back to index2017-11-12 Justification to Sanctification
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All right, turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, verses 1. 00:00:09.000 |
I'm going to read both verses 1 and 2, but our focus this morning is going to be verse 00:00:15.520 |
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as 00:00:19.840 |
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 00:00:25.080 |
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. 00:00:29.620 |
That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and 00:00:38.680 |
Heavenly Father, we come before you desiring to meet you, to praise you and honor you and 00:00:51.480 |
We pray for your word to have power over our thoughts, our hearts, our will. 00:00:57.400 |
And in light of all that you have given us, help us, Lord God, to give you a reasonable 00:01:06.120 |
We ask for your presence and your Holy Spirit's guidance. 00:01:11.080 |
All right, so again, if you've been through the whole book of Romans with us, and I don't 00:01:16.160 |
know exactly how much time we spent on it, but it's got to be at least a year and a half 00:01:24.360 |
But we've been in the book of Romans for 11 chapters, and 11 chapters of exposition of 00:01:33.140 |
And so we've been, generally speaking, if we were to title chapter 1 through 11 with 00:01:46.460 |
And so basically 11 chapters is about how someone gets saved. 00:01:54.980 |
So chapter 12 through 16, we're entering into a new section, and it is not different, but 00:02:02.960 |
So all of the teaching of justification is going to lead us to sanctification. 00:02:06.660 |
How does this apply practically in the life of a Christian? 00:02:10.180 |
So again, I have a tendency, or we have a tendency that whenever we talk a lot about 00:02:15.260 |
justification, which we have for the last 11 chapters, I typically get people coming 00:02:20.960 |
up to me and say, "Well, when are we going to talk about practical stuff, telling people 00:02:27.140 |
And then whenever I tend to spend a lot of time on the application aspect of it, I always 00:02:32.980 |
get somebody in the congregation who will come up to me and say, "Oh, how come we're 00:02:36.420 |
not talking enough about justification, and about the blood of Christ, and about the gospel?" 00:02:42.060 |
Well, we follow whatever the scripture teaches, and we're following this pattern. 00:02:46.660 |
And again, so for a period, starting from chapter 12, we're going to be talking about 00:02:51.600 |
So what does it mean if you confess these truths of 11 chapters, what does it mean in 00:02:57.980 |
So I want to just quickly read again in verse 1, where Paul says, "I appeal to you therefore." 00:03:05.620 |
Therefore meaning this is a summary of everything that he said up to 11 chapters. 00:03:08.740 |
"I appeal to you in light of all of this, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present 00:03:14.920 |
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual 00:03:21.900 |
That this is how you ought to apply what you have learned in view of this mercy. 00:03:28.420 |
When we think about sanctification, that subject alone, you could probably spend the rest of 00:03:39.620 |
As much as we can spend a lot of time talking about justification, we can talk a lot about 00:03:43.940 |
sanctification because sanctification is at the core of how the church is run. 00:03:53.300 |
So oftentimes people ask the question, "So what's the distinction between a Baptist and 00:03:57.080 |
a Presbyterian or the Charismatics versus the Methodist?" 00:04:02.820 |
Well, at the core of it, there really isn't much debate over justification. 00:04:09.360 |
We all agree, if you don't agree on justification, you wouldn't be an evangelical Christian. 00:04:19.600 |
But the reason why we have different denominations is because the application of this looks very 00:04:26.040 |
And that's because the view of sanctification is very different. 00:04:29.840 |
So I'm going to give you a quick overview, and this is not comprehensive, but this is 00:04:34.400 |
a quick overview of how this is applied in different groups. 00:04:40.360 |
The first group, we'll call them the Wesleyan group. 00:04:44.280 |
The Wesleyan group basically is, John Wesley is the one who started the Methodist church. 00:04:50.160 |
So some of you guys who may have been raised in a Methodist church, it is not just a Methodist, 00:04:54.880 |
but we're just going to call it the Wesleyan view. 00:04:56.680 |
The Wesleyan view believes that you can lose your salvation. 00:05:02.280 |
There's a heavy emphasis on human responsibility, and the reason why they are called the Methodist 00:05:07.440 |
is because their view of sanctification is that you have to apply discipleship and methods. 00:05:15.680 |
And so there's heavy emphasis on what you need to do. 00:05:18.640 |
So there's a heavy emphasis on accountability, heavy emphasis on structure, heavy emphasis 00:05:27.920 |
And so none of these things are wrong, but at the core of how people change, how people 00:05:34.240 |
apply the truths of the Word of God so that we are growing in our faith is through methods. 00:05:40.980 |
So the variations of that, we have false doctrines of perfectionism, which believes that we can 00:05:47.220 |
