Growth in Christ

The Necessity of Fruit as Evidence of Saving Faith

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, March 26, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The words of our Lord Jesus, recorded in Matthew 7, 19 and 20, are both simple and they are clear. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them.

0:43 According to our Lord, it is fruit for the fire, not notions for the fire, not ideas for the fire, but fruit for the fire. And in the light of that simple and clear statement of our Lord, repeated in other contexts, I am presently considering with you, from the Word of God, the fruit of saving faith. Having opened up the teaching of the Word of God concerning the necessity and the nature of saving faith, we are now examining what the Scriptures tell us concerning the fact, that there are necessary and inevitable fruits, or accompaniments, of saving faith. If we are to maintain the purity of the Gospel, we must insist upon two categories of biblical truth, and present these truths with equal emphasis and with proper balance. The first is the truth that the salvation of hell-deserving sinners,

2:02 is a salvation that is rooted in grace alone, is procured by Christ alone, and is received by faith alone. The maintenance of the purity of the Gospel rests upon a grasp of those realities, and a constant reiteration of those realities that our salvation flows out of grace alone, alone is found in Christ alone and is received by faith alone. But the second truth that must be emphasized with equal clarity and in due balance with the first is that if we receive Christ alone by the grace of God alone in faith alone, that faith will not remain alone. But it is a faith which working by love is accompanied with inevitable fruit. And therefore where there is no fruit there is no root of saving faith. And one of the great tragedies since the Reformation when that former truth

3:23 was clearly articulated, there have been periods in the history of the Church when not balanced with the second truth. It has led to mere nominalism, formalism, dead orthodoxy, call it what you will, but multitudes of people who say, I believe, but there is no evident fruit. That fruit which the Spirit of God in the Word of God says is both the necessary and the inevitable. accompaniment of saving faith. And if you ask the question, what are those necessary fruits? I have suggested that they certainly can be reduced to three that are indisputable. Where there is true saving faith in Christ, there will be a love for the person of Christ, an obedience to the word of Christ, and a growing conformity to the moral character of Christ. And in two previous messages, I addressed the first two, that where there is true faith in Christ, there will be love for the person of Christ. First Peter 1.8 says, whom having not seen you love, not seen you love,

4:44 though you see him not yet believe. All who are truly believing in Christ have love for Christ. Love for the person of Christ so that the apostle can say, if anyone loved not our Lord, let him be anathema, let him be damned first of God. And as surely as the scripture says, he that believes not shall be damned. The scriptures say, he that does not love Christ shall be damned. And then likewise, the scriptures are equally clear that as one of the inevitable fruits of faith, there will be obedience to the word of God. And then likewise, the scriptures are equally clear that as one of the inevitable fruits of faith, there will be obedience to the word of Christ. For Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If we say that we know him and do not keep his commandments, we lie and we do not the truth. But now we come this morning to consider the third necessary fruit of

Defining Growing Conformity to Christ's Moral Likeness

5:43 saving faith, the third inevitable accompaniment of a true trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. And it is this, a growing conformity to the word of God. And it is this, a growing conformity to the word of Christ. And as we seek to think through this vital subject, we'll do so under three heads, the first of which is a word of explanation and definition. What in the world do I mean by these words, a growing conformity to the moral likeness of Christ? Well, let me begin by stating that the word of God is a stating that what is moral is concerned with right and wrong, what is pleasing or displeasing to God. We say of something, well, that is really a moral issue. What we mean is it is an issue of right or wrong. And the moral

6:44 likeness to Christ has to do with our becoming more and more like the one of whom it is said he was holy, harmless, undisputed. Undefiled and separate from sinners, or again, the scripture says that he did no sin, neither was guile or deceit found in his mouth. Or he said of himself, I do always in every circumstance, in every situation, in every relationship, from my motives to the disposition of my heart, to the tone of my voice, to the look of my eye, I do always the things that please my Father. Or yet again, it is said of Him that He has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. So in summary, we can say the moral character of our Lord was that perfect conformity to the will of the Father. In His intellectual life, He never thought one thought that was displeasing to His Father, that was contrary to truth.

