Turn with me to Jude chapter
one. For those who are joining us
by Facebook live, um, we, uh, we just had a really good discussion
after our time of hymns. I asked brother Larry to, uh,
uh, leave the hymns this morning. My voice is kind of rough, got
a allergy issues going on today and hardly hurts to talk a little
bit. And anyway, um, We got into a
discussion about some scriptures the brother Mark read this morning
for us in our scripture reading and just kind of continued to
discuss those things and we looked up and an hour had gone by and
here we are now and so I'm appreciative of the of the input from the
men and it's always a welcome thing here when the Lord has
things. You know, sometimes we have planned to do what we want
to do and we try to schedule things out and we try to organize
and Uh, all that kind of stuff. But whenever the spirit leads,
we should be willing to follow that. I'm thankful that the Lord
gives us those opportunities to go off quote unquote script. Uh, not that we stay on script
anyway, but or have a script. But anyway, it's good to have
those discussions, and I think it's very vital to the body here
whenever we have that. And so I'm thankful for the discussion
this morning, brothers, and appreciate that. All those that are watching,
if you would like to get in on some of those discussions, you're
welcome to join us for fellowship any time. Just come and see us. Would like to spend a few moments
this morning, as long as the Lord allows for my voice, to
speak on a few things again in our series on the importance
or the centrality of Christ in all aspects of our salvation.
Or I guess we could entitle it the preeminence of Christ. in
all aspects of salvation. And as I've said before, you
know, we're not just talking about him dying on the cross,
but in every aspect of our salvation, when the Bible talks about salvation,
we have many aspects and the context dictates what is being
said whenever the term saved and salvation is being talked
about. We have things that have to do
eternally. We have things that was done
historically. We have things that is done in time, experientially. And we have things that will
take place eventually in the consummation of all things. And
so in all the aspects of salvation, Christ is the center point of
it. It is by him and it is through
him that all these things have Taken place and whenever we started
this we had started in reading a few verses in 1 Corinthians
and I'll just turn back there In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 We read, 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. And that's kind
of been our aim in this study is to show forth that not only
do we give Christ all the glory for all of the aspects of salvation,
but that was the intent of God is that Christ be glorified in
every aspect of our salvation. And that is verse 29 says that
no flesh should glory in his presence. And so that's kind
of been our theme in looking through these things. And we
have already seen where Christ was the center point of our election. He was the center point of predestination. He was the center point of redemption.
He was the center point of justification. We've seen how Christ was also
the center point of our forgiveness because of that redemption. We've
seen that even though it is the spirit that quickeneth, Christ
is even the center point of that because he is the one who has
been given power over flesh to give life to as many as God has
chosen him. So the spirit of quickening,
the spirit of Christ, I should say, is sent and is governed by Christ. He is the one who sends to give
life and the spirit goes forth from Christ and quickens. So Christ is also the center
point of our quickening and we talked about that and that's
where we kind of left off last week. Talking about quickening,
we talked about what the Bible teaches about the term regeneration
and I give my thoughts about why regeneration is not the proper
biblical term that we should use according to the biblical
definition at least of regeneration. And so today, let's look at sanctification,
Christ being the center point of our sanctification. This topic
of sanctification is another one of those kind of controversial
topics among even sovereign grace people. because they, a lot of times,
at least, and I say this again with some of the other terms
that we've talked about, they let theologians and academics
define what something means instead of what the Bible defines. And so whenever we look at the
teaching of scripture on sanctification, we find that it's really a lot,
a lot, I say, completely different than what is being taught in
most churches about what sanctification is. Where the Bible puts sanctification
as a completed thing, with Christ being centristic in it, most
of Christendom puts sanctification as a co-effort between the spirit
and man, and that that sanctification is an ongoing work of becoming
more and more holy externally, outwardly, and becoming more
imparted or outwardly righteous. And if we look at the scriptures,
we'll find that that's not the teaching on sanctification. And
so we're gonna kind of look at that, and I hope, let the word
of God dictate to us what we think and believe and preach
and teach about sanctification. You know, I mentioned how I had
ordered these things in the discussion that there were, we started with
the points of salvation that had to do with eternal and legal
aspects. And then last week we got into,
you know, are experiential parts of salvation
and quickening. But everything prior to that
were things that were done outside of us that we don't feel, that
we don't see, that happened before the foundation of the world.
