ACBC Theology Exam 20 - Synergistic Sanctification

00:00:00.000 | to see you all on this online webinar, and thankful for your faithfulness, and

00:00:07.160 | thankful for the opportunity that we have to study God's Word tonight. We're

00:00:12.400 | gonna be looking at Theology exam number 20 tonight, and it's a topic of

00:00:18.600 | sanctification, specifically dealing with the issue of present-day progressive

00:00:24.880 | sanctification, and I trust that this will be a wonderful study for all of us.

00:00:30.880 | So thanks so much for your faithfulness. My wife and I had a great vacation last

00:00:37.280 | week, and just a good time recharging batteries and getting some rest up in

00:00:42.040 | the mountains, and thankful to be back with you tonight, and we're gonna make a

00:00:47.160 | strong finish to the Theology exams of this class. So we're looking at tonight

00:00:54.120 | Theology exam number 20, the issue of synergistic sanctification, which means

00:01:03.680 | that basically we cooperate with the grace of God in actively pursuing

00:01:10.640 | sanctification. I am gonna do a little bit of critique on that term "synergistic"

00:01:17.320 | tonight, and talk a little bit about the issue of monergistic versus synergistic

00:01:25.800 | sanctification, but I do think that the concept that we are dealing with tonight

00:01:32.080 | is plainly taught in the Word of God, and that is simply this, that the believer in

00:01:38.320 | Christ is called to actively pursue sanctification. We are called to actively

00:01:45.560 | battle for our sanctification, to be disciplined, to train ourselves for the

00:01:51.720 | purpose of godliness, to not be passive, to not be lazy in the pursuit of

00:02:00.400 | sanctification, and we're gonna see the balance in the teaching of what the

00:02:05.460 | Scriptures say, that we are called to pursue sanctification, and to exert

00:02:13.280 | diligent effort in pursuing Christ-likeness, and yet all of that is

00:02:19.240 | simply the expression of the grace of God working in our lives. And so this is

00:02:26.280 | a topic that I think is going to be helpful for all of us. We do need to be

00:02:31.880 | aware of some of the imbalances and some of the theological errors as it relates

00:02:37.240 | to sanctification, and so I think this study will be helpful to us. A couple of

00:02:43.560 | passages, just these aren't on your notes, but just to open our class with, Paul

00:02:49.080 | said in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and

00:02:56.360 | His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of

00:03:03.460 | them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." So you read that

00:03:12.840 | text and you ask the question, which is it, Paul? Was it God's grace working in

00:03:20.920 | your life that produced spiritual fruit and produced effective ministry, or were

00:03:28.900 | you the one who was doing the work? Was it you working hard, or was it God's

00:03:36.400 | grace working in you? And Paul would say, according to this verse, that the answer

00:03:43.400 | is yes to both. I was working. I worked harder than any of them, he said. I didn't

00:03:55.200 | just sit back and wait for the grace of God to work in me. I didn't just

00:04:00.640 | passively expect God to do a work in my life. I worked hard, and I was working, and

00:04:10.520 | yet he immediately adds after making that statement that it was the grace of

00:04:16.040 | God working in me. So which is it? Was it God's grace working in you, or was it you

00:04:23.560 | working? And Paul says yes to both. I was working. I was working hard, but I was

00:04:33.440 | working because God's grace was working in me. That's the concept, basically, of

00:04:42.920 | synergistic sanctification. God's grace is the one that does the work. God's

00:04:49.120 | grace is working in us. The Holy Spirit is working in us to make us more like

00:04:55.060 | Jesus Christ, and yet the grace of God working in us does not produce a passive

00:05:01.520 | approach to spiritual life. The grace of God working in us produces a Christian

00:05:10.320 | who works hard, who actively and diligently trains for godliness, who

00:05:17.120 | actively pursues sanctification. That's basically what this essay topic is about,

00:05:24.520 | this concept of synergistic sanctification. I am working. God's grace

00:05:31.040 | is working. I am working because God's grace is working, and the truth is that

00:05:39.440 | my working out my salvation with fear and trembling is evidence of God's doing

00:05:46.080 | His work in my life. So I do believe this is a very important topic tonight, and

00:05:54.320 | one that I trust will be helpful in your studies. I've been a pastor now for 25

00:06:03.040 | years. I have seen aberrant views of sanctification come and go in the church.

00:06:09.920 | I have seen how wrong views of sanctification affect people's lives.

00:06:14.960 | I've seen wrong views of sanctification affect the church, and just the trends

00:06:21.920 | come and go, and it's really important that we understand the doctrine of

00:06:26.400 | present-day progressive sanctification and hold those truths in balance, that we

00:06:33.280 | are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, always with the

00:06:38.200 | confidence that it is God who is doing His work in us, and that He will be

00:06:44.360 | faithful to complete the work that He began in us. So I trust that this will be

00:06:50.520 | a good hour of reflection on that theme. Let me pray for us, and let's devote this

00:06:55.640 | time to the Lord. Let's pray. Well, Father, we do thank You that You are always

00:07:02.200 | working in our lives. We thank You that You are the one who has begun the work

00:07:08.680 | in us, and that You are the one who will be faithful to complete that work at the

00:07:15.040 | day of Christ Jesus. We thank You that You are working to make us more like

00:07:19.240 | Your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank You that You are working to make us more holy. We

00:07:26.480 | thank You that You are working through the trials in our lives, through the

00:07:31.360 | disappointments, through even the heartaches and the difficulties, through

00:07:36.760 | the various trials that we encounter in this life. You are working through it all

00:07:42.960 | to make us more like Christ. We thank You that it is because You are working that

00:07:50.920 | we are able to work out our salvation with fear and with trembling. And so we

00:07:58.160 | pray that we would understand the doctrine of sanctification biblically,

00:08:03.200 | and that we would be able to make application to our lives. And we would

00:08:08.540 | pray that even for this hour of study, that both dynamics would be true of even

00:08:16.160 | this hour, that we would work hard, that we would work hard to understand, to

00:08:23.640 | clarify, to read, to be precise about what Your Word teaches regarding

00:08:30.200 | sanctification. And yet, our working hard would be simply the expression of You

00:08:37.320 | performing Your work in us. Do Your work in each of our hearts tonight, and bear

00:08:43.760 | fruit, we pray, for Your glory. And so we give this time to You, in Jesus' name, amen.

