Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today,
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm picking up where I left off last week in
a message entitled They Who Are Sanctified. And this is part
two, They Who Are Sanctified, and I'm preaching from Hebrews
10, specifically verse 14, Hebrews 10, 14. I'm not gonna go back
into all that I said last week, but I urge you, if you didn't
hear last week's message, to get the tape, or the CD rather,
You can tell I'm giving away my age when I say get the tape.
But you can listen to it on our website. You can download it
or you can just listen to it or find another way to listen
to it from things like Sermon Audio or YouTube. We have them out there, but you
can watch this. This is part two of They Who
Are Sanctified, and it comes from this verse, Hebrews 10,
14, for by one offering, the offering of Christ, he hath perfected,
finished, completed, he did a perfect work forever, them that are sanctified. And I explained last week how
that word sanctified, sometimes translated holy, it means set
apart, set apart. Sanctification, sanctified, is
a big term, it's a wide term. As I explained last week, justification
is the legal ground of our salvation, the salvation of God's people,
wherein Christ accomplished the work, the perfection here, by
His death on the cross, His obedience unto death, to put away the sins
of His people, to pay their sin debt and establish a perfect
righteousness, whereby God could be just to justify sinners in
mercy and grace and love. The Bible speaks of God's love
being shown, manifested in a propitiation accomplished by Jesus Christ.
And that propitiation is a word that means a sin-bearing sacrifice
who satisfies justice and brings forth everlasting righteousness.
And it's the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, Romans
1, 16 and 17, which is the merit the value, the quality and power
of Christ obedience unto death as the surety, the substitute
and the redeemer and the keeper of his people. And so we're justified
before God based upon his righteousness imputed charged accountant. If you haven't heard that before,
the doctrine of imputation. The sins of God's people were
imputed to Christ so that God charged him with their sin debt.
Who shall lay anything to their charge? Nobody. God justified
them, Romans 8 34. And his righteousness is charged
to their account. That's a legal matter. Now, sanctification
is a wider term. There are legal aspects of sanctification. There are eternal aspects of
sanctification. There are spiritual aspects of
sanctification. That's what I wanna go into a
little bit today. Sanctified, those who are sanctified. Now, one of the terms in the
Bible that comes from the word sanctify or sanctification is
the word saint, saints. Now, what is a saint according
to God's word? Well, many people think a saint
is some kind of a super Christian who, as the false Catholic church
says, they perform so many miracles and they're dedicated and they
get appointed by the Pope and instituted in and they call them
now saint this, saint that. Well, let me tell you what a
saint is in the Bible. A saint is any and every sinner
saved by the grace of God. That's what a saint is. And the
reason, what is a saint? A saint is a sanctified person. And a sanctified person is one
who has been set apart by God. Now, how are they set apart?
And that's what I want to deal with today. And in this, you
know, in salvation, we see the work of the triune Godhead working
consistently together to save sinners by the grace of God.
Now, I know the Trinity is a mind-boggling doctrine. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And I don't know how to explain
it. I know there are a lot of people who try to use illustrations,
earthly illustrations, but I caution you against that. There is no
proper earthly illustration that can truly explain the Trinity. Now the Trinity is not three
gods. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, they're not three different gods. But they are
one God. He is one God in three persons. And again, I don't know how to
explain that, and I'm not even gonna try. But I believe that
denying it is denying biblical truth and even unto the gospel.
I know there are people who say, well, we believe in Jesus only.
Well, we believe that Jesus is the only Savior. He's God, the
second person of the Trinity. God manifests in the flesh. But
don't get bogged down with debating over that issue. It's what the
Bible says. God the Father represents the
sovereignty, the judge of the Trinity. God the Son is the mediator
between God and men. And he became obedient, the scripture
says in Philippians 2, obedient even unto death, the death of
the cross. He submitted himself to the Father for the purposes
of redemption. And then God, the Holy Spirit,
is the applicator, you might say, the power of God unto salvation
in the sense of applying the benefits of the Father's purpose
and decree, the Son's work on the cross, to each and every
one of God's people. And so, in the Bible, we see
how sanctification is attributed to the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. Now, let me give you these scriptures. Look at the
book of Jude, right before Revelation. Jude, the first verse in the
book of Jude. Listen to how it starts out.
Jude identifies himself. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Sanctified
by God the Father. Now how are God's people sanctified
by the Father? Well, the Bible teaches us in
so many verses, but I think of first, for example, Ephesians
chapter one. where it says that God, before
the foundation of the world, chose a people. He set them apart
to save and gave them to Christ. Put all the responsibility of
their entire salvation upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They
were given to Him. They were made His responsibility. Their salvation, And the government
of salvation was placed upon Christ's shoulders by the Father.
