Saturday, April 28, 2007

Dangerous Ways of Trying to be Holy -- Session #1

I don't really have time to clean-up and expand my point form notes on the various sessions of the 10th Annual Cambridge Reformed Bible Conference, but I will post my note none the less. If there are any mistakes, bad theology, or typos. Or, if you cannot make head nor tails of what is here, again fault my typing and transcription failings, not necessarily the speaker. With that said, here are my notes, such as they are, for the first session.

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Read: Gal 3:1-14; 2 Cor 5:14-15


-in OT the word for holy or holiness is qadosh

-discussion about what the root means

-some say “to shine”

-others “to be separate”

-from certain things and to God

-to be separate from what is unholy and separated to God with the goal of our shining

Exo 19:6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

-after people separated from other people

-taken out of Egypt

-told that they were to be a distinct, separate people

-who could shine light of God in their midst

lev 11:[44] For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

-set apart

-to be holy for this reason, because God is holy

-we are people of God

-while by nature were were children of wrath like the rest

-god called us out from the whole to be like him

-not to be conformed to the world

-see 1 Peter 1-2

-law cannot make people holy

-because of the weakness of fallen flesh

-prophets however spoke of a new age

-when Messiah would come

-and make all things new

-Eze 36 [22] "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. [23] And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [24] I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. [25] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. [26] And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. [28] You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.


-God does this for his name sake

-his sanctifying

-cleansing

-setting apart

Matt 1 [21] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."


-Jesus is the only one who can sanctify a person

-came to save his people from their sins

Rom 6 [6:1] What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? [2] By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? [3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

-there is a definitive time when each Christian died to sin

-old self crucified with Christ

-so that rising with Christ we might walk in newness of life

-and no longer slaves to sin

-living in sin is contrary to our new nature


Rom 8 [29] 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. [30] And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.


-goal of predestination

-to be conformed to image of his Son


2 thes 2 [13] But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. [14] To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.


1 Thes 5 [23] Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.


-any view of Christianity that does not have a well developed view of holiness does dispite to God and what he has done


-source of sanctification

-the gospel

-the good news

-the source of our sanctification is the love of God in Jesus Christ

-O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus . . . (Hymn)

-in sanctification section of Trinity Hymnal

(another sanctification hymn “love divine all loves excelling”

-how does it come

-God from the foundation of the world

chooses men/women/boys/girls to be his

-in love

-designed to make us like Christ

-to be conformed to his image

-to say a person can be a Christian and not be holy

-flies in the face of the calling of God

-and its goal

-God gives a new heart

-given from Christ

-God's own heart

-so it is a heart that hungers and thirst and beats and throbs for what God is

-has righteousness of Christ

-so no condemnation

-and hunger for holiness

-the gospel is the root of all sanctification

-must be a genuine Christian

-or cannot take one baby step in the work of sanctification

-witness Nicodemus (John 3)

-religious leader

-Jesus tells him, “You must be born again”

-sovereign work of God


-what are the means of sanctification

-deal with more tomorrow morning

-the means God uses is a faith that works

-phil 2:12-13 [12] Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.


2 aspects of sanctification

-one is definitive

-have died with Christ

-other is progressive

-2 cor 7:1 [7:1] Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

-growing in grace


-how to put all this together

-think of sanctification as a change of kingdoms

-God translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his own beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins (Don't know scripture pass.)

-removed from dominating power of world, flesh, devil

-to where reigning power is Christ

-but old kingdom still has a lot of influence

-still some terrorist attacks

-dangerous ways of sanctification

-ways that become substitutes for sanctification

  1. Moralism

-trying to be holy outside of Christ

-putting makeup on cancer

-how does it influence us?

-as our culture moves further from anything remotely like Christianity

-but Mormons, Muslims, and others are with us in moral area

-before you know it Rush Limbaughs are not far from the kingdom of heaven

-not because of faith

-but because of their moral standards

-John 15, without Christ we can do nothing

-the most moral, upright citizen

-voting, thinking, protesting the same thing we do

-if outside of Christ

-there is no comparison in terms of Holiness


  1. Legalism

    -trying to be sanctified by laws or the law in themselves

      -if i just meditate on the Ten Commandment I will be more holy

        -if I just pay attention to the laws of Old Testament I will be more holy

-this is like playing with a sharp scaple

-the law by itself will not sanctify anyone

-Gal 3

-this is very attractive in lawless culture

-behind Federal Vision ideals

-want people who walk by the precepts of the Word

-if you emphasize law outside of faith in Christ

-you are not fine

-apart from Christ that cannot sanctify


  1. Crisis experiences

-expereince that is meant to sanctify

-Methodism, Keswich and others

-crisis experiences are not going to sanctify you completely

-if one looks for this

-they will be very disappointed

-and will constantly be seeking these experiences

  1. Spiritual breathing

      -breath in Spirit

        -breath out sin

          -preach gospel to self

-but there is a whole lot more to this than that


must have well developed view of Biblical holiness

-backdrop of all this is the battle

-the fight

-flesh lusts against Spirit and Spirit against flesh

-Rom 7, Gal 5?

-our culture doesn't like war

-tries to get out of it as soon as possible

-but only one way out of this war

-end of this life

-either death or return of Christ

-you want to be holy

-lord has enlisted you in his army

-to fight

-the love of God is behind all of this

-to fight

-can only be done if one has received the love of God (Rom 8)







1 comments:

Shawn Abigail said...

Legalism always seems like the quickest road to holiness and spirituality, but in the end it puffs up rather than building up.

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