Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians 1. Our subject is the will of God
in our sanctification. The will of God in our sanctification. That's our subject. Now look
here in this greeting, in the first three verses. 1 Corinthians
1, verse 1. And Paul says, Paul, called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And saith the knees, our brother,
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, He's
both their Lord and He's our Lord. Grace be unto you and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's
just get right to this. First of all, our sanctification,
the believer's sanctification to be separated out to be made
holy, to be consecrated to God. That's what sanctification is.
Separated out, made holy, consecrated to God. The believer's sanctification
is by the will of God. That's how we begin to experience
this grace. It's by the will of God. Paul said there, called to be
an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. So was Sosthenes. So was everybody in the church
at Corinth. So was every believer. We're
called by the will of God, through the will of God. And we're sanctified
when we're called. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus. And we're called to be saints. This is the work of God. It's
the will of God. Our will is not to be willing. Our natural will is not to be
willing to be the servants of Christ. It's not our will to
be separated unto Christ at all. That's not our will by nature. The apostle Paul, while he was
Saul of Tarsus, he was not willing to become an apostle of Jesus
Christ. Now, he loved religion. He loved
his religion. but he was hating Christ the
whole time that he loved his religion. That was his natural
will. And if God had left him in that
state, that would have remained his will. Now turn over to Acts
26 and we'll hear Paul tell us that himself. Acts 26. Acts 26.9, Paul says, I verily
thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to
the name of Jesus of Nazareth. That was Saul's natural will.
Now look, verse 10, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I
shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests.
And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
And I punished them often in every synagogue, and I compelled
them to blaspheme. I was exceedingly mad against
them. I persecuted them even unto strange
cities, whereupon for this cause for this cause. As I went to
Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday,
O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness
of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed
with me. And when we were all fallen to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me. I heard a voice speaking
unto me, saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And I said, who is it, Lord?
And he said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. Rise up, stand up
on thy feet. I have appeared unto thee for
this purpose, to make thee a minister. Paul wasn't a minister of Christ.
The Lord made him a minister of Christ. He says, "...to make
thee a minister, and a witness of these things which thou hast
seen, and of those things into which I will appear unto thee,
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, under
whom now I send thee, to open their eyes." Even as he just
opened Paul's eyes. He says, and to turn them from
darkness to light, just like He was turning Paul from darkness
to light. That's what sanctification is.
He says, and from the power of Satan unto God, just like Christ
was now turning Paul from Satan unto God. He says, that they
may receive the forgiveness of sins, just like Christ was making
Paul to receive the forgiveness of sins. He says, and that they
may receive an inheritance among them which are sanctified. just
like Paul was being sanctified, set apart by faith that's in
Christ. And he said, whereupon for this
cause, because God sanctified me, because Christ called me
out of that darkness, because Christ made me willing in the
day of His power, he says, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision. That's how a man is sanctified.
That by the will of God, he's sanctified into Christ Jesus,
and he's called to be a saint. The Scripture says, of his own
will, of God's own will, begat he us through the word of truth.
And John said, which were born, not of blood. It wasn't because
my mother and my father believed that I was sanctified by the
will of God. It's not of blood. Nor is it
the will of the flesh. It wasn't because my mother and
my father gave me some false hope by foolishly baptizing me
when I was an infant. It's not by the will of the flesh.
And it's not even by the will of man. It wasn't even by my
own personal will. But by the will of God. By the will of God. And if you'll
read the Scriptures, that's the very glory of God. When He showed
Moses His glory, God said this, I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then, it's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth,
but of God that shows mercy. Now the difference in this, the
distinguishing mark that differentiates a man who's truly been sanctified
by God and the man who's not been sanctified by God is this,
who does he give the glory to? Who does He give the glory to?
That's the difference. That's the difference. True believers
are called and sanctified into Christ Jesus through the will
of God that according as it is written, He that glories, let
him glory in the Lord. Okay, now that's the first thing.
Now number two. Number two. The will of God sanctifies
us into Christ Jesus long before we ever experience His grace,
long before we knew anything about Him. This is by the triune
work of God. Alright? First of all, and let
me remind you again what sanctification is, to be sanctified. is to be
separated from the power of Satan into the Kingdom of God, from
darkness into light. It was first done in eternity,
then it's done in time, in our experience of it. Then it means
to be made holy, to be created in holiness in Christ. Holiness has to do with the nature. Holiness has to do with the heart.
