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[0:00] Well, we're studying J.C. Ryle's book called Holiness. Ryle has long been one of my favorites. I first saw this book, Holiness.

[0:10] It was the first book of J.C. Ryle that I ever saw when I was at Bible school in 1975 in England.

[0:25] And a pastor had donated his library to the school. And so the whole dining room was bookshelves surrounding it. And there on the spine of one book in just big, bold letters was Holiness.

[0:38] And that caught my eye. Had no idea who J.C. Ryle was. But that was of great interest to me. It was a view of holiness that had taken me to England.

[0:50] And in the introduction of that book, he had seven points that demolished their view of holiness. And so it was worth the trip to England for me just to read the foreword of that book and to be delivered from a faulty view of sanctification.

[1:06] It's a mystery to me how that book survived in such a place. I now know it was the providence of God that it was kept there for me.

[1:17] Twenty years ago then, when visiting England, Pastor Gordon Hawkins drove me to one of the church buildings where J.C. Ryle had preached for many years.

[1:30] And as we drove up, he says, I fear that the gospel is not being preached here anymore. And I had read how he had painted on the walls of the sanctuary gospel text in big, colorful letters.

[1:49] And so I pulled up and the gardener was out. Or we pulled up and the gardener was outside. And Pastor Hawkins, in his lovely way, said, well, this fellow has come all the way from England and from United States.

[2:03] And he's very fond of one of your earlier pastors, 150 years ago. And we'd like to get inside. And I learned that day that you can give the gospel by talking about J.C. Ryle, just in the way that he spoke of him and how he preached the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and gave enough of the gospel itself in describing it to the lady.

[2:28] She was thrilled to show us around. And sure enough, there on the sides of the wall, big letters. You must be born again. About 12-inch letters and other gospel texts right all around the building.

[2:43] Well, my assignment today, then, is to teach the second chapter of this book on holiness. And it's called Sanctification. Now, I wonder how many of you have seen a bumper sticker that says, Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven.

[3:03] Ever seen that sign or bumper sticker? This isn't in Ryle. Now, what's right about this sign or this bumper sticker?

[3:15] Well, what's right about it is that Christians aren't perfect. And neither should we claim to be. If we claim to be, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth isn't in us. But what's wrong with this sign? Well, it's the claim that we're just forgiven.

[3:31] That we're just forgiven. Now, if you want to say Christians are forgiven, I'll give the loudest amen. It's one of the first blessings that David cites when he says, I don't want to forget God's benefits who forgives all our sins.

[3:46] But if you say we're just forgiven, I'll voice my disapproval. Forgiveness of our sins is a wonderful aspect of salvation. Don't get me wrong, but it's not all of our salvation.

[3:58] And to say we're just forgiven sends a wrong and a dangerous message about our salvation. God's salvation is so great.

[4:10] And it does much more than just forgive our sins. Last week we saw the sin problem as we began chapter one.

[4:21] And Pastor Jason set that before us. And that's the problem that God designed to fix by this plan of salvation.

[4:32] To fix the problem that we saw last week of sin. And that's why the Son of God became man.

[4:43] And that's why he was called Jesus. Because he would save his people from their sins. And that includes forgiving us our sins. But it also includes sanctifying us from our sins.

[4:56] So salvation does not just forgive our sins. And so leave us in bondage to them. Ryle says if the Bible be true, it is certain that unless we are sanctified, we shall not be saved.

[5:11] Proof? Come with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.

[5:22] It's another one of those places where the apostle is giving thanks to God for the saints.

[5:35] And here it's the saints in Thessalonica. And notice what he says. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord.

[5:47] Brothers, loved by the Lord.

[6:03] From the beginning of time, God chose you to be saved. But election in itself saves no one. It's rather God's predetermined choice to save you.

[6:18] It's his purpose and plan to save you. But if all God did was choose you and never did another thing, would you be saved? No, you needed a sacrifice.

[6:30] There was more that had to be done. And there was more than just a sacrifice that had to be done. And there was a new birth that had to take place in your life. And on and on we could go. So election in itself does not save anyone.

[6:43] And he doesn't claim that it did. He said he chose to save you through. Now through points to the means. The way by which God saves sinners.

[6:57] And what are those means of salvation? Well, he chose to save you through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. And through belief in the truth. Can anyone be saved without believing the truth that is in Jesus Christ?

