Words Of Grace:Sanctification
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17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
John 17:
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9 I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. 12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:1
His last night on earth - just hours before His crucifixion.
This message holds true for all who belong to God.
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Write this down:
Christianity is a revelation of what God has completely - not partially - done for us.
In this study we have been seeking to see more clearly what God has done for us. To understand why Christ came.
“As You sent Me” - (in the same way)
In verse 18 Christ says: “As You sent Me” meaning (in the same way)
Why did God send Christ into the world?
1 Who is this who comes from Edom,
With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah,
This One who is majestic in His apparel,
Marching in the greatness of His strength?
“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
2 Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?
3 “I have trodden the wine trough alone,
And from the peoples there was no man with Me.
I also trod them in My anger
And trampled them in My wrath;
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
And I stained all My raiment.
4 “For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
And My year of redemption has come.
5 “I looked, and there was no one to help,
And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;
So My own arm brought salvation to Me,
And My wrath upheld Me.
6 “I trod down the peoples in My anger
And made them drunk in My wrath,
And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
7 I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has granted us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has granted them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
8 For He said, “Surely, they are My people,
Sons who will not deal falsely.”
So He became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction He was afflicted,
And the angel of His presence saved them;
In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,
And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled
And grieved His Holy Spirit;
Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,
He fought against them.
11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses.
Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,
13 Who led them through the depths?
Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble;
14 As the cattle which go down into the valley,
The Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So You led Your people,
To make for Yourself a glorious name.
15 Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation;
Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds?
The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me.
16 For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us
And Israel does not recognize us.
You, O Lord, are our Father,
Our Redeemer from of old is Your name.
17 Why, O Lord, do You cause us to stray from Your ways
And harden our heart from fearing You?
Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while,
Our adversaries have trodden it down.
19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,
Like those who were not called by Your name.
-
Isaiah 63
Christ was sent fundamentally to do the will of God. The fundamental purpose of that will was to provide a kinsman redeemer.
Christianity is the revelation of what God has done for His own in the person of His son.
It is not loving one another, building hospitals and good works. hough they may be a byproduct, they are not the source, the foundation, determination or main essense of it.
We are here not to do works, but to be the embodiment of truth.
That is what the world has such a problem with and church we can’t let that make us cower.
The world sees us as arrogant - knowing truth and thus all else sits as lies.
We have been taken out of the world (system) as Christ and sent back in as the testimony of truth.
13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
As we come to this text then and read this prayer of Christ our Lord, you must not think of the prayer of Christ as a “make a wish foundation” where Christ says and we try to do to make what Christ hopes for come true. Christ is speaking as High Priest as He with authority to what has and must take place by the work of God and not of man.
John 17:
Everything that Christ prayed for must be true because Christ prayed it. Christ and the Father are perfectly one. Christ prays in perfect unity with the Father. As such the fulfillment of such prayer is through the good and perfect will, determination and working of the Father - not mankind.
This is far to often lost through works based “motivational” preaching:
For example: it is routinely preached from or (especially in the ecumenical movement of the church) that the church strive to be one, meaning that we all get along, doctrine doesn’t matter, and Jesus just wants us to be nice to each other - that this is what Jesus prayed for and so we should do it.
The problem is that, that is not what Jesus is praying at all and shows no understanding of scripture. If Jesus was praying that then, it would mean that the answer too Christ prayer was dependent upon us rather than determinative of God. In other words, such a twist of the prayer, in a weird sort of way, places Christ hope in us rather than ours in Him.
11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
The oneness being discussed here is our (believers) oneness with Father and the Son - the oneness between the incarnation and the diety. It is the oneness mentioned in 17:11. This is not a oneness that we are striving for that has never been. Quite the opposite, this is a oneness that has taken place. Don’t let teachers confuse you who loudly say that we ought to try to bring about the oneness that Christ prayed for. The prayer is that they continue to be one as He and the Father are one. The oneness of the incarnation and the diety and that same mystery of union is the union between us (each of us) and Him.
