In the Book of Exodus, God had worked in mighty ways for the Israelites. He had brought a series of plagues against the Egyptians. He dramatically parted the waters of the Red Sea. Once the Israelites were in the desert, God continued to lead. But through a series of uncertain events, the Israelites continued to respond by grumbling.
They ran low on water. Israel grumbled. God provided water. They didn’t have food. Israel grumbled. God provided food. After all that the Lord had done, the people should have trusted that God would provide.
But their struggle is one that we too can have. In spite of all of the ways how God has provided for us, blessed us, sustained us, in a time of adversity, it can be easy to fall into grumbling and doubt.
But this isn’t God’s desire for us. He wants us to live in faith.We can be so quick to forget what God has done, how he’s blessed us.Forgetting can lead to unbelief and faithlessness.Let us actively remember the blessings of the Lord in our lives.
We forget about his past blessings and forget about his future promises.And so we grumble.God is the Lord of our past, present, and future.God has promise all of his children a wonderful and glorious future.And between now and then, he has not abandoned us in the desert.God is God of your life today.If you’ve placed faith in Jesus, you know that you’re a sinner, saved by grace, and know that Jesus saved you, you have that to thank God for.Ad that’s the most important thing of all.He redeemed you.
He saved you from the penalty of sin. To remember that the Lord is good. The Israelites lose sight of that.To remember that God made everything and that everything belongs to him.You’re here today. Which means that God has provided for you up to this point in your life. For some of us, it might not have always been easy.There might have been times of real hardship.But we’ve made it to this moment.It’s easy to forget.For some of us, when a blessing gets answered, we might celebrate for a moment, but it can be easy to just move on to the next thing to stress about.And we can go through so much of our lives grumbling, complaining to God, feeling like he hasn’t given us enough.
For the Israelites, they’ve seen God act in mighty ways, but then they go right back to worrying.The Israelites face difficult situations. And they choose to grumble instead of trust.Part of the root of a grumbling heart is one that loses sight of the sovereignty of God.I mentioned earlier that it was God who had led Israel to their circumstance between the Egyptians and the sea. It was no accident.It was God who was leading the Israelites in the desert. It’s so easy to lose sight of the divine hand of God at work in our lives. Israel did. In our passages, they actually don’t even grumble directly to God. They actually grumble to Moses and his brother Aaron.As if it was their fault.Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of God.And while they might have directed their complaints to Moses and Aaron, the real displeasure of the people was with God.God is God of all circumstances.
Job 12:10 refers to God and says: in his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Grumbling is a lack of trust in God. Grumbling is feeling like God hasn’t give us enough. It’s a sense that perhaps God isn’t good.Grumbling is turning away from God. It’s complaining to others, it’s ignoring the goodness of God, and is not rooted in the truth of the character of the Lord.We don’t like the unknown.
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14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Lord God,
You are our God. You are our creator. But you are also our Heavenly Father. And let us not take it lightly that we can to approach you as Father and that because of your Son, our Lord Jesus, who took on the penalty of our sins, that we are enabled to be adopted as your Sons and daughters.
3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
Lord, we once again thank you for the opportunity to meet here today and to praise your great name and to remember your wondrous gospel.
Our Father, we pray for our time of fellowship. We pray for the city of Beirut who endured a catastrophic explosion this past week which has caused so much destruction in a city and nation that are already reeling. Lord, we also pray for missionaries and Christians in that struggling nation that they can be light in spite of this horrible event.
Lord, we pray that you would bless our time in your Word. May we be pointed to grace and truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This morning, we’re continuing in our series the Forensics of Faith.
We’ve discussed regeneration: the new Spiritual life that God works in a believer.
Justification: the right legal standing before God.
Sanctification: the process through which God makes us holy.
All three of those things are glorious works of grace in the lives of a believer.
Today we focus on our relationship to God because of the salvation of the gospel. When we come to faith in Christ, we are adopted as God’s sons and daughters and become members of the family of God.
It isn’t deserved or merited. It is entirely because of the grace of God through the gospel and the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross. He did that so we could be forgiven of our sins but also so that we could have a relationship with God.
Bridge
Main idea: God’s son died so we could be God’s sons.
And certainly for ladies, you’re no less adopted, no less part of God’s family, you’re adopted as a daughter of God. I say “Son” because that’s what the text says, which is what the Greek had said, which is part of an overarching thee of sonship that is in the Bible.
Body
I. Adoption
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Everyone who is led by the Spirit is a Son of God.
Sonship is an important theme in the Bible. We talked about this a few weeks ago in one of our recorded sermons we did this spring.
In the Old Testament, we see Israel referred to as God’s son. And during the Davidic Monarchy of Israel, the earthly king of Israel was also referred to as a Son of God.
But we don’t see individuals referring to themselves as God’s sons in the Old Testament. Nor do we see people referring to God as their “father.”
(pause)
Where the text says “sons,” of course this includes women as well. But when it talks about being sons of God, the term has this rich Old Testament background.