00:08:51.360 | Amen. Well, let's read the question together, and then we're gonna dive into

00:08:55.720 | our notes tonight. Again, we're looking at Theology Exam number 20. The question

00:09:01.720 | is, "Explain the synergistic nature of sanctification, being sure to describe the

00:09:08.560 | relationship between God's grace and moral effort in the Christian life." So,

00:09:15.960 | the question wants us to deal with the synergistic nature of sanctification, and

00:09:23.480 | then to describe the relationship between God's grace and moral effort. And

00:09:30.040 | a key verse in that discussion is, as I just mentioned, 1 Corinthians chapter 15

00:09:35.360 | verse 10, as well as Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13. So, you will remember

00:09:45.120 | that this is the second question on the ACBC Theology Exams, which deal with the

00:09:52.160 | subject of sanctification. You'll remember that Theology Exam number 19

00:09:58.480 | asked us to explain the biblical categories of past, present, and future

00:10:06.160 | sanctification. So, we looked at that last time that we met, that there is a past

00:10:12.680 | aspect to sanctification, which theologians refer to as definitive or

00:10:19.360 | positional sanctification. That we have been sanctified at the moment of

00:10:27.360 | conversion. There was a decisive break between the believer and the power of

00:10:34.300 | sin. The believer has been united with Christ in his life, death, and resurrection.

00:10:39.840 | And so, we have been set apart in the past. We have been sanctified in the

00:10:46.800 | sense that we are no longer living as slaves to sin. We are no longer under the

00:10:53.120 | dominion of sin. And so, each of us can rightly be called saints. We are saints

00:11:00.520 | because we have been sanctified. And so, that is the truth of past sanctification.

00:11:08.640 | We move then to the present aspect of sanctification, which theologians refer to

00:11:15.800 | as progressive sanctification. Having been sanctified and having gained the

00:11:25.760 | identity of being saints, we now pursue sanctification in our daily lives. Each

00:11:33.400 | of us as believers are in the process of becoming practically more like Jesus

00:11:40.400 | Christ in our daily lives. And so, little by little, day by day, we are becoming

00:11:47.760 | more like Jesus Christ. Sometimes, that sanctification seems slow. Sometimes, we

00:11:55.640 | feel that we are not making the progress that we ought to. Sometimes, sanctification

00:12:01.360 | is two steps forward, one step back. And yet, little by little, over days, over

00:12:08.360 | months, over years, we are progressively conformed to be more like Jesus Christ.

00:12:15.000 | And that is the work God is doing in our lives. So, we have been sanctified. We are

00:12:21.200 | being sanctified. And then, we looked at the issue of future sanctification, which

00:12:26.800 | can also be called ultimate or perfective sanctification. The truth that

00:12:32.480 | one day, we will be perfectly sanctified. In the words of 1 Thessalonians 5, verse

00:12:40.000 | 23, we will be completely sanctified. We will be like Christ. 1 John 3, verses 1

00:12:50.040 | to 3 says, "For we shall see him as he is." So, we look forward to the day and live

00:12:58.080 | in the hope that one day, we will be perfectly sanctified. One day, there will

00:13:05.120 | be no more struggle with sin. There will be no more battling temptation. We shall

00:13:12.800 | perfectly be like Jesus Christ. And we long for that day, the future aspect of

00:13:19.880 | our sanctification. We have been sanctified. We are being sanctified. And

00:13:27.520 | one day, we will perfectly be sanctified. So, we looked at that, those three

00:13:35.440 | categories, last time we met. And in this essay, Theology exam number 20, we're

00:13:42.440 | zeroing in on that second aspect, the present-day sanctification that each of

00:13:50.120 | us are engaged with in our Christian lives. We're really zeroing in on what is

00:13:56.760 | progressive sanctification. How does sanctification work in our present-day

00:14:04.960 | lives, as we are progressively being made to be more like Jesus Christ? The

00:14:13.000 | question is, is it God's grace, which is doing the work in our lives, or are we

00:14:21.360 | doing the work in studying the Scripture, seeking the Lord in prayer, attending

00:14:27.120 | church, and serving in church ministry? Is God's grace doing the work, or are we

00:14:33.720 | doing the work? And we will find that Scripture affirms both. We are working

00:14:42.720 | because God is working. And that is the concept that is really summarized under

00:14:51.720 | the idea of synergistic sanctification. So, I think this question is really

00:15:00.640 | designed to guard against two unbalanced views of sanctification, and I'm putting

00:15:06.280 | this on the slides. This isn't on your handout, but let me just note this here,

00:15:11.120 | because I think this is helpful for us, and I think this will really give a

00:15:17.080 | rationale as to why we should write this essay and why devote ourselves to the

00:15:22.000 | study of this subject. There are really two unbalanced views of sanctification that we

00:15:29.880 | want to guard against in our understanding of progressive

00:15:33.800 | sanctification. The first unbalanced view is the quietistic view of sanctification.

00:15:39.880 | The quietistic view. This view basically says that the believer is passive in

00:15:47.920 | sanctification. This is the view which is commonly summarized by the statement, "Let

00:15:54.360 | go and let God." John MacArthur writes this, "Quietism tends to be mystical and

00:16:02.760 | subjective, focusing on personal feelings and experiences. A person who is utterly

00:16:10.760 | submitted to and dependent on God, they say, will be divinely protected from sin

00:16:17.080 | and led into faithful living. Trying to strive against sin or discipline oneself

00:16:24.660 | to produce good works is considered not only futile but unspiritual and

00:16:33.040 | counterproductive." So, this is the quietistic approach to sanctification.

00:16:39.680 | The idea that you're just passive or you've reached a level of spirituality

00:16:46.120 | or spiritual maturity where you don't need to pray anymore, you don't need to

00:16:50.240 | read the Bible anymore, you can kind of just coast your way to greater

00:16:56.000 | sanctification. Now, dear friends, you see the problem with this is that it's not

00:17:02.760 | only unbiblical, but this approach to sanctification does not work. No one is

00:17:10.800 | sanctified apart from active, diligent devotion to the biblical means of

00:17:19.000 | sanctification. No one just coasts their way into holiness. Paul even described

00:17:27.760 | his ministry in this way in Colossians 1, verse 29, where he says,

00:17:36.600 | "For this I toil, I labor, I work to the point of exhaustion," is the meaning of the

00:17:44.560 | original Greek word. "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he

00:17:50.880 | powerfully works within me." So, that's another key verse that you might want to

00:17:56.440 | note down. First Colossians 1, verse 29. God is working. God is powerfully working

00:18:05.880 | in the Apostle Paul, and the expression of God working in his life is that he is

00:18:12.080 | toiling. He is working to the point of exhaustion, all because God is performing

00:18:20.040 | God's work in Paul. So, the quietistic view is basically you can be passive, let

00:18:30.880 | go, and let God. You can see why this view is very popular. There are forms of the

00:18:38.000 | quietistic view that show up in every age and in every season of the church.

