Paul David Tripp

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INTRO TO SANCTIFICATION

Posts on the subject of “Sanctification” start today and will conclude in July, LORD willing. These posts are divided into three categories: (1) GOD’s work in my sanctification, (2) My work in my sanctification, and (3) Our work together in sanctification.

At the beginning of sanctification “Generally there is an awakening of heart and mind in which there comes vision and persuasion. There is a conviction of need and a revelation of grace, a hunger and a search, a process and a crisis an act of faith and an assurance of cleansing. It is as distinctly a second work of grace as regeneration is a new birth” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p116).

“[V]ast pieces of your existence are out of your control, beyond your power to alter. But you must not conclude that your life is out of control. Because your story is woven into the fabric of the redemption story, there is meaning, purpose, and direction to every part of it.  The inertia of redemption carries your story along. The goal of redemption guarantees your destiny. The future grace of eternity secures for you all the grace you will ever need in between. No, you won’t understand all that you face, and yes, God’s will will confuse you at points, but your story has been infused with meaning and purpose because it’s been included in God’s story of redemption and restoration. He rules over all things so that his grace can finish its work in you unabated” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov. 8th).

“God’s tender love for His servants makes Him concerned for the state of their emotions. [O]ur Master would not have us entangled with fears. He wants us to be free of cares, doubts, and cowardice. Our Master takes our unbelief more seriously than we do. When we are despondent, we are subject to a grievous disease that should not be ignored, but should be taken immediately to the Beloved Physician” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, May 11th PM).

“Be most engaged in those experiences that have proven to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from Him that all your fruit proceeds. Any holy exercise that will bring you to Him will help you to bear fruit” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 13th AM).

“God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears” (Phil 1:3-6 MSG).

Instruct our minds; our wills subdue;

To heaven our passions raise;

That hence our lives, our all may be

Devoted to thy praise” B. Beddome (ref#224, song #434).

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OUR HELPER

“God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’” (2 Tim 2:19 ESV).

“[W]hen confronted with your failure you can run not away from God but to him. You can do this because your standing with him has never been based on your righteous performance, but on the perfect obedience of your Savior” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Mar 6th).

“[W]hat he really is concerned about is our state or condition. [W]hat really matters is what we are” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p76).

“Though grace be wrought in the hearts of the regenerate, it is not in their power to act it: He who implanted it must renew, excite, and marshal it. ‘If ye through the Spirit do mortify’ (Rom 8:13). First, He it is who discovers the sin that is to be mortified, opening it to the view of the soul, stripping it of its deceits, exposing its deformity. Second, He it is who gradually weakens sin’s power, acting as ‘the Spirit of burning’ (Isa 4:4), consuming the dross. Third, He it is who reveals and applies the efficacy of the Cross of Christ, in which there is contained a sin-mortifying virtue, whereby we are ‘made conformable unto His death’ (Phil 3:10). Fourth, He it is who strengthens us with might in the inner man, so that our graces—the opposites of the lust of the flesh—are invigorated and called into exercise” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p114).

“Go, again and again, to this divine Fountain, taking to Jesus every corruption as it develops, every sin as it is felt, ever sorrow as it rises” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Mar 28th).

“[I]t was not enough for him to just forgive me; he had to come and live inside me or I would not be what I had been re-created to be or do. I need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit living inside me because sin kidnaps the desires of my heart, blinds my eyes, and weakens my knees. My problem is not just the guilt of sin; it’s the inability of sin as well. So God graces his children with the convicting, sight-giving, desire-producing, and strength-affording presence of the Spirit” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 7th).

“It is by yielding to the Spirit’s impulses, heeding His striving, submitting ourselves unto His government, that any measure of success is granted us in this most important work” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p115).

“We can bring our up-and-down moral performance into subjection to the settled fixedness of what Jesus feels about us. [L]et the heart of Christ calm us into joy” Dane Ortland (ref#382, p187).

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NO MORE BONDAGE TO SIN

“The contented heart is satisfied with the Giver and is therefore freed from craving the next gift” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 6th).

“We cannot take the name Christian upon us, we cannot say that we belong to the children of God and are of his church, unless we have been delivered from our filthiness” John Calvin (ref#164, Nov 10th).

“Though God has delivered us from the reign of sin, our sinful natures still reside within us. Even though sin’s dominion and rule are broken, the remaining sin that dwells in believers exerts a tremendous power, constantly working toward evil” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p55).