Especially when we consider that the ultimate reason why this is even possible is because Jesus Christ, the son of God, has enabled us to be adopted by God. The son of God died so we could be sons of God.
This passage also talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in our relationship with God.
We are regenerated by the Spirit. We are sanctified by the Spirit. We are baptized by the Holy Spirit. And here, we are led by the Spirit as an indication of our adoption into God’s family.
And if you look at this verse in context, when it’s talking about being led by the Spirit, it’s referring to being led by the Spirit away from sin.
Because we have been given God’s Spirit, it is the Spirit which leads a person in holiness and leads a person from sin.
Adherence to the Spirit of God shows a person who really is in the family of God. Someone who really has received this Spiritual adoption.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
We haven’t received a Spirit of fear. A spirit of doubt. But we have received the Spirit of adoption. It is only when a person has faith and the Spirit that comes through faith that a person is adopted as God’s child.
And because the Spirit is God, the Spirit internally witnesses to God, and it is through the Spirit that we cry “Abba! Father!”
Abba is the Aramaic word for Father. It’s the word Jesus himself would have used when referring to God.
Abba almost sounds like a word a child would use. As little ones are trying to first speak, not even putting words together, but just syllables and sounds.
Because we have been adopted as God’s children, due to the witness of the Spirit in our hearts, we are able to approach the infinite God of the universe in the same intimate terms in which His own son, Jesus Christ referred to him. “Abba.”
That when we are in the difficulties of life. When we are in the dark nights of the soul. When we are in the stormy seasons. When we are dealing with brokenness and shattered relationships. That we have a personal God to whom we can address as “Abba, Father.”
I very lightly touched on this point last Sunday.
This idea, as Americans is one that is so basic, that it is easy to lose appreciation for the magnitude of what this means. It’s just so entrenched in our vocabulary with how we talk about God that it’s good to step back and think about that. God is our Father.
Even nominal Christians know the Lord’s prayer, “Our father who art in heaven.” Again, that’s part of the way how we talk about God.
In many parts of the world, and in many other faiths, such a thing would be radical, if not outright blasphemous.
But God’s son died so we could be God’s sons. And because of the gospel, we can approach the King of the Universe as our Father.
Again, do we think about how remarkable that is?
You can approach God as “Father.” If you called your boss your father, he’d think you were crazy! You don’t address the president as “father.” And those are just people. But with Almighty God, we can approach him as “Father.” And I think we treat it like, “well yeah, so what?”
We are enabled to approach God in such a way.
Not because we deserve it. We don’t. God is holy and mighty and perfect and righteous.
And we are not.
But the God of the universe invites you into close relationship with Him. That’s not something that is meant to be taken lightly.
In Jewish literature from ancient times, individuals did not refer to God as their “father.”
I’ve already alluded to this, but in the Bible, the giants of the Old Testament didn’t address the Lord as their Father. Abraham. Who believed in God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Who God promised his offspring would be as innumerable as the stars, through whom all the nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3, 15:5, 22:18), don’t address God as his “Father.”
Moses, the leader of Israel who led them from slavery in Egypt, through wanderings in the desert. The man to whom God gave the Ten Commandments. The man who was in the presence of the Lord and whose face shined so spectacularly that he had to wear a veil when talking to the people didn’t address God as His Father (Exodus 20, 34). David. The King of Israel. The man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) the author of 76 Psalms, some of the most loving words in scripture written about God did not address God as his father.
But 39 times in the gospels, Jesus personally refers to God as His Father.
And he talked about our relationship to God as being our father. I’ve mentioned the Lord’s prayer. It begins “Our father, in heaven (Matthew 6:9).” Before the prayer, he says:
when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)
These great figures in the Old Testament. Didn’t refer to God as their father, but Jesus instructs us to do so.
Because of what Christ has done for us so that we can be forgiven of our sins, he has invited into a relationship, and because God has given those whom he has forgiven his Spirit, we can approach God as “Abba, Father.” It’s not just that we get to use a new term to refer to God. It’s that the Spirit of God witnessing and convicting us internally affirms in our heart that God is our “Abba, Father” and that we are His children. We have a good God.
Some people envision this abstract creator God who’s not personal or relational. But the Spirit testifies in us in these intimate terms in referring to God. Abba, father.
Application
Is that something you’ve done recently? Or done ever? And I’m not so much talking about the words.
But do you ever rest in the grace of your loving heavenly Father? Do you ever find peace and patience in knowing God is on the throne?
I think it’s so tempting for us to want to control everything. To want to control situations. I know it’s something I fight against.
But we are adopted as Sons and Daughters of the Father of all creation. We are heirs of grace because of what Christ has done.
We get to approach God as our Father, just like how Jesus could. Because we are adopted. We aren’t partially adopted as God’s children. We are fully adopted into the family of God. Since the adoption is a work of God, it’s not something we can lose. You can’t get disowned in this family. You are God’s child when you place faith in Christ.
In times of uncertainty and stress, is the first reaction to panic about it? Is it to worry and be fearful? Or do you think “My Father in heaven knows me and knows.”
