God's Program of Sanctification

GOD'S PROGRAM OF SANCTIFICATION Spring Valley Mennonite; June 12, 2022; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 We have come to the final verses in Paul's first letter to the new church in Thessalonica. This letter has encouraged and challenged these believers to keep doing what they were already doing, emphasizing that no matter how well they were doing in pursuing the will of God, there was always more of God to be enjoyed. They were encouraged to excel even more. This is a good word for us here at Spring Valley; we have been blessed with strong families and mature leaders, but there is always room for spiritual growth. The wonders of our awesome God are inexhaustible! There is always the danger of complacency in the church, especially a church that has been around for a while. Next year our church will celebrate its 150th anniversary! We are not a new church! Yet, as it has been often said, "God has no grandchildren, only children." Each generation builds upon the foundation of the past, but must find its own way, just as each individual must trust Christ as personal Savior. And each of us, no matter how long we have been a believer, are challenged to excel more and more; in other words, we are to grow as believers. This means we are to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. That is the challenge, isn't it? We have spent several weeks considering the marks of a healthy church and healthy believers. We could make a list of those marks, like earnestly looking for the coming of the Lord, being hopeful in grief, maintaining sexual purity, loving one another, and to always rejoice, pray and give thanks. While making such a list may be helpful, it also can be rather overwhelming! How are we to accomplish all these wonderful goals while constantly bombarded by a world that is hostile to such things, tempted by my own sinful fleshly desires and our constant and powerful supernatural enemy, Satan? Paul ends his letter with an encouraging message regarding our spiritual journey under the subject of sanctification. Follow along as I read verses 23 and 24 of chapter 5. We'll cover the rest of the chapter a bit later. I. MAY THE GOD OF PEACE SANCTIFY YOU This is an often- used designation of God. God is characterized in His nature by peace, a peace which He richly shares. It speaks of the majesty and sovereignty of God Who never is in turmoil or finds Himself the victim of uncontrolled circumstances. By contrast, the Natural Man finds himself at war with God, others and even within himself. He has no lasting peace or the ability to find that peace, though he might desire it. Man has a "sin nature" which keeps him in both inner and outer conflict. What a multitude of ways he tries to find this inner peace! His problem is that he seeks on the horizontal what is available only on the vertical. But God has resolved the conflict man has with his maker as Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the cross, and as we are transformed by the Spirit, we experience peace with God. Romans 5:1 "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Until we have this peace with God we are incapable of moving toward holiness, which is what sanctification is all about. This peace with God coming from the God of peace exists on several levels. A believer who has placed faith in Jesus Christ is no longer at war with God. Peace exists on an eternal level. His sin problem, which created the conflict and separation from God has been cancelled. And, in the future, we will be removed from the constant conflict with our sinful environment, but now-in the present, we are subject to the sinful tendencies of our flesh and the temptations of the world and devil. We often yield to such temptations and reap the consequences of bad choices. On a day-to-day basis we lose the sense of peace that God longs to give us. Though the war has been won, we often step into needless battles which destroy our peace. The victory in these daily struggles is what sanctification is all about. I need to point out the word "May" at the beginning of this verse: the verb "sanctify" is in what is called the "optative mood" which means that it is a desire of the one speaking, but there is an option involved. The option is not on God's part, but on ourselves. But let's back up a bit and define what sanctification is all about. II. SANCTIFICATION DEFINED The doctrinal understanding of sanctification has often been misunderstood. Perhaps you are familiar with what is called the "holiness movement." This view of sanctification claims that by reaching a point of total commitment to the Lord, we can achieve total holiness. We are completely delivered from our sinful nature and tendencies and live in a state of perpetual righteousness and sinlessness. This is viewed as a "second blessing" to be sought after. Harry Ironside, one of the most influential speakers of the first half of the 20th century, who pastored the Moody Memorial Church for many years, left the holiness movement after determining the unbiblical nature of it. in his book, "Holiness, the False and the True", describes the process that is said to achieve this second blessing: "The steps leading up to this second blessing are, firstly, conviction as to the need of holiness; secondly, a full surrender to God, or the laying of every hope, prospect and possession on the altar of consecration; thirdly, to claim in faith the incoming of the Holy Spirit as a refining fire to burn out all inbred sin, thus destroying in total every lust and passion, leaving the soul perfect in love and as pure as unfallen Adam. This wonderful blessing received, great watchfulness is required lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve, he deceive the sanctified soul, and thus introduce again the same kind of an evil principle which called for such drastic action before." While this sounds like a desirable goal, the problem is that it doesn't work! The result of such teaching is that those claiming to have achieved this state of sinlessness are put under tremendous pressure to maintain this state, and when they did sin, had to redefine their action as something other than sin! Others, having sinned, concluded that Christianity simply didn't work for them and quit trying. Still others suffered mental breakdowns from trying to maintain such impossible standards. Many never recovered from this false view of sanctification. It is vital to understand the true biblical teaching on sanctification. MacArthur gives a good definition: "Sanctification is the ongoing spiritual process by which God increasingly sets believers apart from sin and moves them toward holiness1" The New