“Habit is defined as the ‘prevailing disposition or character of a person’s thoughts and feelings. Habits are the thought and emotional patterns engraved on our minds” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p132).

“Christians tend to sin out of habit. It is our habit to look out for ourselves instead of others, to retaliate when injured in some way, and to indulge the appetites of our bodies. [W]e will spend the rest of our lives putting off these habits and putting on habits of holiness. [T]hough sin no longer reigns in us, it will constantly try to get at us. Though we have been delivered from the kingdom of sin and its rule, we have not been delivered from its attacks” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p56).

“[W]hen we undertake anything at God’s bidding, we should beware that nothing should hinder our perseverance. None are fitted to act rightly but those who are well prepared to endure the assaults of temptation” John Calvin (ref#164, Jan 12th).

“We can stand up to sin and say no to it. Before we had no choice; now we have one. When we sin as Christians, we do not sin as slaves, but as individuals with the freedom of choice. We sin because we choose to sin” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p57).

“I can never do too much for Him that hath done so much for me. And I will labour to be like my Saviour, by making humility lovely in the eyes of all men, and by following the merciful and meek example of my dear Jesus” George Herbert (ref#333, p153).

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JOYOUS CONFESSION

“Trusting in God to meet our needs breaks the power of sin’s promise to make us happier” John Piper (ref#220, p247).

“Every time you desire to do and choose to do what is right in God’s eyes, you celebrate the grace that is yours in Christ Jesus” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Dec 17th).

“’Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever’ (Ps 73:25-26). These are the words of a man who learned the secret to contentment. When you are satisfied with the Giver, because you have found in him the life you were looking for, you are freed from the ravenous quest for satisfaction that is the discouraging existence of so many people. Yes, it is true that Your heart will rest only ever when it has found its rest in him” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 6th).

“Sin will rob you of happiness and joy and will give you a sense of condemnation because sin always ultimately breaks fellowship with God and therefore immediately casts us off from the source of all our blessedness. It is no use saying you want to walk with God and then deliberately sinning. The one thing that matters is fellowship with God” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Oct 1st).

“The conscience only retains its tenderness and purity by a constant and immediate confession; the heart can only maintain its felt peace with God as it is perpetually sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. The soul, kept thus beneath the cross, preserves its high tone of spirituality unimpaired, amid all the harmful influences by which it is surrounded” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Dec 2nd).

“Sin separates. But sin immediately confessed, mourned over, and forsaken brings God and the soul together in sweet, close, and holy fellowship. Praise Him for any evidence that sin does not have entire dominion” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Nov 6th).

“God’s love is ‘an ocean without shores or bottom’” Dane Ortland (ref#382, p192).

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REBELLION AGAINST GOD

“We must hate all sin for what it really is: an expression of rebellion against God” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p198).

“God cannot but look upon sin with infinite detestation” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p67).

“It’s hard to admit, but doing what is right isn’t natural for us. Sin turns us all into self-appointed sovereigns over our own little kingdoms. Sin makes us all self-absorbed and self-focused. Sin causes us all to name ourselves righteous. Sin seduces us into thinking we are somehow, some way smarter than God. Sin causes us all to trust in our own wisdom. Sin makes us all want to write our own rules. Sin makes us resistant to criticism and change. Sin makes our eyes and our hearts wander. Sin causes us to crave material things more than spiritual provision. Sin causes us to want and esteem pleasure more than character. In our quest to be God, sin causes us to forget God. It reduces us all to glory thieves, taking for ourselves the glory that belongs to him. All of this means that sin causes us to step over God’s wise boundaries in thought, desire, word, and action again and again. This is what’s natural for a sinner” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Dec 17th).

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart” (Prov 21:2 ESV).

“Transgression means a desire to have our own way, a desire to do what we want to do. ‘Iniquity’ means perversion. [D]o you not see that so many things you do are twisted and perverted? Jealously and envy and malice—how horrible the twist! The desire that evil may come to someone, the dislike of praise of another—evil thoughts, bent, twisted, ugly, foul—‘iniquity’! And we are all guilty of iniquity” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Dec 27th).

