Good evening. Once again, we're back in Systematic Theology. This is session number 62. We're continuing through our study of the order of salvation, what we're calling the Ordo Salutis. It's just a way of showing the logical order of God's steps of applying redemption to his people, those who he elected in eternity past. Once again, I printed the steps of the Ordo Salutis again in your notes, and we're up to step 4A, which is progressive sanctification. That's what we've been looking at. And when we began studying progressive sanctification, I gave a couple of definitions. The first one is from the reformed theologian, William Ames, and here's how he defined it. Sanctification is the real change of a man from the filthiness of sin to the purity of God's image. And then the other definition was from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which defines progressive sanctification like this. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Once again, redemption is God's project. God the Father elected people by name before the world was. Father gave these people to the Son, and the Son agreed to redeem them from sin. The person of the Holy Spirit was to apply redemption to the elect. Now, the previous steps in the Ordo Salutis, like justification, definitive sanctification, adoption, these were steps that were monergistic, and what that means is that God does the work alone. We were passive in those steps. Those steps also change who we are legally before God. Justification changes our legal status before God as judge. Definitive sanctification changes legally who our master is. Adoption changes our filial relationship to the father, with the word filial meaning the relationship between father and child. But when we come to this next step, progressive sanctification, we're no longer passive. God is working, but now we come alongside in that work. And this step is no longer instantaneous. It is progressive. It happens over time. And this step is no longer judicial in nature, but as William, as William Ames phrased it, it's a real change of a man from the filthiness of sin to the purity of God's image. This is still God's project, but we now have an active part in that project. One of the steps in the Ordo Salutis that comes before progressive sanctification was, it was definitive sanctification, if you remember that. Definitive sanctification. That previous step, it was done by God alone. It was done instantly at the moment of our salvation. That step changed who our master is. Because before, our master was sin. Sin was on the throne of our hearts. Our master was Satan. but definitive sanctification changed who our master is. Our master is now God and sin is no longer on the throne of our hearts. And since all that is true, why do we still need this step that we're looking at now, progressive sanctification? The reason is this step, progressive sanctification presupposes that we still have residual sinful thoughts, residual sinful words, deeds, habits that need to be addressed. we still need to be renewed after the image of Christ in our actual thoughts, words, and deeds. In John's letter of 1 John 1, which is where we'll be first tonight, 1 John 1, the apostle drives this point home. I'll be in 1 John 1, verses 8 to 10. Now here, John is addressing false doctrines that are being taught by false teachers. Some commentators call these false teachers secessionists because they had previously been among the church, but they seceded from the church, meaning they left the church and began preaching falsehood. John is battling the false doctrines of the secessionists. As we come to verse eight, John had just warned against the teaching of some secessionists that ethical behavior, well, just isn't important for Christians. Doesn't matter how we are ethically. Now John addresses the opposite falsehood. Perhaps some secessionists were actually teaching that they themselves never sinned and that they had progressed to the point where they had no remaining sin. I'll start in 1 John 1.8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Some of the secessionists seem to be claiming that God had done this special work in them, which meant they no longer committed sins at all. They'd had a special anointing that perfected them to the point that they no longer committed sin. So John was equally against two errors. One error was that ethical behavior, well, it's just not important for Christians. But then you have the opposite error, was that of these secessionists who claimed they had achieved a special status where they no longer sinned at all. And this notion that we have arrived at a point of committing no sins, is as verse eight says, self-deception. It is the embrace of a lie, and the truth is not in us if we believe that lie. So what is John's comfort in the midst of our present condition where sin is no longer on the throne of our hearts, but we still do sin? Our comfort is in verse nine. We confess our sins to God. We face our sins. We refuse to make excuses. We don't deceive ourselves by claiming that we have not sinned. And that's why we're in this stage of redemption where we're sandwiched between definitive sanctification and ultimate sanctification. We're sandwiched between those two events. In definitive sanctification, our master was changed. In the future, in the resurrection, we will have ultimate sanctification and be perfected but we're now sandwiched between these two events. And during this sandwich stage, so to speak, God is working in us and we are also working to properly deal with remaining sin. The Puritan William Ames wrote this about the stage we're in now, where there is still sin we fight against versus sin in the unsaved. He said, thus arises that inward difference between the sin which remains in the faithful and that which remains in others. In others, sin is reigning, prevailing, and predominating, but in the faithful, it is broken, subdued, and mortified. The reason why we call this step of the Ordo Salutis progressive sanctification is because it isn't done all at once. Unlike the steps of the Ordo Salutis that came before, this step isn't instantaneous. I'll be in the book of 2 Corinthians next in chapter four. In this chapter, Paul is speaking of the physical difficulties of his apostolic ministry. It'd be easy for Paul to be discouraged. He might be tempted to shortcut the difficulties of ministry using dishonest means, but he strongly denounces those means. He embraced all of the physical difficulties, including persecution, as an integral part of the effectiveness of his work in bringing the gospel. How could he maintain this attitude? He looked with faith to what is unseen, to the future, to the resurrection. I'll read from 2 Corinthians 4.16. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Paul was called to go through extraordinary physical difficulties for the sake of the gospel, but he didn't lose heart. He knew that there was an outer man, his body that was growing weaker every day, and that's the way of all flesh. We age day by day. We grow weaker day by day. We waste away in a continuous day by day process, like rust eating away at iron. But Paul sets up a contrast, contrast between the outer man, the body and the inner man, the spirit. For the Christian, the body and the soul are both in a day to day change. The body is wasting away day by day, but God is renewing the soul day by day. The day by day renewal of our inner man looks forward to the goal at the final day when we are resurrected to ultimate sanctification. While previous steps in the Ordo Salutis, they were instantaneous, this step, progressive sanctification, is day by day. It is ongoing. It is gradual. And there's a couple of vocabulary words that describe the process for our day-by-day renewal. And those two words are mortification and vivification. Mortification and vivification. Our progressive sanctification is worked out in these two parts, mortification and vivification. First, the word mortification. Mortification comes from Latin, and it means literally to make dead. Reformed theologians use the word to describe the dying of the old self as a part of progressive sanctification. In our daily lives, day by day, the Holy Spirit is working, and we are coming alongside to work, to kill remaining sin in our lives. That is mortification, the gradual day-to-day killing of this remaining sin. We seek to kill remaining sin in our thoughts, words, and deeds. We're gonna be in Romans 8 next, and that's where we'll look at this part of sanctification, which is mortification. In Romans 8, Paul is describing how we live now that we are Christians. Sin is no longer on the throne of our hearts. We no longer live according to the flesh, but we're now led by the Holy Spirit. Before we were saved, Paul says we lived according to the flesh, and therefore we could not please God. but now the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Our master has been changed. We are no longer under the slave master of sin. And because we've been set free from our old master to serve Christ, we no longer owe obedience to the slave master of sin. And now we come to Romans chapter eight. I'll read verses 12 to 14. So then brothers, we are debtors. not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. So the passage here starts with the word. So then, or like the King James says here, therefore, In the Greek, it's sort of an emphatic therefore. It's like saying, then therefore. Paul's about to make a very important point that comes directly from what he has just said. What is this important point? Our masters have been changed. Therefore, our day to day life is permanently affected. The first part of the so then is that we're no longer debtors to the flesh. We owe nothing to our old slave master of sin. Verse 13 then goes on and gives the consequences of living under one master versus the other. Living according to the flesh only pays off in death. Living under our new master and being governed by the Holy Spirit means life. Why do we have life? Verse 14 tells us why. It is because if we are governed by the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day life, This shows that we've already been adopted by the father. We are sons of God. Part of the inheritance of adoption is the right to eternal life. We've been set free from the slave master of sin. We are no longer owned by that realm, but we're still influenced by it. Legally and positionally, we're no longer under our old master, but there's still remaining sin to be put to death, to be mortified. Verse 13 puts us under the obligation to mortify our remaining sin. It says, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Paul presupposes that his readers are being led by the Holy Spirit, Now he instructs them on the implications of this for their life now going forward. They are to put to death, mortify their customary and sustained sinful activities that they had when they were under the slave master of sin. Now verse 13 also tells us about the agents that carry out this mortification. What do I mean by the word agents? I mean, who actually does the work. An agent is someone who acts to produce a result. And verse 13 tells us that the work to be done is mortification, to put to death the deeds or practices of the body. And the verse also tells us that there's a dual agency, a dual agency. There are two persons involved in the work of mortification. It says, if by the spirit you put to death, We are working, but we're working by the Holy Spirit. We work because the Holy Spirit is working. We're gonna go to Colossians chapter three next. And we're gonna see the urgency of our goal to put the old man to death. So we come to Colossians chapter three. We'll be in verses three to six. Paul has summarized theology of what Christ has accomplished for us. Now Paul is stating how we should now live as a result of what we are in Christ. I'll read from Colossians 3, starting in verse 3. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming." Once again, we can see the relationship between the indicative and the imperative. You might remember that the indicative indicates what's true about us in Christ. The indicative indicates what's true about us already in Christ. We have died with Christ. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. That is indicative. It indicates what's true about us in Christ. Only then does Paul bring the imperative and an imperative means a command. We're being urged and commanded to act in a certain way because of who we are. Who we are is that we've died with Christ. Our old self is legally dead because we have died with Christ. We have new life in Christ because Christ has been raised. How should we then live because of this? The word therefore in verse five is a key word. The word therefore in verse five tells us that what we are commanded to do is the result of what we are. The imperative. is what we see as put to death, put to death. The King James uses the word that we're looking at, which is mortify. The literal Greek is a command to put to death your bodily members that are on the earth. Even though we've died to our old selves and we are a new creation, we still have remaining earthly fleshly passions. These fleshly passions war against our souls and we're under orders to put them to death. The goal in progressive sanctification is for our experience in dying to sin going forward to match what we truly are in Christ. There's two parts to progressive sanctification, which are these two words, mortification and vivification. Both of these happen simultaneously, gradually, throughout our Christian lives. We've looked now at mortification, the putting to death of the old deeds of the old self. The term vivification comes from Latin, and it means to make alive the new man. Make alive. It has the goal of molding us into the image of Christ. I'm gonna be next in 2 Corinthians 3. And this is where we can see the positive side of our progress in sanctification, which is vivification. In this chapter, Paul is comparing the Mosaic covenant, the covenant under Moses, with the new covenant. The Mosaic covenant had a certain glory to it, but it was a covenant of law, and therefore it taught us of our condemnation under the law. Paul calls the Mosaic covenant a ministry of condemnation for that reason. Then, He goes on to say that if that ministry of condemnation, the Mosaic covenant, had a degree of glory, then the new covenant, the ministry that brings righteousness, must have greater glory. Now we come to verse 18. Paul carries over the theme of glory, but here he speaks of our inner glory growing day by day in progressive sanctification. I'll read from 2 Corinthians. chapter three, verse 18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. In God's word, we are beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we continue beholding him in his word, As the process of progressive sanctification continues, we are being transformed. And the Greek word used here for transformed, it only occurs four times in the New Testament. In two of those cases, it describes how Jesus was visibly transfigured at the Mount of Transfiguration. The third case is in Romans chapter 12, where Paul instructs us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. I'll read from Romans chapter 12, verse two. since that verse fits right in with the 2nd Corinthians verse. It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now that use of the word in Romans is the same kind of use that we're looking at here in 2nd Corinthians. We are being transformed in our inward character But there's a difference between the word transformed in Romans and the word transformed in 2 Corinthians. In Romans, we're being commanded to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. And here it's in the imperative mood. But in the 2 Corinthians passage, the same word is in a more passive voice, showing that there's someone acting within us to produce this transformation. When we look at both passages together, we can see this dual agency of sanctification. The Holy Spirit is working in us, and we also come alongside and work. We act, and we are also acted upon for transformation. Now we'll go back to that passage in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3.18, I'll read it again. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Since we believe the gospel, we now have unveiled faces. In the word of the gospel, we see the glory of the Lord mirrored for us. As we behold Christ in his word, we are being transformed. As we just saw, we are being acted upon to be transformed, and we're also working ourselves to be transformed. Then we come to the words transformed into the same image. Our goal in the transformation is to be formed into the moral image of Christ. The next words are from one degree of glory to another, from one degree of glory to another. This transformation is from a present degree of glory to a further degree. There is day-to-day progress. It's not all at once. We start with having a certain degree of inner glory when we're first saved. That inner glory increases as we're further sanctified and further transformed. And the verse ends with, for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. It is the divine person of the Holy Spirit who is working within us, and we come alongside and work. So in this passage in 2 Corinthians, we can see several things about the vivification part of progressive sanctification. Vivification is the transformation into the image of Christ. It happens gradually, transforming us from one degree of glory to another. the progression of degree of inner glory, the image of Christ comes to its goal or will come to its goal finally at ultimate sanctification, which is at the resurrection. Finally, when we looked at this verse and in Romans, we