Four Fold Pattern (#1-3): God; Law; Bible

Review and the Need for a Pattern

0:03 Anyone who has any acquaintance with the Word of God would not find it difficult to believe that the Scriptures surely teach that the provisions of God's grace on behalf of hell-deserving sinners are both manifold and amazing. In those provisions, God displays to all the universe

0:32 the full spectrum of his own glorious attributes. And in our Lord's Day morning expositions, we're examining some of these amazing and manifold provisions of God's grace to hell-deserving sinners under the general heading of the cardinal blessings of salvation in Christ. The present focus of our study is is the saving activity of God called in the Bible sanctification. That is, that particular aspect of God's saving work which has to do with our human predicament relating to the bondage and to the defilement of sin. And I've suggested that it is helpful to view the biblical doctrine of sanctification as

1:27 under the figure of a massive mountain with three great peaks. The first peak being sanctification begun or definitive sanctification, the second peak sanctification continued or progressive sanctification, and sanctification completed or climactic sanctification. We are presently concerned with examining that second great peak of this gracious provision of God And in our previous studies, we have seen from the scriptures the necessity of progressive sanctification, the essence of it, the goal of it, and then in our last study, the agents in progressive sanctification, the triune God being the ultimate agent, yet the new man in Christ in all things,

2:23 the vigor and engagement of all his faculties as a new man in Christ is also an active agent. Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, constituting the most pivotal text in Scripture with respect to this issue. Now today our attention will be given to the very vital subject of the pattern or the standard of progressive sanctification.

2:53 If the essence of progressive sanctification is, negatively, the mortification of sin and positively, conformation to the image of Christ, then do you see how essential it is for us to have a standard or a pattern in that process? If progressive sanctification involves putting to death sin...

3:23 How can I engage in that task unless I have a standard to know what constitutes sin? If on the positive side, progressive sanctification involves conformation to the image of Christ, how can I be engaged in that process of conformation unless there is a pattern or standard available to me?

3:52 Now most of you kids know what it's like to measure your physical growth by a little growth chart in your room. Perhaps you have one of those that has an animal or something else and then there are the little yard markers and foot markers and inch markers and every once in a while you back up against it and you have your mommy or your brother or your sister place a ruler, a book on top of your head in order to check your growth by a standard that is unchangeable.

4:22 Likewise, if we are to evaluate our growth in grace, by what standard do we evaluate it? If there is no pattern that forms the divinely revealed framework of this process, then not only are we uncertain as to the standard by which to press after this matter of progressive sanctification, but we have no basis of evaluating our progress.

4:51 But God who has given to us in His Word the teaching that sanctification is a process has also given to us a pattern by which that process is to be regulated and evaluated. And so this morning we shall examine together from the Scriptures what I am calling the fourfold pattern of progressive sanctification.

5:21 these things are not four independent, isolated or insulated categories. They overlap and they interpenetrate one another, and in the pursuit of one we are often unconsciously involved in the pursuit of another. But as a teaching model, I have found it helpful, and these thoughts are not original with me, to suggest that the pattern of sanctification in the Scriptures is set before us in terms of four strands of concern. First of all, God himself is the pattern for the process of sanctification. In both the Old and the New Testaments, this emphasis is central. Turn with me, please, to the book of Leviticus for a specimen text

Strand One: God Himself as the Pattern

6:17 with respect to the holiness enjoined upon the nation of Israel. And I say this is only a specimen passage, for this emphasis is found again and again in the Old Testament. In Leviticus chapter 11...

6:42 chapter in which we have details of what we would call the ceremonial law, God directing the conduct of his people with respect to their contact with certain forms and kinds of animals, then God says in Leviticus 11 and verse 44 these very significant words, For I am Jehovah your God.

7:11 "...signify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy, for I am holy. Neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that moveth upon the earth, for I am the Lord that brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."

7:40 Now granted, the holiness envisioned in some of these contexts is the holiness that does not touch necessarily the inward parts. But the great rationale for this separateness unto God from certain defiling things is this constantly recurring emphasis, ye shall be holy for I am holy.

