Lynn said, why do you never write
anything down? Because I got a mind like a steel
trap. I don't even write down my schedule.
I mean, that's just, maybe this will change me. Romans chapter
15. Now Paul says that grace was
given to him in that passage of scripture that I just read.
Grace was given to him that he might be the minister of Jesus
Christ to the Gentiles, the heathen, ministering the gospel of God.
We considered that a couple of weeks ago, the gospel of God,
the gospel of which God is the author. That the offering up of the Gentiles
as a sacrifice or an oblation or a thank offering to God might
be acceptable, and what is the one thing that made it acceptable?
Look once again at verse 16, 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 acceptable, well pleasing
to God. How? Being sanctified. Being sanctified by the Holy
Ghost. Now, I've entitled this message,
Being Sanctified. Now, what's that word mean? It's
not a word that is used in our everyday English language, is
it? When you go to work this week,
I doubt that you use the word with regard to something you're
going to do. Yet if you would ask me what
is the one word that most comprehensively describes God's salvation, I
would think it's this word, sanctification. Being sanctified. Now what does the word mean? It's really quite simple. It
means set apart, apartness, separation. God taking something common and
ordinary and setting it apart for himself, consecrating something to God. causing something to be, setting
something apart, setting somebody apart to be holy, consecrated
to God. That's what the word means, to
take something common and ordinary like me or you, and to set that
person apart for holy purposes. Sanctified. And like I said,
that's not a word that we use in common everyday language a
lot, but it's a very important word in the Bible. As a matter
of fact, some form of this word is found 640 times in the Old
Testament and 260 times in the New Testament. Sanctified. Holy. Hallowed. Now, the first time the word
is used, is found in Genesis chapter 2. That's how early.
And do you remember what the word was used for? God sanctified
the seventh day. Now the seventh day was not any
different or better than the sixth day or the fifth day or
the fourth day or the third day or the second day or the first
day. But God sanctified the seventh day. That's the day he rested
from all of his labors, all of the work of creation. God sanctified
and set apart that day. And we've given such a glorious
picture of the gospel in the Sabbath day. God sanctified the
seventh day. And what was the command for
the seventh day? Do not work. And if you worked, you were to
be stoned. Now, I think it's amazing how
religious people try to make a work out of not working. The
reason for the Sabbath day is to teach us God is not approached
in our works. We're to rest in Christ and not
try to offer up any of our works. We're to rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the first time the word
is mentioned. Now, the word is seen in the vessels of the
temple, the vessels of the temple, the vessels of the tabernacle,
and there were a lot of them. They weren't better than any
other vessels in and of themselves, but they were set apart for holy
purposes. It might be an earthen vessel,
it might be a golden vessel that could be used in some other arena,
some other home, and people had them all the time, the spoons
and so on, but these were special. They were set apart for the tabernacle
and to be used only in the worship of God. I think it's remarkable
that We have the story of Belteshazzar in Daniel. It's Daniel chapter
5 or Daniel chapter 6. But Belteshazzar, he was one
of the kings of Babylon. And you'll remember that Israel
had been carried off into Babylon. and all the gold of the temple
had been carried with it, the golden vessels and the golden
cups and the golden spoons. They were sanctified for the
Lord's use, but the heathen brought them into captivity and they
took them out of Israel and brought them into Babylon. There they
had all this stuff that belonged to the temple, sanctified for
the Lord's use. Now, Belteshazzar decides to
have a party. and they're having a drunken
feast and they're having a good time and like heathen kings would
do, and all of a sudden he came up with this idea. Let's get
the vessels of the Lord and drink our wine in them, the vessels
of Jehovah. We'll carry on our party, and
he was showing utter contempt for the vessels of the Lord.