[7:11] No. No. We must believe. And it's by believing that we will not perish but have everlasting life. Can anyone be saved without the sanctifying work of the Spirit?

[7:22] Well, not anymore than we could be saved without believing the truth of the Gospel. Sanctification, then, is a means by which he saves us. It's part of that great salvation that he has planned and effected through the Lord Jesus and his Holy Spirit.

[7:40] So you see why Ryle would say, then, in such bold words, It's certain that unless we're sanctified, we shall not be saved. Because he saves us through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

[7:51] The same thing is found in 1 Peter 1, 1-2. But I won't turn you up to it. Just listen.

[8:01] He says, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.

[8:21] Again, chosen to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. So Ryle is concerned about the many erroneous views of sanctification, and in this chapter, he's out to correct them with the Scriptures.

[8:42] He starts, then, with a definition. What is the nature of sanctification? What is sanctification? Sometimes we speak of holiness.

[8:53] I see that's the next chapter in the book. But here's how Ryle defines it. Sanctification is that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus works in a man by the Holy Spirit.

[9:09] So again, last week we saw our problem is sin. Now, that problem of sin could be broken down into two basic problems.

[9:24] Our problem with sin is that we have a bad record in heaven. God has said the soul that sins, it shall die. God has said that he will in no way clear the guilty.

[9:35] There is hell to pay for sin. That's God's penalty for sin. So I've got a bad record in heaven, and that's why sin is my biggest problem in life.

[9:46] But that's not my only problem, a bad record in heaven. As we saw last week, we've got a bad heart right here on earth. I've got a mind that's set on things below rather than things above and thinks about God and myself and sin and the world in the wrong way.

[10:07] I have affections and desires that are evil. I have a will that chooses the wrong things. So, you see, I've got a problem in heaven, a legal problem, before the judge there.

[10:18] But I've also got a sin problem here on earth. Now, if I'm just forgiven, that would mean that God takes care of the legal problem.

[10:31] And he says, Okay, I've sent Christ to die for you. Your trust is in him. So, paid in full. No more sins on the page, the ledger of John Heaney, but rather the righteousness of Jesus credited to your account.

[10:46] You're forgiven. Now, if that's all salvation was, I'm just forgiven, that doesn't do anything for me here. I've still got this sinful heart that's bent on going my way, the way that's away from God and toward hell.

[11:03] So, can you see that the problem of sin is much broader than just needing to be forgiven? Yes, that. But I need to have my heart cleansed.

[11:14] The sin in my heart cleansed. And that's sanctification. As he says, it's that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus works in a man by the Holy Spirit.

[11:28] So, justification and forgiveness of sins is not done in me. That's done in heaven. That's where the judge brings down the gavel and says, not guilty, but righteous in my sight.

[11:41] You have nothing against me. I don't have any laws that are against you. Christ obeyed fully for you. You're forgiven. But that's up there. That's outside of me. Sanctification is an inward work.

[11:57] So, justification is done for me in heaven. Sanctification is done in me here on earth. So, it's that inward work.

[12:15] Now, it includes the new birth. That's the beginning of this cleansing operation. Now, the washing with water, the washing of the new birth that implants another principle within spiritual life and so forth.

[12:32] And that's why Jesus tells Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you can't see or enter the kingdom of heaven. That's sanctification begun. So, Ryle says, he who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived, died, and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins for his people has yet much to learn, whether he knows it or not.

[12:55] He's dishonoring our blessed Lord and making him only a half Savior. Presenting a much diminished Savior, a much diminished salvation.

[13:07] He goes on to say, the Lord Jesus has undertaken everything that his people's souls require, not only to deliver them from the guilt of their sins by his atoning death, but from the dominion of their sins, the reign of their sins, by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit, not only then to justify them, but also to sanctify them.

[13:30] Isn't that good news? Aren't you glad you're more than just forgiven, but that God actually brings his salvation into our hearts and changes who we are?

[13:41] 2 Corinthians 7.1, Since we have these promises, dear brothers, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

[13:56] That's sanctification. It's that perfecting of holiness of anything that defiles body and spirit. Now, Ryle then shows how sanctification is the inevitable result.

[14:13] It's the fruit, the effect of four things. These four things are the trees that are the root that gives this effect of the fruit of sanctification.

