The reason that I am is because
somewhere long ago in some historical window of church history, we
have taken the word sanctification and we have made it what the
Bible does not teach. Let me tell you what we've made
it. We've made the word sanctification a process through which one becomes
more like Jesus. And in that, people would say
that I become more and more holy. I am being groomed to have a
righteousness, if you will. That's what people think sanctification
means, because it's what we've been taught our entire lives.
Let me tell you where I believe it went bad, because that's not
what the scripture teaches. And then I'll tell you what the
scripture teaches. I think it went bad because when you talk
to a lot of people who hold fast to a personal holiness, they come to this idea that repentance
means a change of behavior. Repentance by definition means
a change of mind. And the change of mind that is
required for faith is one and in the same that comes through
regeneration. So for example, when the command
is to change your mind, we see that more than other places when
the gospel is being preached in the New Testament. We see
Jesus even speaking to the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
and he tells them to what? Repent. and believe the gospel. So that means to change their
mind about what they currently believe and to then believe in
what they should believe. To think differently, to have
a constitutional change in their thoughts. How is that possible? I know I preached a little bit
on Sunday. I've had to redact some things out of that. I was
a little jokey that Sunday. I've had to pull some of that
excess out. But I talked just a tad about
how the gospel is simple and that even Jesus says that our
faith must be like that of a child. And what happens is we grow up
and we become critical in our thinking. And then we say, okay,
we hear that the Bible says to just change the way we think
and believe in the simplicity of what Jesus has done, believe
in His work, believe in Him as our righteousness. And that is
difficult for educated and critically thinking adults. So therefore,
when Rome came out with the idea that penance What is penance? Payment. That you would do something. Oh, you drank a little too much
wine, then climb these stairs, kiss all 40 of them, and say
Hail Mary 80 times. Do your Hail Marys. And put a
little money in this jar. All is forgiven. penance. I pay
for something. I pay God for something. Monasticism
would say, in some forms of monasticism, where the monks, monasteries,
where they would whip themselves and chain themselves and cut
themselves because they felt like if they had some kind of
grief in their body, then they're paying in some way for their
sins. But is there ever a payment? I mean, ask the question, is
there ever anything that a human being could do to even approach
paying God eternally for their sin? And the answer is no. No. No. That's why hell is a
continual, conscious, eternal punishment. Because after An
eternity of eternities, the human being will never even start to
approach the debt of sin. Because we are sinners. You cannot
make it up. You cannot balance it out. But
when Rome came up, not came up, when man's mind happened to be
Rome, when the Roman church developed this theology of penance, it
became very easy for repentance to become penance. And that's
what happened. So people think of repenting,
you better repent of that. What does it mean? All right,
let's use an example. Let's say that I like to gamble
because I like the thrill of winning money. But who is a gambler
that actually is on the top? The six guys that wear shades
and caps that you see on ESPN? The 60,000 men that lost before
them, whose money they now play with? They're the losers, the
six of the winners, and they have so much money from the sponsors
that they don't care if they win or lose. It's all about the
game now. But let's just say that I have a problem with gambling
and I'm losing money and my electricity is shut off and my car is repossessed
and I'm about to lose my home because I'm working hard and
I'm getting a good paycheck but I just want that scratch off
just one more time, just another, you know. And you think that's
odd but I have seen people cash their checks in scratch offs. And go out to the parking lot
and then go in there and dig in the ashtray to find the one to get
enough of a 20 so they could go forget about what they just
lost. And here, let's say that that was my sin. If someone said
you need to repent of that sin, what we believe in our culture
they mean is you need to stop sinning. All right, now, I could
stop the act of gambling. As a matter of fact, because
I've lost all my money, I probably won't gamble anymore until I
get a little bit more and then I'll just try to win some more
back. That's what the addiction of that sin does. It's an addiction. But repentance is not about stopping
the gambling. It's about changing my mind of
what I feel the gambling is doing. I feel the gambling is providing
for me or is an opportunity to have wealth that I didn't earn.
