Twin Truths of Sanctification - God's Sovereignty and Our Responsibility

Years ago, many years now, I remember coming across what seemed to be, sorry about that, some contradictory passages of scripture dealing with salvation. On the one hand, I could find a good number of verses that talked about God choosing people or electing people in eternity past before the foundations of the earth were laid. And there are more than just a few verses that say something along those lines. Verses that seem to say, if taken at face value, that the salvation of a person is something that God does all by himself with no help at all or no input at all from the person being saved.

On the other hand, there are plenty of verses that seem to say, again, if taken at face value, that a person must do something in order to be saved, that man has responsibility in the matter, man has a part to play, namely, typically to repent or turn from sin and to exercise faith. And whereas there is a significant number of verses that seem to plainly indicate that the only people who even can be saved are those chosen by God forever ago, there's also a significant number of verses that seem to just as plainly say that the gospel is open to all mankind and that anyone who comes can be saved. I remember scratching my head over that.

I didn't realize it at the time, but what was happening to me is that I was beginning to wrestle with "reformed thinking," though I hadn't even heard such a thing at the time. Well I happen to be listening to a "Grace To You" episode one day. That's John MacArthur's radio ministry for those that don't know, in which Dr. MacArthur was talking about one of his sons coming home from a college Bible study, and MacArthur asked his son how the meeting went. And the son replied that it went really well until the discussion turned to God's sovereignty versus man's responsibility and salvation. And the son asked Dr.

MacArthur, "By the way, Dad, which is it?" And I'll never forget MacArthur's answer, which was, "Yes." I was like, "Wait a minute, what?" MacArthur went on to explain that although to our limited human minds, it might seem that those two doctrines, the doctrine of God's sovereign choice and the doctrine of man's responsibility, it might seem that those two doctrines cannot both be true at the same time because of our limited capacity to understand. They nevertheless are both true. And that makes perfect sense in the infinite mind of God.

We who are earthly cannot harmonize those truths, that God is completely sovereign in salvation and at the same time, man is responsible to God in matters of salvation. That on the one hand, only the elect can be saved, but on the other hand, whosoever will may come. Though we cannot harmonize them in our puny minds, they harmonize perfectly somehow in the infinite wisdom of God. Dr. MacArthur's counsel to his son and to me that day and to us this morning was this, quit trying to harmonize them. As you study the Scriptures, take the doctrines as you find them and let the Lord deal with the harmony.

In that same radio program MacArthur went on to point out that there are other such doctrines that seem to be impossible, but we don't argue about them. He said, "Is Christ God or man?" Of course the answer is what? Yes, he's both. Well he can't really be both if you think about it, and yet he is. And we don't argue about that. Well some do, but most professing Christians, the orthodox Christian position, we simply take it for granted that Christ is fully God and fully man as the Bible says, no problem. Did the Holy Spirit write the Bible or did man write it? Yes. Again, it's really impossible to explain, but we don't argue about it.

We accept it and move on for the most part. Well years after I heard that radio program, Dr. MacArthur preached a sermon on the matter, which you can find on YouTube, and it's called Twin Truths, God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility. Again, that's Twin Truths, God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility, and I highly recommend it to you. In that sermon, he really fleshes out the points he was only able to sort of mention in that radio program so many years earlier, and he traced the twin truths of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility all throughout scripture. And they are truly everywhere, and once you see it, you can't unsee it.

And the problem underlying most of the arguments around the twin truths today is that folks either completely ignore one of the truths, acting as if it just doesn't exist, as if it's just not in the Bible at all, or folks twist the scriptures into a pretzel trying to make them say something they don't say, or more accurately, trying to make them not say what they plainly do say. MacArthur urges us not to do that. Just take the scriptures as you find them, because when the meaning appears to be plain, guess what? It usually is plain, even if it's uncomfortable.

Now then, you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with the passage we read this morning in Philippians chapter 2? You should have your finger there in Philippians 2, so go ahead and open your Bible, and let's again read verses 1 to 13, Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 to 13. Paul said, "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, fulfill my joy that you think the same way by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another is more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others, having this way of thinking in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, and here's where we will focus our attention this morning, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Let's pray. Father, as we examine your word this morning, open our hearts and minds to hear what you would have us hear. Don't let me say anything contrary to your wisdom, contrary to your word. Help us this morning. Help me, Lord, please, in Christ's name. Amen.

