Focal Point

Mike Fabarez: Sanctification is the evidence of your justification. This principle is so important in a day where everybody wants to say, "Well, I just believe in the grace of God and I know it's all going to work out. I don't have to fight sin because the grace of God covers it all." There ought to be, as the writer of Hebrews says, every effort to be holy. Are you making every effort to be holy?

Dave Drewry: When we're tempted to give in to temptation, it's easy to rationalize and think our sin won't hurt anyone but ourselves. But today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez reminds us that no matter how hard we work to hide it, sin causes trouble for us and for those we love. Just one more reason to fight the good fight when it comes to resisting temptation and pursuing holiness.

Pastor Mike Fabarez is teaching from Hebrews chapter 12. It's a message titled, "Recalling Why This is So Important."

Mike Fabarez: When it comes to salvation, let us just reaffirm what the writer of Hebrews understands and what the New Testament teaches. Letter A, that salvation is by grace. The Bible teaches that if you're going to receive eternal life, you can't earn it. That's what grace is all about. If you're going to go to heaven, you can't do enough good things to get there.

And I know that's what makes us distinctive as Christians because the rest of the religious systems in this world, including a lot that call themselves Christian, are all about trying to do enough good things to get accepted in the eyes of God. And by the way, let me talk about some of your friends or maybe some of you who think, "Well, I kind of believe in that, but it's kind of my good works too."

Jot this down if you would. Galatians chapter five, verse two. We don't need to turn there, but sometime just spend a morning reading the book of Galatians and get it really clear in your mind that if you're trying to embrace the grace of God plus your good works, you will not be saved. If you're going to be a Christian, you're a Christian solely on the work of Christ, and it has nothing to do with your good deeds.

And Galatians 5:2 deals with the common way to do good works in that day, which in a Jewish context was to go through the ceremonial law. And one of the things was circumcision. In chapter five, verse number two, Paul says to the Galatian churches, "If you allow yourselves to be circumcised"—which was all to try and gain merit with God—"if you allow yourselves to be circumcised," he says, "then Christ is of no value to you."

In other words, if you're trying to earn your salvation, then Christ is of no help to you. The only way we can become Christians is to take all of our righteousness and exchange it for the righteousness of Christ. That's the gospel of grace. Now, back for a moment to Hebrews chapter 12. Verse number 14 now becomes jarring against the backdrop of grace because in our minds, if our salvation has nothing to do with our good works, what's this statement all about that we've got to make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy because without holiness, no one will see the Lord?

I thought I'd get to see the Lord and it has nothing to do with my good deeds. You're absolutely right. Here's the truth. Letter B: Real grace fights sin. If you have embraced real biblical grace, then your life will, by necessity, it will fight sin. That's why our fight against sin is required and non-optional because you cannot be a Christian and have real grace in your life without that grace moving us to fight sin.

Give you an example, back to Titus. Go to Titus chapter two. Paul has already spelled this out. Though he is going to underscore justification by grace, he's going to make it clear that sanctification is required because of justification. Let's take a look at this. Titus chapter two, verse 11.

Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." All kinds of people. It's not just Jews now, it's Gentiles, it's barbarians, it's Scythians, it's Greeks, it's everybody. And it teaches us when you're saved and you have that grace that brings salvation, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. That's what real grace does. It instructs us to fight sin.

And to live self-controlled and upright and godly lives in this present age. And we do that while we're waiting for the blessed hope, which is the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. Here's the purpose of his coming: to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Now, when people say, "Why did Jesus come?" a lot of us focus on the justification aspect of it. He came to die in our place so that we wouldn't have to go to hell. And if we would trust in his life and his death, we would be justified. That's true. But this text says he also came for the purpose of freeing us—that's what redeeming means—from the wicked behaviors that we have and to purify for himself a people that are eager to do good.

Part of his coming was not just to save us from the penalty of sin, that's justification. He came also to redeem us from the practice of sin. That's sanctification. And his purpose in coming was twofold. And here's the deal: you can't have the first without the second. You cannot be justified and not be prompted by grace to be sanctified.

The reality of the Bible is simply this: if you are saved by the grace of God, that grace of God is going to drive you to become holy. And if your life is not becoming more holy, then you are not justified. Therefore, the writer of Hebrews can say, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." And that's not imputed holiness. That's the practice of holiness.

We don't earn our salvation by our good deeds. We don't. But if we have been given the grace of God, it transforms our life and he produces in us people that are eager to do what is good. And that's not something that's an option for the Christian. God is going to produce in you a changing life.