00:18:43.880 | Believe me, the quietistic view of sanctification is very well and

00:18:50.640 | alive today in the modern-day church. You will find that this view will show up in

00:18:57.480 | your counseling sessions with people that you counsel. Just kind of this

00:19:02.480 | passive approach. "Why am I not growing? Why am I not becoming a more godly person?

00:19:09.260 | Why am I not becoming more spiritually mature? Why am I not experiencing more

00:19:13.640 | spiritual victories?" And you get into counseling sessions, and you find that

00:19:17.560 | this person is not reading the Bible, is not praying, is not attending church, is

00:19:22.640 | not in fellowship, and yet there's this sort of idea that the Holy Spirit's

00:19:27.840 | gonna do this work in my life. Apart from those means, apart from my diligent

00:19:33.880 | devotion to those means, I can kind of let go and let God and the Holy Spirit

00:19:38.120 | supposed to do work in my life. That's the quietistic view of sanctification.

00:19:45.800 | And that leads to the second unbalanced view of sanctification, which is the

00:19:51.880 | opposite extreme. This is the pietistic view of sanctification. The pietistic

00:19:58.680 | view of sanctification. As John MacArthur writes, "This unbalanced view of pietism

00:20:07.040 | often leads to an overemphasis on self-effort to the virtual exclusion of

00:20:13.680 | dependence on divine power." So, on one hand, the quietist says, "Do nothing and

00:20:21.960 | you'll be sanctified." The pietist says, "Do everything. It's all on you. You have to

00:20:28.800 | make it happen. It's all up to you if you're gonna be sanctified." As MacArthur

00:20:38.120 | observes, "As you might expect, pietism frequently leads to legalism, moralism,

00:20:45.000 | self-righteousness, a judgmental spirit, pride, and hypocrisy." So, I love what

00:20:56.120 | C.H. Spurgeon said. He said, "Work as if it all depended on you, and then pray as if it

00:21:03.560 | all depended on God." And I think that's the balance between quietism and pietism.

00:21:11.840 | Pietism is not a biblical view of sanctification. It may look

00:21:17.120 | impressive because a person is really working hard at their Christian life, but

00:21:21.800 | there is not the accompanying dependence upon the grace of God, a healthy

00:21:28.120 | dependence upon the Holy Spirit, a realization of what Jesus said to his

00:21:33.600 | disciples that, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Pietism oftentimes looks like a

00:21:43.520 | high-performance type of Christianity that is fueled more by pride and

00:21:50.120 | self-reliance than upon a reliance upon God and a reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

00:21:58.040 | And we do meet pietists in the counseling ministry. They may not call

00:22:05.320 | themselves pietists. They may just call themselves high achievers or those who

00:22:11.560 | are devoted to a standard of excellence, but when you talk to a pietist, you will

00:22:17.840 | often find that there is this absence of peace in their Christian lives. There is

00:22:25.000 | this anxious sort of toil, this anxiety and fear that is really driving this

00:22:31.800 | performance, and it often leads to exhaustion and burnout. You see, the

00:22:39.840 | pietist neglects to emphasize the truth that, in the end, sanctification is

00:22:47.080 | completely the work of God. Sanctification is the work of the Holy

00:22:55.120 | Spirit in our lives. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23 says, "Now may the God of peace

00:23:02.360 | himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be

00:23:10.360 | kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Pietism neglects to hold on

00:23:17.960 | to that truth that it is God who has begun the good work in me, and it is

00:23:23.960 | God who will complete it at the day of Christ Jesus. Now just a pastoral note

00:23:31.560 | here that I've seen the destructive effects of both quietism and pietism in

00:23:37.480 | the church and in individual Christians lives, and I've seen how both quietism

00:23:45.320 | and pietism appeal to the flesh. Both erroneous approaches to sanctification

00:23:52.960 | appeal to self, appeal to the flesh in different ways. Quietism appeals to the

00:24:00.800 | flesh by saying you can be lazy and you don't need to work hard in order to be

00:24:06.740 | sanctified. Quietism says, you know, you see all those people in the church that

00:24:12.960 | they're reading their Bibles and they're going to church and they're

00:24:17.120 | taking the Lord's table and they're engaging in ministry. You don't need to

00:24:22.280 | be like them. You can kind of just be the exception to the rule, and you can be

00:24:27.960 | sanctified apart from those activities. But pietism appeals to self by saying,

00:24:36.380 | you know, you can do it. Sort of the American spirit, you know, you can do it,

00:24:42.420 | you can make it happen, you can achieve, you can work hard, you can be an

00:24:47.980 | excellent Christian by your own efforts. And if you just work really hard and

00:24:54.900 | just really get serious about your Christian life, you can achieve higher

00:24:59.860 | levels of sanctification and spirituality. And that approach to

00:25:06.660 | sanctification neglects the healthy dependence upon God, the healthy

00:25:12.300 | dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and the acknowledgment that says that are from

00:25:17.580 | Christ I can do nothing. So how do we avoid both of these extremes? How do we

00:25:26.060 | avoid both pietism and quietism in our pursuit of sanctification? How do we

00:25:34.660 | emphasize both the grace of God in our lives and our dependence upon God's

00:25:42.020 | grace and His power in our lives, as well as emphasize our responsibility to

00:25:48.020 | engage in diligent pursuit of spiritual maturity and holiness? Well, that's why

00:25:56.660 | this topic is so important, and I hope this would fuel your motivation to write

00:26:02.060 | this essay. Let me just note on your handout there just some helpful

00:26:09.460 | resources on this topic you have listed on page 1, the reading from Wayne Grudem,

00:26:15.780 | Heath Lambert, and Anthony Hokoma. Those are all good resources on the topic of

00:26:21.460 | sanctification. And then just a few blog posts that I want to encourage you to

00:26:26.940 | read. There's a couple blog posts there by Mike Riccardi, who is a pastor at

00:26:33.340 | Grace Community Church. Just some really excellent material on the subject of

00:26:39.060 | sanctification. I'm going to refer back to his works in just a moment. Just very