A holy heart. Not an impure, defiled, wicked,
deceitful heart, but a pure, holy heart. We were made holy
in Christ in eternity. We were made holy by Christ when
He came to this earth. And then eventually we were made
holy by Christ dwelling in us. And then it means to be consecrated
for God's holy use. consecrated for God's holy use.
Whenever Christ consecrated Himself to God, that's when God's people
were consecrated to God. When He perfected holy consecration
to God, that's when His people perfected holy consecration to
God. Let me show you that now from
the Scriptures. First of all, it's by God the Father. Now,
you're familiar with Ephesians 1. You'll be turning to Romans
8. While you're turning there, I'll read Ephesians 1 to you. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says He chose
us. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, in heavenly places, before the foundation
of the world. It says, according as He chose us in Him, before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame, holy and righteous before Him in love. Now, this is where
a lot of people don't understand this, but if it's going to be
by the will of God, God the Father began this thing. And when He
put His people in Christ from eternity, His people have been
holy in Christ and without blame in Christ. in the love of God,
in Christ the Beloved, holy and without blame, before Him in
love. Now, all the blessings that Paul speaks about in Ephesians
1 that God blessed us with when He chose us in Christ, he speaks
of those same blessings in Romans 8. And he says here, in Romans
8, in verse 29, he says, whom He did foreknow. That's one of
those spiritual blessings He gave us in Christ. He also did
predestinate. That's the spiritual blessing
He gave us in Christ. Verse 30, Moreover whom He did
predestinate, they may also call. He did that when He put us in
Christ. Look at this, verse 30 again. He says, And them He called,
He also justified. And whom He justified, they may
also glorify. Every bit of this was done in
Christ when He chose us in Christ. Men will get to arguing about
it. Well, He didn't justify us in eternity. He didn't glorify
us in eternity. Yes, He did. He justified us
in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's right. And
He glorified us with the glory with which Christ had with the
Father from the foundation of the world. It glorified us in
Him. He determined the end from the
beginning. The works were finished from the foundation of the world.
And then He works everything that comes to pass in time. He
works all that after the counsel of His own will. This was the
will of God the Father. Jude said the same thing. He
said, we're sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Christ
Jesus, and called in Christ Jesus. All that happened by God the
Father in eternity. Alright? Then Christ came. And
Christ, now we're saying, we're sanctified through the will of
God in Christ Jesus, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints in Christ. Now let me show you how Christ
is our sanctification. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. You
see, we're not going to get the glory. We're not going to get
glory for anything in our salvation. Our sanctification is by God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now look
here. The Son of God sanctified us in perfect holy consecration. He sanctified us in perfect holy
consecration to God by His own holy perfect consecration to
God. when He walked this earth, He
came to fulfill a two-fold will for God. We say it was sanctified
through the will of God. That will of God was two-fold.
It was two-fold. Number one, it was to fulfill
the covenant of works. It was to fulfill the law. Everything
God gave in that covenant of works was picturing Christ, pointing
us to Christ, and Christ is the end of it. He came to fulfill
everything in that law, and He did. That was the first thing. Number two, it was for Christ
to establish the everlasting covenant of grace. So that now,
because of what Christ did, all those spiritual blessings that
He gave us in Christ in eternity, now He can give them to us in
time and be just and justifier of them that believe. So the
twofold will of God was, number one, fulfill the law. Number
two, establish the covenant of grace. Alright, now look here
in Hebrews 2 and verse 10. It became Him for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. What does that mean? Through
sufferings, as the God-man, as Christ walked this earth, through
the sufferings that He endured, even to the obedience of the
cross, through those sufferings, Christ became the author. That's what captain means. He
became the author. He wrote the book. He wrote the
book. When you get a book and the book's
written, do you buy a book at the bookstore and go home and
try to add something to it? It's written in it. It's already
been authored. You don't have to add anything
to it. That's what it's saying. By His sufferings and what He
did, He wrote the book. He authored the book by His holy
consecration to God. And all those God put in Him
were in Him when He did it, so that we did it in Him. We were holy and consecrated
to God perfectly in Him when He walked this earth. Alright,
verse 11. That's what it said. For both He that sanctifyeth,
that's Christ, and they who are sanctified are all of one. We were in Him when He sanctified
us. He that sanctifieth, and they
who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause? He's not
ashamed to call them brethren. This is the only reason Christ
can have, and God can have any fellowship with me and you. He
made His people holy. He made us holy. Now look, he's
going to quote some scriptures here to back that up. Saying,
this is from the scriptures, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto
thee. He's saying I will sanctify my people by what I do. And again, I will put my trust
in him. From a holy heart, he perfectly
trusted God. That's how we're made holy. Look
at verse 13 again. And again, Behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. Alright now, verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise, he also himself
likewise, took part of the same. Came and was a holy, perfect
man. representing his people that
God gave to him who were defiled and had a wicked heart like we
saw Paul had. But he came in flesh and blood
to represent his people that through death he might destroy
the devil that had the power of death and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to his
bondage. Okay, now turn to Hebrews 5.9.