8:09 In chapter 19 and verse 2, we have another such statement. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And so God establishes at the very outset of teaching His people what it is that marks them out as His people, that there is a direct relationship between His being holy and their being holy. Be ye holy, for I am holy. And it is that very emphasis which Peter picks up and quotes almost verbatim in his first letter, 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning with verse 13.

9:04 Now here we are talking not about cultic or ceremonial holiness, but holiness in the sense of true moral purification, separation from the defilement of sin, separation unto a life of conformity to God. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sobered. And set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance, but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living, because it is written,

9:59 Ye shall be holy, for I am holy. And so Peter, as it were, amplifies upon this thought before quoting from the Old Testament. He says, But like as he who called you is holy, so that God's holiness is not only the ground upon which the command for our holiness is given, but it forms the pattern, Like as he who called you is holy, Be ye yourselves holy in all manner of living, because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Now this truth comes to a very vivid and concrete expression in the teaching of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. In the fifth chapter of Matthew, our Lord is dealing with this whole matter of the relationship of His disciples to their enemies.

10:58 How shall I act and react in the presence of those who for one reason or another count me their enemies, who mistreat me? Well, our Lord is giving instruction on that very point, and He says that we are to love our enemies. Verse 44 of Matthew 5, We are to pray for them that persecute us, that we may be the sons of our fathers, Not that by so doing we earn the status of adoption, but that we may be sons in terms of our character, who is in heaven. For he makes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if he love them that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same?

11:55 He therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now in the context, of course, it is the perfection of love. We are to love as our Father loves, manifesting His love not only to those who reciprocate that love, but just who have embraced His mercy and out of gratitude for mercy received Him. Show their gratitude by loving obedience to His law. They are the just, but He shows His love to the unkind and to the evil. He sends His rain and His Son upon just and unjust. And now the Lord says, you are to be like your Father. You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And so the first element of the pattern of our sanctification is God's

12:53 himself. Now, the reason for this should not be difficult to discern. That which made us unique in our original creation is the fact that we were made in the image and the likeness of God. Genesis chapter 1 tells us, verse 26, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And that which makes man utterly distinct above all the other

13:49 of God is that man and man alone is made in the image and the likeness of God. Now it is that image which sin has greatly defaced and marred, but it is that image which God is determined to restore in redemption. And so when we turn to such pivotal passages as Colossians chapter 3, one that we studied in conjunction with definitive or sanctification begun. We are told in Colossians 3 and verse 10 that the new man which we have put on in union with Christ has a specific identity. Look at it. Verse 10 of Colossians 3. And ye have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after

14:49 the image of him that created him. And so from the very beginning of the work of sanctification, in definitive sanctification, God himself is the pattern of the sanctified state. We have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. So from the very inception of the work of sanctification to its culmination, 1 John 3, 3, We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Likeness to God is central in terms of the pattern of sanctification. But now we encounter a problem.

15:45 Our being like God has certain very critical limitations. To ignore them or to go beyond them is to land in the worst kinds of sin. In fact, the first temptation came in that very form, did it not? Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

16:08 And it was Eve's desire to be like God in a way that was not according to the will of God that became the very means of her stumbling or being deceived according to 1 Timothy chapter 2. We are to be like God only in terms of the maintenance of that original distinction. It was God the Creator who remained Creator and exclusively God when He made man the creature after His image and after His likeness. And when the Creator made the creature, there was a chasm of difference that is never blurred in the work of redemption.

16:54 We are never recreated unto the image of God in such a way as to become half-gods or elevated ultimately into gods as you have in pagan theology and even in the theology of the Mormon church. No, no. Whatever it means to be like God, whatever it means that God Himself is the pattern of our sanctification,

17:21 It is to be understood in a framework in which the creator-creature distinction is never blurred. The sovereign-subject relationship is never blurred. And therefore we can be thankful that there is a second strand in the pattern of sanctification. So that we are not at a loss as to know what it means to be like God.