When you’re in a situation and you don’t know what to do, do you think “Father, lead me.” When you’re dealing with someone who’s difficult, do you think “Father, soften me.” When you’re facing loneliness and desire, do you say “Father, be with me.”
God adopts us. You cannot be God’s child without having been adopted by God.
Being able to approach God as your Father is something only his adopted children can do.
While all people are created by God, not all people are his sons and daughters.
John 1:12 says that for all who believed in him, he gave the right to become children of God. In our own passage, in verse 16, it is the Spirit that testifies that we are children of God. But without that means that a person is not. And the Spirit comes through faith.
It’s not because he needs us, or because he’s lonely without us. God has always existed in a relationship with Himself, in the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. And yet he invites us as well into relationship with Him. Purely because of his goodness and love.
Validation
We see other references from Paul to adoption.
Ephesians 1:5
In love5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will
Again, the forgiveness that comes through the gospel is reserved exclusively for the person who has placed faith in Christ.
We see similar language used in Galatians as we do in Romans. Galatians 4:4-6
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
The son of God died so we can be God’s sons.
Meditation
None of this is to say we should just be totally casual in our relationship with God. In the Ten Commandments, we are told to honor our Father and Mother (Exodus 20:12). And we should. And we must also honor our Heavenly Father.
Jesus honored and revered his Heavenly Father. And keep in mind, Jesus is God. We aren’t. But nevertheless, we see from Jesus humility before God. We see him living in fidelity to God’s will.
God is our Father in heaven. We can experience closeness and intimacy with God. But it’s a relationship that also demands reverence and honor.
He is perfect.
II.
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
There is so much that could be said about these verses.
The Holy Spirit bears witness in your heart the you are a child of God.
The Spirit witnessing to God is also touching on the doctrine of assurance.
This again speaks to the impact of the gospel in a person’s life.
The Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Being adopted as a child of God comes with an inheritance.
In the first century Roman world, their concept of adoption had many similarities to how adoption works here today. Again, adoption doesn’t mean someone just has a new set of roommates. It is becoming part of a family. It is having a new name.
In Rome, for people in the upper classes, if they did not have a male heir, sometimes they would adopt a child from another family. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Ancient Roman world was Augustus Ceasar.
But here’s what’s interesting. Since it was often times wealthier families who practiced adoption, it was to carry on the family name and it was also for the purpose of having an heir to whom to give an inheritance.
And those are all true for us when we are adopted as sons and daughters of God. And you do have privileges through adoption as well.
You have the inheritance of a future with God. You have the Spirit of God in you. You have forgiveness for your sins. You have a relationship with God. You are God’s child.
But there are also responsibilities with being a child of God. There are greater things we are called to.
We are supposed to be like our father.
Like Father, like son.
After the Lord’s prayer, Jesus says “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14).
Jesus said to “be merciful, even as your father is merciful (Luke 6:33)” and those who love their enemies will be sons of God” (Luke 6:35).
And that the peacemakers will be called “sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
Like Father, like son. We are called upon to do what our Father does too. Obviously it’s not that we become divine now or at any point ever in the future. But in character and holiness, as God’s adopted heirs, we are to live lives as witnesses to God’s holiness and goodness in the world.
Another part of being an heir with Christ taken directly from the text:
if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Now this might not be what we’d expect. Shouldn’t we be insulated from any sort of suffering or difficulty?
Christ wasn’t. And part of the union with Christ does involve difficulty and suffering. That cuts against the grain of what our society likes to say Christianity is. That true blessing is always the path of least resistance.
But that view is not Biblical.
The Bible doesn’t hide from the reality of the fallen world in which we live. Sharing in suffering, enduring and persevering in faith through difficulty is a prelude to future glory.
For a person who truly is adopted and truly is a child of God, even in the difficulties, we still have the Holy Spirit inside us, witnessing “Abba, father” confirming our faith to us. But in being like Christ, we all do have our crosses to bear.
And knowing that, are you still able to trust God? Or do you want to go into doubt? Do you want to find scriptures that say that isn’t true? What’s your response?
Some of us have been blessed with incredible dads. Dads who were always there for us. Supportive. Loving.
But some of us didn’t have great dads.
Sociologists say that a person’s view of their father can impact their views of God.
But even in spite of challenges, what do you believe about God? Do you believe he is a good and loving Father?
Conclusion
I talked earlier about Roman adoption.
It’s striking to me that something that was sometimes practiced in Roman adoptions was the adopting family giving money to the birth family for their child. The adopted Roman could often times still maintain connections with the birth family and was promised an inheritance in the new family.
But it’s striking that it came at a cost.
It makes me wonder how passages like this would have been viewed in the first century. Because our adoption into God’s family also came at a cost. The cost of God’s son dying so that we could be God’s sons.
Even today. In doing a domestic adoption through an adoption agency, it’s many thousands of dollars. It comes at a cost.
God adopting us as his sons and daughters came at a cost.
