They turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. We are actually in a study of the book of Colossians. We looked at Colossians 3, 1 to 4, where the apostle tells us to seek those things which are above where Christ is. to set our mind on things above.
Then Paul will get into telling us to avoid certain sins or vices, and to put on certain virtues or good things. We took last week to look at justification and just the overarching doctrine of how we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. This morning I want to look at the doctrine of sanctification, more of a doctrinal study So, that when we get back to Colossians 3 and we see Paul's emphasis in putting off sin and putting on righteousness, those are just the application of the various elements of this larger concern for sanctification or living the Christian life. So, I'll just begin reading in Philippians chapter 2.
Our focus this morning will be on verses 12 and 13, but I'll begin reading in verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing. that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me.
Introduction
Last week, as I said, we looked at justification this week. We're going to look at sanctification. I want to just provide an exposition of verses 12 and 13 and then look at the historic doctrine of sanctification. It is a very important doctrine.
The book of Hebrews and Hebrews twelve fourteen tells us we are to pursue peace and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord and the grammar of the text indicates that it's the holiness that we must pursue without which we will not see the Lord holiness is absolutely crucial being conformed more and more to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are similarities between justification and sanctification, but there are some dissimilarities as well. And toward the end of the sermon this morning, I want to quote at length the Bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, a man who labored in Liverpool, England. in the 19th century, because it's very important for us to keep these things in their proper perspective so that we don't mix the two, so that we don't mingle the two and somehow think that we ultimately get to heaven because of our contribution or because of our work.
We get to heaven solely based on the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is based on that finished work of our Lord Jesus. When God justifies us freely by His grace, that's the foundation upon which we now live the Christian life. We now grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We now put off sin and put on the Lord Jesus. Those are the dynamics involved in sanctification. Well,
Paul's Pastoral Heart and Command
notice in verses 12 and 13, first of all, Paul's pastoral heart Paul is a pastor, he's a lover of men. He says, therefore, my beloved. He commits her, he tells the people of God there in Philippi that he loves them. It's not just a theology machine.
He's just not in prison here writing treatises that beat with no love for the people of God. No, this is the mark of everything that this brother does. It's love for God. Love for the Lord Jesus and love for the people of God.
He commends that verse 12, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence, always in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. He commends that. That doesn't mean they were perfect. It doesn't mean they were sinless.
It doesn't mean they were spotless in their obedience to the word of God. But the overarching theme of the churches of the church in Philippi was an obedience. They took seriously this doctrine of sanctification. They took seriously the reality that they were to be like Christ.
They weren't just to live as if nothing had happened to them. In the same manner, that's how it's supposed to be for us. We're not to live as those who have been justified and then don't look anything like Christ. We must seek, by God's grace, having been justified by faith, we must seek conformity to our Lord Jesus.
We must look like him. We must obey him. We must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel itself. And Paul is able to commend this church in Philippi for that very reason.
Now, notice the specific command, he says,
Working Out Salvation: Not for Salvation
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He doesn't say work for your own salvation. It's not what he says. He doesn't say work on your own salvation.
This command could not be given to a non-Christian. They can't work out their own salvation because they don't possess a salvation. The only way that a Christian can work out his or her salvation is by having first had God work it in for having had God saving them by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is dealing with sanctification.
Now that you have been justified, now that you have been saved, now that you have come believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the reality of your life. You must work out this salvation. You must apply it.
You must be like Jesus. In the book of Titus, as we are learning, on Wednesday nights, because they had been justified by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the older men were to conduct themselves in a particular way. Because they have been justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the younger men were supposed to conduct themselves in a particular way. The older women, the younger women, bond servants, masters.
You see, when we are saved by God's grace, we are then called to live accordingly. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. One man says to speak of believers being responsible for the outworking of their personal salvation in their day-to-day living in no way denies that this salvation is an act of God. In precisely the same way, make your calling an election.
