Individual Disciplines

Review of Progressive Sanctification and Divine Agency

0:06 One of the advantages of a conference of this nature is that the audience is for the most part a captive audience and a fairly consistent audience as far as the people to whom you are ministering in one morning being 98% the same group to whom you ministered in the previous morning. And so the necessity for review and introduction is minimal, but because we do have some who are coming in and then going out and coming back in again in order that they might catch the thread of thought, I do want to take this morning just a couple of minutes to again review, and especially in the light of the fact that I stopped yesterday morning only about two-thirds of the way through what I had planned to cover, and so I've got to give the last third of yesterday's message tacked on to the first two-thirds of what I had planned to cover. So I'm going to take a few minutes to review. what would have been today's, and so from here on out it's sort of piecework, and my overall strategy in terms of the content and what I would cover each morning has been somewhat changed. I trust you remember that yesterday morning we sought to come to grips with the second facet of the biblical doctrine of sanctification.

1:29 Sanctification continued the gradual process having set out the teaching of scripture on the previous day concerning sanctification begun the radical cleavage. We looked yesterday morning at the biblical evidence that there is such a thing as a process of sanctification. We looked at specific words which clearly teach the idea of process. We looked at the numerous figures which are used concerning sanctification which can only be understood within the framework of the process concept.

2:11 Renewal, transformation, growth, pruning, washing, all of these concepts coming to us in the biblical teaching concerning sanctification. Then we tried to consider or answer the question, why is this necessary if there is this radical cleavage, on the threshold, why should there be the necessity for a gradual process? And I gave a two-fold answer to that question. First of all, because of the remains of sin which still cling to the believer even though he has experienced the radical cleavage.

2:56 And secondly, the purpose of God to deal with this remaining sin in terms of process. Process. That the goal of the process of sanctification, which is nothing less than the removal of all sin and the complete conformation of the entirety of life to the image of Jesus Christ the Lord. And this must be our goal.

3:23 For when scripture says, my little children these things I write unto you that you may not sin, every true believer answers from the heart and says, oh God, would that it were sin, would it be so. And nothing less than the complete eradication and removal of sin is the goal in the process. Even though the goal is not attainable in this life, it is nonetheless the goal. And then we began to consider yesterday morning the agents in this process.

3:55 And I stated that the agents are two. The triune God and secondly the redeemed sinner. And in our study, we only got as far as to see the agency of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in this great process. And because I sensed that the Spirit of God had been pleased to as it were pull back the veil a little bit and give us a sight of our great and gracious God, that it would be in the interest of what the Spirit was saying to us in that hour to conclude at that point and not to turn the direction upon the redeemed sinner and his part in the process of sanctification.

4:36 So then, if this process is to go on with success, it must go on in a context in which the believer consciously acknowledges his constant need of the constant operations of the triune God. There must be this recognition of the present and immediate agency of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So much for review. Now we come to consider this morning the second agent in the process of sanctification.

The Believer's Agency in Sanctification: Warnings Against Imbalance

5:11 In sanctification begun, the radical cleavage, there is but one agent. The triune God is operative upon the sinner in mighty power. The sinner in that sense is passive. But in the process of sanctification, not only is there this mighty work of God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, but there is the conscious, deliberate, calculated effort of the redeemed and quickened sinner.

Countering Quietism: The 'Christ Through Me' Fallacy

5:44 Now in introducing this aspect of the agency, let me give a couple of words of caution and warning and admonition. Much harm has come to the doctrine of sanctification, much confusion and crippling to the people of God has come by a failure to hold these two aspects of the agency in their proper biblical balance. There have been those in the history of the Church and in our own day who have so emphasized the activity of God at the expense of emphasizing the scriptural teaching concerning the conscious activity of the believer that in practical experience, the doctrine of sanctification, the doctrine of sanctification has fallen into the circle of quietism and passivity. The reasoning goes like this. Since Scripture teaches that God's agency in sanctification is genuine, it is immediate, it is powerful, it is direct upon the heart and life of the believer, therefore, whatever man has to do with this process, it can't really be valid activity. So?

