Continuing The God Who is There

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

1 view

0 comments

00:00
some time to plan, and so we decided to do something that I hope would be understood as very practical.
00:09
We're going to spend time on the one another's in the Bible.
00:12
And if you've never done a study on the one another's, it's really good.
00:19
And so what I'm handing you out is a list of all the different one another's and a scriptural reference for them, although there's more.
00:28
And so in three weeks we will start, and Brother Mike and I will alternate again, and we're going to try to take two per week.
00:39
So you can just hold on to that if you want to start in your own study to look at some of those one another's.
00:46
It's a very interesting study, but it's not going to be something that, if we do it right it's going to be pretty deep.
00:55
Pretty deep.
00:57
In other words, the reality of the one another's in the Bible is an amazing study, and we'll look at it mainly just from the New Testament.
01:06
So I just wanted to give you an idea, good morning.
01:09
Just give you an idea where we're headed, and that'll be in a couple of weeks.
01:12
Okay.
01:13
So you can hang on to that, and then I'll make more copies as we get through it.
01:17
Although, damn, let me have those just because.
01:21
All right, so put those away, and no scribbling on the back, and then let's go to our discussion for this morning.
01:30
So if you remember last week, you remember the subject.
01:39
Brother Mike's subject.
01:41
Anybody? Good.
01:48
Brother Mike, do you remember Brother Mike's subject? Justification.
01:53
Remember, we looked at the reality of that great doctrine of justification, and what I enjoyed about Carson's book, as we've been reading through it, is that he deals with doctrines, and to some extent he eliminates the big words, because again, sometimes we use words, and they're important to use the right words so you have a right understanding, but Carson has been talking about things that you can put in many different forms, and I believe he's done a good job, and so last week we did.
02:30
We talked about justification, and we talked about the reality of what that means.
02:37
I think Brother Mike did an excellent job in explaining that justification is the act by which God declares us righteous in Christ, and so I hope you enjoyed that.
02:53
So anyway, so I say that because this morning, really if you read the chapter, it really talks about sanctification, and so there they are.
03:04
Justification, sanctification.
03:05
Two great and very deep subjects.
03:10
So that's what I want to deal with this morning, because what was the title of the chapter of the book for today? God Who Gathers and Transforms His People, so I want to ask you a question to start this off, and by the way, let me write a couple of verses now.
03:34
See that? That's cool, right? Those are the verses we're going to look at this morning.
03:42
I'm not going to tell you why right yet, but I hope you'll, and again, I just write these things down in case you want to jot them down.
03:48
If not, that's fine too, but we're talking about justification, and I want to ask you this question.
03:56
Is the reality of justification, is that an event or is that a process? Is justification an event, and when I say event, I mean is it a one-time event, or is justification a process? Lifelong process.
04:18
Okay, you say justification is a lifelong process.
04:22
Justification is a one-time process.
04:24
I said justification.
04:26
Oh, no.
04:27
Okay.
04:28
Brother, go ahead.
04:29
One-time.
04:38
It would be fair, and I'll flip this over just to ...
04:43
We talked about justification, and I'll just use that term for now.
04:49
Justification is that, right? It's a point in time, and it has eternal ramifications.
05:02
Is that right? Is that what you said, brother? Yes.
05:04
Yeah.
05:04
Okay.
05:06
Justification is ...
05:07
And remember, we read those scriptures, and brother Mike brought them up, about having been justified.
05:15
I'm not talking about faith.
05:16
That was a different thought, but the reality of justification is it takes place in a point in time, and then it has ramifications that go out for all eternity.
05:30
Okay.
05:30
All right, let's think about it for a minute now, and again, I said the subject this morning would be sanctification, so I want to ask you this question.
05:45
Is that an event, or is that a process? Process.
05:50
Okay.
05:51
How many people say process? How many people say event? You're on your own, brother.
06:03
Let's think about this again before we go any further.
06:05
Is sanctification one of these, or ...
06:13
So that would be an event, or is it a process? Process.
06:17
See, justification is an event, but it has ramifications on out.
