Perfecting Our Holiness

Sermon Transcript

Well, American households it’s estimated spend $30 billion every year just to wash their clothes, just to wash their clothes, $30 billion. Think of the money we could save. $30 billion. That’s a lot of money. As one mom put it on a blog I recently read, she said life is an endless loop of laundry and dirty dishes. And that made me think, yeah, the dishes, those cost too, right? I mean, there’s detergent, there’s time, there’s effort. And then you can add to that the, you know, the floors, the carpets, the cars that we get cleaned and detailed, the offices that we work in, they have to be cleaned all the time. The street sweepers and the curbs and the gutters and the sidewalks and the parks and all the way down to your teeth that you get cleaned, I hope. We put a lot of effort. I mean, if you added up the money that we spend on just cleaning things it would be astronomical the money that we spent on that, because we apparently don’t like things that are gross and grimy and, you know, I’m thinking of another G word, goopy. I don’t know. I couldn’t think of a word, but dirty. We don’t like it. We want it clean. We’ll put the effort out to clean things. And I guess that does make sense.

But of course, we as Christians need to be concerned not just about the things that we can see. We should be just as concerned, actually we should be more concerned about the dirt that collects in our ethical, spiritual and moral lives. That’s a big concern. (one person clapping in the audience) I didn’t expect a clap for that, but that’s a big concern. That’s good. You may like this sermon, then. It’s the one person who will like the sermon today. It’s a big concern of God’s. Right? He’s called us, as the Bible repeatedly says starting in Leviticus Chapter 11, we should “be holy, for I am holy.” And we should put forth the effort to do that. The passage that we’ve reached today, Second Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 1, as we go through the book of Second Corinthians, we’ve reached one verse that we just need to park on and spend the whole time this morning dealing with because it is so instrumental in helping us to adopt the concern and really gather the strategy that we should have to, as it’s put, “cleanse ourselves from every defilement,” perfecting in holiness. Right? This “bringing holiness to completion” in our lives.

And that’s confusing for some. Matter of fact, if you’re new to the Christian life that maybe, like I don’t get it. The whole point of becoming a Christian was that God would declare me righteous. Well, I get that, and you’re right about that. You’re right about the fact that we believe in the imputation of Christ’s righteousness at the moment in time that you repent of your sins and put your trust in Christ, you are considered righteous in the sense that you’re adopted into his family and you’re fully qualified. Right? If you were the thief on the cross and you died on the cross, “today you’ll be with me in paradise.” You trust in Christ sincerely with a penitent faith then you’re fully qualified to be in God’s presence. I get that, and that’s true. But that’s much like some kid, some pickpocket, let’s just picture in some old, you know, movie in England who gets adopted into the royal family. Yeah, you do get instantaneously qualified to join the family of God but you still are the same person. And God expects you from the time you become a Christian until the time you reach the end of your life to work at holiness.

That’s the distinction that we make in theology between what’s called justification, that we are declared righteous at the moment of our salvation and the process that begins the Christian life, then we call it sanctification. “Sanctus,” from the Latin word “holy,” it means we are increasingly now seeking to be less like the old me and more like Christ. That’s the goal. And we have to distinguish those two. One is a free gift, right? We get qualified to be in God’s family. The other one is just a whole lot of work. It’s like laundry, dishes and, you know, like getting your teeth cleaned. It’s a lot of work and it’s going to be effort and it’s going to cost us. And if we don’t apply ourselves to this we’ve missed the whole point of what God says about growing in our sanctification.

So this one verse is very helpful for us and we’re just going to spend our time there. Out of the 31,109 verses of the Bible, we’ll spend time just focusing on this one verse. We may look at a few others. You’ve been to a few of my sermons before, but we’re going to camp on this because it is rich with insights for us. So look at this text, I’ll read it for us in Second Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 1, and right in the beginning of the first phrase you’ll see a demonstrative pronoun, “these,” and “these” is relating to the promises and those promises, that’s why it’s better if you’re not just looking at the worksheet that has verse 1 printed there in Second Corinthians 7, but you have to be able to look back, scroll back up at the verses that preceded starting in verse 16 of Chapter 6, because when it talks about “these promises,” we need to see the context and just remember where we’ve been if you’ve been with us in this series.

All right. Let me read it for you. Second Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 1. It says, “Since we have these promises.” Now it’s a good time to look back up. Where did those promises start? Verse 16, after talking about all this logic about why we would not want to be connecting ourselves to associations and relationships and friendships or jobs or whatever it might be, alliances that are going to compromise our sanctification, he says, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord.” Now it’s a quote from Leviticus. Now a quote from Isaiah 52, we looked at those in context, we studied those, “touched no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

Now were you with me last time I dealt with this passage? And I said, if this were about justification we would talk about being sons. We would talk about the inheritance. We would talk about actually only being sons in the sense that we are “sons in Christ” and therefore heirs of the promise. But this is family discussion. This is sons and daughters. This is about us having this word there in verse 17, “I will welcome you.” And I often talk about that word in First Thessalonians Chapter 2 where Paul talks about the church at Thessalonica receiving or welcoming the word. And it’s a great Greek word in the New Testament, “Dechomai.” And dechomai is the word that use physically of Simeon there in Luke Chapter 1. You remember the old man Simeon on the Temple Mount when the baby Jesus comes in, it says he dechomai Jesus the baby into his arms. He received him. It’s like a person taking very carefully a baby into his arms, this eight-day-old baby Jesus. And that’s the word here, actually, it’s a compounded word. It’s an “epsilon iota sigma” in front of it, which is the word “into.” He welcomes us into. That’s the word welcome. He’s bringing us in and saying I want to have this connection here with you.

Well you think about, well make my dwelling place among them, be their God and you’ll be my people. I mean, isn’t that already the case? If I’m a Christian I’m already, you know, his people and he’s already my God. Well, it just would be the same here as they came out of Egypt, this Leviticus passage that he’s quoting, they’re already his covenant people as we observed last time when we were studying this text. I mean, they’re already under the cloud and under the pillar if you know those phrases from Exodus. And Moses is the leader and it’s like, okay, you’re already the covenant people of God, he’s already redeemed you from Egypt, but he’s looking for something else. He wants now this intimacy, this closeness with his people and he’s talking about just don’t be like the Egyptians. And he says later in Isaiah as we saw there quoted in verse 17, as you leave, this is now hundreds of years later as they’re leaving the Babylonian captivity, don’t be like the Babylonians. I need you to be different, just like we’re not supposed to be like the rest of the Americans. We’re not supposed to be like the rest of the Orange Countians. We’re supposed to be ethnically, morally different.

