the

Spirit to breathe life into our dead hearts Back to Ephesians 2 Paul again He describes the nature of someone dead in sin the hopeless enslavement to the flesh

But Ephesians 2 for gives us this some of the sweetest words ever penned

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he loved us Even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together in Christ Jesus by grace

You have been saved so it is his loving kindness And it's his rich mercy that had to make us alive.

This is exactly what Jesus says to Nicodemus. He says We cannot be made alive. We cannot be born again

Except from his supernatural work in us except for the new birth, which is completely of the

Spirit So we need a change in nature. We already saw that what our sin nature look like It's it's one that doesn't desire

God can't do anything righteous at all But as God has regenerated us and made us alive

He's now caused us to be born again and our nature is now different It's now changed our will our desires our behaviors

They will all begin to change not perfectly all at once But now since we've had the new birth now we can start to be sanctified

We can be transformed to the image of Christ. Why because you have a new heart

We're united with Christ and both his death and resurrection We're dead to sin and as he was raised again to new life.

So are we risen with him to new life we have been supernaturally been renewed from within And we'd be really missing out if we didn't look at Ezekiel 36, so let's go to Ezekiel 36 in your

Old Testament If you can find the Psalms You have

Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes song of Solomon and Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations and then finally

Ezekiel Will be in Ezekiel chapter 36

So Ezekiel is speaking of Israel's future Reality in the new covenant and what we'll see are some key

Characteristics of any member of the new covenant both Jews and Gentiles so starting in verse 24

Ezekiel 36 24 the prophet writes and I Being the

Lord will take you from the nation's gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your

Idols. Well, do you remember what John chapter 3 said unless you were born of water in spirit?

You cannot see the kingdom of God. So do you see the parallels even with this? Of course, we're not speaking of baptism

We're not speaking of some sort of water cleansing Catholic Church certainly would hold to that.

That's why they baptize babies in the way that they do It's a cleansing from the stain of original sin. That's not what this is teaching

This is a cleansing where you're cleansed of your iniquity From within and on what basis are any of us cleansed?

Well, it's on the basis again of Christ's life death and resurrection his atonement where he took your sin upon himself

And he bore the wrath of Almighty God And in an act of grace his perfect righteousness was now applied and it was credited

To anyone who believes in his son anyone who is covered by the blood of Christ now has

Christ's perfect righteousness applied to them and By faith we now stand judicially justified you stand righteous before God even though in practice

We're not quite righteous, but judicially you stand righteous before God. So continuing in verse 26

Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove your heart of stone

From your flesh and give you a heart of flesh So he's cleansing us and he's doing this by changing our very nature

He is taking our heart of stone from us this heart that wasn't righteous the heart that was completely

Unable to even seek after God in any way or desire him the heart of stone the dead heart and Trespasses and sin is once and for all removed and in exchange you now receive a heart of flesh

And this heart has new desires it has new affections You went from having a heart that was completely unable to a heart that is completely and totally able verse 27

Says and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes

And you will be careful to do my judgments so now we've moved from the new birth

Into what we've talked about Sanctification what does he promise well the spirit is going to be within us and because his spirit is

Operating from within us we will now obey him It says he will cause us to walk in his statutes.

We will be careful to do all of his judgments The very thing that we couldn't do before We're now able to do

Because he is at work in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure the writer of Hebrew says this in Hebrews 13 20

Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep

Through the blood of the eternal covenant even Jesus our Lord Equip you in every good thing to do his will

Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever

Amen so Hebrews identifies the God of peace is the one who's at work and is equipping us to do every good thing

He's equipping us to do his will and is the one that's working to accomplish

Anything that is pleasing to him in his sight Very familiar language for a Thessalonians 5 23 and 24

Paul writes now may the God of peace Sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete

Without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass so Paul says essentially the same thing in this benediction

He recognizes that sanctification is a work of God it's the work of the

God of peace and the God of peace at work in sanctification is faithful in his calling and with surety will bring about the sanctification of the believer

Now to see this more let's go to the book of Galatians now, and we're gonna pick up in Galatians 5 16 so back in your

New Testament Galatians 5 16 it's a really familiar passage to us.