Let's use the vessels of the Lord for our drunken feast. And
so they bring in the vessels of the Lord. They pour their
wine in them, and they drink from them. And something happens. We read in Daniel chapter 5,
verses 5 and 6, in the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's
hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster
of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of
the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was
changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his
loins were loose and his knees smote one against another. He'd
gone too far this time. He'd gone too far. And what did
the writing say? God hath numbered thy kingdom
and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting. And the kingdom is divided and
given to the Medes and Persians. And you know that man was slain
that very night. You see, the Lord would have
left him alone and he would have died like other men if he would
have just not dealt with that which was consecrated to the
Lord. But now, anytime in the Bible where you find some kind
of unusual judgment of God where he kills somebody, it's always
for a religious sin. When his sacrilegious lips touched
the Lord's cup, the Lord said, that's it. And he was slain that
very night. You see, those vessels were sanctified. They were set apart. They were
consecrated. They were to be used for the
Lord. To sanctify means to acknowledge
to be holy. When we say, hallowed be thy
name, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
That's the Word. Sanctified be thy name. We don't
set Him apart. He's already, He is who He is. We don't make Him that way. We
simply acknowledge. Holy thy name." Sanctified is
thy name. When Peter said, sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to
every man that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. We
don't set him apart nor do we make him holy. He is holy. We
acknowledge him to be holy. Holy and reverend is thy name. To sanctify means to make holy. It means to set something apart
to be holy. It means to acknowledge to be
holy. It means to actually make something holy. The Lord said,
Be ye holy. The only way you can be holy
is if you are holy. Holiness is a state of being.
There's not something you do to become holy. Somebody says,
well, I'm going to live a holy life today. OK, where do you
begin? What are you going to do? Tell
me, how are you going to begin this thing? Well, I'm going to.
You missed it. You missed it. Holiness is a
state of being. Holiness is sinlessness. Holiness is purity. Now the reason
the new nature does not sin is because it cannot sin. Hold your
finger there Romans and turn to 1 John chapter 3 for just
a moment. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Now I've heard so many people
take that passage of scripture and say, well, that means he
doesn't practice sin. How you doing there? How you
doing there? If it means that, me and you
are in trouble. There isn't anybody in this room
that doesn't practice sin. Well, he doesn't practice sin as a
general rule. Yeah, you do. Every time you
breathe, you do. Everything you do. What does
it say? He that's born of God does not
commit sin. Now, the new nature, the holy
nature, is incapable of sin. Holiness cannot sin. Do you hear that? Holiness cannot
sin. It lacks the ability to sin. Look what it goes on to say.
For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he
is born of God, birthed of the Holy God, birthed of the Holy
Spirit. The new nature does not commit
sin. Holy. Pure. Now, holiness, being sanctified,
is what God does for the believer. It's never spoken of as something
that you do in order to become that way. Holiness, sanctification
in the scripture, is always spoken of what God does for the believer. Let me show you this in the scripture.
Turn to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. Now that's such an
important scripture. He that sanctifyeth and they
who are sanctified. He that sanctifyeth is active. They that are sanctified is passive. It's always what he does. You can't sanctify yourself any
more than you can create a universe. It's the work of God done in
behalf of his people. Now that scripture answers every
question about sanctification. Both he that sanctifies, he's
the one who does it. Both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified. all of one. He says, I am the Lord that sanctifieth
thee. Now, if you're sanctified, I
don't have to argue with this about you. You know He did it. You know it's not something you
did. You know it's something He did for you and in you. There are no degrees of sanctification. And let me repeat that. There
are no degrees of sanctification. There are not some Christians
that are holier than others. And there are not some Christians
who are less holy than others. I realize that there are different
levels of growth in grace. Scripture points that out. There
are little children, there are young men, and there are fathers.