And that’s what’s being begged for here by the Apostle Paul with all these quotes. And the promises are, I’ll be like a father to you. We’ll have this connection. This is an underlying set of promises, and we need to expand upon it a little bit, because he’s having us remember these things “since we have these promises.” Now, here’s the word, “beloved.” The idea is we’re already in the family of God. That we’re clearly understanding the distinction between justification and sanctification. But now “let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.” That may bug some of you like I thought God was cleansing me. He does, I get that. When you become a Christian you are forgiven of your sins and in a sense in the position we have before God you’re cleansed by his sacrifice. That’s true. But now, in real time, in time and space for us in the 21st century we’re supposed to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement,” that affects my “body and spirit,” the outside of me and the inside of me, “bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Now there is a sense in which I’m declared holy that’s set apart for God. But now I need to bring that holiness to completion in my actions, in my life, in my interior life, in the exterior life that I have. This is the calling of this passage. Cleanse yourself. The onus now is upon us. Not that God doesn’t stand at the ready, ready to aid us in every way in this, the Spirit of God to help us do this but he’s calling us to take initiative here. And so we need to camp in this, starting where it starts by number one, if you’re taking notes, I wish that you would, number one, “Remembering the Rewards of Holiness,” remembering the rewards of holiness.

Now we have the core, what I like to call the predicate of the promise, which is something about intimacy. I’ll get back to that. But please know that throughout the Bible we have examples of even more than that, and we can’t claim that it is always universally true but it’s often true. If it were universally true, we’d be prosperity preachers and we’d be saying, you know, all you have to do is obey God and your life will be better. You’ll probably end up on a private jet one day and you’ll have the biggest house in Orange County. I would preach that to you, and we’d have a lot more people, we certainly wouldn’t be meeting in a parking lot. I could preach in stadiums if I had that kind of message. Now, it would be a lie, I’d be a false teacher but it would certainly grow a crowd if I promised that. But it’s not the promise of Scripture.

It doesn’t mean sometimes it doesn’t happen if you give yourselves to sanctification and holiness, sometimes, like Joseph, you can say no to sin, like in Potiphar’s house and now all of a sudden, even though through a detour in prison, what does God do? Because of the integrity and godliness that Joseph had shown, he pops him out of prison and makes him number two in Egypt. Wow. That’s a promotion. Or how about Daniel? Another example. Here he is saying no to the king’s food for the sake of his integrity and holiness and godliness. Now, what does God do? He makes sure that he doesn’t look worse than the other conscripted teenagers. And now all of a sudden he and his three friends they’re exalted and Daniel becomes like the number two in Babylon. That’s a promotion. Or we look at people like Ruth. Ruth in the Old Testament, she aligns herself with a fidelity and a faithfulness that looks a lot like God, a kind of loyalty to her mother-in-law. In the midst of this terrible difficulty, she shows godliness there. And what does God do by the fourth chapter of the book? She becomes this matriarch in a family line that gives birth to David, the great King of Israel, who ends up in the genealogy of Jesus himself. You want to talk about honor being bestowed upon someone in real time in real life.

Even David, King David, he could have killed Saul several times as you remember and he doesn’t. He withdraws from the violent overtaking of the kingdom. And what does God do? He gives him the kingdom and he ends up in time becoming the great unrivaled king, not just in the south, but in the north and the south in Israel. That’s a big deal. Now, does that mean that if you take heed to what we’re saying this morning you’re going to be promoted at work? Not necessarily, but maybe. That’s why we don’t preach a prosperity gospel. I’m not up here saying obey God and all these great things will happen to you in the real life here and now, you know, time and space. It might. It might. And I will say when it does you’ll look back and say look what God did. God’s reward in this life, the promise of godliness, it does hold a profit. There is some promise in this life.

Now, by the way, I’m quoting in saying that if you know your Bibles really well, that’s First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 17, where it talks about the fact that if you pursue godliness it holds out a promise in this life and the next. And I am saying sometimes in this life it is a tangible kind of reward. God will say good job. Just like you might tangibly reward your own children for doing something that’s righteous. But then all you have to do is get more examples from the Bible, and I realize it doesn’t always work out that way. John the Baptist, a godly man, he did what was right. He rejected trying to fit in with the religious elite of his day. And he ends up in a prison across the Transjordan in Perea. And he’s stuck in that prison. And he’s so confused at this point, I don’t understand. I’m allied with Christ. I know he’s the Messiah. At least they think he’s the Messiah. He ends up sending messengers to Christ. And you might remember, he says, “are you the Christ” or should we look for someone else? Why? Because he reads the Old Testament and it says if Christ is coming into the world he’s going to conquer and rule, the good guys will win and the bad guys will lose. And yet he’s in prison. He’s lost his freedom. And it wasn’t very long until he gets his head chopped off and put on a platter. Think about that. He ends up losing in this life.

Now, it doesn’t take away from the fact that there’s a promise for godliness in this life and the next. But we do need to remember sometimes godly people like James the Apostle in the beginning of the book of Acts, he follows Christ faithfully. He’s not a Judas. He’s not even known as the Doubting Thomas of the group. He’s not the Peter sticking his foot in his mouth, but James ends up in the early part of Acts, here’s how it’s put, Herod, that’s Herod Agrippa the First, by the way, he ends up laying violent hands on Christians and he makes an example of James the Apostle and it says he gets put to death by the sword. It’s the acts of the apostles and he didn’t even make it out of the first few chapters of the book. So what kind of acts do we learn about him? He gets killed. Okay, well, that’s not much of a promotion at least not in the temporal here and now.

