People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
D.A. Carson, For the Lord of God

If you don't love Jesus you will soon discover that being a pastor or a church leader is not really a very good job. You will be overworked, underpaid, overstressed, and underappreciated. But if you do love Jesus, you will discover as so many others have that it can be the most wonderful and exciting job in the world.
Mark Allan Powell,
addressing graduating seniors at Trinity Lutheran Sminary

One of the concerns that I've carried for many years is that holiness teaching, preaching and living are in shorter supply than needed.

Another concern I've carried is that some of us in ministry do not understand the message of holiness very well, so are hesitant about teaching and preaching it, and thus don't know how to live it.

The New Testament picture of holiness illustrates a garden, not only cleared of ugly weeds, but a garden filled with fragrant flowers and rich fruits.

"It is a refining of the whole moral being, and a lifting of the whole life to a level on which pure thinking and gracious behavior are spontaneous." - J. Sidlow Baxter

Notice some of the Scriptures that describe the person in Christ.
- In these people is "the peace of God which passes understanding." Phil 4:7
- They "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:8
- They have "wisdom that is from above." James 3:17
- As people who "walk in the light as God is in the light," they have continuous "fellowship with the Father and with His Son." 1 John 1:3, 7
- They are "renewed in knowledge after the image of God," and are "renewed in true holiness." Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:24
- "With unveiled faces" they "behold the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image." 2 Cor. 3:18
- In them, "perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4:18
- They "dwell in God and God dwells in them." 1 John 4:16
- They are "filled to all the fullness of God." Eph. 3:19
- And, they live the "more abundant life." John 10:10
- Their "joy is full." John 16:24

- The "spirit of life" has "set them free from the law of sin and death." Rom. 8:2
- And they are beautiful in the character of the fruit of the Spirit; "love, joy, peace...."
- In difficulties they are "more than conquerors through him that loves them." Rom. 8:37
- They know and practice the truth "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
- They have "full assurance of hope (Heb. 6:11), full assurance of faith (10:22), and are filled continually with the Holy Spirit." Eph. 5:18

How many people do you know who are living in the fullness of the blessing of Christ?

Are you?

"Without true holiness we can never be fully pleasing to God."

"Every Christian is meant to be a living temple; a cleansed, renewed, transformed, Spirit-filled temple of God, expressing in a unique way the life and love of the indwelling Christ."

This way of holiness - this life characterized by the fullness of the blessing of Christ is beautifully unfolded by Paul in his letter to the Romans.

The key to this book is in chapter 1, verses 16-17, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith....For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, the one who is righteous will live by faith."

For the next two chapters (1:18-3:20), Paul explains the need for the gospel. We need it for two reasons:
1) We've all committed sins. We are, therefore, legally guilty because to commit sin is to break the law. Breaking the law of God is sin.

Paul says, "They are filled with every kind of wickedness...: 1:29

"They know God's decree, that those who practice such things (wickedness) deserve to die -- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them." 1:32

2) The second reason we need the gospel is that we are in sin as a condition. In other words, we are not only legally guilty as law breakers - sinners - we are morally corrupt. We are born in sin.
"We have already charged," wrote Paul, "that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin." 3:9

This means, writes Paul in 3:20, that "no human being will be justified in his sight by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin" -- singular.

So, we have SINS - accumulated transgressions
and SIN - hereditary corruption.

Paul, then, has stated the twofold need for the gospel --
We have committed sins.
We are sinners.

He then, over the next 52 chapters shows how the gospel deals with these two troubling tragedies.

It's interesting to me that we quite easily grasp the teaching of Scripture on the problem of sins - plural. We tell our people, "All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." 3:23

"But" we are quick to point out "God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his lifes blood, so that by faith in him we could come to God." 3:24-25

In other words, Jesus paid our debt. This is a legal transaction. It took place at a point in history. It is finished. There remains no more sacrifice for sins.

Paul places this fact before the Romans in chapter 3:21 through 4:25, concluding this section on the judicial side of salvation, by saying,
"God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God." 4:25

However, we know that not everyone has come to God. We know that not everyone has been made acceptable to God.

Why? Because not everyone has believed.

When Paul moves from the judicial - or legal side of salvation: We're guilty, but not to worry - Jesus paid the debt we owed; he takes us to the experiential side of the coin. This is found in chapter 5:1-11, and his opening line is "By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God." 5:1

This realization that our sins are gone makes us happy, writes Paul. In fact, the experience...the new found relationship is so profound, that "we gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us endure." v. 3

"And endurance builds character." v.4
This, in turn give us hope, v.4, and "All of this happens," writes Paul, "because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love." 5:5

"There's more," he says -- "Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger." v.9
He made peace with us.
So, says Paul, as friends of God, v.10 we are happy v.11

This is by faith, an experiential transformation.

We've gone from the judicial - Christ died for the ungodly - to the experiential - we have peace with God.

We call this salvation, new birth, conversion, justification, redemption.

It's profound. It's phenomenal. It's real.