Sure, a second Peter 110 does not suggest that election is not God's act. When he says work out, the assumption is in the entirety of the Bible teaches that God has saved you, not based on your words, not based on your conduct, but based on the conduct and works and the doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus. And having come into that relationship now, you need to live like it makes sense, doesn't it? It's just like what we read there in Mark chapter eight.
Don't say you're a follower of Jesus if you're not willing to take up the cross. How much does that indict us? How often do we not take up the cross? How little do we sacrifice for our Lord?
How little do we give of our time or our talents or our resources or our energies? You know, one of the things that is most disconcerting to me as a pastor is to try and get people excited about theology. That's a tough thing. I actually think you should just be excited about theology.
I actually think that when you're born again, you just want God, you want Christ, you want his word and you want to study him. But as I've lived and moved and had my being as a pastor and as a man in the church, I have found that's not always the case. And so I see a very difficult task facing Pastor Cam and myself in just trying to get people to actually want to think about the things they most assuredly should think about. Work out your own salvation, learn more of God, learn more of his word, learn more about Jesus, learn more about the things you profess to believe.
And as you learn and as you study and as you take these things in, hopefully your practice, your conduct will follow suit. Hopefully you'll take up your cross daily and follow the Lord. You know, I got to tell you, if ever the Muslims invaded Canada and we had to go out to battle, I don't know that we would. Any fool can say, oh, I'll take up a sword or a gun or a knife and I'll go out and fight.
But one of us or two of us are actually taking up our cross daily and following Jesus. You hear people say, oh, I'll die for Jesus, but will you live for Jesus right now? What if somebody were to take a gun and point it at your head on the street and say, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Probably every one of us in here that profess faith would say, yes, I would.
But do you live that way right now? Do you wake up and read your Bible? Do you pray? When you're on summer holidays, what are you reading?
What are you taking in? What is it that makes you thrive? Work out your own salvation. The apostle Paul says, having come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior means you're willing to take up that cross daily and follow him.
And if you're willing to take up that cross daily and follow him, hopefully you're willing to come to church. Hopefully you're willing to read your Bible. Hopefully you're willing to give of your time and your money. Hopefully you're willing in some small way to evidence that what you say concerning Christ It's true.
I quoted Gordon Clark on Wednesday night. He said, what passes so apparently as good works are not good unless preceded by justification. A good work is not biblically defined if it is not done by a justified center. But then he goes on and says, and if a claimed justification That's when we say we believe the gospel.
We have been justified freely by his grace. We believe in the doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus. We believe in the imputation of righteousness. All those truths that we looked at last Sunday, he says, if a claimed justification does not inevitably produce good words, it simply is not justification.
So if you say you're justified and there's no good works, you say you're justified and there's no holiness, you say you're justified and there's no sanctification. It simply was not justification. You see, that's how these two are so entwined together when we promote or when we profess faith in Christ. We're saying that there should be something different about our lives.
Notice how Paul describes this working out, he says, with fear and trembling.
Fear and Trembling Defined
With fear and trembling, that's not consistent with our age where everything has to be happy, peppy, uppity, jocular, jovial and frivolous. Our God is a consuming fire. Pursue peace and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. You keep that in your mind and hopefully it will promote a bit of fear and trembling in your heart.
Doesn't mean we can't have fun. Doesn't mean we can't have joy. It simply means that we must relate to God as a holy God. We must relate to God as we are sinful.
We must esteem him as the Bible sets him forth. He is a consuming fire. That's not out of the book of Leviticus. That's out of the book of Hebrews.
Our God is a consuming fire. This is what Paul teaches in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1. Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in what? In the fear of God, Hebrews chapter twelve verse twenty eight.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. John Gill comments on working out this salvation with fear and trembling. He says, do all that with fear and trembling, not with a slavish fear of hell and damnation. You're not working it out with fear and trembling because you're afraid God's going to cut you off and throw you into hell.
No, you're not saved based on sanctification. You're saved based on justification. What God has done in Jesus Christ. He said, or less they should fall away or finally miscarry of heaven and happiness, since this would be a distrust of the power and faithfulness of God and so criminal in them.