06:22
Agree? Mm-hmm.
06:25
Sanctification takes place when? So are you saying that sanctification is a process? Yes.
06:39
Okay.
06:39
Should we throw stones at Sister Rosanna? Bring it on.
06:48
Okay, so is it an event, or a process, or as Brother Mike held his hand up, is it both? I will submit to you, suggest to you that sanctification is both an event and a process.
07:11
Is sanctification a one-time event like justification, though? I mean, it must not be.
07:17
What I'm saying is it happens.
07:22
Okay.
07:23
Like justification happens, and then surely we can't be completely sanctified all at one time.
07:33
I think we've got to try to define sanctification first.
07:36
Let's try to define it.
07:38
Just among us.
07:40
If you had to define sanctification, what would you say? Okay, being made holy.
07:52
All right? What else? It says that you've been sanctified.
08:06
So does that mean it's a past? It's actually in the heiress' tents in the Greek.
08:12
So it's a past event that takes place, so it means you've been set apart for a purpose.
08:21
Okay, set apart.
08:30
Anything else? Any other word that comes to your mind when you think about sanctification? Okay.
08:42
And there's a couple different words that are used.
08:45
Most of them come out of one root word.
08:48
And actually, sanctification, sanctified could be translated sometimes as holy.
08:57
We're set apart.
08:59
Or we're consecrated.
09:01
I'm not going to put that up there.
09:02
So I'm going to say to you that sanctification is both an event that takes place once for all, but at the same time it's a process.
09:14
So let me ask you to think about this.
09:15
And I just wrote this down, and to me it's a simple way of explaining sanctification in the realm that we're going to talk about this morning.
09:24
And I'm going to look at both, and that's why those verses are on the board.
09:27
I want us to look at verses that show that sanctification is an event that has taken place.
09:36
Then I want to look at verses that will reveal to us that sanctification is a process.
09:45
So it's an event, and it's a process.
09:48
It's done, it's ongoing.
09:51
Let me ask you, before we do that, can we define justification the same way? Could we say that justification is an event, and then it's ongoing? I would absolutely agree.
10:20
So we've got to be careful that we don't...
10:22
If we find a truth in the Bible, and it reveals a certain truth to us, we've got to be careful not to just take other Bible doctrines and try to make them the same way.
10:34
In other words, I would agree, justification is a one-time event.
10:38
Having been justified, having been declared by God, and it's really a legal thing more than anything else.
10:47
But sanctification is a process if you use it, and again, as you look at it that way.
10:53
So I said this, I said that sanctification is the work of the Spirit of God in transforming us from what we were to what God intends for us to be.
11:06
Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit transforms us from what we were to what God intends for us to be.
11:16
And in that sense, it's both an event and a process.
11:21
And again, I think it's extremely important, and I hope you would too, to understand these realities because...
11:36
And so here's what I want to do.
11:38
So I'm going to say that these verses that we look at, and I don't know how many we'll get to, these verses will lend support to the fact that sanctification is an event.
11:52
And then I want to look at these verses that will promote that sanctification is a process.
12:03
And that's one of the things that's so neat, right? So cool.
12:06
In the sense that as God inspired his word, there are times when we have to let what? The context? And that which comes before and that which comes after determine the exact meaning.
12:24
Because you can, again, get lost if you read only these verses.
12:30
You might come away with the fact that sanctification is just something that took place in time.
12:37
However, if you read just these verses, you might come away with sanctification as an ongoing process.
12:43
So I think it's important for us to look at.
12:46
So I'm going to spend some time, we'll run through these verses.
12:49
Conversation is welcome.
12:52
Just to think about it and to be able to get an understanding on these things.
12:58
Okay, so there is one correction up there and I found it when I wrote, but we'll fix it when we get to it.
13:06
So I want to look at, first of all, that sanctification is an event.
13:09
2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
13:12
Let's just look at these verses.
13:14
And again, without having to dive that deep into the original words and the tenses and verbs and nouns.
13:23
And I'm not saying that's bad.