8:01 In His emotional life, He never felt one human emotion, though He experienced the full range of every human emotion. Never once was there the twinge of an emotional experience in our Lord that was contrary to that which was pleasing to God. His intellectual life, His emotional life, His volitional life, He never made a choice whether it was to pick up a toothpick, or whether it was to rebuke Pharisees, whether it was to overturn tables in the temple, whether it was to stretch out His hand to heal, whether it was to submit Himself to the indignities of being stripped naked and buffeted and bruised and eventually impaled upon the cross. He never made one choice. From the slightest matter of the choice of His will to the greatest issues on which our redemption hangs in the volitional life of our Lord Jesus, He did no sin.

9:06 And in relationship to His God, He loved Him perfectly, continually, incessantly. There was never a millisecond when He did not love His Father with His whole heart, His whole soul, His whole mind, and His whole soul. There was never a relationship to His fellow men in which He did not love His neighbor perfectly as Himself. So when we think of the moral character of our Lord Jesus, we are thinking of this amazing reality of what He was as sinless in our human condition, in the totality of His intellectual, His emotional, His volitional life, in every facet of His relationship, in every facet of His relationship to His Father and to His fellow men. So by stating that the fruit of saving faith is a growing conformity to the moral likeness of Christ, I'm underscoring that this conformity touches all that constitutes the moral perfection of Jesus. And that if we are not growing into that likeness, we have no growth. There are no grounds to say that our faith is saving faith.

10:30 For one of the necessary and inevitable fruits of saving faith is a growing conformity to that moral likeness. It is not static. It is not even. But if you connect the dots over a period of time, the line is moving upward.

10:50 As we move towards that which we shall be, when God comes, completes His work of redemption in us, and we bear perfectly the moral likeness of our Lord Jesus, in which the totality of our intellectual life will not think one thought that is displeasing to God for one millisecond, in which we will not feel anything, at any level, in any circumstance, that is not totally well-pleasing to God, in which we will make no choice about the most inconsequential, sequential thing we do in heaven and in the new heavens and the new earth that is not utterly, perfectly pleasing to God, in which we will love God incessantly, perfectly, heart, mind, soul, and strength, without any need of sleep,

11:45 and we'll love one another as ourselves. Now that's what I mean by the moral likeness of Christ and by stating that one of the necessary, hear me dear people, necessary, not optional, but necessary fruits and inevitable accompaniments of saving faith is a growing conformity to the moral likeness of Christ.

Rooted in God's Eternal Purpose of Salvation

12:13 Now having said before you that word of explanation and definition, we come secondly. The biblical demonstration of this fact. I've made what to some of you is an astounding and shocking assertion. I better have, I have good biblical feet on which to place it.

12:32 And I believe I do.

12:35 On what biblical grounds have I asserted that growing conformity to the moral likeness of Jesus is a necessary and inevitable fruit of saving faith? Well, I set the case before you under three major propositions. Proposition number one. Conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is rooted in God's eternal purpose and plan of salvation.

13:02 Conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is rooted in God's eternal purpose and plan of salvation. If the salvation which we receive by faith alone, coming to us by grace alone, procured by Christ alone, is a salvation planned and purposed in eternity, we're compelled to ask the question, what was God's design in conceiving this wonderful plan and in framing this amazing purpose to save a people out of the race of Adam for Himself? And when we ask that question, we see that indeed conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is rooted in God's eternal purpose. And in that eternal purpose and plan of salvation, when we turn to the Word of God, an answer that we find is that God's eternal purpose and deliberate plan in this salvation was to take the marred, ruined image-bearers of Himself, sinners such as you and me, and to restore the image of Himself after the pattern of His Son.

14:30 Jesus Christ. And I want you to look with me at what is the watershed text that demonstrates this incontrovertibly. Romans chapter 8.

14:44 We're all familiar with verse 28. And we know that to them that love God, all things work together for good. And those that love God, those who are the people of God, are described in another way now, even to them that are called according to purpose. And you may have a Bible that has the His in italics.

15:12 There is no His, no possessive pronoun in the original, so we could rightly render it. We know that to them that love God, all things work together for good to them that are called according to purpose. God's people are here described as those who love God. Why?

15:32 Because love is a necessary, inevitable fruit of faith. True believers love God. Paul assumes that. And so he says, all things are working together for good to those that love God.

15:44 How else are they described? They are described as those who have been called. Not merely summoned, but the use of the word call in the epistles, without exception, refers to God's summons that is effectual. A summons that secures what it demands.

