Progressive

Introduction and Review

0:03 It is surely no overstatement or exaggeration to say that the greatest privilege that can ever be afforded any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, in any age or under any circumstances, is the privilege of becoming a partaker of God's saving mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

0:30 And in our Lord's Day morning studies in the scriptures, we're examining some of the major aspects of this saving mercy as it comes to us in various ways and is described for us in various biblical terms. And the great umbrella under which we are studying these aspects of God's saving mercy is the umbrella which has printed on it the cardinal blessings of salvation.

1:01 having already contemplated the teaching of Scripture with respect to the blessings of calling and regeneration, justification and adoption, we are now considering God's saving activity, that activity which comes under the biblical description of sanctification. It is surely, as justification and adoption deal with guilt or condemnation and alienation caused by sin, so sanctification deals with the defilement and the bondage caused by human sin. And I have suggested that when we seek to bring together all of the witness of Holy Scripture with respect to the doctrine of sanctification, it is proper for us to conceive of it in terms of a massive mountain of gracious

1:56 privilege, and saving mercy with three high peaks. Sanctification begun, continued, and consummated. Sanctification begun, we have examined under the heading of definitive sanctification. That is, the work of God in delivering His people from their fundamental bondage to the slavery and defilement of sin.

2:23 a deliverance which comes on the threshold of Christian experience. Now this morning, we shift our attention to the second of those three peaks, that is, sanctification continued or progressive sanctification. And what we will attempt to do this morning is to come to grips with the major lines of this biblical teaching under four headings. First of all, the fact of progressive sanctification sanctification established. The fact of progressive sanctification established. In the light of the clear teaching of the passages which we studied under the heading of definitive sanctification, such passages as Romans 6, Romans 8, Galatians 5, 1 John 3, Colossians 3, Ephesians 4, and

The Fact of Progressive Sanctification Established

3:18 we might be tempted to wonder if indeed there is any need for a process following so mighty and so radical a breach with the power and dominion of sin. If every Christian is one who has died to sin, Romans 6, 2, has put off the old man and put on the new, Colossians 3, Ephesians 4, then

3:45 If he has indeed crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts thereof, Galatians 5, if he has indeed experienced these things, then is there any need for a process? Well, the Word of God speaks with equal clarity and authority concerning both the necessity and the reality of this process of sanctification in a very real sense.

4:14 Hardly a page of the New Testament can be turned up without encountering some explicit teaching with respect to progressive sanctification. And I want to establish the fact of progressive sanctification as a biblical norm by simply reminding you of some of the verses which point to to an aspect of sanctifying grace which can only be understood in terms of a gradual process. First of all, we see the necessity for the continuous mortification of sin. In Romans 8 and verse 13, we are told by the Spirit through the pen of the Apostle, if ye through the Spirit, and then he uses a present tense verb,

5:07 If ye through the Spirit do continually mortify the deeds of the flesh, or the deeds of the body, ye shall live. And it's interesting that in this same chapter, which speaks of definitive sanctification, ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, that's definitive sanctification, we are told that there is a process of continuous mortification, that the definitive sanctification of necessity leads to the ongoing process of sanctification described in this verse as the continuous mortification of sin. And you have a parallel truth in Colossians 3 and verse 5. But secondly, we see the necessity for continuous growth in grace.

6:06 In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15, the same chapter in which the apostle teaches definitive sanctification later on, they have put off the old man, they have put on the new, he describes believers in Ephesians 4, 15 in these terms, "...but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head." even Christ. And so the concept of a continuous growth and development stands on the very face of this passage. And then many of us are familiar with that command of 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if growth is anything, it is a process.

7:03 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.

7:31 a process that is completely even. There may be spurts, there may be arrested growth, there may be plateaus, but the overarching concept of growth is that of process. And so our sanctification is set before us in that imagery. Well, the fact of progressive sanctification is not only established by the necessity of continuous mortification, the necessity for continuous growth, but thirdly, the necessity for continuous renewal. And here the well-known text of Romans 2 is very appropriate in establishing the necessity of progressive sanctification. Romans 12 says,

8:17 Those who have already experienced definitive sanctification as described in Romans 6 and Romans 8, yet they are entreated by the apostle, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service, and be not fashioned according to this world or this age, but be ye transformed and

8:44 By the renewing of your mind. And here you see the Christian life is viewed as a process of renewal. There must be this continual, literally, metamorphosis of the mind. This constant renewal and transformation. And then in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 16, the apostle speaks...