Nor is it reasonable to suppose that the apostle would exhort to such a fear when he himself was so confidently assured that the good work begun in them would be performed. He goes on to say, and besides, the exhortation would be very oddly formed if this was the sense. Work out your salvation with fear of damnation, he says. But this fear and trembling spoken of is such as is consistent with the highest acts of faith, trust, confidence and joy.
I love that we just have this idea that fear and joy are not consistent together. Psalm 211 says, Rejoice with trembling. When the disciples came to the tomb, they saw that it was empty. Well, what happened to that?
They were trembling and running with joy. Those things kiss in the gospel. Those things are consistent in the gospel. He goes on to say, and this is opposed to pride and vainglory.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, not with pride. Not with arrogance, not with a holier-than-thou attitude, not with a look at me and what I've accomplished. This whole idea of sanctification means that everybody's at different places. You've been a Christian for 25 years.
Don't be arrogant. Don't be proud. Don't be wicked towards somebody that's been a Christian for 25 days if they do things differently than you. Work it out with fear and trembling, not with pride and presumption and arrogance and sort of the pat on the back that we have achieved and we have found the proven way.
We need to be careful as reformed Christians that we don't fall prey to this trap. While there is much lamentable outside of our circles, there is much lamentable inside our circles, and we need to be on guard. We need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, not pride, not vainglory, not as those who have arrived, not as those who have found the golden mean of sanctification. And as long as you do it the way we do it, you'll be fine.
And I love what the Apostle Paul says here as well, and you need to take heed to this as well as I. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You can help your wife. You can help your husband.
You can help your son. You can help your father. You help your pastor. You help your friends.
But ultimately, you are working out your own salvation. You have a full time job watching your own heart. This is the emphasis of Solomon as well in Proverbs chapter four. Keep your own heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.
We're good at keeping other people's hearts. We're good at working out other people's salvation. We're good at recognizing where someone else has fallen short, and they need our wonderful counsel. No, you need to work out your own salvation.
You need to realize that God, the Holy Spirit, is a real person, and that with that new believer who has just come to faith in Jesus Christ, who has just thrown off a bunch of garbage and sin, maybe they haven't learned just yet what it is to be where you're at. He goes on to say that this tends or intends modesty and humility, which is what the apostle is pressing for throughout the whole context. And here urges to a cheerful and constant obedience to Christ with all humility of soul, without dependence on it or vainglory in it, but ascribing it wholly to the grace of God. And then he goes on for the following reason.
God at Work: The Divine Ground
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For, he says, it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. As God is active in the justifying of sinners, God is active in the sanctifying of sinners.
And we can praise God for that, because we're not always active in sanctification. We're not always what we ought to be. We can praise God that he is at work in us, both to will and to do for his good pleasure. For is the connective word there in verse 13.
Do this for this. Do this because of this. Do this because God is at work in you. And it's universal, as we have sinned universally in our thoughts and in our minds and in our words and in our deeds.
So we are sanctified universally, both to will has to do with the inner man, has to do with knowledge, has to do with thought, has to do with taking in the word of God. And to do according to his good pleasure. You see, the Bible isn't just a list of rules, go out and do this. The Bible is about think this.
And once you think this, then those other things will follow. If we try to go live like Christians and we don't know the Bible, we don't know doctrine, we could then just be like a Mormon or a moralist or any other person in society that does so-called good things, because that's the way it ought to be. A Christian good work is biblically fueled, biblically driven. And this is Paul's emphasis.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Ultimately, the pleasure of God is what is in view here. This is God's goal in our salvation, his glory, his honor, his praise. One of the grand purposes by which or for which we have been predestined by God is to be conformed to the image of his son, according to Romans chapter eight.
You see, we had a high calling. Don't profess faith in Jesus Christ if you've not thought through these things. Some of you kids or young people may be saying, well, I want to be a Christian. I like the thought of not going to hell.
I can go ahead and that's great. We'll think about it. This is Jesus whole emphasis in Luke fourteen. You need to count the cost, don't you?
