1115. How Do We Grow In Gospel Grace (part 2)?

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today, we'll hear the conclusion of a sermon from Dr. Sam Horn preached at the Bob Jones University Bible Conference, where the theme was sanctification, from 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5. And so, sanctification is built on a foundation, and the foundation is the work that God did when He declared you righteous in Romans chapters 1 through 3. And when you understand that, you have a question. What shall we say to this? This is in Romans chapter 6 verse 1.

What should we say to all of this? Shall we continue in sin? And Paul's answer to that couldn't be more definitive.

He said, no, may it never be. So the theological ground on which your sanctification is built and rests is justification. Its spiritual actualization, in other words, how is it actualized, involves spirit energized obedience.

We could say it this way, becoming more like Christ and less like the world involves personal effort that is affected by the spirit, it is energized by grace, and it is directed by the world. I think in pictures, so let me give you a sort of embarrassing illustration about this. My wife and I enjoy the trails that are around our house. There's a lot of walking trails and jogging trails and hiking trails, and then there is this immense paseo, it's a California term for a bike path.

And it's about a 30 mile trail. And so I had a bike and I started biking that trail. I really enjoyed it and I thought, you know, Beth might like this. And so I went to Beth and I said, would you enjoy this?

And she said, sure, I would enjoy that. And I thought, well, you know, it's 30 miles. I need to get her the kind of bike that she can navigate this trail on. And so I went down, I had a buddy, I met a buddy that had a bike store. I went down there and they had an electric pedal assist bike. How many of you have a mom that has an electric pedal assist bike or you know somebody that has a bike like this?

I'd never heard of this. So I talked to Beth about it and I bought this bike for her. And so she started riding it around our neighborhood. And we had a day where we were going to go on this big bike ride, like a 25 mile bike ride. So we got out there and I clip in and I have a little bike helmet and off we go. And I am tooling down this bike path and I'm just pouring, I mean, it's hard, it's difficult.

I'm trying to keep about an 18 to 20 mile pace as I'm riding. And I mean, it's just, and I'm flying down this path and I look back and I can't see Beth anywhere. And I thought, well, okay. And I just kept riding, you know, just riding along, you know, being the loving husband. I know she's back there, God will take care of her. I'm just riding along, riding along, riding along. And I mean, my legs are burning and I'm kind of looking back there and there's no Beth. And so I get ready to stop. I'm like, I got to catch my breath, but this will be a good excuse if she comes up to just say, honey, I was waiting for you. I was praying for you while you were riding this one, make sure you were okay. So I'm having all these thoughts in my head as I'm getting ready to pull over, stop and get off the bike. And so as I'm looking back like this, I swing around this way and I look over there and there's Beth in front of me, just coming behind me like this.

I'm like just dying. She's riding up on her little bike, 20 miles an hour. Now, if you don't bike, that doesn't sound like a lot.

But if you bike at that speed, your legs are dying. You're like, I would come off those rides. I'm like, I'm just like trying to get into the car without crawling. And here's my wife, you know, standing up or sitting upright, just looking around, you know, waving, you know, like the queen. And I was like, that's cheating. It was the pedal assist. You know, she was working. She was pedaling just like I was pedaling. She was doing all the same thing. She was keeping her balance. She was keeping on the paseo. She wasn't going off the path. She was all of the things I was doing, but there was something different. There was an immense assist.

And you know what? There is an immense assist when it comes to God helping you in Christian sanctification. It isn't just you pedaling the bike. It's not going to happen if you don't get on the bike. It's not going to happen if you don't pedal. It's not going to happen if you don't stay on the path.

But if you try to do it like I did it, you are going to exhaust yourself and it isn't going to happen. Because God didn't design sanctification to work that way in your life. God designed sanctification to involve your faithful effort, but your faithful effort is going to be energized by His insurmountable, unmeasurable strength that will take you far more the distance than anything you could ever do with your own little pedaling. It is grace, enabled, spirit, energized, obedience, and the pathway that you have to stay on that fuels all of it and guides all of it is the word of God.

That's the indispensable agent of all of this. John 17 that we heard last night, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Paul said this, we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord when we look into this, whatever it is that he's talking about, and we find out later it's the word, when we look into the word and we see the glory of God in Jesus there, we are changed into that same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So that's how it functions in our life, but how does it actually happen? That's our third question.