Then there are guys like Steven. Steven, the same thing. You know Steven, he ends up getting stoned to death by the religious leaders who hate him. But he’s a good pivotal example because in Steven’s example, something interesting is said about him at the end of Chapter 6. Maybe you’re with us a long time ago when we were preaching through Steven at the end of Chapter 6, an interesting thing was said about him in that whole confrontation. It said, “his face was like the face of an angel.” Do you remember that little weird phrase? And I’m thinking, what does that look like? Are you guys all seeing angels? Of course they’re not seeing angels, right? This is a weird thing to say when it comes to a description of a guy who’s here now being opposed. And yet, what’s the point? The whole concept of an “Angelos.” Angelos, of course, in Greek is a “messenger,” a messenger from God. Here’s a guy who is perceived in the text and described in the text as having a reference, a concept of something that people would say this is like he’s come straight from God’s living room to give us this message. It’s not that they’ve seen some cherub on some hallmark calendar or something, he’s not some chubby, half naked, you know, person flying around on a cloud. It’s like, no, he’s speaking in a way that looks like he’s like tight with God.

And then we get his whole story in Chapter 7. And you know the long sermon that’s recorded in Chapter 7. At the end of Chapter 7 he ends up getting killed. Killed not by the sword. Which, by the way, I’d much prefer James in the way he went out. Or John the Baptist. Steven gets stoned, right? He gets the rocks thrown at him until he dies. But as he’s dying, do you want to talk about connection with Christ? Do you want to talk about harmony with the message and the story of Christ? Just like when Christ dies, he does two things that are just like in Christ’s crucifixion, right? He says, number one, forgive them, right? They don’t know what they’re doing. In that sense he reflects that kind of amazing godliness in his death. And then he does the same thing that Jesus in the sense that Jesus says, “I commend my spirit,” Father, into your hands. He does the same thing directing it to Christ. Right? I mean, talk about the closeness he has with God even in his own martyrdom. And I think to myself, okay, there’s the predicate. There’s the promise of the end of Chapter 6. The promises of godliness I know are these. And it’s best summed up by Jesus himself in John Chapter 14. So I want you to look at that text with me.

John Chapter 14. In John Chapter 14 Jesus is speaking about godliness, in essence keeping his commandments. And of course that’s what we want. You can be plucked out of the, you know, the non-Christian slave market as it’s put in Romans Chapter 6, like I just painted the picture of the pickpockets there in England, but we get placed into, adopted into the royal family. See? But now all of a sudden we want you to learn to love God and keep his commandments. And Jesus says this, look at verse 21, John 14:21, “whoever has my commandments,” Jesus says, “and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Now you say I become a Christian, isn’t that the whole point? He loves me. Yeah, I get that. But when you keep his commandments and you love him he takes it a step further and he uses this word “manifest” myself to him. Okay.

We’re not talking about anything spooky or weird here. We’re talking about something relational that is really depicted in the promises at the end of Second Corinthians Chapter 6. And it confuses Judas, not Judas Iscariot, which John is very careful to make sure we know it’s not Judas the betrayer. But he says in verse 22, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not the world?” He’s not even catching what Jesus is saying here and Jesus then makes it very clear. Verse 23, “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” Now that’s a little different than hey you’ll be in the family. This is a lot like they’ll be sons and daughters to me. Or as we said last time we were studying in this passage, it’ll be like the church of Laodicea. “I’ll come in to him and eat with him and he with me.” We’ll have this familial, tight connection.

Now, I’ll say this, whether you’re Joseph or Daniel or Ruth or David, or whether you’re James or John the Baptist, or whether you’re Stephen, the predicate promises the foundation is you work on your holiness, your righteousness, and you’re going to see that. That’s a promise, and that’s a promise for the here and now. And then there’s the promise as it says in First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 17, for the next life, and that I wish I had time to preach about but you don’t want a five-hour sermon today so let me just tell you this. There’s a book that I wrote about Ten Mistakes People Make About Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife. And one of the reasons that the publisher picked that title for it, which is way too long, but they picked that title for it because I’m trying in the book to paint the picture that so many people picture the eternal state in completely wrong terms. As I just said, we kind of see ourselves as some see-through cherub on a cotton ball cloud with a golden harp and it’s not going to be real and tangible.

But I try to make the point, as other people have rightly done in explanations of the afterlife, the real place we’re going to end up is not in a disembodied space in God’s presence in another, you know, dimension. We’re going to be on the new earth where righteousness dwells. You’re going have fingernails, toenails, kneecaps, all the things I always talk about. You’re going to be eating real food. we’ll have real relationships. It’s just that we are not going to be subject to all the problems of the Fall. There’s not going to be sin. You’re not even going to, as the Bible says, stub your toe because the angels will make sure that never happens. You’re going to be protected and the “fullness of joy” will be in that place in real tangible ways. And the Bible says repeatedly, the fifth chapter of the book I wrote, which you haven’t read it, and it’s not about making money or selling books. If you can’t afford one, I’ll give you a book. That’s how desperate I am for you to read this stuff. You need to understand the way that God is going to help us, motivate us to holiness, is the promise that he says, I will reward you. I will reward you.

If you’re godly and holy with how you treat money here on earth, the Bible says, riches that will fail, well then he says, I’ll entrust you with true riches. He says if you’re willing even in your pursuit of godliness to sacrifice a few friendships, I’ll give you ten times as many in this life and even more in the next, to quote Matthew Chapter 19. The realities of God giving us tangible rewards is very clear. And there is, as I start the section of that fifth chapter in that book, I titled the first section There’s No Celestial Communism. And that’s a very good and important reminder in our day it seems, given the current political climate, there’s not even celestial socialism, just so you know. Now, again, you may be confused by that because you think, well that’s how it is, isn’t eternal life free? Read the last chapter of the Bible. Revelation Chapter 22 will tell you this. Of course we all drink from the fountain of living water for free. It’s given to us without price. No one’s there because they earned it. But at the end of the book he says, “I’m coming soon,” and my reward is with me, “bringing my recompense with me,” a response to what “each one has done.” At the great White Throne judgment, they’ll be judged according to their deeds and with Christ coming back with his rewards you’ll be judged meritoriously based on what you’ve done. All your deeds, just like on the other side, though that’s all canceled and forgiven, right? God is going to reward you in a tangible way.

