Shepherds Conference 2018 - Session 1 Notes

Session 1

John MacArthur

“The Purity of the Church: Sanctification”

 

Galatians 4:19-ff

 

Paul was passionate about the holiness of the people.

Galatians is likely Paul’s first letter.

Galatians is a defense of salvation by faith alone.

Some Jewish teachers had come from Jerusalem, claiming to be Christians, and demanding that Paul and the Galatians affirm that no one could be saved apart from circumcision and adherence to Jewish ceremonies.

If you add anything to faith, you have a different gospel.

Paul pronounces damnation on anyone who preaches a different gospel.

Salvation is not by faith plus works.

Paul affirms that the Galatians are true believers.

They are children of promise.

Who has bewitched you?

How can you be so foolish?

Their sanctification was being interrupted because they were being charmed in a deceitful way to lead them toward evil.

 

The pastor is to be the agent of the people’s sanctification.

Election is entirely a work of God.

Justification is entirely a work of God.

Glorification is entirely a work of God.

Sanctification is a process, and we as shepherds are engaged as instruments of God for the accomplishment of that process.

 

Paul was distressed, fearing that someone or something had led the Galatians away from the simplicity of the word of God and the gospel of Christ.

Paul wanted to build the church into Christ’s likeness.

We see this in all his letters.

Cited examples from 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians.

Cited 1 Peter 5:1-4.

Cited the example of Jesus.

 

The doctrine of sanctification defines our ministry.

 

We are for the sanctification of God’s people.

This is a progressive, life-long work.

You cannot be content that they are there.

You cannot be content that they like your preaching.

You must long for them to be manifestly sanctified.

The means and motivation matter.

Means: prayer, word of God, fellowship, worship, etc.

 

What do we do?

Do we need to be more demanding?

We need to show them Christ so that they will love him more.

 

This whole subject of sanctification is absent from the contemporary church.

Maturity is in rare supply.

Preachers used to give calls to holiness.

Sanctification used to have a more central place in the church.

Popular preachers do not seem to call people to sanctification.

We may like the doctrine of election.

We may like faith alone.

We may like glorification, though we do not talk about it much. But how little is said about sanctification?

We legitimize the longings of the selfish human heart.

We use that to attract people to the church.

This new version of Christianity appeals to people’s consuming self-interest.

WE avoid what condemns or convicts.

Even in reformed churches, there seems to be indifference to sanctification.

 

How did we get to this point?

For centuries, churches were theological and transcendent.

Churches used to be worried about virtue and holiness.

Churches opposed worldliness.

They thought deeply about the glory of God.

Now we are psychological, we redefine worship as musical stimulation, and people think about their own wants rather than the glory of God.

 

People are more interested in personal satisfaction than sanctification.

How did we get here?

Freud?

Freud said that everyone should be free from restraint and constraint.

He called for authenticity.

He called for people to accept the legitimacy of their own desires.

Be who you are.

This is your true self.

Youthful, irresponsible desire is elevated to a good place.

This has dominated our culture.

See that advertising is focused on the 18-30 year-olds who have no money.

They define authenticity in our culture.

 

Because the church preached against such sinful authenticity, the world has rejected the church.

They say we are hypocrites.

The selfish hedonist is the hero.

The church is full of phonies.

 

Decades ago, the church began to fear they would lose their young people.

They decided to work to keep them by dumbing down the worship and teaching.

We have bowed to a cheap, immature, adolescent culture.

 

Modern people do not want thoughtful, serious, sober focus on the word of God and sanctification.

 

Our job is not to make unbelievers happy with the church, our job is to make the saints more like Christ.

 

Antinomianism results from what has happened.

This is who I am.

This is how I’m wired.

Christ paid for my sins and lived a perfect life credited to my account.

That is true.

Now I need to just accept that perfect life and stop worrying about my growth.

That is false.

 

This is an old heresy.

We think this is a cure for legalism.

The antinomian thinks he is free from the law, and he celebrates that.

The legalist defines his relationship to God by keeping the law.

The Antinomian defines his relationship with God by not keeping the law.

None of us should define our relationship to God by the law.

Do not attach yourself to the law as the defining reality of your relationship to God.

Both legalism and antinomianism fail here.

 

Modern antinomians say if you obey the word of God out of a sense of duty or respect, that is sin, a trap.

 

Titus 2:11-ff

The same grace that saved us is the grace that instructs us to holiness.

 

Romans 5:1

Sin reigned, but now grace reigns.

The grace of God instructs us to deny ungodliness.

Grace corrects. Grace disciplines.

 

Sanctification is the process of fighting for full joy and not selling out for a cheap substitute along the pathway.

 

Now to Galatians.

All the preceding was introduction.

Paul is like a mother who birthed these people into new life.

He wonders why he is suffering through that process again.

 

Verse 20

I am perplexed about you.

I wish I could change my tone.

 

Pastors, we want to bring people to conformity to Christ.

It is not about redeeming the culture.

It is about the sanctification of the saints whose transformed lives will impact the culture.

 

Listening to expository preaching is a skill.

It is an acquired taste.