How does it happen? Well, individually in our personal lives, we've already sort of answered the question, but just review in your mind quickly, it happens through the consistent engagement we have daily with the word of God. That's why reading your Bible is so essential. Reading your Bible every day is not sort of like this deal you make with God so that your day goes better. You know, reading your Bible isn't sort of like the spiritual vitamin you take so you don't catch a cold.

It's not like the sort of answer to some big question that's coming up in your life. Reading your Bible is indispensable because it is the fuel that the Spirit of God uses to energize and direct the process of Christian sanctification as you pedal your bike. It involves not just the consistent engagement with the word of God, but a willing obedience to the will of God that is revealed to you that day by the word of God.

It is enhanced by an essential dependence on God through prayer. God, here's what your word said, open my eyes so I can really understand it and grasp it. There are parts of sanctification that involve more than just your eye reading a word on the page of your Bible. There has to be the Spirit of God opening your eyes spiritually so that you can understand what God really put there. And so God, open my eyes so I understand your will through your word today and then give me the grace to submit to your spirit as I do that word. And here's why all of that matters because one of the ways that sanctification happens individually in our life, in fact, it's one of the one of the more common and most effective ways that God uses to sanctify us.

And here it is. It is suffering. It is trial and pressure and suffering. You say, God, I want you to sanctify me.

OK, fair warning. God is very upfront with you. The process of sanctification is going to rub up against your will, and it's going to rub up against things in your life where your flesh is going to want to push against it. And by the grace of God, through the word of God and in submission to the Spirit of God, you're going to have to look at your flesh and say, die.

Die. And it could be anything that God used. You may have a roommate that that's God's instrument of sanctification in your life. You may be in a marriage and that's God's instrument. But it may be actually a hardship or a trial, or it may be it may be something that rubs up against you. Why do we just always have to do it this way?

Why does this have to be this way? There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to do it. And all of a sudden there's something that's cutting into your life. And at that moment, you've got to come to God's word and say, God, what did you tell me to do about that? Because that's the part of you that God is trying to sanctify at that moment.

I am happy to talk about sanctification and all the errors in my life that God's not talking to me about. But it's this one area at that moment that God is working on. And that's where the battle for Christian sanctification is actually happening. And that's where all of this theology has to be pointed.

There is this rule and it irritates me and it bugs me and it just. And God says, all right, that's the battleground. Yeah, but God, you know, I want to talk about sanctification over here because this is an area of my life that I'm really working on. You know, I need to talk about prayer life and I should read my Bible more.

And, you know, there's this you know, I'm really interested in serving over here. And God says, OK, that's great. We're going to do all of that. But right now we're talking about this.

That's the battleground. So here's a real important question for you this morning. What is the this right now in your life today? That God is dealing with.

Man, you have sat through services and you've gone to workshops and you've heard all kinds of things. And I mean, it could be anything. And all of a sudden you're beginning to realize the spirit of God is saying to you, here is the area of conflict. And you and I are going to have to focus attention here and you're going to have to pedal. And when you pedal in obedience to me, I will give you all the grace assist that that is in my disposal.

But it's in that area. And so it happens individually this way in our personal life. And then it happens corporately together as a body of believers through the careful and accurate preaching and hearing of God's word. That's why preaching is so important to you. Can I just say to you, don't underestimate the value that you have of being at a place where four times a week. For half an hour, thirty five minutes, you come in and the word of God comes and it encourages you and it strengthens you. And I know it comes in the middle of your day. And I know you've got a history test and you've got a Greek test. And you've got all the other things that are going on in your life.

But don't ever underestimate the importance of this formative period in your life where for three to four years every day. And then on Sunday, you are sitting under the concentrated, careful preaching of God's word because you will never have another period of life quite like it. It happens through the careful and accurate preaching and teaching of God's word. It happens through Christ focused worship. It happens in the context of God's body, the church. That's why it is so essential for you and for your sanctification that you be a member in good standing at a local church and that you be involved. You say, I want to be sanctified.

All right. What church are you in? How's your church playing out in that baptism is an ordinance that reminds us how this all started. You know, an incredible tool that God uses in our sanctification is the Lord's Supper. You have been invited to this amazing banquet that God prepared for you through his son and through the death of that son. And however many times your church observes this, whether it's monthly or bimonthly or every couple of times, you know, a year or however many times it does, every time you come to that table, there is this immense opportunity for sanctification to happen. The Lord's Supper is a powerful tool for Christian sanctification. If you take the Lord's Supper seriously. Well, what does it look like when it is at work in a believer's life? That's our fourth question. It looks like a group of believers.

