Sanctification - Part 1

Turn with me to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. I was speaking with a brother a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about the subject of sanctification. We're talking about the subject of sanctification. And how many people believe that it is the responsibility of the child of God to progress in sanctification. Now some of you may know what I'm talking about and some may not. But this is very common. This is a very common belief, a very common thought. Men and women like to call it progressive sanctification.

It's supposed to be a holiness in man that grows by way of obeying the law. The more you obey the law, the more you obey the commandments, the holier you become. That growing, they say, with progressive sanctification, that growing in obedience to the law is the evidence of salvation. They say that's how you can know that you're saved if you see yourself obeying the commandments more and more and more, getting better at it, getting better at it, growing in it. Now, this brother and I, we were talking about the fact that number one, that is a lie on man's ability. And number two, that is a lie on God's accomplishment.

Progressive sanctification. And I'm going to tell you, let me go ahead and tell you, we're going to have a part one and a part two. We're really going to get into sanctification in part two. You may spend a moment of this Bible study asking yourself, where in the world is he going with this? Believe me, I did too. But this is going to be a setup. We're going to take a moment. This is why I decided to make a part one and a part two.

I felt like we needed to really enter into what the word is saying concerning sanctification and really set up some things to get to the subject matter. So I'm going to talk about sanctification a little bit and we will explain what it is. We will get into it, but just, um, Bear with me here for a minute. Progressive sanctification.

I'm going to go ahead and say that it is a works based false religion, blasphemous lie. This is what every false religion is built on. I mean every false religion from Baptist to Buddhist. Every false religion in the world is built on seeing an improvement in the flesh for the evidence of salvation.

And I'm going to go ahead and add that repentance is a turning away from that. Repentance is a changed mind from what salvation is, who God is, what man is, what God must do, what man can or can't do, what the evidence of salvation actually is. The world, the whole world go into church building after church building after church building after church building. I don't care what the denomination is. This one, that one, It's all going to be built on if you see yourself getting more and more obedient to God's word, that is your evidence of salvation. And that's how you can know that God is happy with you.

Now, this brother, we were having this conversation and he asked me, do you know of some scriptures that prove this to be so? And I said, yes, you'll have to give me a minute. I'll try to get some to you. But then I said to him, maybe the Lord will lay it on my heart to bring a Bible study. And he did. He deeply, deeply burdened my heart. And I feel like I have so much to say on this.

I can't get it all in. And that's, I thought about having a part three. We're not gonna have a part three tonight. I don't know, maybe we will. I don't think so. But we're gonna have a part one and a part two, all right? This will be the setup. We'll get into it here in a moment.

And I wanna use 1 Thessalonians 4 for a text. So look with me here at 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 1 it says, furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received us of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.

Not in the lust of concupiscence. Concupiscence is lust. It's a very evil, wicked form of lust. Even as the Gentiles, which know not God, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, and that means rejecteth, that means rejects this commandment, despiseth or rejecteth not man, not rejecting man on this, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

In verse three, he said, This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. Which is a man and a woman coming together before marriage. And then he goes on to explain what that means in verses four to eight, you know, we just read it, but he's that's explaining. Abstaining from fornication. That's that's what this section is about, abstaining from fornication because of God's desire for us to be sanctified. And he said, if you commit it. You're not committing it against man. You're committing it against God. All right, now let's start right here. Verse one.

Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus. that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more." How does the scripture say we are to walk and please God? How does the scripture say we are to walk and please God?

Turn with me over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now, there are scriptures upon scriptures upon scriptures that we could turn to. And we could be here all day explaining this. But I'm going to give you two, and I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to make this clear from two scriptures, OK? Second Corinthians five.

Verse seven, it says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. How does a child of God walk? The word walk means live. How does a child of God live? Here's the answer. By faith. Not by sight, by faith. By faith. All right, now turn with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse 6, it says, But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Him. How does a child of God please God? Here's the answer. By faith.

By faith, not by works, not by works. We could be here for weeks and months and years showing how God is not happy with our works. You recognize the fact that the scripture says time and time and time and time again, not by works, not of works, not our works, not works. Faith, not works. You say, well, what about James 2 verse 20?

Faith without works is dead. Amen. Amen. If we say that we are looking to Christ alone, which is what faith is and what faith does, if we say that, if we give that lip service that we're looking to Christ alone, but we don't actually look to Christ alone, and we look to the flesh too, oh it's Christ, now it's Christ. Faith without the work of faith. What is the work of faith? It looks to Christ alone.

