Concluding Exhortations and Commandments (7)

The Final Exhortation to Test Everything and Reject Evil

To 1 Thessalonians 5, one last time I think, and Lord willing we'll complete our study of this epistle this morning, if all goes well. And then again I'll be gone next week, and then the following week is Palm Sunday, the week after that is Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday, and then the week after that, Lord willing, we'll begin 2 Thessalonians, and so we'll continue on into that book.

2 Thessalonians is a fascinating study, and I think you're going to find it quite interesting as we consider some of the historical understandings, particularly of the men of sin, the apostasy, in 2 Thessalonians 2, chapter 2.

We'll get there sometime later this spring. Well, last Lord's Day we addressed 1 Thessalonians 5, 21 and 22, in which we are commanded, test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

And so we emphasize how, as Christians, we are to live each day, through each day, assessing and evaluating everything, using God's Word as our standard. We are to employ the Word of God, the Holy Bible, in order to distinguish between good and evil, between truth and error, between right and wrong.

This is how we are to live day by day as Christians. And we are to affirm and embrace what is good, and we are to abstain from every form of evil. This is how Christians think and live, or at least they should.

Of course, the people of this fallen world are opposed to this kind of living, this kind of way of thinking. They may not state it this way, but this is what they believe. You're wrong to say that some ideas, some behaviors, and some actions are wrong.

The world is fairly recent, by the way, in that kind of declaration, but that's how it's been in postmodern times. But if you consider what they're saying, and I don't believe I'm setting up a straw man here, I think this accurately describes the fallen world's view.

They too are saying that there are some things that are wrong, when they tell you you're wrong, in declaring things are wrong. You see that? In other words, they have a moral standard too, don't they?

And I would argue that they cannot escape thinking in categories of right and wrong, because that is how God made us. He made us moral beings. And so the people of the fallen world have not abandoned making judgments themselves, although they condemn us for making judgments.

Really what they've done is they've changed the standard of making judgments, haven't they? And they impose that standard upon you and me. But we are to cleave to our responsibility before the Lord, to assess the world from God's perspective, according to God's laws that he has given us in his holy word.

Test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil, and we are to live this way in the face of the fallen world that demands increasingly that we do otherwise. And hence, you know, this is why Christians that are living for Christ, we're going to have difficulty in this fallen world.

Paul's Closing Prayer for Sanctification and Peace

Now let's give our attention to 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 -28, which follows. And these are of course the concluding words of Paul's epistle, first epistle, to the church at Thessalonica. After the apostle offered a form of prayer on behalf of the church, which is in verses 23 and 24, he gave forth two last commands, of the total of 18 we've considered in this final section of the epistle.

He then wrote a few words regarding the distribution of this epistle, followed by a word of benediction. And so let's read these words. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it. Brothers pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. And the last verse of this epistle, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

And so first we have a prayer on behalf of these Christians in verses 23 and 24. It is a prayer, I believe. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. Now he's directing it to the people, but clearly his heart is directed to the Lord.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.

First consider the description or the title of God here, a description of God. He is described as the God of peace. We've talked about this numerous times in the past, but here it is again, the God of peace.

Paul wrote, now may the God of peace himself. There's actually five instances in the New Testament, including this one, in which God is described as the God of peace. We read the other four places, Romans 15 .33, may the God of peace be with you all, amen.

That's his benediction to the Romans. And then Romans 16 .20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That's kind of a sense of a conflict in ideas. Here you have the God of peace, and he's going to crush Satan.

You see the contrast there being expressed. Philippians 4 .9, what you have learned and received and heard and seen and may practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. That's a blessed promise.

And then Hebrews 13 .20 and 21, now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.

And so the God of peace is used elsewhere in the New Testament, particularly by the Apostle Paul. What does this description, the God of peace, convey? Well, it probably speaks of God in two senses, the God of peace.

And it really all surrounds that little preposition, the word of, the God of peace. First, it describes God who is at peace with his people, the God of peace, thankfully. And this is sometimes referred to as the objective peace of God with his people.