Strand Two: The Moral Law of God

17:46 And the second strand then in the pattern of our sanctification is the law of God. Now by the use of this term, the law of God, in our study this morning, I am referring specifically to the Ten Commandments or to the Decalogue as a summary of

18:08 of the moral law of God. Now the term the law of God itself in the Bible has many usages, probably at least eight major usages. Some would even extend it into more. But for our purposes this morning, since one of the biblical usages is to refer specifically to the Decalogue or to the Ten Commandments, to the Ten Words written by the finger of God upon tables of stone, I am using the term the law of God as one of the strands of the pattern of sanctification in that exclusive sense. And that law is a summary of man's duty to God and to his fellow man. Furthermore, that summary also has a summaries.

19:04 For according to our Lord in Matthew 22, 34 to 40, the entire moral law, the Ten Commandments, which is a summary of all of God's will, that has a summary, perfect love to God and love to one's neighbor. Now it is in this specific reference that

19:28 that Paul, or with reference to this specific use of the law of God, that Paul says a very interesting thing about the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments in Romans chapter 7. And I want you to turn there for a moment, because few passages are of greater importance with respect to the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, as part of the pattern of our sanctification.

19:57 Having said what on the surface appear to be some very derogatory things about the law, the apostle does not want people to misunderstand what he has said, and so he raises the question in verse 7 of Romans 7, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit I had not known sin except through the law, for I had not known coveting except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Now it's obvious he's not referring to the ceremonial law. Obviously he's not referring to the civil law. He's referring to that law which has as its culminating requirement, Thou shalt not covet. Now he goes on after giving what we would say a biography of how the law was instrumental in giving him a felt discovery of his sinfulness itself.

20:53 He makes this statement concerning the law, verse 12, so that the law is holy. He did not say it was holy. The law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good. Now, where do you generally find those terms used in the Bible? Holy, holy,

21:24 Righteous, just, and good. Don't they sound strangely familiar, like the words that are used again and again to describe what God is like? He is called the Holy One of Israel. Thus saith the High and Lofty One, whose name is Holy. Righteous art thou in all thy works.

21:51 the goodness of God celebrated in the Psalms again and again. And so the apostle uses terminology which speaks frequently in Scripture of the very character of God and says that the law has all of those attributes. Why? Because the law is a transcript of the very nature and character of God as it comes to bear upon two things. God's relationship to man the creature, the creature's relationship to God the Creator, and the relationship of the creature to his fellow creature. And what holiness and righteousness

22:37 And goodness mean in terms of man's relationship to God and to his fellow man is embodied in the law. That is, in the Decalogue, in the Ten Commandments. Now follow closely. Those Ten Commandments are not an exhaustive statement of all that constitutes moral law.

23:02 but they are a distillation, they are a summary, which in turn have a summary, loving God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving one's neighbor as Himself. And so it is accurate to state that the law is the perfection of God, coming to expression in terms of regulating our thought and conduct with respect to Himself itself, and to our fellow creatures. That's what the law of God is. Now, it's because of that, that in the New Testament, the New Testament writers are not at all embarrassed or reluctant when teaching the pattern of sanctification to use the moral law. Mr. Garlington emphasized this in your study in Romans, but since some of you were not there, let me just touch it in passing in Romans chapter 13.

24:02 Romans chapter 13. In the same letter in which Paul has taught that we are dead to the law through the body of Christ, that we are not under the law but under grace, whatever that means, whatever radical, whatever stupendous change has come with respect to our relationship to the law, Does it mean that the Decalogue is no longer to be used as part of the standard for sanctification? Well, if so, then Paul was ignorant, and Paul is to be charged with Judaizing the new covenant because it doesn't bother him at all in the midst of giving detailed instruction about the sanctified life to say, Romans 13, 8,

24:58 O no man anything save to love one another, for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. Well, you see, there's no sense in talking about fulfilling the law if there's no law to fulfill. If the law has been abrogated, then it's not there to be fulfilled. But he says, he who loves has fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt not commit adultery,

25:27 Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet. He quotes four of the precepts of the Decalogue. And if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And that's quoting from the Old Testament. That's no new discovery that he makes. The Old Testament summarizes the demands of the Decalogue in those very words.