13:24
That's a great thing to do.
13:25
But I do think, even in the translations that we have, we're able, if we will look at the context and the setting, we're able to make some determinations, even if that is not true.
13:40
Okay, so 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.
13:45
And Paul says this, But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.
14:05
Now would you say that's more of an event or a process? God, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification or through the reality of the Spirit of God setting us apart and therefore God brought us to Himself.
14:26
Why? Because He had already set us apart.
14:29
He had already sanctified us.
14:31
He had already, in His eternal counsels, had already chosen who? The elect.
14:41
And having been chosen by God, we then become the sanctified of God.
14:49
And again, not saying that we are sanctified as soon as we are created.
14:56
In the process part of it, but certainly in the event part of it.
15:02
Disagreements? Understanding? Questions? Comments? Okay.
15:26
Hold on to that and we'll come back and see if we can tie that together with some other thoughts.
15:31
Okay.
15:32
1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2.
15:35
And again, there's more, but I was hoping to get through all of these and we'll see if we can.
15:43
1 Peter, just as the epistle opens, it says, 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
16:06
Again, I would submit to you that this lends towards that we have been sanctified and it takes place at a certain point.
16:18
It takes place before the world began.
16:23
That God had sanctified us.
16:24
That God had set us apart from himself.
16:26
That God had chosen us.
16:29
And therefore, because he has chosen us, he was going to set us apart.
16:33
Because sanctification can actually mean consecrate or devote to oneself.
16:37
And so that's what God did, right? God chose us to be his own.
16:42
Okay.
16:44
In Jeremiah 1.5, anybody remember that verse? It says before I, I was trying to do it out of memory, but it says that God had done what to Jeremiah in the womb? He had set him apart, right? He had, in that sense, God had sanctified Jeremiah.
17:09
Even before Jeremiah was born.
17:12
That was something that God did.
17:13
And in the same sense, God has sanctified us.
17:16
In that he has separated us from, or for himself, from the mass of sinners.
17:30
Just something to think about, right? Okay, John chapter 17, I want to stay in the New Testament, but I wanted to mention that verse in Jeremiah.
17:37
John chapter 17, and again, these, I'm trying to set these forth to establish that sanctification is an event.
17:48
And then hopefully we will see it as a process.
17:51
One, if you will, is the act of God's sovereignty.
17:56
Let me say it this way.
17:58
I believe that this is an act of God's sovereignty.
18:02
And this is the act of man's responsibility.
18:08
Okay? And again, never lose sight of that.
18:11
As much as we proclaim God's sovereignty, we also must proclaim man's responsibility.
18:21
And as we get to these verses, you're going to see, there's a great emphasis and stress placed upon us to be sanctified in the light of the fact that we were sanctified.
18:33
And I'm not trying to be confusing.
18:35
I'm trying to make it even clearer than, as clear as I can be.
18:40
All right, in John chapter 17, and Jesus says this.
18:48
Pick it up in verse 14, just to get a little bit of understanding.
18:51
So, Jesus says, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
18:59
And I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.
19:06
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
19:09
Why are they not of the world? Because God had already sanctified them, set them apart.
19:14
And then he says this.
19:17
Sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth.
19:19
As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
19:22
And for their sakes, I sanctified myself, that they also may be, what? Sanctified by the truth.
19:33
Again, sanctification has this reality of we've been set apart from the foundation of the world.
19:41
There's a place and time and space when Jesus comes and sanctifies himself.
19:50
And then he, in his calling us and regenerating us, gives us new birth, sets us apart, and then we have to press on further in that sanctification that's ours.
20:04
Okay, Acts chapter 20.
20:06
And again, I'm just going to run through some verses.
20:10
But I think it should at least provoke some thought.
20:15
Acts chapter 20.
20:17
And again, just a verse or two here or there.
20:20
And I think it's helpful for us to see it in a number of different settings, if you will.
20:26
So, Acts chapter 20, of course, that's the apostle talking to the Ephesian elders.
