Meditation and prayer is where the Holy Spirit brings us into sweet communion with Christ. As we behold Him, we treasure Him. As we hear His voice, we delight in Him more, and God is glorified. This you could call the hearing of His voice.

But what happens when our quiet time is over, or when the service has concluded or the teaching time is over? It is most often here that we do not know how to relate the parts to the whole. Once we move from the time in the Word to our acts in the world, we seem to be confronted with a nearly endless list of various Christian duties: evangelism, discipleship, giving, church attendance, loving the brethren, serving in the local church, wise stewardship, global missions, intercessory prayer, godliness in my speech, thoughts and words, Christlike family life, being a godly husband or wife, being a godly parent, relating to my employer and job in a Christlike way, using my spiritual gifts, living a holy life – the list could be extended. And if we are not careful, all these things can seem like an unconnected mass of things, and we will lose the clear, unifying philosophy of loving God to glorify Him – treasuring God to display His value. But that same unifying philosophy is what is at work here, and that is what we want to look at today. All these things can be united under one banner – Treasuring God in Sanctification and Service.

It seems it is easier for us to recognize the Holy Spirit’s ministry of revealing Jesus Christ when it comes to the Word and prayer. We easily identify that whether it comes to the preaching of the Word at church, or our own private devotions – the Holy Spirit must reveal Christ. But what we need to see is that He continues to do that in as we move from our quiet time or the time of preaching. His ministry continues to be the unveiling, the revealing of Jesus to humble eyes of faith, as we move about in the world.

The difference is this: the Word can be thought of as God’s voice, what we are about to look at can be thought of as God’s hand. The previous session was about hearing, this one is about doing or following. Or you could say – we looked at Treasuring God Through His Word, what we are about to look at is Treasuring God Through His Works.

God’s Works

God continues to work, unceasingly. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Scripture puts God’s Works almost on the same level as His Word. Listen to the Psalmists’ cries, just a fraction of the verses dealing with God’s Works:

• Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. (Psa 111:2)
• I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. (Psa 77:11-12)
• Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. (Psa 90:16)
• We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. (Psa 78:4)
• Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! (Psa 105:1)

In fact, the Psalmists repeat this refrain – worship God according to His excellent greatness, but worship Him also for His wondrous deeds. Treasure God for who He says He is, and then treasure God when you see Him fulfilling His Word. Love God for what He says He is, and then love Him as you see that fleshed out in the world.

Many Christians lack much joy in God, because they believe God rested from His works on the seventh day in a final and absolute sense. Or they believe God Worked in the times of the Bible, but no longer. They do not expect to see God at work, they do not have humble faith that treasures the works of God. As such, their love for God becomes sadly academic. The Bible becomes to them the last will and testament of God, which they study as if studying the autobiography of a long deceased person. Oh, they will reject such descriptions of their hearts, but their moment-to-moment life reflects that they expect to find God only in their quiet times and at church. God is most certainly there – but He is ever active, a gloriously sovereign, energetic God – who providentially preserves sparrows, and keeps the hearts of His enemies beating, who gives rain to the just and unjust, who numbers the hairs on each head and gives breath to all life, and governs His universe down to the smallest atom, and continues His work of reconciliation. And according to Ephesians 1:10, He is working all things to the consummation point, when His Son will be universally recognised as the head, the supreme One, the lord of all. And it is God’s desire that His children behold His work in them and through them as a further means of beholding Him. When you know Him, you love Him. To know Him, you must see Him. So God wants us to see Him at work in us and through us.

God’s Three Main Works with His Children

God does 3 main works with His children. Firstly He does a work around us. That’s providence. His act of preserving and governing the world, of sustaining us and all that is around us. This work ought to cause great humility, trust and dependence in us. This work is worth a study all of its own. But we are going to focus on His two other works.

He does a work in us – Sanctification. That is, He, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ, He conforms us, shapes us, transforms us to be like Christ- holier.