16:02 It not only invites us and summons us to Christ, but it lays hold, and brings us to Christ so that to be called is another designation of a true Christian in the New Testament. So they are the ones who are called. But what is the paradigm of their calling? It is according to purpose.

16:23 They're not called willy-nilly. In other words, God does not decide on Tuesday, well, you know, I think I'll call that sinner. Oh, yeah, that'd be a nice idea. So I'll call him as though God's calling of us is an afterthought in his mind.

16:36 No. It is a calling according to divine purpose. And where what purpose birthed? Paul goes on to tell us.

16:48 For whom, not what he foreknew, but whom, the people whom he foreknew, that is, the called according to purpose, those that love God, his true people, whom he foreknew, that is, those whom he loved beforehand. He also foreknew and foreordained, he predetermined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn. He might have the place of preeminence among many brethren. And whom he foreordained, those whom he predetermined to be made into the image of his Son, then he also called whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, then he also glorified. That is, the divine purpose that they should be conformed to the image of his Son will ultimately be realized in their glorification when in spirit and in body they will bear the perfect image of God as revealed and mirrored in Jesus Christ. So what do we learn from this passage?

18:08 We learn that when God birthed in eternity, and we're talking like nonsense, we mumble, but what else can we do when in passages like this? When God birthed his saving purpose in the very womb of eternity, it was his purpose that these wretched, fallen, marred image bearers in Adam should have his image fully restored, an image restored after the pattern of his own beloved Son. So that this matter of conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is not an ancillary, secondary, optional element in salvation. It has its roots, its tap roots in the very saving of purpose of God from the time that purpose existed. It is central. It is foundational.

19:11 Moral likeness to Jesus Christ is rooted in God's eternal plan of salvation. We read of it in Ephesians 1 this morning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, according as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, not that we should merely be justified, not that we should merely be brought out of the misery of our sin. No, the text says that we should be holy and without blaming for him, that we should bear perfectly the image of his holy, spotless, harmless, sinless Son, so that to speak of election and foreordination and predestination and not to be to be passionate, to be like Jesus, is to separate what God has joined. It should never be separated in our thinking, in our experience, in one's preaching, because God has said that in the taproot of eternal plan and purpose, conformity to Christ is central. But then secondly, conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is rooted

Rooted in Christ's Procurement of Salvation

20:39 in the procurement of the human, in the procurement of salvation, in the person and work of Christ. You see, not only is conformity to the moral likeness of Christ rooted in the eternal plan and purpose of God, but it is also rooted in the procurement of salvation in the person and work of Christ. And could it be otherwise? If he comes forth to do the will of the Father, and the will of the Father is that a certain number of specific elect sinners should be so wrought upon by His grace that they will ultimately reflect perfectly the image of His Son, then when the Son comes forth to do the will of the Father, surely His will will coalesce and be aligned with the Father's purpose, so that all that He does in His own purpose and work in space-time history is geared towards that transformation of these sinners into the moral likeness of Jesus. Now let's look at two texts that clearly teach this. The first is Ephesians chapter 5.

21:57 Ephesians chapter 5.

22:05 As the Apostle, in this paragraph, addresses wives first and then husbands in their mutual duties in the light of the Gospel and its impact upon their lives, he writes in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for it that He might make it a company of people gigglingly happy all the time.

22:39 Now sitting under some ministries you'd think that's why Christ came, to make us all gigglingly happy.

22:47 That and what the text says. He gave Himself up for the church in order that a purpose clause He might sanctify it, set it apart from the dominion and realm of sin unto God and to His service, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Do you see the emphasis? He gave Himself up in sacrificial self-giving love that He might have a bride that is marked by what?

23:30 Sanctity. Cleansing. No spot. No wrinkle.

23:35 No such thing. Holy and without blemish. Christ died that He might have a holy people. A people in whom His moral character is increasingly reflected until the coming of the Lord.

23:51 A consummation when it will be perfectly reflected. And He does indeed present His bride to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Christ did not go down into the horrors of Gethsemane. He did not go to the shameful accusations of Gabbatha.

24:14 He didn't go to the horrific realities of Golgotha just to have a people who say, oh yeah, I believe in Him. My sins are forgiven and now I'm getting on with life. He died to have a people who are passionate about the purpose for which He died.