I'm sure Galatians 5 16

But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh

For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh for These are in opposition to one another so that you do not do the things that you want

But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery

Enmities strife jealousy outbursts of anger selfish ambition dissensions factions

Envying drunkenness carousing and the things like these of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those

Who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God? But the fruit of the

Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control against such things

There is no law now those who belong to Christ Jesus Crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the

Spirit let us also walk in step with the Spirit let us not become those who with vain glory challenging one another and Envy one another so verse 17.

It tells us what the Spirit Does in us it's at war against our flesh our flesh is the part of us that remains

Unredeemed though God has given him given us a new heart with new desires We are not yet completely and totally without Sin in our lives and the reason we're not perfectly without sin is because our physical bodies even one day need to be finally

Redeemed that's why we look forward to the to the final resurrection So Paul is highlighting the

Spirit is working in us In this struggle that remains between the

Spirit on us in our flesh so again How is the God of peace at work in us well? It's specifically the person of the

Holy Spirit working in us He is working in us by waging war against our flesh And we see the fruits of the

Spirit's labor in verse 22 these fruits are love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and finally self -control

Note what Paul is communicating here. He isn't saying do these things to live in tune with the

Spirit He isn't giving us commands to love or have joy or to be patient and etc

I mean those are good things we should be aspiring to do, but that's not what his instruction is here He is he is teaching what he's saying is if indeed you are walking by the

Spirit The Spirit is working in you and these are the evidences that the

Spirit is working in your life The the fruit is the outworking of this internal reality now

The root of this fruit again is it's the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's in us

And he's working in us and through us Much like that the attitudes of Matthew's gospel

It's not a list of things to do or how to live Jesus is teaching if you are indeed a

Christian This is how your life ought to look well same thing here if you're a believer in Christ Then your life should have these evidences in it

Should have these evidences in it Saying you What Jesus again?

He's when he how he explains the new birth to Nicodemus And he likens the Spirit to the wind saying you feel it you see its effects

But it's totally outside your control so are the fruits of the Spirit. These are his internal working through us

You can't force these fruits to be so in your life But what you can do is you can see necessary evidence

That the Spirit truly is working in you if your life is characterized by these fruits You have no reason to doubt that the

Spirit of God is truly working in you or not Galatians 5 is essential for us to understand how the

Spirit of God is sanctifying us But Galatians 5 is equally essential and reminding us that though it truly is a work of God in us both to will and to work

We must cooperate with this process Again our text Philippians 2 12 now says it just couldn't be more clear work out your salvation

Perhaps you caught that right away in Galatians 5 16 It says but I say and here's a command for us now walk by the

Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh Who's commanded to walk by the

Spirit? We are we're called to not carry out the desires of the flesh He reminds us that the desires of the flesh.

They're opposed to the Spirit working in us Therefore we need to walk by the Holy Spirit. I think this is critically important as we transition now into examining our role in sanctification and how we work out our

Salvation with fear and trembling we must keep this instruction on the forefront of our mind to walk in the

Spirit The way that we're to obey his will for us and walking in the

Spirit Is to submit to the Spirit. We now have this internal reality that God himself is

Dwelling in us therefore. He's establishing new patterns in our lives And he accomplishes he accomplishes this by us

Submitting to the Holy Spirit a terrifying reality is that when we fail to submit to the spirits leading in our life

We can grow very hard -hearted in such a way that we totally desensitize ourselves to the grievous nature of sin and we

Desensitize ourselves to the very ways in which the Spirit of God is directing and leading us patterns of disobedience is what often slows down our sanctification or patterns of disobedience may even just Disprove that we're even being sanctified it might it might show a bigger problem as I stated earlier the rate in which any of us

Grow or are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ will certainly vary Some gross so quickly

I'm sure we've all seen this where you see some person grow You know in a period of two three years more than some people might grow their entire lives

That certainly can happen. It's sad that that does happen but again all

Christians to some degree or another will be Sanctified there will be growth there will be a conformity to the image of Christ so Since we know sanctification is only possible for the truly redeemed person

We recognize the rate in which we are Sanctified is actually directly tied to the effort in which we are putting towards our sanctification

Again sanctification calls for us to have this unremitting and strenuous exertion of all of our efforts

Simply putting one foot in and just half -heartedly with a minimal effort Hoping that you're gonna grow is gonna quickly get you nowhere

We must exhaustively pursue holiness in our lives Turn with me to Romans 8 now back to the book of Romans Romans chapter 8

Romans chapter 8 starting in verse 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh

But those who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit for the mind set on the flesh is death

But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace so this battle it starts in our mind

Are you dwelling on are you desiring the things of the flesh, or are you setting your mind on to the things of the spirit?

