Session 3: The Doctrines of Grace and Holiness

Hm, well, good evening. It is indeed a delight to be here. I have I've looked forward to this and I will make one correction, happily make one correction. I am no longer the dean of the School of Divinity at the African Christian University. I turned that duty over to Conrad, and I'm so happy it is best for everyone. Because I'm a lot of things, an administrator is not one of those things. So since since I started being Dean of the School of Divinity, I've been trying to con i mean convince someone that they needed to take that mantle. So I'm delighted that doctor and Bayway now holds that title and I just I just get to each It's wonderful. My assignment today was to address the doctrines of grace and holiness, the doctrines of grace and holiness, And the interesting thing about that is when we think about the doctrines of grace and holiness, oftentimes we're tempted to think that those things are at odds. In fact, one of the arguments that people attempt to make against those of us who hold to the doctrines of grace is that it militates against a pursuit of holiness. Yeah, do you not have non Calvinist friends? Do you not? Because that's the argument that's often made, right, because you know, you believe that God is sovereign, He's in control of all of it. And therefore the two things, what are the two things that we're accused of not pursuing as a result, Evangelism and holiness? Right, Evangelism and holiness. And again, nothing could be further from the truth. Turn your attention with me to the Second London Baptist Confession, Chapter thirteen, paragraph one. Listen to this of sanctification. They who are united to Christ, effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart, a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified, really and personally through the same virtue. Hold on to that. We'll come back to that. By His word and spirit dwelling in them, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness. Without which no man shall see the Lord. So it's a it's a now right lie that those of us who believe in the doctrines of grace and believe in the sovereignty of God as applied to the salvation of sinners somehow see that at odds with the pursuit of that true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We've confessed that as long as we've been confessing, Amen. And yet they accuse us of that. But I'm not as worried about that as I am about some of us, because some of us have an idea that goes something like this. When it comes to justification, God is absolutely sovereign, and he does that monegism Amen. All the way God saves sinners. But when it comes to sanctification and holiness, well that's something different. It's as though God starts us on our way, and then after he starts us on our way, he leaves us to work out the rest as best we can. Let me read that again. They who are unite to Christ, effectually called regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified really and personally through the same virtue. The one who saves us is the one who sanctifies us. The one who saves us is the one who sets us apart for himself. He makes us holy. In other words, and yet I say this and will simultaneously acknowledge the fact that we are called to pursue holiness. Be holy as I am holy, saying Chrintian seventy to one. Since we have those promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. There it is Ephesians four twenty two to twenty four, same book that we're going to look at. Here in a moment, we're going to look at chapter one. But in Pheesians four, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Had to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Hebrews twelve fourteen. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord there's that verse from which we get that statement in chapter thirteen first Thessalonians four three through seven. For this is the word of God your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each world one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passions of lust, like the gentiles who do not know God. That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly warn you. For God has not called us to or God called us for impurity, but in holiness. So what do we do with this? What do we do with the fact that God is the one who sets us apart. God is the one who makes us holy, that we believe in monarchism, that God saves us, and that God sanctifies us, and yet we're called to pursue this holiness. Well, the short and simple answer is we do this same thing with that that we do with repent and believe. Amen, God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners. God saves us from beginning to end. And yet we call men to repent and believe. God is the one who sets us apart and makes us holy. And yet we are called to be holy as he is holy, to pursue holiness. Let me begin with an illustration to sort of set the stage for you before we look at our text today, which will be in Ephesians chapter one. The illustration comes from an experience that I had. My days are all messed up. I just flew in from Soco on Friday, and and then flew to Mississippi and THENTO, Florida, and then here, and I'm just yeah. So last night this morning sometime, it was dark outside and I wasn't supposed to be up, h but I but I woke up and it was one of those moments I just I was up up, dark outside, not supposed to be up, but I was up up, and I did what I do maybe a thousand times a day. I took my thumb and I reached for this ring and it wasn't there. So now I wasn't just up up. I was up, up, up, looking for my ring, turning on lights, pulling back covers, look, look, looking looking for my ring. Now, eventually, as you can see, I found my ring. And this ring is important. This ring is important because this ring was a symbol the fact that I have been set apart for one, set apart for her and for her alone. Now, listen, I'm not married because I wear the ring. I wear the ring because I'm married. Some of you haven't gotten it still. Here's why we have a problem with the idea of God's sovereignty and the pursuit of holiness, because somewhere we've gotten the idea that holiness is something that we do so that we can be set apart for God. And so we come up with these lists of things that we do and these lists of things that we don't do. And when people ask us about whether or not we're a Christian, we answer and the affirmative. And then the evidence that we give is I used to do this, now I don't anymore. I