24:32 And that purpose is that they reflect His moral likeness. That they reflect it in their intellectual life. That they reflect it in their emotional life. In their volitional life.

24:46 In their actions. In their motives. In their attitudes. As His moral, moral perfection touched every atom of His being.

24:57 So He died to have a people who long to have that moral perfection in every atom of their being. And there's no part of what they are concerning which they draw a circle and say a matter of indifference as to whether or not I'm pursuing conformity to Christ. My emotional life, that's my business. My intellectual life, that's my business.

25:22 Oh yeah, my moral deeds, I shouldn't fornicate, shouldn't commit adultery, shouldn't steal, shouldn't punch someone in the nose. Yeah, I'm willing for Christ to have His way there. But my friend, if you truly believe upon Christ, your heart is lined up with the purpose for which Christ died. Which was not only to form a just basis upon which God could forgive you and still be holy and just and righteous.

25:49 But He died according to this passage. That you might be holy. That His moral character by the power of the Spirit would be more and more manifested in you in the totality of your being. Then you have the Titus 2 passage that points in the same direction.

26:12 Titus chapter 2,

26:15 verse 11.

26:18 After Paul has given very specific directions to Titus concerning what he should say to the various categories of the world. Within the churches there in Crete. Older people. Young people.

26:31 Servants. And he says in verse 11, here's the purpose for all this detailed ethical, moral instruction of people where they are in the circumstances of their lives for, this is why I'm doing this, the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. Instructing us to the intent that denying saying no to ungodliness and worldly lusts. Ungodliness in our intellectual life.

27:05 In our emotional life. In our volitional life. Ungodliness wherever it would appear. That saying no to ungodliness and to worldly lust.

27:19 Desires that grow out of a world system in opposition to God in which there is no area of human existence which the world does not have its own Bible with its own standards and its own pressure denying, saying no, consciously repudiating ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly thinking rightly about the reality of who we are and what the world is and that to which we are called and righteously according to God's standard as perfectly revealed in His Son and godly in this present world in this present world not saying no and join this just man made perfect until then you're going to sin and we, you know if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Holy Woman I'll read on instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously in this present world looking for the blessed hope in appearing of the glory of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us

28:45 from all gross evident forms of iniquity no from all iniquity purify to Himself a people for His own possession gladly acknowledging I'm not my own I'm bought with a price I have no right to think my own thoughts every thought must be brought captive to the obedience of God of Christ I have no right to let my emotions run hithering on according to my impulses I am purchased property not only my mind my emotions my will all that I have a Savior who died to redeem me from all iniquity and purify to Himself a people for His own possession zealous consumed with holy passion and fire of good works because it says of our Lord He went about doing good we can sin by passivity we can sin by sitting when we ought to be actively going and expressing the compassion and the love and the concern of our Lord Jesus this passage says Christ died to have a people in whom there is reflected His moral likeness when we

30:13 Jesus entered upon His work what was His design and purpose to live a perfect life as the last Adam and the second man and to die of vicarious curse-bearing death that's the teaching of Romans 5 and Galatians 3 and He did this to secure a just ground to justify us so that God might not only pardon our sins but declare us righteous before the law take us beyond what Adam had done before Adam fell Adam had not sinned he was not exposed to condemnation but he had no positive track record of righteousness now in Jesus Christ we not only have our sins forgiven but we are given a status before the law as though we had perfectly kept it because in the person of our representative we have kept it in His obedience to the Father intellectually emotionally volitionally emotionally in relationship to God and to man He did as a representative man as our federal head and in Christ I have His standing before God in the court of heaven why did He do all of that? just that we might rejoice in that standing? no but that we might see in the one who secured it for us

Flowering in the Application of Salvation

31:42 that standard perfect standard and with all of our hearts say believing in Him and trusting in Him alone for my acceptance with God I desire to be like Him and I am determined to pursue conformity to His moral likeness at any cost short of sin in every area and nothing is going to be called no man's land nothing nothing then we come thirdly I said that this proposition that the inevitable fruit of saving faith rests down not only upon the divine purpose and the procurement of salvation but thirdly conformity to the moral likeness of Christ flowers in the actual application of salvation to every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ it's rooted in eternal purpose it's rooted in procurement of our salvation by Jesus Christ where does it flower it flowers in the actual application of salvation to every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ now most of you are well instructed enough to know

