Main Session 8 - Tuesday Morning

I took a page of notes in community groups this morning, but my computer spazzed and I lost what I'd written. Providentially, CJ preached from the same text in the final session.

I'm outside Galt House right now, just about to head home. I'll format this and make all my notes look good when I get home. I have lots to write about from my personal experience of New Attitude. Amazing stuff. I'll work on that on the trip home and post it when I get there.

Soli Deo gloria.

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C.J. Mahaney – Discern How To Apply

Comb-overs. We don’t do comb-overs in Sovereign Grace.

Recommends “Stop Dating the Church.”

When you arrive home, hold your pastor in the highest regard. Not guest speakers. We want to increase your love and appreciation for your pastor.

James 1

22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23. For is anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25. But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Josh and Eric have been thinking about how to most effectively conclude this conference to care for your soul. They want this conference to be enduring in its effect upon our lives.

They are concerned that in a matter of days, weeks, months, this conference will be all too easily forgotten and just be a distant, fond memory. Josh and Eric want there to be not just immediate, superficial fruit from this conference, but enduring fruit. Fruit that endures over the months and years.

And apart from application of this conference, there will be no enduring truth. Doctrinal orrthodoxy alone will not ensure our future fruitfulness. Now, we fiercely and passionately believe in the primacy of sound doctrine rooted in and reveqaling the Gospel. We are committed to the priority of sound doctrine and the priority of doctrinal precision. And by the grace of God this is a dictrinally rich conference.

My concern this morning is that we avoid the rroneous assumption that sound doctrine alone is enough to save us. Remind you of the critical importance of applying sound doctrine to your life, and the difference that will make, and we avoid the consequences of not applying sound doctrine to our lives.


The Priority of Application

In SG we have a high view of Scripture and of preaching. Expositional preaching from Scripture is a primary means of building the church.

I’d say to pastors (over an orange cream frappucino): Do you practice expositional preaching? Because that is how you will build a church that is ultimately fruitful and pleases God.

Expositional preaching is a priority and should be a passion for each and every pastor.

It also, however, requires faithfulness to apply the preaching to our lives.

Knowledge alone, apart form humble obedience, puffs up. And according to James, potentially deceives. The potential to deceive ourselves exists! We have the potential to benefit from this conference BUT not apply it to our lives.

You deceive yourself by not attending to the application of truth. So we are each personally responsible for that deception. James describes someone who only hears. That’s a concern he’s addressing. That is my concern for all of us present.

James illustrates in verse 23 with a metaphor from daily life: someone who is looking into a mirror. We all look in mirrors. Not for the purpose of admiration, but to assess the damages. Then we devote ourselves to addressing and adjusting those damages before we go out into the world. James is describing someone who looks in the mirror, observes and assesses the damages, and then does nothing and goes out into the world.

The mirror exists not only to observe the damages, but to assist in adjusting those damages. James is getting our attention here. If you do not apply what you’ve learned, then you’re like someone who looks in a mirror and makes no adjustments. The mirror alone is not sufficient. It’s not sufficient merely to own your Bible, or to read your Bible. Those are priorities. But listening to truth is not an end in itself anymore than simply looking at oneself in the mirror is an end in itself. The purpose of looking in a mirror is to make adjustments, and the purpose of Scripture is to help us adjust our faith and obedience.

“True knowledge is the prelude to action, and it is obedience to the Word that counts in the end.”

Truth must be proclaimed AND applied. Heart and obeyed. Preached and practiced.


The Practice of Application

Effective application is specific.

If I were meeting with you at Starbucks I’d be talking at this point about the importance of specificity in the application of truth.

Spiritual growth is a process, not an event. One step at a time. This is important because there’s a desire in each of our hearts for growth to be an event! We want God to suddenly propel us forward, but it’s a process, not an event. It’s walking in the Spirit. There is nothing phenomenal in the act of walking. That is a picture of growth in godliness. Being conformed to the image of Christ usually involves taking a step at a time.

Justification and sanctification are distinct, they cannot be separated, but they are different. Justification is about being DECLARED righteous with Christ’s righteousness. Sanctification, our accent this morning, is about being MADE righteous. Conformed. Justification is about our POSITION, sanctification our PRACTICE. Justification is objective. His work for us. Sanctificattion is subjective – His work within us. Justification is immediate and complete – Sanctification is a process. Justification isn’t a process, it isn’t progressive, it doesn’t occur by degrees. Justification is a gift from God and it is complete when one is converted. You will never be more justified than you arre the first moment when you believe, and no one in the universe is more justified than you are now.

Nothing we do as we accent application and talk about the process of sanctification, will ever add to the process of justification. You’ll be tempted daily to try to smuggle character development into the grounds of justification.

I want you t have an optimistic and realistic view of the sanctification process. God is at work in your life, and He who began a work will bring it to completeion!

Indwelling sin remains, like a relighting candle. You will, by applying sanctifying grace, will blow it out. You’ll weaken it, but it never blows out in this lifetime! You need to be realistic, because at a conference like this you’ll e tempted not to! We’re tempted to think whoa, I am growing! Since I’ve arrived here I’m not sure I’ve even sinned.

OK, well we haven’t really had time to sin. This isn’t norrmal life. You’re going back to normal life, taking with you the sin you brought with you! That sin has been a little more silent this weekend, bbut it can’t wait until you get home! You won’t be waking every day rooming with a godly friend, with a blizzard of messages and lunches and fellowship. You need to be ready to wait for what awaits you at your return. The Enemy will fight you and fight your application of everything you’ve heard. How can we avoid the tendency to be hearers only?

We can be very specific in our application. Realistic and specific.