"Well, my Uncle Jim, he accepted the Lord when he was young and now he just kind of lives for himself and he doesn't go to church and he doesn't read his Bible, but I know I'm going to see him in heaven because he accepted the Lord when he was like 12." You know what Jim's life is when you say that? Jim's life is a contradiction. He claims to be a follower of Christ, he just doesn't happen to be following Christ.

That's a contradiction. Let's put it this way: serious efforts at sanctification prove the reality of your justification. Serious efforts at sanctification prove the reality of your justification. That's what the Bible is teaching here. And if your life is a contradiction, let's get into the uncomfortable period of the sermon. Are you ready? Letter C: If your life is a contradiction, you're a counterfeit. You're not real.

If your life is a contradiction, you are a counterfeit. Still in Titus? Look at Titus chapter one once you jot that down. Titus chapter one. He's hit all of these things because Crete, by the way, was a place where people weren't really big on sanctification. And because of that, he has to hit all of these topics hard.

He says in verse 16 of Titus chapter one, "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him." That's what your mom used to say. Actions speak louder than words. A lot of people saying, "Oh, I know God. I'm a Christian. I've accepted Jesus." And if your life doesn't show it, the Bible describes them. They are to God in reality detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good. Actions speak louder than words. Contradictions are counterfeits.

There are a lot of people that are going to church week after week and they will not make it to heaven. And they won't make it to heaven, not because justification is earned. They won't make it to heaven because their justification isn't proved by their sanctification. Sanctification is not the earning of your salvation either. It is the evidence of your justification.

This principle is so important in a day where everybody wants to say, "Well, I just believe in the grace of God and I know it's all going to work out and I don't have to live for God and it doesn't matter and I don't have to fight sin because the grace of God covers it all." The Bible says without a serious effort at sanctification, you're never going to see God.

What about those people that don't have a lot of time? They're on their deathbed and they become Christians. Let's think about the only deathbed conversion that we've got an example of in the scripture. He was the thief hanging on the cross next to Christ. Even in the last hours of his life, did he produce any good fruits? Think about it. Yeah, I guess he did.

What did he do? He stood up for Christ, hanging naked on a cross, rebuking the other guy on the other side, telling him to shut up. And he stood up for truth. Now, he lived a life as a total pagan, but in the last hour, even in that last hour of conversion, he showed a changed life. And had he had the ability to get off the cross and live for another 20 years, do you think you would have seen a changed life out of him? Absolutely. Because justification always necessarily brings sanctification.

I've got to turn you to this passage. First John chapter three. This is so explicit and I know there are people that will still leave here and say, "I don't really agree with that because I know a lot of people that are Christians but they don't act like it." Well, then we've got to at least read this passage because this isn't my doctrine, this is the Bible's doctrine.

First John chapter three, verse number five. Let's start there. "But you know that he"—that is Christ—"appeared so that he might take away our sins." Now, immediately we think of two things. We can think just in terms of justification: he came to pay for the penalty of our sin and justify us. But also he's about to make the case that he also came, as we already saw in Titus, to take away our practice of sin.

He wants to change that. He wants to mitigate that in increasing measure. But you know that he appeared to take away sin. And here's the sanctification part: and in him, if you're living in him, if you're in him, and that's a great phrase that the apostles love, if you're in him, there is no sin. In other words, you can't walk in fellowship with God and be in sin.

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. You can't have a relationship with Christ and continue with the same pattern of sin in your life. No one who continues to sin has either seen him. Isn't that the point? Without holiness, you'll never see God. And you know what? You've never seen him if your life is unchanged by the gospel or known him.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. I know some of you are just wondering why is he so worked up? I don't get it. You know what? You've got to get out there and you've got to read a little bit. You've got to talk to your Christian friends about this doctrine and I guarantee there are people adamantly trying to lead you astray. In our own hearts, we want to lead ourselves astray.

We cannot imagine to think that someone is not saved if they've got a testimony about some experience way in their past. We struggle with it. But the apostle says, "Don't let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous." That's justification. He has his justification if he is growing in sanctification. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Verse eight: "He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." Well, that must mean big sins. That must mean guys on the 11 o'clock news. I cannot imagine that's my little secret sins that I don't do anything about. This whole concept is about you attacking sin in your life. And without a growing effort and a growing success in sanctification, it proves that your justification is not real because real grace fights sin.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work, which is not just the penalty of sin because that's ultimately God's just response. The devil's work is the process of sin in our life, and the Son of God wants to destroy that. No one, verse nine, who is born of God will continue to sin. Oh, you're teaching perfectionism, and since I've never experienced that, then this doctrine is false.