see the dual agency of progressive sanctification. The Holy Spirit is working in us and we come alongside and work. We work because God works. Next I'll be in Ephesians chapter four. In this passage, Paul paints a word picture that compares mortification and vivification with removing old polluted clothing and putting on new clean clothing. As we come to Ephesians chapter four, verse 20, Paul is instructing the Ephesian church to not live as the unsaved live, alienated from the life of God. I'll read verses 20 to 24. But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. The old man is the complete package of what we were before salvation. The old man was our mind, will, and affections, and the resulting way of life before salvation. Before salvation, we were characterized by a corrupt way of life. Paul points out in verse 22 that this corruption was their former way of life. There's a parallel passage to this in the book of Colossians, and I'll read that from Colossians chapter three, verses nine and 10. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Now in this Colossians passage, Paul emphasizes that they had already removed the clothing of the old man and have already put on the new clothing of the new man. Paul says that you have put off the old self and have put on the new self. But in Ephesians, Paul tells them to put off the old self and put on the new self. So we put both passages together and we can see that we're to act in a way that matches what we truly are. At the moment of salvation, God made us new creatures. We were born again. We were regenerated. We received a new nature. God also set us aside as holy to himself to worship him. We put off the old man and put on the new man a new nature. Now we are instructed to redirect our manner of life to match what is already true about us. We are to continue removing the old polluted clothing with everything that remains of the drawing power of our old passions. We are to continue putting on the new clothing the qualities of the image of Christ. We are called to come alongside the Holy Spirit in work because sin is a contradiction to what we truly are. So in these two parallel passages that we read here in Ephesians and Colossians, we see both mortification and vivification together in the word picture of taking off old clothing and putting on new clothing. We are to mortify or put to death the old mind, will, affections, and practices. This is the word picture of removing old, polluted clothing. We are to renew our minds and further adopt our new mind, will, affections, and practices. That's the word picture of putting our new clothes on. Mortification and vivification happen both at once simultaneously, continuously, and progressively. The power that enables us to mortify our sins and vivify the image of Christ is the power of the Holy Spirit. If we think that we're just sort of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and just turning over a new leaf, it's worldly moralism. It's thinking that once we're justified, we just become a blank slate, ready to change ourselves by our own power. But God never abandons us in the project of salvation. We are God's workmanship. We are God's project. We work alongside the Holy Spirit, but it is the Holy Spirit who provides direction and power. The 17th century Puritan, Stephen Charnock, wrote this about the Holy Spirit's work. in both mortification and vivification. He wrote, we cannot mortify a lust without the spirit, nor quicken a service without the spirit. Whatsoever corruption is killed is slain by his power. Whatsoever duty is spiritualized is refined by his breath. God doesn't just leave us to our own strength and progressive sanctification. We do work, but we work because he works. The way of life that we now live in this journey of progressive sanctification is the fruit of a changed nature. It's evidence that God has applied redemption to us. And finally, it is our expression of gratitude to God. When the Holy Spirit works within us and then we come alongside, and work because God works, it's an expression of thanksgiving. We saw in the last session that our response is what Romans chapter 12 calls our spiritual worship, our spiritual worship, or as the King James translates it, our reasonable service. Our progressive sanctification is the only rational response to what God has done for us. Gratitude and our actions that come from gratitude are the appropriate and rational response to salvation. But if the goal of our gratitude is to grow in the moral image of Christ, we need a guide in what that looks like. What does it look like to grow in the image of Christ? We need a guide. That guide is the moral law of God as summarized in his commandments. Back in sessions 49 through 51, we looked at what are called if you remember the three uses of the moral law of God. The first use of the moral law of God is to disclose our own sin to us and our need for a savior. The moral law shows us just how far we fall short of the righteousness of God. And looking at the law should strip us of self-righteousness and drive us to the cross for forgiveness of our sins. And then the second use of the moral law is the political or civil use of the law. The law acts as a restraint on society to keep society from being as evil as they possibly could be. Now we come to the third use of the law. The third use of the moral law of God can only be applied to believers. This third use is called the normative use of the law, the normative use of the law. For the Christian, The first use and the second use of the moral law have, in a sense, they've served their purpose for us. The law has already driven us to Christ, so the first use has done its job for us. The second use as a kind of leash to restrain evil in society is not really applicable to Christians since Christians no longer identify with the world, which the world is seeking to cast off God's restraint so they can be as evil as