00:26:45.860 | balanced, biblical, insightful, helpful, pastoral, and practical. I just so

00:26:53.580 | appreciate Pastor Riccardi's work on sanctification, and it's available on the

00:26:59.940 | Cripplegate blog. And then a blog post on sanctification by Kevin DeYoung, who is

00:27:07.260 | a very insightful writer on a number of topics, and he deals with the subject of

00:27:14.460 | synergistic sanctification. Now, you're going to find that both Mike Riccardi

00:27:20.340 | and Kevin DeYoung take issue with the term synergistic sanctification, and I'm

00:27:27.980 | going to take the same issue as well. I don't want to get off topic here because

00:27:33.740 | my purpose here is not so much to critique the question, but I will say at

00:27:39.420 | the outset that I don't believe the term synergistic sanctification is wrong. I

00:27:47.300 | don't believe that it is erroneous, but perhaps it is a little bit of a clumsy

00:27:52.780 | way to describe the biblical dynamic of sanctification. And if you read Riccardi

00:28:00.700 | and DeYoung on the subject, they basically point out the fact that the

00:28:05.060 | terms monergistic and synergistic were initially used in church history to

00:28:14.460 | define the doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration, which is the granting of

00:28:21.180 | new life in Christ. And theologians took pains to define regeneration as being

00:28:29.340 | monergistic in nature. The work of one literally. Regeneration is monergistic

00:28:37.300 | because there's no way for a dead man to make himself alive. Man cannot cooperate

00:28:43.820 | with God in regeneration because, as Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, man is dead in

00:28:50.900 | his sins and trespasses, and so a sinner can do nothing to cooperate with the

00:28:57.100 | work of regeneration. Regeneration, therefore, is monergistic in nature. So in

00:29:04.100 | reference to the doctrine of regeneration, the terms monergistic and

00:29:09.140 | synergistic are helpful terms. But what both Riccardi and DeYoung are basically

00:29:17.100 | pointing out is that we've taken these terms which are helpful to define the

00:29:22.260 | doctrine of regeneration and then tried to use them in relation to the doctrine

00:29:28.300 | of sanctification. And in the discussion of the doctrine of sanctification, the

00:29:34.260 | terms monergistic and synergistic are less helpful. So again, I don't want to

00:29:43.340 | get off topic, and I was telling my wife this morning that my poor class is gonna

00:29:47.460 | have to bear with me a little bit tonight because my purpose is not so

00:29:52.300 | much to critique the term synergistic sanctification, and I would just say that

00:29:57.380 | your purpose in writing these essays is not to critique the term synergistic

00:30:03.460 | sanctification, but I do want to point out that I'm very helped by

00:30:10.900 | these insights into the term monergistic and synergistic sanctification because

00:30:16.780 | believe it or not, I have struggled over the last ten years to understand the

00:30:21.460 | terminology monergistic sanctification versus synergistic sanctification, and in

00:30:27.980 | my own studies and in my own heart, I've kept wondering, "Is sanctification

00:30:33.620 | monergistic or synergistic?" And I kept coming up with biblical texts which

00:30:39.380 | seem to indicate that it is monergistic in the sense that it is ultimately the

00:30:45.860 | work of God, and it is synergistic in that we are involved in exerting moral

00:30:51.060 | effort, and I've always struggled to understand that terminology, and those

00:30:55.460 | two blog posts were very helpful for me. So I want to commend those to you, and I

00:31:02.620 | hope that'll be helpful reading for your study. So all that to say, don't write

00:31:10.100 | your essay on critiquing the term synergistic sanctification. Write your

00:31:16.780 | essay on the subject of how God's grace is working in our lives to sanctify us

00:31:23.020 | at the same time we are working and actively engaged in sanctification, and

00:31:28.380 | you will do fine, but I do want to just share that point because I think it's

00:31:33.020 | been helpful to me, and hopefully helpful to you as well. So let's talk about

00:31:41.860 | synergistic sanctification. Again, I think it's a little bit of a clumsy phrase, but

00:31:47.700 | I do think that the heart of it, the main idea that's captured in that phrase is

00:31:54.700 | what is taught in Scripture. God's grace is working, and we are working. So just on

00:32:03.500 | your notes on page 2, under synergistic sanctification, letter A, we do observe

00:32:10.900 | that God's people are to be marked by passion for holiness. We covered some of

00:32:15.860 | this material two weeks ago. I just want to emphasize this because it is so

00:32:21.020 | crucial just on a practical note. I'm teaching this session not only to equip

00:32:28.420 | you to write a good essay on this topic, but also to remind you that as biblical

00:32:34.140 | counselors, we need to be marked by a passion for sanctification and holiness.

00:32:42.340 | This ought to be what people see when they observe our lives, not a perfect

00:32:50.340 | person or a perfect counselor, but a counselor who is daily repenting of sin,

00:32:54.860 | a counselor who is daily seeking the Lord in prayer, a counselor who is

00:32:59.380 | devoted to the means of grace in the local church, a counselor who takes his

00:33:04.900 | or her own personal holiness very seriously. I'm reminded of the minister

00:33:11.620 | who said that my people's greatest need is my personal holiness, and that is true

00:33:17.420 | of each counselor as well. Your counselee's greatest need is your

00:33:22.880 | personal holiness. God blesses sanctified vessels. Again, this will never be

00:33:32.140 | something that we completely attain to, but it ought to be the passion that

00:33:36.700 | marks our lives. We are called to engage in this this pursuit. 1 Peter 1 verse 14,

00:33:47.020 | "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former

00:33:52.380 | ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your

00:33:57.940 | conducts, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" The meaning of

00:34:04.020 | holiness is to be set apart. God has called us to be set apart from the world,

00:34:08.900 | to be set apart from sin, to be consecrated unto him. That involves the

00:34:15.180 | pursuit of moral purity, but it's a broader idea as well. It involves the

00:34:19.980 | complete consecration of heart, soul, mind, and will to the Lord and to his purposes.