11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
While I was with them: imperfect
I kept them in Thy name: Don’t be carnal in your understanding of the Christian life. Blessings are not God’s evidence of keeping. Being kept by God does not mean earthly blessings. Everyone of the “kept” disciples will face imprissiment or a martyrs death. Christ has kept them in the sphere of Thy name.
None is lost/perished except the son of perdition that the scripture might be fufilled:
Common oppinion on “that the scripture might be fufilled”
scripture might be fufilled applies only to Judas and it is not deterministic
I don’t believe that it is a possibility that either one of those is the truth of that verse. I just don’t see how it could be fitted that way.
“That the scripture might be fufilled” applies both to Judas and to the disciple whom are kept (in God’s name)
The point is that the scriptural fifillment applies both to those who are given and to Judas.
Secondly: to suggest that it is not deterministic is to simply try to cater to human logic rather than devine truth.
You see church you have to answer your view of scritpure. Is it really God’s word. Do you hold to the full infallible inspiration of scripture.
I don’t know that there is a demonenation standing today that takes that stand without compromise.
Don’t get me wrong, almost every denomination was founded upon that stand, but quickly compromise and “human” logic crepes in.
I tell you your hope lies in the Word of God: plenarilly a verbally inspired. It is not a collection of human error but divine blessing. Wherein when we do not understand it, the fault is not in the scripture but with us.
The only way that Judas could have possibly done what he did, is for some engineer, some designer to put all of the circumstances together for it to happen.
It could not have caught God by surprise.
The principle is this: Foreknowledge presuposes forordination.
As such if you ever here a Bible teacher say that “for the scripture to be fufilled” is not deterministic, then you must know that if it is not deterministic then it can’t be foreknowledge. It can’t be foreknowledge without forordination.
God know when He did what He did that it would do what it did and He did what He did.
In Jesus himself says that He knows that one of those whom he chose was a devil or would betray Him. Which means, He foreknew, which means He forordained.
23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
This isn’t fufilled prediction but it is God’s design and that same truth is true of your life.
The way that we know true peace and joy is to know a God who is Soverign and in control.
Some say that they are relieved to know that God is completley removed from all the bad stuff. That the bad things happen somehow outside of His reach. Thats not comforting my friends. Comfort is in knowing that God is soverign even over tragedy and evil. That those things, even those things which we cannot comprehend how they could be permitted to happen, we have comfort in knowing that God is the engineer and it will, it shall, it must come together in absolute beauty, glory and perfection. Our Lord Jesus the Christ is the case and point to this divine truth and you must know that same truth is true of your life.
I’ll give you another example of the confussion within our pulpits as it relates to the deterministic position of the Word of God. This must be clarified because it is meant to be your great comfort rather than your great effort.
You have all heard the apostles prayer in
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How often is that prayer preached without the following verse. How often is this prayer turned into you once again being the determining factor of it’s answer or fufillment. I have prayed that you are faithful so work to be faithful. But friends if we would just look at verse 24...
24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Who is faithful? God
Who will bring these things prayed for to pass? God!
Oh what a great truth!
God has preordained, forknown and thus fufilled to His good pleasure..and that is true as to what He is doing in you.
13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
Christ now comes to God the Father.
Application: That they might have Christ joy completley fufilled in them in the world. (perfect tense: something God has done) you joy in the Lord is not determined by your decisions. The joy has been fufilled with the thought that it remains fufilled. We are speaking of the new creation. The world is speaking of a theological system.
In the new creation there is a settled peace and joy (that many Christians don’t realize having not realizing the determing soverignty of God)
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Jesus is the basis of the hate - not your works.
This world again is a theological system, a religious system, a phylosiphy that doesn’t “need” Christ, and this theological system does not hold to the Bible as the word of God, to Christ as the perfect sacrifice. Major denomination moving more and more towards the defining mark of Christianity not being the fufilled Word of God in Christ Jesus, but rather the Christians duty to social services.