33:11 that our salvation has three tenses we have been saved if we truly believe on the Lord Jesus we are being saved and we shall be saved at the second coming or in two stages at death and then our bodies at the second coming the second coming well if we look at that salvation in those three dimensions of it or three facets of it we see that this matter of conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is central to every facet on the threshold of the application of saving grace what does God do when he unites us to his son this is the teaching of Romans chapter 6 verses 1 to 14 in union with Christ we are saved we experience the power of his death and of his resurrection and the apostle says shall we continue in sin that grace may abound let me rephrase it shall we continue indifferent as to whether or not we reflect the image of God as that image is seen in Jesus Christ he says God forbid why we who are such as have died to sin how shall we any longer live therein or are you ignorant and then he goes on to open up the truth that in faith union with Christ we have in union with Christ

34:38 been put to death to sin and we have been raised to newness of life in union with our Lord Jesus Christ so that he can say in verse 14 sin shall not exercise lordship over you for you are not under law but under grace you have come within the dynamic of grace grace that is not only provided a free and full pardon and justification up to the end of Romans 5 but has provided deliverance from the dominion of sin and on that basis we are to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in union with Christ Jesus and on that basis neither present our members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present ourselves unto God and our members as instruments of righteousness in other words we are to consciously pursue the pattern of moral perfection in our Lord Jesus that was not ephemeral and mystical it touched all of the areas of his holy existence in every relationship Paul can say in Colossians 3 9 you have put off the old man and put on the new who is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him so on the very threshold when God breaks into our lives

36:08 in saving grace and we embrace the Lord Jesus as our Savior by faith alone out of the grace of God alone there is this radical breach with the dominion of sin and the recognition that sin and I no longer have a close and strong chummy relationship but then in the ongoing experience of the Christian life and here I want you to turn with me to what is to me one of the most wonderful and pivotal passages on this whole theme 2 Corinthians chapter 3 Paul is expounding the contrast between the old and the new covenants you remember that Moses had to put a veil on when he came down from the mountain because there was something of the glory of God shining on him and the people couldn't look upon it but now in verse 17 here is a contrast under the new covenant but we all now notice we all not just apostles not just special super duper Christians we all we all who are truly a part of the new covenant community our sins have been cleansed by the blood of Christ heart of stone has been removed we've been given a heart of flesh the Holy Spirit dwells within us we've been given we all with unveiled face

37:35 beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord we don't behold directly John saw him directly in vision in Revelation 1 and it almost killed him he fell like a man shot with a 45 magnum right in the temples he said I fell at his feet like a dead man we see reflected as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and what happens as we behold that glory as it is reflected to us in the scriptures in the reading teaching and preaching of the word and we see something of our Lord what is happening but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord the Spirit the Apostle is bold to assert that every true member of the new covenant community behold in Christ as he is revealed and mirrored to us in the scriptures is undergoing a constant transformation the very word used of the transfiguration when Jesus was transfigured before them and something of his deity burst through the thin veil of that humanity and they were stunned

39:02 and shocked God is doing something in us to conform us to the likeness of his son beholding we are transformed looking and gazing we are experiencing a transformation into the same image from one stage of glory to another there is progress yes at times the progress is slow sometimes there is regression but connect the dots and in every Christian there is a growth growing conformity to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ if that's not true then tell the apostle to rewrite this and say but some of us but he says we all in community because God purposed in eternity that we be conformed to his son Jesus died that that work of confirmation might be secured in us the Holy Spirit now dwells in us in order that the purpose of the father and the purchase of the son may be actually realized in the and to say you believe in and you are not being progressively transformed into his image is to say you are frustrating the trinity

40:29 and you can't escape the logic of it the father purpose to make us like Jesus Jesus died to secure that purpose by his death and the Holy Spirit has come to indwell us to accomplish the sovereign decree of the father and the purpose of the purchase of the son and for you to sit here and say I believe in Jesus and you are not growing likeness to Jesus you are saying I have frustrated the purpose of the triune God and God doesn't get frustrated conformity to the moral likeness of Christ flowers in the actual application of salvation to every sinner who truly believes on Christ this passage add to it more briefly 1st John chapter 2 in verse 6 he that says he abides in him the one who says I have union with Christ and I'm enjoying the fruit of that union ought himself also to walk even as he walked you say you abide in him you have life in union with Christ then the onus is upon you to walk

