Intro

a) Last week we began to unpack the vision of our church here at CrossWay. To be Rom. 12 community & culture that makes much of Jesus by gathering together to worship Him, by growing to become more like Him & by going to others to tell them about Him.

b) Last week we looked at Ps. 95 & why we gather to worship & what that looks like. Today we are going to unpack the 2nd part of our vision: growing to become more like Him. God hasn’t just saved us to gather together to worship, but to make us new. To transform & change & grow us.

c) The WCF says the church’s mission is the gathering & perfecting of the saints. God doesn’t just gather a people, but grows a people. God’s will for His children is that we would grow to be more & more like Christ. So the question today is: how do we grow & become more & more like Christ.

d) If you have your Bible, I invite you to turn w/ me to 1 Thess. 4:1-8. As always, let’s begin by hearing God’s holy word in 1 Thess. 4, starting in v1. Read & Pray

I’ve titled today’s sermon “Growing in Godliness.”

a) Here in 1 Thess. 4, Paul gave the local church at Thessalonica explicit instructions on how to live. As we see in v3, Paul insisted that God’s will His people is they be sanctified. Now I want to take the time to define a few key terms to make sure we’re all on the same page.

b) At the moment a person believes on Christ, when they confess w/ their mouth Jesus is Lord & believe in their heart God raised Him from the dead & stop trying to make themselves right w/ God & rest in the person & finished work of Christ to be made right, that person is saved or justified.

c) To be justified is to be made right w/ God or accepted by God. Justification is a work God does. It’s God in His holy court room swinging His gavel & declaring a sinner not guilty. We are justified not b/c of who we are or what we’ve done, but b/c of who Christ is & what He’s done.

d) Justification is a work of God for us. Sanctification is a work of God in us. But, there are 2 aspects of our sanctification we see in Scripture. The 1st aspect is what’s called definite sanctification. Now stay w/ me. When we are justified by God, we are sanctified. We are set apart to God & for God.

e) We are His. God consecrates us in Christ to Himself. He breaks sin’s dominion over us. He sets us free to live to Him & for Him. As Col. 1:13 says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness & transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

f) And united to Christ by faith, we are declared holy. 1 Cor. 1:2 says: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.” 2 Cor. 6:11: “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ & by the Spirit of our God.”

g) Heb. 10:10 says: “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” However, there is also a 2nd aspect to our sanctification called progressive sanctification. When we believe, when we’re justified & declared holy, we don’t become morally perfect.

h) Being justified & declared holy in Christ, doesn’t eliminate sin from our hearts & lives. As 1 John 1:8 says: “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves & the truth is not in us.”

i) B/c we are declared holy, we’re now called to be holy. We’re called to live out our new identity as God’s chosen, holy & beloved children. As 1 Pet. 1:14-16 says: “As obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy for I am holy.”

j) 1 Pet. 1 & our passage here in 1 Thess. 4 are talking about our progressive sanctification, about us growing in godliness & becoming more like Christ. We fight sin & seek to please God b/c we are as His redeemed children who want to bring Him glory.

k) As 1 Cor. 6:19-20 says: “You are not your own for you were bought w/ a price. So glorify God in your body” We are justified & set apart by God to worship Him together & to grow together. As you’ve heard before: God loves you just as you are, but loves you too much to leave you as you are

l) So w/ that said, how do we grow in godliness & to be more like Christ? Let me offer 4 ways.

Here’s the 1st way we grow: By the Spirit.

a) Look at v3: “For this is the will of God your sanctification.” Now look at v7-8: “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” We are united to Christ by the HS who’s been given to us.

b) The Spirit’s title (Holy Spirit) is directly related to His commitment to make us more & more holy. The HS applies the work of Christ. The HS not only sets us apart as God’s children & testifies to us we are God’s children, the HS dwells in us to make us holy. Here’s how Eph. 3:16 says it:

c) “that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened w/ power through his Spirit in your inner being.” The same Spirit present at creation hovering over the face of the waters, the same Spirit that descended & rested on Jesus before His temptation & earthly ministry.

d) The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, caused us to be born again is now at work in us to empower us to grow. The HS empowers our minds, wills & hearts to resist sin & temptation. But more than that, the HS to walk in & to do the good works God has prepared for us.