I wouldn't deny that for a second. But as far as holiness goes,
there are not degrees of holiness. The writer said to the Hebrews
in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1, and he's speaking to every believer
when he says, wherefore, holy brethren. partakers of the heavenly calling. That is said to every single
child of God. Now, if you're holy now, you'll
not be any more holy in heaven than you are now. Did you know
that? Now let me repeat that. The holiness
you have now, if you are holy, It won't be any more developed
or more holy in heaven than it is right now. Now, a couple of things. That
lets us know how powerful the flesh is. Because every one of
us thinks, how could that be? I believe it, but how could it
be? But that lets us know how evil
and how powerful your flesh, your old man, really is. Because
when you hear this, you say, well, I believe that, but man,
I sure can't see it. I can't see how that can be true
with regard to me, that I have the same nature now that I have
in heaven. Turn to Revelation chapter 22. Let me show you this from the
Scripture. Verse 11. He that's unjust, he
that's unjustified, speaking of death, let him be unjust still. Now the way you die, that's the
way you're going to spend eternity. If you die unjustified, you will
be always unjustified. He which is filthy, Let him be
filthy still, he'll spend eternity that way. And he that's righteous,
let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. Now that holy nature that you
have right now is the holy nature that you'll have in glory. You
just won't have the sinful nature anymore. Now let me say this,
a believer, when God saves you and gives you a holy nature,
Your old nature hadn't changed. Religious people try to present
themselves as, well, I'm so much better. I'm so much better. I
struggle with sin less. I'm better by grace. Nobody believes you. Nobody believes
you. And if you do think that about
yourself, it's because you don't have a holy nature. If you had
a holy nature, you wouldn't be saying stuff like that. It takes
the holy nature to recognize the sinfulness of the sinful
nature. Someone that's born again doesn't have any understanding
of sin. They think it's do this or don't do that. They don't
understand the sinfulness of the nature. But if you have a
holy nature, that is what sees the sinfulness
of the old nature. And I know that I'm no better
than I ever was as far as my own nature. It's just as sinful,
it's just as wicked, it has the same propensities that it's always
had. I'm not excusing that, I'm not
saying it's okay, but I do know it's so. It's so with regard
to, and every believer knows what I'm saying. And if you disagree
with this, It's because you don't have a new nature. If you have
a new nature, you'll know exactly what I'm saying. You'll have
some recognition of the sinfulness of the old nature. I repeat,
the only ones who know anything about sin are the people who
are holy. The people who don't have a new nature, they can't
see this. They can't understand it. But
someone who's been born from above, they do. Now, sanctification,
being sanctified, is the work of the Holy Trinity. We are said
to be sanctified in the Father, Jude 1.1. We're said to be sanctified
in Christ, God the Son, 1 Corinthians 1.2. And then in our text, we're
said to be sanctified by the Spirit of God. We're set apart,
we're made holy, we're regarded as holy by the work of the Trinity,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, first of all,
we're sanctified by God the Father. As Jude says, sanctified by God
the Father. And when he says this, this is
in the perfect passive tense to let us know that this is His
work. There's nothing we did to achieve
this or to obtain it. It's a perfectly completed work
done by God the Father. Now, I want to show you a few
scriptures about this. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 30, but of him, but of
the father are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God the Father, here's why I'm
sanctified, God the Father put me in his Son, and Christ Jesus
literally is my sanctification. He's why I'm sanctified. He himself
is my sanctification. Now, before you disagree, how
could that be? Does the text say anything less?
He is. my sanctification. He is my holiness
before God. Every believer is sanctified
because God the Father made Christ to be their sanctification. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Now, I'm fully aware that there
are people who would hear this and say, well, this is antinomianism.
Well, you can say that if you want. It's the scripture. It's
not antinomianism. It's the scripture. You can turn
it any way you want to. You can say, well, that'll lead
to sin. It doesn't lead a believer to sin. If it leads you to sin, OK. But
it doesn't lead a believer to sin. This is the scriptural teaching. And we're not going to tone down
on what the scripture teaches in order to keep from offending
religionists. I'm just not concerned about that. I want to know what
the Bible actually says about this. And look in Ephesians chapter
1, verse 4. according as He, the Father,
hath chosen us, chosen us, elected us in Him before the foundation
of the world. The Father set apart the elect
for this purpose, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. Now there is the work of God
the Father in sanctifying us. He chose us before time began
that we should be holy. Look in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 10. Well, let's read verse nine.