He does a work through us – Service. The Holy Spirit causes us to be like Christ toward other Christians – servants who seek the joy and wellbeing of their fellow believers. He causes us to be like Christ toward unbelievers, redemptively seeking their souls, teaching them the Gospel, loving them as we love ourselves, and modeling the beauty of Christ before them. In that way, we serve them as well. We come to seek and to save that which is lost.

In both cases, the work in us, and the work through us – it is once again the Holy Spirit doing His ministry of revealing Christ to our spiritual eyes.

And that is what we have to see – the work of sanctification, and the work of service are not ends in themselves. They are means to the final end – to see Christ and treasure Him. Whenever a church teaches sanctification as a final end – the result is legalism. Whenever a church teaches service as an end in itself, the result is cold, heartless, unmotivated service. When we see that these things are tools, they are means, they are media through which the Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to us, we will once again have that unifying philosophy – every thing I do, I do to see Christ and so treasure Him and glorify God. So, my motive must be in seeking holiness and usefulness – to see Him more and thereby treasure Him – know His value.

Sanctification

Sanctification simply means – to be set apart. It refers to the process whereby God the Holy Spirit increasingly separates us from sin to Christlikeness. At salvation we are sanctified in a positional sense, but then all our lives, we are to submit to Him in the Word of God, and we will be sanctified in a practical sense. He produces what He has already imputed – the righteousness of Christ.

How does this happen? It actually goes back to what we looked at last time – the Word of God. As we are illuminated by the Holy Spirit, we come to treasure Christ, emotionally, mentally and volitionally. And we become what we love. Have you ever noticed that people, over time, become the sum of their loves? People who love perverse and twisted things, become perverse and twisted. People who love the wrong things become the wrong kind of person. Henry Scougal said: “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” This is why exposure to the Word of God combined with Holy Spirit illumination is what transforms us. 2 Corinthians 3:18 has the answer: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Jim Berg uses the illustration of being ‘Tanned by the Son”. He points out that in the same way that increased exposure to the sun causes our skin to change appearance, so increased exposure to the Son in the Word, will cause us to be changed. That’s what 2 Cor 3:18 refers to. Beholding Christ’s glory in the Word by the Holy Spirit causes us to be transformed into His image, from one degree of glory to another. And it is because what we see we love, and desire, and treasure.

The more beholding of the beauty we do in prayerful meditation and in other contexts – the more like the Son we become. What we treasure and delight in, we end up imitating.

Beholding God in His Word will enable us to behold Him in His Works. Without illumination, there will be no imitation.

Once again, humble faith is to be the posture. Just as illumination only comes to the humble, so transforming grace only comes to the humble.

How does it happen? Again – I give you not a methodology, but a theology, an overall description of how humble faith relates to sanctification, and why God blesses it. Many have written wonderful books on sanctification and Biblical change, I won’t seek to repeat what they have written. But let me tie together these concepts we have been speaking about in relation to sanctification, treasuring Christ and humility-faith.

Humility-faith wants to see Christ. Therefore, it is willing to do whatever necessary, adopt whatever posture, remove whatever influences necessary to see Him. So what will that look like? Firstly, humility wants to receive correction, it wants to know the truth about itself. Pride is ever denying, blame-shifting, hardening its heart, and thinking itself fine. Humility wants whatever done so as to see Christ more clearly. Humility will claim ownership for what is wrong, and repent of it. When convicted, pride will lash out, make excuses, deny or simply ignore. Humility will admit the sin, and bear the pain, waiting for God’s cleansing power. That’s because it is intent upon seeing Christ and experiencing the divine nature.

Secondly, humility will know its weak and deceitful heart and so seek to remove sinful influences and temptations and opportunities to sin from life. The proud heart thinks it can fight temptation. Humility flees temptation, prays not to enter into it, makes no provision for the flesh, and removes all that will inflame sinful desire.