So when the Bible says godliness holds a promise for this life and the next kind of focused on this life. But I do encourage you to look further into what the Bible has to say about the rewards in the next life. Most people have avoided that. Maybe with this high focus on justification, and they don’t want to really look at the rewards related to sanctification. But they’re all over the New Testament, mostly, by the way, concentrated in the four Gospels coming out of Jesus’ mouth himself. So remember the rewards of holiness, not just in a sermon. I want you to think about it all the time. Do whatever you have to. Put some sticky notes up on the dashboard of your car and the refrigerator and the inside of your cupboard and say, remember that holiness is rewarded. God wants to reward holiness. Whether you lose a job and get more intimate with God and are closer to him still, or whether you get promoted and you realize the connection between God’s giving you something gracious and kind in response to your sanctification, that is the God who we serve. He’s a God that holds out rewards.

So with those promises in mind as we start this great text since we have these promises, well then what? Let’s get to it. “Let us cleanse ourselves,” Second Corinthians 7:1, “from every defilement of body and spirit.” Now that’s all I have. And that’s all you have, right? Your body and your spirit when it comes to who you are those are the two parts, the material and immaterial part. And you should seek to be pure, cleansed, right? Free from the stains and defilements of the ethical, moral and spiritual stains of sin in your body and in your spirit. So let’s just put it this way. Number two on your outline, we need to as it relates to this whole pursuit of sanctification, “Pursue Purity Inside and Out,” on the inside and the out.

Now, this is a classic problem particularly for church goers. And since I’m looking at church goers, I just want to make sure we address this just off the top and just in passing. If you want to know what Jesus thinks about people who fall into patterns of going to religious organizations like this or in the first century in the synagogues or the temple of the first century, is they like to be seen by others, to quote the Sermon on the Mount, as righteous, but they don’t give a lot of attention to what’s going on in the inside, right? Or if you want the classic text on this, go and read Matthew Chapter 23, just as a good chapter, at least the reference to memorize, Chapter 23 of Matthew, right? In Chapter 23, he spends all this time saying here’s the problem guys, don’t be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and the Sadducees. They’re a bunch of hypocrites. And what’s the point? He keeps saying illustrations, the cup, they’re clean on the outside, but if you were to look inside the cup, its dirty. They’re like a tomb that they go and they polish the outside, put flowers on the outside, it looks really nice, “but within are full of dead people’s bones.”

So here’s the thing. We have to focus both on the defilements of the body and of the spirit, the material part and the immaterial. If I said to you let’s talk about holiness, make sure your body doesn’t go there or doesn’t do that. And we’d say, okay, I get that. Matter of fact, a lot of people go to church and that’s all they think about. They think, oh, I’m going to learn a lesson today to avoid sinning. Like, I can’t go there with my body. I can’t do that with my body. Those things are sin. And if I avoid those, I’m good. And all I’m telling is Jesus kept saying, well, you know, all of this comes from the inside, right? The mouth speaks out of what fills the heart, but your greed, your adulteries, all your problems are going to come from the inside. So he always says you have to focus on both body and spirit. If you don’t, we’re in big trouble. You have to deal with not only where your body goes and what your body does, but where your mind goes and what your mind thinks, right? That’s where the battle starts. And we have to say, I have to have equal concern, both of those are in the crosshairs, of me seeking to cleanse myself from the defilements. I need to cleanse myself from every defilement of body and spirit.

Okay, now I just think I can’t preach this sermon without realizing if you’re new to all this and you may be a genuine Christian, but you haven’t heard about the distinctions well enough between justification and sanctification that you think, like some people have taught and very popularly taught, that you know it as a Christian because everything’s a free gift from God, the favor of God is upon you, that there’s no effort, really, that should be involved in the Christian life. Now, I hope you’ve been around here, most of you at least, Compass Bible Church enough to know clearly the Bible says there’s plenty of effort that goes into this. Matter of fact, we did a whole conference on it years ago called Aggressive Sanctification. Do you remember that conference? If you haven’t read or been through the website you should go there. AggressiveSanctification.com. You have to know how to spell it. but two G’s, AggressiveSanctification.com. If you go there one thing I did is I wrote a blog like 11 or 12 different installments on this blog in thinking through all the problems with the popular view that because we are God’s children, as one of the most popular books that I actually review in that blog, he basically says in the last chapter, you all have A’s with God. All A+. All of you do.

And then, of course, I think you should know if you’re well versed in the Bible, you open up your Bible when you find that plenty of Christians don’t have an A+ with God, right? I mean, Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, the seven churches clearly are getting not passing grades, some of them, some of them getting passing grades, some of them are getting A’s. Two of them get good A’s. But that’s not how it is. Every Christian is going to be evaluated at the end of their lives at the Bema Seat judgment, not the Great White Throne judgment. And we are going to have to now answer for the things that we’ve done. And the reality is that we need to know even here and now we’re being evaluated by God according to the defilements of our spirit and our body. And we should say to ourselves what it’s going to take is effort, thus the word “aggressive.” We’re going to have to have a kind of sanctification that’s not putting my feet up on the dashboard of the Christian life and just thinking it’s going to come to me, right?

God’s cleansed me forensically by justification and imputation. Some think well, clearly then my sanctification is just going to come to me. It doesn’t just come to you. To use the words of Peter, “make every effort to supplement your faith.” And then he lists all the virtues. He makes clear this is going to take effort. Or as Paul talks about the free gift of eternal life, then he says, “work out your own salvation,” to the Philippians, “he says with fear and trembling.” We have to work. This is going to be aggressive work, and we can’t miss that. That’s so clear in the Scripture as I just quoted in Philippians Chapter 2 verse 12.

Now, one passage, I already referenced it in First Timothy. I want you to look at this. Actually, I want you to look at the verb in verse 7. I said 17, it is verse 7. First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 7. So turn with me there, please, if you have any gas left in the tank, let’s do this. God has provided good weather for us today. Not too hot, not too cold. It’s the Goldilocks service right here. So enjoy this. You have no excuse not to turn to this passage. First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 7. It starts with a negation, something we shouldn’t do, a prohibition. “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.” First Timothy 4:7. “Rather,” now here’s the imperative verb. It’s the word “Gymnazō.” Does that sound like an English word we use all the time? Gymnazō? It’s here a verb. “Train yourself,” it’s translated, “for godliness.” So I want to be godly. Now I’m already positionally godly. That’s called “positional sanctification,” holiness, I’m an adopted child of God and I’m fully qualified for heaven. But, I in this life need to be increasingly, progressively godly and progressively holy. So I need to pursue it. How do I pursue it? He uses the word “train” in English, but the Greek New Testament says gymnazō.

