Change: A Call for Personal Holiness<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Pt II
 
Sanctification by definition is our growth in the likeness of Christ. It is in fact the measure of our Christian maturity. There are two aspects of Sanctification that which focuses on God's role and that which focuses on our role. We will look today at our role but I do want to briefly touch on God's because it precedes ours.
 
First as with every aspect of our Salvation, God is the primary player in Sanctification. The Bible is clear that it is God himself that sanctifies us. In fact in I Thes 5:23 Paul prays, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly".
 
Philippians 2:12-13
Here we see God works in us by causing us to desire his Will and then is gracious in providing he power to do His will.
 
 
Just a side note: Many take issue with a God who would impose on our "freedom" but in reality if we truly understand our sinful condition and enslavement to that sin, wouldn't we instead rejoice at the truth that God mercifully saves us and then works in us to desire his perfect will. In our impotence He shows Himself more than adequate. Because of our sinful nature we continually struggle with this because just as it was with the sin of Adam and Eve we too want to be in control instead of God. That serves to make the point that even though we are saved we must realize the war that rages even this very moment in our members between the powers of righteousness and wickedness. It is my hope today to remind you of this war and to remind you of your responsibility in that war.
 
Just a quick reflection on the role the Trinity plays in our Sanctification and then we will look at our role.
We saw the Father at work a moment ago but what about Jesus
 
Jesus earned our sanctification for us. His sacrifice made it possible for us to enter the process of sanctification. (Does this bring us joy?) Secondly he serves as our example in sanctification. Heb. 2 tells us that like Christ we too are to run the race looking to Jesus.
 
The Holy Spirit is the executor of our sanctification. He is the one who works in us to bring about the change and bring us to a deeper level of holiness in our lives. He is our greatest accountability partner because He knows all things.
 
So we acknowledge God's role in sanctification but what about you and I? What is our role? Our role is two-fold. On one hand it is a passive role in which we depend on God by trusting him and praying that He will indeed bring about a Christ-like character in all of us. (Rom 8:13)
 
Secondly however we have an active role to play and today this role is grossly neglected in much of Christianity. In fact it is rarely even encouraged. This is the role that I will focus on this morning. In the 20th and 21st centuries the majority of Christian believers have been become lazy and in turn neglected the active role that we are commanded in Scripture to play. Biblically however there is no exception for this and in fact it is despised and condemned. Cultural Christianity along with humanism, materialism and post-modern ambiguity have aided in the spread of this slothful disease as many have fled the Biblical commands and instead adopted a man-centered idolatry. In reality we worship ourselves instead of our Creator. In fact many even in the church have suggested that we forget striving for holiness and simply "let go and let God". That is the abuse of the passive role that I spoke of earlier.
This must STOP! Because instead of God moving to bring about a great revival He will indeed like <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Laodicea spew us out of his mouth.
 
Turn if you will to Proverbs 4
I have recently been reading about Jonathon Edwards, quite possibly the greatest theologian and preacher that has ever walked on American soil. He lived in the 1700's during the time of the puritans and was indeed a man who sought with all his might to walk uprightly before God. His passion for God's glory and personal holiness serves as a model to anyone who desires to follow Christ as we ought.
 
Verses 18-27 of Chapter 4 of Proverbs are near to my heart because they like John the Baptist shout for righteous living. It is my prayer this morning that we would not simply see these words as a mere words from a father to his son but instead hear them ring deep in our souls as a clarion call of God to we his children. Indeed He is calling us to this life. If we do not heed these words then it is possible that we are showing ourselves not to be on the narrow road that leads to life but instead on the wide road that leads to destruction. We must be careful to listen to the words of Scripture or we too might find ourselves like the children of Israel in a land where we don't want to be enslaved to a people that we don't want as our rulers and all because of our idolatry against our most holy God.
 
Notice the words of Solomon here in verse 20-22. He calls us to listen carefully and attentively to his words. Focus Focus Focus he cries! DO NOT let these words slip from your sight. Folks if we desire to be obedient children of God then I am calling on you this morning again to LISTEN and OBEY! This is so so important. I am sickened in my inner most being over this because I fear far to many simply live a lackluster disobedient life all the while thinking they are ok.
 
Let me qualify this by telling you I am not saying that an undisciplined Christian can somehow lose his or her salvation because the Bible makes clear that that is impossible. However we are being most disobedient to our God if we are not heeding his commands to strive for holiness. Dr. Steven Lawson puts it this way, "Many who confess Christ are pampering themselves to death rather than pushing themselves to holiness" 1  Often times we merely walk through the motions drawing close to God with our mouths while being far from him in our hearts. The only recourse we have is to purpose in our hearts to despise our sinfulness. When God saved us he didn't take from our propensity to sin. He freed us from our slavery and saved us by Christ's sacrifice from the penalty of sin but he did not remove from us the daily fight that we have with it. Why not? Because He left us a responsibility in Sanctification to war against sin and strive for holiness. The only way to do this is to be honest with ourselves about our sin and again commit ourselves to fighting with all our might against it. That is what is meant to grow in grace. It is to grow in holiness.
 