e) The HS illumines God’s Word & teaches us the truth. The HS reveals to us Christ’s glory. 2 Cor. 3:18: “And we all w/ unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from 1 degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

f) But, if we close our eyes to this light, Scripture calls this resisting or quenching or grieving the HS. If we give in to sin or don’t pursue righteousness, the fault is not w/ the HS’s power, but w/ our preference to continue in sin or to ignore the truth or to diminish God’s glory.

g) The HS works in us to make the truth of all that God has done for us in Christ sweeter to us. The HS reveals the truth of who we were apart from Christ & how deeply sinful we still are. And as a result, our minds, wills & desires begin to change & we want to please God more & more.

h) See, throughout life, we grow on 2 tracks. Both tracks are good & necessary, but they are different. The goal of natural growth is to become a self-sufficient & responsible adult.

i) That’s why we train our kids to work hard & accomplish goals & hone their minds & skills. But spiritual growth involves becoming more dependent on God, trusting God & pleasing Him. We get into trouble when we try to grow spiritually using purely natural means.

j) Paul said in Gal. 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” We grow as we walk by the Spirit & are led by the Spirit & no longer by our flesh.

Here’s a 2nd way we grow: By faith.

a) By faith in the person & work of Christ we are justified & made right w/ God. And by faith we are sanctified & grow to become more like Christ. In our justification, faith works to help us receive & rest in Christ & trust God’s good & gracious promises. John Wimber: “the way in is the way on.”

b) In our sanctification, faith works to will us to work. In Scripture we not only see who God is & all that He has done for us. We also see God’s good & gracious promises. And these promises are meant to fuel our sanctification & growth. Think about the Sermon on the Mount.

c) Yes, Matt. 5–7 is filled w/ commands. But it’s also filled w/ great promises. Matt. 5:5 the meek shall inherit the earth. Matt. 5:6 those who hunger & thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied. Matt. 5:7 the merciful shall receive mercy. Matt. 5:8 the pure in heart shall see God.

d) See, 1 of the keys to growing in godliness, to battling sin & temptation & pursuing righteousness is to fight pleasure w/ pleasure. Sin can seem pleasing in the moment, but it always overpromises & underdelivers. Thomas Brooks in his book Precious Remedy Against Satan’s Devices says:

e) “Satan promises the best, but brings the worst. Promises honor, but brings disgrace. Promises pleasure, but brings pain. Promises profit, but brings loss. Promises life, but brings death.” Satan is the father of lies. He lies about God, your sin, your forgiveness in Christ & God’s word.

f) Spiritual warfare is believing the truth of God instead of the lies from Satan. Jesus understands the fight against temptation & sin is a fight to trust in our heavenly Father. The Christian life is a life of faith. It’s believing God will do what He has promised. It’s believing God promises & delivers.

g) As those justified & set apart by & for God, we trust Him & His promises. We grow when we stop listening to ourselves & start preaching the gospel to ourselves. We believe by faith we have a new identity in Christ, that we are His beloved children & fellow heirs w/ Christ, so why be envious?

h) We believe by faith we are God’s treasured possession & that God is our Father, so why be afraid? We believe faith we have died to sin, so why desire it & pursue it? We believe by faith we’ve been raised w/ Christ to newness of life, so why would we go back to the old way that leads to death?

i) We believe by faith we are accepted & loved by God w/ an everlasting love, so why put out hope in the love & approval of others? We grow by the HS & by faith in God & His promises.

Here’s the 3rd way we grow: by our own effort.

a) Yes, the HS gives us the faith to believe & be justified. Yes, the presence of the HS empowers us to grow in godliness & become more like Christ.

b) Yes, our faith in the gospel & God’s promises fuel us to grow in godliness & become more like Christ. But you & I still must put forth effort. God’s grace doesn’t automatically produce obedience. Look back at 1 Thess. 4. v1 exhorts us to grow:

c) “Finally, then brothers, we ask & urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you received from us how you ought to walk & to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more & more.” Yes, God is the agent of our sanctification. As Paul says later in 1 Thess. 5:23-24:

d) “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely & may your whole spirit & soul & body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” But, until Christ calls us home or returns, we are to pursue God’s gift.