If we say we're looking to Christ alone, but we're also looking to the flesh too, our faith is dead. If we're still looking to our flesh, we don't have faith. Let's just take it that far. If we're still looking to the flesh, we don't have faith. God is not looking to our works. God is not pleased with our works. He's not pleased with our works. He never has been. He never will be. He never will be. Faith is the substance. Faith is the evidence. That's what verse one says right here. Faith is the key. Faith is the key. Now go with me back to 1 Thessalonians 4. Faith is the key.

And if we really want to know what faith is, we say these words and we assume we understand them, but sometimes we don't. And if we really want to understand what faith is, and if we really want to know what the scripture means by faith, the faith that is of Christ, as the scripture says, by Christ, through Christ, to Christ, If we want to understand what that means, all we have to do is substitute the word Christ for faith.

That's all we have to do. We just read 2 Corinthians 5, okay? We walk by faith. What that was saying was, we walk by Christ. That's what it was saying. Hebrews 11 was saying, without Christ, it is impossible to please God. Without Christ, it's impossible.

Faith looks to Christ. Faith leaves the flesh and leaves the law and comes to Christ. Faith thinks on Christ. That's what it does. Faith speaks of Christ. Faith hopes in Christ and casts its all on Christ. That's what faith does. The only thing that faith can say is Christ. That's all it can say, Christ.

So 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 1 says, furthermore then, we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk, by faith, by Christ, by grace. Not by works, not by works, not by works, not by works, but by the grace of God that is freely given to us in Christ. Without our works beginning middle or end only by Christ. That's how we ought to walk. Not unto us, not unto us, thy name alone. That's how we ought to walk. Verse one, furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God. Only by Christ. Only by Christ. God is not pleased with man's works. Our Lord is not pleased with man's works. He never has been, he never will be. Turn with me over to Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 19.

Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, and that's every person here. We know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin." We read the law and realize, I broke it. Verse 21 says, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Do you see that? The righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Years ago, Brother Tom Harding was here preaching to us on a Sunday night, and he made this very powerful and very true statement.

He said, where men and women are going wrong is their confusing morality with righteousness. I wish we could get a hold of that. Gabe, you're against morality. No, I'm not. It's just, that's part two. Let's stay on track. That is a true statement. Where men and women are going wrong is they're confusing morality with righteousness. Righteousness. Men and women believe that their morality is God's righteousness. And they're wrong. They are dead wrong.

Our morality is so far from God's holy righteousness. The only place our morality can get us is hell itself. That's the only place. Our morality can only put us in one place. Hell itself. That's it. And it's because our morality is not righteous at all. It is full of sin. Paul said in Romans 7, I find that when I do good, sin is present with me. Can't get away from it. Romans 3 verse 20 says, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's by Christ. unto all and upon all them that believe." How does a man believe? How does a woman believe? That's not of yourself, that's a gift of God.

There's no difference, the end of verse 22. Verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No. But by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude, look at verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Christ, by faith, without the deeds of the law. Verse 29, is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also Of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. That means everybody's saved the same way.

By Christ, through Christ. Now verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? Through Christ? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. Now this is what that means. In us declaring what is written right here. I just read those words. In us declaring that right there. It's not by works. It has never been by works. It never will be by works. God is not happy with our works. God will not accept our works.

In us declaring that, we are not doing away with the law. We are upholding the strictness of it to the highest degree. God's true believers, His true people are the only ones who do this. We uphold the strictness of God's holy law to the point that we condemn ourselves under it. God's true believers are the only ones who do this.

In order to believe that this sinful dead flesh could produce a work of His commandment that would be pleasing to Him, we would have to bring down the strictness of His law. We would have to lower the standard of His holiness. We would have to bring his law down. We'd have to diminish it to the standard that sinful, vile, rotten, ruined, wicked flesh could attain. That's a long way down.

And not only is that not possible, that is utter blasphemy. That's blasphemy against God. That is blasphemy against God. God's ways are not like man's ways. Man will do a little something and say, God has to be proud of me. No, he's not. God's ways are not like man's ways. His ways are higher than heaven and our ways are lower than hell. So if we're going to honor God's Word and if we're going to glorify His work, then we need to realize that our morality does not come close to resembling God's righteousness. And our morality has absolutely nothing to do with God's sanctification at all. Not at all. It's time we raise the work of God's sanctification to an infinitely higher standard than our morality. It needs to go way up. Way up. I'm for morality. Gabe, the way you preach, you just tell everybody to just dive headfirst into sin and forget everything that's good. Everybody in this room has already dove headfirst into sin.