When you read the Hebrew writer, he'll say something and then
he'll get off on another subject and then he'll come back around
to what he was talking about before. But we're going to skip
the stuff he got off on and we're going to come back to pick up
right here with what he was just talking about, Hebrews 5.9. And
being made perfect, being made perfect, being perfectly holy
and perfect consecration to God, having perfectly fulfilled that
work, he became the author. the captain of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey Him. By Christ perfecting holy consecration
to God, by Him perfecting holy consecration to God, Christ became
the author of eternal salvation to every believer that hearkens
to Him, that obeys Him. And that happens when of God
Christ is made unto us sanctification. That's when we hearken unto Him.
When we're sanctified. When He calls us and says, now
hearken, then we'll hearken. Alright, now look. Hebrews 7
verse 26. I'm going to come back again
to pick up right here with what he's talking about. Hebrews 7
verse 26. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. That's what it is to be holy.
That's what it is to be perfectly consecrated to God. To be separated
from other sinners, to be holy and consecrated to God is to
be holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. That's who Christ is, and that's
who He was when He walked this earth. And every single child
of God is exactly what Christ is, what He's described right
here. This is the holiness every one of His people are in Christ. We're holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. And He did
that for us, fulfilling that two-fold will of God. As He went about fulfilling that
two-fold will of God. Now turn to Hebrews 10. What
is that two-fold will of God? Hebrews 10. Look at verse 5. When He cometh into the world,
He said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. Christ speaking
to God the Father. He said, sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not. You would not be satisfied with
that, Father. Those sacrifices and those offerings
made for thousands of years under that old covenant could never
perfect one's sinner. They could never wash away the
sins of a child and make him sanctified and make him righteous.
It couldn't happen. Never could happen. He says,
but a body hast thou prepared me. Why? What did we just see? Because the children were flesh
and blood. Those He came to save were flesh and blood. So God
made Him a body to represent them. Now look here in verse
6. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
And the word pleasure there means satisfaction. They didn't make
eternal satisfaction. None of those burnt offerings
did. None of those sacrifices. Verse 7. Then said He, Lo, I
come to do Thy will, O God." Now what did Paul say? He said,
I was called through the will of God. And he said, and it's
through that will of God that we're sanctified into Christ
Jesus. And it's through that will of
God that we're called to be saints. And if you take the to be out,
it's in italics. That means the translators added
it. And in our text you can take that out and it means you're
called saints. When He calls you, you're a saint. You're not called and try to
make yourself a saint. He calls you and He's made you
a saint when He calls you. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens. How can that be? You look at you, I look at me,
and I say, it's anything but like that. I don't see myself
that way. Do you? I don't. Now listen,
here's how it happened. Whose will made me that way then? Whose will made me sanctified
and holy and harmless and undefiled? Right here, verse 10. I'm sorry,
verse 9. Then He said, He, Lo, I come
to do Thy will, O God. Christ came to do that two-fold
will of God. Now remember what it was? Satisfy
the law, fulfill that old covenant of works, and establish the covenant
of grace. That's the two-fold will that
God sent Him to accomplish by His will. He said, I came to
do Thy will. Now look here. He taketh away
the first. I wish we could get what He taketh
away the first means. That means it don't have a thing
to do with us anymore. That old covenant of works by
which we sinned in Adam in the garden, has nothing whatsoever
to do with a saint of God anymore. It has nothing to say to a child
of God anymore. Why? Not because God just looked
the other way. Not because God just did away
with it. Not because God just said, oh, we'll forget about
that. No, because Christ came and fulfilled it perfectly. in His holy, perfect consecration
to God. He went to that cross and took
the sins of His people and bore the wrath of God and satisfied
divine justice so that that was fulfilling the righteousness
of God. But He did that with a holy, consecrated heart so
that not only now have we been made righteous before that law,
we've been made holy in Christ by Christ. The same One made
us holy has made us righteous. Now look, that is the first thing.