Church the reason that they hate you is because Christ is hated by modern theology, by the theology of the world.
15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Again this is a prayer of Jesus Christ. It is not a suggestion of what Jesus wants you to do, but it is a prayer of the determinitive will and work of God.
:-15-16
Now please don’t hear me saying that it is not important of how you live. What I am saying as to how you live is that your living is soley based on your love for God and nothing else. If your living for God is base on anything other than love then you have fallen from grace to law. You don’t do missions or share the gospel to earn browny points or anything else. You love because He first loved you, you obey because you love Him and thats it. If you are living as a prodigal then you have a love issue and that love issue usually begins with a poor understanding of His love for you and thus results in a lack of love for Him. But love is our motivation and love alone.
This prayer of Jesus that you are kept from evil and that sin not have dominion over you was answered, it has to be answered, it is what God said.
You know in my early years of ministry the drive was how do we get people to do the right thing. The older I get, and more I understand scripture the more that I learn my place and well frankly: I don’t care how you live. You don’t need to confess your sin to me, you need to talk to God. Your being kept from evil and sin not having dominion over you is not determined by your “living”. Your not under the law, you are under grace.
Let me put it this way: if you love God then there will be a tremendous pressure or motivation as to how you live, but it you don’t love Him then there won’t be. I can’t tell you how to live so as to fake love and do it by law. The basis of service is love and thus my place is to preach the love of God which is the Word of God.
Listen, I have an urgency for the mission field like a child waits for Christmas morning, but I also have a piece knowing that as one Pastor put it: 10,000 years from today, every soul that belongs to Christ will be in heaven! My urgency is found in the love of God birthed within me. It is in the joy of seeing another child of God have their eyes opened for the first time to the truth of what God has already done for them.
The souls that are going to be in Heaven cannot be based on your work plus the work of Christ, it is only upon the work of Christ. Stating the Gospel fact, or sharing the gospel is simply rejoicing in the work of Christ. Don’t buy this modern evangelism that robs from the work of Christ.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Sanctify: means to consecrate - to be set apart to and for God.
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The word is never used to suggest an improvement in condition, nor improvement in understanding. The more that we understand that we have been, are, and always will be set apart unto God, then the more we come to understand all that He did in makeing us righteous.
It has been said well that sanctification is, “the process of coming to understand that He has made us righteous, not that He is making us righteous. In sanctification we realize more and more that we have been justified, and that we are set apart.
The basis of this sancitification is the work of God.
16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Romans
10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
Hebrews
Now in , remind you again this is a “command” of the Lord Jesus, not a request or suggestion, that we be set aside (sanctified) totally for God in the/through truth.
Again this is a “command” of the Lord Jesus, not a request or suggestion, that we be set aside totally for God in the/through truth.
In the truth is not “dia” in Greek here, which means that it is not “by means of” which would usually be the case.
That is not to say that you are not set aside by means of truth, I am simply saying what this verse says:
“Sanctify them in the sphere of thy truth”
Now that leaves us needing to know what that truth is:
“Thy/Your word is truth”
Though some text show it, there is no definite article in front of the second truth. Thus, word and truth are not interchangeable in this text (again I’m not saying that that is not true, Im simply trying to show what this verse is speaking of).
The absence of a definite article does not make something indefinite but rather shows the sense of what is being spoken of. The definite article being missing, shows that it is speaking of quality, character, essence. The presence of the article would speak of that of previous reference or identity.
The Word is truth: it’s essential character and quality is truth.
This is not just speaking “spiritually” but the entirety of the Word is Truth. God’s word in it’s original language is without error.
We are set apart for God, in the sphere of His truth. What is the sphere of His truth: His Word.
Now isn’t it astounding the number of Christians that refuse to take God at His word?
Oh how we miss the good news in trying to obtain it ourselves.
You are not set apart by your effort, but by the preordained, determitieve, forknowledge and faithfulness of God almight. -Praise God - Amen.