WEBVTT 00:00:32.030 --> 00:00:33.310 Let's pray. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:36.189 Lord, thank you for your providence. 00:00:36.429 --> 00:00:39.869 Thank you that you have the people in the room who need to be in the room. 00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:42.670 This is true right now, it'll be true in the worship service. 00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:55.149 And I pray that you be with us as you as we think about sanctification, as we think about how you have made us holy and are making us holy, and will one day perfect us in holiness. 00:00:55.390 --> 00:00:59.310 And we need that holiness, Lord, because you tell us that without it, we won't see you. 00:00:59.549 --> 00:01:01.390 You're holy, holy, holy. 00:01:01.629 --> 00:01:08.590 And apart from your grace and your transforming work in us, we are not fit to stand in your presence. 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.549 So thank you as always, Lord, for the grace of the gospel. 00:01:11.949 --> 00:01:16.909 Thank you for bringing us together to reflect on the good news and its implications for us. 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:18.750 Please help us now. 00:01:18.909 --> 00:01:20.670 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:01:20.990 --> 00:01:21.629 Amen. 00:01:24.189 --> 00:01:24.829 Alright. 00:01:25.069 --> 00:01:26.909 Opening question. 00:01:27.789 --> 00:01:29.390 Do people change? 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:33.469 Do people change? 00:01:33.710 --> 00:01:34.670 Do people change? 00:01:34.909 --> 00:01:38.830 This is this is one of one of my um Can the leopard change its size? 00:01:39.629 --> 00:01:40.030 There it goes. 00:01:40.669 --> 00:01:46.030 This is one of my like epithees, I guess, more or less. 00:01:46.830 --> 00:01:50.270 I I I would say people can change, but it's rare. 00:01:50.830 --> 00:01:52.750 Like truly change. 00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:57.629 It's it's it's it can happen, but it's pretty rare. 00:01:59.870 --> 00:02:01.069 From my experience. 00:02:01.710 --> 00:02:12.270 I asked my mother when she was, I think, 76 or something like that, are you the same person you were when you were six? 00:02:12.669 --> 00:02:14.109 Or is that what she said? 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:16.030 I am exactly the same person. 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:17.629 I am that person. 00:02:17.789 --> 00:02:20.030 I've always been that person. 00:02:20.270 --> 00:02:22.270 So the answer is yes and no. 00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:28.349 Do not go to the elbows for invites because they will say yay and nay. 00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:32.189 Yeah. 00:02:32.509 --> 00:02:34.030 Yes and no, right? 00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:36.590 Uh our emotions change. 00:02:36.909 --> 00:02:38.349 Our emotions change. 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:38.909 Um. 00:02:42.509 --> 00:02:46.909 Yeah, there I mean there aspects, yeah, aspects of our personality change. 00:02:47.069 --> 00:02:49.789 Well, there are everyday ways in which we change, right? 00:02:50.189 --> 00:02:52.909 Uh and ways in which we don't change, right? 00:02:52.989 --> 00:02:55.629 You see a picture of me when I'm six. 00:02:55.870 --> 00:02:57.789 You'll see me in some sense. 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:00.189 But then you see a picture of me today, right? 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:03.789 You know, less hair, more wrinkles, a little grayer. 00:03:04.269 --> 00:03:05.949 You know, all these sorts of things. 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:16.349 So some changes are obvious and some changes are everyday, but other changes or other aspects of us are more fixed, more constant. 00:03:16.989 --> 00:03:31.469 And I ask the question, you know, I um I had a classmate in seminary, he said something in six with me because I had a professor ask a similar question, and he said, People don't change, God changes people. 00:03:32.509 --> 00:03:36.509 And that's kind of what we're getting at when we talk about sanctification. 00:03:36.669 --> 00:03:41.789 We're talking about the holy process of change that God works in his people. 00:03:42.030 --> 00:03:45.389 So that, yeah, there will be aspects of us that remain the same. 00:03:45.629 --> 00:03:51.789 He doesn't deal with us as stocks and blocks, he deals with us as human persons, with personalities and experiences. 00:03:51.949 --> 00:03:53.310 He makes us who we are. 00:03:53.549 --> 00:03:55.789 And salvation doesn't eradicate that. 00:03:55.870 --> 00:04:00.030 We don't turn into uniform automatons or anything like that. 00:04:00.189 --> 00:04:07.629 And yet, in the ways that really matter, ways that really count, he does change us, he sanctifies us, he makes us more like Jesus. 00:04:07.870 --> 00:04:15.870 He uh affections we had that were for things contrary to God's will, he changes those things, he takes them away. 