He took away that first. What about that second? That
covenant of grace? He takes away the first that
He may establish the second. You see it there? Hebrews 10,
9. He took away the first that He may establish the second. Christ established the everlasting
covenant of grace so that God can be just now Justify us and
freely give us all these blessings that He promised in eternity.
Now look at this now. Look at the next word. You don't
want to miss this. Verse 10. By the witch will. He's saying by Christ's will. By Him fulfilling God's will. This two-fold will of God. By
the witch will, we are what? We are sanctified. We are sanctified. We are set apart and made holy
and perfectly consecrated to God through the offering of that
body. that God made him. That body
of flesh through the body of Jesus Christ and it's done once
for all time. Look at the next verse. He says, now there's a lot of
folks that are still standing and they're daily ministering
and they're offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. Now, the Hebrew writer was talking
about priests who were standing up in his day and that wouldn't
let go of that old covenant of works, and they were still offering
bulls and goats and all of those things like they did all through
the ages, all since Mount Sinai. But the Scriptures are not old
and outdated. It still applies today. There's
people standing every day in churches telling sinners things
that they need to do and offerings they need to make in order to
make themselves holy before God. They're called wheel workers.
They're called legalists. They're called Judaizers. They're
called the blind leading the blind. That's what they're called.
And they can never take away sins. They can do all of those
things they want to. They will not make a sinner holy
and righteous before God. They never will. But now look
at this. But this man, verse 12, but this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath Perfected. Perfected forever. Them that
are sanctified. Them that are sanctified. Who are them that are sanctified?
Everybody that was in Him. When He sanctified them, they
were all of one. And they are sanctified in Him.
Now, we saw Paul call out a sinner. We saw the Lord call Paul out. He experienced that grace. That's
the work of the Holy Spirit through Christ, through God the Father.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Now look here, Hebrews 10.15. When we experience this by the
Spirit of God, He gets the glory for sanctifying us too. He says
here, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that He has said before,
This is the everlasting covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. This is what He had been promising
from the beginning. I will put my laws into their hearts. That's
how a man is sanctified. God doesn't write it on tables
of stone and say, now do this and you can be sanctified. God
writes His Word in our hearts and we are sanctified. We are
made holy. We are purified. We have a new
man, a new creature, a new heart when He does that. And in their
minds will I write them. And you know what He writes?
He writes the law of faith. He writes the law of love. He
writes the law of repentance. He writes those on our hearts.
But essentially, here's what He writes. He writes these two.
He writes an Old Testament on our heart and this New Testament
on our heart in this way, teaching us they're both fulfilled and
established by Christ and it's done. It's done. That's what
He teaches you. It's done. Look. Look what He
said. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. If God won't remember your sins
and iniquities no more, I'm going to tell you something, brethren.
That's to be holy and righteous. That is to be holy and righteous.
Not the sins of that unholy, impure heart. He won't remember
those. And he won't remember the sins committed against him
against the law in unrighteousness. That's holy. To be holy and righteous. He won't remember them. Now look
at this. Now wherever omission of these is, there's no more
offering for sin. That means there's nothing else
for you to do. That's the good news of the gospel.