Or at the cross, you know, and when I say at the cross meaning
that that's the grounds of it God didn't have to wait until
the cross to make the claims of the cross good for everybody. Okay? And so we had things in the eternal
aspect outside of us going before us, and now we get to sanctification.
And really, this can fit into both places, to be honest with
you. We can fit sanctification in the eternal aspect, and I
hope to show that here in a minute. We can put that in the eternal
aspect, but we also can put that in the experiential aspect, as
we'll soon see. Well, before we read some scriptures
here, Let me just give a few definitions of sanctification
as far as what the dictionaries say. Sanctification is, and I
think, at least from the dictionary that I was using, I think that
the dictionary actually had the usage of the word, as far as
the scriptures is concerned, pretty right and everything. I think there was one one particular
rendering that they give that may not fit with scripture. But
it says here that sanctification, and again, what's funny is academic
writers of dictionaries has a better understanding of the biblical
use of sanctification than a lot of theologically astute quote
unquote men and doctors of theology. Anyway, this dictionary says
that the word sanctification means to make holy by setting
apart a sacred or to consecrate. Okay, not to make holy as in
and of yourself, but to make holy by being set apart or to
be separated as something sacred or to consecrate. Another term
or another definition is to purify or free from sin. And surely
we know that's also what happened whenever Christ's blood was shed
for us, that he purified us. We talked about that in redemption.
that He purified us in forgiveness of sin. We see that we're free
of sin, that that sin is not to be remembered no more. That's
not saying to be free from sin does not mean that we don't experience
sin. To be free from sin means we
are free from the condemnation of sin. We're free from the condemnation
that comes because of our sin. We're free from the effects that
sin has. We will live again. Sin will
not have dominion over us. We will be raised to newness
of life. We will be raised at the end
of this age to a resurrected body, free of sin. And Christ has secured that for
us. And so another word for sanctification is a purifying, This is the one that I thought
was pretty neat. To impart religious sanction
to. To render legitimate or binding. You know, we talked a little
bit about this, that God would be unjust to love and to save
and to let a sinner go free, right? But yet if that sinner
is rendered legitimate, or that sinner is bound by something
that is holding, or is bound by something of worth that is
deemed acceptable for that sinner and his place, then there is
an impartation of sanction upon that person because of that binding
or because of that legitimacy that is given to them outside
of themselves. And is that not what imputing
of righteousness is? Whenever God imputes righteousness
to us, that is a sanctioning us as being legitimate people
of his. To be a binding thing That binds
us In the fact that there it can't be taken away because it
was something that was given to us outside of ourselves and
we didn't earn it and It was given. Is that not what grace
is? It's a binding thing Another definition is to entitle to reverence
or respect Now I don't necessarily know about that one unless you
just want to look at the fact that as the Saints of God We
are given the inheritance of Christ and But as far as reverence,
we're not to pay reverence to anybody but to Christ. He's the
only one to be revered and So I probably scratched that one.
But it also says to make productive or conducive to spiritual blessing. And whenever we're quickened
of God, the Bible says that he will give us his spirit and cause
us to walk in his statutes. And the Bible says that it is
God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Is that not being made productive?
The only difference is it's God who's doing that, not us doing
it by our own free will. It's not us building ourselves
up by our own productivity and planning out our productivity
and causing our productivity to be more or less based upon
our participation. Because God is the one regulating
the whole thing by His sovereignty. So I thought those were pretty
good definitions of sanctification, and I think that they can be
found biblically to be that. But if you notice in all of that,
none of that had anything to do with someone becoming more
and more outwardly holy. No one becoming more and more
inherently holy in and of themselves, or ever reaching a point of perfection
in this lifetime. Everything that that definition
that was given here and we'll find out that the scriptures
also bear this out, is that this sanctification is the act of
separating a people from another group of people to be used by
God. The Israelites was sanctified
being that God brought them or took them out of all the other
nations and used them as a figure or as a people to show forth
the type and foreshadow of Christ and his work as mediator, his
work as savior, his work is all these things that we've been
talking about. And God used that, so he sanctified Israel as a
nation to be that type and foreshadow and to be a people that showed
forth these things of God. And even today, that's what all
the people of God, they have been sanctified or they have
been set apart. They've been, as this says here,
consecrated for the use of God to show forth the spiritual blessings
of God. Isn't that what Romans 9 says?