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:35.949 He helps us to say yes to the things he loves and no to the things he hates, so that we can look back, especially as we get down the road, we can look back over our lives and we can we can see the different ways in which we're the same, but we could also be encouraged by ways that we're not the same, that we are, we are more like Jesus. 00:04:36.350 --> 00:04:48.670 So this is part of the order of salvation that we've been looking at: predestination, calling, regeneration, conversion, union with Christ, justification, adoption, and now sanctification. 00:04:48.910 --> 00:04:50.350 So what is sanctification? 00:04:50.510 --> 00:04:51.390 Question 35. 00:04:51.550 --> 00:05:03.310 Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:15.629 Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. 00:05:17.390 --> 00:05:18.910 That's beautifully sin. 00:05:19.310 --> 00:05:20.270 Yeah, yeah. 00:05:20.430 --> 00:05:22.990 The Westminster Divines knew what they were doing. 00:05:24.590 --> 00:05:30.750 So important, you know, to think about the connection between justification and sanctification. 00:05:32.670 --> 00:05:45.950 Some uh, just by way of recap, justification, the act of God's free grace whereby he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith. 00:05:46.189 --> 00:05:53.550 Uh Roman Catholics raise an objection to the Protestant view of justification. 00:05:53.710 --> 00:05:58.350 And the objection is that it is, it establishes a legal fiction. 00:05:58.670 --> 00:06:05.550 That God says we're righteous, God says we're justified, God says we're innocent, but it's actually not true. 00:06:06.350 --> 00:06:11.790 And uh, according to Roman Catholics, it's not true, and therefore that's a prophecy. 00:06:12.030 --> 00:06:26.670 What you need is a Roman Catholic view of justification that doesn't just declare someone righteous, but makes them righteous and actually uh evaluates their growth in righteousness before making the final declaration of justification. 00:06:26.910 --> 00:06:27.870 So that's the big difference. 00:06:28.030 --> 00:06:46.670 In Roman Catholicism, when God justifies you, He makes a change in you, and then it's on you to cooperate with His grace so that at the final judgment day you can be justified on the basis of that use that you made of His grace, your faith working its way out through love. 00:06:46.830 --> 00:06:52.510 And that's the only way, they say, to combat this legal fiction that Protestants believe in. 00:06:52.830 --> 00:07:05.390 But when sanctification comes in, uh the practical effect of that for them is you know, you're you're justified, you're saved as a Protestant, then you know, why do you need to do anything else? 00:07:05.629 --> 00:07:06.750 You're good, right? 00:07:06.830 --> 00:07:08.189 You're off the hook. 00:07:08.430 --> 00:07:10.030 Why do anything else? 00:07:10.270 --> 00:07:20.510 And the Protestant replies to all that by saying, like, listen, in justification, God declares us righteous, in sanctification, he makes us righteous. 00:07:20.830 --> 00:07:39.310 And because those two realities are kind of operating at the same time, and one is not based on the other, that means that when we're justified, you know, the declaration is made, the sins are forgiven, the status is conferred, there is nothing we can do or not do that will change that. 00:07:39.550 --> 00:07:46.510 Our justification is based solely on the finished work of Christ and not on anything that we do in terms of a response to it. 00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:52.510 And so we have all the assurance, we have all the security, we have all the peace that comes with that. 00:07:52.670 --> 00:07:56.270 And alongside that reality is the reality of sanctification. 00:07:56.590 --> 00:08:01.790 Where, as Calvin says, we're saved by faith alone, but the kind of faith that saves is never alone. 00:08:02.030 --> 00:08:06.030 So if we're justified in Christ, we're sanctified in Christ. 00:08:06.270 --> 00:08:13.710 If we're declared righteous, at the same time, God is making us righteous in keeping with that declaration. 00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:17.550 And that's what we're talking about in the doctrine of sanctification. 00:08:21.150 --> 00:08:24.990 By his word, yeah, and by the power of his Holy Spirit working within us. 00:08:25.150 --> 00:08:25.790 Yeah. 00:08:26.590 --> 00:08:33.149 So the Catechism answer starts off by saying sanctification is the work of God's free grace. 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:39.710 Compare that to justification, which is an act of his grace, or adoption, which is an act of his grace. 00:08:39.950 --> 00:08:42.909 What's why a work versus an act? 00:08:47.789 --> 00:08:49.470 It's a process, right? 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:51.870 It's not a one and done. 00:08:52.590 --> 00:09:02.110 So there's an expectation there for us, practically, is that uh you're going to be better tomorrow than you are today. 