Title: Sanctification
Introduction: In last Sunday morning's sermon was about Grace. In that sermon, I prepared the way for this sermon.
A. This week, I read a survey by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that says that 60% of Americans say that they are born again Christians. While that number has declined in the last dozen years, it is still a majority of the population.
1. Why then, if the majority of Americans are Christians, have we seen such a rapid decline in Christian values? Why are our news stories so full of political scandals, our television entertainment so full of sinful trash, why is drug use so prevalent, illegitimate birth so high, divorce, why, why?
2. I say it is because so few Christians take their Christianity seriously. We Christians are so surrounded, so enmeshed in our sinful culture, that we are numb and passive to it. We are no longer shocked by sin. God finds this heart breaking.
3. 60% have been saved all right, however many obviously have not moved on to the sanctifying process in which God wants them to join Him.
B. Many Christians seem to believe that being saved is the end all, that that is all one must do. They like salvation, they like being saved, but going on to sanctification, that is busying themselves doing the work of God is not something in which they have much interest.
1. Many seem like a little boy whose mother overheard her son saying his prayers one night. He prayed, "God, if you don't make me a better boy, it's OK. I am having a pretty good time just as I am." That is how many saved Christians act.
2. Many people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity. They want God to bless their most coveted sins. The Bible tells us that God wants us to move forward after we have accepted salvation, move on to sanctification.
1. In salvation, we are instantly separated from the eternal penalty of our sins through justification by faith.
2. However, God's pardoning our sins does not end God's saving work. God means for salvation to be only the beginning of your time in Him. After we are saved, we are to move on and embrace the Holy Spirit's progressive work of sanctification. Through the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to increase in knowledge and love of God and in love for our neighbor.
C. In today's scripture, Paul sums up the attitude growing Christians are to have in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
1. The "being transformed" Paul speaks of is sanctification; the "living sacrifices" is living for God. It is doing God's work. Salvation is a new birth. Sanctification is growing, maturing after that new birth. Salvation is a new beginning, literally being born into a new life. Sanctification is a lifelong pursuit. Salvation is an instant gift of God's love to you. Sanctification is the enduring gratitude of your love to Him. Sanctification is living Christ.
2. Many preachers tell you just come down this aisle and be saved, but what these preachers often neglect to discuss are the bad habits you take down the aisle as you bow and ask Christ into your life. Though saved and filled with the Holy Spirit you carry with you a lifetime of debilitating habits that you are to "put off" as you grow in Christ likeness. The epistles of Paul tell you to join the Spirit in its further work of grace, the removing of your carnal nature, as you become completely the Lord's.
I. You see, the newly saved are babies in Christ, ready only for milk. 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" Some Christians never get off their milk diet. They never grow. They remain babies in Christ.
A. Paul is saying that though saved, we have just begun our walk with Christ for are we not still carnal? Are we still imperfect? Are we still weak in the flesh? Have we suddenly learned to love all people? Have we learned to serve others? Have we studied our Bible and learned some of what is in there? Have we discovered the spiritual gifts God has for us? The answer to all of these questions is often no.
B. Many people, although they often hear the Gospel, feel little desire to follow it, to live it. Sanctification is discovering that heavenly manna God wants to feed you. Sanctification is not only hearing the Gospel, it is following the Gospel. Sanctification is joining the Holy Spirit as it moves us on toward perfection.
II. In Ephesians 4:21-24 Paul writes, "if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."
A. The "old man" Paul writes about reflects our ego, our natural self, our fleshly desires, and our corrupt Adam nature. The "new man" is Christ-like; as the scripture says, "which after God is created in righteousness and holiness."
B. Paul describes the character and nature of the old man in Colossians 3:5-9, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds...."
C. Paul goes on to describe the new man's character and nature in Colossians 3:12-14, "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."
1. "So you also must do," God's will for saved men and women is to move toward Christ-like perfection; perfection not of intellect, personality or service but full maturity, completeness of character, motive, love of God and love of humanity.
2. "Even as Christ forgave you," God wants us to move from the base nature of the flesh to the panicle of Christ nature, agape love, the kind of unmerited love Christ showed us when He died for our sins; He wants us to show that kind of love to others.
a. This takes only a few minutes for me to speak about sanctification but it takes a life to begin to master.
b However, the blessings begin as you, with the help of the Holy Spirit, resist your first sin.