So let's just say, let's get real particular here. What should it look like when sanctification is happening in the student body here at Bob Jones University? Well, it looks like this. It looks like a group of students who are cleansing themselves from every defilement, both of body and spirit, to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God. Second Corinthians seven one.

It looks like a group of students who are serious about that and they're helping one another and they're praying for one another and they're coming around one another and they're encouraging one another and they're cleansing themselves from every defilement, both of body and spirit and bringing holiness to the Lord. So here you are in your dorm room and you walk in and there's obvious stuff that is not part of Christian sanctification. And you've got a choice at that moment.

What do I do? It's none of my business. It's not me. I'm not doing any of that. Well, Christian sanctification doesn't happen in isolation. And it may mean that for the good of that other person, you just go put your hand around that person's shoulder and you say, look, brother, can I talk to you about something? Can we pray together about this?

I don't know what's going on in your life, but I don't think you want this. I know God doesn't want this and I want to be a help. There is this community of believers striving together to cleanse themselves from every defilement. It looks like a group of people who are consistently displaying the fruit of the Spirit in their individual and corporate life. They are marked by love and peace and joy and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

Galatians chapter five. It looks like a student body, a group of people, a dorm room, a society full of people who are loving one another and working hard to keep the unity of the Spirit through humility and gracious gentleness and long suffering and forbearance. And it looks like a group of students who love Christ enough, who are committed to his word enough, who love the gospel enough to invest their life in gospel opportunity.

It's what drives you. It's what's happening here with this offering that you're talking about. I was sitting on the platform last night and the most impacting, in fact I told Dr. Pettit this morning, the most impacting thing about that was not the clinic and not even the amazing amount of money that came out of that, but what you guys got excited about. The 15,000 people who are going to come through that clinic every year to hear the gospel.

You could be at a lot of universities that are doing mercy projects, water, we're going to go drill wells, we're going to build affordable housing, we're going to go do education, but you are going to go far and long to find a place full of people who get excited about the fact that 15,000 people are going to hear the gospel. And that's what I saw in you last night. That is a mark of Christian sanctification. Here's our final question. Why does it all matter? What's the big deal? Why does it matter? And I think there are three big reasons why it matters. Number one, it is Christ's chief objective for believers.

It is Christ's chief objective. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 to 27, Paul says that Christ is presenting his church in radiant splendor without any wrinkle or any spot, any mark. He is presenting his church in radiant splendor as a spotless bride and he is presenting that bride to his Father. Some of you are engaged.

You'll understand this. You can't wait for your parents to meet your girlfriend, the one that you believe you're going to marry. You can't wait for your parents to meet her. You know, there is a sense in that imagery breaks down in a lot of ways, but there's coming a day when Jesus Christ is going to take you and he's going to present you to the most important person in the universe, his Father. And he is getting you ready for that day.

It's a 70-year preparation. He's getting you ready for that day. It's the chief objective of Christ as he prepares you to present you to his Father. Number two, the gospel's greatest validation. I mean, how do you know the gospel is real?

How do you know that it works? If you're a lost person, why would I ever want to believe that? That's ludicrous. It makes zero sense to me and then they meet somebody they grew up with. They meet somebody who they sinned with. They meet someone whose life was just like theirs and it is radically different and they can't explain it and they just want to know how in the world did that happen? What happened to you?

And there's only one answer. The gospel happened to me. And sanctifying work of that gospel is what transformed me from what I used to be to what I am.

And it is, thirdly, heaven's present expression. This isn't about you. It is about you, but it isn't about you. There's a much bigger thing going on here.

And the much bigger thing is this. In Ephesians chapter one, God is reconciling and regathering everything in the cosmos under his Son. And that indicates that there was a time where everything was rightly related to God and the last time you saw everything in heaven rightly related to God was before the fall of Lucifer. And the last time you saw everything rightly related to God on earth was in the garden with Adam and Eve. And God says, now I'm going to reconcile everything. I'm going to regather everything and I'm going to do it under Christ.

It sounds almost too astronomical to believe. And then all of a sudden you start looking at a group of people who are living in the midst of a broken, dark, dangerous world. And they are an outpost of what that future creation will be. They are the first taste of it. If you want to know what heaven is going to be like on earth, look at this group of people that God is sanctifying.

It is present. It is heaven's present expression. Alright, we need to end, so let me end with this application. So how does all of this apply? And I would say you need four things that need to come into your life. Number one, you need to read the Bible. You need to read the Bible. You will never, ever engage in the process of sanctification if you are not reading your Bible. You need to read it regularly, repeatedly, reflectively, receptively, repentedly, and any other R you can think of.