00:34:27.580 | When people look at our lives, they ought to see someone who has been set apart

00:34:32.540 | unto the Lord and set apart unto his purposes, and that is the idea of

00:34:39.900 | sanctification. Now, jumping down to letter B on your handout, we see that

00:34:45.860 | sanctification affects more than a person's external morality. So

00:34:52.740 | sanctification is more than external behavior. Matthew 23 verse 25, Jesus said,

00:35:02.220 | "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of

00:35:08.780 | the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

00:35:13.500 | You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the

00:35:20.600 | outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you

00:35:29.100 | are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within

00:35:34.180 | are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. You also outwardly appear

00:35:41.580 | righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." So we

00:35:50.220 | observe there that sanctification is more than external morality. It's more

00:35:55.620 | than external behavior. Sanctification must transform the heart, the will, the

00:36:02.540 | desires. Sanctification must result in a new affection, a new purpose, a new

00:36:10.380 | passion to live for the glory of Christ. As Charles Hodge has written in his

00:36:17.820 | systematic theology, "Sanctification does not consist exclusively in a series of a

00:36:24.740 | new kind of acts. It is making the tree good." Now remember, those of you who took

00:36:31.380 | ACBC year one basic training course with me, remember all the trees that we drew

00:36:36.940 | throughout that course. It's a biblical concept that's reflected in these

00:36:42.560 | theological writings. We're not here to merely trim weeds or to trim thorns on

00:36:50.460 | the external behavior that's represented by the outside of the tree. We're here to

00:36:56.580 | dig at the roots. We're here to transform hearts. And so Hodge writes that

00:37:04.420 | sanctification is making the tree good in order that the fruit may be good. That

00:37:10.820 | could have been written from a biblical counseling textbook. He says it involves

00:37:16.780 | an essential change of character, just as regeneration is a new birth, a new

00:37:26.380 | creation, a quickening, or communicating a new life. So sanctification in its

00:37:36.460 | essential nature is not holy acts, but such a change in the state of the soul

00:37:42.220 | that sinful acts become more infrequent and holy acts more and more habitual and

00:37:49.700 | controlling. Michael Cardy agrees. He says the believer's growth in holiness is

00:37:59.260 | fundamentally internal and supernatural. The term metamorpho, translated

00:38:09.180 | transformation, describes the inner transformation of the essence of a

00:38:16.620 | person, an inward change in fundamental character. Holiness does not simply mean

00:38:24.140 | bringing our outward behavior into conformity to an external standard.

00:38:30.880 | Hypocrites can do that. The inward transformation of the mind, which is to

00:38:37.180 | say the character or the affections, will indeed work itself out in external

00:38:43.820 | behavior, but the transformation begins internally. So when you minister to your

00:38:52.860 | counselee, you need to pray more than that their behavior changes. You need to

00:38:59.660 | pray that their hearts will change. You need to target your prayers to the heart

00:39:05.500 | of the counselee and ask that God would change your counselee's hearts through

00:39:11.900 | the Word of God, and that is my prayer whenever I minister God's Word, and that

00:39:20.060 | should be all of our prayers whenever we minister God's Word. Lord, change your

00:39:23.900 | people's hearts through your precious Word, through the ministry of the

00:39:30.140 | Holy Spirit. So let me move to the next page there and just get to the issue of

00:39:35.940 | is sanctification synergistic or monergistic? I've already made some

00:39:41.260 | comments on this. I won't belabor the point, but just introduce the terms.

00:39:45.460 | Monergistic means literally the work of one from the word mono meaning one and

00:39:52.700 | erg meaning work. Synergistic speaks of man's cooperation in sanctification

00:40:00.540 | using the term sin, which means with. As I've noted, this essay asks you to write

00:40:09.420 | about the synergistic nature of sanctification, yet it is interesting the

00:40:15.420 | term synergistic is not found in the ACBC Standards of Doctrine, and it's also

00:40:21.980 | not found in the doctrinal statement of my church, Kindred Community Church. As

00:40:27.940 | we've noted, the term synergistic sanctification is commonly used to

00:40:34.580 | describe a view of sanctification which emphasizes the believer's active pursuit

00:40:40.940 | of godliness, yet there are some reasons why synergistic may not be the best term

00:40:48.500 | to describe the concept. So please indulge me for a moment. This has been a

00:40:52.820 | 10-year journey, and I put some notes down here even though I don't think this

00:41:00.180 | is really the focus of the essay. I hope this might be helpful in a broad

00:41:06.240 | understanding. You'll note here that Heath Lambert does use the term

00:41:10.660 | synergistic sanctification in his work, A Theology of Biblical Counseling. He says

00:41:17.620 | that sanctification is a synergistic process, meaning that God and man

00:41:24.740 | cooperate in the work. Human effort is involved. Other aspects of salvation, like

00:41:31.740 | regeneration and justification, which we discussed previously, are monergistic. The

00:41:39.060 | word monergism means that God alone does the work to bring about these results.

00:41:45.180 | Sanctification is a synergistic work. It involves our effort, but this effort is

00:41:50.020 | made possible by divine enablement. Our striving is made possible by divine

00:41:57.540 | grace. Now I think that's a good statement. I think that's a fine

00:42:03.340 | statement. I think if you quote that statement in your essay that your essay

00:42:08.380 | will pass. I do think that synergistic sanctification as defined in that way,

00:42:13.980 | that it involves human effort, but human effort is the expression of divine grace

00:42:20.900 | working in a person's life, that that is, as far as it goes, a good and a fine

00:42:28.540 | definition of sanctification. I do think that the concern with the term

00:42:36.420 | synergistic sanctification is not so much in what it teaches as in what it

00:42:43.140 | might open itself up to. The term synergism might leave open the question,

00:42:50.860 | "Do you mean then that sanctification is 50% up to God and then 50% up to me?" I

00:42:58.180 | don't think the term necessarily teaches that, but it might leave open that

00:43:04.060 | misunderstanding, and that's why I say it's not so much an incorrect term as it

00:43:09.700 | might be a bit of a clumsy one. So listen to Kevin DeYoung on this subject, and

00:43:18.660 | maybe this isn't interesting to anyone but me, but it is incredibly interesting

00:43:23.980 | to me, so let me proceed. Kevin DeYoung discusses the term synergism and

00:43:29.300 | monergism in relation to sanctification, and he writes, "I think it is best to stay

00:43:35.420 | away from both terms. The distinction is very helpful and very important when

00:43:41.620 | talking about regeneration, but these particular theological terms, that is

00:43:47.460 | synergism and monergism, muddy the waters when talking about sanctification.