That he has made some vessels of honor to show forth the praises
of God? I mean, you were saved and then
quickened, brought to life, given spiritual life so that you might
bring forth the praises of God. That's why the rocks will never
cry out to him. Will never have to cry out because
he has a people for himself that he has put it in their heart.
He has set them aside to be the worshipers of him. The rest of
creation does not worship Him, as far as man is considered.
The rest of men do not worship Him, but the ones that He has
sanctified or consecrated to be the worshipers of Him, they
most assuredly worship Him. They most assuredly look to Him. And so I think that the dictionary
guys did a well job of doing this. In this thing of sanctification,
there is this, and especially in the definition that we've
just seen, to free from sin or to purify. There's another theological
term. It's not found in the scripture,
but used often in churches. And that's the term expiation.
I'm sure everybody here has heard the term expiation. And sometimes
that might be confusing. Some people may not actually
know what expiation is. We've already talked about expiation
here, but not had to use the term and everything. But expiation and the biblical
definition of sanctification kind of go hand in hand. One who has been expiated or
expiation, the term actually means the means by which atonement
or reparation is made. That's what expiation means.
And so even in that, Christ is the central port. I didn't put
expiation in the list of things because to me expiation is a
part of the redemption that we talked about. When we talked
about the redemption, That is the atoning for this person and
making reparations for what they have done. And God accepted that
in that redemption. And so we've basically talked
about expiation, but what I want to point out is that that expiation
or atonement is the reparation. It's the atoning, the purifying. See, that's what the atonement
was for. The blood was shed and all things were purified by that
blood. Whenever that blood was sprinkled
upon the altar, whenever that blood was sprinkled in those
sacrifices, that was a cleansing or a purifying. If you remember
in Hebrews, the Bible says that All things are purged with blood.
The Bible talks about Christ's blood purging us of our sins
or purifying us. And so there is this whole thought
of a purifying, but it's all tied to atonement. It's all tied
to a reparation that was made for the guilty people. So whenever
we look at sanctification, to think that sanctification has
something to do with our becoming holy and not about Christ's act
of expiating or his atonement. then we've got the wrong understanding
of sanctification and now sanctification is a conditional thing placed
in the hands of man to either be faithful to or unfaithful
to instead of something secured already for the child of grace. And so the first thing I want
us to see here is that we are set apart in divine election. we are sanctified before the
foundation of the world. And so that can't have anything
to do with our conditional time salvation. It doesn't have anything
to do with the conditionality of our making use of means of
grace. In Jude, the first verse, We
read, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
to them that are, and I want you to notice in a lot of these
verses that we're gonna be reading here, that the grammatical tense
that we're gonna be reading is already, okay, a completed thing,
already, past tense, it's a current condition already, not something
that you're attaining to. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father, not sanctified by you working yourself out, okay, by
God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and called. Now, you'll notice here that
the sanctification originated by God the Father. We were sanctified by God. That
was our being set apart out of the one lump that would come.