20:33
And as he's about to depart, he says in verse 32, And now, brethren, I commend you to God, to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
20:48
Again, you can perhaps look at this verse and say it's part of the reality of it being an event, or perhaps even a process.
20:59
I still think there is this understanding that we need to have that it's both, and it's different from justification because justification is something that has taken place with eternal ramifications, and sanctification is both an event and a process.
21:19
1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2.
21:25
As Paul opens the epistle, he says this, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and sustenance our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
21:50
That to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.
21:56
Set apart, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.
22:03
For all whom he did predestinate, then he called, and whom he called he justified, and those he justified he glorified.
22:09
So again, many of these things that we talk about, they're linked together, and yet there's a distinct difference between them.
22:20
And it's important for us to understand them in this sense.
22:24
So your 1 Corinthians, go to chapter 6.
22:32
And here Paul lays it out, in a sense, as a contrast.
22:38
And after he deals with this whole idea of suing your brother, he says, in verse 6, But brother goes to law against brother, and not before unbelievers.
22:47
Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another.
22:52
Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded? No, you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and you do these things to your brethren.
23:01
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.
23:16
And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified.
23:22
And again, if you want to look at that as particularly dealing with the event of sanctification, or you want to look at it as if it is dealing with the process of sanctification, that is something that every man has to be persuaded in his own mind, but I do think that the point will hold up that we need to understand that sanctification, which is being set apart by God, has both implications of event and process.
23:54
Alright, I want to look at this verse in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10.
24:02
I am always careful when I go to Hebrews, because I got like the Hebrew master sitting back there.
24:13
Alright.
24:16
So, Hebrews chapter 10, and it is speaking, of course, of our Lord, and it says in verse 8, Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the Lord.
24:31
Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.
24:34
He takes away the first, that he may establish the second.
24:37
But, look, verse 10.
24:39
But that will we have been, by that will we have been what? Sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
24:53
And when you think about these things, and again in verse 14, For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
25:04
Set apart.
25:06
Again, deal with it in the sense of event, deal with it in the sense of process.
25:12
And then finally, one verse before we go to the other list, I want to just look at the last epistle before Revelation, Jude.
25:19
Jude chapter 3.
25:28
If anybody finds Jude chapter 3, we are going to do some stoning here.
25:39
Jude, the first, in the very beginning.
25:42
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.
25:53
So there again is another scripture in, look at it as an event, look at it as a process.
26:04
Okay, before we look at some verses that really lend weight towards the fact that the event of sanctification is a direct result of the sovereignty of God.
26:21
And that as we begin to look at these, and you will see in these sections, if we can get through some of them, they are a little bit more expanded because they are talking about this whole process and this whole responsibility of our sanctification.
26:33
Anybody want to bring up anything before we start looking at a couple of those? Just understanding that Paul says, I think Paul says, you are justified through the process of sanctification, where the Protestant, Reformed perspective is we are justified and then God begins to make us what he has called us to be.
27:05
Right, and that's why it's so important, even as Brother Mike brought up last week, that we see justification is something that has taken place.
27:14
Now, there are many things that come out of that, but we can't just keep, we've got to be careful about blending too much and tying things together that ought not to be tied together, and keeping things separate that ought to be kept separate.
27:28
But certainly, that is a point.
27:31
In other words, as we look at these now, or some of these, this is where having been set apart by God before the foundation of the world, and Christ offering himself and sanctifying us once and for all, it could almost be, you could almost maybe put this in between.
27:51
Therefore, and we might even see that in some of the scriptures, in other words, because of this, therefore, do this.
28:02
So let's look at a couple that talk about sanctification more perhaps in a process or in a growth kind of way.
28:13
1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
28:20
1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
28:28
Okay.
28:30
Paul says this, Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you have received from us how you ought to walk and please God.
28:40
For you know the commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
28:44
For 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 sanctification and honor.
29:00
See, because of us being sanctified and Christ having been sanctified for us, therefore, we should seek further to become like him and less like the world, right? Maybe you could think of sanctification as he becomes, as John says, he must increase and I must decrease, right? And I will say this a couple times, I guess.