25:56 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law. Love acting how? Love acting consistently with the demands of the decalogue. A love, you see, that will not violate the property of another, thou shalt not steal. Love that will not violate the sanctity of the life of another, thou shalt not kill.

26:24 And according to our Lord in Matthew 5, that touches even the attitude and disposition of the heart. Love that will not violate the purity and the sexual sanctity of another, thou shalt not commit adultery. And again, according to our Lord, not even in the thought and the intent of the heart. But you see, love does not negate the necessity for love.

26:52 As one old writer has said, law is love's eyes, and without it love is blind. And so I say in the presence of my God, O God, because you have graciously redeemed me in Christ, because by your own almighty power you have brought me to put off the old man and to put on the new, and the standard to which I would aspire is to be like you, Lord, how can I be like you? And he holds before me a transcript of his own righteousness in the Decalogue and says, You can please me and delight me in terms of what you are as a creature in relationship to me and to your fellow men. In the light of these precepts, no other gods before me. Worship me only as I have revealed. Do not take my name in vain. Hallow and sanctify my day. Honor father and mother,

27:51 and so forth. And this then becomes a gracious part of the standard or the pattern of the sanctified life. What is sin? Sin is anything that is contrary to that holy law. And I want you to see with me now as we turn to James that it is the law, the Decalogue, that is to be used in the believer's life to expose his sin

28:19 James says in chapter 2, beginning with verse 8, Howbeit if ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin. Well, how do I know I commit sin? Being convicted by the law as transgressors.

28:48 For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. But if thou dost not commit adultery but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye and so do as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty. You see, James is not at all embarrassed to use the Decalogue.

29:17 as an instrument of pointing out the sins of Christians and telling them that they are convinced by that law with respect to their transgressions. And then in terms of positive duties, the Apostle Paul, who has taught some amazing things in the letter to the Ephesians, that wonderful epistle of grace,

The Christian and the Decalogue: Confessional Summary

29:43 An epistle in which he does tell us that certain dimensions of the law of God given upon Mount Sinai, given through Moses, are utterly done away with in Christ. They acted as a wall of partition according to chapter 2 in Ephesians and verse 14.

30:06 For he is our peace who hath made both one and broke down that middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments in ordinances. And those that would reconstruct all of the ordinances of the Mosaic economy raise up a wall that was abolished in Christ.

30:32 And that's not antinomianism, brethren. That's Ephesianism. That has been abolished. And then along comes some and say, yes. And so has the Decalogue with it. Well, Paul must have had a lapse of memory. Because by the time he came to chapter 6, he says, verse 1, Children, obey your parents. Assuming that there were believing children in that assembly. Children, obey your parents.

31:00 In the Lord, see there's the Christianizing, if we may say it, of the Decalogue. For this is right. Well, how do we know it's right? By what standard do we know it is right? Verse 2. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

31:27 And what the apostle does is take the fifth commandment right as it's given in Exodus chapter 20 and changes a little bit of the terminology with regard to the land. And he brings it right over into the new covenant. And having already said some strong things about that which is done away with respect to the Mosaic economy in chapter 2, he comes to chapter 6 and says...