possible. But does that mean that the moral law of God has no use for us as Christians? The answer should be obvious. Of course the moral law has use for Christians. That use of the moral law is the third use of the law, the normative use. The reason why the third use of the law is called the normative use is that it norms the Christian life. It norms the Christian life. And what is a norm? A norm is something that is usual or standard. When something is usual or the standard, it's the norm. The moral law of God for those who are already justified tells us how we should strive to live. The law provides a standard or a norm for our thoughts, words, and deeds. The moral law can't save us, and we don't earn salvation merit by seeking to have the law norm our sanctification. Instead, all of our progress Insanctification is fruit and evidence of what God has done in us and is our expression of gratitude. The theologian Burkhoff wrote this about the third use of the law. He wrote, the law is a rule of life for believers, reminding them of their duties and leading them in the way of life and salvation. John Calvin explained, that believers do have a continuing need for the moral law, which is the third use of the law. First, Calvin pointed to the law's use in understanding the Lord's will for how we should live. Since we love the Lord, and we now aspire to be like Christ, the moral law educates us in Christ-likeness. Calvin wrote this about the law's ability to learn the Lord's moral will. He wrote, It is as if some servant already prepared with all earnestness of heart to commend himself to his master must search out and observe his master's ways more carefully in order to conform and accommodate himself to them. In other words, a servant who truly loves his master will seek to please him. So that servant will study what pleases his master. We have that knowledge of the Lord's will in the moral law. Secondly, Calvin pointed to our need to be exhorted toward righteousness and warned away from sin. This is what Calvin wrote about our need for the law to exhort us. He wrote, again, because we need not only teaching, but also exhortation, the servant of God will also avail himself of this benefit of the law by frequent meditation upon it, to be aroused to obedience, be strengthened in it, and be drawn back from the slippery slope of transgression. In this way, the saints must press on for however eagerly they may, in accordance with the spirit, strive toward God's righteousness, the listless flesh always so burdens them that they do not proceed with due readiness. The law is to the flesh like a whip to an idle and bulky donkey to arouse it to work. Even for a spiritual man, not yet free of the weight of the flesh, the law remains a constant sting that will not let him stand still. I'll be next in 1 John. In 1 John, the apostle first tells us what is true of Christians, then tells us the fruit and evidence of that truth. I'll be in 1 John 5. I'll read verses one to three. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. John begins the passage here with love, and he ends it with love. First, he writes of our love in the vertical direction. Because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, this shows that we've been born again. Because we've been born again, the result is we now have love for God, love in the vertical direction, so to speak. Now John goes on and speaks of love in the horizontal direction, love for one another. He writes, everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. Because our vertical love of God is genuine, our horizontal love for our Christian brothers and sisters is also genuine. Then John goes on to write about the evidence of this love. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. The words, by this we know, speak of evidence. This is evidence of what God has done in us. The evidence of both the vertical and the horizontal love is to obey God's commandments. It's important to notice the order that John writes this. It's the familiar pattern of the indicative first, then the imperative. The indicative indicates what we are. The imperative is the command on how to live in light of what we are. The indicative comes first. First, John writes what God has already done in us. Verse one says, has been born of God. John presupposes that the new birth has already happened. God alone accomplished the new birth in us. Only then do we get to the imperatives, the fruit and evidence of what God already accomplished. The fruit and evidence is loving God and loving each other as a result of the new birth. We don't obey in order to be justified. We obey as a result of the new birth and justification. John also writes about how our progressive sanctification, as guided by the moral law, is evidence that we love God and one another. Once again, verse two says, by this we know. the genuine nature of our vertical horizontal love is demonstrated in the fruit and evidence in how we live in obedience to God's commandments, his moral law. This is because the 10 commandments are a summary of how we love God and neighbor. In verse three, John tells us that God's commandments are not burdensome. Before we were saved, God's commandments were intolerable for us. The law testified against us that we were worthy of death. We were enslaved to the slave master of sin. We sought to be free from any claim of God in our lives, but everything changed with the new birth. Now John tells us that in our new state, God's commandments are no longer burdensome. They are no longer weighty. We no longer see them as severe. Before, the moral law of God condemned us, and it was intolerable to us. But now, the moral law of God is a welcome guide to living a life of progressive sanctification. Before, the law testified against us in God's courtroom. Now, the moral law directs our steps in our gratitude to God. There's two ditches that we can fall into on either side of the road that we should