29:31
Friends, this is where we find ourselves in the mixed bag of things, if you will.
29:36
That sanctification is, sanctification doesn't come by osmosis.
29:43
Now, what I mean by that is, if we just sit under a tree and wait for God to send sanctifying juice down upon us, I think we'll be sitting under the tree for quite a while.
29:57
That we are responsible to do these things.
30:01
And that the evidence will show if we are doing them.
30:07
Again, it's God's grace that does it all, right? It's God who works in us both to will and do of his good pleasure.
30:13
But at the same time, we're fully responsible.
30:16
No one's going to be able to come before God in that day and say, Lord, I would have done more, but you know, you didn't give me enough grace.
30:23
We need to, and you'll see it certainly as we look at the Scripture in Thessalonians, one of my favorite words, we need to press on.
30:34
We need to move forward.
30:37
Having been sanctified, no one can take that from us.
30:41
But we are fully responsible to do what the New Testament teaches us in light of that fact.
30:50
And that you will find, brothers and sisters, that many people, that's a wide field in between that.
30:58
Between people who would rather sit under the tree, and people that would rather press on.
31:11
And we all kind of go in and out of those things.
31:13
So don't misunderstand me.
31:14
Okay, let's look at another one.
31:16
2 Timothy chapter 2.
31:18
I try to keep it somewhat in order, but I did jump around a little bit.
31:22
2 Timothy chapter 2.
31:27
Okay.
31:30
It says this.
31:33
Well, in verse 20 it says, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, and some of honor and some for dishonor.
31:40
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.
31:53
Flee the useful lust.
31:55
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
32:01
You can keep reading, because then he talks about, but avoid.
32:04
So again, who's responsible for sanctification? We are.
32:07
What are we responsible to do? We're responsible.
32:10
He has already set us apart in that sense, made us holy.
32:14
Now we ought to press on in that holiness.
32:17
Right? Certainly that's one of the great truths.
32:21
Okay, so the next verse really, this one should be.
32:26
If you go to Philippians chapter 4, verse 12, you're going to say, what are you talking about? But if you go to Philippians 3, verse 12, you might understand a little better.
32:35
So let's go to Philippians 3.
32:38
Philippians chapter 3.
32:40
Again, all I'm trying to do is help us understand Bible truth, both doctrinally and practically.
32:50
Verse 12, Paul says this.
32:53
Not that I've already attained, or am already perfected, or complete, or mature, whatever way you want to define that word, but I press on that I may lay hold for that for which Jesus Christ has also laid hold of me.
33:07
And he says this, Brother, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
33:24
Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this to you.
33:32
Again, we are responsible to press on.
33:36
We are responsible as much as we can to set ourselves apart from the things of the world.
33:44
Alright, let's look at another one.
33:45
Go back to 2 Timothy, I'm sorry.
33:50
2 Timothy 2, verse 14.
33:54
And again, a little bit longer section, but I think it proves the point well.
34:00
2 Timothy 2.
34:03
Paul says to Timothy, Verse 14, Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
34:14
Verse 15, Be diligent to present yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.
34:29
And you can continue reading on in this section, and then you come down, if you will, to verse 21.
34:35
Paul says this, Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful, there's that word useful again, useful for the master, prepared for every good work, flee these useful lusts, and so on and so on.
34:54
Okay, James chapter 5.
34:58
James chapter 5, and again, thinking of it in this context, of who is responsible to press on, we are.
35:13
James chapter 5, verse 7 says this, Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
35:20
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruits of the earth, waiting patiently for it until he receives the early and latter rain.
35:27
You also be patient, establish your hearts.
35:31
Who's he telling to do that? Us.
35:35
We are to establish our hearts.
35:37
Has God already established our hearts by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God? Absolutely.
35:42
Are we to establish our own hearts? Absolutely.
35:44
Do I understand how those two meet? Absolutely not.
35:50
But I'm not responsible for the secret part of it.
35:56
I am responsible for what? The revealed part of it, right? The secret things belong to the Lord our God and the things revealed to us and our children.
