The God Who Santifies
THE GOD WHO SANCTIFIES
2 PETER 1
Pauline and I were once travelling up the A49 going North from Abergavenny, heading towards Manchester. Our splendid Beagle, Marcus, was travelling as he always did with his back paws on the rear seat, his front paws on the back of the driver's seat and his head over the right shoulder of the driver.
I was doing the driving on this day when something warm and half solid was felt to be pressing against my back, between my body and the seat. It was a tin of partly digested Pedigree Chum. I couldn't move forward because that would make the lump fall further down my back, and I couldn't sit back for fear of causing a squashing event.
The situation was eventually resolved. The strange thing is this; if he'd been given half a chance Marcus would have re-eaten his late departed breakfast. Dogs can do that. Snack on their own vomit. It seems repulsive to us, but natural to a dog. It's canine culture.
C.f. 2 Peter 2:22. The apostle Peter is using that proverb to describe a process that's observable in the lives of numbers of people in the Christian church. It's a pretty radical and shocking ddescription of some people who are sitting in this assembly this morning. They're in most churches, so they're probably in ours.
Peter has some other powerful pictures to describe them. Waterless springs (verse 17); mists driven by the storm (verse 17). Waterless springs is an Eastern picture of disappointed hopes and false promises. You come to the well, remove the stone slab from the top, let down your bucket, lick your parched lips, pull up the bucket and NOTHING. The other picture is of powerlessness. Mists driven by the storm winds. Helpless to resist.
The man who wrote those words and used those disturbing pictures was an angry and concerned Christian pastor. There was a distorted version of Christianity creeping into the churches which was being spread around by men for whom the Gospel of the apostles wasn't quite their scene. They liked to be in the Christian arena but they carried the world in their hearts. They functioned in the church, but they got their motivation from the world.
The version of the Christian message they bring makes big promises but delivers nothing. See verse 18-19. The impact of this phenomenon in the church is to produce disciples who are still worldly. Thye have the name of the Lord on their lips, but the world is still Lord in their hearts. They're dogs that return to their vomit. They repudiate the world and its lusts for a while, then they return to snack on that which they vomited up a few months or a few years ago.
And what you have, and this is what we're looking at this morning, is people in a Gospel church who're not being transformed by the Gospel. Look at the way they spend their time, their money, their energies, and you'll see that it's still worldly. Self-centred personal fulfillment is still their personal centre. Their attitude to what's best for their children is exactly the same as those parents to whom Christ means nothing.
The fundamental philosophy in their hearts is this, what's in it for me? See verse 15. Balaam was a man with a prophetic gift, he had a ministry, a gifted individual, who used his God-given abilities to get something for himself. To satisfy something he wanted or needed to make life work better for HIM.
Waterless springs. Mists driven by the wind. Dogs returning to their own vomit. People who say they love Christ but who are using the Gospel and the church selfishly. What's in it for me?
That's why the opening chapter of 2 Peter's about the God who sanctifies. THE sign that the Gospel has taken you out of the world is that the world is being taken out of you. Look at 2:19 - what is it that overcomes you. What is the most powerful controlling principle in your life. What rule are you really under? Which master commands your best obedience? It doesn't matter what you promise, what you say with grand words, it's whether you're being changed by obedience to the Lord God, that's what counts.
That's what's so disappointing about these church leaders and preachers with their grand words and their fine sermons, when you get close enough to take a drink, to share in their life, you find there's no real water there. No life of Christ bubbling up from the internal well - just a re-working of the world's tired old mediocrity.
C.F. Larry Crabb. I'm learning to distinguish between the dragon's voice and the Spirit's. The dragon directs my attention from the person of Christ as the source of the deepest joy toward the blessings of life as what I really need to be happy. If those blessings can be gained only by obvious sin - fine; if living a good Christian life keeps life working well, that's fine too. The dragon doesn't care, as long as I chase after the better life of blessings. The Spirit exposes a problem in my soul worse than my suffering, then reveals the grace of God. He tells me I can know this God; I can know His heart, rest in His power and hope in His purposes. And I can see it all in Christ. He keeps stirring my heart to say, "Just give me Jesus".
Now, chapter 1 is about growing up as Christian believers. When we're babies and infants, we're selfish by nature. We need to take whatever's on offer. We nurse at our mother's breast. We cry she gives. We soil our nappy she comes to make us comfortable.
It's a bit like that when we first become Christians. We have needs that must be met by the care and nurture of our mothers and fathers in the faith. But one of the signs that you're a true child of God is that you grow up, you mature. You don't turn into a waterless spring, or a mist driven by the wind. You become a person whom God is changing. The process is called sanctification by the scholars. A life changed by God, set apart for His glory, being transformed into His likeness.
Let's look at it briefly in chapter 1.
1. SANCTIFICATION IS A WORK OF CHRIST IN YOU
verses 3-4. So, Peter's writing to a group of Christians who're being tempted and maybe taught to think that separation from the world's lifestyle, to a distinctively godly lifestyle wasn't especially important. His first emphasis then is on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has divine power. Here is the One who made the heavens and earth. He created all things. His purposes are invincible. What He plans for the world cannot be frustrated. His mighty power guarantees that His perfect purposes will be carried out impeccably.
And His purpose is to call a people to Himself, to give them what they need to reflect His divine nature in the world.