In other words, a state of peace exists between God and you if you're in Jesus Christ, us if we are in Jesus Christ. This state of peace is in our relationship with God, with all his people who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.

And so this objective peace is a state of peace. This is not how you feel, but this is how you believe and think because of the promises of God in Christ. This is not a matter that you feel, this objective peace.

It describes a state, a truth. God is at peace with you and me through Jesus Christ. It's objective. Before people receive salvation, God is not at peace with them. The world thinks they are. And oftentimes even Christians try and portray God in that way so that they perceive God as welcoming them because he's a God of peace.

But in actuality the scriptures describe a state of war existing between God and fallen men. And that is found throughout the entire word of God. The scriptures speak of a hostility between God and sinful men.

And so the word of God declares that before we come to Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were opposed to God and God opposed to us. There was a state of war existing. We were enemies to God and God was an enemy to us.

We were opposed to his rule over us just as the people of Israel were opposed to his rule over them. And so the wrath of God came upon them historically in history. But Christ as the Prince of Peace ended that hostility between God and ourselves.

He gained peace for us, the Lord Jesus did, by dying on the cross for us. This appeased God's wrath which was upon us, which the Bible set forth in terms of the word propitiation. And propitiation means God's wrath ceasing and now establishing a state of peace.

Christ propitiated God through his death upon the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to those that believe the gospel, believe on Jesus Christ, God is no longer angry with them. That is full of wrath toward them.

But he is in a state of peace with them through Jesus Christ. Thank God for this. And so because of the death of Jesus Christ that satisfied the justice of God on behalf of believers, God was propitiated with regard to us.

His wrath was abated toward us. It is no longer. And the result was that Jesus Christ secured a state of peace between God and his people. And this is the same for every one of his people that are truly in Jesus Christ, a state of peace exists.

He doesn't know any degrees. We are all in Christ equally in this state of peace with God. Colossians 121, Paul wrote of it, you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind. That was before we were Christians.

We maybe weren't aware of that, but we were. Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his death to, and here's a purpose clause, in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight.

Isn't that amazing? God is going to present you above reproach on the day of judgment because of Jesus Christ bearing the penalty that you and I owed when he died upon the cross. This objective peace, this state of peace, belongs only to those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

For he alone is the basis and the securer of peace between God and fallen humanity. Those who believe on Jesus, those for whom Christ died, enjoy this peace. Christ obtained this peace for them, secured it for them.

They are justified through faith, faith alone. And so we have peace of God, the peace of God, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so in this way we were reconciled. That carries the idea of an ending of hostility, right?

God and we were reconciled through Christ. This is stated in Romans 5 .11. Romans 5 .1 declares the state of peace, meaning justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. And this is true of every Christian, regardless of whether you feel you are at peace with God.

This is true of every true Christian. You are at peace with God. And you ought to believe it. It is a blessing because God has declared it. But in Romans 5 .11 it speaks of reconciliation linked to this.

Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Reconciliation is a word that describes the cessation, the ceasing of hostility between two warring factions, resulting in peace between them.

How does this reconciliation take place? Well, it can only take place when their former hostility and rebellion ceases and the justice of God toward their crime has been satisfied. God is at war with sinners and has purposed to punish them for their sins because they have violated, transgressed his laws.

And God demands justice with regard to them. They must answer to the judge of all the earth for every sin. We have to answer to God for Adam's sin. We have to answer to God because we are sinners by nature.

We have to answer to God for every sin we have ever committed. God demands justice. And this is due to his unbending, inflexible justice because he is a holy God. And so, because Jesus Christ bore their punishment on their behalf when he died upon the cross, God reconciles these former warring people against him.

And they become no longer his enemies but his people and they are at peace with him, thankfully. We read of this in Colossians 1, for in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile, there it is, to himself all things.

And that's what Jesus Christ was sent on a mission to do. God is the king over all creation because he is a creator. But when Adam and Eve sinned, everything became rebellious to God. Even the creation itself was resistant.

