Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ, our Lord. If you want to turn with me to
1 Corinthians 1 again, you can. 1 Corinthians 1. And verses 30 and 31, I'll read
again. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. But
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We are now onto made unto us
sanctification. But I wanna go back and give
some points made from wisdom and righteousness, those messages,
just a few here to get us caught back up. In God's wisdom, he
made a way that he might be just and the justifier of the ungodly.
The way he purposed this is not at all how man would have done
it, nor through man's wisdom could he have conceived of doing
this. Man, as was purposed of God,
fell so far that he could not get to God. He, in fact, does
what he can to hide himself from God. By man's wisdom, he will
never know God. That's what it says in the chapter
where our text is. So this is what God tells us
in his word. God's wisdom also purposed a
way that man would be enabled to see who God is. This would
all be done by Him. God being an absolute righteous
God, came down. He came down in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh,
by His flesh, for our flesh. Him being the righteousness of
God, He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He kept the law, something you
and I could not do, but for him it was no effort because of who
he is. The Father loved him. We can
see in the gospel that Christ is the righteousness of God without
the law. Joe just mentioned it earlier.
Keeping the law did not make him righteous. He is righteous,
and because of that, keeping the law for him was not any effort. It is what he loved to do. In
the gospel, we can and do in time see Jesus Christ by the
power of God. We see him as these things, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So today, let's
look at sanctification. Sanctification, the meaning of
the word here is holiness, purification, purifier. God, Jesus Christ,
is all these things intrinsically. He has made known unto us these
things through the gospel by His Spirit. All of these words
used here that it says He has made known to us are nouns in
the Greek. Nouns are a person, place, or
thing. In this case, they are a person. This is what Christ is made unto
us, all these things through the gospel. If it were not so,
then we would never know Christ. There are verb forms of this
word sanctification as well, and we will look at some verses
that use those. I don't know that I'll mention whether they're
a verb or not. But Jesus Christ is our purifier. I really like
the thought of that. It is He that makes me clean.
It is He that sets me apart for His use. It is He that makes
me holy. If you would, turn with me to
Hebrews 10, because I'm gonna hit a few verses as I'm in there
in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 and starting in verse
nine. Hebrews 10 verse nine. Then said
he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. He taketh away the first, it
says. What did he take away? do this
and live. The Ten Commandments. That he
may establish the second. What is the second? I have done
it all. Live. It goes on to say, by the
witch will, we are sanctified. Not we have begun to be sanctified
and now it needs to be finished or completed. But we are sanctified. Complete. How? Through the offering of the body
of Christ once. The for all was put in there
and I think it reads just fine without it. It does not necessarily
hurt it, but it reads better without it I think. Once Christ
died. Only once and no more. What did
he accomplish in that one time offering of his body for his
people? Sanctification. He made us holy
and it only took one time for him to offer up himself to accomplish
this, my sanctification. Verse 14 of Hebrews 10, it says,
for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. This verse says what I just told
you, this one offering perfected forever And this word means perpetually. I remember when Joe mentioned
that it was somewhere else in Hebrews the word meant perpetually. Like this. He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. This is something that was done
that is continuing and will never end. There is nothing about it
that is changing or It's just continuing on. This is to them
that are sanctified. What Jesus Christ has done has
set me apart unto God. It has cleansed me and made me
holy before God, all based on the work he did and nothing at
all to do with me or what I have done or will do. This was done before you and
I were ever even born. But God does in time come to
us in power and he then sanctifies us through his spirit if we are
one of his. And this based on his purpose
as to when he wants to do this for each of those that are his.