be on. One ditch on one side is to think that we're saved by law keeping. We need to remember that before God regenerated us and justified us, the moral law only served to condemn us. We could not be saved by the law, but there's a ditch on the opposite side of the road, the opposite error. The ditch on the other side is to think that, well, now that we're saved, the moral law doesn't have any role in our lives at all. This error is that not only does the moral law no longer condemn us in God's courtroom, but doesn't even have a role in guiding our steps in sanctification. And that error has a name, and that name is antinomianism, antinomianism. Antinomianism means literally anti-lawism. Antinomianism denies the third use of the moral law. this use of guiding our steps in progressive sanctification. An antinomian will point to the fact that the first two uses of the law, well, they're no longer in force for us, so there's no third use of the law either. The first use of the moral law to drive us to Christ, well, it served its function for the Christian. The second use of the law to restrain an evil society, well, that's not really for us as Christians either, and that's where they stop. And as for how we should live, an antinomian might say, well, there's no law other than the law of love or the law of Christ or the law of the spirit. Now, the law of Christ is true biblical language, but way back in session 51, I already addressed why the law of Christ doesn't differ from the 10 commandments. The moral content is the same. God hasn't changed in his moral perfection. God didn't write the 10 commandments on stone, then under the New Testament sort of changed the content of his moral perfection. So what I'm emphasizing tonight is really a quick summary of session 51. And I'm going through the summary because it's relevant as we're covering progressive sanctification. When we ask what progressive sanctification looks like, we can point to the moral perfection of Christ as the target. It's a target we won't reach. until ultimate sanctification at the resurrection. But it is guiding our aim. And what is also guiding our aim is the commandments of God. The moral content of the law of Christ is no different than the moral content of God's moral law in the 10 commandments. And now that we are Christians, the moral law that was intolerable to us before salvation is now not burdensome. The Puritan William Perkins wrote that one of the reasons why the commandments are no longer burdensome to us is because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables us to gradually grow in sanctification guided by the moral law. Our pattern in sanctification is the third use of the moral law. Before salvation, the moral law of God was our enemy. It disclosed our guilt, but it was external to us, so it couldn't steer our hearts toward obedience. But now that we are saved, we have a new nature, and we've been granted the Holy Spirit. The moral law, it's no longer our enemy. We don't have to hide behind the falsehood of antinomianism. We don't have to close our eyes to the moral law. Now the moral law is our welcome guide in living in gratitude to God. I'll read next. from the book of Jeremiah 31. Much of Jeremiah speaks of the suffering of the people, but chapter 31 gives hope in the midst of their exile. As we come to verse 31, we see the ultimate hope, the hope of a new covenant that accomplishes the purpose that God has for his people. I'll read from Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 33. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." The book of Hebrews quotes this passage to show that the covenant we have now is better than the covenant under Moses. The covenant under Moses had the moral law of God written on stone tablets, external to the people. Under that covenant, the law condemned, and it was designed to lead them to the conclusion that they couldn't save themselves. But now Christ is a better high priest of a better covenant. Before we were saved, we were under the first use of the moral law. The law condemned us. The law is good, but we were not. In its first use, it was designed to drive us to cry out to God to be saved. Now that we are saved, the law acts in its third use. The third use guides us in our progressive sanctification. The prophecy gave the hope that under this new covenant, God would put his law within us and write it on our hearts. This doesn't mean that there is no law and we'd just be led about by how we feel on some particular day. We should not be antinomians. The law still expresses the moral will of God, but now instead of that law being only external with only the ability to condemn, The law now is a guide to the renewal of our mind, will, and affections. God is absolutely invested in sanctifying us because the goal of his project is in verse 33, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. My last point for tonight is important. Our progressive sanctification presupposes that we've already been justified. We cannot justify ourselves by means of the moral law. We are justified because God in his grace has granted to us saving faith in the gospel, saving faith in Christ's finished work. Our sanctification guided by the third use of God's moral law is fruit, evidence, and gratitude. Fruit, evidence, and gratitude. Sanctification is not the cause of salvation, but rather it is fruit. This is critical because there are popular teachers out there in the world who teach otherwise. That's as far as we'll get tonight, but next time we're going to continue with the topic of progressive sanctification and we'll examine the toolkit for progressive sanctification, which is called the means of grace. We'll also look at the error of perfectionism and the opposite error of the carnal Christian. And then finally we'll see how we perform good works in our sanctification and we'll ask the question, what is a good work anyway? Thanks for coming tonight.