7:02 You find such teaching as the indwelling Christ, as I mentioned yesterday, drawn out to a very, very unbiblical imbalance where you have what I call the funnel concept. I'm sort of just the funnel and God pours his life through me. Whenever anyone starts talking a lot about Christ living through me and God living his life through me. Oh my God!

7:32 All my little caution lights start blinking because nowhere in Scripture will you find the preposition through used concerning the activity of Christ in sanctification. There is one reference concerning the miracles wrought by the apostles where Paul says, I will not speak of the mighty signs and wonders which were wrought through me, but apart from that instance, there is no teaching in the New Testament that Christ lives through me. Christ lives in me, again and again. Christ in you, the hope of glory, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

8:16 Christ liveth in me. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. And so you have many texts of this nature. And when you get this concept of Christ through me, Christ thinks through me, Christ feels through me, Christ acts through me.

8:31 There is no other way. There is this tendency to negate the me. And the only way I know to state it and jar some people who are enmeshed in this is I say, what's your favorite text in this concept of Christ living through me? And they quote Galatians 2.20 and I ask them to take their pencil and circle the word Christ and circle the word I, and I say there's more I in Galatians 2.20 than there is Christ. There's more I. Paul says the life which I live in the flesh, he doesn't say Christ lives it in my flesh through me.

9:02 He says I live it. But it's by the power of Christ. Now that's not just a little semantic battle. That has a tremendous effect when you begin to think in terms of the funnel concept.

9:13 So if God's working, I sit back and wait for him to work. It's amazing. The very people who reject the concept of the direct and the monergistic idea of God's activity and salvation, that is that man is passive and it's all God's work to begin it, they become hyper-Calvinist and sanctificationists. You see, the hyper-Calvinist in conversion is the man who says, since God does the work, I'll sit back and hope someday he'll do it.

9:42 And there's no crying out after God for mercy, no searching of the Scriptures, no diligent exposure to the means of grace. Well, this is a form of hyper-Calvinism in the Christian life. What they reject from the threshold, they turn around and they're guilty of in the process. And they say, since God works, my working cannot be valid, so I sit back and I wait for him to work.

10:03 Now, on the other extreme, there are those who have seen the place of the biblical concept of striving, wrestling, fighting, and the conscious employment of all the faculties of the believer, but they have failed to see that unless there is union with Christ as the basis of this activity, dependence upon the Holy Spirit in the outworking of the activity, all is vain. And this will always lead to self-righteous moralism or lifeless legalism and obnoxious Phariseeism. If you get all God's activity and forget the agency of the believer, quietism and forms of fanaticism that have brought great reproach to Christ. On the other hand, if you capture the biblical teaching concerning the agency of the redeemed sinner, but overshadow it with the agency of the redeemed sinner, then you will be in a state of self-righteousness. If you overlook the agency of God, direct and powerful in the process, you have self-righteous moralism, lifeless legalism, and obnoxious Phariseeism. And a text like Philippians 4.13 brings the two things together in beautiful tension and

Biblical Commands for Believer's Active Striving

11:22 balance where the Apostle Paul says, I can do all things. I do them. What do you mean by I? Everything that makes I, I.

11:33 Everything that makes a me, a me. That is, my mind, my will, my affections, my judgment, the totality of all of my faculties as laid hold of by God in salvation, they become the instrument of doing. I can do all things. Conscious, deliberate activity.

11:57 But it's through Christ who strengthens. Me. There is the direct agency of Christ by the Holy Spirit in the hidden springs of my true redeemed humanity, energizing, quickening, moving, motivating, powerfully assisting in the doing of that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So it should not surprise us that the same scriptures which teach the direct agency of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, are the direct agency of Christ.

12:33 The spirit of the Holy Ghost in the process of sanctification should also confront us with concepts like these. Is there remaining sin to be mortified? Who is going to do it? If you, by the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh.

12:52 Christ doesn't mortify the deeds of the flesh, you do it. But it's you, by the Spirit, who have the two things held in tension again. . . .