00:43:53.300 | Synergism sounds like a swear word to Reform folks, so no one wants to say it,

00:43:58.780 | and yet monergism is not the right word either. Those who say sanctification is

00:44:05.180 | monergistic want to protect the gracious supernatural character of

00:44:11.260 | sanctification. Those who say sanctification is synergistic want to

00:44:16.700 | emphasize that we must actively cooperate with the grace and

00:44:21.060 | sanctification." So here it is. Here's the main point, what DeYoung is saying and

00:44:26.820 | what I agree with. These emphases are both correct, and yet I believe it is

00:44:36.060 | better to defend both of these points with careful explanation rather than

00:44:41.220 | with terms that have normally been employed in a different theological

00:44:46.540 | controversy, that is, the controversy over regeneration. And so DeYoung

00:44:52.780 | concludes that sanctification is both a gracious gift of God and it requires our

00:45:00.940 | active cooperation. And what he's saying there is instead of using these terms,

00:45:11.060 | it might be better to do the hard work of just explaining the texts that deal

00:45:16.420 | with this subject, and that's the approach that I took when I wrote this

00:45:19.940 | essay. I didn't use the terms monergistic or synergistic. I just dealt

00:45:26.140 | with a text, just went to Philippians 2 verses 12 to 13, 1 Corinthians 15 verse

00:45:31.620 | 10, the passages which call for moral efforts, such as 1st Timothy chapter 4

00:45:37.460 | verse 7, and just deal with the text, explain the text, and if you take that

00:45:42.220 | approach, you'll do fine. Listen to Mike Riccardi on this subject, and I just so

00:45:50.380 | appreciate his writing on sanctification. He says, "On the one hand, we want to give

00:45:56.700 | the credit of our sanctification, the actual progress of becoming increasingly

00:46:02.820 | like Christ, where it belongs to God." I mean, would you say an amen to that? I

00:46:08.900 | mean, we want, in the end of the day, if there's any progress made in my

00:46:12.660 | spiritual life, if I'm in any way made to be more like Christ, I don't want people

00:46:17.180 | to pat me on the back. I don't want to pat myself on the back. I want to give

00:46:21.620 | all glory to God. It was God's work in my life which enabled me to grow in Christ.

00:46:28.500 | And so Riccardi is saying that's the desire of every Christian. We want to

00:46:32.540 | give all glory to God. So he says, "The term monergistic seems attractive,

00:46:40.340 | especially to us Calvinists who want to take no credit for the good in our

00:46:45.020 | spiritual lives and give all glory to Christ. On the other hand, though, we don't

00:46:50.380 | want to discount our role in our sanctification and give the impression

00:46:54.860 | that we are completely passive." And we would also say amen to that. We want to

00:47:01.620 | hold fast to the biblical exhortations which call for moral effort and the

00:47:08.180 | active pursuit of godliness. So Riccardi says, "I believe the answer is to

00:47:14.020 | recognize the unhelpfulness of using either of these adjectives to describe

00:47:19.940 | the sanctification process. The terms monergistic sanctification and

00:47:25.540 | synergistic sanctification are both misnomers and are therefore unhelpful. It

00:47:32.500 | might not be as neat and tidy to explain, but if we are to be biblical, we have to

00:47:37.860 | maintain the truth of both realities in Philippians 2 verses 12 to 13, even if it

00:47:44.380 | means more words of explanation." So Riccardi is saying basically the same

00:47:50.260 | thing DeYoung has written. Just go to the text of Scripture, explain what's there.

00:47:56.780 | It may take more words and a little more effort, but if you deal with the text of

00:48:02.980 | Scripture, you will do fine on this subject. Okay, I'm gonna get off my hobby

00:48:09.300 | horse here and devote the rest of this time to helping you actually write this

00:48:15.580 | essay. So what are the key truths regarding sanctification that you need

00:48:21.740 | to be able to handle under the umbrella of synergistic sanctification? Truth

00:48:30.220 | number one is that sanctification is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.

00:48:37.660 | Sanctification is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. This ought to give

00:48:45.660 | everyone who is struggling with sanctification hope. This ought to give

00:48:52.780 | everyone who is struggling with a specific sin issue in their life great

00:48:58.220 | encouragement that ultimately sanctification is the work of the Holy

00:49:04.140 | Spirit. You may not feel like you can grow in this area. You may not feel like

00:49:09.140 | you can overcome this sin. You may not feel up to the task of overcoming

00:49:14.700 | temptation, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, you can grow and

00:49:21.860 | you can be sanctified. Now dear friends, I've used that conversation in

00:49:26.700 | counseling ministry to encourage believers to say the hope is not in you

00:49:33.100 | or in your abilities or in your knowledge or your strength, but I believe

00:49:38.540 | that the Holy Spirit lives in you and by his power, because he is producing his

00:49:44.740 | fruit in you, I believe that you can grow and you can deal with this issue in your

00:49:48.740 | life. Ultimately, sanctification is not the work of man. It is not merely the

00:49:57.940 | work or the product of more discipline, more effort, getting more serious.

00:50:05.740 | Ultimately, sanctification is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in a

00:50:13.540 | believer's life to conform that believer to the character of Christ and why does

00:50:19.020 | the Holy Spirit want to conform us to the character of Christ? It is because

00:50:23.060 | the Holy Spirit loves Christ. John 16 verse 14, he does all things to glorify

00:50:30.940 | Christ. Have you ever thought about the fact that your sanctification is

00:50:36.780 | ultimately not about you? You're just caught up in this inter-trinitarian love

00:50:45.060 | relationship that the Father has sent the Son to redeem a bride, the Spirit has

00:50:51.580 | come into the world to glorify the Son, and the Spirit is active in bringing

00:50:57.900 | sinners to new life and then actively conforming those believers to the

00:51:05.060 | character of Christ all for the glory of Jesus Christ. It's because the Spirit

00:51:11.060 | desires to glorify Christ that the Spirit is active in your sanctification.