Let's look again then to Proverbs 4:23-27
Before we examine these verses I would like to point out that it is by obedience to verse 20-22 that we are able to do what 23-27 say.
20-22 focus on the value of God's Word. The Bible is the only thing that is able to change our lives. No man, no philosophy, no life coach, the only thing that will bring godly change is God's Word. It serves to be a medicine for our sinful condition. Only the word of God has the proper remedies for our spiritual maladies. Therefore in obedience to these verses we proceed to Solomon's command to:
 

1. Keep your heart: It begins with the heart. If this area of your life is not being attended to then your pursuit of holiness will be non-existent. The heart speaks of the entire being, your center of thinking and reason along with your emotions and will. It is from your heart that your life will flow. You ability to be successful in this life will depend on your consideration of this verse. We must be faithful to set a guard over the roadways of our hearts. The entrances and exits of our inner being are those areas where our enemy will attack our sinful propensity the most. Our eyes, ears, mouths, hands and feet all serves as avenues where the enemy can continually tempt us and trip us up. It is our duty to place guards over these entrances and exits so as to keep all things under submission to Christ. We must be proactive. We all know times even this past week, probably even this morning when we found ourselves falling prey to the sinful temptations that seek to beset us. We know we have grace and forgiveness through Christ so are we to simply ignore these failures and write them off as forgiven and simply move on with no remorse or despair. God forbid. I mentioned Jonathon Edwards earlier and I want to read a few statements about his unending war with sin. Lawson writes, "Edwards had no illusions of sinlessness in this life. He knew regeneration had not removed this sin. Though the fight against his sin was taxing and discouraging, Edwards know he couldn't rest on his laurels. In #56 of his famous Resolutions he resolved, "never to give over, nor in the least slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I might be"2.(The key for Edwards was the honest acknowledgement of his inherent sinfulness) and Edwards believed he must inflict deep wounds and deliver hard body shots that would make his flesh "stagger and reel". He must beat the old man to the ground and the hit him while he was down. Now how many of us really consider our struggle with sin in this manner? Better yet do we really even care? Is the fight for Christ-like holiness worth it to us? Answer: it had better be! Paul said in I Corinthians  9 "that he disciplined his body and kept it under control". Control of what? The leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit, he practiced what he preached. Just because we have been granted salvation that doesn't give us a license to go on sinning. (see Romans 6) Let's continue…
2. Solomon calls us to guard our hearts and number #2 deal furiously with our mouths. The NT book of James tells us about the wickedness of the tongue and few in here if any have mastered its fury. So we must be diligent to again guard our mouths and take every word captive to Christ. Like Edwards we will never reach perfection in these endeavors but we will indeed grow in our relationship with Christ and will see fruit as the Holy Spirit works within us. Is that your hearts desire?
3. Guarding our eyes…this is a key command today because we are moment by moment tempted to indulge in the lust of our flesh. By that I do not simply mean sexual lust although that is rampant today I mean the love of money, possessions, and anything else that would erect itself as an idol for us to worship instead of Christ. We must work diligently to cultivate an attitude of contentment. If we were more fervent in our dedication to this one principle the civility in our cultural would be mind boggling. Every sinful act finds its origin in the pit of discontent. A final thought on the eyes is where is our vision? For what purpose are we living, moving and breathing. Is it simply to amass for ourselves more and more, bigger and better. Or are we dedicated to let nothing possess us that is greater that the possession of Christ and making him known among the nations. Are our lives marked by an consistent love affair with the wickedness of the world or are we being good soldiers of Christ focusing on the upward calling of our Father.  Folks again this is serious business and God no matter how forgiving and loving he finds our sinfulness utterly despicable. When your child commits a sin against you of course you love them but aren't you sick with disgust over their failure. So to is our most holy and righteous God. We must strive to train our minds to love mercy and justice for this will lead to righteousness.
4. Moving on…ponder the paths of your feet, don't swerve right or left, turn away from evil. This speaks of being ethical. Ethics are a hot topic in today's society. Everyone wants to punish the unethical businessman and so they should but have we not created the monster that we are now trying to fight against with the flamboyant cultural relativism that rules the day. When on one hand we say we that what is right for some may be wrong for others and vice versa, how then can we condemn someone for doing what in their own eyes is right. Again, we can only be obedient to these commands by the faithful dedication to studying the Bible.

As I close this morning in my meager attempt to challenge you to walk faithfully on the path of personal holiness it is my prayer that God will light in each of us a fierce passion for His righteousness. If we look over the lives of some of the greatest men and women of the faith one thing will mark their lives and that is their dedication to spiritual disciplines. Faithfully and relentlessly cultivating a life that is dedicated to reading and studying God's word, knowing what you believe and why, diligently learning how to pray as God desires(not scripted superficial blathering), theological reading( we need to read the works of the puritans and the reformers, don't leave it to the pastor to teach you all you know about your faith. It is your responsibility not his) mediation and reflection on what God is teaching us, and finally singing. Do you sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord.  These things are essential in we are to grow in our intimacy with Christ and our conformity to Christ.
 
 
Father I thank you for this Lord's Day! A day in which we may remember again the beauty of the newness of life that you have brought us through Salvation found only in Jesus Christ. Lord I pray today that you would mercifully forgive us for our sinfulness and Holy Spirit we ask that you would root out of us our sinful addictions and everything that would hinder us from whole heartedly drawing near to You. Lord we thank you so much for your regenerating call of Salvation and ask that as we work diligently in the process of Sanctification that we would be balanced in our commitment to lean upon you as your mold us and make us into your image and give us the strength and resolve to faithfully do our part in warring against the flesh so that we might find our selves further along the path of holiness and as a result be able to bring more glory to Your great name. We humbly bow before you today thanking you for your amazing love and forgiveness. Bring revival in our hearts oh Lord that you might bring a Spiritual Awakening again to this wretched and wicked nation. Start in your people and use us as vessels of honor to further your Kingdom both now and forevermore. We pray all this in the name of our most glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen
 
If you would like to receive a free CD or mp3 of this message please email
 Pastor Chris Johnson at Crosswalk483@yahoo.com
 

1. Lawson, Steven. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards. Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2008
2. Lawson, Steven. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards. Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2008
3. Piper, John. "That Which is Born of the Spirit." Desiring God Sermons 1981 16 Mar 2009 <http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1981/284_That_Which_Is_Born_of_the_Spirit_Is_Spirit/>.