back to indexTheo II - Week 9 - Sanctification
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This is another passage I wanted you guys to read. 00:00:07.000 |
The whole chapter is good on the topic of sanctification, but here, let's read this. 00:00:15.000 |
"Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words which is useless and leads to ruin of hearers. 00:00:25.000 |
Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handing the word of truth. 00:00:33.000 |
But avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. 00:00:39.000 |
Among them are Hemanaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they accept the faith of Son. 00:00:49.000 |
Nonetheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His, and everyone whose name is the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness." 00:01:01.000 |
"Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some dishonor. 00:01:10.000 |
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Master. 00:01:17.000 |
Prepare for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, 00:01:27.000 |
but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. 00:01:32.000 |
The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, 00:01:41.000 |
if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. 00:01:45.000 |
And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." 00:01:55.000 |
Now I know that was a long passage, but the gist of the passage was really clear, wasn't it? 00:02:02.000 |
That there are individuals who are God's workmen, who are approved by God. 00:02:10.000 |
What kind of person is the one who is a workman, who God is pleased by, and who God is going to use for great purposes? 00:02:18.000 |
It says the one who is going to avoid empty chatter. 00:02:21.000 |
It's the one who is going to abstain from wickedness. 00:02:25.000 |
It's the one who is going to cleanse himself from these things that the world sees as intellectual, 00:02:30.000 |
or the world might see as all this is refined and so great, but is nothing but ungodliness. 00:02:36.000 |
It says it's the one who flees from youthful lust. 00:02:39.000 |
It's the one who pursues righteousness, faith, love, and peace. 00:02:43.000 |
And it goes on to say, "And it's the one who is not quarrelsome, it's the one who is kind to all, 00:02:48.000 |
it's the one who is patient when he's wrong, and so forth and so on." 00:02:52.000 |
What it's essentially saying is, what motivation do you have to seek sanctification? 00:03:01.000 |
Is that you would be a vessel used by the Lord for His purposes? 00:03:07.000 |
And so the scripture would go on that your sanctification is going to have, what, greater rewards in heaven? 00:03:15.000 |
That through your sanctification you're going to avoid the great displeasures of God and the disciplines that come along with it? 00:03:25.000 |
For our lack of sanctification, God is going to give us discipline. 00:03:30.000 |
But through our sanctification we can continue to walk with Him in intimacy. 00:03:34.000 |
Through our sanctification, unbelievers and angels are going to glorify God through our obedience. 00:03:40.000 |
There's so many things that sanctification is going to produce, or there's so many things that motivates us to become more and more sanctified. 00:03:51.000 |
So, I wanted to start off with that because really, I do feel this sense, you know, this is a later point but I want to bring it up right now. 00:04:02.000 |
It is common in our Western Christian culture that if you've been a Christian for, what, 10, 15 years, that for some odd reason you, like, lose the passion. 00:04:17.000 |
For some odd reason, rather than growing step by step in greater desire, greater thirst, more hunger, it's just commonplace where it's, no, actually they become tired, weary. 00:04:31.000 |
They become, you know, not so active, not so passionate, not so, whatever it may be. 00:04:37.000 |
And that's completely opposite to what the Scripture expects. 00:04:41.000 |
That's completely opposite to what the Scripture is trying to push, inspire, and motivate us to do. 00:04:48.000 |
And so we really have to, as a generation maybe, as a culture on the Western side, I don't know what it, to put a finger on it, I don't know exactly what it is. 00:04:59.000 |
Why is it that Christians, after year after year, rather than progressively growing, you see a diminishing of their passion? 00:05:09.000 |
So, that's one of the reasons why I want to start off with the motivation. 00:05:14.000 |
Today I hope more than just like a theological exercise of, "Oh, this is what sanctification is." 00:05:19.000 |
I wanted it to be an element in which, yeah, I never want to see a Christian think, "I am mature now because I've got a couple things settled. 00:05:36.000 |
And they just come, attending every Sunday thinking they're done. 00:05:43.000 |
