Personal Sanctification
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your
word is truth
What do you mean by sanctification? The Hebrew
word qadash means to cut and separate. The Greek word hagios means to set apart for God. So sanctification means we
need to be holy towards God, we are in the world but not of the world.
It is the word of God
that sanctifies us. The word of God is a double edged sword.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The word of God brings sins to the surface
and convicts our sins and obedience to the word of God will say yes, to godliness and no to
ungodliness and separate us unto God
Sanctification
is an immediate work of the Holy Spirit on the souls of the believers,
purifying and cleansing from the pollution of sin and renewing us to the image
of God through Jesus Christ.
There
are two sides to sanctification. It’s negative and positive.
Negative does not mean it has anything bad but cleansing the pollution of sin.
Positive means focusing on God, living for God in obedience. Today we are
going to see the negative side of sanctification.
Negatively
not only there is guilt in the sin but there is pollution of sin. It is the
pollution of sin that is opposed to God’s holiness. Pollution of sin
keeps men away from the holy God. John 3:19 And
this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the
darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
The
moral commandments speaks against these sins.
We
are called the temple of God. We are the temple of the living God. (2 Cor 6:16) We must allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse our
temple so we will be sanctified unto God for holy purposes.
Read
2 Kings 23:1-6 - King Josiah cleansing the
temple
Matthew
21:12-13 – Jesus cleansing the temple.
There
was a poor man in the church who wanted to be a missionary. The pastor examined
the man and asked him to define justification and the man gave the correct
answer. Then he asked my brother what is sanctification? He said,
“Sanctification sir, is a God possessed soul.”
When
a person is born again to the kingdom of God, there is a hatred for sin. The
negative side is saying “No” to passions of this flesh and the world, no to
sin. Negative side is to tear down those pet, darling sins. The more you spend
time in the word of God, the more you have the desire to cleanse those sins.
Jonathan
Edwards speaks of the great awakening, when he said the following.
“These
awakenings when they have first seized on persons,
have had two effects; one was, that they have brought them immediately
to quit their sinful practices.” Then he goes on to say, “The other
effect was, that it put them on earnest application to the means of salvation,
reading, prayer, meditation, the ordinances of God’s house, and private
conference.”
Now
we will see if the following are true.
It
is impossible for someone to profess himself a Christian and to remain without
any growth, not producing any fruits. (Read John 15:5-6; Philippians 3:12-15)
The
new man, the new seed bring life. There is no growth without life. If you put
an imitation plant in the ground, water it everyday
it will remain the same. There is no growth as it is an imitation, a
counterfeit. Looks like real but no real growth. There are some in the church
that looks like Christians as they profess Christian but there is no genuine
conversion, as we do not see any fruits in them.
I
am going to give a metaphor of a tree so we can understand the growth of
sanctification. Our sanctification is like a living tree; it did not grow
instantly but takes a lot of time. First, a seed is planted. The seed
needs to plant in good soil. (Eze 17:8; Luke 8:8) The
good soil is the new heart. They will hear and obey.
This
seed has to die for it is to be rooted. In the same way the old man needs to be
put to death daily, in this life we cannot kill the old totally but need to
crucify the flesh daily for the new man to live.
Eph
4:22 That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
In
the good soil the plants grows in two ways, downward in humility and upward in
knowledge. Humility is saying no to the flesh and yes to God. The
plants get rooted and the same way the new Christian is rooted in the true
faith of Christ. (John 15:4)
The
tree gets its water from above. You can have a good soil but without water, the
plant will die. Jesus is the living water for the new soul; he is the
fountain of life. The Holy Spirit daily gives the believer the living water.
Col
2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
1Pe
2:2 As newborn babes, desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.
As
the plant begins to grow upward, the believer’s aim is to grow upward in
holiness. Sometimes there will be bad weather, storms, heavy wind that can
affect the growth of the tree but when the tree endures the hardships, it will
become stronger.
In
the same way the believers onward and upwards toward holiness will vary. Sometimes
erratic and sometimes regular, there are ups and downs but overall it is
growing upwards. Sometimes the believer can have a very serious fall but he
will be restored by the grace of God.
This
shows the believer is not perfect, he will be wounded by sin, hospitalized but
he will be healed and grow stronger. The believer will walk in the beautiful
plains of green grass then he will climb those difficult rugged mountains, go
through the valleys of death.
In
these difficult times, the Holy Spirit will preserve the Christian. In
sanctification, we see the negative side, the positive side and preservation.
He will be preserved to the end.
Joh 6:37 All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
But
generally there is a progress in the growth of the tree and will bear fruits.
In the same way there is a progress of the believers
growth and bear fruits. This is the evidence of the genuine conversion.
In
the positive side of sanctification, the new believer has the image of God in
embryonic form but it begins to develop in the process of sanctification. When
he becomes older and older, the flesh will become weak but the spirit will
become stronger as he grows from strength to strength. When he dies, he will
see the beauty of the King of Glory and he will be perfect in his glorious
state in heaven.
There
is no second blessing in sanctification. No carnal Christians and super
spiritual Christians. We all have some carnal ways in us as we are not perfect
but there is there is diligent labor on behalf of the Christian to work out our
salvation.