That's not the problem here. That's not the problem here. And I am going to go ahead and give you a little component of part two. The problem is poor souls are hoping in the wrong thing to get out of this pit. They're looking to the wrong thing. They're doing a couple of things that seem to match some of these black words. And they think, maybe I'm going to be saved. And they're not. Because there's only one who saves. And it's not me doing this.

It's him doing everything that he's already done. I don't condone sin, I don't excuse sin, but I acknowledge it. We had better acknowledge it. It's we better get real before God. We're about to go meet him and we're going on a lie. Here, Lord, I've got some dung here I'd like to present to you. Is that is that good enough? I'm all for morality, but we had better not dare confuse our sinful, wretched morality with God's holy sanctification.

All right, now, what is sanctification? Go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. The word sanctification means holiness. That is what the last word in verse seven is. But unto holiness, that's what sanctification is. The word means set apart unto holiness.

Verse one says, furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more. Faith, Christ, grace alone. Verse two, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication."

Now this is important. Every word in this book is written for a spiritual purpose. Every word in this book. Is he making reference to a man and a woman coming together? Yes. But we worship God in the spirit. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The Lord told a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He said, nothing that I'm saying to you has anything to do with the flesh. He said, no, Nicodemus, I'm not telling you that you have to enter into your mother's womb the second time. He said, I'm speaking things of the spirit. Spiritual things. In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul gave some wonderful instruction on how a husband and a wife ought to treat each other. If you'd like to read it, it's wonderful. Ephesians 5.

And then he said at the end of Ephesians 5, I'm not talking about men and women at all. That's what he said. I'm not talking about men and women at all. He went on to say, now they could benefit from this. What the last verse says, they could benefit from this. But he said, I'm not talking about physical marriages on this earth. He said, I'm speaking of the spiritual mystery concerning Christ and his church. I'm talking about the union between Christ and his church.

And concerning fornication right here, it would be, I'm not just a wise moral decision. I mean, it's it's. Adam, the scriptures Adam, you know, a man and a woman should not come together before marriage. That's not what this is talking about. That's not what this was written for. That's not the purpose of this.

In Second Chronicles, 21 verse 11. God told Israel, you have committed fornication. by leaving the true and living God for idols. He said, you're idolatry. By your idolatry, you've committed spiritual fornication. In Isaiah 23, he said the same thing.

In Ezekiel 16, he said the same thing. In John 8, the Lord told some Pharisees, you've done the same thing. In Acts chapter 15 and in Acts 21, the apostles exhorted the same thing. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 13 commands the same thing. 1 Corinthians 10, 7 and 8 warns us of the same thing. Revelation 2, Revelation 9, Revelation 14, 17, 18, and 19 all speak of idolatry as being the fornication of the great whore. That's what Paul is warning of here. He has been warning the Thessalonians of this since chapter one. He's been commending them for what God has done for them and exhorting them to stay there.

Now, I'm done. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 1. I'm done. Just let me wrap this up. Two seconds. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Look at verse nine.

For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven who he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." He said, that's how we know your election. You turned from idolatry to worship and serve the true and living God.

Chapter 2, verse 13, he said, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God. which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. He said this turning to the truth has cost you great persecution because of because of it. And in chapter three, verse seven, he said, we were we're comforted in this steadfastness that God has given to you to look to Christ.

And Christ alone, and then in verse Chapter 14, verse one, he said, furthermore, brethren, stay right there. Don't go back to idolatry. Because the Lord is coming back, that's how he ends chapter four, the Lord is coming back. And I'm not going to read it, but in chapter five, verses four to 11.

He told him, he said, you're not in darkness. He said, you're the children of light. You see these things. Let's not sleep as do others. This is speaking of spiritual matters. All right. That's what I'm trying to get at. That's what I'm trying to set up. Sanctification is a spiritual matter. It is a spiritual matter of God. It is not a physical matter of man. If all we get out of God's word and if all we get out of sanctification is men and women should not come together before marriage.

We have missed it. We have missed it. They shouldn't, but we've missed it. Now, after seeing that, in our message here in just a moment, we're gonna prove this spiritual matter. And then I have something very important that I wanna say, and I hope the Lord will give me words to say it. So, all right, take a break. We'll come back here in just a moment. You just missed.

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