And I, you know, because I, again, have seen different cultures and different churches where there's plenty of people. 00:05:49.000 |
And the sad part about it is, I see some of my parents' generation where they think like that. 00:05:54.000 |
We've got our work settled, we've got our job, you know, situated. 00:05:59.000 |
And then now we've got our church life situated. 00:06:01.000 |
And I like to live this kind of coasting life. 00:06:05.000 |
But that is not the kind of, like, push and desire that the Scripture is communicating to us. 00:06:11.000 |
The passages that we just read in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Peter is more on the lines of, "Excel all the more." 00:06:18.000 |
You have every single reason to pursue greater holiness, to pursue greater sanctification. 00:06:24.000 |
And that's the message that we're hearing today. 00:06:27.000 |
But we do have to define what sanctification is because in our day there also has been some confusion. 00:06:36.000 |
Definitely just thinking about the sanctification-wise, as we're thinking about the process of salvation, 00:06:42.000 |
we're coming across a point in what's about the salvation experience where we talked about how God starts everything from election. 00:06:50.000 |
We talked about how God is the one who, you know, gives the gospel call, the effectual call. 00:06:57.000 |
He's the one who regenerates so that you can receive that call, you know. 00:07:01.000 |
And then He's the one who positionally justifies and so forth. 00:07:04.000 |
And these are all things that God does on His part. 00:07:07.000 |
And then we talked about conversion in which we have then also the role of repenting and turning in faith. 00:07:14.000 |
And then we also have the adoption that God again gives us the right to become children of God. 00:07:20.000 |
And here you can almost say, "Is the application process of all that?" 00:07:27.000 |
And if we want to have like a more legitimate or I guess concise definition of sanctification, 00:07:33.000 |
sanctification is a progressive work of God and man. 00:07:37.000 |
It's a cooperative work that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual living. 00:07:45.000 |
So the whole idea is if you want to put it in a simple way, the definition of sanctification is just growing in the likeness of Christ. 00:07:55.000 |
However, to give it a little more detail, basically we summarize that this is both the work of God with the cooperative work of man. 00:08:05.000 |
And it's a progressive enterprise that we are becoming more and more free from sin and that we're growing more and more like Christ. 00:08:14.000 |
And this idea of being, becoming more and more like Christ is seen on some of these passages that you have listed there. 00:08:22.000 |
Colossians chapter 10 verse 17 says, "But put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according," notice this, 00:08:35.000 |
So this idea of sanctification doesn't simply have this idea of like, hey, here are the guidelines from scripture, here are the rules and this is what you do. 00:08:45.000 |
It has more of a conformity to the will, conformity to the person of God. 00:08:49.000 |
And so if you guys remember in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1 it says, "Therefore be imitators of God." 00:08:55.000 |
That is the goal, that is the trajectory of sanctification. 00:09:00.000 |
That's how you want to concisely think of sanctification. 00:09:03.000 |
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13 through 17 says, "Therefore prepare your minds for action, keep sober in the spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 00:09:15.000 |
As obedient children, do not conform to the former lusts which are yours and ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. 00:09:27.000 |
Because it is written, 'You shall be holy for I am holy.' 00:09:30.000 |
If you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during your time of your stay on earth." 00:09:42.000 |
But these two passages, Colossians 1 Peter really summarizes sanctification for us. 00:09:46.000 |
You are no longer conforming to the patterns of the previous world which were yours in ignorance. 00:09:51.000 |
You're just dumb, you didn't know better, you know? 00:09:53.000 |
But now, you need to be conforming into the likeness of your Father. 00:09:57.000 |
You basically need to follow, if you are a child of God, you need to follow suit. 00:10:04.000 |
Now the reason why I said it is good for us to define these things is because people do get confused about sanctification. 00:10:13.000 |
People do get confused when they start talking about, okay, so is sanctification like all God? 00:10:21.000 |
And there have been in modern days when someone would say, "Hey man, you need to basically try harder." 00:10:30.000 |
And it's like, "Whoa! That sounds so legalistic. 00:10:43.000 |
