Father, thank you for this day which you've given to us and for your promises to be present with us in it and most especially for your promise that this day would be for us a day of rest. We pray that that would be the case for us today. Our hearts would be filled with a sense of wonder and expectation but may we also in some real measure experience a fulfillment of those things that are promised to us as we reflect today upon your mercies and as we consider your word and as we worship, would you give us a taste of the future glory that awaits us particularly this morning as we consider the confession of faith and look at some passages in your word, reassure us, remind us of your great favor, remind us of the high calling that is ours as Christians and I do pray that more and more the righteousness of the kingdom would be manifest in our lives, that the whole movement of our lives would be in the direction of kingdom righteousness. Lord, may the world look upon us and see and know that you exist, that you are true because of what it sees in us. Be with us by your spirit now to that end, to all of those ends. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, what I'd like to do is just take a moment and again connect the dots, the sort of review, everything that we've talked about up to this point and then move on to talk about sanctification and good works, chapters 14 and 15 and again, apologies are sort of in order because we don't have the time in 12 or 13 hour long sessions to deal with all of this in detail. So if there's something that you read this last week or if you want to ask about it, they feel free to do that and then know that next week we're going to have the whole hour to interact. But again, here's the flow of the confession, you all can help. This is one of those little drills that kind of drill like things that we do with our children you know, you tell them something once and you can't assume that they remember it because you've told them once, you've got to tell them two or three or four or six or eight times until they sort of get it. But the flow of the confession begins at this most necessary place to begin, it begins with the scriptures which are the only infallible rule we have in matters of faith and practice. We need the Bible to tell us what's true. If we don't have the Bible, we're wondering around in this sea of darkness or this fog. Now again, there are lots of reasons, lots of good and valid reasons for believing that it's a smart thing, a wise thing, an intelligent thing to trust the scriptures but that's where the confession begins. Everything that we affirm as Christians, we affirm because it's taught in the Bible. And then you move on to what the scriptures say about God, right? And what follows that, the decree which is God's plan, purpose, design, okay? Then what's next? Creation, okay, you see the order here, what's after that? Providence? See scripture, God, then what God purposes and then the creation is the stage upon which God acts out as creation and providence is what? God's maintaining what he has built, right? This is the building, the UILD, ING, okay? And then what's next, the fall and then the covenant and then Christ, okay? So you have scripture, you have God, you have God's purpose and then as an aspect of that purpose there is this whole business of redemption, the fall of man and God's covenant with man and then Christ the mediator. And we said last week that when we get down here to talk about Christ, to focus upon Christ, we're considering redemption accomplished, okay? That's what the scriptures teach. The scriptures don't teach simply the Christ made redemption possible. The scriptures teach the Christ accomplished redemption, okay? And he did it by these two, he did it by his incarnation and then in his incarnation there are these two elements to Christ's accomplishing redemption, his obedience where he is a substitute and then his death, resurrection, ascension, that whole complex of things where he is also acting as our substitute, okay? And then what we talk about, from that point on, having considered Christ the mediator is redemption applied, okay, and that's what we talked about last week and we tried last week to connect all of these dots, we talked last week, remember what that Latin phrase is that we used last week to talk about the logical order of the application of the benefits of the work of Christ, somebody who's not in seminary tell me. Yeah, the ordo salutus or the order, the logical order of the application of the benefits of the work of Christ, okay? And all of these things, all of these benefits flow from Christ to his people, to those whom the Father had given him the for the foundation of the world. Remember what they are, can any, can we run through these real quickly? Where does it begin? It begins with a general call, now we didn't talk about all of these but I put them up here on the board. I think so. Next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next, conversion, which is faith and repentance, what's next, justification, what's next, adoption, what's next, sanctification and the outcome of it all, glorification, okay? And you see these things worked out and as a part of sanctification we are going to talk about this a little bit today, we should include perseverance but you see these things worked out in the table of contents of the confession of faith. So again, this just this illustrates what we said about the confession of faith at the very beginning that a confessional statement like this seeks to take the teaching of scripture and organize it according to heading, to take everything from Genesis to maps and you ask, what does this teach about God, what does this teach about man, what does this teach about sin, what does this teach about Christ, what does it teach about redemption, what does it teach about this or that or the other thing, the church and the sacraments and that sort of thing. And then you organize all of that, you put all of that together according to heading in a logical order or sensible order and that's what you have in the confession of faith. So when we talk about redemption applied, we're talking about all of those things that flow from the work of Christ and are applied to believers in the course of time as God by His spirit works in and upon those whom the Father had given to the Son before the foundation of the world, those for whom the Son gave His life. Now if you would look at, I want to look at chapters 14 and 15 and some of the stuff here that in my mind anyway is pretty pertinent, important stuff, sanctification and good works.