actually attain perfection during this life if we work hard enough. 00:05:52.040 |
Or we have another group, the Keswick, is a partial view of perfectionism. 00:05:57.680 |
Again, none of these terms are necessarily important for you to realize, but it's just 00:06:05.440 |
So if you're part of the group that thinks that sanctification is purely by hard work, 00:06:12.480 |
then we have to apply every method possible to get people to change their behavior. 00:06:20.480 |
We'll call it the Wesleyan view, but Wesleyan is not the only one who propagated this view. 00:06:29.640 |
The Pentecostal view basically says that sanctification happens when you are touched by the Holy Spirit. 00:06:36.660 |
So they believe that there are two separate baptisms. 00:06:39.420 |
There's an initial baptism that you receive when you first become a Christian, and then 00:06:44.320 |
there's a second baptism of the Holy Spirit, where you need to be continually filled with 00:06:50.940 |
And so the way that an individual is sanctified or grows in his faith is a constant filling 00:06:57.900 |
So if you are part of a camp that believes that, imagine how that will affect your worship, 00:07:08.140 |
Your primary emphasis would be, are you being touched? 00:07:18.680 |
So there's a heavy emphasis on, and Holy Spirit touching, are you being touched? 00:07:27.220 |
And so the Pentecostals, again, we have variations of this view, but the Pentecostals believe 00:07:33.080 |
that sanctification happens as a result of spiritual encounter with the Holy Spirit and 00:07:39.100 |
constant renewing and filling of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:44.680 |
And then you have the third, and again, there's more than three, but these are kind of the 00:07:50.800 |
And this comes from, again, not all, but a lot of the Presbyterian, the confessionally 00:07:56.020 |
reformed camp, where they believe that exposure to the common grace that God has given in 00:08:01.680 |
the church, the covenant community, that if you are exposed to that, and if you encounter 00:08:06.920 |
that, if you're part of that, that sanctification tends to happen. 00:08:11.600 |
And so the way that that is applied, that is that you memorize catechism, that you participate 00:08:17.600 |
in communion, that you baptize infants, and so they receive this grace of being within 00:08:26.700 |
So there's a heavy emphasis on church, meaning participating in the church, in the communion, 00:08:37.680 |
Now, everything that I've mentioned are within the debate among the evangelical community. 00:08:45.400 |
We wouldn't say that they're not Christians because they have these views. 00:08:48.080 |
In fact, at the core of what they teach is not wrong. 00:08:55.880 |
And there are some things, obviously, that you could take it to the extreme, which some 00:09:00.320 |
You have the Church of Christ, that we do not believe that they're part of the evangelical 00:09:05.360 |
You have the Church of Christ, who will teach that if you're not part of their church, if 00:09:12.640 |
you're not part of their baptism, that you're not Christian. 00:09:15.680 |
And obviously, that is not proper teaching of justification. 00:09:22.560 |
You have another group called the local church movement. 00:09:30.040 |
And the local church movement, who was founded by Watchman Nee's disciple, Witness Lee, and 00:09:35.360 |
they believe that there are two separate groups of Christians. 00:09:39.320 |
You have the regular Christians, and you have the kingdom Christians. 00:09:42.980 |
And so the kingdom Christians are people who are part of their church, who live a certain 00:09:47.120 |
way, who do certain things, who give and actively participate, but you have to be part of their 00:09:53.320 |
So that's how they have dealt with this issue of sanctification. 00:09:57.800 |
And then you have the apostolic Pentecostals. 00:10:00.260 |
Not the Pentecostals, but the apostolic Pentecostals believe that sanctification happens as a result 00:10:05.120 |
of encountering God, and if you don't speak in tongues, that's a sign that you don't have 00:10:11.440 |
And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian. 00:10:13.560 |
So again, there's aberrations and heresies of these false views or incomplete views when 00:10:19.640 |
you take it to the extreme, which I gave you an example of. 00:10:22.920 |
And so it's extremely important that justification part for us in a Bible teaching church is 00:10:33.440 |
It's easy because there is universal agreement. 00:10:36.320 |
The church has debated this for 2,000 years, and universally within the Orthodox community, 00:10:43.840 |
there is agreement on justification, that we're all justified by the grace of God by 00:10:51.700 |
And you wouldn't be a Christian if you denied any of these things. 00:11:05.360 |
How do you get somebody like the Great Commission teaching them to observe all that I have commanded 00:11:11.560 |
How does one person come from making a confession of faith into growing into a mature Christian 00:11:20.920 |
Well, that's what Paul is going to get at in Romans chapter 12 through chapter 16. 00:11:25.160 |
He's going to be talking about, "Therefore, since you know all of this, now it's time 00:11:33.760 |