In the book Hidden in Plain Sight, author Mark Buchanan tells the story of a woman named Regine from Rwanda. She had become a Christian and moved to Canada. She met a man named Gordon. They got married and eventually decided to return to her homeland to spread the gospel.
Tragedy would strike when her only son was murdered in Rwanda.
Regina prayed for clarity on who had done this. She was filled with bitterness and hatred.
Her only son. Gone.
One day, she had a knock at the door and there stood a young man.
He hesitated. Then he said, “I am the one who killed your son. Since that day, I have had no life. No peace. So here I am. I am placing my life in your hands. Kill me. I am dead already. Throw me in jail. I am in prison already. Torture me. I am in torment already. Do with me as you wish.”
The woman had prayed for this day. Now it had arrived, and she didn’t know what to do. She found, to her own surprise, that she did not want to kill him. Or throw him in jail. Or torture him. In that moment of reckoning, she found she only wanted one thing: a son.
God has a son too.
And that son gave his life for you so you could be called God’s own son or daughter.
Regina took that boy in that day. She made him her own.
He had killed her son and deserved wrath and punishment. But what he instead found was unimaginable grace. Her son’s killer found a home.
We were outside the family of God. Our inheritance wasn’t joy in heaven. It was wrath in Hell. It wasn’t the Holy Spirit, it was worldliness.
It wasn’t God as our Father. We couldn’t make him adopt us. God chose to adopt us because of his love. But the cost of that was his own son. Who died for us so we could be with God. That was the cost of forgiveness from our sins.
NOT MANY OF YOU SHOULD BECOME TEACHERS, MY BROTHERS, FOR YOU KNOW THAT WE WHO TEACH WILL BE JUDGED WITH GREATER STRICTNESS. -JAMES 3:1
Words matter.
We can use words to bless, words to harm, words to boast, words to give instruction, and words to deceive. Through words we can tell a person that we love them, or that we hate them. Through words we can compliment or tear a person down.
When the Prophet Isaiah had a heavenly vision of the throne room of God, and beheld the holiness of God, he said in Isaiah 6:5: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Words were part of the original sin. In the garden, the serpent, twisting God’s words: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
God had never said that. He said they could eat of any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:2-3).
Eve also gets it wrong. God had never said they couldn’t touch the tree. Twisting God’s words. Further provoked into sin by the devil In Genesis 3:4-5, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When Adam and Eve are confronted with their sin, they use words to blame in Genesis 3:12, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Words matter.
In the first part of James 3, James zeroes in on teachers. He gives a warning to teachers that they will be judged with greater strictness. The reason why carries into verse 2 that we all sin in many ways, but one of the ways common to us all is that we stumble and sin in what we say.
There is danger in bad Biblical teaching. It can lead people astray. It can teach people falsities, because the God who is revealed in scripture is the eternal, immortal, wise God. He’s the King of the universe, the creator of all things, he spoke the universe into being.
There’s not a canvas where we are painting and where we can make something look however we want it to look.
God is God. He has revealed himself in his scripture, his nature, his holiness. And so sound teaching about God matters. Teaching truth about God matters. Understanding God -in terms of how he has revealed himself in the Bible – matters.
And not all churches do that. And not all teachers do that.
Not many should be teachers because teaching necessarily involves words. Teaching about God’s word, teaching about God’s gospel necessarily involves words and language, and in talking, it makes it easy to say things that are untrue.
We can’t be fast and loose with God’s gospel. We can’t make God who we want God to be if that’s not true about how God reveals himself in scripture.
Unbiblical teachings that resort more to our feelings than to truth.
Doesn’t God just want me to be happy? Not at the expense of sin!
Words matter. How we approach the word of God matters. Like the serpent in the garden, twisting the very words of God.
So it is true that there is a warning given to those who teach. And anyone who does teach from the word of God should question his motives, should be humble before God, and prayerful about the text. It should be taken seriously.
We should be careful in our approach to God’s word.
But regardless of if someone is a teacher or not, all of us should still use discernment in listening to what our teachers say. In listening to that which is in accordance with scripture. Of being fed by sound Biblical preaching. And that’s true here, and thats’ true if you ever move to a new community. And that’s true of any teacher who you might watch on tv or who you might podcast. We should be discerning with the Bible teachers we listen to.
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In his book the Problem of Pain, CS Lewis sums up what I think many would agree with: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”
We’re fine with the idea of a loving God, but we’re less accepting of a God who judges.
With the idea of hell, It can seem unfair. We can feel tempted to justify why hell doesn’t exist. Or maybe we think that hell is really just for people who are really, really bad.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” It’s noteworthy that in the Bible, the person who has the most to say about hell is…Jesus. To reject Jesus is to reject his gospel. It’s to reject his grace.