2 Thessalonians 2.13, very familiar, you all know this. But we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. Here is what God tells us that
will bring salvation to us through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. His spirit comes to each of his
at his own time. When it pleases him, the spirit
bloweth where it listeth. But the spirit comes and it sets
his own apart. The spirit makes them holy. Does the spirit of God do a job
that is imperfect and must be continued on or made better by
one who has been sanctified? Absolutely not. But just to finish
the passage, this setting apart, this making holy, is for the
express purpose of believing the truth. I like to also read
1 Peter when I read this, as it says the same thing, but in
just a little different way, and I think it makes it more
clear. 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2. Peter and Apostle of Jesus
Christ, who the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Here we can see that the sanctification
of the spirit, that is the setting apart of the spirit, the making
holy of the spirit is unto obedience. That is believing Jesus Christ
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
did all this for his church. What he did on that tree secured
the fact that they would in time be one of those whom God would
cleanse by his spirit. Ephesians 5, 25 and 26 we read,
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word. God does not do
a partial job of sanctification. God does not wind you up and
then you take over in time to sanctify yourselves. But don't
take my word for it, let's see what God says. First Thessalonians
5.23 says, and the very God of peace sanctify you holy. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The word therefore sanctify means
to make holy. This is one of those verbs. The
one who is making holy is the very God of peace. Who is that? Jesus Christ the Lord. Then we
have the word holy. The word for holy there, and
that is W-H-O-L-L-Y, means complete to the end. Absolutely perfect. So the God of peace sanctifies
us and he does this completely to the end. preserving us until
our God of peace returns. Progressive sanctification is
a lie. Sanctification is not a progressive
work, but a completed work. It is one that is a continuing
work, completed to the end. That is, it is a work that will
last how long it needs to. If you feel you are progressively
getting better, you are deceiving yourself. I do believe some people
confuse sanctification and righteousness, and I'm not saying I can't do
that. There's sometimes I read things
and I may confuse sanctification and righteousness. Sanctification
is a setting apart. It is a cleansing. It is not
a performing of some work for righteousness. We know what our
righteousnesses are before God. Filthy rags. God tells us that
we are preserved by Him and this preservation is all the way until
He returns. When He returns, we will see
Him as He is and shall be like Him. So you want to sanctify
yourself? You go right ahead. My hope is
in Jesus Christ who has and shall bring me to God by Himself. God sanctifies us completely. He does this using different
things. I don't know the best way to
say, so someone may have a better way to say it, but we are told
in scripture that we are sanctified by the body of Christ, the faith
of Jesus Christ, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified
by the truth of God. Are these different sanctifications? Jesus Christ by his death secured
our being made holy by his body and death. By his faith to do
what the father said to do. The Holy Spirit then coming down
and translating those who were his into the kingdom of his dear
son and they are set apart by the Holy Spirit. Them coming
to know this by his gospel, his truth. All the same sanctification. This is where and or when we
begin to see his maiden to us, all these things. But the scripture
talks about us being involved in sanctification. Do we cooperate
with God in our sanctification? Do we progressively get holy?
Short answer which I've already given is no. But let's look at
some of the passage that speak of different things. And I will
just go to those passages and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Those passages where some might say we are involved in our sanctification. And just to be clear, we are
involved, but only in the sense as the one who has had these
things done to us and not as some tool where we do things
to make ourselves so. God does the saving, we do the
sinning. Our involvement is offending
the thrice holy God. God's part is saving those who
have offended him. You know, you hear some folks
talk about synergism. That is, man cooperates with
God. The only cooperation of man to
God is when he makes us willing in the day of his power, both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. When God exerts His
power, you will not resist because you cannot. If He does not exert
His power and you're left to yourself, that's not a good place
to be. Men like to use these big words
like synergism. And it's not in God's word, by
the way. God did not even breathe in His word, Hebrew or Greek,
words that big. Not even words that would be
translated into other languages that are that big. Men like to
use these kind of words because it makes them look smart or feel
smart. This is what the scripture calls
words of man's wisdom. We know by man's wisdom that
no man will know God. The gospel is simple, and that
is, I mean by that, singular. It is Christ, Christ, Christ. anything concerning the salvation
of a sinner, then it is all Christ, Christ, Christ. It is that simple. Man's part is offending God,
and that's it. You know what I think of those
men who use these big terms like synergism, superlapsarianism,
and so on, ad nauseum? I think of Charlie Brown's teacher,
wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Making noise, but saying
absolutely nothing when it comes to Christ and Him crucified. Making it about man and not Christ. Let's turn to a passage that
men like to use as one of those passages to say, see man does
have a part in his sanctification. In other words, they help God
out in sanctifying themselves. So turn with me to 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1. And I didn't work it, so we might
be here for a while, me trying to find it. No, I got it right
here, I think. 1 Peter 1, chapter 1 and verses
13 through 16. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober in hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lust in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because
it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Your way of life matters. But
if you read this and get the thought that God turns things
over to me now to do that which is good, then you are wrong.