Nobody starts to build a tower unless they first counted the cost. Because they're going to end up with half a structure and people are going to drive by and laugh at you. So look at that fool. He wanted to build up a big, big dwelling place and he didn't have the money, he didn't have the resources, he didn't have the ability to do so.
Look at that half a building. Seriously, what would you think of that? You're driving by and you see half a structure and you know it's because the guy didn't plan accordingly. Hey, honey, you know that guy?
Yeah, he didn't have enough money in the bank. He went to Rome and they cut him off and now he's got half a building. Ha, ha, ha. What general among you goes into a battle and he doesn't first assess troops?
You take 10,000 against 20,000 and then you're going to get slaughtered on the field of battle and say, wait a minute, what happened here? How many of you, how many of us profess to be Christians and then live like the devil? Because we didn't count the cost, the cost in terms of I have to earn it. But having been justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus, our lives must reflect it.
Work out your own salvation, Paul says, with fear and with trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.
Sanctification: Definition and Scope
Now, just quickly, I want to look at this doctrine of sanctification more generally. And again, I'll give you the quote. I'll give you the definition from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, which we've just seen.
God works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So it's a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die under sin and live under righteousness. Great, great statement. It's a great compendium, a great summary, a good sentence, if you will, to sort of summarize the biblical teaching on this subject of sanctification.
It is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. We are being renewed in his image.
Renewal in the Image of God
Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 highlights this. God made us upright, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, but we sought out many devices. What are those devices? Murder, idolatry, theft, lying, covetousness, cheating, arrogance, pride.
All those are the devices that we have sought out. God made us upright in his image and knowledge, righteousness and holiness. He gave men dominion over the creatures. But, of course, man forfeited that.
Man gave that up. Man wanted his personal satisfaction met by that piece of fruit such that he would give up all that he had and take sin. But in salvation, in God saving us, he's renewing us. He's making us anew.
Isn't that what 2 Corinthians says? Behold, all things are new. If any man is a new creature in Christ, all the old is passed away and behold, everything is new. That's what God is doing.
He's conforming us to Jesus in knowledge and in righteousness and in holiness. That's what we hope he's doing. He's at work in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.
Dying to Sin, Putting on Righteousness
We should be seeking these things. We should be wanting conformity to Christ. Yes, we've been saved by grace. Yes, we have entitlement to heaven based on the doing and dying of our Savior.
But right now here on Earth, we ought to want to live in such a manner that it brings glory to our God. It's not what Paul says here in Philippians 2, among whom you shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, holding forth the word of truth. God has saved us so that we'll witness, so that we'll testify, so that we'll demonstrate that there is a triune God in heaven, that he is about the salvation of sinners, that he is gracious and merciful. Remember Jesus' statement in Matthew 5.
When you do your good works, do them in such a way that men may see and give glory not to you, but to God. When you do a good work, it ought to be with the desire that God is glorified. Not that people say, man, you're admirable. Boy, you're great.
We're going to give you a plaque. We're going to give you a page in this magazine. We're going to give you rewards. We're going to give you all these things.
That's not why the Christian does it. He does it for the glory of God most high. Why? Because he's renewing us in his image.
He is making us like Jesus. The confession of the catechism says that we are being enabled more and more to die unto sin. Remember Paul's whole argument in Romans 6? He knows what licentious and ungodly men will do with the doctrine of justification by faith.
Well, Paul, if you're saying we're justified freely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, shouldn't we just continue in sin that grace may abound? No. That's the whole point of Romans 6. May it never be certainly not those who have been justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus.
Those who have died to sin. How shall they continue in it any longer? It's just the opposite. The grace of God ought to promote righteousness in his people.
We saw that on Wednesday night in Titus chapter two. Grace not only saves, but grace instructs Titus two eleven for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts putting off sin, denying ungodliness and worldly loss. We should put on or we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. That's Paul's That's what God's intention is with us.
When he saves us, he wants us to be like Jesus. Dying to sin and living under righteousness, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, serving God in this lower world. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus sets that forth, what's his intention?