41:56 as he walked to have your life a life of growing conformity to the moral likeness of Christ listen to one of God's choice servants commenting on this principle this process of transformation into the image of Christ is none other than the restoration of the image of God which was marred through the fall of man in Christ says Archbishop Ramsey mankind is allowed to see not only the radiance of God's glory but also the true image of man into that image Christ's people are now being transformed and in virtue of this transformation into the new man they are realizing the meaning of their original status as creatures made in God's image the image of Christ is the true seal of the spirit with which the believer is impressed indeed as Calvin explains the design of the gospel is precisely this listen this is not some novelty that I'm preaching this morning back in the 16th century Calvin explains here it is that the image of God which has been defaced by sin may be repaired within us he says that's the very end of salvation and he adds quote the progress of this restoration is continuous through the whole of life

43:25 because it is little by little that God causes his glory to shine forth in us in justification through faith into Christ the sinners accepted in Christ who himself is the pure and perfect image of God and that divine image is freely imputed to the believer in sanctification through the operation of the Holy Spirit who enables the believer constantly to behold the glory of the Lord that image is increasingly imparted to the Christian in glorification justification and sanctification become complete in one for that image is then finally impressed upon the redeemed in unobscured fullness to the glory of God through all eternity and of course in the consummation at the second coming John can say beloved beloved now are we the sons of God but it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and then he adds and everyone that has this hope in him continually purifies himself even as he is pure do you have that hope if the Lord Jesus broke through the clouds this afternoon seeing him the work of transformation and conformity to his moral likeness

44:55 not only spiritually but physically would be completed in an instant is that your hope you say yes I believe unto that hope John says everyone that has this hope everyone who has a right to this hope is continually purifying himself by what standard even as he is pure pursuing conformity to Christ intellectually emotionally volitionally relationally not putting any area in a no man's land I can't emphasize it enough dear people I fear it is the crucial error of not a few of you sitting here and I'm not going to I'm not going to in which you never even think does Christ have something to teach me about how I should live from his example in this situation or as we learned a few weeks ago are there some precepts in the word of Christ that touch this area Lord show me don't live as though there's any area of no man's land you are purchased property the whole of you to the whole of a life conformed to the Lord Jesus so I trust I've persuaded you from the scriptures that moral conformity or conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is indeed an issue of great concern and is indeed a matter of the fruit

Personal Applications: Worship, Self-Examination, Doctrine, and Godliness

46:25 and necessary accompaniment of faith having given a word of explanation and definition spent most of our time on the biblical demonstration of the Bible of the fact that growing conformity to the moral likeness of Christ is a necessary fruit of faith thirdly I want to make some personal applications of this fact and first of all surely it calls us it constitutes a call to worship and to wonder if we've laid hold of Christ with the empty hand of saving faith it is certain that one day we shall be perfected and perfectly conformed to the image of Christ why whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed not one-tenth not half or three-quarters but totally to the image of Christ think of it one day one day you will have intellectual motions and impulses and responses that are perfectly conformed to the intellectual purity of your Savior emotionally volitionally in relation to God in relationship to man God is committed and Paul said he who has begun a good work in you will perfect it

47:54 until the day of Christ and so child of God this is a call to worship and to wonder that my Savior will indeed be the firstborn among brethren he'll have the chief place but we'll all bear the family likeness with all the ways that our individuality will color and will shape our likeness to Christ every one of us will be like him but we'll see him as he is repentance no more mourning over sin no more contrition no more perfectly conformed to the likeness of Jesus the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is called the first fruits the harvest is going to come he's called the down payment the full compensation is sure to come so when you get tired in the battle and when you're ready to give over say no I cannot give over the father purpose that I should be like Christ Christ died that that purpose might be realized the Holy Spirit dwells within me to enable me to pursue it I will not give over that's why the writer to the Hebrews says you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin child of God let this reality nerve you for the battle