So my introduction was focused on what John MacArthur calls the twin truths, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, and his sermon by that name is focused on how those twin truths come to bear on the doctrine of man's salvation. But what I've discovered in my study of scripture is that those twin truths apply to more than just the salvation of sinners. They also apply to the sanctification of believers. And by sanctification, I mean growing in holiness, increasing in purification, becoming more like Christ. That's right. The twin truths of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility also apply to the sanctification of believers.

So the title of this morning's message is "Twin Truths of Sanctification, God's Sovereignty and Our Responsibility." Twin truths of sanctification, God's sovereignty and our responsibility. And my apologies to Dr. MacArthur for kind of swiping that and tweaking it a little bit. So look back at our passage in Philippians, and let's just read verses 12 and 13. And I want you to see if you can find the twin truths right there together in this one passage. Starting at verse 12 it says, "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Do you see the twin truths there? Here's a hint. They're in reverse order from how we find them in the title of the message. I probably shouldn't have done that, but that's the way it worked out. Here the title of the message contains God's sovereignty and our responsibility. But here in this passage we see them reversed. We see our responsibility and then God's sovereignty. Do you see it?

Our responsibility is seen in the words, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." And God's sovereignty is seen in the phrase, "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Tell then, believer in Christ, who is responsible for your sanctification? Is it you or is it God? Dr. MacArthur might say, "Yes." Let's examine verses 12 and 13 a little more closely. Let's read them again together. "So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." What is the function of the first two words, "so then"? What role do those two words play here in this passage? They sort of point backward, don't they? They sort of connect what's about to be said to what's already been said, right? Paul says, "So then," and he could have said, "So because of what I just said," pointing at least to verses 9 through 11. Why do I say at least through verses 9 through 11 or chapter 2? Well, look at verse 9 in your Bible. What's the first word? In the LSB, it's "therefore." What does a word like "therefore" do?

It points to previous verses. So an argument could be made that when Paul said, "so then," in verse 12, he was pointing no further back than to verses 9 through 11. But he also could have been pointing back to verses 5 through 11, or he could have been pointing all the way back to verses 1 through 11. And if that's the case, what's the first word in verse 1? In the LSB, it's "therefore." So verse 1 of chapter 2 is pointing back to chapter 1. Now I don't think Paul was pointing all the way back to "in the beginning God," but he could have been pointing back a chapter, or he could have just been pointing back a verse or two.

But in any event, he was pointing back to some powerful doctrinal truth. I personally think he was pointing back at least to verses 5 through 11. Let's read those verses, can we? "Having this way of thinking in yourselves," which was also in Christ Jesus, "who although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So in those verses, verses 5 through 11, Paul magnifies who Christ is, what he has accomplished, and what will be the inevitable outcome of his power.

Then in the beginning of verse 12 he says, "So then." It's as if Paul said, "Because of who Christ is, because of what he's accomplished, and because of what will be the inevitable outcome of his power, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." D.A. Carson had this to say about what so then is pointing to there. In other words, Carson says, "Paul is now drawing logical connections from the hymn of praise he's just offered up to Christ. There are at least two logical links in the connection he draws.

First every knee shall bow, therefore we do well to live in the light of the fact that we shall all bow before Christ on the last day and give an account to him. And more importantly," Carson continues, "Christ Jesus, after terrible suffering, was finally vindicated. So shall we be. He obeyed and endured to the end and was finally vindicated. Therefore continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Now I realize there's more there in verse 12 and I've pretty much skipped over it and I hope you'll forgive me for that.

Of course I'm referring to the words, "My beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence." And I'm not skipping over them because they aren't important. They are wonderful and full of meaning, but for the sake of time I'll leave them for another day except to say this. Paul talks about the Philippians' obedience in his absence and one commentator had this to say to pastors and teachers, "The measure of our effectiveness in ministry is great, greatly determined by how people live in our absence.