00:09:02.669 --> 00:09:05.629 Uh maybe we want a broader time horizon. 00:09:05.789 --> 00:09:08.110 You're gonna be better next year than you are this year. 00:09:08.349 --> 00:09:10.269 Yeah, I'm not gonna be here today. 00:09:11.149 --> 00:09:11.549 Right. 00:09:11.870 --> 00:09:19.389 The journey of sanctification is you know, ups and downs, a couple steps forward, a couple steps back, that kind of thing. 00:09:19.469 --> 00:09:24.669 But on the whole, God is going to keep his promise and make you look more and more like Jesus. 00:09:24.829 --> 00:09:26.029 He's gonna do that. 00:09:26.269 --> 00:09:33.230 And uh, because it's a process that actually enables you to be patient with the process. 00:09:33.389 --> 00:09:36.189 Because let's say tomorrow you look worse than today. 00:09:36.349 --> 00:09:38.269 What conclusion do you draw from that? 00:09:38.509 --> 00:09:40.029 That he's given up on you? 00:09:40.269 --> 00:09:40.589 No. 00:09:40.829 --> 00:09:43.149 It's that there's another day to come after that one. 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:45.469 You have to be patient, wait on the Lord. 00:09:46.189 --> 00:09:50.750 So sanctification basically means to make holy. 00:09:51.069 --> 00:09:56.189 And there's a sense in which holiness, to make something holy, means to set it apart. 00:09:56.349 --> 00:10:01.389 Like we're consecrating this vessel for holy use in the temple. 00:10:01.709 --> 00:10:03.709 It also means to prepare. 00:10:03.870 --> 00:10:07.549 Uh, and vessels, vessels are a good example of that. 00:10:07.709 --> 00:10:16.189 Like they you had these different implements and instruments that were used in temple worship in the in the Old Testament, and they had to be set apart, they had to be anointed. 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:25.309 Uh it talks about it in Exodus 39, but they also had to be cleansed after they were used, and after that came into contact with anything unclean. 00:10:25.389 --> 00:10:28.429 They had to be cleansed in a ceremonial way, Leviticus 11. 00:10:29.069 --> 00:10:52.269 And so sanctification takes up both those things: the setting apart a person as holy unto the Lord, as a saint, and the preparation of that person, the cleansing of that person, the creating in them that holiness that uh that that sort of lines up with what God has declared to be true. 00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:57.069 So, with that in mind, there are two ways to think about sanctification biblically and theologically. 00:10:57.149 --> 00:11:00.349 There's a positional way, and there's a progressive way. 00:11:00.669 --> 00:11:10.589 Positional sanctification, or some people call it definitive sanctification, is the sense in which we have already been sanctified once and for all in our salvation. 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:12.589 1 Corinthians 6.11. 00:11:12.669 --> 00:11:16.189 Such were some of you thinking about past sins. 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:26.669 But you were, past tense, washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 00:11:27.389 --> 00:11:31.389 So something's happened already. 00:11:31.469 --> 00:11:35.069 You've been set apart, you've already been sanctified. 00:11:35.230 --> 00:11:40.429 And that's why the New Testament can consistently call believers saints. 00:11:40.669 --> 00:11:48.189 It's on account of our positional sanctification, it's not on account of any sort of progress that we've made in the Christian life. 00:11:48.349 --> 00:12:02.029 It's not the Roman Catholic understanding of saint, where you do miracles and all sorts of things, and someone from the Vatican comes and verifies that you're a super spiritual person and you're conferred with the title of saint. 00:12:02.269 --> 00:12:04.110 We're all saints. 00:12:07.069 --> 00:12:14.029 You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, otherwise a sainted nation. 00:12:14.189 --> 00:12:30.269 Or think of so many of the epistles, 1 Corinthians 1 2, for example, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.149 So that's that's positional sanctification. 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:40.669 And when the Bible uses the word sanctify, it very often, most of the time, it refers to that. 00:12:41.469 --> 00:12:50.909 But at the same time, holiness carries with it a sense of moral goodness, worth, cleansing, preparation, and things I've talked about. 00:12:51.069 --> 00:13:05.069 And over time, the term sanctification came to refer not just to the instantaneous setting apart of people, but more to the gradual process over time when we're made more and more to conform to the image of Christ. 00:13:06.189 --> 00:13:11.389 Progressive sanctification is what our standards have in mind when they talk about sanctification. 00:13:11.870 --> 00:13:14.269 Confession chapter 13, paragraph one. 00:13:14.750 --> 00:13:47.149 They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by his word and spirit dwelling in them, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. 