Progressive

Pastor Martin observes that parents of teenage daughters know growth spurts intimately - lengthening skirts every three weeks. So Christian growth is a real process, even if uneven.

Now, there may be growth spurts. All of us who've had teenage children know what it's like. If they're daughters, you feel like you're lengthening their skirts every three weeks. If they are sons, you feel like you're trying to stretch down the cuffs on their trousers every two and a half weeks. And granted, in the process of growth, there are growth spurts, but the whole connotation of growth is that of process. It may not always be growth.

7:03 - 7:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray daily for forgiveness as the Lord taught you - your need for confession will not end this side of glory.

Romans 7 might tempt us to picture the flesh and Spirit as two equal contestants. But the Spirit is dominant - this isn't a fair fight.

we'd think, well, here are two equal and opposing parties, the flesh and the spirit. Now, we know that's not true, because later on Paul says, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lust thereof. Verse 24 of this same chapter. So it's not as though we have two equal and opposing forces. No, the spirit dominates in the life of the child of God.

18:15 - 18:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is piosity. It is an affront upon the wisdom of God, no matter how well intended it may be.

If God could resurrect us to immortality without sin, surely He could do that now. Why doesn't He? 'It's none of your business and none of mine' - the appropriate response to perfectionist quarreling with God's wisdom.

and raise them to immortality without any propensity to sin, surely he could do it now. Why doesn't he? Well, that's none of your business. It's none of my business. The fact is, he has not purposed to do it. And in the inscrutable wisdom of God, it is revealed in Scripture that it is his purpose, purpose to carry on the work of sanctification by a process. And therefore men become wiser than God when they try to get rid of the process by conjuring up a doctrine of entire sanctification in which in one great spiritual crisis we are cleansed, as they say in classic Wesleyan theology, of inbred ...

26:25 - 27:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Take mortification seriously - the spiritual bloodstream cannot bear positive fruit if infected with un-mortified sin.

Mortification and conformation are two sides of one coin - removing sin and putting on Christlikeness must always go together.

Mortification, putting to death. Conformation, being brought into the likeness of our God and of our Savior. Let me try to state it in a way that I hope will make it stick. If God were to eradicate from every one of us right now every last vestige of sin, that would not be the sanctification that he envisions.

33:54 - 34:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Take mortification seriously - the spiritual bloodstream cannot bear positive fruit if infected with un-mortified sin.

If God eradicated every vestige of remaining sin in thirty seconds, that would not finish sanctification - because the goal is positive Christlikeness, not just sin's absence.

If God were to eradicate, thirty seconds from now, every last vestige of remaining sin in every believer in this place, that would not realize the goal of the sanctifying process. There has to be the positive impartation of those God-like graces. It is not enough to have a negation of those things which make us like the devil. There must be the impartation of those things that make us like God. Now I trust you can see how important it is to grasp the essence of progressive sanctification. Because if we do not, in terms of temperament, in terms of the influences that are brought to bear upon us...

34:23 - 35:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Take mortification seriously - the spiritual bloodstream cannot bear positive fruit if infected with un-mortified sin.

Pastor Martin recalls a recent visitor who didn't appreciate the church's emphasis on sin. He distinguishes morbid preoccupation from healthy honesty about sin.

You have some who say, well, I don't like this teaching that's always talking about sin. We had this accusation brought just recently. Someone was visiting with us and they didn't like it. There was too much prayer about sin. In prayer meeting, people prayed confessing their sin and their unworthiness and their uncleanness and their undone-ness. And this person felt very uncomfortable, didn't like all this talk about sin. Well, you beware of anyone that finds himself out of harmony

35:20 - 35:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop hinging assurance on sanctification progress - rest in justification while pressing on in holiness.

Some so emphasize justification that God sees no sin in the believer; others so emphasize sanctification that they doubt their justification when they fail. Both miss the balance.

You have those who get hold of the truth that we are justified, our standing is perfect, and they say if that's so, God sees no sin in the believer, and since the sin is the sin of remaining corruption, in a sense it's not my sin, and they become utterly indifferent to the process of mortification and of confirmation under the guise of magnifying the grace of justification.

49:00 - 49:22 Read in full sermon