used to not do that, and now I do not that any of those things are bad. Amen, But we got it backwards. God does not welcome us and receive us because we've done the holiness stuff. But we do the holiness stuff as a result of God having made us holy. Me not pursuing another woman. Before this was absolutely no virtue whatsoever. Amen. There was no virtue in that because actually I had to pursue this one before I put this. Amen, how many of you know unless you pursue them. Yeah, some of you single folks need okay, all right, So so there was no virtue in that and that and that not pursuing. But when this is on and I've been set apart for one now, the not pursuing means something different. But it is related to the fact that I've been set apart. It grows out of the fact that I've been set apart. Same is true with our holiness. It is a gift from God. It begins and ends with God, and we pursue it because He's given it to us. He doesn't give it to us because we pursue it. Look at Ephesian Chapter one, and let's unpack this. It's one thing for me to say it. It's another thing for us to see it in the text. Amen. We look at those first fourteen verses, and much of my time is going to be spent with us looking at these verses again and again and again. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the Wood of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ. Jesus, Grace to you peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now now here's the meat of our text. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. There it is in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Christ Jesus, according to the purpose of his will. By the way, every time I read this, every time I read this, I just I feel for people who have to run through the mental gymnastics of not seeing the sovereignty of God in salvation. By I just what do you do? Verse six To the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved in Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. In Christ as a plan for the for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. Sorry, there's a glare here in Him. We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined there. It is again according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory in Him. You also, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Amen, Alleluiah, and praise the Lord. The gift, this glorious gift of holiness. Four things I want you to see about this gift from this text. Number one, I want you to see that holiness is a gift from the thrice Holy Triune God. Holiness is a gift from the thrist Holy Triune God. Notice what we see here in the progression of this text. Look at verses three and four. Verses three and four, we see the Father blessed be the God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He shows us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. And so we have God the Father who's blessing us. And then look at verse seven, and him we have redemption through his blood. This is God the Son, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. So now we have the Son's participation in this gift of holiness. And then look at verses thirteen and fourteen. And him, you also, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. So this gift of ours that we see here is given to us by the thrice Holy Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. This holiness that is our gift, this being set apart for God. God does this as God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit. Saints. There's not even any room for us. Amen, be like a toddler. You know, when have you ever been around and trying to move something or do some work, and there's a toddler around. The toddler wants to that, he wants to help. And so here you are picking up this heavy thing, and the toddler comes along and they put their hand on the heavy thing so that they can they can, and you let them, you just you let them. But it's handled. Your holiness is handled. The thrice holy Triune God, the eternal, sovereign, omnipotent God, has gifted you with holiness, has set you apart for himself and by himself. You did not help God set you apart. God set you apart for himself. The Father and the Son and the Spirit worked in conjunction within the Godhead in order to set apart of people for the praise of His glory. And by the way, several times we read in this text that it was for the praise of his glory. Amen, if you helped God make you holy, you would share in the praise, and it wouldn't just be the praise of His glory, it would be And we're in South Carolina, it would be the praise of y'all's glory. This is a gift from the thrice holy Tryune God. Secondly, this gift is orchestrated by the Father. It's orchestrated by the Father. Look at the text again, and this time I want us to pay attention to the verbs. In verse three, who has blessed us? Verse four, he chose Us. Verse five, he predestined Us. Verse six, he has blessed us. In case you didn't catch it the first time. Verse eight, he lavished upon Us, verse nine, making known to us. At the end of verse nine, he set forth. God orchestrated this. God did this work. God saved the people for his own glory. All of these verbs, these action words, point to what it is that the Father has done. Even the work that the son accomplishes, and even the work that the spirit accomplishes. They accomplished this at the of the Father, who ortistrains the work. She reminds me of John seventeen, where we look at the work that God has done in the Covenant of Redemption, that the Father, out of love for the son, bequeaths a people to the son. It gives a people to the Son, out of his love for the Son, and the son, out of his love for the Father, redeems the people whom the Father has given to him, and the Spirit, who is the personification of the love between the Father and the Son, actually applies that redemption to those whom the Father has given and for whom the Son has died to redeem. This is how we are saved. This is how we are set apart. This is how we become his. But not only look at the work of the Father, but look at the work of the Son. The son purchases this people. Look with me in verse seven, and him We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in our wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. But beyond that, that's sort of the general statement of what he did. But look back at the text again. We looked before, and we looked at those verses. Let's look at these prepositional phrases. Look at verse four. He