Now, gymnazō literally means “naked.” Thankfully, my gym has disregarded that practice of going to the gym naked. But in the Greco-Roman days that’s what they did. They stripped down and they went to work out in the gymnasiums of the Roman world without their clothes on, because they didn’t want any encumbrance, to use another phrase from Hebrews Chapter 12, “lay aside every encumbrance … let us run with endurance the race that set before us,” with “Hupomonē,” with perseverance. So stripping down, that’s even part of cleansing ourselves from every defilement. I’m going to take every encumbrance that’s holding me back from pursuing righteousness and I’m going to get rid of it, I going to shed it.

But really what happens in the gym, the thing that you’re really concerned about. Well, I would be concerned if my gym was a naked gym, but I would also be concerned, edit that out. What am I trying to say? Oh, the part of the gym that you don’t like is the work, the sweat. Right? That’s the part you don’t like. And that’s the hard part, right? That’s the difficult part, that’s a struggle. And here he says, I mean, you want another example of the biblical expectation that sanctification is going to have to be pursued aggressively and not passively. Well, here’s one, “gymnazō yourself for godliness; for while bodily training,” because he’s using a bodily training word, gymnazō. “Bodily training is of some value,” right? I guess it’ll keep you alive a little bit longer and I guess that’s okay. But “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Now, just before we leave this passage it’s so important if I want to pursue purity on the inside and out, how do I do it in this text? Paul is giving the pastor of Ephesus, young Timothy, some instructions. Let’s start in verse 6. Just get a few of these principles around us to know how do I do that? How am I supposed to do the bottom of verse 7 to gymnazō myself for godliness, to work and strain and sweat for godliness? How do I do that? Well, here’s another word also translated “train.” But it’s a different Greek word, but it has the idea of a kind of consistent work. Look at verse 6, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you’ve followed.” So if you’re going to do your job that you’re supposed to do, you’re going to have to be trained in the words of faith and of good doctrine.

Now, that’s not just something for a pastor’s conference or a pastor, right? Everyone who’s going to grow spiritually, I hope you know, and I’ll just cross-reference it quickly from the end of Chapter 5 in Hebrews. Hebrews Chapter 5. We do know you cannot grow up in your sanctification unless you’re eating the meat of God’s Word and putting it to work as you continually work in your own mind the truth of God’s Word. So let’s just say this: you’re going to need a disciplined diet of God’s Word. I don’t know how the Bible was this week for you, but you should have been in it every day. You ought to be working through it. You ought to be in taking it as a disciplined action, just like going to the gym. You have to be disciplined about God’s Word. God’s word is the diet that you need to gymnazō yourself toward godliness.

There’s another thing in this passage, verse 10, which reminds us of gymnazō. He says, “for to this end we toil and strive.” What are you talking about? Well, the promise was the thing and the predicate back in verse 8, “it holds a promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe. Command and teach these things.” So this is Paul’s exhortation to Timothy. If you want to gymnazō yourself, work and train and sweat for godliness you need God’s Word, you have to be trained in that and you need to toil and strive at the goal that God has called you and equipped you to play out. And that is that you’re supposed to, as verse 6 says, “put these things before the brothers.” You’re a teacher, you ought to teach.

And here you ought to know that God is the Savior of all people. In what sense? Just so you know, this is not about universalism. The Bible is very clear that not everyone’s going. “The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” That couldn’t be more clear, right? That God’s going to say to many, “I never knew you; depart from me.” This is not about everyone being saved in eschatological terms in the redemption at the end of time. This is about your next-door neighbor. Do you have a neighbor, one of your neighbors at least who is not saved? If you live in Orange County, probably all your neighbors are not saved. But I want you to think about some of your neighbors who aren’t saved, right? They’re not saved. True? Can you think of one? How are they doing this morning? Well, most of them are probably doing okay. They’re probably enjoying the weather. They may be taking their dog out for a walk. Who knows what they’re doing? Maybe they, you know, own a boat or they own a horse or whatever. They’re probably doing better than you and probably one of the means of provoking envy from time to time. Think how the wicked are prospering. I don’t get it. But here they are being preserved by God. This is what we call in theology the common grace of God.

The grace of God as it says this morning sun doesn’t just shine on Compass Bible Church. I know sometimes I think it does, but it shines all over the place. God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good. So please remember this: God is the Savior of all people because the “wages of sin is death.” If your non-Christian neighbor is living and enjoying any grace today, enjoying a meal, enjoying the sun, walking the dog, having a coffee, whatever he or she is doing and enjoying that, God is the provider. In God they live and move and have their being. And any of those graces, the common grace of God, “God is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” Now that’s an understatement. Of course, we get to experience not only common grace in this life, we also get to experience salvific grace in the next. We get to know that we’re heading to a place where everything is going to be made right. This whole Psalm 16 verse 11 reality of every pleasure, every joy, the fulfillment of all that God wants to give his children and then stacking on top of it meritorious rewards. All of that is coming to us. He’s clearly the Savior of his people.

But even now the point is I want to move more people from common grace to salvific grace. I want to see more people saved. And he says, you have to command and teach these things, but “put these things before the brothers.” Everything that I’ve taught in the first three chapters of this book, from our perspective, Timothy, just teach it, do your job, serve. Now, that’s a long way to get to that. But if you want the second element in your gymnazō toward godliness you can’t do it without active disciplined intake of God’s Word, and you can’t do it without a disciplined service of whatever God’s equipped you to serve. If you’re not somehow serving in evangelism and somehow to equip your church, discipline people in your church, be a blessing to the people in your church in some way. According to First Peter Chapter 4 you are a steward of God’s investment in you, you should be a blessing to people at your church. You should be serving them. Paul is telling Timothy, serve your church and non-Christians, of course, all I’m telling you here is that’s the second element of what it is to purify yourself, to grow in godliness, to gymnazō yourself for godliness.