So again, as an introduction this morning, I can't emphasize enough how important this 00:11:38.100 |
is because my guess is that most of you did not wrestle with justification. 00:11:44.720 |
If you're already confessing Christians, you already knew that. 00:11:46.680 |
A lot of that was highlighting, it was for the purpose of for you to be reminded, or 00:11:55.400 |
But my guess is a lot of you, if not most of you, have wrestled with this thought of 00:12:04.080 |
What does it mean to challenge people to bear fruit? 00:12:08.080 |
So hopefully the next four chapters that we're in this, that we can dive into a little bit 00:12:14.640 |
First, so there are I think four things that I want to mention just in this first verse 00:12:20.360 |
alone because it is the beginning and it'll kind of set the tone for the rest of the teaching 00:12:27.080 |
There are four things that he talks about in, about sanctification. 00:12:30.440 |
So number one, we are commanded to take active part in our sanctification. 00:12:36.600 |
Number one, we are commanded to take active part in our sanctification. 00:12:42.040 |
Sanctification is not us just sitting there thinking, "You know what? 00:12:45.120 |
I confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior," and then, and then rest of it is the church's 00:12:53.720 |
He said, no, he says we are to take active part. 00:12:57.320 |
In Romans chapter one, he says that, "I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercy of 00:13:04.440 |
God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." 00:13:10.640 |
He's not saying this is what Christ did, but now as, because what Christ did, here's what 00:13:24.080 |
Romans 619, it says, "For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity 00:13:28.640 |
and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness 00:13:37.120 |
So he mentions again in Romans chapter 619, present. 00:13:41.200 |
We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:13:44.940 |
We are to present our members as slaves to righteousness. 00:13:48.800 |
That's not something you passively just receive. 00:13:54.440 |
We received the Holy Spirit, and in response to that, he says, "Now you present yourselves 00:14:02.560 |
Second Timothy 2.22, Paul says to his young disciple, "Flee youthful passions." 00:14:10.600 |
He doesn't just say passively waiting for the passion, the youthful passion to disappear. 00:14:18.480 |
How many of us view sanctification as something that you respond to? 00:14:25.480 |
If God would just take away these passions, it would be so much easier. 00:14:37.320 |
Paul understands that Timothy has youthful passions in him. 00:14:43.080 |
He assumes that all young men and young women have these youthful passions that they are 00:14:52.280 |
Do something about it so that's no longer there." 00:15:03.080 |
And sanctification always has that two aspect where you are to flee, then to pursue righteousness. 00:15:08.120 |
Again, in Ephesians 4.22-24, the language is similar but different vocabulary. 00:15:15.160 |
Instead of fleeing and pursuing, it says to put off and to put on. 00:15:24.160 |
Other passions that you had before you became a Christian, recognizing that that does not 00:15:31.440 |
Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through 00:15:39.000 |
And to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new self created after the 00:15:43.920 |
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 00:15:49.800 |
So part of sanctification is recognize what are some things that you need to put off? 00:15:57.320 |
What are some things that don't belong in the kingdom of God? 00:16:05.440 |
And so if we don't recognize that, if we don't take time and be in His Word, and sometimes 00:16:10.760 |
in the fellowship of the church, to recognize there's certain pattern of thinking, there's 00:16:14.960 |
certain thoughts that you have, certain passions, certain habits that you have that is inconsistent 00:16:25.080 |
To say that we have eternity in mind and then to invest 99% of all our week on the temporal 00:16:32.760 |
things is inconsistent with what you profess. 00:16:36.920 |
So that's what he means, recognizing what is old and to put that off and then pursue 00:16:44.400 |
So this idea of sanctification is for us to put off and to put on. 00:16:50.160 |
Paul himself, the apostle, who's writing these words, himself describes his sanctification 00:16:55.200 |
in 1 Corinthians 9, 27, "But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after 00:17:00.720 |
preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." 00:17:05.200 |
Paul fully is aware that he does not lose his salvation. 00:17:13.140 |
Yet the language that he uses here in 1 Corinthians 9, 27, he says he labors, he disciplines, 00:17:19.520 |
he fights against his flesh so that after he has taught everybody else that he himself 00:17:24.680 |
would not be disqualified, that his life would be inconsistent with what he preaches and 00:17:32.440 |
Hebrews 12, verse 14, "Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without 00:17:43.920 |
Let that sink in for a minute, what he just said. 00:17:48.080 |
Strive for peace with everyone and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 00:17:53.640 |