Now, God did not choose every person without exception. The
Bible tells us that, and I know that's offensive to people. And
the reason it's offensive, I know because of pride. That's why
it was offensive to me when I first heard it. But God did not choose
everybody without exception. God's not trying to save everybody
without exception. God does not love everybody without
exception. I'm sorry, read your Bible. God
hateth the work of iniquity, the workers of iniquity, Psalm
5 tells us. God hated Esau. And I know these
false preachers, they try to say, well, that means God loved
them less. No, God's love is not in degrees. God's love is not responsive. It's not a reaction. The Bible
says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau before they did any
good works. God didn't look down through
a telescope of time and foresee what you would do or how you
would respond. That's not in the Bible. That's
a concoction of human, false, self-righteous religion. It's
not in the Bible. But God did choose a people and
He set them apart. He sanctified them in divine
electing grace. And that's what Jude's talking
about. That's why the Bible says in Romans 834, I quote it all
the time on this program, that who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. Those whom God the Father
set apart in divine electing grace and gave to Christ, they're
sinners. They deserve death and hell.
They've earned death and hell. But they will not receive death
and hell because God chose them and gave them to Christ. He set
them apart. They cannot be charged with their
sins. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's what David's crying, Psalm
32. Paul quoted that, or he expounded
upon it in Romans four, verse six, when he described the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And you say, well, that's not
fair. God shouldn't do that, that's not just, that's not right
for God to do that. Well, here's what I wanna tell
you now, if that's what you're saying, if that's your answer
to these truths in the Bible, and they are in the Bible, read
Romans 9, because there's what God says to you. I know because
I used to be right with you on that. When I heard these truths,
I said, oh, that's not fair, God's not gonna be like that,
He loves everybody, He's trying to save everybody. And when I
read the Bible, I found out differently. God is a gracious God. God is
a loving God. And I know how people think.
I know how I used to think. Somebody says, well, then it
doesn't matter what I do. If I'm not one of God's elect,
if I'm not one that he set apart before the foundation, it doesn't
matter what I do. I don't have to seek the Lord
or read my Bible or try to believe in Jesus. Now, let me tell you
something. When you say things like that, I want you to realize
what you're doing. You're trying to play God. Only
God knows whom He set apart before the foundation of the world and
gave to Christ. And the only way we know anything about ourselves,
as far as a relationship with God, is as we are brought by
the power of God to seek the Lord and believe in Him according
to His word. Right here. And so I would ask
you, as Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapter one,
he made this statement. He said, I know your election
of God. Well, Paul, how do you know that?
Were you standing there with God before the world began? And
he set us apart? No, Paul wasn't there. But how
did he know that? He said, because the word, the
gospel, came to you not just in word, but in power. And you know what that power
was? It was the power of the Holy Spirit to bring them to
faith in Christ. Here's what you need to be concerned
with. You need be concerned with, you're a sinner who deserves
nothing but death and hell, and the only way out of this mess
is the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood, His righteousness alone.
You're commanded by God to believe on Him. at the end of Romans
chapter nine, where Paul answers those objections about people
saying, well, God's not fair. God's not just. He should have
chosen everybody. Well, Paul's answer is this.
He said, God's not unfair and unjust. God is sovereign. He
does what he wills. And he said, what are we gonna
say to these things? How are we gonna respond to these
things? We better cast ourselves on our face and beg for mercy
from God. That's what we're to do. Be like
that old publican in Luke 18. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what we're to do. And
if God brings you or me or any of us to do that, Then we've
been set apart before the foundation of the world, the scripture says.
A salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, Paul told Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter one. But that's sanctified
by God the Father. That's an eternal way. The second
verse that I want you to look at is in 1 Corinthians. And it's
1 Corinthians 1.1. which is sanctification by the
Son. We talk about sanctified by the
Father, set apart by the Father in eternal electing grace in
Christ, now sanctified by the Son in redeeming grace. And look
at what Paul says in verse one of 1 Corinthians 1, Paul called
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes
our brother, verse two now, unto the church of God, which is at
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now he says sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Set apart in Christ Jesus. And
he follows that up with called to be saints. Now that's talking
about the third one I'm going to, the Holy Spirit, but hold
off on that. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now that's really what
Hebrews 10 and verse 14 is talking about. For by one offering, he,
Christ, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Set
apart in Christ. Well, we were set apart in Christ
eternally when God chose us and gave us to Christ, united His
people, His elect, His sheep, His brethren to Him, placing
all of the responsibility of their salvation on Christ. You see, everything that Ephesians
1 says about God's eternal electing grace before the foundation of
the world, it's all in Christ, by Christ, for Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the foundation, the heart, the head of the church.