If you're a Christian He's done for you exactly what he did for the children of Israel in the land of Egypt. He's called you (verse 3). You're not a Christian because you wondered into a Christian church accidentally, but because an Almighty King called you irresistibly to Himself. Your faith was actually an act of obedience in response to the summons of the Gospel.
But He didn't just call you to impersonal membership; he called you to life and godliness. He called you to a godly life. He called you to a lifestyle characterized by his own glory and excellence. This lifestyle will flow out of the knowledge of Him. You come to know and participate in the knowledge of a glorious and excellent King.
Becoming a Christian is a call to know the King's glory and excellence. And in that process the King generously gives you everything you need for this godly life.
Think of that Mum and Dad who bring a child into the world. Here's a little son or daughter who's been called into being through sexual union. If that Mum and Dad love and care for that child they'll not only bring her into the world but provide all that she needs for life in this world. Food, clothes, shelter, nurture, love, and a 1,000 other things.
What verse 3 is telling us is that Jesus Christ who calls you to the goldy life, will supply all that you need to live that godly life and what he has given you primarily is HIMSELF. He called you to His own glory and excellence. To the knowledge of Him.
Jesus Christ is sufficient. If you have Christ as revealed in the Word of God by the Spirit of God, you have all you need to live a godly life. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.
And this Lord Jesus has not only given you Himself to know and follow, He's given you great promises about the future to keep you going. If you respond to these promises with the obedience of faith, then you'll one day discover the truth of verse 11. The eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is a kingdom filled with his glory and excellence. And you'll be given an wonderful entrance into that kingdom. It's a promise.
Now, if you believe that promise you'll devote your life now to living NOW in this morally corrupt world as a citizen of THAT future kingdom. Here and now, in this world, you partake of the divine nature. A living piece of that future kingdom will take up residence in your heart and mind. Here in this world you live as a citizen of that world.
I was away from home this last couple of days studying at Oakhill Theological College. But there, away from home, I lived as a man who carries his home in his heart. I didn't become a different man. My home went with me and determined what kind of man I would be. The nature of 39, Moor Lane influenced my behaviour and life in N14.
If you're going to avoid being a dog that returns to snack on its own vomit or like a freshly washed pig rushing back to wallow in the muck it only just left behind, then you'll this will be vital. Your life in this world will be lived under the bright shadow of the knowledge of King Jesus. Your behaviour will be influenced by what you've become through his call and gift and promise. The most powerful influence on your life will be the glory and excellence of His nature.
The Gospel has enabled you to have an exodus. It's enabled you to make a fresh start. To escape from the slavery of the world's corrupting lifestyle to become a member of a new kingdom filled with Jesus' glory and excellence.
Sanctification is a work of Christ in you.
2. SANCTIFICATION IS A LABOUR OF LOVE BY YOU
The godly life depends for all its effectiveness and maturity on the work of God in us. Jesus said, using the picture of a vine, I am the vine you are the branches. Without the supply of life and nutrients that come from the vine there can't be fruuit on the branches.
But, of course, that doesn't mean we can sit back and let God do the work. The sign that He's working in me is that I work for him. What He works in my life, I work out.
There are powerful words of effort and labour in this passage. Make every effort (verse 5). The Greek word there in verse 5 for supply, originated in the theatre and the patron who at considerable cost to himself provided the money to stage a production. Peter's saying, make every sacrifice to put the virtues of godliness on the stage of your life, so that people can look at you and see the evidence.
Make every effort to supplement your faith. Adorn your faith, decorate your faith with these virtues. It takes sacrificial effort. YOU do it. You can work at becoming a good man or woman. You can deepen your knowledge of God and His Word. You can develop self-control. A life controlled by the knowledge of the Lord's mind and by the goodness that reflects the heart of Christ. You can work at being a steady and consistent person who can endure hard times; you can work at being a godly and affectionate man or women who has a heart growing in compassion and mercy.
Imagine that your friends and relatives gather day by day to look at the stage production that is your life. You are the main character. What they see are your attitudes and lifestyle and behaviour. What you're to provide is a life of genuine godliness, that reflects the glory and excellence of our Lord Jesus.
If you're not bothered about making this the greatest ambition of your heart and the greatest labour of your life then the chances are you're actually in danger of becoming a vomit eating dog or a muck loving pig.
Look at the language of hard work in verse 10. Be diligent. Make sure. Practice. This is your life's calling, this is at the very core of the kingdom of God. God's life on display in your life. God's nature put on display before a watching world. Look at him - he's such a gracious and humble man. Look at her she's so sensitive and considerate. Look at him he's got such a kind and affectionate way of dealing with people. Look at her, she's taken such a battering in her life but she's shown such fortitude and patience.
If these qualities are yours and ARE INCREASING they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful.
And what’s more God makes a startling promise to you here in this passage. If you will supply this diligence in verse 5 the he will supply YOU with something (same Greek word) in verse 11. He will supply YOU with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Not that you earned it by your good works, because all the good works you did were an overflow from the life and power he gave you in Christ in the first place. But it will be the reward for faithfulness in the things that he entrusted to you.
How do you make sure that you're not going to be like a dog that returns to eat its own vomit? How do you ensure that you're not one of those people that look from a distance like a Christian, a well of water, but on closer inspection turns out to be a dry thing? How?
By making it your life's all-consuming purpose to work out what God is working in. By building with the bricks God gives you.