Thorns grew up, difficulty. And so even though God was king and he was sovereign over all, nothing was willingly subjected to God. Nothing. Everything was in rebellion. And basically throughout the entire Bible, the story of the Bible is the mediatorial kingdom of Jesus Christ whereby he brings back the entire rebellious creation into a willing subjection to God.

And by the time Jesus returns, that's what's going to happen. Everything will be reconciled to God. Even those in rebellion, they'll be damned of course, but even they will bow the knee to Christ, won't they?

And confess with their tongue that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. And so Jesus is sent on a mission. The Father in essence says, my whole creation is in rebellion to me, go win them back. Bring them back into submission to me.

And Jesus Christ succeeds in doing that. And thankfully he does that in securing our reconciliation and our compliance to God. And he did so by, first of all, paying for our sins when he died upon the cross.

And then of course giving us the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit and enabling us and giving us a desire and the ability to live for him. And so this is objective peace. And it's through his work of reconciliation through Jesus Christ on the cross that God secured our reconciliation.

And really this blessing of peace, this objective peace can only be appreciated fully when we consider the state of the unbeliever, the non-believer who is not at peace with God. We live in a world in which people will allow you to believe in any kind of God you like.

But if you say that you believe in a God who is a God of wrath toward those who are outside of Jesus Christ, look out. You'll be rejected and opposed. This is what the scriptures teach. There's even a reticence, a reluctance of churches and Christians to speak of God as a holy God, a just God who will damn those that are in rebellion to him.

However, again, thankfully, we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But what of those who are not justified through faith? They do not have peace with God, but rather the wrath of God rests upon them.

Can we imagine what that is? John 3 .36 reads, He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not cede life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God abides on every human being until that man or woman, boy or girl, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

There exists a state of war between God and man. Jonathan Edwards lived out here in Northampton and later out in Stockbridge. He wrote of the dreadful condition of fallen men in a sermon, Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition.

Edwards had a way of articulating things. Everybody understood what he was saying. Here he is describing those that are outside of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only Savior, the only hope of sinners. Here he is describing those without Christ.

They are not only without God, but the wrath of God abides upon them. There is no peace between God and them, but God is angry with them every day. That is a quote from Scripture from Psalm 7, verse 11, by the way.

He is not only angry with them, but that to a dreadful degree. There is a fire kindled in God's anger. It burns like fire. Wrath abides upon them, which if it should be executed would plunge them into the lowest hell and make them miserable there for all eternity.

They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, and God has been angry with them ever since they began to sin. He has been provoked by them every day, ever since they exercised any reason, and He is provoked by them more and more every hour.

The flame of His wrath is continually burning. There are many now in hell that never provoke God more than they, nor so much as many of them. Wherever they go, they go about with the dreadful wrath of God abiding on them.

They eat and drink and sleep under wrath. How dreadful a condition, therefore, are they in! It is the most awful thing for the creature to have the wrath of his Creator abiding on him. The wrath of God is a thing infinitely dreadful.

The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion. But what is the wrath of a king who is but a worm of the dust to the wrath of the infinitely great and dreadful God? How dreadful is it to be under the wrath of the First Being, the Being of Beings, the Great Creator and the Mighty Possessor of heaven and earth!

How dreadful is it for a person to go about under the wrath of God, who gave him being, and who he lives and moves, who is everywhere present, and without whom he cannot move a step nor draw a breath!

Natural men, inasmuch as they are under wrath or under a curse, God's wrath and curse are continually upon them. They can have no reasonable comfort, therefore, in any of their enjoyments. For they do not know, but they are given them in wrath, and shall be curses to them, and not blessings.

As it said in Job 18 .15, Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. How can they take comfort in their food or in their possessions, when they do not know, but all are given them to fit them for the slaughter?

That's the direct approach. But this is a very biblical teaching, a scripture. And this explains why the Lord Jesus Christ only could atone for sin. And this describes the terrible, terrible suffering and death that he underwent when he died upon the cross.