Thirdly, humility will hunger and thirst after righteousness. Humility is not static or passive. Humility pursues with vigour the nature of Christ to replace what has been removed. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mat 5:6)

So it will believe His promises and step out in obedience – putting on. This is the familiar, put off, be renewed in your mind and put on His likeness theme of Ephesians 4:22-24. “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:22-24)

The putting off and putting on is usually one smooth motion, the motion of doing what is Christlike to the neglect of doing what is wrong. To do what is Christlike, I must necessarily be doing the opposite of sin. I deliberately imitate Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fourthly, humility will wait and trust God to provide the grace, and the transformation of mind, heart and soul. Humility does not think that it can effect such a transformation by itself. It obeys, waiting on God to give the grace.

God, to encourage and shape our sanctification, injects a carefully measured out mixture of blessing and suffering. This mixture trains us in righteousness, makes us glad to continue, makes us love heaven, makes us endure more, – indeed, He teaches us more humility and faith. God is always working in us to will and to do His good pleasure.

This internal change affects every part of us. Our thinking, our speech, our behaviour, our use of resources, our relationships, Every part of us, as we spend time in illuminated meditation, we will increasingly love the image of Christ.

As we seek to put off the old, and put on the new, the Holy Spirit provides the enablement (Rom 8:13, Gal 5:22-23).

What is going on here? The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us in the Word by illumination. But increasingly, He causes us to become like Jesus through imitation. And what happens to the Christian who is increasingly becoming like Christ? Do you think he knows more or less of Christ? Do you think he sees Him more or less? Do you think he loves Him more or less? The more we are like Christ, the more we love Him. Because now, the glory of Christ is not only something we behold in rapturous admiration, it is something that is literally transforming us from the inside out. We are taking on the divine nature. “by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2Pe 1:4)

This is the incredible glory of sanctification. It is not simply that we are sinning less, though it is that. It is not simply that we are becoming testimonies of righteousness, though it is that. It is not simply that we are suffering less consequences from our sin, though it is that. The true glory of God’s Work of sanctification is that we are becoming increasingly like Christ, and thus see Him like never before. Very nature is being imparted to us, so that we are not spectators of His glory, but partakers. We begin to gain the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, the will of Christ.

Recall we said we can only treasure what is our own. Well, the glory of Christ will never seem as real to you as when it has become your own by an internal change. When you by exposure to Christ through the Spirit’s illumination you are increasingly thinking, speaking, acting like Christ by the Spirit’s power of imitation, you know what a treasure He is. You know internally, He is altogether lovely. God is glorified by our likeness to Him, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Rom 8:29). – but we are satisfied by imitating Him. In other words, when the treasure of Christ is infused into our own soul – it is as if we have had glory poured into our soul. Then we will understand the words of Solomon: “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Pro 3:13-15)

There is another reason why Christlikeness helps us to treasure Him – and that is that holiness is the atmosphere in which you see Christ most clearly. Christlikeness produces Christ-loveness. Indeed, the illumination of the Holy Spirit during your times of meditation will grow even sweeter and clearer, the fellowship with God grows so much deeper – because God is pleased to manifest Himself in the beauty of holiness.

• “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Mat 5:8)
• Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb 12:14)

Holiness is not an end in itself. Christlikeness is a means to the final end – which is to know Him – see Him and therefore treasure Him.

Let not the double-minded man think he will receive anything from the Lord. The Lord spews out the lukewarm. It is those who are allowing the Spirit to mold them into Christ’s image that experience the closest fellowship, and treasure Christ all the more.

We get to see Christ by imitation. We see Him in our very characters. We see Him without the cataracts of sin. This is the motive for holiness – to see and therefore treasure God in Christ.

Service

The second kind of work we said God does is a work through us. This work through us is Service. We serve other believers, we serve unbelievers, and in so doing serve God. God’s work through us will only be as effective as His work in us. God’s power works most mightily and consistently through holiness, not giftedness. This is how God honours Himself most of all. God will always use holiness more than giftedness.