00:51:17.820 | John Owen puts it this way, "The Lord Christ sends his Holy Spirit into our

00:51:23.540 | hearts, which is the efficient cause of all holiness and sanctification,

00:51:29.620 | quickening, enlightening, purifying the souls of his saints. In the end, that is

00:51:37.420 | my hope in sanctification. I have hope for myself because the Holy Spirit lives

00:51:44.860 | in me, and I have hope for other believers because I believe in the power

00:51:50.580 | and the ministry of the Holy Spirit." John Murray puts it this way, "It is necessary

00:51:57.300 | to be reminded that in the last analysis we do not sanctify ourselves. It is God

00:52:03.380 | who sanctifies. Specifically, it is the Holy Spirit who is the agent of

00:52:09.940 | sanctification. It is imperative that we realize our, and underline these words,

00:52:17.940 | complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit. That is the idea of dependence and yet

00:52:28.020 | active involvement in the sanctification process. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, "But

00:52:35.540 | we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord,

00:52:40.100 | because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by

00:52:45.500 | the Spirit." And then many other verses there emphasizing the Spirit's work in

00:52:50.540 | sanctification. Let me move to truth number two. If sanctification is the work

00:52:58.460 | of the Holy Spirit, then do we just let go and let God and just let the Holy

00:53:02.420 | Spirit work and just passively expect the Spirit to work in our lives, as Paul

00:53:07.860 | would say? May it never be. Truth number two is that the Spirit uses means to

00:53:16.380 | sanctify the believer. The Spirit uses means to sanctify us. So an example of

00:53:26.700 | this, I might say that, you know, the Holy Spirit helped me or led me to love my

00:53:33.380 | neighbor. The Holy Spirit led me to ride a car to my neighbor and to give a nice

00:53:39.060 | gift and leave it on my neighbor's porch. The Holy Spirit led me to do that. But

00:53:45.620 | what do I really mean when I say that the Holy Spirit led me to love my neighbor?

00:53:51.060 | Do I mean that the Holy Spirit just sort of zapped me one day and all of a sudden

00:53:56.500 | I felt this love for my neighbor? Or do I mean that on one Sunday I went to my

00:54:05.500 | local church and I sat in church service and I heard my pastor preach a message

00:54:12.060 | on loving my neighbor, and then I wrote down notes as I heard the message, and

00:54:18.820 | then I went to lunch with other Christians and we talked about the

00:54:23.060 | message and how it might apply to our lives. And I went home and I reviewed my

00:54:28.380 | notes and I read the passage again, and I prayed for God to help me to be a doer

00:54:33.540 | of His Word and not a hearer only. I went to my small group where we discussed the

00:54:39.780 | sermon and we discussed how we might apply it to our lives, and it is

00:54:44.980 | through my attendance at my church, and it is through the fellowship of the

00:54:49.820 | saints, and it is through reflection and study and prayer. It is through those

00:54:54.780 | means that the Holy Spirit worked in my life and led me to love my neighbor, and

00:55:03.660 | as a result, my neighbor received a nice card and a nice little gift on his or

00:55:09.940 | her porch. Sanctification is a work of the Spirit, and yet the Spirit uses means

00:55:20.180 | to produce that sanctification, the means of study of God's Word and prayer and

00:55:26.060 | persevering through trials and fellowship and encouraging one another

00:55:31.140 | in the local church. And we see that the primary means that the Spirit uses to

00:55:37.420 | sanctify believers is the Word of God. Ephesians 6 verse 17 says that the sword

00:55:43.660 | of the Spirit is the Word of God. And so, sanctification is a work of the Spirit,

00:55:52.700 | and yet the Spirit uses means to sanctify the believer. Let me move to the

00:55:59.300 | next page there and look at truth number three. The Spirit works through means to

00:56:08.940 | make us more like Christ. So truth number three is that the believer is called to

00:56:13.820 | diligently pursue sanctification. The believer is called to diligently pursue

00:56:20.860 | sanctification. Many verses there that you can read on your own, but we know

00:56:24.940 | that the Bible does not excuse laziness or passivity in our sanctification. In

00:56:31.940 | other words, if you and I are not being sanctified, if we're not growing, don't

00:56:38.140 | blame the Holy Spirit. Don't say that, well, it's the Holy Spirit's fault that I'm

00:56:45.500 | not growing, because the Holy Spirit, it's His job to sanctify me. The reason why you

00:56:52.820 | and I are not being sanctified, it's not the Holy Spirit's fault, it is that

00:56:57.340 | because we're not fulfilling our responsibility to read God's Word, to be

00:57:02.900 | part of the local church, and to take the Lord's table regularly, and to be

00:57:07.620 | involved in the one another's of the local church. We're not enduring trials

00:57:12.300 | with joy. We're not actively involved in the spiritual disciplines. That is why we

00:57:19.380 | are not growing. It is not the Holy Spirit's fault that we are not growing

00:57:26.860 | in Christ. 1 Timothy 4 verse 7 says, "Have nothing to do with irreverent silly

00:57:34.300 | myths, rather train yourselves for godliness." Verse 10 says, "For to this

00:57:40.380 | end we toil and strive, because we have our hopes set on the living God." And then

00:57:50.420 | I'll just highlight 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 25, where Paul says, "Every

00:57:55.260 | athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a

00:57:59.980 | perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box

00:58:06.980 | as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest

00:58:13.620 | after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." The believers

00:58:19.420 | call to diligently pursue sanctification, and we found that this is true. John

00:58:28.940 | Calvin says, "It is an arduous work, and of immense labor, to put off the

00:58:34.780 | corruption which is in us." He bids us to strive and to make every effort for this

00:58:40.580 | purpose. He intimates that no place is to be given in this case to sloth, and that

00:58:46.580 | we ought to obey God, calling us not slowly or carelessly, but that there is

00:58:52.540 | need of alacrity, as though he had said, "Put forth every effort and make your

00:58:59.820 | exertions manifest to all." The more your discipline, the more you train, the more

00:59:09.700 | you will be sanctified. Now does that mean that sanctification is dependent on

00:59:14.620 | us? May it never be. That discipline is simply the expression of God's grace

00:59:23.220 | working in us. When I set my alarm, and when I wake up in the morning, and when I

00:59:30.500 | read my Bible, and when I'm disciplined to train myself for godliness, that is

00:59:36.260 | the expression of God's work in my life, even though I am the one who is waking

00:59:44.100 | up in the morning. Moises Silva gives this explanation of the balance. He says,

00:59:51.580 | "Sanctification requires discipline, concentration, and effort, as is clear by

00:59:56.580 | the many exhortations of Scripture, especially those where the Christian

01:00:01.820 | life is described with such figures as running and fighting. On the other hand,

01:00:06.660 | men must always resist the temptation to assume that they in effect sanctify

01:00:12.780 | themselves, that spiritual power comes from within them, and that they may

01:00:18.140 | therefore rely on their own strength." Silva acknowledges this is a difficult

01:00:26.060 | tension, though no more puzzling than the paradox of prayer. Yet perhaps the real

01:00:33.540 | secret of holiness consists precisely in learning to keep that balance, relying

01:00:39.980 | thoroughly on God as the true agent in sanctification, while faithfully