9:11 of the Christian in terms of his outward life, his physical, and his inward spiritual life. And he says in verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 4, Wherefore we faith not, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. And surely his life is lived one day at a time, Christian sanctification is a process of daily inward renewal. And you have, of course, the same emphasis in Ephesians 4 and verse 23, that ye be continually renewed in your mind. And we looked at that in conjunction with definitive sanctification. Well, we go on and we see that there is the necessity for continuous transformation. Not only continuous renewal, but

10:10 but continuous transformation. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from one stage of glory to another, even as from the Lord the Spirit. And you see, that transformation is set before us in terms of progression.

10:40 from glory to glory, from one degree of glory to another. And then finally, the fact of progressive sanctification is established by the teaching of John 15, in which the Christian life is set forth as one which has a process of continuous pruning. John 15, in the imagery of the vine and the branches,

11:08 Our Lord says, I am the true vine, my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away. And every branch that beareth fruit, and you have a present tense verb, he continually cleanses or prunes it, purges it, that it may bear more fruit. Well, we could add many other lines of biblical truth, but I trust these texts,

11:36 will be text with which you are very familiar as a Christian, so that you may have an intelligent grasp upon the fact of progressive sanctification established in the light of these necessities, the necessity for continuous mortification, continuous growth, continuous renewal, continuous transformation, continuous crooning. Now again,

12:03 These are only a sampling of the passages, but they should suffice to establish in our minds very clearly these two fundamental principles. This definitive sanctification that we've studied, this radical breach with the power and the dominion of sin, as real and as glorious as it is, is not such as to negate the necessity for the process of of renewal, of transformation, of pruning, and of mortification. In other words, whatever definitive sanctification is, it does not negate the necessity for progressive sanctification. And the second thing I trust is clear is this. Whatever progressive sanctification is, it can only be experienced by those who have known definitive sanctification.

12:59 In other words, it is impossible to make progress in sanctification if we are strangers to the initial dynamic of sanctifying grace. It is only those who have died to sin that can continue to mortify sin. It is only those who have put off the old man and put on the new that can experience the renewal of the new man after the image of him that created him. And few things are more pathetic than to hear teaching and exhortation and instruction which terminate upon progressive sanctification with people who are strangers to the power and reality of definitive sanctification. And if you have never come to that radical breach with the love and dominion of sin,

The Necessity Explained: Three Factors

13:52 then it is utterly futile for you to attempt to make progress in progressive sanctification. You must first of all come through that narrow gate of true and biblical conversion. You must, in the language of our Lord, enter through the narrow gate and set out upon the narrow road which leads unto life. Now, having established the fact of progressive sanctification, Consider with me in the second place the necessity for progressive sanctification explained. What are the factors which make this process a necessity? Well, the scriptures give us the materials to answer this question, and the answer can be reduced to three parts. Number one, the inescapable reality of remaining sin.

14:48 Number two, the undeniable imperfection of our existing graces. And thirdly, the unchangeable revelation of the purpose of God. Let me just open up each of those lines of thought briefly. Why is it necessary that we who have experienced definitive sanctification should go on to progressive sanctification? The first part of the answer is...

Reason One: The Inescapable Reality of Remaining Sin

15:16 because of the inescapable reality of remaining sin. The same Bible which asserts that sin does not reign in a child of God teaches that sin remains in every child of God. Sin does not reign, but it remains. Sin is not upon the throne, but it is still within the territory.

15:48 The key passages which teach this fact are Romans 7, verses 23 and 24. The apostle who has taught the great doctrine of our death to sin is the apostle who takes us, as it were, into the deepest chambers of his own self-conscious experience as a Christian. And he says in Romans 7 and verse 23, 22 and following. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

16:46 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God. I have experienced the breaking of sin's dominion. I am no longer dominated by the carnal mind that is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God. I am a new man in Christ. I delight in the law and government of God with all my heart. But

17:17 I see another law, that law of sin which is in my members. And it is that inescapable reality of remaining sin which makes the process necessary. Sin does not reign, but it remains. And then that text which is a distilled commentary on the entire latter part of Romans 7, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 says, Galatians 5 and verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would. Now, if all we had was this text...