Powlison: “Just as we don’t change all at once, so we don’t swallow all of Truth in one gulp. Here’s why: we are simple people. We can’t remember ten things at once. Invariably, if you can remember just one thing in that moment of trial, you’d be different. Remembering is the first change… learning this has made huge impact on who I live and who I counsel.”

“Bring one bit of the bible to one bit of life.”

I’m not forbidding anyone from addressing multiple areas, this doesn’t mean you can selectively obey, etc.

This also doesn’t mean your growth will be limited and confined. If you apply one bit of Scripture, motiveated by grace, your growth will not be confined to one area of your life. Actually, when you experience growth in that area, it will permeate every part of your life.

Let’s devote a moment to that right now.

Create a practice of walking back through those messages. You’ll have moments of “I don’t remember this point at all!”

Let’s take advantage of the generosity of free messages and USE them! it’s a curriculum youv’e been entrusted to steward for the rest of your life.

Today, let’s choose one thing. Just one. “How do you feel like that?”

You wanna feel like they feel? You gotta think like they think.

Oh, no. What about the Spirit?

God gave you a mind, and the Spirit works through your mind, and you can’t feel deeply without thinking deeply. As you think and renew your mind, the spirit works through your mind, and you FEEL deeply.

What one bit of Scripture are you applying to one bit of your life?

Pursuing God. Counting every day wasted that I have not longed for righteousness, fought sin, and been in awe of the Gospel.

Humility.


Effective application requires patience with others.

Don’t expect that someone you came with will now be transformed in every way. You will be required to exercise patience, which should be difficult. You might find yourself saying, “Didn’t they go to New Attitude?” The presence of patience reveals the absence of humility.

“Appreciate the patience of God. Think of how He has borne with you, and still bears with you when so much of your life is unworthy of Him and you have so richly deserved his rejection. Learn to marvel at his patience, and seek grace to imitate it in your dealings with others.” – JI. Packer

Aren’t you grateful that He does not treat us as our sins deserve!



Effective application must always be done in the shadow of the Cross.

All application of truth must e directly related to and derived from the Gospel. Let there be NO application apart from the Gospel. We are about the Gospel here! This Gospel is the matter of first importance.

But not only the Gospel – the Gospel APPLIED. All application of truth must be done in the shadow of Calvary.

“…dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard…” – Spurgeon

If I had coffee with you, here’s what I’d say.

“If the Christian finds himself out of sight of Calvary, that shows that he has lost his way.” – J.i. Packer.

Throughout this conference we have had repeated and continual sightings of Calvary.

Until we meet again, don’t lose sight of Calvary. By the grace of God. Read the Scriptures with an eye to Calvary. Let each sighting leave you more amazed that He DIED for you!

For the rest of our lives, may we survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. Contemplating the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.





One area. What does that look like? Panel

Bob: What has it looked like for you to fight complaining and selfishness?

CJ: The root or pattern of complaining - I was at a David Powlison conference, and he encouraged us at the outset to isolate an area of our lives. He used, from his life, the area of complaining.

I began to do a study of Scripture because I wasn't particularly convicted. Studying Scripture and considering my complainingg from God's perspective. How God views complaining, and what complaining reveals. Complaining reveals arrogance. When I complain, I am questioning God’s sovereignty, and His wisdom, and His goodness. I’m calling it into question. I am challenging and providing him with my perspective, and implying I don’t think it should be this way. It is an arrogant form of proitest – It is pride, and it is serious.

This purpose of this process is not condemnation. It ends up in confession and ultimate liberation, as I realized how often I complain about anything and everything. When I took this conviction and then transferred it to my daily life, I realized it was everywhere. Not only everywhere, but there was a deficiency in gratefulness. The humble person is grateful. Meet someone who’s complaining, you meet someone who’s proud. Because we’re doing better than we deserve. An awareness of that should help us put to death complainingg, and inistead cultuvate gratefulness.

Bob: The way he fights sin – He fights sin. “Why can’t I feel what they’re feeling?” We don’t feel what he’s feeling because we don’t pursue fighting sin like CJ!

So he cultivates gratefulness. “In all thins give thanks.” LOOK for things to be grateful for!

Eric: What was a common temptation that ou discerned with complaining, and what was a verse you went to when tempted, for the promise of God?

CJ: Evaluation of what happened on a previous day can help what happens on the next day.

Josh: Can picture one minute of your life being wow, I don’t talk to others. I don’t involve others. What’s an area that would let you focus on that?

CJ gets there first. Hebrews 3:12 “take care of others, lest there be an…. exhort one another daily… so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Arrogantly assuming that I sufficiently and accurately discern what’s in my heart just because I accurately discern the sins in your life. I should assume that I don’t have the same discernment, and I need the eyes of others on my soul. Anyone who thinks they’re good to go needs to go to people they trust and set up times – There will be reluctance; no one here wants to correct anyone.

Josh: You hopefully had a thought about an area of your life – If it’s appropriate to talk about, bring it to your traveling companions on the way home. Talk about each other’s, and suggest Scriptures to help each other.

CJ: I was confessing a sin to Bob, my caregroup leader. I was throrough and impressive in my confession of Sin 1, and trying to get to Sin 2. Different guys asked me questions and I was irritated that they were asking questions “Thank you for asking that, and for caring enough to follow up” – but what I was thinking was “hey pal, wasn’t I clear enough?” The combination of the insights of my friend revealed (1) what arrogance to assume I’ve got it! and (2) I didn’t see it. Because they persevered with me, I began to see, and I’m still benefiting from that.

Remaining sin is also in your heart. It’ll fight you in what even the humble moments of your life. You need to fight that and continue to pursue others’ involvement and their corrections.

Josh: Practice asking this question. What’s your one area, and what’s your one bit of Scripture for that area?