We were set apart as the ones to be the recipients of God's
grace. We were the ones set apart to be in Christ. We were the
ones set apart to be justified. We were the ones who were consecrated
to God to be his worshipers. And God chose that before the
foundation of the world when election took place. God elected
a people to be taken out and consecrated out of the hole for
his use. And so, so far we see that the
dictionary and the biblical aspects are the same. The definitions
are the same, but notice here, it said sanctified by God, the
father preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now, if you remember, I mentioned
to you a few weeks ago that, The word called has two aspects. It has an eternal aspect in election,
and it has a timely aspect in the time where God calls us into
spiritual life through quickening, and the Holy Spirit calls us
to the gospel and the belief of the truth. And so there is
two callings, spiritual, legal, thing that God does in election,
and then there is an experiential thing when God calls us into
belief of the truth. And so here we see that we have
been sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus. My
thoughts go to the verses that talk about our life being hidden
with God in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we were in Him before the foundation of the world, That in him was
life and that life that he has is the life that is imparted
to us. And so that life is in him. We're preserved in him because
that union is unbreakable. and then called. We were called
to be his people. So we see that sanctification
has to do with our eternal election. But we're also declared to be
holy. And that in and of itself also
is a work of Christ alone outside of us. To be declared, see, sanctification
is the other side of justification, if you allow me that understanding
of that. Justification is the legal declaration
of not guilty. Sanctification is the declaration
of not guilty. that expiation has happened and
that purification has been counted to us and that we are holy. So justification says not guilty. Sanctification says all holy. Nothing there to look at. No
sin. Justified never sinned. Okay. We talked about that last week
for just a few weeks ago for justification, but justified
never sin is the look that God has towards us because of justification. And that's because we are been
sanctified in Christ Jesus. We have been consecrated and
we've been purified by him. Hebrews chapter 10, if you would, Hebrews chapter 10. Start with me in verse 9. It
says, then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first that he might establish the second, a side
note on our talk about all this Hebrew movement and
this continuing under the law and everything. He take it away
the first that he might establish the second. The second covenant
has been established by Christ and the first covenant has been
taken away by the which will. So the same will that was to
have Christ come to fulfill these things, by which will we are
sanctified. So the same will that sent Christ
to take away that first covenant of the law is the same will, by that same
will, we are looked at as fulfilling the law, right? Isn't that what
purified means? Is the fulfilling of the law?
To be cleansed, to be made holy, is to be made perfect, to have
not have the law, no accusations of the law. That's what separates
God from us. There is no accusation of unholiness
against God. Why? Because he is not ever sinned. He's never broken a law. Now
he's outside of all law that he's given to man, but he cannot
break a law because he is holy. And for us to be considered holy,
as he is holy, means that we must be considered as to have
never broken the law. Not at a point in time we stopped
breaking the law and began to keep the law. That's not what
holy means. Holy means to have never broken
the law. That's why the apostle said that
if you have sinned in one, you are guilty of all, you've broken
every one of them. You are now a law breaker. And
physically nothing can change that. And actually nothing legally
can change that except the terms in the second covenant. The only thing that can change
The terms of God looking at us as guilty is the terms of the
second covenant. The covenant of grace, the eternal
covenant, the everlasting covenant. The terms of that covenant are
the legal and righteous terms on which God can deem unworthy
sinners as righteous, as holy, as perfect, as obedient, All
these things, that is a setting apart and consecrating. That
is a purifying them for themselves. It isn't that we were actually
made that way, but because of Christ, because of the atonement
or the reparation of another, that's how it is looked at. And
this is what he's saying here. The same will, we are sanctified
or we are purged and purified before God because of that second
covenant, And look where it says, through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. See, sanctification isn't tied
to our work or our efforts, it's tied to the work of Christ. It's
tied to his atonement. Sanctification is about the atonement
of Christ, not about the work of man. Look with me down at
verse 14. For by one offering, that's another
way of saying for by the death of Christ or his sacrifice, for
by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are, again,
are not will be, are sanctified. If sanctification is this progressive
thing that works its way up at some point in time, then That
does not work for those who are sanctified. It's a group of people. It is the station of life of
a certain people. It's a statement of fact. These
are people that are sanctified. These are the sanctified. Just how we use the term the
elect, even though there's an act of electing and there was
an act of sanctifying in Christ, we are called the elect, a group
of people. We didn't do something to get
elect. Same thing with sanctification. We are those who are sanctified,
the sanctified ones. In English, we have to say a
couple of words to get that across. We are the sanctified ones, the
sanctified. And so that's a group of people
and that's a designation of that group. They are ones who have
been consecrated for the use of God and they have been purified
for that, meaning that Christ has taken away anything that
would hinder the righteous and holy God from having anything
to do with them other than wrath and justice or judgment. Okay,
and so sanctification is this whole thing, eternal and timely,
of God bringing us to a place where we are deemed as usable
for him. Not that we do that ourselves. Now there's several places in
the scriptures that I looked over over the last few weeks
whenever I was preparing for these things and gathering the
scriptures together. And kind of my mind went in three
or four different directions, but I kind of want to, I think
it'll stay in the same direction. And if any of the other brothers
have some other aspects of this, feel free to share that if you,
if you desire to do so, if the Lord brings you to that. But
look, if you would with me at John chapter 10, The overwhelming evidence of scripture of this
term, sanctified, sanctification, sanctifies, the overwhelming
use of that word, and again, as I've mentioned before, the
way I define these words is to see how they're defined in scripture.