We have accomplished nothing if our disciples only live for God when we're around and then go back to disobedience or complacency when we leave. They must learn to feel responsible to God and not to us." That's pretty good stuff, pretty convicting and he's right. Okay moving on. It's interesting that the word that follows "work out your salvation and fear and trembling" there, the word "for" serves a similar function to the word "so then" at the beginning of the phrase and it can also be replaced with the word "because" as it introduces another reason for the Philippian believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

But we'll get to that in a minute. First though, what does Paul mean when he said to them, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling"? I love the descriptive imagery that Charles Spurgeon employed when discussing the phrase "work out your salvation." Spurgeon said, "I have heard it said that the good sculptor when he sees a suitable block of marble firmly believes that there is a statute concealed within it. This business is but to take away the superfluous material and so unveil the thing of beauty which shall be a joy forever." Believer, you are that block of marble.

You have been quarried by divine grace and set apart for the master's service but we cannot see the image of Christ in you yet as we could wish. True, there are some traces of it, some dim outlines of what is to be. It is for you with the chisel and the mallet, with constant endeavor and holy dependence upon God to work out that image of Christ in yourself, till you shall be discovered to be by all men like unto your Lord and Master. Stop Spurgeon continuing, "God has sketched the image of his son in you in the as yet but slightly carved marble.

He has fairly outlined it and you have but to go on chipping away these sins, infirmities and corruptions till the fair likeness of the incarnate God shall be seen by all." Isn't that lovely? Charles Spurgeon was a gift to us. Here's another nugget I found in my research and this is a quote. The Roman historian Strabo, or Strabo, I'm not sure, who lived in the first century before Christ and wrote in Greek, gave an account of the once famous silver mines of Spain. He referred to the "working out of the mines" and used the exact word that Paul used in our text.

It looked, I think it's "catergazomai." What did Strabo mean when he told his contemporaries to work out the mines? Strabo meant that they were to operate the mines in such a way that they could get the utmost value out of them. They already had the mines in their possession. Now they were to derive the full benefit from them. When we become Christians, I'm continuing this quote, when we become Christians, God plants tremendous potential in our lives like a mine and he wants us to realize that potential to its fullest. Working out the full benefit of our salvation is a task to which we must be committed all of our lives.

I love that the author there pointed out that they already possessed the mines and therefore everything in them. That's an important distinction in our verse. Paul didn't say "work on your salvation." He didn't say "work up your salvation" but "work out your salvation." The Greek there, as evidenced even by the secular Roman historians' use of the word, has nothing to do with adding something that isn't there, but rather a bringing out of something that is already there. If we think back to Spurgeon's words, we aren't creating the image of Christ within us. We can't do that. God does that.

Rather we are working to reveal that image that's already there. Make sense? Also, and get this, the tense of the verb that Paul uses and the middle voice that he uses indicates that he's calling for real effort here on the part of believers. Hard work and lifelong work, continual effort. This isn't a sitting back and passively waiting for God to do his part, sometimes described as "quietism." No, this is effort. This is work, ongoing work, hard work, our work. What about this phrase with fear and trembling here? What's that about?

Well, Psalm 112.1 says, "Praise Yah, how blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who greatly delights in his commandments." Psalm 128.1 says, "How blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways." Proverbs 14 verse 2 reads, "He who walks in his uprightness fears Yahweh, but he who is devious in his ways despises him." And of course, there's a host of other verses that tell us that the fear of the Lord is a good thing. Spurgeon said, "The fear of God is the cornerstone of all blessedness.

We must reverence the ever blessed God before we can be blessed ourselves." Another commentator makes this great point, "The fear of the Lord is the internal principle, but unless there be a corresponding expression in the outward life, what reason is there to suppose that it has any existence at all?" Yet another said this, "How often do we hear of the need to 'fear God'?" Christian culture today portrays a God who is too much our friend to ever give us reason to tremble, but that is to our own detriment.

When we see the darkness of our own heart, the weakness of our own resolve, the power of temptation to sin, we should be filled with dread at offending God. There should be fear, not of what he might do to us, but of the hurt we might do to him." I think that's right. See if we've been born again, and remember Paul is only talking to believers here, once a man or woman is born again, there's no longer any reason to fear the Lord as a judge. Why?