didn't just choose us, He chose us in him. Look with me at verse five, predestined through Jesus Christ. Look at verse six, he blessed us in the beloved. Verse seven begins with in Him, and then we had this redemption what through his blood? Look down with me. At the end of verse nine he set forth in Christ, and in the middle of verse nine to unite all things in him. Look at verse eleven in him, look at verse thirteen in him in Christ. So the Father does this work, but he does this work in Christ, this redemp of ours, that is in Christ. And there are two things that we see here that we have as a result of this work of Christ, and both of them are significant. One of them is the obvious one, this redemption that we have in Christ, all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. The miracle of holiness is that we are an unholy people. Amen. The reason that we need this supernatural work to make us holy is because we are unholy people. How are unholy people going to make themselves holy? That's like nothing exploding and creating everything. Amen. Somebody, where does an unholy person be? Again to express holiness? There is none righteous, no, not even one. No one seeks after God, none of us. So how is someone who is guilty before a holy God? How is someone for whom every inclination is towards sin, all the time, going to all of a sudden find it in himself or herself to even desire holiness, let alone move toward holiness. It has to be alien, It has to come from outside. We have to be redeemed, We have to be justified. We have to be changed supernaturally from what we were to what we become. That's the only way that we could ever even think about holiness, let alone do anything that would be acceptable before perfect, holy and righteous God. This redemption is necessary. God had to make him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. It's all we, like sheep, as Isaiah says, gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. But God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us. All this is the only way that God could be, as pauls as in Romans three, both just and that he must pour out his wrath on sin, and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ penal substitutionary atonement. And I know in some circles that's cussing, but there is no other way. There is no other way. But it's not only that. He also refers here to what I like to call the lost step in the order salutis. Most people when they talk about the order Salutists, they talk about justification and sanctification and glorification. Amen, And that that's it. That's yet. Yes, justification and and and and sanctification and glorification. Oh my, but we forget one. It's justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. And I'm not just saying that. I'll show you in a minute. But look back with me verse five. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. So Christ's work did not just justify us, but through Christ's work we are also adopted. Go back with me if you will. And right before the paragraph that we read, chapter thirteen of sanctification in the second Lend the Baptist Confession, is the one paragraph chapter right before chapter twelve on adoption. There's only one paragraph there on adoption. And you'll notice that it's adoption and then sanctification. And this is incredibly important. Listen to this. All those that are justified, God vouchsafed in and for the sake of his only son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of children of God, have His name put on them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry ah Bah Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. Don't you leave that off anymore? Don't you leave it off anymore. So many people wrestle with assurance. And there are a number of reasons that people wrestle with assurance. And I'm not talking about people who wrestle because of some besetting sin or because of whatever. There are a number of people who wrestle with assurance because all they have is justification and sanctification and glorification. And God is this judge who has made declarations and decrees. But adoption says, he's my daddy. I am not just his subject. I am his son, and I am every bit a son that the son is a son. Do you hear that I am his child? And amazingly, as his child, it makes sense that I would be conformed to the image of It makes sense that if I am a child in the family of God, that I would reflect the family image. I say this as an adoptive father. It's interesting. I was speaking with my oldest daughter not long ago, and we're doing some family tree stuff. And we're riding in the car going somewhere with the ones. We have seven kids who are there with us in Lusaka and two who are here in the US, and our grandkids who are here in the US. And our oldest daughter was doing some some you know, family tree stuff, and she says, you know, you've done your DNA stuff and Mom's done her DNA stuff, so I don't have to do my DNA stuff because you know, I got your DNA and her DNA. Un Listen, I haven't told me something, you know, and so we've got it right. And so I've done that. But I need this and I need that, none need the other. And so the call ends and one of my sons says, well, Dad, I guess then when I want to do my family tree, I can just use you and Mom's DNA too, And it was one of those moments, and there have been many where we have to be reminded that some of our children came into our home through adoption. And so I said, well, I mean, you know, Son, you you can, you can, you can, Yes, you can, and that'll that'll, that'll, that'll give you the you know, the the Bockham side of it, but your your DNA would also give you some other information. And that's when he went, oh, yeah. We're frequently asked questions like what it's like to love and I'll use the words that people use our real children compared to our adopted children, to which I always respond, they're all real, they're all real. Well you know you know what I mean, Your your your your natural children versus your adopted children, to which I respond, well, depending on how you define a natural none of them, you know. But uh, well you know, your your own children versus your to which I respond, I double dog dare you to point to any one of them and say they're not my own. But here's where you're getting at, And here's that's where the hang up is. We believe that loving a child is tied up in biology because we're closet Darwinians. If you believe that, let me remind you of something. My