One more real quick is the obvious one that probably your brain went first to and that’s in verse 12, First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 12, “Let no one despise you for your youth,” of course he was a young pastor, “but set the believers an example.” And now he starts talking about the stuff that you would think of first, “speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” Be pure. Do things in your conduct that are good and right. And of course you have to aim at that. You have to say yes. I not only need to be in God’s Word, I not only need to be serving God and his people, I also need to be focusing on my behavior. Clearly, that’s what it means on the inside and on the out.

And for the sake of time, I’ll take you just to one passage on this. How about Ephesians Chapter 4. I want to show you how these fit together. And as even as I’m saying this, by the way, the verse that most of you learned as kids if you grew up in church is Romans Chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. It talks about both sides of this. “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” Your body shouldn’t go to certain places. It should go to certain places. It shouldn’t do certain things. It should do certain things, “your bodies ought to be presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” You ought to do holy and righteous things and avoid sinful things with your body. The next verse says, and “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Now you have to get your spirit, you have to get your interior life transformed so that you by testing can discern what the will of God is. That’s all going on in the inside of your life.

So both of these are present and they’re also here. But I want to show you one is founded upon the other. Your behavior is founded on your thinking. Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 17, Paul says to this church, “Now I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” Does that sound like behavior? It is, of course, walking, “Paraptao,” this Greek word Paul loves to talk about. This is the course of your behavior, the habits of your life. And just like in Isaiah when he says when you come out of Babylon, don’t act like the Babylonians. When you’re coming into the Promised Land, don’t be like the Egyptians and don’t be like the Canaanites. You have to be holy. You have to be different. You have to be ethnically and morally different than all of them. And I say the same things to you just as Paul said to the Corinthians. Corinth was a lot like Orange County. Don’t just fit into your culture morally, ethically you can’t. You have to be holy. So that’s clearly what he has in view.

But notice what’s next, verse 14, “in the futility of their minds.” Right? You have to worry about the interior of your mind and what’s going on there. The futility, this is an important word, it means it makes no sense. In the end it goes nowhere. It’s like the dog chasing his tail. You’re intellectually thinking in circles and you’re not thinking right. Your mind, keep going in verse 18, “is darkened in their understanding,” as a non-Christian. So we can’t go back to that. We can’t have our minds darkened. So that hearkens back to First Timothy Chapter 4. I certainly need a disciplined intake of God’s Word. I have to be trained in the words of faith. “Alienated from the life of God.” Why? “Because of the ignorance,” that’s a mental word, an interior word, “that is in them,” interior, “due to their hardness of heart.” And that’s the problem. When your heart is hard toward God, you “suppress the truth in unrighteousness,” to quote Romans Chapter 1 and you’re constantly saying no to the truth, and your mind just keeps chasing its tail and you become fools, even though you claim to be wise.

It’s like Jesus said in John Chapter 3, men don’t want to “come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” So I’ll stay here thinking what I think. I’ll deny what’s true because I want to continue to justify my wrong behavior. Because my wrong behavior is so that I can spend everything on my pleasures the way I want. I want to live the way I want. It happened in the Garden and it continues to happen today. If it makes sense to me then I’m going to do it. It takes a hard heart to do that. But the mind is not renewed. Verse 19, what happens? Behavior is messed up. “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But, that’s not the way you learn Christ!” Verse 21, “assuming that you’ve heard about him and you were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.” To do what? “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through its deceitful desires.”

Now, “old self” and “former manner of life” that sounds like paraptao. That sounds like walking, that sounds like behavior. And you’re right, it is. But it all stems from deceitful desires. Where do those desires live? Not in your behavior. They’re expressed through your behavior. They happen inside your brain, inside your mind, inside your spirit, and be renewed. This why we go to the solution. Verse 23, “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self,” because it comes and stems from that renewed mind, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” That is the key, the external and the internal, in body and spirit.

And like we said briefly in passing in the previous message in this series, Psalm 1:1 is a good example. We don’t walk in certain places. We don’t take the path of certain ways. We don’t sit in certain seats. There are places that you should not go there. There are places you should not work. There are industries that are not helpful for the thriving of society. We talked about this, right? There are places you shouldn’t go to for recreation. There are places where you should not be. I mean, even Paul saying, hey, do you want a good deal on meat? Do you want to get meat in the meat market in Corinth sacrificed to idols? Fine. Buy it. Don’t ask questions. But then he talks about going into the temples. He says don’t go into the temples of demons. What do you want to provoke the Lord to jealousy? There are places your body should not go. There are things your body should not do. Just to quote First Thessalonians Chapter 4. Right? You should be able to know how to control your “own body in holiness and honor.” So there are certain things you shouldn’t do, but also there are certain places your mind shouldn’t go. There are certain things your mind shouldn’t think.

And this is the battle. This is the battle that God wants us to win by doing at least three things, right? We have to focus on the behavior ultimately but it starts with renewing our mind, being trained in truth. That’s why we have a bookstore. I know it’s not very vogue to read anymore, but we want Christians to read, to study, to get their mind trained in the doctrine that they’re taught in Scripture. And then I start serving. That’s why this church is all about making sure that we have highly committed participants, we participate. We’re not spectators. Everyone needs to be involved because that’s what it is to be a godly person to grow in godliness. Then we can see our behavior start to reflect Christ more consistently.

All right. There’s one last thing in this passage equally as out of step with modern Christian culture. But as long as we’ve come this far, let’s finish the verse. “Bringing holiness.” This is Second Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 1, “bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” Now you’re talking to Christians here. We have promises. We’re called beloved in the opening phrase here, beloved. So we’re talking to Christians and it’s talking about progressive sanctification, cleansing ourselves. And now it says if I’m going to go and really be holy in my behavior, I do that “in the fear of God.” Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right. The whole point of becoming a Christian was I don’t have to fear God anymore. If that’s what you thought, you thought wrong. Because that’s not what the Bible teaches.