e) John Piper says: “When it comes to killing my sin, I don’t wait passively for the miracle of sin-killing to be worked on me, I act the miracle.” The NT teaches us that growth requires effort on our part. Rom. 8:13 says: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

f) Eph. 4:22–24 instructs us to put off the old self & put on the new. Col. 3:5 commands us to put to death what is earthly in us. 1 Tim. 6:12 urges us to fight the good fight. Luke 13:24 exhorts us to strive to enter the narrow gate. 2 Pet. 1:5 flat out commands us to “make every effort.”

g) As born-again believers, we are now enabled to toil & struggle w/ all his energy as Christ powerfully works in us by His Spirit. We work b/c God is at work in us. Sanctification involves our hearts, minds, wills & desires. Sanctification is the sanctification of a person, not a robot.

h) Yes, we rest in the gospel, but we never rest in our battle against the flesh & the devil. In Christ we have an inner peace, but we also now have an inner warfare. Jerry Bridges says: “No 1 can attain any degree of holiness w/o God working in his life, but just as surely no 1 will attain it w/o effort.”

i) God has made it possible for us to grow & walk in holiness. But He has given us the responsibility of doing the walking. We work to be holy. See phrases like “let go & let God” sound super-spiritual, they’re just not Biblical. Sanctification takes divinely enabled effort.

j) Martyn Lloyd-Jones said: “The NT calls on us to take action. It does not say the work of sanctification is going to be done for us. We’re in a fight of faith & must fight. And thank God we’re enabled to do so. The NT reminds us of that & then says: Now go & do it.”

k) Some Christians aren’t growing b/c of a lack of effort. They need to know about the HS’s power. They need to be rooted in gospel grace. They need to believe by faith in God’s promises. But they also need to fight & strive & make every effort to work out what God is working in them.

l) As Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:10: “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is w/ me.” Remember that Dallas Willard quote? “Grace is not opposed to effort. Grace is opposed to earning.” God’s goal is that we are renewed in His image of righteousness & holiness

m) We must be intentional & consistent in the use of God’s means of grace He’s given us to grow. Prayer. His Word. Corporate Worship. The Sacraments.

That leads to our 4th & final way we grow: In community w/ other believers.

a) Just as a plant needs both water & sunlight to grow, we need both communion w/ God & community w/ 1 another to grow. In Eph. 4 Paul describes the local church as the body of Christ, Paul call us to maturity. He says we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, Christ.

b) Then Paul says this in Eph. 4:16: “from whom the whole body, joined & held together by every joint w/ which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Every believer is part of Christ’s body & plays a crucial role in our growth.

c) God uses the people in our lives to form us, shape us & sanctify us. The HS uses our struggles & failures w/ others in the body of Christ to reveal our sin, to show us our need to love & forgive. You & I can’t grow & become the people God wants us to be w/o 1 another.

d) See, did you ever notice how patient you are as long as no 1 gets on your nerves? Or how loving you are as long as the people around you are easy to love? Or how humble you are if you’re respected & admired? Every 1 of us is a saint in isolation.

e) But in community our weaknesses & flaws & sins are exposed. That’s why the church is not optional. It’s needed for us to grow in godliness & to grow to be more like Christ. Just consider all of the 1 another statements in the NT. These are to be lived out in community w/ other believers.

f) We weren’t just saved to worship together, but to grow together. Sanctification is a community project. I need to grow in holiness not just for my sake, but out of love & concern for others in the body. My sin affects the body. My growth affects the body. I’m called to grow & help others grow.

g) You are called to grow & help others grow in holiness. I am called to put sin to death so I can help others put sin to death. You need me & I need you.

Conclusion

Let me end this way

a) You can’t be more justified than you are right now if you are truly in Christ. And if you are truly in Christ, you have been declared holy & God is at work in you to make you more holy. We are all in the process of growing to be more like Christ. Paul tells us we will not achieve perfection in this life.

b) He writes in Phil. 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on.” Paul understood that the true measure of spiritual growth was not how much knowledge he possessed, but how much he had grown in holiness & godliness & becoming more & more like Christ.

c) See, it’s easy to confuse knowledge w/ growth & think more facts means we’re growing. But the Christian life is not measured merely in knowledge, but in conformity. The purpose of the Christian life is not to accumulate a great # of facts, but to be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ.

d) What is God’s will for your & my life? Put simply, that you & I would grow to be more & more like His Son. As Rom. 8:29 says: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Let’s Pray.