That's not what it's saying. All of these phrases, by the way, are in what we call the continuative tense. There are five tenses in the Greek language and we have three: past, present, and future. There are five in Greek and the one that is represented here is what we often learn in first-year grammar: a continuative tense. It speaks of an ongoing reality.

A lot of these are continuative participles. It's an ongoing thing in your life with an -ing. You're sinning and you keep on sinning. And the Bible's real clear here: you can't continue to sin. You can't keep on sinning the same way you did before because there's something different about you. God's seed remains in you. He cannot go on sinning because he's been born of God.

Justification changes you, and you begin to change your relationship to sin. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: colon. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother, which is one of the external outgrowths of our sanctification.

We watch how we relate to our wife, to our kids, to our friends, to our neighbors, to our coworkers. And the bottom line is if you're not showing progress in sanctification, if you're not making a serious effort at putting away temptation and sin, it proves that you don't quite understand justification and you're not a participant in grace.

I just can't buy that. Well, then you can't buy John three. You can do all you want to talk around it or say, "Well, I'm not the Holy Spirit in anybody's life and I don't want to judge people like that." Well, Jesus taught us to do this. Matthew 7:16. He says, here it is, you've heard this before: "By their fruits you will recognize them." You'll know them by their fruits.

And the point is you should be able to tell. Christians will have changed lives and changing lives. You've got to be perfect. Is that what I taught? Didn't say that. But you better be fighting sin. There ought to be, as the writer of Hebrews says, an extreme effort. Make every effort to be holy. Are you making every effort to be holy?

If you say no because you're relying on the grace of God, jot this one down: Jude verse four. There are people that have crept in among you that turn the grace of God into a license to sin. In other words, they say, "Well, I'm not trying hard to be holy because whatever, I believe in the grace of God." The Bible calls that out as heresy. Really. Yeah, really.

Hebrews chapter 12. Let's go back there for a second. Now, that's the ultimate motivation. Why are we going through the hassle of fighting sin? Well, because it's part and parcel of real Christianity. I've got no choice. I don't even have grace in my life if I'm not fighting sin. But he gives us more motivation.

He says in verse 15, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God." Make sure they all have the grace of God, which will be evidenced by making every effort to be holy. He says, "And see to it that no bitter root grows up." And then he describes a problem with sin. When sin is growing in our lives as opposed to righteousness growing in our lives, here's what it does: it causes trouble and defiles many.

Here's another motivation: one of the reasons we fight this thing is because sin unchecked in our lives creates trouble, according to verse 15, and defiles many. There are a lot of consequences to ongoing sin that we ought to fear. Number two, let's jot it down that way: we ought to fear the consequences of ongoing sin.

And that means that if sin is growing in my life instead of sanctification or holiness, then what I ought to recognize is that I should be expecting an increase of trouble and defilement. And this is not the discipline we already dealt with—God is going to discipline his wayward children—but this is the fact that sin itself, if it's unchecked and growing in our lives, causes trouble. It causes defilement.

It hurts in two ways. I've got two subpoints here. Let's start with this one: "Defiles many." Because this is addressed to the church, I'm seeing the "many" here as the people that the writer of Hebrews is talking to, and that's the assembled church, people that are coming together to worship God and listen to preaching. Okay? So let's put it this way: one of the consequences is, letter A, it hurts the church. The church is hurt.

If you don't take care of sin in your life and fight it, and you let it grow in your life, the church will be hurt. Let's look at that from a couple of perspectives. Let's look at the word "defilement," for instance. That's a word that is sometimes translated or at least explained and described as contamination.

When one part of the body of Christ is filled with lives that have unchecked sin, whether it's—and let's look at the examples in the passage—bitterness, verse 15, sexual immorality, verse 16, or general godlessness of the expedience of Esau, who just did whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it.

When there's bitterness, sexual immorality, and general godlessness in your life, here's the deal: that contaminates the many. It defiles many. You don't sin in a vacuum. You sin in a network of relationships. And whatever you think your sin might do by way of defilement, multiply it by 10. Actually, multiply it by 20. Because that's the reality of it.

And from my perspective and perhaps from your perspective, you can look back at times where you saw someone who had some sin in their life and they thought, "Well, this won't really affect too many people." And it has this domino effect. It has this ripple effect. You cannot let bitterness, sexual immorality, or general godlessness grow in your life without it affecting many people.

