#April 14, 2013
Morning Worship
Text: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Subject: Part 8 in the What We Believe Series
Title: Sanctification - Set Apart for God
OK – Here we go… In the last few weeks I spoke to you about sin and salvation and about the church. Today I get to make it a little more personal. I’m going to talk about you. This message is for each of you – I don’t have to name names or point a finger at anyone. This is not a sermon that criticizes or accuses. This is a sermon that will enable you to become the best Christian you can be. And isn’t that what the Lord wants for His church?
What I want to do today is to help you go further in your Christian walk than you ever thought possible. How many of you here today would say, “I think I’m doing all right with God. I live a good clean life and I think that it pleases Him.” That’s good!
But how many of you believe that God wants more for you than just living according to the letter of the Law? Do you think that it pleases Him when you receive a fresh revelation and then begin to apply it to your life?
Today I want to talk to you about sanctification. What is sanctification? According to Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia, Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy. "Sanctity" is an ancient concept widespread among religions, a property of a thing or person sacred or set apart within the religion, from temple vessels to days of the week, to a human believer who achieves this state. To sanctify is literally "to set apart for special use or purpose", figuratively "to make holy or sacred”.
Often when we think of sanctification we think of the second part “to make holy or sacred”… But I believe that the first part is of equal importance. When you are sanctified you are set apart for special use or purpose…
Let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
I believe this is God's Word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
And I appropriate it to my life today…
When does a person become sanctified? Hebrews 9:13-14, 13The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
As soon as you make a decision to turn from your sin and invite Jesus to be the Lord of your life you become set apart for a holy life and for a life of service. However, many people misunderstand sanctification in that they believe it to be a once and done event. Sanctification is a lifelong process. We are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
So how does that happen? Does God just miraculously pull your puppet strings to get you to go where He wants and do what He wants you to do? Wouldn’t it be nice if that were so? The truth is that the sanctification process will go as you go. If you do not desire to be anything more than a citizen of heaven you can get saved can kick back in your easy chair and wait till the end comes.
Or, you can choose to do the will of God and be everything that He has called you to be.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a step in sanctification. It enables you to release all that is in you through salvation. Power and authority is yours.
I. Believing the Word of God…
Would you agree with me that when you actively pursue the things of God that you are being sanctified? John 17:17 gives us a good place to start. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth… Being set apart for God’s purpose begins with His Word.
In the book of Acts- the title is the Acts of the Apostles. That is the name given to the book by man. It doesn’t really line up with the book itself. A more proper title would be the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and other believers… but in the book of Acts the phrase “word of God” is used 11 times. It talks about teaching the word of God, and studying and preaching and receiving the word of God.
Acts 13:5, 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
Acts 17:13, 13When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.
Acts 18:11, So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
When the apostles and others went to preach and teach what do you think they were teaching and preaching? The gospel message? That’s true because gospel means “good news”. They were definitely teaching good news. But do you think it just the message of salvation that they taught? In Acts chapter 20, Paul said, 25“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Here Paul uses the word “will” of God. How do we know what God’s will is? From His word. So if we are sanctified by the truth and His word is truth and His will is revealed by His word, then should we take notice of the whole thing? I said, doesn’t sanctification involve believing the whole book?
II. Building Your Faith
And that involves and act of faith. Is sanctification about living a life that pleases God? Hebrews 11:6, 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Let’s take it a step further. If you look at sanctification as a day to day process in which we become more like the church He wants us to be and we do that by faith, then Romans 10:17, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV) Here “word” is the Greek rhema, which refers to the spoken word – God’s Spirit speaking to your inner man. That spoken word is often the catalyst for enlightenment to the written word. You see, part of growing in the Lord involves being able to discern His voice. It is in that discernment that faith rises to a new level. Faith comes by hearing…
Turn to Romans 12 and verse 1, 1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Why are we called to be transformed? Not just so we can know the will of God. It is so we can prove the will of God. Did you ever think about the implications of what that says? Paul is talking about living out what you say you believe.
Holy Living? YES! But even beyond that are we or are we not called to be Christ like? 1 John 2:6, Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Do you believe that you have power and authority given to you from the Risen Son of God?
Do you believe that God's Word is for you today?
Do you believe that by His stripes you are healed? Faith is believing it even when you don’t see it…
Do you believe that when you are faithful to God in your financial obligations to Him that He will supply your every need?
Do you believe that you can trample on snakes and scorpions (spiritual forces) and overcome all the power of the enemy and nothing will harm you?
Do you believe that there are spiritual gifts that are given to you to use for the building up of the church?
III. So the Next step in Sanctification is learning to become a doer of the word…
James 1:22, 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Church, listen to me. That verse is probably as important a verse that you will find in the scripture when it comes to being the sanctified (set apart for God’s purpose) church of Jesus Christ. You can study the word. You can believe the word. But until you begin to put the word of faith into action it absolutely does you or anyone else any good.
At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it. The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
As this anecdote illustrates, the "why" behind memorization is fully as important as the "what." The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God's Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
Moody's Anecdotes, p. 99.
John 15:7-8, 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Your spiritual growth glorifies God. The tangible evidence of your faith seen by the things you do glorifies Him.
18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Are you being transformed into His likeness? Yes you are!
Does that mean that you will never make a mistake? NO it doesn’t!
But it does mean that as you learn from mistakes and begin to rely on His word by faith that you will steadily become more like Him. And that is one of the reasons that Jesus has established His church.
Ephesians 4:10-13, 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Know His Word!
Have faith in His Word.
Act on His Word…