00:13:47.709 --> 00:14:00.509 So often when we're talking about sanctification, we're talking pretty much about that progressive sense in which we are being renewed and we are being made more to conform to the image of Christ. 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:06.909 So the catechism answer goes on to talk about it being a work of God's free grace. 00:14:06.990 --> 00:14:10.029 And that raises an interesting question, an important question. 00:14:10.429 --> 00:14:13.149 Who works in our sanctification? 00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:16.269 Who's doing the work? 00:14:21.069 --> 00:14:22.669 God working through us. 00:14:23.069 --> 00:14:25.549 So we're just saying it was God. 00:14:29.230 --> 00:14:36.269 I think it's God who works in us, both the will and to do, as we are working out. 00:14:36.429 --> 00:14:47.629 I mean, that's that uh the double, and then you always bump into the mystery of human will and divine will and how they interact. 00:14:47.709 --> 00:14:53.629 And that to me, I'm I'm learning to just sort of leave that alone because I can't explain it. 00:14:53.870 --> 00:14:54.990 Nobody can explain it. 00:14:55.469 --> 00:14:56.990 People try, yeah. 00:14:58.029 --> 00:15:10.269 But you know, why why did I get born to Christian parents and that child get born to total heathens, drug eggs? 00:15:11.789 --> 00:15:14.110 That little baby had no choice in that. 00:15:14.189 --> 00:15:14.349 Yeah. 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:16.909 I had no choice in who I was born to. 00:15:18.110 --> 00:15:31.870 I mean, there's just a mystery there that I don't think beside a glory we can explain, and when we get there, we maybe won't even ask the question anymore. 00:15:32.029 --> 00:15:32.349 Yeah. 00:15:34.189 --> 00:15:34.829 Yeah. 00:15:35.629 --> 00:15:46.509 A mistake that people often make when they're thinking about these things is they think about justification as a work of God's grace, he does it, right? 00:15:46.589 --> 00:15:47.389 It's all of him. 00:15:47.789 --> 00:15:50.429 And then sanctification is where I take over. 00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:54.349 God does change justification, I do sanctification. 00:15:54.669 --> 00:15:57.949 He saves me, I clean myself up. 00:15:58.669 --> 00:16:04.990 What the catechism answer helpfully reminds us is that it is God's work. 00:16:06.110 --> 00:16:15.870 First Corinthians talks about how Jesus became to us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. 00:16:16.110 --> 00:16:18.429 Jesus becomes sanctification for us. 00:16:18.589 --> 00:16:21.549 Jesus provides in himself our sanctification. 00:16:21.789 --> 00:16:26.509 It is first and foremost a gift and a work of God. 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:29.309 And we see that all over the place. 00:16:29.469 --> 00:16:31.629 1 Thessalonians 5.23. 00:16:32.909 --> 00:16:45.149 Paul says in his closing benediction, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:16:45.389 --> 00:16:49.069 He's asking God to do the work of sanctification. 00:16:49.230 --> 00:16:54.269 Why would he ask God to do that if sanctification is something we do? 00:16:54.589 --> 00:16:55.709 And I'll get to it. 00:16:55.870 --> 00:16:57.469 Like we're active in our sanctification. 00:16:57.709 --> 00:16:58.509 I'll get to that. 00:16:58.669 --> 00:17:02.189 But first, want to be focused on what God does. 00:17:04.190 --> 00:17:06.430 Ephesians 5, 25 to 27. 00:17:06.509 --> 00:17:08.509 We've heard this lots of times when we talk about marriage. 00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:21.309 Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor. 00:17:21.549 --> 00:17:30.029 Again, the work of sanctification, cleansing, preparation, as being attributed to Christ, who is doing that in us and for us. 00:17:31.470 --> 00:17:33.950 We talked about how it's a promise, right? 00:17:34.110 --> 00:17:38.269 God is, or I'm sorry, how it's a process, a process that God's working in us. 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:39.950 Philippians 1 6. 00:17:40.190 --> 00:17:46.190 He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. 00:17:48.430 --> 00:17:50.670 Colossians 3 9 through 10. 00:17:50.909 --> 00:18:01.149 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 00:18:02.029 --> 00:18:04.109 God is in charge of the process within us. 00:18:04.269 --> 00:18:05.309 He's doing the process. 00:18:05.549 --> 00:18:08.190 It's not just a process, it's a promise. 00:18:09.470 --> 00:18:12.670 There's a purpose behind it, there's a destination, a goal. 00:18:12.909 --> 00:18:15.069 Romans 8, 28 through 29. 00:18:16.349 --> 00:18:25.710 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:32.269 It's a process, it's a promise, that's not carried out in our power, it's carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:18:32.509 --> 00:18:35.149 Again, it's 1 Corinthians 6, 11. 