We'll not read through John Gill's lengthy description, but he sets forth the same idea. There is safety in Jesus Christ, but outside of Jesus Christ there is nothing but the unrelenting, infinite wrath of God upon sinners.

But thankfully in Jesus Christ, God is at peace with us. When the sinner turns from his sin and believes the gospel, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, God, I have been in rebellion to you. I have not been mindful of you.

I have been living as though I am my own Lord in this life. I turn from that sin. Indeed, Jesus is Lord. I believe on him as my Savior. And as you enabled me, Lord Jesus, by your Holy Spirit that you give me, I will live for you and order my life according to your will.

That's what it is to become a Christian. And the moment a person lays down the weapons of his rebellion and he repents in that fashion, amazingly, God immediately regards that man, that woman, that boy, that girl, no longer under his wrath, but now in a state of peace.

And the favor of God is now upon that believer. And this objective peace, again, is infinite in nature. And the blessings of God will be shown to that one throughout eternity. All secured because of the merit and work of Jesus Christ.

Not due to anything in us. Not due to the tears that we shed. Not due to the efforts we put forth. Not due to the many prayers that we might offer. But it's only because of Jesus Christ, his righteousness, and his death.

And so we entrust ourselves to one who is outside of us to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. And when we wholly put our trust in him and only in him, we enter into this blessed, objective state of peace.

Why would anybody turn away from that? But there is a second idea conveyed in this idea of God as the God of peace. God, of course, the God of peace, that's what God, as the source of peace for his people.

And so not only is God in a state of peace with those who have faith, the grace of peace to his people. This is different than objective peace. In this objective peace, God comforts his people, assures them in their lives they belong to him and that his favor rests upon them.

And so this is not something that we necessarily believe, but it's something that we feel. This is truly subjective. And whereas the objective peace does not vary between any Christian, everyone is equally at peace before God because it's all based upon Jesus Christ and what he did.

But this subjective peace, this feeling of peace that you have in your soul, the rest that God gives in Jesus Christ varies in each and every one of us. And sometimes it's greater than at other times, sometimes less.

And at times, you know, certainly it could be greater for us if we would follow the biblical prescriptions of it. Paul wrote of this subjective peace in Philippians 4, 6, and 7,. Be anxious for nothing, for in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

And so you let the Lord know all your troubles and you leave them with him. And what do you get in return? The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. In other words, it doesn't make sense. You're feeling at peace when the whole world tells you, you ought to be a wreck.

It passes understanding. But this peace, the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds, set a watch around you, a guard around you through Christ Jesus. And so God gives, thankfully, his people a sense of peace, which is a restful, settled spirit, which is to be received and enjoyed by those who entrust themselves to their God through Jesus Christ.

This sense of peace, again, is commonly called God's subjective peace, not objective, subjective. In other words, it's enjoyed by the subject, we, us. Subjective peace is the awareness that the believer senses in his soul that he's at peace with God.

And so whereas objective peace between God and his people is what the Christian is to believe, we are in a state of peace. This subjective peace is what people feel. Because of our faith in Christ, we may sense peace, or a tranquility of soul, a settling of our guilty conscience respecting sin.

When we receive through faith our free and full part of sin due to the death of our Savior. And so we're secure. And so if we're thinking and believing rightly, we feel ourselves to be as secure. Romans 1 -7, Paul expresses desire for them early in his opening of the epistle.

He says that we may experience peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. A subjective peace that we may enjoy in our relationship with God. Again, all disciples of Jesus Christ are in a state of objective peace with God.

And all disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy a subjective peace with God. But it's sad they all don't for different reasons. Now, let's continue now after considering his description, God of peace. And let's consider his work, what he does on behalf of his people.

Paul wrote, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And we've talked about this, of course, sanctification. It is an important foundational doctrine of the Christian life. And every one of us should have an understanding of this.

And I hope that we're arriving to the place where many of you can say, I've heard this before and I understand it and I know it. That's our goal. We want to get to the place where there's nothing I can stand up here and say to you that's new.