I don't always run to a lexicon. Sometimes I do that just to kind
of check to see, you know, are they saying the same thing that
I'm saying? Because this is what I'm seeing in scripture. And
sometimes I think the lexicons are wrong because they're written
by fallible men and defined by men and traditions and things
like that. And they can be wrong. But when
you go to the scripture, we define things by scripture, and I'm
finding that the majority of the places that this word is
used, it's used in this way. John chapter 10, look with me
at verse 36. It says, say ye of him whom the father hath sanctified
and sent into the world Thou blasphemous, because I said,
I am the son of God. So here we see that Jesus has
been sanctified. Now, if the word sanctification
means to become more holy, here we have a scripture that says
that Jesus was one whom the father hath sanctified, made more holy. Now can we say that of Christ?
That he was made more holy? Did he have a progression of
holiness? No, what do we find? We find
number one, there was an outside acting agent. Number two, we
see that it was the sovereign will of God and not the work
of something else. But thirdly, we see that it was
something that happened before this very instance took place. Say ye of him whom the Lord hath,
past tense, sanctified, and sent into the world. This sanctification
happened before Jesus, the man Jesus, was sent into the world. Jesus was sanctified before he
was sent into the world. So many rabbits I'm seeing don't
wanna chase. Jesus was sent. not the word, Jesus was sent
into the world. And he was sanctified before
he came into the world, not after he came into the world. And so
that means that God, before Jesus came into the world, had sanctified
him, or he had consecrated him, had set him aside for a particular
use, or for a holy use. Isn't that what Jesus is? Jesus
is the son of God who was given and sent for a specific reason
for God. Jesus is who he is and came to
do what he did for God loved the world and he gave or sent
his only begotten son that all the believing ones should not
perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus was sent because
he had been sanctified. So here we see that this term
sanctification is used as a setting apart or a setting, a setting
apart or a sanctifying, a separating for a particular reason or use. Surely it's not to be made holy
here. Turn over a few chapters into John chapter 17. Whenever
Jesus began to pray to the father, before His crucifixion. We see that Jesus is sanctified
by the Father in John 10. But in John 17, we learn something
else here. Look with me at v. 19. Jesus
speaking here. Let's look at v. 17. Jesus is praying to the Father. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, that's what we just heard in John 10, right? He was sanctified
and sent into the world. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so, I have also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. So you'll see here that Jesus
was sanctified by himself. Now, how can God the Father sanctify
Jesus and then send him to the world and Jesus sanctify himself
and send himself into the world? I am the father of one. That's
one way, but there is another way also in our understanding
that we can have, at least I perceive that we could be this way, is
that the everlasting covenant between the father and the son
was that the father would send and the son would go. And Jesus
in accepting or receiving the covenant and taking the people
upon himself as their mediator, saying, I will go, sanctified
himself as their salvation, as their savior. And so that's why
he says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Christ is the word. He's the
truth about the salvation of God. He's the truth about God.
He is God in flesh. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth as thou has sent me into the world. Even
so, I have sent them into the world. Now that's kind of an
odd statement as well. Is he talking about into the
world system? Well, whenever we read about
Jesus, he was actually sent into the world in physicality. He was sent into the world. So
does that mean that we had some existence with Christ before
the foundation of the world and have been sent into the world
in physicality? I know that's a question that
we've kind of talked about as far as eternal union is concerned.