00:18:35.309 --> 00:18:36.509 Such were some of you. 00:18:42.349 --> 00:18:44.349 And so again, we have all these passages. 00:18:44.509 --> 00:18:52.909 We have this pretty consistent testimony of Scripture saying that God is the primary agent, the primary cause in terms of our sanctification. 00:18:52.990 --> 00:18:55.069 He's the one who's doing it within us. 00:18:55.389 --> 00:18:57.470 But does that render us passive? 00:18:58.589 --> 00:18:59.710 No, it doesn't. 00:19:00.430 --> 00:19:00.909 The mystery. 00:19:01.789 --> 00:19:02.349 Yeah, it's the mystery. 00:19:04.190 --> 00:19:08.190 Do you have 1 Peter 4 19 in your in my Bible? 00:19:08.269 --> 00:19:09.309 Yes, I do have it in my Bible. 00:19:11.149 --> 00:19:12.109 I don't have it in my notes, though. 00:19:12.589 --> 00:19:15.629 Because that's that that's I've got that underline here. 00:19:15.869 --> 00:19:22.109 So those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator. 00:19:22.269 --> 00:19:22.589 Yeah. 00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:24.589 And continue to do good. 00:19:25.069 --> 00:19:32.750 That's another of those mysterious verses where we're committing ourselves to the faithful creator, but we're still not going to keep on doing good. 00:19:33.069 --> 00:19:33.549 Yeah. 00:19:33.789 --> 00:19:34.109 Yeah. 00:19:35.230 --> 00:19:35.869 Yeah. 00:19:36.750 --> 00:19:42.670 Well, you stated one of the most helpful ones is Philippians 2, 12 through 13. 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:52.990 Um, you know, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. 00:19:53.149 --> 00:20:00.670 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure. 00:20:00.909 --> 00:20:02.829 So work it out, right? 00:20:03.069 --> 00:20:04.750 Do what you're supposed to do. 00:20:04.909 --> 00:20:07.149 Walk in the way that he set out for you. 00:20:07.389 --> 00:20:12.990 As you walk, know that he's essentially building the bridge under your feet as you go. 00:20:13.309 --> 00:20:15.789 He's the one who's doing it in and through you. 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:17.629 So you're you're not passive. 00:20:17.869 --> 00:20:18.670 You're active. 00:20:18.829 --> 00:20:20.990 You are at work, you're being called to do the things. 00:20:21.149 --> 00:20:26.670 You don't just sit around and wait for God to beam the happy feelings into you that make you obey him. 00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:33.869 You obey him, and as you obey him, you acknowledge that he's the one that's given you the strength to do that. 00:20:35.230 --> 00:20:38.829 So we are very much active in the process of sanctification. 00:20:39.069 --> 00:20:41.389 Because I think we can get in the way of God's work. 00:20:41.629 --> 00:20:47.789 We can grieve the Holy Spirit, we can um Paul, what does Paul say? 00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:53.950 The grace that was given him, he did not um okay. 00:20:54.029 --> 00:20:55.069 I can't think of it. 00:20:55.309 --> 00:20:57.549 He didn't frustrate the grace of God. 00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:00.909 He took, he was like the parable of the talents. 00:21:01.230 --> 00:21:07.549 He took what God gave him, worked it all the time, knowing the ability to work it. 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:10.909 Everything that was in this package is from God. 00:21:11.149 --> 00:21:11.710 Yeah. 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:14.829 And um yeah. 00:21:15.549 --> 00:21:21.230 So I I have a wheelbarrow, and that's all with all wheelbarrows, the tire likes to lose air. 00:21:21.470 --> 00:21:24.190 Sometimes I'm too lazy to fill up the thing, right? 00:21:24.349 --> 00:21:28.909 Or I find myself in an area of the yard and I don't feel like getting the compressor. 00:21:29.069 --> 00:21:36.829 And so I'm you know, I do what I need to do and I get that wheelbarrow where it needs to go, but it's a lot harder than it needs to be. 00:21:37.069 --> 00:21:41.069 And sometimes I put so much weight in the wheelbarrow that I've got I have no choice. 00:21:41.230 --> 00:21:43.389 I have to fill it up before I can get where I'm going. 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:45.309 Sometimes we're like that. 00:21:45.710 --> 00:21:49.149 We're like a wheelbarrow whose tire has no air in it. 00:21:49.230 --> 00:21:55.950 And you know, we're gonna get where God wants us to go, uh, but we're not operating according to our design. 00:21:56.269 --> 00:21:59.309 And sometimes we gotta stop and we gotta breathe in. 00:21:59.470 --> 00:21:59.789 Yeah. 00:22:01.389 --> 00:22:01.629 Yeah. 00:22:01.789 --> 00:22:06.109 And you know that that becomes part of the sanctification process too, right? 00:22:06.269 --> 00:22:20.990 Where we breathe the spirit, we we can't really frustrate the grace of God because his grace is irresistible, and yet we do our little best to oppose what God is trying to do in and through us. 00:22:21.149 --> 00:22:23.309 And we experience the consequences of that. 00:22:23.470 --> 00:22:26.269 We experience the discipline of our Heavenly Father. 