Sanctification as love for godliness

Last week I spoke of how God has emptied us of our sinfulness upon accepting his son as our Savior. He has emptied us of sin. But can we stay empty forever? No. Circumstances of life happen, times of decision come upon us, and we must know how live our lives. So if our lives hearts been emptied of our reactions, desires, and dispositions of the past, how are we ever going to move forward.? How are we going to know what to do next?

I mentioned sanctification, whereby something sanctified if it was set apart. If you remember I said “To set something apart means, you have to take it away from something or take something away from it.” And scripture tells us that is significant because it declares through the John the Baptist, “behold the lamb of God, who takes of away the sin of the world. “ God has taken away our sin. He’s emptied the container, our heart, and set us aside for something else, godliness.

A.B. Simpson, preacher at the turn of the 20th Century, reminds us that, that the idea of sanctification means also to dedicate the thing we are talking about, our selves, to God. We are separated from the sin of the past because He has set us apart so we can be made like him.

That’s why it’s so harmful to just be rest in the fact of our baptism but fail to never consider in our day to day what it is that God wants for us or those in our care. Take for instance the O.T., mentions in great detail the different parts of the Hebrew worship, each part had to be sanctified even if there had been no no sin in them before. The tabernacle was sanctified; it was dedicated to God and his holy purposes, as well as all of the vessels of the tabernacle. They were sanctified, set apart for his holy use. We being redeemed, are as those items of worship. As though we have never sinned. Making us free from sin is one thing but using this new freedom and dedicating it to your liberator is the next step. It is our complete wish to love, honor, and please God.

If you call yourself a Christian you know this to be true. It’s not always so clear how this happens though. It’s easy to get religious instead of godly.

We start with cultivating godliness in our lives making Jesus our first love.

In the Bible, the church at Ephesus was known for it’s zeal. In fact, Paul had said in Ephesians 6:24 “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” However, just 30 years later that incorruptible love was referred to in Revelation 2 as a grievance. God said that he appreciated their past spiritual fervor, as he rebukes through the Apostle John’s writing “But I have this against you, you have left you first love”.

We are not perfect, are we. Luther contends that our lives are soiled by miniscule sins such greed, sexual desire, anger, pride, the terror of death, sadness, fear, hate, grumbling, and impatience with God.” While most of us are not going to have trouble with sins murder, adultry, or steeling something worth a lot of money, he thought we can grow away from these imperfections of faith. But how? Is it a personal choice we just have to make? Yes and No. For this we need a biblical perspective on our ability to be righteous. And, it is clear we need grace to keep our first love fervent. Too many of us are trying to live the Christian life on our own. Forgetting grace, by which we take our Spiritual heritage from , Martin Luther. John Calvin, and Menno Simpson, whom all reformed the Christian faith upon importance of Grace. Failing to choose to accept and live in the grace of God makes our faith once again about do’s and don’ts - instead of about Jesus Christ. It seems that we have been caught in God’s net, but we have yet to be thoroughly cleaned. Simpson says, “Our will must be purified and kept single and supremely fixed on Him, by His continual grace. Our purity must be the imparting of His life; our peace, his peace within us’, our love, his love shed throughout our hearts, Our very faith, which receives all grace, must be continually supplied from His own Spirit.” realizing this takes practice, like anything else in life. “ . . . Christ himself must be the substance and supply of our spiritual life.

You may feel like you have endured so much change at this stage of your life that you have little energy left do what it takes to be godly.

let me encourage you. I remember learning a song in Sunday School based upon a verse in 1 John, “we love because God first loved us.” It is Jesus that comes to you. What could be more effortless. The hard part is humbling yourself to accept his love, especially after you have lost Jesus as your first love. But remember the trials and temptations in this life are only ment to bring you closer to Jesus, who loved you first.

And, remember Jesus said “blessed are you, who hunger and thirst, for righteousness. “

I remember serving for a local fun raiser some years ago. Our church was looking for a way to part of the community, and we had an opportunity to hand out drinks at one of the drink station for the MS bike ride. The ride lasted for a couple of days, it was summer, and it was hot - Betsy and I were thirsty just standing there passing out water cups. But the riders were the most thirsty because of the effort they were exerting.

Like those cyclists, you and I are the most thirsty when we are active. And we are most hungry and thirsty for righteousness when we are exerting righteousness or godliness. That is doing the things that Jesus is doing, that takes being close to him to know what he is doing, by letting him live on the inside of us, by sanctifying ourselves for him to use us as he pleases. We don’t have to worry about being perfect. God is gracious. This morning we might be saying look at me - I can’t do the things I used to do, I’m in a nursing home, in this wheel chair, in this small room. These things make us unhappy. Jesus is coming to us right where we are, saying to us that he understands, but as long as we are still on this side of Heaven he can use the things we disdain to glorify himself and that brings us joy. It starts Jesus becoming our first love and remaining our first love.