13:02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . are there defilements of the flesh and of the spirit to put away? Yes. All right. Then God says in 2 Corinthians 7, 1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. Oh, defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. Let us cleanse ourselves. Is there a tendency for bodily appetites legitimate in themselves to get out of hand because of the remains of sin in our bodies? Well, then it is up to me to say with the Apostle Paul, I buffet my body and keep it under, lest in preaching to others I myself should be adacimos, rejected, a reprobate. And Schofield's note

13:49 notwithstanding, it does not mean put on a shelf. Paul says if my bodily appetites gain the ascendancy and become my master and so make the soul a slave to fleshly passions, I must perish. I must perish, for they that live after the flesh shall die. Well, who buffets the body?

14:08 Does Christ do it? No, you do it. And he uses a strong word. Translated literally, it would be rendered, I beat myself till black and blue. Are there positive graces to be expressed as an evidence of our calling in our election? Then the believer, according to Peter, is to give all diligence to add to his faith, virtue, knowledge, etc. 2 Peter 1. 5-8. So then the New Testament is full of words addressed to believers of this caliber.

14:42 Fight, strive, give diligence, wrestle, run, walk, labor, put off, put on, follow after, prep on. And it's full of these verbs of strenuous, vigorous activity addressed in the imperative to the child of God. Similar quotations could be multiplied. But in the interest of time and brevity, let me seek to lay out before you one text of scripture that most beautifully pulls together the divine and the human agency in the process of sanctification. And that text is Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Writing to those in whom God has begun a gracious work, the evidences of which have been so manifestable. Paul and his associates, that he can write to them saying, I'm confident that he who has begun this work will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Writing then to those who are in union with him, in whom there has been this radical cleavage, sanctification begun, he says, so then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more.

Philippians 2:12-13: Co-extensive Divine and Human Working

16:11 In my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now notice the first principle that's in our text, that God's working and our working are co-extensive. Notice. Brethren, work out your own salvation. That is the full and final and complete fulfillment of God's saving purpose, of which progressive sanctification is a part. Work it out, he says. Why? Because God is working it in. Well, is God working or am I working? Well, he says,

17:03 you're both working. Now, it's not as though I do half and God does half and we meet in the middle, like when you build a bridge. No, no. They are co-extensive. He is working. And along with and parallel to his working, and because it is working, the believer is working. So then, we must never think of these things as being in antithesis one to the other. Well, if God is really working, then my working is just some sort of a fake thing, just a going through the motions. No, no. Well, then, if I'm really striving and working, God must not, you know, you must not think that way. God is at work, therefore you be at work. First principle, then, God's working and our working are co-extensive. Secondly, God's working in us is the incentive and the motivation for our working. Notice the exhortation in verse 12 is, work out your own salvation.

18:08 Now, how shall Paul motivate them to this working out? Verse 13, 4, the reason, he said, which undergirds my admonition for you to work out is the fact and the reality of God's working in. So the second principle in our text is that God's working in us forms the basis, the incentive, the motivation for our working out. In the time beneath the level of our consciousness, he is at work moving us to will and to do what is pleasing in his sight. I said most of the time beneath the level of our consciousness. There are those times when there are such gracious visitations of God that there is the sense of the Spirit's coming upon the life of the believer. At times, in prayer, the sense of his quickening. But these are rare. For the most part, the working

19:21 of God in us is beneath the level of our consciousness, and his working comes to life in our willing and in our doing. In other words, he doesn't work in us in such a way that I am not conscious of willing or of doing. Right now, as I look at my right hand, I will to live in God. I will.

19:44 I will. I will. I will. I will.

19:45 I will. And all I am conscious of is the choice to lift it, and then the signal goes to the muscle in this arm, and it's lifted. That's all I am conscious of. And so in the Christian life, when temptation comes, and as a child of God wanting to please your Lord and wanting to walk in ways of holiness, and having a principle that has moved you in the direction of holiness, you find yourself saying no to that temptation in terms of Proverbs. Walk not in the right direction. the way of evil men. Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass on. And so by an act of the will, you turn from that thing. And yet when you've been delivered, your heart instinctively says, thank you, Lord. But you don't stand there in the midst of temptation waiting for something to so overpower you that you are irresistibly like a puppet at the end of some strings, turned away from something while your fangs are dripping for it. No, no. Not at all. He works in the hidden depths, the hidden springs of our being, not