00:22:26.589 --> 00:22:31.629 You know, and it's that's one of the great aspects of sanctification being a promise. 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:35.470 God doesn't give up on it. 00:22:35.789 --> 00:22:41.069 So even when I'm not cooperating the way I should, God's will is still operating. 00:22:41.149 --> 00:22:41.950 He's still working. 00:22:42.029 --> 00:22:43.470 He's still accomplishing me. 00:22:43.950 --> 00:22:46.589 Despite our best efforts, God's will will prevail. 00:22:46.750 --> 00:22:48.990 Yeah, He works through us, He works in spite of us. 00:22:49.629 --> 00:22:51.869 And that's not an excuse. 00:22:52.829 --> 00:22:57.869 If you really know Him, you really know how this works, then you'll never hear that as an excuse. 00:22:58.269 --> 00:23:01.710 You'll hear it as assurance and good hope to press on. 00:23:05.230 --> 00:23:16.670 Alright, so sanctification, it's a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man or the whole woman after the image of God. 00:23:18.109 --> 00:23:24.190 Now, here's another place where we might be liable to misunderstanding. 00:23:24.829 --> 00:23:31.149 To say that we're renewed in the whole man is to say that sanctification touches every aspect of us. 00:23:32.269 --> 00:23:42.589 It is not to say that we are completely and entirely sanctified either immediately or at any point in our lives before glory. 00:23:42.909 --> 00:23:59.149 There's um that's been a question in Protestantism, especially since the Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, the rise of kind of the holiness movement, Wesleyanism, especially coming from John Wesley. 00:23:59.309 --> 00:24:03.149 There's an idea where a Christian, it's called perfectionism. 00:24:03.309 --> 00:24:08.349 It's an idea where a Christian can come to a point where they no longer sin. 00:24:08.990 --> 00:24:16.509 It's not necessarily that they can't sin, it's that they just come to a point in their Christian walk where they no longer want to sin. 00:24:16.750 --> 00:24:18.589 And so they don't. 00:24:19.069 --> 00:24:21.069 There's glimmers of truth in that, right? 00:24:21.230 --> 00:24:23.470 There's glimmers, right? 00:24:24.029 --> 00:24:31.549 Matthew 5.48, Jesus quoting the Old Testament, you must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 00:24:32.029 --> 00:24:38.430 Ephesians 4.13, Paul looking to the maturation of the church. 00:24:38.670 --> 00:24:47.470 When we will all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 00:24:47.710 --> 00:24:54.589 What I just read for you from 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul praying that the people would be sanctified completely. 00:24:55.069 --> 00:25:02.430 Hebrews 12, 14, strive for peace with everyone, for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 00:25:03.149 --> 00:25:15.069 You know, so there are ideas, moments in Scripture where it uses this kind of language to set this kind of idea before us that, you know, we might be perfect. 00:25:15.309 --> 00:25:16.509 But what do you make of that? 00:25:16.670 --> 00:25:17.950 How do you understand that? 00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:22.430 What do you think of that idea that we might be perfected on this side of glory? 00:25:24.670 --> 00:25:32.589 I think it is a misunderstanding of how deeply entangled the flesh is. 00:25:33.389 --> 00:25:57.549 The old man, the flesh, is entangled in our personality and constitution, how deeply it is, because there's no time, no time where we cannot ascribe glory or credit to ourselves when it belongs to God. 00:25:57.710 --> 00:25:59.470 And it was very subtle. 00:26:00.909 --> 00:26:04.190 I'm praying, oh, I'm so good to be praying. 00:26:04.349 --> 00:26:07.149 I'm reading the scripture, oh, I'm such a good person to be. 00:26:07.230 --> 00:26:20.349 I mean, that it may not be as blatant as that, but it creeps in very insidiously, and we know that that temptation to be part of God is still there. 00:26:22.349 --> 00:26:24.430 And I will be glad when it's gone. 00:26:24.589 --> 00:26:29.230 But I'm still, I have to deal with it probably till my last breath. 00:26:29.470 --> 00:26:30.109 Yeah. 00:26:32.589 --> 00:26:35.950 Yeah, the the reality of sin is pervasive. 00:26:36.509 --> 00:26:47.069 And um, even though Colossians 3 talks about us putting off the old man and putting on the new, Romans 6 says that the old man is dead. 00:26:47.230 --> 00:26:49.710 We should consider ourselves dead to sin. 00:26:50.109 --> 00:26:53.710 Uh Christ won the victory over sin in the old nature. 00:26:53.869 --> 00:26:55.389 We are truly new in Christ. 00:26:55.549 --> 00:26:58.509 We the first word about us is not saint but sinner. 00:26:58.670 --> 00:27:00.269 That's who we are in Christ. 00:27:00.509 --> 00:27:06.589 And yet we still deal with the vestiges of our original corruption. 