Okay, number three, let’s just do this, okay? We need to “Maintain the Fear of the Lord.” Now, there are two different kinds of this fear of the Lord. But I don’t want to water it down because people love to water down the concept of fear. Fear is an unsettling feeling, right? It is an uncomfortable feeling. It’s an uneasy feeling. There are times you need to definitely look to the Father who we pray to and feel uneasy. You feel uneasy when you think about your own sanctification. You think about your own behavior. You think about your own thought life. You should feel uneasy about that. That’s called the fear of God. Now, two kinds of ways you can fear. And the Puritans love to separate it this way. Servile fear. There’s a fear that you will hear, “I never knew you, depart from me.” But according to Scripture about us in Romans Chapter 8 verse 1, “There’s … no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” Now, if you know you’re in Christ and you see the fruit of that, James Chapter 2 verses 14 through 25, I know my faith is bearing fruit. I know that I’m in Christ. I see God’s Spirit at work bearing fruit in my life. I’m doing things differently than I used to. My values are different. God is working out things in my life as I work out my salvation. I know I’m a Christian. No condemnation. You should never fear ever hearing, “I never knew you, depart from me.”

Just like the urchin kid in England, in London who gets adopted into the royal family. If it’s a real kind of biblical adoption what we call in Scripture that “Heseḏ” or “steadfast love” of God is a covenant, committed, promised love, right? We never fear getting kicked out of the family. But there’s another kind of fear that we should fear that is the basis of all sanctification. And it’s the kind of fear, the familial fear, as the Puritans would refer to the difference between servile and familial, it’s the fear that you should have of someone who knows you’re never going to be cast out of his family, but you care very much about displeasing him. So much so that you think uneasy feelings, you feel uncomfortable thoughts. You have the conflation of thinking and feeling about God in a certain way because you think I don’t want God to be displeased with this. Not just because it’s theoretically not a good idea, but because, according to First Peter, the idea of God who we serve and pray to is a Father who impartially judges according to each person’s work. Now that’s fear, as it says.

I want to look at that in a minute but first I want to think about something basic, and that is, I can’t even grow in my sanctification if I open my Bible and think it’s all optional. Do you know any Christians or any professing Christians who open their Bible and think these are good ideas? These are life tips. These are good things. It’s like extra credit. The Bible is not full of suggestions. The Bible is not full of hints. The Bible is not full of tips and tricks for life. You do understand that there are plenty of churches all over the country right now talking about the Bible as though it’s optional. If you really want a little bit of improvement in your life, you know, here are some tips and tricks from the Bible. That is not it. Here’s what the Bible says about itself. Proverbs Chapter 1 verse 7 with the beginning of knowledge is the fear of God. “The fear of the Lord is,” the beginning of wisdom and, “the beginning of knowledge.” You can’t even know the right things. You can’t even receive God’s truth the way it should be received unless you fear him. You’re getting not suggestions, but as it’s put in Philippians, you’re getting the words of life that you’re called to hold fast to. These are the words not of betterment, these are the words of life.

As Moses put it in Deuteronomy, I’m putting before you words of life and of death, right? These are important binding words upon you. These are commandments. These are the precepts and the principles that God says you must do these. And if we don’t even go to church with that in mind, how can we even grow wise in what God wants you to do? The things that he’s saying to you in his Word are not suggestions. So wisdom itself, knowledge itself, biblical knowledge is predicated upon you having the fear of God, which is not I think he’s going to cast me into hell. If you’re a Christian, you don’t have to fear that. And I get it, cause you’re going to put First John Chapter 4 to me, “perfect love casts out fear.” Well keep reading, because “fear has to do with punishment,” with judgment. And the idea of that kind of judgment is what kind of judgment? Great White Throne judgment.

Here’s a different kind of judgment. It’s the Hebrews Chapter 12 verses 5 through 11, Hebrews Chapter 12 verses 5 through 11. That kind of judgment is the kind of judgment that you have within a family you don’t think you’re going to get kicked out of. But you know that our Father is one who chastises. Now there’s a word we don’t use much anymore. But that’s how the English Standard Version translates it. Chastisement. Okay, I know I’m in Orange County. Don’t arrest me. Don’t call Child Protective Services. You know what this means? Spanking. That’s literally what the word means. You call on Father, one who spanks to use Peter’s phrase, chastises, and the Bible says you’re not even a Christian if you haven’t really yet experienced the reality of God caring so much about your sanctification that when you choose to shine on God’s commandments you get chastised. You serve a God who is a disciplinarian because he cares that much about holiness in your life that he will discipline you for it.

That also can fall under the word “judge.” Let me show you what I’m talking about. Go to First Corinthians Chapter 11, First Corinthians Chapter 11, and you understand that God will judge his people, and that doesn’t mean cast us into hell. That means he will hold us accountable for our behavior. That’s why we’re supposed to just do all we can to cleanse ourselves from all defilement. That means we’re confessing our sins. That means we’re saying, God, I want to do the right thing. That means we’re saying, God, I’m going to take seriously the next steps of holiness in my life.

First Corinthians Chapter 11. Drop all the way down to the end of this chapter. Go to verse 31. The word “judged,” by the way, is a word with a broad contextual usage in the New Testament. Here it is. “But if we judged ourselves truly,” now the context is the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper in Corinth had become a party, had become a potluck. It was all done wrong. And he’s saying you guys are messing up big time. He said, “but if you judged yourself truly,” if you’ve kind of looked into the Word and looked into yourself and said I shouldn’t be doing this, well, then “we would not be judged.” Well, what are you talking about? Am I’m going to go to hell? I’m not talking about that.

Verse 32, “but when we are judged by the Lord,” at least in this context that we’re talking about, “we are disciplined.” That’s what we’re talking about. That kind of judgment is the disciplined judgment that we learn about in Hebrews Chapter 12, “so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” Oh, wait a minute. “No condemnation for those in Christ.” Yeah. I don’t get judged that way. But guess what? I get judged every day. God saying I’m going to evaluate your life. I am your Father. I’m going to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. There will be consequences. And he may be patient. As I like to say there are times when God will stay on the couch for a while, but eventually God gets off the couch and he says it’s time for discipline. And all I’m telling you is God is a gracious God. But there’s a time when we need to take that kind of disciplinarian kind of mindset seriously.