When you come to these two chapters, you really are coming to how this stuff starts to touch us, how it starts to work itself out in our lives. And you think of it in terms, in these kinds of terms, this sort of question. How might I think about my obedience? How might I think about my good works? Now I'm going to run the risk of not representing you very well when I try to answer that question. But here's how I think we all tend to answer that question, how we tend to think about our own works, our own obedience. If we're really Christians, we care about our obedience, we care about good works. And if we're really Christians, at points along the way in our lives, we become very discouraged by our disobedience and by our lack of good works. I don't know about you, but I get tired of reading the Bible because the bar seems to be set so high.
I read a passage like Ephesians 432, for example, which requires me that I forgive you in the same way that God and Christ has forgiven me, that I be tender-hearted toward you, being compassionate toward you. And I mean, I'm not awake five minutes before I've blown that one. Don't you? We tend to be so, as Christians, if we're really Christians, we tend to be very, very aware of our points of failure. Now, what's the result of that? I mean, years ago, I saw this cartoon. It was on one of those calendar things. You know, where there's the date, and then there's a cartoon, a caption, and you peel one off. It's like the far side stuff, except this one was published by, I think, by Christianity the day, or something. I had all of these Christian kinds of themes. And this guy in his pastor in his 50s was standing to the side of the pulpit and was leaning on the edge of the pulpit. And he had this kind of crumpled up suit, you know, and it was a wonderful visual illustration of what he was saying to his people. But he's kind of leaning on the edge of the pulpit, and the caption underneath the thing said, this is my first, this is the fourth week in our consideration of the radical effects of conversion. Why do you look like the same old bunch? Why do you look like the same old bunch? Now, that's how I feel now. Let me ask you this. When you see that, you feel the way to that, how do you respond to that? How do you respond, either to your explicit disobedience, or to your, you know, the acts of commission and the acts of omission stuff? Things that are premeditated that we do, even if it's just a nanosecond of premeditation, you know. And then the things that you omit to do, the things that you just don't do. How do you respond to that stuff? So the response is to pray, and they're asking to fill you with this spirit. Anybody else? How do you respond? With shame and what was the other word you use? Oh, yeah, sense of your own, yeah, sense of your own. Yeah, okay. Anybody else? How do you respond to this? Yeah, Rich. Too often I'll beat up on myself and then go try harder. Can anybody relate to that? A beat up on myself and then go try harder? Is it hot in here? Or is it just me? It's not.
Who is? That's all right, that's all right. We have one person who prays and who asks for help and recognizes his own helplessness. We've got another person who feels the sense of guilt and shame about it, but also there's a rejoicing in knowing of the greatness of God's grace. There's another response which is to beat myself up and go try harder. Okay, pretend that you're supposed to be perfect. Anybody else? I'm not just asking for what you do procedurally. I'm really trying to get some affective sort of answers here from you. You know what I mean by affective? Where are your hearts and all of this stuff? I could care less what you do, frankly. You know what I mean? I mean, I don't mean to say that, John. Or you, I don't care that you beat yourself up and go try harder. These answers are indicative of some affective things, and that's what I'm really interested in. Yeah, Marilyn? Confess? Yeah, okay. Repent, yeah. Yeah, at least?