00:27:06.829 --> 00:27:18.589 Uh we still deal, you know, we have to be exhorted to act more like the new man that we are and less like the old man that we aren't, because something about that still lingers in us. 00:27:18.750 --> 00:27:25.470 And that's that's the reality that all of the New Testament writers presuppose as they're writing to the church. 00:27:25.629 --> 00:27:27.629 And that they wrestle with themselves. 00:27:27.789 --> 00:27:41.389 Okay, Paul in Romans 7 wrestling with, you know, what is what is heart and mind want him to do, but what is flesh and what the what the law of his members is wanting him to do. 00:27:41.549 --> 00:27:41.869 Right? 00:27:41.950 --> 00:27:45.309 So there's this rub, there's this disconnect, there's this tension. 00:27:45.549 --> 00:27:48.109 And John names it in 1 John 1. 00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:50.349 We often read it as our confession. 00:27:50.589 --> 00:27:55.149 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 00:27:55.389 --> 00:28:01.629 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:28:01.789 --> 00:28:06.029 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 00:28:06.269 --> 00:28:08.509 I don't think that's a one-time reality there. 00:28:08.670 --> 00:28:15.950 I think that's a way of life kind of thing for the church, where we have to acknowledge that we sin, we fail, we fall. 00:28:16.430 --> 00:28:18.750 That's part of the Christian life. 00:28:19.789 --> 00:28:29.069 And, you know, it's Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount kind of sobers us in thinking about the true nature of sin. 00:28:29.389 --> 00:28:42.589 Because maybe if you have a really low bar for what sin is, or if your understanding of sin is like the Ten Commandments, and I haven't murdered anybody today, I haven't stolen everything today, I'm good. 00:28:42.990 --> 00:28:43.869 Then maybe. 00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:47.549 Then maybe with a straight face you can say, I don't sin anymore. 00:28:47.789 --> 00:28:52.029 And then Jesus comes in and says, you know, okay, you haven't murdered anybody. 00:28:52.109 --> 00:28:54.190 You get mad at anybody this week? 00:28:54.349 --> 00:28:56.670 Uh you haven't committed adultery. 00:28:56.990 --> 00:29:00.509 You ever look at someone who wasn't your spouse in a way that you shouldn't have? 00:29:00.750 --> 00:29:08.750 You know, Jesus is just elevating the bar in order to teach us that if you want to get into the kingdom, yeah, you gotta be righteous. 00:29:08.909 --> 00:29:12.269 You gotta be even more righteous than the Pharisees who think they don't sin. 00:29:12.589 --> 00:29:13.389 Guess what? 00:29:13.629 --> 00:29:15.710 That path is not available to you. 00:29:15.869 --> 00:29:20.509 If you're gonna have the righteousness you need, you're not gonna get it from yourself, you're gonna get it from me. 00:29:20.750 --> 00:29:22.990 That's ultimately what he teaches us. 00:29:23.950 --> 00:29:29.069 So there's this goal that's set out before us. 00:29:29.230 --> 00:29:43.950 There's this ideal of perfection, of completion, of entire sanctification, of the day when we will sin no more, that we will be completely sanctified and holy in the presence of God. 00:29:44.029 --> 00:29:46.750 And we all ought to long for that day. 00:29:47.149 --> 00:29:51.869 But we need to recognize that that day doesn't come on this side of glory. 00:29:52.349 --> 00:29:57.950 A day doesn't come before either Jesus comes back or we die and go to be with him. 00:30:01.470 --> 00:30:08.190 So it goes on to talk about the short catechism says we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God. 00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:12.509 So again, sanctification works on every aspect of us. 00:30:12.670 --> 00:30:18.909 And the catechism gets at that right reality by talking about us being created in the image of God. 00:30:19.470 --> 00:30:21.710 Call back to shorter catechism 10. 00:30:21.789 --> 00:30:22.990 How did God create man? 00:30:23.230 --> 00:30:32.589 God created man, male and female, in his own, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness with dominion over the creatures. 00:30:33.309 --> 00:30:35.950 So sanctification touches our knowledge. 00:30:36.589 --> 00:30:38.750 We were darkened by our sin. 00:30:38.909 --> 00:30:44.349 We were walking in ignorance, we suppress the truth and unrighteousness, Romans 1 says. 00:30:44.589 --> 00:30:51.309 But when the light of Christ floods in, uh our minds are purified in our being purified. 00:30:51.389 --> 00:30:53.789 They're enlightened in our being enlightened. 00:30:53.950 --> 00:31:05.470 And so God is enabling us to think rightly, to think rightly about Him, to think rightly about the Word, also to think rightly about the world, as our minds are renewed after the original image. 00:31:05.710 --> 00:31:09.470 Righteousness, uh justification, we've been declared righteous. 00:31:09.629 --> 00:31:12.029 Sanctification, we're being made righteous. 00:31:12.509 --> 00:31:15.629 God is, that's something that Adam had in the garden. 00:31:15.789 --> 00:31:17.309 He had original righteousness. 