So, it's good for us to define that sanctification is both a cooperative work of God and man. 00:10:52.000 |
Progressing towards greater likeness to Christ. 00:10:59.000 |
And so if you look at the chart, there is a difference between justification and sanctification. 00:11:03.000 |
That sometimes when people, again, in their common language and the way that they talk, 00:11:07.000 |
and the way that they try to describe their salvation and what not, they get a bit confused. 00:11:29.000 |
Whereas, sanctification is the internal condition continuing throughout our entire lives, but 00:11:40.000 |
Now, a lot of people might have problems in thinking about that. 00:11:44.000 |
So, later we're going to discuss what does it mean for us to cooperate. 00:11:50.000 |
So, if I said, "Hey, in our salvation we cooperate." 00:11:55.000 |
That sounds like you're doing works in grace or what not. 00:11:58.000 |
But remember, salvation is inclusive of all of this, of sanctification and what not. 00:12:02.000 |
So, the idea that there is an interplay of our work in God's grace is true. 00:12:08.000 |
How we reconcile, we're not going to exhaustively reconcile, but we see it working here specifically 00:12:22.000 |
I'm going to do a brief segment on the stages of sanctification as we think about, you know, 00:12:30.000 |
And these are important for us to learn because it has high impact and application for us. 00:12:42.000 |
Sanctification has a definite beginning and sanctification increases and sanctification 00:12:53.000 |
There is an initial step in which we can say that you are sanctified as in one time in 00:13:03.000 |
There's a moment, again, a turning point when you break from ruling patterns of sin and 00:13:08.000 |
you turn over to the love and you turn over to the righteousness of God. 00:13:13.000 |
You're no longer dominated by sin, rather you're dominated by the righteousness of God. 00:13:17.000 |
And so in Romans chapter six, let's go there because it's an important passage that talks 00:13:26.000 |
Starting from verse 10, this is what it says. 00:13:35.000 |
It says, "For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he 00:13:44.000 |
Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 00:13:50.000 |
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its lusts and do not 00:13:56.000 |
go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, 00:14:00.000 |
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments 00:14:07.000 |
For sin shall not be your master, be a master over you. 00:14:11.000 |
For you are not under the law, but under grace. 00:14:14.000 |
What then shall we send because we are not under the law, but under grace may never be. 00:14:19.000 |
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slave for obedience, you are 00:14:23.000 |
slaves of that one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting 00:14:30.000 |
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the 00:14:34.000 |
heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and having been freed from 00:14:39.000 |
sin, you became slaves of righteousness and speaking in human terms because I, because 00:14:45.000 |
of the weakness of your flesh for just as you're presenting your members as slaves to 00:14:49.000 |
impurity and to the lawlessness resulting in full of honest. 00:14:53.000 |
So now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. 00:14:58.000 |
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 00:15:01.000 |
Therefore, what benefit were, uh, were you then deriving from the things of which you 00:15:07.000 |
Okay, so this entire passage is talking about this beginning sanctification in relation 00:15:20.000 |
This beginning portion was a transition and breaking point where you went from a slave 00:15:25.000 |
to now free or in other words, slave of sin to a slave of righteousness. 00:15:32.000 |
And so he motivates you and says, so now present your bodies no longer as slaves don't come 00:15:39.000 |
And so when we think about that, this, this kind of breaking point is, is, um, uh, I guess 00:15:46.000 |
taught in scripture through various metaphors and various spiritual truths that are realities 00:15:52.000 |
For example, ceremonial case ceremonially we are, we were unholy, but now we are holy. 00:16:01.000 |
We were dirty and stained, but now we were made consecrated and holy. 00:16:08.000 |
We were wretchedly diseased, but now we've been made what whole and healthy. 00:16:16.000 |
We were children of wrath and we learned the last time, but now we have a holy father, 00:16:23.000 |
And so all of these passages that we read, quote to the fact that your sanctification 00:16:32.000 |
Now my way of application, if there are times when, when you come across somebody and you're 00:16:41.000 |
talking with them and you're seeing just no fruit of redemption and you're just seeing 00:16:47.000 |