Testament presents three aspects of this process: Hebrews 10:10 speaks of our past positional sanctification: "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Sanctification in its simplest understanding is to set something apart. We have a set of china that we inherited from Alice's mother. It is set apart in a china cabinet, reserved for special occasions (yet to be determined!) This Bible I have here is my "preaching Bible." I don't study out of it, or use it for anything other than pulpit use. It is "sanctified" for that purpose. As God's chosen children, He has set us apart from all other humans for salvation. This is the past aspect of salvation. He chose us, setting us apart for Himself.. There is a future aspect of sanctification when we will be removed from this sinful world and in His holy presence: Philippians 3:20-21 "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." We will be delivered from our sinful flesh, given new bodies suitable for living in the presence of a holy God. It is the present aspect of sanctification that is so vital to understand. 1 Peter 1:14-16: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written , you shall be holy, for I am holy." This is the desire Paul had for the believers in Thessalonica, that every aspect of their lives, spirit, soul, and body be without blame when Jesus returns. This is the standard of holiness that we aspire to, realizing that it is a process. Another way of looking at this is as Christian growth. We will never achieve perfection or complete holiness in this life; we will continue to be tempted and will sometimes yield to those temptations, but as we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will become better at handling temptation. I admire those who run marathons. There was a time in my younger days when after training I suppose I could have run a distance of 26 miles. I no longer have the desire or ability to run other than a very short distance! I have "aged out" of that desire. When I was younger, I was quite competitive, thinking that with effort, I could be better than anyone else. I now realize that was prideful ambition, and no longer see myself in that light. I have grown out of such things. However, I still fight envy and frustration and other things. We progress in our desire and actions. Sanctification includes all our Christian walk and experience as we live between the "already and the not yet." In this letter, as well as most of the other New Testament epistles, the doctrinal teachings always are followed by practical exhortations-the challenge to put into practice those truths. These practical applications are the material of sanctification. It is a progress. But understand that it isn't by self-effort that we make progress toward holiness, but by the power of God working through the Holy Spirit. Notice that verse 23 states that the God of peace can sanctify our entire being, with the goal that when Christ returns, He will find us faithfully following His will. Remember that in chapter 4 we learned that God's will was for our sanctification: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification..." Let me remind you that in the Epistle of 1 John, we are instructed that if we pray according to God's will, He will not only hear us but will grant us that request. Is it God's will that we live holy lives? Of course! This is the force of verse 24: "Faithful is He who calls us, and He also will bring it to pass." Philippians 1:6 states the same thing: "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." If we know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have responded to that call. He also calls us to live differently than we did before we were saved. We are to live differently than those around us, and the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit will accomplish this-if we are willing to yield to His lead and guidance, if we are willing to live according to scripture. This involves, of course, knowing what scripture teaches! A sailboat is dependent on the wind to move it forward. Without the wind, the boat is dead in the water. We are like that boat, waiting for the wind of the Holy Spirit to provide the power to live holy lives. But the boat must have raised its sails before the wind can have any effect. We "raise the sails" through obedience and following what God tells us to do. Alice and I heard a wonderful message last Sunday morning in Branson which dealt with encouragement. We were motivated to look for opportunities to encourage other believers. We were staying at a bed and breakfast and were enjoying coffee on the veranda one morning. We struck up a conversation with a dear Christian lady who was there on a personal time of retreat, seeking God's direction on a very serious decision regarding her employment. She stated later that she seldom engaged in conversation with anyone when she came on one of these personal retreats, but she opened her heart to us, and we were able to encourage her in this difficult decision. We both were convinced that God brought us together. This certainly was a "God thing" only possible because we decided to listen to the Spirit's leading regarding encouragement. We had our "sails raised" and the Spirit blew. This is progressive sanctification, the process of becoming Christlike through the power of the Holy Spirit, listening to His voice and following it closely. III. PAUL'S FINAL WORDS (READ VV. 25-28). Once again we see the need of the body. The great Apostle was dependent on the prayers of others. There is power in our prayers for one another. This is one of those responsibilities of being in the body. The "Holy Kiss" was the customary greeting, men to men and women to women. Today our culture has the handshake, or the pat on the back to communicate greeting and affection among friends. I would point out that it would be impossible to follow this command unless we are gathering together and having close loving relationships with other believers. There is a strongly worded instruction to have this letter read publicly. It was for all the people, not just the leaders. The Bible must be the foundation of all that is done and preached in the church. So ends this letter with an emphasis on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the basis of everything. We have received this instruction because of God's unmerited favor toward us. And we make progress toward holiness in thought and deed as we yield to the Holy Spirit, experiencing His power to live according to His Word. 1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2002). 1 & 2 Thessalonians (p. 202). Chicago: Moody Press. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2