In the last 15 or 20 years we have seen a resurgence of Calvinistic and Reformed theology. This emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation is a good thing and we need to be thankful for it. However, understanding the monergistic power of God in justification has led some to incorrectly assume that the believer is passive in their sanctification. We cannot neglect or ignore the scriptural commands to intentionally pursue holiness and follow the example of Jesus.

Because we have a little bit of time before lunch, I want to take a few minutes just to offer a brief synopsis of a concern Bob alluded to it. I think you will agree with me that there's a bit of a...it's a legitimate concern in our day. Over the past 12 or 15 years, maybe a little bit more than that, there's been an increased focus and emphasis on the truth of a monergistic regeneration, that we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. That is a good thing, a good resurgence, a good emphasis that has come back into view. Some of what gave way to that, I think, would be the renewed emphasis on the Bible as the Word of God that happened in the 70s and then by the 90s when people were really reading it.

There's this reformed resurgence that has begun. But with that said, unfortunately, many have swung the pendulum of correction, of God alone accomplishing regeneration. They've swung the pendulum too far, thereby wrongly assuming that we are sanctified in the same way that we are justified. That is, just being passive in our pursuit of sanctification. If God is sovereign, and He is, then He'll sanctify me when He gets ready.

Actually, if you've been regenerated by the Spirit of God, you will want to pursue Him. It's part of the nature of regeneration. The only way to avoid this overcorrection and swinging the pendulum too far, not just with this issue, but with every other issue, is by taking a more careful gaze at what the Scriptures say. Specifically with This idea of sanctification, not being monergistic, but being synergistic. It is not just looking at the Scriptures in general, but looking at the man Christ Jesus.

Looking at his life, the pattern, how he ordered his life, specifically how he related to his father. 1 John 2 says this, the one who says he abides in him, in Jesus, ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. We have a clear pattern on the pages of the Gospels of how we ought to arrange our lives, how we ought to orchestrate the manners of our goings and comings. How did Jesus walk? How did He minister?

How did He live? The Apostle John says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory. He lived among them. He was among the people and He was glorious in that. The question I have, whose glory did John see?

The Father's glory. Philippians 2 tells us that Christ emptied himself. Now he didn't empty anything out of himself. He didn't pour anything out of himself. He poured himself out so that the fullness of deity was dwelling in bodily form.

The deity was enveloped with frail human flesh. In fact, John goes on to say, glory as of the only begotten from the Father. Christ laid aside his revealed glory, not his deity. We're on the same page there. I trust you're with me there.

But then at the end of Jesus' life, in the high priestly prayer, glorify me together with yourself. The glory which I had with you before the world was." Jesus gave up. One of the things He let loose and didn't hold on to was the revealed glory when He came to earth. Yet John said, we saw it. We saw His glory.

How? Hebrews 1, 3. Because Jesus is the radiance of the Father's glory. Because of the way that he talked. This is where John saw the glory of God in the life of Jesus.

The way that he talked and ate and drank and slept and prayed and preached and healed. In his normal everyday activities the glory of God was manifested through Him. Again, when John writes in 1 John 1, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus in His life, in His humanity while He was here on earth, reflected the Father's glory.

And He did so exactly, again Hebrews 1-3, the exact representation of the Father's nature. Now carrying it out a step further, Jesus again in a high priestly prayer, the glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one." We have been called to reflect the Father's glory in our lives. And the pattern of Jesus Christ, His pattern for reflecting His Father's glory is our pattern for reflecting that glory. As you sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world." And we haven't been shortchanged with regard to what is necessary for us to show forth the Father's glory. The gospel has accomplished everything necessary.

The old is gone, new is come. We've been made new, new affections, a new will, everything that was once bent towards sin and away from doing what was right is now bent towards doing what is right. I mean, we still deal with the remaining effects of sin, sure, but we serve a new master and we want to. The Spirit takes up residence within us. God has given us the ability to do all that He has commanded out of love.

He desires us to be conformed to the image of His Son. Our pattern for showing forth the glory of God is the pattern of the God-man, relating to the Father in the same way. And if we had more time, we could just roll right through his life and see all of the specifics, his prayer life, the way that he taught, the way that he grew in wisdom and favor, the way he grew in stature. He was a human, truly God, truly man, the perfect pattern for us to follow, the exemplary reality of what is expected of life on earth created by God to show forth his glory in every aspect. May God help us to take full advantage of being increasingly enamored with this man, that we might order all our ways based on him and his word, that we might learn to love him even more, that we might express that love by keeping all his commands.

The only way to keep them is to know them. The only way to know them is by being well acquainted with the scriptures. May God make us men who love God's Word, who love God's Son, and follow hard after Him. If we do that, holiness will be the pursuit of our lives and will be the men that our families need us to be, the men that our churches need us to be, the men that the community and the culture needs us to be, speaking truth and living in light of that same truth. I'm going to close in prayer, also going ahead and asking a blessing for lunch.

It looks like it's probably ready. Coffee is still available, there's also water on this side of the room here. These tables are set up to take advantage of so we can sit and fellowship. We will reconvene around 1.30, So we can time a fellowship and lunch until 1.30 and then we'll come back here. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for the grace that you've shown us in Jesus, for the wonderful gospel that you've given us the privilege to live with the knowledge of sins forgiven. We thank you that He Himself bore our guilt in order that we might be free to love you and to honor you and to live for you. God, we thank you for the provisions, all the provisions that you've given us, particularly now for food and for fellowship, for friendship in you. We pray that you would use them all for your glory, that we might be conformed as a result of taking advantage of these provisions that you've given us, that we might be made more like our Lord. God use the afternoon that it might be a mark of sanctification in us for Your glory, for our good and the good of those that you've entrusted to our care.

In Christ's name, Amen.