And ultimately there is no excuse in the Bible for this rejection. God displays his glory and grandeur in nature as Romans 1:18-20 says
FOR THE WRATH OF GOD IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN AGAINST ALL UNGODLINESS AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OF MEN, WHO BY THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS SUPPRESS THE TRUTH. FOR WHAT CAN BE KNOWN ABOUT GOD IS PLAIN TO THEM, BECAUSE GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. FOR HIS INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES, NAMELY, HIS ETERNAL POWER AND DIVINE NATURE, HAVE BEEN CLEARLY PERCEIVED, EVER SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, IN THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE. SO THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE.
-ROMANS 1:18-20
People who want to reject hell or who question how a holy God can judge are showing the sinfulness of their hearts.
I was watching a video recently. It was a back and forth between an atheist college student and Christian apologist Frank Turek. In the video, the student said she didn’t believe in God, or in the resurrection of Christ, but she believed that if there were a heaven, she should be able to go there.
But why? Why would you get to be with God when you don’t believe in him?
Why would God MAKE YOU be with him when you lived your entire life without any desire to know him? God extends grace freely. He extends the offer of salvation to all who will accept it.
But what’s not an option is saying no. What’s not an option is trying to earn our way to God. The vanity of thinking that we can make ourselves worthy. The vanity of opposing God, of rejecting him and thinking that you should still get to be with him.
WE THINK WE’RE GOOD PEOPLE. BUT THE GREATEST SIN WE CAN COMMIT IS REJECTING THE GOD WHO MADE US.
God honors the choice a person makes to reject him and to reject heaven. But what he will not allow is for us to approach him on our terms.
Hell is the logical conclusion of wanting to live this life without God. If a person doesn’t want God now, then why would they want him in eternity? D.A. Carson says, “Hell is not filled with people who are now holy. It’s filled with people who still love their sin and will not bend the knee. And receive the punishment for that sin, in an ongoing cycle, world without end. And that’s what the gospel saves us from.”
I think that’s important to understand. God isn’t rejecting people who have a desire to know him. People who come to him, knowing their unworthiness, knowing their sinfulness.
God is just. His judgments are just.
People aren’t condemned because they didn’t have enough time. They aren’t cast away from God because they didn’t have an opportunity.
God isn’t vindictive. He’s not losing his temper. But he is righteous. He’s perfect. And heaven is a perfect place. God is overwhelmingly glorious.
The gospel isn’t: well no one is perfect so just try to be decent.
Some liberal churches undermine the necessity of believing in Jesus. Or reduce him to someone to a good teacher. And the best possible roe model for how you could live your life, but not really as being THE way, THE truth, and the life.
But that cheapens the work of Christ. Because he didn’t come just to give some good moral lessons.
Undermining the doctrine of hell might seem like a convenient solution to something you don’t want to think about, but it introduces the infinitely greater problem of making Jesus a liar.
The point of the gospel isn’t saying that you want God because you’re afraid of hell. It’s about wanting to be WITH God.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Prayer: Father in heaven, let those of us who know Christ set are minds on things that are above. Let us put an end to areas of sin. May we be a people who love you and who’s first desire is to know you better. Pray that your grace can be communicated to all of us. Remind us of the great forgiveness which you offer to all people. Let us approach you this day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Intro
When I was in college, I had this pair of jeans that I loved. Every time, I put these jeans on, magic was in the air. Every time I put these jeans on, you could almost hear the angels sinning.
Every time I put these jeans on, I looked so good, that the girls on campus were too intimidated to even talk to me. Having such a perfectly good fitting pair of jeans was a joy that most people have never even known. But over time, the jeans began to develop a hole in them. At first, I ignored the hole. But eventually the hole got worse and worse until I eventually had to make the hardest decision I had ever had to make. What do I do with these jeans? I didn’t want to throw them away. So I thought about it. And then I got the idea to use safety pins to try to pin the hole shut. But I wanted to do a good job. So I used like a lot of safety pins. Pinned the jeans closed. Put them on. I thought “I am so smart.” Later that evening, I was going to an event and a friend came to pickle up. I sat down in the car. And the moment I sat down, ripped right open. We were still waiting on someone else to get to the car so I had a moment to think. Options were running through my head. I’m thinking “can I go like this? I can’t go like this.”
So I get out of the car and start walking back to my fraternity house. But as I’m walking, I’m getting poked by the safety pins. And no matter what I do, as I’m walking, I’m getting poked. It kind of felt like, imagine that you’re walking with a porcupine between your legs that’s attacking you. I tell you that story for this reason. You can have something that you really love, but that you need to let go of. Because holding onto it will cause you a lot of pain.
We’re continuing our series: the Forensics of Faith this morning.
Last week, we talked about regeneration. That’s being born again. It’s God giving us new Spiritual life. This week, we talk about sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being made holy once someone has come to faith.
Regeneration happens once. Sanctification happens throughout life. When we are regenerated, we are given a new Spiritual disposition and volition to follow God. Sanctification is a lifetime of fruit of that work of regeneration.
Sanctification must be accompanied by regeneration. Because we cannot be sanctified without the means of the Spirit and we don’t have the Spirit without the new life which is found in Christ.
And the main idea from our text this morning is that God makes the unholy holy.