As a matter of fact, you earned because you go and you buy your
scratch off and you lose and I buy your scratch off and I
win and I take the money from you. But the lottery commission
is the winner, the billions and billions and billions of dollars
that they pay. And the small, little, tiny, none of the percentages
that they put into Georgia's education, no wonder we are 41st
in education in the nation. Maybe it's 38th now. All that
money, huh? We came from North Carolina where
we're 47th. Oh, 47th, okay. We're moving
up. We're moving up. Moving south, moving up. But repentance is
not for me to change the sin because any unbeliever could
stop gambling. but it would be that my mind
must change, my disposition must change, my countenance must change
as the way I look at it. No longer is it satisfying to
try to get money and to lose everything for the sake of trying
to gain everything. No longer is it satisfying for
me to continue to waste and be a poor steward. It is satisfying
for me to trust in the sufficiency of Christ and what He's given
me. And that saving faith produces that type of repentance in the
mind. That is the result of conversion,
regeneration. In other words, when the Spirit
of God, as He wishes, regenerates a soul, that person has a change
of mind and then believes. The change of mind doesn't cause
them to be born again. They're born again, therefore
they have a change of mind. So when we see repentance, it is nothing
to do with what we're doing or not doing. It's how we're thinking.
By the very nature of the fact we would trust in Jesus Christ
as our righteousness means that we've changed our mind about
something. What is that? That we are not able to satisfy
God's righteous standard. We are not able to come to Christ.
without the work of God. We are not able to believe without
the gift of faith. This is all part of how the mind
is changed. That's why Paul in numerous places
talks about the renewing of the mind, the knowledge of the truth.
This is the being what? He says being renewed in the
knowledge of your creator. So we learn the scripture and
we're constantly fed and then in our mind, our mind is What? Gaining knowledge of the gospel.
So repentance is not something you must do, it is something
that you will have. But the command to repent, change
one's mind, it baffles the unregenerate, unconverted mind. Why? Because
they come to the place of going, what am I going to change my
mind about? I hate sin, I'm not sinning. And see, if it were,
if it were, oh, let's see, the woman at Sychar, or the demoniac,
or if it were some of the prostitutes, or the beggars, or the lepers,
or the thieves, or the tax collectors that Jesus used as examples,
we would probably have a difficult time proving this reality. But when we see the measure of
the lives that Jesus told to repent and believe the gospel,
these lives were more perfect than you and I could ever muster.
If there was ever a standard of obedience, quote, quote, quote,
that we should measure ourselves by in our world, sans Christ,
then the Pharisees and the Sadducees would be that example. Nicodemus
would be that example, but Jesus said his works were darkness.
Jesus says that unless your works, unless your righteousness actually,
he says, is greater than that of the Pharisees, you cannot
inherit the kingdom of heaven. And the world in which he lived
and the culture looked at Jesus and they're like, we're all doomed. So there's nothing for Nicodemus
to repent about. in the sense of the way we look
at it. There was no sinful life that Nicodemus needed to put
away. There was no sinful life that Paul needed to put away.
There was no sinful life except unbelief. So when we think about
now the question on the table, we have to ask ourselves, what
is sanctification? Sanctification has two specific
and precise definitions in Scripture. One of them means, and the root
meaning of this we find in the Old and New Testament, and it
means that something is sanctified because it is set apart by God
for His purpose. That's the root meaning of sanctified.
So sanctification then would be that process of God setting
us apart and setting us out for His purpose. Another aspect of the definition of sanctification,
and I'm trying to give us the nutshell, is that sanctification
is the standard, is a noun that is applied to the believer from
Christ, imputed righteousness. So when we say Christ is our
righteousness, Christ is our sanctification, we're not meaning
that Jesus is the means through which we become righteous. We're
meaning that Jesus is our righteousness. We're not meaning that Jesus
is the vehicle or the power through which we will be sanctified.
We mean that Jesus is our sanctification. In other words, how God will
look at us and judge us is not how well we are growing in our
obedience or in our sinlessness-less. or in our sinlessness, but that Christ was sinless,
that Christ was perfect. So then the question now, what
is our role in sanctification? Our role in sanctification is
to believe by faith that Jesus is our sanctification. That is
our role in sanctification. Matthew chapter seven, we see
the words that Jesus speaks, if a tree does not bear fruit,
It is cut down, right? Now here's what legalism does
to the human mind. The human mind, even the converted
mind, is so easily ensnared into the practicality of a works-based
righteousness because it's something we can measure, hold, and observe.
Faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, et cetera, is
not something we can hold and observe. It's something that
we cannot see. It is something that we cannot
measure in our own lives. We cannot look in the mirror
and say, whoa, look at me. Look how far I've come. I'm not
where I want to be, but at least I'm not where I used to be. And I used to believe that stuff.
And I say that converted people can believe that because the
people of Galatia believe that. Here come the Judaizers, but
here's the difference. They were converted with the
true gospel and then they were deceived by Judaizers who said,
oh yeah, y'all are saved, it's about Christ. Oh, but y'all aren't
really living a good life, you need circumcision. Y'all aren't
really holy. You need circumcision. And Jesus
says to embrace circumcision. I mean, Jesus, well, he did.
Paul said it, so it's God's Word. Paul says if you are circumcised,
you are cut off from Christ forever. That's what he told the people
of Galatia. If you want to put yourself in
that position, if you want to be circumcised, you are cut off
from Christ forever. Why? Because you'll be putting your
hope in the work made by hands, not in the work that Christ has
done. And so when we think of sanctification, we have this
third meaning that I don't believe scripture calls for, and that
is that we get progressively better in our sinlessness. Now,
who is the standard? Let's just use a logical argument
for just a moment, and let's ask the question, in history,
from Adam to maps and the Bible, And from church history all the
way up to present day, who in this world other than Messiah
is the standard by which we can say we are less a sinner today
than we were ten days ago? There is not one. There is not
one. There is not one. However, there
is a teaching in Scripture that shows us that we can put away
sin, right? We can love each other and not
hate. We can, what, stop stealing and work hard? Doesn't Paul tell
that to Thessalonians? Let the thief no longer steal?
But in the same way, can unbelievers not also do these things? Unbelievers,
in most respects, are as moral in obedience to the law as believers
are in our culture, especially this culture. I had a conversation
with someone just the other day and they were talking about how
bad this particular person was and the example that they use
is he likes to drink beer on Fridays with his food. And I'm thinking, and I said
it just like this, so your measure of righteousness is the beer
in the body? And I didn't have to say another
thing and this person goes, oh that was, that's judgmental.
You see? If we want to argue obedience,
we need to be drinking wine. Paul commands Timothy to drink
wine. He doesn't say you should. He
says you will drink wine because your nerves are shot, you've
got IBS, and they're running you crazy because that's what
ministry does. Drink a little wine for your
stomach. He commands him to drink wine for his stomach, Timothy.
Quit. Quit. Deal with it. He didn't say go
get drunk because drunkenness is a sin. And for some people, drinking
would be a sin. For other people, drinking would
not be a sin. For some people, listening to the radio would
be a sin. For other people, it wouldn't be a sin. For some people,
playing a guitar would be a sin. For other people, it wouldn't
be a sin. It's a matter of conscience. And so when we think about what
that then means, if it's not sanctification, what is it? We
can put away sexual sin. We can put away lust. We can
put away all sorts of things. But it's never perfect and it's
never gone, is it? And let's use Paul as an example.
Paul comes to the place in Scripture where he is the most righteous
one that walks. According to the law, he says
that. I'm blameless. You know what that means? He
never broke it as it was written and understood. But yet, Scripture
shows that He broke it every single day in every single act.
Why? Because even if I love you all
as myself, it's not going to be perfect. There might be an
unknown ulterior motive in my flesh that I just really enjoy
loving people. You see? And it's probably not
pure at all. But it doesn't mean that I'm
not required to walk in that way. The difference is, as an
unbeliever, An unbeliever would still be required to walk in
that way. Is the command to be holy given to the believer or
to the unbeliever? Yes. Both. To all people. And Paul says
there is no one righteous. No, not one. No one seeks after
God. No one, in Romans 3. No one is
holy. No one can ever be holy. No one
is the standard of measurement of holiness. No one can do that. So when we think about what we
do in the context of our lives as Christians, we cannot say
that we are being sanctified without redefining the Word.