31:54 children, obey your parents. It's right. And the standard of that right is not some new burst of righteousness that has come in terms of the new covenant. It is there in the Decalogue. It's there in the Decalogue. And he does not say it is there simply as information or confirming thy new covenant law, he said that law is there as law binding upon you and shrouded with a gracious promise. And so the pattern for our sanctification is not only God himself, but it is the law of God. And how beautifully this is stated in such chaste and guarded language

32:52 In the Westminster Confession of Faith and in our own, I quote now from the Baptist Confession of Faith, The moral law, speaking of the Ten Commandments as the summary of it, doth forever bind all as well justified persons as others to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard to the matter contained in it, but in respect to the authority of God the Creator who gave it,

33:22 Neither doth Christ in the gospel in any way dissolve, but much more strengthen this obligation. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned, You see, we do not look upon the Decalogue as something that beats us down and drives us into a corner with condemnation. No, no, no, no. We have fled for refuge to Christ, who bore the curse of the law in His own death upon the cross. And so we are not under the law to be thereby justified or condemned yet. It is of great use to them as well as to others, in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly, discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures, hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin together,

34:33 with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of His obedience. It is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin, and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unolayed rigor thereof. These promises of it likewise show them God's approbation or approval of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works, so as man's doing good and restraining, refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law whatsoever.

35:26 and not under grace. In other words, when Paul encourages Christian children to keep the fifth commandment because it has a promise that is not legalizing the commandment. That's what the confession is saying. Blessings do come in the path of obedience. Jesus again and again holds forth the blessings that are ours in the path of obedience.

35:53 And so the confession closes with the statement, Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it the Spirit of Christ, subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done. And there's the beauty of the new covenant. God says, I will write my laws upon their hearts and upon their minds. I will put my fear into their hearts. Does that mean we no longer need an objective standard? Of course not. If that were so, then all the details of the instructions of the New Testament epistles are superfluous. Right? Why would there have to be page after page of instruction concerning every area of life if the promise of the New Covenant means all of the standard is completely internalized? No, no, what it means is

36:52 that God will in regeneration give a new heart to all of His people so that from within they have an inclination to obey. They are given graciously the power to obey so that what they see in the law objectively set before them, they can say with the apostle, I delight after the law of God with my inward part. So then I myself with the mind...

37:22 Serve the law of God. Now what practical implication does that have? Well, I have found in my own Christian experience that it's a very helpful thing. Periodically to take the larger or the shorter catechism. Take the section on the Ten Commandments. And get on your face before God and pray the 139th Psalm, the last verses. Search me, O God.

37:53 and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. And then go through the meaning of those ten words. Go through the decalogue with the plea that God would search you and show you your duty and show you wherein you are not fulfilling your duty. Why?

38:17 To come into a state of miserable bondage? To come into a state of miserable crippling introspection? No! But as the confession says, that I may go to Christ with fresh zeal to see how much I need Him. That I may, as I see how broad is the law, appreciate as never before what it meant for Him perfectly to obey it.

38:47 So as I see its length and breadth and depth, as I see its spirituality, it shows me my sin, which drives me to Christ. It shows me how perfect is the obedience of Christ, which makes me love Christ more. And then when I feel the pulse of new love, and I say, Lord Jesus, I want to love you more. I want to show my love. He says, look to my law. That's how you do it. Now, is that bondage?

39:16 Is that crippling? Is that antithetical to the liberty and the joy of the privileges of the new covenant? For only one kind of person, a rebel that hates God, who's still in the condition of Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. But don't let anyone tell me that that's miserable bondage to engage in an exercise that makes me know my sin, that I may appreciate my Savior more, and that I may love and serve Him better. If that's bondage, well, bondage. Oh, for a baptism of bondage upon the Church of Christ, if that be bondage. Well, there is a third strand of

Strand Three: The Entire Revealed Will of God

40:14 In the pattern of our sanctification, God himself. Secondly, the moral law. Thirdly, the entire spectrum of the revealed will of God. The entire spectrum of the revealed will of God. Although the image of God is the ultimate pattern, in the Ten Commandments a summary statement of moral duty, these two things do not exhaust the revelation which God has made of his will to us. And though it may be argued that all of our responsibilities may ultimately be reduced to those two great issues of love to God and love to one's fellow man, the fact is the Bible has left us with a lot more detail than that.