And we have two points today: who is sanctified and how we are sanctified.
I. First, Who is sanctified.
The text says: And we all, who with unveiled faces
I think that it helps to give some background. When Paul talks about our faces being unveiled. It’s referring to Exodus 34. In that chapter, Moses is given commands from God and Moses is in the presence of the Lord. As a result of this experience, Moses’ face becomes illuminated.
Moses’ face is radiantly glowing and the Israelites are afraid of this. You might be thinking “that’s crazy, I wouldn’t be afraid.” Yeah ya would. Half of us can’t handle seeing a spider, I’m pretty sure a man with a glowing radiant face would be a bit disconcerting.
So Moses would put the veil to preach to the people but when he was finished preaching, he would put the veil back on.
But the text in Exodus also tells us that when Moses would go to speak to the Lord, he would take the veil off. And so our verse this morning is saying that all believers are now able to approach God as Moses did, with unveiled faces. 2 Corinthians 3:16 says that when a person turns to God, the veil is removed.
We have the great benefit of all being able to approach the Lord. We have that privilege because of the work of Christ.
God grants us access to himself. God isn’t distant from us.
If you’re a private in the military and you need to talk to someone, you don’t go directly to the general. You follow the chain of command.
If you work for a large company and have an issue, you don’t go directly to the CEO, you go to your supervisor. There’s a chain of command.
God isn’t distant. He’s not too busy with other things. We have access to him. Something that is so utterly profound and wondrous that we oftentimes don’t even stop to question what a glorious privilege that is.
We don’t have this great wall of separation between us and God, because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has enabled us to enter the presence of the Lord.
It’s true of all Christians and it is only true of Christians. Because we are sanctified through the Holy Spirit. It is given to all who have faith in the gospel. Which is why I make this point often. But a true and sincere faith necessarily results in a changed life. Because it’s not us who are making ourselves Holy. It’s the Holy Spirit who is making us holy.
II. How we are sanctified
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18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
That’s profound. We who contemplate the glory of the Lord, who behold the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image.
The means through which the Lord sanctifies us are the pillars of Christianity that I talk about so often. God sanctifies us through knowing his Word.
2 Timothy 3:16 says All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
To know God’s word is to begin to know God. To know how he has revealed himself. To know what the Bible says about God, what it says about us, and what is says about his salvation in our lives. Without the Word, we are just guessing and inventing our own theology and our own God. But the Word points us to God and to truth.
Jesus prayed to God in John 17:17 “sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.”
We are sanctified by God by being connected and involved in our church and through fellowship.
Hebrews 10:24: let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Real fellowship and community sanctifies us.
Proverbs 27:17: Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
And those are just a couple of examples. That list is not exhaustive.
A lot of the pillars of faith are the same means through which we grow and through which God sanctifies us. As well as things like prayer and service.
But the source of the sanctification is the Spirit. And it is through this daily focus and commitment to God that God sanctifies us.
Imagine how different life is for the person who is wholly devoted to these things. Not going through the motions, not doing things out of obligation, not making excuses to procrastinate with pursuing God, but sincere daily devotion to communion with the Almighty.
God does amazing things. He transforms. He sanctifies. He makes the unholy holy.
He’s working in the hearts of his people.
God had made man good. And humanity fell into sin. But through Jesus, who has redeemed everyone who trusts in him, God is doing a work of restoration.
Illustration – art
In 1505, the great Renaissance painter Raphael painted his Madonna del Cardellino which depicted Mary with the two babies: Jesus and John the Baptist.
Forty years later, an earthquake hit Florence and the masterpiece fell to the ground and was shattered into 17 pieces. In an effort to restore the painting, another artist used iron nails and tried to put the painting back together. He then used paint to try to cover up seams. Over yeas, other attempts were made. And other dust and debris accumulated on the painting.
In modern times, there was a new effort to restore the painting. Over ten years, 50 artists worked to restore the Madonna del Cardellino. They carefully got rid of added layers of paint. The restored the cracks and creases.
What had been a beautiful design had been tarnished. It was obscured. It was inglorious. But the skilled artist was able to restore the painting to its original vibrancy and luster. Was able to restore it to what it had always been intended to be.
That’s what God does in us as we are sanctified through His Spirit.
He sanctifies us differently though. He sanctifies us in different ways at different times.
When we place faith in Christ, while we are forgiven of all of our sins, that doesn’t mean all of those sins become immediately easily manageable.
In coming to faith, there might be things that quickly fall away, while other sins linger. You might become a Christian and know certain things are sinful while with other areas, it doesn’t even occur to you.
Maybe you’ve been walking with Jesus for a couple years and you just feel this tug at your heart from the Holy Spirit. Saying the language you use isn’t honoring to God. Or maybe you’ve heard multiple sermons that address the subject of giving, and you’ve never given it a second thought. And then one day, you feel moved to greater generosity.
Maybe you struggle with control issues. Always have. Never even thought of it as sin. It’s just been second nature to you for as long as you can remember. But maybe little by little, it becomes revealed to you that it’s an area where you need work.