You
may have seen on Bumper stickers, which say. “Let go and Let God.” Some people
believe you do not have to do anything on sanctification, let yourself go and
let God do it. They believe in pietism, which says sanctification is totally by
the Holy Spirit.
Php 2:12 Wherefore, my
beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
There
is hard labor involved in sanctification. Working out your own salvation does
not mean, you have to find your own way to heaven with your good works, but
salvation is a gift. (Read verse 13, it is God who works in you.)
Is
sanctification product of your own righteousness? The Bible says our
righteousness is like a filthy rag to the Lord.
There
are some so called Christians boast of their holiness. There were some in a
group how they were boasting of their holiness. There was another Christian who
was quiet, and then one asked the other Christian "Have you no
holiness?" "Yes," he said, "but I never had any to boast
of."
The
word salvation also means preserve. This scripture has to do with
sanctification, to carry out the work of salvation you received. God is working
and I am working.
How?
With fear and trembling, you need to realize you are living in the very
presence of God, God can see you, cannot hide from God, God can see your heart
and your motives. When you are confronted with the passions and the pleasures
of this world, there is a fear and trembling to avoid, when you are tempted by
the flesh there is a fear and trembling to avoid as God is there. When you have not diligently read the word of
God, prayed, not been obedience in your growth there is a fear and trembling
asking what am I doing.
Sanctification
is not a three easy steps formula but a life long
process of diligent disciplined labor. There are so many people who call
themselves Christians; they have a profession of faith but not a true
conversion. In sanctification, we see God is working and I am working. We
see the new man in the true Christian, the new nature of born of the spirit,
the Holy Spirit living in the believer and the change of lifestyle. By their
fruits, we know that they are sanctified. Fruits are truly manifested when they
are confronted by temptations and pressures.
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.” - 2 Timothy 1:9
Our
Goal should be to be like our Lord. To be conformed to his image, to imitate
him, follow him is sanctification.
The
key word in positive sanctification is the word “Holiness.” The vessel
has to be clean to be used by the Holy Spirit. God cannot use a dirty vessel.
The vessel has to be separated unto God for his glory.
During
the time of Spurgeon and the Puritans, there were no movies, no Hollywood style
of enjoyments. If they were living, today how much more they will be against
the carnal indulging pleasures of this world. Puritanism did not come only with
the knowledge of God only but accompanied with holiness, the purity of life. Oh
my friend, our lifestyle should be match the word of
God. An unholy church is useless to the Lord and useless to the world.
The pastor’s calling is to preach the word, administrate the sacraments and to
promote holiness in the church. If the pastor doesn’t promote holiness then
that church is a dead church, you will have all the programs but God sees as a
dead church.
C.
H. Spurgeon said, “Let us aspire to saintliness of spirit and character. I
am persuaded that the greatest power we can get over our fellowmen is the power
which comes of consecration and holiness.” There are too many ministries
are compromising holiness and sin, this far too prevalent in our society today,
this does not come from the Spirit of God but of the spirit of the world.
Spurgeon
also said, “I see the spirit of compromise concerning holiness and sin,
truth and error, far too prevalent. The spirit of compromise comes not of the
Spirit of God, but of the spirit of the world.”
Holiness
should be our pleasure and purity is our delight.
Let
us practice holiness. Holiness is the visible side of salvation; it shows that
we are truly saved by the one and only Holy God. The doctrines of grace should
be accompanied with holiness. (Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love) Good works is NOT the cause of salvation but the RESULT of salvation
is good works and holiness. What good is it if the church is not holy?
The true gospel will lead us to holiness. Holy Spirit in us will make us holy.
Without holiness, no man will see God. (Hebrews 12:14)
How
do you know that you are chosen by God?
“If
you desires
holiness, if he longs to be the Lord's, and hungry for the living bread,
thirsty for the living water, then you are chosen already.”Do you desire after
holiness? Are you longing to be with the Lord?
Spurgeon
said, “ We must labor for holiness of character. What
is holiness? Is it not wholeness of character? Holiness is life.”
Jonathan
Edwards speaks of the holy affections of the Christian. There is a new
appetite and a thirst of the new man. Jonathan Edwards said, “There is an
inward burning desire that a believer has after holiness.” Edwards went on to
say, “There is a holy breathing and panting after the Spirit of God, to
increase holiness, as natural to a holy nature, as breathing is to a living
body. And holiness or sanctification is more directly the object of it.”
At
the fall the image of God was broken, we lost communication with God. When the
communication was lost, we were enmity with God. At the re-creation, when a man
is born again the lost image was restored in sanctification and there is a
communication between God and man, now we belong to God, beloved, heaven is a
sanctified place where God dwells, we need to be sanctified here, promote
holiness in your life and you will be blessed spiritually.
Application
Now you have already read this, do
not just say, now I am done with my spiritual food for the day and forget God’s
word for the rest of the day, that’s not having a relationship with Christ, if
you say that you just met a stranger and had a little chat and said, ‘bye bye’,
the born again Christian should meditate what you learned for the rest of the
day, then, try to remember before you go to sleep, then hide in your heart and
put into practice, this is true sanctification and you are working hard to grow
in the Lord.