Verse 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God for it Does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh

Are not able to please God however You are not in the flesh But in the spirit if indeed the

Spirit of God dwells in you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him

So if the Spirit is living in you then you can be confident you belong to Christ you are of the

Spirit Verse 10, but if Christ is in you Though the body is dead because of sin yet the

Spirit is alive because of righteousness But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised

Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you so then brothers

We are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh For if we are living according to the flesh you must die

But if by the Spirit you were putting to death the practices of the body you will live For as many are being led by the

Spirit of God these are the sons of God, so what? characteristics Of those who live what are the characteristics of those who live by the

Holy Spirit well since they're no longer under the obligation Of the flesh they're no longer to live under the dominion of sin and in their flesh

You're now living according to the Spirit if you're living by the Spirit verse 13 says This is what you look like you are putting to death the practices of your body

You're putting to death the deeds of the flesh And I think this is so necessary for us to meditate on being led by the

Spirit Doesn't require us to just take us a little stab at simply avoiding sin Rather it's just this all -out war in which we are mortifying in Killing sin in our life if you have the

Spirit of God dwelling in you You now have every weapon you need with his words to put to death sin in your life

Again, you're not you're no longer incapable Remember how we considered earlier that the old man was unable to live according to his will well

You're able if you have the Spirit of God living in you you're able and what's your command that we must kill sin?

The Puritan John Owen famously said be killing sin or sin will be killing you

His comment on verse 13 be killing sin or sin will be killing you dabbling with sin or flirting with sin

In any sort of late any sort of way will lead to destruction it always does sin is always

Waiting at the door and its desire is to consume us It's not that we win a battle versus temptation and turn our backs on that sin as if it's a defeated foe

Too weak to come back and pursue us ever again. It's like no we we fight sin we flee from sin.

We mortify sin with When sins power seems to be weakened and weakened in our lives

You beat that sin into the ground even farther than it had been when you think sin is dead in your life

You don't relent on your battle to keep mortifying that sin. It's a lifelong battle.

It's again It's it's it's progressive sanctification the more in tune with the Spirit The more we are battling against sin you don't turn your back on it thinking that you have had final victory over it when the

Lord Does grow us and when he and we start killing sin in our life? We don't relent thinking we're now untouchable in any way because we're not

It's exactly the sort of pride that the devil would desire you to have You might be saying well that seems a little extreme

I don't know if I can do that perfectly and to some degree or right We're not perfectly without sin even in the here -and -now first John tells us that if we say we're without sin

We're a liar. The truth is not in us. So we do sin, but the patterns of sin should be being mortified in our life

What I would like to do Let's go to Philippians 3 just back in our text again

Or back in the book of Philippians, but let's go to Philippians 3 12. I Think we do well to just consider the ways in which

Paul Describes his fight against sin Philippians 3 verse 12

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect but I press on so that I may lay hold of that which is also laid up a hold of By Christ Jesus brothers.

I do not consider myself having laid hold of it yet But one thing I do Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus So Paul simply and humbly realizes by no means has he arrived in any way

Therefore he is pressing on he's looking ahead to the author and perfecter of his faith

Critically important to us to Paul is not dwelling on what's occurred in the past To all of our shame.

We have had great wickedness in our lives all of us Paul Refers to himself

Paul certainly thinks about this. He calls himself the chief of sinners or the foremost of all sinners

When we do succumb to sin or when we've succumbed to sin and temptation in the past the very last thing that the

Lord would desire us to do is to just Live in that and live in that reality of of our past sin

It's taken care of when Jesus said to tell us die when he said it's finished it's done

That gives us the ability to go forward. It's been taken care of it's been forgiven. It doesn't mean that we don't repent

We do repent, but we look forward. That's what Paul's doing What he's also doing is he's not looking at past righteous deeds of the past and coasting on those either

He's not saying remember remember when I was in high school I was really I was I was really living for the Lord and I had a great season of life

I grew a ton that was the biggest season of growth in my life, so I'm good He's not looking in the past and saying yeah,

I'm good. I can coast now He's he's continually looking ahead no matter good or bad whatever is in his past his eyes are fixed on Christ And he's moving forward

By his grace we press on we have to press on we're pursuing what lies ahead

We discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness and what resources has he given us to do this how do we grow?