18:15 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.

18:42 But the Spirit's domination is not carried out in the face of a totally pervasive conquest of every department of the human personality. There are the remains of corruption called in this passage the flesh. And this principle of flesh is constantly lusting against the Spirit. And it is that reality which necessitates salvation.

19:11 the process of sanctification. And if there is anyone who says that this side of glory, he has gotten beyond the reality of indwelling sin and the conflict dependent upon it, John has a word for such a person in his first epistle, 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. Having stated that, that those who walk in communion with the Father and the Son have their sins continually exposed, but blessed be God, continually cleansed. It's as though someone would object and say, ah, but why hold that out as a privilege? I don't need such a privilege. I've put myself or God has placed me beyond the reach of the need of continuous cleansing. 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin,

20:10 We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We are self-deceived if we ever claim to be beyond the reality of remaining sin in our hearts and lives as believers. And surely the Lord Jesus, when He gave us that model prayer, assumed that sin in its remaining corrupting

20:39 And oftentimes crippling power would be a constant reality to his children. That's why he taught them to pray as part of their daily prayer experience. Forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass against us. Well then, the necessity for progressive sanctification grows out of this inescapable reality of remaining sins.

Reason Two: The Imperfection of Our Existing Graces

21:09 But then it grows out of a second factor, the undeniable imperfection of our existing graces. The undeniable imperfection of our existing graces. It is God's purpose that we should experience a moral and ethical transformation which will eventually find us not one which should, of the moral perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8 and verse 29, Whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Or in the language of 1 John 3, 3, We shall be like him, whether the reference is to the Son or to the Father, and there is an exegetical debate on the subject,

22:04 In either case, it refers to either the Father or the Son in all their moral perfection. And John says, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. And so God's purpose in sanctification has no lesser goal than the total renovation of our entire moral being into His own moral perfection and likeness.

22:33 That's the standard that is before us. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5 and verse 48, 1 Peter 1, 15. Therefore be ye holy, as he which hath called you is holy. Now, when God lays hold of us in grace, when we are truly regenerate and called and experience definitive sanctification, we become new creatures. We become new men and new women in Christ. The change is is so pervasive from top to bottom that the Bible uses no lesser language than a new birth, a new man, a new creation, dead to sin, put off the old, put on the new, all of that vigorous language, but the new man is not a perfect new man. The new creation is not a perfect new creation. And that's why in those two passages I was careful to underscore it and I want to do it again.

23:32 In Colossians 3 and in Ephesians 4, in the very context of emphasizing the newness of life in Christ, it is newness which still stands in need of renewal. So in Ephesians 4, this is the language, Ye put away as concerning your former manner of life the old man that waxes corrupt after the lust of deceit, and that ye be renewed, a present tense verb, in the spirit of mind. And then you have an aorist infinitive, ye have put on the new man that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Though there is the new creation, though there has been this putting on of the new man, it is the new man which needs constant renewal in the spirit of its mind. And the same truth is brought forth in Colossians, Colossians chapter 3,

Reason Three: The Unchangeable Purpose of God

24:31 Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man, verse 9, and have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. It is the new man, but it is the new man which has imperfection in its existing graces. And therefore there must be this process of growth in knowledge. growth in the development of the graces of the new man, the new woman in Christ. And then the third reason for this necessity of progressive sanctification is the unchangeable revelation of the purpose of God. The same God who has purpose to save us on the basis of the life and death of His Son,

25:27 the same God who has purposed to work in us those mighty works of calling and regeneration by the Spirit through the Word, that God has purposed from the moment He calls us into fellowship with Christ, enables us to become new men in Christ, He's purposed from that point until we are glorified to deal with us by a process. Now, He didn't have to do it that way. If God can in a moment of time perfect the spirit of a believer when his spirit leaves the body and is to go into the presence of Christ, if God can put forth such redemptive energy and power as perfectly to sanctify the soul of that believer when it departs his body, surely he could do it now. If he can take these bodies at the resurrection...

26:25 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 sins.