The more like Christ we are inwardly, by the power of sanctification, the more like Christ we will be externally in our service.

Jesus Christ stated His mission very clearly on a number of occasions.

• “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luk 19:10)
• For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mar 10:45)
• “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phi 2:5-8)

Jesus Christ, God the Son, when He came to earth to do God’s work of redemption adopted the posture of a servant. Though He of all beings should have been served, He became a servant. He served mankind in providing redemption. He served believers.

God has ordained that His mightiest works will be seen not in the man who glories in his wisdom, nor in the man who boasts in his strength. His power will not most clearly be seen what could be mistaken as human ability. He deliberately demands the servant-posture if any would know and see Him. If you want to see God’s Works, and thereby treasure Christ, you must fundamentally adopt as your life-posture, the posture of servanthood. “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1Co 1:26-29)

As we adopt this servantlike, redemptive posture, we are most like Christ, and the Spirit will reveal Him to us so we can treasure Him. In other words, when you are consistently in the place of Christ, you will know Him and see His glory. The Holy Spirit will reveal Christ through you as you, in humble faith, adopt the posture of a servant. The one who rejects servanthood cuts himself off from ever truly experiencing Christ and therefore treasuring Him. If you insist on being served, you will never know His glory in a real way.

J Campbell White, the first secretary of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement said the following: “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world He came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of His eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.”

We could define Christlike servanthood as laying aside personal privilege, prerogatives and desires, to embrace the humble position of a servant, so as to meet the needs of others. What is their primary need? They too must treasure Christ! So we lay aside our own agendas and needs, so as to help others to see Christ.

This life of service must be prioritized in this way:

1. Family
2. Church
3. World

Firstly, in my family – whether as a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, a son or daughter, a brother or a sister, I must seek to be a servant to my family. I must seek to meet their needs at my own expense. We are to be in the place of Christ to our family.

Secondly, in my local church. Regardless of my position or ministry, I must seek to meet the needs of my church family. Go through the New Testament and see all the ‘one another’ commands – and you will see the numerous ways we are to meet one another’s spiritual, emotional and physical needs. We are to be in the place of Christ to our church family – washing their feet.

Thirdly, in the world. Whether it be at work, school, college, shopping, running errands, meeting neighbours, seeing unsaved relatives, friends or acquaintances – we are to be a servant to them. That means primarily – sharing the Gospel with them. Dealing with them redemptively, as people needing Christ. It also means loving them as we love ourselves. Doing for them and to them as we would want it done for us and to us.

What are we doing when we deal with family, church and the world in a servantlike manner? We are seeking to be in the place of Christ so as to share Him with others.

Do you see how the motive of treasuring Christ can permeate my every action, and so give me a fragrant motive and God-enabled strength for everything I do? The person who approaches life like this need never fall into despair, discouragement or depression, since he or she is ever seeking to see Christ revealed to them.

Treasuring God is multiplied when we seek it for others. To treasure God only personally will not do. Treasuring finds its appointed consummation in joyful sharing of Christ in praise, ministry and evangelism. The church treasures Christ together far more powerfully as a Body than when we try to do it privately. That is why God’s appointed place for ministry, and the appointed sending place for evangelism is the local church.

How the Holy Spirit Reveals Jesus Christ Through Serving

Now how and why will the Holy Spirit reveal Jesus Christ to us through our serving our family, church and world?

The key is to understand that God is always at work. God is doing the ministry of reconciliation. In love for us, He brings together His work and us, so that in joining Him in His work, we see Him and know Him and treasure Him more. God wants us to see His works. He wants us to not only have the wonderful experience of illumination, but the wonderful experience of imitation as well – where by the Holy Spirit, we operate as Christ did, and then behold the glory and power of His character.

Once again, the key to seeing Christ by the Holy Spirit is going to be the attitude of humble faith.