And you kind of scrape each other off the floor and yeah, what'd you say? Something drives you one? Yeah, drives you to Christ. Chris, you were going to say something. Yeah, okay. Ten to identify ourselves with our failures rather than with who we are in Christ, with our identity in Christ. Yeah, Mark. Yeah, okay. Okay, so even in the anguish, there's a sense of comfort. There's a sense of assurance that even when I've sinned or when I feel myself seeing myself falling short, there is this convicting work of the Spirit that drives me to Christ, and that in itself, there's a certain peculiar sort of comfort in that fact. Okay. Good. Anybody else? Let's say anything? Yeah. There's continually following. It's kind of like 50F2 where you say, well, I believe this diet am I going to eat the whole pie? There's a sense of change. Now there is an honest man, and this whole room feels a great sense of relief that somebody finally said it. I blew this diet, so why not eat the whole pie? Yeah. Okay. Now, so what is the end of all of this? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Right. Right. John? And then I fell. And so emotionally, what it does to me is that I wasn't familiar with this, to some of the words of the Hummus. Hummus means, and I don't know, I guess I used to. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to get it right next time, a lot more. And now I have some questions. Well, I'm expecting that that's going to fly in. But if not, it's not an excessive spectrum. I hope works on the misery. But rather, there's a whole thing that does not will. I'll give it a grasp in my own sense. I will have to see fruits of God's spirit in my life, aggressively, and all of this, all of this, whatever. But the hope that, you know, yeah, for a month from now, I can look back, you know, year from now I can look back and see just different things in there. There wasn't necessarily trying to accomplish in my type of condition. I think God has done in my life. Things are getting worked out. This is a good exercise to me because I tell you one thing it does. And I think there are a lot of benefits that flow out of this. For us to sit around as a group of 60 or so people, and respond to this question, what effect is your disobedience or your shortcoming have upon you? It kind of peels off the masks, doesn't it? I mean, it kind of lets us all know together that we're in the same boat, we're at the same place. And I really do think that, you know, we want to put on a good face before the watching world, right? We want to prove to the world that we're better than the world. Well, the fact of the matter is, we aren't. And as Mike said last week, this is a great reminder, what Christians very often need to repent most about is not their unrighteousness, but their righteousness. What we need to confess before the Lord, maybe more than our unrighteousness, is the fact that we are trusting in our own righteousness to find acceptance with Him and with one another. And to do something like this, you know, it kind of peels away all of that external false righteousness so that we can talk about who we are now, and we can be a help to each other. And that's the second thing. The first thing is that there's a certain relief that comes in knowing that you're not in the boat alone. And then there's a real benefit in that we can finally be brothers and sisters to one another. We can finally help each other in this. We can finally come alongside each other and speak the gospel to one another. This is a bit of a side road, but you know those passages in Ephesians and Colossians where Paul admonishes us to speak the truth to one another in love? Now, you know how most people interpret that, right? Speaking the truth to one another in love usually means that you're willing to say something to somebody else that nobody else has the courage to say, right? You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny. And I love you so much I'm going to tell you. You know? Well, you read through those passages and read them closely in Colossians and Ephesians and I really think what Paul is saying is that we're to speak the gospel to each other. We're to speak the truth to the gospel to each other. It's one sinner speaking to another. I'm to remind you that in the midst of your sin there is the finished work of Christ that is sufficient for all of it. In the midst of your sin, there is the promise of Christ that he who has begun a good work in you is going to bring it to completion at the day of Christ. That's what it means to speak the truth to one another in love. Now, maybe there's some application of my speaking the truth to you that requires of me that I say something to you about some particular area in your life. But it's not this. You know, nobody else has a courage to tell you the truth about it. So I'm going to tell you. You're arguing your mother dresses you funny. Now, I'm going to speak the gospel to you and remind you of the sufficiency of the work of Christ in your behalf. And I can't do that with you if these facades don't come down. If these pretenses don't come down. If this artificial righteousness, this externalism that we all get so caught up in, if that stuff doesn't come down. You know, I don't know what section in this to point you to as a kind of a proof text for what I'm saying. But I do think that at a corporate level, this is what the outworking of this process of sanctification is all about in our lives. You know, we think of sanctification awfully individualistically and we end up leading schizophrenic lives. Okay? I, you know, I live one life when I'm with you and I live another life when I'm away from you. And you live one life when you're with me and you live another life when you're away from me. Because we conceive of this work of sanctification in these very individualistic terms. And I don't really want you to know what's going on in my life. Now there is some stuff I don't want you to know. I really don't because it wouldn't be appropriate, you know. But you can know that it's there just like I don't want to know the particulars of your stuff. But