And I know that's been something that a lot of people have asked
the question, well, do you mean we actually had an existence
before the foundation? Well, I don't know what we had.
other than life in Christ and union with him. And names, we
had names before the foundation of the world because God wrote
those names before the foundation of the world. And we were blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places before the foundation
of the world in Christ. So there was some kind of a relationship
And relationships aren't just ethereal, they're vital. A relationship
is a vital thing. I can't have a relationship with
something that's not there. And so did he send us into the
world as his people chosen before the foundation of the world who
had a life in Christ before it was ever given to us in the flesh?
I don't know. I don't know the honest answer
to that other than There's a mysterious thing there that's worthy of
looking at. Worthy of looking at. You don't
have to accept that. The Bible isn't clear on that.
The more I study and read it, I'm leaning more towards saying
there has to be something there, but I won't be adamant about
it and call you a dirty scoundrel if you don't believe it. But
it is worthy at least of not just saying, that don't make
sense, go on. I think we ought to look at those
things. Anyway, he has sent us into the world, but notice in
every bit of that, sanctification isn't about becoming more and
more holy. It's something that is done of one person outside
of them by another person. So sanctification is something
that God does outside of us, and he does that because he has
a specific purpose for that person, or those persons, or in this
case, of Christ. It's not being made holy in the
external sense. Look with me, if you would, to
Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Look with me, if you would, down
to verse 32. It says, and now brethren, I
commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able
to build you up. That's edify, not sanctify, that's
edify. That's what build up means. I
am commending you to God and to the word of his grace, which
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among
all them which are sanctified. Here again, that's a term for
a group of people. them that are sanctified. So
here we see not only is it a group of people that sanctification
is done in groups, it was done as a group, right?
To them who are sanctified, all them who are sanctified. And
we also find out that it was already done. I commend you to
God and the word of his grace, but it's to who? to them that
are sanctified, already done. Now we know in this lifetime,
nobody is fully sanctified unless you're a part of the perfection movement that Brother
Larry and them ran from. Then you're perfect, right? No,
brother, we all know there's none righteous, no not one. So here again, we see sanctified
has nothing to do with being made more and more holy as we
partake of spiritual graces and things like that. Look with me
over in Acts chapter 26. Now again, this is where reading
the scripture without breaks and punctuation
and things such as that can give us sometimes a little bit more
clarity of thought on what is being emphasized. This is Paul. given an account of what happened
whenever he was converted. Remember on the road to Damascus,
starting verse 15. And I said, who are thou Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. Now the continuation
here is the quote of what Jesus told to Paul. 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 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." So if you'll notice here, our
sanctification is tied to Christ's faith. And we know that the scriptures,
when it speaks of the faith of Christ, it is speaking of the
death and the obedience of Jesus Christ. The obedience to the
Father in fulfilling all the things that God had called him
to do. I've done all that you've told me to do. Everything that
the Father says I do. Jesus said that I've kept everything,
done everything. His obedience, his faithfulness
to God, And then in his death, his resurrection, that that too
is his faith. And when the Bible speaks of
the faith of Christ, it's speaking of the finished work of Jesus
Christ from the moment he came in the capacity as the savior
being born of a virgin. and then the death and resurrection
and then the ultimate ascension back to the father as the one
who has ascended David's throne to rule over the nations with
an iron rod of iron and to be declared the son of God. He says, they are sanctified
or they are, which are among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. So sanctification, again, isn't
something that is a become more holy thing. It's a setting apart
thing that happened because Christ did something for them. They
were set apart or sanctified by that. Now, some are gonna
say, no, that's talking about our faith, that we are sanctified
by faith in Christ Jesus. Well, that's not what that says.
It says sanctified by faith that is in me. And they say, well
he was just making a reiteration or something. Faith, that is
in me, you mean. No, that's not what he's saying.