[14:26] So he starts with election. That's where our salvation began, right? God's determination to save us. Now, he's not published in a book, has he those that he has chosen?

[14:40] So how do we know who they are? Well, it's by their fruits that you will know them. It's by their lives, their holy lives, their sanctification. You saw it there in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, from the beginning, God chose you to be saved.

[14:57] There's election. But it's through the sanctifying work of the spirit. So where you see someone being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, you can know what? That he was chosen by God.

[15:11] He chose us, Ephesians 1.3, he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before him. So do you see people who are holy and blameless in their character?

[15:23] you can know that he chose them. 1 Thessalonians 1.4, turn to this. If you're in 2 Thess, you're just a little away from 1 Thessalonians.

[15:38] And again, he's thanking God for these people and it's because of what God has done in them. 1 Thessalonians 1.2, we always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers.

[15:52] We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:03] For we know, brothers, loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

[16:15] Isn't it something that though God has not published whom he's chosen, that Paul can say of these people, we know that God has chosen you. It wasn't because God gave him a private revelation of his determination in eternity past to save them.

[16:31] How did Paul know that these were chosen? Well, he tells us. It's because of the effects of God's salvation seen in them. Verse 5, we know that God has chosen you because our gospel came to you in a unique way.

[16:49] It didn't just come in words. You know that way. It probably came to you that way. Maybe for years and years and you heard the gospel.

[17:02] Some of us grew up nursing on the gospel and it was just in words. It was just so many words that went in and went out. But you, church in Thessalonica, that's not how our gospel came to you.

[17:21] Not simply with words, but there was power behind it. There was with the Holy Spirit behind it and with deep conviction. So, it was the way the gospel was received.

[17:39] They embraced the gospel. They embraced the Savior and fruit came out of their lives. We just read of it there in chapter 3. Their work of faith, their labor of love and their endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus.

[17:53] Verses 6 to 10 go on and listing all this result and fruit in their lives. They became imitators of Paul and of the Lord. They imitated Christ.

[18:05] In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. Here's a joy not dependent on circumstances. That's not natural. That's from God.

[18:17] You became a model to the believers. You yourselves became an example. You not only followed Christ's example, but in doing so, you became a model to all the believers. And your faith in God is known everywhere.

[18:31] That you turned to God from idols. People were idolaters for generation after generation after generation. It was passed down from their fathers.

[18:46] But when the gospel came, something unique happened. Something that rarely happens. They forsook their idols and they turned to God, the living God, and they waited for his son from heaven, even Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.

[19:01] Do you see? Sanctification is the inevitable result of election. And that's why Peter can chime in and say, make your calling and election sure. How can you make your election sure?

[19:14] Not by trying to pry into God's secret counsels and read your name written in the Lamb's book of life. No, it's by the evidences. Add to your faith, knowledge, add to your knowledge, goodness, and so on and so forth.

[19:32] First, second Peter one. The elect were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8, 29. That's visible. To be like Christ.

[19:44] You see that. So, that's the first thing that sanctification is the inevitable result of. It's the result of God's choosing us.

[19:56] But second, it's the result of regeneration, of being born of God. What happens when we were born again? Remember what happened, what we looked like before we were born again.

[20:10] That's last week, chapter one, sin, reigning in us over our minds, our affections, our will, sin, sin, sin. It's all we did was sin.

[20:22] Well now, when we're born again, a new principle is implanted. A new life is given. Just like a baby that comes forth from the womb. New life springs forth.

[20:35] And the apostle John in his first epistle emphasizes this over and over. That sanctification is the proof of regeneration. He who is born of God, what?

[20:48] Does not continue in sin as before. He who is born of God does what is right. He who is born of God obeys his commandments.

[21:00] He who is born of God loves the brethren. He who is born of God overcomes the world. It's throughout that little letter of five chapters how we can know that we've been born again, born of God.

[21:12] There's the marks. And so regeneration, you see, the implanting of a new life. You can't have the life of God in the soul without it being seen.

[21:24] And that's what John is teaching us, that sanctification then, that cleansing and changing of our heart and behavior, is the result of regeneration.

[21:39] Thirdly, it's the result of a saving union with Jesus Christ by faith. You know that was Paul's favorite way to describe a Christian as one who was in Christ, united to Jesus Christ.