You need to read your Bible. And then you need to pray as you read so that the Spirit of God is communing with you through that word and through your prayer. So you need to read and you need to pray, but there's a particular thing that has to happen. It's not enough just to read and it's not enough just to pray.

You need to do what the psalmist did in Psalm 1 and you need to do what the psalmist did in Psalm 119. You need to meditate. And meditation is this, it is the active, musing, and thoughtful contemplation of all or a portion of God's word for the purpose of understanding what God has really said and embracing what God really wants you to do. It is the active, thoughtful contemplation of all or a portion of God's word for the purpose of understanding it and doing it. So you need to read, you need to pray, and you need to meditate. But if you just read and pray and meditate, you're going to fall short.

You're going to find yourself with the Ferrari at the gas station and you need fuel and you don't know how to get the gas cap open. So you need to do one more thing. You need to do what James said. You need to come with a certain kind of commitment that comes out of a certain belief. You need to come to your Bible and this is the commitment, God, whatever you say in these words, I'm going to do exactly what you say in these words. And I'm going to do these things because I have absolutely no doubt.

I have unswerving, unshakable confidence that your words are true. And the example that James gives you in the Bible is this one. It's the example of Abraham whose faith was validated, was justified, his faith was validated by something that he did. And it's the kind of thing that God wants from you. So what is it that Abraham did?

Well, James tells you about one story in Abraham's life, way back in Genesis chapter 22, when Abraham got a shocking request from God. This son, Isaac, that you've longed for, you've prayed for, you've waited for, that all of your hopes are pinned on. This son, I want you to take him and I want you to go to this mountain, Mount Moriah, and when you get to the top, I want you to offer to him, him to me as a sacrifice. Shocking on so many levels. And so Abraham got up.

The text is almost this direct. Abraham got up, gathered his son, gathered his servants, gathered the implements for the offering, and off they went. And they got to the base of the mountain. Now we're not told what went on in Abraham's mind. This was unbelievably, or without any doubt, the deepest moment in Abraham's journey. He gets to the base of that mountain and he goes up to the top of the mountain and you know what happens there at the top of the mountain.

But Abraham didn't have any clue what was going to happen. But just before he started up to the top of the mountain where he was going to do this unspeakable thing, he said something to the servants. And here's what he said. Wait here.

My son and I, literally the lad and I, my son and I will return. You know, you read that detail in Genesis 22 and it's just like, okay, great. Let's get to the, let's get to the good part. The dagger, you know, God, the ram. But don't miss that statement.

You need to let that statement just jump off the page at you. Abraham literally looked at his servants and he said something stunning. He said, Isaac and I are going out, we're going to worship, and then we're going to come back together. What enabled Abraham to do that? Well, we don't find out until the book of Hebrews. And the book of Hebrews gives a little detail that we didn't know about in Genesis 22, but it's something that the writer of the New Testament wants you to know what's going on in Abraham that enabled this kind of obedience.

And it was this. Abraham believed that God had made him a promise and that God would keep that promise. And he was confident that God would raise Isaac from the dead. And the writer of Hebrews says, now it didn't happen physically, but figuratively, that's exactly what happened. God gave him Isaac again. But Abraham believed in the words of God to the point that he knew what he was going to go do. And he looked at the man and he said, now we're coming back. And the reason he could put the we there. Is because he believed that God would keep his word, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you believe God's words like that? Because until you do, sanctification will always be this thing that you're chasing. You will be pedaling your bike with all of your strength and you won't quite get there because sanctification is a work of the spirit that comes out of your faith. Lord, thank you for this text and for this topic this week. Lord, I don't know where everybody is this morning in their journey with you, but I know that all of us are probably dealing with things in our life that right now, this week, you have pointed to. That may seem so simple for others, but for us, they're the mountain that we are supposed to climb and we're not sure if we're coming back. And so, Lord, the only thing we know to do right now is do what the apostles did and say, Lord, we do believe, but please help our unbelief. Build in us through your word and by your spirit. Through the enlightenment and the enablement that comes a deep commitment to putting our feet exactly where you tell us to in your word. In the journey of our Christian sanctification together for your glory and our good and for the sake of the gospel. In Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to the conclusion of a sermon by Dr. Sam Horn from the 2021 Bible Conference Series on Sanctification. Thanks for listening and join us again next week as we'll hear more soul-stirring sermons from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.