The problem is, and it is a universal problem, sin remains. Sins are forgiven, washed away, removed as far as the East is from the West, to be remembered against us no more.

But sin - our hereditary corruption - remains. The new Christian soon realizes this continued "bent to sinning" that Wesley talks about. They get a close-up, in your face confrontation with the "old man of sin" Paul speaks of and end up crying with the apostle, "Oh, wretched man/woman that I am."

We know God dealt with sins. Did he deal with sin?

Yes! And the pattern is identical to that found in salvation.

In Romans 5:12 through 7:6, Paul unfolds the legal or judicial side of sanctification. Paul moves from talking about sins - plural - to talking about sin - singular. He speaks of Adam - the man whose sin put sin into the human race. Spiritual DNA. He speaks of Christ - the man whose righteousness introduced a new headship into the human race.

Adam, the old man; Christ, the new man.

Romans 6:6, a famous verse for holiness preachers, was incorrectly translated in the King James version and led to a teaching that sin is eradicated from us, making it impossible to sin again except out of ignorance.

Romans 6:6 in K.J. says, "Our old man is crucified" where it should read "Our old man was crucified" - past, over and done with by Jesus - a judicial act -- a legal transaction.

In chapters 6-7, all the verbs, died, baptized, buried, crucified, destroyed, freed, made dead, and delivered are in the aorist tense, referring to the past, historical, objective occurrence, not to a present, continuing experience in the believer.

Jesus died unto sin once for all -- it is finished.

Judicially, our sins are covered, paid for.
Judicially, our sin is destroyed.
The headship of Adams is gone. The headship of Christ has come.

So, Paul told the Corinthians, "One died for all, therefore all died." 2 Cor. 5:14
i.e. We are legally freed because we legally died.

This legal transaction, done on our behalf, can move over into our experience. This is where the sanctification of the Christian comes in.

We do not teach a sinless perfection. We do not teach an eradication of the old man of sin.

Rather, as with the Word of God, we teach a deliverance, a transformation, a Spirit walk, a life of faith, a headship or Lordship of God in our lives.

We teach that we can go from "Oh, wretched man/woman that I am," to being "more than conquerors through Him who loves us."

We need an experiential deliverance from the "sin that dwells within me." And that is precisely what Paul gets at from Romans 7:7 through Romans 8:39.

Many of our people, and perhaps many of us here today, have lived in defeat. We've followed the path of full yieldedness or surrender to Christ and have believed ourselves dead to sin, only to find that sin still dwells in us. That what we thought was dead at an altar on Sunday is well and alive Monday morning.

It is at this point of discovery that we need to come face to face with the experience of sanctification God makes available to us. It is described in Romans 8:2 "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death."

Salvation - Justification comes when we identify with Jesus Christ in his once and for all death on the cross.

Sanctification comes when we identify with Jesus Christ in his resurrection and present life in us.

So, Paul says in Romans 8:4 that we can obey the Spirit instead of our own desires. How? By being ruled by the Holy Spirit. "Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit," he writes, "thinks about spiritual things." "If our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace." v.6

On the other hand, writes Paul in v.8, "If we follow our desires, we cannot please God."

But, he says, "You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God's Spirit, who lives in you." v.9

After all, he notes, if we live to satisfy our desires we will die. 'But you will live, if by the help of God's Spirit you say "no" to your desires." v.13

Personal Responsibility - We are Personally Responsible. Paul admits that "In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us." v.26 Therefore, Awe know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him." v.28

Paul asks, "What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? v.31...If God says his chosen ones are acceptable (v.33) to him, can anyone bring charges against them?...can anyone condemn them?
No indeed.
In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us." v.37

Sanctification - entire sanctification - or as Paul puts it, "Sanctified through and through" is found experientially through union with Christ in his life. Resurrection living.

"The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free..."

The power of the inner betrayer which made keeping the moral law impossible has now been broken. i.e. the power of the hereditary selfish and carnal within us is consciously broken. Unless this is in our experience, we remain in Romans 7 with the wretched man/woman.

Realized holiness is seen in those who "walk...after the Spirit." 8:4 An Experiential transformation. To walk according to the Spirit is to live under His gentle persuasion, in happy one-mindedness with Him.

If we don't want to do that, we won't. If that's all we want to do, then we are either on the edge of entire sanctification or living in the middle of it. Which is where God wants us to live.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Some have prayed for years, "Lord, give me a new heart" and wonder where it is.

Fact: God has given you a new heart.
It's in the contract - the promise.

The questions are: Do you believe that?
Do you obey that?

Is there a second work of grace?
A crisis experience?

Yes -- it's when you believe that you are crucified with Christ and surrender to His holy way of life. Moment by moment; daily.

Living for Jesus, oh what peace,
Rivers of pleasure never cease,
Trials may come, yet I'll not fear,
Living for Jesus, He is near.

Help me to serve thee ore and ore,
Help me to love thee more and more,
Live in thy presence day by day,
Never to turn from thee away.

9/15/00

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