[21:56] And we're united to him by faith. And the moment we trust in the Savior to save us, it's like the pastor saying, I now pronounce you husband and wife in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[22:12] And that couple is joined together as one. So it is, with Christ and his bride, those who trust in him, they became one with him. And what is his becomes theirs.

[22:27] And another way that he pictures it is not only as the bride and bridegroom joined together in one, but it's also pictured in John 15 as the branch in the vine.

[22:41] And what he says is, I am the vine, Jesus speaking, you're the branches, and if a man remains in me, abides in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit.

[22:57] So what's the effect of every branch that is vitally united to Jesus Christ, the vine? What inevitably happens? It bears much fruit.

[23:09] That's what Jesus said. You can't be united to Jesus Christ, the fruitful vine, without becoming a branch that bears fruit. The same sap that flows through the vine now flows through the branch.

[23:26] You can't stay the old dead branch that you were when you were lying on the ground. You've been grafted into Christ. And so that union with Christ by faith, with his sap of grace flowing into you, is going to produce fruit.

[23:42] And that's the result. The sanctification then is the result of this saving union with Christ. And lastly, the fourth thing, sanctification is the inevitable result of the indwelling of the spirit of God in our hearts.

[23:58] Romans 8, 9, if any man does not have the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. There's a whole teaching today that says you can accept Christ and be saved, and then later on down the road you can accept the Holy Spirit and be sanctified.

[24:14] And Romans 8, 9 says, if any man does not have the spirit of Christ, he's none of his. So that's another error, erroneous idea about sanctification, that you can somehow have Christ and salvation in him, but you just don't want the holiness and sanctification by the spirit, except for a few who may go the second step and receive the spirit.

[24:35] No, if you don't have the spirit of Christ, you're none of his. And the spirit always makes his presence known. How does he do that? How can you know where the spirit is? Jesus says he's like the wind.

[24:50] You can't see it. But what do you see? It's effects. You can see that all around. What are the effects of the spirit? it? Well, Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 give us nine of them.

[25:07] The fruit of the spirit, the result of having the spirit of God in you is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

[25:25] What are those? Those aren't things that you just work up yourself. No, they're the fruit of the spirit of God living in you. And that's what sanctification looks like because that's what Jesus looks like.

[25:37] That's what it means to be being made into his image, cleansed of our sins and our hearts more and more becoming like his and our lives more and more becoming like his. So the presence of the Holy Spirit is unmistakable in a life.

[25:51] You can't have almighty God living in a man or a woman, a boy or a girl without it being seen. as to make a difference in how they live.

[26:04] So there are four things that sanctification inevitably results from. Our election to be saved, our regeneration and being born of God, our saving union with Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.

[26:22] Any questions? Let me just call a time out. I've been throwing it pretty fast and furious at you. Any questions or further comments at what Ryle is saying, how that sanctification is the work within the heart and is the result of these aspects of God's salvation that go before it.

[26:42] sanctification is the thing. All right? He gives some further points of clarification about sanctification that he has seen faulty views on sanctification.

[26:56] These are some further biblical points that would clear the ground of some of these false views. And point number one is sanctification is a progressive work with varying degrees.

[27:08] can you be more justified than you were the day that you trusted in Christ? No. Absolutely right. Why not? Because the day you trusted in Christ, all of your sins were shoveled over onto Christ on the books and all of his righteousness was shoveled over and imputed to your account.

[27:29] You've got a perfect record in heaven. You can't be more justified than you were the day you trusted in Christ. Can you be more sanctified today than you were last year at this time?

[27:43] Yes. Yes, it's a progressive work. We just looked at 2 Corinthians 7.1, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

[27:54] That's an ongoing thing, a purifying, perfecting of this work. Hebrews 12.2, we'll look at that later this morning, that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.

[28:06] He's perfecting that faith, and not just faith, but every other grace in your life. Faith, hope, love, joy, peace. He's perfecting these graces of the Christian life, and we're being transformed.

[28:23] 2 Corinthians 3.18, Romans 12.2, being transformed. It's a process, often referred to as the caterpillar that becomes a cocoon and emerges into a beautiful butterfly.

[28:39] It's not done in a moment. There's this process of transformation. So it is in the Christian life. It's compared to the human growth and development. You find in 1 John 2, there are babies in Christ, and there are young men in Christ, and there are old men in Christ.