Or maybe God is working on something else in your heart right now. Again, he sanctifies us differently.
One person might have a greater degree of sanctification in a certain area over someone else. Something that’s a sign of Christian maturity might come more naturally, while your struggle comes easier for the person sitting next to you.
(slow)
Sometimes an area where God sanctifies us can be dramatic. Almost overnight. Maybe that happened when you first became a Christian with some things. Maybe you immediately realized that it was a sin.
Being more or less sanctified doesn’t mean a person is more or less saved or more or less right with God, because the entire process presupposes a person has faith, and it is that faith that saves. It is from God, so we must be aware that it is his work in us and not to use what God is doing as an excuse for boasting or pridefulness over someone who isn’t as far along on the journey.
It’s not that we are sanctifying ourselves, but we are enabled to participate in our own sanctification. How exactly that works contains an element of mystery. But an important part of that is obedience. Not obedience to trust in your salvation. But valuing the righteousness of God and saying yes to that.
Sanctification is never complete in us, this side of heaven. Heaven is a place without sin. And we will be fully sanctified in God’s presence. But between now and then, God is working in us. He is changing us. Where are the areas in your life right now where God is working?
What are the things that are holding you back? What are your jeans that you can’t bring yourself to throw away? Pursue God today. Pursue his will and his ways. Live for him. Again we don’t sanctify ourselves. But we do participate in our sanctification. And if there’s something in your life today where the Holy Spirit is convicting you. If there’s something in your heart that you know you shouldn’t be doing. I know it can sometimes be hard to throw those things away.
But God is always better. His gospel is always sweeter. And in turning from sin, it is meant for your own good and for your own joy.
I’ve given examples of means which God uses to sanctify us. But as we continue in this verse, I think that everything largely boils down to one thing.
We all, with unveiled faces, who contemplate the Lord’s glory.
We contemplate the Lord’s glory, we behold the Lord’s glory, we focus on the Lord’s glory. In all of these things that we do in order to pursue a relationship with God, there is to be a focus on God, a mindfulness of God, an acknowledgement of the Lord’s glory.
There is something wonderful about keeping our eyes on God.
It’s hard to have deep fellowship with the Lord, and to take great joy in him when we are actively engaging in sin.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Of course we are free to approach him when we sin. But that mentality to approach him assumes a desire to have a change in the heart. We can’t have a mind, completely focused on the glorious God of the universe in a moment when we are also willingly rebelling against his will.
It’s not him, it’s us. It’s not that he is unwilling to forgive or be gracious.
It’s so hard when we fall into a particularly bad area of sin in our lives. It can be difficult to want to turn to God in the midst of our struggles. Rather we want to hide from him. We sew fig leaves together and pretend he doesn’t see.
But continually contemplating God is transforming.
The word translated as “transform” in this passage is metamorph-oumetha, from which we get our word metamorphosis. I think that makes the idea more tangible. It’s a metamorphosis that’s happening. God is totally changing us.
We all learned about this in school with butterflies.
It starts out as an egg and then hatches.
The larva of a butterfly is a caterpillar and it grows.
Then it has the stage as a pupa where it’s in a chrysalis, which lasts several weeks, and in that span, the caterpillar is undergoing a dramatic change as it emerges as a butterfly.
That’s what happens to us when God comes into our lives. We totally change. You might be a caterpillar today, but God is making you a butterfly.
We’ve seen it in the lives of others. For those of us who are in Christ, we have experienced it in our own lives.
Maybe you can think of an area that you used to struggle with, and that now, isn’t something you even really think about or miss. The goodness of God in sanctifying us. In not keeping us the same.
We see people who are full of anger become soft. We see people who are selfish become servants, people who are apathetic become empathetic. People who walk in fear begin to walk in faith. The power of the gospel in transforming souls.
We see it in the Bible itself, amazing things happening in the lives of God’s people.
There is a transformation in the life of Paul, the author of our book this morning. He has been a persecutor of Christians but Jesus was dramatically revealed to him in the book of Acts.
Paul went on to be the greatest missionary who had ever lived, writing this book and 12 others in the New Testament.
Sanctification points us to the power of the gospel like few other things.
People who are dead in their sin are made new. First God saves us, and he frees us from the penalty of sin. And in. his. goodness, he is working a metamorphosis in our lives. The change isn’t a punishment; it’s an act of grace. We all have issues, and things we wished were different. God purges the things from our lives.
Hoarders
There’s this show I’ve seen before called Hoarders.
It’s a show about pack rats on steroids. They save everything.
Imagine sin being like that. We’ve got all this junk, but God is the master-organizer. Little by little, he’s taking things away. We’ve got so much excess, that sometimes he takes boxes away, and we don’t even notice it’s gone.
Say that you come to faith, and you have 20 things that are real issues for you. You swear like a sailor, you drink like a fish. You root for the Packers. But God chips away at our areas of sin.
You’re forgiven, but all of those struggles aren’t going to go away instantly. Over time, we are becoming more holy.