closest living relative, my next of kin, is not related to me by blood. And I love no one on this earth more. Why is this important? Because God has adopted us and set us apart as his own children, and he loves us as sons and daughters. And when you understand this, you understand how and why our holiness would grow out of that. We don't become God's child because of our efforts in holiness. Our efforts and holiness are born out of our adoption into the family of God. Christ does this. Christ purchases this. We're his, We're his. Finally, we see that this gift is guaranteed by the spirit. Look down with me beginning of verse eleven, geinna verse eleven. And and this is the point when we talk about, for example, the doctrines of grace, right when we talk about the tulip, and when we get to you know, total depravity on merriative favor and limited atonement and irresistible grace, and we get down to perseverance, we see that from beginning to end, God saves his people. Amen and those who want to, you know, monkey around with the sanctification part. They sort of they insert something in there but between the eye and the ped and that thing that they insert between the eye and the P actually puts the P in doubt. Amen, Because if there's something, if there's something that God is taking his hands off of and trusting me with before he can finish the p, there's a problem. Because you know my favorite John MacArthur quote, if you could lose your salvation, you would, But look here verse eleven. In him, we haven't obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. That leaves no room. He works all things according to the council of his will. You are not part of that council. You don't get a seat at that table. Amen. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. There it is again in Him. You also, when you heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. Until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee. It's it's the it's the promisory node. It's the earnest money. Remember the first time we bought a house, one of the scariest things ever in the world, And we're get ready by the house, and they told us that we had to write an earnest money contract. What in the world. Yes, you write this contract, and they know you're serious because you write this contract and you give them this check and if you back out, you lose the check. Say wait, wait, what say? Yes, you better be serious before you buy this because when you buy it, you attach this check, and if you don't finish the purchase that you promised to make, they keep your earnest money. They keep your guarantee. That that's what this reference is to. Here. God has put earnest money down on you, and if he fails to follow through and save you, save you, he'd have to lose his earnest money. His earnest money is the third person of the Trinity, which means that the only way that someone who's actually saved can stop being saved is if God stops being God. You're his from beginning to end. You're his. And again, I know about all the what if questions and what about these people who live like this? And what about these people who do that? And what about these people? Listen, listen, listen, one John two nineteen. They went out from among us because they were not all of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained. Why because he loses none. Your holiness is tied up in this. And the beauty of this is that when we grasp this, there is incredible freedom. If I had to go every day and earn this, if I had to spend every day guarding, guarding my eyes, guarding my thoughts, guarding all the just everything, so that I could earn this, so that I could hope to come home at the end of the day, and she's still there. No, But when I recognize that I've been set apart, that I am my beloved and my beloved is mine, I still do all those things. Amen, But not so I can earn this, but because it's true, because it's real, because I am what it says I am, I'm set apart. That's the way we view holiness, and it frees us to pursue holiness genuinely pursue holiness. The other way around, we're not pursuing holiness. We're actually pursuing self righteousness, which is not holy. But when we recognize that the trying God has granted us this gift, that God the Father caught, the Son, God the Spirit have provided and uphold and maintain this gift of holiness, then it becomes our delight to pursue it. Not only that, but we have the very power of the thrice holy Triune God enabling us to do it. You see, if it's the other way around that I'm doing it in my might and in my power, which will always be insufficient. But when I understand it rightly, the same power that raised Christ from the dead has set me apart as holy and has empowered and enabled me to live like one who is holy, to offer before a thrice holy God works that are acceptable in His sight because I do them in Christ as a redeemed and adopted child of the most High God. And there is absolutely no inconsistency whatsoever between the sovereignty of God in saving his people and his people pursuing holiness. Let's pray, Gracious God, our heavenly Father, Thank you for reminding us today of the significance and of the reality of those words. That you are indeed our heavenly father. You are the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and you have adopted us as sons and daughters. You have set us apart. You've made us holy things. You've made us a holy people, set apart for you. Grant by your grace that we might walk in accordance with that reality, not walking as those who believe that somehow we can earn it, but walking as those who believe that it is ours because it's a gift that we've received from the thrist holy Triune God, that it is ours, because it has been purchased by Christ, who redeemed us and through whom we have this precious gift of adoption. And because your spirit, your Holy Spirit, is our guarantee and the guardian of those whom you've set apart. Grant by your grace that this would never make us lax or lazy, but that instead it would renew our desire to pursue that holiness without which no man will see the Lord. May we walk in a manner worthy of our calling, and as we do grant us grace that we might be so careful to give your name all the praise, for it is all of grace, it is all of Christ. And we ask the things. Believe these things because we do ask them in the name of our Lord, Savior, Master, Redeemer and soon coming King Jesus, who is the Christ. In his name, all God's people said Amen.