Well, one of my most favoritist verses in the whole Bible is Romans 8 verse 1, and it says this, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." If you're in Christ Jesus, folks, there is no condemnation left for you. Why? Because Christ drank every last drop of it on your behalf. Hallelujah. What a glorious truth. So believers do not fear the Lord in the judicial sense. By the way, let me say this. If you hadn't been born again, you better be afraid, because it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and you have much to fear.

You should be terrified to draw your next breath, because it's only by grace that you are. So believers do not fear the Lord in the judicial sense. We do not fear that He will condemn us. That's over with for us. Rather though, we fear Him in the sense of deep reverence and awe, right? I mean, though He came down to us as a little baby, humbled Himself, lived as a man, died on a cross, humiliated. He's still the God who created the sun and the stars and the sea and everything. He is worthy of deep reverence, reverential fear.

MacArthur says this, "This kind of fear is fear of sinning a distrust of one's own strength in the face of temptation and horror at the thought of dishonoring God." Now I found this so interesting about the Greek construction of this verse. Our English construction puts the "with fear and trembling" at the end of the phrase, but in the original Greek, the first two words of the sentence are phobos and tromos, or phobos and tromos, I'm not sure how you pronounce it, from which we get fear and trembling. So the sentence actually begins with the word fear and trembling. That's significant, as one commentator mentions.

It says, "If Paul is saying, 'First, have a proper heart and mind attitude, then carry out the action of working out your salvation thoroughly and to completion,' he said this, 'How we think about God will always influence how we act before Him.'" I thought that was insightful. So there is the first of our twin truths of sanctification. It's our responsibility to work out our salvation. We don't save ourselves. We don't add anything to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary. But we are responsible to put real effort into working what God has done in us out in every area of our lives.

We are responsible to, as Spurgeon said, "to chip away constantly, continually, with determination and effort at the sins, infirmities, and corruptions of our flesh, till all men can see the image of Christ that is within us." We are responsible to do as the early Spaniards did with the silver mines and dig out all the treasures of Christ that He has deposited within us. We don't put the silver there. We just dig it out for all to see. That's our responsibility when it comes to our sanctification.

So looking back at our passage in Philippians 2, verse 13 begins with the word "for," and we briefly mentioned earlier that it serves a similar function as the word "so then" at the beginning of verse 12. Remember when Paul said "so then" at the beginning of verse 12, it was if he was saying, "Because of what I just said, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Similarly, this little word "for" kind of means "because of what I'm about to tell you." So in the LSB it reads, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for." But it could read like this, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling because of what I'm about to tell you next." Does that make sense?

Well what does he say next? What does he tell them next? Look at verse 13. "For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Paul says, "You should work hard constantly, diligently for the rest of your life to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it's God working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." And there's the second of our twin truths of sanctification, God's sovereignty. The Holy Spirit of God does His work in believers, sanctifying us, conforming us to the likeness of Christ. So using the Spurgeon analogy, who's doing the chipping? Is it you or God? Yes.

Using the Silver Mine analogy, who's digging that? We know God put the silver in there. Who's digging it out? You or God? Yes. I like this from D.A. Carson. The text does not say, "Work to acquire your salvation for God has done His bit and now it all depends on you." It doesn't say that, nor does it say, Carson says, "Let go and let God." God does it all, just sit back and relax and He'll sort of carry you. Continuing, what it does say is, "Work out your salvation precisely because it is God working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." God is at work in you even at the level of your will.

God is at work in you even at the level of your actions. He says, I love this, He says, "This becomes not disincentive but incentive." See the quietness would say, "Because God's doing that work, there's no reason or I'm disincentivized to do anything." Then all I have to do, no, no, no. He says, it's not disincentive, Carson says, it's incentive. Line up with it, he says, "Work at it, work, work, work." And I love how he finishes that quote, "Your very working demonstrates that it is God working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." That's a beautiful thought.

Another scholar said that what Paul is basically saying is, "Work out your own salvation for now the great impossibility has become possible." God is working in you, this is no hopeless task to which I'm calling you, no fruitless beating of the air, no idle effort of the leopard to change his spots or the Ethiopian to wash himself white. The Lord is working in you and He is mighty to save. Listen, whatever impulse you feel, whatever good will to work, look upon it as a token of His presence and of His readiness to help you in it. That is God working in you both to will it and to do it, for He has no feeling but one of good will toward you.