3. When we are saved, we are moved away from the danger of hell but our journey to Christ-likeness has just begun. When saved, the devote Christian sins are forgiven. Think of that as being a foot away from hell, a milk feed Christian, and started on a trip that is a million miles long, a million miles closer to God. It is a good and wonderful trip. Take it, make it!
III. Sanctification is replacing old bad habits with new good habits. Ephesians 4:28 reads, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
A. When is a thief not a thief? When he is not stealing? No. When he works and gives a part of what he earns to help others. When is a liar not a lair? When he is not lying? No. When he becomes a truth teller. When is a gossip not bearing false witness? When he is not gossiping? No. When he is using the words of his mouth for the uplifting of others. God not only wants us to stop sinning, He wants us to join Him in His work.
B. When we do something long enough it becomes automatic, a habit; we do not think about it, we just do it. That works great for things like driving a car. We can drive almost automatically while listening to the radio or carrying on a conversation. However, this capacity to form habits does not know the difference between the habit of being greedy or the habit of giving freely, between the habit of pride or the habit of humility.
1. We all have sinful habits; we must replace them with positive, Christian habits.
2. We must identify our sinful habits as well as identify with what we will replace those sinful habits. Paul writes that that is the purpose of the law, to help identify what is sinful. The Word of God also helps identify good habits or what with we are is to replace bad habits. That is the process we are to go though; identify a bad habit and identify the opposite good habit that should replace it.
3. This process takes time to learn. Growing is like learning a sport. If we want to be good at a sport, we must begin at the beginner's level, learn the sport, practice and over the years advance. That is the way it is as you move on to sanctification, as you move from being a milk-feed Christian to eating meat. Sanctification is a long journey filled with obstacles and opportunities.
C. While our faithfulness and diligence is important, the Holy Spirit is there to help. Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." And, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, " For this is the will of God, your sanctification: ... For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit." Paul is saying that if we reject the sanctification process, then we are rejecting God.
1. The Holy Spirit works to replace those bad habits with good habits. God wants us to join the Holy Spirit in this sanctification so that we gain the delight and experience that participation brings when we join God in His work.
2. This participation manifest itself in changes in our attitudes, actions, and service to others.
3. We are working no longer to please ourselves. We are working with the Holy Spirit to please Almighty God. 1 Corinthians 3:9, "For we are labors together with God ...."
IV. Beyond the joy of being a witness, what may the people experiencing sanctification expect? Will we be angelic? Or will be unchanged? The scriptures tell us neither of these is correct.
A. One woman who was on her way to sanctification prayed, "So far, God, I have done alright. I have not gossiped, have not lost my temper, have not been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over indulgent. I am glad about that. But, in a few minutes, God, I am going to get out of bed and from then on, I am going to need a lot of help. Amen."
B. You see, I John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
1. Philippians 3:12-14 reads, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
2. Paul writes in Romans 6:22, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." This passage seems to indicate that being "free from sin" means losing our desire to sin or at least the desire to sin can be so greatly diminished as to have no power over us.
3. It seems that personal progressive sanctification of believers, though we never reach sinless perfection in this life, must be second in Biblical emphasis only to salvation itself.
C. Paul writes, "For sin shall not have dominion over you ...." Sin cannot rule you, but you can rule it.
1. Therefore, we are to be more of a man, more of a woman, than we could ever have been when our desirers were not on the great things God wants us to do.
2. Our old selves were selfish and centered on the things sinners find entertaining. Our old selves lived in a world where each person looks out for number one.
3. Our new selves see the garden of Eden God would have this world be. Our new selves work for a different world. I Corinthians 10:24, "Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being." Thus, sanctification is becoming true servants of God.
Conclusion: 60% of Americans say that they are born again Christians. That's wonderful. I wonder what percent are on their way to sanctification? Given the state of our Country, I have to think the percentage is not high. Maybe that is the true trouble with America.
1. If you have accepted Christ and that was pretty much the end of you Christian commitment, then you are missing the wonderful life that Jesus intended for His followers to have.
2. Jesus says, deny yourself, and take up your cross and follow Him. Stop being satisfied with the ways of the world.
3. Sanctification is the most wonderful journey anyone can possibly undertake; it is also the most difficult but your world needs you.