I know that it's there and I don't want for us to be pretending otherwise. And that's, you know, so sanctification thing does need to be considered, I think, corporately. The outworkings of all of this as we think of ourselves as a church, as a, as a, as a, a brotherhood, as sisterhood, as a, as a, a, a, a, a, a gathered people in whom Christ is working, seeking to bring us into conformity with the image of his, of his son. Now let me, um, anything you want to say about that? Maybe we ought to get these terms if you're, I mean, we know what we're talking about and we talk about sanctification, don't we? Justification and adoption. Those things are declarative acts of God based upon the finished work of Christ. Okay, remember how we define justification. Justification is God declaring me the sinner not guilty based upon the finished work of Christ, which I appropriate by faith. We talked about about the fact we have to be careful when we say we're justified by faith, we're not really justified by faith, we're justified by Christ based on his finished work as we appropriate it by faith. In other words, it's not by believing that justifies me. If I got to believe enough in order to be just, that's just another work. Faith is the instrumental means by which I receive the finished work of Christ. And as I receive it, God says not guilty. God says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased based on the finished work of Christ. Does that stagger you? There's no asterisk next to the word. There's no footnote with a bunch of quality leading you to a bunch of qualifiers down at the bottom. Okay. God looks at me now and says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased based upon the finished work of Christ. Well, sanctification is not a declarative thing. It is a process. And it is the process by which we're brought into conformity with the image of his son. In justification, we're declared righteous. In sanctification, we're being made righteous. There goes the choir. We appreciate what you do for us. We do. Okay. In justification, we're declared righteous. In sanctification, we're made righteous. Okay. We're made righteous. Now listen to this first section of chapter 14. They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are farther sanctified really and personally. This is no theological fiction here. I love the fact that the framers of the confession include those two words, really and personally. Having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, what word do we give to that particular act, the act of creating a new heart and a new spirit? Regeneration. Okay. Everything flows out of regeneration. Everything flows out of God obviously, but everything for us personally flows out of this work of regeneration where God gives us a new heart and a new spirit. Further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection by His word and spirit dwelling in them, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. So you see what's going on in sanctification according to the confession. There are things that are dying and there are things that are coming to life throughout the course of this Christian life that we live. Section 2, this sanctification is throughout the whole man yet imperfect in this life. There abide it still some remnants of corruption in every part. Whencerize it a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Now, can I read a couple of passages to you? And I know that there's a difference of opinion about who's in view in this particular passage, but I want to read Romans 7 first, because I think Romans 7 is a description of what life for the Apostle Paul was like.
Beginning at verse 13, and here's the point. When we're in the midst of this, and let me just say, or let me just again mention that the confession uses this language of a war. A continual and irreconcilable war. Now, in wartime, there are times of intense prosecution of the war, where the two armies are engaged. And then there are times of retreat. There are times when the armies will back off, and they'll sort of recover, and then they go at it again. I was in Mississippi a few years ago, and while I was speaking at a church, and while I was there, I got to go up to the Shiloh battlefield, which is where one of the first major conflicts in the Civil War was fought, or the war of Northern Aggression, for your benefit, Bob. And it was interesting. It was actually a two-day battle, and truly, if the Confederate soldiers had had two more hours of daylight, they would have won that battle, because they had virtually pushed the Union armies into the Tennessee River. But darkness came, and with darkness, they couldn't continue to prosecute the war, and there was a time of quiet overnight. The Union then was able to get more forces up from the river, and I think Sherman was there, and brought a bunch of forces down along that the one bank of the river in the Union to reinforce the Union soldier. So they reinforced, and then they were able to push the Confederates back, and the Southern soldiers' soldiers lost. It was really interesting. So these times of intense prosecution of conflict, and then there were times of comparative passivity, but it's always a war. And that's what's going on for us in this process of sanctification. It is warfare. Now listen, I refer to this statement that Archbishop William Temple once made, I'm not a man, I am a Civil War. Now that's what Paul is describing here, I believe in Romans 7. He's talking about the law and the place of the law in his life. Verse 13, has then what is good become death to me, certainly not. Now that's interesting. Has the law become death for me, certainly not, but sin that it might appear sin was producing death in me through what is good. So that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not yet understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. Can you relate? Does that sound familiar at all? Is Paul writing about you? If then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. In other words, if I do these things that I hate doing, two things are happening. One, I am acknowledging by the very doing of these things the deep character of sin within me and the relentless character of sin within me. The fact that I do these things, when I know that they are not the right things to do, is an evidence of the reality of the corruption of my own heart. But then, second, I agree with the law that it is good. The things that I don't do are acknowledged to be good because I don't do them. Because this relentless nature of sin in my soul drives me to do these things that are not good. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then, I do what I will not to do or wish not to do. I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me. But how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills or wishes, really, is a better rendering of that word will wishes to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Why do I, why am I convinced that this is Paul talking about his Christian experience? Because in the inner man, he delights to do the will of God. That is what makes this such a horrible warfare. He longs to do the will of God. He longs to do the law. But he finds this conflict within him that sin rises up and engages him and causes him to do these things that are not right. I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. A wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, here's the point. You have this imagery of this conflict as is described in the confession of faith in Section 2. There arises a continual and irreconcilable war. You have this acknowledgement in Paul's life of this warfare and this conflict and his own acknowledgement of his wrongdoing and his own confession that the things he wants to do are consistent with the law. And you also have in this autobiographical expression from Paul this acknowledgement of his longing to do the thing that's right. He's a spiritual man. He is a spiritual man. He is a godly man. But the third thing is you don't have him despairing. You don't have him despairing. It is a war. It is a conflict. It is relentless. The losses are heavy on both sides, you know, but he is not hopeless because he says in answer to the question who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then in chapter 8 he does a very interesting thing and I think this is the key to sanctification, to our own understanding of sanctification, something I talked about last week. Where is there hope for progress? Well, the hope for progress is not following rich steel's advice. It's not me beating up myself and trying harder. That's not the solution. Honestly, the solution isn't even us peeling off our masks and acknowledging the truth about one another so that we feel more comfortable being in the same boat. Misery loves company, right? Man's what these soap operas are all about. So a whole lot of miserable people watching a whole lot of miserable people act out their miseries. That's what it is. Misery loves company. But we're not left despairing. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. But look at what the apostle does. He's going to talk in chapter 8 about how the flesh is mortified and how growth takes place. But what is woven throughout that whole discussion of mortifying the flesh and keeping in step with the spirit and that sort of thing are these reminders of grace and the finished work of Christ. Look at what he says in 8.1. Here's this guy who's just poured out the realities about his own warfare against sin. And when he says, what's the solution to this? What's the answer to this? He says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God with the flesh, the law of sin. Verse 1, chapter 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. In the midst of the warfare, that's the first thing that I need to hear. When I am failing, when I have failed, when I feel acutely my own weakness, my own susceptibility to sin. When I've broken the diet for the 15th time and not only broken the diet but eaten the whole dead gum pie for the 15th time, what is my tendency? My tendency is to beat myself up and make all kinds of promises to God about how I'm going to be better tomorrow. But Paul says, no, that is not your first response. Your first response is to remember the cross and that there is no condemnation for you because you belong to Jesus Christ. You see in the midst of the warfare, it face to face with all the failures and all the difficulties and all the heartache that that brings. And believe me, unbelievers don't feel heartache about their sin. They may feel bad because they've been caught but they don't feel broken heartedness about it. Believers feel broken heartedness in the midst of this warfare. And the first word before Paul goes on to talk about the role of the spirit in mortifying the flesh, the first word that Paul speaks is a reference to the cross. There is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. I will never forget, it almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it right now. I will never forget the Friday night of our mission's conference a year ago, not this past one but a year ago, and Eric Alexander was here and Eric preached the gospel from Isaiah 52 and 53. And when he came to that phrase in Isaiah 53 where Isaiah writes, it pleased God to crush him. He said, the wrath of God has been exhausted in the death of his son. Now, how is an infinite omnipotent God ever exhausted? And that imagery captures the gospel for me. The wrath of God has been exhausted. The father has exhausted his wrath upon his son and the implication is there is none left to be spent. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Folks, I don't know about you but at that affective level, you know, at the emotional level, at the level of the inner man, I can't even begin to be concerned about sanctification if I don't know for sure. And I think Paul knows that. Paul is a, he is a sole doctor without peer. He knows that people are in this. He knows that this war is perpetual, continual and irreconcilable. And the first word that he speaks is a reminder of the cross. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But he doesn't stop there. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemns in in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Now in my judgment he is making a transition there into a discussion of the role of the spirit in causing the righteousness of Christ to be infused and reflected in my life. I don't walk according to the flesh anymore. I walk now according to the spirit. And it is by the spirit's ministry in my life which is the benefit, the benefit of sanctification flows from the finished work of Christ toward those who the father had given the son before the foundation of the world. This work of the spirit now is effected in such a way that sin gradually doesn't feel like there's much progress being made. But it is. And you have to trust that. Sin gradually is being diminished in its power and its influence and righteousness which is the fruit of the spirit is being increased. I think that's what Paul's talking about here. Those who live according to flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit the things of the spirit for the carnal mind is dead but the spiritual mind is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is at enmity with God for it does not subject itself to the law of God nor indeed can it. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God but you are not in the flesh but you are in the spirit if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he is not his and if Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now I don't think that that I think glorification is the outcome of this whole thing but Paul is responding to people who find themselves in difficulty now and what he's reminding them of first is of their justification and then second by virtue of the fact that they have bowed before Christ they are no longer in the flesh but they are in the spirit and it is now the spirit who is exercising domination in their lives. He is doesn't always feel like it doesn't always look like it but he is and he will win he will win. Philippians 1.6 he who began a good work and you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. Now where is the pursuing work of grace that he is pursuing us now I want to read section 3 in which war although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail. Now you know not a little but much how does David a man after God's own heart end up in bed with Paschita how does that happen it happens because the better yeah how does he end up killing others because the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail it may much prevail is it inevitable no we'll talk about that next week. It may much prevail yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ the regenerate part doth overcome and so the saints grow in grace perfecting holiness in the fear of God. There is no illusion either in Paul's description in Romans 7 and 8 nor is there any illusion in the Westminster Confession of Faith about the intensity of this struggle and what it can mean for believers. There is no confusion about that but again the promise as it's here in Romans 8 and represented in chapter 14 the promises that the spirit will prevail the spirit will prevail. And here's again you set this in the context of the whole why do I know why may I say to you I can say to you sort of what Jack Miller used to say to people don't worry be happy you're worse than you think you are you know why can I say that and at the same time give you every assurance that this work is going to be completed here's why. Because the father had said his affection upon you before the foundation of the world and has given you to his son he has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world and in the fullness of time Christ came and suffered the full measure of the wrath of God so that all of your violations might be washed away and Christ was raised from the dead to secure for you a life and Christ is now at the right hand of the father ruling and raining having commissioned his spirit having commissioned his spirit to apply all of the benefits of the salvation that he is one for those who the father gave him before the foundation of the world so that at the end of the day every single one of them is brought safely home and into perfect conformity with the image of Christ it stretches from one end of history to the other. And the reason I can say to you now that the spirit is not going to give up on you is because the father and the son agreed before the foundation of the world that the spirit was not going to give up on you and what God purposes to do he most certainly will accomplish. He will do it he will do it if he doesn't do it he isn't God that's exactly right if God does not fulfill his promise he is not God because he's broken his word. So in the midst of all of this struggle and difficulty you may know you may rest assured that because you are a Christian today you will be a Christian tomorrow and because Christ loved you before the foundation of the world he loves you now and he's not going to stop loving you until he brings you safely home and his spirit will accomplish in your life what he determined before the foundation of the world that he would accomplish. Okay we'll take a few minutes next week and I want to talk about the means of grace and then we'll use the rest of the time for Q&A let's pray Lord help us to help each other as your church as your people who are in the same boat with all our weaknesses and foolishness with all of the wrong actions of our lives with all of the wrong responses to sin in our lives help us to help each other to speak the gospel to each other to encourage each other to stand beside each other. Father keep us from being offended by one another's sin you're not offended by it you are pleased Lord Jesus to call us brothers and if you can be pleased to call us brothers give us grace to call one another brothers and sisters and again give us your grace that we might help one another. Be with us now as we come to worship may our worship be the glad-hearted response of those who have been rescued by your grace in Jesus name we pray amen.