36:03
So that's why he says that.
36:05
He says that we are to establish our own hearts.
36:11
Verse 9, Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.
36:15
Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
36:18
My brothers, take for example the prophets who, in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.
36:26
And it just goes on and on and on.
36:28
You could read the rest of that section.
36:30
I just want to get through a couple more before we leave.
36:32
Okay.
36:35
Go to Ephesians chapter 4.
36:38
I'm going to jump around just a little bit.
36:39
Ephesians chapter 4.
36:41
And I think you'll see this very clearly as one of the emphasis of the epistles.
36:49
And by the way, if you had to say, well, I'll say it.
36:54
I believe the epistles were written to local churches.
36:58
That's not hard to come up with.
37:00
But I also believe the emphasis of the New Testament is on the behavior that takes place in the local church.
37:09
One of the reasons why we're going to go through the one another's, by the way, is for that very reason.
37:13
We have a responsibility to one another and it's very difficult to take some of those one another's put brothers and sisters on the other side of the world.
37:24
I'm not saying we can't.
37:26
I'm just saying it's difficult.
37:27
But we absolutely can within the local church, right? Okay, just something to think about as we go forward.
37:33
But look at this in Ephesians 4 and pick it up in verse 17.
37:41
And see if you would agree that Paul's talking about progressively moving on, sanctifying ourselves, being set apart.
37:50
This I say, brethren, testify, verse 17, chapter 4, in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardening of their hearts, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to licentiousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
38:17
But you have not so learned Christ.
38:20
If indeed you have heard of him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of the mind that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.
38:41
And if you keep reading, he gets right down to the nitty gritty.
38:46
And if you had read, if you will, the companion or parallel passage Colossians is going to say the same thing.
38:52
Put off, put on.
38:55
Put off the old man, and he delineates wrath and anger and malice and all those different things.
39:02
So again, I think it's important, and I think that's what Carson did in the book, although he brought in the fact how God gathers his people together, but he didn't leave it there.
39:11
He said not only does God gather his people, but he transforms them.
39:16
Even at the issue in Romans chapter 12, be ye what? Transformed by the renewing of your mind.
39:23
Again, you go sit under a tree and you're going to have a hard time waiting for just, like I said, sanctification to flow.
39:32
Now it doesn't mean the spirit of God doesn't work in us.
39:34
Don't misunderstand me.
39:36
And I'm still trying to stress that you and I have this great responsibility.
39:40
I'll end it.
39:40
We only have a couple of seconds.
39:42
Just go to the next one, 2 Peter chapter one.
39:47
Like I said, I put others on the board if you want to look at them, that's fine.
39:53
2 Peter chapter one.
39:55
This one is really pointed, and this one gives people some trouble because they almost think it's a works kind of thing, but that's not what's being said here.
40:05
So look what it says.
40:13
2 Peter chapter one, and he says this.
40:16
Well, I got to read back a little bit.
40:18
Let me just read it.
40:19
I'll try not to comment.
40:21
Look.
40:21
Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you, the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which he has given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
40:58
But also for this very reason, give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love.
41:15
Again, who's responsible to do these things? Who's Peter exhorting to add? Us! Sanctification is both an event and a process.
41:28
God has taken us out of this world and has, even when it says our citizenship is in heaven, now we are to progress as being citizens of heaven.
41:39
We are to become more and more like the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.
41:46
Hope I didn't confuse anybody.
41:47
I hope you understand that justification, as Brother Mike brought it up, is an event, and that sanctification is both an event and a process.
42:00
Any closing comments? Absolutely.
42:06
Right.
42:11
That's how marching was.
42:14
I always get a little puzzled when people say, I just don't know the will of God for me.
42:18
Well, you go to 1 Thessalonians 4, I tell you what the will of God is, right? What is the will of God for us? Even your sanctification.
42:26
Follow after peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
42:31
Okay.
42:32
I hope this was profitable.
42:34
Let's close with a word of prayer and move on in worship together.
42:41
Father, thank you for our time together, Lord.