27:21 When they teach that by some other experience we can be lifted above all known sin, it is a quarrel with God. It may have what appears to be a very pious motive. Isn't God more glorified if His people do not sin? Isn't God's grace more magnified if we claim that grace, not self-help, but grace has taken away all bent and proneness to wandering and to declension? Doesn't it magnify the grace of God to claim that we have lived for three years without sin? And to have to say we sin every day in thought and word and deed, my friend, it is not true piety that quarrels and

28:09 with the ways of God. It is piosity. It is an affront upon the wisdom of God, no matter how well intended it may be. And as long as God has revealed in His Word that it is His unchangeable purpose to deal with the problem of remaining sin and imperfect graces by means of a process, then we'll be delivered from the itch for some kind of an experience that will take us out of the agony of the process. And some of us know what it is to sit and drool spiritually when people hold up the possibility of an experience that negates the agonizing complexity of the process. I hope none of you is ever courted in the slightest way with such teaching.

The Essence: Mortification and Conformation

29:02 Well, having dealt then with the fact of progressive sanctification as established in Scripture, the necessity explained. Now thirdly, consider the essence of progressive sanctification asserted. Can we boil down the essence of this process? Well, try to think with me now, and this morning it's mostly didactic. I realize that. You've got lots of hortatory elements in the previous hour.

29:32 There was lots of exhortation. This is mostly teaching this morning, but it's necessary teaching. The essence of the process is one which follows the same basic pattern as sanctification begun. Now follow. We saw in our studies of the key passages on definitive sanctification that it had two sides to it. In the language of Romans 6, we died to sin, negative, negative, We were raised to newness of life. Positive. Colossians and Ephesians. Ye put off the old man. Negative. And we have what? Put on the new man. Positive. Ye are no longer in the flesh. Negative. But ye are in the spirit. Positive. Now progressive sanctification follows precisely that same pattern.

30:29 The essence of progressive sanctification is to be found in the negative, the mortification of remaining sin, and in the positive, the conformation to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. The negative and the positive. And you will see that pattern all the way through the pivotal passages. Let me give you just one or two as examples, and then I hope this will be a key...

30:58 to unlock many portions for you as you read your own Bibles. For that's no little part of a teacher of the word to give those who are taught the tools to understand their own Bibles. Turn to Colossians, if you will, please. Colossians chapter 3. In verse 5, we have the exhortation, Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.

31:27 That's a call to mortification. And then the apostle delineates in the realm of the specific what he means. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness. And then he goes on to say in verse 8, Do you also put them all away? Now, do you see, the process of sanctification is here viewed under the vivid imagery of putting certain things to death, of putting other things away.

31:56 But that's all negative. And he doesn't stop there. Verse 12. Put on, therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, loneliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any have a complaint against any, as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. You see the parallel?

32:27 all of these things, but that's not enough that we simply put off these remains of corruption. We must put on the positive virtues of love and lowliness and meekness and the other graces that are here mentioned. And then another text which brings this line of thought into sharp focus, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1.

32:55 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Having therefore these promises, promises of God receiving those who separate themselves from sin, having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. There's the negative. But don't stop there. Perfecting something positive now, holiness,

33:24 In the fear of God. We must not only be cleansed from defilement. We must be conformed to the positive standard of God's holiness. And so all the way through the scriptures you will find that pattern. So that the essence of progressive sanctification is to be understood in terms of two words. Mortification and conformation. Not confirmation, but conformation. Conformation.

Pastoral Balance in Mortification and Conformation

33:54 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.

34:23 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, we will become imbalanced on either the mortification or the conformations.

35:20 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

35:51 with the 51st Psalm. When we get beyond feeling comfortable with the publican's prayer, beware. But there is a sense in which God's people at times become overly morbid and preoccupied with remaining sin, and all of their spiritual energies are concentrated upon the putting to death of remaining corruption. And there's nothing about them that is attractive.

36:21 There's nothing that would make unsafe people wish they could have what they have. There is very little of the cultivation of the positive outgoing graces of love, of gentleness, kindness, and all of these other virtues. Well, you see, we don't want that kind of an imbalanced sanctification that is taken up totally with mortification. On the other hand...