Go down and do likewise. That's God's word to us, go down and do likewise. You need to not only die to sin, but put on righteousness. It's not just a matter of stop, stop, stop, stop.
It's a matter of do, do, do, do again, not for salvation. We're working out what God has already put in there. That's a wrong view of Christianity. Oh, I just gotta stop drinking or smoking or chewing or dancing or running with girls who do.
Once I stop those things, then I'm set. No, it's moralism. Lots of people in hell would be able to say, look, I didn't do this. I didn't do this.
I didn't do this. I didn't do this. That's not Christianity. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
Those two elements are always present in the life of sanctification, dying on descent, putting on righteousness. Wonderful, you've stopped doing that, so you've stopped being such a jerk in this area. That's great. But in its place, are you being compassionate?
Are you being kind? One of the sins that always nails me is the whole pride humility thing. It's not enough to just not be proud. You must be humble.
Great, you're not the loudest, most arrogant wretch at the center of the party. Fine. But are you genuinely humble? You see, that's how Christianity cuts.
It cuts deep. Don't just clean up in a certain area. Let's be universal. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure.
You may have the doing down, but the will may not be there. Sometimes we see this with children. Very often we see it with adults. We do something externally because we're told, but internally our hearts are far.
The boss comes and says, hey, I want you to do this today and you do it. But all the while, you're cursing your boss in your mind or in your heart because, you know, a better way to do it. You're not really willing, offering up willing service under the Lord in that disposition. Now, you may have a better way of doing it.
Ask the boss politely if you can instruct him or encourage him or give him some advice or counsel. But in the doing and the willing, those two things must converge on Jesus Christ.
Pattern, Law, and the Holy Spirit
The pattern of sanctification is ultimately God himself, the holiness of God. Why should we study the Bible? So we know who God is. The moral law of God, God's law.
Contrary to popular opinion, the law of God demands or has a place in the lives of believers. The Bible speaks of three uses of the law. The Bible tells us that there is that civil or political use of the law by which it restrains the wickedness of man. The second use is that it's a child tutor.
It's a pedagogue. It shows us our sin and our need for Jesus Christ. And after it shows us our sin and our need for Jesus Christ, and we come by grace through faith to Jesus Christ, Christ then points us to his law as a definition of sanctification. This is why Jesus in his high priestly prayer could pray, sanctify them by thy truth.
Thy word is true. We need God's law. We need the holiness of God. We need the pattern of Jesus Christ.
That's the whole context of Philippians 2, 5 to 11. One of the most glorious statements of Christology in all of the Bible. I don't think anybody will dispute that. As far as biblical studies go, everybody notices and observes and highlights the fact that Philippians 2, 5 to 11 is one of those Mount Everest texts in the Bible.
Hopefully, the reading of it makes you just thrill with the glory of Jesus Christ. But notice its context. Notice why Paul introduces this in verses five to eleven. It comes on the heels of verses one to four.
Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like minded. That doesn't mean you have every thought the same. It doesn't mean that every one of our houses will be like a Hutterite colony. It won't be like everybody's communistic in their way, but it will mean that the church of the living God patterning itself after Jesus Christ, who submitted to his father, will seek by God's grace to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
She will not allow dissension, she will not allow disunity, she will not allow disharmony to get in between believers within the local church so that there is disaffection, or there is disharmony, or there are those things which rub people wrong. He goes on in verse 3, he says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Should we all just close our Bibles and get on our faces and pray to God to forgive us? There's so much of what we do is because of selfish ambition or conceit.
We are driven by praise, we are driven by everything other than the glory of God. He says, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. You've all lived in a family. It's easy to see everybody else's selfishness, isn't it?
Selfishness is a universal problem. It's horrific when we see others do it. It's horrific when we do it. This is Paul's point to the Church of Philippi.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Does that describe you? Do you really esteem others as better than yourself? See, the Trinity, the glory of God as being a triune God sets the example here for us.