He wills his people into what he himself appoints. It is his
will that will be done in heaven as it is on earth. He works in
us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is all
done because of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. Does
God tell us in Scripture to do things we cannot do? All the
time. In fact, there is nothing we
can do without Him. He must enable us to do all things
according to the counsel of His good pleasure. If it is us working
this out in ourselves, then we have something to boast of. It
is He that has made us holy, and it is He that directs our
steps. If you are fashioning yourself
according to former lust, that is all these immoral things that
men think of that are immoral, and they are, but also if you
think that in some way you can do something to help God out,
that is immoral because it offends God. Immorality in scripture
is really unrighteousness. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? Not one. No man born of Adam
can or will do such a thing, but we are told countless times
in scripture that Jesus Christ hath cleansed us and shall keep
on cleansing us. We do not cleanse ourselves,
we do not set ourselves apart. It is clear in scripture that
we are set apart by God, by the body of Jesus Christ, by his
spirit in regeneration, by the faith of Christ, by his truth. In Luke 17, you know the account
where the lepers, there were 10 lepers. Christ cleansed them,
but for some of them, this cleansing was only the outside. It only
cleaned them outwardly of their leprosy. He did not cleanse them
of their inner leprosy, if you will, that which is a leprous
heart. Christ said to the one in Luke
17, 17, he said, and Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed,
but where are the nine? The indication in that passage
is the other ones did not come to Christ. They went on their
way. But this one who was cleansed
gave God the praise for what was done and not the others.
We do not venerate ourselves, that is we do not sanctify ourselves. We have been sanctified by the
purifier, by the one who has the power, the ability, the holiness
to do so. All we can do is be sanctified
and not get sanctified. Be ye holy for I am holy. And I want to read a Robert Hawker
quote on this verse. Quote, reader, do observe how
the Holy Ghost by his servant points out the method by which
this life is preserved. As he which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. God's call is
to holiness, and God's grace works in us this holiness in
Christ and from Christ. And hence when he saith, Be ye
holy, for I am holy, this is not a bare precept, but the communication
of grace enabling. He wills his people into what
he hath himself appointed. He worketh them both to will
and to do of his pleasure. His grace is to this express
purpose. And it is to the praise of the
glory of his grace when this is done, and which proves that
the work of his grace and not man's labors or man's merit,
for then it could not be in either sense to the praise of his grace.
And as it is on earth in grace, so hereafter in heaven in glory. The final and full presentation
of the church is to himself and for himself, to be to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Oh, the unspeakable riches of
God in Christ, end quote. How about this passage? First
Peter 3.15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. Do we sanctify the Lord? No. Not in the sense that we are
sanctified, but we sanctify him in our hearts. He has set apart,
given the preeminence, which is His, so that we might tell
others about what He has done for us. Even this we cannot do
without Him working in us to do this. Without Him, we can
do nothing. I'm not working alongside of
God to do these things. It is not God is doing His part
and I am doing mine. God is working in us to do these
things. It is His work that we believe
on Him, and if He stopped doing this work, we would stop believing. But He is faithful to perform
that which He has promised to do. Jesus Christ is made unto
us sanctification because He is our sanctification. Ephesians
1-4 we read, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. God, the almighty, sovereign,
holy God calls us saints. That is holy. We are chosen in
him to be holy before him. That is God. What did Christ
tell Paul? If you would turn with me to
Acts 26. Acts 26 and I'll be almost done
here. Acts 26. Acts 26 and verses 15 through
18. And I said, this is Paul speaking,
who art thou Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet,
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee
a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast
seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee,
delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom
now I send thee. to open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." And that
is Christ. It is the faith which is in Christ
that sets us apart even as it set him apart. Read John 17 sometime. Christ is our sanctification. We are sanctified, past tense,
but it is a setting apart that continues until the day of Jesus
Christ until we are before God holy. We are set apart by God
in this life that we may give honor and glory to his name.
We have no sanctification of our own. We are separated unto
God that called us by his almighty power. We are sanctified by Jesus
Christ once, not multiple times, but this sanctification which
he has wrought is a sanctification which is complete and perfect. We are continually sanctified
by him, meaning we are kept by God. We are preserved by God. What does it go on to say in
Hebrews as we have said before in verse 14? For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.