no sanctification in your lives, what you're looking for then is a beginning. 00:16:52.000 |
If they tell you, I feel bound, I can't help myself. 00:16:56.000 |
If they tell you that they have never had this kind of turning point and perspective, 00:17:02.000 |
I used to see those sins like so tasty and so desirable, but now I don't. 00:17:09.000 |
If they never say that, it's like, you know, I always struggled and I kind of always struggled 00:17:14.000 |
and I always was in church and just the story goes on. 00:17:23.000 |
For us as believers, let me encourage you that this teaching teaches us that we as believers 00:17:33.000 |
We as believers should never say, I have no power. 00:17:43.000 |
God has initiated and empowered us and thrusted us into sanctification from the beginning. 00:17:52.000 |
So this teaches us again about both how we are to evaluate even our own hearts when we 00:18:00.000 |
But as we go on, we always know that sanctification should be steadily increasing. 00:18:06.000 |
It should be ever increasing through our lives. 00:18:10.000 |
We have been changed, but we're going to grow in various degrees. 00:18:14.000 |
Here's a passage from 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. 00:18:18.000 |
"We all are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another." 00:18:26.000 |
There is this progressive sanctification that occurs. 00:18:32.000 |
We're called saints, but we're living up to it. 00:18:35.000 |
We're growing into the calling that we received. 00:18:37.000 |
We're being prepared and we're being, you know, getting ready for the life and eternity 00:18:46.000 |
So there is a progression that's supposed to occur. 00:18:49.000 |
Here's a passage from Philippians 3, verse 13-14. 00:18:53.000 |
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward 00:18:59.000 |
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 00:19:05.000 |
And now I want to challenge us with this verse. 00:19:08.000 |
If you go in your Bibles to Hebrews 5, verse 11-14. 00:19:19.000 |
This is one of those convicting passages where it's not so much encouraging, but it's sobering. 00:19:27.000 |
And this is what the Word of God says, starting from verse 11. 00:19:32.000 |
That is Jesus Christ Christ, who kills the dead. 00:19:36.000 |
"It is hard to explain, though, since you have become dull of hearing. 00:19:39.000 |
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you 00:19:44.000 |
the elementary principles of the oracles of God. 00:19:47.000 |
And you have come to need milk and not solid food. 00:19:50.000 |
For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, 00:19:57.000 |
Now, I want you guys, if you guys highlight your Bibles right now, this number, verse 14, 00:20:02.000 |
It says, "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses 00:20:13.000 |
How does this passage describe the mature person? 00:20:17.000 |
How does this passage describe the mature individual? 00:20:20.000 |
He is a person who not just only takes in a bunch of theology, he's not someone who's 00:20:25.000 |
just an attender at the church, adding on one sermon to another. 00:20:29.000 |
It says, "Through practice, through application, through discerning right and wrong, through 00:20:35.000 |
putting it into play and saying, 'Oh gosh, that is so true, and oh my goodness, I see 00:20:39.000 |
the wickedness in the world,' and he is putting into play all that he is learning, 00:20:49.000 |
But notice the sobering statement of this verse. 00:21:03.000 |
See, by application, I want to challenge everyone here. 00:21:22.000 |
How much exertion of energy, how much time, how much finances. 00:21:26.000 |
Have you increased your vision of who you could be? 00:21:30.000 |
By the power of Christ, by the power of the Spirit. 00:21:33.000 |
I know I almost sound like one of those self-help guys right now, but this much is true. 00:21:45.000 |
You as a believer in Christ cannot be stagnant. 00:21:50.000 |
You see, as you guys, you know, I've preached a couple of times and I've shared my testimony that 00:21:56.000 |
when I was not a Christian, I was a vulgar, pagan, very prideful, very selfish, very worldly man. 00:22:06.000 |
Now, I don't share that to boast about my sins. 00:22:09.000 |
I share that because there was a flaw in my thinking. 00:22:12.000 |
I thought sanctification meant running away from vulgar sins. 00:22:17.000 |
So I dropped smoking and drinking and drugs and, you know, dating and whatever, dating non-Christians or whatever. 00:22:26.000 |
That is such a minuscule vision of sanctification. 00:22:30.000 |
If you right now feel like I'm good because I don't get upset, you feel like I'm good because I don't drink, 00:22:37.000 |
I don't party it up, I don't go out and do this stuff, that is such a minuscule view of sanctification. 00:22:46.000 |
We as Christians need to have a great vision that we want to be honoring the Lord, pleasing the Lord in all things, 00:22:52.000 |
that we might be giving Him greater thanks, greater glory, and that is your sanctification. 00:23:02.000 |
Are you able to teach? Then great, teach like you're teaching the oracles of God with passion. 00:23:11.000 |
Serve with great eagerness, serve with no complaints, serve with no grumbling, but joy. 00:23:17.000 |
Scripture is challenging us. Do you have a greater vision of your sanctification in your life? 00:23:23.000 |
Or have you become, at least I don't do this, I'm okay. 00:23:34.000 |
I mean, you could just grow and grow and grow in that to no end. 00:23:41.000 |
We're supposed to be growing and growing, but to tell you truthfully, I have seen this trend, 00:23:50.000 |
Even friends who had similar backgrounds like me, where they came from the kind of pits of sin and they got converted. 00:23:57.000 |
Or other friends who grew up in the church and they just have always known the Christian culture. 00:24:02.000 |
They almost have this attitude like, "Well, I've been living in abstinence for not long enough, 00:24:07.000 |
I just now kind of want to experience the world." 00:24:12.000 |
Even friends who come from the pits of sin, after a certain time of being a Christian, let's say 10, 15 years, 00:24:18.000 |
they're like, "Obviously we're all tempted with the world." 00:24:21.000 |
But they almost have this mentality like, "Well, I've been living the life of purity and abstinence 00:24:28.000 |
At least at some point in our lives we should be able to enjoy the world and what we've obtained for ourselves." 00:24:33.000 |
It's like, "What is that? What is that kind of thinking?" 00:24:36.000 |
Where it's like, "I have liberty and I at least should have an opportunity to practice it." 00:24:41.000 |
It's like, "What? Why do we think like that? Why do we think like that?" 00:24:48.000 |
And I think this doctrine of progressive sanctification teaches us, 00:24:54.000 |
no, we need to be saying, whatever we were before, we can't think like, "Good job, good job so far." 00:25:02.000 |
We need to be thinking, we're not even close to where God wants to bring us. 00:25:08.000 |
What grandiose things have we accomplished so far that now we deserve to enjoy ourselves from time to time? 00:25:15.000 |
No, find our joy in greater sanctification. Find our joy in glorifying God more. 00:25:21.000 |
Pursue, strive, and just as the Apostle Paul said, "I press on." 00:25:26.000 |
Not having thought that I've attained it yet, but press on. 00:25:32.000 |
Now the next part is, God has this law for us that He would perfect us. 00:25:37.000 |
That He would perfect us in the life to come. 00:25:40.000 |
We're not going to obtain perfection here, but God is going to perfect us. 00:25:45.000 |
Now, just for the sake of time, you guys can read this segment on perfection later for your homework. 00:25:51.000 |
Okay? I asked the question, "Can someone obtain perfection in this life?" 00:25:58.000 |
Some Christians have a lot of biblical reasons why they think we can. 00:26:10.000 |
And I've also included this really high-tech diagram about your sanctification progressives. 00:26:18.000 |
Where non-Christians can strive, you know, Jews can abstain from certain things, Catholics can abstain from certain things, 00:26:24.000 |
Buddhists can abstain from certain worldly things. 00:26:26.000 |
But all they're doing is messing around in the pits. 00:26:30.000 |
Only through the redemption in Christ can we grow in sanctification and then we have this progression of growth. 00:26:35.000 |
Although sometimes we might be sidetracked, although sometimes we might be distracted, not sober. 00:26:43.000 |
So now we move into this important topic of cooperation of God and man in sanctification. 00:26:50.000 |
Okay? Cooperation of God and man in sanctification. 00:27:00.000 |
In sanctification, I believe, you know, we wrestle with this a lot all through our systematic theology. 00:27:10.000 |
When we talked about sovereignty of God and the will of man. 00:27:13.000 |
When we talked about, you know, various things, about foreknowledge, about eternity, about election. 00:27:18.000 |
We wrestled, we grappled with how does God's sovereignty coexist with man's free will and our responsibility. 00:27:30.000 |
And we're going to basically wrestle with it here again. 00:27:34.000 |
Is that, biblically speaking, it is just true. 00:27:39.000 |
God expects and demands our active participation in sanctification. 00:27:48.000 |
I think the reason why people have a big problem with that is because they falsely assume that it's kind of like two equal spheres coming together to make some kind of Venn diagram and you have the middle portion. 00:28:00.000 |
No. In no way is our cooperation to say that His role and our role are the same. 00:28:07.000 |
Or even equal in capacity or equal in power or significance. 00:28:13.000 |
God desires our active participation, but it is not as though that equal participation is the combining of two equal parties. 00:28:22.000 |
So we reconcile those two by understanding that our salvation, inclusive of our sanctification, is going to be thoroughly through the work of God. 00:28:33.000 |
And in no way is our participation somehow equal parts. 00:28:38.000 |
Rather, God is so powerful, so sovereign, and so active in our sanctification. 00:28:47.000 |
Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13 is a really good one because it contains both truths. 00:28:56.000 |
Okay, that's basically what the passage says, but let me read it to us. 00:29:02.000 |
And it says, "So then, my beloved, just as you always have obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." 00:29:16.000 |
You work out, and the word he used was salvation. 00:29:24.000 |
"For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." 00:29:33.000 |
So in my mind, that passage teaches me it is not equal parts. 00:29:37.000 |
Because God is much more the foundation, the very reason why you can actively participate, is because He is the one working. 00:29:49.000 |
And He is the one sovereignly accomplishing, what? 00:29:54.000 |
And so He says, in that context, in the safety of His sovereignty, in that set up of God's will, you work out your salvation. 00:30:07.000 |
But nonetheless, you can't deny that our active participation is required. 00:30:19.000 |
"And God again accomplishes His will of sanctifying and says, 'May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly.'" 00:30:26.000 |
And we know that He does this through various means. 00:30:32.000 |
And He gives us the Holy Spirit that we might be convicted and that we might be empowered. 00:30:37.000 |
But furthermore, He disciplines us like sons. 00:30:40.000 |
He basically continues to draw us to where we need to be. 00:30:45.000 |
There's a passage in Hebrews chapter 12 that says, "Rebuke and discipline is not pleasant at any time, but take heart because He's treating you like a son." 00:30:54.000 |
And He says, "Everyone that is His legitimate son, He's going to discipline and He's going to draw you into obedience." 00:31:00.000 |
But furthermore, He does this through empowering you. 00:31:06.000 |
It says, "Now, may the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may," what? 00:31:14.000 |
"That which is pleasing in His sight through Christ Jesus to whom be glory forever and ever." 00:31:21.000 |
God is both, okay, like moving in you to actually do His will of sanctification. 00:31:29.000 |
But He's also empowering you that you work it out. 00:31:33.000 |
That you come to the result of the sanctification. 00:31:39.000 |
And so going forward, again, the idea is, God, if you ever get in a debate about, "You know what, though? I mean, like, sanctification is by God's power. It's by His gospel and His truth." 00:31:58.000 |
And then, but the danger that's happening right now, again, there's just so many talk about this. 00:32:03.000 |
And we constantly talk about it. I'm almost kind of getting tired of talking about it. 00:32:07.000 |
Where there's too many people emphasizing the fact that, "Okay, so sanctification and your growth is only by the gospel and by Christ and God's power, or not?" 00:32:15.000 |
And they almost say, "What? You just got to let go and..." 00:32:30.000 |
You just got everything right, and you should have just stopped. 00:32:33.000 |
But then you went further, and now you're wrong. 00:32:42.000 |
I think what that is, is one of those lopsided theologies. 00:32:47.000 |
We have both a passive and active involvement and participation in our sanctification. 00:32:53.000 |
For example, there is this passive sense where you do need to yield. 00:33:05.000 |
I'm not going to resist. I'm not going to rebel. 00:33:10.000 |
When Romans chapter 6, verse 13 was talking about the whole, "You are no longer a slave," or "You are no longer this." 00:33:21.000 |
And so what we're supposed to be doing is obeying every single thing He says. 00:33:27.000 |
But in this passage, He even goes further and says, "And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments." 00:33:37.000 |
"But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as," and it repeats, "instruments of righteousness to God." 00:33:56.000 |
And so in that sense, does the idea of, like, "Hey, let go of your will and submit to it," does that all make sense? 00:34:04.000 |
There is your passive participation in sanctification. 00:34:07.000 |
However, Scripture is very, very clear that you must be active. 00:34:16.000 |
You must be agonizing in this desire to become more like Christ. 00:34:21.000 |
And so here is this passage where it says, "And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure." 00:34:29.000 |
And so in 2 Corinthians it says, "Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit and make holiness perfect in the fear of God." 00:34:38.000 |
And so that whole idea is, not only certain aspects of us, but the entirety of who we are. 00:34:44.000 |
We need to be active in seeking sanctification. 00:34:48.000 |
Whether it be, and let's go down to the sanctification of the whole person, your intellect and knowledge. 00:34:58.000 |
Does someone need to spoon-feed you mushed up, you know, like, "I feed my baby pouches right now because, you know, he's a baby and stuff." 00:35:06.000 |
Does someone need to give you squeeze bottles? 00:35:09.000 |
The idea of the growth in your understanding, the growth in the reception of truth, 00:35:14.000 |
that's actually supposed to be something that you yourself are supposed to hunger for. 00:35:22.000 |
Your emotions, you're supposed to even grow, yes, in your emotions. 00:35:26.000 |
I've talked to people where it's like, "Hey, we know what's right in God, yeah, but I don't feel it." 00:35:33.000 |
Well they say, "Yeah, I don't feel like coming to church and I don't want to do anything I don't feel like." 00:35:39.000 |
Well then, have you been addressing your feelings? 00:35:44.000 |
You need to grow in your will, your decision-making. 00:35:47.000 |
You also need to grow spiritually in your spirit and body. 00:35:51.000 |
How we treat our bodies, how we treat the holistic view of ourselves, we need to grow in sanctification. 00:36:00.000 |
Where scripture says, "Once you realize who you are in God, you realize you are, what, the temple of God." 00:36:13.000 |
Glorify the Lord whether in body or in spirit. 00:36:16.000 |
And so the whole idea is, there is no part of you reserved. 00:36:21.000 |
Every aspect of who you are needs to be constantly ever-growing. 00:36:32.000 |
So, today the main challenge really was this idea of, 00:36:36.000 |
we understand sanctification as yes, a beginning. 00:36:44.000 |
Has your desire and passion, has it waned over the years? 00:36:49.000 |
Has it diminished and somehow gotten muddied in things? 00:36:53.000 |
Or are you continually taking steps to be sanctified? 00:36:57.000 |
Not reserving anything, not even emotional things, not even internal things, 00:37:01.000 |
but laying everything at God's feet saying, "Any part that you want to work on, 00:37:06.000 |
any aspect of my life, whether it be heart issues, bitterness, everything, everything, 00:37:12.000 |
God I am willing to be growing into greater likeness with Christ." 00:37:17.000 |
But to conclude, sanctification is a long journey. 00:37:22.000 |
Scripture says, "You have this race set before you." 00:37:26.000 |
And it is an endurance race because He says, "You need endurance." 00:37:31.000 |
And so by way of conclusion, we want to remind us that sanctification obviously is not this like, 00:37:36.000 |
sprint, it's not this like one time thing where you ramp yourself up, 00:37:43.000 |
Our sanctification is going to be slow and steady. 00:37:48.000 |
God has ordained that the meticulous reading of Scripture, this long book, 00:37:54.000 |
God has ordained that regular and steady prayer. 00:37:58.000 |
God has ordained that participation in church functions like these are going to be the regular means by which we're going to grow. 00:38:05.000 |
There is no quick shortcut, there is no easy way, there is no download, 00:38:09.000 |
there is no like easy way of getting more sanctified just from one event, 00:38:17.000 |
And so our challenge is to really strive and seek after sanctification knowing the kind of race that we have before us. 00:38:28.000 |
Now again for your homework, please read that little segment on can we be perfect in this life. 00:38:33.000 |
Is there any questions about sanctification or anything that we discussed tonight? 00:38:42.000 |
First one is, so for example, a person who has a continuous, say, number of years and you don't notice any 00:38:53.000 |
improvement in their progressive sanctification process, so is it okay to doubt their salvation or let them know gently about your concerns? 00:39:03.000 |
The second question is the person that they're referring to in Hebrews chapter 5, that is only drinking milk. 00:39:10.000 |
Would you consider that person a Christian or is it talking about non-believers? 00:39:16.000 |
Okay. So question number one is, what if you have somebody who has shown no signs of sanctification over a long period of time? 00:39:23.000 |
Actually that's a great question because how many of you guys, your hearts break for people in your lives where they say they're Christian but you wonder, 00:39:37.000 |
My heart breaks for family members, my heart breaks for my friends. 00:39:43.000 |
I think in my mind, again, examining someone's genuineness of salvation is always good. 00:39:58.000 |
Examining is good for us, examining is good for other people. 00:40:01.000 |
And I found that a good way to talk with some of these individuals who have been Christian for a long time but don't really show any sanctification and stuff 00:40:15.000 |
Like, hey, what are some of your spiritual goals? 00:40:19.000 |
And if they don't kind of have any, it's like, well when you became Christian, what were you wanting? 00:40:29.000 |
Well, I don't know what I really wanted. I just really wanted to have a community. 00:40:35.000 |
I don't know what I really want. I just want a safe place for my kid. 00:40:39.000 |
Because for us, when we received the gospel, we were taught that we were in the pits of sin awaiting God's wrath. 00:41:02.000 |
But when people start saying things like, well I just wanted to make sure my bases are covered concerning hell and heaven. 00:41:12.000 |
So you can ask questions that deal with goals, purpose, what was your desire? 00:41:17.000 |
Because that's what we're really getting at now. 00:41:20.000 |
Or you can even ask them questions about aspects of obedience. 00:41:26.000 |
Because when Christ described the disciple in Matthew, He says, the disciple is one who has been baptized. 00:41:34.000 |
The disciple is one who is being taught to obey every single thing that the Lord has commanded. 00:41:39.000 |
Well, if you have a guy who is stagnant, there's obviously things that he's not obeying. 00:41:48.000 |
That's okay to talk to somebody about the issue of obedience. 00:41:52.000 |
And so again, I would say in my mind, I cannot judge their hearts. 00:41:59.000 |
I rarely condemn someone and say, I don't think you are unless I have very clear reason. 00:42:04.000 |
And I rarely give assurance flippantly either. 00:42:07.000 |
I rarely go up to someone and say, don't worry. 00:42:11.000 |
That's for them to wrestle with God and the spirit of God to convict their hearts. 00:42:18.000 |
I mean, I'm sure again, we have all types of people in our lives who we're concerned about. 00:42:22.000 |
And you want to approach that very tactfully. 00:42:32.000 |
That segment is a little tricky because you can tell that the author of Hebrews is talking to multiple people. 00:42:39.000 |
He's talking to Jews, but there are people who are brothers and he'll say brethren. 00:42:42.000 |
And then he's talking to people where clearly they're not saved. 00:42:46.000 |
Right after that segment that I just read, chapter five begins chapter six and chapter six, I believe they're clearly not saved. 00:42:53.000 |
It's the passage about for those who have tasted the goodness, who have been partakers of this and who have seen of this and have been enlightened by this. 00:43:00.000 |
All those terminologies are not exclusively Christian. 00:43:04.000 |
Exclusively Christian terms are things like justified, redeemed, reconciled to God and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. 00:43:19.000 |
But but because of verse 14, it sounds like he's talking to those and he's he's constantly talking to people who are on the fence. 00:43:28.000 |
So in chapter five, you kind of get that mixture of like, you know, those for those of you guys who are Christian and just sitting on the fence, you guys need to wake up. 00:43:36.000 |
And then he says on the case, though, because chapter six, he even starts like in the case of those. 00:43:42.000 |
So there are those people who, you know, again, we're in our fellowship. 00:43:45.000 |
We saw them and some of them are, you know, not Christian. 00:43:53.000 |
Any other questions about what we learned today? 00:44:15.000 |
God, sometimes, you know, gosh, we can, I guess, give excuses that we're tired. 00:44:23.000 |
We have sometimes we feel overburdened with many responsibilities. 00:44:30.000 |
Sometimes, God, we just don't know what to do about certain situations. 00:44:34.000 |
We don't know how to deal with certain sins in our lives. 00:44:37.000 |
But God, we thank you that in the midst of all of those, not just excuses, but our weaknesses. 00:44:43.000 |
God, you help us and that you desire to move us, not just save us and leave us in the pits. 00:44:49.000 |
But Father God, that you move us transformation, that you change us into the likeness of your son, Jesus Christ. 00:44:57.000 |
And I pray, God, that we would seek it all the more. 00:45:00.000 |
Father, to be like your son, to reflect his glory, to reflect his goodness, his love to the world. 00:45:06.000 |
And I pray, Father Lord, that you would help us. 00:45:09.000 |
That you would help us to see what a desire and will you have for us. 00:45:13.000 |
And God, that we would exert all effort to lay aside any sin that encumbers us, any hindrance that trips us up. 00:45:20.000 |
And to really attach ourselves and devote ourselves to seeking purity and holiness in our lives.