“The principle of self-confidence is the natural product of the human heart; the great characteristic of our apostate race is a desire to live, think, and act independently of God. Remember the divine and sovereign grace does not undertake the extraction of the root of this depraved principle from the heart of its subjects. The root still remains to the very close of life’s pilgrimage, though in a measure weakened, subdued, and mortified. It demands the most rigid watchfulness connected with ceaseless prayer, lest it should spring upward to the destruction of his soul’s prosperity, the grieving of the Spirit, and the dishonor of God” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Oct 13th).

“If you are God’s child, you’re either giving in to sin or giving way to the operation of rescuing grace, but your heart’s never neutral” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Mar 30th).

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NEED MORE THAN UNDERSTANDING

“When we do something wrong, we all tend to point outside ourselves for the cause: ‘This traffic makes me so angry’, ‘She gets me so upset’; or ‘My boss pulls the worst out of me.’” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Mar 7th).

“It is hard for us to accept that our words and behavior are not caused by what’s outside us, but by what’s inside us” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Aug 11th).

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:43 ESV).

“[T]he Scriptures are clear that every wrong you and I do flows out of the thoughts and desires of our hearts. It is only when you admit and confess this that you begin to feel the need for and get excited about God’s grace. It you have convinced yourself that you’re not your problem, but people and situations are, you are not excited about God’s provision of powerful forgiving and transforming grace, because, frankly, you don’t think you need it. For many of us, subtle patterns of blaming God are in the way of receiving the grace that we need at the very moment we are working to convince ourselves that we don’t need it” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Aug 11th).

“An act may be very praiseworthy; but if it displeases God, nothing can excuse its commission” William S. Plumer (ref#358, p3).

“The best thing we ever did independent of the merit of Jesus only swelled the number of our sins. For even when we have been purest in our own sight, we have not been pure in God’s sight” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Oct 27th PM).

“A hundred preachers are unable to make an unregenerate person realize the dreadful nature of sin, or show him that he has been a lifelong rebel against God, or change his heart so that he now hates himself and longs to please God and serve Christ. Only the Spirit can bring man to the place where he is willing to forsake every idol” A.W. Pink (ref#360, p20).

“I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O LORD” (Jer 10:23-24 ESV).

“By nature we are not only ignorant of God’s way, but reluctant to walk therein even when it is shown us. [W]e never seek unto God till we are Divinely drawn. This humbling truth was well understood by David of old. First, he prayed, ‘Teach me, O LORD, the way of Thy statutes. Give me understanding’ (Psa. 119:33,34). But second, he realized that something more than Divine illumination was needed by him: therefore did he add, ‘Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p 118).

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LITTLE SINS

“[Y]ou are very stubborn and do only what you want to do; you have not obeyed me” (Jer 16:12 NCV).

“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10 ESV).

“The character of any person’s life is not shaped by two or three grand, big moments of life. A person’s character is formed in ten thousand little, mundane moments of everyday life. [T]hose ‘little sins’ are not so little after all:

  • the nasty retort
  • the ‘me first’ pride
  • the flash of lust at the mall
  • the anger at someone who got in your way
  • those little bitter thoughts
  • your addiction to little pleasures
  • the impatience with a loved one

[Y]ou may fail to notice them, but they depict a deeply needy heart” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, June 16th).

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.’” (Jer 17:9-10 ESV).

“Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you” Austin O’Malley (ref#315, p430). “Envy is like a fly that passes all a body’s sounder parts and dwells upon the sores” George Chapman (ref#315, p196). “To criticize is like complaining that the rain is too damp” Justin Davidson (ref#315, p149).

“God’s grace will expose what you want to hide, not to shame you, but to forgive and deliver you. [B]ecause he knows that we cannot grieve what we do not see, we cannot confess what we have not grieved, and we cannot turn from what we haven’t confessed” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Feb 14th).

“Since sin means that you are a bigger danger to you than anything else in your life and since it is impossible for you to run from you, there is only one hope for you. It is that someone with power, wisdom, and mercy will invade your life, forgive your sins, and progressively deliver you from the hold that sin has had on you. That mercy comes to you in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his mercy is always fresh, uniquely fashioned for the sin struggles of this new day” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 16th).

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PRIDE

GOD accuses:

“I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine” (Jer 2:21 NIV)?

“[H]e does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.’” (Job 37:24 ESV).

“[P]ride, private agendas, personal ambitions, self-promotion, self-reliance, self-determination, rebellion, competitiveness, etc. God is setting His face against flowery orations, hype, and personality-driven leadership styles that get God’s people enamored with the messenger instead of the Sender” Bob Sorge (ref#197, p18).