00:31:17.470 --> 00:31:25.629 He wasn't, he didn't have any guilt, he didn't have any corruption, he had nothing to alienate him from God because he was in a state of righteousness. 00:31:25.710 --> 00:31:28.430 And he lost that in the fall, and we lost it with him. 00:31:28.670 --> 00:31:38.190 And so now, like I said, we're we're giving it back in Christ and we're sanctified in order to realize that righteousness in our lives. 00:31:38.509 --> 00:31:39.629 Holiness. 00:31:39.869 --> 00:31:48.589 We're being purified, we're being prepared, and we're being brought back to that state where we can walk with God in the cool of the day without any issue. 00:31:48.909 --> 00:31:49.869 Dominion. 00:31:50.190 --> 00:31:53.149 He's sanctifying even the works of our hands. 00:31:53.389 --> 00:32:04.829 Uh, you know, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, you're saved not by uh works but but through faith, but by grace through faith, and this is not your own doing that no one may boast. 00:32:04.990 --> 00:32:12.349 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which he prepared beforehand for us to do, that we might walk in them. 00:32:12.589 --> 00:32:33.309 So, you know, sanctification is restoring to us even our works, uh undoing the curse with all the frustration and all the futility that's involved in our work, bringing us back to that place where one day we will finally be able to work the land, work the world in a way that doesn't leave us hot and sweaty and frustrated and mad and all the things. 00:32:33.629 --> 00:32:34.349 Randy. 00:32:35.710 --> 00:32:49.629 Looking back at the apostles, you know, while Christ was with them on earth, you know, he was trying to help them to be sanctified, you know, as they were growing because they were going to continue on with the ministry after he was gone. 00:32:49.710 --> 00:32:49.950 Yeah. 00:32:50.190 --> 00:32:58.190 Well, he expressed his disappointment several times during that process because they were so slow. 00:32:59.869 --> 00:33:09.069 And even in passive recruits on today, I mean, we came to them when the people were hungry, and he said, you get them something to eat. 00:33:09.549 --> 00:33:10.029 You know. 00:33:10.430 --> 00:33:12.990 And of course they were like, don't have it. 00:33:13.149 --> 00:33:14.750 You know, there's nothing we can do. 00:33:14.829 --> 00:33:17.549 You know, we don't have enough money and whatever. 00:33:17.789 --> 00:33:29.470 And that's the way I think we are so many times, you know, that we limit our ability to obey God's commands because of the fact that He He takes care of things. 00:33:29.629 --> 00:33:31.069 He doesn't make it impossible. 00:33:31.149 --> 00:33:34.990 You know, when He commands us to do something, we'll make it possible. 00:33:35.389 --> 00:33:42.589 Yeah, I in the sermon I won't talk about it as much in terms of sanctification as mission, but that's a really great point. 00:33:42.670 --> 00:33:48.190 And you give them something to eat is a really good nutshell of sanctification. 00:33:48.430 --> 00:33:50.509 But there's a need here. 00:33:50.670 --> 00:33:55.230 Uh you ought to be able to fulfill it, but you can't. 00:33:55.549 --> 00:33:56.670 You're not able to. 00:33:56.829 --> 00:33:58.029 You're not ready to. 00:33:58.349 --> 00:34:02.990 Jesus needs to give them something in order to make them ready to do it. 00:34:03.869 --> 00:34:08.990 Well, but he uses what we have in our to to achieve that. 00:34:09.309 --> 00:34:15.630 I mean, I'm my mind's cross-referencing to Moses, and God's saying, Well, what do you have in your hand? 00:34:15.789 --> 00:34:17.550 He had his staff in his hand. 00:34:18.030 --> 00:34:38.590 Well, he did a whole bunch of stuff with that through the power of the Lord, and God takes what we have and does his mission, you know, the contribution to his mission is with what we have in our hands. 00:34:38.990 --> 00:34:39.470 Yeah. 00:34:39.789 --> 00:34:43.550 Sometimes, but sometimes it's also with stuff we don't have at all, right? 00:34:45.150 --> 00:34:46.509 The bread from heaven, right? 00:34:46.750 --> 00:34:47.309 The manna. 00:34:48.029 --> 00:34:48.909 They didn't have anything. 00:34:49.070 --> 00:34:51.550 It says, alright, I'll write it down for you, right? 00:34:51.869 --> 00:34:59.150 So it's it's it's amazing how God shows up either to multiply what we have or to give what we don't have. 00:34:59.389 --> 00:35:03.389 And the bottom line of it is that he'll give us what we need. 00:35:05.469 --> 00:35:15.869 And Balcom in this revelation uh theology of Revelation talks about the major model that John references. 00:35:16.110 --> 00:35:17.789 The Messianic War. 00:35:18.269 --> 00:35:22.750 The Messianic War, that is all the Lord can give too. 00:35:22.829 --> 00:35:22.989 Yeah. 00:35:23.150 --> 00:35:30.509 You know, probably using the context of Palestine and you know, the book of Judges, the book of Joshua. 00:35:30.829 --> 00:35:33.630 Then the exodus stuff coming out. 00:35:34.029 --> 00:35:35.710 That was all God's doing. 00:35:36.509 --> 00:35:37.949 What was the third one? 00:35:38.989 --> 00:35:51.309