41:07 And so you have the admonitions of Scripture such as Romans 12 too. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. Jesus said, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. Paul says in Philippians 4, 8, whatsoever things are lovely, pure, virtuous, if there be any praise, think on these things.

41:36 You have all the details of the instruction in the epistles. For instance, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. The apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says, Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received of us how you ought to To walk and to please God, even as you do walk, that you abound more and more. But he doesn't stop. He gives some details. For you know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of the Lord. Even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication. That each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor. And then he goes on to enlarge upon this matter of sexual purity. Now grant it.

42:26 All of that is implicit in the seventh commandment. But Paul did not simply say, go back and meditate on the seventh commandment. He opened up the implications of the seventh commandment in great detail. And he reminds them of that. Then he picks up the theme of love in verse 9. Concerning love of the brethren, you have no need that one write to you. For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed ye do it to all the brethren that are in Macedonia. But, but...

42:56 We exhort you, brethren, abound more and more. Study to be quiet. Do your own thing. That would be a literal translation. Study to be quiet. Take up with your own responsibility. Don't be busybodies. Work with your own hands, even as we charge you that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without and may have need of nothing. Now that's implicit in the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

43:25 It's implicit in the commandment, thou shalt not steal, don't enter in unlawfully to the fruit of another man's labor and work. But he's not content, you see, simply to direct them to this commandment or that. There is a fleshing out of moral responsibility. And then when we turn to a passage such as 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we understand that Old Testament history is even a revelation of the will of God for Christians in the New Age.

43:56 Paul is giving a thumbnail sketch of Old Testament history, particularly the Exodus and the initial wanderings in the wilderness. And notice what he says in verse 6. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. What's the will of God for me when I'm reading through the book of Exodus?

44:23 And I see the nation murmuring against Moses, hankering to go back to Egypt to the leeks and the cucumbers and the garlic. That's a revelation of the will of God for me. God is saying, don't do what they did. The will of God, you see, is revealed even in Old Testament history. He goes on to say, neither be ye idolaters as some of them.

44:46 As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us make trial of the Lord as some of them made trial and perished by the serpents. Neither murmur ye. Here are four specific categories of sin condemned in the history of the Old Testament people. And Paul says,

45:16 They are written, verse 11, these things happened unto them by way of example. They were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come. That Old Testament history was written to be part of the pattern of your sanctification and mine. We're not simply to read it.

45:42 in terms of what it says pointing to Christ, thank God that it points to Christ, but it also points a finger at me and says, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, avoid this and avoid that. Isn't that the pagan teaching of the passage? And so the entire spectrum of the revealed will of God is part of the pattern of our sanctification,

Old Testament Civil Law and Biography as Pattern

46:12 And then, back in chapter 9, Paul says that woven even into the details of some of the civil law, there are principles that apply to us. Not one-to-one parallels, which are impossible unless you're in the structure of the theocracy, but there are principles. Paul is teaching now that he has a right to live with the gospel. So he uses what we would call natural revelations.

46:41 So he draws some arguments. Verse 5, have we not a right to lead about a wife? Verse 6, I, Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working? What soldier ever served at his own charges? You kids, you know enough about the army to know when a man goes in the army. Does he have to take his own rifle and his own helmet and take his own outfit? No, no, you say the army gives it to him. Paul says that's right, same way in his day.

47:07 And he said, who plants a vineyard and doesn't eat the fruit thereof? What man who has a vineyard goes down to the local 7-Eleven store to buy his Welch's grape juice? He squeezes out his own. Well, of course, that's obvious. But now notice. Verse 8. Do I speak these things after the manner of men? Am I proving my point simply from common, natural revelation? Or saith not the law also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses...

47:36 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or saith he it assuredly, For our sakes. Yea, for our sakes it was written. Now wait a minute, Paul. That was written in the Mosaic economy. Part of that covenant that is utterly, totally, completely done away with in Christ. Don't you know that we're only to listen to the pronouncements of Christ?

48:05 Somebody didn't teach Paul right. He says, what I'm telling you about it's proper for preachers to live of the gospel is not just a common observation. It is part of God's unchangeable moral law. And how do I know it, Paul says? Because the law says thou shall not muzzle the ox. And he asked the question, is God concerned about the ox's belly? No, no.

48:32 He said it wasn't written for the ox. As Lucifer said, oxen can't read. It wasn't written for the oxen's sake. Now notice. Yea, for our sakes it was written. Now here's the abiding moral principle that lies underneath it. He that ploweth ought to plow in hope. And he that thresheth ought to thresh in hope of partaking. That's the changeless moral principle.

49:01 It finds expression in the commandment, Thou shalt not steal. You see, you're stealing. You're taking something that is rightfully another's. If he has given labor, and that is the just compensation when the ox has the yoke, and he's turning that millstone, he has a right. You must not muzzle him for his labor. He has a right to eat the grain that is there upon the floor.

49:29 And he says behind that is a great moral principle that operates in God's universe in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. And I believe it will even operate in heaven. That he who plows ought to plow in hope and he that threshes ought to thresh in hope of partaking. Now what am I saying with all of this? The simple principle, dear ones, that the entire spectrum of the revealed will of God is the pattern of our sanctification. And because as full-grown sons we have the Holy Spirit...

49:58 God will guide us even as we meditate and think upon the principles woven into the fabric of the Old Testament economy. Though there is no one-for-one parallel, and that is clear from such passages as Ephesians 2 and many others, there are great and abiding principles so that Paul can say all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and he was speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures primarily, and

50:28 Profitable for what? Teaching, reproof, telling you where you're doing what you shouldn't, correction, telling you what you ought to do that you ain't, and instruction in righteousness. All Scripture is thus profitable. Now, what practical implication does that have? Well, that means if I want to be a sanctified man or woman, I not only contemplate what God is like as He's revealed Himself, meditate upon His law, that is, the ten words of given to us upon Silaei, but in searching the entire Scriptures, my constant prayer is that God will show me His will for me in history, in precept, as well as in example for James 5.10 says, take the prophets for an example of God.

51:20 Patience in the midst of suffering. So when I'm reading Bible biography, there is the pattern of sanctification. Well then, well our time is gone. Maybe we'll save this because it's really the high point of all. The fourth strand in the pattern of sanctification is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And God willing then, next Lord's Day, we'll take that up as a separate heading.

Conclusion and Preview of Strand Four

51:47 And it will be no burden for me to flesh out that one point into a full sermon. To contemplate our blessed Lord as the law incarnate. As the one who in living characters shows what it means to be holy. Oh dear people of God, if you're taking your sanctification seriously and if you're a Christian you are. How you should bless God that he's not left you.

52:14 To follow the whims and the impulses of your own spirit. How can I sort out what is an impulse. Pumped up as it were from remaining sin. Or an impulse of the spirit. Thank God I have a standard. That God has graciously given. Be ye holy. For I am holy. Be perfect as your father is perfect. He has given us the Lord. He has given us.

52:44 the full spectrum of his revealed will, he has given us, as we shall see, the pattern of his own Son. May God grant that we shall take these things to heart as we seek to be holy men and holy women in fellowship with our holy God. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

53:14 Our Father, we are indeed grateful that we have not been left to follow the subjective impulses of our own remaining corruption, nor have we been placed under the tyranny of men's ideas as to what holiness and sanctification are, that we need not be the slaves of men's rules and regulations, that we are Christ's free men,

53:43 as well as his willing bond slaves. We thank you for the pattern of sanctification given to us in your word. Oh, that we may become more and more acquainted with it, and that as we seek by your grace to deal with those things that you call sin, and to receive from you by the help of the Spirit those graces that will make us like you,

54:12 Help us that we shall be a holy people. For you have said, follow holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Give us then minds subject in every area to your revealed will. We thank you for our time together this morning. We thank you for your holy word. May your spirit seal that word to every heart.

54:42 Continue with us during this day.