[28:57] It has nothing to do with your age. It has to do with everything about your growth in the Christian life. Progress. Matthew 4 speaks of plant growth, that the farmer sows the seed and it falls into the ground, and first the stalk, and then the head, and then the full kernel in the head.

[29:22] You see progress as you see it in plant life. And so scripture is ever urging us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord to not remain infants. Sanctification is a progressive work with varying degrees.

[29:39] Second point, the degree of our growth and progress in sanctification depends greatly on a diligent use of the means of grace. Why is it that some grow faster than others?

[29:52] Well, one reason, Ryle is saying, is that the degree and speed of our growth depends greatly, not entirely, but greatly on a diligent use of the means of grace.

[30:06] So Jesus is found in John 17, 17, praying, Father, sanctify them by thy truth.

[30:17] Your word is truth. How are we sanctified? Well, one of the means is by the truth of scripture. God is to know, if you're someone who is daily found in this book and meditating on it and hiding it in your heart that you might not sin against God, your growth in grace is going to be faster than the person that shows up once a week and that's all they get of the intake of the word of God.

[30:46] You see, it's correlated to our use of the means. And if this is the book that God has ordained to cleanse us and to sanctify us, then our use of it will affect the degree of our sanctification.

[31:04] So what are some other means of grace? Prayer? Preaching of the word.

[31:17] All the ways that we intake the word of God. Preaching, reading, meditating, memorizing, listening. Coming to church, worshiping, worshiping God, where we focus on who God is, that's huge in sanctification.

[31:34] It's beholding him that we are being transformed. That's what we're doing in worship, we're beholding him. Fellowship, that's also what we get when we gather together.

[31:48] Lord's Supper, Ryle says, I lay it down as a simple matter of fact, that no one who's careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification.

[32:02] They are the appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul and strengthens the work that he has begun in the inward man.

[32:12] man. The church where he ministered so long was right out in the fields. And he said, I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in his business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest as to expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays.

[32:37] Our God is a God who works by means, by means. All right? Third point to clarify some of the erroneous ideas about sanctification.

[32:50] Sanctification does not prevent a man from having a great deal of inward spiritual conflict. This was the reason I was in England in the Bible school because they held a view of sanctification that you could live above the conflict, that you could so achieve certain levels of sanctification that you just let go and let God and the struggle's over, brother.

[33:17] You just yield and you're the glove and he comes and he just lives his life through you're just passive like a glove. No more struggling, no more striving. And that's what Ryle really goes after in his seven points in the introduction.

[33:35] But now he's bringing it up again. Sanctification, don't ever think that if I keep growing in sanctification, I can get to the place where I don't have a great deal of inward spiritual conflict.

[33:49] Now that's an attractive view of sanctification that you can. As I said, it took me overseas for a year. But that's an experience the Bible never teaches and it's surely an experience the apostle Paul never attained to as you read in Philippians 3 and Romans 7 as he confesses to us that as a believer, as one who delighted in God's law, is that a characteristic of a sinner like we saw last week?

[34:20] Is he one whose heart delights in God's law? No. But that's what Paul is saying in Romans 7, that he delights in the law of God as to his inner man. And yet he says, nevertheless, I find that sin is still alive within me.

[34:35] And that old tenant that used to rule and reign sinful flesh is dethroned, but it refuses to leave. It will not be evicted, and it's ever putting forth its anti-God energy.

[34:50] And that's the reason that when I would do good, I sometimes don't. I actually find myself doing the very thing that I hate. And I do have desires to do what is good, but I can't carry it out.

[35:03] So I find this law at work within me that when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in my members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind.

[35:23] Paul never got over that struggle of the tug of war that goes on inside of his heart until he died. God's law and it's why he watched and prayed and strove by the spirit to mortify the misdeeds of the body and to keep a close communion with Jesus Christ.

[35:42] So don't erroneously think that a severe battle within is proof that you're not being sanctified, proof that you're not saved. Ryle says, rather I believe such inward struggle and discomfort from it are healthy symptoms of sanctification and prove that you're not dead but alive.

[36:05] If you're dead in your sins, you don't care about sin. You don't care about wrong thoughts, wrong desires. You just, you go right on.

[36:16] But the moment you trust in Christ and you have a new direction given to you, now you've got a war on your hands. And that's what Paul says in Galatians 5, 17, the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit.