01:00:46.180 | discharging one's personal responsibility. I'm reminded of John

01:00:52.260 | MacArthur's statement that he lives his life in a state of relaxed desperation. I

01:00:59.500 | like that statement. Relaxed desperation. He is relaxed because he knows that it

01:01:07.460 | is all up to God. He has a sense of desperation because he understands what

01:01:13.620 | is at stake in every situation, and there is that difficult tension of fulfilling

01:01:20.980 | my responsibility before the Lord, and then in the end, leaving it up to God and

01:01:26.980 | trusting Him for the results. So that leads me to truth number four, and we'll

01:01:34.420 | conclude with this. The believer's pursuit of sanctification is evidence of

01:01:39.980 | God's work in that believer. In the end, here's the reason why you need to

01:01:48.540 | understand this doctrine. In the end, God receives all the glory for every step in

01:01:58.860 | our progress toward Christlikeness. In the end, it's not about how hard I worked,

01:02:05.900 | or how much I was disciplined, or how much I progressed. In the end, it is about

01:02:10.060 | see how faithful God has been to me, and see how God has been faithful to

01:02:17.100 | complete the work He began in me. And this brings us back to the key passages

01:02:22.220 | I introduced at the beginning of this session. Philippians 2 verse 12, "Therefore

01:02:28.380 | my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much

01:02:34.700 | more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it

01:02:40.300 | is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." That one

01:02:46.460 | statement guards against both quietism and pietism in the view of

01:02:52.700 | sanctification. And 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10 says, "By the grace of God, I am

01:02:59.420 | what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked

01:03:03.260 | harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with

01:03:09.340 | me." John Murray puts it this way, "God's working in us is not suspended because

01:03:16.620 | we work, nor our working suspended because God works. God works in us, and we

01:03:22.860 | also work. But the relation is that because God works, we work. All working

01:03:30.220 | out of salvation on our part is the effect of God's working in us, not the

01:03:36.220 | willing to the exclusion of the doing and not the doing to the exclusion of

01:03:40.060 | the willing, but both the willing and the doing. And this working of God is

01:03:47.180 | directed to the end of enabling us to will and to do that which is pleasing to

01:03:54.380 | Him." Jonathan Edwards says, "We are not merely passive in it, nor yet does God

01:04:01.260 | do some and we do the rest, but God does all," and note this, "we do all. God

01:04:09.980 | produces all, and we act all, for that is what He produces, our own acts. God's

01:04:19.500 | only proper author and foundation, we only are the proper actors." Sanctification

01:04:29.500 | is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit uses means to sanctify the

01:04:35.660 | believer. We are called to diligently pursue sanctification, yet that pursuit

01:04:43.100 | is evidence of God's work in us. I hope you will see the necessity of having a

01:04:49.260 | full and robust understanding of the doctrine of progressive sanctification,

01:04:56.780 | synergistic sanctification, not only understanding the big picture of past

01:05:02.940 | sanctification, we have been sanctified, future sanctification, we will be

01:05:07.100 | sanctified, but present day we are in the process of being sanctified, and I pray

01:05:16.460 | that you will live in the confidence that as you pursue sanctification in the

01:05:23.260 | Lord, that God will finish the work that He began in you, that you'll be equipped

01:05:29.740 | to address both pietism on one hand and the anxious toil of some who believe

01:05:36.220 | that spirituality is all dependent upon their efforts, and that you will also be

01:05:41.820 | equipped to address quietism, a passive approach to sanctification which is

01:05:47.900 | unbiblical and produces no fruit. And I do pray that in each of our lives that

01:05:55.820 | by the power of the Spirit we will grow in holiness, we will overcome sin, that we

01:06:02.700 | will become more like Christ, and so we will be effective instruments in the

01:06:08.460 | Redeemer's hands to lead others and to minister to others as they deal with

01:06:15.500 | battles in their own sanctification. And so, write a good essay here. Just a

01:06:23.740 | note there, I did spend some time giving, I hope, a gracious critique on

01:06:27.900 | synergistic sanctification, the term there, but please just use that as

01:06:33.100 | background. That's not really the main thrust of this essay. I think the main

01:06:37.420 | thrust of this essay are found in the four truths regarding sanctification, and

01:06:42.540 | if you handle those well, you'll guard against both quietism and pietism. And I

01:06:47.820 | think what ACBC is really wanting you to do is to describe both sides of

01:06:54.620 | sanctification being completely the work of God and also the side of our calling

01:07:00.540 | to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling. So I trust that you'll

01:07:06.060 | write a great essay on this topic. Let me end with the words of 1 Peter 5,

01:07:12.540 | verse 10, which says, "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of

01:07:17.500 | grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore,

01:07:23.340 | confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be dominion forever and ever. Amen."

01:07:31.740 | Let me close us in prayer. Father, thank you for this study. Thank you for the

01:07:37.900 | truth that you are at work in our lives. Thank you that you have sanctified us,

01:07:45.340 | you are sanctifying us, and you will sanctify us. And so, Father, help us to be

01:07:52.300 | faithful to our responsibility to actively fight the good fight of faith,

01:07:59.900 | to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness,

01:08:04.060 | to diligently and faithfully devote ourselves to the means of grace,

01:08:10.780 | which the Holy Spirit uses to make us more like Christ.

01:08:15.420 | I pray for our counseling ministries, that they would be filled with counselors

01:08:22.620 | who are sanctified, that ACBC as an organization would have a reputation

01:08:30.540 | of producing counselors who are like Christ,

01:08:33.740 | who repent of sin, who bear the fruit of the Spirit,

01:08:38.380 | and that there would be an undeniable reality to our spiritual lives,

01:08:46.300 | so that those who are in need would want to come

01:08:50.540 | to see a counselor who is filled with the fruit of the Spirit, who

01:08:55.100 | not just dispenses correct information, but who is able to minister out of a

01:09:03.020 | living, vital relationship with Christ. We can't

01:09:06.700 | do this on our own. We can only plead for your grace and

01:09:11.500 | ask you to do this work in our lives.

01:09:15.100 | So, I thank you for our time of study. Thank you for each of my brothers and

01:09:18.540 | sisters who've devoted this hour to us, and we pray that you would

01:09:23.340 | bear fruit through this time. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

01:09:28.380 | Well, amen. Well, hey, have a great rest of the week. God bless you.

ACBC Theology Exam 20 - Synergistic Sanctification

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