If you think it's going to affect 10 people, multiply that by 10 and maybe you'll be close to the effect that that will have. Sexual immorality, you want to cut corners there? It will have a domino effect and it will defile many. It will hurt the church. It will contaminate the church.

The best, most vulgar way I could think of it was eating outside, as I was eating outside last week with some guys here from the office. And I thought to myself as the birds flew overhead, wouldn't it be terrible, as Jess was eating a pizza, wouldn't it be terrible if the bird just dropped a little surprise on the pizza? That'd kind of end the lunch for us, wouldn't it?

"I'll have another piece." No, I won't. I don't want it. That's the concept of defilement. I don't want any more pizza with the bird turd on it. Right? That's defilement. And from God's perspective, you can't have unchecked sin in the lives of some people in the church without it defiling many people.

And it's too painful even to talk about, but I think you know of examples in your life or the lives of people around you where you've watched the domino effect, the ripple effect of the defilement or contamination of sin. Not only that, let's look and under this first subpoint here, let's think about the external contamination.

Let's think about the trouble it causes for us outside of the church. Not only does it defile many in the church, it causes defilement outside of the church. In a passage where Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba, remember that passage in Second Samuel? Here comes Nathan. And one of the things he says, which is tucked away unfortunately in some of the English translations, but some of them make it clear, where he comes and he says, "Here's one of the reasons God is not happy with what you've done."

Here's what he says: "Is because you have given cause for the Gentiles to blaspheme us." In other words, let's kind of put it this way in our minds: we trash our reputation as the community of the redeemed. We trash our reputation as God's people. How many times? How many times has a non-Christian encountered the sin or compromise or the general expedience of a Christian contractor or a Christian attorney or a Christian insurance person? And then all of a sudden, his whole view of church and the Christians is defiled. It's contaminated.

Just because of general godlessness. Or how about divorce and sexual immorality? Do you think that hurts the church? Do you think the outsider looks at us and has a jaded view of us if we can't keep our marriages together? I think the non-Christian goes, "Whatever, those hypocrites." You've heard that one before? That's not a new accusation, is it?

Bottom line is God is looking for a holy community, isn't he? Doesn't he want us to live differently than the rest of the world? So stop it with all these lame excuses about, "Well, we're just one beggar trying to show another beggar where to find bread." What are you talking about? We should be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Are we perfect? No, we're not perfect. But boy, we're sure working to be more like the perfect one, the perfect Son of God. Let's keep our marriages together. Let's not be sexually immoral. Let's stop it with the bitter attitude. Let's stop it with the expedience of wanting what we want when we want it. Let's be self-controlled and godly in the present world, waiting for the blessed hope. That would be a good thing. And let's be distinctive as a community of believers.

Dave Drewry: As Christians, we're not living for Christ unless we're growing closer to him. You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and a message titled, "Recalling Why This is So Important." We'll finish out this study next time, and if you'd like to catch up on where we've been, the full series is waiting for you at focalpointradio.org.

Or loaded onto the free Focal Point app and take the whole thing with you. Good for a commute, a walk, or any stretch of quiet. R.C. Sproul spent a career pressing Christians to take their faith out of the pew and into the rest of the week. And his book, "Making a Difference: Impacting Culture and Society as a Christian," does exactly that.

It isn't written for people who've already got it figured out. Sproul writes for the person standing at a work desk, a dinner table, or a school board meeting, trying to work out what faithfulness actually costs in that room. There's nothing theoretical about it, just a clear picture of what it looks like to let your convictions show up somewhere other than Sunday morning.

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Rather mail your gift? Well, write to us at Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. First time tuning in? Well, good timing. We'd like to put a free copy of Pastor Mike's new booklet, "Battling Sin," in your hands. It's a short, direct read on the sin that keeps resurfacing, no matter how many times you think you've already dealt with it. Reach out at focalpointradio.org or call us at 888-320-5885.

I'm Dave Drewry. We'll see you back here tomorrow for the final part of our lesson titled, "Recalling Why This is So Important." That's Tuesday on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Mike Fabarez: Hi, Pastor Mike here. God's Word promises it'll never return void. So I wonder, how is God's Word moving in your heart right now? Drop us a line, let us know. We'd love to hear from you, we'd love to be praying for you here. Just go to focalpointradio.org. And then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of scripture. We'll see you then.

Dave Drewry: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.