Well certainly his spirit is causing us to grow But beloved the primary way in which he would cause any of us to grow is submitting ourselves to the

Word of God That's the primary means first Peter 2 to like newborn babies

Long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation

So how do we grow in respect to salvation? We long for his word we subject ourselves to the teaching of his word we revolve the entirety of our lives around his word

And Jesus is high priestly prayer. What does he say John 17 17? sanctify them in truth

Your word is truth So do you desire to be sanctified you desire to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness then your life must be?

radically transformed by this book It must be you have no other option 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17

It says all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching reproof for correction for training and righteousness

So that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.

It's God's Word alone That's teaching us. It's instructing us. It's revealing to us our sin

It's now once it reveals our sin to us it also offers correction for our sin And then finally it's teaching us how to live in such a way that's pleasing to him

It trains us you want to be equipped for every good work then submit your lives to this

Book submit yourself to his word and walk by the Spirit You can actually live a godly life.

We're not without hope you can pursue godliness with this sort of tenacity Just like Hodge said unremitting and strenuous exertion of your will and efforts

It's possible you can because you're able now because it is God who is at work in you

Both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So my desire today is that Individually each and every one of us would be

Rick would be growing in regards to our personal holiness Be growing in regards to our salvation our desire to live

God a godly life in Christ Isn't working for salvation. That's not what Paul says here work out or work for your salvation

He says work out to your salvation with a reverence and a fear of God Acknowledging we live in this way and he sanctifies us

For his good pleasure and for his glory. So if you indeed have the Spirit in you You must have confidence.

You can live in a way that is honoring and pleasing to him If you are in Christ Jesus, you have a new nature

You have a completely new disposition. You have new affections because of your union with Christ The old man's crucified with him and as he rose again to new life our union with him has given us new life as well

We're dead to sin. We're alive to God in Christ Jesus Like to remind you to living in such a way

We kind of talked about that road of sanctification if we're living in the ditch on either side. It's completely

Destructive and ineffective for us If we're living in such a way where we're not relying on him to sanctify us

And we're attempting to do the Christian life completely on our own. That's a terrifying reality.

You can't do anything by yourself You can't do it. You need to rely on him working in you and through you or simply putting little effort into being more

Christlike I Worry that's very Symptomatic of probably a bigger problem.

God will sanctify all those who are united to his son. He's so clear on that He will bring about holiness in our lives.

He will cause us to walk in obedience. That's what his word said We saw that in Ezekiel 36 even if this is not true of your life.

I may suggest that the real problem Might be that you don't have the

Holy Spirit in you again We're not perfectly without sin, but if you're not growing in respect to salvation if you're not growing in a holy way

There's a reason to be concerned because God says this will happen because he said he will do it Again you cannot be conformed to Christ if you have not been born again and have his spirit working in you so If you have little concern for personal holiness if you or if you're on the other side where you're just tirelessly trying to obey the law without Walking in accordance with the spirit or relying on him for any sort of help in your sanctification

Cry out to him and ask for help now It is possible that believers could find themselves in that in those ditches, too.

It's not indicative It's not it's not with 100 % surety that this person doesn't know the

Lord But we can get stuck in a rut on either side of that, too We need to come back to what his word says that he's working in us

Therefore we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling and it's by his saving grace on no part of our own will that He's giving us desires to live a pure and holy life.

So may that be our truest desire. So let's go to Lord in prayer Heavenly Father we thank you for your sovereign grace the grace that gave life to us

Even though we were dead in sin. Your word is so clear on that we thank you for the effectual call and the work of Sanctification that you have accomplished in our lives if it weren't for your grace

We would have no ability to live for your good pleasure So Lord stir up in our hearts a renewed desire to put death to death the sin in our lives and give us endurance

Lord we have by no means arrived and we ask for your help and pressing on toward the upward call of You and Christ help us to strenuously exert all of our efforts into pursuing you and Lord when we walk in obedience

When we can say like Paul, I've labored more than all around me Let us humbly say yet not

I but was Christ in me For is by your grace that we've been saved through faith. And this is not of ourselves

Lord. It is your gracious gift to us Not of our works. May we never boast in the matter