Then said he, lo, I come, the Lord Jesus Christ said, lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second by the which will, by God's will,
that will where Christ said, I come to do thy will, by the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. By God's will. God's will is
so supreme that when he willed my sanctification through what
Christ did on the cross, the scripture says we were sanctified
once for all. Now that is simply because it's
in the perfect tense in the Greek text, perfectly completed, never
to be repeated. So supreme is the will of God
that if whatever He wills, it's completed. I was sanctified once
for all. So we're sanctified by the Father,
you see that. and was sanctified by the Son. When we read that passage descriptor
in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11, both he that sanctifyeth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. The he is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the one who does the sanctifying. Both he that sanctifyeth and
they who are sanctified. are all of one, for the which
cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren." We're sanctified
by Christ, the Son of God, to this extent that he himself is
our sanctification. I repeat once again, Of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. He is, now listen to me real
carefully. He is my holiness. I'm not talking about imputed
holiness. There's no such thing. And did
you hear me? There's no such thing as imputed
holiness. He is my holiness. To this extent, 1 John 4, 17
says, as he is, so are we in this world. Is he holy? Now come on, is he? So am I, because as he is, so
are we in this world. Whatever is said of Christ is
said of all of those whom he sanctifies. Both he that sanctifies
and they who are sanctified are all of one. Paul said to the
church at Corinth, He spoke in 1 Corinthians 1, 2 of them which
are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10 once again, verse 14. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14.
For by one offering, talking about His death on the cross,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, them that
are set apart. What has He done? He has perfected
them forever. That's what He meant when He
said it is finished. They are perfected for everybody
for whom He died. By His one offering, His death
on the cross, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
You see what He did worked. He didn't make redemption possible. He redeemed. He didn't make forgiveness
available. He forgave. He didn't make justification
a possibility. He justified. He didn't make
sanctification potential. He sanctified. This is the Son
of God who died. It's Christ that died. And by
that one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You're looking at a perfect man.
Nobody's perfect. I beg your pardon. Everybody
in Christ Jesus has been perfected forever. And it doesn't have
anything to do with anything you've done, does it? You know
that. If you've been perfected, you
know it. I don't have to. You know, this is one of the things
I love about the gospel. You don't have to worry about
trying to talk anybody into anything because God's their teacher.
I declare the gospel. If God's done anything for you,
you know it's so. And if he hasn't done anything for you, you'll
say, I don't believe that. Well, nothing I can do about that.
But all I'm to do is to declare the gospel. And I know God will
take it and bless it. And if God has perfected you
forever, you know it's his work that he did it all. You are dead
sure of that. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
5. Ephesians chapter 5. I want you
to see these scriptures with me. Verse 25, Husbands, love
your wives, Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. This is once again talking about
the cross, for what reason? That he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word. That's why he gave
himself. And then in our text, and we've
considered sanctification by the father, sanctification by
the son, and in our text, what Paul was doing when he was offering
up the Gentiles to God as well-pleasing, it said they were well-pleasing
for this one reason, being sanctified by the Spirit of God. The sanctification
of the Spirit. Now turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13. But, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
13, 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. There we have election, but the
verse is not over. Through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. God has chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now what is sanctification of
the Spirit? It's being born again. It's being
born from above. It's being birthed by the Spirit
of God so that you have a holy nature. The Holy Spirit can only
give birth to that which is holy. That which is holy cannot sin. It doesn't even have the potential
to sin. He that's born of God doth not
commit sin. It's called the seed that doth
not commit sin. It's called the incorruptible
seed. It's called the hidden man of the heart, which is not
corruptible. It's called the inner man, the
new man. When Paul says in Romans 7 regarding a sin, it was not
I, but the sin that dwelleth in me. That Holy nature is the
true I, not him. I think it's glorious there in
Romans chapter seven, when Paul was talking about his own experience
of sin, he said, it wasn't me, it was him. I didn't do it. Not
the I that's born of God, not the holy I, not the sanctified
I, that which is born of the Spirit. Now, I've already said
this, but when God saves somebody, he doesn't change the old nature.