Now listen folks, if you're born again, it is impossible. You can't sanctify yourself. If you haven't been born again, you are like a leopard trying to change his spots. You are like an Ethiopian trying to change his skin color. You can't do it. You can't do it. It's impossible. But God, listen to Spurgeon here, "The assistance of divine grace is not given to put aside our own efforts but to assist them. Observe what God works in us. He works in us to will. The desire after holiness, the resolution to put down sin, the pang of grief because we have sinned, the stern resolve that we will not fall into that sin again.

All of that is God, is of God. And He who gave the desire will surely fulfill it." Did you hear that? He that gave you the will does not leave you there. He works in you the power to do, the power to achieve the victory, the power to smite down the loftiest plume of pride shall come from Him. Spurgeon continuing, "God is equal to all emergencies, therefore fear not.

Though your inner life shall be subject to 10,000 dangers, He will give you power to do the right, the just, the lovely, and the true, for He works gloriously in you." Now Spurgeon's phrase, "He that gave you the will does not leave you there." He works in you the power to do, reminds me of Philippians 1.6 which says, "For I am confident of this very thing. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." Right? In the LSB it says, "Will perfect it until the day of Christ." So if the Lord begins a work in you, there's the key. If the Lord begins a work in you, He will bring it to completion.

If He begins conforming you to the lightness of Christ, you can absolutely rest with 100% confidence He will finish conforming you to the lightness of Christ. There can be no doubt about that, and that is a source of great rest and comfort, isn't it? So here in this one passage of two verses we have both of the twin truths of sanctification. Our sovereignty and our responsibility, although not in that order. I think I recall telling you at the beginning that these twin truths are found everywhere in the New Testament, and once you see them you can't unsee them. I think I said something like that, but I didn't say that I meant to you.

If I didn't say it out loud I was thinking it. Now it would take a whole lot of time that we don't have to give you an exhaustive list of verses that contain one or both of these truths. But I'll just give you a couple of tips to help you go find some of them yourself. Tip number one would be look for verses that contain the words "stand" or "rest." Which of the twin truths do you think such verses contain? God's sovereignty or God's responsibility? Verses telling you to stand or rest. God's sovereignty. Now not every verse would use those words in that way, but that's kind of a starting point. There are some verses that do.

There are some examples, Romans 5, 1 and 2. Romans 5, 1 and 2. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand." And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. In which we stand. That's kind of passive action. We stand in the grace of God. You've heard me more once talking length about that verse, so I won't do that here. 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong.

And then here's Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30, the verses that the Lord used to bring me to salvation. Christ speaking. "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Rest. Rest. Tip number two, look for verses that instruct believers to either work or walk. Either work or walk. Now which of the twin truths you suppose such verses point to? Well, we've only got one left. Such verses point to our responsibility when it comes to sanctification.

Here are a few examples in this group. Ephesians is full of them, as you'll recall from when Pastor Chris taught through the book. Ephesians 4, 1, "Therefore I, prisoner of the Lord," Paul says, "exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called." That's effort. That's movement. That's work. Ephesians 5, 2, "And walk in love just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." That's something to do. It's our responsibility to walk in love.

Ephesians 5, 8, Paul says, "Walk as children of light." Ephesians 5, 15, "Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise." You can find similar verses in Colossians, in 1 Thessalonians 2, 1 John, 2 John, Romans and Galatians and probably elsewhere. Of course, our primary verse is the best example of a verse with the word "work" in it, which points to our responsibility and sanctification, but also has the corresponding truth of God's sovereignty. Just like the twin truths of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility both apply to the salvation of sinners, they also both apply to the sanctification of believers.

And they must both apply because to ignore either one of them will throw you into error or as Pastor Chris likes to say, throw you into a ditch. I guess he spent a lot of time in ditches, so that's a good analogy for him. MacArthur explains that, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which Christians may fall concerning the doctrine of sanctification. On the one hand, quietists stress God's role in sanctification to the virtual exclusion of any human effort. Pietists, in contrast, emphasize self-effort at the expense of reliance on God's power. It's all up to me, I can do it all. Well, you can't.