You can make that stretch all you want, but that's not what
that says. It says, which are sanctified by faith that is in
me. Romans corroborates that. It's
the faith of Christ that justifies. It's the faith of Christ that
justifies, and if justified, remember we said the other side
of justification is what? It's sanctification. To be justified
is to be deemed pure and holy in the sight of God. And that
was by the faith of Christ that that took place. Just a couple
more verses, or three verses here it looks like I got. Romans
15 and verse 16. I'll start reading in verse 15,
16 is where I want to look. It says, nevertheless, brethren,
I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort as putting
you in mind because of the grace that is given to me of God, that
I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering
the gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be accepted,
being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Now we find that God the
Father sanctifies, God the Son sanctifies, and the Holy Spirit
has an act of sanctifying. And notice that none of this
has to do with becoming more and more holy. The Holy Spirit
is sanctifying here. How is he sanctifying the Gentiles? Well, he's sanctifying the Gentiles
as the gospel goes out and they begin to believe. It is a showing
that these people have been set apart for God. Why? Because they
are believing the truth. Jesus said, my sheep shall know
my voice and they'll follow me. And the dispensation said, well,
the Gentiles aren't the sheep. It's the Israelites that the
sheep. No, no, Jesus said, I have sheep that are not of this fold
and them too I must bring. How is he bringing them? By the
Holy Ghost who is calling them by quickening, giving the faith
of Christ in spiritual life. And then with that spiritual
life, they hear the gospel and they come and show that they
too are among this group that is called the sanctified or the
set apart ones for Christ Jesus, not the Israelites by nationality,
but Jew and Gentile alike who are the elect of God by the spiritual
seed, not the physical seed. And so they are set apart. And
so the Holy Spirit is the one who is showing that these Gentiles
are sanctified. So the Holy Spirit sanctifies. Again, this has nothing to do
with personal sanctification. And then finally, in 1 Corinthians,
we find a couple of verses, one in chapter one, one in chapter
six. 1 Corinthians chapter one. It says, Paul called to be an
apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes,
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 called upon the name of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. A lot of times we skip
over these greetings and introductions and we don't realize there's
a lot of theological instruction there. The Church of God, which is at
Corinth, so he's talking about the specific assembly there in
Corinth. They're the Church of God at
Corinth. But not just that group of believers. Who else is there?
Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all. that in
every place call upon the name of Jesus. So everyone that calls
upon the name of Jesus Christ, the Bible calls a saint. And
everyone that is a saint, the Bible says, has been sanctified
in Christ. Why are you a saint? Well, not
because you've been holy, as the Catholics like to think. It's not because you've been
holy, but it's because you've been set apart in Christ. That's what
made you the saint. What made you the saint is his
justification, his expiation, and therefore your sanctification
or your cleansing, purifying, consecration to him as his child
and his worshiper is because of what he did. and what he did
being applied to you legally and experientially. And how's
the experientially show that? We call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But notice he also made his point
that Jesus is the Lord of both them and everyone else that calls
upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter six, we find down
in verse 11, Again, something related to the
work of Jesus Christ in our sanctification. In verse nine, Paul begins by
writing, he says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And again, at that point, we
will pause and say, then who in the world can be saved? Because
every one of us fall into one of those categories at one time.
And someone will say, no, I don't fall into any of those categories.
I beg to differ. Every one of us has been an idolater.
Every one of us has been an idolater. No, we may have not have bowed
down at some little tiki idol or something like that, but every
one of us has put something before God and been an idolater. I said, well, I've never been a
fornicator. Anybody that's lived on the face
of this earth has lust in their heart. And Jesus said, if you
lusted in your heart, you have committed adultery. fornication
in your heart you have sinned against them it says if you had
done it in the flesh outside so just those two in and of themselves
we see that everybody falls guilty before God and it says and such
were some of you so does that mean that they never did that
anymore but notice there he almost contradicts himself he says the
ones who do these things shall None of these shall inherit the
kingdom of God. So none of the people that have
ever done that shall inherit the kingdom of God. But he said,
but such were some of you. Wait a minute. I thought you just said all the
ones who do that won't inherit the kingdom of God. But now you're
going to say that we were those people, but make a contrast that
we're going to inherit the kingdom of God. Well, what is the difference
between all them that won't inherit the kingdom of God who fall in
that category and us who are in that category but are not
disqualified and will inherit the kingdom of God? But such
as some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit
of our God. The difference is, is that you
have been set apart and purified and consecrated by expiation. The atonement of Christ. See,
that's why we believe in a particular atonement. That's why we believe
in limited atonement for that. People that don't like that word,
that's tough. limited particular redemption. Why do we believe that? Because
as we've talked before, atonement is efficacious. Atonement is
effectual. If atonement is made for someone,
expiation has been made. A purifying, a cleansing, a making
holy, a setting apart or sanctification for God. And so, sanctification
is about us, by Christ, being made eligible to be the vessels
of God. It is by His blood that we are
purged and deemed not guilty and clean before God, because
we're not clean. We are those in that chapter
or verse nine and 10. And we should not inherit the
kingdom of God, but we were washed. That's purify, right? To be washed
is to be purified. We read about that last week
in Regeneration. That's a purging, a washing. of regeneration. What is that? That's a purging of our sin,
a cleansing of our sin by the blood of Jesus Christ that makes
us pure before God. Not in actuality. But His atonement secured that.