36:49 There is no real growth in conformation to the likeness of God if the spiritual bloodstream is infected with un-mortified sin. So the person who is not serious about mortification cannot make progress in conformation to the image of Christ. And so if we have that tendency, you see, to be more bright and outgoing and look on the positive side of things we may be tempted to think, well, let me concentrate nine-tenths of my spiritual energy upon being conformed to the positive likeness of Christ. In this business of mortification, I'll leave that for those people that read a little too much of the Puritans. No, no. If you and I are to be biblical Christians, there must be this proper balance and biblical tension of mortification and confirmation, putting off

37:47 putting on, reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, yes, but also reckoning ourselves to be alive unto God as those who have risen from the dead in union with Christ. Yes, we will not present our members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but we will present ourselves and our members instruments of righteousness unto God. That's a paraphrase, Romans 6.13. And passage after passage will come to you as you read the Scriptures and you'll see it, not artificially, but really structured in this way. So the essence of progressive sanctification is mortification, confirmation. And then finally this morning, having looked at the fact of progressive sanctification, the necessity, the essence, now the gold.

The Goal: Total Eradication and Complete Conformity

38:43 of progressive sanctification described. What is the goal to which this process is moving? Well, the goal is nothing less than the total eradication of all sin and the complete conformity of our entire humanity to the image of Christ. The goal is nothing less

39:10 than the eradication of all sin and the complete conformity of our entire humanity to the image of Christ. And that goal is not a hypothetical goal, it's a real goal. God is committed to it. And He's going to attain it, and you and I must be committed to it, even though we realize the goal will never be attained in this life.

39:38 1 John 2.1, My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye may not sin. Now John's a realist, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. But as surely as the believer embraces with joy the advocacy of Christ, he embraces with zeal the goal of his sanctification, that he sin not.

40:06 Or in the language of our Lord, quoted earlier Matthew 5, 48, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. And if we want to limit that more to the perfection of love, which forms the immediate context of our Lord's words, then it doesn't change the fact that perfection of grace is the goal of the sanctifying process. And then that prayer of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5. The entire sanctification passage in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 5.23 And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly. And may your spirit and soul and body, that is the entirety of your humanity,

41:01 be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calleth you, who will also do it. Well, you see, the goal is nothing less than total eradication of all sin, complete conformity of our entire humanity to the image of Christ. And child of God, this involves even our bodies. For the Scripture tells us,

41:31 And that God by His own almighty power shall fashion the body of our humiliation like unto the glorious body of His own dear Son. Philippians 3 and verse 21. And while we are here in the midst of the process, it is in our interest as well as God's glory that we ever keep the goal in mind and realize that though the goal will never be fully realized in this life, It shall be realized. And listen, no one has any biblical grounds to claim that it will be realized at the return of Christ for him unless it is the passion of his heart here and now. The person who says, since the goal cannot be realized now in the process, I will not take it seriously, is the person who knows nothing of the grace of God.

42:27 For when God has brought us to definitive sanctification, He has placed His Spirit within us, among other things, as the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment of all we will have and be. And because we are marked for perfection, there is the welling up within of the longing after that which we shall certainly be when He comes again.

Closing Exhortations: Hold Fast Justification and Adoption

42:52 Now, child of God, amidst all the conflicts and struggles connected with progressive sanctification, let me exhort you in closing this morning, never lose sight of the perfection of your justification. Amidst all the conflicts and struggles in the process of sanctification, never lose sight of the perfection of your justification.

43:20 And the Apostle Paul is the great example of a man who learned that lesson. It is the Paul of Romans 7 crying out in the agony of the conflict, Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I then of myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God, with the flesh the law of sin, There is therefore now no condemnation. In the midst of the agony, he has the present joy of a perfect justification and an unshaken confidence of an ultimate glorification. He says, who shall deliver me? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He had no doubts as to the ultimate outcome. He was established in the reality of a

44:15 perfect and present justification, he was established in the hope and confidence of a future glorification, and in the midst of it, he cries out of a real agony of struggle and conflict in the process. You see, the two are not exclusive. This passage, if there were no other in the Word of God, shows that there is no inconsistency between that realism of assessing the conflict and agony, the defeats at times, and the vicissitudes of progressive sanctification standing alongside a clear title to justifying grace in the Lord Jesus and a clear and unblemished title to ultimate glorification. Do you have that this morning? Oh, as a pastor and as elders, we see continually

45:13 people begin to take seriously the necessity of growth, the necessity of renewal, the necessity of transformation, the necessity of mortification. And when they get involved in the whole complex of that process, they lose sight of all that was preached and taught in previous weeks. Justification is an act of God's grace, a once for all justification. declaration in which we are brought into the status of those who are fully acquitted before the law. We are brought into the status of those who stand as perfect law keepers in Jesus Christ. And I urge you, child of God, to pray that God will give you the spiritual tools necessary to lay hold of these realities and to hold them

46:08 concurrently in your own consciousness as a Christian. Furthermore, let me exhort you, amidst all the changes in this process of mortification and confirmation, never lose sight of the irreversible nature of your adoption.