All three persons of the Trinity are equal in power and glory. All three persons, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, they are all equal in power and in glory in their being and who they are. But in the work of salvation, when it comes time for Jesus to come and save the elect, Jesus willingly submits to his father. Jesus says in John 14, my father is greater than I.
What's the Holy Spirit's role? He comes to bring glory to Jesus, who comes to bring glory to the Father. You talk about a blessed example for the way Christians ought to treat one another. Look at the three persons of the triune God.
That's what Paul is doing here, brethren. He wants the church to be like minded. He wants them to be Southwest. He wants them to esteem others as more important than themselves.
Verse four, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. This world does not revolve around you. You are not the center and the measure of all things. When they ultimately find the center of the universe, there's going to be a lot of people surprised that they're not there.
What's his example? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. He's our pattern for sanctification. He is our pattern for growth and grace and in holiness.
He is our example, brethren. He is our goal. He is our standard to whom we ought to be conformed in the putting off of sin and the putting on of righteousness. We ought to be able to say with Jesus, my meat is to do the will of him who sent me.
We ought to be able to say with Jesus Christ, thy law is within my heart. I delight to do it. He is our pattern, along with the law of God, along with the holiness of God, and of course, some means by which we are sanctified the Holy Spirit. If by the spirit, Romans 8, 13 says you do mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live.
If by the spirit you do this. Some of you make no progress in killing sin because you do it in your own strength, if by the spirit that doesn't mean let go and let God, it means study of the scriptures, fill your mind with the truth of God, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul spirit works in conjunction with the other means, namely the scriptures. He works in conjunction with the public means go to church, praise and worship. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the manner of some, but rather gather together and do what?
Talk about your job. You can do that. Talk about your wife. You can do that as long as it's positive and it's good.
Talk about your children. Talk about your baby's first step. You know, all those things are legitimate. But the main purpose for this gathering together is to stir one another up to love and good deeds.
That's what the book of Hebrews says.
J.C. Ryle on Justification and Sanctification
As I mentioned, I wanted to quote something at length from J.C. Ryle. This is long. And I realize that long doesn't always translate well into our heads.
If you want this, let me know. I will email it to you. Or you may pick up J.C. Ryle's book called Holiness, and you will find this on pages 29 and 30.
As I said, he was the Bishop of Liverpool. He lived from 1816 to 1900, and this book called Holiness, he dealt with this whole issue of sanctification. At the end of his discussion, he gave two main considerations. The first, in what then are justification and sanctification alike?
And then secondly, wherein do justification and sanctification differ? How are they alike? How are they different? How are they alike?
How are they different? Why is this important? Because our souls depend on our proper understanding of these things. First of all, in what then are justification and sanctification alike?
How Justification and Sanctification Are Alike
First, both proceed originally from the grace of God. We saw that in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Both justification and sanctification are acts of God's free grace. He says it is of his gift alone that believers are justified or sanctified at all.
Secondly, both are part of that great work of salvation, which Christ in the eternal covenant has undertaken on behalf of his people. Christ is the fountain of life from which pardon and holiness both flow. The root of each is Christ. Third, both are to be found in the same persons.
Both are to be found in the same persons. That means you don't have a justified, unsanctified man. You don't have a sanctified, unjustified man. He goes on to say both are to be found in the same persons.
Those who are justified are always sanctified, and those who are sanctified are always justified. God has joined them together and they cannot be put asunder. Fourth, both begin at the same time. The moment a person begins to be a justified person, he also begins to be a sanctified person.
He may not feel it, but it is a fact. Fifth, both are alike necessary to salvation. No one ever reached heaven without a renewed heart, as well as forgiveness, without the Spirit's grace, as well as the blood of Christ, without a meekness for eternal life, as well as a title. The one is just as necessary as the other.
Those are the ways justification and sanctification are alike.
How Justification and Sanctification Differ
Now, how do they differ? First, justification is the reckoning and counting a man to be righteous for the sake of another, even Jesus Christ, the Lord. Sanctification is the actual making a man inwardly righteous, though it may be in a very feeble degree. Now, if I haven't said that enough, sanctification does differ from person to person.