So we can't say that the atonement was for everybody who does not
come to faith in Christ Jesus. Because we just read that the
faith of Christ Jesus causes them to be sanctified, and all
those who are sanctified, the Bible says, will be justified,
they'll be glorified. So we see here that sanctification,
again, has not got anything to do with our efforts or our works,
our determination, our hanging in there. It isn't about our
spiritual exercises. Sanctification is about the work
of Jesus Christ alone, causing us to be the recipients of grace
by His blood. Making God to be just and the
justifier of those who are extortioners and revilers and thieves and
drunkards. God can only be just and love those with whom his
justice says they're worthy to love. But we're not worthy to
love. But Jesus has expiated that problem
and now we can be loved and we can be accepted, we can be received,
we can be given life, we can be brought into himself, why?
Because justice has been satisfied. And it isn't satisfied in our
law keeping, it's satisfied in Christ and him alone. Anybody
have anything that you'd like to add to that? Comment on that? All right. All right, well, let's
bow and have a word of prayer and we'll be through today. Heavenly
Father, I thank you today for your mercy and your grace. We
thank you for Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for the
sanctification of God and that it doesn't rest upon the perfect
workings of fallen sinners. We thank you for being set apart
before we ever knew anything, and that all of our requirements
were met in Christ to be your people, and that all of our defects,
our sin, has been purified And that we, in whatever capacity
you give us, have now become consecrated for your use. And
so, Father, Lord, I thank you for Christ and the centrality
of him in all these things that we've looked at up till now and
that we'll look at in the next few weeks. Father, I pray that
the hearts and minds of all the brethren here today might rest
upon these things. They might think upon these things
often. That might not only bring them joy, but that it might bring
them comfort in the Holy Ghost. That their sins have been purified
and that their life has been preserved in Christ Jesus. And
so, Father, we ask now that you'd bless this time together. that
the edification through the word and the fellowship will be to
your praise and to your glory. Father, I thank you for allowing
my voice to maintain through the length of this Lord. I thank you for Brother Larry
this morning and Brother Mark and the conversation that we
had this morning and the edification that that brought as well. And
father, Lord, we just are grateful for the fellowship of the saints
and Christ promising his presence to be with us. And we ask now,
Lord, that you'd keep us this week and use us at your discretion
as you desire. And Lord, we pray for the meeting
next week. We ask, Lord, that you'd give
safety to those who'll be traveling to come. We pray for all those
that'll be speaking that you would minister, not only through
them, but to them as well, Lord, as they prepare to speak. And for those who will be listening
to listen, for the fellowship that we'll have together, Lord,
and we pray that we honor Christ on Saturday and Sunday of next
week. And we ask, Lord, that you would meet with us Without
you being there with us, without the unction of the Holy Spirit
on the speaking and the listening, Father, we will not receive or
understand or know or glean or be edified by anything that will
be said, but there'll be a boasting of pride and a tickling of the
ear. So Father, we pray the Holy Spirit
come that we might receive from you and from all that you can
give us as you desire. Thank you again for this day
and for the brethren. I ask you to bless this food that we're
about to eat to the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus name
we pray. Amen.