“If we have to bear the ridicule of the world, that is not so hard. Its flattery, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, and its hypocrisy are far worse. Our danger is that we would grow rich and become proud, that we would give ourselves up to the trends of this present evil world and lose our faith. If wealth is not our trial, worldly care is just as dangerous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, we may be hugged to death by the bear. The devil does not care which it is, as long as he destroys our love for Christ and our confidence in Him” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 26th PM).

“There is scarcely any sin more natural to us than pride, and no pride worse than spiritual pride. But good works are rewarded solely out of God’s mercy and grace; and therefore not out of man’s merit” Edward Veal (ref#225, p315).

“The fact is that sin is a bigger disaster than we think it is and grace is more amazing than we seem to be able to grasp that it is. The thought that any fallen human being would be able to perform his or her way into acceptance with God has to be the most insane of all delusions. Yet we all tend to think that we are more righteous than we are” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 5th).

“The armor-bearer of sin is self-confidence” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Jan 17th PM).

GOD’s call to repentance:

“If you change your heart and return to me, I will take you back. Then you may serve me. And if you speak things that have worth, not useless words, then you may speak for me. I will make you strong as a wall as strong as a wall of bronze. I will rescue you and save you” (Jer 15:19-20 NCV).

Our response:

“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.” (Jer 3:25 NASB).

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SELF-PLEASING

“You disobey not because you lack the God-given grace to obey, but because you love something more than the God who’s given you that grace” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Aug 11th).

“Sin is to look away from Him, to be interested in anything that the world can give rather than in Him. Oh, if it is something foul it is ten times worse; but the best that the world can give me is an insult to Him if I put it before Him” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Mar 29th).

“Sin is the rebellious assertion of myself against the love and authority of God, against the welfare of my neighbor” John Stott (ref#258, p85-86).

“[T]he true nature of sin—opposition against God, expressed in self-pleasing” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p70).

“There is no spiritual love for the true God until self is hated” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p67).

“Sin is an infinite evil because committed against an infinitely great and excellent Being, and so a violation of infinite obligation” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p70).

“The masquerading nature of sin plays to the fickleness of our idolatrous hearts. So what is often is not what we think it is, and the masquerading idol has no power at all to deliver to our hungry hearts what Jesus alone can give us. Only God can give us insight into our hearts and free us from our bondage to the little costume kingdom of one” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Oct 31st).

“[W]ork out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13 ESV).

“Here is a call to be serious about the life that grace has made possible for you. [T]he example reminds you that if you follow, if you obey, and if you do what is right in the eyes of your Savior, you can take no credit whatsoever. This is because your right desires and your right actions exist only because of his indwelling presence and ever-active grace. [W]e do the right that we do because grace is at the moment rescuing us from ourselves” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Dec 17th).

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PLANNING TO DO BETTER

“I realized that deep within my heart my real aim was not to sin very much” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p93).

“Many have sought to live a holy life by their own willpower” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p50).

“People who acknowledge that what they’ve done is wrong and then immediately lay out plans to do better unwittingly deny what the gospel of Jesus Christ says about them, how real change takes place, and where help can be found. What they have omitted or neglected is confession. When you confess your sins to God, you don’t just admit that you have sinned; no, you also confess that you have no power to deliver yourself from the sin you have just confessed. True confession always combines an admission of wrong with a plea for help” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov 17th).

“[A]ll our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa 64:6 ESV).

“[W]hen confronted with your failure [y]ou can comfort yourself with plausible arguments for your righteousness, giving ease to your conscience. Or, in the face of your failure, you can wallow in guilt and shame, beating yourself up because you did not do better and working hard to hide your failure from God and others” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Mar 6th).

“Change is not found in defending our righteousness, but in admitting our weakness and crying for help” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, May 18th).

“Breaking sinful habits must be done in cooperation with the Holy Spirit and in dependence upon Him. The determination that ‘I’ll not do that anymore,’ based upon sheer human resolve, has never once broken the shackles of sin” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p133).

“We have all experienced the joy and motivation of forgiveness. But too many of us have lost sight of it and have slipped into a performance relationship with God. The only cure for this is to come back to the gospel and begin to preach it to ourselves every day. It is only the gospel that will keep us living by grace. And it is only grace that will give us the courage and motivation to mortify sin and to keep seeking to make the right choices even when we fail so often” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p207).