You've heard it, you know it, you understand it, and you can convey it. But nevertheless, there's things that we need to be reinforced in continually, isn't there? May the Lord sanctify you. We dealt with this in some degree when we were back in 1 Thessalonians 4, the previous chapter, verses 3 -5.

When Paul wrote, This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel, in other words his own body, in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.

But Paul deemed this matter of the believer's sanctification so important he expressed it again here at the conclusion of his epistle. Paul set forth his desire, even his prayer, that their God would sanctify them completely.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. The basic idea of the verb sanctify is to make holy, that is for God to separate his people unto himself. For God to sanctify his people means that he's making them gradually more holy in character.

We ought to be more like Christ today than we were a year ago, ten years ago, whatever. God is preparing his people for the life to come. And so this is salvation from the power of sin in our lives. This is what sanctification is.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism sets forth the classic definition. Question 35, what is sanctification? The answer is sanctification is the work of God's free grace. It's God who does this. It's God who sanctifies you.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. It's a work of God. The work of God's grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.

And so each of us who are truly Christian is experiencing a work of grace in our lives that is sanctifying us. This is the will of God being accomplished in every Christian. Again, back in 1 Thessalonians 4 .3, this is the will of God, even your sanctification.

More specifically, when the Bible speaks of sanctification, really two ideas emerge. And I might just say this at the outset. There is a positional sanctification and there's a practical sanctification.

And we're dealing with practical sanctification, but we need to mention positional. Everything that belongs to God is set apart by God for God. We read in the Old Testament that the tabernacle, the articles of furniture in the tabernacle, the utensils used in the tabernacle, the priests themselves who ministered in the tabernacle, all were sanctified for that purpose and only to be used for that purpose thereafter.

They were set apart for God and his worship. And the Bible speaks of Christians being sanctified in this sense, set apart. Through the work of Christ and through coming to salvation, we have been sanctified positionally entirely.

And again, this is the same for each of us. When Paul was parting from the elders of the church at Ephesus, he said, Now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.

God has set us apart from the fallen world. All who belong to Jesus Christ have been sanctified positionally. We've been separated. It is set apart, sanctified in the mind of God from all others. Remember back in the days of Moses when Korah and his family and others rebelled against God?

God told Moses, You set yourselves apart from them. And the earth opened up, destroyed those in rebellion. God has set us apart from those that are under his wrath, thankfully. We are in Christ's hand in a covenant relationship with God, having been chosen, set apart from the world as a unique people.

God has done this. In the mind and purpose of God, we are separate, set apart. No, we are sanctified from the fallen world. And therefore he has glorious and vast different designs between those of the fallen world and those who he has sanctified.

This position of sanctification was a work of grace on our behalf. And again, this occurred once for all time for each of us when we came initially to salvation. In fact, actually when Christ died. Hebrews 10 .14.

For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. We are set apart. This is a work of God's grace accomplished by Christ. And so there is that positional idea of sanctification. But most of the time, sanctification is not speaking of a position that we enjoy, but rather a work of grace performed in our lives where we become increasingly holy.

And so secondly, sanctification speaks of being purified or made holy in our lives. And this is the idea being conveyed here in our passage in our text. 1 Thessalonians 5 .22. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

You can tell that is an ongoing work, isn't it? He is not speaking about our position. We have already been sanctified, set apart by Christ in our salvation. He is talking about being purified or made holy in life.

What is the cause of our sanctification? Well, the scriptures speak of it in different ways. I love the way the Westminster Confession sets it forth. It declares the moving cause of sanctification is the grace of God.

It is the grace of God that causes us to be sanctified. The meritorious cause, secondly, is the blood and righteousness of Christ. That is why it takes place, because of Christ. And in all work of Christ is performed due to Christ and what He performed for us through His life and through His death.

And then third, the efficient cause, in other words, what is it exactly that causes you and me to become more holy? The efficient cause is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit working in us. He is the one who does the work of sanctification in us.