We're not becoming more holy. We're not having, quote, personal
holiness. We're not having personal righteousness. We are just establishing the
bare minimums the bare minimums of our obligation to the rule
of life. The bare minimums. Jesus uses
this example. A man has a slave. He works hard
in the field. And after a hard day's work,
does the master of the house say to the slave, Oh, slave,
you've worked hard. Set your feet up upon the table
and dine with me. No, here's the words of Jesus,
He says, slave, where's my dinner? Now why was Jesus saying that?
Is Jesus promoting slavery? No, that's not the point. He's
saying is that you don't get pats on the back for being what
you're commanded to be. So even if we could muster all
sorts of obedience, we're not going to be rewarded for it.
We're going to be condemned for it because it is going to be
imperfect. It is going to be lacking. It is going to be without
glory. It is going to be without the
love of God in our hearts. But in some sense, we will then
feel better about ourselves, which is a self-righteousness.
And see, what people hear me say when I say that kind of stuff,
and we've been now 40, what, one or two sermons in John, 27
sermons in Romans, and we start back there next Wednesday. We've
seen the gospel in its clarity, and we've seen Paul and John
and Jesus and John the Baptist. We've seen these characters,
and I use it because they're in the Bible. We've seen the
teaching here over and over again express such a wonderful, true,
good news of grace alone, by faith alone, which is the work
of God, that people in the world, even yesterday, have accused
me continually of being antinomian, to now, You know, six months
ago it hurt my feelings, now I say thank you. Now what's an
antinomian? An antinomian says you can live
how you want to live as a believer. And you know what? I agree with
it. I agree with it. But not in an antinomian way.
Why? Because we as a people will practice
discipline. Here's the standard. If you fail
in the standard, not in the standard, that's a bad word. Here's the
expectation, and when you don't meet the expectation, you're
forgiven. And when you refuse to continue in the right way
of relating to one another, believing on Christ, then you're expelled
from the fellowship. Why do we do that? Because the
Bible commands it. So is that antinomia? No, it's
not antinomian. If it's antinomian, well, to
each his own. Carpe diem, Jesus. I mean, that's
not antinomian, being under discipline. That's anti-antinomian. That's gnomian. But it's not
gnomian, because what does gnomian mean? The law. We're not against
walking in a manner worthy of the call, but what is the foundation
of that? What does it really mean? In Matthew 7, Jesus is
talking to and about the Pharisees. And he says, if a tree does not
bear fruit, he what? It is cut down and burned. What fruit, in the sense of the
way we would look at sanctification, is lacking in the lives of the
Pharisees? Other than compassion, love, worship of God, speaking truthfully, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But in the way they lived, they
were the, we don't do people. We don't do that, and we don't
do that, and we don't do that, and we don't do that. Woo hoo,
look at us. See the exercise, the parable that Jesus uses?
He knew what they felt about themselves as they took off their
phylacteries every night. Man, I'm so glad I'm not like
that guy I just ran into. Taking off all their garb, so
glad. And then what does, What does the publican say? Propitiate. Propitiate me. That's what he says. That's the
Greek word. Propitiate me. Have mercy on me. Satisfy your
wrath for me. How is that done? It's done in
Christ. That is what sanctification is,
is that we have been set apart for Christ. We've been set apart
for God through Christ. We are measured by Christ. And
so that is in itself how the gospel operates in that. And
then when we see now that we are believers, we assemble together
as the church. And what are we doing? We're
encouraging each other, what? Every day, toward love and good
works. We see that in John 3 that people
come to the light so that it be clearly seen that works have
been carried out in God. First and foremost, the work
required. And I've preached on this just
a tad Sunday, but this Sunday we'll really step into it. What
must we be doing in order to please God, in order to do the
work of God? And Jesus says, this is the work
of God that you believe on the Son whom He has sent. It is faith alone. And in the
relationship we have as Christians, then we have this requirement
for good intimacy and for good testimony whereby we are able
to put away sin, not because of our holiness, but because
of Christ's power. But it will never be perfect
and it will never be permanent. And even if it was more and more
perfect, Where is it at the end of a hundred years? Not even
worth spitting on. You see? Because we fall far
from the glory of God. Now, the problem comes when people
say, well, what you're teaching there is really going to open
up a license for some professing Christians to just run amok and
run sinful. Then they'll be brought under discipline. And what does
that look like? Hey, brother, you looked like
you were angry when you were talking to that guy. Calm your
spirit. Thank you. Church discipline. Hey, what you're doing there,
man, you can't do that. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. Church discipline. And sometimes
it goes beyond that where people have to stand up here and we
weep over them and we pray over them and say, this man can't
overcome this sin. Let's pray for him. We don't
pray for the sin that does not lead to death. I mean, the sin that leads to
death. We don't pray for that, do we? That's what 1 John 5. We don't ask God to mature and
to grow unbelievers. We want to see them converted.
We don't hold unbelievers. What does Paul teach the Corinthian
church? Don't worry about what the world does. You do what you're
told to do. Don't let me come down there
with a rod and whip on y'all. has nothing to do with the gospel,
has everything to do with good intimacy as the church because
it's where our strength is folded into our lives. The body of Christ
being together and under the teaching of Scripture and under
mutual submission is where we begin to learn and to grow and
to mature. So I believe a better word and a better word for sanctification
in the life of the church is maturity. We mature. We grow
up. We put away childish things.
We learn how we are and are not supposed to relate to one another.
But at no time are these things assurances and evidences of our
redemption. It's never an evidence of our
redemption. So, our role is to continually believe in Jesus
Christ. For example, if we find ourselves in sin, the Spirit
of God will show us that sin. either through remembrance of
Scripture, through conviction in the mind, through a brother
or sister who may come up and say, whew, that's, man, you just
really... And what is it typically? It's
usually relational issues, isn't it? It's relational issues or
actions that are harmful to the testimony of Christ or harmful
to each other. We don't steal from each other.
We don't curse at each other. We don't murder each other. We
don't covet what each other has. And when we do, we correct it.
And all is forgiven because Christ has forgiven us. And so we mature
and we grow in our understanding of how that works. So here's the point. We see that.
What do we do in the old way of thinking with the false gospel
of works and conditioned righteousness? What do we do? We feel guilty.
Well, I'll never be a good Christian. Hallelujah! The first true thing
you said. You see? I'll never be a good Christian.
Oh, I'm just such a terrible person. I don't have the faith
to believe right now. Oh, I'm so weak. Yay! Praise
God! That's where we're supposed to
be. But if we're teaching wrongly, if we're teaching legalism, if
we're teaching the law, if we're teaching just shake it off and
walk like you know you're supposed to walk. Prove you're a Christian.
Is that good counsel? No, because it produces a sorrow
of condemnation, a fear of the Lord that God has said His people
do not have. We don't fear our Father, for
there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Yes, there are some sins in this life that have consequences because
we are disciplined. Discipline corrects them. What
does it do when a child is told not to do something specifically
and he or she does it over and over again and we pop them or
spank them or electroshock them or whatever it is you do at your
house? You know, whatever you do. It teaches them that there's
a consequence that's unpleasant if they continue in that behavior.
And just like Pavlov proved, you can ring a bell and a dog
will come eat even when there's no food. You can train a child and a human
being to not desire the consequences so in turn they cannot do the
behavior. And I think that's where the
Christian church is in America. We've scared everybody into thinking
they're never good enough, which is true. But in doing so, we've
not taught them that Christ is good enough, that the gospel
is good news only if you keep it and walk in it. What's more
compelling to us that I know I'm going to have, I mean, can
we hide our sin? When was the sin committed in
the heart of Adam? That's an interesting question,
isn't it? I believe the sin was committed in the heart of Adam
before he ever put the fruit in his mouth. The desire to be
like God was dissatisfaction and a desire for power. And Adam
had not had a fallen nature and yet the devil tempted him and
he fell. You know what? God is sovereign. And if Adam couldn't do it, and
Eve couldn't do it, pray tell you and I aren't going to do
it. But together we will walk. Sometimes better than others. Never perfectly, but always by
faith in Jesus Christ alone. I could talk a thousand more
directions than that. And I probably should do a little series on
that particular thing. But as a church, we will have,
by the Lord's grace, by the end of this calendar year, a very
thorough position paper on sanctification and what the Scripture teaches
about it. Our confession is good, but it
uses language that's not precise, and I want to make it a little
more precise.