Is he talking about justification or sanctification? 00:18:02.200 |
He said strive, work toward peace, strive and work toward holiness and without it, you're 00:18:16.760 |
Our sanctification is not completely separated from justification. 00:18:22.080 |
Our sanctification and justification is really two sides of the same coin. 00:18:28.140 |
So he's not saying now that you've been justified and you can't lose your salvation, let's go 00:18:31.280 |
to sanctification and try to work hard and do this. 00:18:33.640 |
He says no, since you have been justified, now this is what your sanctification is going 00:18:41.480 |
Just as justification required your confession and your repentance, that the Holy Spirit 00:18:47.600 |
led you to that, in the same way, sanctification, the Lord is working but it requires your commitment. 00:18:59.440 |
That's not something that you do if you just find the right church and right small group 00:19:02.920 |
and right leader, that somehow sanctification is going to happen. 00:19:07.800 |
You just choose the right boat and the rest of it is just sailing and enjoying the ride. 00:19:23.240 |
How much of our spiritual dryness is directly linked to a passive, uncommitted life that 00:19:37.900 |
How much of our weak prayer life is directly linked to a passive commitment to our own 00:19:45.540 |
That we're so committed to fix other people's sins, but passively, it's like, well, you 00:19:51.040 |
know, everybody makes a mistake, but when it comes to other people's sin, you just can't 00:19:58.160 |
I remember early on as a Christian, you know, it was so hard because there was certain things 00:20:03.740 |
that I did before I became a Christian and I had such a hard time. 00:20:09.280 |
My biggest problem was not smoking, drinking, it was my temper. 00:20:14.400 |
And I got into a lot of fights, you know, and especially anything racial, like I had 00:20:21.320 |
You know, I could hear some ting or ching down the hall and I'm running down the hall 00:20:24.920 |
already, you know, because I would lose my temper. 00:20:26.920 |
So even after I became a Christian, it was a problem. 00:20:30.080 |
You know, I had a lot of rage in me and I would just lose my temper. 00:20:34.640 |
And I remember early on, I got in a huge fight in the middle of Bible study, you know, and 00:20:42.680 |
And this is another guy who was a brand new Christian and I was a brand new Christian 00:20:45.600 |
and we were just messing around and then we got carried away and then both of us got mad 00:20:49.960 |
and we dragged each other downstairs outside in the middle of Bible study. 00:20:55.420 |
And Philip running down, you know, to try to stop the fight and then my other Christian 00:21:00.600 |
friends were more mature than me trying to come and break us up. 00:21:03.640 |
And I remember Philip distinctly saying, "Don't touch him when he's like that. 00:21:10.000 |
So early on as a Christian, I struggled so much with wanting to be renewed, but it was 00:21:17.440 |
And every time I would fail, I would be down on myself and it would take, you know, a whole 00:21:22.640 |
week and then I would wait till Friday night to repent. 00:21:28.920 |
The reason why I decided to go to Biola was not because I wanted to go into ministry. 00:21:35.440 |
I went to Biola because I was hoping that I would meet other strong Christians that 00:21:39.260 |
I can decide because the church that my father was passing didn't have a large youth group 00:21:43.320 |
or college ministry and there weren't a lot of people that I could look up to as a 00:21:48.440 |
And so when I went to Biola, you know, I went with this expectation that I'm going to 00:21:58.040 |
And then after about half a semester, I realized that they were no better than I was. 00:22:05.920 |
Like the only difference was they seemed to be okay with it. 00:22:11.560 |
That's just the way we are, you know, like God just wants us to feel bad and we repent 00:22:16.180 |
And it almost seemed like, you know, every time we talk about whether it's purity or 00:22:24.660 |
Like, "When's the last time you read your Bible?" 00:22:30.540 |
So people get frustrated enough, they would just leave. 00:22:36.580 |
And I started to think, "Well, what if these are the cream of the crop?" 00:22:40.660 |
At least in my view, because these are all leaders in the church. 00:22:47.340 |
So if it's this bad here, I mean, it must be worse on a secular campus. 00:22:53.860 |
And then I had to kind of go through this paradigm. 00:23:00.740 |
Maybe sanctification is just something like, you know, like God dangling a carrot. 00:23:06.580 |
And He wants us to kind of keep reaching for it and then just be frustrated and then long 00:23:12.960 |
So because I didn't know anybody who I looked up to and said, "Wow, that guy is really living 00:23:21.200 |
I had all this passion in me and I didn't know how to apply it. 00:23:26.920 |
Until I met my former youth pastor and he said he wanted to disciple me. 00:23:30.880 |
And there was a campus ministry called Little Spark. 00:23:32.760 |
And it was kind of an offshoot from Navigators and it was strict discipleship. 00:23:38.160 |
And I met these group of people who were on fire for God and they were actually praying. 00:23:49.080 |
I became a part of their discipleship program. 00:23:52.320 |
And I lived with these guys for the next four years. 00:23:57.700 |
Whether I slept at two or three o'clock, we woke up at five. 00:24:04.280 |
Like this is Monday through Sunday, every single day. 00:24:08.280 |
And then every night we're supposed to sit at six o'clock after eating dinner and just 00:24:12.160 |
read the Bible together because we were all, you know, actively involved in ministry. 00:24:16.920 |
And that Bible reading, it was supposed to be 20-minute Bible reading every day, turned 00:24:20.680 |
into a three-hour Bible study every single day. 00:24:29.400 |
But the reason why I share that story was because my paradigm completely shifted. 00:24:34.880 |
I went from maybe this isn't possible to, wow, this is possible. 00:24:40.000 |
And so I was very thankful for those four or five years in ministry. 00:24:43.840 |
That's not where my life, my understanding of sanctification ends. 00:24:46.880 |
But I realized that discipline and hard work was absolutely necessary. 00:24:59.280 |
It requires our active commitment to sanctification. 00:25:03.560 |
And so the first question I have for you is, are you committed to your sanctification? 00:25:09.760 |
Are you regularly examining your heart, your motive, how you spend your money, your time, 00:25:22.680 |
Are you actively committed to your own sanctification? 00:25:26.080 |
Are you passively hoping that it will happen? 00:25:29.320 |
You would meet the right person, that you would find the right group? 00:25:33.520 |
Secondly, sanctification is motivated and empowered by the grace of God. 00:25:39.720 |
If you do the first without recognizing the second, you have the Wesleyan view. 00:25:49.080 |
I got part of that group, and it helped me tremendously in discipline. 00:25:55.960 |
In fact, our leader in our home, he will never allow us to be idle. 00:26:04.200 |
So Friday nights, before I became a youth pastor, a few of us would sit around and say, 00:26:10.440 |
He would walk in from his Bible study, and then he'll sit and just... 00:26:13.880 |
And this is during a time when we didn't have a TV in our apartment, there were no cell 00:26:16.920 |
phones, and so it wasn't like we were doing anything dumb. 00:26:22.200 |
Usually we would just sit around just talking, maybe about Lakers or something. 00:26:31.640 |
And then he would take us out to the pier, the Baboa Pier or Huntington, and then we 00:26:36.280 |
would just go evangelize for a couple hours and come back. 00:26:39.860 |
So I was tremendously blessed by the discipline. 00:26:45.480 |
But after about three, four years, I started seeing something. 00:26:53.560 |
But I started to see some of my friends who were there, who were jumping through the hoops 00:27:00.680 |
and doing everything that was expected in that group, but we would sit down and have 00:27:04.280 |
conversations about our passion for Christ and about right doctrine, and there would 00:27:12.640 |
I felt like I wasn't able to fellowship among these people, these people that I really looked 00:27:19.200 |
And I started to think, how much of this is institutionalism versus real discipleship? 00:27:27.840 |
How much of this is motivated by wanting to please man rather than to please God? 00:27:40.400 |
What a fear of what people will say if you don't do it. 00:27:46.560 |
Even the good things that we do, there's some of that. 00:27:50.360 |
The way you dress, how you sing, participating in the church, reading the Bible, coming to 00:27:58.220 |
So much of that, it's intertwined with maybe true motive of wanting to honor God. 00:28:06.780 |
Think about how much of our motivation is wanting to conform, to fit in. 00:28:13.440 |
And then we also can be motivated by wanting to appease God, because if you don't appease 00:28:20.200 |
Remember a whole group of people, you know, the 5,000 in John chapter 6? 00:28:25.400 |
Remember how all of them were so excited to make Jesus king? 00:28:28.800 |
And then when Jesus says, "I am the bread of life," and you're coming to me because 00:28:36.240 |
And then when they realized what Jesus was saying, they turned away and they disappeared. 00:28:40.760 |
How much of what we're doing is fear of man and fear of if we don't appease God, God's 00:28:45.280 |
not going to bless my family, he's not going to bless my kids. 00:28:50.320 |
It's hard for us to discern, but there is some of that in there. 00:28:59.160 |
If you don't read your Bible every day, if you don't study, if you don't pray enough, 00:29:09.720 |
So much of our motivation is intertwined with worldly things that sometimes we can't even 00:29:16.080 |
See, but he says the reason why you do this is just as important as what you're doing. 00:29:24.240 |
Because if you do something motivated by the wrong thing, it could completely nullify everything 00:29:32.280 |
So he says, again, the second point is sanctification is motivated and empowered by the mercy of 00:29:41.320 |
NIV says, "Present your body as a living sacrifice in view of God's mercy." 00:29:47.260 |
Or in the ESV, it says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God." 00:29:57.120 |
So if you look at those two translations, it says, "in view of mercy," meaning in light 00:30:03.140 |
By the mercy of God sounds like through, through the grace. 00:30:11.600 |
That it is in view of his mercy, being affected by his mercy, and by his mercy, by his strength, 00:30:18.800 |
that we carry out, we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:30:24.040 |
And that's what he's been talking about for 11 chapters. 00:30:26.760 |
11 chapters to give us a view of his mercies. 00:30:30.280 |
11 chapters of giving us in-depth, firsthand view of what it is that we have received in 00:30:46.500 |
He says, "In view of all of this, he who did not spare his own son, how will he not, along 00:30:53.020 |
He didn't just justify us and then say, "Hey, go. 00:30:56.900 |
And if you don't make it, you're not going to see God." 00:31:01.560 |
It started by his mercy, and we fulfill it by his mercy. 00:31:07.540 |
That's, again, in Colossians 1:26, where Paul says, "For this I toil, struggling with all 00:31:24.620 |
But he also recognized the energy that he has to do this is God himself. 00:31:30.420 |
Philippians 1:6, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring 00:31:36.800 |
it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." 00:31:40.700 |
You see how he talks about three aspects of salvation? 00:31:44.040 |
He who started the good work will carry it out unto completion, past, present, and future. 00:31:50.900 |
He says, "I'm confident of the Philippians, not because of you, but because he who began 00:31:56.620 |
it, he will fulfill it, and he will complete it." 00:32:02.820 |
Hebrews chapter 12, 2, "Therefore, looking to Jesus," NIV says, "Fix your eyes upon Jesus, 00:32:11.620 |
Again, one more verse, 2 Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of Christ controls us, because 00:32:20.460 |
we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. 00:32:24.940 |
And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, and for him 00:32:37.300 |
Moralism is just as dangerous as worldliness. 00:32:44.920 |
Moralism is just as dangerous as worldliness, because moralism is by your good work saying 00:32:51.420 |
that you don't need God, that you work hard, and if I achieve, and if I'm disciplined enough, 00:32:57.140 |
if I'm smart enough and make the right decisions and manage my money right enough, then I could 00:33:06.700 |
But at the core of moralism, you don't need God. 00:33:20.120 |
And it was their moralism that blinded them for the need of Christ. 00:33:25.100 |
So the beginning work of sanctification is being affected by justification. 00:33:32.060 |
And the continual work of sanctification is continual affecting of that justification. 00:33:41.940 |
So the first area that you and I need to wrestle with is, do you have affection for Christ? 00:33:55.840 |
Have you truly been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ? 00:34:02.480 |
And if you have, why does that not affect your emotions? 00:34:18.960 |
Because sanctification without being affected by justification can easily lead to moralism. 00:34:35.840 |
You're good at doing what you're supposed to do. 00:34:47.840 |
And you make everyone happy, and whatever you volunteer in gets done very well. 00:34:54.160 |
But when that is your motivation for your sanctification, it doesn't lead to glorifying 00:35:07.160 |
It leads to greater judgmentalism, impatience with other people who are not getting As. 00:35:14.080 |
It doesn't lead to humbling and seeing the glory of God. 00:35:19.280 |
It leads to greater independence from God, greater independence from others. 00:35:26.160 |
See, that's why in 2 Corinthians 3.18, and this is how sanctification is described, "And 00:35:32.760 |
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into 00:35:38.120 |
the same image from one degree of glory to another. 00:35:41.760 |
For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 00:35:46.080 |
That's a biblical definition of sanctification. 00:35:50.200 |
As we are beholding the glory of the Lord, and wasn't that what justification was? 00:35:56.880 |
Justification was the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus 00:36:00.280 |
Christ, and now sanctification is continuing to behold the glory of the Lord and are being 00:36:08.640 |
The more of his glory that we see, the more of his glory is being reflected off of us, 00:36:19.160 |
Isn't that transformation that he's talking about? 00:36:22.160 |
Isn't that sanctification that he's talking about? 00:36:24.680 |
Isn't that spiritual maturity he's talking about? 00:36:26.720 |
He's not describing spiritual maturity as somebody who's more disciplined in reading 00:36:30.200 |
the Bible, even though that is a great part of it. 00:36:35.160 |
He's not just simply describing somebody who's giving more, who's serving more. 00:36:40.080 |
All of these things are ramifications of the glory of God being reflected. 00:36:45.040 |
But at the core of transformation is more of his glory being reflected from one degree 00:36:56.840 |
As we continue to behold a greater degree of his glory, a greater degree of glory is 00:37:01.440 |
being reflected off of us from moment to moment. 00:37:07.480 |
So it's not simply about doing the right things. 00:37:11.760 |
The motive behind it, what pushes you towards sanctification? 00:37:15.600 |
There's a tremendous amount of difference between a fellowship of believers who are 00:37:22.440 |
being broken by the things of God, wanting to honor God in their life. 00:37:39.320 |
Because they're approaching it as a sinner who is in need of the grace of God. 00:37:44.240 |
Versus a room filled with people who have achieved greatness on their own, by their 00:37:51.880 |
discipline, and just cannot tolerate anybody who does anything less. 00:37:59.000 |
From a distance, it may look like, "Wow, those guys have it together. 00:38:03.720 |
Those guys memorize scripture, they do this, and so many people volunteering, and they're 00:38:08.640 |
But when you get real close to them, all you hear is grumbling. 00:38:17.400 |
You don't hear about how they're being affected and being broken by what Christ has done. 00:38:21.600 |
No, all you hear are these highly moral people, and a group, is a lot of grumbling. 00:38:31.120 |
And that completely ruins the third aspect of what sanctification is. 00:38:37.480 |
Ultimately, sanctification is an act of worship. 00:38:42.520 |
He says, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies 00:38:46.880 |
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, good to God, which is your spiritual worship." 00:38:55.160 |
So, sanctification ultimately is an act of worship. 00:39:01.200 |
Now he says, "To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." 00:39:03.560 |
Now clearly, he spent 11 chapters talking about how we don't need the sacrifices anymore. 00:39:10.080 |
11 chapters of expounding how the Old Testament sacrifices only pointed to Christ, and Christ 00:39:21.080 |
In order to understand what Paul is saying in chapter 12, you need to understand that 00:39:24.800 |
there are two major distinctions in the Old Testament of sacrifices. 00:39:29.060 |
You had the mandatory sacrifice, and you had the voluntary sacrifice. 00:39:33.600 |
Mandatory sacrifice, you could not come to the temple without it. 00:39:37.880 |
If you sinned and you didn't give a sin offering, and you didn't give a whole offering, you 00:39:50.960 |
In order, when you sin, your sins had to be atoned for. 00:39:54.200 |
And then there was a second large category of offerings, was voluntary. 00:40:00.780 |
God wanted it out of the abundance of your heart. 00:40:04.840 |
And that's what he means in Isaiah when he says, "I do not delight in your sacrifice." 00:40:15.880 |
Because what God wanted in the sacrifice was not the dead animals. 00:40:23.960 |
So in the New Testament, the mandatory sacrifice has been made in the whole book of Hebrew. 00:40:30.000 |
If you want to go into detail about that, go into the exposition of the book of Hebrew. 00:40:33.800 |
It teaches how Christ fulfilled the mandatory sacrifice. 00:40:37.000 |
So when here, when he says the voluntary sacrifice, there is no meaning behind voluntary sacrifice 00:40:53.120 |
People ask all the time, "Do you have to go to church to be saved?" 00:41:06.520 |
Because all of that would be adding to justification. 00:41:20.040 |
So if we participate in our sanctification in the church and offering, and if it is not 00:41:29.840 |
Because in God's eyes, what he's ultimately desiring is for his people to respond and 00:41:39.440 |
Sanctification ultimately is an act of worship. 00:41:42.240 |
That's why in John chapter 4, 23-24, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, "But the hour 00:41:47.080 |
is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." 00:41:55.720 |
Not only because it is right to do it, but because he desires to do it. 00:42:00.400 |
Not only because it is written to do it, but because he wants to do it. 00:42:04.280 |
And that's why he says, even of the giving of the Corinthians, he says, "These Macedonians, 00:42:09.760 |
even in the midst of intense poverty, they said, 'Give me an opportunity to give.' 00:42:16.960 |
And he said, 'No, you need to take care of yourselves.' 00:42:18.920 |
But he said, 'No, we want the opportunity to worship.'" 00:42:22.960 |
And he highlights it, and that's why they were highlighted as model of giving, for God 00:42:27.560 |
desires a cheerful giver, meaning he wants to worship. 00:42:32.080 |
He's not saying, "Hey, we're short this month. 00:42:42.360 |
So how are we going to raise this $18 billion and get them to do this?" 00:42:46.320 |
And so I get notices all the time, "How to get more money from the congregation?" 00:42:50.920 |
There's a whole industry that targets churches to get you to give more money. 00:42:57.760 |
And they have all these statistics, just like any business, they have all these statistics 00:43:00.520 |
that this church did this, and their offering went up 30%. 00:43:06.800 |
Humanly speaking, it's like, "Oh, what can we do with 30 more percent? 00:43:13.760 |
I mean, we can think about all this stuff, but in the end, that's human thinking. 00:43:24.960 |
Is the kingdom frustrated because there isn't enough money? 00:43:31.960 |
What God wants is worship, and so money is an act of worship. 00:43:39.360 |
So again, in 1 Peter 4, 9-11, it says, "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling," 00:43:44.880 |
because the minute you start grumbling, it nullifies what you're doing. 00:43:48.160 |