20:53 to bypass our willing or to bypass our doing, but moving and affecting and influencing the will so that we will to turn away in true conscious determination and we will to do what is pleasing in His sight. And I need never fear that my working hours will be outstripping His working in. I've met believers who were so afraid that, well, maybe, if I really start buffeting my body and really start striving and wrestling and mortifying, maybe I'll get into the realm of the flesh. Oh, my friend, listen. You're never going to outstrip in your working out His mighty working in. Never! Don't be afraid that you'll ever become too energetic in mortifying the deeds of the flesh. Don't ever afraid you'll become too energetic in buffeting your body and keeping it under. Don't ever

21:52 be afraid that you'll become too energetic in laying aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset you, and running with patience the race that is set before you. Don't ever worry that your working out will outstrip God's working in. No. And it's the fact of His working in that becomes the incentive and the motivation for our working out. And then the third thing that we see in the text is that our working out is the evidence that He is working in. If I am not working out my salvation in mortification, adding of virtue, buffeting the body, and all these other things that we'll touch on later, then I have no evidence to believe that God is working in me. Because His working in comes to light according to the text in my willing and doing the first thing. Things that are pleasing in His sight. The fourth principle in the text is that God's

22:56 working in us is to be the focus of our trust, and our working out is to be the focus of our effort. And don't get them mixed up. What's to be the focus of my confidence as I work out? God is at work in me. Lord, I'm trusting you to work in me. For this reason I come to you in prayer. For this reason I plead. The work and ministry of the Spirit in my life, for the graces of Christ and all the rest that we touched on yesterday. So the focus of my trust is God's working in. But my friend, the focus of my effort or my conscious activity is not to be waiting for God to do something, but the employment of all my faculties in the doing of it. That's why He says you're to do this with fear and with trembling. The recognition that I am not sufficient of myself to think anything as of myself, but my sufficiency is of God. Work out with fear and with trembling. Why? Because humanly speaking

24:10 the cards are stacked against me. I have the remains of sin within me, which are like dry leaves. And all around me there is temptation, and temptation is to remain in corruption. What sparks are to dry tinder. And I've got to walk in the midst of all these sparks that fly out from all my associations, from all of my contacts in the world and with sinful men. And I carry around this box of dry leaves. What hope is there that there won't be some of those sparks falling and igniting and passion and lust and pride and worldliness become a raging fire that consume me? What's my hope? He works in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so with

25:05 fear and with trembling, a consciousness of the great issues at stake, a consciousness of my own weakness, which weans me increasingly from self-confidence, I seek to work out, because He is working in. I close now yesterday's message this morning. I want to say this morning, with this quote from Abraham Kuyper that I thought was beautiful in capturing this concept. When we are called upon to speak, to act or to fight, we do so as though we were doing it ourselves, not perceiving that it is another who works in us both to will and to do. But as soon as we finish the task successfully and are ready

25:57 And agreeably to the will of God, as men of faith, we prostrate ourselves before Him and cry, Lord, the work was Thine, as were the prayers in which we sought Thy help for the task, as are the praises which we now render for what You have enabled us to do.

Illustration: Getting Out of Bed for Devotions

26:23 I use this illustration with young people. It seems to help. I say, you have a problem with your devotions? Yeah, I just can't seem to get up in the morning.

26:31 I say, well, what are you doing? You're laying there in bed waiting for the Lord to come and float the covers off? And then, as it were, send angels to put their fluttery wings underneath you and just gently lift you out and carry you over to the place of prayer and then have another angel splash a little water on you? I say, what are you waiting for?

26:47 Well, I'm just so tired in the morning. I say, sure, Brad, did you up? Sure, you up. What Paul said, buffet my body.

26:54 I bring it in subjection to spiritual aims. It goals. I don't let it master me. I master it to the will of God and to the benefit of my Christian life.

27:04 So you've got to yank the covers off and force yourself over to the sink and splash the water on and everything in you cries out against it. And when you're sufficiently awake, you get on your knees and you start to pray, as it were, in cold blood. All you're conscious of is this sluggish body and this dull mind. But you stick with it in determination and then God comes and draws.

27:27 He comes near and He gives you the spirit of prayer and you're very physical and mental powers are quickened and you're drawn out and you meet God. When you're done, what do you do? You say, thank you, Lord, for helping me pull the covers off. Thank you, Lord, for helping me to splash the water on my face.