49:23 and strengthen you in the struggle we shall be like him it's a call to worship and wonder but secondly it constitutes a call to serious self-examination can you discern any real progress in conformity to the moral likeness of Jesus can you discern your spouse can your kids those who work with you your classmates do they see that your trigger temper is being by degrees restrained the indications of your pride being withered your irritability being harnessed your laziness giving way to industry your self-indulgence to self-denial your selfishness to judgment your genuine altruism your insensitivity giving way to sensitivity to others your sharp tongue becoming a kind and a healing tongue your gossiping tongue becoming restrained your jealousy giving way to thankfulness for what others have that you don't have your envy giving way to a spirit of contentment your unforgiving spirit giving way to a cheerful joy your delight in forgiving others your impure thoughts withering before the power of God's grace your gloomy

50:53 eeyore unbelieving spirit giving way to holy joy come on now ask yourself can I see the work of the spirit making me more like Jesus dare you ask your husband over lunch or in a quiet hour this afternoon dear be honest with me with this judgment day honesty do you see any growth in likeness to Christ in me and be true to my soul and tell me the truth gather your kids together and ask them if not go down before God go down before God in the presence of your husband your wife your kids whoever say I've dishonored my savior I've denigrated his salvation that is committed to make me like Jesus and his it's not going on what's the cause pray that God will show you what the cause is and deal with it ruthlessly I say this study should not only be a call to worship and wonder but a call to serious self-examination thirdly it constitutes a call to clear-headed thinking concerning the inseparable nature of justification

52:21 and sanctification it calls to clear-headed thinking concerning the inseparable nature first of all Corinthians 1 30 but of him are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom sanctification righteousness made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption if we're in Christ he's not only made unto us righteousness he is made unto us sanctification never allow yourself to separate faith alone lays hold of Christ and brings us to the justified state yes but that faith that lays hold of Christ unto justification unites us to Christ and the virtue and power of his grace by the spirit is at work in us by degrees to make us more and more like Christ and then fourthly it constitutes a call to a right view of the nature of godliness it constitutes a call to a right view of the nature of true godliness of character you see true godliness is not only hear me carefully now respecting the do's and the don'ts of the bible now there's no godliness without respecting the do's and don'ts of the bible I hear people say the Christian life is not a matter of do's and don'ts you bet your boots it is just read the latter part of the epistles

53:49 when we come to the end of Ephesians what is a husband supposed to do he's supposed to love his wife as Christ loved the church what's a wife supposed to do she's supposed to submit what's a father supposed to be it's not to provoke his children that they be discouraged what are servants supposed to do yes the Christian life in true godliness is made up of a whole bunch of do's and don'ts but hear me carefully it's not merely a bunch of do's and don'ts in external wooden adherence to the prohibitions and to the mandates it is the formation of the very character and disposition of Jesus within us by the Holy Spirit producing an attitude of delight in the way of holiness and obedience to say I delight to do thy will oh my God and as there was in our Lord an attractiveness a winsomeness a magnetism a sense of being comfortable with our humanity children drawn to him women at ease with him publicans and sinners throw banquets for him and he's at home he's at home you see there's a concept that if we take our walk with God with God and being a holy man or woman seriously we're going to be something weird no we become more human the more we become like Christ the only perfect human that walked upon our earth Adam had a few days or weeks we don't know

55:19 but apart from that and in our Lord when you read the gospels isn't there something beautiful about his gentleness and his manliness his courage his tenderness something that is attractive and that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that is that's the true nature of godliness conformity to the likeness of Jesus and may God grant it more and more that beauty will be upon us as a people that as we plead oh God by the spirit do that work of transforming me into the image of your son may I feel in any circumstance where he felt what he felt as he felt by the power of the spirit created me those emotional states within me may I think as he thought may I choose as he chose may God grant that all of us who say we believe upon him will more and more be manifesting likeness to him let's pray our father we thank you for your word and we pray that the Holy Spirit would be present to press that word home to every heart we pray for those who need desperately to have a little

56:48 judgment day in the light of what they've heard this morning may they not go away like the man who looks in the mirror sees himself sees the smudges on his forehead and walks away and forgets all about it but oh God may there be some smudge removing this day in our homes in our deep and close relationships help us our father that we may by your grace be a people marked more and more by likeness to our beautiful savior we ask you to have mercy upon those who have no heart to be like him who are utterly content to go on befaced marred twisted image bearers of yourself oh Lord bring them to the place where they see that they are in a wretched state and may they cry to you for mercy and for grace we look to you to seal your word to the prophet of each of our souls and grant your blessing upon us as we leave this place in Jesus name Amen