46:26 never lose sight of the irreversible nature of your adoption. God has made you a son and he will not disinherit you because he has adopted you on the grounds of the doing of another. It is because of what Christ has done that he has made you his son or his daughter. And if he did that irrespective of what you were, then you must never allow the struggles and the conflicts, the progressions and regressions in the process of sanctification to blur the reality of the irreversible nature of your adoption. Your struggles are the struggles of a son and a daughter, not the struggles of a guilty criminal. And then finally, let me give this word of exhortation.

47:17 to you who are the people of God, that if you profess to have the joy of a complete justification, if you profess to be basking in the light of an irreversible adoption, then surely, surely, you love the justifier and you love the adopter. And if you love the justifier and the adopter, And love the one through whose life and death and present ministry your justification and adoption are both procured and secured. You will not treat with indifference His will with respect to this process of sanctification. He has said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

48:02 if we know that He died not only to clear our title before the court of God, but to make us holy, if we are convinced that He died to make us into His own moral likeness, then any professed joy in justifying and adopting grace that is true will be joy that impels us to take seriously the whole matter of becoming more and more like Him and more and more putting on the deeds

48:32 You say, Pastor, it seems like all the time you're crying out to be balanced, to hold my friends. I'll give my life to that because I've lived long enough to see what happens when one truth of God's Word is held at the expense of another. Error is always more simple than truth. Never forget it. Error is always more simple than truth.

49:00 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.

49:26 And then on the other hand, you have people who say, well, the Bible says without holiness no man will see the Lord. Got to be willing to cut off right hands, pluck out right eyes. It's a narrow way that leads unto life. I've got to put to death. I've got to put off. I've got to put on. And they get so amazed that there's no joy. There is no spring of confidence in the process. Why? Because they're constantly weighing

49:52 the validity of their justification and adoption in terms of the progress they're making in their sanctification. And my friend, that's miserable business. That's miserable business. Whereas the truth of the Word of God is, in Christ rejoice and constantly affirm in the court of your own conscience the perfection of what you are in Christ. And strengthened by that reality, press on.

Final Appeal to Balance and the Unconverted

50:21 in the conflict with sin, until you are made like him. And if you're one who is yet under the dominion of sin, a slave of your passions and lust, and of the God of this world, my friend, you need desperately to become a sanctified person, or you'll never enter heaven. Nothing unclean shall enter. But you can't sanctify yourself any more than you can justify or adopt yourself. And all of those blessings are in Christ.

50:50 And this is the wonder of the gospel. In Christ they are offered to you. Christ comes clothed with his promises and laden with the blessings of his salvation. And as you take him as he is clothed with his promises, you take a Christ laden with the blessings of justification, adoption, sanctification. All of the blessings are in him.

51:18 And my friend, it's your dealings with Him in faith or unbelief that will determine your eternal destiny. He that believeth on the Son hath life. He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth upon Him. Oh, that you may embrace Him as He is freely offered to you in the Gospel. Let us pray.

51:51 Father, how we bless you for your holy and infallible word, this changeless lamp unto our feet and light to our pathway. And we marvel at times our minds and our spirits stagger before the magnitude, before the glorious diversity of the privileges of grace. And we pray that you would help us those of us who are your people, to be firmly grounded in these fundamental biblical perspectives with regard to this process by which we more and more put off and more and more put on. O God, make us wise with holy and scriptural wisdom in working out our own salvation. We thank you again for your word

52:50 We thank you for your changeless purpose to make us into the likeness of your own Son. We thank you for the confidence that one day we shall be like Him. O God, we bless you that amidst all of the agony and the struggle, we are nerved, we are strengthened, we are invigorated by the knowledge that the struggle will not be forever. How we bless you. And from our hearts we cry, even so come, Lord Jesus. Bless the word preached to the hearts of your people. Make it effectual in the hearts of those who are yet strangers to your grace. Hear us in our prayer. Receive our thanks for your presence with us. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.