It's still there, and that's why we look forward to dying,
to when we won't sin anymore. It's still there, but he gives
a new nature, a holy nature that was not there before. Now, is there anything God uses
in this glorious thing of being sanctified? where I'm actually
given this holy nature. Now notice in that scripture
I read, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. And what next?
Belief of the truth. What is the evidence of being
sanctified by the Spirit of God? You believe the truth. The Lord
said in John chapter 17 verse 17, sanctify them through thy
truth. Thy word is truth. There is no sanctification apart
from belief of the truth, the truth concerning God, the truth
concerning man, the truth concerning how He saves sinners by His grace
through Christ Jesus, the truth concerning how He is, our sanctification. What is the evidence of having
this holy nature? Is it because, well, my motives
are pure, I'm holy? No, you don't look at yourself
that way. You believe the truth. And that
is the evidence of having a holy nature. You believe the truth
of the Word of God. You bow to all God says. Somebody says, well how much
do I have to believe to be saved? Everything God says. Oh, what? No, just like everything God
says. If there's anything that God
says that I don't believe, you know what I am? I'm an unbeliever. Believers believe the truth. God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Now what comes from the sanctifying
work of God the Father, the sanctifying work of God the Son, and the
sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit? Saints. All saints means is sanctified
ones. St. Todd, I love saying that,
St. Todd. You call yourself a saint?
Yep, yep. The world, they look at a saint,
they've reached some kind of level of obedience and holiness,
and now the Pope is gonna saint them. That's the biggest bunch
of foolishness that there ever was. Every believer is a saint
of God, a sanctified one. You're gonna find this interesting.
You know how many times we read the word of Christian in the
New Testament? Three. You know how many times we read
of believers? Twice. You know how many times we read
of the elect or the chosen? Twenty-eight times. I think it's
neat the way John wrote to the elect lady. Peter said, the church
that's Babylon elected together with you. I mean, if you would
have said to them, I don't believe election, they'd say, what? Who
are you? But you know how believers are
most often described? Saints. Saints. Sanctified ones. saints of God,
to the saints at Ephesus, to the saints, sanctified ones. Now, if you're a saint, that's
why you know you're a sinner. The only reason you know you're
a sinner is you're a saint of God. And being a saint, you and
I are called upon to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, our confession
of Christ. Don't, don't, well, this is my
cross that I bear in life. I'm not talking about that. I'm
not talking about your troubles. I'm talking about you willingly
take up this confession of the gospel that's going to create
all kinds of trouble for you, but that's okay. That's okay. Lord said, you deny yourself.
You take up your cross and you follow me. Let me tell you something
else about saints. Saints love the saints. They love the brethren. Their
life is the saints of God. Church is not just some kind
of pastime you try to put in your schedule. You love the saints
of God, the brethren, all the saints love the saints. Isn't it a glorious thing to
be a saint of God? Sanctification. Well, I said
at the beginning of this message, if I would use one word to describe
God's salvation, what word would I use? Sanctified. Sanctified by the Father in election,
set apart for holy purposes. Sanctified by the Son in redemption,
declared to be holy. When Christ paid for my sins,
God said concerning everybody he died for, they're holy. Made
holy by the Spirit of God. in the new birth. Sanctification
describes God's salvation, being sanctified. Now that's, you know,
just with regard to any scriptural subject, If there's, with regard
to, I guess every scriptural doctrine, I mean, I've always
said, if there's one that's been mangled, this one's been, and
this one's been mangled too, hasn't it? But it's so simple
in the scriptures. Sanctification, the work of God
the Father, the work of God the Son, the work of God the Spirit,
the end of saint. Let's pray.