27:43 Thank you, Lord, you did it all. Well, did He do it all? Or did you do it all? Who did it?

27:52 You both did it. And that's biblical.

27:59 And all the working out was but the revelation at the surface or the revelation at the end. And that's biblical. That's the level of consciousness of His working in. Beneath the level of consciousness.

28:12 But now, if you were a lazy galoot and you stayed in bed and you didn't pray, if you're a true Christian, when you get to prayer later on, in the day or at the end of that day,

28:24 do you blame the Lord for not getting you out of bed? No, you say, oh God, I stayed in bed because I'm a lazy bum. Lord, I stayed in bed because I indulge the flesh. Forgive me.

28:36 You wouldn't think of blaming the Lord for it. But you wouldn't think if you're a Christian of giving yourself the credit when you did get out of bed and get to the place of prayer. Now, is that playing games? No, that's just an application of the truth of Scripture.

The Pattern for Progressive Sanctification

28:50 Do you get it? And blessed is the man or woman, fellow or girl, who grasps this two-fold agency in the process of sanctification and holds them in their proper biblical symmetry and, if we want to use the word, tension. All right, then, we've looked. We've looked at the concept of progressive sanctification.

29:13 We've looked at the reason why there must be a process. We looked at the goal, nothing less than conformity to Christ. We've considered the agents. Now, with a heart desirous of complete conformity to Christ,

29:30 with the recognition that God is working in me, but I must work out consciously and deliberately, what is the pattern? The pattern by which I seek to conform in order to be more and more what God would have me to be. In this process, what is the pattern? And I'll only touch on these things briefly because I want to begin this morning on the disciplines by which we become more and more conformed to that pattern in attainment of that goal as God works in and we work out.

30:07 The pattern, or the standard, to which we are constantly to relate in progressive transformation is, first of all, God himself, secondly, the law of God, thirdly, the revealed will of God, and fourthly, the example of Christ. The pattern in this process of sanctification is God himself. Two key texts in the New Testament. There are many in the old Matthew 5.48, where our Lord is telling us, telling his disciples that they are to love those that hate them. He says, The reason you are to conduct yourself this way is that ye may be like your Father. And then he goes on to say, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father is perfect. And 1 Peter 1.15 and 16,

31:02 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. As he is holy, so be ye holy. The reason why God himself is the pattern in the process of sanctification is because man was made in the image of God, and nothing less than the restoration of that image can be the goal of all of his redemptive activity. May I give you that again?

31:34 The reason why God himself is the pattern in progressive sanctification is because man was made in the image of God, and nothing less than the restoration of that image can be the goal of all his redemptive activity. Hence the word of God says in Ephesians 4 that the new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. It is created after God. He is the pattern.

32:12 And in a real sense, these other three things are subordinate to this one. Secondly then, there is the law of God. That law which Paul says in Romans 7.12 is spiritual, holy, just, and good.

32:30 Well, isn't that what God is? Spiritual, holy, just, and good. And so in that sense, the law is but an expression of his own character, and his nature. And that law is a vital part of the pattern in the process of sanctification.

32:51 By it we see what God would have us to be. By it we see when we are not what he would have us to be. And though we do not come under its thunderings for condemnation, we stand under its scrutiny for confirmation to the will of God. Not under its thunderings, nor under its condemnation, Romans 8.1.

33:15 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, but we stand under its scrutiny for confirmation to the revealed will of God. And then the third thing, and this flows out of that and there is an expansion of it, there is the revealed will of God. That which Paul calls that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This takes in all the detailed instruction of Holy Scripture scripture. I've often thought if some of these people who preach that all you need for the Christian life is to somehow take this one great leap of, as our brother Ernie says, rely and relax experience, why would Paul and the other writers give all these details about every area of life as directive for the people of God? They would have written to Corinthians and said, now the problem with you Corinthians is you haven't learned to enter into the rest of victory. He'd give the simple formula, say, do this, bingo, your problems are solved. He'd write to Colossia, he'd write to all the others, but he doesn't do that. There is detailed instruction. You have passages like Titus 3. He says, get the

34:24 older women, if you can find any to admit that's what they are, get the older women to teach the younger women. To do what? Love their husbands.