The Holy Spirit empowers us, gives us the desire and the ability to do the will of God. And so we are to look to the King Jesus each and every day. Lord Jesus, bless me with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that I might do the things that you command me.

For apart from the Holy Spirit, I cannot do it. We trust the Holy Spirit to do in us that which we are incapable of doing. And again, one of the most common problems and errors of Christians is they think that because they have been given the desire to please God when they were converted through regeneration that they have the ability to do the will of God.

No. You have the desire, but you do not have the ability. The ability can only come daily as you look to the Lord Jesus to give you the Holy Spirit, as you yield to Him to enable you to do that which you are powerless to do apart from Him.

And if you try to do the will of God, keep all these commandments, these 18 that we have been talking about, put them as a big list, I am going to do each one, God, and you think you are going to do so apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, you are going to fall on your face.

Because you and I don't have the ability. We have the desire, but the Lord gives us the ability as the Holy Spirit enables us each and every day. What is the nature of sanctification? Well, I listed a number of things here.

Let's run through them quickly. First, sanctification is the fruit and evidence of salvation. That is the fruit and evidence of justification. Every true child of God has this work of sanctification being wrought in him or her.

You need to understand that. Secondly, sanctification is the way, that is the course of life which leads to our final and full salvation on the Day of Judgment. And so the scriptures describe it more like in Pilgrim's Progress, like a narrow way.

Or in Isaiah it is described as a highway of holiness in which we are pilgrims journeying back to our heavenly Zion. This is the way of sanctification. And really it is one of the major themes of the book of Hebrews in which we are following on this pilgrimage path, following our Lord Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.

In other words, he is the trailblazer who has already gone first, as well as other Old Testament witnesses. And now we are following behind as one large procession through history moving to Zion. And so sanctification is a way, a course in which we follow.

And yet thirdly, sanctification is a gradual process. We reject the ideas of our Pentecostal friends, those who hold to Wesleyan sanctification, that you can get a second blessing and all of a sudden you arrive.

And you are elevated all of a sudden to a life of victory. Now it is gradual. Yes, sometimes the Lord gives deliverances from specific sins, but for the most part it is a gradual process that takes place over life.

Fourth, sanctification involves the entire person in all aspects of life. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fifth, sanctification is the conforming of the Christian to the very image of Jesus Christ. The work of sanctification makes the believer Christ-like in his thinking, his attitudes, his actions and his reactions.

Sixth, sanctification will never be fully seen in this life, in this world. Our complete sanctification will occur when we stand before Christ on the Day of Judgment, when we see him as he is. Seventh, sanctification is the work of God's free grace.

Again, God is performing this work in us of his own free will. This is suggested in our text. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you. It is him that does it. He doesn't say now sanctify yourselves before the Lord, but may God sanctify you, the God of peace.

And yet, even though it is all a work of grace, God's grace, sanctification is nevertheless a duty of every Christian. Is that not right? Our sanctification is the work of God's grace in us, but it requires our attention, our energy, our faith, our repentance, our obedience.

It involves the humbling of ourselves before God, our yielding to the Spirit of God. It involves conforming every thought, attitude and action to the Word of God. And so these last two points, points 7 and 8, show us that sanctification, although being a work of God's grace, is also the duty of every Christian.

These two aspects of our sanctification must always be kept in balance. If you emphasize one to the exclusion of the other, you get yourself into trouble. Some only rely upon themselves, and they are doomed to fall and fail, as we've already described, for sanctification is a work of God's grace.

But others are too passive. They claim to believe, but they don't take action. They don't obey. It's of grace, they say. And so I'll just sit and trust, for He is able to do it in me. And they take no action.

And that is error, too. This one becomes idle, careless, caught up in, and bound in sin. The first group ignores grace. They see it only as a duty. That one will lack the power of God to live godly, and will tend toward failure and defeat.

And if he happens to attain any measure of improvement in his life, it's only a human, a moral renovation, and it will tend toward pride and self-righteousness. The second group, however, sets aside their responsibility.