Often times, there is a lot of growth when we first come to faith. That can be a really exciting time. Or maybe there’s been another period where your relationship with God seemed more palpable. Maybe when one of your kids was born.
But it’s not the same now.
It doesn’t have to be like that forever. But it’s hard for that to improve out of nowhere. We need to focus on God. With unveiled faces, we need to contemplate the glory of God. Is there anything more important that you could think about than this?
You might casually think, “Well yeah, God is glorious, I get it, so what.”
He is the most glorious thing in the universe! He is the ruler and sustainer of the universe, the creator of the universe, of all things visible and invisible, the holy God. In every quality which can be ascribed to him, he possesses it in its superlative degree. He isn’t just a king, but the king of kings, not just a Lord but the Lord of Lords.
May we all have minds utterly enamored by the wonder of God.
Like I’ve said, God sanctifies us. We don’t transform ourselves, we don’t transform our own hearts. But in participating in our sanctification, we can actively pursue God.
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Philippians 1:6 says, “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”
God is sanctifying, he is working.
It ebbs and flows. Sometimes, it can be like we are going two steps forward and one step backward. But God is transforming us.
The text says that it is with ever increasing glory. The ESV translation says “from one degree of glory to another.” Literally it’s saying we are being transformed from glory to glory. God has transformed us into his glorious image to one point today, but it’ll be at another place in five years. It’ll be at another place in ten years.
(slow)
We are being transformed into the image of Christ. We are being transformed into a greater resemblance of his character.
And the fact that we are progressively being changed into the likeness of God should give us hope. We aren’t where we will be, but we’re better than we were. It gives us the hope of what the gospel promises. Of the work that God will do in someone who is walking in faith.
It should give us hope that for areas where we have seen defeat throughout our lives, God is still at work, we are not done. The sculptor keeps chipping away at the hard block of stone to reveal a wondrous creation. Who you are now is not who you always have to be.
We undermine the power of the gospel when we think a person can’t change. People are being introduced to God everyday. Addictions are being broken everyday. Broken marriages are being reconciled everyday. Don’t forget the power of God and what he can do. Don’t forget what he has done in your life, what he can do in your life, and what he can do in the lives of others.
I’m a huge fan of the musical Les Miserables. I’ve always been struck by the relationship between Jean Valjean and Javert. Valjean, the protagonist, spends several years of his life in prison. Javert is a policemen. Valjean goes on to be an honest man, but Javert keeps recurring throughout his life. For Javert, despite the fact that Valjean is an honorable man, he is, and always will be, a criminal. He is so focused on what Valjean has done, that he is blind to the changes in his life.
But God transforms. Whatever it is you’re struggling with, God has pulled people up from greater darkness, from lower places.
We are being transformed with ever-increasing glory
The verse includes with Which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We are sanctified by God the father through the Holy Spirit.
If you study the whole passage we’re in this morning: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Paul was referring back to Moses and the blessings from God during the time of Moses. But Paul is saying that this is a new era, this new covenant is even greater than what they had in the time of Moses. Now we have the Holy Spirit which has been given to the faithful. The Spirit enables us to understand God’s word, convicts of sin, equips us with various Spiritual gifts, and many other things.
It says that we are being transformed from the Lord, who is the Spirit. The point here is that the new covenant, after the time of Christ is being experienced in believers through the Spirit. We are sanctified by God the father, and also through the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
The gospel is the power of God for our salvation.
As we close this morning, two stories of redemption come to mind.
John Newton was a debauchorous and hedonistic sailor in the 18th century. In his twenties, he was on a ship that was caught in the middle of a tremendous storm. It was a monumental event in his life and was a catalyst in the process of his finding faith.
But Newton went on to be a slave trader. Epilepsy took him away from sailing a few years later. He began to more fervently study God’s scriptures. He would go on to serve as a pastor in England for more than 40 years.
The fact that Newton had been a slave trader would become a source of regret in his life, and he became an avid abolitionist in England. He also wrote the most famous hymn ever penned in the English language, Amazing Grace.
A second story comes to mind:
Kelly Gissandaner was executed in Georgia in September of 2015. In 1997, while having an affair, Gissendaner convinced her boyfriend to murder her husband. On death row, Gissendaner found faith, took up the study of theology, and became a mentor and Spiritual role model to other women in the prison. She went from being a woman full of hatred to having a metamorphosis that can only come from God.
God can lift you up from whatever you’ve done. Anyone who comes to him in true faith, God forgives.
In the moments leading up to her death, as the drugs were being administered, Gissendaner could be heard singing those words of John Newton, “amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, yet now I see.”
The power of God in the gospels shows us Jesus healing lepers, feeding thousands, walking on water, and conquering death. It takes sinful people in their separation from God and makes them God’s people.
Surely it can take a hateful person and make them loving. Surely the gospel can take a criminal and make them remorseful. We must not think that a person is undeserving of grace. None of us truly deserves it. But no sin is so great, no person is so sinful that the cross of Christ is incapable of forgiving it.