And in some of us, it may be a very feeble degree. It may be imperceptible at times. That's why you don't look at the most godly guy in the church to say, I mustn't be a Christian because I'm not like him. When you look at Jesus and if you say, I'm not trusting in him, then you're not a Christian.
But if you look at Jesus and you're trusting in him, then you are a Christian. Secondly, another way they differ. The righteousness we have by justification is not our own, but the everlasting perfect righteousness of our great mediator, Christ, imputed to us and made our own by faith. The righteousness we have by sanctification is our own righteousness imparted, inherent, and wrought in us by the Spirit, but mingled with much infirmity and imperfection.
Third, in justification, our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one thing needful. In sanctification, our own works are important, and God bids us to fight and watch and pray and strive and take pains and labor. Fourth, justification is a finished and complete work, and a man is perfectly justified the moment he believes. Very important that you get this.
Very important. Here's where in all kinds of heresy and apostasy comes when we lose sight of this fact. The moment we believe we are justified. Sanctification is an imperfect work comparatively and will never be perfected until we reach heaven.
See, he was writing against what was called the Keswick Movement, which taught a higher life, an extra special tier of Christianity. And he was writing against the Holiness Movement, where you could be perfect. No, you can't be perfect. Jesus is perfect.
Fifth, justification admits no growth or increase. A man is as much justified the hour he first comes to Christ by faith as he will be to all eternity. Sanctification is eminently a progressive work and admits of continual growth and enlargement so long as a man lives. Six, justification as special reference to our persons, our standing in God's sight and our deliverance from guilt.
Sanctification as special reference to our natures and the moral renewal of our hearts. Seven, justification gives us our title to heaven and boldness to enter in. Sanctification gives us our meekness for heaven and prepares us to enjoy it when we dwell there. And then eighthly and finally, justification is the act of God about us and is not easily discerned by others.
You can't look at somebody and say, wow, they're justified. Sanctification is the work of God within us. and cannot be had in its outward manifestation from the eyes of men. I know that was a lot to cram in, and I'm certain that if I stand back there and say what was number six in the second point, you'll probably go. I have no idea.
But these are very important. If you want the notes, please let me know. I will email them to you. You can go over them because I think it helps you to put in their proper perspective the work of God in justification, having saved us through pardoning our iniquities and imputing the righteousness of Christ to us.
And then that work of sanctification, which necessarily flows on the heels of it, but is God's work in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Well, brethren, that is a summary statement of brief look at the doctrine of sanctification.
Application
We should end with two final thoughts, and then we go. The first is for God's people. Are you being sanctified? Can it be said of you that you are working out your own salvation with fear and trembling?
Not perfectly, not exhaustively, not comprehensively, but something Is there any reality in your life of dying under sin and living under righteousness? Is there any reality of you being conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any apparent growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in the way that you conduct yourselves? If the answer to this is no, then believe the gospel.
Because you cannot be sanctified unless you are first justified. It does not do for you to leave here and say, wow, I've got to clean up my act. It may be the case that you need to believe on the Lord Jesus for the first time to be saved. That's the theological basis by which we live the Christian life.
So there ought to be growth. There must be growth if there is no growth. Then repent and believe the gospel. And secondly, for those who have come here that do not know Jesus Christ, who probably couldn't recite what justification or sanctification is, that's understandable.
The message to you this morning is to believe the Bible concerning Christ, to believe that Jesus came into this world and he lived in obedience to God's law and he died as a sacrifice and he rose again. Believe on him, the scripture says, and you will be saved. Believe these truths and you will leave from this place on your way to heaven. Believe these truths and you will not perish in everlasting hell.
That is God's word to you. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, and we thank you that you have given us these doctrines, that you have given us these truths, and that most of all, you've given us the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. We pray for those who do not know you. We pray that you would save them for those who are saved.
God, we pray that you would help us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling to realize that you are at work in us, both to will and to do for your good pleasure. And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.