MacArthur continues, "In Philippians 2, 12, and 13, the Apostle Paul avoids both of those unbiblical extremes and presents the true, balanced view of sanctification." It's both. It's both. So what does all this mean for us? How should this true, balanced view of sanctification affect us here at Grace Life Church or at Grace Life Church? First of all, we need to take responsibility for our own sanctification. I can't be responsible for your sanctification, and you can't be responsible for mine. We can help each other, right?

We certainly can and should help each other by encouraging one another toward sanctification, holding each other accountable, praying for one another. If I come up to you with a chisel and a hammer, you're going to run or call the police. Only you can do that, and you can't work out my sanctification. Only I can do that. So sir, ma'am, you need to take responsibility for your own sanctification and stop acting as if it will happen by accident if you just come to church enough. Don't get me wrong. You should come to church. You should be here to allow the preached word of God to work on you.

And you should listen expositorily as we studied last semester. And you should be yearning to grow in holiness. You should be yearning to be more like Christ. Are you doing that? When you read your Bible, well, first of all, are you reading your Bible? Spurgeon said there's dust enough on the covers of some of your Bibles that you could write the word damnation in it with your fingers. Is that you? Is your Bible covered with dust? If it is, your heart is covered with dust, too. But if you read your Bible regularly like you should, do you plead with the Lord to use His word to mold you into the image of His Son?

You prayerfully say, "Lord, use this time in Your Word to change me, to mold me." When you pray, do you pray? When you pray, do you plead for Him to make you holier? If you committed yourself to your local church, do you look for ways to serve others here? All that takes work, doesn't it? That kind of stuff takes effort. That's what Paul has commanded us to do, though. To put in the work, to put in the effort, to make it the purpose of our lives, to, as Spurgeon talked about, chip away everything that is not Christ in us, or everything that makes it harder for the world to see Him in us. That's our responsibility in our sanctification.

But that's only one of the twin truths, isn't it? What's the other one? God's sovereignty, yeah? Paul told those Philippians believers that, first of all, because of who Christ is, and what He's accomplished, and what will be the inevitable results of His power, they should continually with great effort work out their salvation with fear and trembling, but that they should also do it for another reason. They should do it because it's Him working in them both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Saints, He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

Let me get you to turn to one more place, if you don't mind, and we'll be done. Turn quickly to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. First Thessalonians chapter 5, please. First Thessalonians chapter 5, and I want us to read just two verses, verses 23 and 24. First Thessalonians chapter 5, 23 and 24. By the way, this whole passage, starting in verse 12, is another prime example of a passage containing both of the twin truths of sanctification. Verses 12 to 22 are full of our responsibility, full of commands for us to do stuff. And then look at the other of the twin truths in these two beautiful verses, verses 23 and 24.

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Listen. "The great fault is He who calls you, who also will do it." Man, work out your salvation because He'll do it. Work out your own salvation and fear and trembling because He Himself will sanctify you entirely. That's a no-lose proposition. It really is. I challenge each of you this morning to take your sanctification seriously. Read your Bible every day and ask God to use it to change you. Pour your life into this church and into your small group.

Work, work, work out your salvation. And you can do so knowing and trusting that faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. Now briefly to tie all this back to our introduction, you remember John MacArthur's counsel to his son and by extension to us pertaining to the twin truths. He basically said, "Don't worry about harmonizing them. Don't worry about which might be in some sense more true than the other because they're both true at the same time, even if that's hard or impossible to understand.

Take the Scriptures as you find them." So when a verse commands you to do something to advance your sanctification, just do what it tells you to do. And when a verse talks about God working behind the scenes to sanctify you, rest in that. Praise Him for that and keep going. Make sense? Now here's the bad news. If you hadn't been born again, none of this applies to you. No amount of work will make you holy. No amount of effort will make you good. You are wasting your time spinning your wheels and that's why you feel like you can just never be good enough because you can't ever be good enough. You need to be born again.

You need to be born from above. You need to be a new creation with a new heart and new wants and new desires. Only then can you begin to work out your salvation because you can't work out something that God hasn't worked in you. If you need to talk about that, reach out to your small group leader. We'll help you. However we can. Let's pray.