before the foundation of the world, God chose the people and
gave them to Christ. He not only elected them, set
them apart, he set them apart, elected them in Christ. And so
all of their sins, which had not even been committed yet,
the fall had not even happened yet, the scripture says, all
of their sin debt was laid upon Christ, imputed to Him, and He
agreed to be their substitute their surety, substitute and
redeem them. And then in time, in the fullness, Galatians 4.4
says this, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth his
son made of a woman. In time, Christ came and was
made of a woman. That's his sinless humanity,
conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin without
the aid of man, the miraculous birth, the conception and the
incarnation, the union of His deity with sinless human flesh,
the Word made flesh dwelt among us, God manifest in the flesh,
and He became flesh and He was made under the law. That is,
He became accountable and responsible to keep the law unto death and
die for the sins of His people, to redeem them. In the fullness
of the time made of a woman made of law to redeem them that were
under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons
and So that's that's being set apart in redemption sanctified
in redemption So that God's people being legally and eternally united
to Christ He died for them He was buried for them. He arose
again for them. He ascended for them. And that's
what he says here. Look back at Hebrews 10 and verse
10. By the which will we are sanctified,
set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once,
literally once. And I explained that for all
is not in the original language. If you insist upon keeping it
there, it's once for all time. It could be once for all of his
sheep. But that's who he's talking about.
And over in the book of Hebrews chapter two, we have a great,
beautiful explanation of that, speaking of the death of Christ.
In Hebrews two and verse 14, look at Hebrews two and verse
14. It says, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood. Now who are the children there?
God's children, God's elect. Christ also himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. The devil's power
of death was not his power to kill anybody or make anybody
alive, only God can do that. But the power of death, the devil
was the accuser of the brethren. And he says in verse 15, and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage, for verily he took not on him the nature
of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. The seed
of Abraham there is spiritual seed, spiritual Israel. But look at verse 17. Wherefore
in all things it behooved him. Now that word behooved is the
great Greek word for debt. He had a debt that he was obligated
to pay. Now what was that debt? It was
the sin debt of his people, imputed, charged, accounted to him. So it behooved him to be made
like unto who? His brethren. Now who were Christ's
brethren? You remember he said that over
in Mark chapter 12. He said, my brethren are those who do
the will of my Father which is in heaven. That is to believe
on him. And so his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. That's being sanctified in Christ. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. When
he died on the cross, he died not for himself, he died for
his sheep. They were set apart given to
him before the foundation of the world, and they were set
apart in redemption because that's the ones he died for. Who did
Christ die for? He didn't die for everybody without
exception. He died for they who are sanctified. That's what it says here. By
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And who are they? They're his
children. They're his sheep. They're his
church. They're the elect of God. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And that brings
us to the third aspect of sanctification as applied to the Trinity, sanctified
by the Holy Spirit. Look at 1 Peter chapter one and
verse one. Now, understand what I'm saying.
How do I know, how can I know that God sanctified me, set me
apart before the foundation of the world? I can't know that
by nature because these things have not even entered into the
minds of men. I could say that he did, but
that's just pride if I don't have any sound basis for saying
it. How do I know that Christ died
for my sins on that cross and that he was buried and arose
again the third day? for my justification, because
of my justification. Well, that's where set apart,
sanctified, made holy by the Holy Spirit comes in, 1 Peter
chapter one and verse one. It says, Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, verse two, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, Now he calls them elect
according to the foreknowledge. That word foreknowledge is just
not knowing beforehand. In the Greek it means foreordination. It's similar to predestination. So they're elect according to
the foreordination of God the Father. Now look at the next
line. Through sanctification of the Spirit. unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied." It is only by the sanctifying work,
the work of the Holy Spirit, setting a person apart in the
new birth, under the preaching of the gospel, believing and
giving them faith to believe it and receive Christ, that we
can know that we were set apart before the foundation of the
world and set apart by the Father and set apart in Christ on the
cross when he died for us. I'll give you another verse here
that I'm gonna capitalize on these verses in other messages
as we go along, studying the truth of sanctification. But
this is 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. Paul writes here, but
we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, those whom God loves, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's set apart by God the Father
in election. Chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit, being set apart by the Spirit,
and belief of the truth Verse 14, whereunto he called you by
our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that God's chosen
people who were set apart before the foundation of the world,
who were redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they will all
be brought under the preaching of the gospel And by the power
of the Spirit, they will be set apart in the new birth. They
will be given spiritual life from the dead. A new heart, the
Bible says. A new life, it says, risen from
the dead. You hath he quickened who were
dead and trespasses in. He quickens us by the word of
life and the power of the Spirit. that they will be given a new
life, a new heart. They will be given faith to believe.
Faith does not come to us naturally, folks. Faith is not some spark
of goodness within us that we exercise when a silver-tongued
preacher persuades us. By nature, if left to ourselves,
we will never come to Christ. We will never receive Him. We
will never believe in Him. It takes a sovereign act, a sovereign
work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to Christ in the power of
God. And when He does, we believe
in Christ, we rest in Him, we turn from our dead works and
our idolatry, and we follow Him, and that's being sanctified by
the Spirit. That's being set apart by the
Holy Spirit. That's the work of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit in sanctification to set us apart. We believe in
Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.