"Without grumbling, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as a good 00:43:55.680 |
Whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by 00:44:00.400 |
the strength that God supplies, you know that in everything God may be glorified through 00:44:05.780 |
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. 00:44:15.840 |
He's glorified because of why we gave the money. 00:44:26.120 |
If I don't, I've got to buy free boba for everybody in my small group." 00:44:35.080 |
If people volunteer to do that and say, "Hey, can you keep me accountable, and if I don't 00:44:38.520 |
do this, make me pay boba," I'm not against that. 00:44:45.480 |
It's just like telling your friend, "I want to go to the gym every morning. 00:44:51.280 |
And if I don't, then I've got to buy you breakfast." 00:44:56.120 |
So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. 00:44:57.800 |
But if that's the only reason why you're doing that, then it is not an act of worship. 00:45:06.760 |
Sanctification ultimately happens with people who have been affected by what Christ has 00:45:14.400 |
And then fourth and finally, sanctification is a logical, reasonable response to worship 00:45:22.120 |
Now in our ESV translation, it says it is a spiritual act of worship, but the literal 00:45:36.320 |
Isn't it logical to think that people who have been affected by the cross, that you'd 00:45:44.600 |
Yeah, I think we would expect that for anybody. 00:45:48.560 |
If somebody won the biggest lottery in the world, you know, they won the biggest lottery 00:45:56.680 |
in the world and they're as cheap as they've ever been, right? 00:46:01.840 |
You loan them a dollar and they come after you. 00:46:08.600 |
And your mind is like, "Dude, you just won a billion dollars." 00:46:13.680 |
So in your mind, it's like, "Did this guy really win this or is this guy really that 00:46:19.960 |
So what he's saying is, if this happened to you, the reasonable, logical response would 00:46:32.120 |
And that's what corporate worship ultimately is. 00:46:36.320 |
A room filled with people who have been affected by the work of Christ, giving thanks to Him. 00:46:44.080 |
What ruins the church is when the church is filled with people who've just been raised 00:46:54.240 |
Now, church is any given church, and I'm assuming even in our church. 00:47:05.040 |
And sometimes you may be coming in with a, like, "Man, I really want to worship God." 00:47:12.400 |
And then a lot of times you may be coming because it's just Sunday. 00:47:25.000 |
I literally need to have surgery on my legs to miss church because it just feels weird. 00:47:29.440 |
There's a part of me that wants to be right with God and honor God, and there's a part 00:47:32.920 |
of me that just feels weird, like something bad's going to happen to me if I don't go 00:47:39.080 |
And there's a part of all of that stuff is mixed in me. 00:47:43.600 |
See, the difference between a church that reflects the aroma of Christ versus a church 00:47:53.720 |
that smells and sounds like a bunch of Pharisees is what's happening in your heart. 00:48:04.680 |
It's not the organization, but it's what's happening in your heart. 00:48:09.800 |
Let me quickly review and then wrap up because this is kind of an introduction to sanctification 00:48:15.240 |
that we're going to be talking about for the next four chapters. 00:48:23.240 |
Secondly, sanctification is motivated and empowered by the grace of God. 00:48:31.080 |
You have to meditate, think about regularly what it is that you have in Christ. 00:48:36.240 |
Thirdly, sanctification is an act of worship. 00:48:42.680 |
You know, in fact, sometimes serving in the most menial things is the greater act of worship, 00:48:50.040 |
Because when you get praise from men for something you do, sometimes the motivation is kind of 00:48:54.880 |
Like, "Am I doing that because people praise me for it?" 00:48:59.360 |
You know, sometimes I deliberately do things that are menial and I don't tell anybody about 00:49:04.520 |
it, which I just told you now, so now everything's nullified. 00:49:09.400 |
I deliberately do that and then no one knows about it because I want to check my own heart 00:49:17.040 |
So sometimes I deliberately do things that no one would know and I don't want anybody 00:49:24.680 |
And this is not for anybody to—and it's not because it was absolutely necessary, simply 00:49:34.080 |
Because a lot of the things that we do behind the scene that nobody sees, a lot of times 00:49:39.400 |
is a greater act of worship than being up in the front and doing stuff. 00:49:44.760 |
Am I pursuing sanctification as an act of worship? 00:49:48.640 |
And fourth and finally, is this the reasonable response? 00:50:06.320 |
I hope that we can set that as an outline and as a base as we continue to study this, 00:50:11.980 |
that we would get a greater sense of not only understand sanctification, but hopefully begin 00:50:17.780 |
Let's take some time to pray as we ask—our praise seemed to come up. 00:50:29.400 |
And seek the Lord and if you find yourself kind of passively hoping sanctification would 00:50:33.800 |
happen, I want to encourage you to think practically of how this should be applied in your life.