Sanctify Them Through Thy Truth

John 17:13-19.....

This chapter has to be on of the most glorious chapters in Scripture.

Charles Spurgeon said of this chapter: “This chapter, which ought to be universally known as the Lord’s Prayer, may be called the holy of holies of the word of God. Here we are admitted to that secret place where the Son of God speaks with the Father in closest fellowship of love. Here we look into the heart of Jesus, as he sets out in order his desires and requests before his Father on our behalf. Here inspiration lifts her veil, and we behold truth face to face.”

It is truly one of the greatest scenes and communications in Scripture.....the most informative!

Today we will read from part of Jesus’ prayer John 17:13-21.....with the idea of being Sanctified By The Lord’s Truth.......His Word........Which Jesus Is..........Jesus is revealed to us in Scripture and the only way we can know Him truthfully!

A lot of our lives are based on or defined by experiences.....wouldn’t you say?

I am not downing experiences, I am just stating a fact......just listen to us when we talk, most of the conversation is based on what has happened to us.

I mean this in the kindest way, this is the thought that I couldn’t sleep until I got up and put it to paper.............We are very egotistical!

There has been a lot of talk about the commercial during the Super Bowl “He Gets Us”

If that is not egotistical I do not know what egotistical means!

Jesus’ prayer destroys that discussion with these words: “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”

There is power in those words of Jesus........according to John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” and John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Jesus is the Word........The Holy Scriptures that you hold in your hands (I hope) is the Word of God that through It’s entirety brings us to The Lord Jesus Christ!

I do not want to get ahead of myself.........I do believe experiences has played apart in bringing us to hopefully to a place where God’s Word is paramount in our life!

However, those experiences should never override or supersede God’s Truth, His Word!

This is how the believer is defined! We are “sanctified through God’s Truth.”

That simply means we are defined by His truth, our lives are based upon His truth, which Jesus tells that God’s Word is Truth!

“Set apart” by His Truth, not ours...........I heard some talk or say that you have your truth and I have my truth!

That is wrong their is only One Truth and that is God’s truth!

I heard a preacher, yesterday, make a simple statement: “The devil is alive and well.”

Meaning that he is out seeking whom he may devour and does that mostly through manipulating God’s Word through folks that have their own truths or that are maybe looking for the experience rather than the TRUTH!

Let’s talk about what Jesus prays here: Let’s define the phrase.....

Sanctify.....The idea of this word is the setting apart for a particular use.

Set apart means to pull out of their condition or life and made for one use!

Made to live unto God, 1 Peter 1:14–15 “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;”

In doing so, we are known then as God’s people.....similar to what the dietary laws and other things were to the Jews, so there would be a distinction between God’s people and the rest of humanity.

How then are we sanctified? It is through His truth, not ours, but God’s Word!

Jesus makes that point clear, here and elsewhere, which will read in a few moments.

God’s truth is defined in my little mind as the true reality of life.

When I hear truth it should mean to us, that there are no other alternatives!

There are no, your truths or their truths.......Truth means that there is no other truths, this is the only way...

Jesus said in John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

You might hear discussions where someone will say: “Well, I believe.....”

This is how Paul said it: “Romans 4:3 “For what saith the scripture?.................”

Ego’s out of the way looking at God’s Word, in humility and ready to grow!

When you remove the ego, you remove any chance for manipulated Scripture and wrong interpretations!

That is how the devil is alive and kicking, because he tempts us as he did Jesus.

Manipulating the heart of God’s Word!

Turn with me to Hebrews 4:12..........I was just going to quote this but it is too much here to not go through about God’s Word!

We have been studying the book of Romans and it has gotten pretty challenging to our fleshly living........Bro Chris spoke up a couple Wed. nights ago and talked about Hebrews 4:12.....stating basically that that is what God’s Word does it challenges our fleshly living.

The part that really gets me about this verse is the word “piercing”......ya’ll get that!

It penetrates.....It sets apart the believer from the fleshly living......the desire, even of the flesh.

It penetrates the heart and soul of the man.....the inward man.......

It penetrates the joints and the marrow......

It gets right to the point........it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart!

Simply put it pierces through all the ego and selfishness and gets right to the source of the problem.....

That is why it is called “alive and powerful” it is Truth!

The life of Jesus is just as piercing.......I quote this all the time......John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”

Jesus testifies to us that the fleshly deeds are evil and you either hate Him or you are convicted and run to Jesus and say “my Lord and my God”!

Matthew 10:34 “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

This is just how violent the TRUTH is to the fleshly world.....the truth of God through Jesus Christ is hated by some and believed by His and that is how we are known as His because we are set apart by His truth!

We live His truth, not ours!......Romans 3:4 “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

Now, back to the original point, although experiences are helpful and are used to bring us to a certain place, they should never override the truth of God revealed in Christ through the Scriptures!

Satan used this with Eve......Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Has God really said? Tempting us to humanly think of what God has said, instead of believing God and trusting in His truth rather than what we see!

Satan attacks the validity of God’s Word and tempts our flesh in following through with it’s lusts!

Believers are not slaves to the flesh anymore but to God through His Holy Spirit and through His Word, in which the Holy Spirit is an active agent in our lives drawing us to the things that God has given to us through His Son!

2 Timothy 2:14-15...........

2 Timothy 3:15-17..........

I wanted to add the rightly dividing the Word of God......

Like a workman......with precision......cutting it straight........as in carpentry or masonry.

Spiritually discerned not seeking after your own, but study with no fleshly desire or searching for fleshly reasons!

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”