Firstly, we must submit to the place of servanthood. We must be willing to lay aside our needs, wants, privileges, desires, so as to cause others to know and treasure God in Christ. When we see what God wants us to do in our family, in our church, in the world, we have to undergo a kenosis of sorts. We must not regard our status in Christ something to be grasped, but willingly adopt the low, anonymous, unthankful, forgotten, humiliating place of a foot-washing, need-meeting servant.

Secondly, we must be alert for God’s hand around us. The reason many Christian never see Christ in their service, is because they are not looking for Him. They either are doing nothing, or scurrying around in a flurry of self-appointed service for God. In contrast to this, we find Jesus saying “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (Joh 5:19)

From the smallest detail to the biggest decision, we must watch what God does around us. God is always at work. It is our spiritual receptivity, our dulled eyes that do not see it. Humility watches. It is available, but then it is alert. This is what Jesus called abiding in Him. We remain in fellowship, seeking to maintain a pray-without-ceasing attitude. When we are this controlled by God, filled with His Spirit, we can be led and directed to serve our family, church and world as He wants us to. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (Joh 12:26)

Thirdly, once again, we must rely on God, wait on Him, depend on Him to do the work through us, or to bless what we have done. That’s the balance Paul had come to know: “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Col 1:29)

Humility is always submitting, abiding, depending.

As we do that, we will see God’s hand working through us mightily. We will know more of Christ, being in essence – a little Christ. The Spirit will impart the divine nature to us as we stand in the place of a servant. George Mueller put it this way:

“If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial be strengthened. [Then, we must] let God work for us, when the hour of trial of our faith comes, and do not work a deliverance of our own. Would the believer have his faith strengthened, he must give God time to work.”

Not only so, but we will see Christ in others. As we love one another, as Christ loved us, we see Him and His glory in each other, and further rejoice. We see Christ as we look at the cells, the members that make up His body.

To paraphrase: if we would see more of Christ so as to treasure Him, when He calls us to join Him in His work by adopting the posture of a servant, we must not shrink back. Instead we must obey. But we must obey with the abiding, waiting, dependent posture of a servant that says – God must do this work through us. “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” (Psa 123:2)

And so in both sanctification and service, we see more of Christ. This is because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry of revealing Him.

One clear way of knowing how sensitive you are to God’s Work around you is your gratitude level. The more grateful you are, the more humble you are, and therefore the more you notice God’s Work. You notice His work around you – the work of providence that sustains you and the created order and governs it for His glory. You notice His work in you – sanctification. You notice His work through you – service – and you are profoundly grateful for all this grace.

Do you know what a Spirit-filled person is? It is one who is so humble and filled with faith, that the Spirit’s ministry of revealing Christ to them is overflowing, abundant and unhindered. They are wholeheartedly submissive the blessed Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, in Sanctification and in Service, so that they are saturated with the knowledge of Christ. And as they see Him, they love Him, and glorify Him.

Now, we have summed up what seemed like a list of disjointed things – evangelism, discipleship, intercessory prayer, giving, church attendance, loving the brethren, serving in the local church, wise stewardship, global missions, godliness in my speech, thoughts and words, Christlike family life, being a godly husband or wife, being a godly parent, relating to my employer and job in a Christlike way, using my spiritual gifts, living a holy life, gratitude – it’s all summed up in Treasuring God in His Works. The work He does in us – sanctification, and the work He does through us – service. As we gladly and joyfully submit in humble faith, we will see Him transform us inwardly, and bless others through us. We see Christ because of the internal change, which is now ours, because of the enabling grace that flows through us, and because of His powerful displays of working through us as we submit to Him.

There is a wonderful chain here. Treasuring Christ in the Scriptures will lead to the inward work of sanctification, which causes us to treasure Him more by being more like Him and seeing Him more clearly. But when more like Him, we adopt a servant’s posture, and the work through us of service is more effectively done. Again, we treasure Him more, because we are even more like Him, and now clearly see His glory and hand in and through us. And this work of service will culminate, again and again in the ultimate act of treasuring Christ – sacrifice.