That's the difference between the gospel of grace and the gospel
of works. The gospel of works is saying,
but you still got to do your part. The gospel of grace says,
my part's done. Completely done. God says there's
no more offering for sin. It's done. Now watch this. Having,
would you get that word having? Not going to have. Having in
my current possession right now. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
liberty, the welcome mats out before God. Having boldness to
enter into where? The holiest. This is what we're
talking about, being made holy. And you can't enter the holiest
until you've been made the holiest. And when Christ has made you
the holiest, the Holy One, you can enter now into the presence
of God by the blood of Jesus. We're fit to enter there right
now, brethren, by the blood of Jesus. Look, how do we get this? By a new and a living way, now
catch these next words, which He hath consecrated for us. That's what we saw in those verses
I was reading to you in Hebrews. By His perfect holy consecration
to God, He perfectly consecrated us so that now we can enter in. We can enter in. He consecrated
for us through His flesh, through His body. So we can enter in. And verse 21, having a high priest
over the house of God, now let us draw near with a true heart. That's what a sanctified heart
is. A sanctified heart is a true heart. It's not a dishonest heart
pretending like he's holy. When the preacher's around and
other brethren around and then he's thinking evil, unholy, godless
thoughts when nobody else is around. And he's doing that when
the preacher's around too. The preacher just can't see it.
No, a true heart now says, Christ is my sanctification. And he
says this, he draws near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith. That means he believes God when
he says, you're holy now. You're holy. There's nothing
else to do. You're holy. Full assurance of faith. Having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's how we
learned this and became sanctified. And our bodies washed with pure
water. That's sanctification. What does
it mean? What's the blessing? It means
God hath made us partakers of His holiness. That's what it
means. Partakers of His holiness. It
means this, we have that holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. We have it. We have that holiness. It means
of God is Christ made unto us sanctification. Turn over to
Colossians 1 and we'll end with this. Colossians 1. Colossians 1. It means right
now, brethren, right where you sit, you that have been sanctified
through the will of God, sanctified into Christ Jesus, called saints
by God. This is what it means. Right
now, without anything else needing to be done, you're fit to enter
into glory with God. Right now. Listen to this. Colossians
1 verse 12. We give thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet. That word means fit. We have
all the fitness we need. And He did it. He made us fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He made
us fit to be partakers of the inheritance with those saints
that are already there. That's right. Who hath delivered
us. When you're delivered, what happens?
It's done. It's already done. You ever get
a pizza delivered, and the pizza's delivered, and when you have
that pizza in your hand, it's delivered, and you're eating
it, you're not sitting there waiting and going, well, I wonder
when that pizza's gonna get here. It's delivered. Well, that's
what delivered means. We're delivered. Out! Out! from the power of darkness, and
He has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. That
work is finished, brethren. That's sanctification. That's
sanctification. Be sure to get this now. Holiness
is not by degrees. I know Men used to preach about
progressive sanctification. And there is a true doctrine
called progressive sanctification. It's where God grows us in grace
and knowledge of Him. From a child to maturity, He
grows us that way. But we do not become more holy. No, sir. We don't become more
holy. When He makes you fit, He's made you holy. And you're
holy, you have that holiness to enter into the presence of
God. You have it. And you're fit. The only place
God talks about holiness in a relative sense, where He's saying, you
know how men will say, I've progressed in holiness so that now I'm so
much holier than I used to be, and I'm holier than some other
saints. There's one place in Scripture
where God speaks of holiness in that sense, as being more
holy than somebody else. And He says this in Isaiah 65,
verse 5. He says, These folks say, Stand
by thyself, come not near to me, for I'm holier than thou. And God says, These are a smoke
in my nose, and a fire that burneth all the day. God says, I hate
them. I hate them. Do you understand that? When
He makes you holy, you're holy. That's why Paul told those Galatians.
He said, having begun in the Spirit, having been made holy
by the Spirit, are you so foolish? Are you so bewitched that you
think now you could be sanctified by your flesh? By going back
to the legal law and to the letter of the law, and in the works
of your flesh make yourselves more holy than God's made you?
God forbid. Here's the point now. If I can
glory in any part of my salvation, then God didn't do it all. That
includes my holiness. God must do it all. And He does.
And He gets all the glory. All the glory. Alright, brethren.
I'm out of time. Let's stand together. Father, thank You for this Word.
We ask You now to sanctify it to our hearts by Your will. Wash
us, purge us, make us to hear You. Make us to truly come out
of that darkness and come out of that power of Satan whereby
we think we can make ourselves holy by our works. Translate
us out of that into your Son's kingdom, into light. Make us see that this is all
your work and you get all the glory. We pray, Lord, that you
do that for your honor. Exalt Christ in our hearts. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen.