Role of Faith in a Life of Holiness

Driving home: The distance between truth and error is rarely a chasm. It is much more frequently a razor's edge.

Professor Murray's quote about the distance between truth and error being a 'razor's edge' illustrates the difficulty of maintaining biblical balance on the issue of faith and holiness.

quaintly stated, the distance between truth and error is rarely a chasm. It is much more frequently a razor's edge. The distance between truth and error is rarely a chasm but is much more frequently a razor's edge and historically the people of God have not found it easy to locate that razor's edge, get on it and stay on it, with reference to this issue. The people of God have not found it easy to hold tenaciously on the one hand to a clear and vigorous grasp on the truth that though Christ alone in the perfection of His work is the ground of our acceptance before God, a life of holiness in it...

4:53 - 6:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Take up and periodically address the issue of faith and holiness with precision for spiritual safety.

The metaphor of doctrinal formulations as 'hedges around a mystery' illustrates how doctrines define the boundaries of biblical orthodoxy, preventing deviation into error, as seen with the Trinity.

doctrine is basically, as one man of God said, our doctrinal formulations are nothing but hedges around a mystery. Hedges around a mystery. And trace every doctrine up far enough that it explodes in mystery. But our doctrinal formulations are the hedges or the fences to keep us within the bounds of biblical orthodoxy. The doctrine of the Trinity is a difficult doctrine to maintain in proper balance. To insist in the unity of the one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. There is but one God, the Father. Persist that within the mystery of the bei...

10:29 - 11:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Elders must exhort in sound doctrine and convict those who speak against the truth, not being 'dumb dogs who cannot bark'.

The analogy of a watchdog that licks intruders instead of barking illustrates the failure of an elder who does not confront error, wasting the resources invested in him.

of the tasks of an elder is that he may exhort in the sound doctrine and that he may convict, that he may bring to the test and show the fallacy of error, that he may convict those who speak against the truth. Now, an elder's task is to do more than to be a polemicist and to speak against the truth, but it is his task. And if he fails to do it, then God gives him the frightening indictment given to the prophets in the days of Isaiah, they are dumb dogs who cannot bark. Pay a watchdog to bark at intruders, and if he licks them on the cheek, you're wasting all of your money in the budget for dog...

13:26 - 14:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And if we tell people they can go to heaven by the blood of Christ, while they're not sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, we'll tell them lies that are eternally irreversible in their consequences.

The example of buying a suit that is too small (reversible) versus having it tailored incorrectly (irreversible) illustrates the difference between temporal mistakes and the eternally irreversible consequences of error regarding salvation and holiness.

Now, a lot of mistakes you can make that are reversible. They are temporal mistakes, and they're reversible. You may buy a suit. You get home and say, really, it's a size too small.

21:05 - 21:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first core issue is posed: can a man or woman be truly justified by Christ's righteousness and yet remain fundamentally unchanged in their moral constitution on earth, or does…

The metaphor of God dealing with a sinner in the 'courtroom' (justification) versus the 'operating room' (changing the sinner himself) illustrates the question of whether justification always accompanies internal moral transformation.

fundamentally unchanged in his moral constitution that is the state of his heart by nature the state of his affections by nature the state of his understanding by nature the pattern of what he does with his members his hands his feet his private sexual organs his eyes his ears his whole lifestyle can a man have a sentence of justifying grace in the court of heaven and remain fundamentally unchanged in his moral constitution on earth that is the issue do you see it that is the nub of the issue that's the heart of the issue don't fail to grasp that dimension of the issue we could state it this w...

35:38 - 36:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow God by the Holy Ghost to blast your self-deception into religious ashes and get you through the narrow gate and on the narrow way.

The metaphor of getting to heaven with 'bullet dents in our helmet, with our clothing shredded' illustrates that the path to heaven is not easy but involves struggle and sacrifice, not 'flowery beds of ease'.

Because I tell you, none of us is getting to heaven in marine dress blues and spit and polished shoes. We're going to get there with bullet dents in our helmet, with our clothing shredded, with arms and fingers perhaps chopped off and hobbling. But we're going to make it. We're going to make it.

48:18 - 48:41 Read in full sermon