Two more passages. Let me turn you to this one. First Peter Chapter 1. I’ve already just tacitly referenced the concept here, but let’s read every word. Verses 14 through 17. First Peter Chapter 1 verses 14 through 17. “As obedient children,” this is the scenario, fathers with their children, “as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.” Does that sound a lot like what we read about in Ephesians? This is the interior stuff that spills out into conduct and behavior. “But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it’s written,” here comes the Leviticus Chapter 11 passage, “‘You shall be holy,’” set apart, different, distinctive, morally, ethically, “‘for I’m holy.’” I’m not like the rest of the world. You’re not supposed to be like the rest of the world. “And if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds.”

Now, in what sense is that true? We just read an example of it in Hebrews Chapter 11. I referenced the concept of it clearly spelled out in Hebrews Chapter 12 verses 4 through 11. So clearly he’s saying you’re calling every day. You’re praying to this Father. He is your Father. I understand you’re set apart in terms of your justification, but I need you to be set apart in your conduct. And so he says, “conduct yourself with,” here’s our word, uneasiness, with that sense of not feeling like everything’s cool and copacetic and I can put my feet up on the coffee table with God. I know that’s very popular, contemporary, sappy, saccharine, you know, Christianity these days, but it is not biblical Christianity. We are supposed to understand the fear of God and maintain the fear of the Lord. And you were supposed to “conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile.” Can you love someone you fear? Absolutely. I hope you know that.

We’re all about loving God, but God is the ultimate authority. There’s such a differential between his intellect and yours. His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. There’s such a differential between his authority and yours. Any authority you have is derived. There’s such a differential between his wealth and his holiness and his power and all those things about you. That’s going to be an uneasy relationship and one that doesn’t make you think, well, I’m insecure, he’s going to cast me into outer darkness. No, it’s never going to happen for God’s children, if you’re truly repentant, putting your trust in Christ, you see evidence of that in your life then you have no fear of being cast into hell, but you better make sure that you recognize his standards of holiness for your life.

One last passage to pull all of this together, turn to the Psalms. Psalm 86. Psalm 86. Here’s a great psalm that I just think will super helpfully pull this together. Of course, it’s a Psalm of David, and he says this in the middle of this psalm, drop down to verse 10, he says of God, “You are great and you do wondrous things; you alone are God.” I hope that’s it. I hope your number one concern, your number one audience isn’t your family, your friends, your boss. Your ultimate concern is God. “You are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.” So if that’s the foundation, well then great. Teach me your ways. Verse 11. Teach me your ways, O Yahweh. “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.” That ought to be your prayer. Hey, don’t try to exclude that. Try to pray that it would be included. “Unite my heart in fear of your name.” Why? Because you’re afraid? No. “I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart.” Some possessive pronouns there, my God, “and I will glorify your name forever.” There’s a resolve. That’s the resolve we need as the upshot of this whole sermon.

“For great is your steadfast love to me.” This is not someone who is insecure about his relationship with God. No, how “great is your steadfast love,” your covenant love, your ḥeseḏ, that great Hebrew word ḥeseḏ, your covenant love, “for me.” It’s great. It’s obviously securing. “You’ve delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” Like David can pray this and he knows it, right? “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” chase me down, “and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Total security. But he’s also very concerned about doing what’s right, and he’s even comforted by the chastisement of God. “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Think about the reality of us saying, God, what I want is to know your way, I want to walk in your truth, I want to fear your name.

My fear in preaching this sermon to you is even if I’m going to be clear about it, I don’t want anyone to go this is not for me. You just bring up all these things, I feel so guilty. I see all the stuff in my life last week, last month, I’m never going to be a godly Christian. Stop. Please stop with that. Here’s the thing. Isaiah Chapter 1 says that if you would just come and reason with God, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” I know we can’t change everything about your sanctification in one day. You can change everything about your standing with God in one day. If you’re a non-Christian and you become a Christian today that’d be great, but there’s a lot to do in your sanctification. I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. I just want you to know this can be done and you need to continue to give this attention. And it may be a slow, incremental process.

Warren Buffett was asked the secret to his financial success. And if you don’t know, Warren Buffett could wash all of our clothes in America for five years. He’s worth $150 billion. Right? So this guy is pretty rich. And he was asked the secret of his financial success. And he did several magazines, you know, carried his conversation in response to that. But basically what he said, and I wrote this down, he said no one wants to get rich slowly. That’s the problem. By the way, I could have read the book of Proverbs and said that’s the problem. The book of Proverbs says that. Wealth that’s gain quickly is not the way you’re supposed to go. You’re not chasing the, you know, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This is about disciplined, incremental work. And so it is in your finances, right? There’s not an immediate payoff. There’s no get rich quick schemes. This is about steady, disciplined daily investments not only for your finances. Right? Which I hope your financial advisor believes in that. Right?

But as your spiritual advisor let me tell you this. That’s how your sanctification works, every day, incrementally, one confession at a time, one act of obedience, one conquered temptation at a time. Just keep at it. Because what you are as a five-year-old Christian is not what you’re going to be as a ten-year-old Christian. And I pray to God that it won’t be what you are as a 25-year-old Christian. But Jesus said it. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Some of it is going to pay off in this earth. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the Joseph, the David, the Daniel, maybe the Ruth, maybe. But if it doesn’t I can tell you this, it will always store up a benefit in heaven. God is going to have for you a payoff and the dividends when you see the portfolio at the end of your life, it’s going to be impressive. But you have to work at it every day. “Cleanse ourselves from every defilement … bring holiness to completion in the fear of God.” All the elements are here in this one little verse. So helpful for us, and I pray we’d put it to practice.

Let’s pray. God help us as Paul wrote to the Philippians in a corrupt, wicked, crooked generation we want to stand out as lights in this dark place. And to do that we have to do as even as I quoted it earlier in this message we have to hold fast to the words of life. And so, God, we want to, we need to learn them, we need to know them. I know just coming to church is a part of that. Going to small groups discussing the sermons is a big part of that, and being a part of the programing throughout the week is a part of that. On this campus and all these buildings and every platform on this campus, people are teaching the Word. We need to understand it. We need to learn it. We need to grow in it. Our bookstore is full of books, good, curated books that will help us grow in our Christianity. Just help us God to invest more in our relationships here at church that’ll help iron sharpen iron. Just please let us invest more in our sanctification this week.

I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.