[36:29] That's always the case. Whatever the spirit's for, the flesh is against. Before you didn't have the spirit, all you had was the flesh. But now you've got the spirit, so now you've got a real war on your hand.

[36:41] They're in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. So there is no such thing as a sinless perfection of sanctification in this life. No such thing as a struggle-free life as long as the flesh remains.

[36:57] And I trust that that's what makes heaven look all the better to you. That you're looking forward to the funeral of your sin and that it'll all be over then. The battle will be over.

[37:09] Do you hate it when you fall into sin? Are you raging, waging war against it? Those are good signs of life, indeed, of sanctification in progress. And then fourthly, sanctification cannot justify you before God, but it does please God.

[37:30] No one will be justified in his sight by observing the law. You can study your Bible as a sinner, as a lost person, and pour your whole life into the study of the Bible, just like the Pharisees did and like many seminary professors do today in schools that don't believe Jesus is God and so forth.

[37:51] You can pour your whole life into studying the Bible and trying to live by the words of Jesus and so forth. But that will never justify. It's impossible.

[38:01] No one will ever be justified in his sight by observing the law. Only the perfect works of Christ can erase that record of sin and put the righteousness of Jesus that makes you acceptable in God's sight.

[38:15] But you know what some people do? They say, well, okay, if the law and the word of God and obedience can't justify me, well, then nothing I do is pleasing to God.

[38:27] As a Christian, there's nothing I can do that God smiles at and is pleased with and riles going after that. That's a wrong view as a Christian, that God is not pleased with sanctification.

[38:44] Though they remain imperfect, they are still pleasing in the sight of God. Hebrews 13, 7, with such sacrifices of praise and of sharing with others in need, with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

[38:58] Colossians 3, 20, obey your parents for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Verse thus, 4, finally, brothers, we instructed you on how to live in order to please God and in fact, you're doing so.

[39:10] It's God's will that you should be sanctified. God is pleased with sanctification. Find out what pleases the Lord and make it your goal to please him. So just as a parent is pleased with his four-year-old's efforts to please him with a birthday card, even if a few words are misspelled and spilled milk on the card, the parent sees the effort and the heart of the child.

[39:36] And no less does Jesus pity us and find a light and sincere desire to please him. Though it's not perfect, that's what his blood cleanses and presents before the Father so that even our imperfect works are pleasing in his sight.

[39:53] Ryle says, God, Christ looks more at our graces than he does our faults. He pities our weaknesses and will not treat us as our sins deserve. Read through Hebrews 11.

[40:06] See what God, how he commends his servants. And you know because you've read the Old Testament that those guys weren't perfect. And yet he commends them.

[40:17] He looks more at our graces than he does our faults. He's pleased with Christ-like behavior. Notice how he speaks of Job at the end of the book.

[40:28] He speaks so highly of Job. Oh, but we've read the book of Job and we've seen Job charging God foolishly as being unfair. But God taught him and he confessed his sin.

[40:44] it's gone and God commends him to his three friends. Well, sanctification is pleasing to God even though it does not justify.

[40:56] And lastly, sanctification will be the witness to our true character in the day of judgment. If anything's true about the day of judgment, it is that our works will be examined in that day to determine who really had saving faith.

[41:09] God because it's a demonstration not to God. He sees whether we're true believers in Jesus, but this is a final judgment when God must be vindicated and all will see clearly who were saved, who did have saving faith.

[41:28] How will it be seen? It will be seen by their works. Lord, when did we? When did we feed you, clothe you, visit you?

[41:39] When you did it to the least of these my brothers, you were doing it to me. Those are works. That's a picture of judgment. You see, it's because James says if our faith doesn't have works, it's a dead, useless, vain thing.

[41:53] It's the devil's faith. They believe in Jesus, but it's not a saving faith because a saving faith works. And so the books will be opened and each person will be judged.

[42:07] According to what he has done. Why? Because what we do, put what you do and how you live into a blender and what comes out will prove in that day whether you belong to Jesus by saving faith or whether you had a faith that was not saving or had no faith at all.

[42:24] So sanctification is going to be the witness to our true character of saving faith in the day of judgment. Well, that's about half of chapter 2.

[42:36]  I can just commend the book to you. Yeah, if you don't buy one, grab the one in the library. We're dismissed.전